"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
02-19-2020, 04:01 PM (This post was last modified: 02-19-2020, 04:06 PM by ghaul.)
GHAUL
i can take you there, but baby, you won't make it back
Initially, he was angry once he learned he had been tricked. Ghaul took one step into Nerine and realized this was much the same as when he had herded his own captives to the canyons. But his prizes were docile and elected to either sneak off or simply bide their time until their freedom was returned to them. The hellbeast is neither docile nor patient. When realization grips him, he extends his impressive wings and with one great beat, he ascends. It almost aches to use them again so soon after being healed but they need to stretch. He tucks his talons to his chest and continues riding the air currents until he satisfied with the altitude.
He banks to the west, to the peninsula where he sees an outline of many trees compared to the rest of Nerine. The caves might be more alluring but for now he has found an outlet for his frustrations. A deep inhale fills his lungs with breath and then he exhales, igniting the trees with a sweep of his dragon fire. The flames lick at the pine needles and the dry autumn branches eagerly while he distributes a second wave of fire across the small northern forest. When Pangea comes to cleanse this putrid kingdom, there will be no place to hide.
He grins and tucks his wings, extending his talons once more as he crashes through the crackling trees and onto the ground with a heavy thud. Ghaul lowers his head and another plume of fire drags across the bases of their trees. Initially, the cold had bothered him, but he finds himself quite comfortable now in the smoke and smoldering forest. The monster turns and he croons softly for the Nerinians. Come, he thinks, see what improvements I’ve made for you!
Behind him, a charred branch collapses to the ground and he wonders if their grasslands will burn as easily or if he should return with Clarissa at his side. The thought of destroying this place with his beloved makes him purr and calm.
cold in the violence after the war hope is a fire to keep us warm
One would assume, as a horse, she might be justifiably afraid of fire. Of course, one would assume wrong. Fire is not something she had ever learned to fear. And so, her response to seeing great plumes of flame rain down on the trees to the south of Nerine is instant fury rather than any sort of alarm.
Bursting into a ground eating gallop, she crosses the flat, rocky clifftops, feet sure and nimble across the familiarly uneven terrain. Eyes flashing blue fury, she follows the progress of the winged perpetrator across the sky as he deliberately lights Nerine’s sparse forests, building them into a small inferno. Fresh blood trickles from wounds where bone rips through skin, but pain is an old companion, easily ignored. As she nears however, her skin stiffens, hardening. Stone wars with bone, an aching press that ends in a draw and stems the bleeding.
She does not make a sound as she races into the pits of the fire, following where she had watched Ghaul disappear to. Head ducking, gaze determined, uncompromising, she barrels forward. She does not slow when she comes upon Ghaul, as one might expect. Instead, her hooves dig harder into ashen earth, increasing her momentum as she plows headlong towards the horn-eyed Pangean.
She is a battering ram. One with horns, as it now happens. Horns that she knows, without doubt, could do serious damage. Of course, her intent here is not murderous, though only by a narrow margin. Rather, it is to express her intense displeasure and demonstrate just how badly he had miscalculated their strength and determination. She doesn’t yell or shout. She doesn’t say anything at all. No doubt Ghaul could figure out on his own just what had infuriated her after he picked himself out of the embers of the burning trees.
02-22-2020, 06:09 PM (This post was last modified: 02-22-2020, 06:09 PM by Neverwhere.)
What has Lilli done now? What has she brought down on them? The smell of him is familiar and she knows that the creature has been in Nerine before, his scent mingling on the cliffs, empty but for the salt wind and tumbling feathers, but she has never before seen such audacious magical breeding that could so contemptuously twist a horse into... this.
Neverwhere is in no hurry, rather her pace is measured as she approaches the fire that threatens to destroy Nerine and the creature that belches it out like a furnace. The smells of burning pitch is sharp in the air and she wonders if he will move on to Taiga next and raze the rainforest territory. She wonders, also, if that will make the place more - or less - appealing to Loess. Certainly Lepis' draw had been her own connection to it, a connection that has faltered slightly in more recent days, but no doubt she would be willing to overlook that in her own ambitions for power. Would she be so eager if it were an empty wasteland of charred trees and ash? If the ghosts of children dead in flame and smoke were the only creatures that still remained?
Unimportant hypotheticals. Still, she is almost smiling when she reaches Ghaul and Brazen, silhouetted by the flickering light of a fire that rages around them. Brazen throws herself at the great monster of a stallion and at the very same moment, Neverwhere exhales sharply in exasperation. It's no way to greet guests, pummeling them with those curling horns she came home with one day. They are a match for his own, but at least the roan's erupted from a reasonable place.
No eyes.
"Brazen," she says the mare's name just loudly enough to be heard above the crackling trees, but there is weight to it. Hold off. "I am sure Lilli didn't bring us a new friend for the sole purpose of serving as your punching bag."
She is certain the red mare brought him here for no such reason at all, though the beast seems a likely sort to enjoy the sport well enough. Her tail flicks idly, stray hairs catching the thermals created by the burning evergreens and striving towards the licking flames.
"Welcome to Nerine, Pangean. By all means, make yourself at home, though," her scarred face turns curious, head tilting away from Ghaul to look at a small stand of trees that did not take his fire, "it seems like you've missed a spot. I suppose you didn't see them?"
the secret of walking on water is knowing where the rocks lie
Too late, too late, she’s been too late and nothing else. If she had been there in time, if she’d been closer, she could have protected them - her failure ate at her daily, because after all, the power that she was given was still useless when she wasn’t around to stop anything.
Oh, Ori had been so right to snap her out of her slumber.
The little mare looks cute and rosy and not at all offensive; in fact, she doesn’t look physically trained and why would she, as a diplomat it wasn’t like she was supposed to be overly impressive. Sending a trained warrior for diplomacy never really made the right impression when you were trying to calm a situation down.
Even so, the fact that she didn’t go to Pangea to discuss the steals had everything to do with her not wanting to unleash her strength and nothing with not daring, but please, let them think the latter if it made things easier and quieter in her life.
Because oh, how she hated violence, ever since she fought the monsters with her cousins. They, they were the warriors - she’d only briefly been turned into one, and decided she didn’t like it. Didn’t want it. As much as her brother, though she doesn’t know him; having Brazen around would be quite enough.
But when it’s absolutely necessary, she will still move. When Nerine is being set on fire by a man who thinks himself their better, when he thinks his captivity will allow him to roam as freely as he does now and destroy, that’s where a cute little mare draws a line.
Looks can be deceiving. So when she trots up to the source of the forest fire, she doesn’t look very threatening. Only a dangerous gleam in the near-black of her eyes reveals she is unhappy with the current redecoration.
She expects a snap, a laugh, a sneer, a haul - she doesn’t get too close, in fact. She doesn’t have to. The rose-golden marked mare is seething a little through her teeth, but chances are he doesn’t even notice. Brazen and Neverwhere provide ample distraction.
And then she reaches into the ground. Nerine’s soil is only a small layer of earth upon the rocks; only the roots of the trees and grass make the upper layer softer. There’s maybe three lands in Beqanna where she would be strongest; this happens to be one of them. Rock and stone are her element, and she draws on them now.
Walls shoot out of the forest floor in no time, surrounding the male who stole away her friends; curling at the top to form a dome. If Brazen happens to hit her walls, she’s sorry, but not sorry enough not to trap him.
There’s small crevices between the four walls, of course - they’ll want to see their captive. She’s not about to let him fly or burn or walk around freely to destroy however, nor to learn their secrets; his dragonfire can burn their trees but not melt her stone. Not because the granite walls she made are a hundred percent heat-resistant; but because she is there to keep reinforcing them. And she’ll make him a diamond prison in a sea cave, instead, she decides. Whatever Neverwhere wants to enact with her words, whatever Brazen tries to accomplish with her physical attacks, the spotted mare isn’t fooled into thinking he will ever behave.
She’s had quite enough of all of this nonsense. He can stay in Nerine however long he likes. Just not on his own terms.
OOC: well I guess she had to snap sometime
@[lilliana] your turn I suppose
02-23-2020, 05:27 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2020, 05:27 PM by ghaul.)
GHAUL
i can take you there, but baby, you won't make it back
They are ungrateful. He gives them the gift of fire after a century of the cold and Brazen repays him by charging at him. Ghaul’s purring stops and he spreads his wings wide as he braces for her impact, his scar tissue lips peeling back into an awful grin just before she collides with him. They tumble to the ground and he grips her with his ragged talons to they roll together. She manages to knock the wind from him and this fact draws a wheezing cackle from his throat when they come to a stop.
The great beast is atop her but he does not release her. Instead, he leans his head down until their horns meet with a light click, and then he drags his tongue across her cheek to taste the armor that protects her. He audibly smacks his lips and then smiles wide for her to see the rows of crooked fangs. “I want to taste more of you,” he admits with a snicker before lifting his head to watch the others approach. Still, he does not release the furious Brazen. He is greedy with his playthings.
The queen’s outline is relatively normal, but her ears are small and not in the way his are. He fixates on them as she speaks. A quiet clicking is drawn from his throat but he forgets his hunting partners are not with him. They are often unimpressed by the things he is drawn to but they at least answer in kind.
“Burn some now, burn some later. All is ash in the end,” he replies with that same delighted expression as he taps a hindtalon against the rock armor that Brazen bears.
He opens his jaws to speak more but another figure deigns to join them. This one is perfectly ordinary, and Ghaul hardly seem to notice her arrival as he turns back to Neverwhere. A rumbling makes his ears swivel forward abruptly and he responds with a quick flap of his large wings, plucking Brazen from the ground as he soars upward into the flaming canopy. He watches as stone erupts from the ground to form a small cage and he roars with laughter at the attempt to cage him like a common bird.
“Trap me with your friend? I would do terrible things to her body in there,” he calls over the fire and falling branches before licking his teeth. But in truth, he rather likes the woman angry enough to challenge him head on, and so he slows his wing beats until he can release her gently on the ground. With one more flap of his wings, he lands beside her with a light thud, now watching Eurwen more closely. “I am Ghaul, heir to Anaxarete. I want to eat you slowly.”
So far, they have confirmed his beliefs of the north – an unorganized pack, insistent on muzzling him. Only Brine had seemed to differ from their status quo and he almost wishes he had released her so she might keep him company here. He snorts softly in disappointment before bringing his gaze back to Brazen.
“You would do well in Pangea. I hope you’ll visit when the year is over.”
02-26-2020, 07:21 PM (This post was last modified: 02-26-2020, 07:25 PM by lilliana.)
She dreams of fire and flames.
Lilliana can feel the heat of the wildfire from the moment she closes her eyes, hear the crackle of the Redwood as each noble tree is consumed by the unrelenting inferno. Worse than that are the groans, are the sounds as each tree falls. Immortals, she thinks. Trees that have taken so long to reach the heavens should never fall to the Earth in such a way. Their canopies had graced the heavens and even the clouds descended from the sky to come to play in Taiga.
So she no longer closes her eyes in Taiga. (She had told somebody, once, that her insanity had been repeating the same things over and over again hoping for something else. So when her dreams turn to fire, Lilliana turns herself further North. Away from the fires, away from the ghosts.)
But the fires, it seems as a result of stealing the Pangean heir, have come North as well.
The December sky of her eyes turns to steel as they take in the outline of smoldering trees, the plume of dark smoke that signals to the rest of Nerine that her western coastline is burning. It doesn’t take Lilliana long to reach them - not when the Highlands are as open as they are - and when she does arrive, it is to find that Ghaul has not only been greeted by Brazen but Eurwen and their Queen, Neverwhere as well.
When Lilliana finally does arrive and her gait finally slows to a trot, she watches as her armored friend tries to take the draconic horse by the horns (literally) and her heart speeds up. (Is this enough? He cries over and over again and Lilliana feels her soul turn to dust.) Their dappled Queen stands among the small group - though Lilliana takes a moment to notice - not looking entirely too displeased with the arrival of their guest. It’s a small relief in a moment of overwhelming ones as Eurwen tries to subdue Ghaul.
