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Description

Collab done with KitoGryff !

[2 shaded fullbodies(12), full background(3), roleplay inspired(2)]
x collab(.8) = 14 AP to Evaris, and to other character chosen

Retirement Piece

FULL ROLEPLAY HERE: EASE MY BURDEN

Warning: Death

Estelle
She woke up several hours later early in the morning, before the sun had risen to mark a new day. They were still laying there in the kitchen on the floor, her son peacefully snoring against her belly with his mouth sucking on the corner of the blanket she had placed over him. He looked too peaceful for her to move him, and quite frankly, he was a bit too heavy for her to move him anyway.
Opening her eyes slowly to look around the room, first to the dying fire within the brick hearth then to the rack beside the front door, it took her a moment to digest the scene before her… Cyrus’s cloak was still gone, and the floor in front of the door was still damp with the snow that had flown into the room when he had opened the door.
He usually would’ve been home by now, wouldn’t he?
Estelle’s stomach dropped, her senses coming back to her all at once. Her father was still gone, and while this was relatively normal for him to be gone long into the night, she knew the taverns would have kicked him out by now. A dreadful feeling overwhelmed her, making her skin prickle and her mouth go dry. Something was wrong… something had to be wrong.
Shifting as not to disturb her sleeping son, she quickly got to her feet, rushing about the house to grab her own fur cloak and its fastenings. Throwing the dark bear fur over her back and fastening it on her chest, she pulled the hood over her ears before checking Steigar one more time. Seeing that he was soundly asleep, Estelle opened the door, rushing into the snow and attempting to close the door quietly. Once she had locked the iron bolt, she shoved her way through the snow, the freezing winds pushing against her, daring her to go further into the unknown. The snow fall was so thick that it was difficult to see, every snow flake felt like a bee sting against the thick pelt that hung on her back. Yet she continued out into the blizzard, determined to find her father.
After wandering blindly, shoving through heavy snow drifts on shaky legs, Estelle looked around in a panic. She had been searching for what felt like hours, and still nothing was to be found. A shroud of white seemed to cover the entirety of the area.
Lifting her head high, her hood falling from her head, Estelle yelled out into the snow. “FATHER! FATHER!!” She listened for an answer, and when she heard nothing but the roar of the wind, she pushed through a few more yards, all the while straining her voice, “CYRUS!! FATHER WHERE ARE YOU?!”
The sweat on her body had frozen in crystals, she was growing cold despite her thick winter pelt aided by the bear fur on her back. “PLEASE!! ANSWER ME!!” She strained once more, whipping her head to listen in the other direction.
Off in the distance, her eyes caught a strange gray mass in the snow. It looked like a rock from afar, but with how the snow was, it was unlikely the rocks could even be seen… Estelle begged the Earth Mother that this mass was not her father, she prayed he was safe in a tavern somewhere in town…
Yet she walked toward it with a burn in her chest, her heart racing. As she grew closer to the mass, climbing snow drifts and shoving through the violet winds, the details of it became clearer to her. Fur whipped in the wind, she could see it was that of a large animal. She saw no hooves, no hair… only the fur. It wasn’t her father, thank the gods.
But as she walked closer, she reached her teke out, hoping to simply pull a frozen animal from the snow. As she gripped the fur, tears sprang to her eyes as she was able to remove it from the mass underneath… a dusty coat was revealed, Gray peppering it throughout. The body’s feet were buried in the snow, it’s head half covered… Estelle legs gave out beneath her. She fell to her knees beside the mass, nearing its head. It can’t be him.
As she cleared the snow from its head, she let out a quiet cry. Revealed was a graying familiar face, the somber face of her father. Immediately she forced herself to get to work - she would heal him, she had to heal him.
“Father, Father, please. Wake up. We have to get you home… we have to get you warm. Father, get UP!” Estelle frantically ripped her own cloak off, covering him in it while she got to work pushing the snow off of him. When she had freed his legs, she did the only thing she knew would work - she climbed on top of him, offering her body heat to save him from frostbite. “Daddy, please… please, wake up… wake up…” She cried, attempting to keep her composure. Yet the tears broke through, falling only to the tops of her cheeks before they froze. She rubbed his body with the cloak, attempting to warm him… but he was so cold, was she too late?
|| WC: 630

