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Home » Search » Roster » Whitepages » Records » FAQ » Guidebook
Gotta hold on
Open Ultima 
Erthë
Currently championing:
#1
You gotta have the patience and believe you're gonna make it
Gotta hold on


It was all so painfully familiar. Erthë could only stare with her gut twisted into a tight knot of sorrow and disbelief at the white beach that stretched out before her. The sands were pale and would probably glow a brilliant white if the clouds scattered and the ground was allowed to dry up. Even now, under the dim light of heavy skies and darkened by the ceaseless rain, the landscape reminded her of the Endless Blue, the cliffs bringing to mind the jagged rocks and steep cliffs beneath the World's Edge. Not sure whether to laugh or cry, the young mare settled with a seething curse towards Kisamoa and slowly made her way down towards the ocean.

When she was almost there, her oldest son finally had enough of trailing quietly in her wake and overtook her, his onslaught not so much a dash as it was a very eager shuffle that never quite broke into a run. Frowning, Erthë watched the boy with mixed feelings. In no way had she been ready to become a mother, and it showed. That great, all-encompassing love towards the life she had created had yet to appear within her heart. Oh, she was aware of some small amount of affection - they were cute after all, and she more or less liked everyone she met - but she found it hard to take her role as their guardian and caretaker seriously. Feeding them was a chore, tending to their needs grated on her nerves and she had no patience whatsoever for games or tomfoolery. Perhaps later, when they were old enough to understand more of what happened around them, she would take some delight in passing on what knowledge she possessed of the world.

Granted, it was not much. This, the Rift, was not her world. It was a foreign place, alien to her in so many ways that she hardly knew where to begin. That she resented it, and the demon that forced her to come here, did not make it any easier.

Still. There were things she had to learn, and some were more urgent than others. Leaving the newborn colt to play in the surge, Erthë withdrew a bit further up the beach and settled herself in near the entrance to a deep crystal cave. With one eye on the boy she took a deep breath and turned her mind inwards, focusing on the energies that had surged and swelled within her ever since the presence had overcome her. Changed her.

It seemed it had altered her abilities too. The boys were reluctant to nurse, they complained of her cold and often withdrew from the teats with frostburn on their noses, rime glittering in the woolen coats until the rain could melt it away. It had surprised Erthë for her body's perpetual chill had never harmed anyone before, but as much as it pleased her to find herself growing stronger, it was frightening too. Without knowing how to control it the magic was as dangerous as anything she might come across in this place... Learning to do that was the task she had set for herself today.

She let out a sigh, drew a deep breath and began.


I know you're tired of surviving but you gotta keep on trying
Hold on!




@Akeli @Alvah

• Magic and violence may always be used against Erthë!
Varuna
Currently championing:
#2
You wander about the new, strange land bleating like a lost lamb.

The soft mews come from your spindly body strained and painful. Your throat is so dry and your belly cramps, empty of mother's milk. You still can't find her, and this land of darkness is so different from the sun-showered beach your mother bore you into. There is sand under your hooves; that is familiar, at least. But there is no sun... no warmth. Just wetness and a cold that creeps into your bones. It makes you feel heavy, tangles your mane into your eyes and it sticks to your skin. You are used to rain, used to the ocean, but you've never been drenched for so long. Usually the sun dries your coat and mother is there to quench your thirst but now... 

Ever since you fell from the sky things haven't been the same. On a deep and primal level you feel eyes on you; a malignant presence floating just out of sight, playing havoc with the light at the corners of your eyes. You don't feel safe. Not that you were ever safe, with the doom of the demon Kaos looming over Helovia like a stormcloud that leached all good feeling from the world. 

You never knew of such things... mother was always cold and distant but she was the only heartbeat you ever knew and now you are on your own. There is no pillar of strength to hide behind; no zap, hssss of static in your mother's feathers to hush you to sleep like a lullaby; no mighty wings to shield you from the now seemingly never-ending rain. It seems the flood-gates have opened and no one is there to close them back up. You love rain. You are a child of the storms your mother commanded but your whole body shivers, weak and exposed.

You follow the sound of the sea. You hear the waves and smell the brine of salt-water in the air. Pinprick nostrils flare, drawing quick, shallow breaths into your tiny lungs. Spindle-boned legs scramble across the ground and wings too large for your body stretch out from your sides to help you balance. 

You spot horses in the distance. You freeze, posture drawn up tall and ears pricked forward. You are weary; you've never met a stranger before... but instinct tells you there is no other choice. Insect-legs carry you hurriedly closer to the gathering of bodies (some of them are small like you!) but your head is swimming with fear-adrenaline and you stop about twenty feet away. You lower your head, investigating, nose extending suspiciously to suck in the strange scents. Four little limbs splay under you, ready to spring away at any sign of danger.

You decide the smaller bodies are less imposing and trot over to them. You nicker, still frightened, but more desperate.

@Erthë ; I hope you don't mind <3
Alvah
Currently championing:
#3
,The lights we burn
have all faded out.




Alvah had only spent a breath of time in this world, and he already hated it. He hated the rain and the overcast skies, while he might have spent a precious few hours enjoying it before -- it'd ceased being a wonder when it had soaked his coat down to the pink skin and stuck the baby fine hair to his neck and made his downy feathers slimy for a lack of a better term.

He lingered behind Van, choosing to stick somewhat close to the chilled body of their mother, not quite surging ahead but definitely not slacking. Content to go at his own pace, elegant strides and careful placement of his hooves into the water logged sand. The colt isn't sure why their mother has brought them away from the stallion that turned out to be their father, he'd much preferred to stay with the group that had stood behind him, all branded with the same eerie skull face which also branded his own face with it's fractured embrace. Why didn't they stay with them? He'd almost asked, or demanded really, but something had forced him to swallow his words and simply follow.

