• Logout
  • 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


    here we are in the heart of the darkness; Dovev, open
    #1

    Golden eyes watching our every move
    Losing time without the sun or moon

    The light is too bright, burning the darkness of his skin. He does not like this icy hell, too open, too bright. And Heartfire is lost in her delirium, demanding another come with them. He sees no one, just she and the bone-man. “I’ll find her,” he promises pleadingly, hoping she would see sense. She is too ill, features dissolving into confusion as she tries to understand.

    He has never been good with words, not like she is. Used to be. He cannot speak sense to her.

    And so he does what he must, the only thing he can think to do in this situation. Slipping forward, he presses alongside her and parts the veil of shadow beneath them. It swallows the three of them, moments later depositing them in a shadowed wood. Palm trees arc above the long slender leaves and large, flat fronds of the vegetation below. Visible just through the trees stretches a sandy white beach and distant, glimmering waves.

    Home. Or at least, as close as he has come outside the shadow realm.

    He swiftly retreats, yellow eyes wary as he melts into the shadows. He does not know how the hard-eyed stallion would react to his uninvited actions. Heartfire stiffens the moment her feet settle on the softer earth, her body shuddering beneath a bout of sudden coughing. Her splayed legs tremble beneath her until they give way, unable to sustain her weight. She collapses, her breathing harsh and uneven.

    Ether steps forward, head lifting in alarm. “Find… Woolf,” she gasps, a fine mist of blood splattering the sand as she speaks. He stills, glancing almost desperately between the two of them.

    He disappears then, allowing the shadows to swallow him entirely. Find Woolf, she had said. He would.

    ether



    @[Dovev]
    Reply
    #2
    dovev

    She still fought to find Briella and he growled, his jaws clenched. She'd called this thing Brother a moment ago and that was just going to have to be good enough for now. He rammed his shoulder into her, shoving her at the beast of shadow. It was clear enough that the guy was going to take her to safety, somewhere a hell of a lot warmer, he hoped.

    Then he'd turned to gallop off and find Briella.

    And instead, he'd landed here, somehow sucked up into the guy's portal of shadow. "No!!" He needed to get Briella!

    "I'll find her," he promised them.

    Dovev opened his mouth to snap at him to send him back so he could get his baby his damn self when Heartfire went down again. His manner changed, instantly concerned. He wasn't as stupid as he wished he was. This was his damn kid. She hadn't slept around. "Dagger," he whispered, coming to her side and breathing a trail over her neck, watching her breathe so heavily.

    "Find... Woolf," she said, and he didn't have a goddamn clue who that was. He scowled over his shoulder, ready to demand this shadow take him back, or take him to whatever the hell she needed and then take him back. But he was gone. Just a brief moment of looking between Dov and Heartfire and he vanished.

    "Fuck!"

    He looked down at her, at the blood that sprayed from her mouth, at her chest rattling with coughs. Ugh, fuck. He paced away, restless and trying to think. He could figure this out. Fuck. Leliana was gone, returned home to her family so her husband had said. She was the only healer he knew, save for Kota. He hadn't seen Kota in years, hadn't a goddamn clue how to track her down.

    He stomped back to her, glaring down harshly. "Don't you fuckin die on me, Heartfire! I'm the one that dies, not you!" Goddamn, and he's got a kid in there. He softens suddenly, his face tight in worry instead of frustration, brushing his nose over her stretched belly. Fuck, he hadn't wanted kids. Atrani had been more than enough. And now Defy, too. He hadn't wanted more than Atrani.

    What the fuck was he going to do if she died giving birth to his kid like Cerva nearly had? Like maybe Dizzy nearly had?

