Keeper-
Keeper is in pure denial of her newfound shifter sensibilities; refusing to acknowledge that the bear is her and she is the bear. Horses should not be bears, or are not meant to be bears and all other manner of critter despite the fact that she knows they are and it is something as inherent to this land as it is to any other. Magic, she muses with a forlorn thread of thought that wends towards the quest she had taken part in but a shudder pulls her back - Keeper is not ready to face that hunger again, unending, or the horrid rip of her flesh as it came apart to allow her bones to grow bigger than bones are meant to be.
The companionable quiet of the mare beside her is enough to further distance herself from her depressing train of thought. She is looking forward to these hot springs and soaking herself in them. Her own step gaining a slight bounce to it as she trails at Solace’s shoulder, trusting her to lead them around the lakeshore to this other land and back again. Keeper has not thought to undertake any travels to and from this place besides her short jaunts into the field, meadow, or forest. She is still not quite sure why or how the King in his bronze armor of scales thinks her suitable enough to join their ranks, but he has and she never questioned him about it.
Just like she never questions why the mare leading her onward just accepted Keeper’s odd behavior and did not comment on it further. Solace just accepted it, like Keeper does most things, though it is now that she learns her companion’s name and something about the moniker is befitting of the little buckskin splash. She offers solace just as her name implies, but the mention of her mother only garners a sad little shake of the dunskin’s head. “I’m sorry, but I don't recognize the name.” The name might have been bandied around a time or two, but if so, it was never said in Keeper’s company nor had she ever had the pleasure of hearing it.
Well, there was that one time she stumbled upon a set of mares - one attempting to give birth, the other trying to soothe her, and a wolf that poked her face out of some bushes, but Keeper never learned any of their names. “Can’t say that I had the pleasure of knowing her but I might have stumbled across her once…” it occurs to her then, that Solace’s shape and the mare’s were similar but lots of mares were slim and pretty and quick to flash their smiles, just like Keeper was. Except for the pretty part, hers came in a much wilder unkempt way. “Maybe I met her and didn’t even know it,” she mumbles more to herself than her companion but it is still loud enough for Solace to hear.
“So, are you a shifter?”
It comes out of nowhere but should have been expected.
“No!” she blurts out. Keeper’s face is panic stricken for longer than a moment as she grows very quiet and just keeps on walking. It is some time before she answers her fellow mare, eyes still cast down towards the ground as she focuses on planting one hoof before the other. Except that she doesn’t see hooves, she sees the paws of a bear and a sigh escapes her mouth.
It is time to fess up to what she has been suspecting all this time, that the quest had changed her somehow. Not quite into that horrid cryptid of her grandmother’s legends but into something close enough to bear it some resemblance. But changed her nonetheless and all the signs were there, to be read as easily as the tracks of the bear that had been left on her skin. She tugs at her lip with teeth that are unbeknownst to her, sharper and more curved than a horse’s ought to be - “I think I might be.”
Keeper had never been anything other than ordinary.
Until now and she didn’t know what to make of it.
not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless
@[Solace]