[OOC: Set after the VB challenge - vague on fight results!]
She had run, and run and run until her legs had given out sending the dark form crashing face first into the mud and the muck. It was there the youth lay, sobbing as the rain and thunder overhead soaked her to the bone. She couldn't tell blood from mud or rain or tears. Her whole body ached, she hurt.
And it wasn't even the physical hurt that was the worst.. it had been the soul-deep crevasse that had been carved within her. Where once existed puppy dogs, rainbows and butterflies.. and all things good only now harbored broken glass, fractals of a whole... and pain. Cassiopia lay in the mud for god knows how long, and by the time she rose, the storm had come, gone and another was rolling in in the distance.
The girl mechanically pulled herself to her feet, barely able to stand - limbs shaking and her nose hanging almost to the ground. Defeated.. broken. And she still didn't know why. She'd been there - and they hadn't. Not papa... not Spiritus or Hadriana... but the one that hurt the most? The one that had torn her heart from her breast? That one absence was Diomedeidae. Once the one that banished the nightmares..
The teal eyes and abyssal coat had been a steady constant. Just as constant as the golden pelt of her papa. Now? It was that absence that had left the girl once full of life and love standing zombie-like within the fields of the grove. Her stomach rumbled and she didn't care. She was covered in mud - and where that would once draw her into playing in the rain, now she didn't notice. Wounds were caked and at least had stopped bleeding.. but the edges were raw and red.
What had she done wrong? She... she'd done what she needed right? Diomedeidae had gone and said one of them had to look out for papa while the other was on an adventure. So.. she'd done that. She'd stayed - she'd been the good sister and waited as patiently as she could have.. She'd stayed..
But... when she needed them? Where had they been? She didn't realize that her sibling had in fact been there -caught up in the trauma of what was happening. Cassiopia pushed herself to walk, one foot in front of the other, head down, looking for all intents and purposes like the bedraggled rat she was. She had to have done something wrong... right? Maybe she had talked too much... or brought them the wrong gift. Cassiopia let her thoughts consume her - wondering how many things she could have done differently. Tail dragging along the ground limply as she looked back towards the brook.
She also looked towards where she had started out life - growing up and turned away from it.. moving south. If she had done something that would leave her family to not....be there.. she didn't want to make them hurt. They'd be okay - right? Teary teal eyes looked over her shoulder towards where she had last known and then as if in a flurry, she struck the flowers and petals from her mane.. leaving a blank slate.
I'm sorry....
Then the girl moved, mechanical, broken... picking a general southern direction and simply going. And go she would until she ran into something or her legs gave out. Maybe both.
I'm sorry.... I didn't do good enough.
She had run, and run and run until her legs had given out sending the dark form crashing face first into the mud and the muck. It was there the youth lay, sobbing as the rain and thunder overhead soaked her to the bone. She couldn't tell blood from mud or rain or tears. Her whole body ached, she hurt.
And it wasn't even the physical hurt that was the worst.. it had been the soul-deep crevasse that had been carved within her. Where once existed puppy dogs, rainbows and butterflies.. and all things good only now harbored broken glass, fractals of a whole... and pain. Cassiopia lay in the mud for god knows how long, and by the time she rose, the storm had come, gone and another was rolling in in the distance.
The girl mechanically pulled herself to her feet, barely able to stand - limbs shaking and her nose hanging almost to the ground. Defeated.. broken. And she still didn't know why. She'd been there - and they hadn't. Not papa... not Spiritus or Hadriana... but the one that hurt the most? The one that had torn her heart from her breast? That one absence was Diomedeidae. Once the one that banished the nightmares..
The teal eyes and abyssal coat had been a steady constant. Just as constant as the golden pelt of her papa. Now? It was that absence that had left the girl once full of life and love standing zombie-like within the fields of the grove. Her stomach rumbled and she didn't care. She was covered in mud - and where that would once draw her into playing in the rain, now she didn't notice. Wounds were caked and at least had stopped bleeding.. but the edges were raw and red.
What had she done wrong? She... she'd done what she needed right? Diomedeidae had gone and said one of them had to look out for papa while the other was on an adventure. So.. she'd done that. She'd stayed - she'd been the good sister and waited as patiently as she could have.. She'd stayed..
But... when she needed them? Where had they been? She didn't realize that her sibling had in fact been there -caught up in the trauma of what was happening. Cassiopia pushed herself to walk, one foot in front of the other, head down, looking for all intents and purposes like the bedraggled rat she was. She had to have done something wrong... right? Maybe she had talked too much... or brought them the wrong gift. Cassiopia let her thoughts consume her - wondering how many things she could have done differently. Tail dragging along the ground limply as she looked back towards the brook.
She also looked towards where she had started out life - growing up and turned away from it.. moving south. If she had done something that would leave her family to not....be there.. she didn't want to make them hurt. They'd be okay - right? Teary teal eyes looked over her shoulder towards where she had last known and then as if in a flurry, she struck the flowers and petals from her mane.. leaving a blank slate.
I'm sorry....
Then the girl moved, mechanical, broken... picking a general southern direction and simply going. And go she would until she ran into something or her legs gave out. Maybe both.
I'm sorry.... I didn't do good enough.
Rowlin walked through the valley without a set direction. She had been lovi g here for a bit, her family had been missing and she was pretty much lost in the world. And if she was honest loneliness was becoming a natural thing, normal. Something she saw as okay to be.