"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
05-28-2020, 12:41 PM (This post was last modified: 05-28-2020, 12:44 PM by Nashua.)
Nashua tries his best not to show how much the disappearance of his mother has effected him. Her absence from their life (of his and Yanhua’s) is something he tries to handle in strides - one step after the other. He tries walking around with it and he tries flying with it, though neither do anything to alleviate the way he sometimes feels.
How he might wake up and Yanhua won’t be there for him to find. That his aunts' Brazen and Elaina will suddenly stop coming for him. He worries that his visits from Celina will eventually end and Elio will wander out of Taiga, never coming back. His family is small and fractured but Nashua stays grounded because he is determined to see it mend. That is a view he will never find in the sky.
Her absence shows in the way that he stays in Taiga, that his exploring has ceased. Her absence shows in the way that he starts to keep watch at the borders, attempting to protect and be brave for his home like Elio had told him to be. His early evening patrols don’t reveal much; usually all the winged yearling finds is fog.
Occasionally, he stumbles across a straggler heading to Nerine. A wayward horse curious about the Isle. Some come from the North to venture south, wanting to see what the Common Lands might provide. Nashua watches them go with a look of longing sometimes, knowing that the open lands of Beqanna provide a chance and potential, an opportunity to stretch his growing wings.
He remembers Yanhua and so he stays, more determined to remain than the fading silhouettes that retreated into the silver Taigan mist.
On an early evening, when he winds down a trail and the golden late afternoon light filters through the sentinel trees, a scent that isn’t familiar to him (or the redwood forest) crosses his path. The boy flares his nostrils and rustles his wings before they settle again on his auburn back. He takes a few steps in the direction that it comes from and calls out, resolute that this shadow takes a shape. "Hello?”
Again, she finds herself traveling through territories she does not belong to..although she was no stranger to this one. She had visited Taiga once before..earlier this week in fact! But Yanhua had found her and so she wasn't able to explore as she pleased.
Old habits die hard, so she finds herself exploring again! It was earlier than the last time! The sun was just nearly set, so it was more likely she will be caught again...but this time she stalks the kingdom in the form of a black panther. Hoping that would keep equines away!
Hello, the words of another ring in her ears. She stops dead in her tracks, damn it, she thinks to herself. She sighs as she spots the boy who looked similar in age to Yanhua. Next time travel as a squirrel, she mumbles to herself.
The panther quickly moves towards the boy, Ahh yes, you have found me, she says with a grin as she stops before him. She sits down, wrapping her tail nicely on her paws.
05-29-2020, 01:41 PM (This post was last modified: 05-29-2020, 01:41 PM by Nashua.)
Nashua likes to explore.
He likes to explore the outer perimeters of the Taiga and he likes to watch as the land changes before his green eyes. He’s started to come to know the borders well. The further north he goes, the land grows restless. Crags and granite boulders jut angrily from the Earth (as if the changes he knows nothing of had made Nerine angry, as if whatever it had been before had been something important enough that it rebelled against the Magic that changed it.)
If Nash goes south, the Taigan fog seems to dissipate into Tephran steam and the winged yearling has found himself curious about the volcano he has seen looming in the distance. The colors of the autumn forest blaze along that same border before it rolls into the hills of Loess. The mountains of Hyaline linger towards the east when he turns his evening patrols back to the north, back to home and Yanhua. His counterweight. The lands that hold the impossible horizon in his green eyes all call to him for different reasons and the boy sometimes wished it was easier to want to stay.
That if he only knew the width of Taiga’s trees and the density of her fog, it would be enough. (What was the point of seeing anything beyond Taiga if he couldn’t see what was in Taiga? What he sees now, though, is ironic - that he should find a panther while he patrols! If only he knew.) A dark shape comes from the silver haze - not equine, too small and sleek, feline; his gaze confirms the large predator.
His ears pin and the yearling feels his wings widen, ready to chase the cat out of the woods. He doesn’t stop to think that the creature isn’t a usual one to Taiga’s wildlife. When the cat sits and grins at him, Nashua feels his brown wings slacken before he starts to pull them back to his slim sides.
"A shifter?” the boy asks, not unfamiliar with them. His father is one but Wolfbane takes many shapes. What about this one? "What brings you to Taiga?”
A panther, an animal that would strike fear in any equine...should it have not been a shifter. Although, this boy must be familiar with them. Her actions were not that of a true panther, whe has self control, where a regular panther would have put up a fight.
He questions her, perhaps confused as to who was a shifting in his land...he seems to answer that thought when he asks why she was here. Very good, she mutters in response.
