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 Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 8:59 pm
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He had been so close. So close to half of what drove his existence. He had begun to lose faith in his mortal guide, the little Lumina. She thought she was cute, with her tricks and sly words. When he had first awoken to his existence, he was in a haze. His mind had been nothing but a blur, unable to make decisions for himself or even recall his own name. The little cub that had found him enjoyed playing mother, enjoyed having a large powerful beast to keep her safe from the open and dangerous unclaimed lands. As she had grown, her attachment to him had slipped. An adult views the world differently, and through her panicked actions, he had begun to find clarity in his own mind.
And the memories returned. Memories of parents who abandoned him, those who had sought to seal him away for what he was, regardless of his feelings and desires to feel connection. Warmth. Belonging.
It was then that she was tasked to take him to his parents. She seemed to know things that he didn't, spoke of visions and futures and pasts. As long as she was able to guide him to these parents of his, he would offer her protection, warmth, and her own sense of belonging. He was ignorant to the fact that the little mortal lioness' heart had begun to sink, to realize that he did not carry the capacity to care for her like she did. Not when his heart and mind screamed at him for vengeance.
So she delayed him. The teasing turned into false leads, to endless searches with no proof of his parents' even existing. And yet, every time she said she had a vision of them, he believed her.
Until they stumbled across a pride dedicated to gods, and his mother had been laying right there, openly, in front of everyone. And yet she somehow slipped through his paws.
The mutilated log next to the black god was still showing fresh claw marks,his anger not yet fully dissipated. He hated his father more than his mother, but she was complicit in sealing him away. She abandoned him. And she had the audacity to act like she had never seen his face before.
He roared, his anger burning through his chest and out of his mouth. Once his lungs were out of breath, he shook a bit, exhaustion from his anger episode seeping out of his limbs like blood. Lumina had promised they were on another trail, but the fire in his gut had been set aflame, and he wasn't willing to wait much longer. If she lied to him again....she would seal her fate.
He felt his limbs finally give out, and he laid on the ground with a solid 'thud'. Even if clarity had seized his mind, his body was still not completely over the effects of the haze his mind had lived in for years. |
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2018 11:38 am
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Alkaid could not have said what drew her now any more than she ever could. She stalked the rogue lands in the guise of her mortal form, a pale lioness with no ties and no debts to anyone but all of the heart and soul to give those that ached for peace (even when they didn't know it). It was a constant that seemed to have stayed with her since before she was born anew as the Goddess of Light and now, more than ever, she needed to share that shining hope that curled around her heart. What good was her light if she could not pass it on to others?
It was with that thought in mind as she dared closer to a furious roar, reminding herself that as a goddess she could not be in true danger and whatever soul was attached to such outward agony could not possibly be left unguarded and forgotten. What if they needed someone? What if she could help?
Without an ounce of hesitation in her paws she diverted her path and wound through the sparse trees with mind to the noise her steps made in the underbrush and fallen leaves, pausing, meters away, only at the sight of the great black god. Well, that was.. unexpected. She remained there in silence for a moment as he collapsed onto the ground, wondering to herself who he might possibly be. There was nothing about him that gave away his identity and she had never heard of a god as black as an inky night with horns that shined like crescent moons. She knew darkness and she knew of the moon and the sun - so who, in Mkodi's name, was this?
With a deep breath, she released her glamour, and took her first few steps forward past the line of the trees so that he would see her. She did not dare too close to him - after all, there was quite a difference in a mortal attacking her and a god - but she suspected he was too tired to do much else but lay there in his misery for now.
"Are you hurt, dark one, or are you hurting?"
Her voice was gentle and the question, though it seemed similar, was so much more than a simple are you okay. Even if he didn't answer it, his next words (or lack of) would be enough for her to know what she was dealing with.
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2018 3:11 pm
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His sides heaved as he attempted to gather his breath, his chin planted firmly on the ground. He had never felt so vulnerable...though with how recent his memory fell back, there wasn't much to compare this vulnerability to. He was like a hare, frozen before the claws of a falcon.
His eyes went wild with the sound of footfalls approaching. His anger was threatening to seep into his blood again, to let himself fall again into oblivion where he would not need to wrestle with these conflicting feelings and emotions. That blasted mortal had somehow corrupted him, and clouded his judgement for himself and his task. No one could see the chains that bound his paws, his heart, his mind....he had to destroy that which bound him before these feelings pulled him back under.
When his eyes focused enough to see what approached....his sides stilled. His breath hitched in his throat, and the confusion in his heart spread to his face. What...what was this? Surely an illusion, some trick of his father's to kill him before he could fulfill his revenge. His eyes darkened, and the confusion across his face was quickly covered with a snarl.
