"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
10-05-2020, 06:38 PM (This post was last modified: 10-05-2020, 06:39 PM by Moonlet.)
Moonlet feels a bit like a thief stealing about in the night. She steals mouthfuls of grass from the lands she invades during her explorations and sips of water from their rivers. Thieving minutes and hours as she dabbles on one side of a land’s border than the next. Until the cliffs start calling in a granite singsong voice of hard stone, cold sea, and fierce gales.
The hair lifts up off her neck as she pauses, one foreleg curled high in mid-stride and inhaled the sharp scent of sand and sea on the air. There is nothing tropical to that scent; it is harsh on the nostrils but somehow clean and invigorating. It makes the blood rush through her until a shiver becomes a full-body shake that sets her loose from her pose and she off again, like a small brown rocket.
In a full fledged gallop, she flings herself reckless across the dunes, slipping and sliding in the sand and all to peaks of laughter and challenge. She is dauntless in her task and spurred on by a flagging night that has begun to pale at the easternmost edge. It can’t be morning already! shouts the blood in her and the adrenaline. She is not yet ready to be snuffed out like a candle from morning light and exhaustion.
Or discovered.
Sometimes, it is better to be left alone and easier for her to explore that way without interruption. Friends are good too, but she thinks there is potential there for them to get in the way, or her way. Better to hold them a leg’s length away. No relationships, no reason to get hurt, physically or otherwise.
It seemed like a smart idea to her, lonely but smart. Besides, how could she ever be truly alone when there were stars in the sky, grass underfoot, and wind on her face? That was all little Moonlet needed. Even now as she flung herself onto that gray shore and came skidding to a halt just before the tide that turned over on itself.
She made it just before the sun came up and she grinned, rather pleased with herself and her stealthy (so she thinks) success.
Nerine’s cliffs are a welcome sight and a terrifying one - the grey sands and caves hold memories I’ve long since leaving them, tried to forget about. Today, I find myself there because I need to not be found. And maybe, just maybe I’ll find the closure I need - if not, though, perhaps a satisfaction at destroying that one cave from my memories - if I can’t kill the memory, can’t kill the mare herself, then I’ll shank the cave.
My draconic paws stride truthfully, purposeful, and slightly tensed with anger and anticipation. I do not make it today, however - I find a stranger on the beach, and when she nears me in her flight over the grey sand, my body is pushed into the equally dark rocks, surrounding myself with an unnatural shadow. I don’t want to be seen right now... but the sun is peeking over the horizon when the young mare stops, and I grunt.
She’ll see my shadows as unnatural, what with the sun coming up. They’ll find me, and the task I set myself up to, will have to wait.
Why did it have to be Yanhua in the Alliance, I’ll often wonder. How come I didn’t know about his echoes? When did he pick up on Breckin, of all memories, and why did he have to use it then?
And why does it bother me so much?
Grimacing, my scaled tail slams against the wall I’ve sidled up to in powerless frustration. Then, I drop the aura (by now she’ll have noticed it, or me, even if it was for the sounds I made - and I don’t think I care). ”And who are you?” I demand to know. Nerine is mine, like the Isle, like Taiga - mine to find happiness in or to destroy that kind of thing if I so please. For so long I’ve been a silent guardian, for so long I’ve tried to keep up a good pace, a smile, and work for others.
It’s my turn now, and I won’t let anyone ruin it. I won’t let myself be distracted again.
I make no promises I can’t do golden rings
Image commissioned by Vanilla, made by AshesDrawn on DA
@[Moonlet] bot said Lei so here he is, but he’s not happy I suspect :|
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
10-22-2020, 04:01 PM (This post was last modified: 10-22-2020, 04:02 PM by Moonlet.)
The tide heaves and sighs at her feet; it seems subdued but she instinctively knows better. Seas and oceans can turn tumultuous in an instant at the behest of storms and magicians. Or so the stories she’s been told say. Same with her dreams and the briny whispers of the wind that blow fickle and winsome by her face.
She stares at the sea and how sometimes, it changes color as the light hits it. Not that there is much light even as morning breaks here. The cliffs and beach seem shrouded in fog and clouds that threaten rain. Which she doesn’t mind of course! It’s just dreary and different but in a way that kind of makes Moonlet happy.
Moonlet never noticed the unnatural shadows, how almost draconic they looked. Never even heard the grunt over the noise of the waves. She’d been so intent on her course that she’d run right past all the strange goings-on that she’d normally have noticed and given more thought to. Because who wouldn’t want to encounter a dragon?!
Then she hears it - the slam of something thick and meaty against solid stone and she whips her head around to see what made such a sound. Her eyes fill with amazement as the dragon reveals himself and a little “Oh!” escapes and a smile starts to find its way to her face. “You’re a dragon!” she cries in delight before realizing she ought to show him more respect.
