[PRP] Fool's Errand (Alyssum + Mephistopheles)

[Lady_Ourania]

Waiting had never been his strong suit. Even when confined to his sentence within a tree, sense of time skewed to the point where he could barely track day and night, he'd felt a bubble of impatience pushing beneath his bark, winding around blindly to find a place to burst. It was still there in his lessened shape, denied a satisfactory heart attack, and now merely looking for something to hurt. What better way to expel the feeling than to wield it against those who disappointed him? Alyssum, his shining little beacon, the fool-mare to whom he'd entrusted a hefty responsibility. It had occurred to him then to doubt, to wonder if he had not been too rash; but what might have that accomplished? He was either without a chance, or gambling on a slim one. There was nothing more to do but expect her to carry out the duty she said she would. Trust was never an option, something he was immune to, even spiteful of.

Which seemed just as well when the sun came and went and she failed to return. He had not anticipated instant results, but wanderlust was a foreign concept to a forest-bound creature, and he had thought that the mare must have only stumbled through his lair on her way to familiar territory. Laurelin could have been near to him all along, but just out of his reach. Clearly, that was not the case. The empty hours built up around his suppressed temper, encouraging it to break and flood his system. He listened for visitors throughout, feet planted in the ground, demanding information from increasingly tight-lipped trees. Mephistopheles went so far as to patrol the outskirts himself, where his abilities were weakest. Where were they? Eons spent inside the clutches of his forest left him with no answer. The world was a large, uncharted place. For all he knew, it dropped off beyond his forest, became haze, ghosts, reality delineated by gnarled branches, and every hillock and alien tree he'd spied when Alyssum left was an illusion.

There remained a handful of daylight to burn, and he knew to check if there were fewer shadows, remembering the chocolate mare's distrust of the dark. If she brought her friend... he caught himself, constricted his sides and flared his nostrils to create a sound like a snort. When, the demon reminded the doubts, not if - when she brought her friend, it would be while the sky still sang blue above them, and the moon's crafty face did not peer down to meddle in matters of blood.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

She had given her word. She had promised. She always kept her promises.Alyssum continued to remind herself of these facts as she made her way back towards the darkest part of any forest she had ever known, back to that place where she had scraped her leg, that place that made her thigh twitch uncontrollably. She didn't want to return. Her hooves felt heavy as she neared the shaded place, her muscles tense and unyielding as she forced them to carry her. She had promised. Promised.

And she had failed. That made the return all the worse; not only did she have to return to this life-sucking place, but she could not even bring Mephistopheles any hope. The dappled mare had searched her more common walking grounds high and low looking for her forest-blessed friend, but with no success. Perhaps Chimalsi needed all of Laurelin's attention still, perhaps they had moved into seclusion to live their life together unmolested, and if either of those were true... then what right did
Alyssum have to seperate them, to force them out into the open? Of course, Alyssum fully intended to find her friend eventually, to unite her with the stallion who could well be her father, but maybe it was too soon. Maybe that was why she had not been able to find the other mare.

Still, after all of her days of searching, Alyssum knew she owed the waiting Mephistopheles an explanation too. He had already waited so long... and although she hated to return alone, she figured it would be better than not knowing anything. At least he'd know she was still looking... still trying...

Getting into this place a second time was proving more difficult than the first. The spot she had entered had closed off, a tangle of thorns and brush that made her snort in distaste and turn to the side, seeking another route. Each time she thought she had found a way in, something proved incorrect. A hole waited on the other side, capable of twisting her ankle should she step in it. More wicked looking plants barring her path. Finally, she found a passage just big enough to squeeze through, huffing as she stumbled out to the otherside with twigs and dead leaves in her cream-colored mane. No... she did not like this place, as much as it seemed to dislike her. But she had no choice but to explore it once again.  

[Lady_Ourania]

He knew the instant her hoof connected with the ground, felt it like a whip crack that made his shoulders square, his senses narrow until he could better force the trees to give up a location. He'd been waiting, waiting before he'd known her, a tendril of hunger extending out into the formless black. Branches fluttered, parted, made way for his bulk as he half-galloped through his territory, the fastest he could manage while something almost like excitement smoldered low in his excavated guts. Leaves half-decayed on their posts skidded over him as he passed, and the demon sensed them give and fall in his wake. There, they whispered while they were lost, disconnected from the collective whole laid out in his head. There, here. It wasn't until he was practically on top of her that he realized his mistake, the saplings reporting one mare, not two. A single, dun-colored female without a remarkable companion was infringing on his space and his patience. He stopped all at once, a weight dropped on him from above, dust twining up his throbbing legs. The heated emotion that had overtaken his belly twisted in on itself, the smoke signals turning into a full blaze that flickered dangerously up into his throat.

