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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    fault lines tremble underneath my glass house; anyone
    #1
    The piebald kelpie has done a rather spectacular job of avoiding the Brotherhood for the past three years.
     
    His success is due mostly to two things: the shrinking activity of the Krakens and Ivar’s careful avoidance of the one creature in Beqanna that he does not want to cross. While Ivar still holds that in a fair fight he would be victorious, he is also fond of his own skin and does not desire a rematch with the Ischian king.
     
    He had heard the summons, felt the message that the magician gave to all the residents of their tropical land. He’d also seen the herd of purple where it huddled on the shores of not-distant Island Resort, and tasted the water between Nerine and the frozen northern island enough to know that some of the women have fled to safety. He is uncertain what the rest of Beqanna is doing, but the kelpie is not afraid of a plague.
     
    Foolish, perhaps, but truthful.
     
    The sapphire blue, gold, and white creature stands in the shallows of the northernmost lake on the main island. This is not a place he has been before, and with the shift of the worlds he wonders if anyone has. With the last colors of Brennen’s mental message refusing to fade, the kelpie plunges his head beneath the water. There, with eyes closed and water stream from the gills along his neck, he is able to clear his head. A minor ache remains, but at least all he sees is his own reflection surrounded by the impossibly blue sky.
     
    A crack in the undergrowth behind him is a second warning of someone’s approach. His ears had already swiveled backwards at the scent, but now he turns to look over his shoulder.
    Reply
    #2
    When Krom had left the meeting in Tephra, with his sights set on Ischia, she had lingered with her youngest sibling.  Koves friend had not shown at the gathering and the girl was outwardly worried.  Karat was quick to escort her away from those planning to restructure the land and it would be only a matter of time before her brother no longer held power there.

    After searching into the night, Snout appeared unscathed and in good health.  She was glad all was well and left her sister to be with her friend.  Her own worries found her and images of the island appeared in her vision.  Brennen had a message for all who regarded Ischia their home. And even though Tephra was their home, the island was still a large part of them.

    Gathering herself, she pushed on towards the North.  In the darkened world only the reflection of the white light above led her to where water met the rocky shores.  Her lavender tinted body plunged into the oceans cool embrace and with all her strength, she paddled to the illuminated shoreline of her birthplace.

    Upon arriving she climbs on to the beaches, water flowing from her amethyst locks and spilling onto the ground.  Each stride brings her towards the palm tree littered lands.  Her nares flare to draw the fresh tropical air into her lungs.  For the first time in a long while, a smile breaks across the mares maw.

    Her path continues on up the coast, silver-lavender eyes watch the bioluminescent glow from the sea creatures.  She had missed this.  She had missed her home...

    Ooc: hello again >:]
    Reply
    #3
    It takes a moment because they share so many similarities, but Ivar remembers Karat.

    He knows her name only because of the command given to her by a horse made entirely of metal, one that looked enough like her that Ivar assumed that he too was a part of the Coveling clan for all his hair was emerald not amethyst. He had certainly been possessive enough of her, though as Ivar’s golden eyes flick behind her into the shadows of the tropical woods, he is quite certain that she is actually alone.

    The lagoon in which Ivar stands is tepid and still, too far from the ocean for the kelpie to feel truly at ease. He is a creature of the open seas and no tideless pool – regardless of depth – has ever been enough for him. This is unfamiliar territory, and the kelpie is cautious.

    Ivar smiles in recognition, though he does take a while to do so, careful assessing the purple-haired creature as she comes ever nearer.

    “Do you have family here too?” He asks her, recalling her reasoning behind visiting the Taiga when they had first met.  

    @[Karat]
    Reply
    #4
    She begins to move inland, instinct leading her through the tangles of vine.  It was much to dark to know just what her hooves made contact with, but a twig snaps under her weight.  Alerting any that she was here.

    Obviously her stealth needed work and she puts that to note for further development.  She wasn't attempting to hide from anyone but it had been some time since she last heard anything of the island or it's inhabitants.  One can never be too careful when crossing borders.

    She still as a break in the jungle comes just ahead.  Her silver eyes and greyed body do little to completely camoflauge her here, even in darkness.  Lavender ears rotate when she here's a trickling of water and nothing more.  Assuming she is alone, she moves forward again towards what seems to be a trapped pool of water.

    She hardly sees him there.  Perhaps he blends into the night, or maybe he just doesn't look out of place within the aqua. But when he speaks her face turns to find she is as alone as she had thought...

    If memory serves her correct, she knows him.  But from where?  Her mind ponders for a brief time until the Redwood forests surface.  She had gone to see the ocean that day too and she had stumbled across so much more.

