Albrecht

The sea beast calls out to Helovia one last time, his narrative booming across the lands so that it feels inescapable, echoing and reverberating in every direction. The old stallion shakes his head, ears pinned tight to his skull. He resents the intrusion, the assumption of willingness, but with the reception the creature has garnered so far, he can’t quite say it’s an overstep of confidence. Kisamoa holds the receipts for every one of their loyalties; magics, jewelry, gifts of all makes and models, and every trinket clamored for with hungry, grateful eyes. He’s cultivated this workforce with careful attention, only now demanding something in return, and even that he softens with phrases like ’friends,’ and ’the Earth God,’ and ’please.’

The old black wanders near, always willing to be bought for something shiny and intriguing, but skepticism draws his features into a scowl as he listens to the details of their task, balking more with each word. They’re to remove the filth? He turns his head to watch as the others rush to clear and collect, watching ribcages, jaws, cannons and femurs be piled together, tossed aside. His ears fall back, though they’ve barely moved from their earlier pinning.

Has it not occurred to anyone that these are bones they’re carelessly shuffling? This place is a graveyard, like nowhere else he’s seen in Helovia. These bits and fragments are all that’s left of – well - someone, lots of someones. He moves to stand over a small clump of weeds, their determined stalks weaving through the nasal and optical passages of a small skull. He can’t tell what the animal once was, other than some small mammal, but it seems unkind to move the dead this way. Relocate them, sure, but to so casually jumble them together like so much waste, without respect or remorse? He blinks unhappily, wondering, what does the beast want with them? Will he simply destroy them? Doesn’t the Earth God care for his creatures anymore once they’ve stopped living off his land and started feeding back into it? What about the circle of life and all that?

He watches a long time, then dozes in fits, standing firm over his small tuft of weeds for an indiscernible span of time. Faces come and go, objects shift, disappear and reappear in different places behind his closed eyes. He thinks that a day or so has passed, his stomach rumbling a lackluster complaint at his negligence. If anyone else objects the clearing he doesn’t hear them do so.

And then the sea beast is gone, only his voice, or something very like his voice, remaining to laugh at them, chide them, banish them. He startles away from the sinister sound, eyes wide and wary of the obelisk with its bone-monster guardian. He hears the Earth Gods disapproval at his back as he flees, the cries of dismay and what he can only guess is pain from those who linger, only serving to quicken his step. He’s watched one kingdom fall already and been the body to soften its descent. If this one should fall too, he’s determined to be the first among deserters. That is, until another familiar sound pierces the air, rooting his hooves where they fall.

A soprano voice, a cry he’s heard before – ”Ma!”

The bone-monster sweeps its mace-like tail across the crowd and several bodies crumple, but only one draws the old stallions emerald eyes along with it through the air, landing with a thud in an unnatural heap. His ears flick forward, his neck taut, and seemingly of their own accord, his long, arthritic legs turn, stretch out, drum his fluttering heartbeat into the ground beneath him until he’s standing over the boy with the auburn mane and tail. “Saoirse.” He murmurs, cringing at the useless flopping of his tiny left wing.

Enna, the snarky, once comically obese Time Mender brushes past him, cooing comforts and dropping quickly to her knees at the boys side. The stallion fidgets uncomfortably, glancing around for further danger, for other healers, for the childs goddamned, good-for-nothing mother. He waits as many heartbeats as he can stand in the interim, then presses, “We should go. Can you stand?”



"Alby talks" 'Strom talks'
OOC // @Enna @Saoirse Sorry for the novel, I missed out on the last thread.