Something Familiar, Something Lost (Solo)

[Aello]

Timestamp: Spring 16, 512 AV Light filtered through the cracks. She could see it casting shadows across the dust-lined floor. She could see the jagged edges of the stones, worn away during the time the grey clouds reigned, and lightning took the sun's lofty place. She could see their dark outlines, against the harsh, uneven wood, her legs swinging over the hazy pools. Her hands rested against the rock. The charred edges, torn away, and cast into the world below. Her fingers danced lazily over the mountains cast by the rises and falls. Some natural, and some feigned. It felt so cold, so unnaturally rough, as the leathery, tattered skin of the elderly, that it sent chills up Aello's spine. Her eyes, lazily glided over them, watching her muscles rippling beneath her flesh. The soft rounds of her bones undulating beneath pale skin stretched tight over ivory pegs as her fingers whispered, we're all dead here. Her finger stopped against a crag, standing on the edge, looking out across the world, towards the horizon, as seagulls glided lazily overhead, cawing their ominous, hunger-filled songs. One more step, and everything would come tumbling down. Idly, the girl twirled her finger against the rock, watching it dance as her hair was swept off her shoulders, to sway softly in the wind. It seemed to glisten, subtle blonde strands, cast by the sun's fading light. The light which made the rubble appear all the more ruinous; all the more grey. Thrown into a perpetual state of misery and despair, for it could never be made again. Slowly, the girl's finger cascaded down the gentle slope of the rock, into the delicate nest formed by its foot. Her finger seemed to settle; to rest against the flat bed. She smiled weakly, reflecting Syna's radiance a moment, as her light glimmered against the stone. Shards of mica sparkling as though glitter had been sprinkled upon it. The dark core of the girl's eyes bore this inner heat, this intensity, as she considered the stone. The way everything had been illuminated by a star that never seemed to die out, no matter how dark, and how bleak everything around her had become. For each day she rose, and each night she fell, only to peek her head out again, when more secretive matters had concluded, and given way. Shouldn't you more closely reflect everything that is happening within the world? Aello asked herself. Everything that has been occurring, especially of late? There was a slight pause, as though to allow another time to answer her. But no word ever came; her finger merely lingered against the cold, rough edge. Awaiting command; awaiting something that would never come. Time ticked away, the sundial's shadow shifting subtly, as time passed; grains of sand slowly trickling through an hourglass, gathering in a beige pool; a softly rounded mound in the center of the bottom. Encased in clear, slightly curved glass. Still, her flesh rested against the base, nestled in the groove. Aello stared down at her finger, the curious grace found in how it curved against the side of the stone. You should be as everything else in this place, she thought to herself, as she studied the earthen material curling around the crumbled frame of the old cottage she sat upon. So you shall be made to be as your surroundings are, her mind added, as she took a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth. As she did so, she took the time to concentrate on the rough edges of the stone. The jagged edges; like the fraying ends of an elderly cloth, slowly withering away. She knew, despite the rain that had pummeled them only a few days before, these stones would not have been worn smooth. There was simply not enough time for the sharp peaks to erode, to round, and so they remained as they were. Dangerous, to the ant. Uncomfortable for anything larger. Coupled with the knowledge that lightning had licked the rocks with its torturous tongue, and one could simply envision how shards had been chipped away. Crumbled, tossed about in the storm, and cast into piles of rubble. Into mounds of dust that swirled through the silent winds. It seemed as though everything had been thrown into chaos, into a state of perpetual imperfection. A state so disquieting, that it appeared best to simply strengthen what was, then to try and change it. Perhaps, that was why Aello was acting as she was now. Perhaps that was why she was concentrating so deeply; so as to stir her proverbial magic cauldron. It was so cold; the stone against her skin. She could feel it; tendrils of its cool air swirling through her slender limb. Its soft exhalations sending tremors rippling through her stark white flesh. Her lips parted slightly with the sudden rush of it, exposing her two front, pearly white teeth. It seems so strange. So distinctly unnatural, her mind wandered as the earthen essence wound away from her finger, and coursed through