"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
i never wanted saving, i just wanted to be found --
When Beqanna had first begun to change again she had tried to keep herself from hoping.
When water began to recede and lands emerged, when things began to return to something that could almost be called normal, she had been careful to keep that hope from sparking in her chest, afraid that falling from the high of it would be something more than she could bear.
The Dale, the Gates, the Chamber, and Pangea—three lands that had not been around since long before she was born, and a fourth land that, with its desert-like landscape, is the last place she would ever care about—all made their return, but not Tephra. Where she and all of her siblings had been born, the only place that she had ever considered to be home.
The disappointment had been concealed from her face when her father, freshly returned from scouting the seas, confirmed that Tephra was still gone. It wasn’t hard to hide it; it’s easy, when you had trained yourself to never expect anything in the first place.
But there is a hollow ache in her chest, uncomfortable as it swells against her ribcage, and all the disappointment she had been trying to hide settles right into that space. Beqanna was returning back to normal, and she still felt as though she had nothing. Uninterested in hearing anything about the returning lands she disappears into the forest, in search of clarity that she is sure she will not find.
She does not realize at first that her steps are leading her back to where she had met him, where he had more or less alluded to meeting her here again. It was mostly out of habit, since at one time this had led her to the water’s edge—where looking across it she could see where Tephra used to be. The flood water is gone now, in its place a stretch of uninhabitable land shrouded in a strange, dark fog, and she is not sure if this is better or worse. It didn't matter, since she still had nowhere to go either way.
Frustrated, she whirls around abruptly, and when she comes face to face with someone who is familiar and yet not she cannot keep the surprise from sparking in her bright blue eyes. There is a horn now where once there hadn’t been one, and wings settled at his sides, which she knew had not been there before. But she recognizes his face, and all at once she finds that he is exactly the distraction she needed.
She recovers quickly from being caught off guard with a coy smile as she eases back into a role she knew all too well, even if the tightness in her chest has not yet lessened. “Well, fancy seeing you here, stranger,” she says as she takes a step back, visibly appraising his new look, before directing her stare back to his face with an appreciative smile. “You met a pretty girl in the forest with a horn and wings and decided you had to try the look out for yourself? I'm flattered.”
03-25-2023, 09:44 PM (This post was last modified: 04-14-2023, 11:44 AM by assailant.)
He meant to return to the forest directly, but after being unceremoniously dumped in the meadow, he chose to remain there to contemplate the consequences of his actions in the past and what they meant for his future. Uncertainty still maintains its grip on the old boy, but one discovery has him on the move again.
Now that he knows of the resurrection of old lands, a relentless image of a new journey barrages his thoughts, drowning out the inner turmoil that had been bothering him. The only place he might find any familiarity is the Chamber, though he knew it when it was still called the Chamber of Evil.. how much had changed along with its name? Perhaps another journey is in order, one to visit each of the ‘new’ provinces, to meet more of Beqanna’s residents, to find something.
But first, he must find someone.
Though he has kept her waiting for longer than intended, he plans for a circuitous route to find that watery border where they’d met some time ago. He wants to test the capabilities of his new wings, to explore the countryside with an aerial view he’d never believed possible. As if sentient and omniscient, the wings spread wide as he considers his flight and he takes a moment to admire them, for they are quite attractive and he has always been drawn to comely things.
He launches into the air, somewhat ungainly, but he is still accustoming himself to the mechanics. It will get better in time. For now, he only thinks about the cool touch of the breeze, marvels at the way the sun seems warmer now that he is closer to it, studies the treetops as they pass beneath him. It’s a freeing feeling unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.
And he likes it.
He soars over the entire length of the meadow, down to where the river feeds into the ocean and stone structures rise forlornly in the background. He had planned to take a quick jaunt over the briny waters, and though he would have passed them on his way back, something compels him to turn toward the formations now. He lands far more nimbly than he’d risen and glances around, wondering what is so familiar about this place. Several minutes pass and something itches at the back of his mind, but nothing sparks a memory, so he turns and begins to follow the river north to his true destination.
