1st, Fall, 514AV
When the dark began to lift and consciousness found her, the first thing that registered was the deep, rhythmic roar of the ocean. Cold waves rolled up the shore and foam washed over her, splashing her face and chilling her skin. Her unearthly features wrinkled in displeasure, and her golden skin shivered. When the Ethaefal's eyes opened she saw brilliant color. The smooth glass under her cheek glistened in the daylight, and from her prone position belly down on the shore, it seemed like the world was made of the stuff.
She lay there in dazed confusion until the sea once again rolled up over top of her naked body. Propelled by instinct to escape the cold, she stirred on the glass, rose to all fours, and crawled higher up the beach. The colors shifted under her hands and knees, tinkling delicately. With her eyes now lifted to what lay beyond the shore, her disorientation soon overwhelmed her. Solara slowly stopped her escape from the sea and sat dripping wet on the glass. Before her was an unfamiliar city in an unfamiliar landscape. The air was wet, and she could hear distance life.
One memory began to claw its way to the surface, and her disbelieving eyes turned skyward. Pink lips parted in a silent question, and tears spilled down her cheeks before the pieces of the puzzle ever formed the picture. She'd fallen away somehow, torn from what she knew, and with no idea how, and no idea where she'd washed ashore.
"Gods," she croaked in fear, instinctively returning to a language from the past that her lips could articulate. Looking at her trembling fingers, her beautiful face twisted in grotesque disgust. To most, they would appear perfect. Delicate, long, and with pale oval nails. To her, they were ugly. She had been beautiful, but no more. Now she was something hard and awkward, a pale comparison to what she had gained and somehow lost. Frantic fingers went to her soaked hair, tumbling in thick auburn coils down her back and shoulders. They went up a little higher, feeling her neck, her ears, and finally the base of her horns.
A long, high wail of despair escaped her, and though she couldn't fight through the shock to piece what had happened together, she felt a sudden loneliness as vast as the sea she'd clawed her way out of. Solara curled up on the smooth glass of the beach and keened quietly, trembling both with cold and overwhelming fear. She couldn't understand what was happening, but her very soul was torn and grieving.