Below Zero
my frost philosophy will put no curse on me
It was a curiosity that had brought her to the mountains, a curiosity of being somewhere she'd not been before. Well, not above the water, that is. She'd experienced her fair share of seamounts and mid-ocean ridges . . . but this wasn't in the water, this was on land . . . and this one looked huge! Her gaze was almost gleeful with excitement, as had become her norm when experiencing a 'land-er' thing for the first time. But the others had cautioned with a look to the sky. 'Dark Clouds' they had warned 'Rainstorm' they had said. Words with meaningless titles to the mare who spent majority of her life until recently deep in the polar arctic. She did finally learn that when the clouds leaked water out of the sky ocean, it was called rain or rainfall. But no one could explain to her why the sky ocean was leaking in the first place (and fewer could even actually comment about the sky ocean, most rolled their eyes and walked away).
But for a creature that had come from the depths of the ocean, a lot of the things many horses just 'understood' she simply did not. She had no frame of reference for why the sky may suddenly leak, or how the water got trapped up there to begin with. She didn't see fish swimming through the oceans of the sky, so she was thinking it had to be a sea with little life to it, perhaps a Dead Sea? Had the gods seen how horrible of a sea it was and raised it out of reach from the creatures of the water? She shook the train of thought from her mind as she continued to climb the incline she was at, following along a narrow ledge to get to a fairly beautiful meadow she saw ahead (and two curves back). Her steps were sure, better than they were on grassy terrain - or heaven forbid thick, long grassy meadows. Rocks were a strong suit, rocks and sand, where she could balance herself better, figure out how much pressure to step with and not have to worry about stepping to hard to compensate the buoyancy of water that wasn't present on land. So far, beyond being cautious of her step, the climb wasn't too difficult - and she didn't plan to climb to high either.
A sudden sound, a mere seconds of a loud clap came out of nowhere, originated from the heavens and Bel froze, eyes wide with a start at the unfamiliar sound. Had something come off of the mountain - a rock slide impending perhaps? She'd heard horrible cracks and clashes like that when a side of an iceberg suddenly gave in and fell to the waters below. Her gaze searched the upper levels of the mountain, looking for anything out of place. Nothing. Her steps hurried a touch faster, her second, smaller set of eyes now focused primarily on the rock wall at her side as she climbed faster to the meadow she was looking for. A drop touched her shoulder, followed by a second on her hip and a third on her faintly scaled nose. Her gaze turned upwards . . . the sky was leaking again.
It was then that she really noticed how dark the clouds had gotten, and her brows knitted together with concern. Why was the sky so dark? It wasn't nighttime yet - almost a full day was ahead of her still, she made sure of that when she started up the mountain fairly early. It'd only been a short time, nowhere near the time for the sky to darken and the world to quieten. Plus, she was glowing, and if night was approaching, her glow would have started up. It simply was the wrong time for a darkening sky. She picked her pace up a bit more as the sky started to leak at a more constant rate, first a few drops every few minutes, to a more frequent rate of a dozen every few seconds. The water wasn't about to bother her, however - why should it, she swam in a lot more than this all the time.
But it was beginning to puddle under her hooves, the first time she slipped: it was only the quick maneuvering of her tail to righten her balance that kept her from sliding down the side of the mountain. Her steps became more hurried as more and more cracks in the rocks began to fill with the water the sky was leaking out . . . why was the sky flooding over? Had the tide come in? Does it only come in once a year in the heavens? Now the ocean was threatening to spill down to the world below? Her thoughts slowed as her hooves touched grass, before she spurred herself away from the edge of the mountain and into the meadow she had been looking for, no longer fearing falling down the cliff.
Another loud crack, this one echoing out longer; erupted from the heavens, and at her first thought, terrifying orange and red splotched tentacles were superimposed over the image of the meadow, lifting up into the air, suckers pointed towards her. Then the image was gone, replaced by the clear, but water logged meadow. No, surely the sky didn't have a Kraken. It had to be something else making that noise! Maybe the sky had giant icebergs that were being sheered off! Yes - and when the icebergs fall, it lifts the water level, causing the tide to pool up more than normal and thus the sky ocean was flooding and leaking over onto the world below! She'd solved it.
Light flashed above her, and her world changed again. Her gaze was once more drawn to the heavens (unaware that her breath had hitched and picked up, the first sign of fear setting in). There, again - the light zigzagged in a familiar pattern through the clouds. What were shock-eels doing up in the clouds? Why where they up there? WHERE THEY OKAY? They looked upset, swimming all around and zapping repeatedly But why are there eels up there to begin with! There must be entire school of them! Oh how do I help them - help to get them down?! What do I do? Even her thoughts were fast paced, matching the quick breathing as her heart started to beat a little faster in her chest. She reared then, her tail swinging out and around to balance her as she stretched towards the sky, trying to see the shock-eels a little better, Do they live up there? Are they supposed to be up there? WHY ARE THEY UP THERE?
