[PRP] Because I Won't Be Discouraged (Alyssum+Amarant) [Fin]

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum's ears flicked to the back of her skull, which, combined with her upraised left hoof and overall stillness of her pose, would allow any who happened to see her that the mare was... disgruntled. After a moment more of her fixed stance, she began to move forward slowly, her purple eyes glancing suspiciously from tree to tree. She wasn't sure she liked this. She wasn't sure she liked this at all.

The warm, green world that she had been born into was changing into a different place, one with chillier mornings, shorter days, and (most perplexing of all) a completely different color scheme! No longer greeted by leaves in varying shades of green, she instead saw a spectrum of colors from crimson to pumpkin, golden to chocolate. She could admire these beautiful plants, but she wanted to know where her old leaves had gone. Had someone worked magic on all of them during the nights as she slept, one tree at a time until the entire forest was thus transformed, or spread some poison or magic that diffused through every vein until the chromatic changed?

More frightening still was the fact that some trees were losing their leaves, regardless of the color, and this added to the mare's sense of distress as she made her way towards a steam. Every time she dipped her muzzle to get a cool drink, she saw more of the fluttering victims that landed to float atop the water for a few seconds before sinking towards the bottom. Lifting her head in exasperation, Alyssum whinnied a challenge with a stomp of her hoof into the overall stillness of the stream, "Why not face me you... you leaf killers?!"  

[Lady_Ourania]

Autumn was a rare pleasure for Amarant, a moribund transition toward snowfall when the resident population holed itself up and took solace in the presence of the familiar rather than sticking its many noses into mystery. He did not mind the chill, his muscular frame arranged to handle the kiss of cold better than the stifling blanket of summer. But it was not only the solitude and the physical preference that made him value the fall season, even if it might have been the only explanation that buoyed at surface level. Had he cared to immerse himself in the subject, he might have grudgingly admitted that he liked the smell, the crispness of it, the echo of feeling that came from stepping through a gathered leaf heap. He favored the near-death atmosphere, the sight made by trees' skirts fallen around their trunks like flowers alighting on a grave. Such thoughts were macabre, perhaps, but nothing that any onlooker would think twice about associating him with. The stallion did not have the countenance of a happy thing - by others' standards, he just barely passed the litmus test when it came to being sentient - so it was of little surprise to anyone that his position was to endorse the slow decay for however long it cared to stay.

The mare might have escaped his notice if he had been someone else and her mane spun of less pale stock. Her body blended in to the scenery almost perfectly, the imitation of a statue she performed making it difficult to catch where part of her ended and the backdrop began. He had been following the trickling water source, clogged as it was by deposits of abandoned foliage, no clear objective weighing on his mind. This run-in hardly changed matters, her reaction to no threat he could locate implying that he could pass by without the undue harassment of a chat.

She stomped and he slowed instinctively, brows arching unseen under dreadlocks when the accusation flopped out of the filly's mouth, scuttling toward him on weak legs. If she was going to label him a killer, he would have at least appreciated a more striking victim, the idea of being the harbinger of nature's collapse into wintertime not nearly as appealing as it sounded in theory. This must have been one of the slower foals, grown into adulthood by some chance fluke of luck. "... Got a problem?" His voice was a half-growl, more suited to a beast of sharper eyeteeth and nastier eating habits.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum didn't know what she had expected to happen in response to her challenge, whether a menacing fish with needle teeth would leap from the water or small, twittering creatures would drop from the sky. However, the dark sound that slid from behind her made her ears turn back even as her tail flicked nervously. The tone touched something primal, something that whispered of moonless nights and blood-soaked earth, and her nostrils quivered in instinctive dread before she huffed warm breath through them. Face your fear - don't give into it. That's what her parents had always told her and her siblings, and the dark mare had never found regretted that piece of advice.

She turned slowly, trying to suppress these small, unconcious tics that had suddenly overtaken her. The sight of the owner of the voice, however, only added to her natural unease, he muscles in her legs tensing in case they were needed for flight. A muscular stallion of light blue with no eyes, or at least none she could see beneath the thick, woolen squiggles of crimson that sprouted from his head and rear.

His aggressive demeanour put her on the defensive, and she answered his question with a snap of her own, "I'm just trying to protect the trees, Worm-Head. You 'got a problem' with that?"  