Cyrus
Numbness fell over the once prideful elder, clothing him in its bitter and strange comfort. This was the perfect time to leave, a time where there was silence. Only the sound of harsh winds filled his ears as he laid there, completely motionless. A white blanket fell over his body, as if to prepare him for his grave. It felt almost as if he were a foal again, being tucked in by his mother to sleep one last time.
However, he heard a call between the thrashing winds and the snow whipping around him. It was panicked and muffled, yet it sounded familiar. This was because it was. One moment he had been lying alone in the snow, accepting his fate, and the next he knew his daughter was there by his side. She tried to help him, tried to share her heat so that he could live. He knew though how foolish she was acting, but it didn’t infuriate him. No, it saddened the old man, sobering him up for his final moments. “Estelle… daughter… no more.” He took in a breath, turning his head to look at her. This was the face of a broken man, one who had come to his wit’s end. As he took in another breath, he coughed up a storm. The cold was getting to him, and at the worst time imaginable. He never wanted her to see him this way, and yet here she was. “It’s okay.. I’m going to be with Freydis.” His voice was raspy, cracking as he laid there trying to comfort his daughter, to stop her from anymore foolishness. There was no saving him. He knew he had been dying for the longest time, and only now did it creep up on him.
There was a long pause, an uncertain silence that held a certain eeriness to it, until he at last thought of what he wanted her to hear after all this time. “...I’ve always loved you, you know that, right?” He lifted a hint of a smile to her, something he very rarely ever did. Kindness was what she needed, he knew this now. “I’m sorry I made you cry, it won’t happen again, my sweet child.” He imprinted his cold teke onto her cheek, brushing away a few tears with the soft glow resembling an autumn leaf. Her cheeks were cold yet the heat heavily contrasted his body, which lacked many signs of life.
Slowly he let go of her cheek, lying his head down against the snow. He could feel the stinging of the cold, feel out terrible and murderous it was. It was too late now. He couldn’t do any more for his daughter, nor for himself. His rare breaths came out as puffs of white clouds when he breathed, his chest heaving every now and again, slowly coming to its end. He closed his eyes, allowing his body to slip from the earth. One last whisper came upon his cracked lips, while a cold tear came to his eye. Quickly it crawled down his cheek, falling into the snow and leaving its mark there. “Daughter, Stone beneath… your..hooves…” He spoke softly before losing consciousness. The buckskin’s body laid cold and motionless, the heat from his body being nonexistent by now. His heart came to a slow stop, while the flurries of snow and wind only built up over time. He had made his final goodbye, lying to rest for the last time on Kaia’s earth knowing his body would nurture the earth, and hoping that a burden would finally be lifted. || WC: 599

Description

Collab done with KitoGryff !

[2 shaded fullbodies(12), full background(3), roleplay inspired(2)]
x collab(.8) = 14 AP to Evaris, and to other character chosen

Retirement Piece

FULL ROLEPLAY HERE: EASE MY BURDEN

Warning: Death

Estelle
She woke up several hours later early in the morning, before the sun had risen to mark a new day. They were still laying there in the kitchen on the floor, her son peacefully snoring against her belly with his mouth sucking on the corner of the blanket she had placed over him. He looked too peaceful for her to move him, and quite frankly, he was a bit too heavy for her to move him anyway.
Opening her eyes slowly to look around the room, first to the dying fire within the brick hearth then to the rack beside the front door, it took her a moment to digest the scene before her… Cyrus’s cloak was still gone, and the floor in front of the door was still damp with the snow that had flown into the room when he had opened the door.
He usually would’ve been home by now, wouldn’t he?
Estelle’s stomach dropped, her senses coming back to her all at once. Her father was still gone, and while this was relatively normal for him to be gone long into the night, she knew the taverns would have kicked him out by now. A dreadful feeling overwhelmed her, making her skin prickle and her mouth go dry. Something was wrong… something had to be wrong.
Shifting as not to disturb her sleeping son, she quickly got to her feet, rushing about the house to grab her own fur cloak and its fastenings. Throwing the dark bear fur over her back and fastening it on her chest, she pulled the hood over her ears before checking Steigar one more time. Seeing that he was soundly asleep, Estelle opened the door, rushing into the snow and attempting to close the door quietly. Once she had locked the iron bolt, she shoved her way through the snow, the freezing winds pushing against her, daring her to go further into the unknown. The snow fall was so thick that it was difficult to see, every snow flake felt like a bee sting against the thick pelt that hung on her back. Yet she continued out into the blizzard, determined to find her father.
After wandering blindly, shoving through heavy snow drifts on shaky legs, Estelle looked around in a panic. She had been searching for what felt like hours, and still nothing was to be found. A shroud of white seemed to cover the entirety of the area.
Lifting her head high, her hood falling from her head, Estelle yelled out into the snow. “FATHER! FATHER!!” She listened for an answer, and when she heard nothing but the roar of the wind, she pushed through a few more yards, all the while straining her voice, “CYRUS!! FATHER WHERE ARE YOU?!”
The sweat on her body had frozen in crystals, she was growing cold despite her thick winter pelt aided by the bear fur on her back. “PLEASE!! ANSWER ME!!” She strained once more, whipping her head to listen in the other direction.
Off in the distance, her eyes caught a strange gray mass in the snow. It looked like a rock from afar, but with how the snow was, it was unlikely the rocks could even be seen… Estelle begged the Earth Mother that this mass was not her father, she prayed he was safe in a tavern somewhere in town…
Yet she walked toward it with a burn in her chest, her heart racing. As she grew closer to the mass, climbing snow drifts and shoving through the violet winds, the details of it became clearer to her. Fur whipped in the wind, she could see it was that of a large animal. She saw no hooves, no hair… only the fur. It wasn’t her father, thank the gods.
But as she walked closer, she reached her teke out, hoping to simply pull a frozen animal from the snow. As she gripped the fur, tears sprang to her eyes as she was able to remove it from the mass underneath… a dusty coat was revealed, Gray peppering it throughout. The body’s feet were buried in the snow, it’s head half covered… Estelle legs gave out beneath her. She fell to her knees beside the mass, nearing its head. It can’t be him.
As she cleared the snow from its head, she let out a quiet cry. Revealed was a graying familiar face, the somber face of her father. Immediately she forced herself to get to work - she would heal him, she had to heal him.
“Father, Father, please. Wake up. We have to get you home… we have to get you warm. Father, get UP!” Estelle frantically ripped her own cloak off, covering him in it while she got to work pushing the snow off of him. When she had freed his legs, she did the only thing she knew would work - she climbed on top of him, offering her body heat to save him from frostbite. “Daddy, please… please, wake up… wake up…” She cried, attempting to keep her composure. Yet the tears broke through, falling only to the tops of her cheeks before they froze. She rubbed his body with the cloak, attempting to warm him… but he was so cold, was she too late?
|| WC: 630

