"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
01-07-2018, 11:38 PM (This post was last modified: 01-08-2018, 12:29 AM by Bragi.)
Bragi
Time heals all wounds, or at least that's what they say. How much time, though, that is not said. For good reason. Despite himself, his external injuries had long since healed, hastened by Amorette's magic. While the skin of his shoulder was taught and new, it did not ache as it once had. In place of torn and bitten flesh, now was a silvery-pink scar. Yes, his body was next to new. Yet he was constantly plagued with migraines, which he had learned stemmed from the crystalline spire that had been forcing it's way from his skull these last few months. Yet another cruel joke, to be sure. Added to the fact that he still could not see.
In fact, he was giving up hope of ever seeing again. It was a crutch now. His excuse to stay here, to not seek Hod. How could he, when he could barely put one hoof in front of the other without stumbling? It made, sense, didn't it? Not much did anymore, largely due to the fact that he wasn't sleeping hardly at all these days. It was hard, with leering faces and bloodied corpses ready to leap out in his dreams. He was a prisoner of his own mind. And maybe a part of him liked it that way.
There was a spring. It was warm, no matter how cold the air surrounding got. He could spend hours in it, warm and relatively relaxed. It smelled of sulphur, like everything else did here. The scent had become comforting to him. It was sharp, and real. Grounding. It was where he stood now. Belly deep in just tolerably hot water, the gold and pale stallion dozed. He was tired, as usual. Yet, sleep felt miles away.
A yawn stretched his jaw. Warrick lead this land, and he knew he'd have to meet him eventually. He had been living on his land, drinking his water, and eating his grass these long months, after all. But no. He'd been essentially a hermit, visited only occasionally by the one who brought him here. Amorette. He had decided she was beautiful, though he had no way of confirming this. Who else but a beautiful angel would tolerate his changeable moods, his sometimes questionable grasp on reality? He hoped, as he did every day, that today she would visit him. The voices in his head were becoming tiresome company.
She had been as surprised, shocked and scared as he had been. The fire had come out of nowhere, and there hadn’t even been the littlest warning. Back then Amorette hadn’t understood what happened or what had caused it either. Nowadays she knows, but sadly enough Bragi had been the first one on the receiving end.
Though entirely understandable, his reaction had hurt her. Probably not as much as she had harmed the buckskin stallion in return, but it had been a rather big slap into her face. All she had meant was to help him, to be his guide while he learned how to deal with the lack of sight. Instead she had watched him from afar, and little by little she had dared to approach him again.
Today that, thankfully, was all in the past. She had visited him more and more often. Not because she felt obligated to, or because she pitied him, but simply because she liked him. And good natured as she was, Amore was more than happy to offer him her company.
She and Krytpic had found their way towards the sauna. The piebald colt was sound asleep, nestled comfortably in the high grass. From where she stood watching over him – making sure he really was asleep – Amore had spotted Bragi in the hot spring. A last loving nuzzle of Kryptic’s poll and she’s off. She didn’t dare straying away from his side for too long, or too far, but perspective of visiting the buckskin sabino stallion was one she couldn’t ignore.
”Enjoying the hot spring, are we?” she offers in a playful greeting. If he could see, he would’ve seen her lips curling up into a genuine smile. Amorette knows he can’t see it, but she hopes that he can hear it in her voice. She had long ago learned it was best to make her presence known early. Thus she had spoken before she had slipped into the water.
A soft sigh escapes past the barrier of her lips. The hot water always soothed muscles she did not know had been stiff and hurting. Like always, Amore is careful to not approach Bragi too fast or too close, and instead she settles into the spring as if it is the most normal thing in the world. ”How are you today?”
The heat of the jungle barrels down on him unforgivingly, seeping through the thick canopy of the tropical trees and burning onto the broad of his back as he moves swiftly through his home. He keeps moving, despite the fact his increasing heart rate only adds to the sweat that has dampened the auburn of his chest and haunches; the cool breeze he feels against his neck and face as he moves is enough to keep him continuing forward.
Not much gets by Warrick. His eyes are keen and his ears are always twitching, always listening. The minute something is even the slightest bit out of place from the normality, he is there in a heartbeat. This is much the same for today as he moves along the border of Tephra, nostrils twitching as he realizes that he is not alone in the humidity of Tephra. One scent is familiar and it creates a smile on the darkened navy of his lips, and the other is somehow different, and his smile fades into one of contemplation, trying to place a face in his mind.
Without hesitation, the Overseer has changed his course, trotting briskly through the humid jungle and into the open plains, streaked with magma rivers as well as hot springs, fed by the volcano that looms before him. He is not surprised that Amorette is once again near its base, but is the other that he comes upon that causes his brows to twitch upwards in curiosity. When he arrives, the two are belly-deep in one of the warm rivers, and both look extremely content in their relaxed state. He did not know the man next to Amorette, and slight look of concern finds his eyes (it always does), for he does not wish for Amorette to be in any ill-will. But she is calm and relaxed beside the buckskin, so Warrick remains stoic and gentle despite the questioning look in his eye that he gives Amorette. His feathers rustle at his sides as his wings reset themselves, bristling slightly.
