. F l i g h t .is.a.terrible.thing.

[..*avvy (arrosé.chianna)]

}Arrosé Amour{
Her head was bowed down to the stars above... giving her yet another thing to thank seemed to be the sole purpose of the world. There was nothing of her past here, except the stars. They had all come with her, as with the sun and moon. The sun. A shudder passed through the vix's bodice as she remembered her punishment... the punishment of her trying to practice what she'd been born with.

..:flashback:..

the filly was watching the woods, looking carefully and thoroughly at all of the trees. She stood in a small clearing, wings flapping hesitantly. The sun was just beginning to peek from behind a cloud, and the pegasus gave a small nicker of happiness. Trotting over to one side of the clearing she fluttered her wings, precious joy enetering as she began to run. Flap harder, run faster, flap, run, flap run, flap run, flap run flap, flap run lap run flap run flap run SOAR!! She was FLYING! Her heart seemed to rise with her body. She was flying! She could fly away, away from the Sultan and everything about him, away from his foul-smelling son, away from their mountains of food that she was not permitted to touch. Away! She was doing it, making her escape and..... Mom. The thought was grounding and she faltered in her flying. Flap, she reminded herself, gaining her altitude again. Flap. Now, what to do about mummy? Go back and get her. On another day. Go down now, lordy, before they see you, Rose! She could hear her mom's voice, even as she landed. Don't let them see you, Rosey, because the gaurds are jeleaous, baby. They're jeleaous of your pretty wings. But mom, I could show them where good food is! I can see lots from up there. Her mother, at this point, always laughed weakly and shushed her, claiming fatigue. But from the first conversation her mom and Rose had had, she'd been more careful when flying. And it always seemed to work, cus she hadn't been found yet and... THWACK! Falling, falling, F A L L I N G! upupupupuupupp! Go U P UP UP UP! U-P ROSE! Too late, there was something on her now, and a pain in her.. oh the... why! WHY??
She'd awoken in the sun, with a sharp, throbbing pain in her wing-bumps. Some air would cool that. Flap, fla- what? No flapping? Had they paralysed her? She peered curiously at herself in a puddle. Gasp! Where were her.. looking wildly around, she saw her wings alright... the Cheif Gaurdian was sleeping on them. As her small faol's physique shook with grief and anger, the gaurd looked up and smirked. Not so happy are yah now, slave wench? "GET OFF!" Her screech was loud and frantic as she raced forwards, to be knocked backwards by a well-aimed hoof. They can't stay in the sun! The feathers will break!! He smiled and she noticed for the first time a stick with a familiar three-toothed bite mark. The Sultan's teeth had marked that stick, and it was his order, she supposed now, that she should watch her wings- oh beautiful wings!- break. She began to sob, like she neevr had before. Those wings were escape. Escape!

..:flashback end:..

Her eyes pooled over in tears. The grief she'd found then, in that field, was nothing compared to the first time she'd skipped work in teh Sultan's temple. They'd taken Joli Angele, her mother from her. And she had watched her mothers body drowned as she cried, cried for the lord and why he had forsaken her. They had cuffed her on the head, told her the Lord was not existent, that she should pray for the Sultan's forgiveness. And the gaurdian that favoured her, the one that gave her a comforting nuzzle and spoke french, was drowned along with her mom, the others saying that he was the slave's father. Father? No, she'd known, it wasn' him. She'd seen her Fatehr and he... he would save her.

But don't think about it, Rosey! The past is the past, and there's no way anyone here could understand your hell if they needed to. No chance at all. They hadn't been there, hadn't been forced to bow down before a scrap of a stag that they could easily knock down and let him mount. They didn't know. Perhaps no one does....
Perhaps.

[EGOOT247]

Sighing, I slow from my heavy canter. Side hurting, I wonder how many miles I have run once more.
A tear runs down my cheek as I think of what had taken place in Spectrum.
"There is no place for me," I tell my thought to the wind, "I'm alone."
I want to shout more-- About how I've run too long from my Oppressor. About how I thought I had found a friend, Stazeal, who sent me to a supposed and assumed ally of Streak. About running from Golden, the ally. About how hopeless life seems at present.

But still, even when hope is gone, I will move along. My legs, feeling rubbery once more, would no longer let me run. Another tear runs down my face. A solitary tear.
A solitary tear for a solitary horse.

Alone in the universe.
Alone with a world without trust. THere is no such thing as trust.
The only thing left is to run away.
and to hold on.

