Maren

She was in misery, angry – hungrily in need for relieving the itch that kept nibbling on her mind. And it was all happening within herself, as if she was the center of gravity and all possible emotions crashed down and exploded at once, its gasses now poisoning her only path to reason. All together it could be called confusion, but somehow she did not find that one single word enough of a dignified description for it – this. So her hooves carried on with their bold movements, ran on through thick forest, skin brushing past bark as she swiftly passed; reckless. She needed an outlet, needed to feel like she was getting away from it – needed a fire to burn in. Just for a moment, just to get the itch replaced by something else. It did not matter what the cost of such cleansing would be. For she could not forever uphold the phantasm that running was a legit way of escaping a corrupt tickling she carried within herself.

At the same time a faraway voice kept screaming at her how ridiculously close she was to finding the answers she was seeking for – the answers that the divine Entities of the Oak had denied her, for her to figure them out herself. Did they not know how much that was destroying her? How much that had left her walking the edge? Maren clenched her teeth. So that voice must be a lie. Nonsense created by the illusions of a venom.

The hues of the world were becoming easier to understand blurs as she sped. Twigs cracked under her heavy hooves, while the branches looming above cast her path in shadows. The tigermare had been searching, for some time now, for that one dark mare; simply guessing where that specific shadow could be lurking. So she liked to take the darkened pathway as a good sign – And then, after crossing a whole other forest, a solid – and most important, lively Shadow finally became the center of her vision.

With flanks moving up and down in the rhythm of her lungs, she breathed heavy in the humid air, droplets of sweat lining and leaking along her cheekbones. "Shadow. Hi." The words leaving her lips like heavy sighs, but with tenseness and relief mixed in them. "Let's spar.", she boldly spoke through stiff lips. The tiny pupils in her eyes unknowingly hinting the Black how much she needed this, wanted to get this out of her without explaining her own wicked selfishness.

In her crumbling brain she decided that she must have heard a 'yes' somewhere, even though her brain was not registering anything she fully understood. So Maren charged, not paying enough attention to the dry earth under her hooves, the tall yellow grasses marking their circle of a naked, bare soil and grit mixture. Then there were a lot of tall Burch trees surrounding them, accompanied by a few spruce trees – which she had also denied seeing, as she preferred them blurred out and simplified. Overhanging branches only partly umbrella'ing this cramped, open space they stood in; shadowing a Shadow, which she had somehow found funny ever since they'd met. Oh, how she longed for those carefree feelings that went along with that random meeting.

As the Black One, her question-marked friend, became a blur on her retina, she pushed her haunches off the ground and leaped with her teeth bared towards the girl, attempting to bite her friend's left shoulder. I am probably the most messed-up Disciple these lands has ever known. And she felt sorry for its Kings and Queens, for that she could not even bring herself to feel much regret for her decisions, all the same. Because if there had to be something that was going to push her off a crumbling edge, she would gladly let it be faith.

@[Shadow]

Words: 639 (1/3, Setting: Middle of the day in the Ancient rotunda, they are standing on dry earth made out of sand and grit, surrounded by Burch and spruce trees which leave open areas in between. The open space they are standing in is bordered with dry grass. They are mostly in the shadows, although a late-summer sun shines through the leaves, leaving spots on the forest-floor.
Summary: Leaps and attempts to bite Shadows left shoulder.