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    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    Ultraviolence; Raul
    #1
    There was a connection; her antlers sinking into flesh and the wash of warmth across her face was the last thing she remembered. The whole thing had been little more than a lucid dream, but the feelings - adrenaline,  sickness, satisfaction - were real enough. And the way her bones are aching is definitely real. 

    'You liked it,' her mothers' voices scolds in unison across her dreamscape, 'you are a wicked girl who should stay away from her brothers,' they agree. 'Stay in Pangea where you belong.'

    Softly, her limbs stir in the dark as the princess awakens. Lifting her head, Will tries to open her eyes, but they remain sealed closed. Thoughts of the chaos and the communal murder return to her, the loose magic and power unlike she had ever seen. Panic grips her and she bolts to her feet, wondering if she has been cursed. Her head jerks forward as she gives a grunt, ashing her face against an outstretched knee. Flakes of dried blood fall around her, her blue-black eyes are finally freed. 

    But her vision barely improves. Is it nighttime? Is she in a caver? How did she get here? Where is here? 

    There is someone else.

    With a snort she narrows her eyes at the form, trying to identify the outline as something tangible. Her feverish, sweaty body suddenly grows unbearably cold and a cascade of shivers wrack her slender frame as she peers at the horse-monster-boulder. Resolute, she spreads her hooves wider, steadying her stance before attempting to speak for the first time in... who knows how long.

    "Who are you?" She challenges in a scratchy whisper despite the trembling of her knees. 



    OOC - @[Raul] I'm picturing her vision is spotty cause she jumped to her feet, it may not be as dark as she makes it seem, up to you!
    [Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]
    #2
    Pangea had laid her blight on his constitution. Every breath was a needle in his chest, every step was sand in his joints. That hadn't prevented him from his headlong flight when all was done. No time for thought, no time for pain. Just black earth eaten up in long strides, keeping pace with another unseen racer. Dusk was coming, tinting the landscape with inky hues, resurrecting the shadows he'd hoped were gone. A tremor crawled up his spine. Dark, he had to escape the dark. 

    By some fortune the earth opened in front of them, swallowed them whole. After that, he didn't care how dark it was. There was only deep, dreamless sleep born of absolute exhaustion.

    He wakes before her. The sun had only just begun to lighten the sky, sending tendrils of lavender across the indigo horizon. No birds sang as the landscape felt the touch of dawn. Somehow they had run from Pangea to some place he didn't recognize. Grassy, clean... better than the festering hellscape they'd run from. He glanced back into the cavern. As rough as he felt, was as rough as she looked. Bay and white, spattered with blood and muck. Had she caught a tree branch in her mane? Daylight began to leak across the stone floor, revealing that the branching shape was in fact a bloodstained crown of bone. Antlers. Little deer girl...

    What was she doing so far from home? In such an awful place as they'd just come from? The buckskin watched as she slept, until sunlight fell across her face and turned his own mane and tail into a cascade of flames. Watched her eyes open, watched her leap unsteadily to her feet, trying to focus on him. Had she hit her head last night? Her voice rasps out. Asking the barest of courtesies, his name.

    Licking his lips, he cut his gaze away afraid of what he knew was coming. Raul. One word. One damn word, but it wouldn't come out. All that passed his lips was a gust of air, pushed over broken vocal chords that couldn't quite bring themselves to produce sounds. He winced at the action, shaking his head in apology. There'd been no need to talk. Not since he parted ways with his brother so long ago. Now stripped of a voice, he wasn't sure how to go on. Two blood red collars and a blood red maw. That was all he had to show where Pangea had torn words from him.

    @[Warlight]
    #3
    Warlight has rolled a 1 and does not express a carried trait.
    #4
    Warlight

     
    Dawn's light prickles her sensitive eyes, drawing a sharp hiss over the jagged edges of her lacerated lips. She blinks hard, the spots in her vision begin to clear and she sees him, and she knows him.

    Oh, shit.

    His image, blinding as it is reflecting the light, brings back a flood of memories, and Will's slim shoulders stop shaking as she truly looks at the pale stallion. The memories are visceral, Rhonen's death had been far from easy and a chill travels down her spine. She sees him, it, again, below her hooves and little more than meat - hot and steaming in the winter wasteland.

