caught in the current

[Oriash]

Oriash

they promised that dreams can come true

Ori felt like she was drifting, as she always felt like she was drifting. There was no purpose to her life, and the Cove called to her like a ghost in her dreams. She dreamed of herself on the black sand beaches, caught in the waves. Why though? Why dream of a past that tried to kill her, a present that is not her present? There is nothing there, in the Cove. She’d gone to visit at Castile’s request and it had been empty.

Maybe Ori was destined to simply always be lost, to be caught in the current of the death she should have met as a child. Maybe Death called to her, maybe he felt cheated, though she didn’t feel drawn to him. She didn’t do reckless things, didn’t throw herself into danger…

Like so many days, Ori wanders Loess without any purpose. She isn’t sure what to do with herself and so she moves without purpose. Her deer friend follows her, trailing and grazing behind her as she wanders. Friend, ha. Just an illusion, as her life is an illusion. Maybe that was the problem, her whole life was made of illusions.

but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too.

@[Oceane] new thread for them!

[Oceane]

the fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free;
we were the first that ever burst into that silent sea.

Oceane's first two pregnancies had been long, drawn-out ordeals. The seasons had passed slowly, the widening of her abdomen refusing to show until the very last months of her gestation. She thinks back on them now, bitterly. Undoubtedly, her mental state at the time had affected the way her body reacted to her pregnancy, and to the way she had perceived the passing of time. There had been a perpetual dread that existed in each waking moment and bled into the backdrop of her dreams, sometimes creating night terrors and sometimes simply leaving her with a hollow feeling in her stomach where she should have felt fullness.

Unlike the previous two times she had grown life within her, this pregnancy has seemed to fly by with each involuntary blink of her golden eyes. The worst of winter has broken and made room for the muddiness that will soon accompany spring; it is not quite warm, but the winds no longer bite and her opalescent coat no longer growing thick like a woolen cloak. The swell of her belly is apparent — blatant, even, beneath the shedding of her winter dress, and now that Oceane has found an optimal spot to nest for when the time comes, she finds that she is rarely up for the task of leaving it too far behind.

"Ori!" she calls, surprise sneaking into her voice as her hooves lumber her winged frame beyond a rocky outcropping and the familiar antlered mare appears on the other side. "I haven't seen you in quite a while," Oceane adds by way of greeting, more an observation than an accusation. Admittedly, she hasn't been up for the task of conversing over the last few weeks. Especially not when her dreams of Nau-Aib have caused fitful sleep and night sweats for nearly an entire season.

"Are there interesting things happening beyond the reach of Loess?" Genuine interest twists into her words. It causes her ears to prick forward hopefully, as there is nothing more torturous to a woman who prides herself on her ability to find adventure than the instinctual, primal knowledge that the most intelligent option for her is to remain within the safety of Loess, and within Castile's reach, until she has safely given birth to the life entrusted to her.

i must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
and all i ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by
@[Oriash] | "speaks"

[Oriash]

Oriash

they promised that dreams can come true

Ori has never actually thought of pregnancy. She is old enough now, certainly, though she really doesn’t feel like she is remotely ready for motherhood. How could she parent a child when she barely knows who she is or might become, when she loses herself to illusion and sometimes does not know exactly where she is. Things made of dreams often trail around her without her realizing it, like her deer friend which is far too serene and calm to be a real deer. Though at the sound of her name, Ori looks over and the illusion of the deer scatters, removed by the presence of something distracting.

Ori smiles at the other mare, having liked Oceane in their first conversation and not sorry to have the mare calling out for her now. She had so few friends who actually might do such a thing that it warms her heart, and Ori makes her way to the brightly colored mare to close the distance. The swell of other’s belly is impossible to miss, though Ori does her best not to stare or ask, because it is not really her business.

“I gather there is, though politics has never been my strong suit. A new leader in Nerine, though. Magic afoot, with the return of the dead. There’s a few that are...special, from what I gather, though I don’t understand what that entails.” She only knows that there have been calls, because she has felt them and ignored them (all but the one, but timelines are funny so we are going to pretend that didn’t happen yet). “I haven’t heard much else. I suppose you have not been traveling much lately?”

but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too.

[Oceane]

O C E A N E

"Do Kingdom leaders change often here?" she inquires with furrowed brows, though it's followed quickly by a short bout of laughter ─ "I'm sorry. You just said you don't follow politics and here I am..." Oceane trails off with an apologetic shrug, her ears flicking to register Ori's comments about magic (a word that draws a cold shiver down her spine) and the dead, before she realizes that she had met one of those special beings. She had followed a call, something akin to a fishing line being drawn back to its reel, to the Mountain. Mchawi had greeted her, and the orange-eyed stallion, and the gilded mare...

Oceane shivers again, but plays it off with a fairly graceful shift of her softly feathered wings to frame the swell of her belly. "I haven't," she says with a gentle sigh, "though, not for lack of desire. But I'd rather not venture too far away from Loess when I'm so far along."

Her pregnancy is not something that she is overly comfortable speaking openly about ─ but it's her reality for right now, and soon it will make way for the birth and existence of her newborn, and then she will need to grow accustomed to discussing him or her ─

Especially considering his lineage.

"Ori?" she inquires, her lips puckering pensively, "What was it that made you choose Loess over the other Kingdoms?"


@[Oriash]
""

n | t

[Oriash]

↼ORIASH⇁

they promised that dreams come true

“Sometimes,” she says, knowing at least a little of politics if not a lot. It was hard not to have some idea of what happened. Even if you weren’t trying, you heard pieces of conversations, were updated at kingdom meetings, and she did occasionally show up to such things. “Sometimes not. Castile has ruled since before I was born, which was six years ago now. I don’t know how long he ruled before that.” He is the easiest example, the one she is the most sure of, but she knows he’d been on the throne of Loess for quite some time. He cannot be the only one, though lately there had been a number of changes. Perhaps it would settle for a time.

Ori’s eyes are drawn to the other mare’s belly, though she doesn’t ask after the father and looks only out of the fact they are now speaking of such things. The truth is even if Ori knew of the child’s sire, she would not care. Ori, naive little Ori, doesn’t quite understand the implications of it. She doesn’t know of Castile’s relationship with Sochi. She only knows that Castile has a child with her mother, and even that didn’t hurt (perhaps because she has no love for Kagerus, and does not know Solace or the timing or anything else). “I do not blame you. Are you feeling well?” she asks, uncertain what else she is supposed to say. She does care, but she has never known what to do in most any situation.

Then Oceane asks another question, and she does not answer right away. It is a good question, one she asks herself often and cannot answer because it requires a truth she doesn’t want to face. Why then, she tells Oceane now, she may never not. Yet somehow the other mare makes Ori feel as if the truth will be useful, and so she offers it. “I was stolen here as a child, out of political rivalry. At the time, I was too furious with my mothers for leaving me to ever consider going back to the place they once called home, so I stayed here, knowing of no other option and not bothering to explore them. Now though? I don’t know. I miss my old home, sometimes, though there is no life left there.” She’d been to visit and found the Cove deserted, and that hurt her heart the most.

but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too

@[Oceane]