"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
It is early morning when she slips away from Ischia.
She swims across the channel as a tiger, drags her waterlogged self from the shore, and shakes off all traces that remain of her tropical home. The children are with their father, the poor bastard. There is a moment where she turns her snout back towards the island. Her striped sides flutter quickly, still trying to recover breath after her first workout since giving birth. She chuffs happily in the general direction of where she imagines her little family is rising with the day – or soon to be. She imagines Nekane biting her sleepy brother awake and his squeal of indignation; she imagines Halcyon chiding them far more gently than she would. She leaves a part of herself back there on the warm, sunny shores of home even as she turns to leave it.
Home.
The weight of the word settles like a stone in her stomach. The significance is not lost on her that she considers it such these days, that her mind has finally come to align with her heart. It is not an easy transition for her – not by a long stretch – but it is what it is, for now.
The tigress pads through the various landscapes on her solitary trek. Summer makes the branches heavy with leaves above and the undergrowth thick and thorny below. She pays no mind to the brambles and burrs that cling to her coat; she’s never been a stickler for being well-groomed, after all. She rather admires the slightly-deranged, out-of-the-wild look it gives her when she’s so recently been civilized.
Ever since her pregnancy, Titanya has craved company in a way she never had before. This is not the first time she has sought out the common lands. Not even a slow-moving rabbit draws more than a long blink from the predator before she moves off again, single-minded in her intent. The low rumble of the distant river is her homing beacon and it draws her in like a lure. She’s been here before, once, in her first lifetime. But as she pushes through the last of the trees, feels the tickle of the bark in her whiskers, she realizes she has forgotten the exact might of the roaring waterway.
It is impressive. Here, the current is much stronger than where she had waded before. Rapture, she remembers the name of the girl she’d met then, her eyes unconsciously searching for the blue and white mare. It had been a rather dark point in her first existence, that day in the water. Now, she is a different woman – literally. Like before, though, she finds solace in the cool push of water on her belly as she swims into it. She’ll get out and find company, eventually. For now, she floats on the current, lets it take her downstream. Her eyes close against the sun in pure bliss.
12-07-2020, 07:53 PM (This post was last modified: 12-07-2020, 08:08 PM by Nashua.)
stars when you shine, you know how i feel oh freedom is mine
There are many things on Nash's young mind these days.
As he takes to the air and leaves the Isle behind him, he enjoys the fair breezes that take him to Nerine. He had tried to find Noel and their daughters. But their twins were high-spirited and when he can't locate the white pegasus on the moorlands of Nerine, he travels through the Taigan woods where he can hear the echoes of the laughter of his younger siblings, of his nieces and nephew.
Summer has the ability to kindle life across Beqanna and the North is no different; life comes blooming all around.
He spends a few hours traveling the trails, seeing if he can catch the scent or sight of his children and their mother. Nash even attempts to locate his mother but while Redwoods bustle with life, the striped pegasus has no luck in locating the ones that he is searching for. His time might be better spent on another trip to Tephra or perhaps he might even venture further south to see Gale. While his mind is mulling over the possibilities, the winged horse drifts towards the River.
The purple snowcaps of Hyaline linger in the distance and Nashua turns away from them, following the rapids towards Loess. He can almost picture rolling hills and the memory it brings is a blow; he still misses his sister. There had beens rumors about the remaining Loessian Queen - Oceane - and her attempts at building peace in the South. He wonders if she'll achieve it. And he wonders if a journey there might be next on the agenda for the North and her territories.
He draws his wings up against his side as he recollects his thoughts. They, like him, have wandered further than intended.
What Nashua spies floating down the rapids makes him fight back a smirk. It's been some time since he has last seen his Alliance partner (and a part of him is glad that they are not meeting on another battleground; he doesn't doubt Titanya would be able to give him another well-learned lesson). The young stallion stops, wondering if she might notice the pegasus on the shore. If she doesn't, he offers his old opponent a bit of bait. "Surely our round didn't tire you out that badly," Nash calls to the familiar feline from his spot on the river bank, his green eyes as bright and eager as the grin he wears.
There is relevance in the dichotomy of the two worlds she exists between.
