~Lunar Wanderer~ (Pike's Lake)

The cooling air of the changing season brought with it new colors for the leaves to dance in, most clinging to their drying branches as their sisters detached and played out their final encore to the beat of the wind. The flowers of the meadow had started to lose their petals, using their last strength to plant seeds of the next generation. Each dried piece left behind began to slowly vcoat the ground, creating a layer that made stealth all the more hard, on account of the crunch and rustle each piece made when moved. A very satisfying crunch and rustle, if the stallion, who was trotting away from the flat drying meadows, had to say so for himself. The wind seemed to have a bit of a kick today, as the bay colored horse seemed to have been following the dancing leaves that fell from nearby trees and floated off with the air.

A chuckle was released when a feathered hoof caught one of its targets, the crackle just as satisfying as the last. "Gotcha!" The words were light, and just as quick, the blue eyed beast chased after his last one, breaking into a leisurely gallop to catch up to the fluttering leaf. "Yer not getting away!" With a quick rear, the hoof found it's final target, pressing down hard into-. Squelch!! The sudden weight caved the ground downward, a small splash of mud coming up and striking the stallion against his nose. "Ah!" He raised his crown that had previously been held so close in order to hear the fun noise and gave it a sudden shake to clear it off the heavier globs. "Well, that definitely wasn't a crunch..." Raising his hoof out of the hole it had created, blue eyes blinked as they looked across the horizon, the shimmering water of a huge pond glimmering in the sunlight.

'Well, I am thirsty...' Without much thought or a checking of his surroundings, the bay stallion trotted confidently along, crashing through the few reeds that grew along the edge of the waters. There wasn't much grace in how he moved. He picked where he wanted to go and went there, whether over boulders or through bushes. At the moment, he wanted to go to the lake's edge, dip his hooves in the water and splash about like a foal. In his oblivious mode, the 18 hand high clydesdale hadn't even noticed the sleeping reptile at the bank, and – without even meaning to – moved to step onto its body. Of course, flesh and earth (even mud) felt different when stepped on, and the stallion suddenly spooked as he felt it move underneath him. His courtesy of backpedaling was lucky, as the – what he assumed – rock suddenly twisted back, a jaw of sharp teeth shaking close where his ankle had been seconds before.

"WHOA THERE BUD!!" The neigh was loud as he stepped a few more places back the clack of teeth still echoing in his ears. "I'm sorry! Thought you were a rock, man. You know, I don't think you should nap in the ope- AH!" His words were cut off as the beast advanced, the hissing in its throat and lash of it's whip like tail punctuating the large teeth that made another snap at the large horse that had dared to disturb it's peaceful sun bath. "Those are a lot of teeth HEY, BACK OFF BRO!!" With a sudden bought of bravery, the stallion slammed its front hoof back at the hissing and groaning reptile, concaving the soft earth and using the tactic he had used on himself just before to splash mud across the gators muzzle.