whitescar A Test of Will (Closed)

[Bellosh]

 

With some very impressive evasive maneuvering, Chipper Demise managed to help give all potential Living or Undead pursuers the slip. At least for now, although Lími bet that his elder half-brother will eventually dispose of the wrights advancing on his position. Brann was seriously one of the best Viking Caribou warriors alive; he could probably wipe out an entire shamble while wearing a blindfold!

 

"Qalipu's Cry?" responded to the unicorn's questions in-between pants; "You... can't miss them... They're blue... Glow... with a pale light... Hum when in bloom... Sprout on the mounds." Those flowers better be blossoming somewhere in the Barrow Fells, or this hellish Will Test would be all for naught!

 

"No... I know not who the other pursuer is. Most likely a rogue bounty hunter... after a prince's ransom. Whoever this cow is, she's no ally of my brother's....." A part of Lími wondered what this mystery fighter told Chipper, but that was rather low on the priority list compared to the more immediate objective of losing their trackers.

[Blueblood]

"Blue, glow, humming flowers, gotcha!"  With barely a pause to digest that information, Chipper plunged on, more to put distance between them and the humongous shamble of undead.  The one good thing about that was that since the undead could be cannibalistic as well as feeding upon the living, there would be a huge feeding frenzy however that exchange between the cow and the bull turned out.  That would leave both Limi and Chipper free to search with minimal interference.

 

The wind was still blowing, forcing the pair to shelter in the lee of the barrow-mounds to stay comfortable.  The sound was enough to most likely hide the sound of humming beds of Qalipu's cry, so Chipper was looking out for a small, blue glow.  "I don't know where they would be exactly... can you make out anything?"

[Bellosh]

OOC: Bleh, shorter post than usual. X_X

 

 

Using the mounds for concealment, Lími peeked around the side for any traces of Qalipu's Cry. "No," he told Chipper; "Nothing yet." But that wasn't the most immediate concern on the caribou's mind. They haven't really had a true moment to rest since taking shelter in the ruins from before the raven encounter. Lími's internal clock also nagged away at him, telling him that it's time for sleeping soon. "How much further must we flee before it's safe to rest again?"

[Blueblood]

"Safe?  Nyahahaha!  It's never safe to rest here; never know if I go to sleep if I'll wake up again.  Makes each day a nice surprise, I'll tell you that much!"  Well, you couldn't fault Chipper on a lack of optimism, at least.  And the pair would need the whole of it, so trapped were they.  A horde of undead in the rear, with hunters and who-knew-what else.  Ahead, the barrow-mounds, and what they might hold.

"Caves are out, never know what's in 'em.  As for the keeps atop... well, maybe one of them's empty.  Never know.  A necromancer might have been felled by his own revenants; it happens a lot.  Some of them are really upset when you disturb their nappy time."  Speaking of which... the next hill ahead seemed to have such a keep.  Mere walls of earth mounted into a kind of crude fortress, but it was shelter from the wind, and a defensible position.  Now, of course, the question was whether it was unoccupied, or would have to be taken by assault...

[Bellosh]

 

Alas, no safe places this deep in the Barrow Fells! Lími's hopes were draining by the minute. Maybe it hadn't been such a bad idea to exile himself from Whitescar after all. Or maybe the lad could have defected over to Clan Breen, which had a reputation for disregarding the Will Test. If only Lími knew what he had been getting into.

At any rate, the caribou buck spotted a shoddy keep atop the nearest hill to their position. "That hold," he pointed in its direction; "Does that appear to be occupied? Or will we have to come closer to scout it out?" It may not be a place for resting even if it was empty, but at least it was a defensible position for he and Chipper.....

[Blueblood]

"Hum...."  Chipper's horn glowed, as he apparently cast a detecting spell of some kind.  While his smile wasn't faltering, one had to suspect that the young unicorn was just as tired as Limi was; maybe he was a little more used to these hard lands, but the necromancer had never gone so far out of his way to look for trouble.  In any case, in a minute or two his horn stopped glowing, and a crow began to caw above him.  

