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  • 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


    “blood in the cut”
    #1
                            CHEM & KOTA                                                                                    
     

    “It’s quiet tonight.” the ghostly pale mare speaks up, casting her eyes to a darkened horizon. The night is quiet save for the crickets and the breathing of two horses standing in the mossy black forest. Moonlight floods the hillsides and the sharp peaks in the distance while the stars hold their reluctant twinkle across the midnight blue blanket of the sky. There is no rustle to the leaves, the wind is still tonight, but the air is fresh still.

     

    “It is.” Chem’s gritty voice rumbles from behind his daughter, letting his eyes settle on the same patch of land she’s observing. “I’m not sure I’m ready to go back to it.” He chuckles, half joking, but with a lick of seriousness, as all his jokes are. He nips her hip just to do it, slashing his tail for no good reason other than its fun to toss the thick wad around and make the ‘shwwshhsh’ sound. She responds with an ear pinning, but nothing more, she’s known the man her entire life and his behaviors are downright predictable to her for the most part. Right down to his uncontrollable bursts of roughness, or testosterone fits.  

     

    “We’ve been doing fuck all, you lazy bastard.” She laughs, not a joke, for certain this is her opinion. “And Let.” Her voice drops, her eyes closing tight as she sucks in a deep breath into her aching chest. Kota doesn’t expect a response from her father, but she knows he is anxious to see what some of his other children are doing…or if they’re alive. And Let, the special little granddaughter, she knows he would not deny wanting to know where she is.

     
    So here they stand, in a small group of trees near the gushing river in the darkness. Soon they will roll forward, probably separate and find something to do until the next time they decide to slink away into hibernation. For now they are still, watching the moonlight roll through, listening.
     
    so.
    these guys are around....i guess
    Reply
    #2
    NASHUA

    "Nashua-," his mother struggles at keeping her tone patient and even,"you can't just disappear like that." The pegasus colt flicks his golden broom tail in protest of that but says nothing. Nashua knows Mama is right - she usually is. He knows he should listen and stay in the Taiga but how could he when Yanhua had figured out that he could pass through the trunks of the impressive Redwoods as if they didn't exist at all? His brother had been on one side of the tree and then Nash had blinked. Yanhua stood on the other.

    His twin can glow. He can pass through trees. There was very little (it seemed) that his brother did wrong.

    All that Nash had to his name are the fledgling wings on his back.

    So Nashua is determined to master them. It doesn't matter that he still young and that true flight - the kind that will unfurl Beqanna beneath his hooves - is still ahead of him. However, the trees of Taiga (mighty and impressive as they are) are not the ideal for a young pegasus learning to fly. He hadn't intended to go so far but by the time the Northern Forest was behind him, the sun had been setting. The trees might have spaced out but now the shadows crept closer as the moon climbed higher. It had been well past dark by the time his mother had found him and it was darker still as Lilliana accompanied him back to their home.

    "I'm sorry, Mama," the little boy murmurs and buries his pale face into her copper coat when they finally stop to rest. He's tired and he knows now that he shouldn't have gone so far. His mother slows and though she should be angrier with him than she is (Lilliana has a very good reason for not wanting her boys out of the Taiga), the crimson mare reaches down and nuzzles him. He will only be this small for so long. The time she has with her boys is fleeting and she is learning to treasure these memories like lightning strikes - things that will flash by them quickly but will illuminate their lives as they carry on. "Come," she says quietly, "Yanhua is with your Aunt Ruth and they will be getting worried."

    A quick nudge and the pair move on, following the River back to the North. Its the throaty laugh of a mare that attracts Nashua's attention and the little boy stops, distracted by the two outlines standing beneath a grove of trees. "Mama, look," the colt whispers, his curiosity taking him a few steps further away from her than he intends. When he gets closer, he sees that they are painted in shades of white and black. His mother is still a few muffled hoofsteps behind him when he asks, "What are you doing in the dark?"

    and for every king that died
    they would crown another


    @[Chemdog]
    [Image: jCdBK6.png]
    Reply
    #3

    A somber ghost and her lumbering shadow.

    Kota, a mother, is the first to notice the patter of a child’s gentle feet. And then his voice, precious, soft and small – her heart palpitates in her hollow chest and her breath holds for a moment. Chem’s rough muzzle taps her hip, his white whiskers bending against her sleek hair as he applies only a small amount of pressure. When he slowly withdraws his nose he bears his usual grin and his eyes keep with the mother. Kota’s bright blue eyes barely notice the mother’s sharpened edges against the dim light of the night.

    Resting.” The ghost’s voice rolls out like warm honey. “And what are you doing in the dark?” Kota’s tone is not threatening, but playful. Her father’s chuckle boom behind her and she’s relieved that is all he offers to the interaction for now. He is a bit of a zealous man, her father, and sometimes (most times) it is unwelcome.



    Kota
    those great whites,
    they have big teeth



    @[Nashua]


    Reply
    #4
    NASHUA

    There is someone out there.

    His ears are forward and alert and suddenly, his exhaustion is forgotten (if only for a moment - he is young and will need his rest.) He can hear the hoofsteps coming behind him and emboldened knowing that his Mother is approaching, the flaxen child takes another step closer to try and see the pair better.

    His green eyes squint to make out the shapes (he sees one, the painted one who lingers in the front. He pays no mind to the stallion in the back - not when his Mother is so close.) "Resting?” he chirps. "But you’re still awake.”

    "Nashua-,” a silver voice cuts in the back. "I’m sorry,” his Mother apologizes and the copper colt looks up at her. "I was wondering if they got lost too,” though Nashua knows that his getting lost wasn’t completely unintentional. 

    He had only wanted some space to prove that he was every bit as gifted as his brother. Straying so far from Taiga had not been intentional.