The sun is hot on her exposed topline; the water is cool on both her belly and legs. She lingers somewhere in the middle of being too hot and too cold. Comfortable, some would say. Much like her life, she exists between the two possibilities of wanting to stay and wanting to run. She knows that there is a life and people waiting on her in Ischia. The land of swaying palm trees has been like a light in the everdark of places she had tried to call home before. None had tempted her like this one, dangling the notion of family like a rare fruit before her mouth. But as sweet as it was, she also loved the darkness of before, loved the mystery and intrigue of the unknown. Now, she chooses to stay except when she runs: to the river and the meadow and all the other places she can. She is comfortable, even, for now.
The black and orange drifts aimlessly in the sun-flecked blue. She’s not worried about washing out too far or not being able to find her way back. Her sensitive nose has trailed an elk for days after finding a few small traces of blood on the leaf-strewn forest floor. Titanya’s theory is that he scraped a knee. She is a strong swimmer, too, thanks to Halcyon’s insane proclivity for diving headfirst into strong surf. Obviously she is going to go with him on these asinine jaunts so she can pull him out of the water if the need arises. So she has few worries today besides the ones jetting around inside of her skull somewhere between her ears. Those she can’t build muscles up or uses her senses to try to fix. Those are her least favorite kinds of problems.
She is happily startled out of her head when she hears a familiar voice berating her from the shoreline. Well, not too familiar. If he’d spoken only in grunts and groans like in the Alliance, she would have recognized him sooner. “Excuse you!” She has half a mind to keep on floating on after his jab. But he did tell her ‘good job’ at the end. She supposes she can always beat him up if he sasses her again.
Titanya paddles perpendicular to the current now, drawing closer to the shore with each swipe of her paw. She sees already that Nashua looks older than he had when they fought, more filled out. Her gold eyes search for the red V mark of his time on the Plains. When she pulls herself up out of the water, she rises up into her darker equine form at the same time.
“You know us ladies are more delicate and take much longer to recover,” she says a little too sweetly, batting her eyes at the chestnut stallion. A wicked grin twists her lips then, dissolving any doubts about her sincerity. She would love to see him challenge that. He is a stranger, really, apart from their fight they had little to say between them. Whatever he says next will tell her if she will be continuing the conversation or keeping their relationship as mere strangers. She thinks maybe he is smarter than that. But she’d also love any excuse to break those pretty wings if she needs to. “How about you, Nashua? Are you fully recovered?”
12-18-2020, 03:47 PM (This post was last modified: 12-18-2020, 03:50 PM by Nashua.)
stars when you shine, you know how i feel oh freedom is mine
The striped pegasus throws a gleaming smile in Titanya's direction. The tiger-mare is swimming towards him and Nashua takes a step back to allow her room to make her way up the embankment. He should think before he speaks more often but their recent Alliance round is a memory still burning strong in his mind. What could Titanya do that she hadn't already done? As she makes her up way up the riverbank, Nashua supposes more.
She had done plenty during their match. His left jaw - now fully healed with only a faint scar on that copper cheek - gives a phantom ache at the sabino's approach. Titanya shifts from predator to mare as easily as the water drips from her dark physique and Nash is quirking a charming grin at her. Delicate? He bites back the laughter because it was hard to imagine the slender creature in front of him described as such. Remembering the sheer force of her hooves smashing into his jaw makes Nashua want to say that he considers Titanya otherwise.
His jaw clenches subconsciously as a reminder.
But then he is grinning and tilting his blazed head in her direction, "Ah." says the winged stallion with a roguish smirk, "Forgive me for me not addressing you as the river blossom you so clearly are."
Adjusting his dark wings, he wonders what she'll make of that. He even considers referring to her as 'tiger lily' but Nashua has a feeling that his former opponent wouldn't enjoy the jab; Nash doesn't think he'd enjoy her retaliation. (He's rather fond of his wings and his legs and well, all his appendages. He'd like to keep all of them intact.)
He can't quite recall her sense of humor from the Plains. But their match had been about the Alliance and Nashua had been a young stallion trying to prove his mettle, trying to prove his worth to a mentor that was more like the father he never had and to the kingdom he had sworn his loyalty to. There had been a couple of quick smiles from Nash but the majority of their fight had been sweat, blood, red dust, and in his case, bruised ribs and a fractured jaw.
"Barely," he admits honestly while studying the soaked sabino. "I think my ears have only just stopped ringing." She'd gone on to fight another round. How had she held up after two? How had the second round gone? "And how has your road to recovery been, @[Titanya]? A delicate flower such as yourself can never be too careful." He flashes that grin again, deciding to cloak his wings with his invisibility and they disappear in a blink.
