the Rift


[OPEN] chasing hope

Vesper Posts: 46
World's Edge Filly
Filly :: Tribrid :: 14.3hh :: Two
Everly :: Common Zephyr :: Roc Kiki
#1

EVEN THE STARS THEY BURN, SOME EVEN FALL TO THE EARTH.


I didn’t stop to think as I climbed higher into the skies above the Edge.  If Grandmama had left her herdland, it only made sense in my mind she would go to the one other place in Helovia that she frequented on a regular basis.  The only other place in Helovia that had felt safe since the Kaos God had reared his ugly head with his creatures of bone and blood.  Everly followed in pursuit, her own concern flowing through our bond - but her concern was not so much about the Moon as it was for me.  
 
I flew as quickly as I could, pushing myself until I felt the muscles in my wings and my back burn with the effort.  But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong just as I had been consumed with the same feeling when Kaos - masquerading as Kisamoa - had asked us to collect bones and I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I swallowed down the lump in my throat and pressed on southward, hanging on to the thin thread of hope that Grandmama would be waiting there when I arrived.  
 
It was probably irrational, and I knew that flying headlong in pursuit of a Goddess probably wasn’t safe or smart, but I knew I couldn’t just wait in the Edge for something terrible to happen.  It was dark, but that didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. A gentle glow hung in the air around me and Everly’s eyesight was far superior to mine in the dark. When my vision was obscured - the steadfast zephyr became my eyes in the darkness.  Dawn was still a few hours off when the familiar shape of the Veins became evident by the coastline below.  I hastened into a dive, Everly following suit without hesitation but urging caution.  I slowed my descent just a touch too close to the ground, flaring my overlarge wings and feeling the impact of the earth jar through my legs.  I gritted my teeth, but leapt forward towards Grandmother Moon’s shrine.  Hope foolishly bloomed in my chest, running hot through my veins.  I slid to a halt at the base of the shrine, looking up towards the stars, calling out softly.   “Grandmother Moon?” I whispered, wondering if she could hear me. Wondering if she was here. 
 
After a few minutes of silence, of nothing but cold evening air and twinkling stars, I pulled my gaze back to the shrine.  With a defeated sigh, I pressed my cheek against the cool stone and willed myself to hold on to the hope I’d had when I’d arrived at the Veins.  However, that hope was quickly waning. 



-- V E S P E R --
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@Ki'irha

Please tag Vesper in every post.
Force and magic are permitted, but please check before inflicting serious injury.

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Ki'irha Posts: 176
Outcast atk: 4.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 6
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15hh :: 5 years old HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Noella
#2



So much was happening at once. When the star girl had regained her memories, sewn together by the tune of The Songbird, everything had come rushing back. Like the crashing gain of a crescendo, all of the pieces had snapped back together in an overwhelming consuming force. When the initial shock had subsided, Ki’irha had felt her soul try to pull itself in a hundred different directions. Should she return home, thunder pouring from her hooves as crossed land and tundra to return to her home in the north? Or should she have driven herself towards the World’s Edge in an attempt to find the Nightwind, tell him she remembered every part of their union, of her desire to have raised their children, beg to join him by his side in any sense of the sentiment to begin where she had left off? Or should she have picked every corner of the world apart, searching under every stone, around every bend of the river, upon every hilltop and within every valley for her beautiful progeny, fall upon her knees and beg them for forgiveness?

But none of that mattered. Not now, because the world itself seemed to be shifting and changing direction, She wasn’t sure what it meant, wasn’t sure how to interpret the rumors that were shared beneath hushed breath and hurried whispers. The most terrifying of them all, the only consistent thread within the conversations, was how it seemed as though the gods had abandoned their post with little warning. The uncertainty of the future made the girl even more weary and frantic, needing to find her past and repair any ties before it was too late.

What had brought her here, she had no idea. Restless sleep had provided little comfort, so she found herself shaking off the murk of sleep and wandering. Dawn had yet to kiss the horizon, and the chill of the season bit at her coat as a reminder that frostfall was fast approaching. She dropped her head to graze, collecting only a small few mouthfuls, before the softest muffled noise above her pulled at her attention.

Silver eyes glancing to the heavens, it was initially difficult to discern what she was looking at. As her eyes adjusted, she realized the soft glow was radiating off of the undersides of wings. She knew two creatures to have that particular attribute, and she felt her heart skip a beat and flutter. A stone in her throat threatened to choke her, and when she was able to swallow down the feeling, she slowly began moving forward.

