"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
hold me in this wild, wild world 'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
He takes a few days to consider, returning to the depths of the jungle, before he seeks out their new Keeper. It takes him the better part of a day, but then again it’s not like he’s running around looking, screaming her name; the bay stallion merely wanders here and there, checking some of his own favorite haunts and working his way in concentric circles outwards from the waterfall he has made a nest of sorts, towards the beaches. Originally he had thought to make one of the other smaller islands in the chain his own nest, but the waterfall just called to him and drew him in.
Somewhere between point a and point b, Brennen comes across his queen, and calls softly to her as he approaches, stepping carefully over lifted roots and keeping his wings tucked tightly to his sides as he winds between trees. A part of his mind is dedicated to the curiosity of contradiction – Ischia will naturally draw many pegasi, who are able to come and go from the Island at will, but yet the close-packed jungle is not the natural habitat choice of winged creatures.
“Krone,” he greets, voice pleasant but quiet. He tends to drawl in his speech, and sounds persistently just this side of truly amused. “Do you have a moment?” A polite question of course but as she has probably already discovered – a monarch is almost always available to her people. Still, he doesn’t want to truly inconvenience her, if now is a bad time.
hold me in this wild, wild world and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
The end of summer is nearing, Ischia's Keeper can feel it in her bones. The hot, humid air is growing just the slightest bit cooler, hinting at the beginnings of autumn. While her island home stayed tropical year round, she can feel how the wind from the mainland is sending a lukewarm breeze towards her home.
She is standing on the edge of her favorite cliff, pondering this odd phenomenon, when she is pulled from her thoughts (once again) by one of her inhabitants. She turns around fully to face him, her eyes tracing the lines of his muscles beneath his chocolate coat, taking a long pause at the large raven feathers pressed firmly against his sides.
"Brennen," She greets, lips curling into a smile. "I see you've managed to keep your wings dry today." She pokes fun at him, remembering their first meeting when his feathers were waterlogged.
Do you have a moment? He asks.
Krone nods her head. "Of course," She gestures to him to take a place at her side, turning to overlook the cliff again. "You can always talk to me. Is everything alright?"
hold me in this wild, wild world 'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
Everything changes, and everything stays the same. That is never truer than now. His home is new, his life is new, a fresh start in a fresh world but he slides into easy comraderies with strong women and powerful women and intriguing women, though he mostly admires them from afar. So he smiles his half-smile at her teasing and lifts his wings, giving them a quick shake as if to prove that they are, indeed, dry. “Wet and bedraggled is no way to meet with one’s Queen,” he responds, “And the currents from the north are still dreadfully cold – no time to take a nice swim,” He pretends to shudder, letting his skin twitch violently in underscore of the fake horror in his voice. (The truth of course is that he sometimes misses the cold, his Tundra, but when that happens, he just creates the ice he craves).
When she extends the invitation, Brennen tucks his wings crisply to his side once more and steps up to the edge beside her, closing his eyes a minute to enjoy the feel of the breeze strong against his face, and then looks down at the Kingdom that stretches below them. Their home. His home. It’s finally familiar, and with that he feels easier in his own skin, and ready to work. He doesn’t know how to put that into words for her, to truly make anyone understand, but he is hoping he won’t need to. That somehow, she will just understand by what he does say that he is committed now. That he needs work to do, to keep him engaged.
A commitment and engagement from Brennen is not always the same thing – he can be a virtual ghost, but come out of the woodwork like a rapid wildfire if there is need for him. But engagement requires tasks.
“The faeries have gifted me with immunity from steals for two months. We can claim it when you think it would be the most useful.” The fae grow more capricious with time, he thinks, but at least it was a gift and not a curse, as they have trended towards in the last decades. “And I was wondering what our relationships are with the other Kingdoms – and what you would like them to be. I’d like to stretch my wings, but I don’t want to offend anyone you’d rather we play nicely with. Mocks are well and good but I find a real battle on occasion keeps me sharper.”
For a moment his smile is razor-sharp, leaving no doubt that he is sharp with or without the practice, but even someone with his experience needs to keep a hoof in the ring. “Speaking of practice, I had minimal interest the first time I attempted to gather the army for a meeting under Circinae, but I’ve seen some new faces. I’d be happy to try again and organize some training or practice, if you’d like.”
