Where am I.... Nimue looked solemly up to the dark heavens above, her only answer being the silent glimmer of the distant stars beyond the marshland canopy of vines and deceased leaves. Her hooves were covered in mud, a permanent blood smeared hand resided on her left flank. She definately looked like she belonged here, as a previous gaze into the nearly algea consumed pond surface showed her moments ago. Her long locks of ebony swirled about her shoulders and legs, bushy and unkept as debris and other particals had become lodged in the locks over time.
Lowering her head down to glance about her surroundings, her dark orbs peered out from the horse skull covering her face from view - making it appear that she had no eyes at all. The land was dark, silent save from the soft glow of the fireflies which dances along to the serenade of crickets and frogs in the swampy atmosphere.
Fluttering her quad ebony wings of a seraphim, each wing folded delicately along her ivory backside as her unicorn tail flicked behind her frame. How was it that she'd gotten here in the first place? All she could remember was a bright light....one which was hot and blinding before something hard struck her head before she passed out. The pain of the impact still causing her head to thud horridly. Now she was here, something in the back of her mind knew she'd changed from what she looked like before....was she beautiful back then? The fuzzy shadows of her memory told her little, feeling no comforting presence on this chilly eve.
Thick darkness of the night had settled and the lone, voidless orbs of nothingness narrowed as the pale stallion wandered within the cloak of night alone and distant from others. He was once a small, uncertain colt whose future semed bleak and plauged by the fear of death by his own father and, although that possiblity still resided, he didn't fear it. There was something inside of him that had caused his heart to beart to beat stonger- his fears to subside and a more brutish and protective nature to surface. He wasn't cruel or senseless- Ezriel had grown keen and alert; his nature was good along with the compassion and love which he had learned from his mother yet that inner battle that raged within had only become more powrful and more destructive that his temper had become simply unpredictable and the ever present urgings of the voice within his head continued to haunt him.
Ezriel did not fear death as much as he feared becoming the stallion his father was.
He flared his nostrils as his spike dtial swayed behind him, cloven hooves romping within the terra and earth as he strode with a defined fierocity that held a small glimpse of a soul who was not all bad- no, a soquili who was searching to soothe the war within.
He justed wanted to be normal.
A light breeze whisped about his long mane of crimson as the male drifted within the unknown lands of rolling plains and desolate life. The feeling as if something was watching him was pushed away and he gave a distinct grumble and a shake of his head, allowing any soul who dared to give him trouble realize that they wouldn't have it so easy; Ezriel was equiped for battle and wouldn't hesitate to fight if the situation called for evasive action and dire decisions. Scowling slightly, the pale male gritted his teeth.
"I will not become like him," he scorned under his breath.
You are your fathers son. You cannot escape your fate; you are his flesh and blood. The voice hissed within his mind, causing the stalon to surpress a shiver and snort.
"I....can't..."
You will.
Those orbs of nothingness seemed to grow more dark and eerie as he gave a quick flash of a snarl and lashed his tail out against the tall grass. He could feel it, that darkness was slowly consuming him.
Coming up towards the small pond where scum distorted the surface and firelies glided above within the air, Ezriel narrowed his orbs and didn't realize the other presence that loomed about so near and simply gave a small nod of his head and fell into what the darkness wroght.
"I...will..."
Someone....someone else was about.
"Speak softly....."
Nimue ushered to her self on almost sing-song vocals, her eyes peering out from the shadows cast by her deathly mask. It would mark her first encounter with another since she awoke, as her eyes settled on the disturbing image of the pale stallion. Was this a mirror? Was he really as hideous as she? Nimue meant no harm by her idol thinking pattern, yet the perceived image of beauty had been present in her mind when her consiousness returned....and with the mutilating spikes which erupted out from his once ivory flesh, he was no beauty indeed.
....just like she.
Afterall, who would fancy an angel of death? No one, thats who. None the less, she didn't even remember her own name, the memories she was left with were scattered and random.....often it didn't even make sense to the Anguni herself.
It semed that hideous was an understatement.
