"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
02-19-2021, 01:36 PM (This post was last modified: 02-19-2021, 01:39 PM by lilliana.)
There is a memory in Taiga for @[Ori], if the gold champagne ever reaches the Northern forest.
There is a memory, left buried beneath the finely-ground sand on a beach that doesn't ebb or fade with the tides. Lilliana buried it there a long time ago, because those who would have understood it were long gone. 'Their never coming back,' she had told Elena on a star-filled and lonely night. 'No matter what happens,' she had said, her voice nearly choking on the confession. Because what else could it feel like to a Legacy residing outside of the ancient valley than some kind of sacrilege? 'They are never coming back.' Her palomino cousin had stayed within Taiga for a time after that, looking after her eldest sons when Lilliana had been whisked away to Pangea as a captive.
When she had returned from the sandstone kingdom, there had only been an apology. The name of a place called Terrastella (a place full of sunshine and sunflowers) and the name of a goddess that Lilliana had never heard of. Her beloved cousin was gone again and the chestnut was left alone.
She doesn't expect to see her again. She certainly doesn't expect to see any other of her kin. They are all in Paraiso, safe and protected. For the ones who weren't there, they were in Windskeep. That was all that mattered to Lilliana; her remaining family was together and they were safe. For years, she has told herself that is all she needs to know. There is a family here that needs her: children and grandchildren, deep and lasting friendships have been made. She adopts the title her valiant father once held and calls herself a Guardian like her sire and grandsire before her. This, she tells herself (much like her mother before her), is all she needs.
It's been years since she has last seen her prophet-cousin Marcelo and his younger sister, laughter-loving Ori.
This story begins as it so often does for Lilli. A breeze that tugs on her windswept mane. She doesn't often give in to the Winds like she was apt to do when she was younger but this one is incessant; it pushes past her once, twice, thrice until the Taigan moves away from the familiar borders of her protected Redwood home and into the Common Lands. The River bubbles over a generation's worth of smooth stone, beckoning the flame-marked mare towards it. She follows the hum of the current, wishing for the light of Leonidas and hoping that her bonded was safe (wherever the stars had gone during this Eternal Night). Hyaline and her mountain range loom on one side of Lilli. The hills of Loess roll away from her on the other.
She only stops at the edges of the Forest, where the shadows behind her eyes darken. Lilliana contemplates using the last of her glow to venture in but decides to turn away from it. The wind blows again; urgent, relentless, insistent. The chestnut tosses her slender head against, letting her curling mane tangle more and her ears flick forward and then back. She does turn away but then the wind carries another message: a sign. It is a scent (not like Elena but there is a familiarity in it) that she knows. Lilliana pushes off towards the direction of the smell, no longer feeling the tug of the breeze or the song of the River. Her steps come faster and faster until -
Until there is a shimmer of gold, a shade that they all seem to carry in some hue or another.
"Ori?" she disbelievingly asks the gilded silhouetted, illuminated only from the silver-blue glow that comes shining from Valerio's daughter.
It was a strange feeling, being a wanderer. As someone who had always had a home, who had always had a family waiting for her with open arms, being without a place to settle down in comfort for the night was something the gold champagne had never experienced before. Not that it was a bad thing, but it was different to what Ori had experienced. It was new, and in newness there can often be discomfort in letting go of what one always knew.
However, Ori had wanted this. She had wanted to see the world, wanted to experience whatever it had to offer, to step outside the secluded land that was her home, that would always be her home. She remembered the tug, the yearning to go beyond the borders of Paradise, wishing to run as far as her legs would take her.
But she always hesitated.
Her family was right there, in that verdant land. Those who she loved, who cherished her as much as she did them. Why would she ever want to leave? She would shake her head and let her rusty mane tussle as she trotted back from the border to start a game with her nephew or half-sister. She had everything she ever could have wanted.
That didn’t change the feelings, though. The desire within her to reach beyond what she knew, to race far into the distance, into the magical lands of stories she had been told as a filly, of places and people she could only dream of. Although she quieted it at first, eventually, that voice within her grew louder, and she, Ori, who put on the bravest of smiles for everyone, was afraid of it.
