raw

even after the darkest of nights, dawn comes again

Had Amaris been her mother, perhaps the encroaching shadows would not have unnerved her so. Had Amaris not been Amaris and instead been the DragonHeart, the shadowmare, the dark lady who danced amidst the shadows, perhaps she would have welcomed the creeping, crawling, stretching, yawning darkness that reached towards her, instead of twitching, flinching, jumping sideways. The motions were all useless, and once she realised that pain was not the shadow's objectives, she calmed somewhat - she could still hear Dramyrth's purrs, still feel him, and though he paused a moment while the shadows crossed over him, he reassured her through his touch that he was fine, that she was fine, that they were still alive even if this strange world was intent on swallowing them whole.

It swallowed something, anyway. Amaris could hear the gulp, the swallow, even as she felt the strange, sickly, sticky saliva coat her. Were they being consumed?

When the strange 'light' of the realm returned, and the sensation of being dripping wet lessened, Amaris knew she had been … changed. Physically, her scales felt slick, damp, as if they were seeping some kind of oily, perpetually wet substance - her scales had always glistened in the sunlight, but now they seemed to attract all photons of light, mirroring this strange land on the golden planes of her bodice.

Stretching a wing out experimentally, she sniffed the scales that lined it, viewing these changes with a critical stare, testing it with the flick of her tongue flashing between golden lips.

She wasn't left alone to learn about these changes for long, however, as her name was spoken by…

By Isopia.

The dragonmare blinked, and when her gaze fell upon the mare again, it wasn't the Mountain that Knows, it wasn't her Seer, her friend, her mentor and idol. No, it wasn't Isopia, but a mare who so looked like her that her heart broke all over again. Otem, she thought she recalled, though without her beloved Dramyrth's thoughts right beside her own she was left wondering if even that fleeting, momentary meeting on the borders of her former home with her former Seer had even happened…

"Yes," she supplied, though the word was offered somewhat uncertainly, hinting at the varying emotions that ran through her - relief, for they were alive; an impending sense of grief, for all who were not alive; fear, for where was Tandavi and her family?; and above all that deadening, all-encompassing numbness that seemed to wash everything else aside and leave her feeling raw, vacant, empty.

"But I appear to be mostly intact, though I cannot hear Dramyrth's thoughts like I used to before, I can still feel him.." at this she glanced to the golden dragon who lay upon her back, sniffing at the damp scales he sat upon but decidedly not doing anything else.

"Are you alright?" she turned her attention back to the young mare, as her numb mind slowly reminded her that she was alone, that there were others most likely being affected by whatever it was that 'welcomed' newcomers here, and that they were probably affected in different, varying ways, if the general strangeness of the realm was anything to go by.

"And your -" family, she was going to say, but then paused, for she knew that Isopia was one, she had seen it, the way the Mountain made her final sacrifice, to give them the chance to live on, "- brother, and father, are they alright too?" She thought it a safer question to phrase, for she had heard Volterra's trumpeting call, his summons, his protective ushering of his children, and Amaris knew Otem and her brother to fall in that definition.

A m a r i s

littlewillow-art | whimzi
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@Otem