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I am the precious lotus...
Username: Reoakee
Azrein's name: Kadience
Temper: Sympathetic
Alignment: Neutral
Prompt: One: Of the young ones, it seems the war struck you the deepest. Even your adoptive father, a kind stallion, has a hard time reading your heart. How were you before misery came? What vicious cataclysm did the war you witness to change you and how did you change? Do you speak of it to others? Will you ever?

Kadience took a small breath as she stared up the white clouds. They were so white and pure, they made her remember. She could see the blood and gore, smell the death and still hear the screams. Shaking her head she closed her eyes and counted. She got to sixty-three before the visions subsided again. Her mother’s gentle voice in her ear making her remember the happier times. She knew her mother’s voice was only in her memories but that didn’t take away from the calmness it brought as Kadience started to reflect.

Her life before the horrors of war was a peaceful and happy one. Her herd wandering between the good and neutral lands. Her mother’s brother was herd leader than and gentle and fair to all in the herd. Her mother a happy mare who would listen to all the herds’ problems and help bring solutions that benefited everyone. Kadience always wanted to be like her mother and her mother told her what she said was the most importance secret of all. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re unhappy or upset; always smile and be gentle with all around you because then they know they can trust you with any secrete hurt and know you’ll only ever help heal them.’ Kadience took the advice to heart and did her very best to imitate her beloved mother. Her father was her uncle’s best friend and encouraged Kadience to do whatever she felt to be right in her heart. He was a gentle and strong soul.

Those where the happy times. She thought of them with a smile on her heart like the warm breeze through her mane. Her heart turned heavy as she remembered what came next.

It was bright day like this one where the sun was out and the herd was spread out relaxed in the King’s land. The birds’ songs were as sweet and pure as the river water Kadience played in. She saw a herd of Azerin in the distance but didn’t think anything of it. Her family had many friends and she only looked forward to being able to play with other foals from the different herd. Knowing her mother would come for her when the time came she kept playing imaging herself a healer of the heart like her mother and loved by everyone in the herd while she helped them grow stronger together so that they wouldn’t ever fight and everyone could be happy. She kept playing for quite a while until she realized the birds weren’t singing anymore. Worried her mother forgot where she was and was having all the fun without her Kadience set out to get back to the herd. A big Azerin appeared with a strange smile on his maw. It was much too wide and it was kind of scary. Still Kadience thought that perhaps her mother or father had sent the stranger to come get her. She said she was ready to see her mother and the stranger laughed. It was cold and harsh making Kadience wince unintentionally. Still she followed him when he told her too and she cried when he showed her the family so dear to her.

There were dead Azerin she knew laying around the open field. She raced up to her father and realized he was dead. His head had been stomped in and there was too much red. It was all over the ground and over him. His legs were at odd angles and there was bone sticking up through his side. Shouting out for help she looked around only to see the horrors repeated in other places in the field. Some she knew some were strangers. She was shoved roughly by the stranger who led her. She struggled but he was far stronger than she. She was shuffled into a line with the surviving members of her heard that she didn’t even noticed until she bumped into a sweet old mare who used to tell her stories when she asked. Kadience looked down the line for her mother but didn’t see her. She couldn’t see the front of the line and when she tried to ask where her mother was she was kicked by another stranger and told to be silent. The line moved slowly and Kadience didn’t know where they were going. Those who fell behind were assaulted and killed. Many of the younger foals and the older were the ones to fall behind first. Each time Kadience saw it she was terrified and forced herself to keep going. They traveled at night and slept in the day. Some tried to escape and their deaths were slower and more brutal. One day she caught a glimpse of her mother as her mother tried to help another keep up. The strangers dragged them both to the side and hurt the mares a number of ways before finally stomping the pair to death. Kadience cried out but was held back by the old storyteller. With both parents dead she felt like her heart finally ripped in two and Kadience didn’t want to walk anymore. She didn’t care if she was killed. It didn’t matter anymore. The old storyteller whispered Kadience shouldn’t be so foolish and quick to throw away her life. With her mother gone who would help heal the hearts of those who lost so many on this death march to the south? Kadience stared at the old mare in disbelief until she realized the mare was right. They couldn’t keep walking them single file forever. Eventually it would have to stop. Kadience put on a smile even though she didn’t want to. It hurt to even try it and she had tears running down her cheeks. She would have to practice a lot, but she had time to do it..

