|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:55 am
 |
|
|
 |
Risti bent slowly, staring at the thin, sharp blade that lay on the ground before her. Her crumbling reflection on the surface of the knife stared back at her, flirting with her and beckoning her forward. The metal glinted in the moonlight, calling her name softly. Something told her that she needed the knife. For some reason there was a reason she had found it. The reason was something beyond bloodlust, something besides gore and danger.
Her eyes flicked from the little knife to her leg, breaking apart in a slowly widening fissure. Smaller cracks followed the larger one, ascending up her legs and onto her chest. She looked back at herself in the reflection of the knife, watching her face chip and crumble.
I am standing at the fork of two paths, deciding which way to go. One direction is dark, it is tainted with a dangerous feeling. The other path is beautiful, but carries an air of deception. I hear a voice calling me towards the dark path. I am hesitant to go. But it is persistent and insists I go that way. What choice do I have? Deception or danger? I step forward towards the indicated way. As I walk further I know something bad is coming. I can feel the danger coming...coming. No, please, I want to go back!
Risti blinked. Had she been dreaming? No, that was something else. The visions had been coming since she had fully grown. They had been fuzzy and odd at first, but now they were stronger. The knife still lay cold and motionless upon the ground, shining up at her and smiling with what comfort it could give. She watched the cracks in her flesh reform and mesh back together in the reflection of the blade and promptly, she bent to pick up the tool. She knew the reason for it now. She knew why she needed it. How it had found her she did not know. Why it was a part of her, she was curious to find out. Was this vision she had just had an affect of the tunnel? Or something more? |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:11 pm
|
|
|
|
Jezabelle's head felt muzzy from too little sleep, but as she walked, the crisp chill in the air, the stretch of her legs, and the rhythmic thud of her hooves sent energy surging through her. Her thirst was sated, for the moment, so as she walked she lazily cropped mouthfuls of vegetation to satisfy the other side of her appetite.
The first few nights she had traveled, she had had no real end goal in mind. But this area was beginning to look familiar, even to her untrained eye. She had traveled this way with Ignis, when they she had tried to help him find a healer for his broken wing. She realized she wanted to find the irritable angeni again, he had said he was familiar with her family. She wasn't exactly proud of the things she had done since she had last seen him, but she felt more at ease in her own skin than she ever had in the past and that was in large part due to his advice from the night they met. He had said he was familiar with her family, but every time she had questioned him further he changed the subject, but she knew there was more he wasn't telling her, she could see it in his eyes. Now that she had finally reunited her parents and siblings, she found herself growing curious about what other relatives there were to be found. She knew her mother had other children before she met Relic, although she refused to go into details, Sangria had two sons whom Belle had never met.
Lost in her musings, she nearly walked into the mare who was gazing intently at something on the ground. Belle stopped just in time and huffed a short laugh, "I'm terribly sorry," she stammered apologetically, "I wasn't watching where I was going," her eyes fixated on the jagged cracks that radiated across the strange mare's back and legs, "Are you alright?" she inquired in a sympathetic tone, concern etched in every feature.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:27 pm
|
|
|
|
She jumped slightly and turned to the newcomer, the knife now held in her mouth. She dropped it quickly, half of her fearful that it might have some strange affect on her that would cause her to attack, the other half surprised by the sudden appearance of the other mare. She had left home not too long ago, but already she had become too accustomed to being alone. She had put a fair distance between herself and her parents and siblings already. It wasn't intentional, she just moved fast and quietly and often got carried away. Her parents understood. Her heart was in other places, sweeping her off to bigger and better things. She wanted desperately to find the rest of her family. She wanted to know why she and her siblings were so...strange.
She followed the path of the mare's concerned gaze to the cracks on her body and wrapped her long, catlike tail around herself protectively. "That's ok...I'm alright..." she said sweetly, scooting the knife back towards herself with a hoof. She didn't feel particularly threatened by this mare, but that could easily be a trap in itself, just like in her visions. She felt her tail relax and loop downward in a cascading motion and she smiled at the other mare as it slowly curled around the handle of the blade. "What are you doing out at this time of night?" she asked curiously in a soft tone, examining her pale features and flowing white mane. She had no intentions of harming her, and the longer she grasped the knife in her tail the more she was reassured that she would not be tempted to use it for anything but defense.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:17 pm
|
|
|
|
Belle's eyes traced the flash of silver as the startled mare dropped her blade to the ground where it landed with a metallic clatter before once again meeting her companion's gaze.
