She continued to pluck her away along open fields, watching stars writhe and fall from their heavenly shrine to the earth below. She did not seek out any more. Not now. The navy buck covered in cosmic dust, his voice was too similar to Fen. Upon interacting with him, Sake was unable to bear creating ties with these intriguing aliens, when she was so miserably alone amongst the Orians.
Timbers loomed over her, branches swallowing the sky. Comfortable in the shadows of the waning gibbus night, Sake stretched out her wings and gave a few enthusiastic flaps. Muscles sang their joys. The pressure of skin on air sounded louder in the quiet evening, but distant crickets and frogs reassured her safety. Though there was not much that challenged her livelihood, the melanistic doe was small enough to be considered unfit to protect herself. Her wings folded so tight to her sides that they were invisible unless she flexed her opposible thumbs, or shifted them outright.
Small tail twitched and shook behind her, content. Sake crossed the threshhold of field and forest. Shoulders relaxed as the ground before her opened, vision unopposed by wild grass.
Her travel held purpose. She knew not of a specific herd; rather that she was in need of a community and could bear this solitary life no longer. It was only bearable because of Fen, and - Sake stopped with a harsh stamp of her right hoof. Stop. She needed to commit to more than survival of the self. She had nothing of her old life left to coax resistance. A soft sigh escaped melanin lips. Sake resumed her soft-stepped travels, releasing her sorrow to the comforting, alluring sights of the forest.
Kriemhild, the stone of E'leond; the unmoving facet of the forest whose gaze was colder than the mountains and her smile more sinister than the encumbering abyss. Days prior, she had betrayed the rumours of her character as she stared stunned and bemused at the falling stars that had rained from the sky in a relentless shower. She had stood, maw agape, eyes wide with fear as alien creatures scattered from the shells of their protective stones. She had not been alone. Others, too, stood onlooking in confusion and panic; they questioned the creatures that seemed to have forgotten their place, their motives, their origin's. Did they harbour ill-intent towards the herds of this world? Was it their purpose to overtake their humble beginnings? Would they soon bow before these celestial entities?
Ivory brow knitted with the overwhelming stir of contemplations as she moved among the trees like a spectral wraith waltzing with otherworldly elegance. Feathers trailed behind her, vivid and gleaming against the settling night that had bickered with the day, eventually leading to its inevitable conquest. She had a preference towards these hours where the predators were scarce and she could have a moment's respite without the needs of the herd overwhelming her. Here, she was capable of breathing, of relenting her political guise for a more relaxed pose.
She stopped, frozen, hoof risen towards her breast as if stricken by Medusa's fervent curse. Head jolted up as the sound of rustling brush permeated the air thick now with uneasy tension that reverberated throughout her flesh. Run. The pressing urge warned her; the call, unyielding. Kriemhild remained stalwart, brazen, as she approached the silhouette that had managed to wander its way into her wood. A smile, a jackal's grin, coiled before it would fade at the realization that it was but a lamb come among the thicket of wolves. "Are you lost, child?" She would beckon, calling out towards the ebony figure who seemed darker than the night itself. "These woods are quite... treacherous."
Nausea was a companion she was becoming too familiar with. Perhaps she misjudged fungi in the fields, or perhaps those aliens brought with them a plague. Even as she thought it, Sake knew the idea was preposterous. She gave her haunches a light shake, dislodging fleas as they fell off into the dark around her. The scent of pine wood was causing her head to throb and stomach to flip in another violent upset. Sake locked her jaws and continued on.
Eventually the nausea faded and she could breath again. Her hide was soaked in sweat, hidden by her tightly folded wings. Dry tongue touched cracked lips. Desire drove her to trickling promises of flowing water. The black doe gorged her fill, replacing the internal pressure of her headache with that of a cold induced stab behind her eyes. Then, as the pain faded, Sake sighed, finding the sliver of reprieve as the new pain diminished and the old had yet to resume it's noise.
Are you lost child? A beckon lifted her ears. The woman was illuminated by her own opalescence. Sake considered her outline, spending a silent moment regarding the flourishing design of the Orian. These woods are quite...treacherous. The woman promised with a brush of amusement on her words. Sake flicked her tail, and unfurled her wings, revealing her assests before this commanding presence. Sake assumed she should assume this woman was signifcant.
Then perhaps it shall allow my presence to remain in its bosom. She was not afraid, her stoic tone portrayed as much. She was interested. The surprise of company cast aside her internal discomforts for now, and provided a reprieve for her circling thoughts.