Water runs in rivulets down her dark, sleek sides and glints under the sun, mimicking in miniature the river she has just climbed out of. It puddles quickly underneath her, making the muddy riverbank even more so, so she moves closer to Nashua who has already allotted her extra space. She doesn’t mind crowding in and doesn’t really consider if the close proximity will bother her once-adversary. Instead, she wagers it will bring them within striking distance of each other should they come to blows. Again, that is.
“Apology accepted. This time.” She sees his smirk and is reminded of their time together on the battlefield. He had shot her a similar grin at the start of their fight then. She had returned his smile with a slightly more maniacal version of it, thinking he was as feral and cutthroat as she. But he had been far more gentlemanly than she expected, based on that first impression she thought she had gathered from him. More normal than she could ever hope to be. It isn’t a bad thing, of course, to be different than someone who thrives on violence and craves all the bruises and breaks that come with it. On the contrary, she thinks Nashua is the real beneficiary in the end. Sometimes – though rarely – she would kill to be normal.
What she had wanted from the Alliance was scars to add to her collection and blood to consecrate the land under her feet. She had failed, though, like so much in her life. She had failed to bring home a win that would justify her fierce means to an end. She hadn’t done any better than the first time around (had done worse, in fact). She had failed to listen to her basic instincts and not overthink her way out of the Alliance.
It is over and she struggles with what comes next.
But she doesn’t let it show, doesn’t vocalize to @[Nashua] what has lived and grown and festered inside of her since she left the arena with slightly less swagger in her steps than normal. “I lost a few petals,” she admits begrudgingly. “That’s ok, though; they only draw attention away from the thorns below.” A small quirking of one side of her lips is the only indication of the smile starting on her face. She isn’t ready to dig any deeper or reflect any further on her post-battle thoughts or god-forbid feelings. The wounds she suffered were mostly within and were still as raw as the day she left the Plains for the final time.
The tigress-turned-mare is more curious about her companion. Her amber eyes rove over the grown stallion appraisingly, cataloguing the differences since they last parted ways. He is certainly grown, and there is a new weight to his eyes that speaks of renewed responsibility; she wonders at the cause of it, but doesn’t ask. Not yet. She sees the familiar slope of those wings she had been so eager to bust (and still is eager to bust, truth be told) – and then they are gone after she blinks.
“Should have done that the last time,” Titanya comments, nodding at the empty air where his wings have disappeared. She glances past him to the space beyond, to the path he must have followed to end up on the riverside. Otherwise, she figures he flew here from some unknown destination. Maybe it’s the place he volunteered himself to represent in the Alliance? “Are you a kingdom kind-of-guy or were you fighting for yourself?” She sure hadn’t been paying attention if there had been any kind of announcement before their round.
01-02-2021, 08:16 PM (This post was last modified: 01-02-2021, 08:20 PM by Nashua.)
stars when you shine, you know how i feel oh freedom is mine
Nashua dips his blazed head and can't help the lopsided grin that still tugs on the edge of his mouth. It's almost always there, as much a part of the young stallion as his stripes or his wings. He had allowed the tiger-shifter more space as a formality (his mother had raised him and his brother with some semblance of manners) and he disregards it as easily as she does. Titanya closes the space between them and Nash merely tilts his head as if they had never shared a battlefield.
The Alliance had been his first taste of violence. There had been flashes of rage, moments where his anger had come out in attempted strikes and kicks towards the sabino. As a ward of the Isle, it was something that he always worked to keep control of. To lose it, well, was a risk. The young pegasus had been attempting control and calculation in his only round.
He's never been the kind of creature to feast on chaos, to thrive on violence as Titanya might. Nashua is still trying to outgrow the dark shadow of a father who had done nothing but that. The Alliance had offered the chestnut stallion a chance to move away from that darkness. There had been the chance for glory and prestige; there had been the chance for glory and prestige. The striped pegasus is known for his wanderlust but not many know that Nashua seeks to create a reputation that might eclipse the one his sire left behind in the North.
Next time, he tells himself.
There will be another Alliance and Nashua tells himself that he will have experience on his side.
Nash tilts his head curiously, moving his head to the side to move the flaxen forelock that hangs over one green eye. He notices the new V marking on the side of her ebony chest and other changes from their last meeting; her comment about the thorns lurking below makes him wonder about what kind of barbs linger beneath her black-and-white coat.
