Symphony - Azdra

[Wildcard]

Darkening. A Starlit Sky. The First of Melora in the Season of Winter, Era XIV Post Fractum


The pines did rise, the scent rich and delicate under severe frost. Bark and needles combined with clumps of moss and the footprints of rabbits huddled at every corner of straying light. The snow washed blue towards an embankment of quickly rushed fire; it's orange decay bright and deep to dye it's nature red.

Purple, and blue. Skin the surface. Panting, a man lay soaking in a cool melting pool. The glint of silver laughed to the distance. An old man, wise and foreborne huddled into view from afar.. squinting toward the flicker of lit wood. Then again came the off shadow of silver lined teeth, crows feet and cryptic aperture of ink. Dressed to the hilt in unstained cotton, only the heat would echo smoked fragrance across the night. Still this standing human smiled, awaiting some thing.. a brief twitch from the dripping matter of a mongrel below. A mortal Man.

Wind was as solemn as the trunks built to every side, but it's pupils did not focus - only drip snow angels into quivering mad fray. Entrails lied like an open book, it's mark cleft through middle ground. Again the healer reached down to wrench fresh organs like placing on socks.. and again he used his will to save the breach from cascading into finality.

"Carmelya... you see.. the ancient birth and death cycle. timeless .. harvest and season pleated and beated over religion's doyle. How'doa like to choke on your own innards my quiet little son. You could do worse.."

"circulus vitiosus."

The scream and yank came again... a body awash in steam and holy water.. charcoal sigils and circles of fresh blood.

"I mean to purge you clean my son. Isn't it refreshing..? To taste innocence and the sweetest clarity of divine ecstatic love. I know it is. .. what it can be."

Enchantments and hand gestures came easy to the ancient priest of faith, a ritual exorcism thinking of two fried eggs and bacon. He was getting hungry.
The white bank covered their screams.. mutual agreement. Alcohol awashed both men's insides with the glory of the gods. Giggling, the ancient wanderer then purified his victim over and over.

"I know what is in there little one. I'm going to empty your pockets one by one till my people are safe. Safe from your unwelcomed heresy."

This would very soon prove over. Anyone reaching cusp would meet it's end in stride.

[Azdra]

It was the echo of power she sensed first. Though she was a broken thing, only half what she once was, the creature stepped through the forest quietly. Splayed hooves rested briefly on the duff of fallen needles and rich soil, which welcomed her touch as she passed. Bright eyes, reflecting the green of the forest, scanned the area. The signature was weak, strangely muted, and she called softly in a bird-like greeting that warbled from the base of her throat. White flanks blended perfectly with the snow still tucked here and there, though with spring so near to blooming such camouflage would not aide her much longer. The same huddling rabbits perked at her passing, flicking whiskers in a greeting she returned with a gentle glance of welcome.

She drew closer.

It had been so long since she saw one of her own kind. They were rarer and rarer these days, hold up in places none of the people who invaded the land like lice would dare go. She tasted the wind again, hoping for a scent of him. Male, she decided, and older... the signature of his power was but an echo of what it once was, but she could still tell. Her eyes scanned the trees as she passed, looking for the telltale signs of his ownership. If this wood around Frigid River was his, she'd need to move on. Disappointment was a bitter taste on her tongue as she understood the situation. The city had been perfect, so perfect, too perfect. Of course another of her kind would live here. And a big male would never tolerate a young female, flawed and cursed besides.

She paused on the edge of the wood, reluctant to pass from its depths. Still as the trees she stood sheltered beneath, she decided the trunks that lined the view before her gave her enough of the forests shelter to hold her form. Azdra did not want to embarrass herself before horn rang off horn and the greeting was given... even if hers would echo off pitch and a full octave below what it should ring.

She longed, someday, to strike horns with another Unicorn and hear her own clear tone mesh with theirs in a symphony of greeting.... but it wouldn't be today. Or, in fact, any day afterwards unless she came here to learn what she needed too. Glancing around, she looked for the stallion, for she could all but taste his energy now... and found instead two humans. Confusion filled her, and she ignored them for they seemed busy with each other. Circling around them, boldly, she passed the old man dunking the other, to draw closer to what laughed in the distance.

