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Post by Jewel on Jan 13, 2004 12:18:04 GMT -5
Breathing a sigh of relief that she was a good distance from the town, the pegasus came upon a fork in the road. One way led home, to the Outer Edges, and the swinging wooden sign on the post facing the other direction read, "Rainbow River."
For whatever reason, Jewel didn't feel like going home at that moment. She was too restless, as she often found herself after being forced to have energy for a while. Looking down the road home once, she turned and instead began a trot to the river.
Feeling little claws scratching at her neck, Jewel paused for a moment to unwrap the scarf she had looped around herself and the baby griffin. The baby immediately looked up, wide-eyed and curious, at its new surroundings. It emitted a soft coo.
With a soft chuckle, the pegasus draped the scarf back about her neck, not hiding her little burden this time. She made her way next to the frozen river bank, stopping at a tree stump. Brushing the snow off of it with a wing, Jewel reached back and took the baby by the scruff, setting it gently on the stump. She stepped back and looked at it. The baby whined.
"Uhhnn.." Jewel made a pained expression. "Hungry? Is that it? ...maybe?" She looked at the baby, who gave her a blank look. He then jumped off the stump, landing above his head in the snow.
"Cripes!" the pegasus, muzzle now dotted with snow, set the baby up on the stump again. He insisted on jumping off. Jewel looked at the ground where he had landed, and pawed at it with a hoof. Soon she had cleared a small space of snow, and let him putter around in it.
With the baby on the ground, Jewel sat down where he had previously been situated. "I don't know what to feed you, I don't know what to do with you at all!" She said with a sigh, somehow gaining a slight bit of amusement from it all. Then she realized what the baby was doing.
With wings too tiny to allow him to fly, the baby griffin was scratching about in the dirt with his front feet, occaisionally nibbling on a stray seed. He then stabbed his beak into the ground, and pulled up his head with a fat earthworm wriggling in his grasp. The movement of it all startled the little one, who soon dropped it. Perhaps out of realization for his still-present hunger, the baby chased the worm and snatched it up again before it could escape.
Jewel thought she was going to be sick.
Having devoured his prey, the baby turned and sat on its haunches, looking up at the pegasus quite proud of himself. He burped out a small sqawk.
Too speechless for words, Jewel simply laughed.
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Post by LNS on Jan 20, 2004 23:03:43 GMT -5
Roux had left his now docked boat in search of firewood. If he wanted to cook anything he would need wood and a good deal of it before the heavy snowfalls hit. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck eating nothing but dried berries all winter.
He had yet to prepare a sweet treat for the even sweeter Jewel. For a few moments he thought about her, not watching where he was going. Would she like fudge, or brownies? Hot cocoa or chocolate truffles? A variety of sweets ran through his mind, none of which seemed appropriate for the tan/golden pegasus.
Brown eyes focused completely upon searching the ground for any fallen twigs or branches, the stallion was quite taken by surprise when he found himself sitting in the snow. Rubbing his bruised muzzle, he glanced up at the large oak tree that had come out of nowhere.
Slowly he stood, thankful that no one had seen this graceful display. Or had someone? He heard laughter. Turning his eyes fell upon Jewel. Was she laughing at him? No, it couldn't be. She was watching something else. But what? Curious Roux headed towards her.
Not wishing to startle her he called out, "Good afternoon."
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Post by Jewel on Jan 22, 2004 19:22:11 GMT -5
((OOC: Hey, LNS! Quick question... have we jumped ahead in time, or have they still not seen each other since the battle? Jewel might have some questions if they haven't.... lol. You know, drama: "You said you'd come back.." thing. What would you like to do? I'm cool with anything))
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Post by LNS on Jan 22, 2004 21:22:50 GMT -5
[[OOC: I think we've already jumped. If you want though we could kind of do a flashback thing. Than when it's finished, leap forward again to the present, Roux hunting for wood and Jewel watching over the baby griffin. Just a thought.]]
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Post by Jewel on Jan 22, 2004 22:24:33 GMT -5
((OOC: that sounds good to me!))
The tan pegasus, smiling at the tiny oddity before her, glanced up through brown and purple locks in the direction of the stallion who called to her. She was relieved to see, as always, that it was Roux. Jewel was glad he knew how easily she startled if not given a warning ahead of time.