The little bay humbly nods and responds to his question now that she’s toned down some of her excitement. “I’m Moonlet,” she answers, more than delighted to be in the presence of a creature she’s only ever dreamed about. Thousands of questions flood her mind that she wants to ask but she refrains from doing so out of politeness and the sheer fact that she’s in his presence.
@[Leilan] poor Lei! and to be stuck with Moonlet who’s in awe of him. Lol
She's... everything unexpected. From her not expecting to see me at all, to the way she reacts... dare I say starstruck? It's not my persona or my reputation that proceeds me, she only stares at the scales, the wings, my overall shape and... weirdly she admires it.
She might have made me self-conscious if she were older or I younger, but now I'm an old man looking at a girl who's impressed with nearly everything around her. I snort, producing cold air in the morning, one or two snowflakes forming in the humid Nerinian air as I stare back at her with icy blue eyes. "Surprise." The dry comment leaves my throat almost instinctually, a lifetime of jokes and smirks a habit I don't easily shake. As if I were out and about just to surprise someone from the shadows, or with my dragon shape.
I'd donned it for a battle with my inner demons, but the little fairy-eyed girl looks more like she found a dream come true. I grit my teeth as she tells me her name, Moonlet - just as dreamy as I'd expect. "Moonlet. You didn't knock." I accuse her of waltzing into Nerine unannounced. I've steeled myself again - built the ice walls in my chest that I didn't know had toppled over in the moment I decided to let anger rule me this night. Now, I just want to know what she's doing here. Is she spying? She doesn't know a single thing about Nerine if she doesn't know it has a dragon for a king now, so it's unlikely, but not impossible. Did someone send her? Is Straia watching through her eyes? No - she'd have sent ravens. Lilliana maybe - attempting to find out if he's reasonable or not. No, she would have come herself, or asked Heartfire.
She doesn't look like a new recruit, and she remains a mystery.
I'm not in the mood for mysteries today, and I glare while I await her answer. She'd better come up with something good, fast.
I just wanna be someone well, doesn’t everyone?
Image commissioned by Vanilla, made by AshesDrawn on DA
@[Moonlet]
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
10-24-2020, 10:08 AM (This post was last modified: 10-24-2020, 10:10 AM by Moonlet.)
Oh he is mesmerizing! Similar to how serpents charm onlookers, she too, is similarly charmed by his stature and snorting breath. Even more amazing how he produces cold air and snowflakes instead of the usual cinders and smoke she’d have expected from a dragon, not even knowing that dragons of different kinds existed.
Moonlet cannot look away despite knowing that staring is rude. So, since rudeness is all she can manage at the moment, she continues to stare at him and take in as much of the magnificent dragon as she can because she’s almost certain she’ll never encounter another in her lifetime. It never even occurs to her that he could so easily shorten that lifetime with a snap of his jaws or a blast of frigid air from his snout.
She laughs at his comment, entirely too thrilled with their encounter that she overlooks his dry humor and runs with her own delight at keeping a dragon’s company, however temporary that might be. “A surprise indeed! But one of the best of the morning so far,” she admits happily. Because why shouldn’t she not be happy to meet a grumpy old dragon in a place like this, so stark and beautiful?
Moonlet is chastised for not knocking but her face breaks into a grin as she takes a step closer to him. She is emboldened by excitement and adrenaline that courses through her bloodstream; “Sorry but I didn’t see a door to knock on so I found a secret back way in.” The girl is joking of course; she crossed lands and trespassed and knows it but didn’t consider the consequences.
Didn’t consider the possibility that a dragon might stop and accost her for her trespass. But she blathers on, still bold and quite harmless. “I know I wasn’t invited but I just wanted to see the cliffs and the sea. I didn’t think anyone would mind…” there might be a hint of remorse in her voice as she addressed him. He seemed a bit suspicious for a dragon…
“I guess I should ask if these are your cliffs and your sea…” her head droops just a bit but she never takes her eyes off him. She couldn’t anyway, he was entirely too enchanting!
@[Leilan] couldn’t help myself from replying so quickly lol!
The overall feeling I get from this encounter is... weird. And not entirely taken seriously - I never wondered how that felt for everyone else, but I guess it’s not a nice feeling. Sure, she is enthralled and all that, but she refuses to acknowledge that I’m anything else but a pretty reward for her sneaking around. I bare my teeth a little, remembering my feelings of last night, of this morning before she messed it all up.
Truth be told, I would have said a similar thing. Too bad she’s standing near a rock wall - the one I had hidden against, slammed my scaled tail at - and I raise what would have been a brow, had it not been all scaly. ”There’s people living here, you know. No-one minds a visitor here I believe, but not announcing yourself is rude.” As is staring at me like that, I guess. ”I normally eat spies.” I tilt my head at her, wondering if the spell will ever break - perhaps it won’t.
”They are. I’m what they call king in the North, though I prefer my old title.” I glare past her towards the grey beach, as if it holds answers for me. I often still wonder what got me into this mess in the first place. Loyalty for a land that doesn’t stand for me? Love for a woman, or two, or just for my mother? ”So what now? Are you gonna stay or should I eat you?” I ask matter of factly, though my eyes may show a hint of emerald - but she wouldn’t know what that means, so to her it’s not the dead giveaway it is to others.
they say I did something bad then why’s it feel so good?
Image commissioned by Vanilla, made by AshesDrawn on DA
@[Moonlet]
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
11-01-2020, 10:42 AM (This post was last modified: 11-01-2020, 10:45 AM by Moonlet.)
She’s the ordinary daughter of a hippogriff-mimicking father and a plant-shifting mother; of course she’s not afraid of dragons! The far fetched is in her bloodline, just lacking in her but their boldness is not. Besides, doesn’t one have to be brave to a dreamer these days? Since dreams are silly and all. Just like his grumpiness is, charming and silly.
Moonlet watches him bare his teeth a bit but still is anything but enchanted by this encounter because it is beyond her wildest dreams to have a conversation with a grumpy dragon next to some cliffs and a mighty roaring sea. That’s the stuff of stories right there! If only she had someone to tell them to… like a little brother or sister, or even to her mother.
“I’m sure there are,” she spits back just as quickly and still rather rudely, not all going to further apologize for her trespass or appease the grumbly dragon just to soothe his ire. “I didn’t see anyone to announce myself to and saw no reason to raise a lot of ruckus first thing in the morning when everyone is usually sleeping.”
She is rather firm in her decision to say that. Impudently so, making her seem like a bratty child back-talking their elder. Moonlet knows better but she’ll not let him get the best of her in that regard even as a smile cracks against the pinched exterior of her face, ruining her attempt to match him with more impudence and anger.
Then she tilts her head and blinks at him; “Who said I was a spy?” It dawns on her that he is naturally suspicious and naturally made that assumption. Which causes her to smile further and laugh at him - yes, the bay girl just laughed at a dragon that just threatened to eat her! “I probably wouldn’t be much of a meal for you but I promise I’m not a spy.”
He blathers on that these are indeed his lands and he’s the king of them. Funny, shouldn’t the king be a horse since horses or what passes for mostly horses these days populate these lands? She’s muddling it all out in her brain and it moves across her face in shadowy expressions too quick to follow until she just settles on the preference he mentioned for another title.
“What was your old title and why do you prefer that to the one you have now?” and she hasn’t decided; she just came to see the cliffs and the sea but it seems like a nice enough land and he’s rather interesting enough to pester. Maybe if she sticks around, he will too. “I’m not sure… I didn’t have a plan beyond watching the sunrise over the sea.”
Until you came along and made the morning all the more interesting!
But she doesn’t tell him that. It’s evident enough in the prick of her ears and the brightness of her eyes and the way she cannot stop watching him. Who knew dragons could be so fascinating to just a regular girl?
The girl is not deterred by my claims, though when she counters rudeness with another rude comment I raise my brow at her. ”A polite visitor would have waited for the morning. You should talk to Lilliana, if you can find her at this hour. Chestnut, blue eyes, star marking. Or find a buckskin called Lethy.” There’s no way I’ll direct her to Brazen and fairies forbid she talks to Nev. But if she can learn not to embarrass herself then maybe she’s worth keeping. If she stops staring at some point, that is.
”I didn’t.” I say to her question next with my signature knowing smirk. If she stops for a second to think about it, she knows it’s true. She’s right about not making much of a meal herself, what with her small stature - I’m more of an elk-eater, and not all of my time at that. Fishing suits me just fine, too, as does grazing - on my other days, so to say. Wouldn’t say off-days, as this would probably count as one. But she wouldn’t know that, so I just let it slide. Instead I occupy my time with watching her go over the information I just gave her, what with me ruling these lands. She doesn’t look like she believes me, and her question indicates such, too.
”I am, and was, Freyr of Icicle Isle.” I look at her directly, the green in my eyes fading for their standard ice blue color as I’m actually serious in that statement. ”The north is united under my name because it suits them to portray a dragon to the world. Not because I like being any kind of king standing far above the rest.”
My head retreats from talking to her directly, shaking my reptilian neck not unlike I might have as a horse, but the gesture isn’t as functional with spikes as it is with mane. Nevertheless scales and ice gleam in the low morning light and the visual might be different, it’s not without a certain effect. ”Then perhaps you need a new plan.” I offer casually, wondering if she had just hopped from one thing into another all her life. Does she want more of a purpose, I wonder?
they say I did something bad then why’s it feel so good?
Image commissioned by Vanilla, made by AshesDrawn on DA
@[Moonlet]
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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