"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
09-03-2016, 12:24 PM (This post was last modified: 09-03-2016, 03:23 PM by Ruan.)
Ruan
Ruan could feel his new limbs as they seemed to stretch on instinct in response to his galloping speed. His pace was panicked and driven, a need so deep it surprised him. Like a madness, he could think of nothing but finding her, the one he could sense within him. The air wrapped around his fresh appendages, lifting his hooves from the ground naturally.
He growled and forcefully pinned them at his sides. The pale white wings covered his plum-colored spots, tipped in the same black that covered his legs and face, his hair. He hadn't asked for these, but they had been bestowed as if one day his life may depend on it. As if the magic Mother was blessing him somehow after ripping away the power he once commanded. He glared and continued his race across the land, going to the last place he had seen his companion. He had to find her.
"REAGAN!", he bellowed as he came to a rough, sudden halt.
Frustration lifted him into a challenging rear, his new wings pumping the air in a torrential current, and he screamed. His eyes were hard has he landed heavily with a loud THUMP, no longer cool and glacial. Now they were warmed and dark like the surface of a summer lake deep within the valley he had once lived in. Dead and sullen.
now don’t you understand…that I’m never changing who I am?
Her eyesight had returned. Barely.
She had woken up to find that she was alone in a lake of Ruan’s making—moreover, the melting that had created the lake that used to be the ice wall of Ruan’s making—and she had tried getting up, stumbling like a drunkard or someone coming off the largest high in their lifetime. She hiccupped, tripped over her own knees, and silently whispered a Hail Mary before trudging off to look for something—anyone.
What she knew, more than anything else right now, was that she was weak, and vulnerable. She had none of her abilities to recommend her, but she at the moment was unaware that the same had occurred in the rest of the lands surround here. That her beloved Forbidden Dale (a place she had meant to go back and visit), and the precious Jungle women she had known and loved were gone. It was all gone, and there was no getting any of it back.
She swerved, nearly hitting a rock, as she stumbled on, groping about for any sense of clarity as to where… or when, she was. Had she imagined this whole thing? Had she imagined Ruan? Had her body relieved itself of her abilities by sheer fact of her own arrogance? She stopped, gaped her mouth wide open, and, not knowing what else to do, she cried, barely hearing the echoing sound of her own name being screamed above the fog. She just felt so alone.
09-03-2016, 04:13 PM (This post was last modified: 09-03-2016, 06:08 PM by Ruan.)
Ruan
The thread on his soul tugged, and his wide-eyed gaze swiveled in its direction. He whuffed softly, hopeful. Scents vacuumed through open nostrils, desperately trying to find hers.
In the distance, he heard the call ring out for former Valley residents. But, this he had to do first.
Ruan shuffled into action once more, his hooves flashing across the grasses in a rush. This time, he did not deny the bird-like limbs their movement. With a bound he was in the air, keeping as low as a treetop's grasp. His wings curled and bent below him with wild abandon, carrying him to a greater speed than he could otherwise manage and flashing back up like unfurling sails. Were he not so focused, he may have awed at his ability to use them so naturally. But he had only one thing on his mind.
Reagan.
His heart warmed as he drew nearer, sensing the spirit that remained lodged within him, pulling him where he needed to go. He didn't have to look; he knew she was here. Then he could see her, the angel of his soul. Relief filled him. Her beautiful soft grey plush looked haggard and worn as she stumbled about. His eyes hardened, silently cursing the Mother of magic for stealing him from her side.
Ruan angled his wings and cupped them, slowing his trajectory to the ground and easing his hind legs first as he landed and continued a gallop in one fluid movement. Feathers curved with his his ribs as he pulled them in.
He did not stop til he was upon her, crashing his head against her damp coat, nuzzling everywhere he could reach; yet another unbidden touch he didn't bother asking permission to give. He didn't care if she denied him, he would take it while he had the chance. This was a friendship he would always hold dear, especially when he could feel her within his very spirit.
"Reagan.." he sighed her name, unimaginably relieved to have finally found her. Safely returned to her.
now don’t you understand…that I’m never changing who I am?
Her heart—or was it his?—leapt at the thought that he would come find her. Reagan’s vision was still continually returning, and her coordination was slowly becoming what it was. But she found that she was not the same. The concept of living forever seems great until you realize that you no longer have that ability—and then it scares you to death.
Reagan’s attitude was thus, and she continued to pray in her head, her ears constantly pivoting for signs of familiar life, leading her through the senses of smell and hearing, as her vision was currently failing her.
