You're the only North Star I would follow this far...
"I can talk the talk"
And walk the walk
But I'm always in deep thought.

The stallion did not know what it was about the icy wasteland that fascinated him so, but he had wound up here again after wandering aimlessly. His mind was a whirl of confusing desires. He still wanted to confront his sire, but at the same time, he wanted to be with Artemis. He could no longer deny it- he'd fallen for the snowy barbarian. perhaps it was just a crush at the moment, for he did not know how she felt for him, but he could not help the pep in his step that existed as he walked.

The land around him was flat, the snow beneath his large hooves crunched with the weight of the stag that passed, the hooves churning up prints in his wake. The cold reached deep into his thin coat, but it made him feel frisky, and the chill crisped energy into his legs. He brought himself to a springy, extended trot. Eventually, he felt his hooves clip sharply as they struck ice and he realized he was travelling over a lake that had remained frozen solid far beyond the reaches of Frostfall.

He slowed down to come to a standstill and glanced up through the strands of his thick forelock at the moon, pale and thin as a claw scratch in the sky. He shivered, but whether that was due to the cold, or to the feeling of dread that suddenly washed over him, he did not know. Looking away from the sky, he continued onward. This time, he kept his head lowered, sniffing at the ice to detect the faint scent of water. Where it graced him, he stopped and changed his course. The scent of water meant thin ice.

CRACK! The ice at his rear hooves gave way with the sound of cannon fire, and splintery lines appeared around his front hooves. Flattening his ears to his skull, he broke into a gallop, his hooves crashing through thin ice as he passed. What kind of miscalculation had he made?! The splintering ice raced him cracking and breaking apart around him. He knew he could not stop or risk falling to the dark depths of the icy churning abyss beneath him. With sheer panic rising in his mind, he willed his legs to strike still faster and lengthened himself out as fast as he could go. Water splashed onto his feathers where his hooves sank through, spurring him on, even when his chest began to heave with the effort to keep running.

Suddenly, the sound of his strides was muffled into thuds and he slowed. The ice was thicker here and muffled by a layer of snow. He stood, his sides heaving, sweat covering his shoulders and foam crusted in the cold between his back legs. He let out a deep sigh of relief and tried to calm the hammering of his heart. The chilly air stabbed his lungs and dried his throat, but he could not stop gulping it down. Colder than ever, mist swirling around his face from the thick, shallow breaths he took, he glanced around to gather his bearings.

He wasn't paying much attention to the scents that the wind brought to him, otherwise he would have startled at the sudden appearance of her scent. As it was, when he calmed, he took notice of a couple shapes in the distance. They were too far to gather any distinctive details for him to tell who they were, but he knew that they were in danger - his patch of snow was safe, but they weren't.

Cautiously, he stepped onto the clinking ice and found that it was solid. Sighing in relief, he moved carefully towards them and as he closed the distance, his eyes widened. Artemis was standing midst a thick web of splintered ice, that was ready to give way any second. A second horse was with her and as he felt himself stunned into a stand-still he felt a ripple of rage that had nothing to do with the danger and everything to do with how the stallion stepped closer to Artemis.

He shook his head and let out a loud nicker to get their attention. "Artemis!" He walked closer, as close as he could, but when his left front hoof was greeted with cracks, he backed up a few steps. This close, he could tell Artemis was petrified. he'd seen this expression gleam across her expression before and his heart ached. he had not wanted her to ever feel fear again. "Artemis listen to me! It's Tharos, you remember Tharos, right?"

He snorted, hoping that he could reach into her frozen, terrified state. In the meantime, he only had eyes for her. His only thought was for her safety. That stranger could drown for all he cared. Maybe a cold shower would do you good. He would think that, if he were paying attention to anything other than getting Artemis through this and to safety.

