"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
Targaryen feels tethered to the ground with the darkness blurring the familiar landmarks of the world from above. He was finally starting to feel accomplished at flying when the sun and moon had collided. After his crash landing in front of Catryn, the boy — although he resembles more of a man than a boy at this point — had started practicing with greater dedication. The golden eagle, who calls himself Jedar, had given him tips for catching the thermals. Jedar had even taught the tobiano how to land in a tree, although Targaryen refuses to discuss a retry with his feathered companion.
And while he had resented the bird at first — seeing him as over-glorified protection from his mother and her springtime gifts — Targaryen has found himself appreciating Jedar and their growing friendship.
Despite the distractions he finds in practicing flying and the sudden darkness, Targaryen’s mind consistently turns back toward Cheri. She had told him where he could find her, but the autumn had turned to winter, melted into spring, and he still hasn’t visited the redwoods. He is still marked in traditional ivory, but the color that wraps around the tobiano markings has changed from deep chestnut to pale green, just as the seasons have changed.
He tells himself he would have visited Taiga sooner if it weren’t for the darkness keeping him grounded. It would be much easier to fly, and he would have gotten there faster. As Targaryen walks, Jedar preens his feathers from atop the boy’s withers. The bird moves gently with the motion of each step, keeping his balance as if he were on a tree branch caught in the wind. Targaryen’s mind twists from one thought to the next, but when he finds himself at Taiga’s shadowy border, he fixates on Cheri.
Soft brown eyes searching the darkness, he wonders if she is still here after a full season has passed.
Change, like the seasons, comes without warning or purpose. Like the sun disappearing, hiding behind brother moon and leaving them in a state of confused wonder, so has Cheri’s once-happy life been eclipsed by dour moods and worry. Taiga had never been a sunny place, but it had been filled with sunny dispositions and so she’d never felt fear of the woods and their secrets, never been privy to their ghosts or been choked up by the fog. Now she’s not allowed to wander very far. She can’t explore or go for a drink of water without companionship or being asked a million questions.
It took some time but both she and her twin had made their way home from the Playground without their parents' help. Cheri had more or less stumbled into good luck and good graces, following a colt close to her age toward the northern Riverbend. From there, getting home had been easy, but not fun. Reynard (the smarter twin, the braver twin, the handsome fox of these redwoods) had managed just as well on his own and returned home with little stars to orbit and guide his path. Just his luck! Cheri had thought the occurrence unusual and strange, but also secretly unfair. Her twin and Memorie got all the cool stuff.
Or so she thought.
Until Spring came without warning or purpose, and Cheri knew it because her fur began to shed out. Her skin had itched terribly; the entire pelt started to feel discomfort and irritation, alleviated only by vigorous scratching against rough tree bark. Then during a rub she’d felt it - something hard scraping against the redwood roots. Something that left faint gouges in the tree skin when she looked close enough.
Horns! Cheri was excited and convinced she was growing horns, but after running to her parents for closer inspection mother Ama had laughed her lovely, high laugh and told her no, they were not horns but something much better.
Crystals. Little budding rocks jutted out from Cheri’s skin just behind her eyes. Mother Ama had run her nose over the growing yearling and done a full inspection, proud to announce that she had a cluster gathering on her rump. Cheri had felt the rocky buds on her own legs with her soft nose. She really was her mother’s child, through-and-through. And Pappa Yan had said something that made the wheels in Cheri’s mind churn: that before they knew it, Cheri would be a mare grown.
A mare grown? She wondered, finally alone for once. She wouldn’t go far, she promised, but she needed peace and quiet which her parents reluctantly agreed to. Pappa Yan had been healed with her gift and was intending on going north to see if he could find the ruler there. Borderline and Memorie basically lived with them now. Reynard, Reave, Roselin and Oren were all able to venture out into the black woods, so it seemed only fair that Cheri should be able to as well.
As she walked, Cheri contemplated what it would mean to grow in a time of darkness. Then, sensing all at once that her careful tread had doubled in sound, her head lifted and her ears flicked forward. From the fog she could barely discern a shape hovering at the very edge of the evergreen forest, slightly shifting and alive where everything else seemed still and quiet. The wind shifted; Targaryen’s scent washed over her and she knew it well, though it’d been some time since they’d last met. Cheri smiled, elated at the thought of him being nearby, and her coat’s faint light grew brighter as she turned and made her way through the tangled maze towards him.
“Targaryen!?” She beamed, midway to where he was. Her legs lifted buoyantly, her mouth pursed to ask him what he was doing here, how he was, when all of a sudden a creature sprang from the shadows to land atop the winged girl and drag her down, snarling as she screamed.
@[Targaryen] and Anyone who wants to join, I thought it would be super fun to throw a random monster attack into this reunion
He was supposed to let Cheri wander, and he usually did. She was going through a difficult time, their mother had said, and girls going through difficult times needed their space. Fine. He could live with that. Rey also liked having time to himself, bashing his growing horns into tree trunks and chewing on fallen branches. Not exactly horse behaviors, but papa didn't seem to think it was odd when he caught him at it.
