[private] feelin’ the song, party done, shadows walkin’ home; Crowns

[Reign]

During the Winter of 212 AC, there was a brilliant meteor shower. The cold pushed back against the haze of humidity that ruled over the new Beqanna, meaning the sky was crystal clear that night—young and old alike stood in awe of the peculiar show. Some watched the rapidly falling ‘stars’ with unease and the others were absolutely delighted. It wasn’t often, after all, that some phenomena occurred in Beqanna without grave consequence. Or so the legends told.


Fortunately, the meteor shower didn’t spark the start of the end times and the night moved on without further incident. There would be no grave consequence for Beqanna, not tonight. The creatures responsible for the celestial event would not be returning. Their war would never come back down to earth.


Not until one of them died, at least, and being so evenly matched, their Great War would stretch on and for eons. Perhaps all of eternity. The sole witness of their brutal battle a small soul that was trapped and dragged up into the Void by mere accident.


Cordis had not, in fact, meant to send the girl with her Titan to face off against Carnage’s Beast.


Reign, confused and afraid, hid from them among the stars—she made the great empty blackness her home, her tears invisible and her screams drowned out by the silence. And she hid well. It was what took Cordis so long to find her. It was what took her so long to send her back, but back she went.


(Is it time to go home now?)


Towards the end of the night, a great green ball of light—larger, certainly more distinct from the others—shot across the sky. It seemed to be the finale. The rest of the night grew still, its stars twinkling coldly while the moon shined solemnly on; Reign was lowered gently, one tiny hoof touching the earth first and then came the others. She squeezed her yellow eyes shut and shook her head rapidly. Her whole body was trembling.


“No, no, no—please, no, please, dad, please,” she whispered, eyes still closed. (Tarnished was closing in, fast—he was hunting her. He was going to kill her and eat her. ) “Stop, please, fucking stop—“ (Something was wrong with him, there was something horrible about his face. He didn’t care about her anymore. He didn’t care about her, or her brother... he didn’t love their mother. He was a monster.)


She felt his great shadow looming over her, knew his fangs were about to tear into her throat and so the roan filly... reacted. She shifted. Her wings disappeared, her fur retracted back into her body as it started to stretch. Her skin grew hard black scales over it and soon enough, Reign was a monster herself.


The giant snake jerked its head around wildly, its thick black tongue slipping out to taste the air as its massive body struggled to coil around itself in defense though there was no one there. Tarnished was gone.


The... black mare had saved her.


Shivering, the snake began to shrink back down until Reign had resumed her original shape. She continued to shake, though her tremors had less and less to do with the cold and more to do with the fact her father had tried to murder her. If not for the Black... and the Silver, the Silver Mare with lightning all over her body. Reign stared blankly off into the distance, her ears flicking back and then forwards at the slightest sound. There was a river nearby—she knew this place, maybe. She hadn’t spent much time outside of her Mother’s den before... things had happened.


The trees looked unfamiliar, the terrain looked frozen and unforgiving. Reign sneered at the thought of crying, though her bottom lip trembled in spite of herself; she wanted her Mother, she wanted to go Home.


@[crowns]

[crowns]

CrownS

Sabbath didn’t always let him wander far from her side. She never said it, but she knew the pain of loss too intimately to risk anything happening to him. He used to think she was just an overbearing mother until Eucharist explained that his twin and his father were gone, that their eldest sister had died before their mother’s eyes. Crowns always worried about getting home before sunset after that.

He lifts his sapphire head to check the sun’s position before he slinks into the frigid winter waters of the river. There is more than enough time for him to see how long he can fight the current today. The water hisses and bubbles where it meets his skin, already steaming from the contact against his skin. It brings a smile to his face and then he plunges his head beneath the surface. Crowns walks along the riverbed for as long as his breath will allow.

And then something in him lifts its head. Like calls to like, and he is drawn to the shore.

At first only his small ears protrude, swiveling about until they catch the sound of nervous breathing. Then, like a crocodile, he lifts his eyes above the surface. He hesitates before combing his fingers through her thoughts. The images of war and monsters mean little to him, but her memory of her mother makes him finally climb out of the water, dripping and steaming in the merciless winter chill.

He spreads his wings and gives his body a little shake to hurry its drying along. “It’s a little cold to be out here alone, don’t you think?” he asks with a gentle smile. Crowns would like to immediately invite her to Tephra, but he worries he doesn’t understand her thoughts quite right or that she might take offense to his prying. Grandfather always seemed irritated when he skimmed his memories to understand him better.

“My name is Crowns. I live in a spooky jungle,” he explains, stopping with plenty of room between them. The ancient serpent thrumming in his core knows that she belongs with them, but it is a patient monster; it will drag her home in time.

