"Where brilliance is good and madness is better..."
Helovia Info
Helovia opened in February 2012! We are an active fantasy equine RPG
Where once the world narrowed into naught but gray dust and desolation, the gods called for life. Wielding the elements of fire and light, dark and wind, earth and water, spark and time, they have created Helovia. The realm is set within the mythical globe of Loorien, a planet rich with all variety of creatures and blessed with all manner of magic. Originally populated by nomadic, tribal characters, they've since grown into massive empires saturated with culture and history. Separated into four distinct segments of Helovia, called "The Regions," each band of horse strong enough and capable enough, took up the power and responsibility of leadership. Unicorns, old, wise and mysterious, took to the north, hidden in forests of mists and shadows and rarely making themselves known beyond their cliffs of the World's Edge. Equines, vast, organized and militaristic, split into two, one group went north to the Windtossed Foothills and the other group went south to the Dragon's Throat. Pegasus remained nomadic, making their homes in various parts of The Wilds in a migratory manner. For many generations, the land was peaceful and calm, but peace was never the way of the gods. With a clash of argument, war and bloodshed massacred Helovia, and in the aftermath, the realm was eerily quiet. Now, as newcomers sweep into this land, they are met with the lingering bitterness of the gods and the struggle to reclaim what was lost. Nothing remains safe or certain while sorcerers and soldiers alike brood and bide their time for revenge, honor and glory.
Site Wide Plots
Kaos :: The Beginning of the End ☼ - 6/2017 - Kaos placed Helovia in a time-bubble for a short period of time, but the Helovian gods are fighting back. But Kaos is powerful- far more powerful than anyone thought. This may be the beginning of the end of Helovia as we know it.
Kisamoa :: A New Kind of Kaos ☼ - 3/2017 - Kisamoa asks Helovians to help him restore the Spectral Marsh. Which side will you choose?
Invasions :: All Out War ☼ - 5/2/16 - New layout and the brand new invasion rules are up! Thank you for your patience and we look forward to getting started with this new adventure.
The Rift :: Gods Do Die ☼ - 8/2015 - Helovia Gods are saving the Rift from corrupt gods! Can Helovians band together against these foreign deities?
The Literal Ship ☼ - 2/8/15 - Oh no! You have to pair up for Valentine's day!
Sky Island :: Murder ☼ - 10/25/14 - Vesta has been found dead on the island, and the gods have called to you to solve the murder!
Sky Island :: Peace ☼ - 7/7/14 - An island has appeared in the sky! Clouds carry Helovians from the Veins to the sky.
Restoration :: We Welcome the Dawn ☼ - 9/21/13 - The sun has finally risen on this day, giving the land new light, but the Time God and the Sun God have yet to be seen.
Endless Night :: Broken Magic Plot ☼ - 8/30/13 - The earth god has returned and is walking across Helovia to heal the land. Every area can now be considered lush and prosperous, but the sun has still not risen.
☼ - 7/19/13 - The moon has risen in the sky, heralding the return of the Goddess of the moon. Lamp trees which light the paths have grown brighter, moon flowers which grow in dark places have begun to grow and prosper and the world is brighter, filled with a new hope.
Endless Night :: Dead Magic Plot ☼ - 6/22/13 - The gods of Helovia, in order to protect the world, have disappeared into the rift, leaving the world sunless, moonless and magic-less in their absence. Only the herdlands have a source of light, but lamp-trees with glowing leaves and branches sporadically line the popular roads and paths from place to place.
Doppleganger Plot ☼ - 6/20/13 - The God of Time is still struggling to close the rift though which the dopplegangers have come. He has requested that his brothers and sister assist in closing this hole, but without knowing why it opened, the task is proving difficult. Magic still remains faulty and hard to control, but the herdlands continue to be places of refuge for those who are fortunate enough to call these lands home.
ORANGEMOON cools off the lands with a a viscious force. Colder than normal, a sign of things to come during Frostfall, Helovia is bathed in a rich tropical lushness - albiet a cold one. The coastlines of the Dragon's Throat are pelted constantly by tidal waves, and the desert climate is humid but chilly. Ice begins to form early in the Aurora Basin leaving the winding trails slick and dangerous. The mists of the World's Edge coat everything in a glistening crystalline shine which encourages mould to grow everywhere. The Spectral Marsh is the only area which remains fertile, blissfully temperature and lush.
