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 Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:28 am
Slow steps carried the Aeri along beside the frozen stream. His breath clouded before him in the chill winter air and above him the branches of the pines giants creaked with their burden of snow. Other than the soft thumps of his hooves, the soft sounds of his breathing and these occasional creaks, all was silent in the forest.
Winter's hold had tightened on the land, it's cold blankets of snow smothered sound and kept the small creatures that usually made up the chorus of the world deep asleep within burrows.
Orange eyes wandered down to the frozen stream once more and the red-maned Nequus snorted to himself. It didn't look as though he was going to find a clear patch but thirst was thirst. Sighing slightly, the black stallion moved to the edge of the ice covered water and raised a hoof.
The crunch that followed briefly broke the near silence of the forest and the morbidly-decked Aeri bent his neck down to drink from the freezing water he had just uncovered.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:38 am
Lydia stood in the snow, staring straight forward. Her deep blue eyes scanned the surrounding area without feeling, catching only the slightest bit of movement from a tiny animal not too far off. She struck out a hoof in the snow, scaring it off.
The voices in Lydia's head were having a field day today. They spoke to her, and to each other, about the most gruesome topics. Lydia folded her wings over her ears, shouting, "Shut up, shut up!", a sob slowly escaping her. "Why don't you just be quiet?" she pleaded. The voices stopped, and Lydia composed herself. The voices weren't dangerous, but the constant noise had driven her crazy.
She looked down at her blood-stained coat. Where had the blood come from? She didn't know... but it wasn't hers.
Lydia danced her way towards a thick sheet of ice, usually a stream, and stepped on it casually to get to the cool water underneath.
"Hello, Mini-Lyddie," she said to her reflection. "How're you today?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:08 am
The water was icy against his lips and slid down his throat trailing its chill to settle in his stomach. Drinking too much would probably give him a bellyache. Sighing over this logic, the orange-brown marked Aeri raised his head, thirst only partially sated. He could drink more later on but more now was a very bad idea.
He had been about to set off again when a soft crunch caught his attention. Black ears swivelled to the source of the noise, quickly followed by a bone-clad face. There, a little way downstream, a Bae mare had just broken the ice as he himself had done.
The tall stallion frowned, rather annoyed at himself for not spotting her before. Well, she didn't seem to have spotted him yet either so no harm done. The orange-winged Aeri set off towards the smaller being and was about to greet her when she spoke.
To herself.
Well... talking to your reflection wasn't so odd, especially if you were alone a lot. The bone-clad stallion shrugged it away.
"Greetings," he called to the Bae, halting a polite distance from her and awaiting a response.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:05 am
Lydia winked at her reflection and it winked back. She took a sip of water and looked savored it.
Then someone called out to her. She jumped backward, guided by her wings, and laid her ears against her head.
"Who're you?" she asked, puffing out her chest and baring her teeth. The voices in her head started talking again, now yelling and speaking of things that she could do to the bone-encrusted stallion speaking to her. "Shut up!" she yelled again, putting her wings over her ears and collapsing slightly to the ground. "Why did you pick me?! Lyddie never did anything to anyone to deserve this!"
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:21 am
The black Aeri opened his mouth to answer her but closed it again as she began to speak to herself. He hadn't said a word, or done anything so her words couldn't be directed at him. Fear of his appearance never went this far and besides, her focus didn't seem to be on him.
A frown spread across the stallion's face underneath the red skull and he moved a little closer. Did her coat look... wet? Was that blood he could smell? Something was very, very wrong here.
"Are you well?" he asked tentatively, orange eyes canning for some sign of injury. Perhaps the blood is not her own... Oh dear.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:29 am
Lydia looked up at the stallion from where she was on the ground.
"They've stopped..." she said calmly, though the whites of her eyes still shone out from behind her blue eyes. "The voices are gone."
She got up and brushed herself off quickly. "Lydia," she said quietly, looking at the ground instead of into the eyes of the stallion. "My name is Lydia." She unwrapped herself from her wings and twitched a few muscles in her back. She looked back to the blood stains; they were dry now, but still very dark.
She looked to the stallion now. She was about to say something, but hesitated for a brief moment with her mouth open before whispering, "Did you do this to me? The blood, I mean. And do the voices talk to you too?" The mare was becoming quite hysterical in her head, but she tried to convey a look of complete calm as she spoke to this stallion.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:39 am
The voices? Oh. Oh dear. What had he stumbled in on? The bae was clearly unhinged, poor creature. "My name is Lucius," he said, giving a polite bob of his head to the grey mare. "I... no I've nothing to do with that blood and I don't think the voices you mean ever talk to me," he said cautiously. Sending her into another fit of madness would not be a good thing.
How is she out here all alone... and where did that blood come from. It doesn't look like it's her's... What has she done?
Featureless orange eyes flicked around the immediate area, though their lack or a pupil disguised this movement. There wasn't an obvious victim, owner of the blood that splattered the Bae's coat but that didn't mean that there wasn't one somewhere nearby.
"Have you... been in this area long, Lydia?" he tried, his gaze returning to the blue-eyed bae.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:47 am
Lydia bit her lip. "I understand..." she said slowly. This stallion had nothing to do with it... then what happened?
