"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
Again she is running. Running from the past, the present and the future. Little does she realizes you cannot run away from such things. Oh but she has before and she will again, in time.
She finds herself leaving the Mountain unscathed but without her intented purpose, to claim a home for her and her child. A child made of lust and not love. An innocent in the wake of poor choices. Poor judgement. As she crosses into the redwood forests, her redwood forest, tears well in the corners of her sienna eyes. She does not know the depths of the fairies threats but she doesn't question them either. What is done, is done. There is no turning back time.
Weaving through the pine forest she finds herself lost in their endless expanse. That was ok though. She had no one to want to find her anyhow. Her mother was dead, only a name was recorded as a memory of her father, her lavender brother is of an unknown location. Amorette was the only one who knew of her disappearance and she promised to not tell anyone she had left. She had hoped her only friend could be trusted but for some reason she felt their relationship was on rocky terms. Unknowing she had a romance with Levi as well.
As her tears began to roll down her cheeks, she slowed her pace and lifted her dished face. Attempting to blink her eyes dry as the burden inside her body became heavy. A gentle buldge of her belly was the tell-tale sign of her condition. She comes to rest and leans against a pillar of red bark. Her labored breathing from her running was beginning to slow, just as she hears the crackle of dried pine needles underfoot. Holding her breath she listens quietly. Hoping whoever or whatever it was would pass her by...
He doesn’t have a home, but he’s getting tired of living in the overly-busy common areas. There are just so many comings and goings, all the time; sometimes that’s great, giving him people to interact with, but the rest of the time it’s just plain annoying. But the chestnut stallion has heard rumors that the once-Kingdom of Taiga is habitable, but quiet. Habitable now, though it hadn’t been when the fae had been done tearing it to pieces. Still, he doesn’t need perfect; he just needs livable and quiet.
The trees are not as tall as he vaguely remembers they once were, nor are the pine needles underfoot as deep; but the new growth is still further along than any natural means could have produced, and the scent of the pine trees is…nice. He wanders along, trailing his nose through deep drifts of needles, snorting to dispel them in wide arcs just for the fun of it. And, true to the rumors, it’s quiet. His steps are almost the only sound, besides the natural ones of birds and small animals.
Almost. Faintly, there is the sound of hard breathing, and he is curious enough to head that direction. He wants to know who he might be sharing this space with…even if it’s mostly an empty not-Kingdom. If he doesn’t like the stranger, he can just avoid them in the future. A few more steps bring him around the trunk of one of the widest trees, and he finds a bay mare behind it, clearly pregnant and also clearly the source of the labored breathing, with tears drying on her cheeks.
He considers turning around and leaving, but instead he clears his throat and stares at the bay, strangely familiar, girl. Well now he’s been here too long, and he’s got to say something. “Uh, d’you live here?” His regular, brusque tone. A deep breath and he tries to force his voice to soften, because damn if the tears aren’t affecting him. He shifts uncomfortable and adds, “I’m Rhonen.”
Her eyes close softly as she concentrates on being soundless. A slight release of air held within her lungs causes a gasping as suddenly she catches words of a deep unfamiliar voice. "Oh! I... I didn't see you there." Her large dark eyes flutter open in shock. Brain sorting through the question he asked and name given. Rhonen... God that sounded familiar but why?
She dismisses her own wondering as she looks into the man's face. The fine lines of his face and dark eye were appealing to gaze upon. She shifts awkwardly under the weight of her own expanding barrel. As each day passes she grows more uncomfortable. But she musters a smile and replies, "Ummm, yes. Well kind of. It's a long story." Her eyes shy from the stallions face just then. God was it a long story. She decides to introduce herself since he was obviously not passing her by, "I'm Kolera." Her mind repeats the strangers name, Rhonen. Her eyes flicker in concentration, trying desperately to surface the memory she feels is hidden deep within her mind. Straining she finds something, she is standing there, in Sylva. The autumn leaves bright overhead. Her brother, only a year older, is flapping his purple wings. She is giggling at him, but then she sees the grass at her feet turning brown. She looks around her and then up to her mother in question. No words have a chance to leave her mouth before her mother is looking at her with prideful joy. She says she is gifted, just like her father...Rhonen.
The memory fades out as reality refocuses. "Rhonen..." She barely whispers. Sienna eyes that had been blankly focused on the pine needles at their feet, lift to find his face again, "Dad...?!" The word surfaced as a question but also a sure answer. Could it really be him? After all these years...
03-17-2018, 07:58 PM (This post was last modified: 03-17-2018, 07:58 PM by Rhonen.)
rhonen
molten eyes and a smile made for war
He’s startled her, that much is clear, and her eyes flash open to meet his own, holding Rhonen in thrall as they stare at each other, but the quiet is broken by first his voice and then hers, and he flicks his chestnut ears forward to catch all of her words. She mentions it’s a long story and perks his interest, but he stays quiet, settling for a curious tilt of his head, and his silence is rewarded when she continues with her name, which plucks another of those strings of recognition.
While she is remembering whatever she is remembering, Rhonen is inspecting her vaguely familiar face with his intent gaze (despite the fact that she is trying her hardest not to look at him), trying to figure out what he has in common with this pregnant little girl. He doesn’t place anything though, so he is still frowning at her, irritated at his own lack of comprehension, when she suddenly repeats his name, and her head is suddenly lifted again, and he can see at once that she has found the connection he strained for.
Of course, what she ends up saying is not anything he was expecting, and for once the stallion is speechless, blinking at the stranger for several long moments before he experiences a memory too – hazy things, nothing clear, but he remembers Karaugh discussing what she would name their foal. Kolera had been an option for a filly, but since he had never met the child that had been the only time he had discussed it with Karaugh; she hadn’t been all that interested in Rhonen, and Rhonen hadn’t been interested in her for long. He’d been young, and moving on was easy when he wasn’t emotionally evolved.
Since Karaugh never came looking for him, he’d kind of assumed they didn’t have a child. Maybe she miscarried, or the foal was unfortunately stillborn. But apparently he was wrong, and all this time he had a daughter out there, living a life he can’t begin to imagine. “Shit,” he mumbles, but it’s not malicious, or directed at her. “I didn’t even know you existed.” He takes a more vivid interest now, in her rounded belly and in the tears. He steps closer to her, but he doesn’t touch her. They don’t know each other well enough for that.
There is a lot of uncertainty that surrounds her every day as of late, but the chestnut before her name is not. Her mother had always treasured her gifted child and looked upon her proudly when the poison she held killed everything around her. It was a trait she said must have came from her father but they had never met. A fleeting romance and knowing her mother it was a reach for power. That was until she traveled to the mountains and rid herself of such wickedness...
The exclamation from the stallions mouth snaps her from her thoughts again. A frown twists on her maw but as she witnesses his tone was more shock than disappointment, it fades. She watches his expression as he confirms what she had already assumed, her mother had withheld her existence. She is barely shocked and murmurs, "Typical Karaugh..." Her eyes give a slight roll as a sigh expels from her ebony lips.
As he motions to come towards her, her head rises slightly. Expecting maybe an attempted comfort of some sort and she wasn't much of a hugger. When he stops to settle near but not in her personal space, she relaxes slightly. Ears perk forward again as he asks of her story. She nearly chuckles at his attempt to know her but then she thinks to what she has left. There wasn't much to lose at this point so she smiles slightly before trying to find words, "It's a very VERY long story... But, I helped rebuild these forests." Her eyes drifted to the pine canopy above them. Unaware of if he knew of Taigas demise but it was unnecessary. "I was born with Blight, you see and I went to the Mountain to see if I could be granted something that gave life, not death. I was given a task and upon completion I got this instead..." Looking to the forest around her, she spotted a small sapling struggling to reach above the forest brush. Ivory dipped limbs moved her towards it and in extending her muzzle, she brushed her gift across it. Slowly it began to reach for the open space above. She smiled as she turned back to look upon her father's face. Remembering her mother's disgust, she wondered if he too would believe her to be foolish...
"So you can say I live here... I actually just came back from the Mountain again but the fairies weren't happy with my...request," her eyes shy down as she thinks to the life inside her and the fairies threats. "I wanted to protect Taiga and in turn for it to protect me and...my child. I'm afraid I upset them and they are punishing me by doing something to my unborn foal," a tear begins to trail down her cheek again at the thought. Her thoughts begin to form more words she isn't even sure he wants to hear, "I don't know what to do now... I doubt I'll be welcomed back to Tephra after he finds out I'm pregnant. He wanted freedom and now look... He wouldn't want this...us... I'm better off here. Hiding. I ruined everything!" Panicked words flow from her as all her fears are made known. Tears pool in the corner of her eyes as her head lowers in shame. She had nothing anymore...
Kolera
Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust.
@[Rhonen] sry I tried fitting a lot in here to cover my absence
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