Eventually, the tree line at his side begins to thicken and he knows he is close. His timing could not be more perfect, as she appears rather suddenly not far ahead of his current position. He does not call out, but instead quickens his pace to reach her that much faster. As he pulls up to her, he can nearly taste the agitation that floods the air surrounding the golden mare. It causes him to stop in his tracks, but there is no time to process his thoughts, as she whips around to face him.
From the moment she speaks, he knows that he was wise in coming back for her. Kelpie or not, he finds her to be an intriguing creature and wants to know more about her. He nods at her quip about seeing him here. ”Well, I did say that I’d come back, did I not?” There’s a playful glint in his eyes that belies the serious quality of his tone. He stands quite still while she evaluates the additions to his appearance and chuckles lightly at her next words. ”As you should be, I wouldn’t do it for anyone else.” He stretches his neck towards her and bumps his nose against hers. ”It is nice to see you again, Adriana.”
And he means it.
They may not be entirely familiar to each other, but there is a sense of comfort in what they forged thus far. He looks past her to the same hazy darkness she had been studying just moments before. ”So, what do you think of the other changes that have happened around here?” He does not know the cause for her distress, so he does not pose his question in cruelty, but in genuine curiosity so that he might lead into what he really wishes to ask of her. And so he looks expectantly at her, not realizing that he may have opened a can of worms.
03-28-2023, 12:55 AM (This post was last modified: 03-28-2023, 12:59 AM by Adriana.)
i never wanted saving, i just wanted to be found --
She comes from a family of quick-tempers, but despite the way her moods might swing like a pendulum, she is mild in comparison. She has never known her mother to hold back her viper tongue, just she has never known her father to be unafraid of showing his kelpie teeth. She is not nearly as sharp as her parents, though. The only true weapon she has is being beautiful, but there are many that could claim such a thing, and it felt like such an ordinary sword to wield. It did not matter that her beauty is an unnatural thing—razor-edged and dangerous, it was meant to be a siren’s call, not a sweet lullaby—and that she could, if she wanted, easily ensnare anyone that she might put her mind to.
She never did, though. While coy and flirtatious, she never took it across that line, perhaps because she did not entirely inherit the predators’ blood that both her parents carried.
And because she is still simply a girl, with insecurities that she kept hidden underneath her frosted scales and locked behind bright blue eyes. She had enough awareness to know that tricking someone into wanting her is not a game she wanted to play.
For a brief second there is something uncertain that flashes quickly in her eyes when he reminds her of how he had said he would come back, though it glints as fast as sunlight on the water—there and gone in an instant. It is the realization that she would have been disappointed if he had not kept his word, though she does not think she is ready to admit that quite yet. “So you did,” she concedes with a low laugh, stepping toward him just as he reaches for her, letting her golden muzzle sweep across his shoulder. His wings catch her eye again being in such close proximity, and she reaches to lightly brush her nose across the feathers. “Are they heavy? They seem like they would be.” Her own wings—currently absent at the moment, since they stood in the middle of the forest—gave the illusion of being light, being made of water, but something about his made her shoulders ache.
Maybe she just isn’t meant to understand things that don’t come from the water.
His question causes a momentarily shadow to fall across her face, her jaw tensing just slightly. “I don’t think I like it,” she says a bit tersely, following his gaze to the fog that lingered at the edge of the forest. But almost immediately she regrets the annoyance that she had allowed to sharpen her tone, and when she looks back at him her face has softened apologetically. “At least there’s far less water. That’s nice. For you, I guess,” this time she sweetens the sarcasm with a teasing smile, feeling some of her previous agitation continue to fade. “And you must be relieved to see some of the lands you were previously familiar with return, I assume?”
03-28-2023, 05:05 PM (This post was last modified: 04-14-2023, 11:45 AM by assailant.)
