TORIELLE
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams
The mare had taken to long walks along the edge of the forest as soon as the morning frost started to cling to the barren limbs of the trees above her. It reminded her of when she first arrived in Novus, and in its own way it felt as close to home as she would ever be again. Despite having been in this new land for several seasons, she had not yet made any true friends. A random encounter here, a conversation there- as for concrete relationships? None.
Though she loathed to admit it, the woman hadn’t quite come to terms yet with the change. If she accepted fully that this was her new place in the world, that would mean believing that all hope was lost to see home again. To see her tribe, her family. To walk the halls of the Sage’s vast library and to learn about as many lives as there were fish in the sea or stars in the sky. If she were to finally settle in and call Novus her home, that would mean saying goodbye to everything that had come before it.
Change had never been a strong suit for anyone blessed by Gaia, though perhaps that was just the comfort of her old teachings. She wrapped herself in those words of wisdom like a warm blanket, some semblance of the life she knew before. Even if many of her old teachings had never sat right with her to begin with.
And so Torielle walked, leaving a trail behind her in the dusting of snow. It had not been much, but the winter season had only just begun and she expected there to be much more on the way. The morning air was crisp but clear. She scanned the horizon in hopes of seeing snow laden clouds, but there were none. Save for the small wild things that came to soak up the golden sun, the mare felt alone on the edge of the wood.
Anyone who did not know her at a distance might have thought her some sentry walking the bounds of Delumine. Her hooves wore a path into the earth from countless methodical steps- or so she liked to think. The veil in her hair and the silver that adorned her antlers would have marked her otherwise, the bells woven through the branches trilling lightly with each step, An entertainer, maybe, or a researcher or scholar. Perhaps someone of noble birth. Her dark pelt was a beautiful splash of colour against the cool landscape, the auburn tones of her hair contrasting with the dull hues around her.
In any case, the mare had to acknowledge that she had grown lonely. After arriving in Novus she had lost contact with her goddess. In that way, she had lost part of herself. She had lost her guide, her belief in goodness. She had been abandoned, and that more than anything had been the barrier between moving forward in this new land and pushing away all new experiences. The grief, it seemed, had been too much for the mare.
Step by step she continued to pace the same trail at the edge of the forest, in hopes of feeling just a little bit closer to home. Perhaps it was time for her to move on- to see new lands in this world, to learn new things. To stagnate was to die, after all, and Torielle had been stagnant for far too long.
art by the-day-of-shadow character by scapeh table by sunny