Her step was light, barely breaking making a sound, because in her woods... and now she saw that indeed they could be... she could pass without a trace and without sound. But what she found brought her no comfort. Instead, it brought her pain more sharply to the surface as she blew out an outraged breath and stared at the staff that had drawn her to the scene. The stallion lived no more, or if he did, he was surely a broken thing like herself. Azdra pawed the ground silently, then reached out and struck the horn with her own... a silent greeting to a fallen companion she'd never meet. His horn... whomever he'd been... rang out pure and clear. Someone had taken it from him properly. Her own filled the clearing with discord, an off key shriek of tortured sound.

But still, it was fitting, she thought as she stood and stared at the staff, ignoring the men completely.

[Wildcard]

Snow continued to crunch softly, this time beneath the edge. Something majestic and singular approached, but in his anticipation the older human looked upon it's arrival and frowned.

"Bevy, you do call me tonight don't you." He had a twine of intestines between both fists. Shrugging only dryly, the priest then shuffled his shoulders. "Fine."

And his victim fell through the floor .. a careful execution given in at last.

Wiping both hands together, old Father Mac gripped his staff. The Talisman. The pride of his calling. She came forward, a beautiful creature hewn from greater, denser, arboreal things. Nurtured and Natured on the very eros of Carmelya's bounty. An intemperate response fuzzed with the very gaia of growth, as if enchanted from the life of green earth and clover that would hide between these hills. Father Mac blinked impressed and amused at the sway of the cloud's mood. "Come little creature, little spawn. little bee."

The horns crossed in a shattering clap. Blue sparks and radiant forbearance.. yet those were only metaphors. It was a simple strike that led her in. "Stinger not intact I see." The old man smiled mutely with features that crinkled as would cloth. He channeled magic light and gentle as falling flakes, invoking Penitence to wield delight. The magic expanded as a clear translucent ring, laced in silver .. yet would it hold something so singular to defy the very rules at play; a balance that only the mundane adhered to? Mac Mered crossed his clara and hoped to die.

The connection left Azdra feel a knot of history in her stomach. Heralding strength and will, and yet the castle was empty. Swept clean from the bluster of winds and gales of aeolic blasts. It's resonation still lingered between her chestplate, lost to the palette of time. There could be spirit here, something more wedged between the cracks like a labyrinth drawn into slits of grain. For now it simply lingered... a focus for petty machinations of devoted divinity.. bursting with the essence of her curls and tone. The haughty presence felt absolutely right, yet teased her with complexity. It was alien yet so familiar as would fresh fruit juice to a dry day. Instinct bred response, but this was not the one evoked by a living male. It was different and quite heady.

[Azdra]

Azdra snorted softly in surprise, paying attention now to the old man holding the staff. The staff had so much potential but that was so very much a disappointment to her. Green piercing eyes met his as she tossed her head gently, shifting mane out of her eyes and looking into his. Azdra was larger, stronger, and in her element. But his magic was not combative. It was more of a gentle request that wrapped around her like a silver netting, quietly holding her in place. She stood frozen, like a marble statue as his words washed over her. Truth. He spoke the truth.

"Stinger not intact I see."

There was a bitter reality to his words, and she inclined her head. Nostrils flared again at the death, and she glanced back up, still patient, still frozen, though without a voice in this shape. The corpse confused her, because she'd not witnessed humans killing each other and she waited for the feast to begin. Some creatures would turn on each other when one of their numbers fell, never waisting the meat. Such things sickened her, though she was no one to judge the ways of others. He was calm. Even with the aura of holy violence that surrounded him, the man was still quiet. Such things made all the differences in the world.

Azdra felt no fear. Had he been a thing of the unliving, then perhaps it would have been different. But he was not, and as mortal as the rest of his kind. Humans were dangerous, but only in the fact that greed often filled them. She tasted none of that about his scent. Rather, he seemed puzzled and curious, needing time to realize what was happening. Encounters where their two worlds touched were rare. Indecision filled her, though in many ways his haughty demeanor pleased her. Stallion then, regardless of his human shape. It was a reassurance, though he wasn't demanding her exodus, which was stranger still. The big males were often protective of their lands and she waited for his reinforcement of possession over the land to happen. It didn't. Some unicorns, those high in the mountains, enjoyed the company of others and were less solitary and protective than their lowland kin. Perhaps humans were the same, she mused. She blinked once, pawed the ground quietly still thinking things over, and hoof changed to silken length of skin and bare human toes dug into the soft soil uncertainly. Azdra greeted him again, still held in place by his power, though this time her low breath came from a very human torso. She wore her mane, now turned to pale blond locks, like a tunic of living curls. Her greeting was simple enough, a lowering of her head, an expulsion of breath. Her body language spoke volumes if he could read it, far faster than her rusty unused human voice.

