She tackled the portal of woven oak next. Its intertwined branches reminding her of a land long covered in ashes. One long since forgotten and lost to time. Perhaps this portal would bring with it nostalgia. Or maybe longing for another past. She could never know until she stepped into it.
She’d felt a headache coming on that morning before she left, but the urge to finish what she’d started was too tempting to spend another few days in that god forsaken stone room, alone with her thoughts, and a bonded who at the moment seemed to resent her more than life itself did. Instead she’d picked a sprig of feverfew on her way back to the path, swallowed a leaf, and stuffed the rest into the bottomless satchel Caligo had gifted her. She hoped it would stave off the oncoming flare until she could finish exploring the last two realms of possiblility that the portals had brought with them. Picoro hadn’t even bothered to scold her. Though she could practically hear the contempt brewing inside him as he roughly braided her sparse mane.
She stepped out of this one into a frozen forest of conifers. She quickly noted the footprints that dotted the snow under her, leading not away from the portal, but into it. Which meant the creatures she had met in the other lands… they were going back to hers as well. What it meant she didn’t know, but it was exhilarating in some strange way. Change was coming, and for better or worse, at least it would break the stagnance that seemed to be taking hold wherever she went. At least. That's what Luvena hoped.
Her breath fogged up in front of her as she ventured into the trees. Somehow this felt even more unfamiliar than the rainforest. She’d seen trees like this before, spent days wandering through them, but even still somehow it felt odd. Like strangers were all around her. Their shadows danced about the trees, and she wondered if they were real, or if they were just fever dreams creeping in behind her.
let me stay where the wind will whisper to me
where the raindrops, as they're falling, tell a story
Callynite
in my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby
i lie inside myself for hours and watch my purple sky fly over me
The portals were their own brand of chaos. But the one in her beloved forest (though it was likely a correlation between it being so similar to her birth-forest, from a time when she was still deer rather than half-breed), was a front against her. THe magic of nature seemed to well up against it. It angrily hummed along the ley lines where the portal seemed to attach to the magic, twisting, corrupting it. Creatures slunk through. Marring the very energies of this forest in a way that Cally felt was wrong. Off. Unnatural. So unnatural. The magic hummed under the surface, as if calling her to investigate, to find out why it was there, what it wanted. And so she'd been watching it off and on.
When others began to approach the portals, she was nervous to see them pass through, to feel their very energy stop. It wasn't until the first one returned that she was reassured it wasn't a portal into the after life. But, she was still cautious about portals in general. The last one she had been through had brought her to this world, and it'd changed everything about her. Her appearance, as well as her species. And her magic had mutated to better fit this world. But when she felt the seeping energy approaching the portal, something called her forward. Perhaps it was the weaker pulse of something ill, but worry spurred her cloven hooves forward, and just as she saw them disappear into the portal, Cally hesitated, before this time, she followed.
Her breath left her in a puff of white, instantly shivering against the frozen world, wishing she had her thick cloak to don against this weather. Her gaze slowly moved around, from the mare that had passed through (and the sloth on her back), to the very nature around them. For a moment her heart stopped at the conifers, the cloven marks much like her own. Her nostrils flared, breathing in, and a sinking sense of disappoint followed. It might look like The Thicket's surrounding forests, but it wasn't her home, her original home. The scent of thyci didn't meet her nose. So instead, she turned towards the being who seemed less surprised by where they were.
Perhaps she knew more about what was going on than Cally did? Slight rustling caught the doe's attention, and she glanced towards the small heads peeking out of the sides of her saddlebags before she nosed them back into the warmth that the small sugar gliders would be able to find (except for Bandit who had already climbed free and was rooted into her forelock, wrapped around her straight horn. Cally let her senses extend, and once more found the magic of this area feeling off, not right. Like the old Island, but different still too. Chaotic, Wild. Not uniformed like the ley lines she was familiar with. She withdrew from it quickly before she approached the other mare, her expression friendly as she looked up at the taller being.
"Hello, my name is Callynite. Uhm, you seem a little . . . more familiar with these portals than I am, I was wondering if you knew what was going on with them? They . . . their magic feels off . . . And I'm helplessly confused by it all." She was as polite as she could be, earnest in her request for knowledge, but respectful. But more than anything, the former deity just wanted to know what was going on, and how much of a threat these portals presented to Novus, how much of a threat against the citizens of Viride Forest, and not just the equine ones.
It turned out that one of the shadows was brave enough to step forward. Though as she turned around to face it, she realized it likely hadn’t been one of them to begin with. Instead she was faced by a woman like so many others she had met in Novus and Elysium alike. An equine touched by cervine features. She had been friends with others who were nearly the same.
“Luvena” she rasped gently, with a quick dip of her head. Picoro had turned himself around on her back, facing pointedly away from the other mare. “I’m afraid I don’t know much more than you my dear.” She looked back around them, at the forest for a moment. “There’s… something else here though. Through all of them. Something sentient… like us. But.. not like us. I’m not sure what they are, I’ve only seen them in glimpses and flickers.”
