"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
Summer was not kind to her. She was not made for warmth – had not even known such a thing as it, really, not until she’d begun her descent from the mountaintop. She knew nothing of seasons, and when she learned of them, she found them odd, too fast changing. She tried to stretch the winter out, keep the air around her cold, but summer fights its way in, the heat a viscous thing, covering her body like syrup.
It seems especially bad, today – humid, the air thick enough to drink, and oh, she despises it. She tries to beckon snow, but it melts almost immediately. She knows of her power – they’d told her – but has never had cause to use it, on the mountaintop it was always winter, there was no need to call forth snow and cold, such things were near-constant states. It seems the power is weak, then, atrophied from disuse, and almost useless to her. She’ll have to practice – that, or flee back, which seems ever more tempting. She comes from strange places, Annapurna – a vicious mountaintop, near impossible to summit. It had been her namesake, when her father brought her there, and left her not long after. She should hurt from this – she should be is, is what she should be – but the mountaintop had been home. Why had she left, then? Because she woke one day with wanderlust gnawing a hole inside her, a sudden and irrevocable desire to know a world that wasn’t white and cold. In the summer’s haze, that desire still exists, which is why she has not turned back. She finds the river first, a rushing thing, and steps into it. The water is cool, but not cold, though when she stands still and concentrates the water around her grows colder, a fringe of ice between herself and the water. This, too, doesn’t last, the ice turns translucent and melts away, carried by the warm current, and she sighs, and tries again to beckon forth the ice and cold.
12-16-2018, 07:30 PM (This post was last modified: 12-23-2018, 01:27 PM by Rouhi.)
keep your dreams in check
It was the surprising touch of cold air that woke Rouhi from his slumber, the tree beside him rustling gaudily as he looked up, irritated by the sudden change in noise and air, now that he had woken he stood up with all his pent up energy swelling inside, his wings stretching to their full span as he attempted to get rid of his cramps. The grulla male then proceeded to the water, arching his creased neck to take a sip but stopped for a moment as he observed the flowing liquid, it seemed as if pieces of ice were flowing with the current, unless winter was suddenly back once more, surely there should be no ice flowing down this stream. The curious man lowered his silken nose into the water, it was not harshly cold but instead quite calm and soothing, the stallion began to drink the water, cold liquid rushing down his chest, cooling his heated body as he backed away from the flowing stream. He was now quite curious, it could be as simple as ice that had made it all the way from the mountains, but surely in that case the ice would have melted by then, the grulla had to know what was causing the ice flow, his inquisitive head poking through the bushes to look up toward the stream, he couldn't see anything yet and so he advanced forward, breathing in the cool and thick air as he slowly and carefully placed his hooves on the ground, finally he began to smell something, or someone.
The grulla kept walking until he was able to make out a pallid figure in the distance, the air was getting colder now, perhaps the mysterious figure had something to do with it, his inquisitive nature drove him forward; a desire that he had to satisfy, too curious perhaps.
The stallion now emerged from the shrubs, he called out softly as he halted, stopping his advance just in case, although he was inquisitive, he was still wary of strangers as he should be, at least this time he wasn't meeting someone while lit on fire.
The stallion now stood hushed, his wings comfortably placed on his side as he began to smile, a rather natural reaction for Rouhi whenever his friendly personality was to meet someone new, the stallion dipped his head and announced himself faintly "Hello, I hope that I am not disturbing you" he paused for a moment, his icy eyes almost reflecting the current temperature change as he softened his tone "I am Rouhi" he added to his curtate introduction, lifting his frame from the bow and steadying himself.
She is not accustomed to others. There’d been family, in snippets – her mother’s a dream, mostly, dark-eyed and dead, but her father had visited more often. She did not particularly like him, he left her uneasy, dark magic cloaking him like a miasma. Thus, given what little company she knew, she preferred solitude.
Of course, in such an inhospitable place, solitude had been the default, perhaps, rather than the preference – she’d had no choice in the matter, as no animals ventured high enough for her to convene with them, no birds touched the thin-air skies.
So maybe she had no choice in this so-called preference.
Regardless, she is made uneasy by so many horses - throngs of them, bodies terribly warm, crowding and talking and never made uncomfortable by the autumn sunlight, not the way she was. Some had glanced at her, strange thing that she was – ice-white, or blue, maybe, in certain lights, eyes definitely blue, blazing strange from her paled countenance.
She is still in the river when the words drift out, and she turns, cracking the thin film of ice that had gathered around her. She sees the stallion, wings tucked at his side, lips curled in a smile. She doesn’t return the smile, but she watches him, deciding if the words were meant for her.
She supposes they were – no one else is nearby.
“Hi,” she says. She’s never talked much, before she was bit by wanderlust – the wind had a way of stealing anything uttered, so she’d taken on silence like a preference, though perhaps that, like solitude, was never much of a choice to be made at all.