    This time her armor does not build walls against her flesh.  She looks at him curiously and considers his question.  The answer she gives may surprise him, "I have come home." It is then she decides she was sick of running.  Uprooting their family and hiding from those who had done them wrong.  Her mother had ruled this land and it had been her birth right to call it hers.  At one point that had been stripped from her as a child and she was here to gain it back ...

    @[Ivar] told you lol
    Reply
    #5
    Beneath him, a pair of silver fish dart in the brackish water and Ivar’s pale eyes flick to them for just a moment. By the time he looks back up at the lavender haired mare, she is speaking again, telling him that she has come home.

    At that, the kelpie tilts his head curiously. She smells of the volcano, like sulfur and Tephra - Ischia isn’t her home.

    He takes a step closer, still knee deep in the water, and his blue ears flick toward her. “Home?” He repeats with a raised brow. “You don’t look much like a Kraken.” Using the term the Brotherhood had chosen for themselves come naturally, but the memory of the actual kraken he has so recently met brings a smile to his impossibly handsome face.

    It also stirs a hunger because she had left him empty-handed with her departure to Pangea, and the kelpie has not found suitable prey since. There are too many shuffling hooves on this main island for a proper hunt. He’ll have to clear them out, he’s decided, and make room for those that he wants her.

    “You’re welcome to stay though,” he adds with a benevolent smile and another step closer. Almost close enough to touch, though he will leave that final decision to Karat. For now. “The Brotherhood is leaving and this is my island now.”

    There is iron certainty in the way he says this, as though it is only natural. He has been biding his time for nearly four years, after all. It is time Ivar expand from his western isle and onto the main island; a kelpie should have a large territory filled with mares. Ivar has chosen Ischia to be his territory.

    @[Karat] <3
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    #6
    He is almost one with the water that pools at his feet.  So natural but still there is something about him that is quite the opposite.  His skin glitters in the dim light of the stars above and if she remember correctly there was something very odd about him. Scales, yes that was it.  She remembers the way they overlayed so neatly and she wondered just what a creature like that was doing on the shores of Taiga.

    Her ears are neither erect nor flat against her poll.  Her mind is very much uncertain of his intentions as he stalks nearer(yes stalks) but she does not feel the need to defend herself.  If anything she feels tempted to stay right here.  

    It is when he mentions the word Kraken that she presses her ears flat to her skull and snorts at the label.  In distaste she spits out, "That is because I am not.  Those vile creatures stole my home from me, my crown, my life.  I want it back and I am willing to fight for Ischia." Her jaw muscles grow tight and her teeth grind together as she thinks back on that day.  The mutiny.  The shame her family was put through.

    Her silver eyes change direction only briefly to catch a glimpse of marine life stirring in the pond.  They had scales much like this stranger she has barely become to know even having met twice.  He is quick to invite her to stay, almost too quick.  Lavender tinted head tilts slightly in thought at all he says of the brotherhood leaving and the island being his.  She chuckles -a most girlish chuckle-, "You?! Why on earth would a creature such as yourself want an island... Wouldn't you want the seas that surround it?"  She isn't exactly sure what  he is but she can tell he is more at home in the waters than the lands.

    She finds humor in his claim but wonders what his deeper intentions are.  A sheepish smile breaks the plain of her lips as she contemplates how they can both get what they want.  She takes a step closer to him(but not too close).  "What if we could come to some sort of arrangement?  I care not for the depths of the seas and you couldn't possibly prefer the thickness of the jungles... As I see it, we could co-rule here quite nicely... You and I." It is a proposal for them to each have what they desire...

    Just rolling the dice here lol
    Reply
    #7
    No iron weaves around her flesh as he draws nearer, the protections she had thrown up against him at their last meeting. Ivar doubts this is because she is more trusting this night than the last, but he is ever a hopeful creature. He hesitates at the sudden anger that crosses her face, but her words make it clear he is not the source of her fluctuating mood. 

    She mentions a stolen crown and Ivar places the final piece in the puzzle of her almost-familiarity; this must be Krone's daughter. Klaudius' daughter too then, he thinks, and searches the lines of her face for a shared likeness with his most recent conquest.

    They all look alike though, and he is distracted by her soft laugh. Ivar would like to know what it feels like passing through her throat, would like to feel the shiver of her skin beneath his lips. She comes a step closer, even though she questions his desire for the island, and he breaks the final distance with a sort touch to her neck at her mention of an arrangement.