"Where is she?" His voice came out harsh, and it could have been the inner fires or just that he was winded from the pace he'd set. Even though his affinity showed that she was alone, his empty gaze still scored the area, looking between hedges, across the still air, as if she had reduced herself to a pinprick of gold by which he might find her. There was no such mote, not even a glimmer of sun to mistake for it. In the time it had taken her to enter the grudging doorway and for him to reach her, they had already lost sight of the outside world. It was all forest, dangling over their heads, sucking at their feet like it wished to assimilate them. Or her, at least, as he was as changed as he could become without stabbing permanent roots down into the soil.

He turned back to Alyssum, ears creaking flat against the arch of his skull, his mouth a horrible split across his face as it lifted to bare darkness. "Where. Is. Laurelin?" His daughter, his freedom, absent still. It took great effort not to strike her where she stood, dumb and useless, sent out on a mission and returned with no prize to give. Had she not vowed to bring her? Had he been somehow unclear?  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

As in their first meeting, Alyssum heard Mephistopheles before she ever saw him. No sooner had she straightened herself out, tried to shake some of the leaves and twigs from her hair, then she heard galloping in the distance. Her eyes had not adjusted yet, and standing the darkness, hearing the sound of hooves crunch leaves, snap limbs, her thigh muscle jumped all the more. A warning, a misgiving, but one she could almost never obey despite its insistence on making itself known. It was only the stallion she had come to meet, she told herself. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing unexpected.

"I'm couldn't find her." Failure left a bitter taste in the mare's mouth on its own, but to be stared down by a being cursed by his forest, one that relied on her to alleviate his suffering in some small way by offering him the companionship of his possible daughter, made it worse. However, her ears snapped back at his tone, and she could not stop herself from huffing. She wastrying to help, afterall, and she had no intention of breaking her vow. This, however, was a side she had not seen in the wooden Soquili upon her first visit; his smooth edged voice that had wooed her, made her pity him, now left verbal splinters in her ears that made old misgivings open and bleed again.

"I looked in all my usual trails, and I looked everywhere I've met Laurelin before, but I couldn't find her," Alyssum explained, her normally confident voice sounding smaller than usual in the gloom and in comparison to Mephistophele's angry words. "I don't know where she is now, if she's helping Chimalsi recover or... or what, but I just came back to update you. I thought you might be tired of waiting without any word at all."  

[Lady_Ourania]

Every excuse had his face contorting into deeper shades of menace, growing less and less recognizable until it seemed that the expression would freeze into permanence if he held the tension any longer. The darkness in his eyes brimmed, pushing against inflexible eyelids as he closed them to contain conflicting tides. He wanted to rend, to lash out until she crumpled and cried. Blood was one of the few sources of warmth he could appreciate in his exsanguinated state, scarce among woods denied light. But she was his sole contact, the only one who believed a fabrication strongly enough to pursue it on his behalf. As it stood, her growing fear expelled a scent, absorbed on the wind by the trees and relayed to him by them rather than through his weak nose. That infernal tic was back as well, making her leg jitter, her tone weakening until it tapered into silence. The saplings along his back rustled to fill the void, slapping against each other while his spine shifted into a more relaxed position. Calm, or some deformed twin to it, permeated through him. A setback, not a defeat. If he succumbed to baser pleasures now, his curse would linger on.

"All right," His tone had returned to a sketchy rumble, one that did not need much feigning to take on a weary undertone. There, not too bad. He could salvage among the best of them, even if murderous frustration was hauling roughly at him, creating an ache in his neck. He mulled before he spoke again, remembering to thicken the honey in his voice, pour it over her in a sticky-sweet swell that would harden and tint her vision gold. "You cannot be expected to find her so soon. It is, I presume, a wide world outside my prison cell, and my impatience gets the better of me." He bowed his head humbly, the overgrown mass of roots funneling out behind his ears making it an undertaking. "My apologies, Alyssum."

So his Laurelin was not occupying the paths that she usually did. That just meant checking the unusual ones. Or would he have to inform this mare of that as well? Mention of a Chimalsi caught his attention, and his jaws ground thoughtfully together, transferring splinters. The name had a masculine ring to it, one that he immediately disliked. A rival of some sort? Hopefully little more than an acquaintance, some pitiful creature his offspring had picked up for a while and would eventually discard. He did not need any more interference than he had already encountered.

"I am grateful that you would keep me informed." He replied after a delay, eyeing her as if to determine how much more courting it would take to earn that twitchy muscle's trust. He alighted slowly on an idea, leaning further in so that her breath washed up over his muzzle, his own nostrils flaring vicariously. "... Perhaps a gift to show my appreciation. Words can only achieve so much, after all, and you've worked charitably for my cause." Or she would have been, if she hadn't come back before she'd found her. No matter. He had waited this long, he could suffer a few days more. "Come."  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

The chocolate mare's ears flicked back as the tone shifted once again, returning to the thick, weary, kind voice of her last visit... but now she was confused. Which voice was truly the one that belonged to this Mephistopheles? Was it the thorny, jabbing tone that had recently assaulted her, or was it this voice, thick and sweet as the tree sap that insects became stuck in. Or... could it be some kind of combination of both? The idea sickened her, and she shook her head to clear it. Why did she still have this foolish doubt? If he was angry, wasn't it her own fault for not finding her friend?

Alyssum pulled back instinctively from that face that came too close to her own, though she mentally kicked herself for the action. It was terribly rude! Still, she could not help but ask, blinking her purple eyes in confusion, "Gift? You don't have to give me anything... especially not when I haven't found anything yet. It's kind of you but... not necessary."

Her thigh muscle continued in its pulsing tempo, but she shuffled her legs slightly to minimize its impact. Her cream tail flicked restlessly from side to side, and she tried, how she tried to soothe herself as she spoke up again, attempting to bridge her breach of etiquette, "If you want to show me something, I'm willing to come along. I just... didn't want you to think you had to."

She stared down at her ebony hooves as best she could in the darkness of this forest patch, and she wondered yet again if she dared bring Laurelin to this place, where shadows shifted to reveal hidden dangers and Soquili were, perhaps, not all they appeared to be, as they changed personality from one minute to the next.  

[Lady_Ourania]

Still nervous, even after he'd patted down the bristling irritation, flinching and dancing in place like she yearned to go. Mephistopheles paused to muse without glancing back, the mossy dreads of his tail swaying in their allotted space, scattering leaf mold. Would it not be better if he turned her away now, sent her back out to find what she should have already returned with? It seemed preferable, but then he had no guarantee that she would do as she vowed, too skittish and distracted to make a proper emissary. Failing another, smarter creature's misadventure, she was all that the stallion had to work with. He needed to train her thoughts, guide her to the most acceptable solution. The initial trick had gone well, but that did not mean continued deception could sustain itself with no effort. If winning her over through false praise alone would not work, he had to try the next best thing.

"It is not so grand a gift - a pauper may only offer what is available to him, after all." The demon explained solemnly, finally arching his neck to the side, the planes of his wooden flesh creaking as an empty stare regarded her. "But it is little enough. Come now, Alyssum. Stay close, and you have nothing to fear." A simple irony, but he was not telling a lie. The forest hadn't yet caught on to his plans, or so he chose to believe, the monstrous trees quiet in their unknowing, deaf to mortal speech. He could still remember how difficult it had been to focus on individuals as they threaded through his consciousness, the briefest of interactions worming through the rings of his vastness until he came to know of them days later. If they did suspect anything of his plans, then there was a chance they would not let her go, either. The space was plenty, and might easily imprison two. He could not allow that to happen, or his cause would be lost.

The tree-etched male wove silently through the area, his steps muffled by growth, not doubting for a moment that the mare was following him as directed. Their impromptu meeting area was clogged by tree trunks, thick and threatening, but the path he took led them into softer terrain with less claustrophobic scenery. When they came upon the little grove, he slowed to a crawl and lowered his head, nosing aside debris and chuffing airlessly across the revealed stems. They were delicate, snail-sized heads barely pushing through the soil, hard to locate in the drowning layer of shade. He'd been trying to cultivate a little color, but the flowers grew black and mealy, mocking his efforts and branding him a failure of a guardian. Yet they held a certain charm, their touch soft, interior speckled with a hint of reptilian blue. He'd ignored them until now, disgusted with how his fall had lessened him, most of his power locked up in the bottle that rattled a constant reminder against his chest. But they would do for a ruse, would suit perfectly.