Roux.. such an intruiguing pony. She had first met him days before the Battle had begun. They had fought, nearly side-by-side, through much of it. He was made a Champion. That was more than she'd ever be able to say for herself, the pegasus thought with an inward sigh, for a moment. Besides the battle and the glory, he was still Roux underneath. And that's what she loved the most.
The Battle... she hadn't thought about it recently. In fact, it wouldn't be a surprise if she had tried to block it out altogether. That was, seemingly, where it all began...
((OOC: Is that ok for a flashback setup? lol))
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Post by LNS on Jan 22, 2004 22:34:14 GMT -5
[[OOC: Yes! It was brilliant.]]
It was late the day after everything had come to an end before Roux awoke. Stiff muscles cried in protest as the stallion forced himself from his bed. Leaving his quarters behind him, he stepped out onto the deck.
The bright sunlight stung his eyes. Squinting he glanced down. Eyes widened, and he forgot about the blinding sun, as he stared at his blood stained hooves. Everything flooded his mind. Escape was impossible. There was nowhere to go, when one wanted to escape their own thoughts.
Leaping over the rail, he landed with a splash. Rubbing his hooves hard, he washed the blood and bits of splattered brain/bone/flesh from his hooves. No amount of scrubbing could remove the images plaguing his mind though.
Soaked, but finally clean, he left the river and headed back to try to find Jewel, again.
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Post by Jewel on Jan 22, 2004 23:14:51 GMT -5
((OOC: hehe, thanks))
"Roux should come back for us soon.. just hang on."
Late in the night, after most battle-scarred ponies had returned home, a cream-colored mare and a now tawny-colored pegasus lay alone amidst the destruction that was once the Celebration Castle. The voice was that of the pegasus, tired, hurt, and not in the best of moods to be making sense. Her blurred vision eventually yielded a sunrise still low beyond the horizon.
Later in the day, or even days later, she didn't know.. Jewel woke up in what felt like a new body. Her head was clearer and her body didn't ache as it had, with thanks to Willow's administrations of healing potions. She thought for an instant, just one hopeful brief second, that the battle had all been a nasty nightmare.. a bad dream. But she was wrong. In her heart, she knew everything had really happened.
As she woke to what felt like the beginning of the rest of her life, a thought drifted through her mind. During a conversation with Willow, it had found its way out: "He said he was coming back..."
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Post by LNS on Jan 22, 2004 23:25:47 GMT -5
Roux had lost count of just how many ponies he had questioned. Some he had questioned two or three times, but hadn't realized. They were all a blur. No one knew where she was. They offered no help, no hope, and so he had returned home.
For two days he searched the castle rubble and the town. But nothing. Roux cursed himself for not returning to the castle sooner. He had promised. Until that point he had never broken a promise. He hurt him to know that wherever Jewel was, if she was even alive, he had made her a promise that he knew she believed and yet he hadn't kept. What if her dying thought had been of that promise. It was more than he could bear.
He couldn't believe she was dead. He just couldn't. No matter what, she would overcome it. She had to.
Unable to return to his boat or the water that he loved, he turned instead to the solitude of the forest.
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Post by Jewel on Jan 23, 2004 12:12:25 GMT -5
Jewel left the hominess of Willow's kleepa hours later, and it wasn't long before she was trotting through soft, new-fallen snow, on her way home. However, something had distracted her...
...and so she brought the baby griffin back to her small home. Upon finding him, so small and so abandoned, buried emotions and feelings of the past resurfaced, and Jewel knew she couldn't leave him there to die.
The following morning, after much-needed rest, Jewel had summoned her muscles and, leaving the griffin safe in her home, walked out into the forest. A quiet stillness lay all around, sound as quiet as the snow was white. She wandered for a short time, until coming upon a large rock on the bank of the stream which she lived near. The sun had melted some of the snow away, leaving a clean place to sit. With a leap and a few beats of her wings, Jewel acended to a comfortable position overlooking the frozen stream, and let her thoughts drift.
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Post by LNS on Jan 23, 2004 19:51:17 GMT -5
A few feet inside the forest Roux left the well-beaten path. There were others all around. No doubt to take one to a spring, or a waterfall, or even to a loved one's home. What he wanted though, the paths couldn't offer him, so he went his own way. Caring nothing for where he ended up. Just wishing that the promise he had made, he could in some small way still keep.