    He was so fucking cursed, and he dragged them to hell with him.

    we're slaves to any semblance of touch

    Lord, we should quit but we love it too much


    Reply
    #3
    all that we have amassed sits before us, shattered into ash
    Settling into life in the resort has been easy enough, though the land is already bustling with other horses in a way that is a little discerning to Cress. Will they all respect Tiphon’s claim on this land, and allow for the resort to become a sanctuary for the infected? Or will they be fearful and attempt to cast out the ill? Cress is still sick herself, though Tiphon had healed the worst of her maladies. The cough is still there, having faded but still under the surface, marking her as one of the plagued. There is no hiding that she is ill, and she does not want to fear for her life in a place that she has only just started calling home.

    The forests that line the beaches of the resort are not very thick, and Cress has to do a double take when two horses and a shadow appear. The one horse, a mare, appears very ill and very pregnant, and Cress rushes forward even as the shadow-horse fades away. Have they heard that there are healers here? Well... her and Tiphon, at least. She has heard that Leliana has left and the thought leaves a slightly bitter taste in her mouth—that lover of hers doesn’t seem very mentally sound, and Cress is loath to lose a friend.

    She is still here, though, and she can help.

    The woman’s breath rattles and there is blood spattering the sandy dirt in front of her. She looks to the armored stallion next to her as he yells desperately for her not to die, then hurries forward, a golden wing brushing against his shoulder. “Breathe,” she chastises him, giving him a piercing look. Talking of dying—either of them—will do nothing to calm the sick woman, even if she is so sick that she cannot hear his words. “No one is dying here. This is a sanctuary.”

    Cress reaches for her powers and lets her healing flow into Heartfire, trying to soothe the worst of her symptoms. The cough should subside, at least, and her fever will break, but Cress knows that she cannot cure the illness completely. She doesn’t know anyone who can.

    As she works, she looks again to the man who is so worried about his woman that he is breaking. “I am doing my best to ease her symptoms,” she explains, sighing as her own strength begins to flee her, “but I cannot cure the plague entirely. Rest assured she will be safe here, as will you. Please, try to relax. She is not going to die.”
    cress
    oxytocin x kindling


    @Dovev @Heartfire

    infected.
    Reply
    #4

    I waited for something, and something died
    so I waited for nothing, and nothing arrived

    The days in the aftermath have gotten easier but have not fully healed.

    She is slowly picking up the pieces of her family again. Clutching the edges of them to her breast and hoping for the best. She forgets the aches beneath the surface. The way that they can so easily slice at her, splitting apart flesh to reveal what lies underneath. She trusts in Vulgaris, ignoring the way she splintered beneath his cruel words. She forgets the looming threat of his sister and the danger she poses to her children. The only thing that matters is her daughters, her family, and the weight of responsibility that now rests on her.

    She has to help heal Beqanna.

    She has to at least try.

    So she travels often between her home and this land, doing what she can to support Tiphon and Cress in their mission. Doing what she can to bring some semblance of comfort to a world rocked by pain. And underneath it all, she does her best to ignore the constant, biting pain when she thinks of Dovev. When she wonders about him. When she scans the crowds looking for him, her heart thrashing wildly in her chest with her fears.

    The last she had seen him, he had been battling flames and monsters.

    He had been screaming at her to leave.

    And then the world had gone to black.

    Today is no different. She had left her beautiful babies with Vulgaris in their new home with the promise that she would be back soon. She presses kisses to their scaled foreheads, thanking the heavens that they were both home and safe with her. She presses kisses to Vulgaris’ cheek and thanks the heavens that he’s home too. That he still allows her to be home.

    Then she turns, unfurling crimson dragon wings and takes to the skies.

    She is stronger now than she has been in months, even though the plague still spreads through her veins. Cress and Tiphon both worked together to knit together the wounds from the battle, pulling the flesh on her chest together, soothing the burns that had run wicked up the slope of her neck, easing the exhaustion that had taken up such permanent residency in her.

    Still, she coughs when she lands, the blood crusted in the corner of her mouth. She can feel it rattle in her chest when the commotion catches her eye. She narrows her gaze, focusing on the golden sheen of the winged healer. When she sees the familiar bone armor, her throat goes dry. Her vision goes blurry for a second and she sways before taking a stumbling step forward, just in time to see the blue mare. Even as the sight of Dovev reaching down to comfort her, the intimacy between them clear, causes a bone deep ache, she feels a familiar need to help.

    Each step is agony as she makes her way toward them, the realization of where Dovev has been settling deep into her bones. And she knows she has no right to him. She has no right to have any say about where he spends his time and to whom he gives his heart and so she swallows the bitter pain silently, eyes downcast. Quietly, Leliana walks up beside Cress, feeling the warmth of the mare and taking comfort in her presence.

    She glances up at Dovev, pain raw in her expression, before she wipes it clean, her face carefully neutral as she looks to the mare by him. “We will do what we can to help,” the words are quiet and punctuated by a cough she does her best to mask. Turning her head away to compose herself she only looks back when it’s subsided. She reaches for the golden light of her healing and feels it well within her, breathing easier for the way it responds so quickly.

    She sighs into it and pushes it through Heartfire, ignoring all of the pain associated with this woman on the ground. She thinks of their first encounter, when the mare had pushed such cruel truths into her palm. She thinks of when she woke up to chaos at the River and the sight of Heartfire trailing after Dovev as he washed away. And now she thinks of her crumpled on the ground with Dovev pressing his lips to her neck, to the swell in her stomach—

    No.

    She couldn’t think of that now.

    Shaking her head, Leliana remains quiet and focuses on the task at hand, letting the effort of it consume her thoughts, sweat flecking her neck and darkening her focus to nothing but the problem before her and her ability to help solve it.

    it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend
    it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end

    [Image: avatar-1975.gif]
    the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity
    Reply
    #5
    everything before the asterisks is just inner turmoil babble that you can feel free to skip in order to save your sanity D: <3

    She has her lips in Merry’s dark little mane, fussing hopelessly with those wild, silken strands as she laughs softly at something Kharon says to them. The day is bright and beautiful and trying its hardest to help the inhabitants of the island forget the tragedy that unfolds with new fervor each day within the lands not under protection. But the island has nothing on the silver eyes watching her now, or that faint, crooked way he grins at her sometimes. The one that captures her lips and shapes them into something soft and beautiful and so bright, something she thought she might forget how to do.

    It’s why she nearly misses the situation unfolding in the distance just beyond Kharon’s shoulder, half hidden by the feathers of violet wings too beautiful to be real. But she freezes, abandons her efforts to smooth down Merry’s wild little mane, and feels the slow beat-beat of her heart disappear entirely.

    It’s okay, because she has forgotten how to breathe anyhow.

    “Dovev.” She says, and it is not so much a sound as it is an exhale, as it is all the life escaping through her lips in the shape of his name. Ether has brought them - them, because she can see the familiar form of her sister braced and staggering beside them. She wants to turn away, to put an entire ocean between herself and them, herself and his nose pressed to a blue and white neck so same and so different from the one in the pieces of broken memories she holds in her chest.

    That had been her, once.

    She finds she cannot remember how to exist in this moment. Cannot hear if Kharon is trying to recapture her attention, cannot feel if Merry’s nose is nudging uncertainly at her shoulder. There is no sound, no sensation, no thought. Nothing can exist beside the pain that is breaking every bone in her body, fishing the veins out like they are loose threads needing to be plucked. It is a strange feeling, to be coming undone. Reduced to the pain she feels when she watches the man who is (is not, cannot still be) her husband, perched so protectively at her sisters side. The sister responsible for putting all the fissures in her bones, made them so easy, so ready to break,

    Had Heartfire known? Had she known each day she kept Dovev at her side, that Luster had been looking for him in every face she passed. That when he disappeared, she had waited. Waited for him to come back, worried when he hadn’t. Had she known then that Luster would conceive, grow fat with his child. Had she known what they meant to each other and kept it from both?

