i know i've dreamed you

[katarine]

YOU CAN HAVE MY HEART, IF YOU HAVE THE STOMACH TO TAKE IT.

She hasn’t left Tephra since the eclipse first began. The dark never filled her with any sort of thrill as it did for her brother. Instead, she found herself hiding within the rivers of home and wishing her body didn’t glow in the perfect dark. The soft ebb of her markings seemed to draw the monsters to her. Of course, her mother and father were always nearby with their own sharp teeth to answer any threat. But the close calls replayed in her mind endlessly and the small scar along her cheek would never let her forget.

So when the sun finally ascends from the horizon, she releases a sigh of exquisite relief. The weight of her fear is lifted from her shoulders and she smiles for the first time in ages. Katarine has kept her eyes trained on the soft glow of the volcano that it seems to be all she knows anymore. She missed the way the sun reflected along restless waters and she’s eager to plunge beneath the surface. Little fish scatter from her abrupt descent and the splash of her lavender tail

The warm summer river melts the frost along her scales as she swims against the current toward the commonlands. She can’t recall the way anything beyond the Tephran borders looks but she’s delighted at the idea of memorizing it all again, to relearn the mountain in the distance and the rolling hills of the meadow. Slowly, she peeks her head above the river’s surface and takes it all in as if for the first time - the pale grass that withstood the night, the faces of strangers squinting into their first day in a year. Her white forelock sticks to her face when she lifts her head higher now, dripping and grinning as wide as she can manage.

The sun is warm against her face as she comes to rest against the riverbank. Her body has ached to bask like this again. The frost quickly reforms across her scaled body despite the heat but she doesn’t seem uncomfortable in the slightest from it. Already, her eyes drift closed but the smile remains along her lips as she begins to slip into a nice summer nap.

KATARINE

@[Obscene]

[Obscene]

Kiss me again
Kiss me until I am sick of it

The Eclipse had kept him to the common lands but he doesn’t mind that much. It’s really all he knows. Tephra was his birthplace but he hadn’t stepped foot on its black sands and ash since he was a newborn. He doesn’t really long for it, it’s hard to miss something you barely remember. There’s no pull to return to the volcano and it’s dark beaches. It had never really been much of a home to him, not when his parents had basically left him on his own to fend for himself. He doesn’t really blame them that much either (although the abandonment and neglect fester deep in his heart like rot). It wasn’t as if they had been unkind to him. They just hadn’t been around much and it was the fae that had stepped in and took charge of him as a foal, seeing the trouble he got himself into and knowing somebody should care.

Out of all the common lands, the River is the one he spends the least amount of time in. However this is where he is now, following its winding trail as he tries to escape from the relentless sun. His hangover has relented at this point (nearly drowning himself in the process at the Meadow’s creek as he plunged his face into the pool of water again and again). Despite feeling more like himself again (depressing), red eyes still wince in the offending daylight. The sudden blast of summer warmth and light makes this area muggy but the coolness of the various trees along the bank help shield him from most of its aggression.

She’s unexpected when he stumbles down the bank, sunbathing half in and half out of the water. At first, he’s not sure exactly what he’s found. Perhaps a dead corpse that’s washed up, bloated and rotting, a victim from the Eclipse and its monsters. There’s no scent of death or decay in the air as he comes closer, the glowing embers of his eyes wary. It’s a pleasant fragrance that meets his nostrils instead, of salt and ash and a vague childhood memory that he can’t quite place. A beautiful creature lounges before him, he can make out the slight rise and fall of her ribcage, taking in the frost of her periwinkle scales as they glimmer in the heat. What makes him stop and truly stare is the smile that lingers on her lips, eyes closed, relaxed. Peaceful. There’s an ache somewhere within him and he’s not sure why or what it means. Maybe it’s jealousy of her contentment, a longing to be so secure and carefree that she emits without realizing it. Or maybe it’s something else entirely that he just can’t understand yet.

Regardless, the trickster in him cannot leave her alone in her tranquility. He knows he should, he should just leave her alone to enjoy her nap but that cruel streak within him wins out. He is just a normal horse, whatever powers his parents carried had failed to show up in him. All he has is his own wiles and wit to get by in this world. So he quietly moves behind her, being careful not to step on anything that might startle her as he comes closer. There’s plenty of underbrush that lines the riverbank, thick and large enough to cover him as he pushes through brambles and thorns that prick his delicate skin. A low growl rumbles in the back of his throat as he lets the glow of his red eyes penetrate through the foliage. Pretending to be one of the Monsters that had prowled the darkness and recognizing that perhaps there was one that lurked beneath his skin after all.

Obscene

@[katarine]