"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
07-08-2019, 02:49 PM (This post was last modified: 07-08-2019, 02:51 PM by Erio.)
[color=#295775][font=monospace]
It was wrong of him to wander away, wrong of him to confess what ails him. Mother would be angry, he muses as he tediously clambers from the Mountain toward the open meadow. His jaws clench stressfully and his eyes dart back and forth as though expecting Valdis to step out from her cover and reprimand him.
Yet he is met with silence.
There are frogs croaking nearby and a whistling breeze, but there are no voices calling out to him, no shouting. A quivering breath is pulled into his lungs and it drenches him in new scents that would otherwise frighten him away, but Erio remains steadfast in his travels with the faery’s instructions echoing in his mind. Admittedly, he knew not what to expect from the experience nor what could truly help him. He just knew it was worth a try.
Here, with the world unraveling in front of him, is where Erio’s insecurity rises like the tide. Emotion climbs up his throat and chokes him of air. He takes pause, his small hind leg in midstep as his hazel eyes again dart back and forth. Out of comfort – and now, habit – his body contorts and shifts into his counterpart. His coat lengthens and claws take place of his hooves. A hellhound is what mother called him once with a heavy sigh following as though disappointed. Such a ferocious name, he thought, and yet he doesn’t have any primal or instinctual rage. It doesn’t change him
As a small hellhound, he could easily be missed in the tall grass if not for the winter season withering what vegetation still clings to life. His triangular ears pivot and his eyes dance in search of someone to settle the nerves winding to life in his solitude.
07-13-2019, 04:24 PM (This post was last modified: 07-13-2019, 04:43 PM by Dracarys.)
DRACARYS
I have never been nothing. I am the blood of a dragon.
Sylva was no more—at least for her.
There was nothing left in the home she was born in. The eternal autumn forest was nothing but a haunted ghost story now. It was empty quickly after the winner of the challenge had been declared. Her hellhound father had lost, leaving her grandfather Castile to win.
Her departure had been sudden. Well, at least her father’s had been. He felt no reason to remain in the autumn forest. Leaving her quickly behind to be on her own and something about telling her to go to Loess as that is where she would be “safe” and with “family”. It was the first time she found out her grandfather was the one with the crown her father wanted.
Surprise! Family drama.
Dracarys rolls her eyes at the thought. Going to Loess seemed useless anyway. So, the meadow became her grounds for now. She isn’t sure where her mother has gone. Last she checked she wasn’t in Loess or Sylva. Perhaps Pangea still? The blue yearling considered going to the wasteland. Maybe after she was done sulking, she would make a trip there.
“Whatever,” she huffs under her breath as a puff of smoke leaves her lips and evaporates into the winter air. Her silver-blue eyes glance around the winter seasoned meadow. Her gaze doesn’t linger on the dotted horses much. All of them either live here or are causals visiting friends or meeting new faces. She doesn’t care to trouble another today. Simply being alone was enough for her now.
Her gaze continues to float across the winter scene. A few more dotted horses. A wolf, maybe a hellhound, running across the meadow. The blue yearling’s eyes slowly slide across the rest of the meadow. Wait a minute, she thinks sharply. Her gaze quickly slides back to the small hellhound in the distance. The girl quickly trails after the hellhound.
“Dad?” She yells out as she runs at a fast pace towards the hellhound. “DAD!?” She yells again, closing the distance between them. The blue yearling keeps herself fully focused on the hellhound ahead. But the closer she gets, the more she realizes it isn’t dad. The hellhound is much smaller. Nothing like her dad not all.
“No, you definitely aren’t my dad.” She says loudly, likely audible for the hellhound to hear. But Dracarys doesn’t take her gaze off the hellhound just yet. Something familiar clings to the hound that she just can’t shake away. It reminds her of home. It reminds her of mom. “You!” She says loudly, and more directly this time. “Yes, you dog!” She closes the distance between them further. “Don’t you move anymore!” She commands. She will not be chasing after this dog if she has it her way.
The wintry landscape is a bed, the soft breeze and snow a lullaby.