    The scent.
    The parts of him which no one should have ever seen.
    The pieces of him hanging from her antlers. 
    And of course, the blood. Gods, horses were full of it. 

    "We killed him," she says as the filth of it all washes over her, and the stench of her own squalor finally reaches her. She would be sick if she could, but instead, she takes a stumbling step forward, unable to just stand there. "We fucking killed him," she repeats, haunted and musing. 

    But a breath of outside air finds it's way into the cave, attempting to lift her crusted forelock from her brow. It doesn't, but it brings her the scent of home.

    'We told you to stay away' her mothers' repeat, agitated and venomous, and now she understands why. 

    Warlight shakes her head again, riding herself of the queenly phantoms to focusing on the companion fate had given her. He flinches under her questioning in a familiar way, the same near panic twisting his lips like her mute brother's. 

    She knew that look. 

    "It's ok," she rasps at him, dismissive yet compassionate, and inky blue-black eyes trace over his frame without a hint of shame."How about you show me where some water is." 

    — soul as sweet as blood red jam —



    @[Raul] Laura made me this amazing HTML and I had to use it
    [Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]
    #5
    The morning light teases cerulean highlights from the girl's otherwise ink dark eyes, clear enough to show horror dawning in them. It's a familiar enough reflection of his own feelings towards the whole affair, albeit it seems she remembers them a bit more vividly. For Raul, it's as if the recent events are fragmented fever dreams. Blurred and dim, soundless in places and ear shatteringly loud in others, always accompanied by dark, taunting faces on the borderlines.

    As to her gasped utterance, the reality is not so straightforward. Who struck the killing blow may never be known, though many tried for it. Indeed, with the jagged crown upon her head, his companion may well have been the one to do it. Even so... this bore the stamp of his earliest encounter with the Dark God. If he was going to lay blame on anyone, it would be him. It was a lot to express, and he didn't have the words to do so. So he settled instead for a sad smile and half a shrug.

    A light breeze wound its way inside their shelter, cleaner than any air he'd breathed in what felt like forever. He savored it, the freedom it promised. Looking back he could see the girl shake off some of the haunted expression that had been coloring her features. Going outside would be good for both of them.

    With some relief, he shrugs again at her query, unfamiliar with whatever land this is they'd run into. It didn't take long at all for her to figure on the nature of his affliction. The shrewd look in her eyes told him well enough that she was probably the sort that was too clever for their own good. Like Tana. He hoped he'd see his twin again soon, there was so much he needed to share with him...

    Under her steady gaze he felt himself grow warm with self awareness. Coated with sludge as they were, water really did sound brilliant. Clean water, not the murky, evil smelling liquid he had been trudging through lately. Hesitantly he stepped closer to her, dipping his muzzle to nudge gently at her neck. Trying to encourage her to rise. Shallow as the cave was, he still longed for open air, but he wouldn't be leaving her behind. Not after what they'd been through. Come on, He tried to tell her with his face. I won't bite, I promise.

    @[Warlight] it's very pretty code!
    #6
    "Don't shrug at me," she croaks at him, mustering some authority despite the circumstances.  Plague or no plague, she was still The Big Sister and that was a habit which was hard to break. Being the Bossy One had been her birthright, but that hadn't stopped her brothers from blasting patches of her mane off her crest with their light beams when she went a little too far. She still went too far, regularly. 

    "I was there, numb-nuts," she reminds him with another step forward, "I saw you go for the throat." Whether he liked it or not the blame lie with them all. A badge of honor or a mark of shame, it was there, and it was theirs - forever. 

    "We're all guilty." The word should stick in her in her gullet; it would choke a good girl. But it flows smoothly, the first word to do so, and it feels good.

    g u i l t y

    He steps towards her, seeming to call her towards him with his eyes, and she complies. They come side by side, now at the mouth of the cave, and Will resists the urge to greet him with an extended muzzle. There was no point, they both carried the same rancid smell, so instead, she looks out across the land. She finds that her nose had not been lying, they were in The Sanctuary, or she was pretty sure they were. 

