the Rift


[OPEN] Moving forward in small waves...

Leeka Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#1
Onyx hoofs briskly traversed the curving hills of the sand dunes, spraying sand in their clumsy wake, for the bearer was unused to such loose sediment but remained undeterred nonetheless to see the wonders beyond. Occasionally, the pintaloosa would pause and observe the flying gull as they streaked by overhead, at times startled by their sudden shadows, other times irked by their incessant, obnoxious chatter. Like most things in Helovia, there was no large body of water in her homeland for birds like these to congregate around, of which Leeka was secretly glad for, yet at the same time it make her think of how plain Eoroleen seemed in comparison. Compared to Helovia, Eoroleen was just a small corner of the world, a sad abandoned piece of a weathered map...and oddly enough that reminded her of something. Her dam had told her that Eoroleen was once a mighty land that expanded farther then the vale they resided in, but the people had forgotten their ancestral range and were content without ever knowing anything else. Not even the King knew otherwise. Or at least pretended to. Leeka could remember the glint in her dam's eyes , bright with secrets and mirth, after the then yearling Leeka had asked how her dam had known that, the grin growing on her maw. " I've traveled dear. That's how I know."

I've traveled too, mother. But all I know is that you are gone and so is father.'

Unknowingly, tears had fallen the length of her face, tickling the skin along the surface which ultimately brought her attention to it. But being alone Leeka didn't feel any rush to hide them and let the tears run their course as she broke from the dunes and onto the beach, trotting till she reached the surf. There was hardly a day when she didn't think of her parents. It seemed there wasn't anything she could do to shake the memories of her home...what was her home from her head. They just kept circling, the best days, the worst days, like some ravenous predator, feasting off her misery. It had been some time now since Kahlua had found her in the Threshold and invited her in the Worlds Edge, for which Leeka couldn't have been more thankful for after all her hopeless wandering, yet some part of her felt ungrateful for not wholly accepting the Worlds Edge as home. To be honest it all felt surreal, like it all wasn't truly real.

But it was and that was a that. There were no words, no what if's, to change things. It was final as fate, as set in goddamn stone as could be. Maybe if things hadn't happened as suddenly as they did the wound would be cleaner, maybe if she could have just said goodbye better, if she ever had the chance at all...

It occurred to her then that in all the time since she had never performed a funeral rite funeral for her parents. What did Helovian's do for their dead? Did they sing, did they dance? Or did they just carry on? In Eoroleen...well, it didn't really matter what they did in Eoroleen. What was the point of carrying on the traditions of a dead land? All it was doing was dragging her down worse then the current on this sand. It was time to make do with what she had and grow. That was the best possible way to honor what she had lost, to do what her own land could not and that would be to forge her own future free of any influence from past mistakes. Helovia had already proved it was a different place, far unlike her own.

But for what it was worth she could still respect it one last time. Digging in the sand with one onyx hoof Leeka made two rough mounds encircled in a ring for each of her parents, separated by two ridge-like shapes to represent the vale and the Dhras Mountains, the whole of what used to be Eoroleen as she knew it. It wasn't much but it was the best she could do considering her surroundings and that suited her just fine. There wasn't long to dwell on the structure however, for the tide was growing and soon it would overwhelm the makeshift graves. As if feeling territorial one wave did just that, surging forward with enough energy to swallow all of her feet in one gulp, the graves with it, their figures dulled but still able to be seen in the aftermath. Somehow a smile managed to warm on her maw, a delicate and somber one. It was hard to tell when the weight would all vanish but it was already lessening. Who knew,with a little optimism, maybe by the time she returned to the World's Edge it'd be forgotten.

Speaking of returning, the sooner the better. Above the sky was warping into its dusk coloration, heralding the coming night. The unmistakable white cliffs of the Edge were a miniature version of themselves, meaning she wasn't far away from the borders, which still weren't clear to Leeka where they were exactly, but she figured she was safe enough regardless. If trouble, whatever form it took, tried to mess with her she bet it would regret its choice after meeting their warriors, particularly Ktulu. Leeka had only seen the Commander at the herd meeting she was promoted at and that was all it took to get a sense of unease and prowess in battle from the mare. She was, in all senses, someone not to be trifled with. Looking to what remained of the sand graves, Leeka gave her goodbye thought.Forever in my heart, but never again in my life. Watch from the skies and know my feet still roam the lands, wherever that may be. With those words echoing in her mind, Leeka turned away and began her trek home to the Edge, unaware of anything else but the intent to make it back before dark. There was no use being risky, right?
Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#2
en natt så kall och månen den var klar
There's nothing buried here but broken dreams.