She considered carefully as she descended into the veins what she would say. If it was Mesec, the conversation would be a warm one, a celebration of remembrance, a step forward towards correcting her wrongs. But if it wasn’t him, if it was the mare who had consumed her dreams and possessed her nightmares, what would she say? How would she begin? But even then, she didn’t even know if it was either of them. How common were glowing wings? Though it seemed to be a familial trait, perhaps it was a stranger altogether, and all of this worry would have been for naught.

She slowly crossed the hardened magma that lined the trails. She tried to settle her nerves, will her racing heart to calm. But as soon as the shrine came into sight, she regretted following. She felt as though she had interrupted something private, something intimate, and she did not belong here.

It was her. It was obvious. Though Ki’irha had never seen her daughter full grown, she knew. In her mind, all she had was the vision of her two foals romping in heaping drifts of snow. Of her daughter, she remembered the wisping white fuzz of her mane, the silver down of her underwings, the speckled frosted galaxies that rolled over her small body, the way everything that stood stark against the black of her body seemed to glow with the pallid light of the moon. She remembered the laughter, the smiles, the joy. Vesper was her starborn. So, though she could be wrong, she could see the way the girl had grown gracefully into who stood before her. She was beautiful. In Ki’irha’s eyes, should could never be anything else. She held back tears, contained herself, urged herself to not bound forward. Who was to say that the girl would even remember her mother? How much had the child remembered? How much had she forgotten? It wouldn’t be a surprise, as Ki’irha had left when the girl was young. What could be expected?

Ears tipped forward as she listened, hearing the girl call out to Grandmother Moon. Grandmother Moon? That didn’t make any sense; she must have misheard. But nothing filled the air around them other than silence, and as the girl leaned forward, Ki’irha swallowed her reservations, quelled the fears, allowed herself to steady her voice and her body. She moved forward carefully, not wanting to startle, but also happy that perhaps the deepness of the night would disguise her. Though her frame was naturally blemished by the darkness of night, the white of her body still reflected the faded starlight, and the vein of diamond settled into her horn glowed softly and nearly sparkled as the inward light was broken apart by the facets.

“Rumors have it that they aren’t here anymore,” she began, voice kind and soft in the silence. “They’re working to protect us from something much greater than we could know. But I’m sure they still hear our prayers.” It was the best she could say, the most reassuring she could be in her approach. She stopped a respectful distance away, not wanting to corner her daughter, unsure if she would be recognized or deemed a stranger.  In a world of uncertainty, the last thing she wanted to do was push the girl away, or disrupt this sacred moment. But all she wanted to do was reach out and touch her, be sure she was real, tell her that she was home, and she would never leave again. But hopefully this was at least a good first step.
Some people have no idea how beautiful the darkness is

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@Vesper ~
I tried to leave it ambiguous enough so you can decide whether or not Vesper recognizes her!
[Image: 5581b91112f69]
Colored by Kels ♡
Lines by Bronzehalo

Please Tag Me ○ Permission for magic and injury is granted. Just no death or permanent harm.

Vesper Posts: 46
World's Edge Filly
Filly :: Tribrid :: 14.3hh :: Two
Everly :: Common Zephyr :: Roc Kiki
#3

EVEN THE STARS THEY BURN, SOME EVEN FALL TO THE EARTH.


“It’s Kaos.  I know it is. She said that he lied.  But that’s not surprising, he lied to all of them,” I murmured, in response to the voice.  The familiarity of the sound hadn’t even registered in my mind. I was still so overwhelmed by it all.  By the fact that everything I knew seemed to be falling apart.  By the all consuming sense of desperation, anger, and fear that churned in my belly like an angry sea.  It left me paralyzed and kept my gaze fixed on the heavens, my chest pressed against the cool stone of the shrine.  


A ragged sigh tore free from my lips as I pulled my gaze away from the stars, letting my eyes slide shut and my thick forelock to slide over my face. I wasn’t ready to face reality yet...I couldn’t.  “She left the Edge. I was hoping she’d be here. But they really are gone.”  I paused for a moment, remembering my last conversation with the Goddess.  We’d been worried about Kaos then - Papa and I.  But Grandmama said that it was all well in hand.  But something had happened.  Something had changed.  And now...now I wasn’t sure what to do. 

“She told me once she was always listening.” The sound of her voice still echoed in my ears.  With that I finally allowed my eyes to slide open once more.  Everly, from above, had grown strangely quiet.  This piqued my curiosity for she had said nothing of the stranger who I foolishly still had my back to. 

Finally, I turned. 

And I froze. 

I didn’t move (I couldn’t). I didn’t breathe.  Everything was still for longer than I could imagine because there stood mother looking just as she had the last time that I’d seen her. 

“I was afraid you weren’t coming back,” I managed, in little more than a whisper, my voice threatening to crack. 

