"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
At the ripe age of two, this little girl grows more restless by the day. Only so much time can be consumed chomping at graze, or grazing the common fruit and seed selection here in the Meadow. Of course it is often she will find an interesting stranger or two, a staple of a few commoner friends and some boys that chase her tail for fun – but really, truly, she is utterly unfulfilled. Leaving the Meadow doesn’t quite seem like an option she would explore; mostly for fear that her mother’s wrath would be most unpleasant. Still though, her restless spirit stirs through her hardy little skeleton.
It is mid-day and her mother is busy listless grazing, quietly minding her own business as she always does. The sun is high, summer is just around the bend, and this filly is electric with energy. She throws herself to the side with a squeal, a false spook, and it jolts her mother who stands close by. The older mare, scrunched lips, turns her heels and trots away from her whimsical daughter. Fenwe snorts at her mother and kicks her legs into the air before galloping in the opposite direction. The snows have melted and the muddy ground is clear for the first time in months. No snow or ice, only open ground, slippery and sloppy, but open. Fen’s hooves dig mercilessly into the soil, gouging it, flinging bits of earth in her wake as she tears across an open patch of fresh grass. It is the first time she’s truly stretched her fresh, older body. Her muscles are thick, her bones sturdy, built by the land and her parent’s lineage.
Her colors are most odd looking; a teal and white streak against the greens and browns of the earth, the baby blue of the sky. The sunlight makes her scales shimmer, smooth like glass, shiny and clean. Her colors have a opalescent glow even in the daytime, and especially so at night. She sets her heels into the soft ground and slides to a stop, her front legs throwing recklessly forward with a rear. She huffs, nostrils wide and tense, her veins showing beneath her delicate looking scales. She stands on a lone knoll, feeling victorious for no good reason, feeling each breath rolling into her chest as her heart pounds from the activity. Phew!
i have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laugh-silvered wings
Alcinder would have considered his current autonomy thrilling, had he anyone to check up on his whereabouts and find that he is not currently in within the safety of Loess. Truth be told, all of the adults in his life are currently engrossed elsewhere, though he offers no criticism ─ his mother a captive in Pangea, his father dealing with the aftermath of his efforts to destroy Icicle Isle, and his Aunt Lepis now knows (or has welcomed) the returned weight of a heavy crown.
So as he ventures away from the foothills kingdom on this day, the young son of Oceane and Castile does not expect to be followed, nor does he expect his absence to be noticed. He starts with a small toe-touch into the pond of adventure, resting a bit hesitantly at the border between Loess and the Forest, but it's not long after that he's racing through the tightly packed trees and bursting through the eastern side and into the Meadow.
There's a moment that he considers turning around and heading west towards Ischia to visit Cormorant, but he worries that he is not yet a skilled enough flier to make it over the channel and to the island kingdom, and it would seem there is potential for new friendship here ─
A teal and white streak passes by the young colt and there is no point in trying to suppress the laughter that bursts forth from his open maw. His silver eyes alight with excitement and amusement, he watches the slightly older filly crest the small knoll and lift her gilded frame into a rear. He gives chase, his own lanky legs ─ still too long for him, but not as knobbly now that he has reached his first birthday ─ eating up ground as best they can across the still-soft ground of early summer.
A hoof catches in one of the gouges the young girl had created and Alcinder deposits himself, head over heels and wings under everything, directly in front of her with a loud thud.
"Hnnnnngh," he groans as he rights himself, coming to a stand with one bloody knee and some very muddy wings. The painted opaline colt shakes the earth from them as best he can before he folds them to his sides once more and offering a dazzling smile to the teal and white girl before him.
Hi there, miss," he greets her with a practiced nod indicative of the social graces his Aunt Lepis had worked to instill in him, "My name is Alcinder. Are you from around here?"
Not being the most observant girl, she did not notice the boy right away; flying passed him in a streak of teal and gold. It’s not until the commotion of him tossing himself ass over tea kettle that her attention is on him. At first a laugh bursts forth from her chest, from an unhinged jaw, joy lighting her bright glass-blue eyes. She suppresses that quickly enough as he rises, straightening all those legs, miles of legs, and greeting her properly. She closes the gap with a light little trot, smiling, some from the leftover giggles at his tumble and some just because she’s glad to see such a beautiful specimen of a boy before her, and compromised.
“Hey there tumbles,” the giggles are still present, but fade with a small frown to replace them as to looks down at his bloodied knee. “I am from here, are you?” And without ceremony, or permission for that matter, she touches her lips to his scraped knee to heal it. If he does not pull away, it will work and there will be only a little scar leftover. “I’m Fen.”
i have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laugh-silvered wings
The pretty girl, all teal and gold and white, laughs at his mishap as his body lay jumbled in front of her, and instead of feeling sheepish or embarrassed, the winged colt joins her laughter with his own. He shakes the dirt and mud from his wings (though they will desperately need a wash and a preen later) and then turns his attention from those heavy winged things to gracefully greet the girl who had caught his attention running like the wind.
