the Rift


[PRIVATE] Choices you don't want to have to make.
Ascended Helovian

Ophelia the Amaranthine Posts: 701
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK
Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath Tamme
#1


Ophelia knew that she should stay in the herd, be close to everyone else, especially Roskuld. She loved her daughter dearly, but this solitude was also precious. At her young age, she knew that having a child was not wise, but she did not regret the decision. She was trapped in an awkward conundrum of feeling blessed by a life she knew she should have waited to have, and the contradiction of that feeling was confusing and guilt-ridden all at once. At the same time, she knew that the lessons she learned in realizing that she should have waited gave her wisdom. Her head was a disaster, so fragmented and lost.

Too many decisions. Too many mistakes. Too many wrongs that she did not know how to make right (if right even existed).

The pale princess exhaled a breath of frost and followed the lamp trees to a secret place, a land she had only been told of by lovers. Out of innocence and a respect for couples... well... couples being couples, she had not gone before, but now a change of scenery was exactly what the young femme needed. Was the land as quiet and serene as she had been lead to believe? Was it lush and soft? Beautiful, even?

Not like she could truly see any of these things, but she could smell, hear, touch, and taste... The light of the lamp trees and the perfection of her memory guided her as if she was going to the Edge, but instead of angling more north, she walked toward the eastern ocean. The land should be somewhere between, and certainly there would be a path of lamp trees to take her straight into the grove. Her estimations were correct, and she walked for the first time, the gently depressed path in the darkness.

The smell was beautiful and calm, and she felt the grass turn soft beneath her hooves. Large willows with sweeping branches gently swayed and fireflies shone like stars in the darkness. She could not help but wish for the sun, for light, warmth. As much as she wanted to loathe the God of the Sun, she could not deny that part of her still loved him. Ophelia wished more than anything that she could see him again, to make things right. But he would not even look at her anymore, and that pain ached so deeply.

Cautiously, she neared the edge of the pool of water and dipped her whiskered muzzle in to catch a sip, feeling worries wash away, if only for a moment. She closed her eyes, finding little difference between being awake and asleep now that the sun was hiding, and enjoyed the quiet. Little bugs spoke to each other every now and then or a frog would chirp in the night. Were they just as confused? Just as lost? Tinek seemed to think so. The silver dragon was roaming around, picking up wandering creatures and setting them back into their homes. He was a kind soul, a good one, innocent like she once was, and she believed that it was his youthful naivety that drove her to consider her options.

Tinek had told her that she was unhappy lately, and he asked way. The reasons she gave were numerous, not many that she could readily change, except a few.

And then the simply question came: well, why do not you leave? Why do you continue to suffer?

Ophelia found that answering his question was harder than it should have been, but he also had a point. What good was she doing to herself and those around her? Life was too complicated, but Tinek had a way of making things so beautifully simple. She prayed that he would never change. Perhaps she was Forsaken, but to the young dragon, she was simply "Phi" - title-less, boundless, simple, Phi.

Now, she found herself wishing that she could be so straight forward with one of her own kind.



@[Hellena]
Image by Yumpy @ DA




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!

Hellena Posts: 64
World's Edge Seer
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 hh :: 26 Buff: NOVICE
Whit
#2


My path had always been given to me. I was chosen early on to be a follower of the Moon, to worship her, learn about her lore, to bestow her knowledge on others. Born from the very mists of her lands, it was inevitable that I treated her with the reverence she deserved. It was easy for me, to live my long life, to repeat the habits again and again of seeking answers from her ethereal glow, to find comfort in the damp, misty confines of my home. I could not leave the World's Edge, for without it, I would lose a part of my soul. This was the reason why I did not actively seek a mate, nor a companion, nor did I pay much time towards forging friendships. I did not need to, not when my very soul mate was the Moon herself, and my very rank allowed me a connection with the lands that were created by the very breath of her wind.

But that did not mean I did not understand that such hopelessness, such emotions of loss and confusion were felt by others. I had indeed felt them before, but they were only passing notions, black specks to mar my eons of pristine worship. It was with a vague acknowledgement that in some, these seeds of doubt, in oneself or one's situation, could grow into something larger, something that swallowed the mind and stole its logical thought processes away. The very idea of it left a sour taste in my mouth, and I simply focussed and refocussed on my faith, my worship, made lal the more stronger now in the absence of the Gods, with a hope that my prayers might bring them back to us all the sooner. The path back from the Threshold was seemingly longer when there were no stars to guide one home, the lantern trees dangled in front of my as I made my way home, angling myself to the southern end so that I might drink from the cool waters of the Grove.