“I’m Annapurna,” she says. There had been other names suggested for her – she thinks mother had had one – but in the end, she’d taken the mountain’s name, finding it the most fitting of them all.
The grulla man shivered momentarily as he looked around the mare, his intrigue brought him a step closer as she introduced herself; her name unique and unheard of to Rouhi "Nice to meet you" he placed his words with a soft tone as he smiled once more, his eyes veering toward the ice below, although he was concentrated on the ice he spoke no word of it for the moment, instead he averted his attention back to the female, his icy blue eyes fluttering as he began to speak "So what brings you here?" he asks gently as he usually does with anyone he meets although quickly realises he is being slightly one-sided "Apologies for the questions, I'm personally from Hyaline, or have recently been introduced to it" he pauses to breathe in the thickening air but does not continue speaking, he had a slight idea of why he was here, but he wasn't entirely sure.
The stallion held the pause for a moment before looking back up at the mare, hoping she would reply to his question at some point while he began to get lost in his thoughts.
The breeze seemed to be picking up now, violently crashing against the feathers on Rouhi's frail wings, although annoying, Rouhi kept a slight smile, his naturally friendly character holding him. He was quite an inquisitive horse, not entirely intrusive but on the borderline of it, he took a moment to look around the expanse, there seemed to be a few horses walking around but none interested in the small gathering, perhaps the plague was scaring them. The plague, Rouhi was starting to piece things together now, there was a chance that he was unable to re-birth because the plague was stopping him, which meant he could be infected. Rouhi took a step back as his smile slid off of his soft muzzle, he looked dreary now.
He couldn't imagine infecting someone, he wouldn't let himself carry that burden, the grulla stared at the ground for a moment before looking back at the mare, it was still quite chilly and the breeze was not helping at all, at least now he had found out where all the ice was coming from.
Rouhi
@[Annapurna] Hey! Sorry if this is a bit messy or perhaps all over the place but it's currently about 2 in the morning and I just wanted to get a post out because I didn't know if I'd be able to in the morning!
She moves closer to the riverbank, feeling too strangely spotlighted in the river. Ice clings to her legs and she savors the feeling, though it will melt in moments. Her movements bring a chill to the air, though to her it still feels terribly warm, and she is unaware of the effect it has on others.
She examines the stallion more closely, listening as he asks a question and gives his own answer before she can speak. She is grateful for this, because she isn’t quite sure how to answer, it is clear her life, her upbringing, is different than most.
(That said, she shares blood with most of the horses here, from half-siblings to the most distant of cousins. She’s Beqanna-bred, in the end.)
“I lived…somewhere else,” she begins. She does not tell him of the mountaintop, of her strange and solitary world there.
“I lived there for many years. But it grew old, after a while. And my parents are from here, so when I left, I think this world simply called to me.”
She glances down at her dripping legs. The ice has all melted, now.
“And then I was hot, hence the river.”
She smiles at this, though it’s not a particularly clever joke. There was never much humor on her mountain.
“What’s Hyaline like?” she asks, then. She doesn’t know the name, has not been here long enough to learn the names of kingdoms. She does not know that one of the lands it the ill-fated creation of her father, that it’s the harbinger of the plague – hell, she doesn’t even know of the plague itself. She knows shockingly little, Annapurna, she only knows that she likes the stranger’s smile and that she is still terribly, awfully hot.
12-24-2018, 06:47 AM (This post was last modified: 12-24-2018, 07:01 AM by Rouhi.)
keep your dreams in check
The stallion matches the white figure's movements, still not wanting to be too near her just in case he was infected, for a moment he stopped as he listened to her speak, he listens intently as he shifts his weight slightly, his ears perked and moving to her voice travelling across to him, the stallion regains his smile as she mentions being hot "Oh, it's actually quite cold around here at the moment, hence why I came down here at first" he smiled as he explained himself, he keeps listening as she asks him of Hyaline, he pauses for a moment as if in deep thought "Well, I've only recently been introduced to it, but so far I love it. It's beautiful, everything in it seems like a wonderland to me, especially the trees. From what I have seen it is very quiet and peaceful" he giggles slightly at the mention of trees, having a weird thing for them, looking around the current area, staring at the scenery happily.
The stallion is past intrigue at this point, he observes the ground dampen around her as he lifts his head again "You mentioned you were still hot right?" the stallion smiled as he lifted his wings, stretching them to their full span and moving them back and forth, creating a breeze that now swept over the mare, he laughed again as he lowered his wings, placing them quietly at his side. Rouhi now wonders if he should ask more about her origin or just leave it be for now, unsure of what to do, at first he thinks he could invite the mare back toward Hyaline if she wanted to stay somewhere but leaves the notion for later.