All of a sudden, her name, close and intimate, followed by the touch of a male she found her body—her heart—craved. And she lost all coordination. She leaned on him and allowed his body to hold her weight, clutching at the one sense of familiarity in this new apocalypse. “Ruan…” she gasped, her chest heaving with the simultaneous thudding of both his and her hearts clamoring in her chest. “I thought you left me…” her voice was high pitched, squeaky, like the sound of a lost and frightened little girl. Of course, the slight sense of madness drove her on, and was currently all she was able to do to be able to cope with her loss of magical abilities. “I thought you didn’t love me anymore…”
Doubts still plagued him. He wasn't sure what this was between them. Something sudden, but powerful. Forced, but sublime. He found he ached to be at her side when he was away. His heart couldn't beat how it should without her presence. She had always been beautiful to him, but now she was the very air he needed to breathe. He couldn't be anywhere else if he wanted to. Did she feel it too?
She wouldn't need him anymore when her magic returned. He'd be useless to her. What would she do then?
He took in her scent eagerly as he nuzzled against her. Savoring all he could while he had her. He'd been starved of her presence, and he couldn't get enough. His heart flipped and soared when she leaned her weight into him, sweeping away his doubts for the time being. And when she said his name..
Ruan could hardly contain himself. He pushed harder against her without thinking, his soul trying to be with hers as it had before. "I thought you left me.." He pinched his eyes shut at her words, her tone. It hurt him that he'd left her when she needed him, wanted him around. He hadn't had a choice, but still he felt the guilt as if he'd walked away without a word or final glance.
I'm so sorry.. he thought desperately, his tongue tied with shame.
"I thought you didn't love me anymore.."
His heart broke..
But he stiffened at that word. Love. It was such a powerful word. One he hadn't used even with family, though Morigan of course knew he loved her. When he'd said it as a child, he could almost feel a magic tying his heart to his mother, wild and powerful. Irrevocable. Enslaving him to her well-being, her actions, for better or worse.
Did he love her? Could she know that he did before he knew it?
He was afraid to.
So the coward stayed his tongue, and only whispered "I'm so sorry, Reagan.. I am here now."
now don’t you understand…that I’m never changing who I am?
She pushed against him, the words he says to her muffled from the way they are wrapped around each other like lovers. But is that what they were? The way Reagan felt his heart beating inside her, she knew that that is what had occurred between them, whether or not she liked it. But she found that she loved it. Being able to finally shed the weight of her sins, and simply be, was something she was finding was an exhilarating feeling. She was still upset, the tears rolling from her emerald green eyes down her cheeks. She wiped the hair from her face using his shoulder the best she could, pulling away just slightly to face him, noting that he’d flinched when she’d said the word love.
She blinked, her lashes shuttered over her eyes, which were, she firmly believed, the windows to the soul. She squared him up, and tilted her head, her lost little girl voice forgotten, wondering if now was the right time to tell him, at the end of all things, exactly what had occurred in the shadow of that mountain. Breathing, she decided to take a chance…
To calm his fears, his doubts, and put her trust in him.
“Back there…in the vortex. We became one. Our hearts… they merged. Close your eyes and feel… Surely you can feel something else inside you… besides what is yours.”
09-04-2016, 01:41 PM (This post was last modified: 09-04-2016, 01:44 PM by Ruan.)
Ruan
He sighed gratefully as she returned his affection and pressed herself into him more. They crushed his damned unwanted wing, the thing huge and unwieldy, but he ignored it. He couldn't help but desire her to want him as much as he wanted her. And he did. More than a friendship, he realized belatedly. But did that mean something as great as love?
His shoulder tugged the hair from her tear-streaked eyes as she brushed against him purposely. The glittering drops still falling clenched his heart. He wanted nothing more than to calm the storm in her clouded eyes. Could she see him yet? Could she see how much he wanted her? He feared what she might think of him when she saw it there in his eyes, glinting with a hunger not at all sated by grazing.
She peeled away from him, straightening. Standing so direct and precisely, he could see this was going to be a serious topic. He found he was afraid of those from her, not wanting to ever be the thing or person to upset her.
"Back there.." she said, "in the vortex. We became one."
Ruan nodded slowly. He had felt that had happened, but wasn't sure if it was only him. So she had felt it too? Did she also feel this driving need?
"Our hearts... they merged. Close your eyes and feel... Surely you can feel something else inside you... besides what is yours."
He did close his eyes then, but he didn't have to; he could always feel it. That presence within him since their magical pairing had been a beacon, so bright. It was impossible not to acknowledge it. Not to crave more of it. His spirit curled around it, cradled it so lovingly.
That perfect piece of him that wasn't even his.
Ruan could stand the distance no more. With confirmation this wasn't all in his mind he was emboldened. He shifted back to her side. His borrowed wing stretched out above her and draped across her back. Tucking it around her in a strange sort of hug, he pulled their bodies back together roughly, needing as much of her skin on his as he could manage. His gentle touch was gone as a feral flame blazed within him, pushing his velvet nose against her jaw then nipping at her graceful neck.
He tried to ignore the last burning question within him. Too afraid of the answer.
now don’t you understand…that I’m never changing who I am?
He says nothing. Just drops his wings over his back as if it were a cloak, the comfort that came from only one other in her entire life. She was normally the one who would be standing alone, forever the pillar of strength, not needing anyone; never trusting anyone. And yet at this juncture, she was not sure she even trusted herself with the emotions she was feeling towards Ruan. Her love was definitely charged by the magic that no longer existed within her; and yet the physical presence as a side effect was something that could not be ignored; and could not be remedied, either.
She was afraid to cry any longer—she wanted to him to say something. This was not the side of herself she was familiar with seeing. She was the strong woman; the foreign affairs woman who had the ability to topple Kingdoms; and had. To be the lovesick teenage girl, not remembering to say her prayers and instead making out in the confession box… this was not her. She was ages older than him, and yet, her heart was indiscriminately his.
Probably for life.
So, as she shifted against him, she knew what he wanted her to say. But Reagan had never been a very good listener.
She would make him come to her, and not the other way around. This was not a game for children, and she was not a child with a teenage crush. This was a matter of remembering who she was, and wondering if the one she had chosen could keep up with her, and had the masculinity within himself to prove it.
09-04-2016, 05:19 PM (This post was last modified: 09-06-2016, 07:28 AM by Ruan.)
Ruan
She did not return his touch, his passion. He stilled, retreated slowly. His eyes cooled as he studied her. Had he pushed too hard? He had not misread her signals, her words. He could feel part of her within him. What she'd explained had further confirmed it. What did she require of him?
He knew her. Her life, her love, her mistakes and regrets. All of her. She'd given these. He knew her. But he did not know her mind in the present. Could not possibly know it.
She didn't know his thoughts either.
He smiled, parted from her side again to see her better, and bumped her chin playfully. This quiet sullen queen was not his Reagan. "Hey," he said gently. "You know how fast I ran -flew!- to get back to you?"
He did. He remembered how frantic he'd been to return to her. How he could feel that little part of her spirit guiding him back. Where, just maybe, he belonged. He still had doubts, uncertain how genuine this was with them, but he tried to keep them buried. Time would prove them true or false.
"I do feel you," he confessed. "And I could think of nothing but getting back here to you. I had to be certain you were safe."
He was slowly accepting the effects of the magic, the burst that overloaded her so badly she'd temporarily lost her sight. She'd been so powerful. Even without her magic, she felt powerful. She was regal, and wise. And he just a foolish pup romping in her shadow.
He could feel her within him. And he always wanted to.
now don’t you understand…that I’m never changing who I am?
She wrapped around Ruan like a warm cashmere sweater, grey and plush and perfect. There was something about the way she became someone else entirely when she was with him that put her mind at rest—she was finally able to be someone other than the diplomat. The Irish woman, in all her age, was able to finally be a girl. She smiled slightly—or was it seductively—when he mentions his new additions—his wings—and his attempt to fly fast to get back to her. She stepped back, swished her tail, and took his wing in her mouth and flapped it for him, the strength of her physical body returning now that her vision had finally returned to her in full. She bounded around him to his other side, giving his full profile the side eye with a glint of emerald looking at him, before speaking in an Irish accent thick with flirtation.
“I dare say that they suit you. I was never a fan of wings myself. Too heavy and wieldy. Never good for a fight—or for war.” But still, she fluffed them up and snuggled in against him. “Though now I see where they could have great advantages.” she winked at him and trotted off, moving away from him with a slight giggle, almost begging him to follow her.
She had to have a discussion with him about her future—their future, if that is what he chose—but for now, she put aside her fears of her powers and her religion, she allowed herself to relax into Ruan and allow him to become the confident male he more than likely was before she had come along and changed everything.
Feeling his heart beating within her, she only hoped that was possible.
