[private] I feel it burning up inside

[Mazikeen]

Time passes, though it’s difficult to say how much. The scent of spring returns to Beqanna and Mazikeen cannot tell whether it is dulled because of the oppressive darkness or because she feels duller. There’s a part of her mind that attempts to tell her she’s overreacting, that she just needs to get this quest done and over and then she can get her shifting back. She knows full well that others manage to live perfectly fine lives without the ability to shift. And she wonders how long it’s going to take for her to believe any of that nonsense. She follows the line of the river out of Hyaline - scowling a little at the Mountain as she does. There is still no temptation to return early, though. She can manage this. But then the Mountain falls behind her and she keeps walking. Following the sound of the River and the faint glimmer of light on the surface she wanders south. Mazikeen isn’t sure what she’s looking for - maybe for someone to walk up and start the conversation off with “you know what the best thing about being a horse is? --” and then filling in the blank with something witty that she can carry with her. No one immediately comes out when she pauses for a second, so she continues on. Maybe further along the bank she'll have more luck.

@[lestrade]

[lestrade]

I'm telling these tears, "Go and fall away, fall away."
May the last one burn into flames.

The journey down the Mountain was just as treacherous as the journey up it – but his mind now had a problem to ponder. He still carefully chose his steps to avoid tripping over anything in the murky darkness, but his shaky legs and skinned knees ached with each misstep. His caution proved successful, and he eventually made it to the bottom relatively unscathed. The mint and violet stallion makes a course back to the river from whence he had come, unwilling to dilly-dally in an unfamiliar place so strongly entrenched in Beqanna’s magic. Surely, it was an irresistible beacon to the shadow-creatures.

He had been successful in his plea for a quest, granted to him by a wilting fairy of Beqanna. This strange darkness and unnatural eclipse were perhaps more dangerous than he could even fathom if it were affecting even the most magical of this land. He’d never thought much of the magic of Beqanna. In fact, he regarded it with a bone deep wariness born of a childhood raised amongst godless mortals who wielded their abilities without a care to those around them.

The fairy had given him a two-part problem to solve. He had asked for a way to protect himself, but she had said he was already strong enough to do so. Lestrade had only to find a way to prove to himself that he was as she had said. But then she had suggested (ordered) that he also find a way to rid the land of these shadow-creatures. How could an average mortal being find a solution to this problem when the most powerful who lived on top the Mountain had not already done so themselves? Was this perhaps a test of the Beqannians’ strength and will? But why administer this unnatural darkness when it so obviously affected them as well?

He had much to ponder and he felt a little intimidated by the scope of this request.

While distracted by his thoughts, he had all too soon reached the banks of the fast-moving river that cut through the heart of Beqanna. He continued in this same distracted fashion, following the gentle curve of the river before coming around the bend and almost colliding with another. He brought his head up hurriedly and attempted to side-step the white mare to prevent the collision. It took some careful maneuvering, but he managed to only brush shoulders with the stranger before he quickly stepped away and put some distance between the two.

He was already on edge after his mountain top journey and his voice came out more brusque than he had intended.

“My apologies.”

Unbeknownst to him, a shadow-creature had been tailing his steps all the way from the base of the mountain. Drawn in by the fairy’s magical presence that had lingered on his skin, it had reclined in the darkness savoring the smell of it. Of course, the magic had faded shortly after he had left the Mountain far behind him.

Lestrade

mint & violet son of lupei and azlyn.

@[Mazikeen]

[Mazikeen]

Her ear flicks towards the sound of someone approaching but Mazikeen is so wrapped up in her own thoughts - even though they were thoughts of someone appearing out of the darkness and solving all her problems - that she doesn’t react more than that until their shoulders brush. She tenses and stops her wandering but does not back away - and it is gratifying when he does. Mazikeen was not at her best at the moment and she silently reprimands herself for becoming so distracted she had lost sight other immediate surroundings. She knew there were creatures in the shadows, she had fought a few of them already, and yet she was too busy sulking to have the common sense to stay aware. There’s a small ‘oh’ moment where maybe (maybe) Mazikeen starts to understand why she had been given this quest and challenge from the fairies. But this small sense of self-reflection is pushed aside for now. She hadn’t been paying attention either, but his blunt non-apology needles her skin further than it already had been, and she thinks it might be satisfying to insult someone other than herself for a change. “Fewer brain cells than legs, huh?” Mazikeen bites back, her ears flattening against her skull as she stares at him. Immediately forgetting what she had just reprimanded herself for, she’s focused more on him, this alarmingly green and violet creature, than their immediate surroundings and is not paying attention to the slow move of shadows around them.

@[lestrade]