829
@[Artemis], played by sei
@[Voodoo], played by nevada
This was a lot longer than I thought it would be o-o;

Weather girl, where's your forecast?
From afar, she thought she could hear the ice calling to her. Snapping and cracking, the tremendous roar caused her legs to stiffen and her eyes to squeeze tightly shut, ears pinning back against her cranium to be muffled beneath her thick mane. The distance screams of ice seemed to be getting closer, as if some unknown force was sending a great crevice to swallow her up, to drag her to the icy depths. Images of her own body, sucked under by some spectral being, came to mind, her form stiffening as ice and water froze her form. Paralyzed, her body would sink, bubbles of air slowly emerging from clamped down lips as wide eyes settled upon a glassed over pair of amber optics belonging to a face frozen with fear. The face of her mother.

She felt like she might scream as her eyes flashed open, the whites of her eyes showing as wide margins around her normal tealy-grey orbs. Suddenly the world was calm again; no screaming phantoms, no distant smashing of ice clashing against an unknown source. Yet the pearly white gaze of her mother remained scarred upon her retinas, tattoo'd upon her soul like some sick, twisted curse.

She was shaking. She knew it. It was rare for the stocky mare to feel weak or afraid, and she had felt such fear only a few times in her relatively short lifetime. Once when she had been separated from her mother as a young foal, though she barely remembered it now. Again when her fathers herd had found their hiding spot, forcing the mares to flee. Mother always had told her of the cruel ways of her homelands barbarian stallions, so either mother nor daughter had any wish to be trapped like a leashed dog in some unforgiving herd. This was likely the third time the mare felt such fear. Fear of dying. Fear that if she did die, her mother would not be waiting for her.

Artemis! Her ears flickered and for a moment she thought the wind was playing tricks on her as it howled, billowing her long plait and slapping it roughly against her shoulder. Yet as he eyes meekly raised, he spotted the familiar white mask of Tharos. She stared, her expression blank with all emotion beside terror and anxiety. Her lips parted to respond, yet she did not speak. Slowly, she raised a hoof. His face eased her, if slightly, and the urge to get closer was strong, yet as she planted her foot the ice creaked dangerously. Freezing once again, she threw a look of complete confusion and vulnerability toward the stag. For only a moment, her fear stricken eyes met his.

She needed him.

Yet before she could ask for help - though that being said, by the parched feeling in her mouth and the numbness of her whole body, it would likely be a while before coherent words came out - a Pegasus made her way toward them. She seemed oblivious to the cracking ice, though she had wings so it was likely she simply didn't care. Fool, thought the white creature. Wings will only made you sink faster if you are not fast enough to use them. Artemis could barely here her words over the wind that bashed her ears, but her tone was flat and uninterested. Artemis had no time to wonder why she was there, for her eyes were pinned upon her friend and his alone, no longer focusing on 'Blood' beside her. "Tharos, I need help. I need you." She managed to mutter, her voice uncharacteristically meek as she felt the ice groan under her weight. Her sweating hooves were heating the ice beneath her. She needed to move.

"Speech goes here"

You're the only North Star I would follow this far...
"I can talk the talk"
And walk the walk
But I'm always in deep thought.

The sound of wings alerted him to the arrival of a fourth party and he saw out of his peripheral vision, the form of a dark grey pegasus mare land beside him. She appeared to know him. Her face was livid as she spat venom at him. Confusion stole over the stallion- he did not know this mare, why was she angry at him? What was she talking ab- oh. Moonlight, fireflies, heated scents, and pleasure echoed through his mind as though it came from a distant radio transmission. A memory long forgotten, and so insignificant to the stallion that he had buried it, passed it off as a dream the morning after. He had not seen her since then and did not even know her name.

Was her appearance here to mean that their mistake had come to fruition? Was that why she was so angry at him? That he had not appeared to be a father. He had no reason to do that, though. regardless of what she said or thought he should do, he was not going to abandon Artemis, nor would he attempt to pretend that he had ever felt anything other than a short burst of hormone-induced lust for the pegasus. Call him cold, but she had asked for the event to happen and he had provided. There was nothing more to it than that.

