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 Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:29 pm
She was having to struggle to draw breath, even with the unexpected support of Chimalsi as they tottered uneasily through the darkness. He was babbling feverishly--or was she simply hearing things?--but somehow they made it, and the cool, night air had never been so welcomed to her before. Laurelin found herself gasping for breath even as the stallion crumpled once more, adrenaline trembling through her delicate limbs and forcing the tree on her back to quiver. They'd made it, somehow, and oh how he needed water and food, but she somehow couldn't bear to move him right away. He'd been through so much, and merely looking at him made her feel weak.
"Oh, Chimalsi," She whispered even as she reached down to nuzzle timidly at one cheek, lifting her head to stare at Alyssum for a moment. "T-Thank you, Alyssum, I think we can just... let him rest..." The mare chewed the inside of her cheek before she folded her legs, letting her smaller body coil against his side, as though contact alone could transmit her love, her will for him to get better. Inhaling sharply to stead herself, the mare let her muzzle gently rest near his ear, lipping occasionally as though to reassure herself that this had all really just happened.
"I wish there was a way to bring him some water..." Laurelin muttered to herself before lifting tired eyes to fix on he mare. "...Thank you, Alyssum. You didn't have to do what you did, but without you, I don't think I could have helped him all by myself." The thought made her feel queasy, the smell of that place still overwhelming her, the grating whispers of how the stallion's mistress had wanted him to kill her...
Steadying herself with a swallow, the mare allowed herself to force those thoughts away for a moment. "...I pray, with time, that he'll get better. ...I don't think I can allow him to go back to that place, but I--" Her voice broke for a moment, and she looked miserable even with her nose quickly burying itself in his mane. "...I don't know if I can stop him if what he truly desires is to go back."
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:38 pm
The entire trip out of the cave system, Alyssum wished she could deafen herself to Chimalsi's ramblings. She hated herself for the cowardly inclination; interlaced with the words that could clearly not be his were the directions to the way out, and had she obeyed her weaker impulse she would, in a way, be deserting Laurelin, leaving her alone to bear the burden of the strangled sounds and acid curses. Instead, she steeled herself against them. They had all come too far for any to fall now; the failure of one would endanger the other two. The strong-hearted mare refused to allow that to happen, providing the support she could by maintaining her position near the stallion they had come to save and carefully following whatever directions trickled through.
The night air brushed her sweat-slick pelt like a cooling breeze, and the dappled mare had never been happier to greet the moon than now. Whatever damage had been done beneath the earth, in that hot, musty place could be healed out here in the open air, surrounded by life. However, her impression came under fire when Chimalsi fell to the earth, burying his nose as though he wished to return to the place he had just emerged from. Worse, the way the golden mare curled against her equally golden partner showed concern lingering in her fellow forest dweller as well. Her thanks was not only unnecessary but unwanted; how could Alyssum have let either of these two fight alone? How could she back away now whenever, apparently, the war was not yet over?
Purple eyes narrowed as she stepped forward, and Alyssum's dismay and concerned colored her words into a huff, "Go back? He can't go back! We just took him out and saved him... if we let him go back, what good did it all do?" She fixed her attention on the scaled stallion, nosing him once more as she had before, as she would one of her own siblings, chuffing lightly against his mane and probably spreading the puff of breath to Laurelin as well. "Come on, Golden One... it's time to be strong now. For just a little longer. And then a little longer... and a little longer after that. Laurelin needs you... and I know you can do it. Please?"
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 11:50 am
The same light that had clothed him was still seeking out his eyes, trying to claim their sunny hue and replace them with moon-shaded blindness. Chimalsi kept his eyelids firmly closed, breathing in slow, measured gasps that tried to crush his innards, finally evening out when he felt something warm slant through the night spell and speak to his exhaustion. He knew Laurelin's voice, no longer disfigured by beloved's acrimony, pretty and lilting, but strangely sad. His fault, some peripheral voice informed the kirin - his voice, just more sane and solid than he felt. He roused himself enough to mumble a convoluted apology, encouraging her to laugh, to chase sea spray and whip her tail at him. Except it didn't sound right to his ears, slurred and lagging once it hit the air, the liveliness absent. Instead, he grew silent and settled more fully against her, his tarnished scales kissing her ribs with tiny, scraping lips. The tree on her back cast shadows that made his face relax somewhat, no longer as fearful of the machinations of a greedy moon.
