"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
Had it really been years? Years since she threw the nearly lifeless body onto Tephra shores. A demonic grin curls her lips as her skinned wings land her onto the shores once again. Folding them neatly at her sides, the golden sheen of her coat shimmering in the sunlight.
The taste of sea brine was thick as well as sulfur. The active island seemed to hold it's own climate from the rest of the lands that have fallen into the depressed winter. Coated in drifts of frosted droplets. Her eyes scanned the area curiously. Looking for the rusty stallion that had been pacing the border so long ago. Surely the longer she stood here the better her chances were to come across the stag and possibly the child, her child, she had left in his care...
That wasn't her only reason for being on the volcanic rock. Duty calls and being of diplomatic status perhaps she'd find someone to entertain her company. After all, soon she'd be tied down again...
11-02-2017, 07:20 PM (This post was last modified: 11-02-2017, 07:28 PM by Diable Rouge.)
Diable Rouge
>
It had been years.
Although, it seemed like just yesterday Kaiode's body lay nearly lifeless on the shoreline. It seemed like just yesterday, Rou and Tangerine had saved him from death at the hand of his "mother.
It seemed like just yesterday, Kaiode had perished, falling from the cliff, completely unaware of the dangers that would come from the descent. The tragedy that befell the colt left a permanent scar on the rusty stallion's heart. It had left a little girl to feel as though she was to blame. It had left so many questions unanswered, so many wounds unhealed.
Still, he woke up in the middle of the night, coat covered in a thick sheen of sweat. Nightmares consumed him now more than ever, especially with the pregnancy of his beloved AuroraElis (he thinks back to the night they had made love on the beach, waves crashing against the sand). He had wanted to protect his adoptive son with every fiber of his being, but he couldn't. What made him think he could protect this new child?
He thought about Kaiode often...as often as he had when it first happened. His mind lingered more so when Aurora was off exploring - her beauty striking those around her, her personality infectious. He kept a watchful eye of Tephra, as was his duty to his king, and a watchful eye on his lover, as was his duty to his heart. But as full as his heart was with love, as excited as he was to be part of his kingdom's guard, he still felt an emptiness deep in his chest where Kaiode has once been.
A sigh escapes those crimson lips, and he continues his rounds of the southern border. His left eye had grown nearly completely blind as his age consumed him. He was growing older, the graying of his coat and worsening of his eyesight was hard to ignore, but he still felt young at heart (especially when Aurora was around). He wanted to give this new child a father they could be proud of, unlike his.
His good eye catches a glimpse of a figure emerging from the waters to the beach. His heart stops - she is hard not to recognize. She is hard to forget.
The image of her dropping Kaiode off as if he was nothing shadows his mind, shadows the usual calm demeanor. His blood boils, and he finds it hard to contain the disgusted grimace forming on his face. What the fuck was she doing here?
He doesn't hesitate to walk towards her. He doesn't pay her fangs or her wicked grin any mind - let her try to hurt him. He had a fucking bone to pick, he had a grudge that had been on his heart for too long. Diplomacy was not in the cards for him today, and instead of his usual "state your business" line he gave to visitors, he hisses at her through clenched teeth.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" He growls angrily, his vision blurring red. He wants to kill her, he wants her to perish the same way his son had, he wanted her to feel the pain that had burned in his heart since the day she abandoned him. "Have another child to leave here? Or do Sylvan scum like you just like trespassing on Offspring's land?"
in the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet.
@[Karaugh] The feisty side of Rou is coming out xD
It’s usually not his M.O. to interrupt, or even care for that matter, but Longclaw is inclined to slow his pace as he winds through the umbra cover of Tephran foliage because he hears a phrase that would make just about anyone curious.
...Sylvan scum like you just like trespassing on Offspring’s land?” Is all he garners from where he pauses, though it’s more than enough reason to alter his course and glide evenly from the strange heat of the treeline and out into the winter sunshine. Floating over the sands of his home shore, Longclaw is showing physically what he’s put in mentally - time in the arena and time spent patrolling has left him hardened and lean - there’s prowess and authority in every step.
When he draws alongside Diable, the elder stallion makes him seem like a slick, blue sidekick; the roan is taller, thicker even. Longclaw tilts his head, draws a lazy (yet not unsatisfied) eye over Karaugh, and tilts his lips into an approving smirk when he stops on the pinpricks she wields from her mouth. “Tell me it’s not true, Diable!” He shouts rather amusedly, his mouth widening to glean his own set of fangs, “A Sylvian, trespassing?”
He jerks ahead, all traces of earlier mirth vanishing with the aggressive step. “Gryffen seems to be lowering his standards,” He spits, jade eyes flicking away in instant boredom.
