"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
and since you’re the only one that matters,---------------- ----------------tell me: who do i run to?
The darkness has remained constant, a shroud across the formerly blue sky. Pteron has not felt quite right since the eclipse started. The morning after he’d met the doe-eyed bay mare in the Meadow, the sun had risen just like it always did. The parrots were just as noisy, the waves just as strong. The moon was rather high in the sky, and Pteron had assumed that there was an autumn storm coming in fast when the sky grew dark. Yet when he’d looked up, there were no clouds in the sky at all, and the moon itself was slipping across the face of the sun.
And then…it stopped.
There they have hung ever since, two motionless orbs in the sky. Bad magic, Pteron had thought, very bad. That suspicion has been confirmed since, and this steady trot that takes Pteron across the island has been a habit ever since. Just as he had willingly (and gladly, truth be told) abandoned all official responsibility to keep watch over the land he resides in, he’s taken up that mantle again. He’s no doubt that Aquaria keeps mastery of the sea, but that doesn’t mean that an extra pair of eyes on land isn’t necessary. In these times, it seems everything is necessary.
The air is brisk against his sides, unusual for the island, and Pteron pulls his feathered wings closer to his pied sides for warmth. The wind tugs at his blue-green mane, and though it tastes of salt and sand, there is no sunshine to brighten it and Pteron finds it bitter.
Something moves ahead, and Pteron falls still. He is invisible already, having decided that to be safest, so he is unworried about being spotted. He might be heard though, or smelled, and he raises his own nose to the air.
Aquaria. He nearly calls her name, but refrains at the last moment out of an abundance of caution. Instead, he projects a beam of happiness nearly as bright as the missing sun, firmly but briefly sending it in the direction of the distant nereid. Then he attempts the trick that Gale had been trying to teach him and makes himself invisible to everyone but Aquaria. Pteron has no idea if it is working (there’s no one else around to ask) but he spreads his mostly-white wings wide, a large pale shape even in the darkness.
01-08-2021, 09:37 PM (This post was last modified: 01-08-2021, 09:37 PM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
She still hadn't adjusted to the darkness. She was a creature of sun and sea, after all, designed for beaches in high summer. This night, and the cold it brought with it, was as foreign an experience as flying was to the mermare.
The little balls of luminescent water she had scooped from the sea when talking to Tiercel had stuck around. They were her small rebellion against the night. Hardly any light at all, but she was grateful nonetheless. One or more hung by her shoulder almost constantly during her waking hours now. They had been welcome company on her systematic walks of the island, looking for others caught out in the dark.
Her path carried her along the shorelines, and today there was an unexpected shape that interrupted the emptiness. Pale as a ghost, she stopped in her tracks as the figure appeared. She wanted to be afraid, to wheel about and run the other direction. And then she didn't. Happiness, such an out of place sensation took her over, and she couldn't swallow the hysterical giggle that forced it's way out.
The nereid gulped and choked on the feeling until the figure was right beside her, and then she quieted. The surreal Happiness drained from her as quickly as it had come, and she was left cold and shivering in the dark. "Your family really is awful about that," she hiccuped, remembering the bolt of Peace his brother had used on her. Weaponized emotion, it was beyond her comprehension, but very effective.
Her orb of glowing saltwater had splashed to the ground when the foreign emotion had invaded, broke her focus. She didn't feel like reforming it. "You're safe then," she commented, stating what was obvious first. "Your family is too, I hope. All your children accounted for?" That was one of her worst concerns. That in the darkness, children would wander, and walk into the sea, or onto a sandbar. Not be able to find their way back.
and since you’re the only one that matters,---------------- ----------------tell me: who do i run to?
“Imagine having a nest full of younger siblings with no control over it,” he responds with a soft chuckle, the sound coming from deep in his chest. Pteron is grateful that his version of the family gift is such a positive emotion. His mother’s power might’ve fractured into fear or sadness or distrust, but fortunately the blue-haired stallion has inherited the ability to project happiness. The memories that his statement had elicited for just a moment distract him from how she’d brought them up, but he has the excuse of moving closer to her in the darkness to hide his delayed reaction.