Sunlight filtered in through the trees bare branches. Some of it dancing across his coat. Every shadow he saw, looked like Jewel. Every bush, every tree branch. But when the light touched it, she was gone. No matter how hard he wished or hoped, it wasn't her.
Just up ahead the sunlight was blinding and Roux half closed his eyes in order to see where he was walking. There was a large rock and on it Jewel. He felt like laughing, crying, and screaming for joy ... but then he recalled the other times he had seen her in the forest.
"Just a shadow." Roux mumbled softly under his breath, "She's not there."
Letting out a ragged sigh, the stallion continued on his way.
"Just get past it. Don't look." Roux told himself as he neared the rock.
He couldn't bear to look up and discover that he had fallen for another shadow.
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Post by Jewel on Jan 23, 2004 22:57:13 GMT -5
Sounds of the forest, soft though they were, filled the ears and senses of the contemplative pegasus. A certain, indescribable white sound that came with the snow fall, the snapping of twigs under the weight of their powdery and icy burdens, even the scuffling of small animals scavenging for food. Suddenly, however, a new sound reached Jewel.
A slow, methodic thumping was getting increasingly louder. Quiet as she had been, sounds were all the easier to pick up, and she heard it from a short distance away. Realizing something was approaching, Jewel remained still, not sure if she wanted to be seen or not. The presence of whatever had murdered the griffin was still fresh in her memory. However, she didn't feel terribly afraid. Hesitantly, and slowly, she raised her head and looked around, eventually turning toward the direction Roux had come from. Purple eyes squinted as she tried to believe the pony she saw before her.
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Post by LNS on Jan 23, 2004 23:14:09 GMT -5
Unable to stop himself Roux turned his head to look up at the rock. Sunlight danced across the pegasus' tan/gold coat. She looked like an angel that had just floated down from heaven.
Brown eyes filled with sorrow and regret as he looked at what he believed to be just another illusion. It wasn't until he saw her chest rise and fall with her breathing that he realized she was really there.
"Jewel!" Roux softly exclaimed, hardly able to believe she was right there.
He wanted to touch her face, hold her, anything. Just to know that she was real. Just to be certain that she wasn't a trick of his eyes.
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Post by Jewel on Jan 24, 2004 7:18:50 GMT -5
Upon hearing him call her name, Jewel remained still for a moment. There he was, the one who she thought would never come back, standing before her. Was this just pure cooincidence, or might he actually have been searching for her? Jewel had begun to fear that any comradery had been left on the battlefield. Yet here he was. Pushing herself to a standing position, she took a few tiny steps and slid forward off the rock face, beating her wings to slow her fall. Rear hooves touched the snow-dusted ground, then the front ones, as she found herself standing near him,
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Post by LNS on Jan 24, 2004 21:39:59 GMT -5
Roux was unable to hide his joy at seeing her once again. A wave of thankfulness washed over him, that she was alive and all right. Or at least she appeared so to him.
He hardly knew where to begin. Roux owed her an apology or an explanation. Quite possibly even both. He was so afraid that she'd blow him off, not even allowing him a chance to say, I'm sorry.
Lowering his head slightly, strands of his mane slipped down, half obstructing his vision.
His voice soft and sincere Roux began, "Jewel ... I-I'm sorry."
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Post by Jewel on Jan 24, 2004 21:59:13 GMT -5
Eyes which appeared more violet than purple in the sunlight remained fixed upon Roux. Jewel did not step forward, nor recoil. She stood where she was and bore a seemingly expressionless face, or at least, she tried to.
Seeing him again caused a stirring inside her, a reminder of old feelings she'd tried to forget a long time ago. Not those of the battle, but those of someone before, someone who seemed ages away. Part of her wanted to leap forward and greet him, and part of her wanted to run away. Away from the stallion who broke his promise, away from someone who may actually care for her. It was difficult to understand, but sometimes the pegasus feared love as much as she feared hate.
Stepping strongly on her front hooves to stop a nervous tremble, Jewel swallowed. She had toyed with the thought that Roux might not have lived.. though she somehow knew it wasn't so. It amazed her to find them both there, right then, in each other's presence.
"Roux.." She greeted softly, "...you're alive."
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