"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
11-02-2017, 08:32 PM (This post was last modified: 11-02-2017, 08:34 PM by keeper.)
Keeper-
The grizzly sow did not know why she was awake at this time of night. Something wasn’t right; she needed a den. The first substantial snowstorm could not be that far off judging by this night’s soft lazy snowfall. A den was necessary for hibernation, and a snowstorm was good cover to throw other predators off her trail to the den. She raised her head up, sniffed the air, and looked towards the northern face of the mountains. There, she instinctively knew she’d find what she was looking for.
She began to lumber off in that direction, occasionally rearing up on her back legs to scratch at the trees. Bark curled off under her claws and lay scattered amidst the snow as she lumbered away, slow as the snow that fell against her thick fur. Eventually she made it to the base of the mountain and began to pick her way up the side of it until she located a cave. She hesitated outside the dark maw of it, sniffing the air and turning her head from side to side.
There was no animal spoor here, the cave seemed to be suffering from lack of use - something the grizzly sow would be quick to remedy. She moved right in, slow and lumbering because she was quick in gaining weight to make it through her hibernation but for as much as she thought she gained, each night she was back to a more normal size which puzzled her. As a bear, she knew nothing of magic - not yet anyway, the two halves of brain and heart had not recognized one another and realigned. Not thinking of this, the bear circled the back of the cave a few times before lying down with her head on her paws.
Keeper woke up in a cave.
This was becoming too bizarre for her to comprehend. First, the River and salmon-bones; now a cave and the overripe smell of bear smothering her? She groaned, not usually uncomfortable on a stony floor like this but then, she did not make it a habit to go lying around in caves unknown. She preferred soft thickets to bed down in, or the fallen leaves beneath the red maple she had claimed as her tree. This was something else altogether strange to her, and she could not fathom why she’d wake in a cave on the northern face of the mountain.
Puzzled, she greeted the morning with a squint against the glare of the sun then a defiant tilt of her chin as she snorted the last of the bear-scent from her nostrils. The snow had stopped falling, though she could not say when since the last she had seen it was coming down in great lazy drifts that spun and danced like her breath did on the air. That had been the night before this morning and it’s strangeness took hold of her, settling deep into her bones and dragging the defiance of her head back down to a more familiar position.
She ought to have felt like herself then, with the sun starting to warm her back but she still felt odd and out of place - no, it was an itch she couldn’t shake, a suspicion that started out vague but promised to become clearer the longer she puzzled it out. Keeper shook her head as a distraction and began to pick her way down the mountainside, thinking that despite the cold temperature of the lake, it might be best to take a dip in it and rid the offensive bear-smell from her skin. She had no idea why she stank like that particular predator, did not see how sometimes parts of her changed while she walked - hooves to paws then back again, long snarly tail to a stub against a much larger furrier rump. By the time she reached the lakeshore, these changes had sunk within and buried themselves as if that part of her knew it was not time to reveal itself to her.
Keeper stared at herself in the lake for quite some time, unaware that another mare not much younger than herself had come up beside her. Usually she heard their approach, or smelled them coming, but she was so lost in thought that when she looked up and away from the face that stared back her, she did not realize the look she gave the stranger was a troubled one. She was silent a moment longer before coming to and opening her mouth, “I’m sorry I smell bad, like a bear. I thought a swim in the lake might be a good idea but it’s so cold now.” Keeper did not know how pathetic that sounded coming from her just then, but it was. Or if not pathetic, then sad because she did not recognize the face that stared back at her from the water the next time she looked down at it.
11-04-2017, 02:38 PM (This post was last modified: 11-04-2017, 02:38 PM by Solace.)
Solace
Another day is done, and now that the intrigue of new faces and sights has passed (only until the sun rises again) Solace finds herself thinking of her family. The snow falls in flurries around her, and it is a with a hint of sadness in her round blue eyes that she observes the floating dance of the white flakes. It is the first snowfall the young mare has ever seen, but her thoughts are not reflective of the natural beauty around her. She thinks of Svedka, and the more wonderful the day, the deeper her sorrow that her twin is not there to share it with her.
Where is he now, what reveling or danger does he carelessly throw himself into?
She had passed the night in solitude, and in the morning the cold, still foreign to her, had driven her down from the wuthering mountain summits to the relative shelter of the lake basin. As she walks she sees another mare staring solemnly into the lake as if she were looking for answers.
Before she can decide if she should or shouldn't the young mare is drawn to the side of the sifter. But she can't hide the gentle smile that puls at her lips - because the last words she expected to here were 'I'm sorry I smell bad.'
