"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
02-23-2021, 11:20 AM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2021, 11:20 AM by Waverly.)
your heart, it's like a drum the chase has just begun
The sea is boundless, providing all that she has ever needed (ever wanted) and more. It is easy to lose oneself in its fathomless depths, to feast on its endless bounty as the world beyond moves on with it’s mortal foibles. But the darkness had descended, and even she could not remain oblivious. Night had fallen, and for a time it had simply been dark. In her timeless existence, it had hardly mattered. She had barely noticed the days had stopped coming until, even in her feral and lawless existence, she had been forced to pause and try to recall how long it had been since last she’d seen the sun.
That had only occurred when food began to grow scarce as hunger rumbled in her belly. Eventually reality had come to knock, and Waverly had been forced to answer.
In the cool darkness of what once would have been early afternoon, the beast surfaces. For a time she merely bobs in the waves, eyeing the sandy shores with the wary eye. But soon hunger drives her forward, and she finds her clawed feet dragging at the pale sands. As she rises from the waves, water sluicing from the teal and gilded white of her gleaming form, the sea takes with it the monstrous visage and toothy smile, leaving behind a creature so achingly lovely, one would be hard pressed to believe her a beast at all.
But then, aren’t lures supposed to be enticing?
She is unsteady on the land, so used to the water that her limbs feel leaden and cumbersome. She does not venture far, her pale hooves never quite leaving the salty spray and shifting foam of the sea. The ocean is her home, and that is where she would feast. She could only hope she would not be forced to travel too far to find what it is she seeks.
02-25-2021, 11:07 AM (This post was last modified: 02-25-2021, 11:07 AM by Ehko.)
Ehko asked her mother once who she could trust, and her mother had said ‘yourself’. At the time, Ehko had kept quiet instead of disagreeing or questioning why, but she thought about it as she drug her hooves through the sand. The sky was dark, but for Ehko this was normal. She’d been born in the absence of light and so thought nothing of missing it, like a foal born without a limb or sight. The little dragonet-horse hardly felt the absence of something she’d never had to begin with. To her the darkness was as typical as anything, and so it should come as no surprise that she felt comfortable walking among it by herself, in search of the twin brother who seemed to avoid her more and more.
Brash was getting bigger every night. Bulkier, like their father, and he was starting to outpace and outweigh his sister in the natural way. Ehko thought little of the changes; her mother and father were the practical type - they had their unique ways of parenting - but they weren’t the kind of parents who glossed things over. Her brother was probably maturing and in his eyes, Ehko might look strange too.
She smiled to herself. The leathery wings that usually stayed tucked by her sides stretched open the tiniest bit, overbalancing the filly’s steps and making her stumble a few strides. She folded them close again and thought about the day when she’d be able to extend them to their fullest, picturing herself holding them proudly above her head in a brilliant display, and then lift off into flight whenever she liked. Someday, she told herself.
The shoreline rolled dully on, leading her farther north to the topmost tip of the Island. Ehko trekked until she needed a break, huffing to a stop near the mouth of the bay. She looked behind her at the way the land curved back out into the sea, and thought about the rocky dunes obscured by the jungle - the ones she’d passed earlier, where the wooden statues leaned in the sand and cast odd shadows over the already dark sea grasses. For some reason, Ehko had wanted to touch them, but the mystery surrounding their origin (bedtime stories, legends passed down through the generations of Island inhabitants) scared her.
Someday, she told herself. The waves she’d forgotten about crashed erratically, and Ehko remembered her purpose in coming this far north as she turned back to see the black ocean suddenly burst into spray, and the fine shape of a creature’s head rising up from the shallow depths. What was that? It couldn’t be a dolphin, could it? Sharks didn’t surface like that - Ehko knew that much. It was too small to be an Orca, and seemed to be headed toward the beach anyway.
The thing cut through the waves like a knife, curling this way and that over the surf like an eel, and though Ehko was afraid (a slender, red-hot needle of fear that crept out from inside of her, like magic) she was also fascinated. Walking slowly up the beach and morbidly curious, the little dragonet flicked her baby ears towards The Thing as it stumbled up onto the sand, and when it came to a rest she paused, waiting.
