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04-15-2016, 01:39 PM
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The broken glass of the wall, and all the boundaries it represents, glitters beneath her as she bounds over it, a breathless giggle slipping from her lungs that she hopes floats all the way back to Jude, whimpering in the greenhouse about “but daddy said.” Part of her even expects him to come crashing along behind her, spooked by a leaf or a squirrel - because being alone and breaking silly rules was not Jude’s forte, but it was hers (never mind that this was her first escape) - she just knew it! Some small voice says maybe she should worry about her brother. That same small voice tells her it was mean to call him a sissy and push him out of her way as she left. Maude responds to its badgering with a flick of her downy tail, the white hairs flapping behind her as she imagines an extravagant stream of white trailing to the ground below, like that of her mother, the tips of that great tail striking that little voice right on the tip of its imaginary nose. She doesn’t have time to worry about Jude’s stupid feelings right now – the world is out there, driving her little legs faster. Over branches, ruts, stones, the copper tinted lass dashes and dances, occasionally shaking the bumps, she hopes will become a fine pair of antlers, at an imaginary foe as she passes. As always, she imagines she is a not a little girl anymore, but a woman, beautiful and mysterious, dangerous and proud, that her bumps are antlers and that they are impressive, and shiny. She imagines princes stopping to gawk as she passes, the winter of her skin embellished with summer’s kiss bringing them to their knees, the tassels of her flowing locks entangling her misty smell in their nose. One sight is so vivid that it stills her flight from the Edge, her sides huffing hard and her white skin sweat darkened where it meets in folds, because she hasn’t stopped moving since she left; a pretty little pool has appeared in her path with a surface glassy, dappled with faded green leaves that had fallen from the draping branches above. The sunlight is slanted and long, the day threatening to become night within a couple of hours, and the trees and branches cast exaggerated and heavy shadows. “Whoa,” she says through a wide grin of girlish delight, citrine eyes lighting up with the fires of her soul, and without thinking, she bouncily steps and looks over her shoulder for someone who’s not there, “look at that, Jude!” “Oh,” mutters the fairy princess softly to the air, her smile faltering ever so slightly as she learns that there is no one to share your joy with when you’ve run off alone. Her shoulders loose some of their height, but only temporarily – it isn’t long before she’s shoved off the heavy feeling that had settled across her heart for the light embrace of curiosity. What was the point of leaving in the first place if she spent the entire time longing for home, anyway? I’ll just have to remember every detail to tell him later! she affirms to herself, about to take her third step to the water’s edge when something rustles in the foliage behind her. It’s startling, and makes her turn her whole figure to the sound – not that she’d admit as much – her head rising, ears lifting, imagining her little neck is much longer and svelte, arched and graceful. The wind runs its wild fingers through her flyaway mane, the awkward few strands trying to lay flat tickling against her skin. “Who’s there?” she bossily demands of the brush, having put on her best Queen of the World face to disguise the pitter patter of her worried heart, and to dissuade her attacker from bothering such a “Nobody,” replies the tree line in a stranger’s lilt, making Maude stomp one of her hooves hard into the soft ground, her fear forgotten in the blatant audacity of such a statement. Shaking her little head, she imagines that her antlers flash dangerously at this “nobody.” “Obviously not!” snottily quips the filly, brazenly stepping towards the tree line and peering into it nosily, dumb to the notion that someone could hurt her, because everyone she’s met have been nothing less than amiable, “nobody can’t talk, you dummy.” Calling him a dummy seems to work – a collection of shadows reveals itself to be a yearling, coat colored like the deep indigo and violet shadow that swept the sky just before the night dropped its black cloak in full, except he was void of stars and the Moon. No wonder I couldn’t see him, she thinks. “I’m not a dummy,” says the boy, a frown lacing his face – his features are stark, heavy lined, not like her family’s delicate details, and she thinks that, despite the pretty color of his pelt, he’s not the most handsome of fellows, is he?. He doesn’t say anything else, just stands there looking like a surly, twilight dunce, looking at her with his plain, flat black eyes. Sure sound and look like one to me, thinks the copper tinted snowflake, but that little voice quips up in daddy’s voice “be nice, Maude,” just before she tells him as much. Used to being the one to direct action because Jude was such a Peabody, the filly grabs her frown tight and throws it away, replacing it with a dazzling, cheerful smile, her little tail swinging behind her in childish abandon. While this guy is surely not her truest knight, she has come to the realization that she isn’t alone, after all! “You see that big pool over there?” she gushes suddenly, her little voice dancing in time with her hooves, prancing in place as she casts her shining, sunlight eyes longingly over the water, her vibrant imagination painting a game for them to play, “it’s a water dryad lair!” The older boy’s head rises up a little, his flat eyes widening as he looks over the pool – she can’t help but giggle at his wonder. He believed her, she just knew it! “Water dryads?” he asks, slowly, his voice smooth and pleasant (unlike his bulky figure). She doesn’t stop to think he maybe doesn’t know what a dryad is, and plunges further in the realms of fancy. Pivoting in place, her little hooves tucking up to her chest as she bounds gracefully towards the water line, she glances over her shoulder with a smile to find the colt following her to the shore, intrigued. “Yeah! And everyone knows they grant blessings to whoever can catch one,” bouncily remarks the girl, splashing through the shallows of the pool and feigning to search for the flash of scaled skin in the water, “you wanna help me, uh…?” “Uh, Baltik,” says the boy, his own hooves plopping into the water alongside her own. He smells like rivers and green things, the vast difference in their ages so obvious to little Maude now that he’s right there next to her. She looks up at him with her gold eyes luminous, meeting his gaze with a bright smile. “I’m Maude,” cheerfully quips the filly in reply, taking the offering of his name and nearby presence to mean that he’ll play with her, “well Baltik, we gotta start singing and splashing. The dryads will think there is a party and they’ll come for sure!” Baltik, honestly believing himself too old for such antics, half heartedly begins to splash at the water with his hoof (because Maude is pretty, he’ll do what she wants; it’s why he’d been spying on her to begin with). Alongside him, however, the filly bellows out with less than perfect pitch in perfect abandon, her childish song bounding through the normally serene grove, little figure prancing and splashing along the rim of the pond with laughter streaming between her verses. “Oh, once there was a Lady of starlight, Her coat was shiny and pure white, And all the gents did come to prance To bother the lovely Lady for a dance. But the Lady, to each she said, “nay! For I have better games to play!” And every gent, the Lady turned away.” [ OOC: To be honest I could have kept going but I feel like she's pretty well portrayed thus far as I envision her. Needless to say it all came to me fairly easily! Thank you for letting me audition for the chance to play this delightful little ray of sunshine. Good luck to everyone - I'm super excited to read all the entries! <3 ] |