Erio’s muzzle lifts to the air and his eyes close in complete serenity. Although alone – painstakingly so – he tries to find the silver lining. There is a peacefulness here, at least in the spot he sits, where he closes his senses to the world and falls deep into his own thoughts. Despite the solemnity of his life thus far, he imagines the joy of spring and the air brimming with laughter. There are flowers surrounding him and a friend pressed against his side that is able to look beyond his deformities and shortcomings. A warm sense of adoration washes across him in this beautiful scape, but unfortunately, the boy is reeled back into a dismal and cold world when he hears shouting above the white noise of his idealizations.
It's a girl – a rather pretty one – but the commanding shouts flattens his ears. ”Hmmm?” He barely says, the sound nearly lost by her footsteps as she approaches him, winded. In anticipation of scolding, his head droops down and his eyes fall to the frosty ground for a long moment until he musters the courage to look up at her. ”I didn’t move anymore,” he murmurs once their eyes lock. Slowly, his triangular ears prick forward and his brows lift with increasing curiosity. She looks familiar, but he has little knowledge of the world. There are only a handful he has met, and she doesn’t match their scents at all.
But one… there, hidden underneath the multitude of others, is the faintest trace of their mother. Valdis has mentioned his sibling, raved about her even, but the effort was never made to find her. ”We are prisoners,” mother advised him one day when he asked to explore. Despite her demands, Erio wandered away and found himself perched on the mountain in front of a fairy. So rebellious, he thought sheepishly.
”Do you know my mom? I can just barely smell her on you,” truthfully, he wants to ask if she is the sibling that is so much greater than he is. So beautiful, so strong, so independent. But he is afraid of deceit, therefore closing the possibility of her claiming kin in that way.
I have never been nothing. I am the blood of a dragon.
Dracarys is surprised to find the hellhound to quickly submit to her. It feels almost disrespectful to what she believes hellhounds to be—strong and fearful. It almost makes her feel shameful for a moment to be the blood of a hellhound.
There is something fascinating about having power instantly over the hellhound. She didn’t think it was ever truly possible to bark orders at someone. Well, not like the way her father did it.
A part of her begins to feel sorry for the pup as the moments pass by. However, when he finds the courage to look up at her, she acts quickly. “Good,” she says instantly with a strong nod of her head when their gaze meet.
Dracarys finally gets a better look at the small hellhound. She quickly notes the familiar nutmeg-hazel eyes he has. They were the same eyes her father had. It certainly wasn’t wrong for her to assume this was the little sibling she was expecting before her mother was taken away. She knew she couldn’t be wrong at all, especially when her mother’s scent cling so heavily to the boy.
“Do you know my mom?” He asked her. It felt strange for him to just call her his mom. She was their mom. She wouldn’t forget about me would she? She thinks with a worried expression that crosses over her features visibly.
The young blue girl shakes her head and takes a step back. “You mean our mom.” She says flatly as her expressions harden again looking at @[Erio]. No, she would never forget about me. Dracarys knew better than that.
“Your mom is Valdis, correct?” She asks because going any further to assume would be an entire mistake without directly asking. It really didn’t cross her mind until now that this pup could be talking about Mary. Who knew what scent the hellhound was talking about? For all Dracarys knew it could be Sylva.
”You’re Dracarys?!” There is no shame in his excitement. His nutmeg eyes flash vibrantly as a smile hurriedly pulls the edges of his mouth, exposing small, needle-like teeth. ”Big sister!” Of course, he knows of her. She is the epitome of mother’s pride, the embodiment of everything Valdis wants in a child. ”I didn’t know if I would ever find you. Mom was stolen to Pangea and that’s where I was born, but I don’t know what or where we are going next,” the words tumble from his mouth and nearly roll together in his jubilance for finally finding the sibling he knows so much about.
Even as jealousy traces its fingers across the outskirts of his thoughts, Erio suppresses it with continued bouts of joy. It’s too great of a meeting to be dampened by the kiss of envy. She, Dracarys, is beautiful and so proud. He glances to the height of her legs and the shades of blue that dance in winter’s soft light, then a glance finds his own paws as he refuses to shift. It’s comfortable in this skin where he looks like a pup instead of a dwarfed equine. She will laugh at him or scorn him like mother does, he assumes. Another piece of his heart breaks away at the thought.
