the Rift


[OPEN] Falling Awake

Elspeth Posts: 40
Absent Abyss
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 hh :: 7 years
Sarah
#1
'cause though the truth may vary
this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

cI had thought that Calder was joking about using the sentinels as a way to find the entrance into the Basin but I couldn’t help but take note of them as I left, worried that I might not be able to find my way back. I hoped that I would, although I felt like I had been spending most of my time there sleeping or shivering I was growing fond of it. I knew it to be safe, after all, and I was looking forward to returning there but I woke up this morning with the terrible need to walk. Not just around the Basin, or to the hot springs, to keep my bones from freezing but further out. I was growing more and more curious about Helovia, curious about what sort of creatures lived here. So far they had been kind and I had passed through here unharassed once… surely I could again?

I had lingered on the borders of the Basin, considering asking Calder to come with me but quickly moved off from the thought. It wasn’t that I did not trust him to keep me safe but I stubbornly resisted the idea that I further needed assistance. Surely I was capable of walking about on my own - the snow would hinder my escape but it would hinder any attackers as well. Still I could not hear the cracking of a twig or the pulse of hoofbeats without wincing, without my own pulse picking up. I was perpetually jumpy and on-edge but my freedom was still new and I did not want it to be taken from me for lack of awareness.

Not overly interested on travelling further north than the Basin, I followed my instincts south. We had taken our time on the journey to the mountains but I had been so tired that I must not have retained any of the little conversation Zandora, Calder, and I had shared. Did we discuss the name of these fields and forests? Did they have names? And what of the streams and the trees? The depth of the snow lessened as I travelled but it covered the plants too much for me to do more than guess at their names, if they were similar to those from the foothills I called home.

It was afternoon when I reached a meadow dappled with snow-lined oaks, the sky a bright and crisp blue as the sun shone deceptively and lit up the light layer of snow so that it glittered. Still getting used to a life outside of slavery, my body was exhausted from the walk already and I found a spot beneath one of the oaks to rest. It took a little fidgeting to get where the branches blocked the worst of the glare from the sun and I was more free to look around and admire the simple, crystalline beauty around me.

Elspeth

image by Kiki <3

hanging out in the northern reaches of the meadow
for @Beest and any!

Isi Posts: 17
Outcast
Mare :: Equine :: 15 hh :: 4 Buff: NOVICE
Adella :: Common Brown Dragon :: Fire Breath Avis
#2
i never meant to wither

i wanted to be tall
My time with Ilios in the threshold had been quite fruitful. I obtained much information about the past events I missed between leaving and arriving once again, these lands, while feeling no different, surly undergoing such change that I wouldn't be able to recognize the power flowing through it anymore. From the inhabitants. From the Gods themselves. It was a shorter walk through the maze of the forest than I would have cared to admit liking; I enjoyed my time with Ilios and all the talking he did to humor me. I feel caught up, if not a bit caught out, but definitely have a stronger understanding of everything Helovia endured. I was little surprised in all that Ilios had revealed to me: the Goddess' murders, the fight with Rift Gods, continued loss of life and bloodshed. Not much had really changed.

After we parted ways, him heading off to his home and me promising to visit him in the Throat, I felt the need to see these lands against for myself. To cross their bodies, to refamiliarize myself with the lands I once used to call home... it felt a tad surreal. They hadn't much changed visually, and neither had I, but on the inside we were both different than when we last met. Adella flew overhead on the currents she once knew and loved, wings stretched out wide in the chilly air. I pushed through the thicket of trees to be shown a wide, inviting field. I remembered this place, the times I spent racing through them with Adella. It was covered when I saw it again, but I knew it was the one.

My hooves crunched beneath me as I made my way through, wading in the snow and the flowers that seemed to lose all their color blanketed in white. My thoughts drifted to the lands surrounding me, the four of the Gods' and the ideals each held. I mindlessly wondered if the Basin was still stuck in its ways of varying racism, then to the Throat with their requirement of keys before being allowed in. Like an invitation. I didn't get too far in the reminiscing before Adella mentally pointed ahead of us, toward the ground beneath some overhanging trees. There was someone laying beneath them, small, rather alone in the wide world of the meadow. Adella was rather eager to see another face--our months of solitude did no good for either of us. So I nodded deftly and continued my walk in that direction.

I drew nearer with a smile to show my offer of friendship, bowing my head slightly in greeting as Adella landed upon my back and looked with an outstretched neck toward the resting girl. Glancing back behind me, I wistfully sighed under my breath. "Thistle Meadow... It has been some time since I have seen this place." I turned back to her, giving her my full attention then. "I am Isi. And this is Adella. It is a pleasure to meet you." I kept my standing position but lowered my head respectfully, eyes quite fixated on her horns for a reason I didn't exactly know.
Isi + Adella
/ image


@Elspeth
[Image: kpEmnDB.png]
(please tag in every post)

Graasvoel Posts: 97
World's Edge Artificier atk: 3.5 | def: 7.0 | dam: 8.0
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.0hh :: 6 HP: 64 | Buff: NOVICE
smitty
#3

"fear the Vulture and it will come. fear nothing and you are the Vulture."

