the Rift


[OPEN] I can't feel my toes anymore [Joining]

Glacia Posts: 111
Aurora Basin Medic atk: 4.0 | def: 8.0 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 Years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Name :: Snowy Owl :: None Nessie
#1



The decision was made. After the ocean crisis, I knew. My blue eyes look around the cave I had shared with my mother for nearly two years. It was time. I was almost two, and I loved my mother, but her being a corporal left me without much time with her. She was simply to busy anymore. I blink away tears, and try to swallow the lump in my throat. I would be okay, and she would too. I had left wild flowers in her sleeping spot, she would know. I loved her, but I wasn't meant to stay in the frigid mountains of the Aurora Basin. At least, not at this very moment.

I take a deep breath, and I close my eyes once more, searching inside myself to make sure I was certain. Yes. My icy eyes open once more, and I turn my back on my home, picking my way down the rocky path, headed to the entrance of the Aurora Basin. I avoided the more populated places, sneaking until I reached the sentinels. My blue eyes move upwards to look at the giants, and my head turns to look behind me at the basin. I will miss you. Until later....

I would miss the cold mountains. The beautiful light shows in the night, and the pristine white that covered it in the winter. But I knew that I wanted to be elsewhere now. I would visit, and I wished my old herd mates the best and luck in their own travels. I turn my head back to look ahead of me. Great things awaited me, and now it was time to discover them. With one last deep breath I start to head down to mountain pass, and make my way to the west.

-------------------------------

It was late mid day now. I had left early in the morning, in the waning light. The sun was high over head. For a little while the heat had been unbearable, but the cool sea breeze chilled the sweat on my coat. It was comfortable, and warm. Balmy even. Not spring like. It was different. To add to it, the air was heavier, saltier. Different from the cold fresh mountain air.

I had no idea what I was looking for, but I assumed it would make itself clear. And for some time I searched for the Worlds Edge. About when I was going to give up, I spotted the wall. The broken glass wall. A smile broke my features, as my walk turned into a gallop very quickly. It did not take long to reach the wall, and my head looked around in wonder, mouth open in awe. It was beautiful. I reach the lowest point in the break, and take a deep breath. "If there is anyone there, I wish to speak to them! I am searching for my father, Mauja the Frostheart, although I hear he goes by the Frozen Light now. " My voice is shouted out, with an air of arrogance, but also it held a tone of pride... I was proud of my father, even when others thought I shouldn't.

"I have traveled from the Aurora Basin, and I wish to join your herd, under the Moon!" I add quickly. Now all I had to do was wait. Which honestly seemed like a ridiculously long time. A deep breath was blown out as I looked around looking at the terrain carefully. Every once in a while I would shift my weight on my front feet. I was anxious. Would anyone come? Was this the right place? Would my father still be here? Would he even still be the king?

I had no idea what to expect.

"talk talk talk talk "



I HAD A HEART THEN
but the queen has been overthrown

full image


@Mauja @Tembovu

Anyone is welcome to come meet Glacia, in fact I welcome it. I would like this to move along quickly though! :D

Tembovu the Elephant Posts: 805
World's Edge Captain atk: 7 | def: 9.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 18hh :: 10 HP: 77 | Buff: SWIFT
Mbwene :: African Elephant :: Ashen smitty
#2
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls
the most massive characters are seared with scars
“I am searching for my father, Mauja the Frostheart, although I hear he goes by the Frozen Light now. “ The words funnel into the splayed, relaxed ears of the Elephant. They evoked a peculiar sensation of surprise, curiosity, and overshadowing sorrow. He had not even known his friend was a father— and yet here he learned of two of his daughters? One in her death and one in her eagerness to join the Edge.

He stirred slowly from his basking in the sunlight. It was a rare, sunny day at the Edge. The mists were light, even absent in some clearings as the afternoon warmth beat down on his broad, striped back. He relished the warmth, letting it soak down to his thick bones. But he moved, a unique sense of plaintive pleasure stirring in him at the pride in Mauja’s daughter’s voice. She was nearly boastful of being his child. He wondered how that felt, to have that from one’s children. Oh, how he secretly (desperately) wanted to know.

