the Rift


[SWP] The beginning of the end :: the ending.

Mbwana Posts: 4
Outcast
Colt :: Unicorn :: 18hh :: Newborn
Askari :: African Wild Dog :: Poison & Nguvu :: African Wild Dog :: None Snow
#21


Before all hell breaks loose, Mbwana and Askari are hunting. During their hunt they find an egg; Askari wants to eat it, but as the pack leader, Mbwana overrules him with a firm bite to the stomach that sends the pup whimpering away with his tail between his legs. Just like the whelp's own egg did, this one cracks and shakes until another pup emerges from it, clearly the same species as Askari but with enough different markings to differentiate them.

The colt just has enough time to name his new companion Nguvu - meaning strength - before the world explodes around him.

The dog is still too young to understand death, but he thinks he comprehends the finality of it as dozens of horses are sucked into the void. Behind his large hind hooves, his two pups cower; Mbwana wants to cower too, because he has no idea where his mother and father are, or where his precious sister is. He faces a choice - die here and wonder for eternity if his family are dying with him, or go into the portal and hope that they'll be reunited on the other side. There can be only one answer.

The pups cry behind him, reluctant to follow him into the portal. He bares his teeth in a snarl and bullies them both forwards, and their desire to obey their alpha overrules their evident fear. The trio bumble towards the rift, and allow themselves to be sucked into nothingness; the colt takes a moment to glance around the home that he never truly got to know, before everything goes black.

M B W A N A
image credits

Vulkán Posts: 16
Dragon's Throat Colt
Colt :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: Yearling (ages quickly)
Snow
#22


The boy has always struggled with his emotions. In truth, he doesn't seem to have a great deal of them - he doesn't understand them, nor does he wish to, despite his unquenchable thirst for knowledge about the unknown. That's why he's able to stand among the destruction with an expression of mild interest on his young face, as though this is an interesting quirk of nature rather than real life, real people dying real deaths.

Until his mother dies, that is.

Because of Vulkán's stunted emotional ability, he doesn't know what name to put to the sudden interesting eruption of feelings inside him. He doesn't know what it means when his heart clenches like there's an iron fist around it; he doesn't know what it means when his throat grows tight and hot, nor when his eyes begin to leak a strange salty liquid down the lines of his face. He doesn't know why his shoulder and his horns begin to dribble lava in conjunction with this odd series of events, denoting that he's feeling a particularly strong emotion.

He knows that he doesn't like it, though. He knows that this is bad, and he knows that he does not want his mother to be gone, regardless of how matter-of-fact he is about death. He understands completely that it is a necessary extension of life, but that doesn't change the fact that he loves Isopia in his own special way and she's now...no longer here.

"Mother..." He doesn't even have the foresight to call her Isopia, even though that's what she prefers. The yearling wanders numbly towards what remains of his dam, wondering why she's gone completely and not been left with a body to feed the other animals as she would have wanted. He can see his father, and it surprises him to see such a raw output of emotion in Volterra's body, in his face, in his expression; Vulkán stares at his sire like he would stare at a zoo exhibit, whilst silently realising that Volterra is feeling exactly what he's feeling.

Grief. Loss. That's what's plaguing the colt, but he does not know those names or those meanings. He only knows that his father is now ushering him towards the portal, and that he's not sure he wants to go when his mother is condemned to stay here for eternity. His lava leaks more and more, until his skin is as lumpy as a lunar landscape with it; he fights for a moment, wanting to stay with Isopia and say a proper goodbye to her, but the suction around the portal snatches him before he can.

He's dragged unceremoniously backwards into the rift, his mouth still rounded around the words that he didn't get chance to say to his mother.

image: naia-art

Raistlyn Posts: 6
Outcast
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17 hh :: 8
Name? :: Wolf :: None roni
#23
The world as he knows it, is ending.  For a second time.

The first time his world ended, he had never heard of Helovia.  Did not even know that a dimension other than his world, the Rift, could possibly exist.  And yet, he had been cast from the Rift into Helovia through a swirling vortex of a portal created amid terrible chaos. The sky had boiled black and electricity crackled in the air. His decision to enter that portal depended largely on two things: either he could die in the Rift at the mercy of a very angry god (most probably a horribly slow and painful death), or, he could risk an equally slow and horrible death by leaping through the unknown entity of the portal after Ultima.  He chose the latter.  And he did survive. But many did not.

He did not know if it was different this time.  But he could feel it in the air, again, the stunning energy of a portal opening somewhere.  It felt familiar, like an old friend.  It did not feel like random energy, it smelled and tasted of the chaos of the Rift.  Could the portal connecting the Rift to Helovia possibly open once more?  He had thought Ultima had caused the portal that had whipped them through time and space like a fleeting, shooting star, but perhaps all this time, he had been mistaken.  Perhaps Ultima was not the key to returning home after all.  He had to find the opening.  Luckily, when the world is seemingly ending, most everyone notices it, and some even know the source.  He follows the fleeing residents like a shadow, not filled with terror like most, but rather curious and hopeful.  This world did not suit him.  He belonged in the Rift, where other monsters like him dwelled.  

In his hurried flight towards the source of chaos (he could now see a great entity and something like the semblance of a battle), he passed many who fled the opposite direction.  Some stood their ground.  Others wandered aimlessly, uncertain of the future and which fate to choose. Some faces he recognized from the early days of his arrival in Helovia, but most he did not. He did not stop to help anyone, or anything.  He certainly had no intentions to participate in a godly battle.  He knew all too well how those ended, and had no desire to repeat the past.  

He could see a figure swathed in blinding light struggling against the power of the angry, ethereal force causing the chaos.  The portal would close soon! He had no more time to waste.  With his silver pup dangling from his mouth, he made a mad dash for the portal, for home.  He leapt through the fighting and ethereal light and chaos and screaming and death, closing his eyes and hoping with all his might that he would return to the world of monsters, where he belonged.

these scars long have yearned for your tender caress
to bind our fortunes, damn what the stars own.

Miykael Posts: 136
Outcast
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17hh :: 11 :: Birdsong
Eliana :: Common Zephyr :: Roc Rottie
#24
He is alone; despite the massive number of bodies being squeezed into close proximity, the thick, choking shadows forcing them all towards the heart of what had all the appearances of death. December is dead, gone from his side before he ever had the chance to improve himself and make everything better for her. Fenyx and Vynter had disappeared from Helovia almost as soon as they'd been weaned - or at least, he hadn't found any traces of them in weeks. Mentally beaten and forlorn, he mindlessly follows the hum that he merely feels (and it is truly all that he feels - there is nothing left.) He walks but there is no intent, no purpose. He hears but it is all a muffled mess, the voices are as garbled as they might be if his head was entirely submerged in water. He sees but nothing really registers. His heart still beats, his lungs still bring in the oxygen necessary for life but he merely exists. Even Eliana is distant, a mere shadow lingering just outside his peripheral vision.

Miykael is but an empty shell, until everything around him erupts into madness. Kaos' voice booms over them, demanding them to obey. Some fight but their efforts are met with complete and utter defeat. Kaos takes each of them out with such great ease that it becomes abundantly clear that they cannot win. The beast is too powerful and none here stand a chance. His blue eyes scan the gathered crowd as more step up to protest against Kaos' impatient demands. He seeks only two faces amongst them all. The only two faces that matter to him now. And as though guided by fate's hand, he finds them. Blue eyes linger for only a few moments on the form of Alysanne with Naerys by her side. It was as it should be; mother and daughter together, thriving without him. He doesn't deserve to be in that picture. He never did.