So yeah, usually when Cheri went to do her own thing, so did he. It was just today, doing their own things ended up putting them directly across each other's path. That was the trouble with the darkness. You meant to walk in opposite directions, and.... You made a circle instead. He'd meant to turn around as soon as he heard his sister's voice in the dark.
Meant to, but then he heard a boy's voice too, and then-
"CHERI!"
A scream cut the air, and the horned boy spun on his heel in answer. That was his sister, and she sounded terrified. Had she been attacked by the unknown stranger? Rey prepared to launch himself at whatever cruel stallion had made the mistake of trying to take advantage of his twin. It took a moment for his light-deprived eyes to make sense of the scene he ended up breaking into.
Cheri, wailing and striking at a- something. A shadow detached from the rest that seemed to have weight and rage. Another horse, maybe a little older than him, the one his sister had been meeting.
It was too much to absorb all at once, so he focused on the creature. His sister. There was no time to wonder if his horns would be any good against such an insubstantial foe, he simply brought his head down on the shadow with crushing force. Hoped belatedly that he wouldn't simply pass through the thing and ram his sister instead.
01-22-2021, 12:29 PM (This post was last modified: 01-22-2021, 12:30 PM by Elegance.)
As the daughter of two wanderers, it only seemed fair to Elegance that she be allowed to roam as they did.
(Though it had been explained to her many times why her sire - Nashua - left so frequently. He had duties on the Isle to the King of the North. Her mother was a creature of the clouds, it was explained. And while she was cloud-colored just as her mother and striped as her father, it would seem that Elegance was not permitted either of the privileges that her parents enjoyed. She and her twin sister, Luminesce, where to stay in Taiga under the careful watch of their grandmother and extended family.)
The pale pegasus gave an indignant sigh, wondering where her sister had managed to vanish too.
Elegance blinked and her vision changed - a variation of red and orange and yellow shades - that told her something was nearby. She could hear her father warning her to stay put, to quiet and dim her fireflies. To watch whatever it was she was seeing and if all else failed, to shout should she ever find herself in danger. 'Taiga seems like a big place,' her father had told her one afternoon, giving her a half-smirk that made the adolescent smile despite her frustrated mood. 'So good thing we have a big family, huh?'
What Ellie didn't say was that she didn't want to shout; she wanted to fight.
So when there is a cacophony of shouts echoing nearby, they send her fireflies into a frenzy and then a fluster because the yearling pegasus is gone. She is racing through the redwoods in a four-beat cadence towards the sounds and the flickering shades of green and yellow follow behind her like a battle emblem. Her head turns from one direction to the other until she manages to see a cluster of heat ahead of her and Ellie spurs herself forward, unaware of what exactly she is pitching herself into.
Cheri! A boy yells - a cousin, she thinks half-remembering - and Elegance flares her wings wide when she stops before the three other horses gathered. Fighting something that takes no shape with her vision. It is a blur that blends in with the filly and the colt that crashes into them. A monster, she realizes and would have felt the trepidation of fear creeping along her spine had she given herself time to reflect on it.
They are all a tangle and perhaps she'll apologize for this later, but Ellie's teeth aim to grab the midnight-colored flesh of the snarling girl. If the horned colt engages the beast, she'll attempt to drag this unmet cousin back. Perhaps the unknown horse will help; perhaps it will turn tail and run as they all get dragged below to some underworld that none of their young minds could conceive.
Just another day in this land they called Beqanna.
When her voice floats to his ears, Targaryen feels elation swell like a tsunami from within. She has been his very first friend, and her powers had healed him on that riverbank. How could he refuse the joy that rises inside him at the sound and smell of Cheri? Though the darkness is thick, her glowing shape beams like a ray of sunlight, and Targaryen eagerly steps toward her.
Jedar’s claws dig deeper into his withers, and a quick, low chortle of “Danger!” alerts Targaryen just as a shadow detaches from the rest. The movement is so quick the tobiano boy stands dumbfounded for a moment, tricolored wings spread in mingled surprise and confusion, while Cheri falls beneath the weight of the thing. “Cheri!” He has heard of the creatures, being a wanderer in the lonely places of their world, but he hasn’t seen them yet.
As his mind attempts to absorb what is happening, another boy launches from the shadows and twists toward Cheri and the monster. This act of heroism triggers Targaryen to move, and Jedar lifts from his shoulders with a few brisk pumps of his wings before nosediving for the tangled mess of children. The golden eagle’s agility allows him to aim his beak and claws for the bits of shadow-creature that he can find.