her palm. Fading away into narrow wisps as it trailed towards her wrists, past the boundary into the world beyond; her spindly arms. And yet, how could it be anything but naturally occurring? Aello asked herself, as her form sank into the bed. Finding refuge, a strange sense of solace, despite the sensations that it evoked. Despite the uneven temperament of that which she rested herself upon. Something she could sense all the more as her pointer wore on, circling the area lazily; yet hungrily, as though still searching for something she was unable to put words to. She could feel the rises. The falls. The bumps. The undulations of the stone; akin to the rocking of the sea, which, if she listened closely enough, she could just barely discern over the din. She closed her eyes then, allowing the feeling to wash over her, the emotions it brought fourth. Unease coupled with a sense of calm in startling harmony. Solace. Relaxation; with a reminder to be ever vigilant, lest you be caught off guard. The sensations seemed strange to her, in their coupling, oddly foreign. Her brow furrowed, how could they all be? How could such dichotomous emotions be held so highly within herself at the same exact moment? Within the same span of time? Surely, there was something wrong with it all? And yet, Aello could not put her finger on it. If only there were a way to get her to understand. To see it all the more clearly; perhaps she could fight off the rising unease. The brewing storm. If she were smaller, far smaller, perhaps the size of an ant, she could come to truly understand the mixed emotions. If she had a different body, a furrier one. White like snow, with stout hooves, forked in their centers. Perhaps, if she had horns, and dark eyes, and was incapable of speech, for she was a mere creature of the mountains; a goat, she could come to truly see. If she were a miniscule entity, perhaps she'd know why the rises and falls seemed to stir uneasy sensations within her heart. Gradually drumming all the more hurriedly as her mind meandered along. For if her body lacked the height it now took for granted, if she became less than human, the world outside grew all the more ferocious. Misunderstanding. Relentless and cold. All the more inhospitable, treacherous and bleak. If she were made into something less, it would take her body far more time to climb to the top, to look out at the horizon from atop the highest peaks. A few mere blinks of an eye would stretch into chimes, into bells, into entire days, perhaps even seasons if the obstacle proved great enough. The girl could only imagine how her mind would numb watching the sun come and go, over and over again, as she looked ahead at an endless expanse of grey. She could only imagine how tiring it would be to keep on climbing; listening always, to the click clopping of her hooves against the terrain. She could scarcely picture how her vigilance would fade into a false sense of security, as the same picture seemed to draw itself repeatedly before her. Endlessly. Aello nearly lost her breath as she pictured a shallow cave, a curve in the rock; like a tidal wave crawling over the sandy shores, littered with foam and shattered shells. A place where she could seek shelter from the monotony; a place where anyone, or anything, could. There were dozens of things that posed threats to the mighty mountain goat- hunters, cougars and other large felines, wolves, to name a few. There was the risk of falling into a crag. A cleft in the rock, splitting the body open if one slipped. So many things could be the creature's downfall, even in areas it called home. Areas in which they were in their element, and found strength. She imagined how her body would tremble, if she ever faced death in the eye. If she were staring into the narrowed slits of a predator. Their dark pupils, as they snarled and snapped, and she simply quivered in fear, or perhaps, turned tail and ran. She pictured all the ways she could die like that, a seemingly insignificant creature, before she had so much as reached her destination. Made it half way. Before she had come to the final rise, and looked out upon the world. Feeling as though she could see it all; as though she had become its master, as opposed to she the subject of it. As she thought about what she may see from up there, the majestic view, her smile couldn't help but broaden. Aello could see the light blue sky, dotted with wisps of swirling white, and puffs of it. As though the wool off a lamb's back had been gathered and tossed into the sky. She could see the sun off in the distance, the fiery orb sparkling as it dazzled the mountain's side. Alighting the stone, shimmering darkly in a coat of grey. She imagined the tufts of green that would stick up here and there- trees towards the base, various shrubberies and leafy plants clinging to the side of the steep rise farther up, and as she did so, she became distinctly