Cotm
Character of the Month for
June, 2017
WEAVER, Corporal of the Aurora Basin, is a relatively recent addition to Helovia and has taken it by storm. Branded with the seal of Death on her chest, intrigue and interest follow both her past and present. Though she is assuredly beautiful, her sometimes sharp personality reveals that there is more to this uni-peg hybrid than meets the eye. Proving herself able on the battlefield in the Basin’s warrior ranks, we can’t wait to see her test her mettle against the looming Kaos happenings! Congratulations!
Helovia RPG was created by Tamme and Blu and coded by Tamme also known as Schwartze. All coding, palettes and imagery are copyrighted to the website and are not for use outside of Helovia. Thank you to our ServerMaster for hosting Helovia. A special thanks goes to Neo for all of her coding help and fixing Tamme's errors, Boom, for her loyal service and creation of the Time God, and to Ali for her consistent contributions and dedication.
The Thief had managed to sneak away from her son and herd, thankful that Eldala – one of Johnny’s crafters – had been kind enough to watch over the colt while she spent some time alone. She needed to get out, explore, do something to keep from going crazy. There was only so much snow on the Sentinels that she could see every day. She was beginning to die a little inside at the thought of watching the snow gather on the metal beasts had been her entertainment over the last couple of weeks. She didn’t know what was going on with her, with Ashamin, with the herd. All she could remember was the snarl from her leader’s companion as she painted on the Haruspex. A sound enough to make her cringe once again.
Rexanna couldn’t understand what her feelings were. She never truly felt for Ashamin like she wanted to. She wanted her son to have a story of his parents being in love and the happiness between them, but all she could feel was pain. She felt guilty – especially after seeing Tembovu’s face during her pregnancy. Tembovu was the complication. She fell for him. Hard. And all the Elephant could think was that she was using him for her positioning within the Basin. She wasn’t sure if he actually knew how much she loved him. Or if he even cared anymore. The sharp glances from his sapphire eyes during the meeting at the Threshold began to sting like daggers. Even more so when she remembered his friend telling him that the Thief looked just like Tembovu’s past lover. What did that even mean? She began to wonder just how much she looked like Mara. And if that had been the only reason Tembovu had loved her in the first place.
Was he just trying to see if she would become his long lost mate?
Or did he actually love her?
Rexanna often stayed up late at night, unsure of what the answer could even be to that. She wanted to see him again, but knew that she shouldn’t. They had agreed to not harm each other more than what they had already done. She couldn’t hold that promise though. She knew that. She broke rules. She broke his trust. But hadn’t he broken hers the worst way? She had been faithful to the Elephant ever since the mishap with Caleb. She had lived for him. Tried to be there for him. They had even showered each other with gifts. And during this time he was unsure of whether or not Nyx’s children were even his? And then to tell her that he didn’t know and expected her to stay by his side?
She couldn’t. Even if she tried.
She hadn’t expected to get pregnant. She hadn’t even slept with anyone other than Tembovu when Ashamin was there. When she had just been bested in battle and bled all over the Basin’s earth. When she had nearly collapsed within her own blood. She acted the same as she did when she ran from Calstron’s wrath. When they threatened her with her life, she slept with them to sneak away.
And it had worked.
But this time was different. Ashamin didn’t want her life. It was a simple spar that had damaged her so much. Where the Thief had thought she had grown from her slave upbringing, she had really been acting the part all along. Faced in trauma and disaster, she acted the same. And she always would.
Her thoughts kept the golden Thief at bay during her time in the Labyrinth. Yet everything she looked at reminded her of him. A weight so sharply hung on her back that she didn’t think she could even move anymore. But she needed to. She was strong. She was a mother. But she was unsure if she could even act as such.
Rexanna pawed at the ground in the place where she had found the lion’s claw that she had gifted to the Elephant King. Tears burning at her eyes while her heavy crowned head dropped to hover above the ground, almost as if she could get those days back – but knowing that they were long gone.
The serpent had lingered in the bamboo forest after Matanye had hatched, things had been rather dull as of late, and the addition to his life had presented troubles and entertainment which horrified the Sleuth. Matanye however, was little interested in her bonded's mental crisis and had settled into the motions of companionhood like duck to water. A vision of white flitting among the emerald grasses and bamboo shoots, those white feathers would soon shed to reveal rich copper feathers as she grew into the avian queen she was destined to be.
