alyndra's choice
She waits with rapture, with attention undivided from the pair of equines before her. They could not look more different on the outside, one like the earth and the trees; grounded, strong, reliable. The other burns as brightly as the sun; passionate, driven, fierce. Ah, her opaque white eyes may appear like they do not see but she sees. How well she sees, perhaps so much better than even these two horses before her.
Her questions poised, there is nothing to do but wait for their response but she cannot. Her regard is sharp and relentless, and with each step closer she makes toward them the crystals upon her skin sparkle and shine and reflect light around them in a beautiful array. She wants to beg and plead with them to show her that they are good, that she can entrust them with her gift. But she cannot possible know until they open their mouths and speak to her, until they answer her question from their hearts.
And then the first one speaks, the one with skin like summer soil. Ah ah, ah, first she denies the power but that is not what the spectre has asked. There is no choosing not to have the power, only to shoulder its responsibility and to determine what to do with it. There are things in your life that you have no control over, no matter how much you might wish it. What she wants to know is what you do afterwards, how you react to these things. This is what matters to her.
‘There is so much good in this world,’ the woman says but she wants to cry out no! No, no no! There is so much bad in this world! So many shadowy places and equines with deceit and hatred in their hearts. What good there is, if there is any left out there beyond these trees she is trapped to wander, is so often eclipsed by the dark goings on.
Is it worth searching for, if you have to search at all? A part of her, long lost to this nowhere, in-between oblivion—the part taken too young, too wrong, too horribly and then abandoned in the deepest woods—wants to turn the girl away. But she will wait. Wait for the other to speak.
The other, who is like a flame in this forest of ethereal violets and indigos, is silent for a beat, and then two. Enough that she almost considers posing the question again, just to get her attention. Oh, how it drives her crazy to see how deeply the pegasus is thinking but being unable to know her thoughts. Are they true? Is this who she has been searching for? She is aching to know, her ephemeral skin trembling with the tension she feels.
But!
She lifts her head and the spectral equine finally gets a look into those glimmering golden eyes. Please, she thinks silently, please oh please. The first spoken words are a shock to her and she lifts her head, eyes wide. But her honestly becomes her, and she cannot be faulted for the selfishness in her heart. All things are selfish at heart and will act selfishly unless taught differently, unless shown a different way. She wonders, does this pegasus know a different way?
The ghostly woman listens, and the phoenix’s words are bright and clear as her feathers. Her heart is warm and full of hope. But, it is her last sentiment that strikes the phantom even visibly, like she has been strung through with an arrow or a pike. There is a jolt to her form, her white eyes pooling gossamer tears once more.
‘...if only they knew they did not have to be so scared, and sad, and alone.’ If she were breathing her breath would come sharp and short, like gasps, like sobs. She steps closer to the winged one, bringing her chill and her softest of glows with her. “You…” she says, voice quieter than it has been since she first spoke to them.
In the blink of an eye, Katniss will find herself no longer standing within the strange crystallized wood, but outside the forest where she began. The pull to search from the night is gone, and she will be unable to re-enter. But within the woods, within that clearing of light and gems, stands Moira still, with the spectral equine mere inches from her.
Alyndra has chosen.
“You, you are who I have been waiting for. Thank you for revealing your heart to me, and for reminding me that I am not isolated,” her voice is a melody, not unlike the sounds the crystals make when the wind brushes them together high up in the trees.
From the gravemarker rising up out of the ground she pulls a shard of crystal. It glides through the air toward the pegasus, and floats before her, waiting for her to take possession of it. “When I was left here, somehow this is what became of the crystals that sprout from my skin. Perhaps it is the earth’s way of making sure I am never truly forgotten.”
“I want you to have it, and I hope that it brings you more wealth than those who have tried to take them unbidden.” She does not say who, and still there are no answers for the legends that have brought all the equines to this forest tonight. As the phantasmal mare steps away it almost seems as if her steps are lighter, and there are no longer sparkling tears lining the curves of her face. “Thank you again,” her voice dances around them as the wind picks up, sparking the crystals above into song.
It swirls about the pegasus mare, lifting her up and up through the trees and above into the sky. Once in the air, should she try to look down she will see that the clearing and the crystal trees are gone, replaced by the woods she knows. There will be no finding her way back now.
Alyndra has chosen!
Katniss will find herself one moment within the forest with both Moira and Alyndra, and then within the blink of an eye, transported outside it. Was it her answers or her heart that did not speak to the ghostly mare?
Having been touched by Moira's response, Alyndra leaves Moira with one of her crystals. It doesn't seem to possess any special traits but might fetch a nice price. You will be sent 500 signos for successfully completing this event!
While no exit response is necessary, if you would like to post an exit you can use this thread to count towards both completing a thread for the Harvest Festival if you post it before the 30th! Thank you so much to everyone who participated!
Katniss will find herself one moment within the forest with both Moira and Alyndra, and then within the blink of an eye, transported outside it. Was it her answers or her heart that did not speak to the ghostly mare?
Having been touched by Moira's response, Alyndra leaves Moira with one of her crystals. It doesn't seem to possess any special traits but might fetch a nice price. You will be sent 500 signos for successfully completing this event!
While no exit response is necessary, if you would like to post an exit you can use this thread to count towards both completing a thread for the Harvest Festival if you post it before the 30th! Thank you so much to everyone who participated!
