02-19-2021, 06:33 PM
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com"><link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Pacifico&display=swap" rel="stylesheet"><style type="text/css">.cheri1_container {position: relative;z-index: 1; width: 600px; background: transparent; font: 11px 'Arial', serif; line-height: 1.5;}.cheri1_container img {padding: 0;width: 500px;border: 2px solid #000;border-radius: 100em;box-shadow: 0 0 2em #000;background: #000 url('https://64.media.tumblr.com/a4cee27650920a99a77f8c180b2fa7b7/tumblr_ozv96uTB2l1u7gnm9o1_500.gifv');}.cheri1_container p {margin: 0;padding: 0;}.cheri1_message {text-align: justify;padding: 20px 20px 20px 20px;color: #92f7b7;}.cheri1_name {position: absolute; z-index: 3;font-size: 48px;color: #CAFBDC;font-family: 'Pacifico', cursive;top: 300px;text-shadow: 0 0 1px #000;}</style><center><div class="cheri1_container"><p class="cheri1_name">The light that meets the dark</p><img src="https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/0868b904-9ea0-4fa5-8a48-60de231f9e6f/dea5xow-cba0047f-5c24-4810-b783-8e678f17f72e.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMDg2OGI5MDQtOWVhMC00ZmE1LThhNDgtNjBkZTIzMWY5ZTZmXC9kZWE1eG93LWNiYTAwNDdmLTVjMjQtNDgxMC1iNzgzLThlNjc4ZjE3ZjcyZS5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.heFN73LR1Pl07AGOUBh4aB3wuV0gMTfQHOzFE3xXels"><div class="cheri1_message">Her family tried not to talk about it, but Cheri knew the truth anyways. She’d seen it with her own eyes. Her family had been <i>blessed</i> not to starve when the sun didn’t come back, <i>lucky</i> to survive a winter in the lowest region of the North because her half-sister’s dam (and the same half-sister) worked to keep them alive. They could revive the earth around them, but out past the elder redwoods and into the blend of mountain scrub and evergreens, Cheri had walked and seen what horrors lay beyond the power of magic.<br><br>Out <i>there</i>, nothing grew. It didn’t matter that the seasons passed; the rain came less and the rivers were shrinking because of it. Fish carcassas washed up on the stony shore of the beach, and Cheri hardly went anywhere alone without the crippling fear of death lurking right behind her. Her family had stayed together and stayed alive, but she knew the truth anyways.<br><br>How much longer would it be before Memorie and Borderline got too exhausted? How many days until another monster - something worse than what had attacked her - came along and picked them off, one by one? Something larger and much older, not as simple to defeat. Something deadlier. In her dreams she remembered the way her skin sliced open with the first creature: like mud being ground underneath her hooves. So soft and easy, no resistance. Cheri remembered the blood spraying up her long legs, staining her white stockings and turning them black.<br><br>She woke up blinking, flicking her ears.<br>Her dam, Amarine, lifted her head for a moment and then tucked it back into the groove of Cheri’s shoulder. <i>Just a noise.</i> Nothing that worried the spotted appaloosa at first, so she shifted her legs and got comfortable before closing her eyes again. Cheri gratefully woke up from her constant nightmares anyways; honestly, she depended on her mother to wake her up at some point of the night just to stop them. She breathed calmly and settled down, listening to the sounds of the quiet dark all around them, trying not to think about the dream of blood and black things for a few hours before the other horses roused.<br><br>But a moan pierced the quiet, and Amarine moved again.<br>Her dam pulled away and Cheri fully woke, lifting her head that others claimed must’ve been shaped by her mother’s <i>unconventional</i> beauty, and she shook the dull strands of bright green hair from her eyes to watch Amarine weave her way out of the clustered trees around them. <i>Mother?</i> Cheri took a step forward and stopped, rocking back onto her heels. Amarine surprised her by using magic, making her <i><u>comfortable</u></i> again despite how anxious she truly was. That wasn’t like Amarine - to wander off into the dark after a strange noise, not saying anything.<br><br><i>Father?</i> Cheri looked around. The night yielded three grayish shapes instead of five, sometimes six, and she swallowed. <i>Who else had disappeared during the time she’d been asleep?</i> That noise… the sad keening. What had her mother felt?<br><br>Cheri looked back to the woods, to the place devoid of her mother, and she made the decision to follow as quickly and quietly as she could. If Amarine went, then so would she. Once, (Just once) on the path out of Taiga, she thought about Reynard and the guilt she felt leaving him behind. After that, Cheri resolved to banish the guilt. True: Rey was her twin and he’d saved her life, she owed him eternally. But she couldn’t expect him to always feel responsible for her. The same went for the rest of her family, too. They stayed together and they stayed alive, that's how things went, right? She was <i>going</i> after Ama.<br><br>And she was, until Cheri realized she’d lost track of the butterfly mare.<br>The path wound on endlessly, pitch-black and familiar to the yearling horse who’d trekked the hills and valleys more than a few times before. She should’ve caught up with Ama quickly. Cheri even trotted after leaving the safety of the family copse, hoping to reach her jewel-studded dam before Ama got too far ahead, confused when she came around a wide bend later and saw nothing. No hooves clopping ahead of her. No noise except for the sound of a familiar hum, and she turned off the main path in search of it.<br><br><font color=#fff>“Mother?”</font> Cheri called out.<br><br>The tangled branches of the trees were black. The woods and all their death, blacker still. Among them, the softly glowing mare walked hesitantly. <i>These woods.</i> There was something about them; they reminded her of the ones from her dream. Cheri had been walking like she was right now, and then all of a sudden -<br><br>A whispery voice crossed the path behind her. Fear like an electric awareness <i>gripped</i> Cheri in a cold embrace, and she stood - frozen. Her stomach sank, afraid of what her eyes would see and <i>yet</i> her head turned slowly, looking for the source of the noise while her vision strained to catch anything moving in the sinister night. Nothing. <i>More</i> nothing, except a bare spot in the trees that cleared open, revealing a gray area beyond. <i>Had that been there before?</i><br><br>Cheri turned and ventured back the way she came, a scream dying on her tongue the closer she ventured toward the distance. As she passed underneath a pair of intertwining saplings she heard it again: more voices, this time. It drew her onward, and as she followed its cadence Cheri felt the world tilt <i>up</i> from underneath her, forcing her to climb.</div></div></center>