There's been a shift in the council of Hyaline, though the residents have yet to be notified. And though a kingdom meeting is in the works, I can't help but want to get ahead of the game. I could have done this as ambassador too, but somehow I felt that Hyaline kinda rocks on that side. Or at least, they need more help with war than peace in every single way. And with the political scene the way it is, well, every day is a potential threat to our lives.

I'm standing under Svedka's willow tree, just off the coast of the lake (with a daisy stuck in its branches as silent payment for letting me use his spot for this meeting). The autumn sky is clear for now, but the sun still shines only weakly upon the open area. Winter will soon be upon us, and the thickening of my mottled red-white coat tells this tale clearly. After a few minutes of waiting in thought, formulating my words, I raise my head and give a throaty call to the residents of Hyaline.

They come slowly, trickling like a stream to the lake, and I await them patiently. My nutmeg goes out to each who choose to make an appearance, head dipping, and perhaps some soft words of greeting exchanged. Eventually however, I decide that everyone who will come has, and that if more come, it will be to my joy, not to my anger.

"Hello, Hyalinians," I begin in my low voice. "For any who don't know me, I am Kagerus. It is my pleasure to announce that I have been granted to role of Protector of Hyaline. This makes me your general. Historically, Hyaline has had next to no army, or war experience. However, it is time we make an attempt. Please, if you are interested in the war caste or even in learning how to defend yourself as a diplomat, step forward and introduce yourselves. After we have all gone around, I will have more to say on the topic of training, duties, and expectations."

Quieting, I sift through the faces gathered before me, wondering who will be the first to step forward.

Well, my spiel falls on just one set of ears, apparently. And it's not the one I'd have expected, local be damned - as he slinks into view with a little smirk blossoming tenderly on those damnedly fine lips, I can't help but to roll my eyes; and then to smile, because hey. It's Svedka. And even if our friendship had had a spectacularly strange start, it's now become something I take great comfort in. Atop my head, the little seas shell he'd hung upon my horn jostles quietly in the wind, as if to remind me of exactly how close the Heart and I  now are, even after everything.

Sighing when no others show up, I give up the waiting game and slide free of the willow's trailing branches, towards the stallion I've come to know as a sort of brother - it would make sense, considering I see his father as my father, and his sister as my wife. Trying not to feel too defeated, I huff lightly as I approach the golden overo, shaking my head in disappointment.

"Hyaline just isn't ready yet," I offer quietly as I walk, eyes downcast. Without thinking too much of it, I come alongside the stag and nuzzle into the crook of his neck, the lengths of our bodies pressing comfortably together. Smiling when my shell jostles again, I angle my head so as to gently groom the slope of his shoulder as we stand there below his willow tree, as we once had; but it's different now, I'm no longer catatonic. In fact, I'm at peace - even if my meeting had flopped so grandly.

"Thank you for showing up," I say, but the words get garbled by a yawn. Nuzzling closer and attempting to bury myself in his taller frame, my eyes blink heavily as sleep threatens to overwhelm me. "I'm so tired Svedka..."

His words are comforting, lulling my tired soul further towards a restful night's sleep. Licking my lips and swallowing as my eyelids give up the fight against gravity, I focus on the way his lips feel running through my mane. It's not unlike my nights spent with Solace, though my feelings towards him are entirely different; but still, his presence and touch leaves me utterly content, my fluttering eyes happy to glimpse the last rays of the sunset as evening settles upon us.

Rest, he says as his body melts into a posture for sleeping. Rest, he whispers as his chin gently sits atop my poll. Caught with my guards completely lowered, I am in no condition to disobey his happy command; with a final little yawn, I press into him. From afar, one might see us two overo figures gently cuddling beneath the willow tree - and as sleep tumbles towards me with the reckless abandon of any child, I momentarily worry about what Solace might think. But then, I remember that she, too, often forsakes my side for her brothers. We are a family - there isn't anything weird or wrong about that.

As the thought of my lover coaxes me to sleep, a serene smile alights upon my lips, my final expression before darkness descends.

Ew, Kag, gross! Can you not dream of that while I'm here??

Gasping as my head flies up from between a certain dream-lady's legs, our usual bed and bedroom dissolves rapid-fire like paint being hit with a bucket of water. Tomato-red in the face and literally wanting to kill myself - well, not literally but still - I dream myself some clothes (a hoodie and some jean shorts) and sheepishly walk around the undefined dreamscape, looking for Svedka. Well, at least now there can be no mistaking exactly which twin I have feelings for.

When I find him, I do not give him a specific shape, instead allowing him a second to look me over so he has an idea of what these dreams are truly capable of. And also because for the love of Christ I was just performing oral sex on his twin sister. Still redder than a spanked ass, I avoid meeting his gaze - but at the last, I burst into uncontrollable laughter, buckling over and covering my mouth as tears swim in my gaze.

"I - am so - sorry -" I gasp through the giggles, the wetness of my tears causing my auburn curls to become plastered to my pale skin. "You were NOT supposed to see that." Not knowing what else to say on the subject, I wait for the laughter to subside, and then I figure that I better explain some stuff.

"Anyway, the figure you see is called a human. I know about them from a quest about a decade ago or so; you'd look like this:" Beside me, another dream-figure appears, prince Francis from that very quest. He's male, blonde, attractive as fuck. Then about a dozen other exemplars flit by, until I think he can figure it out for himself. Settling my weight into a hip and throwing my hands into my pockets, I wait for him to decide - and pretend like... Yeah. WE'RE STILL PRETENDING.

