"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
You fix your makeup just so, guess you don't know that you're beautiful.
The red mare weaves in and out of the trees leaving a winding trail for him to find on purpose. She was feeling emboldened and good this evening, however, how long would that last. Her tail was flagged, but her heart threatened to burst from her chest as she found a place secluded to do her grazing and daydreaming. She had received an invitation into the private lives of two residents here, and she was so grateful, but she was nervous. She hadn't been alone with her male yet.
The buildup had been incredible, his skin on hers, across from Circinae. She knew him for such a short amount of time, and yet it was like she had always known him. He needed to move, to stretch his legs, to see the world like her. She knew him already. She had never wanted to give someone a child so badly as she wanted to bear one for @[Canaan] and his mate, their mate, Circinae. She dances nervously in place and calls for him, airy whinny piercing the air.
She felt all jumbled up inside. But isn't this what she came for? She had never had two perfect creatures like she did, they made her want to follow them to the ends of the earth and beyond. She wanted to make a home for them in a place where they could live for eternity. Did she love Canaan already, via her Wolf-of-the-Water? She couldn't say. Her eyes searched frantically for him, she was in a state of urgency that she didn't know she could feel again. Her dark lips parted to call out again and she wills herself to be still, wills herself to be calm. She tries to cock a hind leg nonchalantly, but only manages to shift her weight from side to side, appearing even more anxious.
She had come at the nudging of Circinae, who seemed excited at the prospect of a sister wife and cousin foals. Jah-Lilah must confess, she quite liked the idea as well. They were a matched pair, and Jah-Lilah the third in their triangle. How she ever became so lucky, she'd never know, and she couldn't thank them enough. Why was she so antsy? All her seductress swag seemed to be out to lunch. She sighed, shook herself, and closed her eyes. She whispered a song to herself, and slowly began to unwind.
You try on everything that you own, but you were fine in my eyes a half hour ago.
And maybe, I'll find out a way to make it back someday. To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days.
She is beautiful.
Of that, he is certain. She is carved of strong muscle, wanderlust: flora, and fauna. She is as if she had always been – a steadfast presence in the lives of his children, in the life of Circinae, where she so tenderly cradled her heart and soothed the heat that rose inside of her with a gentle caress he longed to see up close. She had come to know her as he had never been able to; in a way that time had not allowed. Jah-Lilah had seen his boys in their youth, growing, changing, in a way that he never had been able to. Circinae had come to find him when his absence no longer seemed as if it were merely of his own choosing, and Jah-Lilah had followed with the same yearning to find him as she had, and yet, she had never even known him.
She knew him, as he knew her – two kindred spirits, wild and wanton, seeking to move and to never stay and yet each had found an anchor in the water nymph that had stolen both of their hearts. He felt as if he was so often dancing with her – a lingering stare, a brush of skin – he often wondered if he was imagining the chemistry crackling between them. Perhaps it was merely the electrical current that ran beneath her skin. It tempted him; drew him closer – high voltage energy drawing in the heavy wind current of his wanderers’ soul – he wondered how she might taste beneath him. It is a fleeting thought – one drawn to the surface by the way her hips sway to and fro with raw femininity; he understood all too well what drew Circinae to her beyond her sharp wit and fierce heart.
When she does call for him, it is an echo that weaves its way through the dimly lit thicket, enveloping him in the cadence of her own. He is certain, then, that she is luring him deeper into the woodland with a purpose. So often, as his teeth gently raked along the emerald-tinted spine of his heart while Jah-Lilah would affectionately preen her tangled tresses, Circinae would find a way to slide out from between, to glide the length of her body against her own or against his own – pressing them closer together, his gilded skin against hers of emblazoned fire. He felt the heat then.
He can feel it again, stirring him from his reverie, while his dark legs carry him deeper into the forest, a soft call made for her from the confinement of his throat – and there she is, filled with an energy all her own. A speckling of sunlight peeking through the heavy canopy overhead, draped over the vivid mahogany of her skin. There is a hint of smile in the corner of his dark mouth as his finely preened feathers bristle and flatten against the hollowed bones of his wings; his curiosity is piqued – and again, he is left wondering if he were imagining the mischievous gleam in her eye, or the way her hip is cocked to show him the entire length of her shapely body.
