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'Find others like yourself. Find allies.'

'Find allies.'

Proserpine was in a dire straights. The Shadow had come to her again. This time with a new order of business. And Proserpine only had a certain amount of time to do it. The Shadow's enemies were coming together. More quickly than The Shadow wanted. It's words were harsh in her ear that night. And for once it put Proserpine on edge. An edge she wasn't used to by any means. So, to that end, Proserpine was hellbent on getting the job done before The Shadow came to her again. Kalona forbid she screw this up.

But how?

How was she to find these allies The Shadow so wanted?

Proserpine stood on the rock's edge overlooking the vast forest below. The moon was high in the sky and cast an eerie glow around her. Her senses were on high alert, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she thought. Her vibrant eyes scanning the treeline. Too many shadows. If The Shadow came to her again so soon Proserpine couldn't tell which way it would come from. It bothered her. The wind shifted, her mane catching the airflow and covering her eyes for a brief moment before moving on.

What to do, what to do, what to do!

She growled to herself softly and stomped her hooves against the cold rock below. The Shadow would not like her hesitation. It would punish her. Her tail swished erratically at the thought. No punishment, no pain. She would not fail her Shadow. And it irked her that she was so nervous about it. So conflicted, confused. Annoying to boot and Proserpine hated it. Soquili like herself were hard to come by. Most kalona these days had diluted their blood, creating half breed abominations with lessers. The darkness was leaving her breed and it was annoying. A betrayal to the true darkness. Skinwalkers were another thought, but quite frankly Proserpine knew that to make a deal with one of them would be a deal with the devil.

But wasn't she a descendant of the devil? Of the evil god Kalona?

It shouldn't bother her.

But it did.

So the whole thing left her with few options and the few options she did have brought little to the table of a resolution.

'I'm going around in circles. This has to stop!'

Proserpine shook her head to try and get rid of the thoughts that plagued her. She had to focus on the end goal. One thing at a time. First she had to at least find one soquili that was worth her time....

She ruffled her leathery wings to get ready to take flight. Movement would be better than staying stagnant. At least with movement The Shadow would see that she wasn't sitting on her duties, putting them off until later. But then the rocks shifted behind her. And it wasn't the wind. Immediately Proserpine shot around to stare at the path behind her that led down the mountain side. Her nostrils flared trying to catch any scent.

Nothing.

But something was there. She knew it.

"Come out and show yourself!"

Her eyes narrowed as the stranger came forward. Even before she saw his body she saw his glowing legs. Little did she realize until he came into full view that he wasn’t like normal lesser. His legs burned with fire in a literal sense, his hooves bare bone, and his eyes burned just as brightly. He was a creature she had never spoken to before, let alone seen. But she wouldn’t show her curiosity out right. Not yet at least. Her spaded tail twitches back and forth a few times.

A quite hiss escaped between her teeth.

He was not afraid of her.

To that Proserpine’s frown deepened. No, this stallion was not like the rest. So why did she hesitate to kill him?

’Allies, young kalona mare.’

She burned her own stare right back at him as the voice of her Shadow spoke inside her head.

’Trust this one. Do not be so quick to judge.’

Proserpine shifted her wings until they rested more comfortably against her sides. Matching her stance with his own which burned like the fires from hell. She would be no dead weight, no mare that he would be able to dominate.

”Who is this stallion that finds himself up in the mountains? You have no wings in which to take flight.”

It wasn’t asked in distaste. But rather cautious curiosity. Proserpine didn’t really know how to talk to others. At least, those who she wasn’t going to kill and/or eat. This was new ground for her.

’Good~ Good~’

The voice in her head encouraged her onwards.

”Do you own this territory?”

Proserpine’s nostrils flared at the pure dispassionate response the stallion before her gave him. His entire body, coursing within the flames of hell she so realized, was dispassionate. He didn’t give one little rat’s bottom that she was here. Nor did he care that she was ready to eat him alive for the pure enjoyment of it. This did not sit well with her at all, not one, tiny little bit. He even caught her off guard when he stepped towards her. This only proved to show her that he cared little for anything at all, his life, this rocky mountain terrain in which they now stood upon, nothing. Purely nothing.

‘Use that to your advantage.’ The shadow hissed in the recesses of her mind, ‘do not let him escape your grasp.’

“I do not know whether to find your dispassionate nature annoying, or intriguing. Most who find me do not stay long enough to warrant my interest.”

