north star.

[Araxes]

ARAXES

TENDER HEART

Another winter has come.

It prickles down her spine, the cool air whipping her short mane. Her long ears flick back, and Araxes ducks her head, shuffling through the snow of the island. This place had cropped up seemingly overnight, and it feels.. good, to be a little ways away. To be somewhere new and to explore. To get her mind off of things she willingly let go.

A deep breath is taken, let out in nothing but a soft fog, and the striped mare sighs, shoulders relaxing, tension coiling out of her entire being. She hasn't seen any of her family since coming back to Novus... but perhaps.. they too, moved on. Perhaps she should swallow down her grief and move on. It aches, a sharp pain that lances in her chest when she pictures Tor, or the twins, or their daughter. It all hurts and she doesn't know how to stifle it anymore.

She hopes this place will do it. Perhaps it will.

Small steps are taken, and she delicately kicks a few tufts of snow, watching it fall back down to the ground before looking around. There are creatures flitting in the distance through the air, and she keeps herself from getting close. No good comes from those who wander near faeries. She knows that much.

Age feels like it's settling in her bones, and Araxes feels the subtle build of pressure in her sinuses, the way that it always does when she cannot escape her past, or anything in it. Why is it she had to fall in love, and then be pulled away? Why did she run? She tilts her head back gently, watching the skies above and the glimmering stars, closing her eyes a moment and centering herself with a soft inhale.

She would be okay. This would be okay.

@ anyone !

[Sloane]

If Sloane had to pick a favorite season, winter would be the one she would choose. While she was not one who was overly sentimental, she did enjoy winter for all it had to offer. It was cold, so cold it would make her bones shiver in order to heat up her body. When the temperatures were below freezing, she didn’t have to worry about sweating and thus didn’t have to worry about her coat matting when she moved.

Not only was the cold temperatures rather freeing, but winter offered her far more camoflague than the spring or summer when the land was in full bloom. At least in a landscape that was white and barren, the blackness of her coat did not stick out quite as much. Sure, the red painted a target, but it was nothing compared to the contrast of her coat against the flower blossoms.

But not only all those things, but Sloane liked winter because everything appeared dead or dying. Nothing was blooming. No animal species were strutting around like they hadn’t had tail in ages. The world was oddly quiet and that was just how Sloane liked things. Quiet, uncomplicated. It was when others because to get too comfortable that they tended to insert themselves into her life when they weren’t wanted. At least now most people wanted to stay home in front of the warmth of a fire.

But not Sloane. Sloane moved swiftly through the snow, her feet crunching the frozen earth with a sickening smile plastered upon her lips. Even her horrible life was not enough to damper her mood today. There was very little that would bother her today, or so she thought.

It was then that she came upon the alabaster and mint female. She looked at her curiously, having never seen something quite like her before. Although nothing truly surprised her anymore, she still found color pallets that she had never seen on another individual before. "Did someone forget to paint the rest of your stripes?" She looked unfinished, as if the painter still had a few strokes left to complete.

@Araxes