The glimmer was silver was easy to spot, his pearlescent hide caught what little light existed in the boughs of the nearby trees, and reflected it back to my violet pools. I paused my motion, my elongated tail swaying at my hocks as my horn pointed in the direction my eyes wandered over the scene. I tried to recall who I knew that was bonded to a silver dragon, and when I spied the equally pale, red-rimmed hide of a young hybrid standing by the pool, I thought I might have happened across my answer. I voiced my presence through a gentle nicker, not wanting to startle anyone in these tense, dark times, curling my nape downwards in an acknowledgement to her as I angled my path to run alongside her own, my muzzle reaching out to further disturb the water's otherwise crystalline surface. All the while, I searched my mind for the name of this femme - I know already that I have not met her, but it was not often that one bonded to ad dragon of ranking colour escaped fame for long - in my experience, at least.

"Greetings, child." My voice finally utters, after it has been wet by the lake's chilling waters. "And to you, silver one." My gaze drifts to the position of the dragon, the smile I wear creasing my eyes, allowing warmth to spread across my façade. "Might I know who shares the pool of the Grove with me tonight?" Was it night? The eternal abyss, the absence of light - and everything else we knew to be normal - seemed to be summed up well enough by the descriptor. Whatever time it was, whatever the cause for the change in our world, I would do my best to continue on, to worship, to revere, to live.

We would endure this.



Ascended Helovian

Ophelia the Amaranthine Posts: 701
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK
Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath Tamme
#3


Ophelia heard a quiet nicker, a whisper of a voice in the darkness and she lowered her pearly weapon. In this murk of the unseen, what beast would use a familiar call to set prey off guard? An intelligent one... Ophelia turned her face, the lamp-like blue eye more capable of seeing in this darkness than the one tinted red. Only when she was able to make the clear outline of a smaller, feminine form did the pale one relax, but she had to admit that even the thought of a scare was pleasant. At least the threat forced her out of her own head, at least for a little while.

The sounds of the mare's muzzle on the waters and her scent reached her nostrils first, filling them with a strange, foreign smell. Ophelia furrowed her brows and closed her eyes. The World's Edge. She had trespassed there once and had only returned once more, but this mare, she had never seen before and yet the scent clung to her like a second skin. It was almost as if she embodied every ambient waft of tree that had ever grown there, and this was intriguing.

What Ophelia had wanted was solitude, but she had been granted something better. This mare held an air of ancient wisdom, something the pale princess greatly desired, admired. Could she help?

Tinek seemed very interested as well since he carefully put down a distressed turtle near the edge of the pool and then turned to go greet this stranger. Talons dug into the earth as he trotted closer, long, scaled tail swinging in time with his gait. Once close enough, he rocked back onto his muscular hind legs and reached up his long neck to touch noses, to say hello the way the horses do. Ophelia opens her bond, allowing him the translation of her words through her mind and into his. Perhaps one day he will learn the speech, but for now, this method would have to do.

Happy that she greeted him as well, he smiled in a way dragons smile, pulling lips back and squinting like a cat before returning to all fours and going back to the task of placing lost wildlife into their homes. Ophelia could not help but smile as she watched him, though her gaze was filled with sadness and longing. Finally, she pulled her gaze to the lilac orbs of the stranger, finding herself lost in the amethyst pools almost immediately. She seemed to hold the galaxy in her thoughts... the universe in her bones.

"Greetings to you as well," she whispered in her young, chime-like tones. Politely, she bowed her head in a mannerism similar to her father's. "My name is Ophelia, but who I am is a mystery, even to me..." she trailed in a sigh. "I am the daughter of an old general, the child of broken parents, a leader of sell-swords and spies, and a hated toy of the Sun," she almost whispered. "I never thought my life would be this way." Ophelia shook her head, shaking pale and bloody hair around her neck before looking to her newly found friend with an apologetic smile. "No matter. You smell of the World's Edge. Are you a follower of Mirage?" she asked.



Image by Yumpy @ DA




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!

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


The belle spoke with much wisdom for one so young.

