04-22-2021, 06:27 PM
The light that meets the dark
Cheri had also been sleepless.
Dreams plagued her. Some were sweet: scenes bathed in buttery yellow light where she was either flying or stretching her dark legs out to meet the rolling turf of an open meadow. Sometimes Targaryen flew beside her, other times one or two of her family members joined her. These were the pleasant kind that always left her feeling fuzzy-headed the next morning, as if the dream itself had been reality and not the other way around.
Some, however, were dark.
Last night, she was running scared through a black forest. The Eclipse was still overhead, though it cast a strange glow like a bloodred moon might. Gone were the emerald greens and rich browns, replaced by a world bathed in crimson light, so powerful that it snuffed out her glowing skin. Her wings refused to work, but she knew that she was running from a monster in the nightmare. The same one that tore her apart had come back for more, and its breath felt so real on the skin of her hide that she turned her head to look behind, but when she did there wasn’t any monster - only a horse billowing smoke and glaring at her with eyes as red as the moon overhead.
She woke with a start and blinked away the early rays of dawn, just barely coming down from above to illuminate the chilly forest and the mushroom she’d taken refuge under the night before. Shuddering, Cheri had replayed the terror through her mind until it disappeared and then she moved out from her makeshift house to go looking for Memorie. In the light of day it was easy to forget her problems: the scar that used to pattern her hide had disappeared by now and her ghostliness vanished as well, leaving her substantial again as if the Quest and the Eclipse had never happened. Taiga itself had transformed entirely; nearly every creature had taken on some of the evergreen traits of the woods they called home, and just the other week she’d found little glass frogs! Tiny, translucent creatures that croaked and bellowed at dusk.
With so much to discover Cheri hardly had time to realize that she was changing as well. Her baby awkwardness was fading slowly, her limbs growing daily (it felt like), and now she made faint clinking sounds when she walked. The crystal formations that’d started to sprout up from her skin were elongating and multiplying, but they seemed confined to her lower legs, rump, and the area of her forehead just above her eyes stretching up to her svelte ears. It wouldn’t be long now until she was a mare grown. “Yan’s worst nightmare.” She’d joked with Memorie after the two had found each other.
The sibling horses chatted and lounged about, Memorie playing the part of dutiful sister by helping Cheri manage her mane and tail. With her magical gifts, Mem grew a smattering of little white flower buds and arranged them carefully throughout the plaits of Cheri’s hair, then sent her a memory of what Cheri looked like through her eyes so that Cheri could appreciate the handiwork. Kissing her sister on the cheek in thanks, the young appaloosa mare bounded off again with a nervous, twittering heart to the meeting place she and Targaryen had agreed upon.
“Yenny!” She called out to him, laughing and cantering down the shoreline until a few buds came flying loose from her mane. They twirled in the air and settled behind her, leaving a small trail, and when she stopped before him the remaining few framed her eager face and clung haplessly to the now-loose tendrils of her mane. “You look… clean!” She teased him with a smile. “Very clean, and athletic, and suave…” She thought to herself, her heart squeezing itself into a ball of nervous energy.
“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long. I’m ready to go whenever you are.” She told him with a breathy sort of excitement, then glanced out to the calm gray ocean. Her wings unbound themselves from her side and flared carefully, testing the slow breeze and sensing its direction almost like a second-nature. She hardly had to think about it anymore; these days Cheri flew whenever she could.
Dreams plagued her. Some were sweet: scenes bathed in buttery yellow light where she was either flying or stretching her dark legs out to meet the rolling turf of an open meadow. Sometimes Targaryen flew beside her, other times one or two of her family members joined her. These were the pleasant kind that always left her feeling fuzzy-headed the next morning, as if the dream itself had been reality and not the other way around.
Some, however, were dark.
Last night, she was running scared through a black forest. The Eclipse was still overhead, though it cast a strange glow like a bloodred moon might. Gone were the emerald greens and rich browns, replaced by a world bathed in crimson light, so powerful that it snuffed out her glowing skin. Her wings refused to work, but she knew that she was running from a monster in the nightmare. The same one that tore her apart had come back for more, and its breath felt so real on the skin of her hide that she turned her head to look behind, but when she did there wasn’t any monster - only a horse billowing smoke and glaring at her with eyes as red as the moon overhead.
She woke with a start and blinked away the early rays of dawn, just barely coming down from above to illuminate the chilly forest and the mushroom she’d taken refuge under the night before. Shuddering, Cheri had replayed the terror through her mind until it disappeared and then she moved out from her makeshift house to go looking for Memorie. In the light of day it was easy to forget her problems: the scar that used to pattern her hide had disappeared by now and her ghostliness vanished as well, leaving her substantial again as if the Quest and the Eclipse had never happened. Taiga itself had transformed entirely; nearly every creature had taken on some of the evergreen traits of the woods they called home, and just the other week she’d found little glass frogs! Tiny, translucent creatures that croaked and bellowed at dusk.
With so much to discover Cheri hardly had time to realize that she was changing as well. Her baby awkwardness was fading slowly, her limbs growing daily (it felt like), and now she made faint clinking sounds when she walked. The crystal formations that’d started to sprout up from her skin were elongating and multiplying, but they seemed confined to her lower legs, rump, and the area of her forehead just above her eyes stretching up to her svelte ears. It wouldn’t be long now until she was a mare grown. “Yan’s worst nightmare.” She’d joked with Memorie after the two had found each other.
The sibling horses chatted and lounged about, Memorie playing the part of dutiful sister by helping Cheri manage her mane and tail. With her magical gifts, Mem grew a smattering of little white flower buds and arranged them carefully throughout the plaits of Cheri’s hair, then sent her a memory of what Cheri looked like through her eyes so that Cheri could appreciate the handiwork. Kissing her sister on the cheek in thanks, the young appaloosa mare bounded off again with a nervous, twittering heart to the meeting place she and Targaryen had agreed upon.
“Yenny!” She called out to him, laughing and cantering down the shoreline until a few buds came flying loose from her mane. They twirled in the air and settled behind her, leaving a small trail, and when she stopped before him the remaining few framed her eager face and clung haplessly to the now-loose tendrils of her mane. “You look… clean!” She teased him with a smile. “Very clean, and athletic, and suave…” She thought to herself, her heart squeezing itself into a ball of nervous energy.
“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long. I’m ready to go whenever you are.” She told him with a breathy sort of excitement, then glanced out to the calm gray ocean. Her wings unbound themselves from her side and flared carefully, testing the slow breeze and sensing its direction almost like a second-nature. She hardly had to think about it anymore; these days Cheri flew whenever she could.
@[Targaryen] <3 <3