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Quicksilver the Archangel
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 Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 7:00 pm
 Nope, not this way either. Alyssum huffed in the darkness, as though to make the dead end ahead of her feel guilty for not being the way out it had originally promised to be. A dismissive flick of her creamy tail and a backwards motion lead her back to the multiforking path she had just passed. Two down, infinite left to go.
It had taken her forever just to get this far into the cavern system. What a good idea it had seemed at the time to go for another exploration deeper into the earth and away from her foresty home, even though she knew what it was like to have to keep her neck craned out to prevent her head and ears from brushing the ceiling, to feel the choked, warm air that stirred with only the slightest ventilation, where the only light came from semi-glowing things on the wall and shafts of sunlight that had, somehow, pierced the thickness of the rock above.
Probably the worst, though, was the echoing clop her hooves left behind; used to having the sound muffled by grass, it struck as discordant to her ears and, at least at first, half made her wonder if someone was following her. But that was silly - who else would willingly walk into this place besides her, with her insatiable curiousity? Sighing, she squinted down the remaining dark passages, wondering which would finally lead her back out into the sun. Would she have to try all of them?
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Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 6:11 pm
 For years, the caves had served as his homestead, the twisting, dimly lit corridors and yawning shafts where the unwary could tumble down into the earth's entrails. To the initiated, the most minute differences in structure registered as guiding marks, and the stallion knew the paths to his chambers well enough to navigate by memory. He usually strode forward with gifts in tow, glittering wreaths perched on the tips of his horns, little trinkets clasped tight in his mouth. He would return from the outside world, already visualizing the pleasure his findings would bring, his walk pulling his knees high and proud. His beloved was a creature of endless needs, and he gladly fed into them, providing all that he could regardless of the hazards involved. His flesh had been torn more than once in the pursuit of excellence, wanting to bestow a most fitting gift. But his actions of late had grown forced, satisfaction ebbing as his sweetheart stood silent and still in accusation, the precious items he brought insufficient when it came to quelling her temper.
It was not often that the kirin felt conflicted, his closeted reality infringed upon and the equilibrium lost. He was guilty, his mind weighing things that should have possessed no heft. Such a small misstep had served to condemn him before, and he had been punished for it with what he'd considered to be rough affection at the time. He could admit now that it had been jealousy, his love showing no greater aim than to keep him under surveillance. And yet, with every bout of cruelty he'd been made to endure, she had found him and helped him, given ear to his troubles and mended his hurts.
His tail swished behind him, slapping at the wet walls while he tried to slow his thoughts. It was only when he became focused on his surroundings that the stallion heard noise ahead of him, his tawny stare narrowing as he reconsidered his pace. He knew echoes, lived among them long enough to recognize when they were being untrue. This was not him walking, this was something - someone else - and they were too close.
A reflexive shot of scorching heat infused his chest, veins circulating the temperature until his entire body was pumping it to the beat of a deep, dark drum that all his desires spawned from. A thief, his mind whispered, and he took off, nostrils flared and tail raised up like a serpent ready to lay a poisoned bite. "Who's there?" He snarled, seeing shapes that did not belong existing in his personal darkness.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 7:36 pm
The one directly ahead, Alyssum decided. If she got lost or to another dead end, she could always go straight backwards. That'd be better than going to a side and having to remember to turn in the opposite directions to get back to her starting point. Right? She seemed to remember similiar rules if you got lost in the forest. Well... techinically, if you got lost, you weren't supposed to move because it made you harder to find, but in this case, nobody would be looking for her anyway.
The mare had just lifted her hoof when she heard the clickity-clack of another set of hooves. She immediatly found herself in high alert, her eyes widening as she moved her head to search the darkness, her thigh muscle twitching in its tell-tale nervousness even as she dropped her hoof with a thump. Should she stand her ground? It was what she typically did when confronted... but... they were coming now. Right now. They weren't going to be bluffed down. But she couldn't run either... not without getting lost! There was no way out!
The sensation of being trapped, more than anything, made her dig her hoof into the cave floor, a whinny escaping her throat before she could stop it. Though it killed her to run... she could not face an unseen threat, not when she had no way to judge the danger of the situation. Alyssum plucked up her resolve and began running forward as fast as she could, adrenaline thumping through her heart and making her wish that she had never come to this dark place.
