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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    And he went out conquering and to conquer... ROUND II
    #11


    kreios

    don't you tame your demons, but always keep them on a leash

    The lamb has returned.

    I feel my breath catch in my throat and the hoof I had raised to take another step towards Lucrezia remains frozen - suspended in midair as my gaze meets that of the seven-eyed lamb. It knows, I realize, it knows why I am here - why I have accepted.

    Once, I might have shirked away. Once, I might have lowered my head in shame at my own lack of drive and fearlessness when confronting the terrifying. But not anymore. Bloodlust and love of battle do not drive me in the way they drove my parents, drove my brother. That had shamed me once, that lack of drive, but no longer.

    I had accepted not because I thought myself strong enough to survive the end of the world, but because by accepting I hoped to give the others a better chance of making it through.

    The lamb stands, and though I am still wary I resettle my raised hoof and watch. I mean to keep my eyes on the lamb, but instead my attention is drawn (unwillingly) to the seals. I have never seen a seal before, but somehow know their purpose. This is tied to the lamb, I think, but I have no time to ponder that; the seal is exploding.

    I turn away, instinctively shielding my head, and I hear the rush of wind as a hoof-sized chunk of stone flies past the place my left eye had been only a millisecond before. When I look back the lamb is gone and silence reigns once more. Lucrezia seems unharmed, but before I can look toward Weaver, Elve, and Rhonen, he appears.

    I know things that I had not known a moment before, and while my heart clenches with an emotion I know well (fear), I know that to kneel is to die, and I will not die easily. The creatures that accompany Conquest are monstrosities almost worse than the rotting, yellow-eyed stallion. He is the leader though, and so my attention (that little bit that does not eye Lucrezia beside me and the foals across the clearing) remains on him. I watch as he charges after the grey mare who spins around and seems to flee, and an enormous millipede follows after them.

    The millipede and the grey mare do not return; I assume she has been disposed of.

    I try to follow Conquest’s movement, but a ferret comes rushing towards me, the rabid froth in its mouth unable to entirely hide the razor sharp teeth that are far too big for its mouth. A tail like a scorpion swings behind it, and I jump away as it leaps for my foreleg. I raise a hoof high and bring it down on the weasel with backbreaking force. It is fast, so fast, and I have managed to crush only its hind end. Before it can twist around and bite again though, my hoof has become a paw, and a thick claw pierces the weasel's neck, and at last it is still. I doubt that it is truly dead, but at least the immediate danger is past. I look for Lucrezia and see Conquest laboring over the back of a tobiano mare that had been in our assembled circle. She seems pleasured, and I label her a threat.

    The green and red filly is slipping away, but a python stalks her. I move toward them, and as I close my wildcat teeth on the thing’s tail, I see a bit of seal. I could reach it, just let go and grab for the stone instead of the snake – it would be so easy. But the girl is running towards a large bird and I can’t leave her face two monsters. So I bite down harder and swing my head with feline strength, tossing the snake away. It could have chased me – it should have – but it sees easier prey in Warship and I spin around to try and find the other children and Lucrezia, who I have lost in the melee.

    A little girl screams and I see a bay mare attacked by the grey who I thought dead. Another threat. A mare saves the little girl from the bear, and the chestnut boy runs to them. They are safe enough, I know; someone is looking out for them.  

    In the madness I have forgotten Conquest, but when I turn towards Lucrezia I see that he has not forgotten me.

    He stands before me, rotting and putrid, and a wave of nausea roils inside me. He smells of the aftermath of a lost battle, of an encampment of failures who lie moaning in defeat. Conquest means to make the whole of Beqanna into a battlefield full of dead and dying, and we are all that stands between that dark future.

    Gathering the shattered seal is all well and good, but why not kill the beast rather than trap it again?

    “Don’t bother”, he says as I tense my muscles to attack, “Resistance is futile. You a coward. You cannot save them. You are weak.” A decade ago, those words – so close to those of my own father’s – would have broken me. They would have been true; they are not true now.

    I mean to yell back, but the words that emerge are a wildcat’s scream and I lunge forward. I raise my left foreleg to the side (far more flexible than any horse), and swipe a clawed foot the size of a dinner plate across Conquest’s face. I feel the give of rotting flesh beneath my paw and for a moment feel triumphant.

    Then the paw begins to burn.