    She would like the depths of the sea, Ivar thinks as he traces the curved line of her spine with his white mouth and feels the warmth of her shoulder where his dark chest is pressed against it. "I am not always in the sea," he tells her with amusement in his tenor voice. "I have to come to land to eat, after all." There is no specification as to what satisfies his hunger, but perhaps that is intentional.

    "I have no need for the jungles, myself." He says. "But I want them anyway."

    With land comes dealing with the land-dwellers though. The thought is distasteful, but it does not sour in his mouth, not when he is now trailing his curious lips along the base of her purple mane. The kelpie pulls away when he reaches her cheek, a soft breath before his golden gaze meets hers.

    "You can have the land." He says, but it is clear from the mischievous smirk in his jewel-bright eyes that the offer is not without strings. "But you will be mine." The final touch he places against the slope of her shoulder is laced with teeth, a mark of claim not dissimilar to the one used by stallions in the Field, marking their mares. It is clear what he means by mine; she belongs to him. Ivar is not certain she will accept the offer, but he is curious nonetheless. She wants her crown back, but is she willing to pay for its ransom?

    "I won't make many demands," the stallion adds, as though this might sweeten the deal. "No children, even, unless you want them." At this he grins, rather amused at himself, and knowing the the expression has a tendency to make women go weak at the knees.

    @[Karat]
    Reply
    #8
    There was a time in her younger years where she had sought the attention of another.  Needless to say, that flickering flame ended in an inferno on these very shores.  Kori had stolen her affections with a boyish charm and whisky words, only left her heart broken and scorn.  She had left the only thing she ever knew for him and he crushed her.  Ever since, she had never sought the attention of others outside her family.  They at least would not abandon her. 

    His touch ignites those feelings that had been buried deep within her core.  The temptation and danger they presented began to warm her flesh.  She does not fight against his caress, but neither does she lean into them.  His intentions are made clear by all he says next and the further wandering of his pale lips.  

    The lavender of her tail flicks against her flea-bitten hide as he presents his wager.  His gold eyes stare into the platinum-lavender of hers, gauging her reaction to such a claim.  A crown for her freedom.  She considers it with a switch of her view and it is in this brief moment that his jaw -filled with razor teeth- etch into her greying hide.  The sudden movement and stabbing pain makes her spine dip low.  Lavender ears flatten against her crown as air rattles through her nasal passages announcing her displeasure.  She eyes him again, this time a little less humored.

    Thoughts jumble on what has just happened and who exactly she has struck a deal with.  It is a sacrifice she was willing to make though and when he grins(very handsomely) she turns to face him with a fire lit in her eyes, "I will consider your offer with one condition... No one shall know of this. Deal?" She didn't need others, especially her brothers to know she has struck a deal with the devil himself.  

    The night was growing long and she must return to her search, so she turns to take her leave.  Lavender dipped limbs bring her to the jungles edge and when she turns back to view the piebald she has almost forgot one crucial detail, "And what am I to call you?"  He had never released a title to her, and if she was to be his than it only made sense she knew who she belonged to.

    Upon receiving a calling, she disappears into the humid landscape...


    @[Ivar]
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    #9
    The blood in his tongue is not so salty as the sea but the kelpie savors it no less because of that. Just a drop or two had seeped through the serrated marks of his teeth, and though Karat jumps in surprise she does not jump away. This emboldens the piebald creature, who presses his soft mouth to the same place he has just marked her. He is more gentle now, a gentle kiss to wipe away the last of the blood, and a red smear on his pale lips when he pulls away to laugh.

    Ivar is terrible with secrets.

    The laughter is a rumble in his deep chest, and it matches the open amusement on his scaled face.

    "I don't like to share," he tells her, as though this was not obvious in the way he has expressed his desire for the land of Ischia and the mark he's made on this silvery mare that would be its queen. "I would let you govern the land, but it is still my land. My island. Mine."

    As Ivar says this his gentle touch returns to her, and he toys with the lavender strands of her mane. Karat's willingness to accept his offer - even with her silly caveat - was encouraging to the ever-hungry kelpie, and he presses the softest of commands of desire into her skin with each touch. Nothing burning - this is not the season, after all - but enough that he might stir the embers of it later, when they have fewer words between them.

    "I'm Ivar," He adds when she pulls away. The kelpie's golden eyes follow her to the edge of the jungle, but his own long legs remain in the tepid lagoon. Things between them are not entirely settled, but at least she knows where he stands. She knows what he wants, and what he might be willing to give her for a price.

    Ivar hopes to see her again soon, and he watches with hungry eyes as her silvered hips disappear into the greenery.

    @[Karat]
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    #10
    Ivar is already infected.

    @[Karat] rolled a 4 and is safe...for now.
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