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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    [private]  We’ll be counting stars
    #1
    Leilan
    There is so little to see, little to know, little to think about. One message, sent with hope, either to reach her in time or not. She’s had, of course, earlier warnings. Just the fact that the four of them have reached Beqanna’s incarnation and not being informed about a successful rescue - in fact learning they are lost; well she must have known and then steered the children around and back home.

    Leilan knows better than to trust her instincts so he sent a message as well. It might never arrive or it might have broadcasted everywhere; but there were mere heartbeats to decide and this is all he knew to do.

    The fairy that is Beqanna herself - that little purple thing with eyes of knowledge far beyond - she does what she needs and the dragon stallion thinks that if it had to end somewhere, this would be fitting. But it is not the end; she takes only what she needs, and warps it, uses it. Something is made hole in the distance, but the four don’t see the return of the light as such; instead they are presented with the excess of it.

    Like the others, Leilan closes his eyes and once more finds that dragon eyes aren’t always the best option to have, as are all traits - both gift and curse, but still, part of them. If this deeper understanding is part of the magic that Beqanna returns to him, he cannot yet tell, but he understands more things only as they happen; nothing new there.

    A sense of translocation follows and he finds Reave and Amarine on the beach, as well as their third companion. Seven floating lights turn into animals and such; companions, one of which he knows is his. He smiles a bit at the two Taigans, wondering about the rest of the group in the meantime. Where did Cheri, Memorie and Lilli go? If they disappeared, who’s gonna tell Yanhua?

    The new magician disappears from the beach accidentally - only his companion, being a part of his sense of self, travels with. Leilan appears in the middle of Taiga, disoriented but right in front of the male who’d just crossed his thoughts.

    He blinks, his grasp on the magic still small, and swirling ice-coloured eyes take a measure of the younger male. ”Ah. @[Yanhua]. I was just thinking of you.” The scaled stallion blinks again as he settles into the fact that he had just teleported; apparently the fairy magic was still fickle.

    What he has yet to realise is that his own magic has teleported him, not the fairy’s; but right now he has bigger concerns. This young man needs to lead Taiga, now that his mother is temporarily absent, and Leilan isn’t sure that he knows this, yet.
    I feel your love and I feel it burn
    down this river, every turn
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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    #2



    That night in Tephra, when Wit had been born, Yanhua had been ready to give up. Despite having a newborn son to care for, he felt closer than he ever had before to just giving in and believing that Beqanna was lost forever. That they would never see the sun again, and everything - every horse would die. Maybe it was Wit that kept him clinging when all the other strings had been cut loose. Maybe it was the fact that Borderline was still breathing. He could argue that there was still the family he’d left behind, the north itself, but in his heart of hearts Yanhua felt the truth even if it was the most selfish of all.

    He believed because Taiga still stood. He grasped for hope when he was ready to give in because through the utter hell of a nightmare they were all living in, up to this point Taiga had offered respite. And it wasn’t so much that Taiga was a place, really — more of a feeling. Something he thinks his mother and her predecessors are guilty of creating, unintentionally or not. To him, Taiga was… hope itself. And so as long as it stood, Yanhua could believe in the impossible.

    Impossible things like the Eclipse ending and the sun returning, which it did. Things like Borderline waking up, and him being able to help her slowly home with Wit, which happened as well (in due time.) He even felt a shuddering realization that his echoes had returned when he’d stepped hoof across the border and breathed in the scent of withering pines, only to close his eyes and be greeted with the rush of so much emotional residue inside the boundaries of their home. It meant that others had survived.

    But despite all of this, a day after returning home (yes, a full day of the cycling sun he’d almost forgotten about) Yanhua had left B to rest with Wit nearby and been interrupted mid-stride by Leilan crackling into appearance.

    “What the -!” He had time to spit out as he balked, back-pedaling a few jumpy steps from the burst of energy that produced a hefty stallion like his King. Leilan, however, seemed unconcerned.

    “Good to know.” Yan muttered, not really miffed but sorely glad he hadn’t collided with the transported horse. “Try to think of me less in the future, eh?” He joked away the shock, shaking his head with a smirk.

