the Rift


[PRIVATE] fall of the woman king

Aviya Posts: 59
Deceased atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 4 HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Time
#1
aviya

Her breathing was raspy and painful as she lay on the ground. Her vision danced and she faded in and out of consciousness. A blur of white and her mother was gone. In her place was her monster-brother, a mongrel of her family. There was another blur of white and Aviya thought her mother was returning to her. Instead, above her stood Mauja. A racking sob hit her chest and the mare shuddered. "Mau--" She started, voice wavering in and out. Her once-king and childhood crush called out for her father, and Aviya could only hear herself crying. The pain throbbed and her heart raced wildly within her black breast. "Daddy..." She whispered, head rolling onto her poll, blue eyes frantically searching for the blood bay. Her blood still pooled around her, starting to tangle her frosted hair. Mesec cried above her, and she rolled her head again to look at him. Aviya opened her mouth, her sobbing calmed, and she wanted to say something to her brother, to acknowledge him, but her father was there and everything was different.

"Daddy," Aviya barely managed, tears silently rolling down her white cheeks, stained with her own blood. You can’t leave me, because I’ll follow you… Even beyond this world, beyond the next one...So you can't leave Aviya absorbed the words her father spoke, and her sobbing returned. The pain was growing inside of her like a tidal wave. Pulsating, pounding, thrumming against her head. "Da--I'm sorry." Aviya said, moving her nose to touch her father's muzzle. She planted one last kiss on the man she admired more than anything else in this world, loved more deeply than any other being in existence. "I'm sorry." She choked, letting out a wheezy breath. 

Enna moved in then, and Aviya let herself close her eyes. She knew, in the back of her mind, that there was nothing the healer could do for her. Not even the power of the gods could bring back the dead. I am dying. Aviya realized, panic rising in her throat and choking her. Her eyes snapped open and she struggled, attempting to stand up only to crumple at her father's hooves. Her finely dished skull hit the ground with a thump, just as the silver tendrils of the time-magic swept over her. No healing took place, but the pain that was radiating in Aviya's body ceased. What was left in its wake was a cold, numb feeling. With glossy blue eyes, Aviya spoke again. "Mesec...take the-th-the tooth." Aviya's voice flickered, but she meant for her brother to take the trinket the Goddess had given her before so aptly disappearing. 

"Daddy, I love you." Aviya whispered, looking beyond the bay. Behind him, the radiating figure of her mother flickered in and out. C'mon, baby, I am here... "I'm comin', Momma...."


[I AM SORRY OKAY ; _________ ; @d'Artagnan @Mesec @Mauja @Enna ]

I saw the devil sneak between my fingers
Image Credit

d'Artagnan the Nightshade Posts: 364
Aurora Basin General atk: 6 | def: 9 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17hh :: 12 HP: 68.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Aramis :: Common Hellhound :: Hellfire & Superspeed imi
#2
d'Artagnan
the
NightShade
For each sin he had committed was he to lose something? For every murder, betrayal and slip of the tongue was he to pay for each? Did all his family have a similar twisted fate because of him? It wasn’t fair! This wasn’t fair! If anyone should bleed the ground red it was him and only him; so why Aviya? She was four years old, edging into her prime and the hope of his hopeless world. His first daughter and the one who had followed him so closely that she was almost like a second shadow. Was this why she was dying now, because he was her father? The rest of his children had gone away, lived lives out of his sight and flourished in their independence. Yet, Aviya had lingered in the north and was the only one who had followed him closely. This time he was on time to the scene, but again he could do nothing but watch her tears roll from her mother’s eyes as the light slowly left them. Even as Enna moved in to try and save her d’Artagnan was a Doctor, he knew when it was too late and even then he wished it wasn’t true. That his knowledge was a lie and Enna could save her. He leant down and placed his sooty nose on her white one, smiling with tears in his eyes. "No, I’m sorry. Because I’m your father and I can’t save you" he said, pain etched into every crevice of his voice.

