"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
“ I will love you until we run out of mornings. Then I will love you in the dark. ”
She wakes, covered in morning dew and shivering. This is not the first time and so she lifts her head to scan the meadow with wide, green eyes. Her mother always glows like the morning sun but the day is still dark in every direction she turns to look. Echis rises onto spindly legs and swallows the lump building in the back of her throat. A soft, timid cry leaves her lips as she stumbles forward a few steps, then back to where she slept. It isn’t like her to be loud and demanding. Not yet. The small girl tucks her chin downward as she spins.
“Wh-where did you go…” she whispers as the tears build in her soft doe eyes. Her pulse quickens until her knobby knees begin to quake. Echis takes a deep breath and tries to gather some semblance of courage around her hummingbird heart, and then she takes a step forward. Mother smells like warmth and sleep, and she does her best to follow that scent. She peeks up above the tall grasses. She cranes her neck as tall as it will go. But her unsteady legs grow tired so quickly already that she resigns herself to wading through the grasses.
Echis gives a small snort at the bugs her wandering summons from the dirt, which fly in her face and frustrate her further. When she nearly collides into someone’s shoulder, she startles back and tumbles into a heap of slender legs with a yelp. The dark girl untangles herself from the stalks of wild meadow grasses and rolls onto her belly with a hushed grunt of effort.
“I’m sorry. I’m just.. I’m lost,” she explains as she lifts her chin to pout up at the stranger. “Have you seen any angels around here?”
She begins the daunting task of rising up onto her still shaking legs with bits of grass and dirt clinging to her body. She doesn’t mean to, but she blinks and sends the tears she’d been fighting back rolling down her cheeks.
05-01-2020, 01:06 PM (This post was last modified: 05-01-2020, 01:07 PM by Skeleton Ghoul.)
if i stare into the abyss, will it stare into me?
The fate of Taiga is rather uncertain these days. With the apparent disappearance of the land's former leader, it's left behind a chaotic power vacuum that several horses are vying for. Skeleton Ghoul snorts. If he had lived there longer, known it's people, he would have taken over himself, but alas. Not yet. Perhaps in the future, depending on how the current political battle goes. He suspects that the mare who had previously asked for the herd's permission to rule will step aside in favor of the young colt who has decided he wants to play ball.
No matter. The titan will watch silently and see how things go. For now, the need for good grazing and maybe just a little socializing has struck him, however oddly, so Skeleton Ghoul sets out to the Meadow to see what's what. There are other horses there, vague shapes in the dark predawn, but the giant doesn't approach them. Instead, he sets to grazing on tall grasses and browsing on low, dew-covered leaves.
A twig snaps, gaining Skeleton Ghoul's attention. Muscles tense, ears trained on the sound as the grasses away awkwardly in the dark. If it is a predator, it's a piss poor one. But it isn't, and the dark stallion watches the head of a foal pop up and look around, only to have it walk right into his shoulder and tumble backwards. The stallion's skin twitches, and he swings his heavy head her way, empty white gaze landing on the teeny filly.
"Angels?" he repeats, voice like gravel. He has half a mind to tell her that angels don't exist, but he bites his tongue when a fat teardrop rolls down her cheek. No need to be a total asshole, he supposes. "I have not, no. What sort of angel are you looking for?"
“ I will love you until we run out of mornings. Then I will love you in the dark. ”
She rises onto her small hooves and brings her gaze to meet his when he leans down. He’s very tall and that in itself makes her rather nervous. Echis keeps her chin down timidly as she continues to stare up at him with bright green eyes. It’s hard to see in the dark but seeing his pointed teeth when he speaks draws a soft gasp from her, sending her stumbling back once more. Her mother’s teeth aren’t anything like that and neither are hers. Was he one of the monsters that Ryatah had warned her about in her bedtime stories?
Her brow furrows in worry and a nervous whimper squeaks from her lungs. He isn’t coming closer, though, and he isn’t growling or snarling the way she half expects him to. What sort of angel? The question confuses her and she looks from side to side in the hopes that her mother will come back any second now. She swallows the lump in her throat and forces herself to meet his gaze once more.
“The kind my mom is?” she whispers softly. “She’s pretty and white and yellow. She answers to Mom, and I’m Echis.”
Her heart hammers against her ribs despite her efforts to remain calm in the face of all this danger. Little glistening scales creep across her cheeks and down her spine, spilling over to her shoulders and tiny hips. She doesn’t notice any of these changes until her pupils grow thin and reptilian. Suddenly, it’s easier to see in the dark and she can tell his expression isn’t as menacing as it initially seemed. It becomes a little easier to breathe, then, and she sniffles as the final tear rolls off her chin.
“Are those scars? Did they hurt?” she asks as her head perks up just a little.
@[Skeleton Ghoul] she's a little more confident but if he moves she might bolt lmao
05-07-2020, 07:49 AM (This post was last modified: 05-07-2020, 07:51 AM by Skeleton Ghoul.)
if i stare into the abyss, will it stare into me?
The titan's ears perk as she staggers back a bit further when he speaks, offering no reaction besides to watch with his empty, pale gaze. He doesn't close the distance or jerk, but the skin on his neck does twitch, causing a handful of his tangled alabaster mane to fall around his ears. But the filly regains some of her courage and bravely stays despite that whimper that Ghoul did hear but will not comment on, telling him what sort of horse she is looking for. Ah, of course it would be her mother. Skeleton Ghoul guessed as much -- a foal this young isn't going to be left behind for long (or at all, he would have thought), unless abandoned. He hopes it isn't a case of the second one, otherwise he'll have to bring her to Taiga and give her to one of the women there that just foaled.
Ghoul sighs, quirking a dark ear to the side. "I am afraid I haven't seen anyone of that description, Echis," he says, white eyes blinking. "But I am certain she will return for you shortly."
The filly asks about his scars. They crisscross his frame like a spiderweb, telling of battles both won and lost in his past, not that she would know that, and he certainly will not be telling her in any sort of detail. "They are scars, and they did hurt. Creatures with claws and teeth should be avoided, if my opinion is of any note. My name is Skeleton Ghoul, but ... some call me simply "Skel". And other four letter words not bearing mention."
![[Image: qZyWUwo.png]](https://i.imgur.com/qZyWUwo.png)