• 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


    Thread Rating:
    • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
    show them the joy and the pain and the ending; Wolfbane
    #1

    Her children had disappeared, but this time she had discovered it would not be such an easy task to follow them. It is not often she is truly agitated, but it seems when she is, it is not such an easy thing to mask. They should’ve been safe here. Should’ve been protected. And though it is easy to want to place blame, she knows they would have been no safer in Nerine, or Icicle Isle, or Island Resort.

    It’s foolish to think anyone could have protected them from the fairies whims.

    So she remains behind, her inability to go to them lending to her agitation. But she distracts herself, and as luck would have it, her grandson is near enough for her to locate with relative ease. She had been intending to find him anyway, without an audience. Much has changed since the last time they had spoken individually.

    Autumn is rapidly shifting to winter, bringing with it icy fingers of cold to remind Beqanna’s residents of the winter to come. Reminding her of how rapidly her children have grown. Of how quickly to change from nearly helpless babes to self-sufficiency. She could only hope they have grown enough.

    Rounding a small hill, her blue gaze settles on Wolfbane, sharp and clear and far too knowing. Though he is so different, it’s far too easy to see the resemblance to her eldest son in the blue and gold stallion’s features. It still brings a pang to her heart, though she hides it well. She had avenged his death, and that would have to be enough.

    “Wolfbane,” she greets as she settles beside him, her gaze focused and steady, belying the turmoil in her breast. Studying him, as though she could read all she needed to know from his face and not his words, she allows the silence to grow. Giving him a chance to speak first.

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free



    @[Wolfbane]
    #2

    Threatening to expel Briella when the odd crew of his relatives had first come to Pampas served a larger purpose, regardless of the disrespectful reaction he’d gotten. He knew now that Dovev was just a creature of flesh and blood - a man like all the others Wolfbane had ever come across. A simple creature prone to weakness, and now Bane knew exactly what that weakness was. Dovev had reacted so strongly when he thought his daughter was being forced to go; he’d laid his trump card down before the rest, exposing a soft heart and an inclination to leaping when he should be looking.

    Despite what he might’ve intended, Dovev had answered countless unspoken questions Bane had wondered about him.

    And Heartfire? What about the curious puzzle who intrigued him most? Here she was now - creeping out from his thoughts to round the bend and interrupt Bane’s afternoon meal. Winter lurked around the corner, stealing away what had once been lush grassland, but her grandson was not so eager yet to give up his activities in favor of entertaining her right now. He chews while she speaks, swallows after a moment of peaceful silence, and then shifts to address her all-seeing glare. “Huh. Grandmother.” He grunts as a way of greeting.

    Let her taste his irritation now, away from the others. Vulgaris had brought him Dovev, and Dovev had brought him Heartfire. There was no longer any gray area for the sapphire roan’s loyalties, no question in his mind about who or what concerned her most. “Your taste in partners seems consistent, if anything about my grandfather is true.” Bane grins, surprised most by the fact that after living forever (and seeing so much,) Heartfire was still just a woman in love.

    King of Loess : Leader of the Southlands

    Wolfbane



    @[Heartfire]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
    #3

    She's got the devil's eyes

    She watches him almost idly, the dismissive way in which he continues to chew and swallow before acknowledging her, his almost disdainful irritation and casual disregard. Her grandson, it seems, thought he had her figured out. But she, of all creatures, knows the fallacy of such beliefs. It would take him more than a few meetings to discover everything she is and was. Even Dovev, who had traveled with her for years, could not claim to have done so. And he knows her perhaps better than anyone ever has. Still, it had taken him that long to find the one small chink in her armor that had ultimately allowed all of this to come to pass.

    A faint smile touches her lips when he finally lifts his head to peer at her. She regards him silently until he finally speaks, his words stirring little reaction beyond the slight lift of one brow. On the surface, she could see how he might believe Dovev and his grandfather similar. But it was there those similarities ended. Still, she doesn’t try to correct the misassumption. “If your only aim is to insult me, I’m certain I can find better ways to spend my time,” she finally replies, though her tone is far more amused than irritated.

    Everyone always loved to see the world in black and white. It is always so much more convenient that way. Neat and tidy, in a way life never is. But even as a child, she has always only ever been endless shades of grey. Even now, it would be a mistake to try and categorize her.

    Perhaps one day he would know that, when he came to know her better. Perhaps he was upset she had not been to visit. But then, it is a two way door, one he could have just as easily have stepped through. He might have known then how difficult traveling might be for her while heavily pregnant and knocking on death’s door.