The dark shadows seem to squeeze in closer, darkening Helovia and tainting the only place he ever really called home. Before he realizes it, his hooves are moving and he's drifting nearer to Alysanne and Naerys - a fallen angel adrift with a new purpose: death. His massive white wings are tucked, his expression though warm is tired and worn. There is a faint hint of a smile on his face but it doesn't extend beyond the slight curve of his lips. Not even once he is before them. He greets Alysanne first, moving to touch his nose to hers, breathing her in for the last time. But when he turns to Naerys, his expression is riddled with the pain of guilt. He'd abandoned her. He knew that and he completely understood the clear fire of anger within her teal gaze. She wouldn't forgive him and he honestly couldn't blame her. Eliana, the silent shadow, swoops down upon his back in that moment and reaches to clasp the chain of one earth amulet around his neck. In one swift movement, she slides it off over his head and places it over the bay girl's head. Returning to Miykael, Eliana repeats her actions with the only remaining amulet dangling around his neck - except this time she moves to place it over Alysanne's head. With that the dark bird moves closer to Kaos but she only watches.

Miykael glances between the two of them, quiet yet determined. He moves closer to Alysanne again, stepping closer this time in an attempt to pull her into a gentle hug. "I love you." he murmurs softly, his deep voice oddly steady. After a few moments, he shifts to lightly touch his lips to Naerys' forehead, whispering an 'I love you, baby girl' as he slowly pulls away. The fallen angel backs up a few steps, but time seems to move slowly, the pace welcomed far more by him now than it ever had. "I'm sorry." he adds with a final resolve but he doesn't stick around to explain. Instead, he turns abruptly, his pace quicker and more determined than it had been in months - he doesn't charge, no, but it's quick enough that he disappears into the crowd and moves to place himself in front of the others. In a final act of defiance, he spreads his massive wings in an attempt to shield the others. He is not delusional, however. There are no images in his head that he would even remotely survive this absurdly simple act. This is the death of him and perhaps that's exactly what he wants.

He does not struggle or scream as the shadowy mess begins to pour from his body and soon Kaos' light wraps around him, enveloping him and then suddenly there is nothing. Just death.


And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?
Image Credits


@Alysanne
[Image: mikey_by_moonstone_designs-d9dgnba.png]
icon base: Bronzehalo :: from Nickel <3

permission for all except death and dismemberment.
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Erebos Posts: 474
Aurora Basin General atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.1hh :: Four HP: 75.5 | Buff: DANCE
Orsino :: Plain Kitsune :: Dark Illusions & Enyo :: Common Griffon :: Draining Clutch Heather
#25
Erebos
All he could feel was anger.
 
There was no satisfaction from his first kill, lingering along the threshold of his veins, where moments before they’d simmered and seethed. There was no ghostly, haunting, poignant apprehension curling through his soul. It was only a rush of hellfire, a slashing, rippling, roaring blur of animosity and acrimony, bludgeoning his tongue, his mouth, his essence, and he wanted to rush, to scream, to roar, to scramble into the darkening day and unleash a torrent of his potency. He wanted the monster to cower. He wanted the world to remain.
 
This was Helovia – they were born to be strong, to endure, to persevere, or die trying.
 
And that was when the calamity finally smacked him, when Orsino became worried, thrumming through their connection, when Enyo looked to him for direction, as he stared over the waves of creatures presuming to do the same thing as him. They raced, with fury, with outrage, with conviction and determination, like it was everything they could do or dream or hope –
 
It didn’t matter.
 
His strides swept across the ground in savage contortions, in sinister machinations, as he tried to reach them, as he thought he could save someone, anyone, from the disastrous pull of shadows and blight. Hate and menace, loathing and contempt, abhorrence and barbarity cast such a vile shell across his core, and he was molten, he was fire, he was contorting, irreverent sedition – but Ode, his beloved cousin, was cast aside like nothing, head separated from his body in one sinuous, unwinding motion, and he ceased all movement. The prince couldn’t recall if he screamed out Ode’s name, if he fell apart right then and there as one more member of his family perished. There was so much yelling, so much chaos, so much disaster maligned in every direction, creatures scrambling, Gods failing, misery clinging to the very heart and lungs of the entire world.
 
He just kept staring, eyes taking in the last sight of his own flesh and blood – watching from the corner of his stare as Aithniel charged into certain death, as the scene became something out of a Greek tragedy; war torn and brutal. There was temptation, right in that very moment, to return to his father’s tomb and remain there until the end – plunge himself right into the thick of the void and let it claim him, let it simmer and seethe, let it drain him of all conviction and courage.
 
Rikyn kept directing them, like traffic, like orders. It was probably the only thing that saved him. His eyes deadened, flat and merciless, struggling to rein the overflowing emotions, the fervent sentiments, glancing back into the crowd to try and catch strangers he once knew, friends he still cherished (Enna?, Enyo brushed beside him, but he couldn’t see her in the fray).
 
It felt so stupid, so ridiculous, so inept to just give in – when all along, the boy had strived, had tried because it was the only thing he could ever truly do. Now, they had no other options. Kaos had won. Perhaps that was the most sickening part of all, because as wave after wave attempted to beat him back, it was just annihilation, it was just ruin and abomination, and Helovia was being destroyed from the inside out.
 
What about the Basin? He wanted to release in one foul pitch of damnation, spew out his venom, his toxins, trying to trace over the last memories of the ice, the snow, the mountains…then lowered his head, finally distorted and destroyed by the pinnacles of bedlam. What about father?, stuck in the tomb, lost to him even more now. He didn’t embrace anything else, but followed in his King’s stead, twisting into the portal, into nothingness, into the beyond – suddenly not caring at all about what was on the other side. 


I'LL SHOW YOU HOW GOD | FALLS ASLEEP ON THE JOB
Image Credits

Lena the Songbird Posts: 663
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 4 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 69 | Buff: NOVICE
Imogen :: Common Kitsune :: Fire Heather
#26
The Songbird had seen the world apart around them before. She’d endured a lifetime of wars, famines, disease, and perils. She’d felt hope kindle through her body amidst every single one; a restless hymn to an unending stanza, a quiet, hushed refrain, a hint of the dawn through the darkest of Stygian contortions.
 
But this was different, because it spelled the end.
 
Her shield wouldn’t be able to do anything amidst the plight of rampaging soldiers and brave souls, risking their lives, becoming naught but bits of shadow and memory as they were severed and destroyed. Her healing powers were no match to the overwhelming sensation of misery and death, for she’d tried once, she’d tried so hard, and the silver warrior had still perished. She wanted to scream out to them anyway, to release those final wishes and dreams, a sanctuary, a haven, a salvation, an opus to the deliverance they’d yet to receive.
 
Even their Gods, their generous deity of thunder and lightning, time and hours, the gracious, potent, lethal being of the sun, couldn’t do anything to stop the madness. That’s when she knew, that’s when she understood, that Helovia was bound to the annals and legends, but also unending torment (she’d fled a realm before, a place she could never truly call home), and the distortion, the depressing reel of it all sent her into a calm, serene motive.
 