 

"Well, I got good news, and bad news.  Bad news, it's occupied.  Good news, its occupied by only rats!  Some are dead, some aren't.  It doesn't appear to make much of a difference to them, but that might just be speciesm on the part of my feathered friends, Nyaha!"  He laughed, trotting up the hill.  "If we don't try to take food from them, they probably won't try to eat us!"

 

Once the pair entered the lee of the earthen walls, the break from the wind was apparent immediately, almost providing a warming sensation in and of itself.  The outpost indeed had rats, big ones, of various stages of life and undeath.  Scraps and remnants of other creatures lay about, along with rotting plant matter, in more or less a heap in the center of the 'fort.'  On top of this heap sat a rodent of unusual size, almost up to Chipper's shoulder, looking down upon his domain like a ruler from atop his throne.  As of yet, he only deigned to look in their direction, but made no other acknowledgement of their presence.

 

Chip, for his part, waved kindly in his direction, but made no other gesture, only ducking in and huddling in a corner.  He brought out a bit of provision from inside his cloak, breaking a piece off to toss on the pile in the center, before snarfing the rest of it down himself.  "Pay tribute," He whispered to Limi.  "Anything will do, scraps, garbage, what have you."

[Bellosh]

 

A rat-infested hold... this was what things had come to. Lími oh so wished that these rodents were not proactively hostile as Chipper Demise promised, but considering what happened with the ravens... the caribou buck wasn't holding his breath. That was, until they had made it inside; the horrid stench of the garbage pile collected by the rat commune became the new official record holder for worst smell Lími ever smelled in his life, already shattering the record set by Chipper's undead dire wolf.

 

Lími followed in Chipper's hoofsteps, covering his nose while cringing at the sight of a creature that might as well be proclaimed the Rat King. While the hooded unicorn dug through his provisions, the Rat King silently stared at the caribou. Following Chipper's hushed advice, Lími found himself the rest of the seedcake he failed to finish earlier in the day. Just as the unicorn did, the adolescent buck tossed one piece of biscuit at the pile before wolfing down the remainder. Had to keep that subsistence fueling his body, after all.

Come to think of it, Lími did recall a place like this in his studies on the Southern Wilds; a fortress which stank of a thousand years' worth of decay. The Viking loremasters cautioned to avoid the Rat Lair at all costs... yet here Lími was now. "So," he cautiously asked his guide; "What happens now?"

[Blueblood]

The smell, such as it was, didn't seem to bother Chipper.  One had to suppose that mere decay, as such, could not gross you out if you were a necromancer.  Vermin and the like were just one more fact of life that one got used to, warning legends or no.  And it was a two-way street as well, seeing that the Rat Kind would deem both their sacrifices acceptable.  Breathing out a held sigh of relief, Chipper, once again, started grinning.  "How about that, eh?  Now we can both get some sleep!  The rats will keep watch for us, and you'd better believe they'd know if danger was coming."

 

And with that, he curled up in the corner with little to no hesitation about the visible filth.  It was actually a smart move; it would be virtually impossible to track them by scent, and the ground was stony enough to cover tracks as well.  Pursuers would have a hard time catching up with them, and after a good night's sleep, surely the flowers could be found in the morning!

[Bellosh]

 

Aside from a single grimace as Chipper Demise chose a spot to lay down, Lími didn't bother complain as he did the same thing inches away. Vile and cowardly this might have been, but the traces of black soot clinging onto the caribou reminded the lad of his survival plan from the beginning; mask his scent and avoid all opposition. With the mess this whole Will Test had turned into, what with the ravens and Lími's brother and alerted Undead, anything the two trotters could do to shake off pursuit needed to be done. Hopefully, the light of day would give Lími and Chipper a much-needed advantage.

 

Too drained of willpower, Lími imagined only dark nothingness as his consciousness faded.....

