"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 days had grown long and lazy, the heat of the mainland sultry with the scent of blooming herbs and rich, growing earth. It was spring time, flowing toward summer. Offspring in tow, the pearl nereid made her way from their island home to far off Loess.
They had gone by land, for the most part, keeping Halcyon's feline form in mind. Cormorant, the energetic colt she had named for the glossy black birds that dove and swam in the ocean's waters, slowed their progress a bit with his quickly used up energy. Still, they had made good time, and covered ground without incident on the lengthy journey.
Aquaria reveled in the experience. This trip was a fantastic opportunity to introduce her boys to the world at large, and she had been thrilled to share some of her favourite sights and smells with them both. Broad grassland plains, the thunderous river, the collection of plants that looked so very different from the lush vegetation of home. Cormorant had whistled excitedly at the river, but by then Aquaria knew they were close. There had been no time to spend long hours swimming, and besides, the broad tributary was fast rougher water than the little sea colt was accustomed to.
When at last they arrived, the stony faces of the Loessian mountains greeted them. There was green here, in various shades and shapes. Not all of which Aquaria had names for. It was exciting, not to immediately know what everything was. There was so much to take in, enough to take her mind off of the problem little Cormorant had come to represent in her shrinking world. This was a welcome vacation on many fronts.
It was tempting to explore, to venture on into the unfamiliar territory with curiosity brimming and seek out her friend on their own time. It was easy to forget that not every land was so welcoming as her own home. That was not the way, though, and it was with rueful firmness that she instructed the boys to stay close at the border's edge. They could wait to be found.
Halcyon has no memory of any home but Ischia, and his bright blue-green eyes that take in the scenery of the places they pass through with insatiable hunger. There more smells than the salt air, more sights on the horizon than the endless blue sea and the hazy rise of the mainland. Keeping up with Momma is not hard, even if he stops to stare now and again. There had been an almost-horse animal, with antlers on its head, and it had smelled delicious. But when he took a step toward it, the creature bounded away, its white tail raised like a flag.
Halcyon huffs irritably and hurries to catch up with his mother and brother.
The young tiger is barely taller at the shoulder than the freshly hatched Cormorant, but his long stride allows him to catch up quickly, and he moves beside them with ease. Occasionally he’ll pester Cormorant, but he is careful not to take the games too far. He is fond of his younger sibling, and not only for the fact that being busy with him in the water means that Halcyon has more time away from his mother’s gaze to explore on his own. And he has been exploring, learning the island of Ischia in his striped form. In truth, he is almost never in any other shape and is never any color other than orange, black, and white.
He is about to step across the border when he realizes that @[Aquaria] and @[Cormorant] have stopped, and the sound of his mother’s voice calls him to a halt as well. Knowing they are meeting Momma’s friend, Halcyon’s feline shape grows slightly taller, his broad face grows just a bit longer. Still more tiger than horse, with a twitching tail and pawed feet, the yearling waits to being the socializing aspect of his very first non-Ischian adventure.
By the time Oceane had finished weeping with happiness and relief, and Alcinder had finished eating (followed swiftly by the newborn's first nap on the pine-needled forest floor), the new mother was ready and antsy to return to the safety of Loess. And so the pair had trekked slowly, resting when the young pegasi needed to rest, before finally making it to the safehaven to the north of their home: the canyon Lepis had shown Oceane in the last weeks of her pregnancy.
The small den-like canyon made available everything Oceane and Alcinder needed over the following weeks. Grass, a basin of shallow, drinkable water (slightly less brackish now that the higher mountains are feeding it with their melt), prickly pears, shade beneath the sweeping boughs of the willow, and just a few small animals who call the crevices of the canyon their home ─ they keep the young boy entertained, and Oceane suspicious that Alcinder may have inherited her zoolingualism.
By the time the opaline woman is ready to share the energetic colt with the rest of Loess instead of tucked securely away in their sandstone sanctum, she catches the familiar scent of Aquaria on the springtime breeze. Smiling excitedly at Alcinder, she nudges him towards the entrance to the canyon ─ a path just wide enough for her to walk through and him to follow ─ with the warning that he shouldn't venture out unless accompanied by her or with someone she has expressly said he could leave with.
