I kept my hope just like I hoped to // kensa!

[Rhaegor]

I kept my hope just like i'd hoped to
then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue

Although she herself is quite young, to Rhaegor, she seems like the embodiment of adulthood, collected and knowledgeable in every way such that he could trust her judgement beyond any shadow of a doubt. In her warm eyes, he finds something akin to home, a piece of himself embedded in the soul of a stranger. He feels lucky every time he smiles at her - and he can't help the blush that rises to his youthful cheeks.

Her laughter puts a voice to the joy he feels, and when her muzzle finds his cheek his eyes close in mirth. Even when her attentions turn to Magnus, the boy doesn't feel even a spot of jealousy; without Magnus' help, Kensa may never have understood Rhae's miming, and everyone would have left with a taste of bitter ash weighing in their mouths. When she asks to see both places, Rhae looks obediently to Magnus; and when the stallion mentions that seeing Hyaline would be nice - without saying why, and a good thing too for the little prince is too young to have to worry about his queen mothers dramas - he offers a spirited grin and bounds north-west.

--

The journey is slower on hoof, but they make their way steadily until at last the peaks of the mountains have become whole mountains themselves. Kensa, though sweet and warm and lovely, is no unseasoned traveler, and despite his many glances to ensure her warmth and level of breath are satisfactory, she always seems to be quite alright. Conversation passes easily between the two speakers, and Rhae is content to twist his ears to catch bits of their words as he leads them proudly to Hyaline.

Shortly after entering the scentlines, Magnus excuses himself. Rhae offers the grown stallion a wide smile and a toss of his shapely head, tail swishing in a wave goodbye. The colt pauses their trek to watch the direction in which his new friend goes off, wondering what business he has within the kingdom; but his own business is more pressing (or at least more pretty by every estimation) and so he turns back to Kensa, feeling young and foolish and somewhat infatuated.

"It's nice to meet you Kensa..."

The voice that comes is whispy and altogether more like the wind than like any spoken word, but it comes nonetheless, a testament to the level of trust he has already placed in the mare. That and being raised by two women makes speaking to mares abundantly easier than speaking to stallions; but the effort is taxing on the growing prince. Somehow, the way in which Kensa's eyes light up upon seeing him give him that extra little shove to keep him going, however miraculously.

"My name is Rhaegor."

Rhaegor

@[Kensa] HI IM SORRY BUT MY SON HERE FALLS IN LOVE SO EASILY PLEASE ENJOY.

[Kensa]

Kensa

The journey to Hyaline took them across near the entire breadth of Beqanna. For Kensa the trip was neither boring nor tiring, as she made small talk with Magnus and soaked in the changing landscape. They skirted kindoms and common areas as they traveled, the boundaries of these rich with the scents of strangers. Vast territories reaching beyond the limits of her sight. She asked for the names of these wide unknown lands, Taiga, Loess, Sylva, grateful for Magnus' polite indulgence.

Rising up through the foothills of Hyaline took her breath, not for the altitude, she was a steadfast little mare and the variation had hardly fazed her. No, it was the beauty of incredible sweeping heights, still pristine in the late lingering snow. A crystalline lake lay nestled in the hollows of the mountains, and the bare trees that grouped together in the nooks and valleys were threatening blossoms.

Walking a circle around where the colt had stopped, she bid Magnus an absent farewell forgetting, for now, all about her plans to make a visit to his home in time.  Breathing deep of the mountain air, she picked out the shapes of other horses, strangers that must all be someone to dear Rhaegor...

Kensa had looked back at the buckskin, and her expression of wonder had melted away as he spoke, first into surprise and then into unadulterated joy. The colts smoke-like words drew her in with a gravity she did not notice until she realized that she had pressed her forehead against his lean neck. "Rhaegor!" She repeated his name back to him, her silver voice roughened by shocked happiness. When she pulled back it was with laughter and she tossed her head happily, flaxen mane resettling around her neck and face in disarray. "Its so nice to meet you, too." Her tone softened then, and her topaz eyes reflected again that earlier gentle understanding. "It's easier here?"

