"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
It has been long since Ayasha stepped foot into Beqanna. The lands have undergone tumultuous changes and she is almost entirely sure that no one she remembers is still here. Her heart aches, it has been long since she felt the comfort of another. She had lost her Mayan, and their children, many moons ago. She had left Beqanna, in search of another life. Where she had gone she was a queen and a mother, adorned with wings that had left her when she stepped outside the magic reaches of that land. She felt naked. Naked and lost. No one held her heart like her Mayan.
Daytime is giving way to night as Ayasha makes her way into the field, walking comfortably with her head high. Scars criss-crossed her body and gray hairs were starting to appear on her dark face. Aya wasn’t sure if the gray was appearing due to her beginning to age or all the stress she lugged around with her. Breaking from her thoughts, Ayasha looked around casually, seeing if there was anyone worth striking conversation with. What she found was most beginning to retreat into the trees with the coming darkness. Her black body blended in well with the falling night, white eyes breaking the evening, glowing gently in the dying light.
Perhaps Beqanna had always felt like home, and that is why Ayasha has found herself here yet again. A new start may suit her well, new opportunity to grow and change and perhaps establish herself as she once had in her former lands. But she does not burn with the driven intensity she did when she was younger. She no longer yearns for fights and leadership. Perhaps having everything ripped from her so suddenly has spurred her change of heart. All she yearns for now is closeness, love, and children. Perhaps her future may grant her just that.
With a dying attention span, Ayasha allows a call to rip into the soft silence of the night. Loud and sure, she tries to lure someone worth speaking with into her presence. Until then, she will blend in with the dark, white eyes scanning the landscape.
She wonders sometimes, how much of this is time wasted.
She wonders it more often of late, as the land grows warmer and the child within her grows.
The trail to the Field is one she knows well. There had been rain yesterday and the mud of it splashes against her navy legs. Her white-tipped tail is just long enough to avoid it, but for a moment she thinks longingly of a warm soak in a hot spring.
That would not have been time wasted, surely.
Lepis shakes her head, ridding herself of useless thoughts, and refocuses on her destination. She is here to find new faces for Loess, new members to swell the ranks. She has been successful of late and rather proud of it, even if she does include the as-yet unborn Kulin in her count. Today will be no different; surely the appeal of Loess will reach at least one set of listening ears.
The dun mare enters the Field lit by sunset. This will be a short trip, Lepis knows, she must be home safe by nightfall. As is her habit, she looks over the scattered handfuls of horses, inspecting and dismissing a great many of them. None of them feel right, though she does engage a saffron striped stallion in conversation for a few minutes. That Lepis was not part of the package had been a sticking point for him, it seems. She passes by a few others and then she spots a dark-haired mare a little away from the others. Her eyes are oddly bright, and Lepis moves toward her.
“Hello,” she says, her blue-grey eyes curious and her smile friendly. There’s a comforting air about her and no sign at all it might be something supernatural. “I’m Lepis. I take it you are here in search of a home?”
Back home, it's men, men, and more men - and then there's Jesper's daughter, Beryl though she still hasn't inclined to visit after their encounter with the dream-inducer (and he fears he's lost her there, but until she confirms it, he tries to have hope she will come back), and then Hexen. Damn it, but they do need some proper ladies to keep them in check, or he's gonna have to keep them in line all by himself; for anyone who knows him, they'll understand what a disaster that would be.
Oceane visiting was surely pleasant, but he knows she will likely never call a place that far up north her home, what with the ties she has to the south. Even when there's a good chance her former lover resides a little farther up north these days. But Leilan can't confirm and probably wouldn't if he could - that's their own mess to sort out.
He just doesn't like to see the kid stuck in the middle, hence his proposition. But enough of that.
It's not, after all, the ironic course of other people's lives that brings him here today, at least not specifically. But he does need the change of pace, the other scenery - and who knows, one might even run into a new northerner-to-be.
But as the night closes in, he shrouds himself in darkness; he hasn't found anyone worthwhile today, and on top of that, he'd spied Lepis talking to another male, too - decided not to mingle, for various obvious and non-obvious reasons.
It's the black mare's call that makes him grin to himself and drop most of his aura - wouldn't want to scare anyone away, but boy she at least is sure of herself. That's a good thing - the north is not made for weaklings, they'll need to stand their ground these days more than ever.
As he approaches, he notices the Loessian queen had also decided to linger. And sure, why not. He shrugs a little, his broad, scaled shoulders thankfully dimmed by the shred of shadow he'd clung to himself as she doesn't see him at first - then continues the movement towards the black mare as the artificial darkness he'd created, is left behind - he doesn't need it now.
"And I'm Leilan. Opposite side of the world than Lepis here," he casually mentions, nodding to the mare once. Her comforting emotions seem to touch him as well, or perhaps he had just decided beforehand they could be civil - especially with the new offers on the table. "But I thought I could present a few options for you, if you want." There's no reason to believe she might not want to see Loess, but he certainly doesn't want her to be limited to Loess versus the Isle, which doesn't have most of the resources - except they do have the lack of women versus the amount of menfolk to choose from if that's what she's after. But honestly, he thinks she'd fit in with Nerine or Taiga just as easily.
All in all, it is a matter of choice - her choice.
nothing burns like the cold
Leilan
@[Ayasha]
@[Lepis] boop! He's here too
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
| 