Posted on May 10, 2021 at 08:40:59 AM by Nzingha
hapo ambao asaa  Come with me into de water, Eidolon. Nzingha stepped from the darkness and into the moonlight, a creature spun of shadow and bone. Beneath the blind white eye of the moon, the sea had consumed the narrow strip of beach— yet even that was not enough to sate it. As the shaman stepped forward, the waves lapped hungrily at her hooves. Tugging her forward, their mournful murmur holding the barely-discernible echo of her Mzuka’s voice. Commit de blood to abluvion, wash ‘im all away… And the blood, oh the blood. She could feel it warm and sticky down the back of both hind legs, caked in the bright banner of her tail. She could remember how it tasted when her tongue swept the small figure clean, sharp as ozone and bitter as nettles. The shock of that was enough to bring her mind back from the dim distant place to which it had traveled, and then, and then... Returning to herself with a sharp hiss of breath, Nzingha rooted her limbs in the soft sand and turned her head back in the direction of the jungle. Maybe it wasn’t real, maybe the moon’s glow had lifted the film from her eyes, maybe— But she was still there, the child of death, pale and motionless just beyond the ocean’s reach. She was still there, and no less doomed now than in the moment of her birth— perhaps even the moment of her conception. Fated to suffer for the sacrilege that had created her, for the law that her mother had unwillingly broken. And the only mercy that she might find in her short and painful life was the mercy that it was Nzingha’s duty to offer— the mercy that she could not find it within herself to give. Squeezing her dark eyes shut, the shaman began to whisper in fervent prayer. Mwokoe, Mahu. Muepushe. Kufa ni wako sabili. Kufa ni wako sabili. The sea rose again as if in answer, clawing at her chest, her belly. In the rush of their departure a pair of curved ears twitched forward, capturing the last strains of its haunted song. Commit de blood… de blood… Nzingha stepped forward, then again, and again. She kept moving until only her skull-masked face was visible above the surface, until her hooves parted with the earth. Until a wave rose up to swallow her, and the shaman was no more. Beneath the palms, a white figure stirred fretfully, pale eyes probing the shadows that surrounded her. Only moments before, that darkness had been warm and tender, but now— now it was as cold and implacable as the saltwater that suddenly sprayed her. Empowered by the rare alignment of sun, moon, and earth, the tide was defying boundaries of sand and fern. Fingers of white foam strained for the child, whose dark-tipped ears twisted back at the hiss of their arrival, the sigh of their retreat. Struggling more determinedly, the spindly filly sought to get her legs beneath her, spurred by another splash of chilly water. Even in her innocence, she could sense the doom that its touch spelled for her… and fought with all her strength to escape it. NzinghA mare . nine . black sabino overo . marwari . 16.0hh  |
Replies:
- and here you are, living, despite it all - By Siobhan May 11, 2021 at 02:42:48 AM
- dark mirror - By Faolain May 13, 2021 at 00:49:20 AM
- pay heed the squall - By charybdis May 16, 2021 at 07:19:17 AM
- dark mirror - By Faolain May 13, 2021 at 00:49:20 AM
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