    "If you are lost,” the boy starts as he studies the pair, thinking that could be the only reason they were out here. In Taiga, they were safe beneath the strong canopy of trees. In Nerine, they were protected by towering walls of granite. "We could help. We’re going North.

    Grinning, he looks up at his Mother through the darkness. He remembered, his young face says. He knew how to get home. He would have found it, eventually. 

    and for every king that died
    they would crown another


    @[kota]
    [Image: jCdBK6.png]
    Reply
    #5

    Chemdog watches from the other side of his daughter, adjusting his position with a huff and resting his big head across her back. He only appears a little bored; in reality he is not bored at all, but thoroughly pleased so far. The teal of his eyes catches the dim light of a snuffed out moon just enough to reveal where his fixation lies, which is on the mother.

    Kota smiles her ghost smile, letting out an exhale wrapped in small chuckle, soft as a cat’s footsteps. “We’re – ” the mother’s voice cuts through, but somehow it still blends with the quiet night. The pale mare smiles faintly, something offered for politeness rather than genuine joy to converse. The child has drawn her out of her cocoon, but normally she would not bother to approach strangers on the dark road and strike up some random conversation.

    When he speaks up again it’s a little eerie how the corners of her pink lips curl just a bit deeper. The ghost woman has a fondness for mall children and it makes her slow beating heart ache. Where is her daughter? And her granddaughter? She hasn’t been to the hills of the rolling Meadow to check on them in quite some time. “Lost?” her ears flip forward, and so do her father’s, and his big voice drawls from his throat, “North, you say?” Through a smirk, he asks this rhetorical question. “We are not lost, no, but if you’d like some company; we are also traveling north…” She lies a little. They had no plans for north, but then again, they had no plans.

    Chem can smell Taiga on their fur, the trees have a particular aroma that he’s always been sort of fond of. If he can smell it, he knows his bloodhound of a daughter does too. To Taiga, then? The painted pair exchange a very short glance before Chem peels himself away from laying across her back, moving off a few steps ahead of the direction they all might be heading in.


    Kota
    those great whites,
    they have big teeth


    @[Nashua]


    Reply
    #6
    NASHUA


    The boy is a charming one.

    He is still looking up to his mother whose face is losing a battle with moonlight and starshine; it makes her look so painfully young, so unsure. For a moment, he forgets the pair across from him. Nashua has never seen her look that way before.

    His downy wings reach out, one grazing slightly above her copper knee. His head expectantly tilts, asking a question that his mouth doesn’t say. Mama?

    An ear flicks distractedly back to the painted woman before he looks back to the pair. "I got lost,” the flaxen child admits. His mother looks down at him and Nash already knows her brow is arching, already knows the look he is being given (even if he can’t see its entirety against the darkness.) It’s the same one he is given for not staying where he is told to. For being too boisterous with Fechin and Brienna, for pretending (only for a game!) that his Aunt Neverwhere was a grizzly bear.

    (It feels like Yan never gets this look.)

    The stallion who lingers behind the other mare speaks and that causes Nashua to contemplate something, not realizing the question poised is rhetorical. "You’ve heard of it?” he asks, peering past the mare and trying to better make out the stag who rests his head so easily on her back, the teal of his eyes sparking in the dark. Stallions in the North are a rare commodity; it's hard to blame the child for being so curious. 

    Growing excited and his earlier concern fading, he beams enthusiastically back up to his mother again. "They’re going North too!” he exclaims with a toss of his head. "Have you been to Taiga?” he asks, glancing back to the two-toned mare. "The trees are so tall that even the Gods couldn’t have made them taller.” He angles his body, already impatient to be on his way. "Mama says-,” and then he is cut off by a light press on his chestnut hindquarters (his mother never bites).

    Hesitantly, the blue-eyed mare addresses the pair. "As you’ve probably guessed,” she says wryly lifting her slender head, "this is Nashua.” She has said his name enough times now - her bold boy who has shown no fear of the night, of the unknown. "And I’m Lilliana. Of the Taiga.” Nash presses his warm body against her chest, looking between her and the watching pair. "What do they call you?” He eagerly asks, lacking all of his mother’s eloquence. 

    At least he remembered to ask.

    and for every king that died
    they would crown another


    @[kota]
    [Image: jCdBK6.png]
    Reply
    #7
    Kota quirks her head to the side when he admits he had been lost. His mother’s poor heart, she briefly thought. At least he is found, unharmed, still with his same boisterous charm. It is something that makes the ghostmare smile faintly. “We’re nomads, little Nashua.” she breathes, and her father’s gritty voice cuts hers off, “We’ve been all over this land.” and Chem’s big body swallows into the darkness. He head for the enormous sentinel trees to the north without them, ahead, he’ll meet them there.

    Do not mind him.” she exhales a drawn out giggle, letting her eyes drift to his exit and then back to the boy and his mother. “And I have seen the trees that reach into the clouds – they’re sacred giants. A welcomed wonder in my travels before, I would love to look upon them again.” her eyes are with the child up until the moment his mother speaks and Kota’s blue gaze politely levels with hers. “Kota.” she forces a quaint smile, “Nice to meet you both.

    She doesn’t move until they do, planning to follow the mother’s lead to Taiga. Once they start to move, or even if an awkward silence tarts to creep in, Kota feels the need to break the quiet with conversation (a little unlike her, actually). “If my daughter had gotten lost as a little girl I don’t know if I could have handled it without burning my way through Beqanna.” the pale mare laughs, prodding at her lack of ability to control her impulses when emotionally compromised. It is true though, if Let had wandered off and could not have been found, Kota would have absolutely NOT handled it calmly.
    Kota
    those great whites,
    they have big teeth



    @[Nashua]

    <33


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