08-22-2016, 11:27 PM
all that we have amassed sits before us, shattered into ash
Autumn has dawned both bright and chilly, sweeping over Beqanna with a crisp new season. She had not expected to stray from the Valley so soon after her return, but duty calls, and it has been so long since she has attempted to recruit. Her skills are undoubtedly rusty, and if she wants to serve her kingdom dutifully, she has to brush up on her diplomacy as well as her fighting skills. And so she peels herself from Flamevein’s warmth with a sigh and a promise to return later—why had she ever left?—and forces herself to drag herself outside of the kingdom.
Her own coat is burnished copper, unmarked but for the dragon—scar? Tattoo?—upon her chest as well as the intermittent burn marks beneath her golden coat, but one would have to look hard to find the marks of her and her lover’s passion. She’s not afraid to admit that they had added a few more only weeks past, when their newest (she prays, prays to any god but the Dark One, for a daughter) was conceived. If her forelock were ever to be cut, one would see the hideous scar across her forehead that once exposed her skull, and of course, her missing ears are hard to miss. She is a battle-worn mare for one so young, but that is what the Valley life has won her. This life is what the Dark God has given her.
The journey from the Valley to the Field is a lengthy one, and she finds this pregnancy dragging at her already; she is exhausted by the time she reaches the outskirts of the field. There are plenty of homeless horses afoot (ahoof?); snorting and prancing and shaking their manes and being all manner of arrogant, trying to prove their worth, trying to show recruiters they have what it takes to belong in a kingdom, or trying to get a recruiter to convince them that their kingdom is so much better than their other options (and their other options are fairly slim—another kingdom, or a herd, and herds are dreadfully dull).
Frankly, Cress is exhausted just looking at them.
Quietly she scans the Field, her eyes finally settling on a buckskin stallion standing alone. She picks her way towards him, curiously taking in his tightly-curled mane and tail; even the hair on his body is curled. How curious! “Excuse me, do you mind if I join you?” she asks when she is within hearing distance. Despite being heavy-framed, she knows she looks harmless enough, missing ears and all. She is beginning to swell with child and her brown eyes have always made her look kind. Besides, when has Cress ever been a mean girl?
“I am Cress. I can offer you a home in the Valley, if you would like. It is a kingdom southeast of here.”
She will describe to him the finer points of the kingdom, if he’s curious, but she won’t press the point until he speaks. If he is curious, he will ask for more.
cress
oxytocin x kindling
infected.