He misses the flash in her eyes, distracted by the sensation of her touch on his skin. Some things never change. In truth, it would not have been difficult for her to lay an enchanted trap for him at their first meeting, for he was already the type of man that could be seduced with a wink of the eye, or a swish of a hip. Today, she could still forcibly draw him in if she chose to, but she might not find it so easy to bend him to her will. But since that is not in her heart, it is entirely possible that they may never have to know what would happen in that situation.
The tickle of her nose in his feathers feels just as nice and without thinking about it, he captures strands of her multi-colored mane between his teeth and tugs lightly, coltishly at them. These small, simple gestures that they share are far from the panacea that he subconsciously yearns for, but they still alleviate some of the internal strain that had been building over these last few months.
His shoulders automatically tense when she mentions the added weight of his wings, reviving memories of the stubborn soreness experienced in the first week or so when they were freshly sprouted. ”They are, but I don’t mind it nearly as much as I did.”
The ease he had found in their moment of closeness slips away as quickly as it arrived. The edge in her voice cleaves through the air and causes him to sidestep away from her as though she’d taken a blade to his hide. Before he can respond, her tone changes and the apology in her expression only dazes him further. Though he wishes to question her about it, he chooses to move along with her train of thought.
”The water is definitely better when it is confined to smaller boundaries.” He smiles slightly as the image of their first meeting flickers to life in his head. A bastardized Birth of Venus, one might say.
He considers her suggestion that he is pleased by the revivification of the old lands. It is easy to see why she would assume, for their generations are so far apart that they do not know much of either era. A frown of disagreement contorts his features. ”No, I can’t say that I am. I never paid much attention to the governing lands in my day, I just did not find them that important.”
Now is the opportunity that he has been looking for, so he casually circles back to her pronounced displeasure with Beqanna’s latest remodeling. ”I don’t know if these are even the same kingdoms that I once knew, but the names are vaguely familiar. I’m curious to find out.. what would you say to visiting them with me? If you would like, you can even decide where we go first.”
Something unnamed swells within him as he envisions the possibilities if she chooses to accompany him. Whatever it is, it tells him that this is the first step in abandoning his feckless past, in determining what kind of man he wants to be going forward in this new life that has been given to him.
i never wanted saving, i just wanted to be found --
When his teeth catch the strands of her crimson mane there is an undeniable sensation that races the ridge of her spine, and for a moment the urge to press her frosted skin into the warmth of his body is so palpable she almost caves into it. It is not the first time that she wonders what it might be like to follow that incessant pull, to follow the invisible but still nearly tangible string that seems to exist between the two of them. But she is still naive in so many ways, and she is not entirely familiar with what it means to want something—or someone.
The instinct to keep him at a distance currently overrides whatever kind of desire might be trying to kindle, and having lived most of her life keeping up an act of indifference, it is not hard to maintain it. The harder that flame tries to ignite the more she ignores it, keeping it locked behind an armor of frost and simpering smiles that hint only at innocent flirtation.
“You just can’t get enough of me, can you?” comes her lilting laugh at his proposition, angling her golden head to fix him with a searching stare that contradicts her nonchalant tone. She reminds herself that she does not really know him, no matter how easy being in his company might feel. Yet for some reason the realization that he is a virtual stranger feels less like something to be cautious of and more like a dare—an invitation for discovery, to see what she can unearth, or if he will even let her.
Perhaps such a journey will sate whatever unnamed tangle of emotions sit in a knot behind her ribcage, persistent despite the way she glosses it over.
Moving to step alongside him, she turns her gaze north, piecing together what would lie beyond the darkened haze that borders this half of the forest. She assumes that Pangea will have risen in its previous location, and she has little interest in visiting it—at least, not right now. The barren, desert-like terrain is unsurprisingly not her ideal climate. “I suppose we could head north, since that seems to be where a majority of them are.” This time she does not bother to hide the way she knowingly brushes against him as she steps off, casting a glance over her shoulder to ensure that he is following.
