so my lungs can breathe fire; any

[Phesque]

She had witnessed the madness. She had seen her home ransacked and ravaged - and when the volcanic eruption had shaken the very earth beneath her feet, and the skies had rained fire and brimstone, she had thought the world was ending. Somehow she had lost track of her mother - and though she knew her father hadn't yet returned from his hunt, still Phesque pounded headlong across a molten battlefield in search of any of her family, reckless, determined, and frightened to her core.

Instead, a sudden tear in the seams of reality had opened right before her very eyes - and before she could even blink, the portal had swallowed her whole.

And here is where she found herself - though she had no idea where here really was. Phesque had unknowingly been transported to the northernmost reaches of the Cove, and it has taken her some days to trace the edge of the sea inland. The sea, at least, was familiar. After the shock of her abrupt arrival had worn off, she had washed herself in its soothing waves, the salt stinging in places where her coppery pelt had been dealt glancing blows by the spewing brimstone she had left behind.

Though her nerves are frayed and she is frought with concern over what she'd witnessed in Tephra, she is resilient - she had been raised among wolves, after all - and there isn't a doubt in her mind that she would, in fact, return to find her pack unscathed. As she moves off from the stretch of beach she has been following today toward a copse of trees that promise a brief respite from the summer sun, she tosses her windswept tresses aside and looks about herself, examining the landscape for any familiarity that might point her homeward again.

[Dawn]

DAWN

i just killed off what was left of the optimist in me

It hadn’t been her home burning to the ground when she stumbled through the portal, but she feels the weight of it all the same. Tephra has been their ally for such a long time, and Leliana had only just taken over the volcanic kingdom. Now... it is half-obliterated into nothing more than ash and soot, with her remaining residents struggling to pick up the pieces. It could have easily been the Cove the razed to the ground, and the mere thought of it sets her bones to trembling. All of her children are here; her friends may be scattered to the wind, but the Cove is her entire life.

It feels like so long already since the war has ended, but she knows that it cannot have been more than a few days. She has had her discussions and made her kingdom visits, and done what she feels is necessary for the betterment of her home – and yet, she cannot curb the deep sadness that wells in her as she surveys her peninsular home. The days when the kingdom was buzzing with activity are long gone, but she hopes that as life begins to settle back into a more normal routine, she can bring the activity back up so that life can once again return to the Cove. There has been a trickle of others, yes, but she wants there to be a flood. She wants her home to flourish under her hand.

When her eyes fall on the sabino filly crossing into the shade of the trees, she almost thinks that it is Kensa, but quickly realizes that the girl is too small, and not as stocky as the leader of Hyaline – and why should Kensa be this far north in the Cove anyways? With a friendly nicker she approaches, taking in her disheveled appearance and confused look. “Can I help you?” she asks with a smile, the gentle kindness never leaving her eyes. “I’m Dawn.”

@[Phesque] I'm so sorry this took so long!!

[Phesque]

The sound of a nicker alerts her to the oncoming stranger. She turns, ears pressed forward from a tangled mess of brassy mane. Phesque may be lost, but as she meets Dawn’s gaze there is something in the liquid amber of her eyes – a look, if you will – a kind of brazen self-assurance she maintains despite the chaos and confusion that had brought her here. “You might,” she responds, then pauses as introductions are made. “Phesque.” She brings a brief smile to her lips before she plunges on.

“I need to know the quickest way to get back to Tephra from here.” Wherever here is, she thinks to herself dismissively. Besides being inadvertently teleported to a strange land in the middle of a war waged upon her birthplace, there aren’t many things that Phesque finds daunting – so she isn’t at all bothered by the fact that she must tilt her head back to look the palomino mare over with bold eyes. Though still young, the soft edges of her childhood are fading fast. There is a sleekness to her now that whispers of womanhood, and in the midday light the white-flecked copper of her skin practically gleams.

Having completed her cursory inspection, Phesque adds as if on second thought, “Are there any wolves around?” If there were, perhaps the porthole had landed her near her father’s pack. He needed to know what had happened, though he would be furious to hear it. Yet while Phesque had gleaned that this hunt meant something more to him for some reason, she also knew that nothing was more important to Daemron than family.



@[Dawn] never apologize for giving me such wonderful affy words <3333