"A courtesy from the Faeries," he explains. A gift from his time on the Plains. The grin turns into a smirk. "Just one of my many talents."
He considers bringing them back into view but he decides against it. Nashua can feel her amber eyes on his bare shoulders and thinks it's a better option to keep them out of sight. For now.
There is an itch between his shoulders and the muscles quiver instinctively. "For gods and glory," he says before giving his slender head a toss and eyeing up his former competitor again. "For the Isle," Nash explains (because most horses know it only as a chunk of barren rock that exists on the fringes of their world). Maybe it will always remain that way but there is a strong sense of loyalty grown from the boy who had once called Taiga home. Both his parents had vanished during his childhood and it had been Leilan who had taken him under his wing; Nash would always seek to repay his mentor for that. The Alliance had seemed like the perfect place to start.
His green eyes narrow slightly at @[Titanya] and Nashua thinks she is far too wild to claim a kingdom; it would be like clipping the wings of a bird or trying to placate a storm.
"This was your second time in the Alliance?" he asks and cocks a hindleg, "what keeps calling you back?"
“Many? Well the Faeries had to give you something, I guess, and it clearly wasn’t modesty,” Titanya says, giving him a stern look before breaking and grinning back. It is nice, she thinks, nice that they can be here joking around and trading barbs when they had both wanted to tear each other’s throats out on the battlefield. Well, she had wanted to tear his throat out, anyway. It’s not likely that her younger competitor had been quite so savage as she. The last Alliance was vastly different than her most recent experience. She can’t imagine having any desire to see her sparring partners after the battles ended that time; it had been a different lifetime though, and she was not who she is today. Today, she sees the potential for her own growth by examining the past, whereas before, she thought she had to keep moving forward without looking back.
Standing on the riverbank with @[Nashua] is a sign of progress, and that is all she can expect of herself.
He confirms her suspicions that he is part of a kingdom with his declaration of gods and glory and all that crap. Titanya keeps her opinion to herself only out of the growing respect she has for the young stallion. The subtle tightening of her lips is the only outward signal of how she feels about loyalty and trust in one land rather than the surety of one’s own feet. “I didn’t know there was more than one island in Beqanna,” she says instead, an honest response at least. She knows of the tiny flecks of land (could they even be considered islands?) that are tossed around Ischia, but it surprising to hear that the water-borne people that she currently resides with are not the only islanders in their world. “Tell me about it, what is it like there?”
She relaxes as she settles deeper into their conversation. It’s not fighting, not drawing blood and breaking bones, but it’s a give and take all the same, she realizes. They are from two totally different times and backgrounds, but this one moment in time – the Alliance – brought them together and continues to impact them even now. Violence has always been her salvation, her safety, but if other perks can come from this pinnacle of battle, then perhaps she should welcome those too. Nashua asks about her unwavering devotion to the Plains and their blood-soaked arenas and she thinks long and hard before a sigh escapes her lips.
“For as long as I can remember, all I was good at was finding trouble. And you kind of have to learn to fight back when you are constantly, intentionally putting yourself in harm’s way.” She remembers the Bellringer’s quest then, feels the red eyes of War boring down on her and his teeth ripping away the flesh above her haunches, the raw power of those fights and the finality of her first death. The Alliance had been a breeze in comparison. “Until I win, I’m just as weak as anybody else.” Her amber eyes find his finally. “That is unacceptable to me.”
01-30-2021, 04:37 PM (This post was last modified: 01-30-2021, 04:45 PM by Nashua.)
(and it's harder than you think) telling dreams from one another
"I'd show you more," he says with a playful shrug of his broad shoulders. He - like @[Titanya] - feigns a serious expression and the facade only cracks when Nash shows off a glimpse of his charming smile. "But a man can't go and just give away all his hidden talents," teases the striped pegasus before the smile broadens into a bright grin. He nearly barks out a laugh but the warm look he gives to his former opponent speaks loud enough for him; the laughter is burning in his green eyes as they meet hers.
They flick down briefly, noting the two V marks on her chest.
"And you?" he counters, curious what her time on the Plains had given her. The Alliance had marked all of them (though Nash's speckled wings normally hide the blood-red mark on his left side). The young stallion is curious if they had rewarded the shifter and if they did, with what? Was it a gift she had even wanted or would she have attempted to battle a reward as well?
