[ Test ] Dream a Little Dream of Me

[Zoobey]

There was no question of where, why, or how, but when Kiwi woke up, he would fine Medea staring down at him. Down, as in he was lying down with pillows and an assortment of foxfires bundled around him.

They seemed to be in her tent, or something, a heavy cloistering aroma of incense stifling everything around him in thick smoky white. Little baubles and charms hung from the rafters: Medea was most definitely on her way to becoming both eccentric and extremely eccentric.

"And how," she finally whispered, kneeling next to him, "do you feel?"

xoxomenai

 

[xoxomenai]

The foxfires should have clued him in as to where he was. It was the face of the priestess though, and the thick, aromatic scent of the room, that first registered with Kiwi that he seemed to have found himself in Medea's tent.

How did he feel?? The horseman stretched slowly, and sat up amid the pile of pillows and soft minipet fluff. The way she stared, so silent and direct, seemed to pierce right through him. He couldn't place it, but it was a look that left him feeling oddly transparent. He didn't like it one bit. Or, was it the voices, rising to a cacophony in his mind, that protested??

"I am fine, Priestess, thank you," he answered softly, crossing his arms a bit defensively. The silence stretched, broken only by fleeting, formless whispers. He sighed a moment, unsure of how much he wanted to admit, swallowed, and then hesitantly added: "... Is it always so noisy while you work?? ..." The distraction proved just the opening he needed, as the words tumbled from his lips before he had time to doubt himself. "To be honest, Medea, ... I am not certain how I feel. It seems everywhere I go of late, there is nothing but chatter, white noise and voices in thin air. I can feel a weight stiffling me, and I can't get her out of my head. If only I could have been there before, could have stopped our homes from falling, I wouldn't have lost her. I wouldn't have this pain haunting me." His words stopped short, and he drew in a deep breath, allowing the calming aroma to fill his lungs.

I ... I wouldn't have failed everyone. I wouldn't have turned on everyone, or allowed this weakness to consume me. I feel unworthy of the title horseman."

Zoobeyx

 

[Zoobey]

"I hear them." Medea answered calmly, pulling out one of her bottles to dried rain rose petals all over Kiwi. They did nothing to calm the voices. "They cannot be silenced, though they could be calmed. The question is your state of body. You currently lie on the brink of two worlds. Where you tread next will leave a lasting effect on who you plan to be. Are you more afraid of being called horsemen, or more afraid not being called so?"

xoxomenai

 

[xoxomenai]

Kiwi felt his stomach tighten over the priestess's last words, a sick feeling overcoming him as the pieces fell into place. He had always been led to believe that a horseman's pride was in their title and their clan. If you weren't strong enough to protect your clan, you weren't worthy of the title and vice-versa. It was one of the foundations that had driven him to battle so young in life. But this was something else entirely. He understood the priestess's words, that what he felt now was as if he were being called in two directions at once. One, to the warm embrace of his friends and current loved ones, to his role as a horseman in the here and now, and likewise, he could feel the undercurrents of his childhood fears rising and drawing closer. And her ghost still haunted him. As much as he knew he wanted to go back to the way the clans were, before the Isles' collapse, he also knew living in the present was what was most important. If he truly feared anything at all, it was that the reality he now lived in would fade just like his past, and leave him all alone without a home to return to.

He swallowed and shakily responded: "I suppose, I am afraid of losing everything it means to be a horseman ... After all, if I am not a horseman, worthy of that title, of defending our clan, then who's to say something irrevocable won't happen again?? I want the power to protect everyone. There is so little we know about the Insanity still. The Distortion helps, but only so far... You say there is no cure, priestess, but is there not a way that this Insanity can be used to benefit everyone, instead of only consuming us alive?? At this rate I am afraid it will only spread to the others, and Queen help me, Medea, if our home falls a second time it may break me in ways worse than this!"

He was practically shaking. Revealing his innermost concerns like this, wasn't something the young colt was used to, even on a normal day. Kiwi plucked up one of the petals, focusing his attention on it as he brushed it between his fingers in an attempt to calm himself, and awaited Medea's insight.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

She waited patiently for Kiwi to stop shaking. There was something she observed, and it was evident in the flash of her eyes, a strange expression, that she could not share quite yet. There was very likely, something very wrong with the Famine horseman.