With a coat as pale and eerie as a full moon, eyes like endless voids of darkness, horns and spikes that rose from out of his skin like ones imaginary vice or monster, cloven hooves and a devls tail like the well known kalona and a long, flowing mane of depest crimson seemed to portray a beast rather than a stallion. For as long has he could remember, Ezriel had alwys been feared along with his siblings- even his own sister ws afraid of him! It seemed that he could never portray the past of him that so desperately wanted to break free from being confined yet, in the eyes of others, he was a monster and a savage brute just like his father- a stallion whom he would never emulate nor look up to.
His mind rummaged and lingered with unsteady and constant thoughts that unceasingly plauged his mind over and over gain- the vicious cycle repeating itself day after day and night after night. Those voices and recollections of whispers and rumors that spilled from the maws of others continued to solace audibly and pierced him deep, the wounds cutting deeper and maing the pain all the worse. He truged onwards with a foul scowl until a soft sound caught his attention.
Ezriel perked his ears upwards and knited his brows as the scent of another, one that was unfamiliar, wafted heavily within the air.
"Damn it..."
"Spikes through flesh......does pain bleed black from such a wretched soul?" Again, he words were soft, a heavly treat in comparison to her physical appearence. Physical...why did she need this body anyways when her heart danced along in the heavens above? Nearing the stallion, her steps striking the gound like soft bells that lingered in the still air. Her movement haulted just out of striking range of the mutated male, eyes locked on his....if they were visible.
"I'll keep you company...."
Turning towards the right slightly, the male tensed and stood firm in place as he looked into the face of the unfamilair- looking upon an individual whose head was adorned with a skull and whose overall appearance was bleak, grim and ragged. For a moment, Ezriel stood there as he gave a hard stare but her words-
Wait.
What did she just say?
"Keep me company?" He snorted as he pawed at the ground with a cloven hoof. "And why in hell would you want to do that?"
Fear was something that Nimue wasn't unfortunately left with in her rebirth, as the mare continued to edge closer to the stallion as she blatantly looked over his body from the dark holes which were his eyes down to the spade of his demonic designed tail. With hair like a river of blood flowing from his skull, she tilted her head to the side as her lips curved under the edges of her mask. Why did she wish to stay?
"I don't have reason...not to."
This mare was certainly different.
He flared his nostrils as he stared at her with his voidless orbs of nothingness, an absolute darkness that seemed to intake the strange and haunting anguni; from her bone mask that disclosed her face, her wings and appearance that seemed like a condemnd ghost and forlorn soul, Ezriel became a bit more at ease yet the tension within his shoulders and his spaded devil tail adorned with spikes flicked behind him hesitatntly still. Even her answer seemed to cause him to knit his crimson brows as his long locks of the same blood red hue whisped about by his hooves.
"Right..."he grumbled with a low and reserved tone, his ears flicking as he pawed lightly at the ground with a cloven hoof. "You must be out of your damn mind if you want to stay here with me but don't let me stop you," the pale stallion snarled slightly.
Why she even wanted to be near him or even keep him company didn't make any sense! There was a part of him that didn't want her company, didn't trust her or failed to see the genuine aspect of her request and desire but the other part of him seemed to question her and couldn't help but feel a small interest in her- he didn't care that she looked so faint and somewhat morbid, he also loked very frightening and strange to others yet, to those like himself that stood beyond 'normal', he held a liekness and a deeper respect to them and felt better around them moreso than other soquilis who ravished and worshipped beauty.
Yet even so it still puzzled him as to why the mare was still hanging around him.
Ezriel snorted and grimaced, standing in silence as he blankly stared at her.
If only that made sense to he, as it did to her. She could not think of any reason not to approach the stallion to keep him company, no fear or disgust or even that little absent voice in her soul which should have warned her the dangers of Kalona and the likes of those who lurk in the darkness. The spikes on his tail could easily rip through her delicate flesh, and the anguni would be helpless as the crimson liquid spilled over with each beat of her bearly beating heart. How come she had yet to feel it? Had it died?
"Woe....why doesn't my body live like yours..."
Courageously, or maybe obliviously, Nimue closed the gap between herself and Ezriel as she pressed her ear against his chest. "Beat....beat......beat...." Oh! Why was he so lucky to have such a wonderfully strong heartbeat, when she had to convince herself she still harboured one in the body she resided in and that it wasn't up in the sky. However, something paused her movements as she fell silent while her tail flickered in a spark of intrest.
"Beatbeatbeat....how fast. Your mind beats too fast?" Tilting her head up, she watched him without another word....or was the word she wanted thoughts, rather than beats?