[Lady_Ourania]

Worm-Head, as if he'd never been on the receiving end of that particular quip before, his hair a subject that constantly attracted eyes and remarks alike. The mare's quivering was still less unusual, though he had to credit her for not bolting then and there, watching with a touch of grim amusement as she tried to hold her ground without thinking to do the same to her tongue. She was not nearly big enough to pick a fight, just barely nudging under the wire to dare name calling, and he might have suggested she lay off the latter for a few years, permitting the brains rattling around in her skittish head to find greater purchase. Not his problem though.

"Trees, huh... ?" He glanced around at the overarching limbs that were browned and bare in the cloud smothered light, lifting a hoof to stomp thoughtlessly on a gilded pile of leaves. He couldn't comprehend the impulse to guard coupled with the ignorance it must have taken to think they needed it, the forest looming tall above despite the sacrifice of its green mass. If he bothered to join her outburst from before with her testy attempt from now, it sounded like she had not the faintest trace of understanding at her disposal either. The trees were under attack by some outside force, and as the only one taking the time to stop and notice the tragedy, she was assigning herself the task of deciding the who and how behind the performance. It was stupidity of the plain and simple variety, and he wouldn't analyze it beyond that.

"Can't help 'em." He replied offhandedly in the same guttural tone that was apparently his speaking voice, attention flicking back to the nervous Soquili as she stood poised for trouble before him. If she was anticipating an explanation as to why, he wasn't about to deliver one, under no obligation to teach her what seasons meant. It looked like parents were less involved in instructing their kids today than when he had been a foal. "Don't even look like you could protect yourself." He advanced suddenly to prove the point, ominous as an apparition given corporeal form with his crimson-colored locks waving around the chiseled features that were troubled by being visible.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum was relieved when the next words out of the brute's mouth were not a battle cry or a taunt, and although it hurt somewhat to see him crush the golden leaves beneath him, she took comfort in the fact that they were already dead, unable to feel the way his white hoof dug into them. His overall reaction too made her question how hostile his intent was, as he seemed to consider the situation and examine the surrounding trees. Although she did not relax her guard, a bit of the painful tension in her leg muscles dissolved as she waited to see his next move.

She bared her white teeth when he responded that she couldn't help them. Just why couldn't she? She was young, but not a foal anymore... and if she lacked the understanding of how things worked or how things were done, at least she was quick to learn. She had no time to challenge his assertion, though, when he made another one and began moving forward, the worm-like hair that she had previously used to designate him as unwelcome bobbing with the sudden rush.

Her eyes widened, white practically eliminating violet as a high-pitched whinny of fear came from her throat before she could clamp it back. Alyssum had never been attacked before, not unless it was in play from one of her two siblings, but where actual knowledge failed, instinct took over. She reared onto her back feet, hooves sliding slightly against the mixture of soil and pebbles as she pawed at the air before her. Her strength lay mostly in her back legs, but at least her black hooves were hard and sharp, and her white teeth bared again and spittle flew from her mouth as she neighed, "Leave me alone, Blue Demon!"  

[Lady_Ourania]

He was vaguely impressed when she managed to brandish her front hooves in defense, more so because he had assumed she would fall back into a humiliating bundle of petrified legs if he so much as uttered a boo in her direction. And yet the way she blindly lashed out was to be expected even after her show of spunk, taking the road leading to defeat instead of anything constructive. Kids these days just didn't know how to fight, no matter how readily they flew into the face of danger.

It was to her benefit that he wasn't feeling much like whipping a youthful fool into shape, her rain of attempted slurs annoying, but not enough to provoke him into charging the flailing umber wall she made. The filly's brief discourse on the air-brushed gold of everything bound to the ground still bothered him on some level, incredulous at the idea that a creature could be so sheltered. He'd known the worst of winter as a foal, born into snowdrifts and numbness, the white burned into his eyes until it was his one constant companion. Perhaps he'd been shocked by the arrival of spring back then, the warmth licking away the frost, revealing grassy patches. He just couldn't remember having ever been that naive.

The greater beast sidestepped, feeling the barest brush of her assault fall across the wiry ends of his hair. Strangely, it was the demon comment that twisted his mouth into a sour expression, ears flattening as he swung around to knock his thick chest indelicately into her flank, "Make up your mind," He snarled, whispers of violent movement carrying close along his back from the impact. Wormy hair, fiend from below, she couldn't seem to pick a front to attack him from, clearly failing at the physical option. Still, he was careful not to deliver enough force to send her sprawling, tempted though the stallion might have been at that point. His intent was to force all four feet back down to earth, and maybe bruise her a touch since she seemed to need evidence to back up her villainous theory.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum had never been hit. Never been hurt. If she had taken the time to think about it, she would have found this odd. True, she had grown up safe and secure in a family unit, but ever since reaching adulthood she had chosen to make the forest her home and had been exploring on her own. If anything, she had been lucky never to be attacked by anything more dangerous than a firefly.

