It was hard not to notice the bird that had fluttered down in to the Court, the deep bellow of a voice that wasn't from the creature itself. Hard to miss how the earth had danced and shook and reformed. Jaxis was keen on observation usually, but this level of what had happened was absurd, and she was rather surprised that there weren't many others already trekking up to the towering trees and what felt like unseen eyes settling on them.
For once, her speckled flanks gave a twitch of unease, her horned head turning as she blinked at the towering plants before her. Mottled lips parted, and Jax found herself licking her lips instead, her ears swiveling to pin back against the waves of ivory mane that settled against her nape and skull.
"So is anyone really here? Or are you just playing games with us?" She finally piped up, perking her ears again as she stepped forward, coming closer to the trees. She was tall, but these trees seemed otherworldly in their massive stature, as if plucked from ancient times and grown to replace actual mountains. Jaxis felt dwarfed, a feat that was not easily achieved.
One massive hoof pawed at the ground, before she lifted it up and knocked against the bark of one of the closest trees that she could reach, looking up at the canopy before back down to where she had touched. It certainly seemed like a normal tree, too, even if it was some titanic creation from the mouths and hands of the deities.
"You guys didn't just grow these for nothing. Or send out birds with voices just to do it...." Her ears twisted back, annoyed for a second. Were they here to intervene with the tensions of the Courts? "What are you here for...? Why now?"
The plains had faded from view, the last blades of grass tracing the crudely branded snake on her hock long ago. It still burned, on her leg and in her core, and she had skulked away from the grass sea with her inky ears pinned slightly against her thick mane.
She did not welcome the reminder, obviously.
I suppose I should make my way to Denocte, she thought with a sigh. Too long has she meandered, a stray, void of a sense of urgency and thus feeling adrift in a driftless sea. Slowly she began to forge a pathway around the looming mountain, choosing her footing based on feel and an innate skill. Slowly she rolled her eyes up the rocky slopes, realizing that these, too, stood as a harbinger of nostalgia as her memories of home seeped into her mind. The cold floor of the Ivory Ridge had been stained with her blood as her mother birthed her, wrapped snugly in love and compassion.
Cool alpine air consumed her as she paused, the breeze tousling the shark’s teeth adorning her dense braids. Their sharp points tickled the midline of her arched neck in welcome reassurance. She had intended to continue plowing forward through the thick wilderness, though the scent of others, of strangers, grew stronger on the wind. She shrugged idly to herself and figured she had nothing to lose, she stepped in line and changed course for Veneror Peak.
"So is anyone really here? Or are you just playing games with us?" she heard inquired through the trees, stoic behemoths that cradled secrets beneath their boughs. A single solid thud rang out as Jaxis rang her hoof against one of the ancient trunks just as Hydra broke into her line of sight.
"You guys didn't just grow these for nothing. Or send out birds with voices just to do it… What are you here for...? Why now?" Her ears flicked forward and she beheld the black and white mare quizzically, rolling her tongue against her wolf teeth.
“… Who are you talking to?” the two year old spoke a bit brashly, surveying the area briefly as she noticed other horses trickling in. Everyone was so… fanciful. A huge! She kicked the ground with her right rear hoof absentmindedly, testing if she was dreaming. Realizing she may have come off a bit rude, she reluctantly offered up an explanation.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen anyone, let alone such a vast array of other horses…” she glanced around again before raising her gaze back to Jaxis. “Did something… happen here?”
H Y D R A *if you could only see the beast you've made of me...
For all of her questioning, Jaxis hadn't actually expected anyone to show up anywhere. The Summit was a rather deserted place, for all of the ruckus that had been caused only a day or so prior. Granted, within the next few days, she expected there would be a steady trickle of nosy horses showing up to shove their noses in to things, as well as the regimes to show up. It would be a mess, and she wouldn't be around to witness it. Let them all squabble and bring themselves to ruin.
Snorting, ears twisted on her head, and the mare turned her head slowly, blinking once or twice, those purple eyes flickering over a much smaller frame than her own. Annoyance washed down the woman's spine as she realized there were others beginning to arrive, and she scowled at them, lifting her head a moment to survey them all, and then bring her head back down once more to a more comfortable level. "The gods have finally made an appearance. All of this? The trees? The clearing? This was all mountain, bare and empty, just a few days ago. Now look at it. It happened overnight." Jax rolled her shoulders a little, taking several steps away from the towering plants, giving a sidelong glance at one or two, before turning back to the other mare.
"I doubt anything will come of it. Nothing has so much as happened since the trees came up, except for birds talking like gods." Her muzzle wrinkled up, and she turned herself away from the trees, kicking a back hoof to scrape at dirt and shove a bit of it at the plants. A kick and denial of the gods, of everything they stood for. "They're probably here just to bring their supposedly divine opinions on the regimes, and then return to wherever the hell they came from. Not really anything exciting."
Gods were foreign to her, and it sounded like many others had similar experiences as they mulled over their unanswered prayers. The flesh of Seasna was supported on the backbone of belief in the spiritual, of a force greater than the parts but reliant on their cohesiveness to thrive. There were no deities, no individuals lording over mortals, and death was celebrated as a generous gift.
Novus would prove to be different. Several more individuals appeared from amongst the trees, each one seemingly more fantastical than the last. Violent horns and branching antlers adorned some, while others clasped regal wings against their sides, the feathers fitting snugly over one another. Her dark eyes glanced briefly at the purple horns adorning the ivory crown of the mare before her, and for a moment Hydra loftily wondered what it might be like to stray from the basic equine mold. She entertained it fleetingly, the realist in her recognizing it as a mere passing fancy.
Her brows hitched, reading Jaxis’ candid annoyance. “Sounds amazing,” she spoke with a dry snort. “They did this overnight, huh? Just because they can?” Her gaze crawled up the nearest tree trunk, studying the deep grooves in the bark where insects and secrets hid. It was almost beguiling, though she frowned at the lie that they were – these trees were not ancient, though perhaps they had been fashioned by an ageless force. An exhale burst from her nostrils, fluttering a clump of soft, minty-green moss.
Before she could turn back to Jaxis, a tremor rolled through the earth, her stocky legs quickly finding stalwart purchase.
“What the hell was that?” The dun whipped her head back to the brooding Jaxis, nostrils flaring and ears tipping back. The question burned in her eyes as they peered from beneath her forelock, the thick cream strands disheveled and wild. Calculated distrust began to boil within her chest.
What it would be like to be a god – moving mountains, molding life!
She guessed they took it just as easily.
H Y D R A
How the heavens they opened up
Like arms of dazzling gold
With our rain-washed histories well, we do not need to be told
@Jaxis @Random Events
ooc. hiya! I’m writing it as though the entrance just collapsed. Sorry for the delay!
There was the flicker of a smile, though it was more strained than anything, annoyance winding its way through muscles and tendons, burying in to her bones. "I suppose so. There's no other reason, though they have called for the regimes." Perhaps it was time for the mortals to meet their demise, though she highly doubted it. Ears twitched, and she focused on the trees once more, still gazing up toward the highest point with a mere tilt of her head to focus on where the canopy reached, a dark mass against the sky. So high up that only a leaf or two made it down; the rest were blown away by the winds wherever they dropped, not a chance given to reach the ground.
Her mouth opened, but there was a shudder, a roll of the earth. Immediately, Jaxis splayed her legs to catch her balance, digging large hooves in to the dirt as a loud voice shuddered. It was deep, booming, enough that it sounded like it could be heard throughout the lands entirely, all of them. STOP. It made her ears clamp against her head, violet eyes gazing at the trees and what would lay beyond, her lips instead twisting in to a scowl. The same booming voice she had heard even in the depths of the swamp before she had made her way here.
Turning her head away as the tremors died, she focused on the other mare once more, eyelids half covering violet irises. "Tempus, I would say. The father of the gods. It was the same voice I heard back in the swamps of Terrastella." Her teeth bared a moment as she looked, huffing out. "I wonder what happened in there.. perhaps he wiped out the regimes of the lands in his anger." Her voice was dry, seemingly unbothered by the fact.
Let them be wiped out, then, if they chose to anger him in some way.
HIS CALL BOOMED louder than a thunderclap. There was no static, no possibility of mistaking the bellowing voice as heralding from anything other than a magical, otherworldly being. It reminded her of the raging swells as they crashed relentlessly against the rocky shores back home. Sometimes, whole shelves would tumble down into their depths, calving in the face of sheer power. Is that how they see us? As things to bend and break? she thought with a frown as she winced, uncertain if she was feeling anything other than belittled.
“He sounds pretty pissed off… I wonder what they did to be on the receiving end.” She glanced up at Jaxis, meeting her apathetic gaze. “You’ve met him before, then? In the swamps?”
“Call me ignorant, but I had my doubts that gods existed,” she admitted with a shrug and a bemused, toothless smile. Suddenly, the other horses gathered upon the summit seemed to be flocking together with purpose. A few rushed past in a flurry of colors, flowing manes, and peculiar jewelry, quickly crossing the summit to an area that Hydra was unable to see from her current vantage point. She craned her head to peer just beyond Jaxis, shuffling slightly in order to see past the towering mare.
“Do you think?” Her ears swiveled forward, straining to catch the voices that constituted the regimes. “It sounds like they’ve been trapped.” Slowly she sank back down from the tips of her black hooves, pondering the fate of those sealed behind the puzzle of granite and rage.
H Y D R A
How the heavens they opened up
Like arms of dazzling gold
With our rain-washed histories well, we do not need to be told
"Probably something stupid, as everyone tends to do now and again." It wouldn't really shock her.
Jaxis frowned, her ears twitching, and her head shook the next moment. "No, not him. Heard of him, but never met him. Something happened, because his voice was in all of Terrastella. When I came around here, others said it was a bird talking from him." Her eyes hooded a moment and she puffed out a soft breath instead, shaking her horned head again, ears flicking.
She did let her gaze follow the others that flocked with terror, and her eyes wandered from them to the collapsed archway. She did not join them, nor feel the rush in her gut to push after them. She held no attachments to any of the regime, and she doubted they would be kept locked away for long.
"You must feel the urge to go free them, like the others, no?" she asked, moving herself a step or two back, casting a glance over her shoulder toward where they were all gathered and digging. "I doubt they'll be trapped for longs. Gods are heartless but even they are not stupid enough to leave their mortals without leaders. Causes a bit of anarchy."
Her tail flicked as she turned, moving her massive frame away from where the happenings were, instead taking steps that would lead her back to Terrastella once more, to the swamps.
HER BROW FURROWED as she watched the horses teaming together, straining against boulders and rubble. The dun filly had never felt that brand of force tug within her, one that would compel such action to rescue an authority figure. For family, she would dive in without question. But the elders of her tribe? Hell no, pompous assholes, she scoffed and flicked her head. Each soul was something different to every individual, and she assumed the masses had gathered to protect family, friends, and principles. Her eyes remained fixed on the cacophony across the clearing as Jaxis spoke of a bird filled with a clarion - and albeit oddly deep - voice.
“They’re strangers to me,” she replied noncommittally to the taller horse’s open-ended question. Hydra felt the pulse of this rendezvous growing weak, and Jaxis’ impatience was palpable. Her gut feeling was solidified as the horned one began to backtrack. Not one to overstay her welcome, she began to turn away in order to head deeper into the clearing.
“Well, thanks for the info. I’m going to go check it out before the fun dries up.” She bid adieu with a decorous smile and polite nod of her head. Languidly she walked towards the impromptu prison that these strange foreign gods had made, her curiosity having been piqued at the prospect of adventure.
H Y D R A
How the heavens they opened up
Like arms of dazzling gold
With our rain-washed histories well, we do not need to be told
