"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
07-04-2017, 07:04 AM (This post was last modified: 07-04-2017, 12:42 PM by Daeryssa.)
“Come on, babe, let’s go for a walk.” Rys brushed her lips along the line of Zur’s shoulder, leaning into him and smiling against his skin. It was a lovely day. Winter had just set in and the snow was falling gently, filtering through the treetops in great puffy flakes that settled onto their skin, caught on their lashes, decorated their hair in soft white. She looked damn good in white, and so did Zur.
With a saucy grin and a flick of her tail against his backside, she started walking, glancing over her shoulder just long enough to wink at him. Oh, he’d follow, no doubt about that. She moved just slowly enough that he could catch up, snorting and glancing back at him again when he did so with a playful nip to her withers. “Mmm.” She hummed softly and swayed into him, pressing smiling lips to the arch of his neck.
She’d almost asked him this fall. If maybe it was time. Not to put what was gone behind them, never that. She still hoped every day for a miracle, that at least one of their loved ones would come home. Or would find them, anyhow, since home was long since devoured by the angry earth. Even though she missed them more than she could ever say, she was so damn glad she had Zur. She still hoped, but she’d grieved for years. Missed them for years, searched for years. And she didn’t have an infinite number of years to waste wondering and wishing and hoping.
So she’d almost asked, when the season came around. If maybe, just maybe, they should start...not over. Not start over, but again. Maybe they should start again. Start living again, beyond the quiet little limbo they’d been dwelling in these last years. Make some beautiful babies, surround themselves with love and laughter and the light in their kids’ eyes instead of the hollow ache of its absence.
But only almost. Before she’d worked her way up to it, the moment had passed for another year. This spring, there would be no little piece of the two of them rounding her belly, making her grumpy, making her snarl, making him look at her with wonder in his eyes and grin and ride out the edge, the anger and frustration and impatience of being so goddamn close to popping it felt like it was gonna kill her. And then changing her life irrevocably when it was finally time.
Changing their lives irrevocably, and absolutely for the better.
Maybe next year.
With a quiet little sigh, Rys pressed her lips to Zur’s jaw, to his throat, and kept walking, her body matching his rhythm as they strolled quietly through the meadow together. She relaxed against him, strolling alongside him the way they’d done so often, for so long now. But this time, the words came out, almost on their own. “Hey, Zur?” she asked softly, finally giving voice to the question that had been on her mind for months. “How would you feel about a baby?”
He walked along her, their sides brushing lightly with every step. His ears flickered back and forth, always checking for something or some one. He wouldn’t stop looking; stop hoping that some day they would all return. But she was distracting and he didn’t mind being distracted either. Her lips finding his neck, pressing kisses to his skin that made a small smile curl his lips. The warmth of her skin on his as they walked as they enjoyed the snow falling down around them wasn’t something he ever took for granted.
Not anymore.
They were lucky. They had each other to get through when the world had imploded around them. When magic had fallen from every branch and breath of air, until there was nothing left but normal. There had been a lingering effect of the most basic things, wings, horns, and his immortality. Those things hadn’t left. He could still feel the very basic magics in his blood stream, but Pazuzu…the lack of magic had drove him away.
The lack of magic had chased him from them, and Arzhur hadn’t been able to stop him. He had been hanging on tight to Rys as the world shook and tremble around them. Until Echo Trails had vanished into the ground and the world that they knew changed.
Until there was nothing left of what they knew.
The following years had been it’s own kind of hell, but they were still here.
They still had each other.
”Hey Zur? Her soft words had his eyes turning towards her. ” How would you feel about a baby?” The words made him stop, his eyes on hers as his mind came up empty. A baby, a piece of them. Like starting over, but not. There was never anyway that any of them could start over, not with their histories. They could continue. They would continue until they found the rest of their hearts. But it could be a little more. It could be more than just the two of them again, even if the thought of any babies made him think about their other babies.
Would Pazuzu and Drow both understand if they did move on? Would they want it? He knew they had been kind of stuck, moving on but not really moving on. Hadn’t Drow and Dara moved on before? And Pazuzu was a survivor….They would be okay with it right?
He finally blinks, the words falling from his lips without a thought. “A baby?” And if he wasn’t the most awkward thing in the world sometimes…. “Like…you and me and a baby?” And even if the thought of one of their own made his heart hurt a little, it also made it full. “A little tiny bundle of baby?” It’s like he’s been waiting for her to say it for years, because a smile curls his lips. Those same lips stretch forwards to rub across the curve of her neck. His legs catching up to her and his lips find her cheek. “Hmm, what will we name it?” A smile still on his lips as his body presses against her own, taking their moment in the cold snow, letting the flakes fall down on their bodies.