Her ears flick forward at the mention of Brazen again, "You will do no such thing.” Lilliana replies with a clear certainty that has gotten her in trouble before and she recklessly disregards it again, taking note of how close Brazen was to the horn-eyed stallion. And perhaps Lilli is still hoping that the theft of Brinly and Brine had been as simple as a misunderstanding. Despite his rather dramatic entrance, there is still something of a youth that reminds the Taigan of her own nephews and nieces. (Of Kildare and the initial anger he would feel when he hadn’t been allowed to go patrolling with his older brothers, of Mina when it was explained to her that Maren had been the one gifted with wings and the grey girl had to learn she would be earthbound where her sister was destined for the heavens.)
Neverwhere has already exchanged the pleasantries and her blue eyes glance to her, unsure for a moment of how to proceed.
It’s a flash and only a heartbeat before Lilliana looks to Ghaul again before she comes to stop not far from a seething Eurwen, her head tilting in regards to the embers and cinders that cradle around him. "Do you never wonder what rises from the ashes, Ghaul?”
She glances again to Brazen - unable to hide the fear she feels for her friend and then back to the other two mares - as bringing him back had certainly not been part of her plan. But when had they ever gone the way they were supposed too?
cold in the violence after the war hope is a fire to keep us warm
As seems to be the way of things, events do not unfold quite according to plan. Of course, foresight isn’t a talent of hers, so that is hardly surprising. There is an immediate sense of victory when he tumbles beneath the weight of her forceful impact. A victory quickly tempered when he wraps his draconic claws around her unforgiving form and pulls her into a headlong tumble along with him.
It can’t be a terribly nice tumble for him, at least. No doubt something like being stuck in a dryer with a bag of stones. Fortunately for her, stone doesn’t bruise, so even when they skid to a halt, his larger frame pinning hers, she is still in furiously fighting form. A fact no doubt made clear by the immediate angry thrashing of limbs and blunt teeth as she tries to dislodge him.
She doesn’t even notice the stone walls grinding together around them until he abruptly straightens before digging his talons around her uneven form and dragging her upwards. She doesn’t bother to consider consequences as she flails in his grasp, head swinging and teeth gnashing as she tries to land a blow somewhere. Anywhere. Unfortunately, in her current dangling position, it would require the kind of contortionism she is most certainly not capable of to succeed. Not that that stops her, of course. Nor the understanding that, if she did succeed, that ground would be a regrettably hard fall downwards.
But then, no one had ever accused her of possessing that kind of sense or caution.
As he lands, Brazen braces herself for impact. But rather than dropping hard as she’d expected, he sets her down with surprising gentleness. For a moment, she simply stands there, limbs splayed in a brace as she re-orients herself. Abruptly, she stretches her stone frame before shaking herself violently, the clatter of bone and stone momentarily drowning out their conversation.
She straightens just in time to hear a worried Lilliana asking Ghaul if he knows what rises from the ashes. Though she knows the question wasn’t meant for her, she cannot help herself when she snaps, “Yeah. Me.”
Surprisingly fitting in the moment, given her blackened, ash-covered state.
When Ghaul cheekily invites her to Pangea however, she scowls. Her answer comes in the form of an abrupt movement, one in which she slams herself sideways into the self-satisfied beast. She doesn’t fool herself into believing that, at this close range, it would do much. But damn-it-all, at the very least, it would fucking hurt.
Burn now, or later. She is unbothered by the hint of threat in his speech, by the pomposity of it, and rolls her shoulder in response as if to say Fine. Do it. Let the place burn, the rocky soil is only a thin layer above the same granite of the black sea cliffs, his fires can do no great damage here. Their meadows will be ash, but they will regrow. Her attention shifts as Lilliana draws near, and as Eurwen rages, but the winged stallion escapes the clutches of her rocky prison. Did I know she could do that? Neverwhere considers the spotted mare a moment with a frown, then turns to Ghaul again with a roll of her eyes.
"That will hardly be necessary."
And with the words on her tongue Neverwhere strides forward, pinning the shortened ears that briefly grab his attention flat against her poll and shoving her way between him and stoney Brazen with a toss of her head. Move. The breath in her nostrils hisses as she focuses hard eyes on the other mare. She will not have him further attacked. Not here, not now, not even if he likes it. Especially not if he likes it. If Brazen wishes to spar with him, she can do so on her own time. He is Lilli's prisoner, after all, though the why of that lingers, and looking at the red mare as she speaks, it becomes apparent this this is a plan she has not thought through, something that makes Neverwhere exhale sharply in irritation. What is the point of bringing him here?
