It hurts to be brave.

That much is quickly apparent. The creature is not merciful with its jaws, which rip through her skin as though it's nothing more than a piece of tissue. Her bones crunch and crack sickeningly in her ears, but it's as though she is watching her own brutal maiming from a distance, disembodied from the raw agony which must be undoubtedly coursing through her. She's flailed and flung around, a limp toy in the jaws of a great dog, until finally the ordeal is over and she is deposited like a chunk of waste at the creature's feet.

Alas, the beast has not even been kind enough to finish her off completely. That would be merciful, that would be a nice thing. If there is one thing apparent, it is that this new world is not nice. Where Kaos lives, chaos rules. Nyx isn't entirely sure that she wants to live in a world like this, a world where mothers are forced to die for their children, a world where nothing is safe, nothing is sacred.

Dying isn't too bad. It's just the pain that makes it difficult, and the pain is suddenly exquisite. It's everywhere, not localised like it is during a fight. There is no escape; there is nowhere to flee to hide from this crushing, unbearable oblivion.

Feebly Nyx stirs, a lump of broken meat from her position a short distance away from the massive creature. Ribs glimmer ominously through her sides, livid red muscle, flesh and blood hanging uselessly where the creature's jaws penetrated. Her entire midriff is maimed beyond recognition, and yet she is alive. The creature has missed any vital organs, but that is of little comfort to the silver soldier, who would have preferred a swift end. She'd always dreamed of dying on the battlefield, but she'd pictured it as a sword through the heart, quick and reasonably painless, not this drawn-out, torturous affair.

Numbly she lifts her head, looking for her children. She has never truly considered her own mortality before - she'd contemplated death, feared it, but never imagined it happening to her. Now that is is a very real possibility - no, a hope, because death means an end to this pain - she is forced to face it head-on. Will it be peaceful? Will she be allowed to watch over her children, guide them from the sky? Will she come back as another animal with no memories of this life, or will she simply enter eternal blackness, aware of nothing but her own lack of existence?

None of those thoughts are comforting. There is no comfort now, only pain, and for all her bravery the soldier can do nothing but unleash a single tear as she contemplates what awaits her. She isn't ready, nowhere near ready, but the situation is out of her hands. All she can do is lie there, bleeding, and wait for oblivion to seize her.

Snap. The jaws are so close she can smell the fetid breath, and she winces against the inevitable - well shit, she hadn't planned on dying so soon. But she feels nothing. There's a whir of air and a scream, and there's her mother, thrashed around limply in the creature's jaws. "MA!!" screams Oizys, struggling to her feet and standing stock still, quivering with terror. The filly is normally fearless, arrogant to a fault, but this...this is different. This is her mother. For all the woman's many, many flaws, she's always been there for her, always raised her, and now she has taken the blow meant for her.

And it's all her fault.

She lunges forwards, ready to fight the creature to make it drop her mother, ready to kill it or die trying, but then The Thing decides to strike, snatching at her heart and tightening on her lungs. She can't breathe, can't do anything but stagger, paralysed, as the paroxysms spread through her. Only when breath is returned to her can she lunge forwards, but it's already too late to attack - Mother is a bleeding heap upon the floor, and it could already be too late. Not caring if the creature kills her, not caring if this is the end of both of them, the filly crumbles into a heap at her dam's side, gasping for air and with her heart thundering in her chest.

An eyelid feebly flutters in the mangled mess in front of her. "She's alive - fuck, healers, please, healers!" Why hadn't she listened when Evangeline taught her about healing? She looks around frantically for herbs, but what herb will sew a side back together? What herb will stop death itself? Her knees are skinned from the impact on the ground and Oizys bleeds too, but she doesn't notice, doesn't care as she places her face close to her mother's and begs the woman to stay alive. "Shit, shit, please don't die, Ma, you can't." Sobs wrack her body, so out of place on the hideous, obnoxious gargoyle brat, so out of character, but so true, because her heart and her life is breaking.

And all because she thought she could take on a monster.

Mother. There's moments in every creature's life that define them, make them, forge them like steel from a fire. This is Arakh's. His dumb older sister Oizys charges towards the monster - stupid, he thinks - but his mother, his damn bleeding heart mother, charges as well. She knocks his sister clean off her feet, but then, then comes the moment.

