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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    of crushed dogwood and bruised apples; any
    #1

    Keeper-


    Keeper thinks she is chasing after deer.
    She might as well have been chasing after shadows and stars.

    Once, she swam across a river that took her by the drowned forest and the howls of wolves that did not belong on this earth. The kind of howls that made real wolves shiver deep down to their very bones. She hid from those kinds of howls, tucked herself quiet and away into the bracken and the brush until the earth stopped shaking from the slap of their unnatural paws. How many hid as she did? How few were not quite as lucky? She couldn’t concern herself with those questions, not as she chased the deer towards another river.

    Twice now, she has swum rivers and run from eldritch wolves.
    Twice now, she thinks she is chasing deer but she might be chasing after a peace unattainable.

    Keeper has never really stopped to think about what it was exactly that she always went chasing after. She knew it was the deer, slender and wild in their grace but it had to be something else too, something disguised by the deer that instinct and a primitive part of her brain recognized but the civilized side of her couldn’t comprehend. For all she knew, she was still chasing shadows and stars and the scent of lakewater on the air. Something stopped her at the second river but she knew not what - it made her turn her head and sniff the wind that blew the hair back from her lovely face. That same wind tickled her ears and all she heard was the rush of it going by and the rush of the river in front of her that she turned her black eyes back to, considering. If she crossed it, this would be the farthest she has gone in these new lands. If she turned back…

    She crossed the river.
    Found herself on an uphill climb as the earth grew more pockmarked by boulders and maple trees that formed a forest of their own on what seemed to be a mountainside growing steeper by the step. By the time she crested the top of it, she was almost out of breath and huffing more than a little mare like her ought to be. Once her eyes caught sight of the beautiful mountainside vista and the shimmer of the lake in the distance, the breath had gone right out of her until her lungs gave her a painful reminder to breathe. She sucked in air like something caught underwater as her eyes took in the view, it was stunning! If the deer went anywhere, it would be to here - here was a little slice of heaven on earth.

    Keeper found herself half-sliding down the mountainside on her haunches and half-rocketing down it at a gallop until she caught herself in the headlong rush and slowed up in a tumble of smaller rocks and dust. She was otherwise unscathed as she moved amongst the trees and the more open pockets of sky that showed above and gave her glimpses of the lake. It never occurred to her that her jaunt here might be considered a grievous thing of trespass. She was just a small dunskin mare that looked for all the world like she had not a care in it. Really, she was mesmerized by the landscape that she walked softly and almost reverently through.

    not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless

    #2
    if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

    Hyaline is its own world, a heaven sequestered away from the rest of Beqanna, tucked into a vibrant basin that's protected all around by mountains just large enough to deter the lazy or undetermined. It's a brilliant place for a sanctuary, safe and cozy in its seclusion; the sense of security it offers its residents has restored over the past few months and as it grows, Amet flourishes with it. The anxiety he'd once felt whenever the borders of his home were breached has softened into a comfortable alertness that he keeps within him.

    Despite Beqanna's winter, the foliage in Hyaline remains full of life. While the wisteria and the cherry blossoms will not bloom for another season, their limbs are still home to countless shimmering leaves that rustle in the breeze fed down into Hyaline from the mountain peaks. The crisp air rustles Amet's mane over his shimmering golden scales and with it comes the pleasant scent of someone unfamiliar mingling with the aroma of his lakeside home. His ears twitch, ready for the steady rhythm of footfall to approach. The Dragon King remains beside the translucent water, a metallic golden beacon to guide Hyaline's newest visitor.

    His amber eyes rove the treeline expectantly, a neutral but pleasant expression already smoothing its way over his handsome face. When finally the dunskin mare meanders from betwix leafy boughs and into the sunshine-y clearing, his leather-armored head is tilted to the side curiously. "I never get sick of it," he says of the vibrant scenery with a polite bout of laughter before taking a few steps closer to the Mustang mare.

    "Welcome to Hyaline. My name is Amet."
    Amet


    @[keeper] ♥
    #3

    Keeper-

    Somehow, she had missed him.
    Bronze and scaled, he should have been a bright shimmering beacon beside the lake that drew her out but sometimes, Keeper misses the obvious. They said her head was in the clouds - it wasn’t, it was grounded in the earth the deer traveled over to the point that she knew every trail they took, every bed they kept, every cornfield they raided in the earliest morning hours. Keeper even knew the things they feared the most - wolf and bullet, arrow and jacklight. But she did not know this lake surrounded by trees not yet in blossom and further guarded by mountains tall and magnificent, or their king rumored to be much the same - tall and magnificent, like something out of a story.

    (Keeper likes stories as much as she likes secrets.)

    It is his sentiments and laughter that pulls her blackberry gaze away from the lake towards him. He is brilliant; amber, bronze, and gold and Keeper has never seen someone like him before. The stallion is a blend of things earthbound and bright, but his face is pleasant enough - not just to look upon but in expression, because it just never occurred to her that her trespass might be met with something other than the pleasantness that he greets her with. She never takes her eyes off of him as he moves closer; not wary and not refuting the closeness of him to her - it is in a horse’s nature to seek herd and home, to seek out those like themselves but Keeper does not belong, she defies the very laws that dictate their lives in such base instinct that hard is to ignore for all of their learned civility that has been bred into them after generations of such. How can one be feral and civil? It is not something that she asks herself of, much. But her eyes never leave his armored face.

    Keeper ignores his name, not out of rudeness - she is socially inept and introductions are a bore. She is more interested in the other name he has mentioned, Hyaline and thinks back to his earlier expressed sentiment about never sickening of looking at it. She understands that best. Understands why the deer pass through here because it is a sanctum tucked safe from the rest of the world and all the ills in it. Not to mention the sheer pulchritude of the place! Keeper is at a loss as how to describe it other than that it feels right and she has never felt a sense of belonging like this (once, she thinks but that was with someone not somewhere).

    She realizes that he is still looking at her and she is looking at him but it is like she did not see him standing there, but saw bucks battling one another for the rights to does and spotted fawns nursing from the tan flanks of their mothers. Keeper could feel the peace and she sighed before she said her name, “I’m Keeper.” It was a light sigh of something that felt like acceptance, like a little bit of that same peace that pervaded the air and seemed a part of it for all time. “How can something like this exist?” she murmured, not aware that she had voiced the thought out loud or that he might answer her.

    not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless

    #4
    if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

    She is drawn further into the territory, coaxed by the beauty of the lake. Amet doesn't blame her for her one track mind as she heads, determined, for the crystalline waters - he, too, had been magnetized to the place for the very same reason. She has come only a few weeks too early; soon (he has been waiting impatiently) the trees will be in full blossom once more, the warm air heavy with fragrance, signifying the dawning of a new year and the Dragon King's favorite season. His friendly eyes watch the dunskin mare as she advances, and finally her gaze is pulled from the lucid millpond and towards himself, glistening just the same.

    She, the lithe deer-like creature, stares at him as he introduces himself but appears not to look. He smiles at her for a moment before he breaks eye contact, his own amber eyes turning to overlook azure basin once more. The vibrancy of his lakeside home draws his breath out in an appreciative sigh before the dunskin finally returns his greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Keeper," he responds warmly as he turns his head back to look at her. The mustang's murmured inquiry causes his mouth to twitch upwards and he gives her an innocent shrug. "I still haven't figured that out, myself," he chuckles warmly, "It's nice to meet someone who can appreciate it as much as I do. You should see it in the spring, when the flowers begin to bloom."

    The gilded stallion regards her curiously, hoping that she takes his statement as the invitation that it is. He shifts his weight comfortably against the shoreline, his tail waving lazily in the light breeze as he inquires about her journey. "Is there something I can do for you, Keeper? You're more than welcome to continue exploring, if you'd like, unless there is something else?"
    Amet


    @[keeper]
    #5

    Keeper-

    If he seemed to notice that her look went through him and did not stop at his scales or his eyes, he was polite enough not to mention it. Keeper never could keep her thoughts far from the deer she chased after. Part of her longed to be as them, antlered and lithe, and akin to the forest in a way that she just never could be. That could be part of the reason she left the embrace of the forest and found herself here, realizing that other parts of the earth could indeed hold the same amount of majestic peace and secrets as that endless maze of ancient trees could.

    She could feel a bit of it, now that the old mountains hemmed her in and the millpond kept stealing her gaze from him with its changing hues of blue that she knew to be nothing more than a reflection of the sky above them but something about the way it shimmered held her attention captive more than Keeper knew it. No wonder he was king here. Did she know that? No, she must have made the assumption based on his posture. There was a trace of regal composure to it that one like her could never master let alone pretend at. It seemed as much a part of him as his scales and he answers her with a king’s decorum, not all seeming to mind that his kingdom was a perfect distraction.

    He mentions the flowers blooming and she can only imagine further how the pulchritude of this place will become unmatched by any other. From each bough on a tree to the tiniest sprout from amidst the grass, she can see how the flowers amass here and scent the air enough to bring in the bees and the butterflies. He has a veritable heaven on earth here, and all she can think of is the deer that will come to the springtime feast and how she might be there, lurking after them if the sight of the lake does not hold her further in thrall at that point in time. No source of water has ever looked so jewel bright and stunning before, and she has no thirst in dire need of quenching to even make her think this way.

    But he is warm and sincere in his response; “I think I should like that.” she finds herself answering back with a warm grin before she’s even realized the commitment she’s just unknowingly made. His query though strikes her as odd, no one has ever asked if there was something they could do for her. Is she in need of something and she did not even know it? That’s possible… Keeper missed much and saw all without recognizing it. She could collect a drop of dew on her tongue and taste eons of rain that has fallen but could not remember if she’d seen to her own needs of grazing and drinking, things that no horse in their right mind would be apt to ignore.

    He offers to let her continue on with her explorations and that is a kind offer from a king like him. Keeper is loathe to leave him right at that moment, something builds in her mouth that comes tumbling out in a rush - “Would you mind if I stayed?” This is a harebrained idea because she has never once thought to put down roots somewhere, but if she has a hankering to do so, why not here out of everywhere else? For a moment, she almost cannot meet his eyes, having grown shy at asking such a bold thing of the land’s king.

    not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless



    @[Amet]




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