"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
03-25-2018, 11:08 AM (This post was last modified: 03-25-2018, 11:09 AM by Leilan.)
Leilan has been told to visit his mother's old friend, and that he may give him a goal in his life.
Truth be told, Leilan isn't entirely certain that he needs a goal just now. He has been content to roam the island, and see who responds ickly and who responds well when he pokes them. Then, the golden goddess Nikè had appeared to him, to everyone, to participate in the Games - of course, a chance he did not want to miss. It turned out, he had the best teammates ever, and his mane and tail are now shiny with streaks of gold to mingle with the silver and black that had already been there.
More shiny than ever, he's also gotten the best thing yet - an Aura of freezing, frosty cold, which he now can use to temporarily freeze someone's butt - for example on Trekori, should he meet him again.
As he has made his way to the Ischian island, it turns out it's not cold enough to freeze more than about a millimeter of water; ah well, he's glad with it all the same. The trick is nothing more than that, and he has no immediate need for ice so thick (although, it would be cool to be able to make ice he thinks - yes, pun intended, of course, he's still Leilan, didn't you get that earlier?). He just has to wait for the tide to turn, and when it does, he makes his way to the island quickly enough.
Standing on the sandy beach, he wonders. What next? He looks up to the skies, but does not immediately see a horse flying - or if he does, they're far enough away that they could be a bird also. Oh, well. He takes a few more steps towards the main part of the island, and just calls out the name of the stallion he's supposed to visit.
"Brennen, you here?"
@[Brennen]
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
hold me in this wild, wild world 'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
It is strange, to him, that there is no winter on the islands. To have gone from a home where summer was the shortest season, and quite mild, to a place where summer reigns supreme three seasons out of four, with winter bringing only slightly milder climes, is quite an adjustment. A pleasant one, but disorienting nonetheless. There is little to differentiate spring on Ischia except the birth of foals and chicks, and he has noticed his friends amongst the birds have been less social lately, devoted instead to feeding the noisy creatures in their nests. And in truth, he didn't know anything could be louder than the parrots, but their chicks are nearly deafening when they are hungry! Still, they do not neglect the task he has convinced them to take on, and a blue male comes looking for Brennen with shrill cries of 'Stranger, Stranger!' long before the bay stallion hears his name on the wind, and so he is already halfway back to the beach at a brisk trot when he does hear the unfamiliar voice.
Not for the first time, he is glad to have found a place where the inhabitants are as curious about the residents as they are smart; instead of avoiding him like the wildlife of his other homes, the birds seek him out frequently and have been happy to take up part of the burden of monitoring their shores and skies. Long strides have brought him out of the jungle now and Brennen slows, lifting his head to get a better look at the other stallion standing some distance away, clearly having crossed quite recently as the waters are only just beginning to cover the sand bars fully again, once more closing the path to the island until the next day. He doesn't call a greeting, as he assumes if the strange is looking for him by name, he'll be expecting him to come. Instead he just slows to a Walk as he gets close, and then halts and gives a polite nod, a curious tilt of his head as he takes in the boy's gold streaks, and tries to remember if he'd noticed him during the games' he had been a spectator, but focused mainly on his children and grandchildren that had been participating, so he had missed a lot of the rest' but he thinks he remembers this boy, as he remembers may of those who had been most exemplary (his own trio amongst the winning teams, which made him swell with pride). "Welcome to Ischia," he says politely, amber eyes not unfriendly but guarded. "Brennen, at your service."
hold me in this wild, wild world and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
BRENNEN
Ooc: sorry this sucks I'm on my phone and just trying to get some stuff up. :/ will try to do better next time. I don't think they've ever met so I didn't have Brennen recognize him.
Leilan makes himself comfortable in the sand; that is, he walks a bit further up the shore seeing as the water is rising again, and slightly impatiently traces first circles, then random lines, then stupid images in the sand. Images he quickly walks over when he hears the kaleidoscope of birds scream and whinny - yes, whinny. It seems they have copied the sound of horses. They're saying there's a stranger here, and he grins at some that are close by, his evil-but-didn't-do-anything-yet smile. They are studying him and he studies them in return.
Since the silver-maned (now added with gold) stallion has called out for Brennen, he assumes that the bay man that comes to visit (finally, he's been waiting for ages around the slightly unnerving birds, how big is this island?) is the same guy. He nods to him in greeting at sight, but waits for further conversation to happen until the winged stallion has caught up with him. He doesn't recall the other man competing in the Games, but perhaps for one of his mother's age it is no longer needed to stand out against a crowd. Truly, all Leilan had really cared about was beating his mother after that first race they did. Perhaps her sleeker build had done it, but then, thanks to Hestoni's Friesian heritage, Leilan had bested his mother in the draft race, so now he had the tri-coloured hairs upon his neck. He sometimes felt a little sad at not being able to see all of it constantly - his forelock was still black as always, so it was mostly for others to admire him than himself. But he figured that such a thing would be great to impress the ladies next fall.
