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 Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:35 pm
Two days had passed since her meeting with Reaper; or as Nimue would forever call him, Gabriel. Night had once again set onto the cliffs where but a few feet away the rumble of the falls continuously broke the silence of the area. The falls fell into a large lake below, where as the forest crept up to the ledge as far as it dare; it was here where the fallen Angeni slept peacefully since passing out prior. She was a rather lucky mare for many a soquili of sinister means could have easily came and killed her in her sleep. Yet perhaps it was the fate of the gods that she would not be cured of her torment so easily? No...for unbeknown to Nimue her fate of cruel twists and turns was far from over.
Stirring from her slumber, sapphire orbs fluttered open to the night as her pupils dilated quickly to adjust to the lack of light. Glancing around the mare took notice to the low rising harvest moon, giving her surroundings an almost eerie atmosphere. However she paid little mind to what was around here, and moreso of what wasn't there. Angry tears quickly emerged from her eyes, as the mare hissed quite bitterly.
"Gabriel is not here....why! Nimue trusted that he would be here, and now that Nimue is awake where is he!?" Slowly rising to her hooves, the morbid mare bit her lip attentively before letting her mood shift once more as a new range of thoughts began to swarm her mind.
What if he's gone?
What if Gabriel doesn't like Nimue?
Did something happen to him?
He hates Nimue.
They all hate Nimue.
Bright eyes welling up with tears, Nimue sniffled softly as the anger washed away quickly to bring forth a wave of sorrow. "Nimue likes Nimue....sometimes. Is....there something wrong with me?" She choked out softly, her quad ebony wings sagging defeatedly at her sides. Oh woe was Nimue! Could there be no soul who could keep her company and allow her to keep said company?
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:39 pm
Someday, perhaps, he would take Taraxippus with him out on his nocturnal wanderings - that one, at least, seemed to take to his teachings and was an even better pupil than he could have hoped. The other..... the other... while there were characteristics, a strong spirit that was admirable, she sadly did not seem to have the ember of fierce terror that Anju so hoped would pass to all his progeny. But for now, Taraxippus was watching the new ones.
It was odd to the shadowy stallion, to be building a herd like he used to mock in the other soquili - their necessity to be close to another for strength. Their lack of independence. It was that weakness that he fed upon. That fear of being outside the comfort. And the need for others that he mocked. He hated that growing feeling in himself that seemed to find.. pleasure in the company of others - even if they were his progeny.
So, for now, the shadow took to its own again, the lone predator that was almost one with the shadows cast by the silvery moon. Only six dimly glowing red eyes occasionally flashing as he moved silently revealed that there was anything there that could not otherwise be explained by the passing of a bird across the moonlight.
When the cry of an unfamiliar mare reached the Anju's sensitive ears, sinister curiosity welled in him, and he altered his path, creeping closer to the fascinating mare that stood in a beam of moonlight, talking seemingly to herself.
With a toothy grin that spread too wide across the monster's face, he stopped a dozen feet behind her. Then, a chilling whisper suddenly rung out around the mare, seemingly from all directions.
"There must be.... for this mare to find herself alone on a night like this..."
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:58 am
"Long...lost words whisper slowly; to me..."
Nimue's head hung softly, the voice was true in a sense. There was something wrong with her despite the company of a few who told her otherwise. It seemed as if the very voice had come from her own soul to resonate around her like it did; or had it come from the very air she breathed? Was this her consious? No...she'd heard the little voices in her head and although numerous they were, Nimue hoped her sanity was strong enough to remember a voice like that.
Trailing her eyes about the shadowed grove, she was fortunate for the dim lighting to shield her eyes from view whilst her face seemed to have nothing but sockets to where orbs should have been. In a way; Nimue should have expected for something or someone to show themselves. This neck of the woods was particularily notorious for soquili that went 'bump' in the night. Hell, it was how she met the duo of Reaper and Ezriel; father and son.
"Haunting me...I can smell you; alive." Nimue sung out; waiting for whomever decided to keep her company on this eve to appear. "I know you're still there....watching me, my heart pounding in my head...."
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:02 am
With a confident and chilling smile, the stallion walked forward, shadows sloughing off of him as if he were emerging from a black, viscous lake.
As he approached, the moonlight shone almost through the smoky stallion, but revealed a soft, undulating outline that was unmistakably equine. And then, there were the eyes. Six dimly glowing red patches were visable on his face, fixated on her in a distinctly predatory fashion. He circled slowly before coming to a stop not far before her. He had a chilling, unnatural presence and a dangerous intensity.
His voice called out again, still barely a whisper, but Nimue would have no trouble hearing every inflection in the voice - as if it were whispered right in her ear. "Feeling your heart pound..." it echoed, a toothy smile now visible, unnaturally wide. "Tasting your fear. A lone mare does not escape the eyes of the night."
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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 2:17 pm
Oh wow, what was that?