Roughly shaking himself from his sun-induced stupor, he began to walk towards the source of the call. From the Basin? A brief sense of unease tickles his barrel, though he sweeps it aside. This was Mauja’s daughter, and so would be welcome in the Edge.

Finally, he breaks through the trees and sees the daughter in question. She is tall, well built, and colored from her dam. For she is black to the Frozen Light’s speckled white. His ears flick forward, dark blue gaze kindly studying her as he approaches.

He lowers his head slightly, so as not to tower quite so much— though this mare is tall enough. But, on closer inspection, he find that she still retains the lankiness of youth, not entirely filled into her height. “Hello, Mauja’s daughter. I am Tembovu,” he pauses, wondering if he should introduce his rank just yet. He is uncertain if Mauja would wish to be the one to tell his daughter that he was no longer King.

He shifts, cocking and resting a thick hind leg. “We are happy to welcome you to the Edge,” his low voice rumbles simply. Though he wondered what caused her to leave the Basin (and he had many questions about the Basin, itself), he respected the bloodline of his friend enough to stave off such inquires.
image

Please tag Tembovu.

Glacia Posts: 111
Aurora Basin Medic atk: 4.0 | def: 8.0 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 Years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Name :: Snowy Owl :: None Nessie
#3



I am not left waiting long. The greeter to welcome me is huge... And vaguely familiar. Hadn't I met him once before? Recruiting or something of the sort.

But I do not falter. Mostly because his greeting is kind. "Hello, Mauja's daughter. I am Tembovu." His voice seems to rumble, and his lead lowers so to seem smaller. But his height would not bother me, unless he happened to be attacking. However, he was not, and I was more concerned with finding my father. I nod to him respectfully, eyes never dropping from his face. "Thank you Tembovu, for answering my call. I had feared I was not in the right place. I am Glacia."

He speaks once more, and informs me that the Edge was happy to welcome me, which brings a smile to my molted muzzle. A soft sigh of relief travels from my nose, because despite the giants gentle demeanor, I had feared rejection. Why? I had not the slightest idea, but maybe it was my upbringing. Some tended to be cold towards Basiners, and they seemed to sometimes let them judge others, not based on what one has done, but what their past mates had done.

But again, hadn't my father done those things too? He was king after all (Or so I believed). No, my fears had been foolish. I would not have been turned away here. "That is reassuring, Tembovu. However, I must ask if you have seen my father? Is he still king? You seem to know of him, but I do not know if he still lingers. He can move around a lot, and I must confess to not knowing him nearly as well as I want."

Hope is in the undertones of my words and in the deepness of my blue eyes. Maybe something had happened, and maybe he had chosen to leave. But would he have left without saying goodbye?

"talk talk talk talk "



I HAD A HEART THEN
but the queen has been overthrown

full image


@Tembovu
Thank you so much! And I'm sorry this took me a little to get back to ya!
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
#4

i am the vanguard of your destruction
But would he have left without saying goodbye?
"Am I pitiful now?"

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

With Snö lying broken in her own blood on the sands, Mauja would've—gladly—taken leave of his sanity without second thought of those who still loved him. Selfishly, he would've abandoned any and all sense if it would've dulled the aching, bleeding, beating roar in his chest. He would've done it, and it would've defied looking back, and he would've become d'Artagnan—ripping chests open and punching them straight in the heart.

But Mauja had not been offered the choice of ignorant bliss, had not been given a path of forgetful darkness; he had been left out in the cold world, every voice like glass shards rubbed under his skin, every word a war waged against his soul, until their stubbornness had driven him back to his feet and forced him to go on.

"I am searching for my father, Mauja the Frostheart, although I hear he goes by the Frozen Light now."

Do I—?

Deep in the heart of the woods, Mauja's eyes flickered open to the sunlit world. A note of confusion threaded its way through his consciousness—Frozen Light? The words were unfamiliar in his mouth, jagged edges and unknown imagery.