"These are unique," He began, standing over them so that his shadow was upheld by the thin petals. "Once eaten, they hone focus, bring about a certain clarity of thought that might otherwise go untapped." His teeth were lodged in the past, no longer needed to tear at grass or any such mundane thing. But the jagged edges of his mouth worked just as well as he clipped a single stem, bringing it up to her for examination. "It may also help you with your... leg problem." He added as an afterthought, hoping the hurt disappointment in his tone would bring about a similar conviction. He had provided the genteel monster in need of assistance, and now he would give her another make-believe advantage. Perception was a powerful device.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

The dappled mare followed with a certain amount of ease, grateful whenever the terrain around them shifted from one covered with these trees that did not feel as other trees did and was easier on the hooves than the place the two Soquili had been before they began moving. Despite the wooden stallion's insistence, however, she could not keep the tendril of fear that continued to stretch through her heart and slunk down to her treacherous thigh. This place made her ill at ease, and the more she looked about it, the more time she spent in this darkness, among these twisted plants, the less she wanted to bring Laurelin here. Would she shrivel as well? Would her golden coat and hair darken to gray and black if she stepped into a place with no light?

Seeing Mephistopheles stop before her shook her out of these thoughts, and she tilted her head as he began to paw at the ground. All too soon she saw what he unearthed, and she breathed out a happy whinny, "Flowers!"

Alyssum stretched out her neck until her velvet muzzle touched the tiny black blossom, even as she listened to the powers the stallion assured her it possessed. Still, she did not immediately take it into her mouth. She had never seen a flower quite like this, and to destroy it, even for the effect Mephistopheles promised, sent a stab of pain through her heart. Her ears fell in embarassment when the stallion mentioned her leg. "I... I'm sorry you have to look at it. I can't really stop it on my own;
it's a nervous habit."

The mare turned her attention back to the flower that she still touched with her muzzle, chuffing to warm its cool black petals. She detected a stale, bitter smell and briefly considered not taking it. But... how could she deny a gift, especially one that might help her with a problem she had not been able to control? With this thought in mind, she gingerly took the flower between her teeth and chewed. The taste mimicked the scent, and she could not help but cough slightly as the plant slid down her throat. "Ugh... I hope it works, the way you say it will... because I really, really don't want to think that a pretty plant like that could taste that bad without having SOME kind of benefit."  

[Lady_Ourania]

The hesitation annoyed him more than anything else, but he kept his face clean of the emotion, observant and unmoving while she introduced herself at length to the speckled petals. One would think she'd never seen a flower before, the way she marveled. It softened him not at all to view her appreciation, figuring she was just as unschooled as she looked when shrunken black blossoms could impress her so. They were ugly and unmeant, only their aura of uncultivated mysticism saving them from being a total waste. The demon could barely remember what he'd intended for them, something softer, paler, honey-colored, perhaps. How that had translated into little streaks of stolen night, he'd never know. The forest would afford him not even the smallest of creative pleasures. Once he had breathed thick, green life and taken it back with every inhalation. Now he was so far demoted that he had to entertain himself with bullying saplings for information he should have known without asking. Laurelin would change all of that, this daughter he'd never met. Her branches would wilt while he was freed of his, her unwitting sacrifice making up for a perceived atrocity. If only Alyssum could do her practiced part.

He did not address the twitching muscle again, nor did he speak to reassure her; if she wished to take it, she would. If she did not, he foresaw further problems cropping up, already inventing new tactics while they sat in the hush. But eventually her mouth opened partway, and Mephistopheles stared with keen interest when she plucked the flower like it was something precious before grinding it down against flat teeth. Her wince earned a grating chuckle, mood lifting at the obedience she displayed, the balance shifting again to his favor. His own taste buds were long-gone and unoffended, but he had sensed they were terrible. "It will. Do not doubt." Even if she had every reason to. How far would belief in the obscure carry her this time? Well beyond whatever nervousness her body possessed, if he had any say.

