"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
It had always been her and Vervane for as long as she could remember. He was an extension or her, her polar opposite, two halves of one whole. The gentle breeze, though warm, could never reach the heat or comfort that her twin immolated next to her.
She shuffled her pale, white wings softly against her sides sweeping drying mud against her velvety hide from the mud that had collected on her wings while trailing through the thick foliage of Tephras borders. Even though ever since her mother's friend had told her how pretty she was and she had held her head high with affirmation it had not changed how graceful, or lack there of, she was.
Today when she woke up a need to break out of the suffocating fog of Taiga and thrummed to life inside her heart and head. She had kissed her momma and brother goodbye with the intent of returning, but as the chestnut overo girl dashed past her own borders, pale eyes full of wander and her companion flying low above her head she could not help the sting that sat low in her gut that she knew this would be one of the last times she passed carelessly across the Taigan lands.
With her face to the beating sun, her thick black lashes fluttering softly across pale blue eyes and pale, almost translucent, multi-hued blue stone hooves breaking ground beneath her leaving their mark she made her way towards the sweet smell of flowers, the heat of lava, and the crashing of waves.
She paced anxiously at the inner most edge of Tephra a mesmerizing lopsided smile just like her mothers, only adding to her beauty, accessorized the sparkling blue of her eyes. Taiga, with its giant trees, its soft bed of moss, and its suffocating fog couldn't hold a candle to this place. The beauty consumed her, that itch of wander gently scratched as she bounced from flower to flower the gentle and brilliant colors alike marking themselves upon her white, delicate wings. Pollen collected upon her face and nestled into the crevasses of her soft feathers.
While uncommon for someone his age, Toivo has spent most of his life quite alone; not that it really matters to him, as he easily connects with others, and loves to do so - still, he always misses someone. Isilya is the closest thing he has to family, but she is the queen and needs to see to others' needs regularly enough that he doesn't want to insist.
Today, he has followed the waves up shore and back, running back and forth as a way to lose most of his energy - but by the end of morning, when the tide turns again, he has an idea, and crosses past the lava streams and through the wild jungle of the volcano, towards the other side.
There is a Taiga on the other side, one with actual mist in it. It's a phenomenon that's relatively strange to the young male, and yet he thinks it may be familiar. Sea mist rises occasionally in Tephra, but most of all he knows smoke and steam, and those are warm to the touch.
His ash-and-twigs (-and flowers and branches-) covered body moves like a wild ghost through the landscape, as the young man avoids the wrong cracks and stones with practise. He never really makes it to Taiga however; when he gets close to the border, he picks up a female, Taiga-ish scent.
An actual Taigan inhabitant! Much better than just the scenery!
He changes pace and direction quickly, and the perlino Azteca quickly approaches the young mare. She's about his age, he estimates, and whinnies enthusiastically to announce his presence as he zooms in on her spotted frame. She's a little dusty, the way she jumps around, but it only adds to the joy of the situation of meeting someone new. "Hello! Welcome to Tephra!"
Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind
Oectra's rippled, pale blue, stone hooves stamp in a series of stomps as she sneezes the last remaining pollen from her nostrils. Her large, white wings flutter not so gracefully to her sides as the dramatic performance ends and her pale, icy blue eyes find that of a boy, - mmmmm, maybe not a boy but not quite a man either.
The boy-man welcomes her to Tephra, and for a moment all Oectra can do is offer a wide, awkward, lopsided grin in response. "Umm. Hi. Thanks." she response before attempting to shake out her pollen covered hide, not that the boy-man looked any better. In fact he looked kind of wild, and at that thought her grin grew wider. She was okay with wild, her inner wolf mischief sparked. This land however wasn't quite as suitable for that form of hers and so she kept her "playful bite" at bay.
As she turned her attention back to the boy-man after one last unsuccessful shake of her body, landing her chestnut forelock tangled in front of her eyes, she took a step closer her stone hooves avoiding the delicate flowers that crowded her - not that she hadn't already ruined enough of them. "My name is Oectra, what's yours?" her voice came out in a low alto, tomboyish tone.
Had she voiced any of her thoughts, he might have told her about the other wolves in the country - that the jungle ground, just a little lower than the rest of the volcano, seemed to suit them well enough. But he doesn't know the chestnut young lady, and besides, it would hardly help them communicate if she was some other creature than a horse, right now.
Her awkward grin and thanks don't deter the young male, however much she might think they will. Her wide grin was all he needed right now, that and her sparkling blue eyes. He gave a grin in return when the pollen didn't want to leave her body, and gave a little shake of his own crest. "That's not the only thing clinging to you by the time you leave, I bet." he chuckled. Only after saying it, he realized it sounded extremely clingy from his side, as if he would be the one trailing her. "Uh, that is, I mean the ashes and the leaves." he tried to follow up - and, again in retrospect, realized that this only made things worse.
