"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
The flight from The River to Tephra only took him another day. Once he left Lily’s side he only had to stop to sleep once before he saw the edges of the tree line and the shimmering blue of the ocean far beyond that. He flew hard and fast hoping to get there as quickly as he could. He needed to let the little snake girl know about her momma and then get back to her momma to let her know. “Magnus, buckskin...with scars.” He added with an afterthought, curious to see how many he actually had that made them such a part of him.
“Adna, little laughing snake girl.” It fit her, in his head anyways. His mind envisioning a younger Lily with scales and some snake features. He bet she was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. A smile curls his lips. He really couldn’t wait to meet her. He wasn’t sure where the excitement came from, but it was there, burning a hole in his belly with anticipation.
He shakes his head, turning his wings so he could land near the edges of the border. In case he was infected, in case he could spread it he didn’t want to do so with anyone. So he lands, tucking his wings against his body, near the very edges of Tephra. He is careful to keep a wary eye out for anyone coming up behind him that might accidentally touch him or get too close. And then when he is satisfied he is good for right now he releases a low call towards Magnus or Adna. And waits.
I wanna give you wild love, the kind that never slows down I wanna take you high up let our hearts be the only sound
There has been an increasing amount of newcomers on Tephra’s borders.
The plague spreads dark and wide across the whole of Beqanna and it drives many to seek solace in one of the most established lands protected from the worst of it. It keeps Magnus rooted in the land for longer than he anticipates, spending time greeting those who come to seek sanctuary within the volcanic land. With the shifting of leadership, there were other matters to attend to and they kept him busy. There were decisions to be made, shifts to occur within the structure of Tephra. Much of it was reinstating structure that previous existed, but there was still changes to be made, which required attention and work.
All of which is to say that is home and nearby when the brightly colored stallion lands on the outskirts of Tephra. Lifting his heavy-jawed head up, Magnus looks at him for a moment, taking stock of him, before beginning to make his way toward the stallion. He has no way of knowing that he was there to discuss the crimson and mahogany mare he helped raise (she called him uncle, although their relationship was not nearly so simple). He had no way of knowing he was there to call upon Adna (the mischievous snake girl had kept him on his toes over the past few weeks, and he knew she was nearby stirring trouble up).
All he knows is that he is a newcomer, a stranger, and he sits upon his borders.
It does not take Magnus long to make his way toward him, war-scarred body nimbly traversing the dips and crannies of the land. When he is several feet away, he stops, dipping his head in his customary greeting and giving him a crooked smile. “Welcome to Tephra.” The wind picks up slightly, washing away the scent of sulfur to replace it with hints of ocean salt. “My name is Magnus. How can I help you?”
I wanna go where the lights burn low and you're only mine
She spends her days bounding through the volcanic land, enjoying the way the soil feels so entirely different from the sun-hardened surface in Loess and the spongy moss she mostly found in the playground. It smells different and the flowers are enormous and although everyone feels slightly upset about something she can’t put her finger on, it doesn’t distress her overly much. Even when she saw that vision and mama had dropped her off here before taking to the skies, she had known not to worry.
Everything would be fine because her parents would take care of it.
Even if she hadn’t seen her dad in several weeks (months?), she knew he would take care of it.
He always did.
So she is not far when the purple stallion lands and she swings her head to where she knew Magnus was patrolling. She saw him lift his head inquisitively, frowning in thought before making his way toward the border. She was normally pretty good about not getting involved in the grown up business, but she couldn't just not go talk to a stallion with multi-colored wings and purple skin.
Grinning, she swallowed what she had been eating and began to trot over her, the warm winter sun washing her back and causing the mahogany of her scales to shimmer. She was still young, but she was no longer just a baby. She was reaching her first year in age, and the softness of her face was beginning to bleed away to give way for the more slender, refined lines of her mother. Her sage eyes were wide and expressive and the fluff of her mane and forelock was becoming silkier, her tail starting to hit her hocks.
Maturity was clear in the lengthening of her coltish legs, the slope of her hip.
But there was still a youthful glint, a mischievous curl of her lip.
When she gets near, she stops next to Magnus, bumping his shoulder before turning her head toward the newcomer. “And I’m Adna!” She didn’t bother to hide her blatant admiration of his unique coloring.
howl at the half moon, radio queen. she's all smoke. she's all nicotine.
