"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
11-23-2019, 10:35 PM (This post was last modified: 12-08-2019, 02:44 PM by kahzie.)
As the light fades, so does the warmth of the day, and soon all that is left is the purple-grey sky and the promise of a cold spring night to come. Dusk is Celina’s favorite time, and a soft smile curls around the crocodilian teeth that protrude from her white lips. It’s not a pretty smile, not even with her pretty sea green eyes or the glitter of iridescence that surrounds them, but it is a happy one. Her steps are light on the forest floor, a thing much practiced in her woodland home, but she makes no special effort to go unnoticed. That would be nearly impossible on a night like this anyway, when her white coat shines pale in the moon and dozens of fireflies blink a constant light show in a cloud around her.
She makes her way toward the sea, forging her own path through the chest-high ferns rather than follow a trail. Celina likes the way their fog-damp fronds tickle the white scales of her neck and belly, the way they bend and sway in the wind that grows stronger as she draws nearer the rocky shore. There is a bit of a swagger to her walk, one that she works to emulate - the prowl of an arrogant predator. Her father’s walk, and though it looks out of place on her lanky teenage frame, perhaps practice will someday make it natural.
When she steps out into the open air, the striped filly takes a deep breath as she closes her eyes. It smells of salt and stone, and in the woods behind her a white owl calls out a single warning before its hunt begins.
Celina is growing tired, but she has found the nest she shares with her father empty, and she does not like to sleep alone. He is busy tonight, she thinks; he is often busy. What he gets up to on such nights is no concern of hers (or so Wolfbane has said), but the white filly is sure that it is something important. Celina adores her father, and his return to Taiga has filled her with delight. That their growing closeness has come about at the same time she grows more distant from her mother is of no concern. Mother wants to keep her sheltered, to keep her from exploring, to keep her from achieving her full potential. That is what Dad says, anyway, and Celina agrees. Why else would Lepis try to keep Celina away from her father? Why else would she say to be careful, as though Wolfbane is someone to be cautious of?
A yawn reveals a mouth full of sharp teeth, but the crisp air is invigorating, and the young filly is soon trotting down towards the black water. The beach here is as much stone as it is sand, and her steps are slow, each hoof placed carefully on a foothold illuminated by the glow of fireflies. When she stands cannon-deep in the water, Celina stops, and lowers her head to the lapping sea. Her fireflies grow dim, all but one that hovers just in front of her nose. It blinks - on off on off - and just as the water beneath it starts ripple, she strikes.
A dozen teeth snap shut on the wriggling body of seabass, drawn to danger by the lure. Celina throws her head back, and with a few quick crunches, swallows it nearly whole.
With a satisfied smile and a midnight snack taken care of, the young girl turns back to the shore, only to find someone else standing there. She tilts her head curiously, but does not speak.
celina i'm that bad type, make-your-mama-sad type make-your-girlfriend-mad type, might-seduce-your-dad type
11-24-2019, 02:25 AM (This post was last modified: 11-25-2019, 01:02 AM by Aeolus.)
we've been running away from space and time if we don't fit in the grand design
When the last bit of the sunlight disappears behind the skyline, Aeolus knows that is when he is supposed to retire for the night with the rest of his family. His mother, despite his constant protest of telling her he doesn’t need a bedtime anymore, still requires him to come home. She says it makes it easier for her to get his younger twin siblings to bed at a decent hour, but he knows honestly it is just an excuse for her to have a peace of mind knowing all of her children are safely tuck away for the night. He doesn’t blame her though—she was a mother and protector for everyone now on their island and had other things to worry about.
However, his bedtime has never stopped him before from sneaking away in the dead of the night. Aeolus was happy to give his mother one less thing to worry about, but when she fell asleep, he knew it was a safe sign for him to slip away. So far, he had never been caught, so he does not have a cautious thought within his mind when he does. After all, his mother was far too tired after a long day of her duties as a leader and handling the newborn twins.
Slipping away from the shadows of the jungle, Aeolus makes his way across the moonlight beach and dives into the sea. The sunset yearling glides easily into the water as scales appear and aid his transformation from land to sea without hassle. He feels immediately as one with the water as he pushes forward and swims promptly away from the shores of Ischia.
He follows the pale moon that now hangs high up in the black of the night. A legion of stars dot across the big open sky, giving him a dim source of light. It is useful on a night like this, but the open sea during the late hour of the night has become a familiarity of sorts to the serpent now. It was the only time Aeolus could truly be himself without fearful stares and anxious whispers.
