Ciri
She’s expecting company at this point. The crack from the portal still rings in her ears or maybe that’s still the shrill whistle of dread that she can’t access her power lingering in her head. Either way, she’s bound to draw some sort of attention, good or bad. Kingdoms rarely let strangers go unnoticed and she can’t escape the irony of that. That she’s an interloper now, an outsider, an unknown to this place that had once been her only true concept of home. A soft snort of unamused laughter, once she had been called Hyaline’s Heart. His heart. Bittersweet memories that she forces down down down into that locked place inside of her. Turning her ravaged face towards the approaching orange eyes that glimmer in the darkness and guarding herself for what’s to come.
It’’s instinct now, her body immediately bracing into a defensive position as she makes out a large cat like figure. Curved lobes pinning to her skull and becoming hidden beneath the thickness of her dark mane. The absence of her star shield is a heavy weight along her back, unable to help herself as she instinctively calls to them even though she knows it’s pointless. She knew exactly what kind of things could lurk in the dark, knew better than most that monsters were real. Sometimes the Leshen still haunts her nightmares, the things she had seen in the Upside Down something she can never entirely forget. The cat suddenly shifts as it comes closer, a white mare taking its place. Light glows faintly from horns that frame her forehead and Ciri hesitates for a moment, still wary. Still guarded. Thousands of scars that pucker her dark body and leave silvery threads across her face tell the story of why she always assumes the worse but even those are hard to see now in this oppressive never-ending night. Slowly her ears relax and start to turn towards the mare who closes distance between them fairly quickly.
The stranger’s tone matches her own cautionary behavior and she’s not offended by it. Doesn’t blame her, know’s she’s the one trespassing here. It won’t matter, that she hadn’t meant to end up here. Wincing slightly against the sudden brightness of her light, the swirling silver of her iris’s moving slowly as it adjusts from the darkness. ”Sorry, I didn’t mean to end up here. I must have gotten turned around.” She speaks slowly, regarding the other hesitantly as she tries to gauge her reaction. It’s not really a lie, she hadn’t meant to land here. Hadn’t asked for Eternal to combust and force her out of its planer existence. She wonders if anyone else had survived. If anyone else might somehow find their way back to here. Or if this was another alternate reality too judging by the weird darkness and lack of a sky. ”I’m Ciri.” She offers as an afterthought, casting her pewter gaze around her before looking back to the horned female through tangles of black forelock. ”If you don’t mind showing me the way, I can get out of your hair.” Obviously she doesn’t have a plan, has nowhere to go, doesn’t realize exactly how unwanted she probably is even though a shifter gene lies dormant and unexpressed in her DNA. Even though the reason for that gene, her own mysterious estranged father, prowls around this lake and calls it his home now. All she does know is that she needs to figure out how to reach the stars, how to protect herself, and try to figure out what to do next. If her fate was to return to a life as a nomad, back to a forgotten wanderer then so be it. But she needs her stars, her lifeline. She needs them desperately.
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
@[Mazikeen]