09-01-2016, 11:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-07-2016, 07:40 PM by Lucrezia.)
Everything that had happened in the Deserts during her absence felt like a dream. It had to be some sort of illusion. A protection spell that Yael used in order to save the kingdom was an idea. She could not find any reason why the gods, the magic, or whatever directed the nature of Beqanna would have chosen the Deserts. She knows these lands, these heathens that fill them, are the sole reason her kingdom has suffered – the only place she ever felt accepted, felt like she was home. It was where Lucrezia discovered who she was. Her family had begun there. Her friends had lived there too. Everything was gone now.
She felt angry at the world, disappointed in herself, and helpless in what to do next. Everything she had loved, found peace and life within, was simply left behind. Simply gone in a blink of an eye.
Regret weighs heavily on her shoulders. She feels like a failure now, drowning in her own guilt. Everything she loved in this place she had left. Lucrezia had left with her son believing that when she returned nothing would’ve changed. She was wrong.
It was unbearable. The nights have become long for her, she feels restless and unable to find peace within the dark hours where she knows she must sleep. She is tired of thinking what she has done wrong. There has to be something she can do, but Lucrezia cannot help but beat herself up for the mistake she has made. It is her fault—she admits, blaming everything on herself.
Lucrezia stands along the outskirts of the meadow, shadows hiding her from the early morning light. Her brown eyes peer across the land as she watches the few that harbor the meadow early this morning. A soft sigh releases from her mouth and she exhales a deep breath through her nostrils. Spring was here—she can feel the land warming up and the nuisance of birds singing as dawn breaks. Lucrezia had once enjoyed the coming of spring but now she does not even bother with the peace it once gave her. Instead there was uncertainty of what she was to do or where to go.
She was alone once again.
They will be meeting up again at noon, but Kreios has yet to find anyone else from his kingdom. Ygritte, Raene, and Marlyn remain missing, and the members of the Falls are too scattered to gather in such a short time. He desperately hopes that Neoma and Zai have had more luck than he has.
The spotted stallion has not slept all night, preferring to comb the land for anyone he might recognize. He nearly passes by the sabino mare, categorizing her without thought as 'not family', but something makes him stop.
"Lucrezia?" He says, the disbelief evident in his soft voice. "Lucrezia!" This time he is certain, and he turns away from the rest of the Meadow to move towards the mare. It has been years since she had fled with their young son, but all is clearly forgiven as he drapes his large neck over hers and pulls her close in a hug. "I'm so glad I found you."
His pleasure is only magnified by this change in their wold. He is not sure of anything anymore, but he does know that he has found Lucrezia and that she seems unharmed.
No one came looking for her. Most of the others looked for someone they knew—it was the first they did when they came down from the mountain. But, she didn't have to; she knew there was no one looking for her except maybe her son. Maybe she should be looking for him right now—she loved him, truthfully, but right now she couldn't find herself able to move from where she stood on the outskirts.
Rome would be safe.
She knew that.
Lucrezia stands there silently, nutmeg eyes just watching the multitude of others finding loved ones or talking to strangers. It felt comforting to see others helping strangers—eventually all of them would forget this little selfless act. It was hard to imagine if any of them would change from their ways. This second chance was a gift, but to some it would only be the cause for vengeance.
She doesn't even notice the spotted stallion too. Not until her name is called twice does she look at him. Her eyes widen in disbelief at seeing Kreios. She knows it has been years since she last saw him (before she fled away with Rome). “Kreios-“ she whispers, “I-I’m so glad to see you too.”
When he drapes his large neck over hers, she pulls into his hug. The warmth of his skin is comforting; especially in this moment of loneliness she has felt coming down from the mountain. She had felt loss for words and emotionless for days before everything had disappeared—and find her home was flooded.
“How are you?” She asks, pulling away from his hug. She cannot mingle in his embrace for too long. Guilt weighs her down heavily, carried on her shoulders these past months for leaving the Deserts, her friends, family—and most of all Kreios. Her nutmeg eyes look into the gentle giant’s own eyes.
