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 Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 2:59 pm
 Alienore stood quietly on the snowy hillside, gazing over the lands she'd come to know. A chill wind blew through and around her, jingling bells, ruffling feathers, and tossing through long, silken locks. She shivered, shifting closer to the great old oak growing beside her, devoid of leaves under its cloak of snow. Seren lay beside her, dozing, and she couldn't blame the bear, even as she lay down, draping one avian wing over her loyal familiar. Another winter was beginning to settle over the Kawani lands. Although her mother, Adelle, had invited as much of the family as could make it to join her Silver Willow Bell Herd, at least for the holidays, Ali had not gone. It had been a few years since Blake had left her, and she still wasn't ready to go home.
And she still didn't know how to move on, either.
How did one move on when the love of one's life left you for someone whom, in your deepest heart of hearts, even if you wished your lover well, you could never be happy seeing him go to? How did one move on, feeling as fragile as those around one had long seen one, even if one hadn't been this fragile before? How did one deal with the growing hole in one's heart of loved ones who were gone from one's life, not to be seen again?
Ali didn't know. And she hadn't met anyone in her ramblings who knew, either.
The thoughts that subsumed her as she watched the sunset were fading away from the desire to fill up the emptiness with someone else. Someone who could replace Blake. And, as she noted the hues, it struck her.
Nobody could replace him. Nobody should. Nobody could replace her firstborn, not even Branwen, and nobody could replace Branwen, either. They were each unique beings, and it wasn't fair to them, or to the ones who might come into her life later, to replace them, like just another leaf on a tree year after year. They were like individual stars in the sky, petals on the flower; once they were gone, even if more flowers and stars came along, they'd never be the exact same, even if they seemed similar enough.
The sun slipped below the horizon. She glanced up, sunny-gold eyes focusing on the faintly glowing stars beginning to sprinkle the heavens. The cold air made them shine all the brighter and clearer, though the rising full moon stole some of their brilliance with its own radiance.
Alienore felt it in herself. She wanted to be stronger. She didn't want to cry anymore. She didn't want to be sad and scared and alone. She wanted a new lease on life. Ali wanted to shine as bright as the full moon overhead on the long, cold, dark winter nights. To be the mate Blake had wanted. To be the daughter Adelle had needed. To be someone who didn't break down so easily and languish for years after being left behind.
She closed her eyes, focusing on the clarity-inducing feel of the winter air, and on the illuminating nature of the snow reflecting moonlight and starlight, making everything far brighter than would have been expected, and, perhaps, despite the treachery of any ice below, far more beautiful and magical.
Yes. Ali wanted that. She wanted that beauty, that brightness, that hope.
But how she'd achieve that was the next big question in her life.(If we opt to add more people, poke me, and I'll adjust the title accordingly, but, at present, if you're planning to join the Knight's Watch, and your Soq's name isn't in the title, please do not post unless we give you permission to join.)
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:47 pm
 The cold ran deeper than his skin, the ice seemed to freeze in his veins and hold him still. How long had it been like this? How long had he been unable to move or breathe without her? How long had it been since he could pass even a moment without thinking about her alive and warm? She would want him to move on, to not linger over her as he did....but Karloff could not move on. Why call a fire the sun and lie to say it warmed you just as well? Why try to find some replacement when nothing could replace her? When he didn't even want anything to even try? Ailbhe. They had been foals when she had pulled him out of darkness into light, when she had showed him the beauty of a soul and had made him think of bright and hopeful futures for them both. It was because of her that he was who he was. His skin shivers, making icy flakes of snow fall off as the snowflakes that kissed his cheeks melted like tears. He had waited a long time to decide if this was what he wanted to do. It still set heavy in his heart, but he was no longer uncertain. He knew what he was going to ask of others--knew what cost it would be to them--and he knew that it was the only way. He would form a service, a group of protectors to guard against the Walkers--against the dark night of the soul they would leave behind when the ransacked and killed. He could not save Ailbhe nor recall her from the dead, but he could do his best to make sure there were none other that had to die like her. The thought made him start moving before he even realized he was. What he needed now was recruits.
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Nyx Queen of Darkness Crew
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:09 pm
Alienore twitched a black ear. Seren lifted her head and peered around a moment before getting to her star-spangled paws and taking up a defensive position at Ali's side. Ali turned around to see what had attracted the attention of the Wind and her ursine companion.
A dark shape was making its way up the slope, crunching through the snow. A black stallion, with snowy mane, tail, hooves, and fur accoutrements, with blood-red eyes, battle scarred. Skinwalker?