Chaol almost laughs aloud when he sees the buckskin stallion making his way across the land towards him. A knowing smile curling his lips as he watches, as he waits. When the stallion stops before him he dips his head slightly but takes a small step back. He wanted enough distance between them that he hoped that they wouldn’t get the plague if he carried it. He didn’t even want to chance it with these that Lily called hers. She loved them and cared for them and he wouldn’t do anything to get them sick.
Chaol meets the crooked smile of Magnus, ears flickering this way and that. “She was right.” The inquisitive look that he was given made his smile larger. “Leliana. She said you would meet me at the border.” He almost lets out that laugh that he had been holding it...almost but instead he lets it slide away. “I’m Chaol.”
They are interrupted by the very girl he has come to find and while yes she does look like her father, he imagines, all he can see are the lines of his Lily in her face, along the curves of her body. “Adna.” He says her name, tasting it on his tongue, even if he has said it before. “You’re beautiful, just like your momma.” He says, his lips itching to reach out to touch and taste but he does not, he tucks his head closer to his chest, edging backwards just a little bit more.
“Your momma sent me to give you a message little snake girl.” An amused smile curling his lips. “I told her I would hurry here with all haste to let you know. Would you like to hear what she has to say?” Normally he would have lowered his face a little bit closer to hers, peering at her with an amused smile, all the distance between the three of them a lot less distant. He would have stood close enough to reach out to touch, at that distance that was just close enough to be familiar and far enough away not to be too close.
But for now, he stayed away from them, careful to stay along the inside of Tephra’s border in case the magic was true and it didn’t spread here.
I wanna give you wild love, the kind that never slows down I wanna take you high up let our hearts be the only sound
Magnus responds to the humor in Chaol’s eyes with a warm smile of his own. “She knows me well,” is all he says, ignoring the way his heart twists in his chest. The fear for his crimson niece does not fade, the constant worry about what had befallen her when she had sprinted away from them, unfurling her dragon wings and running into the fray converging on an innocent in Pangea. He had wanted to follow. Lord knows he had wanted to follow, but he had needed to listen to his head and not his warmonger heart. He needed to stay here, care for his wards here. Regardless of how he hungered for the fight.
Still, he cannot deny the worry that grows in him now, the hope that the purple stallion came bearing news of the girl’s whereabouts. “Chaol,” he greets, evaluating him before turning to Adna. The golden stallion grins with the reptilian girl bounds up to his side. Amused by her constant precocious nature and unending desire to turn over every stone, he leans over to ruffle her forelock. She grins up at him, having long ago given him favorite uncle status.When Chaol addresses her, he looks back, falling quiet.
“You know where Leliana is?” the question tumbles from him, the stallion unable to hold it back any longer. Still, he keeps a tight hold on his emotions, banking the fear and maintaining a neutral expression. It wouldn’t do any good to worry her daughter. He knew that Leliana would want Adna to remain calm and cared for and blanketed with security, and he does his best to abide by those wishes now, falling silent. His gold-flecked eyes smolder but he lets Adna pipe up, lets her lead the conversation.
He could only be what he was: a guardian, a caretaker—a source of stability in a time of chaos.
I wanna go where the lights burn low and you're only mine
There’s an electricity of anticipation in the set of Magnus’ shoulders and she almost asks about it, but she’s far too interested in what the purple newcomer has to say to pay it too much mind. Magnus grins at her, mussing her forelock, and she wrinkles her nose at him, huffing lightly before turning her scaled head to the stallion before her. She preens beneath his compliment, the barest hint of fang showing against her dark lip. “I always thought I look more like my dad,” she smiles, clearly pleased with the comparison to her mom. She glances back at her shoulders, rolling them a little. “I wish I had her wings though.”
It was always so cool how they shifted and changed.
Momentarily distracted, she frowns in thought, curious about the pang in her heart at the thought of her mama out there but it passes like a cloud before the sun. Soon, her face is open and warm again and she turns her sage-colored gaze back to Chaol to watch him curiously. “I love secret messages!” she exclaims, practically vibrating with anticipation for whatever he had brought her. She wants to grab it from him. Wants to unwrap it and peel it back so that she can properly appreciate it for all of its glory.
But he doesn’t give it to her that easily so she’s left to wait with bated breath.
Her eyes shimmer with excitement and anticipation, and her heart pounds in her chest.
“What’d she say? What’d she want to tell me?”
howl at the half moon, radio queen. she's all smoke. she's all nicotine.
