holding fire

ЯIKYN   The first few days were spent finding shelter, and locating everyone from home; having discovered a sizable cave in the rainforest, I’d made an executive decision that we would stay there.  My young daughters, though one was still missing, would never make the swim to the islands out in the sea, and I doubted that the forest we had initially been deposited into was a wise choice for residency.  Though the rainforest cave was prone to cave ins (if the collapsed ones near by was any clue), it was at least dry, and would do, until something better came up.   When I wasn’t with the others, I was with Duir, looking for Mordecai, or that better place for everyone to be – at least those that hadn’t wandered off to mourn in their own way, or hadn’t turned up yet.  Hoping that not having yet found them in either of the glowing forests meant they were likely to turn up on one of the islands somewhere, I set off towards the beach, recalling a span of it which had seemed a promising place to try and swim to the other side.   My companion, however, is balking about the mission before we even arrive.  Don’t want to swim, he bemoans, fearful of the ocean, and the way it ceaselessly churns beneath the endless rain here.  He’d been wary of it before, but now that it looked angry?  He wasn’t about to try and swim across it any time soon.  Beasties, he implies, flashing the glowing eyes and smoking forms of Kaos obliterated beings among other frightening things he’s seen: griffons hunting rabbits, a wildcat snarling as it leaps out from a mountain pass at an unsuspecting elk doe.    I use that word to scare Gwyn, I state flatly, implying he’s acting like a little girl, and he quiets, glumly plodding along behind me with his ears to either side, and his emerald eyes dark and stormy, like the sea which looms on the horizon in a narrow, fluctuating line of steel gray.  They still real, he remarks – and I can’t say he’s not right.  Instead, I clench my jaw, lifting my head just a little bit more to pretend I’m sweeping my eyes across the horizon in search of my newest daughter and her mother, or other herd mates, rather than ignoring the ugly truth that, yeah…   There probably are beasties out here.     call me a safe bet I'm betting I'm not

Art by VeerDesigns@DA | Table by Me

@Arleigh @Mordecai

M  O  R  D  E  C  A  I i will be the power in this vast and empty world i will ride under no banners but my vengeance will unfurl Several days had passed between their exit from Helovia and subsequent arrival into the Rift before Mordecai had time to really think. Her first priority had been to find Arleigh, kill anything that tried to hurt her, and find someplace safe for the both of them. Two out of three goals accomplished wasn't bad. She pushed the girl harder than she should in her effort to get them to someplace safe, and she did feel guilty because of the pain she saw in her daughter's eyes. She encouraged her as much as she could and let her rest at times when the girl had nothing left in her. When Arleigh took time to rest Mordecai's mind drifted back to Helovia and to Kaos. She had known about Kaos, everyone had known that he was there, but she hadn't paid attention because she wasn't one that had any kind of loyalty to any of the gods. Why would Kaos be any different? Why should she feel any differently toward him than she did to any other god? He had fooled everyone, the Gods included, and he had destroyed their home and cast them all out. Mordecai had lived most of her life as an outcast with no real land to call home, so the idea of being homeless didn't bother her as much as it might have bothered some of the others, but still.... He had killed her father. As a foal, Mordecai had been close to her father, but as she had aged and he'd produced child after child some distance had formed. She still loved the man, but she did not grieve his death. He had died a warrior's death, fighting a useless fight against a being who could not be killed. She did wonder what happened to the rest of her family, as she couldn't remember seeing her mother or any of her siblings among the dying or the fleeing. She told herself that it didn't matter, because she had Arleigh with her and that was all she needed. The brindled mare looked down at the resting babe, shielded from the rain by her mother's extended wing. "Kisha tikh elat hash yer hash hethkat." She said to the filly. "We must find your father." "."   Translation: kisha tikh elat hash yer hash hethkat - we will move when you are ready

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@Arleigh