    I pull it back with a hiss as Conquest laughs. I feel my neck pull to the left, the muscles shortening of their own accord, and though I try I cannot make them stretch out again. Snarling, I swipe again with a paw, but the burning pain is too strong and I pull back before I make contact. I expect Conquest to attack but he only laughs and turns away, and my neck is twisted the other way. Following in this condition would be foolish, so I do my best to fight the tight muscles with the little ability I have. Shifting fully has never been possible for me, and it is even harder to change in this grey world. Still, cat muscle to horse muscle and back again is a change, and the tautness eases as I stumble towards Lucrezia.

    A bear, roaring in fury from being attack by the black stallion I had swung the snake toward, has begun charging towards her. She cannot see it, I realize, it is charging from her blind spot, and with the cacophony of battle I doubt she will even hear its snarling. I bolt toward her, hampered by my burning foot and the muscles in my own neck which pull my head away from where I try to move it. I slam into the bear and feel the iron of its armor slice into my right shoulder and along my side. Lucrezia is to my left now, safe from the bear, who I shove at again, ignoring the blood that rapidly turns my pale coat a bright red.

    The bear turns its attention to me and I am grateful that it has been injured by previous combatants. Nevertheless, it is strong, and the next time I slam against it, it shoves back, knocking me over so that I roll across the grey grass, growing dizzy. I am on my back, looking up at the bear that looms over me on two feet, and I wonder if perhaps this is how I will die.

    The bear drops quickly, clearly meaning to pierce my exposed chest and belly with its knife-like claws. I buck upwards with my hind legs, trusting the catlike flexibility of my spine and hips, and my hind claws pierce the bear’s belly and rip downwards, spilling putrid innards across my as I struggle to my feet. I stumble, and see a piece of shard only inches from my face. With a choked breath I grab it between my teeth, and bite down.



    Tl;dr

    Kreios kills a rabid ferret with a scorpion tail, grabs a snake to stop it from chasing Elve and accidentally tosses it toward Warship. He is confronted by Conquest and after swiping at him gets some sort of burning rash on his foot and cervical dystonia in his neck, causing the muscles to shorten on their own. He saves Lucrezia from the bear that everyone else has been fighting, and literally stumbles onto a shard. Feel free to use him as you will, preferably in the way that involves the most self-sacrifice :P
    #12

    The stillness unnerves her.

    It forces her focus down to the singular, even as the number of faces increases around her.  She wants to look at all of them, but she can’t.  She can’t tear her eyes away from the vacant spot where she’d seen a goat only a moment ago.  Now, there is no creature with too many horns and far too many eyes watching her with an impassive but nearly-tangible intelligence, and she doesn’t understand how it is possible.  How can an animal be there one second and gone the next?  How can the world grind to a halt around them while they continue to walk on its surface, seemingly unaffected?

    How can they stop the clock from ticking ever closer to their own extermination?

    Finally, Titanya forces herself to turn away.  If the world is indeed ending and these horses are to be her compatriots of the apocalypse, it would behoove her to learn everything she can about them.  She notices instantly the way some seem drawn to others, the ease at which alliances form, birthed from the pre-existing politics of their dying land.  She realizes that this may be a hindrance to her, the fact that she comes from between the kingdoms rather than from within.  It doesn’t matter who her parents are because their union had been a secret; her very life had been intended to go unnoticed and therefore unquestioned.  It is a hurdle she will have to breach rather quickly, though.  The young girl locks eyes with an even younger girl, black and white like her but in a different design.  Even she’s not sure what use the filly will be in the impending chaos.  A part of her wants to protect the other girl (the part that kept Terran’s mouth away from every stone and stick he came across).  A part of her wants to keep the tobiano close in case she needs someone to outrun and outmaneuver.  She’s not sure she can fully embrace that part of herself, though, as much sense as it makes to her. 
    The sabino is mulling over her other options still when it happens.  Eyes appear like gemstones, glowing faintly in the corner of her gaze.  She knows even before she turns (and she turns rather quickly) that she hadn’t imagined it before. 

    This time she will not be denied. 

