"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
He had left them before he had made it to the Pampas. Chaol had immediately felt uncomfortable being so close to Leliana’s kin without knowing whether or not he would get sick and pass it on to them. So while he had wanted to follow to learn more about this stallion that had broken his poor Lily’s heart, well, he couldn’t do that to the little snake girl. But he had promised to return, promised to find them again some day.
But time had passed and he had stayed away, giving himself more time away from others in case he was sick and time away from others to keep from getting sick.
It has been long enough he thinks, the day the sun shines bright, beaming down onto his purple and magenta coat with warmth. It seemed like it had been only winter just a few turns of the sun ago, when he had found Lily sick in the cold water the the river. And then spring which had went by so quickly he barely remembered it. Warmer days and nights, green tender sprouts of grass. The quiet unfurling of leaves. All things he had taken in and enjoyed in his solitude.
He was done with solitude. He was ready for some company.
He takes to the sky, flying fast and low over the terrain below him. Swooping over the rest of the forest and then the beautiful expanse of blue water until he found the edges of the Pampas. His hooves sinking into the sand when he lands. The breeze over the water and along the edge of it felt wonderful against his warm skin from his exertion. He takes a long slow look from his vantage point and then starts to move towards the river he had seen from above.
He had no doubt that he would run into Adna or Lily or even Vulgaris at some point as he wandered around aimlessly. Fate had a certain way of doing that.
baby, when I'm in your arms, I can make honest sense of love and war's alarms
It has been a long time since she’s seen the purple of Chaol and it has caused worry to grip her.
During that time, she has not been idle.
She has traveled endlessly between the Pampas and the Island, doing her best to support Tiphon and Cress and their mission to heal whoever arrived there—including Dovev, Heartfire, and their brood. She has also answered the call of the faeries, and she bears the mark of her adventure on her back, the thin tattoo of a cedar now trailing up her spine and branching out across her barrel.
But she has still worried over him, thoughts of him never far from her mind.
When she finally sees him, the purple and vibrant colors of his feathers sending her heart flying. She immediately launches forward, her wings shifting as she runs, turning from red down to the purple of his coat. She doesn’t stop until she collides into her friend’s side, until she can press her head into the curve of his neck and breath him in. “Chaol,” she says softly, under her breath. “I have missed you so much.”
He had been a constant in one of the worst times of her life, an anchor when she had needed stability, and she would never forget what he had done for her—what he had meant to her. She pulls back only slightly so that she can look him in the eye, study his face. She is healed, of both the plague and the exhaustion that had dogged her the first time they had met, and it is perhaps the first time that he has seen her in full health. She is slender, her eyes bright, and her coat glossy, having regained its typical sheen.
“How have you been?”
Her healing unwinds from her and she presses it into him, rooting out whatever aches and pains may ail him even as her lips press a friendly kiss to his cheek. “Tell me everything you have been doing.”
but there's something primal underneath and it drives this nothingness I seek
She’s a breath of fresh air in his lungs as she is suddenly against his side. He is not surprised by her quick finding of him, nor of her speedy urge to be at his side. He’s rather pleased, since he has missed her just as much. “Nice wing color choice.” He says with a laugh, his lips brushing against whatever skin of hers he can touch. “And I have missed you. I am sorry I was gone for so long. You were sick and once I found Adna, your man came and collected us both. But I did not feel comfortable traveling with her in case I was sick too.”
But this place was safe, or so he had heard so even if he was sick or carrying it, then everyone around him would be okay here. So.
She steps back away from him, and he can see she is healthy. He can see the shine of her coat and the gleam of happiness in her eyes and it eases his heart. “I am glad you figured things out with Vulgaris.” He says after a moment, his lips reaching out to touch her cheek. “Happiness is a good look for you.”
What had he been doing. That was amusing. A tilt of his lips in smile. “Not much. I have been hiding out, staying away from others and keeping myself away from others. Too much of this sickness going around. I didn’t want to add to it or get it.” A small roll of his shoulders before her lips touch his cheek and she pushes his healing into his body. Aches and pains he didn’t know he had were healed and he instantly felt better than he had in a long time.
He moves around her, taking her in noticing the difference. “But you my pretty Lily, have been up to much. You should tell me your tales. They are much better than mine surely.” He smiles as he slides back up around her to her front, sliding a wing across her back companionably.
baby, when I'm in your arms, I can make honest sense of love and war's alarms
He is soothing and their interaction is simple and she eases herself into it. She closes her eyes a little, feeling the pleasure of the moment sink into her skin, feeling it as a form of her own healing. She hums slightly in the back of her throat, leaning into his touch. “You are so thoughtful, Chaol,” she murmurs, pressing her face into the slope of his neck. “I am so glad to know that you’ve been safe though. I’m so glad to know that I didn’t get you sick.” She pulls back, tugging on his forelock slightly with her teeth.
At the mention of Vulgaris, she feels a glow of warmth in her chest and a twinge of something other, something about the way he had looked at their last encounter when he had told her about his steal of Dovev. It passes briefly across her elegant face before it washes clean. “I am glad too. As are my girls. Adna and Sabbath are both so happy to have their family together once more.”
She pushes the twinge of something else deep down, focusing instead on the deep love she feels for her husband—the joy she had felt when he had met her halfway, when he had embraced her. He loved her, she reminded herself, and she loved him. There was nothing to be worried about. Nothing to fear.
When he moves around her, she laughs, the sound of silver bells as it lights on the air. She doesn’t grow uncomfortable beneath his gaze and instead lifts her head a little, preening slightly as her feathers shimmer to silver and blue and then to forest green before finally settling back to a familiar crimson.
