the Rift


[OPEN] forged in fire

Tandavi The Fire Dancer Posts: 245
World's Edge Nurse atk: 6.5 | def: 9 | dam: 4
Mare :: Equine :: 16.1 :: 5 HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Natraj :: Plain Kitsune :: Fire Charks
#1
Tandavi
I'll light a fire in your new shoes.
They step across the threshold and inhale that imperceptible, delicious scent of home.

How much time has passed since her hooves last brushed the golden sand, leaving easy crescents in an endless sea of gold? Not long, she thinks, though it feels longer- minutes are years when you spend them as she has, among towering spires of marble stone, beneath the shadow of mountains and the weight of the sky. Mountains. And how glorious those minutes had been! Ancient mineral sent jettisoned into the heavens, spiraling paths on narrow ridges leading to ancient shrines and the voices of gods...

Why doesn't Helovia have mountains? she asks her shadow brother, and the boy spills a list of feeble contradictions into her mind, one the girl ignores with a shake of silver hair which hides a sliver smile. They're not the same, she tells him softly, and he sighs his agreement from frail lungs, three tails twisting to betray his overlying and resilient joy. The had loved the mountains, the Fire Dancer and her brother, basked in the cold air and the strength of the wind, but neither could deny the thirst for the desert which had kept constant in the recesses of their intertwined hearts. Homes, they had learned, could be built wherever one found oneself flung, but Home - the capital-H kind, the lodged-in-your-memory-and-heart-and-soul kind - would forever be the Desert.

The children are okay with that.

Her thoughts linger in the mountains, though, among stony peaks and gilded shrines. It skips along a stream of memory, traces faces and bodies, dwells on moments and dreams. The conversation between girl and brother often follows a similar vein (Hey, do you remember...? Yeah, that was amazing!), interrupted only by projection of future, dreams and ideas and ideals which ride upon carriages of assurance, new and inflamed with the passion of youth which has reached its prime. Success is a taste still new to the girl, one she longs to taste again and again- confidence is new found and delicious, and the boy basks in his sister's renewed flame, gold ears and easy smile. Soon she will go home, and bring there the things she has learned, the changes she has endured. She will counsel the youth and heal the ill, will fight for her home and contribute as she never did when she was young and broken...

But there is something to be done, first.

They find themselves at the southern shore as the sun makes its descent. Long shadows point toward the East; wistfully the Fire Dancer's black eyes trace their length, yearning to follow where they direct, to trace the line of the rocky shore until they find the trail of their home. The Dragon's Throat calls to them, whispering of future and past; reluctantly, painfully, the girl turns West, though her shadow still clings to the Eastern sand.

They reach the bridge to the Veins at the looming of sunset, and for a moment they pause, letting blue stone and orange sky reflect in shared eyes of onyx and gold. How long has it been since they took in this sight? How much has happened in the presence of those shrines, once mighty and full, now broken and forgotten? The Fire Dancer remembers it all, in quiet hot flashes and dark misty nights. She remembers when the world ended, and when light came again. She remembers her friends, remembers her foes, remembers the death and the Moon God, her family's god, the role she played in the murder of the girl's friend. If only she had been faster, worked harder, loved more...

No, whispers her brother, fierce and slicing through her mind. We did best we can. Can't go back, can't fix. Only forward, forever forward.

Quietly, the girl nods, clasping tears behind lashes of gold. "Only forward," she repeats aloud, raising a crescent face to the cloudless winter sky. Slowly slate hooves move once more, fueled by the determination which burns behind her eyes. She has spent too long in the past; it is time to find her future, to see what it shall become and make it all her own.

Fire Dancer begins the ascent to the home of the Gods, wiser than the last time, iron forged by fire into something strong, and new.

Image Credit

o. pixel pony credit to tamme
o. permission granted to use force and magic on Tavi
o. only tag me in opening posts, please!


