Her duel coloured eyes studied the massive hole that scattered the terrain around it. Caution urged her to leave it, she wouldn't be be able to fly here. Yet her curiosity had won out (dead cat or not) and she'd decided to go in the pit. Only when she'd ordered her legs to move they'd locked up and refused to go, nervous feelings running through her blood stream. There was one thought that made her want to enter and explore the cave. Her twin could be down there, Hawke hadn't been seen in months. While the girl wasn't actively seeking her brother, she would like to find him and check up on his health. The emotional afflictions of his magic caused a heavy toll on his thoughts and strength. Aelin knew that at some point she would have to be there to carry him over the hard road.

"You can do it." The young filly whispered to herself, shuffling a little down the path, the burning rays of the sun washed their heat over her body. It reminded her of home and her father, they way he burned bright and fought for everything that he believed in. If Hawke was down there then her journey would mean something, if he wasn't...well then she'd just have to find her own meaning! Ruffling her wings and puffing out her chest she began to descend into the cave, the air cooling with every other step. 

The walls where made up of a stunning gem, glistening and glinting in front of her every eyes. Only it was what lay in the centre caused the girl to come to a complete stop.
"It's Helovia's heart." This was said to no one in particular as the sandy girl was quite sure she was alone. Eyes had grown large with wonder and her breath was coming in and out with quick, excited gasps. 

The fire burned and the filly stared.

She had watched each passing day, emerald eyes sweeping in to witness the cycle of life. From a mortal perspective it all seemed so bland, distasteful. Where were the exuberant colours that danced through a newborn's soul? Where had the dazzling monochrome souls of the poorly aged ascended to? She would never know, here with these pitiful mortal eyes. They gave her nothing but weak sight, lacking colour and vibrance as spectacular as she had seen from Heaven. There in the clouds her brethren looked down on her, burning their pity into the back of her skull with mocking stares. 
Sinful words would spill from her lips at the thought of them looking down on her. She, the Divine, had no right to be so far from home. She was the center piece of their harmonious existence.They would erupt into chaos without her wise guidance, they would become wild animals in confined spaces. But they'd foolishly torn her face from the family portrait long ago, and no amount of stitch work could ever bring it back. 
So the Seraph will make do without them. Blast them for their bloody idiocy. She won't be surprised if in a months' time they all come crumbling into the earth with ambrosial tears rushing down their cheeks. The Holy Father would do little to aid them, as He never minded His angels, although she had been the one exception. 
She spits into the dirt in anger at the idea of her position as His favourite getting taken by someone else, stolen away from her because she wasn't present. Somewhere deep within she knew that He would not forget her, but for all the wrong reasons. Another aggressive outlash leads to dirt flying into a cloud behind her, her slender legs kicking out as she lets out a furious huff. 
Her tantrum is interrupted by the sound of a soft, young voice. With her interest piqued, the Holy pursues the child whom the voice had originated. Her ears flicker forward curiously, withers twitching as she descends beneath the surface of the earth. She had never been so low before, imagining this tunnel leading farther and farther down until she found herself at the steps of Hell, with hungry flames ready to engulf her at any moment and the screaming of the damned ringing in her ears. Curiously she creeps, halting a few paces behind the youth and letting out a foul gasp. 
Before her lies a pool of magma, burning and crackling with life. It casts a violent red glow across the caverns, leaving the Seraph in awe. What she expected next was for a being entirely of fire to burst from it, maw gaping and an angry howl erupting from its throat. It would take her into the depths of Hell where her punishments would be ungodly and unjust, and her suffering would be eternal. She waits another moment before the ebony babe mumbles something about Helovia's Heart. A quirked brow is her only response as she gathers up such information. 
The earth did not have a heart? It did not live and breathe as mortal creatures did, it had no need for a heart. She shakes her head in disagreement, looking at the child with something similar to betrayal in her eyes. "Do not deceive me, the world needs no heart. This is not a heart at all, it's Hell's Gates, Portae Inferi." She corrects the babe rather bluntly, uncaring on whether the child knew of Hell and it's disgraceful brute of a ruler or if she was as pure and untouched as the angel's loins.
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visual ref just bc her profile isnt complete yet c":

The fire burned and the filly stared. At the mare's words Aelin turned with a startled gasp, she'd been so consumed by the flames. The mare that had approached her was a hybrid - a very pretty one. They shared some colours and features but where completely different in every other respect. As the mare shakes her head and speaks to her bluntly the sandy filly turns away and studies the fire again. "I did not mean to deceive you." Despite the mare's blunt tones Aelin spoke with warmth, with a hoof she pointed towards the fire before spinning back to the mare. "You're wrong, everything needs a heart or else nothing would be alive." Slowly the filly took a few more steps towards the fames, wonder and awe painted upon her features. Hell's gates? No, this was no hell. Far from it actually (these caves still creeped her out through). Just as she made to speak another voice cut into their conversation. This time the filly did not gasp in shock, instead she turned quickly and smiled at the newcomer. 

Another winged mare, just as pretty as the hybrid and shaded similarly to herself, this mare seemed like...home. Aelin's smile grew with the new mare's words, in support of her own. Although the next sentence that followed confused the young girl. Wraiths? What where they? Turning back to the flames she continued to listen to the conversation being exchanged but studied the way the fire flickered and twisted. It was like a deadly dance of red, gold, yellow and orange. Beautiful but final. 