“Which sibling did you see?” asks the pegasus, closer now, close enough to see softly glowing sand that is all that remains of Aquaria’s glowing orbs. Gale’s not been here long enough that Pteron worries, and Asena’s not been home since the eclipse began. These worries are pushed down into the darkness where they cannot affect the way he must function. Pushed down until Aquaria asks about them. Pteron is grateful for the darkness that hides his wince, though he also busies himself with smoothing down the feathers of his wings that he now folds down around himself.
“I’m going to go to Islandres soon,” Pteron tells her, “I’m sure Gale will be able to tell me where Asena is.” The violet antlered mare is no longer the young filly that had swam across the channel to live in Ischia, and Pteron knows that she is more than capable of defending herself. Still, he worries, and means to find her only to ensure she is alright. She is old enough to be on her own, and he is sure that he’d sense if something were wrong, but he’d also like to be sure and is grateful for magic that can do so.
“And Torrent?” he asks, delayed only because her quip about his family was light enough that she must know where Torrent is, even if he’s not right beside her. He has no doubts when it comes to Aquaria and their children, and he is equally certain that she will be able to keep Ischia safe. The nereid’s magic has always been a marvel to Pteron, and now that he has control of his facial features, he finds that he would not be averse to a bit of light in the darkness. He doesn’t ask though, thinking that might be rude, and instead tries to find her pale features in the darkness.
01-09-2021, 07:24 PM (This post was last modified: 01-09-2021, 07:24 PM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
She winced at the image he painted, and knew it was to everyone's benefit that her family was not emotionally talented. "I might actually have drowned Tyr if that had been the case," she groused. Adria had already been off on her own adventures by the time Tyr and then Aquaria had been born. Really, there was not much similarity between her and Pteron's childhoods.
Shifting her weight, she thought back to the earlier meeting with the elder brother. A stallion very like Pteron in looks, but with far less brevity to him. It seemed that fate had been unfair when she dealt cards to the children of Lepis. "Tiercel," she answered after a moment, recalling the man's caustic tone when speaking of his family. An outcast in his own mind. She wondered if that was truth in the minds of his siblings.
As much as the darkness allowed, she watched Pteron's face. Hoped he'd say that all was well, and that she could tick his little clan off her list of residents to check on. When he explained that was not the case, her heart fell. "I thought she'd be back already," she said, the ever-present crease between her eyes deepening with concern.
Asena had not stuck around the island much since her fathers had brought her here. She was a seasoned explorer by now, and Aquaria thought well of her. Still, the Dame knew the kind of anxiety an absent child created, multiplied by the weight of darkness. Even if it were only to check in, she knew Pteron would not feel easy about the distance until he'd confirmed his daughter's safety for himself.
It didn't lessen her own worries about him flying off into the dark. "I know you will be," she prefaced, a little awkwardly. "But be careful. Don't go smacking into any mountainsides or anything..." As many hazards as she'd discovered came with swimming in the dark, she could only assume flying came with it's own assortment now.
She hadn't spent much time in the water at all lately, after an experiment that had left her panicking, not knowing which way was up and which way was down. Passing out had been her saving grace, as she'd drifted into shallow water. It wasn't an experience she ever wanted to repeat. Whatever the avian version of that was...
"Keep your hooves to the ground as much as possible. Promise me." She put to him, eyes searching in the darkness for his. She had no right or position to ask anything of him, much less demand. She wouldn't take the words back, though. He was the farther of her children, and a dear -if complicated- companion besides.
She blinked at the night, grateful for the first time at the thickness of it. At having vision obscured. It was so much easier to express herself when she didn't have to immediately see the reactions her words caused.
"At home, bored, chaffing to go investigate, and angry with me. But safe." She reeled off. Torrent had been trying to convince her to let him swim North to look in on Cormorant. A proposition that had been sunk quickly and without mercy. Her flat denial had not been met with any kind of grace, but so far it had been accepted. Just with a healthy dose of sulking thrown in, and several threats to go and stay with his father instead of her. "As long as you don't get in the water," she'd replied, ignoring the sting of his words as well as she could.
and since you’re the only one that matters,---------------- ----------------tell me: who do i run to?
