DIG DEEP INTO YOUR DARKEST NIGHTMARES

[Naga]

breaking waves of change

Her eyes get heavy, the crashing sound of the waves lull her into a sense of tranquility. She allows herself to sink into her mind, her eyes now shut. Darkness washes over, the crashing waves now a hiss, and then....the sounds of the jungle.

Her eyes open, the green of them wide. This couldn't be....the jungle...was no longer. But, here she was. She stood beneath her favorite sun bathing tree, her breath is quiet. The scenery was more vibrant than she remembered it to be, the animals seemed more fierce, the old jaguar spirits seemed to growl at her protectively. At first she is happy, she was finally back in her beloved Jungle. The shift was all a dream after all! She was not a screw up queen, she was just your run of the mill, loyal Amazon diplomat. She took in the humid air, she basked in the heat. She could smell the ferns, the sweet jungle flowers and ripe fruits. She could see the birds of paradise and monkeys swinging from vine to vine. She could feel herself beginning to walk forward, but it was as if she had no control over her body. At first this doesn't alarm her, but then she realized she was being pushed along....herded almost. Two massive jaguars, with their bloodied maws gaping and bloody tribal war paint streaked against their colorful pelts, walked along beside her as she seamlessly weaved through the lush vines and trees. Her hooves left no mark, her breath was almost in rhythm with her seemingly heavy strides. The sounds of the jungle make her heart beat harder. Ba boom. Ba boom. boom. BOOM. BOOM.

The sound of drums began to shake the entire jungle, and soon the blood painted cats lead her body to what was the heart of the jungle. There, in two perfectly parallel lines, stood every single former queen. Every woman, covered in war paint and draped in delicate gossamer sashes. They all turned their heads in unison...their eyes filled with hatred and judgment fell upon her. Stomping their front hooves hard into the ground, the drumming sound becoming even louder.

Naga could feel herself becoming more and more vulnerable, but yet she is drawn closer.

They raised their voices slowly as she walked between the rows of queens, and they began to curl around behind her, forming a circle around her. A chant began. It started as a whisper, and slowly grew louder....and louder.

unworthy..unworthy...Unworthy...UNWORTHY. UNWORTHY. UNWORTHY.

Their faces became more menacing, they reached....barring their teeth at her. Driving her forward. She could then see faces she knew up ahead...both alive...and dead. She began to cry as the tribal beat of the drum became deafening and the chanting washed over her body and suffocated her.

The beating drove her to her knees, she writhed on the ground, she could not breathe. She could see her friends, and all the foals that she watched over and played with. Her dear sweet foal friend, Imogin, who played many games of hide and seek with Naga, was looking to her as if she were something foul. Spitting in her face, along with her twin daughters. Her sister Nerissa turned her back on her, and her other sister ,Nelke, shifted into her sparrow form and flew far from her, leaving feathers floating down and burning Naga as they caressed her black coat. She wails, but her cries were eaten by the screams of angered queens of old and spirits of Amazon's past. These were no longer her sisters. Her heart beat harder. The fear was real now. This was to be her end. She cried, pleading with them.

PLEASE STOP!! I AM TRYING!! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!? I WANT WHAT'S BEST FOR THEM!!!

She continues to scream but they do not care, nor do they continue to let their judging eyes pierce her soul.

Rain begins to fall, though as it's cool droplets pelt her body, it gets warmer, and turns red. Her green eyes are rimmed white now, as the blood rains down on her. The lush forest begins to burn, the animals crumbling within the flames. Screams of sisters piercing her heart, screaming for them to save her. But she is still surrounded by the fearsome and proud queens of the past. They bellow into the air, their voices rising like the smoke.

YOU HAVE FAILED YOUR SISTERS!! YOU ARE NO QUEEN. YOUR PUNISHMENT WILL BE DEATH.

She pleads and screams for them to please listen to her, but she still cannot move, and her voice was nothing to them. Soon she is jerked into a kneeling position, her fear has escalated to something she could not possibly describe. The drumming, screams, and chants then become even more intense as a light grey queen, more horrifyingly intimidating than all the ones in group surrounding her, parting the way for her, as she strode forward. Her dark hooves crashed into the ground, causing it to crack beneath her. Naga cannot look away from her, she is paralyzed once again.

The jaguars are at her sides, and she carries a blade between her lips.