Her voice was laden with the burdens she would not, could not share. Her posture was pained, weighed down by the vast weights she placed upon those slender shoulders. A frown, light but present, folds my brow, as I observe her more closely. There are similarities between us - she holds unicorn blood, a strong line of it, but she is part equine - enough so that her dragon's soul recognises and resonates with her own. I was curious as to the strength of the unicorn's blood that ran through her veins, I observed the crimson tips of her mane and tail, the spiral of her horn - I recognised them from someone else, I realised.

A lost identity, a broken family, a life lived in regret - this was the story I received from the fair maiden before me. I listened, my gaze unwavering as my attention embraced her wholly and completely, my interest genuine for the daughter of the Valiant stallion I had come to know within the lands of my home. I was pleased to hear her observation of myself, and a wry smile softened the lines around my lips as the laugh lines upon my visage folded around the expression. Did I follow Mirage? The maiden was my leader, for as long as she resided in the Edge. I would not follow her elsewhere, no. The Edge was my home, my mother, the lands themselves were my true family. Somehow, I felt that this perceptive youth could tell this, despite her question. I was not some simple soul designed to follow others around. I was Hellena, child of the World's Edge; those who resided there only did so with my permission.

"I am many things." I begin, my smile shifting down the scale of smiles to become but a small memory of a happy emotion. My gaze shifts slightly - it does not depart the physical stare of the belle's mismatched orbs - but it seems to glaze over, to look deeper than the surface, taking on a new intensity. I knew that when I gave this stare, some saw it as distant, as faraway - many considered me to be insane, for I did not see the same world that they did. I saw the world for what it truly contained, the mysteries were not mysteries to me, the way in which our world worked was shown to me - at least, through the perspective of my beloved Goddess. Her absence is felt upon my very soul, but I hold faith that she will return to me, and her gentle moonshine will illuminate my path once more.

"A follower of mortals is not one of these things." It was true; while Mirage was my Leader, she only held my loyalty for as long as she resided there; just as Mauja did before her and my fallen father before him. "The Moon Goddess is my true liege, my guardian, my saint. I was born into her mists from the very womb of the World's Edge, and there I shall remain until my bones are bleached and crumpled beneath her midnight embrace." It was easy for me to speak of her, the passion in my voice had transformed my words - if there was a texture to describe my tones, it would be that of the very mists which guide me, comfort me, hod me up when I think I am about to fall. "Lady Mirage has earned her title as my Queen, and Thor as my King, and until my Goddess decides otherwise, they have my loyalty."

I spoke honestly, as honestly as I had spoken to Mirage when she first approached me, in the depths of the mists of my home. I had nothing to hide - I was proud of my beliefs, of my faith and devotion to the Goddess of the night sky. My features softened, as I regarded the youth before me once more, reflecting upon what she said about being a toy. "The Gods to not hate, dear. They only know how to accept our love and adoration.. in their own ways." I was not foolish enough to say that the Gods were immune to the effects of all emotions - my observations showed me that they suffered from anger, from happiness, from the entire range of mortal emotions. Perhaps it was the adoration we gave them, which allowed them to feel such things.

"Your life is your own, young Ophelia. It is yours to direct, yours to change, to live." I looked to her silver dragon, breaking my stare from her own to meet with the ruby irises of the young silver. "Besides you, only your dragon has insight to your heart and soul." I smiled at the young reptile, before returning my gaze to the girl, reaching out with a soft muzzle, to press it against her shoulder. I was not one ordinarily built for physical contact, but in this case, I could feel it might help the young belle see what it was I was trying to convey. "At the very least, make your heart and soul a pleasant place for him."



Ascended Helovian

Ophelia the Amaranthine Posts: 701
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK
Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath Tamme
#5


The answer to her question was a welcome reprieve from her own thoughts that sat like a block of screams in her head. She shoved away the pressing, nagging ideas to listen to the elder mare, interest and curiosity creating a spark of life in otherwise downtrodden eyes. The mare replied that she was many things, what did that mean? A curiosity, a burning need to know that he been dormant and beaten for so long rose to the surface, peeking curiously from behind the drama of life.

A shift in her eyes tells Ophelia that she is no longer quite in the present but perhaps in her own mind. She recognized the expression only because she knew that she had worn one very similar to that herself, when she would look back into the flawless and perfectly recorded tomes of her memories. Surprise filled her features when her conversation partner stated that she was not a follower of mortals, but of a god, the dark goddess of the moon. Was the moon as cruel as the sun? She did not think so, not with how darkness hid everything, good and bad.

