This place was not beautiful.

The sky was a crystalline blue, clouds drifting lazily by on the same currents that brought salt air from the sea to linger on bodies scattered through the isle. Gulls called overhead, wings beating against the up drafts. Waves slowly lapped the shore as the tide came in swallowing the land and casting shells and sand dollars as it went. The air was warm, the humidity bearable against the slightly cool breeze that came in from offshore.

But it was not beautiful.

The star girl cast a chilling silver gaze over the battle field. Injured warriors stood beside those who should never face the violence of war, helping comrades away from the massacre. Lines had been redrawn, and those who had fought as a unified force now separated and began their journeys home. She stood on her own, watching as many walked away, but several never rose from their place on the ground. Never again would they fight or dance or love. Never again would their friends share a moment with them to hold close for when the end came. Their time was completed. The tigress had taken her dues, as had the other three gods from the rift. The Helovians had spilled their blood, and for what? It was in vain. How did they differ from those who had been freed from the burdens and shackles of their previous homes?

Helovia would offer little salvation. Only sinners walked here, suffering punishments from wrathful gods who had forgotten how to love them a long time ago. The gods were vengeful and unkind. The wars that had been waged should have been between the gods themselves. To believe that the mortals who paced this earth could stand a total chance against great beasts from another world was foolish. Lives were collected to pay for the entrance of those who were not from here. Those who did not belong.

Ki'irha took one last look over the stage of combat, taking it in one last time to savor for an eternity. True, they had won, and for that any warrior would be proud. But this battle was fruitless. She snorted and shook her head, before finally turning and retreating towards home.

She staggered, gate marred by a painful and obvious limp. Her front right knee had been sprained, and she could hardly stand bearing weight on it. But she needed to remove herself from this hell scape before it consumed her. A great cry filled the air. It bellowed, a song of pain and heart ache and mourning, traveling before being swallowed by the vast rhythm of the ocean. She hesitated, an ear flicking back, letting the sound settle into the hollow of her ear and the length of her bones. She blinked slowly, not willing to turn and see if it was a friend of the fallen.

She continued on, mind wandering as she did, attempting to push from her mind the pain that came with every fourth step. Those who came from the abyss, what did they come for? They had been freed from their shackles under the rift gods. The Helovians had managed that for them. So why didn't they return to their homes, liberated and ready to flourish? Were they running from something else? Did they all belong to the same herd, or were they outcasts, meant to live on the edge, forsaken to the rift gods for a reason? What sort of safety or lives did they wish to find here? There were so many questions, and she was sure for every answer she received, two questions would take the previous's place. She wasn't daft. Perhaps intolerant, but she knew that sometimes there were no proper answers, and sometimes people weren't meant to belong.

She walked for quite a ways before forced to stop. The battle remnants were left far behind her, but still it left a bitter taste in her mouth. She stood on the edge of the water. Fingers of foam dragged the tide up the beach, retreating and pulling sand back with it. But each wave drew the tide further up. The sand bar was receding beneath the choppy waves, blocking her access to the main land. In normal strength, she would have challenged the sea, running until hooves no longer touched the soft bottom, and would attempt to swim any remainder. But she could barely walk, and knew the riptide would drag her far from land, and the sea in its vigor would claim her. She scowled, standing still and statuesque against the brightness of the world around her, knowing this place, like the other new lands, was nothing but a grave reminder of how fragile life is when left to the wants of the gods.

This place was not beautiful.  

"Talk?"
OOC//: Open for any rifter, but others may join if they want. I was hoping for Ki'irha to meet one of the newcomers, and  get some verbal frustrations out, and perhaps be convinced that the rifters have a place here in Helovia!