Megaera the Sunspear Posts: 306
Absent Abyss atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15 h :: 8 [Birdsong] HP: 70 | Buff: NOVICE
Gwaihir :: Golden Eagle :: None Laine
#2
I

I have been called a weapon
the Sun’s spear in the sands
but I must also be a shield
with open heart and hands


The sun rose and the sun set time and time again but still the frostfall season lingered. For the first time since Gaucho had raised her to the rank of Sultana, Megaera felt the wight or leadership settle upon her shoulders. The throat was better suited than most of Helovia to ride out the cold months but food was dwindling and the rush of life that came with birdsong seemed ages away. The constant twinge of worry that flitted in the back of her mind, shadowing every other thought was horrid but not wholly unfamiliar. Motherhood, as Meg had discovered, was much the same. What if something happens? What if they get hurt? What if I fail?…thoughts such as these were bad enough when she had only had her precious daughter to fret over but now they echoed for each and every beating heart in Dragon’s Throat. And in the Sun God’s mirror, dark clouds loomed on the horizon…

Even if she did not yet realize it, the worry was good for Megaera. Little by little it was forging her into the mare she needed to be; confidence tempered by caution, recklessness smoothed by responsibility. Pride…. well that was something that still needed work and was the reason she caught the solitude of the veins, if only for a short time. Prayer had become an increasing habit and for the most part the Diviner’s Fire in the sands of her home was a more than adequate venue for giving thanks to the Sun God, but not tonight. Tonight she brought her worries with her, and those she caught to hide, for who could she confess them to? Gaucho's not one for idle words. Einarr…she would hate him to think her anything but strong… Ampere was too much a rival (even if a friendly one) and Mordecai was just a child. No… Only Gwaihir and the Sun God would hear her tonight (and only the Eagle could she be sure of) so she had set out for the Shrines.

They flew west over the open water, chasing the sun on two pairs of dark mahogany wings. Not even a year together and still flew together as though it had been a lifetime; circling, spinning, gliding, falling... Meg would have been content to simply drift upon the air together for the duration of the journey but Gwaihir had other ideas. Sober and practical far beyond his age, the young eagle insisted that they work at flexing their mental connection. They could communicate to a point, feelings had always flowed easily between the eagle and the pegasus, and even images could be seen by both minds with some clarity, but words were proving more difficult to master. They had managed to pass short, disconnected words back and forth but Gwaihir, haughty and with a streak of pride wider even than Meg, hated to be bad at anything and would not be satisfied. So it was that as the pair crossed over the rocky shoals that edged the volcanic peninsula, the Sunspear tried to communicate exactly what had her so worried. Herd safe. he insisted, misinterpreting her efforts, and Meg nearly sighed. Yes, now. she countered, always? The abstract concept of a future possibilities was proving hard to translate in childish speech. 

Gold.

The mare rolled her eyes in amusement, wondering how on earth he could have picked that word out of their broken conversation. Guard. I guard the herd, she tried to force through but his reply was firm. Gold This time, the pronouncement was accompanied by a fleeting image of something he had spotted that she had not: a gold bannered equine against the blue landscape. 

Momentarily confused, the mare glanced at the golden eagle to her right before following his gaze toward the ground where, sure enough, a familiar figure was marching up the path. Though they had not been very well acquainted, a spike of excitement shot through Meg at the sight of the former Oracle. She had not seen Tandavi since the destruction of the land bridge, and the sight was so wholly unexpected that Meg had no time to wonder where the girl had gotten herself too since them. Leaving Gwaihir to circle above, the Sunspear drops from the sky and onto the volcanic path with a clatter of hooves, setting off at a quick trot to catch up to the golden girl on foot. "Tandavi!" She calls, familiar and jovial as she would be for any desert-dweller. 

@Tandavi

Tandavi The Fire Dancer Posts: 245
World's Edge Nurse atk: 6.5 | def: 9 | dam: 4
Mare :: Equine :: 16.1 :: 5 HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Natraj :: Plain Kitsune :: Fire Charks
#3
Tandavi
I'll light a fire in your new shoes.
They ascend in a still and tranquil mood, shadows back-lit by the setting sun. The stone is worn and familiar beneath their feet, a pilgrimage made more often by the children than perhaps any others in Helovia. The girl has always been drawn to spirituality, a magnet existing between herself and the Gods. Only Time has eluded her watchful gaze, and though she doubts she will encounter any of her deities tonight, she hopes one day to meet even him, to show her dedication to the causes of balance and justice and light. She finds it comfortable, to put her faith in something bigger than herself: and thus far it has not led her wrong. From daughter of the Moon Mare to Sultana of the Sun, the Fire Dancer has walked in the shadows of Gods for all her life, a quiet observer and patient student of time.