“Amorette,” he greets her with a bob of his head (he had told her to bring him new faces, the broken and forgotten, for in Tephra they will be anything but - maybe this is one of them) and he then slides his bright blue gaze towards the stranger, nickering softly. “Who is your friend?”
01-15-2018, 12:48 AM (This post was last modified: 01-15-2018, 12:49 AM by Bragi.)
Bragi
A boyish smile lifted the dozing man's features. These long months without vision had gifted him with an unexpected compensation. Hearing sharpened beyond its previous scope alerted him to the cautious steps that precluded Amorette's arrival. A lurch of guilt played low in his chest, regretting that his insecurity had made such loud approaches necessary.
The sweet mare's unfailing kindness was even more marked against his sometimes gruff and defensive demeanor. Their relationship, dare he call it friendship?, had grown from rocky beginnings. She had only been trying to help. He had realized that too late, lost in the foggy place where memory and reality confused their borders. She had left him in a safe place and had not visited again for some time. Frankly, he had been amazed she had ever deigned to approach him again after their first meetings' violent outlashing. But she had, and he had been given enough time that he was no longer entirely trapped in the past. It had been a beginning.
Her soft voice carried to him over the surface of the balmy pool, followed by the gentle sounds of the water shifting to accommodate her. Stepping to the side just slightly, enough to stand close but not touch, the painted man let loose a sigh of contentment. "Enjoying it, yes. Nearly as much as I enjoy your company." He replied, feeling that this was to be a particularly good day. His head hardly ached at all in the mineral humidity of the spring, and with Amorette's arrival, he felt more like his old self than he had in ages. Shaking his head so that fine droplets flew from the tips of his deep brown mane, the goldenrod stallion considered her next question.
"You know, I think I'm actually doing well? Still not sleeping much, but the dreams haven't been as intense. I haven't been as anxious. I haven't felt this good in a long time. How are you?" He concluded, half-smiling a little to the left of the woman. A sudden unfamiliar rustling only a little ways off takes his attention quickly. It is large and decisive, whatever it is. At once, he surges from the spring, shedding a curtain of water as he moves. It is instinctive, to place himself between the fire-woman and this potential threat, to brandish his half grown horn warily towards whatever has come across them. Amorette. It is not his tongue that speaks her name. The voice is deep, masculine, and the question it holds is clear. Who is this, and what is he to you?
Did she have a mate? He did not know. It was a subject they had not discussed, had not felt it necessary. Why would it be, when their relationship had been more healer and patient than anything? And yet a pang of jealously struck him quietly. If this was in fact her mate, he could not see the strange man being overly tolerant of Amorette's visits, even as innocent as they were. Was he about to lose his only friend?
For all his posturing, he knew that without his sight, it was only a bluff. Blowing out a heavy breath, he relaxed his pose just a bit. Let Amorette speak, perhaps she would answer the questions now burning in his mind. .
His hostile reaction hadn’t scared her away. For a while she had just watched him afar, made sure he was okay. She had been scared and hurt too, but had stubbornly told herself that she didn’t had the right to be. Bragi was the one and only victim here.
Luckily, from there on things had only gotten better. Each time Amorette had dared to get a little closer, until they reached the point of comfortable friendship. The buckskin stallion looks much better nowadays. He is more sure of his movements, less spooked too, but from time to time the dark woman can still see
Nonetheless it is good to hear he is enjoying his little break. It meant that he was doing well till a certain point at least. ”Oh hush” she murmurs, laugh filling the air soon after. Amore reaches out to gently nip at his shoulder, making sure the sound of the moving water is enough to signal her approach. ”It’s good to hear you’re doing well. You look much better too.” That wasn’t a really hard thing to achieve, but an achievement nonetheless. The same can be said about the way he suddenly positions himself between her and Warrick.
Amorette had seen Tephra’s king coming, and nodded at him with a smile. She’d intended to introduce the two stallions to each other, but Bragi’s sudden protectiveness had beat her to it. She blinks her dark eyes at him a couple of times, before offering Warrick an apologetic smile as she steps forward. ”It’s okay, Bragi” she tells him, her voice light and warm, yet she is not unable to completely hide her amusement and the fact that she’s secretly flustered by his gesture. For a moment she stands beside the buckskin, her muzzle lightly touching his shoulder lightly, hopefully to make him understand things are really okay.
Then she moves forward, in favour of greeting Warrick by offering him her nose. ”Good afternoon, Warrick” she greets him, smile upon her features. She offers the same smile to Bragi as she turns to look at him, though she knows he cannot see it. ”Warrick, this is Bragi. He washed up on Tephra’s beach..” in a pretty bad shape, but that wasn’t her story to tell. Her eyes move from her new friend to her old one, and she cannot help it but to be a bit anxious. Curious to see how it would go too. ”Bragi, let me introduce you to Warrick, Tephra’s Overseer.” Or king, or however he wanted to call himself.
