the Rift


love is blindness [open]

Gooce Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#1
gooce
Someone could expect the warm kiss of morning sunlight over the last sparse tree that marked the downfall of a distant mountain. He pushed past, pupils contracting instinctively to shield out the dense blasts of rays he was expecting. But his eyes swam through the murk, searching out stars that weren't forming to his eyes. Pupils were widening and his lips twitched as if to croon a sound of delirious origin. The gelding twitched an ear next, and while the moments past to the beat of his galloping heart, a graceful wing ebbed into the abandoned morning as if to flick a switch to the sun. Gooce was left without an answer. He was wide awake. Surely nothing could be sleeping because he heard birds rustling about in the winter-beaten pine nettles and the owls had all hooted out. Voices were bustling through the dark. The goose scratched his frosty nose on his cannon, wondering what kind of insanity this place was. He listened. He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he expected to see the morning light, weakly at least, breaking through the frozen terrain.

It all had been drained of light. As if a vortex was spinning so quickly around his head that every ounce of day had become smoke with particles spread so well that it all blended. The gelding cautiously placed a foot forward, carefully sinking to the pastern in crunchy snow. He snorted, spewing a froth of mist from his nostrils. He would carry on since the deadly ache of claustrophobia throbbed in the back of his mind. The air cold, however, felt thick as water in his lungs as the blackness continued to envelop his every step. Every last part of him wanted to turn around, but he had no logical explanation for direction. He only knew forward and forward was where he intended on believing was the correct direction. Over and over a repetition sped in his brain until the silvery male felt an urge to stop. The silence crept to him as he waited. The ground reeked of population while wise eyes fought to no avail for a break of light. He'd never been so blind.
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Hellena Posts: 64
World's Edge Seer
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 hh :: 26 Buff: NOVICE
Whit
#2


The darkness was all consuming. The mists did not speak to me, they did not follow my whims, they merely lingered, with strange lights scattered throughout them like the silver lining of a cloud at daybreak - a daybreak that had not been seen here for nigh on a week. It was unsettling, and yet I found myself wily enough to guess at the time of true day, to feel when the sun would normally rule the winter skies and when the moon would normally encourage her starry flowers to bloom across a midnight canvas. It was habit that caused my violet gaze to seek her celestial body out in the heavens frequently, a habit that irritated me.

I held no fear that they were gone forever. The Gods of our realm were wise, they did not behave rashly on mere whims - I knew their absence would have a very real, very legitimate reason - of course, that did not stop me from worrying. About them, and especially about all of us left behind. As I traversed the well worn, somewhat lit path to the Threshold from my misty, wintry abode, I embraced the rare sense of duty that drove me to the edge of our realm as we know it. Newcomers would be venturing into the lands, these foreign, strange lands made all the stranger by the complete lack of normalcy that currently plagued it.

Born and bred here, I could only imagine the wondrous sensation one would feel upon beholding our midnight, moonless world, and it did not comfort me. I was confident to trek the path on my own, without an escort, but I will admit there was a niggling itch, a worry that perhaps I could not see all that lurked out there; and that bothered me.

The scent of feathers and male (though castrated) filtered through my nares, and the snort that shattered the silence soon confirmed the nearby pegasus. My hide, pale against the darkness, illuminated enough so that I might be seen as a sort of beacon once one's eyes adjusted appropriately, I curving my nape so that my horn was pointed downwards, tilting my head to the side so that I beheld the smoky grey steed before me through only my left eye. Sweeping my tail about my hocks, I strong forth with steady steps, calling a low, soothing tone - knowing full well that tensions ran high when the unknown confronted one, so I did the most I could to dissipate the tension.


"Greetings, and welcome. I am Hellena, and you stand upon the Threshold of Helovia." My voice is warm in its greeting, my motions coming to an elegant pause a couple of lengths away from the tall one. "You eyes will adjust soon enough; if you'd like to follow me, we might find a lit path to follow."




Gooce Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#3
gooce
The darkness of a pupil expanded, exposing muddied teal irises that swam in the dusky forest cold in search of just one ray. The sky was clouded, and the moon (if there at all) was nowhere to be found. There wasn't a wind to push against him, to tell him to go back, to rip the wings from his sides and expose him of triteness. But the dark, it ever scoured his mind because it seemed to be here much too long now. Something else was eating him, and it tore away the instinctive desire to return by churning up a pit in his gut. He swallowed the urge to vomit. He stood still and turned his head back to where he came. He swallowed again, turned back to the new path and strode on.