How happy she was that he could speak to her, though her fondness for her new friend had not been diminished in any way by his previous silence. She wonders if it is very difficult for him to speak, and so feels a little guilty for questioning him. She would have to be willing to rely on fewer words with Rhaegor, but that was all right. He could show her his world without words. "It must be wonderful to fly up here." She observes, looking out once again over what she can see of Hyaline, envying him his lovely wings.

i'm burning like a fire gone wild on saturday
guess i won't be coming to church on sunday
i'll be waiting for love to come around

@[Rhaegor] <3 <3 <3

[Rhaegor]

I kept my hope just like i'd hoped to
then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue

He feels almost guilty for interrupting Kensa's admiration of Hyaline, nearly pausing on the cusp of his first words to her as his eyes catch on the way the light falls against her liver cheeks and atop her soft lips - but his need to connect with her more deeply overwhelms any hesitation he has, and he is rewarded by his efforts by the gesture that she next bestows upon him.

The air flees his lungs, sending tingling feelings from where her forehead gently rests to behind his eyes, eyes which roll back and close in a confused kind of loveliness. There could be a million visions of their futures floating just before his eyes, but he doesn't notice; for once in his life, the little visionary exists in this moment alone, transfixed by the touch of girl's skin against his own.

Not just any girl's, though. This girl's.

He jolts when she pulls away with a shout of his name, but he quickly adjusts, a big, hopeful smile widening his expression. When she laughs, he parts his own lips in a gesture of the same, though his head remains tucked and shy where hers bobs with joy and wonder. While she laughs, he watches the way her flaxen mane falls, decorating her face in a way that left him wondering about liberty and liveliness and love - but she is speaking now, and any such thoughts are replaced by a busied concentration.

"Yes," he offers simply, expression easing and eyes dropping. They bob up again, finding her and then extending to the mountaintops, their peaks the only parts remaining snowy in the warmth of spring. A soft smile tugs at his ashy lips, a thankfulness for the peace his home radiates expressed in that simple stretch of skin; Hyaline is truly a sanctuary, and even though he is a born prince here, there is no where else he belongs.

For now.

Her words draw him back in again, ones about flying - at the word, he half unfurls his wings, looking at them blankly as if just noticing them for the first time. A sheepish blush rises to his cheeks when he realizes that he'd zoned out while looking at the mountains, perhaps overwhelmed by the intensity of these new and exciting experiences and feelings with Kensa - but he swallows all of that back and steps closer to her, worried she won't hear him even as he tries his hardest to project.

"I would give you my wings, if I could."

A stare, too powerfully intimate in his youth and inexperience: but he means it.

"Would you like to see the lake?"

Rhaegor

@[kensa]

[Kensa]

Kensa

Kensa could not be happier that she and Rhaegor have become such fast friends. He is young and sweet but it’s more than sweetness that connects the two of them. She doesn’t quite know what to call it and has lived in the moment far too much since their meeting to hypothesize. There has been too much to experience and her eyes and heart are full of Hyaline, and Rhaegor, and the joy of all the wonderful possibility spread out before her.

The boy confirms it’s easier for him to speak here, to give her the whispy words that she treasures. Still, she wants him to know that he doesn’t have to communicate out loud just to make things easier for her but she doesn’t know how to tell him this. Instead she gives his mane a gentle tug, and avoids filling the quiet space between them with words for just a little while until the wonders of Hyaline’s glorious peaks send words spilling from her lips once more.

I would give my wings to you if I could

His reply wipes her blank. Kensa holds the long look he gives her, ensnared by it for just long enough to leave her a little confused in the aftermath. She demures, breaking the look, her quick smile fluttering up again and washing away the uncharacteristic shyness that had flashed across her face. Rhaegor had already stepped closer and so Kensa sidles up beneath the wing he’d so absently raised. Her side brushing against his own warm one. She looks back at his wing and then to her friend, bobbing her head in a bid to get him to extend the appendage over her back. Looking back again at his wing she says, ”Well they would suit me.” Laughing softly, but then more seriously saying, ”...but there would be no point in my having wings if you didn’t have them too.”