He did wonder, purely out of curiosity, where the foal was, if there was one, and what he or she was like. Maybe he would seek the foal out one of these days. He spared the nameless mare a venomous glance and made a snake-like motion of his head in an attempt to shove her shoulder. "If you want to help, get back and don't crowd the ice. It's already cracking and you're just makin' it worse." he snorted angrily at her, responding to her fury with a bit of his own, even though he tried to put a cap on it. Getting mad wouldn't help his beloved out of danger.

With the pegasus (hopefully) out of the way, he turned back to Artemis in time to hear her words. "I need you." He wondered if she meant that, or if she was just saying it because she was terrified. Either way, his heart swelled. She was depending on him, and he hoped he would not let her down. Taking a deep, icy breath, the stud let it out in a stream of mist and began to concentrate. "Missy, can ya perform a Courbette? It's when ya balance on your hind legs and kick yerself forwards with your hind legs... like this, see?"

With that, he turned to the side and half-reared back on his hind legs, balancing with his front legs in the air. He felt a burn in his stomach as it strained to support a portion of his front end off the ground. Then he kicked out hard with his back legs to sail through the air and land some three or four feet away from where he had been standing before. "The ice is solid where I was standin' see if you can jump ter that spot."

He looked at her, wondering if she could perform a stand-still jump the way he did. She was a warrior, he knew that much. Perhaps they utilized the same moves... In the meantime, he spared another glance at the pegasus mare. What she'd said earlier finally setting in. He snorted, and lowered his head as though ashamed, but if one got a look at his eye, one would know he was intensely annoyed.

"Look, ma'am. I don't know why yer so mad. We don' know each other. I don' even know yer name. One night a hormone-induced company isn't what i would consider a lastin relationship. I dun hate you, but I'm not gonna let ya be mad at me for no good reason. Whatever ya got to say, ya can say it in front a my mate." He didn't honestly think about it before he spoke. it was only after he stopped talking that he realized what he had let slip. He glanced quickly back at Artemis, wondering if she had caught it.

He had not meant to call her that, but if she had, would she hate him for making the assumption? Would she think he was rushing things, or that he was delusional in thinking that was where they were in their relationship? Were they close enough to allow him to use the term "mate" to describe her to his friends and acquaintances? Would she agree to it, or turn him away?

His stomach was in knots, but he showed none of this on the outside, or in his expression. His face remained a stoic mask of polite confusion. One other thing worried him, though. Would Artemis respond badly to the news that he had a son or daughter wandering around, if that was indeed what Storm wanted to say? He hoped not, but it was too late for him to change his mind- he had made the verdict- she would speak to him in front of Artemis and the strange stallion, or not at all.

All the while, he could feel his heart pounding against his ribs and he wondered why until his eyes fell once again upon Artemis. Whatever she thought of him, one thing remained true. Something that was simple in it's complexity. He didn't even fully understand it yet, but as he looked at her, his worry and strain slowly melted away, and just as her eyes had gazed at him with such trust, the words whispering from her lips which dared to move and deliver such a hard-fought truth, so too, did his eyes soften and he let out a breath. Whatever came, nothing would be the same was it was.

Because....

I need you, too.

985
@[Voodoo], played by Nevada
@[Artemis], played by Sei
@[Storm], played by Orinthia
Tharos is being such a sap. <3

Weather girl, where's your forecast?
Her legs felt like ice, yet as she leaned forwards in a feeble attempt to touch the stallion but a few feet away, quite uncharacteristically, they shuddered like a wounded tree. Branches trembled and a scatter of leaves fell before the bark snapped, cracked and gave way as roots tore up earth and debris. So she removed to move, frightened that any movement would simply give motive to the ice, as though it was some icy demon just waiting for the opportune moment to swallow her whole.
But his words gave her focus - a distraction from the ice beneath her sweating hooves. He spoke of a 'courbette', though she simply gazed with glassy eyes, her expression blank. Pretty words were meaningless in her home land. Strength was all that mattered, not fancy parlor tricks, yet as she forced her eyes to focus, to rid herself of the blurred vision that had captivated her, she realized that he was demonstrating/ He was majestic in his movements, but she was too far filled with fear to appreciate that. It looked easy enough, but Artemis was too smart to think that it was a simple as the powerful stag made it out to be. She wondered if she could do it, for her shoulders were her strength, not her hind legs.

