"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
01-11-2016, 05:00 PM (This post was last modified: 01-11-2016, 05:00 PM by Rhynn.)
she slept with wolves without fear
She’d always thought herself alone in the world of shadows - a creature with access to a place that no others were even aware of. She’d thought herself unique, special. And then she’d met Rhonan. And now, here is this shadow creature.
She still considers herself special of course - even if she is not alone, she is still one of the very few - but it does make her wonder. How many more of them are there? If there are three of them here in the Valley alone, surely there are more out there in Beqanna … out there in the world!
She has to find out.
She reaches the forest as the sun first begins to set behind the distant horizon. The evening seems like the best time of day to seek out other shadow spinners. And, as darkness begins to set in, she sends out her shadow creatures. She doesn’t use her favourite mice - they would be near invisible in this light - instead choosing the more conspicuous shadow wolves. They head out in all directions, looking for any shadow spinners like herself. Hopefully evidence of another being with control of the shadows will draw them to her.
Then, she settles in to wait. Only time will tell if anyone will answer her call.
for the wolves knew a lion was among them
rhynn
Bah, I'm having trouble with her at the moment, but it's a start!
He doesn’t know how many there are like him, but like Rhynn, he’s always searching for them. There is something comforting in it, in surrounding himself with others that live in the shadows as he does. At first, the power had been overwhelming, teleporting him whenever he stumbled into a shadow, covering his skin but in wispy streaks.
Until he found Rhynn, and she showed him how to harness those powers. He learned to ask for what he wanted, found that accepting the darkness in his heart gave the shadows reason to acquiesce. He asks, and they do his bidding willingly.
The shadow wolf finds him easily enough, but of course, Rhynn knows to look for him. He sees another wolf in the Valley, and he assumes that one will find Ana. So he pulls the shadows together in front of him, popping from the Valley to Rhynn’s place in the Forest easily.
He gives Rhynn a nod, before adding, “Are you looking for others?” He can’t know for sure, of course, but he’s confident in his guess. After all, he’d do the same. He can only imagine what they could all do together. Cast Beqanna into shadows. Create a world made of shadow creatures and portals. The idea is a little thrilling, of course.
But that doesn’t mean they would. Doesn’t mean any of the other shadow manipulators would even want to. Perhaps they all live beneath the sun, pretending to be something other than what they are. He doesn’t know how you can control the darkness without letting it control your heart, but perhaps you can. Perhaps, if you are not him, it’s easy. For those that haven’t watched the world burn, haven’t watched their friends die, have voted away others to be tortured.
He’d been so young then, and had already done so many horrible things. His heart was black before the demon gave him power over the shadows. His prize was simply fitting of what he already was. Cold, callous. He cared, in some deep recess of his mind, but caring in the end had been too hard. So he did his best to shove it aside, along with all the imagines of Noah and the screaming Gero.
He had to move forward, and so he had. And today, moving forward brings him here. And he still can’t help but hope just slightly that there are others, and that they might be like him.