She is comfortingly solid beneath her, and Kreios is reluctant to let her pull away. He does though, because to keep her against her will for his own comfort would never occur to the pale stallion.
Contrary to the thoughts running through her mind, Kreios does not blame her for leaving. He has left many things during his lifetime, enough to know that what is important is not the leaving, but rather the returning. Lucrezia has returned, and that is more important than that she had ever left.
"I'm good, I'm good," he says, but his dark eyes are roving over the sabino mare, looking for any signs of injury on her body of limbs, hoping that she is as whole as most of them seem to be upon waking up. He returns her brown gaze with his own warm eyes, smiling despite the other concerns that he holds in the back of my mind.
"And you? Are you alright? Did you wake up on the mountain too?"
09-06-2016, 11:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-07-2016, 05:28 PM by Lucrezia.)
She would always come home, even now that her home is gone she would. Beqanna was her homeland, her birthplace. It would not feel right if she ever did find herself living the rest of her life in some other place besides here. Yet, Lucrezia could not have helped herself to get away from here sometimes. There were a lot of things that got to her, became too much of a weight upon her shoulders—problems that she needed to sort out, secrets she should not hide, and finding out who she truly was. She needed to figure this out, sooner if it was possible. But, for now, she can only take one day at a time—it’s all she can do.
She watches the giant stallion carefully. Her ears are pointed forward, listening to the words that he says. He doesn’t appear mad but only concerned for her well-being. Lucrezia cannot help but feel sorry for leaving, or ever lying to him about being the father of Rome; however, she knows she cannot tell him now (maybe she might never). Kreios was too good to her. He had always been good to her ever since they were just foals. She was happy to have someone like him, even in this very moment when she needed someone like him.
A soft smile grows on her thin lips. It’s a forced smile but she does not let him see that—her mask of pretend is still good as it always has been when hiding her emotions. “I’m glad to hear that.” She says warmly because she had thought about what happened when she disappeared with Rome and how he would have handled it. “I’m okay.” Lucrezia replies back, her smile slightly fading away. “I did wake up on the mountain. I don’t know why we all did.” She pauses, trying to sort out her thoughts for a moment. “The Deserts was flooded when I came back, and now everything is gone. What’s happening?” She asks, hoping maybe he might have the answers. She has been gone too long.
Home has always been a place of his own choosing. Even when he was an all-but-mute child, weak and bullied by his older twin, Kreios' parents had made it clear that the only loyalty he owed was the loyalty to himself and to those who he swore to protect. Of course, that implied that he would serve a kingdom, because all horses in their family have served kingdoms, but the foundation for his own personal definition of home had been laid long before he was even a weanling.
He had sought sanctuary in the Falls, and then taken its throne as a favor for a friend,. He had held it for love of the people and then love of his queen, and even now, when the physical land is gone he is still tied to his promises to those residents who called him king. It is them that he was looking for when he had stumbled across Lucrezia, and it is to them that he intends to return.
"Beqanna was angry," he says simply, heaving his spotted shoulders in a shrug. And she had every right to be, when even her drowning of Kreios and Lucrezia's childhood home was not enough to stop the greed. "Now, I suppose it is time to rebuild. Or build something new, perhaps." Something new might be better - there are too many wars built on the old ways. "I'm headed to the Mountain," he tells her, "I'm going to ask for a place where we can start again."
09-07-2016, 05:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-10-2016, 10:43 AM by Lucrezia.)
Rebuild—all of them needed to do that. There were many things now that required to be fixed and changed from. This was all of their chance to turn from their dark ways, to find the right path and mend the broken pieces that created this chaotic new world.
She listens carefully to his words because she wants to know things will be okay, and that everything has happened for a reason. Then again, she has always believed everything occurred for a reason and something that was far bigger than her and anyone else could imagine. It was something she could not quite wrap her mind around, but she believes the magic of Beqanna is a part of it in some way, shape or form.
