"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
A red one, like the sun bled onto the land before it tried to rise. Within moments, it was smothered yet again by the remainder of the wintery frost-blue clouds, now little wisps yet to be joined by the fog and mist.
Once the sun, hours later, rose above the smothering clouds, the day warmed. Brightened? Not much, not for her. Her brother held a grudge against her that he didn't have to ever have let happen. It would've been so easy to just keep pace with her, just a few points extra, and he could have advanced with her.
Then she remembered, that she was under watch to see her ability to lead, to keep her temper checked even if on the brink of a spar of words and nips, curses and bites. She moved closer to the main area, where more would be able to hear her. She saw a few of the previous militia caste, noting their presence before calling.
"If you are interested in being part of the army caste, please come for an interest check meeting." She projected well, sending it out over the area's air. She waited for heads to turn, followed by hoof movements as some came her way. She forced herself to wait patiently with her head up and ears swiveling to listen for approaching equine.
Magnus did not expect soldiers to pour from the crevices to answer Rael Fire’s call. Tephra was not a typical kingdom of old and this new land did not yet demand a battle-tested army the way that it had once been. Peace was tenuous here and tepid, but still, there was peace. The sound of war did not sound on the borders of their land and no one lived in fear for what may march upon them in the morning.
Yet Magnus did not feel at ease.
He knew that the worst bloodshed was often born from the deepest silences and the longer this one stretched, the more he felt that itch between his shoulder blades, that discomfort. He didn’t trust that this peace would last, and he grew increasingly concerned about what would lie on the other end of it.
Not that he voiced those concerns. Not out loud and not to the others. Instead, he went about his day, venturing to the field and beginning to make his way to the other lands to get a feel for the political climate. Today, of course, was different, and he found himself pleasantly surprised to be greeted by the steady call of Rael Fire. She had been notedly quiet since stepping up in the meeting, and while he was hoping she would prove a worthy leader of the army, he wasn’t going to just hand the position to her.
Quietly, he made his way toward her, waiting for others to join, if there were any willing to step up and guard Tephra. He didn’t say anything, instead he simply stood several feet away from her and when he managed to catch her gaze, he dipped his head in greeting. He was here and watching.
12-06-2016, 09:05 AM (This post was last modified: 12-06-2016, 09:06 AM by Rael Fire.)
"Hello, Magnus. I decided it was time for an interest call; the lull has worried my mind." She greets him, returning a small dip of her own grey head after his gold-and-black raised again. She remembered that he had been out and about more to the other kingdoms.
"How are the other kingdoms? From the one time I've been out, I heard some odd rumour about Sylva." She asks, noting what she knows so far from what little she's done. Her ears flicked, and her discomfort increased as none stepped forward for multiple minutes. She decided to repeat her call.
"Anyone who has interest in defending Tephra, please step forward so I can start to organize future meetings. Those that know what to do are welcome as much as those new to the army caste." She tells the horses nearby, meeting some of their gazes, her voice soft but projected. She would not shout unless it was a battle cry of revenge for a fallen member of beloved Tephra, or if it was a cry of despair if family was killed.
@[magnus] Well that went morbid at the end.. That's what I get for ignoring her muse for a week, I guess. XD
your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine. i don't love you, but i always will.
War lingered in the very marrow of her sinewy bones, dormant during the dim hours of evening yet awakened easily in the birth of a new morning. Given life so soon after the last war, her mind still remembered too well the stagnant stench of rotting corpses, the sight of bodies slain and left to rot beneath the heat of a setting sun, and the blood that stained the land before being washed away by a cleansing rain. Her youthful eyes had seen the carnage, her curious mind told the morbid tales of violence and greed, and the salty lust for blood soon found her vulnerable heart.
Alas, time and finesse had since taught her to conceal her darker desires beneath an otherwise stoic exterior - but in the shadows of night, she had often practiced bending and splitting the dried bones of the deceased and the manipulation of the sick and dying. So fascinated was she with death as a child that she no longer feared it. Having lost a daughter born still to fate only served to further harden her callous heart, though her beloved Canaan and Hawke drew out a fiercely protective part of her that would provoke even the most demure part of her to shed blood.
Time had not quelled her desires; merely softened their rough edges.
A gentle call carries along the warm morning breeze, and her hazel eyes, glimmering with amusement, settle along the feminine form of mousy gray and the muscled physique of a too-familiar golden male. A call for solidarity; for union. Oh, I can't miss this, she muses to herself wryly, her massive white plumage tucked tightly to her sides as she follows the pull of gravity, allowing the weight of her body to push her down along the hill crest.
A faint nod is given to both, her feigned smile one of camaraderie but she wondered how much blood Rael Fire had seen spilled, how much carnage had she seen - and how far would she go to settle the line, to defend the lives of many while destroying the lives of others?
Her eyes glimmer in the rising sunlight.
Perhaps this was the entertainment she had been so deeply craving.
"Magnus. Rael Fire, is it?" Her voice is low, and deceivingly kind. "My name is Ellyse. I seek to defend our land, in any way that I can. It would seem that for now, it is only the two of us .. and like you, I fear we have grown complacent. Let us settle the leadership. A challenge, between you and I. What do you say?"
@[Ellyse]
The mare didn't know much better. "Challenge accepted, Ellyse. Of course, if it is permitted by you, Magnus." She says, turning for permission to take on the challenge for leadership of the caste. If he said no, she wondered what would happen.
OOC: Do you want to set it up, or should I? I'm not experienced in setting challenges up.. XD
At her question, he rolls his shoulders, his mouth quirking upward into a crooked smile. “I have only been able to venture to Taiga so far, although Ischia and Nerine have come to our borders. From what I have been able to gather, much everyone is like us: simply trying to rebuild.” At her comment about Sylva, he simply frowned and tilted his heavy jawed head to the side. “What kind of rumor?”
He listens politely to her call, gold-flecked gaze washing over the residents milling about and then landing upon the familiar sight of Ellyse as she makes her way toward the group. This would be interesting. Ellyse’s words are honeyed, but Magnus has been around her long enough to recognize there are barbs beneath them. He is not surprised that she has answered the call with a challenge of her own.
She never did take kindly to orders.
He, however, does not intervene; instead he calmly looks on to Rael Fire. It did not do well to breed weakness into guardians of an army; he had given her the spot temporarily as a chance to prove herself, and this seemed like just the opportunity. If she could not defend herself against this challenge, how would she be able to defend Tephra? So he merely dips his head. “I have no objections to the challenge.”
Taking a step back, he motions toward the Challenge grounds. He was not going to miss watching this, not when the fate of their army hung in the balance of the outcome.
out of the blue out into the loneliest place that you'll ever know I carried the world just as far as I could but the damage had taken its toll
![[Image: gqYjsHr.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/KjqNDKxc/gqYjsHr.png)
