Wet Fire Bug

It was becoming normal. Well, as normal as such a strange life can be. A life with cautious excitement, lost friends, and don’t forget the flaming feathers upon his back. So it was bound to happen that when things had become so normal, they would get un-normal. He didn’t mean to, he’d been ever so cautious, but it was only a matter of time.

Of course it was also raining again. Da had said it must never stop. Still, the colt was tired of being pinned up. He’d walked the forest alone before, granted, not when he was supposed to, and come back to tell the tale. Surely they could let him go out now? In daylight? It had won him that golden ticket of permission. Besides he was getting older. He came midway up Ma’s shoulder now, and his horns had grown long enough to comfortably sit their ivory and gold cuffs. So he was feeling quite a little bit of pride as he wandered the woods to seek someone or something new.

Problem was, something found him. In a darker section, where the leaves and vines kept out most of the rain…something  stirred. The lofty youthful trot haltly slows as his seas look more carefully around him. A shiver in the bushes to his right startles him, causing him to jump sideways. Yet he doesn’t run. Still he feels even more the ever watching eyes above, and his head lowers slightly.  “Hello?” Nothing answered but the usual hum of the rain and insects. His harks begin to fall back, and he steps back. Quick! Something grabs his hind! The colt squeals, kicking out with the other and retching himself from its grasp. He tears through the forest, leaping over limb and dodging bushes.

That’s how it happened. He hadn’t meant to, but it’s hard to be careful when you think you’re running for your life. Sounds behind him push him on and he races harder till there’s nothing but a bush before and thoughtlessly, he leaps through it. Legs scramble to kick through, that’s when he feels the heat. Hot and pressing on his back. No! He kicks harder through the shrub till he is finally spit out on the other side, rolling himself on the root.  “Ah!” He hisses as his own flames catch him as well, singing his coat on his shoulder. But the bush…The foal drags himself up, spinning to look behind.  

It glows like a touch, slow but growing the white flames begin to consume the bush. Whatever was following him wouldn’t make it through there. But the comfort is short lived. The colt glances up, but the one time it was needed, the rain barely falls, stopped by the canopy. With a limp from his burned shoulder, the pale colt backs up, his eyes wide with realization…he can’t fix this. His heart starts to race in his chest. He knew he wasn’t supposed to really cuss…but setting the whole forest on fire seemed a good enough reason… “Fuck.”
@Requiem

The Rift was a strange place, at least that was the opinion she'd formed based off of her mother's opinion. Requiem had not lived and explored long enough in Helovia to be able to form that opinion based solely off of her own experiences. But one thing was for sure, and that was that in Helovia no bird had ever landed in front of her and then burst into flames. And her skin had never felt this hot before they had been forced into the Rift. It made her uncomfortable and she'd distanced herself from her mother and Gabriel, fearful that if they touched her for too long they would burst into flames, too. The young filly was quiet as she carefully picked her way through the forest. Gabriel was with her, but she made sure to keep him a wing's distance away so her increased temperature wouldn't hurt him like she was scared it would. Part of her thought ... no, she knew that her newly imposed distance hurt her brother's feelings, but she'd rather his feelings be hurt than his body. He would understand when she finally explained why he was doing what she was. "Gabe?" Her voice was soft and she paused, ears tilted forward and her nostrils quivering. "Did you hear something?" She could have sworn she'd heard a voice, and now she thought she heard the faint crackle of fire. And .... she thought she smelled smoke. "Do you smell that?" She finally asked. Mara, who had been following behind the twins quietly, growled. She snapped at their tails in turn, tugging on them to try and pull them back and herd them back to their mother. But Requiem didn't move. "Wait..." She murmured to the shapeshifter. "What if someone is stuck and needs help?" There wasn't much that foals could do in the way of helping anyone, but Requiem could try. She pushed forward, following the smell of smoke and, eventually, the orange glow of fire until she found it and another foal. "Oh no..." The girl gasped even though the fire wasn't yet a full blown forest fire. With so many plants to fuel it, it was only a matter of time before the fire began to consume everything like a giant monster. Her mouth hung open and she stared before a loud crackle, snap forced her back into the moment. "Uh.." Oh, her magic! She had discovered it in Helovia, shortly before the portal had opened, simply because she'd been wishing for rain, but not only had it rained, but the plants had started growing faster, too! "Please rain, please rain, please rain..." She whispered, her crimson eyes squeezing shut. "Please rain, please rain. tss! tss! tss! tss! It was slow at first, a few drops falling and teasing the foals that stood before the fire. Steadily it increased until it was a continuous, gentle downpour. Requiem opened her eyes, sighing softly as she watched the rain quench the fire, momentarily ignoring the foal that had started it. "." Requiem “Oh, come forth into the storm and rout And be my love in the rain.”  ― Robert Frost