For now, she was content to glide around the grove, free of worries and future endeavors, searching out small rodents to pick clean and then return. How quickly she had come out of the shell and become confident and imposing despite her small stature. Matanye inevitably, would always come back to him, land upon his horns, and the flood of mild warmth and her soft clicks would reach to him. Lightly questioning, checking in on him before she would begin to clean her feathers, satisfied that he did not deserve a peck for any negative thought he may have spared to his new charge.
One moment she was pecking him for his thoughts, and the next she was displaying a degree of care and concern for him, what an odd little madam — her name would suit her well when she grew.
He had never been destined to have any great part in a creatures life that depended on his own until adulthood, children were far fetched and entertaining stories to be told at get togethers. Ah, Kiuaji, when will you have children of your own? I do so wish to see their handsome faces and fair features they would sing over the other voices, and he had responded with no words spared that children were the farthest thing you would around him. The Serpents views on children had only hardened into diamond coated stone when Faxr had died.
He had seen that loss, and the grief, he would not submit himself to the pain it had inflicted upon Tembovu.
Kiuaji and his feathered companion had only travelled a short distance from her hatching site, finding themselves another rocky outcrop to lounge upon. The suns rays filtered through the emerald stems and basked him in their warming glow, what little it had to give in the harshness of frostfall's first breaths. They were making the most of it before they would head home, and find a place to carve out a nook for themselves for the rest of the bitter season.
Upon the outcrop he laid, like a lithe courtesan of lush oasis', golden tassels catching in the winter wind and trailing like vines across the mossy earth. His white bird nestled comfortably on the curl of his impressive horns, silent and ever watching, the pair had spotted the familiar face of the gilded mistress and Kiuaji's eyes hardened while his lips had pursed to a thin line. Matanye had felt the tendrils of displeasure creep into her own mind as well as the first hints of the game coming back to life and had shuffled on her perch. Her rich amber orbs sharpening themselves to better look at the woman who had clearly offended her Kiuaji.
He had thought it would be awhile before they crossed paths again, and while it had been some time, it was still soon on the grand spectrum the poisoner often worked on.
What was she doing so far from her winter home? It clung to her like a blanket, and he ached to say something but refrained. Better to see what she was doing first, rather than interrupt her and never know. He was disappointed, when she only pawed at the ground seemingly occupied by thoughts he did not know — and didn't care to know, to an extent.
"Rexanna, my dear, it has been awhile, no?" The silence is broken by a faux hum of pleasant surprise, looking down from his perch to the golden thief. Matanye trilled her own welcome to the mare, the small crest upon her head raised proudly from her feathered skull, she's curious to examine her, but refrained because Kiuaji's mind is telling her to sit still for the moment, and for once she complies. Head tilted to the side, his tail flickered gently, choosing over his next words with a smile that was one part serpent and the other part overbearing sweetness to the point it tasted bitter on the tongue. "You look positively troubled, moved to tears almost. Something not going very well?" There's a momentary pause, before he continued on, "what brings you out of your wintery palace?"
Rexanna’s thoughts did little to keep her feelings at bay. Feeling the burning sensation of tears brimming her exotic marked eyes, she shook her head violently as she wished them away. The familiar feeling of the gift Tembovu had given her, sliding across her brow with the force of the shake, did little to keep her thoughts away from the Elephant. Though it wasn’t until she heard her name that she stiffened, cream head lifting with fluxuating ears of worry as to who the voice came from. Her head swiveled to the beast that had spoken her name, to find it to be the creature from the Threshold that seemed to have known more about Tembovu’s history than she had ever hoped to.
Her ears flattened momentarily before realizing it would do no good to create more enemies. So she laxed her body, watching him briefly as he continued his speech. She still kept a guard, but it wasn’t as strong as it was at first. “Kiuaji, right?” She began, ears flickering in a hint of uncertainty – or even from not caring. Shaking her head briefly to him she moved from the spot she had been pawing at to face the creature – who seemed to have a companion already. His head tilted and a smile reached his lips, but it was a smile that would not be returned. Her blue gaze shifted from the two of them briefly, seeing the bamboo as it grew tall into the air.
“There’s only so much to do with a child.” She shrugged, her blue gaze sliding back to the poisoner. Eyebrows furrowing for a moment as she figured out what else to say. “And a lot has happened. I seem to have found myself in some unwelcome company” If she was in the mindset of laughing, she would have. Instead she bobbed her head in a bit of an "oh well" notion, stepping closer to the creature of feminine qualities, her gaze dancing briefly across his strictly Dorobian hide. “And what brings you away from the Elephant King’s side?” She questioned him, a frown finding her lips at the mention of Tembovu's nickname. "Talk?"
"That's my name, did you forget? That's a rather poor memory you have." Kiuaji replied, smile still firmly in place, a smidge of false hurt worked it's way into the undertones. If she hadn't caused such a ruckus, he'd hazard a guess that he couldn't have remembered her name at all, just another passing face in the crowd of women that had come and gone since Mara's untimely passing — Tsavo and Ada's faces come to mind, and he briefly wishes that Ada would of been lounging on the rock with him. They would of had such fun together in this moment, for all the snark and jibes shared between them.
Kiuaji kept his gaze on her as she moved away from her patch of earth, brow raised in silent wondering once more as to what she had been doing. Pawing at the ground like that, had she been searching for something? Or simply wenting her frustrations, what did the earth ever do to recieve such scuffle marks like that? Or was she imagining a face as she did so — would that be Tembovu's face if he was right? An internal bout of amusement took him, and his companion responds with a questioning trill of her own, aimed towards Kiuaji rather than the gold Mare below them.
"So there is." Not that he would know much of rearing children and how much fun they possibly could be, when they were yours and not someone elses. Companions were different, he supposed, Matanye was independant despite their bond, she didn't seem to need the coddling some others might have needed from their larger counterparts. "I'm all ears, if you would like to vent your despair and woe to me over these happenings, and this unpleasant company you now find yourself in." One of his ears flickered then with a small snort of humor, the large circular earring swaying with the momentum.
Rexanna stepped closer to him then, and he made no move to stand or give up his lounging seat on the rocky outcrop. She questioned him rather pointedly as to why he was away from the Elephant King and his neck arched, regarding her in silence for a moment. Why did she care? Oh but then, she did care a great deal, he supposed, as to where the King came and went. She was special in a way which made the poisoners lips inwardly curl as though tasting sour wine. Kiuaji didn't allow the bitter thoughts to show on his face, and instead his dorobian features remained soft but pointed, a lotus with a viper lurking within it's sweet petals. "As much as I love to occupy dear Bov with my charms and pleasant company, as I often did in Dorobo, I must let him have space to breathe. Kingly duties and all that." He replied simply, plum coloured hoof twitching with his words, unable to keep the flirting look that appeared on his features at Tembovu's endearing nickname. They had also been separated on the account Kiuaji had wanted to return to the emerald grove, and quietly figure out his new found relationship with the bird now sat upon his crowns.
She ignored his comment about her memory and instead listened as he spoke of being her ears that she could express her troubles to. She would be a terrible Thief to have succumbed to speaking of her worries so abruptly, so amid all of the chaos in her mind she figured she’d leave her interests where Tembovu lay. Her oceanic gaze watched the stallion before her, listening as he spoke of Tembovu. Giving him a weird nickname that he probably carried since before Rexanna had dubbed him Temb. It seemed there were two kinds of people in the world; those that called him Bov and those that referred to him as Temb. Perhaps she was on the wrong side of the spectrum.
Yet her ears swiveled with slight discomfort as Kiuaji spoke of ‘Kingly duties’. A spark ignited within her of jealousy – curious to know just what Kingly duties he might need to be alone for. She couldn’t automatically assume him to sleep with everyone like she had, but her trust in him had failed when he spoke of sleeping with his own herdmate. A bit of hypocrisy danced within her jealous flames with enough of a feeling to begin to extinguish her thoughts as they raced to him loving another.
Instead, she turned her attention on Kiuaji and his connection to the Elephant’s last lover. Tilting her head to him slightly, the golden chains she bore slid carefully across her cream brow, exotic gaze seeming unfazed by the words the stallion spoke of. “I want to know about Mara. And Faxr.” Her voice broke, pushing all chit chatter aside. Wanting to know what it was that reminded the both of them of this so called Mara. The Thief flicked her tail then, shifting her weight as her gaze landed upon the companion of the stallion. Watching the bird briefly before her eyes landed on his violet ones again.
