"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
06-06-2017, 03:36 PM (This post was last modified: 06-26-2017, 03:32 PM by Radiant.)
build me up from bones, wrap me up in skin hold me close enough to breathe me in
She dreams even when she is wide awake.
The bright summer sun tries to steal her sight, so she closes her eyes and keeps her thoughts spinning. Against her tightly pressed eyelids, against a backdrop of pure white light, Radiant takes herself somewhere else. She shivers as the snow falls gently on her back, despite the humidity of a Tephran day. It piles up quickly, filling the few nooks and crannies of her youthful body that haven’t already curved and smoothed out. The tarnished rust of her sleek hide becomes hidden beneath a cozy snowsuit. She smiles when the fast-falling flakes land on her lashes, her lips – she has been transported to the Tundra of her mother’s stories, a daughter of ice and snow.
In the distance, a polar bear’s growl dissipates in a yawning cave (the wave stretches thin on the shore in front of her, rattles the shells; this sound she has no audible counterpart to make pretend for). She thinks she would be brave enough to meet the mammoth mammal, given the chance. Or at least, she would love to see the creature from a safe distance, to study its massive paws and slow, ambling gait. Father had described them in such detail that they were more like memories than musings. Of course, father describes every bit of flora and fauna he comes across – she has been well-schooled in plenty she hasn’t yet experienced herself.
The mind-game grows long as she hears the splash of the penguins in the frigid water (the dolphins race along the coast) and walks through ankle-high, freshly fallen snow (the sand pulling at her feet, sinking her deeper into the land with each step). Finally, her white blanket melts from her shoulders and is replaced by the all too familiar cloak of sulfurous, sticky air.
Radiant opens eyes like chipped amber, stares across the waves and sighs. Oh, how she wishes she had enough snow and ice to cover this land! Maybe her parents would be happier, then, maybe they’d come back. But she is not strong enough, not yet. Maybe not ever. The yearling allows the tightness in her chest a moment longer before turning away, leaving her worry with the sea. She breathes in clean air and smiles a little because it will be all right. It always is. Besides, she always has her dreams.
something has been taken from deep inside of me; the secret I've kept locked away no one can ever see.
He, too, dreams of winter – of the gentle caress of a frigid zephyr, tangling itself within his thick, matted mane, and of the fragile crystals of ice that linger across the stillness of his skin, numb and glacial from somewhere deep within. The ice, too, had been a part of him, with its arctic grasp seizing some unseen piece of him, entangling with his very spirit, his soul, and his physical embodiment. The ice had been solace to him; a comforting numbness that had drawn him out of his woeful reverie, and out of his self-loathing – it had breathed new life into him; it had soothed the aching wound of loss, of heartache, of a life not lived to its fullest.
But now, where ice had once been, fire now burned, leaving him longing for days long gone, lost to the ether of his memory. The thick, unyielding humidity of an unforgiving summer is heavy on his skin, but as the warmth of a flickering ember smolders within him, he is altogether unbothered by it. Beads of sweat linger along the slope of his broad back, and there are darkened streaks of its salty brine along his sides, staining the surface of his dark skin – but he is unmoved. It no longer stirs bitterness, but rather, indifference.
And still, the fire burns brightly – while his mind ruminates on memories that were only that: memories.
He is drawn to the sea, though he does not know why – perhaps the sweltering heat has stirred him from his reverie, or perhaps there is something else, pulling him away from the pooling lava at the rooted curve of the mountain – but nonetheless, his heavily muscled legs carry him to it, and he is soothed by the gentle ocean breeze that touches his skin upon his descent. The deafening roar of the stirring waves quiets his wayward thoughts, and his eyes peer towards the churning waters, but only for a moment.
He is moved, instead, towards a slim, petite figure lingering along the shore; she is young, caught between the lankiness of her youth and the developing curves of her feminine adulthood. Her skin is touched by rust, reminding him of someone from his past, someone he longed to see again. Quietly, his behemoth form sidles alongside her, stealing a glance to her wistful expression before casting his gaze out towards the seemingly endless sea.
”The ocean is a small reprieve from the summer heat,” he muses aloud, thoughtfully. ”my name is Offspring. What is yours?”
wounds so deep they never show; they never go away. like moving pictures in my head, for years and years they've played.
Summer swelters around them in all its humid glory. The sun shines its brightest upon them, warming the entirety of Beqanna with its merciless rays. For Tephra, with its volcanic core and steamy, lush greenery, it only becomes more intense. More thick with heat and endless mist. For a snow lover like Fox, it is positively soupy.
