"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
It had taken him a while before he had gathered enough courage to go back. The redwood forest had been calling to him, urging him to seek it out, but Ander clearly remembered what had happened and there was no way for him to know if the water and lava wolves still roamed the ground. So he had stood across the river, on the side of the forest, to just watch the massive pine trees.
Ever since that first time he had gone back more and more often. He always kept at the ‘safe’ side of the river, that was like a natural boundary between the forest and Taiga. They had gotten away from the madness by crossing the very same river. Not the most pleasant memory, but the pull was still there.
Today it’s not any different. Mother was off playing somewhere, and although he didn’t like the idea that she didn’t had any supervision, he also knew he had to let it go. Soon she would be one year old – or her new body would be – and she’d need them less and less. His black and golden legs carry him towards the river. Snow is crushed under his hooves, but his coat is still thin and shiny as it had been this summer. Cold had never bothered him.
For a while he just gazes across the water. The woods almost seemed different this time, yet Ander is aware of his own longing and that he probably is only deceiving himself. A sigh, then followed by a loud whinny. Hopefully dad was around, and he’d been loud enough for Terran to hear him. And oh, perhaps he could trick his old man.
With a grin tugging on the corner of his lips, Ander slips back into the forest. The winter makes it hard for him to hide. No branches full of leaves or earthy tones that made it more easy for him to hide. Instead he stood out against the white snow. Eventually he finds a couple of low pine trees nearby, the wind had probably carried over seeds from Taiga. With the dark green needles still intact, it was a perfect hiding spot.
Now, all he had to do was wait. And be ready to strike. Before he had always tried to snuck up on Terran, but he something had given him away. This time he would try a different trick.
Well, not technically. More so that I’d been swooping in wide arcs above him, careening out a bit more just to see other things, and then doubling back to see what he was up to.
Except, this time when I double back, he’s not there.
“Dammit Ander.” I curse softly, the light-hearted poke whipping away into nothingness as I plummet from my sky-perch down to glide over the tops of the Forest treeline. Scan as I might, I can’t locate him and so I resign to buffer myself to a halt with the forward flap of my broad wings and drop casually between an open space in the coverage to thump heartily onto the earth. Dust settles around my golden hooves and for a moment, I remain still and silent, both ears flicking in tandem to try and discern any rustle of noise.
Nothing. “Hmm.” I think with caution, easing ahead while I tuck my golden cape across black ribs. My eyes and nose have taken to graying out; age is making a masterful mark on my body and in the mornings I feel the creak of aging bones and stiff joints. Soon, I won’t be strong enough to ramble by foot anywhere and after that, my wings will give.
For now though, I’m just a stallion in his waning prime. “Ander?” I call out now, stopping once more as the energy in the air sets my fur on edge. The prick of someone staring can be felt, though the origin can’t be determined. I swing around suddenly, the crack of a grin on my lips while the word, “HAH!” Bursts through my lips - I’m sure I’ve caught him.
However, my only reply is the skitter of a springtime hare darting from the bush I’ve just assaulted with a bellow. Blinking in confusion, I draw my head up once more and feel the weight of silence crash over me. I was so positive he’d been right there...
All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black
Father arrives sooner than he had expected. He hadn’t been sure if his golden winged sire would’ve heard him, but if he did, he wouldn’t have guessed that Terran would be this quick. He did, however, rightly guessed the way in which his father would arrive. Through the sky, carried on the wind by his ever dazzling wings.
Black and dazzling gold. Both of them. And on top of that Ander had a pair of gem like red eyes. Eyes that sparkle with his planned mischief. A little prank wouldn’t hurt, right? Well, what he had in mind could hurt, if he would play it wrongly.
He had only recently discovered that he had inherited his mother’s powers, the ability to control fire. Cold had never bothered him, but until the strange sensation of the Halloween gathering – as they had called it – he had never really known he carried the same flame within him. Ander had yet to master it, but that didn’t stop him from trying. But first he had to sneak away, Father had found his hide out.
He has to hold back a laugh, but his golden lips have curled up into a grin. Before he can do anything to give himself away, he tries to call up his power. Ander’s intentions were to circle a wall of fire around his father, starting behind him and then slowly moving along Terran’s right side. Only he ended up setting the bush on Terran’s right on fire. ”Oops.”
With a few quick steps he is out of his hiding place – which hadn’t really been his intention but happened nonetheless – and staring at the slowly spreading fire with distress clearly written all over his face. “This wasn’t my intention, dad I swear..” he mumbles under his breath eyes wide in shock and surprise, and perhaps a little panic too.
Panic that grows as the fire grows. “W-what.. How do I stop it?” He had never learned how to master his powers, or how to use them, and stopping something that had been set on fire was not yet something he had tried before.
I can’t begin to tell you how utterly out of my skin I am when the bush directly to my right suddenly combusts and causes me to leap with a twisting buck to the side. “What the hell!?” I shout, lifting the dual wings on my right side to fan the flames away while from behind, Ander slips out into the open with an “Oops.”
