"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
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
Leilan grants her request immediately and suddenly she is back in the Isle. She remains in the same position she had been in the Meadow, her front legs still cracked and mangled before her, but at least here she can hear the familiar arctic winds sweeping around her, can feel the snow beneath her blood crusted body. She releases a slow exhale and her anger starts to sputter into something different, something sad. She fights for that rage again, tries to grasp that thread of flame that had kept her together before that motley crew found her. But it slips between her starlit fingers and she finds grief waiting for her instead.
Tears burn the corner of her mercury eyes but still she refuses to let them fall, even as a darkness settles in her chest and a coldness wraps itself around the heart that Gale had left behind. Gale. Her friend. Gone. Gone. She grits her teeth again but this time it is not because of the physical pain. It’s the mental anguish that she fights against now, tries her best to keep herself from succumbing to the overwhelming sorrow that seems to sink into the marrow of her bones, a crushing weight pressing against her chest and stomach as she grows sick all over again at the thought of what’s to come.
She was going to have to tell Nashua.
Would her legs ever heal and if they did, would they heal right?
How could she face the thing wearing Gale’s face again?
Thousands of questions race through her mind as she closes her eyes against the beauty of the northern lights above her, her breathing growing more erratic as she stifles inevitable sobs, knowing that once she lets it start it will be impossible to stop.
07-04-2021, 05:47 PM (This post was last modified: 07-04-2021, 05:48 PM by Nashua.)
Nashua had soared miles above the Isle.
He had flown up and down the coast, with his green eyes constantly turning towards the mainland. Ciri had been missing for days. Winter on Beqanna's furthest outpost was always quiet but the stillness that had settled with the first snowfalls had been full of tidings that wouldn't allow Nash to stand still. When he had been forced to land (either due to the frigid weather or fatigue), the striped stallion had nearly paced himself into exhaustion.
If something was wrong in Taiga, they would send word. The North was close-knit community - tied through blood and the hard trials they had faced over the years - and Nash was convinced if the problem was in either Nerine or Taiga, they would alert the Isle. And yet, the striped stallion can't help but watch the distant shores for a sign.
After nearly two days of this, the chestnut decided that at dawn he would fly to Taiga.
But there is no resting for him. He had tried but sleep evaded him. His mind was full of restless thoughts - was his family alright? Noel? Their children? - and so he responded by moving towards the southern edge of the island. There was the aurora above to keep him company - usually a sight that he found both comforting and astounding - but Nash ignored it. His wings were held tightly against his sides as he trekked along with his mind resolved to travel to Taiga.
The sound of a woman's muffled sobs stops him.
It's a sound that takes him back to his youth.
His glow brightens and his pale brow furrows in confusion. Turning his head towards the direction that he heard the sound of movement from, Nashua approaches. The winged horse continues to become brighter, allowing his light to illuminate a wider space around him than normal. A dark leg outstretched at an unnatural angle matched with another comes to light. Nash continues closer, recognizing the scars as belonging to the Thane of the Isle. "Ciri?" Nash asks, fighting off the storm cloud of anger brewing in his mind. One broken leg was an accident. Two was intentional and the chestnut brute battles back several rising questions.
He asks the most important first: "Will you let me help you?"
There's a bunch of things rolling downhill and the magician's mood is one of them, right up until Obscene's demand is made clear. Then, his spirit is lifted (swinging moods like a madman) and he laughs. Ah, the ignorance of a new player.
"Oh, we met before. Don't hang your leg." He whisks Obscene to the Isle as well, albeit half a mile or so away from Ciri. You know, see who's with her first, him or Nash. After all, the chestnut King of the North is a very fast flier and even more so in a dive. Obscene technically doesn't have a leg to stand on, and honestly, it'd be super fun just to have him realize this before either accepting or declining the... 'offer'. (Given the circumstances, there couldn't be talk of a deal at any rate.)
Saying his good-bye to fake-Poppy quickly (actually, he just winks at her), he teleports again to trot up from behind the Fae-horse in good humour, flicks his now-emerald eyes at the man, and moves towards the others. The air is much more serious there and he secretly hopes for Nash to have healed Ciri by the time they arrive, but if not, he still extends a little more ice magic to her to numb the pain - it's easier here. She should be able to use her head, that way. Hopefully she won't try to roast them (him) again.