Those jaws lower, heading towards Oizys. Truthfully Arakh wouldn't really care if she died, she's shown no affection towards him or Esinakh and it's her own damn fault for attacking, even if those thoughts are perhaps rather cruel. Fate, however, has other ideas. Instead of the brat, they attack the mother. As though in slow motion, the colt sees his mother swung around and broken like a toy, and a roar spreads slowly from his jaws as he begins to charge.

By the time he is there, he can tell it is too late. His mother lies bleeding and broken, his sister sobbing at her side, and Arakh unleashes a feeble bleat towards her. "Mai?" There is no reply, unsurprising when she's in pieces. Sorrow grips him like a vice, and a low, plaintive wail escapes him.

From the ashes of that misery, that utter bone-deep sorrow, comes anger. His gaze rests on Oizys and he roars, a thunderous sound from a colt so young. "THIS YOUR FAULT" he bellows, launching towards her and hitting his chest into hers. He's smaller than her but she staggers, precariously balanced as she is next to their mother. This is her doing. She has killed their mother, and she isn't even her mother! Oizys is adopted, the foundling, the brat lucky enough to be welcomed into the warm arms of the kindest mare Arakh has ever known, and how does the gargoyle thank her? By killing her, or as close to as she possibly can without wielding the knife herself.

His anger sizzles away and a wracking sob cripples him. He falls to his knees next to her, looking up only when a healer appears, when she begins to sing. "Please make Mai better," he says to the strange mare, hope glowing in his tearstained eyes.

Suddenly, Dominus is by her side. He'd hung back during the fight (if it could be called a fight - she'd had no chance against the skeletal monster) but now he is here, a low whine emanating from his throat as he touches his muzzle softly to her cheek. She'd not considered what would happen to him if she died. He couldn't survive without her, so her death would condemn him to the same fate.

That, more than anything so far, makes a second tear follow the first. What if they're separated once they pass? What if she never gets to hear his voice in her mind again, feel his emotions, things she's become so accustomed to during their three years together? It is unthinkable, terrifying.

Around her the battle rages; others throw their magic and their might against Kaos' monster, but Nyx knows it is futile. He cannot be defeated, not here, not today. He will be, though. He does not realise that when he trifles with one Helovian, he trifles with them all. Perhaps Nyx's death can be a beacon around which the amassed armies of Helovia can fight, a cause for them to raise their swords for. Or, as is more likely, she simply isn't that important, and will fade off as a footnote of history: Kaos' first kill.

Oizys is by her side in an instant, and amidst all her pain, Nyx registers some surprise that the girl seems to care so much. She hadn't thought that the gargoyle child had a single caring bone in her body, yet here she is, wracked with horror at the thought of losing her mother. The ironheart manages a weak smile, and desperately lifts her head to touch to her daughter's nose. "It's okay, my love. I can't think of a better cause to die for." Forcing the words out is almost impossible and the mare's head sinks swiftly back to the soil afterwards, her ruined side heaving with the exertion.

An unfamiliar mare comes, then, and her sweet song ripples through Nyx's ears. She closes her eyes, feels the pain in her side begin to ease as the healer's magic tickles across her torn and maimed skin, but she knows in her heart that it isn't enough. @Lena has eased her pain, undoubtedly smoothed her passing, but she cannot fix what is beyond broken. All the same, Nyx looks towards her salvation with warmth in her eyes, murmuring a soft "thank you" towards the unfamiliar woman who had been so willing to try and help her.

The peace and serenity is shattered by Arakh, his accusations towards his sister. Dominus issues a loud, protective growl towards the colt, warning him to fall silent and not upset Nyx any further; she doesn't need it, cannot handle it. Then comes @Kiuaji dressed as a dragonlike creature, one of the only ones who had defended her during THAT herd meeting, something she's eternally grateful for. He helps soothe her children and she gives him a soft whicker of thanks, relieved that he is helping where she cannot.

A young stallion ( @Sacre ) arrives, and Nyx feels recognition blossom in her mind. "You," she murmurs, looking at his red-splashed side. "You probably don't remember, but...you were there the first time I came to Helovia." She pauses, smiles feebly. "Full circle." The poetry of it is not lost on her. He works on her too, and her pain eases further as her ribs are shifted back into place. If they hadn't already done the damage with their jagged edges of bone and cruel shards pressing into her vital organs, then perhaps the man's work would have saved her. Alas, it only lessens the agony of the inevitable, but she is grateful nonetheless.

Then comes a duo of arrivals that only makes this a thousand times harder, that makes her bleeding heart swell with pride about the herd she's chosen to serve and the people she offered her sword to, but also with sorrow because of what she's going to leave behind. In @Alysanne , the Edge has a queen who will serve it loyally, who will rule it as Nyx never could; she receives a small, weak nod and as much of a smile as the grey can muster. The pegasus brings calmness with her, and Nyx feels some of her fear leak out of her.

And in @Tembovu ....in him, the Edge has power. Elephantine strength in the body of a man so good, so kind, that she knows he would do anything for the herd just as she would have. When she tries to think of all the things that Tembovu is to her, it makes her chest ache with the knowledge that she's leaving it all behind. Lover, king, herdmate, friend. Of all the people who have touched her heart since entering Helovia, he is one of the most pronounced, one of the ones to edge himself deepest into her emotions. Yes, she loves him. Maybe not in that way - although having been there and done that, she can give glowing recommendations - but in a platonic way, a way that is no less strong or real than the alternative. "I'm sorry," she murmurs sadly to him.

Finally comes @Esinakh , her youngest daughter, her last ever child. She stays away from the carnage and as much as Nyx wants to summon her closer, to wrap herself around her and feel her warm daughter-flesh one last time, she knows it would be selfish of her to expect the child to overlook her anxieties simply for that reason. Instead she offers a low whinny of greeting, and asks Dominus to remove the items she keeps stashed around her person. Towards Esinakh he carries the glass fangs forged by the Glaziers, dropping them at the filly's hooves. "I love you, Esi," is all she can say by means of explanation. To Arakh, Dominus carries her glass spear, depositing this by his feet too. "To help you keep her safe, my brave boy."

To Oizys, Dominus carries a glass shield. "To protect you when I'm gone." Then he places her glass shiv on the ground by nobody in particular. "For any of the Edge's warriors, should they choose to use it." Finally, the white lion carries Nyx's Moon Amulet towards Tembovu, placing it with surprising gentleness at his feet. Nyx had filled it with her magic only the other day - she hadn't imagined she would be parting with it so soon. "It has my magic inside. Not that you need my help to protect the herd, but...it's the thought that counts." Another weak smile. Around her neck is her Spark Amulet; she thinks she will take that with her to the grave, so she may have a part of her patron God with her at all times.

She peers through the crowd, half-hoping to see other familiar faces so she can bid them goodbye, too. Libertad, d'Arcy, Enyo. Mauja, d'Artagnan, Nato; her beloved family, and those who have made her journey through Helovia all the more remarkable. From the blind, abused child who held storms in her hands, to the loving mother, friend and General who makes her bow here, in a no-mark marsh in the grasp of a cruel God. So much has changed, and how she's grown! Overall, she has had a good life. She's had a happy life, and her final years in the Edge had been more than she could have ever dreamed of.

She looks between all of the gathered horses, but specifically those of the World's Edge, her home. The best home she's ever known, the herd she's been proud to serve for all these years. "If it's not too much to ask...would you take me to the Edge and bury me there?" She feels herself growing choked as she speaks, as she fights against the dying of the light in her eyes; not yet, not yet. "It is my home and always will be...I would like to spend my eternity there." The mare allows herself to smile, thinking of the thousands of sunsets she can still witness when she is laid to rest in the Edge, its loyal soldier watching over it even in death.

I'm scared, she says to Dominus as he returns to her. He rests his magnificent maned head down on her cheek, until she feels his whiskers brush up against her sweat-soaked skin. "Me too," he replies, open and honest as he allows his own fear to mingle with hers. Their minds entwine together closer than they ever have before, memorising every last bit of one another, exploring every inch of the other until they are one as never before.

