"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
11-04-2017, 03:42 PM (This post was last modified: 11-04-2017, 03:43 PM by Nyxa.)
Nyxa
Even as Nyxa stands on the shores of the Field, looking out across the frigid waters to where her harebrained dam has decided to stake a claim, she contemplates turning around and never going.
Oh, she knows Circinae is waiting there for her. Nyxa can almost feel those unsettling blue eyes just staring at her from across the sea. Her own pale ears turn down at the thought, a pink tongue flashing between her lips in mockery of the mother who couldn’t see. Circy had just freaking left her to her own devices! Just assumed that mutual care from Aunt Jah, Brother Corvus, and Father Canaan would be enough to fill that aching part of her Circy had forgotten to fill.
But, Nyxa is her mother’s daughter after all, and like her other siblings there’s a streak of something in her that drives her forward onto the shore and out into the first wavebreaks of ice-laden water. High tide or low, she doesn’t care. She’d almost drown once, anyways, and a stranger had been the one to pluck her from rushing death.
Her legs guide her further, down into the murky depths she finds (with mild surprise) don’t even chill her. Beneath the undulating waves her wings thaw, reverting to their original liquid form so that she can stretch them out beside her and feel the glory of having them worked. Beneath the River she’d opened them too, finding then that their function had been akin to fins when she used them for leverage - so she swirls them lazily now, admiring the way they glide seamlessly against their own element.
In curiosity, she lets the breakers overwhelm her and so she sinks -
Down a little further -
Until her eyes open again to see the calm of the ocean in a whole new light. She gasps - a creature shadows by and jerks away to the safety of deeper places - but the action doesn’t stifle or strangle her like it had before. In fact, Nyxa feels no more oppressed down here than she does on land - it stuns her immobile for minute.
She gulps, opens her mouth again; “No change … I can breathe down here.” She realizes.
The giddiness of youth overtakes her. Nyxa, submersed but not subdued, spreads her wings once more and forces them down to move her body forward and so, she discovers a new talent. Nyxa … the little water bird; soon enough she’s flying through the sea. All too quickly the rough seabed of Ischia is rising from black depths and Nyxa curves upwards, gliding like an odd fish over the berth of pale sands until she breaks the surface to clatter up the sugar shoreline and stand, dripping, at the edge of the tropical wood.
“Mother!” She cries, breathless from her underwater journey, “Jah! Anyone! Hellooooo?”
11-05-2017, 02:59 PM (This post was last modified: 11-05-2017, 03:26 PM by Jah-Lilah.)
Jah-Lilah
someday, we will foresee obstacles
As I lay me down to sleep, I hear her speak to me. She says "Hello Mommy, how you doing?"
On this day, Jah-Lilah has found a particularly lovely parcel of land that she believes will be perfect to make her special delivery. She has brought wide palm leaves and trampled them down to make a nest. Stray branches and stones were moved to make the jungle floor soft and comforting, and she has made peace with the rainbow colored macaws who inhabit the trees above. There is one who is especially bold, a youngling who ventures down to the lowest boughs of the trees to watch and keep her company. He is blue and gold, and my firefly has taken to calling him Indigo-Sky. He observes curiously, and just so long as Jah-Lilah doesn't allow her sparks to float to close to his feathers he does not stray too far. She brings some tropical flowers to make quite an endearing little bed, and exhales, admiring her work. She looks up at her parrot, smiling. "Well Indigo, it isn't much, but it should do for the baby." He squawks a response, then dances briefly in excitement. Suddenly he takes to the sky, surprised by something unseen to the red wytch.
She cocks her head, turning an ear to the beach. A voice the mare hasn't heard since shortly before her move to the island reaches her, and she snortles excitedly. She half-rears and bounds off, heading for the shoreline. She bursts through the trees, whinnying loudly. She looks left and then right, until her gaze settles on the origin of the sounds. Delight is plastered on her face as she realizes that yes, in fact, it is her dear @[Nyxa] that has come calling today. Jah-Lilah has news for the girl.
"Hallo daughter! Good to see you!" She prances up, neck arched in anticipation of their greeting. She looks the soaked girl over, nosing and bumping at her wings. She is in awe, her appendenges aren't dried out and stuck to her body, they are damp, beautiful. They remind her of fins. The girl seems to have figured out her gift on her swim over. "Made-From-Love, what has happened to your wings? Are you no longer flightless, little bird?" Her eyes are wide, shining in wonder, she's never seen such things on a horse. She steps back to meet the girl's gaze, nuzzling her gently. "How are you? What brings you to the island? Come! There's so much to say!" With that my flower child begins to herd her adopted child away from the ocean and inland.