His mouth is dry; his throat is parched.
”You called,” he murmurs softly, moving close enough to her to see the true depth of her emerald gaze, enough to feel her sweet breath across his cheek. ”I’ve come.”
If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all, then I hope there's someone out there who can bring me back to you.
The wind swirls around her and she knows he's there before she sees him. It climbs up her legs, tickles her stomach. It curls around her neck, finger combing her mane, it pulls her tail to dance around her plump haunches. Her feathers twirl and spin, and then a whisper in her ear.
How long has she known him? It feels like a lifetime. She knows the bend of his neck, the curve of his spine. She knows how he loves his people, knows better how he loves his family. His dark tresses cascade carelessly over his honeycomb pelt, and she swallows hard. She remembers how he ran to Wolf-of-the-Water, how he cut through that tall grass like it was nothing. She remembers how his wings were clipped, and how afraid he was that it would be forever. They had grown acquainted during the time she had helped take those broken wings and mend them. It was the very least she could do for the love of her love. Yet now, here she was, with this same male, wanting him like she wanted Circinae.
It all washed over her like rain, the stories, the emotions, the long nights. They were just two girls, camped out under the stars, talking about boys. How young and vibrant Wolf-of-the-Water was, how her eyes had lit up when she talked of him, of @[Canaan]. How badly she desired Jah-Lilah to like him, accept him. Now she sees all, eyes wide open as she stands bathed in light from the sun and from her skin. She feels the tingle down her spine that her mare felt, seeing Spirit-in-the-Sky lounging in the meadow that evening. The very same meadow, that by the hand of the Earth-Mother, had brought them together. She feels the same wonderment and excitement watching him fold his impressive wings into his body that her mare felt. She retold the story over and over of how they met, always with the same giggles and animation every. single. time. Jah-Lilah never tired of hearing it.
In turn she had told about her own love, the black unicorn, time and time again. Circinae only asked to hear the ending once. Jah-Lilah had been forever grateful for that. She is writing a new story now, spinning a new tale with a new life. He has come to her, and all of her senses are on high alert. They've been playing a coy and careful game of cat-and-mouse, but always with the security of Circinae around. Now they are alone, with only the forest to witness their meeting. His voice comes to her then, deep and resounding, breaking her trance. How long had she been standing there, stuck on stupid?
He approaches her, brushing along the side of her face. Their noses meet and they exchange breath. Upon scenting him again, she squeals and kicks out with a hind leg excitedly. She hits nothing but air, but her instincts had overpowered her for a moment, nonetheless. She was a wild, primal thing, drawn to other wild creatures like herself. She loved a wolf, and she yearns for this nomad. Her ears drop down, then perk up as she grunts and snorts softly, lipping at the side of his face. She bobs her head, moving in closer tentatively.
Words finally come to her, and suddenly she seems calm as ever. "I'm glad. I was worried for a bit you'd be...busy." Worried? Are you being vulnerable, my firefly? Come now, you've got this, smooth like silk. "I don't want to take her from you, you know." She blurts out, tossing a half-smile his way. Her green eyes meet his and they are locked together in that moment. She breaks their concentration with a riddle for him. "I am he as you are she, as she is me and we are three together..." Her voice rings out, and she turns slowly, picking up a slow amble deeper into the woods. Her tail sways back and forth, and she beckons him to follow, to figure her out, to figure them out.
And maybe, I'll find out a way to make it back someday. To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days.
The wind entwines itself around her voluptuous silhouette, caressing her underbelly and down the length of her legs, while another gentle breeze weaves it way through her entanglement of ringlets and feathers. He touches her with it long before he, himself, dares to do the same in any physical sense – she is a temptress, carved of beauty but made of stone, but she is coy and he yearns to have her desire him as he has come to desire her. He can see where Circinae may have placed her lips across the column of her throat, or the soft crook of her jaw – or maybe along her hipbone, where heavy muscle lay over solid bone, quivering with anticipation – and he is left wondering how it might feel to do the same.