aware of a different sort of tingling sensation coursing through the tips of her fingers. This one was far warmer, a little less startling, as though she had merely baked in the sun for a little too long. Her smile widened, reflecting what the sun offered, as the first of her djed trickled past the surface. She could sense it pooling in the bed, sinking into the deep nothing, before slowly rising. Like a lake moving past its bounds after a large bout of rain. She could sense it spilling over the edge, trickling across the roof. Blocking out the light; making all as dark as it had been for many days past. She could sense all being snuffed out; a black blanket cast over the world. Drowning out all hope, all sense of peace, and life. Light. With it being gone now, courtesy of the shield she had cast, Aello thought that the stone may grow all the more cool; all the more uncomfortable to rest upon. Yet, as she dwelled on the subject, she came to realize that it could not be so, for her shield, as imperfect as it may be, was stretched tight in some areas, like butter over too much bread, and in other areas, it was highly concentrated. Coiling uncomfortably, like a snake waiting to strike. The shield, too, was designed only to keep out the light, not heat. Thus, in theory, it should have taken no effect on the stone, and, if she bothered to concentrate on it, Aello would know it was so. But, she simply couldn't. Not after a time. Not with the soft clicking sound produced by someone's boot stepping across the road. The soft hiss as rubble fell away into the nether reaches. Nestled beside buildings that were crumbling too. Aello's brow furrowed, as her eyelids twitched. Trying to hold to her mental image, despite her mind wanting to discern the sound all the more- to tell her things such as how heavily this person stepped, that they favored the right leg. That there was a soft cough too, a low growl to the throat that made the person seem masculine, as opposed to feminine. Her djed stopped flowing freely. The shield ceased to expand. Frustrated, as her mind fought all the more to make her see, the girl finally relented, and opened her eyes. They blinked several times, startled to have the sun now, shining directly into them. Sick of waiting on them to grow accustomed, Aello raised her hand and shielded her eyes. She squinted down the street, after the broad form of a man. A man whose hair seemed lighter now, with Syna's aid. A man who carried nothing, and whose clothes seemed to large for him now, as though he had recently lost some weight. The girl's eyes narrowed as she looked after him. There was something familiar about his form; something she could not shake, even though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Intrigued, as she studied the way his muscles rippled beneath his simple tunic, as he eased himself along, the girl couldn't help but become consumed by the notion that she had seen this man before. That she had known him... once... The man was preparing to cross a bend, causing Aello to sit up even straighter. Her heart skipped a beat as her hand fell, and she reached for her things; forcing herself onto her feet. Her body shook with the exertion, of being pulled out of a form long held. But she ignored it, as she ran across the crumbling roof, displacing dust as her hand curled all the more tightly around her father's old bow. She came to the edge and leapt, running for a moment through the air, suspended in space, before crashing down. She grit her teeth with the sudden thud, the hard impact, before bounding along after the man. Following him a little less closely as she caught up. Keeping to the shadows, so he wouldn't notice her. For a time, she followed him in this fashion, trying to place him. Wishing he'd turn so she could see his face, and she'd know for sure that she had not gone completely insane. But the man never turned. He never really showed himself. And in that last moment, before he simply seemed to vanish into thin air, it never came to her. Never produced that flash of recognition within her eyes. That wondrous glimmer, as she took the notion into consideration, and was then left dumbfounded. Unable to determine where he had gone. She looked left and right down the street, trying to take in all of her options, but even so, Aello came up empty handed. Gripping her bow all the more tightly in frustration, she simply stared off, down the street, where she had last seen him. Unable to believe what her mind insisted on telling her, she whispered, "can it be?"

[Paragon]

Adventurer's Loot Aello's Loot : Aello Skill XP Reward Shielding +3 Meditation +3 Observation +2 Lore: In History's Embrace, Seeing is Believing Items or Consequences: Nil I must admit... this was absolutely beautiful. It was like reading a long, flowing poem. You truly have a skill with words. Well done - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.