What would happen to her mother, who was often woken by regret and terror, of things that could no longer physically hurt her? Who would be there, by her side to comfort her and tell her everything was alright?
What about Marcelo? Who would bump his nose and tell him to focus on the now instead of what might be? Who would laugh along with him and remind him that he was still young, that he had every right to loosen up?
And Brighid, Emily, James, Uncle Val, and… the list just stretched on too far. What would they do without her? What would she do without them? It was something unthinkable, something that couldn’t come to pass. She was happy here, with her family, and would live her whole life in peace within the valley caressed by the mountains, held safely within a special magic.
Of course, she couldn’t hide from herself forever, and eventually, it was intuition from others who saved her. She remembered the evening when her body was too charged to rest, too awake to even think about sleeping. She had walked the many trails through the forest until she was eventually in front of the thundering falls, and climbed the paths that led above it. Her mother had been there, pacing and speaking to the heavens. It didn’t take long for the sunset peg to notice the champagne girl’s presence, and inquire into it.
It didn’t take much longer for Ori’s emotions to overtake the lie she tried to tell herself. Surprisingly, though, instead of some kind of scolding for wanting more than she had, she found herself under a wing, as her mother’s eyes softened further, and she gave one of those shy, gentle smiles.
“Ori, my love, if wandering to the very edges of this world will bring you happiness, that is all I could ever wish for. See it all, experience it all, if that is your want. But, if you ever should need to come home, we will always be waiting for you.”
Her mother’s voice was warm, and there was love in it, but also a quiet pain, a reservation, and knowing that she was in pain made Ori hurt too.
“But what about everyone else?”
“We’ll all be fine,” her mother paused a moment to think before continuing, “In honesty, it would probably hurt everyone more to know that you wanted to leave but were keeping yourself here for our sakes. You are loved, and sometimes that means being willing to let someone go.” Her attention was fully-focused on Ori, but the girl got the feeling that her mother was also referring to a lesson that she had learned on her own.
“Okay… but only if you’re sure.” Ori felt her dual-toned eyes welling up as the realization hit her. She would be leaving, and that would mean that she wouldn’t see them, but she wanted it, and she couldn’t escape that wanting.
“Of course I am.” Before long, the pair were crying together, embracing one another with everything they were worth. Within the next few days, Ori had said her farewells and left the ancient valley. Perhaps someday she’d return. Maybe she’d never see it again in her lifetime. No matter what, though, it would always be her home, the place her heart could return to if she was ever bogged down by the pains of life.
The weeks had passed as Ori had traveled through many new places that expanded her horizons as she chased the real one down. She saw many beautiful things, stunning landscapes and met other travelers like herself before she came across a true oddity.
It was the middle of the day, yet the sky was dark. Only a small crescent of light in the sky remained as she wandered ever further into the darkness. She shivered, partially from the cold, but partially because something felt so deeply wrong here. It wasn’t like she was trying to venture towards the darkness, but it seemed to overtake her all the same as the trees blended together and she got more and more hopelessly lost.
Where exactly was the way out? The champagne took a moment to stop and look around her. In a way, it was all beautiful too. The darkened trees that only found small glimpses of light, yet stood proud in spite of it. Spooky and mysterious, yet new, interesting, and, to Ori, worthy of being called beautiful.
In spite of that small moment of calm, there was also a sense that something could be watching her. Like in those old stories, there may well be something lurking in the darkness, just out of sight. Her heart thrummed as she thought of each and every one - Stop it! You’re just scaring yourself. Just breathe. It will be okay.
Wind ruffled through her fiery mane, over her golden body, and with it, a reminder of family. It was familiar and kind. A sense of calm eased the tightness within her. She wasn’t sure how, but it really would be alright. It was like home, like a time before Paraiso had returned, the burbling brooks that would sing in her ears, and the hours she spent chasing her brother and cousins before they’d collapse in a heap of laughter.