It seemed as if the very shadows on the forest ground had taken shape into a equine form, her eyes fixated on the tendrils of what she'd usually mistake as mist or smoke wafting off the stallion into the night air. Nimue had seen many a strange creature in her relatively short time here on the earthen soil yet this one was by far the strangest. If it didn't speak so chillingly she would have sworn it was simply a creature of her rather vivid imagination.
"Nimue thinks it would be most difficult to escape six ruby orbs....yet she it not alone; the trees and this shadow horse has come to keep my company. Is that why you are here?" True, if this creature of the night decided to attack her for god knows what reason she doubt she'd stand much of a chance unless she was to fly away. He was most definitely unlike Ezriel and Reaper...so what was he? Was he of Soquili breed or was he some shadow monster? Fortunately for the mare her courage and fearless sanity kept her from turning tail and running screaming. She wasn't sure if that was a good trait or a real stupid one.
"Oh shadowed soul....you draw my attention, so captivation. A name....I seek it; desire it. Can you not grant a mare a wish on this chilling eve?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:48 pm
Anju would have delighted in the mare's uncertainty. His uniqueness, matched only by his son Taraxippus, was an advantage - it made other soquili unsure on how to approach them, unsure of their capabilities. It was one of his more sublime characteristics.
The whispy tail stirred the air behind him before his chilling 'voice' materialized in the air like so much condensation. "Once the night's eyes are opened and drawn to such a mare, it is not often for such a frivolous reason as 'company'."
His form seemed to waver as he moved around her, eyes fixed unblinking on Nimue's fur that glistening as pure moonlight. "And when the darkness calls upon a form... it sometimes takes a name. Anju. " The menace behind the voice was nearly as chilling as the evening.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:51 am
Not company? Then pray tell what was he here for? Certianly he came out of the shadowy oblivion since she was wandering about the woods, yet to what was to come of this meeting she hadn't the slightest idea. He didn't seem as menacing as the stories fortold of some soquili who resembled an unforgiving tornado of teeth and hunger; mostly for flesh of their own kind.
Could shadows have hunger?
"Well....Nimue thinks you must have come out of the shadows for something...." The mare blinked and cocked her head to the side, letting some of the curly locks of ebony fall over her skull mask.
"An...juuuuu....Anju. That is a name most interesting! Can Nimue have it?" She giggled softly, fluttering her wings as the shadow mass nearly swirled around her; so enchanting was his movements, watching the smoke like tendrils drift off his body to vanish in the night air.
Hell, she could stare at him for hours.
"How did...shadow thing get this way? Nimue is most curious. How come you are not like me?" She inquired, tentively moving her nose out to try and brush it against what would be his body. Would she find perhaps a physical form beneith the shadow?
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:04 am
The shadowy creature's eyes roamed over the masked mare's form silently for a moment. The night seemed to hold its breath as he thought. Sanity seemed to be only a tenuous thing for Nimue. Something had likely hurt her severely in the past, and left her damaged. She seemed lost, impressionable, confused. So while she did not seem to fear a presence that most sane soquili would on such a moonlit encounter, there was still potential for interest in the mare. His eyes lingered on her mask, a mote of curiousity flitting through him before he moved to speak once more.
"Perhaps the shadows have come to claim you, my dear." He whispered, bringing his maw close to her soft ear. "You seem so lost, staring to the moon and awaiting the answers. Perhaps Nimue can no longer hold on. All alone. That she will just fall into the blackness and be no more." The grin stretched his face again as he moved around her fluidly to her other side.
Her inquiry after his name and origins gave him a delicious idea. His chilling whisper continued.
"Perhaps I have decided to take the form of one such as yourself in order to speak with you. After all, it is not often that the darkness takes a voice. Why does your soul cry out so strongly to the black? What does Nimue hide behind her mask?
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:57 pm
Oh.
Oh no.
Widening her eyes in sheer terror, her limbs began to quake uncontrollable as if the mare could feel the demons in her soul take a hold onto her very being and enlope it in darkness. There was something about this shadow...this Anju; while she felt no fear from his presence; his words stirred the inner demons lurking away in her soul....waiting for but a moment of weakness before they roused from their ever lurking state.
"Hold on....Hold on....Don't let go!"
She paniced, evident as her pupils narrowed to near speck in her sapphire hued orbs. Tighter, tighter they wound their noose of fear 'round her neck as her head slashed through the air frantically, and with a scream she reared back before thrashing to the side to forcefully smash her head against the nearby tree. The branches cut at the unprotected jawline and neck of the femme; spilling sweet crimson to stain and corrupt the pure ivory of her pelt. Pain....it was something tangible she could grasp on in these desperate moments where the darkness of her own soul attempted to consume her; it was something that she could feel.
"Don't leave me alone, cause I barely see at all...Don't leave me alone. I'm - falling in the black, slipping through the cracks, falling to the depths can I ever go back? Dreaming of the way it used to be; can you hear me?
Falling inside the black..." She sung gently into the night, her voice tremoring softly. Tears slowly slid down the smooth surface of her skull mask, washing away the bits of dirt laden there from the tree.
"You were my source of strength, I've traded everything that I love for this one thing...Stranded in the offering. Don't leave me here like this,
can't hear me scream from the abyss...And now i wish for you my desire..."
