Wardrobe

Villager: Polaris

Sitting idly on the docks, you hear hoofbeats in the distance. Turning to look, you see a black horse racing down the beach on all fours, mane tossing in the wind as a tiny cloud manta zooms alongside her on a rainbow trail. The pair slow as they reach you, the horse kicking up sand in her wake, before coming to a complete stop.

“Hello. Are you new here?”

“Just visiting? Yeah, it’s a pretty neat island. Plus it’s an island, I mean, we’re living in a literal tropical paradise here. I’m honestly surprised we don’t get bombarded with tourists...then again, we are pretty out of the way.”

“Anyway, I’m Polaris, and my partner here is Andromeda. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh no, I’m not in any rush. I just enjoy the feeling of running. There’s just something freeing about it, you know?”

“What do I do here? I’m an explorer. I go out and search for resources to bring back to the village. The fact that I get to stretch my legs so to speak is just a bonus.

With a smile, you ask her what the funniest time she’s gotten lost has been. Polaris frowns.

“Well, my sense of direction is...well, I’ve never gotten lost before. I don’t need a compass to know what direction I’m facing, and I can pinpoint our general area on a map. And if we’ve gone in circles, I can tell which way we’ve gone before. I can’t tell you how I do it, I just...know. It’s always been that way for me. I honestly thought that’s what having a good sense of direction was for the longest time. But it’s a good thing to have, since I travel a lot. I’ve got just as much wanderlust as Rowan.”

“Oh, Rowan’s a saggitari. She’s a warrior, missing an eye too. You can’t miss her. She’s a really great friend; we’ve been together since we met on our travels. In Olde Foxbury, actually, which is funny since we’re both from there. We’d left to other regions and circled back around, and that’s when we happened to meet.”

“Did I see her battle with Ulkktar?”

Polaris’s expression sobers.

“Yes. It was...it was hard. I can handle myself in a monster encounter, but fight that thing? There was no way I could. All I could do was watch my friend and that monster doing their level best to kill each other. Rowan won, or obviously none of us would be standing here talking about it, but...it was a close thing. I was honestly scared Rowan might actually die right next to the thing she just slayed, it was that close.”

Polaris closes her eyes and sighs.

“Thankfully, she pulled through.”

You can’t help but ask what, exactly, Ulkktar was.

“A demon. A god. A monster. Ulkktar was a demonic god of the moon, on a whole nother level from Belphegor here. Belphegor is only a lord of demons; Ulkktar was a god. Above even the princes of the netherworld Belphegor aspires to be.”

Polaris looks you dead in the eyes. “But even the gods can be laid low.”

You sit there for a moment, letting that sink in.

“Yeah, pretty crazy what people can do when it comes down to it, huh?”

“What? My hobbies? Well, aside from racing - Faolan and I are pretty evenly matched in that department - I love meeting new people and finding interesting places. Did you know that there’s a spot on the sheer cliffs in Tiger Eye Peak where black roses grow? Neither did I till I found it.”

“I enjoy reading, too. There’s something really nice about laying in a patch of sun, a book between your hooves and your mind off in another world. Adventuring beats in my heart and thrums through my bones, but that doesn’t mean I can’t relax with a good book to pass the time. I also play video games with Tienyo a lot, it’s really fun. Especially things like Mario Kart.”

“How do I play? Have you never seen horses pick things up before?”

Polaris looks down before stretching out a leg, picking up a rock from the sand and holding it up. The rock is stuck to the bottom of her hoof as though magnetized. That’s one mystery of the world solved, you suppose.

“See? Just like hands, only...not.” Polaris frowns, before shaking her head and dropping the rock back onto the sand. “Anyway. Were you waiting for the Singing Tide to get back so you could go home, or were you just out enjoying the day?”

You tell her it’s the latter.

“Yeah, its pretty nice out. I think I’ll go finish The First Collier in my hammock; it’s the first of the three prequel books to the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, and a great read so far. It was nice meeting you, maybe I’ll see you around before you go.”

And with that, Polaris gives you a friendly wave before racing down the path toward the village, Andromeda letting out a sudden squeak of surprise before blasting after her owner. Idly, you can’t help but wonder if she’s carried anyone on her back before. Probably for emergencies...and the kids, you bet. They’re rather hard to say no to - when they aren’t being mischievous little devils, that is.