someday out of the blue

[lilliana]

- it's in the eyes, i can tell you will always be danger -
we had it tonight, why do we always seek absolution?

LILLIANA

In another life, she would have looked over shoulder and thrown that wildfire smile as far as she could. He’d catch it because he was her brother and that was what he always did. Malachi was always good at knowing where and when he was needed, about being what was needed. 'See,’ Lilliana would have teased. 'Two sets of twins. Just like you.’ 

In this life, she only muses the thought in her mind. She likes to imagine that the Wind carries it away, blowing and whipping the words around until they finally find a pair of silver-tipped ears. She likes to imagine that he hears the words and smiles. 

"Oren!” she laughs when the boy has gone far away enough that she can no longer see him and then calls out. "Over here please, sweeting.”

There is a light press at her flank and Lilliana looks behind her to find Roselin peering up at her mother, hesitant to leave her side. "Rosey, love,” she murmurs and reaches reassuringly down to her youngest child smiling, "the trees don’t bite, I promise.” The silver-black filly peers up, looking far too serious and somber for a girl her age. So like your Uncle Alvaro, Lilliana thinks. 

”I heard about the... beepers,” she whispered. "They have teeth and tails and claws and they.. They chew the trees. What if it makes the Forest angry?”

Oren came back into view and Lilliana lifted her head, carefully watching the bay roan colt. Looking down, she smiled and whispered back, "No beavers today. Just Oren and I.” Not looking convinced, Roselin pressed her dark lips into a thin line and looked to where her twin played. "How about this,” Lilliana gently said. "If you and Oren can find a large clearing for me, I’ll make sure the beavers stay away.” The girl looked up and her mother said: "Go play and when you're both done, I’ll tell you a story about flowers that bloom even in winter.” 

It took a few moments but eventually the pale-maned filly trotted towards her older brother and the two foals played beneath a scorch-marked Redwood.

image credit to rigardatta

just a post to say that rosey and oren exist <3

[Leilan]

Leilan

Budding leaves, new flowers, new life - new foals. Though somewhat unintended in one way or another, he never had denied what transpired between them had resulted in the swelling of her belly (and her ankles, or at least that’s what seemed to be her largest complaints). What did hold him back inquiring about her everyday was the way they’d both reacted to the fires in their homes, and the way their opinions were largely different.

But he couldn’t just stay away, children wanting more than just a mother - they’d realize, (later rather than sooner, but soon enough anyway) that it takes a mother and a father to have children, and when they did he wouldn’t be one who had been absent all their lives. It is, in fact, as simple as that; ultimately that was the reason Beryl had ended up on the Isle, and, he suspected, the reason that many of the boys on the Isle had wanted to stay there with him. So, he comes. He wouldn’t be a parental figure to them and not even see his own children, however awkward he now felt around the chestnut mare.

The problem of course was finding her. The forest was singed in most parts, he knows, but not too damaged in the western half, and spring leaves made it that much harder to spy any movement from the air. Honestly, he didn’t really want to use his dragon shape when he visited. It’s important they knew he was just a horse, too, and not cling to the mythical, the scary, the unknown. Perhaps that had been his mistake when he took their offer. He hadn’t woken them from their dreams soon enough, and when he had, it had been a cold shock to them.

He can’t undo what’s done, though - not the way Straia does. He just has to let time fix things, like this forest, like the meadows on the moors. He has to leave Eurwen alone, because she must heal in her own tempo, not be forced back, and besides he has no healing powers anyway. He has to let Lilli and Yan come to their own conclusions.

The only ones who don’t have the luxury of waiting are the twins. They’ll grow up with or without him, and he’s determined to make it with. Thus, when he hears the red mare call out, he knows he is on track and catches sight of a roan colt flashing by soon after. His nose tells him there’s a filly, too, but he has yet to spy her when their mother comes into sight. ”Morning, Lilliana.” he greets her. Nothing of the usual jokes and jests, but he doesn’t think he has that luxury today. He doesn’t even think he has the right to shorten her name, and so, he just smiles a little awkwardly, then darts his attention to the movement running towards a clearing. He catches the sound of the children playing, the boy distinctly using the word “beeber” which make him tilt his head in momentary wonder. What’s all that about?

I make no promises
I can’t do golden rings

Image commissioned by Vanilla, made by AshesDrawn on DA
@[lilliana] I did not proofread so the first part is a lot of rambling, enjoy

[lilliana]

FOR THE DANCING AND THE DREAMING /
THROUGH ALL LIFES SORROWS AND DELIGHTS /
I'LL KEEP YOUR LAUGH INSIDE ME /

She is grateful that he is here.

For all their differing opinions of ruling and leading, they seem to agree on what matters more: their children. Leilan isn't stiff courtesy when he arrives but the earlier ease that has always navigated their conversations is absent for the start of this one.

