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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


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    The ones who are gone
    #1
    Ardashir


    He had turned into everything that he did not want. He was an absentee father, and a shadow that stalked the edge of the kingdoms he served. The white stag had seemingly vanished from the world and left all of those important to him in the lurch. He grit his teeth and charged the large evergreen trunk again his horns cracking and splintering the bark. He ground those dark attachments against the steadfast tree as he worked through his anger with himself. Had he ghosted because of his obligations? No! He pawed the ground and thrashed his head against his wooden foe. Had it been fear then? Maybe..He faltered and swung his tail around a couple times in frustration. The magic that the fairies had blessed him with had also put a change on him. The stallion was still learning to control it and failing at times. Was that when it all started? Last fall? With the changing leaves and the foreign calls from the woods?


    The call to battle from some unknown challenger. The change had taken him in the late afternoon. The pain from the shifting of bones and setting of them into new forms had drove him deep into the forests of the isle. The stag took on the shape of just that. A large white elk stag and he had stared at his new shape in a deep pool for the first hour before the panic set in. How to change back? Was there a way? Ardashir had set his mind a fire back then on how to get back to his true form. And, all the running and fighting the trees and rocks dragging his flesh across the jagged stones had yielded nothing. He had taken to the sea then and swam away in the changing seasons. The stag wandered to the large expanses of the forest and slipped away into the shadows still hearing that foreign challenge in his ears. And, that is how he found himself battling in the rut of that fall. He put his new form to use challenging those bulls. But, he could not keep a harem of those elk females. His mind knew this was all a farce and he was not a true stag and so he slipped away at the end of the season.


    The stallion had started to quiet his mind in the evenings and thought back on his original form. A stallion and not a stag. The change came again and he groaned with pain as he started to understand this new power that was blessed to him. Ardashir still stayed with in the hidden halls of the trees though as he worked to get a hold of this power though. And, it had taken him away from family and kingdoms. Surely though, others out there is this large world had similar powers? And, he had no reason to be afraid of how his family and allies might view him. He had traveled back then back through Nerine and watched from those shadows what was going on. The plague was not getting better and, then the ocean once more had greeted him and he swam to icicle isle. His new home, and it now seemed that even this once safe land was open to infection. He had walked the edges of the land and for a time stayed to the trees and hidden spots listening and watching. The shifting over taking him from time to time and he grew frustrated with it and had to learn once more to calm his mind and accept the power before he was able to shift back.


    Ardashir panted and brought himself back to the present. His head resting hard against the tree trunk. His nostrils flared and red with his exsertion. He owed so many an apology. His brother the ice king, his queen, and his lover Nalia. The daughter they shared as well needed her father. He closed his eyes tightly. He had failed them all.    
    Out under the sky...


    @[Nalia]
    @[Leilan]
    You’ve mistaken the stars reflected on the surface of the lake at night for the heavens.
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    #2
    The sun was descending through the sky when a familiar presence returned to the Isle, but for the time being, against the winds, the painted mare and her weanling filly did not notice such a change at first. The two, resting comfortably in a glen, were grazing near each other, Alcinia just a stone's throw away from her dam. Nalia no longer had any problems with her filly grazing far away from her now, but of course being within her sight relieved the first-time dam.

    There was also the matter that with each passing day, Alcinia was testing her limits, her independence, already showcasing the factors that made her gifted mother infamous during her younger years. Nalia's wings shuffled in the evening air, keeping close to her torso to warm her until her winter coat would grow in. Alcinia's was already in progress, the filly's fluffy coat puffing out as if she had just taken a dip in the ocean and a large, long breeze had dried her instead of letting the coat do so naturally.

    Hearing a snort, Nalia's eyes drifted over to her daughter, seeing the filly still grazing peacefully. More than likely, she had come across a stone, or perhaps inhaled some dust, leading to the display Nalia heard. Content that nothing seemed to be the matter, the mare returned to her own grazing, still unaware of the change in the wind.

    Some more time passed in silence before Alcinia was the one to notice the change first. The weanling  lifted her head when a shift in the wind brought a strange scent along, stomping her tiny hoof since she didn't quite know what to make of it yet. Nalia lifted her head, flaring her nostrils and taking in a deep breath of air, letting out a small chuckle.

    "It's nothing but a deer love. Don't worry, it won't do us any harm."

    Alcinia snorted again, shaking her head, "I don't know Mother, there's something strange about that smell."

    Nalia tilted her head, "In what sense? You've only smelled deer a few times; they don't often hang around the field of the mainland during the warm months. At least, not near us."

    Alcinia shrugged, "I don't know, just a feeling I'm getting."

    Deciding to not concern herself, Nalia lowered her head to graze again, but Alcinia wouldn't drop the matter, "Mother... the smell, it's changing... it's..."

    Nalia rolled her eyes, "For the last time love, there is nothing-" The mare cut herself off when she caught a whiff of the changing smell, sensing that indeed, her filly was right. The mare inhaled again, racking her thoughts since the scents weren't quite different yet. But as seconds passed, and they split apart...

    She almost couldn't believe it.

    Nalia looked back at her filly, "Alcinia, love, keep up."

    The mare then took off, knowing her filly would follow. Sure enough, Alcinia started galloping to catch up, settling in beside her dam as they cantered in the direction the smell was coming from. It wasn't far from the beach coastline, the two realizing it was only a few yards away when Nalia slowed down first. Alcinia skidded to a stop next to her, her nostrils flared as she caught her breath.

    Nalia's wide eyes searched the terrain, spotting something resting by one of the trees. The creature's head was against the bark, it's nostrils flared from the exhertion of it's journey. The mare's eyes were still wide, but then softened when she, with certainty, realized who it was. She was almost afraid to call out his name, scared that he might disappear again, but couldn't stop herself.

    "Ardashir."

    @[Ardashir]
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