Beloved. She was back there, in the dank cell where she'd kept him, hounded and shredded his strength. His escape had been luck and sheer will, but those things could be taken from him, and he would be in no position to argue for their return. Laurelin and the little one, Alyssum? He heard her name exchanged with thanks above his head, and took it as better than constantly referring to her as a thief. They were the sole reason he had made it out. It hadn't been his energy that pulled them through the last series of archways, nor the first sundering. He had been divided, and he remained that way. But his thoughts were swirling thick with dust, and he quickly lost the owed appreciation and melancholy. He couldn't even keep track of what they were saying, the conversation spinning out of his peculiar orbit.
He did feel the nose burrowing into his neck, the unhappiness that flowed through the tone and along each individual hair, even if the words raced by him. Chimalsi nickered quietly to the mare, his tail twitching around like it was attempting to wag and lift her spirits. Then a new greyness fell over him, a heat that indicated thereness, presence. Alyssum, identifiable from her upbeat conviction, delivered mostly whole into his wilted ears. Laurelin needed him? It didn't seem like it; the opposite more truthful as he considered their position, the way she kept his body from sliding around as the earth shifted restlessly beneath him. Or perhaps it was that her tree braced them both.
He understood that an answer was required. The stallion snorted through his nostrils, and the response that rose out of the dirt in smoke signal-billows indicated as much agreement as he was capable of investing. She had always been there, mending things, mostly him, reminding the frozen moors of his idealism that he meant more than the role he played as a prized gatherer. His tail resumed its search, eventually locating the long, flaxen softness of hers, puddled out on the ground beside him. It coiled around the layers, gathering as much as it could and folding over like an armored ribbon, weak enough to need no reminder about yanking. Fatigue was a cloud of locusts blotting everything out, first the damning light, then sound, followed closely by his numerous discomforts. The last sense to go was his chosen tie, the familiar connection between his hard metal and her organic strands. If Laurelin needed him, he would try.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:13 am
"If he can't help himself... If the earth has such a strong hold on him..." She whispered in response to Alyssum's outburst, trying to justify it to herself and only feeling sicker as a result. "He can't go back." Laurelin finally agreed, choking on a little sound that might have been the beginning of a sob. She couldn't bear it, not when all he would do was suffer and hurt. Swallowing her emotion down thickly, the mare closed her eyes, only so they could snap open once more as Chimalsi made some sort of sound and pressed more firmly into her side. This had to be something positive, didn't it? He'd allowed himself to come with them, to be lead away from that dark and horrible place.
A puff of warm air made her ears twitch, and the mare lifted her long face to watch Alyssum, tired, but no longer beginning to despair. Later. There would be time to think later. Though the little mare wasn't speaking to her about strength, Laurelin felt the words deeply, and took a slow breath. She hadn't expected the nicker from the exhausted stallion, an unconscious smile twitching for only a moment at her muzzle before she offered a soft sound in response, trying to soothe.
And if the sound was so surprising, well... She hadn't expected Chimalsi to respond even further, nor for his long, graceful tail to seek her own. Despite how poorly it was arranged, he meticulously seemed to gather all that he could of it, and she remembered their last night together, how similar their tails had linked. With a sigh that shuddered and threatened to break, the mare buried her muzzle into the stallion's mane once more, murmured something soft that conveyed all the love she could possibly give to him before she pulled back. He needed to sleep, and she would let him be, lifting her weary eyes to the other mare once more.
"...I... I think he'll try. And I won't let him go back, now that I know what has been happening to him. He'll rest now... and then we'll face the morning together." She struggled to crane her neck for a moment, seeking Alyssum's nose so her own could press softly against it. "...Thank you, Alyssum." She repeated softly, knowing it could never be said enough. "If there is any way I can repay you for what you've done, then please..."
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:22 pm
The affirming snort from the Kirin made the dappled mare relax, though not as much as his fumbling actions of affection. She might know much, but a loving set of parents let her see the casual nuzzling, the entertwining tails, and that was enough for her. He knew that Laurelin needed him now, and that would be enough to get him through. Or, well, she thought so, anyway. Wasn't love supposed to work like that?
She hadn't expected the golden mare to seek her nose, but she responded to the gratitude and affection with a gentle nuzzle. No matter how normally boistrous her words and actions were, she understood that now was the time for softness and quiet. Something... special was happening beneath the witnessing moon, and she didn't want to disturb it. "Don't worry about it. You just... needed help, and so did he. So I helped. Isn't that what friends are-"
A yawn kept her from completeing her statement, and she withdrew slightly to give a toss of her mane. Her muscles ached, a familiar, well-deserved ache, but one that made her long for her own sleeping spot nestled among larger trees than her sweet-hearted friend could provide. "For?" She finished her question, shuffling her hooves as she turned back in the direction she knew meant 'home.' "Both of you just be careful, okay? If you need me, I'm almost always around the forest. See you later, Laurelin."
Because, for a friendship wrought in such conditions as these, this could not be goodbye.
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