 

----------

 

Mounds... snow-covered mounds all around. Except in front; an altar of stone there was, surrounded on the ground by fields of Qalipu's Cry. Above, the auroras of the night sky danced in all the colors of the rainbow. Behind Lími stood the unmistakable figures of Brann and Sigrun, although both possessed eyes of pale blue. Perched on the young buck's back was a crow, whose call suspiciously sounded like the bizarre laugh of Chipper Demise. No words were spoken, yet it clear what Lími needed to do: march forward.

 

Up to the stone altar Lími went; on it rested a blue qilin mare lying on her back, undoubtedly Lián Mei. This... was horribly concerning, yet no words or gasps escaped the caribou's lips. Chilling whispers filled the air all around; Lími glanced backward and saw that his family had vanished from their positions. But there were new visitors; pale four-legged creatures garbed in the colorless, moonlight-reflecting robes and crowns of great lords. The Fire of Life they had not, but all were nonetheless filled with a spirit far more indomitable than those of the drones amongst the Lifeless Horde.

 

Those who whispered in fell voices all around, whose joints cracked like ice with every step... every Viking Caribou knew them from their most frightful tales. They... were the Lich Lords; neither Living or Dead. With their terrible magicks, they were the uncontested great Powers of the Southern Wilds.

 

And they... have come.....

 

ARISE. ARISE.

 

Lími looked back in front of him, just in time to see one of the Pale Ones lifting their hoof up from atop Mei's forehead. The qilin seemingly did as the voices commanded, opening her pale blue eyes for all to see. She looked much as she did in Lími's memories... but all her physical form lacked the vivid tones of old, and the caribou perceived that the dragon fire inside the mare was extinguished. Yet there was naught Lími could do but stand in place as the Pale Qilin arose and stood face-to-face with the young buck.

 

ARISE. ARISE.

 

The qilin's icy hooves cusped Lími's cheeks, giving him the most fur-raising goosebumps he had ever known. The Pale Qilin's muzzle opened wide; out of it came a wind so cold and fierce that the caribou swore he was turning into a frozen crystal. Out of nowhere, the rats came to crawl all over Lími's body, heedless of any extreme freezing. That blasted crow with Chipper's voice was crying out some sort of unintelligible warning... and yet all the lad could do was gape like a fool into the Abyss.....

 

ARISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

----------

 

For the second morning in a row, Lími returned to the waking world with a horrified scream. This time, he was covered in frightened rats, scrambling away as fast as they could.

Something… was coming.

[Blueblood]

Dreams... they and their interpretations were the fountain of many mystics.  Though, what the mystic could make of the dreams of Chipper Demise would either be esoteric in the extreme, or almost heart-breakingly simple.  He dreamed of faces half-remembered, of soft voices he could swear he heard on the winds, on those rare days when the warm winds blew from the south.  He'd always had these dreams periodically, but more and more lately, waking up to feel a horrible kind of loss and loneliness, wiping for but a minute the constant smile from his face.  He didn't even know the name of the thing he was missing, only that it was a loss he was powerless to redress, at least alone.

The horrible feeling didn't go away as he blinked sleep from his eyes, only changing from melancholy to alarm as he perceived the panic of the rats.  Jumping to alertness in a minute, he paused to perceive what the rodents were squeaking to each other.  In half a second, he was prodding his companion.  "Hey, sleepyhead!  Wake up, we've gotta get outta here!"  His voice was less bright than desperate.  Most things in the Southern Wilds were dangerous, but there was but one thing they all feared, and that was coming up the hill...

[Bellosh]

 

Coming to his senses, it was not the overbearing stench of rats which gave fright to Lími the most. It was the sudden chill that wasn't present the night before, which was most disturbing considering the light of dawn peeked through the holdfast's interior. This was no ordinary weather of the world at work.