Proserpine took one step forward to gaze upon him more closely. The fire and brimstone smell that accompanied that motion did not quite catch her off guard, but in fact served to intrigue her even more. Where had this stallion come from? Who was his maker? The great god Kalona wouldn’t have made such a creature despite him ruling the darkness. He certainly did not come from the cursed tree in which bore the pelted skinwalkers. This thing, this stallion was more different than anyone else she had ever encountered before. And that was no small feat.

“You obviously do not care about my presence although any normal lesser soquili would be. You do not bear wings of the kalona or the pelt of the skinwalker. And yet, I cannot place you. You smell of fire and death. And yet you do not have blood staining your coat. You breathe fire, yet you do not set aflame the ground in which you walk upon. You are an anomaly. An unknown. And despite my natural urge to kill anything that happens upon me who is of lesser blood, I find myself unable to do so in your presence.”

Proserpine’s wings shifted then, shuffling quietly against her sides. The voice in her head kept hissing her on to continue. Urging her to keep talking to this stallion to which she could not comprehend.

“Tell me Stallion, do you fear death and destruction? Or do you simply not care one way or another? Is the only thing you care about these mountain tops in which we speak upon?”

She tilted her head to the side almost curious like, eyes narrowed as she watched him closely. No, she would not kill him. Even if the voice had told her it was okay to do so. She couldn’t say why now. But she would have to discuss it with herself and her Shadow later. Answers would come in due time. But for now, she focused completely on this Stallion of Death.

Proserpine pursed her maw together into a thin line. Not in the way of being angry or intimidating, but at the same time, his words, she couldn't quite mull them over in her head very well. Maybe it was her lack of empathy, or his lack of empathy. But he intrigued her in more ways than just the lack of food. He was not for eating. That much was decided right then and there. There was so much more he could be, could become.

‘Yesss. Use him. Use him to your advantage.’

The voiced hissed those enticing words throughout her skull. It slithered down her spine and tail, which caused the arrowhead blade of said tail to twitch. No, it wasn’t a bad twitch. Not a bad twitch at all. Proserpine COULD use him. She could mold him into something so much more than what he was now. Just a wanderer with no purpose. But would he be willing? Could she bend his will to coincide with her own?

There was only one true way to find out.

“Is there anything you care for? Anything at all?” she had to choose her words carefully, so much could be lost with one incorrect move on her part.

“Do you find yourself wanting something more? Don’t you find this life…boring?”

She pawed at the ground for a brief moment, for she too was just a wanderer. And she do, cared for little things. But those thoughts and wants would have to wait. Her Shadow had to come first. It was what gave her a purpose. Even if that purpose was not as clear as she would have liked. Find other soquili with like-minded morals; she snickered internally at the word morals. Morals, what morals? Or to find soquili that she could corrupt. Soquili that would bend to her will.

‘All in due time Proserpine,’ the voice whispered in her ear again, almost seductively, ‘all in due time things will become clearer. I promise, you will be rewarded.’

Rewarded with what? Power? Absolute power? Proserpine shivered again at the thought. It sounded perfect. Maybe too perfect. But she honestly didn’t care at all. She wasn’t short sighted but she did focus more on the present than in the future.

‘Careful pet, you’ll scare our friend away.’ The voice soothed and her shadow seemed to shift below her as if it had a mind of its own.

“Other soquili are so complacenent with their mundane lives. And quite frankly, I feel it’s time to shake things up a bit,” Proserpine added after a brief moment, “the great kalona herd failed in that regard. I for one do not want to fall in that category.”

She chose her words carefully then. Her Shadow had become strangely quiet. Quite unusual given the circumstances surrounding this meeting. For this stallion did not find her scary. He did not find himself perturbed by her presence. Dispassionate and utterly monotonous. Proserpine, under any other circumstances, would have killed someone like him at any other given time. But this was not one of those other given times. It was… strange.

“Whether or not I have broken your cycle of life as a blessing or curse means little to me Stallion of Death.”

She raised her head to look at him better, and she felt her Shadow move underneath her hooves. That was more of what she was used to, what she craved.

“What matters to me is seeking a power shift. Those creatures down below these mountains do not know fear. They have become complacent with their mundane lives, just like you have. They do not understand the concept of fear anymore. And in many cases they do not fear me. It is the highest form of disrespect.”

‘But yet this stallion does not fear you,’ the Shadow hissed in her ear.

Proserpine shook her Shadow’s words off, “In any other case you would have been dead the moment you came upon me. And as to why I haven’t killed you…” she paused for a moment.

“As to why I haven’t killed you isn’t so special. You see, you are already dead. Death incarnate. And I find myself intrigued as to why you haven’t found something to obliterate this monotonous life of yours. You remind me of fire and brimstone, something I haven’t come across before. And therefore, I see much potential in you.”