“Are you okay?” Ehko asked, pulling her forelegs together shyly.
Locheed had been watching the little thing meander for hours, slowly tracking her from a range too great for most to see. As the distance and obstacles between them change, her draconic eyes switch from heat signatures to regular without much thought. The dark did not hinder her sight, and neither did a very great distance. She never intended to make herself known; she had no goal or reasoning behind this exercise in silent tracking. She was simply bored.
But her hope that the girl is walking with a purpose seems to be misplaced, and Locheed begins to lose interest. The scaled mare was about to give up her idle game in search of a better one, or dinner, when something catches her eye.
A monster of the sea, something terribly beautiful and equally intriguing, seems to be about to intercept the little palomino. With the water crashing around it, Locheed almost misses that glimpse of the creature's water form. But the now traditionally beautiful mare stepping from the sea is only more intriguing because of it.
She moves closer to the pair, trying to remain unseen and still get a sense for what is passing between the two. Her eyes tell her that some words exchanged, but she had not mastered the skill of reading lips yet. Instead of waiting to see, she picks up a trot and gives up any attempt at stealth.
Locheed, bay and blue, and someone the boys tended to run away from rather than to, don't feel the gap in beauty as she decides to join the pair. Even though she appreciated such things in others, she had never felt their absence for herself. Maybe it came from having a beautiful twin - from her first year, she had spotted and understood the differences in their appearances and the ways others addressed them both so differently. Sweet Laia had filled in all the gaps, and Locheed had only leaned into what she was.
But even her rougher qualities have their limits, she is not as silent as most predators, her body frustratingly equine as it is. The thing that kept her undetectable was usually the sheer distance between herself and whatever it was she was tracking that day.
"It seems like maybe this isn't something you do every day." Her voice seems to betray her as older than she is, aged by years sept curled up in the warmest, smokey nooks of the volcano's sides as she addresses the unsteady kelpie.
She inspects the creature as she halts with her back to the mainland, wondering how fast the teal mare could get those sharp teeth back out, or if they were still there and the trick was in her own mind. But the girl was right to notice the other's unsteadiness, although Locheed had a suspicion that it could be shaken off in an instant for good reason.
03-09-2021, 10:19 AM (This post was last modified: 03-09-2021, 10:20 AM by Waverly.)
your heart, it's like a drum the chase has just begun
The ocean is soothing against her fetlocks, the wet tendrils of water and gentle spatter a comfort as it rises and falls behind her in a familiar dance. She is aware of it even as she watches the young girl approach, the bloom of curiosity a rosy cloud around her, tinged by the pale luster of uncertainty and shyness. Had the kelpie a heart, she might have seen only the sweetness of the moment rather than a tender young thing too naive to be wary of the things that crawl from the sea.
She blinks large, golden eyes at the girl as she asks if she is okay, as though confused and astounded by her presence here. She does not reply for a moment, her mouth cumbersome and strange without its rows of jagged teeth. When she finally does, her voice is soft, a hiss of disuse behind the faint lilt. “I… I am not certain.” Her words are unsteady. She could pretend it was purposefully done, but in truth, it had not been. It has been too long since she last attempted speech. “Can you help me?”
Her gaze is pleading as she stares at the youth, willing her close. Willing her to offer the help she had so prettily begged for.
Their little masquerade is interrupted moments later however, when another slinks from the shadows, staring at her. She shies back, ears pinning as he shifts an instantly wary gaze at the other. This is a creature much more fearsome than the small girl, spines rising from her in a proud display, teeth barely hidden by scaled lips as she speaks. It takes every ounce of willpower that Waverly possesses to keep her own teeth from erupting through the guileless facade.
Only the other mare’s words keep her from edging from woman to monster.
Her gaze shifts to the girl briefly, attempting to gauge her reaction to this interruption. Would she stay, perhaps even come to her aid? Or would she flee in fear?
The first is what keeps her here, shifting along the shoreline. Though it is no small part influenced by the tendrils of interest rising from the scaled woman, highlighting the absence of crimson aggression. Whatever it is she wishes, to turn her teeth on Waverly does not appear to be among them for the moment.