I froze, whuffing the air. Someone is nearby.
Veering, I streak in the opposite direction.
Too quickly, for in my haste, I brush against a tree, sending my off balance and ending my flight.
I am vulnerable once more.

[..*avvy (arrosé.chianna)]

}Arrosé Amour{
Crack.
What was that? Her audits swivelled desperately as the creamy hued femmora searched for the bearer of noise. Who was that? Her pace sped up as she listened, not catching another sound. Was it the one she'd already met her, Stazael? Or could it be... could it possibly be.. him? The Sultan's Son? She went almost blind from panic, and Rose felt dizzy with fear. Her heart seemed to be a continuous humming now, not just beats. Slowly, ever so slowly, hardly daring to speak the white beauty whispered the words she feared and hated so much.

Lord Everal?

His name left a bad taste in her mouth, like his body left a bad feel on her own. She was soaked in sweat, and it came to hr that if they were trying to drag her back there she would drown instead, and make it a family tradition. The Sultan always liked tradition.

She shook her head from the thought. No, she would do better then her mother. She would fight, and fight until her death. They wouldn't take her back there alive, over her dead body. She stood tall, ready to fight if needed. Still, she thought, slumping back down, maybe they'll see me here and decide I've turned ugly. Maybe they don't want to fight. Yah, right, Rose, and maybe slugs can fly.

Her banner blew restlessly in the wind and with the powerful huffing came a scent, a scent of a strange horse-mare. Her heart was beating ever so wildly now. The Sultan wanted her alive, did he not? The mares were sent out as the Collection team, to round up the stragglers and runaways. The stallions were the fighting team, but right now.. oh right now...
She was beng Collected.
Flee! Flee Rose, you can run! Without wings it's still possible to fly!
She ran, yes, but ran the wrong way. In her wide-eyed panic the mare flew straight for the other, crashign into the underbrush and getting knocked over by the force of her impact when she met the other. BOOM! Oh no! I've run the wrong way, wrong way! Mum, I'll see you soon, too soon, I'm sorry, please God, let them be quick when they take of my ears....

[GOOT]

The Someone crashed into the underbrush only a few feet from me. I agily brought myself to my feet, slow but flexible.
I wanted to run, every bone in my body urging me on, but something held me back. Not anything physical, but emotionally.

I was hallucinating. I must be. There, right before my eyes, was... Me.
Sure, this mare looked different, with her white coat and chisled features, but we bore the same appearance--Fear of other Equines.

Still, I wished to run despite our similar predicament. The fact that she was now vulnerable instead of me enticed me to ask a simple question. Arousing courage, I asked her, voice shakey but strong, "Are you a mare of Streak?" My knees buckled, not ready to take me off into the night, and for all I knew, stalling this mare might save my life.

But this mare fled from someone. No, not someone, I told myself, Something. THe same thing you do.

Opression. And loss of Freedom.

Knees once again ready to carry me away, I watched her silently, ready to run, hoping she felt the same connections I had. Still, I could be terribly wrong, and she could be sent for me. Not taking my eyes off of her, I followed her movements like a sentenel merecat, ready to flee.

[..*avvy (arrosé.chianna)]

STREAK! Her heart nearly stopped, and she was sure it would be the last of her now. This mare, though she'd never met her before, was obviously one of the Sultan's Sons; the Duke Streak's; minions. It was just too horrid, and her here without Joker. Her lead. Her new leader. A shame, it was, that he would probabaly think she had just run off from him. Everyone would, and there would soon be another present to affirm her departure. They would be from Everal and Streak's herd; a stag obviously, who would tell the story that would seal her departure. She could here it already- flightly one, that french wench. Always liked to take off, 'till she was kicked out. Just wandered away after the greedy pig tried to seduce the Sultan's son. They had there ways of spreading poison in even the cleanest minds, they did.

Madame, you cannot... cannot possiblement want moi! Non, non, s'il vous plait go back to him Madame; say you found my body in une swamp, s'il vous plait. Please! Don't take me back to him...

She was pleading, grovelling now, but perhaps she could appeal to this lady's sympathy and escape with her life, end the sreaching and all. If only, if only! It wouldn't work, wouldn't work. The mare would sound the alarm, three sharp, high-pitched squeals and a stomp. At least seven others would come, escort her back there, back to him where she would be forced to kneel, kneel. She knew the punishment for runaways, all too well. Kneel for Him, kneel for seven days and seven nights without food or water, kneel and whenever he enters you cry out he is the Son Of God, and cry out loud!

