i feel a bad moon rising - Arthas

[Lepis]

Nearly a full year has passed since I had returned to Sylva. It doesn’t seem possible, and yet the humid summer air is undeniable. My pale eyes are fixed on the blue sky overhead, framed by the golden leaves of the birch thicket around me. This had been one of my favorite places in Sylva as an adolescent, and I had been elated to find it whole upon my return. My circumstances have changed drastically, but it is easy to forget that I am no longer a child. This is not a pleasant sensation for me, of course, and I am quick to blink away the tears before I turn to face the horse I hear walking up to me.

By the time I turn my face is schooled in a perfect smile; there is no indication of my earlier emotions. The blue-grey of my eyes widens slightly as I recognize Arthas, but the smile doesn’t falter. It isn’t his fault we are falling apart, after all. I draw nearer to the familiar stallion and pause with a few feet remaining between us. The wind is in my favor, and I find that he has been with Rey recently. The thought of the color changing mare is a pleasant one, and that reaction works to further my certainty. I am unperturbed by his liaisons with the other mares, and while I had always thought that was because I do not believe in monogamy, I have recently come to find that it is because of something else entirely.

I have always considered Arthas a friend. I have known him since I was little more than a child. The dappled andalusian has been the most constant face in all my life. I had made the mistake of trying to make constant something that was bound to change. I was not a besotted teen for long, yet I had convinced myself for years that it was Arthas I loved. That thought had kept me alive through Sylva. To let go of it feels wrong, somehow, as though I suffered in vain.

These realizations are all recent things, things I have come to known in the time we have been apart. We had parted on ill terms before my departure to Ischia, and this is the first time I have faced him since. I have much to tell him as a queen and diplomat, and it is not so simple to push the memory of what I must tell him as a wife to the side. That can come later, I tell myself.

“Arthas,” I say, closing the distance between us. I act without thinking, finding the familiar glow of emotion in my chest and spinning it into the finest of fibers. This is my skill, after all, the craft I have been practicing since I before I could talk. The dappled stallion won’t know that it is not his own emotion. It starts small, and grows at the touch of my muzzle to his jaw, stirring more deeply as I press my dark face against the smooth sweep of his shoulder in an embrace.

Planting lust in men is easy.

Keeping them on course with it is a bit more difficult, but that too is a blade I have honed since Arthas first sent me as a sacrifice gift to Sylva three years ago.

The dappled stallion will feel it rise in him. It is not unexpected, after all; I know he desires me even with my recent disinterest. I pull away after a moment, but I do so slowly, rather sure that that smoke-tinted man will try to resist the distance between us. Though I had planted only a seed of emotion I have come to know Arthas well, and know that he is likely to wish a reunion between us rather than a deepening of the divide.  

@[Arthas]
so that turned into a novel haha

[Arthas]

Arthas

It had been a couple of months since he had last seen Lepis, the terms they ended on were not the best. His heart was being ripped out like Dacia had done to him once before, it was a relationship he could not fall back into. One that plummeted the once gentler stallion into his darker stage of life. He wanted to love the navy splashed dun, but no matter how hard he tried she continued to push him away. Was asking her to be his queen a mistake? Maybe it was asking her to leave Loess that was the mistake.....

Though he preferred to avoid her, pretending there relationship was better than it truly was, he had to seek her out. The last time they spoke she had announced she was going to visit Ischia, he was curious of the outcome, and he could not avoid her forever...

It was not long until he ran into her, they always seemed to run into each other. He wanted to love her, but a stagnant feeling of anger boiled in him still, why did she always push him away. He dipped his head to her gently Lepis he responds, his tone was flat as he seeked out her gaze.

As they grow nearer, a few paces away from each other, she gently trails her maw from his cheek to his shoulder. At first his body flinched, unsure of there relationship standings.....but slowly his angered thoughts of her start to fade and his body grew more relaxed. He could not explain why or how but slowly his anger was replaced with lust and love for the pale mare once again.

He brushes his head into her shoulder, inhaling her delicate scent, the aroma was intoxicating. Lepis his tone was much softer than his original. I have missed you Lepis , the words seeped past his mouth, not his initial thoughts but once that gathered since he saw her. He initially came to ask about Ischia, but now it did not matter, being around her was more than enough.

Dangerous Business

@[Lepis] <3

[Lepis]

The flatness in his voice was unmistakable, but it does not stop me anymore than the way he flinches away from my touch. I know he will relax quickly, and sure enough I feel the tension easy from the muscle of his shoulder beneath my lips, and I tug at the thread of emotion until it is nothing more than a single strand. It holds steady but does not interfere, and I focus on Arthas, certain in my control. The dappled stallion reaches for me, and the warmth of his mouth against my side makes my breath catch in my throat.

