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+---- Thread: [Quest] the girl in the garden (bonded quest) (/showthread.php?tid=5717)
the girl in the garden (bonded quest) - Solstice - 10-29-2020
S O L S T I C E
and at last i see the light, and it's like the fog has lifted
Spring had come to Novus, and with it came a rebirth of sorts. For Solstice, the season was largely symbolic of her own transformation, from oppression to freedom. She’d been here now for the better part of a year, and with every passing day, she found her confidence growing and her fear subsiding. Granted, it hadn’t gone away completely – but the Pegasus was truly coming into her own, blossoming as Ipomoea’s flowers did, their faces shining brightly in the sun.
She wandered through the blossoms, oblivious to the world around her, though there were children running gaily through the gardens with brightly colored flags and make-believe stories as they went. Not far from her, soulful strains of music rose from a golden mare playing a harp, and Solstice offered her a warm smile as she passed. The harpist simply nodded in acknowledgement, returning the smile without missing a beat, her melody sweet and harmonic as it serenaded the passerbys.
Something drew her out today, among the people, a luxury she so seldomly allowed for herself. The sky-hued Pegasus was painfully shy, though she was beginning to find her voice more and more. Forcing herself out of the comfort of her bubble and the few acquaintances she’d made so far, Solstice walks through the garden and tries to keep her head high. The false confidence boost is enough, as she offers timid smiles to strangers, pleased when they fail to address her and simply pass her with a quiet greeting.
It seemed that the day would simply pass with such pleasantries, until Solstice finds herself deeper in the garden, further than she’d ever ventured to wander before. She steps brazenly into a hedge maze, curiosity edging out caution as she takes the first turn, then the second. Deeper and deeper into the bushes she presses, until she finds herself sufficiently lost and alone.
She turns left and right, looking for the way she’d come, but finding only leafy brush around her. “H… hello?” The bushes whisper around her, dancing in the wind but offering no other voices. Her heart beats louder in her chest, tinges of fear setting in as she turns toward a passage on her left, racing forward into a large clearing in the maze, and finding little more than a marble bench with a flowered arch beside it. Even the sky above seemed foreboding now, anxiety locking her wings to her sides, fear keeping her from simply flying to her freedom as her eyes wildly scan the surroundings for life or for an excape.
Not finding any, anxiety bubbles in her even more, to the point where she could no longer maintain her composure, lowering herself to the ground and dragging ragged breaths into her chest to steady herself. One. Two. Three. She counts them, trying to control her racing heartbeat and breathing, but the calming procedure did little to soothe her fraying nerves.
And so the girl wraps her large wings around herself, a silver tear edging at her eyes as she whispers to the strange maze, begging to be found. “Help me… will anyone find me?”
As if answering the quiet prayer, her ears prick to a hushed mew in the distance, tawny eyes scanning to find the source as hope flickers within her… perhaps she wasn’t truly alone after all… and perhaps help could take more than one form, relief washing over her as another soul steps into the clearing. With a sigh of relief, she turns to the stranger and manages a sad sort of smile, the quiet mew forgotten for the moment as she addresses him. “Are you lost too?”
RE: the girl in the garden (bonded quest) - Ceylon - 12-07-2020
It is warm and it is cool, Spring fresh on the horizon with flowers unfurling as the weather does. They open their petals to a distant sun, and the skies open themselves to nothing but blue. Blue. Endless. Vast. Beautiful like the eyes that look up to it from between hedges and untrod walkways.
It must have been months since another came into this part of the maze. Overgrown, untended. Wild.
Ceylon, for all of his few years, has never been anything near wild like this place. Primitive instincts should beg to take over, pushing him to hurry into another turn and then another until he is hopelessly lost like a castle to time.
Those instincts are extinct within him. And even were they not, they must be so deeply buried under frost and ice and desert sand that it is impossible for them to be roused from an eternal slumber and damnation.
Instead, he turns again. First right then left and right again. Straight down a corridor. Through a flowered arch.
Green opens into a small meadow more well-known it would seem. Ipomoea’s flowers walk along the grounds too. Ivy covers stone benches and statues, disguising the artistry of the architect beneath. From grey faces he pulls weeping vines, returning them to the ground until he can see the strokes lovingly taken, pressed into immortality what they could not express in life.
