• Logout
  • 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


    [open]  a country of shadows
    #1

    Midsommar is a precocious girl. Slipping from one whim to another, she is flimsy and fickle, curious but not enough to pay attention. She is unassuming next to her sparkling parents. A demon mind reader and a starry snowflake-covered duo created a bright chestnut, boring girl. At least, that is what Sommar thinks she is showing.

    She can read minds, too - but the secretive little thing has kept it hidden from both parents (especially the mind reader).

    It took her some time to refer to them as 'Mother' and 'Father.' The first couple of weeks of Sommar's childhood were spent in silence. Her parents worried over the mute girl, fretting over her wide, glassy eyes and perpetual staring. The reality was that her mind reading had come immediately, and the chestnut girl spent every waking moment just listening.

    She didnt understand then, but she didn't have to.

    Speaking comes easier, now, and so does affection - but Midsommar always feels so terribly peculiar.

    Peculiar like a stormy autumn night that she chooses to explore. Dove didn't like to let Sommar out of her sight, but it was one of those nights that Draco had convinced her to come away. The filly would be remiss to let a chance like this slip out of her hands.

    It smells like fall, though Mar wouldn't know this. Heavy wind kicks up the fallen leaves. They spiral around trees and shadowy bushes. The filly watches with quiet, attentive eyes. From the shadows of one of the waving plants, a maned wolf steps out and into stride with Sommar's patient walk. He doesn't look at her, gleaming yellow eyes instead scanning the trees that surround their path.

    It's going to storm soon, the wolf projects.

    "I know," Sommar replies aloud.

    It could be dangerous.

    "I know," she repeats.

    The wolf doesn't respond or rebuff Mar; instead, he swings his maned head to peer at her, then returns to watching their surroundings. The copse of hardy trees on the edge of Pangea they were travelling through begins to thin out. The grass slowly gets longer, yellow and yet still more lush than any grazing Pangea has to offer.

    "I just wanted to see the Meadow at night," Sommar says as they come to a halt a few feet into the thick of the Meadow. "The storm, though . . ." she states, glancing at her companion, "is cool."

    midsommar
    i have crawled over town with your hair in my mouth
    just trying to tweeze all the last of you out
    i only ever stay to get some of the blame
    and to hear the way you handle my name

    open to any
    Reply
    #2

    Although young Mazikeen did not understand why she was given more freedom, nor why she never ventured into Pangea - the home her mother had found - she wasn’t about to complain. She enjoyed the freedom to wander, though she suspected Agetta followed her occasionally as a snow leopard or, when the weather did not allow for that silvery cat to blend in as well, a bird.

    Adults were strange creatures.

    Perhaps that was why she felt more drawn to those closer to her size, even as she grew impatient to be older. Though in this case, it was the size of the girl she spotted and the animal by her side that caught Maze’s attention.

    It’s an effort to suppress the instinct to shift into the odd wolf-like creature that is near the filly her age - ever since she had first discovered she could shift, it was hard to get it under control. Sometimes it would just happen out of the blue, a rather annoying little quirk. She wanted to be able to control it the way  her mother could, to pick and choose when and what she turned into. Patience, Agetta cooed whenever they practiced. The trouble was, Maze did not find patience an easy thing to come by.

    So when she approaches through the stormy night, her orange eyes are bright with curiosity and instead of a natural greeting she says the thing she wants to know. “What is he?”

    Is it a he? It’s difficult to tell with the hair and the darkness of the night around them, though her eyes do flick down to check.




    @[midsommar]
    Reply
    #3

    Midsommar is neither pleased nor displeased when a girl about her age interrupts their observance of the coming storm. Her eyes - so dark, glittering, quiet - slowly leave the wolf to land on their new companion.

    "What are you?" Sommar says, turning from her blank gaze on Mazikeen and settling on her wolf. "I've never asked," this is not said by way of explanation, merely an observation the chestnut filly makes to her companion.

    A maned wolf, he states, never taking his gaze off their questioning guest.

    "A maned wolf," is parroted, a bit of surprise now coloring her voice. "His name is Malachai, though," Sommar adds with a tilt of her head, "if you must address him."

    A haunting wind blusters noisily around the trio, forming its own mini tornado of leaves. Maze's thoughts are background noise, for the most part, and Midsommar finds herself unsure of what to say. She doesn't display this, of course; and merely leans into what might be an uncomfortable silence.

    (She can't really tell what's uncomfortable, not after spending so much time in others' thoughts.)

    "My name is Midsommar," the filly finally says. The moon reflects like a wide, silver plate in her eyes - then disappears behind yet another dark, foreboding cloud.

    "Why are you out here?'

    midsommar
    i have crawled over town with your hair in my mouth
    just trying to tweeze all the last of you out
    i only ever stay to get some of the blame
    and to hear the way you handle my name

    @[Mazikeen]
    Reply
    #4

    If it strikes Maze as odd that the filly didn’t know what the canine creature was, she doesn’t let it show. Instead she waits - fascinated by what appears to be a conversation passing between them, though she can only hear one half. What is this talent? Maze could shift into other animals, but she couldn’t communicate with them really. Not verbally at least. The most she could do was mimic and use behaviours that she learned (or she could in theory - if she had enough patience to observe and learn, which she has not discovered yet).

    She doesn’t notice the silence that stretches, she’s far too busy attempting to see if the maned wolf Malachai can hear her thoughts  - but if he does he does not give any indication of it.

    Eventually the silence is broken by the other girl and Maze’s attention shifts back to her - to Midsommar. “I’m Mazikeen.” She doesn’t offer the nickname because she likes that they’re a trio of unclipped M-names. Mazikeen, Midsommar, and Malachai. Nothing to write poetry about, but for some reason it makes the orange-eyed filly feel as though they are already friends.