 

From behind him, Lími heard the sound of a howling gust of wind coming from outside. But it was like no wind the caribou ever heard before, not even like those fur-shearing windstorms that occasionally came in from the Serpent's Spine far to the very north of Whitescar. This wind felt alive; like it was speaking some primordial language known to no mortal ears. Tales of surch occurrences in the Southern Wilds were known to Lími, and they always heralded the arrival of... of Them.

 

Never a good sign.

When even Chipper Demise's voice was no longer chipper, that really meant the situation was ultra serious. Lími didn't even bother waiting for his guide's advice before following his gut instinct: follow the rats. The caribou buck galloped in the same direction as the rodents, surely thinking those foul residents knew the best way to escape from the dreadful menace on its way.....

[Blueblood]

The rats were cowards.  No two ways about it; they ran from all sensed danger.  Unfortunately for Chipper and Limi, the rodents' route of escape mostly consisted of literal rat holes that neither of them could fit through.  Not without the young Necromancer breaking out some extremely dangerous and untested magic, anyway.
 

Fortunately for the two of them, the little hill-fort had a back door, which the unicorn was tearing out of before you could say 'lich king.'  "Come on!"  He shouted, sparing no more breath for future words.  About halfway down the hill, he tripped and tumbled, rolling down the hill head over heels.  The momentum was such, however, that he hit ground level and kept going, a wild scramble of legs keeping him upright in dynamic equilibrium.

 

Were those audible moans behind them?  Was the chill in the air entirely natural?  Chipper Demise was taking no chances, ducking behind one barrow, streaking through a valley between two others, zigging and zagging, looking for some, any, route of escape.

[Bellosh]

 

Lími rarely thought straight in a panic, as proven when he nearly rammed head-first into a wall while following the fleeing rats. That was one of many reasons why the young buck always preferred to deliberate before making a decision, no matter how impatient other caribou got. Dependable ole' Chipper Demise managed to find a back door... an escape route, and so the long gallop down the hill begun! The slope proved slippery and treacherous, causing each traveler to slip and roll downward at least once. But no amount of pain inflicted persuaded any of the two to slow down... something that was just about to potentially become Chipper's undoing.

With mortal terror ultimately guiding them off the hill, neither Lími or Chipper bothered to check whether that... Thing was in pursuit. Weaving between mounds, the unicorn necromancer failed to notice he was running right towards a pit... but Lími's eyes did. He couldn't see yet how wide or deep the hole before them was, but the caribou knew that his guide falling in spelled nothing less but certain doom. "CHIPPER!" Lími frightfully cried out; "LOOK OUT AHEAD!!!" This deep in the Barrow Fells, there was only one reason for ground to ever be unearthed, but the unicorn and caribou had more urgent matters to worry about first.....

[Blueblood]

"Huh?  WAAGGH!"  It is by no means an easy thing to stop on a dime from a full run.  Chipper wasn't tasked with such a tremendous feat, all he had to do was stop before the edge of the pit.  He attempted to do this simply by stopping his legs from moving, but unfortunately, his body still maintained it's momentum, sending him tumbling and scrabbling along the dirty snow, right to the edge of the yawning gap!

With one desperate move, his forelegs shot out to grab the edge, seizing hold for dear life.  "Ha, ya, help!"  He didn't dare look behind to see how deep it was.  He didn't have too.  It didn't have to be all that deep to be a burial place.  A place from which they emerged.  After all, nothing said that they were running away from the danger...

[Bellosh]

 

Lími may have had more time to slow down, but that didn't stop his legs from skidding to a stop as well. However, the extra time the adolescent caribou had for deaccelerating meant the young buck did not experience the thrill of dropping into a pit. Able to do things other than fear for his demise, Lími rushed to the aid of Chipper Demise and grabbed his hoof. Lími wasn't the strongest of caribou sadly; his attempts at pulling the unicorn out were less than decisive, to say the least.

