"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
I wish I could feel it all for you, I wish I could do it all for you
It is ironic, really, that what he really needs is time travel. If he’d said so – said ‘by the way, really I just need someone to go to the end of the world’, Kellyn would have been well ahead of the game. Cagney might have been cautious with his powers, careful and concealing, but the part of Kellyn that was Elite’s had flaunted hers, playing in time the way some children played in the water. The end of the world was beyond her normal playscape, of course, but it might have been doable. And between him and her? Probably child’s play.
But space – space is new. One moment they are standing, and she is taking a careful look at the unfamiliar faces around her; the next, there is a name in her head, Gail, and she is flung into another place. She can feel the time change around her, straining; time is not the same in space. And it’s cold – cold and somehow lighter, and she opens hazel eyes wide to look around. They have their instructions – but they are not without fear. Casually she moves her feet but she doesn’t move forward the way she would like; it is not like water, as if there is no resistance at all. One other calls, help me!. Another just, help!. Kellyn glances towards the first mind-voice first, towards the bay boy with the big white socks, but before she can consider moving in his direction another has gone to him to help. They are struggling forward.
And the other boy – he has stepped onto the back of some strange creatures. Actually, she thinks, they look similar to some of the things that live in the depths of the ocean; she has seen them, from a distance, standing dangerously at the edge of the ice. Glancing around she finally decides that only those who know each other have decided to work together; stubbornly, she decides she will succeed on her own.
Space is not empty, as they have found, and Kellyn notices that there are large pieces of debris floating about, seemingly aimlessly. They will give her momentum, if she can push off of them. But they drift too slowly towards her: carefully she grasps at the slippery lines of space-time and tugs, tugs until time shifts around her and the first of many platforms of space-ice-rock taps against her hooves. Scrambling she stands on top of it and then launches off towards the next one, and then from that landing towards the next. It forms a sort of rhythm: leap, land, push off; and if the next rock isn’t quite where she needs it to be, she tugs the threads of time until it drifts into her reach.
The warmth grows, and the dark rises. Not suddenly – but as if the world gets denser, as if the light is being sucked out of it. They coincide, the dark and the warmth, and so it is there that Kellyn aims for. But just before reaching it, she looks back. Turns back, standing on the last rock; she can tell that another leap will end it: the others have vanished into this space and she can feel its tug, feel herself drifting towards the end. But a part of her wants to make sure nobody else needs help. She can’t do much…but she could send some rocks their way….if they ask. She sends a tentative query into the dark, waits, helps if she’s asked.
And then she turns, and jumps, and falls. Falls into warmth and then nothing. And wonders if this is the end. If the dark god of her mother really wanted nothing more than more sacrifices.
05-12-2015, 07:40 PM (This post was last modified: 05-12-2015, 07:49 PM by Nymeria.)
In an instant she was somewhere new, unimaginable. Along side her were tens of horses, all of which were acting somewhat frantically. Nymeria was not one to panic. She wasn’t afraid of death, nay, she actually embraced it. Some horses worked together while others called upon unknown creatures. Nymeria simply closed her eyes and felt. She felt the static air of the universe, the cold dry nothingness. Her body sensed nothing, but a light draw of heat. Warmth felt right. Her hooves stretched forward, veering her body in the direction of the heat. It wasn’t much use to attempt to pull her body in any direction so she simply waited. She waited calmly for her chance.
Eyes opened and before her an answered prayer. A star, meteor, stabilized itself before her. She felt her hooves as they stretched and landed upon the rough rock. It sprang from its position and flew forward against space. In all honesty Nymeria did not take into account the other horses. She focused on herself, on her body, and her movements. She wouldn’t concern herself, she had a mission. Nymeria traced the name in her head Gail, Gail, G-A-I-L, Gail It sounded familiar yet foreign. It was what she was seeking, and space had simply become an obstacle.
Her hooves wrestled with the stone form beneath her. Nymeria kept her eyes closed and focused solely on the warmth. Another rock flew her way and she stepped out in trust (this rock sent to her from an unknown ally, Kellyn) Nymeria had no idea that this rock was what eventually propelled her to the heated furnace. Once the sweat began to pour from her brow she jumped and fell into the worm hole- not knowing where she was going.
They are there, and then suddenly they are not. All thirteen of them of flung away, into space, his words ringing inside their minds. The red girl can feel the urgency in them. Hurry, he said. Gail, he said. And so she does. She hurries to find Gail.
