06-23-2021, 12:12 PM
In the wilds of Liridon - after Tarian had given nearly a decade of service to the Guard, after watching it rise and then fall - the gray heard rumors of a Mystic living along the coast. A Shaman, they said, who could divine futures from the patterns that the stars blazed across the sky and from the etchings that the tides left behind in the sand. It hadn't been those claims that had caught the former Commander's attention; it had been the murmurs that the priest who lived in the nocturnal grove wore a feather in his mane.
Probably nothing, Tarian had dismissed the thought at first.
But eventually, the pegasus made his way towards the shore that the stories had come from. His instincts had been right because he had found Jay, practicing his strange sort of magic that revolved around nature (though his Uncle had once told him that they were one and the same) and so while Tarian took the time to put together the fallen pieces of one life to build the next, he watched and studied the bay stallion. He listened as horses traveled from far and wide to seek his counsel. And one night, Tarian had asked Jay, Why here? For all your knowledge, why not use it to find home?
Jay had smiled and said, All rivers run to the sea, Tarian. He hadn't understood what he meant at the time; in truth, he still doesn't really understand it now. But what the older stallion had tried to explain was that all paths eventually cross. The rivers ran down from the mountains, to the shore and then somehow - perhaps by magic - became absorbed into rain clouds that pour down into the plains and the mountains, completing a cycle that many weren't aware of.
A web of ties that were so intrinsically woven together - that continued to twine in a way that Tarian can't imagine.
What he does imagine are a few wandering thoughts about what it might have been like to have a family of his own; what it might have been like to raise a child and see them grow, thrive into a bright blossom like Cheri. When his young companion admits she always thought the former Queen a cavalier sort, Tarian smiles when he glances behind him. Perhaps it wasn't far from the truth but the pegasus had been intercepted by Lepis when he first landed in Loess. "She was out doing border patrols when I first met her," the older brute shares with the young mare. "I mistook her for a sentry." He nearly laughs at the memory but it had been one of the reasons that Tarian became so fond of the dun woman. Despite her high rank, she wasn't above doing what was needed for Loess.
It was something that Tarian - who has spent nearly his entire life in some sort of service - had appreciated; could still appreciate, even though the woman was long gone.
"But it was Queen Lepis who crowned our current one," the Champion continues on, unsure of Cheri's knowledge of Loessian history. It's as far as he goes, though, because that is all Tarian knows. Loess didn't have a dynastic bloodline tied to its throne and the pale pegasus hadn't been able to keep track of the way it zig-zagged. The Endless Night had come and there had been other, more pressing matters to deal with.
As they slip through the narrow ravine and towards the spot that he intends to share with Cheri, the light nearly blinds him but the hazy shadows give shape to a copse of small trees and some cacti that could offer shade from the hottest parts of the day. Below the ridge, Cheri would find one of the Loessian lakes. These are the things that the winged horse is thinking of, focusing on the land that is before him and not the one that is behind him.
Paraiso, she chimes like a song. He stops with his wings tightening around his sides because she says it like he heard his mother say it a thousand times. He hears Kalina's lilt, Malachi's rumbling pride in the word. So there was a coincidence between the Northern leaders calling themselves Guardians and the mention of Lilliana; it stirs in his blood and it leaves the usually assured Tarian feeling unsettled. When he looks at Cheri again, it is with new eyes as he places on her a branch of their family tree.
Part of him had always thought the line would die out. Jay hadn't taken a mate and had sired no children. Brielle and Aislynn had vanished with Paraiso. His father and mother had died before any of their children could fledge into adulthood; a lesson from a blood feud that went back generations and had been responsible for the death of so many. He had always thought that if he had no children, had no mate then if he was eventually hunted down as his parents had been, the only casualty would be him (so why is he thinking of Altissima?) and that his brothers and sisters might think the same.
"You know of it," he finally says, a voice caught in the current of changing emotions. All rivers flow to the ocean, Jay had once told him. Paraiso was gone and yet here was a trace of it in the shared blood that flowed through their veins. "I was supposed to be its next Guardian," Tarian explains and then finds that he needs to move. His mind is too full for him to stand still. "But that was before...," he drifts off. He's long forgiven Liam. They had been so young then and it is the nature of children to roam and wander. That it just happened to be the day that Paraiso shielded itself behind a wall of Magic had been an unfortunate incident. "Before it was gone."
He shakes his head slightly, banishing the melancholy thoughts from his mind.