In the distance, Aeolus spots the dark outline of the mainland. A treeline of large ancient trees slowly reveal in the light of the moon as he swims closer to the shore. The water becomes swallower as he moves inwards to the sand and stone beach. A hint of woods gentle tickles his nostrils as he steps out of the sea and onto the shore. His hooves feel uneven on the stone beach as it was far unlike the soft sand of his tropical home.
In the corner of his eye, the soft flash of light draws his attention further down the beach. He watches as tiny glowing cloud of lights follow along an iridescent figure that slips into the swallow waters of the sea. “Celina?” He questions softly as the first thought of her comes to his mind. It couldn’t be. Aeolus knew he was likely near Taiga, but he could be anywhere on the northwestern coast.
Without a thought, he makes his way down towards the shore where the white filly went. He had to be sure it was Celina. Even more so he wasn’t sure what she would be doing up this hour. It wasn’t hard for him to keep track of the filly with the glowing cloud of fireflies. However, he instantly stops nearby when all of them dim and only one remains.
A loud gasp escapes through his dark purple colored lips when he witnesses Celina swallowing an entire seabass! The young filly then turns back to face him, and the pale moon reveals that indeed it was Celina in front of him. A look of shock and confusion take over his sunset colored facial features. “Celina!” He finally manages after a few quick moments of silence exchanged between them. “What are you doing out here?” He asks instantly. The same could be asked of him as well, but he is more focused on witnessing her eating an entire fish! Aeolus could not remember her ever being able to do that before. “And since when did you eat fish!?” Certainly, Celina would have told Owin and him back at the Playground she ate more than the grass and berries.
then no one can ever confine us, and no one can ever define us we're just trying to live where the wild things are
Trust your instincts, her father says. The memory of his laughter, of the proud gleam in his blue-and-green eyes when she’d snapped at an intruder in the woods, was all the encouragement she needed. Mother has told her to quiet them, to bite down on the desire to stalk and hunt and swallow.
Practice control, Mother had lectured. Lose control, laughed her Father when she had told him.
The quiet rumble of her growl was muffled by the waves, but it quiets immediately when she finally puts a name to the face in front of her.
“Aeolus!” she crows excitedly, and leaps forward through the shallow water until she stands on the drier beach a few feet from him. “I didn’t recognize you! You got so tall!” Celina has as well, but she still has to look up, just a bit, to meet his golden eyes. They’re both taller, older, and the soft fuzziness of his foal coat that she remembers has shed out into something far sleeker. It highlights the pattern of his spots, which Celina inspects admiringly for a moment before answering him.
“So I grew these over the winter,” the white filly begins, raising one foreleg as high as she can manage. The soft glitter of white scales is impossible to miss, even in the starlight, and she adds a few fireflies to make sure they’re seen. She’d shown her father the scales that line her throat as well (more obvious, more eye level), but the quiet murmur of instinct tells her not to reveal her throat to anyone and she listen. “And then my Dad took me hunting when he came home and told me that it’s not natural for me to eat like a prey animal.” Celina’s tone is dismissive; Dad has told her that prey animals are weak, unlike himself, unlike Celina.
“I live here,” Celina adds proudly, “These are my fishing grounds. I like fish the best. Do you?” Is he a prey animal, she wonders? He does not feel like one, not like Mom and Elio and Poppy do. The golden champion used to feel like one, but of late he has begun to smell like the pumas and the wolves and her father – like a fellow predator. Celina smiles a toothy smile, and tilts her head.
celina i'm that bad type, make-your-mama-sad type make-your-girlfriend-mad type, might-seduce-your-dad type
we've been running away from space and time if we don't fit in the grand design
From what he can remember, his mother had always been concerned about his predator tendencies. She had whispered her concerns quietly to his grandma Adria about such things. Even if his mother had never spoken to him directly about it, he knew his ability had been uneasy for her.
Being a predator was nothing he could change though. His mother knew that very well, but perhaps it was her feat that Aeolus one day would get himself in trouble for something big. Thankfully, his father understood what it was like to be a predator. He taught him how to control it and not suppress it. There was no way an instinct like being a predator could completely be destroyed and caged. It was simply nature for him to hunt and feast upon other animals.
Celina’s excitement to see him quickly draws a boyish grin across his purple lips. It was true he had gotten a lot taller. “I suppose I did!” Aeolus had never thought of that until now.
