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 Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 4:14 pm
She gave a quick glance back to the Reya that was following her, yet again reminded of the loss of her Jala wings. In these times she ached to have them back, especially with the sighting of Xla'Lanan. They had been betrothed at one point in time, much like Sereva's predicament. However, she'd found him too foolish, and he had thought her to strong for anyone. She simply could not fit in with the other Katilenuck, she had wit and fire. What, then, would they think of her now? Would some, if any, remember her face, in the few sheltered days she'd spent there, causing havock no doubt. Xla'Lanan had been proud at the time, but probably never again. Perhaps they'd wonder what caused her shift to crossbreed. Maybe they'd laugh and get their noses bashed in. Better still, they'd hunt her hide. It didn't matter, there was no point in travelling back to those days of foolishness. The Jala were nothing.
Sighing, she stretched her leg, feeling the ligaments pop, and thrust her body downwards. A few short wingstrokes and she was hovering lightly above the ground, ready to touch down with her back legs first, followed by her front. It was particularily straining on her legs and back, but she couldn't risk landing with her front feet for fear of her legs coupling under the pain of the wound.
"Ready Sereva?" she asked quietly, searching for anyone that might be coming close. Storm didn't want to risk a narrow escape today.
Before her the mist swirled in the faded moonlight, no sounds could be heard but the echo of their own hooves. A shudder of fear passed through Storm's body, but nothing else. She could make it, Melantho was here with her. The forest would keep them till morning, when she prayed that somehow they'd find a way out.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:49 am
Aku was silent on her back as they touched down. He had been silent for a while. The only reason she had known he was still on her back had been the weight of a warm body and the firm press of claws into her flesh, the sign of the flightless Rit holding on as they soared through the air. Now that they had found the earth again, he retracted his claws and hopped to the ground to stretch his legs.
Melantho watched him go, hearing Storm's soft call from a little way ahead. Was she ready? Would she ever be ready for a journey like this? It didn't matter. She didn't have much of a choice. Still, she felt as though a little sparkle of confidence was welling up inside her. As long as Storm and Aku were here, she would have the best possible chance of success.
"Aye," she answered softly. "I'm ready. ...Which is more than I can say for you." Because she had just caught sight of the cut. "Those bastards sometimes smear their horns with mud and leafmould in the hope of causing infection. It's in the worst place for you to reach, too - here, let me."
She gently pressed her mouth to the cut and sucked sharply, pulling away and spitting out the foulness. "Eugh. Thought so." She repeated the exercise, grimacing at the taste, until the blood flowed red and clean. "There, that should do. Let it heal over now and it ought to be all right. Aku?"
The little black Rit bounded up, horn in mouth, and hopped on to her back. She took that as a sign that he was ready to go. "All right, we're set. Lead on - I'll catch your mane when we cross the treeline."
Trusting Storm was an easy thing now. After all, she was a Seer: what were illusions to her but cobwebs to be brushed aside?
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:58 pm
Storm winced and almost drew back as Melantho gave a sudden move forwards. Her ears pinned and she raised her hoof to kick before the left side of her brain settled against the memory. She relaxed and sighed, closing her eyes to take in whatever pain Melantho was about to inflict. Though the wound was sore, there was comfort in the others touch, and she found herself more relaxed than she would have thought.
Infection, bah. She could have fought that off on her own.
Note To Adult Self:
The Jala, I daresay, are the greatest breed. Father, mother says, is a horrible prude and a son of a - - -, I dare not repeat the words. Have you found him yet? I take the Nequus are well, and they know my joy and happiness in their being. Remember to hate the Reya. Remember.
Am I happy with Xla'Lanan? How many children has he given me? I'm still laughing and crying, aren't I?
Aren't I?
Storm frowned at the memory, and was suddenly spurred forwards into that haze mist of the forest. Her heart hoped that Sereva realized what was going on and sprung into action, Aku following suit. She had hardly heard a word that passed between, and it most certainly didn't register. She only knew the fear now, and a sudden ache that occured in her wings, her whole body.
Some of it was her heart, still believing that it was impossible for Sereva ever to love her - ties were to hard to Clytaemnestra. Mostly, it was her muscles. For now, she'd pass it off as fever, but she'd do better to think otherwise afterwards.
"Sereva," she said softly, before she closed her eyes tightly to register direction and keep out the accumulating mist and trees.
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:20 pm
She had been watching Storm ever since Aku had hopped on to her back, and she did not miss the cues that the golden mare was about to enter the forest. Stepping cautiously after her comrade, Melantho carefully caught hold of a lock of the snowy-white mane as the mist swallowed them. Aku was a warm patch of fur, four sets of familiar claws, a twitching tail, quiet breathing behind her.
At first, all she could see through the mist were trees. It would have seemed like any other forest without its intangible shroud. Even Aku, not on good terms with magical places at the best of times, was relaxing a little.
And then the flames began to creep in.
It was a gradual transition, the landscape sliding languidly from the real world into the underworld, but nonetheless a frightening one. Aku's claws dug deeper into her flesh, but Melantho could hardly feel them through the numbness that followed the initial fright. She felt a size too small for her skin, and every sight, sound and sensation reached her as though it came from a very long way off. Except the fire, of course. That was far more immediate. After the ordeal she would doubtless laugh at the irony: the illusory furnace that surrounded her appeared more real than the reality it was slowly swallowing up.
"Mel?"
The little voice was muffled. Aku. With the horn in his mouth. At any other time, she would probably have laughed at him. "Mmf?" she acknowledged in what passed for a whisper.
"...'re you...feeing vif? Ve flamef?"
"Mm-hmf."
"...goob, nop juft me ven..."
Just then, as though the forest had decided to take things up a notch, a chorus of whispering voices slithered in around them. The words were too quiet to make out, too jumbled in with their brethren to make any great sense, but gradually a few came to the surface.
Their images soon followed.
Despite her upbringing within a large herd, Melantho was not accustomed to walking among others. Not like this, with Nequus - or images of Nequus - on every side of her. It was disconcerting, though the expressions on their empty-eyed faces were gentle and their postures unthreatening.
It lies west of 'ere...west of ever'where...
Her gaze turning toward the sound, Melantho saw shining yellow eyes flicker into focus. The purple Jala mare who bore them was moving away, allowing a snow-marked Bae stallion to step in at her side. As Melantho watched him, his empty eye sockets slowly became filled with a pair of gentle blue eyes.
Help will come to you, strong young one...
Turn your face to the west, came a third voice from the other side of her, where a huge Aeri stallion lowered his head to her level, and let the moon guide you...
Jala's crying... the Ichsa beside him whispered, her blood red eyes brightening like stars. Jala's crying tears of blood...
"Meelll...I don' like viiif..."
She didn't blame him. None of these faces were familiar. Where had they come from?
Walk by Fyhi tel Oren...
A grey, oddly-patterned Bae mare was giving her a solemn look. Melantho blinked at the image. Fyhi tel Oren? Where was -
- and then she almost gasped, almost swallowed the lock of Storm's mane, because that was Clytaemnestra walking towards them and she was ignoring Storm, ignoring Aku, staring straight at Melantho -
Go to the red mountain.
Even the voice was perfect. But now the image was slipping, melting as though made of butter, skin spilling off flesh spilling off bones that crumbled into nothing as the voice contorted, dropped, crackled -
Go to the red mountainthe red mountaithe red mouthe red the rthe red mountain...
And then the image arose, remaking itself from the ashes, and it was no longer the Clytaemnestra she knew. It was larger, for one, and its eyes were as red as the sunset. Two twisted, backswept black horns erupted from its forehead.
Find your strength, Melantho, daughter of Meleager, it rumbled, its eyes glowing balefully in the dark. Find your fire at the red mountain...
Through all this, Melantho was still walking, still holding her companion's mane, trying not to think too hard. It was bad enough that she was seeing things - surely it was worse when they tried to have meaning.
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:59 pm
Storm felt no flame, saw no Clytaemnestra, in fact, the visions seemed to have vanished. There was no call of her father, no speak of the woods. She almost felt like cursing.
Then, all of a sudden, it was there, she could feel it by her right neck. A presence. The woods trained her thoughts away from Melantho hanging onto her tail, and weaved them by her side. She had her eyes close, directing blindly, but they could work her by touch, scent, hearing. Whatever they willed, whoever they were, it came true. She could feel Melantho slipping away, away, and she wanted to run after her, but her wits were with her - love hadn't completely washed her mind.
