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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


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    i've never fallen from quite this high; wander
    #1
    The green-eyed colt races through the grass, following familiar paths that have beaten into the pampas by generations of hooves. Not generations he descends from, of course, but hooves nonetheless. Invisible, the yearling colt is nothing more than the sound of hooves and the quiver of grass in his passing, but it is still possible to track him by the half-moons tracks he leaves in the shallow snow, just barely visible in the twilight. 

    Not anymore, he thinks, feeling the release of tension as he becomes airborne with one single, giant leap. 

    It has taken weeks to perfect, this one jump take-off. Mostly in the dead of night or when he could get his invisibility to cooperate (so now one would see him fail). The dun colt was always bumped and bruised - he has convinced his mother that the marks from his failed attempts are nothing more than the usual scrapes and scratches of an adolescent boy. 

    Complicated by his own uneven growth spurts, the piebald colt's struggles at flight were nothing to scoff at. Though still growing (and not destined to grow especially tall), the yearling is building muscle and patience with his habitual efforts. Drive and focus seem inevitable given his heritage, but the easy grin the beams down when he finds Wander is something entirely his own.

    Always looking a little worse for the wear (and even more so today with his wind-buffeted hair and feathers), Pteron disappears again just before he touches down. The swirl of grass at his arrival is already telling, he knows, butt the colt greets her with a "Boo!" and a familiar nudge to her apricot shoulder as though he might still be as frightening as he was at their first encounter. "I learned how to fly," Pteron adds, somewhat unnecessarily, but the hopefulness in his invisible eyes as he waits for her reaction would be rather telling if he were to lose his grip on his invisibility.

    @[Wander] i hope you don't mind i made a new thread, but i wanted to keep writing with them because they are adorable, but i am slow and time passed <3
    #2
    Mama is growing fat again and papa says it’s because she’s having another baby. Which means less time for them to indulge her and mama has even started to push her away whenever she’s tried to nurse from her. She doesn’t like it, so papa tries to teach her to eat the grass but it’s so bland! So she skips away, daydreaming about clouds and green eyes and disembodied voices.

    She’s tried and tried many times to become invisible but it never happens. Wander is pretty much certain that she just can’t do it like he can. All she has is her growing horns that shoot up in much more impressive spires now that she’s growing up too. Apricot skin stretches and itches to accommodate lengthening bones and muscles, and her upright mane is more of a messy mop of knots and curls.

    Wander sneaks away in the twilight, her little hooves making the light crust of snow underfoot crunch at every step. Neither mama nor papa seem to notice that she is gone again, mumbling their lovey-dovey nonsense to one another as their heads hang low and close. She huffs and refuses to look back; part of her is disgusted and part of her - a much bigger part - wants that very same thing, a love without end. Except she’ll have to take the mushy bits too, with all the bravery and excitement that she also thinks should come with love.

    Or maybe she’s thinking of adventure instead, as she plods along in the falling dark. She’s so lost in her thoughts that she doesn’t notice him up above her, flying around. The dark easily masks his shadow that should otherwise race against her own on the ground. There’s only the swirl of grass to alert her to something as she spins on her heel, pronged head lowered in retaliation until she hears the familiar “Boo!” and her face breaks into a happy grin.

    He was hardly frightening any more but he had caught her unawares; a thing he was good at doing! She laughed happily and freely as he nudged her, and she’d nudge him back but felt silly for trying to do so since he was invisible to the naked eye. What if she nudged pure air instead? She couldn’t see his handsome green eyes but she could hear a bit of the hopefulness in his voice as he tells her that he’s mastered flying.

    Wander is faintly jealous; what must it be like to be able to touch the clouds? A thousand thoughts run through her head until she reins them back in and smiles at him. “That’s wonderful! Tell me what it’s like up there, amongst the birds and the clouds…” and her apricot face grows wistful as she stares at him in dreamy expectation.

    @[Pteron] omg I love them! ❤️
    #3
    The sight of her lowered head sparks something in Pteron's unconscious mind, a thrill of adrenaline in response to an obvious threat. The colt doesn't recognize it as anything but joy at surprising Wander, but as he settles his weight on solid ground his olive eyes glance at the long spires of her growing horns with appreciation. They’d been nothing but soft buds on her forehead when they’d first met, but he suspects that soon they’ll rival her papa’s, which he has seen only from a distance. They are a reminder of how Wander has grown – how they both have grown, and of the year that has passed beneath the southern sun.

    The dun colt uses his invisibility a moment longer to tug playfully at her mane and then duck away, before appearing a few feet away. He never tires of playing, and he appreciates the captive audience that Wander always presents.

