The battles had ended, though Onni was not certain who the real victors were. The unicorns of the Basin were dropping like flies, almost as though they had no real intent to fight. Here she was, pouring her life's effort into her own battle, sliced by cruel horns, nearly gutted, and for what? A half-hearted, sorry attempt to take everything the shaman had cared for in her life. Her mother's home, her mentor's grave, her beloved home, and her gift of sunlight - they wished to take it, but more like a child fights over a toy and then becomes tired, uninterested.
Insulting, is what it was, and the victory roaring throughout the crimson sands did not alight her heart. Instead, it remained lifeless. No stirring of her heartstrings, no rush of delight, no smiles. Just more tears.
She injured her opponent, but for what cause? If they were to all give in at the end, why had she hurt another?

Drying crimson blood, the brushing of sand upon her legs, the ash burned flesh from her other recent battle, and the dewy kiss of tears upon her cheeks - the shaman finally wretched out an awful sigh before disappearing in the night.
Her kin would not need her skills to heal such minor wounds. There was no sun to call upon for mystical healing, anyway. There was no sun.
He had left them long ago.

With all purposeful speed, the mare soars over the expanse of the oceans surrounding the twin peninsulas, searching for the glowing blue lava of the Veins. Her eyes catch upon the faint glimmer in the distance and she heaves herself toward it, feeling the sorrowful whistle of wind in her ears. Onni could not be consoled by the wind; she was not her mother, just her child. The light she needed to rid these shadows from her heart was absent, as he always seemed to be. He promised he would see her again, yet how long had it been since his glowing face met her own?

A sorry replacement for her mentor, the shaman thinks, but perhaps that is just what she deserved. If this were a test of her strength, she is failing, failing miserably.

Sore, battere legs land upon the warm, pulsating terrain of the Veins, her vision blurred from tears, but her hooves knew the way. Standing before the burned and broken shrine that had housed the mighty spirit of the sun before, Onni lowers her face to gently rest against the blackened surface. The rains had cleaned the majority of the ash and soot from it, yet the burns from before raged across the surface, as if it had been yesterday the monument was destroyed. Illuminated from beneath in ethereal blue light, the shaman stands perfectly still, skull rested against the last tangible pillar of her deity to be touched.

There are no words, nothing to be said that would quell the tremor of her heart. Instead, the mare just quietly cries to herself, tear leaking from her eyes unbidden and unnoticed, for how long there is no say.
Time ceased to exist in this god forsaken night.

[ Onni being feely~ open for anyone ]