I waited for something and something died so I waited for nothing and nothing arrived
Night had quickly become her preferred time to travel.
She waited until Exist was asleep, until she could feel the steady thrum of pulse beneath her sweet sister’s neck, until her breaths became steady and deep, until dreams claimed her mind. She waited until slumber clung to her curves to rise, gentle, quiet, her hollow eyes turning to the tides on the shore and the beyond. Tonight, she walked to where the water lapped gently upon the beaches, the roar in the distance enough to distract her mind—turn her from her inner turmoil. Weeks had passed without setting sight upon Dovev, weeks had passed since it had all crumbled apart, everything lay to waste before that small sightless child.
For a second, she considered lifting her wings, as she had so many months ago, and carrying herself to the shores she knew rested beyond where sea met sky. She considered finding her way to that damp cave where things had felt so perfect, so right, where he had held her quietly in the middle of the night, where she had soothed yet another unexplained wound from his haunches, staunched the blood that seemed to never end. Her head lifted as she closed her eyes, the ocean breeze gently brushing the crimson of her mane back, and for a moment—but a moment—she was happy, the memory curving her lips just barely.
But it withered in her chest as quickly as it had grown, and she turned from the water, her wings lifting her in the air, but not to Ischia. Instead, she flew to the meadow, touching down lightly on the outskirts of it, where it almost bled into the beginning of Tephra. The crowds were thinner at night, sparse, and out here there was no one. She sighed gently, grateful for the seclusion, as her wings shifted from the red dragon wings to something kinder, feathers replaced with white petals, hints of green peaking through.
She smiled at the sight of the flowers and then continued walking, her red nose brushing over the edges of the grass where it grew wild and thick, rising up to hug against her chest in some strange form of comfort.
it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end
The gentle wafting of the tall grassblades was the only thing that kept him here on the mainland.
A wind was blowing, and it was moving the thick and wild grasses as a wave—the mystical sound of water crashing upon rock becoming as music to the disturbed red man’s ears. His hair was tangled in and amongst with sea life, and he snorted in the scent of the vegetation before he lowered his head to pull upon them by the root, ingesting them into his mouth. Such sustenance was not as common for him these days; having developed a taste for the tropical plants on the Island.
But by the All-mother, he had spent more time here than at home, running from a certain red appaloosa woman, and trying to find a loud-mouth iron man who has done terrible deeds, leaving a woman in tatters and children in his wake.
The only peace that Ashley has known in these past months is during quiet times like these, where he is able to focus, think—and eat.
A ruffle of feathers breaks his reverie, and his golden amber eyes make sight of another—one who, like he, appears to be seeking peace. He snorts, shifting his own wings closer to his body, and he is turned his attention to the red lady. He stands on guard, noting what happened the last time he made an acquaintance in a young girl—not wishing that fate upon anyone.
And yet, while the bone-spined pup was out looking for Kerberos while Ashley could not, the ginger colored man found that he still could not move his mind much further. If he was not thinking about Marlyn, then he was thinking about Wallace. And both situations disturbed his mood in such a way that when Dovev came to him begging for more lessons upon the planes, Ashley found his release. His thoughts were black, but he tried to push them away for the time being, slowly approaching company.
Nobody wants to be alone forever.
“Hello.” Short and to the point, and yet he was suspicious. He had a feeling that these meetings he was beginning to have were far from coincidental.
I waited for something and something died so I waited for nothing and nothing arrived
She had not been expecting to meet anyone here—not with the twilight long evaporated from the horizon and the constellations thrown long and wide above them. So perhaps it it not a surprise that she startled a little, her eyes widening and her wings shifting by her side, cycling between hard copper, crimson down, and then the wings that were the most painful reminder of all: obsidian and ivory, the bones crawling up the sides of them, the black leather flecked with his blue constellations. It lasted but a moment before they shift again, the coloring dissolving to be replaced by the ginger of his coat, a subconscious realization.
Focusing on her breath, she tilted her slender head in his direction, concentrating on his imposing figure. She had never seen him before—had no way of knowing who he was and the way his magic had turn her heart asunder—but even if she knew that he had unwittingly set the course that led to her ravaged heart, she still would have greeted him with the soft smile, the shy curve of her crimson lips, the dip of head.
(It wouldn’t have mattered that his removal of Dovev’s memory had been the kindling to flames that soon engulfed her life or that his brutal lessons were the things she had worked so hard to heal, to erase. It wouldn’t have mattered because that was just who she was; she would have understood. Would have to.)
“Oh, I’m sorry,” her voice was breathy, pleasantly low and humming.
“I didn’t see you coming! I guess I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone out here so late.” Mostly true because there had been that part of her, buried deep, that had hoped to find company—that had hoped to find someone to pass the time alongside, someone who could ease the bitter ache forming in her heart. “My name is Leliana,” a low confession, the truth of it wrapped and pressed into his palms. He seemed nice enough, if curt, and she imagined she could do worse than spending some time in his company.
“Where are you from?” because it seemed like the thing to ask when silence hung heavy between them.
it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end
He was surprised by how open she seemed. Her open face and unfettered sincerity stung him like an angry wasp, and perhaps reminded him that there were still genuinely good creatures who inhabited this land. She seemed so unassuming, so pure.