    She blinks once, flinches, shakes her head like these biting questions might be forced away from her. There is too much she doesn’t understand, too much she won’t ask because it doesn’t matter now. Because even from here she can see the swell of new life filling her sister’s stomach, and there is nothing strong enough in this world or the next to pull this knife from Luster’s back.

    ***

    She means to turn away, find someplace else to go, anywhere else. A place where she can lose this pain and this wild hurt before it consumes so much that there is nothing left but these broken, wasted bones. But Heartfire drops, collapses in the loamy footing, and before Luster can stop herself she is moving toward them.

    Why.
    Why.

    Because that woman in the sand, broken and bleeding and painting the ground red with her coughing, is her sister.
    Because that man standing beside her, frantic and aching and brushing his lips across that swollen belly in a way that tells Luster everything she needs to know, is the man she gave her always to.

    She reaches them after Ether has gone and the healers have hurried over, finds that the closer she comes, the quieter she feels. Like this internal war waged has decimated everything and there is nothing left inside her. But it isn’t true, she is not a creature made to be numb, not made to be empty, and even now she buries her brokenness where it is so hard to find, traps it back so deep in the bottoms of those beautiful, bruised eyes. It is not for them to suffer with her, not for anyone to know this pain that chafes and eats away at the light inside her.

    “He is good at many things,” she says as she joins them, her voice deceivingly soft and light to match the gentleness in those dark eyes, “but patience is not one of them.” And ohhh, oh she doesn’t mean to lift her gaze to his, doesn’t want to know what it looks like to be forgotten, but she can’t help herself, can’t stop herself. Can’t help but search for anything in those eyes to make her feel a little less jagged, a little less like a universe of dying stars waiting to burn away. Can’t hold back that soft gasp in her chest at how much it is killing her to be so close and not touch him. Not hold him and duck beneath his neck, clean the edges of his armor with the soft of her tongue until the skin is less ragged, less stiff with dried blood.

    But he is not hers anymore, not hers.

    “I think you’ll have a harder time convincing him to relax than you will at healing my sister.” So soft, so soft, and finally pulling her gaze away from him so she can go lay beside Heartfire. “He just needs to be reminded that she’s way too stubborn to die.” Still soft, so silver, reaching for any kind of levity she can breathe into the somberness of the group as they watch Heartfire struggle to catch her breath.

    She folds her legs beneath her, lays close enough to cradle her sister’s too-hot body against her own. Will she feel cold in the absence of her fever if these women manage to make it abate? She doesn’t know, has not seen enough of this plague to have any real knowledge of how she can help, to know if it’s even safe to be this close. One of the healers coughed, and she can see that stain of red in the corners of gentle lips. Dov hasn’t though, and she’s so stupidly frowning up at him, trying to find any sign that he isn’t okay. But he’s always been so stoic, so impossible, so she looks away from him, needs to stop finding excuses to look at a face she’s memorized in the most intimate ways.

    Instead she brushes a kiss against Heartfire’s neck, so dark and blue and soaked through with sweat, closes her eyes against a fear she feels swelling inside her. A thought with sharp edges and even sharper teeth, that uncertainty that the healers won’t be able to give her enough, that it will be too much for the child trying so hard to grow inside her. “Oh, Djinni, I wish you were here.” Just a whisper, the first hint of all those broken pieces as they turn traitor and claw back to the surface to breathe.

    — Luster —
    so we let our shadows fall away like dust ;


    @[Djinni]
    i need to edit when i’m home and in front of a computer, that lusters twilight manipulation is sending little firefly sized balls of light over to cling against dov. i’m dumb and forgot to mention this in the novel length post :|
    Reply
    #6

    Real. He’s real. It takes everything in her to focus on that one small thing. On Dovev. The fractured pieces of her delirious consciousness cannot seem to tie the shadow creature insisting she come to the small blue and white child she had once known. But then it does not matter anymore.

