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Nyx Queen of Darkness Crew
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 Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 11:10 pm
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 11:37 pm
Valena Martell pushed her satchel back onto her hip.She had had a dream about this place, a place she had never been--a gorgeous meadow. But overlaying the whole scenic few was the the racing heartbeat of someone in pain--the agonized sound of their breathing.
It terrified her, because Skadi was out hunting. She was what Valena considered a bloody soquili. No matter where or what she did, blood and fighting would always seem to find her even if she had the most pure of intentions. Unhelpfully though, Skadi's intentions were seldom if ever pure.
But she had heard the breath rattle in her dreams, felt the searing pain until it woke her. And the only clue, the only thing that she could decipher were the poppies which Skadi had told her about. They were use to sedate or incapacitate someone who was seriously wounded or ill. All of the omens of her dream, this night time prophechy led her to believe that someone perhaps even her lover Skadi were coming to her in need of these.
It'd taken her two days journey to finally reach the meadow, after a lot of getting lost and following the wrong rock formations as guides--but she was finally here. In a field of flowers.
Valena waded into flowers, all the way up to her belly almost. She didn't know much, if anything about flowers except this one. And she knew enough of about what wrong assumptions others might make to not ask for directions to them.
A bright orangish red color appeared in the distance and she started angling herself that way.
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Nyx Queen of Darkness Crew
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 12:13 am
A cool breeze ruffled Vesta’s short and scruffy fur and the sun glinted off of her golden horns. She closed her eyes and breathed in the sweet scent of the meadow. The sweet scent of grass mingled with the multitude of flowers that encompassed the area. Pops of color filled her vision when she opened her eyes. She had been diligently tending to the flowers of this particular meadow and it was obvious that her efforts had paid off.
She started her usual rounds of weeding. Vesta dug her cleft hooves into the soil and wrenched out the thorny pests. For the ones too close to the flowers she’d take a quick n** and toss them away. It wasn’t a perfect practice but it worked. She lacked a familiars’ deft paws to do anything more precise.
The sun had moved away from one corner of the meadow to overhead by the time she decided to take a break. She shook her head, hoping to catch a breeze under her scarf. She glanced down, noticing her hooves were caked in dark dirt. “Oh goodness,” She said to herself. Her quick little break was over and she trotted over to a nearby stream. There she had to be careful to avoid a small upcoming patch of flowers. They weren’t blooming yet. She dipped her hooves into the water one at a time until they were a shiny bright pink again.
Next up was pruning. Vesta began her circle again, eyeing each flower to see which were in need of plucking. Wilted or dead flowers were obvious choices but sometimes she’d prune a few large blooms too. Those she would use for small bouquets and give as gifts to the local ponies and familiars. It wasn’t long before she had a substantial pile of blue, purple, yellow, and white flowers. She moved towards a patch of orange blossoms.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 12:29 am
Valena Martell noticed the other soquili in the field. The mare had not seen her yet. It would be stupid to hide or act strange, Valena tried to keep herself as normal as possiple as she moved in a more meandering path to the orange flower. She paused to pick a few different colored flowers as though she was picking a boquet. Maybe the other mare would just wander--
She couldn't believe her luck as the other mare made her way to a small stream with purpose. Valena's steps picked up slighly and her heart started to slow down as she got closer to the flower she'd come to find. Skadi had told her that the seeds were good, but it was the petals and stamens that had the most power in them for relief. Valena just realized she had no idea what a stamen actually was. She could ask the other mare, but that would be suspicious. It'd be better to just harvest the whole flower carefully and get back.
Her dream had only shown that it was dead of night when someone came injured. She did not know who or what night. She knew pretty much nothing at all, except she had to do this. Her heart in her throat she approached the orange blossoms right as the other mare turned her way. Valena utterred a curse under her breath as she tried to get her heart out of her throat. The best she could hope for was that the mare wouldn't talk to her, but that was unlikely. Valena would just have to brave it out then and make away with the suspicious flowers before anyone caught on.