And yet, so battered.
His features softened when she told him her name, and he found he could not help it. Crawling around inside this pretty young mare’s head, she sees the images of shadows belonging to a very familiar young pup who should have gone to see him in Ischia a moon ago. Ashley snorts, but tries to keep it under wraps. Subtlety and all that. He is brought back to the present when she asks him where he is from, and he relaxes his wings, taking into account who stood in front of him. Leliana. Pretty name.
“Good evening, Leliana,” he says, testing the name out on his tongue, searching her face to see what she has seen in the bone-plated pup of his. It was certainly easy to see what caught Dovev’s attention. “My name is Ashley. I am from Ischia, but upon hearing my name, I gather that you probably already knew that.”
He stretches out his body and reaches back to ruffle the pelt at his rump. Turning back to face her once again, he stares at her intently, dropping the conversation.
He realizes that the ball is in her court if she should choose to continue to converse with him.
I waited for something and something died so I waited for nothing and nothing arrived
She frowned a little, although it wasn’t unkind as much as it was perplexed, her brows drawing together in thought. The mention of Ischia stabbed at her, causing her heart to curl in her chest unpleasantly, but she could not say that she had heard his name before. It made her uncomfortable, since he obviously had expected her to know his name, and she shifted a little, her face turning apologetic as she considered him.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Ashley,” she paused, biting her lip for a moment. “I can’t say that I would have known the name though. I am so sorry.” How could she? There was so much Dovev had kept from her, so many pieces of his life that he had kept carefully separate. How she had longed for him to open up to her, to share those pieces of him. How she had longed for him to open up and divulge those secrets.
But he had not.
She only knew the fragments, the bombshells he had not wanted to find their way to her.
“I believe Magnus may have mentioned your name before,” she searched, knowing that the name had been familiar, although maybe not in the way that he had expected. “And I did travel to Ischia once,” it was like a dagger to remember, the beautiful island and the bladed stallion. It was a memory that she had cherished and one that was like poison on her tongue. Something she loved that would eventually kill her.
Distressed, she ruffled her ginger wings at her side and then dipped her head a little. “I am really not very familiar with current events though.” She was too involved in her own life, in her own family, to know the leaders of the different lands outside of Tephra. She had too many hurricanes destroying her own life, and suddenly she was acutely aware of how selfish that had made her, how self-absorbed she must seem.
it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end
Ashley’s eyes were immediately opened and his face cleared. There was no ill will in this girl’s eyes, and she seemed like a genuine soul who had gotten herself trampled by his young pup. Careless thing. Will you be a stubborn sonofabitch forever Dovev? The gingerman made a mental note to get the reader’s digest version of this from his student if he ever saw the spine scaled one again. A wild dog on a leash, that one.
He’d have to be brought to heel.
Dark features settle into the back of his mind, as he wills his wings to disappear on a whim. Sometimes he allows himself the pain of the body modification—this night however, he wonders if it might be a bit much for the young girl to deal with. He steps forward, looking at the sadness in her eyes and then looks up a the night sky. In the dead of winter, the beautiful rays of the borealis did not reach this far south, but perhaps, to see a smile upon her face—
Sparks of purple pink, and blue shoot across the sky in radiant color. And while the night lights do their dance Ashley turns back to the girl, who he now presumes has done exactly what he has come out here to do.
Think. Reflect. And perhaps do a little healing.
“Tell me then, Leliana. What has brought you out here? It is a bit dark to be out here on your own. Knowing Magnus as I do, his heart is in the right place. If he knew your struggles, he’d have not let you leave Tephra. What troubles you?”
and the girls caressed me down ughhh that's that lovin' sound
I waited for something and something died so I waited for nothing and nothing arrived
Her eyes widen slightly at the sight of his wings disappearing but she says nothing. After all, she is used to the sight of wings changing on a whim; it is not so surprising to think that he perhaps has some shred of magic in him, too. Although, she, of course, has no real of knowing just how much he commands.
She remains still as he steps toward her and then mimics his motion, her head tilting back so that she can stare at the night sky, her slender throat arched. It is hard, to be quiet in the darkness like this; it is hard to be still, to be silent. In these moments, all of the memories come rushing in, unbidden—the waves of them so powerful that she is surprised she does not drown in them, that she does not simply disappear.
But, tonight, the thoughts do not last long.
Because before long, the night is dancing before her very eyes, the colors of it waving before her. She inhales sharply, face painfully vulnerable with her delight, her wonder. It is too beautiful. More beautiful than anything she has ever seen, and her wings respond in kind; the colors of the night sky play out across their feathers, dipping in and out, cobalt and indigo. Finally, a tear falls down her cheek as she brings her head back down, finding his gaze. “That was beautiful,” she whispers. “Did you do that for me?”
At the mention of Magnus, she laughs, shaking her head. “Magnus is observant but he is not all-seeing. I have found my ways of sneaking out when he is not looking.” Not that the golden stallion traps her, but she knows how he worries when he sees her take to the skies—the questions that simmer in the back of his eyes ever since that fateful day. “I just needed to get away,” she confesses, her voice slightly broken on the edges. Finally she glances up, studying his face. “Do you think love can conquer all, Ashley?”
it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end
