06-09-2019, 03:51 PM
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cinzel" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"><style>.torryn_container {width: 500px; background-color: #D7DBCD; box-shadow: 0px 0px 8px 1px;}.torryn_message {opacity: 0.9; width: 450px; text-align: justify; padding: 15px; font: 10.5px 'Georgia', serif; color: #202C2C; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: 1.5em; text-shadow: 0px 0px 0px; background-color: #ACB29E; box-shadow: 0px 0px 2px 1px; border: 3px solid #6E755F; border-radius: 10px 10px 10px 10px;}.torryn_name {position: relative; opacity: 0.9; font: 50px 'Cinzel', serif; color: #2E5459; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px; left: 130px;}.torryn_image {width: 500px;}</style><center><div class="torryn_container"><div class="torryn_name">Torryn</div><div class="torryn_message">In the shelter of his forested home and his father’s shadows, Torryn has not seen much in the way of other forms of magic. He knew the way his father could open the curtain and lead them into the darkness, and he knew the way his siblings could disappear into them, or use them for travel. But watching the genie shift from various forms and colors caused him to stare in unblinking confusion and fascination, but he remains quiet and says nothing to her. As it turned out, he wouldn’t have had the chance to speak, even if he had wanted to.
He knew what it meant to be swallowed by darkness, but this was something else entirely. The shadows were cool and sheltered, but they were still alive. But this – this felt like absolutely nothing, and briefly, he wondered if she had killed them.
When the first threads of panic began to take root, his eyes open, and he is suddenly back in Taiga.
There was something toxic creeping like a vine, tangling itself in his veins and doing its best to encroach into his mind. It left a bitter taste on his tongue, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t shake it. The need to lie and decieve was like poison, and when he turned and landed face to face with his youngest sister, his expression was immediately twisted with guilt even though he hadn’t done anything yet. “Where were you, Torryn? Mom has been looking everywhere for you,” she said to him with her eyes narrowed slightly. Wrenley, unlike himself, was the perfect melding of their parents. Her coat was black, like theirs – not the same endless black as Ether’s, but somehow still darker than the plain black of Briseis – and her eyes a molten amber. If he was a crueler being, he might have been jealous of her. Jealous that she looked like them, jealous that she had inherited some of Ether’s power over the shadows.
But when he looked at her, he only felt softness, and he reached down to obnoxiously ruffle her forelock, because he knew she hated it.<i> “Nowhere, little sis. I had a strange dream, and just went for a walk.”</i> It was more or less the truth, he thinks. The meadow had come to him in a dream, and he <i>had</i> walked to it. But his sister was not impressed, and was staring up at him dubiously. “You went for a walk all day? You usually never leave Taiga.” Had he been gone all day, he thinks with a slight frown. It had only felt like a matter of minutes, but when he glances up through the towering trees, he can see the sun is already dipping lower in the sky. <i> “Yeah. Just a walk. Nowhere special.”</i> He swallows away the urge to create a firmer lie. He wasn’t really lying right now; he was withholding information, but he wasn’t lying. There is something clawing it him, something that wants him to spin a story; tell her that he had been on some sort of grand adventure, maybe one where he had evaded attacks from predators, or perhaps outwitted a magician. But staring into his little sister’s still innocent and trusting eyes, he realizes that he simply can’t. The fact that he hadn’t even given the full truth of where he had gone was already gnawing at his conscience.
Having decided she was already bored of her brother’s half-way explanations, Wrenley just sighs, and turns on her heel to bound back to where Torryn knew his family would be gathering. Normally, he would follow, but instead he turns, disappearing into the shadows of the forest. There, in his newfound solitude, he rests beneath the sprawling limbs of a tree, and finally he drifts off to sleep, the image of the pink genie still floating behind his closed eyes. </div><img class="torryn_image" src="https://i.postimg.cc/pr1T9spf/dc48fe2cbcf2a6894df0b9d616d29f5e.png"></div>
He knew what it meant to be swallowed by darkness, but this was something else entirely. The shadows were cool and sheltered, but they were still alive. But this – this felt like absolutely nothing, and briefly, he wondered if she had killed them.
When the first threads of panic began to take root, his eyes open, and he is suddenly back in Taiga.
There was something toxic creeping like a vine, tangling itself in his veins and doing its best to encroach into his mind. It left a bitter taste on his tongue, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t shake it. The need to lie and decieve was like poison, and when he turned and landed face to face with his youngest sister, his expression was immediately twisted with guilt even though he hadn’t done anything yet. “Where were you, Torryn? Mom has been looking everywhere for you,” she said to him with her eyes narrowed slightly. Wrenley, unlike himself, was the perfect melding of their parents. Her coat was black, like theirs – not the same endless black as Ether’s, but somehow still darker than the plain black of Briseis – and her eyes a molten amber. If he was a crueler being, he might have been jealous of her. Jealous that she looked like them, jealous that she had inherited some of Ether’s power over the shadows.
But when he looked at her, he only felt softness, and he reached down to obnoxiously ruffle her forelock, because he knew she hated it.<i> “Nowhere, little sis. I had a strange dream, and just went for a walk.”</i> It was more or less the truth, he thinks. The meadow had come to him in a dream, and he <i>had</i> walked to it. But his sister was not impressed, and was staring up at him dubiously. “You went for a walk all day? You usually never leave Taiga.” Had he been gone all day, he thinks with a slight frown. It had only felt like a matter of minutes, but when he glances up through the towering trees, he can see the sun is already dipping lower in the sky. <i> “Yeah. Just a walk. Nowhere special.”</i> He swallows away the urge to create a firmer lie. He wasn’t really lying right now; he was withholding information, but he wasn’t lying. There is something clawing it him, something that wants him to spin a story; tell her that he had been on some sort of grand adventure, maybe one where he had evaded attacks from predators, or perhaps outwitted a magician. But staring into his little sister’s still innocent and trusting eyes, he realizes that he simply can’t. The fact that he hadn’t even given the full truth of where he had gone was already gnawing at his conscience.
Having decided she was already bored of her brother’s half-way explanations, Wrenley just sighs, and turns on her heel to bound back to where Torryn knew his family would be gathering. Normally, he would follow, but instead he turns, disappearing into the shadows of the forest. There, in his newfound solitude, he rests beneath the sprawling limbs of a tree, and finally he drifts off to sleep, the image of the pink genie still floating behind his closed eyes. </div><img class="torryn_image" src="https://i.postimg.cc/pr1T9spf/dc48fe2cbcf2a6894df0b9d616d29f5e.png"></div>