I think the storm ran out of rain, these clouds are moving.
She’d been expecting Mother (what child doesn’t long for the affection and approval of their parent?) but Jah’s elated whinny and the following vision of her red form breaking clear of the imposing jungle growth is almost better than her Mother. “Wytch mother!” The growing girl cries with heartfelt adoration, breaking ahead into a hurried trot so that the two might come together in a rush of excited whuffing and exchanged nips.
“Oh Jah - you wouldn’t believe it! I can breath underwater and swimming is so easy, and .. I could talk about it forever. Does mother know she has shark friends patrolling her shores?” The bouncing girl asks, rapid-fire with the leftovers of adrenaline while they traverse over the sands and slip into the cover of Nyxa’s new home.
Momentarily stalled, her eyes stray from the mare who raised her as her own to the chittering of Ischia’s inhabitants around them. The glittering daylight of Winter is no harsher here than could be expected, and the damp moisture in the air does wonders for Nyxa’s wings. Despite her earlier hesitance, the island is growing on her. “It’s lovely here …” The winged girl murmurs, both sets of hooves muffled with the carpeted earth.
As instant as her curiosity had waned, now it waxes and so her curiosity switches tracks - back to the final twinge of words Jah’s let slip. “You seem more electrified than usual, Jah-Lilah.” The filly notices with a sly smirk, “What have I missed?”
I know you're happy, because I can see it, now tell the voice inside your head to believe it.
As soon as the pale yearling spies my mare she emits a delighted noise and meets Jah-Lilah half way. They dance around each other and embrace, exchanging hot breaths and excited bites. The term of endearment that would irk her coming from anybody else all but brings the red creature to tears. All her pregnant hormones and emotions send the memory of the child's birth to her brain, and she is beside herself. She grabs hold of the youth and brings her so close, so tight to her. She squirms away after Jah inspects her and inquires about her wings, more than willing to spill about her newfound discovery.
Jah-Lilah listens as she chatters on, an apt pupil, nodding, eyes growing wide in disbelief and admiration. "Really?! Made-From-Love that is INCREDIBLE!" After hearing about the sharks, she laughs loudly, the girl's enthusiasm is more than infectious. "Sharks to protect our paradise? How fitting that your mother should have bodyguards to watch her back even during her water travels. Did you speak to them, Lovey?" Her tone is not mocking, but one of sheer curiosity and wonder.
They begin the short journey to the little room Jah has been preparing for her new arrival, and as they near the entrance, my mare can barely contain herself. The girl's intuition is spot-on, and my mare's electric fireflies dance all around like sparklers, lighting their way in the waning sunlight. "Oooohhhh Lovey I'm beyond beside myself, I have news for all of you. You though...you will be the first to truly know, come to think of it." Abruptly she realizes that nobody knows but her and the Earth-Mother. What a beautiful way to bond her and her little rainbow fish this evening. She turns to @[Nyxa] and motions with her head for her to follow.
They duck under some low-hanging palm trees, and Jah-Lilah pushes aside some ferns to do her big reveal. Inside the sanctuary she's created, it's getting more and more intricate and elaborate every day. She has nothing but time now, here on the island, surrounded by the things of the Earth-Mother. In every way she's getting better since she's been here, more and more creatures coming to see them, Nyxa has made it now too.
Different shells of varying shapes and colors line the outside of the foliage, flowers of all types are blooming miraculously all around them, there is a nest of lush, soft leaves big enough for all of them, three, five, seven, however many may need to come and hide here with the wytch mother. She lights the place up with her sparks, illuminating the darkness. She turns to her adopted daughter, smiling. "Lovey, what if I told you..." she draws the words out in suspense, wearing a Cheshire cat expression. "...you weren't going to be the baby anymore?"
I talk to the Goddess about you, she said she sent me an angel, and told me look at all that she gave me.
