Tonka took pleasure in the forever night sky. It was perfect to sneak up on other and deliver an unsuspected scare. But, scaring was not the thought in dark brute's head today. He was here, at the Threshold, once again. His handsome head held high in the snowy air. Snow blew in all directions, making look as if the dark bay was wearing a white cloak. The wind blew against him, sending his golden streaked mane wayward. Black hooves struck the frosty ground with such a force that it made the ground around him rumble. He was on a quest right now. A quest that would be succeeded. The quest was for a new member to come and join him and the rest of his small band. The Assassins is what their called.

Fresh air mixed with other scents filled his nostrils. One scent stuck out the most to him. It was a new horse and by the smell of it, she seemed to be alone. A slow walk turned into a brisk trot as he set off to go and greet the new horse. A figure dressed in black with little flecks of white scattered on her body. She wore an icy blue mane and tail and a lovely white horn. She looked perfect. She was quite tall, but not even close to the massive size of the steed. He put on a welcoming smile, hiding his usual dark expression. He shook off the white that covered his back and walked over to her.

"Let the darkness welcome you to Helovia, sister. I am Tonka, leader of the small band, The Assassins. May I ask why you have come here?" His voice was kind, or at lease he thought it was kind. The handsome welcoming smile still shown on his face. His navy blue eyes studied her, taking mental notes on her appearance.

The corporal came down from their mountain on a regular basis, even with the threat of the mimics and the severe darkness that had draped itself across the land. She knew they had plenty of soldiers to run patrols, and while she was skilled in her craft, she would rather leave the child's play to well... children. There was little threat of anyone arriving in their mountainous home to stir trouble, and even if they had, their lives would be short lived past the point of discovery. While not all of the unicorns of the Basin were racist, they certainly were all loyal, at least upon first glances, and the golden trimmed femme felt nothing but pity for the ignorant fools who wandered up the path, not knowing the sort of trap that lie in wait for them at the peak. The surveying of the Threshold was perhaps her most common course of action when she left the comforts of her home, the mare taking great pride in bringing home new members, each one a stronger link forged into the chain of their power.

Today the snow fell, thick and heavy, some flakes larger than the circumference of Illynx's eyes, which she watched trail through the blackened air with a reverence that the mare felt only for ice and success, the power of both so invigorating to the seasoned fighter that she had shared her opinions with a soldier of the Basin just a few weeks prior, before the sun set and never rose again. She thought back to the Arch, how pristine the whole scene had been with the pale sun filtering down the tunnel, and also of what should be here in the Threshold could she have seen it.

She spotted something moving up ahead, and in her usual demeanor she raised her head in pride and made steps so as not to appear to be sneaking up on anyone. When she arrived upon the clearing in which two unicorns stood, one black with pale flecking as well as a blue mane, and the other a stallion of brown and gold, whom she eyed with a bit of bristling of the coat (if it had been possible), and a steely glance. He had stolen her colors, it would seem, but with much less grace and style; the arrogant mare strode into the conversation at this point as if the other male had not already spoken, having heard him mention his ragtag band of homeless misfits. The type that Illynx simply could not stand, considering that it had been his kind that had tossed both her and her kin from their home within the Edge. "She has obviously come to find a home," she said, her voice sharp as she eyed the stallion with a cool loathing; he may have been a unicorn, but he was honor-less as far as she was concerned, living among the trees like a deer rather than a true and proud sword-bearer, "not a collection of buzzards in the woods. A true home, my dear, I can provide, with ample light in these times of shadow."

The mare with the color of night spoke, bowing her head to him. Tonka listened. She spoke on shy she had come, and she asked a question about what the Assassins did. The smile on his face still was there and he planned out what to say in his head. "We, the Assassins, are a groyp oh skilled horses of all race. We fight for the law and justice of us, and others." His voice was calm and stead and had that slightly kind tone to it. His navy blue eyes continued to scan her.

Dark ears flicker forward as he looked over to see another unicorn emerging from the brush. She was a dark figure with golden marks, just like the brute himself. Her eyes were golden as well as the knife on her forehead. He glared at her as she spoke. How dare she down talk his group like that! She did not even know what they were about! He could give her a preview on what his band was made of, but conflict was not the answer right now. He did not come to gain an enemy, but to gain a member, and that was his goal.

"All though we are not an established herd, we can provide everything that one has, except for the source of light. We provide food, protection, and a family." He fought to keep the smile on his face, bringing a kind look on the outside, but inside he was about ready to snap and go full out on the golden marked mare.

Illynx looked upon the new arrival with a peaked curiosity as she spoke of having felt a calling to wander into the borders of Helovia, her golden eyes loosing a hint of their sharpness as she wondered exactly what sort of sensation a pull such as that felt like. She surely knew homesickness, and also a sense of belonging, but she had never wandered to another land because her heart had guided her there. She stated her name as Gemini shortly thereafter, Illynx chiding herself mentally for having forgotten her manners upon her first and rather disgruntling discovery of yet another outcast attempting to lure the unsuspecting out into the wilds. "Illynx, corporal of the Aurora Basin, which can be found in those mountains you see to the north," her golden horn turned to point over the treeline to the black mass that of the mountain, a stream of gleaming orbs trailing up it's sides to light the treacherous paths.

