"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
Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you
When he glances back to Mazikeenm Gale is happy to see she is smiling as she tells his brothers it’s nice to meet them. It is nice, he thinks with a warm feeling of contentment, having the three of them here together in one place.
Drawn from his reverie by Mazikeen talking about a competition, he smiles at her jest and bumps his hip against hers playfully. He’d hadn’t said that, though being physically fit and broader than either sibling even in his equine shape, it is certainly something he might have said.
At his brothers’ comments on his looks, Gale playfully tosses his white mane so that it ripples along his neck and back like the crest of a wave. He is pretty, but he is also confident in his abilities, so he grins at Tiercel’s accusation of potential cheating, and his wings are gone in the blink of an eye. Not gone with invisibility (another characteristic of their family), but gone entirely, shifting back to nothingness.
It doesn’t occur to Gale that he’d not had this ability as a child, and that Tiercel might wonder. He is instead thinking of the options that Nasha presents: a race or a test of their balance. While he is sure he’s stronger, Tiercel had always been faster on hoof, and Nashua looks like a sprinter as well.
Balance though, he’s not quite sure who’d be the victor, so that is his choice.
“Let’s do the balance,” Gale suggests, “and maybe the race after if it’s not already started?” Mazikeen has already rather gracefully withdrawn herself from the competition (a pity, Gale had been looking forward to Wrestling, but there’s always the opportunity for a private match later) so it is his brothers he looks to for confirmation.
None of the three brothers seem to think her addition to the teasing strange, and her grin brightens a little more when Gale bumps her hip with his. And then at the topic of Gale’s good looks, while he takes a moment to toss his mane she takes a moment to admire him - you know, since his brothers just happened to bring it up and given her an excuse to. She still wasn’t quite used to seeing him in the daylight - the view with her feline eyes or from the glow of her fire aura during the eclipse had not quite done him justice.
Her grin is bright, knowing, and if any of them notice her appreciation the expression they’ll see is ‘what, you brought it up’.
They move to where the balance competition is and before the brothers can get to it, she brushes a quick kiss against Gale’s cheek. “For luck.” She says quietly, though she doesn’t really think he needs it. As she draws back her eyes are a little wider, surprised at herself for this - not really knowing where the hell it even came from but it had been an instinct and she had acted on it.
Thankfully she has the excuse of finding a good spot to watch as a reason to turn away from the three of them. And she does make a little show of finding just the right place to watch the balance competition - her embarrassment fading back into a bright, easy grin as she watches them intently, waiting. And wondering if she’ll be able to judge just by watching who she could have beat.
It’s no secret that Tiercel is the son of Wolfbane. The blue markings and golden body make him the spitting image of his father, and he might’ve even seemed like a reincarnation if it weren’t for the lack of wings and spine-mane. Gale inherited their family’s sigil, and the dun mentally makes a note of how his brother makes the feathers vanish. The idea of a brotherly competition is tempting, but for a moment, he is worried. The Underworld had weakened him — dying and reviving, being pulled apart each day, having his heart ripped from his chest — and he is still regaining his strength. The harsher angles of his face have softened, and his hips no longer jut from his flanks, but Tiercel is certain Nashua and Gale could beat him in a sprint.
He could handle balancing. Crossing a trunk spread across a creek seems like a mission he could accomplish, maybe even win. With his relief, Tiercel gives Mazikeen a cheeky smile as she places a kiss on his brother. “Oh, he’ll need it,” he says with confidence. The dun-and-navy stallion steps between his family members, pushing his way toward the creek with his typical stubborn, brazen swagger. That characteristic had been overcompensation for his flightlessness as a child, and now it has become a signature piece of Tiercel’s personality.
“Let me show you how it’s done, boys.” Standing in front of the pine tree, Tiercel realizes the trunk’s width is narrower than he had expected. His dark-tipped ears twisting back toward the others is the only sign of his hesitancy. Yet Tiercel steps forward regardless, placing one step solidly on the trunk. It wobbles slightly under his foot, but his next step seems to solidify the pine into the embankment.
He feels confident with his progress until he reaches the middle, where the trunk seems to lean toward the water. Tiercel sucks in a quick breath, and he moves quickly to compensate. In the final few feet of trunk, the dun springs toward the shore. He lands, though it’s clumsy, and he falls on his right shoulder. “Shit,” he groans quietly, rising from where he’d landed and turning toward his brothers. “Beat that!” And this is said with much more enthusiasm.
05-12-2021, 04:28 PM (This post was last modified: 05-12-2021, 04:32 PM by Nashua.)
His palomino aunt once asked him: Did you know that your Uncle Soren has green eyes? and sometimes Elena would look at his wings with a gentle smile adding: And you have cousins in Windskeep that can fly. Tarian and Liam have wings just like you. He'd nodded and smiled like he understood (because it probably was the truth) but these were horses that Nashua had never met.
This was family that seemed as far away as the constellations; pretty things to consider but there was too much distance to feel any real warmth.
