07-24-2017, 10:19 PM
<center><link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Arizonia" rel="stylesheet"><div style="width: 600px; background: url('http://i.imgur.com/G9BGwo4.png'); padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-color: #673626; border-radius: 45px 0px 45px 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 20px #000000;"><div style="width: 590px; background: url('http://i.imgur.com/G9BGwo4.png'); padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-color: #19161e; border-radius: 40px 0px 40px 0px;box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px #000000;"><div style="width: 530px; margin-bottom: 260px; margin-top: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; padding: 15px; background-color: #212227; opacity: 0.6; font-family: Times; color: #a1a6a9; font-size: 12px; line-height: 140%; text-align: justify; border-top: 5px solid #9b4b2c; border-bottom: 5px solid #9b4b2c; border-radius: 40px 0px;box-shadow: 0px 0px 20px #000;">The air begins to thin as she takes broken step after broken step towards the still glassy surface of the lake. The suppressing darkness begins to fade, her vision clearing as she closes the distance between herself and what she hopes are healing waters. It’s the best she’s been able to see the entire time she’s been in this strange alternate reality. The lake is glowing, wispy ethereal vapor grazing it’s surface and rising towards the sky. The mist is filled with light, keeping the darkness at bay. Ciri halts right before her front hooves touch the edge of the water, her silvery eyes narrowing as she examines this possible new treachery.
The water is too still, not a single ripple breaks it’s surface. She can make out inky silt between dark smooth stones as she stares past her reflection into the water’s depths. Refocusing on her mirror self, seeing the criss cross patterns of talons along her face, the deeper wounds across her chest and along her shoulders. There is a long pause as she stares down at this wreckage of a mare, lost in thought. It takes her a moment to register that once again the silence has been broken. Once again, she is no longer alone.
It starts as a faint humming, a mere whisper. Her ears swivel forward as she strains to see past the fog. Nothing. The humming is now rising into a soft beautiful voice. A gentle soothing lullaby that reaches across the lake to her and dances around soft curved ears invitingly. She can feel herself relaxing involuntarily, her tired muscles threatening to throw her headfirst in the lake as her mind thickens with the song. It is so beautiful, calling her to come forward. <i>Find me</i> it seems to say, unspoken words weaving between the graceful sound as it grows louder.
Slowly she raises her left front leg, hesitating for a moment as it hovers over the still water and then gently comes down to break it’s surface. But it doesn’t break. Instead her hoof lightly comes down with a soft chink as it meets a solid surface. A pause, the spell broken by this incredible moment when this world once again defies nature itself. The voice that beckons her forward seems to become excited, intensifying, and the spell locks back in on her. Her body seems almost weightless, the pain merely a nagging thought in the back of her mind. Her head is filled with the music and nothing else.
The other hoof tenderly touches the surface and once again it does not give way. She does this twice more until she is standing on it’s top. It feels like the soft sand of the beach and yet she can still see straight through it, the water as smooth as the rocks below. It doesn’t make sense but nothing in this place makes sense. The song is becoming more agitated but it’s a beautiful agony, filled with grand highs and tumultuous lows. She doesn’t understand the words, a foreign language to her ears and yet at the same time she feels like she understands everything. Now her steps are not so hesitant, ambling forward into the light. She pushes past the curling fog, letting it embrace her until her body can no longer be seen by anyone who may be observing from the hills behind.
The fog is thick at her sides but thins towards it’s center. The voice grows louder and louder as she surges forward, searching for it’s owner. The words wrap it’s way around her heart, infiltrate it and take root. There are tears stinging the corner of her eyes and she can’t fully grasp why. A soft gasp escapes her lips, filled with a sudden longing but for what?
Before her is a small shape starting to form from the mist. Closer she comes, the shape of a foal it seems. A few more steps and she can see a dark smokey coat not unlike her own but free of the marks that now adorn hers. Another step, silvery eyes that swirl and roll break through the thinning clouds and she halts. Frozen, unable to process what she is seeing before her. The air thins of it’s own accord, the figure becoming quite clear. The filly is still, only a few months old, but it’s mouth is open as the song continues. It’s swirling gaze focused on her’s. It holds Ciri in place. This can’t be…. But it is. It’s her. Ciri as the child she had once been.
A vague memory breaks through the thick storm that has taken over her mind. She remembers a white mare that lovingly nuzzles her and graces her with a name. She remembers a place called the Dale with beautiful woods and meadows that she use to explore. She remembers kind faces, horses that cared about her. But the memory that most impresses upon her and forces itself forward, is before birth. The place before she was made into this form and thrusted into the world she had called home. Ciri had always been one of time and space. For awhile the silver of her eyes had swirled and contained a heaviness not seen in one so young. While her body had been full of youth, her eyes told stories far beyond years she should even be able to recall. <i>An old soul</i> comes another faint voice that recedes back into the song.
Ciri was only three now but time plays tricks when one ages. The chord between herself and that memory of infinite space and time had been lost. And yet now, as she stares at the singing foal, she remembers. The palpations of her heart seem to increase, her heart frantic in her chest. She had been wandering in darkness for so long that she had forgotten who she was and where she had come from. The spell grasps her heart, squeezes her lost longing free from it’s veins. Hot tears escape from her, unable to stop looking at what she use to be. What she had forgotten.
</div><div style="font-family: 'Arizonia', cursive; font-size: 70px; color: #acadaf; margin-bottom: 60px; padding-right: 380px;align:center; opacity: 0.9; text-shadow: 1px 1px 15px #000, 0 0 5px #000, 0 0 15px #000, 0 0 3px #fff;">Ciri</div></div></center>
The water is too still, not a single ripple breaks it’s surface. She can make out inky silt between dark smooth stones as she stares past her reflection into the water’s depths. Refocusing on her mirror self, seeing the criss cross patterns of talons along her face, the deeper wounds across her chest and along her shoulders. There is a long pause as she stares down at this wreckage of a mare, lost in thought. It takes her a moment to register that once again the silence has been broken. Once again, she is no longer alone.
It starts as a faint humming, a mere whisper. Her ears swivel forward as she strains to see past the fog. Nothing. The humming is now rising into a soft beautiful voice. A gentle soothing lullaby that reaches across the lake to her and dances around soft curved ears invitingly. She can feel herself relaxing involuntarily, her tired muscles threatening to throw her headfirst in the lake as her mind thickens with the song. It is so beautiful, calling her to come forward. <i>Find me</i> it seems to say, unspoken words weaving between the graceful sound as it grows louder.
Slowly she raises her left front leg, hesitating for a moment as it hovers over the still water and then gently comes down to break it’s surface. But it doesn’t break. Instead her hoof lightly comes down with a soft chink as it meets a solid surface. A pause, the spell broken by this incredible moment when this world once again defies nature itself. The voice that beckons her forward seems to become excited, intensifying, and the spell locks back in on her. Her body seems almost weightless, the pain merely a nagging thought in the back of her mind. Her head is filled with the music and nothing else.
The other hoof tenderly touches the surface and once again it does not give way. She does this twice more until she is standing on it’s top. It feels like the soft sand of the beach and yet she can still see straight through it, the water as smooth as the rocks below. It doesn’t make sense but nothing in this place makes sense. The song is becoming more agitated but it’s a beautiful agony, filled with grand highs and tumultuous lows. She doesn’t understand the words, a foreign language to her ears and yet at the same time she feels like she understands everything. Now her steps are not so hesitant, ambling forward into the light. She pushes past the curling fog, letting it embrace her until her body can no longer be seen by anyone who may be observing from the hills behind.
The fog is thick at her sides but thins towards it’s center. The voice grows louder and louder as she surges forward, searching for it’s owner. The words wrap it’s way around her heart, infiltrate it and take root. There are tears stinging the corner of her eyes and she can’t fully grasp why. A soft gasp escapes her lips, filled with a sudden longing but for what?
Before her is a small shape starting to form from the mist. Closer she comes, the shape of a foal it seems. A few more steps and she can see a dark smokey coat not unlike her own but free of the marks that now adorn hers. Another step, silvery eyes that swirl and roll break through the thinning clouds and she halts. Frozen, unable to process what she is seeing before her. The air thins of it’s own accord, the figure becoming quite clear. The filly is still, only a few months old, but it’s mouth is open as the song continues. It’s swirling gaze focused on her’s. It holds Ciri in place. This can’t be…. But it is. It’s her. Ciri as the child she had once been.
A vague memory breaks through the thick storm that has taken over her mind. She remembers a white mare that lovingly nuzzles her and graces her with a name. She remembers a place called the Dale with beautiful woods and meadows that she use to explore. She remembers kind faces, horses that cared about her. But the memory that most impresses upon her and forces itself forward, is before birth. The place before she was made into this form and thrusted into the world she had called home. Ciri had always been one of time and space. For awhile the silver of her eyes had swirled and contained a heaviness not seen in one so young. While her body had been full of youth, her eyes told stories far beyond years she should even be able to recall. <i>An old soul</i> comes another faint voice that recedes back into the song.
Ciri was only three now but time plays tricks when one ages. The chord between herself and that memory of infinite space and time had been lost. And yet now, as she stares at the singing foal, she remembers. The palpations of her heart seem to increase, her heart frantic in her chest. She had been wandering in darkness for so long that she had forgotten who she was and where she had come from. The spell grasps her heart, squeezes her lost longing free from it’s veins. Hot tears escape from her, unable to stop looking at what she use to be. What she had forgotten.
</div><div style="font-family: 'Arizonia', cursive; font-size: 70px; color: #acadaf; margin-bottom: 60px; padding-right: 380px;align:center; opacity: 0.9; text-shadow: 1px 1px 15px #000, 0 0 5px #000, 0 0 15px #000, 0 0 3px #fff;">Ciri</div></div></center>