If Ceylon knew how to smile, perhaps he would have then.
At the moment he would try, a voice calls, weeping and weary. Slowly, golden head turns, nebulous skin stretched tight as his neck cranes and arches, and those blue eyes learn the curves of another face. Solstice is the sky and sun, but she is unremarkable in every other way. Another troubled living thing praying for the mercy of another.
Blowing air through his nose, his plans to see if the map of the maze he’d found in the bowels of the library were entirely accurate or up-to-date ruined, Ceylon decides to approach. ”No,” he answers simply, close enough now to lean down and press himself to her side to help her up.
Ceylon does not help her up.
Staring down to the winged girl, his brow raises infinitesimally. ”Is it frightening?”
RE: the girl in the garden (bonded quest) - Solstice - 12-18-2020
She wandered through the blossoms, oblivious to the world around her, though there were children running gaily through the gardens with brightly colored flags and make-believe stories as they went. Not far from her, soulful strains of music rose from a golden mare playing a harp, and Solstice offered her a warm smile as she passed. The harpist simply nodded in acknowledgement, returning the smile without missing a beat, her melody sweet and harmonic as it serenaded the passerbys.
Something drew her out today, among the people, a luxury she so seldomly allowed for herself. The sky-hued Pegasus was painfully shy, though she was beginning to find her voice more and more. Forcing herself out of the comfort of her bubble and the few acquaintances she’d made so far, Solstice walks through the garden and tries to keep her head high. The false confidence boost is enough, as she offers timid smiles to strangers, pleased when they fail to address her and simply pass her with a quiet greeting.
It seemed that the day would simply pass with such pleasantries, until Solstice finds herself deeper in the garden, further than she’d ever ventured to wander before. She steps brazenly into a hedge maze, curiosity edging out caution as she takes the first turn, then the second. Deeper and deeper into the bushes she presses, until she finds herself sufficiently lost and alone.
She turns left and right, looking for the way she’d come, but finding only leafy brush around her. “H… hello?” The bushes whisper around her, dancing in the wind but offering no other voices. Her heart beats louder in her chest, tinges of fear setting in as she turns toward a passage on her left, racing forward into a large clearing in the maze, and finding little more than a marble bench with a flowered arch beside it. Even the sky above seemed foreboding now, anxiety locking her wings to her sides, fear keeping her from simply flying to her freedom as her eyes wildly scan the surroundings for life or for an excape.
Not finding any, anxiety bubbles in her even more, to the point where she could no longer maintain her composure, lowering herself to the ground and dragging ragged breaths into her chest to steady herself. One. Two. Three. She counts them, trying to control her racing heartbeat and breathing, but the calming procedure did little to soothe her fraying nerves.
And so the girl wraps her large wings around herself, a silver tear edging at her eyes as she whispers to the strange maze, begging to be found. “Help me… will anyone find me?”
As if answering the quiet prayer, her ears prick to a hushed mew in the distance, tawny eyes scanning to find the source as hope flickers within her… perhaps she wasn’t truly alone after all… and perhaps help could take more than one form, relief washing over her as another soul steps into the clearing. With a sigh of relief, she turns to the stranger and manages a sad sort of smile, the quiet mew forgotten for the moment as she addresses him. “Are you lost too?”
― @Ceylon
RE: the girl in the garden (bonded quest) - Ceylon - 12-07-2020
and when the time comes that i am reduced to fragile bones,
know that my soul will always search
know that my soul will always search
It is warm and it is cool, Spring fresh on the horizon with flowers unfurling as the weather does. They open their petals to a distant sun, and the skies open themselves to nothing but blue. Blue. Endless. Vast. Beautiful like the eyes that look up to it from between hedges and untrod walkways.
It must have been months since another came into this part of the maze. Overgrown, untended. Wild.
Ceylon, for all of his few years, has never been anything near wild like this place. Primitive instincts should beg to take over, pushing him to hurry into another turn and then another until he is hopelessly lost like a castle to time.
Those instincts are extinct within him. And even were they not, they must be so deeply buried under frost and ice and desert sand that it is impossible for them to be roused from an eternal slumber and damnation.
