He comes because it seems like the right place to start. A territory of Tephra, a tropical paradise; a little bit of his home and a little bit of Vita’s together in one. That’s about all he knows though, so he’s got to find out a little bit more. It feels good though just to be doing something, to be out and have some amount of purpose again. As much as he loved traveling with Vita, ever since they’d been back, he hadn’t been quite sure what to do with himself. Where she simply explored and made friends, he found himself floundering.
Yet hadn’t he been an explorer once? Hadn’t he snuck out from beneath his parents watchful gaze to explore Beqanna? So what had happened to him?
He didn’t really know, but he was tired of doing nothing. Besides, Vita was pregnant and they needed a place to call home. The forest was not a home for a child, not a place to raise a family, and so he sets out with intention of fixing it and stops on the border of the territory, letting out a call for anyone who might be nearby. It is early in the day still, the sun not quite above their heads, and though he always preferred to travel in the evening, he figured it was probably best to meet new people when they were awake and not when they were trying to fall asleep.
Gale run away with me-- lost souls and reverie running wild and running free
He has left Eyas to her magics for the afternoon, and now Gale heads down the black sand beach at a leisurely walk. The navy blue stallion is thinking of crossing the water, of flying to the Field and attempting what has been asked of him. He has just decided against it, at least for today, when he sees movement farther up the beach. As he draws nearer, Gale realizes that this is a stranger, one marked with stars that he finds rather nice to look at. He glances at them, and at the glowing tatoos along the other stallion’s shoulder and cheek, when he is close.
“Hello,” Gale says with a bright smile. “Welcome to the Island…” He nearly adds “Resort”, but refrains at the very last moment. The effort costs him a little in terms of decorum and he adds quickly. “My name is Gale. Where are you from?”
The stranger doesn’t smell like any place that Gale knows. Gale knows few places, of course, so he is immediately curious about the lack of anything familiar. “I like your stars.” He adds with a smile, childlike in his eagerness to make this stranger feel welcome here.
It does not take long before someone finds him with a name and a greeting that only includes half of the Island’s name. Aedan notices the stunted way it is offered, though he doesn’t think much of it. Maybe that’s what the locals call it, and he is no local. Not really, anyway, even though he grew up in Tephra. ”Aedan,” he offers with a nod and a pleasant enough smile. It feels almost strange to be talking to someone other than Vita, a thing he has not done in far too long.
Strange, but also nice.
The other stallion is about as strangely colored as Aedan is. Not that it’s unusual in Beqanna, but it makes him like the other man a bit more. The compliment doesn’t hurt. ”The stars come with tricks, though they’re best at night.” He grins, a bit playful and impish, feeling a bit more like himself with each passing moment. ”I’m here home shopping, though. Looking for a decent place for a few vagabonds to live. Myself, my wife, Vita…” He nearly hesitates on the word wife, but he doesn’t know what else to call her really. She was nothing less. ”And soon a child. Doesn’t have a name yet.”
Gale run away with me-- lost souls and reverie running wild and running free
Aedan, the star-stallion says, and Gale repeats it to himself. Though the stranger doesn’t seem entirely at ease, that is to be expected. Gale feels much the same when he leaves his island home, though he hopes that Aedan’s time here – however brief – might leave him with the same contented feeling that it has all but instilled into Gale.
“I hope you stay long enough that I can see them,” Gale replies, his curiosity as to the other’s origin’s answered by the stallion’s next words. He is looking for a home, he says, and at that Gale’s expression visibly brightens (nearly impressive, given his already wide smile. A few vagabonds, and the idea of a troupe of individuals is no less thrilling than Aedan alone. Not a troupe though, Aedan tells him. Not yet, anyway.
“Congratulations are in order, then.” He replies, and then muses aloud: “Perhaps you could stay here? The fairies bade me share this place, and it seems too coincidental you arrive so soon after.” As he speaks, he realizes that perhaps this is forward of him, but if he is right and perhaps his home will soon expand by three, it is a good thing to be forward.
“When Ruinam invited me here five years back, it was with the promise of peace and quiet and sunny shores.” The brindle stallion glances up and down the empty black beaches, where only the sound of surf on sand and wind in the rainbow flora reaches their ears. “It hasn’t disappointed in that regard ”
”Heh,”, he says with what is almost a sheepish chuckle. If he had heads, he’d run his fingers through that stark white hair of his, looking mildly uncomfortable. ”Secret? Though I am thrilled to be a father soon, it is absolutely terrifying.” A bit of truth that Aedan doesn’t mind admitting to the other stallion who seems more than welcoming and perhaps easy to talk to.
”We were interested in potentially calling this home, though. Vita grew up in a tropical environment, and I am from Tephra originally. This seemed like perhaps a good place for the two of us.” It held pieces of each of them, but would be a new start for them both. Their childhood homes did not hold their hearts, not really.
Aedan follows the stallion's gaze up and down the empty shores. It was certainly quiet, a thing that didn’t necessarily bother Aedan or even Vita. Vita would travel, as she always did, and perhaps that itch would come back to Aedan as well. Or perhaps having somewhere to call his own would settle his uncertain heart. ”Are there others here?”
Gale run away with me-- lost souls and reverie running wild and running free
Though Gale has long been old enough to sire a child, and had even – once – harbored thoughts of a brood of his own with a silvery mare, in truth the idea still terrifies. So to have a shared concern so readily admitted, even by a stranger, is unexpectedly reassuring. Perhaps everyone finds the idea of parenthood a daunting one. An adventure, to be sure, but one that Gale is also glad that he has not yet taken. It would feel shallow to reassure Aedan that he will be a good parent (he hardy knows him yet, after all), so Gale says instead:
“Maybe the fear’ll keep you on your toes. Well, that and having a little one running around. I hear that’s stressful enough as is.” He hears from Eyas, who speaks infrequently of her swelling belly, but Gale doubts that Aeden or his pregnant wife share Eyas’ plans with the caregiving fae.
“This is a good place for children though,” He continues. “Lots of shallow ponds, and the riptides here are not so strong as Ischia.” The residents of Beqanna’s other tropical island are more like residents of it’s ocean, and they probably enjoy the very riptide that would spell devastation for a more terrestrial horse. “Good eating too,” he gestures to the lavender seagrass. “Don’t let the colors of the plants throw you off. I’ve tried most everything here, and the only thing I’d warn you away from are those red bananas.”
Gale points with one white wing to a bunch hanging in the distance. “They tasted okay but I kept seeing things following me and hearing sounds that were not there.” The former he was able to dismiss with his powers, but the second was a sure sign of something hallucinogenic in the fruit. He’s about to elaborate more, when Aedan asks about others.
“My sister Eyas lives here too,” Gale answers, “And Erne, but he is a bird, and turns out I’m the only one that can talk to him.” Referring to his companion animal is timed perfectly (or perhaps the osprey hears him), and the brown and white bird lets out a quiet chirr-up before falling silent with his golden eyes on Gale .
“So there is plenty of room for you and your family! You’ve got the pick of places on the island. My own nest is on the southernmost peninsula of the inner island.” Again he points with his wing, a common habit. The motion reminds him that his companion is without wings, which Gale decides must be quite a limitation when it comes to finding your way about in new places.
“I think I could give you a view of the island, if you’d be okay with that? I could show you what it looks like from above, so you’d have a better idea of where everything is?” The brindle stallion is eager, but tries his best to not be too pushy. This is his first potential resident, after all, and he does not wish to frighten them away with his ‘incessant chatter’.
Aedan chuckles at that, nodding along. ”I remember when I was a boy, always running off when my parents weren’t looking. Though somehow that’s the least terrifying thought. Maybe because I did it and survived. So did Vita, for that matter. It is how we met.” They had known each other for so long, and though he’s not entirely sure why he’s sharing all this with a stranger who probably doesn’t care, if he’s going to live here, he’d like to be forthcoming and open.
Gale goes on to tell him more about the Island, and Aedan nods along, looking as Gale indicates different things of note. His eyes travel to the place where Gale points with a wing, chuckling as Gale explains why. That would have been his follow up question, because he really wanted to know why he shouldn’t eat a red banana. He was, in so many ways, still a child himself. Perhaps this was the most terrifying thing about being a parent. How do you parent when you are barely an adult yourself?