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Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 5:01 pm
He was rushing shadows, rearing into nothingness to smash a spectral culprit until the vocal challenge broadsided him. The kirin whipped towards it, ears flattened and gold-swirled teeth on display while he tried to track movement with his dark-eaten vision. The sharp sound of hooves on stone and he was given direction, his horn connecting with thin stalactites when he hastily moved to follow, cracking them loose and sprinkling his face and neck with debris. Little tunnels of light thinner than glowworms punctured the ceiling, and he saw fleeting impressions of horseflesh in front of him, creams on dead leaf browns, all of them blurred in a mad dash to an unknown finish line.
It had been a long time since he'd encountered someone in his domain, so close to the core of his world. Had they already taken something? Were they running to avoid his sentencing? There was dust in his head, the long-settled kind, and it was spinning up in a torrent of blinding edges, cutting through the lingering daze just in time to register where it was they were headed. The tunnels were not wide enough to allow him to try overtaking the criminal, no opportunities to turn them around again in the near future. Even the dead end halls betrayed him, their chase turning into none of them as he followed the din of falling hooves ahead.
They broke into the chamber, and he found himself panting from feeling instead of exhaustion, frenzy painting fine threads of red across his eyes that burst into a single, whole carnelian horizon when he blinked. Channels of sunshine from above lit the area in shades of royalty, reflecting off of mirror plates and polished coins. Chimalsi's attention fastened onto his beloved first, towering in the center of it all, an enormity of gems and broken glass, half-rotten furs and delicate green-blue feathers. A sense of foreboding overtook him, his body charged with sparks, ready to burst apart and set everything in range on fire. Something was wrong, calculations failing to add up as he stared at the beauty he had devoted his life to. It felt off, somehow imbalanced, not as it had been. When he turned to the unwelcome visitor, vengeful murder bubbling up in his head, he caught the entirety of shape and size, a small mare, dark eyes huge and terrified of him, of her own guilt. His huge frame moved to separate her from his love, forming a barricade with his body, horn lowered in preparation. But something held him, stabbed him through and refused any further advance until he resolved whatever was nagging him.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:08 pm
Alyssum winced as her hoove scraped against a rock in her path, concentrating her gaze as best she could through the darkness without losing her speed. Her ears flicked back to listen to the clack of hooves following her own, but she was unaccustomed to the hollow, echoing sounds and had no real way to judge how fast he was or even if he could over take her. Run. All she could do was run.
A glowing aura of light ahead of her provided her with hope; nothing could have spurned her any faster. Light meant the possibilty of full escape, back to grass and guardian trees that would offer her familiar surroundings with which to deal with this threat. The chocolate mare ignored the burning in her legs and chest, the frothy sweat lathering on her flanks. She -had- to reach the light!
That final burst of speed allowed her to reach her goal, but this portion of the cave was different from the rest. Instead of dark, slimy stone, every where her eyes fell she saw gold, silver, colored gems and feathers. Her nose crinkled against the musty, metallic smell of the place, the black tip drawn up disapprovingly. Impressive. Beautiful. But... unnatural to someone used to finding shining trinkets only in passing. Worst of all, the light had been deceptive - for all the riches around her, she was still trapped. The only way out was the way she had come, and she could not do that because she'd run into her assailant.
She had little time to appreciate the treasure trove before her or further consider her options, as her persuer bustled his way between the mare and the pile. What she saw took her breath away, leaving the normally chatty Soquili speechless. The streaming sunlight glinted off of brandished gold and and bronze, and though contorted with fury, she would recognize those features anywhere. When she did find her voice again, it was filled with emotions that rarely bubbled to the surface - surprise and hurt, fear and confusion, "G-golden One?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:06 am
He didn't expect her to speak, even cornered and alarmed as she was. Language was a sign of intelligence, and nothing smart stole from his beloved's splendor. Even with that in mind, it made him pause, his muzzle lifting a few centimeters so that he could reassess her. It was not his name, but it was something curiously related, a nerve jangling with reminders at the stuttered title. His snort echoed off the walls in a gunpowder explosion, trying to trace the live filament to its end while he held up his tense posture, eyes heavy and molten beneath the golden crown of his brow. A peripheral twinge made it occur to him that he was probably bleeding somewhere, rock shards studding his cropped hair and copper in his mouth, but he couldn't sense any throbbing sources. The stallion was too guarded yet for pain to register.
