Exhaustion and Crystals

[Dazi]

Now that I had completed that god damned quest that had made me appear like some useless mutt that had been mud bathing for centuries, I'm kind of lost as to what I should do. I wasn't thinking when my mind drew me toward this place. It was pure instinct. This land had a sense of healing about it, a promise that caring fingers would weave their way through the muck caked heavily upon my petite frame and return me to my naturally sparkling white appearance while I slept peacefully to relieve both my stressed mind and muscles. Wait. What the hell am I thinking? It must be the exhaustion of days without sufficient sleep, food or water that made me delusional to the point where I was thinking like a fool worthy light. I would have shook my skull at this and cursed the thread of thought that dared me to think in such a way but I feared such a movement would thrust the ill sensation of falling onto me so I just continued to walk, hooves ungracefully tripping over one another, head low and swinging with each unsteady step until I remember no more of my journey.

There was nothing in her mind in the hours that she was unconscious. The time it had taken to get from the desert to these lands was uncertain to her though whether it had been days or simply hours it was dark when she finally collapsed. The soft caress of the meadow grasses was lost against the mud and plantation that had clung to her coat, making her appear as though she was simply just a raise in the earth where the grasses had yet to grow. She would have been invisible to the naked eye from any onlooker upon the ground, the grasses towering high over her small frame like guardians. Her sleepy mind vaguely registered the cooling sensation that still ran through her body, tingling her nerves and relaxing her with silently whispered words. There was a strange power running through her, energizing her exhausted muscles as though it were preparing her for the coming day.

The gray hours crept over the land silently, slowly chasing away the darkness and the demons that lingered within it and pulling a blanket of warmth over the waiting world. The cool tingle within the sleeping femmes body slowly faded away as the riding orb spread warmth over the land in which she rested, heating the muck upon her and capturing the heat until her body felt as though it were the desert she had escaped. Lids flickered, revealing her dark optics which stung with the unwelcome awakening. She still felt as though weights were attached to every limb and exposed area upon her (the muck caked to her probably adding some extra weight that she didn't need to endure). Her muscles quivered painfully as she struggled to get her frail pillars below her body, a forced grunt vibrating her throat as she heaved herself onto unsure pillars. It took a moment for her optics to adjust to the dramatic change of lighting and the seemingly clean air compared to what she had put up with through her quest. This all seemed so alien to her once it came into focus though there was something that instantly drew her eye.

The glittering lake that shone like a crystal under the pastel colors of the rising sun stood out like an oasis in a desert. The soft, barely noticeable ebb of the waters edge was like a seductive call meant only for the harks of Jahina and it wasn't a call she was about to flick off like it was the wasted breath from a beast. On almost foal like and tricky legs she stumbled toward the water, the sudden cold hit of the night chilled liquid sent a pleasant shiver through her frame. There was no foul stench of death or rot, nor of singed hair and burning flesh. It was just fresh and welcoming and, she could even consider it beautiful even to her standards. She allowed her fore pillars to drop to the lakes surface and break through it to land upon the well shaped pebbles hidden below. The reflected image of her dirtied facade was shattered into rippling ribbons which soon turned to a light spray as the rest of her body quickly followed. The pebbles shifted slightly under her though they didn't threaten to pull away or suck her further into the lake. It was stable enough for the femme to feel safe and allow her to relax. Hooves were kicked up into the air as she rolled onto her back, twisting her body over the pebbles like a wolf over a favored bone, loosening the coatings of muck upon her back.