Cracked and cracking still. (open)

[rust]

INARA

It looked like summer had settled in here. The grasses felt a little dry underfoot, and the air held a sort of static energy to it that promised summer storms and freak rainfalls that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Summer storms were often her favorite. The clouds would often rush in out of nowhere, blotting out the sun and darkening the land. Whatever rain fell and flooded the land was usually sucked up by the dry earth and there was little evidence of there ever having been a storm in the first place. Storms in her homeland were scarce, and often manifested as little more than a shower that was a little heavier than usual. Winters were mild and summers were comfortable.

When she had found this place in the middle of the night, she had decided that it was best to stay in the cover of the trees until daytime rolled around. Even if it seemed as though the forest was sparsely populated, it would not do Inara any good to be eaten alive on her first night here. What shelter she did find was little more than a small tree with branches that twisted out and promised to offer a little bit of shade once the day had risen, and was far enough away from the top of her head to be spacious and comfortable.

Just what she needed, apparently.

So she slept.

In the morning, Inara was quietly prodded awake by the tweeting and chirping of sparrows and other flying things that woke with the rising of the sun. The constant chirping was a reminder of the season, and the luke-warm sunlight that poured through the trees at this early hour was just another trial of the summer. With a little sigh, she decided to push onwards, blinking against the early morning light and frowning a little frown at how strangely empty the forest had remained since the night before.

[nikkayla]

i feel it in my bones - enough to make my systems blow

Entia had spent far too much time wandering around. It seemed whenever he thought he might have found somewhere to settle, somewhere to call a home again, something changed. It had become the very nature of his being and now it was just normal to him. He expected it to happen to him again soon; he wouldn’t be able to rest, not until he was almost dead. He had almost died once before but that was from a completely different set of circumstances. Now he was wandering the desolate earth, alone. He deeply missed contact with others; Lucian, Namtar, Inwe. Everything had changed so much since Liridon had finally fallen.

He really did hate being alone.

So even now, when he figured he was in a new place with all the new scents and smells about, following a new set of rules and with a brand new allegiance attached to him that he needed to learn about thoroughly, he was a little glad to see a face he knew – despite not ever actually having met her, he had seen her around. Here in this forest, it was a relief. It was although he knew her though, somehow, despite the fact that he really had never truly come to stand near her.

He changed that now. He wandered, standing readily near her without saying a word. His one wing hung, loose and relaxed at his side, as he seemed to sidle up a little closer to her;

“So… before I go on, it’s so goddamn fantastic to know that I’m not completely without anyone I recognise here…” he says to her, with a grin forming. “How long have you been here?

welcome to the new age - entia of nowhere

ty alice. ❤

[rust]

INARA

She had been discovered.

To go back through all the mountains, marshes, and valleys that Inara had tromped unceremoniously across would mean to look back at her entire history. The people she remembered were inconsequential, even the old man that had brought her out of her shell and showed her with sharp words that the world was not her enemy.

At least, it wasn’t entirely her enemy. There were still shadows out there that were likely to try to swallow her whole, and those shadows were the sorts of things she aimed to avoid.

The crippled stallion that approached her had a familiar face, but it wasn’t one that belonged to anyone that she had been cornered into conversation by in whatever previous lives she had lived. He too had been a wanderer, and perhaps if Inara hadn’t known any better, she would have thought that he was following her and had only now chosen to reveal herself.

It was only to her advantage that she had seen him approaching her first.

In the quiet summer morning, the dark stallion was hard to miss, even as he announced himself with words of relief, Inara narrowed her eyes and peered almost cautiously at him. Certainly he had some sort of motive for approaching her, being that she was a stranger- despite the seemingly familiar face. “That makes one of us...” she answers quietly, almost to herself. Though she too seemed to be able to thumb the stallion’s face as one that had previously appeared in Hoof Prince and Helovia, she preferred to pretend he was a stranger. “Not long. I only just got here myself.”

Perhaps that was too much information to divulge to a complete stranger.

Perhaps that was the sort of thing that he wanted to hear that would put him at ease and make him easier to hold on to.

Either way, Inara figured that there would be some sort of benefit to be had in connecting with the crippled stallion, even if she figured the only reason he approached her was to match his missing wing to her missing horn. “What is your name?” She asks rather frankly, deciding it was best to leave her name out of the conversation until he directly asked her for it.

