the Rift


As the Storm Comes

Demothi Posts: 14
Up For Adoption
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16 :: 5
Adoptable
#1
I am too close of an acquaintance with the reaper to fear death. Everybody dies. Cold sunshine falls around me. Perhaps one day the Sun itself will perish. Doesn't everything have a beginning and an end? I already know my end. It looms in the not so far distance. My past? Well, we never get to know the entire story; do we?

Behind me lays all that I had known. All that I had been told I knew. Faces surrounded me that told me that I loved them; and I did not recognize nor feel a thing for one of them.

I am your sister.

I am your father.

I am your best friend.


Each had introduced themselves with pity in their tones and sorrow in their eyes. It had only been the one that was said to be my mother that failed to introduce herself and kept her distance. My mother was as close to me as my shadow, but still remained just as unreachable.

The Shaman from the wilds was the only one I came to know. It was he that had told me to leave the place where I would only relearn memories lost and told me to instead relearn of the lands forgotten to my stationary herd. He taught me of leaves to eat to dull my pains and then disappeared back to wherever he came from. After he left I followed his advice and began to run until my legs trembled.

In my wandering I had watched a puff of a cloud grow into a small menace, and from there into a daring storm cloud. Dark and grey it floated above me and then, suddenly, it dashed ahead. I followed. I decided that wherever the cloud released its wrath was where I would call home.

The storm falls finally as I step hoof into the dense forest. The naked tree limbs brush their jagged arms against my thick coat. Do they attempt to hold me back? Or do they perhaps usher me forward?

Soon I am carrying a blanket of snow upon my back. Exhaustion hits me as if one of the trees had fallen on top of me. My legs buckle and my head throbs. Laying on the ground I allow the snow from my cloud to take me.

_____________________________________________________________

I am sorry this post blows. I haven't written in a while and I am trying to find his voice. I got tired of looking at this post XD

Ashamin the Clovenheart Posts: 426
Outcast atk: 8 | def: 11.5 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 15.2 HH :: 5 [Frostfall] HP: 79 | Buff: NUMB
Lochan :: Plain Cerndyr :: Dark Mist & Rakt :: Common Cerndyr :: Starpast Jen
#2
Ashamin

It had been a long time since Ashamin had left the Basin, and even longer since he had come to the Threshold. He stood now under its long, stretching shadows a changed young beast. He was older, wiser, and scarred. There had been good and there had been bad, but he knew this: he was no longer alone.

Young Lochan darted after Ashamin with ease, already graceful on his short and lengthening legs. The small 'panion was growing quickly, and with frostfall high and strong, his dark coat had grown out in shaggy waves. Ashamin found the cerndyr's spirit to be lively, but without their bond fully formed it was difficult to tell what the young creature was thinking. It would be a while, the Haruspex decided, before he could understand exactly who Lochan was.

For now, Ashamin had settled on what he knew: the creature ate a remarkable amount, slept even more, and was growing at an unbelievable rate. Ashamin had never been a father or a brother, and suddenly having to care for a life was, well, a remarkable task.

It was rare that Lochan was even awake during the day, but the skies overhead were so dark that it could have been night and Ashamin had slept the night before, which had left Lochan bored and aching for attention. Now the pair wandered together through the woods, a Haruspex and his follower, each sporting spots in the shadows.

When the storm broke, it was with abandon. Flurries of snow patterned down and Ashamin watched, wide-eyed, as the sky seemed to fill with a blinding light. His own coat became quickly clogged and soaked with the stuff--his silken sarong gathered snow in its folds.

Somehow, barely, he made out the picture of another through the trees. He nodded to Lochan, who watched with bright white eyes, and the two set off at a trot. The deer-prints the pair left behind were quickly filled with earth and snow. There was to be no trace of them--of anything.

"Keeping warm?" Ashamin called out, his voice light and a warm smile trying to break through the thick haze of the storm. Lochan had settled at the base of a nearby tree, and Ashamin did well to follow him. From there, not far from the stranger, he extended his cheek in greeting. The stallion was taller and thicker than Ashamin, bearing the sturdy build of a draft and four unique horns, which were in combination unlike anything the Haruspex had ever before seen. The younger unicorn looked upon the bold-formed white with admiration. There was something, well, regal about this stranger.