"I don't remember anything past about a week ago," she said, her eyes darting back and forth as she watched a small bug on the ground, weaving its way carefully through the snow. "And I've been here since then." She paused, then said, "I remember an ocean or something... but that's about it."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you wearing?" she asked, giggling a little. Now that the voices had stopped, she was in her usual hyper-happy mood.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:59 am
Nothing past a week ago... What had happened to her? Some kind of head injury? Well that might explain the apparent insanity. She was as changeable as the sea she part remembered, one moment cowering fear and the next girlish excitement.
"It's a skeleton of an elemental," he informed her. "Long story about how I came by it. To cut it short I felt the world owed something to the owner of these bones so I'm... sort of letting him keep living. They weigh me down a bit when I fly but they keep me warm in the winter and protect me a bit if I manage to get into a fight."
Maybe something worse had happened to her, he’d heard of Nequus going crazy when they saw a loved one die horribly, maybe it had even been something paranormal. Or maybe she’d always been mad and had finally been driven from her home and the days she had spent there had leaked away from her warped mind.
Well, he’d get no answers, all he could do was wonder.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:09 am
"A story?!" she asked excitedly. She half-sat / half-stood in the snow, a smile all the way across her face, wriggling about. "Care to tell it?" She stared up at the stallion innocently, her blue eyes unblinking as though he might disappear if she did.
She was thinking very carefully about what happened. Now that the stallion had mentioned it, her amnesia seemed to be the major topic for the voices, which were now in a happy mood as well. What had happened? She knew for a fact that the blood on her coat was not hers, and her blood was on another, but she had no clue about any of the details.
Lydia bent her head down. "You don't have to tell it..." she said quietly. "I'm thinking about what happened. I'm trying to remember, I promise."
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:27 am
The big aeri flicked his hears in and equine shrug. "I don't mind telling it to you if you'd like to hear it. It's just rather long and not very nice in places, didn't want to bore you with it if you didn't want to hear it all. If you're trying to remember though I won't interrupt for the time being."
Humm... what if she remembers something she doesn't like? He didn't want to have to hurt the little Bae if she flew into a sudden rage but harming others was preferable to being harmed in harsh seasons. He had a way to go before he reached D'ob yet, he didn't want to end up lamed or some such because of his concern for a stranger. Even a minor limp in such a harsh winter as this could spell his end and dying was far for being on his to do list.
I'll just hope that she stays placid then, Lucius thought with an internal sigh.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:32 am
Lydia, deep in thought, let her eyes wander to the stallion's face, staring off as though she was blind. She furrowed her brow a little and let her lips part, but it didn't help. She mumbled incoherently to herself, then went back to silent thought.
"I can't remember," she said finally. "I thought I was so close." She shook her head. "Oh well. I'm sure I'll remember later."
She got up, flicked her tail slightly, and stretched out her wings. "Pardon me for asking," she said politely. "But may I ask where you are going once I am securely out of your way?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:48 am
Well, he hadn't been expecting her to come up with anything right away but it was still faintly disappointing. "Of course," the tall stallion said in reply to Lydia's query. "I'm heading through these lands on my way to D'ob, the grasslands. It's going to be a hard winter and I think grass will survive best there. There's a good quantity of it to begin with and then there's all the Nequus walking about to keep at least parts of the ground a bit unfrozen with any luck."
The black Aeri's eyes ran thoughtfully over the grey-coated bae. "Where are you heading to?" he asked, flicking away some snow that had dropped from the branches above onto a wing. "You know of somewhere with a decent amount of grass?"
She didn’t seem too in touch with reality to him but the tall stallion was prepared to accept that he wasn’t always right. She might have a good place to go to with plenty of food to eat until spring came around.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 2:18 pm
The mare's eyes lit up, as she nodded and said, "No, I don't know of anywhere." She paused. "I remember wanting to go somewhere, but now I don't remember where." She shrugged. "But it seems that where ever you're going will be nice."
She stuck her nose in the snow and rifled through it quickly, finding a single frozen berry. She ate it, then said, "I like it here; berries are good." She knew it was a lie, but the voices told her to say it. The berries actually tasted awful, to her atleast, but they were filled with the essential vitamins and such that she needed to survive this particularly harsh winter.
"You mind if I tag along?" she asked suddenly. "It gets boring around here, I've come to find out, much to my dismay."
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 2:44 pm
The black stallion brightened slightly. "Oh, do you really? Most people seem to find them far too sour but I think they're rather good..." Well, he hadn't exactly planned on company... but that didn't mean it wouldn't be pleasant. Ok, so she was a bit nuts, she seemed quite agreeable all the same and it wasn't her fault. Wasn’t it the duty of the strong to guard the weak, especially when they needed it the most? He couldn’t just leave her here, first off she’d probably starve and second… well by the look of that blood she might be a danger to others too.
Keeping her nearby until he had a better idea of exactly who she was a danger too was a good idea.
"Alright, you can come along with me if you like," Lucius said with a slight smile. "Maybe it was D'ob you were headed for anyway, eh?"
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