"Are there more like you, Cheri?" Tarian asks (though the thinks the gleaming black-and-green mare is certainly a category all her own). Was she any only child? Or did she have brothers and sisters? And what of her father? The gray finds himself curious about the life that she left behind, wondering if their might be more answers for him to find there.
Probably nothing, Tarian had dismissed the thought at first.
But eventually, the pegasus made his way towards the shore that the stories had come from. His instincts had been right because he had found Jay, practicing his strange sort of magic that revolved around nature (though his Uncle had once told him that they were one and the same) and so while Tarian took the time to put together the fallen pieces of one life to build the next, he watched and studied the bay stallion. He listened as horses traveled from far and wide to seek his counsel. And one night, Tarian had asked Jay, Why here? For all your knowledge, why not use it to find home?
Jay had smiled and said, All rivers run to the sea, Tarian. He hadn't understood what he meant at the time; in truth, he still doesn't really understand it now. But what the older stallion had tried to explain was that all paths eventually cross. The rivers ran down from the mountains, to the shore and then somehow - perhaps by magic - became absorbed into rain clouds that pour down into the plains and the mountains, completing a cycle that many weren't aware of.
A web of ties that were so intrinsically woven together - that continued to twine in a way that Tarian can't imagine.
What he does imagine are a few wandering thoughts about what it might have been like to have a family of his own; what it might have been like to raise a child and see them grow, thrive into a bright blossom like Cheri. When his young companion admits she always thought the former Queen a cavalier sort, Tarian smiles when he glances behind him. Perhaps it wasn't far from the truth but the pegasus had been intercepted by Lepis when he first landed in Loess. "She was out doing border patrols when I first met her," the older brute shares with the young mare. "I mistook her for a sentry." He nearly laughs at the memory but it had been one of the reasons that Tarian became so fond of the dun woman. Despite her high rank, she wasn't above doing what was needed for Loess.
It was something that Tarian - who has spent nearly his entire life in some sort of service - had appreciated; could still appreciate, even though the woman was long gone.
"But it was Queen Lepis who crowned our current one," the Champion continues on, unsure of Cheri's knowledge of Loessian history. It's as far as he goes, though, because that is all Tarian knows. Loess didn't have a dynastic bloodline tied to its throne and the pale pegasus hadn't been able to keep track of the way it zig-zagged. The Endless Night had come and there had been other, more pressing matters to deal with.
As they slip through the narrow ravine and towards the spot that he intends to share with Cheri, the light nearly blinds him but the hazy shadows give shape to a copse of small trees and some cacti that could offer shade from the hottest parts of the day. Below the ridge, Cheri would find one of the Loessian lakes. These are the things that the winged horse is thinking of, focusing on the land that is before him and not the one that is behind him.
Paraiso, she chimes like a song. He stops with his wings tightening around his sides because she says it like he heard his mother say it a thousand times. He hears Kalina's lilt, Malachi's rumbling pride in the word. So there was a coincidence between the Northern leaders calling themselves Guardians and the mention of Lilliana; it stirs in his blood and it leaves the usually assured Tarian feeling unsettled. When he looks at Cheri again, it is with new eyes as he places on her a branch of their family tree.
Part of him had always thought the line would die out. Jay hadn't taken a mate and had sired no children. Brielle and Aislynn had vanished with Paraiso. His father and mother had died before any of their children could fledge into adulthood; a lesson from a blood feud that went back generations and had been responsible for the death of so many. He had always thought that if he had no children, had no mate then if he was eventually hunted down as his parents had been, the only casualty would be him (so why is he thinking of Altissima?) and that his brothers and sisters might think the same.
"You know of it," he finally says, a voice caught in the current of changing emotions. All rivers flow to the ocean, Jay had once told him. Paraiso was gone and yet here was a trace of it in the shared blood that flowed through their veins. "I was supposed to be its next Guardian," Tarian explains and then finds that he needs to move. His mind is too full for him to stand still. "But that was before...," he drifts off. He's long forgiven Liam. They had been so young then and it is the nature of children to roam and wander. That it just happened to be the day that Paraiso shielded itself behind a wall of Magic had been an unfortunate incident. "Before it was gone."
He shakes his head slightly, banishing the melancholy thoughts from his mind.
"Are there more like you, Cheri?" Tarian asks (though the thinks the gleaming black-and-green mare is certainly a category all her own). Was she any only child? Or did she have brothers and sisters? And what of her father? The gray finds himself curious about the life that she left behind, wondering if their might be more answers for him to find there.