As she tried to memorize the movement so that she might attempt it, the mare stole Tharos's attention from the one who needed it most. She tried to blank their words, but she was unable to and through their heated argument came a few choice statements that not only confused the fuck out of her, but sent a deep, stirring feeling resonating within her gut.

"Whatever ya got to say, ya can say it in front a my mate." Was the first kicker. Mate? She stared between the two, momentarily lost for words or even thoughts. "I don't love you, said the mare. Another punch to her stomach. What was between these two, Artemis did not know, but she wished she was not considered close enough to hear it. The pair seemed oblivious to her torment, now. "I don't want to raise my son knowing he has a bastard father that he doesn't even know!" That was the kicker. Artemis felt... she didn't know what the feeling was, but she felt it, and it hurt. She felt hot tears forming in her eyes, but she squeezed them shut, refusing the emotions that threatened to bubble to the surface.

"Now, i'll help you save the mare."

The mare. Like she was some sort of handicap to their oh so loving family reunion. The mare. Nothing worth naming. nothing worth helping before all of this drama. She was an after thought. A chore.

No fucking way, the white thought bitterly as her eyes snapped open. She was saving herself. Her front legs reared up, tucking under her chest as Tharos had done as she crunched down her knees slightly. Her knees felt weak and she strained under her own weight. The ice beneath her crunched and groaned, as if baring its fangs wide for its morsel. Her hind legs kicked out, yet she lacked the finesse and strength that Tharos had and her hop was short and worthless. As her hind legs landed from the bunny hop, the ice gave way.

The firs thing she felt was the cold. It soffocated her in a way water alone could not. It froze her lungs, gripped her legs and tugged her down with invisible tendrils, like sharp claws scratching at her body. For a moment she felt helpless to the ice, but as she submerged, she heard it. "Run, my child! Survive! He mothers words. So she kicked her heels and ran through to water, galloping and ascending through the ice, yet as she neared the surface, her head collided with a thick sheet of ice. The current under the water had taken her closer to the edge and closer to safety - had she been on top - yet here it brought only death.

Through the translucent surface she could see Tharos. Her eyes were wide as she trashed helplessly, her body forced by her own movements away from the hole she had made, and away from him. Mother, save me, she wanted to scream, and as the ice crushed her lungs and tried to squeeze out her last breaths, she did it.

Through the holes Tharos himself had formed in the ice some distance away, her head burst. her movements and the current had carried her swiftly from the pair and into safetys slightly warmer embrace. As her head emerged she sucked in a pained breath, legs scrabbling for some grip. For a while she failed, going through the motions of finding land and breaking ice, only to fall back under, yet after a struggle she finally managed to tug herself onto a thick layer of ice.

She knew she could not simply lie there, for she would quickly freeze to death, so the mare forced herself to her legs. Her body shook yet, she forced herself to move slowly and rigidly toward the safety of the snow where she knew solid earth lingered beneath. She wasn't sure where the others were, or even if they noticed her near encounter with death, but she didn't care. Let them have their lovers quarrel. She had no time for that.
"Speech goes here"

You're the only North Star I would follow this far...
"I can talk the talk"
And walk the walk
But I'm always in deep thought.

The more Storm talked, the more agitated Tharos became. Everything she shot at him sounded wrong and it rubbed against him like sandpaper. He swelled, as she spoke, and the look on his face would strike terror into any who were of their right mind. He wanted to hurt Storm as he had never wanted to hurt anyone before... at least not in a long time. His rage boiled calmly, and was usually put to use in productive ways. But he had no productive outlet this time, seeing as Storm was standing between him and the only thing that mattered to him- Artemis's safety.

As a result, his rage exploded.

A harsh whinny echoed from his throat as he lashed out at her with a foreleg. That Mare?! How dare you! All of his brain screamed for blood as his patience snapped clean in half. Rearing, he struck out at the pegasus with his teeth. He was going to make her sorry she ever saw him again. Eyes rolled back to show the whites, he landed on all fours after his attempt of an attack and snorted.