"Live? Sometimes I even question myself if I am part of the living," he commented with a jerk of his head to the right, giving a slightly deep chuckle.
Suddenly as she began closing the distance between them, Ezriel stiffened as his eyes widened- watching as she pressed her ear against his chest. It was unexpected and in reaction he dug his cloven hoof deep into the earth and stood still; his posture tense and rigid while his jowls seemed to grit together.
"Wha....my heart? Mind?"
Ezriel flared his nostrils and he pursed his lips slightly. "I've never had a mare get close to me like this so I'm uncomfortable as hell and on edge-"
Such a damn fool you are, boy. Your father wouldn't be scared- he would beat her, seduce her or kill her! His blood flows through your veins and you will follow in his footsteps and carry on his torment and destruction.
For a moment, the stallion gritted his teeth and cringed. That damn voice! It never left him at peace!
Ezriel intook a deep breath and grumbled trying to forget about it.
"Who are you?"
"Birds of a feather...."
She too, wondered the same thing since she awoke. Why did the reaccouring thoughts of life up amongst the clouds keep coming back, haunting her existance down here amongst the blackened life of the swamps? Was this life she'd been sucked into have some meaning, some riddle that she was meant to figure out? Looking into Ezriel's equally lifeless orbs, it seemed their souls tried their best to hide from the world to see....to decipher. Perhaps it was true that their was an ugliness in everyone....some being easier to see than in others.
"No more shame......she's felt too much pain in the life...in the mind."
Her voice slowly turned musical, although one of the most strangest things began to unfold from the hidden eyes of the mare. Welling over the mask and dripping down the side were tears, although unlike usual tears they glittered like diamonds as they slid down the faded and tarnished face of bone. The smile remained pleasant on her lips despite such an emotional moment, looking up at the sky from between the canopy of leaves and vines above.
"All alone....she's fading away....away from this world. Drifting like a feather...she's not like the other girls."
Heck....she didn't even remember her own name....how was she to say anything to this stallion? Nimue knew she was different, something she couldn't put into words to make him understand. The jumble of words which crossed her mind and left her lips made the Anguni only pray he could decipher enough to get hints.
It was the only thing she could do.
Yet....something had changed since running into this stallion.
She didn't quite feel so alone, and even Nimue knew how nice that feeling felt.
Fluttering her four black wings, the disturbing mare took a step back and lowered her head down to look at the ground before taking note of his spiked tail.....oh the pain it would bring. Such suffering their souls seemed to harbor....was it fate that she and he collided in the dead of night?
"Don't remember....Remember!" Nimue yelled, quite loudly infact before it seemed the mare had stunned herself at the outburst, snapping her head to the side quickly as a red tint seemed to overtake the visible parts of her jawline under the mask. Surely Ezriel could see there was something seriously wrong with her, would he leave?
"No....don't leave me to die here; help me survive here. Hoping....to find a savior...?" With that final word, she looked ezriel straight into the black abyss which one could call his eyes....as if seeking some silent truth.
He stood there still, watching as his eyes seemed to widen and a feeling- some unknown feeling stirred within his chest. Watching as the anguni before him began trailing down a river of tears that sparkled like radiant diamonds cam forth from the mask of bone from her hidden eyes, he could feel the voice silence and the madness within his conflicted soul and unpredictable temper soothe.
Was it her voice? That melodious voice that was soft yet struck something within him- or her song, the lyrics she sung that made him simply curl a soft smile upon his own maw.
"Hold it together, birds of a feather..."
That void of loneliness and pains that had, for so long, tormented his own soul as he had walked upon his chosen path which the blue troll mare, Malis, had helped him decipher and begin his journey reawakened a part of him. Although he had struggled, fought and had been subject to challenges and some torment, he felt as if perhaps that this meeting was not chance.
It was something much more- something that would change him and fill a part of him that had been lost.
It was fate.
As she continued speaking and even gave a sudden outburt of yelling, Ezriel remained in place. Even the red that began to tint her maw didn't frighten him. There was- there was something about her that he found similar and recognized. Within his own head, words so instinctual began to formulate and his own voice began to speak with the same tune.