With a sigh, Erio’s smile weakens. It threatens to fall into a shadowed frown, but he fights it with every fiber of his being. Unfortunately, much of his emotions are on his sleeve, served like a platter for all to see. But if he cannot be honest with his sibling – his only sibling – then what positivity in his life can he look forward to? Erio’s tail thumps the ground once before curling around his haunches as he sits and peers up at Dracarys. ”I went to the Mountain without mother. She was in Pangea last I saw,” a fleeting thought comes and goes. Will his sister abandon him here to venture off and find Valdis? A thoughtful lick of his lips sets his mind back on track. ”I didn’t really know what to expect, or what I wanted. All I know if that I want our parents proud of me and to care about me,” his voice lowers uncomfortably and his gaze briefly falls, ”Mother looks so ashamed of me, but I don’t know why.” In truth, he does. It’s because of his shortcomings, of his defect that makes him appear so seemingly weak.
It’s because he cannot be a formidable fighter like father. He is a black mark against her and against her ability to produce strong children.
I have never been nothing. I am the blood of a dragon.
“You’re Dracarys!?”
She had not forgotten about me, she thinks with joy. The blue shaded girl cannot help but smile as much as she manages to keep her emotions in control. But for months Dracarys had been worried she had been forgotten by her mother. The very person she imagined to be—a dragon. Independent, strong, and fearful.
Her newly-found sibling is overly thrilled more than she is as his words tumble from his mouth. Dracarys picks every one of them up as her ears are flickered forward in his direction. “Yes, I am Dracarys.” A smug smile touches her blue shaded lips as her silver-blue eyes gleam with confidence. “That would definitely make me your big sister, and you my little brother then.” She rises her head a little higher and stands a little taller for a moment. “And what did mother call you?”
Dracarys’ smile grows a little bigger as she focuses her gaze clearly back onto @[Erio]. “Pangea, huh?” She licks her lips softly. “Of course, I should have gone there first. I didn’t know where to find mother really. I thought maybe she would have come home or gone to Loess by now.” Dracarys rolls her shoulder. “Oh well,” she says with a shrug. “Do you like it there?” Her head tilts to the side. The blue girl wonders if her mother will stay there. Maybe that was why she hadn’t come back just yet.
Erio’s jubilant expression fades suddenly. She peers at him curiously, a bit concerned. Is there something more that she doesn’t know? Did something happen to their mother? Her right ear flickers back and then forward as hellhound pup sits and looks back at her. Dracarys shifts her weight, leaning more on her left hindleg as her gaze remains on Erio’s.
Her expression fades. A stoic expression softly touches the sharpen edges of her facial features. She listens carefully to Erio who seems to confine in her openly. Erio was simply an open book whereas she was more closed off and kept such thoughts to herself. Perhaps it was because she never had anyone to truly confine into. There were no older siblings or really any true friends until she met the pegasus girl and her monkey.
Dracarys carefully looks over the hellhound pup for a moment. Not really sure why their mother would be ashamed of Erio. She can only think of Mary—the memory comes back quickly to her mind. A flash of anger quickly takes over her stoic expression. She glances away for a moment in distaste, wiping the memory away as soon as it had come to her.
“There is nothing to be ashamed of what you are,” she says firmly turning to look back at Erio. Dracarys remembers fully well that she was taught to never be ashamed of what or who she was. But she never had anything to worry about like her brother. “You and I both are special. We have the blood of dragons and hellhounds.” She nods her head firmly. At least you were born something special, she thinks with envy for a moment. She had not been born a hellhound or a dragon.
“Why do you need the fairies to help you?” The question pops out, but she is curious what her younger brother could possibly ever want from the Mountain.
”Erio,” he quietly murmurs, calming the exuberance of his voice to match her, ”Mother calls me Erio.” As Dracarys lifts her head a little higher, so does he. His sister is proud, so shouldn’t he be? He makes a feeble attempt, but when his nutmeg eyes trace across her, he sees only perfection and strength. She is the embodiment of everything their parents could want in a child.
So what happened to him?