For all that Lilliana can be stubborn, the way that the Freyr tries to smile is enough to thaw out the rest of her intractable demeanor. There will be time later, she thinks. There will be time to discuss and sort through the rest of it later. For now, it is important to focus on Oren and Roselin. "@[Leilan]," the Taigan mare returns, hoping she sounds deferential enough for a monarch. Her blue eyes hold his for a moment, quietly taking in this side of the Dragon King. She has never seen him look so uneasy.

But the distracted thought is a short-lived one and the chestnut mare shivers back to the present. There is movement behind her and the icy-chill that gusts across her thigh tells her which child it is. Turning her copper head around, Lilliana smiles and then laughs. "Roselin," she says, using her full name so that her father might hear it. She reaches behind her before the silver-black filly peers around the left hind of her mother, studying the roan stallion in a way not unlike her dam had. "Is that how we greet guests?"

The girl gives her small head a shake and takes a deep breath before fully emerging from behind Lilliana. "No," replies Roselin. She looks up to her mother but from the look she is given, Rosey knows its not there she should be glancing. Turning her blue eyes to the stallion, "We say hello."

Her mother nods affectionately and then looks past the copse of trees, searching for the gold-and-bay form of her youngest son. Thinking she spies a rather metallic-looking sock from behind a large fern, Lilliana adds: "And I wonder where Oren could be..."

for the dancing and the dreaming - jonathon young
image credit to footybandit

[Leilan]

Leilan

Leilan is very grateful too: for her normal greeting, for her caring for the children more than her disliking him. How quick the tables had turned, all in one day, between them; going from an understanding to a world of differences. It saddens him a little, but he has come to expect such from life - the spotted mare had left him, too, so he hadn’t let Lilli get as close to his heart either. Too close already, perhaps, with the twins as a result. Once and nevermore, then? He supposes she wouldn’t even think about it. She’d be right, too.

For all that she hated her pregnancy (another reason he doesn’t think there’s going to be a second time), she does love her children. That she shares them with him doesn’t deter her in the slightest, and thankfully, she doesn’t keep him away either. She does sound... dutiful, courteous. It’s off, and he gives her a questioning glance, but nothing more as they’re both distracted.

He’d be more amused and have commented at her shiver, under normal circumstances. Now, he just gives the red mare something of a knowing smile, though he lets himself be distracted by the small child and her moment of education (or correction). ”Hello Roselin. Are you having fun today?” The conversation gets interrupted a moment before she can answer however, when Lilli asks where Oren could be. Not because of the question, but because of the young boy bursting from the bushes.

”Boo!” His childish laughter follows his jump over the branches and leaves, though he honestly doesn’t get as high as he thinks he does. Oren runs towards Rosey, bumping his head at her playfully when he arrives. He follows up with a buck and a twist to look at his Momma, then at the new figure visiting them. ”Boo, too?” he grins, knowing very well that that is not a normal greeting.

I make no promises
I can’t do golden rings

Image commissioned by Vanilla, made by AshesDrawn on DA
@[lilliana]

[lilliana]

FOR THE DANCING AND THE DREAMING /
THROUGH ALL LIFES SORROWS AND DELIGHTS /
I'LL KEEP YOUR LAUGH INSIDE ME /

She doesn’t miss the questioning look that Leilan gives her. Her red brow furrows slightly but it clears away immediately when she glances down at Roselin. For her daughter, the expression is soft and gentle. There are many things that she is no expert at; Lilliana doubts herself a great deal of the time.

Mothering, though, is the one place she has never doubted herself. Her children have always been given all of her and she has tried to do her best by them. It’s a quiet confidence that can be seen in her interactions with them - from grown Nashua and Yanhua to this youngest set of twins.

Whether that is the moments she tries to encourage Roselin and foster independence in her youngest daughter or that she laughs with Oren, that she tries to give her gold-pointed son as much as freedom as her heart can allow. She worries when her children are not within her sight but there is an extra pair of eyes (and with better vision than her own) to help her this time around.

Roselin looks up at the stallion and only looks away when a rather loud noise jolts her attention elsewhere. The silver-black filly presses herself against the girth of her dam and flicks her dark ears back, snorting softly when Oren comes bounding from beneath a large leaf. He goes to bump his bay head against hers and the girl tosses her head, glancing sideways to indicate the stallion with them.

Apart from Yanhua and a few visits from Nashua, he is a new face in their small world.

"Oren,” she whispers though both parents will most likely hear it. "We don’t say boo.”

The expression on Lilliana’s face as she watches the exchange between her youngest children is clearly amused and a smile tugs on the corner of her dark mouth. She glances towards Leilan in hopes of catching his own reaction to the twins. Still studying his face, Lilliana asks: "Rosey, Oren. Do you think you could tell your father hello?”

There are many things in her life that are complicated. She understands that this is true for Leilan as well. And while she won't apologize for the things she said during their last argument, she doesn't mean to allow it to prevent them from parenting their children together.

for the dancing and the dreaming - jonathon young
image credit to footybandit