"I'm relieved to hear that." she replied with feeling, "My heart nearly stopped for a moment there, I'm no healer, I could've helped you with the pain but if those were injuries, I doubt that would be enough." She smiled kindly, she didn't want to make the mare feel self conscious about her condition, but she couldn't keep the curiosity from her eyes. Between the jagged edges of flesh she could see only darkness. She stepped back a step to fully take in this fascinating creature and was puzzled to feel a jolt of recognition sizzle through her nerves, she was positive she had never met the mare before in her life, so the reaction put her on edge. She felt a strange connection to this wanderer.
The mare rather smoothly pulled the knife towards herself, a reaction Belle heartily approved of. "I am always out at night," she replied in a conversational tone, trying not to make her companion nervous, "Its the only time I may safely travel, the sun hurts my eyes." She tilted her head a little and smiled again, "My name is Jezabelle, but most people call me Belle. The other is too much of a mouthful for casual conversation, may I ask yours?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:08 pm
|
|
|
|
She remembered some mention of another who was sensitive to the sun, but Risti could not pin a source to the memory. She felt sad for Belle, knowing how troubling it would be for herself to be bound by the night. It already seemed like she was held up by her own curse...to have to stop during the day would be almost worse. "Oh, I see," she said, looking into the mare's eyes. Other than the deep red that inhabited the irises, the large, glassy orbs of the stranger's eyes looked relatively normal. "It's nice to meet you, Belle," she said, still looking at the crimson gaze of the other.
There was some hesitation in her heart to reveal her name to Belle. As she contemplated the syllables of her name, she knew they would sound wrong if spoken aloud. Risti sounded too private, too risky. It told too much about her. If the name goes, I go...She found herself thinking eerily.
She shook her head and blinked, hoping she hadn't been staring for too long into those red eyes. She didn't want to seem as creepy as she looked. She batted her eyelashes at Belle and giggled casually, hoping to make the long gaze seem like more of a curious or even flirtatious event than a pondering one. "You can call me Ri," she said belatedly, relaxing slightly. Yes, Ri sounded much better. She felt much more comfortable now that she could put a name to the face of the pale mare who stood before her. The tail loosened its grip on the blade only slightly, and she sighed. She had been traveling for so long it seemed.
"Do you know where there might be some water, Belle?" she asked as politely as she could, figuring that Belle knew this area better than she.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 4:07 pm
|
|
|
|
Belle felt a twinge of uncertainty, she felt the tension in the air as her companion mulled over how to answer such a simple question. "Ri," she repeated with a kind smile, it didn't seem to quite fit the mare for some reason, but she of all people understood the need for secrecy at times. Whatever issue the mare had with revealing her name was none of her business. Ri's fluttering lashes were even more troubling, it was a technique she herself had used on occasion to diffuse suspicion. Again, she felt that tug of familiarity, there was something she was missing here.
"I do," she responded, turning back the way she had come from enthusiastically, her cleaver and syringes knocking together with a metallic c***k at the sudden movement. and looking over her shoulder invitingly, "I passed a stream only a couple miles back, I'm not headed anywhere in particular, if you wouldn't mind the company, I could take you?" She wanted more time to try and reason out her connection to this mare.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:27 pm
|
|
|
|
"I would enjoy some company," she smiled. It wasn't a lie. Though she hadn't been on her own long, it was nice to have someone to talk to again. She had left to find others, and until now she hadn't met much of anyone except the occasional oddball like herself.