She stepped out into the battlefield, hummed a few sweet notes, and allowed Imogen’s collar to clip away, unfurl into its metallic, shielding bliss. The electricity, a gift from the Time God, hissed beneath her maw, and she held it aloft, gritted it through her teeth, bore it for anyone, everyone, who needed to be taken to that nearest portal, to where everyone yearned to escape, to where everyone had to flee so they survived.
 
While it sizzled, while it bristled, she sang too.
 
It was meant to serenade and wash over the panicked souls. It was meant to be a funeral lament for all the broken, lost creatures sacrificing themselves (she tried to look away from Ode’s lifeless body, all the others she’d known, she’d cherished, she’d loved). It was meant to be a beacon as she roamed closer and closer to the opening (to where – who knew – maybe that was some of her hope still remaining, chiseled within her heart out of habit). It was meant to be a siren for Roland, for any other Basin member still trailing behind (and she didn’t cry out for the beautiful world she’d do anything for, because the mountains wouldn’t want her to weep for their endless stars and their potent glory, for the last twist and turns of righteous hues glittering across the sky).
 
Then they turned, facing the Rift and its opening, where so many had plunged, and her final whisper was one of only goodbye to the lands that had altered, morphed, and changed her entire being.


her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love
LENA
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Lyanna the Windswept Posts: 313
World's Edge Queen atk: 7 | def: 11 | dam: 4.0
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15.2 :: 5 years HP: 64 | Buff: NOVICE
Kyra
#27
so i listen to the    wind for an answer
She wasn’t sure what she expected. This, and yet not this at all, though that’s no expectation at all. It’s like imagining another horse where you can’t quite get the details right, something that’s there but not formed, not really. How could they have known, exactly, what would come? The darkness draws in, bringing them closer to the Marsh. This much is not surprising. It started here and it would end here. Life is too often bookmarked in funny ways like that.

The Edge hadn’t gathered as they should have, as she should have had them do. They had scattered to the wind, looking for their loved ones, tying up loose ends that can never really be tied. She hadn’t tried, having lived through this once with no warning, she didn’t see the need for warning now. She had no belongs to collect, really, just the pieces of her life that she wore around her ear and neck and wings. Instead, she’d flown, leaped off the cliff with her friend and found a power she hadn’t felt in years, since she first stepped foot in this place. Helovia; her second home and her second one lost. How many more places would she lose?

She tries to find the members of the Edge as she moves toward the Marsh, the wind gusting around her, speeding her along as she stays airborne. She doesn’t land until Kaos and his obelisk come into view, and then she moves through the crowd, looking for familiar faces that might need her help. He talks, promises them safety through a portal that can only lead to the Rift. No, not true, that portal could lead anywhere. Though from the history of this place that she knows, there’s no other place he’d take them except to their death. Worst case scenario, their choices are to die here or there. Best case scenario, they get to live if they listen.

Still, they don’t. Lyanna tries to call out, screaming at them to simply GO! No one listens though, and her voice is lost in the chaos anyway. She tries to watch, trying to find a way to help, but there’s nothing she can do here but watch them die. The first ones she does not know, but it’s not long before familiar faces join the growing list of the dead. Two she’d seen in the Edge though did not know, but soon, too soon, she knows one of the faces. Ru. Lyanna screams, not defiant, but wretched, as her friend is destroyed in the massacre.

Sacre too is swallowed by the darkness and the teal light. Teal. The color swims in her vision and she feels like a part of it by the sheer fact they share colors. She wants to shed her own skin in that moment, but like everything else about her life, her coloring is a part of her story. Funny that it represented the downfall of Morham and Helovia. Doomed from birth, it seems. She begins to look in earnest now for those she can help when a familiar face comes into view right before the darkness swallows her.

No.

“Glasgow!” She tries to run to her friend, tries to save her, but it’s too late and there’s nothing there but the darkness that would swallow her too. For a moment, she debates letting it consume her, letting herself be done. No, little sister, you are not done. The voice is gentle but commanding, like always, for even in death her memory of him does not warp.

Soon the Gods come and their effort is futile, though they try. Do they try for the residents of Helovia, or like captains, do they simply go down with the ship? She’s never known for sure how much they really cared for the mortals of their world, but still, a piece of her heart chips away when their Lady Moon gives her life and magic to make their passage safe. Well, to make it safer, at least. Nothing was safe, a lesson she has learned too many times to count.

She turns her attention to the portal now, willing to grab anyone that might need help through the portal. At this point, she doesn’t care if she knows them, doesn’t care what they might want, only that she saves them. If she can help even a few, it would be a start. She will take as many with her through the portal as she can. She doesn’t stop, doesn’t look at Kaos, but she goes through the portal. There were no other choices for her. Maybe, this time, her third home would be her last.

lyanna

art by yewrezz

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Akeli Posts: 13
Outcast
Filly :: Hybrid :: 16hh :: 2 Seasons (Ages in Birdsong)
Gremlin :: Common Genet :: None Noella
#28
AKELI

Grim sleeps soundly in his basket, where he has fixed himself a wonderful little nest of sticks, leaves, and shiny amulets he had clenched in his needle teeth and refused to let go of, because they were Akeli’s, not his, and she had finally given up fighting with him when he decided to be so difficult. She had been following Ktulu and Eytan as they followed the migration, and though she knew not why they followed so easily, but based on the worried looks of those who joined them in their pilgrimage, the filly knew better than to ask any foolish questions.

But, despite not knowing what they were heading towards, she certainly never thought it was towards the end of the world. Screams and shouts split the air. She watches as pegasus are ripped from the sky in furious turquoise light, clamping her own wings together, leaping towards Ktu’s side, and she tries to hide her face as unicorns and equines upon the ground are destroyed in vicious smoke. She knows not that the saving light that seems, for a moment, to interrupt Kaos’ agenda comes from the death of great gods. But she knows death. She knows the smell, knows the sight, and knows she will never be able to visit her mother’s grave beneath the oak tree again. “Tootaloo, I’m scared,” she whispers, cowering towards the mare’s side, not caring if she will be chased away or forced away from the physical contact.

She has no time to utter the words, share her fears, that Ktulu will fall at the hands of the only remaining god, that Eytan will end in a heap upon the ground. She can’t imagine them being struck by the horrifying illuminated blows and simply ceasing to exist. And what of her? What of Grim?

There just beyond the panic, she sees the rim of a shimmering hole, which seems to be eating any who get too close. Many scream to approach the portal, and Akeli casts a terrified look to Ktulu. “That thing is eating everyone!” she cries, and she wonders if those who are shoving other’s into the black void are servants of god, or perhaps it is the last thing given to those who inhabited this land. She wonders to the fillies she met upon the Flats, and wonders if they’re safe.

She is ushered towards the shifting portal, and it is all of the encouragement she needs. She runs, and she feels Ktulu beside her. Twisting to cast her honey gaze at the woman, she whispers one final sentiment. “You promised to take care of me. What do we do?”

And, in the ultimate trust fall, the Constrictor pushes her towards the portal, and she means to escape the mare’s murderous plot, but instead is consumed, stolen, taken.

Despite all of this, Grim still sleeps, with sweet dreams running through his head.

Goodbye, Farewell, Until We Meet Again

[Image: _gift__akeli_pixel_by_abbie1234-d9po0qh_zps6qympgzb.png]
Please tag Akeli in all posts || Permission for magic and force at all times, except in cases of permanent injury or death.

