the Rift


[OPEN] A Lack of Color

Finn Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#1


Everywhere, there was darkness. The meadow, the shores of the ocean, even the Foothills all held a sense of foreboding and drove any and all life away, myself included.

"Leave me, demons!" I cried as I fled south and across the expanse of Helovia, dark eyes wide with whites showing as I searched desperately for somewhere, anywhere that was safe. Pure, cold terror gripped at my heart as I looked to and fro for a sign of life, but it seemed as though all the other inhabitants were quite simply and suddenly gone. The only thing left on this earth was myself, lathered in frothy sweat and heart ready to burst from my chest, and the malicious darkness that nipped at my heels with every stride taken.

But soon, I began to pick up the scent of others, and the smallest sliver of hope began to blossom within me. Yet still not a single soul could be seen, and so I followed the musty aroma of others, uncertain if this was reality or my desperation playing cruel tricks on me. I couldn't take a chance, however, and pressed on until the ground beneath my hooves turned to malleable clay. I didn't even have time to notice how it was much warmer here than anywhere else, my gaze now focused ahead and determined to find what I hoped to be somebody else. Up ahead was a sea of grasses, looming much higher than I could ever dream of being, and I didn't slow as I ran into them.

For one moment, my mind was filled with the horror of what could be lurking just behind my sight in the thick vegetation, but the thought quickly left me when the ground beneath me seemed to give way, and before I knew it, I was falling.

Down and down I went, thankfully on my side, and though my legs thrashed in a struggle to rise from the muddy and rocky decline, I seemed to be relatively unharmed once I came to a stop at the bottom. Terror still lingered at the forefront of my mind, accompanied by the instinct to keep running. But as I stood there and the darkness no longer threatened me from behind, I began to calm, and after a few moments began to look around with a low, uncomfortable snort. Mud speckled the majority of my left side, and there would undoubtedly be a few cuts, but nothing that would kill me.

I didn't know where I was, for I was still so new to Helovia, but I'd managed to fall down into a cave. The scents still lingered, though my eyes failed to spy anyone immediately. From the ceiling hung grand, dagger-like stalactites and from beneath them were stalagmites, most reaching higher than myself. Wherever I was, its beauty was nearly enough to steal away all of my previous fear, and it surely would have done just that if not for the sudden, sharp pain that shot through my leg.

A gasp passed my lips when I looked down; blood slicked the tawny and black hide of my left front leg, dripping from a gash that ran from just below the front of the knee down to the hock. As though the sight of the wound sparked the realization of pain, I lifted the leg with a sharp breath filtered in from between clenched teeth. "H-Hello?" I stammered, tearing my gaze from the sight of my leg and looking around. Oh, dear Gods, I prayed these caves were vacant of the monsters from colthood stories. I did my best to remain calm, but I must admit, it was beyond difficult. "Is anybody else here? Please, I-... I am a part of the Foothills, I mean no harm, a-and... ooh," I groaned, "I'm gonna die!" Because surely I would.

Or maybe I was just a bit of a big baby.


"talk"
F I N N
to coax the darkness into light



Dragomir Posts: 275
World's Edge Glazier atk: 6 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Equine :: 17" :: 7 HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Bunnie
#2
By the time he returned to the Edge after dealing with the wraiths on the tundra, everyone was gone.

He found everything unusually silent and creepy, the sound of rustling in the brush deeper in the forest cryptic and wrong. Whatever it was in there, it moved too quickly to be truly alive, too much like the flickering black mass that the painted stag that had challenged him had become. Looking around him, he noticed dark smears along the trunks of the nearby trees; raising his muzzle to scent at the bark tentatively, he recoils from the metallic tang of the blood that marks the silent sentinels of his home.

It took him no time at all to turn back around and make his exit. He knew when it was time to go so long as it was splattered all across the walls as it was now. Immediately after exiting the once secure confines of the glass wall, he discovered a serpentine pathway before him, worn into the leafy undercover of the wood, it would seem, by the hooves of his herd and few friends. The scent on the ground was faint and fading, letting him know he’d missed their departure by some hours, silently cursing himself for being such a curious and foolish idiot.

He hoped, with a fleeting beat of his heart, that Kahlua, Semira, and Mirage were safe, his large hooves beating silently as he could muster along the ghost path of his herd.


The Heart grew before him, his eyes falling upon the pyre in its red center with a curiosity that was not hidden from the clear blue depths of his gaze. Dragomir wonders why it is that they have come here, of all places, where there is not cover to be seen and only a vast, radiant fire that engulfs the sky in rippling heat. The path he has followed continues through the red dust that has chipped away from the fringes, many more branching in from the outer ring of the place toward one particular area.

A rift? he asks himself as he trots forward, sweat slaked upon his sides from his arduous and pressed journey here. He recalls his mother’s tale of travelling through such an expanse in a forest, arriving in the land of Isilme; while he isn’t particularly sure he wants to go back to where she was from or to anywhere else, he is interested in what it is his herd has vanished into.