Oh, speaking to other animals is not her specialty - Jah knows this but all the same Nyxa laughs robustly in reply to the question. “Can’t speak to the hare before I kill him dead, can I? Same for the sharks, I s’pose.” She drawls; even her tongue feels lax around her fiery step-mother. The red wytch is drawing to a halt though and Nyxa focuses intently on where they are. Her eyes rove quickly around the dense tangle of glossy leaves, most illuminated now by the quick sparks of light Jah-Lilah creates. “I have news for all of you.” The dappled flame tells her, drawing the curious girl’s attention down to earth once more, “You’ll be the first to truly know of it, come to think of it.” Jah contemplates aloud.
Nyxa’s shock is immediate and clear as it overtakes her features. First to know? She’d never been first at anything her entire life, not even being born for god’s sake. But now here they are: odd mother and daughter exchanging secrets in the dim light of a hazy island jungle, pushing aside wide palm fronds to take a glimpse into something private.
Nyxa cannot believe that her good-mother would share this with her, before sharing it with Circinae or Canaan.
Jah-Lilah has created a sanctuary, right here in the heart of their home. Trinkets from the sea gild the outlying area, along with interrupting bursts of brightly-colored flora that draw not only Nyxa’s close inspection, but a soft gasp of admiration from the girl. How long had her den mother been working here? Her hand is masterful, artful in taste and whim alike with the smattering of leafy nests. With the quirk of a smile Nyxa can see how they vary in size and shape. “Expecting strange guests?” She chuckles, arching her gaze upwards in sudden awe of the glimmering lights.
“Lovey what if I told you…” Jah begins, and Nyxa’s head rotates freely to listen with tight lips and a racing heart.
Not expecting guests at all, it would seem … but only expecting a guest.
No, not a guest. A sibling. Not just that - a sister. “Or a brother, or a brother…” She thinks suddenly, trying hard to calm her building excitement. Too little, too late though - her thoughts and feelings have run away from her and without meaning to, Nyxa bursts into screams of unexpected joy.
“A BABY!? A BABY?? A BABBBYYY!!!” She wails, lurching forward to fall into the warm embrace she knows will be waiting. “Jah, oh Jah you sneak! You sly sneak! When will mother know? And father? Oh …. God, silly me. I’m not a baby, of course he’ll know.” She breathes, hardly able to suppress her mounting energy. Another sibling in the mix!
Winded from the display she gives into the pull of her other skin and shifts to wolf, flopping onto the plush, leaf-covered earth with a giddy squeal and thrash of her paws. “I’m not a baby! Ha, of course not anymore! Oh Jah -” She says, suddenly righting herself to glance at the lightning mare with perked ears and a wide grin, “- have you thought of a name yet? May I toss a few around?”
I asked for one and I got two, and you know in your heart I never left you.
The girl teases her back about speaking to the animals, and Jah-Lilah snickers. Nothing gets past the yearling beauty, she's sharp and quick-witted, my mare adores her. The red wytch watches Nyxa look around at her humble abode slack-jawed, and can't help but feel a swell of pride in her breast. It's been painstakingly difficult getting everything just right for her new arrival, and the wonder her nest inspires makes her feel like it is time well spent. Her adopted daughter's eyes grow wide as she confesses she has a secret no one else knows, and the girl looks fit to burst. My mare smiles knowingly, nudging the filly out of her daydream and motioning for her to follow into the safety of Jah-Lilah's fortress of solitude.
My mare poses her question, insinuating that her new roommate will be a sib to the creamy-colored Pegasus, and the outburst that follows is not one that Jah-Lilah is prepared for. @[Nyxa] absolutely looses her shit. In a delighted shriek the filly begins to bound all over, over the moon about the news of her becoming a big sister. Watching with emerald eyes, Jah-Lilah laughs raucously. The pair are overcome with joy, nearly brought to their knees. Coyly, Jah wears a smirk as Nyxa inquires about Canaan knowing. "I doubt he knows, I've never been with child before, Made-From-Love. However, I won't waste more time in telling him or your mother, I want everyone to feel like I feel."
Her belly growing distended and her emotions on ten, still she feels amazing. Her hair grows long and shines like copper in the sun, her electric powers are amped up, bright, bold. It's as though she can take on the world, she's flawless, no one will bring her down. The girl asks to play a part, and how in the world could Jah deny her, she loves this filly like the one residing in her own womb. "I didn't ask the Earth-Mother if it was a boy or a girl, so yes, I'm still taking suggestions for names Lovey. Are you ready to be a big sister then?" She asks with an impish look in her eye, elated at how well the youngling has received the new.
