This was a new place, a stranger place, for sure. It was...a little bitter, a little bit colder, a little bit cramped. Tree's every-damn-where. The sparkling slick stuff that cracked the earth and killed the sweet-grass spread across the ground like miserable spiderwebs. Cal could snort clouds of frost fit for a dragon. A better place, perhaps? That remains to be seen.
Weary on, gotta trudge through sorrow, Calvariam sang in her mind, gently humming a tuneless melody in the back of her throat, Gotta look for that lended ear...
Enough is never enough, unless it makes your legs move and your stomach heave from the pain of it. An answer-less question is always asked, and your response reflects your rank in life. There are truly no answers, but the answer you give is the essence of your soul. Cal's response was to move. To walk, run or fly; to leave that wretched place, because she was done with it.
Done with what?
Does it matter? The question was asked, and Cal gave her answer. Earth-shod hooves stamped on the dust-less ground, careful to move around that sharp, jutting stone or those bramble-covered vines. Trees reached for her with brittle fingers; she shook her mane carelessly, frightening the shadows, the branches pulling out more and more hairs from her sinuous neck. No matter. They will always grow back.
Cal continued to sing.
Our souls bleeding, wandering, crying; Waiting for that sweet redemption..
The forest around her was empty, and her thoughts seemed to be morose and on the verge of heartbreak, but the mare was content with herself. Humming and grinding her teeth, she walked slowly, but she was deliberate in her pace. She shuffled her wings, feeling the bitter air through the gaps of her feathers, the soothing touch that caressed her hot skin. Enjoy the little things, she always said.
Weary on, we trudge through sorry, looking for that lended ear...
She was ready for something new and fresh. The world had a sense of humor with wishes like that, but Cal was ready for whatever irony or fate or whatever the hell her name was to throw something her way. It was the spice of life, and life didn't taste good without a little salt. The older mare walked on, passing through the invisible gate that led the way to a Stranger, Bitter, Colder place that had the potential to be Better.
(OOC: Somewhat generic first post, I know. Please bear with me. I'm still trying to figure out how to do things around here *like make a friggin' table*)
| Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7 |
| Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK |
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Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath
Tamme |
Ophelia found it strange how many winged creatures she was finding among the pale trees of the Threshold. Did they fly from the north to flee the biting wind of the mountains? The young hybrid would not have fled, no. She enjoyed the cold almost as much as the silver, scaled dragon who flew at her side. He had matured a bit, though the crimson eyed beast still enjoyed diving into the fresh powder and puffing frost from his own breath. Ever seen he had seen Phaedra not too long ago, he had been pestering her mind with pictures of her flying - which she returned with gruesome images of her falling.
Phi would never fly, but her blood was of two species; visibly, she was every bit a unicorn, but her equine blood allowed her the unique bond with Tinek, her silver dragon. He lifted his spiny neck curiously as the sound of the mare's voice traveled beautifully upon the breeze, resonating with the odd, achromatic pair. If not for the bloody red that fringed her crimson mane and tail and her strange, heterochromatic eyes, the mare would truly be perfectly white.
After startling the last pegasus, Tinek decided that he would do better to stand near his bond-mate, so the dragon jumped onto her neck, laying flack on her elegant crest. "You sing lovely words," Phi said in her chime-like voice, walking closer to the winged mare. Upon closer inspection, the mare was old, aged and greyed in the face with a back that had seen better years. She held such wisdom, and Ophelia longed to know her stories. The young mare had never felt so tempted to reach into the pegasus' mind and steal her thoughts away, experience her years of knowledge and store it away.
However, she refrained. Ophelia stopped a short distance away, aware of how she towered over the shorter, elderly mare. She smiled warmly. "Forgive me, but where do you come from? Can you tell me your stories?" she asked earnestly, bold curiosity clear in her bright, vibrant and youthful eyes.
[OOC: There is some free table html in the art nook! :D You can create a thread there and test it out! ]
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COME TO ME
we run away forever from this misery
|
tangled-stock | Salsola stock
Undertow has come to take me. Guided by the blazing sun. Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done.
Please. Anyone. I don't think I can save myself. I'm drowning.
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Please tag me in every response!
Cal|variam
"'Lovely Words'? My song is my mind, and some might call that a rotten appendage."
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The landscape was becoming monotonous; the same sound of her own hoof-beats was becoming akin to that of a lullaby, and the eerie melody of screeching timber and vacant birdsong was doing nothing but lending voice to her own improvised melody:
It rumbles the bones; Oh! Paradoxical pain! Wash away this contempt; allow the tears to fall freely,
freely,
freely...