“Ori?” The voice catches her ears, and she turns towards it, to be met with the copper form and azure pools of-
“Lilli!” She exclaimed, as a smile filled her face. Her cousin was here, and she was thrilled to see her. She took a few cantering steps forwards before sliding to a stop, lurching her head with the sudden stop to stay a respectful distance (she would have closed the distance fully, but a sudden memory of Marcelo scolding her that not everyone wants to be nearly tackled as a greeting), though she looked towards Lilli with the silent question if it was okay to close the gap. It felt like it had been such a long time since she’d seen Lilli, and she seemed like she’d grown a lot! (Or… maybe it was just Ori’s imagination? Something seemed different than her memory, for sure, but right now wasn’t the time for that)
“Lilli!” She gasped, dual eyes solely focused on her and seeming to forget everything else she was just worried about. “It’s been so long, I- How have you been? It’s so good to see you!” Ori chirped, stumbling a little over her words as she corrected her mouth as her brain thought of them.
For that moment, everything was just like it had been, like no time had passed at all since they were playing together when they were young. However, she knew deep down that of course things had changed. Something in Lilli’s face told her that things had happened to her cousin, things that Ori didn’t know about. But, as many heavy and tired faces as had been in Paraiso, there had been just as many smiles from Ori to cheer them up. No matter what had happened, she would be there for her family, as she always had been.
02-19-2021, 10:05 PM (This post was last modified: 02-19-2021, 10:08 PM by lilliana.)
For a moment, Lilliana just stops.
She stands there and she waits for the shadowy stranger to tell that she is mistaken, that whoever Ori is, it is not her. (It wouldn't be the first time. No matter how much time has passed, Lilli is always searching the lines of unfamiliar faces for a glimpse of the family she left behind.) The rational part of her mind is preparing her for the taller mare to turn and look at her, for Lilliana to fully see her and find that the angles are all wrong. The eyes are a wrong shade of green. The brandished gold is muddier hue.
But even as Lilliana understands that her world is all wrong, she knows she is right about this. This is Ori. This is the playmate who had raced and kicked up her heels alongside herself and Elena and Orani. She had grown up with them in Murmuring Rivers, had listened to Jay recite the names of stars with the reverence of prayers as they fell asleep, and been tempted one too many times to find trouble with Brielle. They had all watched Marcelo struggle with his ability to see the future, the things that may or may not come to pass.
Lilli, her cousin calls her. Somebody who remembers who Lilli had been. That girl, the one that vividly remembers their last meeting (does Ori remember? When Aletta had brought her grandchildren out to the Pass with Brynn, Malachi and Kalina had followed with a newborn Kildare, and the yearling twins Tarian and Liam had kicked up the new-fallen snow. Ruth, Paraiso's beloved General, had been there with Marcelo and Ori and a spindle-legged Brighid had followed. Kildare had been persuaded to leave his mother's side and even Elena and Lilli had joined in, squealing and tossing their refined heads to the brisk breezes that whipped all around them. The laughter that day had been as bright as the winter sunshine. It is one of the last memories Lilliana has of her family together, one of the few happy ones that have helped hold her fragile heart together.)
"Ori?" she asks again, as if repeating the name will turn her cousin into a mirage. Lilliana is afraid to blink. Ori could be an apparition. If she closes her eyes, the champagne mare might vanish.
"It's been so long," and Lilliana exhales before laughing, a chiming sound that breaks the quiet between them. "It's been a lifetime," she tells the other mare. She is quick to close the space between them and her blue eyes trace over the slender shape of the long-limbed girl, seeing so much of Ruth in her (Lilliana had never known Zamier; she had only known him as one of their Legacy fables, a story of love and sacrifice and family). "I," she starts, still trying to grapple with the presence of her cousin.
Ori was here. In Beqanna.
She looks up briefly to where the faint halo of the eclipse hung in the sky and there a thousand things she wants to say.
"You're here," she says again when her blue eyes go seeking out the champagne mare again. "I've been," Lilliana starts to tell her cousin (there is more that story but how she explains dragons and Curses and her children and her home and all the time that has passed since they last saw each other is something she isn't sure how to yet tell) and then just gives her slender head a shake, a smiling blooming instead. "Winds, @[Ori]. It is so good to see you."
