"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 secret of walking on water is knowing where the rocks lie
Without Brine to focus on, without a political goal with all the steals going on left and right, the lithe, pink-spotted mare might be slowly going crazy. She’d beaten herself up over not being able to protect the mare and yearling taken, even though she knew that anyone else might have, could have, should have been there to stop it just as much as she. Then, she’d done the unthinkable and attacked the monster when he burned the forest, attacked with the power she had been given for beating another monster.
In fact, she wasn’t sure what was left or right any more; once of royalty, now she didn’t know what side to take. Was it right to keep fighting to keep Nerine as it once was, to keep Taiga with them, or should she not withstand evolution? She frequently wonders what Breckin would have thought about all this; then, she would smile to herself at the thought of her mother when she got riled up.
Perhaps she didn’t differ from her as much as she had thought, then.
Leaning against a cool rock, the knabstrup hybrid looks out to the sea. She misses having someone to talk to; misses her sister and her mother, and her little brother. She wonders briefly what Aodhán might be doing these days; she hadn’t had time to see what effect the Cure had had on him. Certainly he would live, right?
There’s only one of her family she knows to be around - but her father is always everywhere and nowhere, and not easily found when she needs it. Besides he wasn’t the easiest to talk to, not with politics as a subject. Maybe she should find Lilli again, if the mare was available. Being part of two lands, even if they were kingdom and territory, wasn’t a very easy job, Wenny supposes.
She inhales slowly and deeply; then, she turns around. It’s no use hiding, and she’d better start thinking about what she can do, instead.
Maybe she should take a walk outside of Nerine? She’s desperate for a distraction.
He had lived a quiet life, lurking in Nerine...to be honest he wasn't sure the new ruler even knew he lived there. Sometimes he misses Sylva, but Mary wasn't there anymore...he had lived in Nerine for nearly all of his life, yet he feels like his roots were deepest in Sylva.
But with all his doubts, he still stays. Truthfully, he knows why he stays....the few chances he gets to see his childhood friend...he holds much higher hopes for "them" rather than the truth, which is no hope.
He quietly travels through Nerine, close to the border. Perhaps a chance to find someone new who is lurking to close to the border. Instead he finds a familiar face, the pale girl speckled in pink.
He comes to a halt, his eyes remaining on her. He watches as she leans against a rock, she seems lost in her own thoughts. He debates moving forward with his travels, but when she turns around he figures his position was given away.
Eurwen! He calls out as he casually makes his way over to her. The island growing chilly in the fall season. How are you? It's been a while. He says as he grows closer to her. It certainly had been some time since he had seen her last, he has had a child who is now grown and off....but he takes note of the body that Eurwen had matured into.
the secret of walking on water is knowing where the rocks lie
The twists of fate are unknown to her, and yet they keep following her. Nerine is full of both old and new faces - mostly new faces - and sometimes she wonders if there is a better place for her out there. And still this is the only home she can think of - the one place she belongs.
Where wind, rock and sea surround her, that’s where she finds peace. Not a lot, not lately, with a fire-breather in their midst. But Neverwhere had had the right of it, it was Lilli’s problem, and Wen probably shouldn’t get herself any more involved. Her attempts of trapping him had made him aware of her ability to do so, and he never really stood still long enough, careful when she was in sight not to get ensnared in stone.
Or, she assumes that’s it, anyway.
When she turns around, she blinks at the green and white male as if he’s an hallucination at first; she hasn’t seen him since her return and alright, maybe she had avoided everyone in the first year, it was still a surprise. Had she really not paid attention?
”Corban? I didn’t know you’d stayed.” she smiles a bit more now, remembering the last time she’d said it. He’d been given a rough welcome in Nerine, with a newly-mother Nalia blaming him for scaring her child. Eurwen had never had any children of her own, but perhaps she, and he, might understand the paint’s actions of that day a little better now. After all, they’d both matured - although perhaps, in the back of her mind, she acknowledges that her fade-out on the Mountain had set her back a few years mentally.
She’s aware of her eyes, her mind, wandering to places a girl should not. In this close proximity, she is very aware of her own breathing, and his scent. Nevertheless she moves in, forward, to touch his velvet nose. ”How have you been?” the spotted mare asks. She tries to sound more casually than she feels, but honestly… honestly it’s like she knows things that she doesn’t understand. For the moment, she tries to ignore the feeling of wanting to hug him, drink in his scent and close her eyes in hopes of waking up safely in a Nerine where everything is not such a mess.
@[Corban]
I bet she got lost in hormones and sadness and feelings of safe and warm (:
It had been a while since the two had last met....he has has a child who is grown and gone now. Honestly he is a tad shocked that he was able to spot her so far away, but then again he couldn't mistaks those pink spots.
They were never the best of friends, even had a rough beginning, so it came as a shock when she was happy to see him? She says his name, finishing her sentence with a smile, which brought one to his own maw. Well, I hadn't anywhere else to go... He shrugs the truth, she may have been born into the kingdom, but he couldn't return to Sylva now that Mary was stripped of it.
She moves closer and he initially wonders if she was going to lash at him for some reason....but instead her next move leaves him stunned. She brushes her maw against his, though he was shocked he doesn't pull his own back. She smelled lovely, more lovely than he had remembered. Her maw was soft, and the pink complimented his dark one. Uhm...good, he successfully forces the words from his mouth. And you? He wonders, had she waited for him? What brought her to these actions.
the secret of walking on water is knowing where the rocks lie
She’s shy around him, like she had always been a bit shy around everyone else, as well. For her, it’s different from how she behaves around Lilli and Brazen - and even Neverwhere probably - but it is not much different than how she was before... everything. As she pulls back from touching him in greeting, she studies his face and smiles a bit. He seems surprised. ”I guess we both grew up.” she offers, not quite sure what to say instead. There’s something about him that gives her comfort and safety, and perhaps she just mistakes that for something else.
He just reminds her of how the world was, how it should be. That’s all. Sure it is.
And yet she doesn’t want to leave again. Not now. She smiles at his offhand reaction that he had nowhere else to go. ”You know that’s not true.” There’s always, always, the Field. Or any common land. She tilts her head at him. ”But I like that you’re still part of Nerine. That makes it more whole.”
Whole. Yes, that’s the word. As she revels in the presence of someone from the past, a friend, someone she, as a child, might have taken for granted - he makes her world whole. Makes her home a home; not just a place where she always lived and thus always stayed.
”Oh.” She hadn’t really spoken to him for a long time. ”I’ve been away for a time. To the Mountain.” She doesn’t really speak to many about it, and it’s not a subject she really wants to talk to him about but she also thinks he has some right of knowledge. ”When I came back, only Heartfire and Brazen seemed to be here, still. Now Heartfire is gone, and Neverwhere’s the new khaleesi, and…” for a moment she looks to Taiga in the distance, then shakes her head. ”I’m glad you’re here.” Between so many changes, someone steady was what she needed.
And he’s a perfect distraction from her doom-related thoughts of earlier. In fact, he looks rather perfect - though she knows looks can be deceiving. But hey, she still likes him. She always had - just not in the way she likes him now, perhaps - enough to maybe love, as well.