"I have the answer, spreading the cancer...you are the faith inside me," he replied as something seemed to draw the words easily out of his maw and take a step closer towards her. There he gazed into her bone mask, looking into her hidden eyes as that strange yet welcomed feeling beat within his heart and coursed through his veins.
He couldn't describe it yet he was begining to feel like a new creature and complete.
"Don't surrender...Don't...surrender...."
Ezriel continued as his words and song became a bit more loud and a bit more powerful. Within his soul he could feel it and he liked it.
"Put me to sleep evil angel
open your wings evil angel
Fly over me evil angel-
why..can't I breathe evil angel?"
Slowly and with gentleness, The pale white stallion outstretched his head and tenderly brushed his muzzle against hers and the side of her cheek. He felt warmth, Ezriel felt his heart beat faster and almost feel as if it would burst from out of his chest! Again the feeling grew and the stallion could feel it and he welcomed it. How and why he had managed to stumble across her this darkened night was something he didn't quite understand but he wouldn't question as he knew that it was caused by one thing and one thing only.
Fate.
"My name is Ezriel," he softly spoke as he found the confidence to tenderly press his nose against hers and have a desire to be closer to her. Something about her...he wanted to be near her and the thought of leaving her seemed to twist his stomach and cause a wash of pain. Leave her? No, he couldn't.
These emtotions-s o new yet so right.
"You must be my angel I have waited for...."
With her lips slowly parting from beneath the mask, Nimue was in shock....and for once it was not from the words emitting from her lips. He knew....he knew the words which emitted from her soul...how....how could he? Could he read her mind....or was it he had the same melody playing into his own ears too? In her short time awake, she knew no other like Ezriel....and a feeling deep down told her she'd never before met anyone quite like he before.
Nimue felt immensely connected to the skies above, and the same feeling was being resonated by her heart towards the stallion. Was this that emotion called love, which could send any soquili head over hooves and do crazy thing for another? No....she was far crazy before she met him.
Closing her eyes as her body shook in a delightful quiver, Nimue's breath became soft and calmed; the remnants of her tears died upon her mask. Perhaps if he could see through the shadow cast by the eye sockets, Ezriel would be able to spot that glimmer of recognized and understood hope.....maybe....just maybe...she'd find the answers she was yearning for. Yet for now, she felt at peace in his company and with his touch as the spark of warmth the pair shared burned delightfully on her cheek. Flicking her lion's tail back and forth, and with a bit of care with her horn, she brushed her own cheek across his before nestling her face into his hair. Inhaling his scent to memory she embelished the softness of those ruby locks...oddly enough, he didn't smell like death, blood, or something foul.....infact - she could have sworn it was a mixture of pine, and the sweet scent of a summer's breeze.
"Heaven....ly....."
Nimue breathed as if in a euphoric state, but something else quickly snapped her out of that state. Angel.....
Stumbling back as her posture stiffened and seized up, her wings arched back in alert....was she....an Angel? Twisting her head up to the skies, the mare could feel her heart break slowly as she stood below the beauty which was the night sky. Slowly, a forlorn look (or as much as she could muster under a mask) crossed her features. She was an angel....wasn't she? But at the same time, she was not. There was something else she was....and she also could feel that she was something extrodinary.
Without a word, her four wings behan to flap as her hooves slowly lifted off the ground as the chime of bells began to ring through the dead night air. Gliding over to Ezriel, she brushed up against his side as she fluttered in circles around the spiked stallion. Once more, her mood changed, a coy and fox like mannorism appeared to overtake her.
"Do you remember me? Will you be on the other side?....or will you forget me?"
Oh, the complexity which was Nimue.
It was hard to decipher sanity from insanity.
Upon rounding towards the front, she flew before him as she rested her forehead upon his larger horn before dragging her head down; effeciently making a cut running from her horn to her nose as the blood began to bubble out and streak over her ivory fur. She did not cringe, or even cry out from the pain.....no - it was almost like it had never even happened; or her nerves didn't register it.
"I'm pouring crimson....." She spoke, tossing her head back as well as some of her blood, looking out to the stallion with a blank doll like disposition. "Am I too lost to be saved...." Settling to the ground softly, her forelegs crumpled beneath her as she lay atop her legs, nuzzling and nibbling at his legs and slowly rocking forewards and back like some crazy insane asylum escapee.
