"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's raining fire and i'm burning you down to the ground
"If you head down that path," a small fuzzy golden mares voice danced through the silent air, "you will end up where you need to be." A brilliantly colored orange and black stallion towered over the tiny mare and with a tight jaw he glanced towards the well worn path. "You are certain?" his voice is low and rough as he questions her validity. "You aren't just leading me towards my death?" The mare's voice tinkles gently across the empty space between them as she laughs. "Why would I lie? I have no reason to want you dead. I don't even know you."
Grinding his teeth he watches the stranger momentarily before rolling his shoulders in a gentle shrug. "You can never be too careful." With a slight turn to the left the stallion stepped onto the path and for a moment he allowed his strong legs to carry him forward before coming to a stop and looking back at the golden mare. "Thanks... I guess." With a soft giggle that was way too sweet for the world at hand, the mare nodded before trotting off in the opposite direction.
"Strange," Amenhotep muttered. He was not used to such a kind and happy personality. Stepping forward he began to trot, his long legs carrying him effortlessly down the path. While many would maybe wonder how many had traveled here before him, he did not. Instead as he traveled he wondered how many had chosen not to. How many had strayed from the norm and not done what the world expected. How many had never actually touched this place.
Was he making the right choice?
Lost in his thoughts, the orange and black stallion made his way into the field just as the wind began to pick up and carry the gentlest of cool spring breezes across the dark green grasses. With each gust the blades of grass would twist and turn, brushing gently against whatever they were able to reach. "Why am I here?," he muttered as he slowed to a walk. His large yellow eyes scanned the surrounding territory and for a moment he truly is lost. "This doesn't feel right," he whispers quietly. The air felt strange and though it took a while to realize, it was suddenly very clear to him how quiet the land surrounding him was.
There was a lack of life in a place that should be bustling in activity and the silence that sat over the surrounding fields was almost palpable. Coming to a stop, the stallion snorted softly before taking a deep breath.
03-25-2019, 12:28 AM (This post was last modified: 03-28-2019, 01:40 AM by Chryseis.)
you were a vision in the morning when the light came through, i know i've only felt religion when i've lied with you and i'm still waking every morning but it's not with you
.
Of all the places in her birthland, she has never come to the field. She isn’t sure why, since as a child she had explored almost everywhere else. Perhaps it had just seemed too predictable; nothing exciting or interesting ever happened here. It did not have the vibrancy of the meadow, or the mystery of the forest, or the promise of adventure like the river. It didn’t boast millions of intimate secrets the way all the kingdoms did; secrets that she could spend months searching and still never find them all.
Today seemed as good a day as any to see what was here. Apart of her still felt lost without Rhaegor, the boy she had spent so much of her young life with. Tephra didn’t feel like home anymore without him, but the idea of going back to Hyaline, where they had been born and where their relationship had sparked, seemed unbearable. She would have to learn how to be in Tephra without him, and she was searching for anything as a distraction.
She walks through the tall grass, the light of the spring sun warming her back, and she lets a sigh expel from her lips — though the sound is a little despondent, as she takes in the rather desolate land. As she had suspected, it was just a field. The cool breeze lifts and pulls at the thick tangles of black tendrils that cascade the length of her neck, and she shakes her head to cast aside the forelock that framed her youthful face.
He is bright against the almost barren landscape, and the sight of him almost immediately ignites a spark in her sweet brown eyes. Having always been quite the conversationalist, there is no hesitation in her movements as she walks towards him. With her black lips pulled into a smile, she dips her gold-blazed face as a way of greeting, before offering brightly, “Hi! I’m Chryseis,” For a moment she is pleased at having actually remembered to introduce herself — she had a terrible habit of just launching into conversations with strangers — but she takes a moment to observe him, and realizes that he seemed uneasy. He did not smell like Beqanna; he smelled of the wild, the outside, and instantly she is intrigued. “Are you new here?” She asks, even though she thinks she knows the answer.
it's raining fire and i'm burning you down to the ground
Observation was one of Amenhotep's best attributes. In mere minutes the brightly colored stallion had taken a record of the body count that stood in the field. Following that, he noted every possible escape route both closest and furthest from where he stood. So when she entered the field, a vibrant yellow eye found the mare almost instantly and for a moment his breath catches in his throat. Was it coincidence that she had made her way into the field only moments after he?
I guess the real question is, did he even believe in coincidences?
If you were to ask him now, he'd probably say no. Coincidences were a part of superstition and he wasn't necessarily the type to follow in the oldschool beliefs or values. Though you never know. Maybe a new home; a new world that is, could change him. Or, maybe it wouldn't.
His eye follows the blue and gold mare as she makes her way eagerly towards him and for a moment he forgets to breathe. His muscles tense and as the seconds pass he suddenly becomes very aware of how he is standing there like some sort of silly statue. But it isn't this awareness that breaks him from it. Instead it's her greeting when she's finally close and in response he snorts softly as he exhales quickly. "Hello Chryseis," his voice is painted with slight surprise as his heart beats heavy against his ribcage.
He certainly had not been expecting such a greeting.
Amenhotep had come from a place where everyone approached another with some sort of caution and a bite on the tongue. He had been raised to believe that nothing and nobody, even your closest friends or lovers, were to be one hundred percent trusted. So for a moment his teeth pressed together tightly as he clenched his jaw; though moments after he felt himself relax slightly. This wasn't home and he had to remember that treating it as such would do him no good.
