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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


    shine bright like a diamond; any
    #1
    Bean is like the lone goose swimming up the river. It cranes its head from side to side, in search of the flock but finding nothing. No answering honks to its sad honk here and there. Only Bean probably isn’t as sad as that goose is. But she’s just as lost, and not really all that confused. Guess all that she has in common with that goose is that like it, she is singular and alone.


    It’s not much, but it’s something.
    Bean can’t say what though, because she doesn’t think she’s missing all that much. 


    Her eyes trail the goose until it disappears around a bend in the river. Then she’s left with the play of mid-morning light atop the water. It’s bright and harsh, like most light is and that’s okay. Bean smiles all the same, as much tinier rivers run all around her and between her hooves from the snowmelt. Spring breezes - chilled but promising to be warmer - blow about and everything looks like it’ll grow back green and better than before.


    Spring is just as magical as Winter is to the brown girl. There are tufts of new grass, infant tree-sprouts, fledgling flowers just beginning to nod the drops of frost-fade from their blossoming heads. Oh it is so very magical indeed! And she enjoys it from her spot next to the river, hoping to see an otter or a duck. Maybe a fish will poke its head above water and wink at her.


    That makes Bean chuckle to herself. Then again, she does that a lot - laugh and laugh so much it makes her belly hurt. Always worth it though. Bean smiles and decides to much on some of that newly sprouted spring grass. She figures it’s gotta be tasty enough with all the flavors of winter and revival in it. Munch munch, yum. Crunch crunch, mmmmm. 


    Oh look, there’s that goose again. Poor dear still hasn’t found it’s flock. Bean tries to honk, but the goose-language is lost on her and it comes out from between grass-stained lips sounding strangled and odd. Hey, she tried. The goose flaps its wings, probably startled by the sound she made but she’ll pretend it was an acknowledgement of some sort, and hurries on by. Leaving Bean on the riverbank stretching her neck out to more delicious grass because she might as well be productive and eat. 
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    #2

    He walks.

    He feels like he has been walking for years -- maybe he has been, and his awareness towards the passage of time has simply gone by the wayside. All the titan knows is he is a long way from the place he once called home.

    But that is fate, isn't it? A former king, a monarch of yesterday, bested in combat and driven from the home he had once viciously protected. Skeleton Ghoul never should have taken the throne from Gilgamesh, even if it had been offered. He had not done it justice, and in the end, a pair of fractious youngsters had bested the beast and wrestled the monarchy right out of his blood-stained teeth. 

    The sound of his march is slow and methodical. The ground has been left soft from recent cold rains; white feathered legs are soaked black as dinnerplate hooves sink to the fetlock in mud that can't possibly hold his weight. Skeleton Ghoul is a whisper of the stallion he'd once been. The winter has been cold and harsh and unfamiliar, and food too scarce. Beneath a thick and bedraggled coat, his ribs flash when he breathes, his hips are sunken and his waist line tucked. 

    He is thin, but spring's breath is on the wind. His days of ripping bark off of dormant trees are coming to an end.

    A goose honks nearby, flapping its wings on the riverbank ahead. Absently, Skeleton Ghoul wishes he could eat meat -- in his months of travel, he'd seen far more meat-things than plant-things. The eighteen hand behemoth pauses, feet sinking into the muck as he watches the goose, only to note a horse not too far beyond. He smells her now, a small, dark colored thing, grazing on fresh spring shoots. Water is more up Skeleton Ghoul's ally at the moment.

    Moving to the river's edge, the black titan plods into it up to his knees, gulping the frigid liquid as fast as he could. Thirst is a powerful motivator, but so is pain; his gut twists, reminding him that patience is the better part of valor. 

    He swings his great shaggy head, empty white eyes staring at the mare, and his voice is like shattered glass. "What is this country called?"

    SKELETON GHOUL

    the black tyton

    [Image: qZyWUwo.png]
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    #3
    Bean chews like a cow, which is probably insulting to cows everywhere since horses are graceful beautiful creatures and cows are… cows. They make chewing their cud an art form and she just brings shame upon all creatures great and small that graze on such bountiful juicy grass. Yes, she is that ridiculous and not the least bit picky about what goes into her mouth. 

    Brown spot? That’s okay, it needs to be eaten too and who knows when her next meal will poke right up from the ground? Not like grass is about to die out at the moment even if she eats it like it’s going out of style. She might have grazed out of sheer boredom, or loneliness, not that Bean would admit to feeling that. But the goose had left her after all. 

    Not even good enough to be part of the flock! The indignity! Bean chortles around a fat mouthful of the good green stuff, unaware of the big dark baddie lumbering by. Well, unaware at first until she smells him. He didn’t smell all that bad, just smelled unfamiliar and deeply masculine to her. It made her raise her head and follow him with her eyes as he had eyes only for the river.