Melita Posts: 35
Dragon's Throat Filly
Filly :: Hybrid :: 16 :: Newborn - Birdsong
Sila :: Plain Zephyr :: Wakiya Heather
#29
Melita had only known bright, happy things. Her world had yet to be spun into chaos; she’d been carefully guarded, despite all of her curiosities, all of the temptations, all the enticements glorified in the reaches of this wonderful land. She’d explored and loved and craved, but had never seen the dissolution, the chaos, the spinning of nefarious hands, the fervent echo of life dying, of souls wilting, withering, and fading. She’d truly never even seen or understood death - until it seemed to wash out before her, in a steady stream of violence, corruption, and ruin.

These bright, beautiful, wondrous creatures weren’t coming back. They took their final breaths in a rush of savagery, in blinding forces of vigilance and aggravation, just and vengeful. She could see Iskra’s mother, always potent, always powerful, smothered by the shadows, gone, never to return (and she couldn’t understand it - why were they being destroyed, mutilated, coerced into absolute nothingness? Why?). She yearned to ask, for her mind was an endless sea of questions and inquiries, but the words died on her lips.

Panic settled in as the din, as the throng, as the chaotic whirl circled around her, suffocated her; her mind was a mess of confusion and upheaval, skull turning every which way, trying to find someone she knew, someone she could follow, someone who could show her where to go – because Helovia was all she’d ever known (the beautiful sands of the Throat, where dragons reigned, where boldness bloomed). “Mother?!” She shouted, eyes widening, hoping, praying she hadn’t been amongst all the decaying, gone tides. She swallowed down the tears threatening to roll over her features, attempted to spy her sister in the crowd too, lost and little. “Clem?!”

The tiny wakiya perched on her shoulder gave a zealous cry, trying to reassure and usher her along as best she could, but the filly stayed stock still, legs splayed out in seized directions, frightened, terrorized, by the sea of unknown beings and the constant, threatening, consuming fumes. An instant later, she thought she saw Iskra and some other beings – and she wanted to screech out her apologies, how sorry she was about his mother, but in the fury, in the blend of confusion and overwhelming horror, she couldn’t get the words out. She yearned for her mother, for her sister, even the great, mighty Geen, but in the end, it was all about her own perseverance, boldness, and tenacity.

Something she could never forget.

So the little honeybee girl followed, the blind leading the blind, Sila on her spine as they raced towards the strange portal, knowing naught all over again.

Melita
the fires found a home in me
art | codes

Mauna Posts: 3
Outcast
Stallion :: Hybrid :: -- :: Newborn
Heather
#30
He was too new, too young, too fresh, to understand what was going on. The mountain boy only saw a rush of beasts, a tangle of hooves, shadow after shadow, rampage after rampage, and couldn’t comprehend any of it. For a few moments, he just stood there, silent and intrepid, attempting to absorb the reel of chaos flashing before his eyes, trying to fathom just why his heart flared and fluttered in panic, rushing in time with the weight of the discord sewn into the fire and bedlam. It was strange, foreign, but not exciting, not a zealous, happy rush of a fantastic discovery, or the energetic thrall of adventure and quests, crusades; it was apprehension, consternation, poised right across his very soul.

The child saw power in blades and infernos, Gods racing against time and might, and glanced towards his father’s face, struck to see the panic, the terror, lodged there – then glanced back into the fray – struggling to fathom why.

Then he saw his mother, his bright, beautiful, powerful mother, cascading through the skies, and every ounce of him became emboldened, a searing, whimsical smile curling at his lips – because she would save everyone! She was potent. She was amazing. She was careful, clever, and calculating. His dear dam could do no wrong in the eyes of her child! Don’t look, his father tore into the frame with such a hoarse whisper, but it’d been too late – everything was too late.

She fell apart too, taken by shadow, taken by Stygian abyss.

He furrowed his brow, contemplating the strange mishap. There must have been some kind of mistake. When she didn’t reappear, he looked at Zero again, heard the screaming, the shouting, and tried to inquire over the rush of dread, fright, and terror. “Where has mother gone?” Mauna asked into the thickening web of dismay, glancing this way and that to watch and see if she flew back into the fray, just misplaced, just flying out of range, where he couldn’t see her, where he couldn’t notice her, planning some attack – that was all. But still, the alarm, the panic, seared and seized over him, rushing across his tongue before he could stop himself (she had to be safe; it was almost a given). “Where is she?” He inquired again, head bobbing back and forth, legs suddenly threatening to give way – he wanted her near him, beside him, throwing all his cares away, because they were silly, they were foolish, they were the stuff of little babes and naught else. We’re going through a portal, came after, but everything seemed fuzzy and tossed apart, like it had no end and only a beginning, crashing, falling, thundering down around them. His father forced them into the opening, the rift, and somehow he knew his mother wouldn’t be there with them, and he held his breath, tried to dry the incoming flood of tears, the petulant need for her, before taking the plunge into the rest of the unknown.

Mauna
Crowns have their compass-length of days their date-
Triumphs their tomb-felicity, her fate-
Of nought but earth can earth make us partaker,
But knowledge makes a king most like his Maker.

image | coding

Aaron Posts: 260
World's Edge Protector atk: 4.5 | def: 8.5 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Equine :: 15.3 hh :: 6 Years HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
Alanna :: Common Hellhound :: Energy Drain Emily
#31

AARON
A SHEPHERD I SHALL BE, FOR THEE, MY LORD, FOR THEE, POWER HATH DESCENDED FORTH FROM THY HAND, THAT MY FEET MAY SWIFTLY CARRY OUT THY COMMAND, SO I SHALL FLOW A RIVER FORTH TO THEE AND TEEMING WITH SOULS SHALL IT EVER BE


This is it Alanna. As we moved with the rest of the family to where Kaos wanted us to be. This is what this has all been leading up to. "I know. Arwen and I are ready. I have tried to explain things to Lady and Daenerys, but they are not the same as Arwen and I." For a moment we allow silence to fall between us. I take that time to glance over to my son, striding alongside his mate Calypso with their children Ceto and Sapphira tucked at their sides. Next to me, Sarai is tucked in close as well between Farah and I. Sansa has taken to moving just behind us, almost watching to make sure nothing else happens from behind. I wish she wouldn't, as I can see the slight swell in her sides. If anything, I need to be protecting her.

When we arrived, it seemed everyone from all across Helovia had been pushed to this place. The place where Kaos had begun his rein of terror. Where the beginning of the end had started. “DO NOT FIGHT ME.” His voice roaring over everyone gathered. Fuck. “Everyone will go into the portal." Like hell... “One way or another." Shit. This is not good. Not good at all. Alanna pushes against Sarai's legs first, pushing her back to stand behind Sansa before returning to my side. I see Brendan move as well, and Farah. "No." I say in a tone that clearly means I mean business. "Stay back."

I know what is coming, and of course it happens. I watch in horror, and hearing Sansa scream as Ilios, Parelia and Areli are yanked off their hooves and explode into black smoke nothingness. “FOR EVERY REFUSAL, MORE SHALL DIE." I turn to Brendan and Calypso. They are the oldest of all of them. "Get the little ones out of here!" Another goes to black smoke. I move to take Kaos on myself with Alanna at my side when...

I moved to protect my family. I told Amaris that if it came to this I would give my life for them to live. What I didn't know, was that both Brendan and Farah felt the same. The three of us, along with Alanna and Arwen shield the rest....