Snout raised, the ex-guardian considered their location, adding on as an afterthought. "Eating one or two more would not go amiss, Alyssum. They may not be to your taste, but nothing beneficial ever is." The flowers had no voices that he could hear, so if they screamed when she chewed and swallowed them down, his one regret was that he did not know the pitch of that agony. He planned to lead her back to the outskirts when she was finished, escort her with firm orders not to come back until his offspring was found. The mare had dallied enough, and his temper could only handle so many denials. The last one still pulsed under his toughened skin, temporarily sedated but waiting to recover and earn back its furious heights.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum wrinkled her nose at the thought of killing another of the intriguing blossoms, not only for their strange beauty, but also because the bitterness in her mouth continued to remain just after one had been consumed. Yet, she could not deny it's effectiveness; now that a few moments had passed, a sense of calm flowed from her throat down her sides into her legs. The twitch slowed, slowed, until it vanished completely, and she neighed happily as she stretched out her limb. "It worked!"

She spent the next few moments testing out her leg, trotting in place, bending the knee, and in every excercise that she underwent, it maintained its stillness, and the cool sensation that resulted from eating the flower calmed her in general, melting away her anxieties. For the first time, she felt at peace in this strange forest, and she expressed this with a small prance even as she yawned. It had been a long, long day... and now, all she wanted was to go back to her own forest.

Alyssum slowly shifted towards the stallion, intending to ask him to escort her out of the forest, but whenever she moved towards him she half-stumbled. The previously twitching leg simply balked at her movement, causing her to run into his wooden form. She quickly regained her footing and backed off, her apology quick and honest. "Sorry! Must've... caught my hoof on something."  

[Lady_Ourania]

Her exclamation had his hollow stare returning to eye level, keeping bemusement at bay with the reminder that this feeble-minded creature believed nearly anything he wove from cobwebs and outdated fantasy. Purely psychological, everything from the spasm to the sudden, energetic phase she adopted soon after, practically leaping to test the resolve of his promise. He only had to appeal to her naivety and the rest was done for him, a sneering amusement coloring his thoughts at the blatant evidence. Outwardly, Mephistopheles nodded in the manner of a sage, showing he'd anticipated the result all along as he plunged the starved blossoms back under their dark concealment. His failed experiment had proved to be of practical use after all, and the demon was nothing if not opportunistic. Now that she had ingested the decayed little petals, perhaps he could convince her that haste was a secondary aftereffect. It was a stretch, but with their track record thus far, not impossible when done correctly. First, he would need to-

Pressure imposed itself on his chest without warning, cloven hooves digging to keep from being moved, the roots that surrounded his legs tightening on impact. It was Alyssum, pitching into him like a foal still slick from its mother's womb. Carved ears snapped back while his neck bowed, tempted to take a bite out of the clumsy mare, resisting even when his hard snout bumped against her blazed face in warning, an instinctual signal to make her withdraw. What was she doing? Full contact was a shock in that he barely felt it, knew of it only as an impression that rocked him slightly back. His nerves were gone, retracted somewhere along his heartwood bones or shriveled entirely. Then she was treading swiftly away, and he swallowed a snort, yanking the canopy's composure down and around him before it was too late to recover. Wretched girl, one moment flinching from him and the next rammed against his unfeeling body. It was a miracle that she'd made it to her current age without 'catching' her hoof and falling into a predator's teeth.

"The forest floor is treacherous." He agreed, tone lower than he would have liked. The trees on his back held themselves stiffly, even by their standards, and it did not bode well for him to talk more than necessary. "It is no matter. You are prepared to continue your search, I take it?" There was no reason for her to linger, and he expected that her efforts would take on a more fevered air now that she was infused with whatever magical properties she'd heard fall from his mouth before tuning him out.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

The chocolate mare endured the admonition of the trees on the guardian's back with an unusual amount of stoicism, her violet eyes locked straight ahead on the wooden stallion. Normally, she would drop another apology, try to make up for the wrong that had been committed, but she chalked her relative calmness to more of the magical properties of the flower she had ingested. The offending leg that had threatened to crumple now stood as strong as it had been the moment before her stumble, so she could only assume that she had tripped over a root, even though she hadn't felt one brush against her hoof...

