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CW | Magdalene | The Beginning

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+8 TP for Magdalene

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The Beginning: Having reunited with her childhood friend Bat-Sheva before the war, Magdalene has found herself at an impasse, torn between the desire to protect her daughter from the Bachelors as she always has, and protecting the friend who was like a sister to her. With the battle over and the war only just beginning, Magdalene has kept to the forests surrounding the Bachelor herd as she wrestles with indecision. Meanwhile, Jones the Protector, suffering terrible injuries from the war, seeks Magdalene out. The mare does not know that they share the same blood, but Jones does, and their family ties are paramount to Jones' plan. I want you to join the Rangers, he tells her, and I will train you myself.

He has much to teach her, and very little time...



CW | Magdalene | Loner | Messenger by Queerly CW | Jones | The Protector by MythicalPrancer


Magdalene//

Fourteen years ago, Magdalene had plunged into the ocean. She had carried her baby by the hair, fighting through the swell of waves and seafoam froth. Water had dried upon her face, salt encrusting her lips, her eyes, her desperately flared nostrils. Breathe, she had told herself, exhaling in fierce wheezes. She’d been afraid, terrified that the moment she ceased to coach herself her lungs would give in to the sharp, piercing pain of the cold. She would stop breathing, and sink down, down, down, another victim of hypothermia’s siren song. It would be so much easier to give up, her aching body had whispered.


But Keziah had been alive. Magdalene had felt her heart, rabbiting against her tiny ribs. She could not stop, she had to go, to go and go and go and-


And then her hooves had struck the white sand shore of the south.


For the next fourteen years, Magdalene had not known the meaning of indecision. Keziah had grown, had sprouted like a little weed-flower, and for all her life Mags had kept her safe. Her child flourished in the Olde summers and grew resilient in the Southern winters, and always they had been careful. The need to protect Keziah, to guide her on the path to a safe, free future had been Magdalene’s only goal for as long as she cared to remember. There had never been a question of what she would do, for she would always do exactly what was best for Keziah. If it sacrificed her sparse social ties, if it cost her a little bit of empathy, if it meant abandoning a stranger to avoid putting her daughter at risk…


But then Bat-Sheva had come crashing back into her life, and all the love that Magdalene had held for the mare had poured into and through her, rooting her to the spot. Sheva had been a friend, a sister, and for fourteen years Magdalene had shoved her to the back of her mind, tried to forget that she’d abandoned her without a single word.


She couldn’t do it again. She tried, though. Magdalene had set out for the Great Pine the same night the mares had reunited, but her hooves had slowed and stopped and kept her there, buried in the dirt.


No, not again.


So she had stayed. Stayed, and watched from the safety of the sidelines as the battle had raged on, Bachelor pit against Olde. The fields had been a bloodbath, elemental gifts drawing lightning and fire and great crashing waves out of the sea. Magdalene had tried to pick out a spotted hide among the chaos, and when she had found it she had kept an eye, every nerve on edge.


And when Sheva had suddenly found herself in danger…


Magdalene’s recollection of joining the fray was fuzzy at best. She remembered warmth, pooling up from her hooves and into her chest before it had exploded outwards, manifesting into a blinding light. The barrier had been solid, sturdy. Force fields, Magdalene had thought, echoing the words Ba’Yagu had spoken so many months prior. The appaloosa had never been able to utilize the gift she’d supposedly unlocked. Something had been missing. A spark.


Magdalene had stayed close when the battle had ended, sticking to the fringes of the herd. Keziah was still a top priority, and thus she had been hidden away, deeper in the safety of the forest. Her girl was smart, after all. Smart and resourceful, just as Magdalene had raised her to be. The Scavengers would not find her, and even if they did…


Well, there was a force field waiting for them if they did.


But what to do? The self-preserving logic she’d come to live by dictated they should move on, but Magdalene’s heart was no longer settled on only one individual. Now it was torn in two, beating for both Keziah and Sheva, the latter whom could not and would not uproot herself from the Bachelors. Magdalene understood, of course; Sheva had her family here, and she would no sooner abandon them than Mags would cast Keziah aside. But it did leave her at an impasse, wracked with indecision and uncertainty. How could she protect them both?


That was the question on her mind as Magdalene drank from a forest stream one late evening, quenching her thirst in the dying autumn light. Fireflies winked around her withers, attracted to the glimmer of her pale coat. They would be gone as soon as the nights turned cold. Winter was coming, and if the land bridge was back to its old self, it would vanish beneath the waves with it. The thought of being trapped had Magdalene pinning her ears, but it did nothing to sway her towards the idea of fleeing. Not again, she thought. Those two words had become something of a mantra.//


Jones//

Never had he thought this day would come. The liver chestnut stallion sighed deeply to himself as he stared at a distant figure before closing his eyes in a deep frown. Prior to this moment, he hadn’t allowed himself to look back into the past and let his mind ponder the reasons behind everything that happened. He had believed strongly in the saying “everything happens for a reason” no matter how horrid the situation. Today was different. As he allowed the fluid stream of flashbacks to flood his mind he traced his steps back to the past. To times where he was blissfully in denial of the fast draining hourglass that would lead him to, what could possibly be, the greatest challenge of his lifetime.