"I am Ashamin," he said kindly as he pulled his features away from the other. Though Ashamin was bolder than he had been the previous season, he still wasn't one to ask questions so quickly. The stallion would have to introduce himself. His long tail dropped, and the arcing tesla coil at its end send sparks across the surface of the snow upon landing. Lochan leapt and brayed, hopping over one such blue streak with ease, and cast his bonded a faint and childish scowl. Ashamin laughed; "And this is Lochan. Welcome to Helovia, stranger."

The paint's voice was steady, shaking only from the slight cold. He felt so proud to have come to where he was now. He was standing where he had once been, but this time on the other end of the stick so to speak. Ashamin only hoped he could show this newcomer the same respect and kindness he had been shown upon arrival--only hoped he could do well.

___________________________

Come with me little one,
schlep through this storm.
We're a pair in the day,
we are marching in form.

There stands a stranger,
lost tall in the white.
Here is familiar:
Come day and through night.


[[Tagged: @[Demothi]--so excited to meet your fellow!]]

Credit


See Ashamin's profile for more information about Lochan, Rakt, and his various items.
All magic and force allowed, barring death and permanent injury.
Do not tag me, please message on skype instead


Demothi Posts: 14
Up For Adoption
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16 :: 5
Adoptable
#3
"Warm? If I grow any warmer I may simply melt." Sarcasm weaves my words together but the chuckle that slips from my upturned lips is genuinely filled with warmth.

Eyes blinking against the snow I wince as one of them lands on my eye. Extending my foreleg I rub my eye. My motion halts as I realize my movement could be taken as a bow. Jerking my head up I arch my neck and stand tall as the pair approaches.

My gaze turns to follow the fleeing companion of Ashamin. What ties such different creatures together? "I am Demothi," I throw my name out casually as I watch Lochan. There are no trumpets sounded for a temporary king. And my existence is no more than that; temporary.

The stallion gleefully reports this land to be Helovia. "Never heard of it," arching an eyebrow I lock eye on the stranger called Ashamin, "I am.. limited on time. Ashamin, if you were I and I you, would you stay in this Helovia?" The ease in my tone and the curve of my lips flattens I haven't the patience nor the time to be wrapped up in any "my home is the best" bull-shit. I want honesty. I want potential.

My head swivels to take in the land around us. All the better that this Helovia be a disaster. I will somehow make a mark with my life. I want my name to be one remembered. I would rather be a story passed to children with the mark of a hero than be an infamous bedtime horror. But I will take whatever course needed to keep from being forgotten to time.

Time. Merely the word is enough to make me scoff. Time is endless yet it still chains us to our mortality. Short is the length it gives; and I was given my life with a few chain links missing. What of this fellow?

"Who are you? Staring off in the distance I wait for his answer with a small dose of patience. "Not your name, beyond that."

Ashamin the Clovenheart Posts: 426
Outcast atk: 8 | def: 11.5 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 15.2 HH :: 5 [Frostfall] HP: 79 | Buff: NUMB
Lochan :: Plain Cerndyr :: Dark Mist & Rakt :: Common Cerndyr :: Starpast Jen
#4
Ashamin

Ashamin was no salesman. Unlike many, he had not come here to scout out new recruits so much as to reflect on his own, curious changes. But he had found a stallion in these woods, and a unicorn at that, and now that Ashamin was being questioned he was not about to decline the offer to speak and turn away.

The other stallion's frankness, open honesty, was refreshing. And everything about the way that the ivory one, Demothi, spoke demanded a recriprocation of such an ideal. Luckily, Ashamin was not one to mince or deceive with his words, either. He listened as the other spoke, looking him over through low-lidded eyes shielding his orbs from the snow. All the questions demanded large answers, the kind that, as Haruspex, Ashamin was meant to specialize in.

The kind that, as coward, he was often afraid to try and answer.

The buck chewed his lip nervously, staving off the hunger that was clawing at his insides. "A pleasure, Demothi," he murmured somewhat absently. Not long before, just the previous night, Lochan had eaten the last of the supply. Ashamin knew he'd have to bring something home with him--find something in this gentler, less winter-worn wood. If that was even possible, if that was even the case, in the wake of this storm.

Ashamin sighed and Lochan wandered to stand under his stomach, rubbing the tops of his budding horns against Ashamin's girth as if already preparing to clash with them. The haruspex leaned down, nudging the cerndyr, his silken sarong brushing against the snow-covered soil. The paint had appreciated the other stallion's light-hearted reply in regards to the weather, his easy way of introduction, his gentle asking for more. But the final question was easiest to answer, and so Ashamin began with that.

