"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
BETTER BEWARE, I GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT DEVIL-MAY-CARE WITH A LUST FOR LIFE
The form had been forgotten by the new generations, though born after the Reckoning, teir minds and bodies a product of fear and rejoice as a plague cloaked the open eyes and swollen tongues that lay filled with flies, unblinking.
The world had been torn by a god king. It trembled beneath sharp hooves, puckering and splitting beneath the fire sky, unrecognizable. The horses had banded together or fallen apart. There was nothing in between except the will to survive and it drove them to carve out sanctuaries on segregated little plots of soil. Some were unfit. Others were toxic. Many creatures died at the hand of lecherous cruelty.
Alongside the pied man, Ygritte had built the land of trees with Kreios, naming it's solitude after elvish forests and green landscape that invoked wild tales of beasts and savagery alike! Then Kreios had grown tired, Ygritte also weary, the man slipped away in a wild cat form at the hands of Djinni...was is Djinni? Ygritte can not remember for it was so long ago. But now, in the presence of a late autumn wind, the salmon and copper mare splits the low brush easily. Time had been kind to her, her features hardly changed at all save for the fact that where her right eye had been now flowers bloomed from the socket and wrapped up beneath the mane.
A slow breath draws as she breaks the treeline where the horses had once gathered for harvest and dance. A small plume of air forms the ghost of her words, long silenced by the thunderous hooves of many nameless and faceless equines. The woman finds a place to stand, draws a breath to taste the air for impurities, before she exhales. There was no need for announcement or extravaganza. She was no long a queen but hoped to be a resident still. Ygritte doubts any will remember her name or face after the passage of years but it does not bother her. Sylva was a land to it's people. A giver of food, shelter, and solitude. There was nothing more than the old queen could ask for.
And in the darkened underpass I thought, "Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!"
Valdis is a child of the new world. She wasn’t even a thought when Beqanna shifted, eating kingdoms of the old and birthing new. Her grandmother forged a path in Nerine and delivered a prince who then, eventually, became a father himself. As a second generation in this new world, Valdis is widely unfamiliar with history outside of Nerine and Hyaline.
And with being a new resident in Sylva, she knows even less of the forest’s historic tales.
In an ambling manner, Valdis aimlessly roams the autumnal forest. Each lungful of air is weighed down with Mary and Sinner’s familiar scents and the sweet taste of the season. So far, it is comfortable, but she hasn’t been here long enough to develop much more of an opinion. She doesn’t yet even hold a rank, but it doesn’t stop her from veering off course to address a strange scent. It’s different from what she has last noted the past couple of days. It spurs her interest, piquing her curiosity to see someone other than the sovereignty.
She slips among the trees seamlessly, brushing her wing against one trunk as she comes to a halt with her sapphire eyes funneled on the newcomer. ”Hello,” she isn’t accustomed to welcoming anyone to her home. Despite having been raised as a princess, Valdis often kept at the side of her kin. Her siblings provided all the company and necessities she wanted. Strangers – meeting them, faking smiles – never held her interest. That was more her mother(s).
But times have changed, and so has she.
”You’ve reached Sylva,” with a somewhat mistrusting nature, she doesn’t yet open her arms and welcome the woman, ”I’m Valdis. Is there anything I can help you with?” Her smile isn’t entirely amiable – it isn’t plastic and fake – but it is at least a few degrees warmer than the day’s climate. After all, she isn’t cold-hearted nor mean. She is just weighing the situation while slipping her gaze across the woman’s face, observing the small bed of flowers masking where an eye should me.
VALDIS
But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask.
It is nearly winter and her stomach was visibly larger, to one who has never birther it may just look like a lack of excercise; but to any mother they would be able to tell. It was an odd feeling to Mary, being responsible for a life other than her own. She was basically the mother to Corban, her youngest brother that her mother dumped on her. She agreed, but never really watched over him (but don't be fooled, she wouldn't let harm come to him.) This felt different though, an urge to protect the young.
The leaves had started to fall in preperation for the winter, and though the forest was still dense, it would soon be bare. The dapple mare casually explored through the kingdom but the scent of a new equine catches her attention. As she comes to a halt she is able to detect the scent of Valdis as well, Sinner's little 'darling'. A smile tugs at her lips and she makes her way towards the pair.
As she peers out from behind some trees the sight of the blue painted mare and an older bay come into view. Mary finds a spot beside Valdis as she finishes a greeting, they may not be the best of friends, but Mary is pleased to see the young mare giving a go at diplomatic affairs.
Hello, my name is Mary, hope I haven't interupted. The bay and pink mare did not carry any kingdoms scent, but beqannas stink ran deep through her pelt and she knew this equine was all too familiar with the lands. Mary may be young still, and there was plenty she still had to learn, and this equine may just be a good pawn for Sylva.