Why had he intruded again? Oh … yes, that’s right -
“I have a feeling I’m not going to like whatever it is that you’re about to say.” The gleaming guard sighs, tilting his head back once more so that might throw Diable a suggestive glance.
“Maybe we should rip your tongue clean out of your mouth, right now.” He shrugs, disregarding who she might be or what purpose she might have here. “Send you back to Sylva with a message so clear you won’t have to say a single word.” He chuckles, eyes sliding back to where she waits.
With each passing moment she wonders if perhaps she has missed. Overlooked.
Then there is cursing...
Her devilish grin returns as she turns her golden crown to view the red stallion. He seems to be hot tempered and it causes a chuckle to escape her. More angry words spew from the depths of his soul and her head cocks, "Actually... No. This one will be dumped elsewhere." A satisfied grin is painted on her lips. They part to continue to question him but her words are stopped by the snarky comments of a blue figure having neared. Her brow rises in amusement at the accusations as she let's him finish his rant...
"I have not trespassed... Not this time anyhow. I've been standing here for HOURS waiting for someone to come along and greet me. So hello to you too. I'm Karaugh. Diplomat of Sylva. I have simply come to know the whereabouts of my son," her eyes shift from blue to red. The question lingering in her gaze, "Kaiode, does he still live here with my Father Nymphetamine?" The concern in her voice could be construed as genuine care of his well being, but that wouldn't be of her nature...
The anger Diable Rouge feels is intense, unwavering. It doesn't go away when his fellow guard approaches, it doesn't yield to Longclaw's sarcasm-laced remarks. He is hardly listening, his eyes locked dead on Karaugh, wishing to wipe that fucking smirk right off her face.
When she asks about Kaiode, he can't contain his sarcastic laughter. In fact, he laughs for a solid minute and a half; but this is not happy chortling, he is still very much pissed off.
"How fucking dare you?" He growls, shaking his head. The grimace on his face is keeping him from ripping her voice box out. "You leave a child to die, then you suddenly give a shit about him years later? You fucking bitch." His fury is red hot, all he can do is spew out venom. "I don't give a shit about how long you've been waiting, you shouldn't be here at all, diplomat or not. Sylva and Tephra aren't on good terms. Nymphetamine hardly comes around. I don't know where he is, and frankly I don't care, not right now." He is shaking now, his rage boiling over. "Kaiode is dead. You can find him buried on the beach."
He sounds heartless, but only for the sake of keeping him sane. He loved the boy, his son, with all his heart. He cannot believe the audacity the mare has to come here, try to mosey her way into a life that has long since been gone, that she didn't care about in the first place.
Diable doesn’t need him, Longclaw is well-aware of this. Karaugh is little more than a pest, and a mare at that. Hardly above an afternoon meal in his mind. But it’s when they get snippy, when they start to feel that they’re ”Special”, that Longclaw likes to intrude and slap them back into their places.
Diable’s bark of laughter interrupts the growing fire in Longclaw’s heart. With the snap of his shimmering head, the fellow guard turns his apt attention back to the roan and listens as he paints a picture for Karaugh to be cast in her true light. At the mention of Kaiode, (someone Claw can only assume was a foal, based on their current use of the word ‘child’) his blue-tipped ears bury themselves against the crown of his skull and his eyes, wild and flashing, turn back to the fanged femme.
“You heard him, simpering coward.” He hisses, teeth needling into fine points as he shifts his mouth, “Whatever you’re looking for can’t be found here, so get the fuck out.” He snarls, the globes of his wild eyes suddenly combusting into striking blue flames. Exuding a raw heat, the hungry tendrils of fire spiral upwards from the sockets nestled into his skull, twisting and curling into themselves as he takes another decisive step towards the Sylvian trash. Effortlessly, Longclaw’s transformed what once could be considered beauty into this malevolent mask of demonic hate, jaws spread wide with threats he’s burning to unleash.
Vemon laced words spew from the stallions red lips. She can't help but assume the weak child never made it to her father. Figures. Nothing more of a slight shoulder roll at the thought. Emotionless eyes watch as inner flames rise within the stallion she had left her son with on the beach that day. Her lips are pressed thin, flat words expressed to those gathered, "He was weak. Only the strong deserve to live." Her lips curl as she anticipates the reaction he will have.
Ebony lips fall flat again as the other is lashing out. Blue flames flickering about. Curiously she watches as the transformation takes hold. Interest soon lost in the heat emitted from his body. Her son was gone, her father gone. She had no purpose for being here.
