[private] this is going to bring me clarity | Mazikeen

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Mazikeen’s foretelling - that Gale would not be having restful nights - has proven true. Gale does not have nights at all, and he barely even has days. The brindle stallion spends from dawn till late-afternoon sound asleep, impossible to rouse anytime before noon. When he wakes, it is almost always with an ache in his head that makes everything painful, and so he spends till dusk standing still and waiting for night to fall. The late autumn fades into winter. A mint green woodpecker searches for an early morning breakfast in a branch directly above Gale. The bits of wood dust fall through the still air, settling on his navy blue skin as his ears flick at the assault of the noise overhead. The sun has not yet risen over the horizon, and as Gale stretches out one pale wing, he finds that he is slathered in sweat from exertion he has no memory of. His heart is beating quickly too, he finds, and the clouds of his breath are thick and heavy in the cold air around him. The snow had only recently stopped falling, and as Gale looks behind him he can see the prints of a large, clawed animal. They end in his own hoofprints. Waking like this is not unusual, but usually it is later in the day, and never is it without a cleaving migraine. Gale frowns, but there is no trace of shadows in his mind, no hint that this might be a trick. He takes a long breath, and looks around. He’s standing just above the subalpine treeline, with high cliffs at his back and a thick forest ahead. To either side stretches the alpine meadow where the Curse most often leaves Gale. There is no one else in the meadow, but the sun hasn’t yet risen much above the horizon, and the shadows of the forest could hide many things. His ears flick forward - had that been the sound of a footstep? “Hello?” He calls. @[Mazikeen]