06-11-2021, 07:11 PM
a bright and dangerous spark
Fireflies danced in the summer air. Cheri plodded slowly along through Taiga, down the main road that cut the redwood forest in an uneven half. She was headed home for Loess, already unenthused about how late in the day she’d set out. As the hours drew on and her family mingling came to its natural end, Cheri couldn’t seem to fully shake her journey’s exhaustion. It weighed down on her so heavily that her stone hooves thumped one after the other, protesting every stride. Her wings drooped, barely lit even in the dim light crowding around her. She was a deadbeat horse.
She yawned, trying to stretch her neck and gain back some of the enthusiasm she’d lost over the span of her short vacation without much success. It wasn’t a lack of sleep that was ailing her; in fact the night before last she’d slept as if she were dead. Her mother Amarine had to physically shake her into consciousness that morning when a light prodding hadn’t worked. She just felt bone-deep tired.
Nothing ached. She wasn’t sick - and she would know if she was sick - and she wasn’t pregnant, which had actually been a slight concern for a moment until her mother had assured her that the timing wasn’t suitable for such a case.
“So why do I feel like I’m dying?” She thought dramatically, veering off the course of the road into a thicket of tightly-clustered pines. In a few hundred meters the forest would give way to the valleys, which would (in time) show the subtle rise of the redrock buttes looming in Loess’ distant horizon. “I’m so close.” She knew, but the fear of legitimately collapsing in the roadway seemed to outweigh her determination in the present. She would just have to be content with sleeping out in the wilderness for a night, and then in the morning she could start again - hopefully a bit earlier if she gave in to her body’s demands.
The pegasus mare slid in between the soft bristles of the trees, their evergreen needles turning dark with the setting of the sun, and she wedged herself tightly among them in hopes of being obscured by any passerbys. Tonight she wasn’t picky: it took her seconds to settle in and drop her head before a deep sleep tugged her under a heavy wave of blackness, and Cheri dove into the nothingness eagerly enough.
She would never know how the evergreen cluster lit itself like a strobe light afterwards, flashing for a moment with a brilliant explosion of white light before it snuffed out and took her with it.
Down and down and down she went; furthering herself into a dreamlike trance that had no beginning or end. Her thoughts and worries dissipated, time itself felt less of a linear thing and more like an abstract concept, so that when she awoke the appaloosa mare had entirely forgotten where she’d come from or what she’d been doing in the first place. She blinked, hazy with confusion, and then the memories came back like an object being thrust out of a disengaged rubber sling.
“Ow.” She moaned, pulling herself out of the evergreens and trailing heavy brown needles with her when she did. Cheri had a roaring headache, one fit to split her skull right down the middle, and she clenched her eyes shut against the light of the sun when at last she stumbled out onto the road again.
At first, nothing was obviously different. Her mouth felt dry, unused, and her brain was throbbing uncomfortably which kept her from taking flight. But she did feel rested for the first time in days, finally. About a mile or so down the thoroughfare her pain had subsided to a manageable state, so she unfurled her wings and shook them free of the deadweight she’d picked up in the course of her slumber. “What a mess…” Was all she had to say about the litter of curled, dried needles that gathered around her pink hooves. “So many dead ones … I thought the trees had been healthy but perhaps not.” The mare shrugged, then took to the sky.
Up in the air again she was free to breathe and relax, so the thumping inside her skull quieted and before long, Cheri was touching down in the heartlands of Loessian territory again. It felt good to be home, but she had a prickling urgency to meet with Oceane and discuss everything she might’ve missed in her time away; the young diplomat tipped her nose to the sky and gave a short hello by nickering softly, and then she set off on hoof to track down one of her mentors or the Lady liege herself.
She yawned, trying to stretch her neck and gain back some of the enthusiasm she’d lost over the span of her short vacation without much success. It wasn’t a lack of sleep that was ailing her; in fact the night before last she’d slept as if she were dead. Her mother Amarine had to physically shake her into consciousness that morning when a light prodding hadn’t worked. She just felt bone-deep tired.
Nothing ached. She wasn’t sick - and she would know if she was sick - and she wasn’t pregnant, which had actually been a slight concern for a moment until her mother had assured her that the timing wasn’t suitable for such a case.
“So why do I feel like I’m dying?” She thought dramatically, veering off the course of the road into a thicket of tightly-clustered pines. In a few hundred meters the forest would give way to the valleys, which would (in time) show the subtle rise of the redrock buttes looming in Loess’ distant horizon. “I’m so close.” She knew, but the fear of legitimately collapsing in the roadway seemed to outweigh her determination in the present. She would just have to be content with sleeping out in the wilderness for a night, and then in the morning she could start again - hopefully a bit earlier if she gave in to her body’s demands.
The pegasus mare slid in between the soft bristles of the trees, their evergreen needles turning dark with the setting of the sun, and she wedged herself tightly among them in hopes of being obscured by any passerbys. Tonight she wasn’t picky: it took her seconds to settle in and drop her head before a deep sleep tugged her under a heavy wave of blackness, and Cheri dove into the nothingness eagerly enough.
She would never know how the evergreen cluster lit itself like a strobe light afterwards, flashing for a moment with a brilliant explosion of white light before it snuffed out and took her with it.
Down and down and down she went; furthering herself into a dreamlike trance that had no beginning or end. Her thoughts and worries dissipated, time itself felt less of a linear thing and more like an abstract concept, so that when she awoke the appaloosa mare had entirely forgotten where she’d come from or what she’d been doing in the first place. She blinked, hazy with confusion, and then the memories came back like an object being thrust out of a disengaged rubber sling.
“Ow.” She moaned, pulling herself out of the evergreens and trailing heavy brown needles with her when she did. Cheri had a roaring headache, one fit to split her skull right down the middle, and she clenched her eyes shut against the light of the sun when at last she stumbled out onto the road again.
At first, nothing was obviously different. Her mouth felt dry, unused, and her brain was throbbing uncomfortably which kept her from taking flight. But she did feel rested for the first time in days, finally. About a mile or so down the thoroughfare her pain had subsided to a manageable state, so she unfurled her wings and shook them free of the deadweight she’d picked up in the course of her slumber. “What a mess…” Was all she had to say about the litter of curled, dried needles that gathered around her pink hooves. “So many dead ones … I thought the trees had been healthy but perhaps not.” The mare shrugged, then took to the sky.
Up in the air again she was free to breathe and relax, so the thumping inside her skull quieted and before long, Cheri was touching down in the heartlands of Loessian territory again. It felt good to be home, but she had a prickling urgency to meet with Oceane and discuss everything she might’ve missed in her time away; the young diplomat tipped her nose to the sky and gave a short hello by nickering softly, and then she set off on hoof to track down one of her mentors or the Lady liege herself.
@[Obscene]
OOC note to readers: (tl;dr) this thread is taking place out of the known timeline. Cannon for Cheri and Obscene, but it in no way applies to the current in-game dynamics! *Mostly* for fun <3