The breaths of a runaway came out in vibrant pants, escaping with pieces of her colourful and light voice as she toppled past one summit more. There was no telling how long Margot would run, she'd already made it halfway across a continent in all but a few days. Would she stop when she found refuge? Even then, would she feel at peace? Could she truly stay hidden here? Perhaps she ought to become a hermit and live among the mountain goats, or even better, sink to the bottom of a lake and stay there.
"No!" She gasped, willing her churning mind to perish the thought. Those hooves of stone dug deep into the earth beneath her as two, three, five, ten more breaths escaped her heaving lungs. Already the bride had seen and experienced more life and truth in the last few days than she had in her three years of life - why on earth did she wish to end it!? She was free, it was only just begining!
Perhaps it was the true fear of being found and dragged back to her ivory tower that caused the claws and blackened fingernails of doubt to scratch at her mind, pick at her brain and poison it with every step she took further from home. If she could even call it that. Looking back Margot realised it had never been anything other than a nicely decorated cell.
Focus.
It was this word she murmured in her mind, whispered breathlessly and willed her withering body to stop for just one moment to think. Using her senses was something Margot hd hardly learned, particularly when she had spent her life in a house and never allowed to set foot out the door. The sounds, the birdsong, it was all so overwhelming, and that was jus to her ears. The smells, the sights, the tastes! The slightest whiff left her tantalised and wishing for nothing more than to learn what created it.
In a gully she stood, the kind surrounded by mountains and with a clear path to the land ahead. What she would find beyond the Arma mountains was a mystery, but so was everything else.
As she stepped forward on bleeding hooves, this time satisfied to simply walk rather than gallop, the last of her finery fell away. A blue flower tied to her braids with a white ribbon fell to the ground, it's tarnished petals sinking and curling over the rock and moss beneath.
squeak!!!
@reichenbach
anyone welcome! She'll need some healing and a friendly face <3
Reich gazed perplexedly at the baby blue petals scattered before him, leaning down to smell them silently as his mind shuffled through his vast knowledge of the plants and flowers of Novus. He was returning from his visit to Terrastella and had only just seen the slip of blue upon the moss. They certainly didn't belong to any Denoctian plant - and though he would have to check with Araxes, he felt sure they did not belong to any of the other Courts, either. There was also that infuriatingly familiar scent lingering in the warm summer air, something that responded to the hot blood coursing through his veins, something that brought back memories of desert sand and forgotten kingdoms. Reichenbach raised his handsome head, argent eyes sliding forward to the entrance into Denocte and The Night Court before bouncing into a swift trot, certain that the answer to this mystery could be found within the reach of his own Kingdom.
The faster and further he travelled, the stronger that scent became. The closer he drew, the more he thought he knew what it was, or at least what it reminded him of. Soon enough: there she was. A few hundred yards ahead still, a mere slip of a girl made to look smaller with the distance - a girl with silver hair. The Night King paused in his pursuit, staring silently at the silver braids as he made himself count the differences between her and Sparrow - lighter skin, darker points, a little more refined and slender than his first love had been. The muscles in his back rippled as he shook the memory out of his wild hair, cantering almost silently after the weary girl, keeping hidden amongst shadows and trees as best he could.
Finally he drew alongside her, keeping pace amongst the thick brush, a quiet shadow. Stars above, she was beautiful. His eyes did a quick assessment, subtly checking her for injuries - of which she had multiple, though nothing that a hot bath and some care from one of the healers couldn't fix.
He cleared his throat.
It was a warm sound, distinctly unthreatening despite the surprise she would find at having company. Now that he was closer there was something even more familiar about her, it infuriated him, all the while only serving to make him more intrigued.
"Sorry to startle you - "
He began, that jovial voice lingering with no small amount of concern.
Disgruntled whimpers of an accursed effort escaped through her maw as Margot continued through the gully between two low-laying peaks. Just ahead through the glaciers and crevasses there lay a land, one that she was certain to hold her salvation if only she could just make it out of these grizzly grey mountains. She could see it; the haze of hills and flowering grasses, but it all seemed so so far away. If she would ever reach it from where she stood so high up, so far from safety, she was sure to be one lucky girl.
The path she trembled along seemed to be the only one in existence - it was the only trail she had come across during her scouring search of each hillock and cliff face. Was this truly the only way in and out of this country these peaks bordered? Surely there was a safer route. A cave, a tunnel system even; anything safer than trudging at the bottom of a soulless gully.
The wind grabbed and pulled at her hair, hair that was still woven into wedding braids and fraying at each kink. What once was a neat and complex updo was now little more than two large braids with the shorter strands pulled out by the wind, leaving it deshevelled and gruesome. She had loved how her hair looked that day; in fact, it had never looked better. She'd wear these braids as long as she could. Though, that same wind brought in more than justa cold hand to pull at her hairstyle. Upon that same breeze the musky scent of a man drew near and skittishly she flattened her tail to her hocks, holding her head with a fierce kind of confidence. Whoever it was certainly did not smell of home, so that in itself was a relief, though the possibilities for who on earth this wanderer was were quite endless.
She'd hardly spoken to a soul since her wedding night and as she sheepishly turned her maw over her shoulder, the words she tried to speak would not come out. Instead of her usual melodic voice she was startled by a raspy grizzle. Hello? she had wished to coo to whoever she could feel following her, though soon it was he who was making salutations.