But what was she doing here?
"Your mother?" she asks, suddenly afraid that something has happened to her Valerio's right hand. Had something happened to Paraiso? Suddenly, the years come rushing back in a torrent and Lilliana finds herself starved for news of home, drowning in worries. "Marcelo?" she questions with a knot twisting in her chest, "Paraiso?"
And then comes the question that had been lodged at the back of her throat.
She carefully picked her hooves up over the unknown terrain, similar to but not quite the same as the ancient forests in her own homeland. The shade cast over everything was unlike anything Ori had ever known before, and an odd, distant sense of dread crept over her. However, Ori tried to keep in good spirits. She hummed to herself and gave her walk a slight bounce (in spite of the ever so slight trembling and hesitance that found its way through). No matter what, she would not be put afoul by this turn of events. She would find her way out, and she would be alright.
Surely it was all in her imagination and it would pass as well. It was within the nature of life to experience change, that nothing would remain as it was forever. The world simply didn’t appreciate such a place of stagnation. Even back in Paraiso or Murmuring Rivers, her childhood homes, after each winter was a new and dazzling spring, and every path she loved to walk down had somewhat changed. One of the bird families had moved, leaving an empty nest, a new butterfly bush chose to grow and had its own colorful company, or a tree from last season had begun to really claim its place within the forest.
Ori loved watching the change and growth, although the inevitability of what would eventually come for all life did leave a bit of an ache in her heart. She believed that wherever souls went after their lives, it was a good and happy place, filled with light. Her father and countless others who never came home were watching over her from that place, and their love filled her breast as she walked on. No, she wasn’t alone.
Although the gold champagne had never known her father personally, she was always told that he loved her, and she believed it. In those moments where she was alone or afraid and courage, light, and love suddenly and unexpectedly bloomed within her to share, she knew that he was watching over her, as he surely was even now.
At the moment she had stopped to breathe and get her bearings, when her cousin’s familiar voice called out her name, she turned, dual-toned eyes taking in her cousin’s russet form in the dim light, and it all came flooding back to her. The times they played, the stories they would listen to, the quiet evenings they would insist to stay just a little longer before someone older insisted it was time to sleep, the plains that burbling brooks ran through, and all of it. She held those precious years of growing up in a special place in her mind, and seeing Lilli for the first time again brought them rushing back like the waterfall of the land they called home.
“Ori?” @[lilliana]'s voice repeated, and the girl nodded. Who else could it be? Besides that, the sound of her name from Lilli’s voice is one she didn’t know she missed as much as she did.
After Ori’s statement of the time that had elapsed, Lilliana laughed. It isn’t a demeaning or hurtful laugh, but a kind one. The type that just happens and slides past your lips, and it’s such a beautiful sound. It’s familiar, and she’s happy to hear it. “It’s been a lifetime.” The chestnut agrees, and she closes the remaining halfway between them.
Her cousin’s face with azure eyes and the reddish mane that swooped next to her face just so… it was so beautiful, and she was happy to sit there and analyze all the beauty that her cousin had. (really that her whole family had, and that she quietly thought every day) In her cousin’s face, there was Valerio and Aletta, as well as traces of shared traits amongst her siblings, but the way they met and certain parts of her face were so distinctly Lilli that Ori cemented the identity in her mind.
Her cousin started to speak, then stopped herself, and Ori kept her ears pricked and kept green and brown eyes trained on her cousin. The girl was used to start-and-stop sentences as others around her searched for the right words to say (she had done it a few times, herself) and would wait patiently for whatever words came.
Lilli shook her slender head, and her crimson mane tussles with the movement. Ori marveled at the way the tiny amount of light wavered with it, and just… how grown-up her cousin looked.