”Gotcha, so unless I want to go for a trip, steer clear.” As much as he liked adventures, he didn’t necessarily need to see and hear things that weren’t real. The topic shifts at his next question though, and Aedan listens to the answer. Sparsely populated, though that was fine by him. He didn’t need a bustling kingdom - that had never really been his lifestyle - but they did want a safe place to call home. He follows the pointing wing in the direction of Gales nest (perhaps the stallion is part bird...not that Aedan was judging, he was made of the night after all). ”Well, we can certainly manage to find space around your area, it seems. Though I admit, I cannot promise my child will not go exploring…” he says with a chuckle. Children were prone to going where they were not invited, after all.
Aedan’s interest perks though at the mention of seeing what it looks like from above. ”That sounds fascinating. How do you manage that trick?” Though his tone and expression makes it clear he’s more than willing to find out the answer by a demonstration. Gale may be eager, but Aedan finds that he is eager as well. The Island is beautiful, it is peaceful but not entirely empty, and he can imagine raising a family here. Besides, Gale is easy to talk to, and it might be nice to have another stallion around.
Gale run away with me-- lost souls and reverie running wild and running free
Gale had never been a wayward child, not with the entertainment of his siblings and the wanderlust quelling magic they possessed. Why sneak off to see the nereids of Ischia when he could tweak Tiercel’s vision so that Eyas had a tail and fins, and the mesa they lounged upon looked suddenly like the surface of the sea? Wandering around Loess was another thing entirely, and Gale adds with a smile:
“It’s a good thing your little one will be corraled in by the water.” As soon as he says it though, he thinks of the piebald Cormorant, a boy who’d wandered through the waves to find the island. So he adds: “But if they’re the type to be fond of the water, I’ll be sure Erne keeps an eye out as well.”
At the sound of his name – or perhaps at the chime of thought that passes between them – a distant osprey keens. The brindle stallion explains the bond between himself and the seahawk, how Erne sweeps the island and Gale uses his vision magic to share his sight.
“The opposite of showing you the island,” Gale continues, “Instead of seeing what you see, you’ll be seeing what I’ve seen.” Taking a breath, the winged stallion focuses.
At first, Aedan will see what Gale does in this moment – himself, standing on the shoreline. But then there is a shift, a blurring, or perhaps a clearing, and the view is entirely different.
Beneath them spreads the rainbow of the island’s remarkable flora: pink-leaved palms, giant blue acacia, even the eye smarting orange and yellow of the papyrus near the water. Ahead of them is the island’s central lake and the rocky black peak at its northern edge. Erne has told him that it used to be a volcano, but that time was so far back in the osprey’s tales of history that Gale wonders if perhaps the ancient birds had just confused it with Tephra. He shares this fact with Aedan, in case the starry stallion knows more about volcanos. When they pass over the general area of his nest he points it out, just as he does the distant rise of Ischia and the haze of the mainland to the east.
After, Gale shares with Aedan a few seconds of darkness, knowing from experience that it tends to ease the first-time nausea of those unused to his magic. Then, with an excited smile, he asks: “So what do you think?!”
Aedan chuckles at Gale’s words. ”Well I thank you and Erne in advance, should my child turn out to be fond of the water.” He doesn’t know what to expect of their child, but he would not be surprised to find Vita and he create yet another equine struck by wanderlust. They would not likely create a child that had extraordinary swimming abilities though, so an extra set of eyes would be appreciated.
Gale continues to explain the trait, and it doesn’t entirely make sense, but Aedan gets enough of it at any rate. He doesn’t really need to understand, after all. He would have said yes regardless because some part of him will always be an adventurous fool, no matter how much he grows. So Aedan just nods, granting permission, and then before he knows it, he is staring at himself.
Well, that is not something he ever expected to see outside of a reflection in the water. But then he is seeing the island, and it is truly beautiful. The view from above is so different then what he is used to on the ground. There is the fact about the volcano, which would perhaps make sense given the proximity of here and Tephra, though Aedan can’t confirm if the osprey is correct.
When they finish, everything goes dark for a moment, which the starry stallion certainly does not mind. He grins as his sight returns, clearly pleased with that particular display of magic and the island itself. ”It is a beautiful home. I think it will be perfect for us, if you don’t mind a bit of noise interrupting you now and again.”
aedan
the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
@[Gale] - we can end here and start a new one in present time if you want. Just wanted to wrap up.