It was torture.

[/size]

[EGOOT247]

The Fear. The heart-wrenching, colic-enducing, groundless shaking feel of Pure fear. The fear coursing through the veins was not alien to me, for I have felt it so many times before. The many sleepless nights, the hidden feelings, the hunt, the feeling of ensuing panic. It was all too much, as it will overpower this mare now.

I knew. She knew. We both knew.

I wished to tell her something. Something that would console her, from the pain she had endured with Streak, from her many sleepless nights. She, too, had run from his evilness. I further endanger us both, two of Streak's mares together at once. If he were to find us, it would be over for both of us.

The punishment for runaways-- It would be different for me than her. She will be starved, forced to kneel before him singing his praises. Alas, she gets a second lease on life. I face imminent death should I be captured-- I've done more than just run away twice before, and Streak wants to feast on my flesh. Freedom is a costly thing.

"Streak will kill me should I become captured. There is no way on Earth I would go back," These were the only words I could offer as consolement.
There would be only one sentence that would put me at ease, his death, and that will not happen for quite some time.

I stepped away from her, feeling as though my presence put her at too much unease. Did my presence cause her to wonder? I was told I was the only renegade horse in Streaks many premises. I guess they were hiding it from me. Or no one else would dare to try.

[Arros Amour]

}Arrosé Amour{
Death. It was something they all knew, all the mares of Everal and Streak, something they all feared. Something that was all too real.
Death.
They had all faced it at one point or another, be it with threats or the demise of another. It seemed normal in the herd, a monstrosity that had been going too long, too hard, too accepted.
Death. It was the thing that kept them under control, the threats of it.
Death was what had driven her to run away.
Death was what this other mare feared, yes, but Rose knew something worse than death. She knew the taste of lost freedom. The taste of failure. In Streaks herd, she was, or so she believed, to know the smell of a failed mission. Everyone else... they knew the smell of death.
But wait! Perhaps this other who had goten away was the one that the maid-mares had whispered about, the ones who spoke of a brave female that had run off and not been found again. Maybe this was...

Madame... est t'appelle Star?

[EGOOT247]

(OOC: Just for the record, I DO know french and I AM taking it in school, but it wouldn't be as fun if Star knew it. So Star does not. )

My blood froze as I the other mare spoke. est t'appelle Star. I was unfamilliar with the words, but the meaning to me was crystal clear. She knew my name. She's heard of me. She wanted to know if I was the one she thought I might be. My reply ws unfeeling, laconic, and glazed, no emotion came through. "Yes." Yes, that cursed name granted to my by Streak himself-- That was my name. The cursed name of a renegade refusing to remain with her stallion, hunted by all, friends with no one. Stazeal had sent me to Golden. I thought he was a friend.

"I am Star. May I ask your name?" I wanted to know who this mare was, obviously one of Streak's, but who? There is quite a bounty placed on my head, and if she were to become my captor, Streak will reward her, and go straight to murdering me torturously. One thing kept running through my head. Will she try to turn me in? Still, I did not let my fears be known.

[..*avvy (arrosé.chianna)]

}Arrosé Amour{
The mare's heart nearly froze over waiting for the reply of the other. After a heartbeat, then two, of waiting, it dawned on Rose that if this mare happened to NOYT be the fabled Star, and was in fact part of the Collection Team, then her knowledge of the runaway had truly given away her identity. And then she heard it, just as her head began to droop in despair. A euphoric rush shuddered through her dainty bodice, lighting a bonfire in her soul and erasing temporarily the heavy fear that rested in her eyes. At loong last, a companion in escape! One who had indeed suffered under the Sultan and his Son, the latter who Star had obviously been better accquainted with.

A short cry of gleeful relief was to be let loose from the snowy femmora's vocalities, and then a string of babbling words in french before she straightened them into the lands native tongue.

Oh, oh oh oh! Mademoiselle, j'emme appelle est Arrosé Amour, Rose. Je... I wish to have you comprend.. know... that I am non un traitor! I am une.... runaway? Oui. Monsiuer Everal's gift to his garcon... to his son.

[/center]

[EGOOT247]

I nodded, tilting my head. In front of me stood one with the fortitude smuggled from the furnace.
Still, my question echoed within my, whirling through my head and not letting me think of anything else.
Time to cease the storm: "Are you safe? I mean... WIll you try to bring me back to him? Try to turn me in?"

