15 September, 2017

I met her. Dark lips, red as blood. Dark skin, almost black, but shining blue. Her long curls fell over her shoulders in a tangle, framing her pale face, dotted by the gilded rose which covered her eyes. A long, sharp horn cut through the rose, rising out from the mysterious flower, pulsing red. She had legs, lots of them. And arms, too. She was beautiful. Magnificent.

I waited, keeping my distance, until she motioned for me to sit beside her. And then I sat, dwarfed by her enormous, elegant figure.

Curiously, her pointed fangs glinting through her blood-red smile, she reached out one of her hands and touched me, and I shivered. My rough coat twitched, and I turned my head to regard her with equal curiosity. "What are you doing?" I asked blankly. A shrug, a tiny roll of one of her many shoulders, a nearly imperceptible motion which said so much.

A flutter of courage rolled through me, and I asked her why she had so many limbs. No one I'd seen so far had more or less than four. She was a strange complication to what had otherwise seemed a very simple rule of physical form. Again, a grin and a roll of her shoulder. I would receive no more answers than that from her.

---

Today I woke to the sound of a scuffle, something which immediately sparked my interest. I moved toward the source of the sound, recognizing a small creature battling something large and ominous, with a void-like face. Intrigued, I moved closer, and was almost immediately noticed. The mismatched duo paused in their shenanigans to sniff me over and nod approvingly. With a grin, I tentatively scratched at the ground and lowered my antlers toward the smaller of the two, and immediately she took me up on my offer.

I've never fought, before. Not in this form, anyway. It took some time for me to get the hang of things -- this one was swift-footed and easily got the better of me at almost every turn. Still I pushed myself, thrashing my antlers and kicking up my legs in mock battle, my heart pumping with exhileration and excitement. It lasted for a long time, taking us all through the forest, across the river, past several other deer who paid us no attention.

Finally, exhausted, we looked at each other and laughed. A truce, for now -- I was bested, defeated, but I didn't mind. It was good practice. One day it might not be pretend...

The larger of the two, the void creature, caught up with us after a while. I don't remember who started it, but in no time at all we were dancing and laughing and throwing our heads around rhythmically. Dancing. That's what it is. The word is so clear to me now, I wonder what else will come back to me from the empty void of my past. I like to dance. I remember, now.

I like to dance, and I like to fight. These are the only two things I know about myself.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.



Top

3 September, 2017

Lost. I am still lost. I have a name, I am in a place, and somehow I am still lost.

I don't know anyone here. I see connections, relationships. Little strings of color that cut through the air between two creatures. But I have none. I am alone. I have only X, and even then I feel we are strangers. Why has he brought me here? What is my purpose? I am not ungrateful. This is far better than the nothingness I drifted in, before. But still I am curious. Why? How do I fit with these other living things?

I was laying by myself for a long time before I noticed a very small creature [Shelley] being approached by a slightly larger one [Grimoire]. They were both quite small, smaller than me. I've noticed there are a lot of size differences, here. I am somewhere in the middle. I wish I was much smaller. The smaller ones seem to have much more fun.

Anyway.

The smallest creature had a disfigured face -- or at least that's what I assume. To me, every face is strange and alien. But this one was markedly non-symmetrical, with large boils covering half of the features. I watched with interest as the slightly larger creature -- a grey thing wrapped in a red cloth -- carefully baited the smaller thing closer. The smallest one was frightened, she was hesitant to approach. After a while, the grey one came closer to me and said hello, before trotting off to slump down beside some larger creatures.

I looked at the small disfigured thing, left alone in a circle of mushrooms, and decided to pick up where the grey one had left off. I stepped slowly toward the little one, motioning with one forehoof that she ought to do the same. It took some convincing, but eventually she stepped up to me and gave me a careful sniff. I remembered something I had observed about little ones -- a strange side-to-side swaying that seemed to mesmerize them. I swayed back and forth, tapping my feet rhythmically, and nodded my head. My long ears swung, rings jingling, and I danced. Slowly, hesitantly, she began to dance as well.

Suddenly I was laughing, putting more effort into each step as I danced for the little one. We danced for a long time, until the both of us grew weary and slid down to the earth to lie together. It wasn't long before she was sleeping peacefully, deep in slumber and unable to be roused, so I got up to investigate some of the other creatures that were nearby.

They were all in a sort of pile, and I was loathe to disturb their comfortable nest. But I was also feeling alone and curious, so I inched my way closer. Eventually I was noticed by one of the creatures [Reeva], and was granted permission to sit with them. I sat quietly for a while, until several of the creatures drifted off to sleep and it was only the small grey one and I.

I struck up a conversation with the small grey creature, learning that his name was Grimoire. I discovered that he was just as lost as I was, though he was not one of X's lost ones. Interesting. So the lost ones and I are not the only ones. There are others here who don't know why they're here or how they got here in the first place. Grimoire even claimed not to know the origin of his name, which was unusual and very interesting to me.

Once Grimoire grew sleepy and fell into slumber, I got up to stretch my legs and happened upon another gathering of creatures. These ones were arguing over a pile of leaves. One of them had a bloody nose, and looked quite glum. Evidently, one of the creatures [Favager] was under the impression that the leaves were something called 'poison'. To settle the argument, I nibbled on the foliage, and my failure to die seemed to satisfy them all.

All in all, it's been a very eventful day. I have learned much. I look forward to my next venture through the forest...



Top