Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sky was low and dark, heavy with roiling clouds. Thunder roared continuously through the black pall, punctuated by blinding lances of lightning that froze the world mid-breath in every flash. The battering downpour was enough to drown anyone or anything foolish enough to be out in it, and limited visibility to maybe fifty feet.
Half running and half staggering though the storm was a distraught young man, thoroughly soaked and liberally smeared with mud - as if he had fallen several times, but had dragged himself to his feet and kept going. His long, black hair clung to his face and neck as he ran, sodden clothing barely recognizable as shades of green.
Mud and dirty water splashed up around his feet, coating his legs with muck; his silver eyes were almost completely blank, as he staggered on through exhaustion. He'd been running a very long time, pushing himself out of fear. The bridge... He panted heavily, trying to pick up his feet despite the agonizing stitch in his side. The shape of the bridge was just visible in the flashes of lightning - the bridge that would take him out of his homeland and into Valdemar.
Ragged shoes slapped against the wet boards as the exhausted young man raced across the structure, heedless of the fearfully swollen river below. Nearing the far side, he slipped on the slick, worn wood and tumbled the last few feet, into the mud on the other side - in Valdemar.
Silver eyes watched blankly as a wave of the river rose, the shrieking of tearing timber barely audible above the storm as the bridge he'd just crossed was torn away and carried off in the flood. He lay there, chest heaving, on his side, one pale cheek half-buried in the dark mud. At least they can't get me, now... He thought, barely coherent. Too exhausted to move, his eyelids drooped and closed; he fell into the sleep of the half-dead, his prone body still being battered by the heavy rain.

Even unconscious, he shivered in the cold and wet; not even an earthquake could wake him now, let alone a nudge from a horse. But... Warmth... That was just enough to get him to roll over and nestle into the Companion's side, soaking up as much heat as he possibly could.

It seemed like an eternity before the sky began to lighten, the vicious downpour weakening its pelting blows to little more than a drizzle. Thunder still growled occasionally, but the flashes of lightning were much farther off.
Cassidy stirred at last, spurred by the wetness and chill of the muck he was lying in. A horse could only give off so much heat, after all. Groggily, the boy sat up, using Citadel's side as a prop - and not really registering what it was he was leaning against.

::I'm happy to see you're alive, Chosen.::

"Holy--!!" Cassidy nearly jumped out of his skin and into the river at the sudden, unexpected voice; he caught himself - barely - before falling in and sat there for a bit, gasping for breath. His pulse thudded heavily in his ears as he stared at the 'talking' horse.
"Please.. Don't surprise me like that again.." He said weakly, voice faint and hoarse. "I'm kind of jumpy at the moment." He was shaking a little, and not from the cold.
Come to think of it.. Why was he so jumpy? And how had he gotten here? He had no real recollection of yesterday's events and still wasn't awake enough to really think about it.
"Um.. Who are you, and why can you talk?"

"Oh... You're one of those magic horses from Valdemar--" His brow furrowed slightly. "But.. You said you Chose me. Why? I mean, there's nothing special about me..." Cassidy looked around, then glanced back at the bridge-that-wasn't-there-anymore. "For a minute there, I thought I might be dead." He commented absently. "Then again, it seems like it would be a bit difficult to be dead and quite this miserable..."

All of a sudden, a flood of memory crashed down on him - along with a wave of terrible grief that nearly crushed his spirit entirely. "..Oh.. Gods..." He began to shudder violently, hunching in on himself, thin arms clutching his own shoulders tightly; his silver eyes stared blankly, unseeing, as his vision turned within. Oh Gods... I.. I killed him... A strangled sob tore at his throat, tears trickling from his eyes and carving clear tracks down his muddy face.

((I warn you now, Cassidy's an Empath and a budding mage. Beware >_> whee ))

Cassidy was oblivious to Tiliff's presence, the maelstrom of grief and self-loathing writhing around him almost palpable. His empathic abilities were going wild, lashing out in his emotional agony - though the boy was, himself, turned completely inward. It was not at all wise to be near him about now...

*Poke... poke... poke...*

Cassidy flinched away from the touch, tears still tracking down his face. "G-go away!..." He managed to choke out, voice harsh and cracking.

Tiliff's apparent callousness shocked Cassidy partially out of his morass of despair; the muddy young man stared at the other as if he had just grown an extra head. "Not.. That... Bad!?" He managed to splutter, anger taking the place of grief as he staggered to his feet, white-knuckled and shaking. "How the hell would you know!? I'm a monster! I drink blood, for gods' sakes!" There was a lot of white around his irises, and he was gesticulating wildly, electric sparks jumping across his fingertips.

'Crazy' might be an understatement.