She closes the distance between them, an amused smile still on her face that Alcinder is quite suddenly head over heels for (literally, it would seem). He echoes her laughter again and tosses his head proud as she grants him his very own nickname, one that has naught to do with his name and everything to do with this new inside joke they now share.
"Yeah! I'm from L─" he cuts his words off as the teal girl reaches for his bloodied knee. There's a brief moment where he nearly pulls away from her, the first inkling of embarrassment placing a hook in his gut, but then he realizes what she has done for him, "─ Whoa!" He curls his foreleg up, keeping it suspended in midair as he inspects the freshly healed skin with his gleaming silvered eyes. "How did you do that?" he blurts, before realizing that she had given her name ─ "It's nice to meet you, Fen!"
While the young boy had already had the pleasure of meeting countless traited folk, he had yet to meet a Healer. Feeling inspired to share his own ability, one inherited from his mother, Alcinder pivots to the side and calls out to the field mice that call the Meadow home; one by one, they reveal themselves from their burrows and scurry their small bodies over to surround the pair of children. He has asked them all to bring a flower, and they do not disappoint ─ clenched in little tiny jaws are little tiny gold and white flowers, all presented to Fen as a smug, satisfied grin finds Al's face. The small creatures deposited their blossoms before scurrying away again, gone as swiftly as they had heeded his call.
"I can't control them but I can talk to them," he tells her by way of explanation as he tosses a muddy blue and white mane into the air. It's the trait he doesn't tell her about, though ─ the one even he doesn't know he possesses ─ that will show itself later. For now, he remembers that he hadn't finished his thought before.
"Oh, anyway, I'm from Loess. Have you seen it before? Do you live in a Kingdom?"
Their duel excitement made the air electrified. Fen has been in the company of many a handsome boy, one’s who looked at her in the same premature awe as this one – but what a sight he is, she ponders, and her golden eyes tip playfully to him as she turns her cheek, a slight blush would paint her cheeks if they were flesh were not covered in iridescent dragon scales.
She does her thing and stands back proudly, watching his amazement with fulfilment lighting her bright eyes. She almost answered, ‘my mother gave me this gift, and my grandmother gave it to her before me.’ But she is interrupted, to her relief, and he cheerfully declares the pleasure of meeting her. She has no time to say another – he calls out and she is struck with a bit of confusion, her ears twirling around in puzzlement as the grasses begin to stir with something more than a breeze. At first she is on the edge of a spook, as the small creatures reveal themselves, her skin goes hot and her nostrils tight, a snort blowing just slightly. It takes her several seconds to realize what is happening, or at least that it is not dangerous, and with a growing grin she looks to the pile of flowers and back to him.
Her eyes are wide and her smile big, unhinged. “That is incredible! I’ve never even heard of such a thing…” though she’s only two, she’s seen quite a bit living in the meadow, as well as a million stories…but never has she witnessed someone cross the barrier between the feral world and their world. “Loess?” she is easy enough to distract with a subject change, but still, she is amazed. “I have never left this place…not yet, anyway. Tell me about Loess…are there more like you there?”
@[Alcinder] ❤️ i am so sorry for the wait! the first post was great and my computer shit itself and lost it.
my sorrow was so great that it took me a little bit to want to write a new one!
i have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laugh-silvered wings
Alcinder's excitement grows in time with Fenwe's suspicion; though he garners no pleasure over causing her distress, he knows that her uncertainty will soon turn into pleasant surprise ─ and her reaction does not disappoint. The young boy laughs gleefully at this new and beautiful friend he has made and puffs his lithe chest out with pride. The field mice do just what he had asked, disappearing just as quickly as their little legs allowed, leaving behind nothing but laughter and a small pile of flowers.
"Thanks!" the pegasi colt exclaims and ruffles the wings at his sides, "I got it from my Mom. She can talk to animals, too, but she's way better than I am." Alcinder speaks of his mom candidly, drawing her into the conversation almost involuntarily. His heart aches when he remembers he has another season before he is able to see her again.
His new friend pulls him away from these thoughts and another warm smile presents itself to Fenwe as she tests the name of his kingdom. Loess. He waits expectantly for her answer, and then his silver-gray eyes widen in surprise at her response. His first year of life had included so much talk of politics, threats of war, upcoming diplomatic meetings... he couldn't imagine living without it interrupting his daily activities.
