"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
Nazariy lingered on the outskirts of forbidden. The colt was more awake than he had been before, and that awareness seemed to be used more on caution than anything else. It was used more on forgetting the fact that he had forgotten. The dun wandered along paths laden with pine needles and undergrowth, the blankness in his mind a fierce tremor that started at his mind and wandered along his body until he was more fog than colt.
Perhaps it was the forest, he decided, but there was nothing much that he could do; not when he was alone and hungry, in search of greener pastures, of companionship.
Nazariy stopped for a moment, his good left ear flicking back to track any noise that could have been nearby. And although he was looking for another face, he felt within him the searing pulse of fear; like a faultline beneath his ribs, a dangerous warning of what could be there. He managed to fight down the instinct to call out, not knowing whether it would be a predator or one of his own or both. He let out a shaky breath, his eyes regarding the land around him. He shifted, adrenaline shuddering his bones.
"Hello?" he said before he could stop himself, and immediately cursed under his breath.
01-22-2019, 09:00 PM (This post was last modified: 01-22-2019, 09:00 PM by Azar.)
Azar
She knew the dangers of coming to this place. It was no less dangerous than home, though, and so she wandered. With her head low and kelly-green eyes wide, she walked with the inate caution that had become her nature as a young child. She was still young now, more relatable to a teenager than a grown adult, and the tall grasses sweeping her legs reached high enough to tickle her belly.
With the listless manners of a wild being, a creature born in the woods and never venturing far from them, she grazed idly in the grasses. Her dark nose brushed over the tops of them, alert gaze always turned outward and watchful.
"Hello?"
She froze, her dark face jerking upright and ears pushed forward. Normally, she would've sensed him, or smelled him, or heard him. She hadn't this time and that worried her. For now, she set it aside, recognizing that it was a boy's voice and not an adult. Not dangerous? She could never be too certain. Everyone was dangerous.
Her steps were placed carefully, deliberate and quiet just as she knew to do. For all her life, she had been prey, and though the wings at her side were clutched tightly, it would only take a heartbeat for them to spread. She would be gone as swift as a startled robin. He was here, though, and perhaps he was too young to be alone. She wouldn't know such things.
Her curiosity might get her killed one day, and yet her feet still eased her stubbornly forward until her dark chocolate face peered around the thick body of a tree.
She said nothing, only a soft breath of surprise to find him alone.
Immediately, her eyes were darting to the shadows around them, searching for a hidden angry mother to chase her off as the bears did. They never seemed to smell her father bear or baby brother bear on her. Their scents have been gone from her too long. Their faces have been lost for so long, though she knew her brother was nearby. He had a new family now, and she didn't feel right to confuse him. He wouldn't remember her, being as young as he was. She settled with watching him from afar and hoping for her daddy's return.
When finally she was satisfied they were alone, she took a single hesitant step forward, bright eyes flitting from him and to their surroundings and back again repeatedly. Always watchful. It wasn't uncommon for her to remain entirely silent, yet this time as the shadows of the canopy crossed her roan middle, she gave him a quiet word of warning, her voice as soft as a whispered breeze through the forest.
"Dangerous."
It wasn't safe here. He should be in one of the lands not susceptible to the plague that strikes them, claims so many lives with its torturous death. She waited, watching earnestly for his recognition, to know that he understood he shouldn't be here. It wasn't safe. He could get sick and die too, like the others.
tell me what your heart wants, such a simple thing my heart is like paper; yours is like a flame
Nazariy was afraid of this place. Although it had all the facade of safety, not many predators to speak of, he found himself wound tight as a spool of thread, every muscle in his small teenaged body pulled taut against his bones. His buckskin coat was none too camouflaged in the darkness of this place, a place that dripped of once-known despair.
His voice had frightened him. Less what he had said than the fact that he had spoken at all; that he hadn't been able to stop it. His ears flicked this way and that for some being to come tearing out from the pines to come and tear his flesh from his bones, someone to find delight in a naive and stupid creature such as himself.
At least he had managed to piece something else about him together. The colt knew nothing, was nothing but the four days he had known of his own existence and presence in this world. His mind was as black and murky as swamp water, and all he had was his movement forward, his scattered linguistic knowledge coming to him in bits and pieces. But at least he now had a desire to keep living.
His ears pricked this way and that, until he heard a movement and twisted his golden rope of a body to look at a brown mare, one that seemed to have appeared out of the darkness of the forest. Nazariy glimpsed a pair of dark wings at her side, and new that if she truly meant him harm there was nothing he could do to stop it.
She was alone, at least from what he could see. She had the air of someone alone, too. Letting out an uneasy breath, he raised a daring voice. A fearful, young voice. "Are you dangerous?" He took a step back away from her.
She was slowly beginning to wonder if he was closer to her own age than she'd originally suspected. She was not good at discerning such things. Or many things at all. He was a beautiful, rough gold though and stood out in the dark green forest so brilliantly. He would cause them to be seen, she was sure. Especially if he was much louder than his current quiet.
Her face pulled softly into a delicate frown. Did he seem confused? Was he so very lost and alone? She was too, the second part, but she was not lost. She knew where home was.
"Are you dangerous?" he said, taking a step back from her. She startled at his voice just slightly, mirroring his step back as she took one as well. Her wings lifted from her sides in cautious ready, prepared to take flight if he frightened her. They seemed to be at a nervous standoff, though, and she very slowly lowered her wings back down again in a silent promise that she wasn't one to cause anyone harm.
She shook her head, "No," and watched him for a moment longer before sending her gaze to the forest around them. When they returned to him once more, she spoke again, each word pronounced carefully as if they took conscious thought to form. "This forest is dangerous. The sickness spreads here. You should travel to a safe land." It was the obvious next step, and so she assumed he would be leaving now.
Her wings lifted an inch off her ribs again and she took a step back, watching to make certain he was redirecting to one of the havens instead before he caught the plague too.
tell me what your heart wants, such a simple thing my heart is like paper; yours is like a flame