Then he did the only thing he could think of and, slowly, he began to eek his narcotic magic into her body. Attempting to lull it to sleep and numb it from the pain she was feeling. He couldn’t save her, but he could at least try sending her off in a dream rather than in deaths cold grip. "Go to sleep Aviya, your more capable mother is on the other side" he whispered in her ear and finally he raised his head feeling his body go numb. Even if he had his Mender magic he couldn’t have saved her, Enna had proven that, but if he was not so careless and joined the fight perhaps they would have reversed roles. Kou would be disappointed, he could almost feel the weight of her judgement from above and he wilted under it. She had known he was a monster and still loved him… But had she known he was a monster to this extent?

His mismatched eyes gazed, fathomless and lost, at her still body, as not one emotion appeared to become dominant and tears streaked forlornly down his red cheeks. There was anger and sadness and confusion and much more, but the greatest feeling was emptiness. The world he had dreamed of was dead at his feet and he itched to go with her, to follow her to the other side and leave this world that had nothing in it. He thought of Kou and how she had struggled to bring their first daughter into the world and how quickly she had taken it. Birth was hard, but death was easy. "I love you too" the shade’s voice cracked and Aramis howled a heart breaking cry.

Then all was silent.

The world kept spinning when d’Artagnan wanted it to stop.

Broken, he looked for Enna and gave her a small nod for her efforts before returning to Aviya. "Go back to the Basin, tell them what happened… I’ll stay here" he said, not sure if he was ever going to leave the Green Labyrinth. The Nightshade couldn’t quite muster the strength to walk away from her body, so he lingered near it, like a broken soul with nowhere to go.


WTF TIME. ;~~~~~; 
-kicks d'art off a cliff- useless doctor
Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.

yewrezz | larfsalot
on deviantart

my heart’s an endless winter
              filled with rage

Use force at your own peril ;) please tag me!

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#3
Fight the darkness,
It lives inside your heart,
It's not your fault my dear son,
It is simply your past.


He stood when she did, staying close to steady her - hope running wild in him only to crash when she did at their father’s hooves. Looking to d’Artagnan, Mesec sought comfort that perhaps that she had stood was a good sign, that she was strong enough to live through this, but there was no hope in the doctor. There was nothing but pain as he gazed at his oldest daughter. So Mesec stood where he was, opposite to where d'Artagnan stood with Aviya between them, and watched helplessly as a unicorn mare came and tried to use magic to undo the wounds. He prayed to his mother that she might return and help, spare his sister from this.

Although Aviya’s panic seemed to fade, maybe even her pain, no magic or prayers could bring her back.

Dropping his head, Mesec closed his eyes - he did not have the strength to watch the scene between father and daughter. Their family had already lost Kou and now Aviya was following her. He could not imagine what this was doing to d’Artagnan.Mesec felt like an outsider in the family even here, when his sister was dying. Should he even be here? Did he have the right to mourn her when they had not spoken since they were young?

His name snapped him out of it and he opened his eyes to look at her, heart breaking as their glossy eyes met. When she spoke to him, he stubbornly shook his head at first - tears scattering with the movement. “Avi-ya.” His voice cracked with her name and he couldn’t say anything else to refuse or argue with her. Of course he would accept this last gift from her, though he did not understand why she was giving it to him. Why had she stepped in front of him and tried to protect him?

Aramis' howl sent chills through him but the words spoken were distant. Like his father, Mesec did not yet have the strength to move. He stayed where he was not worrying about the tears that came, or the uncomfortable way his chest shook when he breathed. He could not fathom what had just occurred how could he even consider what to do next? His only movement had been to gingerly take the wolf’s tooth but now he was just staring at it with unfocused, blurry eyes as he tried to convince himself that this wasn’t real. She couldn’t be dead.

Mesec
Image Credits
table by Frostie


YOU SUCK
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Enna Posts: 172
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 6 | def: 9.5 | dam: 4
Mare :: Unicorn :: 14.1 :: 5 ( TALLSUN ) HP: 61 | Buff: NOVICE
Mehr :: Arctic Wolf :: None kels
#4
In your heart you know that there is nothing you can do. It is a fact that you are stubborn to give in to, pushing your magic further and harder than you had before, hoping with what little hope you have left that it is enough to save her. You push until you can push no longer, your breaths coming hard against the heaviness of the atmosphere, a strain on your draining strength. For a moment that same frail hope that you have been clinging to rises as she does, crumpling in a heap in the pit of your stomach not unlike the way she lays now, broken, before fading away to nothing, her something you dare not listen to. You know what is coming; know like the blood-stained man next to you knows, like the boy that you had met briefly, once, knows. They weep, and though you know the pain of loss, you refuse to, despite the tears that hotly line your eyes, feeling rightly out of place within their grief.