Rys’s heart hammered in her chest, pounding away at her ribcage like it was trying to escape while Zur just stood and stared at her. Shit. Shiiit, that was a hard one to take back if he wasn’t on the same page, if he thought it was a terrible idea - but how could he think it was a terrible idea, when it felt so right? She stared right back, meeting dazed eyes the color of the jungle they’d once known and loved so deeply and waiting for...something. Anything. “Zur?”
He blinked, and she started breathing again when he softly asked, “A baby? Like...you and me and a baby? A little tiny bundle of baby?” Oh, just the start of that smile melted away every last trace of uncertainty, and she nodded, matching his smile as he brushed his lips along her neck, her cheek, pressed his body against her and held her close. “Hmm, what will we name it?”
She snorted and glanced up at him, humor lighting her dark brown eyes as she grinned. “Getting a little ahead of yourself there, love, aren’t you? We haven’t even made it yet and you’re already thinking names?” But she pressed her lips against his cheek, trailed her way to the corner of his mouth, and--
“OH, YOU ARE SO, SO PRETTY!”
Whoops, hello there. Rys smiled down at the cute little girl she hadn’t noticed approaching. “Thank you, sweetheart, that’s very kind. You’re pretty darn adorable yourself, you know that?” She glanced around, searching for the girl’s parents, and as the first hint of fire crept around the bend, her heart stopped.
It couldn’t be. It couldn’t, but it was. Her mouth went slack, her eyes wide, and the first hint of tears blurred her vision as the flame went out, leaving that beautiful blood orange coat in its place. “Dare,” he said, those familiar mismatched eyes just as wide as hers.
“Gendry?” Soft, so soft, she barely spoke his name. Her Gendry? Oh, her Gendry! Her very first best friend, her big brother, the one she’d driven Mom crazy sneaking away to play with, fallen asleep tucked up against or nestled between him and his Arrya, oh, it was really him! “Gendry!” She blinked away the tears, let them fall down her cheeks as she ran to him, wrapped herself around him, pulled him into a hug she’d been waiting more than half her lifetime for.
She buried her face in his mane, dragging in shaky breaths and letting the scent of burning and home and Gendry wash over her as her tears fell. When she could pull herself together again, she whispered, “I’ve missed you so, so much, Gendry.” With a long, slow breath, she rubbed her cheeks against him, wiping away the tears, and pulled back to look at him, just to stare at him and drink in the sight for the first time in far too many years. “Gods, it’s good to see you.”
And then the little girl’s words sank in. Yes smiled at her, lowering her head til she was at the girl’s eye level. “Daddy? Ohhh, I guess that would make me your aunt. I’m your daddy’s little sister, Rys. Or, well. Dare, though no one’s called me that in...years.” A soft smile up at Gendry, and then back to his lovely daughter. “And this is your Uncle Zur. It’s nice to meet you, sweetheart. What’s your name?”
He blames the conversation, for missing the crunching sounds of hooves on the snow. Blindsided and yet so excited for the possibility, his mind had not been on the possibility of someone finding them. Talking to others had never been high on their priority of things to do. “Well, we can start practicing now, that way when the time rolls around, we will be ready.” A mischievous smile curls his lips and he leans into her touch.
“OH, YOU ARE SO, SO PRETTY!”
He snorts and turns towards the child, his nose reaching out to sniff her gently. And for a moment recognition struck him, but then it’s gone too fleeting for him to realize who it might have been. His time in the jungle, guarding Quark from herself and from anyone else had been so long ago, he could not remember everything. He could not remember if he had ever met the rest of her children.
Because once he had met Drow, there had been no one else.
And then Rys and Pazuzu fell in love and together they had all raised their children. Now, now the rest of them were gone. Arzhur was not foolish enough to think forever. He did not forget the pure strength Drow had, both in mind and body. Nor did he forget the ability to survive that Pazuzu had. And so he waited, because to him, they would return.
Some day.
The hint of fire on the air, made his eyes narrow slightly and he started to shift his weight over to cover Rys until the other’s voice said a nickname that he hadn’t heard in years. “Dare.” He said, Zur’s eyes falling on the familiar mismatched eyes. Then he smiles. “Gendry?” She says, Zur’s lips reaching to touch her neck lightly before she was on her way to go wrap her big brother up into a big hug. He gives them his moment, sending a small wink towards the little girl when she takes a glance towards him.
His hooves close the small distance between them, but he settles in just behind her. Rys starts to talk to the little girl and when she introduces him, he smiles a little more. His jungle green eyes turning away from the girl to her father. “Arzhur.” He says in greetings, dipping his head just a bit in a small nod.