    Titanya stares openly at the odd creature.  It is a curious thing, certainly, but not frightening in the least.  A sudden vulnerability overtakes her, flushing away the remainder of the anger she’d felt before.  The creature reads her soul with its plethora of eyes; that same, impassive intelligence seeing all that she’s ever kept hidden. She should be angry, perhaps, but she finds a strange comfort in the weight of that gaze.  As if she could bare all beneath her flesh to it without consequence.  As if she could be broken down to the cellular level (to the organelles and beyond even that, to the elements and the atoms borrowed from broken stars) and analyzed at the highest magnification. 
     
    She’s so distracted at the naked exposure of her mind, so torn between holding the gaze of seven different eyes that she doesn’t notice the goat’s feet have moved.  When the creature steps onto the rock, however, the force of the blast has her gasping from the shock of it.  She moves before she even realizes what she is doing, instinct driving her to pull back before any portion of the shattered stone can hit her.  The others seem just as startled as her.  They each react to the unexpected blast in similar fashion, creating distance between themselves and the odd but once-harmless bovid.  It’s only then that Titanya spots the other stones scattered about the clearing.  She sees the alien symbols etched into the surfaces but cannot study them further; the goat has disappeared again.

    After the explosion, they all settle into the unnerving silence of before.  This time, though, it doesn’t last long.  The young mare doesn’t even have time to look at her fellows before the laughter sounds into the near-distance.  Much later, upon reflection, she’d find herself missing the silence.  Because the owner of such a voice (of such incessant, triumphant glee) cannot be anyone she’d like to come across.  It brings the promise of pain and suffering, of loss and loathing.  She shudders, but as the horse – Conquest – comes into view, she notices something else. 

    At last, the world seems to begin again.       

    The limbs of the trees quake with his arrival; leaves fall in a flurry all around the clearing, putting into motion the stock-still landscape they’d all been tossed into.  The promise of violence dangles in the dangerous air.  Conquest.  Her eyes widen as the name repeats over and over in her mind.  Conquest.  They straddle the line of peace and war; seconds drag on like hours as they wait for something… 

    Conquest.

     … and then they come behind him.  His horde, his army of all manner of distorted beasts.  Some are as familiar to her as the face of her brother, (the wolves that roam between the lands, opportunists like her family) but others she has no name for.  All are different, though.  All have been sculpted by the hand of a murderer and capable of such viciousness themselves.  Conquest.  And she’s not sure if it is a statement or a promise.  Will this decaying, flayed creature move onto Beqanna if they don’t stop him here?  One look into the stallion’s eyes provides her with an answer.  White-hot rage bubbles to the surface of her skin again, because she will not allow it to happen.  Not while Terran is out there alone and unprotected.  Not while her mother roams the mountainsides as a broken shell of her former self.  She can tell that Beqanna is only the start to Conquest’s war-path.  Deep within her bones, all the way to the thick, fatty marrow, she knows that he wants her downed.  He wants all of them to genuflect before him, to bend their heads and pray at his feet.  And in a moment, he reveals the only way he can possibly be stopped.

    “The Seal!”   

    She puts it all together in her head.  Titanya whips around, searching desperately for fragments of the goat’s stone.  If the thirteen horses can find and reunite the pieces, perhaps they can put an end to a possible future in which chaos reigns supreme.  The big grey warrior bounds off before any of the others, making her way behind the line of contestants.  The sabino has half a mind to follow her, but noticing how the monsters begin to stalk the other horses, she stays her feet.  Surely, whatever the grey mare is planning will benefit them later on – perhaps she’s spotted more fragments and means to guard them.  Whatever the case, Titanya takes a deep breath before plunging into the melee herself.  It is absolute madness as the bodies of friend and foe (though she can’t tell the difference most of the time) surround her.  She sees the black and white filly square off with a badger.  She watches, briefly, as Conquest circles back from his following of Lagertha and places his muzzle on Hickory.  She wants to go to the older mare’s side (sure that the woman is about to die, as helpless before the rotting god as she is) but she is stopped by an obstacle of her own.  The mutated wolf heads for the retreating form of the young Rhonen.  She is halfway between them, though, and she means to take advantage of that fact.  The beast's singular gaze turns on her when it realizes how much easier a take she would be.