Ali tensed, uncertain, her quite reasonable foalhood fears kicking in. Warily, she mantled her avian wings, prepared to kick off if it proved unsafe. Seren nosed her, and Ali wished, not for the first time, that she had a way to carry Seren out of danger, too. The bear was fast enough to keep up with the Wind mare most of the time, but Ali still wasn't sure Seren could get out of a pickle with a purely terrestrial Skinwalker if push came to shove. Let alone an airborne one.
Ali slowly picked out red strings tying on merely pieces of white cat pelt onto the black Soquili, and an incomplete pelt paired with the long canines protruding from his mouth. If he was a Skinwalker, he did come off as a major ragamuffin. And, from what she'd observed and heard, Skinwalkers didn't need to tie on their pelts. The pelts were fused to their backs. So...not a Skinwalker? Just someone who wore a pelt like one, quite possibly for different reasons.
Hopefully, anyway.
She relaxed slightly, though kept her wings mantled, just in case she was wrong, and it was time to extract herself and Seren aerially. Catwalkers were generally less disposed to flight, and if he was a Catwalker, if they cleared the trees, he'd never be able to get enough altitude fast enough to catch them, even if Ali was encumbered. Still better not to bet.
"Hello?" she called out cautiously. "I wasn't aware that anyone else came out this way. Is this your territory?" Yes, be polite to the stallion whose type she couldn't definitively say wasn't a Skinwalker of any type, great idea. Her voice sounded, even to her, rusty with disuse. Not talking regularly to other Soquili could do that to one, after over three years of loneliness, aside from Seren. And the last time she'd tried vocally communicating with Seren had probably been several weeks ago.
At least she could find out if this was his hunting territory, and what kinds of things were on the menu with those teeth and that pelt.
As miserable as Ali was, and as inclined to learn to stand up for herself, she wasn't so desperate as to let herself and Seren get killed off by a 'Walker they didn't initially recognize as such.
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Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 11:38 pm
elfstar89 Much overdue, but I'm working on everything. Sorry my love! Karloff's red eyes focused in on her, assessing her before he stopped several yards away. He knew how he looked to others. "I do not eat meat and I am not from here. I am passing through." He had no idea whose lands these really were. Sippy was out there somewhere in the grass doing his own thing, probably fishing somewhere. The raccoon usually gave him more of an air of trusting since skin walkers didn't have familiars. "I'm Karloff. I am hunting, but not nourishment. Recruits." How was he ever going to convince someone with this type of talk? He hadn't spoken to anyone in weeks or months. He must sound like some idiot to this mare, as though he didn't know how to talk to another soquili. Which was in some ways true. He had forgotten what it felt like to have friends or companions--even acquaintances. "I want to stand against the Walkers." He said it bluntly and simply. He'd have to find finesse after he learned to speak to others again.
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Nyx Queen of Darkness Crew
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2016 5:37 pm
Nyx Queen of Darkness Sooo sorry this took forever. Semi-hiatus, collapsing shop, RL, and totally forgetting that it was my turn to tag are to blame. >< Toss me any other tags I owe? oO
"These are not my lands, either. I suppose I am a wanderer myself." She paused, trying to figure out the best way to frame the big question. No real way to be polite about such a sensitive question, and, besides, there was the chance that any response would be a lie, anyway. Ali sighed inwardly. Probably best to go for it, and then keep a close eye out to see if he really was what he claimed.
"Excuse me, but I do not believe there is a more polite way to ask, but...are you a Skinwalker? Do you seek to avenge yourself on those...creatures?" As much as she wanted to express her terror of 'Walkers, it was also true that one of them was her own sister, Neva. Neva, who'd ripped Ali's wing as a filly, even before getting herself turned. Being tensed, a whisper of the old pain thrummed through one twilight-colored wing.
But what of this stallion's quest? It seemed fruitless to fight them.
Seren padded around from behind Ali, staring up warily at the pelted stallion. She then nosed Ali. Ali looked into Seren's dark eyes. Seren had come into Ali's life to protect her and her little girls. One of them might have been taken, but Seren had kept the rest of the ladies safe. And if she joined this quest...would she grow stronger? Maybe not strong enough for Blake. But maybe strong enough for herself. Maybe brave enough for herself. And, at any rate, she'd have purpose again. On yet another hoof, should the despair take her so thoroughly that suicide seemed a better option, Ali would fall with some pride and strength on her conscience.
"If...if you're looking for recruits," she said slowly, "I'm not sure what a sky dancer could do, but I'd be willing to be your first recruit. Me, and Seren here." Seren held herself tall and proud, seeming to understand the nature of the conversation, and Ali felt a tenuous wave of pride at her wonderful friend course through her. Or maybe it was the cold breeze that rippled through her bones.
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