The answer came slowly, fractured images that layered until they began to form a whole. A tree rat, a river; a dragonfly and crossroads. The flower girl, the lily-bearing mare who had shown undue interest in his home life. He remembered his suspicion then, somehow stronger than what wound through his mind now, even when she presented before him with webs of stolen gold and green glinting off of her coat. His curved horn raised after a long moment, gashing the stale air as if to make more words fall out. She had seemed simple, but now he was not so sure. If he'd been tricked, it was a near flawless performance.
"What have you taken?" His tone was serrated, gripping and sawing all in one short accusation. If she came clean, perhaps... she could be pardoned for her youthful mistake. She'd given him the lily, the flower that had posed white and pure in the water near the back of his cave until it withered, and he'd eaten it on ritualistic impulse. The flower was beloved's, he was beloved's - in the end, nothing was lost. But he could feel her seething now, feel the waves of anger lashing at his flanks, demanding to know his intentions. He had killed for less before, why did he hesitate when it came to this one, unimpressive being?
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:13 pm
Does he hate me that much?
The thought struggled through her mind like a moth freshly entangled in a spider's web. The more she tried to find the origins of the anger in his face, the mad gleam in his eyes, the stronger the struggle, as pointless as it was. They had not parted on the friendliest of terms, but did she really offend him enough to have him chase her in this hot, musty place? To pose like he was going to attack her? The mare resisted the urge to back away from the shining stallion, still looking up to him, admiring him, even if she could see something struggling behind the look on his face. Looking up at him, waiting for him to reach his decision, the silence sunk in her ears like thick, swamp mud. Her nerves had never been this edgey, and she hated the feeling.
The whip crack question startled her in its suddeness, its volume, and when the meaning behind his words sank through to her brain, her nervousness evaporated beneath the heat of quick anger. "I didn't take anything!" Alyssum huffed the words, stamping her hoof with a plunk against the gold glittered ground. She had already gotten lost, been caught off guard, chased through the cramped, hot tunnels, and now her honor was being insulted? Golden one or not, this could not be allowed! "I'm not a thief! And even if I was... why would I take any of this... stuff?"
A nod of her head indicated the pile of objects that literally filled the area, giving another snort against its smell. She was no magpie to be lured in by shiny, lifeless trinkets, though obciously whoever had brought all of these baubles together placed a great deal of value to them. Aside from her defiant hoof stomp, she remained motionless, head held high as she faced her accuser. "Besides... you saw me the whole time; I didn't even know these things were here until you chased me in!"
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 1:49 am
What had been skittishness twisted into a kind of righteous indignation at his snarl, coating her in armor as fragile as the creature she'd mistakenly named an airborne treasure. She didn't seem to understand, not any of it - her tenuous standing or his ferocity - and he went rigid all over again when her foot drove into beloved's shining outskirts. "It is not 'stuff.'" He spat venomously at the mare's word choice, quivering as he slashed the air with the hooked, golden spirals that drilled out of his forehead. "And why are you here, if not to thieve? Why would you come to my home when I have given you no allowances?" Why had any of them come? Wallowing in his life until they were corpses, time robbing them of the dignities of flesh, sometimes leaving invisible stains on his hooves. Even the flower had died, and he had tended to it, cared for it, no act he could follow through on enough to preserve it. He'd eaten it and it had been bitter, papery crumbs in his mouth.
And now here was another live thing, an out of place entity who had given him the idea to introduce breathing luxuries to his abode in the first place. She did not belong in more ways than failing to meet his standards, held apart from the level of beauty he had been trying to upkeep to make his love happy. But he hadn't introduced her, she had come in on her own, and that made it like every other time. Except he wasn't charging her, he was talking, asking, giving her a chance. His necklace was practically strangling him, heavier with every second that ticked by where he did not let her blood in recompense. Why did he care? It felt almost desperate, clinging to civility when rage was a flash flood. All of the flowers inevitably wilted; not all of them should be drowned.
Her reminder lowered the gates ever so slightly, allowing him to think back beyond the point where he'd heard someone stepping lightly outside his door. If she had been in this inner sanctum before, wouldn't she have something to show for it? A scratch from a rusted quill, some mark that showed she'd been nosing around and found beloved awake. Even a piece of pilfered gold tucked beneath her tongue, denying her the chance to speak precisely. But she was clean, curt, and he could not decide.