His suspicion was correct, he heard, when Brennen politely greeted him. At your service? Why, wasn't that a formal way of saying hello! The roaning stallion grinned, swishing his now-glittering tail. "Leilan. My mother said to come visit you, so, here I am. Don't think we met before however. I must have missed you on your last visit, but I can't say I'd blame you for leaving Nerine as soon as entering it. No place for a decent guy to stay overly long." He clicked his tongue in mock irritation, then smiled at the other man. "I bet you have it better here."
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
hold me in this wild, wild world 'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
It’s true that Brennen had felt little need to prove himself in the fae’s games, but less because of his age and more because he’s already proven himself time and again in battle, and even now is competing in his second Alliance. Better, overall, to let the young and the unproven fight their way to prizes and recognition in the games, and he to conserve his energy for his next Alliance battle and for the plotting and planning he was doing at home. And while they had not been alone on the field by any means, the young had certainly thrived in the competition; he approved heartily of the confidence it had added to the steps of his own family, and while something tells him this stallion in front of him doesn’t have any confidence issues, he’s sure that the win is a feather in his cap nonetheless.
The birds are almost never silent while the sun is out, but they quiet a bit when Brennen reaches the stranger, those with their own nests and mates and chicks to care for heading back to said nests, leaving only some of them to watch and study the men as they walk along the beach. The boy – and okay so he’s pretty grown, but he has nothing on Brennen – introduces himself and says his mother sent him, and Brennen takes another look at him, searching for familiar features. He knows many Nerinians, but he thinks Scorch is the most likely to have sent him a son already; Hestia is very much on-board with the plan, but not to the same degree as his friend. And like Brennen, and unlike Hestia, Scorch has many descendants.
He likes the younger stallion already, the words and irreverent tone reminding him of…someone. He hasn’t placed who that might be, but he returns the smile with a quick quirk of his own lips and a shake of his head (for once, free of feathered passengers clinging to his dark mane). “I am quite fond of a number of past and present Amazons,” he offers in reply, “but no, Nerine was not for me, not for the long-term. They bleed Amazons out of their very pores, no matter what they’d like to think, and a precious few stallions could hope to have a fair shot there.” He doesn’t know that even now, Nayl is protesting Hestia’s pledge to help Brennen regain his Brotherhood, on the claim that she had given him everything he could have wanted and he had not stayed.
The bay warrior remembers it quite differently. He remembers the feeling of being given his due respect for being the warrior he was, but knowing he’d never hold true rank amongst them. Of Nayl announcing her plan to have all men prove themselves in the gladiators before being allowed any rank or recognition at all. Of offering her Hyaline, rather than taking it for himself, and still it had barely been good enough. No. He respects her still for what she had done for the remains of the sisterhood that called Nerine home, but it had been no home for a Brother of the Tundra. “It’s marginally better here, though the current Queen allows it to grow stagnate and purposeless, just as it was when we found it and she declared herself Queen because some jewel came along and attached itself to her head.”
The jewel, just like the previous Keeper’s abdication, still puzzles Brennen. He had respected Circinae, but found her successor lacking. And the lands had been, as a rule, rather hands-off their people in the new world (so unlike the near-sentient lands of old) that he has never felt truly comfortable with this one-time show of brief life supposedly from the Island itself. It certainly does not impede his plans in any way. “But it will not stay that way for long, which I’m sure is why Scorch sent you to find me. Tell me, Leilan, as a child of an Amazon lady, have you ever considered the Brotherhood of old?” He seems a smart kid, and being Scorch’s, Brennen has no doubt he is intelligent even if he prefers to play another public role. He remembers now – Leilan reminds him of Nihlus. And of Nihlus, he had eventually grown quite fond, despite their rocky start. Brennen is sure that the near-stranger can infer from Brennen’s words that they are planning some sort of coup.
hold me in this wild, wild world and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
For once, Leilan's jests seem to end where they should - in a smile from his conversation partner, a light start to a meeting that perhaps will end with a more serious kind of joke. One in which a shell no longer appoints who is king or queen, but where guys and those mare willing to follow along with them, can live together and run around the Beqannan world. But it is not today that any such things would come to happen; the future is still undecided here, and we start off light and easy, the way Leilan has it best.
Had he known of his comparison to his nephew, perhaps he would not have teased Nuage so when he'd met him last winter in the riverland's woods. Then again maybe he would have, still, to make sure that the blue-pointed boy knows what he's up against, to harden him - something Leilan tried on his first meeting with Trekori and utterly failed at. Hopefully he'll get a second chance at that.
Brennen is polite about Nerine - more so than he seeps out of his pores. Just like his mother will always have the attitude of an Amazon, Brennen has that of a Brotherhood warrior - he doesn't say it, but Leilan can feel it. Himself, having experienced a slightly looser 'brotherhood' of his own, the roaning male recognizes this. He nods a bit. "The Amazons weren't the best place to be as a stallion, indeed. I doubt they would recognize their minor discrimination if anyone told them, but that doesn't make it less true." After all, as a girl it would just be easier to join and climb ranks within the Amazonian kingdom. How his father lived with it for so long, Leilan could not understand. But perhaps the son took more after his mother than after his father, in that aspect.
