"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
09-10-2015, 05:20 PM (This post was last modified: 09-10-2015, 09:11 PM by Draconis.)
But the night fades away and gives way to the day
Her black hide, decorated with its starry rump-blanket and random purple swirls, stands out drastically against the vibrant emerald grasses and leaves of high summer. Not that Draconis notices the contrast she provides; she is on a mission. Her mommy had told her some weeks ago as the foal was nodding off to sleep, about the rare and beautiful moon flower that only bloomed once a month, in the rays of the full moon. Absorbed in the tale, Draconis had hatched a plan: she was going to go and find this flower and bring it back to her mother as a gift. When finally, the full moon had risen again in the night sky, she had closed her eyes and feigned sleep until she heard Shadowsilk doing the same. Peeking one cautious eye open, the black filly saw to her satisfaction that the horned mare was truly asleep, her breathing deep and slow. She had crept off, very carefully placing her feet down as softly as she could manage. But now, it was early morning. The filly had thought she had found the moon flower once, but it had turned out to be only a white daisy, which she recognized from one of the "nature walks" her mother was fond of taking her on. She'd had nothing to show for hours of searching but an empty, growling tummy and aching feet, and what was worst of all, she can't seem to remember how to reverse her steps and get back to her mother. She was lost, and her breath catches in her tiny throat at the realization. Tears soon follow, until she is unable to see clearly and stumbles her way to a bit of shelter between two trees. Draconis manages to get ahold of herself shortly after, despite some hiccuping. The patch of grass in front of her isn't so lucky, as the final hiccup is followed by a warm rush in her throat and mouth that results in said grass catching on fire before her eyes. Had she done that? How? The tiny fire before her is at risk of becoming much bigger, and she's lucky that there had been rain in the area recently, and that the grass is not bone-dry. She has no idea what to do about it except to try and stamp it out, and quickly tries to do just that. The filly stands up and brings her forefeet down upon it until she seems to have succeeded, though now her front hooves are feeling rather tender, and she hopes that she hasn't burned them. She limps away from the charred spot towards the scent of water, which turns out to be a slow-flowing creek. Draconis lowers herself down alongside of it and dips her forehooves into the cool water, which seems to help. Keeping her feet submerged, the purple-swirled girl decides to just stay where she's at, and hope that her mother will be able to find her. She carefully shies away from any thoughts of what she would have to do if the horned mare did not reappear, until her empty stomach puts in its two cents on the matter, rumbling like a miniature earthquake right there in her own small body. Sighing, Draconis ignores it as best she can. Just keep waiting, she tells herself. Wait, wait, wait, and her mother will come. Trying to distract herself from the aches in her stomach and feet, she turns her head from one side to the other, keeping a hopeful watch for the black unicorn.
She isn’t sure what brings her to the adoption den. It’s not a place she tends to frequent. That need to be a mother had never really found Rhy. She would, one day, have children. Probably. But she was in no rush. Not that she disliked children, or was bad with them. On the contract, Rhy was patient and kind and would likely be a good mother one day. She simply just never thought much on it. She was busy with the Jungle and her duties and visiting the field to think much on the Den.
But today, she finds her feet dragging her here. The faint smell of smoke finds her, and she wonders if it’s the electric in her veins, seeking out the heat. Maybe. And she wonders too why there’s fire in the Den, which sends her into a canter to make sure everything is all right. If something had happened in the Den….
But there’s no sign of fire. There’s a bit of smoke, and when she sees this, she slows to a trot and goes over to investigate a slight burnt patch of earth. Interesting. Not strange, because nothing in Beqanna is really all that strange, but certainly interesting. She looks around, trying to find the source. There’s a black and starry girl in a river not too far off. Maybe it’s her.
Either way though, Rhy finds herself going over to the girl with a soft nicker in greeting. “I’m Rhy,” she offers. “May I ask your name?”
Head still a-swivel, she quickly catches sight of the gold and white mare approaching. The coloration alone tells Draconis that this is not her mommy, come to find her. Who was it, then? The black filly waits patiently as the stranger approaches her, loathe to remove her forehooves from the creek water that chuckled and soothed. She nickers back, politely, in response to the unfamiliar mare's greeting. Momma always said that being polite to other horses was very important. Number one rule. She will follow it even if Shadowsilk isn't here to see her doing so. The little girl smiles at hearing the mare's name, for she finds it pretty despite its shortness. "Hello, Rhy, it's nice to meet you. My mommy calls me Draconis. She said that I should have a star name to go with my blanket, but I don't know which one is my star....do you know anything about stars? " A whiff of smoke in her nostrils causes her to recall what had just happened, and she feels a blush of embarrassment in her ebony cheeks. "Um, if you saw a patch of burned grass close by, that was me I'm afraid. I don't know how I did it, but I'm sorry that I hurt the grass. I didn't mean to burn it....", she says, her voice dropping to nearly a whisper with her last sentence. Her little tummy rumbles, quite audibly this time, and she can't help but whimper. "I wandered off and lost my mommy, and I'm so hungry. " She eyes Rhy up again, this time with a desperate sort of hope, and still completely oblivious that the little territory she has wandered into is solely for the uniting of orphaned foals with new parents. "Are you here to help me? Did my mommy send you? "
The girl is polite, and not necessarily scared to be alone in the den. She talks about stars, asking Rhy if she knows anything. Rhy can’t help but think of Sarkis, off looking at flowers and wondering about the world. Such childish innocence. It is beautiful, really. Something she never had herself, but of course, she was born with the uncontrollable electric in her veins. In essence, she was born with the power to kill. She was born having scared her sister so irrevocably for simply being electric that her sister couldn’t even stay in Beqanna for years.
