"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
a dragon who couldn't be hurt on the outside could have so many ragged holes inside
The roan bronze-and-silver dragon approaches the River fast - too fast perhaps, but he doesn’t care. His dive towards the water is reckless, but to snatch the deer drinking on the shallow bank, he has to be.
The animal turns, but not in time to get away. It shrieks as the dragon’s hind claws rip through it’s hind, and pull open muscle and artery, even if he can’t lift the chunk of living meat in one swoop.
There is a small moment in which the dragon makes his large turn, in which the deer tries to struggle and passes out after pulling itself one body-length away towards the trees, bleeding dry still as the huge predator lands in the river water and starts to feast on his meal - a warm, half-living deer is far better than most of the scrawny snacks he gets back home.
The brown forest animal doesn’t live long after that first bite, if at all. Once, Leilan told his adoptive daughter to kill them quickly and make sure they were dead fast and good before feasting - but he feels ravenous today, and he doesn’t make time to consider the deer’s feelings all the time.
Or those of anyone who might be watching, really.
any!
(don't touch the food and you'll live)
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
with tremulous cadence slow, and bring the eternal note of sadness in
Most days, Oceane feels blessed to have the ability to comprehend the wildlife around her. The birds of Loess warn her of intruders as they call to each other with sharp beaks, the field mice tell her when the prickly pears have ripened as they satiate their own stomachs with it.
But today, in the River, there is one voice that calls out above all others ─ and it screams only of pain. The opaline woman's blood runs cold at the cry for help but, even from such a distance, she knows there is naught she can do to help the dying creature. All she can do is wait with trembling legs until the cries diminish into a sad, distraught silence. Only then does she proceed closer to the river and its hypnotic babbling. Her flared nostrils smell metallic blood on the air, mixed with the crisp leaves of autumn and the unmistakable musk of a dragon.
She knows it will not be Castile even before her amber eyes alight on the silver beast. The wyvern is thinner than Loess' former ruler, more angular around the joints and jaw,more severe looking. He devours what is left of the deer and Oceane cannot help but watch his mouth with the knowledge that that could just as easily be her. In this moment, she is the deer.
"Leilan," she greets the massive reptile with more confidence than she feels. A small but warm smile graces her lips as she gazes up at the predator, her balefire wings gleaming against the setting sun as she rustles them at her sides. "I had intended a journey to the Isle tomorrow, but it seems you have read my mind." Her amber eyes watch the contours of his face, for any expression that he may exhibit at the sight of her. She considers him a friend ─ a confidant, even, after he had led her son home to the foothills ─ but she is not naive to think that Castile's transgressions against the Isle may not affect what relationship she has with the ice-dragon.
"I hear congratulations are in order."
She knows nothing of what had happened to Jesper ─ and can only hope that Castile's assault against the Isle had not resulted in the former ruler's death ─ but news of a heavy crown changing to a new skull is rarely a thing to go unmentioned through the grapevines of Beqanna.
04-25-2020, 07:04 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 07:06 PM by Nashua.)
NASHUA
Nash knows he isn’t supposed to wander this far.
But the seasons are changing again - something he can feel clearly enough in the brisk mornings - and when the world is changing, he should see it for himself. He can hear his older sister, Celina, confirm this in the back of his mind. Can see the sharp nod of approval with her predatory-like teeth glinting in the daylight.
Besides, his Mother hasn’t been home for a few days now.
It’s part of the reason he roams so far. His sister tells him and Yanhua that they shouldn’t worry so he tries not to.
But the nights feel very long and the cold seems to reach his bones in a way he’s never experienced before. So since the world is changing and his world is changing, Nashua thinks he should see it. The flaxen pegasus hadn’t been able to find Yanhua and that upsets him more than it usually does - Yanhua losing himself in the Redwood Forest wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.
Yan’s absence upsets him more than he cares to tell the trees and so he decides to try the River instead.
For a few hours, Nashua wanders. He roams the trails and slips between the trees. He rather enjoys this freedom - the coming and going and everything in between. It makes him forget (temporarily) about the empty spaces in his home.
Nashua emerges from underneath a bush, having followed a small squirrel that skittered from the trunk of one tree to another. He hears a muffled sound that makes one ear prick and he turns a corner to find an animal he’s never seen before. The boy stops and blows his exclamation through his nostrils, raising his head to peer at the strange creature. The metallic scent of iron is strong and Nashua stops, pressing his wings uneasily against his ribs.
He fully emerges to come beside a woman (with wings, like him!) and he edges a little closer to her, curious about the creature but not wanting to get too close. His green eyes look up to her amber ones, widening a little. "It can read minds too?”
