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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


    how do I learn my dreams to mold; family
    #1

    how do I learn my dreams to mold, to lay them bare in the morning cold?

    He does not wish to leave Linnea, does not wish to leave Tephra, but the only thing he cares about as much as the young girl is his family. He has vague memories of his mother (that fierce protectiveness of her, the predator that was just below the surface), but he knows that he has a sister—that he has a father.

    These are the things that were stripped away from him young.

    These are the things that he had never been given a chance to know.

    Leliana does her best to heal him and, like she had promised, it is not without pain. He does his best to be brave before Linnea, to grit his teeth, but he cannot stop the cries that come. He cannot stop the way that his breathing goes labored and his vision grows fuzzy around the edges—or the tears that fall.

    But, eventually, the pain recedes. The tide washes it away and he finds that he has ended up on the ground and his leg is not as twisted as before. It is not perfect (perhaps with time, Leliana had said), but it does not hurt as much as before and although the limp remains, it is more subtle, less intrusive.

    When enough time has passed, he finally asks her if he can go home and she, without hesitation, says yes. She opens a portal and after his goodbyes, he steps through it—walking from that secret garden in Tephra into the heart of Loess. He blinks into the setting sun and then does his best to acquaint himself with his location as the portal blinks closed behind him. This is the same and yet not the same as he remembered.

    The signs of war have begun to fade—the maze no longer overtaking the kingdom.

    But it feels like he remembers and his youthful lips curve.

    He’s not certain where he is supposed to look. He is not certain if his parents and siblings are even here, or if they would even recognize him if they saw him, and the thought causes him to frown slightly.

    Quietly, he looks down at the rocks that begin to animate around his feet, the pebbles and stones that clatter around his hooves, before he lifts his iridescent face, staring into the horizon and waiting.

    nikolaus

    if they’re still out there then the chasm grows
    ( for all you know, for all you’ve known )




    @[Castile] - he's hooooome
    #2

    no one really knows what the ocean hides
    but you and I, bird, we’re gonna find out

     
    His name exists, but there’s not a face.

    A brother, they said, but his existence has been an abysmal void. Reia has wondered, roamed, and still there is no inclination of a sibling, no scent or face or skin that she could hunt and pursue. Liars, she almost called her parents, but why would they deceive their daughter? Why else would mother have blood caked down her legs and sweat dried across her coat? He exists, this mythological Nikolaus. You will know he is kin, she was reassured, but it all seemed like a curtain over her eyes until she finally lifted her eyes and saw a boy crossing into Loess.

    Her heart flutters because she easily recognizes the iridescence because it’s a trademark of mother’s that she’s not seen on anyone else. That blue is a beacon calling Reia from the shade of an overhang. Father isn’t far behind, but she doesn’t wait for him. The impulsive excitement yanks her from a standstill to a gallop across rocky hills and around towering cacti.

    They told her she would recognize him and, somehow, she does.

    ”Nikolaus!” She shouts his name at the top of her lungs as her hooves clap like thunder across the ground. Wild, unconventional, headstrong. She is everything of a brute as she considers ramming into him before better judgment sinks down into her mind and flares her wings as brakes. She sits back, sliding with billowing dust in her wake. Sweat glistens off her skin when she straightens herself and searches his eyes that seem so much like their parents’. ”Finally,” she pants, ”You’re home!” A brusque nudge presses against his neck just as father joins them with a fiercely bright stare and broad smile. There’s no questioning they’re related. Nikolaus is a perfect combination of him and Sochi. ”My son,” Castile is almost too afraid to touch the boy, afraid that this is all a mirage and he will flicker away again.

    He wonders if his heart can bear to lose a child again.

    Glancing behind him, he searches for Sochi. ”Your mother…” he begins, but his gaze darts back to his son, unwilling to lose sight of him so soon. She will soon arrive, he knows. Sochi’s prowess is notable, so it’s only a matter of time until she is among them, completing their family at last.


    and I'll be next to you when the lights go out

    Reia



    @[sochi] @[nikolaus]
    #3

    how do I learn my dreams to mold, to lay them bare in the morning cold?

    After months alone on the isle, ravaging for food and saying a word to no other, it is overwhelming to be surrounded by so many in such a short time. First, there is a girl—larger than him—who comes up to him so quickly that he takes a stumbling step back, his silver eyes widening just slightly. His somber face lights slightly, brightening as he looks at her and sees something familiar in her face.

    “You know me?” he questions, curious, before another stallion approaches and he is everything that his mother had ever told him in his first days. The great dragon of black and ivory, bronze and gold. He is not draconic in this moment, but it is not terribly difficult for the young boy to imagine him as one.

    It is not terribly difficult for him to see the fire in his lungs.

    Something like relief—like awe—washes over his features as he hears the words. My son. He glows with it, turning his young, angular head toward the girl. “Then you—you must be Reia.”

    But before he can say anything, or move forward into an embrace, his mother is there.

    She runs forward as a tiger and shifts mid step, her face an unreadable mixture of relief and fear and other things she would never be able to discern. She crashes into her son like her daughter almost had and pulls him close into her chest. There are tears on her cheeks and she shakes with the overwhelming emotion.

    For a second, she says nothing but presses a fierce kiss into his curved neck.

    She releases him slightly and looks to her daughter, that fierce love cutting through her as she smiles, and then finally to Castile. “Our son is home,” she says as Nikolaus’ somber face breaks into a grin.

