•• that which we loathe

[Silver]

------------------ MAREK ------
If there was any word for it, it was brooding. The darkness of the cave suited his mood and he gladly reveled in the dampness of it all. His steps could be heard echoing through the cavernous hallways through which he wandered, oblivious to the danger it presented a horse with its many different branches and rooms. At semi-regular intervals he would look up and see a brightly colored type of grass clinging to some sort of cleft in the rock. How it managed to grow was beyond him, but he didn’t mind it so much, as the vegetation gave off its own light and left the cave system dim but still dark. Marek walked deeper into the gloom, listening for the sound of creatures that lingered in the shadowy recesses of the walls. He had no clear destination, but the sound of his forceful clopping was enough to show that a destination was not needed, only the journey itself to cool his raging mood. Once he was far enough in that the light of the gorge above didn’t show itself he stopped. The dark burnt-gold, black and white stallion breathed in deeply through his nostrils, inhaling the scents of stone and lichen and the lighted grasses. He remained motionless for a moment before suddenly rearing up and letting out a furious roar and striking the floor hard with both front hooves. “Damn you Erren!” he hissed, breathing heavily. The feeling that he just had to move was overwhelming and drove him to pace madly, turning back and forth and carving a path underneath him. Eventually his pacing slowed and he walked sideways to rest his forehead against the stone wall.

It was cold underneath his forehead but he didn’t care. “By the name of Acheron, damn you!” He cursed his sister and called on the Chameleon god in the same phrase, but the lead stallion could care less. He clenched his teeth together and breathed in slowly, regaining his composure. Marek was furious at his haughty sister. She had just left the Anemoi, declaring that she would join the herd of his (and their, he had thought) enemy. In the cave, the stallion glared at the stone, willing it to challenge him. He was in such a mood that he might have struck down the entire cave system had he been able to. He wasn’t hurt, per se, but the fact that she was going to join Boaz irked him and she knew it. The selfish little wench only ever thought of herself, and that was why she had left and was heading east. She wanted power, and thought she could get it from there. He snorted. Fat chance. “If I ever set eyes on you again, Erren, I swear I will tear you limb from limb!” The vow was made to the wall of the caves; he backed up, still angry that she would turn to the enemy like that. He had known that she was capable of something so stupid, but it still angered him to no end. She was turning to the one thing he loathed the most in Asedenn, and so he loathed her too.

[poizuun]

Lumiere had been yanked from her sleep on one of the shelves at her father's echoing rage. Her pale blue eyes shot open and she lifted her head, ears swivelling as the echoes died down. She looked downward and then lifted herself to her hooves and shook off some of the dust that had collected on her golden pelt and then moved from the shelf and began her descent into the cave.

Her hooves slid occasionally along the steep path, but she was able to keep her footing now that she was older and used to the steep, slippery slope. Now as a foal, that was a much different story. She was constantly falling and sliding down to the bottom. The cave had taught her to be graceful and light on her hooves. Like a mountain goat. When she finally made it to the bottom, she shook out her cream-colored mane and went on a search for her father.

When she spotted him, she flicked her tail across her flanks and nickered, trotting up casually, as if he hadn't just been cursing his sister's, her aunt's, life and decisions. "Hello father. What has Aunt Erren done to put you in such a state?"

[Silver]

------------------ MAREK ------
He was still fuming when his daughter came up behind him. He had known that she was coming – she still made some noise when moving down the cavernous corridors – and so he didn’t move when he suddenly felt her presence behind him. He sighed and pulled himself together more or less, but one could see the fire in his eyes that gave away the intensity of his flaming temper. Slowly he turned to face her. In the greenish, bluish glow of the luminous grasses she was a green-gold, but he knew better. In the light his daughter was a brilliant gold with a mane and tail that seemed to be of the moonlight. To say that he loved her more than her twin Azami would be foolish; he loved neither with the proper amount of fatherly love that he should have. But for Lumiere, he felt a certain comfort. She was like him: strong, proud, uncompromising. She was not lax in her beliefs, and he was sure that she felt as he did against the Tritones. She had been brought up to hate them, knowing of their treachery and their vow to destroy the Anemoi. And she did not look like her mother, unlike Azami, who was practically a carbon copy of the mare. Thoughts of his childhood love fluttered through his mind, but he blocked them out with an iron gate.

“She has left the Anemoi to go in search of the Tritones,” he growled. Once more he looked at the wall where his forehead had been pressed against in fury, but the stone offered no answers about this insanity. Angrily he clipped off a piece of glowing grass and munched on it. The thought of Erren joining Boaz and his herd was simply preposterous, but believable. She would do what she had to in order to gain a life of selfish indulgence. He brooded as he chewed. Swallowing, he turned back to look at his daughter. “She wishes to join them.” The lines of his jaw hardened as he gritted his teeth and stomped his back hoof hard against the ground. Marek was not one who took betrayal lightly, and certainly not from those who knew better. He watched Lumiere, studying her; perhaps looking for a trace of her aunt’s rebellious and foolish nature.