Nashua - not sure exactly what his thoughts are at this moment - tells himself to stop thinking.
and for every king that died they would crown another
a dragon who couldn't be hurt on the outside could have so many ragged holes inside
His dragon-shape is coloured similarly to his horse-body, and thanks to this, it seems everybody recognizes him easily. Or that is, everybody who knows the horse well enough. This time, it is the opalescent purple mare from Loess - Castile’s bonnie love, number.. who knows really. It doesn’t matter. It just surprises him sometimes how attractive such a feral smoke-smelling horse apparently is. Even in times where he bites and burns.
The dragon licks his teeth clean while lifting his head to stare at the woman, his eyes yellow and somehow still cold; a hunter’s glare. But she doesn’t close the distance, addressing him from the relative safety of beneath the trees - a place he’d have a hard time maneuvering. He shakes his long neck, the ice-horns making soft ticking sounds when they touch one another, the golden gleam over his bronze scales catching the light as well. ”You still should come tomorrow. I’m not in the mood for politics right now.” he tells her, ready to dive down back into the deer while it’s still warm, but interrupted once again by the scent of the Taigan boy.
As the young kid whispers, the ice dragon stares at his shape, determined to find out why his scent is familiar besides the mist and redwood trees. When he gets to it, he gives the boy a rather sinister grin. ”It has a distinct hatred for mind-readers in general, but it still knows exactly how far away you are from home. And it has half a heart to tell Lilli about it, too.” His tone changes from cold and perhaps threatening in the first sentence, to amused at the boys’ expectations of his mother’s rage when he gets there. Leilan is quite certain that the chestnut mare will give her son a reprimand of the kind he personally wouldn’t want to see from even a safe distance.
His grin widens a bit, turning his yellow-green orbs from the green-eyed boy to the winged mare. ”I’m sure my friend here can tell you how great I am at escorting lost boys home.” Then, he blinks in a cat-like manner, and for good measure, takes another large bite out of the deer.
It would be a pity to let it go to waste, after all.
@[Oceane] @[Nashua] Heh
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
with tremulous cadence slow, and bring the eternal note of sadness in
Oceane laughs under her breath at Leilan's greeting. If there is one thing she has learned to be a constant for the ice-dragon, it is that he does not care nor consider how his presence affects others. A self-proclaimed wanderer the first time she had met him, the stallion had been in and out of the borders of Loess time and time again even despite the suspicion with which he was greeted each time, and if she can hazard a guess, he likely did the same with other kingdoms, too.
So to be told that today is not for politics does not deter the opaline woman from speaking with Leilan. "I would be happy to." Instead, she offers him a small smile and a nod of her head before a small voice causes her ears to flutter and her amber eyes to turn to her side. The winged chestnut is unfamiliar to the Loessian woman, but his expression is familiar. She laughs but is otherwise silent
for the moment, allowing Leilan to answer the boy with his rumbling voice.
She flashes a knowing glance at the young boy and offers him a small bump of his wings with hers. "He is quite the reliable chaperone... though it sounds like you may want to ask him to drop you at the border when he brings you home," she says with amusement, though it truly matters naught to her ─ she has been distracted by Leilan's mention of Lilliana, the kind mare she'd battled against for practice, many seasons ago. Oceane hums at the reminder before tucking it away with the intention to ask after Lilliana at a different time.
The sickening crunch of bones draws her attention back to Leilan; her lip turns up in disgust, but she's otherwise silent as she allows the overgrown reptile the chance to enjoy his meal. "Actually, Alcinder asked after you recently," she comments between the dragon's chewing, "He will be excited to hear you're still offering protective escorts."
His eyes widen a moment when the… what is he, exactly? Something feral, certainly. Nashua thinks there is something about him that puts him in mind of a crocodile. If a crocodile were bronze and silver, if they hunted on land, had wings… and if they were anything remotely like Leilan.
Maybe Nashua doesn’t know what a crocodile actually is.
He certainly doesn’t know what Leilan is though, either. The pegasus colt stands somewhere between being very intrigued by the reptilian-like creature and wanting to press himself closer into the opalescent mare’s side, thinking he might protect them from both. Nash makes a very pointed, lingering stare at the deer carcass that the dragon-stallion has draped at his feet.
His ears go back at the mention of knowing how far Nashua is from home. Of knowing - and then something on his face brightens as he picks his head up. The stallion apparently knows his mother (how, he can’t even imagine) and that emboldens the winged child. "How?” he counters, suddenly curious. If he knows how far he is from Taiga then maybe he’s able to know other things - like where missing mothers go.
