02-23-2021, 06:41 PM
She carefully picked her hooves up over the unknown terrain, similar to but not quite the same as the ancient forests in her own homeland. The shade cast over everything was unlike anything Ori had ever known before, and an odd, distant sense of dread crept over her. However, Ori tried to keep in good spirits. She hummed to herself and gave her walk a slight bounce (in spite of the ever so slight trembling and hesitance that found its way through). No matter what, she would not be put afoul by this turn of events. She would find her way out, and she would be alright.
Surely it was all in her imagination and it would pass as well. It was within the nature of life to experience change, that nothing would remain as it was forever. The world simply didn’t appreciate such a place of stagnation. Even back in Paraiso or Murmuring Rivers, her childhood homes, after each winter was a new and dazzling spring, and every path she loved to walk down had somewhat changed. One of the bird families had moved, leaving an empty nest, a new butterfly bush chose to grow and had its own colorful company, or a tree from last season had begun to really claim its place within the forest.
Ori loved watching the change and growth, although the inevitability of what would eventually come for all life did leave a bit of an ache in her heart. She believed that wherever souls went after their lives, it was a good and happy place, filled with light. Her father and countless others who never came home were watching over her from that place, and their love filled her breast as she walked on. No, she wasn’t alone.
Although the gold champagne had never known her father personally, she was always told that he loved her, and she believed it. In those moments where she was alone or afraid and courage, light, and love suddenly and unexpectedly bloomed within her to share, she knew that he was watching over her, as he surely was even now.
At the moment she had stopped to breathe and get her bearings, when her cousin’s familiar voice called out her name, she turned, dual-toned eyes taking in her cousin’s russet form in the dim light, and it all came flooding back to her. The times they played, the stories they would listen to, the quiet evenings they would insist to stay just a little longer before someone older insisted it was time to sleep, the plains that burbling brooks ran through, and all of it. She held those precious years of growing up in a special place in her mind, and seeing Lilli for the first time again brought them rushing back like the waterfall of the land they called home.
“Ori?” @[lilliana]'s voice repeated, and the girl nodded. Who else could it be? Besides that, the sound of her name from Lilli’s voice is one she didn’t know she missed as much as she did.
After Ori’s statement of the time that had elapsed, Lilliana laughed. It isn’t a demeaning or hurtful laugh, but a kind one. The type that just happens and slides past your lips, and it’s such a beautiful sound. It’s familiar, and she’s happy to hear it. “It’s been a lifetime.” The chestnut agrees, and she closes the remaining halfway between them.
Her cousin’s face with azure eyes and the reddish mane that swooped next to her face just so… it was so beautiful, and she was happy to sit there and analyze all the beauty that her cousin had. (really that her whole family had, and that she quietly thought every day) In her cousin’s face, there was Valerio and Aletta, as well as traces of shared traits amongst her siblings, but the way they met and certain parts of her face were so distinctly Lilli that Ori cemented the identity in her mind.
Her cousin started to speak, then stopped herself, and Ori kept her ears pricked and kept green and brown eyes trained on her cousin. The girl was used to start-and-stop sentences as others around her searched for the right words to say (she had done it a few times, herself) and would wait patiently for whatever words came.
Lilli shook her slender head, and her crimson mane tussles with the movement. Ori marveled at the way the tiny amount of light wavered with it, and just… how grown-up her cousin looked.
“Winds, Ori. It is so good to see you.” Ori grinned, as the turn of phrase was such a testament to the Legacy family, of their innate ability to understand and shape the winds. The change, the calm, and the force of those zephyrs supposedly present within the blood of her family. She had never inherited the exact ability to bend the winds, but the wanderlust within her must have been at least partly their influence. Her finding her way to Beqanna, in front of her cousin as she was now… surely it couldn’t just be coincidence.
“It’s great to see you too, Lilli!” She beamed, the smile evident in her tone as she tried to think of one of the dozens of questions she could ask her cousin. Most importantly, how she had been, but other than that, where she was, and what was going on, but all that could wait, as Lilli’s expression shifted.
“Your mother?” Her tone was concerned, and it was only then that Ori understood that her presence outside of Paraiso could mean something wholly different than a journey of self-discovery. “Marcelo?” He was also fine, but there wasn’t enough of a break in her cousin’s (rightfully) frightened questions for her to get a word in. “Paraiso?” They were all fine, too... she watched the anxiety rise on Lilli’s face, and kicked herself internally for not explaining anything sooner.
“My father?”