Mostly it is fear, but the shimmering thread of lust I feed him is not far from my mind, and the heat seeps beneath my skin.

It would be easy, I realize, so easy to press myself against him. I could let him take me now, and he’d never be the wiser. Without meaning to, I expand the thread of projection to him, and I barely stifle a gasp of sudden lust against his dappled shoulder. My teeth nip at his skin like passionate fingers grasping flesh, but the taste of him is the taste of Sylva and the bile rises in my throat in an instant.

I peak, heedless of the surge of lust I’ve just poured into the stallion beside me. "Arthas we need to talk."

The rest of the words stick in my tongue, and the acidic burn at the back of my mouth remains even as I start to take a step away from him.

@[Arthas]

[Arthas]

Arthas

His emotions were all mixing, he could not explain it, his mind was turning with it. His thoughts were swarming in his head, anger and love, some he was controlling and some he was not. There was no time to sort it all out, Lepis' voice rang in his head and his gaze looked for hers as he came back to reality.

Arthas we need to talk she says, normally a smile would tug at his maw but his gut told him it was not going to be a good conversation. What about? his mouth spoke what she wanted, but he wanted to remain silent. Just a few more moments together, reliving the love they have shared, the pain and joy....but alas, a conversation would ensue.

She steps away from him, and all he wants is to be wrapped in an embrace with her oh Lepis, what happened to us? he ponders the question to himself. They had swapped spots, she had loved him when he only wanted to get rid of her, and now she has drifted and he finds himself chasing her.....but what was it she wanted to say to him.

Dangerous Business

@[Lepis] uhhh...super short...but yea..

[Lepis]

The chaos Arthas feels within his mind is intimately familiar. My gift has made my relationship with emotion a whirlwind at best and beyond a disaster at its worse.

I inhale a single long breath, and with it the stray threads (and streams) of emotion that had been spilling out of me. The only things that Arthas will feel are his own emotions, though I still struggle with tightening the bonds on the feels I wrestle with internally. Were I to speak, I know my voice would quaver.

Instead I reach out, placing the underside of my muzzle on the rise of his withers. It is a friendly gesture, one that is family even more than familiar. I do consider the dappled stallion my family. But it is platonic, the way I would feel about the brother I have never had.

"I'm going back to Loess." I tell him when I trust my voice again. "I can't be Queen of Sylva anymore. You deserve someone better." Someone like Rey, I think; the pair of them have been seen frequently together of late. They have a pretty daughter, and I don't doubt she'll have a younger sibling come spring.

I certainly won't be giving Arthas a child. Along with my emotional distance, I have kept a physical distance between us as well. This is, truthfully, the closest we have been to each other in years. The last vestiges of lust are pocketed away as the autumn wind gusts around us, but I remain near, my chin resting along the curve of his back in an affectionate embrace.

[Arthas]

It was inevitable.

He knew they were growing apart, but he did not want to admit or accept it. Hearing the words come from her mouth was like a stab to his heart you've recovered from a broken heart before, you can do it again he thinks to himself. Thw lust he felt had vanished in a heart beat, the anger and betrayal he felt from her has taken over.

His face displayed anger, a fire burning in his eyes like she had never seen before. You deserve someone better a pathetic excuse, he snorts at her words, his ears pinned to the dome of his head. Screw you Lepis, you came to Sylva with me to play games? He did everything for her, but none of it was enough, she could not let go of the past, and no matter how hard he tried she did not want him.

She rests her chin upon his back, an embrace he used to long for, but now he wanted nothing to do with her. The dapple stallion quickly steps away, breaking the embrace they held. You should leave Sylva Lepis, and never come back. I never want to see you again. The similar pain he felt with Dacia was returning, the anger was all to familiar.

Was Lepis being a whore with another while they weren't speaking? Sure he was with Rey, but Lepis told him too, and excuse to keep his attention off the dun queen. He knew that her remaining Cleric of Loess was a safety blanket, something for her to fall back on should Sylva fall. You will not be welcomed here anymore Lepis, if Loess needs something from Sylva ensure you do not come, send someone else. I will make sure every member of Sylva knows the betrayal you created, I expect you to be gone by sundown, don't expect Delta to leave with you either. His voice spat pain and anger, he was hoping his words would make her feel just a tad bit of pain that he was feeling. He gave her one last glare, the queen he had loved and given so much for, she was no more.

He turns his glare from her, turning to the heart of Sylva There is no more to say his last parting words. He does not look back, moving towards the forest, his heart was in pieces but he would be damned to let her see.

@[Lepis]