Where the stolen roses grow | Lie & Kensa

[litotes]

but you’d never get hit without earning it
and i only hit you first ‘cuz i deserved my own hit too
still it comes the time to call you out
since i’m the one that you should be about

It is on the Mountain that Litotes rests. When the quest is over, and the fairies grant them their gifts, he collapses into a nearby cove. The rock is uncomfortable and the cold nearly unbearable, but the plague and the journey have left him too weak to go on. Here, he sleeps, dreaming of the fairies and the strange magic he felt when they placed their gift upon his face. Dark gray shale scatters and falls as he shifts in his sleep, twitching and rolling at each weird scene.

The dream shifts, from strange magic to dark shadows (as dreams so seem to do). The General launches up from his sleep, stumbling about until his legs are splayed precariously upon the shale. He blinks several times to clear the exhausted fog from his eyes, studying his shaky legs as they barely hold him up. Lie rights himself then leans against the cove’s cool wall, still dazed from the day before.

The familiar call of Solace is what finally wakes him. The cremello shakes out his mane to begrudgingly walk down what little path he has left down the Mountain. As grumpy as he is, he is excited to meet with the kind-hearted woman. Lie usually finds himself refreshed any time he speaks with the Caretakers.

His trip to the lake is quick - about mid-morning when he finally arrives. The stallion spots Sol’s brilliant blue wings from across the lake, but pauses on the opposite shore. He remembers the tingling on his muzzle - remembers that the fairies changed him. His hooves disturb the water as he steps into it, but once the surface settles he can see the silver fade on his nose. He blinks, surprised, but leans closer to study the little silver snowflakes permanently on his face. A weird pain starts in the pit of his chest and spreads like poison: Beqanna has changed him so much in so little time.

Lie swallows back the strange lump in his throat, turning to find Rune weaving between his back legs with her tail high in the air. She projects her sympathy - smoothing over the ruffled edges of his mind - and follows him to Solace.

“Solace,” he says, then dips his head and reaches out to brush noses. “Kensa will be here soon, I’m sure.”

Litotes

@[Kensa] @[Solace]