 

Concerning the pit itself, Lími now saw that it wasn't actually all that deep. It rather reminded the lad of a sinkhole hastily filled in with debris, except for the very top. Falling in wouldn't itself lead to a grievous end, but the hole stank of corruption. For those well-knowledged on such subjects, it was obvious that a great rising of the Undead had taken place here not too long ago. Although Lími hoped otherwise, only an idiot would blindly assume that the pit was entirely empty of... buried things.

"Uggggh," Lími strained with all his might, lifting Chipper a mere inch or two; "I can't- I- you're too heavvvvvy, arrrrghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"  

[Blueblood]

The inch or two wasn't much, but it was enough for Chipper to brace his hind legs against the wall of the pit, giving a little extra leverage to Limi.  With each tug from above, he could make a step below, eventually 'walking' out of the pit.  The unicorn collapsed on the edge, breathing heavily.  The momentum of the last few moments was spent, and it would be a little while before he could start running again.

 

"Ha... nyaha, probably should've looked before we leaped, eh?"  At least his good humor was the first to return.  Getting shakily to his feet, the young necromancer took another moment to actually look around, and try to get his bearings before they went off running helter-skelter again.  Lich-lords may well have been the worst things to face in the Southern Wilds, but getting lost wasn't going to help their survival chances either.  

 

He suddenly paused, pointing out in the distance.  "Hey, isn't that barrow-top glowing?  Is that what you were looking for?"  Indeed, a faint blue light seemed to cling to a mound seen in the distance.  Qalipu's cry?  Could it be, after all this time, running, and panic, that the young bull was close to his goal?

[Bellosh]

 

Well, Lími's strength was enough to keep Chipper Demise topside for a little while longer. Who ever could have thought that the caribou would find his companion's odd laughter to be a comforting sound? But indeed, although the two were heavily exhausted, they appeared to have escaped from immediate danger. Looking back, Lími witnessed what could only be described as a whirlwind of snow covering the keep that had once been refuge. In their mad dash to flee, the two travelers had somehow managed to gallop more than a mile away, while the snow whirlwind appeared to be receding. No further pursuit was to be had.

 

For now.

 

And then everything changed. Lími saw the specks of blue covering the distant mound Chipper pointed out. All at once, the weary adolescent filled himself with determination, believing the goal of his journey was near. A successful Will Test typically lasted for more than a fortnight; two weeks to find the right flower, and another few days for the return journey. Lími had been doubting his odds at lasting long enough to succeed, so to see signs that his journey would come to a swift end... it blinded the lad with hope for a swift return to home.

Leaving a still recovering Chipper in the dust, Lími sprinted off with reckless abandon around the pit towards the barrow crowned by blue specks (still a good distance away). Towards his hope.....

[Blueblood]

The flame of hope could never really be said to be absent from Chipper Demise's breast.  Though it flamed purple rather than the cleaner colors of normal fire, it was often the only thing to warm him when the Southern Wilds showed its coldest face to him.  If he could share it with his friend in this, arguably darkest hour, he felt justified for all his many petty sins.

 

"Let's go!  We're almost there!  The warrior shall have his flowers at last, nyaahahaha!"  Whether fulfillment or disappointment awaited, nothing could deny them the thrill of the moment, of the run.  For such moments, the necromancer lived.

[Bellosh]

 

NOOO, NO NO! NO!!!

 

NOOOO... NOOOOOOOOOO.... NOOOOO NOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO................

 

The quest... it had failed.

 

By the time Chipper Demise would have caught up to Lími, the necromancer would have found his partner prostrating on the ground, slumped in despair. Oh boy, Lími's flowers were there alright; it was just that none of them remained alive. Each Qalipu's Cry flow that had grown on the mound were wilted. The petals glowed no more, and not a trace of a hum could be heard in the air. As it went without saying, caribou didn't pass the Will Test by bringing back dead flowers.

