I could hear the crunching of leaves below my duo toned hooves. Though not all were duo toned instead three were brighter blues reminding one of tropical waters, while the last left front was ivory in color with a slight cream hue. The color itself probably came from the white almost cream hued marking that I wore against the blues of my hide. The afternoon’s sun caused a shimmer across deeper blues and slight purple hues that I snuggly wore. A contrast against the brighter portions, something that I was weary of walking through uncharted territory. A place, one of many, that I hadn’t ventured into as of yet.

Bright golden eyes gazed out across the tops of trees which changed ranging in a variety of warm, fiery colors. The autumn’s breeze found it’s way twisting through the trunks of trees and permeated my lungs. There were tingies of scents tingling on my tongue, many were old and many were new. One captured my attention, one that I had stumbled upon just previously. Long limbs kept me still unmoving as I wondered why we would be crossing paths again. Coincidence perhaps? I adjusted my direction only a fraction before heading in his direction. Though the name didn’t come to my mind, did he even give me his name? I wondered.

It wasn’t until I had made it to the small clearing where the trees refused to grow that he stood out like a sore thumb. Dressed in mute colors ranging from a variety of whites to greys, the horns protruding through his cranium. Ah yes, I’d remembered his name Orion wasn’t it? Before I could react with an introduction, he’d spoken. Dainty ivory lobes lined with their own darkness twisted forward listening to the rather calm welcoming tune. I felt the twinge of my slightly fleshy colored lips pull upward attempting to be polite. This was not my strong suit, ”You are correct, and if memory serves your calling is Orion.” I mused my own vocals were kind, generous even.

To be honest I was still unsure how things worked on this island, but I assumed in pleasant greetings a smile was permitted. How strange this place was compared to where I had come from. Though with all of this smiling with the last few days it was uncomfortable, but not in the unpleasant sort of way. It was a change of pace to say the least.


"speech"

UMBRA

the bombshell

There have been very few that I have met on my travels through the realms. I had remembered one in particular a rather burly man with an appetite that matched his size. If memory serves correctly his name had been Thor, someone that I had spoken to adjusting to that island of misfits. Bonding over both food and drink at one of the local taverns, but that seems like years ago now that I had traveled beyond the reaches of that shrouded forest. I wondered whether he would reappear now, or if he would become just a faint memory. The other two had been only recently Quinn the brown shimmering steed of eagerness and of course the mellower more monotone creature standing before me overlooking the waves of warm-earthy tree tops.

I mulled in my thoughts for some time after Orion had commented on his name. There wasn’t much aside from trying to learn these new surroundings, the territories that bordered the landscape I considered home for the time being. Whether it was my choice or not felt more like standing in line and taking a number, guessing on where I’d belong. It wasn’t too terribly long before my mind was pulled from my thoughts by the calm tune that found its way into my own dainty lobes which twisted and perked to the tune. “I suppose so.” I spoke through slight fleshy colored lips returning my golden gaze to the scarred ivory faced equine. “Scenery is one thing I enjoy about new lands, I haven’t really met any others from this island aside from yourself and Quinn of course.” I mused with a bit of a laugh. I hadn’t branched out in order to meet many others either.

I turned my cranium away from the mute stallion to overlook the waves of color. It was a beautiful sight, but I also wondered what the winters would be like here in this isle. Whether some parts would remain frozen in their autumn scene, or if things would become bare blanketed by white as far as the eye could see. Though I knew well enough the farther North I traveled the more colorful the sky would be in the night, the aurora that stretched out hinting on the horizon. It made me feel closer to the home I had once known, one that I had nearly forgotten before the downfall of the village.

"speech"

UMBRA

the bombshell

There had been much that I hadn’t shared about my history. Things that I would forever keep locked away; Things that often plagued my mind caused me to seek shelter within solitude. More often than not I had pushed those that cared away protecting them as much as I could and dealing with my own demons. I wondered whether that was the right path to take, but I didn’t see another option. I was a warrior, a woman forged from steel. A heart that had been locked away within layers of ice, but I knew in order to break away from the past to right my wrongdoings I needed to become humble to those around me, but keep them at limbs length.

I was lost in my thoughts by the time I heard Orion’s soft comment. My golden gaze still plastered against the fiery colors of autumn only allowing an ivory lobe to flicker into his direction. “I am a wanderer at heart.” I murmured softly not speaking directly to the mute stallion that stood to my side, but to myself. It was all I could do, keep moving try to find a place. Not that I really belonged anywhere, but on the roads which I traveled moving searching for the impossible. Though what Orion had said next caught my attention, turning my cranium slightly to see him out of one golden eye, “Unknown, or uneducated about those that surround you?” I wasn’t as dense as a brick, I had a mind that I was often lost in. Though I could tell by his tune alone that it was something he had wished to change about himself.

Perhaps I would find his company welcomed in my travels through this isle called Novus. “You are a scholar then?” I gave a soft laugh, it was something that I hadn’t imagined. I wasn’t one to judge as I have held a lot of judgement against my own ways, but I figured he would have been from royalty or around it based on the way of his speech as well as his body language. Though I could have also been wrong, as I had been before.

