08-24-2021, 01:35 PM
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
The movement is a welcomed distraction. All the pent up aggression she had been carrying for the last year seems to spew out of her, trailing behind her in the reddish glow of her stars. The anger still lingers even when she can feel the soft touch of Lo’s feathery wings caressing the tips of her own. She grits her teeth as Lo takes the lead, as she tells Ciri to stay with her. Something dark flashes in her swirling eyes but she is obedient to her commands and soon she is pelting through the tundra as if her life depended on it. There is nothing but the cold wind stinging her eyes, whipping against her face and disturbing the starlit feathers across her back. Nothing but the aurora shining brilliantly above them and the endless snow and ice.
Nothing. All there is... Nothing.
For a long time she doesn’t think and only reacts on instinct. Lo does not know this land like she does and so she cuts in front of her when needed to put them back on the right path (despite Lo trying to keep her from doing so), becomes a glowing barrier between Lo and a particularly nasty breach in the ground that keeps the white mare from almost tumbling into it. Not once does she think to use her powers to guide and protect her, it had been months since she had pulled her star shield from the sky and she had almost forgotten that magic within her. Magic that lay dormant and quiet within the black ink of whatever Gale had done.
Lo nips her neck and drives her back as her muscles start screaming for rest but she doesn’t heed them. That anger still fuels her, still burns hot in her chest and despite the rather thick layer of sweat building on her scarred coat, she continues to run. Her thoughts blur with the white surroundings as they hit the snowiest part of the Isle, forcing them to slow that break-neck speed. Steam spirals around her stars as she finally slows, her sides heaving as her companion heads towards the lake. She is thirsty but her gaze is focused on the blue flames of the burning tree, flames that reflect in the silvery glow of her own eyes. She is lost in the burn and it takes her a moment to realize that Lo is speaking to her.
”Hi.” She says as she settles close to her, close enough to feel the heat radiating off the creamy mare in waves. At the news that she can stop shutting up, Ciri only snorts but she keeps her gaze trained on the tree. Easier to do that to distract herself from how close Lo was, that soft brush against her shoulder. “It never goes out. I honestly don’t know why.” She falls silent as she recalls the entities in Hyaline that the Curse had shown her. Had he been Gale then? It’s still a question that weighs heavy in her head, what had been real in that friendship or if it had always been a lie. She shakes her head violently to shake Gale’s smiling face from her head and focuses back on the blue flames. Was this also an entity? She makes a mental note to speak to Nash about it. If the Curse already had three perhaps he might want another and she will be damned if she will let the Curse take something else from them. Not when it had already taken so much.
She hadn’t realized that her anger had died down to smoldering coals in the run but as Lo tentatively asks her about it (mixed with these new thoughts about the Curse) she feels it lick against her insides again. And sighs softly as she escapes from Lo’s touch towards the lake. The water is exceptionally cold but she doesn’t care as she slips into its icy grip, the shock of it making her gasp sharply as her red stars burn angrily around her. “No. I don’t know.” She finally murmurs from her spot in the lake, noticing how the ice was beginning to form around the corners of the shore. Soon it would be entirely frozen except for the parts where the tree loomed overhead. She drags her wings through the arctic darkness, already shivering but refusing to leave the water. It’s here that her mind feels most clear, its here that her anger seems to hold back, too distracted by the cold.
She finally removes herself from the lake, shivering but cleansed from the slick sheen that had covered her on their run. Lo moves towards her and this time she doesn’t move away when the mare’s muzzle makes contact with her neck. Instead she finally raises her head to look directly into the strange pale gaze of the one that had refused to leave. “I don’t think you can understand. I can’t really understand it myself.” She says to her, the swirls of her eyes slowing slightly as Lo pulls back into herself. She turns her head back towards the tree behind her as she finally whispers her dark secret that wasn’t really a secret at all. “He killed me Lo. I died and he brought me back. And there was nothing..” Muscles work in her jaw as she grits her teeth, as she feels something mix with that simmering rage. That same something she had felt calling her from the beyond ever since she had fallen with unseeing eyes to the meadow floor. It almost tastes like regret. “I always thought I would go back.” She laughs bitterly as she raises her head up to the night sky, watching the winding colors playing across a midnight canvas. Watching the stars above twinkling down at her, mocking her from above. “But all I saw… All I found… All that waits for us…” And she pauses as she finally looks at Lo, shivering with both the biting cold and the realization that she couldn’t escape from. “There’s nothing Lo. We live for nothing.”
Her confession lays in ribbons before the other mare, tattered and ugly and stained. The truth of what she had discovered. Could Lo understand now why she was so angry? Why she hadn't wanted to tell her, why she hadn't wanted her to stay here? Wasn't it better to live in ignorance and believe that their lives amounted to something special? Wasn't it better to pretend that it all amounted to something, that every decision and feeling mattered? She glances away from the cream mare and her elongated wings to the heart-shaped lake beside them. There was nothing she could do, nothing that could be done to protect the other from what waited for all of them. If Lo hated her for it, she wouldn't blame her. She expected it. But she couldn't lie to Leokadia. Not to her.
