07-07-2017, 09:18 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 young girl with mercury eyes was an enigma wrapped in a riddle. She was a shadow that slipped through life unnoticed. It wasn’t because she wasn’t pretty. Wasn’t because she was afraid. No, she just felt… Different. Distant from others. Rarely did she venture into a random conversation because it always just felt… Off. There was no magic to blame, it was just her. She had always been this way, preferred to venture through life alone. She had no friends or real family. Her mother lost in the abyss long ago, separated not long after birth. Her father a mystery. Unaware of any other relations that might even exist, she had no reason to seek them out. So she went through life with only herself for company. Silvery eyes in the night might draw a double take but most only saw a smoky shadow as she faded from their view, unknown and forgotten.
This is how it has always been for Ciri. Three years have passed, she had grown from her gangly awkward body into a slender feminine form. Her body was fit, not too bulky or overly muscular. A small scar or cut ticked along her dark flesh but for the most part she was still a clean slate. Ripe for the picking. Despite the years spent in solitary, she had a very clear understanding between right and wrong. She had never shied from confrontation, always stepping up for the underdog, defending the weak. Just because she preferred to be on her own didn’t mean she hated her own kind. No, far from it. She cared deeply for the world. Loyalty and love meant something, having watched from shaded woods as other’s interact, it stirred a deep ache in her heart. These were things worth fighting for. This place was worth fighting for. Despite the evil that constantly threatened and creeped, waiting for a moment of weakness to come crashing through, she had a deep well of hope. It helped her face the predators, the moments of despair. Keeping the evil at bay, the light in the darkness.
Today is another normal winter day. She is in the open space between mountain and forest, wandering nowhere in particular. Hooves crunch over snow, powder clinging to her thick winter coat. Her mind is lost in thought, having had an interesting run in with a couple of young stallions. Flirtatious things but not crude or unkind. She had rather enjoyed their banter, easily tossing it back at them. “You’re like one of the guys Ciri.” One had said, smiling at her. She had rather liked that, finding the company of males preferable to that of her own sex. Most were tepid simpering things. If friends were to be found, she preferred those comfortable in their own skin. Comrades, one's she would trust when her back was turned. They weren’t easy to find.
The thought of being a little less antisocial suddenly fades as she notices something strange. A faint green light seems to come from a hole in the ground that’s suddenly appeared before her. Her hooves stop, curved lobes swiveling forward as she warily inspects the rift. For a moment she thinks it may be some sort of cave but surely it hadn’t always been here, had it? Her curiosity is peaked as she edges a little closer, her gaze guarded. In her gut she knows something is wrong and yet she can’t help but lean a little closer…
When she awakens, she is exactly where she had been. And yet the world is different. The snow is gone, the land bare and brittle beneath her. She wastes no time scrambling back to her feet, instantly on the defense. Her muscles taunt beneath ebony skin, silver eyes narrowed as her heart pounds in her chest. Her senses are on fire, prickling beneath her flesh as she looks at this dark world. It takes her a moment to realize that she’s still in Beqanna and yet, not. This BQ is a swirling mass of black and green and yet she can see… Everything. The Mountain still looms in the distance, a blacker mass then it had been before and seems to crackle with electricity at the top. The woods are to her right and despite the significant distance to them, she can almost see through the trunks of the trees as if she was standing right at the forest border. Inhaling, her nostrils flare as she sputters on the thick putrid plumes of air. Spatting slightly at the taste of it, this air isn’t pure. It’s vile, one could almost choke on it. What rattles her most of all is the silence. It’s thicker then the air, smothering her like a wet blanket.
Wherever she is, she needs to get away at once. Her entire body is quivering, knowing that she is quite unsafe. That arrow hits home as a low snarl breaks the stillness. For a minute she freezes, her neck arching slightly as she slowly turns her head. Barely tilting it just to catch a glimpse out of the corner of a sterling eye. All she can see is shadows despite how clear her vision is. But the shadows seem to be moving.