The stallion perks his ears once again as his soft lips parch to speak "You have an interesting name, might I ask of its origin?" he asks softly, hoping he wasn't being too intrusive, the stallion shifted his weight again, the breeze still sweeping away at the ground below them, battering his wings as it flew past them intrusively. Rouhi wondered if he should mention his past origin, apart from Hyaline, of course, it wasn't a great place and wasn't particularly easy to speak of but he felt that he would be able to if need be.
Once again the stallion returns his gaze to the mare, his icy eyes dancing around the mare as he looked around her, a shiver falling upon him as he awaited a reply, it almost felt like it was about to snow with how cold and windy it had become, but he did not mention of it again, keeping it to himself; petrified of saying the wrong things at the wrong time as per his usual self.
Rouhi
@[Annapurna] not sure if my tags are actually working cause they don't seem to be doing the link thing but oh well
She listens as he describes his newly-made home, waxing poetic on the trees. She herself has no real fondness for them – it makes the world feel more crowded, throwing odd shadows. And the explosion of leaves! She is so used to stark landscapes that the places here are overwhelming in their liveliness and fecundity. But she nods along, because the description pleases him, even if it would leave her uneasy.
(And likely, if she described her own home, he would be as uneasy as she.)
She almost laughs as the wing-created breeze rushes across her damp skin, sudden in lingering heat of the autumn. Ice crackles across her skin, taking advantage of the momentary breeze. She was almost always covered in ice, on the mountain, like a second skin. She’d liked the feeling – it had almost felt like armor, like she was a warrior – and she misses it, now.
She keeps trying to pull in the cold, to beckon winter to her, but it takes a focus she lacks, or her power is simply too weak. She gives up for a moment, focusing instead on his question, trying to form an answer that makes sense, but didn’t give away too much.
“I’m named for a mountain,” she says, “quite a dangerous one. Inhabitable, mostly. But beautiful.”
She hadn’t known exactly how beautiful until she’d looked back on her descent, at the starkness of the summit against the sky, blinding white and jagged. It had taken her breath away.
“Were you born here?” she asks, a change of subject, and the chill’s in the air again, though she barely feels it.
12-27-2018, 07:35 AM (This post was last modified: 12-29-2018, 05:14 PM by Rouhi.)
keep your dreams in check
His intrigue peaks as he listens attentively, watching the mare as she describes the origin of her name, at first his thoughts wandered off to the mountains, imagining a cold and desolate mountaintop, shrouded in thick layers of air, soft crunchy snow and of course, ice.
Rouhi now snapped back wit ha shudder, listening to the mare as she returned a question, asking of his birth-place. Rouhi was unsure of how to approach the question, he didn't know exactly where he was born, only a few features of the place, yet he still opened his soft muzzle to speak "Well, not quite. I'm not exactly sure of where I was born but I believe it was on the outskirts of Beqanna" he feels confident with his reply as he shifts his weight one more time, adjusting his balance with his wings.
Rouhi now wonders about the mare's home and if she even had a place to stay, and so he decided to ask "So, do you currently have somewhere to return to?" he asked quietly with a smile, the wording of his question perhaps quite jumbled but it did not matter too much, the stallion wondered if the mare would return to the mountain she spoke of or if she had no place at all.
There was always Hyaline of course, he would be happy to show it to her, especially if he had someone to return with rather than taking the journey back all alone, perhaps he would make a new friend on the way as well.
Before the mare can reply begins to speak once more "If you do not, you could always return to Hyaline with me" he offered politely as he looked around, the sky already darkening as the breeze began picking up again, throwing around clouds as they muddled together in the now darkening blue sky.
Her blood may call her here, but it is not familiar, it is not home. She has regretted her choice, at times, even as wanderlust gnawed at her stomach; times when she was sweltered until a thick and brutish sun, times when other horses surrounded her, crushing him, more than she’s ever seen in her life.
She still doesn’t know if she’ll stay – she is more comfortable, now, but she still doesn’t quite fit, a piece of a different puzzle, disquiet.
He shares his birthplace, or, what he knows of it. She nods, familiar with outskirts herself.
His next question, though, she is less sure of how to react to. The only place she thinks of returning is to the mountain, but she will not go there, not yet.
“Not in Beqanna,” she says, which she figures for a reasonable enough answer. She is quiet for a beat longer, not sure how far she wants to venture. Not sure if a place filled with trees is for a woman raised in cold, open spaces.
But, she came here to experience new things. A change from a white and gasping wasteland.
“I’ll visit,” she says, “though I can make no promises of staying. I have yet to find somewhere that suits my…nature.”
She doesn’t know the word for it, not really. The word for the agony heat brings her, the desire to curl ice and snow like armor about her skin.
“We could go now, if you’d like,” she says, willing, for now, to follow.
tell me that girl is not a song of burning
feel free to post in hyaline for her but please tag me (she's annapurna, all lowercase) because i don't check kingdoms as often lol <33
not sure if my tags are actually working cause they don't seem to be doing the link thing but oh well