"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
04-23-2020, 07:58 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 03:33 PM by lilliana.)
Judgement comes swift.
It takes the shape of a horned demon (unlike Ghaul, this one rages a fire all his own). Judgement comes quick and angry and there is no time to react. Neverwhere will know what to do, she thinks. It might take a few days to realize what has happened but Lilliana thinks that Neverwhere will know to do (though part of her knows that help won't come as swiftly as Draco did).
It's a consequence of her temper, of trying to protect the Taiga. It had been a hasty action - driven more by an anger that she can't seem to absolve - and it's only as the distance grows between her and the Northern Forest, further from the two parts of her soul she has left anchored there, that she realizes the true consequences. Her sons - Nashua and Yanhua. She had left them sleeping underneath a cluster of young trees and there is a battle to fought with the frenzy building in her chest.
Brazen, she thinks. They know to go to Brazen.
It's the only thought she can cling herself, to assuage the guilt. The red mare who had always thought she had an affinity of not being noticed seems to have one for snatching Ghaul instead. The only consolation she has - however thin and frail it is - is that the draconic stallion has a year to spend in Nerine. It does not prevent the Silver Cove leader from stripping Taiga of her entities but Lilliana had wanted to cut to the heart of the matter - steal from Taiga and be prepared. Upset the balance of life in the Red Woods and be prepared - the Red Woods would come for you.
What she hadn't expected was that Draco would.
Dark scars the night though it is waning, the Moon turns towards the West and the sky turns to gentler blues of twilight. Where Pangea is red and cracked and angry, it is violet and blue and endless voids scarring the dry earth beneath their hooves. What few trees (so unlike her beloved Taiga) that spear the shadows watch the red-eyed stallion herd the smaller mare further into the Eastern wasteland. Feeling his presence to closely, Lilliana pins her ears and bares her in warning as she comes to a stop. "Leave me be," she fumes, her anger curling from her nostrils. The extreme drop in temperature makes her shiver, makes her fury come out in thin plumes of silver. It curls like smoke in warning, burning against the coming dawn.
LILLIANA
all that i'm after is a life full of laughter (as long as i'm laughing with you)
04-25-2020, 09:27 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 09:29 PM by draco.)
"Leave you be, Lilliana?" Draco parrots with a laugh. He presses his teeth to her hide and snarls, wondering how one so bold could also be so damn stupid. "Why should I leave you be when my brother, a proud Pangean leader, is still imprisoned in Nerine?" he growls now, low, furious, unrelenting.
Taiga will learn their lesson, as will Nerine. Pangea will be free to play their games and any backlash will be met with unmatched fury. It's not the kingdoms first offense, either; and it's also not Ghaul's first sentence in Nerine. Draco's blood boils at just the thought. Yes, his brother will spend all the time he needs in burning their resources and harassing their people, but his duty is here. In Pangea, the Cove, and protecting his nest. Now a fresh wave of irritation heats Draco, knowing the responsibility he will shoulder to keep the triplets safe in Ghaul's absence.
And it's all the little chestnut mare's fault.
It's easy for him to see Lilliana like that: small, unimportant, one-dimensional. Draco's eyes flick up to her pinned ears and then suddenly emit a violent, crimson glow. He'll make sure she feels just as much fear as he feels anger.
"You have no power here, Lilliana. Your demands are useless," Draco spits, slowly stepping closer, heart racing as he watches his fear magic do its work. "And besides," he adds with a shrug, shutting off the fear aura just as quickly as he had turned it on, "I'm not sure what you expect. Didn't you ask for this? Is this not all your fault?" He presses closer, attempts to roughly tug at a lock of her mane.
Above them, a beautiful twilight sky still twinkles, and the temperature drops as suddenly as the shadows appear. Draco sparkles with the stars (looking damn near like he might belong to them), waiting, vibrating, anxious.
04-27-2020, 09:23 PM (This post was last modified: 04-27-2020, 09:26 PM by lilliana.)
His breath against her hide is the firestarter she needs.
Lilliana’s ears are firmly pressed into her neck as she spins to face him, glaring up at @[draco]. "Are you deaf?” the chestnut mare counters, leveling the horned stallion with her blue eyes. Her dark lips pull back, "Your brother should learn to mind his manners.” The Pangean is practically barking his fury at her and she matches him, word for word with her own fuming ire.