He had spent years mocking the title the world had stuck on him so long ago, and now it seemed the tides had turned without him even noticing. Slowly, he shrugged. Maybe it was something from a snippet of a conversation with someone, something mockingly said, the Light of Dawn—somehow transmuted into Frozen Light.

Lost in the thoughts of his own naming, it took him a few seconds to realize what he was actually supposed to realize.

Glacia was here.

Glacia had come looking for him. Glacia had come looking for a home. Glacia, who had nearly drowned in the Endless Blue, saved only by this faux-light angel standing in the foggy forest, dumbstruck. Glacia, Glacia, Glacia, the lost little child of the north, looking for him

And it takes all that he can give to not see her lying broken and bleeding upon the sand, glacial eyes frozen in death—

What the fuck was she doing here? Had something happened to Sialia?

Love warred with selfishness and grief—he loved because it was in his nature, he loved because he had no say in it, he loved even when it hurt and when he wished he didn't. But.. he was so tired. What if she would come here, looking for him, for his affection, his dedication, his guidance and his presence, only to find him cold and distant, lacking? What if she would turn out like Snö, a cold-hearted bitch raised by blizzards and wolves, to the point where she could not admit that she loved him, only because he had been much the same way?

Life threw him a second chance, but what did that matter, when it would make nothing better for Snö? She was dead. She wouldn't be happier just because he didn't mess up her little sister.

He hadn't even noticed it but suddenly he was there, watching as Tembovu greeted his little girl—and she wasn't so little anymore, nearly filling out the sturdy frame she'd got from him. "Is he still king?" And it hurt, listening to her voice, to her confessions, because it was like seeing himself through the eyes of another—through their experiences, their thoughts, and it felt like distance. Like.. something out of a story—something not quite real. Someone not quite real, a transient walker who drifted in and out of existence like a dream. She didn't 'know him well' and yet she knew that about him—that he drifted. It made him laugh, bitterly, in the shadows.

[ @Glacia @Tembovu ]
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Erthë Posts: 440
Outcast atk: 5.5 | def: 8.5 | dam: 5.5
Filly :: Hybrid :: 14,2 hh :: 3 years HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Chan
#5

Snippets of conversation came drifting on the wind. With lazy curiosity the winter white filly pricked her ears to listen, not so much because she wanted to eavesdrop but rather because she had nothing else to do. It was too warm, her belly was full of grass, her muscles ached from a morning spent in intense concentration as she practiced archery, and the shade beneath the trees was cool and pleasant. It was a good day - a day where the poppy flower still remained in effect, where she was free of pain and where the everyday activities of the herd kept her from getting bored.

Stray words came clearer to her than others. Topics such as 'Basin', 'join' and 'father' teased her with their riddle like hints and suggestions, and when a familiar deep voice fell in to reply the filly almost automatically unfurled the long legs and got to her feet, on her way towards the Elephant man without even stopping to consider whether she was needed - or even welcome - there or not. It wasn't so much a question of making herself useful as to sate the ever growing curiosity, to get herself involved and understand. Being a part of a herd was deeply interesting, Erthë threw herself into the goings on with heart and soul and loved every moment of it - especially the part where she got to meet new, previously unknown friends.

She had almost reached Tembovu and the new recruit when a white blur among the trees caught her eye. Blinking curiously the filly eyed Mauja, whom to her appeared rather undecided as to whether he wanted to join the other two or not. She'd picked up enough of the conversation to grasp that it was his daughter that had arrived, and this skulking, eavesdropping behavior made no sense at all to her. In an instant she made a few rapid decisions and changed course, stepping towards the pale stallion with easy strides that, despite the heavy limp, remained eerily quiet and almost graceful.

"Aren't you going to say hello?" she asked him as she made to glide in by his side. Making no attempt to lower her voice or hide her presence, Erthë studied the man with steady gaze, trying to understand what went on behind the expressionless facade that caused his dry laugh. "She came to see you, you know. At the very least you should let her know you're here."