The silver swallows hard, gulping down the lump in her throat. Together? she questions.

"Together," he replies. "Always."

At last, the mare allows herself to relax, to put down her sword and shield and accept the inevitable. She's been fighting all her life, from the dark days of her mother's abuse to the dozens of physical altercations she's survived since she entered Helovia. To finally let that all go, to submit to the inevitable...it is a release, a glorious slackening of battle-tensed muscles, unfurling herself from her armour and allowing the final war to end.

Nyx takes one last lingering look at everyone gathered - friends, children, loved ones each and every one of them - and then up to Dominus, imprinting the image of each of them behind her eyelids as she finally shuts them. They are the last thing she sees as, with a sigh of relief, she feels the fear disappear and the peace wash over her. Death's hands grip her, pull her in, but she's not scared anymore; she's ready.

With one final breath, the mare's consciousness fades and she tumbles into Death's waiting arms. No more than a second later, Dominus twitches, growls, and follows; his great white body falls slack as he passes alongside his bonded, their dual minds still entwined as they go together into the next great adventure.

Together. Always.

The gathered crowd is largely ignored, although Lena's singing and Alysanne's magic do succeed in calming her slightly. It can't stop the great wracking heaves of her chest, nor do the words that Nyx says to her. How can she say that this was worth it? She's dying, and nobody wants that. The gargoyle hisses through her teeth and leans closer, as though her sheer force of will can knit her mother's side back together. The healing seems to be working, but not enough - Oizys' panicked gaze darts between the healers, praying that one of them will be strong enough to stave off death itself.

But she should know it is impossible. As her mother begins to hand out her possessions, the reality truly hits her. Nyx won't be around to teach her how to use the shield she's handing over, won't be around to see her daughter's first fight, to witness strong future grandchildren and the empire that the gargoyle will build. She's dying, and she's dying because of Oizys. She takes the shield and she nods through teary eyes, her limbs shaking and her mind hating itself for this show of weakness, of grief, in front of such a large crowd, but she can't help it.

Despite her stone exterior, her bravado and vulgarity, Oizys is just a little child who is about to lose her mother, and it's the most painful thing she's ever felt.

"I love you, Ma," she whispers softly towards the mare's ear, before stepping back to give her space. The actual process seems rather quick, and she's gone in seconds; Dominus falls with her, and Ker gives an involuntary shudder at the notion that one cannot survive without the other. Oizys' recklessness had endangered not only herself but her companion, and that is truly unforgiveable.

Still heaving with suppressed pain, the girl tries desperately to hide it behind a mask of action, of needing to do something rather than stand here and contemplate her loss. "We...we should begin to move her to the Edge, for the....burial." Holy shit, that makes it real. They have to act fast, though. Kaos' beast may try to eat the cooling corpse, and Oizys already has a thousand reasons to slaughter him - she doesn't need another.

As much as he wants to hide behind his anger, use it to disguise the pain and anxiety inside by directing it onto his half-sister, he knows he can't. As Dominus growls at him, he feels a sudden sense of shame for the fact he'd disrupted this moment, disturbed the possibly final minutes of his mother's life with his rage and his fire. It is not acceptable. He backs away, humbled and upset at himself, and feels his muscles quivering slightly even when Alysanne's magic forces him to grow serene and peaceful. He cannot believe the emotions because he knows they're false; there's pain underneath, he just can't feel it yet.

When Dominus comes forwards to place a spear at his feet, the colt realises for the first time that this is really happening. His mother is really dying. He snorts, frantic, and looks around for Esinakh; he edges towards her and presses himself against her, unable to hold back a small sob as it chokes from his throat. His father and now his mother - all he has left is his Esi. He nestles close to his sibling, seeking comfort from her warm body and the knowledge that she, at least, is alive.

Death takes their mother from them quickly, and the calf bows his head with the weight of his sorrow. "Sleep well, Mai," is all he can say, his body screaming of dejection and sorrow. His woe deepens as Esinakh screams and launches to the skies, leaving the boy alone and cold. He makes the long journey to the Edge alone, unable to contemplate the future ahead - a future without Mother, and a future where he cannot protect Esi from the hardships of the world.