    "I should know where we are." She states, defeated, as she takes in the scenery that is familiar yet somehow wrong. "We're in Hyaline, but somethings not right" She glaces back to her companion, giving her own shrug this time. "I've lived here my whole life but I don't recognize this place."

    But she didn't need her mental map to smell water, and it seems like they aren't very far from some stream or spring. With a swish of her tail around his hocks, she starts down the gentle grade of the mountainside. "Guess we better go explore."

    @[Raul]
    [Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]
    #7
    Raul felt his ears tip back at her tirade. Yes, they were in fact all guilty. What exactly was moping around here going to do about it? She, whoever she was, may be willing to drown herself in regrets, but he had better things to do. If nothing else, they were in the same boat. I'm not your enemy! He wanted to snap. Maybe it was better he couldn't talk. Horrible things were so much easier to face with loved ones, and that was what he intended to do. May as well stick to the plan. 

    Despite her fiery responses to his mute take on events, the bay girl rises at his suggestion. Together they take in the dawn lit scene unfolding before them. It's a pretty place, wide open and grassy. Anywhere that isn't Pangea is fine by him. The strange tone of her voice takes him by surprise. Wistful and confused, which makes sense with her words. He'd be feeling pretty similar if a place he'd known all his life were suddenly different. If... A suspicion itched at the back of his mind, following that thread of reason. A new sense of urgency filled him. He needed to find his kin as soon as possible.

    With a grim set to his mouth, he nodded once to her suggestion. Water, that was the priority. After that, find someone who could tell them just what exactly was going on. Clearly, something bigger was at work here, beyond the possessed murder they had both participated in.

    Following her lead, the stocky two year old kept his head on a swivel. Nothing was going to sneak up on him here. Every flap of a bird's wing, every scurrying mouse, nothing passed by unnoticed. He kept careful pace with the antlered girl. Maybe a little closer than was polite, but it felt better to be near another living being. Besides, already he felt some throwback need to keep her safe. This was a girl who needed looking after.

    Water was closer than expected. Really, it was lucky they hadn't fallen into it in the madness of last night, as it ran close by the path they had forged. A steady stream, pooling a bit deeper here and there where tumbled rocks gathered. Bright, shining, and gurgling cheerily. Raul waded in up to his knees and lost himself for a moment in the pleasure of slaking his long present thirst. 

    @[Warlight]
    #8
    The bay girl can tell he doesn't agree with her, but instead of continuing her one-sided argument her lips press into a hard line as she moves forward. She had never been one for moping, (she remembers scolding Clayton for doing just that) she was still processing in these first moments of conciseness after a communal murder. But she won't force him to talk about it.

    Or... listen to her talk about it.

    There were plenty of other questions hanging between them, from her point of view, and Will could easily fill the air with them for however long there were going to be shacked up in whatever back-woods part of Hyaline they were in. It was a little exciting in a way, hiding out with a young stallion she just met. That's really the only bright side to the whole situation. 

    Her progress is frustratingly slow, she's running on reserves and the plague is setting a fever in her bones, but his closeness was a comfort. Her mothers were fertile women, to say the least, and she was used to almost always having a companion. In her litter there had been three, and between the two Queens, they added three other children from previous dalliances. The family grotto had been a cramped one, but Warlight had never yearned for the warmth of another's side. 

    Unknowingly, both their thoughts have now turned to family, and after she had quenched her thirst she looks to the pale colt. He slides into the water and she is close to following, letting her knees buckle below her until the creek washes across her back and covers her withers. 

    She plunges her face into the water, and the gentle rapids cloud around her. Most of the grime is worked free by the churning water, and a ferocious shake of her submerges skull sends the rest floating on downstream.

    She rises, knee-deep once again, gasping for breath but with an innocent-enough smile tugging at the edges of her lips. "Feels better." She states under her breath, looking to the watchful colt once again. "So you know where my family an I are from... what about you? Nomads, Sylvia, Loess, Nerine, Ischia? Do you have a family? " She rattles off options waiting for the sake of his head, a yes or no.