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:43 pm
And there it was. The mare's weak point. She was perilously poised at the edge of that gaping maw of insanity. She knew how close she was, and she was terrified of that void. It had only taken a precise, well-placed tap to push her over that edge.
And while the mare descended into the madness, Anju basked in the pleasure of her abject horror. Before, she had been so far removed from normality that she had shown no fear in the face of a monster like he. But that just made things more interesting if he had to work for such a reaction.
As she thrashed, spilling her own blood against the tearing claws of the bare branches, Anju just pulled closer, his cloistering semi-solid substance radiated a claustrophobic heat. He was like the air if one could feel it - barely eluding ones' grasp - like the memory of a touch.
He breathed in the coppery tang of her dripping blood, exalting in the moment. And as she began to chant to herself, seeming to find a mantra to try to pull herself out of it, Anju began to work against it, whispering in her ear, seeking to pull any stability out from under her and tear her apart.
"It's slipping from your grasp, Nimue. All of it, pulling away from you. The tempest tears all around you, pulling away the land. Pulling away the air, the water, the LIGHT."
He took a seething breath, a tongue licking at the self-inflicted wound on her neck briefly before continuing. "There is no one here but Nimue and the dark, and soon there will be no Nimue at all. The voices you hear just the voices in your mind. The voices of the dark. The dark between the stones becomes everything - the stones fall away and just leave the crack. No one can hear you, Nimue. Not even Nimue."
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:25 am
She screamed. She screamed loudly as the pain echoed on every note raditaing in the dark night.
She had to get away...away from the shadows and find the light. Yet how could she? Which way could she run to seek solace from the pain and which would lead her further into the void of darkness? Shaking horribly as her eyes closed to try and rid herself of the darkness of the outside world; she found no comfort in her own void of a soul; snapping them back open as the near pupil-less sapphire's connected with the six rubies.
She could barely breathe, the suffocation doing little to ease her racing heart. Pounding against her ribs at breakneck speeds she felt that if it went on for much longer that either her bones would crack under the pressure or her heart would merely stop beating all together.
Away. Away.....she needed to escape! Gabriel.....Ezriel.....anyone!
Why wern't they coming to save her?
Gasping in sharply as the sickening warmth of his tongue ran along to collect the small stream of blood trailing down her neck, the mare's legs shook so hard that she had a terrible time trying to remain standing. The last thing she needed was to crumple to the cold soil below; then she would be completely at the mercy of Anju. While her fear was still misplaced, she knew that his words which caused such an impact could only be followed by the impact he could do.
She didn't want to find out what he could do.
"N-nimue can still hear nimue....she cries so sadly....she cries for strength! Nimue cannot fall into the black, no, no.....there are other's in the black who need Nimue's help to get out! Nimue sentenced one to the black....forsaken my love.....she cannot fall herself untill the wrongs have been right!"
She cried out, a bit more sternly as the ebony locks stuck to her tear stained mask; there was determination growing in her shakey vocals. Anju was one to be reconed with, and if he'd come across her prior to Ezriel and Gabriel she would have been lost for good....but their souls had connected with her own; and it was something her Angeni nature would not let her fail in.
"Then toss me like a stone, you wrap me in your arms and chill me to the bone. So I, I wont be the one, be the one to leave this in pieces; and you, you will be alone. Alone with all your secrets. In the shadows - they say that I must learn to kill before I can feel safe... but I....I'd rather kill myself then turn into their slave."
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:55 am
What sweet suffering! Anju elated at the mare's thrashing and keening, listening intently at her responses. What delightful insight! A guilty conscience. A scorned lover. And that ridiculous sense of duty to help others. Anju had seen it before, how one individual would put themselves at risk in order to assist others in need. How the once-strong would bend a knee to the weak, even if it meant themselves being torn apart in the effort. That was their ultimate weakness - both humans as well as Soquili: they craved, no, they needed companionship. They were not strong enough on their own.
Anju hated that he was almost starting to understand the pleasant sensations that could come from being close to another - that was an... unforseen side effect of his fatherhood. Beforehand, he had seen others as only playthings - objects to bring him pleasure through predating on them or finding out just what made them squirm and tearing into that. To Anju, this was a vindication that he was still the same creature. That he was not becoming one of them. A weakling that craved the attention of others. Nimue... well... it had been far too long since Anju had had a "project" case. Perhaps too long. One delightful individual who he had figured out their buttons. Someone that he could 'haunt' and derive such sweet pleasure. Perhaps she would not be as long of a project as others - she apparently had already descended into madness - but it was something.
Greedilly, Anju continued to press his mental assault. "No one escapes the black. It is all-hungry. All consuming. Once it has wrapped around you, your struggle only mires you deeper. Those that you have banished here have NOT escaped. You have forsaken them, and because of them, I have come to take you too. It is you that has damned them... damned... US." A wicked smile curved Anju's face.
"It is because of you that I am what I am. I am the darkness incarnate, and the collective voice of those who have become lost."
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