In light of those realizations, she finds her own curiosity rising. A rare thing for the kelpie. Still, even curiosity is not enough to quell her interest in the child. As she tries to determine a way in which she might yet salvage her hunt, she takes another unsteady step towards the girl. In the wake of the silent uncertainty that had followed the other woman’s question, Waverly finally speaks again, giving voice to that uncertainty. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Seeing a horse rise up out of the sea and stumble onto land had been the last thing Ehko expected on her walk, and normally you’d expect a young filly to be wary of the unexpected—yet today, unexpectedly, she wasn’t.
Ehko was just an infant. She hadn’t even grown into her wings, or seen the farthest stretches of her own home island. Most of her time was spent in study or at play with her twin, though she had the freedom to explore. The monsters that came from the sea or unwound themselves from the slimy shadows in the bog were merely a pastime for getting the redblooded urge to kill out of her father dragon’s mind, so most stayed away. And Ehko—little thing that she was—had her own means of simple protection. Where white patterns splashed haphazardly over the tender skin of her throat and mottled the rest of her body there was also the sheen and texture of scales, beastly thick things that interlocked like chainmail over her most vulnerable parts. They glimmered with an opalescent blue sheen whenever light was present.
If another horse truly wanted to kill her they would have to be damn well determined or damn strong, no doubt about it, but as the gentle voice of the seamare washed like warm surf over Ehko’s upturned ears, the small pegasus could hardly believe that that was the intention here. She knew safety and power when she was watched over by such devoted, destructive parents as her own, and her mother’s constant promise that she was always watching herself and her twin Brash pushed any residual hesitance from her mind.
She stepped forward to help the mare, nodding, when the thump, thump, thumping sound of approaching hooves turned her head.
Another stranger appeared, slowly taking shape out of the surrounding darkness. Ehko paused, uncertain if she was interrupting a meeting or reunion, but the newcomer talked and not once did Ehko hear any mention of a name or sense any familiarity between the two elder mares. The only thing they all seemed to share in common was their design; Ehko appraised the way Locheed’s skin seemed shadowy and multilayered with her own scales, liking it. Maybe these strangers could become her friends?
“Don’t be rude!” She whickered to the silver bay, catching onto the suspicion in Locheed’s tone. It was obvious that her sudden appearance and her attitude had upset the horse from the sea, and Ehko didn’t want the traveler to feel unwelcome. Her dam had taught her courtesy and she was sticking to it. “You’re probably just exhausted, right?” She tipped her head toward the other paint, smiling as she closed the gap between them with a few leggy steps. “You must’ve swam the whole way here! In the dark, too! So cool.” Ehko beamed.
Another step and she’d be able to offer her support. Another step and Ehko could touch the seamare, if Waverly wished. There were thoughts of stories to tell Brash later filling her innocent mind as she lifted that fateful leg, too. A feeling of confidence blossomed inside of her, warm and almost taking shape in a way Ehko could picture clearly. Another step, the blink of an eye, and everything could change.
Those wide, pleading eyes are almost enough to make the dragoness distrust what she had just seen, and she resents the pull of attraction she feels to the un-naturally perfect image of the other woman. In moments like these, it was easy to wish her traits dealt more with the intangible interactions of life, the mental and the metaphysical, instead of the physical.
No, not instead. She would rather have them all. But she has only her strength to rely on, and her ability to bite back.
As she glances between the two, she wished she could creep into the mare's mind and have her thoughts for her own, to know her name before it was spoken, and most of all, know what she was planning to do.
Locheed decides to bide her time. It would be easy to think that she took the fillies chiding to heart, the way her head and eyes droop ever so slightly, and the way she seems to take a step back as the girl moves forward. But she isn't stepping back, not exactly. She circles to stand where the girl had been, and now the little creature was positioned right between the two women, one guarding the sea and one the land.
"Such a long swim," she agrees, an awe in her smokey voice that contradicted the fact she had made the crossing only a handful of hours before. "So many terrifying creatures in the sea too."
She steps close again, as if she too intended to help, feeling more comfortable with the distance between herself and the other preditor now that there was a small body separating them.