    The question directed to Maze earns a grin. “Why wouldn’t I be? There’s no joy in exploring during the day - everything is all out in the open.” She glances up to the sky, where the moon had disappeared moments ago, drenching them in deeper shadows. “But at night it is all hidden in shadows, anything can be an adventure.” Her mother had favoured night over day all her life and it was something Mazikeen had picked up from her easily - so it was difficult to discourage the girl from exploring. Although she was, occasionally, cautious at night she wasn’t nearly as careful as she should be. So far she had discovered no reason to fear the darkness which obviously meant there was no reason to fear it at all.

    “Don’t you think?” She asks in a curious voice - she can hardly believe that someone with a wolf friend could have any reason at all to avoid the night.



    @[midsommar]
    Reply
    #5

    Sommar suddenly clings to a thought that Mazikeen had several moments before. She draws her chin in close to her chest, finding the other girl's orange gaze with a roiling indigo one of her own. No, Malachai could not read Maze's thoughts, though -

    Malachai, she thinks, can you read her thoughts?

    This realization throws her for a loop. When the wolf had found her one day, stepping from beneath a shaded copse of trees and simply stating hello, Midsommar had assumed he found her for a reason. That their thoughts are connected just to each other and this companion that hardly leaves her side couldn't possibly have that intimacy with someone else.

    Jealousy does somersaults in the chestnut girl's stomach, ties her guts into an aerial artist's silks.

    No, child, Malachai barks in her head, voice so cutting that it chops Jealousy's head clean off its body. And if I did, I am not yours to own. Sommar wants to frown at this, to delve deeper into a discussion - but something else strikes her: the desire to make sure Mazikeen knows she does not have a connection with her wolf.

    Malachai releases an audible sigh and gives the indigo-eyed girl a disapproving look.

    "He can't read your mind," Sommar says, finding squashing her jealously more important than hiding her mind-reading. "But I can," she adds plainly, as an afterthought.

    Being distracted by her back and forth with Malachai, Sommar just barely comprehends what else Mazikeen says. It quickly clicks in her head that her answer had not actually answered what the girl had asked, and with a pointed releasing of breath, she says, "I've always preferred the night. My dad looks like the night sky." Draco's glowing stars flash behind her eyes and she nearly smiles, lips twitching, eyes going just the tiniest bit soft.

    "There are some really cool things where I live. They're even scarier at night, especially if you try to find them. My dad calls them aliens." Sommar isn't necessarily gushing, but it would be a lie to say that she isn't excited to share Pangea's strange qualities.

    midsommar
    i have crawled over town with your hair in my mouth
    just trying to tweeze all the last of you out
    i only ever stay to get some of the blame
    and to hear the way you handle my name

    @[Mazikeen]
    Reply
    #6

    It is disappointing to learn that Malachai can’t read her mind, but not a deal breaker. And that wound is quickly soothed by the news that the other girl can read her mind. Should she be annoyed or insulted about that? There’s no privacy for her to fuss about. For a girl who always speaks her mind (or - a girl who has not yet discovered an occasion to lie) it is a wonderful marvel. She makes a note to ask more about it later, and then follows that thought up with a pointed look as she attempts to direct a thought right into Midsommar’s head. Which might just happen to have the effect of it being shouted at her - Maze didn’t really know how it all worked. If the words did make it through, though, they would resemble something along the lines of ‘Remind me to get you to prove that later’.

    Not right now, though, because her imagination and interest has been absolutely captured by the other things this girl has said. First, that her dad looks like the night sky - that is something that Maze wants to see - and then the mention of the aliens.

    All other thoughts flit out of her head and suddenly this girl is absolutely certain that she needs to visit this fascinating home of Midsommar. It sounds so much more interesting than the forest she wanders with her parents.

    “We should go find the aliens then, shouldn’t we?” And then, because she doesn’t want to feel left out, Mazikeen shifts right then and there - into a maned wolf like Malachai, only Maze’s colouring has remained the same as it was when she is a horse. She is a snowy white except for the night-dark markings on her paws and face. “I’m in the mood to find something scary tonight.”



    @[midsommar]
    Reply
    #7

    Malachai's disapproval is palpable and Midsommar can sense him about to come up with an excuse to leave. She swallows a severe frown and gives him a swift, frustrated look right before he begins to speak.

    I need to -

    You do not, the chestnut filly snaps, cutting him off. What? Go hunt? You have half of a rabbit back home that you killed today.

    Malachai exhales a patient sigh in response, but remains rooted to his spot. Sommar can't contain a bratty, pleased grin. Her dark eyes flick to him, a note of nervousness in her gaze, but pleasure being the main emotion expressed there.

    When Maze shifts into a pale Malachai, Sommar blinks in quiet surprise. She was about to tell her to think of a number between one and ten to prove that she can read her mind, but this secret power is certainly cooler than hers. The chestnut girl frowns, indigo eyes slitting in suspicion.

    "Let's go, then," Sommar concedes, finding Second Malachai way more interesting than her jealousy. She begins to walk toward the Pangea border, ocassionally sneaking glances at the white and black wolf.

    "How do you want me to prove I can read your mind?" she finally asks, feeling certain it will be a while until they will spot the aliens. Walking in silence will be way too boring.

    midsommar
    i have crawled over town with your hair in my mouth
    just trying to tweeze all the last of you out
    i only ever stay to get some of the blame
    and to hear the way you handle my name

    @[Mazikeen]
    Reply




    Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)