11-07-2018, 09:30 PM (This post was last modified: 11-07-2018, 09:31 PM by vulgaris.)
VulgariS
take me, take me back to your bed. i love you so much that it hurts my head.
say, i don't mind you under my skin. oh, let the bad parts in, the bad parts in.
He does not rest when the sun sets and the full face of the moon appears from behind the clouds. Leliana asked him to find Chaol and Dovev, and Adna if he thought it would be best to bring her home now. He doesn’t know where to begin looking for her friends but he remembers her mentioning Tephra before her contractions began, so that’s where he finds himself now. The last time he’d been here, Kromium was king, he recalls. Everything is up in the air these days though, so who knows where the crown lies anymore.
He casts a brief glance over the volcano in the distance, wrapped in a shroud of mist at its summit. His sage colored eyes blink slowly as he begins to wonder how the residents of Tephra rest easy with that thing looming over them all the time. But then he hears Adna’s sweet voice and his gray head turns in her direction with a faint smile, which grows once he sees her. She’s gotten taller than he would like but her laughter is still as gentle as before.
Vulgaris leans his head down to kiss her forehead as he comes to a stop beside her, nuzzling against her cheek lovingly. It had been far too long, he realizes. Like stretching a muscle he hadn’t realized ached so deeply. “Adna, everyone in Loess is staying in the Brilliant Pampas,” he explains as he brushes her growing forelock from her face. “Your mother is there with your new sister.” Again his fanged smile comes creeping across his face as he thinks of tiny Sabbath curled tight to Leliana’s side. It’ll be so good to have all the girls home, he thinks.
He turns to the others, realizing that Leli hadn’t had time to tell him what Chaol looked like in their hurry. Would her friend even know who he was? He lifts his head and offers a brief nod to each of them. “I am Vulgaris, champion of Loess, and I suppose also the Brilliant Pampas for now. Leliana sent me to find Adna and her friend Chaol, if that’s either of you.” He shifts his weight as he watches them, shoulder lightly touching Adna as though she might cease to be real if he’s not careful.
11-09-2018, 09:55 PM (This post was last modified: 11-09-2018, 09:57 PM by Chaol.)
There is worry there in the way that the buckskin holds himself. His face smiles and laughs for the girl but Chaol can see it in his eyes. He can see the way he burns for information because if anything, his granddad had taught him the ability to read others to manipulate them. Thankfully, he had not been there long before the world had changed and imploded, before he was no longer a part of it. Until he just was, with no aim or meaning until he stumbled upon her in the Meadow after her heart was broken.
“I do. She was at the River.” His eyes flash with a subtle meaning, his own worry coating the conversation briefly. She had been sick and it had not pleased him. “She is...as well to be expected.” There’s more, but his eyes shift to the charming daughter that she had produced and then met Magnus’s eyes one last time.
Before Adna dominates his attention.
“Ah, you see I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting your dad.” He says, that charming smile on his lips still. “But your mother, oh yes. I can see her in so many aspects of you.” A laugh. “I bet she wishes she had the gleam of your scales or that tiny bit of fang slipping past your lip whenever someone angers her. You are perfect the way you are.” But then he winks at her, his own wings changing colors until they looked like another bird, and then again to look like a bat’s before landing once more on the colored plumage that he liked the most. “My favorite party trick…” His body growing until he towers above them both, and then rapidly shrinking until he was teeny tiny and he took flight to hover near her nose.
Normally he would have landed but he didn’t want to take anymore chances that he already had until he finally shifts back to his normal size and stands just slightly closer, trusting in the fairies to keep these people he was coming to care about safe.
“She wanted me to tell you that she absolutely loves you and misses you, and cannot wait for all the stories that you will have to tell her….” His voice trailing off as the other stallion lands as his voice rumbles and he takes the girl to nuzzle against her. Chaol was not an idiot, and quickly gathered that this was her father, and that this was the man that broke Lily’s heart. There is sharp flash of distaste, his ears flickering backwards momentarily before his smile brightened.
“...when you go to the Brilliant Pampas to see her.” He says it almost softly as an added afterthought and there is a brief flash of worry about Lily and her baby. Although if things had not went well, he expected that the stallion, Vulgaris, would not be here at this moment.