She blinked slowly at Mephistopheles's words, wondering what he was so concerned about. Maybe he should eat some of his flowers as well, since they had made her cease to worry all together. Surely, without the fear of the forest, withouth the weighty worry of failure, and most of all without that nagging twitch that had disappeared somewhere deep into her leg muscle, she would be able to complete the task much quicker and return sooner, with more positive results than the current visit. Still, his words penetrated the fog of peace that surrounded her, and she answered back to keep him from waiting any longer, "Yes, I'm ready to go. I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble."

Then, her message succintly delivered, Alyssum kept her gaze steadily on the stallion, thoughts lapping softly against her skull like the ripples of a lake, but soft as they were, also as persistant. Where would she go next from here? Why did her eyelids feel heavy? How was she going to get the bitter remnants of the flowers, bittery and chalky, out of her mouth? How long had it been since she even saw the golden mare that she had pledged herself to look for? Could she, in good conscience, bring her to this gloomy, dark place? Why was there no animal life here? Why weren't they moving yet? When was she going to go home? How... was she going to answer all of these questions before it turned to nighttime?

And how... was she going to get all of these thoughts to stop?  

[Lady_Ourania]

It was as if her body had ruptured along some invisible seam, and what emerged was something self-assured while the old, troubled husk puddled at her feet. Not even his uncharacteristic display was cause for alert, her violet stare penetrating in spite of the slight glaze that was starting to eclipse it. Against his previous judgments, Mephistopheles studied the filly for a few absent heartbeats longer, a seed of doubt opening along an edge of his sap-lined brain, trying to gain his notice. It didn't cling for long, and he dismissed the benign growth almost as soon as it began, denying it the life-giving light of his considerations as he took the subdued creature back to her outside world. At least she sounded more certain, even her doubled up apology calmer than he might have guessed. But his pawn's state of mind was not his problem, not unless it directly affected her performance when it came to bringing his offspring - his Laurelin - back to the reaches of his sanctum. It was just as well that he'd resisted sinking his teeth into her; even the flowers' pseudo-spell might have been tested with blood in the air.

They traveled along a different route from the last, keeping a lead on her while immersing himself in the clicking changes of the outermost barricades, the thorny brambles and densely packed trunks that made entrance such a chore. It was a hushed melody, one that replaced birdsong and the racket of smaller mammals, the very same tune that lulled him to an inactive parody of slumber on the days that restlessness could be silenced. But the stallion ignored it for now, picking out the widest temporary doorway and stopping a distance away. The setting sun could still find its way in through that singular opening, a long bar of lemon-colored light highlighting motes of abandoned dust. He felt it move by purposeful degrees to brush his hoof while he waited for the mare to catch up, burnishing the muted gold there until he slowly moved back, curling his lip at the invasive warmth. It had forsaken him for this long, and he would leave off enjoying it until he had his supple body back.

Zipped into a pocket of shadow, he reexamined Alyssum, arranging sheered alien features into something he expected was recognizably grateful. "This is as far as I can take you. From here, I can only wish you luck and greater speed." The bottle on his chest pulsed oddly, as if stirred by the word, the purpose behind its name. He set his toothless jaws together and quieted it, the potion and his own craving both. Soon. He had put too much effort into this project to let it lie fallow for much longer. High from the imagined potency of a few papery promises, he did not believe his foolish messenger would fail him this time. Not without incident.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

Alyssum spent the rest of the journey in contemplative silence, the only marks of her presence the continual tempo of her hooves as she followed Mephistopheles and the steady, heavy breaths that filled her lungs and sides before releasing the air once more into the stillness from which it had been taken. However, for all of her external calm, internally her thoughts continued to dance around her, flitting in and out before she could quite catch a hold on any particular aspect. It was simply too much effort to even try and latch onto her musings--far easier just to let herself go and take the pummeling half-formed impressions that surrounded her.

Laurelin. Sun, growing closer. Flowers, bright flowers. Cold shadows. Doubt. Questions, half-forming, but with no way of answering. Chimalsi. Lengths of time that she had never truly considered before. How long since she had met both of the golden beings for the first time. How long it had been since she met the wooden stallion that led her towards the exit. How long she had spent trying to unite the two groups. How long it had been since she had truly rested. How long her eyelids had been threatening to close...