A cave yawns in the middle of the red earth, and he is even more intrigued. Its slope is delicate on the side he has approached, leading downwards for a long way before it turns hard and continues into the earth, but the earth it is composed of is loose and treacherous gravel. Even more upsetting is the thought of any unfortunate soul who happened to not see the hole before he fell in – that would hurt like…

”I’m gonna die!”

His head shoots upwards and sends his eyes skittering across the horizon for the sight of anyone being assaulted by a demon, but there is no one he can see but his own shadow. Quickly sorting out that the sound had come from below him (it echoed back at him, you see), he leaps down the path with his head tucked low to avoid any concussions, soon finding himself churning his powerful limbs to stay on his hooves. The gravel beneath him skips and skitters, grinds and flees before his bulk, and its all he has to maintain vertical position and yell out to the hopefully terribly wounded stallion below, "Look out!"

All attempts of a chivalrous and proud arrival are tossed out the window as the pace of the stones slow and he is unceremoniously tossed into the opposing wall of the bend, not very far from where the unusual buckskin stood. "Ooumph," manages Dragomir as he hits the wall, where he remains leaning his right shoulder against the cool stone and takes several deep and well earned breaths as he takes status of the situation and feels the steady growth of a bruise rise in his tissue.

Instinct draws his eyes immediately to the problem; the man has quite a serious wound to his leg and more than enough dust in its sticky folds to make him taste a sweet and sour flavor on the back of his tongue as he looks at it. Tearing his eyes off the gruesome wound and to the stag’s face, he manages a soft smile and a gentle glimmer to his eyes, hoping he hadn’t pelted the poor guy with more rocks on his own foolish way down.

He had a long way to go with this saving people thing.

"You aren’t going to die, so long as we can find a healer," he painfully manages, taking a step forward on battered and bruised legs, favoring his front right more so than any of the others. "I’m Dragomir," he says, nodding a greeting to the really freaking weird looking stallion. He hasn’t really noticed it until now, but the man is rather squat and broad, even more so than his friend Ricochet was, and his myriad hued mane stood erect and short along the thick ridge of his neck.

He wore no horn, and no wings, however, and while Dragomir could not figure out what sort of hybrid he was (oh, poor intelligent boy he is), he was pleased enough with the fact that he wasn’t as wrong as many of the others he’d met. And, either way, his encounter with the undead unicorns had taught him much very quickly – there were things in the world more fearsome than his own failures and discomforts. He couldn’t dwell on himself with so much at stake.

"Can you walk?"



Dragomir</style>
where light shines, shadows will stretch</style>
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Any violence/magic is allowed to be used upon Dragomir at anytime, permitting it doesn't kill or seriously maim him without my permission <3

Resplendence Posts: 466
Hidden Account atk: 4.5 | def: 8 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Equine :: 14.1 hh :: eight (ages in frostfall) HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Valiance :: Common Red Dragon :: Fire Breath Abba
#3
Resplendence
and i'd tell that i miss you but i'm sure it doesn't matter at all
There is a crash that seems to hit her ears as she moves back towards her herb box to check upon it once again. The mare picks up her pace, a set of panic filling her system. Was that crash someone crashing into her box? Or was it something crashing into the caves because of the darkness that had been spreading around.

She speeds up more, hooves clicking against the floor until she sees the sight of a fjord on his side. He seems to get up soon enough though, and it is that which has the mare locked in the shadows, watching as he gasps when he places weight upon one of his legs. He calls out, asking if anyone is there. He says he is a part of the foothills, that he means no harm but then he is saying that he is going to die.

Res is torn between action and staying hidden in her corner. Foothills had attacked her family not once but twice. But he was injured. She should help, but before she even gets a chance another Edge member is tumbling down into the caves with a shout of Look out! ringing in the air. Res is stumbling back a few steps even though she is far from the line of the entrance. Dragomir tells the stag that he isn't going to die. So many people are getting injured right now, right in front of her face.

As Dragomir asks if the other stag can walk Res begins to drag herself from the shadows that she had been hidden in. "D-Dragomir?" She whispers as she comes in closer to the one stag she assumes will not hurt her for he is supposed to be part of her family. "W-what's going on?"

Everything was falling apart. Everyone was breaking. And she couldn't stop trembling as she connected the fjord with those who had tried to break her family two times.



Credits
When I'm ready to fall
You're the one always holding me up
With love

Finn Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#4


Once thought alone, I was proved wrong by the warning shout of somebody to look out.


Startled, I clambered to get away and replace myself further from the slippery mouth of the cave, momentarily forgetting the pain of my leg until weight was placed on it. With a sharp hiss I jerked it up, hobbling out of the way just in time to avoid the bulky body of the incoming stallion. Though my own pain was still very much prominent in the way that it pulsed and whined at me like a babe in need of care, my worry had turned to that of the other, who had not fallen as I had, but managed to smack into the wall.

