Stellaluna...
While the forest slept soundly, peacefully, beneath a dim sliver moon, a shadow swept swiftly between old, looming pines like just a puff of warm breeze, a will-o’-the-wisp, revelling in a cosy cloak of obscurity. That was how she preferred it, needed to be - unseen, noticed, leaving only a trail of soft scent for her hunters to follow. The tiny bat had travelled far that night, still further than ever she had ever strayed before. Dancing hither and thither in the midst of a make-believe kingdom rife with the cheer of magical folk (an adored fantasy-land detailed each morn by Ma), she had pulled those dreadful ‘Banksia-men’ far, far away from home. Pride swelled through her dainty frame, bolstered her flimsy, pubescent courage and pushed her along harder; that and the murmur of snarling voices to the rear. "That sod’s right up ahead… Catch’er vermin! Don’t let ‘er get away…" On and on she flew with dazzling speed and agility that would’ve stolen Da’s words clean off his tongue. Even as the flavour of eucalyptus vanished from her greedy little nostrils altogether, she skirted the next trunk and zipped beneath a moss covered bridge - a gathering of nut-folk upon it’s stiff length whooped loudly in her honour; below it, and with their form lost in deeper shade still, the bright, shrill voices of excited bush creatures sang out (the bat imagined boldly that they were the stripped numbat family from down Moggill Creek, and old, greying Mrs Bandicoot who knew everything and anything, about everyone). A stiff branch and the strange needles upon it, whipped her face suddenly (she was tiring, at last, her flitting grew sloppy)… “Ow, !” …she cried breathlessly, glancing left for a split second, to glare at the small, winged fox who’s companionship she was seldom without. To her surprise, however, where her sister’s scruffy red body should have been sailing in perfect unison, there was only stunning, silent darkness; cold and barren. “Charlie?” …came a smaller voice, nervous and concerned; the illusion began to disintegrate around her then, at a terrifying rate and dread as heavy as lead, set upon both the bat’s heart and mind. All too quickly the game was lost, and it became frighteningly apparent that she was very alone. Lost. “Ma…” she whispered fearfully, falling from grace with an uncharacteristic thud; leathery wings fastened warily against the svelte length of her barrel. The earth was neither grassed nor soft like it ought to have been, and trembling lips grazed hesitantly across the peculiar leaf litter; the tastes thereon were all wrong, sickeningly potent - like the stench of a two-week old corpse. Offended, slim nostrils danced back into the air, the sanctuary it offered, and with wingspan unfurling once more, the tiny creature flapped into the sprawling canopy of an oak. She was well practiced - a natural born tree-dweller, and where the bough united with it’s climbing parent, she nestled down to wait for a familiar… anything, to come by. "Turn on the dark, I'm afraid of the light!" |
nict-O-‘fil-E-a
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04-29-2017, 05:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-05-2017, 02:36 PM by Stellaluna.)
04-29-2017, 06:55 AM
so i listen to the wind for an answer She is no hunter, but she is following. Sort of. She’s in the Threshold, not entirely sure why she’s here with the moon still out. But night could crest into morning soon enough, and she had been unable to sleep anyway. Worry and responsibly plagues her, leaves her mind running and unable to stop. So she sleeps less, wondering what she can do for the Edge. What she can possibly hope to do in the wake of Tembovu leaving. Part of her wants to think it’s unfair to ask anyone to follow him, but she knows that is a ridiculous thought. The Edge needed two leads, and Tembovu deserved to rest. And if she thought about who she would have picked to replace him…a few come to mind, but she realizes in that train of thought that either she has failed in getting to know the other members of the Edge, or it really was a bit quieter than usual. Not that it was quiet, either. The Edge was always full of life. But not quite as it had been, and this seems like an easy thing for her to work on. Go to the Threshold more. So she does, even though she doesn’t think anyone else will be here. But maybe as morning comes she will run into someone. Lyanna has always loved forests though, and she’s always enjoyed the Threshold in a way. Once she’d been on the other side of this place, not even knowing the name of the land she’d stumbled into. The Edge had given her a life when she no longer had one, and then a purpose, and now a crown. Despite growing up as a princess, she’d never expected a crown in her life. Truthfully, she’d never wanted the crown. Her brother was well suited for it, and she knows how heavy it can be. But if the Edge asked her to serve, she couldn’t find it in herself to say no. One might think she’d feel more confident given her upbringing, but she doesn’t. She knew the in’s and out’s of her old home, and though she knew much more of Helovia, there was so much she did not know. But she tries to focus on her task now, listening to sounds of life. And to her surprise, the sound of hooves in the distance catches her attention, and she tries to follow the sound. Though soon the sound stops. She keeps going, guessing where she thinks the other horse might be. But still she finds no one, and it takes her a while to realize that perhaps she should look up. Maybe the noises hadn’t been a horse at all. Oh. But it is a horse. Perched in a tree. She’s a small thing, bat-like wings against her side. Lyanna almost doesn’t notice her there, her coat so black she blends into the darkness around her. The girl must be young, given her size, Lyanna thinks. Though then again, she’d met Pip before, and he was simply small. But she appears young in the darkness anyway. “Hello,” she says, voice soft and kind like always. “I’m Lyanna. May I ask your name?” lyanna @Stellaluna Please tag in all posts Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death Image by Kiki
04-29-2017, 08:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-05-2017, 02:37 PM by Stellaluna.)