She searched, and found Melantho there, behind her, struggling with herself. A sigh escaped Storm, low and soft, things were going to get very interesting for the two of them.
But they had to get far enough in that Clytaemnestra wouldn't stumble upon them by accident. So far, that no one would dare to come in after them. Not that they would have anyway, the goat colored probably thought Storm was taking them to their deaths. Afterall, who came out from here alive?
Few.
Storm, however was listening, carefully trained onto Sereva's thoughts. She heard those two little words. Red mountain, and she let the air whistle through her teeth.
"The Katilenuck," she snapped, surging a little bit faster ahead, but careful not to rip her hair from Sereva's teeth. "They'll kill you if you go near."
Apparently it wasn't just the threat of inside the forest that could be dangerous. It worked its ways outside of it as well.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:02 am
Melantho quickened her pace to keep up with Storm, now thoroughly confused. Who were the Katilenuck? And why would they have any reason to kill her?
Jala, said the Ichsa mare, seeming to move faster than she was walking. Jala, crying tears of blood. Reya killed Jala, they say. It wasn't Reya I saw. Just brutes, too many, little foals screaming and Jala falling like wheat...
A massacre. Were these real people? Was the forest somehow...borrowing them?
The grey Bae was speaking now, watching the road ahead. They live on Fyhi tel Oren. Proud Jala, every one. They take other races as slaves. Not Reya, though - they hate them. They would kill you on sight.
Sometimes you got to be smart, the purple Jala chipped in, instead of being strong. Sometimes hidin' saves you.
But they were still intent that she should go. Why? What could be found on the red mountain save death?
Many things.
Changed-Clytaemnestra was speaking again, walking a little way ahead of her. Melantho watched her with puzzlement. What did these changes mean? Did they mean anything at all?
That is not something for you to know so easily, Melantho. In time, perhaps you will find out. Perhaps we all will.
And now they were all changing - not so brutally as Clytaemnestra had, but changing nonetheless. The Aeri wore a black and silver cloth across his back now, and a strange silver pendant about his neck - two crescents and a circle, all joined together. The snow-Bae had a basket of apples. The Jala mare had golden flowers in her mane and tail. She and the grey Bae were walking side by side, the latter seeming to walk on both sides - there were two of her now, and one was blurring, changing further. The Ichsa had a blanket of black and white diamonds. And Clytaemnestra...she was the strangest of all. Thick plates of dark horn had formed at her legs, a red cloth marked with black horned skulls covered her back, and her teeth seemed to be lengthening, sharpening...
And why are you staring at us, Reya? said the grey Bae in two voices. Why not take a look at yourself?
"...er...Mel?" Aku's voice. He sounded worried. "...We're...we're om fire..."
She risked a glance down at her hooves.
Everywhere she trod, she caused a little burst of flame. Her legs were wreathed in orange-red fire. Out of the corner of her eye, she could just see a flicker of pale blue - was that Aku? Was that his tail, that little black tuft now wrapped in blue flames?
This, she thought to herself, half afraid and half angry with the forest for its tricks, had better be metaphorical.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:24 am
Storm pinned her ears, she was hearing it now, too.
"No you bastards!" she hissed, wanting to tear into the apparations, send them away. Kill them for all that they were worth. "You weren't alive, none of you were there, to see, to hear! Murdered! She was raped and murdered!" It seemed as though the old lessons of the Jala breed was digging into her mind yet again.
She wouldn't stand for such trickery. Equality - fine, press that, but she wouldn't hear the lies. What Reya had done, she did, but that did not mean all her children should bear the fault of their goddess of a mother.
"You!" she hissed at the apparation of Clytaemnestra she could not see, working through Melantho's mind. "Out! Get out! All of you, leave us at peace you bedamned forest. Leave us." Storm was tired, and she was worried she'd lose their way.
She wanted rest, sleep, alone, away from Melantho. Her teeth gritted together, but she didn't dare move, risk accidentally stepping somewhere wrong - or worse, abandonning the black out here and regretting it later.
"We're stopping," she grouched, leaving no option. "We've come far enough into the forest."
