"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
01-04-2017, 02:26 AM (This post was last modified: 01-04-2017, 02:28 AM by Taiga.)
“Fucking hell.”
The chestnut mare stalks along Tephra’s southern border, mind churning over her sister’s latest visit. Lumi had moved out of Tephra weeks ago, but while she’d stopped by to visit their mother, Taiga hadn’t actually seen her until this morning. And oh how her sister has changed.
The most obvious change perhaps, is the change to her sister’s hair. The previously chestnut locks of her sisters mane and tail have been changed to a strange, iridescent black. Apparently from a run in with a faerie. The less obvious change, but perhaps the more important, is the shapeshifting. That her sister had apparently received after making a deal with a magician. A remarkably simple deal at that.
And Taiga is jealous.
Taiga had always been the more ‘gifted’ of the older girls. That is, she’d always had one advantage over her older sister. First it had been her snowman shifting (as useless as it had been, it had at least been something), and then later her wings. And Lumi, despite being older (and, though she is loathe to admit it, slightly prettier) had had nothing. Nothing to make her special.
But now she has stoat shifting. A rather random ability in Taiga’s mind, but a terribly useful one. Lumi can use her new ability to explore and investigate, to even hide in plain sight. And now Taiga, with nothing but wings (and her dormant snowman shifting), is the less special one.
She glowers as her feet slosh through the river’s shallows, mind spinning over her conversation with her sister. Lumi had seemed so smug, so happy that she finally had something to one up her sister. Taiga needs to do something. She needs to get her back.
Still grumbling she turns away from the river and head right into a nearby thicket. Unfortunately, as distracted as she is, she manages to miss the strong scent of horse and the quiet sounds of movement, and crashes right through the thicket and nearly into the dark roan mare on the other side. “Hey!” She snarls, ears pinned and eyes wide. “Watch where you’re going!”
01-05-2017, 12:44 AM (This post was last modified: 01-05-2017, 12:45 AM by Aranea.)
Shadows had always become her. Aranea had lingered in them most of her life and found comfort in the way that they draped across her ash and soot coat.
Of course, she could not linger in them forever.
Aranea emerged to seek some reprieve from this silent cell to which she had been confined. The bars would not budge but perhaps company could be found that would not mind the quiet. Perhaps she might not be forced to spend yet another day with nothing but the shadows to keep her.
That being said she had hardly expected her quiet to come to such an abrupt end. At first Aranea was startled - she shied instinctively away from the commotion - but by the time the angry voice registered she was damn well annoyed. How dare this child blame HER! Aranea snorted her displeasure, but of course had no verbal response to give.
The pinned ears and irritated squeal would have to suffice. If you asked her it was pretty damn clear just how unimpressed she was with the verbal assault.
The mare does not politely get out of Taiga’s way as she had expected. In fact, the mare does exactly the opposite of what Taiga had expected. The dark roan squeals and pins her ears, looking for all the world like she’s ready to rip off Taiga’s head.
Any normal, reasonable horse would have just apologized for the mistake and moved on. But the recent visit of her older sister, and her subsequent realization of her demotion in her own mental hierarchy, have left her in a rather unreasonable mood. So she’s spoiling for a fight. And since the object of her ire is far away in Nerine … she takes her anger out on the stranger in front of her.
“Where do you get off, screechin’ at me like that!” Taiga scowls fiercely at the mare, her own ears pinned tightly against her skull. She is so not in the mood to be ‘sassed’ by some random she’s never met. “I was just minding my own business!” She snorts loudly, still eying the mare. “And what do you expect, just standing there like that. How am I supposed to see you through the thicket?”
She takes a few steps toward the roan, head low and threatening. “Who are you anyway? I’ve never seen you around here before.”