"A hurt to inflict on those who deserve it," he snarled, his legs struggling to gain hold of the ground below him. He had to get away, get away, get away...she was an illusion, a trick to get him to lower his defenses. He wouldn't let another trick him, not when Lumina had consistently made him a fool. Dirt was thrown into the air, small twigs snapping as he failed to push himself upright. He had the energy to keep his eyes pinned on her's, certain that the illusion would fall and the world will fill with the red crimson of betrayal.
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 4:19 pm
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The words that passed his jowls and the frantic way he clawed at the earth for any amount of purchase should have felt like warning, a bit of insight into who and what he was. Wiser creatures would have told her to turn her back on him and run but the empathetic, those born of the same bit of stardust that had spawned her into being, would have felt the same aching pull at their heartstrings as she did while she watched him. There was not a bit of her that could have turned away when anyone was writhing in so much frustration and pain and that was enough to tell her that her place was here, if only for a few brief moments.
So, instead, she sat down very pointedly where she stood (well out of claw's reach) and leveled a pensive pair of golden eyes back upon his own.
"You will inflict nothing if you do not rest there a moment," her words were gentle even if they carried a tone of no nonsense, "whatever it is you wish to sink those pretty claws into can wait a breath."
There wasn't a bit of her that thought she would move him from his goals - after all, she found that gods focused more keenly upon what drove them than their mortal counterparts. After all, was that not why she was here, sitting next to something she could describe no better than simply a beautiful monster? She was not sure she could tame him but she would try, at least long enough to reason out what bit of ache was stewing deep within him.
The goddess lowered, very carefully, onto her belly so that he would know she was not going to attack him while he lay there and shifted her wings so that they could fold comfortably against her white hide. She was a statue with her head held high and every bit of her glimmering from the circlet that draped her mane down to the rings and bands at the tips of her paws. As bright as he was dark, she mused inwardly.
"Would you tell me your name?" she reasoned, softly, trying to embody a calm next to the storm of his rage, "I will share mine if you do."
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 2:16 pm
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Golden claws sunk into the ground as he slowly let himself still. His breathing remained normal, though a bit strained. His heart was still full of distrust; how and why would a creature such as herself dare even spend any time with him, let alone speak with him? In a cruel twist of his heart, there were elements of her that reminded him of his mother; of compassion and warmth, things that he had thrown away before he had been put into a comatose state. Before he had been left to the ages.
The snarl upon his face did not ease, but he let himself pick his chin up off of the ground. She still seemed like an illusion, a false idol to be worshiped. The glittering effect she seemed to have was nearly blinding, and his eyes wandered away from her.
"I have waited for what feels line hundreds of years," he spoke, the snarl in his voice dropping. He could feel the answer still pulsing through his veins, threatening to throw him into another fit of anger. "I have waited long enough." His eyes were still wandering, staring at the treetops above her. Even in his peripheral vision, she was shining too brightly.
He allowed the silence to grow between them, frustration and an unexpected feeling dueled within his chest; nervousness. He didn't wish to share anything with anyone else again, not after he had felt like Lumina was betraying him, toying with him. But she exuded a feeling he hadn't come across before, and it cooled the biting edge of his flames.
"I am....Mwisho," he finally relented.
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 3:07 pm
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Though she did not recognize his name, the fact that he had offered it up to her at last still made her smile. She could tell that he did not want to speak to her for whatever reason he held in his heart, she knew it by the way he had tried to ignore her by staring off at anything but the sight of her. Of course, as the physical embodiment of light she knew that was next to impossible.
"Mwisho," she repeated delicately, tasting his name on her tongue in a way that was meant to draw his attention back to her. "I am Alkaid, the Goddess of Light."
She dipped her head as she said the words, as polite as anyone would have been to a creature that wasn't rending the Earth in frustration and all but chomping at the bit to break something. In truth, it just made her curious - why did he so deeply need to be somewhere and what had he been waiting for? Who was he, beyond a name? She could feel that draw within her, the need to shine down upon him and illuminate all that he was, right down to his core. He was so guarded, though, and so dark.
"If you have waited for hundreds of years, what are a few minutes next to that, hm? A blink of an eye?" She laughed, gently, so that he would know it was not meant to be a mockery - it was barely more than a tinkle of bells, punctuated by the clink of charms that draped from her head as she shook it with the motion.
"Do you mind if I ask what it is.. you need to do?" she dared, at last.
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:33 pm
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He snarled in frustration, though his movements started to ease off. He was tired, and she was...prodding him. "If your goal was within your claws, and yet somehow slipped out...mere minutes feels like an eternity." He closed his eyes for a moment and could just see his mother, right in front of him. He could nearly feel her slipping away from him, her soft fur betraying her true nature, disappearing again into this massive mortal world that seemed to taunt him with every step.
