𝐼'𝒹 𝐿𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝐸𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇!
♢ - ♢ - ♢
ʟᴀᴍʙɪᴄᴏʀɴ ɴᴀᴍᴇ: Echo
ɢᴇɴᴅᴇʀ: Male (He/Him)
ᴇxᴛʀᴀ:
(Relic Art of Echo, inspired by the Monster Hunter style)
This Lambie wears a mask wherever they go, why is that?
Ever since Echo was a young Lambicorn, he knew he wanted to make a difference.
What kind of difference you may ask? Well, Echo grew up being told fantastical fairy tales that made his heart soar. Knights and heroes? How wonderful did that sound? Leading the charge while saving the kingdom, now that was living.
As he grew up however, he realized perhaps the spotlight wasn’t where he belonged. Sure, he still held on to the heroic dream of helping others, but bowing to a crowd of grateful cheers didn’t sound as glamorous as it had when he was a kid. Plus, he was a Lambicorn, the dream realm was where he belonged!
So, he began to develop a plan. While his peers learned to create the finest dreams they could imagine, he became interested in something else. Sure, it was typical for a Lambie to create a dream, but what about changing an existing one? Was it possible to jump into a dream gone wrong and do something about it?
Driven by the idea, he began his steps in order to get there. First, he would need to be able to find said nightmares. He would need to learn how to sense the negative emotions of the dreamer, and find out how to help them. Second, he would just have to er, change it. Surely it couldn’t be that hard?
So, Echo trained. He trained and he polished his senses, having to self-teach himself this new technique of managing dreams, and after mastering sensing emotions within dreams, he was ready to try his skills on his first nightmare.
However, when he entered the nightmare prepared to dash in and save the sleeper, he was swept away in the confusion and fear, losing himself in the waves of negative emotion. Washed through sour memories and fears, he couldn’t even see the dreamer. He barely managed to flail out himself, let alone help anyone else.
Discouraged, he limped out and rested, wondering how it possibly went so wrong. How could he ever navigate… that? It was horrible, feeling the pain so raw and unfiltered, the intensity of the dreamland inflating an already impossible enemy. He was too far in this though, he couldn’t just give up! But how could he conquer that? It seemed he needed more strategy and training.
He began training again, this time jumping into negative dreams for brief periods to scout on what he would need to do. It seemed that the negative energy orbited the sleeper, becoming more intense the closer he got to them, almost like throbbing waves beating the shore. But wait, if they were waves, perhaps that was the key? Maybe the strategy wasn’t to fight the nightmare, maybe it was to learn to swim with the nightmare, to play it more effective and get somewhere.
So he tried just that, jumping into another nightmare instead of trying to fight his way through, he went with the flow, letting it sweep him away. It.. worked? It worked! Instead of losing himself, he skidded over the flow, almost like surfing! This was perfect, now that he knew how to navigate the rest should fall into place, theoretically that is.
After practicing his ability to “surf” the nightmare waves, he was ready this time.
He leaped into the nightmare, his hooves skidding along the dark cloudy waves throwing tufts behind him like foam. Snippets of memory and fears flashed in the edges of his vision like lightning, and cries whistled with the wind in his ears. It was about time he knew how to do this. He angled closer to the center, and began to smash through the larger chunks of the soured dream. Then he saw her, finally! A dreamer, a young girl crouched with her hands over her ears in the center of a small clearing.
He landed lightly next to her, yet she didn’t notice him. Confused, Echo paced around her and called out, yet nothing seemed to reach her. But as the gushing waves drew closer, something came over Echo. A cold calmness seemed to leech into him, and he almost felt like a passenger in his own body as he stepped to the girl and leaned down, touching his horn to her forehead.
Immediately, her eyes shot open and she stared at him, her features twisted in terror. She was aware now yes, but something was wrong. She shied away from him, slowly backing away unknowingly closer to the spray. He made to step forward, but as she let out a shriek, he stepped back again. How would he prove that he was nothing to be afraid of?
He slowly lowered himself to his knees and bowed his head. A few breathless moments passed, before he felt a small pressure on his forehead. Encouraged, he looked up to see her staring at him in wonder, a small hand ruffling his fur as the tears dried on her cheeks. He gestured to his back, and she ever so slowly grabbed onto his fur and pulled herself on board.
Gently, he rose and stepped forward. With a dreamer on his back, the oozing waves of darkness seemed to shy back from their presence. Determined, he jumped back into the fray, filling his charge with courage as she too shouted and let go of her fear. As they skidded through, the darkness seemed to seep into the ground and fade until nothing was left.
Echo lightly touched down and lowered himself so she could get off, but as she did the dreamland seemed to begin to fade. She was waking up! As she did, confusion started to seep in as she lost her grip on the dreamland. She stumbled back, and looked around blearily until her gaze rested on him.
She blindly flinched away, even as he tried to show her he was harmless. Her memory of the details seemed to escape her, and she shouted and waved her arms to try and frighten him off. As a last effort he tried to smile and meet her eyes, but as he drew closer she fell back, terror reclaiming her as she faded.
She was afraid, but most of all she was afraid of him. When she looked at him, she saw only the horror of how her dream began, and she screamed until he watched her fade away into waking.
Standing there feeling as though his soul had been torn out, he felt sadness so overwhelming he gasped for breath. She was scared of him! He saved her, he trained all this time for what? Nothing but empty dreams and bearing the responsibility of the negative emotions. He saved her, but at what cost?
It would never happen again, never. He would not have his face become the face of nightmares and the failures of others. No, he would have to become better. He would have to save them as out of sight as possible, and not one dreamer, ever, would see his face again.
Note: This is a brief overview of Echo’s origin. Echo’s story leaves off on quite a somber note here, but this isn’t his end. Echo will go on to continue development on his abilities, and will eventually find a better way as well as other Lambicorns wanting to learn his methods. He will become a living legend, a mentor, and a name in history for being the first to develop the transformation of nightmares.
(he also teaches mask carving in his arts and crafts group!)
by lilpupin » Fri Oct 09, 2020 6:18 am 