She turned her head slowly towards Mephistopheles when he spoke to her, blinking lethargically as she tried to absorb what he was telling her. No further. Luck. Speed. Speaking of the mission, of her promise, to retrieve Laurelin. Alyssum nodded to show that she had understood, and then, gathering her scattered throughts, she replied, "I will do what I can." The words came out clear, somehow escaping the cottony world of her mind even as she slid out from the opening between the trees and into that sliver of light.

Almost immediately after leaving the darkened forest, the chocolate mare relaxed. Warm. So warm. So... tired. Her eyes were heavy, had been heavy, and she finally allowed them to close. Not worth fighting, even as she fell into the heaviness, the stillness, the darkness. Even if it meant she fell physically as well as mentally.  

[Lady_Ourania]

Later, when the ordeal was over and his self-control had returned, the cursed stallion would not be able to say what it was that made him stay to watch her departure. He may have wanted to steal a fleeting impression of the rest of the world, a view that was destined to lose its novelty when he shed his exterior and became a routine part of it. Or perhaps it was that niggling threat to his plans returning, the way she'd missed a beat in her stride and toppled into him, the ease with which she addressed his hideous countenance before she left, no longer shredded by fear or doubt. Simple beasts forgot to be wary at times, it was true, the minutes melding in their minds until they were shuffled into oblivion by a new set of events. But she'd been guarded upon stepping into his abode, and if he was as good an actor as he knew himself to be, Mephistopheles found the change negligible, nothing he had done or said indicative of his end goal. If she suspected, it was buried deep, laced up in a subconscious limited in its ability to relay warning. The enchanted bouquet in her belly was doing wonders for that, a nuance of the situation that provided amusement capable of singing above the rampant displeasure. Doing what she could did not guarantee success, but it would need to be enough.

When she was a few lengths away, he began to turn back into the green-soaked shadows, the sun tiring even at this distance. Privately, he felt a flicker of satisfaction sprouting anew, certainty that had roots in prescience. It would not be long now. The nearness of the occasion was his mantra, his sole preoccupation, so near to obsession that he'd missed where it crossed the line. The ground beneath his feet was parched, black powder where the putrescent leaves did not cover, but it would be watered with the promise he should have acquiesced to give in his first life. Such a price for so small a rebellion, tripled now that he could no longer afford to give of himself. But it would be worth it, a beginning sprung from a grim epilogue. Coppery brilliance had breathed green, wept red, dried brown, and would become real anew, an imperfect cycle that stabilized itself in his mind.

That was when he felt the earth quiver, his limited world still joined to the terrain along the outer sprawl of trees. The cavities that served as his eyes twisted to look, unable to help the consternation that opened his normally unmoved features at the sight. The mare had collapsed scant feet from where she'd crossed out of his domain, sides heaving serenely among crushed blades of grass and a whir of freed pollen. "Alyssum?" He called, a commanding thread already plucking at his vocals. "What are you doing?"

There was no answer forthcoming, but he had hardly anticipated one, her legs laid out in a distinctly unnatural posture; fallen, and not voluntarily. He neared the edge of his territory once more, watching the uncomplicated rhythms of a body without self-conscious checks. He tried her name again, and now his voice was purely dominating inside the impassible ring of trees. A faint? It wasn't overly warm, not to his photosynthesis-spurred senses, but he was not an expert when it came to the constitutions of mares. Frustration punctured his resolve, hating to stay and hiss to her in the deepening twilight, but well aware that leaving her would put a dent in his benevolent act. More troublesome, he recognized, would be if something harmful befell her prone body, thereby losing that final connection to his bloodline. His reliance on her had never been explored to this degree, and the monster was finding he did not appreciate the constraints. It was while he weighed the indignity against the results that he noticed the entrance was beginning to slither shut, readying itself to open in another location, a typically uninteresting quirk to the ever-altering scenery. With a snarl, Mephistopheles exerted raw will to halt the process, protesting pops and creaks from scraggly limbs filling the air as it came to a temporary standstill. It was inconvenient on top of being harsh on his dwindled reserves, the outskirts the least malleable to him, but he held it firmly. Idiot mare, an insult to the blooms whose name she'd been adorned with. "Alyssum," He snapped, the strain distant yet, growing in intensity the longer he gripped his unruly forest in a state of stop. "Wake up. Now. There is no time."