Uzuri smiled as she slid into the fields just as dawn broke the horizon. It was her favorite time of day, watching the land ignite with color and the sky look like living flames. While her colors made her look like cool twilight, she had a respect for the warm colors of dawn. As the sun breached the sky, Uzi stretched out her technicolor wings and let the rays warm them. This was the best... This was peace.
The soldier of Dusk spent the morning that way, enjoying her day off of training by letting the world lull her into a better frame of mind. The sun warmed her pelt and caused her mind to explode in a rush of endorphins. To her, the morning sun had always been the perfect example of honesty and kindness. Warming the earth and waking the beings that lived on the soil. There had always seemed to be a trio of sides to the sun, the gentle morning mother, the harsh midday tyrant, and the calm and cool father. A soft huff of a laugh rippled through her at the thought.
"However... Mothers die before their time and fathers are rarely where they need to be. Even brothers are not what they should be and where they are needed most..." It was an old wound, the resentment toward her father for never wanting her, the pain at her mother's death when she was still needed so desperately... Her only remaining family was a pain in the rear and never around when she actually needed him. He had found her home, popped in to say a quick hello, and then disappeared again.
Shaking her head, she gazed around her. A pang of loneliness ached in her heart and she felt the peace that she had been seeking try to slip away. Uzuri frowned and took a few deep breaths. Perhaps now that the morning was fully dawned and others were waking, someone might be along that would be up for conversation or even friendly sparring. Even on her days off, Uzi hated to be lax on her training.
@ - Open <3
"Wisdom" Notes: anyone is welcome to come and play with miss Uzi
My heart is pure and my strength for those weaker than myself.
The fields of Terrastella are some of its most peaceful places, especially at dawn.
The grass is yellow, green and gold, and it ripples in perfect waves against the kiss of the wind. In the sky the sun is starting to bleed out watery streaks of pink, yellow and purple into the previously clear dark-blue; thin whisps of cloud, more transparent than translucent, are lit to fire by the dawn. Marisol stands perfectly still in the fields with her head tilted up and watches the changing colors with just-concealed awe. For all her Terrastellan loyalty, there is something so calm about the introduction of the dawn, how it comes in raindrops and not in waves. And gods know she needs to be calm now more than ever.
She runs her tongue (carefully) around her newly-sharp teeth and tries to stifle a sigh. It hardly works.
For many long minutes, the Commander stands in perfect silence. She closes her eyes. The breeze whooshes past and ruffles her short, dark hair and lashes; the smell of wheat and new flowers fills her flared nostrils; there is a brief moment in which she feels nothing but the sensations of the world and the dull song of her heart in her chest. Then something changes.
The smell—she can smell someone, on top of the flowers and dew. Mari cracks an eye open. Against the bleeding yellow-and-pink, a silhouette is moving steadily through the fields, a silhouette Marisol doesn’t recognize. Which is unusual. She prides herself on keeping an eye on the comings-and-goings of her court; to see a stranger is not too common a thing. Marisol rolls her shoulders, as if waking herself up from a deep sleep, and starts slowly toward the silhouette.
“By her Hand,” she calls out, with an unusual amount of warmth, and then adds as an afterthought, “Good morning.”
Uzuri sighed as she embraced the calm of dawn and shook her body to wake the muscles and nerves. Before she could think about leaving, a figure that she had only seen from a distance approached and called out a greeting. It took the young mare by surprise and she had to do a double take to make sure it was her being spoken to.
“By her Hand, Good morning.” "Good morning." She beamed at the other mare as she stepped closer. Uzi had been part of the Dusk Court for as long as she could remember, but the mare before her was one that she had never spoken to. "The dawn is beautiful and calming, isnt it?" She commented warmly, chocolate eyes warm with the happiness that she was feeling as she spent time in the warming morning.
"I am Uzuri. It is a pleasure to meet you." Uzi introduced herself with a smile, dipping her head in respect to the mare before her. She had a tendency to believe the best of others until she was proven wrong... though the only one that had really done that was her brother. Mostly, just due to the simple fact that he was a knot head and pain in the rear. Shoving the thoughts out of her head, she focused on the present and waited patiently for the other mare to speak.
Marisol is pleasantly surprised to find that the girl smiles when she approaches. The Commander is not used to such warm receptions; her reputation precedes her, and she is well-known across Terrastella not only for her waspish countenance but for the trail of violence she leaves when training on the meadows. Mostly when she meets a stranger, they regard her with a sort of wide-eyed trepidation. Not this one.
She is tall and slim and splashed in roan and white, but there are more interesting parts of her popping out at first glance—bright turquoise tribal markings spiral from her face down her neck, and when Marisol looks down she sees the same markings on the girl’s fetlocks. The wings that stretch out behind her are patterned in alternate black, white, and blue, and Mari can’t help marveling at the sight of them, so unashamedly bright against the pale sky.
“It is,” Marisol agrees, tilting her head and gaze upward. “I should really watch it more.” She rarely has the time nowadays, but looking at the dawn makes her ashamed that she doesn’t take the beauty of her homeland more seriously. With a pang of something like regret, she starts to think back, longing for the days as a kid that she would spend out here in the fields or on the beaches as the sun came up, slashing her spear through the warm air. It was like this, always—unerringly beautiful, and wasted on the way Marisol’s eyes were always turned toward blood instead.
