The quiet sense of something lost

Something is missing.

Neverwhere would never have survived as long as she has if she were not naturally inclined to be aware of her surroundings. Even when she feigns boredom and inattention, even when she throws caution to the wind on a whim and answers grave questions with sarcasm and a dry smile - or, perhaps it is because of these things that she has developed this situational awareness. And perhaps it is the blindness, too, that has taught her not to always trust what her eyes see. She feels a hole in her small kingdom, though it takes some time to place it.

Perhaps it is the smell of sulfur. It reminds her, at first, of Castile, but it is not Castile, nor, she thinks, likely to resemble his immediate family. That does not rule it out, but doubt pulls at her mind. It is not, in any case, the scent of anyone she knows.

Perhaps it is the feathers, too many blowing in the wind to have molted naturally, too large to be a bird. One catches against her hoof and she drops her nose to it, catching its scent with a deep breath. This one she knows - not well, but enough to find a face in her mind. Brine. A third scent on the wind, hot as fire but not from dragon fire. Brinly? She thinks that is the mares name, barely a shape in her mind's eye. They have not met.

It occurs her that Nerine collects reclusive natures, and there is a gratification in that. She likes that they do not demand her time, that many are independent and capable. She likes it when they take care of themselves, but it would seem there is also an opportunity for mischief to sneak in when they are always hiding away. Have the mares gone together? Would they return? Did they leave of their own accord, or were they taken. Taken like Heartfire? The thought pins her ears to her poll and she lifts her lips from the earth, letting the feather dash away on the wind, whipping her head into the air to scan the land around her for clues.

There's precious little, it's been days.

Her thoughts roll again to Castile and Loess, they are the most likely culprits, but it would not be very strategic to take the missing mares, one a ghost and the other flinching from her own shadow. But if not them, then who? A long list, still. She picks up a fast trot, away from the caves that Brine had thought would keep her safe, heading instead towards the center of the kingdom where they do, occasionally, gather to feed and drink and share stories with one another when their seclusion grows to be too much. It is her best chance of finding the three she needs together in one place.

@[Eurwen], @[lilliana], and @[Brazen]. That she even calls to them should be enough for them to know that something is wrong. She finds them talking quietly and forces her way into the small group without asking or waiting for them to acknowledge her. She has learned from Heartfire's disappearance and will not wait to discuss this with those that should know.

"Have any of you seen Brine?" And Brinly, too, of course, but the burning mare is so unknown to Neverwhere that she hesitates to assume that her scent there among the feathers and the wafting brimstone is more than a coincidence. She looks from Lilli's puzzled face to Brazen, so hard to read beneath her armor, "I think something's happened."

"And," she says, pausing to turn to Eurwen, "I think it may be time to visit Tephra."

Neverwhere

...

RE: The quiet sense of something lost - Eurwen - 01-30-2020

Eurwen

the secret of walking on water
is knowing where the rocks lie

She can still see it when she closes her eyes. It, because although the odd monster-like figure looked like a male, through all of the mutations she couldn’t exactly be sure.

She’d been too late is what happened. When the draconic-looking horse took a youngster and Brine with him, she’d been perplexed at his visage; always knowing if either of the two he took were wandering. He could see but not see. Horns, scales, and worst of all, claws for feet; and Eurwen from afar had not been in time to trap him in a rock cave.

He’d slipped with the mares into Taiga before she had the opportunity to do anything at that distance.

She had sought for someone, anyone, in her desperation, and came upon the grass plains in the middle of the kingdom, where her near-crying face and frantic movements had caught the attention of the others almost immediately. The spotted mare had just outed in a shaky voice, ”He took them away. Brine, Brinly-“ when she caught Neverwhere’s scent on the wind. The mare seemed to have a nose for this, but Eurwen in the moment doesn’t mind. See, she’s glad someone cares.

Confused by the mare’s words however, she stumbles over her voice. ”T-Tephra?”

@[lilliana] @[Brazen]
My tag didn’t seem to work so hopefully these do

RE: The quiet sense of something lost - lilliana - 02-04-2020

Her days in Nerine pass no differently than they did in Taiga; part of her longs to go home and yet she stays. There is a part of the copper mare that misses the way the trees familiarly groan above her head while she drifts into sleep. And yet there is a part of her that loves the way the stars sprawl above her at night here. It’s a comforting blanket of constellations and cosmos that she can wrap herself in as her dreams fly away.

Where Taiga has harbored her secrets, Nerine gives her a chance to set them free.

She isn’t far behind Brazen. There had been a few thoughts that drifted into her mind this morning with the incoming tide. The pair had been on that little beach that the Taigan often frequented - a quiet cove that curved behind a wall of granite. Lilliana had managed to tease the armored mare to venture canon-deep into the saltwater with her and then had done her best to keep her companion standing in the frigid ocean with her. (’Can you still feel your fetlocks?’ she had asked and then with a flourishing laugh, she had dared: ’One more wave. See if you can last just one more.’)

For Lilliana, it gave a chilling sense of clarity to her thoughts. And for Brazen, her friend stood still long enough for the healer to attempt to close the cracks in her skin.

They smell like surf and salt when they emerge from the cove. Lilliana, who hadn’t been able to locate Brine earlier, decides that she should try again. The chestnut had associated it with that the roan mare hadn’t wanted to be found. Lilliana had wanted to believe that Brine was hiding from whatever it was that she was afraid of, whoever it was she was afraid of.

