"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
Starsin had left him with an offer so tantalizing, the first thing that Oxytocin does when he leaves her is goes and finds his daughter. “What do you want?” the dragoness had snapped when they met on the shores of the Resort, clearly agitated. “You,” he had responded, though his voice was neither cruel nor argumentative. Cress doesn’t hate her father much these days – over the years they had repaired much of their relationship – but she isn’t quite quick to trust him as he explains why he needs her to come with him. “I am immortal – you are not; if they are rounding up healers to murder them I need to protect you,” is what finally convinces her to come with him, though he can tell that she is almost too glad to be leaving the Resort.
They travel together towards Loess, using the time to catch up as father and daughter ought to do every once in a while. She explains how her own daughter, Dawn, is living in the Cove, and he in turn tells Cress of the new siblings she has – Barebone and Xyrem and Xartemis. They are all living in Loess, too, and she will have to meet all of them. He feels bad about lying to her, but it was necessary. If she believes her life is in danger while she is anywhere but Loess, she will go where it is safe. Dawn is in no danger, not being a healer herself, so she has nothing to worry about. He is sure that his granddaughter is very capable of taking care of herself, anyways. He had met the polar bear once.
At the entrance to Loess he bids her adieu, reminding her gently not to stray from the borders. They have taken... precautions for those that try to run, but hopefully Cress will remain a willing captive here. It’s for her own safety, he assures himself, and for his own selfish gains. Starsin had promised things if he were to bring back a healer – and there was no way she knew that he has a daughter that is a healer – and naturally, he had taken advantage of the fact. It’s not as if she had seemed happy in her current home any longer, anways.
Hey megalomaniac You're no Jesus Yeah, you're no fucking Elvis Wash your hands clean of yourself baby Maniac, step down, step down Step down
She has not been in Loess long but she knows the scent already clings to every inch of her body. She stands quietly, dressed in dripping silk so black that it nearly swallowed the sun's reflective sheen. Glittering green eyes watch closely as a ragged man and a pretty mare make their way over the boarder of the place she has yet to call home out loud.
Katarina is a fine mare, made of strong flesh, and stubborn mind. She stands with a tall head as the flow of perfectly formed waves fall down her side and nearly reach her knee. She is pooled by the length of her equally black tail, puddled around the hind part of her lightly feathered feet. She observes their relationship (not intimate, not frightened mare with her big, strong man). They are related but not in a sibling way either.
A single ear ticks back as she wonders if the dappled man were to emerge as he had to her when she was tangled in brush and scraped to hell...but he doesn't show just yet. "Hey." The mare's brandy and smoke voice lifts slightly, her eyes never faltering. "Welcome to Loess." The words grow, bloom and wilt from her unmarred lips. "I'm Katarina, I just live here." She shrugs with a roll of her muscled shoulders in a relaxed manner. She was not a leader nor a seasoned meber of the land but she was at least a friendly(-ish) face.
He had once sworn that he would never again join with a kingdom, and yet here he is. His experience post-Valley had left him with a sour taste in his mouth, and though he knows that is it his own ignorance and youth that had ousted him from the Valley throne, he has been bitter about it for a long time. Age and the destruction of the old world has cooled his fiery temper though, and it is almost no surprise that he has been drawn to the kingdom of Loess, which seems so far to be the least pure of them all. Since his arrival, it has already changed hands from Vulgaris to Castile, and perhaps it would undergo even more changes before settling on a proper leader.
Not that he wishes any ill towards Castile – he's never even met the man, after all.
He is not alone long, as he had suspected; kingdoms that are newly taken over are often bustling with activity, and Loess is no exception to the rule. They are always curious, circling like vultures, waiting to see if this new leader will be one to lead them into glory or ruin. It honestly surprises him that so many of them so far have stayed – maybe this place has promise, after all.
Her green eyes cut into his brown ones as he approaches her, a lazy smile on his lips as he takes in her lovely form. She is not dainty and curvaceous like Xiah, but altogether beautiful in a completely different way, with her pooling tail and the wavy mane that falls nearly to her feet. Gods, what has become of him – until Xiah and Rowe came around, he had not thought about a woman in years. “It is a pleasure, Katarina,” he tells her, flicking his white tail over muscular hindquarters. “I, too, just live here. Oxytocin.”
