[private] Simple lies, strange eyes [Zojja] - Printable Version +- Beqanna (https://beqanna.com/forum) +-- Forum: Explore (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: The Common Lands (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=72) +---- Forum: Meadow (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=3) +---- Thread: [private] Simple lies, strange eyes [Zojja] (/showthread.php?tid=15766) |
Simple lies, strange eyes [Zojja] - Wyrm - 07-17-2017 when the stars threw down their spears and water'd heaven with their tears: did he smile his work to see? did he who made the Lamb make thee? @[Zojja] @[Salem] RE: Simple lies, strange eyes [Zojja] - Zojja - 07-20-2017 She hadn't expected coming back to hurt like it had. Rumors escaped Beqanna as readily as those - like her - who were prone to wander. Inevitably, they made their way to her: major changes. The fall of Pangea, though she'd never seen it; the discovery of new lands. The faeries releasing the magic they'd locked away from those at their mercy. Zojja heard all about the changes secondhand - something she'd never told herself she'd do; she wouldn't be like Porrim, she wouldn't strike out beyond Beqanna's borders and leave her heritage behind. Hah. Foolish. Here she was, days away from even being able to see the land's craggy borders on the horizon. "I'll never leave." What a joke. The only thing that called her back at all was her family - and she thought of Lupei, and his talents, and of Wyrm, and how much he had taken after his father (and of Kudu, and whether or not he'd circled back to Beqanna after all) - and for the first time in years, Zojja turned back. With snowmelt swelling the shorelines and spring buds beginning to dot the trees, Zojja ventured forth. The flight was longer than she remembered, and several times the falcon winging its way across the choppy water plummeted into the waves instead, emerging a moment later as a dolphin. Eventually, however, she clambered up onto the shoreline of the Meadow, sodden and tired - but her weariness did little to stop her. Even as she moved toward the boundaries of the Forest, drawn in its direction as though in a dream, her fleabitten grey coat gave way to shaggy dun fur, and the hoofprints she left in the springtime mud morphed into pawprints: the wolf Lupei had so loved. She hoped he would recognize her still. She figured it out quickly enough. The Forest was large, but not impossibly so, and - if she strained, she thought she could just barely catch the faintest hint of his scent. Lupei had spent too much time in the woods to simply... stop appearing, even if a new herd had called him away. So he hadn't been immortal. She'd been too late. Zojja threw back her head and called for him anyway. When she grew sick of calling - when she'd circled the forest half a dozen times over, gotten into a snarling fight with what she thought might be another curious wolf shifter (her heart had leapt, for the briefest moment, before she understood she was looking at a stranger and bared her teeth) - Zojja finally slunk back into the Meadow, head low. Her mother would tell her to go to the Beach. She didn't even know if her mother was here. And the boys... how long had it been? Were they gone too? Zojja looked back toward the horizon. The sun reflected off the water. Easier, perhaps, to claim she'd never been here at all. She lingered on her way across the Meadow, shifting back as she went. Dozens of mares crowded together under the springtime sun, swollen-sided and shifting uncomfortably - a few long-legged foals already bounced around the groups. Barely anyone here that she recognized, despite all the time she'd spent here, growing up at Porrim's side. The years passed... differently while she was wandering. She paused at the water's edge, and wasn't quite sure why - craned over her shoulder for a moment, one final attempt to pick Porrim's bright yellow form out of the sea of Meadowgoers. When she turned back, a dark shape sliced through the dazzle of sunlight on the water - a bird? Hard to say - and plummeted into the waves. Cormorant, perhaps. The water lapped at her fetlocks, cloying: swim away, start again. Zojja didn't move. Something - someone - green rose from the water. Wyrm. For an instant, Zojja found herself back in the Forest, whuffling, nosing the burly green colt awake - my son. Our son. Lupei's-- Reality rose to slap her in the face. Zojja was quick to mask the miserable expression with a smile, albeit a tremulous one. Not a total loss, then. "Wyrm." Zojja kept herself reined in as she walked toward him. Don't rush. Stay calm. "You're looking well." An understatement. The twins had been two - not even close to done growing. He looked perfect. Took after his father. It made her heart ache. Zojja offered him a cautious smile, stretched her muzzle toward him. "It's... been a long time. I can't even begin to articulate how badly I've missed you." RE: Simple lies, strange eyes [Zojja] - Wyrm - 07-26-2017 when the stars threw down their spears and water'd heaven with their tears: did he smile his work to see? did he who made the Lamb make thee? |