"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
The first season of Cheri's rule had so far been quiet, and Tarian indulged himself in the monotony of it. (It might have bothered him when he had been a younger stallion, but now he is glad for the peace. He is grateful that his child will be born into calm rather than conquest.) His patrols continued, and as the warmth began to thaw out the canyons and crevices of Loess, new life had started to emerge. The Altissimas by the coast were blooming again.
Storms had begun to blow through again, and it had been the distant tremble of thunder that had accompanied his morning route.
Wildling is often on his mind, and Tarian found that his duties as Champion were becoming harder and harder. Each time he left, there was an impending sense of dread. He tried not to show it much; Tarian was often aloof with his feelings, but with each step he took away from their small cavern, Tarian battled a growing fear for Altissima each time he left her behind. What if something happened? What if she went into labor and something went wrong?
He had been an able-minded General. Tarian could look at battlefields and measure up opponents (unless they had magical abilities to turn into an alligator). He knew how to fight - how to angle and pivot and turn his body so that it might injure another.
Tarian had no clue on what do where it concerned Altissima, especially the way her lithe frame had seemed to have doubled over the coming weeks.
"Altissima?" he called out as he approached their small corner of Loess, and the baritone of his voice echoed against the sandstone. The silver pegasus had taken to doing this upon each return, not wanting to startle her. Not when it could prompt the arrival of their unborn child.
It begins not long after Tarian leaves for his patrol and there’s nothing she can do about the terrible timing. Altissima’s often-absent companion is with her but despite insisting, Winter refuses to leave to find the knight. The owl had been there when Senna was born, had been the only company that the light-wielder had for years, and she intended to stay for this birth as well. Like they had years ago, mare and companion rest on the ground and Altissima feels the gentle preening of her mane.
Another daughter makes her arrival to the world and Winter hoots her approval as Altissima cleans and cares for the beautiful girl. She is just considering taking the filly with her to find Tarian - undoubtedly he’d spot them before long - when the pains return. Fear and stubbornness keep her pacing for a long time, trying to riddle out what could be going wrong, while Winter sits with the filly.
It takes a sharp word from her companion but Altissima finally relents to the instincts that tell her to lie back down, and she’s only just settled into her fear and uncertainty when she hears her name. Altissima is too relieved to feel annoyed at his routine, cautious approach - as though she could be startled into popping like an overripe fruit. “Tarian!” She calls out, urging him to enter the cavern. Her eyes remain focused on the entrance and they shift and bleed into a dozen different hues with the twist of emotions inside of her.
“She didn’t want to wait.” She tells him in a soft, apologetic tone before she shifts her head on the smooth ground to gesture to the dark filly. Light bounces around the cavern in a frantic tempo despite the love that swells in Altissima’s heart when she looks at the girl and then back at her father as the pains refuses to be ignored. “This didn’t happen last time.” She admits - lifting her head up again and reaching out to him, asking him to come forward. To brush aside her fears with his too-gentle touch.
It takes her an embarrassing amount of time to realize what is happening, and then she is beyond words until it is over.
And even then it is not until she stands on shaking legs, instinctively seeking Tarian's presence to help hold her up and her now deep violet eyes find the pale colt, that she really believes it. Not yet trusting the wobble of her legs to allow her to take a step forwards towards their son, she can only breathe out a quiet word filled with reverence. “Twins.”
He's immediately aware that the scents of their small cavern have changed.
There is the scent of feathers - Altissima's companion, Winter - and Wildling herself that are familiar. It mingles with his own but the damp smell of afterbirth and blood permeates his senses as he rounds one corner, and he nearly stands frozen until the urgency in his mate's voice prompts him anxiously forward. He comes striding urgently forward only to suddenly stop. His blue eyes drop towards the dark bundle on the ground.
She didn't want to wait.
She, the word continues to echo in his mind much like Altissima's did against the rock walls of their little sanctuary. She. A daugher. They had a daughter and Tarian fights the urge to lower himself to the ground to be closer to her. "Altissima," he manages to say, though there is so much more. That she is perfect, just like her mother, that she is beautiful just like her. That he couldn't have dreamed of such a wonderful gift and that -
But all of that is forgotten the moment she winces in pain.
Tarian comes closer now - managing to step carefully around the dark girl (who makes him think so much of his mother) - and lowering his head so that it grazes against her pale blue neck. "I'm here," he murmurs to her, speaking aloud the difference between her last birth and this one. He was here, and unless she told him otherwise, he wasn't going anywhere. Trying not to lose his mind to his fears, the gray stallion remains an unmoving and unyielding presence in their home.
And he remains that way, even after the reasoning presents itself in the shape of another perfect child: their son.
"Twins," he whispers back at her, struggling to know where to look. At Altssima, at their children. He stands still and offers a winged shoulder to her, allowing her to rest against him; offering her some small support after the whole ordeal. "Twins," Tarian says again, and begins to laugh again as he watches the pair discover their legs while basking in the warmth beside (and within) him.
Tarian is there, holding her up and she feels like that is the only thing keeping her legs beneath her as she looks between the starlight-blue colt and the night-black filly. His laughter jostles her but far from being annoyed, there is a radiant smile that spreads across her face. Unrestrained, though she does feel a little bit of fear. Two was just… twice the work.
But then, she wasn’t on her own this time.
