• Logout
  • 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


    [private]  do you feel like a young god? tangerine
    #1
    if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

    He watches the translucent lake beneath the setting sun, the bare limbs of his wisteria tree stretching out over his golden frame. Tangerine is at his side for the first time in nearly a year; her absence had been apparent and he'd thought of her often, but there had been a good reason for the time she'd spent in Tephra. He hadn't realized just how much he had missed her in her absence though, and tonight as they stand in the dusk, the comfort of her company lifts his spirits and calms his worry.

    The King's amber gaze turns from the peaceful surface of the lake to search the painted mare's face. He'd seen something new on it, an expression he hadn't recognized, when she'd first found her way to the lake and had been greeted by Ciri. He'd spent the afternoon mulling over it, not wanting to bring up anything in front of the smokey black mare who'd arrived suddenly within Hyaline weeks ago, that she wouldn't want to share. He thinks he's finally placed it, though, as he gives his first friend a kind and tentative smile.

    "Tell me what's wrong, mahal," he says softly, "You seemed troubled earlier."

    Amet will always see Tang as a free spirit, no matter how long she decides to stay within Hyaline or Tephra. He wonders if maybe she is beginning to feel trapped, as if she has spent too much time in Beqanna without seeing something new. He wonders if she will admit it, or if she'll feel that she can't because it might sound like she's ungrateful for her children. His lips turn downward, frowning slightly as he awaits her response.

    "I hope you know you can still tell me anything."
    Amet


    @[Tangerine]
    #2
    tangerine
    face to the sun

    She missed him. She doesn't say it, it almost feels like a betrayal to think it, but she had. And she lets herself enjoy the feeling of his gaze and his attention - it warms her, and she doesn't ask why. 

    "It has a cure, my ailment." A smile plays on her lips, not fully committed to humor but still, no darkness hides behind her eyes. It is an oversimplification, but simple problems have solutions.  "It's only restlessness, and a change of scenery is easy medicine." She sighs and her gaze breaks away from his to look out beyond the dark waters into the heavy dusk. This time, someplace new had come with a hefty price. "I come by it honestly though, it runs in my blood. And I may have passed the family curse on to Svedka too." As she speaks her son's name the reserved smile blossoms. It was always easier for the men to be wanderers and he would grow into the title with pride. Tang thinks of her mother and how she was growing to become that woman, she is not upset by this... but she isn't proud.

    But these are not the answers her friend is looking for. Truly, her restless spirit if only the symptom of a deeper disease, does he suspect as much? She holds back another too heavy sigh. Between them, the owls and lightning bugs fill the silence with light and soft coos and the smile fades from her lips.

    "Amet," Tang's voice lowers as the stars rise around them but her eyes remain focused on a mountain summit across the lake. He asks for honesty with his reassurance. 
    "Sometimes, I wish I wasn't this way." 

    Motherhood had stirred new feelings in her.
    Over the past year, she had touched life and death, starlight and hellfire. She was changed, and she did know how to be someone different than she had always been before.  

    "Sometimes, I wish I could be more like you." Finally, she turns her crown towards him as she tilts it to rest on his scaled neck.
    Like Warrick and Solace - She doesn't add aloud. 

    Dependable. 
    >
    #3
    if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

    Amet can see through her smile - there is happiness to it, but not enough to hide the melancholy in her usually bright eyes. He wants to help her find the answers to her problems, even if she won't go to the root of it aloud (the young stallion isn't foolish enough to think that this doesn't involve her children), but then her gaze falters and she turns away with a sigh.

    Amet takes a moment to contemplate her issue, to perhaps come to a conclusion that would help her the way she had helped him with Iset. The Dragon King had allowed himself to fester and soak in his own worries and insecurities for far too long; he had placed Iset's departure and their falling out entirely on his shoulders. You need to forgive that boy, Amet, she had told him, and there hasn't been a day since then that he hasn't replayed it in his head. The gilded stallion extends his soft muzzle to the overo mare, even as her eyes linger on the lake beside them, and presses it gently to her neck. "It's not a curse, mahal, if it's what you love."

    He thinks on her children and their blue-tipped tresses, the perfect combinations of Tangerine and Warrick, and tries to suppress his own sigh, disguising it as a slow exhale as he turns his own gaze to the darkening sky. Amet, she whispers, and he wants to tell her to say it again so he can savor it. Instead, he bites his tongue and allows her to mumble her desires quietly to him. The bronze-scaled stallion snorts quietly, not to mock her but to vehemently disagree.

    "Like me?" he inquires quietly, his breath catching when she lays her head against him. The Akhal-Teke forces a deep inhale, a slow exhale, before closing his amber eyes and murmuring into the darkness, "Don't ever change. Don't ever change." Amet retracts from her slightly, his amber eyes searching hers with a new and mischievous glimmer.