Those two words were what fully broke Ori’s heart in that moment. It was a misunderstanding, sure, but the quiet tone, and the fear that came with each succeeding question hurt Ori. It hurt her for how Lilli must have been hurting, and she tried to think of how she could clear it up.
“No! No nonononono! No, everyone’s fine! Everything’s fine!” She insisted, attempting to dispel the worst of Lilli’s fears with the first phrase as she hurriedly attempted to answer her other questions in turn.
“Mom’s doing alright, she’s kind of busy taking care of Brighid, but she’s talking more to Uncle Val and Lovelace, and she smiles a lot more than she used to.” She remembered how happy yet distant her mother had been upon first arriving back from Windskeep. The blood gold woman was happy to be with her family again and she tried her best to hang onto every moment she could find, but Ori noticed the glimpses of some darkness behind her mother’s eyes. These days, it was much rarer to see, and the odd-eyed champagne sincerely hoped it meant that the peg was starting to heal.
“Marcelo’s fine! He sometimes goes out to Windskeep to check on everyone else, but he seems happy too.” Her older brother had always been on the reserved side (much like everyone in her immediate family, it seemed), but he had always been steadfast and willing to take responsibility, and that reminded her, “In fact, he found someone there. I teased him about it at first, but he really loves her, and I’m glad to see them happy together. Her name is Emily and she’s super great! She has lots of stories about far-off places!” She skipped over most of the story for the time being, but hoped that she’d be able to tell Lilliana more when she wasn’t focusing so hard on trying to tell her as much as possible in as short a time as she could.
“Paraiso is just like it’s always been. It’s still safe, and everyone there is okay.” She spoke as evenly as she could, the previous two phrases having been more chirpy, as she tended to be with matters involving her family, but this one felt more right to speak with a calmer, slower voice, although some of the bounciness seeped a little back into her next words.
“Your dad’s fine, too. I do think he was thinking about stepping down soon to spend more time with your mom.” She did her best to leave room in case the copper mare before her wanted any clarification on anything. Anyone deserved to know what was going on in their homeland, and Ori was more than happy to share, but hoped that would be enough to give some comfort to Lilli that everything was alright.
“Anyways, what about you? How’s everything going for you?” Her voice was laced with interest. There was a lot going on in this place, and she wanted to know what she could about what Lilli had been up to. Catching up with family was always a good thing, especially with someone Ori hadn’t seen in a long time.
Looking up towards where the chestnut mare had looked earlier, then back, she played back and forth with the silent question and whether it would be polite to ask, but in the end found it slipping past her lips with many degrees of uncertainty. “And… um… do you know what’s going on up there?”
Surely it was all in her imagination and it would pass as well. It was within the nature of life to experience change, that nothing would remain as it was forever. The world simply didn’t appreciate such a place of stagnation. Even back in Paraiso or Murmuring Rivers, her childhood homes, after each winter was a new and dazzling spring, and every path she loved to walk down had somewhat changed. One of the bird families had moved, leaving an empty nest, a new butterfly bush chose to grow and had its own colorful company, or a tree from last season had begun to really claim its place within the forest.
Ori loved watching the change and growth, although the inevitability of what would eventually come for all life did leave a bit of an ache in her heart. She believed that wherever souls went after their lives, it was a good and happy place, filled with light. Her father and countless others who never came home were watching over her from that place, and their love filled her breast as she walked on. No, she wasn’t alone.
Although the gold champagne had never known her father personally, she was always told that he loved her, and she believed it. In those moments where she was alone or afraid and courage, light, and love suddenly and unexpectedly bloomed within her to share, she knew that he was watching over her, as he surely was even now.
At the moment she had stopped to breathe and get her bearings, when her cousin’s familiar voice called out her name, she turned, dual-toned eyes taking in her cousin’s russet form in the dim light, and it all came flooding back to her. The times they played, the stories they would listen to, the quiet evenings they would insist to stay just a little longer before someone older insisted it was time to sleep, the plains that burbling brooks ran through, and all of it. She held those precious years of growing up in a special place in her mind, and seeing Lilli for the first time again brought them rushing back like the waterfall of the land they called home.
“Ori?” @[lilliana]'s voice repeated, and the girl nodded. Who else could it be? Besides that, the sound of her name from Lilli’s voice is one she didn’t know she missed as much as she did.
After Ori’s statement of the time that had elapsed, Lilliana laughed. It isn’t a demeaning or hurtful laugh, but a kind one. The type that just happens and slides past your lips, and it’s such a beautiful sound. It’s familiar, and she’s happy to hear it. “It’s been a lifetime.” The chestnut agrees, and she closes the remaining halfway between them.