What Brennen says next however, throws the silver-and-golden-maned stallion completely off-guard. "A jewel?" he blinks. He must not have heard that right? But no, the bay winged man seems rightly serious. Leilan still thinks it is a suspicious story though. "Did anyone else see that happen? I'd probably think there was an earth mage involved." he says. Questioning the whole ordeal as he should, because what ruling right gives a jewel anyway if there's no-one willing to follow you?
What Brennen asks him next, gives him a sly grin in return. He only needs half a word to understand where this has been going to all along. So that's what all that Amazonian talk has been about. "You know, I've been thinking about that. Been running around with some guys my age back in the Other Place, and it would be good to have some like-minded companions around again. Well, and some mares too as long as they can keep up." He thinks it a mighty great idea, of course. One he might have come up with himself, given enough time. But if it's handed to you on a plate, then it's way easier to just accept. "How would you go about setting up such a thing?" - Although, with the jewel story in the back of his mind, he thinks he has a pretty good idea.
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
hold me in this wild, wild world 'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
Leilan speaks the truth as Brennen, too, had known it, and he finds a small comfort he had never realized he was looking for in that fact. Sometimes, he still feels guilty for leaving the service of Nerine and the guardianship of Hyaline (and certainly there are those who think he should!) but he had always felt the same discrimination that Leilan speaks of; the same he is sure his daughters and lovers had felt in the Tundra; but that of course is why he and Scorch and Hestia plan to tie their two Kingdoms together, so it will be easy for the swap of those amongst them who would better fit in the other place.
As to the shell – he shakes his head, frowning at the memory. “No. Many of us saw the shell glowing on the beach, some of us later shared seeming to have had strange dreams upon touching it, but it was Krone who appeared the next morning with it attached to her head, and claiming the land chose her.” The more he thinks about this, the weirder it gets but hey – hind sight. “But there were only a couple of us then, and I thought perhaps she had promise as a leader, so we let it go.” He hadn’t been ready, yet, to even think about taking a new home for the Brotherhood – not ready, emotionally, to finally give up the Tundra.
Once again, Scorch has not failed him; her son shows himself curious and eager to hear what Brennen has to say about the Brotherhood. He nods in response to the roan’s idea of the Brotherhood, because that is about what the rest of them have envisioned. A band of men, yes, with a few women sprinkled in who have proven themselves. Brothers. It is the word he lives and dies on, now. His purpose. “If all goes well, we are simply going to follow the law of the land,” he admits, because the plan is grand in its simplicity. “There are few here on the island that are actually Ischians, anymore; most are my family and those we have begun to recruit for the Brotherhood. When we think we are ready, sometime quite soon, we will simply take a vote and remove Krone from the throne, and that will be all it takes for Ischia to belong to the Brotherhood.”
Oh, how he hopes it will be so simple; but of course they have laid in contingency plans. “If all does not go that smooth, plan B is that I will challenge Krone for her throne, though I expect I would face her champion in battle instead because she is not a great warrior. I do not want to spill any blood unnecessarily, though, and to discourage such an outcome, your mother and her Queen have pledged Nerine’s support for the cause.” Brennen does not know that the Nerinians have had a meeting in which not all were as enthusiastic in their support, but it wouldn’t matter if he did; he trusts Scorch, and would trust that she and her queen will find a way to back him regardless. “Tentatively, we were planning our coup for after the Alliance has ended, but with the way everything is proceeding, we might well be ready far ahead of schedule.”
hold me in this wild, wild world and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
Listening to the glowing shell story, Leilan is amazed - though perhaps not by the story as much but by the acceptance of it by Brennen and seemingly, the other Ischians. For sure the bay winged male tells him that he thought Krone would do well as a leader and had let it go - probably in hindsight as well, though. The roaning male wondered if somebody had tricked Krone into taking the throne this way, thinking to perhaps manipulate her, but since he hadn't been there he had no idea if anyone back then had the means or need to. He let the thought slip. It was no matter now.
He nods along with Brennen's story. Simple but effective, he likes that. "Let me know when you want to call for a vote, then. I'll go around and explore the island, but since I haven't seen Beqanna much yet since this Reckoning you all talk about, I'd also like to take a few daytrips." he announced with a sly smile. So it would be nice if the bay let him know which day was not a good day to come home late, he reckons. "Otherwise, I'm good to go. Is there anyone else here that I should know or be aware of?" He was positive that he would not know all brothers by sight, he could not openly approach every male around the place after all. But on the other hand, when the day would come, he would see and know them, and for now, that would be good enough for the gold-streaked roan as well.
@[Brennen] Figured I'd make some sort of ending in this, so if you want a last reply to answer the question that's fine, otherwise let's move on since you've already posted the voting
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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