    “Oh it’s super awesome,” he says eloquently. “I’m gonna visit everywhere now that I can fly. First I’m gonna go see the northern lights from way up close and then probably go to the very top of the Mountain.” The dun colt is clearly ambitious. Having received his parents’ blessing to adventure on his own now that he is a yearling, Pteron is especially eager to do so.

    Knowing that Wander likes to know the details, Pteron adds: “A cloud is like a really big fog but in the air. It’s not puffy like a cattail like I wanted it to be. You would probably like it.” Unlike invisibility (which Pteron is convinced anyone can master if they try hard enough), the tobiano yearling knows that the clouds are not within his apricot friend’s reach. “I’ll try to catch one for you,” he promises.

    @[Wander]
    me too! <3
    #4
    She can feel his eyes upon her; it’s like a slow delicious burn that is equal parts embarrassment and excitement that ignite beneath her apricot skin. Wander would do the same to him but he’s invisible, and there is something intriguing about the way he is always like that - perfectly unseen but there, almost like a guardian angel for all that he is her friend. Good thing he is real or her parents might fear for her sanity if she admitted to having an imaginary friend! 

    He tugs at her mane; a familiar gesture that has peals of laughter erupting from her mouth as he suddenly pops back into sight just a few feet away. She appreciates how he is always so playful and never too tired to indulge in games or adventures with her. Wander cherished their friendship despite a pinprick of something deeper that she refused to explore just then, because he was telling her of his ambitions and she found herself leaning towards him in rapt attention.

    “The Northern Lights…” she murmured in awe, not in the least bit envious but enamoured rather, with his plans. It was true that the sky wasn’t the limit for him - he had that and the whole earth too, though she knew that she’d run after him just to get a look at the dancing lights in the night sky if he asked her. Wander would run until her heart burst in her breast from the running, of it meant a grand adventure with him. Though she didn’t say as much, just smiled and continued to listen.

    “They always look so puffy and inviting though!” she protects mildly, a little bit disappointed that clouds were nothing more than airborne fog. It made her wonder why fog on the ground never did much in the way of change shapes; it just swirled and dissipated. But her brown eyes leap to his olive gaze as he promises to catch one for her. “Do you really mean it?” she darts forward and shoves a gesture of affection right up against his pale cheek with her soft ticklish nose.

    “That would just be so incredible to have a cloud of my very own, even if it’s just for an hour or two!” she spins around in delight, smiling and laughing before pausing to look at him. “I’ve nothing as grand as that to catch for you.” Her face is a little sad until she thinks of how her papa spears the juiciest and best fruit from the higher reaches of the trees. Wander thinks she could do that - give him the best apples of the bunch, because it doesn’t occur to her that he could just fly up there and hover and get his own.

    @[Pteron] so stinking cute!
    #5
    The response of the apricot filly to his plans brings an uptick of delight to the dun colt. Wander always has excellent ideas for adventuring, and to have come up with some of his own that impress her is a feat worth taking pride in.

    The tobiano colt is young still, and like many boys is not expected to grow up quite as quickly as a filly his age. He needs time to sow his wild oats, he's overheard his father saying, followed by a quip from his mother that he doesn't entirely understand.

    How exactly could an 'one of those oats come looking for a handout', Pteron wonders? A puzzle he hasn't solved yet and does not worry on. There is too much to do to leave much time to think, the dun colt has found, and while he does his best to listed to Mama's lessons on diplomacy and politics, he is far more interested in learning to spar with his father and playing with Wander and Wombat.

    "Of course I mean it." He replies.

    His early-learned habit of winking at Wander hasn't lessened, nor has his tendency to try out lines he hears his parents use. They always make Wander react in curious ways. Pteron doesn't understand why, but he very aware that he likes the way she tends to giggle and blush or even - if he is lucky - come closer and touch him more.

    That is as far as his interest in such things go at his age, because while Mama is fond of telling romance tales, Pteron is always far more interested in the daring deeds and fierce warriors. The love of adrenaline rises as the raven-haired filly spins about, and Pteron rears a half foot from the ground and stamps the cool earth excitedly when he lands. The pale colt darts forward at a trot to nip at her momentarily down-turned lip, glancing back over his shoulder as he kicks up his heels.

    "Maybe we can go on our own adventure," He says to her, pausing to gesture at the dark horizon with one pale wing. "We could go anywhere, find and catch anything we want." Pteron is imagining large fields of fireflies, perhaps a few perfectly round stones to roll across the hills, or even a pretty feather for Mama's hair.


    @[Wander]
    sorry this is so rambly <3




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