“Oops indeed.” I tell him in a lowered tone, both honey eyes locking onto his red ones with an unspoken lashing. I can’t be mad at him though - how could I? Ander is growing into a bold young stallion and his powers are beyond my means to teach. The best I can do is turn my gaze back to the fiery bush with a chagrin sort of expression. Not only has he succeeded in startling me out of my wits, (the student becomes the master so quickly) Ander has somehow managed to present me with a problem I can’t immediately fix.
“Well … that’s a good question.” I answer truthfully, twisting around with the tight maneuver of my feet so that my hind-end is facing the bush. I buck, forcefully, and manage to knock the poor, flaming thing loose with a few well-aimed kicks but soon enough the fire is too hot for my touch and I’m hopping forward with soft, breathy curses as I try to stamp out the wicked flame. “A little help, son? We should trample it out.” I ask, turning back to glance at Ander before motioning to the bush - and that’s when I see them:
Something strange jutting from my boy’s forehead, like knobs or knots or something …
“Ander,” I say suddenly, momentarily distracted from the lopsided mess of firewood, “What happened to your head?”
All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black
12-04-2017, 01:45 PM (This post was last modified: 12-04-2017, 01:46 PM by Ander.)
what a lovely way to burn
Oh damn, this wasn’t what he had envisioned when he had thought of this little prank. The lowered tune of his father’s voice told him enough, Ander didn’t need to look into those honey eyes to know he was silently being lashed at. Red eyes are cast down, then back to the fire that’s still slowly growing. At least father was unharmed, only a little spooked.
With Terran’s gaze back on the fire, he dares to step up to stand next to the golden winged stallion. Ander had yet to reach Terran’s height, but he wasn’t far off. Still lankier, but nothing time wouldn’t fix. Not for long, the sudden attack on the fire has him backing away a few steps, to make sure to stay out of harm’s way. Both Ander’s golden tipped ears are pinned as he watches the attack on the poor bush, both curious and surprised.
It’s his father’s voice that pulls him out of his thoughts. He nods his head in a silent reply, all without looking away from the fire. Therefor he doesn’t notice the gaze Terran is giving him. Turning his back to the fire he is about to follow his father’s example, but there’s something in father’s voice that makes him stop and look up.
For a moment Ander can only blink his red eyes at the taller male. ”My head?” he then repeats, his head tilting in confusion as he does. A habit of his mother’s that he had unconsciously picked up. ”Nothing happened..”
But there must be something, why else would his father suddenly ignore the fire behind them? Dropping his head he rubs his forehead across his leg. First he notices nothing, but then, when Ander is about to pull away, something hard touches his foreleg. His first reaction is to freeze, eyes wide as he stares at the ground, before slowly moving to lift his head. By the time his red eyes meet Terran’s honey ones they are full of terror. ”Dad? What’s happening?”
For the moment, the burning bush is forgotten. There’s shock enough between the both of us but I’m not as quick to freak out as Ander is - he’s somewhat like his mother in that way, but I had loved her eccentric nature and I’m glad to see it passed down to him. “Woah, easy Ander.” I tell him when those bright red eyes are pleading with mine for explanations; it’s hard to keep the bubble of laughter from rising out of my throat.
I’d been through this before, so for once I’m the one with adult experience here. “It’s natural! My wings didn’t begin to sprout until I was already an older horse. Looks like you’re growing …” And here I pause to step forward, my interested gaze mulling over the knobs forming in my sons proud skull. “Horns.” I say with finality, a bright smile pulling at my dark lips.
“You’ll be a fearsome sort of creature, devilish.” I chuckle, bumping the soft planes of my nose against his skin before I turned aside to peer back at his mistaken attempt at setting me on fire. The charred remains are smoldering out, ashy and pluming with smoke but no longer a threat. I sigh. “That does remind me how inept I am at teaching you, though.” I admit, my thoughts forever circling back to the fact that I was struggling to keep us together, and happy.
I turn back to him, all the pride of my lineage and life reflected in his gem-like gaze, and there’s a deep satisfaction that settles in my gut. "Jinju and I made a perfect son." I think, easing forward to settle into a comfortable stance. “We should find Jinju and settle somewhere, for good.” I tell Ander, “No more field, no more wandering. It’s past time.”
All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black
How could he not freak out? There were strange little things growing, growing, from his forehead and even his father seemed surprised by it. Something that could surprise his father had to be something bad, or wasn’t it? The pleading look doesn’t leave Ander’s eyes, but seeing Terran not freaking out somewhat calms him, though the explation he gets isn’t one he had been expecting at all. ”Horns?” he repeats, ears flicking back and forth as he let realisation set it.
Shé must have done it, but, that had only been just a dream right? He wasn’t some crazy dragon creature, except for the fact that he could control fire (even if he still had to master wielding it). Just to make sure Ander bend his neck, to glance at himself. No wings, normal body, no claws, no strange tail and – thankfully – no bloodlust.
Not a dragon, but to be feared nonetheless, according to his father. Yet the chuckle helps Ander relax more and he grins up at the still taller male. ”You think so?” He couldn’t really imagine it, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like the idea or the sound of it. Ander is still grinning when they turn back to the fire, and not even looking at the burned bush makes the grin go away. ”I only recently found out I got mom’s power..” he honestly admits, and he had failed to tell Terran. ”I wanted it to be a surprise..” A good one, and not something like this.
”I’d like that. I enjoy my freedom, but miss a place to call home..” And friends to have, or girls to crush on. Glancing away his gaze lingers on the redwood trees of Taiga, across the river from where the stand. Once it had been his home. ”Is there a particular place you had in mind, dad?” He might be two year old already, old enough to decide for his own, but inexperienced in so many things.
“Oh, trust me, I say with a hearty chuckle, “it was a very big surprise.”
The twinge of guilt lining Ander’s eyes causes me to bump a hefty shoulder against his own. “You should be proud. Your mother was a force to be reckoned with; I know that if she could, she’d be more than eager to show you how to use it.” I tell him, knowing it to be true. Jinju had been more awake to the impending doom of Taiga than the rest. Her attention to Ander and his safety had become acutely sharp in the weeks leading up the event and, biting my tongue, I keep myself from stumbling into darker areas of conversation.
Jinju wasn’t dead, after all. Simply reborn. “We’ve tried lots, but what haven’t we tried?” I ask Ander, hoping he’ll give me a few suggestions of where he might like to go. It’ll be his home too, once we arrive anyways. “There’s Nerine. I’m not sure what’s going on in Sylva. Hyaline is quiet as ever … and there’s always Loess, and aunt Heda.” I remind him, shuffling ahead so that we can try to track down Jinju.
I doubt she’s far off. Ander likes to keep a close watch on her and I never let her stray too far from my reaches either. “Or, we could make our own home. Taiga no longer seems to be under the ocean.” I tell him, noticing how he’d taken to glancing aside where the forest thickened across the bending twist of river. “Why don’t you choose? You’re becoming a man now. Soon enough you’ll be out on your own.” I laugh, knowing it to be a real statement even if I’d rather it never came true.
All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black
His father’s reply had him huffing, and then glancing away for a moment, annoyed as only a teenager could be. More with himself than affected by Terran’s teasing. Not only had his prank failed, he had failed to control the fire. ”You know that’s not how I meant it..” he eventually mutters under his breath.
It’s only the bump that has Ander looking up to meet his father’s gaze. Right now his mother wasn’t even aware of her power, let alone that she was his mother. A soft sigh and a shake of the head, soon followed by a small nod. ”Maybe soon” he says hopeful as his red eyes search Terran’s amber ones. ”She is remembering more and more..”Maybe she’ll remember us soon too. It seemed like ages ago that he had last seen his mother in her true form, wielding fire like it was as normal as breathing air. Ander still had to go a long way to catch up to her.
He falls in step next to the winged stallion, knowing – just like Terran – that his mother was probably around. She was old enough again to wander off from time to time, but she wouldn’t stray away too far. ”Aunt Heda?” he asks, tilting his head a little to the side as he glances in his father’s direction. ”You didn’t seem to like her that much last time..” Ander barely knew her at all, though she had seemed happy to see him. And not at all shocked that Jinju was a child again.
Ander stays silent for a while. Yes, Taiga had been their home for a while and he would be lying if he said that he didn’t miss those times. Just like he missed his mother. ”I like the idea of making Taiga home again, but I’m also afraid..” So many things had happened and he couldn’t say that his last time there had been good. He had lost so much there too. ”Perhaps it’s better to make a new start, somewhere else..” But he isn’t sure which of the options is the right choice. ”But I think mom would want to go back.”
They say that when you speak over the devil, you can see its tail. Like she’d heard them, the black filly is coming in their direction.
Like often, she had been off playing in the woods all by herself. Or, that was what she liked to believe. Jinju snuck off to explore on her own quite often, but as young as she was, she was oblivious to Terran and/or Ander silently following her behind. Though they always seemed to know where she was. She brushed it off as a parental thing, sort of, kinda, since neither was her father.
First she’d seen a glimpse of gold coming from the sky. The sun reflected Terran’s golden wings in the most spectacular ways and Jinju had been intrigued by the from the very she’d seen them. Perhaps that was how she knew that he’d fly over the part of the forest she’d been playing at.
Second there had been a sudden burst of light and the wind had carried the smoke towards her. Something told her that she should be afraid of it, and that she shouldn’t follow her nose in the direction the scent came from. But Jinju wasn’t afraid. Instead only curious.
Her attention span is like any child’s, as soon as her ruby eyes land on the pair in black and gold she has already forgotten about the smoke. ”Ander! Terran!” she exclaims. Within no time she finds herself standing in front of the pair, smiling widely and pushing herself in between father and son like that was the place she belonged at. ”Go back to where?” she asks, having caught the final words of Ander’s words.
