the Rift


[PRIVATE] sing a sad song

Oizys Posts: 134
Aurora Basin Soldier atk: 7.0 | def: 8.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Hybrid :: 17hh :: 2 HP: 73.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Ker :: Philippine Eagle :: Curse Snow
#1


As they walk from the funeral, Oizys feels her muscles quivering with barely-contained emotion. Her face and eyes are hard, but her mind is a sea of sorrow, a savage tempest of misery and grief. Her mother is gone. The only thing left of the ironheart is a grave, a slightly misshapen hummock of earth, and the gouge marks she's made on the gargoyle's heart.

She knows what she must do. Oizys has always prided herself on her strength, on her indomitable spirit borne of her difficult birth and upbringing. She's always forged herself in her father's name, hell-bent on becoming the cold-blooded queen she's destined to be, the demoness that erupted from the Basilisk's loins that fateful Frostfall day. Father would abhor her if she showed any sign of weakness, even The Thing in her heart that condemns her to long days of suffering. He would expect her to stay here, continue her mission in his name, even if it made every day a living hell for her as she existed surrounded by the memories of what she'd done.

Today, though, she doesn't care. Despite how pathetic it is, Oizys is running away.

She falls into step beside Tembovu. "Elephant King," she says to him, her tail coiling awkwardly around her hocks as she tries to keep up with his great stride. Perched on her withers, Ker shudders slightly, eyeballing his formidable mass with beady blue eyes. "I wish to leave the Edge," she says, abruptly and without preamble. There is little point in beating around the bush, after all. "I....I can't stay here. Not when everything I do will remind me of her. Of what I did."

Coward, the little voice in her head tells her. The yearling ignores it. This is something she has to do. She's not proud of it, but she knows with every iota of her being that she needs a fresh start, somewhere where she's not Oizys the Girl Who Killed Her Mother. She wants to go somewhere where she's just Oizys, and that place isn't here. Not anymore.

"If it's okay, though, I would like to come back every so often, to visit her." It isn't like Oizys to ask for permission to do something, not like the obnoxious, loudmouthed girl to show any token of respect or common decency, but this is different. Tembovu was one of her mother's closest friends, and she owes him some deference because of that.

I'M JUST A TRAIN WRECK, NOT A WINNER
UP ON MY SOAPBOX PREACHING DOWN TO THE SINNERS
image credit


@Tembovu

[ the gargoyle queen ]
OIZYS IS ALWAYS RATED M FOR STRONG LANGAUGE IN HER POSTS




Tembovu the Elephant Posts: 805
World's Edge Captain atk: 7 | def: 9.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 18hh :: 10 HP: 77 | Buff: SWIFT
Mbwene :: African Elephant :: Ashen smitty
#2
They say an elephant’s eyes speak the greatest language
”Elephant King…I wish to leave the Edge.”

The words both are and are not what the man expected to hear. His mind was too exhausted and weighted by worry and loss to have expected anything. Though, once he hears the words, he vaguely wonders if Nyx would approve of her blood abandoning the Edge—although Oizys (and her absent sister, Enyo) are not of Nyx’s blood. They were adopted foals, raised on the Ironheart’s teat. But these are all numb, distant thoughts that float through the anguished fog of the King’s mind.

His sweeping, tired steps slow as he indistinctly noticed the struggle of Oizy’s shorter strides (though the yearling was tall for her age) to keep up with his. Thick neck arched to the side, navy eyes studying the filly’s pale blue eyes (—Nyx’s eyes—), and a slow breath pushed out of his nostrils.

“These are not words you will believe, now, but you are not to blame for Nyx’s death,” was his quiet, deep reply. He paused for a moment, lips pressed and ears tilted back as his gaze probed hers, and then, “She loved battle and she loved her children.” He stopped, then, knowing that the filly did not need to hear absolution.

She need permission. Permission to visit her mother’s grave. “However, I understand if you must leave. You may visit her whenever you wish.”
What else could make you feel so much without a word?
image | table by neo

@Oizys sorry for the delay! I'll try to keep it short & quick!

Please tag Tembovu.

Oizys Posts: 134
Aurora Basin Soldier atk: 7.0 | def: 8.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Hybrid :: 17hh :: 2 HP: 73.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Ker :: Philippine Eagle :: Curse Snow
#3


They say you don't miss the water until it's gone. That has never been more apt - Oizys realises now how much she took her mother for granted, how little she appreciated the ironheart's kindness, her willingness to do anything for her children even when they offered little in return. She had milked her body dry to feed winter-born twins and keep their heritage a secret from their herd, only to have one disappear anyway and be left with Oizys, who had rarely shown affection or even had a kind word for the woman who raised her. Now Nyx is gone, the gargoyle feels lost. Empty.

It took the grey mare's death for Oizys to realise that her mother had been her rudder, keeping her on course through the stormiest of seas. In Nyx's absence, the yearling is left alone, drifting aimlessly through the ocean like a piece of wood. She's drowning, and she can't say a single damn word about it, because it's her fault in the first place.

You are not to blame, says Tembovu. The stone-coloured yearling appreciates the sentiment, but it sends a shudder of misery down her spine as she thinks about the fact she is very much to blame. She loved battle and she loved her children. Just then, just like that, the truth is on the tip of Oizys' tongue. She wants to tell the Elephant that she is of Nyx's womb and proud of it, that the fallen General spun a lie to keep herself and her children safe from the resentment that would no doubt have been aimed at them. She wants to shout from the rooftops that she shares blood with the woman who died to save her. She's so close to saying it, to finally admitting that she's lived a lie, that she's not the foundling in the snow but Nyx's daughter.

Something stops her, though. It is not her secret to tell, and it never has been. The gargoyle never fully understood her dam's insistence on hiding the truth from her herd, but she owes the mare that much, at least here in the Edge. In the wider Helovian populace she thinks she no longer has to live a lie, but here amongst Nyx's closest friends and family, the truth must follow her to her grave.

"Thank you," is all she can choke out. She remembers last time she spoke one-on-one with the Elephant - she'd been bitching about being taught to heal, had been so full of hatred that it had almost consumed her. Maybe if she'd paid more attention to Evangeline's teachings, she could have saved her mother, even though she knows deep down that Nyx was dead the moment she barged her daughter out of the way of the bone monster's wrath. Tembovu will surely not recognise the broken girl that stands quivering slightly in front of him, the fire and rage long gone from her eyes to be replaced with an empty pit of sorrow. There is a painful irony in the fact that it has taken such a bereavement to truly knock the wind out of headstrong young Oizys's sails, to remind her that she's not the invincible beast queen she thought she was but simple flesh, blood and weakness wrapped in grey skin.

"For everything." She can't believe she's saying these things - she's disgusted in herself for it, but the words slip without permission from her clenched lips. Ker tangles her beak more tightly around the filly's mane, chirping reassurance. "You, this herd, made her life worth living. Even when her own children abandoned her, she always had you. I...I know she died happy in the knowledge that you were her friend, and I know she'll watch over you as much as she'll watch over me." She can't help the choked tone of her voice, the sting of tears in the back of her throat. Before she can truly dissolve, before her last remaining strength truly abandons her, the gargoyle turns and moves to leave, hiding her anguished face in the shadows as she walks slowly away.

I'M JUST A TRAIN WRECK, NOT A WINNER
UP ON MY SOAPBOX PREACHING DOWN TO THE SINNERS
image credit


No worries Smitty, thanks for posting, we can end it here if you want <333 @Tembovu

[ the gargoyle queen ]
OIZYS IS ALWAYS RATED M FOR STRONG LANGAUGE IN HER POSTS





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