[PRP]The Hidden Rose (Pandora&Marrow)

[stormflower]

The day was warm, the nights cold. She longed for the dark cold at night. Her shadows hiding her, her bright, glowing pink eyes the only tell of where she was. She was still in her youth, but she had experienced more then any could imagine.

The sun was high in the sky, you can hear the happy birds, smell the flowers, but to her it was pain. She would hug the shadows the many trees gave. She usually sleeps during the day but lately her mind has run rampant with questions and her memories.

She started to question her vary being, it angered her. She was a killer with a blood lust equal to that of a skinwalker. She had proven her worth to her father, now she had to prove it to herself, but she was lost in doubt and regret. Her heart was growing colder with every thought. This world with light, weakness...she didn't want to see it, hear it, smell it, or live in it.

Anger took her over, her glowing pink eyes saw red. She ran off and far ahead a deer grazed in tall grass. She 'pounced' and within minutes the deer was dead. Pandora reveled in the still warm blood. It cleared her mind and filled her belly. She then wandered into a new area she'd never seen before. She could still see red and smell it, but it wasn't of the blood.....roses?  

[[+Katch+]]

Marrow had taken some time to relax, the black in his strange pelt soaked in the sun and the light wind tussled his wild mane, causing the strings of beads to chime against each other. He had pruned, watered and removed the pesky bugs from his beloved rose bushes and placed an offering of sugar, petals and water over each of the scattered graves on the hill he called home. He opened his eyes, the bright blue mirroring the sky above him, it was a good day, the weather was pleasant and he had finished his duties ahead of schedule, it was surely only a little past noon.

He ambled along the stony path through the many gardens he cultivated and nodded at each gravestone as he passed, the heavy clop of his hooves and the rattling of his beads the only indication he was there at all. He hadn't seen many travelers these days, he stared out into the valley that bordered his hill, nope, no one to be found. He stared at the empty space, thinking many things, all at once...His spaced state was broken abruptly by a sound, his ears flicked forward and he flared his nostrils...something had died...it was a faint smell, but blood was always easy for him to scent. He wondered if the wolves had gone out early, but he knew the valley wolves and their hunting patterns...this was different, and something new...

He slipped into the shade of a tree and stared out over the hilltop, looking for the source of that particular smell. For the smell of blood, though faint, overtook the scent of his roses  

[stormflower]

Pandora inched closer to one of the bushes abundant with blood red roses. She didn't think much of flowers, but she could relate with these. She walked a little ways and soon she saw she was in a grave-yard. She didn't think much of it, she'd seen many graves in her young life, for 2-leggers and soquili alike but this was the biggest she'd seen.

She continued to walk a short ways she felt at ease in this place. It was then she caught a small jingling sound and the aroma of roses in the air, but the scent held something else with it. She sank into the shadows and searched the the land. The scent came stronger, it was another soquili.

This other soquili was close she could feel it and smell it. She stayed in the shadows of the near-by trees as she moved closer to the scent. She saw in the shadows of the tree white, the other soquili. It was then Pan stepped out of the shadows and looked towards the white soquili. She didn't know why she left the comfort of what darkness there was in the light of day, but she did. Her shadows licked her body like a purple lame and her glowing eyes reflected it.

Soon she was in a shadow of a larger tree only 10 or so feet from her company. She was close enough to see that it was a Male soquili with the skeletal structure that was white on a black base. The sound came from his hair, long draping of red beads and she also saw he wore roses as well. He was very different and intriguing, he had her interest and in a long time she didn't want to kill him on sight.  

[[+Katch+]]

The wind carried more information to his sense of smell than most things on this hill, and beyond the blood and roses, there was something else, something...darker. He searched with his eyes, the bright blue reflecting the hill, the dip of the valley and the trees as if they had all been captured in a strange ocean or inside a bright sapphire, never to be let go again. Still he did not see anything out of the ordinary, even though he certainly sensed it...he did not mind others, in fact he welcomed them, but caution was always close to ones hooves. Marrow on the other hand did not have that sort of caution, he dwelled in the darkest of places and through the darkest of things, he could relate to these things better than those who walked in the light and laughed through lives darker spots. He didn't understand "letting go" or "good and evil" in reality, there was nothing as black and white as all that...
Simply very odd shades of gray.

It was then that he spotted something, it had only been for a second, he nearly skipped a breath but he had seen it...a shadow in the light. Usually, as he knew it anyway, light meeting objects birthed shadows, but this had no object to birth it, it was simply a shadow standing in direct sunlight. It was only a little afternoon and the sun beat hot and steadily with no clouds to mar it's light...He narrowed his eyes and lowered his head a bit, his beads slithering around in his mane. The other he sensed, was not as far away as he had thought...He stared hard at a patch of shadows that seemed darker than the rest, were they hiding something?

He opened his mouth and a deep voice slithered from his throat, he barely used his voice as there weren't many to talk to around these parts, it was rough and deep...but fitting "...someone is there...i know...you lurk there in the deepest of shadows...but why is my question."  