    The one-eyed wolf snarls as it jumps in front of her.  Its teeth and the row of spines along its back glitter even in the weak light.  She’s never considered her own death before (thought it was a long way off, at least) but now, she knows it will come with her next breath.  And the certainty pisses her off more than anything ever has.  Titanya backs up and rises into a rear.  Her hindquarters quiver with the effort, but the wolf keeps coming on.  At the height of her rear, he lunges, open-mouthed and slavering.  “I…” she begins, letting gravity and momentum drive her feet down and towards the leaping wolf.  For a brief second, she thinks she will miss.  But the resounding crack of hoof on skull tells a welcome story.  His body sags as he falls to the ground, unconscious.  “…don’t think so,” she says as she weaves around his prone form, not taking a chance on the monster waking up.

    The young mare means to move away as quickly as possible, but when she looks up, she is startled to see Conquest only a few feet away.  He slinks away from Esileif with far too much familiarity and not enough malice.  And when his haunting, yellow gaze locks with hers, she knows she will not escape.  Titanya tries, anyway, but he comes up behind her.  “Be mine,” he says, his voice a violent percussion in the relative quiet of purgatory.  No, she thinks.  No, I will not kneel.  I will not bow.  But she is not so sure.  How easy would it be to give in?  Why resist when he could fuel her fire?  Why fight when he could provide her with enough kindling to last a lifetime?

    Then she burns.

    He moves alongside and latches onto her breast, his teeth passing into and marking her all at once.  But something else develops, too.  Her chest swells to an abnormally large size, puffing out and expanding until she thinks it will surely pop.  And all the while, her body temperature rises as fever overtakes her.  She doesn’t know that Conquest has passed a devastating bacterial disease onto her.  All she knows is that he moves away after his attack and leaves her to her suffering.

    A flash of silver shines in the grass just ahead of her.  Part of the seal, she presses her teeth together against the pain.  Already, though, her movement has been restricted.  She hobbles over to it as best she can, wincing at the sting of the fever on her skin.  There is a small group standing close by (two mares and two stallions), some bleeding and one hobbling on three legs.  Before she can make her way to them, though, she has to get her fragment.  When she reaches the shard, she gingerly reaches down with her muzzle, her mind reeling with the heat pulsing within her brain.  But just as her teeth close over the piece, a mutated lizard darts in front of her.  Titanya pulls back for a moment, but the monster moves on towards the small group.  She wants to chase it and crush it beneath her feet (the satisfying sound of the wolf’s skull cracking still reverberating in her ears)  but she is too dizzy to imagine herself capable.  “Watch out!”  She calls to them instead and lifts the remnant of the seal in her mouth.  Slowly, amidst all the commotion around her, she carries it over to Cinzia, Weaver, Rhonen and Warship.  She hears the young man’s comment but she cannot find it in herself to laugh.  Instead, she seethes at the way he is correct.  They are totally and completely screwed, but they are no longer alone in whatever comes next.  She thinks she’s told them this, but her mind grows hazy with the fever that now seems to incinerate every cell in her body.  She forgets what she’s said and what has been said in her mind.  All she holds onto is the bit of the seal pressed between her teeth.  All that matters is that she’s helped stop the end of the world – she only hopes it is enough.

    Titanya




    OOC:  Titanya jumps between the one-eyed wolf and Rhonen (who is moving away and doesn't see the wolf stalking him).  After knocking it out, she is chased by Conquest, who has just finished his pact with Esileif.  Conquest's bite leaves her infected with the bacteria that causes Pigeon Fever (which causes a swollen chest, fever and lameness).  After spotting a piece of the seal, she makes her way towards Cinzia, Weaver, Warship and Rhonen - all opposed to Conquest.  Feel free to use her as long as she isn't injured beyond repair!  =)
    #13
    Lucrezia watches each of them as they gather around – coming from the different corners of Beqanna. Each one of them is different from the other in the group. Some of them are young or old, mare or stallion. Lucrezia has always been curious and she wonders what has drawn them here and answered to the sound of bells. Was it the lamb that called to them only? The lamb had said they were the chosen ones. What does that even mean? She doesn’t know. The thought of even trying to answer those questions is pointless, not when each of them are already proclaiming their acceptance of this “chosen” fate.

    Her nutmeg eyes are quick to follow to each one as they accept. Lucrezia wonders what makes them accept to this fate, this chosen path of theirs. Do they also have nothing left to lose like she does? Are their lives and thoughts just the same as hers? No, it couldn’t be. Some of them were young, barely newborns out of the womb. Yet, they were moldable just as she was when she was but a filly. Lucrezia shakes her head at those thoughts – her father’s manipulative words, her sister’s lies – and dismissed them. Her eyes travel to the last other horses that accept their fate. However, her eyes remain on the Percheron stallion. “Kreios,” she whispers faintly and her eyes glint with surprise. Lucrezia is stunned by his very presence here; however, her gaze swifts quickly when the world seems to draw to a complete silence.

