[private] if it takes all night

[Risa]

The first several steps in this new life were the hardest, the shakiest. Risa moved off the beach and did not let herself look back at the gateway. The scent of death lessened as she left but it did not disappear entirely, for which she was grateful. The world was dark and decaying, utterly unlike the one she only had vague memories of from when she was a girl. And she was glad for it. It made her transition easier, though she soon realized she was not sure where to go. Neither of her parents had been in the afterlife when she left it but she had no idea where they might have gone. As the bay mare walked without a destination she tried to remember the scraps of information she had been given from the various souls she had interacted with. Beqanna had changed, though she only remembered bits and pieces of it before anyway. The Gates no longer existed, which might have been the only thing left familiar to her. She was adrift. And it was both frightening and exhilarating. Her blue eyes were so deep they matched the shadows of the world around her as she moved. It was a halting, unsure journey that brought her here - to the meadow. Eventually, she stopped, standing near one of the trees as if she was sheltering from a bright sun. But she was just fascinated by the solid presence of the bark as she leaned against it - as it scraped against her skin and reminded her what pain was. After a few moments there, she needed to inhale a deep, gasping breath. Breathing was an instinct she had only half-remembered and every now and then, she forgot it was now required in order for her to function. As her breaths came in more regular intervals, timed with a slow mantra in her head in and out, in and out to find the rhythm, she turned her attention away from the tree, away from its solid presence and into the vague nothingness that was the meadow around her.

@[savage] throw someone at her <3