“I can see that She was angry,” Lucrezia lets her eyes spread across the meadow one time. She wonders that the other lands have become, or if they ever will get there. She remembers seeing most of the lands covered by a mist, but beyond that she has no idea what it could be—possibly a home. Her gaze returns back to Kreios, “Yes, it is time for us to rebuild. I hope it will be something good, something we won’t take for granted again.” There was always that possibility, but, for now, there was hope and a future to build and look forward to.
She smiles when he says he is going to the Mountain. However, she doesn’t know entirely what the mountain holds only that it is important and that the magic of Beqanna resides up there entirely (or so it seems when she was up there). “You and those that were in the Falls?” She asks out of curiosity. She knows he was a king before all of this happened, and in some sense he was still their leader. “I hope you and the others get it.” In her heart, she knows he deserves it and would take care of those that he has lead for all this time.
For a moment, Kreios wishes that they were children again.
He had been a quiet colt, rarely speaking for fear of stumbling over his broken mouth, and she has been a foreing princess, the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. The world had been simpler then, when all he needed to worry about was whether or not he'd outrun Kratos or how to best eat the prickly pear without getting a mouth full of thorns.
The spotted horse can almost feel the hot desert sun on his back, but the memory is whipped away as quickly as the icy winter wind flies across his broad back. They are not children anymore, it seems to say. It is time to be an adult.
"Yes," he replies, "The members of what was the Falls." she says she hopes they gets it, and he feels the gulf between them begin to widen. Does she not know she is welcome? That she will always have a place wherever Kreios chooses to rest his head? Even if they had not shared an accidental night of passion and the resulting wonderfully feline son, Lucrezia is still the only reminder of his childhood that remains. His parents are dead, his siblings are dead, the Desert is drowned beneath an endless ocean.
What does he have from then other than Lucrezia?
"Will you not come with us?" He asks.
In spite of it all, she would never wish to be a child again.
Lucrezia had enjoyed the very memories of her childhood. The memories where she had made friends (especially with Kreios, whom she believes will always be her friend until her last day here in this world). However, she would not want to relive in the feelings and moments that was with her family. She would not want to feel those disappointments and question every part of her again. It would all be too much, even the very thought of her past is too much at times.
If anything, she wants to move forward, to keep it all in the past. It was something like this chaotic event in Beqanna that gave her the chance to. Lucrezia cannot let it slip away—she will not this time.
“It will be good then,” she says, “When all of you are together.” She knows she is always welcomed wherever Kreios goes and calls home. She knows he would never leave her without a home if she needed one. But, right now, she doesn’t see herself following him like she wants to. A part of her wants to follow Kreios up to the mountain, to help him restore whatever he had lost—but she doesn’t.
Lucrezia gives him a soft smile, but there is sadness tugging at the corners of it. She doesn’t hide the feel of sadness from him. He deserved something, if anything at all, it was the truth right now (despite the lie of Rome’s true father). “I won’t be,” she says softly. She had never followed him, not even when he left to be a king in the Falls. There is something else that tugs at her heart. Just as the Deserts tugged at her heart to stay when he had left. This time it felt the same. “I will be living in Tephra.” The name sounds strange and foreign to her, but the idea of a new home feels promising to her.
"Tephra," he repeats, the name unfamiliar and puzzling. He's heard it before, knows that it is to the east, near the ocean. Beyond that it is as mysterious as the mists from which it had emerged. Still, he thinks, if Lucrezia has been persuaded to call it home then it must be a fitting place to live.
"I hope you are happy there," He says, the earnestness in his dark eyes genuine. She has never had it easy when it comes to homes, he knows. First the Chamber and then the Desert; Kreios hopes that she is never pushed or driven from Tephra. He considers staying, thinks of asking after Rome and the new home that she has chosen, but he knows that his responsibilities await him on the mountaintop, and he cannot linger.
"I have to go," he begins, taking a a step away though it it otherwise clear he wishes to linger, "though I'd like to come see Tephra someday." And you, he doesn't add, because they both know that that is what he really means. "Stay safe, Lu."
ooc: i didn't know where to go with this but i'll bother you in tephra later 
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