10-23-2018, 08:36 AM
Terror strikes her through vivid nightmares. She awakes in a frothy sweat, sienna pelt stained an almost black. The whites of her eyes are illuminated by the moonlight that stretches below the thick jungle canopy of Tephra. The fleshy muscle within her chest presses hard against her ribcage in a quick, rhythmic succession. If she hadn't screamed aloud, she would have been shocked. The images, the command had been all too vivid. Her father, in a land she is sure she has seen before. A voice telling her he must be found, must die...
Her eyes shift about her surroundings. It is here she has lived for years. In the solitary depths of the tropical flora she has created to shield herself from the outside world. The once ambitious mare, to right her wrongs, has chosen to exile herself from a world she could not save. And now that world calls to her. To kill someone she barely even knows, but knows in her heart he cannot be all that the voice claims. She must find him. Save him.
.
Standing quickly on white booted limbs, she follows an intuition. Something pulling deep within her to the very place she had seen in these images. Its grey washed sands and barren cliffs rising to allow a weak stream to flow through the canyon below. Upon this perch she searches the basin, looking for signs of life. She is as sure as her heart beats that he is here.
From the west she spots movement. A lone equine racing across the sands as if purpose has found them too. She watches for only a moment before she is too following along the upper cliffside -an eye trained on the being below and another on her chosen path. The air here causes her to choke. It is dry and the stench of death clings heavily around her. The thickness was exhausting her to slow to a two-beat pace, but she didn't need to go much farther before she finds a gathering and the horse she had followed slowing to join them...
Her bright eyes turn to the center of the masses, finding a chestnut amongst them. "No!" She chokes from her unused vocals. Panic fills her mind and without thought she has crested the edge of the cliff and begun a sharp descent. Hooves scrape along sand and stone, causing sliding of the earth below her. Rocks loosen and begin to trail her steep path, threatening to consume her. A plume of dust forms around her but her forward movement does not stop. When her hooves hit the flatter terrain, she is quick to leap forwards and away from the landslide behind her.
She only looks forward, eyes trained on the faint form of a chestnut that she believes to be her father. With each stride she nears, his form becomes more clear. "Dad!" She calls to him in a pleading voice. Others attack him, using physical means and magic alike. "No! Stop!" She pleads again, trying to fight her way into the crowd. It is no use, there are too many and she is too weak. A snort erupts from her nares but the sound is quickly cut off by a voice that comes behind her...
Mother. So nice of you to join us
She turns sharply to see an image so horrific it couldn't possibly be real. His eyes, as red as his fathers. "Zain?" the question forms but a mother knows her own child -even if it had been years since she last saw him. His body was not what she remembers. It is battered, flesh hangs from bone that she can clearly see. "W...What happened to you? What are you doing here??" More questions come but honestly, she was afraid of the answers.
I have found my purpose Mother. To serve the dark God. I need your help Mother...
The wickedness that becomes his face causes her to gasp. She stumbles back, bumping into another. Her attention diverts for only a second, but that is all he needs. Her body crumbles to the sickened earth of Pangea. Her health whisked away in a mere moment. The struggles and triumphs of her life, gone, instantaneously.
Thank you Mother.
Her eyes shift about her surroundings. It is here she has lived for years. In the solitary depths of the tropical flora she has created to shield herself from the outside world. The once ambitious mare, to right her wrongs, has chosen to exile herself from a world she could not save. And now that world calls to her. To kill someone she barely even knows, but knows in her heart he cannot be all that the voice claims. She must find him. Save him.
.
Standing quickly on white booted limbs, she follows an intuition. Something pulling deep within her to the very place she had seen in these images. Its grey washed sands and barren cliffs rising to allow a weak stream to flow through the canyon below. Upon this perch she searches the basin, looking for signs of life. She is as sure as her heart beats that he is here.
From the west she spots movement. A lone equine racing across the sands as if purpose has found them too. She watches for only a moment before she is too following along the upper cliffside -an eye trained on the being below and another on her chosen path. The air here causes her to choke. It is dry and the stench of death clings heavily around her. The thickness was exhausting her to slow to a two-beat pace, but she didn't need to go much farther before she finds a gathering and the horse she had followed slowing to join them...
Her bright eyes turn to the center of the masses, finding a chestnut amongst them. "No!" She chokes from her unused vocals. Panic fills her mind and without thought she has crested the edge of the cliff and begun a sharp descent. Hooves scrape along sand and stone, causing sliding of the earth below her. Rocks loosen and begin to trail her steep path, threatening to consume her. A plume of dust forms around her but her forward movement does not stop. When her hooves hit the flatter terrain, she is quick to leap forwards and away from the landslide behind her.
She only looks forward, eyes trained on the faint form of a chestnut that she believes to be her father. With each stride she nears, his form becomes more clear. "Dad!" She calls to him in a pleading voice. Others attack him, using physical means and magic alike. "No! Stop!" She pleads again, trying to fight her way into the crowd. It is no use, there are too many and she is too weak. A snort erupts from her nares but the sound is quickly cut off by a voice that comes behind her...
Mother. So nice of you to join us
She turns sharply to see an image so horrific it couldn't possibly be real. His eyes, as red as his fathers. "Zain?" the question forms but a mother knows her own child -even if it had been years since she last saw him. His body was not what she remembers. It is battered, flesh hangs from bone that she can clearly see. "W...What happened to you? What are you doing here??" More questions come but honestly, she was afraid of the answers.
I have found my purpose Mother. To serve the dark God. I need your help Mother...
The wickedness that becomes his face causes her to gasp. She stumbles back, bumping into another. Her attention diverts for only a second, but that is all he needs. Her body crumbles to the sickened earth of Pangea. Her health whisked away in a mere moment. The struggles and triumphs of her life, gone, instantaneously.
Thank you Mother.
Kolera
Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust.