the Rift


[PRIVATE] Let only the stars judge

Katerina Posts: 37
Outcast
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.1 HH :: 97[8 in Helovia]
ShadowMare
#1
She had ventured away from the edge, discovered new people, new dialects, new colors and tastes. She was doing well, managing underneath all the overwhelming patterns and terrains, people and lifestyles. The silver just kept persevering through the challenges that time and change brought her. Eventually she would look back on this time, and smile because she got through it. Katerina would prosper, that she knew.

Her hooves landed on the only slightly familiar thing to her, the soft footing of the world's edge. The mist rolled in thick tonight, and it swallowed her legs and part of her barrel. She could barely see, and not knowing the edge well, panic slowly set in as her silver eyes became wide by realization that night fall had already come. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she was blinded and had walked without tracking her steps. Her ears were forward and attentive, listening and straining to hear any steps of another, anything that could lead her from the thickness and darkness. After several minutes had passed, Katerina found her voice, a whinny reaching out to any who could help. It was in her native tongue, which caused the sound to be a very luring, high-pitch melody. Hoping, praying that one would come, she hummed the song of her people, soft silken words calming the damsel in distress.



@Tembovu


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
I have loved so hard
that it broke my heart—
Night had fallen in the Edge, and with it came a heavy fog that clung to trees and lingered as droplets on skin. The King had backed himself against two, thick trunks to rest his heavy weight against their gnarled surfaces. Though the roughness did not bother his thick and scarred hide— it had seen worse insults than this.

His resting was a futile endeavor, truly. It was more a routine set of actions than a true relaxation of his mind. But, still, in the cloak of mist and shadows, his head hung level with his withers and his eyelids closed over navy eyes— eyes that had lost their good humor. Eyes that had become darker, sadder, despite the rich promises Helovia offered.

Ears strained forward and his great head flew up— a distressed whinny floated through the trunks of the Edge. But the sounds was different, lilting and melodic, despite the fearful undertones. And it was strangely (hauntingly) familiar. He found that he was already briskly moving towards the sound, before even realizing that he had left his alcove of pines.

Thick legs swept across the leaf-littered earth, while his gargantuan body wove with surprising ease between the trunks. It had become second nature to him— so different than his first, awkward entrance into the Threshold, where he had become caught between the trunks. Eyes probed the dark fog, ears perked and swiveling to listen for any indication of whoever was in need.

And then, quite abruptly, he halted— nearly upon the celestial maiden’s haunches. The thick mist and his brisk pace had given him little warning of her presence. A long, warm breath escapes him, adding to the condensation in the air, as he sees that she is not injured or otherwise physically in danger. Gently, he reached his broad muzzle out towards her flank, to alert the mare of his own,close presence in the fog.

“Katerina,” his rumble is quiet, “It seems I only find you in the company of your family,” his eyes flickered upwards, towards the stars hidden by the mist. “Are you alright?”
—only to build me up
stronger again.
tembovu
image | table


@Katerina sorry for the wait <3

Please tag Tembovu.

Katerina Posts: 37
Outcast
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.1 HH :: 97[8 in Helovia]
ShadowMare
#3

She is so lost in the voice of her melody, in the song of her ancestors that she does not notice his presence. It had grasped her, the song of soft lengths and high chimes, twisting her touch to reality and bringing her back to the interstellar worlds. It quickly ended as the touch of another spooked her, embarrassment leaking through silver eyes that one was to hear such sacred harmony. Her body swung away from that touch(she was so unoftently touched, so tenderly touched) flank spinning away as she faced her assumed predator. She could not yet to decipher if the man was predator or fellow, for the man that echoed in blue orbs was not the man she knew. Her heart clenches, sorrowful, wanting only for the bright light to return to his orbs.

He speaks then and she is momentarily distracted, but when his eyes return back to her and ask of her health, she cannot help but once again gaze in those torn, broken eyes. He could try to hide it if he wished, but Katerina read stars and if she could understand the meaning of patterns and colors, the windows of the soul were no different, no veil would so easily fool her. Shaking her horned head, the mare spoke, words soft, but laced with the stubbornness that would not allow him to evade her, if he so attempted. "I am fine, but I believe the question is more accurately, are you okay?" She asks, no demanded, then.

It is as she waits for his answer that her eyes drift across the mass of tembovu, the muscle, the power, the scars. She wanders more, wanting to know more about him, to explore every crevice and shadow of the depths of his mind. Had any dared to get to know him so well? Had any cared? Was there something so little known about the man that the silver could discover? What had broken the blue and turned his vibrant peaceful oceans into the echo of devastation after a sorrowful sea storm?