Nothing. All there is... Nothing.
For a long time she doesn’t think and only reacts on instinct. Lo does not know this land like she does and so she cuts in front of her when needed to put them back on the right path (despite Lo trying to keep her from doing so), becomes a glowing barrier between Lo and a particularly nasty breach in the ground that keeps the white mare from almost tumbling into it. Not once does she think to use her powers to guide and protect her, it had been months since she had pulled her star shield from the sky and she had almost forgotten that magic within her. Magic that lay dormant and quiet within the black ink of whatever Gale had done.
Lo nips her neck and drives her back as her muscles start screaming for rest but she doesn’t heed them. That anger still fuels her, still burns hot in her chest and despite the rather thick layer of sweat building on her scarred coat, she continues to run. Her thoughts blur with the white surroundings as they hit the snowiest part of the Isle, forcing them to slow that break-neck speed. Steam spirals around her stars as she finally slows, her sides heaving as her companion heads towards the lake. She is thirsty but her gaze is focused on the blue flames of the burning tree, flames that reflect in the silvery glow of her own eyes. She is lost in the burn and it takes her a moment to realize that Lo is speaking to her.
”Hi.” She says as she settles close to her, close enough to feel the heat radiating off the creamy mare in waves. At the news that she can stop shutting up, Ciri only snorts but she keeps her gaze trained on the tree. Easier to do that to distract herself from how close Lo was, that soft brush against her shoulder. “It never goes out. I honestly don’t know why.” She falls silent as she recalls the entities in Hyaline that the Curse had shown her. Had he been Gale then? It’s still a question that weighs heavy in her head, what had been real in that friendship or if it had always been a lie. She shakes her head violently to shake Gale’s smiling face from her head and focuses back on the blue flames. Was this also an entity? She makes a mental note to speak to Nash about it. If the Curse already had three perhaps he might want another and she will be damned if she will let the Curse take something else from them. Not when it had already taken so much.
She hadn’t realized that her anger had died down to smoldering coals in the run but as Lo tentatively asks her about it (mixed with these new thoughts about the Curse) she feels it lick against her insides again. And sighs softly as she escapes from Lo’s touch towards the lake. The water is exceptionally cold but she doesn’t care as she slips into its icy grip, the shock of it making her gasp sharply as her red stars burn angrily around her. “No. I don’t know.” She finally murmurs from her spot in the lake, noticing how the ice was beginning to form around the corners of the shore. Soon it would be entirely frozen except for the parts where the tree loomed overhead. She drags her wings through the arctic darkness, already shivering but refusing to leave the water. It’s here that her mind feels most clear, its here that her anger seems to hold back, too distracted by the cold.
She finally removes herself from the lake, shivering but cleansed from the slick sheen that had covered her on their run. Lo moves towards her and this time she doesn’t move away when the mare’s muzzle makes contact with her neck. Instead she finally raises her head to look directly into the strange pale gaze of the one that had refused to leave. “I don’t think you can understand. I can’t really understand it myself.” She says to her, the swirls of her eyes slowing slightly as Lo pulls back into herself. She turns her head back towards the tree behind her as she finally whispers her dark secret that wasn’t really a secret at all. “He killed me Lo. I died and he brought me back. And there was nothing..” Muscles work in her jaw as she grits her teeth, as she feels something mix with that simmering rage. That same something she had felt calling her from the beyond ever since she had fallen with unseeing eyes to the meadow floor. It almost tastes like regret. “I always thought I would go back.” She laughs bitterly as she raises her head up to the night sky, watching the winding colors playing across a midnight canvas. Watching the stars above twinkling down at her, mocking her from above. “But all I saw… All I found… All that waits for us…” And she pauses as she finally looks at Lo, shivering with both the biting cold and the realization that she couldn’t escape from. “There’s nothing Lo. We live for nothing.”
Her confession lays in ribbons before the other mare, tattered and ugly and stained. The truth of what she had discovered. Could Lo understand now why she was so angry? Why she hadn't wanted to tell her, why she hadn't wanted her to stay here? Wasn't it better to live in ignorance and believe that their lives amounted to something special? Wasn't it better to pretend that it all amounted to something, that every decision and feeling mattered? She glances away from the cream mare and her elongated wings to the heart-shaped lake beside them. There was nothing she could do, nothing that could be done to protect the other from what waited for all of them. If Lo hated her for it, she wouldn't blame her. She expected it. But she couldn't lie to Leokadia. Not to her.
-- Ciri
@Leokadia I wrote you a novel