A shriek filled his ears, a silver plate clattering down a hillock of coins, and he grimaced ruefully at the sound. Chimalsi turned his back on the potential enemy to patiently soothe her, murmuring excuses and asking for forgiveness. He nudged the precious item back into place, showing willing, though not yet enough to curb her appetite. She did not like the way he spoke to this one with fluctuating menace. The mare had taken something, they knew she had. If he reared up and smashed her to the floor, her belly would open like a purse and show all the valuables she'd swallowed to seem innocent.
But hadn't she been walking in the same direction, as she'd said? Weren't the tunnels many and easy to get lost in? No, no, she was lying. She had doubled back, hoped to evade him. Her fear now was guilt-based. Then why the anger? To trick him. He was so easily misled, first by the sun-tree mongrel and now by this one. Mention of Laurelin made him lower his head, huffing soft breath onto the disc he'd relaid, his image fogging as he muttered. When had she lied? He could not remember. There was a lie somewhere, in her eyes, in this one's eyes. How could he not see? He'd been taken in by her loveliness, by the gentle nature that he saw reproduced in the filly behind him. That was why, that was why. They were both going to ruin him, steal from him, leave him broken and alone. It had already begun.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:20 pm
Alyssum's eyes blazed, a fierce purple embedded deep inside her chocolate face as she watched the menacing horn swing from one side to the other, her muscles tensing in case she had to try to run, or to fight. She didn't want to do either... but she would do whatever she had to to get out of this confrontation. Still on the defensive, her words were clear, even as she tried to keep her voice out of screaming range, using her anger to bury her fear. "I didn't know you lived here; I didn't think anyone could live here! I was just exploring the caves because I've been in some a little but never for a long time. Then I got lost, and it's really dark so I got -more- lost walking around and around, trying to get out, and then you scared me and chased me into this place."
The boom of falling plate, followed by plunks of falling coins startled her; she gave a half-jump in automatic avoidance, even if the metallic objects were nowhere near her. She watched the scaled stallion immediatly turn away from her to tend to the silver disc, and her heart sank. The carefully piling, the way his muzzle caressed the shining objects and everything disappeared... he adored these things. Adored them the way she adored the first blooms of spring and the soft grass beneath her hooves. No wonder he had gotten so angry, so defensive!
"I'm sorry, Golden One." The mare half-nudged some loose coins back towards the pile they had escaped from, her motions slow and non-threatening. Her anger was gone, replaced by remorse for... for something that she didn't really understand herself, something she couldn't put into words if asked to explain. Sorrow for misunderstanding, for upsetting, for insulting, for unintentionally starting a conflict that she had never wanted to be a part of... especially not with this stallion, this special, gleaming Soquili that had so dazzled her. "These are... your treasures? This is what you were looking for, when I offered you the Flying Treasure and the water flower? I didn't know, honest. I didn't know that these things meant something to you. They... don't mean anything to me, but that was no reason to think they meant nothing to you."
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:05 am
Chimalsi was not an argumentative stallion. He had never intentionally disobeyed or disbelieved what he was told, and every niggling doubt that arose was quashed within seconds of coming to his attention. Anything to bring vitality to his love, he had done: offering her pets, possessions, things she could amuse herself with. The kirin had enhanced her glamor, and been awarded for it with scraps of affection so sweet that he'd never strayed to find more; he'd annihilated those who came too close with too little reverence, hidden her from prying eyes and greedy hands. Why, why now would he begin to balk? He was letting it all disintegrate, and for what? Insecurities crowded him, his life spent content with his lot, opposed now to the disconnection he was experiencing from refusing to abide. There shouldn't have been a contest.
Somewhere between the plate crashing and his divided instincts trying to sort through where the line had been blurred, he forgot that the little mare was still actively defending herself, merely raking the floating information out of the air and adding it in to the whole. He had tuned her out so completely that he missed the dawning of comprehension, overlooking how her muscles responded to an expanding sense of the situation's gravity. The white blaze of her face registered closer than it had been, and he swiveled to glance, ears flattening even as her apology bypassed his defenses. Beloved wanted her revealed for the liar she was, but in all the time they'd spent bickering, she had not once tried to slip away.