Without further ado the small girl continued forward, on through the thicket and up towards the other two, emerging from the misty shadows into the bright sunlight with a smile on her lips as hungry eyes roved across the dark figure of the girl.

"Hi Tembu!" she greeted easily, "hi Glacia! I'm Erthë. Welcome to the Edge! Mauja's just over there" she said, nodding towards the hiding place of the unicorn, feeling rather pleased with herself as she revealed his hiding place - or whatever he was doing.



Erthë
the      night      is      calling      my      name

image credit


@Tembovu
@Glacia
@Mauja - hope I interpreted mauja's actions correctly, if not I'll edit :)

~| Use of magic and violence is always permitted |~
~| Please only tag in opening posts |~

Calista Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#6
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Upon hearing the commotion, Calista made her way over to Erthe and their king, Tembovu. Mauja held back. Through the corner of her cyan eye, she spyed the snowy figure hiding among the trees. She knew that he wasn't really hiding. He did not seem to be the scared type. Rather, it appeared that he was hesitant to show himself on some account unbeknownst to her. Dismissing his act of unfriendliness with a small frown, she followed Erthe down the path. It was not hard to tell from her call that the little girl was new to the Edge. The ink-marked mare did not hesitate to greet Glacia with a warm smile.

So Mauja had another daughter. That was hardly a surprise. The spotted unicorn was a handsome fellow. The last time she had seen the Frozenheart, or now the Frozen Light, he had looked awefully down in the dumps; heartbroken, distraught, and lonely. He looked a mess. Losing a loved one could do that to you. Calista knew the feeling, and she was not the only horse who did, sadly. She pitied the man who had so generously offered to share his home with her. Although she wanted to express her sympathy, Calista did not quite know what to say. She didn't want to accidentally say something rude or annoying. Besides, he probably wouldn't want to talk about it, she reasoned. Please look past your pain for a moment and have the courtesy to say hello, the mare thought. It simply wouldn't be fair not to greet Glacia, who clearly must've loved him. Why else would she come here? To her satisfaction, Erthe spoke up before Calista had time to make an irritated remark.

Without further ado the woman reached the clearing. Taking her place beside the others, the Moon Doctor was happy to be representing the World's Edge. Calista hoped to make Glacia feel just as comfortable as she had felt upon her own arrival. Calista wondered where the midnight-colored filly had come from. She seemed young to be travelling by herself. Bowing politely to her herdmates upon her arrival, Calista stepped forward. The woman was delighted to introduce herself, and began to do so at once.

"Good afternoon little one!  My name is Calista, and I am a Moon Doctor of the Edge. I'm delighted to offer you the most hospitable welcome I can."


"Talk?"
image credits


@Tembovu
@Mauja
@Erthë
@Glacia

Tembovu the Elephant Posts: 805
World's Edge Captain atk: 7 | def: 9.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 18hh :: 10 HP: 77 | Buff: SWIFT
Mbwene :: African Elephant :: Ashen smitty
#7
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls
the most massive characters are seared with scars
He bobbed his head as she introduced herself. “You thought you were in the wrong place?” His low voice was amused in his question, “I’m not sure I know of any more edges or misty forests in Helovia,” his mirthful words were accompanied by a playful wink towards the dark, thick mare. At her probing questions of her sire’s Kingship, he shifted his weight uneasily to all four hooves— no longer cocking a hind leg in ease.

Though he was saved from an immediate answer by a harsh, bitter, and vaguely familiar laugh from the forest’s murky shadows. Heavy head twisted around, searching the mists for the source. Though his inspection was cut short by the appearance of his little pearly, porcelain hybrid. A grin crossed his face, “Hello, little Erthe. It appears that I’ve seen much of you lately.” But, at the warmth evident in his eyes, it seemed that the Elephant quite liked the white shadow he had gained in the Edge. Allowing Vadim and his daughter to cross into the Edge had been a good decision— despite the reservations and rocky initial interactions between himself and the ex-Basiner stallion.

Though, at the rest of her words, his eyes swiveled to the mist— Mauja must have been the source of the harsh chuckle. It surprised the giant, for he (incorrectly) assumed that a father that lost one daughter would hold close to any other children. He felt that is what he, himself, would do. But how would he know? He had only lost all his loved ones at once.

Another pale body approached, though this one was marked with two areas of ebony. He recognizes Calista, the good Moon Doctor as she extended an amiable welcome to Glacia. He was glad to have so many greet a newcomer to the herd, but his ears splayed sideways in uncertainty as he sought the gaze of his friend and former King. Was an audience too much for such a friable mindset?

Masking his unease with a purse of his lips, he turned his attentions back to Glacia. “You’ve drawn quiet the welcoming committee, it seems,” a slightly smile punctuated his low rumble. “But, in answer to your question: No, your father is no longer King of the Edge,” he paused, studying her, “I am.”
image

@Glacia

Please tag Tembovu.

Glacia Posts: 111
Aurora Basin Medic atk: 4.0 | def: 8.0 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 Years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Name :: Snowy Owl :: None Nessie
#8


It seems I have drawn the crowd. I hadn't noticed my father, and I had only been focused on the giants uncomfortable movement, and my eyes narrowed as he shifted his weight. Why would he act so nervous?

Had something happened?? My blood runs cold, and automatically my mind turns to the worst possible scenario, had my father had an accident? Did he die? Had I missed my chance? Or had he finally dropped off the deep end. Was he murdering? No, he couldn't possibly do something that horrible.... At least not again, right?

No, his shifting movement causes me to become distracted at his attempt to be funny, and in my momentary panic his humor passes over my head.

But by then the dry laugh turns my attention to the forest. Almost immediately after, there is the voice of a young girl, telling the laughing man off, before emerging from the foliage with a heavy limp.

He's right over there.

My eyes flick towards where she had emerged, and then back to the girl. I plaster a smile on my face, nodding to her. "Hello Erthë. It is certainly a pleasure to meet you." I nod to her, just as another pale mare comes upon us. Well, mostly. She has a blackened face, and her tail end was also the ebony color.

She approaches from the same place as the younger filly, and I cringe inwardly at being referred to as "little one", especially since I was standing at her shoulder with her, and certainly not a little one any more. But despite the slight irritation, I smile. She was only trying to greet me after all. My ears however move forward slightly at the mention of her being a moon doctor. "It is lovely to meet you Calista, and thank you for the warm welcome. I am interested in the arts of healing, so I am sure I will be visiting you in the close future."

And yet he had not emerged from his hiding place yet. I felt slighted by it, but I swallowed the pride and held my head high. I was better than that. I wouldn't let it get to me. He wouldn't become to me what he became to Sno. I wouldn't let myself become the cold hearted and lonely monster she had.

My thoughts return to those who stood before me know, more specifically, Tembovu. I nod in agreement to his assessment of the "greeting committee", and listen to his low rumbling voice, as he finally answers my question.

My father was no longer king. Tembovu was.

My brows raise in mild surprise, and I planned to ask my father exactly why he was no longer the king of the Edge. But that would have to wait. Instead I nod to Tembovu, and begin to offer him my congratulations.

"Congratulations on becoming the king Tembovu. I am sure you will make a noble one. I would be happy to serve under you."

"talk talk talk talk "



I HAD A HEART THEN
but the queen has been overthrown

full image


@Mauja
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
#9

i am the vanguard of your destruction
[ idk what's up with this thread? but here goes. :/ ]

"BECAUSE IT HURTS!" he flung after the white filly, as she 'revealed' his hiding place, and sounding all too pleased about it. And the fog parted around him—drew back at his approach to reveal the haggard, haunted Mauja. His eyes had a darkness to them that had nothing to do with shadows, his stance that of a startled, wounded deer—his voice a broken thing rustling the world like wind. He was—had been—'just over there' because it hurt. Because, when loving left you feeling like your heart beat with glass shards in it, wasn't the most logical, the most simple, solution to stop loving? To distance oneself completely? Live the life of a loner, abandon all he had ever cherished, and everyone he had held dear, and simply walk in his isolation, free from the eventual pain of loss.

