Coming to the Light |Private| | Chevalin Wanderlust Forum

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Coming to the Light |Private| Aug 31, 2014 14:47:35 GMT -5

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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2014 14:47:35 GMT -5

She was fading. The elderly mare was having trouble keeping her breath now. It wouldn't be long. Aralynne had left to find something to help his mother's pain ease. Nero stayed with her. His mother wouldn't be left alone. He hadn't left her side for days. And now, watching her painfully wheeze in breaths, it broke his heart. The large stallion laid by his mother, listening to her weakening breaths. He nearly dwarfed her, her frail body a mere ghost of what it used to be. Her once vibrant golden coat dulled and grey. It was worse then when his father had died. His father had simply faded, his mother was withering.

While Nero had been lost in his thoughts, hid mother stirred. Teal eyes opened and gazed lovingly at her son, even though they were hazy. "Mom...?" the grey stallion said softly, inching closer to the ailing mare. Lorena smiled and turned to get a better view of him. "My beautiful boy..." she said gingerly and coughed. "You have been such a gift to me." Nero smiled and nuzzled the mares cheek. "It's alright mom, you don't have to say anything." The mare shook her head and rolled up off of her side, causing a coughing fit. "Easy, easy." Nero gingerly rested his muzzle against her neck, causing her to roll back onto her side.

"Oh, but I do," Lorena said when she regained her breath. "When I found you, after I had lost my baby, I thought I had been blessed by the unicorns of old." Nero shook his head, confused by the old mares words. "Mother... what are you?" "I found you. In the surf by the forbidden forest. You were bleeding badly, but I got you back..." The stallion was shocked. "No... no! You're confused! I fell when I was a newborn in the city, father told me-!" "I never told Caesar the truth. You were gifted to us after I had lost our daughter, but I didn't know how he would react if I told him." Tears filled the stallions bright blue eyes. Everything he had ever been told, everything he knew, was a lie. "How... why...? "I love you Nero. I thought you should know the truth, but know this. You are still my son, you always will be. And I love you, more then anything in the world."

Nero was crying now, knowing she would be gone soon, but how could she lie to him like this? He had so many questions, questions he knew he could never get answers too. They had been his mothers last words, but how could he believe them. She'd been sick for so long, maybe she wasn't lucid? What if it was just her illness talking? But she had seemed so sincere. And in his heart he knew, he knew he'd been telling the truth. When the wheezing quieted and the old mare stirred no more, Nero left the building, walking out to find the sun rising on the Olde city, reflecting off the broken windows and the light coat of Aralynne, who was standing before him.

RusticLass
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.:| sometimes blessings come through raindrops; sometimes healing comes through tears |:.

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Coming to the Light |Private| Aug 31, 2014 15:19:47 GMT -5

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Post by RusticLass on Aug 31, 2014 15:19:47 GMT -5

What else could she do? The thought echoed through the young mare's mind, the greenery around her fading into the background as she passed them by. The only thing she saw when she closed her eyes was the suffering elderly mare. A mother and valued herd member, withering away before her eyes. She, Aralynne, a Healer Mage for her herd. But what did that matter anyways? All she had come to know was that she had failed. She had been failing for a long time. Nothing seemed to help her. . . Aralynne's throat contracted as she held back a sob. It took nearly all she had to hold back the drowning desperation.

"No," she resolved aloud, hurrying forwards with more purpose in her step. Aralynne had to take care of her. The least she could do was make the mare more comfortable along her journey back to the unicorns. In reality, she was still learning of the herbs of their forests, and only a few names came to her to use in this situation. Clumps of marigold, ginger and basil littered the undergrowth. There was one she searched for specifically, though it's name seemed to have faded from her memory the sight and scent wouldn't be easily forgotten. It was a potent plant used to calm the heart rate and decrease pain, and at the moment, it was all Aralynne could think to use.

It was not much longer before the Mage had located enough of the plant and began her return trip, hooves skimming through the undergrowth far faster than she had before, cantering around tree after tree to make it back to where she lay with her son. Nero was a fellow Mage, though his specialty was in attack rather than healing. Aralynne had gotten to know him little by little over the past months, and she considered him a friend. A friend borne of pain. . .

"How. . . why. . .?" the anguished question reached through the buildings. Nero's voice. . .

"I love you Nero. I thought you should know the truth, but know this. You are still my son, you will always be. And I love you, more then anything in the world."

