The air tasted fresh in my nostrils, spiced as it was with new growth and strong pine. It was a different taste than that which I had tasted in the past few years. It wasn’t better than the other place, but it was home in a way. I blinked in the darkness as I entered a land in turmoil with calm in my heart.
The sun had gone to rest two hours earlier and the temperature was steadily dropping. The skies were clear with a breeze that wanted to dance along my back. I hugged the shadows underneath a patch of pine trees; I could see and hear commotion ahead. But what I could sense the most was the scent of my family. Altered, perhaps unnatural, but there nonetheless. I lower my head and rub my red speckled white horn against a nearby trunk, scraping some of the spare bark off as the scent of exposed wood grows stronger.
with love and blood, nera--------------------------------------------- |
Gah, I don't know these forums things! I don't know how to write anymore! But herreee's Nera!
 Though spring is here and with it, warmer temperatures, the nights in the mountains are still cold.
He watches the sunset, blazing orange and red as it sinks below the western range, the light caught and reflected in his eyes. He hums while he looks on, head slung low between his knees, weaving his powers to draw on the energy of that magical moment, the split second before day turns to night. It fills his eyes, a warm, alien heat, flooding his mind before melding to his core. Sighing softly, he turns away from the ledge. He feels alive, rejuvenated by the strife that’s come to his homeland and the kingdoms beyond it. Absentmindedly he follows the paths of his father down from the mountain, the dirt hard-packed and slick underfoot. A northern breeze catches at the dreadlocked tendrils of his mane, sending a shiver down his spine, but it is the scent that the breeze carries that makes his hair stand on end.
Nera.
Set first, a magician second; he’d not been “on” – had missed her quiet entrance back into his home. Their home. He spins on his haunches, nose lifted, nostrils flared wide and wild. He cannot even recall the last time that he’d laid eyes on his bay roan lover. She had left him without looking back, her crown of flowers dead and dying in her hair. Disappeared, and he cannot remember why. Minutes pass with him standing there, shifting beneath the onslaught of memories, first one creature, then another, before finally settling back into the comfort of his own body. Tail lashing black hocks, he spurs to action, darting off into the darkness.
“Nera,” he says, the scent of live wood familiar and distinct in his nostrils. That single word does not betray the thrill he feels at seeing her, his ambitious little consort, nor does his expression pay heed to the burning need to feel her beneath his touch. He stops four or five strides from her, head drawn up, yellow-gold eyes regarding her with quiet contemplation. “You’re back?” Perhaps not the most eloquent, it is all he can muster in this moment.
skin to bone, steel to rust
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The butterflies in my stomach float up to my lips as the corners rise, then lower, then rise again. I saw my black and white magician come to me, his hooves falling on the pine needles that have been crushed into the soft ground. Spring was causing everything to have a certain level of moisture, and my ankles were covered in mud, despite my efforts to stay clean.
No decorations adorned my mane and head. My travels had not allowed much time for worrying about my appearance as I once did. With no kingdom to rule, with no knowledge of those around me, there was less of a purpose of appearing as regal as I am. I became nobody, a sponge that soaked up the interactions around me. I learned while experiencing the general restlessness of the immortals.
But clearly this place was feeling some level of restlessness and so Set appeared before me. His tone lacked the abrasiveness I was worried I might encounter. Instead, he was inquisitive, and I found that highly enjoyable. I slowly reached out, my neck extending while I breathed in his scent. “Yes, for now. Did you miss me?”
with love and blood, nera--------------------------------------------- |
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Set