show me the way, i tire of child's play

[Leokadia]

ashes, ashes,
we. all. fall. down.

She had been born small and weak almost inevitably unwanted in the midst of a pitiless winter. Her birth mother had looked upon the down bent sticks of her wings with a cold disgust that the child cannot forget. She understood, but she would never forget. Even still the cremello mare, growing lean, had sighed and tried to allow the girl a chance to be worth anything. She hadn’t grown fast enough to keep up, to fly away from the deep snow toward better pasture, other horses, and the safety of numbers. So without a word Leokadia was abandoned to become whatever she would...or die.

Here on the rocky ridges of Pangea she is strong, full of brazen intensity. Dainty and fair, this is only pretty wrapping for a mind already warped by the happenings of her life so far. She is nothing to the other beings that would lurk within the borders of this twisted place, but elsewhere she is an anomaly as well. Her glittering eyes too fierce for a child’s face, her cravings (though trifling aggressions) already too deviant. And yet she is nothing to others. She has so much to learn.

A stranger travels below, crossing more slowly than she would have expected him to and Lo watches with her vulture eyes. Her pale lips twitch and she spreads her wings further walking up to the flaking edge. Ears flick, does she hear something, someone coming up along the ridge? The pause to listen is only brief. She is too confident of her ability to escape, foolish little bird. Wings fold and then she leaps--not so far as she had envisioned and though she snaps the limbs back out again she loses a bit of altitude but collects herself well and glides swiftly her shadow rippling over the ground and flashing over the darker horse below. Her efforts to get a better look at him, or even to harass from the air are almost entirely unsuccessful. Her maneuvering still leaves a great deal to be desired but she flashes over just long enough to process the otherness of the male’s appearance, and the unholy glow of red eyes.

Curious but not willing to end her flight so soon she surges skyward with more speed than she has achieved in past attempts. Circling high before turning back to the ridge of cliffs, she hopes to choose a landing place but instead a, become a little confused by what she sees--was someone drawing up the cliff? No--

Leokadia, distracted, misses her mark and drops from the empty air just shy of the cliff’s edge to find herself gracelessly slamming against rock before sliding ten feet down a scree shale slope. Her wings splay and her precious feathers tear out, mostly small ones but they were hard earned and she will resent every loss. She manages to tuck the outside pinion just before gravity dumps her in the dust on her back, rolling her to a stop on top of the other untucked wing. It doesn’t feel broken when she scrambles to her feet but soreness makes it hard to fold down. Gingerly she lays the tender flight limb against her scraped, abraded shoulder that begins to ooze blood beneath the white feathers.

Vexed by her tumble she glances along the path of her descent up towards the cliff from which she dropped, too irritated and sore to fly up and try to figure out what had gone wrong.

Leokadia

@[Zain] @[Rajanish] Soooo..... I couldn't decide if she should turn around and meet Raj or fly down and meet Zain so instead I let her fall out of the sky like an idiot. She's pretty pissed.