"Sore wa nekoda."

"Nekoda?" frustration fills my voice whenever it lacks the fear I should probably have. It is likely that the animal before my twin and I has preyed upon those like us. Young. Lost. Alone. Colts and fillies are most likely easy pickings for the big cat, but Tora and I are anything but the typical young. Misfortune has warped our views and it has smeared our personalities. So no, I feel no fear towards the predator but I am seething with frustration.

Many have made the mistake of thinking of me as being disabled. But my other senses do more than make up for my lack of sight. I should have heard or smelled the cat's presence. In life I have no chance at being ordinary, so I have no choice but to be extraordinary. If I wish to make a name for myself I cannot slip up as I have just done.

"G'day children. Welcome to Helovia, I am Saffron."

"Baho sa iro," a smirk spreads slowly across my face. It is egged on by the mischievous song that my soul dances to, "Saffron, segur que ets nekoda?" A whisper of a husky laugh follows my words. Laughter sends my head to bobbing in its wake. It has been long since I laughed and despite the almost timid nature of the laughter that comes now it is an all consuming sound. I am like a soul starved of food and then placed in a meadow teaming with life. Overwhelmed and overjoyed all at once, my body had to cope with the feeling in some physical way.

"I am...Tora. We were told we could find a band of well-bred unicorns here. But instead we find a cat?"

My movements still and I hear my own sudden silence in such a loud way. My twin's words echo in my ears drowning out the screaming of my quietness. So freely she had given her name. Tora had hesitated, but not for long enough. Names are knowledge about oneself. Knowledge is power. Power is.. everything. To give someone your name is to give them some measure of power.

"I am," my voice begins as a whisper before gaining its usual tenor ring, "My name is Himitsu." No lips will ever know my birth given name. It has been lost in the seasons of time. On the day that my two extra horns broke through my skin like the first teeth of a babe I had chosen a name for myself. Being completely blind has left me oblivious to my own appearance and my appearance has set me apart from all. Keeping my true name a mystery leaves me with some feeling of having a measure of control over my life. No matter how small. I am the keeper of secrets, Himitsu itself means secret. My name is my purpose, it is my struggle for control; my name is my life.

My ears flicker slightly at the approach of another. I am sullen after giving my name; to give it away always leaves me feeling insecure. There is no worry in me for who may approach. What more of a threat can slink into our presence than that of the big cat? I am indifferent to the stranger's appearance until he speaks.

“Forgive me, Tiger of the Basin, I do not believe I’ve learned your name? Hello, children!”

His voice is warmth that sets my heart turned to winter's chill, towards the glow of summer. The stallion says little but that is all that is needed, for in some inexplicable manner my entire being has attached itself to him. Normally I face whatever direction that pleases me while speaking to another, sometimes I look in their opposite direction just to cause a little confusion, but I turn to fully face the unnamed stallion. It is not in my nature to immediately gravitate towards another being. I wonder what draws me to this one so?

I step to Tora's side to murmur in her ear, "Quin aspecte té ?" Eagerness fills my voice. Surely this stallion is one of the superior herd that we were told of. Does belonging to such a group show on his appearance? Does his coat glow as if he were some celestial being? Is his horn the longer than common unicorns?

"My, but where have you left your mothers?"

Our mother. Where had we left her? Dead. Dear Aki, absent minded as she was she had tried to do right by us. Anger seeps from my young heart towards those who had tried, and succeeded, at doing our mother wrong. From her lips they had called out screams, and whenever those had not satisfied them any longer they had taken her last breath.

"Our mother was taken from us." I need no eyes to picture the beasts that had murdered her, Tora had described them to me in great detail. It was our duty to remember those who had killed with glee but lacked reason. It is our duty to one day make them quiver. To one day rid them of the breath that fills their unworthy lungs. "Killed by those disfigured by feathers and invalids with no horns."


@[Tora] @[Saffron] @[Zikar-Sin]

Saffron
you exist in TIME, but belong to ETERNITY

The more normal appearing of the two speaks first, but in a language that is completely foreign to me. I sit in silence, waiting for a translation or for her to switch to our common tongue. There is no use pretending to understand something that we both know I do not. She gives me her name, somewhat hesitantly, I notice. When she speaks again in the common tongue, my smile dims slightly, for she has landed a small slight against me. 'Ah, cats clearly fall beneath unicorns, then.' My tail thunks softly against the ground. Her slander is minute, however, and so I do not let it be a mark against her. Them - I doubt the other filly feels much differently. And then she speaks, first in the strange foreign language, and I can't help but feel that an insult has been thrown at me. I bristle but stay still. She introduces herself as Himitsu.

Another joins us - a stallion that comes up from behind me. I turn to look him over. The dark-hued unicorn seems to know of me, but I most certainly do not know him. I find my skin prickling at the sensation of being at such a disadvantage. "Saffron." I say softly for his benefit, for I have already introduced myself to the fillies. He must be of the Basin, for how else would he know me? And certainly when I inhale, I smell the familiar scent. I expect he shall introduce himself shortly, as well. But first, his concern for the lack of dam for the girls. Oh the concern is so heartfelt. I have a certain fondness for children that is.. well.. more obvious than I'd like it to be. It pales in comparison to the change that takes over him though.