    She stumbles when her feet hit loamy sand instead of frozen rock, knees trembling from the sudden shift. Already she had struggled to remain standing, her normally slender frame so sickly thin, wasted from disease, from the effort of growing a child. Her chest heaves beneath the change in pressure, a bone-deep cough wracking her too thin body. Her legs give way beneath her and she crumples to the earth. Pain ripples across her stomach, and for the first time in ages, she knows true fear.

    Her body is too weak to sustain her baby anymore.

    She remembers. A promise made. “Find… Woolf,” she gasps, blood spraying the ground before her.

    Were they safe? She couldn’t remember. She only remembers the earth fracturing around her as she’d given everything to keep that isle. Paint it red. How had she gotten here?

    Dovev. He’s touching her, running worried lips along the swell of her stomach. Her breath rattles ominously in her chest as she struggles to draw air. “Take… care of… him,” she manages to whisper. She couldn’t lose another child. Wouldn’t. Even if she had to give her own life for it, she’d see him safely into this world. Dovev would never let anything happen to him. She does not have faith in much, but she has faith in that.

    She doesn’t even notice the golden mare, not at first. Not until warmth floods her veins and bolsters her flagging strength. The breath eases in her chest, the rattle lessening to a faint rasp. Her blue eyes lift in time to see the second woman join them. Leliana.

    She had caused her so much pain, and still she gives her aid. She had always been a much better woman than Heartfire could ever hope to be.

    She cannot think of it now. Not when her body still echoes with disease and exhaustion, when pain dulls the edge of her senses. But then she sees Luster and her heart seizes in her chest. She struggles to rise, only to collapse back into the sand. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was never supposed to be like this.

    She was supposed to save her from pain. Instead she’d shattered her entire world. She must hate her now for everything she has done. For everything she is. She needs to leave, to get away.

    It was never supposed to be like this.

    She doesn’t have the strength to push her away when Luster curls up beside her. After everything, still she comes and offers only love. The brittle edges of her very soul begin crack. Would Luster even believe her if she said she loves her?

    It’s too much. Her features break as she collapses against her sister, as she presses her face against the soft blue of her neck. “I’m sorry Luster,” she whispers brokenly. “So, so sorry.” She doesn’t know how long she stays pressed against her sister. Time seems to have lost all meaning.

    The healer’s energy is doing its job, and as her body begins the regain its strength, so too does her mind. It’s too soon, much too soon. Her child shouldn’t be coming yet. She needs up, needs to get up.

    As though that one simple act might stay the inevitable.

    Still she struggles upright, stubborn determination seeing the task through. She can’t stay here. Can’t be here surrounded by them. When finally she has gained her feet, trembling, bolstered by pure strength of will, her eyes settle briefly on Dovev before straying to Leliana, to Luster.

    It is so clear she does not belong. She can’t be here.

    Her gaze settles on the rounded curve of Luster’s stomach before straying to Dovev, to the subtle lights clinging to him. It should’ve been them. She doesn’t know why he’d tried so hard for her. Luster has always been the better of them. Even healthy Heartfire had been so plain next to her ethereal beauty. Luster is so kind and soft. So good. Heartfire is too hard, too unforgiving. She would never bend before him, she would always insist on everything. Better he know now, leave now, before it is too late. She could never be like Luster. Her love is too greedy, too consuming. She would never let him go if he was hers, could never stand by and watch him fall in love over and over again. She is too selfish.

    “The babies are yours,” she finally says, gesturing briefly at Luster’s obviously swollen stomach, eyes flicking back to the bone-armored stallion as the steely mask settles over her features once more. She had meant to tell him, but she hadn’t gotten the chance. But now, now he could have everything he had wanted. Because it was, wasn’t it? She could not understand why he would have wanted her, not when he had Luster (her sister, everything she is not) waiting for him. “It was never me you wanted anyway.”

    The last is said on a whisper as she turns away. She couldn’t do this. She should’ve pushed him away that night, like she always had. She had known this could only offer pain. She breaks everything she loves. She would break him too if he didn’t leave now. She doesn’t notice the way the leaves have begun the shatter behind her, breaking apart beneath the force of her repressed emotions as she walks away.