Mauja stood down the slope from the place where everything had begun, and where everything would end. How long had it been since he'd set foot upon it—within it? How long since he had swept between its hardy trees, fog curling about his legs, and the moon lighting his path? Since the wind had whispered its secrets to him, and he'd felt the pulse of the land beneath his frosted feet? Years, years and years. And how long since he'd talked to Kahlua? Since he'd said he'd come, when he was ready?

Helovia was too large. He was never going to find Ophelia at this rate. And something had begun to gnaw at him, a worry, a need to put it all behind him. To settle the score once and for all, write down the last words of Torasin's end and.. what? Breathe freely?

He knew it was never going to be that easy. Never as easy as the waves rolling in, pulling back, and rolling in again. To think that simply clearing his name would save him.. no. It was nothing but dreams, pinning his hopes on that which couldn't help him. He just wasn't strong enough to help himself.

Maybe it'd be better if he met his end up there. They'd have their twisted mockery of justice, and he'd be freed from this mortal coil; flying, soaring, with his owls.

A stab of guilt.

Perhaps he was ready to die, but they were not, two shapes gliding on the last of the evening's updrafts. Mauja ground his jaws together. He'd been distant with them as of late, shutting them out of his mind, refusing their love, anything just to keep them away. To keep whatever tenuous hold he still had on himself, and his sanity. He hated it, but he was powerless to stop himself, because anything seemed better than crossing that final line into madness.

Slowly, like the first crumble of the glaciers, Mauja began to move, from the silky silver sand and onto the rocky, white-washed slope of the Edge—but barely had he taken a step before movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. As if caught in the act of something he shouldn't be doing, Mauja paused with one hoof lifted, and turned to observe the stranger headed his way. The setting sun touched her with gilded red, struck bronze sparks in her bay pelt and darkened the shadows of her legs; no one he knew. Uncertainly, Mauja peered up the way he was going, and then back to the approaching mare. It certainly seemed like she was headed not only his way, but this way, and at the distance he couldn't pick out her scent; the ocean overpowered his nostrils with its nearness and salt.

Not quite sure why, he obeyed his hooves as they bid him to wait for her.

[ @[Leeka]. ]
Se dem brinna över verkan se dem dansa framför bål
Se dem mässa inför satan se dem smida sina stål
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Leeka Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#3
The sun crept lower in the horizon, transforming into a burning blotch of blood in a tangerine sky that stained the environment, making the beach almost seem like an entirely different place. Even the white cliffs that loomed ahead could not escape the stain, soaking in the dye of light and becoming lumbering pink titians saddled with evergreens leaking of fog. It at least made for an easy guide point. Leeka watched the waters shimmer in the dimmer, yet strangely, saturated colors of dusk as the waves crashed upon the shoreline, causally avoiding the surf in a makeshift game to entertain herself on her way back to the Edge. To home. A sense of elation overcame her, forcing a smile on her face at the thought.The two words nearly felt synonymous, as if they belonged together and that she had only been forgetful of that for whatever reason.

A pang of guilt.

Of course she would never forget Eoroleen, the land she was born into. It was a part of the fabric that made her and could never be removed, a pattern of which may be irreparably marred now but didn't have to dictate the weave to follow, not if she let it. There are other ways to honor a memory, but letting them hold you down wasn't one of them. Trying to strip yourself of the past would be like trying to rip the ground from underneath you - a futile attempt that if somehow were to be completed would only toss you down into an irreparably. For if there is no ground to stand on, what is there to do but fall?

There was always a way forward. Always. Or else let her forever be naive to the other possibilities.

Leeka shook her head to interrupt the flow of thoughts flinging themselves about like trigger-happy bullets. Where as all of this coming from? The mare chuckled at herself then, a sweet sounding chime that would make Kahlua proud, at her sudden disposition of being a...what? Philosopher? Another laugh was about to break from her lips, teasing just on the brim of her maw when it suddenly died in its infancy as she noticed someone ahead. It was the sheen of his spotted, wintry coat made near gory in the dusk-light that had caught her attention and the glean off his horn that caused her to slightly tense. The stranger was no one she knew, that was a given, and the overwhelming scent of salt on the wind prevented her from identifying if he came from the Worlds's Edge or not, leaving yet another thing to guess at. It didn't help the matter that he was, more or less, in her way, an obstacle to be passed.

Normally Leeka could get a feel of someone right away, a feedback of some kind, but for the first time there wasn't much to say. He was simply standing there, somewhat in her way. She could have simply moved on but she couldn't bring herself to, not yet, almost as if suddenly a gravitational pull had been cast upon her lithe little frame, leaving her to idly wonder his purpose here.

