"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
His nostrils wrinkle in amusement once more at Annihilates firm position of disliking the jungle for the way it excludes his gender. ”But you live there dear child…And if your Queen finds out that your father lives there..” And here he gives a little shake of his head, closing his eyes as if the thought of what could happen was too much to bare. Such a naive thing, but she would learn. She would learn that family would disappear, family would betray you, family would hurt you most. Family was nothing.
A light switch seems to go off and the girl seemed to realize she was out of her element. The boldness of her personality suddenly switched to insecurity, hesitation in her steps as she began to back away from them. A sudden anxiety in her words as she babbled about going to the playground by herself. Red eyes flare as he slowly smiles at her, a smile that drips with insincerity. ”But it’s dangerous traveling by yourself and the playground is far from here. Surely you would want your Aunt to accompany you.” As the words leave his lips, he looks past the filly with some interest as smoke trails from the tops of the trees. Hmmm it seemed the forest might be on fire. Suddenly a flaming form merges from the woods and makes straight for them. A man on fire. How very interesting indeed…
Today is just full of surprises. The fire dies down revealing the odd looking stallion who strides towards their small group. The way he stares at the filly, the way his steps slow purposefully… I know who this must be. The Chamber ghost says nothing, not ruining Gendry’s approach and instead his ears swivel forth and takes in Annihilates berating with unabashed humor. He learns much from the tongue lashing, that there is a sister (another little Annihilate god help them all), that they do indeed live in the jungle, and dear old mute mom had been searching for her. He also finds interest in the surprised look good old dad sends to “Aunt Nova”, shouldn’t he greet her or acknowledge her in some way? ”So you did learn that language from your father after all.” He smirks at the filly and then looks to Gendry. ”I’m Gryffen. Your daughter has a very unique way with words.” He is somewhat annoyed that her father has shown up and ruined the potential fun that was about to be had. There was still enough time to leave a couple of breadcrumbs though… ”What’s a guy like you doing in the jungle? With your… abilities… surely you risk torching the place down.”
The Playground? Porrim's heart sinks – the Meadow is a long enough walk from the Jungle in and of itself, but the Playground is uncomfortably close to the Chamber, and the last thing she wants to see is Gryffen taking her for a stroll to check out all the strange things he'd described to her. As if she couldn't get any further from home! But Annihilate seems very much convinced (well, a little unsure, truth be told, but as convinced as she can make herself look) that she can not only get there on her own, but back as well, and Porrim blows out a troubled breath as the pale stallion speaks up. “Gryffen's right,” she agrees, trying not to look overly sour about this as she reaches to brush her muzzle against the filly's shoulder in return. “I'm surprised your mother let you come out this far by yourself. I'll walk with you – at least part of the way. Your cousin's been there all afternoon, anyway.” Another lie – Uisce would be coming four now, and even if he wasn't too old for the Playground, she has no idea where on earth he's gone. “Shall we-?”
The words die on her lips as she follows Gryffen's stare – there is a small herd of deer bolting hell for leather from the treeline, and smoke billowing over the treetops. It's impossible. Too cold for forest fires. This is not a natural blaze. Immediately, Porrim takes a step closer to Annihilate with an uneasy rustle of her wings as she focuses on the shape emerging from the trees. The sight of Gendry does little to improve her mounting concern, and the yellow mare snorts, skin prickling with the urge to shift – into – hell, what can she possibly turn into that would be remotely fireproof? She has no idea, and anyway, Gendry has reached their little crowd by now, settling behind the filly with a displeased sort of look. He is a little less alarming now that he's not on fire, and though Porrim cannot smell the Jungle on him over all the smoke, a longer look at him finds her settling down considerably.
He wastes precious little time in giving Annihilate a piece of his mind, and Porrim finally – slooowly – steps away from the girl, catching Gendry's eye with a faint smile when he goggles at her for a brief moment. She doesn't recall having seen him around the Jungle, but then again, she'd tended to keep to herself, and she'd definitely heard his name often enough – so when he introduces himself, she nods, offering Gryffen a sweet smile before returning her attention to the orange stallion. “Porrim,” she responds. “Tell your mother I said hello, will you? It was lovely meeting you too, sweetheart,” she adds, flashing Annihilate a mildly sympathetic (albeit somewhat relieved) glance. With that, she turns and saunters past their red-eyed companion. “Nice speaking with you, Gryffen,” she murmurs, smiling wryly. “Afternoon.” And with that, she ambles off – though she has not, she thinks, seen the last of a certain adventurous filly.
OOC; I am excusing Porrim since she's due in a little under a week and I'll never forgive myself if I try to juggle threads in two separate seasons. ;p I love everyone in this thread, jsyk.
Anni dug in her heels and pinned her ears at the grown-ups’ insistence that she couldn’t go to the playground by herself. She damn well could, and it would be a better idea than letting a stranger take her somewhere, that was for sure! She wasn’t stupid, she knew that she wasn’t supposed to go places with strangers, not even strangers who seemed nice. So nope. She set her jaw, and was about to go off on them again, when they got awfully distracted all of a sudden. She was about to turn around and look, when a snarly, growly, delightful voice addressed her.
“Daddy!” Anni whirled around to face her favorite person ever, excepting of course for Maul. Definitely Maul was the best. But Daddy! She cuddled up against him, rubbing her face on his big, broad chest and beaming. Daddy was here! Ooh, he could teach her how to get home from…wherever it was she’d ended up. That would be a handy thing to know.
He was, of course, berating her for scaring the everliving fuck out of him. And that was fair, really, but it was hardly her fault she’d won the game. “Uh-huh! I could have been kidnapped, or murdered, or put under a spell, or ooh, maybe hexed by a mean old witch! Or stolen by the fairies and dragged into a wild and crazy adventure! Orrrr I could have been trampled by a stampede, or I could have gotten lost or hurt or maybe! Maybe what about if I’d gotten stuck in a hole! If it were deep enough, ooh maybe even a cave! Are there dragons here, maybe I could have been held hostage by a dragon! I bet that would be fun! Oh, I mean dangerous. Bad, very bad, yep!” But her eyes were bright with excitement, and she could barely contain the giddy wriggling of her little body.
The only thing that dimmed her excitement was Daddy’s mention that Momma was looking for her. Ooooohhhh, Momma was gonna be mad. She was nervous for all of a second before curiosity overrode sense. Momma on a rampage could be fun! Probably more fun if the rampage were because of somebody else, but still! Ooohhh. “Daddy, can you show me how to get home, please? Probably we should let Momma know I didn’t drown or get murdered by a lion or stolen away to a secluded mountaintop by an evil wizard. Ooh, or mutilated by a psychopath! Bye bye, Porrim!” Anni called to her so-called Auntie Nova’s back as she retreated.
She turned back to Gryffen for a minute, an excited glint in her eyes as she said, “Thank you for telling me about the Chamber! I think I’d like to see it someday. Maybe Daddy will take me there sometime!” Or maybe she would sneak away again and find her way there herself. Ooooooh, maybe Mauly would like to come with! Yessss, they could have an adventure together! And hear the Chamber’s heartbeat, and see the burning tree, and he’d said something about ravens, right? They were probably cool! “But I’ve got to go home now, g’bye!”