Stepping backwards and away as the silver girl’s breath is taken from her, your lips find the Nightshade’s shoulder, an attempt at comfort though you know there is none to be given. The sound that follows is haunting, something that holds your heart in arrest until the howl quiets into nothing, followed by words that at first you do not understand. You look to him slowly, a glance given to the boy opposite of her before you pirouette on tiny heels, purposely avoiding your sandstone man’s gaze as you leap away, afraid that you may lose what little there is left keeping you together, afraid that you may crumble in to him, cry as you have always done before.


awkward post is awkward.
but ;________________;


please tag enna in every post
violence permitted barring permanent injury / death
Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#5
somebody shine a light
I'm frozen by the fear in me
It was too late.

It was a knowledge deeper than his bones, an ache spreading like a fever-flare through his marrow—the panic ceased, the rush ended rather abruptly. There was no need to hurry. There was no need to call for aid. There was no need for anything because it was already too late.

Broken, she began to whisper his name, choking on it like the curse it was.

Mauja had seen death before. Mauja had dealt in death, all those lifetimes ago, a cold and cruel force of nature—supreme. Divine. Unchallenged.

And now, it was too late, tears spilling over the brim of his eyes, turning the bleeding, broken girl into a blurry haze. "Aviya," he whispered, because what else could he do? What motherfucking else could he do, when she lay dying by his feet, surrounded by her brother, her father, a healer who did her best against the one force they could not best?

With each beat of her valiant heart the ground grew darker as the instinct to live slowly killed her.

"No, I’m sorry. Because I’m your father and I can’t save you."

Glacia had been drowning, slowly pulled under by the raging sea—and Mauja had fought that. Mauja had fought the ocean with all he had, and somehow, he had won.

But there was no fighting Death.

Here, upon the battlefield where they had broken a God, Aviya lay dying.

Mauja's distant gaze fell, from the greenery around them, from the tentative celebrations of life, from the spot where the Moon Goddess had been when she had brought this chaos into being—fell from all the things that did not matter, and onto the girl dying by his feet.

He knew her, from the broken horn down the white blaze, all the way to her pale legs. How would he tell Tamlin that his best friend had died?

But Tamlin isn't here. Tamlin isn't in Helovia.

Tamlin didn't know his friend lay dying, and that no one could save her.

It was all so bitterly unfair, and like fire-spears scorching across a glacier and cracking the ice apart did his heart awaken; his ears caught the sound of d'Artagnan's pain, the dying syllables of a broken voice, the sound of failure as the world broke apart around them—it couldn't be real.

It couldn't go on around them, without them, but it did.

"I love you too," d'Artagnan said, and Mauja wept in silence as the hound cried.

The circle had closed. He had been there at her birth, and now, he was here at her death.

It shouldn't have been this way.

But it was the way it was—his aching eyes bored into the blood-stained side of her, willing, hoping, commanding it to swell with air again, with breath and life, with anything—anything but this, this empty silence in her heart.

But she was gone. Aviya was gone. She was younger than Snö. She was even younger than Tamlin—much too young to die.

And she had died in a war of Gods; a war none of them had a place in.

Mauja's jaws clenched. How long would they keep doing this? Who would be next to die?

"Go back to the Basin, tell them what happened… I’ll stay here."

It couldn't be; d'Artagnan's voice was distant, coming from somewhere far away through the startling silence in his mind—the rush and the roaring had faded into empty static, with not even a beat to punctuate it (because she's dead—). Aviya, the brightest, coldest star in the sky, had gone out. Aviya, the daughter of his best friend, the keeper of their legacy, had died, for nothing but the greed of others.

The healer slipped silently off the scene. He barely noticed her go.

They would stand vigil without her—ice, glass, and night united (—it's a brief flash of a meeting up in the cold north, with the colt safe and snug between the two of them).