Sharp as a tack she might be, Cal was starting to have those senile episodes associated to old age. The lullaby of the forest was calming her on a profound level. The forest before her became a fuzzy backdrop of white before her heavy lidded eyes, and her mind buzzed pleasantly with a whirl of those softer, tender thoughts that flitted in the corners of her mind. The musty scent of wet tinder and the musky aroma of unseen critters created a vibrant mental picture that Cal vaguely acknowledged; the ever-so-gentle breeze that tickled the sparse bristles of her mane was like the nips of those long forgotten studs and ladies she knew and loved; the sudden spike of warm horse flesh against her nostrils reminded Cal of those little rascals that ran between her forelegs in playful abandon, the whereabouts of those now-grown vagrants now unknown by their aged mother. Cal's inner peace and lapse of awareness was so profound that she failed to acknowledge the young unicorn mare to whom that warmish musk belonged to.
"You sing lovely words."
Mmmhmm Cal thought in vague agreement; she continued her slow, ambled pace through the forest, not quite realizing that she had company in her midst. The horse-scent was becoming stronger-- and now there were noises, too, the unmistakable melody of hooves against the loam-littered forest floor. And still the older mare continued onward, lost in her own hazy memories and pleasantly content with them.
"Forgive me, but where do you come from? Can you tell me your stories?"
Cal heard the words, and flicked her ears to-and-fro in amusement. "Stories," she breathed with ugly sarcasm, the words coming out in a cloud of white, misty vapor. Her eye-lids fell even lower in her musings. "What stories can I tell that time cannot? They're too numerous to recall and dictate in one moon cycle. I've seen....many things, horrid things. Glorious things. Though the only way to see that horror and that glory is to witness--"
It was as though the bubble that had ensnared her mind burst violently; Cal's eyes snapped open and she paused mid-step, finally connecting all the pieces of her sense's information. The smell of horse flesh and the sound of cloven hooves-- and sure enough, there she was, a tall and elegant thing with a pearly-white horn and a mane and tail clearly tipped in blood. Cal gave a heavy snort out of minor surprise. She must have been slipping badly to have missed a spectre like that. How....embarrasing.
"Oh," Cal said rather blankly, blinking her eyes rapidly, "Oh gee. I am sorry girl, I ain't mean to blank out like that on yeh." She shook her head to get the last of the cobwebs out of her mind, and shuffled her wings slightly. "*Ahem*, yes," she said, clearing her throat, "I ain't intrudin' on yer herd-lands, am I?" The sudden paranoid thought had occurred to the old mare, and trespassing into someone's homeland was the last thing she wanted to do. So much trouble. So much drama.
"I really am an Old Fart, aren't I? Heh Heh.."
(OOC: Long post is long o.o)
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| Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7 |
| Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK |
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Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath
Tamme |
With unseeing eyes, the older mare gazed back at her. She acknowledged her words as if from some other dimension, not truly hearing, and something about this lapse from reality shook Ophelia to her core. The young mare had never truly encountered one so old, as many died tragically in their youth. With the way the mare seemed to drift back and forth between this reality and another was horrifying. Was she possessed by some unknown thing? Was she mad? Was her mind truly that far gone to not even recognize the truth of the snow that laid beneath her own hooves?
And even more frightfully... would her own mind ever succumb to this disease?
The idea of her tomes of knowledge hidden in her perfect mind becoming meaningless and her thoughts void of reality was the worst hell she could imagine. How this poor mare must be suffering, though she seemed quite merry. Ophelia too had seen horrid and glorious things, but she was not so old, and her few years had granted her more than a lifetime of pain. The years to come were so distant and unknown, though she could not help but feel a shadow cast across her heart with thoughts of what lay ahead.
A new light shifted in the mare's eyes with such startling violence and speed that Phi jerked her head backward, eyes narrowing warily. Tinek, disturbed by the movement, hissed a breath of frost and blinked crimson eyes at the stranger, his gaze ever unwavering and his expression like a sphynx. As if a veil had been lifted, the pegasus seemed to truly see her know, recognizing her as female and the one who had been speaking. Ophelia's narrowed gaze was mired in curiosity, and she paused her cloven hooves in the deep snow, watching for the mare to slip into her other dimension again.
She seemed stable enough for now. Ophelia shook her head. "No, you are in unclaimed lands, free for all Helovians," she replied, the soft chime of her voice clear in the winter's chill. "I am not affiliated with any one herd, however I can show you the way if you wish to join one." Though Ophelia would enjoy having this mare's knowledge at her side, she was unsure of what Ktulu would think of her bringing home this ancient relic to their band of spies, mercenaries and healers. Something about this feathered mare was an enigma, something new, and Ophelia wanted to crack the shell of this mystery.