“Or that you were…” I couldn’t say it, command my lips to say dead but that is what I’d been so afraid of.  Afraid that her bones had been those among which Kaos had built his obelisk.  I blinked furiously to chase away the images that danced behind my eyelids because my nightmares were not truth.  She was here - living and breathing just as I’d hoped. 

I forced my feet to move. A single step.  Then another.  Slowly, I reached out my dark nose to hers, and whispered in the quietest of breaths, “Are you real?”  Because I was afraid, so desperately afraid, to lose her a second time even if this was just a dream.



-- V E S P E R --
image credit


@Ki'irha

Please tag Vesper in every post.
Force and magic are permitted, but please check before inflicting serious injury.

image credit

Ki'irha Posts: 176
Outcast atk: 4.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 6
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15hh :: 5 years old HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Noella
#4



For some time, her daughter (her beautiful, precious, star-strewn daughter, standing right there, standing so close, yet still so far) spoke over her shoulder, not bothering to turn around, so set upon the stone, the desperation straining her voice, and Ki’irha wants to embrace her, hold her, shun her from the devastation wreaking havoc on the world, but she finds herself planted, unable to move closer. She listens to her sadness, watches her daughter stare longingly at the sky, the sky from which she was carved and shaped and pieced from, and her own heart aches at the pain. She nods sadly, unable to allow the confusion to take hold (why is she so close with the goddess? Grandmother Moon. There’s no way, it can’t be-), and she remains silent.

Finally the girl turns, and the world stops spinning. The stars cease their rotation, the wind falls still, the world around them stops. They stand, and Ki’irha knows that moments, decades, lifetimes seem to stand between them, and her heart seems to freeze in her chest. She doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know how the moment will happen. All she knows is that the mare, beautiful and glowing and just as beautiful as she could be, stared at her, down to the bare bottom of her soul. The fear of not being recognized, the fear of being an unknown face, melted away, and instead she was left cold, breathless, not knowing what would pour from the girl.

I was afraid you weren’t coming back.

What did she say? How did she explain? How did she shake the accusation, escape the possible mistrust, fix the hurt and harshness of abandonment. “I’m sorry,” the blue mare exhales, moving only the muscles it took to allow the words to escape.

Slowly the girl approaches, and the mare stands steady, praying she won’t collapse, praying the pieces won’t fall away, and soon she is there. She is a breath away, close enough to touch, to wrap herself around, to fall into, and what does she do? What does she say? If she reaches out to touch, to beg, to plead, to reassure, would she be welcomed? Would she be bit, or kicked, or cast away? She deserved nothing more. She deserved to be abandoned, as she had left her daughter. She would understand the hurt, and the pain, and despite it all being a terrible fateful accident, she would know that her daughter was alright, and know that Mesec had done all that he had promised.

Or should she lie? Should the mother lie to daughter, tell her it was a dream, tell her that she was sent from above to promise her it would all be okay, that the world would continue turning, that she would be so better off, that her mother would never again have the opportunity to hurt her?  Hell, there was a chance that Vesper wasn’t even real, that this was all some cruel trick, some panic-induced mirage, and that she would lean forward and nothing would be there to meet her, and she would collapse into a broken heap and refuse to stand again.

Slowly, carefully, breathlessly, the midnight leans forward, reaching out her own nose, wishing to brush her daughter’s cheek. She inhales, breathing in the scent she had memorized when Vesper had entered this world, spilling stars upon the earth, carrying them upon her back and beneath her beautiful wings. “Vesper,” she murmured, praying her daughter would not pull away, desperate for an embrace, hoping that she would be accepted, loved, taken back, but she instead finds herself pulling away, trying to catch her first-born’s eyes with her own gentle silver gaze. “I am real, and I am here, and I will never let go. If you can ever forgive me, I promise I will never leave again. I love you so much, my beautiful starborn daughter.” Tears fall down her cobalt cheeks, and her voice threatens to catch in her throat. “I don’t want you to hurt, I don’t want you to accept me back easily, if it’s not what’s in your heart. What happened was never your fault, I will never make excuses, and if you want me to go, I will.”

Silence falls around them again, and she wants nothing more to reach out, to truly never let go, to protect her daughter from whatever is happening, to learn about everything she has lost, but knowing that, perhaps, her daughter wants none of these things. So she stands still, waiting, watching, hoping.

Always hoping.
- when a shooting star streaks through the blackness - - turning night into day- - make a wish and think of me -

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@Vesper `
[Image: 5581b91112f69]
Colored by Kels ♡
Lines by Bronzehalo

Please Tag Me ○ Permission for magic and injury is granted. Just no death or permanent harm.


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