[nikkayla]

i feel it in my bones - enough to make my systems blow

It was funny how much of curveball life seemed to enjoy throwing at him. He had wandered far from the sanctity of Liridon, where he had decided was his home. He might have been born in a completely different place, raised in another – but Liridon was his homeland. He was from there; it had molded him into what he had been. He had grown, rising from an obnoxious brat (even if he still acts like it at times) to being the strongest of mind to bring their king at the time home – and after the fire, he had become king. How they had decided he was best to lead he had never known, but he had, and he had done a decent job.

Under his rule, Ilir had flourished. How he missed that place, it burned deep inside him whenever he thought about it too much. Liridon was gone though, burned in molten rock and fire. It was home only to the Elementals now.

Yet he had wandered, and here he was. Standing in a forest in the gentle light of summer, with a mare beside him that he only vaguely recognised, but it was enough for him to know he wasn’t alone.

“So much to learn then. As much as they say one never stops learning, I am quite ready to stop,” Entia said, as he looked around him. “But alas!” He tossed his head back a little giving a sigh.

He pondered for a moment if it would be worth a little bit of fun to give her some bizarre name; perhaps he was Bob, perhaps he was called Windex for all she knew, or maybe even Pea Beu. So many names flew into his mind, but he shook his head, muttering to himself with a light, quiet chuckle before he responded, “Entia. Do you have a name or would you prefer to remain the Mysterious Horned Lady?”

welcome to the new age - entia of nowhere

ty alice. ❤

[rust]

INARA

What she remembered of the other lands that she had wandered through was restricted to the sort of terrain she had managed to conquer during her walks.

Inara had been a determined wanderer, thinking that no mountain was too tall for her to climb and no ocean was too wide for her to swim. She had been unafraid of deserts, swamps, and forests, and she had managed to find herself in a different place after each challenge.

These were just her walks.

This was just how she managed to put the bitter memory of her herd behind her.

It hadn’t been her fault that Liit had wanted so desperately to leave the herd that she had let her dark skinned sister take the blame for her disappearance, and it certainly hadn’t been her fault when she and Kiyra had gone wandering and almost fallen to the claws of a hungry cat. Yet, Inara had managed to blame herself for some time before she had been verbally berated by an old man who claimed to know more than she did.

For now, all she had was this vast, new land that opened up before her.

Over the one-winged stallion’s shoulder she could see distant mountains that begged to be climbed, and before she had settled her in the forest she had seen various other places that warranted exploring and conquering. She was Inara, conquerer of the world. “There’s only so much one can learn from trees, grass, and rocks.” She answers him almost pessimistically, still watching him through skeptically narrowed eyes.

Of course, the question of honesty always seems to arise when one stumbled across a new person, but Inara figured that if she was apparently familiar to this stallion, it only made sense for them to officially meet. “Inara, though I could use a new title.” Awkwardly, she offers him a little smile and relaxes her gaze a bit. Leaning back a bit on her legs, she tries to soften her stance and look a little more at ease.

[nikkayla]

i feel it in my bones - enough to make my systems blow

It seems that he was really not the only one who felt a little bit lost in this place. It was huge, the size rivalled Liridon but it was bigger than any other place he had been since; including Nocturne, despite it being sunken in the sixth circle of hell more or less. He had hated being classed as a ‘demon’, as if he was some kind of terrible creature raised from hell. True he might have nearly died and climbed back out of the ocean scarred and marked with new wings and a snapped white horn, but he was nothing special beyond that. He was just himself; Entia.

He did miss Lucian though, having been through so much with him. Him, and Inwe, the one whom he had truly fallen for. He had those he loved to be around, loved to annoy and spend time with – Lucian, Namtar, Seresu even, others from Liridon – so much was twisted inside him, those he loved to flirt and play – but his true love and desire belonged to Inwe and would forever.

Nothing would change beyond that.

Shaking his head a little to snap himself from his reverie, he flexed his one wing a little to relive the stiff muscles, he shoots her a grin.

“I dunno, grass can give you some rather interesting tales if you listen to it. Rocks however, stubbourn little shits. They never reply, its terrible,” he said, laughing to himself as his own

She gives her name, and Entia in a strange manner as always opened his wing and bowed his head, “Pleasure, Inara. I’m sure though, we could find new names for you. Unless you’d like to be Inara the Broken-Horned. It sounds a little silly – I think Inara the Conqueror would be better. Don’t you?”