Without any hesitation - because why would Svedka use his head, maybe ever - he takes the form of Prince Francis, and for a moment, my heart lurches. In my quest, we'd been courting, romantic dances in the orchard, warding off an advancing evil, all that jazz (I can use that line since I'm human now, heh). Seeing his shape here again sort of makes me sick, but when Svedka takes a step forward and literally face plants, any and all tension I hold completely disappears.

"Aahahahahaha!" My laughter rings loud and clear in the rather undefined mist around us, though just as he's about to knock himself out, I dream him rubbery and and nerveless. When he tries to right himself (looking honest to god like a fumbling foal and for that realization I really must kill myself later), I release that aspect of the dream - or rather, it gets clawed from me as he uses me like a ladder to stand. My laughter only redoubles as he does this, tears swimming in my eyes again as he looks around like a puppy who's tail whaps him in the face but he doesn't care cause he's having such a good time just standing there being a puppy.

Definitely needing a minute to compose myself as the laughter subsides into miserable-sounding chuckles and hiccups, I lean myself against a bed I conjure, wiping my eyes with my long elegant fingers. Sniffling obnoxiously, I only refocus just as the delightfully newborn idiot grows out his locks into a shaggy mess. Grinning, I stretch my mind a little and, on top of everything else, I give him a lush brown beard, perfectly sculpted to his face.

Because I really need to add to him any more, right?

Rolling my eyes, I splat my face into my hand when I realize exactly what he's doing, lifting up his shirt like that. He turns to me, shirt still lifted, laughing like the silly boy I once proclaimed him to be. "I'd show you mine but I think it'd be a little inappropriate. Plus, you'd lose your mind," I laugh, grinning myself despite how desperately I want to be putting on airs in this dreamscape I've so mastered. But then he's grabbing my hand and I've not a thought besides his words and how he's tugging me towards a door, pulling me through it with reckless abandon.

"Svedka, wait -"

But he doesn't wait, and as we burst across the barrier into a new dream that I hadn't time to prepare, which in all honesty could be a nightmare considering our quick approach of it. Luckily, it seems to be bright and peachy, and I relax my grip on his poor hand, though I doubt he'll notice such a nuance. My eyes blink in the brightness of the sunshine, barely registering the coasts that, frankly, I don't recognize at all. I've never been to Ischia - but it is what my mind thinks of, with all these beaches around. That's what they're known for after all.

He drops my hand. Thinking that he's going to go off and try to swim - which would probably go as well as the whole first step scenario - I step as if to quickly follow him. Which really doesn't work in my favour. As I am lunging forward, he pivots around and grapples my face, ending in a very abrupt and inelegant smashing of our mouthes together in what I suppose you could call a kiss, though it felt more like the weirdest goddamn thing to ever happen in the history of the universe.

Sputtering, my hands flail uselessly at my sides as I try to understand what the fuck just happened, and why he is still insisting on kissing my forehead. But before I can even begin that process, he's sprinting away like a little fairy, his blonde locks streaming behind him like tiny, happy little wings.

Wings!

"Svedka!" I shout; furthermore, I make him immobile, freezing him in place as I jog to catch up. There's a grin on my face, and for a split second, I wonder why I'd ever had dreams that didn't reach this level of exuberance. Nearly vibrating, I clasp my hands together and just launch right into it. "Okay, okay, just listen, you can swim whenever but watch, watch watch watch!" Bouncing on the tips of my toes, I place massive gold-blue wings atop the man's shoulder, bending his anatomy to accommodate the appendages.

"Okay, okay, okay - okay. Now go. FLY!"

As I'm whirling to face the frozen Svedka, a sound like a whine begins leaving his mouth, but I don't give him any time to finish the complaint. With a gush of warm air, I step back to admire my work, and am left buckled in half in laughter at the sight of Svedka chasing his tail like a dog. Gleeful abandon surrounds us undeniably, and I feel the electricity of our adrenaline as he swoops to come face-to-face with me again. The small urge to kiss him arises in me as those wide brown eyes stare into mine with the gawkiness of a newborn and yet the same soul of the man I've come to see as a brother.

That urge quickly dies as he spreads his wings and renders himself in an even softer, girlier light than before. "You're such a boy," I scoff, pushing him with both my palms as he glows in his angelic rendition of flighted man. It's ridiculous how good he looks standing there, basking in the sunset with wings and arms upheld like some kind of religious token; but that ridiculousness is what reminds me how totally in love I am with his sister, and not him. He's a buffoon, a foolish man like I've always said - and I love him for it too, just in a different way.

As he pushes off with a single powerful stroke, I plop down on my behind, feeling the sun-warmed sand just beneath my fingertips. My head tilts back to watch Svedka's airborne antics, a grin plastered across my lips lazily and happily. I laugh when he does, and jeer back when he begs me of such attention with his goading shouts of ecstasy. It's a fulfilling feeling, to watch someone experience something so new and so raw without any reservations. Svedka is his own creature, his own man - and he's enjoying himself, as well he should.

"You're going to faceplant if you kee -- SVEDKA PULL UP -- ACK!" My reverent daydreaming is cut short by the dive bomb sneak attack that Svedka launches my way full throttle. Before I even have time to dream it differently, he's got me in both his arms, easily taking us back into the sky as if we weigh less than even a single feather from the mighty span of his wings. "You absolute fool!" I shout over the wind, but the anger in my voice is in truth more of a reluctant need for adventure. Clinging to his shape, I carefully dream us a net below. If I forgot that detail, and he dropped me... Well, these dreams do have consequences.

With that task complete, I lean my head against his broad shoulder and sigh. "Take me to the stars," I murmur, my eyes fluttering closed. "Take me to the stars."