She stands up and shifts back to her horse form, the jet black fur fades to the spotted grey, white and black that all intermingles on her true pelt. Her body adolescent, just as his. I like to travel, no reason beyond that.
She moves closer to the boy, her gaze scanning around the horizon. She takes in the land that she could not in her previous trip. And you? What brings you out here? She does not bother asking about where he was from, the scent of Taiga runs thick on his pelt.
06-06-2020, 01:00 PM (This post was last modified: 06-06-2020, 01:02 PM by Nashua.)
Nashua tilts his head to the side as he settles his adolescent frame, studying the shifter before him. She praises him and there is enough of the child still in him that he finds it encouraging. He’s worked hard to learn what he can from sister Celina about shifters like their sire. He knows from his mother that Magic can take various forms and shapes, that it comes different ways and messages.
This one comes in the shape of a panther that shifts into a filly.
And a traveler.
It makes the wanderer in him more curious about her as his green eyes adjust to her equine form, a melding of dark and light as if the Gods couldn’t decide on a color for her (or a shape for that matter, if they gave her the ability to change into many.) There is no particular scent that clings to her and it seems that she isn’t claimed by a land; not bound to one as he is to Taiga.
"Where have you traveled from?” he asks, making the assumption that this isn’t her first trip.
Nashua shrugs his reply, "I like to know what the fog reveals.” It was easier to find it on the outskirts of the redwoods and the yearling pegasus wasn’t patient enough to wait for those revelations to blow through the forest. Discovering it himself was part of the thrill, he’d found.
"It’s my home,” he answers a little more firmly. "It makes sense to know who comes and goes.” Nashua, suddenly remembering his manners, dips his head respectfully. "Nashua,” the colt says with an emerging lopsided grin. "And you are?”
She glances over the boy, his pelt was red, his mane blonde. He seemed young, just like the other boy she had met in Taiga. She doesn't mention it though, what are the chances they knew eachother?
He asks where she is traveling from, a small smile forming on her maw. The islands scent does not cling to her pelt, mainly because she likes to travel most days. But should someone truly decipher her smell, the island would peak through the strongest.
The resort, she mutters, a small island that is nearly abandoned....mother left..fathers gone...heck even her sister Divest. There was a new ruler, they hadn't met yet though...
He changes the subject though, probably because he hadn't heard of the resort. He answers her question to being out here and she giggles in response. Yes, the fog certainly brings out the most interesting of creatures. She has met a few equines along the way, nighttime brings out an entourage of equines that the day does not hold.
He goes onto to introduce himself, Nashua. Her head tilts slightly, the boys name was awfully similar to the goat boy Yanhua's name. Serabi, she says, introducing herself. She dares to brush past him, her head gazing deeper into his home. I have to admit, I have been trying to look around for a couple nights now...but I keep getting caught up in conversation. Her head turns back to Nash, Care to accompany me?
06-13-2020, 05:20 PM (This post was last modified: 06-13-2020, 05:27 PM by Nashua.)
While Nashua is still young - just entering adolescence - he isn’t so young that he doesn’t realize the roan girl is appraising him. Her green eyes flick over his glossy red pelt that gleams underneath Taiga’s filtered light, traces along his thick flaxen mane and Nash takes the time to appreciate her in turn. It’s a bold (perhaps unnerving) look that he returns to @[Serabi].
She gives the adolescent pegasus an almost impish smile and the blue filly looks almost fae. A creature that looks almost otherworldly with a hint of mischievousness haloed in this hazy light. Fairies don’t live on the Island Resort though. They live on the Mountain, he knows.
Still, Serabi is a new discovery and the copper boy smiles, pleased to have made her acquaintance. "It can,” he chimes in with a raised brow and then adds somewhat teasingly, "but it’s what it doesn’t reveal that concerns me.” He had hoped to find Celina prowling along the borders of Taiga. But she can be elusive (as any predator should be) and the company he’s found isn’t unpleasant. If anything, she's a welcome distraction to the other thoughts that plague the back of his mind.
Her head tilts at Nashua introduces himself and the yearling half-jokes, "Don’t tell me it’s a pretty name.” He says in reference to his own. The smirk on his face pauses before he gives his head a thoughtful shake thinking of just how many times his Aunt Elaina told him that both he and Yanhua were given names with meaning. "Serabi,” the boy muses, ”does it mean anything?” Nash asks offhandedly, walking towards her with a confident stride and genuinely curious about the origins of his new patrol partner.
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