[Indi]

This was home.

That was what they told him, at least. The healers. The horses that came to see him, all of whom seemed achingly familiar despite his mind refusing to recognize them. Even Charm, that fateful day he knew not how long ago. They all told him that this place was home.

So why did it feel like it was not home?

Not that Aranu could recall what having a home felt like. It seemed as if for eons, “home” had been where he was subjected to a constant deluge of cruel pain and brutal torment. All his life? He could not remember otherwise, though it seemed relatively apparent by now that such was not, in fact, the case. Not if this was home as he kept being told.

When had the torment truly started? How long had it lasted? Where precisely had it taken place, who had inflicted it? These were questions he had been asked before. Questions about where he had been. How he had gotten there. What had happened. Many, many questions. Unfortunately, he had so few answers. Memory was such a slippery, tricky thing. Starkest memories were of pain, of torment, of brutality unspeakable. There had been the madman who had claimed to be a deity. Aranu still felt certain the ashen beast was mortal, same as himself… yet… could he deny that there were moments he caught himself actually believing he deserved all the suffering because he was Unholy?

Aranu knew that Charm’s home had been a place of nightmare… but he could not say precisely what had happened. Except that one… brutal violation. Who had inflicted that horror? He could not put a name to the beast. Was he even sure he could put a face to the culprit?

Shivering despite the warm, humid air of the rainforest, the buckskin overo tried to pull his mind away from the memories of horror that were the only memories he had. Instead, he tried to focus on his surroundings. Nothing seemed familiar. Aside from… a vague recollection of a place not unlike this when his life had very nearly been ended by the ashen madman. And Charm had been encountered. Promises made… broken. Nightmares.

This time soft words pulled him free of what inevitably would have been a spiral into the mental abyss. Mismatched brown and blue eyes blinked slowly, before focusing on the equine before him. One of the royal healers, steering him towards a verdant meadow, reminding him to eat. Such a strange, simple thing to forget, yet he did. Sometimes he lost track of time. Sometimes he got lost in nightmare memories. Sometimes he just had no appetite. He remembered being denied food on a frequent basis. And water. And sleep.

Another soft reminder and he was limping slowly forward. A battered, skeletal shadow of the stallion who had once ruled in these very lands. Yet… compared to his appearance upon first arriving in Rain Forest Beach, it was clear that Aranu was improving. With the first captor having sought to end his life, it was very apparent that only the bare minimum had been put into keeping him alive by Charm. Only now, with the attentive care of the Royal healers, as well as members of the family he could not remember no matter how hard he desperately tried, he was finally, ever so slowly getting the chance to improve.

Character;; Aranu
Tagged;; ღ ∂ιѕαѕтєя ღ w/Nixi
Notes;; Apologies for incoherence
Timeline;; 16 yrs; not too long after being returned home at long last.