Ampere moved through the tree tops, her steps as steady as she could manage on hooves and thick boughs, but she was by no means a creature meant for tree-living, much as some ancestral part of her thought otherwise; her bruises could attest to that. She had the size and the talents to maintain herself well enough though, so she clung to the boughs, at times shaking loose some snow.

It provided a helpful vantage point over the forest of the Threshold, a place she was surprisingly familiar with given that this was her first recruiting venture. In times past this place had been a nice grazing area compared to the wilds, and it was always a useful region to garner information. Those trying to scurry fresh blood to their herds were always loquacious.

Ampere was just balancing on a branch, beginning to scan for any sign of movement that would be a horse when a voice called out so suddenly, so desperately, that Ampere startled from her perch. Her wings beat furiously at the wind as she tumbled, but the tight knit of branches meant it was difficult for wings of her size to grab anything but debris. She groaned as she struck the ground, mercifully grabbing wind enough to right herself and keep anything from breaking, but the impact was hard and more bruises blossomed along her chest and her limbs, courtesy of the nearby trunk she utilized to help stop her messy descent. Cursing under her breath Ampere picked herself up and shook the ice from her pelt, stalking towards the source of the noise to better assess it.

"You must be cautious," Ampere warned the golden mare as she drew from between two trees. "There are more in these woods than whom you call for, least among which is me." Ampere kept on high alert, especially now that she was on the ground, her flight not as accessable under these trees. The gods may have awakened, the dawn heralded on the heels of her lord, but it did not mean the darkness was eradicated. Sickness still plagued some. Ampere thought of Shadow.

"I'm Ampere," she offered by way of greeting to lighten the serious mood she'd started with. "Who are you looking for?"

A M P E R E
PRETTY FACE AND ELECTRIC SOUL

Ampere had a habit of flustering others and immediately felt sorry for doing so to this girl. It seems she had a lot to learn about successfully greeting and recruiting others, considering much of her previous Threshold time had been used to tease strangers or flirt with stallions.

Even ruffled though, this girl was not afraid, and Ampere took a liking to that.

"No need," Ampere broke in when the stranger began to apologize, almost as uncomfortable as her. The last things he wanted to feel like was some chiding mother. Awkwardly she rearranged her wings as the girl stammered on, noticing the mare's pair as she did so. Astonishingly she boasted four, something Ampere had never seen, but heard of. A bit in awe she studied them, noticing one appeared injured with the way it was held.

A sigh broke Ampere's attention. Her gaze shifted back to the mare's eyes, which were a dull sort of grey, further emphasized by the brilliant shine of the palomino coat that framed them. They seemed almost sad in a way.
In comparison, Ampere's eyes were so blue they had their own fierceness, gripping whatever they looked upon with an intensity that matched Ampere's personality.

"Afraid I don't run into much snow in the desert lands," Ampere replied, frowning over the fact there'd been a big storm which she knew nothing about. The expression remained with the prospect of a herd of thirty being lost to it. Perhaps this girl had traveled further than she thought? Gently Ampere shook her head, silently answering. No wonder those grey eyes looked sad.

"I've not seen a group as large as you mention besides the others herds here in Helovia. How long have you been traveling?" Ampere tilted her head in a questioning manner, her ears continuing to flick around them, still searching for any wraiths that might interrupt "I can help you look though, but first, are you hungry?" Ampere tried to sound hopeful for the sake of the golden girl, but she didn't have much belief they'd find anyone. She proffered a weak smile, hoping to convince either of them.

A M P E R E
PRETTY FACE AND ELECTRIC SOUL

Ampere wasn't sure what to say to the mounting despair of the younger girl, so she stood silent, her lips pulled into a weak smile that promised a hope she didn't feel. Her posture remained strong and sturdy, though her heart fluttered with mounting anxiety.

It was a relief when the mention of food was able to distract the golden girl from her downward spiral of despair. Ampere couldn't blame her for it, having experienced her own losses in the past. The difference was she'd always been more or less on her own, even when sharing company. For Ampere their absence was more of a growth of quietness, where as for Riel the loss was everything she had ever known. Ampere couldn't fully understand the weight of that, but she sympathized.

We don't know that they're gone yet, she reminded herself too, not willing to give up before they'd even started.

"Don't worry, there's plenty to go around, our family is small still." Ampere's voice managed to be more upbeat, her smile firming on her features. She even forgot to watch for the wraiths. Instead the dunes of the desert danced in her mind's eye, beautifully exotic and bountiful in their own right. They were inviting, and they would do well to mend a traveler's weariness. She was not ashamed of their herd size, nowhere near the thirty head this girl came from, they were her brothers and her sisters of the sand and she was proud of them.