This was not a normal conversation. This was. . . Wait! No! No! She was dying. "No!" Aralynne panted between leaves. "No!" As the sun rose off of the buildings the mare died. Her only indication of this was that Nero had left her side, something she hadn't seen him do when she was away. . . and there were tear-stained streaks down his pale cheeks. "Nero," she gasped, the herbs falling to the ground. She could not stop the tears that welled in her eyes couldn't be stopped, and she, too, cried for the loss of a herd member. . . cried for the agony of Nero. . . the agony of her failure. "Nero, I'm so sorry." The champagne mare stepped forwards and lay her head over his back as best as she could reach. It was all could think to do.

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Coming to the Light |Private| Aug 31, 2014 15:55:01 GMT -5

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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2014 15:55:01 GMT -5

Nero couldn't tell how he felt. Broken was the only word that came to mind. Not only had he lost his mother, the last family he had left and a horse he had loved most dearly out of anyone, but he had lost his life. His entire life seemed gone, in a few rasping words of a dying mare, his entire world collapsed around him. Everything he had ever known. Everything he had ever felt. It slipped through his grasp like water flowing through rocks.

And then there was Aralynne. Kind, gentle, crying. Nero had stopped crying now, but the stains from where they once fell down his pale cheeks remained. But seeing this mare cry, it broke the little bit of his heart that hadn't yet been crushed. She draped her head over his back and the stallion dropped his head, sighing. "Don't-" Nero choked on the words. "Don't be sorry, there... there was nothing anyone could do." Over the months his mother had been weakening, Aralynne had cared for her. It meant so much to Nero, she had done something he could not. When Lorena had been in so much pain, Aralynne had been able to ease it. To make her passage easier. Nero couldn't do that, he could only cause pain.

"It was a lie..." he said under his breath, feeling the knot well in his throat as tears welled in his eyes. "Everything... I've ever known...." They were falling now, like little drops of rain from his sky blue eyes. He couldn't stop them. But it wasn't only sorrow that caused these tears. It was anger. Anger like nothing he had ever felt. How could she? How could she do that?! To her own son?! Or so she had always said. Nero snorted, tears and rage blinding him, her stepped forward, trying to get clear of Aralynne so as not to hurt her.

He was so angry... he was furious! There a wall in front of them, one that was in shambles and barely held together. Nero bared his teeth and whipped around, planting his hind hooves into the stone with a loud roar. The stone gave way surprisingly easily, crumbling into a pile of rubble with a cloud of dust. When the bricks settled, the stallion fell to his knees, crying out from the pain in his heart. "How could she?! How could she do this?! TO ME?!?!" Nero was yelling, not at anyone in particular. But the pain was unbearable. He couldn't stop it, or the tears as the flew downs his cheeks. He didn't understand. He didn't exist...

RusticLass
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.:| sometimes blessings come through raindrops; sometimes healing comes through tears |:.

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Coming to the Light |Private| Sept 13, 2014 22:44:52 GMT -5

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Post by RusticLass on Sept 13, 2014 22:44:52 GMT -5

The tears that continued to flow from her eyes could not have been stopped if Aralynne so wanted them to. And now, as Nero told her not to be sorry, the weight of her failure only growing upon her slight shoulders. The mare pressed into his side, trying desperately to comfort him as he spoke. "Nero," she murmured as a sob rocked her flank, stumbling sideways as he moved away from her, anger dripping from his words as he yelled his pain to the skies. Her heart skipped a beat as his tone only increased in volume, tears now breaking loose from his eyes once more. Nero whirled about, hooves flying out from his muscled body to strike the crumbling wall.

Aralynne knew from simple observation that he was not aiming for her, and he was, in fact, far from coming close to it, but the fear that had been so instilled in her heart by her time among the Bachelors was enough to scream at her to run away, to flee from the imminent danger that came along with an enraged stallion. And indeed she did, stepping rapidly backwards as the wall crumbled, but her hooves became entangled in the loose vines draped across the stone walkway. A shriek left her throat as she fell backwards, crashing to the ground and rolling painfully onto her side. Panic and adrenaline leaped her heart into action, it's labored, yet rapid beating trying hopelessly to provide her limbs with the strength to move.

She struggled against the tangled vines hopelessly, only managing to drag herself less than a few feet away. The champagne's pale sky blue eyes were drawn wide as she stared at Nero, fear written in the confused swirls of emotion in her open-book gaze.