She just wanted to believe that the mare was doing a good enough job of it that even Lilli couldn’t find her.

Their morning on the beach makes Lilliana decide she will try again to find Brine and then she will return to Taiga. She will go home and find Ruthless. Maybe Brine would even want to accompany her on the trip south. Maybe the distance between mother and child would be one she was ready to close. Lilli isn’t given much more time to dwell on these thoughts - there is a familiar voice on the breeze and Brazen has already moved into a brisk trot to which Lilliana instinctively follows.

The fact that Neverwhere has even called is enough that Lilli feels a horrible sense of foreboding, like a building storm whose thunder finally booms in the distance, as they travel across the Nerinian landscape.

When the group finally comes together on the grasslands, pretty Eurwen is there with eyes that threaten to break.

’He took them away. Brine, Brinly-,' says the spotted mare and there is a determined glint behind Lilliana’s blue eyes - that famous Legacy temper threatens again - before Neverwhere speaks of Tephra and the chestnut has a chance to quell the flash of anger. It’s an emotion that gets mangled with another (with others really - sadness, worry, despair) and the expression on her face is a faltering one. She meets the blue-eyed gaze of Neverwhere for a silent moment and then glances at Brazen. The other missing mare is a friend of hers, a close one and worriedly, Lilliana looks to her to offer any quiet comfort she can.

In her mind, all she thinks is that she has told Brine she would be safe here. She had assured her that her daughter would be safe in Taiga. Ruth.. and her heart sinks to the bottom of her heaviest emotions. If Brine is gone then that is what Lilliana will have to do first. She will have to find Ruth and tell her. She owed the girl that - she was owed to hear it from somebody who had assured Brine of her safety in Nerine.

Eurwen, who still seems to be riding the waves of her emotions (and rightfully so), stumbles over the mention of Tephra while Lilliana desperately wants to know who has done this. Gently she asks, ”Did you catch anything of his scent, Eurwen? Were you able to see anything discerning about him?”

LILLIANA

light me up, i will blaze
like a soul you have saved

@[Brazen]

RE: The quiet sense of something lost - Brazen - 02-05-2020

cold in the violence after the war
hope is a fire to keep us warm

When she’d returned from that confusing and doomed battle, she’d been afraid to face Brinly. Foolish, perhaps, knowing it wasn’t truly Brinly she’d fought. But still, the guilt had been real. But then, when she’d finally forced herself past her misgivings, Brinly had been nowhere to be found. She’d worked her confusion over in her mind, turning pieces she couldn’t quite make fit over and over again until they’d been worn nearly smooth. Truthfully, the odd horn-eyed stallion she’d confronted hadn’t really fit in.

Until now.

When she’d been unable to find Brinly, she had found Lilli. There is something so soothing and freeing in her chestnut friend’s companionship that it hadn’t even been a question. For a time, there had been comfort and forgetfulness in her presence, hiding amongst the splashing waves of the beach. But she should know by now such peace can never last.

When she breaks into a trot to greet the pair already waiting for them, a smile begins to stretch her lips. But the concern lingering so heavily in the air swiftly dispels it, and Eurwen’s weighty, uncertain words still every muscle in her body. She skids to a halt, gaze falling on the spotted woman with a sharpness she hadn’t known she possessed.

In her mind, the pieces of the puzzle hover so closely together, as though waiting to click into place.

“Who took them?” she demands a bit more harshly than she’d intended. Her thoughts hum as she considers the possibilities. “Describe him.”

His scent comes back to her, arid and tinged by decay. She rolls her tongue across her teeth, hoping her suspicions were wrong and knowing they likely weren’t. She’d never felt true anger before, but what swells now deep in her gut is something she cannot mistake. Despite the depth of her emotion, her masked features are still, her open expressiveness blanketed in the blink of an eye.

In that moment, she looks more like her mother than she ever has before in her life.

Brazen

RE: The quiet sense of something lost - Neverwhere - 02-06-2020

Who took them?

"Or what." she adds drily to the end of Brazen's comment, turning her attention to Eurwen. She hadn't expected someone might have actually seen them stolen, and the spotted mare is so distraught that for a moment her concern shifts its focus, but it redirects on the most important matter at hand. Eurwen is fine, only upset, but their missing friends? Who's to say how they fare, shepherded away by a monster that smells of dragonfire.

Like the others, she is tempted to throw questions onto the pile laying at Eurwen's feet, but she holds her tongue, observing silently as each mare reacts to the news. Anger swirls around them, and it is there licking at her, as well, that hot-edged knife blade pressing at the back of her eyes until lightning flashes behind the storm clouds that drift across them. Her lips draw down into a scowl. This is something new, some new attacker rising from a land not under Loess, and that troubles her. There has been no declaration, not of malice or of mischief, simply silence rolling off the cliffs like feathers.

"I mean to find them, they must be in Tephra or Pangea, Loess has no reason to steal someone like Brine. Tephra has been our ally in the past, hasn't it? If they went there, it should be easy enough to bring them back home, but if they are in Pangea..." She shrugs. She knows little of Pangea, "Eurwen, if you know where they went, there's no need to split up at all. I want Lilli and Brazen to go to Pangea and see what can be found. You can go with them, or stay in Nerine if it's too much."

Neverwhere

...

@[Eurwen] short post to keep things moving. ya'll have your marching orders now Smile