We take the light that came for us. I glance back as the light begins to take me, seeing it was taking my son and great niece as well. I look only to Sansa and Calypso now, whispering for only them. "Go. Live. Fight another day." "I love you, my brother." Alanna says. And then it is over. Our life light, spiriting away as our bodies disappear from sight.

"Talk"
"Alanna speaks"


In Nomine Patris Et Filii
Et Spiritus Sancti

Please Tag Aaron in All Posts
Permission granted to use magic or physical force with Aaron at any time for any reason to any degree, with the exception of killing him.


Roskuld the Sparklight Posts: 424
World's Edge General atk: 7.5 | def: 9.5 | dam: 6
Mare :: Tribrid :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 82 | Buff: ENDURE
Zchiraxicon :: Royal Rougarou :: Electric Smithers
#32

You know what the most awful feeling in the world is? Being fucking right.

I’d been laughing and crying non-stop since I’d felt the world shift in my bones--since the gods abandoned us to a blackened world, a sick world, a world that felt like it was gonna die die die soon. You know what it’s like to orgasm? (Ok ye I know this is getting weird but trust me for a sec.). The build up, that build up gets you, and you’re sucked into it and it creeps in your bones and in your muscle and every beat that you expect hits home (I’m weak I’m weak I’m weak I’m weak) and suddenly you’re shaking (I was never enough I was never enough I was never enough) and suddenly it expLODES OUT OF YOU (AND EVERYONE’S DYING AND EVERYONE’S DYING AND TOTO ISN’T THE ONLY ONE ANYMORE)--

Ma, my Mama, I love you, oh god I love you. You were my Ma and you were the only Ma I ever had and damn it you did a good-ass job of it too. You were a baby when you had me but you still done did it, and I’m sorry forever for hating you for years, for being afraid of your white shadow, for fucking deTESTING the man  who swept you off your feet, for being a shitty big sister to the siblings you gave me. Ma--my Mama. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I was never gonna be able to.

See, what doesn’t usually happen directly after an orgasm is getting hamstringed but that was happening too, so. Whatever.

That big burst happened in my body and I was laughing a full-throated, raw SCREAM of a laugh, and my eyes were pouring with white-hot rivers of salt, and Chico was clinging to my shoulders, his claws digging intto my skin and drawing blood, his whole body violently shaking as he took in every blow to my eyes and my heart and my shattering, severed soul (Ma dies)

Pa, my Papa, I love you, holy shit I love you. You were my Pa and you were the only Pa I ever had and it couldn’t have been anyone else. I wish you had had a son to wield you blade and be so much better than what you got, this average piece of shit with an issue in her head and heart. I wish I was strong enough to stand by your side; I wish I was strong enough to die with you, to serve my purpose. I was never gonna be able to.

People were just dying left and right, fuck it, what did it matter? But then I was watching as (Ru, my captain--) pieces of my heartstrings (Isopia, stop Volterra loves you--) were being snipped and severed in ways I didn’t even know they could sever.

snip snip snip

I should be dying.




….but I wasn’t.

Cuz fuck all y’all.

Snip snip snip. Ma gone, Pa gone, Iso gone, Ru gone--this land I was born in, where I bled and shit and pissed in, where I cried, where I loved, where I hated, where I fought, where I  failed failed failed failed failed failed failed failed failed fAILED

All my ties to this place was snipped from my soul--and suddenly

I

Realized

I


….


...never really cared in the first place.

Ever.

And so I cried and I laughed, because suddenly, with teal flashes of light, every yoke on me, every pull, every draw I had on this land FUCKING EXPLODED and all those people I was supposed to sacrifice myself for, stand by my Pa, stand ‘til the very end for didn’t fucking matter to me anymore.

I was never meant to be born, not like this. Not of godsblood, where people would need me. Because I’m average and dumb and a failure, and I don’t even fucking care about it anyway.

You know what it feels like to be right?

The awful, terrible feeling of--freedom.

It’s scary. It’s exhilarating. It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry.

--

The portal sucks any and all closer to its jaws, beguiling and forceful, plucking them from the land. There is one, however, who does not even wait to be snatched: the laughing mare, dazed and crazed and blind from tears, chooses instead to leap head-first into the portal, her laugh-stained voice (”FUCK THIS SHIT, I’M OUT BITCHES”) streaming out from her, the only trace of her she deigns to leave behind. She abandons; she is done; she is free.


Talkin shit



It's been a privilege writing with you on this Fantastic Site. Thank you for these wonderful 5 years!



Please tag ROSKULD in every reply!

Alysanne the Devoted Posts: 641
World's Edge Queen atk: 7 | def: 10 | dam: 3.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 16 hh :: 11 years HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Hemlock :: Flammulated Owl :: Heal & Cypress :: Great Horned Owl :: None Sarah
#33
She came, with everyone - seeking out Naerys and Iona but mentally picking out every face that she knew around Helovia and noting their location. It seemed like everyone was here. She shifted uneasily with the rest when Kaos demanded they move through the portal he had created.

Miykael moved towards them, distracting her, and she greeted him softly, her worry clear in her green eyes. What had they gotten themselves into this time? She realized then that she hadn’t told him yet that he was going to be a father again, but this didn’t seem to be the time to do so. For a moment, she naively thought that she would get another chance. When he moved to hug her, she accepted willingly - finding comfort in his presence and his scent in the way she used to. The way he could calm her down with just one touch - make her not just believe that everything would work out, but know it would. “And I love you.” She responded without question - because she did. Of course she did, that was what had caused all the problems between them. She had always loved him, ever since the first day they met.

He pulled away too soon, moving to speak to Naerys, and it suddenly dawned on Alysanne that he was saying goodbye. “No.” Was her response to his apology, his gifts, her stomach already twisting at the implications. “Don’t you dare, Mikey. Please.” She whispered pleadingly to his back, her legs carrying her forward a few steps to follow him. To stop him. Because, like so much, she thought she knew what he was planning. They were of the same mind on so much - he was surely planning on doing the exact same thing she wanted to do. She wanted to be there with him, add her pair of wings to his to shield all those she loved, all those she will love when she meets them. Her mind was slower than her legs, however, and it took Naerys moving in front of her, forcing her to stop, to remind her that she needed to think about more than this heartbreak.

Because that’s what it was - her green eyes were glued to Miykael, everything else around her was covered in a thick fog - and she could feel her heart breaking. If anyone had been talking to her she wouldn’t have heard them, their voices would be drowned out by the hammering of her heart and the screaming inside her mind. The loss of the Edge was nothing compared to this feeling within her now - to lose her oldest, dearest friend.

There was more that she needed to say to him, more time needed. They had reconciled, sure, in many different ways - including the small comfort they could give each other that led to the child she felt growing within her - but this was too soon.

When he died, the pain within her transcended anything that could have been expressed by a scream. She felt like she was going to collapse, her knees buckled beneath her and it was only the presence of her daughter that kept her on all fours.

The rest of the battle - if it could even be called that - didn’t even register within her mind.

Later, what little left of her heart was left would break when she remembered who else died on this day - Ilios, Parelia, Aaron, Sohalia, Tarik, Ampere, Sacre, Ru, Ophelia, Ghost, Glasgow, Isopia and so many more that she didn’t know the name of but who she would mourn all the same. They all deserved so much more than what she could give them then and there to mourn them - they had all touched her life, improved upon it, in ways that she would never call insignificant. They all meant the world to her and they deserved more than this death at the hands of a coward and a liar.