Her hesitation doesn’t last long. Out in the open is not safe, she’s an exposed target. Her body launches forward, dirt flinging as she gallops towards the dark mass of trees. Her lungs burn against the noxious fumes of this world but she figures as soon as she reaches the safety of the woods she can rest for a moment, gather her senses, and figure out what the hell she had gotten herself into. </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>
This is how it has always been for Ciri. Three years have passed, she had grown from her gangly awkward body into a slender feminine form. Her body was fit, not too bulky or overly muscular. A small scar or cut ticked along her dark flesh but for the most part she was still a clean slate. Ripe for the picking. Despite the years spent in solitary, she had a very clear understanding between right and wrong. She had never shied from confrontation, always stepping up for the underdog, defending the weak. Just because she preferred to be on her own didn’t mean she hated her own kind. No, far from it. She cared deeply for the world. Loyalty and love meant something, having watched from shaded woods as other’s interact, it stirred a deep ache in her heart. These were things worth fighting for. This place was worth fighting for. Despite the evil that constantly threatened and creeped, waiting for a moment of weakness to come crashing through, she had a deep well of hope. It helped her face the predators, the moments of despair. Keeping the evil at bay, the light in the darkness.
Today is another normal winter day. She is in the open space between mountain and forest, wandering nowhere in particular. Hooves crunch over snow, powder clinging to her thick winter coat. Her mind is lost in thought, having had an interesting run in with a couple of young stallions. Flirtatious things but not crude or unkind. She had rather enjoyed their banter, easily tossing it back at them. “You’re like one of the guys Ciri.” One had said, smiling at her. She had rather liked that, finding the company of males preferable to that of her own sex. Most were tepid simpering things. If friends were to be found, she preferred those comfortable in their own skin. Comrades, one's she would trust when her back was turned. They weren’t easy to find.
The thought of being a little less antisocial suddenly fades as she notices something strange. A faint green light seems to come from a hole in the ground that’s suddenly appeared before her. Her hooves stop, curved lobes swiveling forward as she warily inspects the rift. For a moment she thinks it may be some sort of cave but surely it hadn’t always been here, had it? Her curiosity is peaked as she edges a little closer, her gaze guarded. In her gut she knows something is wrong and yet she can’t help but lean a little closer…
When she awakens, she is exactly where she had been. And yet the world is different. The snow is gone, the land bare and brittle beneath her. She wastes no time scrambling back to her feet, instantly on the defense. Her muscles taunt beneath ebony skin, silver eyes narrowed as her heart pounds in her chest. Her senses are on fire, prickling beneath her flesh as she looks at this dark world. It takes her a moment to realize that she’s still in Beqanna and yet, not. This BQ is a swirling mass of black and green and yet she can see… Everything. The Mountain still looms in the distance, a blacker mass then it had been before and seems to crackle with electricity at the top. The woods are to her right and despite the significant distance to them, she can almost see through the trunks of the trees as if she was standing right at the forest border. Inhaling, her nostrils flare as she sputters on the thick putrid plumes of air. Spatting slightly at the taste of it, this air isn’t pure. It’s vile, one could almost choke on it. What rattles her most of all is the silence. It’s thicker then the air, smothering her like a wet blanket.
Wherever she is, she needs to get away at once. Her entire body is quivering, knowing that she is quite unsafe. That arrow hits home as a low snarl breaks the stillness. For a minute she freezes, her neck arching slightly as she slowly turns her head. Barely tilting it just to catch a glimpse out of the corner of a sterling eye. All she can see is shadows despite how clear her vision is. But the shadows seem to be moving.
Her hesitation doesn’t last long. Out in the open is not safe, she’s an exposed target. Her body launches forward, dirt flinging as she gallops towards the dark mass of trees. Her lungs burn against the noxious fumes of this world but she figures as soon as she reaches the safety of the woods she can rest for a moment, gather her senses, and figure out what the hell she had gotten herself into. </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>