another mind, another soul, another body to grow old. it's not complicated.
Something about the fact that Erthë did not take offense, but merely acknowledged that she was indeed freezing to the touch consoled the autumn-coloured filly. It sounded like something her own mother would have said. Er... Might have said. She'd never say anything ever again.
"Uhm.." Not wanting to appear ignorant of her own family, Otem furrowed her brow in deep concentration as she tried to pluck the names of her kin from her mind. She'd been so focused on bonding with her twin and exploring their home that she hadn't spent quite as much time with Volterra's side of the family as she probably should have. "Well, there's me and Vulkán," she began, racking her brains for more names. "And ... Astarot. And..Tyrath...and..." Each space between the words grew longer and longer, as Otem waited (prayed) that Erthë would interrupt her, declaring that she knew who it was the girl was referring to. Not unlike Isopia, Otem had gotten caught up int he task Erthë had given her (giving her siblings names), rather than just telling the mare the name of her Father, which would have cleared things up much more quickly.
The colt looked between the two mares, feeling decidedly left out. There was something going on here that he didn't understand, and his rising impatience with them both made it hard to focus on what they were saying. Standing around here, at this place, with trees obscuring the view around them and the endless drizzle from above splattering down upon his skin, was boring. He looked around in search for something to amuse himself with while Otem tried to coax a few more names from the dim reaches of her memory, but all he saw was darkness and damp and a few glowing mushrooms that clung to the branches of the trees.
Restless, he shifted from one leg to the other, grimacing wildly when the twitching of his muscles began again. From time to time it just came over him, just like the way he sometimes couldn't get his legs to work in the morning, and the only good thing about it was that it didn't hurt. Not really. But it was darn annoying, and it looked ridiculous when it was his face that twitched.
"Why don't you tell her your parent's names instead" he suggested absently, when the pauses between the names grew longer and the quiet hope in the heavy-set girl's eyes looked about to go out. He spared his mom a quick glance, as if to ask permission to leave her side - not that he would have listened if she said no - he tripped off to the side and bent over to examine a curious yellow flower, it's bell-shaped blossoms bowing and nodding under the weight of the droplets that cascaded upon them.
Was it just him, or did they give off a soft jingling sound with each swaying curtsy, like distant bells?
another mind, another soul, another body to grow old. it's not complicated.
Right on cue, the youngest of them uttered the words that would dramatically speed up this little interlude. Feeling decidedly stupid at having not thought of it herself, Otem's eyes momentarily hardened in embarrassment as she watched the boy's nose dip towards a flower. Wanting to show that she wasn't completely useless, Otem tried to create an identical copy of the flower that Van was currently investigating. Its bud pushed through the soil with a faint tinkling sound, before swaying in an attempt to bop him in the nose.
Otem tried to stifle a grin as if she had no hand in the flowers movements, before looking back to Erthë. "Isopia and Volterra." She answered slowly, her throat condescending around her mothers name. It was a name that The Mountain hadn't wanted others to know or even speak, but now that she was gone protecting her name didn't really seem so important. In fact, Otem wanted to scream it from every mountain and hillside for all to hear. Inside the part of her mind that was decidedly Isopia, she knew it was irrational for others to care as deeply about The Mountain as she would. Had she sacrificed herself along with Aithniel so that they could all get through the Rift safely? Well yes, but hadn't that been her duty? If given the chance, others likely would have done the same. She wasn't really that special. But even though Otem knew that this was true on some level, her mind recoiled against even the faintest whisper of such a thought.
You gotta have the patience and believe you're gonna make it
Gotta hold on
The sudden stillness of the frost-born mare was like a silent scream of recognition, the familiar names tearing through her like so many burning arrows. Isopia The name sent shards of agony into a bleeding wound that had not even begun to scab over; Erthë's eyes closed in a grimace of sorrow. They had not been close. Many times the little mare had irritated herself on the strange demi-god and her peculiar mind, so inflexible and strict. Whenever they had spoken Erthë found herself gritting her teeth against the desire to scream with frustration, and yet... and yet. To know her dead, to recall the grisly scene of the battling gods where no one ever emerged from the shadows, was painful. It was another family member lost, another hole torn open in her heart, another wound that must bleed within her...