[stormflower]

Pandora peered through the shadows at the stallion, slowly studying him. He seemed like something she'd never seen. His markings and adornments unique. She could feel his eyes fixated on her position, she wasn't trying to hide ,she was reading the surrounding area just as closely as she studied him.

Her eyes started to glow brighter at the deep voice that emitted from the stallion. She couldn't help but let a smirk play on her lips at his question. She slowly stepped out of the shadow of the tree Her eyes grew even more intensely even in the bright sun. She slowly walked up nearer to the deep voiced stallion, her smirk never wavering.

Her hooves made no sound as she walked on stone and grass. Her own shadows licked up her strong legs, an lively purple flame. Her form shifted, at moments almost seemingly to disappear all together. She then found her self several feet from the stallion. "I do not lurk in the shadows as I am a part of them and them me.", her voice was smooth but powerful.

She looked over the stallion carefully, he was very peculiar. The wind blew through the trees bringing the smell of roses and blood together. She saw he had roses laid in his mane and tail. "I assume your the one that tends to this land. You smell of the roses...." she couldn't quite figure him out, not yet but bewildering to her she wanted to.  

[[+Katch+]]

Marrow blinked at the mare as she came into the light, as if the shadows around her had reluctantly sent her out, she was a dark purple hue, though if he looked closer, he realized with some shock, that he could see THROUGH her! He stared, his bright eyes limned with curiosity, the only movement being the wind through his wild mane. When he spoke, his voice was less rusty, but carried a tone of interest, he hadn't had someone to talk to in a while, and certainly not a shadow mare. Had one of the graves finally yeilded a companion or was she from some far land? questions crowded on his tongue but he simply went on with the direct conversation. " Oh i see...." he murmured " shadows who come into the daylight are very rare..." he stared across the way, still studying her, but answering her question in time. " Yes...i am Marrow...a gardener and a groundskeeper...i suppose you would call me...." he blinked once, and the wind rattled his beads " And who....are you?"  

[stormflower]

Pandora smirked at his comment and set her eyes on his. He was very intriguing and he seemed just as curious as he was of her. "Shadow's live and breath in the light, for without it we could not exist....", her voice was calm smooth but had a hidden humor in it.

Another light breeze ran between them bringing the rose sent to attention again, she took a deep breath, flowers were not something she liked, but the sent of the roses were different. She turned her attention back to Marrow as he gave his name. "Grounds keeper and Graves keeper so it seems, friends with roses and those long past..interesting company to keep....My name is Pandora one the shadows keep and were death meets.", a cold tone coming to her voice and in her eyes at the end of her words.

She looked around at the graves and roses, an interesting companionship between the two, but for her it seemed to fit. This place was almost calming to her, blood-lust faded from her. Why, she hoped she could discover, which may lead her to discover something hidden in her own heart.  

[[+Katch+]]

Marrow blinked his bright blue eyes at her and smiled oddly " that is beautiful...and true, yes..." He shook his mane lightly at a stray leaf tickled his ear, the beads strung in his wild hair tinkling in protest.

He nodded as she named correctly his duties around the area " yes...they are my duty and my company, but the roses are my friends...if i take care of them, they take care of me..." He tilted his head " either way...sometimes it is...pleasant to have living speaking company...well met Pandora."

He watched her silently, the only sound besides the pair was the whispering wind through the leaves of nearby trees and the rustle of the roses as they clung to their stems in protest. " ...it may just be me senorita...but you seem like you're...looking for something...what may that be?  

[stormflower]

The wind died to a cold whisper as she stood in silence at Marrows words. She glanced to the roses as the scent faded and everything seemed to grow cold and gray. All sounds seemed muted as her shadows whipped around her legs but then calmed as her eyes faded, the glow almost completely gone. "Wandering........searching? Yes.....Im searching for my soul....."

Her voice was hard, but in her faded eyes there was the sadness and anguish of her past. The scars that surrounded her heart. Her eyes brightened and anger showed on her face as a growl sounded through the air. The color and sounds returned to the area. A light breeze picked up bringing a single rose petal to her nose. She shook her head and the petal fell to her feat, a flash of blood came to her eyes, it covered her....blood buried her soul....

"I search in vain as my soul is lost to terror and blood.....pain" she turned to the nearest rose bush and plucked one...the thorns cutting her, letting small blood droplets fall down to the ground as she turned back to Marrow and placed the rose between them. "I am like the reddest rose....covered in blood...I am the thorns that draw blood to wounds that will never heal.....A forsaken soul forgotten, cut bleeding and withering in pain of the past....I am a monster....tainted blood that is untained.", her past was a harsh one.

Everything she did to prove to her father that she was something she truly isn't, convincing herself was a harder task that she was starting to fail. Her eyes grew sad again, but the anger seethed in her heart only calming when she looked back to Marrow. Why had she said those things...what was it about this place...about him that calmed her demons and her heart?  

