Scint River
Zahra & Ilham
It was pride that turned angels into devils
The rain had ceased for the first time in many weeks (though perhaps it had eased once or twice, she wondered if it had ever really, truly stopped). Bold, bleak clouds still clung with tireless vigour to the otherwise vast openness overhead, though they seemed ready to purge again, pregnant, always filled to the brim with more bitter rain and Zahra glanced by them broodingly, curious, for the mood in this strange world had shifted in recent days. She and Eleos had returned to the rainforest after a long stint spent adrift in the west, and though the young winged mare couldn’t explain the inner yearning she felt - it grew, and the magic within her churned restlessly - a quiet hum still further east, whispers that perhaps had been, pulled her yet closer.
Lured her unquiet mind, like a moth to the flame.
After a while, the trees began to thin and she paused for a moment to regard a quiet notion, to pass comment that felt absurd, "I'm sure this part was thicker before…" Ilham too, agreed, for the last time they’d strolled through this leg of the otherworldly ancient forest, trees had gathered in tight cluster, and provided almost no route through; now, however, pale amber eyes observe the wall of smog beyond, thick black - though thinning - and ears flicker atop an ever evolving feeling of uncertainty.
The hair along her spine prickled wildly, madly, as though fingered by a force she couldn’t pin. The writhe of energy within her too was pinging, jarring through the network of gold-infused veins.
It was exciting, and Zahra bent most willingly to its beckon call.
There was a movement beyond the darkness, the shadows, which seemed all the prevalent here in the Rift, and the painted girl made haste down the slope towards the river where they stood. The God who she had seen now when each new region had been unveiled, restored, stood upon the bank in lordly fashion. His ethereal voice boomed through the air, the earth, her body when he warned they mind their distance, and with forward flicked ears, she noted the sound of the second trailing - that they should not knock over the bonelights.
"Bonelights?"
With widening eyes, undeniably enthralled by the grotesque monster poised before her, Zahra watched on as he produced a pristine bone from the folds of his tainted-looking flesh, and set it soundly than in the bank - the flower that perched at its top was enticing, casting forth fond light and warmth. Kisamoa proceeded to place others just the same, some on the shore and some in the water, and with a fascinated, wary, eye the young horse watched in silence.
Inadvertently - perhaps distracted by the magic nagging visibly below her skin (ants tracked aimlessly over white and a snail above the black) - Zahra had come to stand near to a somewhat murky looking stallion and his pet kitten. He raised the question that she couldn’t deny had crossed her thoughts, and no sooner had the words slipped free than one of two children closer still to the water, began to squabble.
"Hush, please," she motioned to them both, bothered by the shouting; and the show of combined childish defiance, that could very well interrupt His words to follow - unlikely, given the resonation of that voice through all things dead and living. Zahra, as she strode from the proximity of the stallion, was oblivious to the work of the colt’s magic as it veered from his miniature frame, and as she neared the boy, a gentle gesture forward with her plush nose was offered.
There was no mother straining forward for her child in those heated moments following the God's directive, and after the recent influx of orphans purged from the loins of their now-dead-home, Helovia, it troubled her to think that he could be all alone. "Where are your parents," she asked softly after, ready to take heed should the deity again speak.
@Varuna (and to a lesser degree, Crowley and Otem)
