L e e k a

She liked it here. It was a place were she could afford to distance herself from reality for a moment and enjoy the peace it brought, the roar of the sea itself like a defiant cry against her worries and the rush of the water like a cleanse to her cluttered mind. Least, that's how it usually worked but now the gravity could not be shaken so easily and it instead remained as a subdued but tolerable anxious fluttering that brooded in her chest. Of course, her worries before had been simple and childish. Now....now they were dark and worrisome, matters of grief that she hadn't felt since the shadows from her homeland. How ironic that her new home should fall beneath such a similar fate and from a shadow of its own making.

The Moon Goddess. The very word was a curse, a poisoned affliction of the tongue. Leeka had never heard of Gods before and had only received the worst of their company since coming to Helovia. To be betrayed like this...to have their patron reveal herself to be a twisted monster, the sole conspirator of the murders... Leeka hardly had words for it. And for what?! Simply to prove how corruptible mortals were, so she had heard. The other Gods had rightly punished their sister for her part in it and duly banished her to her realm, the Worlds Edge, where she now prowled the darkness indefinitely . The same place Leeka called home. The herd had been so frightened, so disgusted, that they had sought out war with another herd, the Hidden Falls, to claim new land and escape her. The effort had gone well, no doubt the Edge's desperation giving their warriors an indomitable will alongside the aid of the Aurora Basin, which in itself was an unusual alliance. Having never faced war before Leeka couldn't make herself go. She was too shocked, too divided to do anything.

Some part of her felt like everyone was overreacting and going through needless motions but then maybe she just didn't understand the full weight of the situation around her. She had never herself been involved in any of the happenings of this quickly scattering world and to her they felt like stories made of no more substance then the smoke of a fire. She was just a listener, a bystander in time with no purpose in these tales. And yet they were true. So horribly and honestly true and she knew it far too well to deny it. Some of the herd members were leaving already for the Hidden Falls. Leeka had left too, but only to sneak off to her regular retreat where no one would find her below the white cliffs of the Edge, perhaps to convince others she was transitioning and avoid questions, unable to watch the exodus. This way she also couldn't judge who left or stayed....if anyone did stay. Not that she was really close to anyone, but it hurt all the same to see them go.

At least one thing was certain – she was not leaving the Worlds Edge.

She wouldn't. She couldn't.

Before nightfall she would climb the rugged trails back to the pine and ancestral redwoods she had grown to love, whatever deathly cloak wound between their familiar boles. She refused to be afraid of the shadows again and would defy the atrox Goddess if it meant being where she felt she should be. Leeka had suffered the humiliation and grief once already of abandoning her home and she'd be damned if she let that heartache tear her apart again.

If it came down to it she would...she would....she would die being true to that.

Just sundering through the white sands with no rhyme or rythme to her wandering, a sudden and potent fury broke through her anxious shell, contorting her facial features with unadulterated rage. The mare stomped one hoof deep into the sandy shore and whirled herself bout like a hell-bent whirlwind, raising the banner of her head with teeth bared to the mist-hidden cliffs of the Edge in the far background, her emerald eyes daring to envision the ethereal form of the Goddess.

"AND WHY THE HELL NOT!!" she yelled furiously to the open air, her body ridged with untethered rage. "I'M NOT LEAVING BECAUSE OF YOU!" A curt and surly snort blasted through the mare's flared nostrils after her decree echoed in the emptiness, accented by an equally irate lash of her tail to finish off her statement. It was only then when Leeka turned back around that she noticed someone else on the beach not too far ahead and way too close to have not overheard. In fact, she could quite clearly denote the fine arabian qualities of the stranger and the shimmer of their coat, not to mention the orderly fashion the flight feathers and the luminous color of the others eyes. Leeka momentary was mesmerized by them and their particular shade when she came back to herself, her sudden outburst of anger dying into a choking plume of awkward embarassment. She wasn't one to get so caught up in her emotions and on the one occasion she did and didn't bother to double check – THIS?! Ugh, how could she not have noticed before she screamed to the bloody heavens?!
"Oh, please tell me you didn't hear that? You heard that didn't you, ohhhhh...." She said sheepishly, idly digging a hoof at the sand as she fidgeted. Leeka felt like a cracked egg caught like this, her defenses and thoughts scattered to the fours winds. "Forgive me, I don't know what got into me – well, actually I do but....not your kind of long story. "

The young mare sighed then softly, gently inhaling deeply before doing so and letting her breath vaporize in the cool air to collect herself. Better introduce herself now that they were acquainted, accidently or not. She could even be a Worlds Edge member who was staying behind like she was. Unlikely, came an unbidden thought, smothering her timid hope. Wanderers of all kinds came here too, she reminded herself, like that one time she met Mauja on this very beach. Odd fellow, that Mauja. Still, the chance that the pegasus might be a Edger was in her favor considering how near they both were to the region but not a certainty . I'll just have to wait and see.
" Name's Leeka. What's yours?