    She means to leave, she couldn’t be with them. They were too good, too kind. She does not deserve their kindness. But her strength fails her as another wave of pain crashes through her body. She has made it only a few feet through the sparse trees when she flinches against the contraction. Her body shudders as she struggles to keep from falling. The healing efforts they had made could only do so much in the short time she had given them.

    Too soon. She needs to get away. Somewhere safe. Her baby is coming. She already loves him so much, but it’s too soon. What if she broke him too?

    Her knees tremble before she crumples to the ground once more.

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free

    Reply
    #7
    The mare she appears in front of is blue and round, and easy to mistake for the one she is looking for. A shower of golden sand that appeared with the genie vanishes on its fall to the pale beach, and the hot blast of desert wind with it. Though she has kept to the flowering meadows of the pampas since Cor’s birth, there are some parts of her that will never really disappear, no matter how long she plays at normalcy.

    Blood spatters the ground at her feet, strewn by the coughing woman she thinks is Luster. There is only a moment of hesitation, of the amoral djinn weighing options. For all her benevolence, the pink dun mare with neon green irises is never altruistic. She seems to be at time, like now, when she wishes the plague from the bleeding mare on the sand in front of her. Only after does she glance up, and the first spectator she locks eyes with is none other than Luster. A frown creases her cobwebbed forehead and Djinni glances back down. So that is not Luster, but a woman who looks enough like her to surely be a sister. Around her are strangers, faces that she does not know and find utterly unappealing.

    Why Luster associates with these simple things puzzles Djinni, but she supposes that the girl has her reasons. Djinni reminds herself that when she had been mortal she’d been much the same, concerned with the concerns of others, a bothersome virus of empathy that she’s almost rid herself of now. Almost.

    A wish to heal the rest of them, the coughing red mare and the man with his bones outside his skin, those afflicted by the plague. She says nothing, feeling the world around her quiver in ways the rest of them will not see. They shimmer, the horses around her, fragments of their physiques shifting with each nanosecond, glimpses of the others they might have been, the infinite universes that might have been. It is into one where the plague is healed that she wishes them now, a world where the virus is cast out of the infected creatures gathered on the shore around her. As they flip by, a trillion in a breath, the gleaming green of her eyes grows duller. First emerald then olive then hazel until they settle on a dull black. Darker even than her natural gold-flecked doe eyes, this darkness is the only sign of the way her energy flicks away, grasping for the world in which her wish has been granted.

    @[The Plague]
    Djinni is attempting to fully heal Heartfire, Dovev, Leiliana, and Cress of the Plague with her trait of Genie.
    D J I N N I
    genie | rose gold tobiano dun | trickster
    Reply
    #8
    dovev

    A golden mare with dragon's wings rushed forward out of nowhere and he snarled at her, taking a step forward. One of her wings brushed lightly against him, deliberately, and she commanded him to breathe as if he was some fool that had accidentally forgot how to.

    He nearly snapped at her, that she could take her continued promises and shove them down her own damn throat for all he cared, he was not going to calm down just because some gold stranger told him to or promised her help to them. But his eyes caught movement, and his face blanked suddenly, straightening with a pain in his eyes. Fuck. Out of all the people.

    She wouldn't even fucking look at him, and he didn't blame her.
    He wouldn't have looked at him either. He would've hated him too.

    He dropped his eyes from her, unable to bear the agony at seeing her here, of her seeing him here. He let them fall to Heartfire's belly again and the heat and frustrated rage from before was completely snuffed out. Solemn and unworthy, he remained silent as they worked, blood slowly trailing from his nostril.

    "He is good at many things," a voice from a dream broke through and startled him. Heartfire was attracting quite the gathering. His spine stiffened and he glanced to her, this blue mare that looked so similar to Heartfire but softer, sweeter. He knew her, though. He definitely knew her. The print of his teeth still scarred her beautiful neck where he'd tore into her so violently the night he'd first seen her. "He just needs to be reminded that she's way too stubborn to die."