"I wish that my loyalty to the Sun could be as pure as yours is to the moon," she said quietly. "To be born here... to have seen what you have seen..." she trailed thoughtfully, in awe. "You have seen mortals come and go, yes?" she asked. "You have seen how fleeting the troubles?" Ophelia now sought her guidance. With such age and loyalty to a god came wisdom, and she was still too young to understand that her sorrows would pass.

Ophelia felt touched, in her very soul, at Hellena's words. Was Tinek unhappy in her own mind? She had not thought about his struggles, being bonded to her. What a selfish lack of caring... At the very least, she owed it to her bond mate to give him a more positive place to live, and she knew that she would have to make a choice.

"I am... caught between what I know to be right and my love and loyalties... Will love... will it be forgiving?" she asked, ears tilted forward as a sliver of hope brightened her expression.

Image by Yumpy @ DA




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!

Hellena Posts: 64
World's Edge Seer
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 hh :: 26 Buff: NOVICE
Whit
#6


The belle was a paradox, a conundrum, a strange mixture of innocence and sins. She was learned, experienced and yet asked her questions with the wide-eyed wonder of a young filly being thrust into the world from her mother's womb for the first time. I had to smile, a small little tilt in the corner of my pewter mouth, as I saw the gears turning in her pretty little crown, the understanding, the wisdom. It was a curious thing to watch, something I found myself enjoying. You can throw knowledge at one until their mind is so full of facts and lessons that they are unable to think of anything else - it is a far greater, and more rewarding task to activate the ability to think, to ponder, to realise truths for themselves in another, and I felt that I had done as much with this Ophelia.

I waited until all her words had been spoken, her question of love, of loyalties, or forgiveness, before I decided to reply. I took the time to think about all that I wanted to say and express to her, for I truly wanted to deliver a response that would help her, not hinder her. I knew she would understand that my silence was not for lacking an answer, but more for constructing that answer in a way that would be most useful to her.

"Imagine if you will, that a bird has just hatched, and has a nightmare. It knows nothing else of the world out there, but is its situation any less important than a mighty God suffering from a nightmare?" I asked the question with a quiet, smooth voice, wondering, as I always did, whether I could encourage that brilliant mind of hers to riddle out the answer. "It is not for you or me to say whether your concerns are any less or more important than the next, simply because we are mortals. In my time, I have seen many troubles plague many souls, and I have seen the scars of their departure upon those souls. But troubles do pass, and soon, scars do fade." I pause, reflecting on my words, wondering if they are sufficient for her query, wondering if she understands all it is I am trying to portray. For her query involving love and loyalty, I am honestly unsure how to answer - the only true love and loyalty I have ever felt has been for the Goddess that lights the sky above us, and she has never led me astray.

"If the love is true, then forgiveness will not be required." I say simply, quietly, with a sense of finality about my words.

@[Ophelia]



Ascended Helovian

Ophelia the Amaranthine Posts: 701
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 hh :: 6 Years HP: 77 | Buff: BULK
Tinek :: Royal Silver Dragon :: Frost Breath & Shock Breath Tamme
#7


Ophelia watched the wise mare's expressions, but she was not insulted by the hint of amusement that drifted over her lovely, ornate face. To be such a long lived being must mean that her troubles were not new, that she was not the first to have felt such a tear in her soul. For once, she was not alone, and even if those who had felt this way had died long ago, at least what she was feeling was something that could be fixed - something that would not break her entirely.

When the mare spoke, she listened with rapt attention, her eyes hanging on every word. The parable was one she had never considered before. Certainly the gods were more important? But Hellena was right - who were they to decide? The scars would fade and the nightmare would turn into nothing but a dream upon waking. So then why was she so afraid? Why was her heart so enveloped in worry and the inability to truly do anything? Ophelia had to tell herself that this would pass, and then her life ahead of her was still a great and beautiful mystery.

She held her breath for the mare's answer to her most important question. Ophelia nodded. The answer seemed to be true by the way her heart calmed to a steady, even beat. The pale mare exhaled a breath of tension and then smiled kindly at the mysterious unicorn. "Thank you," she said sincerely. Phi looked up at Tinek as he perched from a nearby tree branch. "I know now what I must do, and the decision holds peace." Carefully, she turned her head over her shoulder, taking a glance to where she must now go. "I must go now - I must go make things right again."

The pale princess bowed her head in respect and then turned to make her way back to the Foothills - back to the end of this part of her life.

Image by Yumpy @ DA




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!


Forum Jump:


RPGfix Equi-venture