As she came closer, he couldn't help but notice her pretty hooves moving carefully, which made him smile a little bit. Isilya would like her, he decided, just for trying. However, it made him miss his cue to respond in an appropriate time, and followed up a little distracted. "I'm uh, I'm Toivo."
Seeking some form of distraction for her, he decided he could bounce back the way he came. "Uhh, do you wanna see the sea?"
Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind
She bites her lip and the color rushes lightly to her cheeks as she listens to the boy-man stumble over his words. It was an odd feeling, she was used to being teased by her twin brother and striking back with her own sarcastic response - like her mother would, but the boy-man in front of her left her quite speechless? Her eyes, never leaving his crinkled in enjoyment as the boy-man, in his own awkwardness, introduced himself.
Toivo.
She liked it she decided. She liked him she had decided in the next moment.
Her eyes widened with the thought of seeing the sea, she wondered how much different it looked here than it did in the small openings and beaches along Taiga. Her soft, white wings shuffled at her sides, releasing small down feathers at her chalcedony hooves. "That would be wonderful! she exclaimed in one short, exhilarated breath. "Could you show me the volcano as well? We don't have one of those in Taiga.. and something tells me I would LOVE the ashes to cling and follow me home. she smirked a small half, lopsided smile at that last comment.
This could be fun. This will definitely be fun.
Before @[Toivo] could really respond she moved to stand beside him, she would not let him simply hop away leaving her to trail behind. Her face lit up at the possibilities, she had left Taiga looking for all of this; adventure, friends, new experiences.
Memories that would last, with horses that could matter.
The sea - wow, what an idiot is he. He couldn’t even come up with showing off the big fat volcano that was the middle of Tephra? Or the newly brought-in waterfall (though, it has been here almost as long as he, he knows it to be new to the others, the older ones). No, he’d decided on the sea, and she asked about something else.
Luckily, it seems that Oectra doesn’t mind, and slides up next to the two-year-old. Feeling a bit warm, he nods. ”Ah, yes. Volcano first?” he’d personally always thought it was pretty hot, and the trip to the large Tephran beach could wait - a perfect swimming opportunity. ”You should also see the waterfall - maybe on your way back?” he adds in... then shakes his crest a little, but he doesn’t get rid of his awkwardness in knowing just how close she is. Girls, he thinks, and then decides he’d better just lead the way.
The two of them turn to the heart of Tephra, and the young male pauses every now and then to go around a too large crevice, glowing with lava, or to avoid the rocks that are simply too steep to climb for a horse. As they get higher up, the air feels strangely cleaner, but also warmer - it’s not so much ash and dust filling the air here, as the tiny particles get either trapped below the crowns of trees or rise up with the heat to take part in clouding near the top of the lonely mountain. The perlino male especially takes care that he’s not going too fast for his new friend - she may be great in running through trees, but a mountain is quite a different way of walking.
Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind
Oectra doesn't even notice the way his cheeks flush as she suggests the volcano or how close she is to him. She hadn't suggested the volcano to make him feel foolish, and her wide eyes didn't suggest anything of the likes either. The energy that burned through her body when he suggested the waterfall, as well, nearly shot her through the forest but with great restraint she waited - almost patiently - for him to lead the way.
As they made their way through the jungle she would wait to make sure Toivo's attentions were elsewhere and then go out of her way to bask in the jungles beautiful flowers, and undergrowth. Ya the redwoods had undergrowth but most of it was fallen needles and mossy plants, with the occasional fungi. She vaguely remembers one day when her and Vervane tried some of those wild mushrooms. The rest of her day was quite a blur, they sure had made her feel funny.
She was careful to step in Toivo's exact steps when they crossed the crisscrossing magma streams and all the delicate flowers. She even daydreams on their way what would happen to her precious, stone hooves if she just "happened" to dip them into said magma.... Eh, probably nothing good.
And so she decided to stick to the tangled vines that brushed her back and the powerful aroma that tingled her "nose buds". Soon they had made it to the mountain. It was a tricky feat to make it up the narrow paths and rocky footing. when they had reached a particular flat spot large enough for the two of them to rest comfortably on without fear of falling off, she watched @[Toivo] with assertive eyes. She really wanted to shift to a wolf, but would the boy frighten easily? She didn't want to scare him off the edge to his death! hurumph she cleared her throat, trying to be casual. If I were to magically transform into someone or something else.. You wouldn't faint or jump to your unavoidable death, would you? her head tilted a smidge as her mouth cringed at the corners in an awkward style. How does one approach this?