“Why did you think of her when you saw me?” She finally questioned, out in the open. A strong yearning from within her to learn everything about Tembovu’s old past – but stopping short of asking such a broad question.
Old nicknames, ah, how he'd felt at home hearing an old voice from an old friend, calling him 'Aji'. It took him back, to simpler times, times where there was no war in the beginning. Spare days were frittered away with ease and filled with fun, mischief abundant even when Tembovu had settled and the poisoner had not. Their momentum had never changed, until one day the world did. Times had turned hard, and with it so did hearts and minds turned to ice and stone. There were no easy days to be frittered away carelessly because they could, because there was no consequences in those simpler times, late nights and free days were then spent worried and tense.
Nicknames fell into being reserved for the most trying of times, when reserves were low and the stakes were high. Uttered with exhausted whispers and tightened chests, as though if they said them any louder they were daring to dream of the good times again, daring to wish for the impossible to come back from the grave. Nicknames became anchors to be lowered in the storms, lest the monsters that lurked in the tumultuous waves take them and swallow them whole.
To hear them be uttered with no storm clouds over head, Kiuaji could dare to let his mind wander once again.
Amethyst eyes glittered impassively down at the golden mare, brow raised when delicate ears swiveled backward at his words. Touched a nerve, perhaps? Interesting. The sleuth remained still, like a marble statue until Rexanna ushered to life two ghosts in one breath. Their spirited apparitions come to life and dance upon the ruined, slithering walls of his heart, the snakes retreated to their hiding spots in disgruntled droves, waiting until the memories had sang their song and returned to dust.
His tongue turned acidic in his mouth, he longed to hiss and snap at her that she doesn't have the right to speak of the two, but he refrained — it would be terribly out of character for him to do so, and his acidic infused quips had often earned the soft, slightly humored but firm one from Mara in return. For her memories sake, as it stepped on crumbled pillars and barren pools of his inner sanctum, he would play nice verbally, in order to not sour her spirit. His own ears take their turn to be pressed back against his skull, a momentary lapse in his serene facade before they press forward again. Matanye takes it as a sign that she should hunt once more, and with a shrill call she took wing, all elegant wing beats as she swirled around the mare and into the grove.
Kiuaji watched her go, knowing that she had removed herself for her own sake, and her companions. She would be back when she felt the storm simmer, she told him so, in the way their bond warmed his core for a moment.
"They died a long time ago, what more do you need to know?" He responded with an informed tone, head tilted to the side, the impressive, curled crowns upon his head swing their large bulk to catch the emerald light and be bathed by it. They had been bigger than most blessed with two horns back in Dorobo, their perfect curled formation drew many a compliment. This time, however, he displayed them with a hidden intent that they were dangerous, he was dangerous, and the game Rexanna was now playing was treading upon the fringes of a deadly path.
Was she willing to play such a dangerous came with the viper of dorobo, the shade that lurked within the empires own foreboding shadow of ruination? She continued, asking her question and inquiring as to why he had called her an apparition of Mara. He decided then and there, that if she truly wished to know, then she should have to play the game and work for the answers she sought — in whatever fashion Kiuaji chose to answer them in.
"Tell me, my dear Rexanna, truthfully." He began with smile, white lipped muzzle pulled into a half smile. Lithe frame shifted on his makeshift pedestal to better look at his fellow thief, she should feel privileged, he thought bitterly. Not just anyone made Kiuaji move to look at them. "Why do you wish to know? To be asking such questions, it would make any one with a brain question, what would a mare with another stallion's colt on her teats be doing probing into another stallion's past life."
02-13-2016, 04:49 AM (This post was last modified: 02-13-2016, 04:51 AM by Rexanna.)
You were never supposed to leave.
A sharp snort broke the air from the Thief to Kiuaji. She watched him with eyes that hinted as glares while he responded to her. “Yes, I’m aware of that. Though, that wasn’t what I was asking.” Her voice broke over the air. Ears flickering to the sounds from about the labyrinth as well as the poisoner before her. She needed to know the history of Tembovu and Mara. She needed to know not to make the same mistakes. She knew she couldn’t die. But what she didn’t know was the worry that balled up in the bottom of her heart at the idea that she could never be what he expected of her. Did Tembovu expect her to be a spitting image of Mara? Did he expect her to be his lover revived from the flames?