What she wants is hardly solidified in her mind, but she is happy to fall into step with the dance the sea-mare is dancing and find out what it is. And if she was wrong? Well, that would be interesting too, she thinks, as her stormy grey eyes lift, utterly black in the endless night.
your heart, it's like a drum the chase has just begun
As the girl moves, censure a halo surrounding her reprimand of the other woman’s supposed rudeness, Waverly sways. A sign of weakness, she had learned. One that inspired kindness and aid. Were she a less feral creature, she might have felt guilt at such deception. But when one’s belly rumbles with hunger, guilt becomes a surprisingly absent emotion.
“Yes,” she agrees when the girl asks her question. It was an easy answer, one that so neatly solves all the dilemmas the other woman’s arrival had brought. Were she less intent on her hunt, she may have found the other woman fascinating. A beast of the land, just as she is of the water. Two opposing counterparts with so many similarities.
But as the youth eliminates the distance between them, Waverly’s attention is focused on her. Still, she cannot help the sidelong glances she gives the red woman. The suspicion that rises within her. Waverly had never before shared a hunt, but she is forced to wonder if that is what had brought the stranger here.
“I did swim.” Her voice is barely more than a whisper now as she closes the distance that remains between her and the girl. “But it wasn’t terrifying.”
Between one blink of an eye and the next, Waverly has struck, teeth erupting as her mouth elongates around the neck of the golden filly. Her scales do not bother her. No matter what protection they might provide, they would not prevent the water from filling her lungs as Waverly drags her backwards into the sea.
Her gaze is now fixed on the other predator, a golden glare over the prey locked in her jaws even as a low, feral growl rumbles from her throat. A warning. A declaration that she would not cede her hunt so easily.
A foal never sees what an adult mare chooses to hide, and Ehko clearly misses what’s unspoken between the two horses sandwiching her here on the beach. Their glances at one another go entirely unheeded by the young filly, though Locheed manages to twist one of her pale ears back with interest, mostly due to the sarcasm. Ehko herself was a terrible judge of social interaction; being cut off from the mainland since birth meant there weren’t many social gatherings taking place, and so she thinks that the bay mare’s tone has everything to do with offending the washed-up seamare and nothing at all to do with reality. She feels mocked, made to feel small and stupid (as if she didn’t already know there were sea monsters) in a way that jerks her little, petulant mouth down into a comical frown.
Hmph. Ehko flicked her ear back into place as Locheed moved to cut off her escape, though she couldn’t see that for what it was, either. Not once did Ehko consider them to be the moving arms of a timepiece, simple cogs turning against one another’s perfect teeth with deadly tandem energy, winding up fate for the chiming of death’s bell toll.
Her hoof landed square into the wet sand and not a second later, Waverly’s jaw had Ehko’s neck clamped in a bloody vice. The filly squealed, a pig caught by predators, shrilly as Waverly’s rows of teeth sank into the parts of her flesh unprotected by the pearlescent scales her father had passed down in their bloodline. Ehko could register nothing but the pain, so she fought against it in the wild way a trapped creature might. Her legs flailed and beat against the earth, desperate to knock Waverly off-balance or stop her from dragging Ehko into the sea, but the resistance felt useless. The elder mare was deceptively strong and soon enough, the wine-dark sea coiled over the little filly she gripped in her mouth. It became harder and harder for Ehko to fight with so much water weighing her down, making her sluggish so that she had to pause in her wriggling just to breath.
And every time she did, Ehko gave Waverly the means to drag her further out.
The darkness hid how fearfully twisted Ehko’s face had become, and her eyes widened with that panic we all know so well — the feeling of this is it. That dreadful knowledge without the means to reverse it: a slow crash-and-burn into death. Around her weakened body, the saltwater felt like ice and burned like black tar when it poured into her lungs. She opened her mouth to scream and only choked, jerking softly while the ocean ran over her tongue, down her throat, and filled up her tiny belly. Everywhere was black, there was no up or down, she thought it funny how the pain had gone away too, and then Ehko saw the stars for the very first time in her young life. They danced across her vision and swept her up into a spinning, dizzying sort of waltz.
Drowning came quickly. Her body went limp in Waverly’s unyielding grip, and Ehko’s fight ended before it ever began.
@[Brash] big bro to the rescue? <3
@[Locheed]
@[Waverly]
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