the Rift


[PRIVATE] BLOOM

Tilney Posts: 288
World's Edge Moon Doctor atk: 4 | def: 9 | dam: 6
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2hh :: VI HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Peatree :: Lesser Fruit Bat :: None Neverrmind
#1
HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND EVEN IN THE DARKEST OF TIMES


"Maude,"

"Today's the day"

"Time to wake up now little duck"


The ginger stag prodded his pearlescent bundle, words voiceless and soft as he nudged his joyous child to consciousness. Tilney had planned this trip for well over a week now - Maudes first adventure. Not one where she had snuck away with Katua anyway; this one was a proper adveture, filled with learning and wonder.
Their destination had remained a secret from Maude, but plans were made to take her south to the Heart Caves. It was much warmer there and she had never seen dry desert like they had down in the south.

It was before daybreak that Tilney left his home and they set off, marching for the southern realm.
All along the way Tilney would walk right beside his young one, never drifting ahead. He wouldn't let her drift behind him, and when she did they would stop for a rest - it was truly the only way to keep safe on these tracks. There were all kinds of creatures and ruffians in Helovia, not to mention the great evil that resided in the hearts of fellow equids. Tilney remained convinced that if he didn't keep his green eyes on her, someone else's green hands would snatch her away.



The sun was setting by the time they approached the caves. Tilney watched Maudes expressions with a grin, taking in her amazement of the place he had taken her to. As he stepped into the mout of the first room Tilney cave a great shout, "Hello!" which caused a magnificent echo.
With another laugh and endless chatter about the caves and the previous times he'd visited, Tilney began to collect sticks in his mouth and bring them to a central area half way in, half way out of the cave where they might have a perfect view of the sky.

Tilney had not forgotten one of the reasons he had brought the girl here. No.
Tonight he would tell Maude about the secret he carried, the news he was to pass to her. For now though, he would enjoy the sunset with her and leave that for a little later.
The chatter hardly stopped, his smile never faded, and when night set it was time for the final touch on his newly built bonfire.

"Aiya"



x


@Maude
I hope u dont mind me pping her a bit to get them there!!!!

Wander or Leave
turn in to winter lights
☀︎


Maude Posts: 140
World's Edge Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: Yearling
Bunnie
#2

Newness was one of Maude’s favorite things.

Even if it wasn’t particularly pleasant, the ability to take on a new sight, smell, sound, place, or being was something she had learned to look forward to. This particular trip out of the Edge had seemed to take eons, mostly because she hadn’t been out with her sire since the Aurora Basin Festival, some months prior, and had only otherwise escaped for brief expeditions with Katua (which had trickled into fewer and fewer, her father becoming all the more watchful with each successful venture outside the safety of the Edge).

It was those instances which had prompted Tilney to take her out today, or so she’d decided for herself, being a clever girl. Surely he’d noticed that she was going to go exploring from time to time, and was looking to help teach her about the world beyond the borders. While she didn’t resent his lessons (rather looked forward to them), she did wonder why it was that she had to have them. Sure, he had warned her that the world was not always kind, and neither were those in it, but Maude had also never seemed to meet one of these nefarious characters in her day to day life. Part of her was starting to wonder if, maybe, her daddy wasn’t making up stories to keep her home, with him.

Regardless, some of that restraint was being lifted today, and with her mood high, and energies boundless, the filly prances, trots, and pivots alongside her father as they travel south. Each new plant or creature is met with an excited charge, a flurry of questions about its nature or usage bursting from her without restraint, among giggles and dreamy, distant stares.

By the time they make it to the caverns, Maude finds herself quite weary, not so used to travelling great distances, despite her enthusiasm for the nature of adventure. Still, the sound her hooves make against the stone and the way daddy’s voice echo about the cavern inspire another hidden bout of energy, which she utilizes to dance about the cave, readying temporary beds from pine branches, and other pleasantly cushy plant parts, while her father prepares the fire.

The Wandering Woods and the caverns of old,
oh, whisper of wind lured us out of the cold.
But a fire is nice, and there are stories to share,
and soon the adventures didn’t give cold a care!


