Stepping away had been a dumb plan but Altissima doesn’t regret being able to focus on Tarian’s eyes when he watches her over the water and then closes the gap between them. She shifts her weight forward to meet him, reaching for him as he reaches for her. The way he touches her this time is different somehow, and though it is light it carries with it a weight. A weight that makes her feel a little more sure even when it also inspires a little more nerves.
He tells her that she’s already made him useless and she fumbles for a witty response to volley back. “Is that right? I’ll… try to not let that get to my head.” But her voice is quiet and breathless - it’s harder to concentrate now and she can feel the words she might have said fade away with his proximity and his touch.
Later, if she remembers, she might tease him over how much power she had over him but the words fumble around in her head as she leans into his touch and her vivid eyes close briefly in contentment.
Surely that will be the last time she moves away, the last time she hesitates? Altissima briefly entertains asking if he is as nervous as she feels but since she has decided she does not want to be nervous, she pretends otherwise. And so it is with confident movements that she trails a touch across his skin before tugging on his mane as he had hers (and wondering if he liked it as much as she did).
Her voice remains low when she continues to speak and again she wonders if he can hear the nervous thunder of her heart as her eyes open so they can meet his. “And yes, Tarian. That was a challenge before. In this, I’d be happy to be proved wrong.”
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image by yoricade
@ Tarian
07-19-2021, 08:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-19-2021, 08:47 PM by Tarian.)
Tarian laughs despite himself.
"Too late for that, don't you think?" the Loessian stallion hums teasingly against her neck. His mouth is still preoccupied with the graceful arc of it as he starts to move along her spine. Tarian can hear her breath hitch and his heart catches on the sound.
As much as he jokes about it, he had been serious about Altissima and how she had bewitched him.
She had done it in a myriad of little ways, in the few encounters that they had shared. And she continues to do it, because when she pauses for a moment, Tarian turns his pale head to see Altissima with her eyes closed. He had remembered thinking once that she belonged everywhere; that wherever Altissima wished to be, she would carve a place for herself until the next great adventure beckoned her. Nothing has changed in that regard: Tarian still considers Wildling an heiress of the seas and the skies and the stars.
So what had changed?
He had considered himself like stone, once. Tarian had thought himself cold and unforgiving and unyielding. It had gotten him through battles and long months of solitude. It had gotten him past his youth. And he had always thought that the way he had been would be his way forward. But as Wildling tugs on his pale mane, the winged horse gives her a dark look in reply; his lips curve in a waiting smile before Tarian gets the chance to repay Altissima the same favor. Somehow, the slender mare has managed to smooth some of his rougher edges and bring forward a more polished, warmer version of him.
And he doesn't mind, he thinks, as he readily meets her indigo eyes.
"Do you know how much I hoped you would prove me wrong?" he asks her, recalling their conversation about her crossing Loess' borders. His blue eyes shine at the memory. "Each patrol had me hoping that you'd snuck in again." Tarian looks at her a moment, listening to her low voice and he wishes that he was better with words; there are a thousand of them in his head and none of them seem to adequately explain how she makes him feel.
Her next words leave his mouth dry while his mind remains full of thoughts. The pale pegasus draws his wings carefully up from the water and presses them against his sides as he returns to pressing a kiss against her neck, another near the base of her throat. They travel up towards her spine, continue down her side and Tarian forgets all about the snow. He forgets about the spring or the steam that has enclosed all around them. There is only Altissima and the way that she is burning him from the inside out.
"Wildling," he says in a voice heavy with desire; a question, a plea and a command all tied together in a single word.
TARIAN
@ Altissima
Words and witty replies continue to evade her as he speaks, her heart thrilling at the idea of him waiting for her to come visit and prove him wrong. But more than his words, it’s his touch that inspires responses from her she hadn’t known she was capable of - the hitch of her breath, the continued thunder of her heartbeat, the twitch of her skin and the warmth that spreads through her when they look at one another.
A delightful shudder runs through her as his touch trails down her spine and though her nerves are still there, dark in the corner of her mind, they cannot compete with what she feels when he says that wonderful nickname in that voice.
“Glow Worm.” She replies with a soft, shaky laugh before she turns to look at him - the sound fading from her lips as she sees everything she’s feeling reflected back at her - the intensity of that word in his voice, the intoxicating knowledge of knowing how much he wants her. The exciting and frightening weight of how she wants him just as much.