The easy thing would've been to turn away, and head back into the fog. Disappear. Walk off the edge of the world for all that anyone knew. It would spare him from the pain. It wouldn't spare them.

So guilt kept him here, because he knew how bad it hurt to be abandoned.

(And, somewhere, deep within—there was a creature who loved, and who loved to love, but was so afraid and hurt it hardly dared to.)

"It hurts—" he went on, unable to shake that mad, erratic edge from his being, from his voice. There was a tremble to it, as if he was only moments from breaking. (And maybe he was.) "—to know that of all the things your daughter knows about you, she knows that you drift. I know what I did to Snö. I saw it. I felt it. I lived it. And I know it's not up to me to decide, but I can't help but think that—that—that her life would be better without me in it. I just bring pain. Mauja, the fucking Painbringer. I break things without meaning to, and when I try to fix it, it just falls apart even more!"

His sides were heaving, head held high to the sky. Despite the harshness of his voice, of his words, there was desperation in them, and pain in his eyes; because what else could he feel? The world had driven him to his knees. To feel like you .. ruined .. the lives of your children—that they would be better off without you—was not an easy thing to feel.

"Do not dare to fault me for being weak," he snarled at them, a wounded animal lashing out in blind terror lest they see his weakness and prey upon it—and knowing that he could fool no one. The last thing he wanted was a sermon on how he was her father, how he should be strong for her, how he should suffer for her sake because she was his child. The last thing he wanted was for someone to point out to him how cowardly it was to seek the easy way out, so he threw it at them like a broken spear before they had the chance to breathe it.

"I'm just not strong enough to love," he sobbed and fled the scene, leaving only a trail of quickly melting frost upon the ground.

[ @Erthë @Glacia @Calista ]
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Erthë Posts: 440
Outcast atk: 5.5 | def: 8.5 | dam: 5.5
Filly :: Hybrid :: 14,2 hh :: 3 years HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Chan
#10

She smiled. Shyly to Calista, the healer she had never really exchanged words with before, happily to Glacia - the new girl who seemed likable enough and who greeted the dove so graciously. The quirk of her lips turned mischievous as she turned to Tembovu - the new King was right, they did bump into each other rather a lot.

"It's because I can be in three places at once, didn't you know!?" she jested with a cheeky jerk of the head, eyes glittering while alabaster curls bounced a merry dance around her face.

She would have said more, but even the words she did utter were half drowned by the bellow of a heartbroken man. His scream made her jump in place, not so much perhaps because he shouted after her but more because every syllable reminded her of some wounded animal, near death and terrified with the prospect that it might be saved. Erthë spun on her heels and winced as her weak leg protested, wobbled in place and actually retreated a few step as she was faced with the frosthearted Queen.

It was quite the impressive display he offered. She might have been wholeheartedly impressed, if it hadn't been for the load of bull he delivered. Slowly the eyes of the dove turned cold, hard, glittering gems of tourmaline and quartz that took little pity in the cries of this wounded beast.

So, he was bleeding. He had lost someone and grieved them. And? She had lost someone too. That didn't mean she stood skulking in the underbrush while her father kept on living. That didn't mean she had a right to push her own sorrow, pain, guilt and loneliness onto others. Being sad didn't give you the right to scream at people. Or to abandon those who still loved you.

Mauja turned and ran, and Erthë watched him go with her mouth drawn into a line, thin with disapproval.

"I didn't think you weak at all, until just now" she called after him, ice lacing every syllable, "and the only one who faults you for it is you."  

But he was gone and her words were swallowed up by the forest, blown away on a cold wind. Snorting, ruffled feathers rising and falling along her shoulders in bristling agitation, the vicious little dove turned her attention to Glacia, the daughter who didn't even get the benefit of her father's trust - the daughter he, without hardly knowing her, had declared to be better off without a father.

