LISELI
I can heal you and you can be whole, because that is who we are.
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T
he night was clear and the darkness consuming, the only light coming between the trees was from the moon in the heavens. The path before Liseli was barely visible but his feet hit the compacted dirt confidently, making the characteristic thumps of hooves hitting land. He wasn’t sure where he was now and that usually wasn’t an issue for the being, but there was something particularly dark about this night. The air was chilly and lonesome. Forests he’d been accustomed to were usually humming to the low tune of some creatures sleep or nightly activities, here there was nothing. No breeze, no sound just cold. Liseli wouldn’t admit it to himself but his sense of unease made him move a little quicker down the path and through the trees. His wings tucked closely to his well-formed body holding to on to the heat that he could, straining his eyes forward assessing his surrounding quickly but slightly cautious. It was some time until the trees started thining out, relaxing more of the terrain before Liseli. It was of some relief to him, for once preferring the change of scenery. As the trees thinned Liseli couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of unease, something unusual for him. It was similar to the way his lost lover used to feel towards the end, anxious and lonesome. The quiet echoed louder than most words he’d ever heard, that was until a loud crackling noise started him in to a stop. His head raised and ears flicked forward, it sounded like metal loud and scraping. It wasn’t a peasant noise and other horses may have turned and run, but that was not in Liseli’s nature. Hesitantly he stepped forward further past the trees.
From the trees the path started to wind upwards up to the ridge of a cliff, the light of the stars now able to penetrate through the land. From here Liseli could see the reminants of a statue, an odd looking thing obviously placed there for a purpose. He was unfamiliar with these objects, though he’d seen a few over his travel in Novus. He knew the importance placed upon them in certain circles, which seemed all the stranger when he noticed the chunks of rock scattered about the base. Someone’s got a problem, He though to himself. He did feel bad for them, whoever they had been, Liseli had known pain but never to the point of expressing it in such a way. His mind simply didn’t compute sadness the way other’s seemed to. His suffering was internal and it always had been.
Liseli had dropped his crown to take in a few whiffs from the shattered mess around him, there was a scent. After miles of traveling around without any of the slightest indication of life, this new stimulus surprised him. The scent, it confused him. Recent and a bit sour. His face dropped in solidarity, a worried but vacant as he came to the realization that he recognized this scent. Not of the individual whomever they had been, but the scent of pain and hurt. It had been burned in his skull long, long ago. It was then his head jerked upward rapidly, making his mane dance backwards and become beautifully disheveled. He turned towards the path, he could hear hoofbeats. The once compacted dirt path was now stone and these types of paths were easier to hear.
Liseli squinted and stepped closer to the sound, reserved and ready for whatever it was. That scent in the air was still there, it had been the one smashing all of the stonework. From the darkness that seemed to clear he could see someone. Against the sky he could see that of a lightly toned body, the golden sheen of it accentuated by the starlight. It started Liseli as he watched the figure stop and look over the edge of the path. Was he to get involved? Once again his curiosity the best of him and he let out a fairly loud nicker towards the figure. This way it is chance, if they hear me great, if they don’t maybe it was meant to be that way too. Liseli was never one to pry for attention, but he’d grown a concern for this stranger.
