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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


    [open]  forget the sun in his jealous sky
    #1


    Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.


    It’s a crisp spring morning, and early, early enough that the stars are still clinging to the dark blue sky, the sun slowly highlighting the mountains that she moves ever closer to. Elli is awake, but only just barely. Blue eyes are open, but she is unable to focus on any one thing in particular, and instead her gaze softens to encompass everything she can see. She is not yet in tune with the heartbeat of this land so she remains alert and eager. Her nostrils flare and her breathe willows out in nearly invisible ribbons to dance in the chilly, dry air. It was colder here, for certain than it had been in the forest where she and Leo first arrived, and certainly colder than Tephra.

    She finally heaves herself up and continues to walk. The sun is still low in the sky, slowly it gathers its strength and starts to climb higher in the sky, dressing itself in a warm, illuminating glow. Bright hues of crisp orange and cerise begin to fade in favor of grey clouds that have slowly started to gather. A gentle rumbling too far away for Elliana to hear growls a warning of a storm that was likely to come when afternoon arrives.

    Elli’s heart performs an uneven throbbing as she stands on the border of the land her mother once called home. She is often told by others how she reminds them of Elena, but look in the shadows of her face and Elliana is so very different. Where Elena hid in the sunshine from her fear of the shadows, Elliana stands bold and steadfast in her fearlessness within the center of them. Elliana is sturdy and weak all at the same time.

    Though, Elliana, ultimately, is a gentle girl, who smells of lavender and looks like a city of gold if it were to be bathed in shadows. In this, and only this, she retains the fatal flaw of her mother. That she is sacrificial to the point that she would let everything she loves go to ensure her safety is one thing, but her mother’s martyrdom is entirely beyond her. Elena had given up her sanity for her kingdom. She had given up her homeland so that she could better love a man of stars. She had given up her innocence so that Elliana herself could be born one winter cold winter evening with beside a man who Elliana would love all because of a lie.

    Elliana, poor, little Elli, maybe she was doomed from the start.

    « r » | @any, Elli is just chilling on the Hyaline border
    #2
    i was alone, falling free, trying my best not to forget.
    He exists as a songbird on a blossoming tree, for now. His tiny eyes blink as the other birds around him begin to chirp and welcome the dawn with one another. Spirit, however, does not join in their joyful choir. There is very little for him to rejoice over, these days. But he enjoys their company and the way they spend each day in exactly the same way. They call to one another, they gather seeds, they preen one another, and then they sleep. It is perfect in its simplicity.

    His attention is drawn to the stranger making her way to the border, then, and he takes a few short hops toward the end of the branch he perches on. It’s hard to tell who is actually a new person and who is not when everyone you know is a shapeshifter. But he’s almost certain this one really isn’t from here, and so he spreads his little blue wings and flitters to the ground. Slowly, his feathers are traded for a black and blue coat and his bones grow until he is himself again. The talons shorten to hooves that carry him closer to the girl.

    Welcome to Hyaline” he calls as he closes the gap between them. His bright green eyes glance over her one last time to be sure he isn’t embarrassing himself and greeting an old friend like this. “I am Spirit. Are you a shifter looking for a pack?

    He tilts his head then, curious and still somewhat bird-like in his mannerisms.
    @[Elliana]
    #3


    Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.


    All her life, Elliana has run and run and run, from herself, from her mother, running towards friends, towards wanderlust, towards adventure. She is no longer sure she understands what it means to stand still at the end of it all. She has not known it since she walked with her mother in their garden of jewels where red roses were rubies, new sprouts their emeralds, and their forget me nots were aquamarines. And then she left, she ran. Elliana left before Rhone took the throne from her mother. (though, by all means, it was not an unwelcome trade; when her son had died, Elena had crumbled, and even she knew that she would have taken Terrastella down with her).

    A runaway princess.
    Maybe the makings of a good story if it were a story that belonged to anyone but Elli.

    This world is not all good and kind, but she does love it so and maybe this is why she does not shudder at the thought of those who shift their skins, but instead her curiosity is suddenly peeked. Elliana has still never truly learned what danger is. She would see not a wolf’s teeth, but his amber eyes. She would watch not a dragon’s fire, but the glisten of her scales. She would notice not the kelpie’s hunger for her flesh, but the smell of sea salt on their skin.

    Shifter. The boy says as she greets her.

    The word immediately brings to mind Boudika.

    Elli’s mother had been the first to teach her about fate.
    Her adoptive father the second.

    Boudika the third.

    Strange.

    No, she knows this, not strange—new.

    Spririt. She captures the name immediately, and clasps onto it. “I am Elliana, I am new to Beqanna. I come from far away.”

    She smiles serenely in his direction. “My apologies,” She says, her voice like smoke drifting off of a dying fire. “I am no shifter, just had to see Hyaline for myself,” Elliana admits, catching herself once more staring at the mountains. “If it wouldn't be too much trouble, and if you had the time, might I have a tour?” She asks the boy who is not strange—but new.

    « r » | @[spirit]




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