It is as Targaryen is racing forward that a pretty white filly leaps from the shadows. The pieces of fuzzy, dancing light she brings with her are almost blinding compared to the heavy darkness that had covered them moments before, and the tobiano blinks against it. Blinking is a poor mistake on his part, as he is still running toward the fight. As Targaryen’s eyes open, he realizes he is about to run into (and probably over) the bundle of children, and so he flares his wings and shifts his weight to his hind legs to come to a sliding stop.
It is nearly impossible to pick out exactly how he can help, and Targaryen feels like he cannot think over the loud drum of his heartbeat in his ears. But Cheri had saved him, so it was only right to save her as well.
So the boy aims for the beast alongside the red colt, hoping that the white filly will manage to pull Cheri free. Targaryen rears to plummet his hooves into the wispy pieces of a limb that hold his glowing friend, gritting his teeth and letting out a warrior cry that feels right in the pit of his stomach.
Chaos. The universe becomes it and it engulfs Cheri with claws like shadows and teeth like sin, ripping her flesh. She screams at the shapeless thing, half from pain and the other half purely fear, kicking and thrashing her way around on the ground as it tries to drag her off. Somehow, Cheri managed to wriggle around onto her belly and claw at the dirt with her forehooves while the monster tugged back, a deadly game of back-and-forth until Reynard’s bellow echoed through the dark to pick up where his twin had left off. For a second, the thing stopped pulling - perhaps it was sensible and calculating the odds of two against one - but then it doubled down in a frenzied attack and bit into Cheri’s backside, making her scream again.
She kicked, wailing, and then to her panicked relief she could see Reynard rushing in to relieve her of the thing. Another form that was white and hard to focus on came from behind Cheri, snaking out to bite the curved arch of the yearling filly’s crest so that she could pull her away, and Cheri yelped but thrashed harder, a dark fish caught on a dark line. It was Targaryen who finally helped to free her - his added attack caused the beast to let go, and one of Cheri’s hooves popped out of its grasp - so she swung her hind leg and felt a satisfying thwack.
Whether it was the beast or a fellow horse that caught the blow, Cheri wasn’t sticking around to find out. She moaned, terrified, and struggled to regain her feet before stumbling in Elegance’s direction gracelessly. The ground was slick with moisture - her blood - and the pain in her right hind was too severe to lend any kind of strength. The useless leg hung bent and gnarled underneath Cheri’s hip.
“Kill it!” She screamed back at her brother, back towards the sound of the scuffle, towards the white filly as encouragement if she needed it.
01-31-2021, 05:45 PM (This post was last modified: 01-31-2021, 05:46 PM by Memorie.)
one lives in hope of becoming a memory
I heard her scream in my ears and in my head. An image of pure terror that I can’t even begin to describe pops into my mind, and before I even realized what I was doing, I was racing in the direction of her scream. “Cheri!” I call out into the darkness, even though it would do no good. That is my sister, I kept thinking as I raced through the underbrush, barely dodging past massive trees that spring up in my path that are hard to see in the darkness. My glowing markings would not help me here, not with how fast I was running.
My heart was pounding in my throat, having jumped up there from its normal spot in my chest, or at least that’s what it feels like, but I ignore that, focusing on getting to Cheri.
When I finally come barreling into the small space where she was being attacked, I find that I am not the first to come racing from the darkness to her side. I had somehow missed the emotional signatures of Reynard, as well as Elegance (who I had yet to meet), and a complete stranger to our funky little family. But now I couldn’t miss them, as I opened myself to the echoes to try to sort things out. There was no room to rush in and try to save Cheri, as the other three had already taken up their positions, so I swerve back and forth, trying to figure out something I could do that would help.
I watch as Elegance tries to pull Cheri away from the monster that Reynard and the stranger were attacking, feeling helpless alongside all the other emotions roiling up in my head. But then both Elegance and Cheri stumble forward as the boys’ attacks leave the monster to fend them off. In their absence, I rush forward, goaded on by Cheri’s scream to “kill it!” It’s hard to explain the feelings going through my head at that moment, but they were something akin to fury and blood lust as I dove into the fray.
Without Cheri to attack, the monster turns its attention on Reynard, no doubt sensing he is smaller than the strange horse, so an easier target. Between the glowing markings of myself and Cheri and the little fireflies surrounding Elegance, I can just barely make out the monster’s black figure as it dashes toward Reynard. I don’t know if this will work, but I bombard the thing with echoes of fear and anger while squarely aiming a small hoof at its underside. Then I throw my head down, trying to ram it away from my brother with my small horns.
I let out a blood curdling, angry scream just as the thing turns its attentions away from Reynard and toward the strange horse. I don’t know who he is, but this monster had messed with my family, so I will absolutely protect him from the thing, too. I fully intend on killing the thing, just as Cheri had instructed us to.
@[Targaryen] @[Cheri] @[Reynard] @[Elegance]
Sorry, the whole family is throwing its weight behind Cheri, and I couldn’t let Memorie miss out on that. XD
