[PRP]Something Missing Here (Soul Drift x Shines-Bright) OTP

[StarScarred]

There is one place that Soul has never been before. He's seen it, through the eyes of others, in the way that stories have a tendency to paint such vivid and fantastic details of things, but he's never really known for certain how much of that was real, and how much was made up. Then there were the dreams, always the dreams. Though he didn't know, as always, whether they were merely dreams or something more.

Standing before them now, Soul Drift has no doubt that what he's seeing is very much the same as he'd witnessed in dreams, and heard about in stories, though the reality of it is far more jarring than he'd thought it might be. The emptiness of that place astounds him.

The way the Swamp seems to be quite suddenly choked off by dry sand and scorching heat shakes him a little. He isn't quite scared, not really, but there is a sense of otherworldliness about this place-- this half-swamp, half-plains median where he stands around scraggling trees and shifting earth, shaded by the bows of a hunched over cypress.

His blue coat seems to blend in with the suddenly very-open sky overhead, and his creamy hooves with the sand below them. Even the splotches of green on his back fit with the image--- traces of greenery like those of the trees around him.  

[Samuel Carlin]

She's been here before. Ever since meeting Windjammer, the curious creature with those long, long legs and hungry eyes, she's thought about coming back. Perhaps to see if the kiocote returns, though she doubts that very much. Perhaps to test her running speed again, though the hard-packed earth is not so forgiving to swamp-bred hooves.

And maybe it's just to dare herself to face all that open space again. She hesitates as she steps into the clear, despite herself. She spots the buck on a second look around, seeing that he does blend so well with the landscape around them. Tail flicking a little uncertainly, she says, "It's very big, isn't it?"  

[StarScarred]

Soul looks over, starting just faintly at the sound of the doe's voice, but quickly recovers as his expression smoothes into a faint smile. It's a kind expression, really-- very calm, though, and doesn't give much away. He seems to invite her closer with a slight incline of his head, and looks back out over the plains with an intensity in his eyes that he seems to have toward all things he directs them toward, even the white doe who is, to him, yet a stranger.

"The world is a big place," though it doesn't sound condescending, when he says it, merely.. thoughtful. "The Swamp is very big, too... I am sure others have seen this place before, but this is the first time I have been here. It is... not quite what I expected it would be, but is certainly nothing less than I expected it to be. More, perhaps. Beautiful, in it's own right, if totally alien from this place we call our home.

When Soul Drift turns to her once more, he is smiling again, as faint as before, though it seems warmer this time. "Have you ever been here before?"  

[Samuel Carlin]

She steps closer at the invitation. To do otherwise would be rude, wouldn't it? And Shines-Bright is many things, but rarely rude. "The Swamp is big," she agrees. "But not in the same way. It's a different feeling big." Said as though that ought to make perfect sense to him. It certainly does to her.

She swivels an ear toward the buck, then tips it toward the openness before them again, nodding as it moves. "Once before." She smiles at the thought and unconsciously leans forward a little, stretching her shoulders like she just might start running. "It's not so bad if you don't think about it much."  

[StarScarred]

"Hm... then you have more experience with this place than I do. You're right ,though.. It certainly is different. That much is obvious." The lack of trees and dark, rich soil are just some of the more physical and most obvious things. But there are other things, too. Things not quite visible, not quite tangible. Out there, he can feel, the Mother-Swamp does not exist. Or, rather, it is merely that her home is in the Swamp, and not elsewhere-- certainly not in that barren, outside-world.

"It's something... something missing. Makes it seem emptier. Lonelier. I am not sure it's a place I would very much care to venture out in-- at least not for long. Though I would not, perhaps, mind exploring it a little more."

The thought, to him, of ever really leaving the Swamp is a horrid one. Few things faze him, but that thought sends a tremor skittering over his thoughts like fear-- but not quite. Merely, perhaps, the anticipation of fear. A kind of restless nervousness that won't leave him alone until he puts it from his mind.

"It would be easy to get lost out there, I think. Without a familiar nest of trees, or a stream or large stone to go by." Everything about it seemed lonely, which, really, is an odd thought for Soul Drift to have, considering he spends most of his time alone, and always has. It's a different lonely, though, he knows. At least here there are always trees and things-- and the Mother-Father.  