The clatter of metal against syringe drew Risti's attention, but oddly enough their presence did not bother her as much as it should have. They only sparked a little curiosity in the bottom of her gut. She was used to seeing a knife on her mother, and now that she had her own it was more understandable why others would carry the weapons. The weight of the knife in her tail felt comfortable and protective. She knew many of her family members carried them for other reasons though...more morbid reasons. She wondered what it would be like when she finally met that side of her family. Would they try to attack her and cut her to bits? But for now she was safe and was unconcerned with the weapons that clanked on her new companion. Despite the fact that she had been weary of her earlier, she was now more curious than frightened. Perhaps Belle was like her mother, carrying a knife for protection.
"Where did you get yours?" she asked, nodding lightly towards the cleaver and following Belle towards the stream. She stepped carefully to avoid cracking her flesh any further and she stayed close to Belle so as not to get lost, feeling a strange sense of familiarity towards the cleaver and towards the mare who led her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2013 4:22 pm
|
|
|
|
"From my mother, Jessamine. When I left home, I took it with me to protect myself." She didn't mention that she had stolen the cleaver and that it had been meant as protection against her mother when she made a break for her freedom. The cleaver had seen much more gruesome uses since then, but those days were long past. She had the syringes now, there was no longer any need to kill for sustenance and she had gotten over the fury that had driven her to try and kill as vengeance against the world that had rejected her. "You seemed lost in thought when I came upon you, gazing at that knife. May I ask why? To be honest with you, I haven't met any outside of my own family who carry blades. I am interested in how you came upon yours."
Belle kept her eyes focused ahead as she spoke, the shadows of trees dappling her coat as they moved beneath the branches to reach the mossy banks of the stream, the cushion like vegetation gave slightly beneath their hooves the moonlight rippling across the gurgling water illuminated it and gave the entire area a dreamy atmosphere. She bent down to take a long drink of the cool waters and then returned her gaze to her companion. "Have you any family, Ri? Do you wander alone by choice or necessity?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2013 4:46 pm
|
|
|
|
Jessamine. The name sounded vaguely familiar but as she could not fit a face to it she shrugged inwardly and gave the topic up. She wondered if Belle had used her cleaver since obtaining it, and shuddered at the thought of the elegant mare using it to chop up enemies. But then Belle's question caused her to pause slightly and think.
"Because...I was deciding on whether or not I needed it," she said after a while, half-lying. Of course she had also taken hers for protection, but what from? She didn't know. She didn't want to tell Belle about her visions, it was odd enough that her skin cracked and broke. "I just sort of...found it," she added. Or it found me. She thought to herself again about how strange it had been that the thing had just appeared before her.
The sight of the stream was comforting to her as she was sure it would change the subject. She joined Belle in drinking the magical looking water, peering at their surroundings while doing so. "I have a family," she answered after drinking, her head hurting from the cold of the water, "we all like to wander. It's passed down from my grandmother, Ves'Tacha, I suppose. I travel alone by choice because it is faster, and by necessity because...it is just better that way..." A far away look came across her eyes as she stared at the sparkling water. She shook her head and looked back at Belle with a smile, hoping that she might understand her need to be alone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:23 pm
|
|
|
|
Belle glanced at the cleaver grasped in Ri's long tail and then back at the mare's face. "I take it you decided you needed it?" she inquired mildly. She wondered if Ri wanted protection from her, Not many saw past the deceiving naivety projected by her small stature and pristine appearance, but this mare seemed like she perceived more than met the eye, Belle wasn't sure what gave her the impression, something in her companion's gaze perhaps. She seemed... older than her apparent years in some ways. Not all too long ago Ri would have needed protection in her presence.
Belle nodded in understanding, "My own family is very scattered, I was alone by neccesity for a long time, now I just enjoy the quiet. I do enjoy meeting the odd passerby as well though. Ves'Tacha, the name sounds familiar in a vague way, I don't think I've met her myself, but it is possible I have heard of her from one of my siblings, they wander quite a bit as well. Sangria is busy raising her two boys and Lucian... Well, who knows what exactly my brother gets up to in his free time." She smiled fondly, her attention focused at some point in the distance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:33 pm
|
|
|
|
She gave a little shrug and a meek expression as an explanation, tying the knife to the beads around her neck for safekeeping. She bent to take another drink of the water, listening to Belle's soothing voice and her explanation of her family. It sounded so similar to her own family and she felt a pang of homesickness as she thought of them.