Her song is a soft titter over the sound of their work. When all the preparations for a good camp are made, Maude eagerly arrives at the fireside, having never watched a fire ignite before, and quite keen on experiencing it at last.

Is it difficult to light a fire?” she asks her father with a grin, and wide, eager eyes, her cherub’s voice bright and cheerful.





Art by neverrmind @ DA

@Tilney
Hold onto this lullaby, even when the music's gone.

Tilney Posts: 288
World's Edge Moon Doctor atk: 4 | def: 9 | dam: 6
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2hh :: VI HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Peatree :: Lesser Fruit Bat :: None Neverrmind
#3
HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND EVEN IN THE DARKEST OF TIMES

As usual, the song his little one had created was beautiful. The dove's poems would always bring a smile to his lips or a tear to his eye, and the brilliance of her still-growing mind astounded him daily. Tonight though, it was her initiative in creating soft bedding for them both without even needing an instruction. She was becoming the most intuitive little creature. While other foals were in need of constant direction, always standing around dumbfounded and confused, Maude kept herself budy with tasks. She was intelligent, it was clear as day. "Well done poppet!" Tilney whispered in praise, nibbling her poll affectionately.

When the fire was finally lit the stallion took his place beside it, lowering himself onto the earth and resting on his side. Maude's question caused him to smile brightly, but this was certainly not unusual. All her questions did this.
"For me, not at all. For you... maybe impossible!" was the short answer, glancing from his young one and then back to the flames as they danced and flickered "I don't know if your mother ever told you about this Maudie... but the reason I carry a lantern with me is so I can see when it gets dark" Normally he would have looked away by now, a deep-set shame would be dwelling behind his eyes. But not tonight, not while he spoke to Maude. Instead, he watched his daughter sincerely and hoped she would listen. "I am night-blind, but I can survive with my lantern. It lights with a hot flame when I praise the God of the Sun! He is so kind Maude, He returns my night vision... and also it makes it very easy to light fires as you just saw" He spoke this gently, so as not to intimidate her. He didn't want to scare her, or make her think that he was sick or injured. "Unfortunately for you, you might need magic to start fires. Or another trinket from our lord of light!"

While his tone was light, Tilney had not forgotten the solemn reason he had brought the girl far from home, free of distraction and bore. Thep roblem dwelled and swelled in the back of his mind, but he would try his damndest to harness it until later.
"What do you want with fire anyway?" the flaxen father quizzed, a skeptical smirk sent her way.

ooc; ye look so somehow i f o r g o t about this thread even tho it just so happens to be the one im them ost excited about on his threadlog atm? HOW?
@Maude




x

Wander or Leave
turn in to winter lights
☀︎


Maude Posts: 140
World's Edge Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: Yearling
Bunnie
#4

Giggling at her father’s affections, and pressing her head into his gestures of love, the child might someday tell him of moments like these being part of the reason she bothered to be smart at all. She might not have tried so hard to do things the right way if the rewards didn’t feel so good, after all! Besides, the less time her daddy had to spend getting everything ready, the more time they could spend together, leisurely lounging beside the fire.

The pop and crackle of the tinder swiftly consumed by the flames fills the air, and she stares with great interest at the pretty dancing of the dangerous heat source. Blue, bluer than the ocean or the sky, creates a round arc at the base of each orange flicker, their shapes erratic and wild, reminiscent, to Maude, anyway, of long manes tousled in the peculiar, vertical wind.

She, too, looks from those elegant streams of flame to her father as he speaks, his red coat illuminated by the equally ruddy light of the fire, so that he looks like molten copper given life, his green eyes hauntingly dark, his oblivion black pupils flickering with miniature, reflected images of the campfire.

So that’s why I had to go get the lantern the other night,” she surmises swiftly, a curious smile crossing her lips as she looks deeply into her father’s eyes. They didn’t look any different than any other eyes she’d seen, other than that were, possibly, the most green and wonderful eyes in all of Helovia.

Those eyes light up as he talks of the Sun God, the child instantly curious in talk of a divine other than the Goddess of the Wood. That the God had so kindly given her sire a means to see in the night almost as instantaneously seals an admiration for Him in her heart, if for no other reason than that He had been good to those she loved.