Whatever the case, they are left to their own devices in the surf, something which occupied him for all of five minutes. He is soaked, and the idea of submerge himself in another layer of water perplexes him more than it delighted him. Soon, Alvah is bored of feeling the water against his sooty hide. If the weather was warmer...or at least dry, he might have stayed there until Erthe had wanted to resume watching them, as it was, he would sooner do something else. It isn't until someone else shows up, that his thoughts are lost entirely on leaving the surf and instead focus on the equine that appeared on the beach, heading toward himself and his brother. Vaguely, he remembered the figure behind their father, a short distance away from the gathering he had broken away from.

"Can we help you?" He muttered to the newcomer, crowned head tilted a fraction to the side as he already turned toward the colt, long limbs carrying him toward their unknown half-brother. At least there's something more interesting now, and briefly he wondered if their mother might come out of her cave to investigate the stranger "Are you lost?"



talk talk talk



@Erthe @Van @Varuna
Van
Currently championing: Reszo
#4
They were far away from that place where they had first emerged into the world now. Far away from home. His mom did not like him saying so, but in the privacy of his own mind, Van still kept thinking of the Portal forest that way. It was the place they always returned to, where his father was most often seen, the place he was most familiar with, and thus it would do as 'home'. At least until he found something better.

This place held a lot of promise so far. Van noticed that there was a lot more space when trees did not close in above his head all the time. The horizon stretched on forever it seemed, and a strong wind drove drifting rain and salt spray from the sea firmly into his skin with such intensity that it hurt. Van didn't mind. He was accustomed to pain. It had been a constant companion from the moment he was born, and he had learned to set it aside for the most part. The pain did not prevent him from exploring the virgin new world around him, and he had only marginal difficulties in keeping up with Alvah.

Actually, for the most part he tended to be the one who took charge and led the way into things. Like now. His pale counterpart was either more cautious or a bit more intelligent; he preferred to hang back by their mother to make sure something was safe first, something Van definitely did not have the patience for. The ocean drew him in, its vast expanse and shifting colors bewitching him from the moment they crested the dunes and found the coast spread out before them.

Serious of expression but with a wild excitement burning in the vibrant eyes, he busied himself for a long while with the rolling waves, barely acknowledging neither his twin nor their mother. She did not spoil them with constant attention - it took him a good while to realize that she had withdrawn further up the beach, almost level with a large formation of glistening rocks and crystals.

But when Alvah spoke, the ram-horned colt looked up from his close examination of a blue creature with giant pinching claws and leveled his steady gaze at the stranger. He let his brother do the talking; Alvah was better with words than he was, and it saved him the bother of having to think up something nice to say.


@Akeli
Varuna
Currently championing:
#5
The colts raise their eyes to you and their gaze freezes you up. One of them comes closer and you decide not to move, your muscles all clenched up. You want to go up and say hello! I'm Varuna! something really scary happened and I don't know what to do about it but your vocabulary isn't that big yet and you're not sure what to think of strangers. These are the first ones you've met.

Your ears flatten. Are you lost? "Dun' know," you answer, your voice shy and wary. Then you think on it for a moment: you can't be lost. You're right here, but mother is gone. "Momma is lost," you correct yourself.


sorry for shortness
Erthë
Currently championing:
#6
You gotta have the patience and believe you're gonna make it
Gotta hold on


Slowly, gradually, Erthë brought her attention deeper within herself and left the awareness of the foals to the subconscious, as a light acceptance of their presence as well as a readiness to react if anything should happen to them. Gingerly she extended probing mental fingers towards those hidden depths within her where energy pooled together and formed the ponds and streams from which magic could be siphoned. Before the trip through the portal she had found them shallow and clear, fed by a mere trickle of essence, or power, or mana as her teacher had once called it. Now, the little mare was alarmed to realize that the steady drip had turned into a deluge and the pool had turned into a vast lake, filled to the brim and ready to overflow. Never had she been in possession of such great forces, and while they might pale in comparison to what others were handling every day, to her it was as shocking and dangerous as it was thrilling.

Recalling moments in the past where she had ogled others for their amazing abilities, the young mare knew she had always craved power. But now that she suddenly had it, she wasn't sure what to feel. The cost of this had been much too expensive, and she had done nothing to earn it, had not raised a wing or gone out of her way to obtain it. Unlike the clean, clear energies of Helovia, this power was also murky and tainted, corrupt, alive in a way she was not accustomed to. Her homeland had been exotic and full of magic, but Erthë began to realize that it had also been strictly controlled and kept in balance by the gods. In the Rift, there was no such thing. Magic here was a wild thing, nearly sentient and she had a feeling that they had already encountered a manifestation of this awareness as they exited the portal.

Inhaling softly, she reached carefully into the flow of energy and allowed it to course throughout her system. Immediately she felt it sizzle and burn through her veins, felt her whole body prickle and sting from the powerful forces. Turning her awareness to the rain that fell in a steady downpour all around her, she tried to freeze it, like she had been able to do in Helovia. Expecting the water to obediently turn into large, gentle snowflakes, the young Sage was shocked when it vaporized instead, searing her skin with scalding hot steam.

At the same instance, a loud piercing wail rang across the beach, so shrill and full of despair that she started and immediately set off towards her sons, so convinced that it was them who had screamed that she rounded on the poor lonely colt that had approached them with pinned ears and a wild look to her eyes.

"What did you do?" she demanded. "Who screamed, are you hurt? Are you alright?" Sharp eyes snapped over to Alvah and Van, demanding explanations.

I know you're tired of surviving but you gotta keep on trying
Hold on!


@Alvah

• Magic and violence may always be used against Erthë!