While crossing a large river that would take them into neutral territory Kadience slipped and felt herself tugged under the water. She flailed and floundered before passing out. The sound of birds woke her up. She flinched expecting to be kicked or trampled. Nothing happened. She looked around and realized she was alone in a strange place. Confused and lost she got up and started to wonder until a stallion would find her. She never spoke of the horrors she had seen and endured. She couldn’t and might never but she would never forget and she would always smile even with her sad and haunted eyes. She was her mother’s daughter.

I am the knightly sky...
Username: Reoakee
Azrein's name: Relicath
Temper: Valiant
Alignment: Good
Prompt: For now, you are but a young, helpless foal... but one day you'll grow up, and odds are the war will still be raging. What will you do? Take revenge? Find a sanctuary away from it all? Or something else entirely?

Relicath rolled and sprang up to attack the tree again. He was training for the time when he was stronger and faster. He leaped and turned so his hooves came in contact with the tree at the full force his momentum could build. It was a jarring impact but he used it to launch off the trunk and hit the ground running so he could circle and try it again. In his head he could see his past how his family had been slaughtered by strangers from the south, how his father and mother had been brutally beaten and his sister taken away. He had tried to save her but been beaten to near death himself and left to die until that alicorn had saved him. Now Relicath had a father and two sisters even though they weren’t related by blood. He wanted, no needed to keep them safe. So he trained. He never told his guardian what he was doing but suspected the stallion knew. Relicath had to get stronger to keep his family he had now safe, and stronger still to prepare for the journey south once he found a place for this family to take santuary. He would find his sister and bring her back to this family where she would be safe. Then… this was the part that Relicath never really knew what to do with. What would he do after his sister was safe and this family that had been formed was safe? He wanted to fight and keep other’s from loosing loved ones in the war, but he didn’t want to leave his own loved ones unprotected. It felt wrong. It was unfair. Biting the inside of his cheek he shook his head and wheeled for another go at the tree. That didn’t matter right now. He had to get stronger first, find a sanctuary, and then go get his sister. Only after all that could he start thinking about what was next.

I am the bleeding winter...
Username: Reoakee
Azrein's name: Xavier
Temper: Tender
Alignment: Neutral
Prompt: In these three youngsters you found a chance at life again, at happiness. You wish to raise them to the best of your ability like they are your own flesh and blood, with the knowledge that one day they will most likely leave. What are your feelings on this? And what about those for your family that passed away? What are your plans for your life, if you have any?

Watching the young ones play Xavier felt so old and stretched, yet strangely filled with warmth and love. He could see the paths their lives might taken and worried for them all in different ways. The gold and green filly who was so quite even to him. Xavier worried if she would ever find a soul in the entire isle who she would ever be able to open up to. Would she find someone good she could trust? Or would she spend her life alone and in hiding. So different from the young colt who seemed so ready to fight. Was he like Xavier and feared losing them like he had his own family? Or was he eager to risk his life and seek revenge that would likely end in his own demise. Xavier shuttered disgusted that war would ravage two young souls like these and make such possible futures. He turned his eyes to the last filly who greedily took and took without seeming to think. He thought her heart deeper though as though clinging to things she could keep would help fill the hole in her own heart. Oh how he wished she would find that such things never worked for long and that it was the brother and sister she had now she should cling to with such passion. Tears escaped the alicorn’s eyes as he gazed out at the young in his care. He loved them more than his own as much as he had loved his own family. He cried for their futures as he cried for his blood family’s death. He would always make it known to these three that no matter what their choices in life they were always welcome to seek him out no matter the reason and he would support and help them. As the tears slipped from his cheeks and fell to the cold snow below his hooves he knew that his work would not end with just these three. All those lost souls who the war had torn from love and life would need a safe place to heal. When he found such a spot he would built a sanctuary. A place for his children to come to if they needed it. A place of safety for all.

Congratulations winners!

After much deliberation and voodoo rituals (no doll was hurt in the judging of this contest, mind you), homes have been found for this little non traditional family! Please post their information on Cait's certing thread heart !