What do you want with fire, anyway?” Tilney asks, the girl smiling and giggling in quick response.

Nothing, really,” she laughs, looking back at the cheerfully crackling fire, the now blackened logs deeply etched with magma red lines of heat, “it just seems useful, even if it is kinda dangerous. Its warm, and pretty.

Was the Sun God covered in fire? Maude wonders. How pretty is He, then, if the Moon had been more beautiful than the auroras in the Basin?

What’s the Sun like, daddy?” questions the maiden, wondering not only of his appearance, but his deeds (she needed stories to share with Erthë, the next they met, after all), “does he live somewhere like the Moon does with us? Well, not really with us, but like… kinda there, sorta…

Her frown relays all that needs to be said of how very, very befuddled she has suddenly become with this Godly dwelling conundrum.

Where exactly do they live when they are not with us, anyway?” she hurriedly asks next, her eyes wide and questioning.

[ OOC: HOW DARE YOUUUUU lol its okay <3 I was slow last week what with the holiday and all anyway :) ]



Art by neverrmind @ DA

@Tilney
Hold onto this lullaby, even when the music's gone.

Tilney Posts: 288
World's Edge Moon Doctor atk: 4 | def: 9 | dam: 6
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2hh :: VI HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Peatree :: Lesser Fruit Bat :: None Neverrmind
#5
HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND EVEN IN THE DARKEST OF TIMES

Maude's answer wasn't quite what he expected really, but it wasn't like he was unnused to her surpising him. She was strangely calm about it, the fact that he required the help of a light to see at night when she could see fine. Perhaps it was something she just took for granted? Or perhaps she really did understand.
Tilney expected her to panic, worry that he might die somehow or that it could happen to her - hence why it had taken him so long to tell her of his ailment.
With a warm smile the father nodded, green eyes turning once again t the blaze before them "yes" was his response when Maude mentioned having to retrieve the lantern a number of nights prior.

When the topic of conversation turned to the fire Tilneys countenance held a constant smirk as he watched his little one speak of a flame's usefulness and beauty. Fire was useful  and incredibly beautiful, but could inflict devastating damage - he hoped she understood that. Now was not the time for a lecture however and so his gaze easily softened when his loved one's chirps turned the conversation towards the God of the Sun, asking questions about what he was like and where he lived - questions Tilney wasm ore than happy to answer. He would never pass up an opportunity to talk about Father Sun, especially when it came to educating Maude.
"He is a similar height to me, has two horns up by his ears and has a coat the colour of sand" He explained the lords appearance first and then answered her second question on where he 'lived'.
"He is the patron deity of the Dragons Throat - it's a herd land not far from here actually. It's full of fierce warriors and it's ever so hot! I have been once or twice"

It was as if his mind was on a loop; It always came back to that same dreaded thought. Either that or karma and fate had teamed togeather to remind him with every waking moment about what it was he had done.
Who lived at the throat? Nephele. Who was Nephele? the woman who, somewhere, wandered with two of his children.
And Maude didn't even know.

It took but a few moments of being locked in an awful, thoughful trance that he realised his face had pulled into an over-concentrated snarl as he stared into the fire. Blinking quickly the bronze man gave a heavy sigh, not allowing his gaze near Maude for the time being. How on earth would he tell her? She wouldn't understand, there was no way.
Whether she did or she didn't, she had to be told regardless.
"Maude," the flaxen father uttered. His voice was broken and dead compared to how he normally spoke to her, but he couldn't talk to her any other way. Not right now. "I have something to tell you, and I would like you to listen to me. Please."

Shielding his desparing gaze from his little one's was quite agonizing, his hooves fidgeting in the ash that lay beneath them. Eyes anywhere but near her.
"I have known your mother for many years, she and I are the best of friends. I love her very much. So when she went away I didn't know what to do anymore... I was very very sad, Maude" His voice shook as he spoke and with every word that left his maw he realised what a poor excuse he had for what he had done. It was despicable, and he wasn't sure he would ever forgive himself let lone Arah or Maude.