Mwisho's eyes slowly cracked open again, his heart twisting with conflict. He had never told anyone but Lumina what his goal was, and that was only after spending years with her, watching her grow, learning to somewhat trust her even while his mind was still in a haze after being asleep for so long. He still couldn't decide if she was trustworthy, or someone with a hidden agenda, or...his thoughts fell silent for a moment, overcome with too many options. Instead of letting those negative thoughts overwhelm him again, he turned her name over in his mind, again and again. Alkaid....Alkaid. Light seemed like too perfect for her, perfection realized. He...still didn't trust it.
Still, he felt her name in his head, too nervous to say it out loud. That would make this, her, real...and he still wasn't convinced it wasn't.
He managed to tuck his forearms underneath himself, to actually right himself into a somewhat more decent position, though he was still too weak to physically move much more than that. He let his eyes wander away from her, still denying that this was anymore more than a fever dream.
"As simple as it sounds, revenge. I cannot rest my eyes without feeling the drive, the need to fulfill it." He offered more than just the word 'revenge', as that normally sounded trite. There was more to it than just that. But why was he finding himself speaking to her so freely, for as guarded as he had been for all his life?
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 11:06 am
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For a moment, Alkaid's endless positivity faltered in the wake of his troubled heart. It had always been in her to absorb the broken and helpless into herself and give them a foundation from which to grow and looking at him, defeated and angry and hurt, she knew that she was already too hooked to turn away from his pain. She would worry for him endlessly even if she never got to know him better, a plague upon her empath's heart. Yet, too, she worried that he might have been such a vacuum of pain that she would lose herself within him if she tried to save him from his own soul.
Her smile dimmed and her mind churned in the silence, wavering.
"If that is what your heart demands then is there really any other path for you?" It wasn't an attempt to simply console him; Alkaid would have never harmed another soul, never given in to the temptation for revenge or pain, but hers was a neutral domain. If what truly would lead him to the light of revelation was revenge then that was his path.
She brought her head up a little higher and pulled her smile back into place, watching him with eyes that so oddly mirrored his own. This was not a path she was afraid of - all things were illuminated within the light, even this. Even him. Far be it from her to make him feel ashamed of what he was and what he needed in his soul to heal.
"We are what we are, Mwisho."
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 7:10 pm
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He let her words hang in the air, again. The longer he spoke with her, the more he had to deny that this was anything but reality. To relive the reality that he had failed his revenge, to feel the chains coil tighter around his heart. His eyes had done their best to avoid looking at her, the simplest way to deny her presence before him. Her words were like a reflection of his own heart, phrases that he wished to be true but did not acknowledge to lessen their truths. He had been too distracted of late, and did not want to feed into more distractions.
Still, he let her last phrase hang in the air, afraid to take it. To accept that what she said was like accepting an offering towards compassion, but at what cost to himself?
"We are," he replied quietly, the tension in his body impossible to ignore. He attempted to look away from her, but it felt like he had to say these words to her directly, and accept that fact that she was here, talking to him. Listening to him. Infuriating him and fascinating him all at once. "But our environment influences us. Expectation corrupts us. And...." His voice dropped even further, to whisper words he would never want to admit. "It hurts."
What was it about her that pulled these words right out of his chest? He had never admitted this much to anyone, not even Lumina when he had just awoken from his slumber.
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Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 6:29 pm
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Those two words struck her harder than anything about his exhausted, anxious existence had up until this point. To know that someone was in pain not of their own cause, worrying for something they could not control, or a victim to the threads of fate made her soul ache. A part of her would never be able to stop trying to heal those that were broken and breaking; everything the light touched was hers. It was she that banished the darkness in this world, even the darkness that shrouded a heart like Mwisho's.
"I am sorry that you hurt, truly. If I had the power to take that away from you then I assure you that I would. Alas, that is not what our creator has seen fit to give me in the end. All I can do is, perhaps, illuminate your path a little. If you let me."
She was not sure what his path would be, nor was she sure what she might have to do to light it for him. It was a certainty that he was the most dangerous project she had adopted in a very long time but, even as she tried to tell herself that it didn't, she had to admit that it was a part of the appeal. Even the darkest parts of this world deserved her light and what kind of goddess would she be if she was not brave enough to walk into them?
She pushed herself up slowly, careful not to surprise him with her movements, and leveled her brilliant eyes upon his.
"I have no intention of stopping you from doing whatever it is you feel you must but if and when you have a need of me, Mwisho, I promise you that I will be there." She paused and offered him an honest smile, hesitating for only a breath. "Okay?"
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