She listened to the other unicorn describe his group, a disdainful snort breaking from her muzzle as he failed to mention that the mare really would need protection out there, considering the case of the odd duplicate beings that had begun to crawl across Helovia before the sun simply vanished. And that this mongrel of a unicorn was attempting to lure this poor woman into a herd of mixed breeds that - the thought made Illynx feel mildly ill to her stomach - defended the rights and honor of all.

"We of the Basin offer ranks among one of the largest herds within Helovia," she said proudly, her darkened gaze lightening as she moved her eyes from the Assassin Tonka to the mare known as Gemini, "watched over by the God of Time and consisting of entirely unicorn blood." She boasted of their bloodlines with a deviously ambitious glimmer in the back of her eyes, though inside of herself she wondered precisely what having a God protector really meant; the Moon Goddess had not saved them in their time of need, why would the lord of Time? "The assassin fails to mention the threats lurking within those lands not protected by our Divines."

Tonka glared at Illnyx. He was just about to snap. One more word downing him and his band and he would make sure that she would never be able to speak again. Tonka could talk bad about her herd too, but he had enough courtesy not to. By now, the welcoming smile had withered off of his face. He glared at Illynx before looking over to Gemini. She asked a lot of questions, but who could blame her? She was new. He knew that he was more than likely going to loose this one to the Basin, but he wouls still try to convince her to come with him.

"The Gods have gone, leaving their children to take care of Helovia. And yes, that is why the sun has set and the days do not cycle." His deep voice was honest and he looked into the black mare's icy eyes. He looked away, his navy blue orbs shifting to take a glance at the golden marked mare. What threats? Gemini asked. His velvet brown ears flicked up as his eyes drifted back to the snow flecked mare. "There are no threats as long as we have each other to protect and watch each others back." He looked over to the mountains that Illnyx said where her home was. "My home, the Frozen Arch, is also up near the mountains. We are sort of neighbors with the Basin." He gave Illnyx a pathetic fake smile. He looked back over at Gemini. Snow swirled around him, and started to rest on his back once again.

((small post is small and crappy))

That her words struck so hard at Tonka's ego made the harsh glare upon her own features as she looked upon him soften into a mocking smile. She wondered if, should she keep pressing him with her rather truthful taunts, she might get him angry enough to actually strike at her. The thought made her smirk all the more sharp, her eyes glimmering bemusedly at the rage broiling just beneath the other golden marked unicorn's skin. These sparkling orbs were upon him as she heard his explanation of the vanishing of the Gods into some unknown place, Illynx assuming to solve the problem that Tonka deftly avoided with his choice of words, something she found laughable, though her giggle was transformed into a scoff by the remark that the Assassin's were staged just below the Basin. Unwelcome neighbors, most of you, who bend truths to lure others into your cesspool, she thought, finding little room for kindness in her heart for a unicorn with so little valor as to wander the wilds with a troupe of mismatched oddities, bringing with them their feather mites and hornless masks so grotesquely close to the Basin. She almost pitied him, really, to be so proud of this life he was building for himself, too young and inexperienced to have ever truly lost a home of his own; perhaps he did not know the danger of telling a woman such as Illynx where one laid his head at night, but she surely did, and she had a special set of knives just for mixed blood bands.

"The Assassin speaks true, for the most part," she said, her voice most mocking in tone as she let her eyes linger for but a moment longer on Tonka's face, an attempt to make apparent that she refused to use his name, before she turned to look again upon the black unicorn mare, laced in stars, "but it is your choice. Either way, we must all return home on the same path, it would seem." She paused, discomforted by the thought of abandoning a perfectly capable unicorn in the woods among his mix breed company, that there were so many of her cousins lost in the blended society of Helovia, brainwashed of their true potential. She wondered if Gemini understood the gift of her horn as completely as she should, that the weapon upon her brow defined her as the most beautiful and dangerous of creatures upon the earth if she desired. "Will you be joining me up the mountain or remain at it's frozen roots with the stallion?"

Illynx flicked an ear to catch the sigh escaping from Gemini as the star strewn mare looked from one of the irate Helovian's to the other, and the corporal, for the first time in the duration of this conversation, wondered whether or not she had crossed a line speaking this way to an outcast in front of a new arrival. Perhaps she was being pushed to her brink by the darkness that would not cease, her mind loosing sight of it's usual walls that kept her tongue and temper in check. Despite her unseemly demeanor towards Tonka, however, it seemed she had not managed to offend the blue haired mare with her harsh words; the pretty black unicorn put to rest the corporal's worries of having been too loose tongued with her next words, a smug smile finding it's way upon the golden marked femme's features.

"Then let us waste no time," she chimed, her victorious grin softening as her gaze landed upon Gemini's face, body turning gracefully in the direction that would lead them to the foot of the mountain, a final glance given to Tonka before she began her departure, occasionally stopping to converse with the newest member of the Aurora Basin.

[ OOC: Sorry for the lateness! I was waiting to get the go ahead from Sky before I posted in front of her; I guess Tonka is gonna morosely follow them to the Arch and then leave their company, from what Sky told me. :P I'll be putting up a thread for Gemini in the Basin tomorrow, if you want to go ahead and get going before then though feel free to just bust in on the scene and I'll be following through with Illynx asap. ]