"speech"

UMBRA

the bombshell

Elegant ivory lobe twisted toward the hum of Orion’s tune. Listening intently it was hard to miss the slight laughter he’d given at the end of his speech. It was true, a thing like meeting new faces would be rather easy by wandering and running into others. A simple fix for a small problem in the end, or at least for others it may have been. I, on the other hand, was a more complex being preferring a life of solitude in the mountain side. Mostly to keep others at arms length to keep them protected in case something from my past was to rear its ugly head in the future. I was a loner, a stranger in my skin trying to figure out how exactly to move on from my past misdeeds. That was really one reason I had refused to judge others based on both appearance and past, as in my own opinion we all had something to hide in the end.

The slight twist of his vaguely fleshy colored lips bound by scars captured my attention again, “That is one of, I assume, many reasons why you have chosen to venture out beyond your books then?” I questioned pleasantly. I couldn’t quite remember the last time I had sat down with a book, but based on my life's events I suppose it would have had to have been when I was still a child. Reading learning how to better the crops for a fruitful season with my family, before of course, the end of that village. A flash of memories came before my golden gaze passing by like aging pictures bound in blacks and whites. I could feel my own heart beginning to be pulled, plucked, like a violin’s strings. Though a soft shake of my head the still framed memories receded back into the closeted space within my mind. There was no reason to allow the past to upset me, after all.

I took a few moments to overlook the scenery from our clifftop perch. The sea of color spreading out before us both. Autumn’s afternoon sun setting a light golden glaze across the fiery coloration of the dying leaves. I heard Orion’s question, it wasn’t easy to block out the soft hum of a tune like his own. For a few moments I pressed my velvety kissers together thinking how to compare something I hardly understood to the home I had known long ago. “My homeland wasn’t rich, and we depended on one King for protection.” I mused for a moment slowly feeling my gaze seeping away from the fiery hints of autumn, instead receding back into the few memories I held fondly. “Most of us were farmers, or merchants. Few were in the company of the king, and many didn’t agree with his way of thinking of course.” I spoke softly slowly returning to my sense of self. Turning my ivory painted skull away from the ocean of fire and toward the monotone stallion listening.

“The home I knew is gone. Scratched from the books of history, specks of ash on the wind really.” I finally finished not delving into the complete detail of what had happened. A refusal of marriage, an angry noble, and the bulk of payment to the masked figures that ransacked the village. Ending not only the parents I had, but everyone who had tried to fend them off. "Tell me, was your home different from this place?”

"speech"

UMBRA

the bombshell

I had realized the more I stood socializing with this equine by the name of Orion that the features of my face, particularly my cheeks, had begun to become sore. I didn’t want to offend or come off as rude if I wiped the half-smile from my features, though at the same time I was sure I would regret it later. Instead I pressed my velvety pink hued lips together as I listened to his tune. Was this true? Gods lived within the realms of this isle with their creations? All of the Gods I had known, stories from my travels, never hinted at such a thing before. The last isle I had become a part of before leaving abruptly had something similar, but not something I would openly willingly trust. A silent nod of my ivory cranium as I listened waiting for him to finish so I could ask my uneducated questions about this particular land.

“You speak about the Gods as if they are returning here among us?” I questioned hinting on subtle laughter. This was something unheard of, at least back in my homeland when it still existed. The gods never came down from their home within the sky, somewhere beyond the stars or perhaps the stars themselves. We had temples of course to worship, but they would have never stepped a foot into the living realm. “I apologize it is a strange concept for me to grasp.” I added after a few moments. I was unsure what to really think of ‘Gods returning’ of course with that image within my head I could also imagine why it would have created quite a stir within the equines that find themselves at home here within these lands. Novus was quite a strange place indeed.

There was more to tell from my story of home, of course. Things that I wouldn’t utter to someone I had just met. These things were the build up to the raid of the village that I had called home. What had happened after, being the only survivor, was a journey in itself. Taken under the wing of a special fighter who had fended off the mercenaries. Trained under them until I was of age to join the war that raged without his blessing. Using what he had given me, taught me, through those years against others of our kind slaughtering them where they stood. I remembered plenty of cobblestone streets that had been flooded with the sticky red liquid that was considered life's blood. Before the war ended… Afterwards I had realized my misdeeds, one reason why I don’t believe I deserve the happiness I see others holding onto so dearly.

A shake of my ivory cranium brought me from my thoughts the past fleeting away in a matter of moments. The heart within my chest felt as if it was pounding attempting to break the bones and escape into Novus on it’s own. I took a deep breath, and another beginning to slow it down remembering I wasn’t in the times of old anymore. I was somewhere new, unknown to those that surround me. Though it would be something I wouldn’t be able to hide, forever. “It seems there has been plenty of heartache to go around. At least there is this place, Novus, that allows a sense of home.” I wasn't sure if it was the sense of home I was getting, or if I would eventually come to call this isle home. For now I would wander and decide later.

"speech"

UMBRA

the bombshell