How it might feel to watch the two make love, to see them entwine as the wind and the sea so often do, tumultuous and ravenous, passionate and with reckless abandon – the longing glances had not gone unnoticed by him; he could only imagine the fury and heat of their own devotion. It is the same yearning hidden away within the vivid green of her own gaze, lurid and tempting, boring into his own as the heavy slope of her spine and the swell of her wide, childbearing hips beg him closer.
He does not take the sight of her for granted; he relishes in it and commits it to memory so he might forever remember the bleary sunshine peeking through the dense foliage, highlighting one of the most beautiful and shapely creatures he had ever encountered. So that he might remember the moment he realized how his heart might have the capacity to love two as deeply as he loved one - just as he can remember the moment emerald sheathed in indigo had stolen his heart, years ago.
His cheek brushes across her own, and a soft squeal emerges from the heat of her breast – he cannot suppress the smile that pulls at the corner of his mouth, savoring the caress of her lips along his cheekbone while his own gently brush over her throat, where he can feel her vibrant pulse thrumming beneath his tongue. Her softly spoken words reverberate across his skin, held thick in the warmth stirring between them, and a soft gust of wind carries through the dense thicket – wrapping itself around them and drawing her closer to him.
”Not for you, nor for her,” he murmurs softly, each syllable saccharine with truth. ”never too busy.”
She can see him, and she does know his wild and restless heart because it is her own wild and restless heart, yearning to feel complete and whole. There is a soft confession lingering in the air, and though there is a part of him that has always known she had never intended to take what had been his, she had, and she had filled a void left in his absence and the heart of his water nymph had grown so that it could love both so wholly.
He can see that, so clearly.
”I know that you don’t want to take her– and you never will; she loves us both.” He says softly, seeking the depth of her gaze, longing to see what lay beneath the crackling electricity of the surface, to see into the tender core of her soul. ”She has come to love you so completely, and you will never know what it means to me that she and my sons –“our sons; his heart might always pine for what cannot be with the boys he had been forced to leave behind. ”- had you when I could not be with them.”
I am he as you are she, and she is me and we are three together.
Together.
He is not far behind when she does begin to plunge deeper into the dimly lit woodland, and gently his pale lips caress the curve of her hip, tasting the sweetness of wisteria and the saltiness of the sun, a heat stirring within him as her tail sways to and fro, brushing across the length of his gilded legs, causing him to stiffen with desire. He does not stay there – he craves for her to want him as he does want her, and so his shoulder presses along the natural, feminine swell of her barrel, while his teeth gently rake up the length of her spine, where his tongue gently tastes the nape of her neck where her withers lay. The finely preened feathers of his dark umber wings bristle against her side, while the hollowed bones remain clutching tightly to the caramel of his pelt.
”Show me.”
If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all, then I hope there's someone out there who can bring me back to you.
Out of all of the guys, you're my one and only guy.
As she moves she can still feel him all over her. All of her nerve endings are on high alert, and she can feel the sudden changes in the breeze, the subtle difference in wind direction. He is smoother than he lets on, and Jah-Lilah is enjoying him thoroughly. Their pheromones in the air, the way their scents blend, she is high on him. A fire is sparking on her insides, but this time it's not in her heart, it's began much further south. She has fantasized about him before, when sharing more girl talk with their beloved Circinae, but never with him so close. She had seen him in her mind's eye, lips and teeth caressing the places on the emerald mare that hers had, but now she wants to feel him. She wants to know. She wants him to know.
He pulls her closer, pulls her into him. His tongue dances across her pelt and she shudders, my firefly. A wetness begins to pool in the place below her tail, and as the sun warms their backs she continues their courtship dance. Her ears, betraying her feigned nonchalance, stay trained on him as he continues to build her up. Flattery will get him everywhere. She smiles as she sways her hips, tail raised high, looking back at him. "Mmm...good to know, I seem to find myself needing you more and more lately." She had expressed herself to Circinae over and over, their unorthodox union made known to the Earth-Mother and anyone eavesdropping on their lovemaking, but never to @[Canaan]. She wants him now, as she wants the Wolf-of-the-Water. Jah-Lilah wants to love him, to give herself completely as she has done to Circinae, to seal their circle.