She was sure that Mara and her, despite their similarities, were worlds apart.
Then as his voice reached her creamy fluted ears, she studied him. Knowing that she couldn’t trust the creature, she could at least answer his question. She would be fine with telling him the Elephant’s history with her. About how they tear each other apart. About how they’re better off without one another – but the golden Thief couldn’t believe she could. So instead she looked away from him for a moment, thoughts landing on what exactly she could say about Rein. What exactly she was willing to say about the colt. The son of a Thief and a Priest.
“Truthfully, Kiuaji, I didn’t choose to have my son.” Her head shifted back to look upon the striped stallion. “I can’t say that I didn’t want to have him. To say that your child was a mistake isn’t kind and I don’t want it to seem as though that’s how I view him. But he wasn’t supposed to happen.” Her head lowered briefly before she flicked her tail and lifted her head even higher than it was before. “Truthfully, I’m hopelessly in love with Tembovu.” She admitted, ears flickering with the nervousness of him knowing – but the hopes he might pass the word along.
“We were in love. However, being in separate herds and our differences within them caused tension. Illnesses were gathered from different wars upon this very soil. Harsh words were passed, and we decided to try and live our lives separately. We decided that no matter how much we loved one another, we kept hurting each other. I didn’t want to be like Mara.” Her voice grew quieter at the mention of her name, but her azure gaze stayed sharp on the stag. “I never wanted him to think I was someone I wasn’t. Yet that’s all he’s done.” She shrugged slightly, trying to push off the sapphire eyes of Tembovu as she told him she was a Thief, how heartbroken and cautious he seemed after that. As if she had used him, when she couldn’t bear to let herself do such a thing. “And that’s when Rein happened.” Her voice dropped lower, more cautious in her wording. “I love him – I do. But as bad as it sounds, I wish every ounce of that child was his but I know deep down it never could be.”
She stepped away from him then, one hoofstep backwards to look back at the section of the ground she was pawing at. “I found him a lion’s claw here. I told him I loved him. All while he thought another mare’s child was his own.”
His only reply came in the form of an airy laugh, breathless and unabashed into the air. Of course, he knew what she was asking, but it never hurt to bat around for the sake of passing time. In part, he was reluctant to part with information upon his dearly departed friend and her babe, one didn't get into the position he had built from the ground up by being loose with his tongue. Tembovu had elaborated that he hadn't told Rexanna about Mara, only she and Faxr had perished, understandably to a degree, he had not gone on to explain much else about her. Maybe to stop this lookalike from fleeing, or to save his own heart from shattering once more, he could only imagine what must keeping the Elephant King's essence strung together.
It was wise for her to at least figure out that he couldn't be trusted, his loyalty and trustworthy strings were reserved to Tembovu, and were shakily tied to a few others who had rode the storm and survived. Where were they? Momentarily, his focus is drawn from the thief and to wondering where the cheetah and lioness have gotten to. Everyone else who spoke to him would have to best the den and hope they didn't succumb to the venom. Still, the poisoner offered her a smile laced with falseness, gentle and assuring that she could trust him with what he wanted to know. Who else would benefit? None that came to his mind, of course, he could tell Tembovu and he just very well might, but who was to say how he would take information he pried from the delicate creature below him.
"But, you are in a sense saying he was a mistake, just in a less offensive way." He interjected with a questioning look upon his effeminate features. "He was an ill-timed blessing, unfortunate in his conception and delivery? I wonder what events would lead someone to having a child of such circumstances. I don't doubt your affection or love for your son, my dear, I have seen first hand a mothers love for her child." Kiuaji chuckled with a flick of his tail, the silken tassels coating his curled legs to obscure them from view. "A precious thing." A weakness, how many mothers had he denied the chance to see their sons again? How many mothers had he taken from sons? Truthfully, they were long lists with names that escaped him, but he remembered their faces so clearly. It was all part of the Great Game, the shadow which War cast, and a price Politics demanded all pay.
