• Logout
  • 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


    they say nothing good happens here when midnight rolls around; ANY
    #1
        

    "We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."
     
    She was perfectly content to lay in her tree and watch the storm roll through but she knew her da and mam would worry. "Five more minutes." She says to herself, sliding her hands under her chin as she settled herself in to watch the storm rage. The wind gusted towards her and she could just barely see the very tips of the trees beneath the storm clouds, bending. She imagined she could hear their groans.
     
    A smile curls her lips and she settles herself in to watch it roll through.
     
    She rubs her hand across her face, blinking herself awake as the fat heavy rain drops fall on her face. She blinks her eyes open, disoriented as she didn't remember falling asleep, but her body was stiff as if she had been there for hours. The wind was whipping her hair across her face and her clothes were soaked. How had she managed to stay asleep for so long?
     
    "Oh crap." Mam and da were going to worry.
     
    She started to shimmy her way backwards to the trunk but before she could get very far, to get away from the near top of the tree that she was in to a safer part down, a bright light blinds her and a sudden rumble deafens her.
     
    And then she remembers falling..
     
    Down.
    Down.
    Down.
     
    She awakes again, more disoriented before and in much more pain. She groans aloud. Her body begging her not to move. She feels as if she had fallen from her favorite tree, rolled down her favorite rocky beach and whacked her head again a tricky tree branch all at once.
     
    She hurt EVERYWHERE.
     
    She very carefully opens an eyelid, peering out into the forest. At least that hadn't hurt. Mam! Da! With a start, realizing with the sun out shining that she had to have been out for hours and they would have been looking for her. She jumped to her feet, but staggers as her body doesn't work the way it ought to. She falls, hurting everything all over again and with wild eyes manages to catch a glimpse of her body. Four legs, a tail, and a different kind of vision that she would have noticed immediately had her face not been pressed into the ground. She could cry, missing her hands already, and wondering what the hell had happened.
     
    She gets up, more carefully this time, staggering like she was a newborn, although her body was bigger than the last time she had been here. Now she seemed somewhere between being a yearling and a two year old with still entirely too much growing to do. Even the cosmos were against her growing, as she had just made it to her 10th summer in the other place. She would never be done growing and can only wearily sigh as the sights and sounds of this place came back to her. She would have rather woken up in the Jungle, but here was just as good...well almost.
     
    So she stands there, peering through brown eyes that seemed to hold all her emotions open like a book and wonders what she ought to do.
     
    "The truth, it is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."
    Willa

     
    Reply
    #2


    Through the heather and bracken, he comes. Flaxen mane whipping against his neck as another strong gust of wind whirls past him. Returning to the Gates holds no regret yet there is still a distance between himself and the kingdom and it’s subjects. There is no blame, he understands. They are busy, they all have a purpose and most hustle and bustle and get their work done. Meanwhile he drifts about, not quite knowing what to do or where to go. A flicker of inspiration brings him here to the meadow which is where he now watches a mare struggle to stand like a newborn foal.

    It seems to take a few attempts for her to become sturdy and gain her bearings. By that time he has already started making his way towards her. A soft whinny given to alert her that he was coming, concern reflected in those dark gold flecked eyes. ”Are you ok?” He asks, his voice raspy but polite. His vocal chords had laid dormant in the time it had taken him to return to Beqanna. He needed more social interactions if it was ever to return to the husky deep baritone it had once been. Velvet muzzle reaches out, his neck extended, to lay a calming caress on her shoulder as he continues to look at her with worry and waits patiently to see if she needs his help.


    L E D G E R
    Reply
    #3
    "We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."
    Dear god, the worries she had over them was giving her a headache. She closes her eyes briefly, tucking her chin to her chest. His touch sends her skittering sideways. eyes rolling and face turning quickly to see what manner of thing was touching her. She had never worried about being hurt so much before than when she had went there, been transported and plucked out of her life here. Even when she had been in the Jungle with her sunshine and her strange-thing she had always been safe. They had romped through the Jungle, something even playing with the critters there. Playing tag with jaguar cubs while their mother watched them with an almost amused expression. The Jungle had been safe for her, safe while Quark had been queen.

    Her da and the sunshine mare had been friends and she found she missed them both terribly. Miss her Strange-thing and wondered how long it had been since she had been gone. How big or little her friend would still be. Had just seconds passed here? Or longer? Had life continued on without her here, without anyone knowing what had happened to them when they had gone?

    "Ye scared the crap outta me." She says when she sees what he was, just a horse, just a stallion without the same glint in his eyes the predators have. He seemed harmless. Her voice was lilting with sounds of the Irish in each syllable, something that happened from listening to her Da talk so much and tell her all the stories of his homeland. She exhaled a breath, blowing it softly even as she managed to smile at him. A small soft thing that was betrayed by the worry and surprise in her eyes. "Aye, I think so. Just in a wee bit of shock is all." She says it, turning to look across the meadow, her eyes seeing but not really seeing her surroundings. Another sigh and she looks back to him, stuffing all those messy emotions and worries away for now. "My name's Willa."