[Samuel Carlin]

"We don't stay for long," Shines-Bright agrees. She could feel the empty openness as well. Whether she's associated that feeling with a lack of the MotherFather or not is anyone's guess, but there's certainly something a little too uncomfortable about such an open space.

Still, it gives her a little thrill to stand here again. Just for a little while, another brief visit. Her nerves will hold out that long. "And we don't go far enough away that we can't see the trees."She wouldn't anyway. "It's hard to get lost if you keep an eye on where you've been."  

[StarScarred]

The buck nods once, thoughtfully, and turns to look out over the sands. "Have you gone out there before?" He asks. His tail twitches out behind him almost lazily, but with a current of restless energy.

He wants to go out there. Not far, mind, but he wants to see more of it, and, unconsciously, he takes a step further from the Swamp, closer to that emptiness.

"Would you go out there now? With me, perhaps? I'd like to see more of it... to feel that sand under my hooves. It's in my nature to explore-- to see."
 

[Samuel Carlin]

"Once," Shines-Bright confesses. "Not so long ago, really. I was out there and I ran with ...a cousin," she hedges. "She had such long legs and she ran like the wind. Like nothing I've ever seen before. I couldn't keep up, but it was fun, trying."

Her ears flick forward, toward open space, and she looks at the buck again. "We can go, if you want," she agrees. "Be careful of your ankles, though. The ground is hard and dry, but there are places where a piece might break off under your foot. You don't want to hurt yourself."

That warning issued, though, she steps forward, to the hard edge of the plains. "Coming?"  

[StarScarred]

"Hmm..." he nods once, and steps out toward the open plains, looking back once to see that the other is following before continuing on.

The cool of the Swamp gradually gives way to warmer temperatures without the ever-present shade blocking the sunshine. Beneath their hooves, soft, rich soil turns to dryer sand until it becomes stiffer, harder, and less yielding. It's certainly an odd feeling-- being suddenly so exposed. Still, Soul isn't very worried. It's easy to see all around should anything dangerous come close, and being still so near to the Swamp, well.. it'd be relatively easy to run back into the protection of the trees.

He takes the time to admire the clear sky, and the open view of land and sky for miles, and looks back to the doe, a bright white shape against the dark browns of the plain flats. "What's your name, anyway? I'm Soul Drift, though Soul works just as well."
 

[Samuel Carlin]

Shines-Bright is looking for Windjammer, though half of her attention is still with and on the buck. She's been out here before, and that gives her at least a little measure of comfortable familiarity, but not so much that she'd want to be stranded out here alone. If she spotted Windjammer, though, she wouldn't be stranded, even if the buck turned and sprinted back to the swamp.

"I'm Shines-Bright," she answers, and it's true, she does. "Are you looking for something in particular?"  

[StarScarred]

Soul shakes his head 'no' at her question, but his eyes scan the horizon, as if he is looking for something.

"Nothing in particular... it's just, well.. Sometimes I get these feelings these.. compulsions to travel in some direction, and I can't help but to follow it. Sometimes I think I dream about places I've never seen before but I can never really remember the dreams once I wake. This time, that urge led me here. I've been all through the swamp, but I've never really seen a place quite like this before. Though, I suppose that's probably because it's not really a part of the swamp."

"You said you were here before, right? Did you ever find anything?"  

[Samuel Carlin]

She flicks an ear and tilts her head curiously. Hadn't she said? She was sure she had. She hesitated for a moment, one hoof lifted almost daintily, before she continued on beside the buck. "I found our cousin. The one I told you about," she reminded him gently. "Windjammer, with her long, long legs and fast, fast hooves?"

Oh, but she hadn't told him the rest: "We thought we might even be able to find kimeti with wings!"  

[StarScarred]

"Oh, so you did..." He trails off a little and shakes his head. "I must have been distracted by something. I've heard pieces of tales... Bits and snatches, mostly. Kimeti who were telling tales of things they'd heard, but I've never met someone who's actually seen them."

He laughs at this next bit. "Kimeti with wings? Now that would be a sight, wouldn't it?" Chuckling softly again, Soul returns to her previous statement.

"I would, perhaps, like to meet one of these... 'cousins' of ours. It makes me curious to know how they ever managed to survive out there without the Mother Swamp.... I could never really imagine that." The very thought of it seems... quite frightening, truthfully. If he weren't able to feel the Swamp, well.. he doesn't know what he would do.