"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
She had been quiet in Loess, one day she was with Santana imagining there life together, the next the plague strikes and not a word. She could not wait forever, and as she watched her twin brother excel in the kingdom, quickly climbing to the top, she was ok at being average.
She decided to get out and explore the forest before winter got to heavy. A nice break from the kingdom, a change of scenery, a change in smell. Who knows, maybe she will run into Tana, maybe she will remain alone.
She couldn't let the thoughts consume her, instead she clears her head as she scans the view around here. Pine trees all around that were as green as ever, dusted in a light blanket of snow. A gentle smile tugging at her maw, the Pampas was a generally warm climate and they have yet to see snow this winter.
Just as she relaxes her ears catch the sound of....another. Her head whips around hoping to find the source. She looks around her completely but no one in sight....she snorts, was her mind playing games on her? With a shrug she continues on, stopping to sniff a single remaining leaf on an otherwise bare tree.
it's a lonely road, I know,
and nothing ever stands between a bullet and your soul;
He is alone in the forest, as he typically is. Companionship was awkward for him, cumbersome and difficult for him to navigate. It was not something he sought out willingly, though he occasionally stumbles upon it – or the other way around.
The forest is quiet, many of the sounds muffled by the thin blanket of snow. Clumps of it fall from the limbs above as the birds flit around the tops of them, and his cerulean coat is pulled taut over his brawny frame, an attempt to ward the chill in the air away. In the light of day, he does not blend in at all. His color is bright against the shadows of the trees and the starkness of the snow, but he is not concerned with being hidden.
He rounds a bend, and he sees her. Her head had turned sharply in his direction, but the way the trees and brush are growing have made it so he could see her, but she could not see him. She is young, and alone, and he can see the way she chooses to ignore what could have been a sign of danger. Raed is not malicious, but he cannot say the same for others.
He breaks from the brush, his movements still deftly quiet, until his low and level voice breaks through the silence. ”The forest is a dangerous place to let your guard down.” It is said with a quirk of his brow, and an almost amused upturn of his blue lips as his eyes sweep across her youthful face. ”Lucky for you, it’s just me.”
Her head turns quickly when the sound she heard earlier appears once again. This time, her eyes lay on another, she quickly wonders if he was the source of the noise earlier.
The forest is a dangerous place to let your guard down. His introduction was infuriating, Venus stares at him unphased, a snort escaping her maw. A grin tugs at his lips as he follows up lucky for you, It's just me.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes, who said my guard was down? I knew you were there. She quickly retorts, sure, she heard a noise earlier but she had no ides he would appear.
A small white lie never hurt when it was to make a point. Her hazel eyes quickly scanned over the stallion whos body was the deepest blue her eyes had ever seen. My dear savior, what is your name? she asks cocking her eye. She had been pent up in Loess for far to long, her attitude could not be contained.
it's a lonely road, I know,
and nothing ever stands between a bullet and your soul;
He doesn’t have to reach into her mind to know she is lying. It showed in how quickly she executed her reply, the way her eyes flashed in a rush to his face. He used to use his gift in situations such as this to irritate his companions, to call them out on their lies, no matter how small. Recently, though, he left the gift turned off. He partially wasn’t interested in what most were thinking, and the few where he did let that curiosity pique, he felt like he was invading on something he wasn’t supposed to hear – his conscience was minimal, but it did exist.
”Of course you did,” is all he says, with a knowing tilt of his cerulean head. He would let her have this one, this time, but the faint smile that lingered on his dark lips said everything that he didn’t speak aloud.
”My name is Raed,” the words slip easily from his mouth, his steps drawing him closer, although he does not completely crowd into her space. He could be arrogant and uncouth, but he never had the aim to frighten anyone. Instead, he regards her from a distance, as he asks her pointedly, ”And what is your name, almost damsel?”
Her eyes intently stared at the blue stallion, she has had little interaction with equines outside of Loess and her family. She has certainly never come across someone so testy.
Of course you did the words slithered from his mouth in response to her claim of knowing he was there. Sure she was lying, and from the tilt of his head he knew it, but she had ways to escape! Worst case scenario she could shift into her bird form and fly away, hoping the predator didn't have wings...or was faster.
She was still young, and her lack of exploration leaves her naive. Loess isn't exactly the nicest of kingdoms lying around, but certainly not the worst. She returns her attention to the stranger as he introduces himself, Raed , she repeats his name in her head a few times, becoming familiar with it.
He steps closer to her, and she should perhaps be a little more weary but instead she remains still where she stands. In return he asks for her name. almost damsel , a grin tugging at her lips in response. My name is Venus , she says with a toss of her mane. What are you doing out here? She asks, growing curious of his initial reason to be out of his kingdom...should he have one.
it's a lonely road, I know,
and nothing ever stands between a bullet and your soul;
”Venus,” He says her name with a ghost of a smile, a barely-there twitch of his lips. It had been a long time since he has last found himself in the midst of Beqanna, and he had forgotten that occasionally, the company of another was pleasant. She was young, and perhaps not usually the kind he would choose to idle away his time with, but she was amusing enough, for now. He was not always the best conversationalist, and he grew irritated and tired of others easily, but at the same time, there was only so much solitude that he could stand.
