A R A H

New magic. Could her world become any brighter at the moment? Golden orbs watched the sun set to announce the end of another day. It still filled her with joy to see the sun rise, the ivory mare still struggled to watch the sun disappear every afternoon. After the sun had disappeared last time, taking her magic with it, the white raven had been lost. Not knowing who you were when you lost your magic...well for Arah in particular it had been horrible. Still, as the sun disappeared behind the hills of Helovia, the impersonator of The Basin could still feel the power within herself. Happily turning her back on the afternoon sun the mare considered where she currently stood. Not location wise, more about her position in her homeland. By turning her back in The Throat invasion she had been a disappointment to Deimos, it saddened her to have let her own teacher down however you could never be perfect. Arah did think that Deimos would eventually forgive, only it would be after she proved herself again. Not to mention the fact that she was a high ranking member of The Basin, having dedicated every single part of her being to The Basin surely accounted for something.

The fates had been kind to her however, now intertwined with her soul was the magic from a rook. Long elegant strides carried for forward, poise and purpose with every step she took. For tonight he would search for someone to test her magic out on, with their permission of course. Even better, she would use the magic in her punishment spar. The memory of the Basin's general flashed through her mind, as did Psyche's face. All of this time the golden eyed dame had forgotten about her lady. The Empress of The Basin had not been in good shape, psychically or mentally. Concern now filled the slim mare. She should not have forgotten about Psyche so easily, what if the lady of The Basin needed her? "I've been a fool." Whispered the mare. Being so happy with her own accomplishments, the impersonator had completely forgotten her personal duty to Psyche. Eyes turned to the direction on The Basin, if she were to return now, would she find the lady? Or had Psyche taken a break for a while? The mare's haunting last words replayed themselves in Arah's mind "Then consider yourself my replacement."

Turning back to The Basin, Arah began to take it one step at a time. Would her home be in shambles? Was Psyche still in power? Had someone else taken leadership? The Impersonator hated they very thought. Arah had been loyal to Psyche all this time, she did not know how she felt about kneeling to a new leader.

One step at a time.

" "
@[Arlo]
467 words.

And a sun set to lay away your day to day fears

a r l o

I had been stumbling, stumbling through Helovia for a fair few days now. I was lost, being torn between the two halves of myself. Nothing was making sense anymore, the war between the two was turning my cranium into a dense mess of fog, where my thoughts only became half formed and others speech barely made it through, and rarely registered enough for me to form a sensible reply. I thought that my life would be so much easier with the return of the sun, it was meant to be so simple. I was meant to have my freedom during the sunlit hours, and only have to hide away during the reapers time. But apparently, it was not meant to be. For since the return of the prodigal goddess to the skies, the abhorrents, though they remained skulking below the surface were still waging their internal war on my soul. The more I felt, the stronger they became. They were feeding off my emotions, turning my gleeful ones to suicidal thoughts, and my rage filled ones to excitement. This constant turning over of emotions was draining me of all my available energy, I was bone tired and weary, scared I was going to lose the respect of the blackened dove I had come to think so highly of. The more I felt for her, the more danger she was in, but I couldn’t for the life of me come up with a solution. How I felt for her couldn’t just be turned off like a tap, the love I felt was unconditional and was not going to budge. But there was no way I could put my dove in danger.

I sighed, billowing air from nostrils in a large cloud. I watched as it dissipated into the chill of the night air, wishing that I could do just the same. If I was to simply disappear then all of these issues wouldn’t exist. I found myself more often than not these days that I had simply followed the abhorrents orders in the ocean that day and continued walking out to my salty demise. It would have made everything so much easier. Oh how I wished the Asylum wasn’t my home, I wished that I could have followed Artemis that day, back to the Foothills and to the promise of a lifetime of sanctuary of protection from Seele and her army of the crazy. But alas, it was not to be, for I could not subject Artemis and her fellow herd to the wrath of the mentalists, not just for my life. It was never going to be a fair trade.

As I trudged wearily through the meadow, hooves dragging so that they scuffed through the soil, banner trailing and often getting tangled within the foliage, my baby blues enlightened upon another, another whom appeared to be a lost soul, though not as tortured as mine seemed to be currently. I stopped in my tracks and observed her for a minute or two, hued as white as snow, orbs as golden as the goddess herself and antlers adorned her dial. She was quite simply ethereal, it was all I could do but blink to see if my eyes were simply deceiving me, for she looked like she had descended from the heavens.

As she made her way towards me, I made sure to pull myself from the shadows, as not to startle her. This angel could be my saviour after all; it wouldn’t do to scare her away. “Good e'en, M’lady. Pray, tell me, what has one as beauteous as you looking so troubled this eve?” I stood, harks pricked and oceans calm and my banner swishing gently as I awaited her reply.



