[open] new beginnings - any

[Reem]

- R E E M - We don't have to reap the fear they sow. The air was sweet here, so much sweeter than the sunbaked earth of the plains. The antelope-mare wasn’t entirely sure how she’d managed to find such a place. Eager eyes poured over the gentle hills and lush landscapes  It was nothing like Dorobo, and perhaps it was just what she was looking for.  Reem missed her sisters, or at least the idea of them. Even when they had all lived together, Reem had been kept apart from the others.  She hadn’t understood why back then.  She did now.  She was the black sheep.  The bastard child. The stain upon the family’s good name.  When she was young she’d been able to pass as a full-blood sibling.  But as she grew, it became more and more evident that Reem was not of the same blood of her sisters. So she was kept hidden away, restricted from traveling openly with the family. She could not fault her mother, who loved her as if she were her own blood.  But she could always detect that shadow of betrayal in her mother’s eyes.  Raising the product of her mate’s infidelity couldn’t have been easy, but she’d shouldered it with such grace. She’d been lucky, all things considered.  But her family had since scattered to opposite ends of the earth after the fall of Dorobo.  Her eldest sister had been driven from the Capitol, her fate still unknown to Reem.  Her middle sister had disappeared into the forests, seeking refuge with the native tribes that had embraced her.  And her parents had both been imprisoned for her father’s role in the corrupt system.  And Reem?  No one even knew of her existence so there was no reason to even look for her after the fall.  She was on her own for the first time in her lifetime.  Free.  She’d taken full advantage.  Now could finally have a life of her own.  She stood, eyes alive with excitement, waiting to see what this place would bring.

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[keeper]

Keeper did not leave Hyaline all winter.

Not even to hunt since the bear had managed to ingest a fair amount of salmon before it hibernated in the cave it preferred or deep beneath Keeper’s skin. She changed less and less during the colder months though often managed to call up the bear long enough to patrol the borders since there had been a lot of turmoil and turnover in some of the other kingdoms. Or so said the wind as it cam whistling by her and the wisteria trees that ringed the big blue lake.

Spring has taken back the earth now.

Turned it all rich and green with the growing things. Ferns tangled around her legs as she blazed new trails through parts untraveled within Hyaline’s fragrant and beautiful borders. Even the bear took stock of how the seasons left their mark on the land, and Spring made the lake bountiful with fish that she loved to scoop up with her paws and devour on the lakeshore. This left the bear satisfied and thus, the foals in the land and elsewhere were safe - that and Keeper kept a tight grip on the bear’s appetite, refusing to let her chase after the knobby-kneed little ones and sending her after the old and infirm among the herds of deer and elk.

Today though, is a day for exploration.

Keeper leaves Hyaline in her bear shape. Her pace is lumbering but she is in no rush. There are no responsibilities that she is lacking in doing, or at least nothing that couldn’t keep to allow her to slip away for a bit. Not surprising, but she ends up in the Field. Keeper always ends up in the Field. She seemed to have a knack for coming here and sometimes, she came away with a friend in tow. Not always, for she counted as many failures as she did successes but these things never fazed her. Keeper always came back.

However, she realized that lumbering into the Field as a bear was perhaps not the best idea. So the closer she came to the open land, the more she began to change until Keeper looked like her original self - a little pony-sized dunskin mare with knotted mane and tangled tail. Except that as of late, she forgot to change all parts of her back to horse: she walked on paws instead of hooves still. Oh well, too late for that little minor detail as a pretty cream mare caught her attention. It was the horns to be honest; they bore a keen resemblance to those that her father sported though she could discern that they were not the same type of horns in fact.

There was too, the difference in tails - Keeper had never seen a tail like that. Or markings like those but that did not make the mare any less pretty in Keeper’s shiny black eyes. Instead, she crept close on her bear paws and offered a gentle smile as her muzzle presented itself for an age-old sniff of greeting. “Hello there!” she chirped with a cheer that was not altogether uncommon for Keeper to possess.

ooc: welcome back kiara! and you brought such pretties back with you too! <3

[Nyxa]

N y x a

I'm sinking to the bottom of my everything

It was finally warm enough to try her luck again.

Nyxa hadn’t seen hide or hair of Maugrim in a while, (or his strange paramour, for that matter) and the swim to the mainland is not as far as she remembers. In fact, it brings her immeasurable joy to dive beneath the waves again and lose herself to the ocean. Were it not for the fact that she was travelling to the mainland for a specific reason (named Hod) she might’ve been tempted to stay underwater for longer.

But there are things to be done, places to go.

So she goes, and soon enough her slender legs are carrying her over the fresh shoots of spring grass and into the heart of the Field. For a two year old she’s become rather womanly - an event that might not seem like much to other, more knowledgeable mares, but one that takes her off guard as soon as prying eyes tilt towards her. There’s still plenty of her winter coat to cover her, in fact she looks more like a tan bear herself than a tall pony, but what areas of her that have shed free the seasons coat reveal something quite striking.

Her new skin underneath is close to pale white - silver scales shimmer along her legs and enhance her face - a promise of what the rest will look like when her shed is complete. What boyish, angular features she’d sported before have now matured into innocent grace; every sweep of her purple eyes seems hide a secret of its own, without her even trying. Nyxa can feel her anxiety rising, especially when a loose stallion breaks free of his troupe to follow her easy pace from a distance.

She picks the first friendly face she comes across.

“Hello ladies!” She sings out tensely, unsure if her approach has interrupted a serious discussion because her eyes are darting behind her. “Mind if I join?” The water mare asks, easing to a stop rather close by Keeper’s shoulder. Her eyes dart down; they see the paws. She looks up again. “I’m Nyxa.” She offers softly, the hint of a smile toying about her lips.