And, if she had been more experienced, she would have realized that this "fight" wasn't even really a fight. Her opponent was holding punches, not causing any significant damage. If she had been more experienced, she would have been thankful.

As it was, the bruising contact between her flank and the stallion's chest made her teeth clamp shut, her balance lost as her front hooves crashed to earth. An electric rush ran down her spine, and she lashed out with a kick of her back feet and a blind bite, disgruntled and frightened, truly frightened for the first time in her life. She didn't like the thought that this stallion, this otherworldly being had control of the situation, could hurt her. It even bothered her that he didn't because that meant something else. That he was toying with her.

The feral sound of speech made her ears twist, and the chocolate mare snorted, "What am I supposed to call you, then?!"  

[Lady_Ourania]

For the flash of an instant, the pale male wondered if he hadn't overdone it, the clack of jaws above sounding loud, potentially masking the pop of ligaments or other crippling snaps. But she managed to find her feet again quickly enough, even if he only knew because the front ones required planting before the back could kick out with vengeful intent. Amarant had to pull his head around in a swift arc to avoid the hoof that had designated his jaw as a target, a low grunt following when he felt an unexpected tug on his hindquarters. He glanced around, nonplussed when he saw that she'd somehow sunk her teeth into a hunk of the hair that sprouted in red ropes from his backside. Had that been luck or trick? It was hard to tell, considering the scar-showered flesh of his rump would have provided a more savory target. Maybe she was just blood shy.

He swerved around, half-lifting onto his own hind legs to better threaten, feet trailing a fluttering confetti of scarlet-gold fragments while a jerk pulled the captured lock out of range. There was a brief shot of pain that left stray strands caught in her mouth, but it was minor, and hardly worth berating her for. The humiliation inherent to it was another matter. Arriving back down to earth, he pawed savagely at the leaves he had already mutilated, head slightly lowered as though he wished to charge her again, this one founded less on taunting and more to soothe a ruffled ego.

"Got names for a reason, kid." He rumbled warningly, flicking out the aching knots of his tail to see if it was any lighter for the exercise. Not that he had said his or had plans to hand it out like candied apples bits for imbecilic little girls to share with their brainless forest friends. Anger was still burning a little too high for sense to intervene, but at least he could restrain himself from a full-out assault. If she tried another sloppy retaliation, then he could reduce her to the same tragic state she so mourned in trees.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum nearly released her hold on Amarant's tail herself to give a triumphant whinny; she had managed to take the giant by surprise! Perhaps he could be bested! His swift defense, however, made up her mind for her, and she bobbed her head to try and get the red hairs left in her mouth and on her tongue. "Yuck!"

She hadn't the time to properly dislodge the knotty strands before a shower of leafy bits caught her attention, and her violet eyes widened again as her opponent took out his aggression on the corpses of the leaves beneath him. Her nostrils flared in outrage, but she restrained from digging her hoof into the earth. After all... that would make her as bad as the beast before her.

Yet, despite her steaming temper, the mare made no move to attack further, her previous actions more defensive than anything. She knew that if she took the offense, she'd be beaten; she knew it deep in the core of her bones, not from any learned knowledge but from an instinct that had never been previously awakened. This same instinct that made her hold her ground was nearly overcome, however, at his words.

"I know what names are for! Names are to tell us what thiings are and what they're made of and how they act and... and..." Blind fury made her words come to a sputtering stop, and her tail became a blur of cream as it lashed about violently. She couldn't even begin to address the most insulting part of his speech!

Kid? KID?! She was certainly not a kid - she was a fully adult Soquili, the same size as her mother even if not up to par with this colossus. Her ears flattened, and she snapped, "I'm not 'kid!' I'm Alyssum!"  

[Lady_Ourania]

Her opinion on his hair's flavor failed to faze him, having chewed on the ends of his mane often enough to know that it took a heartily unfocused palate to think otherwise. The exclamation was a little overkill, but the young mare seemed to thrive on exaggeration, her personality tailored to fit dramas that weren't actually in play until she invented them. Not that it was any concern of his whether or not her head was nailed on straight, irritating as it was proving to be under the current set of circumstances. An effort to scare her back into silence had blossomed into a confrontation he was almost interested in seeing through to violent ends.