So she did understand, at least somewhat, the need to be alone. Risti wondered what the word "necessity" meant in Belle's case, but she told herself not to be nosy. She knew that if Belle were to ask her why she needed to be alone, she would have been annoyed herself. So she didn't ask, she merely continued to sip from the water as she listened.
Suddenly spluttering into the water and causing bubbles to surface and glow in the light of the moon, Risti looked up at the mare who she had only moments before considered a mere walking companion. "Lucian? Lucian is your brother?" Perhaps there were multiple Lucians, she did not know. But she had a pretty good hunch that there was only one in this case. This mare was more than a chance meeting and more than a stroll to moonlit waters...Belle was family.
All of her searching thus far, all of her questions...could they be answered here, with Belle? Did she know about the tunnel? About their bloodline? She had to know something. It was all she could do not to burst forward with questions. She hadn't met any family outside of Ves'Tacha, not even Lucian. But she had heard his name and knew who he was. If Belle was his sister...she had to have answers. She had to.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:09 am
|
|
|
|
A surge of surprise fizzled along Belle's nerves at Ri's reaction towards her bother's name. "Yes..." she replied cautiously, one slender brow arching quizzically, "You've met him I take it? We grew up separately so I don't know him very well, for all that we are of the same blood, but he is my brother nonetheless." Jezabelle examined Ri's features carefully once more, the beginnings of a wriggling suspicion showing at the back of her crimson eyes as her brain fumbled through the shadowy implications glimpsed behind Ri's shocked and then hopeful gaze.
"How do you know Lucian, Ri?"
She didn't know much about the detail's of her brother's life. Their mother, Jessamine had begun systematically distributing their baskets to good homes soon after they were born. Jessamine felt she was uniquely unsuited to motherhood because of her violent episodes, especially so soon after being abandoned by the stallion she loved, the stallion she had been sure would love her no matter what but who instead scorned and despised her for her differences. Lucian had been adopted and raised by a stallion named Karloff and his mate, Alibhe. That was the bulk of her knowledge about him, he had seemed somewhat... disturbed when they finally met. That was not entirely surprising considering their heritage, and yet he had grown up in a loving family that accepted him for who he was and was not. That was more than she and Sangria had hoped for when they set out on the quest to locate their lost basketmate, the only one of the three who had not been raised by a biological parent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:00 pm
|
|
|
|
Belle's jaw dropped, the vaguely noted resemblances her subconscious had been noticing finally snapped to the forefront of her mind, Ri had her brother's eyes, a different color perhaps, but the kinship was unmistakeable now that she knew what to look for.
A warm smile lit her features as she drank in the sight of the mare with new eyes. She felt a surge of affection, her niece, now she knew why she had felt such a seemingly out of place connection with her. "I never knew Lucian had children, let alone grandchildren." she replied slowly, "I suppose that makes me your aunt," she cast Ri a sidelong glance, "but never mind the 'great' I don't feel old enough to have a great niece!" her eyes crinkled with amusement. "I expect you have questions?" she inquired, "About the family."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:30 pm
|
|
|
|
"Don't worry, you don't look old enough to have a great niece," Risti said, giggling and speaking more casually now that she knew that Belle was family. To simply state that she had questions would have been an understatement. If she dumped all of the questions on Belle now they would overwhelm her and she would surely run for the hills, family or not.
"I have too many questions...perhaps you could just start by telling me more about yourself?" she suggested. She wanted to know everything about her. This was a good starting point, at least. Perhaps Belle knew where others were and how to find them...that would be the best information now. She knew Belle didn't know everything, but she was the opening to the discoveries. She was the key to the lock, the solution to the problem, the beginning to the end.
"My full name is Risti..." she said, looking at Belle with an apologetic expression, hoping she would understand, "I would have told you, but..." She looked at the ground uncomfortably, shrugging slightly. It was hard to admit her slight distrust for others when it came to something as silly as a name.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