He was no longer the fluffy little purple colt she had met in the Playground. Well, neither she was either. Aeolus couldn’t miss how much Celina had changed too. She definitely had been a pretty sight when they first met, but Aeolus had never thought of filly’s in that sort of way before. He was pretty sure one of the other foals had told him that fillies had some sort of disease called cooties. Was it even true? The yearling isn’t even certain still to this day.
“Oh!” He says with excitement when she reveals the white scales that adorn her limbs now. Aeolus has always had scales since he could remember ever swimming in the water. Naturally they appeared somehow—his mother told him it was part of being a creature of the sea. “Wow really?” Aeolus hadn’t ever guessed Celina would be one to be like him—a predator! It was rather shocking and exciting at the same time. However, he never had thought of prey animals to be any lesser.
“My dad took me hunting too. I never knew it could be so fun.” The memory is something he is rather fond of. At first it had been like a game of chase he played before with the other foals on the island, but then it turned into something quite more. He never thought he would be so good at hunting or how natural it felt to eat some of the sea creatures that lived near their island.
Aeolus smile increases a little wider when she mentions this is her fishing grounds and if he liked fish. “I definitely do like fish!” He laughs and considers their moonlight surroundings for a moment. “You have a great spot here for hunting. I bet you get some good catches.” Aeolus wonders if their fish are the same as his home. “What kind of fish do you catch here? The fish in my home are very colorful.”
then no one can ever confine us, and no one can ever define us we're just trying to live where the wild things are
Aeolus is appropriately impressed by her scales, and Celina feels a warm glow of pride. She already knows they are great, but its always good to have confirmation from others, and her sunset-colored friend does not disappoint. He tells her that his father has taken him hunting too, and the white filly nods in satisfaction. Teaching hunting is the role of fathers, it seems. He likes fish too- though perhaps not the best – but Aeolus is right that this is a good hunting spot. Most places are good hunting spots for Celina and her fireflies, but she understands that not everyone has that same advantage. Perhaps that is unfortunate, but Celina doesn’t think of it that way. She accepts that she is better in that regard, just like her father has told her.
He asks what kind of fish she catches, and Celina pauses. They’ve got some color to them, she thinks, but most often they are lit greenish-yellow by the light of her fireflies.
“They’re mostly silver here. Sometimes I can get the haddock and the cod to come in, and those are the best. Have you had those?” Even as she talks, the white filly is backing away, back toward the water. When she finishes speaking, she gestures with her muzzle for Aeolus to follow. Rather than wade back where she’d just emerges from, Celina picks her way across the rocks that protrude from the sea. The water beside this nature-made pier grows deeper with every step, but Celina feels no fear. She settles on a rock just large enough for them both to stand on, and then folds her legs so that she might lay with her head only a few feet from the water. Her fireflies cannot venture too far without her losing control, but they spread out in a semi-circle over the water and flash brightly.
A few are lost to the boldest fish before they can return, but most slowly blink their way back to where Celina and Aeolus are perched on the rocks. They come together in a bright knot, and the fish that had been lured by their light roil the surface just below her white nose. One leaps, and Celina’s sharp teeth snap shut on its silvery body before it can reach the fireflies.
Grinning around the flailing fish in her mouth, Celina leads the way back to the beach, and tosses the fish at Aeolus feet.
“That’s a haddock.” She tells him. “Try it. I bet it’s way better than your colorful fish.”
@[Aeolus]
celina i'm that bad type, make-your-mama-sad type make-your-girlfriend-mad type, might-seduce-your-dad type
we've been running away from space and time if we don't fit in the grand design
Aeolus listens curiously as Celina tells him about the different fish she catches here. She mentions that they are mostly silver here. He remembers seeing a couple silver looking ones before when hunting, but he wasn’t exactly sure if they were tasteful. At the mention of cod and haddock, his ears flicker curiously. “I’ve never had haddock or cod before.” Aeolus couldn’t think of ever running into the fish Celina mentioned. Perhaps it was too warm for their liking to come near his home.
With the white filly’s gesture, the yearling follows behind her across the rocks that protrude from the water. The nature-made pier truly made a great place for hunting fish. He was now a bit jealous that Celina had found such a great place to hunt. Although he tends to preferer the open waters when it came to hunt the deeper sea fish near Ischia.
Stopping on the same wide rock as, Aeolus lowers his head just a little, he then concentrates on everything Celina does. Holding his breathe, for a moment he fears even breathing will scare away the fish Celina is trying to lure, he watches with golden eyes as the fireflies form to lure any fish that is brave enough to venture close. One quickly leaps up, Celina swoops in and grabs it, and he releases a heavy soft gasp.