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:46 am
The images were circling them now. Melantho let go of Storm's mane when the golden mare halted, moving a tail to indicate that Aku should stay put.
"All right, forest," she called, "enough. You've made your point. You want me to go up that damn mountain, maybe get myself killed up there. Why?"
Because I speak for the part of you that you cannot hear.
It had chosen Clytaemnestra, or whatever she was now, as a mouthpiece. Huge surprise, the black mare thought bitterly. If you want someone to say something and make it stick, pick the Commandante every time - if just words won't do, she'll back it up with hooves. "And what the hell's that supposed to mean?" she snapped, laying her ears. "I don't want riddles - I want the truth!"
Truth?
The image laughed. Even the laugh, the damn laugh - she'd only heard it once, and the occasion hadn't been pleasant - even that was perfect. What was this place? How did it know?
You have come to the wrong place for truth. Truth is too bright for these dark woods. All I offer you is a single fact...and a question, one that you must answer for yourself in time.
Melantho watched as the other Nequus-images faded out. The fire still flickered around every tree. "...Don't expect me to believe you," she said, by way of allowing the image to speak.
That choice is yours. The fact is this: the forest shows many things, but it cannot help showing what is inside each person who enters it. It cannot hide the hearts of living creatures. And the question: if you have never seen any of the faces here before save this one, and even this is now altered beyond your recognition...what is left, Melantho, daughter of Meleager, that must be inside you?
Even as the question echoed from tree to tree, the illusion of Clytaemnestra was stepping back, fading, until she vanished into the flames.
After a few moments, the fire was all that remained.
Slowly breathing out, Melantho turned to Storm. The mare was tense, angry - she'd shouted insults at the images, she remembered, though quite what she'd said was unclear. Too busy concentrating on the strange waking dream.
"...How long must we stay here?" she asked quietly. "I don't like it any more than you do, and I don't trust what it's telling me." Clytaemnestra would want to look like that, though, wouldn't she? Like a daemon from some fiery hell, some lost country of the damned? Hah. She ought to have been here looking at it, then, and not those who wished they didn't have to face her.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:00 am
Storm flicked her ears back to her skull and forwards once more. Would Clytaemnestra have left by now? Or would she be waiting for them just outside the forest? Did she dare risk heading back this very moment, or take the forest and stay overnight, trying to catch some sleep.
"Rest," she said softly, laying down in the earth, the damp dew sticking to her fur. It was going to be one hell of a long night.
"Its a long way to the red mountains," she muttered, closing her eyes. When she was out of the forest, away from the danger of her mind, then she could turn to Sereva and be equal, but for now she had to stay ahead, lead the way, and somehow be confident enough for the both of them.
"A long, long way."
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:14 am
She wasn't the sort to lie down in a place like this. With a sigh, she moved closer to Storm and resigned herself to a long night - not that she wasn't used to sleeping standing up, of course, but trying to rest when your legs look like they're being roasted alive is not the easiest thing in the world.
"Stay put, Aku," she said quietly. "I want to be able to find you come the morning."
There was no complaint. Lucky little sod would probably drop right off to sleep, knowing him. What was it about felines and being able to sleep anywhere?
Think about anything, that was it. Think about anything save what you've dragged them into. They shouldn't be a part of this mess, you know that - not that you could have shaken either of them off, or would have even if you'd seen this coming...
People couldn't be selfless all the time, could they?
Closing her eyes, Melantho tried - and failed - to stem the approaching tide of guilt.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:20 am
Morning came quickly - or what Storm thought was morning. It could have been the same night, midday the next year. Who really knew? All she had was a mental clock that said, quite demanding, UP!
So she rose, and nickered lightly to Melantho, brushing her with the soft skin on the tip of her pink nose. Her ears swivelled around the area, but there was nothing but darkness all around and that cold feeling of mist. Lucky for her, she could remember their orientation.
"Ready?" she asked, though she didn't wait long before striking out in the direction she needed to go. It wasn't though she couldn't waste any time, it just felt far to awkward in this forest.
Sereva or no, Storm felt very much alone.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:41 am
Melantho awoke to the soft nudge, opening first one eye and then the other. Aku was still dozing, a relaxed blob of warm fur somewhere behind her head. She stroked him gently with a tail to wake him. Luckily, he needed no prompting to hang on: Melantho was already trotting to catch up with Storm, carefully taking hold of her mane again. There was no sign of the image-Nequus, but the flames were everywhere.