The stallion beside her immediately moves to occupy the space between Warrick’s position on the shore and Amorette’s position in the warm spring. The gesture surprises Warrick, and his brows rise curiously as he pulls his head towards himself, ears flicking back casually. He perhaps has stumbled upon an intimate moment between the two, but the bay-winged stallion watches the bronzed stranger with a pensive, gentle stare as he tries to place why he would react to his presence in such a way. It does not take Warrick long to notice that the man, who remains unnamed until Amorette gently introduces him, can hear the rustling of his great wings and the sound of his voice, but his eyes do not meet Warrick’s steely blue gaze despite his strong demeanor and obvious intent to do so. The man is blind, and Warrick would be shocked if he did not react the way that he did by putting himself between Amorette and whatever stands upon the shore.
It impresses him, and the look in Warrick’s eyes shows it.
The way Amorette touches his shoulder - a tender gesture, however fleeting - Warrick wonders if this is the ‘patient’ she had spoken about to him on the volcano, where she learned of her healing powers. It would make sense - their closeness, the protectiveness. He smiles at Amorette as she stretches from the warmth of the waters to bump noses with him in greeting, meeting her halfway and returning the gesture. His ears prick forward as she introduces him to the buckskin - Bragi - and briefly explains his way of arrival. A chuckle reverberates in his chest, his chin bobbling amusedly. “Welcome, Bragi,” he tells the man with a light and warm voice (one that hopefully he would learn to recognize). “Tephra has an odd way of choosing her residents. She has brought you here for a reason - and Amorette has not chased you out, so you must belong here in some way.”
The Overseer is smiling boldly at him, despite his inability to see him. “Are you looking to stay here, with us, Bragi?”
Amorette's lack of alarm went far to assure him of their safety, compounded by the new knowledge that it was none other than Warrick who stood before them now. Letting out a gusty breath, his stance relaxed the rest of the way. He cast about slightly with his ears, trying to pinpoint just where the land's leader was standing. Fixing his unseeing eyes more or less in the vicinity of Warrick's shoulder, he bobbed his head decorously.
"My apologies. You move rather quietly, and I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if something had attacked and I had done nothing." His words held a dark edge, hinting at past regret. Shaking the bleak look from his expression, he gestured in Amorette's general direction. "Yes, Amorette has been a kindness. I owe her much..." The words trailed off. A hesitant smile played on his lips, as he considered just where he'd be right now if the healer had not taken him on. A wandering madman, or simply dead on some beach seemed the most likely outcomes. Instead, he was here. And here was a place he wanted to stay. Deep in his heart, there was a thread of self loathing. Facing himself seemed an impossible task at the moment. As long as he couldn't do that, there was no way he believed he would be able to face his little brother. It dug like a thorn in his soul, but his bravery simply did not extend that far currently. So when Warrick asked if here was where he wished to stay, the answer was an easy one.
"Yes, I am." The buckskin man answered simply. It was nothing more and nothing less than what he desired at that moment. A place to stay, to be safe, to belong. For the last year, that was a question that had plagued him more than most. His youth had been spent on the run. This last year had been a maelstrom of emotion and violence, internal and external. What Warrick offered was security and an identity that Bragi had slowly been discovering he was missing. This volcanic land seemed well matched to the roiling emotions the bronze man still experienced. In the occasional growling of the volcano, he heard his own voice, the heat the earth echoed his own temper. Bowing his head solemnly, the crystalline point of his horn grazing the rich soil at his feet, Bragi tacitly waited on the other man's approval. Ceremony helped his state of mind. Clear rules kept the chaos of the world at bay, and so it was perhaps a bit overly formal of him to react so. Even still, he promised himself, that should Warrick choose to let him remain, and in particular if his sight ever return to him, he would dedicate himself to this kingdom with unmatched passion.
@[Warrick] @[Amorette] Sorry for the sloppy word vomit >.>
How could she have chased him out? Bragi had – sadly enough – been the perfect example of what Tephra could offer. What Tephra could be, and what Amorette would like to see Tephra become. It wasn’t her kingdom, but thus far she and Warrick had been on the same line. Something the ebony woman hoped wouldn’t change.
He proves it hadn’t. His words make her laugh softly, and she gently bumps her muzzle against his shoulder. ”Oh hush” she murmurs. She feels comfortable around him, and it shows, but Bragi shows the same promise of familiarity. If he would decide to stay in Tephra of course. Honestly, it was the automatic conclusion she had made, just like Warrick said: Tephra had brought Bragi here.
It doesn’t stop her from smiling when the buckskin male confirms he is looking to stay. Amore glances in Warrick’s direction, clearly content with his decision and agreeing that this must be Tephra’s doing, but after a quick brush of her muzzle against his she steps towards Bragi again. It feels a little as to dance between and with two different males, but well yeah, that’s who she is. ”Welcome to Tephra, Bragi. May you love her as much as we do” she officially welcomes him, slowly extending her muzzle towards him even though he cannot see her. She hopes her warm breath against his skin is enough for him to notice her being close, but if not, that would be her own mistake.