"Return to me...Salvation....my soul cries for deliverance....am I too lost? Too lost...?"
That same melody, that same tune of sadness, forlorn and lost emotions solaced within his own mind like that of the anguni. He swore he felt something stir within his heart, his chest, and made him certain that there was no other like her (could he have found a more unstable and crazed mare? Was that even possible?)- no one could ever fill that void, that empy void within a part of him that had remained distant, isolated and cold. Although she was vastly strange just as he and somewhat out of her mind, Ezriel didn't care.
These emotions, these feelings seemed to douse over him while a part of him was screaming 'psychotic and unstable mare' over and over again yet he wasn't listening to it.
Was this what love felt like?
He wasn't sure but there was something within his mind that convinced him that this was to be the start of something new- something very, very new.
Feeling her touch against his face and muzzle, the stallion swore he felt something spark and begin to grow. Looking into her shadowed eyes he could see something, there was something there which couldn't accurately be put into words but, yet again, another feeling stirred within him that only assured him that he would never want to separate himself from her nor let any other male win her heart (which probably was very, very unlikely). Feeling as she nestled into his long, crimson locks of his mane, Ezriel felt her hot breath caress against his neck as he rumbled and nuzzled closer to her.
"Heavenly is a name I would have thought to never heard spoken by anyone- I should be saying that to you," he mused low, a soft and cool tone to his voice.
But it seemed as he mentioned 'angel' she took alarm or became confused, frightened and bewildered with unknown sadness that sudden and, perhaps haphazardly, pluaged her. He watched her facial expressions as he furrowed his crimson brows, turning up to look at the sky as she did and then focused his attention back upon her. Had he said something wrong? Yet he continued to stand in place, somewhat alarmed as he watched her suddenly lift off the ground and take wing into the skies- circling around him with a mannerism that had changed, transformed quicky into something different.
He wasn't quite sure and as she circled towards his front, Ezriel watched as she came closer and pressed her forehead against his largest horn and slowly dragged her head down as a trickling stream of crimson dribbled down upon his muzzle. Yet there he watched- watching her cut herself as no pain even seemed to register across her face nor the slightest whimper or whine emitted from her maw. It was as if she had no feelings or could not experience pain.
It was certainly strange.
But Ezriel didn't turn away and all the while he could feel a part of him wondering why his hooves wouldn't move him to turn around and run.
As the mare shook her head and caused spatters of crimson to tain his white hide, he took a step forward as her legs gave out and the anguni simply fell upon them and laid there while nuzzling and nibbling at his own legs. Somehow in the midsts of her sanity or insanity (the line was hard to draw yet Ezriel did not mind it to be honest), the pale white stallion simply lowered himself down and laid in front of her.
"Deliverance is near," he commented as somehow a warm, ever small, smile curled upon his maw as he touched his nose against that of the anguini, "and salvation comes with spikes, horns and with the appearance of one who is not fit to be amongst the living."
He felt comfortable though his speech seemed deeper, stronger and more keen. Ezriel nuzzled against her as he pressed his nose against hers and exhaled softly.
"All alone with my demons I am and the dark ones shriek, they scream his name. I live among the dead fighting voices in my head and hoping someone hears me crying in the night and carries me away. Are...are you the one who will set my captive soul free?"
"I am your salvation and..." he paused momentarily as he pursed his lips slightly, white ears flicking as the next words- were unexpected yet saying them felt...so right. It was hard to explain.
"Do you want to be free? Lift your chains- I hold the key. But I need you to set me free..."
"Free....Break free.....break me free..."
Nimue whispered, crawling towards the mutated stallion as he lay before her as she once more desired to bury her face into his neck. Nuzzling her head under his jawline, she breathed out with calm breaths....was she comfortable? These sensations were confusing to say the least and not to mention so numerous Nimue thought she would explode! What happened to the simply stoic life she had moments before meeting this male. Was meeting all soquili like this?
Somewhere in her mind she could remember that not everyone looked like they, no...they were the normal; what soquili were supposed to look like. Was this a bad thing that they were scorned to appear as such?
Was it possible for an Anguni to be a monster?
"Free...." He was caged? Nimue could see no cage, but for once her mind decided to help her and reminded the mare of what she'd said the moment she saw him....his mind was ill. Smiling softly from under the mask, the dirty mare seemed more at peace then she ever had; her mind focused on one thought. "I can do that."