    “I’m assuming by your… appearance,” Yanhua looked the Freyr over once, amazed to realize that he felt a perceptible difference surrounding the scaly roan stallion if he couldn’t see one, “that this is an urgent call? What’s the news?” the Taigan asked his leader, drawing himself up to full height. He curved his ears forward around the base of the two horns attached to his head, and furrowed the soft blue eyes that’d been determined a moment before. “A day home and already the trouble begins.” He thought worriedly.
    YANHUA
    Image by Ani2ad


    @[Leilan]
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    #3
    Leilan
    For a brief moment in time, @[Yanhua] becomes the spitting image of his sire, and Leilan smirks the same way he had done with Wolfbane in the Afterlife, answering with a "That'd be entirely up to you." Then he remembers how the goatly stallion has never met his sire proper, and the scaled stallion is glad that the topic lies with his own 'appearance' (had something changed? As he thinks it and goes over his body, the tattoos suck in a little extra light, and his own eye color changes from icy blue to quicksilver - but that's not too abnormal) and the urgency of the call, as the chestnut names it. News? What news - oh, that news.

    "I don't know how long we've been away," he starts with. He tilts his head at the other, lingers a heartbeat at star-marking on Yanhua's chest, then straightens his face. "Amarine and Reave were on the beach, but I haven't found your mother and daughters yet." A frown follows. He doesn't give the goat-horned stallion too much time to let it sink in, or think about the meaning of what it meant to have Ama and Reave on the Beach, however. It could be deadly if he started down that spiral. Instead, the former shifter continues to let the wave of intel wash over the younger male. "I'm assuming she told you, you're the heir to Taiga."

    There is a pause there, waiting. Should Yanhua reject this responsibility, Leilan has little time to find someone else. Ama might be persuaded, or Borderline maybe. Reave, Roselin, Oren, Cheri - assuming she made it back - they're all too young. And just the thought of asking Shahrizai, Illum, or Ether to take over would be enough to get him to laugh about it. He knows the answer. Not in a million years. No - it has to be Yanhua and he has to take over right now, because despite the warning words he'd sent her earlier, Leilan understands that if those three hadn't made it back by now, then the holdup could be longer than just a few days. With so many northerners invested in the quest for the return of the sun, they cannot remain leaderless.
    I feel your love and I feel it burn
    down this river, every turn
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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    Reply
    #4



    It took Yanhua a second or two to start connecting the dots once Leilan started talking. The ‘we’ his King was speaking about happened to be Yanhua’s family: Amarine & co. That made the beginning part about ‘being away’ clear, but it didn’t exactly go into detail about why Yanhua’s family had decided to go away from Taiga in the first place, or how they all ended up on the beach. To boot, his immortal dam Lilli and apparently both of his daughters had gone missing as well.

    Leilan’s concern, however, was on the matter of succession.

    “We talked about it.” The more slender of the two stallions offered slowly, a bit stunned in the wake of such a heavy avalanche of news. He blinked expressively, taking his time to hold both eyes closed before they fluttered wide open again in shock. Scorching winds of hell, Yanhua was glad Leilan was giving him a quiet moment to soak this all in. “Are you looking for them?” He spat out eventually, meaning his daughters and of course Lilliana as well.

    He only asked it of the dragon King because according to him, Leilan apparently knew where to start: The Beach. “A place where souls go to rest.” Yan thought darkly, wondering what Leilan’s version of ‘missing’ really meant.

    He and Borderline had only just returned home themselves, which meant that the others had left Taiga sometime shortly after Yan and his greenskeeper wife left the forest herdland. “What could have possessed them to do such a thing?” The bearded chestnut thought crossly, both ears jerking back to betray his frustration. “If Lilli is only missing should we be jumping to conclusions?!” He asked, fearing the worst. Leilan wouldn’t have come otherwise.

    YANHUA
    Image by Ani2ad


    @[Leilan]
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    #5
    Leilan
    For Leilan, time no longer seems to make sense. How can it, with so much magic pumped into one’s body? Yanhua’s concern is touching, but to the roan not so very much needed. He’s pretty sure that the girls will show up one way or another. Lilliana though... she always had a tendency to do the unexpected. That’s why for her, he is more worried than the others. What if she decides they are better off without her? She’d stay where she doesn’t belong.