Between them lay Death in all its shapes.

In all its distance.

Slowly, Mauja reached out, black muzzle trailing along d'Artagnan's red shoulder. He had no words—for no mere words could bring her back to life. So he said nothing, but his eyes wept, and his heart wept, and in the distant sky the two owls sang their mourning song.

(And in the depths of his heart, he was afraid—afraid that this would be the end. That this would be the day he began to lose d'Artagnan.)

[ @Aviya @Mesec + d'Art the Untaggable ]
somebody make me feel alive
and shatter me
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

d'Artagnan the Nightshade Posts: 364
Aurora Basin General atk: 6 | def: 9 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17hh :: 12 HP: 68.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Aramis :: Common Hellhound :: Hellfire & Superspeed imi
#6
d'Artagnan
the
NightShade
He stood there for a while, not really present, but lost in his own mind as grief dragged him by the nose into the dark depths of inconsolable sorrow. His mismatched eyes had glazed over and his body was stiff with only the breeze picking up wisps of his tangled black mane. To d’Artagnan the world was silent and he found himself in memory; the white of Kou, the birth of his first daughter and the pride he had felt. He couldn’t believe what was happening now and his lids fell over his eyes as he squeezed them shut, refusing to stare at the truth and the blood. The General could barely feel the presence of his son and his friend, even as Mauja trailed his nose across his shoulder the red stood completely still, he didn’t want to look at the sadness in his friend’s eyes. He couldn’t bear to see Mesec who had just lost a sister and had to suffer having a useless father.

The sound of Aramis’ painful howl faded into the night and the hellion looked to his bonded companion with a deep, unfathomable gaze. "Enough d’Artagnan, let her rest peacefully" he boomed into the red’s mind as a firmness entered his gaze. There would be time to grieve, but staying here and looking at her dead body wasn’t going to help his already broken friend.

A frown finally crosses over the face of the Nightshade and he looks to the hellion with sternness, but he said nothing out loud. Instead he spoke to Aramis directly, his voice cracking through their bond "what do I do now?" he asked. For the first time, d’Artagnan had no idea what to do or where to go. How could he go back to the mountains without his daughter? How was he still meant to fulfil his role and duty to the Aurora Basin if he couldn’t even think straight? Even in grief the red knew his worth and right now he was worthless. Roux? Raeru? They still lingered in winter's realm, but the shade had already proven that his presence didn’t protect them.

Aramis didn’t answer the question, he didn’t know the answer, and it was even worse being in the midst of his friend’s overwhelming grief. Time ticked by, life went on and d’Artagnan finally began to move.

He began by reaching for the buckle on his bag, fumbling with the straps whilst he stared at the spots on Mauja’s body, feeling the sudden urge to be free. Click, the leather straps came loose of the buckle and the bag slid from his shoulders, landing with a thump on the floor. d’Artagnan looked at it, his Moon Amulet protruded out of one pocket and he snorted bitterly. Fat lot of help she was… what kind of God let her sons sister die? One with no conscience or capability or sense of duty; much like himself in the end. They had suited each other. Her son, however, was far more capable.

The General left his bag by the feet of Mauja, finally dragging his broken gaze up from the black dots in attempt to try and find the brilliant blue eyes of his old friend. "Am I pitiful now?" he asked aloud what he was thinking in his mind as he shook his head and cast his eyes sorrowfully over Aviya’s body "I think I will not return to the mountains" he said finally. After that, the Nightshade moved slowly towards his grieving son and, once he stood before him, d'Artagnan smiled and reached his nose out to try touch the boys. The first time he had attempted to comfort his own son and it, at the same time, his last goodbye. 

Finally, he began to walk away from the scene, from Aviya and from everything.

Together, the unicorn and his hound set off on a journey they would never return from. They walked until the familiar disappeared from under their feet and the unknown lay bare before them. Another tale and perhaps his last, but for now, the adventure in Helovia was over.

The End.



