"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 snowy season had coaxed a large number of Beqanna's nomads away from the common lands, leaving Xi behind to explore them undisturbed. In turn, the ivory and incarnadine woman left the lands the way she'd found them ─ with the only exception being the Forest, where she'd shattered a fairly large oak into a hundred pieces following a particularly large owl's hoot from a nearby tree limb. Wooden debris had rained down upon the snow, creating random pockmarks as they settled. The owl had not lingered for long.
Xi had left soon after, shaking bits of tree bark casually from her aeolian two-toned mane.
The usually stoic woman flutters her translucent wings upon arrival to the Meadow ─ a habit that had formed during childhood whenever she'd happened across something that had charmingly surprised her. The Meadow contained less snow than expected, its tall grasses only coated by a thin layer of frost, prompting this gentle expression of excitement from an otherwise indifferent creature.
She moves through the silence with gentle and measured steps upon the hardened winter earth. Cold shoots of grass move against her lean legs and ivory barrel as she roams nearer to the area not yet snuffed by regular grazing. Snorting quietly against the chill, Xi raises her angular head and surveys what she can see of the Meadow with her harsh lavender eyes ─
There is no one to be seen nearby, prompting another gentle flutter of her peach and purple butterfly wings, before she lowers her head to the earth and closes her eyes against the winter sun for a midday nap.
She wakes with a jolt, and as her eyes open to the complete darkness, she groans. There are no lava streams to cast an amber twilight over this - wherever she is - and as she drags the air across her tongue there is a distinct lack of tropical fragrance.
No, there is no sea-salt or gardenia scent here. It's fucking cold.
Warlight's body shudders as the northern wind reaches the exposed places of her, Tepra's warm air left her severely underdressed for any other climate. With a snort that causes a cloud of mist to billow around her, Warlight sweeps her head from left to right in hopes of catching sight of a landmark or feature that would help her identify where she had teleported to.
The new moon leaves the stars to do its job, but finally, she can decipher the shape of the earth in front of her. She clenches her teeth against the cold and closes her eyes to dream again.
When she finally falls asleep again she doesn't dream of home. A memory from her adolescence haunts her, one where she was with the son she was barely old enough to have. Her body is thin and coated in filth, and his wide silver eyes reflect the meadows wavering summer grasses. She was rarely nostalgic but seeing Clegane to clearly was enough to cause her heart to shudder, and her subconscious lingers on the memory.
It's in that moment that her teleportation kicks in once again, sending particles of her rocketing across the continent. With a pop the antlered mare apparates in the meadow. Will opens her eyes as she takes step to steady herself, and she is surprised to finds what she at first assumes to be a fairy.
"Oh," she begins, ungracefully, "hello..." just as the unseen stump of a long-dead tree explodes behind her.
05-21-2020, 07:09 PM (This post was last modified: 05-21-2020, 07:09 PM by Xi.)
xi
our gospel is living flesh sprawled in dust
Xi's mind is empty of dreams.
More often than not, her slumber is undisturbed by dreamscapes produced by her mind's eye. This nap is no different, disturbed by naught, and brings her only the darkness of the inside of her eyelids. Her lithe body remains in the same position that she had fallen asleep in: two-toned head slung low, wings relaxed against her sides, shoulders loose. Her ivory tail sways gently in the icy cool breeze, a white flag attached to a being with no understanding of the word surrender.
Pow!
The sound rips her from her sleep ─ Xi's muscles are taut and ready for flight even before she realizes she is awake, but settles down quickly as her lavender eyes find the two-toned antlered girl ─ looking just as surprised as she ─ in front of her and determines that she isn't a threat.
But that doesn't stop the hidden tree trunk behind the woman from exploding violently, sending debris both skyward and in the direction of the two painted women. Xi snorts as she swings her head to the side, using her draping mane to shield her face from the wood chips that fly through the air. She remains like this for a few moments beyond the sound of the debris hitting the ground, blinking the sleep from her eyes, before turning her sharp purple gaze back to the other woman.
“Be quiet,” Xi snaps with a harsh whisper, before an exasperated sigh falls from her open maw at the realization that she's feeling a bit too drowsy from her nap to be a bitch to this stranger, “If you don't whisper, things will keep exploding.”
Xi lowers her head to nibble gently at an itch above her knee before she reverts her severe gaze back to her newest acquaintance. “Are you hurt?” she asks quietly, though more out of necessity than anything else.
The stump explodes behind her and Warlights chin instinctively drops to her chest. She surges forward and turns to face the sound, antlers lowered. It takes her a moment to realize that nothing is attacking them, as she stands looking towards the empty meadow, nostrils flared and heart hammering.
She had lived twice and died once, but she had never seen anything quite like that.
It takes Will another moment to realize the bright mare's whisper is meant for her, and she spares a reluctant glace in her direction. But as Xi quickly explains the situation, Warlight gives a low snort and a half-nod of understanding.
"That's unfortunate," she replies in a harsh, unpracticed whisper. She wasn't one for whispering, and after becoming a mother of twins she usually had to raise her voice just to be heard.
The surge of adrenaline she had felt is fading now, draining through her toes and gives her surroundings a sweeping glance before returning her antlered head to the grazing mare. She gets the feeling she's intruding, and opens her mouth to make her exit, but the winged mare is asking a question Warlight probably should have already asked herself.
She turns to her right shoulder to find a good-sized splinter embedded in the base of her neck. And suddenly, with the movement, lack of adrenaline, and at the sight of it, she feels it. It isn't easy to stifle the expression of annoyance that she does, and her face twists a little at the effort, before reaching to take the thing between her teeth. But they snap shut inches shy of contact, and the leopard-skin woman draws in a sharp breath.
"It would make the long walk back to Tephra a lot easier if you wouldn't mind giving me a little help," she whispers, turning so the site is clearly visible. It would be a while before she could teleport again, her energy is already low from two trips in one night and the lack of sleep. A few hours grazing in the meadow would be enough to mean she would probably make it back, but with her current string of luck she trusted her four legs more than her fickle magic.
"But if you're squeamish, I can always find another way home."
![[Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/NMPHtrtV/Warlightpageddoll1.png)