”You will leave me be because I’m a Diplomat of Nerine.” Her voice is deliberate, slow to imply that he doesn’t understand as she seethes up at him. "You will leave me be because I’m the Taigan Ambassador.” Lilliana’s sides have started to shake (from anger? from fear?) and she wants as much distance as she can put between them, now.
The stallion suddenly looks up to where her ears have fixed themselves, hiding beneath the waves of a copper sea. The sneer on her face deepens. The Taigan mare is ready to hurl more words at him - to bite him even, if that's what it will take. Lilliana has never thought herself capable of violence but pinned between the ochre shadows of Pangea and Draco, her thoughts are very quickly turned towards any exposed piece of flesh she can sink her teeth into.
Her boys are back in Taiga; she is in Pangea.
There is a continental divide in her chest and she is desperate to close it.
When his red eyes glow, he looms close. What she feels is similar to those moments on the Mountain - shutting her eyes tight and wrapping herself tight around Craft, wishing she could drown out the sound of the orange-eyed man who tore his face apart. Those moments with a tentacle-wrapped around her neck, of seeing Ruth with a face full of terror and her own desperation to get him as far away from her as she could. Those moments of with the icy breath of an antlered man who had smiled down at her, Death lingering behind his eyes.
And then it is all gone.
Nothing but her anger and the few steps she has taken away from him remain.
Snarling, "Taiga will spear Pangea back into the ocean.” Her heart is racing and there is no stopping it but she finally regains her stance again, "And then Nerine will sink whatever remains to the bottom.”
It’s too much, though, when he attempts to grab a lock of her red mane.
His stars glow ominously - a warning that isn’t missed.
Lilliana bares her teeth again in reply, "You will leave me be.”
LILLIANA
all that i'm after is a life full of laughter (as long as i'm laughing with you)
"Oh!" Draco purrs, delighted by Lilliana's futile spark, "Aren't you just the cutest when throwing insults? It's too bad your magic is nothing against mine." His eyes flicker erratically from her face to their surroundings and then back down to her - repeating that cycle for the next few moments. The demon lingers in the chestnut mare's thoughts for a moment, picking away at what button to push next. "It's not our fault Nerine is too weak to keep up with her territory's leaders. You were practically asking to be stolen from . . . Besides, do you really think such magical entities are your property?" he adds, shrugging his shoulders tauntingly.
Draco savors the fear in Lilliana's eyes, taking a bite out of it as if it is a ripe red apple. She is a ripe red apple, he realizes. He wants to take a bite of her, too.
Any threat falls on deaf ears. Here, trapped and alone and afraid, Lilli is nothing. Draco has nothing to fear. Even now, as the possible death of a Taigan ambassador hangs heavy in the air, the demon does not fear any kingdom's retaliation. Anaxarate will take care of them as she relishes their violence, and if she doesn't - Ghaul and Draco are more than capable of wreaking their own havoc.
"Spear us into the sea, huh?" he questions, feigning a scholar's musing voice. "Interesting choice of words for a territory so lacking what it takes to be violent." Draco pauses, pressing closer to Lilliana, pushing so that their skin might touch - so that her throat might clog with an even worse discomfort than they afforded his brother. Stained teeth and bright eyes flash with Hell's fury. They will pay for their insolence, he thinks. For their inflated confidence and for being no more fierce than a buzzing fly. "You are merely irritating and insolent to Pangea, but fine - believe what you must. It is not Pangea that you must spear, but Carnage. It is his land, and I don't think he is displeased with the blood that stains its dust," Draco states boldly.
"Now," he starts, tilting his head, "stop being so goddamn annoying or I will make you regret it."
you got a cold hard truth i got a bottle of whiskey but i got no proof
Every time he uses his Magic on her, it leaves her angrier and angrier.
There is a moment of being bereft and then it turns her wild with fury. She has always been a reckless-prone mare and each prod he takes at her mind, every stab of fear he inflicts only makes her more brash. Each barb she sends towards him only becomes more frenzied. "Forgive me,” she hisses, "I didn’t realize I was in the presence of such a talented goat.”
Her blue eyes flick up to his horns before coming back down. She takes another step back but refuses to acknowledge it. Her anger burns just as her fear shines, "They are no one’s property. I promised Craft and Anatomy safety in Taiga and had they wished to leave of their own accord, it would have been granted.”
