From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
03-08-2019, 10:04 PM (This post was last modified: 03-08-2019, 10:14 PM by Ashetta.)
Ashe
stripped to the core is there anything left?
take all my sorrows and all my regrets,
The stars had begin to speckle the dusky blue of the sky, warm evening settling into the world. A soft breeze hushed through the trees, leaves whispering to the fireflies that had finally started to emerge from the cold months of deepfrost. Ashe’s footsteps were careful and silent so as not to disturb the quiet of dusk.
She was on her way home. Home. Back to Kalt, to Theea, a real home. She had been so reluctant to call it that before but.. there had been a paradigm shift through the frozen season, something powerful and world-altering in the young assassin: she had begun to let go. It was uncomfortable still, hard to do, and so much of her still had an iron grip on the chains that held her down, but the weights were lifting. Ashe didn’t know, exactly, what would be beneath her armor built out of pain and fear… But she wasn’t alone. A soft whisper of feeling without words cast down the mental tether to Kalt was a reminder of that - someone who knew her with or without the bonding of souls.
And more than that, she was tired of it. Tired of punishment and never trusting anyone with who she was, and tired of apologizing for what she had to become to survive. And.. maybe it was time to start testing the waters with her friends, with her mother. To have faith in them that they would be able to handle her sharp and jagged edges.
Ashe had been doing a lot of this lately - reflecting. She had an absurd amount of free time, a downright maddening amount. She had gone from her every breath, every moment being ruled by a desperate fight for survival to… this. This life that was left now that her war had ended. Figuring out what in the ever loving fuck to do with herself now was maddening more often than not, but this walk home was okay. It let her think, let her process, all the while constantly aware of that unwavering presence of Kalt if she needed him.
She paused suddenly, pulled abruptly from deep thought by… something in the trees ahead. Reckoning was unsheathed in a heartbeat, the dark sword glinting as her eyes shifted and bled into gold, canines elongated and sharpened. Guard up, she listened with partially shifted senses, the wolf lending her a distinct advantage. Old habits and all that.
Ah, Flowerbirth. A time of renewal and growth. Of course, that growth was not always positive. In the woodlands many of the wildflowers had undergone a change so to speak, growing larger and meaner and sprouting teeth. What's more, they had developed the uncanny ability to scuttle about here and there. And for the creature who had unintentionally stumbled into the suddenly carnivorous garden of wild roses, it could prove fatal.
Ashetta would hear the stamping of its golden hooves as it attempted to free itself from thorny vines, even as rosebuds with jagged fangs snapped and bit at its feet. It was a proud creature, the stallion she would come upon, dappled in colours of snow and shadow with curved, golden horns not unlike that of a ram. Still, as it tossed its head and snorted, trying to backtrack, the roses hissed and pressed ever closer.
Ashe listened for only a moment before she recognized the sound - the thud of hooves upon the earth, striking and not running. She took a breath through her nose before securing her grip on Reckoning, and she followed the sounds crashing in the undergrowth. Pushing aside the budding brambles and ferns and some unfamiliar wildlife, it only took her a minute to locate the source of the sound, but what she came upon?
"What in the five hells?" she breathed, pausing with wide eyes at the sight of the formidible stallion. No normal horse, not by a long shot. His coat smeared in splotches of shadowy black and murky white, there was a set of shining golden horns that curved down around his head. Ram horns... on a horse. The eyes and hooves.. golden too? She blinked and shook her head, dumbfounded for a moment at the sight of the proud animal.
She shook her head and reassessed the scene - the stallion was in distress, stomping his cloven hooves down on.. creeping vines and giant, ravenous roses? "Did you fucking drug me?" she abruptly accused Kalt through the bond before she began moving towards the... unicorn, she supposed. It seemed like something out of a delusion: A large stallion with golden ram horns threatened by a patch of vicious and over-sized roses.
"Hey, easy," she spoke in a low tone, her eyes glancing between the stallion and the roses. She very well know the beast would probably think her some pedator come to claim easy and trapped prey, and so she eyed the flowers warily. "I'm gonna get you out of there." As if he would understand or listen to her.
Ashe thought about using her lightning, or her fire, but the risk to the animal trapped in this strange garden. Last resort. So with an expert flip of her thin sword as she approached the flowers, she sliced the sharp blade down into the stems of the flowers with a half sneer at the things. "Just when I was thinking this place couldn't get any fucking weirder," she mumbled.
Ashetta was right - at least at first. The stallion was unsure what was happening with the appearance of a newcomer, stamping his hooves and threatening to rear up against the small woman. But her voice was soothing even if the situation was dangerous, and he cautiously allowed her approach. The roses, on the other hand, did not. Still biting at the unicorn's leg's (he let out a whinny of upset), several rosebuds fell at the hand of Ashe's thin-bladed sword.