My ears went back as I awaited her response, heart beating as though it were a bongo, all four stomacks flipping with flies.
With her reply, will trust ensue?
Alas, NO. A facade is quite probable. I can still trust no one. I shall not trust.

I had trusted before. But that had always resulted in disaster.
Trust and Disaster are synonymous. THey are pseudonyms for the same chaos, the same insipient defeat.

If only the tables were turned. If only the one in front of me was in my position...
To expose a renegade was quite rewarding... Granted you were not a renegade.
Would I turn her in if she were me? I found my answer consoling, and even uplifting. No creature upon the face of the Earth should have to endure Him. That is the reason I had become a fugitive fleeing for life, and it is the reason I could never take one back to him, no matter who I was. BUT would she feel the same?

[..*avvy (arrosé.chianna)]

}Arrosé Amour{
Star's response to her obvious joy queeled Rose a bit, and it made the white angel all the more smypathetic to the position her wild-eyed companion was in. How was she to know that Rosey herself was not a Collection mare, just as Rose had feared Star was?

A slight bow was in order, and then the words, in carefully executed english, spilled forth from her maw.

Mme. Star, I should never, never think of bringing anyone to them. How could I, when I cannot bear the thought of having to go back if I am caugt?

[EGOOT247]

"REWARDS," I replied laconically, "His sick rewards." My voice took on a metallic tone, as if I myself did not believe in what I had said. Alas, it is true. He rewards the collection teams greatly as does anyone who is loyal to him.

Turning away, I snuff the air, but turn my head. How Quickly I came to be at ease with this mare!!! Another mistake like that could cost me greatly...
Still, the mare did not seem as cautious and calculating as I find myself becoming.
As much as I hate to admit it, I did not find her much of a threat. Could I trust her?

"I trust No One." The words rang true, as I wish they always had.
Alas, trusting is why my life is on the line today.

Turning back toward her, I almost smiled, but caught myself. It irks me to know that I have been desensetized toward fear, calloused, and could almost be lightened in the face of peril.
"Come. We need to get out of here. Our scuffle is like a mark upon the treasure map. We shall surely be captured if we stay."

I took three tentative steps westward, but glanced behind to watch her reaction.
She did not understand that I couldn't trust her, I'm sure. How could she not understand?
She was in the same predicament...

I trust no one.

[..*avvy (arrosé.chianna)]

}Arrosé Amour{
A sudden understanding reached the lady, and she followed without another word. It was good, she decided, that she had found someone who was comfortable with the English tongue. perhaps it would make her seem less suspicious, after all, suspicious people didn't travel in tows, did they? Exactly.

Her mind unwillingly rolled towards the femmoras words. Obviously, Star had not gotten this far away from the Colony without empolying some escape tactics. Things Rose did not have the heart nor mind to begin to understand. She was all kindness, and very shrewd, but a horrible planner. Give her a moments space and she could lie her way beautifully out of anything. However, give her three days to plan her lies and the whole thing comes crashing down. Rose was a spur-of-the-moment mare, and it was because of this that she had ran that foggy night.

Attention back on the other, Rose re-opened her maw and let the words drop into the air before her, waiting for Star to catch them up and toss them back.

Mademoiselle, where are we going?

[EGOOT247]

The question was a simple one, but the answer was complicated.
I did not have the mindset to know exactly where we were going.
Neither the geographic experiance.

Still, I followed the wind in the only direction I was assured safety.
"I don't know," I sighed to her, "We are going West."
The direction was very important to me, for my sense of direction is unerring. And I must always travel opposite captivity.

I trotted into a mass of briars, careful to break as FEW as possible, leaving no tracks. Over the brambles, I flash into the underbrush, surrounded by trees and shrubs--dense, so much that even I had trouble navigating.

Still, I disturbed almost no leaves or twigs, being careful to seem like I Vanished into the forest. And I prayed Arose was trying to do the same.

Finally, we came to a small clearing, where the briars became thinner. Relaxing, I glanced back at Arose.
How is she doing?

[..*avvy (arrosé.chianna)]

OOC:

hummm.... this is geting harder and harder to reply to, isn't it? I think we kind of need another person in here.. I wonder if we could get someone to come across Star and Rose... for now,I'm not going to reply, as it requires a lot more muse then I have right now lol. I might try to convince someone to post here before I do again...