What would any father know of a daughters needs? How presumptuous of him to assume it was his strength she needed, rather than his tears, his laughter, his beating red heart or whatever warmth remained in those frost-rimmed veins of his.

How selfish he was, to rob Glacia of the chance to be stronger than him.

"I'm sorry" she said, voice lowering until it was barely more than a whisper. "I should have let you shout at him..."




Erthë
the      night      is      calling      my      name

image credit


@Calista
@Tembovu

~| Use of magic and violence is always permitted |~
~| Please only tag in opening posts |~

Tembovu the Elephant Posts: 805
World's Edge Captain atk: 7 | def: 9.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 18hh :: 10 HP: 77 | Buff: SWIFT
Mbwene :: African Elephant :: Ashen smitty
#11
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls
the most massive characters are seared with scars
The slight grin at Erthe’s cheeky reply was quickly swept clear off his broad face as the dethroned king shouted. Eyes crinkle in a frown. He felt like an intruder on this cathartic yelling, the moment that should have been shared between father and daughter. Even if the catharsis was aimed at everyone and no one, it still felt like a private instant suddenly made public— a display of a man’s pain for them all to ogle and pass judgment. And who was he to judge? Who were any of them to judge?

The mind has a way of packaging grief— some minds are better at it than others, to be sure. Usually, and woefully, it is both experience and practice that makes one more adept. But sometimes, like poison, too much grief overwhelms the threshold, and suddenly you’re spiraling and snarling and striking out. You become reduced to a primitive and feral beast focused on self-preservation. Because the soul is so tattered, so raw, that if it’s not protected, it will disintegrate. And what will you be then?

The Elephant did not want to know.

So he waited and watched, in sad and solemn silence as Mauja raved. An ear tilted sideways in uneasy concern for his friend, biting back his placating and comforting words. The heaving sides of the spotted man would make his ears deaf to anything the giant would have said in that moment. “Do not dare to fault me for being weak.” But the King, in that moment, did not see a weak man. A grieving man, a broken man, yes. But not a weak man. A weak man would not rant at the arrival of his daughter, nor punish himself for the faults of fate. A weak man would collapse beneath the sands of time, fading to a whisper in the dust of destiny. Mauja stood, shoulders trembling beneath the weight of his misfortune— yet he still stood, adhering to whatever cardinal direction his compass pointed. The giant wanted to call out, to stop him, to tell him these things. But the Elephant let him go, in silent contradiction.

But Erthe did not let him go so peacefully, shouting small icicles at his retreating back. Blue eyes, dark and dismal, turned first to Glacia and then to Erthe. They both had lost someone; Erthe her mother and Glacia her sister (though he did not know if they had been close). She also stood on a precipice of losing her father, as the leopard physically fled from the possibility of love. He studied them both for a moment, Glacia with a evaluating eye and Erthe with a sterner, colder stare. “Grief changes a person— no matter how big or small the loss. And, truly, time will fade the pain, even if the sorrow never fully leaves. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that, when fate strikes and takes what it will, you do not let that grief, that anguish, turn you hard and unfeeling towards the misery of others. And it will try to do so, it will make you measure other’s sorrows against your own and find them wanting. But does that matter?” His impassioned monologue paused for a breath, before answering his own question, “No. Because in the end, everyone has lost. Every heart has broken or ached. If, from your own pain, you can find compassion and understanding, then, and only then, will whatever was lost not have been in vain.”

His tirade of words, spoken as much to himself as the women around him, left him breathless and speechless. Eyes, flaming blue with the power and passion of what he spoken, looked over them all before he began to move away, “I am glad you have joined us in the Edge, Glacia.” His voice, now subdued was spoken over his shoulder as he began to melt into the mist.
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@Glacia @Callista ...well, if you wanted a Temb-tirade, then you got one! If not... you still got one :|

Please tag Tembovu.


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