" It'll be dark soon. You should head home."

It was an obvious statement but spoken with genuine sincerity. Don't say anything more, One thought pleaded, Make him answer, find out where he's from at least. egged another. If she could find out if he belonged to the World's Edge or not the mare would consider it an accomplishment and enough of an reward to carry on her way. If not...well, she had to give it try, to dig out some secrets or find out if she could help. He could be lost after all.

@[Mauja]
Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#4
en natt så kall och månen den var klar
He was the deer in the headlights, frozen in the rush of possibilities.

Something, some force of nature he couldn't pin, locked his muscles and trapped his mind. Perhaps it was his wish of a guide, of someone to lead him up these steep, familiar slopes, of some smiles and laughter to ease the aching heaviness suspended inside his chest. Perhaps it was because he just wanted someone to tell him that everything would be alright—but he was past the point of believing in that.

But now, that he'd remained there for too long, as if hesitating on the brink of the path to his erstwhile home, and she was too close, and upon whatever hinge his fate turned the balance shifted. It always did—every breath, even the ones of sleep so soft to barely stir a hair, altered the fabric of the world in some way.

The things you didn't do changed just as much as the ones you did.

Would she be a savior, or a tormentor? The odd lightscape darkened her, from bronze to spattered with the dying rays of a blood red sun, spoiling the white with its tints of maroon. She looked like no more, nor no less, than any other Helovian he had met; unique in her own way, in the lithe build of her refined, compact frame, bland in the bay hairs but just as exotic with their distinct, personal shade. Because everyone was different; you didn't need leopard spots or intricate, fanciful patterns as artful as if created by a God to be different.

He watched her in contemplative silence, too distracted by the whirling of his thoughts to properly realize that she was well within talking range—well within the range where he ought to acknowledge her with something more than the simple churning of his guarded blue eyes. Lost, as much in his desire to remain composed as in the depths of his mind, he remained poised where he was, an elegant statue crafted and thoughtlessly left on the beach, halfway to somewhere. Only the rise and fall of his chest, and the swaying of his mane, betrayed him as a creature of flesh and blood.

"It'll be dark soon. You should head home." He blinked. She sounded strangely genuine, as if she cared about what a stranger did here on the slopes towards the Edge—it shouldn't surprise him, but it did. He'd met many kind strangers, and yet he always expected their ire. Admitting defeat, for now, he inclined his head and realized that sometime in the past minutes of watching her, he'd put down his front hoof again.

Mauja opened his mouth to speak—to say, I have no home—but the words died before they formed upon his tongue. It was true that he had no home but the one that the hearts of his owl gave him, but at the moment it seemed so bitter and pessimistic that he swallowed the words again. Wasn't that why he was here, anyway? To see if he could find a place to anchor, and no longer drift wherever the storm shoved him?

"I was headed up to the Edge," he hedged, dark nostrils expanding to drag in more air, once again testing her scent. Was that a hint of pine embedded in her, of gulls and salt and moondust? Or was it just his wishful thinking, that the fact her path seemed to align with his meant something more than coincidence?

[ @[Leeka]. ]
Se dem brinna över verkan se dem dansa framför bål
Se dem mässa inför satan se dem smida sina stål
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Leeka Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#5
It felt as though the waves were counting the moments of measuring silence between them in an attempt to compensate for the stallions apparent frozen nature, as if to reassure Leeka that time was in fact in motion. She had begun to feel a bit self conscious under the unusual weight of his gaze, shuffling a bit to discard the looming atmosphere. The particular hue of his eyes, in fact, were beginning to feel more akin to carved orbs of ice then actual eyes the more she looked at them, their depths seeming to reflect back at her instead of within. How strange. She even wondered if they saw her at all.

When he didn't immediately respond back Leeka began to think that he hadn't heard her and was about to repeat herself when the stranger finally spoke, pausing, freezing for just a moment before actually doing so. Her ears swivel as she thought, considering his words while trying again in vain to identify his scent as subtle as she could and instead only getting the brine that pervaded the air heavier than a cloak, adding a tinge of frustration to her current mood. It didn't escape her notice that the leopard stallion seemed to be trying to decipher the same about her as well, but if he came to any conclusion she couldn't tell and doubted she ever would.

The idea of other herds and entities besides was still a new concept to Leeka and one that she struggled to understand in its full scope, its politics in particular. In truth, first impression aside, it was the horn the stallion bore on his head that gave Leeka a slight pause. Flashbacks from the last herd meeting run through her memory, the words of the unicorns of the Basin and how distrust obviously ran through the veins of the Edge at those affiliated to it at the forefront of her mind. Leeka couldn't bare the thought of breaching conduct and possibly endangering her new home by allowing him free entry into the herdlands, but nor did she have any ill will toward the stranger. The suspicion was an unnatural feeling to Leeka, like an unjust crime, and she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. It didn't feel heathy at all. Of course, at this point she had no way of knowing if he even belonged to the Basin, this could all be for nothing and what a fool she'd feel then, but it was still something to keep in mind.

Only time would tell.

" Are you from the Worlds Edge as well then?" she asked in earnest, tilting her head in kind as she did so. " I'm rather new myself and I haven't met many, but I know I haven't seen you before. What is your name? Mine is Leeka."

@[Mauja]
Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#6
en natt så kall och månen den var klar
Oh, if he'd only known her thoughts, known of the distrust planted in her mind by those who had taken his home in the name of equality, and if he'd only known the fear Kahlua had felt of him when they first met—the bitterness would've surged to life, the monster purred of how fitting it was that they saw his evil spots and evil eyes and only the darkness his soul held.. that they never saw the softness, the light, the uneven beating of his uncertain heart.

The poison still ran so deep, so thick and so black, in all of their veins.

She seemed to hesitate, just as he had, and as he eyed her from the cold, wary depths of his eyes he wondered what churned through her head—what she made of his baiting, his tentative probing for her affiliation... Mauja blinked, slowly, as the brief moment passed, and her voice spilled out again. It seemed so at odds with the moment's hesitation, more like the disjointed speech of a curious, exuberant child (a nearly painful reminder of Sielu); his ears flickered, mind storing the bits and pieces of information away even as his heart sank.

It shouldn't have—he should've been delighted to hear she was of the Edge, that she could, perhaps, for a time supply him with company, to distract him from the dark cloud looming over his mind.. but no; it suddenly made him despair instead, to hear her ask so innocently if he called it home too, and to feel the sickening beat of his heart as it screamed out, like a dying animal, that it wanted to say yes...

Slowly, and it felt like letting out the last, rattling breath and truly dying, he shook his head, long mane waving against his pale white neck. "No," he said, much as it pained him to force the quiet, heavy word out—he wanted to swallow the word, deny it, spiral back through time to when he could've answered differently.. but if he went back, this meeting would've been different, and his mind would've spun and plotted on how to best put her down, while he smiled and conversed to lure her in.

He wanted to go back to his situation. He didn't want to go back to himself.

"I'm not," he went on after a heartbeat's hurt silence, something in his voice smaller, more tired. "But I'm a friend of Kahlua's—have you met her?" Another small pause, a small silence, the shield in his eyes slipping somewhat, the blue edges growing softer, sadder somehow, before he spoke a final time his turn, voice as heavy as the mountains.

"My name is Mauja."

It seemed unlikely she would've heard the stories of old, and somehow know his name.

[ @[Leeka]! Sorry, life ate me for a bit. ]
Se dem brinna över verkan se dem dansa framför bål
Se dem mässa inför satan se dem smida sina stål
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Leeka Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#7
Mauja...

Leeka played with the word in her head, commiting it to memory even though it felt familiar almost, strangely enough. Somehow the fact that she had gotten his name felt like a victory in itself, one of which would have felt triumphant if it weren't for the heavy tone of his voice, which came slow as ever, and that look...that briefest look into his eyes for the first time. That glacier before her had cracked, allowing her a peek around the gate, softened by the pieces of a labyrinth history and meaning that she could only guess upon, but could no less feel for. A disjointed spirited seemed to radiate then around Mauja and for whatever reason she felt that he was lost, tenetivly poking around for somewhere to be. It was the only thing that made sense, at least to Leeka.

It wasn't a feeling she wanted to remember, being lost and uncertain of the days. No one should ever feel like that and if she could help, why shouldn't she? Why else admit he didn't belong to the Edge and wish to see Kahlua? Horn or not, the mission of the Edge was peace. It was not only within her duty and the law of the land, but was.

Offering a gentle smile, Leeka hoped that in someway Mauja trusted her or believed she meant kindly. There was no need to shy away from her.

"If you truly are as you claim, I'd be more then happy to guide you back to the Edge. Even in these waning hours I'm sure Kahlua would not turn away a guest, especially not a friend. You do seem a bit tired though...can you make the climb?"



OOC: So sorry for the poodoo post and lateness..."Talking"
Leeka
Just one, a little step at a time
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