Erthë had not known Isopia to be with child. It must have happened sometime during her long absence from the herd.
The stallions name was, of course, familiar as well, but hearing Volterra's name spill from Otem's lips did not surprise her as much as she would have guessed. Instead, it turned her mouth into a thin line of disappointment, the long list of names the filly delivered a good indication of how right Volterra had been. He would indeed never be someone she could settle down with, for it seemed he flitted from mare to mare with the same careless abandon as a honey bee in a field of clover. It shocked Erthë to think that Van and Alvah - and apparently Otem too - had so many siblings that even remembering them all was nigh impossible.
"Someone ought to neuter that man" she muttered under breath, before turning back to the girl with a strained smile.
"Yes, Otem, I recognize their names. Both of them. Isopia is.. was... a long time acquaintance of mine. For a while we even lived in the same herd together, at the World's Edge. It pains me to know that she is gone..."
Drawing a deep breath, she pushed away the grief and straightened up.
"As for Volterra... I know him too. Very well, as a matter of fact. Van?" Erthë called for her son, who looked up from Otem's flower with an annoyed look on his face.
"Come here, and say hello to your older sister."
The look of incredulity that spread across the face of the colt was so comical that Erthë nearly burst out laughing. Almost. But in the end all she managed was a tired twitch of the lips that soon faded again.
I know you're tired of surviving but you gotta keep on trying
Hold on!
• Magic and violence may always be used against Erthë!
another mind, another soul, another body to grow old. it's not complicated.
"I think my mother would have agreed with you." Otem uttered dryly. Was she betraying her mother by implying that she too would have wanted to settle down with Volterra if given the chance? That she disapproved of his sexually duplicitous ways? Did her comment betray just how much The Mountain had loved The Indomitable? Bitterly, the child mentally shrugged. Doesn't matter now she thought, her lips twisting in an unflattering way on her otherwise lovely face.
That Erthë had likely spent more time with Isopia than Otem had was an incredibly strange thing to comprehend. Of course she knew that her Father had ... and Zero had, and Ampere and the rest of them. But this mare? Otem hadn't even seen her before, and yet there was an entire ocean of memories that Erthë had access to concerning her mother, that Otem didn't. She wanted to pout and scream about how unfair all of this was, but forced herself to refrain. It wouldn't do any good anyways.
The revelation that Van was her brother (half-brother her mind instantly supplied) swamped the bitterness inside of herself and suddenly she felt silly for having tried to hit him with a flower. Otem's dual coloured eyes grew wide as she looked to the boy for confirmation, as if he would somehow be in a better position than his mother to know that this was true.
"Oh." She said uselessly, eyes darting from mother to son, feeling slightly out of place despite the familial relationship that now bonded them together. "I have a twin called Vulkán. And .. like I said, lots of other brothers and sisters.." Sheepishly, she looked up at Erthë, "..I don't know all of their names. I haven't even met all of them. I just know that there's a lot." It's like he's trying to win a contest or something, Otem thought but didn't say.
Having kept quiet for this entire conversation, Pandora suddenly jumped from Otem's back and flew up into the bow of a nearby tree. "Oh!" Otem said brightly, her cheeks puffing up despite the tear-marks still tracked down them. "That's Pandora. She came through...One of Father's dragons didn't I think. Or .. well he did, but then ran away. Did you have a companion? Either of you?"
Reluctantly Van abandoned the flowers, both the original and the one who had so suddenly grown up before his eyes and slapped his nose with rain-wet leaves. The velvety soft muzzle tickled and twitched comically as he sauntered back to the mares, but the new appraising once-over he gave Otem - his sister - was impossible to read.
"I have a twin too" he revealed, unusually volunteering the information before anyone could ask. He didn't want to be worse than this tall, pretty stranger, and being connected by blood ties had nothing to do with it. "Alvah. I think you're the first other sibling we've met..."
