"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
In the short year he has been alive, so much has happened that it makes his head spin to try and make sense of it all. Leliana was endowed with magic the moment he slipped from her womb and then, in the blink of an eye, she was gone. After that, he was shipped off with Larke to the east while violence reared its ugly head in his homeland. War raged between his mother and father while he waited patiently for life to return to normalcy. He didn’t even know his father died, honestly.
Now he’s standing in the meadow with the yellow summer grasses tickling along his belly, soaking in the peace and quiet for the first time in his entire life. The black orchids tangled in his mane shiver in the light breeze that lovingly brushes his forelock from his face. The sun has only just begun its descent toward the horizon so there are plenty of hours left in the day for him to bask here. Leliana won’t call him back to Tephra until the stars cast their light across navy clouds. A faint smile forms across his lips as he takes a few steps forward. A trail of bent grasses mark his path through the commonland if anyone should like to track him down.
He wonders if his mother is tracking him, as she often does once he leaves her side. Chronos offers a soft snort in case she’s listening in on his thoughts. As most yearlings often do, he believes himself too grown to be bothered with his parents keeping a watchful eye on him. Don’t they know he’s practically a man already? His mane and tail are no longer newborn fuzz but rather hangs down in sleek locks. The ridges of his baby ribs are hidden beneath muscles that grow stronger with each passing day. Clearly, he is mature enough to be on his own these days.
“If you’re eavesdropping again, I’m doing just fine, Mom.”
He lifts his chin a little higher as he comes to a stop once more. Perhaps this day would be more enjoyable if Larke were here to enjoy the scenery with him, but he decides to tolerate her absence for now. They’re typically attached at the hip but he recognizes her need for independence every now and then. For now.
Chronos
sometimes he calls me baby and I swallow my own tongue sometimes he hands me the knife just to watch me give it back
06-10-2019, 11:24 AM (This post was last modified: 06-10-2019, 11:24 AM by Velkan.)
I haven’t really explored out of the Meadow just yet - I know that there’s a big ol’ world out there but this one little spot has become my world for the moment. I’m not really sure where else to go go at the moment. Do we think I’d be welcome in any place if I just waltzed right up? How does someone even find a home?
I’ve never had one, I don’t even know where to start.
All of that internal monologuing happens while I’m just sort of standing still, staring right at the sun and spacing COMPLETELY out. My dark head tilted a little to the side - anyone could probably walk over and knock me right over with a little nudge that’s how out of it I’m feeling.
Some movement catches my attention and I see a colt coming to a stop just a little ways off. I have no idea how to judge how old he is, I don’t even remember what it was like being a foal. They all sort of look the same to me - but this one is a little more horse-like I guess? So probably didn’t just hatch out of an egg or however normal foals are born?
Plus I’m a little sunblind because I was staring at the sun for so long. I blink rapidly, trying to clear my vision, and I take a shaky step before realizing I can’t see anything so I stop again.
I focus on a tree until I can actually see the individual leaves and then I look towards the kinda-colt and, now that I can see, I can tell there’s something a little… different about the colt.
I know all about different so I decide to investigate.
I move closer and I’m several feet away when I realize that it’s not just hair that’s making up his mane. “WOAH!” I exclaim, you know, all cool-like. “How did you get flowers in your mane like that?”
From the corner of his eye, he can see a pair of antlers bobbing and weaving as their owner tries to see past the sun-blindness in his eyes. Chronos pays him little mind as he continues to observe the rest of the world around him. His father said he used to wander here at night when he couldn’t sleep or whenever he didn’t want to go home. That was long before he ever met Leliana, though, and so Chronos begins to wonder what he does now when he can’t sleep. He tilts his red head as he lets his thoughts continue to wander unhindered.
That is, until those antlers sway closer in his direction. He blinks his bright green eyes as though to rein his meandering mind back in so he can focus on the stranger properly. The thing that shouts and shambles toward him is too thin and he looks like he’s woven from shadows. Perhaps out of fear, the brilliant red of Chronos’s body turns to dark green and black scales. His mane and tail remain intact, flowers and all, as Velkan asks his questions.
He blinks again and takes an uneasy step back as he considers the query, still on edge.
“I got them from my mother. My sister Larke has them too,” he explains with suspicious eyes. His posture and his tone suggests he is as kind as the serpent boy’s twin but he has never seen anything quite like him. “How did you get… like that?”
He gestures with his small nose as the scales ease away from his face to reveal the bright red of his bay coat. Inch by inch, he lets his guard down but he maintains the distance between them all the same. Chronos reminds himself that his sisters are terrifying to some and yet they are kinder than most, a thought which inspires a small sliver of shame within him. The boy edges a little closer and reaches out to lightly sniff at Velkan curiously but he doesn’t touch him just yet.
“My name is Chronos. What’s yours?” he asks, straightening up as the black orchids in his mane continue to tremble.
Chronos
sometimes he calls me baby and I swallow my own tongue sometimes he hands me the knife just to watch me give it back
So not only did this kid have flowers in his mane and tail but I have to blink a couple times to see if I’m not just sun-blind when I see black and green scales take over the colt’s body.
On the surface I’m just speechless with how absolutely batshit cool that is. But also I know, deep down, that it’s a defensive thing because of me. Even if he did not mean it that way, I can’t deny that it looks like there’s a part of this young being that is afraid of me. I can’t blame him but it doesn’t make my heart break any less. It certainly tempers the enthusiasm that I was bursting with when I came over – a quick reality check that, although I have begun to make friends, I have to face the reality of what I am.
