"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
When the shadows lengthen to coat the earth in a blanket of darkness, the bay mare begins to stalk from the depth of the her confinement. Kaurma is a stranger to the light of the day. The violent rays ignite her flesh in a sensation, one could only compare to being set aflame. It was her weakness and was the only saving grace to the equids that roamed by daylight. During this time, she was content on slumbering within the depths of a cavern she had secured herself between Loess and Hyaline. Ever wandering the borders and surrendering her freedom to no one.
Kaurma began to grow restless though. Whispers in the winds were that Loess was rising to a new era and that they were paying handsomely. This idea tempted her from her lair to seek this new heir she only knew by name. Amber eyes turned to the craggy terrain on steeps inclines and depressions of earth. Kaurma traveled at a leisurely pace, never even breaking a sweat. Amber eyes that were useless nearly half of the day, now effortlessly honed in of each sway of grass. Ebony ears rotated to find the pulsating heart of those living here but none(as of yet) sounded like the strength of a ruler...
She would find him eventually, securing the borders as the others slept. She had his scent ingrained in her mind, so when she plucks it from the cool breeze -faint and distant-, a smirk upturns her lips to reveal a set of pearly incisors extending from her upper jaw. She wastes no time in seeking its location. With unnatural speed, she moves as almost a blur. In the shadows her presence is merely non-existant to even the creatures of the night. One moment here and the next there. What she does find confuses her some. The scent lingers strongly about her but nothing is present to assure her the stallion exists here. The feminine features of her face twist in thought at what power is at hand. The beating of his heart, rings in her ears as if it were her own...
-What goes around,
comes around-
@[Wolfbane] I imagine he is probably invisible but because she had super natural senses can hear and smell him better than others can.
A creature such as her is something of a myth, really. From one flight early in his career here, just a casual drift at dusk, Wolfbane had happened to glance the blur that was this mare and since then he’d been trying to convince himself of her existence. At first it seemed simple to try and seek her out but no trace or scent could be found, high or low. He never seemed to find her again but always, always he thought that certainly there was something there and by happenstance he decides tonight was the perfect night to try a new tactic.
A rule of his had always been to use the gift of invisibility when he was at a loss for other options. Once honed, the skill it gave him was leaps and bounds beyond a fair fight but he reasons that this isn’t a battle, really, just a curiosity needing to be sated. Bane certainly doesn’t expect her to show, so when the draft of a strange breeze rustles his hidden mane and he turns unseen eyes to look - actually glaring at her in the flesh - he loosens the grip of his power directly over his mouth.
From nothing comes something; the pale glint of his fanged smile in the clear autumn night is eerie detached from any single body, hovering above the earth all alone. “So you are real then,” the teeth clack, as a darker blue than night spreads out from his lips until his mask, nose, and eyes become visible too, “and you’re here.” The disembodied face concludes.
06-27-2018, 09:20 PM (This post was last modified: 06-27-2018, 09:21 PM by Kaurma.)
Kaurma
It was in her element that she felt safest, ever lingering underneath the canopy of groves and crevices of rock by day, soon to be set free when the sun began to sink from the skies. Free to prowl the lands that others claimed as their own. She, herself, remained unclaimed and only entered this endeavor to gain something. Something much greater than a piece earth and a title...
He taunts her. Appearing as nothing more than a fragment, he flexes his magic. To impress her, she assumes. With a roll of her eyes, she diverts her gaze to the landscape. The moonlight illuminates the parts he shows her; fangs, a muzzle, a face. These parts speak and she turns to view them with little amusement of his antics. Her head rises as she considers his words. Yes, she was real. Was this fool on drugs? A snort flutters from her nares when a question surfaces. Amber eyes narrowing on the levitating head before her, "Show yourself and we shall talk about why I am here, Wolfbane..." Her calloused answer is all she offers him. No clues given as to what her talents are, if he didn't already know. Nor what her intentions are to being in Loess. All that info was contracted, and he had yet to sign anything yet...