[[+Katch+]]

Marrow watched her, his blue eyes bright under the veil of white that was his mane. " Your...soul?" he murmured, his deep voice carrying easily through the wind. He watched solemnly as she seemed to crumble before him, no longer a dangerous predator, but a battleworn and weary mare who's heart did not know which path to follow.

After a moment he spoke, his voice deep and resonating " Senorita...no, Pandora...." he locked his eyes with hers " You are only what you tell yourself...you are. The roses here have never seen bloodshed, nor do they soak up the tears of maidens to bloom so. Had you truly been a monster...you could not have appreciated them...or bled their color."

He took a step forward, silent among the grass underhoof " do not cause yourself pain...for anyone else." He did not know the whole story, but had she been a monster as she claimed, she would have passed this place without a thought, or attacked him...he didn't have much experience with this sort of thing...but being immersed in silence and death most of his life, he knew a shrinking soul when he saw it.

He stared at her, his eyes a bit unfocussed, as if he were staring past her and INTO her instead...seeing not her vicious appearance, but who resided within it, the ghosts of her past flitting about...

"...there are some bandages...back near the temple, if you would let me see to your scratches...then, perhaps you will feel better?"  

[stormflower]

Pandroa was silent, her mask returning to her face. It was pointless as Marrow had seen past it, she let down her guard...this place was calming for her and Marrow a new puzzle to solve. She simply nodded her head to his question to tending her scratches and followed Marrow.

As she walked her silent foot falls grew heavy, even if she was the only one who could tell. "I am you I say I am yet my blood is mixed shadows and death, malice and blood. Born in the darkness not to see the light, even if light gives the shadows life. A murderous father that abandoned me and my sister...unworthy as we are not Skinwalkers like him. My mother lost in the shadows, mad and twisted as they come.."

Her mask fell and stayed off as she glanced to the roses and the graves. "I've killed so many, caused so much death I don't know how else to live....always striving to prove myself to my father and he finally acknowledged me and I am forever lost in blood and shadows. But this place calms me when it should scream it's pain, I've left so many creatures graveless, never to find peace....I can't find peace, forever a lust for blood. The desire set in stone by whats left of my heart....never showing mercy....Im just another thorn in the world...the blood I shed makes roses red....Never to forgive."

She started to loose herself again, her inner anguish thinking of her past, thoughts she normally does not have...or does not pay them any mind. Her shadows were liking wildly around her, reaching up past her knees. Her mothers shadowed past to her...were they going to drive her mad as well...she was loosing touch with reality, but looking at a single white rose amongst the red was holding her sanity...for the moment  

[[+Katch+]]

He listened as she followed behing him, he listened to her words, of course, but more than that he listened to the pain that laced them. He often listened to the spirits of the dead, but they were without pain now, even the ones who had been dark in life, they did not sound like that.

" Your parents were not true, loving parents then..." he turned and looked at her with his ice chip eyes, they were like mirrors, reflecting her but showing nothing of himself, though outwardly he didn't seem like the secretive type. " after years of hate when i was younger, i realized my parents had given me to a life that was safe, regular, a proud job...they may have not been there, but there was love in the bones of this place."
He frowned slightly " evil turns in upon itself Pandora, but you are not them..." he turned and walked again, though his voice was strong, it was still kind, no trace of judging " this place IS peace...and you are welcome to stay as long as you need...and listen, maybe you will hear something."

He had brought her to the "temple" which was little more than a rough wooden shelter tied together with old vinerope and slabs of trees, though from the outside it seemed kind of ishy, the inside was immaculately decorated and big enough to hold about four full grown stallions. He ushered her in as he saw her sanity slipping fast, and narrowed his eyes at her, his voice soothing " Pandora...calm yourself. Fight it Senorita...after some time here, some good pure water and food, after your wounds have healed....you will feel better."

He was silent after that, watching, his ears perked, even as he went about fetching rose water for her to drink and salves and bandages from small packs to attend to her wounds.  

[stormflower]

She had lost site of the pure white rose by now as she barely heard Marrow words or even saw him when he turned to loo at her the first time, but she did acknowledge his words wither she realized it or not. "This....is a comforting place......I may not be them, but it does not change the fact that they are big parts of me.....the worse parts."

She was still dazed, in her self wallowing...her self torment, but with Marrow strong words for her to fight she shook her head and snapped out of it and found her bright pink eyes looking into his bright blue and she started to calm instantly, her strong muscles relaxing. ".....Yes Marrow perhaps your right.....th...thank you...Im not used to the kindness of others, not that I've given any much of a chance to even speak before I....well...I won't go into that...."

She chanced a small smile as she settled down and laid on the cool ground letting the rest of her muscles relax, letting her mind go free of her past as best she could, trying to make herself into someone different, someone better, someone who wasn't a killer...a murderer....who wasn't just another lost shadow.