"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
As the sun sets, lighting the water with brilliant hues of red and pink and purple, a slim figure of deepest blue laced with white can found meandering slowly along the grey sands of the beach. Her steps are slow and leisurely, hoofs sinking into sands that feel both similar and very different from those of her birth home, now long disappeared. She pauses only once, briefly, to gaze out across the water in the very spot she had first arrived in Nerine.
She does not seek out the woman who had brought her here, instead enjoying the solitude of the warm sunset. She would not be averse to company, but she is not actively seeking it out. No, not today. She had done enough of that recently.
Her thoughts drift to those times she had absented herself, to the echo of fear in her breast that stirs a storm of rage and an intense desire for revenge. It is a revenge that would come soon enough, but she is a patient woman. She would bide her time, collecting her power, until she could best serve that longing. That patience is an asset that has served her quite well throughout her life.
Rather than dwell however (there would be time for that later), her thoughts drift to another memory, one much nicer but equally forbidden.
Perhaps she should find something to do, seek out something or someone interesting to steal her mind from such unwelcome thoughts. As her gaze drifts to the cliffs, across the jagged edges and crumbling rocks, her sight catches upon a ragged opening at the base of the rock. One of the many caves gracing this particular tract of land.
It would definitely serve her purpose. Stride lengthening, she continues forward with purpose, angling towards that dark hole. When she nears, she slows, coming to a halt at the entrance, brilliant blue eyes peering with curiosity into the black maw of the cliff.
heartfire
i filled up my senses with thoughts from the ghosts
Folded wings into flattening veins and fluttering eyes
The setting sun had long since indicated to Carwyn that she might want to seek a place to sleep. Still, she had lingered near the edge of the water, letting the water warmed by the sun of the day wash up near her knees, soaking the tips of her wings and her belly. Now as the evening hits in earnest, she is much too relaxed (and wet) to take flight to a higher cave, so instead she leaves the surf and slips into one of the first caves along the cliff line that has a big enough opening to admit her.
She settles quietly, wondering where her family is. Her grandfather she has seen, as recently as this morning, but his attention was elsewhere, though he was as affectionate as ever. She’d let him be, and turned her thoughts to the others. To her older sister, who had yet to make an appearance in Nerine, despite assuring Carwyn that she would. To her mother, who they have not seen since the Reckoning. Some – including her grandfather, though he would deny it, and be sad for feeling it – would say perhaps it is for the best. That a restless Kellyn was too much like her mother, and would be dangerous.
Carwyn still missed her. She was too young, and she didn’t resent Kellyn for her poor maternal instincts as much as Cassie did.
The roan pegasus is startled from her thoughts by the sound of hooves at the entrance to the cave, and looks up into an unfamiliar face. “Hello,” she says, smiling, glad to have someone interrupt her loneliness. “I’m Carwyn. There’s plenty of room in here.”
Families are always a trial. Of this, Heartfire has intimate proof. Hers is perhaps easier than most, but one of her recent adventures was a direct result of her own youngest sister’s misadventures. Truthfully, she could claim no moral high ground here. That particular meeting had gone far differently than it should have, but she is currently refusing to dwell upon it.
And she, more than anybody, has the perfect means of distraction.
At this particular moment, she happens to be using it to peer into a dark cave. One that, as luck would have it, happens to be occupied.
It takes only a moment to adjust her sight, a single thought to transform normal equine sight into one much like a cat. One able to see incredibly well in the dark. She eyes the winged roan and white mare she finds standing there with curiosity, though given the low light, it would be surprising if her companion could see more than the dark shape of her form.
She could fix that for her, but considering that she would like to be well accepted into her new home, it perhaps would not be wise to adjust her kingdom-mate’s sight without her permission. She offers her a slight smile at the warm welcome, even though she likely cannot see it. In this land however, it is never safe to assume you know what one is truly capable of.
”Thank you.” She eases into the cave, settling a short distance from her new companion, blue gaze frankly assessing as she glances over Carwyn. ”Heartfire.”
”Have you been here long?” she continues before clarifying. ”In Nerine.” It would be simple enough to see for herself, but as she is attempting to turn over a new leaf, perhaps not wise.
heartfire
i filled up my senses with thoughts from the ghosts
Folded wings into flattening veins and fluttering eyes
It is true that she can’t see the other mare at first, beyond a dark shape in the mouth of the cave, but it doesn’t bother Carwyn as much as it might others; she is very capable of defending herself, and she does not feel threatened easily. Still, it is slightly uncomfortable for her to be on the ground with the stranger standing, and so she climbs as gracefully as she can to her feet while her eyes adjust, tucking her still damp wings in close to her sides, careful to stay in her own space as she listens to the other mare.
“No, I haven’t,” she answers the first question, still with only a vague impression of another mare similar in size to herself. “I arrived just this summer. My family and I had been homeless since the Reckoning, and grandfather finally decided he was tired of being a nomad.” A smile flickers across Carwyn’s face, fond but also somewhat exasperated. She was content to wander with her grandfather and her sister, but she had not been as lost as he. The Tundra, while it had been home, had not meant as much to Carwyn.
“And yourself? Have you lived here long?” Finally she can see better, and is amused by how similar the face looking back at her is to her own reflection. The other mare is also a blue roan with white splashed on her body and blue eyes, though she lacks the wings that sprout from Carwyn’s withers. The part of her that is her mother’s daughter wonders for a moment if they could be related, somehow, another sibling that Kellyn hadn’t bothered to tell them about or one on her father’s side…but she quickly dismisses the thought. Her father was long dead even before her conception, and she knows from her grandfather’s sad stories that Sorenson had no children before he passed. And the idea of Kellyn keeping a child from Brennen and her older two daughters is ridiculous – it would suggest that she had raised it herself, and Carwyn knows all too well that her mother is not the least bit parental.
It is not often she seeks to gather information in the old fashioned way, as it were. Her means of information gathering are invariably more efficient. Perhaps it is a lingering side effect of her recent lack of such a gift, or perhaps it is that she is simply growing as a woman, but whatever the reason, she refrains from using such tricks on Carwyn.
Had she not decided to stand upon morals today, she could have easily discovered that they are, indeed, related. The very grandfather she speaks of happens to be her great grandfather, though hers is a very different branch of the family than that of Carwyn’s. Of course, Heartfire has never met her great grandfather, but she is a world class snoop. She knows of him.
Alas, she is being good today, so she picks up the thread of the conversation with a slight nod of understanding. ”And your grandfather? He is here as well?” She asks not because she has any suspicions they may be related, but because it is prudent for her to learn what she can of her fellow kingdom-mates.
She offers a small smile at her companion's next words as she shakes her head slightly. She is quite new as well. ”Not at all. I arrived early last summer as well.”
Ironic that they had come here so close together, though in truth, Heartfire has spent little time in Nerine until recently. But her decision to stay had been perhaps for very different reasons. Nerine might be new, but it holds the women her grandmother had once ruled. In a way, it had been meant to be.
heartfire
i filled up my senses with thoughts from the ghosts