    "Adventure with me, then. Maybe it'll satiate the wanderlust and maybe it won't, but it's worth a shot. Where haven't you been yet? The Beach? Ischia? We can go to the highest point, to the end of Beqanna, and scream into the ocean if it'll make you smile."
    Amet


    @[Tangerine]
    #4
    tangerine
    face to the sun

    His quiet contemplation of her words means more to her than he knows. He gives her what she needs, yet is ashamed to need as it is given. But Tangerine dismisses her pride and accepts his concern with gratitude. She is learning, day by day,  that whatever they are - the confusing cascade of touches and shared secrets - she loves him. But her children had taught her, better than any other teacher, that there were many types of love. And she does not reach to classify her love for him in the way she had before.

    But his muzzle finds the soft places of her neck and he whispers mahal into the gold of her skin she can not help but feel the stirring of a feeling she knows all too well. It is the same feeling he had awoken three years ago when they found each other, as children, alone in his vast newfound kingdom. He had been the first to truly do so. But for three years their passion had not moved beyond hot kisses and midnight confessions. And she knows, that if they ever did cross that line it would be on his terms, not hers.

    But he is moving on, denying himself or her - she can not be sure- and she follows where he leads. The surprise in his voice catches her off guard. She turns her face towards him as the words softly fall from his lips. But as she lifts her eyes, like liquid honey, to his, she sees mischief there. 
    And she smiles.

    Always on the move. 

    "Have you forgotten the last time you took me somewhere? I was the worst diplomat there ever was!" His words had worked their magic and her troubles are forgotten again, for a time. He made her feel like the wild and carefree girl who had first laid eyes on Beqanna three years ago, a girl who was slowly fading away to be replaced by something else.
    But tonight, it feels right to be that girl again.

    She tries not to miss the tension they difused. 
    >
    #5
    if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

    Hyaline's dusk surrenders to a darker twilight. Stars begin to shine in the dark navy stratosphere, the moon glimmering on Amet's metallic scales. His amber eyes are not for the natural scenery, though, but for Tangerine; he can see the way her expression has loosened, the way the furrow in her brow has relaxed, and despite the new laughter in her voice, the Akhal-Teke stallion is not folly to think that he has cured her worries. He lets the conversation slip away from her woes, unwilling (perhaps too anxious) to press the issue, and mirrors her lilting laughter with his own gruffer version.

    "You were the best Diplomat that ever was, I swear it." His grin is wide as he thinks on their trip to Loess. Heda and Merida had been less than welcoming hosts, though he and Tangerine had returned successfully with an alliance to cement the relationship between Hyaline and the territory that rest along their southern border. "I think that was the first and last time I ever saw you angry," he muses to the painted mare, his amber eyes regarding her curiously. Anger had seemed unnatural on his Advisor's face, but the fire she had let flare against the Queen of Loess had caused his golden chest to swell with pride.

    "Tell me what's new, mahal," he requests with outright intrigue, his gold-flecked eyes watching her closely. There has been a question on his tongue for quite some time now, though his own heart beats anxiously whenever he thinks to ask her. Amet is fond of Warrick - has been ever since the blue-pointed stallion had come to see Tang in Hyaline the first time - but it is no secret that they had both been vying for her affections. Molotov had made sure of that.

    "Are you and Warrick expecting again?" he finally asks before he talks himself out of it, the words rushed and whispered and excited.
    Amet


    @[Tangerine] ♥
    #6
    tangerine
                        turn your face to the sun - let the shadows fall behind us


    His words make her laugh as she surrenders to the happy girl she is used to being, neatly tucking away her lingering sadness with ease. 

    "Probably not the last time," She says, haughtily looking at him out of the corner of her eye. But she doesn't hold the look for long before reaching in to nip his neck with another laugh. It takes a moment for her to stop laughing, it felt good to feel good again. 

    But the Dragon King's look turns curious and she can nearly guess his next question. She watches him closely, she wasn't going to bring up the topic of her new pregnancy, but now that it has been broached she is glad to be able to tell someone.

    "Hmm, you have a good eye, Amet."  Her tone remains light as she stalls, but Tang can't help but send a momentary glance to the stars - to the supernova. But the glance is only that, a glance, and her focus returns to Amet. "But no, it is not Warrick's child," she confesses, almost sadly. Customs were so different in Beqanna, sometimes she was surprised when she did something which was not acceptable, but she wouldn't be surprised if he was disappointed in her for choosing a father she would probably never see again. She tries to read him, should she tell him about her dream?  Of the night a god had come down from space and meet her in the meadow? Should she tell others that her beautiful daughter was the child of a dark god? She can't hide the slight look for concern which hardens her brow.

    "Have you ever heard of Carnage?" 
    She could trust Amet... right?


    >
    #7
    if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

    Finally, he sighs in relief as the tension in Tangerine's eyes ebbs away. Her laughter lingers pleasantly under the blooming stars and the young King smiles ever so slightly to himself. He turns his gaze away to keep the expression private, but then when he returns his amber eyes to the mare, she's shooting him a haughty glare from the side. It's his turn to laugh and he rolls his eyes playfully at her veiled threat. "I will be sure to prepare for it then," he throws back at the overo, playfully chomping his teeth together as she reaches out to nip him.

    The growing blackness makes him feel like he can ask her anything, as if the inky blanket of night grants them a sort of protective cloak. His words are rushed, but he's confident in his inquiry, proffered like it will not etch a small bit of sadness into his heart if she should say yes. Amet had felt the tension between them the first time she had ventured into the inner sanctum of Hyaline; they'd wandered beneath the wisteria together, playful and bashful and all things naive. The memory warms him, yet makes him uncomfortable. In truth, he's thought only of Ciri for nearly an entire season. Tangerine's absence has always and will always be bitter, but the knowledge that she is with Warrick helps him to view their relationship as platonic and innocent, though in her presence he is reminded of the way he'd felt when she had first come to his home. She looks away for a moment, heavenward, and his breath catches.

    Not Warrick's. Amet's brow furrows for the briefest of seconds in surprise, the tone of her voice catching him off guard. "Are you okay, mahal?" Her demeanor is different... sadder. The Dragon King's thoughts immediately drift to any possible worst case scenario and fury begins to rise in his chest, sudden and powerful. His muscles grow taut and his ears lay flat against his narrow head; the akhal-teke nearly bares his teeth but forces his quivering lips to remain over the blunted enamels, though his nostrils flare angrily in hopes to catch the scent of the offender.

    "Did he hurt you?" he nearly growls, sharp amber eyes watching her every movement with growing concern. "Carnage..." Amet draws the word into a hiss, wracking his brain for any instance that he made have heard that name. He has heard rumors and myths only, but they are enough to hold onto. "The God. The one that made Pangea a wasteland."

    "Did he hurt you?" Amet asks again, trying now to dampen his anger until he has an answer from the first  equine he had ever called a friend.
    Amet
    #8

    Tangerine

    In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep

     
    She knew he would be surprised. Yet, she was not prepared for his reaction. His ears flatten and his demeanor changes to show her a side of himself she had never seen before. The quivering of his lip and the flint in his usually welcoming eyes puts a space between them. She steps away from his side with a shake of her head.  She doesn't know why, but his reaction makes her own ears flatten into the mass of ebony mane behind them. Maybe she should be flattered by his anger, but it has the opposite effect. 

    The two days of travel, the rocky terrain her emotions had her navigating, the achs of her pregnancy, they all seem to hit her now. 

    The wight of his distress makes her knees buckle. She had chosen to go to the dark god that night, she had baited him and drank the spices and starlight he fed her eagerly. He had fucked her and then disappeared into the night with her blood on his lips and she hadn't minded one bit.
    But how did she say that to this man-child beside her?
    The innocent king. 

    "No," she says and the word floats between them, nowhere near enough to fill the void. It's not the answer he wants but she is too tired to cry into his shoulder and let him protect her. She didn't have it in her to be his damsel in distress tonight. And that night had given her something she would die for, something that had more value than all of the kingdoms of Beqanna combined. Celest kicks and Tang almost smiles, but her gaze holds fast, steady, yet not hard. 

    "No," she repeats, softer this time as his question comes again. But there is nothing else she wishes to say about it. Instead, Tang reaches out her muzzle to place a light kiss on his brow. She is with her friend again for the first time in too long, yet she feels a world apart. She can't stand to feel that way so close to him. The frustration in her chest drives her to take a step back before she turns to look up to the hard glint of the mountain peaks in the light of evening. She blames her fluctuating emotions on her pregnancy and does her best not to let her frustration reach her eyes. She doesn't want to hurt him. But regardless of their source, these feelings, they are powerful.

    So she does what she always does when she feels unrest and she turns to leave.

    "Get some rest Amet." 
    You have a kingdom to run.

    #9
    if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

    His anger is the catalyst behind the sudden space between them. He doesn't notice at first, too frenzied to pluck any knowledge he may have about Carnage out of his head, too frenzied thinking that the Creator of Pangea had hurt her. But he does notice eventually, when her first 'no' cuts across him. His rage is quelled so quickly with this information, replaced with surprise and confusion. "Oh..." he expels softly, not in judgement or disappointment, but with the unforeseen realization that Tang had begun to live a life that did not involve him.

    Of course she has, he sighs quietly, suddenly unsure of how to feel. He misses nearly six months of her life every year, a side effect of her wanderlust, but he has never dwelled upon it as much as he is now. He had been folly to think that all of her time away was spent with Warrick, and to think that she could not feel new things for new people. When finally he's able to settle on an emotion, Amet nods his acceptance, only regretful that he does not know her life like he thought he had. 'No,' she repeats again.

    But the space is already there, and now he notices it.

    "You just..." sounded sad? Surprised me? He wants to tell her that he isn't judging her, that she can feel whatever she wants, and to laugh at the miscommunication, but... she's cutting him off and telling him to get some rest with hard eyes and a sharpness as she says his name.

    She turns away and he watches her go, feeling very much like he is bound to watch the women he cares about walk away from Hyaline for the rest of his existence.
    Amet


    @[Tangerine] ♥




    Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)