Ice blue eyes swing to the gold-striped pegasus and offer him a small, apologetic smile, so he doesn't have to ask. It's a detour today that he's taking, not a permanent return. After all, he is returning with Ciri and Obscene, not with Lilliana.
in my face is flashing signs seek it out and ye shall find
@Ciri
@Obscene as an FYI even though you're the same player xD
@Nashua
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
I can see through you, see your true colors Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me
“Your puns are terrible.” The dark Fae calls to the roan trotting up behind him as he glances around the tundra the magic man has whisked him to. He has never been to the Isle and had never had any drive or desire to visit. He sees now that his original thoughts on the Isle were well placed and wonders why anyone would purposely choose to call this home. As his red gaze takes in the sparse landscape, he follows Leilan’s lead towards where the dark mare had landed and a gold striped pegasus now at her side.
Even if the magician didn’t take him up on the offer, he still smelled opportunity in the air. The North wasn’t a place that Aela seemed all that fond of and perhaps he might find more answers here. Plus the scaled stallion hadn’t exactly denied a visit to the Pampas and if he already knew Aela then perhaps that was the angle to work on. Even if he could manage to get Leilan to agree to just a visit, just to see her, that showed some effort on his part. Surely that would please the golden mare slightly.
Snow crunches beneath his dark hooves as he moves closer, his red eyes once more falling on the twisted legs that wrapped around at odd angles. What could cause such destruction? He can’t help but think that again and then an image that Aela had pressed into his mind rises to the surface and his gaze moves from her legs to her chest. And he wonders. He cocks a hoof, interested to see how another healer’s power worked and if it was similar to his own, as the winged stallion seems to begin his own work on the mare. “If you get tired I can step in.” He offers nonchalantly as he watches. It’s a strange thing, this rather pleasant offer he gives now, but he still thinks of the opportunity here. A favor from the North could come in handy if he pressed them to repay his “kindness”.
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
She had hoped that her disappearance would be enough to spark worry in the North, that she had engrained herself enough into the Isle that the others would notice her absence as out of character. Not because it would mean one of them might find her but that they would be on guard. That they would know that darker days were coming and, oh, how dark they were. Her name falls from a familiar voice and she exhales sharply, flooded with a strange mixture of relief and dread. Instantly she shoves her sobs deep within her, knowing the hardest part was to come. That her own suffering could wait.
When she opens her eyes to look into the churning sea-green ones of Nashua (angry, she thinks, in a way she’s never seen them before), there is only regret in hers. His offer to help is easily accepted as she tries to lift her head and finds she cannot, having expended all her energy with the blast of stars she had exploded against nature’s will. So she simply gives a nod, unable to quite find her voice as apprehension thickens in her throat. Leilan has joined them now as well as the dark stallion with the long pointed ears and she barely glances at them, her sluggish swirls focused entirely on Nash. “Just leave the scars.” She whispers to him. Knowing he might understand why she would want to keep them.
Before she can lose her nerve, knowing it’s like a bandaid that needs to be ripped off, she finally says through a shaken voice for all of them to hear, “Nashua it was Gale. Something that wore his body and wielded his powers.” It breaks open from her now much as Gale had done to her chest to taste her magic. “He ripped me open and ate my stars.” Bile threatens to rise again in her throat, remembering the white hot pain, how he smiled and said “Delicious”. How she had died. "I died", she thinks but can't find herself to say it to them. Not yet. She glances out of the corner of her eye to the others before forcing herself to look back at Nash, her tone falling to a whisper. “I think your brothers dead. I’m sorry I…” And she can’t look at him now, closing her eyes against the pain she had brought back to the Isle and to him as the unspoken words linger in the air. “I’m sorry I failed.”
07-05-2021, 04:57 PM (This post was last modified: 07-05-2021, 05:01 PM by Nashua.)
Whatever had happened to Ciri seemed to have stolen her voice as well as broken her legs and it makes him angrier as he recalls their conversation from a few days before on the Southern beach. She had been so eager, so ready to help - ready to put horrible happenings behind her and make a new start on the Isle. And something in the interim had happened, something terrible enough that the onyx warrior can only nod her consent for Nashua to heal her.
He's never worked so quickly before. It usually takes him a minute to allow his Magic to seep below the skin, to let it search through the blood and the bones for ailments. Nash has only healed a few times before but it's always been a thorough, unhurried process. With Ciri, he curses under his breath at the way his Magic immediately drops into her and seeps the strength out of him. It finds the bones and starts to mend them back together, with the striped pegasus being mindful to keep her scars intact.