Fortunately, he carries winter with him, the only relief to this blessed heat. Still, even with its dampening effects and ability to melt his snow and ice far too rapidly, it is hard to depress the eternally buoyant spirits of the young red stallion. So it should come as no surprise that he can be found bounding across the crisscrossing streams of lava, flaring red amongst the black, as he makes his way towards the nearby sea.
His burnished copper coat is slick with sweat and water, the effects of his varied attempts to cool himself. Despite this, his eyes glitter with delight and his steps abound with energetic enthusiasm. For a spare moment, he doesn't notice the pair of figures standing along the shore not too distant from him. When he does however, recognition is nearly instantaneous.
A wide, contagious grin growing upon his lips, he ambles towards them in a surprisingly leisurely manner. But then, even he can't always have endless supplies of energy.
As he nears, the similarities between he and his younger sister are immediately apparent. Indeed, they could have been twins were it not for the year difference in their ages. The rusty color of their coats are almost identical in shade, the amber of their eyes a near replica of their sire. And their similarities do not end there.
In one respect though, he had grown quite different. His own frame had become more solid, the gangliness of youth giving way to the broad musculature of a young stallion.
“Hellooo!” he greets brightly, as he comes to a halt on the other side of his sister, beaming gaze roaming across the newly crowned king before settling on his youngest sibling with a wink. “Fine day, isn't it? Although I do say it would be finer were it not quite so, er, wet. Shouldn't be wet if it's not raining.” He pauses, chuckling at his own (admittedly rather lame) joke. “Easily enough fixed though, I should say.” Abruptly a flurry of snow surrounds them, cooling the air in the immediate vicinity, catching the breeze off the water and turning it a tad chillier. “Can't do much about the wet, I'm afraid, but helps with the heat.”
In the brief silence that follows, Offspring’s question registers, and for a moment, he has the wherewithal to look a bit chagrined. “Didn't mean to interrupt, my friend.” With a grin, he turns to Radiant before continuing. “How've you been, sis? Been too long.”
06-20-2017, 12:51 PM (This post was last modified: 06-26-2017, 03:09 PM by Dianna.)
build me up from bones, wrap me up in skin hold me close enough to breathe me in
The ghost of a smile still haunts her lips when he comes.
The wind brings him – or seems to, anyway – ushering the dark horse on its equally dark-smelling breeze. She is used to it. They are all used to the exotic fragrance emanating from their sentinel volcano, spewing out and cascading down into the valley, down into their very pores. He is like the very essence of it, though, when he approaches her. He is like the molten mountain himself, shaking the earth with his steps and smelling like its core.
She doesn’t mind the reminder of what she has turned her back on.
Radiant grows her sweet smile in his company, circles back to face the ocean once more so that they look out across its frothy swells together. It is enough to disappear for a while in her mind, to sort and stack and admire her dreams like snowmen before barreling them down and facing reality. She is not made to be invisible forever, though. The reality is that she is largely alone, her parents having either retired on the shores of Elsewhere or taken off on an adventure without sorting out the family details first. Either idea is as likely as the other. Their daughter misses them terribly, but she is ready to fill the voids their absence causes. She is ready to step out a girl grown, a young woman in the making. She only wishes she knew where to begin.
“I’m – “
Before she can answer the volcano-man, a familiar voice pulls her attention away. He is bigger, broader - age has worked wonders on the gangly boy she once knew so that she hardly recognizes him now. But then, she would know that buoyant grin anywhere. “Foxy! I’ve missed you so much.” She says brightly, abandoning her previous stoicism in favor of her true self (a happy girl grown on rich, enduring love). She forgets, momentarily, that she is meant to be older, act older. Youthfulness relinquishes her brother’s nickname in the air before she can stifle it. Soon, she is as chagrined as Fox.
“Pardon. I’m Radiant. It is a pleasure to meet you, Offspring.” There, manners shown and outburst forgiven, she hoped. She also hopes she hasn’t embarrassed her brother too much as it seems the two know each other rather well. Fox showers them with snow, and the spray of it off the ocean makes her eyes fill with merriment and mist. Radiant nearly forgets her transgression. She dances easily in place, puts her face into the cool, briny wind and breathes in winter’s magic. Each flake that lands and melts on her rust-red skin spurs her onward in joy – and outward. Happiness becomes another cloak that she wears. But instead of shedding it, it seems to grow larger around her, snag on the other two as it expands. She laughs, the sound like frosted bells ringing across the waves. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
Radiant
ooc: She is unknowingly using her happiness induction on both of them. Just ignore it if you don't want to be affected by it!