    "The truth, it is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."
    Willa
    Reply
    #4


    When she shys from his touch he instantly throws back his own head, nostrils flared as he takes a step back and dances lightly on front hooves, unsure for a moment. ”I’m sorry.” He quickly apologizes, keeping some distance from her now to make up for his intrusiveness. Ears swivel forward, tilting his head slightly as his brow furrows. Her voice was strange, pleasing and lilting. An accent he hadn’t heard before despite his many wanderings and adventures. She smiles but he can still see the uncertainty in her eyes and his own must reflect the same thing. Flecks of gold catch in the remaining rays of sunlight as he offers an encouraging smile of his own, determined to start anew.

    ”I’m Ledger. Sorry again for startling you…” A brief pause as his tangled and matted tail brushes lightly against his haunches. He had yet to have that bath he had been thinking about, still in dire needs of some sort of grooming. ”You’re not from here are you?” Instantly he makes a face of chagrin. ”That sounded rude. I mean you just seem a little lost…. And I’ve never heard an accent like yours before.” Quickly he shuts up, thinking maybe he has completely offended her. Talking to womenfolk had never been his strong suit let alone trying to help a damsel in distress as she seemed to be.


    L E D G E R
    Reply
    #5
        

    "We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."
    "Ach." She says shaking her head, the sound coming out almost garbled as she waves his apology away. "Not your fault. I'm a bit thrown off tis all." She says it with a smile, her hooves shifting her weight back closer to him. She was all legs still, her body slowly filling out to its right proportion. "I had a strange adventure and the transition back has made me a wee wobbly." Her smile is more real this time as she actually manages to stuff those emotions and worries away for now. He would hold her attention for now. At least she hoped so. He didn't deserve her lack of it. Her da had taught her right and she was determined not to be rude. 

    Her ears flickered and while this body had been lost in limbo for the time she had spent in Seiluun, it seemed to have come with the same grime that she had had when the lightning had struck. There was a spot of dirt along her nose, more along her legs where her coverings hadn't quite covered it and her mane and tail were both tangled messes from allowing her hair to fly free as she ran through the woods like a creature born there. But of course, she had been. She laughs lightly at his words and can only smile. No doubt he would not be the first that had thought her voice odd, but so far he was the first to say so. "Aye, I was born here, but my Da talks this way as this isn't his native land. I happened to pick up on it from following him everywhere." Or at least she had, when the years of learning to talk had been at its most prominent and so it had stuck. 

    Had she knew what he was thinking about being a damsel she might have laughed again, for she certainly did not feel like a damsel. She felt itchy in her skin as her body didn't work the way she was used to. It would settle and she would be fine. For now though the muscles along her back and haunches twitched occasionally as if there was flies biting her, although they had yet to bother her.
     
     
    "The truth, it is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."
    Willa

     
    Reply
    #6


    Relaxing at her smile, realizing she is not in the least bit offended. ”Where did you go on your strange adventure?” His interest is genuine, being quite the wanderer himself. It’s nice, being in her company. The way she laughs and easily talks to him makes him feel comfortable, something that he doesn’t often feel. She is an interesting thing, doesn’t seem to sure in her own skin. Yet she knows this place, says she grew up here. ”So where do you call home then?” He doesn't want to pry too much into her past, doesn’t want to intrude somewhere he might not be wanted. The thought crosses his mind that maybe if she was born here that they may have crossed paths at some point. He always likes to dwell on things like this, when he watches the others in the meadow and wonders on a strangers life. Wonders if they have shared the same space before and never realized it.


    L E D G E R


    Sorry it sucks =(
    Reply
    #7
    "Baby, we were born with fire & gold in our eyes"
    Where did she go? Would she even begin to describe it or should she just keep it simple for those of them that hadn't been out and about? Would they believe her or think her crazy? Puzzles in puzzles and she merely tilted her head slightly to the side as she thinks about it. Her brown eyes meet his own and she just smiles a little bit. "It seemed like another world." She says with a smile, warming a little bit to her story as she starts, thinking of it like something she might tell a younger sibling or something she might have her da tell her. "Things were so similar to this place but it wasn't. It wasn't something I was used to." She does hesitate, wondering whether she could trust this stallion before her and then she shrugs as if saying oh well.

    "I had hands and feet and fingers. I could climb and run, but there was much more to be afraid of there. Zombies came once. It was terrible." She shuddered slightly. "We had to learn to live on our own and survive and find food. It was fabulous." She smiles again. She had loved living there, loved learning something new every day, loved learning to survive.

    "Currently, no where." She says with another smile. "I just woke up here. Still adjusting." She says, turning her head to look over the Meadow where she had been once or twice or a few more times with her Da when she had been much younger. She settles in there close to him and turns her attention back to him. As to wandering other places, she had often been in the Jungle when she was younger or in her da's herdland. She hadn't left many places without him. He had been her sun and moon.

    " Even in the dust we shine with fire & gold in our eyes."
    Willa
    Reply
    #8


    The words she speaks are cryptic and sound like gibberish. Hands? Fingers? He has no idea what these things are and can’t connect them to any object he has ever encountered. No images can be conjured, he had never met a human in his life despite all the places he had traveled. Perhaps that had been a blessing, humans can cause so much destruction even with the best intentions in mind. Although he can’t comprehend some parts of her adventure, there are others he gets. The mention of zombies, dead horses had risen in BQ before so he knows the terror behind that. And surviving…. That he knows all too well.

