[private] i think we could live forever, darkling

[austra]

There is much that the immortal has missed over the years, but there was so much of the world that she has only been able to explore through the eyes of a lion.

Her sister had been crowned queen for a while, if memory serves her right. Austra and Cybil had echoed roars of satisfaction when they had heard the news, and the happiness had only continued when news of her twin’s children had reached her. Her family had continued growing in her absence - Dawn and Litotes had both provided the world with more children, with one another and with others as well. She isn’t quite sure what has dragged her out of the darkness this time - Isilme seems to be gone, as well as her parents for the most part - but something has pulled her home all the same.

She pads into Pangea as a lion, her topaz eyes scanning the horizon as she searches for her companion. Once upon a time, Cybil had been a full-sized tiger, fearsome to behold, but recently a new magic swept over Beqanna, leaving her a bit… smaller. Austra is larger than her companion at the shoulder now, and when she gloats about it, the tiger tends to stalk off for a few hours to hunt alone. Austra doesn’t mind the silence between them when she vanishes, but it has been over half a day since she’s seen her friend.

The land is much as she remembers it, though admittedly she hadn’t spent much time in Pangea aside from popping in to bother her mother on occasion. Most of her time had been spent in the Cove, where Dawn had birthed most of her children, raising them in the quiet land on the sea. She wonders if any of her family is still there, or they’ve spread to all corners of Beqanna.

Finding an overhang of rock, she settles at the top of it, the sunlight burning away the lingering cold. Winter is nowhere near over, and she remembers that the seasons here can be brutal, but the sun feels nice as she sprawls out on the rock, fully intent on settling down for a nice nap.

austra

darling, you will bury me before i bury you

I haven't written her in literal years so I'm still trying to figure her out lmao

[Darkling]

Darkling

The darkness that spreads through his veins is as intoxicating as it is damning. It’s this, perhaps, that keeps him in Pangea. There is something seared through the land that matches the blood coursing through him. This place is a dusty, desiccated thing, but that hardly seems to matter.

For such an inhospitable land, it certainly seems to attract a great deal of life.

So many imagine this place to be filled with evil, but it is such a childish notion. Darkling would have done nothing but laugh at the suggestion. It’s a trite thing, to draw distinctions between black and white when the world is only filled with endless shades of gray. But where others look out and see bleakness, Darkling looks out and sees beautiful potential. Is that not a good thing, if one must classify it as such?

It is not often Darkling ventures out while the sun clings to the sky, but even he cannot possibly escape all the daylight hours. The mere fact of its presence makes him irritable however. The light burns his shadows, and the very thought makes a snarl of disgust curl his lips. But thirst crawls up his throat, and Darkling is not a stallion who cares for his own suffering. So, leaving his pets to the shadows, the golden unicorn stalks across the parched canyons toward the sluggish river that serves as this territory's sole water source.

Once he has slaked his thirst, he is fully prepared to retreat to the dark haven he had carved for himself amid the arid canyons of his home until he spots a feline figure sprawled across a nearby outcropping. Lions are not natural to this place, so he knows it is no mere cat. And unless he is highly mistaken (which he doubts), there are only a few creatures who can shift into the large predators around here.

It has been a very long time since he had last seen one of his siblings.

Altering his course, Darkling stalks towards her, a smirk creeping onto his golden lips. When he’s near enough to speak conversationally, he slows to a halt. “Wretched place for a nap.”

you're burning up the sky, you're a constellation
I think that I could die for this revelation

@austra