[poizuun]

The palomino mare's pale blue eyes glittered in the dim light when her father revealled his sister's traitorous choices. She knew of her father's anger toward the Tritones and had learned quickly the wrong things to say to him about them. So for the moment, she held her tongue and just allowed him to vent and be angry for a bit. Her tail flicked against her flanks as she glanced about the cave. She wondered how long it had really been since her sister had been stolen by the enemy herd. Lumiere hadn't seen Azami in two years now, she figured. They had never necessarily been close as foals and young mares, but there was still a connection between them that kept Lumiere from disliking her twin. So she kind of missed the blue and white mare, but solely for the fact that she did not feel completely "whole" without her.

Her ears flicked backward for a moment. "Well, there is another lost family member." She said, almost bitterly, before her ears came back up. First it was her mother that they lost, but she didn't necessarily count as an Anemoi initially being a part of the Tritones; then her sister, who was also stolen as revenge for their mother, and finally Erren. It was a bitter truth that now it was just herself and her father together. And now Lumiere felt that there was a pressure to stay in the Westlands just so she would not leave her father alone without any family in the herd. And she was now expected even more to not go anywhere near anyone of Tritone relation. These were not expectations that Lumiere did appreciated being stuck with, just because she was the last one left.

[Silver]

------------------ MAREK ------
He turned at the bitterness in her voice. His dark eyes gleamed in the faint light and he watched his daughter. Was she truly unhappy here with him? Like a stone thrown into an endless hole, his heart dropped suddenly. The stallion tossed his mane out of his eyes and turned away to look at the wall. He hadn’t thought that his daughter might not be content living here. Losing Lumiere… That might just drive him into insanity. He gulped down the lump that had risen in his throat, blinking at the sudden and blinding revelation. “Yes, another one,” he echoed faintly. Had it been so long since Azami had been taken? Were they so alone now? Marek swung his tail to keep himself from wandering down that long road of regret and painful memories yet again. Azami was gone, and he could not think of her as much more than a traitor now. She was a full grown mare now, as was her sister, and still she did not return to them. He could see how the strain of living without company save her father was affecting Lumiere, and yet he didn’t know what to do about it. Or did he?

Lifting his head up to look at her, his head cleared and he was able to think through their situation. “This is not the end, Lumiere,” he said quietly, trying to reassure her. “You are an Anemoi. You are strong and capable of anything. Including overcoming this obstacle. You and I shall move on. Family is not simply those related to you by blood, but those who come to live with you and eventually take a place within your heart.” He stood silently for a moment, wondering where this stroke of thoughtful sensitivity had come from. “One day you will find yourself a mate, and he will become Anemoi. Through you, there will be Anemoi foals. Our family will be great once more.” With a sigh he looked at his daughter with a special tenderness reserved only for her. “If they choose not to remain Anemoi,” he said, referring to Azami and Erren, “then they were never truly Anemoi to begin with.”

[poizuun]

The golden mare knew her father meant well by his words. She knew he meant to comfort her and let her know she was not so alone. But when Lumiere thought about it, she only felt more trapped. Yes, one day she expected to meet a stallion that would live with her in the Westlands and perhaps have a couple of foals with him, but the way her father said it... She felt more relied upon to bring their herd back from the brink of dying out. Her pale tail whisked against her flanks with an audible whistle and her eyes gleamed with a sudden anger. However, she kept her cool, not wanting to release her father's wrath. Her anger was simmering, slowly boiling beneath the surface. She turned away, blue eyes flashing as she glanced around the cave. Did she want to live in this place the rest of her life? Was her father truly expecting her to bring about the second coming of the Anemoi? Lumiere looked over her shoulder at him, staring straight into his eyes. "What about you, father?" She asked, her voice level. "When will you find a mare and have foals of your own aside from Azami and myself?"

[Silver]

------------------ MAREK ------
He almost wished that he could take back what he said and rephrase it, but he found that he couldn’t. He meant what he said, and nothing less. That she had taken it with a different meaning than he intended wasn’t his fault, and so he would not change it. Clarify it, perhaps. With a deep breath of resignation, he gave up any hope of holding on to his feelings for Resi any longer. She never chose you, Marek. She didn’t want you anyway. He stole her, and yet he never managed to steal her heart. She always belonged to Boaz. What was it about him that made him so…undesirable? Did Boaz have no faults? Was he perfect, and everything that every mare desired? Marek didn’t want to believe so and yet… He watched the way his daughter stared so directly into his eyes and smiled to himself. She wasn’t about to back down. That was a part of both him and Resi that had been ingrained into both of his daughters. “I am leaving today, to go to the Faraway Meadows. It’s time that I start rebuilding what was once the most feared and envied herd of Asedenn. I will be gone for no longer than a season, and I will bring back a willing mare.” With one last look at the glowing vegetation that sprouted from the walls, he started back up the tunnel. “And remember, Lumiere. While I wish you to have a legacy of your own, the responsibility to keep the herd alive is mine alone.”