Powerful, gigantic wings pumped in the sky, burnt orange primaries spread against the sunlight. The air was cold, dense, and felt exhilarating beneath his feathers. Heavy legs were cocked beneath him as he flapped and glided— truly it was remarkable that one such as he could fly. But large wings blotted out the sun as he enjoyed his flight, a roughish grin on his face as his tuft of a beard blowing in the wind.

But his eyes were cast downward, for all that he loved the air, watching the treetops give way to a field— an great open snow. White ears were tilted back against the wind, but his raptor gaze of red and yellow swept the meadow below. Surely a meadow this large would not be barren of life? Sharp eyes caught a few deer moving along a river, but little else caught his eyes in the afternoon sun—

There. There, amid the glare of light on snow, was a blotch of dark locks, disappeared beneath the barren limbs of a tree. Wings angled, abruptly bringing about a steep and rapid descent for the raptor. The equine looked so delicate and small from up above— he wondered (hoped) it was a woman.

But not fast enough was his descent, for there was suddenly another wading through the blanket of white— suddenly his massive span flared, stopping his controlled fall from the heavens. He was closer to the earth, now, and could more closely watch the black and white painted equine that approached the tree he plunged towards. Was that a dragon? Immediately his interest was further piqued.

He landed with a solid thud upon the ground, not too far from the tree. Red-ringed irises immediately hone on the dragon, while his massive wings furl and fold into his ribs. Tangled, black locks are even more a mess from flying, knotted and lying awry along his tawny neck. His gaze slips to the woman who is with the dragon, a dainty black and white mare. He grinned, not bothering to mask his the easy slip of his eyes over her regal carriage of her body as she spoke to the other (yet un-inspected) equine beneath the tree. It was apparent she knew how alluring she looked.

Attention then turned to first he had seen, gaze slipping down the warm cream of her throat to appreciate the relaxed, womanly curves of her body. The burnished brown of her locks were bright against her skin and face— which his sharp eyes slipped to. He found her golden eyes, grin broadening as he nodded his stark white face in greeting. “I’m a lucky man to have found two attractive ladies. I’m Gaal, new to Helovia,” his roughish grin stayed in place as he spoke, “Do many have dragons here?” his eyes slipped between the two woman as he addressed them both, and asked Isi his question.

- - G R A A S V O E L - -

image | table by Kiki


@Elspeth @Isi I hope it's okay he dropped in (literally ;P hehe)

Please tag Graasvoel in all posts.



Elspeth Posts: 40
Absent Abyss
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 hh :: 7 years
Sarah
#4
'cause though the truth may vary
this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

So there I was, minding my own business, when the world decided to shift around me again. At least, this time, the world started to shift slowly at first. The mare that approached me wasn’t coloured by a rainbow hue like so many of the other Helovians - she was a peaceful and beautiful paint, white and brown and with a friendly smile too. I warm instantly to the idea of company - standing up so that I could properly greet her - and even opening my mouth to respond to her kind words when a… I don’t know, a winged lizard landed on her back. I startle but I (thankfully) don’t even shriek. I must admit that I missed what else she might have said, which was unfortunate because she was introducing herself and her lizard-thing, because I was too busy staring at the creature.

My manners just completely went out the window!

I don’t get a lot of time to ask the mare if she knew that there was a lizard on her back because we were approached by… well I guess it must be someone but my first instinct was to say ‘something’ instead. That world shifting? It was collapsing beneath my feet because there was a winged horse landing and coming towards us.  “Holy shit are you seeing this?!” I ask of Isi (ah yes that was her name), gesturing to the creature that was approaching.

It was odd enough seeing someone without horns, but I had seen it happen before. My own forelock covered the little nibs of horns and many of those in my old herd had been the same way - but everyone had at least had some sort of set of antlers. And not once had there ever been someone with wings.

I’m afraid those golden eyes of mine are widened in complete surprise in awe when he walks right over to us, just like nothing is weird about this situation whatsoever. I just barely manage to catch his introduction too (great job, Elspeth, you’re really making an impression) because I’m distracted by, well, a lot. I’m trying not to stare at his wings as I repeat the word he asked about.

“Dragon.” My voice is unbelieving, and why not? Dragons existed in fairytales along with winged horses and purple horses. They were huge, fearsome things - how could there be one here and we didn’t see it?

But then my eyes drift back to Isi and Adella and I look at this dragon as though I had not just been staring at it a moment before. “There’s a such thing as dragons?!”


Elspeth

image by Kiki <3

@Isi and @Graasvoel so sorry it took so long guys! <3


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