Still, although the boy looks suspicious and on guard, he answers my question and that seems to be a start. I don’t move out of fear of frightening him and do my best to maintain as non-threatening of a posture as I possibly can – which comes naturally, so it’s not hard. My eyes are bright, ears forward and curious, and I work hard on stuffing all the sadness down deep.
Would his mother give me flowers if I asked?
I’m just thinking about how I wish my mothers had given me flowers when he asks that question. It doesn’t make me flinch, but it does temper the happiness and my head droops a little more. I respond in a soft and hollow voice, a ‘this was not a choice, this was not a gift’ voice, “From my mother too.” I resist the urge to let him know that I got the scars on my neck from my mother too, from when she tried to eat me. He’s only a child after all and I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I can laugh that off – not when I’m trying to not be a monster.
When I notice the scales are starting to recede, I breathe a little easier but I still am careful with my movements. I don’t have any objections if he wants to poke or sniff – I know I’m weird, know I’m a lot to take in.
Although tempered a little, my smile does return when the colt introduces himself – those black eyes of mine shining just a little brighter. “I’m Velkan! It’s nice to meet you, Chronos.”
I will admit, I don’t know quite where to go after that. I don’t really want to do anything else until I know Chronos is okay and if he’s not, then I’ll have to leave so he can be comfortable once more. It’s not the option I want but, if I’m being realistic, it’s usually he best thing I can do for everyone.
I hope I don’t have to though – because this kid is still the coolest colt I have ever seen and, like any loser, I want to hang around him until the cool starts to shine on me as well.
In the end, of course, I don’t excel at shutting up so I blurt out the question that came to mind when he said he and his sister had gotten their flowers from their mother. “Do you think your mother would give me flowers too?” There’s a hopeful lilt to my words as I try to imagine it, wondering what sort of flowers I would have. I like his black orchids, of course – very becoming on him – but I’d like something brighter, I think.
He hasn’t learned how to be gentle or how to love the parts of the world that seem so threatening at first. Anything that isn’t serpentine or flower petals is a threat to him at this stage of life, so something as foreign as Velkan is most definitely unsettling. But he remembers his father fussing with his mane with sharp teeth meant to rip things apart. He doesn’t know what it’s like for those same teeth to come for his throat so he doesn’t understand the glistening scares on his new friend’s neck. Still, those bright green eyes skim over them curiously, but he thinks it’s best not to ask. No one liked explaining how they got their scars.
The small boy frowns briefly at the tone of Velkan’s voice when he explains that he is a monster like his parent before him. They are alike, and yet so different. The serpent boy edges closer and he wishes he could talk back his initial reaction. He doesn’t like the wounded look across the other’s face. His expression manages to brighten a bit more when the stranger gives his name, his lips curling into a smile. Chronos circles the wendigo and lets his shoulder lightly touch his friend’s to signify their new bond.
“I’m happy to meet you too!” he says with a small laugh. At his question, the younger boy tilts his head and thinks on it for a moment. Is there anyone that Leliana wouldn’t give her flowers to? Perhaps at first, when her eyes burned like an angry star. He was afraid of her too when she didn’t know how to control her magic.
The memory makes him a little sad – the angry voices, the arguing, the way he didn’t see either of his parents for so long back then. But those days are over now and he thinks she would certainly welcome even the most terrifying of beasts into her home. Her soft heart has room for anyone trying to find their place in the light.
“She would cover you with flowers, if you wanted. Plants like her a lot!” he replies in a voice that is clearly excited, his little legs prancing a bit in place. “She’s been growing all kinds of things in Tephra after the volcano ate up the forests. Maybe you’re like that too. You just need some flowers and people will realize how great you are.”
He nods to himself at this thought. Velkan is, to him, like the cooled lava flows covering his home in some places. Those areas used to frighten him with the danger they seemed to hold, but the trees and flowers all seemed more vivid, more full of life beside them.
Chronos
sometimes he calls me baby and I swallow my own tongue sometimes he hands me the knife just to watch me give it back
It’s not gradual, the change that comes over me. Although I’m still feeling a little cautious - always for the colt’s feelings, never my own - his attitude change brings about one in me as well and my smile vaults into its usual sun-bright manner. The colt’s laughter and (seemingly) genuine happiness further puts me at ease and I hope that the small little stumble we started off with is well and truly in the past now because I like this kid.
At the confirmation that his mother would cover me in flowers my eyes widen with nothing short of delight. I’m picturing a taller version of Chronos causing a flower-rain to just totally cover me and I gotta say, I absolutely love the idea. All those soft petals tickling my skin and nose as they fall around me. “I’d like that!” I confirm, nodding enthusiastically. “A whole blanket of flowers in pinks and reds and yellows!”
I only snap myself out of thinking about all those flowers and how great I would look because I remember one of the other words that Chronos had mentioned. My eyes are still pretty wide when I speak again but less in a ‘this is exciting I love thinking about flowers’ way and more of a ‘woah that’s insane’ kind of way. “That’s pretty crazy that there was a volcano.” I’ve seen a lot of pretty intense stuff in my life but that’s one thing I’ve only ever heard of. “That must’ve been scary.”
And I’m not even saying that the way adults talk to kids like they’re only pretending - because I really honestly think that a volcano would be scary as hell.