"Then there is only one solution to this problem, and that is to face yourself."

She moved quickly, pouring over several shelves before she came back with a long rapier. At the end of the rapier was a glowing red fragment.

"When you are ready," the Head Priestess nodded, without actually explaining what. "When you are ready to cure yourself you must face yourself. This artifact is the key. Do not be afraid and let the sword find your core. Only then can your journey begin and end."

xoxomenai

 

[xoxomenai]

Face himself. The thought coiled uneasily in the pit of his stomach. It made sense, it was himself he really couldn't bear after all. But ... was he really ready to face what might be lurking within?? ...

His attention was drawn back to Medea as she returned with - of all things - a weapon. It was a rapier, a weapon of battle, something warm and familiar as the desert sands to him. But as his eyes caught the glowing red fragment at the tip of the blade, a sudden dread engulfed him.

The artifact was the key.

He honestly didn't think he was ready to face it, all the frightening things he had experienced, all the pain Insanity had caused everyone, the knowledge he had helped further that by allowing it inside. Though surely, having woken to the company of the Head Priestess wasn't without dire reason. Running now from what she offered him wouldn't bring him any closer to the answers he sought.

"Very well, Priestess." That was enough for the Famine colt. It was all or nothing. Kiwi gave a firm tilt of the head, and clenched his fingers around the artifact with all the strength he could muster.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

Medea smiled, and it was almost unsettling for a second-

- And then she reached over and grabbed hold of the hilt of the dagger as well, plunging it directly into Kiwi's core-

- There was pain, there was an intense, terrible pain, a strange hollow burning, and then screaming, voices, thousands of voices yammering-

- And then silence.

He was alone, and in front of him were three doors. One was coloured red, one black, and the last blue.

xoxomenai

Pick a door!

 

[xoxomenai]

Kiwi lurched as Medea twisted the blade in, and everything around him vanished in a sea of pain. His insides blazed like molten fire as he screamed, burning a hole into his chest. The scream gradually warped, twisted, becoming not his scream, but the scream of others - the voices of Insanity - and they filled his mind til he couldn't think.

Then the pain suddenly vanished, and with it the voices too. Before him were three doors, each very similar save for their color. Red, black, blue. Behind one, maybe he could find an answer. No, find himself. The horseman stared to each of them in turn, but his eyes kept drifting back towards the red door.

It was the same shade of red the clan symbol was often painted in. Red like blood, like human blood when the FEAR and life left it. Red too, like the fragment that had been burning in his hand only moments before. It felt right.

Kiwi stepped forward and swung the red door open.

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

There was a long hallway as the door swung open. At the far end was a cage and inside it a woman. Or it looked like a woman, shaped in the figure of one by red silhouette alone. Long, slender fingers grasped at the cages. Thorns crawled out from inside the cage.

"Did you come to free me?" The voice, her voice, was terrible. "If you do I will give you unfathomable power. You will not be slave of the voices but instead become something greater." In her one hand materialized a red rose. "Will you take my power?"

xoxomenai

 

[xoxomenai]

He didn't know who she was, but her offer held his interest.

Kiwi slowly approached the cage, fingers hovering out towards the rose the red silhouette extended him. As it warmed against his palm, he felt more than ever that this was the correct path. The chance to bear the Insanity, to no longer be victim of the voices, but to be one with them. To be able to become something greater, someone worthy of protecting his people. To have such power -

- Surely he was dreaming.

Kiwi blinked, but the room was still there, the cage, the silhouette, the rose. She was still there, desperate, fingers wound into the bars of the cage. He understood, he was desperate too. If he didn't do something, this disease would only spread indefinitely. As he was, there was little he could do. If her power could really do all that ...

"I came here seeking my own freedom," he answered her, fingers curling around the stem of the red rose. "If your power can grant me that, then yes. I'll do this much for you in return."

Zoobey