"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
And in the darkened underpass I thought, "Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!"
The morning is painted with frost glimmering like diamonds in the early sunshine. It’s a marvelous view, really, as autumn slowly creeps toward the beginning days of winter. Temperatures are steadily dropping, but during brisk mornings such as this, Valdis has her own independent means of warmth.
Leading herself astray, the lake with its ice-crusted shallows breaches her vision. Its surface ripples and beckons her nearer, a siren in a field of green. A glance to her left, then her right, confirms her solitude. She had left her family asleep, eager to observe the hillside as the sunrise paints the meadow in shades of scarlet and orange. The magical display enraptures her and thrills her. For a few long minutes, her home is painted with fire.
A chill shudders through her small body, but she responds by igniting a faint aura of flame around her. It incubates her, the flames just barely out of her skin’s reach. Too weak – too young, really – to sustain it or to amplify it, the fire simmers then flickers away. Although disappointed, she doesn’t brood long as she continues at an ambling walk toward the water’s edge. It won’t be long until everyone – mother, Kagerus, and Velk – stir from their slumber. Either they will find her or they will allow her a fleeting sense of freedom. For the time being, Valdis embraces it and peers down at the thin layer of ice. She cannot see her reflection. She has multiple times before and knows how her molten locks stand on end along her arched neck and how her eyes match in color, gleaming radiantly when hit by a peripheral ray of sunlight. ”I’m pretty,” she whispers to herself, but is unable to confirm it again without her reflection staring back at her. ”Stupid ice,” with the childish energy she has, she ignites the air surrounding her and presses a single hoof against the ice. Immediately, it melts beneath the small tongues of flame before the fire, again, distinguishes.
But that was enough; it was all she wanted. Nothing would stand in her way.
With an amused grin, Valdis peers down at herself in the water, watching curiously as steam rises and kisses her face before disappearing.
VALDIS
But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask.
On trees. Across the lake. Gathers even on the lengthening hairs of his painted fur. He cannot deny that it makes Hyaline that much more appealing, as if that is necessary or even possible. Neither is he certain how or when this place began to get beneath his skin, enough to become memorable - enough to almost feel like home. But he’s being a tad bit generous with his thoughts on that. Home was wherever his father was and his father certainly did not linger long in Hyaline because of his mother’s dalliances with her lover-queen.
He has just stepped out a dream, having manipulated himself into the background of it. Sometimes he does that, just to spy on what others dream though he’s never once set foot into anything his mother might dream up. Not because he’s afraid of her or afraid of intruding on her, just because he has no absolute desire to feel any less than he already is from the moment she sought to make Solace’s dragon-get her own or their trio of babies that came after. Call him jealous, he probably is but he feels left out despite having met all the foals that have come between them. Velk and Valdis, then the triplets but he preceded them all. He was the first, but did it count since he did not come from his mother’s loins but rather, his father’s through pain and magic?
It cannot possibly matter as the morning paints the sky in flames, in honor of fire as it burns and blazes above. Most of them still squander the morning in sleep, probably even in dreams because he can feel them pull at his skin, almost like an itch that he needs to scratch but somehow, Abysm resists. So he remains, loose-limbed but almost poised for something, be it flight or to rip his way into someone else’s dream. He could almost believe he’s alone - almost. Were it not for the faint murmurings of someone by the lake, someone whose voice he happened to recognize the girlish intonation of.
Valdis.
He creeps up on her for all that a grown stallion can. Which is saying much since he cannot remember the last time he’d given thought to growing up. It just sort of happened. One moment, he looked into Hyaline’s lake and saw a moody lanky colt and if he looked now, he’d see a serious stallion coming into muscle and height, and a face as dished and handsome as his mother’s is dished and beautiful. Of course she’s at the lake though. It is jewel-bright, even iced over like it is this morning. He looks on as she ignites the air and presses a flaming hoof to the frozen water and begins to melt the ice away.
Abysm almost doesn’t want to interrupt her reflection-staring, but he does.
He takes a step closer to her, certain to crunch frost underfoot so she is given enough warning about his approach. Not that she needed it since he is already speaking to her, “Pretty little sister.” he calls, treating her no differently than he’d treat the triplets despite the fact that she is not his sister by blood and only through the relationship their mothers have with one another. Still, he was there for their birth and the aftermath - infancy and now, whatever part of life she’s on the cusp of as she looks into the steaming bubbling surface of water.