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04-29-2017, 05:49 PM
so i listen to the wind for an answer She had grown up with fairy tales, certainly, but they had always been stories. Bedtime stories that her mother told them before them were shuffled off to sleep. In the morning when they woke, there were no fairies in their lives, no talking fawns or wolves that hunted them. Nothing more than the usual fauna that lived in Morham, rarely likely to interact with or attack the herds of horses that called the kingdom home. She never got lost in fairy tales, but perhaps in her own way, it was because she lived one. She knew that real world ‘fairy tales’ were hardly as glamorous as the ones her mother told her before bed. But she was born a princess, and isn’t that how every fairy tale begins? She controlled the wind and her brother controlled fire and together they could make unstoppable flames. Together they were unstoppable. Or could have been, anyway. She lived in a land of magic, wore a tiara of gold and teal, and controlled an entire element. Her life was a fairy tale. But not all tales end well. Hers turned to nightmare far too quickly, and sometimes she still finds herself worried this life too will turn on her. Maybe it’s why she’s never quite connected to this place when there’s nothing holding her from doing so. She had good friends, a good herd, and a good life. Maybe, somewhere in the back of her mind, she was just afraid someone was going to take this life too. That’s how real fairy tales end. The girl in the trees responds, and she doesn’t seem scared, which could be good or bad. Perhaps the young girl’s mother or father is nearby, and so she’s not worried. But perhaps she just doesn’t yet quite realize where she is, either. It’s not uncommon for Lyanna to find horses here that simply don’t know where they are, or how they got here. “What a pretty name,” she says. But the next question she doesn’t understand, and she pauses for a moment, trying to figure it out. But she can’t piece it together, so after a moment’s pause, she says, “I’m sorry, but is what true?” lyanna @Stellaluna Please tag in all posts Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death Image by Kiki
04-29-2017, 07:19 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-05-2017, 02:39 PM by Stellaluna.)
04-29-2017, 07:44 PM
so i listen to the wind for an answer Perhaps she still lives inside a fairy tale. Perhaps this girl and her fanciful world isn’t all that fanciful, in a way, because from having nothing, Lyanna suddenly finds herself wearing a crown. The very thing that was taken from her (well, almost, she was only ever destined to wear the princess’s tiara) was given back in a second life. And if little girls dream of being princesses, then their older sisters must dream of being Queens. But she did not dream of being Queen. She did not see it as anything but a level of responsibility she had never thought she would have. Her fairy tale doesn’t come with critters with oversized feet or excited smiles. Her fairy tales instead comes with unhappy, displaced Gods. She would love to see what the little bat sees, would love to somehow live in this world with her. But Lyanna doesn’t know what this world is, just that there’s a name on the girl’s lips that is nothing Lyanna recognizes. She keeps her face from falling, from showing the worry, but her smile quiets slightly. “I’ve never heard of Alchira. Maybe you can tell me about it?” She wonders if the place is somewhere the girl was looking for, or if it’s home. But it sounds like the former, and she wonders then if it’s even a real place. “This place is called Helovia, and the area we are in is called the Threshold.” She tries to watch the girl’s face in the dark, but she doubts she would be able to see any subtle changes of emotion. So instead she has to rely on the girl’s words and tone of voice to figure out what’s going on. “I’m a Pegasus,” she says, now wondering why the girl has to ask. Though their wings are different, they are still the same species. Where does this girl come from? And surely, by now, if her parents were around they would have come by now. “What have you been up to tonight?” she asks, trying to come at the truth of all this. lyanna @Stellaluna Please tag in all posts Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death Image by Kiki
04-30-2017, 05:51 AM
05-01-2017, 10:33 AM