Nash looks towards Gale and then flashes Mazikeen a quick grin as Tiercel mentions that their brindled sibling will certainly need that luck. His gaze wanders back towards the two brothers - who were part of a trio like his triplets - and the grin on his face deeps into a smirk. This brazenness was not something he had expected from Tiercel, who had seemed so (rightfully) reserved at the beginning of their meeting. It reminds him of Yan, in a way, who always seemed so determined to keep pace with him when they had been small.
(Not that Nashua would have ever gone far without his twin, but thinking of Yanhua now makes the pegasus wish his brother were here. The only thing he considers missing from what is becoming an almost perfect memory.)
The younger stallion watches the dunskin as he approaches the trunk of the fallen pine and takes note of the way that he seems to stall near the middle of the tree. It wobbles and shifts so Nashua tries to take a similar tactic when it is his turn to approach the arboreal foe. His first few steps are steady and the striped pegasus keeps his balance until the log creaks and groans underneath him, a little after the halfway mark. Deciding that it was too risky to take another step forward, the chestnut stallions leaps from his spot towards Tiercel and the nearby bank.
It's a leap of faith and with Nashua being the dreamer that he is, it is too far.
For a moment, he almost flares his still invisible wings. But no, he remembers. No cheating. They flicker back into existence but stay determinedly clasped to his copper sides. He crashes into the water like a breaching creature, with the white spray and clods of mud lifting to where Nash had been just seconds before. The Hersir might not have had much balance on the log but he is quick to stand and he shares that summertime laughter with the three horses near him, full of a warmth that he feels in the presence of them - of family.
When he finally settles, Nash shakes out the soaking wing nearest Tiercel. "It's no Loessian hot spring," he calls out to him and trying to supress a shiver (though it is summer on the Isle, the water still retains a glacial chill) says, "but it's not too terrible." Still beaming with a grin, Nashua says over the din of the current to @[Gale]: "Your turn, Mainlander."
05-15-2021, 09:54 PM (This post was last modified: 05-16-2021, 05:52 AM by kahzie.)
Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you
Gale returns Mazikeen’s kiss without a second thought, and smiles as she pulls away. He had not given any thought to how things might be different when they were no longer alone, and in that moment he is comforted to know that she, too, might be feeling that they are already working on their balance. Gale’s knowledge of the public behavior of couples is limited to his parents, after all, and he is pointedly trying not to think of them.
Tiercel’s teasing is a welcome distraction, and Gale dramatically rolls his eyes. The way that Tiercel moves is familiar, and the sight of it brings an unconscious smile to Gale’s features. That is their father’s bravado, and Pteron’s too. Gale had not inherited it; he has never swaggered anywhere. It’s hard to think while swaggering about, and the brindle stallion would much rather think.
It’s what he does as his younger brothers attempt to cross the pine. Tiercel looks down at the water halfway across, and leaps toward the bank before he’s entirely across. Nashua also hesitates halfway, falling into the water and startling a laugh out of Gale that continues as the brindle stallion makes his way to the base of the tree.
Once there, he eyes the distance with a critical blue eye. He is heavier than his younger siblings, and the tree looks rather narrow, but he has no intention of backing down. Gale crosses the trunk, his pace steady. A third of the way across he starts to wobble, and then stops. He takes in a long breath, and with the exhale moves again, steady and certain.
Tiercel had specified no cheating (always important in their childhood, since their many magics enhanced play in...interesting ways) and so Gale does not shift, but he does concentrate on the way it felt to be feline and the precision that he had in that shape. His concentration gets him past the point where Tiercel had leapt from, but not all the way across, and he too must leap or fall into the water below.
“Beauty and balance,” Gale announces when his feet are firmly back under him, accentuating the dramatic words with a theatrical toss of his spinal mane. It feels silly, but it feels very comfortable too, laughing with his family.
@[Mazikeen]
ooc: this is going to be gale’s last post in the thread bc i want to catch him up with current timelines, but feel free to continue without him!
Mazikeen’s orange eyes roll in almost perfect sync with Gale’s when Tiercel teases them. But she’s smiling as she settles into her spot for observing. And it turns out, from her vantage point, that she could have easily won this little competition. Clumsy fools, all three of them.
Still, he feels her stomach twist uncomfortably when Tiercel falls, and again when Nashua slips into water that she is sure calling cold was being generous. They both greet these slips with good humour, though, and Mazikeen’s left feeling annoyed with herself for the worry she had felt. She had no problem seeing others get hurt when they deserved it - and she’s reminded of how during her alliance fight with Gale her heart had lurched when he tripped. Even though it was her intention to beat him and she should have rejoiced at any flaw, no matter how small.
She can't help thinking this is a flaw in herself, but these thoughts are easy to push aside as she focuses on the competition when her particular favourite is up.
And she can't help but wonder what it is about the log they’re using where no one can just walk across.
She joins the three of them, eyes bright - and maybe a little brighter after believing she could have won - and she flashes a particular grin at Tiercel. “Guess Gale wasn’t the one who needed luck after all.” There's no barb in the jest nor is there in the next one, her orange eyes are bright with an easy smile as she gestures to the rest of the festival. “Come on, let's see what other activities Gale is better at. This is a great way to get to know you guys.”
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