The breeze is warm against his face and he can’t help himself – he shifts, ice forming under his hooves and the breeze blows across the frozen water and then rises, curling around them and slowly dissipating.
A piece of his Tundra that he can bring with him forever, even if home is now a tropical island.
hold me in this wild, wild world and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
BRENNEN
ooc; can we just pretend I didn't disappear for a month? eek
The wind is crisp, clear, and she lets her eyes close to enjoy it. She sighs, wishing to take flight, hoping to use her wings once more (it had been so long, hadn't it?), and almost forgetting Brennen was there. She chuckles gently as he jokes back, and looks to him with a warm smile.
"In time I feel we will find good use for it," She murmurs with a nod of her head. "As for relationships, I have just met with Loess' king, Ivar, and we have established a treaty. We continue to be linked to Hyaline, but I plan on traveling there soon, as I haven't had a chance to speak with their new leader yet." She stays straight to the point as he had, letting him know of everything she felt he should. He was, after-all, leader of her Protectors. Then he mind wanders to Sylva, and the new queen they had established there..."Any others are fair game, but I'd appreciate if we stay away from Sylva for the time being. I have unfinished business there..." She shrugs her shoulders, figuring it may be best discussed after she travels there. His idea of training sparks an interest in Krone, and she swivels her ears in thought.
"Ah, yes, I think organizing a training session would be wonderful, Brennen. I will try to get some of our kingdom's newcomers to take part in it."
Krone
you could be the King (but watch the Queen conquer)
@[Brennen] lmao it's fine! Sorry this is short and crappy. Still getting back into it. xD
hold me in this wild, wild world 'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
He has memorized the new Kingdoms, at least their names, but there is still so much not there. The history, the associations with memories good and bad, they’re just so…empty. He has only his own associations to go on, and that isn’t much. Brennen longs for the simplicity of older times; he wants to be able to put each Kingdom into it’s box and have them mostly stay there. He would not touch Hyaline even if they were not linked to them, not without good cause. He still feels some loyalty to the roots of what he had tried to do there, though he does not think it is the same place he had hoped it would become. He has no knowledge or feelings whatsoever to Loess, but makes note of their treaty to perhaps make a visit later. Sylva is a more interesting case, just by what Krone doesn’t say, but he does not pry. Until it becomes a threat, he will let her have her secrets.
That leaves Tephra, Taiga, and Nerine. Brennen won’t go after what is left of the Amazons lightly either, not having so recently served there, so Tephra and Taiga it is. He knows nothing of either. It must be time to learn. Perhaps a visit, though Brennen supposes it probably won’t be an anonymous visit. He is not as notorious as some, but he is not an unknown factor either.
Perhaps he will send a daughter, though she looks quite a bit like him.
For a moment, all is quiet except the wind and the distant call of the birds that live here with them.
What they do in the next few years will shape how Ischia is known. It has been little so far – a home to a few small groups of horses but it has not been a major player in the New World. He loved the isolation of the Tundra, but he liked that they were left alone because they had a reputation and few wanted to mess with them. He does not want his home to be nothing. “What would you like us to be known for?” He asks quietly.
hold me in this wild, wild world and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
"What would you like us to be known for?" The question is followed by a long pause. The only sounds around the pair were the songs of the birds, the whistling through the trees. She ponders this question...honestly, she had never really thought about what she would want her kingdom to be known for. Her whole life she was taught that to be a successful leader, you conquer, you rule with an iron fist and get rid of anything that stands in your way. But is that who she had become in her adulthood?
No... Her mind whispered, and she tore her eyes from the azure sky and looked to Brennen. A man of so many years, of accomplishments and failures. She sighs. "Truthfully, I've yet to figure that one out myself," She admits, pawing at the ground. "I want Ischia to be strong...I don't want to hide her behind the shadows of other herds anymore, I want her to be a statement. Does that make sense?" She searches his face for some sort of reassurance, some sign that he agreed...
In Ischia, she saw herself, and she wanted what was best for her home...
Krone
you could be the King (but watch the Queen conquer)
