"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
As far as Roué, life is pretty darn great. As he’d grown, he’d developed the vague notion that perhaps some things were frowned upon, especially Elsewhere, but when one is as precocious as he, it hardly matters. He’d learned early on that while there was no feigning ignorance, a charming grin and sweet words were plenty sufficient for avoiding reprimand.
And to say that Roué never did anything deserving of such reprimands would be a blatant lie. Which, perhaps fortunately, is something Roué had learned very early on is simply not possible. At least, not where his mother is concerned.
Where others are concerned though? Well, the jury's still out.
Today however, Roué can be found exactly where you wouldn't expect him to be. Or rather, for those who know him, exactly where you'd expect him to be: staring contemplatively down a badger hole.
He'd been skeptical when Panda had told him how fun badgers are, but in the end, curiosity had overwhelmed his better sense. He knew Panda had been pulling his leg, but Panda knew Roué would never be able to resist such a hare-brained idea. So, naturally, here he is, trying to decide just how dumb this actually is.
Really, is a badger actually any match for a dragon? Ridiculous. Snorting at the thought, Roué shakes his head and ruffles his leathery wings before striking decisively at the roof of the den. As dirt rains down inside, Roué swiftly retreats a step as he watches the opening intently, muscles tensed and ears pricked forward in anticipation.
The older she became, the less she hung around her family. She still made sure to seek out her sister; the link that she shared with her was unbreakable, and that would never change. But the older she became, the less she was able to ignore the tension between her parents – the tension neither of them seemed to acknowledge. Desire often disappeared, sometimes for days at a time, but other times it was for weeks. Hourglass used to search for her, and she soon learned the places her mother liked to lurk.
She stopped looking for her after finding her with a kelpie-man one day. She does not think her mother noticed her, or if she did, she never once looked her way, and it was never brought up later. Hourglass had only seen her once since that day anyway, and the sight of her mother's obviously rounded barrel had left an uneasy feeling in her chest. After that, she had decided she didn't care if her mother came back or not. She hated the look on her father's face every time she left. She hated the way Thomas tried to pretend he was fine, like his daughters couldn't see the pain that clouded his eyes. Mostly, she hated the way her mother didn't seem to care how much she hurt them at all.
Today she is alone when she walks through the forest, lost in thoughts that are too heavy for a yearling to be having. She is wrapped up in herself enough that she does not notice the older colt until she has clearly entered his line of sight, and she blinks and stutters to a stop in surprise. But his attention is not on her at all; instead, he is staring intently at a hole in the ground, and almost immediately, her curiosity is piqued.
“What are we looking for?” She whispers as she comes alongside him, once again disregarding any sense of personal space or manners. Instead, she squints her lilac-colored eyes, focusing on the hole that was clearly the home of some kind of woodland creature.
I don’t believe that anybody
feels the way I do about you now
He can feel her thoughts, drifting along the edges of his consciousness, but he ignores them with practiced ease. Or rather, the ease of someone who doesn’t have the attention span to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. His body is nearly vibrating with anticipation as she draws alongside him, her voice a whisper as she asks what they’re looking at. He flicks an absent glance at her, only half paying attention.
It takes a (regrettably) long moment for reality to click into the place.
Abruptly he does a double-take, momentarily forgetting his intense interest in the badger den. A grin slowly spreads across his lips as he eyes her curiously before leaning in conspiratorially. “Have you ever seen a badger before?”
As though summoned by the question, a scuffling thump sounds from the hole as a clearly irritable black and white creature pokes it’s head out and hisses at them.
“Oh crap.” Shying sideways, almost directly into his new companion, Roué drops his head, nostrils flaring and ears pricked. The badger, clearly unappreciative, bares its teeth and swipes at his scaled nose. Snorting, Roué jerks his head back, ears drooping in consternation.
Peering sideways, he tosses her a lopsided, not quite apologetic grin. “Ahh, he doesn’t seem too thrilled to see us.” Gazing flicking warily between the upset badger and the young filly, he amends his first question. “So, uhh, you ever seen an angry badger before?”
