Olde Plot 001 | Taming the River

Nefertiti looked now back to Jediah, and rose an eyebrow at his suggestion. She knew he couldn't be serious, not this unicorn fearing stallion. Though a walk down the river couldn't hurt, if anything it would help narrow the possibilities? Maybe a physical source would silence the advisers blabbering? Or a lack of one would just fuel his ramblings of the unicorns.

"well," The silvery mare started, hesitating slightly."a walk up the river couldn't hurt anything, I don't think." Her eyes shifted around the members of the party, resting again on Jediahs. "if we find nothing, then the only thing left to believe is a curse of some kind. And then we can go from there?"

She hadn't meant her last statement to sound like a question, but she didn't bother correcting herself. Considering she was quite unsure as to what they could do in the event of a curse without having to force the exiles off their land. Flipping her wet forelock out of her eyes, she turned her eyes back to the river's coursing red waters. Why would the unicorns do this to them? Was it really wrong of them to help out their fellow horses, be they exiles or otherwise?

Please note: Everyone has different spacing between their checkpoints. Some people will need to only post one round between checkpoints for the first one, while others will need two pages (: I know only being on checkpoint 2 at this timeis a little scary - but you're right on track! 

"By the Unicorns!" The knight whispered, looking at the red veins which were coursing to the east. Nefertiti was now very convinced it had to be magic of some kind, and it frightened her. Having this much power was almost unheard of aside from the unicorns themselves. Stepping over to look at the small strands of water, she looked towards the direction they were coursing, trying to remember the lay of the land. There was nothing really directly east aside from the ocean, which didn't seem right to her. Picking up her head she looked back to the group, looking over the faces of the others with uncertainty.

"Let's go then!" A spark of confidence and slight authority hummed in the mares voice, as she turn to follow the red waters that stained the land. Pushing off the earth, she began a quick canter along the path the water cut, looking back to make sure the others would follow her, but keeping the water within her peripheral.

Oh Great One, what have we done? What does this mean?

The silvery mare wasn't all entirely sure if they were running to their deaths or not, but she did hope whatever lay at the end of this cursed water would answer their questions.

All the yelling was making the young mare only cross, What's the point in yelling at each other when all that's going on almost killed two herd-mates! The mare growled to herself, none of this made sense but Jediah was quickly losing the young mare's favor- Jekyll was quickly gaining it with his level headedness, bless the calm one. "By the Unicorns themselves!" Janice gasped as she watched the tendrils crawl through the earth, she was frightened. Oh so frightened, but at the same time... She was intrigued with a snort the mare took off after Jediah, Nefertiti and Daemyn, scared about what was actually going on. Curse or not this in now way seemed to be in accord with the natural order. Why is it heading east? The mare asked herself as she ran, with her unusual quick speed she quickly passed the other two and came in next to Jediah, "Jediah!" She hollered over the wind, "What do we do? It's heading towards the cliffs!" She shrieked wondering how this was going to work out.

WC: 178
(( OOC: My phone is being a butt so I can't get on skype currently, my life is upside down which is why I disappeared. I am so, so sorry! I will try and post as much as I can in between now and the end of this objective, again I am so sorry! -If you need to contact me please note me on dA, otherwise I may not be able to reply! ))

At this point, he knew that Jediah had probably spoken the truth about the Great Compromiser. Did the almighty unicorn really loathe those who sympathized with the enemies? Jekyll didn't really care for the Exile Herd, though he couldn't just stand by seeing parents ripped from their children. War brings death. Isn't that inevitable? I'm acting like there's possibly a way to protect the weaker ones. It's tragic, but...I must protect the Olde Herd at all costs. I can't care for those who die in the Exile Herd. I am one of the Olde Herd members, not an Exile Herd member. Perhaps I understand Jediah's annoyance at sympathizers now. Still, are we doing the right thing? What if this contains a different message? Jekyll swallowed, unable to comprehend what his true feelings were. Still, it wasn't the time to become more self-aware. 

By now, it was obvious that the crimson liquid had been caused by some sort of magic-and powerful magic, at that. Were they finally getting to the cause of this? Or were they only at the beginning? Jekyll huffed in astonishment, seeing rivulets of blood-red water seeping through the ground. Only unicorns had this unimaginable power, right? "Jediah's right," Jekyll finally spoke, following the others and examining the water suspiciously. "I'm sure only the Great One's powers could cause something like this to happen. We must protect the Olde Herd at all costs, no matter what happens." Jekyll believed he was doing the right thing, but was he really? Were they just being led to their demises now? 

Word Count: 261 

---

The normally slow stallion threw all of his careful nature aside, thundering alongside the tendrils of red water, trying to keep up with them as they wormed through cracks in the ground. He zig-zagged through the pale trunks of trees, throwing up clumps of earth from where his huge hooves dug into the soft soil. His massive sides rose and fell rapidly with each quick breath, nostrils flared and ears pinned forward. He no longer doubted that the red water was caused by magic and there could only be one source in his opinion: The Unicorns. He was also convinced that the aggressive red water was a warning and a reminder of where the Olde loyalty should lie. He would support Jediah in reporting the strange phenomenon and how to deal with it, but for now all of his focus was on following the trail. He didn't consider even once that they could be led to danger.

A slight clearing in the white trunks came up ahead, a wide spread of rock within. Daemyn slowed down a tad to cast a glance at Jediah before sucking in a sharp breath, approaching regardless of what the cousin-adviser would say. Or yell.

Daemyn's blue eyes grew wide as the water flooded across the stone platform and sank into etchings he hadn’t noticed. "That's us! " he said in a breathless whisper, blue cloth still between his teeth, before realizing he was wrong. No, that was not the symbol of Olde, but one could not fault the slow stallion for thinking so. After all, it was a circle with spiraledhorns. He stepped closer still, hooves almost touching the stone, dropping his head low to smell the rock, the water, the glowing symbol. If there had been any doubt about the red water's origin, then this had to put it to rest. It had to be magical.

The large palomino lifted his head and swung it around to look at the group. He swallowed, throat suddenly dry. He felt a slight touch of fear and excitement which he could not explain.
"What is this? " he asked them all, trying to keep calm although the foal in his heart was leaping with joy. Maybe this was a sign that the Unicorns would return? All they had to do was to clear the land of sympathizers. That had to be it, but Daemyn wasn't confident enough to share his thoughts. So he gawked at the others and waited.