"Oh my gosh," the words left my mouth almost instantly, and I stubbornly hobbled a little closer to him, trying desperately to keep most of if not all of my weight off of the injured foreleg, nearly stumbling to the ground more than once. My eyes wandered over the bay, finding nothing amiss other than the way he stood and panted, surely in pain, but I couldn't tell by reading his face. The stranger soon mustered a smile, to which I returned, worry still clear in my expression. "Are you alright, sir?"

The other stallion, whom easily towers over me even at a distance, proclaims that I will not die and that we'll be able to find a healer. Deep down I knew that death was certainly a possibility if I didn't tend to it quickly, but the adrenaline of the initial fall and now the concern for this stranger seemed to keep that thought at bay, even if I had just shouted it seconds before. The paint tells me his name, Dragomir, and I flash him a terse smile.

"Finn," I say in response with a quick nod of my own, watching as Dragomir pulls himself away from the wall and favors his front right. My chest bustled in even more worry for him, and remembering the mention of a healer, I exhaled a gentle breath. "I can walk," came my assurance as I lifted my gaze up to his own, not only to him but to myself as well, "Do you know if any reside within this cave? I am new here, so you must forgive me, I... really haven't a clue where I even am."

As last word left my mouth, another voice sounds from behind. I give a slight start, but keep my feet planted and only turn my head to regard who else had joined us. She is of a strange dun coloration unlike any I'd seen before, and as she speaks to Dragomir, I remember my manners and carefully turn to face the lady with kind eyes. From what I could tell, she was scared, but of what, I didn't know. For now I remained quiet, allowing the two to speak.

[So sorry for the wait lovies! <3]


"talk"
F I N N
to coax the darkness into light



Dragomir Posts: 275
World's Edge Glazier atk: 6 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Equine :: 17" :: 7 HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Bunnie
#5
The stallion seemed just as concerned for him as he did for the wound on the strange man’s leg, and it drew a quirky and amused little grin to the lips of the young stallion as ”Oh my gosh,” hit his ears along with the scuffling hobble of the lamed man he had dashed in to rescue. He nods that he is fine and steps forward to lend the other stag a shoulder to lean on, taking note of the agony that laced his face with each step of the tender leg. Dragomir himself limped slightly, but nothing in comparison.

Thankful that he isn’t as wounded as this poor bloke, he takes stock of the name that is shared with him along with the fact that he can indeed walk (he is not entirely sure that the pace with which Finn carries himself can be called a walk, but he will not argue the point) and that he has no idea where the hell he is.

"That makes two of us," rumbles his deep voice, his smile still warm on his face despite the discomfort he feels standing next to such a strange horse. He meant to continue on about how he had followed the trail of what seemed to be the herd of Edge here, but was interrupted by a familiar voice and figure, the fear etching each syllable drawing concern to his once smiling features.

"Resplendence!" he states openly to her, no secretive whisper to his voice though he realizes the loud contrast of his voice to hers and shamefully tucks his nose down, his ears tilting back slightly in his awkward realization that Resplendence was afraid they had been chased down here. "Everything is fine, except for Finn’s leg and a few bruises on my behalf. I followed the trail of the herd here, and heard him shouting for help," he glances over at his newest acquaintance as he states his name, hoping that he doesn’t know how unusual it is for the painted stallion to have run to an unknown creature to aid in a struggle, "I, uh… I may have been a little overzealous in my rescue attempts."

He steps forward with a mild grimace as each bruise inflicted by the stones ripples up his frame, though he lets the smile leak back onto his face. It was luck that a healer had found them – and it made him look quite brilliant in the face of his prior commentary.

"You didn’t happen to bring any healing herbs with you?" he asks, concern adding fine knit lines to the corner of his eyes and lips though he tries to remain upbeat in the company of a woman and a wounded man. Always striving to appear honorable and strong, Dragomir found he quite liked this position of appearing so strong in the face of the dangers on the surface and the surely disastrous arrival to this hole in the ground.

Is that a… a wall of…fire?! he thinks as he spies the flaming falls behind Resplendence’s one eared head, mouth dropping open in amazement before his mind remembers that he isn’t here to sight see. He is here to help save Finn. He turns his frame around to more clearly look at both in the small space, his heart crying out that he has turned away from such an unusual sight as a waterfall comprised of magma rather than the traditional fluids, shaking his head slightly in disbelief and his tones sounding out with slightly less interest than they had before, the red glow of the falls a distraction that drew to mind wishes that the healing would be expedient and full of its own learning. "It’s a pretty bad laceration. He’ll suffer from infection if it isn’t tended to soon."



Dragomir</style>
where light shines, shadows will stretch</style>
Credits
JETTSTOCK : SED-RAH-STOCK : GALAXIESANDDUST</style>
Wishlist | Table Tracker  

Any violence/magic is allowed to be used upon Dragomir at anytime, permitting it doesn't kill or seriously maim him without my permission <3


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