Falls
Force-claiming is not allowed here. This is a peaceful, neutral area meant for socialising.
Posted on April 10, 2021 at 04:42:31 AM by Faldne
As days march inexorably past— absent of everything but nothingness— the scenery around the Icelandic mare seemed to change in tandem with her mood. Like her, the sun became less in every way: less bright, less bold, less warm. The flare of life and purpose that she’d found in Evandr’s company was fading all too quickly, withering like the more literal life that surrounded her. The succulent green grass dried, becoming brittle and brown— and the leaves, touched by every color of the sunset, abandoned their bare hosts. And Faldne felt just as fragile, just as adrift… especially in the terrible aftermath of her most recent impulsive act.
If there was one thing she’d gained in the long days of summer, it was knowledge. In her solitude, the seal brown mare wandered aimlessly, skulking about the Crossing like a silent shadow. Haunting the tall and slender creatures who were her distant kin, and gathering fragments of the words they exchanged to piece together. From this, she had learned that there was an island to the north called Tinuvel— an island similar to her own home in its frigid climate. And while it was a slender thread of hope to cling to, Faldne thought that perhaps her quarry might have chosen to make his home there. Where else would he go but the place that might remind him of home?
The place that she herself might have fled to— if she was only capable of running.
Fall had begun in earnest when she came across the female with her familiar-yet-foreign features. It seemed too fortuitous to run into another of her own kind here— even one born of mixed spirits as it was clear enough that the mare with her blackened-gold coat had been. Surely she was familiar with the fugitive whom Faldne sought. Perhaps she even supported the traitor, heretical as her kind had often proven to be. And so the white-collared Icelandic accosted her, determined to win the truth from the stranger by whatever means had proven necessary. And if their brief exchange of words was fierce— accusations hurled like stones— then the violence that followed was indescribably cruel. Bloody and half-blinded by an eye that had swollen shut, the shorter mare only broke away when it was clear that her body could fight no longer.
In what seemed only heartbeats later, Faldne found herself weaving between the trees. Stumbling hazily toward the sound of the Falls, though she was beyond feeling the burn of thirst. Beyond feeling anything save the sharp pain that gnawed at her torn flank, the deep ache that wrapped itself around her torso like an embrace. The stout mare couldn’t know that two of her ribs were fractured, but she felt the agony that chased each serrated breath, and stepped into the chilly pool that the waterfall fed into with a fervent prayer on her lips. Praying out of desperation to gods that had forsaken her long ago. Praying for strength, for mercy, for wisdom that might lead her from the darkness.
And though the gods remained— as ever— silent, Faldne found their answer in the familiar, slender form of the taupe stallion whom she’d met only seasons ago.
Breathless and frozen, words evaded her too. But the desperate hope in her sky-colored eyes spoke everything that her voice could not.
FALDNE
forsaken daughter of the sovngarde
forsaken daughter of the sovngarde
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