"I made some horrible mistakes and- you wont understand, you're too young" his words turned to confused whispers as he pushed on his haunches, standing and striding away from the fire. Back turned to the one he loved the most, Tilney finally spoke the words he needed to tell her. "You have twin baby brothers Maude" was his pained whisper, jaw clenched and eyes tearful.



x


aw rip tilney
@Maude

Wander or Leave
turn in to winter lights
☀︎


Maude Posts: 140
World's Edge Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: Yearling
Bunnie
#6

Maude didn’t think of how her father’s sight might effect her now, but certainly would at some point, or another. All she worried about, now, was to be sure and grab it anytime she noticed it left behind, and her father no where near. She would always be sure to seek him out, lantern in tow, just in case he found himself in the dark, without it.

Perhaps that desire to be a beacon, herself, is what drives her questions about the Sun God, or simply the fact that he is a God, a creator of the world, and a wielder of high magic. The notion of any being that could create or be something as magnificent as fire, or the Sun itself, makes Maude’s imagination send her soaring up, up into realms of fantasy only children may reach, and that the Sun, with the other Gods of Helovia, had together made all the world she had ever seen (much of it beautiful), only added to the heights her father’s words sent her spinning into. Dreamy eyed, and staring, she hangs off each word as if there is a spell binding her to each syllable, so that when her father concludes, it takes her a moment to begin expelling normally immediate questions.

Does he not have wings, like the Goddess of the Moon?” is her first question, which is haunted by a second, silent inquiry: how can he get up to the sky if he can’t fly? However, she skips it over for another question, one that might not be answered by her first: “And is he a warrior, too? I can see that. Fire is very tough, and dangerous.

At first, when her father’s face begins to fall into dark contemplation, Maude thinks it’s something she’s said that has upset him. Somehow, though, she thinks that can’t be the case; he’d been more than happy to answer them before, and the topic hadn’t changed at all. So, she stares at him from across the fire, the light dancing across both their faces, her father looking as if his stomach really, really hurt, and Maude as if she were the most confused girl in all the world.

She’s just about decided that he’s started thinking about mommy again when the horrible silence is broken. How it’s broken, however, is almost as bad as the silence itself, and her confusion blooms into worry almost immediately, her ears lifting, and her heart thudding hard in her breast.

He won’t look at her, though she seeks his eyes. She seeks them so desperately that she almost misses what he’s saying, and when does realize, she stops, and instead stares intently at the gleam of the fire against his cocoa antlers. He loved mommy? Of course he did! Why was he telling her that? How was she too young?

What had he done, her perfect, caring father, that was so horrible, that could keep him from looking at her with love, as he always did?

What he says after he walks away doesn’t immediately resolve any of these questions for her, the girl unfortunately too distraught by her father’s unusual behavior, and the abrupt change of situation, to think clearly. She had twin brothers? Wasn’t that supposed to be something to be happy about?

She certainly had never been to a birth where anyone was ashamed, and also had very little idea about how babies were made. She’d never asked. However, staring at the fire, and putting together all the small clues she’d been given, it all starts to click together. With each clasped clue, her ears tilt back a little further, her frown grows a little deeper, and those perfect, shining green eyes, usually laughing, glinting, aglow, grow hard.

He loved mommy. He’d been lost. He couldn’t even look at her. She had brothers.

It’s her turn to get to her feet, now. She does so without her usual care for grace and ladylike tact, her hooves clamoring on the floor.

Why?” she shouts, bemoans, her delicate voice breaking under the weight of tears which rise to her eyes, unbidden, born of anger, and betrayal, “that’s fair to no one, daddy!

Her hoof stomps down, her small tail smacks angrily against her sides. It’s the first time in her life she’s felt any of these things, and they fall into the warm waters of her nearly perfect youth like stones at absolute zero, or chunks of molten rock pelted from the maw of a volcano. Her heart is breaking, but it won’t stop thundering within her chest, and the fragments it casts about hurt. She thinks about her mommy’s feelings, and how this truth is a dagger aimed directly at them, which her father has now given Maude, to carry, too. She thinks about her brothers (how many where there?), and if they have been given her fathers love fairly. She wonders if she will be given love fairly, too. Will he have time for her anymore, with so many other children to tend to?