@[Reign]

[Reign]

Reign wasn’t certain when she fell asleep, only that it happened after she nestled herself up among the roots of a tree nearest the river. The roan filly lifted her head to yawn, her jaws stretching impossibly wide, her fangs barely slipping out of their sheath; she flicked her black tongue out to taste the air and groaned outwardly at the thought of moving at all.

Still, she needed to get up. If she was going to find her mother, cuddling tree bark just wasn’t going to cut it. Snorting, Reign pushed herself up to stand and shook the snow from her back; she stretched out her shadowy wings (less substantial now out in the light of the day) and stuck one back leg out behind her with a not-so-lady-like grunt.

And that was when she noticed the strange ripples and bubbles fighting against the current.

Whatever was under the water was... big, certainly too big for the average river fish that she remembered. Her yellow eyes grew wide, her heart started to pound and she was vaguely aware of the way her sides started to heave in and out.

Father was back, of course he was.
He would have never let his prey go so easil—

First, she saw the ears. They swiveled around like little radars. Next came the topmost half of a face and a pair of eyes. She cocked her head in confusion, angling her horn off to the right. Whatever this was? It didn’t look like any manner of beast her father would have chosen to take the shape of. There was a funny feeling that came over her, briefly, almost like the one she felt whenever Charlie was around but it was gone before she could be certain of what it was.

The creature rose from the water and she could see that he was a horse, though he bore wings made from the waves and cast steam where the cold air kissed his skin. “It’s not by choice,” she replied, studying him carefully—there was just... something a smidge familiar about his face, but it wasn’t obvious enough for her to realize just what that was.

“A spooky jungle?” Reign grinned, particularly delighted to be speaking to someone—anyone—after all her time alone out there among the stars in the black. “I’m Reign. I lived in Tephra with my mom and my brother, do you know where that is?” She asked, because if he did know, he could at least point her in the right direction. She never would have guessed how many years had come and went, never would have recognized her own twin even if she saw him—

They would likely believe they were seeing her ghost.

[crowns]

CrownS

He steps a little closer and examines her with his neck stretched toward her. Sabbath never spoke the names of anyone she’d lost and Eucharist wouldn’t say much beyond the fact that he had a twin sister. They kept their heartbreaks to themselves and he didn’t feel right digging around in their heads for answers. But she is a stranger, and he finds the image of their brother there. She’s too young to be the missing twin, however, so he hums softly in thought.

His ears perk when she smiles. Does she also like the scary things in the dark? Crowns can’t help but scoot a little closer to her once more. “I do! That’s where I live too!” he explains with a wide grin. His bright blue eyes dance with excitement as he begins to circle her anxiously, like a puppy meeting a new friend.

“Who’s your mom and brother?” he asks, tilting his head now as he watches her carefully. The boy considers snatching her away to Tephra before she can answer, but he restrains himself. He must learn to be gentle in his efforts rather than using brute force to have his way all the time. And besides, he’s yet to let his family know he can do these sorts of tricks in the first place. They would certainly die of shock if he revealed a long lost sister and his strength.

“Come to Tephra. Come home with me,” he suddenly says, his smile dimming a little.

He does not know Reign and he has not felt the ache of her missing, but he has watched his mother weep when she thought she would lose him too. He’s seen the way she bristled when anyone came near him, heard the rising tone of panic in her voice when he was out of her sight for even a second. Would she still hug him too tight each morning if he managed to bring her daughter home?

@[Reign]

[Reign]

When Crowns scooted in close, Reign didn’t recoil; in fact, she had to fight the urge to flick her black forked tongue out at him. It was how she liked investigating things she found interesting (and, in her opinion, it offered information her nose didn’t on top of being more accurate).

‘But it’s considered rude,’ she winced, her father’s words lingering in the back of her mind—as clear as the day they’d left his wretched mouth. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the mere thought of him didn’t make her heart race. She wouldn’t be comfortable until she was back home, safe—her mother would make sure she was safe at all cost.

(Did she like scary things in the dark?
Ironically, she had loved one. Once.

They all did.)

“YOU DO?!” She squealed in excitement, and while she couldn’t believe such a sound had come out of her, she was completely unable to contain herself in her excitement. When he started circling around her, she followed him with her head—her neck extending longer and longer until it more resembled a snake’s thick coils than a filly’s slender neck.

“My mom’s name is Sabbath,” Reign told him, just before her neck rapidly started to retract and her head popped itself into place. She tried to shake off the sudden dizziness, and staggered because of it, but otherwise acted as if her little trick was the most ordinary thing in the world. “My brother, he’s—he likes to be called Charlie.”

“Yes, please,” Reign stretched out her wings, then immediately snapped them back to her sides. She had learned the hard way that they were no good during the day and had earned the bumps and bruises to prove it. “I can’t fly like this... not ‘til dark, but if you want to lead the way, I’ll follow.”

@[crowns] Post in Tephra? <3