He'd heard of nomads, too ─ those who didn't have a kingdom home ─ but Fenwe didn't seem to fit in that category, either. "You've never left the Meadow?" incredulity seeps into his words, but he catches himself so as not to make her feel bad.
"Well," he clears his throat, trying to figure out the best way to answer her question, "there aren't any others my age, at least not that I've met yet. So that can be a little boring but ─" he pauses, flashes her a wide grin, "There are others with powers. Like my dad. He's a dragon."
Alcinder's eyes move briefly to the iridescent plating that covers her, before returning his gaze to her bright eyes. "You should come see it! Maybe your mom would want to see it, too?"
She is so delighted to see the pile of flowers, and the scampering critters. Fen’s eyes are steady on him, a hardened interest in every word he says is written all over her face. When he mentions his mother there is a little thought cloud that pops into her mind and she tucks it away for later. It makes her briefly think of her own mother and her blue gaze casts to the hillsides idly. She of course doesn’t see the pale outline of her mother grazing somewhere close, but for some reason or another, she wishes she did.
His question snaps her eyes back to him and she lets a lopsided, presumptuous little grin spread across her lips. “Nope.” she tips one of her pearly ears to the side, “For whatever reason my mother has no desire to leave here, or have me leave here.” her grin fades a bit and she searches his face for a reaction to such a statement. She’s never really said it aloud, no one has ever asked or prodded and her mother has never bothered to explain.
“A dragon!?” her exclaim is genuine and you can see just how fresh to this world she is in that very moment. She’s enamored right away with his small window of detail, but her eyes squint and her expression tightens when he mentions her coming to see it. To her it feels like ten whole minutes that she choked on the thought, on the words, but it was only a few awkward seconds. “Uh, hm, um,” she stumbles on her own silky soft voice, “Yeah, maybe, sure. Someday..” she isn’t sure what to say, but she knows her mother would never want to follow some colt into the yonder. Little does she know, her mother knows Loess, she knows all of Beqanna’s corners, and where to find little girls who might follow boys into the woods with promise of adventure and magic.
i have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laugh-silvered wings
"Wow," the exclamation is whispered as he tries to imagine never leaving the Meadow ─ or even Loess. Perhaps his mother has instilled too much curiosity in him for his own good, but the young colt quickly comes to the conclusion that he would likely feel quite suffocated if he was never able to leave. His silver eyes notice the lessening of Fenwe's smile and he wonders if that's how she feels about the situation ─ but would it be inappropriate or rude to ask? Alcinder tries to recall his conversations about manners with Aunt Lepis, but in the end, his own curiosity wins over proper social etiquette.
When the young girl's speech falters, offering him a noncommittal response to his invitation, Alcinder nickers quietly and gives her a mischievous grin. "What about today?" he asks her conspiratorially, his voice lowered as his steel grey eyes search the nearby Meadow for her mother. "We're not too far away ─ I bet we can make it there and back in a few hours, and your mom will never even know you were gone!"
Alcinder flashes his new friend a wide smile as he pivots his lanky frame in the direction of Loess. He rustles the muddy wings at his side, a habit that has developed whenever he is feeling excited, and tosses his painted head. "Let's go!" he demands, the statement falling from his lips a bit harsher than he had intended ─ and in his ignorance, the young son of Castile and Oceane does not notice that he has unintentionally willed the Mind Control that he doesn't know he possesses to force Fenwe into agreement.
At first his mischievous suggestion made her heart sink. She felt the sudden jolt of adrenaline a bunny might feel when it feels like it has been spotted. That moment one must decide if they’re going to chance running, or staying put. Her ears swivel and her golden gaze looks at him suspiciously, looking over each of her shoulders as she stammers, “Um” she takes a shaky little breath, “I don’t know, my mother is…pretty…she’s pretty protective. If she finds out, she’s going to be mad…” She whimpers a little, showing her age to its bones. The boy was younger, but in some weird way, he was much older. Her sheltered life has not served her well in this instance – her mother has endangered her without meaning to.
His demand fell onto her like a collar and leash. She’s drawn in, her heartbeat calmed in an instant, her anxiety melting away like a snowflake in the summer. She looks around again, her brain still fighting the pull of her mental tether, “Oh..ok…okay. I’ll go.” her frown is replaced, a if her body just started to digest what her brain is telling her…which is to go, run, follow him – do not look back, go, go, go!
When he rustles his wings she does a small rear, dancing a little, excited and ready to roll. She launches from her position, leaping into a full run, feeling her young body push itself to its limit. She would run beside him until she’s near collapse and her lungs on the verge of bursting form her chest, pushing herself to however far her legs will get her.
@[Alcinder] don't change the thing! everything's perfect! ❤️
