Riddle Heights escape; return

you do not know who is your friend or who is your enemy until the   ICE breaks. She didn't understand. She didn't acknowledge his question, didn't respond, didn't clarify, and he felt disappointment settle across him. It was heavy, bone-crushing, but he bore it anyway and looked aside from her. Their vehemence had bled out like a large wound, and left them nothing but dry husks. The warmth and life of her eyes had frozen, hardened, just like his had, but he wrapped himself in something soft and stupid. It took the edge off the pain, padded his heart from the incessant sharp stabs against his heart. He whined softly, not sure of what to do. They were two blocks of ice, growing colder by the second instead of warming and thawing. Suddenly she was trying to comfort him, and he felt a dull throb of suspicion, but it faltered, faded. He didn't know what was wrong with the situation anymore, just that all of it was wrong, so very wrong. Even the wind was wrong. She made his decision for him in that bleak sunrise, padding across to the rock where the flowers swayed gently. "It will be okay," he repeated dumbly as she took them in her mouth, holding them so gently as he had even when he had ripped them from their home. Those flowers were the cause of all this misery in a way, but he hadn't the spirit to hate them for it. They hadn't decided on this. They'd just been caught in the crossfire too, as all mortals were when stars toyed with their lives. Ice's fur bristled, but the moment she looked at him again it fell flat, like last night's snow over the sharp crust. It took him several seconds to realize what she was saying, and then his chin dipped down in defeat. He had to go. He'd always known but now he had to. She'd told him to go. Then he couldn't stay. A sigh slipped out of his mouth and he took half a step backwards, before pausing. His head tilted, and his voice was soft. "Take care... stranger girl." And then he was gone, blown away like smoke in the wind, running so hard that his heart ached and it felt as if he was breathing fire, but he couldn't see where he was going. Tears blurred his eyes over, and he wasn't sure for whom he cried. [Ice out.] .ice aesir

let the stars above shine in your soul

<blockquote>His words followed her's, just as empty, just as meaningless. It took everything she had to maintain her straight face, but her mask was threatening to crumble quite quickly. But he seemed to understand, now, what they had to do. She felt like she was watching everything transpire through a sheet of ice; probably because she was surrounded by the frigid cold herself. His movements seemed choppy, his words seemed warped, and before she knew it he had disappeared. The send-off came as an after thought, blown by the wind into her comprehension as she turned back toward Poison Path lands.

<i>Take care, stranger girl.</i>

Agonized whines finally erupted from her throat, eyes shut tightly as she tried to stop the emotion from pouring out. Stupidly she leapt forward, racing in a blind rage back to her homelands while a mantra rang in her ears. Not even the pounding of her paws or the heaving of her breaths could cover it up, and it was far from a peaceful <span class='word'>pensee</span>. <i>Naira. Sticky. Purple flowers. Lies. Lies. Lies. Paladin. Knight. Swift River. Lies.</i> Each horrible word, horrible thought, pushed her to sprint for her life. Desperately she wanted to leave it behind, but they haunted after every hurried step like ghosts of wolverines, biting her ankles and trying to drag her on to the cold mountain floor. The petals of hellebore whipped against her cheeks as she turned every corner, and even that reminded her of the night in the Willows when their finger-like strands had touched her as she moved.

If only the sensation was so kind today... The demons came up for her, chased the shadow of a wolf back home.
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art - threads