Lakota
                     Her smile makes you wonder where she's been


With the absence of the Sol's luminescence the past seasons, the inhabitants still felt fear and paranoia clutch their hearts that dithered in their chests and palpated with hysteria. Would it return, they wondered? Or would it be swallowed up once again, leaving Helovia benighted and sightless? But there is one...just one...who is unconcerned for the absence of the lord that patrols the skies in his flaming chariot high above. She lives for the shadows, for the darkness and silence of the unassuming twilight hours. If she were not, why was her skin a plague of coal in a line of silver and ivory? Why did her voice whisper like dark chocolate to hide the poison that lay within, tempting all others into her wanton crevices of destruction and malignant actions.

So when she comes across a glimmer of silver blonde gossamer threads spun around a small patch of navy ebony and stretched over a shapely canvas, whispering to the dark boughs that sway and reach for all passerby in hopes of drawing them into this new world they've stumbled upon, she knows she must approach. At her side a majestic creature of pearl with two dark amethyst irises walks with purpose, growing muscle rippling under a healthy coat made to withstand the harshest of all winters and coldest of all waters.

He is a polar child, but he follows her into the heat of summer loyally, her faithful prince, and their bond is forged by the heavens and just as strong and timeless. As she slows so does he, standing tall and proud like a knight bearing a shield at her side, two nearly identical orbs piercing the newcomer in the fading light, watching. Waiting for the right moment.

"And if a fellow sinner was to cross that path?" She speaks, the dame, and like a shadowy mist dances without a sound across the newly grown carpet of emerald towards the beautiful lass. Circles to view her from more than her side, wishing to see her face to face, see into her soul and judge the content and quality of it.

"Darkness only welcomes those who can see the beauty where others only see fear. Tell me darling, are you one of them? What is it you called yourself? Pandora?" Perhaps it was not mannerly to ask of the newcomer's name before giving her own, but Lakota was a thousand idiosyncrasies all wrapped into one beautiful package. She made and walked her own lines, tasted every forbidden fruit and taunted every royal that flounced across her path arrogantly.

Lakota was a princess of darkness and destruction, the light of her soul bared only for those who had worked hard enough to deserve the glow of it. She had been burned and tarnished through and through, and she still came out of it like a phoenix, glowing bright and unharmed. Diamond, perhaps. But was this mare of the same material?

The herd she hailed from may have changed with her twin leaders vanishing, but she still believed only the strong were able to defend a family. Too many weakly born souls and they would crumble. Perhaps they were no longer mercenaries, no longer killers. That did not mean she was forbidden from recruiting individuals that genuinely caught her eye.

H U Y A N A
the world is drowning

Her steps like the scatter of raindrops, the sterling mare crept on through the darkening forest, the distant purr of crickets vibrating through her bones. How many times had she come to this place, the possibility of relinquishing all she had in Helovia so near; she could leave and never come back and no one would think any more of it—she could explore new worlds entirely and learn their secrets, or she could find her way back home; but the thought daunted her. Blue eyes watched the evening sky in the distance, a bright panel of stars twinkling already as the darkness fell, and the realized something—she could never leave. She thought about Deimos, the sapphire-eyed general, and a pleasant warmth filled her belly, like basking in the sun after an eternity of night. She was home.

A quiet conversation interrupts her thoughts; she paused, ears pressed forward attentively—two female voices, soft velvet against dusk. The rain girl hurried toward it, wondering if she'd be able to bring another home. Hooves padded quietly over the brittle skeletons of leaves, shattering their ribs as she moved ever forward. It was not long until the voices materialized into bodies: a slender buckskin (with a horn, she noted) and an elegant roan with jewel-bright eyes. She caught the exchange of words, tilting her head curiously as she drew closer—they both spoke of darkness and light and sinners, and Huyana bit her tongue. So many were wont to compare their lives and states of mind to abstract things, which seemed entirely absurd—how could you compare a living, breathing thing that could dream and cry and kill to a time of day, and how could you rationalize their actions by naming them sins? She snorted softly, drawing to a halt nearby, gaze flicking between the two mares. "It is unwise to see only in darkness or light or grey," the roan murmured, her own voice soft like rain on glass compared to theirs, but not so easily lost in the tumult of their own words. The tip of her tail twitched, and she turned her blue eyes to the unicorn that smelled of outside, of things unknown—the scholar's curiosity was piqued by this stranger; she studied the graceful buckskin carefully, noting the strange, jagged mask she bore upon her face, the emerald eyes. "You can see so much more in color," Huyana concluded, flicking her gaze to the equine instead, watching her through dark eyelashes, somber but not unkind.

Lakota
                     Her smile makes you wonder where she's been


A smile crosses her lips like a shadow, and a light chuckle is all she exudes at first. "I like you," is all that follows. She rests a leg and cocks her head at the other mare, intrigued. Of course, Pandora seemed just as curious about her name, though she could not declare if herself as a person was intriguing to the other mare. "Lakota, Poisoner and Earth Medic of the Windtossed Foothills." No point in any fluff, Lakota was very much so someone who said what she wished, did what she wanted, and told you how she felt without care for anything but honesty. It certainly wasn't a personality that gained many friends, but those who did stand by here were ones she would never replace due to their loyalty and similar personalities.

Another voice touched her ears and she turned and gave a short, soft laugh. "You'll have to leave me from this one, I can only keep up with so many metaphors." A smirk twists her lips delicately, amused because she simply can't be this deep all the time, and sees no point. Pandora and the newcomer could speak of it all they wanted for as long as they desired, Lakota saw no reason to if she was only here for one reason. And of course when Pandora echoed her in a far more eloquent fashion moments later, Lakota gave a laugh and nodded, Aodaun growing bored and standing to twine between her legs until she still him with a short tap of her hoof to the earth. He flopped onto his side, feeling un-threatened at that moment, and watched the other two mares from between his bonded's forelegs.

"You're in Helovia's Threshold, where all newcomers are apparently drawn for some reason and where recruiters and mischief makers come from herds all around, as well as the wild lands, to see if anybody would like to follow them home or live alone with other wanderers." How many times had she given this speech to those who had never before entered Helovia? It was almost nostalgic, if it wasn't so repetitive.

"You're under no threat because we both, if I can speak for the other miss here, are under orders or are acting on our own to strengthen our herds with numbers. Some come here, also, to merely guide along the newcomers happily and get them safely to where they need or want to go and inform them of the herds and the like. Those are fewer but still around, and are only wanting to be helpful instead of hoping to recruit the person." Shrugging her shoulders daintily she reached her muzzle down to peer at Ao, who gave a happy growl and rolled back to his tummy, wriggle along the earth instead of standing and walking. Lakota smirked at him and he gave another growl, slapping his big paws against the earth as she entertained him through their bond, teasing and playing verbally in a conversation the other two would never hear. Ao wrapped his paws around her muzzle and pressed his fuzzy head to her cheek before releasing her to scamper around the other two, inspecting them as Lakota raised her head to watch him like a hawk. Pandora and the other nameless mare might be harmless, but if they so much as made a single move towards Aodaun she would have no qualms ripping into their lungs with her magic.

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Oh golly I'm so sorry I didn't know it was my turn ;_____;