the Rift


Understand, Understand.

Istu Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#1
Istu


It was late. The snow had not fallen for weeks later than it was expected. Everything else was the same; it was still cold, and when it rained the drops were like sharp bits of ice that soaked into one's bones. The world was still quiet and deserted, but there was no endless stretch of white that brought release from the boiling summer, no cold and howling winds and no smells of despair and cold air.

A black mare, agile and sleek, walked lazily through this strange, snowless world with blue eyes half closed and a snowy tail swishing lazily. She seemed to move like someone enjoying warm afternoon sun, minus the warmth and the sun. But she ambled along on long, almost awkward legs. She stood at an average height, but she was built in a weird, tiny way. Her body was designed to keep cool in harsh heat, but did little to keep her warm in the long winter nights. She snorted softly, and shuddered through a sweat-soaked coat for the hundredth time as she continued to look at the world with disinterest. Her lean legs would carry her no more, and her black body lowered to the ground painfully slow, and she came to rest against a big old tree. It was much older than her, and it had seen many more like her. Many more who would like to continue on, but their bodies had failed them, leaving them to perish in the unforgiving hands of mother nature.

The mare had been alone for a season now, and she missed the security of herd structure. She missed the old, strange mares that had raised her, and she missed the wild, gypsy ways of the bandits she had come to love. She wondered weather she's cross paths with any of them again. She especially missed Etu, the sunny stallion who she ran with in those four wonderful years. A whole season had passed, and still the thought of his golden face made her heart ache. And as she missed the beautiful way he spoke, she got up. "I'm meaner than my demons, I'm bigger than these bones". And he was.

She looked at the world around her with those gleaming blue eyes and she fell in love with the things around her. She fell in love over and over as her eyes settled on something new, and her red face was filled with wonder and pain and love. And she carried on. 

This time she took off at a slow trot, muscles stretching and warming as she breathed in new life. This life she had wasn't so bad, it could be much worse. But her pain was her own, and she felt it deeply and grasped at it desperately just so she could keep feeling something. But she'd felt life stirring in her heart many times before, and now she felt the familiar tugging at her heart as she longed to learn more, learn again, and love again. She was meaner than her demons, and she was bigger than her bones. She was bigger than the bones that were no longer failing her, and she bucked and slid to a stop as she felt her heart pumping and saw the steam puff from her nostrils. For today she could forget, and for today she would love again, and she felt the faint warmth of the winter sun on her back as she stood silently in a clearing, her horn flashing in the cold.

  "Speech"
OCC; Sorry, this post is so crappy :/



Into the rose garden
Image Credit

Essetia Posts: 218
Outcast atk: 5.0 | def: 8 | dam: 6.0
Mare :: Equine :: 16.3HH :: 7 HP: 64.0 | Buff: NOVICE
Romul :: Arctic Wolf :: Confusion Linds
#2

The night carried hints of forbidding cold and restlessness, a mixture without allure to the spy and her willful companion. Instead of remaining hidden away in the Throat, where one could find shelter from the plummeting temperatures, Essetia set out toward the north in search of purpose to fill her empty hands. She’d been too long without task and eagerly embraced the idea of wandering the moonlit walks of the Threshold… as she’d done so many times before. It was a mind-numbing chore that often left her feeling just as anxious as she’d felt before, but at least it gave her a sense of duty where none existed previously.

Essetia had always been a spy and perhaps an ineffective one at that, given her lack of participation in recent months. But there was little she could do to coerce her demons to speak their truths if she remained locked away in her ivory tower. So, with Romul leading her small tirade, the spy moved again into the claiming grounds after days of continuous travel. It coaxed the young mare from her worries and set her mind to purpose, a distraction unwelcomed by many.

Darkness had fallen across Helovia like a sheer veil lit only by moonlight. The winter months were dry and chilly, but nothing like the last coming of the snow. Essetia was grateful for the reprieve, but it only gave her reason to resume her haptic wandering. That emptiness, the void that left her feeling lost, would not settle… it would not run from her ever incessant urging.

Though, thoughts of her discomforts soon aborted and Romul alerted the spy toward movement up the beaten path. Night had given way into day and the high sun cast a shell of dismal warmth across their backs as they moved to approach the creature of interest. Although, upon discovering the mare that had piqued Romul’s curiosity, Essetia became uncertain of her wily disposition. It wasn’t often that the spy sought company of a frantic nature, and judging by the heat rolling from her sides and the uninhibited look in her dark, blue eyes, the mare was clearly more outspoken than Essetia herself. (Even if the spy was quite vocal more often than not.)

“Come one, come all I suppose,” she sighed softly to her wolf. The red-masked mare was anything but plain, perhaps oddly colored by her own comparison, but certainly not plain. She was robed in a silken mass of ebony that contrasted heavily with the crimson that draped across her nose, but the blue of her eyes was striking enough to avoid any misgivings elsewhere. “I trust you’re looking for shelter? If so, you’ve come upon the right place… Welcome to Helovia,” she greeted with a wary smile. Romul had come to rest beside his companion’s shoulder and, though he was not as icy as per usual, his gaze was just as steely and unassuming as the ice that sheeted nearby ponds. "I'm Essetia and this is Romul." 

essetia & romul
Image Credits | Background Image

@Istu

◄ Please tag Essetia in all replies!
◄ Force permitted, but no maiming or killing
◄ Pixel @ SongsOfInfinity

Istu Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#3
Istu

Istu watched another mare approach her, but she said nothing. She only watched with mild suspicion. The mare was light, but not like the ghosts Istu ran wild with, neither was she as dark as the herd that she grew up in. No, this mare's colour was rich and soft, like the colour of the ground after rain, or like the bark on the trees around them. She was dark and warm, and around her face was a white ring, standing out from the rest of her coat like ice or diamonds. Her eyes were an empty expanse of white, and within them there seemed to be a hurricane of emotion and thoughts. She very beautiful, and her sweetened voice tugged at Istu's heart. Although she did not seem too eager to socialise with the gangly black mare.

"I'm Istu, nice to meet you," she introduced herself, smiling a little. Her eyes flashed with mischief and excitement, and she threw her head up a little before nodding respectfully at the strange dog-like creature. She'd never seen anything like it's strange, stout shape or shaggy white coat, but it was quite beautiful. "Is Helovia a kingdom? A herd?" she spoke again, this time sounding strangely thoughtful as she searched through her knowledge of the world. But the dark mare had never heard of Helovia.

Now that the expanse of forest around her had a name it seemed more alive than before. Figures of her imagination drifted through the trees; other horses walked silently, like ghosts, some alone and some in large herds. The trees and the earth around her carried stories of the past and the present and maybe even the future, and Istu lost herself in her mind as she watched the seasons change. The sun melted the ice, glittering gold on all it touched, and then there were flowers all around, their sweet smells on the warm breeze, and the world lost all it's colour except for the lush, dark green of the grass and the leaves. And then at last the world was aflame in red and yellow and orange, and the world went back to what it really is. Back to where Istu was standing with her company, who seemed weary and thoughtful, and her company's company who couldn't care less about the mare draped in black.

"It is very beautiful," Istu said, laughing as she continued to watch the seasons change in her mind's eye. And having a sudden bout of bravery and the urge to cheer the other mare up, Istu smiled kindly and searched for the right words.  "And so are you. Though, maybe you are sad for many days at a time. But you see, when you smile, the world falls in love,"  she said, her eyes shining with joy and perhaps hope for a better time to come.

"Speech"
OCC; My apologies for the late reply, I was away for a few days! 



Into the rose garden
Image Credit

Essetia Posts: 218
Outcast atk: 5.0 | def: 8 | dam: 6.0
Mare :: Equine :: 16.3HH :: 7 HP: 64.0 | Buff: NOVICE
Romul :: Arctic Wolf :: Confusion Linds
#4

Essetia’s mildly icy greeting didn’t seem to affect her counterpart, but instead entreat her to smiles and welcome. To the spy, her appearance was misleading in comparison to her disposition… she was incredibly kind, perhaps even fantastical. That was the reason, if not the cause, of Essetia’s sudden silence and slight surprise. The crimson and the black that colored the spy’s opinion fell short of the life thriving within the sheer blue eyes that stared back at her, uninhibited. The three obsidian horns that were situated evenly down the sharp planes of her face were threatening and also a prime feature that Basin recruiters would immediately fixate on… Essetia did not care for attributes that would set one another apart, but instead bring everyone close together. She longed for the familial ties she’d shared in the Falls and would not let momentary setbacks cloud her judgement. Clearly she’d been mistaken about the masked female… She seemed sensible enough.

Romul responded to their exchange with a low, wolfish grunt- a welcoming sound to his companion’s ear. He wasn’t often one to fancy the creatures Essetia received abreast, so it came as another surprise that the wolf appeared semi-accepting.   “It is good to meet you too. Helovia is certainly a kingdom of sorts, but more so a home to those who reside here,” she answered more freely. Speaking of Helovia was like slipping into a glove that always fit; it was the second skin that warmed her bones when the chills of doubt set in. “There are herd lands within Helovia as well, four in fact. I hail from the South in the Dragon’s Throat. However, to the North lies the Aurora Basin, to the west is the World’s Edge, and not too far from here is the Hidden Falls.” Essetia stuttered over the last bit- the name still bringing old hurts to surface where the memories haunted her like an old wound.

However, she was not in a position to explain herself or share her secrets and her past. She spoke of those ghosts to no one and instead kept them hidden beneath her heart like a crutch to be called upon when the nights grew too long. “Of course, depending on who you come across you’ll get some very interesting views on each, given that you’ve just arrived. I won’t deny my own bias for the Throat and the heat of its summer sands. We’re a warrior nation, well-equipped for every circumstance—but I’m boasting,” she smiled sheepishly. Reminders of the past kept her truths full and all-encompassing when it came to portraits she painted of her home. Yet, she could see the pictures she drew against the waves of blue as Istu reimagined them. They seemed to be more beautiful in her reflection than in Essetia’s own portrayal.

But, that wasn’t what caught the spy off guard for the second time since meeting the red-masked mare, no. It was her compliments and her adoration of Essetia that threw the girl and her wolf again into the winds of pure shock. “Thank—you,” she managed without concealing her imminent surprise. What had she encountered there in the woods of the Threshold? What strange happenstance had guided her hand into the company of such… aloofness?

essetia & romul
Image Credits | Background Image

@Istu

◄ Please tag Essetia in all replies!
◄ Force permitted, but no maiming or killing
◄ Pixel @ SongsOfInfinity


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