“Winds, Ori. It is so good to see you.” Ori grinned, as the turn of phrase was such a testament to the Legacy family, of their innate ability to understand and shape the winds. The change, the calm, and the force of those zephyrs supposedly present within the blood of her family. She had never inherited the exact ability to bend the winds, but the wanderlust within her must have been at least partly their influence. Her finding her way to Beqanna, in front of her cousin as she was now… surely it couldn’t just be coincidence.
“It’s great to see you too, Lilli!” She beamed, the smile evident in her tone as she tried to think of one of the dozens of questions she could ask her cousin. Most importantly, how she had been, but other than that, where she was, and what was going on, but all that could wait, as Lilli’s expression shifted.
“Your mother?” Her tone was concerned, and it was only then that Ori understood that her presence outside of Paraiso could mean something wholly different than a journey of self-discovery. “Marcelo?” He was also fine, but there wasn’t enough of a break in her cousin’s (rightfully) frightened questions for her to get a word in. “Paraiso?” They were all fine, too... she watched the anxiety rise on Lilli’s face, and kicked herself internally for not explaining anything sooner.
“My father?”
Those two words were what fully broke Ori’s heart in that moment. It was a misunderstanding, sure, but the quiet tone, and the fear that came with each succeeding question hurt Ori. It hurt her for how Lilli must have been hurting, and she tried to think of how she could clear it up.
“No! No nonononono! No, everyone’s fine! Everything’s fine!” She insisted, attempting to dispel the worst of Lilli’s fears with the first phrase as she hurriedly attempted to answer her other questions in turn.
“Mom’s doing alright, she’s kind of busy taking care of Brighid, but she’s talking more to Uncle Val and Lovelace, and she smiles a lot more than she used to.” She remembered how happy yet distant her mother had been upon first arriving back from Windskeep. The blood gold woman was happy to be with her family again and she tried her best to hang onto every moment she could find, but Ori noticed the glimpses of some darkness behind her mother’s eyes. These days, it was much rarer to see, and the odd-eyed champagne sincerely hoped it meant that the peg was starting to heal.
“Marcelo’s fine! He sometimes goes out to Windskeep to check on everyone else, but he seems happy too.” Her older brother had always been on the reserved side (much like everyone in her immediate family, it seemed), but he had always been steadfast and willing to take responsibility, and that reminded her, “In fact, he found someone there. I teased him about it at first, but he really loves her, and I’m glad to see them happy together. Her name is Emily and she’s super great! She has lots of stories about far-off places!” She skipped over most of the story for the time being, but hoped that she’d be able to tell Lilliana more when she wasn’t focusing so hard on trying to tell her as much as possible in as short a time as she could.
“Paraiso is just like it’s always been. It’s still safe, and everyone there is okay.” She spoke as evenly as she could, the previous two phrases having been more chirpy, as she tended to be with matters involving her family, but this one felt more right to speak with a calmer, slower voice, although some of the bounciness seeped a little back into her next words.
“Your dad’s fine, too. I do think he was thinking about stepping down soon to spend more time with your mom.” She did her best to leave room in case the copper mare before her wanted any clarification on anything. Anyone deserved to know what was going on in their homeland, and Ori was more than happy to share, but hoped that would be enough to give some comfort to Lilli that everything was alright.
“Anyways, what about you? How’s everything going for you?” Her voice was laced with interest. There was a lot going on in this place, and she wanted to know what she could about what Lilli had been up to. Catching up with family was always a good thing, especially with someone Ori hadn’t seen in a long time.
Looking up towards where the chestnut mare had looked earlier, then back, she played back and forth with the silent question and whether it would be polite to ask, but in the end found it slipping past her lips with many degrees of uncertainty. “And… um… do you know what’s going on up there?”
02-26-2021, 10:37 PM (This post was last modified: 02-26-2021, 10:40 PM by lilliana.)
There are so many tragedies in their family history.
All those stories - fairytales as some of her Beqanna relations have called them - are filled with heroes and heroines gone too soon. They are filled to the brim with the potential of Magic (how else had they defeated Maverick and Cazador at Windskeep?). But Lilliana has told her children over and over again that Magic has a price and she wonders if she had some proof to give them, that maybe they would understand why their mother is so wary of it.