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" Speaking "
Thoughts
OOC: This should give you some insight to recent events |D
@[Aveira]

L e e k a

Aveira. It wasn't a name that was remotely familiar to her in the least, yet she found it to be quite a beautiful name all the same. She would appreciate it more if she weren’t so busy being a sheepish mess. It was by bounds so embarrassing to be caught shouting as she was and certainly not the first impression she'd want to cast, but, oh well, she was stuck rolling with it. Doubtless, if she were furless, a potent and vibrant pink blush would have engulfed the entirety of her face as her declaration to the world. Thankfully, the burst of adrenalin that had serviced itself into her veins from her outburst was subsiding as quickly as it had come, leaving her with the barest tinge of fatigue as it ebbed from her system and returned her to a more normal state.

" Well met then, I suppose, Aveira." she said lightheartly, chuckling as she spoke. " I hope I didn't frighten you too much with my umm...shouting." She looked shyly away every which way she could find save where the pegasus was standing, an almost childish puff in her cheeks at admitting her mistake before finally resting her gaze back on Aveira. " That's not my usual thing, I'll have you know, but..." She tried to find more words then, her maw paused and waiting for a queue to start again but a heavy sigh came out instead after a few moments, the last essences of her fury draining with it. She had thought to perhaps explain a bit but the desire was weak and lenitive, no more sturdy then tumbleweed within a gale and thus faded away into inaction. "...Feels good to get it out, I guess."

Looking out at the sea, Leeka couldn't help but notice the banded sky above, separating into vanishing layers of azure, lavender, and scarlet as the sun sank ever closer to the horizon. The young mare found it humorous her penchant for meeting strangers on the beach at sunset and even smile to herself, faintly. It had been a setting much like this when she had met Mauja, but already Aveira was a thousand times more welcoming and endearing then that solemn encounter about a year ago. Funnier still, was the fact that at that time she had also come to the beach to seek solace from her worries and distresses, just as she had now. Back then, Leeka had been a fresh initiate of the Edge and memories of Eoroleen, her original home, had driven her to melancholy. She had made a makeshift funeral for her parents by making tiny mounds in the sand that eventually were washed away by the surf and in doing so found the resolve to start anew in the World's Edge. So simple then, to pick up the pieces, rearrange them, and carry on. She wished it were that easy again.

Now...now she didn't know what she was going to do. You couldn't just leave and hope a reset button was pressed while you were out. The deeds of the Goddess could not be undone, nor could her herd be prevented from leaving. She was helpless as her family was splitting apart again.

Casting her gaze back on Aveira, a question came to mind and begged to be answered." Are you by chance...from the World's Edge too?" Leeka didn't know what she was seeking but the urge was overwhelming to ask, as was the hope that she would answer yes. That way she wouldn't have to spend the night alone in a place that was slowly becoming a nightmare.

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"Speaking"
Thoughts
@[Aveira]

L e e k a

“I see… well, I hope you feel better.”
" A little bit, thanks."" " Leeka gave a shy smile back in reply to Aveira's smile, still feeling quite abash in her presence but appreciating her show of kindness. They were strangers after all and Leeka had brought the full face of her inner turmoil with her, caught red-handed and all, yet Aveira seemed to be quite accepting of that and had not offered a single reproach. That made Leeka all the more thankful for it, being in the state she already was in, so exposed and vulnerable. Treated in any other way she might fall apart and grow even more afraid, a status condition she couldn't afford now, not when she had to be brave. Stubborn, oh yes, Leeka could be that...but brave? It was said that one could only be brave when one was afraid, but if you were so paralyzed by fear and uncertainty, how does the will survive?

"Are you.... okay?"
That came as a bit of a shock, causing her to jolt from her own surprise. It had been a long time she anyone had asked her that and naturally she went to say that she was fine but her maw stopped half way, halted by a stream a thoughts and sense that she'd be lying. Since all this madness started she never had had a shoulder to lean on, no friend to comfort her, for she had kept herself away from others, serving as little more then a ghost that thought she mattered in the Worlds Edge. It wasn't on purpose that she was this way, she was just slow to progress forward. Every time she would make to form new friendships or some change for herself some event had interfered, changing her line of focus and leaving her unable to finish what she started. In the end, she had withstood this conflict– both external and internal– alone and now the scars were finally showing themselves.

There was ache in her chest that ran so deep it made her feel hollow, acting like a void that swallowed her voice as her throat tightened in protest, preventing her from answering. She couldn't say it, if she was all right or not, and so just remained in silence and waited for the answer to her other question with baited breath. If Aveira were from the Worlds Edge it would make a few things easier to bear and might help smooth over the awkward conditions of this encounter.

But of course, that hope would fail to be realized as well. Strangely, she wasn't too disappointed over the fact and actually was happy about it in a way. It wasn't worth musing over what the Edge was to become in the following days, not now. She'd rather just have a simple chat and maybe make a friend. That is what she wanted above all. I'm almost doubting if I can ever make one.

Is that your home? I haven’t heard of it before.”
It struck her as a bit odd that Aveira didn't know about the Worlds Edge. To be so far inland and not know? Most are usually met within the Threshold and were introduced to Helovia by a recruiter, but it was possible that the grey pegasus merely few other the vast forest and thus never had the chance to learn anything. That would explain a few things. " It is." She said after a moment, smiling in a way that could be described as bittersweet. " We're actually not that far from the World's Edge." She gestured with her head vaguely behind her"See the misty cliffs in the distance? That's it. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it till now. It might be good that you haven't." Most learn about the four herds beforehand. How much do you know about Helovia, Aveira?"

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" Speaking "
Thoughts
@[Aveira]