the Rift


[OPEN] When wings fail

Kianzo Posts: 95
World's Edge Sleuth
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.3 hh :: 2
Keusi :: Striped Hyena :: Terrorize smitty
#1
Kianzo
Surly legs carried the colt south. Further and further and further, until trees began to thin and the soil turned from hard-packed earth to loose, pale sand. His onyx hooves sank into the grey mud that marked the shift from soil to salt flats, and a scowl flashed across his handsome, juvenile features.

Of course Kia would go on an adventure without him and find an exciting new equine to meet. He left and found only desolate, empty mud. Black rimmed ears tilt back, bright eyes glaring at the sucking earth as he slogged through it. A sheen of sweat coated him in the blaring, constant sunlight, darkening his now-sleek coat and slicking it to his dark skin. At least a few breezes, even if they were heated by the sun-warmed shallow water, blew over his hot skin to give some kind of relief.

Regardless, the colt had started in a sour temper that, now, had turned outright foul. Finally reaching the end of the mud and crossing over the edge into the mirror-like sandy flats, he stopped to slosh his muddied legs in the crystalline, warm waters. The grey mud slipped away, once again revealing the shining, black coat beneath.

A whisper of wings drew his attention from his legs and to the skies, snapping his head to peer upward. Bright eyes squint into the glare, seeing only a dark silhouette against the sun. The colt snorted and —whoosh— a could of ash rushed into the heavens, chasing the shape.

He was surprised to find that the ashen clouds had taken shape; they were formed in likeness to his companion. His ears swiveled backwards while his eyes remained skybound, watching his magic snare the flying thing, its wings suddenly ceasing to flap as it began to fall from the sky. He heard the splashes that marked the approach of his cub; he head been relieved when she had finally given up her annoyed yowls when they first had begun walking through the mud.

SPLASH.

The creature hit the earth solidly, falling from too great height for water to soften the blow. Slowly approaching the ash-shrouded creature, the dark princeling realized that it was a bird, a large one. Webbed feet were dark, while its white neck was crooked at a grotesque angle. Its long beak was slightly askew, the fall breaking its hinges and causing it to not align properly. And a fish half-heartedly flopped in the expansive pouch of the broken beak.

Seeing the haphazard wings and the open, unseeing eyes, the colt let his magic blow to dust with the warm breeze. This bird was dead, and would remain still. His head dropped, nostrils flaring to take in the strange, fishy and salty scent of this dead thing.

Behind him, a highpitched, eerie laugh sounded as the hyena pup splashed forward. Finally, food.
You must know darkness before you can know light.
image

@Tae The bird is a brown pelican with a half-dead fish in it's beak!

Please tag Kianzo in all replies.

Tae Posts: 133
Dragon's Throat Alchemist atk: 7.0 | def: 10 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15.2 :: 2 HP: 72.5 |
Mal :: Timber Wolf :: Terrorize & Hel :: Royal Hellhound :: Hellfire Odd
#2

" HEY"

Was the voice a shout? Or a growl?
As it turned out, both.

From the alabaster and gold sky dropped a dark shape, swift as a bird but a great deal larger. Following in the shadow of the dropping thing were two large canines, a wolf and a hellhound. Both had their jaws agape and were snarling at the hyena pup which was infringing upon their meal. Their meal that they had been tracking for an hour now. Didn't this slobbering pup's master know that using magic to snare food was cheating? The hulking black canines certainly thought that it was, as did Tae, whose wings had unfurled from her shoulders to slow her descent.

The mandible-marked filly landed gracefully upon the sands (she had an abundance of practice with landings of this sort in the Throat), and eyed the colt with hot, ghostly-pale eyes. The fire that lined Hel, the hellhounds forehead and shoulders, looked as though it was molten lava, ready to drop down onto the sands, but it remained where it was, oozing and churning. The boys turned their sights on the hyena, teeth bared and heads lowered, while Tae's eyes remained fixed on the horned prince.

"That was our prey." She said accusingly. The girl raised her chin, for even though she judged herself to be a few seasons older than the boy, she was still rather small. But small and fast, just like her mother. Her pale eyes and body posture showed no signs of fear or arrogance, merely the desire to reclaim what was rightfully hers, even though it was likely covered with ash and fowled by the use of magic.

tae
i'm a cold day in august, i'm a stream too shallow
i'm a heart shaped box with no letter inside
Image Credits


@Kianzo

Kianzo Posts: 95
World's Edge Sleuth
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.3 hh :: 2
Keusi :: Striped Hyena :: Terrorize smitty
#3
Kianzo
The black painted face jerked up at the sudden, shouted noise. He hadn’t noticed another silhouette in the sky, he’d been so concentrated focusing his magic on this now-broken bird. So surprise widened his eyes and gaped his dark lips for a moment as the winged filly fell to the flats in front of him.