“I’m Chaol.” He says with a slight nod. “Pleasure.” His eyes traveling briefly over the stallion, appraising him before he turns back to Magnus and then to Adna. “Having a new baby sister is exciting, isn’t it little snake? Perhaps we should go meet her?” And he would very much like to get to know Vulgaris perhaps a bit on this trip back to the Pampas.
I wanna give you wild love, the kind that never slows down I wanna take you high up let our hearts be the only sound
Magnus has been bystander to far too many of Leliana’s personal tragedies to not stiffen when the scaled stallion approaches. Leliana had not bothered to tell him the details of what had happened when she had come to Tephra that night, child in tow, but he has been around long enough to know pain when he sees it. He had not pushed for details, the same way he had not forced her to talk after walking in on that horrific event with Dovev so many years ago. Instead he had simply gathered her close, pressing a familial kiss to her temple and promising that he would gladly look after her daughter as she took care of things.
His gold-flecked eyes darken when the stallion walks up to his ward and gathers her close, but he doesn’t cause a scene. The name is familiar enough to him, and the resemblance between father and daughter is clear. Plus it is obvious by Adna’s reaction that she is delighted by the appearance of her father, and Magnus doesn’t feel comfortable piercing this bubble of joy by interrogating the other.
Instead he keeps his eyes on Vulgaris, ink-stained mouth firm.
“Pleasure to finally meet you,” his voice is cool but not wholly unkind as he considers him. “My name is Magnus,” he pauses here, contemplative before continuing, “current leader of Tephra.” The silence stretches between them for a second but his features warm as he watches the snake girl curling into her father’s side. “I am glad to know that Leliana and family are safe in this current climate.” He takes a step forward, pressing a kiss into Adna’s forehead, glancing toward the purple stallion with such a clear affection for his niece, and then turning back to Vulgaris. “I will not keep you as you should travel quickly to get back to your family.” Another pause as he find the serpentine stallion’s eyes.
“I hope to find Leliana and Adna in good spirits the next time I come to visit.”
He doesn’t bother to hide the steel in his gaze, the underlying threat as he looks at the other. Magnus did not take kindly to those who chased his family to his home with tears barely dried on their cheeks, and although he had no fang with which to meet the other, it did not mean he was not dangerous in his own right. Still, after punctuating his point with a frown, his face warms when he considers the girl again.
“Be safe, little Adna,” he smiles. “I will be seeing you again soon.”
Then, to the purple stallion, “It was a pleasure to meet you.”
I wanna go where the lights burn low and you're only mine
Adna blossoms beneath all of the attention, her sage-green eyes brightening as they swing from Magnus to Chaol, clearly pleased to be at the center of it all. When Chaol’s wings shift, mimicking the magic that she was so used to watching her mother command, she grins—but when he changes his own size, growing massive and then shrinking to hover near her nose, she laughs with delight. “Oh, that is wonderful!” she squeals, dancing in place. “I want to do that! Teach me how to do that!”
But such joy, as wondrous as it is, is eclipsed when she sees her father.
Relief floods through her, although she wouldn’t know to name it that. It has been so long since she has been able to see him and although her mother has been insistent that he was just busy, it was difficult to not let doubt play in the back of her mind. It was difficult to not second guess the stories that Leliana had woven to keep fears at bay. “Daddy!” Her thin voice rises as she rushes to crash into his shoulder, eyes closing tight. “I was so worried that you wouldn’t come home,” she confesses, spilling out her secrets before him. “I was so scared that I would never see you again.”
He brushes her forelock from her eyes and she looks up, her smile a little watery. “My new sister?” she echoes, eyes widening. “I have a sister!” Her grins splits open, fangs on display as she laughs. “Can we go right now?” She wants to push him for more—but his attention is turned toward Chaos and Magnus so she grows quiet, content to curl into his shoulder, to feel the warmth and familiar feel of his scales.
“This is Chaol!” she pipes up, grinning. “I can’t wait to meet her,” she answers the purple stallion. “Are you going to come too? Mama will be so happy to have all of us there!” Something like regret touches her features when realization sets in and she turns back to Magnus who is clearly not following them. Stepping away from her father, she walks up to press into his chest, letting him hold her close. “Thank you,” she whispers, just for him. “I’ll come visit soon, and you come visit me, okay?”
She pulls back, a surprising maturity coloring her features before she turns back to her dad.
“Let’s go!”
howl at the half moon, radio queen. she's all smoke. she's all nicotine.
![[Image: gqYjsHr.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/KjqNDKxc/gqYjsHr.png)