She can’t find her voice to reply to Tarian but she presses her muzzle to his cheek. Taking a moment to close her eyes and just breathe him in. To assure herself that this moment is real. She has a family, they have a family. And she thinks of how if, or when, her dad visits she’ll get to surprise him with this news as well. The air shimmers around them and Altissima can feel that light in her heart as well.
Though her legs are just as wobbly as their young children, Altissima goes to the colt to clean and care for him - her muzzle brushing softly against his coat, eager for it to be dry and fuzzy.
Winter hoots a congratulations before leaving the cavern on silent wings, letting the family meet each other.
The colt finds his legs and wanders over to his sister, tumbling into her while Altissima hovers nearby - her deep violet eyes shining. “Starros.” She repeats the name Tarian had whispered to her when they had first discussed them. “And Areane?” She questions, lifting her head to see his reaction - and finding that even with her exhaustion it's still easy to tease him. “Though I know you had your heart set on Altissima Junior…”
10-07-2021, 03:16 PM (This post was last modified: 10-07-2021, 03:17 PM by Tarian.)
Tarian is holding her, and at that moment, everything precious in his world is within his sight.
There is an unbridled warmth radiating from him, and he would give it all to Altissima. He would give it all to their children. (Not one, but two. The thought keeps crossing his mind over and over again, and Tarian marvels at how they hadn't existed before he left for his patrol this morning. That, so suddenly, his world has expanded so quickly and so greatly and there is an avalanche of feeling overwhelming him.)
All that warmth in his chest is reflected outward, brightened by the way Altissima has always dazzled. The air glitters around them, and if the blue-sheened mare and their two children would have allowed Tarian to glance anywhere else, the pegasus might have marveled at it. But against the brilliance of the trio, it barely flickers past his peripheral vision. The gray arches his neck, and squares his weight against her as Altissima reaches out to groom their son. The boy looks like his mother, he thinks, and feels a flare of pride at that.
The pegasus sighs, as if he truly mourned the idea of not naming their daughter Altissima Junior.
"I still think Tarian the Second has a certain ring to it," he murmurs to his mate, though his smile carries into the mirth of his voice. "But Areane is lovely," he says, "as lovely as her mother."
She’s never shared this moment with anyone before - not including her companion - and Altissima is not prepared for how filled with light she feels. How much love their is in their little cavern, the way it sparkles and shimmers in the air around them like her light. It is overwhelming in the same way that has always made her want to run, but she does not feel that way now. She’s grown roots, and she cannot find it in her heart to mind.
A soft chuckle escapes her as Tarian teases her back before replying more seriously, though that just makes her grin brighten. “I think the last time you complimented me was how I ended up pregnant.” She teases back in a low voice, nipping gently at what grey skin she can reach as they stand next to each other. It is not true, of course - Tarian had gallantly called her lovely and other wonderful things even when she was cold and miserable and fat with their twins.
Her eyes dance with happiness as she looks at him, though that teasing fades into something a little more earnest. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere this summer.” Not for any long trips, anyway. Maybe a few days here and there - she hoped Senna would like to meet her new siblings, and any uncertainty she might have felt about introducing them to her dad is completely gone now.
“Hope you don’t mind.” It's annoying that even now she feels a flutter of uncertainty - like maybe Tarian enjoyed not having her around for a while, enjoyed the break from her - but she tries to squash these insecurities for what they are. They have no place here, especially not today.
10-24-2021, 08:42 PM (This post was last modified: 10-24-2021, 08:43 PM by Tarian.)
His pale skin doesn't even twitch against her biting touch. There is nothing in Tarian that is capable of moving away from her, not when he feels as close to her as he does now. It's a feeling that he has never shared with anyone - one that he thought he never would share - but here he was, tucked away in a corner of Loess with Altissima, and between the two of them, they had created an entirely new world.
Tarian had can feel a fierce drive to protect rising up in him. It had always been in him: first as the future Guardian of his once-home, then on the battlefields of Liridon where he had done his best to keep those under his command safe, and then again in Loess, when he had been named its Champion.
But that emotion in those moments is so pale compared to this one.
It is like a flame, kindling that has always been there ready to spark, and Altissima has brought the flicker to light.
The wing nearest to her still drapes over her and Tarian stands, offering whatever kind of physical support he can give. But his blue eyes are watching their newborns and he is trying to understand this knot in his chest, the way that it tightens and twists as their children find their legs. Both are strong, and it would seem they are ready to walk into the world. But each step they take causes a beat of trepidation in him, and though he knows that he can't, Tarian already finds himself wanting to catch them if they should ever fall.
But that is not the way their world works, he reminds himself.
The tumbling and the struggling are how a horse finds their hooves.
Altissima calls him back to her and she is suddenly there in all captivating shimmer and shine. (He can never really go far; not when she is so illuminating.) She won't be going anywhere this summer, she says, and Tarian laughs; a glad sound that echoes warmly against the red walls of their home. "I will never mind," he tells her, still watching their younglings, but knowing that he hadn't called her Wildling because she enjoyed staying in one place. While he doesn't doubt that she would for their foals, he wants her to know, "But if you do want to go somewhere," murmurs the Champion of Loess who has never (willingly) left its borders for more than a few days, "We could. Take them and show them something of this wild world we've brought them into."
Glancing to her, Tarian feels the start of a grin.
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