Though, at the snarls and snaps of her hounds at his cub, shock vanished and miffed wariness took its place. Bright blue eyes went from wide to narrowed, lips went from agape to scowling as he irritably met the angry, white-hot stare as she landed lightly and easily on the mirrored sands.

And, again, the princeling was surprise that she was small; she looked much smaller on earth than she did while in the skies. But her neck was longer and legs more proportional than his—she must be slightly older than him. His scowling eyes sharpened on her face, studying the mandible-marking that lined her jaw. It was…interestingly unique. And the princeling was surprised that it didn’t outright annoy him. In fact, he found it, as well as the wolf pelt upon her haunches, intriguing.

”That was our prey.” Though these next words did outright annoy him. “Your prey?” His voice was surprisingly clear and deep for a colt so young, “It doesn’t look like that, anymore,” he glanced at the dead bird pointedly, “It looks like my cub’s meal.”

And the hyena cub, in question, had silenced her eerie laugh and stopped her greedy steps the moment she heard the others’ snarls. Her bright blue eyes glittered viciously at the two pups, though she was not fool, even in her youth: these pups were older and larger. And one dripped fire onto the sands around them.

Yet, still, her dark paws started to slowly, carefully, inch towards the mangled seabird. Her own, younger teeth were bared in a silent snarl of her own, jaws that someday would crush bone parted. Finally close enough to the bird, she lunged, snapping jowls aimed for the bird’s long, crooked neck.

And the colt, seeing this, squared his shoulders and grabbed tightly onto the sparking, dark magic in his chest, ready to fling more ashen hyenas across the sands.
You must know darkness before you can know light.
image

@Tae much later: so much for a speedy thread :| -is shot-

Please tag Kianzo in all replies.

Tae Posts: 133
Dragon's Throat Alchemist atk: 7.0 | def: 10 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15.2 :: 2 HP: 72.5 |
Mal :: Timber Wolf :: Terrorize & Hel :: Royal Hellhound :: Hellfire Odd
#4

Excitement bubbled in her tiny chest. The boy wasn't backing down, and something about that sent shockwaves of dangerous joy through her dark body. Did he not know who she was? Was she not Tae, the little ghost, killer of monsterous and keeper of bones? Daughter of the Mother of Companions and the Wildfire? Her pale eyes flashed with a happy thrill. Tae had nothing to prove really, but she wanted to have something to prove; wanted a chip on her shoulder, an enemy, or a cause to defend just like her mother had. She and Grusha had an armies worth of bones which could be turned into a monster at any moment, but nothing to use it on.

She would not start a war over a bird, but the excitement in the back of her throat was too juicy to simply swallow back down.

"Does it?" She purred, stepping forward. As she did so, two things happened.

The first, was that she allowed her own magic to become apparent. Her body began to bleed away, her excitement becoming too much. She looked like a girl well on her way to becoming a ghost: her silhouette was now white and nearly see-through. Spirits appeared on either side of her as well, taking no real form, but looking more like translucent opalesque smears in the air. Her white eyes looked at the colt with some sort of during amusement. Come and take it, if you think it's yours those eyes seemed to say, but there was real amusement there - and almost no hostility. She truly was enjoying this.

The second thing which happened, was that Mal and Hel began to advance. Both of the black canines were larger than the hyena pup, and both barred their own row of glistening white teeth. Mal, the older of the two, suddenly produced an illusion of a massive lion. The beast roared and focused its attention upon the Hyena, licking its lips. Wolves might never have been a hyena's enemy, but lions certainly were. At the same time, Hel's markings began to glow dangerously as hellfire began to sizzle around him. The pair - a trio if you included the lion - stepped forward menacingly, and Hel lowered his jaws to snap up the broken bird.

The girl's wings spread and her mandible jaw lifted as if in triumph. And, if she was being truthful, she had him to thank for it.

Didn't she?

tae
i'm a cold day in august, i'm a stream too shallow
i'm a heart shaped box with no letter inside
Image Credits


@Kianzo

Kianzo Posts: 95
World's Edge Sleuth
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.3 hh :: 2
Keusi :: Striped Hyena :: Terrorize smitty
#5
Kianzo
Bold adolescent and immature bravado began to falter as the mandible-marked filly suddenly purred a question and began to move towards him. Her flesh began to melt away and apparitions began to swirl and materialize around her. And, for once, the colt felt a true and cold trickle of fear in his barrel. It was small and icy and entirely novel to his thus-far sheltered life. The darkling prince’s black hind leg rose, beginning to step backwards in a retreat.

But hubris—a fateful pride that had marked him on the day of his violence induced birth— reared its angry and vain head in his mind. He was a prince; he was royalty. He would not back down beneath the amused, ghostly stare of this smaller, older filly. His chest, small and slender in his youth, puffed out in a shaky intake of breath. His small jaw clenched (in eerie resemble to his yet-unmet father) as still-narrowed eyes glared pointed blue stares at the approaching ghost.

