the Rift


[OPEN] We Carry On

Aleta Posts: 31
Outcast
Filly :: Pegasus :: 15.1 hh :: 1 year (FF)
ChaoticMelodies
#1
 
Flying was perhaps the best part about being a pegasus.  High above the world of Helovia, all of life's petty problems started to seem so small.  With the wind whipping through her mane and the sun shining brightly upon her back, Aleta could almost imagine that she was the only living creature in the entire world.  To the south lay the ocean, blue and wide and endless; to the north lay hills and trees, an innumerable expanse of forests and plains.  Somewhere far away, the girl knew that mountains towered over the land, so tall that they dwarfed everything that walked upon the earth.

Normally, flying cleared Aleta's mind and eased her burdens.  Today, however, the lightning bolt along her neck flickered unhappily and a frown creased her delicate features.  Today, even flying as far and as fast as she could did not allow her to escape her worries.  The mild-mannered lightning girl had never really been angry before, but today... today she was furious.

Aleta had finally given up on her mother returning to the Hidden Falls, where she belonged.  The girl had known for some time that hers was not a normal family - her parents were not romantically involved, though she knew they cared deeply for one another - but she had always assumed that they would both be there for her.  That she would always be enough to hold them together, that Sohalia would at least have the decency to stick around long enough for her daughter to grow up.  Yet, as soon as Aleta had been weaned, it seemed, Sohalia was gone more and more, until she finally stopped coming home at all.

Sure, she came to visit every now and then - to do her duty and check on her daughter.  But otherwise she was absent, painfully silent on her whereabouts, avoiding Aleta's burning questions like the plague.  And the girl had so many questions.  Where did she go?  What was she doing?  Why didn't she want to be with her family?  And so Aleta had left the Hidden Falls (albeit temporarily), flitting this way and that in an attempt to find some trace of the Transcended.  Anything that would direct her, anything that would show her where to find the mare.

"Talk."
Aleta


@Cera
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pixel by Reli <3

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Use of force and/or magic (with the exception of death) is allowed at all times.

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Cera the Golden Prince Posts: 419
Outcast atk: 5.5 | def: 9.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 16.3hh :: 6 Years HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Ilaria :: Red Panda :: Heal Brit
#2
I'm searching for something that I can't reach

Ranjiri had left the Throat, taking with her the threads of hope and family Cera had been so desperately clinging to. There is a void in his chest that cannot be filled, and he wonders when he became such a failure that he couldn't even keep his family together. For years he had tried so hard to be the glue, the cement that kept his family close and connected. And time after time he had failed. There was no room left for pain or tears. He had cried himself out long ago, and in a way had become numb to the agony of loneliness and purposelessness.

He has not returned to the Isles since the God of the Earth battled the tigress, but he needs to be there now. Needs to dig his hooves into the earth and recall the soft look in the celestial's eyes as he proclaimed forgiveness. This is where he found his grace, where the world had felt stable once more after so long off-center. Maybe he can achieve that balance again, in this tumultuous sea of loss.

Not many seemed to venture to the new, scoured lands. Whether it was the blood that soaked into the earth or the memory of lives lost, Cera couldn't quite say. He still remembered Snö and her last minutes here, and took a moment to bow his head and mourn the maiden he had only partially known.

Ilaria is a silent companion as he wanders onward, the battle haunting his peripheral vision. Unease settled tensely in his shoulders and limbs. Was the weight of his salvation nothing in the face of all the devastation that had happened that day? Could he ever remember forgiveness and paternal love without the memory being tainted by death?

Cera. There's a filly. Ilaria gently broke into his thoughts, paws a soothing pressure between his folded wings as he soldiered through his recollections. She directed his vision to where the first pale child stood in contrast against the rock and greenery, barely growing into her flight feathers. Cera hesitated, torn between his own paternal instincts and the call of his dark emotions. They seemed to reflect upon the youth's features, anger at the injustice of a world she was only just discovering. Could he even help her, when he could not help himself?

But his worry for her overcame his desire to wallow uselessly, and the painted boy strayed over towards the girl with a soft look on his cherubic features. "Hello, my name is Cera, and this is Ilaria." The red panda peeked over his shoulder with a cheerful chitter, soft tail thumping against the Golden's shoulder. "Can we help you somehow? The tides and winds are very dangerous here, can I help you somewhere?" She could not rightfully escape the island without her wings, not with a body so frail and young. But perhaps Cera could direct her to whatever she sought, and hope she found what he had not.



@Aleta
Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!