But most of all, light.

She approaches the crest at a determined pace, black eyes attentive as the rocky slope gives way to the sanctum of the Gods. So focused is the Fire Dancer upon her goal that she does not see the shadow crossing the sky; it is her brother who cries jovially and makes her halt, turning as hooves crash upon the rocky earth. Before she can speak her shadow is gone, darting off toward the chocolate mare who brings with her so many memories of the desert, of home. An escort, a squire in a dusting of gold, the fox leads the mare with triplicate tails held proudly erect, escorting their visitor toward where Tandavi has turned, a faint smile pulling the lines of her face.

"Megaera," she replies, deep voice a pocket of nighttime in the Fire Dancer's face. "We are going to visit the Gods." There is pleasure in the resonant tones, a heartfelt relief at finding herself back among familiar faces- she had not realized how much she missed the people of the desert before this moment, and it hits her with the force of a heatwave, a dry wind.

She tilts her head, the glowing stone around her neck casting shadows, letting critical eyes sweep across the... warrior? Yes, that's what Megaera had been, a warrior, and the girl realizes with a start that she knows almost nothing else about the mare, despite once having called herself a Queen. How foolish she had been then, how dismally and unintentionally aloof! She had never noticed the warrior's scars, let alone known how she got them. She had never sparred with the mare, asked what she could teach her, what they could teach each other. She does not know the mare, not the way she had known those in the mountains, each one a pinprick of light forever in her mind.

She decides there and then, that this is something to change.

Turning, the girl leads the way toward the trail's crest, trinkets glowing in the fading light. She is glad, too, for the company and the way it keeps the dark at bay; the stalwart presence of Megaera at her side is a welcome distraction from the rise of night, the tendrils of darkness which send fear through her heart. She has a million questions about the Throat, her family, Helovia, time. Not knowing how to begin, the girl starts bluntly, vaguely, unhelpfully. "What has changed?"

Her brother groans in silence, pointing out the broadness of such a question, but the moonbeam girl shrugs him off, her gaze still half on the auburn mare. But fine- "Your magic is new," she quietly adds, pausing a moment to take in the sensory information of it. Her hooves grow still and she closes her eyes, inhaling deeply and exhaling a soft "Peppery. Red." Dark eyes open and train once more on the mare, a thoughtful look on the moonstruck face. "It's strong. What is it?"

Image Credit

@Megaera

o. pixel pony credit to tamme
o. permission granted to use force and magic on Tavi
o. only tag me in opening posts, please!


Megaera the Sunspear Posts: 306
Absent Abyss atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15 h :: 8 [Birdsong] HP: 70 | Buff: NOVICE
Gwaihir :: Golden Eagle :: None Laine
#4

I have been called a weapon
the Sun’s spear in the sands
but I must also be a shield
with open heart and hands


Helovia must have some strange magic on its own, a magnetism that hums out across the expanse of the world to capture certain hearts and pull them close. Even those who try to leave find themselves walking the stretch of the threshold sooner or later. Gaucho had gone and come back, even without his memories and Megaera had gone looking for him and comeback when he's seemed lost for good. They'd come home; home to Helovia and to Dragon’s Throat, that beautiful swath of sand and sunshine. And now Tandavi had come back to the first, but would she come home to the second?

Meg remembered too well how upset the copper girl had been at the destruction of the land bridge, how angry and alone when Gaucho had called for their isolation to be solidified in the very makeup of the land. She’d never had the opportunity to find out why Tandavi had objected so much, if we had the bridge for the wingless there was no problem as far as Meg could see. As much as she loved her wings, she had never thought the made her better than any who lacked them, but still she was ignorant of the inadvertent hurt she and the other pegasai may have caused that day.