    She can’t begrudge him for it though. They had been trying times for everyone, and he cannot keep tabs on her as easily as she can him. One of the many pitfalls of her ability. She can care for someone from a distance, and they would never know it.

    After a moment of silence, she suggests unassumingly,, “Perhaps we start again?”

    and they'll cut you like a weapon

    Heartfire
    #4

    It’s not like her kind to be open or soft, and when he thinks her kind Wolfbane means the kind of horse who lacks a healthy measure of fear. Heartfire is old, immortal even. The lines of her face that remain slack aside from that singular, raised brow are undeniably youthful when he stares at them. She’s his grandmother and she’s outlived his father, and Heartfire has seen things Bane probably couldn’t imagine.

    It made him wonder what she picked up along the way. That’s all.

    But horses like the one standing across from him, family or not … they don’t tell those kind of secrets. His own father never explained how he’d been cursed exactly, and the only other creature who might know was long dead.

    “Perhaps.” He agrees, softening around the edges. For once, the domineering sight-seer was beginning to actually sound like his relative. Someone who reminded him of Longclaw. “You know, I’ve always been suspicious of you … ” The pegasus smiles. “Especially after what you ‘showed’ us in Nerine.”

    He shifts his wings, remembering the flash of memory that day and how it shocked him. Not because of how it had vindicated Dovev, because of how the scene had been set in the near past. Wolfbane remembers leaving that gathering with a knot growing between his forehead, stuck on the idea that Heartfire could either see all past times gone by or manipulate entirely the sight of those who were near her. Hell, he reasoned that it could be both.

    “You have a real gift. Some thread of old ass magic, that’s for sure.” Bane shakes his head, ruffling the stiff crest of hair between his upturned ears.

    From the tall, sweeping grass a late autumn insect flies to land on the stallion’s rump. He turns to look at the jade green beetle and tries to swat it loose with the bat of his tail, but the bug scuttles up and under the cover of a wing before he manages to shake it loose.

    “Hmph.” Wolfbane snorts, ignoring it for now. “Anyways, can you blame me for being testy? You’re the elder here, so tell me: How would you deal with …  you?”

    King of Loess : Leader of the Southlands

    Wolfbane



    @[Heartfire]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
    #5

    She's got the devil's eyes

    One of her greatest strengths and in equal measures her greatests faults is that ability. The one to keep secrets and hold her truths so close to her vest. She prefers to think that she simply spends them wisely, but any who know her know she is rarely saying even a small portion of what she truly knows. Trust is a difficult thing when it comes to her. She knows too much, and so, trust does not come easily to her. Nor does it to those who know her well enough understand, at least in some part, her capabilities.

    In many ways though, it is simply because it is impossible for them to see her logic. Impossible for them to understand. This she knows, and so she does not begrudge them for it. If she needs the trust of another, she will earn it.

    One day perhaps, she would earn Wolfbane’s. But there is still a great deal he would need to learn. And therein lies the problem.

    She smiles at his admission, a true smile. Rather bold of him to say. But then, he had always been bold. A familial trait, she likes to think. “I would be surprised if you had not been,” she admits easily. She is not so oblivious to her own faults that she cannot recognize how her sudden appearance and seemingly unprovoked reactions must feel to him. But, as with so many things concerning her, it is simply a lack of perspective that clouds her actions and behaviors to others. One day she might even show him, if he ever wished to know. “I understand I am not the… easiest of relatives to have.”

    She eyes him then, blue eyes openly curious as she studies the blue and gold of his features. He is distracted briefly by a small insect, one apparently determined to cling. She flicks her eyes briefly towards his snapping tail. It takes barely a thought to send the bug falling away into dust as it disappears beneath the shadow of his wing.

    She stares at his wings for a long moment after he asks how she might deal with herself, faintly surprised at the question, though it does not show on her features. When she finally turns her gaze to his once more, she wonders what kind of answer he might expect. Likely not the one she had for him, at any rate. “I wouldn’t,” she says simply, acknowledging that glaring lack. “It’s likely a good thing there are so few of me.” Her lips twitch with faint amusement, eyes fixed on his. “But you should know I have reason for everything I do. And…” she pauses then, hesitating. It’s rare she exposes her own vulnerabilities, even ones seemingly innocuous as this one. “...despite all appearances, I do care. A great deal.”

    She huffs a soft breath then, a half laugh at her own foolishness. “Just remember that next time you’re angry with me, I suppose.”

    and they'll cut you like a weapon

    Heartfire




    Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)