Nashua lowers his head to touch her forelimbs, to better visualize the injury so that it might heal quicker.
But then Ciri finds her voice and starts speaking. The concentration on her legs leaves his mind hazy for a moment; all he hears is Gale and then Something wore his body. His heart starts to hammer and slowly - almost as if he were in a dream-like state - Nashua lifts his head. "No," he answers numbly; it isn't that he disagrees with Ciri. Worse, he believes her. But what he says No to is the statement that it was back. The striped pegasus takes another step back.
That the Curse was happening again.
His green eyes can make out Leilan and another stallion approaching. They linger on his mentor, like the bay roan might have an explanation to everything that was happening. Leilan was back, some distant part of him reasons. It might not be to stay but Nashua's mind is traveling down his memories to Taiga and the revelation that his family is still in there. That his family is still there and now -
The glow that had shone throughout his presence here and while he had healed Ciri suddenly dies. The last few hours of nightfall surround them and it's a fool errand, the rational part of him knows. If he makes it to Taiga at all, Nash will think that it was because of some magical aid from the former King of the North. But the Curse is back and his family is there.
He opens his speckled wings and says in a deep voice rolling with worry, "I have to go."
Leilan was on the Isle. If Ciri needed further assistance, it could from the statuesque stallion that had arrived.
ooc: Nash healed Ciri to the best of his ability (so up to you Jeje if it works all the way, part of the way, ect) and is now making a mad dash flight to Taiga
Thanks to being a magician now, and mostly because of his former ability to speak into another’s mind as well as the way he had used Aela’s empathic-memory-thing to touch her mind, Leilan hears much more of the conversation between Nash and Ciri than he should - more than even they do, because he has connected to them. Gale has been cursed then, and taken traits - no, copied them - which is new information, and stored for later use. Obscene might or might not already know, and he doesn’t feel like discussing if he had a responsibility here. Other than to make sure at least the frozen Isle is safe for those who call it home, anyway.
He makes a very nonchalant approach and comments softly, into the mare’s mind. ”There is only such a thing as failure when you’re being given a task.” Her task had not been to defeat Gale’s Curse, he would remind her, but his soft interjection is only this short. He doesn’t have to spend a ton of words on it. Besides, Nashua’s panicked train of thoughts leads to more dangerous waters.
”Not too long, I hope.” He hadn’t given up a responsibility to have it handed back to him within the year. For Nashua to see his family was one thing, but to stay away too long, another. Nevertheless, the striped Pegasus doesn’t stay to comment, so he turns his scaled face to Obscene instead. ”I’ll have to visit Aela later,” he tells the dark faerie-horse with a shruglike motion. Obviously Nashua needs him to stay here for a while longer, which in fact is an excellent opportunity to postpone fulfilling his promise to whenever he thought it more opportune. Obscene would know that, and also obviously see that the icy magician is unbothered by this fact. ”Let me know when you need a teleport.” he does in fact offer; he isn’t too fond of the man lingering, and it would be a courtesy not to have him swim through the wintry, icy water that surrounds Icicle Isle. If he can kill several birds with one stone, that’s all the better for him.
He is in fact lazy, and he could care less. But that was never a secret, he thinks.
in my face is flashing signs seek it out and ye shall find
I can see through you, see your true colors Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me
Things move quickly once he joins the scene in this forsaken place. The unfamiliar male pegasus had already started the healing process on the scarred black mare but when she speaks, he stops. Begins to back up, seems unwilling and unable to process the information given. And it is a doozy of a message she drops on them all, one that even he can understand the gravity of. Because Gale is no longer an unfamiliar name in the Pampas and there is a sudden smoldering flicker in the depths of red despite the smoothness of his usual facade when she speaks of him, of being cut open and eaten. A story he has heard before, seen through Aela’s eyes and memory.
Mentally, he frowns. What if Gale had left Aela broken like he had done this one? What if Aela hadn’t shown him all of their encounter? She had spoken of trying to harness the Hyaline creature but a magician that could carve open horses like a turkey and eat their magic didn’t seem like an easy being to capture and contain. Once more, he wonders if Aela had gotten in over her head… If perhaps they had tread into deeper water than they could manage. Still, there was nothing more to be done about it now.
What was done was done.
As Nashua flies off, he silently steps forward and lowers his head, his muzzle barely grazing the half healed bones and flesh as a golden light begins to glow where he touches. Even with half the work done, he still finds himself rather tired when he finishes and gives a small yawn when he finally pulls away and admires his handiwork. Together, he and Nash had fixed what had been broken physically. Mentally and emotionally, that was a different story and not in his realm of expertise. Or his problem.