 

But HOW could have this happened? Lími was sure he had plotted the most favorable time to undertaking his coming-of-age rite, when the Qalipu's Cry were beginning to bloom. Had the adolescent lad messed up his calculations somewhere? Did an unforeseen blight prematurely kill off the flowers? Was it really important to know why no blooms remained? Whatever the cause, it still left Lími is the most grievous position a caribou lad could ever face.

 

What was the Son of Sigrun supposed to do now? Without a living flower, his chances of being accepted as a worthy bull of Clan Askr were virtually nil. Not even the buck's adopted mother could risk her reputation to take in a caribou failure who couldn't bring back one simple blossom. The Qalipu's Cry would reemerge again for sure in the Barrow Fells... but not for close to another year. In that time, Lími would have no choice but live in exile; a reject from all of Viking Caribou society. Even if the buck managed to hold out an entire year, would he have the resolve to retake the rite of passage a second time? Would he be able to forever live with the shame of not being able to pass the Will Test on his first try?

 

.....What was Lián Mei supposed to think about a caribou who struggled pathetically to reach adulthood? A mare with the blood of the dragon would want nothing to do with a weakling.

"I... I have lost." Filled with anguish and with tears in his eyes, Lími's head thumped the earth; "I can't... I can never go home again. I am... no more....." In danger of openly sobbing, the young buck's hoof seized at the closest things it could find — a pile of cold seeds and wilted petals — and clutched hard at them. Anything to prevent himself from being totally engulfed by his tumultuous emotions.....

[Blueblood]

It was a few seconds before Chipper Demise managed to catch up to Limi on top of the barrow where the flowers grew.  Time enough for hope to turn to despair in the breast of the young caribou, looking despondent over the corpses of quest's aim.  

 

"Aw, they're dead."  Chipper said, in an almost offensively breezy tone of disappointment, as if he had lost a friendly foot-race with the Grim Reaper.  The unicorn looked sideways at the teary-eyed caribou.  "Um... did you need them not to be?  I mean, they were kind of gonna die after your picked them anyway, nyaha!"  A distinct lack of an echo followed the young necromancer's laughter.  "Hey, friend, buddy!"  He called out, giving Limi a friendly rap on the antlers.  "Did you forget who am and what I do?  Nyahahaha!  I'll make these flowers un-die in a jiffy!"

 

No sooner said than done, as far as Chipper was concerned.  In a Manehattan second, his tattered sleeves were rolled up and his hooves were plunged into the chilled topsoil.  His horn glowed with dark purple energy, his tongue muttered syllables that Limi probably shouldn't strain too hard to hear, not if he wanted to retain his sanity.  The sight was almost disturbing enough, with the soil shifting, almost liquefying, before the dark magic flowed into the dessicated plant material, stiffening the broken cellulose with new resolve, shooting out petals that glowed with new virbrance.  Only trouble was, they glowed deep purple rather than blue, and the humming had a new, unsettling noise to it, like a chord playing in a minor key.  But, if a living flower was wanted, a living flower Clan Askr would get.

 

"Look, look!  I did it!  You didn't fail your quest after all!"  Chipper cried excitedly, eagerly showing the young caribou his hoofwork.

[Bellosh]

 

Of........... of ALL the beings on this Earth........... why was the caribou plagued with Chipper Demise?

 

At a time when Lími needed solace, all he perceived from his guide was irreverent mockery of the very flowers held dear by the young buck's foster clan. How could anyone be so chipper at a moment of sorrow like THIS? Oh riiiiight; because otherwise the unicorn would go insane from grief (as if his sanity was fully intact to begin with). But no, Lími was in absolutely no mood to hear Chipper's point of view on the loss of the Qalipu's Cry.

 

Chipper wasn't done yet upstaging his own callousness, however. For his next "miracle", the necromancer committed the unthinkable. To Lími's object horror, the ground in front of him turned gooish right before his innocent eyes. Pressing his forehooves against his head — a head locked in a mouth-gaping-wide position — the caribou sat there motionless as Chipper's dark magic befouled the remains of the dead flowers. What had once been objects of sacred (if faded) beauty were corrupted; perverted into grotesque facsimiles in contempt of ALL the Ancient Ones!

