"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
He can already hear her in his mind, chiding him (very matter-of-factly and very much like father) for being gone so long. Honestly, he couldn’t have helped it if he had tried - and that is why he enters Hyaline with a sort of a casual shrug, as if he had meant to arrive at this precise moment. Of course, Svedka had never meant to do anything, but with him, things just seem to happen. First he’s going to the forest to explore while Solace stays behind to learn more about Tephra, and then he’s meeting someone by the river and then he’s running at a breakneck sprint through the meadow and then suddenly - he’s just gone. Without a whim, without a word - and though he wishes it differently - without a care.
The young colt isn’t as young as he once was. Still in his youth, of course, but the spindly legs that once carried him are more muscular and toned from his many days of wandering, his mane growing longer and more flowing - he is becoming rather handsome with his pale golden body and the stark white and blue of his mane and tail. He hasn’t completely filled out yet, still obviously learning the ways of the world.
He hasn’t ever been to Hyaline, but he also hadn’t been in any kind of rush to get there. He had perhaps taken a wrong turn back through the river and accidentally ended up near Loess (Solace could forgive him for that, he was never one to pay attention to the directions that father tried to teach him). So he finally arrives, stopping just close enough into the borders to see the pristine lake in the nearby distance. He wonders if the king with the golden scales would find him first, or if sweet sister Solace was already on her way.
11-09-2017, 12:31 PM (This post was last modified: 11-09-2017, 12:34 PM by Solace.)
Solace
She still thinks of him every day- even if it had been months.
She still looks to him, instinctually, when she stumbles upon some curiosity - some exclamation or remark poised on her lips. But when her sparkling eyes glance over her shoulder to the place by her side where he should be (where he had always been) he is not there. Her twin is many miles away. When she laughs she feels his absence the most acutely, when he is not there to echo her laugh, her thoughts turn to questioning where he may be and who he could be with - what trouble he is getting himself into.
How and when will he come back to her?
In some ways, the separation had been good for the young mare. It had given her time to think her own thoughts and dream about her future. It had allowed her to begin to form her own identity, independent of her wayward twin.
But she did not consider this, she only wanted him back.
Rarely does a day pass when Solace does not search the foothills along the eastern border for signs of newcomers, and today, her diligence pays off. There she sees her twin, her heart, standing with a nonchalance she could murder him for if she were not so happy. He looks around as if there is nowhere, in particular, he needs to be! Solace wants to chide him (Never leave me for so long again!) but she can feel nothing other than joy at the sight of his young form whole and hail and within her reach.
"Svedka!" The filly cries, with all the fervor of her hammering heart. Her alabaster legs have already carried her to her twin, and she presses her muzzle into his neck and her forehead into the tangle of his mane. "You found me," she sighs, "and for once I may have more to tell than you do... but you go first, tell me everything!"
She had been yearning to hear his voice for far too long. "Tell me you missed me."
you are my sunshine
@[Svedka] The re-write is not quite as nice, but you get the gist <3
11-12-2017, 08:47 AM (This post was last modified: 11-12-2017, 08:47 AM by Svedka.)
the secret of our world is written in the stars
It’s hard for him to admit it, but despite his wandering ways, but the moment he hears her voice and his eyes meet her equally matched gaze, he remembers how much he needs her, cares for her, loves her.
An easy smile spreads onto the pale gold of his lips, ears flicking back somewhat sheepishly as she greets him, his youthful age showing even though he tries to hide it - he had missed her. The young stallion welcomes her embrace with a gentle laugh, his ble mane falling across her face as he cranes his neck around her, the feather from his youth spinning wildly in the winter’s wind. He touches her neck with his muzzle, inhaling and exhaling as he is flooded with the memory of her, grateful to have finally found her again.
“Of course,” he says smoothly as his teeth tug at her equally blue mane, nostrils wrinkling in fake offense, “did you really think I wouldn’t be able to?” He snorts softly, bringing his chin towards his chest as his sharp blue eyes graze over her, taking in the growth she had made in his absence, though she is still unequivocally his twin sister. “Unfortunately for you, sister, I’ll always be able to find you.”
His brows raise in interest, tilting his head slightly. Solace’s idea of excitement has always been a bit different than his own, but the amount of exuberance in her voice piques his interest; what has happened, what has changed? But she has asked about his ventures first, which he never hesitates to expound on.
“Tell me you missed me.”
Svedka’s face softens. “Solace,” he says gently, wondering if she has missed the way he speaks her name, and bumps his muzzle against the ivory of her cheek. “I missed you.” His voice is tender and truthful, not an ounce of sarcasm or laughter finding his gentle face. The moment does not last long, for his eyes begin to sparkle like they always do and that flashing grin finds his lips. “I mean, I’m surprised I’m still in one piece without you there.”
The young stallion blows heavily in her face as a laugh reverberates in his chest, nipping her cheek gently before tossing his head back, forelegs prancing gently beneath him as a whinny follows his laugh. “Mother’s home is beautiful, Solace,” he tells her, though he quickly continues: “we danced under the stars and sang such wonderful songs,”
“But Father left to return to Tephra, so shortly after I left, too.” He smiles knowingly; he cannot stay in one place for too long. In his pause between sentences, Svedka’s lips press tightly together in thought and his brow furrows: “How is it that I have found you before him?”
“But tell me sister, of your doings. Why are you in Hyaline? Is the king with golden scales here, too?”
Solace, I missed you
Four tender words put her soul at ease.