She looked up this time, fully human, and smiled. It was a radiant broken smile, though the evidence of why it would be thus had disappeared completely from her forehead. His eyes had seen though, the shattered tip of a once whole horn, that she wore like a rod of shame. The unicorn should have been cold standing in just her human skin and bare feet, but in the forest, her forest now she instantly decided, such things didn't matter.

"Azdra." She said simply, knowing humans exchanged names like Unicorns exchanged ringing horns and gentle expulsions of breath. Her body moved in place, growing restless being still held by the spell, and spoke to him in the language of the wild, offering him no threat. "Will you eat it?" She asked, glancing down at the corpse, her voice filled with confusion and uncertainy over the death she had just witnessed. The old Father Mac would not mistake her for anything than what she truly was, for even as she stood human before him, her luminous eyes still gave the unearthly gaze of her true shape. He'd realize something else as well. Gentleness. She was calm, delicate, and as soft of a soul as Carmelya could produce. It was an irony of the Goddess, to house such power in such frailty.

[Wildcard]

Watching the metamorphosis dazzle him with lucidity, Father Mac expressed more curiosity then awe.

"Someone to take me home .. thank-you Ioannes." The noble priest bowed his head solemnly towards the stone then opened both iris and silver lined jawline to watch the threadbare beauty with fancy. He scratched his salty beard, digging into folds of skin marked with initiate symbolism and accurate occult alignments. So captivated by his new entrapment did Ramses forget the question.

"Oh." He sputtered and turned on his wide heels taking into account for the first genuine moment what a puppet strung cadaver did look like to an outsider. "No.. That's a sick weenling. Had to put it down.. rabid yeller..." He collected himself with better humor.

"It's wonderful to meet you .. Azdra. My name is Ramses Mac Mered. You ar 'celestial .. a white cipher untranslated to all but these of natural live and breeding. Holy and unmixed .. naive as a child .. ar perhaps .. just looking for fresh fodder.."

The man waved his staff as part of the act, then becoming aware of it's somewhat awkward presence let the mounted object fall near the fire with a faded thud. "I don't need that now..." His fingers lit again with cold light drawing through the cracks between digits. Shivering the sensation seemed to keep the man warm somehow.

His silver pupils blinked lazily while taking into account the entirety of what just happened.. the tone of voice shifting to a grating cure.
"Young lass, you shouldn't approach strangers in the woods naked as a babe. The craven beasts of this plane corrupt even the most innocent of favors. Though the gods are kind, lesser intuition would scoff at the mist of their motive. Simply dispatched, untainted life into the hands of softly rotting flesh .. like asking a little child to play with a porcelain tea cup." The man raised a finger laughing politely.

"Still .. It's providence they had the foresight t' place ye unto the path of the worthy, the blameless .. the uncorruptable steward himself.. old Mac." Turning his head down in theatrical silence the human wandered around his strange visitor in a semi-circle, blood trailing his footsteps while continuing the monologue.

"This shaded glen has stayed empty. Signifying.. I haven't seen a visitant the likes of a UNICORN here for ..bless me.. cycles? Why don' you make yours 'self comfortable. Linger...... .. " He eyed her back with a dry glance, focusing on the magic that would continue to hold them within the spell. "Let down your hair..."

Although the priest was far from finished, he did seem to relish in the moment like some vain lottery winner who thought unicorns fell from the sky just to make transportation that much easier.

[Azdra]

Even though she wore two legs now instead of four, she didn't understand his words any better than she had when her ears were long and tipped with silken tuffs of gossamer hair. Humans had always been enigmas, though elves were easier to understand for her kind. So she blinked, exhaling softly, non-threateningly, and watched his body language instead. They marked themselves strangely, for certain, as evident by the lines of tattooing that seemed to hold meaning for him. Hair grew erratically on them as well, for she'd seen some with beards, some with bare faces, and some with ridges of fluff above their eyes. Males especially were more varied than females, she decided as she watched him, this one older and more wiser, especially if he was culling a youngling. She wondered if he sired the dead thing and found sorrow in the thought that a parent would slay an offspring. Among her kind, weak minds and weaker bodies lasted very little time before Carmelya's own swept them up and took them back to the bosom of the Goddess. Azdra was determined that a unicorn with a broken horn didn't fall into that same category.

