"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 pair had been busy, always training to take rule of there beloved home. Dawn gave birth to beautiful twins, and it seemed that he had seen her less and less. Today he decided to seek her out, he grew comfortable with her, and enjoyed her company. It had been lonely recently, perhaps she needed a friend too.
He had checked the shorelines but didn't find them, so he found himself traveling through the grassy heart of the kingdom. Dawnnnnnn he calls out, the green of his mane and tail blending in perfectly with the bloomed trees around them.
He stops every now and then, seeing if he could hear the children playing, but he never does. It's possible they are off playing with other foals, and perhaps he would run into his pale friend by herself.
@[Dawn] super short, but thought they should have a thread together<3
everything we are, it just went away with a slide of the tongue and a sour taste
Life has been nearly too busy for Dawn to keep up with it. Between diplomatic visits, recruiting trips, and taking care of her twins, Dawn has been spread dangerously thin these past few weeks – or has it been months already? Late spring has bled into summer and the ocean waters have warmed enough for the girls to go splashing around in the shallows, constantly glancing back to their mothers as they go deeper and deeper, daring her to catch them being naughty. They have grown so much into their personalities – Isilme outgoing, while Austra seems to be a bit overly attached to her mother (not that Dawn can say anything – she was the same way with her own dam).
The girls have gone off on their own little adventure today in the gently rolling, grassy hills of the Cove – “Stay away from the water,” Dawn had warned them – and the golden woman is alone, napping peacefully under an old oak tree. She has warned the girls to be back at the usual place by sundown, and she knows they will barely make their curfew, so she isn’t too worried about her tiny lionesses. It frightens her how independent of their mother they have become in such a short time – they are only what, two months old? – but she is such that they will take care of one another, and she tries not to stress too much about them off on their own.
She startles awake at the sound of her name being called, and she staggers to her hooves. Shaking the sleep from her eyes, she glances around, eyes falling on her green and bay counterpart. “Clayton!” she responds, a smile lighting up her tired features as he approaches. “How are you?” she asks him once he is close enough, hoping that he, at least, has been adjusting better than her. He doesn’t have twins to take care of, after all.
After he responds she glances away from him to the south and Pangea. “Have you heard from Ilma recently? Last I saw her, she was going to visit Pangea... I’m getting kind of worried about her.”
He strolled a bit farther before his own name runs past his ears. His head turns and when his eyes spot the gold mare and a smile tugs on his maw. She appears to be tired,and he only hopes he didn't wimake her up.
She asks how he is and when he finds a spot a few paces before her he responds. I have been well, and how have you been? Busy I'm sure...with the girls and all. She was not only busy learning the diplomatic ways, but being a mother to two rambunctious children.
He remembers when he had met Dawn in the playground, with Rhaegor. It seems that most all of the Solace and Kagerus childrens have departed from the eastern sector. He wonders if Dawn had kept in touch with Rhaegor, and if she had where he has gone off to. Maybe Will has left with him...he wonders if he will ever see his friend again, if she will get to see him ruling there home ever. But the thoughts shake from his head as he gives his full attention back to Dawn.
Dawn continues on, this time she asks about Ilma. If he had seen her since the visit in Pange. He tilts his head for a moment, thinking of the last time he has seen the white lady. No....on second thought, I haven't seen her....we can go to Pange if you want? His gaze turns to Dawn, attempting to gauge her feelings.
everything we are, it just went away with a slide of the tongue and a sour taste
It’s going to take her a long time to adjust to this, but so far, she thinks that she’s doing rather okay. It is a busy, exhausting balance of motherhood, building relationships, and leaving the Cove behind each day to do tasks she sets out for herself, but she sleeps soundly with her girls at night. That, truly, is what is most important to her – being there for her daughters, and becoming a good role model for them. It is so much work, but she knows it is going to be rewarding in the long run. All of her dreams, her ambitions – they have been funneled into these girls, these tiny princesses, and nothing is going to change that.
“Too busy, if I’m honest,” she murmurs, but can’t help to grin as she thinks of the girls. Soon enough they wil no longer be right by her side at all times; they won’t lay curled close to her, they will no longer wish to nurse, they will grow to be so independent that one day, they may find their own homes far from here. It is what she had done to her mother, after all – she expects the girls to have inherited at least a bit of her fiery disposition.
Clayton muses aloud about going to Pangea to check on Ilma, but she is already shaking her head before he finishes speaking. “I will go there if I must, but it is the epicenter of the plague... I do not know how much I trust going there,” she admits. “I don’t want to risk falling ill and potentially passing it on to the girls.” She swallows hard and looks away from Clayton, ashamed at her own fear. There is not much that she shies away from, but the plague has always terrified her. Her mother had been so sick until she was cured, and she had watched Rhaegor fade away into nearly nothing. The two of them may have the strength to fight it, but she isn’t so sure that she does.
Shaking away the guilt, she steps towards Clayton and presses into him in a comforting manner, her golden coat melding into his brown one as she presses her barrel against his. There is nothing suggestive about the gesture, but she feels something stir in her regardless. She sighs as she drapes her head across his back, content for now just to cling to him – even if her gut is telling her she wants something more. She doesn’t want to make the first move; she had tried to press her feelings on Sunny, and look at how that went. Both of them broken.
“Maybe,” she muses, “we can just stay here. I... wouldn’t want to leave the Cove without her protectors.”
![[Image: clayton_by_cowgirlconrad-dcmmo18.png]](https://orig00.deviantart.net/8f0d/f/2018/254/c/4/clayton_by_cowgirlconrad-dcmmo18.png)