Kensa tugs at his mane again then, warmly, only to spin away a second later. ”Yes please. I want to see everything. Show me all the things you love!” She trots forward a few steps and bucks playfully, inviting the gentle prince forward with a toss of her flaxen locks.

i'm burning like a fire gone wild on saturday
guess i won't be coming to church on sunday
i'll be waiting for love to come around

@[Rhaegor] sorry it's clunky. She wasn't behaving for me. :p

[Rhaegor]

I kept my hope just like i'd hoped to
then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue

In the wake of his surprisingly suave words, Kensa seems to lose her own voice; and for a warmly confused moment, they are both silent. She breaks their eye contact, sending her gaze away as if that could hide the heat which rises to her cheeks becomingly. Rhae feels a little sheepish for having come on so strong, but a larger part of himself enjoys the way she blushes and squirms from his mere presence. That same feeling he'd had with Chryseis after their run returns to him, that tingling feeling of novelty and ardor - but his current paramour is sidling closer to him, erasing any memories of anything except her, and the warmth of her body, and the sparkle in her eyes.

When she bobs her head, gesturing for him to pull her close, he carefully obliges; but after gingerly setting his feathers against her, her closeness and her scent dissuade any hesitation he'd yet been holding on to. She's speaking, but he barely hears her; instead, he pulls her as close as she'll come, the muscles of his shoulder and wing joint cramping - but not enough for him to let her go. His nose finds her cheek, nuzzling it in a confused mixture of innocent romantic attraction, and something definitely else.

But she breaks his hold by tugging on his mane, speaking again as she whirls away like a summer storm; and he finds himself caught - happily so - in the drafts of her wind. Laughing his clicking laugh, the prince shakes his head to rid himself of such hotheaded thoughts, trying to think of the things he loves that he could show her and somehow only being able to picture her in his head.

Snorting loudly, the colt kicks up his own heels and follows after her, playfully nipping at his haunches, giving into the instinctual role of herding his mare - but he is only a colt, and he is soon running alongside her, the wind whipping through his mane and howling enough for the both of them. As they cavort, the scenery gradually passes, and it's not long until their hooves clatter against the rocky base of a mountain, the lake magically unfurling just below them as if it had been hiding all along.

Breathless, Rhae tosses a carefree grin to Kensa, wondering where her delightful presence would take them next.

Rhaegor

@[Kensa]

[Kensa]

Kensa

Kensa is grown now, and Rhae is just a boy. That thought bounces around in her head as the heat of his side against her own loosens her muscles and muddles her brain. Somehow she keeps herself centered--she’d settled into this spot beneath his wing after all, this moment is of her own making. But his broad wing settles over her back and holds her, the pressure tenuous but there all the same. Then he is nuzzling her cheek and the heat of his breath is exhaled with just the perfect amount of tension… and she is unbound. He is barely a boy, already taller than her, lean and beautiful, and so good that she really is molten under his touch for just a second. The movement to tug his mane feels sluggish and she stirs herself to dash away, clearing her head with motion. 

From her new vantage he is a boy again, a little lanky, a little unbalanced. As innocent as she is and more, because surely he was not aflame just now with the stuttering of whatever unfamiliar thrill that had shot through her. She dashes away with laughter and he chases after her. A nip to her haunches isn’t rebuffed but she bucks a bit letting the gesture fall on the side of play rather than possession because they are young and running through Hyaline like the wild things they are.

Their paces are well matched, and when their hooves finally clatter against stone she is covered in a light sheen of sweat that burnishes her liver chestnut pelt. Here the lake lies cradled, filled by spring or snow melt. The water is blue and bright and clear and she marvels at it. The depths go down and down, she can see smooth stones and sunken logs in the bottom but cannot gauge how far down they lay. Still, Kensa only considers the water for a minute before bounding in up to her knees, gasping at the chill and splashing a bit before taking only a small disinterested drink and tossing her head to send a spray of crystal droplets into the air. Looking back to Rhaegor she flashes him a smile and wanders through the shallows admiring the glass surface of the lake beyond her reach. Only to look back at Rhaegor again, finding she wanted him nearer.

”What’s beyond this? Have you been down through that little canyon?” She asks, her silvery voice amplified by the surface of the lake, eyes straying from her buckskin companion and wandering over the folds of the land, curious about the tree filled gap between this mountain and the next.

i'm burning like a fire gone wild on saturday
guess i won't be coming to church on sunday
i'll be waiting for love to come around

@[Rhaegor]

[Rhaegor]

I kept my hope just like i'd hoped to
then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue

She thinks him not aflame, but she would be wrong; despite being two years his senior, the trivialities of young adulthood abounds in the breadth of his golden chest, flowing to his stomach and his head and his everything as they cavort through his home kingdom. It feels utterly wonderous, to be expressing himself so freely in movement alongside someone as beautiful as her; in this moment, she is the princess to his prince, the rhythm to his rhyme.