She wanted to step closer, to touch him and sense his inner soul. But the net still held firmly around her, gently holding her in place. It confused her, for she wondered if he thought she'd flee him perhaps, or do worse. An old man was no threat to her, and she was indeed no threat to him. But he would be slow to realize that, she decided, still pawing at the ground with a bare toe, growing uneasy at the unnecessary confinement.

"Ramses Mac Mered"

She tossed her head in recognition. A name then.. .he'd given her his name. Pale green eyes blinked and she bowed her head in acknowledgement. He said more, much more, but it confused her yet again. The longer she listened, the more she understood... but concepts like porcelain and tea cups were not within her grasp just yet.

"You are not a stranger. I have watched you a while." She said firmly, beliving her words. He had been fascinating to her... talkative, even to himself, which meant he was useful for what she wanted him for. Azdra shifted again, far more equine-like than human for all the shape she wore was familiar to her. "Humans are dangerous, yes.... even you." She agreed, seemingly making out what he said after all. His roaming in a half circle was starting to make her dizzy. For an ancient, he was more animated than a youth now, and it had begun to amuse her.

"I came to share words with you. I need a teacher of humanity. I wish to learn their ways so I can go forth and find that which has been lost to me but that is now in their hands." She said firmly, growing still finally now that her wants hung in the air between him. "I will serve in exchange, though I hold only my four legged form within the wilds and gardens of the world. Outside of them, I am cursed to this weakness which is why I show it to you. I want to make a bargin." She said, her words simple and her explainations lacking.


"There is no providence, old stallion. It was deliberate, Ramses Mac Mered. You should release your magics. They serve to waste energy for I desire to stand here a bit longer without them." The Unicorn said shaking out her wealth of human hair and tossing her head. "The trade can be a good one... come closer... touch me." She whispered, soft innocence floating in her voice as the old man stared. Her presence here in the Shivering Wood would help the forest, give it new life with a guardian overseeing a territory she carved herself out of it. Azdra had a suspition too, that if the old man cared to test it, being in her presence would make his bones ache a little less. Azdra would help him feel just a bit younger. And she wanted his wrinkled hands to make contact. There was a healer within her, one that longed to sooth and comfort. She knew if he but ran his hands down her flanks and got close enough, the young unicorn could test this.

Mac was a creature of violence, that much was for certain. The corpse at his feet gave testimony to this. But he was also a creature of infinite knowledge, and she needed that knowledge to move forward. She needed a mentor and was willing to serve him... even in the capacity of a forest mount... should he desire it. Her natural form was of a big fleet bloodline. He could do worse than her, and indeed those of her kind had served as such before. But more importantly, she wanted to sooth his aches, invigorate his body, and make him feel better. It was what her kind did, especially to those close to the Gods.

[Wildcard]

Stopping in his tracks the man scratched at an ink mark below the outer socket in the shape of an elongated wing devoted to the Queen goddess. Steam seemed to rise from the naked patch of telath this blonde beauty had claimed. He sniffed absently then spoke quickly as if never meditating on the result of an answer.
"So I will teach you how to ere and stumble and you will guard and guide these woods. I can't help but think your better off uneducated in perfection." The man smiled meekly, contorting a double line of savage tattoos curled over the chin.

The magic then snapped off like falling sheets from a clothing line.

"First Lesson. Naked Women are distracting.. and often freeze to death. Take this." The unshaven madness of Ramses's pupils quivered upon approach, lifting a robin egg blue cowl towards the diaphragm of the girl. He didn't let her touch his knuckles, dispatching the cotton with almost deliberate unease.
"Second Lesson. Learning to lie.. a fundamental tenet of natural human behavior. 'Means you do not mention finding the White Priest of Frigid out Mercy Killing some heathen to ANYONE. Third Point. If you 'ar to serve me .. Through your strolls down to the glass lake and back, describe to me what beings exist there. Their tracks and essence. We have abominations. 'hu. Creatures that do not belong .. Upsetting Carmelya's balance .. aequo animo .. unity. You see my point. Lesions. Disease. Evil."

