the Rift


[PRIVATE] Our Storm

Random Event Posts: 1,286
Helovian Ancient
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
#1



A great storm writhes in the heavens over the Heavenly Fields, one which has threatened to drop rain for hours. Lightning casts the world in silver from time to time, the vast swath of seemingly black sea, darkened by the overcast sky, capped in white, even from this distance. The breeze, cool and pleasant, charged with the static of the swirling majesty above, tosses the foliage and fields about, leaves twirling through the air and out into oblivion.

For some reason, you have found your way here, though the maelstrom threatens to unleash itself at any moment. Birdsong’s flowers dance in weary grass, the Tallsun like heat of the day quenched in the blessed cool of the electrically charged night, their perfume lingering in the heavy air amidst the promising smell of rain. Nothing but the Earth itself stirs around you, seemingly every creature but yourself having the sense to hide from the storm.

It’s also not their kind of night, like it is yours. That the storm doesn’t revolve around your butter cream body as you stand amidst the glory of the Spark’s might and the Earth’s resonance is a pleasant change, though it could just as well be your doing. It’s why I’ve followed you, how I know that you are someone I can trust with this gift.

Above you, I arrive, a true queen of storms, riding the buffeting gusts of the wild wind with the skill only we Wakiya Roc have. The dark clouds roil and bend, the flashes of silver becoming incessant as my charged wings kiss their misty surfaces. Like a bolt of that power, I appear from that which has obscured me, a shining egg clutched in my talons that occasionally trembles, life stirring within. I’ve cared for it, until now, when the bend of time would have us three meet at last.

Kaj take, ches? I fiercely ask you as I alight on a nearby boulder and allow the egg to roll gentle into the grass below, boring my electric blue gaze into your being.

[ Congratulations Kaj! The Great Roc has brought you a common WAKIYA companion for impressing her with your mastery over the storm - will you accept her gift or walk away? ]




darknightoftroy

@Kaj

Kaj The Aurelight Posts: 381
Hidden Falls Conscript atk: 4.0 | def: 9.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2hh :: 8 Years 9 Months HP: 69.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Arabella :: Common Zephyr :: Wakiya Brit
#2

There is a dizzying freedom to being a simple man. To have simplistic tasks and concrete boundaries set before him, unchanging. Another face in the crowd, a sword in the armory. Kaj had loved his herd with the entirety of his heart for many, many seasons. But times were changing, and it was his place no longer. Instead he was free to surf the skies and explore the wilds once more, free to chase the playful currents and let the earth wash over him like a familiar friend. He dug his fingers into the soil and sky and remembered what it was to be primal, to enjoy the simplistic things. There was no longer a burden on his shoulders, no stress to crinkle the corners of his eyes or lay low his wings. He was capable of spending his free days doing nothing but flying or playing with his daughter, and it was exhilarating. 

The skies are dark and heavy with promise, and his skin feels like it's crackling with anticipation and potential. Kaj recalls the storm he and Cirrus had summoned, the danger and the thrill of their power taking on its own life, the shocked laughter and the euphoric feeling of succumbing to the inherent power of nature. He doesn't know what draws him north-bound, but energy like a throbbing heartbeat hums in his veins, and he can't ignore the call. Cirrus is not beside him, and Aleta is home, sheltered beneath summer boughs. But he does not need them here with him to embrace this storm, to remember what it's like to taste his own sparks on his tongue. 

The grass rustles beneath powerful, sweeping winds. It crackles and sways, a soft hissing sound of summer drought. Errant leaves sweep by on invisible currents, disappearing into the darkened skyline. For a moment, Kaj simply stands there and breathes. The air is charged, and he recognizes it. Closes his eyes and lifts his wings at his sides, embracing the wind that shuffles his primaries and tugs at his arches, begging his acquiescence. Sparks dance in his feathers, a subconscious call and response to the weather patterns. Harmless, for now. Nothing but a tickle against the plumes of his feathers. 

But he is not alone, as he had previously assumed. 

The stillness of the night is broken by flashes of silver light, and he watches in unashamed awe as a great bird sweeps from the skies, every buffet of her wings riling the storm to her command. He may be a knight of the storm, but she is the queen. And he is in awe of her beauty, the way the wind sings against her like a joyous choir, thanking her for her mastery. She alights upon a boulder, and Kaj lowers his head a fraction, too entranced to bow but wanting to show his respect for this storm-born sister. 

Except...she knows his name.

For a moment Kaj doesn't even register what she said or the gleaming egg rolling gently between them, too surprised by the fact that she calls him by his name so familiarly. But then his pale blues snap down to the egg, and his heart surges in his chest like a wild beast. For so, so long, Kaj had believed himself too broken to receive such a gift as a companion. Surely that was why his loyalty and faith had never drawn one to him. Surely he had made a mistake somewhere, and he was cursed to mourn his loneliness every time he gazed upon a bonded pair. And yet here this beautiful creature was, presenting this egg to him by name, electricity and freedom in the orbs of her eyes. 

He's dumbfounded, heart pounding so hard he believes she could hear it even over the whistle of the storm. Is he worthy of this kind of gift? Does he truly desire to tie another creature to his tired soul? And yet he reaches deep beneath the depths of his self-loathing and tries to imagine a bonded life. A soul that knows him inside and out, a love that can't be broken. And Kaj, with all his bad luck in love, had wanted nothing more his entire life. Love. And already he loves the creature beneath that pale shell, and there is no other answer to the bird's question. He steps forward and lowers his muzzle to gently skirt across the shuddering surface of the egg, exhales shakily and lifts his eyes to the creature. His face is raw and shattered open, a gratitude and respect so deep he feels as if he's grounded to the earth forever. 