There’s little room for innocence when you destroy everything you touch.
She has long since grown to control the electric (and the lion, and the half ghost thing…she has accumulated traits over her life). She knows now how to avoid killing others, despite the somewhat unlimited supply of pointy and deadly accouterments that she comes with. Granted, she also has the ability to just be a horse, like now. Which is good when hanging out with children.
“I don’t know very much about stars,” she admits. “It’s hard to see them through the trees in the Jungle, where I live.” Stars are almost strange to her. She does enjoy evenings when she’s in the meadow or the field, the stars above her head so impossibly endless. So different from the jungle, where the foliage just leaves the sky black.
The girl then talks of the burned patch of grass, and her voice wavers a bit more. Ah, so Rhy was right. She leans down slightly. “The grass will grow back. I burned a lot of things when I was younger, before I learned how to control my power.” She lets a few sparks dance on her skin, keeping well away from the girl. The lightning crackles a bit over her back, making something of a mini-electric storm on top of the gold and white mare. “Maybe I can help you?”
And then she mentions mommy. Rhy has an amazing knack for finding children who have wandered off and lost their mothers. This is not the first time this has happened. “No, I’m sorry. Who is your mom? Where do you live? I’d be happy to try and help you find her.”
Rhy didn't get to stargaze? But it was one of the little filly's favorite activities so far, even if she didn't know which star was which yet. The thought that her visitor/new friend wasn't able to take part made her sad, but she brightens back up quickly from having an idea. "We could do it together, sometime! There's places where trees don't block out the sky, like in the Meadow. Maybe we could even see a shooting star! " Rhy tells her that the grass will heal, and the lingering guilt leaves Draconis' heart upon hearing this; too bad the ache in her submerged forefeet didn't do likewise. Something that will have to take time to heal, she guesses with an inner sigh. "That's good, I hope it grows back even more green and strong than before. "The firebreather lets out a startled gasp as she sees first the sparks, then the tiny lightning, dancing over the hide of the gold and white mare. Rhy was magic!
Her mouth hangs open for a moment before she realizes this and hastily snaps her jaws closed again, grinning with amazement. "Maybe I could learn to do that, without burning myself? " The mare asks about her mother, and she frowns just a bit now. "Her name is Shadowsilk, but we don't live anywhere. We were staying in the Meadow and keeping to ourselves.....Do you think she might have gone somewhere else looking for me? Maybe your Jungle? " She can feel her stomach voicing its increased displeasure over the lack of mealtime, and ignores it even though it makes the rest of her squirm. It's becoming rather embarrassing, actually. Draconis imagines that they could hear her stomach over a five mile radius. Why won't the noisy thing shut up? The filly tilts her head curiously at the lightning-adorned mare. She seemed very nice. Maybe she could stay with her, especially if she ended up not able to reunite with her mommy?
Rhy smiles at the mention of them stargazing together. She could spend an evening like that. Without the threat of war lingering. Even if Lagertha decided to send Erebor home, Beqanna was restless. And the Amazons and the Chamber had made themselves enemies over these last years, and so Rhy only expects that war will find them eventually. Will they be ready, when the time comes?
She doesn’t doubt the sister’s ability to fight the Chamber, but they still stood nearly alone. If the Chamber and the Valley attacked together, the Amazons better hope they had something other than healing waters to fall back on. But Lagertha was quick to get rid of their standing alliances, and leave the Amazons nearly alone. Not that Rhy trusted the Deserts, or even necessarily the Tundra now. But still, they needed to trust someone.
“I would love to stargaze with you. Maybe you can teach me,” she says with a grin. It would be a pleasant change, really. It would be nice to simply not worry for a while. To watch the stars overhead, to pick out constellations and make up names for them all. Because she had no idea if they had real names. Probably. But she didn’t know how to find those out.
“It depends on your trait, exactly, but I will teach you whatever I can. Electric has never hurt me though. I’m not sure how to teach that, but perhaps we can figure it out.” The electric had hurt her sister though. It had taken them until only a year ago to even come near each other, let alone in contact. It had taken their parents death to finally bridge Kora’s fear of that electric. It may be cool, sometimes, but Rhy’s traits had their downfalls too.
“We can certainly look in the meadow, though I don’t know if we can find her.” The girl, at least, doesn’t seem too upset over the loss of her mother. Normally so, but brave about it. Maybe she belonged in the Jungle anyway, a brave little girl well suited for the life of the Amazonians. “But right now, it sounds like you are hungry. I bet we can find a Sister that has some milk, so you can eat. If you want to come to the Jungle with me, that is. And maybe we can find your mom.” Rhy has no idea if the mare is looking for her daughter, but certainly, she’d try to help the girl.
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