[open] i burn from the hell i've seen: any

[Fireheart]

i burn from the hell i've seen, but the devil can't hold me down

Loneliness was unavoidable for immortals. It hung around the edges of the soul, a scentless gas that poisoned slowly but efficiently. It invaded the mind first, the easiest point of entry. The mind, for all its amazing powers, was weak. Shortly after the mind was filled with the smoke of longing, it moved on to the heart. How grand the design of living creatures was, to place the poor heart behind the bars of the ribs! An attempt at protection, but smoke and gas do not play by the same rules as other things that seek to break hearts. The ribs were nothing to a poison gas, and so too would the heart would fall quickly to the pangs of loneliness. Not broken, perhaps. Still beating stubbornly against its feeble cage, the sound echoing through that poison fog. But its beats were bitter things. They did not change in pattern. They did not change in speed. They simply went on, doing the same thing they had always done, unending.

Despite the passage of time and the years behind him, he had never failed to watch the sunset and react accordingly. The colors were always different, the patterns wild and untamed. They could not be replicated, even though his own coat mimicked the color of a sunset, with the dark inky blue chasing away the bright orange of daylight. He had a ritual for the evening time that started with his eyes on the horizon. He would watch carefully, his heart cheering on the sun but always a part of his soul willing the moon victorious. He would remain stoic throughout the display, though his skin would tremble in anticipation. Finally, when the sun would relent and disappear, he would emerge. Not in the plain form he had been born into, but as fire made flesh and feather. It was his way of trying to burn the loneliness away.

He arrived into the meadow on those firey wings, brighter than the surrounding stars and much more tangible. Sparks flew from his wings as he sang, an otherworldly song that resonated right down to the very marrow of a living creatures bone. It was a song that spoke of love, of loss, of betrayal and desperation and all other things in between. It had no beginning, no end, it simply was. As if the world had known the song all along, but had no voice worthy of singing it. He banked across the sky like a meteor, using the fire around him to propel himself faster and faster. He performed for no one but himself, though he would not pass up conversation if a conversation presented itself. For now, the meadow lay empty and sleeping, lulled by the music he could not keep in his lonely, sad heart.

fireheart

ooc- he's brand new and i'm not brand new but very old and returning after a long hiatus, lol!

[lait]

There was one beautiful, blessed thing about the close of summer and the coming of autumn - the daylight hours grew shorter. Lait did not outright despise the sun, enjoying the warmth and light it provided as much as any rational equine. It was the side effects that its rays had on her body that had the young mare scowling at cloudless days. Her coat color was problem enough, the lack of pigment in her skin and eyes causing them to burn and sting if the light was bright enough. But the fairies in their wisdom had decided to work a third consequence of sun exposure into her blood - phosphorescence. Even if she sought to limit time spent out and about during the day, what little sun she got while simply doing daily tasks was enough to activate her gift come nightfall. The glow made her conspicuous, in a way that the more "gifted" inhabitants of Beqanna simply were not. Feathered wings, fiery breath, sharp fangs, spiraling horns and cat's eyes - these features were outside the equine norm if her parents' tales of other realms were to be believed, but with them one could still hide. They were blessings that did not rob you of the safety of the shadows, of the quiet and peace promised by darkness. They were not beacons, drawing unwanted attention and pulling her into confrontation.

The downsides of autumn? Falling temperatures, for one - Lait, with her sleek, lean build, was a creature made for far warmer climates than the one she currently found herself in. Summer had been easy enough to deal with. She had kept to the river running through Beqanna's heart, using its waters to slake her thirst and sheltering under the great oak's branches during the heat of the day. There was no such easy solution for dealing with the cold. Try as it might, her coat simply could not grow in thick enough to stave off the chill. Even now forage and still-running water were becoming harder to find. Most mornings she either had to go to a section of the fast-flowing rapids to drink, which opened her to the dangers of falling in and being swept away, or she had to paw and scrape at the ice until she made a large enough hole from which to drink. The dwindling of edible grasses had forced her to leave the river's environs for the unfortunately more populated meadow. The cremello mare had expected trouble when she had first set up camp, keeping her head on a swivel and her body tensed to flee. As of yet, none had bothered her. The few that had met her pale stare quickly found something else to occupy themselves with. Whether it was her odd, jumpy demeanor that kept them away or that they too had little desire to engage in conversation she was not sure.

Nightfall found her head lowered and her nose to the ground, trying to pull a few more mouthfuls of grass before she bedded down for at least a few hours. The past few days had been oddly quiet and the couple of horses she'd seen had been from a distance. Things were peaceful, in a way they'd not been since she was little. Without realizing it she'd lowered her guard, spending more time out and about past dark, where before she would have hightailed it to the stand of trees she'd camped out in as soon as the sun began to set. Sudden light overhead - beautiful, brilliant, shifting reds and oranges that put her own soft light to shame - startled her. Her head shot upward and she jumped, letting out an undignified screech. There was no time for embarrassment or fear to set in, not when awe flooded her system. Overhead circled a great burning bird - no, not just burning, but seemingly made of crackling flame, every flap of its wings shedding crackling embers. The song that came from its open beak hurt to hear. It was her mother's kind eyes, her father's smile, her brother's laughter. It was their absence, too, the agonizing thought that she would never see them again. Lait could no more look away than she could join it in the sky, wide eyes following the phoenix's flight as tears trailed down her cheeks.

(ooc: this is my first post in several years. please be gentle • ^ •人)

lait

a soft light in the dark

[Fireheart]

i burn from the hell i've seen, but the devil can't hold me down

He danced in spite of the cool night air. He danced in spite of the meadow sleeping below him. He mostly danced in spite of himself. The chill meant nothing to him, and his flaming wings cut through the cold effortlessly. The empty land raced by beneath him, oblivious to the wonder and magic that was phoenix flight. Higher he went, higher and higher until it felt like the stars were within his grasp. He had no solid reason, nor did he care to have one. The fire propelled his flight, and his heart created the song that spilled from his throat. Those were reason enough for him.

He sensed her before he saw her. Not in a magical way, but in that way all living things can sense one another. Perhaps it was a shift in the energy, or something even more subtle. He was not one to question such things, anyways. Whatever the case, it made him cease his upward climb, crimson and orange wings spreading wide as he banked across the sky. It did not take him long to spot her. Like him, she stood out. Unlike him, she was the moonglow, whereas he was the sun made living. A soft glow emitted from her, a star in a sea of blackened pitch. With little more than a thought he created a burst of fire and flew headlong into it, disappearing in a sea of sparks. But he did not stay gone. That same fireball erupted near the ground, brighter than the sun and crackling with a ferocity that could only be explained by magics unknown. From the fireball he emerged, shifting from bird to equine in the blink of an eye. He landed trotting, the phoenix gone but for a few feathers floating behind him on the breeze he had created. They sizzled and spit as they hit the damp grass, gone to that place that all magic things disappear to when they are no longer of use.

It had been so long since he had spoken to another. His immortality had allowed him to live countless years, but faces and days grew hazy after so long until eventually they were gone all together. He had long ago realize that it was easier to forget than it was to lose over and over again. But something about this night had pulled at his lonely heart, and he was happy to see another. With a shake of his navy head he approached the small-statured mare slowly, having taken note of her apprehension. He offered her a smile before offering her is name. "Fireheart." he said. While his singing voice was well-honed, his speaking voice was another matter entirely, and the rust on his vocal chords was evident. "You seem sad." An observation, followed by a distinctly avian tilt of his head.

fireheart

ooc- no judgement from me! i'm back after about 8 years, so definitely rusty myself! >.<