He cannot help himself. Entia was lacking in amusement of late, and it seemed he was making it up now by being a bit of a tool – as he always did.

welcome to the new age - entia of nowhere

ty alice. ❤

[rust]

INARA

She couldn’t tell anyone how big any place was that she had been.

Most of the places she had visited had been common grounds, and she had not managed to see the inner workings of terrains or the various herdlands that seemed to be sprinkled about here and there in almost every land that she had come across.

Inara had succeeded in being relatively secluded, and she had managed to go unnoticed. For a while she thought that she was simply undesirable, and that anyone that saw her was either disgusted by her very appearance, or that word had spread from her homeland and she was seen as a liar and a trickster that should best be avoided.

Naturally, she blamed her lack of attention on the cracked and withered horn that was perched atop her left brow, and so she was embittered by her apparent injury.

Of course, the broken appendage did little to hinder the dark mare’s existance, despite disheartening her a little.

The crippled stallion seemed to be unbothered by his loss of appendages and his broken horn, and appeared to be pressing their conversation onwards in an almost jovial manner. This should had bothered Inara, but she felt comforted by the fact that not only was she approached by someone that found her minutely familiar, but that she had been approached at all in the first place.

“You must be lonely if you’re talking to rocks.” She answered, thinking he was more insane than he was eccentric. At the mention of titles, she chuckles softly to herself, thinking it would be rather grandiose to be called a conquerer. “I think anyone would like being called a Conquerer, though I suppose it would depend on what they were the conquerer of.” Inara muses a little, thinking it should be fine to have something as massive and grand as a mountain to be named after her, but she doubted such a thing would ever happen in her life time, if at all.

[nikkayla]

i feel it in my bones - enough to make my systems blow

Let’s just say, Entia had noticed she had two horns and one was partly missing – and not knowing if it was a sore point or not he had decided it was best not to try to annoy her about it. He had no desire to upset her like that; his own, his horn and his lack of wing were merely events in his life that had happened and he had no power over. His horn was bizarre though, he had never had a whole one. Ever. He had been a horse, normal and plain as can be, when his father had picked him up and sent him over the cliff, he had been shifted, transformed somehow during the descent into death. When he had woken up, he had been winged and horned – but the horn had been broken.

It was just the way it had been for him. His wing, however, was different, but he treated it in the same manner.

He grinned at Inara though, wide and amused. “Nah. They just needed firm talking to!” he declares, lifting his head back and giving a rock not far from them a stare. To anyone else, he’d be mad – but Entia was just feeling more like himself, glad for the company. He wouldn’t admit he’d been lonely though, no, he was just rather silly like that.

“This is true. I, well, I wouldn’t be proud of myself for conquering anything less than like, ants or something. Can you imagine having an army of ants? That would be kinda.... okay I’ve changed my mind, no ants. I’m going to have nightmares after those thoughts,” he said with a shiver for a finish, and a grin on his face.

“So... what on earth brought you here, anyway...?” he asks, genuinely curious to know. He stood silent with a bright expression there, leaving it off as he wondered – or if she was just like him, and aimless wandering had brought her here...

welcome to the new age - entia of nowhere

ty alice. ❤

[rust]

INARA

The only way she could answer his question was to be brutally and painfully obvious.

After listening to his strange, monologue-type description of what it should be like to conquer a colony of ants, Inara had simple cocked an eyebrow (an invisible or metaphorical one, of course) and answered him rather plainly. “My legs.”

To her it seemed ultimately ridiculous to think that there were others that were carried about the world by rhymes or reasons, or perhaps by other means of transport.

So naturally, when she answered him in a rather humorless tone, she swept a little gaze downwards at her own, skinny, black legs before dragging her eyes back to Entia and looking first at his legs which were not quite as lean as hers, and then to the naked patch of skin that was the only reminder of his wing once having a pair.

Staring almost absently at spot on his shoulder that was missing his other wing, Inara felt a little more self concious about the fact that her own horn had been shattered a long time ago, and that despite the excruciating pain that she had endured, she looked no worse for wear. Just a little uneven when she looked at her reflection staring back at her from the smooth surface of a body of water. The black mare wondered if Entia felt the absense of his wing as though it was a ghost limb, thrashing against his side and reminding him of what he had.

“Did you fly here, then?” Maybe a long time ago, and maybe it had been long before Inara had even been born, but she assumed he must have flown like a bird at time point. With a little snort, she shifts her weight and looks back into Entia’s face, once more narrowing her eyes for a moment before clearing her throat, as if to dispell any uncomfortable notions.