"You look like you need the rest," Ampere added, realizing as soon as she said it that it might seem rude. Go figure even when she wasn't trying to be. "On the way you can tell me about your herd, so that I'll know them when I see them." Ampere interjected hurriedly, trying to sound hopeful.

She began to lift her dark wings from her back, stretching them in preparation for flight, before remembering Riel's appeared injured. Her gaze remained fixed on the palomino, gauging how she might choose to use her wings, or lack there of. If they had to hoof it the time would definitely be longer and the path more dangerous, but Ampere couldn't abandon her now especially. She had made a promise to help, and she would.
As she watched for a sign Ampere's mind itched with questions about the bizarre set of appendages. If one was injured, were three still good enough? Did all of her family have four wings? They'd surely have enough to talk about on their journey.
"I'd love to know more about your four wings, they're beautiful," Ampere breathed, truly transfixed by them. She hoped too that the compliment might distract the mare from her worries, if only for a while.

Ampere had a warmth to her, it was just usually overshadowed by her jolting anger; an anger for all the injustice in the world. This was an injustice surely, but not one either of them could change. Often the world was hard and sometimes there was nothing you could do to change that, no matter how much you fought.

A M P E R E
PRETTY FACE AND ELECTRIC SOUL

[Chan I just have to say you are a beautiful writer and make such different characters, it's a joy rping with you <3]


It didn't take long for Ampere to feel foolish (it usually didn't) as Riel began to explain her unusual wings, such as they were to Ampere. The golden girl was kind, enormously so, and the creeping embarrassment Ampere felt was placed on her shoulders by her own hooves, but it didn't change the sensation any less. Sometimes it was easy to forget she was still a child herself; the world was good at asking that of her young.

"It's fine, the walk will give us more time to talk," Ampere said with a smile, quickly picking up pace beside Riel. "We'll have to fly together at least once though, for fun." Ampere winked then fell quiet, letting Riel finish. As she did, Ampere kept one ear trained on her steady voice, while the other flicked back and forth, her gaze at times sweeping through the trees and peering into the shadowy depths of thickets and shrubs. The forest was a complex mixture of noisy silence, but if you paid enough attention, it would whisper to you of its dangers.

"Seems like mortals will always find something to call a god," Ampere began with a mutter, her gaze shifting back to Riel. "Always needing something to be envious of and ...something to blame." She shook her head and sighed slowly, the sound whistling through her nose. "In the end though, we always have to save ourselves, otherwise why exist?"

Ampere paused, then laughed abruptly, realizing she may have gotten too deep on that subject.

Helovia had gods, ones Ampere was even beginning to trust, but she did not expect prayer alone would save her soul, and she didn't want it to. The God of the Sun's light had lit up the path for her to walk, but her hooves had been the ones to make that trip.
"Normal is okay, but it might be fun to be a god," Ampere said with a sly smile, her gaze peering sideways at Riel, whom she noticed was growing more comfortable. Ampere was loosening up too, her crown forgotten in the company of someone so easy to talk to. "You could convince them to stand on one leg and serenade you - everyone knows that makes prayers travel faster."

Ampere grinned as Riel continued to talk, telling of her friend Kehar. It reminded Ampere of Taz and Zar, and her heart ached in a way that was both happy and sad. She hoped if they could find anyone from her herd it would be this elemental boy, just so the sparrow wouldn't have to feel that. Family is one thing, but a friend you grew up with was quite another.
"Do you mean magic?" Ampere asked after laughing about Kehar. Around them the dead leaf litter of the forest and topsoil began to shift. It vibrated at first, with a gentle hum, the sound gradually increasing as the substance turned a bluish color and finally with a pop! shifted into a spark. The multitude of them drew into one another, creating a mass of hissing, jumping electricity. Ampere was grinning, absorbed like a craftshorse in her work as she shaped the lightning orb into a small bird. She sent it flittering around the air in front of them, its song the low, but steady hum of pure energy; beautiful, but dangerous. "Like this?"

"Many here are magical, though this place definitely has more of it than others I saw in my childhood, when I traveled." Ampere let the bird lead them, smiling at it with a fondness rarely shown otherwise. These creatures often comforted Ampere - she understood the allure of all those who bonded to companions, but that understanding did not make it any more right.

The forest thinned as the girls walked south, each sharing bits of themselves and their past.


[I thought we could end this thread here and if you want start a new one in the Throat?]

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PRETTY FACE AND ELECTRIC SOUL