    Poor thing! Must be bothered by thirst and she might have given a small shake of her head and tsked tsked under her breath. Bean couldn’t blame him though; she’d known thirst a time or two in her travels and it was an unpleasant devil to deal with. She snatches up another mouthful and continues to watch him, thinking he might just be a curious enough fellow after all.

    He pins her with his pale stare and Bean slowly masticates the grass in her mouth. She looks a little dumbstruck, quite like a silly brown cow. “Oh, me?” She grins, gives one soft little laugh and affects a serious manner. “Oh this is…” then the charade falls apart - “Ummm… to be honest, I don’t rightly know what country this is.”

    A small frown, a tilt of the head in careful consideration and then, a lightbulb moment! “Oh, it’s the River in Beqanna. I think it’s just a free-for-all type of land.” and then she grabs another mouthful, her brown gaze traveling from his pale eyes to his big chest and his knees… she’s probably no more than knee-height to him. Oh, a giant! Grass falls out of her mouth as she smiles at him, her eyes climbing back up to his from inside the bland brown face of hers. 

    @[Skeleton Ghoul]
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    #4

    ...What a curious little creature.

    Skeleton Ghoul blinks once, then his head tilts to the side just a little bit as the brown girl admits she's forgotten what this land is called. Or perhaps she never knew to begin with; she could be new to the area same as he is. Curiouser still, though, is when she recalls it. It's a bit odd for a horse to forget where they live.

    "The River, of Beqanna." the titan draft repeats under his breath, committing the name to memory. From the sound of her description, it isn't owned by anyone -- a common territory, as he knows it to be. Good, he won't be bothered here or attacked for trespassing. Nodding, Ghoul sticks his lips back into the icy water and drinks more, soothing his parched throat and his aching, dehydrated head. 


    The bland colored girl has the right idea. The stallion lumbers out of the river, thirst finally quenched for the moment, and stops on the bank not far from her. Tiny grass shoots will be too hard for his sharp teeth to grasp, so he starts browsing on a low bush that has begun to bloom with buds and greenery. He has molars in the back of his skull same as everyone else, but his shark-like front teeth don't lend the easiest grazing, so he browses instead. Between chews, he asks;

    "Your name?"

    SKELETON GHOUL

    the black tyton

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    #5
    She claims no loyalty to any land, not even the one she stands upon. All the earth is hers to roam, but that might be a lofty claim except no one has stopped the little horse from her explorations or even just passing through. In fact, it’s quite a feat that she’s made it this far in life and managed to keep herself alive. That, and not ending up in some stallion’s harem. 

    It’s probably not all that bad of a life but Bean liked her freedom. Otherwise, she’d rebel and her rebellions are nigh unto legendary according to her mother. They might have been more like tantrums but regardless, the brown mare got what she wanted in the end - her way, and an endless amount of freedom and not having to answer to anything but the wind and the call of nature.

    She barely knows this place, and has listened in on conversations that do not concern her but have provided her with at least the name of this place. The River, quite simple and apt given that a large river runs through it. He seems not to care one way or another and took another long sip from the water and Bean finishes chewing her mouthful of grass before staring up at him again.

    Yep, he’s a giant of a horse which must make her a dwarf of a horse to him. Hobbit-horse! Scamp, imp, and elf will also do though Bean’s ears just aren’t long and pointy enough to be elvish and she’s definitely not elfin - too roly-poly for that. Just by looks alone, one can deduce that despite her travels, some rough of course and some not, that she still hasn’t ever missed a meal.

    Once he’s had his fill of the river, he lumbers over time a bush and joins her in eating. Except now she’s equally curious about him and why he’s not munching on the grass like she was. But hey, it’s still dinner company! If she can call this dinner, it might be second-meal or third-meal instead. Up close though, she can see that his teeth are not quite normal.

    How cool is that?! Bean doesn’t gasp aloud in shock; she’s completely taken by his sharper than usual extraordinary teeth that look predatory. “Shouldn’t you be eating meat with those and not that yucky bush?” She could only imagine that it tasted neither as good as grass or meat and she kind of pitied him that he had to eat it or starve. Big guy like him… he’d need more than that pitiful bush.

    ”Oh I’m Bean, who are you?” somewhere in there, exists mannered but she’s such a strange little creature, often reacting before thinking. Plus, she was already scanning the area for something more palatable for him, like some berries or nuts. Could he even eat nuts, like a squirrel? Maybe he’d prefer a squirrel…

    @[Skeleton Ghoul] love him! sorry she’s such a dork lol
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    #6

    Empty eyes watch the little brown mare between bites of crunchy brush. Her enthusiasm is exhausting, yet oddly charming -- she has been spared many of the horrors of this world, he feels, whether by luck or youth. It would be a shame if she lost her brightness, but only time would tell if that would come to pass.