@Tembovu

 

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
#4
I have loved so hard
that it broke my heart—
She twitched in both surprise and fear, grey flank melting away under his muzzle as she spun to face him. Silver eyes stare into his own, probing— and he suppresses the urge to look away, to keep his shadows and demons secret. He cannot know how much she sees in his gaze, but he knows that he avoids his reflection so that he do not have look into his own eyes. Black-dotted ears remained pointed towards her as she speaks, her soft voice and enrapturing accent once again beginning to weave a spell between them in the misted darkness.

But, this time, at least the King knew to expect it. And the weight in his barrel kept him grounded, rather than being swept into the sea of stars and night. He does not answers her question right away— for the true answer was a long and complicated one. Instead he stands silently, facing her beneath the drifting caress of her gaze. Mercury eyes linger on the multitude of scars that litter his hide. He had added new ones in Helovia— his right shoulder twitches with the memory of a goddess’s claws raking through his flesh.

But those wounds, physical ones, were so much preferable to those he carried in his mind. Perhaps that’s why he threw himself so wholly and readily into battle. He sighed softly, finally parting lips to break the evening’s stillness with his low rumble, “I’ve not been ’okay’ for a long time.” Since I’ve buried my life and turned myself to vengeance. “But I am here, breathing. As are you. And that accounts for much more than being ‘okay.’”
—only to build me up
stronger again.
tembovu
image | table


@Kateina

Please tag Tembovu.

Katerina Posts: 37
Outcast
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.1 HH :: 97[8 in Helovia]
ShadowMare
#5
 

He answered her and it was if she was surprised that he had admitted to the plague that rested within the minds of the nations. She wasn't at the same time, for when she wants to know, it has been little that she has been left wondering. Katerina doesn't stop at no, for no is only more encouragement to keep searching, poking. She had seen this case before, had watched it destroy love, light, and horses, had experienced it herself. It seemed that she had never gotten over it. That this plague was always there, ever-changing to taunt her however it wished, the worst parasite of them all. She had learnt to let the sharps of it's needles become dull and blunt, but she had the time of decades on her side, and still Katerina was a mere novice. Her memory did not expand to those days of mourn that she had felt pain so vividly, but still, she knew of the pain that he felt, the "not okay" he explained.

"It accounts for something, you are right. But Tembovu, if life is lived off such a moto, does one not get tried of simply counting breath? Do you not wish, strive to soar, to live, to love?"  She askes, wishing to reach out, to feel the warmth underneath the corded muscle and tan cloak. Katerina does not want to see such shielded pain, such carefully guarded walls. She only wants to comfort him. She does not move though, for the silver only knows the character that rests within blue orbs, but she does not know the exceptions, the Tembovu of the King. She does not know if she will ever get to see that, but she hopes, hopes with all that she has, for if all he needed was a little care, Katerina would be fulfilled to have shown him.

@Tembovu

 

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
#6
I have loved so hard
that it broke my heart—
Eyes cast aside as she questions his statement. Her gaze strips him of any semblance of mask he wished to wear to hide the shadows (the anger) that grew and lurked within him. But there is something freeing in the night; as if the shadows of the evening can replace the masks we wear. Or, at least, the darkness lulls us to believe such fallacies, only to lure out whatever repressed motives and desires lurk and allow them to flourish in the night. Shadows can only hide so much…

So, hide rippling as dew droplets tickled in their yielding to gravity, he looks up to the celestial mare. She seems so ephemeral in the mists, almost unreal with her lilting words and hopeful eyes. So opposite the harsh reality that storms inside the Elephant. “Does one get tired of counting breaths?” he repeats her question, his voice growing stronger and rougher, “Perhaps my own. But there are some breaths I still wish I could be counting,” his vague answer carries a weight, masking slipping further. “Once, I wished to love— once I wished to ‘soar,’ as you put it,” his voice gains an edge, some anger leaking from his darkness, “But now, now that I have plummeted twice from the heights of devotion, I find it less alluring.” Does that me me a coward?” His anger flared in response to his thought; he was no coward. He was a man bent by betrayal of someone who looked like Mara, someone who had held a whisper in his chest.

But no longer. Attempting to subdue his burgeoning vexation, he turned a question to Katerina, “Do you? Do you seek these things?” His hide was taunt over angrily flexed muscles.
—only to build me up
stronger again.
tembovu
image | table


@Katerina

Please tag Tembovu.