Cyrus
Numbness fell over the once prideful elder, clothing him in its bitter and strange comfort. This was the perfect time to leave, a time where there was silence. Only the sound of harsh winds filled his ears as he laid there, completely motionless. A white blanket fell over his body, as if to prepare him for his grave. It felt almost as if he were a foal again, being tucked in by his mother to sleep one last time.
However, he heard a call between the thrashing winds and the snow whipping around him. It was panicked and muffled, yet it sounded familiar. This was because it was. One moment he had been lying alone in the snow, accepting his fate, and the next he knew his daughter was there by his side. She tried to help him, tried to share her heat so that he could live. He knew though how foolish she was acting, but it didn’t infuriate him. No, it saddened the old man, sobering him up for his final moments. “Estelle… daughter… no more.” He took in a breath, turning his head to look at her. This was the face of a broken man, one who had come to his wit’s end. As he took in another breath, he coughed up a storm. The cold was getting to him, and at the worst time imaginable. He never wanted her to see him this way, and yet here she was. “It’s okay.. I’m going to be with Freydis.” His voice was raspy, cracking as he laid there trying to comfort his daughter, to stop her from anymore foolishness. There was no saving him. He knew he had been dying for the longest time, and only now did it creep up on him.
There was a long pause, an uncertain silence that held a certain eeriness to it, until he at last thought of what he wanted her to hear after all this time. “...I’ve always loved you, you know that, right?” He lifted a hint of a smile to her, something he very rarely ever did. Kindness was what she needed, he knew this now. “I’m sorry I made you cry, it won’t happen again, my sweet child.” He imprinted his cold teke onto her cheek, brushing away a few tears with the soft glow resembling an autumn leaf. Her cheeks were cold yet the heat heavily contrasted his body, which lacked many signs of life.
Slowly he let go of her cheek, lying his head down against the snow. He could feel the stinging of the cold, feel out terrible and murderous it was. It was too late now. He couldn’t do any more for his daughter, nor for himself. His rare breaths came out as puffs of white clouds when he breathed, his chest heaving every now and again, slowly coming to its end. He closed his eyes, allowing his body to slip from the earth. One last whisper came upon his cracked lips, while a cold tear came to his eye. Quickly it crawled down his cheek, falling into the snow and leaving its mark there. “Daughter, Stone beneath… your..hooves…” He spoke softly before losing consciousness. The buckskin’s body laid cold and motionless, the heat from his body being nonexistent by now. His heart came to a slow stop, while the flurries of snow and wind only built up over time. He had made his final goodbye, lying to rest for the last time on Kaia’s earth knowing his body would nurture the earth, and hoping that a burden would finally be lifted. || WC: 599