To think that she could feel this way again, twice over. He talks about the feelings Circinae has for them, and she begins to see they mirror her own. The more she stays with the goldenrod male, the harder it is for her to leave him, them. His two-toned forelock falls dramatically between his ears, a stark contrast to the color of his skin. She notes the brightness in his eyes, the confidence in his stride. She belonged as much to him as she did to Circinae the very first time she laid eyes on him. She suspects Wolf-of-the-Water knew it would be this way, and wouldn't be surprised if she giggled and shrugged her shoulders when the red mare asked her about this. The thought makes Jah grin widely.
Their eyes meet again, and she's flashing all around them, his very own sparkler. He thanks her for being...her, and she shakes her head at him. "I never intended to be their surrogate anything. The Wolf and her pups stumbled upon me one day, and by the grace of the Earth-Mother we haven't been apart since." He catches her finally and is immediately on her, and she squeals again. "I love her too, this I know. But it's you I want to know as well." She licks her lips, quite literally thirsting for him, desiring only to drink him up in this moment.
His mouth on her hips, his wings and shoulder pressed upon her side. Then he says it, and he speaks to her very soul. Show me. Jah-Lilah can do nothing but oblige. A squeal is emitted from her lips and she half-rears, tail flung carelessly over her back. Her scent permeates the air as she unabashedly shows how bad she's truly been pining for the winged stallion, the lover of her lover. Her breathing picks up and her gait becomes splay-legged as she prepares for him. Her head snakes low to the ground as she lets out a guttural nicker, encouraging him, begging him to take her further, push her harder. She speaks in a low, husky voice, sidling into him. "This is why I called you here, after I talked to our mate." She turns to press her other side to him, nose at his withers. She lets her top lip and teeth make circles on his back as she makes grunting noises. She shifts her weight and snaps her tail against her haunches, anticipating. "I needed to know everything about you...about this." She licks down his side, making her way to the tender part of his underbelly. She pauses only for a moment in between strokes to speak. "Do you know what that feels like, Spirit-in-the-Sky?" She rubs her face along the length of his body, then looks back at him, breathless. "Just...needing to know?"
And maybe, I'll find out a way to make it back someday. To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days.
His pale lips brush along the tender muscle of her neck, feeling her quiver and shake beneath his touch, and he is drawn closer to her by the sheer heat of her skin – sparkling and trembling with the electrical current that moves effortless beneath tissue and bone, electrifying him, drawing out the wildness in him. There is an urgency building up – an instinct that is nearly impossible to ignore, the desire to mount her and to fill her, but he is savoring the way she curls against him, writhing up to the trail of feather-light kisses rained down across her shoulder and then to her jaw, feeling the muscle move and shift under his mouth as her soft but deep voice reverberates with her confession.
He does not argue when she brushes away his gratitude – the seed has been sown, and she knew how he felt; who was he to question her humility? It only endeared her to him, and his lips press against her jaw, her throat – tasting the steady, thrumming pulse beneath – but soon she is rising to the sky, a trill of excitement in her voice, and he can hardly contain the throaty laughter from bubbling up. She is a tempestuous hurricane and he, her wild and unwieldy gale-force wind, and his teeth brush and nip across the fleshy round of her hip as her scent envelopes him, pulling him closer to her again.
It is a delicate dance, as old as time – but he does not take the sway of her hip, nor the huskiness of her nicker, voicing her desire to him for granted. He longed to covet her, but only her and Circinae – his desire went no further, wanting no one else, and as she has come to yearn for him, he has come to long for her. His mouth caresses her hip, the base of her spine, tasting her deeply and wholly with a steady beat as the warmth of the summer sunlight dances across the scarlet of her and the goldenrod of his own. She is salty and sweet, laced with wisteria and evening primrose and thistle – he could get lost in her, drive her to the brink of madness with his mouth dancing across her skin, if her voice did not draw him out of the reverie of his whim.
”I do know,” he mumbles huskily as her teeth rake slowly across his skin from the base of his withers, above the line where the hollowed bone of his wing is carved into him and down to his tender underbelly. The arousal is pooling and he is enamored with her, instinct awakening with him as the roundness of her hip brushes across his shoulder, tempting her to complete her as he knew she would complete him. ”I need you,” he murmurs across the flesh of her thigh as his cheek brushes across her leg and up along her dock, as his long and muscled legs sidestep and align with her own body. ”I want you.”
His nostrils flare across the crimson of her skin as his teeth nibble and brush across her hip, and within seconds he is rising, mounting her, coveting her and sheathing himself with her. His legs draw her closer to him, enveloping her as she had come to envelope him, and he is lost with her – lips pressing fervent kisses along the nape of her neck; teeth gripping her withers with an urgency. Soft breathy moans of her name and the hushed confession of his need for her brush across her shoulder, muffled as a guttural sigh releases himself (only once she has found her own, writhing and moving with him, like the ebbing tide of the ravenous sea), sowing the seed of what would blossom into a son or a daughter – a love to be shared; to tether him to her and her to him.
And when he is finished, after he tenderly kisses her hip and lavishes her in affection, he takes her again, bringing her and their union to completion. After, his chest heaves and the wind becomes heavy around them, drawing her closer to him as his lips and teeth lovingly caress her neck and jaw where a sheen of sweat now lay, not unlike his own. ”You are the lightning to my storm, Jah-Lilah – I will be the wind to carry you, if you let me.”
If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all, then I hope there's someone out there who can bring me back to you.
All of the stars, you make them shine like they were ours.
He drops tender touches along her neck, her skin quivering and trembling beneath him. Her adrenaline is pumping already, and she is fighting the urge to bolt. Her energy is building up steadily, and she needs somewhere to channel it. She wants him, her desire permeating the air. He has dropped and she can instantly smell all of him blending with her, and it only encourages the wetness in her hind end to grow. He is pushed up against her, his feathers tickling her body. He is driving her mad. He has danced his mouth all over her, felt her pulse quickening, her heart racing. He knows what it is, just as she does. She has no fear, she has only love.
Her desire for the Wind and the Wolf was overwhelming, intoxicating. She'd felt like this before, only in the moments leading up to her and Circinae's union. This was different though, she sought to be filled, to be made whole. Now, instead of coaxing moans out of her mare until her waterfall burst the dam, she was with her stallion. The pressure is building, her actions and words are ensuring that. She is readying herself to take him into her, to be sealed off, to finally allow a seed to be planted. She would grow and nurture this delicate flower like no other in the world. She wanted to make him(them) proud, wanted to bring forth a youngling they would both accept and love. She needed him. She needed them. She tells him these things.
He is talking, mumbling, whispering, and it's everything she wants to hear. In a moment they are nose to tail, and he's rubbing himself all over her. She adapts a sawhorse position, and lifts her tail. A couple of stray drops of urine and liquid escape her, she's lost to the wild animal that she always was. Her nose finds its' way to his undercarriage, and she's pleasantly surprised by what @[Canaan] is packing underneath. She steps in and tucks her head low, licking him in his most sensitive places. She's swaying her hind end, dancing in place, casting her own spell. The red wytch, the medicine mare, the healer, she is all these things, but tonight she is only a lover. Only his lover, only their lover.
Next he's rounded and grabbed her. He is up, up upon her. She squeals and tenses, her haunches attempting to launch her forward, but they are deterred. He has her, as he's always had her the moment their common mate decided they were a trio, instead of two duos. He plunges deep into her, pressing himself as far as he can, to make sure their union is a successful one. She sucks in a breath sharply, body tingling all over as he stretches into her. His grip on her sides, his teeth on her neck, his voice in her ear, all she can do is bend to his will. Her voice rings out, cutting the summer night as she calls for him. She grunts, gasps, heaves, then comes the explosion. An electric burst from all around them, sparks shooting through the grove of trees. Fireworks behind her eyes, nothing but colors when she shuts them. She is melting around him, her love seeping out. He returns the favor in spades, and for a moment, they are one as together they reach the highest levels.
He drops from her, rubbing himself on her hip and flank. She turns round, beckoning him with a look, and before she can say a word he is in his place again, in the depths of her soul. He fulfills her and fills her, leaves swirling as the wind sweeps her away in the throws of their passion. She is breathless, shaking, satisfied. She falls into him, weak from lovemaking and encouraged by a convenient gale force, and they hold each other. He kisses her, sweat and all, looks her in the eyes and speaks. Her heart catches in her throat as he courts her, just like Circinae courts her. She is bound. "Carry me then, Wind. I am with you."