"How do you know exactly?” he chirps. (Nashua has tried to count his steps before but the number grew too high.)
The two adults fall into a rapport that tells the colt they know each other and he falls silent in the way that children often do, listening even if they have nothing to say. He doesn’t know what an Alcinder is - though he tilts his head thoughtfully to Oceane, trying to learn. Leilan takes another (cracking) bite of his meal and Nashua shakes his head, unimpressed by the coppery tang that permeates the air. (He also follows Oceane’s lead in calling it a he.) "Does he always do that?” Nashua asks, preferring to look up at her instead of @[Leilan]'s lunch.
and for every king that died they would crown another
a dragon who couldn't be hurt on the outside could have so many ragged holes inside
He would have had a load of fun if he had been a mind-reader, for sure - especially with Nashua, who still doesn’t know what to make of the dragon before his eyes. Leilan has half a heart to leave him guessing, though now that he is no longer as cranky due to his hunger, he can cut the yearling male some slack, he supposes - and Oceane as well, maybe.
Swallowing his meal for now, he assesses the leftovers shortly, as well as eyeing the two horses nearby. Oceane is clearly unhappy smelling the dead dear, and the boy... hmm, could use a better example, he supposes. Thus decided, the ice dragon dips his head into the running river to clean it, as well as swallowing a gulp of the cold water to clench his thirst. A small shake relieves him of most of the dripping liquid, and is followed by an icy breath that encases the deer carcass. He’ll find a way to transport it later, or perhaps he’ll come back for it himself; at any rate, it’s not yet a claim for the crows, and it will be preserved and non-stinky.
He seats himself near them, an follows with a very horse-like snort towards the young boy. ”I know the distance between Taiga and the River fairly well, Lilli-boy.” he tilts his head, seeing as he has not heard the boy’s name - and starts to wonder how thick he is exactly for a moment - then shrugs. ”By dragon-wing, I’d say it’s about the same as from Taiga to the Isle.” he adds with a knowing smile, thinking he gave the hint pretty stylishly.
At Oceane’s comment, he tilts his head towards her, his eyes losing any yellows or greens, making room for a warmer brown as he gives her a nod. ”When you visit, maybe bring him along?” They both have to see - have to understand why he doesn’t visit Loess any more, at least why he hasn’t done so recently. Besides, it’ll be fun to see Cinder again, he thinks. The boy’s a budding energy bubble, and he could use someone more light-hearted around, at least for the day.
Boys will be boys, for sure, and the dragon outs a short, loud rumbling laugh at the yearling’s question. ”I’m right here, kiddo.” Still no name. ”How about an introduction, ey? I’m Leilan from Icicle Isle, that’s Oceane from Loess.” he starts, curling his ice-spiked tail along his body, the tip swaying sideways however so as not to reach either horse before him. He awaits the boy’s introduction curiously, thinking Lilliana would have taught him better manners than that, no doubt.
@[Oceane] @[Nashua]
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
with tremulous cadence slow, and bring the eternal note of sadness in
The way the young flaxen boy sidles up against Oceane is endearing, and offers just the right amount of adolescent innocence that she and Leilan needed to breach their conversation. She nods in affirmation at his request ─ Alcinder would accompany her to the Isle, both because it would be important for him to see what destruction could be brought down upon Beqanna when one asks for too much from the fairies and because he would be a good way to keep a balance of friendship and diplomacy in their visit.
Leilan freezes the remainder of the deer carcass, drawing Oceane's amber eyes back to the deceased animal but this time in appreciation for the ice-dragon's abilities. She wonders for a moment if he will clasp the animal in his massive talons and take to the skies, but he seems to be as amused, if not more, by the nameless boy at her side. And so their attention turns to the youngling, the discussion of politics complete and settled upon, so that Leilan may poke and prod the boy with a grin revealing predatory incisors.
The ice-dragon introduces himself, and then her ─ she bobs her head to the flaxen chestnut and offers a small smile. "Oceane of Loess should take her leave, actually," she offers the pair with a quiet clearing of her throat, "I need to go find my son and prepare him for our journey to the Isle." She shifts her weight, ruffling her winged appendages and preparing to extend them.
"Will you be okay here with our dragon friend?" she asks the young boy with a quiet chuckle under her breath. She knows that he is safe in the company of Leilan, but she can only imagine how he looks through the eyes of such a young boy.
♥ Sorry to make her dash, I figure I should get ready to post her in the Isle! (Also, maybe Nashua would want to join her & Alcinder on their trip to see Leilan?!)
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
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