“I think no.” Bane laughs at her, a glinting blue mask bobbing through the air and down the side of a hill towards where she stands. Does she really need to see him anyways? He pauses. “I’m not really sure I’m the stallion you’re looking for, after all.” The eyes narrow, a thoughtful and unperturbed smile shifting his lips, “Wolfbane?” The Loessian questions her, a test of sorts. He’s never actually met this black-looking mare before, despite knowing that familiar, freakish speed of hers.
So how the f*ck would she know him by sight alone?
Maybe she doesn’t, which is why she’d like to see the rest, but all the same he’d like to know how she came across his name.
“Are you looking for a place to stay?” The bodiless creature asks, draining color and shape away from his lips and nose until only the sparks of his eyes are left. “Or are you looking for trouble?” He blinks.
WOLFBANE
@[Kaurma] he doesn't mind, he can do this alllllll night lol
She has never known patience. It is something she can't afford to have. The world does not stop from turning just for her and so she must keep moving, to stay alive or at least unscathed. So when still he is taunting her, her patience thins further into a faint thread. Apparently he enjoyed games, so lets play shall we...
Blackened ears flick upwards from their ever resting position upon her poll. Amber eyes watch his form dancing about with amused satisfaction. With a flick of her ebony tail and twist of her nape she looks off into the territory before offering her apology, "I am sorry. Perhaps I am mistaken." She nearly chokes a snicker back at the thought. She could not be mislead by her gifts. "I am seeking the new rule here," she states, "All I know is a name." A scent, the sound of his voice and heartbeat, she would add but he need not know this. She has lingered within the darkened shadows of Hyaline and Loess for years awaiting the rise of something worth her time. Worth her talents and efforts. She is certain who she seeks is before her, but all games must end, right?
Her view returns to the mirage as it asks more questions and begins to dissipate. Questions she is not inclined to answer to a stranger. "When I find who I seek I will answer questions," she hisses between delicate fangs. Motioning to leave this trying encounter...
With an attitude fit for a swift death or a very, very lonely life, Bane’s not sad to see her flustered or readying to leave. What good would she do for Loess anyways? He tries to picture her - willful, insanely proud creature that she is - taking a command she might not agree with and the picture falls apart. There was nothing of honor in her, nor true love for his kingdom or her people. Like most that creep out from under rocks, she wants things. An audience with the “King”, respect without having earned it first …
As she hisses, he only blinks with uninterested slowness.
“You’ll be seeking for a long time then.” A voice pipes up, coming from no discernable mouth. He’s about as done with her as any patient horse would be, all earlier fascination with the strangeness of her powers fading away. “Loess doesn’t have the space for an ego as large as yours, but - ” Bane pauses, finally dropping his gift and allowing her to see him, all of him, as he turns his back to her, “ - if one day you decide to change that maybe we can speak again, on different terms.”
With both ears pointed back his wings unfurl, eager to lean into an oncoming night breeze that will take him far from where she is. “Goodbye.” He smirks without looking back, giving her only the few moments of his wings flapping to lift him before he’ll soar away with any offer of residency for the fanged, strange mare.
WOLFBANE
@[Kaurma] She can stop him if she likes or she can let him go, he's just trying to give her what she's asking for lol xD
The dark bay of her form shifts left slightly. One hoof leading to a step forwards and towards the image that has now vanished. Still words echo forth, and with no mouth visible to where they had come, she couldn't assume that they were spoken. A smirk comes to her at his taunt, and soon his declaration of knowing her at all. Another step is given forwards as he pauses at but and materializes with his back turned.
Her movements halt at the sight of him and ears capture what else he says before speaking up in a sultry voice, "Surely any ego I have, would be over shadowed by yours, Wolfbane." The definition of ego being different to each. She would consider hers more a need to survive than anything of self-importance. One side of her lip upturns more than the other as he strokes his wings upon the night winds. Goodbye, he says and she lingers long enough to see if he is bluffing. "It's too bad really," she says without hint of the statements meaning...
-What goes around,
comes around-
@[Wolfbane] leaving it open ended. If he is curious he can stay, if he is not he can leave. She won't beg him I am also waiting on a trait approval for her so she may have more to offer by next post or next time she sees him
“You’ve got some grit.” He amends, closing his wings as she taunts him with the possibility of getting to know her better. Not really his cup of tea, but if she seemed so damn insistent on getting his attention after he’d basically told her to get f*cked then he supposes he might as well give her a minute of his honest time. “So I’ll hear you out if you stop saying my name so many times in a row, and let me know yours instead.”
He laughs, letting the irritation slide easily from his shoulders where he’s curled his wings back up, and then the disappearing stallion eases around again to take a good look at her. She’s not unattractive, really. A sensible brute could appreciate the slender legs and curved neck she sported, and even though her mouth is dirty as sin he doesn’t mind watching the face it comes out of. Whoever the drifting mare was, she was tempting (irritating) enough to weasel out his better nature.
“You believe you have something we don’t already have here?” The now-curious male guesses, easing closer to her while the frigid night carried on around them. “What’s too bad, really?”
Her internal voices chuckle at his sudden interest. Everyone loves a good mystery and she is the epitome of the word. Never here nor there. The bay has remained good at keeping under the radar. Only appearing when warranted, and her loyalties whimsical. Assuming she was normal by her common outward appearance often worked in her favor. If she allowed herself seen to others of her species, it was to tempt them nearer. To feed on them or use them, was her M.O. This encounter was different though and when he nears she remains unmoved.
Finally, he admits what she has known to be true all along and a satisfied smirk creeps upon her maw. The ease of commanding the info from him would have worked to, but she much preferred them admitting things on their own free-will. Ebony ears flick forwards slightly at his eruption of laughter. Her smirk soon gives way to form words, "Kaurma." She offers simply, no need to sugar coat anything. Allowing her weight to shift casually from one hip to the next, his eyes wander about her. Now that he is whole, her eyes could do the same. He was quite handsome and well built. Obviously, his looks is why he enjoyed taunting and teasing others.
His ivory soft wings are folded to his sides and she wonders what it must be like to soar upon the night air. Far above these terrestrial lands and amongst the stars. Her musings are interrupted by his inquires and she looks upon his face with a slight tilt of her skull. His first question rhetorical in a way but it is his second that causes her to smirk once again.
What's too bad, really?
The nights breeze, whistles through the dormant trees and her eyes lock onto his, "That you don't come closer..." She allows a moment for her gift to show and will the golden stag, uncharacteristically near...
-What goes around,
comes around-
@[Wolfbane] so obviously she is using her compulsion to get him closer. He may or may not be affected by it but if he is, probably wont even notice. She can explore this trait further if you'd like
The taunting and teasing was a double benefit for the striped drake. It broke weak people easily and showed kind souls without effort, all while giving him a good laugh in the measure. Kaurma hadn’t appreciated the craft and skill of his particular taunting this night, (pity really) but all the same its given Bane a reasonably clear image of her character. Why she hadn’t gone to Sylva instead of here he can’t guess, but curiosity grabs him in the form of her suddenly bright and inviting eyes.
Come closer? Wolfbane hadn’t given it much thought, truthfully, but now that Kaurma says it the idea seems unusually appealing. “I agree. That is too bad.” The pegasus laments, hardly fighting a devilish smirk. Unsure of the reason why Bane draws closer, his olive gaze locked firmly into the depths of his puppeteer’s. The bay mare reminds him of another, less forceful creature (Wishbone) but the power of her invisible hook has sunk deep into his free will; the fanged male doesn’t stop until his lips are pressing lightly into the curve of her dark, dangerous neck.
“Is this better?’ He murmurs, the words moving atop her skin as he forms them with his mouth.
WOLFBANE
@[Kaurma] Explore away! Bane is compliant, very very compliant xD
![[Image: Wolfbane2.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/601918740845559818/696502662816071770/Wolfbane2.png)
![[Image: 3bCHvj.png]](https://img.nickpic.host/3bCHvj.png)