Her cousin’s face with azure eyes and the reddish mane that swooped next to her face just so… it was so beautiful, and she was happy to sit there and analyze all the beauty that her cousin had. (really that her whole family had, and that she quietly thought every day) In her cousin’s face, there was Valerio and Aletta, as well as traces of shared traits amongst her siblings, but the way they met and certain parts of her face were so distinctly Lilli that Ori cemented the identity in her mind.
Her cousin started to speak, then stopped herself, and Ori kept her ears pricked and kept green and brown eyes trained on her cousin. The girl was used to start-and-stop sentences as others around her searched for the right words to say (she had done it a few times, herself) and would wait patiently for whatever words came.
Lilli shook her slender head, and her crimson mane tussles with the movement. Ori marveled at the way the tiny amount of light wavered with it, and just… how grown-up her cousin looked.
“Winds, Ori. It is so good to see you.” Ori grinned, as the turn of phrase was such a testament to the Legacy family, of their innate ability to understand and shape the winds. The change, the calm, and the force of those zephyrs supposedly present within the blood of her family. She had never inherited the exact ability to bend the winds, but the wanderlust within her must have been at least partly their influence. Her finding her way to Beqanna, in front of her cousin as she was now… surely it couldn’t just be coincidence.
“It’s great to see you too, Lilli!” She beamed, the smile evident in her tone as she tried to think of one of the dozens of questions she could ask her cousin. Most importantly, how she had been, but other than that, where she was, and what was going on, but all that could wait, as Lilli’s expression shifted.
“Your mother?” Her tone was concerned, and it was only then that Ori understood that her presence outside of Paraiso could mean something wholly different than a journey of self-discovery. “Marcelo?” He was also fine, but there wasn’t enough of a break in her cousin’s (rightfully) frightened questions for her to get a word in. “Paraiso?” They were all fine, too... she watched the anxiety rise on Lilli’s face, and kicked herself internally for not explaining anything sooner.
“My father?”
Those two words were what fully broke Ori’s heart in that moment. It was a misunderstanding, sure, but the quiet tone, and the fear that came with each succeeding question hurt Ori. It hurt her for how Lilli must have been hurting, and she tried to think of how she could clear it up.
“No! No nonononono! No, everyone’s fine! Everything’s fine!” She insisted, attempting to dispel the worst of Lilli’s fears with the first phrase as she hurriedly attempted to answer her other questions in turn.
“Mom’s doing alright, she’s kind of busy taking care of Brighid, but she’s talking more to Uncle Val and Lovelace, and she smiles a lot more than she used to.” She remembered how happy yet distant her mother had been upon first arriving back from Windskeep. The blood gold woman was happy to be with her family again and she tried her best to hang onto every moment she could find, but Ori noticed the glimpses of some darkness behind her mother’s eyes. These days, it was much rarer to see, and the odd-eyed champagne sincerely hoped it meant that the peg was starting to heal.
“Marcelo’s fine! He sometimes goes out to Windskeep to check on everyone else, but he seems happy too.” Her older brother had always been on the reserved side (much like everyone in her immediate family, it seemed), but he had always been steadfast and willing to take responsibility, and that reminded her, “In fact, he found someone there. I teased him about it at first, but he really loves her, and I’m glad to see them happy together. Her name is Emily and she’s super great! She has lots of stories about far-off places!” She skipped over most of the story for the time being, but hoped that she’d be able to tell Lilliana more when she wasn’t focusing so hard on trying to tell her as much as possible in as short a time as she could.
“Paraiso is just like it’s always been. It’s still safe, and everyone there is okay.” She spoke as evenly as she could, the previous two phrases having been more chirpy, as she tended to be with matters involving her family, but this one felt more right to speak with a calmer, slower voice, although some of the bounciness seeped a little back into her next words.
“Your dad’s fine, too. I do think he was thinking about stepping down soon to spend more time with your mom.” She did her best to leave room in case the copper mare before her wanted any clarification on anything. Anyone deserved to know what was going on in their homeland, and Ori was more than happy to share, but hoped that would be enough to give some comfort to Lilli that everything was alright.
“Anyways, what about you? How’s everything going for you?” Her voice was laced with interest. There was a lot going on in this place, and she wanted to know what she could about what Lilli had been up to. Catching up with family was always a good thing, especially with someone Ori hadn’t seen in a long time.
Looking up towards where the chestnut mare had looked earlier, then back, she played back and forth with the silent question and whether it would be polite to ask, but in the end found it slipping past her lips with many degrees of uncertainty. “And… um… do you know what’s going on up there?”