What if… what if mommy couldn’t forgive him? What did that mean for their family? The thought is so horrible that she can’t stand here anymore, and with a frustrated sob of hurt and apathy, she canters out into the night, a tear-muddled shout sounding over the rhythmic patter of her small hooves against the frozen earth: “I don’t want any of this! You just leave me alone, you…you jerk!

[ OOC: DDDDDDDD': ]



Art by TheCallyBear@ DA

@Tilney
Hold onto this lullaby, even when the music's gone.

Tilney Posts: 288
World's Edge Moon Doctor atk: 4 | def: 9 | dam: 6
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2hh :: VI HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Peatree :: Lesser Fruit Bat :: None Neverrmind
#7
HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND EVEN IN THE DARKEST OF TIMES


It was the look in her citrine eyes that struck his chest, causing his gaze to faulter and his own sight-givers of emerald to well with a tear or two. Maudes face, the one that was usually softer than a song was now fiercer than thunder and it was terrifying. What was worse? the fact that it was Tilney who struck that glare upon her pure countenance. Turning his nose away, wondering how he could look at her like that for much longer the chestnut clenched his teeth and waited for her voice, the one he loved and adored, the one always filled with the sound of music. Surely her voice's innocence was next on the chopping block.
Sure enough, the little one's perfect velveteen lips which had previously only uttered words of amazement or love now chanted ferocious shouts and a childs attempt at a growl. It was remarkable how her bleats remained as poisonous as a neurotoxin; he'd rather have Raeden spear her horn into his chest than have Maude call him a jerk.

It was the pitter patter of her sweet footfalls that allerted him and caused his eyelids to flip open, searching the night for his little one. "Maude?" He whispered, breath escaping his clean teeth as a cloud of timid fog.
"Maude!" was his next cry, his hoof slamming with demand upon the ice below it. She couldn't just run off into the night!? Wolves, Lions, Bears... Dragons! All manner of beasts roamed these lands.
"Maude you return here right this second!" The father spoke gruffly, calling out into the night from his place beside the fire. If he ran out after her there was a chance he'd be lost to the night himself - what if Maude returned to his call only to find him gone?

The decision was made to wade carefully out into the thicket surrounding the caves, green eyes wide and fearful of what the night held.
Tilney hadn't expected it to go well, but he didn't expect it to go this bad.
Looking backwards towards the fire, Tilney noted his lantern sat idly on the cold bedrock - too much time would be wasted to retrieve it, and so the ginger stag pressed on without his lantern and without his sight, softly cooing his daughters name into the night.

@Maude


x

Wander or Leave
turn in to winter lights
☀︎


Maude Posts: 140
World's Edge Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: Yearling
Bunnie
#8

He was calling after her, and each echoing reach of her name through the quiet of the night made her heart feel as if it was breaking again, and again. Her breath trails after her in a ghost of a cloud, her small hooves breaking through the snow in a wild escape from a hurt she cannot outrun.

How could he?! She thinks, feeling the world continue to tumble down around her. She was never going to turn around, never ever! A small part of her clings to the hope that she might run, and run, until this night never happened, and the world went back to the way it was supposed to be. Another, louder voice reminds her that such things are impossible, but she seeks to drown it out with the sound of her hooves, and the brittle gasps of her sobs.

She thinks of her mother, wane, and fragile, how death had wrapped its cold embrace about her, while her father had embraced another with the love that might have spared Arah so much pain, had he looked for her, instead of a respite from the ache inside himself. It made Maude so angry to think of it, and even more angry to dwell on the thought of brothers, brothers who were strangers, and how they had the power to ruin everything she loved by simply existing.

The cold grabs into her legs, and slows them down. Her lungs pull harder and harder on the wintery air, and the wind casts drifting curls of powdery snow through the foggy landscape. Realizing that she can barely see, and that it’s not just the tears leaking freely from her eyes, a small sliver of panic begins to set into her heart.

Stopping, really feeling the cold sink in now, she looks back behind her, for her father, and the tell-tale glow of his lantern, shining from where his shouts are hailing from. There is no light, however, even when she narrows her gaze, and follows her already fading hoof prints (slowly being devoured by the wind, and its stowaway flakes of frost) some ways back, and without it, she realizes she can’t figure out where exactly his voice is coming from.