Uzuri. The Commander nods; she hasn’t heard of her, but that’s not surprising. Marisol’s social circle is woefully small outside the scope of the Halcyon and Asterion. (And Isra, she thinks with a pang of something like despair.) “Halcyon Commander Marisol,” she introduces with a dip of her head, her roached mane bristling as her neck bends, and looks up with cool gray eyes. “What brings you out here?”
“It is, I should really watch it more.” Uzi smiled and nodded, her warm brown eyes drifting to the colors of the sky once again. "It is probably a sight that most dont even pay attention to. The painting that hangs in the sky for only a short time... It is often taken for granted and forgotten about." For a moment, she felt like a wise poet... then the shyness crept back in and made her pause. Thankfully, the heat of embarrassment didnt show on her pristine white face. "Well... that was a bit more rambling than I intended." She chuckled softly as she swung her gaze back to the striking mare.
“Halcyon Commander Marisol,” Halcyon... Halcyon... The word bounced through her mind as she tried to place a hoof on where she had heard it before. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I regret to say that I am not completely familiar with the Halcyon. I have kept to myself since my mother brought me to the court. Mostly it has been training to be a soldier and helping those that need help. I know what it is to be unable to help yourself and needing assistance." She was a bit more wordy than usual that morning, a fact that made her flick an ear back and silently chastise herself. Nobody wanted to hear her entire life story! Why blab it and make a fool of herself?
“What brings you out here?” Uzi paused and considered the question. Shrugging, she smiled. "It is my day off... no training or anything to keep me from enjoying the dawn. Yourself?" The warming sun felt like heaven on her back as she adjusted her stance to let it hit more fully. "It seems that I am still struggling to fit in, even after a few years. It is easier to be alone and find peace, instead of shoving myself into everything and annoying others." The last was said with an air of frustrated amusement. She had swore that she would never become her brother and his obnoxious tendencies.
“You’re a soldier?” Marisol can’t quite contain the surprise in her force or the vague raise of her eyebrows. Not based on her appearance—no, the Commander knows better than any that the scrappiest warriors often fight the hardest, the smallest and the slimmest often abide by the least rules. This girl’s bright colors and soft smile mean nothing of her ability, but the muscle that lines her shoulders and her height do; she can see that they would be well-matched in a fight. (And perhaps more importantly that she would fit well into the Halcyon.) “I’m disappointed we haven’t crossed paths yet.”
Some part of her is wracked with guilt. What kind of Commander is she that can’t keep track of her own court’s soldiers? When a war is looming on the horizon, no less? Marisol’s lips press together into a soft line, but if she feels any disappointment at all, her face hides it well. She has plenty of practice steeling herself for the worst, anyway. When Uzuri begins to speak of her ostracization from the rest of Terrastella, Marisol’s expression softens a little, and the hardness of her face turns into a look of warm understanding.
“Some fit in easier than others,” she says, not unkindly. “It took me, too, a… considerable amount of time to fit in completely. Worry not.” Mari smiles then—just barely, a sharp suggestion of a grin—and dances backwards a few strides with an ease and practice that suggests years of such movement. The ground is damp with last night’s rain, but not too slippery; she dips her head and twists her wings out to nearly their full length, meeting Uzuri’s eyes as if in a dare.
“You would do well in the Halcyon.” Her brows raise. “We are simply Terrastella’s air unit—flying soldiers, which I assume you know plenty about.” The humor on her face intensifies, and her smile deepens. Dawn is spreading its rosy fingers all over Terrastella now. Marisol’s haunches wriggle like a cat about to pounce, and perhaps on the steppe, or in battle, the way her muscles tense would be threatening. But she tosses her spear easily to the side as a show of good will, as a way of taking the teeth of her obvious invitation to spar.
There is a playful gleam in her eyes (terribly unlike her) that shines extra brightly in the day’s new light.
“You’re a soldier? I’m disappointed we haven’t crossed paths yet.” Uzi smiled and nodded. "It seemed the best way to help. I am no good at healing or anything like that. It also served as a way to work of the... emotions... that threatened to overwhelm me when I was younger." She didnt babble on about her pain and issues when she could help it and Marisol probably didnt want to hear it anyway.
“Some fit in easier than others, It took me, too, a… considerable amount of time to fit in completely. Worry not.” Uzi couldnt stop the snort that bubbled in her throat. "I try not to... but it is challenging when the world seems to go on around you without even noticing you." She said, though she smiled a warm smile at the other mare, genuinely happy for someone to talk to and perhaps connect with. Watching the darker figure as she moved, Uzi flicked an ear and grinned. She stretched her neck and flared out her own multi-hued wings, enjoying the feeling of the muscles stretching and warming.
“You would do well in the Halcyon. We are simply Terrastella’s air unit—flying soldiers, which I assume you know plenty about.” Uzi's ears pricked forward as Marisol described the Halcyon. They sounded like what she would love to do. She loved to fly and had become quite passionate about her role as a soldier. "Aerial soldiers... That sounds intriguing. It is a specialized unit? One that you have to be selected for?" Her words were curious, with an air of extreme excitement bubbling underneath. Once again, she finds herself fascinated by the other mare. It was not often that she was challenged to spar, even in training. Most of her training was solo work to keep her muscles strong and her body conditioned. She grinned, eyes alight with amusement and daring. This could be fun if Marisol was wanting to really test her. Uzi dipped her head, signalling that the commander could make the first move as her senses woke and focused upon her.
"Uzuri"
@Marisol Notes: OMG -headdesk- How in the world did I miss this thread?! I am so sorry love!
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