“I do have a story or two to tell,” she says with a sly grin. She gestures toward the new tattoo of the cedar tree that crawls up her spine, branching out. “I recently answered the call of the fae and went north to the isle to help them find a cure. I worked with two others to bring back some icicles.” She doesn’t touch on the bitter cold or the way her lips had cracked and bled, the exhaustion that had dug into her bones.
Instead, she just looks at hi with a light in her eyes, settling into his side.
“In the end, they gave me this marking—this reminder.”
but there's something primal underneath and it drives this nothingness I seek
Thoughtful. Well, he hadn’t ever been called that before. There’s a first time for everything. He smiles a small smile at her words, at the way she leans into his touch. The way her teeth tug lightly on his forelock. He laughs a little, not bothering to fix it after it falls across his face when she releases it. Perhaps he tosses his head just slightly to keep it from falling across his eyes so he can still see her, but other than that he leaves it where she had tugged it.
“Ah yes, the little snake-girl. I am glad she made it back home. And Sabbath?” His mind traveling back along the train of past memories. Yes she had been pregnant, hadn’t she that last time he had saw her. Well, he supposes that she had been all of the times that he had met her. But he had been more worried about how she was and the favor that she had asked him to carry out.
“I am glad she is well as well.” She speaks and he listens, his heart glad with what happiness she has found. Glad that she has a purpose that makes her happy and that she was doing what she needed to be doing. He laughs a bit when she was done.
“Not that you ever need a reminder when you answer the fae’s call.” His own time among the quests causing a bit of darkness to creep into those happy eyes. It isn’t something that he dwells on, after all he had gotten out with few scars and the ability to change his size at will. So while he is not sure if he would ever do it again, he did not begrudge others at the chance to do such quests.
“You, my Lily, are an absolute warrior queen.” He says after a minute. Finding himself in awe of her and all she had gone through. How she can smile afterwards. “Seriously, I am in awe of you.” His lips finding the curve of her neck to press a soft kiss there. His wing curling itself back across her back and enjoying the feeling of her warmth against his side. “How are you though, after all that? Are you okay?” He remembered how after his quest he had not been up to par. But not only that, she had been through some shit and he was willing to listen to anything she needed to get off her chest.
baby, when I'm in your arms, I can make honest sense of love and war's alarms
She shines beneath the praise, beneath the warmth in his eyes, and her smile is brilliant as it cuts a path across her face. “You are too kind to me,” she says demurely, tucking her head down slightly and looking up at him through her lashes. He was such a good friend—someone so steady, so even-keeled—and she couldn’t imagine life without him now. He was such a constant in her life, and she felt greedy for how much she has come to rely on it. But she doesn’t pull away now, doesn’t stop the warmth that spreads through her bones at the sunshine of his companionship. Instead, she just leans into it, sighing softly.
“I wish I was a warrior. I know so many strong horses. They fight and protect. I wish I could do that for my loved ones.” Dovev who wasn’t afraid of anything. Vulgaris who would shred apart his very body to defend his loved ones. Even Heartfire, although the name caused her heart to wrench, who disintegrated the very earth, dragging it all to dust, to keep those in her care protected. They could all do so much.
And what could Leliana do but patch them up in the aftermath?
She frowns slightly, looking down at the ground and swallowing back the disappointment and the self-hate. When she glances up again, her features are washed clean of the doubt. She just smiles softly, her crimson lips barely curling in the corners. “I’m okay, I think.” A pause. “Still cold though, even after all is said and done. I sometimes wonder if I will ever truly feel warm again.” The swim through the ocean and the trek across the snow had frozen her down to her bones. It would take a long time for it to thaw.
but there's something primal underneath and it drives this nothingness I seek
12-30-2018, 06:51 AM (This post was last modified: 12-30-2018, 06:52 AM by Chaol.)
“I only speak the truth.” He says in answer to being too kind. A flashback to when his grandfather would say something pretty to the mares to have them look at him in the same way, only to strike them down afterwards. Telling them they were never good enough, or what they needed to do. They were only flashes in his memories, because thankfully he had been so young when he had left. He did miss his mother sometimes though, wondered what had happened to her. He had hoped sometimes that she would be as strong as Leliana here afterwards, but he wasn’t so sure.
He softly laughs at her next set of words, a small chuckle while his lips find a spot on her neck and his teeth lightly nibble there before he speaks. “Don’t you get it Lily? From what I see you are the most important part of it all.” He pauses, waits until her eyes meet his own. “You are the glue, the bond, the fucking strength that gives them the will to stand strong, to fight, to fucking bleed to protect. You give all of yourself and you don’t even ask for them to love you back in return.” His wing tightens protectively around her.
“Take me for instance. Who knows what I would be doing now if I hadn’t seen a gorgeous girl out crying amongst the meadow. If I hadn’t stopped to make sure she was okay and then feel my heart lurch for her sorrow and her grief.” He sighs. “You didn’t ask for me to stay, to come back, to be a part of your life, but damn if I didn’t want it, didn’t want to. It would be easy to fall in love with you, so easy, but I won’t do that to your family. So this, this friendship is what we have yeah?” A twinkle in his eyes, a smile on his lips. “But don’t you think I wouldn’t absolutely stand next to anyone else in your family and protect you and the girls. Because I would, I would bleed and break anyone that tried to hurt you.”
His nose turns back towards her and he inhales her scent, closes his eyes a long moment. “Don’t you let anyone make you feel inferior Lily. Know in your heart that you are the strength of your entire family.” His eyes find hers again and he is quiet for a moment afterwards, letting his words sink in, the absolute truth of them in his eyes. And he wishes that he could warm her faster, with more than just the tightness of his wing across her back and his body along side hers. He wishes he had the magic to do so...for her.
![[Image: avatar-1975.gif]](https://i.postimg.cc/8PxJp5dv/avatar-1975.gif){kind=avatar}