But he tries with all of his energy to move past that and harness the joy that washes across him at having finally met his sister. ”I don’t know what her plans are,” he admits solemnly, ”but she was in Pangea last I checked, especially since dad no longer leads Sylva. Maybe she feels lost… like me.” It’s difficult to see her in that light, however. Their mother always seems so steadfast and determined, like she has everything together. Is it truly possible that she herself is confused as to where she belongs now? With Sylva taken out from beneath their parents’ feet, where do they feel to go? Where is the next best thing?
With his thoughts reeling, they suddenly come to a screeching halt with Dracarys’ question. Erio’s ears flicker thoughtfully. ”I do actually,” he is more or less thinking aloud. His gaze narrows as his nose points to the sky, picturing the barren landscape. ”It’s open. You can’t hide,” his tongue slips out and across his lips, ”I have no option than to be myself and to be seen. It forces me out of the shadows and out of my comfort zone…” oddly enough, he has wasted hours considering his thin attachment to Pangea and why it exists so early in his life. He has done nothing for the kingdom, not even admitted his youthful loyalty to it. But Pangea has offered him a kindness that mother could not even match.
”I’m… small… as mother puts it. I think she had grand expectations. She has told father that she misses her darling Dracarys and she would tell me how beautiful you are and fierce. You are what she wants in a child while I’m just… a bother.” His voice is level, but it drains him of all his energy to remain composed as he recalls Valdis’ cold looks and barbed words. ”I just hoped they could help me because I don’t know where else to turn. I don’t know what I want or what would even help. I just want to be a positive impact and to be able to make mother’s smile brighten like it does when she talks about you…”
08-03-2019, 01:41 PM (This post was last modified: 08-03-2019, 01:42 PM by Dracarys.)
DRACARYS
I have never been nothing. I am the blood of a dragon.
Her silver-blue flecked eyes watch him carefully, though curiously. Dracarys cannot help but wonder more about her newly found sibling. She catches the change in his stance, the movement of his head just a little higher than before. A soft grin begins to grow on her blue splashed lips. Her parents one day told her that she would have other siblings and she would have to look after them. However, she had never thought she would have such an imprinting on them already. Her grin, fully spread across her lips now, embodies proudness for a moment as she overlooks @[Erio]. “It’s a good name,” she says before turning her focus onto listening to him.
A small sharp pain is felt in her chest at the mention of Sylva. The autumn kingdom held fond memories for her. It was where she learned many of the things she knows now. For it to simply be gone, out of her reach, made her angry. Then to be told to go to Loess had made it even worse. Why should she go there out of all the place in the world?
Then Erio mentioned their mother feeling lost. Her ear flickers forward, uncertain. She cannot picture her mother being lost. Their mother was always so sure of herself. She knew the right things to say and do. But maybe she was lost like the both of them.
“Mother will be fine,” she says softly. Her eyes flash with uncertainty for a moment as she looks at her hellhound brother. Dracarys knew uncertainty was not allowed. She was raised to be determined even in times like this. “She will figure it out.” But she hopes her mother will at least come to Loess. Maybe then she will stay there.
Erio then speaks about Pangea. There is a hint in his words, the way he speaks about the barren landscape. She knows little about the land besides what their hellhound father told them. But she knows the feeling in his voice—the way you speak about a home. Hers is Sylva. Well, was now. She is simply a wanderer now, torn between living a nomadic life or Loess. “You sound just like dad,” she comments. “Pangea is the same place dad was born.” It was little information that meant nothing to her, but she thinks her little brother would like to hear it.
Her ears flicker back and then forward as she listens to what Erio says next. She watches as the levels of his emotions change. Dracarys remains silent, studying her hellhound brother. It was so different from the way she had been raised. Erio had been entirely scolded for being someone he was not. She felt shame for even being herself now.
How could her mother even do that?
Dracarys shakes her head and looks away from Erio as his voice trails off. She remains silent for a long time. The growing silence doesn’t bother her. She is too busy, sorting through her own emotions and thoughts that cloud her mind. That doesn’t sound like mother, she thinks as she tries to puzzle it all together of what Erio told her just now. Perhaps her mother could be that way. Maybe, she thinks before ending the silence and turning back to her brother.
“Forget about what mother said,” she says firmly. Her face hardens as she meets her brother’s gaze. “She doesn’t know what she is talking about.” Dracarys wouldn’t have her younger brother feeling like he wasn’t enough. Even if her mother didn’t feel the same way about him as she did for Dracarys, then Dracarys would be sure to make sure Erio felt the same way. “You are the same as me. We both come from the same blood. You are enough for me.”