There is a moment of disconnect as she disappears in one place and reappears in another. She does not flail though, does not gasp. Her mind recalculates quickly, as it does when she flies. In this one instance, she may have an advantage, however slight it may be. She is used to the weightlessness of flight, the way the stomach hollows as you drop. This is different, but somehow similar. She adjusts quickly, her body and mind acclimatizing to the false atmosphere with the ease of one used to change.
It is then that she is struck by awe, the beauty of her surroundings hitting her like a sledgehammer. She cannot help but admire vastness and be chilled by the stillness at the same time. But she is recalled to her mission, reminded of the reason she has been flung into this far off expanse. Gail. The word continues to whisper through her mind, a constant reminder of why she is here.
Other voices begin to echo, cries for help in this vast, startling space. When she hears Ramiel’s shout, she goes cold, colder than she already is. The thought that he is in trouble spurs her on, drives her forward. In her own childish way, she loves him. Loves him as she loves her mother and her father. As any sister would love their brother.
She is used to flight, so the odd weightlessness does not disorient her as much as it might another. Her flight aids her, propelling her forward, giving her speed. It is sluggish though, almost as if her ability cannot find proper purchase within the air, as though it cannot behave as it normally might on earth. But she is able to move forward, floating through the still expanse despite the lethargic way her gift performs. Finally, she sees him, perched atop the back of a strange creature. A grin lights her visage, her fascination evident as she watches the captivatingly unique alien. She floats closer, following Ramiel and the creature. For a moment, curiosity nearly overwhelms the persistent echo inside her mind. But that echo wins out in the end. Gail, he says. And she obeys.
She lands, just behind Ramiel, the ambient warmth of the place surrounding her, heating her chilled skin. She stares, golden eyes wide, curiousity, wonder, and a slight hint of trepidation vying for domination within her.
There is no turning back now; it's too late. Her face, her entirety, has been recognized as she accepts the challenge that was presented. It had been on impulse that she accepted it without regard to what she may or may not miss in life behind her. Nayl is left alone in the Jungle, and for what? So her mother can get another taste of adventure like she had so many years ago.
The world is as it should be until she blinks.
When her eyes open they drink in a strange scene. Her stomach lurches in uncertainty as she suddenly feels the weight of her body disappear. When she glances over her shoulder she is still one piece, still a horse. There are no alterations to her body except that it is floating amongst a sea of stars. They dance around her, glittering and twinkling as she weightlessly hovers in a world of blackness.
Follow the warmth, she hears the voice say.
But what warmth?
The kiss of nothingness is frigid and eerie. The others are navigating as best they can, moving and utilizing their powers. From afar, Myrina observes them all and how some congregate in assistance. The Amazons have already tried joining their forces, leaving her alone. A frown creases the fierce beauty of her face. It doesn't faze her. They are sheep huddling together and she is a wolf with her own ideas.
But what?
There are glacial sized rocks that tumble by. Such weird things they are - crystallized and enormous - but they ignite something in her. The pits of her soul waver in recognition and excitement and so while she floats she begins to consider her options.
With power surging through her core, she beckons the asteroids and meteors toward her body. They glide sluggishly toward her, but only the smaller ones. The huge asteroids would weaken her far too greatly to continue this quest. They form a platform of sort for her at first but when she tries to walk, she only continues to hover and gracefully spin. There is no control over which direction she travels and so the frustration begins to build.
But she reminds herself that there are still the meteors that she can control.
With an expense of energy, she guides one of the floating boulders toward her. It pushes against her, cradles her, and directs her into the willed direction. If she begins to drift she is sure to adjust the path of her object to ensure she will not float away. It's her ship in this blackened world of space. It glides effortlessly along until she is first able to sense heat. There, she muses as she manipulates her meteor's path to push her in the desired location. There are more, however, rocks flying toward her. She can feel collisions against her rock that jolt her forward or out of place. Pieces are breaking away as she defies the natural pull of gravity against her boulder. It's weakening her, slightly, but she has had years of practice that are being utilized now.
The wormhole is coming closer.
Another outside meteor crashes into hers, this time forcing her forward and away. It takes away her breath and blurs her vision for a split moment. The wormhole is drifting away now. No, she thinks as she kicks her legs in a futile effort to swim through the sea of stars. It does nothing and so she nets the first asteroid she sees to take the others place. It's larger and nearly consumes her in the jagged shards of crystal and rock. With her muscles tense and her hooves pressed against a bare spot, she allows it to push her. When it's near (so near that her body feels like it's aflame) she thrusts herself forward.
The wormhole is here.
It drinks her in and brings her into an entirely different world.
