We made our way down the hill, Cathun trailing behind almost as if tugged along by Erebos and I’s tails. I don’t let his negativity effect me, feeling the pulse of my heart thud louder and louder the closer we get to the strange stench and crackle of the treeless rim about the red water.

He may not like adventure, but I lusted for it. Part of me knows that is why I left Helovia in the first place, not because I was genuinely concerned for where my dam had gone, but because I had wondered what was out there, had thirsted for it like a man for water in dry heat of the desert.

The closer we get the faster my golden hooves flash, my eyes growing wider and wider the more strange and elaborate those who meet my gaze become. There is such a variety that my head almost feels like its swirling, as if I have stepped through a portal and back into the meadows of the Nightwalk, my heart hammering hard in my chest. I look back at Erebos, my mouth tilted in the most awkward and bemused smile I think I’ve ever made, a devilish light burning in their depths.

This is fascinating!

When I look back, I see the Time God. He’s in the middle of the red water, having been obscured by the others. He’s bleeding and awfully sodden, and at his side is a heavy set girl with strange, crackling whips rising from her horned head, her mouth clutching some weird, metal tool; my heart races faster, it rams itself against the cage of my breast in awe and terror as it had done the first time I saw him.

It is not so much fear that he will be angry at me, as it was when I first returned, as it is that he is wounded.

I hear Cathun’s wailing whining, I flick an ear back in annoyance as my nostrils broaden and my hooves dance forward while his carry him away.

Maybe I should go tell someone…

I look again at Erebos, find myself nearly laughing in delight that we have found such an adventure so soon in our reunion.

Nah.

"Bye, Cathun!" I call, catching in the corner of my eye as I turn to see him off a familiar white shape, rimmed in gold and flint.

My mouth opens, my hooves move to carry me to her as my heart leaps about in yet another emotional twist. It hurts, burns and flickers, and yet it is warm, and pleasant, like salt water heated by Tallsun’s kiss.

Oh, Aithniel!

She is proud, defiant, the wind in her mane that has grown long and full, and through the feathers of her wings drifts the red light of this forest, a red light that makes her seem an angel wreathed in roses. I missed my father, and his strength, I had often reminisced of Erebos and our adventures…

But I have mourned her absence, shamed myself with my failure to remain by her side. I feel my heart grow and wither all at once, my hooves immediately moving to her with a loving nicker.

”STAND BACK!” bellows a voice recalled in dreams, a powerful one that belongs to the God of the mountain and which rises over a horrible, hideous distortion of the air. It ruptures my thoughts of her and severs my eyes from her surly gaze, sends me twirling wildly back towards the God with my golden eyes broad and full of fear.

No sooner do I turn then I am blasted onto the ground, my uneven footing providing no support against the arrival of the Bear, unsure of where I am as the world pitches violently and my eyes clenching shut against the volatile blast of air that flies from the rupture in space.

I open my eyes to see red leaves above me, hear a deep rumbling that makes even my warrior’s heart flutter in fear. Using the flash of terror as I goad, I leap to my hooves as quickly as I can, quickly finding Erebos to stand alongside him again, occasionally managing to sever my eyes from the horrendous beast of a deity to look at him for support.

I don’t dare look away to find Aithniel again; truly, I can’t look away, so tangible is the clash of the God’s words. Their might and their will crackle in the air.

The God of Time calls to his faithful, and I hear his beckoning. Without a single thought to spare, I lunge forward, my lips trumpeting a battle call against the foul Bear God, seeing none of my people in its hideous form, feeling in my heart a need to prove my worth to the being who had once thought to bless me, despite his better judgment.

Even the strangers leap forward with us, their eyes narrowed in loathing upon the beast.

With my golden eyes full of wonder I watch the divine ruler of our mountain fall upon the monster with such power that I feel my very bones shudder in longing, his hooves aiming for the crystals along the spine of the bear. The woman with the weapon and her companion leap at his face, without fear, another unicorn bearing alongside them, another still reaching for the thing’s side with his blade poised for blood. All around me hooves pound the earth and voices sound out in fury, in support of one another, in a beautiful sonata of blood and battle.

I break for the rear of the beast, for most of the others take its fore, my long legs splashing through the red water that rises clear, that has beautiful rubies that bite into the soft parts of my hooves. Rising slightly as I reach striking distance, my horn is an ebony and gold flash through the air, once, twice, a sharp whistling sounding as it breaks the air and reaches for blood.

Beneath me, my hooves dance, my body poised and eyes watchful for movement; should it try to run, it will have to get through me, first.

[ OOC: SORRY HEATHER I only have today to post before the timeline and omg Rikyn wants to whoop the bear’s arse so hard.

Also I don’t know why this is so long it just is. :| SORRY EVERYONE

He moves to the bear’s hind quarter and seeks to block it from escaping, while attacking it with his horn. ]