Her gaze was ice; frigid, relentless. Destruction entombed behind that wicked iris emerald in its gleam, voracious in its caress as it roved the angular juts and feminine curves of the doe that stood before her. Swathed in a veil of endless twilight; ebony, dark as smouldering charcoal struck by thundering light. Avian endowments rustled against the subtle groan of clashing branches and tangled needles heralding from the towering, shrouding fir's that surrounded them in this thick of wood and brush. Lady Willowfrost watched as the black woman's wings unfurled to reveal in full the entirety of her silhouette; still, a woman of beauty, to be sure. Her smile then was deceptively soft, charming. A welcoming coil sharp as the edge of a thirsty blade as the woman bore all before the matron whose eye turned sceptical.
Porcelain brow furrowed as the lulling drawl of the woman entranced her, beckoned attention freely given with the faint flicker of her long, narrow ear. Kriemhild took a brazen step forward into the illuminating hold of the midnight matron whose praised illumination slipped between the swaying canopy tops. "What, then, would you provide in return for its hospitality?" Her black hooves drew upon the earth with grace, regality, each stride luring her around the woman with an inquisitive purpose. She would round behind her, coming along the other side with trailing feathers following like a bridal train. "The forest is not kind to outsiders, child. Its inhabitants even less welcoming I'm afraid." Her brow furrowed. "Is it them you seek?"
The forest is not kind to outsiders, child. It's inhabitants even less welcoming, I'm afraid.. Is it them, you seek?
The ghastly albaster and obsididan feathered doe circled Sake, her tred light. The black doe felt the strike upon earth, and wondered at the sharpness of her delicate hooves. Sake relaxed. The predatory measures of this company was comforting. As if a long lost sister. A reminder Sake may not be alone. Wings returned to their placement. Slender ears rotated with the calculated pace of her company. Twigs and fallen needles crushed, inviting a sense of fragility to exist in the night-silence.
I do not mind unkindness.
She let the sentence soak into the air, pregnant with implication, but she would not waste the words, or the Orian's time. Her tail twiched. Lashes fell over abyss eyes, following the vulture path of her inquisitor.
I can provide my soul. My willingness to perform any necessity. My capability of distance; my capability of blending into the night, to hear and see whatever is wished by those who wish it.
You. A mental addition she refused to speak. Crickets crept upon their silence, Orian regarding elegant Orian. Sake's gaze outlined the doe's fascinating physique, entraptured by the irridescent play of black feathers reflecting the opalescence of her gracefut neck. Guarded eyes noted rippling muscle, clever expression, and lethal weapons. Caution whispered in Sake's mind, abscent of fear. The melanistic woman would not be caught off guard.
It was as if the woman was born to these implications of cruelty, svelte body serving as a shield that was stalwart and ready to take the brunt of whatever savage transgressions the lead hind was prepared to offer. Her hooves were still; her head lofted in that poise of utmost regality that was both haughty and undeniable. Ever the portrait of a woman born to royalty, she was relentless with her image and even more-so with her perusal of the charcoal cloaked doe. Kriemhild knew that she could not afford to reject her; their numbers were growing thin in the passing months as the herds began to forget their old customs. Or perhaps it is our clandestine caution that pushes them away. The musing was hushed, still upon her tongue as ivory ears flicked forward in a swift motion to capture the doe's promising words.
Her smile was sweet, sickening, an emblem of warm welcome and she moved forward as if she were to resume her trek through the forest. "What is your name?" She would make one subtle motion for the other doe to follow. The hind moved almost silently, the train of colourful feathers rustling like swaying trees with each languid step she made. They served as the only treason to her existence this night in the woods where springs embrace still worked upon the land; flowers began to bud and the trees sprouted life at the end of their gnarled, naked branches. "And why are you so eager to throw yourself to the wolves? So to speak, of course."
She observed Sake with the critical eye of an eternal judge, who knew they could cast a life into the abyss as much as lift them into heavenly stars. She gleamed in the stark light of this tight knit forest. Sake appreciated the ruthless care the hind took in assessing the melanistic doe. If one could not offer anything useful to herd life, one might as well toss themselves into predator jaws, for what was the point? These morbid and cruel thoughts crept along her mind as bugs, tickling her senses and ego alike.
What is your name?
Sake. If she possessed a last name she could not recall it. Truly, it did not matter. It was attached to him, and he'd already cast her aside like unwanted roots torn from the earth. Her heart trembled in acute agony. Sake refocused upon the doe, as she implored Sake to follow her into the dark. Life was beginning to break through the winter gloom. Tiny white and purple flowers begun their early growth, spreading petals and leaves to the young sun. This forest would be impressive in a month. Sake realized she hoped to see such beauty.
Sake's ears flicked backwards at her question. She chewed on her thoughts for a silent moment. because I have done so before, and survived. It is, perhaps, the only life I know. I do not wish to alter my path due to inherent misery.