[PT] Common Sense

[Arah]

These caves were not an unfamiliar landscape to the doe. She had found her way around The Heart Caves in Helovia, they had been been a haven when the wraiths attacked Helovia. Somewhere she thought herself and her daughters safe. Having spotted the caves while wondering through Novus she wondered if Tilney or Maude might have seen the caves and sought refuge within them. It would not do to just wonder past them, no she would have to investigate the depths of the caves. Knowing Maude and her curious nature her daughter would have most likely wondered into the very heart of the caves. Taking a breath she dipped her crowned head and entered stepped into the cool entrance of the caves.  The drop in temperature became more drastic the deeper she journeyed into the caves. The wet stone walls suggested that no light had ever kissed these stones. Loose rocks and sand made up the floor, it was dangerous and threatened more than a broken ankle. The doe found herself praying that Maude had not decided to explore these caves. They were different to the caves that made the up the heart of Helovia. Both were mazes, those who got lost among the endless corridors rarely ended up seeing daylight again. Their bones simply became apart of the decor in the caves, stepped upon by more unfortunate travellers who were then clued into their eventual fate. Fortunately she had not yet stepped on any such decor.  Hoping that if Maude or Tilney had come down here, they would have turned away by now and returned to the surface as she now was going to do. These caves were not a place to get lost in and she did not have any wish to join the aimless souls that continued to wonder without their bodies. Arah had seen enough in her short life to know that wondering spirits were real, she had seen them. Not an overly superstitious mare these were really the only well worldly beings the silver doe was willing to put her faith in. They did not frighten her but their existence was not what she would consider to be natural. Instead they were entities that tested the boundaries of the livings beliefs.  Clibling back to surface took longer than it had to descend, working her way up to the entrance she stopped at the sound of rain. Sighing she paused at the entrance of she looked out at the pouring rains. It fell in heavy sheets across the lands of Novus, truly coming down hard. Already the rocky pathways around her was gathering puddles. Water had begun to pool a meter away from the entrance of the caves, threatening to trickle down into the body of the cave. Thankfully she was no longer trying to climb up, fighting against the loose ground and what possibly was soon to become a miniature waterfall.  Breathing in the scent of petrichor Arah instantly felt calmer, perhaps even more a little more at home in Novus. Certinally she was not as comfortable as she had been in Helovia, those lands had been her home since she was a young mare. Yet with each passing day these lands became less alien to her and more a potential future home. Settling against the wall Arah looked out over the lands of her new home, waiting out the rain. For all the tears she had cried. These ones hurt the most but dried the fastest.

@Deimos + Hope this is okay!Poisons-kiss

[Deimos]

age of dark
an age of men
left in ashes to ascend

   Why he returned, he didn't know. The Below seemed so bland, so empty, so horribly utterly wretched compared to that of this new land, of this Novus... but it also seemed familiar, tugging on his newfound heart in a way foreign and all but impossible to resist. So he had returned, drawn like a moth to black flame, to the deep and darkness of the cave, to the closing walls and the silence of hooves muffled by dank air. Deeper and down he went, spiraling into the familiar blackness, waiting for the burden of the godsoul, the feel of his mantle about his shoulders, the ceasing of the beat pulsating in his breast. But as deep as he went, just to the point where he wasn't wholly certain of his way back, nothing changed.

   Still his heart beat.

   Still his breath came.

   Still he lived.

   Perturbed by the lack of change to his newfound form, the crowned stallion once more ascended from the depths of the cave, back to the soft kiss of light... but he had dwelt in the dark longer than he had thought, had gone deeper than he had thought into the depths of the earth. The entrance, once framed by midday sunlight, now was dark, rampaging shadows in the sky with flashes of a light so brilliant and a noise so thunderous it made him start in place. Something splattered from the sky above, the scent of the air somehow fresh yet dank, water and earth mixing. Once more the sky burned and the air tore with sound, and he jumped once more, stepping back from the opening as this brand-new world seemed to end before his very eyes. It was chaos, it was beauty, it was madness and it was elegance.

   It was as he backed away that he became aware of another, of a second soft breath beneath the pitter-patter of rushing water, of the soft scuff of second hooves shifting weight. In his wonder, in his curiosity, he had not noticed the pale form draped like a ghost against the side of the cave, her eyes too turned to the apocalypse outside. She was pale, paler than anything he had seen before, so much so that she glowed ephemeral in the low light, gentle antlers gracing her skull and making his own jagged crown seem brutish and grotesque in comparison.

   For a moment, he stood in silent regard of her, of the cacophony outside, debating whether to leave her to her solitude and thoughts and return deeper into the cave... but the gentle trickle of water caressing his hooves decided for him. Alive or Undying, going into the depths again would be a possible death sentence if the water rose. "There is a small offshoot, it rises but does not breach to the surface. Perhaps it is wise to move there?" He says finally, softly, his eyes unable to help but return to the din outside, his body twitching with the instinctive urge to jump as once more thunder boomed it's rage.

the godslayer

@Arah