It feels like her heart might explode right there but she somehow stays alive, it somehow continues to beat and she remembers how to breathe. She moves and there’s nothing subtle about how she shifts her body through the water so the long strands of her tail brush against his chest. Her legs are shaking again but it matters so little now as his proper name comes out as a small breath that’s lighter than the mist that surrounds them “Tarian” - the word the caress that she can not reach his skin for right now, an answer to the question he had asked with her nickname and a command and plea of her own fitting into the syllables.
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image by yoricade
@ Tarian
They were inevitable.
Tarian knows it from the moment that he rises over. He knows it from the first fervent whisper of her name from his lips. They are a cataclysm and a beginning; the kind of origin that a soul could only find at the darkest edges of the universe. He doesn't know where he starts or Altissima ends but as the Loessian steam wraps around their silvered forms, Tarian finds that he doesn't care.
There is only Altissima and that is all he needs.
***
In the hours that pass, Tarian laughs with Altissima in their little haven. He teases her in that easy way that only seems possible with her. His worries about Loess - for Lady Oceane and Cheri - fall away for a short period of time. He tells her more stories about his youth - about the kingdom and family that he had been born to, shares some stories about the wars he fought in Liridon and the places that he's seen outside of Beqanna (an offering to her wandering soul) and his blue eyes regard her warmly, wondering of all the places that Wildling has been and the things that she might have seen.
Far more than an old soldier, he muses.
He moves nearer to her again and Tarian's dark mouth moves to press against her silk-white skin. The way that his desire rises again almost surprises him but then where it regards Altissima, the gray pegasus has learned that she will always surprise him. He moves to the crook of her throat, remembering what the slender female had told him earlier. "I'm tempted to keep you here all winter," Tarian murmurs against her neck. "But that might make me a poor host," he continues quietly.
The dawn has come almost as softly as he speaks to Altissima. Sunlight has started to stream through the silver mist and a songbird cries out in the distance, eager for the day to start.
"Is there somewhere you'd like to go?" Tarian asks, wondering what kind of adventure the pair of them might find inside the borders of Loess.
TARIAN
@ Altissima
Her nerves do not abandon her, not while the steam helps to blur the world around them from view and not after they’ve proven his leg is in fine shape after all. Left on her own, these nerves would never leave her - but Tarian does not stray far. He stays with her in the hours that stretch afterwards, does not make an excuse to leave, and when they share teases and jokes it is not at her expense. Not in the cruel way that her fears had begun to whisper about as they told her she was no good at this and she should leave.
And then soon she is laughing with him, she is realizing that he will not be leaving, and she continues to relax - coated with sweat as she is but she cannot find it in her to mind. She listens as he tells her stories about his youth and asks questions when she thinks of things - sharing smaller pieces of her past whenever she is reminded of something. She’s seen a lot but does not know how well they translate to stories - she’s never had someone to tell them to, someone who might be interested in hearing them.
Her eyes have never been this particular shade of indigo - so deep, so close to violet as peace and happiness mix - when he closes the gap between them again and she sighs softly as his mouth moves across her skin. Altissima tilts her head up to give him better access to her throat and she wonders if he can feel the laugh his comment inspires. “I might be tempted to let you.”
At this moment, she can’t imagine leaving his side. Not yet, not in a future near enough to contemplate.
When she moves her blue-tinted muzzle across his silver skin, she bends the light so that he shimmers wherever she touches. It takes more concentration to narrow it to parts of his body instead of the whole and this distracts her from telling him exactly what she thinks at first - which is that she is exactly where she'd like to be already. And instead, as she tries to bend the light to catch on the soft feathers of his wings that she brushes against, she says with a smile “Show me everything. I'd like to see Loess from your eyes.”
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image by yoricade
@ Tarian
Tarian smiles roguishly at her coy remark. It wouldn't take much of anything from Altissima to keep him by her side all winter, and longer, if she allowed. He relaxes his touch and his dark mouth moves in small circles, attempting to ease any tension or tightness along her spine. He thinks again that it wouldn't be hard at all to spend the frigid season shielded behind their wall of steam, from the warmth emanating from the ground below and between them.
It would be no sacrifice at all for Tarian.
But as much that he'd like to forget that he has a patrol planned later in the day, he can't. Neither Oceane nor Cheri probably need Tarian to check in with them but he has always done so. The gray pegasus and his unfailing loyalty to the Southern Kingdom are as much a part of Loess as the spyres and sagebrush. And as much as he'd like not to think about, the warmer months will come again and Altissima will no longer need this realm's warmth. Just as she knows that eventually, Tarian will have to assume his responsibilities to Loess, he understands that eventually, her wanderlust will call to her like a siren song.