“It does,” his voice, despite the bravado of its words, was markedly smaller and less assured that his previous claims. But his hyena cub did not mirror the pride of her bonded. No, despite being part of his soul, her own hyena-ish survival instincts still flared in her young body. So, in the face of the apporaching, larger pups and the sudden lion that appeared, she uttered a high keen of annoyance and fear as she stopped her lunge for the bird’s neck and began to retreat. But the striped cub did not fully retreat, nor did she face her back towards the raiding, plundering trio. Small, sharp teeth were still bared even as her head ducked low to the ground; and her stare was icy—hateful as she watched wolf pups snap up her meal.

The colt’s prideful temper flared as his cub backed down— “Guess not,” his mutter was quietly and fiercely aimed at his retreated companion. Though, truthfully, it was the only sane thing to do. His milk teeth gnashed together as he watched, now-cruel glare darting to the wolf-hide that was suspended upon her ghostly haunches. “So who’d you steal that from?” His barbed question was vicious and ornery, not willing to back down and not yet having learned to lose graciously, as his chin thrust out to indicate he spoke of her wolf hide.
You must know darkness before you can know light.
image

@Tae

Please tag Kianzo in all replies.

Tae Posts: 133
Dragon's Throat Alchemist atk: 7.0 | def: 10 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15.2 :: 2 HP: 72.5 |
Mal :: Timber Wolf :: Terrorize & Hel :: Royal Hellhound :: Hellfire Odd
#6

Guess not. Had the mandible marked filly ever heard words so sweet? So positively triumphant? Instead of gloating, Tae merely dipped her skull in acknowledgement. Inside though, she was radiating joy. And it showed. Her body began even more ghostly, despite her attempts to try and rein in her magic. It was no use - she had really accomplished something here.

Hadn't she?

So who’d you steal that from? If only Tae knew that the boy asking the question was the son of a thief ... how witty her response might have been. Instead, she merely cocked a hip and snorted indignantly. As she did so, her body began to solidify more as her emotions gradually calmed. Though she couldn't tell if he was insinuating that she had stolen the dead bird, or if it was merely meant to be a slight towards her, given that she had just beat him at something.

"It was a gift." She said, casually. "My twin and I saved a litter of wolves from a monster. The mother gave me this as a thank you." Mal growled slightly from where he was eating in response to this - the wolf hadn't been his mother, but it was because the twins had stopped to aid her that he had been found by Tae at all. The girl's pale gaze tried to fix upon the colt's, her white eyes daring him to call her a liar. She and Grusha had stalked the monster - and one day they would have his bones - but for now, the pelt and Mal were all she had to show for that day. 

tae
i'm a cold day in august, i'm a stream too shallow
i'm a heart shaped box with no letter inside
Image Credits


@Kianzo

Kianzo Posts: 95
World's Edge Sleuth
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.3 hh :: 2
Keusi :: Striped Hyena :: Terrorize smitty
#7
Kianzo
Bright eyes, still narrowed in annoyance, begin to grow hateful. The same hate that colored his hyena cub’s snarling yips. He watched the older filly’s body flicker, becoming ethereal in its entirety—did she do that on purpose? What did it mean? His ears tilt back for a moment; was she showing off her triumph over him and his cub?

Though his ears did not stay pinned back for long. He needed to be alert and attentive to this winged hotshot and her peacocking companions. Their ravenous appetite was made known by snapping of delicate, hollow bones. The hyena cub snarled softly, bright eyes watching with chagrined jealous and hateful spite as they fell upon her meal.

Black rimmed ears twitch with each, casual syllable she answered him with. Whether or not her words were meant to be insulting, the dark princeling could not help the ire that continued to billow and burn in his chest—a homage to his yet-unmet father. Her words boasted of her escapades with a twin (she had a twin?); of saving something and being rewarded for her heroism.

Lines of contempt marked his back-inked face, glare darting from the white-hot eyes to her gorging hounds; one of hallucinations and one of molten flames. His stare watched the rip of the carcass he had felled, gaze narrowing on the slender and swallowing throats. Throats that were filled while his cub’s was empty. “Who are you?” His question was muttered beneath the concentration and the impetus that was building in him from the frustration of losing.

And then, with a flare of vindictiveness that youth excel in, again the ashen hyenas launched from his chest. The cloud was flung haphazardly—nearly without control with the ire that had grown in his slender and ashen chest— towards the gluttonous wolf and hound, the hyena’s ashen jaws aiming to snap at their swallowing throats. They could freeze their gulps; strangle them on their greed. And, though this cruel idea had been merely a thought in the colt’s dark mind, he was now attacking the filly’s companions.

Yet no remorse or second thoughts flashed through his cobalt gaze, that swung back to the filly’s white-hot eyes.
You must know darkness before you can know light.
image]

Zo tries to choke one/both of her companions by throwing his ash hyenas at them mid-swallow cause he's a BONAFIDE D-BAG.

PS-If I pp'ed Mal & Hel eating, then lmk and I can edit this whole thang.

@Tae

Please tag Kianzo in all replies.


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