"Aelin." The girl responded, turning back to the mare who spoke as if she knew the caves, the filly continued. "What's yours?" Aelin moved closer to the winged one, feeling a little more sure of this mare's kindness than the others abruptness. "Actually, I'm looking for someone." Perhaps it wasn't what the mare had planned for today but hopefully she'd be willing to help. The sandy princess was nervous traveling through the winding cave network but if she had someone who knew their way around...well it would make her a little less nervous and certainly would help time go faster. "Can you help me look?" With a big smile and pleading eyes the girl waited. "While we look you can tell me about these wraiths." They sounded scary and exciting! The  girl wondered about where they came from, how long they stayed and how the Helovians fought them off?! Was her father involved...silly question he must have been! Gaucho was strong and always there for those who needed him, no matter what. Glancing towards the other mare the desert princess shot a questioning look at. 

"You can come as well of course!" Not wanting anyone to feel as if they hd been excluded the young girl offered the invitation further. "But no more talk about hells gates, okay?" The young girl shivered. "These caves creep me out enough already." With a nervous laugh the girl turned back to the one from her homeland with nervous anticipation for her answer. 

The babe had been startled by the arrival of the Seraph, her words making the little ebony gasp, startled. She felt her rather calm mood lighten in the slightest at the fright she had given the girl, lips noticeably twitching, deviating from her rather lifeless expression. The small girl gives the divine a once over, leaving her ego ever so slightly deflating. The vain angel finds offense in the lack of respect given to her by the babe, shouldn't she know a divine presence like herself finds such disinterest a disrespect? Naya is almost repulsed at the thought of mortals no longer recognizing a holy being such as herself. It was an honour to be even looked at by something as divine and pure as her. Fire wasn't as spectacular, it couldn't tell you about every fibre of the earth, it couldn't explain the stories the stars could tell or give you insight on the technology of the past, the flames couldn't give you the reasons why the clouds cried or why the ocean stretched for the moon. 
The Seraph was so sick of being undermined and brushed off. She was not dust collecting on the shoulder of your favourite shirt, she was a living angel. She wouldn't be brushed by so easily, she would be the jagged thorn at the bottom of your sock if that's what it took. She would make sure they knew how holy and virtuous she was. 
Her furious internal ranting stops when the babe says she hadn't meant to deceive the Seraph. She turns back to her, green eyes keeping in touch with the body of the winged babe. At the end of her last words the angel belts out a terrifying laugh, something ugly and forced as she finds herself bubbling with bemusement. Her emerald eyes remained lifeless and her expression managed to stay neutral despite the hoarse, rather choppy laughter falling from her freckled lips. Had no one bothered to teach this poor thing about the world? The divine gathers herself, bunching herself back up into the box she'd confined herself to. "You have much to learn young one, this world of yours does not live and breathe. And although it harbors many living, breathing things, it itself does not live." 
She would have gone into finer details had another mortal not stepped into their presence. Somewhere within a spark of hope ignites, glassy eyes glued to the chestnut-bellied youth in wait. Would she finally be recognized as the holy spirit she was? As soon as the girl's lips open, her stomach plummets. The Seraph feels dread and hopelessness and a white hot rage all brewing within her. This weak mortal had the audacity to speak to her in such a harsh tone, to tell her that she knew nothing of this land. Another forced chuckle spreads from her gut, lips clammed shut as her shoulders tremble with her false laughter. 
"I know many, many things about this world, stulte. I have witnessed generation after generation foolishly plunder about with false hopes of finding hidden treasures, I've watched an entire generation die to a disease they could not fight, I have seen them wage wars over silly little things like land and impure damsels. And I especially know that this world does not live and breathe as you do," she lays her eyes on the two before her, hooded eyes showing how disinterested she was in educating mortals on the things they were too stupid to realize. The Seraph's body trembled with the rage she felt, the blood in her vessel boiling, hotter than Hell Fire. Such mistreatment against His favourite was a sin. She was not going to tolerate their stupidity. So what their dulled senses left them unable to realize how lucky they were, standing in the presence of absolute perfection. She was pure as snow, clean and sinless. Her intentions were lawful, her actions justified. 
Her words to the youth were so quickly brushed off by the ignorant mare, shoved into a corner because apparently she was more trustworthy. How could one not trust a being made by His own hand? Insulted and rather enraged, she flicks her eyes back onto the small babe, letting it rest upon her earth-hued body before instinctively taking up the appearance of the newcomer who spoke. The youngest, Aelin, ushers herself closer to the foreign woman rather than the angel. A sickening laugh threatens to overflow from her lips, but the Seraph keeps herself in check. The babe was a fool to feel safer under the wing of a stranger rather than an angel, an angel was the safest one could get. 
"Naya'il," she leaves it at that, not bothering to question why they did not know her name beforehand. She keeps her lips locked for another few minutes before she lets out a final few words. "I'll follow," it was probably something the elder didn't want, but the Seraph thought it would be amusing to see her rolling in loathing against the divine spirit.