The fearsome Andalusian queen is one she recognized, but for some reason did not know personally. But, there she stood, she seemed most important, her history and power in the jungle seemed stronger than most the others surrounding her. She stops before Naga, all sound ceases. The grey woman, painted in the blood of those who crossed her, those who desecrated her jungle. She speaks, her voice echoes throughout the silently burning jungle.

NAGA. YOU HAVE FAILED YOUR SISTERS. THEY DO NOT RESPECT YOU, NOR WILL THEY EVER. YOU COULD NEVER BE AS GREAT OR AS RESPECTED AS WE. OUR LEGACY LIVES ON, THOUGH YOURS WILL NEVER BE SPOKEN OF. YOU LET YOUR SISTERS DIE IN THE WAR. YOU ARE NOT A QUEEN. YOU ARE A MURDERER. YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE SISTERHOOD AND THE AMAZON NAME. AND SO, AS PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR ATROCITIES, YOU SHALL BE SACRIFICED. YOUR BLOOD WILL SPILL AND YOU WILL NEVER BE REMEMBERED OR MOURNED. UNWORTHY!

She takes a step to the side, as another being steps forward.....

It's inky black, scarred body slinks forward. Maneless, slender snaking neck, and disgusting twisted smile.
Her mother. Shadowmere.

She had been waiting for this moment. Her horrible traitorous daughter, she ruined Shadowmere's plans of taking over the Valley...she threw greatness all away, only to make the demise of her own kingdom. Her mother's twisted smile became more elongated, her maw opened wide, sharp caiman teeth dripping with blood from a freshly killed foal. She took the blade from the grey queen, her black eyes blazing. She had waited for this moment for years....the bloodlust in her blackened heart took over all other feeling. She was no longer a horse. She was a creature of hell. Broken and twitching, her body writhing and draped in a growing shadowy mist.

Naga began to scream, the drums began to beat once more, as the queens started their chant once more. Shadowmere, or what was Shadowmere, crept closer and closer, blackened blood pouring from her mouth, nostrils, and eyes. Suddenly, her hell sent mother sprang forward, plummeting the sharp blade through Naga's body. It's power, from years and years of rituals, pulsed within her, she felt her body beginning to burn and peel. She was literally burning from the inside out. She screamed and screamed, painful cries gurgling with blood. The pain was unreal, her green eyes burning with guilt and fear. The scene around her began spinning, all the pained and angered faces laughing and celebrating in her death.

They danced around her, more primal than ever. Her own blood rained down from above. They sang and danced, screaming, as drums accompanied them.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

It all spun faster and faster. The pain became worse and worse, and her body diminished with every beat of the drum.

BOOM!

She jolted forward, a scream escaped her black lips. Her body was still frozen with fear and her heart was practically beating out of her chest. Her eyes opened wide, her gaze flickering about in panic. But...slowly she began to realize she was back on the beach....she was awake...Nerine was hugging her with it's muggy, salty embrace. Her feet were still planted firmly in the almost black sand, and the waves crashed powerfully against the cliffs....she was alive.... and that....that was all a dream......  

It was all a nightmare...

Naga

OOC :
A look into Naga's nightmares.
As a new queen in this new Beqanna, she is feeling the weight of trying to patch up was is left of the Amazons, but no matter what she says or does, she seems to just disappoint and anger them more. Their respect for her seeming to deplete, not grow. She feels guilty about not being able to do more in the war, and she feels the loneliness of being without her friends and family. She misses the jungle, and she feels as though she has been letting down her sisters. Her real life problems have been plaguing her dreams and making them nightmares...her overactive imagination creating the most horrid scenes in her head out of her current guilt and her past memories. Of course, her awful manipulative mother is the climax of the dream, where she finally destroys Naga. Since she had been a creature of nightmares to Naga as a foal, her and Naga's creeper older  brother, Noctus, always trying to hurt her or make her do things contrary to her more loving nature. Thus why Shadowmere is the most horrifying of the dream's "characters". This is the most frequent Naga's nightmares. Each time growing more terrible than the last. A visual for all her stress, pressures, and fears of her life.

Imogin was a foal played by Elle Belle, who lived in the Jungle for a while that Naga played with multiple times.
The queen described in the dream, who spoke to Naga and handed the blade to Shadowmere was actually supposed to be Prague. Though I do not believe Naga ever met her, I was told she was one of the most intimidating and prominent queens of the Amazons.