Before Ghaul can answer Lilli's question, she speaks again.
"Lilliana, since you so kindly invited Ghaul to Nerine, you will be responsible for him. For his safety, for any havoc he creates, and for keeping him prisoner," and she pauses to look him over, a ridiculous mess of scales and wings and horns and claws and the stench of sulfur flames on his breath, and she grins, blue eyes flicking back to the scarlet mare, "If you can."
the secret of walking on water is knowing where the rocks lie
All things seem to happen at once, and for a moment she can only frown at the male who’d grabbed her cousin, then lands back down not so softly.
Everyone is talking, and everyone has opinions. When the horn-eyed male tells her he could do things to Brazen’s body, she snorts a bit - she’d like to see him blunt his claws on skin made of stone - and the same kind of reaction is warranted when he tries to impress her with his teeth. ”I’m sure you’ll be able to make do without us granting your every wish.” Her voice is calm, almost icy - very unlike the heat of anger that rages inside her, but the fact is that they can’t all get what they want here. For example, she should have gone at trapping him more subtly, or more quickly; not relied on the stone that was already there but create it, just whip it into existence. Heartfire had been right about that; sometimes stone and rock needed to be pushed before it would budge, if at all. In that way, stone was not unlike herself, she knew.
That mistake, she won’t repeat a second time.
As everybody speaks, and Neverwhere has the right of it - he’s Lilliana’s prisoner, not hers, and so it’s Lilli’s responsibility - she has to content herself with imagining how he’d break his teeth on a previously non-existent diamond armor, or even just on Brazen’s stoneskin, or perhaps she could just gag him with a rock. She smiles at him almost menacingly, a look that normally doesn’t befit her, but it does befit the dark of her onyx eyes, and then, she decides she doesn’t speak to him anymore - he’s really not worth that much attention. Their lands were far apart and separated, and they should have stayed that way.
Hi she’s not gonna contribute a lot I think, so if for continuance of this thread it’s better to skip her, feel free to do so (:
i can take you there, but baby, you won't make it back
He has never known fear. Even in the hours he came closest to meeting death, he found himself bound by rage and rage alone. That the world would dare to defy him and his destiny inspired only a greater hunger in the pit of his belly. When he turns his head to trace the sound of Lilliana’s voice, that same ravenous want consumes him. Ghaul wants to laugh over her corpse and raze her bloodline from this miserable country.
But he only grins, his attention fully invested in her now as she asks him a simple question that solidifies his insatiable appetite for chaos. What rises from the ashes? Purity, he thinks. The chosen few. He parts his jaws to speak but Brazen slams her body to his. The hellbeast stumbles and howls with laughter as he turns to her once more, those scaled legs bringing him centimeters from her face. His breath is smoke and scorched flesh when he exhales over her.
“Fire purifies. Only the worthy survive it. Those who do not will feed the next forest,” he says, his tongue snaking from his mouth and toward her lips before he restrains himself. Neverwhere’s voice distracts him enough that he steps back from Brazen to listen to her words. The queen says he is Lilliana’s responsibility and he can’t help the chuckle that rumbles from his chest at the idea. Could she keep him grounded and well behaved? Others had tried. All had failed.
“Perhaps we can come to an… understanding, since my games trouble you so, Lilliana,” he snickers as he tucks his wings to his side and slinks closer to her. They are each smaller than him and he imagines how their bodies would break if he dropped them from high enough. But there is potential in a mutually beneficial relationship between them, and so he pushes the fantasies from his mind. “Release me, and Brine will come home. A captive for a captive. If you want Brinly also, then promise me a favor and Pangea will even grant Nerine an armistice for one year.”
The corners of his lips pull into a smile of crooked fangs as he watches his captor, the stars glimmering cruelly across his cheeks and horns. Slowly, he turns to watch Neverwhere, ears perked forward with keen interest. Either way he wins, Ghaul thinks.