He extends his muzzle to her, but ever mindful of the fire she can invoke at a second’s thought. Then again, he could always just suck her into a dream and a not so very nice one at that. But he’d only do that in retaliation. Instead, he’d wish a thousand sweet dreams upon her lovely little head. Not that Abysm would ever care to admit that he actually liked his siblings. They knew, but he liked to make their mothers sweat by pretending that he didn’t. Instead, his attention focuses solely upon little Valdis and her fire-talent.
09-05-2018, 08:47 AM (This post was last modified: 09-05-2018, 08:47 AM by Valdis.)
And in the darkened underpass I thought, "Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!"
Of course I am, she doesn’t say.
Valdis peers back over her shoulder as Abysm closes the space between them, crackling the frost underfoot. Her eyelids drift shut for a heartbeat as he touches her sentimentally. A languid smile dreamily materializes and softens the edges of her face. ”Abysm,” she prefers to say his name, to taste the sweetness of it, instead of referring him as something he isn’t. Brother. They aren’t related. They don’t even share the same mother, but all of them have been clustered together as a display of their parents’ relentless sex drive. All of them could make a separate herd. Kagerus and Solace, the Queen Mothers, and their six children all born within the past couple years. Quite a picture they paint, no?
Despite their shared blood, however, Valdis holds only love for Abysm. When her eyes open, her beauty comes together. Her molten gaze matches the rest of her body – gold, buckskin, black points – and she looks almost otherworldly. Angelic, perhaps? She would laugh at the word and scorn the idea of being so dainty and pure. That isn’t her. Beautiful, yes, but fragile? No.
Turning to face him – to breathe him in – Valdis casually looks over him and takes note of the similarities he shares with Kagerus. A brow lifts and their eyes briefly lock. ”Am I the prettiest sister?” A glance to the left and right ensures that no one is near enough to hear them. Is everyone still soundly asleep? Edging closer, she whispers, ”It’s okay. I won’t tell our siblings.” She treats Abysm to a coy smile before slipping away and staring at the surrounding hills. ”Do you think we will have more siblings in the spring?” There is a lightness in her voice despite her thoughts souring at the idea of it.
VALDIS
But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask.
Sentiment more than blood is the uniting factor between them. That much is apparent even as she smiles and her face softens. He is much freer with the use of sibling and sister than she’ll ever be. It’s something he doesn’t fault her for as their mothers bred like rabbits over the last two years, producing offspring after offspring without plan or care. That she knows him and says his name oh so sweetly is enough.
Abysm would take what he could get from them and rub his mother’s face in it just to spite her. How she must pale at the thought of him being closer and kinder to this girl not in the least bit related to him than his own love-drunk mother!
Speaking of love; it overwhelms him in that singular burning look she pins him with. Abysm can feel it matched in the look he gives back to her, laughter hit on its heels because she is a small but mighty force to be reckoned with. He can only imagine the depth of knowing she possesses about her appearance - molten and fierce. If she was angelic then it was only in the sense of swift fierce vengeance.
She was not one to be trifled with lightly if at all. Pity the fool that does! Though he’d love to watch it as an innocent but knowing bystander. Most likely armed with a grin and a good chuckle at how she’d best that aforementioned poor fool.
He is sucked in by the locking of their eyes and the conspiratorial hush of her voice. It is easy to breathe in her sweet scent the closer to him that she gets. Something cindery but in the best way as he leaned in to divulge his version of the truth. “The prettiest,” he assures her before she scoots away to stare at the hills, his line of sight trailing hers.
Abysm is surprised by the question. The smile is abruptly stricken from his mouth as it sets into a familiar hardness. He’s tempted to work his jaw back and forth in a grinding motion to ease the tension in his face. There was no masking his emotions in this moment; he’d not spare her from his foul thoughts on this matter.
“I hope not. If they’re smart, they’ll abstain from baby-making for a year or two. Makes you wonder how they managed to raise us or look after this kingdom when they’re always together...” he trails off into absentminded muttering. The subject is too sour for a day so nice but she’d asked and he refused to hold his tongue for her sake or their mothers’.
