#anthron

shhh don't think about the date. shhh

Anthron wasn't supposed to be here.

He was supposed to be further down the road, following the directions his parents had given him to the stable his family had patronized for years. Good bloodlines and very dependable companions. All of their horses had been bought there.

Except now he was here at an out of the way auction field, if it could be called that, among a small crowd as the most sorry looking nags were presented to them. Most of them old or broken down. Some of them had promise. Maybe. The men buying most of them had the look of butchers. Anthron frowned as more and more of the horses were destined to be nothing more than meat for the needy or for dogs. The younger ones with wild, rolling eyes and more than a few kicks sold to people that Anthron hoped would spend the time to calm them. Its all they needed. A good firm hand for a couple of years and they could likely be the best damn horses known towns over.

That didn't quite explain why he was here. He didn't know why he was here, exactly. A feeling when he saw the rough painted sign. Which was a really silly reason if he thought about it too long. And to avoid thinking about it too long, he focused on the horses in front of him.

Leaning on the rough fence, Anthron watched the men to the right where the last of the horses to be shown were. There'd been a commotion during the last couple of horses now. A lot of swearing, muffled shouting, and good bit of movement. Nothing too clear came this way, outside of the swearing. And by now, the crowd had thinned out with muttering that the options available were poor prospects and that better could be found elsewhere. Only a few determined people remained and were also becoming spectators to the commotion as more and more time elapsed between the last horse and the current time.

Finally figures appeared to be coming towards them. It appeared to be multiple men around a horse. And as they got closer, it became very apparent that they were scared of the horse. Long ropes kept the men from kicking distance, with one to lead the horse, and two to haul back should it charge. Which it did often.

The crowd around Anthron pulled away from the fence, fearful of the large animal as it charged into place, churning the dirt with his hooves. Anthron was the only one to stay put and he was enthralled by what was before him. It was hard to tell what colour the stallion was, he was covered in so much dust and dirt. Drying spots spattered his face and chest with the red of freshly drawn blood, just bright enough to not disappear into the rest of the dirt.

"To be sold...as is," the auctioneer managed to get out as the stallion kicked out. "Starting price?"

"I'll take him."

The flustered man stared at Anthron. "The bidding-"

"I don't care. I'll take him. No one here is going to beat a hundred gold marks right in your hand as soon as I get over this fence."

In the absence of protests and only muttering among the small crowd behind him, Anthron hopped the fence. The stallion snorted and kicked out once again before going for another charge. The two men holding him back groaned as the heaved on the ropes looped around the stallion thick neck. Quick on his feet, Anthron dodged snapping teeth and got a good hold on the rough halter on the stallions head. He looked at the closest of the men. "Let go of the ropes."

"Are you crazy?!"

"Maybe," he replied, shrugging slightly and holding tight as his horse threw his great ugly head up. "Just let go of the ropes. It's not good for his breathing."

"His breathing? This beast has injured three men and stomped a mutt into the ground. We aren't worried about his breathing!"

"I am. Let go or I'll have you arrested for injuring my horse!"

The tension in the ropes lessened immediately and his stallion stomped in place, but Anthron swore he saw some of the tension in his face and neck disappear as well. Petting the great head, he crooned a little under his breath to inform the stallion that he was, in fact, the ugliest horse he'd ever seen while he used one of the ropes to fashion a proper lead.

Gathering of Guardians

It’s been a long time since I’ve drawn some of the characters, and the first time drawing others.

From left to right: Jaav, Tropico, Ruin, Suname, Zuteila and Hotoke

Jaav has always been an enigma and makes use of himself as a spy and saboteur, altering documents written in ink. His interests in subterfuge get him into more hot water than he’d like sometimes, however.

Tropico is an outcast, given many Matoran see her as an ill omen of coming storms. Despite this she means well and tries to Shepard the storms so that many farms do not feel the brunt of a wayward hurricanes’ wrath.

Ruin guards an entire island alone, tending and protecting the resident Matoran. Being in contact with the contaminated air however has had ill effects on the Toa of Light.

Suname is the Shooting Star Toa. Another Toa of Light who is often commissioned to assist on Rahkshii hunts. In some rare cases, she’s also employed to run interference between Dark hunters and Toa. Who are her Employers? She’ll never tell.

we are pretending I did this on time

A lot of people assumed donkeys, and subsequently mules, were very stubborn and hard-headed individuals. Jem had spent his entire life around mules and had two of his own, mules were actually really sweet when raised right, and donkeys were just grumpy most of the time. No. The most stubborn beings in existence were two of his friends, Lira and Anthron.

Loud thwacking filled the yard as Lira waled on Anthron with her staff, only blocked from actually hitting him as Anthron blocked her with a staff of his own. Each time he blocked a hit, he made some comment on her form or that wasn’t part of the drill he was trying to teach her before she swung at him again with  her teeth bared in a snarl. From experience, Jem knew this would go on for a good while before Lira tired enough to actually listen to the lesson. She demanded these kinds of lessons from him, as part of repayment for what the Templars had done to her, and seeing as Anthron’s family was littered with Templars, that made him the one to partake in this. And Anthron took that as a challenge. Because they were both stubborn idiots about this, Jem did what work he could from a corner of the practice yard to mediate between them when necessary. 

Every time Jem looked up to see them glaring at each other when they locked their staffs together he was reminded of mountain goats. 

Maybe if he attached rams horns to their heads and let them argue out their differences and actually butt heads, it would knock some sort of sense and understanding into them. Then again he swore their skulls were made of stone, so it was unlikely.

Instead he sighed and stretched, his back and shoulders cracking as he did so. Guiltily, he closed his book and went for an actual walk around the yard, stretching as he did so. If his Ma had caught him hunched over his book and cracking like popping corn when he stretched she’d have had a fit. She already got squinty when either he, his brothers, or sisters cracked their knuckles. Gods of tree and stone save him if she detected that any slight hunch he might have came from all the studying and such that he did, or that he was straining his wrists. Actually, not even the gods would be able to save him from his mother. 

Lira yelped and Jem turned to see Anthron had knocked her off her feet and was now standing on ehr staff so she couldn’t use it to hit him anymore.

“I told you I wanted you to try hand to hand combat,” Anthron said while Lira tried to yank her staff from under his foot, “for this reason exactly. What happens if you can’t use your staff? If you don’t learn to fight without it you’ll be a helpless little girl to anyone who-”

“Anth, ease off on the lecture a little,” Jem called out as he learned against the split rail fence that separated sand from grass. “And Lira, why don’t you actually give hand to hand a chance. He’s got something of a point there.”

“The only reason I don’t have my staff currently is because this great lump of-” Lira broke off her words as she leapt up and threw a punch. Jem knew it wasn’t going to connect even before Anthron caught her fist.

“It’s a start, but tucking your thumb in like this is going to end up with you being laughed out of any back alley brawl as you nurse a broken thumb.”

Kanohi Anthron? I haven’t made one in a very long time, probably because it isn’t very glamorous and doesn’t have any legends attached to it. Anyway it requires level five teleport, level four reconstitute at random, and level six enlarge Kanoka.

Funny thing with the Kanohi Calix, I mostly get orders for it from Le-Matoran “mystics”  who use them to make their shops more mysterious and “mystical”, it’s really to con matoran out of their widgets in return for a few oddly colored light stones if you haven’t guessed. At any rate, it requires level six reconstitute at random and level seven teleport disks.