Amarant noticed her indignant expression when no effort was made to hide it, recognizing its attachment to the same complaint from before and choosing to run his foot more deliberately across the ground. Leaf killer indeed: he couldn't very well kill what was already dead, though she appeared to get equally worked up about their desecration. Funny thing. Or at least it would have been, if he brushed up on his humor some. Regardless, she didn't seem goaded to the point of running at him full-tilt in hopes of doing damage, disappointing though her stumble into wisdom was.

The build-up to her tantrum made his skull feel somehow cooler, raising it back to crown his neck rather than protrude battle-ready out of his shoulders. A stuttered definition earned nothing but a derisive snort, though the deliverance of her own name was a gift he hadn't expected, more than willing to use it in his reprimand. "Names are so you can call out for help." He spoke with a conviction that seemed hard to argue, the natural gravity to his voice crushing. "Share 'em with family, someone who cares. You think I'm ever gonna need to call a kid like you?"  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Warm air exited the mare's nostrils in the form of a huff, and her eyes were followed each centimeter covered by the stallion's hoof. Why did he do it? Why wouldn't he just leave their poor, chromatic corpses in peace? The leaves had never done anything to hurt him!

A twitch developed in her hind quarters, a slight flinch of the muscles beneath her chocolate fur that marked her desire to charge blindly forward, to toss her head and her hooves in another assault. The trees, their parts, every plant in her forest home felt important to her, reminding her of her family and the comfort she found among the shade. But this twitch was just that - a twitch, unacted upon as she remembered all too well how futile her efforts to defend herself thus far had been. It was hard, so hard to swallow back her pride and her protective nature... but she kept herself still.

"Share'em with family, someone who cares. You think I'm ever gonna need to call a kid like you?"

The stallion's words caused the mare's ears to p***k to attention. Something finally clicked in Alyssum's mind, and her anger dissolved into an open curiousity as she spoke again, her tail's violent movements slowing to a metronome swish. "No... because you're big. Big and strong. So you think you don't have to call for anybody. That you won't ever need to. You live all alone and swagger around like... like an old, bearded goat. King of the Mountain, no need for anyone else, never going to ask for help, headbutt anybody who gets in the way. Right?"

Then, as if to add a punctuation mark on her theory, she bobbed her head, speaking more to herself than to the other Soquili, "Have a beard like a goat. No horns, though."  

[Lady_Ourania]

It was like observing the first signs of volcanic activity muttering just beneath the surface of her brown coat, pumping throughout to seek the weakest point and detonate in fiery torrents from there. Her mouth seemed the outlet for the steam until then, but that could only last for so long once he'd applied enough pressure, made the child understand that even if she threw the whole of her wrath onto him, it would still do nothing. Powerlessness was a good thing to recognize so young, especially when molten lava swelled easily in the back steps of her spine, translating into the lightning swipes of her tail. A little more and the earthen fetters holding her in place would crumble, his headstrong nature outweighing her slender-necked fury.

But then it was gone, and he nearly dropped into the rift its absence made, the surprise sculpting his face in faint waves before finally washing it clean again. What had happened? It was as though an invisible force had reached out and snagged the budding hostility, substituting prying inquisitiveness instead. A flash of disgust flared up at her question, tempered by the knowledge that he had brought this particular rain of idiocy down on himself. Talking too much, while not one of the more common complaints among those who could stomach his company, had finally snagged him in presumptuous webbing, already baited as it was with trite insults.

"Lookin' for an answer, or do you like the one you've got?" The leaves hopped around still feet, celebrating the reprieve that came when his attention was directed elsewhere. If he had told her he lived in the mountains, he couldn't remember the phrase that had sent them there, what might have prompted him to give something like that away for free. Maybe it was in the way he moved, the rough way he spoke and the unfriendly light in which he regarded her. "Go talk to your trees," He grated out, practically looming. "Yell at the fish, mourn your leaves - distract yourself if you won't be alone, but don't expect to get anything here."  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum tilted her head, studying the stallion's stoic expression for any reaction to her words. The changes to the stony landscape were subtle, the movement of glaciers, but they were there, and that was all that mattered to the mare. She had learned something new: tongue lashings and physical assualts were not the way to tackle this behemoth. He had other sore spots, weaknesses that could exploited through different means. Not that she would ever use her knowledge for anything other than defense, but she still felt it something important. She had always known that each individual was unique; why had she never considered that their weaknesses would also be unique?