Ignorant… The Sultana still had a great deal to learn.

“Good evening.” Meg says with a smile and a nod at the dark little kitsune who comes to greet her. She remembers seeing the fox-like creature at the mare’s side, but his name is not yet known and it occurs to Meg that she and Tandavi have yet to have a real conversation, even before the girls long absence. The little squire leads her up the path and Meg follows, eager to welcome and and know this other desert daughter better. “I hope you won’t mind if we join you, for that was my destination as well.”

She falls companionably into step beside the two as they climb in the growing darkness, Tandavi’s little trinkets giving of a charming glow against the bare landscape. “What has changed?” the question doesn’t bring forth an immediate answer, and for a moment meg tries to pinpoint just how long the mare had been absent from the sands.Almost an entire year? The last time she can remember glimpsing the moonbeam face was at the herd meeting when the Sun God had created their bridge and Tandavi herself had been made Sultana. So much has changed. Would the girl resent Meg her new position? Did she know what had happened in Helovia at large?

Before she can start on the list of happenings, Tandavi narrows the field. Meg smiles at the question, even as she wonders how Tandavi would know of her magic, but even if the description is enigmatic, it is accurate. She had come to love the feeling of the light, exhausting as it might be to call forth, it was always a warm and comforting furnace in her heart. “It is light!” She says, almost rapturously as she recalls it’s beauty. “A beacon, near as bright at the sun. But how did you know that?”

“I don’t now if you’ve heard, but there has been movement to the north since you have been gone. Kaj and Archibald lead the Edge in an invasion agains the Hidden Falls with the help of the Basin, though that was this Orangemoon past, and all seems to have settled now.” News of war might not have been pleasant, but it was certainly the biggest piece of news. “The Throat is doing well, though will be glad when the weather breaks, it’s been a long Frostfall.” She paused, wondering if there was a way or a need to soften to blow, but it had to come out sooner or later and Meg would never be ashamed of her position. “Gaucho named me Sultana, and Ampere is Chancellor as well as Gladiator.”

Curious to investigate these new beings, the young eagle swoops low to get a better look and perches himself on his Meg’s withers with a ruffle of feathers and an impatient click of his beak. Still in his juvenile plumage, the dark brown is mottled in while where he would one day be a glinting gold, but his gaze was already hot and sharp as golden daggers and it followed the movements of the furry creature on the ground. Friend, not prey, like Inari and Mara. Meg insists, heading off the bird’s ideas. She motions to her companion with a movement of her head “This is Gwaihir, we found each other last Tallsun, and I am afraid I do not know your friends name.”


@Tandavi
I have no good excuses, sorry for being a slowpoke. :c
FAC FORTIA ET PATERE
be brave and endure
:: permission given for use of magic and force :: please tag Megaera in all posts ::

Tandavi The Fire Dancer Posts: 245
World's Edge Nurse atk: 6.5 | def: 9 | dam: 4
Mare :: Equine :: 16.1 :: 5 HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Natraj :: Plain Kitsune :: Fire Charks
#5
Tandavi
I'll light a fire in your new shoes.
She takes pleasure in the body beside her, the easy companionship Megaera offers. Copper child listens intently to Megaera's lively, jubilant tones, quietly delighted by the ecstasy the mare wears emblazoned within her expressive features. The girl smiles in return, shrugging as the questions redirect, dark eyes wide in the moon-slashed face. "I have always known," she answers simply. More surprising to her was learning that others did not know, that she was alone in her ability to both sense and replicate the skills of others. It was yet another source of isolation for the copper girl, but one she had learned, with time, to embrace.

Light and sun are always appealing to the girl; she reaches out with tentative breath, looking to brush her nose against some part of Megaera's anatomy. "May I?" she asks, though perhaps it is delayed, uncalled for, as she has already gathered the ability into her veins, working it spiderlike through her mind until she is confident in it. Magic still struggles when she takes it in, yearning to be released, exposed, but the girl has at last learned some modicum of control. She releases the power gently, carefully reigning in the wild beast she has borrowed from Meg, letting her body take on a bright, radiant glow. "Wow," whispers Fire Dancer, and her brother agrees- though he nips at her hocks to remind her to stop, before the power runs away and overcomes her slender frame.

