It had been late-morning when Mesec had left the Throat, itching to fly, and now that the afternoon was growing old as well, he felt tired but no desire to land just yet. Enjoying the serenity that flying gave him, Mesec allowed his mind to drift wherever it would - allowed the rushing of the wind to drown out whatever tempest might have been brewing today. He hoped it would not always be like this, needing to find ways to ease the storm. The guilt over his mother’s actions came in waves - some days were worse than others - and he often wondered about going to the Edge and finding her. But what good would that accomplish? He wouldn’t help raise her from her banishment, wouldn’t know what words to say to her that would matter. Certainly nothing would change. And he was happy here in the Throat, keeping himself busy and trying to be good - to learn and live in the bright sunlight.

Today, though, today such dark thoughts were somewhere far away - they belonged to another. As Mesec pumped his wings and soared as high as he could while still breathing he thought of other things. Of cousins and sisters and crafting or healing. Of vultures…

Well, he did not normally spend a lot of time thinking about vultures but a trio of them took exception to him disrupting their search for morsels on the ground - they had been spiralling above the Heart when the demigod swooped on through and, well, he wasn’t sure what he had done wrong exactly. But there was no time to figure it out and certainly no time for apologies. All he knew was that he needed to change direction quick - so he aimed for the ground. The angry squabbles of hungry vultures followed him and he wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not - but it almost felt like something grasped at his tail as it fanned out behind him.

The situation was almost too bizarre to feel any strong worry - though once he was safely landed he threw up his wings to ward off any attacks and protect his face from retribution. Peeking through feathers, however, showed him that the vulture that had followed him down to the surface was climbing back up to catch a thermal and return to the search for carcasses and easier meals than Mesec.

What an odd way to start the afternoon!

Perhaps it would be best to travel by hoof or linger on the ground a little while longer before returning to the skies - who knew who he might unwittingly offend this time!

Resigning himself to the latter, Mesec’s eye drew to the opening of the caves nearby and he moved quietly toward it. It was too tempting to resist glancing upward to spy whether his vulture friends were still circling above (they were) and he was not interested in another run-in. He had good fortune the last time he had taken shelter in these caves and he wondered, as he headed out of the warm Orangemoon sun, whether it would continue today.

For Mordecai <3


I’m trying to find my direction home, ______________
A question of space, a matter of time, _______
I follow the stars until the first light.

It was incredible to Mesec just how empty the caves usually were. Had Helovians got their fill of these spaces during the time they had been forced down here? Since his stay had been shortened, they held no such repulsion for him. He felt drawn to them every now and then even, this sanctuary that had saved the lives of everyone he knew. How lucky, how convenient, that they caves had been discovered just before the outbreak - though he was sure that they had been here for much longer than that.

Returning to the wall with the paintings, depictions of times past in the history of Helovia, he thought of Maren and how he had shown her this little piece of history as they explored the caves together. She had been so entranced! With his roots so firmly tied into Helovia, it had taken the excitement of a newcomer to reawaken the interest in Mesec to learn about whatever history he could. He had found himself with more questions, questions he wasn’t sure how to find the answers to and once he had one they seemed to snowball and form others. Silver eyes were bright but idle as they took in the wall today, retracing the lines and curves etched within the stone.

“Rhellaya!”

His head jerked back when a scream interrupted the near-silence of the caves. Instantly on alert - Mesec tried to figure out where it had been coming from. Deeper into the caves, certainly. The scream - was it a name? Or a word in a language he did not recognize? Either way, the note of distress in the syllables certainly warranted some investigation. The way the scream had echoed throughout the caves unnerved him and he worried about what he might find when he found the source. He found his imagination running a bit wild as he worried about some remnant of the sickness long-gone.

If he found the source. Following the source of an echo was not the easiest thing to do.

Moving out of the room with the paintings as fast as he dared in the near-darkness of some of the caverns, Mesec travelled deeper into the caves. He paused momentarily outside of the glowing room with the strange moss and plants. “Hello?” He called out experimentally, down the cavernous hallways that led to the last of the rooms he knew about - the brilliant crystal maze. Mesec tried to keep his breathing down so it wouldn’t distract him from listening as carefully as he could for any response. Perhaps down here he would have better luck at figuring out which direction the call had come from, if they could only communicate. “Hello? Is someone down here?” He hoped that he had not traded vultures for something more sinister.

