[open] shattered into ash [ANY]

[Cress]

all that we have amassed sits before us, shattered into ash

Sometimes Cress finds it hard to believe that she is the same girl who swallowed a dragon. She is the girl who faced down her worst fears--the deaths of her parents and the disappointment of her dearest friend--and accepted them. She was thrust into the lair of the Dark God and she survived. She'd been forced to face down a dragon and she had survived the encounter, her and the six others that had been taken by Carnage as well. She had been changed and molded by the flames of his lair, but sometimes she wonders if she's still that same mare.

She's been living so long without her firebreathing now, she's almost forgotten what the flames feel like. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do to be able to retrieve her fire, and though she felt completely naked without them at first, over the years she has grown accustomed to them being gone. It's her healing that she truly longs to bring back; she had felt useful with her natural-born ability. She could help others with her healing and it's a power she had carried with her since birth. Her firebreathing was thrust upon her and even though she had grown used to the flames and used them as if she were born for it, they weren't her healing ability.

As she thought, the morning is still crisp when she is approached, first by a young black mare. She registers the shock on the other's face as she takes in Cress' marred appearance--some days she forgets her earless-ness--but doesn't react to it; years of seeing horses react to her has desensitized her to it. The mare speaks, clearly feeling awkward, and Cress offers her a small smile as an icy stallion slips next to the stranger.

He introduces the both of them and Cress smiles again, noting the fire in his blue eyes; blue eyes that make her think of her absent daughter. "A pleasure to meet you both, Jinju, Ruan," she responds, dipping her head to each of them in turn. "I'm Cress. Formerly briefly of Tephra but I've been homeless for many years now." Oh, Tephra. To think she was there when the land was newly formed, helping Magnus and Offspring and Eight recruit new members to the territory. "Where are you two from?"

cress

oxytocin x kindling