Why she was so sparse with her own powers.
The most prominent one - the story of Zameir and Ruth - is quick to come across her mind because this is their daughter. Lilliana had learned at a young age to not mention her fallen Uncle, especially after Valerio's return. The death of his elder brother had haunted the Guardian. It wasn't until she was older, until she lost a dear friend that Lilliana thought she understood something of what her sire had felt. There was a certain kind of guilt that came with surviving, in existing after loss. She had attempted to heal Brazen and had failed. Her friend had paid with her life to bring Reave into the world and yet how often had Lilliana thought that it should be the bone-armored mare raising him, kissing his forehead each night and noting the changes as his limbs grew longer and he grew taller.
Even in this darkness when there is so much to worry about, Lilliana still thinks of the more she might have done to spare Brazen her life.
But now, here is Ori shining through the shadows and Lilliana is... the only thing she can think to do is laugh. She reaches for her cousin, wanting to embrace her and to laugh with her, and to weep at the sight of someone from home. The chestnut mare is a tangle of emotions and had the sun been shining, Ori might have seen the way that threatened to spill from her blue eyes.
It's been years since she has had word of home. She had given up dreaming and with it, so had gone her dreams of Elena and Orani. But the champagne mare tells her that everything is fine and the way her heart had started to race paces itself. The tightness in her chest eases and the copper mare pricks her ears, listening and hanging on every word that @[Ori] offers her.
Ruth smiles more than she used to. Brighid has grown. Her cousin mentions Valerio and Lovelace. At that, the dimple in her left cheek emerges. "Is she still healing?" she asks, wistful as she remembers the cave strung with herbs and flowers that the black unicorn had arranged around her den. Lilliana brightens in a way that she hasn't since Elena was last in Hyaline and had told her that Brielle and Roland shared a daughter. "Aletta was here," says her daughter. "Some time ago but a Seer like Marcelo saw it. He saw the waterfall and so she had gone...," Lilliana trails off. "Did she find him?"
(And Ori will know who she means. Who else would Aletta seek out but Valerio? He was the sun and she was his moon; the two of them were an orbit unto themselves.)
Aletta had found him. Her parents had found each other again.
Some stories did have happy endings.
"Emily," she murmurs of Marcelo's paramour. It makes her want to ask a million more questions. Had he met her and immediately saw their future together? Did it come to him in one, bright flashing moment of Fate or had it been a steady trickle, like a stream? "She sounds lovely."
"And Alvaro?" she asks, thinking of her often stern half-brother (the one that reminds her so much of Rosey). "Please tell me that he and Sutton have a brood of children," she laughs. He had been fond of the bay mare and remembers the looks he had given her and Elena when they asked after her. When they had told him the best meadows to find the best blooms to bring her.
"It's such a long story, Ori." Lilliana starts to say.
Almost as long as the lifetime that feels like that has occurred since she last saw any of them.
"I can show you," she offers tentatively. "What I've seen."
She doesn't know how to explain it. Are there words for her story? Zamier had perished outside the little cavern where a newborn Marcelo and a pregnant Ruth had rested, protecting them. Shiri and Chiyoko had faced down Frostbane and paid for it with their lives. Benjamin had offered his life to spare Elena's. So many of their fables end in death and Lilli has often thought those were the true endings.
How does Lilliana explain that the man she had loved had been the monster? How does she explain that her home had been burnt and they were rebuilding? How does she explain the Dragon King and the children they share?
The chestnut casts a glance above to where the Eclipse lingers.
"Welcome to Beqanna," she says with a shake of her delicate head. "As hospitable as it was in my mother's stories." Aletta had warned them. She had recited the tales of the Reckoning and the Plague to her children and yet Lilliana had come anyways. Had made her home here regardless. "The solstice came and then it stayed," she replies. "It's been dark here for weeks. We've been fortunate in Taiga...," she states. Her home, she means. "It's to the west of here and only a few hours by hoof."