As he pulls back, Leilan speaks of visiting Aela and he turns those brightly lit vermillion eyes on the scaled man. “You might want to see her sooner rather than later. She’s got an interesting story of Gale to tell herself.” And perhaps his eyes shine a little brighter in the wake of anger that he feels when he says the man’s name, perhaps a few scales click into place along his broad golden-streaked neck. When Leilan offers the teleport he takes it, eager to inform the striped Seneschal of what he had seen and witnessed. He doesn’t look back at the dark mare when he leaves but he also does not forget her.
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
The disbelief that flickers across Nashua’s face hurts more than the weaving of mending bone and flesh. She knows he isn’t arguing with her, can see the realization the moment it settles on his expression. When he takes off without finishing the process, she doesn’t blame him for that either. As she watches the striped pegasus fly off, she barely registers the dark stallion taking his place. Instead, her focus falls on the words in her head given by a familiar voice. Her metallic gaze finds Leilan and she tries to grab this rope he has offered her, this little thread of hope and reassurance. Deep down she knows he’s right, that she couldn’t have known this would happen. But had the signs been there? Had the thing wearing Gale’s face been there this whole time? Had their friendship ever been real?
It hurts to much to think about so she turns her thoughts back to her legs which finally snap back in place, intact and littered with scars, just as she had requested. She doesn’t thank the strange black stallion and he does not offer any words to her, speaking to Leilan briefly and then disappearing in the portal the scaled man provides. As Leilan assists him, she shakily begins to stand and finally manages to do so long after Obscene had left. There is a ghostly ache around her forelimbs, a remembrance of being broken and splintered, that makes her limp slightly as she moves closer to the former Freyr and comes to lean against him, still exhausted from the trauma of the day and the heavy blood loss she had suffered. She did not know Leilan as well as she would like but she doubts he will mind this small intrusion in the scheme of things.
For a moment she is quiet before asking, “Will you stay awhile?” Nashua had not told her in detail of what quest Leilan had been on that inspired the handing of the land over to him but with everything that was happening now, she hopes the scaled stallion will linger a little longer. There is another pause and then she murmurs quietly as the anger begins to seep back in, no longer having the pain to distract it.
A silent command - the white gyrfalcon leaves the scene in the same direction Nashua had. An amused smile follows when Obscene makes his remark, claiming knowledge over Gale in the form of Aela. The scheming chestnut mare has to wait a while longer, however - wait for her brother to return to his home. The portal closes quickly behind the dark, scheming fae horse, and he turns to assess Ciri.
The star-mare is slow to stand, or to walk, but she can. She can walk and that is what matters - she will strengthen in time, she will scheme and wonder and she will grow. It is always from hurt that one can grow; peaceful times are a lull. He doesn’t say so out loud however, because he has found that people can be rather snibby about hurt and growing when they have just hit a low. So annoying. Anyway.
He nods to the dark mare. ”I’ll wait.” For Nashua fo return, that is. Officially the younger stallion is his king now, and sometimes he does wonder if he did a good thing there - it could change their relationship a lot. Officially, Nash could command him - luckily the striped pegasus knows that if he does, he would probably lose his magical champion.
And perhaps it is time to move - much like Brennen had, he could technically just stop being the champion or even just not live here, but still be tied to the land. It is the climate that will always keep him (or in Hyaline, but that seems to be taken by a curse, now). It is certainly a fancy idea to just stick to roaming around Beqanna again. Perhaps one day - How do we stop him? she asks and regains his attention.
He frowns. ”Do we stop him?” he asks in return. For a moment he is silent, processing the question. There is, for one, the assumption that he can be stopped. Leilan doubts this - the curse had been Wolfbane’s, last he knew, and should have died with him when none of his children had killed him, but someone else. Someone who had died with him to prevent it living on. Second the assumption that Leilan could do something about it. Third that he would - it was, for so long, a matter for someone else. If he hadn’t been so close to Lilli and her sons he would not even have considered it.
He sighs. ”I don’t know.” he admits. It almost seems to him that it is once more time for another last visit to the Mountain, and he already loathes the idea. No. First things first. ”But whatever we do, first you have to be able to walk straight.” he points out matter-of-factly. It is no point arguing over the things they have no control over. ”Baby steps, Ciri. Baby steps.”
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