"I'm Amenhotep, but you can call me Amen," he tries to smile but the curve of his lips feels awkward and his bodily shifts uneasily. He'd never been the greatest conversationalist. "I was just passing through... But then I realized it was kind of nice here and I decided to stay I guess." He is talking fast now as he responds to her next question without realization. He feels strange - his body is hot and he knows he's failing miserably (in his own opinion) at communicating.
"Is it usually this quiet?," he hates silence. It causes a deeply rooted anxiety to begin to bubble towards the surface. Turning his attention away from the mare temporarily he allows his gaze to scan back across the field slowly. "Did something happen here?" Usually whatever sneaks in through the silence is never anything good.
AMENHOTEP
@[Chryseis]
ooc: i have no idea what is happening here. :| pls send assistance as i figure this boy out.
03-27-2019, 09:52 PM (This post was last modified: 03-27-2019, 09:53 PM by Dawn.)
everything we are, it just went away with a slide of the tongue and a sour taste
She’s decided that she deserves a break.
Parenting twins is hard – who would have thought? She had known that it wouldn't be all fun and games being a mother, but she never imagined that it would be quite this difficult, with two rambunctious lion cubs for daughters and an entire kingdom depending on her to up her game and step up to the plate. Ilma was right; it’s going to be hard for her and Clayton to mature enough and learn enough in the mere year that she had allotted them, but she’ll be damned if she doesn’t even try.
But today, she is tired. Today she leaves the twins in the safety of the Cove and heads towards the field, hoping to find a new face to lure to her beautiful home. The last time she was here she had met the lovely Thia, a strange but kind mare. It has been probably a year since then, and she knows she needs to make a better effort to make Silver Cove thrive again. There are other kingdoms that are so much more active than her own, and with their relationship with Pangea being so rocky... she wants all of the friendly faces she can get in the Cove.
She sees the oddly colored pair from a ways off, and smiles as she turns in their direction. Her body has mostly recovered from the long birth of several weeks ago, and she looks about the same as any other four-year-old, thankfully. A sagging, tired mess of a mare wouldn’t make a good impression on anyone.
The stallion is orange and black, with blazing yellow eyes that draw her attention as she nears them. The mare, she realizes, must be Chryseis. Her golden blaze is unmistakable, though she had yet to meet Rhaegor’s girlfriend. She manages to catch the stallion’s name – Amenhotep – and his rapidly spoken words, all running over each other like a stream over the rocks. She offers him a sad smile as she joins their small group, dark eyes wistful as she takes a glance around to what must have been a bustling place not many years ago.
“There was a plague,” she tells him, not wanting to hide things from this newcomer. “Rather, there is a plague. It has ravaged our lands and taken hold in some of our most beloved friends and family members. We are fighting desperately to find a cure before any more lives are lost to it.”
She breaks off suddenly, and if she could blush, she’d have turned scarlet. “Ah, forgive me,” she mumbles, chuckling sheepishly. “How morbid of me, and I haven’t even given you my name. I’m Dawn.”
She glances to Chryseis, almost afraid to meet her eye – did Rhae tell her what I said to him? – before looking back to Amen, unsure of how to continue. “I hail from one of the few lands that has been granted immunity by the Beqanna fairies, Silver Cove. We are the leaders of the east, also known as the Sanctuary.”
you were a vision in the morning when the light came through, i know i've only felt religion when i've lied with you and i'm still waking every morning but it's not with you
.
She could be too much for some. She was too forward, too brazen, too reactive. As she grew older and matured, she had learned to read other’s body language, and to quiet some of her chaos in response. She would always be somewhat unbridled, but she could see the tension building beneath his brightly colored skin, and she was subdued — but only a little bit. “It’s nice to meet you, Amen.” Her voice is softer, but her dark brown eyes still brim with the energy she has harnessed. “Oh, you definitely should stay! You haven’t even seen all the best parts of Beqanna yet.”
She is about to launch into what would likely have been a far too lengthy of a description of what she considered to be the best parts of her homeland; the mountains of Hyaline, the shores of Nerine, the kelpies that lived in Ischia; it was a near endless list. The sound of another joining them causes her to catch herself, though the look that she flashes the other mare is not a cross one. She has been so bored and starved for interaction lately that she didn’t mind another. It hasn’t even occurred to her that the field was meant for recruiting, and that she was maybe suppose to be inviting him to Tephra?
Dawn, she says, and her name has a spark of familiarity to it. She turns her brilliantly golden face towards her, her eyes alighting and a thrilled gasp of realization escaping as she exclaims in delight, “Oh, you’re Dawn! Rhaegor’s best friend. He’s told me so much about you, but I can’t believe we’ve never met?” Saying his name created a twinge in her chest; to say it so casually, and not as though he was gone (not forever, she reminds herself, over and over). Her inner sorrow reflects for a moment in her eyes, but she steels it away, as she so often did. She was sure neither of them wanted to see her breakdown.
“I live in Tephra,” She says as her attention shifts back to the newcomer, after Dawn has introduced Silver Cove. “It’s safe from the plague as well.” She pauses for a moment, before continuing. “I could show it to you, if you’d like. You don’t have to stay, but they always welcome newcomers.” Her eyes slide towards Dawn, as she adds with a mischievous lilt to her words, “Though just between us, I’ll always be partial to the East, being born in Hyaline and all.”
