"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
06-03-2021, 09:13 PM (This post was last modified: 06-03-2021, 09:15 PM by Elliana.)
Elliana would give her life for anyone that asked and do so without question - not because she has nothing to live for, or because she is so caring, she just knows that, when push comes to shove, some things are required of her. She has only one lifetime to give away, but she would do so gladly - for anyone.
She may be immortal, but Elliana ultimately knows one day she will go that grave in Virde, Isolt will smile (Elliana picture not blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, but red poppies blooming there instead), and Danae will grow a rose in the space her heart once occupied.
Elliana arrives in the forest in the same blink of those blue eyes that she decides to explore the trees further. There is the quiet, magical hour of dawn (not dusk, not dusk, not dusk.) Her mother enjoyed finding shapes in the clouds, her father the stars, and Elliana. She combs those forget me not blue eyes through tree’s shadows and wonders if those same trees grow lonely at high noon—when their shadow no longer sits beside them, gazing up at them.
She content, she is not heart thrumming happy, but she is content, enough, for now.
Because Elliana knows.
She know that it isn't okay to be overly happy.
You are happy, and, before you can blink, the shadows are infecting you. You are happy and the creatures that thrive on those shadows are tearing you limb from limb before you can scream for help or even realize that you are being torn apart. You are happy and, even without the darkness there to taunt you and intimidate you, others will seek to destroy it, because that's what has always happened and that's what will always happen; sadness is the way things are in the world, and only the truly resilient will survive with any of it intact. Elli smiles because Elli knows. So she stopped trying to become happy, stopped searching for that thing she watched her mother search for first in men, and then inside a crown, and then inside the hearts of all of her children. Elliana became something else altogether.
The young stallion keeps close to the shadows that warp into each nook and cranny the forest breaks into. A habitual thing, to travel amongst the shadow and keep from the sun’s light, but he is no longer that creature (a thing he must keep reminding himself of) and is an entirely new being. A fearsome one that preys on the unsuspecting and brings the mightiest to their knees.
Skandar fights the urge to allow his skin to fall into the shadows, to separate from himself entirely and melt into each crook of darkness. Especially as dawn approaches, the necessity to hide within shadow grows stronger. His body resists this, flickering in and out of solidity and shadow, the edges of his body undefined - as if pieces of himself are becoming mere wisps of darkness. He halts, closing his eyes tightly and bowing his head, chin to chest, groaning. His skin shudders and then smooths as all of those darkened edges become solid. He inhales deeply, determined to keep control over his form despite the gentle warmth of the sun that now drapes across his back through the forest’s canopy.
It’s when he feels another fit coming on (his constellation skin rippling uncontrollably, fluttering like feathers against each other) that his burning gaze finds exactly what he needs - a distraction.
Stepping through the brush and bramble of the forest floor, skin now as smooth and still as it was meant to be, alighted with stars and galaxies across deep navy, Skandar draws up beside her. He’s far enough as to not crowd her, but he wonders if she can see the burning in his eyes as well as he can feel it. For some reason, there is an urge to hurt this poor girl, and Skandar swallows the curious (however terrible and sinister) feeling. There is no smile on his face as he has come to stand beside her - he’s found it difficult to placate proper social interactions after becoming separated into the darkness for so long.
“Are you alone?” he asks mildly, despite his ominous presence that he once was able to hide. His skin shivers and ripples for a moment as he speaks, then falls silent just as he does.
There is small part, buried deep inside the cracks of her soul and in the thump of her heart that goes on, that chants over and over again. Survive, it says. Sometimes it overlays the sound of run, run, run as it whispers in and out of her bones like the wind through valleys. Other times that word, survive, is on its own. It's quieter in those moments, as if it is only the part of her soul that longs, that whispers.
Those are the times she longs for something and the gnawing in her belly feels like it needs more than food and water. That's when the hunger feels like it could devour the moon, the stars and drink the sea until it's dry. Even then, she thinks, that rabid hunger might not be satisfied.
She is caught off guard by the sudden company of another-- from the smooth-surfaced pond of her thoughts there is a ripple, and then a wave. Her heart rattles like a cage in her chest. She is careful when she looks at him, but even then, what barriers she has erected are made of cardboard and thin glass. Elliana's gaze is intense and winter cold as she judges him. She feels like a cornered beast, frantic and broken and unsure if she wants to just surrender to the mystery of him. If she could break him open, what would she find within?
Are you alone?
The pauses draws out too long, brittle and broken up with the steady way she breathes in and out to focus herself. She tries to be brave, tries, tries. She smiles. Brave, brave, little girl. “I think so,” she says, and her smile dissolves like mist.