There is a quiet sort of wonder on his face as he watches Altissima wield light. It's no longer a shock that she can do this but there is a grace in the way she uses it. Parts of his silver skin glow (for once, he won't complain about it) and Tarian spreads his wings so that she might see her craftwork better. The edges of his pale feathers shine and the Loessian stallion smiles again, turning his head back to her. He moves slowly towards the bank and begins to stretch out, preparing himself for flight. There are so many places that he wants to show her - the little nook he showed to Cheri, the ledge where Oceane keeps watch, a whirlpool in one of the inlets - but decides on a place that he found on his own.
A cave that only emerged at low tide. It was the home of several types of gemstones - some that glistened from the ceiling, that came up jagged from the sandy ground. There was little light but as the last of Altissima's gift fades from his skin, he wonders what kind of beauty she might bring to such a dim and dank place. He looks back at her one last time and his smile tugs towards one side; a response to the kind of gravity that Wildling possessed. A moment later and the pegasus canters forward before leaving the ground.
"Keep up!" he calls out to her over the wind, "We're headed towards the ocean."
TARIAN
@ Altissima
Altissima grins when Tarian spreads his wings, giving her better access (and a better view) so she can see the way she makes his feathers shine. She loses her firm grasp on the light and it flickers across her body too, until they are both glowing there amongst the steam, the silver and white light dancing across the water on the waves they make with each shift and each breath.
She’s calmer now than she’s ever felt, even with her heart racing as her mouth makes one more pass across his skin before he begins to lead them out of water. Altissima is close as they emerge, frowning a little as the air instantly cools the warm water on her skin and she gives a little shake - possibly, very possibly, sending light skittering through the droplets so they shimmer as they fan out from her.
What else does Loess have to show her? She does not doubt there is a lot still to see and Tarian seems to have an idea. Altissima is not far behind him when he takes off but she does take a moment to relish the reactions that rise within her. She admires the way he moves, the strength and beauty of him, she is surprised at how much she does not like to watch him leave her (even if the point is for her to follow), and his taunt to keep up brings out a grin.
And she surges after him, her white wings appearing and unfurling at her sides in the same moment - her violet eyes bright as she follows Tarian wherever he wishes to take her.
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image by yoricade
@ Tarian
There are plenty of things to see in Loess.
Tarian may be biased - he loves the warmth of the springs in winter and the way that the rising steam from them offers privacy year-round. The views from the tops of the mesas had no equal across Beqanna. And above them, there was always the open sky waiting. It's an invitation that the gray pegasus thinks that Altissima will appreciate. (Though he is loathe to leave their little hideaway; but they can return, he tells himself, as he glances back to look at the white mare.)
Like so many things in their lives - Altissima's wanderlust, Tarian's duties - these are things that will remain. And he's determined to show her something to remember when the wind finally calls her back to roaming; something definitive for them both when their time together becomes just a hazy memory.
They soar over much of Loess. Over the deep, winding canyons. Above the rolling foothills. And he wonders if she realizes the direction that they are heading because they've made a similar journey before. The last time that Tarian had led her this far south, it had been towards the ocean and that is where he intends to lead her again. But instead of turning towards the east like they had last time, Tarian banks his wide wings and turns them towards the west. The leaves of Slyva blaze in the distance before the territory hides behind the brilliant green of the Pampas.
(He has no intention of returning to that place, not unless commanded by Lady Oceane or Cheri.)
It's midday by the time they land and Tarian's pale coat is darkened with sweat. The journey hadn't been that far but the summer heat had taken a toll on the Champion. When Altissima has landed, his blue eyes glance over to the slender mare to make sure she was alright. The ocean crashes a short distance away and the winged horse looks towards the sound, as if the proximity of the water had momentarily shocked him. But then he looks back and eyes a series of cave openings in the distance, a place where Loess' red canyon walls greeted the churning sea. "We're going to have to wait until nightfall," Tarian tells her as he comes to settle alongside the small pegasus. "There's something there that I think you might appreciate but they don't bloom in daylight." He reaches for her, a smile tugging on his dark mouth as he goes to pull on her lovely mane.
Perhaps what he might show her might inspire Altissima to change his nickname from Sir Gloworm.
The silver pegasus certainly has ideas of how they might pass the time, but Tarian lets Altissima set the pace. "So we have some to kill," he murmurs. "We could take a swim, relax in the shade, or...," trailing off as he catches the shimmer of her luminescent skin.