The scent of a large musky presence was thick in the air, but Solace hadn't thought to be alarmed. At first, the gold and cream mare had assumed the creature had come down to the lake to drink then fled at dawn. But now it seems the smell is lingering on the mare she had silently approached. Thepra too had a bear shifter and Smoak had told her all about him once, so even as she realizes the woman is most likely a shifter she remains calm and curious. All of Tephras shifters seemed to manage control over their animal forms - enough control as not to cause havoc.
"Well, at least you realize it," the woman-child says, as kindly as such words can be said. But the cloud over the other mare's countenance makes her more serious again.
But as an idea crosses her mind the light smile reappears. "I heard once that Losses, to the south, has hot springs," she nearly whispers with a glance in that direction. "But I couldn't tell you who told me that." She thinks back, if her father had told her it had to be true... but if it had been her twin... "I'm not sure if they do or not."
The cold had sunk into her bones during the night and she stomps her alabaster hoves and shakes her spotless coat to fluff it up against the chill. It would be a winter or two before her blood thickened after a childhood spent in the tropics. "I wouldn't mind warming up in a hot spring, even if I had to walk a half day to get there."
Keeper recognizes that much about it though she still doesn’t quite understand what is happening to her. Too many mornings have left her awake but disoriented and in places that a horse does not often chose to sleep in, like on cold cave floors. She preferred to be beneath the sky and the stars, even if the trees hemmed the sky and her in. Keeper doesn’t know that she is a shifter, how could she? She thinks she dreams up these incidents and that something is not right in her brain, except that she hasn’t told anyone - never makes mention of it, until now, until this mare comes beside her and agrees in as kind a manner as she can since Keeper has pinned her with both her dark stare and her unconventional statement.
It is confirmed though. Perhaps she needed that much to ascertain that maybe it wasn’t all just in her head, made up like a story or dreamed up in a dream. The quest had been real enough, and this must be some of the residual magic presiding over her still. That is the only explanation she can come up with for the things that are happening to her. But now, this mare confirms it - she does smell musky and feral, in ways that no horse can. More like predator than prey. But as much as she wanted that confirmation, it sucks some of the air out of her too and leaves her no less morose than before. How does she go on from here? Good thing is, she’s not given time to think about that just now.
No names have been shared. Nothing but Keeper’s odd apologetic statement about her rank smell and the blue-haired mare agreeing, but then there is a proposition made - one that is given a sly look towards Hyaline’s border where it meets another land’s, and Keeper follows it with a questionable look. Hot springs? Sounds delightful, she has to admit it. Good hot water to soak in, someone who is companionable and seems not to mind her gross stench and strange behavior that is so un-Keeper-like. “It sounds like a good idea to me,” and this is the first time in this young mare’s company that Keeper seems to brighten. Not even minding if it takes them half a day or more to get there, half the fun was in traveling and that always appealed to her. Plus, she’s never been to any of the other kingdoms.
She smiles, “Let’s go!”
not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless
@[Solace]
she can't seem to stay sad for very long lmfao
11-16-2017, 07:42 PM (This post was last modified: 11-16-2017, 07:42 PM by Solace.)
Solace
It has occurred to Solace, as a passing thought, that the earthy mare before her may be a shifter - but she had not dwelled on that thought. To be able to change from skin to skin must be a glorious thing, to be able to fly, or to be protected by a set of fine, sharp claws was enviable - but the idea was nothing new to her. She had let it go, just as she had noted the other pelt color and then never thought of it again. She was much more conscious of the others dark eyes looking at her, and nearly spilling over with their worry and confusion. Keeper is the elder of the too, yet Solace feels the need to fill the vacancy, be the comforter, to make things better.
The young mare had no way to know that the shifting and the worry were linked, she didn't have any way to make a guess at what was troubling the mare, so she didn't try and pry. Her suggestion is taken as well as it possibly could have been and she is content to have something to do for the day. If the other mare wanted to talk about what was bothering her it would probably come up later.
"Sounds good to me," she agrees, pleased.
With a newfound energy in her step, the tri-colored girl turns her body to walk along the shore of the lake, pointing them south. After a few steps, she tilts her head to look at her companion. "I'm Solace, by the way, Tangerine's daughter." she assumed that her mother must have met some of Hyaline's residents during her springs and summers here. "...If you knew her," she adds, as an afterthought.
Now that they are closer together she can tell the musky scent was definitely coming from the mare, and before a silence can grow between them Solace falls back on the only other topic they had touched on, for conversation.
11-22-2017, 08:39 PM (This post was last modified: 11-22-2017, 08:44 PM by keeper.)