As she tried to peer through the thick, angry clouds, another loud clap was heard, this one long and rumbling, growing louder and then quieter before turning deafening with it's vocal range. Vocal . . . Range . . . IT WAS A MONSTER! In the sky! There was an angry monster, and it had kidnapped the the shock-eels and holding them captive and was making the sky-ocean leak all of that water! The rain was beginning to fall faster, heavier. The water was cold as it started to drench her, slicking the thin pelt and attempting to penetrate the layer of blubber that kept her core from dropping in temperature when in the coldest parts of the ocean. She stood, staring at the sky, a second set of eyelids already closing over her eyes to keep water from stinging them, but still allowing her to see through them.
Her breath was coming out in panicky little shakes as she moved to get herself out of the increasingly heavy rain, dipping beneath a tree and sighing a breath of relief as the weather continued to worsen. Another crack - the monster was making more noise; followed by the eels' light had her watching the sky fearfully. Was the monster hurting the eels? Where the two fighting now and that was why all this was happening? Her body was starting to quiver - and not from the cold, fear taking a more rooted spot on her brain as another loud cracking, rumbling monster sound had her huddling against the tree. It continued like this, her finned ears soon lowering and pinning flat, her dorsal laying close to her body as she tried to make herself small against the tree.
Another flash of the eels' lit up the sky brighter than before, and she jumped as the shock hit a nearby tree and suddenly it had lit up in dancing flames like the Bonfires in the city. Her eyes went wider. When did eels start fires? Maybe it was a giant monster fighting eel monsters and they were all so angry that not only was the monster making the sky-ocean flood, but now the eels were shocking so desperately the shocks were catching things on fire! What if they tried to catch her on fire! She dove for cover even further away from the flaming tree, hiding beneath another one even as the rain was beating the flames into submission. Her eyes - both sets squeezed shut as her body hit the ground and she curled into a small ball tucked under the low limbs of the tree.
Above her the angry monster and the captive eel monsters waged war, growling and snarling at each other, and shooting shocks all over the sky. The sky ocean was in a disarray, falling and quickly causing lower divets in the meadow to fill with water, and even the aquatic mare's form was sitting in an inch or two of water. But she didn't notice, she didn't move - to lost in the fear the war had created with in her, and praying that the monsters above didn't take it out any more on the world below - especially on her. Please, she thought, prayed; softly to herself, her body quaking and quivering, Let those monsters stop fighting . . . . Don't let the sky ocean flood this world. For surely, if they didn't stop - the world was going to Flood and end.
Thoughts
Speech
But for a creature that had come from the depths of the ocean, a lot of the things many horses just 'understood' she simply did not. She had no frame of reference for why the sky may suddenly leak, or how the water got trapped up there to begin with. She didn't see fish swimming through the oceans of the sky, so she was thinking it had to be a sea with little life to it, perhaps a Dead Sea? Had the gods seen how horrible of a sea it was and raised it out of reach from the creatures of the water? She shook the train of thought from her mind as she continued to climb the incline she was at, following along a narrow ledge to get to a fairly beautiful meadow she saw ahead (and two curves back). Her steps were sure, better than they were on grassy terrain - or heaven forbid thick, long grassy meadows. Rocks were a strong suit, rocks and sand, where she could balance herself better, figure out how much pressure to step with and not have to worry about stepping to hard to compensate the buoyancy of water that wasn't present on land. So far, beyond being cautious of her step, the climb wasn't too difficult - and she didn't plan to climb to high either.
A sudden sound, a mere seconds of a loud clap came out of nowhere, originated from the heavens and Bel froze, eyes wide with a start at the unfamiliar sound. Had something come off of the mountain - a rock slide impending perhaps? She'd heard horrible cracks and clashes like that when a side of an iceberg suddenly gave in and fell to the waters below. Her gaze searched the upper levels of the mountain, looking for anything out of place. Nothing. Her steps hurried a touch faster, her second, smaller set of eyes now focused primarily on the rock wall at her side as she climbed faster to the meadow she was looking for. A drop touched her shoulder, followed by a second on her hip and a third on her faintly scaled nose. Her gaze turned upwards . . . the sky was leaking again.
It was then that she really noticed how dark the clouds had gotten, and her brows knitted together with concern. Why was the sky so dark? It wasn't nighttime yet - almost a full day was ahead of her still, she made sure of that when she started up the mountain fairly early. It'd only been a short time, nowhere near the time for the sky to darken and the world to quieten. Plus, she was glowing, and if night was approaching, her glow would have started up. It simply was the wrong time for a darkening sky. She picked her pace up a bit more as the sky started to leak at a more constant rate, first a few drops every few minutes, to a more frequent rate of a dozen every few seconds. The water wasn't about to bother her, however - why should it, she swam in a lot more than this all the time.