"I am a traveller, much like yourself, it seems. I left my homeland after my father passed in the night. In my herd I have become a wise one of sorts, though I'm not sure I've the experience such a title requires--I am called the Haruspex, now. I came here not long ago, seeking a home, and found one in the Aurora Basin," Ashamin let the words flow easily, unintentionally beginning to answer the first question as he wrapped up the first. Lochan peeked out from under Ashamin, his third eye marking staring straight ahead and at the newcomer. Limited time, Demothi had said.

Perhaps another, one less experienced with death, would have taken the phrase to mean that Demothi was just passing through Helovia. But Ashamin, he thought anyway that perhaps he knew better. The only place this stallion was passing through was life--and weren't they all? But Ashamin suspected, perhaps from Demothi's attitude, his cut to the chase style of speech, that this stallion had a shorter journey than most.

His long tail traced lines in the earth; his black eyes shimmered. "I will not tell you that life here is easy," he said with a sudden start, tossing his head to the side, taking comfort in the rattling sound of the stone in his horn. "Nor will I tell you that life in the Aurora Basin's harsher climes is as sunny or shaded as another land, particularly in this Frostfall. But I will tell you that the home I have found there is one I would never trade, and that I was welcomed there when I had just felt death, and feared it even for myself."

The young stallion, the wise one as he had been named, widened his eyes and batted away flakes with his short lashes. He looked for Demothi's gaze, hoping to catch it--to hold it. "I was nothing but a wordless orphan when I passed the Basin's sentinels, and since I've fought, been scarred, found family, and built a fire in a cave of my own; I'd like to think it's done me good."

And this much, he knew, was somehow more than true.

___________________________

This much,
this much,
he knew everything
but this much,
which he hoped was in
some way, something,
maybe, maybe, was he
what he used to be or
more than he could dream?



[[Tagged: Demothi]]

Credit


See Ashamin's profile for more information about Lochan, Rakt, and his various items.
All magic and force allowed, barring death and permanent injury.
Do not tag me, please message on skype instead


Demothi Posts: 14
Up For Adoption
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16 :: 5
Adoptable
#5
"Lochan will grow strong." I say the words as if they are a personal promise from me to the pair. "Is pairing between species common in this land?" I eye the two before me. Is it not a bother to have such a dependency on another? Or to have another depend on you in such a way?

"Much like myself," I mutter his words to myself. Who does he see me as? Am I a traveler? I had acted upon the words of another. I had not been led here by the mischievous sprite that whispers sweet words of wanderlust into the ears of a vagabond. But if afforded the time, would I have been one to wander?

His father had passed on. The words are harsh to my ears but my face barely changes. Only my eyes change from their wandering to jerk to Ashamin.

I wonder what it was like for him. Not the stallion before me, but his father? "I am sorry for your loss and I am sure that he would be proud." The words fall easily from my tongue. Absent minded, like a reflex. It isn't that I don't mean them. Sincerity is there. But is it really Ashamin who lost? What of his father?

I pause to get a good taste of my words before passing them onto another. Words live longer than their masters; therefore they should be few and well said. "You have come far and been through much. But remember, sorrow is the threshold that all wisdom must cross. The wise ones must mourn. They must lay eye upon the Tree of Life's fruitful season and must watch it slip into the barren seasons. The Tree of Knowledge is not the Tree of Life. Knowledge and Life are borne from two completely different seeds." I snort into the frigid air and watch as my breath dodges the abundant falling snow and soars towards the heavens. My words are haphazardly placed together but they are my apology for not being more sentimental towards the loss of his father.

I am not one of words. What I have just said was exhausting to piece together. I squint at this Haruspex and wonder if my words even made sense to his ears. And while I outwardly cast my scrutiny it is solely directed towards myself.

I had slipped with my words. Too straightforward and I am found out, too discreet and others wish to dilly dally my time away. A tight smile grows crookedly. This boy is proving to be sharp.

"A season. A few seasons. A year or two if I charm fate. It is all the time I have. I saw the look in your eye. It is fruitless to hide what has already been found," "But, wise one, I ask of you to not voice what you know to any other."

@[Ashamin] I am -so- sorry for the wait. I started a new series and it sucked me away.

