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    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    [open]  all the stars go dark
    #1

    The deep black of her feathered wings are neatly tucked into the gold and white of her sides. They rustle briefly with the wind’s playfulness, tugging most forcefully at the obsidian and cobalt tassels of her forelock and mane. Those unique leopard print markings of noticeable blue along her spine are hidden beneath the folds of her wings, only seen perhaps from above. She stares blankly into the river, realizing that its lazy current is nothing like staring into the ocean and with wrinkled waves that crash incessantly against the blackened shoreline of Tephra. They’re continuous and without fail; Olena decides this is why she had always been so fond of the ocean - there are no surprises.

    The river does not give her the same feeling. It’s too calm and felt uncertain as if something is hiding beneath the surface. She snorts, lifting her slender head carefully until her chin tilts upwards to the summer sky, aching for the smell of ash and sulfur intermingled with salt and sun. She can’t go back there, she knows, but Tephra had been all she’s known. She had wandered and staggered out into the unknown, somehow finding the river out of luck after days of aimless walking. She’s barely ventured outside of those lava-filled plains and now, finding herself at some unfamiliar river, she is overwhelmed with sadness.

    Her only safe harbor had been destroyed in the most terrible of ways, with darkness at each turn and nightmares roving like mad dogs whether her eyes had been open or closed. It has turned her memories sour (memories that she clung so tightly to - her mothers and her brother) and Olena’s eyes close tightly, trying to focus on the warmth of the sun on the deep gold of her face, the expressive leopard print markings of cerulean blue making her face appear a lot sharper than the mare truly is.

    Even Rilian is gone - disappeared within the darkness without a trace. He had been a stoic, unplayful elk that could not have been more opposite of her when she was a filly. He had protected her, kept her safe when sickness plagued her for the first four years of her life. But he had disappeared along with the others, swallowed by darkness Olena assumes, and for the first time in her life, she is truly alone.

    And she is absolutely terrified.

    Olena lowers her head and despite the sunlight that pours across her back and those beautiful raven wings, she begins to quietly cry. She sheds tears for all that she’s lost and for the realization that she is as lost as they are.

    OLENA
    all the stars go dark

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    #2
    Lost and alone, Symba finds a small, quiet area on the bank of the river. As the wind picks up slightly, he looks towards where it’s coming from. He spots a mare, not far from him. She looks sad, he notices. He lets out a small curious whinny in her direction, wondering if she’ll notice him. He’s been separated from his herd, from all he’s known. He’s never been so lonely before. His ears flicker back and forth wondering why she seems sad. He decides to move closer to investigate. “Are you okay?” He asks, trying to keep his distance. “I just saw you and heard you crying. I’m Symba. Are you hurt?” He asks softly, trying to not pry but making sure the mare is okay. He’d feel awful if something was wrong and he just left.
    @Olena
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    #3

    His mind is unlike the River.

    The River is peaceful, serene. It moves swiftly, but there is nothing to argue with its path. It moves past Nashua and pays the winged stallion no mind at all. Nashua, in turn, pays the River the no mind. His thoughts remain distracted and the expression on his handsome face is distant, as if the pegasus had already flown miles away.

    Nashua thinks of Yanhua, and wonders again where his brother and his herd have gone. He thinks of his younger brothers - of Reave and Oren - and wonders if, in his search for answers, he has failed the brothers that remain. Reave - who spends far too much with Aela than Nash is comfortable with - had been so angry during their last meeting, and he wonders in hindsight what he had overlooked with his youngest brother.

    And then there was still Gale to consider (another sibling), wherever he had gone. No longer in Hyaline had been the most recent news, and the rumors of nightmares and dark shadows swirling Tephra had made the King of the North turn his attention towards the western kingdom. If the thing wearing the shape of his half-sibling had gone there, did it mean he might find Bolder there as well?

    So many questions, and not enough answers.

    Scowling, the winged stallion broke away from the trail and started to make his return towards the Taiga where he knew to find Noel.