    A slight grin is given at her enthusiasm as she reminisces on where she had been. ”I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call survival tactics fabulous before.” The grin wavers slightly then, recalling his own encounters of struggling to stay alive. He had fought for his life the moment he had been born. The second Chernobyl had stumbled upon mother and newborn son on the beach and cruelly ripped her away from him…. His entire life had been tainted in grief and fear because of that one event. Knowing who his father was and never able to go to him for help because if he did, he would die. It had been a horrible way to live and only his will to survive had brought him to where he was today.

    Once he dredges up the memories, it’s sometimes hard for him to shake them. It takes him a second to realize she’s smiling at him and speaking again. ”I know how that is. I recently returned myself.” He replies gently, having been homeless for so long. It was rather hard to get use to a daily routine, having a place to always go back too. Adjusting. Yes, he was certainly still adjusting. ”So what do you think.. Do you prefer this world or the other?”


    L E D G E R
    Reply
    #9
    "Baby, we were born with fire & gold in our eyes"
    She does not think that he would not know what fingers and toes are, but his moment of confusion is enough to make her want to smack her head against the nearest tree. A hand against her forehead would have been enough there, but here she had to be creative. How would one explain fingers and toes to someone that didn't know and then she had it! Her eyes lit up like a light bulb and her ears flicker forwards attentively. "Have ya been to the Jungle?" She says. There were monkeys there that she had seen, wondering with awe when they had grabbed and moved through the trees so easily. It had been amazing to her. So many things still were.

    She laughs at his words. "Ah, well, it was so different. So new and amazing." She says, her body trembling with excitement as her hooves stomp slightly against the ground. She had always been an excitable and happy child and it did not seem as if it was going to change any time soon. No doubt her temper would be equally vibrant (her writer pities the first one to make her angry). The Irish in her blood would have her rallying, hot blooded lot.

    "Here we survive, but it was different. There was a real danger there, not the safety that it's so easy to find here." Her voice lilts more as she speaks, the happiness practically bubbling out of her. But something in his voice changes and she can see the light dim in his eyes as he remembers something, not realizing she has really put her hoof in it this time. Her ears flicker in concern and her happiness changes into something else, worry for him. "Are ya alright?" She says after a moment, stretching her nose closer to him, even as her legs follow until her nose touches his shoulder. She pulls it back after that moment of contact and then they were talking about other things.

    "Where did you come back from?" She is curious and it wars with her worry, clear in her ears as they flicker forwards and backwards, confused. "I prefer either, so long as my family is with me." She reveals her own current pain, while his is deeply rooted, hers is still fresh and she always has been a talker, one that doesn't seem to realize what should be personal and what others should know. "However, they are there. No doubt worrying what has become of me." She says with a sigh. It seems that they would both be melancholy before this conversation was over.

    " Even in the dust we shine with fire & gold in our eyes."
    Willa
    Reply
    #10


    A sheepish grin spreads on soft lips, shaking his head no in response to her question. ”No, unfortunately the jungle has not been the destination of any of my adventures.” He laughs though, a gentle roll of his shoulder as he shrugs and offers her another grin. ”But I suppose I’ll have to get on that now.” The happiness doesn’t last long as she submerges them both back in the conversation of survival. Every bad memory is drudged up, memories he want’s to forget, longs to forget. It’s confusing, how she speaks of safety. There was no safety here, not any he had been able to find and hold on to. The flecks of gold in his warm brown eyes no longer sparkle, they darken and he seems to stop breathing. Feeling as if he has been submerged under water, choking on the fear that those bad memories bring with them. ”Safety is not easy here, there’s no such thing that exists here.” He mumbles mostly to himself, forgetting that she’s even there. His words are heavy and dark, unlike himself. Even in the Gates, where all is calm and peaceful, he can’t find solace. He can’t sleep. Even though he has come home, he has nothing. Her muzzle grazes his shoulder and he whips his head up, turning to look at her as his body shudders from her touch. Whatever is etched in his face suddenly melts away, returning back to normal. ”I’m fine.” Shaking his head to free himself of any lingering nightmares, for now he can escape from them. Once night falls it’s a different story but for now… For now he can pretend.

    The worry is still in her eyes and he tries to force a thin smile to his lips and focus on what she’s asking him. ”I’m not quite sure. I feel like I’ve been almost everywhere and back.. Everywhere but the jungle that is.” Rough laughter, almost as if nothing had happened. It threatens to return when she mentions her family but he holds onto that smile (more like a grimace at this point) as he reluctantly admits, “At least you have a family.” He is stubborn, holding onto his terrible childhood and the pain and torment like a dog with a bone. It’s all he has, all he has known. How could it ever be any different? ”Kind of why I left.” It’s the first time he’s said that out loud. A first step perhaps. ”But the Gates has been good to me. Letting me come back and all.”


    L E D G E R
    Reply




    Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)