"Are you well?" she asked, her eyes dipping with concern. "I know a healer. Perhaps she can help you from... drifting like you did." Tinek was curious now, and the silver dragon stood on his bond-mate's white back, crawling up her crest to gain a better look at the graying mare.
|
COME TO ME
we run away forever from this misery
|
tangled-stock | Salsola stock
Undertow has come to take me. Guided by the blazing sun. Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done.
Please. Anyone. I don't think I can save myself. I'm drowning.
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Please tag me in every response!
Cal|variam
"'Age ain't a sickness, sugah."
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The soft hiss that seemingly issued from the unicorn's mane did not go unnoticed; Cal's eyes drifted upward and beheld a curious creature with hypnotic eyes of crimson. Cal blinked slowly, issuing a faint snort of her own in befuddlement. Strange critter, she thought in her mind, Ain't seen anything like it. Heard stories, though. So I've come to this place, have I? How interestin'. Interestin' indeed. Her gaze traveled down to the creature's young master, who had an eyes of fire and ice. Seems red is the fashion here, she thought wryly, and gave her own snort of amusement.
"No, you are in unclaimed lands, free for all Helovians...I am not affiliated with any one herd, however I can show you the way if you wish to join one."
Cal hummed in non-committed acknowledgment (Mmmhmm) and continued with her measured, ambling pace-- but this time, her slow gait gave the beckoning impression for the young mare to follow. "Ain't really lookin' for a herd to follow," she explained, snorting softly in the brisk wintry air, "Been, there, done that. I doubt anyone could use this bag o' bones anyway. But if you got some fancy place to show me, I ain't opposed to seein' some sights. Meetin' some folk." She looked back a the unicorn mare, gazing at that strange creature that loomed against her mane. I could do with an introduction to THAT typa squirrel, she thought, and again she gave a heavy grunt in suppressed laughter.
"Are you well? I know a healer. Perhaps she can help you from... drifting like you did."
Instead of keeping her personal joke to herself, Cal gave a hearty, throaty, neighing laugh. That faint cloud of worry and fear was so tangible Cal could almost taste it on her tongue-- she could see it in that youngun's eyes, and there was nothing so funny as that fear of age and gaining it that was so characteristic of youth. Some would say youth was wasted on the young, but Cal didn't believe in that sentiment. She didn't need youth anymore; that well was dried up and done with a while ago. If she were served with a heaping platter of clear eyes, full hair and shining hooves, she'd push it away and keep on munchin' that sweet clover.
"A healer?" she asked, the amusement plain on her tongue, "I ain't sick, girl. This ain't somethin' unnatural, I'll tell yeh what. Sure, I bet you do know a healer. I bet 'e might have a line ten miles long full o' old farts like me, waiting to feel a full decade younger with a full decade of energy." Cal shook her head, till chuckling underneath her frostbitten breath. "I'm passed that particular yearnin', child. I'm fat, strong, and healthy enough, and think I'm entitled to a few moments of bliss to myself every now and then. I don't pay it no mind." Cal was no fool. To mistake her for a decrepit relic was a mistake, especially if you were interested in taking advantage of the mare. She still had plenty of nodes and know-how to keep herself out of trouble, but it was true Cal's mind had begun to slip from time to time. Her worry regarding the matter was minor; if Cal were going to start daydreaming, she reckoned that she'd been through plenty to warrant it. No one deserved to be shackled to their own paranoia and disillusionment for the entirety of their lives.
"You wanted some stories? You might need a lesson or two instead."
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| Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7 |
| Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK |
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Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath
Tamme |
Ophelia could not help but smile at the mare's words. She had mostly likely been a part of many herds, explored reaches that the white wraith could only dream of. Phi could not think of a more beautiful reality that the capability to explore, not just the world, but others and other cultures. "Helovia has so many... unique landmarks that one could spend a lifetime travelling from corner to corner and still be surprised by something new and beautiful," she commented openly, thinking on the unchanging loveliness of the Steppe.
Tinek was aware that we was being watched, and the scaled creature narrowed his gaze ever so slightly, a bit grumpy lately. He sniffed in the feathered mare's direction before resettling on Ophelia's crest, wanting to travel north again. He heard his bond-mate ask if she needed a healer, and both he and his Phi were startled by the laughing, obvious response. Ophelia's only outward reaction was a slight flare of her nostrils, and she listened carefully, understanding that this drifting was a part of aging.
She never wanted to grow old. To get lose in her memories? They were real enough already; she would turn mad. The young mare merely nodded to the elder at first, walking slowly as her cloven hooves carried her easily through the snow. "Your mind is bliss," she said calmly, quietly, still lost in her own thoughts. "Were my mind so tranquil, perhaps I would wish to get lost in it as well." But it was not. Her memories were dark and violent.
Finally, Ophelia offered a small smile. "What climate suits you best?" she asked softly, wanting to take the elderly dame to her more favored location. She knew that old bones often yearned for warmer climate. Tinek grumbled.
|
COME TO ME
we run away forever from this misery
|
tangled-stock | Salsola stock
Undertow has come to take me. Guided by the blazing sun. Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done.
Please. Anyone. I don't think I can save myself. I'm drowning.
|
Please tag me in every response!
Cal|variam
"'What a delightful lil' squirrel that thing is."
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"Helovia has so many... unique landmarks that one could spend a lifetime travelling from corner to corner and still be surprised by something new and beautiful.."
Cal stamped her hoof with a sense of finality. "Then I've come to the right place," she asserted, a new jaunt to her easy gait. No dog was too old to teach a trick, and no eye was too clouded to see new things if there were no cataracts. This was what Cal wanted; to start a new chapter in her life, and what better prologue and preface than to enter a place chock-full of new discoveries? Unless, of course, this little thing of a unicorn was lying through her teeth to Cal, which was also a possibility, but that only exacerbated the feeling of anticipation for the older mare; if there was something worth lying about, it was probably something worthwhile.
Of course, Cal could also mind her own damn business and keep from getting into trouble, but the feist was still there, and keeping your nose clean all the time was no way to live. At least, not for Cal. Not anymore.
"Your mind is bliss...Were my mind so tranquil, perhaps I would wish to get lost in it as well."
Mmmm."You'll get there," Cal said in a throaty murmur, tossing her head slightly and letting her ragged mane catch itself in the slight breeze. "One of these days...if you live long enough. You'll learn to forgive." Fresh pain is hard to bear, and even decades later those scars may stay agape and fresh in their torment. Cal said no more on the matter, because she didn't know this mare and her anguish wasn't for her to judge. Her story might be different, her pain might be totally unique; Cal didn't know. Cal didn't care. The symptom was the same in every case, and as such, so was the remedy. Words and recommendations won't teach that, no matter how hard you might flap your gums. Experience and being damn tired from it all drives that lesson home.
"What climate suits you best?"
Cal slowed down a little as she contemplated this; she turned her eyes skyward, sullenly gazing at the brilliant-white overcast of the heavens. "A little sun would be nice," she said longingly. It was strange; normally Cal wouldn't tolerate this kind of prying curiosity from complete and total strangers. All these questions and analyzing of her knowledge. Go out and do it your damn self, she would usually scream at any nosy young buck that came around, it's called life!. Now, however she had no inclination to do that. In fact, she was thoroughly enjoying the company of this tallish filly and her silver squirrel.
Today, she must be in a good mood after all.
"Wonder what kind of name a blood-tipped lady would have?"
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| Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7 |
| Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK |
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Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath
Tamme |
Ophelia smiled when the mare so abruptly agreed that this was indeed the right place, and the young mare nodded in agreement. She walked with the elder and noticed a new spring in her step; that was pleasing to see in comparison to the absent, vacant look of lethargy from earlier. "I believe so," she murmured in agreement, adjusting their direction south toward the Dragon's Throat. The oasis and sandy desert was the best place for sun, and the southern border ran along a rocky coast. If Ophelia was not so much in love with the winter, she might, perhaps, find the land beautiful again.
The white creature grit her teeth as the mare said that she would be able to forgive over time. She had forgiven Mauja, and she was trying to forgive Deimos, but could she truly let go the feeling of having her soul torn from her body? Ophelia honestly doubted that, and so she allowed that pain and suffering to corrupt a part of her soul as she waited for a time when perhaps she would be able to pardon the grey demon's sins. As for Nyra; that bitch could rot in hell where her mother put her, deep in the ground. No forgiveness could be unearthed in that memory. "One day, perhaps," she murmured with a slight frown.
"I am going to walk you to the Dragon's Throat, my former home. If you want sun, there is no better place," she explained, starting the trek to the sandy shores of warmth and away from the bitter snow.
[you can start a thread in the dragons throat, or I can :)]
|
COME TO ME
we run away forever from this misery
|
tangled-stock | Salsola stock
Undertow has come to take me. Guided by the blazing sun. Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done.
Please. Anyone. I don't think I can save myself. I'm drowning.
|
Please tag me in every response!
(OOC: I'd like you to start it, if you don't mind? :D One of these days they'll learn each other's name...)
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