He doesn't want it to end - but it always does, though he has yet to realize the extent to which everything will eventually end one day. He goes about meeting girls and falling in love with each in a complete and separate way, never tying experiences together or considering the implications of his enamored ways; there is only ever the present, and in this version of the present, he is with Kensa. Enthralled, enraptured, ensnared.

As they arrive at the lakeside, their breathing is uneven and loud, a testament to their run that too would fade, as with all things. The burnished woman's gaze latches on to the lake in a kind of amazement that Rhae falls immediately in love with, his own eyes twinkling as he stares at her awe filled face. He tries to commit the look to memory, mesmerized by the way her breathlessness takes his breath away; but she is bounding now into the waters, and he hopes that he has done enough to be able to recall this moment for years to come.

Following at a slower trot and then walk, Rhae laughs a clicking laugh as water sprays up from her antsy movements. The prince lowers his head to the waters and takes a half-hearted sip, eyes still stuck on Kensa as she finally turns to consider him once more. The smile on her lips causes his stomach to twist, but he almost doesn't mind; the feeling is nice, in a way. Exciting.

She asks about a canyon nearby, stepping towards it curiously. In a heartbeat, the colt suddenly sees elsewhere, a vision consuming his conscious; there is a wildcat, young but fearsome still, snarling - and in a moment, joined by another rounding the canyon's edge, equally ferocious with a strange mix of lion's features and leopard's spots.

No, he shakes his head, though it's more of a plea than an answer to her question. He steps towards her and tries to touch her shoulder to grab her attention, but he fears that he will reach her too late, or that she will press forward, emboldened by their recent gallop across the kingdom.

Rhaegor

@[Kensa] HI so @[Svedka] (a lion shifter) and Rhae's mom Kag's leopard familiar did the do and now there are hungry lion-leopard babies about and I thought this would be fun HEH.

[Kensa]

Kensa

Kensa has more to learn about Rhaegor, perhaps knowing about his abilities as a seer would have stopped her, or perhaps not as she is not not looking his way with the vision comes upon him. One day maybe she will learn to recognize when she is losing him to a future that only he can see. Or one day he will be even less known to her than he is now. She would not want that, not ever, but time will tell.

When she looks back at Rhaegor, her face is alight with that explorer’s fever that so often overtakes her. She only sees him shake his head--anxiously--but she is bold and has no qualms about delving into the unknown. ”It will be fun! Don’t worry!” She cajoles and steps forward. Kensa can hear Rhaegor splashing over to her from behind and takes this to be his yielding to her sense of adventure. She doesn’t see, doesn’t understand, and is racing towards the wild, pathless canyon before he can touch her. She would have stopped for him, turned into his touch and listened if he’d caught her in time.

She is a streak of molten chocolate and flaxen, climbing in strong steady lunches up the lake shore and into the trees in the rocky canyon. Slowing to a jaunty trot her footsteps echo against the snowing canyon walls where tumbledowns and scree slopes prohibit a horse of any size from scrambling up the mountains on either side unless they were able to shift into a mountain goat of some kind.

The chestnut mare pauses, realizing that Rhaegor is not right beside her. She stops and turns back to look between the trees from where she had come, waiting to catch sight of his bright face. A thread of anxiety scrambles up her throat and then, at her back, a sound like mewling snarl. Her eyes widen and she freezes like stone. ”Rhaegor…” She breathes, looking over her inside shoulder slowly afraid to see what she had walked into. Even brave Kensa is not prepared to face one hungry cat, much less two.

i'm burning like a fire gone wild on saturday
guess i won't be coming to church on sunday
i'll be waiting for love to come around

@[Rhaegor] AHH!