    The lamb appears again.

    It seems as if the small creature controls her, the mere presence demands her ultimate attention. It does though because the lamb is the reason she is here. Lucrezia was one of the chosen among the thirteen horses. She cannot take her gaze away from the lamb. It watches her closely, reading into the very depths of her soul and what makes her who so is. But who is Lucrezia? And what does the creature see in her? If only she could know what the lamb just saw in her.

    Lucrezia’s eyes are drawn towards the four flat stones scattered in the clearing. She studies the stones with a curious manner. The stones are old, weathered and worn, adorn in different patterns or language that is not part of this world. The ancient symbols remind her of the adventure she went on years ago when the Deserts sought out a new ruler after Yael. The stones fascinate her, however, somewhere in the back depths of her mind, she knows the stones are important and she must be weary of these and the lamb.

    The lamb is then before one of the stones. Wait. Those are not stones, but a seal. Suddenly, the seal shatters. Instinctively Lucrezia shields her face away from the explosion. She feels bits and pieces of the seal’s shards scraping against her skin. It cuts her barely in several places. The wounds were sure to heal, but Lucrezia feels something more in her that they won’t. She breaths in quickly and then turns her eyes back.

    The lamb is gone!
    And then there is silence.

    Laughter then fills the air, echoing and carried on the wings of the wind. Lucrezia’s eyes catch the flash of light and then the second flash. From the trees, she watches a stallion emerge. The stallion’s eyes are a bright yellow, consumed with destructive. Conquest. Conquest. Conquest. Lucrezia hears the rattling of the branches, she feels the dull grass stirring beneath her hooves. And then abruptly, the peafowl mare is consumed by the overwhelming feeling to submit to the stallion. To give up everything she knows and only worship the monster. She can feel his demands, the selfishness to rule, and to bring destruction. Her eyes then dart to the monsters behind him. Lucrezia knows the beasts by name because they are from her land. However, these are monstrous creatures and vastly different from the ones she has seen in Beqanna (some have one eye, spines, and armor).

    “The Seal!” The familiar voice booms loudly with demand. Conquest hisses with rage. Suddenly, Lucrezia realizes that she has brought here for a purpose. She was sent to prevent the escape of this beast and knows that terrible things will happen if he escapes. However, she wonders if all of these others are here for the same reason. Lucrezia knows nothing about them but one things for sure is that she knows she cannot trust them. Her father, Rodrik, had ingrained that information into her well. Lucrezia knows to some to degree her father’s words are true, but as she looks to Kreios she knows that he was someone she could trust.

    Without a word, everyone is off into their own direction.
    Conquest runs after the grey mare with a giant millipede straggling behind him.

    Unsure of what to do for a moment, Lucrezia stands there idly. This was something she didn’t ask for. It wasn’t supposed to be her fate to prevent such a disaster like this to occur or fight against possibly those that would help Conquest escape. No, this was not what she had in mind for her life right now. However, Lucrezia has always been one to never fret if the world needed her. She remembers now that she is brave. I am brave! She tells herself and firmly believes it (even if Yael had been the one who first told her that years ago).

    Her eyes focus at the scene once again, leaving her thoughts in the depths of her mind. Kreios runs after Conquest’s and he becomes lost in the commotion of the monstrous creatures and chaos that has erupted. She springs forward, looking for her childhood friend. Lucrezia wants nothing more in the world to ensure that Kreios is safe. She knows what he once was like as a child – fearful – except he is no longer that way, but she still cares for the well-being of her friend.

    Eventually, she finds Kreios finishing off a fight with a ferret-like creature. She tries to make her way towards him, yelling his name over the commotion. Kreios doesn’t hear her though, instead he is running off after a python that is stalking the green and red filly. Lucrezia runs after Kreios in the direction he went but she is suddenly cut off on the trail by Conquest. The smell of death and festering skin should’ve been a warning when it reached her nostrils so abruptly. It was too late now. “I got you now!” He says with an enjoyable smirk crossing over his features as Lucrezia slams on her hooves and skids forward. Her instinct is quick to defend herself, remembering little of what her father taught her as a filly, and she moves up into an awkward rear stance. Her hooves kick out at Conquest, but he somehow is up before her and sends her flying onto the earth floor and on her back. “FUCK!” She screams out.