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Nyx Queen of Darkness Crew
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 12:57 am
A flash of fiery orange darker than any flower in the meadow caught the corner of her eye just as she was bending down and plucking some wilted petals. Vesta craned her head and exclaimed, “Oh!”, once she realized that another pony had joined her. She had been so lost in her routine that she hadn’t realized she had company. The meadow wasn’t exactly tiny so it was normal for other ponies to pass through from time to time, and she usually wouldn’t notice until she took a break from her diligent gardening or when they called out a greeting.
She looked her over. She was stunningly dark and light all at once. Her mane and wings were such a contrast to each other. Vesta couldn’t help but think about dahlias when she looked upon this mare. She smiled at the thought.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you there. My mind is in the flowers.” She chuckled at her own pun.
“Am I in your way?” She scooted over so the stranger could access the patch of flowers if she wanted to.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 1:06 am
The other mare looked at her and worst yet, she smiled and spoke with her. The first rule in stealing something or sweet talking someone was to act like you weren't. Create a diversion. At least that's what her mate had said, but she could steal the fur from a fox before it would even notice.
The only way was through, so she dived in.
Valena smiled quite shyly, "Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention either. I was just enjoying the meadow." Her mind whirred as she tried to think of what to say, "My mate loves orange so I thought I'd get her some of those." She pointed casually with her hoof pretending to have no idea what they were. "I mean, I think those are orange enough, don't you?" Good, she'd said something disarming.
This should be way easier, but she hadn't spoken at court in an age. She hadn't spoken to anyone in the dream world but Skadi in an age either. Hopefullly she was coming off as too much.
She moved forward and started to harvest the flowers as casuallly as possible while keeping them intact. The other mare was going to notice....But she had to keep casual about it. As though, this was just how one picked flowers.
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Nyx Queen of Darkness Crew
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 1:21 am
Vesta cocked her head in the direction the mare pointed to. She scrunched up her face for a moment as she tried to recall exactly what those particular plants were called. They certainly were orange enough, a very bright orange. She nodded and watched as the mystery stranger plucked the whole plants.
It took her a bit, her brain still in a bit of a daze with the warming sun, but she finally recalled the common name of the blossoms. “Poppies!” Her voice raised higher than usual. “Ah! That’s what they are.”
She continued rambling. “Those are some of the best orange blooms around. They have so many different uses too. I’m sure your mate will love them. Just be sure to leave some flowers on the plant. That way the bees can help replenish the plant and there will be more for all to enjoy.” Vesta beamed at the mare.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 1:43 am
Valena felt her body stiffen for a moment when the other mare said poppies, but she forced air through her lungs. "OH! She'll be so delighted to know the name!" She smiled sweetly at the other soquili. "You've been so helpful. I should take these to her now. She's uhm, eager to have some orange flowers. None but the brightest orange would do." Valena felt herself taking it a step too far. There was no way that this mare wasn't suspicious by now.
"It's been lovely to meet you, I should just..." Turning tail as quickly as possible Valena took off running through the flowers scattering pollen everywhere.With two mighty pumps of her wings, she took to the air and disappeared as quickly as possible.
She felt it probably wouldn't be good to show her face there again, even if it was a lovely flower field.
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Nyx Queen of Darkness Crew
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2022 1:58 am
Before she could even react, the nameless mare hightailed it out of there! Vesta blinked and shook out some of the pollen that had dusted her coat during the…for lack of a better term, escape. For a few moments she sat there in the flowery meadow and stared off in the direction where the Angeni had flown. She wasn’t really sure what to make of their brief and very strange encounter.
It wouldn’t dawn on her until the following day exactly what and why the strange mare had done what she had done. “Oh!” She shook her head and chuckled at the realization. She glanced to the sky recalling the brightly hued mare, Vesta hoped she had found what she needed.
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