    ”I need you here.” Meaning don’t go looking by yourself. It’s a hard choice but the only one that’s reasonable now, and while logic was never Leilan’s best trait, seeing all those details about life - life here right now, Yanhua’s concerned frown, his temper and emotions kept in check with experience, but also the white gyrfalcon that is perched atop a tree, the feeling of many other souls wandering these woods - it does something with the scope of things, and Yanhua’s place in all of it is at the center. ”Amarine will be back shortly, and I don’t doubt that Memorie and Cheri will be drawn back here as well.” The scaled magician adds it purely as a reason to keep the horned stallion where he belongs - if he goes wondering all hell could break loose - but nevertheless the roan shares the feeling that something is amiss, with the chestnut. ”Never jump to conclusions,” Leilan says almost distantly; his eyes swirl with a newly found silver colour as he tries to think of where the blue-eyed mare must be. The veil is restored, and he has his suspicions, but voicing them makes it all far too real.

    Besides, until he’s certain, jumping to conclusions would only make the matter worse. ”Caution isn’t a bad thing. I’ll be on the lookout. But I should probably get the hang of this...” he shakes his head and lifts a knee to prove his point. ”... method of transportation, first.” Yes, he could probably find a way to teleport back into the Afterlife now. For himself, it seems to be safe. But bringing someone through - provided they were there at all? Leilan doesn’t feel much for bringing half a body to one place and leaving the rest behind, or worse, to do the same thing with a soul.

    He blinks, then suddenly stares at @[Yanhua] with deep brown eyes. ”In the meantime she’d want you to be in charge. I doubt she wanted to lead much longer at all.”
    I feel your love and I feel it burn
    down this river, every turn


    Sorry if it’s a bit all over the place!
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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    #6



    Yan’s instinct is to fight with Leilan. He can’t help it; the very nature of their relationship is… tangled. So much between them had been unfairly twisted and in the time between seeing one another, Yan and Leilan had grown comfortable with the distance. Nashua always bridged the gap, or Lilli, and now one of them was gone and the other had a loyalty tied to Icicle Isle and the Freyr with swirling eyes like molten silver. Yan wants to disagree, but for once he stops himself and thinks. “If Leilan is right,” He considers, and he has no reason to believe otherwise, “then everything must change.”

    His attitude to start with. His priorities secondly, and those are no longer just tied to his family and his family alone. They’re tied to Taiga herself now, to every horse who calls this land home and by extension, every horse who inhabits the North. Yanhua’s place in the world has changed to Guardian, and part of understanding what that meant was to also understand where his “place” put him. At the helm of these woods and underneath Leilan’s claw. The two are undivided.

    “I see.” Yanhua whispers boldly into the space between himself and the bulky shape-shifter. He meant it. “And I accept. Taiga is my home and I’ll do my duty to ensure it stays protected.”

    Then comes a sigh, long and winded without pause until Yanhua feels the tension unravel and the spinning thoughts inside his head settle down.

    “Is there anything you need from me?” He looks up, levels his eyes with Leilan’s and swallows his doubt. “Anything else I should be aware of or on the lookout for?”

    YANHUA
    Image by Ani2ad


    @[Leilan]
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    #7
    Leilan
    The scaled mage looks at Yanhua, and feels much of what is going on inside his head. The magic of emotions may be something that Leilan will never truly grasp, or perhaps he just doesn’t want to. Either way, it is clinging to Yanhua whether the chestnut can reach is or not, and thus something that seeps into the cold of the Taigan mist, and coils back to the ice magic within the roan. He doesn’t shift or move however, and tension releases only when the goat-horned stallion has made his decision.

    ”Thank you.” He is silent once more, knowing how much this must take from Yanhua. Still he needs to take a little more, or, that is, move him along a certain path. ”However distant, Yan, you are my family. And family always comes first.” he pledges, his eye color slowly returning to the conflict between icy blue and silver. He’s not the hovering type, however, as Yanhua will discover with time. Truth be told he already knows how things will roll, if he has his way. Time will tell if things work out the way he hopes.

    For now, he shakes his head. ”I think you’ve learned your lessons long ago.” Not to use his magic too eagerly, for one. ”Everything else, I cannot teach you.” @[Yanhua] will have to learn on his own, simply by living, and by having his current responsibility. Life lessons can’t be taught in theory, and no direct threats currently endanger the forest or the north as a whole.

    ”And remember. Nothing is definite in Beqanna.” She will be back, whether she likes it or not, whether short or for a longer time period - he will make sure of it.
    I feel your love and I feel it burn
    down this river, every turn
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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