Aleta Posts: 31
Outcast
Filly :: Pegasus :: 15.1 hh :: 1 year (FF)
ChaoticMelodies
#3
 
The Riptide Isles were, in fact, dangerous, but Aleta had arrived well-prepared. When she had first begun to wander across Helovia, her father had extracted a promise from her that she would return to him in one piece. Each time she felt herself beginning to tire, she touched down with a fond smile, for what in the world would her father ever do without her? And so she had traversed the skies to the Riptide Isles with care, landing upon a grassy field well away from the shoreline, suspicious of the sea and all that lay within.

The little lightning girl had grown so used to being alone in her adventuring that the voice that interrupted her thoughts came as a surprise. When she caught sight of its owner, she appraised him with a hesitant smile (her father had warned her not to talk to strangers). As he joined her, the young stallion held his head low and offered a friendly face to accompany his kindly words. He was golden and white, leanly built and tall. Aleta cocked a head to the side, storing his name for future use: Cera.

A red panda (an odd-looking little creature that quickly charmed a smile from the girl) sat atop the stallion, chittering a greeting. "It's lovely to meet you both," Aleta offered demurely, lowering her gaze as she bobbed her head in greeting. "My name is Aleta." The lightning marking along the right side of her neck flickered cheerfully. The girl found herself wondering where Cera's companion had come from. Why were some blessed with a bond to their soul mate while others were not?

"I'm not lost!" she exclaimed with a giggle, allowing a brief surge of thankfulness to appear on her delicate Andalusian features. It was kind of Cera to stop to help her, though she was in little need. Her father always knew where she intended to roam, and she very rarely strayed off the path. If she were ever in trouble, Kaj would appear to rescue her. Of that, the lightning girl had no doubt. "But it's ever so nice of you to worry." She paused. "Actually... I'm... well, I'm looking for my mother."

Suddenly, she found the whole story pouring out, allowing herself to speak her injured thoughts aloud for the first time. She told the stranger of her mother's increasingly common absence, how the mare seemed to have abandoned her daughter and the stallion who had sired her. She told him of her confusion, of her anger, of her hurt. Once she had started, she could not stop, and so it was that Cera knew more of her than she had allowed anyone else. Perhaps it was the paternal aura that he gave off; perhaps it was the genuine concern in his eyes. In any case, she finished with a final harrumph to attempt to mask the pain in her mismatched gaze.

"So, you see," Aleta finished, "I want to find her and..." She trailed off. And what? Drag her back home? Beg her for an explanation? "I just want to see her."

"Talk."
Aleta


@ Cera - she didn't mention either of them by name, just as "Mother" and "Daddy" or some variant of that. :3
[Image: aletapixel_by_abbie1234-d9wm82t.gif]
pixel by Reli <3

Please tag Aleta in all replies.
Use of force and/or magic (with the exception of death) is allowed at all times.

Want to plot with Aleta? Visit her plot page here!

Cera the Golden Prince Posts: 419
Outcast atk: 5.5 | def: 9.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 16.3hh :: 6 Years HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Ilaria :: Red Panda :: Heal Brit
#4
I'm searching for something that I can't reach

The young girl is appropriately wary at first, but Cera patiently waits for characteristic youth and impatience to take hold, and sure enough her curiosity seems to take hold of her in time. Ilaria is always a good ice breaker, especially with little tikes like Aleta. She's simply too cute to ignore after all. You're cute too, Ilaria scoffs fondly, and Cera internally rolls his eyes at her. You're biased, Illy. Before they could debate it any further, the child is politely introducing herself. Cera blinks, pleasantly surprised by her manners, and his smile is a warm glow of approval. "It is lovely to meet you as well, miss Aleta. You have impeccable manners." Perhaps that would encourage her to continue being so concise and respectful in the future. They certainly needed more of her type in the world, he thought with exasperated fondness. My, he felt old all of a sudden, and realized with a sigh that he was nearly six. Where had the time gone?

One brow tilted playfully as the girl proclaimed she was in fact not lost. "Oh? Well you must be a regular adventurer!" Oh how he loved children and their exuberance, so eager to see what lay beyond the next hill, or further into the horizon. His breast ached with phantom, remembered pain. It would never truly ease, though the actual pain of the scar was nearly nonexistent outside of the winter season. Psychosomatic, but still painful in his troubled mind. He had once been as free-spirited and adventurous as her, and it had nearly cost him his life. If he were of the same evil as the stallion he'd encountered in the Deep, well...Aleta could very well have ended up exactly as Cera had, in this moment they were sharing. 

And quite a moment it was. 