** d’Artagnan gives his leather bag and amulet to Mauja.

:: [ Item: Leather Bag | A bag that is of medium size. ]
:: [ Restrictions | Cannot be destroyed or used in battle. ]
(Bag contains his amulet) **

sorry this is sooo bad :(
Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.

yewrezz | larfsalot
on deviantart

my heart’s an endless winter
              filled with rage

Use force at your own peril ;) please tag me!
Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#7
But somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
No—

Click, was how the end began, a dark muzzle fumbling against a buckle. A simple, sterling sound in the slow roar of the world. Thump, was how it ended: and the time between was nothing but a slow slide down a red shoulder, an agonizing moment in time when the end hung in the air. The dry fire in his gaze would've incinerated it on the spot if it could've—if it would've meant anything at all, to prevent the leather bag from hitting the green floor. If he just could've caught it.. stopped it.. held it in its place against that shoulder, pressed it to the heart beneath the bone and the sinew and the flesh: pressed it into his soul.

He wanted to scream.

He wanted to throw himself at d'Artagnan, to shriek from the bottom of his black, frostbitten heart; to cry all the tears he had not cried, to fling a thick forelimb over his back, bury his horn in his heart and let the Red do the same—

He wanted to make d'Artagnan understand how much he meant. How much he would miss him. How.. how empty he would be, without him.

But he didn't. He didn't scream. He didn't cry. He didn't tackle the Doctor to the floor and yell at him that how dare he take himself from Mauja while he still lived—how dare he rip his heart out, like this?

How dare he do to Mauja, what the cruel world had just done to himself?

d'Artagnan still lived—still breathed, even if his heart was hollow and his lungs full of dust, but he still lived. He could still dream. Hope. Love.

He would not give Mauja a body to mourn; he would not give him an end, but this moment.. this brief, too-fast moment of blue eyes blurring up with tears. He would not give Mauja the time to say goodbye, to hold him close for as long as he needed, until the stampede in his heart stopped running on hooves like needles. He would take, because he could, and would leave his bags like a memory of him—a lesser shadow, a constant reminder, a poisoned needle stabbing always into his shoulder.

He would carry d'Artagnan next to his heart in all the ways he knew.

Aviya lay dead, but it was no longer the reason his heart was breaking.

How can you do this to me

How can you leave me

with breath still in your body? How can you let anything but DEATH do us part?

But death had parted them—she lay right there, broken glass horn pointing to an innocent sky. I didn't want it to end this way

My death, your death, not *her* death—

Yet there they stood at the close of it, and he was going; Mauja knew it without asking, without words, knew it in the ache in his heart and his bones, in the torrent he held back for the sake of his friend.

Would my tears hold you back

The mismatched gaze rose for a final time to look him in the eye, and Mauja could do nothing but cry in silence, wordlessly mouthing 'please' and shaking his head. Please, don't leave me, don't go, don't do this, please"Am I pitiful now?" Pitiful? Pitiful? He was a father who had lost his daughter and his lover, a man who had lost his purpose, a.. Mauja's ears fell back in sorrow. He was a friend, losing himself to himself. "No," he choked out in a sob, tears masking up the bright (frozen) light shining somewhere in the depths of his soul—the light that always shone for d'Artagnan. "You are beautiful."

"I think I will not return to the mountains."
"I know."

And when the Red finally moved, Mauja's body hitched forward unbidden, muzzle reaching for that which he could not grasp—could not hold—could not keep, for the shade was not his to keep, and never had been. But still, to see the cherry bay back turn to him, and know that he had seen his eyes for the last time in this life—stood next to him for the last time .. it was more than he could take, he could not watch his final farewell to his son, could not watch as man and hound began to walk away.

Away, from Mauja. Away, into something new, some place he could only hope would be better for his friend, and yet, and yet it hurt like nothing he had ever felt before to have life take from him in this way; all the pieces of his heart whispered don't leave me but the Red didn't hear.

"I love you!" he finally cried after him, their last rites: his final message to carry with him into the world beyond.

And with the words, the singular truth which had defined him for so long, the rest of the grief tore its way out through its thick crypt of ice and burst into the air; crying as he had never cried before Mauja fell to his knees, to his side, into the darkness of his loss and despair.

d'Artagnan was gone.

[ I don't believe I have ever cried in this way before while writing a post. :< ]
I seen the sun comin' up at the funeral at dawn
the long broken arm of human law
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here


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