The priest coughed once with a fist over his mouth in imposed etiquette, never missing a beat. "You can't touch me. Fourth."
There was a fleeting feeling that lifted over Mered's features like startled pigeons. "Only the Gods may heal my bones in their blind compassion .. The things I've done by appointment of Justice deserve no reprieve. Fifth Rule .. Along with saying words you don't mean, you should know the reason. It's meant to protect. Protect me .. That's most important, and Protect YOU. By not admitting your enchantments, "mimic" being mundane. Good Choice... "
Almost out of breath by his own muted refrain the man finished.

"Signifigance. Sententiae. Tell nary a soiling soul 'bout your true design. To them your radiance is merely a result of good breeding or healthy diet.. With me Azdra?"

The distant vibrating howl of wolves brought one eyebrow and half a lip to attention.. the other parts closed in rigidity.

[Azdra]

Father Mac had a charm about him that drew her. In fact it would have drawn her regardless of how dangerous he was, as she could see by the body laying in the glade first hand. Mothlike, though not unsuspecting the flame would be her death, the unicorn hovered admiringly. Azdra wasn't fooled into thinking just because he was an ancient, that he was befuddled in the head or lacked strength. She could feel his power even without touching him, and he wore it like the clothing he so insisted she have for herself. To a creature like herself, another creature of power was a comfort, even if his eclypsed hers dramatically. It was the way of things. Stallions were stronger, and the oldest among them far more clever than the younger rash ones. He hadn't lived through generation after generation being a fool.

And so she blew softly and let her skin quiver as the power fell away from her like a net cast off. She blew again, a soft breath or release and continued to watch him all but fascinated. She took the cowl and awkwardly draped it over her shoulders, wondering just what parts were distracting. She almost asked him and thought better of it. He was being talkative and as such it was best to listen. Azdra didn't miss the way he handed her his garmet, careful not to touch her, and part of her mourned. Rules. Of course, designed first and foremost to establish the heirchy and secondly to keep the peace and safety. He was in charge. Stallions. She snorted again, listening intently, and tried to arrange the drape around her form so it would not slide off. Knots were beyond her, but she managed as she listened. She wouldn't freeze in her woods, in her power, but he was right about beyond. The cold would strike her like daggers inbedding in flesh, and she hated the weakness of humans and their lack of hair. She had hair, but the soft useless champaign blond fur covered nothing and dusted her human form like pixie dust on a pixie.

She pawed the ground with a bare foot, and continued listening. Lies? Falsifications of the truth. That would be hard for her. Very hard. But she saw the reasoning and common sense behind his words as his teeth flashed silver. Again, she nodded. "Your doings are your own unless they harm something under my protection here. That creature was none of mine." She said gently, meant to reassure him. It was true, his business was his own and she doubted anyone he labled evil or plagued would be one of the creatures she'd be compelled to protect.

The next rule was harder. For a Unicorn, touch was everything. Their equine nature was well grounded and continous, but she would abide by his rule. But, of her own will, she would not lie to him and let him think things that weren't true. "I do not need to touch you to know things about you. Just standing here, close, is enough. There is a warmth in you, Ramses, that draws me to wish to trail you like a fawn trails her mother. I should feel sorry but I do not. But I cannot control my nature, and like the woods who will do better with a protector among them, so too will you in my presence. I am only what Carmelya has made me. You may take it up with Her if it displeases you. I will refrain from touching you, though you should not be so selective. I can take you places your old legs cannot walk you safely, to dizzing heights where the haired men live that need no clothing for warmth, and to the deep inner sanctums where trees grow nearly as big as castles." She said, some of her true spirit coming forth. Even in her firmness she sounded gentle, and it reminded him of the stories of creatures such as herself seeking out the pure and resting their heads in laps. Her reaction to him was similar, even if he was in the process killing when she found him.

"I can share with you what I know. My knowledge is not extensive yet, because I am new to these woods, but already there are things here I am not familiar with that are a curisoity to me as well." She said, tugging at the cowl and turning as he moved around her, keeping him in her line of sight.

The fifth rule, she liked. Others might chaif, but the unicorn was about knowing the reason behind action to a full extent. Protecting herself and protecting him, it was an intigral part of her nature and warmed her soul completely. She smiled then, allowing a little of the radiance he spoke of to shine through. Her eyes gave her away, not the curve of her face, not the shape of her lips or the profusion of hair. It was only her secret knowing eyes, and she would keep them lidded and avoid meeting other's gazes.