She doesn't seem impressed at his speech of fighting for Gods and Glory (and he understands; Gods can be as fickle as the Fates and glory, much like his mortal life, is fleeting). Kingdom life isn't for everybody and certainly, a Court that situates itself on a lonely rock isn't going to inspire most into a life of service. "A few." He explains good-naturedly. There is the familiar brine of Ischia on her skin and having visited Ischia a few times, he almost imagines that he can smell the sunshine on her dark skin.
Nash takes a moment to explain the Isle of the North, the furthest point a Beqannan can travel before the world falls away beneath the blue-and-green polar lights. "If you ever feel up to it," the chestnut banters, "the swim there is quite the challenge." She seems like the type to attempt to scale the Tephran volcano, he thinks. Just as likely to take a perilous journey through the Northern currents just to say she conquered them.
He takes a moment to consider her next question before answering, "Lonely." Nashua looks off towards the shadows and his confident smile slips before he looks back to the sabino mare. "I came into the world with a twin," he says as if this would explain it. He makes it sound as if he just isn't accustomed to being alone so much. Most of his family is in the Taiga, he tells her. "But I made a promise to the leader, Leilan, and I intend to keep it." He explains, speaking of oaths and loyalty. He explains that is not all so bad, though. There are things to be found and sights to be seen at the edge of the world, things and sights that wouldn't be found in the heart of Beqanna or even on the mainland. He found a purpose in a place where most horses couldn't find grazing.
As she speaks of how she found herself in trouble, the half-smirk comes back. He tilts his blazed head towards her and wonders how to tell her that it is a feeling he understands. As a youth, he had always found trouble within or outside Taiga (and worse, he often dragged Yanhua into it). There had even been a few brawls with the other colts on the Isle, who learned that Nash's easy-going demeanor could be broken by a prodding remark about the circumstances surrounding his birth.
It's what she says next that he doesn't understand.
"So you merit your worth by what the Fae decree?" he asks her. There were those who - like her, had more experience - had more powerful magics, had the advantage of different terrain, of different hours of the day (or night). Nashua doesn't doubt that whoever wins the Alliance will be a skilled fighter, but much as in life, he thinks there is a fair amount of luck to go along with it. "What if the Mountain crumbles and Magic leaves Beqanna and another Alliance is never held?" (What if the sky turned purple or the sun stopped shining, he chides himself.)
She does laugh when he says that he will show her more of his supposed hidden talents. She wants to tell him that she isn’t sure such a boastful man would have any secrets left to share, but by the time she recovers her composure, his eyes have begun to trail down to the scars on her chest. Titanya had eyed them on her reflection in one of Ischia’s small grottos a few weeks after her time in the Alliance ended. They are a stark reminder of her successive failures, of her inability to use her brain as much as her brawn in order to win. She likes the reminder so boldly displayed on herself for all the world to see though. It shows that she is incomplete and not fully realized – that she still has a ways to go before she will be satisfied.
“Nothing besides this failing grade stamped on my chest.” One corner of her mouth quirks up to show that she is not consumed by the mark and what it implies. Not completely, anyway. “I guess zero-for-two attempts only gets you a pat on the back.” She doesn’t need anything more. She hadn’t joined the Alliance for the prize, after all. Stepping onto the battleground was as close to a religious experience as she can imagine. Not throwing her name into the ring for consideration would have been sacrilegious. Not competing would have been a stain on her character. All that mattered was that she could spill blood and create a tapestry of bruises on her opponents.
@[Nashua] tells her about his Isle and the dangerous route one can take to get to it. This relights some fire in her amber gaze and she visibly brightens at the challenge he presents. She makes a mental note to visit him again once the twins are a bit older and more independent. A cold, arduous swim sounds like the perfect remedy for the boring stretch of attempted motherhood immediately ahead of her.
“A twin, huh?” She tilts her head, regarding her newfound friend with renewed interest. It does explain quite a bit. Her gold-edged ears perk forward to listen to the rest before she responds. “I kept my twin alive when our mother was consumed with grief and emotionally absent during our childhood. He had this strange compulsion to eat things he shouldn’t: rocks, sticks, hair. I had to watch him like a hawk day and night.” A faint smile touches her lips and her eyes soften uncharacteristically as she remembers Terran as he was then. A child. Alive. Her whole world. After she left home, she was as alone as the Isle to the north. Unlike Nashua perhaps, she did not mind it overmuch.