His words took her even more by surprise, snapping her from her thoughts and causing her to take a defensive step back. While relieved that the leaves were no longer under attack, the stillness contained more aggression than his earlier movements. The twitch that had ceased in her thigh recurred, this time even more violent to match the shudder that went down her spine. Yet, as she had in the past, she stood her ground, her ears curving attentively to catch every word spoken in that gravelly tone in case they indicated another oncoming attack.

When the small speech was done, however, something new sparked in her violet eyes, eyes that up until now had contained only apprehension and curiousity. That new sparkle was amusement, a strange emotion that half-supressed her fear and did away with most of her caution. As hard as she tried, Alyssum could not hold back her whinny, her hooves cantering lightly as she half-danced in place. "I don't need you to not be alone! Don't be ridiculous! Geez, if you're not a goat, you sure act like one. Now you're being gruff and defensive for no reason."  

[Lady_Ourania]

There it was, that slow build of aggression picking up where it had left off, reemerging as something slightly less promising. Still, he was already considering his options, not about to be caught off guard by a stick-legged bundle of assumptions. If she charged him, he would swing his head around to bite the back of her neck and throw her to the ground, since she certainly didn't weigh enough to prevent such a humiliation. If she persisted, he would pummel her until she resembled the leaves she admired so ardently, and then he could regain the peace she'd broken with her first screaming challenge into the face of inevitable change.

But it seemed that disappointment was always quick to throw up a blockade, and she was instantly less wary of him, as if he had tossed a fond declaration out instead of a warning snarl. Whatever he had expected her response to consist of, it certainly hadn't included tinges of laughter and triumphant foot-stomping, destroying the dead vegetation in the same fashion she had condemned him for seconds earlier. She had clearly misunderstood, or at least warped his words to the point where her infantile mind thought they made sense.

"You'll still die alone, same as everybody else." He said flatly, tearing the guts out of her argument, making it clear before she could once again miss the poison lodged in his wasp-like sting. If she wasn't going to respond to his words correctly, why should he pay any attention to hers? He could ignore just as well, and his aim for the heartstrings was often better. "Your parents, friends, anything you give a damn about. Fallin' in droves, just like your leaves."

With that little bit of truth imparted, he felt suddenly justified in turning away from her, no longer interested in working her up just to be let down himself. He didn't even care to watch if it had impacted her the way he wanted, knowing well enough that even if it failed to register now - even if she laughed it away and went back to name-calling and other pursuits of youth - it would still skulk behind her eyes somewhere. Expectant, and waiting to see that he was right, she would remember the words like a slab of stone falling on her head.

Had Amarant been equipped with any one way to alter the history of his life, the only things he might have cared to rework would have been this particular moment of annoyance, and the way in which he'd experienced his own set of revelations.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

As sudden as the amusement had come it began to fade away, and the chocolate mare's motions slowed, slowed, before finally coming to a halt as the goat's words sank in fully. Her gem-like eyes lost their luster and focused down, down at the leaves that had unintentionally started this encounter. Crushed, broken, trampled... strangely beautiful in their colors, per usual, but even more tragic than when she had first seen them falling from the trees.

Alyssum was many things: young, inexperienced, impulsive. But, at the core, she was also sensitive and loving, her intense concern for nature prompted by the deep affection she felt for her family. The two ideas were already interwoven in her pysche, roots too entwined in soil to ever be removed. Therefore, her opponent's simile struck a particularly harsh note, conjuring images in her mind that made her nostrils flare in an obvious sign of distress.

She turned away with the barest swish of her tail, hating the crinkle of the leaves she had to crush to walk away, but unwilling to test this goat further. This was a dangerous game, one where tackles wouldn't lead to giggles and playful tags, but to pain. If she got hurt, Momma would cry. Daddy would be upset. She wouldn't be able to play with Bramble or Nettle.

A small burst of pride appeared in her tell-tale thigh twitch, but Alyssum swallowed it with a firm shake of her head. She couldn't fight anymore; she couldn't guard anymore, defend her ideals, her home. Not against this. Physically, there was no contest. Apparently, the goat had also discovered long ago the power of words as weaponry, and THAT, being bested on all fronts, crushed her, dampened her spirit like a heavy rain. In some contest she had never meant to enter, she had lost.

She didn't care if her words were answered now, didn't even care if they traveled on the chilling wind to reach pale, blue ears buried beneath crimson curls. These words were more a personal statement than anything, something straight from her aching heart. "Still, I'd rather die surrounded by love... than alone on a mountain."