I’m trying to find my direction home, ______________
A question of space, a matter of time, _______
I follow the stars until the first light.

The moments between when he was waiting for his own echo to die out and for something else to break the silence seemed to stretch out. His heart rate had begun to pick up as worry settled in for the stranger calling out in the caves. Luckily, the voice heard his calls and he heard it again - a new word being spoken but again the other and then finally, one last shout that had a word that he did understand. Help! “I’m coming!” He called back in what was hopefully a reassuring way. Certain now that the voice was coming from the crystal-covered cavern that laid further still, a quick pace was picked up once more and he found himself in the room he had explored the least out of all of them during his last stay here.

There was no denying the beauty of the room - while the others were lit with an eerie green glow or the bright orange light of fire, the light in this room came from the crystals themselves. Brilliant pale blues and greens provided enough illumination to see by for which he was instantly thankful.

Though it would have been a shame to destroy any of them, Mesec thought about kicking at the crystals as he passed. That way, there would be a trail that he could follow on the way out. But in his hurry he did not do more than one just beyond the entrance of the cavern. Instead he tried to store in his mind the path that he was taking and hoped that would be enough. It took another few moments but finally, among the glowing crystals, he spotted a young, frightened-looking filly. “Hey!” Relief beat out the concern momentarily - nothing particularly dangerous or concerning about the situation screamed at him. There was no blood splattered anywhere that he could see, for one. Maybe she had just gotten lost? Mesec was barely a grown-up himself but he had found out that he now did not know quite how to talk to foals. Did kids these days still like to play games and hear stupid jokes?

He was over-thinking this, it - she - was a foal, not another species. It wasn’t going to be that hard to figure out if he could help or not. The concern came back as he rounded a corner of crystals and came closer - stopping a short distance from her and frowning just slightly. “Was that you calling out? Are you hurt?” Apparently the best way to talk to foals was to load them up with questions first thing.

I’m trying to find my direction home, ______________
A question of space, a matter of time, _______
I follow the stars until the first light.

There was disappointment on the face of the filly when he first showed up which was a rather surprising and odd reaction from someone who had just been calling out for help. He did not have to wait long to get an explanation about why she seemed to want someone else - because she did. The filly wanted her dad and Mesec was, of course, not the one she had been hoping for. Her explanations were broken, choppy, and he found it an interesting contrast to the eloquent cousin of his and the exuberant Zero - the only two other foals he had interacted with recently. How she spoke reminded him of Gaucho, actually, and he wondered if perhaps the giant Sultan was the father she had been separated from on her explorations. “Who’s your dad? I’ll help you find him.” He promised with a smile, hoping that it was a promise that he would be able to keep - however long it took.

She asked him why he was down here and his ears twitched as he recalled what had driven him down into the sanctuary of the caves once more. Not some fearsome plague of fear, not the thundering of rain, but some vultures that were getting too close and too bold. Still, as embarrassing as the truth was going to be to admit - even to a foal - he couldn’t think of a reason to lie. Maybe it would be funny to her, getting her to laugh might cheer her up right? “I was, uh, hiding from some scary birds when I heard you calling out.”

Even as he was thinking of more questions to ask her, she was doing the same for him. The dark eyed girl introduced herself as Mordecai, the resemblance to Gaucho’s manner of speaking getting stronger the more she spoke. “I’m Mesec, from the Throat.” He wasn’t sure why he added that little bit onto the end - maybe he was hoping it was comforting for her to hear that he had a home, they were close enough to it now that it might be a place that she recognized the name of. He was trying to be reassuring, his voice calm and deep when it broke the silence of the cave they stood. “What do you say we get out of here, Mordecai?”

@[Mordecai] <3


I’m trying to find my direction home, ______________
A question of space, a matter of time, _______
I follow the stars until the first light.