To the Lovers left behind (Magnus, any)

[Johnathen]

Time is like a flame, it can hurt or heal. But the most certain thing is change. And a lot has changed since he came to Beqanna. He came as a foal, not , knowing anyone. Then Becca adopted him. Magnus and she made wonderful parrents, atleast in his mind's eye. Now, evrything had changed.

Becca had been captured, then he found her again in the field. He had learned what had happened when the magic left the earth. Johnathen was grown, his bay coat slowly turning gray. He hhad found some of his relations. Some. There was one yet he had to find. Magnus.

He heard that he reigned a place called Tephra. Johnathen supposed it was similar to the gates, yet different. As he approached the kingdom, he felt anxiety flood into his heart. He neared it, then breathed out sharply.

"Magnus?" he said, his voice similar to ocean shores and smelled of sweet grasses. The prodigal waited the masters response. All the while nervous what it might be.

[magnus]

It seemed like decades ago since Magnus had seen Becca or Johnathen—another lifetime. Back when he had been helping the Gates ready for war, when he had been serving next to Wichita and underneath Mast. Before he had been ripped from this dimension and trapped in another. Before he had been spat out again and left to face an abandoned, divided, aching kingdom. Before Beqanna had ripped herself apart.

That is not to say that he had necessarily forgotten the boy, but he wasn’t at the forefront of his mind, and he certainly had no immediate way of connecting that coltish figure to the significantly more mature stallion standing there now. Magnus heard him call out as he made his way around the land, and he lifted his head, tilting it slightly in thought as he considered its source. His name had been called with some level of familiarity, but he couldn’t place the voice or the figure standing there. He frowned slightly.

Shaking the dust from his coat, Magnus made his way over toward Johnathen, replacing the frown with a more neutral expression, gold-flecked eyes friendly but openly curious. “Hello there.” He wondered if the stallion was another visitor from another kingdom, or if he was simply there to learn more about Tephra. It was rare but not unheard of for someone to simply make up their own mind about a home while skipping the more traditional trip to a field. “Is there something that I can do to help you?”

out of the blue out into the loneliest place that you'll ever know
I carried the world just as far as I could but the damage had taken its toll

[Johnathen]

Johnathen's excitement grew as he saw Magnus's simple dot grow into Magnus himself. It faultered slightly as he sees the buckskin stud look confused to who was saying his name. Johnathen was unaware of all that had happened since he left for a bit of adventure. Magnus asks if he can help the soul, confirming Johnathen's thoughts.

"It's me, Johnathen. Becca's adopted son. I was but a colt last time I saw you." Johnathen's brow furrowed. "I would like to walk beside the stallion I consider my father again."

Johnathen remembered the puddle in the Gates, the moment he was under the mother tree. When he left to return to this sudden shift in his life. When he discovered where Magnus was, though he didn't know of his father's current rank.

"Now do you remember me, Dad?" his blue eyes searching the other stallions for a glimps of rememberance, a glimps of somthing to spark hope.

[magnus]

Magnus listens attentively to the stallion who speaks with such earnest all the while rooting through his thoughts and memories. Becca, he remembered. She was difficult to forget—and he was pretty sure that he could remember her once bringing a colt back to the Gates. They had not interacted terribly much, but Magnus had watched over him as he had watched over all those who had called Heaven home.

He gave the other stallion a kind smile and reached over to nudge his neck gently. “Ah, yes. I remember you now, Johnathen.” He didn’t correct him when he called him father, although it was difficult to conjure such familial emotions for a stallion he had not seen for so many years. The truth was this wasn’t about Magnus—not really. This was about Johnathen, and if he saw Magnus as a father, then he’d do his best.

“You are more than welcome to stay in Tephra. Of course you are.” He glanced away to look at the land folding out around them, the small crowds and families settling in. It did his heart good to see that so many were beginning to come to Tephra in search of peace and home; they were not a bustling kingdom, but they did not suffer for activity. “Would you like to see around your new home?”

out of the blue out into the loneliest place that you'll ever know
I carried the world just as far as I could but the damage had taken its toll

[Johnathen]

Johnathen smiled as Magnus remembered. He, too, remembered the day he came to Heaven's Gates. Then years passed and he met Longear and then Astri.

So much time had passed. He had changed, everything had changed. [b]"I would love that."[b]

He could call Magnus Dad because he knew and understood about military life. Father's came and went, but they were always there. Always yours.

[magnus]

At the boy’s agreement, Magnus dips his head and motions out toward the rest of the land.

Tephra was a wild, beautiful land; nestled beneath the imposing figure of the volcano that cut against the sky, they were protected by the natural wonder of it. Yes, it took a while to get used to the remarkably strong bite of sulphur in the air and the danger of crossing over the thin streams of magma, but they were rewarded in spades. The volcanic soil was fertile in a way that the land of the Gates had never been and while his previous home had been beautiful in her greenery, it could not compare the lush vegetation that erupted from the ground here. Sometimes, Magnus wondered if even the jungle could have compared.

Motioning the boy forward, Magnus begins to lead him through the land, giving him time to absorb it all before asking with a friendly tilt of the head. “So, how have you been?” A loaded question after the Reckoning as not many had fared well, but still one that deserved to be asked. “Where have you been?”

So many had been displaced in the days after the land beneath them shook. He had done his best to find all those that he could, but he had not been perfect. He could only find a handful and guide them back to Tephra. He often spent too long searching for them amongst the masses of the homeless in the field, working his way through the groups of milling horses to return back empty handed and frustrated. It was relieving to know that there was still hope, to know that some, like the boy, could find their way home.

out of the blue out into the loneliest place that you'll ever know
I carried the world just as far as I could but the damage had taken its toll