TARIAN
@ Altissima
Altissima does not notice that the route they take is similar to the one that they had the last time they had flown over Loess together. Last time, she had been distracted watching Tarian without him being able to see her do it. She had been trying to play with his glowing, trying to magnify it with the power that she had possessed at that time. Now she could, though the sun is bright enough that neither of them are likely to notice the glow anymore.
Much has changed since that trip, but she still spends most of the flight watching the silver stallion instead of the illuminated landscape below. The whole point had been for her to see more of it, but she conveniently forgets this - once again enjoying the liberty that comes with watching him without being observed herself.
Not that it should matter now, she thinks - there is no need to be so secret about her thoughts or admiration anymore. It’s already in the open.
She does enjoy, at least, the aerial view - the low foothills mean much of Beqanna can be seen at the heights they reach, the myriad of colours delineating each land, before they land. She looks to the waves as well, thinking how chilly they look, before Tarian joins her and her attention easily slides to him. An amused smile dances in her eyes and she is incredibly curious about what he plans on showing her - especially since it must wait until nightfall.
But whatever questions she might have asked blur a little at the edges as he continues to talk, his murmur distracting her yet again.
She should count the times he makes her lose track of her thoughts but she doesn’t doubt she’d quickly forget to count.
Altissima turns her gaze back to the ocean for a moment when she begins to reply, her voice low to match his. “It’s a little cold for a swim for me, unless the ocean is just one big hot spring here.” Somehow she doubted that, which suited her just fine - her warm violet eyes focusing back on him, brushing her muzzle gently against the very tip of his nose as she asks quietly. “How’s that leg? Tired of me yet?” The self-deprecating humour is awkward on her tongue, it does not come naturally to her, but though she surely fumbles the delivery she tries to smile through it - just a joke, definitely not a hint at any real insecurities.
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image by yoricade
@ Tarian
08-18-2021, 10:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-18-2021, 10:29 AM by Tarian.)
He's long given up at trying to understand what it is about Altissima that makes him so different. Or perhaps, that was the reason in itself. She was unlike anyone else he has ever known, as wild and as changing as the very sea before them and as the gray stallion feels another smile tugging at the corners of his dark lips, it makes sense to him that he would become someone else in the presence of a woman who was as unpredictable (and wonderful) as the winds to Tarian.
"It's not," Tarian murmurs, lowering his head so that the smaller mare could brush her slender muzzle against his. He relishes the touch and even if the day proved to be a little chilly, Altissima tempers the pegasus against the coming autumn air. He tries to sound remorseful that water would be cold where the springs were always warm but the gray stallion finds himself falling into their usual banter.
His blue eyes meet her violent ones and where Tarian had been considering saying something with dark humor - something about making her shiver without needing the cool water - he refrains. The silver-winged creature knows that Wildling is joking and yet her teasing reminds him that with the frost, so comes a long winter without her. He's enjoyed these golden days of summer with her - losing track of time entirely - and Tarian wonders if that was a little of Altissima's freedom brushing against him.
Tarian thinks of the protocol and the patrols waiting for him at the end of their time together and some part of him finds that he isn't looking forward to slipping back into the rigid uniform of a soldier. It's always suited him - a role that he has held for almost the entirety of his life - and yet now, it doesn't fit him as easily as it once did.
Not now, he thinks. Don't think about this now. Not when they still had hours of daylight together, a few more days at the very least.
The Loessian lifts the hind leg, as his smile returns with his focus. "I think it might be able to tolerate you a little longer." The smile turns into a grin as Tarian lifts his gray head, looking over Altissima briefly towards the gray sea and then moves towards the shade where they would find privacy until nightfall.
***
When the moon finally returns, Tarian leads her to the cave opening again. He moves slowly and keeps quiet as they move across the uneven terrain towards it, until the winged horse stops and lowers his head to a group of hazy outlines a few paces ahead. The rising moon gives enough light to make out the small plants whose blooms, much like Altissima and Tarian, glow. They are various shades of blue and the gray turns his broad head to study Wildling, wanting to see her reaction to the flowers.
They had always reminded him of her.
"I found them on patrol a few moons ago," he tells her quietly. Around the time that she had surprised him by venturing into Loess the first time, but before they had become what they were now. "It should probably be left up to Lady Oceane or Cheri to name the flora and fauna," the gray continues even quieter than before. "But I've been calling them Altissimas."
TARIAN
@ Altissima <3
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