His moment of sincerity is enough to warm her through, and her smile broadens as he returns her warm embrace. She sees a glimpse of his heart in those few breaths, and that is enough to make her waiting worthwhile, to make all of the joking and roughhousing she is sure will follow trivial in comparison.
The ease with which he challenges the world is apart of him, and she would have it no other way.
He turns the mood with his friendly teasing and she easily pivots with the change in energy, she had got what she needed. "Don't be so surprised I'm not to be found right where you left me!" She quips "I may be able to surprise you, now and then," she adds with a small hint of pride.
He moves away, prancing with excess energy, and she finally notices how much he has changed. Solace has maintained some of her childhood softness, but his sides were hard and lean. His spindly neck had begun to develop a stallions crest, and he finally stands taller than her. She had always been the taller of the two - the more mature, but now it seemed he had surpassed her.
He mentions their mother's far-off homeland and discomfort stirs in her breast. She had never liked the idea of Svedka traveling to live among their nomadic free-spirited ancestors, even if it was only for a few seasons. She was afraid he would like it too much. But she was wrong, he had come back, and she had nothing to worry about now.
"Father is well? When did you part with him? "
In her surprise and excitement at finding her twin whole, well and just like himself, she had momentarily forgotten their father.
Then, nearly unwillingly, she answers his questions about herself even though she would much rather hear more about Svedka and her father. "Amet came to visit me in Tephra, and I decided to return with him to Hyaline... that was in the fall." She pauses, searching his face for any sign of displeasure. "I've been shadowing him in diplomatic meetings, and meeting so many new horses who live here. I've been learning so much."
His voice and eyes are full of laughter and joy (it is rarely ever full of anything but) as he catches up with his sister, both of them each standing before the other, the same as they always have, yet so different than when they were just children. Time has marched on and with it they have grown, physically and mentally, into the two vastly different beings that are before each other, yet with the same exact wistfulness and dedication that they have known since birth - a type of loyalty that long transcends time and seasons, but is embedded deep within their bones and their souls, intertwining them in such a way that despite Svedka’s wandering ways, the two will never truly be apart.
His anchor.
“You truly are full of surprises,” he agrees with a murmur of laughter, tugging gently at her forelock and grooming the mixture of blue and ivory hairs with his teeth. There is something calming about being back with family, especially Solace. She seems to be the one that understands him the most, even more than mother. She can quell the wandering spirit in him, satisfy him just the way that his traveling does, and he believes it to be because she truly wishes to understand him. But like their mother has always told them, some things aren’t meant to be fully understood.
As he backs away, he too notices the ways she has changed physically - more graceful, and rather charming to look at. He wonders if the blue of his eyes are as sparkling and brilliant as hers, large and full of wonder as they stare up at him. She seems more confident of herself and honestly, she seems more happy than he had ever seen her. The air in Hyaline must hold something different for her than Tephra did, he decides. “Father is always well,” he replies with a shrug of his shoulder. Father and himself don’t have much in common (not as much as Solace and father), and truth be told, father probably wouldn’t know Svedka was even back in Beqanna. He left a few months after the blue-winged stallion did, not telling him only because Svedka truly did think he would stay with his mother - but, as always, the young stallion had changed his mind. “He doesn’t even know I’m here,” he says with a boyish grin, his youthfulness apparent on his face. He awaits the scolding; she will not enjoy that fact as much as he does.
Solace explains to her brother the meaning of her being in Hyaline, the way she came to be here and what she plans to do. A small smile twitches onto the pale gold of his lips - Solace always had a plan.
At first he is only mildly interested, though listening carefully anyways (a skill that he has acquired with age and maturity), but then his interest piques and he steps closer to her, head tilting.
“So you live here, now?” He asks, his blue eyes leaving hers for the first time since his arrival to scan the flourishing land around them, sweeping over the rocky ledges and the colorful foliage, lingering on the pristine lake just in the distance, and then back to Solace. “Which means I live here too, right?” A roguish smile spreads, wrinkling his nose. “For now,” he doesn’t add.
11-26-2017, 02:54 PM (This post was last modified: 11-26-2017, 02:54 PM by Solace.)
Solace
Father is always well.
Her eyes narrow slightly as her twin answers her question flippantly. He had never been able to read their father the way she could, his answer doesn't bring her much closer to the truth. But his second statement only elicits an exaggerated eye roll from the young mare. She often found, when Svedka was in such a mood as he was now, that no amount of chiding could make an impression. So she only shakes her head and smiles, too happy to have him back to convincingly feign displeasure.
She can tell she is losing his attention as she begins to explain her new duties, and she pauses for the question she can see poised on his lips.
That means I live here too now?
Suddenly her heart in her throat, and it is as if a boulder has rolled off of her back - a weight she hadn't even realized she was carrying. "Oh, Svedka!" Is all she can manage before she is again bringing her chest to his shoulder and draping her slim neck over his withers. She presses her pale muzzle into the tangle of his sun-bleached mane, inhaling the wild scents intertwined with the white and indigo strands. The feather their mother had placed there rests across her brow, but for once she doesn't mind its presence.
With a happy sigh, she withdraws from the embrace to meet his blazing eyes. "I really think you could be happy here. The land is large and wild, there is much that even I haven't been able to explore yet."
As an idea crosses her mind, the young mare grins in a way that is quite different from her usual mild smile. She remembers Keeper - the strange mare who had been charming and easy-going despite her unusual circumstances.
"...and anyway, there is someone I want to introduce you to."
you are my sunshine
@[Svedka]
If you don't mind moving on we can start the updated thread