Cera waited, endlessly patient, with brow crinkled in a sympathetic, pained frown as Aleta babbled her entire life story at him. It hurt his heart to hear such a tale spun from someone so young, to see his ghost in her golden frame, drifting through the world looking for an errant parent that should have stayed beside her to love and cherish her. He wished to move forth and embrace her, but felt it inappropriate considering they hardly knew each other. Well, Cera knew Aleta rather well after all that, but he would not impose on her just to satisfy his own emotional turmoil. 

"I'm very sorry you've had to experience something like this so young, Aleta," Cera murmured, eyes soft like crinkled emerald velvet. "And it's okay to feel hurt, and confused. A mother is supposed to love and support you always, like it sounds your father does. But sometimes family can be...complicated." Ranjiri and Midas flashed through his mind's eye, and he shook his dished face to rid himself of the comparisons. Aleta didn't deserve such a tainted, biased answer. Cera would supply her with genuine help or none at all. 

"There are many reasons why your mother may have left. But it's important to find out why. And I will help you however I can." A solemn vow that was expressed on Cera's concerned features. Flicking his long flaxen tail, the Forger tilted his head, parsing through the words Aleta had spewed and realizing she had not supplied a name. That would be the first step. "I have lived in Helovia my whole life, and have visited many herds. Perhaps if I know your mother's name, I can help you find her. Do you mind telling me?" Not that he intended to use the knowledge of her lineage for evil, of course, though he would not blame her for being careful if she chose to withhold it. 



@Aleta
Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!

Aleta Posts: 31
Outcast
Filly :: Pegasus :: 15.1 hh :: 1 year (FF)
ChaoticMelodies
#5
 
Despite appearances, Aleta had no desire to be an adventurer - or, at least, she didn't want to wander like this. Her current quest felt hopeless, as though she would be forever pressing onward, searching endlessly for her mother - her hopes rising as she crested each hill because surely, surely she would see Sohalia just there, only to have her wishes crushed as the expanse before her was yet again empty, as it always was. She was tired of returning home day after day with nothing to show for her excursions except loneliness. Though she cheered herself with the reminder that she always had Kaj, it hurt to know that her mother had willfully abandoned her, that she was an afterthought, a mistake. For that was the only explanation she could conjure that would have driven the Transcended from her side.

She never imagined the true size of her family, never knew that she had more siblings than she would be able to count.

She looked so very forlorn, standing there alone in the Riptide Isles, though she was trying so very hard to act the proper princess before the stranger she had come across. Cera praised her manners, and she smiled shyly, remembering how she had striven to perfect diplomacy after her father had explained its importance. Besides, manners were something that would never go out of style. It was kind of him to notice, however, and his words had just the effect he had intended - Aleta was all the more likely to continue her current behavior given the positivity of his reaction.

Though part of her wanted very badly to stem the words flowing so eagerly from her mouth, she found revealing her pain and fear to be amazingly cathartic. And Cera was such a brilliant listener, regarding her with a brow creased with true concern and feeling. As the minutes ticked by, the little lightning girl found herself growing more and more relaxed in his presence, as though he were an older brother that she simply hadn't seen in quite some time. As the stallion gave her his condolences, she might have (had she been any other filly) felt the urge to move closer, to cuddle beneath one of his great wings and let him comfort her through the tears that threatened to spill from her pretty, bicolored eyes.

As it were, she merely sniffed softly and looked away, shifting uncomfortably. Even if she were that forward (which she was not), and even if she were not so physically oversensitive (which she was), she would never be able to act that way towards someone who was basically a complete stranger.

But as the stallion promised to assist her in her quest to find her missing mother, the girl brightened considerably, her ears perking up and her eyes lighting for the first time. "You - you will?" she asked him, hope brimming in her voice. "Oh, thank you so very much! I would appreciate any help you can give." There was a hint of relief in the girl, a brief sense of confidence appearing because surely, with the help of such a kind and knowledgeable stallion, she could not continue to fail. "Oh, yes, my mother is Sohalia the Transcended," she revealed. "She's sort of small and grey and has these pretty white wings, and she has a wakiya companion named Astraeus." A pause. "I know she isn't in the Hidden Falls, because that's where I live with my father, Kaj the Aurelight. But... I haven't been able to look in any of the other herds, and I can only travel so far in a day, so..." She trailed off helplessly, hopelessly. "Have you seen her anywhere?"

"Talk."
Aleta


@Cera
[Image: aletapixel_by_abbie1234-d9wm82t.gif]
pixel by Reli <3

Please tag Aleta in all replies.
Use of force and/or magic (with the exception of death) is allowed at all times.

Want to plot with Aleta? Visit her plot page here!


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