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Gabriel the woods are lovely, dark, and deep “We should go back to mommy,” he is quietly bemoaning, steadily making his way behind his sister, keeping his distance (though it hurt him as much as walking did to do so). His eyes are soft and pleading, and his head is low, ears splayed to the sides, rain dripping from their tips in dreary droplets. Nothing about this land is good. It has already taken one parent from him. He glumly thinks of all these things (and feels the pulse of fear and the throbbing of his ankles, as well), wishing with all of his heart that he could go back to the life before this one. The woodland had been pretty, and the garden had been full of flowers. The woodlands here were dark and horrible, and the flowers looked keen on violence, more often than majesty. The leering eyes in the trees didn’t help, either, and as a glowing, tracer light whirls through the air and seems to take along after him, his pace hurries, and he nearly bumps into his sister’s rump when she stops. His hind end flops over, instead, his lame ankles giving way when all he’d done was ask them to hold his weight for half a second, and his small head pulls back and up, ears lifting for the first time since they’d set out on what Requiem called “adventure” and Gabriel called “horror.” “Oof!” he says, haunch and side promptly smeared with black mud that he looks at, feeling a terrible disgust and sadness rise inside of him to be so filthy; looking back at her with the annoying little brother face, he grumbles at his sister, as if it’s her fault, “Requiem! My coat’s all gross now -” But he quiets, because he does hear it, though it’s only Requiem who can smell the smoke. All Gabriel can smell is the stench of the mud as he clambers to his feet, and morosely stares into the woods at the source of the popping, whooshing sound. When Mara begins to growl, the calico colt can’t help but agree – doesn’t sound like anything good. Leave it to Requiem to decide that this insidious, unknown noise and mysterious smell was something they should look into, he thinks, knowing better than to try and argue. Besides, maybe somebody did need help. Gabriel just wasn’t sure what good two foals and a shape-shifter would be. Making their way closer, he notes his father’s gift is smeared in mud now, too, and is suddenly mad. Stamping with as much ferocity as a cripple might, his ears are flipped backwards when the small, gentle boy and his sister come upon Galahad, and the small disaster he’s found himself the source of. Oh Gods, the tribrid thinks to himself, as his sister sweeps in to save the day. Gabriel, of course, is too afraid to do anything. He’s never seen fire left to be so unruly before, and the instinctual fear of it roots him in place, and even makes him wobble back a few wary steps, orange eyes reflecting the flickering light. When Requiem’s rain begins to fall, however, he does move, eager to wash off some of the muck she pretty much pushed him into, and as he moves, he finds his voice. “Did your wings do that? ” he asks, head still lowered in a timid stance, his hooves carrying him with a scurrying pace to Requiem’s side. Gently extending his wing to make sure he’s “a wing’s away” as she told him to be all the time, he casually retracts it after the measurement, as if it’s a normal thing to do – hovering your wing tip at your sister’s side for a split second. Perfectly normal. All the while, his eyes look over the charred, still smoldering remnants of the plants that had been burned, his heart feeling a small amount of pity of the horrible plants of this horrible realm, which had died in the blaze, or were surely wilted beyond repair. “Sure glad I’m not on fire.” but I have promises to keep & miles to go before I sleep

USDA@Flickr

Sea eyes glance around for…anything worth any help. There was nothing around him but more fuel for the flames. A voice breaking the roar of silent panic the pale colt jumps in his skin. What he finds though, is a filly…and colt. The girl is a pretty multi-hued thing of black white and gold ( a combination he had been seeing a lot of lately). The colt is…mud covered? Ah, there wasn’t time. The pale gold colt starts, “I-“ but then he stops. There wasn’t time for conversation. Instinct grips his legs, much like it did the other colt, to backaway, to flee. But the girl doesn’t…


“Hey!” His timid voice becomes strong as he watches the girl walk towards the flame. She was just standing there, looking at it. Harks still flat on his head the colt looks to the other, but he’s no help. “HEY, you’ll burn!” He calls again, this time willing his locked legs to step up to her side, limping with the burn but not thinking of it now, ready to pull her back, to waken her. Then he catches her murmur, but not her words. He stops calling just enough to hear the hiss of the rain.


In wonder his eyes watch the small rain storm, his fear washing away with its waters. The white flames thrash in torment, but quickly relent and return the plant to its moist state. The gold colt watches in silence as the twin of the other, noting his odd movements, slips into the rain revealing a coat not too unlike hers. Humility and guilt keep him speechless, even as the girl sighs in completion of her task. Instead Galahad merely watches next to her, forgetting he’d stepped so close.


The other colt comes from his shower, and the pale colt smiles to him, it was small and meek but there. Then he asks a question, and the colt feel slight uncomfortableness settle on him. The other colt didn’t mean harm I the question, and Galahad’s own head, having been at its height, lowers. But he stumbles. “My-“ His wings? Wings. Wings were on the other, he had just feathers. But they had done that…”I was-“ It sounded so foolish now. I was running from a- and he didn’t even know! Harks lower slightly on his head, but not in anger. “Thank you for your help…” Was all he finally mumbled. He meant it, the sincerity clear enough but his embarrassment kept him back.




Then he sees the colt do something rather strange. He pulls a wing from his side, and keeps his distance from the other. The sea eyes of the babe, narrow, but he doesn’t have time to question it. Sure glad I’m not on fire. It sacks him in the gut so hard he feels his eyes grow wet. It shouldn’t (it wasn’t supposed to maybe) but it did. The colt backs away from the damaged plants, choking too much on his own heart which swelled and cracked. He didn’t ask for this! He didn’t ask for this magic or the flames! He cursed it. He hated it! Ma wouldn’tlet him sleep next to her. Casca wouldn’t play with him like he used to. Da kept his distance. And this! This wasn’t even his other half. The half that was entirely made of fire. The side which he was cursed with at birth. The side they couldn’t even see…and he was glad for it. If this fire was enough to scare them, what would a phoenix do?


It all compressed on him, pushing into him so he could say nothing immediately back. Only his head hung and sea eyes could not meet theirs. Not in embarrassment now but in shame. It comes as a whisper, perhaps they’d hear perhaps not. He wasn’t with them anyway, not in his mind as it wrapped around the wound struck. “I wish I wa…”before it mumbled off. Then the sea eyes blink back the emotion, and he states more clearly for them. “I’m sorry.” His solemn face looking back up to them.

OOC:: @Requiem @Gabriel