Which, has brought him here.
”Boredom, I suppose.” He answers honestly, a feigned exasperated sigh expelling from his lips as he walks a half-circle around her. ”It’s quiet, when you’re just trapped inside your head. It’s nice to have a...distraction.” An almost calculated tilt of his head, then, his dark eyes sweeping across her face. He hasn’t been in any of these new lands, and he can see by how young she is that she has never been in, and possibly never even heard of, the lands that had been here when he was born. Every smell that clings to her skin is strange, and without creeping into her mind, he has no way of knowing if she’s far from home or not. ”Why are you here?”
She reveals her name and he was quick to spew it from his own mouth. She has had little interaction with others aside from her brother and Tana. She barely remembers her childhood with her mother and father, and being stolen at such a young age left her rebellious. Why should she talk to the people who stole her? It didn't make sense, but she lived the quiet life so her brother could make something of himself in the kingdom.
Her gaze flicks back to Raed as he answers her question, Boredom I suppose. A grin tugs at her lips, she fully understands that reason. Boredom is what sent her away from Loess nearly every time. Her gaze follows him as he walks around her, not completing the circle. The stand opposite from where they started, and he speaks again. Stating it's quiet when you're alone, and a distraction is nice.
This time she nods her head, it seems the two are much more similar than it seems. What caused him to live a life of solitude? She wonders, how similar were there stories after all? Why are you here? He asks and she ponders for a moment, this time she walks a half circle around him. Partially for the humor of it, partially out of boredom. They now stand were they started and she finds his gaze once more, I guess boredom. There answers the same, boredom will cause you to do a lot. I am from Loess, well, stolen into Loess. She snorts, her mouth full of distaste as she says it aloud, Anyway, I only have my twin brother, I don't associate with the others. Life gets lonely there....so I came here looking for another.
it's a lonely road, I know,
and nothing ever stands between a bullet and your soul;
Boredom is likely a common factor that many of them shared. For everything that this land of magic and wonder had to offer, everyone always seemed to fall back into the same patterns. It was easy to forget that they all – any one of them – could have the world at their fingertips, that it was simply waiting for it to be molded and shaped by their hands. He was just as guilty as any of them. He didn’t appear to have inherited either one of his parents’ ambition when it came to the kingdoms – both a once king and a once queen, along with his grandparents on his father’s side – having always found them tedious and their tasks repetitive. It could also be argued the life he was currently leading was similar, but something about not feeling confined by a kingdoms imaginary borders was invigorating.
She moves in a half circle around him, mirroring his own movements, and another humored grin lifts at his dark blue lips. She was young, but she was smart, and perceptive. When she says Loess, he is intrigued. He knew little of the current lands, but he knew enough. Even if he wanted no part in them, he also didn’t like remaining entirely ignorant. The reckless and arrogant girl that served as their royal advisor was a daughter of one of his older sisters; it seemed he truly was one of the only ones the kingdom-driven gene had skipped over in his family. ”Stolen into Loess? Then you were not born there, I would assume.”
There is a rough-sounding laugh that builds from his throat – a sound he doesn’t make often. ”You sound as though you despise the place, but surely your sentence must be up? Why have you stayed, then.”
Perhaps she had said to much? The blue stallion seems to grow incredibly interested when she mentions being stolen from Loess. Then again, her life was anything but normal from the start. She lived your typical childhood, but as soon as she was taken to Loess everything changed. She isolated herself from everyone besides Titus...probably the main reason why she has no where else to go.
Raed questions--assumes that she was not born into Loess, he quickly caught on that she disliked Loess and he inquired why she stayed. A question that she pondered here and there, as soon as Arthas left Loess she had no reason to stay....no one else in the kingdom forced her to be there, but she couldn't bring herself to leave her brother. Her gaze looks to Raed quizzically, but with a shrug of her shoulder she responds.
No, I was born into Nerine, my twin brother and I were stolen at a rather young age. I guess I simply stayed because my brother did not want to return home....he built a life for himself within Loess, in fact he is rather high in rank. She did not pay much attention to what his exact rank was, but she had noticed he had been favored by Wolfbane, she only wonders how he favors with the new king.
I guess I was always free to leave, and perhaps that makes me stupid for staying in a kingdom I hated...but I found someone who became my friend... She thinks back to the time she met Santana, all the times she visited his home and how she fell hard for the dragon boy. She could go on and on about her life in Loess, but instead she savors the details for her memory.
![[Image: Raed.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/qNcK0V8V/Raed.jpg)