A foot came down hard near her nose, and this time it was his hoof that dented the scatterings of ornaments with a clang of dismay, igniting specks of orange that fizzled in and out of existence. "Do not touch." He hissed, and he might have bitten her, could have knocked her flat while she was carelessly poised over the edge of his secrets. Of course she didn't know. She was young and unenlightened to the feelings that devoured him, scratched him empty and aching and wanting it all the more. Little girls who accepted a finite, impermanent world knew nothing of meaning.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 9:00 pm
When the sharp, golden hoof came crashing by her nose, Alyssum did not even try to contain her sharp whinny of protest, her muzzle immediatly snapping up to avoid the strike. She did not, however, move back, instead looking directly into those honey-comb eyes, the ones that made her think of springtime flower fields and the gleaming sun. "There's no need to be so mean! I was only trying to help..."
The mare took a step back away from the pile to show her willingness to obey the stallion's wishes, shaking her head as though to dislodge the thoughts inside of her. She had thought she understood, but now... now she was confused again. Why didn't he want help? She had always thought that you had to fix whatever you broke, so helping him put his treasures back in place had seemed the obvious solution. Maybe if she asked... maybe she could -learn- to understand. "Golden One... why are they so important? All these shiny things that you've gathered here? Did your friends give them to you? Or your parents?"
That was the only way it made sense. Afterall, anything given by a loved one was meant to be treasured and protected, filled with sentiment and something more than whatever material the gift happened to be made of. The only prized possession Alyssum possessed was the dreamcatcher that forever lay against her chest, the turqoise beads resting cooly against her fur. Without that comforting weight, that familiar teal and purple coloring, she would have felt naked, alone, and this was because the dreamcatcher directly connected her to her family. If it were to break, she would gather the pieces one by one, even if she had no way to repair it. But that was one bit of jewelry, one precious momento, not a horded pile of glitzy metal and once-fine furs, discarded feathers from living birds. Surely he had to have some reason behind it.
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Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:20 am
Mean. He had never been mean a day in his life that he knew of. Ruthless, undoubtedly, but none who had experienced that part of him had been able to lay the term at his feet. The stallion wore a guise of gentility so often that he'd forgotten what sat beneath it all, he dragged politeness out of his mouth and was excused for stilted conversation because he'd tried. But mucking around in malice was new to him. Death was quick and quiet, it was not a screaming match. It didn't even matter that she'd been setting things aright, the contact alone disrupted his concentration, made him temporarily forget who had been winning between the paranoia and the stammering pause.
Her backpedaling did not relax him. Chimalsi followed her step to crowd her further, slowly arriving at a decision. He could eliminate her now, prove his beloved's wishes were a priority, stronger than his personal bias. It would seal the chasm that had opened between them, make Laurelin's guileless intervention a thing of the past. There was still a chance to retrieve them from the brink, and it was standing in front of him, asking him about his ties to the outside world when all he had was right in front of them. Nothing had been given to him. Everything gathered here, he had acquired himself. Months, years, all handed over without dissent. Was he not owed a little leniency? A revelation was treading water in the stormy slosh of his mind, and even with the promise of painlessness, of reconciliation, he could not raise up onto his back legs and bring it all crashing down on her expectant face. Once the hard-won choice was made, there was no going back.
But beloved still required a sacrifice, something to sate her. The hot trickle down his striped hide centered in his mind, pooling from the puckered cuts where shards had driven beneath his coat. He threw his head wildly, red droplets flung and spattering over the tower, the walls, the thief before him. "She does not want you here." His voice was barely above a whisper, aware that the conspirator-statement would set off another tantrum if he was not careful with it. "Get out."
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:47 pm
Alyssum sucked in a breath when the golden stallion closed the distance between them, her thigh muscle twitching a morse code to flee! The spraying of hot blood made the twitch worse; the smell filled her nostrils, making her heart pound in preparation of running. But how could she escape? The Golden One was larger, quicker, more deadly thanks to his horn. Besides... despite his demeanor, despite the injuries that caused the blood that now sprinkled her face... the mare was desperate to understand. As time went on, he made less and less sense!
At the mention of 'she,' Alyssum visually searched the room. Who was he talking about? She had not seen any other Soquili, or any other creature for that matter, enter after they did, but maybe someone had been there before... hiding beneath the piles of silver and gold, nestled under the rotting organic bits that had made their way in... someone who had some kind of hold over the Golden One. Her cursory glances revealed nothing, however - not the slightest movement, the faintest c***k that would suggest another entity existed. Finally, she asked quietly even as she continued to back away. "She? But... there's nobody else here but us, Golden One. Just you and me."
