Scint River
HE SAYS "OH BABY GIRL, DON'T GET CUT ON MY EDGES I'M THE KING OF EVERYTHING AND MY TONGUE IS A WEAPON" It is amazing how all hell can break loose in a fraction of an instant. One second he is talking to his daughter whilst arguments rumble out around him, and the next.... The next, the dead are walking among them. First there's Ampere, but Ampere like he's never seen her before - she's held together by spark, as though she is the storm itself made into flesh and bone. Then comes Tae, maggots sprinkling from her sides, her furious eyes locked on him, as though he is the one who condemned her to her grave - He should have been prepared for who came next. It could only be her, couldn't it? Nothing can prepare him for the sight of her, though, the miracle of his precious Isopia brought back to life. Unlike the spirits that fought against the wolf god, this imitation of her is....as close to perfect as he could have imagined. There's no roughness around the edges, no blurred lines to imply that she's anything but real. She's never looked more alive, or more beautiful, and he finds himself taking a slow step forwards as though pulled by a magnet. "Kis hollo," he breathes, and there's so much pain in that voice that it's a surprise it isn't expelled from his mouth in a shower of thorns and broken glass. Volterra has always stood by the fact that he didn't fall in love with Isopia - rather, he glanced down one day to find himself mired in it. Falling implies that there was one solid moment that made his heart yearn for her, but that's not the case. Theirs was a slow burn, a gradual build from strangers to friends to best friends to more, and with each meeting, Volterra found his feelings growing from a seed to a sapling to an indomitable oak, quelled by neither wind nor age. Saying that he fell in love with her seems to devalue what they had - it almost makes it sound accidental, like a byproduct of something else. No, what he feels for Isopia....it transcends words, outweighs emotions. It just...is. When he sees her, though, he suddenly understands what it means to fall. He's tumbling through history, from their first meeting to their last, and the utter, unflincing love that wells up inside him is almost enough to bring him to his knees. He moves closer to her, ready to extend his muzzle and touch her, to feel her skin beneath his own once again - the chaos raging around him doesn't matter, nothing matters except the fact she's back. Until he sees Otem, and hears her plaintive lament. The sight of his logical, intelligent and usually unflappable daughter being so easily taken in by the sight of Isopia....it sends his stomach to squirming, and his heart to aching. It also focuses his mind, and sends a cold lightning bolt of knowledge straight through him. Isopia cannot be real. As much as he wishes she was, and as much as he'd fallen for this trick last time and earned himself black acidic spit for his troubles, he knows that she is dead. He saw her die. There are many things he doesn't understand, and this land contains magic more powerful than he could ever imagine, but if there's one thing he knows it's that death is forever. This isn't her. He wants it to be, oh, he'd tear off every part of his body and lay it at her feet as a sacrifice if it would only bring her back to him, but deep down he knows it cannot be. He also knows that Otem, his precious daughter, one of only two remnants of Isopia left upon the earth, is putting herself in mortal danger by approaching the spirit of her mother. There's savagery raining around them, Kisamoa has been relegated to the waves and there's more spirits erupting everywhere, and Volterra knows that he has to protect his children. It's as clear as crystal to him; he cannot fall for the tricks of the dead when there's the living that need his help. After all, what would Isopia want - for him to pine after an illusion of her, or for him to stand up, do what needs to be done, and protect the lives they made together? He knows which one he intends to choose, and that's why he bids Vadir to go and place her massive golden bulk in front of Varuna, protecting him from anything that may seek to harm him. There's Vulkan, the strange boy who had until now been arguing with a group of others - he reaches for his magic and bids a small wall of earth to lift in front of the tribrid colt to stop him approaching his dam. It's nowhere near the mighty structures he could create in Helovia, as the Rift has castrated his magic with barely a thought, but it's hopefully enough to stop the boy getting hurt by a possibly vengeful spirit of his mother. That leaves the warlord to launch himself towards Otem, even if his legs feel like lead from the weight of his grief. "Stay back, Otem - it isn't her!" His thunderous voice echoes across the clearing, and his hoofbeats smack out an earthquake on the ground as he throws himself towards her. Upon reaching her, he moves to place his muzzle against her shoulder and hold her close, whilst his eyes linger on the image of Isopia. "I wish it was, Otem, but it's not." He shifts his bulk in front of his daughter, in front of this little segment of the Mountain that really is alive, and tries to deflect the blows of any ghosts that may seek to attack her by taking them onto himself. |
Sends Vadir to protect @Varuna , lifts a earth wall in front of Vulkan, and tries to use himself as a shield around @Otem