As any foal who grew up in Paraiso, Ori was told stories of her ancestors. She remembered the way the adults would offer to tell the stories to foals who refused to go to sleep (okay, so maybe sometimes it was her, but how could she help it? There was so much to do and see and she wasn’t ready to go to sleep just then!), and instantly she would go bright-eyed at the thought of being taken to a place and time so far away, of hearing her favorite stories of brave knights and fair maidens and all those who fought to protect their kingdom, those they loved, and their very lives. Even as lids drooped over mismatched eyes, she would insist to her mother she wanted to hear just one more before she drifted off to the land in her dreams, where those heroes and their epic battles would play once more in her mind’s eye.
She remembered always wanting to be like the people in the stories. She wanted to protect her loved ones and go on incredible adventures to faraway lands. Some part of her still wanted the same, but the part of her that wanted everyone to be okay won over the piece of her that might have wanted that glory.
After all, she had been brought into this world with that gift, that power to make the burdens of those around her lighter, even if just for a little while. She had seen and felt firsthand what the effects of loss and sorrow were, and she promised herself to shine as bright as she could to ease those pains. She wasn’t a healer like Lovelace, nor was she a knight like her brother, father, or uncle, but she was a cheerful, idealistic girl who refused to allow that metaphorical rain cloud to remain over those she loved. In other words, she was Ori, as she continued to be.
However, the right now was way more important than any of that. And in the right now, there were two cousins who laughed in their reunion, gold and crimson that simply stood in the darkness and laughed in spite of what may have been going on around them, in spite of past or future. Nothing could change this present, and Ori fully embraced it.
She embraced the chill that nipped at her body, the darkness that surrounded them and the sliver of light from within it, the labyrinthine forest of towering trees so close to them, and the gentle warmth of Lilli as Ori returned the embrace. There was a joy that bloomed in her chest, that made her feel so light, but also anxiety and gloom that prickled at the back of it. She wanted to make sure Lilli was alright, wanted to somehow take and bear some of the pain that she heard in the chestnut’s voice, but for now… it was enough to stand there and hold onto her. The rest would come in its own time.
The gold champagne held on for a moment before letting go to better look her cousin in the eyes as she spoke (as much as she wanted the contact to last, it seemed more appropriate to speak when looking at someone). @[lilliana] inquired into Lovelace’s activities, and Ori nodded. “Yup!” The unicorn healer had a special place within Paraiso, always so kind and calm. Her demeanor was like the calm strips of water that crisscrossed their ways across Murmuring Rivers; always able to adapt, willing to give, and there for anyone whenever they needed her. The ebony unicorn had always loved the inhabitants of the valley, especially the children, and had taught each of them many things. Before she’d left, she had noted the growing amounts of time that Brighid was spending with the healer and the reverence in which she referred to her.
“Aletta was here some time ago, but a seer like Marcelo saw it. He saw the waterfall and so she had gone… did she find him?” Ori offered a small smile and nod, humming in agreement. It was surprising to hear that this is where Aletta had been in her absence from Paraiso, but it was good that from the sound of it she had been able to see her daughter again, however briefly (the anxiety that the champagne may never see her own mother again attempted to claw its way up the back of her mind, but she shoved it down once again. This time was for Lilli, not those kinds of conversations) The girl of brandished gold remembered when the mare of starlight had come back, and how amazed and happy Valerio had been to see her once again, and she was happy for them.
Speaking of the love she had seen, the story of new love that had blossomed between her brother and the diplomat he had met at Windskeep seemed to hold Lilli’s attention for a bit (which made Ori privately happy) “Emily… she sounds lovely.” Her cousin’s voice was gentle as she considered the abridged tale that the odd-eyed champagne had shared. “Yeah, she is. It took mom a little while to fully let her in, but she’s…” Ori pondered for a moment, attempting to figure out the right way to sum up her feelings on her brother’s lover. “She’s super amazing. They’re lucky to have each other.” Her mind wandered back to watching the pair together, and how well they worked side-by-side. The way they would look at one another and the way Marcelo would get lost in his words and memories about her in much the same way that their mother would when speaking of their father.
The chestnut mare’s voice broke her from those thoughts, “And Alvaro? Please tell me him and Sutton have a brood of children.” Ori snickered, the thoughts of her family of various shades of gold being replaced with her silver black cousin and the bay mare who he shared his affections with. Alvaro had always been so serious when Ori had seen him, and he never seemed to want to join into the antics that the other foals got into (herself included). So she had tried putting on a straighter face whenever he was around so he didn’t feel unincluded or unwanted. Whether she could hold that facade on a maw that was almost always sporting some form of smile or he noticed or appreciated the gesture was still one of the great mysteries of the world to Ori.
Regardless, though, he did care deeply for everyone in the valley, even if he wasn’t as eager to play with everyone else, and the girl figured that none knew that more than Sutton. The one who the warrior would get flustered for and break his stoicism for (however briefly it showed). “It would be kind of disappointing if they didn’t, wouldn’t it?” She began, a mischievous grin upon her face before it melted more to one of contemplation, “Although a brood may be too much to call it… I mean, they have two, but I’m not sure if they’re planning on having any others.” There was a pause for a moment before the sudden memory of something else that Lilli wouldn’t know but should lit up in her mind, “Oh! Speaking of Alvaro, he’s the new Guardian!” There had been a ceremony where Valerio had formally given his duties over to Alvaro, and all those in the valley that could be there had been in attendance to show the new Guardian he had their respect and support.
After she asked after Lilli’s story and her welfare, the russet mare’s face shifted again. Ori quietly wondered if she had said something wrong or if she shouldn’t have asked at all, but the mare’s familiar voice stopped her before she could say that her cousin didn’t have to say anything if she didn’t want to, “It’s such a long story, Ori.”
“That’s alright,” Ori dropped her tone to match the more somber mood, although it still had it’s cheery edge, it wasn’t as loud or sing-songy as it got when discussing matters of family. “I like long stories. I think there’s more to the ones you can’t tell all at once.” Maybe that was just her way of looking at it, the way of a girl who adored the stories she was told but couldn’t sit through a whole thing at once. She would get so squirmy and need to move, to run before she could come back and listen to more. There was a lot to think about with each segment, and she liked to think about it as she played with her friends and family.
However, it was Lilli’s next words regarding the subject that caught the gold champagne off-guard. “I can show you what I’ve seen.”
What did that mean, exactly? Her brow raised as the question raced through her mind. Sure, she was used to magic, and even used to those who could see things she couldn’t, as her mother could dig through history in her mind and recount it piece by piece and her brother could see the roads that could be traversed, but to somehow show someone all of that was beyond her personal experience. Then again, she was always open to new things.
“Okay… yeah! I’m ready when you are.” Although Ori wasn’t entirely sure what she should have been preparing for, it was Lilli, and if it were some kind of magic, she knew that because it was Lilli, she would be gentle and cautious with it. She was among the safest of hooves Ori could find herself in.
At her tentative question regarding the darkened skies, her cousin casts her gaze skywards before returning her blue eyes to Ori’s brown and green ones. “Welcome to Beqanna,” She shook her head once more, leaving silken tresses to follow that motion, “As hospitable as it was in my mother’s stories.” Things grew ever more interesting. Beqanna, Ori repeated in her head. A land where Aletta had been, if not where she came from. The name did sound familiar, and maybe she had heard the grey mare say it before, but she couldn’t remember right this minute if maybe she was imagining it.
“The solstice came and then it stayed. It’s been dark here for weeks. We’ve been fortunate in Taiga…. It’s to the west of here and only a few hours by hoof.” So Lilli had found somewhere else to belong. It was good to hear that. And, of course, hearing that her cousin had found a home made Ori curious about that place. “I think I’d like to see it, if that’s okay? If you’d like, we can go together.” If it was somewhere precious to her family, then it was already precious to Ori, and based on how hesitant Lilli had been to discuss her experiences in Beqanna, Ori began to think that it might be good to stick around for a while and make sure everything was alright. Who knows? Maybe it could become a place where she could belong as well.