    @[Raul]
    [Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]
    #9
    Once his thirst had abated, Raul was able to think a bit more clearly. The water was icy cold and felt wonderful on the soreness of his legs, pulling caked dust and blood away. Slowly his coat transitioned from dull grey-brown back to the the fine tawny of buckskin, flaming locks trailing in the current. Following the girl's lead he sank into the water, letting it soak into his skin and erase what evidence it could. 

    He lay down just long enough to feel clean, rising again to shake chill droplets from his coat. The stream moved too quickly to bear a reliable reflection, still he looked down and tried to decipher his face from among the ripples. A color like dried blood stained the hair of his muzzle and he could just make out twin bands that stretched across his throat. They were too regular, and beside, weren't those the places where still he felt the burn that had robbed him of his voice? A scream echoed in his ears. A vision of red blood and emerald fire, and horribly rending flesh. Terror like he hadn't known was possible as his own clotted gore spilled from his lips in an unending torrent.

    Feels better.

    A violent jolt tore him back to the present. Within the cage of his ribs his heart pounded in double time, adrenaline coursing an electric path through his veins. He could only stare blankly at her for a moment as her words failed to register. Pangea was behind him. The nightmare was over. Breath, Raul, breath. Family. She had asked something about his family. A hard swallow forced its way down his throat. With a shrug and a shake of his head, the drenched young stallion looked helplessly toward the west, not knowing just how much the landscape had changed. Ischia was the last place he had seen his kin, but that didn't mean they were still there. His dam was as much a wanderer as anything, and his brother... dammit, Santana was probably looking for him still.

    Damp as they were, he found himself noting that him companion looked more refreshed after their impromptu bath. The water darkened her coat until the bay was almost black, and the white hair stood out crisply now that the it was clean. His skin trembled with cold and nerves. He felt like there was a good chance he'd simply fly apart at the seams soon if he couldn't get his mind off the horror they'd experienced. The nonchalance he'd exhibited in the cave was pure acting. It was a weak attempt to maintain control in the chaos.

    A gleam of crimson caught his eye. It shone on her neck like a wayward brushstroke, a spot of blood somehow missed by the purifying water. There can be nothing left of the long night.  Unthinking, the gold and flame youth met her eye, then dipped his mouth to brush across the offending spot. Teeth and tongue would make quick but careful work of removing the stain, returning her pelt to its unblemished perfection. Once satisfied he stepped back, maintaining eye contact through the dripping curtain of his forelock. One crystal blue eye, one of molten silver, they searched the depths of her midnight dark ones without apology. Taking a kick or reprimanding bite would be nothing right now. He'd accomplished his goal; fear no longer sat at the forefront of his mind. 

    @[Warlight]
    #10
    "I was asking because I can teleport and I could take you to them, if you wanted," she adds her sight traveling the banks, hunting for any signs of life. "I wouldn't want to try it yet, I feel like shit, but in a..."

    Will's words fade when she looks at him. 

    In the Cave the pale colt had it all together, giving her a disapproving look as she grappled to fit the pieces of her broken memory back together. But when her midnight gaze finds him, seeking to decipher a response to her question from his body language, she is met by a haunted stare. She can nearly see him forcing himself just to breathe, and it's easy for her to imagine what he must be experiencing and her own heart-rate rises. 

    She looks away. 

    A two years old Warlight was ill-equipped to handle her own trauma, and seeing the dread she feels echoed so precisely in this colt prods the sleeping monster of her emotions. Her eyes screw shut and she clenches her teeth against the sickening wave of confusion she doesn't want to feel, drawing a prick of blood from her lower lip as she loses ground against it. 

    But his touch draws her back. The warmth of his lips brushes across her chilled skin a shiver crosses her shoulder blades. His tongue and teeth work the stubborn stain, and she feels her head turn involuntarily towards him again. It's the only thing she thinks about for that moment, leaning her head into his neck as she reaches past her, and savoring the comfort of touch. As he steps back, unapologetic yet questioning, she steps forward. 

    "Stay with me," she asks softly, a gentleness working its way into her tone which she rarely showed. "Let's stay here for tonight, I don't think I can go far... and I don't want to be alone." The vulnerability was unfamiliar to her and a little clumsy, but she wanted him to stay, she needed him. 

    @[Raul]
    [Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]




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