"Yes," he rumbles, one wing sweeping low to cradle the egg with his pale feathers, protective and loving. "We will ride your storms together until our end of days," he vows, mane whipping against his neck beneath the power of this generous queen's nature. "Thank you." Because there is nothing else for him to say, not when she has given him the only other thing he wanted in life. Not when she has taken his spotted soul and made it whole.



Thank you so much ;_____; @Random Event

credit bronzehalo
Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!
Plot with me here!

Random Event Posts: 1,286
Helovian Ancient
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
#3



The egg hides a bird that is weaker than a wild Zephyr should be. A good mother knows this just by feeling the tremors within, that this bird would be unable to survive in the winds of Helovia alone – but with Kaj? It would survive, like the others my kin have left at the hooves of deserving equines; with any luck, it would thrive.

You look at me with surprise and awe etched in all of your flesh, especially when my gift rolls across the wind tousled grasses. I return the gaze with all the ferocity of my people, small eyes bright blue arrows that already know you’ll accept, the wind trailing fingers through my stormy feathers.

Yes, you say, an emotional sound that touches even me. The sound of the shell against your feathers is natural, right. Your words… They are even more so.

Good, I say, limited to so few words in this tongue, too few to tell you of my gratitude, or of my hope that the winds are always sweet and tangled, that they carry you both to the tallest peaks, the eldest trees. I wish to tell you that I will be watching, from the distance, as I always have – and find the words fail me again. My name – the wind twisted about the brightest of bolts - does not translate either. All the more severe in appearance for the language boundary between us, the time between my words long as I ponder how to not be misunderstood, I manage what I can for you. Aekhra is after close. Not gone.

I bob my head, once, affirming my pride in having managed that much. I believe in you, though; you’re smart, and above all, kind. You would do the same for your hatchling, if you were me. You would wait to know how such a short story ends. The wind beckons me, tousling my almost black, broiling grey feathers about wildly; first, though, I have to make sure you need nothing more of me.

Kaj ask…hmm? Or Aekhra go up?

[ Aekhra will remain for a little while to answer questions if Kaj has any! To be completely clear the companion is a common Wakiya for records! We've verified behind the scenes but would like it to say as much here as well. ]



darknightoftroy

@Kaj

Kaj The Aurelight Posts: 381
Hidden Falls Conscript atk: 4.0 | def: 9.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2hh :: 8 Years 9 Months HP: 69.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Arabella :: Common Zephyr :: Wakiya Brit
#4

The majestic queen remains, her pleasure like a whistling wind in her beak, and Kaj so desperately wants to show her the respect he feels for her. But he can scarcely tear his eyes from the egg he has his feathers curled around, feeling as if the entire world has dropped away from his hooves, leaving him suspended in the gathering storm. Their souls are not connected, not yet. But the creature in this egg, this surfer of storms, has already claimed his heart entirely. The devotion he feels for the heart beating beneath the shell's tough surface transcends any love he has felt before. And he desires to badly to meet the little one beneath its confines. Kaj wants to know its personality, its likes and dislikes, its quirks and habits. He aches to meet his new soul-bonded lifemate, can scarcely believe this is happening in the present moment. 

When she speaks, he lifts his face to her, and is so deeply sympathetic of her low grasp on the Helovian language - something he had struggled with when he had first arrived - that he cannot help but level an emotional smile towards her. He understands. "Thank you. I will tell them of you, who brought us together. We will make you proud." That she will be a quiet guardian over the pair of them is more than Kaj could have ever dared to ask or hoped to receive. He will not fail her. He would care for the wakiya as devotedly as he cares for Aleta, and would shield her from any and all misfortune in his power. It was a terrifying thing, caring for something so fragile, that would grow to become powerful only if he could keep it safe and loved. He had felt the same when he'd realized Sohalia was with foal, afraid to fail his unborn daughter. But if he could do it once, he could surely do it again. They would work together, as a team. 

He does not want her to depart, if only because he feels like he belongs when he is in her presence, but he understands why she must leave. But she is not wrong, he does have a question. Only one, but a deeply important question nonetheless. "Am I worthy of them?" And it is almost pitifully quiet, but his cornflower eyes fall back to the egg, needing the answer as badly as he needs his next breath. What had drawn the majestic storm queen to him? What had she seen in him that had led to her gifting him with something so profoundly valuable and important? 



@Random Event

credit bronzehalo
Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!
Plot with me here!

Random Event Posts: 1,286
Helovian Ancient
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
#5



You tell me I will be proud of you, and I clatter my beak in amusement. I want to ask you why you’d have my hatchling now, if you had not already earned as much pride as can be won from a storm bird. Still, I have lived this many years because I am clever, and know of this world, it’s people. The horse people seem to be softer inside than the zephyr, born of the wild, careless wind; I am Aekhra, too, bird of the storm. There is nothing soft or equine in my lightning heart. I don’t understand this oath, because I don’t really understand doubt, however much I know you, as all your kind, feel it.

The wind goes where it will. You may only hope to ride it.

Ruffling my wings alongside my body, I bob my head in approval of your promise, the decidedly polite thing to do rather than mock your uncertainty. Overhead, the thunder peels, the flashing ripple of the lights blue and silver on our bodies.

The question you find is of similar intonation to the first statement; why? You seem to ask without using the words. I blink my storm light eyes, letting the words resonate inside for a while. There is sadness in their sound that my warrior’s heart shudders away from, the part of me that is a mother warm with the knowledge that, now, that sadness might be eased. It is hard to be sad and afraid of the world when the lightning’s crackling wind flies alongside you, its heart in time with your own.

Kaj, you fear? No fear, I say, static crackling brightly between my feathers for effect, my wing tips extending outward, brighten dark, as Aekhra does. Teach to act good, like Kaj. Hatch’ing teach Kaj, too.





darknightoftroy

@Kaj


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