Ashamin the Clovenheart Posts: 426
Outcast atk: 8 | def: 11.5 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 15.2 HH :: 5 [Frostfall] HP: 79 | Buff: NUMB
Lochan :: Plain Cerndyr :: Dark Mist & Rakt :: Common Cerndyr :: Starpast Jen
#6
Ashamin

It became quickly clear that whatever it was that was striking up between these two stallions, it was respect at the very least. Ashamin listened with his large ears pointed forward and his narrow chest rising and falling with slow exhales of the cold. Everything the white creature before him said had an importance to him, and Ashamin dared not interrupt. He waited, letting questions pass and the scene change from curiousity to wisdom to sorrow and then, with care, a secret.

Ashamin did not know many things. He was young and he was still, always, learning. But he knew the importance of this stallion sharing his fate, and he would never speak a word of it.

The haruspex started from the end with the intention to return to the beginning, and he started with this: "Your secret will never be mine to share. Your trust means much to me."

His long tail curled up and he let it rest across his back; Lochan advanced further, drawing closer to the stallion and tilting his head. Ashamin wondered what the cerndyr thought of that creature before him, that stallion drawing so close to death. "It is an interesting theory, about your trees," Ashamin went on, his black eyes meeting the stallion's lighter blue ones. "I imagine, though, that once they've grown tall enough their branches must intertwine, if they are planted as close in the soil as they appear to be in the mind."

The painted buck thought of his father. Lochan's head arched back to look up at his bonded with wonder. Already he was able to sense Ashamin's change in moods. "Thank you, for your condolences. The loss of my father has been hard on me. But I have found company in Lochan that appears to be irreplaceable, and I trust he will stay by my side for a long time to come," Ashamin said with a gentle smile and a flick of the tip of his tail. "Many bond to other species, here. It is a process of companionship that was first explained to me in this very wood by the Basin's healer," Ashamin explained.

He wanted to ask this stallion, trapped by his mortality, what else he wanted to know. He didn't want to waste time answering questions that weren't asked. But he didn't have the confidence, not yet, to offer himself as a resource. He could only hope Demothi would come to that conclusion on his own.

___________________________

If you ask me
who I am I will
tell you, I don't know.

But one question,
locked in debates of religion,
you'll get me started, I'll go.



[[Tagged: @[*Demothi]]]

Credit


See Ashamin's profile for more information about Lochan, Rakt, and his various items.
All magic and force allowed, barring death and permanent injury.
Do not tag me, please message on skype instead


Demothi Posts: 14
Up For Adoption
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16 :: 5
Adoptable
#7
An almost slack jawed expression comes briefly. His words telling of the trees of Life and Knowledge tangling intrigue me and I tuck them away to mull over later. He is young but Ashamin may be more deserving of his title than what I had previously thought him to be. He twists my own words in a new manner and they are born anew on his youthful lips.

I wonder how many pass through this wood, and how many of them put it in their minds to stay. What is it about this place that turns an orphan with barely a word to his name into a wise one among his herd? What is it here that bonds two differing species together in such a seamless manner?

"I appreciate your promise of secrecy," should he keep his promise to keep it to himself I will oneway repay him but if he wags his lips I may have to knock the memory from his skull. Although I do feel an a warmth towards Ashamin growing in my chest. He is one that will live his life well. That is much more than what can be said for others I have come across during my time. Ashamin has already found himself farther in life than many older than he.

"Seems to be an outlandish place to bumble upon. Our meeting has been..," I search for the right word. I am sure this meeting will have been one that was crucial for my introduction into this land of his. "Our meeting is one I am thankful for."

I nod my head at his words in regards to his father. The memories of my family were stolen like fruit from a tree's spring leaves left with only its leaves throughout the summer. I find it hard to relate to his loss. Surely family must be difficult to watch be taken by death's shadow. It is good that he has his companion.

The snowfall has accumulated at our feet but its intensity as it falls from the sky has faltered. "The Lady of Ice seems to have tired herself out. Shall we move out whilst she has a restful hour?" I step out from my shelter of naked tree limbs and move towards the open land. Whether Ashamin agrees to my request or not will not change the movement of my hooves. As I pass by his side I gaze forward into the unknown land, "I would like to see your home. Becoming a part of the Aurora Basin of yours is what I have decided I would like to do."

My words are given time to hang in the air before I move forward once more. I stop at the edge of the wood and look back at Ashamin for his thoughts on the matter.

@[Ashamin]


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