"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
The pair bid the twins, Amen and Crucis good bye before they embark on their journey. Her ears flick to Jack as they shuffle along the newly fallen snow. It is thin and whisps up as the tips of her feathers brush along the ground.
She leads the way, just slightly in front of Jack. Winding their way through the smaller mountains along their base. "How are you feeling today?" She asks kindly, knowing he has been having a hard time of things lately.
They pass through a small crop of pine trees before it breaks into a clearing just before the river. Her navy eyes look knowingly across the still running waters, the area was just beyond here.
Thankfully the waters were much lower than her first crossing here. Barely wetting her canon bones as she steps lightly into the waters. Forcibly, she lifts her shoulders to try and prevent her gown from dragging too much as she crosses.
The winters chill does not subside as they step onto the other bank. If anything, it intensifies slightly.
"Over here," she says as she trails off and heads towards the tree line. "This is where she was when we found her," stepping to the side, she aligns herself as Escence was that day. Looking up now, her eyes focus on the area before her, and her legs soon follow in the same direction.
"Hmmm..." She ponders aloud. Remembering what Escence had said floods back to her now.
Jack follows Aurora, happy to be just the two of them. To say he's been struggling is an understatement. The random rage and anger has tolled him, exhausted him. He smiles softly as they cross the threshold of The Dale and The Chamber. He has never explored more than the Meadow and the little bit of the Dale they are currently living.
Aurora looks over to him with a kind expression, wondering how he's been feeling. He sighs softly, collecting his thoughts before he responds,” I’m doing okay. She scares me with her recklessness. I know I shouldn’t still be all hopped up on the day with Vic and Zain, but I feel like it still weighs on Vic. That's not fair to him. Essence has such an unbridled spirit that it worries me that she's going to get herself, Vic or someone else hurt. Whatever happened to her when she ran off was good for her. She hasn't been as reckless as she was,”
They cross the cold water that rushes between them, flowing between his legs. He steps carefully on the slippery rocks that bed the stream. He’s not sure where they're going, although Aurora seems to still remember the way pretty clearly.
He trots to keep up with her as she veers off the path towards where they found Escence panicked. He looks around at the trees and the ground below him, wondering what it was that caused her to get so freaked out. It looks like the same forest that is over at the Dale, just across the water.
“What was it that she said happened?” he asks, looking around before hearing a twig snap behind him.
Upon my usual perch in the mountain tops I hear whispers on the winter winds. My silver eyes rove the lands below, seeking to find the creatures of the shadows I had called forth. But there is only a pair of fairly normal looking equines off to the west approaching the river. One which I recognize from not long ago.
The feathered creature hadn't seen the queen that day, whilst she gathered her spawn and left promptly, I had remained concealed within the forest's shadows. I wonder why she finds herself back in my lands and so my body lunges down the rocky incline and upon the Chamber floor.
My pace is not rushed, but it is quick enough to carry me to where I assume they are headed, within a matched arrival time to theirs.
I weave through the columnar pines, tilting my crown to avoid the tree trunks impact or becoming caught in a tangle of branch.
Soon I come to the place in which I had revealed myself to the young child. I can hear words exchanged between the couple and without pause I step from the darkness of the pine forest.
"You," my voice is flat as I approach the pair, my focus on the mare as I stop short of being too close.
My silver eyes shift slowly from one to the other, unafflicted by any show of aggression, apparent by my expressionless face. "If you have lost your child, again... she is not here," I say simply, eyes now fixed on the large stallion.
Remembrance of that day surfaces and the taste of the girl's fear causes a wetting sensation in my mouth. I bet her parents fear tastes just as wonderful, I think, but my illusions remain at rest. For now.
Kreed
Crown of Bone and Thorn
//Fear Illusionism-Trait Immunity-Goat Mimicry\\
Goat Mimicry Characteristics- Goat hair, Goat horns, Cloven hooves
*Illusions intensity is up to player*
-Immune to mental traits-
When Jack expresses his concern over Escence's tendencies she nods in agreement. She could not argue his point and she shared in his worries. That is why they were here after all, to figure out what had changed that day.
Her navy eyes drift up the height of the pine trees. Mingled within them was a thick mist that hung heavy overhead. There wasn't much for snow where they stood, but the evergreen branches were dipped in a light frost.
Jack comes to be beside her, he too looking at the area not finding much out of the ordinary. He questions that day's events and what was said, but before she can reply, a muddy brown creature drifts from the forests with no more than a crack of twig and a singular word as an announcement.
"Me?" She replies in confusion softly, taking a step back as the horned being stops within reach of them. Her navy eyes shift to Jack as the mares also falls upon him and a comment of a child drifts between the group.
Her cream tail twitches in irritation, now looking at the goat-like creature after having made mention of, she assumes, Escence. "You were here that day? I don't remember seeing anyone around when I found her lying on the ground in tears..." Her gaze narrows in suspicion, "What did you do to my daughter?!" She demands while reclaiming the step she had relinquished earlier, a snort rattling up from her chest.
The accusations come as quickly as I expected, but they are from the feathered mare and not the bay stallion. Interesting, I think, with not even a peak of my brow.
An irritated tone and a demanding step forwards come from the winged mare as she asks of her child. A warm puff of vapor escaping my nostrils as my gaze shifts from the bay stallion, settling on the elegant being. She was too perfect for my kingdom and so I do not hesitate to turn them back to where they had come from.
“I did nothing more than show her what she fears the most,” I sneer. “Would you care to know yours?”
There is a thin darkness that begins to stretch from the forests behind me, smearing gray against the dusting of white snow.
My silver eyes rove between the pair lazily, they looked like wholesome creatures and so I anticipate their fears to run as deeply as the child's. Fears of failure. Fears of grief and sorrow. Fears of the unknown.
All such trivial worries long beaten from me.
The dark veil reaches out, threatening to consume them. It would be a minor feeling at first, their fear. Perhaps no more than the uncertainty of what was happening before their eyes. But if it would seep further into their core, it would bring to surface the things that haunted them most. Only then would I grasp onto those and twist them into a faux reality right before their eyes.
Kreed
Crown of Bone and Thorn
//Fear Illusionism-Trait Immunity-Goat Mimicry\\
Goat Mimicry Characteristics- Goat hair, Goat horns, Cloven hooves
*Illusions intensity is up to player*
-Immune to mental traits-
The feeling of uncertainty looms, like the darkness and shadows surrounding them. Jack swivels around toward the sound of cracking twigs to find a skull looking straight back at him. She speaks openly, recognizing Aurora.
He tilts his head slightly, his ears circling, trying to understand the situation and whoever is standing before them. She mentions Escence and how lost she was before eyeing him.
His ears slowly begin to lay back against his head. He steps forward ready to protect Aurora if he needs to, but who knows what kind of power this horned goat horse has.
He feels the anger brew deeply in his gut as the mare mentions showing her what she fears most. He’s confused by this statement. What does she mean by this? Jack knows what he fears most, he's lived it and is constantly reminded by it, everytime he sees the twins. He sees him. Those red piercing eyes haunt his dreams. Decaying everything he loves, like he did that day in the orchard. He loves those foals more than life itself, but he gets pings of anguish and anger stabbing him deeply. Twisting the knife over and over again, until it claims every last cell of his being.
The dark shadows that lingered approach closer towards them. He steps closer to Aurora, away from the closing walls that surround them. His vision begins to darken. Aurora disappearing under the clouds of darkness. He looks frantically around, calling out to her but no reply.
Her core was becoming more heated with each second that ticked by and her question goes unanswered. With ears pressed against her skull she barely hears the creatures reply, the words lost to the own thrumming of her heartbeat.
A strange looking fog begins to congregate around them and worry starts to bubble up. Her golden flecked eyes shift from their narrowed gaze upon the horned mare and to where Jack has begun to crowd her. "Jack?" She questions, "W-what's wrong Jack? I'm right here." His eyes go blank as he calls out for her.
Again, he calls her name, and again her reply back falls on deaf ears. An unease starts to course through her own body as she shifts, pressing against Jack so that maybe he can feel her still with him.
Her head whips around, turning to the where the stranger had stood, but instead she finds the decayed corpse of Rouge laying on the ground. A pair of buzzards plucking away at his flesh. "Nooo!" She cries out, her head shaking in refusal to accept the vision. "This isn't real! Jack!" She calls out to him again, "This isn't real!"
While backing up a few steps, her body slides along Jacks, bringing her back from the illusion of Rouges dead body. Her muzzle reaches to Jack, nudging him to awaken.
She calls out in a demanding tone, "Stop it! Leave us alone!"
You wanted to know what I had done to your daughter... Well now you know. Our fears only control us as long as we allow them to.
The muted words echo around her like a lover's whisper.
Control.
Fear.
With another shake to her head the voice dissolves much like the fog that had encircled them. Gone is Rouges lifeless body. Gone is the horned creature.
Jack frantically scans the area, his heart racing as the shadows close in against him. His eyes widen in horror as he sees his beloved Aurora and their twin foals lying lifeless on the ground. Zain's red eyes glare out from the shadows, and Jack looks up to see him standing over his family.
Tears stream down Jack's face as he drops to his knees, desperately nudging his loved ones in a futile attempt to wake them from their eternal slumber. "Please don't leave me... I love you," he sobs, his body shaking with grief. "I need you..."
As he licks Aurora and the two dead foals, Jack feels a sense of overwhelming despair wash over him. He cannot bear the thought of losing them forever.
Aurora's body suddenly shifts against his own trembling form, reassuring him that everything is okay and that it's not real. The shadows begin to recede back into the forest, and Jack slowly realizes that Aurora and the twins are in fact alive.
He lets out a soft whimper, finally able to catch his breath as the whispers vanish. "I'm okay," he says, his voice barely above a whisper. "What was that?"
She presses her cream muzzle into him, coaxing him from the terrible visions he is sure to be having. The feathered gown on her back shifts in unease as the last remnants of fear subside.
A single caramel ear flicks forward, listening to Jack while her sight remains on the heavily misted forest. She scans the area to make sure the horned creature does not return.
"That was our worst fears," she says plainly. Now understanding the reason for finding her daughter a crumpled mess on the ground.
She turns to Jack as he steadies himself, her mind lost in thought by the clear distraction in her eyes. Something the creature had said still tugs at her consciousness...
The forest is shrouded in a thick, swirling mist that clings to everything in its path. The dampness of the dew-like mist covers the grey rocks, making them glisten in the dim light that filters through the canopy of trees above. The rocks are covered in a soft, green moss that looks like an inviting carpet. The light that manages to peek through the leaves is dim, casting a shadowy veil over everything below.
Jack and Aurora make their way through the forest, Jack’s coat is covered in a frothy sweat that mingles with the swirling mist. The chill in the air is palpable, causing the brown horse to shiver as Aurora reaches out to comfort him. Jack's eyes are fixed on Aurora, but they are clouded with confusion and a touch of anger.
"Zain and you three...," he trails off, his voice tense with emotion. "How did she do that?"
Jack looks around, searching for the elusive mare, but she's nowhere in sight. Aurora is still uneasy about the situation, and Jack can sense it.
"There's nothing more we need from here," he says, trying to reassure Aurora. "What's wrong?"
AuroraElis