Even with his clairvoyance, he was unable to predict the short amount of time he had left and had always thought he would have been able to dedicate the better portion of a year to this. However, that wasn’t the case and, as always, he had to be flexible enough to make it work. Like in most situations Jones had encountered, he had no other choice. No matter how awful he felt about the burden this unsuspecting “victim” would carry, he couldn’t allow any alternative plan to go forth. The only alternative, his daughter. It simply wasn’t an option in Jones’ mind. Though she wasn’t aware of it, he had always kept a close eye on Ziara from a good distance and with her being recently engaged he knew this was no time to ask such a thing of her. In his heart, he was sure she would accept and do her best to live up to the challenge but she wasn’t ready. So young, with so much life left to live and many things to learn. Then again, she had always shown her bravery wholeheartedly so perhaps he was simply being selfish in wanting to protect her. In the little time she had walked this wretched earth, she already had too many demons and hardships to haunt her. In truth, Jones would give up his life to ensure his daughter being able to live a life free of worries. It stemmed from his regret of being absent from her direct support for all of her life, as she would never know the moments where he had aided her from the shadows.


But war had come.


Jones had seen it coming in his darkest nightmares but had always secretly hoped it had been just that, a terribly realistic nightmare. Many had fallen in the whirling chaos of blood and thrashing bodies, determined to tear the opponent apart. The display had sent anger pulsing through every vein in The Protector’s body. How foolish! A war like this, the sacrifice, the anger, the blind hate. Could they not see? No, they simply wouldn’t. Blinded by pride and lust of power, or even a dire need to protect. War would only bring both ally and enemy pain or despair. Even if, in their minds, there was anything to gain at all it could never possibly excuse the lives lost to such a cause. However, he couldn’t interfere. It was against the laws his freedom loving ancestors had laid down for the wandering souls, even though every fibre in his body screamed at him to step in. To stop all this nonsense. Laws he was obliged to follow, and laws that-


You can’t.


Despite Jones’ years of mastering self control, the flash of a vision caused him to burst into action. One individual. One fated by destiny to destroy everything he stood for, had come. He couldn’t allow it, for his arch nemesis to get involved with this horror for it was devastatingly damaging enough without her.

Genesis!” he had roared in the flurry of a charge aiming to divert her from her intentions, knowing no good could come of them. That would come to be the biggest, nay, second biggest mistake in his lifetime.


Amber eyes opened again as the pounding sounds of that destined fight slowly faded into the wind and seeped out of his mind, leaving calmth. Determination marking his tired face, he moved limply forward. As he etched forward he controlled his breathing to ease the pain and, hopefully, lessen the appearance of how injured he really was. Perhaps it was not best to use his stealth to approach this individual ever so quietly, but it was his only hope in coming close enough for a conversation. A relative he never thought he would speak to, and especially not about this in such an urgent rush. “Magdalene,” he rose his warm voice and stood squarely, attempting to keep some of his pride as his focus turned entirely to her reaction.“Do not be startled, I mean you no harm”.he reassured and made sure to stay at a distance which he hoped she was comfortable with.


I am sorry my cousin, he thought painfully to himself, but I have no other choice.//


Magdalene//


The voice sent Magdalene startling despite Jones’ best efforts, heart leaping to the back of her throat. The appaloosa took a stumbling step forward into the stream, found some semblance of footing, and turned. From alive to statuesque in only a few short seconds, Magdalene regarded the newcomer with an expression somewhere between shock and premature fury, water dripping in fat droplets from the scruff of her chin.


Oh.” She grunted, and her own voice seemed to surprise her, scraping past her tongue unbidden.


She knew this horse, had seen him at the Pine. Protector, they called him in hushed tones, though she had never paid much mind to the title. Magdalene had never had a reason to, and she couldn’t fathom why a horse of such lofty deeds would approach her now. The Protector did not keep company, not even a mate or children. So it was said.


Do not be startled? Perhaps do not approach from behind.” Magdalene replied, tone sandpaper rough. She was irritated that he’d crept up on her, and more than that she was irritated at herself for failing to notice. She wanted to leave at once, her nerves frayed and sparking on the edges. But Magdalene felt, on baseless good faith perhaps, that Jones wouldn’t pull a horse aside frivolously.


She stayed put.


What do you want, Jones?” The appaloosa asked. "What does the Protector want with someone like me?"




Jones (c) MythicalPrancer
Magdalene and art (c) queerly
Background reference: theartmad.com/beautiful-forest…

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© 2015 - 2024 queerly
Comments18
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JeanGal247's avatar
I'm just gonna flip out over in this corner, over there. OH MY GOODNESS! The picture itself is mysterious and the story just adds to it! :love: The expressions to me just seem to hint that some serious shit is about to go down. And DAMN Jones looks sexy in this. :XD: