"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
What? Why had he looked at her like that, with an unspoken question? Cheri caught her distant uncle’s glance and wanted to ask, but more curious about the world outside her home than the world turning inside her relative, she decided to keep the nagging suspicion to herself. Why worry about what he was thinking? If Reave had reservations about her coming along he wouldn’t have invited her, right?
He smiled and Cheri smiled right back.
If he doubted her interest in their little adventure, it was only because he probably didn’t know Cheri very well. She was annoyingly interested in fables, constantly taking off whenever she could in search of fairy glens or magic portals. By day she hunted for treasure in the endless redwood forest, certain that some horse in the past had once left an important relic or memento behind for future residents to uncover. By night, she filled her belly with tales of hidden places beyond their known world, and for dessert she’d lean back and close her eyes, picturing herself mounting snowy summits or unearthing hidden caverns.
The little daughter of a bejeweled, butterfly mare and a goat-bearded, glowing stallion turned out to be a treasure hunter at heart. Her parents knew that much and more about her, but Reave? Maybe he couldn’t tell by first appearances.
Her petite head turned, and Cheri looked out at all that lay beyond the boundaries of their herdland. Loess… A place she’d only memorized and been given memories of; her father and Borderline had traveled outside the once-great Kingdom, never straying inward. What she and Reave were looking at now was as close to anything she’d ever pictured.
“I think it looks kind of empty, you know? Open.” She mused at first, talking while thinking over her answer to Reave's inquiry about the place. “But it’s got a strange beauty to it.” Cheri murmured. Interested, she lifted her black velvet nose to the wind and wuffed at the breeze, enjoying the strange, new smells.
Her uncle-cousin leaned in close, and Cheri flicked an ear towards him, then both eyes. “Um yes, I want to see the hot spring! I can’t believe you -” She huffed out a laugh, stepping past the line-that-strangers-crossed (as if were nothing and her heart wasn’t speeding up just a tiny bit at the thought.)
“- you’ve already been out here before, haven't you? What other secrets do you know about?” She suddenly wanted to know.
As he studies her in that curiously open way of his, he is able to watch the memories curl around her like smoke on a breeze. Some are barely there, a wisp quickly swept away by the wind. But others hover, caught in a pocket of motionless air. Those are the ones that find him, tell him of her bedtime dreams of uncovering the wealth of the world hidden in all it’s smallest crevices. He smiles then, because he knows. He knows without doubt they are far more similar than they are different.
His gaze shifts back to the open, rocky expanse of Loess as she muses on it, admiring its beauty. And it is beautiful, in a vastly different way than Taiga is beautiful. Reave is rarely one to pause and ponder the landscape or wonder at its loveliness. But through her eyes, in the shadows of her emotions strung around her like fairy lights, he can see it. And he can admire it.
He is easily distracted however with little to say on the subject of newness or charm. And so the cheeky suggestion to visit the hot spring quickly spills from his lips. It would undoubtedly be trespassing, but that was hardly an event that had stopped Reave in the past. It would certainly not stop him today either.
A fact Cheri seems easily able to discern as she eyes him with a sudden understanding and suspicion dawning. His grin widens at her question, and without answering, he jolts forward, tossing an impertinent glance over his shoulder at her as he does so. It’s only as he’s cantering towards the west that he finally shouts back, “Of course!”
The hot spring is not far, and when he skids to halt near it’s edge, faintly breathless, he glances back to ensure Cheri had followed him. He’s quickly discovering it’s rather delightful having another around to share his adventures with. He thinks he could probably get used to this. “If you stick around, maybe I’ll show you some of my other secrets.”
Cheri was finding Reave a colt of few words but plentiful actions. He had a quickness, a way of observing everything rapidly and acting just as fast so that Cheri could hardly keep up, but she enjoyed the pace of things. In the span of a single morning they'd moved immediately from introductions to adventure and then went straight to rule-breaking, no stops in between, and Cheri felt breathlessly excited at the idea of being whipped through an afternoon like a leaf on the wind.
What else was there to do? She could’ve stayed behind and been bored, which … yea, no. Cheri could’ve tried to convince him not to go any further also, as if Reave would’ve listened. She didn’t have any plans, except to return back before it got too dark outside, but that condition was hours away still. They had sunshine and some good vibes going; Cheri was happy enough to rear up and leap out into a galloping chase behind her cousin, rather than dwell on the several reasons she could think of not to wander into a Kingdom’s land.
The air was just crisp enough outside; the perfect temperature despite the season. It felt good against Cheri’s fur while she ran, and covered up the sound of her rolling hoofbeats when she flicked her ears back-and-forth. Little did she know that this day would be one of the last beautiful ones, but perhaps that made the moment even sweeter - its incorruptability couldn’t be tarnished by the future or the past. There was only this moment: a memory of the day she left Taiga with Reave to see the hot springs. Cheri lifted her nose to the sun and smiled, right as they came to a stop near the waters.
She followed her friend down a rabbit’s path through the joshua trees, scattering pebbles and rocks left and right. The grit and sandy clay felt surprisingly good, very firm, not like the spongy loam throughout Taiga that muffled a horse’s steps. The black filly tucked her wings closer to her sides and nibbled around as she walked, curious about the sharp tastes that bit her tongue. It wasn’t until their hike scared a few birds from their nest that Cheri finally looked up to see the quiet lip of the bathing pool, and she halted hesitantly at Reave’s hip, looking between her mischievous family member and the steaming water as he talked.
“If they’re anything like this one, they might be worth sticking around for.” Cheri shot back, not one to be upbraided. She laughed, however, revealing a forgiving nature underneath the wittiness. Reave could comfortably tease her; Cheri had a twin brother, after all. “Is it safe to swim in?” She asked, sliding past him.
In truth, Reave has never known any other way of existence. Where she feels caught in the whirlwind of his swift decisions and even swifter actions, Reave falls easily into the normalcy of the pattern. There is rarely a day that passes in which Reave is not seeking something. Most days, he isn’t quite sure what it is he seeks, but he always knows he will recognize it when he finds it.
As wild and reckless a way as it is to live life, the red and white colt could imagine no other existence.
Where Cheri finds delight in the novelty of the day with it’s strange scents and tastes, Reave finds delight in her companionship. In having another soul to share this with. To show these wonders and experience the thrill. The fact that they are doing something which they probably should not is barely a blip on his radar. As a boy who has yet to be burdened with the consequences of life, it is a thing barely worth considering. She had been perfectly correct in her assumption that Reave would not have listened to any warnings she gave.
The sun is bright overhead, the air crisp and clear, giving rise to steam as the pool lay quietly enticing before them. Just as he had the first time he’d found this place, she seems impossibly curious. His grin widens when she asks if it’s safe to swim in. With a faint shrug, Reave replies casually, “I guess we better find out.”
The words are barely even out of his mouth before he has jolted forward to leap into the spring with alacrity. The water sprays in a wide arch beneath his heft, undoubtedly soaking her if she had not already leapt in after him. A laugh escapes his lips as he shakes water from his short, pale locks before turning to peer brightly at his cousin.
For Cheri, the reckless freedom Reave possessed would come in due time. Her petals, unlike his, had not expanded and unfurled with strength; they were slow-moving things, still tethered to their roots in Taiga. He might not think twice about hastily-made decisions, but Cheri could hardly get them out of her mind. She observed him casually once more, the way he shrugged her concerns away with a heft of his narrow, bony shoulders, and watched with a bemused sort of expression as he leapt into the steaming pool. Reave, she thought as she shook water off her head, seems free of chains.
Cheri wasn’t sure if she envied him because of it, or if she pardoned his choices because they were novelty. It was fun to stray far from home for no other reason than the excitement of it, but she glanced back knowingly toward the scrubland obscured by the thick growth of spring-fed trees: if something disturbed them, something bad, her life would be Reave’s to defend. He had powers—Cheri didn’t, and she was far too young to fly away to safety.
She looked back at her cousin waiting, and with a surge of rare terror (the kind that exhilarated the senses, when you trust someone implicitly for no other reason that to trust) Cheri bolted down the short bank and jumped with a childish hop into the springs alongside Reave.
The water felt warm on her skin, prickly like the strange, bulbous plants that grew everywhere here. Cheri delighted in the way it felt on her fur, how it sank into her limbs and permeated the air with a pungently sulfuric taste. There was nothing like this in the entirety of the forest, and after returning Reave’s favor by stomping her hooves and thrashing waves at him, Cheri panted from the exertion and peered down into the impossibly clear pool.
“This was fun. I don’t want to go back, get old, and get stuck in Taiga.” She admitted. “Do you?” The filly asked suddenly, perking her black ears and lifting her face to glance at Reave.
The warm pool is not terribly deep, lending perfectly to such childish romps. Reave had been thrilled upon his first discovery of it, though he had been much more cautious in testing the waters the first time around. He may be reckless, but he is not entirely foolish (though truth be told, the majority of his common sense comes directly from Lilli).
He does not share her uncertainty however. Does not fret at the short distance between them and the Taigan border. Perhaps it is because of his abilities. Or perhaps it is merely because he has yet to fully comprehend consequence. Either way, it serves only to bolster his own reckless bravery.
A laugh escapes his lips as Cheri splashes waves at him in retaliation, and he does not hesitate in doing the same. There is a sense of timelessness in the moment. An eternal bubble where two children splash joyfully in the warm embrace of a shallow spring, losing themselves in the freedom of being so young and without responsibilities.
It is only broken when Cheri finally pauses, gaze falling into the depths of the clear pool. Reave too stills, caught immediately in the trepidation and seriousness of the moment. He draws close, vibrant blue eyes fixed on her, curious what had brought this about. He doesn’t answer for a moment, in part because he’s not entirely certain how, but mostly because it has never been a fear of his.
“I think,” he begins slowly, lips slipping into a frown as his expression turns thoughtful, “you would only get stuck if you let yourself get stuck.” He pauses then, his own curiosity pressing at him as he stares at her with a surprisingly sharp gaze. “Why do you think you would?”
Reave’s legs disturbed the water so much that Cheri couldn’t see her reflection in the aqua-blue surface anymore. She looked up to see that he’d moved closer and smiled, offering him a shrug.
“I’d miss mother and father a lot. Probably Rey and Mem, too.” Cheri tacked her siblings on at the end as a joke; of course she would miss them, her twin especially. That went without mentioning all of their other family: Uncle Nash and his reclusive mate Noel, whom Cheri had never really seen. Their children, her cousins, and all the other extended roots that created a strong network of family throughout the North.
Even Reave’s absence would be felt. Now that she knew him better, Cheri could see herself going off on adventures with him all the time. He was bold without much reservation, which was a character trait she admired in the way that children admire atypical heroes.
“Wouldn’t you miss Lilliana?” She asked him, nearly following the question with another one about his father, but she stopped herself. At the last second Cheri realized she had no idea who Reave’s sire was, and that it would probably be kind of rude to just ask him a personal question. Lilliana had lots of children and so did her Pappa Yan; where they came from didn’t matter much to Cheri.
She pushed one hoof out into the water and let it trail gently back and forth, enjoying how lightweight it felt against the resistant tug. Light played across the surface, sparkling and casting little specks of dancing flames over the rocks surrounding the warm spring, and Cheri sighed contentedly. There was something to be said about sun exposure, how it felt like a friendly embrace or an emblazoned lover. Cheri’s black fur was probably as hot as molten lava to the touch.
They would have to go back soon. She would have to, even if Reave wanted to stay out and look at the stars. The dawning hour crept forward but Cheri stayed put, listening to Reave and his musings with a lazy, half-asleep smile. I’ll convince him to do this again, she told herself. The fun shouldn’t be over just because the day ended. She determined that she’d beg Reave to take her out on another adventure, or hopefully several, so that when the time came for her to finally leave home for good, Cheri would look forward to the goodbyes.
It would’ve almost been ironic, considering what adventures their world had in store for them all soon enough.
It comes as no surprise that Reave is not a creature given to philosophy. He has never truly paused to dwell on such abstract musings. Never stopped to imagine whether Taiga might be his home forever. It feels like home, but of course he has never known any other place in the way that he knows Taiga. But by the same taken, neither had he ever felt trapped by it.
Though Lilli had often cautioned him against wandering beyond the borders, Reave had always taken them as suggestions rather than commands. And his sweet and (perhaps too) doting mother had never truly taken him to task for his many adventures. After all, at the end of the day, he always found his way home to curl by her side near the hollow stone that was all that remained of Brazen. But tonight Lilli would not be home, and the knowledge feels rather hollow in his chest. There would be no one for him to curl up against besides the cold shell of his birth mother.
So, in many ways, it would be so much simpler to remain here, lost in this moment with a friend, forgetting that which waited for him at home.
“I would,” he admits after a somewhat lengthy silence, his own expression now contemplative. “But I can always go back whenever I want.”
As the sun begins to fade over the horizon, Reave shifts to stare in the direction of the dense and misty wood hidden behind a short span of stone and scrubby foliage. “I don’t see why we can’t explore the world and come home after.” His gaze shifts back to Cheri, surprisingly sage despite his very brief age. “That doesn’t feel stuck to me.”
Then, with a grin and gentle nudge against Cheri’s cheek, Reave turns and climbs from the water. He doesn’t stand to leave though, instead settling against the warm stone ringing the spring before flopping onto his side to dry his fur in the fading sunset.
“We should do this again Cheri.” He sighs happily, finding himself feeling truly free for the first time he can remember. “This is so much nicer when I can share it with someone.”