However, there were more of them than there were of unicorn and assassin. Hissing displeasure, the crawling, thorny vines would begin to tighten around the unicorn's legs whilst others went for Ashe. The remaining roses rounded on her, snapping their teeth and lunging for her exposed flesh. If they could sneer back at her, they would have done.
03-10-2019, 09:00 PM (This post was last modified: 03-10-2019, 09:03 PM by Ashetta.)
Ashe
stripped to the core is there anything left?
take all my sorrows and all my regrets,
Ashe had to fight not to roll her eyes with Kalt's response down the bond, coming to her just as she sliced Reckoning down through another deceptively beautiful rose. 'Not today,' he'd said. "Prick," she replied, and she smoothly guided her consciousness away from his actively - this was a bit of a pressing fucking issue at hand. While Ashe wasn't exactly frightened (she'd faced astronomically worse than some man-eating roses), there was certainly an urgency to freeing the unicorn and keeping all her appendages while she was at it. Losing her pinky was losing more than enough body parts, thanks.
She heard the shrill whinny of the stallion and she glanced up with concern. "Shit," she hissed, and then the flowers were turning on her, snapping.. the fuck? Were those teeth? Half dazed, Ashe glanced up to the tightening vines around the unicorn's legs, the bites, the blood running down. She huffed a sharp breath through her nose. "Got someone who will need some healing from you, silver," she said just as she smacked away another flower with the sharp end of her sword, lovely red petals flying like blood. "This is so fucking.." Ashe huffed and held up her left hand, glancing up at the shadow-dappled stallion once more. "I promise this isn't for you."
With the click of a button, a plume of flame burst from the end of a prosthetic pinky finger. She opted for the fire - quieter and less wild than her lightning. "It's all right," Ashe said, her voice low and words drawn out for the equine. She hissed with a curse as a flower nipped at her skin, but it was superficial. "Lets get you out," she said in that low tone, keeping an eye out for flying hooves as much as chomping roses. She aimed that fire straight for the base of the flowers, where those vines were creeping from in the first place. "You're too proud a creature to be beat by some frilly flowers, huh?" She swung her sword with her right hand at any that came darting at her, and she pushed her fire fore the base of those vines.
The stallion tossed his head, still trying in vain to free himself from the thorns - in fact the more he struggled the more the roses were able to get a grip on him and bite and tear - when the fire came. For all of Ashetta's soothing words, fire was still a thing to be feared and respected, and the unicorn did rear up this time, letting out a scream of panic. Luckily that ended up snapping a good few vines, and Ashe's flames managed to free him of the rest.
As the rosebuds snapped and hissed and shrieked their displeasure, the stallion made his move, stamping down the flowers wherever he could and moving to position himself so he was guarding the small woman with his flank. Snorting at her, he leant down to butt her with his nose, as if to indicate that she ought to climb the fuck on so they could run.
As she'd predicted, the stallion was not fond of the fire. "Woah, hey, I'm sorry!" she said as she stepped back from the hooves that had risen well above her head, fire burning upon the hissing flowers all the while. The damned things were relentless, and more of them than she'd anticipated. Her sword swung downwards and sent petals flying as well as greenery, and thick smoke was filling the air with the burning of the flowers.
But the vines were snapping with the panicked rear of the equine, falling free from his legs. The rest were burned to a crisp, and she grinned when he was freed. "Yes!" she cried triumphantly, and she released her fire to jump back when his hooves struck down upon the killer plants. Her heart raced as the mass of him came between her and those flowers - was he protecting her?
Then with a shove of his nose against her, she nodded sharply, like he could understand a nod. She'd gotten too used to equine shifters, it seemed. "Alright then," she huffed. She grimaced up at his tall back, but she took a deep breath and took a firm hold at the base of a long mane, bracing herself - with a good jump and a haul of her weight, Ashe slid herself nimbly onto the back of the stallion.
Ashe grinned broadly, and she held on securely with a rush of energy. "Let's get the fuck outta here," she urged.
Getting the fuck out of here worked very well for the stallion, who kicked out at one of the rosebuds that tried to snap at Ashetta as she clambered upon his back. Wasting no time, the unicorn turned, free now from the sharp vines, and galloped at full tilt towards the fringes of the Woodlands. It was tough going, the ground uneven and anything but clear, but somehow he managed to navigate as if he was made of air and shadows.
Soon enough they burst into the starlit Fields, the unicorn racing through the long grasses as if eager to feel the earth beneath his hooves, no matter how his legs stung and bled from the thorns. It was a long moment before he could slow to a trot, tossing his head and nickering affectionately towards his rider. They were free, and they were together. And it was very, very grateful.
The unicorn has bonded to Ashetta ! Congratulations on your new companion.