Like an obliging young boy, he nods his azure-and-white head, but Oceane does not miss the curious glint in his eye.
When Aquaria and her two boys come into view, Oceane nickers affectionately for the finned woman; Alcinder, his own curiosity unfettered, lays his silver eyes upon the collection of fins and stripes and fur and paws that awaits them at the border ─ "Whoa!"
Oceane's lips twitch into a grin as the winged colt bounds forward to meet the striped and finned boys face-to-face, his feathered appendages spread wide in excitement. Oceane knows that if Aquaria has ever seen Castile, her son's lineage will be apparent, but she does not breach the topic on her own ─ instead, she presses a warm muzzle to Aquaria's neck before pivoting and taking a few strides back so that she can watch the trio of colts and the finned woman at her side.
"I'm so glad you made the trip safely," she says to the Ischian woman with a gentle sigh, "I know a good spot we can keep an eye on the boys while they play." As they begin their short journey back to the canyon, Alcinder makes his name well-known to the trio by introducing himself individually to each of them, his introduction to Aquaria accompanied by a low bow.
They had been walking forever. Cormorant, for so he had been named after the talkative black sea birds of the island, had followed his mother and brother for many miles, leaving the familiar shores of home for this great wilderness. There had been uncountable things to look at, to smell and taste. Every so often the landscape would change and there would be some new bevy of things to discover.
Hal had paced steadily besides them, his brother a golden shadow that could wander with more liberty than the younger brother could. Cormorant wished he could run off into the weedy undergrowth with his brother, to poke his nose into strange tree bolls, to lick the sticky sap that bleed down some trunks. Their time at the river had been exciting, but far too short. He'd wanted to dive and leap in the thrilling rush, but they had only stopped long enough to eat lunch and drink cold water before moving on.
With a forlorn grumble, he'd obeyed when mama had snorted, calling him away from the riverbank. After still more walking, they finally arrived. Somewhere. He looked doubtfully up at the granite stones rising from the earth, the rugged footing, before turning his gaze to his mother. Halcyon did the thing he could do sometimes, made himself look more like Cormorant and mama. Just a bit.
He sighed a little, bored with waiting already. "Where are theyyyy?" He mumbled, blinking at the empty landscape. They'd come to visit mama's friend, she'd said, and that they could play when they got there. Well, they were here, and there was no friend in sight, and he was bored! The finned colt gave a little buck, bumping into his brother's shoulder and earning a reproving look from their mother. He subsided, a little sulky.
By the time their hosts arrived, Cormorant was laying down in the shade of his mother's shadow. Vague thoughts of a nap were crossing his mind when they were greeted by a mare and her own colt. They were as brilliantly colored as some of the parrots that lived at home, iridescent in the sunlight. The sea boy rose to his feet quickly, immediately interested in these vivid folk. Mama hadn't said they would be so pretty!
He smiled shyly at the new pair, the sea colored mare with her enormous wings, and the boy who looked his age. Mama nodded as the lady spoke. "It was a good journey, thank you." She commented, smiling at her friend's greeting. Then she glanced at her own two boys, seeing the energy still curled in their bodies even after their trek. "That sounds perfect, lead the way!" Their was a laughing, tired note in her voice. She was very ready to take a bit of rest, even if the boys weren't yet.
They followed the winged pair with eager steps, eyes hungry for the sights that were new to them all. Cormorant watched the other young boy curiously, his own odd tail flicking when he was introduced. Alcinder, a name just as long as his was! "I'm Cormorant," he replied, sounding the word out with careful precision. He grinned at Alcinder's showy greeting to their mother, only to feel a touch of jealousy when the fin mare beamed at the other boy. Two could play at that game!
