T I L N E Y
In recent months the forest father had found himself growing more and more impervious, now immune to the beauty witnessed at the foot of a mountain in the moment it is first beheld. True colour no longer warms this man's chilling heart, not even as his chest is turned to gold by the vibrant rays of a forest at dusk - there are terrors on his mind this night.
The lantern held aloft no longer breathes sights of ember and flame. Instead it lifelessly swings and groans from it's rusted hold upon the stallion's antlers, it's magic stolen by the antichrist's pillage in his homeland. Without the gift of light, of flame, Tilney had only moment's left of sight before day turned to night. Being night-blind was the least of his troubles; after all his only daughter was feared dead like the rest of his family, though still it remained a mountain he would have to climb, a treacherous river he needed to cross. Soon night had fallen, and so the horrors began.
Into the night he stared blindly, fumbling quietly upon the forest floor with his shoulders and hooves grazing upon tree roots and trunks to guide the way. It was only when the footsteps of another came upon another note of sleepy woodland song that he froze, still and scared like a rabbit in a trap.
"Who is there?" The patriarch bellowed, a voice soft but urgent.
The woman's voice was unexpected, though he welcomed it with a sigh of submission. Every element of guard remained up and skittishly he turned to face the source of the sensual voice, blinded eyes blinking in want for light. The ginger creature's main fear was that whatever he was speaking to was not actually equine, but something entirely different...
'Trees are ageless noble things which have no time for petty musings. Is there anything I can do for you?'
"Yes" Tilney replied urgently, hardly giving her time to finish speaking. "I seek sanctuary".
@Alioth !
