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    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    [open]  where the spirit meets the bones; anyone
    #1
    fell asleep inside a fantasy and woke up feeling lost —
    She is lost, but she does not remember how she got this way.

    She remembers falling asleep, in a familiar meadow with familiar clover and a familiar moon suspended in a blue-black sky. Wrapped in the warmth of summer night air and moonlight draped across her shoulders, her dreams were all the same things she had dreamed before – except for this one.

    It is the golden light of dawn warming her face that urges her silver eyes to open, hazy with sleep. She blinks away the fog, waiting for the land of her dreamscape to fade and give way to the world that she knows.

    It doesn’t, though.

    The sleep clears and the land around her solidifies itself, loses all the intangibility of a dream-world, and builds itself into a reality. Slowly, almost cautiously, she rises from the bed of clover – the same thing she had fallen asleep in and yet not the same at all. She looks around again with moonlit-colored eyes, and inhales the summer-sweet air, and she wills the panic rising up in her throat to disappear. No matter how she tried to get her bearings, this meadow refused to be familiar to her. The sea of emerald grasses, dotted with wildflowers and trees, and the water that crisscrossed through it and glittered under the rays of the sun were similar to where she had been born, and yet were somehow drastically different.

    She is here, and she does not know how this could possibly be, or even where here is.

    She feels like an intruder; as if she has trespassed into a wonderland, and when she finally begins to walk through the meadow it is with tentative steps and a downcast face hidden behind the long waves of her forelock. It must be obvious that she does not belong, a weed that has invaded their garden. 

    When she does finally look up it is to look at the sky, wondering if the sun will lead her home.
    Elestren
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    #2
    In the days since Andromache reached this strange place, the feeling that persists is one of dreamland. As a foal she learned the art of lucid dreaming, had been taught it by her sister. She feels that way now, moving her body lankly through fields of green clover. This would be a nice place to stay, she thinks. This would be a nice place to disappear into. Alone with her thoughts, she imagines horses who are no longer there; those who have long since passed beyond the vale of death. Sometimes it is deliberate and sometimes they come for her without consent.

    Andromache wakes with the sun. Slowly it slides over her hide, up over her withers towards her eyes. The world is soft and blueish-grey, the clover at her feet still dewy. As she bows her head to eat they are sweet like nectar. Although it should bring her pleasure, it doesn't. Just beyond she could see one of the many creeks that dotted the terrain; cold places where she could shock herself if she needed. 

    Today was a grief day, she decided. When pain was one such as hers, you couldn't let it overbear you. Instead, you shoved your pain to certain days. But it was important to feel. 

    At the corner of her vision she sees a filly in the distance. It strikes Andromache that the creature looks how she herself feels; small, shrinking from attention. Her skin is like shadow, like snow-capped crests; and yet it does nothing to camouflage her against the green grasses. She is alone, like Andromache is, and seems to be disturbed by something in her little mind. Andromache's ear twitches backwards as she thinks of another filly she once knew, a spindly grey yearling who had been her herdmate as a child. 

    Mother, the word comes to her, and it sticks like barley at the back of her throat. She shakes the thought away and takes a hold of that maternal instinct that has so long been unhumoured, before making her way down through the grasses towards the child. The bay mare's coat is thin, her mane haggard and scorched. The only thing that could strike her as anything of note is the posture with which she walks, the muscles of her neck bunching and folding like paper. Before she knows it, she is standing before the filly.

    "Are you okay?" she asks over the field, "Are you lost?" Her voice is soft, warm, and mature. It is a leader's voice; a politician's voice.
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    #3
    fell asleep inside a fantasy and woke up feeling lost —
    She is lost in her thoughts, so much so that she does not notice the mare that is walking toward her. Not until she speaks, and the sound of her voice, though soft, startles her from her strange reverie. She flicks bright silver eyes to find the face of the mare – young, only a few years older than herself. Elestren blinks, and she stares at the stranger in an uncertain, almost suspicious way, as though she is trying to decide if this mare is someone to be wary of – in reality, she is trying to decipher if she is real or not. Until this moment no one else had looked at her, further cementing the idea that this was a dream.

    Until now, of course.

    There is something steady about her, though, something that feels real. It's enough to settle her frayed nerves, at least a little, and she offers her an unsure smile. “I’m okay,” she answers, and it is a half-truth. She is physically fine; uninjured and whole. And she can feel herself gathering her bearings, even though she is still confused, and it shows in the hesitant glimmer in her eyes, and the tentative way her lips lift into a smile. “But I am lost. I think.” She gives her head a small shake, the dark strands of her forelock cascading along the angles of her face. “Do you know where we are?”
    Elestren


    @[Andromake]
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    #4

    The filly doesn't notice Andromake, caught as she is in a world of her own making. She is shaky and clearly, frighteningly young. Andromake is, in all honesty, not too many years older in age; but this mare is caught in a small little daydream, startled by the simple presence of Andromake. Her eyes are silver, frightened. Andromake gives a smile, tries to reassure the sweet young thing before her. 

    The air is soft and sweet, brushing nostrils like liquor. She could get drunk on the daylight here, but she is much too sensible for such fancies. Especially now, after everything is said and down. Andromake's ears twitch, and she monitors a sense of genuine concern for the elegant creature before her. 
    I'm okay, the mare says, but Andromake swallows down the sense of disbelief. She appears uninjured, the soft coat whole and the eyes healthy. But there's something in the voice, a quiet tremor that Andromake thinks she's heard before. She doesn't push it though, knowing the way of these things. "I don't know, unfortunately. I came from beyond those mountains, and I have no idea of the name of this place." She keeps her gaze and voice gentle. "My name is Andromake. Who are you?" 

    Andromake

    Photo by Josiah Lewis from Pexels
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