The last rule she could abide by as well, for a multitude of reasons. "I will tell no one. You and he who is damned are the only two that know. He will not think to look for me here, which will give me time to learn. I have something of his, and he has something of mine. Eventually we will have to meet, for he won't forget to look for me, and I will not forget to look for him and we are both long lived." She said, snorting and tossing her head to keep the hair out of her eyes. She shifted then, moving her stance easily onto her heels and looked at him intently.

"I have only two rules for you, in exchange for your six of me." The unicorn said, knowing full well a bargin was a bargin, and best made if both sides yeilded something. "Tell no one of me. Abide your own sixth rule. And as I learn to lie, you in turn do not lie to me. The truth is easier spoken than a lie concealed. They are like taints in the air, and something I can see clearly enough when I am this close." She said, leaving her desires short and necessary.

She tossed her head and glanced over her shoulder at the wolfsong. A soft smile played across her lips. The pack was singing to each other, keeping in contact, reassuring each other. In many ways, it reassured her as well. She doubted they would be a bother, for a unicorn and an old man weren't by far the easiest meal in the woods. There were far better things to eat even coming out of winter, which in fact was the wolves time of feast.

[Wildcard]

The old man seemed amused at the girl's silence and her tenacity. Quietly smiling he stepped closer and pulled back his right sleeve. There were countless tiny ink marks bearing symbols of chalices, hearts, suns, archons and text across a pale forearm. He held out the limb politely.

"Last unicorn that concerned with me.. breathes in heavenly Aetheria. Please bear that in mind.... .. .... What do you feel ...... What is it that we now see ..... "

He looked her over with a gaze that would hunt animals by it's mere density. It wasn't haughty, angry nor forbidden .. but haunted. With the condensation of time wrapped around two black coals for pupils and chased within smooth white glass that watered upon the surface. Such a glimpse lingered like snow, trite and noninvasive but skeptical if not necessitous. Ramses's smile returned like a crack in the ice beneath these white epidermal layers above.
"So since were getting so personable.. how about we go for a ride?" The look was almost excited if not tempestuously naive.

"Your rules are fine, but as a second warning I speak for the gods and cannot be held accountable for any truth or fiction they may instigate. A surrogate vessel .. or how does one say it... Don't Kill the Messenger? Yes, that's it. Don't Kill the nuntius magnus fortunatus."

With the crack of the kneck his irises folded back and a deep soothing voice like willow tree branches on the breeze crept up Mered's throat. It echoed.

"Equine. A white Equine. How delightful. Do I hear the bellow of horns? Is the hunt upon us? Sacrifice... You tred further down this road and your innocence won't be worth the necessity of running after.. Who wants a unicorn that is tainted by mortals after all. The cycle of your life is best spent in seclusion among your own kind. Only it's End. It's End is what holds interest to them. Don't disregard That."

Blushing, the blood rushed back to the old priest's head and he stumbled.. coughing against the shallow earth.

"Bless me. Pardon me. So rarely do these things happen.. but they are embarrassing. That was the Hourglass Thief. She . Excuse me."

Rising to his feet the expression on the seer's jaw grew to a gentile slant along it's hard edge .. placating like waves before Azdra.

"About that journey... I need water..."

There was a faint folly sought behind those eyes she'd never seen before. A dedication brought about by the linger of fading distance, and the brush of such strange secrets.

[Azdra]

The girl tilted her head and listened. So, he was a killer as she'd already observed, but weren't they all? All the humans she knew had blood stained hands, including the one that took her horn, and in many ways her entire life. She arched her neck which was an unnatural thing for a human to do, and shook her head a little, readjusting the fall of hair across her face. Azdra had a softness, an innocence about her that conveyed even into her human form. The Unicorn couldn't help it. She was a creature of the forests, of the living green of the planet, not a creature of tooth and claw.

Ramses obviously was.

A ride? Azdra all but laughed. She'd take him, alright, if nothing more than to demonstrate she could be useful to his old bones. And it gave her a chance to loose her human form and regain her natural one. Human flesh turned pale white, bones elongated, and in a shimmer the mortal became all but immortal. The blue cowl he'd offered her remained across her shoulders, and slipped down upon her back like a splash of color forming an inviting saddle across the contour of her back. Tail flicked and mane was tossed as the unicorn pawed again at the ground.