His gait defined what he felt, he hurriedly walked while holding his head uncomfortably high and braced, tucking his cheeks into his neck so he could feel tree bark with his ears before clashing. He knew himself well, and realized that he'd forget his reasons and go back over that mountain if something as meager as bumping a tree scared the sanity away. But a flash of orange crossed the blue of his eye and he stopped, legs a fray to the first light in what felt like years. The light was hollow, guiding by a large oak whose roots unforgivably stepped out to trip a babbling fool. Gooce looked at his hooves, ensuring some sly creature of the dark hadn't come to retrieve his soul from his body. Curiosity bloomed a warm sensation in his heart, and he toppled over, lanky body collecting again naturally, to the gifted tree.

He was a moth, nearly foaming at the mouth for this ounce of daybreak when a platinum figure glinted beside him. Spiraled was a horn that connected to an undoubtedly pure and ancient definition of her race. She almost glowed as the light trickled onto her pristine entity. Teal eyes, contracting from the burst of hollow light almost widened to see her. Though much smaller than him, she shined much larger and in this moment she was as attractive as a glittering diamond. The goose drew aback, wondering if he was assuming too much of her space. He hadn't seen anyone quite literally in time elapses that seemed too long ago to recall. She spooked him, and his head thrashed upwards as his legs worked to scuttle away. He halted and drooped both his wings and his head. But unfazed, she let smooth words stream from her wise lips and the gelding remembered his manners. Cautiously, he let his head drooping flow into a dip of sorts, stiffening back to resume polite quietness while the feminine creature talked.

This way of approaching someone, he decided, was quite strange.

She told of the land, but the goose felt as though something else was tugging at him. A conscience perhaps, a voice daring to urge him back even further. His mind tumbled in confusion. The darkness that encased them was not gone. He knew at least that was true. But the way she handled the darkness was almost as if it was a momentary phase, as if some child stole the switch and in a mere number of seconds the morning would be up an running again. He glanced beyond her to find light bouncing around from the bare trees, dangling from limbs lit by some wielder of magical essence. The light bounced in a way that lit hoofprints below and he watched as the snow faded away from center of the path. She'd obviously come from that way and he could only guess of which act of torture they practiced or what dangerous beasts were locked in the ancient temples. But he didn't feel he had time to question her.

"Hellena," his voice croaked out, weak from misuse and hoarse from the cold. When he spoke he felt as though his voicebox had cracked open and blood trickled out. "where will we go?"
credit

Hellena Posts: 64
World's Edge Seer
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 hh :: 26 Buff: NOVICE
Whit
#4


His hesitance did not bother me, rather, I appreciated him for it, I respected him for giving himself the time to think of his path ahead. Had he followed me meekly I would have thought him a fool, now I think of him as a being with some chance of holding intelligence, even if his query was brought on by fear of the unknown - one way to learn was to question, after all. I smiled warmly as I curved my bodice towards the path, inclining my crown, my entire posture inviting him to walk alongside me.

"Helovia has many places, all of them lit by the same strange lights at the moment. The beings who light our skies day and night have departed, though it is not a permanent state." At least, it better not be. "Should you wish to enter, you have a choice to make. You could follow me to my home, the World's Edge, to the West, where mists and forests overlook the sea with a cliff's clear view. Or to the South, where a desert stretches for as far as the eye can see. Or the North, where the Unicorns reside in a snowy palace. Or just North of here, but Eastern overall on the lands, lies the Foothills of a great mountain range." I pause, knowing I was speaking a great wave of information at the stallion, but smiling nonetheless.

"Or you could always venture forth alone, Outcast from the herds, left to the Wilds of the realm to have at you. And if none of that sounds appealing, then I shall not stop you if you turn around and trek along the path from whence you just came." It was all a test, a game, a dance of wits and a passage of information. Where his voice was heavy and dense, mine was light and smooth, flowing freely from my maw like warm honey, flooded with riches and treasures troves of precious information, if one understood how to dissect them. Most of the souls who wandered here were searching for someplace to escape their pasts - I hoped I had not been too abrupt with this gelding with my matter-of-fact manners, but if he was deterred from me by them, then he was not meant to follow me in the first place, and I shall continue on my way with no ill feelings.

"What is your name? And your purpose, if not to discover a new life for yourself?" I ask with gentle inquiry behind my eyes, hoping to give his voice a chance to run less like a creaking doorway and more like a well-oiled machine.





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