so i listen to the wind for an answer She’s is starting to feel out of her element, which is ridiculous, because she is trained to deal with almost any situation. That was her job once, and it is suddenly her job again. She keeps expecting the girl to finally start to wonder where her parents are, or how she got to be here. But maybe the child planned to come? Yet that doesn’t seem right either. She can’t bring herself to ask these question aloud, to potentially break whatever fairy tale this girl finds herself inside. Yet she doesn’t know what else she is supposed to do. Because she’s not going to leave the child alone in the woods, but she doesn’t know where to take her either. Perhaps if she knew what Alchira was, but it doesn’t seem like a real place. If Stella had to ask, ‘is it true?’, then Lyanna suspects it’s not a real place at all. Well, not a place to take the girl, anyway. Because it seems real to the little bat in the tree, confusion passing over her face that Lyanna hasn’t even heard of it. Lyanna’s heart only sinks slightly, and her eyes glance around briefly as if suddenly Stella’s parents might show themselves, might make this all okay. But instead there is only the sound of the night critters that dart through the forest, everything hushed beneath the trees. There is no one to help her now, and she takes a deep breath as the girl parrots her words. Suddenly the little bat is on the ground and oh, she is tiny indeed. Lyanna looks at the girl, better able to see her now, wondering how old she is. She does not seem that young, but she’s so small. Perhaps she is simply small, like Pip. There are too many questions, but Lyanna doesn’t ask them, instead listening as the girl says something about a mega-pack. “Mega-pack?” she asks, worry tinging her voice, but she’s beginning to think perhaps this too is make believe, like Alchira. Still though, she doesn’t miss the fear in the girl’s voice, so she continues. “I have a very safe home, if you need someone safe to stay for now.” Because she doesn’t think anyone is coming to claim their child. lyanna @Stellaluna Please tag in all posts Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death Image by Kiki
05-02-2017, 09:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-05-2017, 02:41 PM by Stellaluna.)
05-03-2017, 12:01 PM
so i listen to the wind for an answer The Threshold has always reminded her of Morham. Maybe it’s part of why she stayed in this place, of all the places she passed along her journey. The trees are often widely spaced, letting in sunlight and creating small places perfect for the little gathering of horses that formed here. The redwoods force the empty space, their roots reaching far and wide through the moist earth. The oaks are smaller, more densely packed, offering more of a feeling of the forest. It is so like home that sometimes it hurts. But it reminds her too that Helovia is home, that this life is as much hers as the one that came before. Lyanna notices how the girl moves almost instantly, the movement drawing her trained healer’s gaze to the too-short legs and the too-large joints. Ah. It explains the small stature, though doesn’t help Lyanna guess at her age. Though her behavior makes the tri-colored mare assume the girl must be young. Young enough to believe in make believe lands, in fairy tales, in mega-packs and all manner of impossible things. Though in truth, these things are not so far fetched or impossible at all. Helovia is full of the strange and the impossible, and she wouldn’t be entirely surprised to find that the mega-pack is real. "There are plenty of horses to help keep you safe in my home. We will make sure the mega-pack cannot harm you." But now the girl is back in the tree, and Lyanna cannot quite figure out what to do. Stella agrees to go to the Edge though, and Lyanna relaxes almost visibly at this. That, at least, was a step in the right direction. Somewhere safe, and then if or when the girl’s parents revealed themselves, Lyanna could return the child to her rightful home. Or maybe, at some point, the child would realize just how far she was from her own land. Would she know the way back? There were plenty in the edge that could accompany Stella to her original home. “Shall we fly?” she asks, figuring that the trek will be far too long for the girl and the issues with her legs. She doesn’t know for sure what afflicts the girl, but she does have some guesses. Perhaps, in time, the Gods could heal her. But for now, just getting her somewhere safe would be enough. Lyanna casts around for a nearby clearing, managing to find one large enough for her to takeoff in. She makes her way over, constantly looking back for the girl, trying not to lose her in the dark. And soon, Lyanna is airborne, circling just above the trees, waiting for Stella to join her. Together, they could head to the Edge. lyanna @Stellaluna - I posted to have your rank changed to the World's Edge. As soon as it is we can continue this in the Edge! :) Please tag in all posts Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death Image by Kiki
05-03-2017, 07:12 PM
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