02-23-2020, 07:35 PM
Autumn on the Isle makes her restless, the feeling that time is ticking away, spring and summer lost somewhere in a fog of survival. The island does not suffer weakness - how well she has learnt that lesson! But today she does not feel strong, she feels nervous and the shadows wrap around the lion-girl until her gold coat turns dusky and none but the brightest stars can be seen gleaming on her shoulder, just barely twinkling through the darkness.
She sits at the southern shore staring into the vastness of the sea, a broad and treacherous expanse that she can never cross alone. Even the scent of saltwater makes her choke, makes her lungs cry out and clench, remembering when the water filled them, burned them with its cold and its salt. The cold never left her, it wraps icy fingers around her stomach and heart and the shadows swirl thicker, amassing around her in a cocoon of darkness and unblinking yellow eyes.
"Take me somewhere else, somewhere you like to be," she whispers into the darkness, the unspoken command anywhere but Pangea, "But remember this place, Leilan will look for me here."
The shadows become impenetrable, a droplet of night on the bright afternoon beach with yellow eyes like stars. All at once, the eyes shut and dissipate with a sigh, the yearling lion gone but for her paw prints in the sand. At least, that is what it will look like to any observers watching the empty curve of shore line. For Beryl, the darkness thickens until it is almost tangible. She is familiar with this place - if it can be called such a thing. She remembers this feeling of floating even when there seems to be solid ground beneath her feet. The drifting yellow eyes circle around and away, away, but she resists the urge to move towards any of them, to take control.
Not today, it's enough that she is doing this at all.
There's a lightening and a feeling of dizziness. Memory makes her draw a deep breath and hold it, eyes screwed shut, bracing for the splash and the cold, for the panic that tickles at the back of her throat. None but the panic come. Instead, birdsong and a cool breeze that smells of smoke and leaves, of moss and damp and earth still warmed by the sun. Brown eyes fly open and are greeted by trees. A million trees, and shadows black as night. Yellow eyes peer out at her from every copse and corner. She grins toothily, baring long canines.
"No wonder you like it here."
There are many shadows in the forest, and it's a wonder that she didn't come here, first, on that long ago day, but as they have often done, the Shadows remind her that they had taken her exactly where she wanted to go. She wanted to go to the desert - a place where her mother said they might find her sire, and safety, and the Shadows had deposited her at its very center. That they left her mother behind is nothing to them. Leaving that Pangean canyon with it's black-shelled monsters had been her choice, the frigid shadows in the depths of the sea had been her choice. The Isle had been less a choice than a necessity, she had not even known it was there, had wished only for safety, for love. The Shadows had found all those things for her in Leilan. Overall, their decisions have been more reliable than her own.
She stands and stretches the full length of her tawny body, long, tufted, tail lashing side to side in the air. Something about this place... Yes, once, she was here once before with Leilan, but the memory is dim and tattered. A crowd and apples-- she remembers throwing the withered fruit at the black mare thinking she would melt the scaley stallion and the thought brightens the young lion's mood as she weaves between trees, delighting in the feel of her claws biting into soft, warm, earth.
She sits at the southern shore staring into the vastness of the sea, a broad and treacherous expanse that she can never cross alone. Even the scent of saltwater makes her choke, makes her lungs cry out and clench, remembering when the water filled them, burned them with its cold and its salt. The cold never left her, it wraps icy fingers around her stomach and heart and the shadows swirl thicker, amassing around her in a cocoon of darkness and unblinking yellow eyes.
"Take me somewhere else, somewhere you like to be," she whispers into the darkness, the unspoken command anywhere but Pangea, "But remember this place, Leilan will look for me here."
The shadows become impenetrable, a droplet of night on the bright afternoon beach with yellow eyes like stars. All at once, the eyes shut and dissipate with a sigh, the yearling lion gone but for her paw prints in the sand. At least, that is what it will look like to any observers watching the empty curve of shore line. For Beryl, the darkness thickens until it is almost tangible. She is familiar with this place - if it can be called such a thing. She remembers this feeling of floating even when there seems to be solid ground beneath her feet. The drifting yellow eyes circle around and away, away, but she resists the urge to move towards any of them, to take control.
Not today, it's enough that she is doing this at all.
There's a lightening and a feeling of dizziness. Memory makes her draw a deep breath and hold it, eyes screwed shut, bracing for the splash and the cold, for the panic that tickles at the back of her throat. None but the panic come. Instead, birdsong and a cool breeze that smells of smoke and leaves, of moss and damp and earth still warmed by the sun. Brown eyes fly open and are greeted by trees. A million trees, and shadows black as night. Yellow eyes peer out at her from every copse and corner. She grins toothily, baring long canines.
"No wonder you like it here."
There are many shadows in the forest, and it's a wonder that she didn't come here, first, on that long ago day, but as they have often done, the Shadows remind her that they had taken her exactly where she wanted to go. She wanted to go to the desert - a place where her mother said they might find her sire, and safety, and the Shadows had deposited her at its very center. That they left her mother behind is nothing to them. Leaving that Pangean canyon with it's black-shelled monsters had been her choice, the frigid shadows in the depths of the sea had been her choice. The Isle had been less a choice than a necessity, she had not even known it was there, had wished only for safety, for love. The Shadows had found all those things for her in Leilan. Overall, their decisions have been more reliable than her own.
She stands and stretches the full length of her tawny body, long, tufted, tail lashing side to side in the air. Something about this place... Yes, once, she was here once before with Leilan, but the memory is dim and tattered. A crowd and apples-- she remembers throwing the withered fruit at the black mare thinking she would melt the scaley stallion and the thought brightens the young lion's mood as she weaves between trees, delighting in the feel of her claws biting into soft, warm, earth.
Beryl
Litotes x Mehendi
@[Halcyon] baby cat thread?