    But a shape from his past lingers near the River's edge, and her familiar blue spots catch Nash's attention immediately. Olena hasn't attracted only his notice, though, and his green eyes move sharply towards the buckskin as the pegasus approaches the pair. "Olena," the striped pegasus exhales, revealing how worried for her that he had been. It had been years since he had last glimpsed the overo pegasus and his gaze remains a moment too long. Seeing her now is a (momentary) balm against so many growing concerns.

    "Are you another Tephran?" Nashua asks the other stallion brusquely, turning his blazed face towards him while continuing to come closer to Olena. "One of the descendants of Kagerus and Solace?"

    @Olena @Symba

    [Image: jCdBK6.png]
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    #4
    Symba looks over, seeing the other stallion. “Not that I know of... I was just grazing and saw this mare. She seemed sad. I just wanted to see if she needed comforting..” He says, backing off while waiting for the mare’s reaction. “We’ve all been through a lot recently. “Who are you? I feel like I’ve seen you before..” he says, trying to ponder on where he’s seen this stallion. “I’m Symba, I’ve been wandering, lost and alone. When the sky went black, it startled me like it did everyone else. I haven’t seen another horse since the Darkness.”
    @Nashua @Olena
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    #5

    The nightmares had been the worst, she realizes. In Tephra it seemed to have fed off of her insecurities and loneliness, reminding her of how exactly she had come into such terrible solitude. Nothing of her own true doing, but the nightmares made it impossible to see anything else - she was too weak, too frail, no one wanted to tend to such a burden. So they all had left her, even Rilian, to fend for herself.

    Some nights, she had prayed that she wouldn’t wake.

    Immediately upon realizing another is near, Olena turns her thin and slender face away, hiding her tear-stained cheeks from him. Her blue-tipped ears flick back slightly in embarrassment, curving her golden neck to gently rub the side of her face against the deep onyx of the inside of her foreleg. When she lifts her head and turns back towards the stranger (of course it is a stranger, not one of her long-lost loves returned) - the leopard spots framing her gentle eyes making her appear sharper than she truly is - there is a soft, sad smile on her dark mouth. “I’m not hurt,” she replies to him, reassuring him that there is no physical ailment that causes the once steady trickle of tears to fall down her face and into the river below. Her voice wavers, however, and she knows she does not believe what she says.

    Her brow furrows slightly in thought, remembering a time when all she could remember was hurting, aching and dying, and how when she had grown older the sickness seemed to magically alleviate. Only Rilian had been with her at the time and only he knew of her miraculous recovery, but soon after he had disappeared and she could not find him - nor Solace, nor Kagerus, nor Oberyn. Her throat tightens and it is clear that new tears threaten to spill over, but she squashes the feeling with a deep and shuddering inhale.

    And then, her name is spoken for the first time in years and if it had been possible, all of the colors would have drained from her face. She felt weak as if she was once again a victim of her childhood illness, but her cerulean gaze sparkles with joy despite how her heart hammers in her slender chest. She soaks in his voice, his familiar form, and feels as if she could crumble from sheer surprise - someone still remained, Nashua is still here, alive and well. She nearly begins to cry again, all of her fear and doubt threatening to show itself physically in the form of delicate, crystal tears.

    Olena doesn’t say anything, she can’t, and is thankful that he continues to move closer to her - the winged mare isn’t sure her legs would listen to her. Frozen, realizing she wants nothing more than to melt into the familiarity of his feathers, even though it had been years since the two had seen each other. If Nashua was here, perhaps her family is too - maybe even Rilian - and that would mean she isn’t lost at all. She smiles wearily, feeling all of the weight of the past few years as it resettles onto her back.

    Symba speaks of the darkness and Olena’s face sharpens. The darkness is what had started her journey into solitude and though the reminder of it does not perturb her (she has been faced with that darkness for ages, even after the sun had returned), it seems as though the other stallion has found himself displaced because of it as well. Olena’s heart aches for him as much as it aches for herself and her lost family.

    “I can’t stay in Tephra anymore,” she suddenly says, a frown on her thin face. “I can’t stand the loneliness.” I’m afraid I’ll die of it, she adds to herself silently. Her words, soft and meek, are directed at both the stranger and Nashua, explaining her being at the River as well as why she had been crying only moments before.

    OLENA
    all the stars go dark




    @Symba
    @Nashua
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