She kept her steps even by sheer force of will, but she could not hold back the shaking even as she reminded him, "I... I'll leave if you want, but I don't know the way..."
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:18 am
There was a trembling across his skin that came from trying to stay ahead of an increasingly cloudy mind, predicting her while diffusing the animosity at his back. It was exhausting, the smell of his own blood familiar enough to forgo notice as it dribbled down an uneven staircase of coins, dyed the broad face of tanned furs and blended with a collection of precious stones at his feet. Everything would have been easier if he was complicit in this small mare's murder, but there was a yielding where once only hardness had existed, a force made fluid where unexpected erosion took place. If she could make it outside his private lair, he would not follow her. Once she was removed from the area, perhaps his love would accept his own meager resolution. But she was not going, not yet. Instead, she was scanning the room, looking beloved in her million, half-lidded eyes with question, claiming she could not see.
Incredulous, he turned to gaze as well, both of them staring like foals faced with a threat they didn't understand, down into a daggered-maw of broken valuables. He flinched away from her first, sensing the lash of fearsome attention while she drank down his offering. He could not lead the blind, not when he was sightless himself, combating instincts and encouragements until only a sliver separated him from harm. "We are not alone." Was all he could manage, lacking the boldness to tilt his head to indicate, already troubled. Surely someone so tactless could not be a proper thief, no matter how beloved argued.
Chimalsi stood in silence when she declared her uncertain bearing, knowing that he while he had provided her with a way out, he could not flagrantly set out a map without catching unwanted acknowledgment. Without warning, he lunged at her, teeth snapping shut near the ear where a drop of red perched on a quivering tip. He hissed, "Follow the rubble, stay left." The path of destruction he'd blazed would take her most of the way. After that, he could not aid her. And it seemed better for the youthful filly to be lost than to be here, where beloved wailed for more. So close now, he could not refrain from knocking her aside with a twist of his thicker frame, a blow that could either send her sprawling or merely force her nearer to the single exit. It could have been a mistake, a clumsy strike paid in anger. His thoughts were mercifully blank on the subject, not taking a chance against his darling's new mentalist abilities.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:36 pm
Alyssum whinnied in fear when the scaled stallion dove for her, her muscles locking in place as she prepared herself for the strike. The clack of teeth near her ear, followed by whispered directions shocked her, and the shove caused her to stumble, but did not seriously injure her. Her subconcious took full control as she turned tail and ran from the opening, following the broken bits of rock and keeping to the left as instructed. At every turn she followed this, and eventually her cream mane began to float with a light breeze; she followed the fresh air until she emerged into the open air. The mare stopped with a pant, enjoying the cool against her brown coat.
Still controlled by adrenaline and instinct she wandered through the area, feeling the blood droplets cool and turn sticky, speckled across her muzzle, her chest. She tried to tell herself that it was just like being covered in honey, but the metallic scent in her nose, the twitch of her tail would not allow her to escape into any kind of fantasy. It was nothing like being covered in honey; it was like being covered in blood. Desperate to rid herself of the peculiar feeling welling inside of her from this fact, the chocolate mare dashed forward instinctively, her violets eyes searching for a brook, a lake, any kind of water. Wash it off. She had to wash it off.
In the setting sunlight she caught a sparkle, and she veered to the left. A lake. A large, cleansing lake. Alyssum dived into its welcoming waters, dipping her into it over and over again until she was satisified that the only colors that remained where the black of her muzzle, the white of her blaze. Standing there, she tried once more to understand what had happened. Golden One had been a teacher, someone to learn from; she had annoyed him during their first meeting, but she hadn't provoked him in this second. Why had he suddenly called her a thief, turned agressive? Talked to someone the mare could not see... had put on a show for them.
It was a slow process to reach that realization, but once she had it, she clung to it. Put on a show. Yes, for some person... something that bound him. Why else act like he was attacking while, really, he was giving her the way out? Why else chase her down but never cut her? Whoever he was talking to... had some kind of power over him. But who? Why? And... how could it be broken?
"I... don't know," she said to no one, looking up at the fake stars that had begun to enter the twilight sky. "But I'll find out. I'll find out who's trapped you, Golden One."
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