Drawing her head from under his chin, the blood was slowly starting to dry on the mask where the hole in the skull had been cut by his spikes. Using her own nose to push his head down against his chest, Nimue placed her horn against the larger of his forehead spikes as a light began to emmit from her soul....spiraling up the horn and drifting down his own and into his body.
Sure, Nimue wasn't a pure breed Unicorn....yet maybe, just maybe she'd have enough celestial powers to help heal the torment in his mind for the time being. She honestly had no clue what ailed him, yet something in his mind was the key.
After the glow began to fade, the Anguni felt a bit woozy as her head swayed softly. "ohhhh...." She breathed out, before finding a comfortable spot for her chin against the ivory male's shoulder blade. Yet it wasn't long before something else surfaced, something a bit more sinister in its ambitions.
"Hold me."
Her voice had changed once more, hardening with a bit more of a lustrious tone. Smirking as her pearly whites glittered against the lights of the drifting fireflies; she began to bite at his jawline. "I'm lost and seduced......i'm shaken and moved..." Sliding her head down his neck, she once more pressed her ear eagerly to his heart....finding what she was looking for the unstable mare crawled closer as she effeciently pressed their chests together so even he could feel the beat of her heart. "The heart beats hard, to resist you is hard...."
Pressing her cheek on his maw, her lips drifted to his ear as her voice was nothing but a mere whisper in the night.
"The blood runs wild and hot, hear my breaths......don't let go of me; i'm enchanted by you."
"Set me free..."
Ezriel whispered in reply, watching her as the anguni crawled towards him and seemed relaxed and content as she nuzzled her head underneath his chin and felt her calm breaths against his skin. The pale stallion couldn't help but feel somewhat confused yet it just felt so good, so right- words couldn't exactly explain everything that he was feeling but that minute, small grin that tucked away at the corner of his lightly black hued maw was enough to express his feelings, thoughts and emotions that churned within him.
Something within him stirred as his spaded-spiked tail swayed to the side and behind him as he looked into her skull helmet, staring and simply with unmistakable awe.
To find another like him, another soquili whose appearance was not like the normal made a part of him awaken and see that perhaps and maybe, just maybe, there was something such as luck or love that he could feel. But even now it was too early to say that he was-
Wasn't it?
Caged. He was caged and encarserated within a surreal yet tangible world where the inner battle between light and dark controlled him and brought great rapture to him and where he was condemned to forever walk alone as a mutant, a misfit and a horrific beast whose image was terrifying and gruesome as no one could ever lean to love a beast.
But it seemed that there was a newfound hope.
Pale, white ears perked upwards as his crimson brows knitted slightly. "You...can help me?" He wasn't sure if he quite understood why she wanted to yet those feelings, the many feelings that churned and awoken within him seemed to cause him to further relax as she watched the mare's own horn begin to glow while he sat there, watching her as she touched it against the largest of his adorning horns atop his head as light seemed to seep into his own body, his soul.
Stronger feelings, new feelings awakened. He could feel them- slowly coursing through his veins as he blinked once, then twice, and could feel a fire within his soul burn and a sudden weight that had toppled over his shoulders and brought forth great pain and aches upon his own heart begin to dissapate and fade.
All of the memories, the horrid memories, the worries and the fears departed from out of his mind and, essentially, he began to feel...
"Lighter....I feel lighter," he commented with the same reserved tone, breathing almost with a new feeling as his mind cleared and parts of the true stallion slowly began to surface although it would take time yet still control would have to be learned.
Ezriel couldn't be cured too fast- he still had to learn.
Yet both darkness and light still remained within him and at her touch, he narrowed his orbs and seemed to flash a small grin of his own, one that grew minutely wider.
Something within her voice called to him and he obeyed. The pale-white stallion shifted closer to her and moved to have his body wrap around hers while the mare bit at his jawline and continued to press her ear against his chest. And as their hearts were pressed closer to one another, the stallion chuckled to himself and continued to sway his spaded-spiked tail behind him.
"Never..never will I let go," He whispered, his voice low as emotions stirred and surfaced; taking him by surprise and leaving him in a state which he was so unfamilir with.
Whatever it was he didn't want it to end just yet.
"I' will never let go."
