[open] fell victim to the sound of your love

[chalkydri]

His mother has faded into the darkness of Nerine, still mourning the loss of her twin flame, and Ky imagines that he is only making her feel worse. She always seems so much sadder when he is around, and it only serves to make the young boy sad in turn. He wants his mother to be happy, but no matter what he tries it doesn’t seem to help. She doesn’t want him to leave - he cringes at the dragon’s sobs as he bounds away from their nest - but there’s nothing he can do for her anymore. He has obeyed her wishes since his birth, never straying far from Clarissa’s side, but he no longer feels the need to hide away.

The man who would have him killed if he were to ever learn of his existence is dead, after all. And from the stories that pass through the Nerinian trees, he was a fearsome beast; how Mother had ever loved the cruel dragon is a mystery to him. She is so gentle, so kind, but this Ghaul seems to be the thing of nightmares, at least to the young boy. Perhaps he had been sweet behind closed doors? Ky doesn’t know, and he’s glad that he will never have to find out. Clarissa had neither confirmed nor denied that Ghaul was his father, but Ky doesn’t think so. After all, both of them are dragons, and Ky is just… a goat.

Not that he would want to be a dragon by any means! He likes his nubby horns and Clarissa always coos over how handsome her son is - scales and wings and fearsome things would destroy that image, he thinks. He likes that he can bound up a sheer cliffside with little fear, even as Clarissa looks on fearfully the entire time. He would always joke that she would heal him if he were to fall, but he never falls.

It hurts him to leave his mother behind, but he has grown lonely in their quiet corner of Nerine. Cirilla is the only one he knows outside of Clarissa, and she had returned to her homeland some months ago to reunite with her other siblings. He wonders if she’s told them about Clarissa’s unknown son, squirreled away in another territory.

The darkness doesn’t bother him much as he stands at the edge of the cliffs in Nerine, grazing at the sparse grass that grows here. His golden markings glow softly in the unending night, and though he is even more alone than usual, he makes no move to seek someone out. It is not as dark here as it is in other lands - Clarissa had told him of the bonfire that Popinjay had ignited, and he can nearly see the flames in the distance if he were to look hard enough.

But for now, he is content to graze.


@[Yanhua] or anyone who wants to pop by and meet him!!

[Yanhua]

The winter had never been harsher. Yanhua could deal with the cold, could even make do without the limited resources that grew seasonally for his family to eat, and when the sun had lit his and Amarine’s way up the mountainside even that hadn’t been so much of a trial, but in the dark? In this hellscape of shadows? There had never been anything so dangerous or threatening to him. The source of life was gone and it would surely have an impact in the months to come. Without the sun’s rays how were the crops meant to grow and flourish? How would Yanhua provide for his children? He awoke from fitful slumber every day (or every night; Yan wasn’t sure which was what anymore) and did his best to do anything, find anything as a means of distraction lest he crumble from the weight of anxiety.

He and Amarine had one test to complete, yes… but what about the grand scheme? What good was building a home and legacy if there was no legacy in the end?

Too full of questions and longing for answers, Yanhua headed north toward Nerine. He’d not seen or heard from Leilan or his brother, Nashua, since the eclipse. That left him wondering even more about the state of things. Again, Yanhua felt as if he must wade through these treacherous waters himself in order to be the guide for every living creature that fell under his umbrella of fabricated protection; Lilliana was (as of late) undiscovered. The King of the North, silent. His regent and right hand, just as much a ghost as Yanhua’s echoes. If there was time to be bitter about the subject, maybe Yan would be, but in reality he just felt utterly alone.

Only Popinjay and her bright fire spark hope in this waking nightmare, so that’s directly where Yan finds himself traveling. His family in Taiga is together again and the gods help him, that's how it’ll stay. The time passes quickly; before long he’s ascended from the forests and crossed into Nerinian territory, made all the easier in the dark after finding the common road for those horses who travelled by way of walking. Out of Taiga it seems less-dark at least. Without the thick fog and interwoven treetops, Yanhua has a better sense of his surroundings. He can also see the flickering light of the grand fire from where he’s at, and he thinks it’s an impressive thing - what Popinjay has done. Odd, but impressive. That hazy glow of light is a guide he follows eagerly, until he comes across another dim sort of glow in the moorish night.

“Ho there!” Yan called out, half lantern himself as the gold-lit wisps of his mane and tail blew haphazardly in the unseen wind. He tread carefully over the mounds and stepped softly through the divots in the earth, a dark silhouette barely illuminated. Like a roving spirit, he never tripped; instead the long-legged stallion seemed as if he were floating along through the open country, unhurried. “Would you mind if I -” He paused, going still.

An echo came, unexpected and the first of its kind since he’d descended from the mountaintop. In it, he saw the waving memory of a familiar mare he’d met a long time ago; she was crying still, but it could not have been from that day in the redwoods when he’d barely just become a stallion himself. That would’ve been impossible. No - the echo was much more recent, it had to be - she was in a different place this time, though her beauty remained pristine as it’d been the first time they met. Lady, Yan remembered calling her. He remembered it well.

“You…” The horned elder muttered, not unkindly. Step by careful step he began to move toward the other horse again. “You know the dragoness?” Yan asked, barely above a whisper. They were close enough for it now. In the dim light of his forelock, confusion twisted the corners of his eyes and made him hesitant to hear the answer, but he waited all the same. Lady, he remembered calling her. Clarissa had been her name.

@[chalkydri] we're just gonna pretend this is shortly after Yan and co. have safely returned home lol. Time, what even is it?