"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
It has taken Smoak quite a while to chew through the information that Kagerus and Svedka had shared with him. Solace had loved him once, Kagerus had said. Svedka was going to be an uncle. An uncle. The bone-plated stallion hadn't asked Svedka who the father was, nor if Kagerus had petitioned to the Fairies for a child between herself and the blue-tinted Caretaker of Hyaline. He hadn't asked Solace either. Instead, the young stallion had dealt with it unhealthily ─ through avoidance. He had carefully skirted the conversation each time it had been brought him; he had thrown his mind into his new work of supporting Hyaline, regularly patrolling the borders particularly where Solace had indicated some political uncertainty.
He smiles at her warmly now, as he always does despite the acidic rolling of his stomach (missed opportunities be damned), and comes to a halt by her side. "Solace," his deep voice rumbles as he notices the new slimness of her barrel. His brows furrow for a moment, nostrils flaring, as his bright eyes flick away from the painted mare and to the open meadow before them. He had heard no word of her giving birth, though admittedly he had been perusing the outskirts of the territory for the last few days. "Is Svedka an uncle now?" he asks with warmth in his eyes, but it's the only way he can make himself word the question. Are you a mother now? and You and Kagerus must be so happy seem like impossible things to say.
He has forgotten what he had sought her out for today, distracted again by the things had hadn't said when he should have said them. He stays quiet for a moment, his eyes turning to gaze into Solace's with a friendly attentiveness. When he does find his voice again, the champagne stallion shifts his weight away from the painted lady and turns his eyes back to the meadow. "You'll be great, you know." He pauses again, to chew on the inside of his lip. "Is there anything you needed? For Hyaline, I mean, or for yourself," he trips over his words and finds that he's quite happy that his forelock has fallen over the side of the face closest to her.
S M O A K here's a handshake, soldier, 'cause we both lost the war
06-18-2018, 04:35 PM (This post was last modified: 06-18-2018, 04:57 PM by Solace.)
Solace
. . .
In the final days of her pregnancy, Solace had been a lumbering, uncomfortable mess. She had kept to her secret meadow and let Kagerus shoulder the day-to-day business of the kingdom. But then the twins had come, and to her surprise, life hadn't become much easier. In the first week or two after the twins were born, she had barely slept. When one Clegane slept, Valdis was hungry - When Valdis dozed, Clagane wished to explore the mountains. She had been pulled in two different directions at every moment despite the help offered to her by Hyaline's residents.
But now as the twins grew (and they could survive without eating every ten minutes) Solace found that she was regaining some semblance of her former life as Caretaker.
With a skip and a glide, she overtakes the bone-plated stallion, and they come to stand together among the stony foothills. "I think it's his calling," she laughs in response to his first question. Svedka had taken to babysitting with ease like he did everything else, and her children had been charmed from their very first interaction.
But suddenly Smoak's smile grows a little more cautious, and the curtain of his pale forelock shields his face from her. His weight shifts away ever so slightly as his next words find her, and Solace reaches out to brush it away from those hazel eyes she had always admired. She thinks better of her actions as her muzzle drags gently across his brow, but she finished what she set out to do anyway.
"Stay with me today, Smoak. We can patrol together." Her tone is light as if she had not noticed the awkwardness which threatened to put a damper on their conversation, and she glances out across the empty miles surrounding them. But before they can continue on their way, her resolve breaks, and she cannot pretend she did not notice the downcast air of her childhood companion any longer.
"Smoak," she begins, unsure of how to put into words the uneasiness she feels, and the deep concern she has for his happiness. But then she changes her course, not trusting herself to say the right thing and her care-free smile is back on her lips. Springing into a trot, the gold splashed mare covers several paces before calling back to him.
"Let's trot and talk, I've been standing around for months. Tell me, did you have to fight off any intruders while I was tucked away in a cave? Or maybe you were the welcoming party for a lovely, free-spirited woman who has already come and gone?"