    He backed away as she folded herself next to her sister, his neck hot with a confused blush. She was being nice to him. She had before after he'd attacked her, but somehow it still surprised him. Then he danced backward more as little orbs of light drifted towards him and tangled into his hair, clung to his skin over his neck. He snorted nervously, blood spraying the ground in front of him.

    "Take... care of... him," Heartfire's voice barely whispered, stealing his full attention as his face tightened in anxiety. No, she couldn't die. He wasn't gonna fuckin raise this kid alone. He couldn't drag a kid around with his line of work, she knew that. He never should've had any kids to begin with. He hadn't meant for this, for any of it.

    It was fine. She had healers working on her. Everything would be fine.

    Heartfire dragged herself to her feet like a goddamn miracle. Was she fucking crazy?? Just fucking relax a second, you know? Get some damn heals. But she was too damn stubborn or something and up she went. She was looking between them all, then finally settled on him again. He frowned, getting the feeling like she was about to do something completely stupid.

    "The babies are yours," she said, gesturing at Luster's equally swollen belly that he'd carefully avoided noticing too closely. Obviously, she was out of her mind. So he only clenched his teeth and scowled at her, would apologize to Luster for her sick-induced ramblings after things were settled more. "It was never me you wanted anyway." He scowled harder. Since when did he allow anyone to tell him what the fuck he did or didn't want?

    Then she turned away and began stumbling off, and oh hell no she didn't. "Heartfire!" he barked, would have whipped her stupid ass with a magic had he had any real power. All he had was this armor guarding a frail-looking body. He had nothing that could actually keep her here with him if she chose to walk away. He felt suddenly helpless. And pissed.

    What the fuck! She wasn't taking his kid away from him even if she did leave.

    Her magic began dusting the leaves in her wake, her hormones and emotions taking over. Then she dropped again, crumpling to the ground and again he rushed over. "You're so fucking stupid, Heartfire," he cursed her, moving in close to check on her. She'd better not hurt the baby or he'd--

    He lunged forward in reflex as another body manifested out of fucking nowhere too close to his babymama for comfort. The way she seemed to drain in front of them, her eyes gradually falling dark, was ignored in the tunnel-vision that enveloped him. He reacted first, had been trained to act as swiftly and deadly as he could and forget all else.

    They were all gone but him and this pink mare standing so near Heartfire and his unborn child as his bared teeth reached out for the side of her neck in just the same place he'd left scarred on Luster, the mirror of it on the opposite side of her neck. This time, he hadn't gone straight for the kill. He might be craving a little destruction first, his own. He wanted to hurt first.

    we're slaves to any semblance of touch

    Lord, we should quit but we love it too much


    Reply
    #9
    Sorry to jump the posting order! I just needed to get her unstuck so she's not pregnant and dying still when the icicle isle stuff goes down :|

    This was not how things were supposed to go. None of this is how things were supposed to go. She never thought she would find herself so vulnerable, contractions wracking her too thin body, surrounded by those who had reason to despise her the most. Sheer force of will is the only thing keeping the child from coming into the world, her refusal to allow herself to be so incredibly vulnerable in front of so many.

    Dovev follows her of course, foolish man that he is. Can he not see this is for the better? Luster could give him everything he had wanted. Could love him selflessly. Heartfire never could, never would. She is a jealous lover, and he would never remain faithful to her. Better to spare them both the pain.

    But when Djinni appears, all of that ceases to matter.

    She recognizes the woman, of course. Though they had never been friends, they had run into each other often enough throughout the years. Enough for Heartfire to know she is a fickle woman, who does only what seems to please her, rather like the fae of old. Benevolent one moment, pernicious the next. Surprisingly enough, it is something Heartfire has a great deal of understanding for, though she holds little faith in the woman. She would be a fool to do so.

    Dovev, however, sees only a stranger, an intruder, and reacts instinctively.