Everywhere, she noted, except around Storm.
Aku couldn't see it. He would have remarked by now if he had: she was glowing, shining like moonlight in the dark woods. Blinking, the dark mare thought she could see the outline of feathers shimmering just above the Reya-like wings. Jala? What did that mean? Did it mean anything at all?
And if it did, how much of it came from Storm...and how much from herself?
She stayed quiet. Had to - the lock of mane in her mouth allowed no conversation. Perhaps it was better that way, given the only things she would have said might cause trouble. Why do I see you shining? Why do I feel I can trust you, though we hardly know one another? Am I a fool to follow you?
Did it matter?
She'd chosen this course and she would stick to it, come hell or high water, until Storm gave her a reason to leave. There was something here between them, never mind what, and she was damned if she was going to walk away without exploring it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:59 am
Storm wasn't paying any attention to Sereva's mind, in fact, she wasn't really opening up her mind to anything. She was just getting out - away from the damn trees which she kept almost hitting. Away from the illusions, and away from the possible run-in with the bones of her dead father.
Never the less, it wasn't the forest glowing feather's around Storm's figure. It was the ever receding mist, slowly thinning to let the outside light in. Perhaps the glow was an illusion, but there was a reason she ached all night, and it hadn't been just the poison causing her fever.
The combination of all these things meant she was at a complete disadvantage - not thinking when she finally broke away from that swirl.
She opened her mouth to let out some shout of joy when a sound broke the silence lingering in her ears.
"Storm?"
She turned, shuffling her wings - feathered again. A joy erupted in her heart, glad to have her birth genes back. But there was a problem, and it was red, white, and brindled.
"What do you want Xla'Lanan?"
She could still feel the horn on her head, the Katilenuck must not have been able to see it at the angle. She took a deep breath, and prayed Sereva wouldn't say anything stupid.
"Nothing . .. I . . . uh- I. Its been a long time." There was a pause in his movements, Storm frowned. "Storm - there's a -"
"I know," she grinned, something dark flashing across her eyes. "She's my slave."
"We don't take Reya as slaves."
"I'm no Katilenuck."
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:12 pm
Melantho was about to say something along the lines of Now Hold On Just A Minute, but she thought better of it. A flick of her tails warned Aku into silence as well: good thing too, because if a mouthy Reya would get them into trouble then a mouthy Rit could very well be worse.
She wasn't quite sure what to do. Clearly this red and white character knew Storm - had known her as a Jala, which was what she must once have been. Quite how the change had taken place Melantho couldn't begin to imagine. And were those...were those tear markings? Was this one of the Katilenuck the forest had told her about?
Well, a little voice inside her head piped up with a wicked smirk, he looks about as tough as an over-ripe banana.
It wouldn't do for a slave to speak, though she longed to butt in and ask this cheeky sod who the hell he was and what he was doing here. They weren't far from her father's land - had he eluded the patrols, or had they simply ignored him as something too weak to pose a threat?
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:35 pm
There was a long moment of silence and then Xla'Lanan dared to speak again.
"Its got something on its back. . . " Storm wanted to kick him. He stared so very much, but he was craning his neck, just a bit too far. Storm shifted, warily, trying to keep him out of sight of her horn. Perhaps his vision was just bad.
"Some pet of hers. It serves its purpse." To be annoying, she thought bitterly to herself. Still, as much as she despised the little creature, Sereva probably thought it a little brother or something, and so Storm had to let it be.
"A pet of a pet, eh? I like your thinking." Storm didn't like the look in his eyes, the fact he stepped closer.
"Xla, don't even think about it you impetuous vermin." Then an idea struck. "How's that Mordre of yours doing?" The poor boy looked horified. "Just as I thought. Well, I need to see him." She gritted her teeth and stomped her foot down hard. "So I suggest you run ahead and tell him to expect company."
The horse nodded, and then took off running. Obviously something in Storm's character made him nervous.
Storm waited until he was a good deal out of sight and then let go of the breath she'd been holding.
"Damn boy," she told Sereva, looking back to make sure they were all okay. "Questions anyone?"
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