 

"These..." Lími struggled to put his disgust into words, only managing a hoarse protest; "These are a-a-abominations!" The adolescent lad would be better going back home empty-hooved at this sad point! How would be able to look his clan's shaman in the eye and tell her that this perversion of Qalipu's Cry was a gift worthy of Clan Askr? BAH! No caribou in their right minds would want an undead flower within a dozen leagues of their homes and families.

There was another emotion, a rare one for Lími, that saw the opportunity to eat away at his soul. Its name was anger, and the poor soul was doing his utmost to contain it. "Chipper..." the caribou's eyelids clamped down, holding back a storm; "How... in the name of the Ancient Ones... am I supposed to present to my clan..... an undead flower?"

[Blueblood]

Chipper Demise was no stranger to pain.  He'd cheerfully describe pain as an old friend; sure, he could hurt sometimes, but then he also gave a huge boost to the unicorn's magic sometimes, so that was alright!  Death, loss, and hardship too were alike known of old, or at least as old as he himself was.  As bright as he was, the Southern Wilds had made him hard too, in places.  But there were parts of his heart still tender, nerves of the soul still alive and tuggable, and now they were struck.

 

Rejection.  The young necromancer had not experienced much of that in his life.  The animals he always talked with accepted him well enough, and his old master... well, he'd never expected much from that bony old coot anyway.  But Limi?  Limi was a friend.  Chipper's first, and only!  They'd played together, survived life and death situations together (much the same thing, in Chipper's mind), and the unicorn was always willing to lend a double-portion of his optimism out to keep his caribou friend from sinking into the despair that so many found shortly before death.  That was all he wanted to do, now, keep his friend from crying, make his mission a success!

 

And now, he was being yelled at!  As if he was doing something wrong!  Chipper couldn't understand it, couldn't picture why his special talent and skills were considered evil by so many.  He was just a colt offering flowers, and finding anger and rejection on the other side.  The persistent smile was struck from his face, as if by a blow, and his voice stammered.  "B-but, I... they're just flowers... not dead anymore.  I, I thought..."

 

Abominations.  The word rang through his head.  It couldn't be right, this, what he was doing, it couldn't be wrong!  "They're still so pretty..."  He murmured softly, looking down at the purple glow.  "Why wouldn't they like them?"

[Bellosh]

 

Curses, Chipper Demise was as dense as a stone mountain. Would he ever understand what living creatures disliked about the Undead? Perhaps not; such was the lot of those who've known nothing but harshness, isolation, and shoddy restorations of life.

 

Yet Lími's heart was full of compassion, and even in his frustrated state, the caribou's conscience pang with guilt over the sorrow he inflicted on Chipper. It reminded Lími that his companion was only trying to help the adolescent buck in his own way. At the very least, the unicorn deserved an explanation.

 

The caribou sighed; mired in a morass of defeat, he gloomily looked upon the resurrected off-tune flowers. "It doesn't matter how pretty any flower is, Chipper. My clan expects one flower only; a blossom of blue humming a song of beauty. Your work... is neither of these things. I will be questioned... and they will recoil in disgust once the truth is known. Clan Askr will never accept these as legitimate Qalipu's Cry. For the sacrilege I'd have brought upon my home, I'll surely be banished."

 

It must be pointed out that Lími didn't exactly know for sure what would happen if he claimed an undead flower as his prize. No Viking Caribou in recorded history had the opportunity to do so, as generally necromancers were not befriended during WIll Tests. Still, he couldn't imagine anything good coming out of it.

With a hopeless sigh, Lími slumped towards the ground and turned away from Chipper; "But what does it matter to you, anyway? It's not like you'll be there to witness the moment of my greatest shame. They'll never allow you past the Great Ice Wall to the north, let alone get within a dozen leagues of my home. At least whatever may transpire, you'll still have your crows and that one... dire wolf thing to come back to....."

[Blueblood]

Magic is a funny thing.  Just when you think you've found a hard and fast rule to print in large, important-looking books to bore students witless with, something always happens to mess up your calculations.  For example everypony knew that dark magic was powered by negative emotions: pain, hatred, sorrow, anger.  And yet... the dampening of joy within Chipper Demise's soul, as Limi made it clear to him just what the outside world would think of him, and of these flowers, seemed to make the magic fade out of them, to wither once again in his very hooves....

 

"Rolf's... not coming back."  He said softly, sniffing.  "When he distracted the warmblood hunter that came after us... I lost him.  I can't bring them back if there's not enough left."  He blinked.  Was that... water gathering at his eyes.  "Oh, come on!"  He shouted out, hastily wiping at his face.  "I thought I was out of tears already!  Not fair!"  The wind was blowing again, stinging the wetness on his face.  Sharp cold pain, raising memories of past blows and past losses...

 

"I'm not gonna leave you."  The necromancer said firmly, after getting control of his breathing again.  "You won't have to leave this place alone.  I know it's possible to laugh when you're lonely, until you remember what it's like to be not!  Even if they reject you, I won't, you see?"

[Bellosh]

 

Those purple flowers, they were supposed to be freaks of nature... right? If so, then why did Lími feel sorry for the undead plants as life faded from them once more? It's not like they had been truly alive in their corrupted state anyway. Why then did great waves of remorse crash down upon the caribou?

 

Chipper's sadness really struck a chord though when the necromancer admitted they wouldn't find that undead canine of his again. It mattered not that the thing had smelled of decay; as a fellow keeper of a canine companion, Lími felt sorry for his guide. Gods only know how the young buck would react if something happened to his cherished dog, Hammer.

 

In any case, a single tear managed to drop from Lími's eye. Surely he had to be the worst caribou alive for reducing his jolly companion to grief; an accomplishment proclaimed to have been impossible.

 

But darkness... never lasted forever. Just as the night gives way to dawn, hopelessness can transform into fuel for resolve! It certainly was the case for Chipper Demise, who burst forth with a promise to always regard Lími as... something that sounded awfully like a friend. Hmmm..... something about this moment echoed a scene from the past, a memory that also smelled of flowers and-

 

FLASHING MEMORIES!

 

—

 

“THIS I can promise. I swear, by all the Ancient Ones, that I shall not depart from Garden Gait until my task is done..... To write... OUR POEM.”

 

"If you're sure - then...then I swear, in the sight of my ancestors, that I shall help you finish our poem. For...as long as it takes."

 

—

 

By the time Lími finished reminiscing of his sacred vow to Mei, his vision became clouded by more tears threatening to spill on the ground. The young bull was back upon that precipice overlooking Garden Gait, except this time he had a new partner at his side. Like Mei, Chipper must have seen something in Lími, because otherwise the unicorn had no reason to risk life and limb for a strange caribou. To lose his Rolf, even! Considering all of Chipper's sacrifices, what he'd done to safely lead Lími through the Southern Wilds, what honor was there in casting out a necromancer to whom Sigrun's son owed his life?

 

Simple really: there was no honor in that whatsoever. If there was one thing Lími learned from his foster mother, it was that being honorable meant more than all the conquests of a thousand jarls!

 

One cloven hoof stamped into the ground later, and the caribou stood upright again! "It... will not end like this," Lími declared as he turned back to Chipper. Unlike most times, a fire burned in Lími's eyes. "After all you've done to avail me... how can I abandon you to torment in solitude?" Carefully, the caribou took the wilted flower out of the unicorn's hooves. "Vain are none of your deeds, Chipper Demise. By ALL the Gods of Askr and Aured, I will make my clan see you for your true self!"

 

"You are..."

 

And just like, Chipper would witness a spark in Lími's orbs of green ignited by a force so incredibly magical beyond all comprehension.

"...MY FRIEND."