When Himitsu speaks again, there is no sorrow for the absence of their mother. Only ripples of anger. The words that she ends with though.. 'Killed by those disfigured with feathers and invalids with no horns.' Oh for Christ's sake, how many of them are like this? Clearly, my instincts were on point. I smother a sigh. How little they know. All of the equines - the pegasi, the unicorns, the more plain ones - they are ALL beneath the predators that feast on them. For example, me. I ignore her comment.

"We are from the Aurora Basin, where you shall find the unicorns you seek." The smile I had started with has totally faded. Instead, a harsh glimmer decorates my eyes, invisible to all but the those with the keenest eye. Why there are so many unicorns who think themselves the epitome of equines, I'll never understand. If it were up to me, I'd eat them. "We will take you there if you like."

""
@[Tora] @[Himitsu] @[Zikar-Sin]

Image | Table by Tamme

Tora all the pretty stars shine for you my love I listen, half amused to the ever so evident frustration that had crept into my sister's voice as our beautiful, strange language joins the song of the birds once again. Maybe I should have followed the slightly smaller filly's reasoning and been slightly fearful of the black and orange predator before us, but why would goddesses such as ourselves be fearful of those beneath us? If anything the cat, Saffron, should be pleased we hadn't magicked her into some kind of fancy rug that would keep our hooves from soiling on the dusty world we seemed to have fallen into. The warmth of the sun's vicious rays somehow managed to sneak in through the emerald leaves that sprouted happily from the tree boughs, causing even the lush ground we stood upon now to crack slightly under the weight of my cloven hooves. My attention was only brought back to the reality we thrived in as the beautiful melody was set loose into the dry world around us once again. "Baho sa iro, Saffron, segur que ets nekoda?" Inwardly I was rolling around on the cracked soil like some crazed child at Itsu's words. A feline that smelled like a dog, fitting, such a shame that she couldn't join in on our jokes and the exuberant glee that filled our small frames. Something clicked though, slightly glad the predator couldn't understand our musical words for surely we would have to get out the threshold just as quickly as we had entered or fear being picked from between the feline's canine (how amusing) teeth later on. A shiver passed over my tri-colored pelt once my introduction had slipped from sooted kissers, knowing that I would likely be scolded later by the wonderfully untrusting Itsu later for offering Saffron my name as easily as I had. But I knew one day all of Helovia would be praising my name, so what did it matter if a flea ridden cat knew it? It seemed that the fates had a different plan, keeping the scolding for a much later date as another creature made it's presence known to our intimate get together. “Forgive me, Tiger of the Basin, I do not believe I’ve learned your name?” Warm amber eyes moved curiously away from the striped cat and rather focused on the new point of interest. His coat was the shade of the darkest midnight, or like the inside of your eyelids on a starless night while his mane and tail shone with the brightness of the moon. What an interesting creature he was, and oh, the horn that sprouted from his forehead. Finally my soul was at peace knowing that we were not the only of the divines to be found in this wretched place. "Quin aspecte té ?" My twin whispers into my ear, curious as to the stallion's appearance as words were exchanged between the two different species. "Hoshi no nai yoru no sora no yō ni. Shikashi, akarui tsuki to watashi ga imamade kare no kami to mi rarete iru yori mo." Invisible brows furrowed as I spoke to my sister in our secret tongue, mildly disappointed that my poetic verse turned out longer than I had planned and likely drew the duo's attention back to us once again. “Hello, children! My, but where have you left your mothers?” An invisible brow arched as a small, sad smile tugged at the left corner of my sooty kissers at the thought of our mother's mauled body on the ground. No longer our mother, rather a bag of bone and whatever flesh the savage creatures had left on them. Dead the word wanted so badly to fall into the air, a simple answer to such a complicated question. Did he truly want to know where her body had been left to be ravaged by the vultures and other beggars of the world? Or merely why she was not by the side of her two small children? Luckily for the lot of us, Himitsu decided it would be a good time for her voice to be heard and in her own creative way she spoke of the loss of our mother to the parasites of the world. A sneer tugged at the back of my mind but not quite making it to my darkened features as I leaned my weight in closer to my sister hoping our shoulders would match up pleasantly. "We are from the Aurora Basin, where you shall find the unicorns you seek. We will take you there if you like." Dark rimmed ears flick forward as my attention is turned back to the big cat, a lick of hope creeping into my frame as I realized that this strange animal was allied with the strange stallion who stood near her. Clearing my throat with a small cough I stood straighter, ambers locking in on Saffron as words that could be understood by all were torn from my vocal chords into the oddly still air. "Is this Basin the lands we had heard tales of?" I questioned, looking between the stallion and the cat in hopes that they weren't leading us into a trap. If that were the case, we were the best option. Who would miss orphaned goddesses from a land far away? "Speech here." Tag;; @[Zikar-Sin] Words;; 884 Notes;; This thread has me so excited xD Translation;; Hoshi no nai yoru no sora no yō ni. Shikashi, akarui tsuki to watashi ga imamade kare no kami to mi rarete iru yori mo. - Like the sky on a starless night. But with a brighter moon than I have ever seen as his hair.

Credits: Image by tad 20D @ flickr