It wasn’t until she heard the shouting, heard others calling to those they loved and ushering them towards the portal, towards safety and life, that she emerged from the haze. “Naerys.” She whispered as she woke up, unsure if her daughter had been saying anything to her. “Hemlock!” She called to her companion but she didn’t need to, he was scouting over the crowd and using his small wings to shoo everyone that he could forward and into the portal. Alysanne unfurled her own wings and did the same. Though she can still feel herself falling apart, she hasn’t stopped being devoted to her herd and her family just because the Edge - and now Helovia - has faded and gone. She moved quickly, circling around the crowd and whinnying to all those that she can find, anyone that might be looking like they were hesitating about what to do.

She won’t lose anyone else.

There were too many names and faces to list that she was seeking, but she called out to them all. “Everyone let’s move! Forward together!” She used her wings to gently and not-so-gently encourage anyone she could forward to the portal, the one that their gods died to make safe for them.

Alysanne had nothing but blind faith that the world on the other side of the portal would be kinder than this one.


If you could only understand—through my heart and through my veins
I gave it all,
I'll give again.

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permission from Rottie to PP Naerys! <3
please tag Alysanne in replies
[Image: alysanne_by_schwartze-d89se15.png]
made by the lovely tamme
non-life threatening physical force is allowed at all times, but preference is to be checked with beforehand for any injuries

Ktulu the Constrictor Posts: 509
Outcast atk: 5.0 | def: 9.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.1 :: 7 HP: 70.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Eytan :: Grizzly Bear :: Terrorize ali
#34
Ktulu
The world was ending. There was no question about it. No rhyme or reason. No denying it/ The world was ending and they were all going to die. There was nothing that they could do about it besides accept it and embrace oblivion.

It is with a defeated expression on her dark face that she watches helovian after helovian throw themselves into the battle. One by one their bodies are dissolved, the lives extinguished with minimal effort from Kaos. A small scared voice beside her drew her attention down and she looked at the child, frowning. It hadn't been that long ago that she'd found her in the Threshold, clinging to her dead mother's side. She had promised to look after her and care for her, but what could she do in the face of this? What could any of them do? Then she looked at the tiny filly, Rinne, on her other side, eyes wide and scared.

What could she do to protect them?

Her head raised and she watched in silent defeat as her brother's body was disintegrated into nothingness. All around there were screams of anguish for the fallen, denial for those realizing that their fight was pointless, and anger for being fooled by a false god. But didn't they have it coming? Hadn't they stolen his lands, killed his gods? This was their punishment for taking what they had no right to take. The gods had cursed them all because of their selfishness. Condemned them to this.

"Phi..." Her sister's name slipped, unbidden, past her lips as she saw the pale mare leading an attack on Kaos. "PHI! NO! STOP!" But it was too late. In the blink of an eye Phi was no more and it was just another dagger in Ktulu's heart. Another fracture that would be impossible to repair. Why?  She thought hopelessly. Why did you? How could you? What would she do without her sister? How could she live knowing that there was nothing left of Ophelia in the world?

She wanted to fight. She wanted to throw herself into the battle, to kick and scream and bite and let loose every ounce of anger she held in her body even if she knew that she'd be ripped apart.

"That thing is eating everyone!"

"What?" The Constrictor blinked and stared at the portal, realizing instantly what it was. Helovians were running through it one after the other, heading for a place that was safer (ha!) than where they were. Escape. "Go!" She urged Akeli, her head dipping down to shove against the filly's haunches. Rinne was next, shoved toward the portal.

"You promised to take care of me. What do we do?"

"Go. I'll see you on the other side." She said again, but this time she shoved the tiny winged filly through the portal. "You, too." Ktulu said as she shoved Rinne through. She paused for a moment to look back at the chaos of the battle before she and Eytan went through the portal.


"."
Image Credit

@Akeli @Rinne

Icon by Tay

Tandavi The Fire Dancer Posts: 245
World's Edge Nurse atk: 6.5 | def: 9 | dam: 4
Mare :: Equine :: 16.1 :: 5 HP: 65 | Buff: NOVICE
Natraj :: Plain Kitsune :: Fire Charks
#35

"Sacre?"

We will not talk about the devastation, the ravaged land and ruined sky, the darkness and chaos that threatens to envelop them, once peripheral to their vision and now encompassing, incorporating, inescapable. We will not talk about the cackling demon, the valiant gods, the portal that beckons like a hand in the sky. We will not discuss the screams, the cries, the wails of widows and children that echoes through the night, heavy with misery and raw, treacherous pain. We know all of this already - just as she knows, as she stands, as she watches, that the world as they know it has come to an end.

Helovia is dying, its denizens fleeing, its body convulsing uselessly in death throes. Like antibodies they throw themselves upon the invader, but the force of their valiance is useless against this virus, this superbug - Kaos is quick to strike them down, to suppress the immune system of the land they call home until it is nothing, until all they can do is cave, incorporate, integrate, and succumb to the sheer magnitude of their destruction, if only they want to live.

Still, some fight back- and that is what we will talk about here, because one of them, one of them, one of them charges into war, and takes the Fire Dancer's heart with him.

"Sacre... "

He is there for a moment, a beautiful moment - he is beside her, and she is safe, she knows she can survive this, because they are together. Relief floods her, and she reaches for him, smiling despite the carnage, safe despite her flaws. Her sins are nothing, her faults, the girls who stand huddled at her flanks - there will be time for that, time for confessions and forgiveness, time for all of it, once they are through the portal. They will be together, they will be safe, they will find solace in each other-

"-Sacre-"

But then he's gone. Her valiant knight, her stalwart hero, her lover, her friend- she reaches for him and he slips away, so brave, so determined, so stupid, so cruel. "Wait!-" she cries, but she is already too late. She watches with wide, onyx eyes as he charges the assailant who threatens their home, and the image is seared into her mind, carved in her retinas, retained forever - because for a moment he is there, brave and bold and splendid and beloved, the father of her child, the keeper of her heart -

- and in the next moment he is gone.


"SACRE!"

Her voice is hoarse from crying - how long has she been sobbing, her body convulsing, pain and anguish sinking into her bones? Her cheeks are saturated, her eyes burn- she takes a step, fury and grief choking her, reaching from her throat like hands, body alight with embers and rage. She is ready to charge, to assault the defiler who snuffed out her heart, to throw herself hopelessly upon Kaos and die alongside her lover.

It is only Savera's familiar, bleating cry that holds the girl back.

She stands with her twins, immobilized, her soul tearing, a great black crack growing in her stomach that she knows will never heal. We have to go, her brother whispers, his own pain visceral and potent, his agony a mirror to hers- Have to save babies, and she knows he's right, but she's useless, broken, shattered and devastated. What is the point? Why not stay here, rather than condemn her children to a life of pain, an existence plagued by agony and death? Wouldn't it be better to let them go now, to stop them before they grow into her - angry, damaged, destroyed?

Savera cries again, and Neaera joins her, and the girl snaps back. She is still crying, but the fire that refuses to snuff out rises back inside her chest -

"Move! Go!" she snaps at the fillies, nipping sharply at their flanks, black eyes blazing as she herds them toward the portal. Desperately she searches for Amaris, for Mortimer, praying what's left of her family will make it through- but right now she doesn't have time to care about her pain, the people she wants to survive, the loved ones she has lost. She doesn't exist anymore. She can't.

