"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
There had been a time when he had considered himself a loyal-to-the-death member of the Deserts. He had been born there, all stuck with sand, and he imagined he would remain stuck with sand, for all his life, until he died, or withered away and became nothing. But that had never happened. He had faded, and the Deserts had fallen… And he had gone to the Tundra, and found new life, in himself and in his wife Maribel… And now that had been cruelly ripped away from him, too.
But it was not the Tundra he wanted, or even cared about. He did not care what happened to the poxy crowns or the land beneath their feet. He did not care if he had nowhere comfortable to rest his head, or whether he had only tough old trodden on grass to eat. He had something a lot bigger, and more important than that – his Maribel, heavily pregnant, alone. Probably scared, too. She needed him.
He is angry. Very, very angry. The Tundrans had been standing around, accomplishing nothing, not caring that out there were the children of their land, that out there were their women too, pregnant, recovering from birth, and all alone. The once-Kings and once-powers played their silly games and wondered how they’d get back to the top. He hated them all. The fairies too, for doing this to them.
He searches the Forest with increasing worry as search turns up neither wife nor children. He panics, his pace increases, hours pass, perhaps even days, and he is panting, sore, out of breath. His body wants to stop already, but everything else says – Maribel.
But there was no-one there. Just him, the moon, and the fucking stars.
I pretend to close my eyes; I pretend I'm burning bright.
New friends are very nice and all, but it is still very lonely without Daddy Romek. So even though it’s sad and cold to not be cuddled up to new friends and wrapped up in their coziness, I set out on my own again. Maybe I’ll give these fancy new wings a try, and see what I can see from way up high.
So I streeeetch out my wings, pausing to stare in awe at the black that fades to red at the ends of a million and a half feathers I didn’t have before. And then I give them an experimental little flap...and nothing happens. Flap. Flap. Flap flap? Flap. Flap! Oh! That last one did a little bit! Or. Made me feel a little lighter, somehow? Oof, I think flying’s going to be haaaard work though!
Taking a deep breath, I flap my wings as hard as I can, for as long as I can, and I liiiiift up into the air! Oh! Ahhh, the ground sneaks away from my feet, and I wobble some in the air trying to find my balance even as I move forward through the fores--AH! TREE!
Okay, so ow. Trees are not soft. With a bit of a clatter and crash, I fall a few feet to the ground, flaring out my wings to try to catch myself, and wincing as I land sort of halfway on my side, with my legs all splayed out to the right.
Maybe flying works better when there are less obstacles.
With a snort and a shake of my head, I clamber to my feet and give my whoooole body a good shake to dust off the, um...the almost-successful first attempt at flying! Yeah, that! And then I walk, a little gingerly at first, through the trees. The walking gets easier as the pain fades, though. And the last of the hurt vanishes when I spot a familiar figure through the trees.
“DADDY!”
Yep, my legs work just fine, and they carry me right to my daddy and I plow into him and wrap him up in as big a hug as I can manage, still being a good bit smaller than he is. “Daddy daddy daddy daddy I missed you!”
She doesn’t remember much, she woke up at the top of a mountain, Beqanna was not the same. She climbed to the bottom, ignored everyone, luckily found her twin brother Durotan in the mix. But not she wanted to find Romek, she wanted to find her father. Durotan and Espeon left the mountain, but as soon as she did her body burned and when she tried to flick invisible it was gone, she was not able to. She tried and tried and tried, but her powers were gone. WHY, why were her powers gone? She had so many questions but needed to find her family first.
DADDY! she called out, a tear dropping from her face, she frantically searched for the stallion, he would know how to comfort her. Durotan and her explored the forest first, there was so many equines everywhere, everyone was trying to find there family or Kingdom. It was really just one giant mess, but she was able to spot her father out from the crowd and tears of joy flowed from her eyes. DADDY! she screamed out as she raced away from Durotan, she raced towards him but slid to a halt as she looked a black filly similar in age who was also calling Romek dad. It surely wasn’t Maribels foal, who in the world was this filly? She tried to hide the annoyance and jealousy but wasn’t too good at it. Daddy, I’m so happy to have found you she spoke gently and brushed up against him.
The colt woke up alone, he was at the bottom of the mountain unlike most which were climbing down from the mountain. His first thought was of Espeon and her safety, Es! he called out but she did not answer. He slowly and calmly moved through the crowd until he was able to find the gold spotted mare, a small smile grew to his face as he brushed up against her. It was a joyous reunion and the two agreed to seek out Romek.
It was a weird feeling, he wanted to devote himself as a warrior to the Tundra, but now…..now there was now Tundra. No there were no Kingdoms. They stopped at the forest, Espeon tried to use her invisibility but failed, and her magic was stolen from her. They continued to walk through the Forest and soon enough Espeon bolted off away from him. ESPEON! he screamed chasing after her. But once he saw Romek he understood, he saw the jealousy in Espeon’s eyes and turned to view the filly who stood with the group, he was just as confused but did not say anything. Father he dipped his head with a smile.
Perhaps he will never see any of them again. Perhaps they are lost in the dark rift, the land between lands, perhaps they’ve been eaten by the Tundra, perhaps they’ve been killed, perhaps the magic went awry and –
A voice cuts through his panic. It’s Lili, looking her little bubbly self as usual, perhaps a little cold, perhaps a little pained – but alive, still, and here. He smiles, holds her close to him. ”Are you alright?” he asks, inspecting her for signs of damage, admiring those new wings of hers. He noses the feathers curiously. ”Good look.” he comments.