[Rhaegor]

I kept my hope just like i'd hoped to
then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue

He doesn't notice the change of lake to beach to grass to canyon. He barely knows his own name as he races to keep up with his new darling, caught up as his is in the memory of his vision, praying to the gods that he would get there in time to intervene before anything truly bad happened. Uncoordinated in his panic, he trips as he runs and falls somewhat behind, the pain of two skinned knees barely a testament to the psychological turmoil which possesses him in the moment.

That being said, it's almost as if autopilot takes over when at last he does round the corner to the canyon, hearing Kensa's weak call of his name and seeing the first of the two leopard-lions sneaking from their hiding places. Without another conscious thought, a screeching whinny of defiance pierces the silence and echoes through the canyon - or at least, he thinks he does. In reality, everything remains painstakingly silent. Wings outspread, the colt heedlessly bolts in front of the damsel, rearing up on his hind legs and flapping his wings as powerfully as he can.

This show of largeness and prowess is sufficient to dissuade the first big cat, who, still young, is not quite as big as it would grow to be; and being right below Rhae hooves which come crashing down, the feral creature decides better of its plan. Hissing throatily, it tucks its tail and scurries away, perhaps in search of its mother or father.

Trembling and feeling as if something still isn't right, it's a heartbeat too late that he realizes he's forgotten the second cat. Just as he turns to face where he knows it to be, the cat launches itself from where it's perched on the canyon wall, landing squarely on Rhae's scrawny shoulders with inch-long claws digging ceaselessly into his skin, muscle, and wings.

Unable to cry out, the colt's face twists in grotesque pain; but in the next moment he bucks with enough vigor to dislodge the cat; and just as it spun on its heels to face Kensa, Rhae let loose a beam of light more powerful than ever he had before. It struck the cat just as it moved, probably having sensed its impending doom; in the wake of the lazer, the end of the creature's tail singes off, and suffice to say, the show of strange magic and that pain accompanying it warranted the second kitten's escape.

Shuddering and on the verge of tears, Rhae turned to look at Kensa, but then stopped before their eyes met. "I am - s - s - so sorry, Kensa."

Rhaegor

@[Kensa]

[Kensa]

Kensa

The whites of her eyes showing, Kensa whirls to face her attackers just as Rhaegor tears up the hill, wings flared. He is fierce in that moment and fends one of the cats off with intimidation alone. Kensa’s head is low and stance squared having taken a few milliseconds to gather herself and face the enemy from behind Rhaegor. She moves closer in an effort to back him up and hopefully see if the other cat is leaving as well. It isn’t. When it leaps from the canyon wall toward Rhaegor she squeals indignantly afraid but furious that her friend is under attack. She snaps at the feline, teeth gaining purchase on the animal’s thin hide. Yowling it swings its head at her rather than biting Rhaegor and she tosses her head back to avoid the flashing fangs.

When Rhae dislodges the cat it drops in the dust and whirls toward Kensa who is ready to face the animal who bloodied Rhaegor with stamping hooves and a red-hot fury. However before she can blink the beast is beating a hasty retreat leaving the scent of singed fur and flesh in its wake.

Kensa chokes on concern and relief, her chest heaving. When he turns to her but does not meet her eyes, apology on his lips like a whisper she does not understand and cannot bare the apology as he stands there before her wounded after rescuing her from a fight that would have left her incredibly if not mortally hurt. She closes the space between them, and swiftly rubs her face along the side of his dusky neck before embracing the colt fully. A tear races down her cheek and she brushes her lips softly over the deep claw marks on his shoulder. “Oh Rhae…I’m sorry. Are you alright?” She doesn’t understand why he is apologizing to her, and she wants both to hold him and sob and get out of this canyon as quick as they can. “Come on… come on let’s get away from here.” She says turning towards the forest and urging him on with a toss of her head.

She leads at a swift trot but does not let him fall behind her. Finally drawing into a clearing surrounded by trees  but without any place for the cats to climb up and ambush them again. She searches their surroundings with a sweeping look before turning back into the buckskin colt, her breathing slowing as she presses her lips against his neck and then slides herself close again to gently run a soothing touch over his shoulders and the ridge of his wings. “Thank you, Rhaegor.” She says softly, her voice full of regret that he is hurt as a result of her foolhardy charge into the canyon.

i'm burning like a fire gone wild on saturday
guess i won't be coming to church on sunday
i'll be waiting for love to come around

@[Rhaegor] <3 <3 <3