"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
Beyza has not yet figured out if she is still ambitious or if that is also a part of her she has packaged up with the past and hidden away - but she knows she could, at the very least, protect the Dale. At least for a time, at least until someone else with bigger ideas came along.
She is not alone here, though, unlike Ischia. This is not a decision she can make unilaterally without considering what someone else thinks upon the matter (and so she had, once Aquaria had disappeared - Beyza does not remember if she gave anything else other than her ability to protect her daughters in every way possible, including taking a position so someone else could not waltz in and grab it).
So she seeks out Ea in the early hours of the morning - feeling a genuine flicker of happiness when she spots the other mare. It warms her gaze as she approaches, and reminds her to be conscious of her blinks and be sure to disperse them appropriately so she does not appear too strange. “Hello, Ea.” Not being one to dodge a subject or delay it with preamble, she asks simply - “Do you think the Dale needs a leader?”
She’d hardly left the Dale since its return, more out of habit than anything else. Ea had been a homebody since birth, only leaving her homes out of obligation, ingrained in her by her mother. She no longer feels that obligation.
She especially loves to explore this version of the Dale — most of it is the same, really, and she can’t quite tell if there are parts of it that are new or if it had been too long since she was here last. Both could be true, she supposes. What a thing, for her to be comfortable not knowing.
She wakes early, just before the sun starts to rise. She’s always felt at home in the twilight — the magic of the sun peeking into the darkness, the moon and stars and planets still illuminated, blinking — but recently, she’s felt different. Stronger. She feels the twilight in her bones, pulsing with every heartbeat. She isn’t quite sure what to do with the feeling; will it someday swell and crash over her, merely a tide to the moon?
And then she hears a familiar voice, and pushes the thought away. “Beyza,” she says, softly, a smile forming on her face as she turns towards the other mare.
“Yes,” she says, simply, “the Dale needs a protector.” It seems odd that Ea wouldn’t feel the need to be in competition with Beyza, to prove herself and lead the Dale once again, but she simply doesn’t want to. She feels content. What does she have left to prove, after all?
“It should be yours, if you want it.”
AND I KNOW NONE OF THIS WILL MATTER IN THE LONG RUN,
BUT I KNOW A SOUND IS STILL A SOUND AROUND NO ONE
[so I know we need to think of a crown too, and while I’m not the best at any kind of design, here are some ideas: maybe some chunky rocks kind of like this but not crystals, twigs + rocks kind of like this, or maybe the rocks in these examples could be pebbles from the lake? idk obviously very open to ideas]
05-14-2023, 06:51 PM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2023, 06:52 PM by Beyza.)
She likes the word Ea uses better than the one she had. A protector, not necessarily a leader. There may be no one else except the pair of them to lead for now anyway - and she does not get the impression that Ea needs any sort of leading or guiding. Maybe the other mare doesn’t even need any protecting either. There’s a power there, to be sure.
Regardless of the direction of this conversation, she looks forward to sharing this home with this new friend.
Ea says that the protector could be Beyza, if she wants it, and the crystalline mare considers it. Or considers it more, because it would certainly be a lie to say she had not already given it any thought.
It is a want of hers, though Beyza knows it is not necessarily the title itself. She wants a new beginning for herself, wants to discover more of her story - wants a chance not to fade into obscurity, and to be known for something she has done - to forge relationships based on who she is, not the creature she allows others to mold her into. She wants so many things that it overwhelms her sometimes, and it is so easy to brush them all aside and pretend they do not exist simply so she can get through her life free from the weight of them.
She grew quiet and still for a moment while her thoughts tangled and then untangled themselves, and she blinks a few times as she comes back into the present and renews her warm smile. “I would like to protect this place.” She admits - and adds “Would you like to protect it with me?”
I LOVE the idea of using stones/pebbles from the lake. Maybe the twiggy idea, with the twigs/branches wrapped around the pebbles as the base and then their tips form kind of jagged line to mimic the shape of the mountains? And for a ~magical~ flare maybe the tips/edges of the crown glow a little (I’m picturing like… as if the sun is rising behind the mountains kind of thing? AND MAYBE if there's two rulers one could have a golden/sunny glowy tint to it and the other could have a silvery/moon glow to it??).
