05-23-2018, 04:21 AM (This post was last modified: 05-23-2018, 05:05 AM by Valkyrie.)
VALKYRIE
She stood in the storm
With her plan to construct a ‘Sisterhood of the Shieldmaidens’ in the Rift now in motion—no matter how shortsighted or underdeveloped it may have been—the need for physical foundations, also somewhere suitable to convene, was the pressing priority in her mind.
From the Frozen Sea in the east which marked the very end of the Rift’s expansive continent, Valkyrie deviated west, lured by the surprising familiarity of the bitter climate and the biting wind which hustled down the northernmost range of impassable-looking peaks.
Though the rain had well an truly watered down the rigidity of the snow drifts she muscled through, the going was still difficult, for the water beneath the slushy white, had set into precarious black-ice. Thrice the foolhardy Shieldmaiden lost her footing navigating slopes, but view of The Heimasborg—the perfect ice-castle, perhaps, lurking beneath jagged, ominous mountains—fuelled the ferociously burning curiosity in her belly.
What if too, from that vantage, they were able to watch Hope’s herd to the south? The benefits seemed endless.
It was mid-morning when Valkyrie slithered to a halt before an unsettling-looking valley bathed in dense, sinister-looking shadow. She was soaked to the bone, from head to toe and shivering miserably despite the enthusiastic sneer written through her expression; chilling blue eyes beheld the marvellously mysterious ravine, glittering as they absorbed and assessed the potential.
“The perfect deterrent!” she cheered—ironically—completely undeterred herself, and instantly surprised (and intrigued) by the way her alien, manly tone resonated off flanking hills.
“HELLOOO!”
Without further a-due, the cocky adolescent entered the mist.
Notes for clarity:
- Valkyrie was cursed here. Physically she appears as a stallion, cannot remember why she hates men, and views others as the opposite gender.
- Vynter gave her a bead here that alters her body language to favour males.
The lion isn't sacred when not sleeping near the lamb
He was a distant fleck of gold racing across the thin blue sky. High; high enough the air scraped his lungs. He couldn't fill them full enough; his breath whistled in white wreathes around his muzzle. "Auga!" He was calling the name of his raven. Thinking it, too, as he ventured north. He thought — he thought maybe she would be drawn to this place. It reminded him of home in an awful away. An aching way: the beat of his heart a painful melody against his ribs. But Auga never answered him. "Where are you?" he hissed, and the wind snatched the words away the moment they left his mouth.
Korri began to spiral down.
Halyven lay a long way behind him. He would need to rest before he returned, and maybe search some more. Desperation clawed at his guts, shivered in his veins. Where was she? What had become of her? Why didn't she answer? He couldn't be here without her. He couldn't have left her behind. That... that was too cruel, even for the gods. But — of course it isn't, whispered a soft, treacherous voice inside of him.
He lit upon the edge of a ravine, his breath shivering out of him in great gulps of air. Wings hanging half-folded at his sides, Korri peered into the shadows below. “HELLOOO!” A voice burst out.
Startled, Korri scrambled back, his hooves scraping stone and sliding over ice. He slipped. Felt his back end skidding to the left. Haphazardly, he thrust himself away from the treacherous footing and scrambled down into the darkness, wings negating the worst of his momentum. He landed with competence (if not grace) near the bottom, the blue shadows of the mountain fortress painting his bright form dark. And there he paused, nostrils flaring, and stared into the dark. "Hello?" he called back, feeling suddenly small and foolish (and tired). Was that a figure approaching?
Korri drew himself up, though he had yet to meet anyone in the Rift of normal stature. He stepped gingerly in the direction of the approaching figure — for it was a figure — his ears pricked and curious. "Hello!" It was definitely someone! White as newly fallen snow, with the strangest wings Korri had ever seen. He tilted his head, eyeing them curiously. "Do you live here?"
It is evil when it eats unless it's feeding from the damned.
The Heimasborg