    She hasn’t the energy for this now, has no desire to watch him wage a futile war against the woman. Whatever Djinni had done upon her arrival had instilled some amount of strength into her. Enough to allow her to command Dovev’s sight, to erase the rose woman from it. She could have simply stolen his sight, she supposes, but this seems easier. Let the woman be invisible to him. Heartfire will deal with whatever fallout there might be.

    She struggles to her feet once more, hoping she might have the strength to make it far enough for at least a modicum of privacy. A pained gasp escapes her lips as another contractions squeezes insistently at her abdomen, a vice-grip telling her she hasn’t much time. She pushes deeper into the sparse foliage, shoving past Dovev as she does so. Frankly, at this point, she didn’t give a shit what the man did, so long as he wasn’t trying to fight over the top of her.

    Perhaps he would come to his senses, would return to Luster. She ruthlessly ignores the small piece of her that hopes he does not. It’s a foolish fantasy.

    She doesn’t make it far before the contractions overwhelm her once more. Her knees buckle beneath her as she settles wearily onto the sandy loam, her body rippling with an agony she’s too exhausted to fight. It’s too soon. Much too soon, but her baby is coming now, with or without her permission.

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free

    Reply
    #10
    Leliana

    baby, when I'm in your arms, I can make honest sense of love and war's alarms

    It is chaos when she arrives and it is a chaos that does not slow.

    Each moment accelerates the moment, each new arrival piling up on one another until she feels that she cannot breathe for it. She closes her eyes and presses all of her focus into her healing, letting it empty from her, letting the golden light of it shoot forth and work its way through the blue mare who struggles before her. There is a cry in the back of her mind that still struggles to hold her in her gaze, that still wants to bend beneath the anguish of memory that comes with her, but she refuses to break beneath it. Just because Heartfire has played such a large role in her own undoing does not mean she will turn from her.

    When the second mare arrives, speaking of Dovev with such truths, she bites on her lip to keep the cry from escaping her. She can see the light escape from Luster to attach to Dovev, surrounding him with that gentle glow, and she finally drags her eyes from the two mares curled together to him, studying his face.

    Was this always how their story was to go?

    Was she always to be there with him and all of those he loves?

    To be reminded again and again just how far his affections go?

    To be continually reminded of how she was not enough?

    She swallows, feeling shame at the greediness of her heart, of the selfishness of her thoughts. She has so much in her life. So much love and life and joy—was she really going to begrudge him his own? Was she really going to make this moment about her and the shattered heart in her breast?

    Could she blame these women for loving him and all of his darkness?

    She tenses slightly when Heartfire speaks again, pushing Luster with Dovev, talking about their children, the lives in Luster’s rounded belly. She breathes through the pain of it and then everything happens all at once. Heartfire begins to stumble away. Dovev rushes after her. The pink mare shows up and he attacks.

    She is confused and heartbroken and exhausted but she refuses to simply stand by and watch the pregnant mare walk into further destruction. She lunges forward, moving near Dovev, close enough that she could touch him, although she allows lets herself press the velvet of her nose into the wicked curve of his neck.

    “Dovev,” his name is sweet on her tongue, always so sweet. “They need you. You have to be here. You have to be strong for them.” She fights back all of the other emotions that collide in her breast, that wage war against one another. “These women and these children love you.” She loves him, she thinks, but he is no longer hers to love and she lets that go, lets that fade in her chest until it is just an echo of something.

    Her attention is stolen by the mare falling to the ground and she moves past Dovev to Heartfire.

    “It’s going to be okay,” she breathes, turning her head to cough before pulling her healing forth again and letting it work though the mare. “I’m here to help.” She begins to work through Heartfire, pressing a balm to a fevered brow, recognizing the agony of childbirth and doing her best to help her through it.

    but there's something primal underneath and it drives this nothingness I seek



    what's posting order? :|
    [Image: avatar-1975.gif]
    the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity
    Reply




    Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)