    Her vision goes blurry as she slams her head against the solid ground. Lucrezia then feels itchy across her body. She rolls over quickly, looking around for Conquest. He isn’t there anymore. Fool! She tells herself. The itching becomes worst and quickly Lucrezia examines herself. Sore patches of thick, red skin with silvery scales dot her body. Some of the patches are small and some of them are quite large. “Such a fool you are Lucrezia!” She yells at herself as she finishes examining her body and nipping at her new sores. The itching becomes worse and this time it really feels like they are burning. Her joints ache as she gets up. It really feels like her body is going to break down – at least her joints feel stiff.

    The commotion continues around her, but Lucrezia is slow to move. Her body itches, feels like it is on fire, and is way too stiff for her liking. She feels quite useless to help the others now. Maybe she is selfish this way, but that truly isn’t her intention. She scolds herself for even being so useless in this manner and itches at a few of the silvery scales that now have become dry. Some of them are cracking and bleeding.

    Suddenly, she hears a loud roar as she nips at the sores. It’s too close to her. Lucrezia looks up quickly, eyes widening as she sees the bear with armor heading towards her. The bear is only two yards away from her. Lucrezia stumbles back. She wants to scream but her voice isn’t there. Abruptly, Kreios is there to aid her. He slams into the bear and she watches as the bear’s armor slices into his skin. Kreios is quick to move her to safety now as she stands at his left side, blocked from the bear. Kreios is then knocked back and Lucrezia knows this isn’t supposed to happen like this. “You can’t die like this, Kreios!” She yells at herself.

    As Kreios defends himself against the bear that stands over him, Lucrezia quickly lunges forward and leans all her weight onto the bear. Her teeth reach for any skin and rip it from him. The smell of bile and putrid innards expel from the bear and soon enough he collapses. Lucrezia stumbles forward and falls into the heap of the mess. The armor pierces her patchy skin of sores and the innards cling to her like a leech. She coughs at the putrefying smell a couple times.

    Lucrezia then looks around. “Kreios! Kreios! Kreios!” She frantically searches for him, struggling to get up from the mess and tangled in the arms of the dead bear. Her eyes catch sight of him, watching as he stumbles. Lucrezia tries to get up, slipping and sliding as if she was a newborn filly learning how to stand again, but she eventually finds her footing and makes her way to Kreios. She notices he has found a piece of the shard and she smiles. She feels overwhelmed by the events. Lucrezia cannot quite pinpoint what she should feel at this moment. “You saved me, Kreios. Thank you, thank you!” She whispers over and over again.

    She runs her muzzle against his neck, closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath. A moment to breath was what she needed. And when she opens her eyes, the glint of a shard is tangled in Kreios’ mane. Lucrezia laughs softly and grabs the piece of the shard with her teeth. She removes it from his tangled mane and between her teeth while she manages to smile at Kreios.
    html © shelbi | character info: here
    Lucrezia

    Lucrezia acquired psoriasis when she made contact with Conquest.
    Profile | Detailed Bio | Character Reference
    #14
    You, me, and the Devil makes three.

    More gather in the stillness, sending eddies of stale air swirling around and between her legs. A shiver of anticipation runs down her spine as she gazes enraptured at the assembled crowd. Mares, stallions, children, all gathered for the same reason. The chosen stand gathered around milling quietly with those they know from home allowing Chrysaeta to slip into the background. She watches, she learns, she waits. Luckily, the wait is not long.

    The lamb returns. Seven eyes, and seven horns watching the gathered thirteen. It takes several steps forward, seeming to float along the ground, before stopping before a large round stone that the young mare had missed in her initial assessment of this strange place. Looking closer, Chrysaeta spots the faint outlines of three more, equally round stones. Her eyes drift away from the stones as the ethereal lamb places a delicate hoof upon the edge of the stone, the edge of the seal. The word comes unbidden to the forefront of her mind as the roan realizes that is exactly what the odd stones are. What the entire clearing could be. A seal, a cage, but for what?