Snapping her nose in the direction of a clearing throat Margot was soon to lay eyes upon the beast; a man of good height and a muscular stature, and a coat that reminded her of pine bark. The doe spoke not a single word, instead her hooves threatened to step back in aversion as she watched the stranger through hazel eyes. sorry to startle you- are you alright?
Blinking through googly eyes, Margot was taken aback at the sheer gentleness of the man who stood before her. This creature reminded her of those prince charming's she always read about - like Mister Darcy and Fairfax Rochester. Until now the girl had remained convinced that such gentlemanly fellows existed only in the fiction of dreaming females.
"Oh!" She would finally begin, allowing her tense and bloody hooves to relax "I am--Well, I am quite lost but that is no matter, it was my intention." Margot chortled, a smile falling easily onto her tired but youthful face. The more she spoke the more nervous she became, the anxiety of actually being lost without house and home settling in once again. Margot's lip trembled as she spoke once again, this time raising her head in an attempt to appear in control (when she certainly was not).
"Please know... uhm, g-good man, that I am not to be found! Unless you are one of my fathers brutes... well, then I will have to... k-kill you?"
She regretted saying such things already, knowing full well that if it came to it there was no way she would or could kill this man. In fact, it was unlikely she'd even struggle if he told her to come with him back to her pretty little cell.
He couldn't help it: he smiled. The smile swelled with warmth and gladness, amusement subtly colouring his silver eyes as he said:
"I can honestly say I am not one of your sires brutes - and if you don't want to return from whence you came... well, you're welcome to stay here, in Denocte."
The offer was genuine, as was the pleased (if a little curious) smile upon his handsome face. She still niggled at him, the smell of her, the way she moved, her eyes... it was so familiar and yet he knew without a doubt that he had never seen her before. Reichenbach took a moment to look her over, each avian bone startlingly memorable, her hair soft and silken like so many before her, her eyes... he knew those eyes. They weren't cold and calculating or filled with passion as he'd seen them before - different expressions in different eyes - but the same.
So he began to suspect.
"I'm Reichenbach - the Sovereign of these lands, and The Night Court, which lays to the South"
The Night King gestured southwards with his great head, setting the gypsy coins entangled in his hair free and tinkling. Little was he to know that Margot would have similar, if not the same, coins entangled in her own silken hair.
"Denocte?" she whispered, quite baffled but still enchanted at the name of this place she had found herself in. Most of all she was delighted that she had an offer of refuge, though she was smarter than to simply accept without scrutiny. Just because he wasn't one of her father's henchmen didn't mean that he wasn't someone worse. All manner of ruffians dwelled in the wilds; she knew this because she'd read about it in all the story books.
Turning her nose high, eyes twisting into a sneer, Margot asessed the gentleman before her. He wasn't particularly rough or worse for ware, and truth be told he was reasonably handsome. The brute smelt of the mountains and of scent's she'd never smelt before, the kind she couldn't name at all.
What he said next completely shocked her though.
A sovereign? like a king?
blinking her tired eyes and soon shaking her head, Margot's lip trembled in disbelief. He was a king? No, that wasn't possible. Her father had owned all the land from the fort to the sea, and Margot had never seen the sea.
Or perhaps that was just naother lie she had been fed, another lie she'd swallowed.
Stepping forth, Margot bowed her braised head in reverence and respect. "I beg your pardon then Your Majesty, I had no idea! I would be delighted to stay in Denocte, if you'll truly have me..."
She was a true delight, this girl of obvious heartbreak and abuse - naive, maybe, but sweet-hearted and innocent. He could sense it within her, that spark that truly spoke of Calligo, of her wildness and her loyalty, her strength. Margot held the values of Denocte in her tired hands - she may have been clenching them now, but when those palms were open and free she would bloom into the woman Reichenbach could see hiding behind those wedding braids.
"No pardons necessary,"
Was his easy dismissal of her pardons and beggings - he may have been a King, but he did not see himself as one. He would protect Denocte and Calligo's people with every fibre and inch of passion in his vast being, but he would not rule them. So he tentatively gestured toward the direction of the Keep, beginning to walk alongside Margot, considering every slip of muscle and waft of scent.
"Perhaps we could start with your name -" a wry, amused glance at his companion "- and then find you a place in the Court. If you wish it, you can train to be a warrior, a sage, a healer or simply learn pieces from all three subjects. I think you will find Denocte to be quite... liberating"
Especially when it looked as if she'd never seen the outside world before. He could only imagine what a girl who looked like she'd never seen the mountains had been through.
Her delight could not be mistaken, and truly Margot was gleaming. The escape, it would seem, had been a success. Never again would she find herself surrounded by four walls and prevented from beholding the sky, from setting foot on the earth outside, from kissing the grass. In Denocte she would sleep under the stars with Caligos blessing and dream of each young man she lay her eyes upon, all until she found the perfect one to spend his slumbering hours under those same stars with her. Margot's life was beginning anew.
Striding forth on her gangly legs, the braided bride took her first liberated steps beside the King as she began her journey through the Arma mountains to the Night Court - her new home. "Denocte..." she tested the word upon her tongue as she lazily wandered over the riverbed, her eyes seeking out every sight and ears searching for every sound.
"My name is Margot" she responded upon hearing the king's request for her name "I will join your healing ranks"
Stepping away from the gentleman, Margot began her own course in the direction of the court.
Already it felt like home.
