[private] Ashes to ashes... - see within.

[Scorch]

WATCH THE FLAMES CLIMB HIGH INTO THE NIGHT

Resurrections were messy things. Scorch had two specific memories about such events, though she my have been able t recall more if pressed. The first event was incredibly personal, and a great mountain of turmoil for the mare. When she was fresh from the dragon dream, Scorch had went back to the Jungle. What greeted her there truly did shape the rest of her life. Echion, dying at the hooves of her true daughter, Tivona, and her son, Rharian. It was made clear to Scorch that she had been a fraudulent child - and yet, the only child Echion birthed that ever achieved the Amazonian throne, in an attempt to meet her standards.

After Echion's passing, Scorch knew she couldn't live without a reconciliation. Her newfound lover, Hestoni, had gone behind her back and made a pact with the devil, Carnage. He would be Carnage's slave for eternity, if only Echion could have one day back on this earth, to speak to Scorch, and her other close ones. The encounter was, indeed, reconciling. But the short visit compared to her lover's eternal suffering seemed, in the end, an unfix-able mistake. She never found out how Hestoni managed to escape his damnation - or, if she had, she had long since repressed the memory of his attempted suicide, and ultimately, his murder of another living, breathing creature.

Funnily enough, her other encounter involved her own grandmother, Nera; that reincarnation happened to be far more docile, but that wasn't enough to temper Scorch's feelings regarding them.

"Honest to the Gods, Liz, if I could tell you what happened with conviction, I would." Her eyes, flickering yellow, glanced to Heartfire, extending the statement to her, too. (Could I use any more commas?) "But as it is, all I seem to be able to recall at the moment is my nephew, Nihlus. The only connection I can draw between that memory of him, and my being here now, is that he could project himself into the world of the dead." Her hammer head drifted from side to side in a woeful shake. "I'll be sure to tell you, if more comes to me."

At Liz's next statement, Scorch simply nodded. A knot had dwelt in the crook of her throat ever since the loss of her youngest child, and without any news as to her whereabouts or her well being, the effort required to speak of it was at too great a cost for such little reward. Scorch held nothing against the woman; surely, she had done her best.

Her companion's next words knock the breath from Scorch's lungs, her heartbeat slamming into her ears as thoughts raced but would not come into reality. She knew the air had smelled different; but for the whole of Beqanna to be completely, utterly remade? It brought bile to her lips.

"Wha... Our home? It's... Gone?" Scorch's eyes unfocused, becoming completely blank. Her refuge, her kingdom, her shoulder to cry on. Gone. Fucking obliterated. Tears welled in her eyes, and she didn't stop them. The shock of grief was a burden even the strongest would bend under - and she was far from being among that rank. Anger heated the salty drops, and she knew that for as long as she remained sentient, that fire would not die. She would stand in memory of the Jungle for as long as time itself allowed. Her ears pinned back; yes, she would uphold its name, and preach its verses to all who came across her. She wouldn't let the Jungle be forgotten. Not after a life spent devoted to it.

She refocused her eyes, steadying her breath. "I'm sorry, sister." Scorch lent an only too understanding look to Tantalize, her predecessor on the Jungle throne. It was a look of bitter fury, and hopelessness. Then she looked to Heartfire. "Not sure you would understand, kid, but..." She tossed her neck back and forth, though she hadn't a mane to flap about. "But you're lucky you don't." She sucked in air quickly, through her teeth, cutting her lungs like a knife. "I'll... I don't know what I'll do. But I fucking am going to do what I decide to do in great anger and violence. Fuck."

But her distress was cast to the side for the time being as Heartfire took up the narrative. Scorch tossed aside the scowl she had been sporting for something that looked like a grimace, but was in fact, a smile.

"The boy always was a momma's boy; reminded me so much of me, in a very soft, lovely way. I guess he sort of missed the need for power as a whole, and focused on the babies right off." Her mind's eye recalled Echion, and the terrible ways that woman's coldness had made her feel, until this very day; and she knew she could not also hold that silence. "And if that is so, then I am glad. I can't say I dislike you quite yet, though not knowing your name has certainly put a kink in my attempt at familial love towards you." Que smile widening.

At the girl's offer of true clarity, Scorch considered. Balked, really. Was she already ready to view such hardship, as hardship it must of been? She was barely twenty minutes out of eternity's ass crack, gods damnit. But what good would waiting do? And how, in this directionless, upside down tomfuckery of a world, would she function, without knowing the ins and outs of Beqanna's undoing?

Wisps of shadows pooled around the rat woman's ankle as she thought. Arms of darkness cascaded up her knees and blossomed forth on her breast, shielding her nakedness as she decided between the safety of ignorance, and the vulnerability of knowledge. The manipulation was subconscious - almost a reflection of her inner thoughts. As she came to, she cast the meaningless shades away, once more sure of herself. For now. True self assuredness would be fleeting from here on in, Scorch felt. Everything was different.

"Show me. Please."

Scorch

Once Khaleesi of the Amazon Jungle

HELLO, AND WELCOME BACK TO, SID WRITES NOVELS AND RESPONDS LINE BY LINE INSTEAD OF CHRONOLOGICALLY, AND ALSO, HER "SPELLCHECKS" ARE LAZY AND NOT EFFECTIVE. with love. ^_^