But it was beginning to puddle under her hooves, the first time she slipped: it was only the quick maneuvering of her tail to righten her balance that kept her from sliding down the side of the mountain. Her steps became more hurried as more and more cracks in the rocks began to fill with the water the sky was leaking out . . . why was the sky flooding over? Had the tide come in? Does it only come in once a year in the heavens? Now the ocean was threatening to spill down to the world below? Her thoughts slowed as her hooves touched grass, before she spurred herself away from the edge of the mountain and into the meadow she had been looking for, no longer fearing falling down the cliff.
Another loud crack, this one echoing out longer; erupted from the heavens, and at her first thought, terrifying orange and red splotched tentacles were superimposed over the image of the meadow, lifting up into the air, suckers pointed towards her. Then the image was gone, replaced by the clear, but water logged meadow. No, surely the sky didn't have a Kraken. It had to be something else making that noise! Maybe the sky had giant icebergs that were being sheered off! Yes - and when the icebergs fall, it lifts the water level, causing the tide to pool up more than normal and thus the sky ocean was flooding and leaking over onto the world below! She'd solved it.
Light flashed above her, and her world changed again. Her gaze was once more drawn to the heavens (unaware that her breath had hitched and picked up, the first sign of fear setting in). There, again - the light zigzagged in a familiar pattern through the clouds. What were shock-eels doing up in the clouds? Why where they up there? WHERE THEY OKAY? They looked upset, swimming all around and zapping repeatedly But why are there eels up there to begin with! There must be entire school of them! Oh how do I help them - help to get them down?! What do I do? Even her thoughts were fast paced, matching the quick breathing as her heart started to beat a little faster in her chest. She reared then, her tail swinging out and around to balance her as she stretched towards the sky, trying to see the shock-eels a little better, Do they live up there? Are they supposed to be up there? WHY ARE THEY UP THERE?
As she tried to peer through the thick, angry clouds, another loud clap was heard, this one long and rumbling, growing louder and then quieter before turning deafening with it's vocal range. Vocal . . . Range . . . IT WAS A MONSTER! In the sky! There was an angry monster, and it had kidnapped the the shock-eels and holding them captive and was making the sky-ocean leak all of that water! The rain was beginning to fall faster, heavier. The water was cold as it started to drench her, slicking the thin pelt and attempting to penetrate the layer of blubber that kept her core from dropping in temperature when in the coldest parts of the ocean. She stood, staring at the sky, a second set of eyelids already closing over her eyes to keep water from stinging them, but still allowing her to see through them.
Her breath was coming out in panicky little shakes as she moved to get herself out of the increasingly heavy rain, dipping beneath a tree and sighing a breath of relief as the weather continued to worsen. Another crack - the monster was making more noise; followed by the eels' light had her watching the sky fearfully. Was the monster hurting the eels? Where the two fighting now and that was why all this was happening? Her body was starting to quiver - and not from the cold, fear taking a more rooted spot on her brain as another loud cracking, rumbling monster sound had her huddling against the tree. It continued like this, her finned ears soon lowering and pinning flat, her dorsal laying close to her body as she tried to make herself small against the tree.
Another flash of the eels' lit up the sky brighter than before, and she jumped as the shock hit a nearby tree and suddenly it had lit up in dancing flames like the Bonfires in the city. Her eyes went wider. When did eels start fires? Maybe it was a giant monster fighting eel monsters and they were all so angry that not only was the monster making the sky-ocean flood, but now the eels were shocking so desperately the shocks were catching things on fire! What if they tried to catch her on fire! She dove for cover even further away from the flaming tree, hiding beneath another one even as the rain was beating the flames into submission. Her eyes - both sets squeezed shut as her body hit the ground and she curled into a small ball tucked under the low limbs of the tree.
Above her the angry monster and the captive eel monsters waged war, growling and snarling at each other, and shooting shocks all over the sky. The sky ocean was in a disarray, falling and quickly causing lower divets in the meadow to fill with water, and even the aquatic mare's form was sitting in an inch or two of water. But she didn't notice, she didn't move - to lost in the fear the war had created with in her, and praying that the monsters above didn't take it out any more on the world below - especially on her. Please, she thought, prayed; softly to herself, her body quaking and quivering, Let those monsters stop fighting . . . . Don't let the sky ocean flood this world. For surely, if they didn't stop - the world was going to Flood and end.
Thoughts
Speech
Open to Anyone
Notes: I cannot say in words how long I've wanted to do this to her! #NoI'mNotEvil,It'sCharacterDevelopment!
i feel no cold, i feel no fear inside my mind
Now I'm full of energy
![[Image: i-jTNwWx8.png]](https://photos.smugmug.com/BelowZeroNovus/n-X9d9fZ/i-jTNwWx8/1/e09fb6c3/O/i-jTNwWx8.png)