She paused, taking a few more steps into the conifers. “Walk with me. We can discover this new land together, I think somehow all the portals are connected.”
let me stay where the wind will whisper to me
where the raindrops, as they're falling, tell a story
Callynite
in my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby
i lie inside myself for hours and watch my purple sky fly over me
There was much unknown about these portals, and it was for that fact that Cally felt they ought to be treated with caution. There was just something off, something wild - and not the sort of wild that natural magic, the very magic that flowed the ley lines and directed life was. That magic was wild, yes, but it had a system, it had rules and checks and balances that it still obeyed. How often had she pushed those rules too far, how often had her own energy been used to keep those balances? No, whatever ran these portals, whatever this was, it wasn't from the natural magic Cally was intuned to. This ran deeper than the ley lines than the energy that coursed through the very earth.
She was cautious about approaching a stranger, a habit from back home before she'd crossed into Novus; that had stuck with her. Back then you never knew who was under the thrall of the Disirax. Here, it was just common sense with so many sorts with their own allegiances. Furthermore, there was no reassuring whisper from Viride Forest, from the trees, to let her know if it was friend or foe that approached, or that she was approaching. Here, it was oddly quiet. The other mare gave her name, and Cally had to force her attention away from the sudden awareness that this world was quiet, quiet to her.
Luvena. It had an exotic sound to it, but Cally smiled, liking it. Her companion on the other hand didn't seem to give Cally any attention - and she had to smile faintly in amusement. From between her ears, Bandit twitched his nose, grasping onto her horn with one hand and practically waving his own hyper greeting. He'd always been one of the more mischievous of her gliders. At least his brother was keeping a closer eye on the girls from the safety of Cally's pack. The other didn't seem to know much more about this oddness, however, and Cally briefly allowed her disappointment to show.
But the information she did have had the doe perk slightly, "The odd . . . creatures? Every so often, they pass into our world, into Novus, right? I sense them briefly when they do, but they . . . they feel wrong. It's like the magic of this place. In Novus, amongst those currents, they feel off, different, trespassers." Her ears perked forward, both sets, and she tilted her head to the side, "Can you tell me anything about what they look like? Perhaps you have more of a picture than you might think." Cally offered with a reassuring smile.
The mare began to walk, and Cally hesitated a moment before following, "I don't know how much I like this new land, to be completely honest. It still feels off. And . . . it's quiet. The trees, and plants I mean . . . They've not said a word to me once since I came through this portal. I don't know if my magic needs to get a feel for these land, to be able to find its version of balance before I can start to feel it . . . but . . . I am curious about what lies deeper into these trees." It just felt oddly reminiscent to the first time her abilities had been locked away - and she didn't want that to ever happen again.
But the desire for adventure ran deep, and even with the worry about her magic fully shutting down in this odd world, Cally couldn't ignore the call. She had to see about what this land, what these portals were about, "How many portals are there, do you think? I've heard of just a few so far, but . . . this land, this . . . world seems vast." And how does it connect with Novus?
It was the wild that drew her to them she thought. The way it was once again like brushing up against the dangers of mystery, but without the strain of constantly moving, constantly resettling. It was discovery without first the encouragement of being uprooted from the last place. It was like reliving the moments she had first stepped into Elysium, and then later, Novus.
It was also the sentience that hung around them. Sometimes when she had travelled, it had just been her and the wild creatures of the lands around her. But here… the shadows she kept seeing… They didn’t feel like the untamed beings that flitted through the trees. Nor was it the strenuous sentience of a bonded, tied only into its partner. No, they felt as if they were minds of their own.
She could tell Picoro was curious too, that he could feel the pull of an adventure awaiting their attention. But she could also feel the resentment roll of him in waves, and his silence only pushed it further. She turned her attention instead to one of the creatures on Callynites back, waving and giddy with excitement.
She paused to think, coughing briefly through the silence. “Some look like deers, elk… Most are antlered, with cloven footprints… cervine if you will. But they aren’t…” she stopped, pondering her choice of words. “I haven’t tried to speak to them but they aren’t… empty. You can feel it, the life brimming here, the waves of thought. Not in the same way it is with a bonded… but more like us”
She looked to the other woman before glancing back at the trees. “I wouldn’t know to be honest” she replied “I’ve never had a whisper of magic in my bones, not the same way you and most of Novus has. But I like it here, it’s wild… and new, free of the burdens that Novus seems to put on it’s people sometimes. No gods to be felt…” she trailed off.
It wasn’t that she hated Novus gods, at least not anymore. But she was still tired, of watching those higher toy with mortals. Using them like pawns.