I'm hopelessly in love with Tembovu. "Of course." Kiuaji would keep that confession in mind, how could he let it pass? This false Mara had swooned to the charms of Tembovu and she in turn had sung her siren song and ensnared him. Rexanna began to explain further and he listened intently, head tilted and marked lips pursed in thought as he absorbed each word she spared to him. How tragic, he could almost hear the gaggle of theoretical mares swooning at the drivel of a cliche love affair gone wrong. The devilishly handsome soldier with a past, and the exotic maiden with a deadly secret.
Old Gods save him, he was being sucked into it.
"Have you given him cause to believe you were anything but what you said you were?" His question is filled with skepticism. Tembovu was not an unintelligent stallion by any means, he would be able to figure out a liar when the game began to get heated, so what had she done to invoke a sense of distrust in him? What hand had she played to conceal something from him that would result in the earthquake that brought rifts and ruin between them? "Tembovu is not so willing to simply distrust and be rid of things without good reason." Kiuaji exhaled a deep sigh and his eyes purposely shut for a long moment before they opened again, glittering in the emerald light as he observed her once more.
"Mara was the best of us. Childhood friends we were, Hasovir, Tembovu, myself and Mara. Hasovir is dreadfully handsome, you know? It's a shame really, his beauty is wasted on him. Where was I, ah, think of her as the sun after a particularly cold night, come to fill you with warmth and light. Or the snow capped mountain who refuses to be rid of her snow in the mid-summer, sturdy and resolute." He began, voice careful and thoughtful — like a song any mare would sell her soul to have as her own. "It is true, you look a like to her. Like a phantom from a dream desperate men have when all hope is lost, perhaps that would be a good way to describe it. Any man who had buried their mate and child and left their homeland would understandably be distraught and overcome by a sudden appearance of someone so close to the thing he could no longer have." Kiuaji paused only when he felt the familiar pull of something in chest, it seemed his little eagle had caught herself a fine meal, feeling her pride blossom in his chest and he subconsciously made the effort to block his own internal thoughts and feelings from her.
"The similarities seem to end there though. Mara would not have hurt Tembovu, she loved him far too fiercely to do such a thing, and he her. She was not about living a life of shadows and concealment, she was open and honest. Caring and compassionate, not unafraid to stand up for what she believed in — tell people that they were wrong." It's uncomfortable, talking about her. It weighs heavy on his mind — though there is a smile when he mentioned her knack for speaking her mind, she had told him many a time when eyes and ears were not on them. The Sleuth takes comfort at least he is only skimming, and not getting into the deeper parts of what the Dorobian Natives had been. There are no memories shared, no ghosts dancing upon the words he breathed into life, and for that, he is thankful.
The questions come like soft whispers as he picks at what he'll say. Why didn't he know sooner? How didn't he catch on until it was too late? Kiuaji had been outplayed at the last moment, like many of those who had emotional attachments to the lost and wounded. "If you are hurting one another you should not be together, it is as simple as that, my dear. There are wounds on that stallions heart I nor any close to him would have picked open."
Finally he stood, long legs effortless in their ascent to bring him to his tall and slender height. Hair once more cascading in heavy and long waves down his neck and against his hocks, he shook himself loose of the numbness in his legs from being laid down for so long. He gave a passing glance to the place she had be pawing in acknowledgement of her words, wondering what a lion had been doing in such a place. "Was this confession of love brought about before or after the cracks had began to form?" Kiuaji inquired lightly, ringed ear shifting. "But the child was not his, no? I hardly think you can hold it against him now, seeing as you now have a child at your hip and he does not."
The silence clung to the air for her, time felt as though it began to slow. She didn’t know what to do with herself, sitting in this suspense as she spoke to the creature of Tembovu’s past. Though his voice began to break and she felt herself feeling rather small. Unsure of all this history that sat behind the walls of the Dorobian hearts, she only knew of her own history. The fact in the irony that her own mother of royalty had fallen in love with a general of an army – producing the Thief that stood before the snake in the water. Irony in the fact that the only true love Rex had known was that given by Tembovu. One that was crumbling away ever so slowly – cracking and breaking, etching scars across her heart.