"I never said ya did love me, and I sure as FUCK don't love y'all. I never did, and if'n ya think this foal's going to change that, you're wrong! I'm NOT going back with ya. I'm NOT going see that mistake of a son! Yeah, I said it. Matin' with you was a mistake! I don' even know yer name, and don' go givin it ter me because I literally DO NOT CARE. Where even is this so-called foal? Did y'all abandon it? If y'all have nothing better to do than to come here and yell at me for something I didn' even know about, when I'm trying to save the only woman that actually MATTERS ter me, then you'd better leave before I throw you in the ice myself!"

With that, the stallion wheeled around and bucked out his hind legs at her before noticing that the there was a huge frothing hole where Artemis had been. Panic shot through him like lightning and he instantly forgot his anger, even though it burned in his heart like a poisonous fire. Not caring for how thin it was, he sniffed at the water's edge and, thinking he could see the shadow of Artemis wavering on the water's surface, he followed her at a trot- her flailing body so close to his. He wanted to break the ice and create a hole for her to come up for air, but he didn't know if the ice wouldn't hit her and thus he did not dare. Finally, they were at the trail of cracks in the thin ice where he had ran over before, and he saw her rise out of the water, taking a huge breath.

He whinnied encouragingly and watched her swim to where he stood. The grullo stepped back to let her climb out and when she was laying completely out of the water, he nudged her shoulder with his nose, hoping... praying that she was alright.

"Missy? are y'all okay?" He stumbled backwards as she rose to her hooves and then came forwards to press his dry body up against hers to share his warmth. Her form on his was like a brand of icy fire on his muscles, but he did not flinch. She was more important than anything- more important than his own health, even, and if he could comfort her with his body heat than he would do so without question.

594
@[Storm], played by Orinthia
@[Artemis], played by Sei
I love how Voodoo's been forgotten in this thread. xD

Weather girl, where's your forecast?
Her movements were sluggish and slow, her muscles quivering and the old burns searing upon her flesh as if a new fire was licking at her body. She had never thought it possible, but this icy grip eating at her skin was far more painful than the sudden blaze that had consumed her all those weeks ago - this was a new pain, aching and consuming, it seeped into her joints and into her soul. It was a sharp, constant coldness. She found breathing difficult as she stumbled, her body swaying. For a moment she thought she might fall, but in her haste she had not noticed the looming shadow that had pressed itself against her.

Tharos held her weight, attempting to warm her bodice the only way he could. He doubled as a support and despite her anger at his and the mares needless quarrel, she accepted his help. Her head hung low, her braid thick and heavy with water. Loose strands had escaped from the embrace of the twining threads, flowing free and streaming thick gushes of water into the snow. She sneezed, snorting water from her lungs. Eyes alf closed, she stumbled again, but this time was unable to catch herself.

Her knees plunged into the snow, buried deep in its icy clasp. Weary eyes stared into the whiteness, her muzzle lowering, sinking into its depths. "Cold....Tha-...Go back to ... I forget her name. Just go." She mumbled. She wasn't exactly in her best state to think properly, but she knew they had some sort of lovers quarrel. Surely, she would be his priority. The crimson masked mare meant nothing to either, it had seemed. "I tried... To do that... Jump. Couldn't.... Failure." Failure, always a failure. She was sure her fathers would have thought he that. The mares of her own had to be docile and obedient. She was nothing of the sort. Yet in that moment she felt weak and unworthy of her title. She failed herself and Tharos. She would fail Murdock, her fellow general, and Apollo too, she knew. Why not die here? She could never equal the last general. Why should she even try?

She was worthless. Unwanted. She found herself closing her eyes. The wind died down, thankfully, but the snow and wet still bit at her flesh. She wasn't sure if Tharos had left or not. She was too exhausted to tell. Her muscles spasmed with the cold. "Couldn't even save .... mother. Couldn't save myself. Hopeless...." Maybe she should have let herself sink. Died the same way her mother had.

"Speech goes here"