“Five, from what I can tell.” she answered briefly. “Though so far this is only the third one I’ve wandered through”
let me stay where the wind will whisper to me
where the raindrops, as they're falling, tell a story
Callynite
in my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby
i lie inside myself for hours and watch my purple sky fly over me
The druid-deer-turned-hybrid looked towards the other female, the both standing amongst the trees. Cally wondered what her new companion felt as she looked around. Did she feel the wrongness, the sense that it wasn't right. THat there was more here than met the eye. Cally sensed it in how her magic felt more chaotic, unable to smoothly slide into tune, as if this land was working on a different frequency. Or perhaps it was the portal itself. Perhaps this was proof they weren't in Novus anymore.
Perhaps the trees here spoke a language she did not. Perhaps she was making excuses to justify her unease. Bandit clearly didn't feel any of the unease, and it was with a snort that Cally silently instructed the glider to mind his manners, the little guy ignoring her to look around, wrapped around her horn like it was a tree branch. The other's words had her pause. Antlered, Cervine, but not. Her breath paused, hitching and her gaze suddenly turned back towards the world, Cervine but not? LIke home? Like what she had once been, stately and majestic, among a world where magic was embraced, and her people ruled their thicket. Or cervine and not like the Disirax that hunted her people down. Or something else entirely.
Could this be a pathway home . . . . did she want a pathway home? A flash of a charming face hit her mind and she knew she couldn't just return home, she had made a life for herself here, and that life would hold her strong for now. So instead she listened on. "An intelligent life you mean? More than the life we gift the bonded when we bond, but a truer intelligence? But you said they were cervine, but not. Is the not because they're like us . . . . Like I once was?" Her voice had gone softer as she looked around, nose twitching, her own cloven hooves pressing into the dirt, before she lifted it as if to compare it to the tracks around them. Cloven, but thicker, from the taint of equine that had forceably changed her when she'd travelled through that portal so long ago.
Her magic had kept her half-turned, trying to lock on the deer-like aspects she had once held, but it had not been enough. Her antlers were gone, replaced with nubs. Her cloven hooves were thicker, broader, no longer dainty. Her pelt was different, coarser. The fluff of her chest gone. But her magic had tried, even as it had been sealed away. There was a lingering disappointment still, when it came back to her, that elegant magic that allowed her to be one with the natural world, it did return her to her form though. She was still . . . trapped as a hybrid beast.
The other spoke again, and at her words, Cally allowed herself to think on that, trying to sense the land rather than sense the differences, and then it was like a shift, the chaotic touch of the land lost it's sliminess, replaced with a wildness she hadn't perceived before because she was too focused on how it messed up her magic. Was she comparing it too much to Novus, instead of it's own place?
She glanced back towards Luvena, before dipping her head, "Thank you for the information you have provided, it has offered me more than I knew before. Would you mind partying with me to venture further into this land then?" She offered with a slight smile, the curiosity returned, even if it was still tempered by her caution to this place. While it felt less chaotic, it was - after all - still unfamiliar.
It wasn’t just its wildness that drew her to it. It was… the newness. Everything in Novus felt like a rerun to her. She went through phases where it was good, and then it was awful. A cycle of choices that could never just stay right. A cycle that she had been stuck in for years now. The same thing every day, every season. This was new. Something she had a chance to not ruin.
She nodded, her attention brought back to Callynite. “They just seem like… us. Completely. I don’t know how else to explain it” They were so different, and yet exactly the same. She had seen a few venture into their side as well. Even in Denocte, every once in a while, she had caught a glimpse of one creeping along, just as cautiously as they were now.
Her head was starting to pound but she agreed nevertheless. “Of course. I’d like to see what can be found within this place” She started moving farther into the trees. Being careful not to catch any of the roots hidden under the snow. “So.” she started. Trying awkwardly to make conversation. “Where in Novus are you from? I’ve not seen you in Denocte before”
let me stay where the wind will whisper to me
where the raindrops, as they're falling, tell a story
Callynite
in my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby
i lie inside myself for hours and watch my purple sky fly over me
The doe looked around, forced herself to settle, her heart to slow, her magic to ghost over this land instead of trying to rope it. Slowly, it did seem to settle, seemed to lose the chaos, seemed to feel less wrong, and instead just different, new, wild. Slowly other voices began to break through, soft, curious greetings, tiny voices asking who they where, how they got there, where they came from. The trees looking for gossip, the flowers curious, the plants eager for information. Cally tuned them out, turning back to the other mare.
"Makes em want to meet one directly." She says suddenly, standing as tall as her tiny 10 hand height would allow as the pony-deer cross looked around. "It is curious why the portals would connect us to this . . . place. Is it another place in our world? A land beyond these oceans? Or did it connect us to a whole new realm?" She continued to muse quietly, curiously, intrigued.
She started to follow the other into the trees, equally curious to what may be found within, her steps light in the forest, even as roots moved out of her way, trees lifted their limbs for her so she wouldn't have to duck, "Oh, I'm kind of all over, but I'm part of Dawn Court. I like to adventure though, so I'm not in Delumine very often. When I am, however, I tend to stay close to Viride Forest . . . My magic is happiest there." She explained, as another branch was lifted out of her way, the mare leaving a brush of her energy against the tree's in a gentle thanks. "I take it you are a Denoctian then?"