A wide grin spreads across his purple lips when Celina looks back at him with a smile and the fish in her mouth. He quickly follows after her towards the beach, carefully making his way across the stone-pier. When they reach the beach, Celina tosses the fish over to him. He lowers his head, inspecting the new species, he prods at it with his nose a couple of times.
Celina tells him that is a haddock and its better than his colorful fish. The purple colt laughs softly at her words. “Are you sure about that, Celina?” A boyish grin grows on his lips as he looks at her for a moment and then back to the fish. The haddock didn’t have a tasteful looking appearance to it by color, but aroma of flavors coming off of it seemed appetizing enough for him. Taking his right front hoof, he gently presses it down on the tail of the fish to hold it down, he then takes a small bite at the fatter part of the fish.
Instantly, Aeolus is filled with satisfied flavors of mild sweetness. The flesh of the fish is firm and tender, which is likes how easy it was to take a bite. Aeolus takes another bite from the fish. He couldn’t help himself how tasteful a plain looking fish tasted. Chewing the last bite of his food, he lifts his head and looks at Celina with a boyish grin. “Okay, maybe you are a little right.” He tells her because the fish was flavorful and to his liking. “Do you want some?” Aeolus offers even though he would finish the whole thing in seconds and go back for some more.
then no one can ever confine us, and no one can ever define us we're just trying to live where the wild things are
Celina grins at his careful inspection of the fish. He seems dubious that it might compare to his colorful little snacks in Ischia, but Celina is certain. She’d made an effort to catch nearly everything. She’d even tried to catch one of the blue sharks, and bears the scars to prove it. It hadn’t even been that good, she’d found, and definitely not worth the effort it took to catch. At least that venture seems to have resulted in teaching the rest of the predators in the sea to keep clear of her, recognizing her as a fellow hunter.
Watching Aeolus rip into the haddock teaches Celina the same thing, the sight of his sharp teeth somehow satisfying. It reminds her of the way she’d felt at seeing Reia and Rivuline, if perhaps with a little less of the warmth in her belly. None of her siblings are like Celina is, all of them are as herbivorous and boring as mother. Aeolus is not though; he is a hunter too. Nodding at her own internal satisfaction, the filly soon changes that to a shake of her head at his offer.
“That’s all yours,” she tells him, “I just ate.”
The seabass he’d caught her eating had just been a snack, after all. It’s too late at night for a heavy meal anyway, despite how delicious she knows the haddock to be.
“Wait till you try cod,” the kelpie-like creature adds with a grin.
A heavy wave catches her attention, and the green-eyed filly glances over her shoulder to where it crashes against the rocks. When she looks back, it is to affix the sunset colored boy with a curious stare.
“Do you often come to Taiga this time of night?” She asks him curiously. “I’ve never seen you here before, but I guess I don’t go wandering at night very much.”
celina i'm that bad type, make-your-mama-sad type make-your-girlfriend-mad type, might-seduce-your-dad type
we've been running away from space and time if we don't fit in the grand design
With Celina’s answer to his offering, Aeolus takes one more bite. “Your loss then,” he says with a teasing tone. The sunset colt then goes back to finishing the last few bits of the fish. He gulps it rather quickly down, the new discovery of the flavorful was almost too satisfied for him. For a second he glances back to the water, deciding whether to get more, but he quickly pushes the thought aside when Celina mentions another fish. Perhaps he would come back here more to hunt.
A grin appears at his face as he sees one spread across her own face. “You are too spoiled here with all these good fish, Celina!” Aeolus finds his grin growing a little wider.
His golden gaze follows along to where the crashing wave comes too. It breaks the quiet night around them, but he quickly turns his gaze back to Celina who stares at him with her brilliant green eyes that remind him of the tropical greenery in Ischia.
“Not really,” he says answering her question. “I’ve never been to Taiga until now actually.” It was a bit out of his normal routine of hunting at night, but the sea was large, and he let the water’s current take him wherever when he hunted. “I mostly hunt at night.” Aeolus almost mentioned his mother was the reason for his nightly hunting adventures, but he dismissed the thought right away knowing his mother was only looking out for him in the end.
A gleam sparks in his golden eyes. “So, what are you doing out so late then?” The sunset colt’s head tilts to the right slightly. “I’m sure you have a bedtime, missy!”
then no one can ever confine us, and no one can ever define us we're just trying to live where the wild things are