”Thank you,” he replies steadily, holding his voice so it doesn’t waver and betray his unreliable confidence. Erio wants to be like her, to possess an air of comfort and respect, but it’s almost comical to see his small head lift higher as though to look down his nose. Everyone is taller than him, and so it will forever be him looking up at the greaters, at his superiors. Surely, he will never be able to command the trust and respect of others.
But Dracarys is convinced otherwise.
When she looks at him, she sees something greater in him, but he isn’t quite certain what that is. His nutmeg eyes watch her and search her expressions as they perfectly adapt to every word and every bit of their conversation. He observes as she assumes mother will be okay; he doesn’t doubt that, but he neither agrees with her. Erio’s mouth is a thin line of contemplation, his gaze hooded until his sibling compares him to father. It incites a grin, broad in nature that reaches every corner of his face. ”I’ll take that as a compliment,” because to be as strong and fearsome as father would be a great honor. If only he could be a perfect portrayal, but maybe, just maybe, he could inherit father’s wit if not his brawn. ”You should visit. I think I might stay there,” he muses and considers the option with a furrowed brow, ”but I’m not too sure. I can’t do much now, but when I grow up, perhaps I can take a stab at diplomacy.” A small shrug rolls through his shoulders, not yet entirely committed to the idea.
In his mind, however, he sees only what is versus what can be. Erio’s youth plays against him, limiting his perception of the world and his ability to imagine beyond mother’s opinions.
A hesitant bite of his lip and a fallen stare, too afraid to accept her sentiment, silences him. ”I don’t know… I feel like mom would be kind of smart. She’s so much older than us,” ancient is the word that comes to mind, but it never makes it to his lips. Although she isn’t withered and gray, there’s often the idea that parents are hundreds of years older than their children, and that age should automatically make them wiser. But maybe where she isn’t – where mother is weak – he could be greater. ”Maybe if I’m witty and valuable in other ways than fighting…” he thinks aloud with a spreading grin and a head tilt when he finally tries to meet his sister’s eyes. ”You’re so much nicer and cooler than mom.”
08-21-2019, 06:24 PM (This post was last modified: 08-21-2019, 06:24 PM by Dracarys.)
DRACARYS
I have never been nothing. I am the blood of a dragon.
When she was younger, she had never imagined that she would go anywhere else than Sylva her entire life. The autumn forest had always been the place her family would be. However, it did not end up that way.
Her family was now torn across the rest of Beqanna. It felt like an entirely different life now, especially hearing that her little brother might be staying in Pangea. Dracarys supposes it feels like home to him as much as Sylva felt like home to her. She wonders if she will ever feel that way again. Although it certainly all feels so very far away.
“I’d like to visit you sometime then,” she replies. “I never been to Pangea before. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to see what the place really is all about after hearing it from dad.” The young mare couldn’t figure out exactly what a barren land like Pangea would have, but if she suspects her mother will be remaining there and it being a close kingdom friend to Loess then it would be good of her to visit. Then again, if she decides to stay in Loess. “I think you would be good at diplomacy,” she adds after a brief moment of silence. “Perhaps we both have to hope we got dad’s cleverness.” Dracarys laughs softly.
Dracarys had once felt every word of her parents were like gold. It seemed they all knew it all; however, leaving Sylva behind had taught her so much more. “I don’t think it’s about being old that makes you wiser,” she says thoughtfully as she continues to consider what her parents taught her. “Sure, mom and dad could teach us everything, but I don’t think it’s just that. I think our own experiences can teach us more about the world and maybe who we are.” Dracarys shrugs her shoulder. She was still trying to piece it all together on her own. Perhaps this was part of growing up and leaving all her childhood behind.
Her expression brightens a little at watching her younger brother grin wide. She meets his gaze equally. “Don’t go tell mom that now!” She says with a serious tone but there is a hint of humor on the edge of her words. “She will have your head if she finds that out!” Her eyes brighten more and her smile spreads wider.
![[Image: YJta8td.png]](https://i.imgur.com/YJta8td.png)