"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
The sun is finally on the rise after a night of stormy and horrid weather, the land had been battered by sweeping winds that left jungle leaves scattered across the island and gently floating on the ocean just beyond his reach. The rain had soaked everything through, leaving nothing dry while the lightning put on a pretty yet terrifying display, creating a show of lights in the night sky. Thankfully, it was all over now.
Ruinam exits the thick and wet jungle shaking his ivory-white pelt as he halts on the sand, it is wet and uncomfortable to stand on, but he knows it will dry rather quickly, the island was quite notoriously hot.
Now that Loess had taken over Sylva, the white stallion found himself staying on the island more often, with nothing to do or no one to please he found it hard to find something to do and stick to it, especially after he had no response at the mountain he felt like he needed to go back, this time more confidently maybe, or perhaps he was just not worth speaking to.
For now, he allowed himself to slowly wither away on the island, quietly and peacefully sitting on the wet sand, watching the waves brush away small granules of sand, itching away at the banks, only to return what it had stolen with another wave.
His companion has also been quite quiet, almost always spending time in the shade he could find, it was way too hot for an arctic fox in these climates and his companion definitely felt it, probably resented Ruinam for that very reason.
Ruinam
@[Aodhan] Sorry terrible starter but I thought I'd get one up quickly lol
All that is gold does not glitter; not all who wander are lost
Flying may not be everything, but… wow, does that feel good.
The winter air hasn’t been ideal for takeoff - in fact when he dived too low in his current form, he had debated shifting into a seal - but then he’d found a warmer current coming in from the west, and slowly but steadily, the golden-beaked seagull had found his way towards the Island Resort.
From above, it looked both different and the same than when he had swam here as a yearling to retrieve some shells - not unlike the blue outlined shells that would mark him in horse form - distant, large upon getting closer, and still so very strange when he paid attention to the structures on one side.
The gull had landed in a tree just before the storm, and so there was a gecko sitting just below the leaves until the weather had calmed down a bit. His large emerald eyes scanned the horizon now, until he caught sight of a stallion leaving the jungle just a bit further out, staying out on the beach like he had Great Thinking to do.
It was thus that it took the little white, gold-marbled gecko to spy the other white form: an arctic fox, severely out of place, taking up a resting space just below the tree where the gecko (formerly gull) had waited out the storm.
Without so much of a thought, he dropped from the tree to cling his sticky paws to the furry animal, gleefully sticking his tongue in one ear from his new position on top of the fox’ head.
Oddly enough Ruinam did not miss the colder atmosphere as much as he thought he would, he was adjusting quickly to the hot and humid weather, although he still felt quite bad about dragging his companion out of place, where he most definitely did not belong.
The winter stallion spends most of his time close to the ocean, preferring to stand in the salty breeze rather than in the humid jungle, with no escape from the heat.
The ocean was quite a pleasant retreat, a perfect temperature to swim in, or just to stand in and contemplate whatever needed contemplation, sometimes the island was visited by sea creatures, ranging from large whales to smaller orcas and dolphins, sights that were at first unimaginable to the stallion back on the mainland.
At night the whole scene usually changed, it became a lot colder during the night and most of the loud island noises would die down until only the hum of the ocean could be heard. This was also probably why his companion preferred to be more active during the night.
Small logs glide along the deep blue sea, carried softly by the ocean current, slowly being taken toward shore to meet the small granules of sand which Ruinam stands on, his eyes are closed as he thinks about anything and everything, about the recent events that were changing everything and what was to come.
From behind his companion suddenly starts to frolic and shriek, the stallion's eyes open with a raised brow as he turns to face the fox, his legs placidly scraping against the granules of sand as his companion comes into view, he is jumping into the air, seemingly annoyed by something "Are you quite alright?" the stallion says quietly, his head hung low and inquisitively as he comes closer.
Ruinam's companion now stops and begins to paw at his ear, now that he is not moving Ruinam can see the small gecko sitting on top of him "See friend, you are no longer the top predator of the island, bet you weren't expecting that" he chuckles softly, his companion mildly annoyed by the statement.
07-17-2019, 12:02 PM (This post was last modified: 07-17-2019, 12:07 PM by Aodhan.)
Aodhán
ice and fire
All that is gold does not glitter; not all who wander are lost
All hell breaks loose - not exactly as he had expected it.
Familiar with an arctic fox shifter, the out-of-placeness of the white hairy figure below had seemed a tell-tale for the young male. But as soon as he’d made his impact, the animal had turned out to just be that, an animal - but Aodhán had no time for being sorry. Glad for his sticky gecko paws, the multi-shifter now had a hard enough time to hold on and not be thrown off, a rollercoaster of shrieks and crazy movements demanding his utmost attention.
Only after what had seemed like ages, did the white animal below him calm down, trying to paw off the intruder on it’s head. Aodhán wouldn’t have blamed the fox, if he hadn’t been the subject of such pawing actions.
Luckily, he had been right about this arctic fox not being a natural occurrence of the island. A horse’s head came into view, decidedly noting that the white predator wasn’t on top of the food chain any longer. While Aodhán could appreciate the humor, he prioritized his decisions, jumping off the fox and right unto the stud’s head. Landing between the eyes, the white, gold-marbled gecko grinned at the large horse-eyes up close, before quickly moving to the top of the stallion’s head.