" "
Fugue
622 words.
@[Arah]

&CROWS WILL FLEE THE SCENE,
AS IF TO REMIND ME
HOW LONG ITS BEEN SINCE I'VE SEEN A DOVE.

A R A H

A voice spoke out, it's owner was not too far from her. How long had he been watching her without her knowledge? As his voice continued to fill her mind the doe simply watched him for a moment. They were quite similar in looks, white hued bodies, long silky hair and he seemed to be just as athletic as her. Smiling Arah bowed her crowned head in his direction, at least her troubled body language had not prevented him from coming up and speaking to her. Pondering her answer for a moment, Arah continued to watch him. "Broken promises and truths hidden in lies." A single sad chuckle fell from her troubled and worried lips. Her golden orbs still watched the white stag carefully, she should not trust him just yet. "The games of my rank, I fear I have been playing them for too long." Voice smooth, quiet yet tinted with confidence. A breeze picked up, it played with the loose strands of hair. They twisted with movement, catching the sunlight, the fly-away strands began to hold a magic of their own. "I trust far too easily and yet not enough." The mare frowned.

Had she lived within lies for so long that she no longer minded what was not a truth? Blinking the mare cleared her mind. "I am not the only troubled soul here." Tilting her head to the side, the white raven studied the stallion that stood before her once again. Experience told her not to trust him, not to open up and let him get past her defences. However she could to help it, he seemed like quite the honest stallion, perhaps today in general he was filled with sincere intents."How about you?" The Impersonator inquired. In truth she had only responded to his question with riddles and half truths, but she would not spill the secrets of The Basin to a stranger. Not until she completely trusted him. "Shadows guard your eyes, you look like you've been living in self created hell." Curiously Arah moved closer still, the wilds reeked off of his coat. Oh what would it be like to live as an individual?! Everything this stallion had as a free being caused jealously to rise in the smaller mare. She too loved to explore, create friendships and bonds. She had that choice when she entered Helovia, instead she had picked a family.

Arah loved The Basin, she would never leave it now. Not after all of the sacrifices she had made, bust sometimes the thought of freedom became very tempting. Sometimes the mare dreamed about running from The Basin and just seeing the world, sometimes she tasted the freedom before returning to her cave. Smiling sadly at the stallion she waited for his answer, quite sure that they would become fast friends. "What is your name warrior?" Inquired Arah, her face open and honest graced by a soft shadow. The shadow of self doubt. What if he didn't like The Basin? Did he know of the members reputation?

" "
@[Arlo]
507 words.

And a sun set to lay away your day to day fears

a r l o

W atching, as she observed me, realising the only things that really told us apart were the hue of our orbs and the fact that she had a crown upon her dial. Harks pricked as her lyrics floated through the air towards me. Her words resonated with me, and were the only ones in days that actually made their way through the fog, causing a feeling of kinship. Her words sounded very much like my own thoughts. Her notes were light, tinged with sadness and quite clearly troubled, only highlighted by the small chuckle that followed. I could tell that behind those honeyed orbs of hers that she was sizing me up, assessing how trustworthy I was. And she was quite right in doing so, for if I was her I wouldn’t even give me the time of day, and the thought saddened me, that this angel really shouldn’t even acknowledge me as I walked past. But as it stood, she had taken a chance on me, and I would try my best to not let her down.

“Alas, what has brought you into such games of politics and power? And how could anyone bring themselves to lie in your presence?” My voice gruff and charming, the masculine to her feminine coated velvet tones. “Fear holds no place in one as pretty as you M’lady..”

And then it came. That dreaded question. One I hoped would never come. The one asking what dark matter resided behind my baby blues. How could I answer this one? Should I be truthful? But I couldn’t even tell my dove the truth, and yet this doe was seemingly pulling it from me. I hadn’t told anyone the full verity, not even my commanders. And yet I wanted to live up to the chance she had given me, for I knew it hadn’t come easily. She spoke in a riddle, of trusting too much and too little. I puzzled over this a little. “How can you do both of these? I’m afraid you have me a little confused.” I blinked my baby blues, and flicked my bangs from my eyes as I rumbled.

“Aye, you could say that my hell is self inflicted. I am afraid I am haunted from those of my past. And it is safe to say that they dog me daily.” I inhaled her soft scent as she pulled herself closer to me, and asked me of my name. “My name is Arlo. And whom might you be? And where have you hailed from?” Where she came from bothered me not, for of course, the Asylum was the worst of the worst, but I could tell it troubled her some. If she told me, I could comfort her that it mattered not a jot.


" "
Fugue
464 words.
@[Arah]

&CROWS WILL FLEE THE SCENE,
AS IF TO REMIND ME
HOW LONG ITS BEEN SINCE I'VE SEEN A DOVE.