He pranced over the tall mare, head high. The erect dorsal fin over his shoulders swayed gently as he moved to walk beside her. "Hello miss Oceane!" He piped, stretching out his sapling legs to keep pace with her. "I'm Cormorant. You're very pretty!" There was no flowery bow from him, life on the island was not nearly so formal as that. It would be hard to do so while walking, anyway.
Momma’s friends are beautiful and very equine, Halcyon realizes.
There is nothing of the sea to them at all, he thinks, though their color is as the glittering inner shell of a mussel. For a moment he stares at them, then back at his finned mother and sibling. Halcyon feels suddenly rather different from the assembled equines, and the realization is a little uncomfortable. Rising from the sitting position he has taken beside his brother, the young creature reforms as he rises, and by the time he stands there is nothing feline about him. This is not the first time that Halcyon has been a horse, but it is the first time he’s worn the shape in front of his mother, so his hesitant gaze meets hers.
His shade of dun is paler than Cormorant’s, making his coat a pale and iridescent blue. Just slightly darker than the rest of his coat are the same primitive dun markings that decorate his younger brother’s coat. His mane and tail are short and white, just beginning their adult growth. All of him is that odd sort of in-between stage, with gawky limbs and none of his tiger grace. Someday he’ll look like his grandfathers, but for now he is just a thin teenager who looks quite uncomfortable in his skin. There are no special traits about him now, nothing to suggest that he is a water-creature like the pair he has arrived with.
When Alcinder introduces himself, Halcyon does the same, giving the boy his name.
“Halcyon.” He says, before turning his oddly-long nose back to where the younger boy is now greeting his mother. He hadn’t bowed when he’d met Oceane – should he have? Halcyon glances at his mother, but she is grinning widely. Before he can decide what to do, he catches sight of Cormorant prancing up to Oceane. His younger brother seems determined to out-impress the winged Alcinder, and Halcyon grins. The attempt reminds him of the way Uncle Pteron sometimes greets Momma when he has been gone for a longer time than expected. Will Oceane grin as widely as Momma has at Cormorant, Halcyon wonders? He watched curiously, but is soon distracted by the way the canyons rise up around them.
His fascination with the natural world is unparalleled, and he has never seen rocks quite like these before. The clatter of hooves sound odd here, nothing like the thumps on sand or the splashes in water. His ears flick curiously, his pale nostrils filling with the scent of warm stone and eventually fresh water. His throat is very dry, Halcyon suddenly realizes.
“I’m thirsty,” he announces, trying to sound like an adult and not a whining child, and mostly succeeding.
Oceane turns her head downward as she walks, bright amber eyes catching Cormorant's as the young colt tries to match her step long enough to greet her. She laughs good-naturedly, the sound natural and warm as she dips her opaline head to the dunalino youngling. "Well thank you, Cormorant," her grin remains even after her laughter fades, "I love your fins! Are you a fan of swimming?" She awaits the young boy's response as they continue walking, though her attention is split between her company and Alcinder.
The young boy, after greeting everyone, had taken to Halcyon's side ─ "Where did your paws go?" he asks curiously, with bright silver eyes on the shifter-colt. Stumbling over his lanky legs, the painted boy throws his wings open to catch himself and nearly hits the older boy with his outstretched feathers, "Sorry! But anyway - your paws were cool. Can you change whenever you want?" Expectantly, he watches Halycon for an answer, inevitably stumbling on occasion since, stubbornly, he refuses to turn his attention back to the path before them.
When finally they near the entrance to the canyon, Oceane takes the front of the entourage and leads them single-file through the narrow sandstone pathway and into the circular canyon den that had been her home with Alcinder for the last few weeks. "You're in luck," the Loessian woman responds to Halcyon kindly as the shallow water basin sprawls out before them, lined on the opposite bank with the large willow and fallen acacia.
Oceane flicks her amber eyes to Alcinder and gives him the look ─ he nods, knowing full well that he is not to leave the canyon without her, before turning his attention back to Cormorant and Halcyon, and leaving his mother to chat with Miss Aquaria. "Let's go!" he squeals to them before, splay-legged, running to the basin and shoving his black and white head beneath the surface to see if any fish linger nearby.