That's when the black stallion with blue eyes comes to mind. She had seen him in Tagia a little over a year ago. Smirking at the thought of finding him here, she looks to the blue stallion, "I'll leave... When I see fit..." With a quick shift she is in her other form. Flying swiftly into the heart of the kingdom. Surely the large black stallion will not be hard to find...
When he was younger, Diable Rouge's firey temper was enough to scare even the strongest of horses. The way his face curled into a snarl, the way his ears lay flat against his head. He had always been up for a fight, anger and sadness over his mother's murder caused him to want to kill anyone who stood in his way.
He had done much of that. The scars littering his rusty coat was enough to prove it.
Longclaw reminded him a lot of a younger version of himself - well capable of taking care of himself, but youthful and temperamental. As the warg shits into his wolf form, blue fire in his eyes and heart, Rou's bends down, ready to attack.
He was older now, not elderly by any means, but older than Longclaw and older than Karaugh. He had mellowed, with time. After he realized his sire was probably long since dead, after he had found Kaiode, the light in his life, his temper simmered down.
But she had gone too far. She had stepped on his homeland once again, tried to excuse it as some pathetic "diplomatic visit," when all she had really wanted was to piss him off. In that right, she had succeeded. But she wouldn't get far, the chaser wouldn't let her, and he knew Longclaw wouldn't either.
"I'll leave...when I see fit..." And then she does it, shifts into the leather-winged creature, flying towards the volcano. Diable Rouge bolts, whinnying back to Longclaw to follow (he assumes his agile wolf body would be able to jump up and catch her easier). He wouldn't let her get away, not this time...
in the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet.
@[Longclaw] @[Karaugh]
ooc: not exactly sure how old rou is now but I think he's like 8? I suck at keeping track (hence why his profile still says 4) xD
Yes, they could chase her - and Longclaw watches her haughty shift with the soft shake of his head. Ugly and stupid, not a very welcome combination. Sure, they could chase her but the blue warg sees it as a waste of time. He can’t leap into action as Diable does, (though he feels his legs strike out into a tempo that will guide him after the other guard) because he finds Karaugh and her petty little remarks beneath him.
“Diable!” He calls out, digging into the earth with renewed vigor, “Diable wait - don’t waste your time.” He says when his gait allows for them to travel in tandem together. Parallel, the two stallions will soon find the journey on foot would end fruitless - even together they couldn’t hope to outmatch her wings. The pesky bat was made to be quick and hard to see.
“Let’s find Dahmer instead, or someone else in charge. They’ll know how to deal with the nasty rodent.” The younger male laughs, a booming sound that grows in volume when their stride begins to match. “Don’t waste any more of your time on her - she’s not worth it.”
And with the gentle nudge of his fanged mouth against Diable’s scarred neck, he offers to lead them elsewhere. Let Karaugh be a shameful creature and tarry someone else. They had other enemies to devour. Longclaw fills his lungs with a deep breath of smoky haze and pulls his legs to his chest, allowing for the energy of a race to flow through his body. With the sand below them and the waves beside them, he felt as if he could run forever and (as always) he hunts for a challenge.
Diable is taller, his bloodline stretches back to descendants made for stamina just like Claw. They seem a good match.
“Channel the anger, brother!” He whoops, flames sparking at his heels to leave trails of black imprints behind him. “Race me.” The devil says, and turning a green eye to his peer he smirks wickedly.
@[Diable Rouge] Since this has moved on and Karaugh is technically a captive now, I thought we could either tie this up or just have some 'guy time'. Up to you!
The world around him is melting as she flies away, deep into the heart of Tephra, so far from his reach. He wants her to suffer, wants her to feel his pain. He wants to tear her into pieces, show her how it feels to have her heart broken.
Longclaw is beside him now, nudging him, urging him to stop the chase and focus his attention elsewhere. The leathery creature is gone now, "someone else's problem" although Diable Rouge feels all too responsible for her being here.
She's not worth it... The blue stag's words hit a nerve. No...she wasn't worth it.
But Kaiode was.
However, she was long gone by then, and Ellyse would have her by the throat soon enough, that the chaser knew. He would finish his business with her later, in time. Until then, he is still seething, still needing a release of some kind. When Longclaw challenges him to a race, Rou gives the faintest hint of a smile. The blood of the fastest, strongest, most resilient horses pulses through his veins - he is ready.
With a whooping call, he accepts Longclaw's challenge as he had in the plains. He strides lengthen, and he pushes himself forward with a slight oof. The warg was younger, more lean, but Diable Rouge always had some tricks up his sleeves.
in the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet.
@[Longclaw] Rou would probably benefit from some guy time. See how it goes
![[Image: sScEgld.png]](http://i.imgur.com/sScEgld.png)