He shrugged. Erthë seemed to think this was an important subject, but personally he was more interested in the bird that perched on Otem's back. Family was a subject he was familiar with already, but this creature was new and vastly more entertaining. When it fluttered off into a tree the bat-winged colt laughed softly and trotted after with his eyes fixed on the animal. If only he could fly too... then he would have been able to follow after it and see what the forest looked like from that elevated position.
"What is a 'companion'? Why would it run away if it's a friend? I thought friends were supposed to stick to you always..."
It was an interesting subject. The colt seemed surprised by his own curiosity, but for once his mother appeared pleased and even nodded encouragingly at him, her pale eyes turning back towards Otem as if to give the girl a chance to answer him first.
That made sense, of course. Someone who already had one of these 'companions' would obviously know more about them than someone who did not. And as far as Van knew, his mother had never had anyone trail after her aside from himself and Alvah.
another mind, another soul, another body to grow old. it's not complicated.
Otem wasn't entirely surprised to hear that her half-sibling had a twin. Weren't the majority of her siblings twins? Maybe it was a Helovia thing, but everyone seemed to be a twin nowadays.
Oh well.
Something inside of the girl had wilted upon finding out that the amethyst-eyed boy was a relative of hers. Otem wasn't necessary flirtatious by nature (and given that she had been sobbing only moments ago wishing for her mother, now wasn't really the best time to start), but she was rather manipulative. But now it seemed that the best weapon in her rather feeble arsenal was now null and void against this boy. Sigh.
What strange things for a filly to think.
"Good luck remembering all their names when you do meet them." Otem said with a laugh, half sarcastic, half friendly-challenge.
Blinking, Otem seemed to revert to the way of acting that Isopia had always displayed. "I believe companion was Helovian-jargon to be honest. Companion normally just means a friend .. someone who travels with you, and who you spend a lot of time with. But in Helovia it meant something more. A companion was a creature bonded to you. The bond couldn't really be broken. You could hear each other's thoughts...I actually don't even think you had to be friends with your companion.." Her voice trailed off. Isopia wasn't really friends with anyone, much less Babel and Hubris, although she clearly liked Hubris more. But she'd seen companions who disobeyed, who were bossed around ... that didn't seem like entirely friendly behavior. "Anyways, I think something probably happened to the bond coming here. Even Pandora has been acting a little weird, but I can still hear her thoughts and can still feel her bond to me.." The owl hooted and nodded from her place in the tree to show she agreed.
You gotta have the patience and believe you're gonna make it
Gotta hold on
Erthë smiled faintly at her son's grimace. Knowing him - and she thought she was beginning to understand their personalities now, as they gradually took shape before her eyes - the boy would not make much effort towards that end, but rather pretend he knew who everyone was until he had no other choice but to remember. The child was lazy, loath to go out of his way for anything... unless he was so bored that it was more bothersome to stay still than to move.
Not exactly a quality she admired, but at least she knew where she had him most of the time.
"I never had the pleasure to bond myself, and Van was born on this side of the Portal... I hardly think any of the creatures in here would be fit to share your mind with" she said, and wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I am sorry to hear about Volterra's dragon though. I hope it will return eventually... and that your own regain it's health."
For a while she watched as Van stretched and reared and nearly clambered up the trunk of the tree in his efforts to poke the owl. But eventually the little mare found herself growing restless, uncomfortable with remaining in the same place for so long. Who knew what eyes might rest on them while they stood here chatting, as if it was the World's Edge forest and the grace of the Moon still warded them from harm. It was not, and the goddess was dead, and both of these facts made her call her son back to her side with a gesture of the wing.
"We are heading back to the Portal" she said, returning back to Otem. "Volterra and a large portion of your kin were there last time I saw them, so if you'd like to meet up with them you are welcome to join us."
She hoped the girl would. It would leave a bad taste on the tongue to go on without her, and Erthë shuddered to think what Volterra would say about his daughter roaming these woods alone.
This was not Helovia. As if anyone ever needed to be reminded of that.
I know you're tired of surviving but you gotta keep on trying
Hold on!
@Otem I'm feeling done here, you can go ahead and fade out if you wish :) Or I can close it with Van after you've posted, whichever you prefer.
• Magic and violence may always be used against Erthë!
Rainforest Cliffs