Instead, he turns again. First right then left and right again. Straight down a corridor. Through a flowered arch.
Green opens into a small meadow more well-known it would seem. Ipomoea’s flowers walk along the grounds too. Ivy covers stone benches and statues, disguising the artistry of the architect beneath. From grey faces he pulls weeping vines, returning them to the ground until he can see the strokes lovingly taken, pressed into immortality what they could not express in life.
If Ceylon knew how to smile, perhaps he would have then.
At the moment he would try, a voice calls, weeping and weary. Slowly, golden head turns, nebulous skin stretched tight as his neck cranes and arches, and those blue eyes learn the curves of another face. Solstice is the sky and sun, but she is unremarkable in every other way. Another troubled living thing praying for the mercy of another.
Blowing air through his nose, his plans to see if the map of the maze he’d found in the bowels of the library were entirely accurate or up-to-date ruined, Ceylon decides to approach. ”No,” he answers simply, close enough now to lean down and press himself to her side to help her up.
Ceylon does not help her up.
Staring down to the winged girl, his brow raises infinitesimally. ”Is it frightening?”
ceylon.
RE: the girl in the garden (bonded quest) - Solstice - 12-18-2020
S O L S T I C E
and at last i see the light, and it's like the fog has lifted
She feels so alone, standing beside him and staring up at his eyes, hard and cold. But the stallion is not unkind to her, simply aloof. Not for the first time, Solstice reminds herself not to be the victim, closing her eyes to count her way through the fear with calming breaths once more. One. Two. Three. When she opens them again, she is visibly steadied, stretching her wings cautiously as she bites the inside of her cheek, unwilling to answer his question about whether or not it was frightening to her to be lost. Clearly, it was.
Solstice doesn’t want his pity, or to remain prey to his haughty looks for long, so she rises unsteadily to her feet and paces a few steps away. For a moment, the two are silent, but then she clears her voice to speak. “In either case, I’m glad you found me… I might have been lost for hours.”
Her gaze flickers warmer as color returns to her face. “What are you doing here, anyway?” He didn’t really seem the type to wander through a hedge maze, or to even take pleasure in a garden. There was something too… logical, about him. But, before she can ponder over the strangeties of the man, she hears the mew again.
The Pegasus turns to find the source, pressing closer to the thick vines of which twist around the trellis, searching but not finding. “Do you hear that?” There is a curious note in her voice, almost an excited whisper, fear forgotten as interest takes hold. Her searching leads her from this place, deeper toward the next turn in the maze, as she turns to see if the man would follow. “Is this the way you came from? Did you see anything?”
And there is a warm of kindness to her now, for the mare cannot stay annoyed for long. Her honey-brown gaze searches his face for some shred of humanity, wondering what emotions he might hide behind his scholar’s frown – wondering what he knows of Delumine, its garden, or its lore. “I’m Solstice, by the way…” she adds, as an after thought. “And you are…?”
Solstice doesn’t want his pity, or to remain prey to his haughty looks for long, so she rises unsteadily to her feet and paces a few steps away. For a moment, the two are silent, but then she clears her voice to speak. “In either case, I’m glad you found me… I might have been lost for hours.”
Her gaze flickers warmer as color returns to her face. “What are you doing here, anyway?” He didn’t really seem the type to wander through a hedge maze, or to even take pleasure in a garden. There was something too… logical, about him. But, before she can ponder over the strangeties of the man, she hears the mew again.
The Pegasus turns to find the source, pressing closer to the thick vines of which twist around the trellis, searching but not finding. “Do you hear that?” There is a curious note in her voice, almost an excited whisper, fear forgotten as interest takes hold. Her searching leads her from this place, deeper toward the next turn in the maze, as she turns to see if the man would follow. “Is this the way you came from? Did you see anything?”
And there is a warm of kindness to her now, for the mare cannot stay annoyed for long. Her honey-brown gaze searches his face for some shred of humanity, wondering what emotions he might hide behind his scholar’s frown – wondering what he knows of Delumine, its garden, or its lore. “I’m Solstice, by the way…” she adds, as an after thought. “And you are…?”
― @Ceylon