She recognized the voice, expelled a soft breath, and afixed her green eyes on Ramses. The one he spoke of whats a chaotic soul, prone to mischief far more than she was prone to sanity. Orod's rogue librarian, one who'd spent too much time among books and not enough time playing roamed the world seeking to change the course of her own life and shed her librarian confines. It figured she'd found a mouthpiece in Ramses.

"I am nothing and no one to be coveted or wanted. My life is my own, librarian. You know that, and even if you meddle, you risk upsetting a balance older than time. I am no human to let you ride me and borrow my voice. Go back to your mischief, for there is none here to be found." The Unicorn said, patiently but strangely fierce. She spoke in the language of her own kind, but the meaning was clear in her body language. Unwelcome censure could be left to rot on the forest floor along with the rest of the duft.

Gods and Goddesses were pesky annoyances, especially to creatures that had an unlimited life expectancy.

When she was gone, the Unicorn bowed, dropping low to allow the old man to climb aloft if he could manage it. Azdra did not know if Ramses had any knowledge of horses, but had he experience, he'd find immediately that she was indeed no horse.

Unicorns thought all things living and growing were sacred. They did not trod on the sacred, nor did they have the wings of a pegasus. But they did exist between the Earth and the Sky, and within their forest, no track would they ever leave because they traveled where they existed... beneath the sky, above the ground, laying not a single splayed hoof on a tender plant to crush or disrespect it. Smooth, rolling, no trouble to stay aloft, the Unicorn broke into an easy canter that floated both the souls comfortably along.

"I shall take you the length and breath of what I know." And she did. The old man had better reach forward and take a grip on the long flowing mane, for the Unicorn set off at a ground eating pace and took him into her world. With her, the old man could hear the whisper of the trees, the soft singing of the insects, the overwhelming abudance of life that encircled the small city. She took him through enormous trees that had lived longer than even the oldest elves alive, and into smaller more tangled places that held brambles that contained secret pathways that opened into glades no human had ever explored. Her pathway was eratic, but he'd note silvery runes etched on trees as they passed, discrete ones that seemed to shimmer as she passed by. Some denoted her territory, others simply places under her protection. All the while she remembered his thirst, and so she took him higher, up crags that no hooved creature should be able to climb. The pathway was long and spiriling, and ended finally in the lofty heights far above the city to where a small spring flowed from the ground.

Here, she paused, kneeled again for him to dismount, shifted, and spoke quietly. "Your people call this place a headwater. But it is so much more than that. This is where the river is given birth too minute by minute which gives the city you dwell in its name. You can drink here, for the water is as pure as rainfall." She said, though her voice sounded sad. Once, she could have made any water as pure, but the tip of her horn was missing... rendering the ability to purify useless.

[Wildcard]

Lost in the causeway of exploration the fanged human's face softened, revealing an unexpected happiness. Something uninvited and hard to reign.
The rush of hooves over plodded earth, a bank of snow, it was the speed that thrilled his gravity. An unexpected turn felt the resonation of laughter.

"Gods be praised! Faster......." It was a request, a desire.. a charge towards the peak, towards the banks of a place he would not know, that simply surprised him. A man of his stature fell into the many drifts below. Mac Mered's vision was blessed under comfort. A trigger of joy gone, but the illumination stayed as he awoke to the Source. This was a sacred spot, so guarded by the spirits of the woodland that only a naive mortal and a single unicorn would dare tred it without a prayer. They said Satyr ate men at it's foundation, that Siren lured maidens to their deaths.. All Azdra could see was cold waves of ice. The spring cleft from stone was neither intrepid nor diminutive as it would feed rivers, rooks, and roots.. a Blessing turning Inspiration.
The Jack Pine and Bare Boulders held gemstones of Amethyst and several others under the twinkle of starlight, surrounding a spray of water that cascaded over the monuments into the delay of Life.

If Nature could smell like a beginning, it was here the eruption of cedar, fresh breeze, pure longevity skimmed the length of hydration. Something more. So much. Lavender, violet. Every color resulting in olfaction.

Red. Cinnamon. Green. Mint. Brown. Earth. Blue, the Depths below. superior.
He breathed in life, daring to drink. Sup from the Source.

...

The ancient man Laughed.

...

"I remember being here. When our Town. Our Village was but a logging camp and an outlining haven for criminals. .. Look at us now. So Proud. So Bold. "

The Maddened Old Fool removed his gown diving into the pool, naked as the brightening of his birth.