    Home.

    nikolaus

    if they’re still out there then the chasm grows
    ( for all you know, for all you’ve known )

    #4
    and underneath the layers, I find myself asking what's left
    a hollowed out form, the skeleton of a ghost, the pitiful echo of what once was
    ”Don’t be dumb,” Reia quips in response to her sibling’s bewilderment, never considering that their absence would forge unfamiliarity. Her eyes flash as her mouth opens to remind him – to feed him the information he craves – but father is upon them before she can utter a single word. With their sire’s consideration, however, Nikolaus pieces everything together. The frown that deeply creased her brow softens as a broad grin stretches across her lips. ”Yup! Your sister!” She exclaims, the blue fire along her crest hissing and blazing to match her exuberance. It softly licks the underside of Castile’s neck, but he hardly flinches as his mismatched eyes hungrily race across his son, noting every detail of Sochi in his eyes, his iridescent blue, his demeanor.

    Before he can speak up again, or even break the shackles of his uncertainty, Sochi joins them.

    It’s impossible to look away as she shifts from tigress to horse and hurls herself at Nikolaus with the unwavering love of a mother. All the months of searching and wondering have finally ended. Their hearts ached incessantly as they prowled what seemed like the farthest reaches of Beqanna only to return home with empty hands. The idea of failing another child rattled through Castile and chiseled away at him day after day. Only in solitude did he ever crumble in fear that Nikolaus would never be found. A paralyzing sense of defeat often deadened his body or haunted him during restless nights of sleep. In front of Sochi and Reia, however, he had no choice than to appear strong and determined.

    No one knew how afraid he truly was.

    No one knew how shattered he would be if his son was never found.

    Every emotion, every damn feeling possible, explodes through Castile’s veins as his eyes drink in the sight around him. This – this is all he has ever wanted, all he has ever truly needed. His ribcage holds his heart steady as it threatens to burst at having them all huddled so close together beneath the Loessian sun. Sprouting from his shoulder blades, Castile’s draconic wings extend and embrace them all, his face buried into Sochi’s neck. A smile stretches widely across his lips, ”Our family is whole.” It’s surreal. This almost seems too good to be true, a dream that he imagined for years that he never expected to come to fruition.

    With a heavy breath of relief and happiness, Castile slowly coils his wings to his sides. His gaze drifts from Reia to Nikolaus and then, finally, to Sochi where it dwells for a few heartbeats. The hard lines of his face soften and his grin refuses to fade as he pictures a future with her at his side – still fierce, still strong, but wholly and entirely his.

    Leaning against her, Castile trails his lips along the soft arch of her neck, halting at the edge of her jaw where he presses a gentle kiss and an eternal promise: ”I love you.”

    castile



    @[sochi] <333
    #5
    sochi

    Sochi had never yearned for a family—had never found herself dreaming of the day where she would be able to lay claim to one of her own. She loved her mother but her mother had never truly understood her. She had never been able to figure out the maps of her veins and the different things that make her tick. She had only known how to warn her away from the wildness, how to correct her into conformity.

    So it is surprising to her how fiercely she cares about it now.

    How fiercely she has come to protect it.

    She builds walls around it and bares her teeth at anyone who comes close to it.

    Now that her family is together again, she relaxes against it. She feels Castile open his wings to embrace them all and she grins into her son’s neck. Against the feel of her daughter curled up against them all. She knows that it won’t last forever. Both of their children are independent—and Reia is nearly feral with it—but she will at least know that they are safe. She will know that they are together.

    But this all fades when Castile leans against her, when she feels his mouth against her. She shivers a little, feels it race up her spine, and she angles her head to press a kiss back against him again.

    The words have weight. They have meaning.

    And they are something that she has never said to anyone else before.

    But she knows that they are true.

    “I love you too, Castile,” she says, her words nearly a growl as she leans up to kiss his jaw back. “I have for so long now,” she confesses, her silvery eyes tracing the draconic edges of his face.

    well, I can try to get you closer but I know you’d break your neck just to see the stars
    and if we don’t dare to hold it then this reckless wandering love was never ours

    [Image: sochi.png]

    I was less than graceful, I was not kind
    be out watching other lovers lose their spine

    #6
    and underneath the layers, I find myself asking what's left
    a hollowed out form, the skeleton of a ghost, the pitiful echo of what once was
    The warmth radiating from their skins seeps far deeper. It brushes the edges of his soul and blankets his thrumming heart as Castile continues to embrace their entirety for another moment longer. A breath catches in his throat after finally admitting to Sochi what has been swimming in his mind for years… years. It’s like a phoenix that has broken from its shackles, a sense of weightlessness as it rises on an updraft in all its glory. Castile’s heart swells and soars just the same, his smile a transparent window into his profound joy.

    This is the height of it all – this very moment – and just as his heart flirts with the edges of bursting, Sochi reiterates the same.

    The weight of her words lifts him far higher than anything else in this world. Scales ripple across his skin and his eyes flash with the jubilance that pours through his every vein, struggling to remain subdued as their children stand between them in sweet reunion. Sochi presses a loving kiss to the curve of his jaw, punctuating her confession and binding themselves to one another. A heavy breath sighs from his lungs, finding peace and happiness in all of this. ”I’ve wanted to tell you for so long,” he murmurs as his wings fold to his side, exposing them all to the sunlight again. Reia slips out from between them and nudges her sibling. There is nothing to say, nothing to do, as she observes the love pouring from her parents. A jagged smile tugs at her lips, immaturely understanding this as a means of life.

    With their daughter inching away, Castile hugs himself to Sochi’s side. They melt into one another as his lips trail along her neck then her shoulder, still always memorizing every inch of her – still always wanting to touch every inch of her. ”You’re everything I’ve ever needed,” life spun him in many circles and nearly defeated him, yet somehow it brought him to Sochi. Their tapestries began sewing together. ”Everything I’ve ever wanted,” he buries his face into her, smiling into the heat of her skin. ”You are my entire world, Sochi.”

    castile



    @[sochi]




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