Existing will destroy her, and she has to stay alive- for them.

She pushes her girls through the portal- and then, with one last look at the place she was born, with a final clench of her shattered heart, follows them through.



fox-boy and the fire dancer
there will be sunshine after rain

semperfiesty | Eltear-Stock | yellowcious-stock

o. pixel pony credit to tamme
o. permission granted to use force and magic on Tavi
o. only tag me in opening posts, please!


Zubari Posts: 52
World's Edge Colt
Colt :: Unicorn :: 17.1 :: 1Year 8 Months
Kuuma :: Melanistic African Civet :: None Dressy
#36

The day started like every other day. The sun rose from the sky, and the boy moved around the land with his companion. Warm rays glimmered down on his deep chocolate pelt, and Kuuma was out hunting. She enjoyed the time away from her bonded, and Zubari could say the same. They were not able to talk yet, but maybe that was a good thing. Sometimes Zubari did not want to hear what she had to say. Golden eyes fell to the necklace around his neck. He wondered about the odd God, but he would not question him. The boy felt as if the beast would lead him the right way. A slow sigh slipped from his mouth. Little did the boy know today was just not another day.

Something radiated in his bones, he felt a pull and a draw to the marsh. It was odd, maybe Kaos needed him. Signaling to Kuuma, the small civet grabbed the dagger and jumped upon Zubari's back. She settled into the gold cloak that the boy now wore. At least they finally had something that will keep them warm and dry. He began to hesitate as he saw so many others joining him. In this walk. Why did it feel like a death march? Kuuma scratched at his neck looking behind them. Darkness was taking over, the land was dying, and all of Helovia was pushed to this one spot. Something in his felt like this was an execution. Ears flicked and listened to the conversations. Everything was so loud, roaring and booming. Anxiety started to build up in his chest. What was happening? Then Kaos started reaping his wrath on all who did not obey. Confused eyes shifted from person to person. They started dying off. One by one their body turned black and teal. Kuuma jumped up and watched this happen. Then he saw his mother. She went charging into the battle. No... no... NO!!! Stop, please! she couldn't do this to him! Golden eyes looked around panicked. Her heart was racing "Mom stop!! No! You can't do this to me! Please don't do this!." Where was Tembovu?? why was he not here to stop everything!? Protect his mom, protect his children. Then it happened in slow motion. His mom was running; he flashes back to her smiles, the flashed back to the horror. She was attacking Kaos, was she stupid? Then it happened he turned his attention to her and then she was gone. A flash of teal light filled the air, and black rose from her body. "MOM! NO! WHY!?." Gold eyes filled for the first time with salt tears. This was not fair, why his mom? She was the only thing he had besides Katua. Shaking his golden horns he tried to blink the tears away.

He had to get out of here, leave this land. Kuuma jumped from his back, and they began to run towards the portal, but no something stopped him. The girl Sifiri was there, she was scared and not moving. The internal struggle fought him, but he could not leave her to go through alone. So the boy trotted towards her. She was weak and might need some help. "Safiri... I am glad I found you. This place is falling apart, and our world is dying. The only chance we have is if we go through that portal. We can go together; I will protect you. Just trust me. I will not leave you here ." He tried to smile and nudge her shoulder softly. Kuuma jumped about her companion's side with yips. She was trying to convince them to go as well. The portal grew larger and larger. Golden eyes looked to the girl. "Are you ready? It is time." He stood close to her in case she needed to lean on him for support. Then black hooves took steps into the portal. Leaving his mother behind, leaving everything he knew behind. Tears filled his eyes as the portal swallowed them. "Goodbye Helovia, Goodbye Mom. I love you. "

"Talk."
zubari
"I’ll take my bow I won’t make a sound I whisper truce as the ashes hit the ground

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Lyrics


@Safiri

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Brendan Posts: 31
Aurora Basin Medic atk: 4 | def: 8 | dam: 7
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 16hh :: Two Years (Orangemoon Born) HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
Arwen :: Plain Hellhound :: Acid Emily
#37

BRENDAN
HARDSHIP OFTEN PREPARES AN ORDINARY PERSON FOR AN EXTRAORDINARY DESTINY


When the mists and stuff push, we go. I am glad that Sansa seems to find her way back to us among all the others getting pushed around. At least whatever happens, we will all be together. I am specially glad, became I have twins with the mare I have fallen in love with. I didn't expect to love Calypso. She and Aurelia I think her name was, were just ways to work out my frustrations. But the antlered mare has stolen my heart and has a marking upon her shoulder to show it. I'd forever protect the princess from everything, even if it meant giving my life. Arwen seemed to agree with me on that fact, as she has fast become friends with Daenerys.

As we arrive, I look between us at our girls. Ceto, with ram horns like my mother and Sapphira with my body build and her mother's antlers. Both of them beautiful in their own way. I lean in and nuzzle Cal gently, as she moves in place nervously. "We're going to get through this, together." I tried to reassure her. She has been though so much. I won't let anything else happen.

That's when all hell breaks lose. Others start dying. I move to stand in front of Calypso and the girls. Arwen steps up next to me. We haven't spoke, but I feel her emotions. I knew she and Alanna had been spending a lot of time together. Was the older hellhound getting her ready for what was to come?

I would never find out.

The same light that had come for so many others, comes at our small family. Without a second thought, Arwen and I throw ourselves in it's path. We try to protect as much of our family as we can. I see Dad, caught up in the light along with Alanna. to the other side, I see my cousin Farah, also caught. My eyes lock on one and one only. Calypso. "It's up to you and Sansa now. Be safe. Never forget.... I love you."

The light consumes us, and we are gone.

"Talk"


Farah Posts: 13
Dragon's Throat Filly
Filly :: Tribrid :: 17hh :: Yearling (Ages in Orangemoon)
Emily
#38

I have been hiding since the Gods left in the Edge with my family. It's funny, how at the end of the world you find those you have spent most of your life looking for. So of course when Kaos makes us move, I follow along just like everyone else. I look at both of my cousins, Brendan and Sansa. They were already parents, or well at least one was and the other was to be. My great uncle Aaron with his daughter tucked at his side. My little family. They are all I have left since Dad never showed back up.

So when Kaos begins to speak, I know that I will do everything I can to protect my family. I watch as the others shift and move, and even more so as some are killed. I take a deep breath, calming my nerves. This is it. Helovia is over, and some of us won't make it to the other side.

I make my choice, as the light that has already taken others comes for my family as well. Without Uncle Aaron or Brendan knowing, I throw myself in front of Sansa. I offer the other girl, the mother to be, a smile. I keep her safe, and join the others giving their lives. "For family" I whisper, as I fade into the light. Momma, i'm coming....

"Talking"

Farah

Eira Posts: 4
Outcast
Filly :: Hybrid :: 15.1 :: Newborn
Riven
#39
Eira.
There is a strange hum in the atmosphere, silent, resonating beneath skin, through bone, with beguiling effect.

It holds a chilling vibe, sings a thrilling, foreboding song into the thrum of listening hearts…

The eerie weight, the unfathomable sensation, is enough to cause the white-speckled hair along the sleeping filly’s spine to stand on end. Darkness has smothered distant regions, lands neighbouring their tranquil  stretch of beach, driving wild panic through the blooming population of Helovia; like ravenous fog it advances noiselessly even now, across the writhing fury of waves (roar, crash), slithering with insatiable intent towards them, devouring all light and terrain - aiming for her helpless frame, sprawled through cool sand, motionless, oblivious. 

