12-29-2017, 10:28 AM
He watches as the pale, ethereal woman clings tightly to the trees, masking herself beneath its sturdy branches and deep shadow. He did not find the act strange; to press so closely to something, to use it to cloak yourself and to make the world seem a little bit safer - he savors the darkness within his caves, despite the haunting howl of cold wind against stone, and even with his turmoil in the darkness of the mountain, he still searches for the blackness of his cave for solitude. There was a time when he wouldn’t ever leave the comfort of the damp and bleak darkness, comfortable with its soothing nothingness, but a doe-eyed creature had eased him out into the open, and the pale woman who stands before him now reminds him so much of his Keeper. The stranger is shy and demure as she tucks herself into the tree, peering at him from the other side with wide, dark eyes. They are both caught up in a dream - so real, so vivid - that neither one is sure if their meeting the other is reality. Balto is dying to hear her voice again as it once lilted on the thin and cold air - and within the stillness of their silence he creeps forwards a few steps more, curious. Her eyes become distracted as the wind filters through the trees, a soft whisper in the night as her ears turn to listen intently. Her gaze fixates on him once again and the solemnity in their irises cause him to pause, a single forehoof lingering above the brown pine-needles and brush of the forest floor, his brow furrowing above his bright and sad eyes. ‘They say you were there too. The demons hurt you too.’ Her voice is as enchanting as it had been before, and silence engulfs them. Even the wind is now still, and crickets are no longer chirping, and he only stares incredulously into her gaze with an unwavering look of disbelief, of shock and of pain. She should not have been there - she did not deserve the torture that she obviously had endured; such a beautiful and angelic being such as herself. Balto, on the other hand, is no stranger to sin and had been ready to atone for them in the pits of hell with demons clawing at his flesh and limbs, deserving of the most unruly and painful death imaginable. Even now, he wonders why he remains alive and whole (though is he really?). Soon, a muffled sound comes from the cave mouth that is not far behind him, and his eyes widen with distraught - the howls and laughter of demons haunt his mind, cackling madly within the darkness as they wait for his return into the blackness. A chorus of their whispers float to him within the stillness, coaxing him back into his nightmare that torments him when he is both awake and asleep. He shudders, his forehoof finally coming to rest on the forest floor as he begins to step closer to her, desperate for the goodness and light that radiates from her entire being - she is pulsing with magic and it draws him to her like a moth to a flame. “They shouldn’t have touched you. I would slaughter all of them if I could.” he whispers bitterly, the frown on his charcoal lips broadening - he can only imagine what horrors had befallen this lovely creature, and his heart twists violently, wishing that somehow he could have been there to help her, to free her from the fate that apparently they had both met within the mountain. Silence engulfs them once more, and after a long moment of him trying to ignore the sneering and maddening jaws clacking in the distance, he closes his eyes tightly. “I can still hear them.” Feel them. once the king of beasts but now they feast on thoughts beneath his vacant crown. |
@[Nikoline] <3