    "I cannot eat meat," he says simply, though his tone is a bit on the lamenting side. He wishes he could. There is plenty in the wood to eat for a predator -- especially one shaped like a horse. Skeleton Ghoul cannot count the amount of times he has grazed and browsed alongside does and bucks. They never feared him. They never had cause to fear him. All it would take is a good bite, and he'd be able to feast upon them.

    But, alas, the stud is an herbivore like all the others. In the summer time, when the grasses are tall and thick, he does not have much issue eating them, but now, when all there is is soft green shoots, having flat teeth would better suit.

    Bean? Her name is Bean? Her mother named her Bean?

    Ghoul looks at her again. "...Skeleton Ghoul. I am often called simply Ghoul."

    OOC: she is PRECIOUS @[bean]

    SKELETON GHOUL

    the black tyton

    [Image: qZyWUwo.png]
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    #7
    She’s a lot like a star; burning hot and bright for eons before burning out, or bursting in a spectacular display of space-dust. Or so she likes to imagine. Bean though, is purely mortal so death will claim her at some point but for now, she is blissfully ignorant of the horrors that exist in the world. 

    Well, that’s not quite true either - she knows about them, has seen the aftermath but personal experience? She lacks that and is as pure as the driven snow in a fresh blizzard on a brand new day. Bless her crazy exasperating little heart if that should ever change, but she’d most likely roll with the punches, if not get up and do some kicking and screaming of her own. 

    (it’s like bringing a pocket knife to a gunfight!)

    Here she is, watching intently for signs of squirrels scurrying up the trunks of nearby trees and he admits he cannot eat meat, even with teeth like that. Her mouth gapes open in surprise as she throws her head back to side-eye him from her short height. “Are you kidding me?! What good are teeth like that for then?”

    Yep, just blurts it right out. No filter. No apologies. Just abject surprise that he cannot so better than some boring bushes for dinner. Now Bean is horrified because she assumes the big brute must be starving and that’s just perfect for her to begin her next mission: saving big bad from wasting away to nothing! 

    Oh it’s charitable but she’s really doing it out of the goodness of her own heart, and the fact that he’s a little scary in a cute way to her but he’s her scary so she needs to feed him, asap. Can’t have him starving! She sets about gathering up mouthfuls of the nice green grass to deposit on a rock except there isn’t one nearby. 

    Damn rocks! She’s going to have to have a talk with Mother Nature for making this task more challenging. As if something bigger than herself like an entity like that would actually listen to someone with as ridiculous a name and personality as Bean. Still, she harrumphs and finds a rock and begins redistributing what she’s gathered to it.

    “There,” she says satisfactorily, as she surveys her handiwork. “That should taste much better!” Giggling, she runs right underneath his belly before appearing on the other side of him. “Ghoul huh? It kinda suits you…” she trails off, forever easily distracted by something as simple as a bee zipping by. 

    Least she thought it was a bee, could have been a ghost or some other flying insect. But she goes right back to bouncing around him and stripping the harder to find greener leaves and young juicy twigs off the bushes and adding them to his dinner pile on the rock. “You know, we could do with some berries.” she suggests, glancing up at him before breaking out into another of her signature goofy grins.

    @[Skeleton Ghoul] wanna pick some berries? haha 
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    #8

    What good are his teeth? Skeleton Ghoul's ghastly white eyes watch her once more as she seems filled with impotent outrage that he can't eat meat. It's almost ... endearing, how the tiny, tiny brown pony puffs up at life's hardships on his behalf. She doesn't even know him. God, she's so naive, and has no idea what life is capable of doing to an animal.

    Ghoul sighs. He supposes he will have to protect her. 

    Dark ears tilt to follow Bean as she ... apparently gathers grasses for him, leaving them by the mouthfuls on the rock. Well, the stallion can't be choosy, can he? Lowering his massive head, the draft scoops up the greenery by the mouthful, chewing and swallowing. He grunts and tightens his abdominal muscles when the squat mare bolts right underneath him; he's not sure what he expected, but he is fairly positive that wasn't it. Snorting softly, Skeleton Ghoul finishes what she gathered, chewing on the last bite as if to savor it. 

    It tastes amazing. It's been a long time of eating dead foliage and bark to get here, in this land of apparently plenty. 

    "Hmmm," he rumbles, turning to follow her. "Why don't you show me to a field or meadow? Somewhere with more grass. Hm? And I will have you know my teeth are plenty useful. I am a savage in a fight."

    ooc; FML SHE IS SO CUTE UGH. sorry this is garbage life is stressfull rn but I wanted to get SOMETHING written for you

    SKELETON GHOUL

    the black tyton

    [Image: qZyWUwo.png]
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