She stirs though. 

A quickening heartbeat (entranced by queer mood), drives her from the grip of fond dreams and into the wild reality of chaos (kaos), and devastation. There is a fleeting second as adrenaline ignites life through her veins, that terror cracks all sense - where is Ma? Pa? Tiny grey hooves strive through the sand, burying beneath her slender roan barrel as it already heaves and jerks, backwards and forwards, desperate for height. “Indra!” frightened vocals extend, splitting the back of her throat until it burns, aches; she gasps then, desperate for air. 

In the fading light there is movement. The familiar hue of hot, coltish breath envelopes her anxious expression and he is there, beside her, guiding her like a beacon of light through the cloud of her own apprehension. Trembling nostrils suck greedily at that cherished flavour, aiming to burrow against the tender throat-latch; an affectionately formed habit which had brought comfort and refuge, many times already. 

“S’happening?” feathery voice queries, feebly, weakly, groggily, stumbling on until her bony, feathery arm is pressed close into his warmth. “…where’s Ma?” Creeping shadow hinders the suggestion of day and she feels as though dawn has arrived with a  hideously leaden face, or perhaps she has slept the whole day through… Regardless, her stomach groans and grumbles; twists nervously to the foul, inaudible rhythm in the air, and she wants vainly, impulsively to suckle. 

There is an echo in the air, it grows by the second; like the perverted trill of prey before the kill. 

Lanky legs scramble north-west through the sand (they have no choice, nothingness licks wickedly at their heals), following the faint trail of splattered milk where it lingers, souring in the thickly-brackish air. Though oblivion’s hand wipes away the world right behind them, a sickly-sweet light grows through the timber ahead; it is unsettling, unnatural, but like the sea is pushed and pulled by the magnetic moon, the hapless foals are dawn hopefully, curiously. 

A voice booms in the distance - it bleeds from the earth, rides the coursing wind and leaks through her trembling conscience. The filly hesitates with wings turned askew,Pa?” she bleats, shaken, voice quivering wildly with worry. Sweat, pungent, potent fear, poured rivulets through her coat and though he stood firmer, Indra too shed bountiful concern; their own taste lathered metallic on her tongue. 

There!

Spindly shafts of that luring light pulled them in and through the clutter of old wood and marsh (the stench of death and revolting decay), more than two dozen of their kind were amassing. Maddened by confusion and the thrilling promise of food, Eira starts brazenly forward. Sharp, narrow flints slice easily through the slough, but her brother, swifter, smarter, cuts forth like a shrewd wall of clarity. She stumbles before him, slumping into the fetid water with all of the harshness of a fallen boulder; disconcerted snorts erupt, confused, dismayed, but there is no mistaking the sober warning masking his face. 

In that moment she pauses, heeds the truth of the unfolding event as it balloons like noxious gas around them. 

The screams; she has mistaken their blood-curdling pain, the anger, for jubilance! 

A sequence of stunning explosions occur, bright black and teal - one near to that charming glow, the other further away, to one side - and then for a time nothing; only the resounding thunder, that supernatural voice and the omen it proclaims upon them all. It becomes apparent as she stares bewilderedly, that a massive creature stands at the midst of the mayhem and it is to this, mammoth, that the frenzy of action is aimed. 

There are bodies everywhere, streaking through the dead sky overhead, and littering the swampland (upon which the twins dither). An overbearing accumulation of stinking, fermenting hormone presses down around her shoulders like a wearying, weighted blanket, and she shakes her flinching, shivering skin in an effort to be free. The horror of the scene unfolding sears her mind, soul, and squeezes the (small) sensibility her fraying baby heart. 

“Oh Indra!” 

So too does she notice then, that the vivid explosions are more than stark light. Molten tears well behind the lower rims of each burning eye and soon enough, saline channels are weaving gravity's cursed path down her chiselled blue cheeks. Sobbing, the filly turns to the stalwart figure of her brother; though cracks in his enviable resilience are undeniably present, he watches with a lofty skull bearing witness to all that unfolds - certainly, the resolve portrayed is better set in concrete, than that of his twin. 

While stress ricochets through his core, leaping the lost divide between his frame and hers, Eira finds solace in his warmth and steadier mind; vision - so real - of their first living moment descends to interrupt the peril; the time when she had flailed like a lowly lamb in the breeze of new life, Indra’s gentle breath was the first touch she had known. 

The sting of shock, the shrill devastation in his voice when it erupts, turns her blood stone-cold. 

Above them - wielding like a missile above the monster - their Ma vanishes amid the same, life-eating ball of black and teal light. Below, Cirrus’s daughter’s scream unites with the sound of the terrorised crowd and her body collapses into the watery bed, wracked by convulsing, consuming cries. Likewise, mere moments later, red, tear-glazed gaze beholds the undoing of their Pa; his body, pristine in the rising night, dissolves beneath a gut-wrenching flash. 

Their energy and want to defend, though valiantly construed, is futile in the end.

The world seems to pause in those seconds, sound numbed from awareness and time knocked from its course. 

A feverish, frenetic pulse throbs to the tune of flaring hopelessness, and hunger; of abandonment and trepidation. What were they to do? How would they continue? Yet, as the cataclysm reaches its climax, an answer fashions in the form of an invisible funnel, a vacuum, sucking them from their mortal existence in Helovia. 

Still slouched through marsh, Eira is helpless as she endeavours to struggle free of her bind. She can see through a haze of grief and agony, that Indra too is at the mercy of this wretched force; and with splayed wings she makes one final effort to be with her brother. All of the strength she can muster is spent lurching towards him, milk teeth snap savagely, desperately, clinging to the silken tuft already spilling from his tail's tip. 

“Please…” she weeps bitterly, clenching her eyes as the light drowns her vision. “Indra! Don’t lea…”
"I am a book of snow,
a spacious hand, an open meadow,
a circle that waits,
I belong to the earth and its winter."

- Pablo Neruda, Winter Garden

@Indra

Victorina Posts: 10
Dragon's Throat Filly
Filly :: Equine :: 16.3 :: Newborn (Ages in TallSun)
Emily
#40
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I have stayed close to my family, specially the little ones. I have to. Papa seems to be off gods knows where. Not meaning that he is fully absent, as he is back with us today. He is back when it counts the most. Together we all seem to be herded to this place. This marshy land that reminds me nothing of the Throat. I want to go home, for all of this to be one horrible dream. But I know it's not. Hell is about to break loose, and I need to be ready to help. The armor that Mama gave me, falls gently over my back and chest. I am glad it still works, even with the gods absence.

We arrive, Kaos speaks and I feel my body tensing under my armor. I was set to fight, until all hell breaks lose. Others start dropping right and left. One sister seems to scream at Kaos but I am sure it does no good. Papa is there suddenly urging her on. He seems to be trying to gather all of us together. Yes, yes that's what we need to do.

I snap out of my own fearfilled trance and begin to herd my siblings to the portal. Kövesd Apa! I scream hoping that those who knew the language would listen. We needed to move. It's not until almost everyone else is through that I allow Papa to urge me into the portal, watching over my shoulder to make sure he comes too.

Victorina talks

Kövesd Apa! - Follow Dad!
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