She is bright, bright in her anger now. She takes a step forward, regaining her lost ground. It had been Lilliana who had to choose who to save in the Desert. It had been Lilliana who had cradled Craft as she died. It had been Lilliana who had brought them to Taiga, hiding away her heart - festered with the weight of knowing the ends they had met in their lives before this one.
Lilliana couldn’t offer them their home back. She couldn’t bring back the life they had known. (And maybe they didn’t want it - maybe it was best their tragedies stayed in the past.)
Draco comes closer and closer and she becomes more audacious, more furious in her words to attempt to hide her panic. He picks the fears from her mind like an instrument and she sings accordingly, "Carnage?” She quips back, sneering again as her heart pounds loudly in her ears. She drowns in it - the blood and the growing fear. "He must love having pretty Pangeans like you to praise his shrine.”
Thinking that @[draco] must be as deaf as his brother is blind, she says it again: "Leave - me - be.”
It is so much easier to think about that than the terror that threatens her throat to close entirely.
Draco finds himself growing just as angry as Lilliana, but for entirely different reasons. He thinks her to be so utterly stupid, and each breath she exhales, every word she presses forcefully into his ears, makes him think she is only grows dumber by the second. He sucks in a furious breath, the air whistling like screams the demon is fantasizing Lilliana expelling.
"Ah," Draco snaps, offering the chestnut a snarling grin, "then that was the real mistake. Misunderstanding the nature of Beqanna." Draco stops, dropping his lips to a growl. "Tsk, tsk, darling," he purrs, shaking his head in a way that clearly says, you poor, pathetic girl. She is the weakest creature he has yet to encounter and that disgusts him. Enrages him.
She'll pay for her own idiocy.
"Pretty Pangeans like me don't end up dying captives like you, Lilliana!" the demon growls. "Think one more thought about my brother and I'll make sure you never leave these borders," this snarl comes out more like a yell. "I'll bury your broken body in these canyons, and then Ghaul and I will burn your beloved Taiga to the ground!"
Draco offers Lilli no space, no moment to think or escape. He presses into her, all kick legs and snapping teeth. Wherever his mouth can find her he bites, pinching at her flesh and savoring what blood he can draw. She is soft and yet so fierce when he forces her close, doing what he had done to an equally as stupid Rebelle just weeks before.
05-10-2020, 10:03 PM (This post was last modified: 05-10-2020, 10:05 PM by lilliana.)
Lilliana goads and goads Draco. She encourages him into a pissing match she knows she can’t win. Not with him - he has height and brawn on his side. He has magic that renders hers useless (what will she do? Glow at him?) and so her mind teeters at an edge, trying to think of a possible escape.
She can’t leave Pangea. And as the chestnut mare gives one more assessing glance of the taller stallion, she has no desire to have him on her heels. The thought that a thing like him might lurk through her precious Redwoods. Not with her colts in Taiga. There is enough darkness there - and while she is desperately seeking an outlet now - Lilliana knows the laws of Beqanna. The same ones that bound Ghaul to Nerine will bind her here.
The Taigan mare only needs to get away from Draco.
Get away from him and then-
If she can just get him to react, then perhaps her smaller frame might actually help her. Once he lunges forward, she can know which way to dance. That’s how this has been explained to her - that there is some grace in the movements, that there is a rhythm in the comings and goings of a fight that echoes nature. If she can just see where he is going, then she can go the other way - like winter thaws to spring, like summer blazes to fall.
Her delicately-tipped ears pin further into the waves of her thick mane, "Lilliana.” It’s a demand, a correction - she won’t be darling to anyone.
"And who said anything about dying?” she provokes him, hoping that the demon might finally lunge towards her. "Taiga will exist long after your bones have bleached, Draco.”
Her dark mouth twists up in a smile, "Try it.” The diplomat boldly dares him, taking another sidestep back.
Draco comes closer and when Lilliana finally thinks she sees it - her chance - there is a flash of copper and a sprite leap forward. Of course, as so many things with her, she has misjudged the moment. There is flesh and scraping and fighting before the eventual ending - meeting a similar fate as the other Pangean captive. Her world burns away with rage and fury.
Lilliana finds herself hoping that her bared teeth find purchase, that she marks him somehow. She hopes that she leaves evidence behind that if any horse ever asked the constellation mind-reader, he would have to deny that the scar came from a little red mare from Taiga.