Espeon appears next, looking somewhat put out by Lili and he feels a pang of guilt that he hadn’t gotten around to introducing them just yet. ”Come over here, Espy.” he says gently, wanting to include her in this big group hug. ”Lili, this is Espy, Espy, this is Lili. Looks like you’re sisters.” He smiles a little awkwardly. If only Maribel were here. She would know what to say. She would know what to do.
And then Durotan arrives, the colt who reminds him so much of himself. His only son. ”And you, Duro. Durotan, Lili. This is Espeon’s twin.” he says, intending to embrace them all at the same time – just pleased that they are all okay.
He takes a breath. ”Right, kids. The Tundra lot have gathered in the Forest, so perhaps we should consider making our way over there.”
I pretend to close my eyes; I pretend I'm burning bright.
Daddy looks me over, all concerned because I’m a teensy bit limpy, and I just grin. “I’m fine, I just sort of, um...bumped into a tree is all. While I was trying out these!” I streeeeetch my wings out to show him, and to give my feathers a good rustle and resettle them against myself after to hug Daddy Romek. “Thanks! They’re pretty, right? But my fire’s gone, and that’s really sad, and I just--”
My voice isn’t the only one that calls out Daddy! I’ve barely had a minute with him when someone else is running over and cuddling him and looking at me like I’m some kind of invadey slug or maybe a dung beetle. My eyes get real wide and I back behind Daddy, pulling my wings in close to be really little. I didn’t do anything wrong, I was just talking to my daddy, so I’m not sure why she’s all...well, no, I kind of get it I guess. Because there’s a little twinge of unhappy in my chest when she gets all cuddled up to him like I just was.
My ears flick back and forth, all hesitant and uncertain as I peek around Daddy Romek’s shoulder to get a look at her. Oh, at them. They look kind of samey, which I guess makes sense since they’re twins and all. And they both have sort of shiny butts, which is weird and cool and interesting.
The boy with the silver at least didn’t glare, so much as just stare quietly. Which I guess was maybe a little more promising. So I peek out a little farther from behind Daddy Romek and give saying hello a shot. “Um. Hi, Espy…uh, Espeon. Hi, Durotan. It’s...it’s nice to meet you? You can call me Lily if you want, or it’s short for Lilitha. Lots of nicknames are fine, long as I know you’re talking to me I’ll probably answer. Is it...um, is it nice being twins? It sounds nice, like you’d always have someone to play with and cuddle.”
It was the greatest feeling to find her father again, everything felt in place being with him and Durotan. Now they just needed to find Maribel, maybe even the Tundra members. She felt out of place with the other filly, it was just crazy to find out she had another sibling. She was practically the same age as her and Durotan, why in the world is she just finding out about her? It felt a little like betrayal that daddy didn’t tell them before they ran into each other. Was she a blood daughter? Or adopted just like her and her brother were.
Either way she couldn’t hold it against the filly, she did not play a role in it. She appeared afraid but quickly came out of her shell, she introduced herself as Lily, Espeon gave a dip of her head to the filly with a smile. It is nice to meet you as well, unfortunate it took so long truly it was. Being a twin is awesome! But annoying too because there is always someone around trying to be next to you she laughed and nudged Durotan with her maw before gazing back to Romek unsure of what to do now.
The colt remained silent, he listened to Romek introduce them to there ‘sister’ but how is it they are just meeting? It seemed all so odd but he tuned his attention to black and red filly as she introduced herself as Lily. She seemed innocent enough, in fact Durotan didn’t mind being around her. She caused a smile to grow on his face, she would fit in well with Espeon and him. Hello Lily, it is nice to finally meet you. You will have to excuse my sister, she doesn’t know when to hold her tongue. he shot a glance at Espeon, she was bad at keeping comments to herself.
Lily than asked about being a twin, but before he could speak Espeon did. He rolled his eyes at the sarcastic sister and forced a laugh out as she nudged his shoulder That would be correct, Espeon always trying to be with me. two can play that game he thought to himself. His eyes turned to Romek Is she your blood daughter? he asked curious of there relations, flicking between Lily and his father. He agreed that they should go and find the Tundra members, the others might not have fared as well as this group, the Tundra could use all there members now.
Now, if there’s something that Romek is familiar with, it’s making mistakes. He’s made so many over the years, too many, and he realises now as he watches Espy cautiously regard the filly who is supposed to be her sister, that he has just made a pretty damn big one right now. He should’ve taken them all aside separately, and explained to them the situation in private, rather than just chuck them all in this soup of ‘what is going on’ and further confusion. That’s the last thing the children need now, is more confusion and uncertainty.
But then, he hadn’t exactly planned for all this to happen either, and they all seem to get along well enough, which is a blessing. He watches them all interact, smiling to himself slightly at Duro’s gentle rebuke of his twin. He realises that Espy is becoming quite the lady, and that bubbly Lily is as talkative as ever – glad that this disruption does not seem to have disturbed them so badly.
”She is adopted, like you both are, and not too long ago. I regret not informing you all sooner, though. I’m sorry.” he says solemnly, meaning his apology very much so.