Her ears flattened briefly as he spoke of Rein being a mistake. Though a blessing, as well. The golden mare shifted her weight, slowly nodding along to what he was saying – unable to actually speak the words herself. She could never call him a mistake, just something unpredicted. And yet here she was indirectly calling him one. It was frustrating for her, frustrating to know the truth and hear it come aloud in the midst of the Green Labyrinth spoken by someone she didn’t even know. Her blue eyes watched his striped face as he spoke, her blues glinting with hints of sadness and regret, lines under her eyes of sleepless nights and pain.
And then he said it.
“Have you given him cause to believe you were anything but what you said you were?”
Yes.
No.
Sort of?
The mare wrapped her mind around the cause of the issue from when they met. Remembering as she told the Elephant King of her being his when Caleb was involved. The fact she told him that she was royalty from a land far away when she was no better than a slave.
The fact she had agreed to sleep with Caleb to prevent him from taking her as prisoner – only to have the beast join her home.
She shivered under his scrutinizing emerald eyes. Her head shifting away from him as he continued and the knots began to billow within her chest. A small sigh left her maw as her ears flickered limply, feeling the love begin to swell away from her hopelessly – as if her love was a moth and her lover were the flame. “I wasn’t who he thought I was, before we even fell for one another.” A shift in her weight as he began to speak of Mara. Her fluted ears pointed to him, drinking up everything he said. Comparing herself to the highly regarded Mara with everything he said. The fact that she looked like her, knotted the mare’s stomach. But that wasn’t where it ended.
“Mara would not have hurt Tembovu.”
‘I didn’t have a choice.’
“She was not about living a life of shadows and concealment.”
‘it’s all I’ve ever known.’
“She was open and honest, caring and compassionate.”
As much as the mare wanted to believe that she was those things – Kiuaii and her both knew that was a lie. She didn’t want to hurt him. And yet he hurt her too – but that wasn’t something to be shared. She didn’t want to admit the problems she had with him, but if anyone knew him, it was Kiuaji. He spoke of childhood friends and the mare’s stomach continued to twist and spin. What was it like to know someone that long? To love someone that deeply? To bury them from a life stolen away?
She’d never know.
Her creams and golds tensed as her joints stiffened as Kiuaji spoke of what they had all believed to be the truth. And yet she still couldn’t come to terms with it. It was out in the air, a voice on the wind, and yet her ears refused to drink it in. She flicked her tail in her silence as it began to suffocate her. “I know.” Her voice was small, her eyes trailing back to the stag. “I didn’t want it to be like this.” The Thief managed to say between her growing heartbeat.
And then he stood, the creature from Doboro, shaking himself as if the things he said meant nothing. And yet, they meant everything. Her head lowered slightly, his words reaching her once again. The confession of love given before they even truly knew one another. A pain in the back of her mind that she wished they had started differently. All of that was in hindsight, however. And as Kiuaji began to go full circle, speaking of her son once again, her heart began to beat louder at the fact that she did have a child, and he – still childless.
She looked away from him again, turning a half step away to look out into the maze of the bamboo stalks that stretched to the sky, towering over her like a prison as she stood within her numbing thoughts.
“The confession was given after the cracks had started. And no, the child isn’t his. But if he knew who I was and the things I’ve done then he might understand.” She paused, a slight shrug in knowing that there was no excuse in having another mans child. But yet, she knew deep down it was solace enough for her.
“He barely knows a thing about me. Whether or not that’s my fault, I don’t know. Our love fell on masks. He was not who I thought he was – likewise I was worlds apart from whatwho he prayed I was.” Rexanna’s voice grew shaky in the slightest as she spoke, her eyes landing back on the snake in the grass. “I told him I was a Thief in the Basin and he acted as if I used him.” She watched him, thoughts coming carefully to her as her tongue picked what to say and what not to say. “I don’t know what made him think that. I don’t know why he thinks I have this stupid vendetta against him.” Blue eyes narrowed, watching the stallion before her – the height something that towered over her like Tembovu’s did.
But she wasn’t afraid.
“I want to tell him, but he won’t even look at me.” She sighed, ears flickering down with the sense of her distrust brushing away. “There’s no excuse as to why my son was conceived. But there might be understanding in learning just why he was” She shrugged again, eyes staring toward the ground with her numbness showing across her face. “And you’re right. I’m nothing like Mara aside from appearance. I told him I couldn’t be like her...” She glanced away from him, back to the towering stalks of bamboo as the light shifted overhead. “He was trying to mold me into her.
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