Daddy?” she whimpers into the night, trotting back along the trail of small divots in the snow, her anger numbed by the fear that has begun to pulse through her, instead. If there is no light, does that mean that he left his lantern? Her heart beats faster, afraid for both of them, now, calling more insistently into the night, as she hurries to find him before her trail is gone, and she can’t find anything at all: “daddy?!





Art by TheCallyBear@ DA

@Tilney
Hold onto this lullaby, even when the music's gone.

Tilney Posts: 288
World's Edge Moon Doctor atk: 4 | def: 9 | dam: 6
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2hh :: VI HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Peatree :: Lesser Fruit Bat :: None Neverrmind
#9
HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND EVEN IN THE DARKEST OF TIMES


The stags pace was nothing short of urgent and fearful, his heart fluttering away so far perhaps it had run to oblivion. Tilney's stammering calls were all in vain even until his chants turned to screams and his throaty bellows became blood-spattering coughs. The cold had stratched at his nose and, like any head wound, it bled profoundly for something so superficial.
With blood spouting from within his nostrils the blind patriarch paced amonth the snow and brush, hoping desperately to stumble upon a sound or smell. Why oh why had he not brought his lantern!?

All too soon a familiar voice snatched his ears, causing them to twitch backwards in the sound's direction. It was not the voice he wished to hear however.
"You have done her so wrong Tilney" Was the womans sobbing boom.
Turning on his haunches the stag fumbled blindly backwards towards the sound of his sister. Carlisle. It had been too long.  It was if she had vanished just when he needed her, and now came back to taunt him for what he was trying to fix it.
"Carlisle, please help me!"

Not another word was exchanged, not another sound was made save a whimper from the bloodied brutes lips. As quickly as the angel had arrived she had gone.
Daddy!
Once again the stallion turned upon his hocks and dashed across the ice-bound earth. She was near yet so far; he could tell by the way her brilliant voice echoed. With a hop and skip the fumbling man was upon her, her wondrous scent caught in his nares. "Maude I am here!" He cooed to her desperately, hoping she would come to him.



x

Wander or Leave
turn in to winter lights
☀︎


Maude Posts: 140
World's Edge Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: Yearling
Bunnie
#10

Her teeth begin to chatter with cold, and the fear sinking its teeth deeper and deeper into her, the longer she walks alone, without the resounding comfort of her father’s voice biting into the howl of the blizzard. No longer left any hoof prints to follow back, the girl narrows her eyes and peers fretfully into the maelstrom of white, her heart thudding hard against her breast, as her pale mane tousled into tangled ribbons abreast the wild wind.

Daddy!” she bleats, again, and again, until her throat is dry, and begs her to stop; even then, she keeps shouting out, trying to overcome the ferocious croon of the storm that seeks to swallow her cries, “oh, please, where are you? Daddy!!

The last cry pierces the muffling roar of the wind, her eyes blurred with tears that she can’t hold back. Why had she run off like that? It was so stupid! This whole night was just stupid! Sniffling loudly, she kicks at the snow savagely, before she sees a dark silhouette approaching her in the white whorl of the world, a familiar set of tines rising from an ever so familiar figure.

With a wild sob, she flees to his safe warmth, her anger forgotten in the wake of her terror, and the cold. Whump! sounds her chest and shoulder from where they impact him, and she buries her face in his perfect, strawberry hair; her tears flow freely, because his sweet words are soothing, and painful all at the same time. Around her, the wind howls, and inside, her heart howls, too, her tears slowly trickling into her father’s red mane and coat.

She sobs and sniffles for some while, until the cold ache in her ankles and toed hooves overrides the bitter hurt in her chest. Rubbing her eyes against her dad, she pulls away, but doesn’t look at him; instead, she watches her feet, shuffling slowly beneath her in the snow.

Can we just go back now?” she implores while shaking her muzzle back and forth, a choked sob breaking the air, because she doesn’t want to talk about it, not anymore, not tonight, “I just want to go back.




Art by TheCallyBear@ DA

@Tilney
Hold onto this lullaby, even when the music's gone.


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