"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
She is the fox again, small and lithe, slipping through the underbrush on the trail of a frightened little mouse. She can smell the fear in the creature, revels in it, can almost feel the fragile bones crushed beneath her teeth ....
Then she pauses, paw raised mid air, as a nearby noise attracts her attention. Her mouth hungers for the mouse, but the sound indicates that something large is nearby, and her fox instincts scream at her to hide. She gives in to them, regretfully (the mouse would have made a good lunch), and slips under a nearby log to wait for the intruder to pass by.
But wait, why is she hiding? There are few predators in Taiga, well, few that would be bothered with the effort of trying to take her down in her natural form. She slips back out from under the log, and in a few quick moments (she’s gotten good at transitioning from this form) the little red fox has been replaced by a dark young mare.
She straightens up, ears at attention, eyes seeking out movements in the underbrush. “Hello? Is someone there?” Scents are different now in this form - the vegetation is overwhelming, but there’s something deeper beyond it that she can only now detect. Something mixed with the scent of horse, something musky and … predatory.
When Tyrna had first set foot on Taigan soil, she had known she was home. Now, wandering through the mist and fog covered by low hanging branches, her thoughts threaten to choke her. She isn't paying attention to her surroundings or the noise she makes in her passing until a striking young voice calls out from the brush to her side, stopping Tyrna in her tracks.
Hello? Is someone there?
It takes the gunmetal mare a minute before she can place why the voice sounds so familiar. Stepping through the brush and spotting the little black mare finally clicks everything into place. It's one of the many shifters that seem to live in the shade of the redwoods. This girl was at the meeting as well and seemed like a nice enough sort.
"Hello!" Tyrna replies as she steps through the last of the brush to greet the girl. "I'm sorry if I startled you, I didn't mean to, but you know how it can get out here." Tyrna gives the mare a look and an apologetic shrug. She sometimes forgot that there were others out here when she was caught up in her head.
"I don't know if we've been properly introduced, my name's Tyrna and it;s a pleasure to formerly meet you." She gives the girl a broad and welcoming smile. With just a hint of her old wolfish ways peeking out.
At the sound of her voice, something rustles in the bushes. Terra tenses, power in her grasp, ready to slip into the fox form and disappear if need be, not that she thinks she will. But a voice follows the rustle, and a grey and white mare slips into her clearing.
Terra studies her for a moment, brown eyes passing over the large, muscular older mare. She remembers the mare from the meeting her parents had held, the one she’s spied in on as a squirrel. Her head cocks to the side as she tries to remember the mare’s name … the mare had shared it at the meeting, but Terra can’t remember it for the life of her. She’d been so interested in the wolf shifter and in her mother’s words that she’d paid little attention to everyone else.
The mare apologizes for startling her, and Terra shrugs noncommittally. “S’alright.” She’d been surprised, but it hasn’t exactly ruined her day. The mare introduces herself (ah, Tyrna, that’s it!), and Terra smiles and bobs her head awkwardly. “Terra.”
She falls silent again, shifting back and forth on her heels. This is typically the part where people are supposed to engage in small talk, right? “Uhh … what brings you all the way out here?” A valid question, to be sure. Few wander this deep into the woods when it is so cold and foggy.
Tyrna keeps her confident smile plastered on her face as she takes in the slight girl. When Terra asks what Tyrna is doing out here, the steel girl lets out a short laugh. Everyone had their own reasons for staying in the Taiga. Some liked the peace and quiet, and some liked the space to practice the particular skills that the trees seemed to attract. Tyrna fell into the former category these days, not that that was a terribly bad thing.
"I'm out here for the same reason we all are I think." She winks at Terra before continuing, "The quiet is comforting." To Tyrna, it was so much more than comforting. Most days the shadows and silence were all she had to get by, and most days she preferred it that way. It was nice to see others, especially when they appreciated the forest as much as the Taigan residents did.
Tyrna relaxes her posture, cocking a hind hoof while keeping her steely blue gaze focused on the smaller mare. "What brings you all the way out here? And what did you think of our little get together?" Her questions are blunt, but most days so was she. Blunt but friendly, that was Tyrna in a nutshell.