She names the last sibling he’d expected her too, and Pteron falls still for a moment. Tiercel has returned? Gale had said that their brother did not wish to be found, and though that situation was not ideal, it was better than dead. Pteron would prefer his family gathered in one place, and having that in Ischia is largely responsible for his recent happiness. The excitement of finding out that his sibling has come back and the concern over finding out that he has used his emotions against Aquaria, stirs contrasting reactions within the piebald stallion. He has no right to be any more protective over Aquaria than any Beachmaster to their Nereid leader. That has not changed how he feels, of course, but it has modified his behaviors since their last conversation.
Before the coming of the darkness, there had been a single cloud across his time in Ischia, and it remains audible in the way Aquaria bids him to be cautious.
“Of course,” he replies immediately, a soldier to his Dame. The smile that follows is warmer though, and he bites back the playful desire to ask why she’d made him promise. Her answer would probably be a cold wave crashing onto the warm sand, and Pteron is wise enough to keep the delicate balance that they’ve maintained for the past few months. It is not quite friendship, but it is better than the nothing-at-all of before. She will say it’s because their sons will miss him, and not because she’s changed her mind about him. And their sons would miss him, Pteron knows, and that will always be enough for him.
Safe but sulking, Aquaria tells him, and Pteron shakes his head in sympathy. He’s not at all surprised; their son is at the age where he might strike out on his own and the world he now faces is a very different one than anyone could have expected. “When I get back, I could ask him if he wants to hang out with me for a while?” Pteron images Aquaria is busy, and one less thing on her plate during these unprecedented times would surely be appreciated.
“Would asking for a kiss for good luck be too much?” he asks playfully, flaring his broad wings as though for his imminent flight. They flex as he flashes the nereid his most charming smile, the one he reserves for situations in which is most uncertain about the reception of his humor. He is sure that the answer will be no, but at this very moment he wants to make her laugh even more than he wants to kiss her.
01-16-2021, 09:41 PM (This post was last modified: 01-16-2021, 09:41 PM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
He is surprised by the name she produced. Even in the dark, she could sense the feeling in the way he tensed. Tiercel had said that he was not welcome among his family. Was there more truth to that than she'd thought? She was tempted to ask, to delve into the dynamic of a family she had lived alongside for so long now. The words died in her throat.
"He seems well," she commented instead, a safe, soft thing to say from the girl who stood outside the family. If there was time, later on, maybe then she would bring it up again. There was a story she was missing, but now was not the time to overstep her bounds and ask after it. Not when the dark pressed so heavy on her, and there were much larger worries at bay.
Her head bowed at his reassurance. Pteron was confident in all he did. She had no doubt that he would do his best to stay safe. Still, something his brother had mentioned tugged at her, and she paused before bringing it up again. "Thank you. There's also something Tiercel said... That its not just the dark. There are.. Well, I don't know what. Monsters, or bandits, or really dark shadows. Just that there's something hiding and it's not friendly."
It felt silly when she said it out loud. Like a foal afraid of the shadows the palms made on the sand on cloudy nights. She hadn't even seen one of these so called monsters for herself. That was the problem though, wasn't it? They couldn't see them. Not until it was too late.
A shiver ran along her spine, an echo of fear or of the unseasonable chill that had begun to permeate the normally tropical climate. Don't go, she wanted to say. Please, don't go. The threads of their lives had woven across each other for so many years now. He had left, and broken her trust and she knew she would never be his first priority. He had come back and he had helped her raise their youngest son, and all the other island children, and had been a quiet but dependable support to her for several years now. Both sides were truth.
She had hated him and loved him, avoided him and sought him out. Moved on with her life and then fallen back into the inexorable current that always seemed to pull her back into his embrace. Being with him was what she imagined drowning to be like, but in the slowest, sweetest way possible. She lived in a masochist's dreamland, and was tired of trying to find her way out.
There were no words when he offered to take Torrent for a while when he returned. It was a kind thing, the right thing, to say. She could only nod mutely, overwhelmed and exhausted and knowing that if she let him in just a little, Pteron would share the weight of the world with her. He'd offered to, over and over again. Why was it so hard for her to give in?
