"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
The night had been cold, and morning found her spirits in poor repair. But for early autumn the amber sunlight was still strong enough to feel warm, and slowly her mood improved. Pumpkin Spice was social by nature, and isolation caused her some small distress. Her time in this strange land had been short, and thus far disappointing. But she was determined to make the best of her fortunes, because obviously one had to make the best of what was given. At least this day promised to be a calm one.
The area around her was grassland, with a few trees and shrubs sporting their fall colours dotting the landscape. The flaxen chestnut mare found herself beside a bush with leaves beginning to turn orange. The bush was a large one, making Spice feel small in comparison - rarely had she every felt large compared to anyone she met. She left the bush, determined to find one more her size.
Here and there Spice came across the scent of other horses, though the scent was relatively stale. On occasion someone could be heard, but never was there a horse to be seen to match the voice. Her flaxen made was thick, and on multiple occasions she had to toss her head to remove it from her vision. One one such occasion she thought she spotted a figure at a distance, but upon closer inspection there was no one. A disappointed sigh came from her and the pony settled in to graze. This land seemed sparsely populated. It would be difficult to make friends if she could find no one to talk to.
OOC: Sorry for the short post, still trying to feel her out. lol. Plus I haven't RP'd in years! :O
10-20-2016, 10:37 PM (This post was last modified: 10-20-2016, 10:42 PM by Celeana.)
Not Everyone, Not You
It had been quite a while sine she'd visited the field, ages even. She hardly ever had the time to recruit in the past, training with her mother consumed most of her time. Along with army meetings, but ever since Beqanna was reshaped and reborn she seemed to have loads of more time on her hands. Especially since she had joined the peace caste, there was no need to train. No enemies to fend off, for they had no enemies yet. So she had nothing other to do, and what better to do than to search for future sisters?
Sauntering along in a rather glee state, which was quite a surprise for she isn't one of the friendliest of folk in Beqanna. But something today surely had her in the right mood.
Making her way through the field, the girl was perplexed by the sight of an unfamiliar short equine. She hadn't seen many ponies in her lifetime, perhaps a few shorter horses but definitely not a pony. Intrigued by the little equine, Celeana slowly strode towards the flaxen chestnut being.
Tapping her velvet nose on the pony's shoulder she emitted a greeting, "Hi there." She pauses allowing a friendly smile to tug at the corners of her lips. "I'm Celeana of Nerine. Care to share a name?" She questioned lowering her head so she was eye level with the little mare.
Visiting the field was not the same that it used to be.
Before, it had been like pulling on a worn, familiar glove—the leather soft and fitted. He had known the shape of the field like the back of ones own hand; he had known the thrum of its pace and the rituals. It had been a dance where he had known every step, and he had found that it was one he was good at.
But now—oh, now—it was unfamiliar. The colors were too harsh, the shadows too long, He walked into the field and felt the sadness tug at his heart, a depression lurking beneath the surface that he struggled to overcome. Just when he had been finding his feet, the rug had been pulled out from underneath him. When he slept at night, he dreamt of the Gates going up in smoke. He dreamt of the small form of his child lying still (too still) on the ground. He dreamt of Minette’s tears, Ellyse’s cries, of Joelle.
He dreamt of his failures so that when he woke, he felt the weight of them, constant and unyielding.
Still, he was not ready to give up and so, this day, he shook the dust from his coat and ventured outside of Tephra to the land that he had once known so well. The Field was not as familiar as he had once remembered, but the bite in the air was comforting. When he saw the pair, he did not waste time but walked over, his handsome face breaking into a crooked, warm smile. “Hello there.” He looked at them both, holding their gaze for a beat, before nodding in greeting. “My name is Magnus.”
And then he fell silent, uncharacteristically unsure of himself.
The touch on the shoulder startled Spice, she was surprised someone had managed to get so close to her without her noticing. The white being who seemed to materialize beside her was a behemoth of a horse - or so Pumpkin Spice thought. Perhaps there were more equine around than she suspected, and she was just to unobservant to see them. The female introduced herself as Celeana, she seemed to have a friendly disposition, the small smile she displayed looked natural. Big and friendly, as good a start as could be hoped for.
"Hello, I'm Pumpkin Spice." The pony felt a small pang of embarrassment at introducing herself, she was aware of how different her name sounded compared to the larger mare's. But her herd had a different tradition for naming than this place seemed to have. "Pardon me, but does everyone here have such a unique name as yours?" It was so difficult to be curious and not sound childish, especially when one was already small and barely mature to begin with.
Celeana mentioned where she was from, Nerine, a strange name for a land, not at all like the place names Spice was used to. But again, Spice had to remind herself that this was a different place, a new place.
Out of the corner of her eye the ginger pony saw another stranger approaching, this one carried itself differently, a stallion she decided as he came closer. He was also large from Pumpkin Spice's perspective, though somewhat shorter than Celeana. At least she had spotted this new face coming. He was buckskin, not a hue Spice had seen frequently. He introduced himself politely and simply, the mare wondered if he was shy, for he did not carry on the introduction. Best to help him along, or so Spice thought.
"Hello, Magnus, I am Pumpkin Spice." She responded cheerily - trying to hide her embarrassment at her title, it seemed as though she did have a foreign name compared to these locals. "But my friends usually call me Spice." She added hurriedly, hoping that perhaps a nickname would make her feel less alien.
She suspected these two equine were strangers to each other as much as they were to her. Perhaps this country was larger than it had appeared. "Are there may others around? For I have only seen the two of you since I arrived." Spice spoke in a merry manner, trying to generate conversation.
Kiano hadn't visited the Field that often, but he figured it was time to learn of his mothers past. And time to discover his future. When he enters the field, he smiles, remembering when he came here as a foal. Then his eyes grow dim, remembering that he only headed here to find a home, only while he was a yearling. He scans the horizion, looking for somthing.
His dark orbs land on a fair femme with darker specks, like somone had sprinkled soot over her back. He sees she's talking to two others. A mare, very simmilar to himself, except without dark points. And a stallion, tan where he was red. Kiano shruged, perhaps these similarities would draw them closer.
The air began to nipp at his flanks, similar to his mother. He shook his head, trying to remove the sad memories flying around in there. then he whinnied a greeting and continued their way. "Hello. I'm Kiano, son of Nadyah and Lokii." He smiles, trying to ease his mind.
(ooc: Sorry, I haven't played this guy in forever, so i'm a little rusty with him.)
A third approached, another stallion, very similar in build and height to Magnus. Though this one was of a similar colour to Spice herself, there was an apparent height difference. There must not be any ponies here. The small mare thought to herself as she examined her new acquaintance. Her companions made no immediate response to him. Well, it's decided, I will have to change my name if I want to seem less out of place here. Pumpkin Spice thought as the stud introduced himself, for he and his parents had names as strange as the others in this motley group. Though in reality Spice had no intention of changing her name, it was improper to change the names one's mother gave them.
"Greetings, I am Pumpkin Spice." She introduced herself for the third time, maintaining her cheery disposition. She felt it best to leave Celeana and Magnus to introduce themselves, for she hardly knew them.
The sun had climbed a little higher in the sky, it was properly mid morning now and the frost had mostly dried from the grass. This day had turned out to be much better than she had anticipated; for already she had met three new contacts who she hoped she would one day call friends. It still puzzled her if and how they may know each other - was it typical for a herd to go recruiting in this place? So many new things needed to be learned! At least the language here seemed to be the same as her own, she had traveled through a land where the equine had spoken a completely different tongue!
(OOC: No worries, Spice is completely new to me. If you compare this post with her first post you'll probably notice she's already evolved a little :p)
A sweet chuckle is released from her lips, as the little mare questions if there are many folk in Beqanna with unique names as hers. Celeana is hesitant to answer, her name had always been a touchy subject, it was all she had left of her blood mother. Exhaling a deep breath she allows a chuckle to be expelled, "Well, I can't say I've met many. But I'm sure there are many equine out there with unique names." Her smile returns, this time it's faint and gentle.
That until, another joins the group. Her smile fades, lobes pin to her cranium in a defensive manner. Her verdant gems meet the golden gaze of the buckskin individual. He introduces himself as Magnus, his vocals are rough and pleasant yet she holds her defense. Heart fluttering in a tense manner sending tremors of warning down her spinal chord. "A little space please?" Her eyes waver over Magnus for a moment, "Sorry, I'm Celeana." She's hardly apologetic, men have always made her uncomfortable. Especially since she rarely encountered them, not many wished to remain residents in Nerine.
She becomes more uncomfortable as another male joins them, introducing himself as Kiano. Her tail lashes aggressively, and she's almost tempted to snap out at one of them. Yet she holds herself in place, emitting a deep inhale and exhale her gaze meets all of them, halting upon Pumpkin Spice. "I'm Celeana of Nerine." she introduces herself for the third time today.
Her lobes return to a neutral state, allowing her eyes to wander wearily over the two men. "Spice, Nerine is home to the sisterhood. A group of strong and fearless women, yet lately what we have in heart we lack in numbers." Her vocals are laced with a truthfulness. "We're in need of women like you." Her grin returns to her lips, it genuine and friendly as if unchanged by the men in her presence. "I'd be happy to show you around some time, if you wish." Her gaze meets both of the boys allowing herself to relax for a moment, resting her guard.
Magnus did not flinch at her name and did not pick up on the tension when she hurriedly followed it with a nickname. Instead, he just gave a charming, crooked smile, one corner rising higher in one corner. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Spice.” It was amazing how quickly things came back to you—the patterns, the rhythms of recruiting feeling like a muscle stretched. It felt good to do honest work again, good to be back in the field and good to know that despite all the changes, some things remained the same.
As the other stallion approached, Magnus swung his head to the side to greet him. “Kiano,” he repeated, “how nice of you to join us. My name is Magnus.” It was genuine. Magnus had never minded when the field encounters became large groups; on the contrary, it seemed like a vital sign of life in Beqanna that there were so many people interested in growing, or joining, homes. It would be a sad state of affairs if there was no one else out recruiting. Not to mention, Magnus hardly wanted to have her choose Tephra simply because there were no other options available. It had to be about finding the right home.
Still, despite his enjoyment in the situation, it was difficult to miss the tension that crackled in the air when Celeana acknowledges him. At her request for space, he looked puzzled for a second before wiping it from his face, expression becoming neutrally friendly. “Of course, my apologies.” He took a careful step back, doing his best to free up more room around her without being so far away that he would have to yell to be heard. He listened as Celeana talked about her land, and he felt a quick sting in his chest.
That must be where the jungle had gone. That must be their new home.
He had not yet fully accepted the loss of the Amazons and his childhood home; it was perhaps even more painful than the loss of the Gates and all that had meant to Joelle. For a second, a frown fluttered around his scarred mouth before he pushed the thoughts to the side. He would deal with them later. Instead, he focused his attention on the group at hand, ears perking amongst the tangled forelock.
“Are you looking for a home, Spice? What kind of home calls to you?”
10-26-2016, 03:46 AM (This post was last modified: 10-26-2016, 03:53 AM by Kiano.)
Kiano nodded his head first to Celena then to Magnus. His head thrummed, trying to remember. "Nice to meet you."
"Magnus," his attention changed to the inked honey stallion, "Did you know anything of the gates? My mother said somthing to me when I was young." his voice trailed off.
He smiled, realizing the size of Spice. "I think I know one stallion who's about your size, maybe smaller. I don't know his name, I've only seen him in passing. Jet black with bright blue eyes. He stays near the forrest."He smirks boyishly. He then looked over to Celena.
"Sorry."he backs up, giving the mare a little more room. She does catch his eye, but she obviously didn't like stallions. "How's your Sisterhood fairing after the reckoning?" He honestly was currious, that's all.
The small mare was startled by the reaction of her female counterpart, and she found her own ears beginning to lay back simply because of the tension she felt. The light mare recovered quickly from her apparent anger at being uninterrupted by the buckskin stallion Magnus. The stud seemed to take it in stride and gave some of the distance Celeana had demanded, though not backing off so far as to miss out on any of the conversation.
Celeana pleaded her case, a herd of mares only that was desperately in need of more ladies. It was an interesting concept to Pumpkin Spice; though the mention of being fearless and strong almost made the small mare giggle - for she was by no means fearless, and many surpassed her in strength of body. How do they foal if they have no males? The ginger mare wondered to herself, but was careful to keep such a personal question to herself. The answer was obvious really, they went outside the herd to mate. "A sisterhood you say?" Speaking of her home seemed to make Celeana relax somewhat more; perhaps she wanted the men to know she would not be intimidated. "Is it a nice home you have? What does it look like?" A rather silly set of questions it would seem, but Spice had traveled through a dust bowl of a place once, and it's inhabitants had been proud to call that barren ground home. Sometimes pride could blind one to the fact that it was time to move on to greener pastures.
Spice did like Celeana, she was inclined to trust a fellow of her gender more than a strange stud. But the outburst had been surprising, clearly this pretty lady had a bark , and Spice dreaded to see if she had a bite to match.
Magnus seemed reticent, though not aloof. The more he chose to speak the more charming Spice found him. But his invitation was to open, she knew what Celeana offered, but what could he offer her? How could she broach the subject without seeming to cast Celeana's bid aside? She decided to remain silent and await their answers to Kiano's questions - she knew none of the places or people he mentioned, but she could most certainly learn more if she listened.
Kiano was a complete mystery, he seemed more interested in the others than in her. Perhaps that was a good thing, it was difficult enough knowing she would disappoint one of the two before her. She liked his presence, even if it was for the selfish reason of not making her the centre of attention. The mention of another pony in the area was a pleasant thought, at least she wouldn't be such an oddity, maybe she could come across said fellow bantam horse in the future.
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