Promises to others she can understand, even if she will never grasp the loyalty to a land. So it makes sense when the flaxen-haired man delves further into his devotion to the icy island. She can’t say she would ever promise herself in such a deal. No, she values freedom of movement as a basic right. Her happiness completely runs parallel to her wildness and inability to be tied anywhere permanently. As she thinks it though, a small thought pierces her like an errant sunbeam that leaves her feeling warmer; she likes being bound by one thing, and he is waiting for her on their own lonely island that is anything but.
Nash startles her out of her reverie with his question. It feels like a challenge to be risen to, and her eyes narrow on her one-time opponent. “I merit my worth on my own successes. Here’s one thing I can promise you: the faeries don’t give a shit about any of us. We are all like ants to them and as easily expendable. Their word and judgement means less than nothing to me.” Where were they when the apocalypse came? Where were they when they let a murderer run free after killing her father? Gone, that’s where. Only deigning to visit them when they are bored and there is nothing better to do.
“There would be other fights, other wars,” she says, imagining the chaos that would surely rain down upon them if that were to happen. “There would be no lack of violence to ensnare myself in.” A quick grin finds her lips again. Their world thrived on entropy and existed on top of a constantly crumbling foundation. “What would you do without your gifts? Who would you be without them?” She looks at his bare shoulders where she knows wings rest invisibly and out of harm’s way. What if they never came back? “Me? I would wander the world until my feet fell off looking for the next chance to use the only gift I was born with, my muscles and bones.”
(and it's harder than you think) telling dreams from one another
There is a warmth that lights the emerald embers of Nashua's eyes. He can no more be humble in teasing than the tiger-shifter could refrain from spilling blood; in this way, they are much alike. They are who they are and neither seems to hold any apology for it.
For Nashua, it is a playful shrug of his muscled (and bare) chestnut shoulders.
His demeanor doesn't stay that way for long. A renewed interest brightens his gaze as he regards the sabino again. When they had been paired to fight in the Alliance, that had been a thrill for Nashua. He had been young and as is often the case with youth, he had been eager for an adventure. A real one. Not one of his flights from the Isle. Not some wayward adventure that would lead him into trouble. Something substantial. Something that might change the overall course of his life and what better way to do that than the Alliance? What better way to that than by battling one who had fought in it once before?
When the dark mare says that she has been given a 'pat on the back', the striped stallion says nothing. His pale lips purse together in disagreement but Nash won't vocalize it to her. Titanya had been a considerable force on the battlefield; in an argument, he thinks she could be an absolute windstorm.
But when the conversation drifts towards the topic of Yanhua, he softens. When his Alliance opponent reveals that she had been a twin as well, Nash finds himself grinning. It's only at the mention of her mother - one who was emotionally absent - does something still behind his green eyes. It isn't sympathy or pity but understanding. "Our mother was taken captive before our first birthday," Nashua explains to her when Titanya finishes. They had aunts, he adds, that had stepped in to try and fill the void their dam had left behind. There was no replacing a mother but it had (for Nashua, at least) deepened his reliance on his brother. So many figures came and went into their lives. Yanhua, no matter how often or far Nashua roamed, was always there though. Like the sun rose and set each day, the chestnut pegasus counted on his brother to be in Taiga.
He grins again and when his broad wings come back into view, Nashua spreads them. "My brother was my landing beacon," he laughs, remembering the colt games they had created. Like Titanya, he had watched his brother. Those years are still close. Time has not put distance between the brothers yet; a future will come when mortal Nashua is nothing more than a memory to his Immortal family.
Nashua listens carefully to her as she explains what she thinks of the Fae. On how she merits her worth. She speaks vehemently against them and the copper pegasus can only wonder what caused her to feel so deeply. More than his single trip to the Mountain, he thinks. What they had asked of him hadn't been worth for the price of Magic and so Nash had never gone back. She counts on what they both know. That there will be other fights, that they are mortals (infants to Gods, carrying the faint scent of death that would ripen with time) and therefore prone to conflict.
"I don't know," he tells her honestly. "I can't imagine life without my wings." He was a creature born to the sky. There is nowhere that Nashua can imagine that his wings won't carry him. The invisibility, his healing, his glow, they were pieces of him but his wings were as much a part of the pegasus as his beating heart.
"And when there is nowhere left to wander here?" Nashua asks of Titanya. Does Beqanna become a cage for the tigress? "My mother was born in the Beyond," he adds. "I've always wondered about the other worlds out there."
![[Image: jCdBK6.png]](https://img.nickpic.host/jCdBK6.png)