The gentle buffet of air from his wings swayed the sail of her mane, whirled the sand at her feet in invisible eddies. He was a light in the dark, even this impenetrable night was no match for the energy he created just by existing. It surprised her just as much as she was sure it would surprise him when she pressed close to him. Placed her cool lips upon his warm ones and kissed him as she'd only ever kissed him.
and since you’re the only one that matters,---------------- ----------------tell me: who do i run to?
Loess, with its stone spires and deep canyons, is a world best appreciated from the sky. Tiercel had not been able to join the rest of them in the sky, and so some of their childhood games were played on the ground. It had not – does not – occur to Pteron that Tiercel might think himself unwelcome. No, the reason that Pteron reacts so has far more to do with Tiercels’ choice to abandon the family after Gale’s death.
Well, not death.
Does that change things, he wonders, knowing that the catalyst was not so great a tragedy as he’d once thought? Pteron has never been given to philosophical thoughts. IT doesn’t matter, he decides; Tiercel is back and not actively avoiding them. Pteron will have to ask Gale if he or Eyas have heard anything about their triplet. He weighs the value of asking Aquaria for more detail about their conversation when she continues to speak, and he stops thinking to listen.
“Monsters?” The thought of something out in the darkness, something numerous and powerful and unknown. Has the world just grown darker, he wonders, or is that simply the clouds of fear? Pteron pushes it away, and begins to infuse himself with a projection of happiness that he knows will be enough to keep his thoughts from shadows. And then he stops, because Aquaria is pressing herself against him and he’s no need for manufactured serotonin.
Pteron does not know what has changed, and he is too busy relearning the soft taste of her skin to think much of it. His touch is hungry and thorough, as though he might make up for their time apart with attention, and only when the loud pulse of his heartbeat struggles to drown out reason does he force it back, force it down. He pulls away, but only to press his forehead against hers.
“Aquaria.” Her name cracks as it leaves him, and he is grateful that the darkness hides the expression on his face. He is not entirely sure what it would be. ”This is what you want?” Pteron asks, unwilling to risk miscommunication over something like this.
01-17-2021, 12:02 PM (This post was last modified: 01-17-2021, 12:24 PM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
Her own family was one that had survived mainly intact over the years. All except... A pang of guilt lurched in her belly. Tyr. He had been born differently from she and her sister. The only one in the family to have no aquatic affinity whatsoever, no touch of magic or adaptation to help him along. And he'd felt it. She knew he had, though she'd been born after him.
He'd been a surly, shorebound colt, the elder brother who'd wanted little to do with his aquatic little sister. He'd taken off one day, and their father had said he'd be okay. That sometimes you have to leave to find yourself, and that they should make sure he always had a home to return to once he'd done his figuring out.
She'd done that, and little else to keep track of the elder brother who'd felt so painfully seperate from his family. Now though, she wondered if Tyr had found this darkness as a way to come into his own. Like their father, he'd been born blind, and so the dark wouldn't have changed much about his daily life. Not like it had for the rest of them. She hoped he was well. Safe. Even happy. And she couldn't blame him for being gone. Not when she'd done so little to bring him home.
Tiercel and Tyr should meet, she thought suddenly, and giggled out loud at the thought. Black sheep flocking together, it was only right. "Monsters." She repeated, and wondered at the odds that the shadows really were teeming with something hungry. "Monster" was such a vague term, and she was growing to understand that it could suit an average-looking horse just as easily as it could a creature warped and hungry.
It was the unknown, she thought, that scared her more than anything. That drove her to kiss him for luck, and for love. "You idiot," she groaned against his mouth. "This is all I've ever wanted." And it was true. His lips on hers, his wings around her, his body besides her. It was all she'd ever wanted and had been to prideful and selfish to be willing to share. But tonight, or today, or whatever the hell time it was, she felt her stubbornness slip.
She needed the comfort of his touch, and desperately needed a memory of him that wasn't tear stained. Hungry as any monster in the dark, she wanted to devour the moment they were in until there was no room left in her for jealously or fear. Just a moment of happiness shared between them, to push away the night.
