[=darkgreen]
The sun-motes dancing thought the air brought with it the warm scent of coming autumn, sweet and heavy with fruit, full of warm colors amid the rising cool. The air was crisp and clean, the ground soft and gentle. Cast in the light of reborn love, the world seemed full of promise and beauty. My flowers, after a bit of summer wilt, have come into an explosion of rapid, showy blossoming. Each flower gradiating into warmer or darker purples, the colors of the petals complex and shifting, the petals big and waxy with a curve like an ocean's swell. They might be a little too extravagant, really... But then again, maybe when we meet next, she'll see them and know herself to be the cause. And a smile will alight on her face like a single butterfly, and I'll not feel silly at all.
I mooned about for a bit, my thoughts on Sage and sighing to myself, concocting little rhymes that never went anywhere, building ideas around Sage, sage, sage in all its wefts and meanings -- could I tie the strong aroma of the plant to the overwhelming beauty of her smile? Could I tie the idea of wisdom to her words, tie her words to the cool green of the leaves?
I'll consider the matter further.

In such a good mood, and cut at ends, I was feeling rather social. I was resolved to just greet the first deer I saw -- it's been a while since I've made a friend. I found a small group of a mini-deer, a stag, and occaisonally a fawn (I can't recall if the fawn was there from the start). When we had begun to play around a bit, we spotted a very small little creature. Like a baby bird, trembling in the cold air, its little wing-stubs folded in tight. I've seen others like her, full-grown, here and there. I suppose you could call them Perytons -- that's the way I tend to think about them, though it's not exactly accurate.
She poked her head out from behind a tree, and backed away at my approach.

[=darkgreen]My heart was skewered through when I saw her.

I was just sitting by my favorite sunning spot by the pond, where the river churns into the wider water, curled beneath my friend the willow.
The sun draped aross her mask -- the paint was fresh, and smelled of sweet fruit she'd used to make it. The willow leaves framed her like a halo, like a still-shutter moment as she peeked out from behind a tree. Even though I knew this would occur, I still felt like a star had fallen in front of me, like being struck by lightning from a clear blue sky. I felt the weight of a miracle, something prayed for at the odds of a million to one, hit me then.
I've never been more scared and more happy then to see her there, sudden and impossible, crossing my vision like a cardinal in flight.


I almost decided against it. I almost turned my head, and let myself be content with greetings and I missed you and news and old reminiscing -- I was almost content just to see her again, as I... I never...
I never believed... That I'd see her again. Another lover, vanished into the mist. Another chance lost. Another million moments, never to be repeated -- only to be remembered, endured by my heart for all history. I'd carry her name when only the barest shreds remembered she existed. I was prepared... I never believed...


I'm sorry.
Let me compose myself.


Instead, I asked to speak to her about something important. At first, I danced around it -- I felt I had to tell her all of it. My cowardice, my indecision -- what I'd always felt, and why I'd felt it. Otherwise, telling her, at the... I drove myself through it, my heart pounding.
When she asked me what it is I'd meant to say, I felt silly: I was still running. Still avoiding it. I looked into those bright blue eyes and, at last, I told her what I felt.

I loved her.

I loved her without expecting anything -- I felt sure whatever feelings she could have had died in her absence.

Alrighty, here's my adventure so far:

I first came across The Endless Forest on this site (The Endless Forest Community), which I had been linked to from Google search. I was looking up cervine unicorns, and the first result was this post: http://endlessforest.org/community/very-cervine-unicorn'
I saw that everything here seemed very interesting, so I researched the game a bit, and found out a lot more about Tale of Tales. I'd never heard of them before, but I like their philosophies. I especially like that TEF has no goals to meet, and there is no way to "beat" the game. There are lots of things I like about it actually.

After downloading the game, I was a bit confused for a while. At first I couldn't even figure out how to log in to my account in the actual game. Once I got that, I started misunderstanding things like thinking my fawn changing colors was a glitch, accidentally "shaking" off masks etc...

But now that I have it pretty much down, I REALLY like it. It's almost therapeutic for me. I love roleplaying, and this has such an intricate story line already set for it.

Plus the deer don't talk. That pretty much won me over.

This is how badly I lapsed in TEF time recently. 2 months is a low enough amount of screenshots for one post. \o/
...the first 5 are all there is for July in fact. Good lord.