BETTER BEWARE, I GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT DEVIL-MAY-CARE WITH A LUST FOR LIFE
A pretty young mare marked by blue and white with a lovely mess of gold hair reminds Ygritte of Beqanna summers when the foals are growing into leggy little tumbles of furry and giggles. This mare before her, in between child and crone, greets with a simple acknowledgement. She offers the name of her home (their home) and Ygritte knows it is because she is a face long forgotten amongst the stars. A warm smile touches her pink-orange lips pleasantly, unarmed and inviting to the sky mare.
Ygritte remembers when she had been an eager youth to carve out a notch in the vast cascade of Beqanna's horses. She had gone to the Falls to seek refuse with only her mother's name to shield her and guide her through the dangers untold. She had found the old man Texas there, grumpy and cantankerous, living int he lust lands with a few equines to make up for the numbers. Ygritte had served and fought. She had been rewarded as queen alongside the king, Kreios, till the falls fell and the birth of Sylva rose...
But it was long ago.
The single amber eye softens like liquid honey when a raindrop mare nears then. The pale brown eye moves over the other, her belly swollen slightly, it moves against her in a manner that Ygritte was quite familiar with. Ygritte tilts her head so her eye may gather them both comfortably, the loss of her right eye sometimes still shamed her despite the beautiful bouquet of begonias that grew in it's place.
"Ygritte." The copper and pink mare offers with the same warm smile, a nod given respectfully for the residents, knowing in their eyes she could be viewed as a trespasser. "I've come to see Sylva...possibly stay if you should allow me." Her tongue clips the words cleanly with grace. The essence of her demeanor offer something much more than the typical passing stranger or vagabond. The flower crowned mare listens with both ears forward, endlessly patient for their reply, head held high and with an inquisitive tilt, the honey eye trained upon their faces equally.
And in the darkened underpass I thought, "Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!"
It was only a matter of time until Mary arrived with her eyes lit by curiosity. Valdis regards her coolly, nodding in acknowledgment. Their relationship is still forming, still being weighed, but it doesn’t halt the words that immediately escape. ”Perhaps you are,” there is a hint of sarcasm in her voice as a lopsided, feeble grin lifts a corner of her mouth. The conversation hasn’t progressed enough for the Queen’s arrival to be obtrusive, and so Valdis dismisses the connotation with a shrug.
Sylva rekindles a flame in Ygritte’s soul. It’s mirrored in her single, amber eye when she regards the autumnal forest as though it’s a long, lost love. A scrutinizing glance levels on the coppery mare’s face, darting between the pool of her gaze and the small bed of flowers overlapping what may be an empty socket. Valdis wants to smile, to address what she sees, but only silence follows and a sideways glance to Mary. One breath, then another. The pause isn’t tense; they are all rather relaxed in the moment even as Valdis notes the swelling of her Queen’s abdomen. Pregnancy, she assumes. There were multiple siblings born in her wake. Solace, it seems, is quite fertile. Seeing multiple pregnancies has made her quite aware of the body’s changes.
What piques her interest most, to her dismay, is the assumption that the child is Sinner’s.
”I don’t see a problem with that,” she drawls as a coy grin softens the edges of her pretty face. It pulls her attention from Mary – she doesn’t love the hound, so why does the pregnancy bother her? – and returns it to the stranger, to Ygritte. ”Well met,” she adds as a second thought, nodding her head slowly.
VALDIS
But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask.
As the dapple queen approached the pair she could detect the new equine was a nomad, at least she hadn't been living in another kingdom recently. For that reason she could only assume the pink pointed mare was here for a home.
Her gaze is removed from the intricate flowers that are tangled on the new mares mane to Valdis as she speaks. Perhaps you are she responds to Mary's introduction, hoping she was not intruding. She could sense a hint of sarcasm in Valdis' tone, but quiet honestly Mary could care less if she was intruding, and with it she lets a quick huff of a chuckle escape her maw.
Her gaze turns back to the new mare, she quickly introduces herself as Ygritte and makes it known she hopes to call Sylva her home. A smile tugs at Mary's lip, Sylva had been very sought out recently and she can not help but feel a sense of pride as the kingdom grows in numbers.
Valdis is the first to respond, saying she does not see a problem with Ygritte staying. Something about this mare tells Mary that there she has a story to tell, one that would be interesting to Mary. She senses nothing but kindness, which might be an issue when she meets some of the more....brunt equines in Sylva. None the less, Sylva is open for her Yes, as Valdis said, there is no problem, you may call Sylva your home she responds with a gentle smile on her face.
Ygritte