Katerina Posts: 37
Outcast
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.1 HH :: 97[8 in Helovia]
ShadowMare
#7
 


The silver listens, she lets the hollowed man fill the voids of this night with his sorrows, his angers, watching with calm orbs as his voice fluctuates and changes. She cannot help but to wonder what his story is, to know who's breaths he'd still want to count. There were many who's breaths she had lost count of, many that she too wishes she could still count. Katerina had accepted it though, realized that those lost and forgotten breaths were still being counted, still being cared for, whether it is by their creator, or by some other who was not her; those breaths still mattered to someone.

The horns upon her crown shook with the movement of her head as she disagreed with the man's words. Love, oh love, how painful thou art. No matter the pains, the obstacles, the devastation, Katerina would never give up on love. It was something she craved, to care for someone on such levels as love, well it was her goal. She had loved her brother, had loved him with all the chords of her heart, and when he passed, it had shattered her. She had put herself back together though, and the silver had never once considered to not love like that again. Perhaps there won't come a time that she has the chance, but Katerina had loved, does love, and will love again. "You can't say that. You can't let the choices of others take away such a beautiful thing, perhaps the beautifulest thing of all. You just can't." She whispers, her words laced with tongues of the wind. It is such a horrible thing to see hopelessness, to see one so capable, so powerful shield himself for the fear of getting hurt. We all fear that, she could not deny it, but the difference between the interstellar traveler and this man was that Katerina had not only seen how love could destroy but also how love could bind. When the silver thought of love, she didn't think of the horrors, she thought of the possibilities. If only the world saw it this way.

It is with absolute confidence Katerina answers his question, her pale orbs seeping into those dulled azure ones, "Yes, I believe it is my purpose. Not some purpose on the grand-scale of life, but a purpose meant for myself. I owe myself the joys that those things offer me. I want to soar, to live, to love. I do not fear heartbreak, for the thought of love is much more fulfilling then the thought of the latter." She says, stepping forward then, nearing the tense body of the cream. She does not hesitate this time, stretching up she traces the dark marking on his barrel with her muzzle, working her way around his body until she stops at his shoulder where three healed over claws marks lay branded in his skin. "Love is very much like scars. You can either choose for them to be a treasured addition or a painful reminder, and the scars upon my heart are just that, memories of what was once beautiful and never reminders of what is now broken." The silver finishes, offering the stallion her knowledge over the decades of her life. He can do with it what he wishes, but she hopes that this will help ease the pain hidden behind a veil of blue.


@Tembovu

 

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
#8
I have loved so hard
that it broke my heart—
His ears flick back, and then mildly pin, as she speaks. He couldn’t do that? He couldn’t shield himself from the memories, from the chest-burning pain of loss? From seeing the swollen sides of a mare who had held him in her grasp— had his beating heart in her web of lies? He couldn’t do it?

Why not?

Eyes, growing hot with anger sadly misdirected towards Katerina and himself, watch her lips as they whisper words she so believed to be true. But he remains rigid, tense and silent, waiting for her to answer his questions. There was nothing on his tongue that would benefit either him or the celestial mare, so he held it.

Ears slowly swivel forward as her silver eyes peer directly into his navy ones with the purity and honesty of her answer. And it is that honesty that tempers the anger building within him— her sincerity written plainly on her delicate face and lilting accent. “You do not fear heartbreak?” The question was rough in his deep voice. The idea provoked thought in him— did he fear heartbreak? No. He did not. He feared the loss of those he loved and the resurgence of demons when he lost them.

He opened his mouth to say such things, but only a low groan escaped his thick lips as Katerina’s velvet, silver muzzle was suddenly tracing the black line on his barrel. It had been so long since the soft touch of a woman had been on his hide— at least this kind of touch. Only burning glares and sad stares had touched his skin. In the darkness, he could not help but to lean into the caress, fully indulging the heat that sparked beneath his barrel.

The scars she spoke of twitched as her muzzle traced them, his own head turning to watch her. Navy eyes had darkened— but not with anger, this time. “Then I have many ‘treasured additions,’” his voice was lower now, growing thicker with the heat that she was building in him. “Katerina, what are you doing?” his question was coupled with his eyes flickered between his hide and her muzzle, before his own lips reached out towards the familiar territory of the constellation on her neck.
—only to build me up
stronger again.
tembovu
image | table

Please tag Tembovu.


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