    The question doesn't remain unanswered for long. The touch of the beast of sevens sends the seal shattering like glass. Shards fly through the air, scattering like petals on a breeze. In the wake of the blast, a deadly miasma seems to fill the air. An inescapable darkness bent only on destruction, on Conquest. For that is the name of the terrible beast that steps proudly out of the fog with an army of misshapen creatures at it's heels. Laughter echoes softly through the air, the name of Conquest whispered through unseen lips, and a bone deep fear that momentarily roots Chrysaeta to the ground. Her curiosity tempered by the fear of the yellow eyes glowing from a grinning skull.

    A grey woman breaks from the crowd drawing the attention of Conquest allowing Chrysaeta to slip away unseen. She wanders slowly from the broken seal, not wanting to draw attention to her golden hide with sudden movements . She needs to find a piece of the seal, needs to help contain the monster. Conquest could not be set free, could not be allowed to rule. Conquest does not lend itself well to free will and that was something she was willing to give up. 

    Chrysaeta creeps through the trees like a ghost, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of the seal. The trees are thick and the air is still as she walks. The sound of her hoof beats are muffled by the strange surroundings and still air setting her hair on end. No other sounds follow her procession. She watched the bear fight a giant stallion protecting what she can only assume is his lover, and the one-eyed wolf chase a chestnut and sabino. Through it all Conquest lorded over his subjects. He was present at every turn to attempt to conquer the equines. She watched the others fight and she watched them give themselves willingly. Still, the golden girl pressed forward, single-minded in her task. She had seen the others attacked and growing ill in the presence of the yellow eyed demon. Chrysaeta was determined to avoid the same fate.

    So focused is she on her task that the whisper of a second set of steps is initially missed. An odd glint in the grass draws her attention. She doesn't know he's there until she feels the warm breath at her ear. Jumping, she spins and is met by an intense yellow gaze. Her heart beat skips to see Conquest so close at hand. 

    The stallion watches her movements closely but makes no move to follow as she backs away. His eyes are not unkind while he takes her in though his wants are obvious. It is not physical contact that he wants, not companionship that he needs, but she will kneel. They will all bow to him in the end and Conquest makes it clear in his stare and the cloud of toxic gas that pours from his nostrils, that resistance is futile. 

    Chrysaeta continues to back towards the shard of seal, watching Conquest carefully for any sudden movements, when she feels the brush of silky fur against her own. A quick, startled glance down shows a mangled panther pressing his body against her legs. The poor creature has skin hardened by mange and missing fur. Teeth are long and broken, scars mutilate the face of the once proud beast, now diseased and sickly. The mare does her best to suppress the urge to flee, but the repulsion is too strong, forcing her to take a sudden leap backward. The sudden movement spooks the predator causing the big cat to snarl and begin a slow advance towards her, a new hate in it's eyes. The palomino mare is so close to the shard now, she can feel its warmth pressed against her hind hoof. Just two more steps and the mare would be able to reach the sliver of stone with her mouth. Through it all Conquest watched her impassively, waiting for a good time to show the extent of his power. In two he is on her. Yellow eyes bore into hers and her name tumbles softly from decrepit lips. She doesn't know how or why he knows who she is, and all she can do is shake in revulsion. His lips gently brush her ear and a voice like the thunder of war whispers softly. 

    "One way or another, you will bow before me. You will kneel in defeat in the face of Conquest and I will revel in it. Others much stronger than you have given themselves to me freely,knowing it is better to be on the winning side in the face of inevitability. I will give you the chance to do the same." Without a backwards glance he leaves taking his mutant cat along with him, leaving Chrysaeta alone with the shard. 

    As she looks at the small piece of stone at her feet, the mare finds that she is struggling to breath. Her heart feels like it's going to beat out of her chest and each breath feels like she's inhaling glass. This was just a portion of what he could do. Just a warning, and she could not allow this to come to pass. Taking the shard of stone between her teeth, the girl makes up her mind even as her breathing becomes difficult and watery mucus pours from her nostrils. She would do whatever it took to stop Conquest. 

    Chrysaeta



    OOC: Sooo I wanted to try something a little different here. tl;dr: Chrysaeta avoided everyone as much as possible trying to find a shard. Conquest catches up to her and is so confident that she will join him that he leaves her alone but gives her the heaves https://www.smartpakequine.com/content/heaves-horse, however she decides to kep opposing him. So Chrysaeta is on team "stop conquest"




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