Keeper-
Keeper is in pure denial of her newfound shifter sensibilities; refusing to acknowledge that the bear is her and she is the bear. Horses should not be bears, or are not meant to be bears and all other manner of critter despite the fact that she knows they are and it is something as inherent to this land as it is to any other. Magic, she muses with a forlorn thread of thought that wends towards the quest she had taken part in but a shudder pulls her back - Keeper is not ready to face that hunger again, unending, or the horrid rip of her flesh as it came apart to allow her bones to grow bigger than bones are meant to be.
The companionable quiet of the mare beside her is enough to further distance herself from her depressing train of thought. She is looking forward to these hot springs and soaking herself in them. Her own step gaining a slight bounce to it as she trails at Solace’s shoulder, trusting her to lead them around the lakeshore to this other land and back again. Keeper has not thought to undertake any travels to and from this place besides her short jaunts into the field, meadow, or forest. She is still not quite sure why or how the King in his bronze armor of scales thinks her suitable enough to join their ranks, but he has and she never questioned him about it.
Just like she never questions why the mare leading her onward just accepted Keeper’s odd behavior and did not comment on it further. Solace just accepted it, like Keeper does most things, though it is now that she learns her companion’s name and something about the moniker is befitting of the little buckskin splash. She offers solace just as her name implies, but the mention of her mother only garners a sad little shake of the dunskin’s head. “I’m sorry, but I don't recognize the name.” The name might have been bandied around a time or two, but if so, it was never said in Keeper’s company nor had she ever had the pleasure of hearing it.
Well, there was that one time she stumbled upon a set of mares - one attempting to give birth, the other trying to soothe her, and a wolf that poked her face out of some bushes, but Keeper never learned any of their names. “Can’t say that I had the pleasure of knowing her but I might have stumbled across her once…” it occurs to her then, that Solace’s shape and the mare’s were similar but lots of mares were slim and pretty and quick to flash their smiles, just like Keeper was. Except for the pretty part, hers came in a much wilder unkempt way. “Maybe I met her and didn’t even know it,” she mumbles more to herself than her companion but it is still loud enough for Solace to hear.
“So, are you a shifter?”
It comes out of nowhere but should have been expected.
“No!” she blurts out. Keeper’s face is panic stricken for longer than a moment as she grows very quiet and just keeps on walking. It is some time before she answers her fellow mare, eyes still cast down towards the ground as she focuses on planting one hoof before the other. Except that she doesn’t see hooves, she sees the paws of a bear and a sigh escapes her mouth.
It is time to fess up to what she has been suspecting all this time, that the quest had changed her somehow. Not quite into that horrid cryptid of her grandmother’s legends but into something close enough to bear it some resemblance. But changed her nonetheless and all the signs were there, to be read as easily as the tracks of the bear that had been left on her skin. She tugs at her lip with teeth that are unbeknownst to her, sharper and more curved than a horse’s ought to be - “I think I might be.”
Keeper had never been anything other than ordinary.
Until now and she didn’t know what to make of it.
Solace is glad that Keeper so easily accepted her company. In Tephra, her playmates had always been male, her biggest role-model is her father, and Tephra's king was - a King. Her world have been painfully lacking in femmale influences. The young mare had spent her first winter hoping Tang would birth a little sister for her, but her mother had disapered before that could hapen.
(She did not know that her mother had given birth to a half-sister that spring - that Keeper had actually seen this girl.)
Keeper gives her something which had always been lacking in her life, and any of Keepers odd mannerisms are only seen as endearing quirks.
Solace feels a little guilty as Keeper uncomfortably searches for an answer. "Its ok, she probably never stayed for long." Her mothers Morgan blood had given her the arched neck, set high on the shoulders, and her muzzle was rather small... but for the most part, her father Mustang heritage had won out. The bright golden splash along her top-line was the clearest connection to the buckskin overo Tangerine.
Then suddenly Solace is halting, unsure exactly where she went wrong, and afraid to do more damage. She had only asked about the obvious, and the panic which swiftly overtakes Keepers features startles Solace. Blinking her round blue eyes, she halts, wondering where she went wrong. "I'm sorry." She mummers before even realizing she had spoken. But the dunskin trudges on, watching her own paws as she ambles along the lakeshore.
Paws.
Something like a resigned sigh comes from the bear-mare and Solace cautiously returns to Kepper's side. She listens intently, just now realizing that this is new information to the shifter... But she can't fully understand why she seems to see this as a bad change.
"Hey, there are worse things to find out... worse things than discovering you can transform into a kick-ass grizzly." Solace nudges the mare on her shoulder, trying to draw out the care-free smile she had glimpsed earlier.
"Come on, let's race to the border! We will find out if bears or plain old horses are faster!"
