[private] oh me oh my, i thought it was a dream... [star pony]

[Kagerus]

K

oh me oh my, i thought it was a dream...

Nothing above you but sky.
The clouds move to the sound of the running water, fluid in their vastness.
Nothing upon you but the stink of death.
And yet...
And yet.

My brows furrow, body momentarily struggling against its current conditions before weakly submitting to a strange unreality once more. The voice in my head rings eerily familiar, but its key rings an octave higher - less occult than as it had been when it plagued me. In my previous life.

Oh please, don't wax poetic about which life is which. It's all the same, and I'm still here, aren't I?
Still just as sassy, I see.
And still just as wont to coax you to death... But alas, I've lead you there once now, and the thrill has worn off. I've decided it will be more fun by tormenting you to life.

I smirked, eyes still rolling, body occasionally twitching. An unrecognized source of power dismantles my nervous system as its hardwire installs itself into the core of my being; a pseudo-magic, hiding itself in my deepest recesses. Distracted by the voice (and quite stuck in a dream-altered trance that may as well be a hallucination), I fail to notice its sly influence, to notice the traction it grants me as I regain my feet in this hell of a fucking life.

So, to life you must go.
How thrilling.
Oh now, don't be the drab one. That's my job.
I suppose I do have to find Solace... And the kids... See what became of the Cove... God, I don't even know how much time has passed!
And won't it be a joy to find out, hmm? Now wake up.

The world shudders - momentarily, in the space between the mare who approaches and I, the dismal light flashes bright, flickers dim, and adjusts once more to normal. Fluctuation. A turbulent rebirth. The environment responding to the subtle change within one of its charges.

Miss?

The sound of legitimate speech brings my rolling eyes to a hazy stand still, pupils narrowing and widening as I attempt to focus on the figure before me. Everything seems normal, except that I am vaguely reminded of the time my wife pulled me from the depths of the lake, wherein I would have committed suicide many years ago... Strange, strange, "Strange," I mutter, brows furrowing and eyes closing once again. Found nearly dead twice in one (two?) lives by women - one who loved me, and this stranger. Reborn post-rescue. The motifs betray themselves to me.

Can you hear me?

This time, my eyes open more quickly, the world more at peace with my return. The mahogany and amber hues of my guardian angel grow more cohesive my neck cranes, an attempt to behold her in her entirety. Not so easy from my current angle. Forgetting to answer her, I am instead forced to think about her last question, one which exits her ashen mouth with a lilt of fear, a warble of genuine concern. She is very sweet, I think to myself, half in a motherly fashion and half in an admiring fashion. My eyes fall to the mud clinging to her hocks and pasterns, evidence of her treacherous slip down the slope to find herself by my side.

A wayward branch scrapes painfully across my lower legs as the river carries it along its journey; with my nervous system finally stimulated beyond the numbing of the spring-water, I revive.

"I'm --" But I say no more as a sudden compulsion brings me lurching to my hooves. Gravity seems to shift directions a dozen times before I restabilize, the vertigo of death's wormhole clearly still having an effect on me remortalized self. Like a newborn, I stand splayed-legged and woozy. Though a dumb expression decorates my face, the captivating feature found thereupon is admittedly uglier: the scar which proves my love and infinite fidelity to my wife. Thoroughly healed but endlessly grotesque, the ice-scar travels from my left ear to my right nostril, splitting what once was a beautiful face in two. Without my antlers towering above me, the scar receives no distraction: all attention must fall upon it, or at least, this is my only thought as I try not to pass out.

Luckily, sanity further returns, and vanity takes her bow.

"I'm, uhm --" Vigorous shivers interrupt my terrible monologue. For a once-queen of a veritable empire, I fucking can't talk proper right now. A quick thrash of my head seems to clear it; still shivering, I force my wandering eyes to focus on Lilliana, gathering my limbs beneath me as I do so. "I'm not hurt. Just. Recently dead."

Right, because that's better than stuttering.

Swallowing, I make as though to join her closer to the bank - but an obsidian hoof catches against a rock below, sending me tumbling forward. I catch myself awkwardly against my angel saviour, chest colliding with her shoulders and head bouncing against her flank. From there it's an awkward process of straightening with the help of her counter weight, my head still spinning. It would be flirtatious if I weren't so deluded.

"Can we go somewhere quiet?" I ask trepidatiously, unsure of exactly where or what I want to be. Everything feels too much. "I - can we - you don't have to -" But as I stumble again, I realize that she does. Without her, I wouldn't have left the river - without her, death would have been yet another inevitability. "Please," I finally decide on, head drooping low such that my black nose brushes against the river's water. "Please will you help me."

A request - vague in its grandeur.

@[lilliana]