titus
one day it's here and then it's gone,
how are you still holding on?
Chaos.how are you still holding on?
Destruction.
It rings in his head. It fills his thoughts with blurred memories. Memories smeared by thick blood. Screams of agony echoing in his ears.
He can feel the scraps and cuts against his flesh. Opening wounds that can barely heal. He can feel the heat rising, the magma swallowing him. Swallowing all of Tephra.
But it is only a dream.
Only a nightmare.
He wakes up in a cold sweat each night. Opening his eyes to see that the world still is alive. There is no magma engulfing him. No battle raging around him.
It is only a dream.
But a dream that haunts him in every waking and sleeping moment. Titus knows all too well that the dreams are true. The reality is that Tephra burned. The volcano exploded, swallowing all of it. All of them? He hopes not.
It’s been weeks now since he has stepped foot into the volcanic kingdom to truly know if there is nothing left of Tephra. He doesn’t have the guts to face the truth that another home of his has turned into ashes. But it is his greatest fear that is what has come to Tephra now.
The war had been too much. There was too much blood. Too much loss.
Would they always be truly damaged? Would they always be blind by their selfish motives? Their own morals and principles to dictate how the world should be?
The fairies knew then, or at least the stories he knows. They knew how corruptive, how destructive his kind would always be. Titus isn’t surprised they have demolished them all into an oblivion. Their humanity was only damaged goods. There truly felt like there was no longer any redemption for them.
Redemption, he stops suddenly in his thoughts. Perhaps that was what they would always be given. Perhaps they would always have a seconded chance to redeem themselves. A salvation, a brighter future promised tomorrow.
Titus cannot help but think about his conversation with Magnus. The memories of them fighting flash quickly back to him. He can feel the blood splattering, the sweat dripping from his brow. The only thing on his mind then was to protect his home.
To protect Tephra.
Tephra. He bites his lip. Home. His nutmeg eyes search around from where he stands, from where he has been the last weeks since the war had ended and the volcano had erupted (close to the border of Sylva). They quickly turn towards north, finding the tip of the volcano in the distance.
It stands there as it always does. Since he escaped from the explosion, he looked at it every day, hoping to return but never had enough courage to do it.
Until now.
This time he looks at it differently. This time he feels it calling him again. Just as it did on that day Tephra became his new home.
He doesn’t know when he starts moving north, heading on the worn-out path that leads from Sylva to Tephra. Only his hooves carry him forward while his eyes remain on the mountain top.
The smell of sulfur, magma, and scorch set his nostrils on fire. He inhales the aftermath of the war and volcano explosion. It burns his lungs each time he inhales. Igniting him on fire. But Titus doesn’t press away from it. He continues further into the territory, looking across the destruction that their differences have created.
Suddenly, he catches the sight of flowers scattered across the ground. Titus slows down, his gaze tracing across the ground. He stops abruptly in front of a single flower that pushed itself through the harden magma. Lowering his muzzle to the flower, he inhales the sweet scent from the flower.
A sign that there will be life again.
This was their new beginning.
His new beginning too.
son of rome and porcia
male, classic champagne appaloosa
ocelot-shifting, wings, immortality
male, classic champagne appaloosa
ocelot-shifting, wings, immortality
@[leliana] Just tagging if you maybe wanted them to meet. Anyone else is welcomed! <3