OECTRA
Sorry it took so long, I lost track of where I was in posts for a minute. /:
Gosh, he loves giving tours! He definitely needs to greet more visitors and offer them. Unfortunately Tephra was quite occupied but not many really visited - possibly because the kingdom isn’t an outgoing one in general. Not that he minds - it has too many things to still discover - but making a new non-Tephran friend to show off all the good views of the land was not easily topped.
He notices the girl’s looks when she thinks he doesn’t watch her, but seeing as she does look straight back to him whenever he turns his head, he decides to let her believe he doesn’t see. He pays attention to where he is going, or so it seems, but he knows the way by heart.
The same could not be said for the painted girl, and he decided on a rest. From here, through the bushes, the sea might already be seen, as they were a ways up high. He’s about to say so when he finds Oectra studying him. He opens his mouth to say something when she tells him she can transform. ”You’re a shifter? Into what?” he asks, his amber-orange eyes dancing like the lava streams they passed earlier on. He’s never seen someone shift before. He wonders what it looks and feels like.
Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind
@[Oectra] sorry I’m so late! I hope it gets better once I write him more haha
She had not paid attention to the views through the breaks in the bushes that lined the edges they danced on as they ascended the volcano. Maybe she should have but for the first time in her life she was a little anxious. She had kept her fluffy wings tucked tightly to her sides so that she didn't knock anything lose off the sides - including herself.
So when they stop and she asks about shifting and him not falling to his death she is taken back by the excitement that danced beneath his ember eyes. His excitement only boosted her ego - just a little bit - and the worry that was plastered across her face was replaced by a large, toothy, lopsided girlish grin. "I can. A wolf. My father was a wolf shifter and my mother is a lion shifter. My twin brother Vervane can shift into a lion." her eyes darted around the space they encompassed and with a nod of her head decided that it should be enough room for nothing tragic to happen. "Alright, this is your warning. Don't move." she breathed with a small giggle.
She back up a smidge and let her wings hang loosely at her sides. She had never seen herself shift so she wasn't sure what it looked like to others, but she had seen her brother shift and her mother. It couldn't look to differently. When he brother and mother shift it was almost like a haze drifted across her vision. She could see the joints change, the length of their bodies shorten and close in on itself, but the edges were blurry - almost like you weren't getting the true experience. That must be the magic behind it, there was no other explanation. Feeling the change was something else entirely, however. At first when her joints would crack and move bones growing and others leaving - moving. It was painful, but the more you did it the less it hurt.
Even now as her wings dissolved into her sides and her legs shortened, her muzzle thinning and pointing, and her hips crushing in on themselves it only felt like a tickle that was so persistent it hurt like a bruise would soon form. Her predominately white coat got longer and morphed into an all over deep, chestnut brown. Her eyes remained the same steady, pale, icy blue as she opened them and looked to Toivo. She took a hesitant step closer to him, her paws finding a sure hold on the rocky ground beneath her. Her chalcedony nails scraped slightly at the gravel beneath her as she peered up shyly at the boy, unsure of his reaction.
OECTRA
@[Toivo] it's okay - I know the basics of Oectra but this is really the first encounter she has ever had so I am still feeling her out. (:
The jungle-grown boy gives his new friend a wide grin. She says he family is full of shifters, but personally he has yet to see one himself. "I have my mother's traits. At least, I think they're hers." He flutters his sun-made wings to emphasize, though the other traits she won't be able to see. The calm and peaceful feelings he emits and bestows upon her, just temporarily, might be felt, but his self-healing trait (he discovered quickly that his knees might scrape but never stay on him for long) was one he didn't really feel like trying out in front of her, just as she might be hesitant about the shifting - hence the peace induction being active. Honestly, his control was good, but not perfect, and feeling that he wanted to comfort her, had coaxed him into using it before he was actually very aware.
Still, it probably wasn't a bad thing - and her playful warning was quickly followed up by a blurry movement.
He tried to watch, absolutely fascinated. The sounds she made were soft, as if the resetting of her bones wasn't all that much of a change, though it truly was. When she was done, she opened her eyes again - and he found that nothing had really changed, to him. As her nails scrape the Tephran volcano's rock, his wide eyes follow the sound and he outs a chuckle. "Look, you're still the same." he teases, tail swishing merrily behind him. "Race you to the top!" he then challenges, his soft-glowing wings taking solid form with each ray of sunlight they expand, then jumps off the cliff to guide her along a goat path. It's much easier in the shape of a wolf than as a horse, he has no doubt - so he'll take what advantage he can get.
Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind
