"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
His journey had taken him quite a few months to complete, but it had been eventful nonetheless. He was thrilled to finally go home to all the things he knew best - the heat of the volcano, the steam rolling off the water's edge as magma billowed into it, the strong smell of sulfur and loam.
From the ocean he emerges, straight into the humidity of the volcanic isle. He inhales, taking a long, deep breath and savoring the scents of his home. Here, he doesn't need his armor all the time to keep warm - he can simply be hot all the time. God, it was wonderful.
He finds himself heading towards the large mass of land that formed the mountain. His hooves clip along the hardened black magma as he approaches. It is hotter in this part of Tephra than anywhere else, and he can't help but bask in it. This is what he knew, what he had grown up to love. This was home.
Boy of Fire
@[Dagny and Olivier] Short, but a starter nonetheless
As he is headed towards the mountain, they are coming down the side paths, returning to solid ground with light steps. They’d been checking on the egg; over the months it had grown, incubated by the heat of the volcano, and only in recent weeks, as pregnant mares started to become alarmingly large, it had finally started to harden and even become thinner; they could see the shadow of their child inside, see it stirring restlessly when they speak to it from outside.
But while the egg is nestled into a crevice and sheltered, there is little shelter for the twins on the mountain, so they descend after each visit to their egg to the main floor of Tephra. Furthermore, their constant presence on the cliff-side would only draw attention to the creamy incubator, and the whole point of leaving on the side of a volcano was to protect it. It is once they reach level ground that she lifts her head and spots him, and she grins, calling, ”Hello!” in a friendly voice. He is, as ever, a half-step behind her and he says nothing, merely lifting his head and inspecting the stranger, green-hazel eyes intent in his gold face.
Dagny is not shy, dancing forward with curiosity in her eyes and excess energy in every movement she makes. Her sides are bare today; she has shed the wings that she sometimes bears (and isn’t that always a sight, with an explosion of blue and yellow feathers left behind) but the blue and yellow that decorates her body remains. ”I’m Dagny,” she introduces herself and because she is in a magnanimous mood, she gives her twin’s preferred name instead of his nick-name, ”This is Olivier.”
He walks up alongside her, her opposite in many ways. Where she is fire and energy, his every motion is precise and careful, and the gaze he fixes on the stranger is cautious rather than curious. He brushes his side against hers as he comes to stand beside her, standing pressed to her side just short of even. ”Do you live here?” she asks. ”It’s such a fascinating place.”
Dagny & Olivier
I won't let you go; so don't let go of me no one can ever follow; no one can ever know
The warmth from the volcano is soothing, and he lets his eyes flutter shut for a few moments. It had been too long since he'd felt the presence of this magical land, and he couldn't help but relish in it.
A short time later a voice catches his attention. Blue eyes shoot open and he looks over his shoudler to the two approaching figures. They are different from each other in many ways - the mare is a warm shade of chestnut with striking sapphire and yellow markings, the stallion is a creamy champagne. The mare seems eager to talk to him, the stallion seems more reserved. Nonetheless, they were clinging to each other's side, and Phoebus couldn't help but turn his head curiously. He'd lived here his entire life, he'd never seen them before.
"I'm Phoebus," He says with a friendly smile. He turns his body to face them. They are fascinating, and he wonders to himself where they had come from. "I do live here. I have my entire life." He replies.[/font][/size][/color]
“Phoebus,” she repeats his name, “It’s lovely to meet you.” And she is, smiling at him to reinforce the message, but at the same time both of them are marveling over the idea of someone living in one place their entire life. They’d been seasoned travelers from an early age; their mother had not had a dedicated home, and they’d lived with her for almost a year until they came to live with their sire in the Tundra. The Tundra had been okay, but neither had been particularly sad to see it go, other than the grief that Brennen and some of their other family members had experienced over the loss. They preferred the different climes of the New Beqanna to the frozen Tundra, but you wouldn’t ever hear them saying so where it might get back to Brennen.
Though, Dagny supposes their father has become quite attached to his current tropical-island dwelling place. “My twin and I are pretty new here,” she throws an affectionate glance towards Ollie and bites playfully at his mane and crest, popping into the air just a little to make herself seem as tall as him before moving away from him again, closing the distance between herself and Phoebus in just a couple of steps and playfully bumping into the roan stallion, looking up at him as she flits past and then looks back at both stallions. “Maybe you could show us around?”
The gold twin retaliates against his twin’s bite by snaking his own head down to nip at her shoulder even as she is moving away, careful of his own horn as he does so. But when she touches the roan before moving on his own interest is piqued – his twin is extremely tactile with him, and more-than-usually tactile with their family members, but she is rarely thus with strangers; he takes another look at Phoebus and wonders, but doesn’t question her – yet. Instead he shifts off of his own hindquarters to step up close beside Phoebus, giving the other stallion the smallest of smiles. “Please,” he adds to her question, standing close but far enough that he’s not touching Phoebus, and it’s unmistakably on purpose.
Dagny & Olivier
I won't let you go; so don't let go of me no one can ever follow; no one can ever know
HTML by Tiny
@[Phoebus]
ooc; I think the twins are flirting. Maybe. XD And I'm sooooo sorry for the wait, they were being difficult in my head!
They are interesting, the two of them. And Phoebus quickly finds himself growing fond of him (whether this be because of his naivety or excitement for finding new friends, he is unsure). When they reveal that they are twins, Phoebus perks up. He’d always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling, to be with someone all your life. It saddens him, that his mother and father hadn’t had another child. He wants to know more about what having a sibling was like.
When Dagny bumps into him playfully, he can’t help but laugh. He swings his rump sideways, butting into her with his upper leg (he stands quite a bit taller than her), careful not to hit too hard. “Of course! I’ll show you all of my favorite spots.” He’s grinning ear to ear. She’s unmistakably charming, and while he hasn’t yet talked to Olivier enough to get a good read on him, he has a feeling he’ll like him as well.
He looks around as the golden stallion comes up and gives him an understanding, reassuring grin. “Well, cmon! There’s a part of the volcano I’m particularly fond of!” He smiles, and leads the pair off towards the backside of the mountain. There, they could watch the molten streams of lava crash to the sea, and create clouds of smoke towards the atmosphere.
@[Dagny And Olivier] it’s okay! Phoebus is being stubborn in my head as well xD
In truth, it seems like all they had done for many months since arriving is travel up and down the volcano. She had laid their egg upon its warmest face and thy had gone up and down every day to see it, but they had not exactly lingered to see the sights. Now, their new friend leads them purposefully up a different face of the rocky mountainside. Dagny follows a mere half-step behind, asking a million questions about everything she sees - rocks, plants, creatures, the sky - with little regard to whether either of the boys know any of the answers.
The gold stallion follows them a full length behind for a while, one ear on his twin’s chatter and his eyes cast out towards the heavens and the landscape spreading below them. After a time he decides to step in and save Phoebus for a moment from her incessant questions with one of his own, and to do that he moves closer to the duo, wishing the path allowed for the three of them to move side-by-side, for it feels entirely foreign for him to give up his place at her side to another. ”So if you grew up here, is your family here?” the idea that he might not have any family doesn’t even occur to Olivier, even though is he typically the more thoughtful and introspective half. It’s just that the twins have so much family that it’s hard to imagine it any other way.
It’s certainly impossible to imagine growing up any other way, which is a good chunk of the reason Dagny had taken their son back to their father to grow up. She’d been so worried about him not having a twin, about growing up lonely, that it had just been better to drop him off with the rest of her father’s brood and let him grow up in what nearly amounted to a pack of youngsters. Perhaps when the new foal hatches, she will bring both home. It’s a decision she hasn’t made yet. But then they crest another ridge and she sees what Phoebus has brought them to see, and she flits forward to stand at the very edge, leaning out into space and admiring the sight.
“Wow,” she whispers it, and wonders what it would be like to be so hot that water steams as it touches her. “doesn’t it ever erupt more than this?” Ollie steps up to stand on Phoebus’s other side, pushing his own boundaries even more by leaving the other stallion closer to his twin than he. He says nothing, though his started exhale and pleased sigh says plenty on it’s own. ”What’s it like,” She says thoughtfully, ”To be so beautiful, but so destructive?”
Dagny & Olivier
I won't let you go; so don't let go of me no one can ever follow; no one can ever know
05-06-2018, 08:23 PM (This post was last modified: 05-06-2018, 08:26 PM by Phoebus.)
Phoebus
He finds himself enjoying the time the three of them are spending together. Growing up in Tephra, it was only him and Mom. Children (friends) were never really around, and he had just grown used to it being him, Aurora, and sometimes Diable Rouge.
He’d met Porcia and Solace on his journeys, but that never amounted to much. He was excited to see what these two held for him, where they could bring him, what sights they could show him.
But he was getting ahead of himself. Phoebus answers Dagny’s questions (well, the ones he knew), and then Olivier pipes up. Phoebus smiles at the usually quiet man, even though the question tears at his heart a little. He’d always wondered why his parents hadn’t had any other children. Why it was only just him. Part of him resented his parents for leaving him without siblings (who did he have to confide in, who did he have to protect?). He also wondered why they up and left, when they said they’d be here upon his return.
But he figures adults have weird reasons for the things they do, and maybe it was best to just leave it at that.
“No…I don’t know where my mom and dad went. They weren’t here when I came back,” He answers sheepishly, trying to hide how this hurts him. “And I have no siblings...or cousins...or…” Anyone. He really didn’t have anyone now, did he?
Emotions boil at the surface just as they approach their destination. He can hardly hear what Dagny is saying.
Why did they leave? Why weren’t they here? Why doesn’t he have anyone? Flames brim and poke at his skin, and suddenly he’s engulfed. He couldn’t control his emotions now, so how was he going to control his fire?
As his tears fall, he finds himself inching closer to where the magma pools out. The wetness of his tears reaches the heat of his flames with a sssssss. Smoke sizzles in front of his eyes. Oh how embarrassing...oh how they’d never want to see him again.
Boy of Fire
@[dagny and olivier] this took a weird turn. Lmfao.