Settling there easily, he patted his new ride’s head to get his attention. ”Unexpected indeed. Are you the only horse around?”
Suddenly the arctic fox is no longer the one with a gecko on his head, Ruinam now wears the small critter like a crown atop his head, his crimson-red eyes crosseyed to try and get a better look at the small animal.
"See? There's nothing to worry about" he smirks at the fox who does not seem to take the remark very kindly, the white animal lifts its furry tail and trots off into the jungle.
Just as everything really did feel as if there was nothing to worry about, a small voice made its way into his ears, the stallion halts and tilts his head curiously "You?" he speaks to himself, at first thinking maybe he had already gone insane on the island and was now hearing voices "Or was that you?" he now asks the small gecko "I am indeed the only one here, par the small fox" he answers the question quickly.
His eyes are all over the place as he still tries to get a better look at the animal "Are you maybe a shifter? or just a talking gecko? because I must say, both of those are quite interesting" he says with a smile as he begins to walk toward the sea "I would love to be able to shift into a dragon myself, there's just something so powerful and amazing about the beasts, to be able to protect the ones you love and a whole island, it is what I have always dreamt of. Oh and the fire, I would love to be able to spit fire, then I would definitely be able to protect those I love, and this island, though it is pretty empty for the moment. I actually had dragons in my family, though that was away from Beqanna, rather far away really" he stops himself after a while of blabbering, realising he could just be having a conversation with a talking gecko.
"Would you like to come down now?" he asks as he lowers his head close to the incoming tide, allowing the small critter to leave the top of his head if it wants to.
His companion now rejoins him, seemingly no longer affected by the previous remark.
All that is gold does not glitter; not all who wander are lost
A shifter, of course, is what Aodhán himself is - and although he isn’t as much of an idiot like his dad, he does enjoy a little joke every now and then. It’d been too bad that the little white fox had not fully understood though - perhaps he’ll try to make amends with him later. For now, the little gecko sits easily atop the horse’s head, as the white man answers his question with several of his own.
He makes a small snickering sound when the man seems unaware that the gecko could possibly out horse-like sounds, believing himself mad for a moment. Oh, how easily he could have exploited this - preferably when perhaps switching into a ghost-state which he’d done once and never thought he should do again if he was honest with himself - but the gecko thinks the jokes should be quite over by now.
”For now, I am a horse-speech-fluent gecko.” he teases, then listens to the man talk about shifting, and how if he would shift, he’d love to be a dragon - firebreathing and flying. To be honest, Aodhán does quite like that idea, though the man’s reasoning seems a bit flawed to him. ”I don’t think you’d need to be a dragon to do that?” To demonstrate, the gecko leaps off the horse’s head. Halfway through his fall, he shifts - a large, golden, mythical firebird lands in the sand before the cremello horse, wings and feathers aflame, and half the size of a horse in height. His wings are tucked neatly to his sides because he is pretty sure he would burn a lot of things if he spread them as wide as they go. ”Plus side about a dragon is it’s size I suppose.” the bird caws, and steps aside for the horse so as not to burn him. The air around them is hot enough already, and he wouldn’t want to scorch him.
The firebird cocks it’s head at the stallion, smiling a bit. ”But you know, if it’s in your family, then I understand. And, I would like the challenge. My dad was some form of draconic, I believe, though he spit ice. But other than dragon eyes, scales, and pointy teeth, I’m not sure if I’d capture the form right. Birds are much easier to copy and edit. Plus, I already knew a thing or two about fire.” he muses aloud, then grins. ”They didn’t call me Aodhán for nothing.”
Ruinam would have never thought that his day would be compromised of talking to very fluent geckos, but it seemed that even that was going to change. Suddenly the small gecko leaps off of the stallion's head and transforms into an impressive firebird, Ruinam is quite taken aback at first but his expression quickly transforms into a smile "Well I most definitely was not expecting that, though I guess you are right" he nods, moving around the creature to take a better look at it while his companion backs away in confusion.
"I guess dragons are birds in a way, right?" he almost questions the stranger, almost confusing himself by it "It is just something that has always interested me," he says, almost in awe as he stares at the creature.
"What other interesting things can you transform into?" he asks curiously "It must be amazing to be able to explore almost anything you want" he looks toward the water, wondering what lurked below.
"Is there anything you can't transform into?" he tilts his head, bombarding the stranger with new questions.
All that is gold does not glitter; not all who wander are lost
The firebird grins a bit at the arctic fox backing away, but focuses mostly on the horse who’s still talking to him. ”You take it better than most. You know, I was a horse once. Now…” he shrugs. ”That’s just one of my shapes, though you could say I’d more easily revert to that state than others.”
He listens to the cremello, wondering if there’s truth to it. ”I never saw a dragon - well, my dad had scales and teeth and eyes but, I don’t think that’s the same.” He thinks aloud. ”If you can describe one for me, perhaps I can be a dragon. Nothing I’ve tried so far has been beyond the limit of shifting.”
As an example, the firebird’s flames are doused, making way for golden scales along his body. He cocks his head at the stallion, now staring at him with reptilian eyes. What else does he need to alter to be a dragon, he seems to say.
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