12-10-2020, 12:51 PM
stifled the choice and the air in my lungs;
better not to breathe than to breathe a lie
His mouth is watering at the thought of tropical fruits, but the hunger vanishes like fog in the sun at the sight of an uncomfortably familiar shape stumbling to a halt on the beachfront. Tiercel can remember the last time he has seen Eyas’s face — full of vitality and beginning to harden with maturity, her breaths making the closest feathers of the nest quiver gently — and it flashes for a brief moment in his mind’s eye. The sister he sees now looks like life has not been gentle, but there is no pity in his pale eyes. Even from a distance, Tiercel can see spiderwebs and long-dead leaves clinging to her skinny body as though she had crawled out of the grave.
Eyas says his name and it almost sounds like their mother’s voice. It’s close enough to stoke annoyance to alight within his stomach like burning coals. Tiercel allows the emotion to reach Eyas with enough emphasis that she might feel it and know that it belongs to him. Almost simultaneously, there is a faint tug near the back of his eyes. He might not have even noticed it if he hadn’t been meddling with his own magic, but he recognizes the way the knot tightens between two sets of eyes. “Well, you look like shit.” He doesn’t answer Eyas’s question, mainly because another winged creature is landing on the beach.
Tiercel can recognize those bright blue eyes anywhere. He’s seen them in his sleep — in dreams and in nightmares — and he’s seen them while he’s awake. Those electric irises have haunted the dunskin since the day he had heard how Tephra’s volcano had engulfed Gale like a hungry monster. Despite his skill with his emotions, Tiercel cannot contain the shock and guilt and relief he feels when he finally stares into his brother’s face after so many years. It’s a heavy mixture that falls across the three of them like a blanket; at first, there is nothing, and then suddenly it is there all at once.
“Gale.” His tenor voice is a whisper against the sound of the peaceful waves on the black sand. “You’re… You — uh, you’re alive?” Gale talks as though he hasn’t been dead, as though they are in the middle of a game. Tiercel’s ears twist backward and the blanket of emotions is replaced by the bitter taste of confusion. “You can’t be alive. And even if you are, wouldn’t you be burned?” His cerulean eyes methodologically scan Gale’s body, searching for any hint of the damage the volcano would have done.
Tiercel had heard the words. “Gale fell in the volcano. He’s — he’s dead.” He had seen the grief that shook their mother to the core, the pain that ate away at their father’s soul, the loneliness that consumed Eyas in those weeks following. He had felt the guilt — how terribly he had felt that guilt, like an infection that burned through his veins and destroyed him from the inside out. Tiercel cannot imagine those days and nights spent sweating and dreaming and shouting and feeling were all wasted because Gale is here and alive.
Eyas had been with him in the thicket of their worst dreams. She had felt the tension between their parents, seen the way Tiercel accepted responsibility for Gale’s death, observed the empty spot in their nest where their brother should have been.
Burning, boiling, reckless rage spills from Tiercel as he abruptly swivels toward Eyas, his face twisted in an expression of insurmountable pain. “How could you! Is this how you greet your brother?” His navy face jumps toward her, low and powerful like a cobra striking. “You know the regret I carry every day, Eyas. So you play tricks with my eyes to make him appear?!” He feels himself breaking as if the emotions inside him are too much and the pressure will fracture him, separating skin from muscle and leaving him a messy puddle of feelings on the beach. Tiercel charges his sister anyway, his teeth snapping for anything that will release emotions that crush him from within.
Eyas says his name and it almost sounds like their mother’s voice. It’s close enough to stoke annoyance to alight within his stomach like burning coals. Tiercel allows the emotion to reach Eyas with enough emphasis that she might feel it and know that it belongs to him. Almost simultaneously, there is a faint tug near the back of his eyes. He might not have even noticed it if he hadn’t been meddling with his own magic, but he recognizes the way the knot tightens between two sets of eyes. “Well, you look like shit.” He doesn’t answer Eyas’s question, mainly because another winged creature is landing on the beach.
Tiercel can recognize those bright blue eyes anywhere. He’s seen them in his sleep — in dreams and in nightmares — and he’s seen them while he’s awake. Those electric irises have haunted the dunskin since the day he had heard how Tephra’s volcano had engulfed Gale like a hungry monster. Despite his skill with his emotions, Tiercel cannot contain the shock and guilt and relief he feels when he finally stares into his brother’s face after so many years. It’s a heavy mixture that falls across the three of them like a blanket; at first, there is nothing, and then suddenly it is there all at once.
“Gale.” His tenor voice is a whisper against the sound of the peaceful waves on the black sand. “You’re… You — uh, you’re alive?” Gale talks as though he hasn’t been dead, as though they are in the middle of a game. Tiercel’s ears twist backward and the blanket of emotions is replaced by the bitter taste of confusion. “You can’t be alive. And even if you are, wouldn’t you be burned?” His cerulean eyes methodologically scan Gale’s body, searching for any hint of the damage the volcano would have done.
Tiercel had heard the words. “Gale fell in the volcano. He’s — he’s dead.” He had seen the grief that shook their mother to the core, the pain that ate away at their father’s soul, the loneliness that consumed Eyas in those weeks following. He had felt the guilt — how terribly he had felt that guilt, like an infection that burned through his veins and destroyed him from the inside out. Tiercel cannot imagine those days and nights spent sweating and dreaming and shouting and feeling were all wasted because Gale is here and alive.
Eyas had been with him in the thicket of their worst dreams. She had felt the tension between their parents, seen the way Tiercel accepted responsibility for Gale’s death, observed the empty spot in their nest where their brother should have been.
Burning, boiling, reckless rage spills from Tiercel as he abruptly swivels toward Eyas, his face twisted in an expression of insurmountable pain. “How could you! Is this how you greet your brother?” His navy face jumps toward her, low and powerful like a cobra striking. “You know the regret I carry every day, Eyas. So you play tricks with my eyes to make him appear?!” He feels himself breaking as if the emotions inside him are too much and the pressure will fracture him, separating skin from muscle and leaving him a messy puddle of feelings on the beach. Tiercel charges his sister anyway, his teeth snapping for anything that will release emotions that crush him from within.
tiercel.
@[Eyas] @[Gale]