there's a devil in my brain with a pitchfork and a flame

[elio]

elio

some say I should learn to cry but I only learned how to fight
and I know everything must die but nothing fades like the light

"You're just as brave," Elio responds, lifting his mouth in a quick, secret smile. He'd like to believe he is brave, but something in his gut tells him his future will be more reckless than confident. A swift frown replaces the secret smile, though Elio wipes it away before Little Feather can notice.

Lio listens as Nashua talks about his brother and their home. During his childhood in Taiga, he rarely crossed into Nerine. He remembers Lepis telling him to be careful. Remember names like Heartfire and Neverwhere. He rarely had the urge to disobey his mother, as young children so often do, so he kept his distance. In fact, his trip to find Djinni is the longest he had spent in the kingdom. Elio wonders what it must be like to play on Nerine's craggy cliffs.

"A twin? Wow. My mother had triplets once," Lio replies, eyes glowing with boyish curiosity. He ponders if his childhood would have been more lighthearted spent with a sibling his age. "I have three brothers and two sisters, all older than me. We left Taiga . . . um, I'm not sure, actually. A while ago." He misses Celina, mentioning her reminds him of that gnawing feeling. It bites harder when he thinks of Gale, but Lio doesn't mention one of his brother's is dead. The idea of souring Nashua's mood is too depressing. "I just came from Nerine," he says instead.

Elio tilts his head, drawing up memories of his time spent lounging in a vine-protected den. He can practically feel the leaves tickling his back as he pushed the heavy, swinging vines to the side. It was his favorite place. Dragging Celina there was particularly fun.

"It was a hollow in a giant boulder, by the river where Taiga meets Hyaline. There were vines that covered the entrance. I would drag moss in to build a nest," Elio says, wondering if it still looks the same, "and on hot summer days, I'd nap there for hours." He still naps, now. A habit he can't seem to kick. "I can't wait to see yours," he adds, grinning.

@[Nashua]

[Nashua]

NASHUA

Nashua, who is looking back at Elio, slows and finally stops while he considers something.

Is he brave? He thinks of those high, Nerinian ledges that he isn’t allowed to linger too close to. He thinks of a dark cavern that reveals itself during low tide on one of Taiga’s western beaches. When the wind had come up wild and angry, he had been unsure of the edge. When he and Yanhua went exploring the damp darkness of the cave (how fortunate for them that they glow - it makes exploring so much easier), there had been a moment of apprehension before they went in.

He can remember the way it lodged in his throat.

His own grin, which usually curves somewhere between confidence and youthful ignorance, falters. His green eyes darken as Nash admits, "I just pretend. I don’t … well,” his face peers up at Elio, "How can I be brave if I’m not allowed to leave home?” The pegasus colt knows the rules. He isn’t supposed to go wandering on his own.

Nash stamps a foreleg, feeling his neck arch with his frustration.

He tries his best to listen - he does. There is something in him that adores making his mother smile. Yanhua does it as easily as he navigates through the ferns, as easily as he knows where to find a fox den or some other hidden treasure. Yan is like that - like their mother that way - he is good at finding lost things.

Nashua just seems to be good at getting into trouble.

Little Feather snorts softly and then resumes leading the older stallion through the woods. The boy does it easily and never questions that @[elio] won’t be behind him. A few hours together and the winged boy already finds an easy friendship with his fellow wanderer. Fire Wing has triplets. Well, his mother had triplets. He blinks, curious as what it must have been like to grow up with an extra sibling.

Sometimes, it's hard to imagine besides him and Yan (though he still likes to imagine Eugene is their lost brother - how many other horses glow like they do?)

Hearing that he’s just been blown in from the jagged cliffs of Nerine, Nash does a double-take back and stops again. "Did you meet Aunt Neverwhere?” It’s been a while since they’ve gone North. There’s a part of Nashua that might even admit to missing Fechin, Brienna and Ama. "There’s alot of girls…,” the boy shrugs before looking up to Elio, like he might confirm what he’s thinking. ”But they’re okay.” For girls, his smile says as it spreads to a boyish grin.

and for every king that died
they would crown another

html © castlegraphics

[elio]

“Huh,” Elio absently says as he considers Nashua’s question. A faint smile lifts his mouth. “There’s all kinds of brave to be at home. Like protecting your mother and your brother.” Elio was imaginative when he was young, but mostly he was obedient, so the idea of Nash breaking the rules to keep his family safe from imaginary creatures warms him. “And I’ll come back to teach you all about being brave,” he adds.

It’s a quick decision. He misses Taiga anyways. Little Feather is just the push Lio needed to move home.

“Girls, yeah?” Lio questions with a quirk of his lips. He doesn’t know much about those, other than his mother, and he’s sure his mother is too unique to base his opinion of women off of. Though, lumping women together at all makes him uncomfortable, and for a moment he is terribly lost for words. You’re thinking too deeply, Elio, he tells himself. Dragging a smile to his face, he exaggerates a thinking face then dips his nose to nudge Nash affectionately on his shoulder.

“Don’t be fooled by those girls, Nash,” Lio uses the boy’s name because he hopes it might add a little tone of seriousness to his suggestion. “They’re so cool. Cooler than me even, and if I’m not just the coolest,” he teases now, creating a tone of self-deprecating confidence.

“How much further do we have to your fort, Little Feather?”

---

@[Nashua] here have a poopy phone post

[Nashua]

NASHUA

An ear flicks back to @[elio] and Nash smiles to himself. Whatever winds blew the gold-and-red dunalino into Taiga - whether Angry North or soothing West - he is glad for the gales that pushed him this way. His smile is a little uncertain though at the mention of staying home, though it makes sense what Fire Wing says.

There is bravery to be found at home too - even if it isn’t on the thrilling scale that he is seeking.

"I’ll help protect Mama and Yan,” he decides, looking back to the other pegasus stallion. If this sounds like something Elio would do, Nash decides he’d like to do it too.

"You will?!” suddenly his voice quickens, it rises with child-like tenor and Nash’s eagerness. "I have other places I could show you,” he hastily adds. "Besides my Fort. You could meet Mama and Yan. I can’t tell stories like them but I bet they’d share them with you.” Suddenly, a whole new realm of possibilities is unfolding before Nashua and his delighted mind can’t pick out which one he likes best.

"And I won’t be fooled by the girls. I’ll be nice, I promise.”

He is beaming; brimming over with enthusiasm.

Nashua nods his head, the Fort almost forgotten in all the excitement. "This way, Fire Wing.” Before he marches on again, the flaxen-haired colt gives his head a shake and glances back at Elio. "I’m glad you're coming back. I’m gonna keep looking up to see if you're burning the sky.”

With that, the copper colt grins before he kicks up his heels and races around the wide barrel of a Redwood. "Last one there is a clodhoof!"

and for every king that died
they would crown another

html © castlegraphics