Her smile retains the brilliance of the light, at least briefly. It falters beneath Megaera's news- she nods, yes, she knew of the invasion, though not its outcome. She assumes by the words and inflection of the mare that her uncle Kaj had been successful in his mission against the Falls (why?), but questions still linger, an undeniable pull toward her ancestral home. "Who rules the Edge now?" A dim, lingering hope that the name will be a familiar one, that her family has returned to glory- but she stomps it out. Her family is gone, and all that remain are their ghosts.

Fire Dancer listens to the remainder of the news with not a little surprise. She is happy to hear that the Dragon's Throat thrives; she yearns to return to those aureate sands, to find her way once more among brush and dune. That Megaera is Sultana does not perturb the girl, though she does have to wonder the virtue of the choice: if the copper child is any example, Gaucho is less than skilled when it comes to choosing colleagues. Still, the girl smiles, a warm "Congratulations," ready on her lips. The girl has no desire to return to her former throne, and cannot help but liking Megaera, hoping she shall succeed.

More surprising is the promotion of Ampere. Fire Dancer distinctly recalls the last time she saw the tumultuous pair interact; that Gaucho would promote someone with a history so torrid and ideals so bold... the girl shakes her head at this, though part of her does admire the mare. She wonders what became of Bucephalus, that obnoxious man. At least Ampere is preferable to that.

Everyone situated, everything changed, but so many more on the tip of her tongue, names with question marks where answers ought to be. What are they doing? What role do they serve? What will she do, when her hooves once more leave crescent imprints on the desert turf? She yearns to take up her place beside the Diviner's fire, to once more channel the power of the Sun... will this be available to her, she wonders, or has another taken her place? Tentative she turns back to Meg, wistful uncertainty in her dulcet tones. "I should like to serve the Sun again, when I come home... perhaps teach as well."

The girl's descent into morose mood is mercifully disrupted by the arrival of a fourth. The descending eagle easily captures Natraj's attention; he draws his sister toward it, firing his desire to interact and play like gunshots within her mind. She shakes her head in amused dismissal, informing him that he can make his own friends without her help, though her gaze remains trained upon the young bird. "Natraj," she answers the unspoken question, gesturing to where the kitsune now sits by Megaera's side, staring eagerly at Gwaihir. "We were born together." For all she knows this statement is true, for the fleeting days she spent in the world without him are hazy and distant in the backdrop of her mind.

At last they reach the ruined shrines, and the girl draws away from her companion, attention fixed on the task at hand. From her journeys she has brought back a trinket for each; she deposits them now with a simple prayer, similar in vein but different in desire. For the Earth, a stone of sparking green, and a quiet request for the gift of strength; for the Spark, a sliver of aquamarine, and a prayer of hope for the time to come. The Moon she has brought an obsidian shard, polished to reflect all the light of the sky. Copper child asks the goddess for forgiveness, and the wisdom to persevere on. Of all the gods, this is the one whose nature and power makes her most afraid, but the Fire Dancer is an acolyte, and will not slight any deity- not knowingly, at least.

At last she comes to the shrine of the Sun, and a smile stretches on the crescent face. From the tangle of her mane she procures the final gift, a brilliant piece of alabaster stone, traced in intricate patterns of gold. They found it in the crumbling ruins at the top of a spire, the last remnants of a temple left prey to the whims of time. The marble is placed with the utmost care, and no words leave the girl's mouth. There is no need for words between the girl and her God, merely silent gratitude from behind closed eyes, an endless affection and admiration and will to serve as best she may. Embers bloom around her form, magic pressing in the presence of her devotion; she is silent, still, until at last her alto voice cuts the air, innocent and ardent, a question ripe in the Fire Dancer's mind.

"Are you happy, Megaera?"

Image Credit

@Megaera

o. pixel pony credit to tamme
o. permission granted to use force and magic on Tavi
o. only tag me in opening posts, please!



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