"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
The more time that Bolder spends in Hyaline, the more time he spends giving himself over to instinct.
He spends time as a russet-colored wolf, roaming the woods and practicing his tracking skills. He takes to the sky as a red-tail hawk and learns to see the world through avian eyes. With the warmer weather, he even slips to the lake and practices the shape that his Uncle Gale had shown him, and scours the murky water as an Orca.
Bolder knows that eventually, he should find his mother and siblings.
And he contemplates it as a squirrel, as he leaps from branch to branch through the Hyaline trees.
But then his father's face - full of disgust and Northern distrust - would sear into his memories and Bolder would hesitate. What would the Freyr say if he knew his son could assume not one shape, but multiple ones? That if there was one form that didn't suit him, Bolder would take another one?
As he sheds the shape of a red-tailed squirrel, Bolder becomes a fox and slips into the shadows of the mountains that surrounded Hyaline. He wouldn't go far but the young shapeshifter considered that there might be a chance to see his siblings in the Common Lands. Perhaps if they saw Bolder doing well, they could tell their Mother and nobody (his father) had to come to bring him back to Taiga.
A meeting that he was coming to dread, because Bolder already knew he wouldn't be returning to the Northern Forest. So long as his Aunt and Uncle permitted him, the winged adolescent was determined to make a place for himself in the Pack; a group of horses who could shift. The Mountain looms behind the svelte fox as he crosses into the Meadow and Bolder - feeling the old Northern prejudices pressing against him - shifted behind a copse of trees back into a horse.
When he steps out into the open, he is chestnut and winged. His gold stripes gleamed in the sunlight and the young stallion shook his head, trying to shake away his troubling thoughts. Not today, not when he was being given the chance to spread his proverbial wings.
PSA: this isn't an escape attempt - bolder just wanted to come out and play
Once again, Sickle leaves Tephra thinking of where she should go - where she absolutely does not want to go. The place that lingers in her nightmares even though she isn’t sure why. After the shock had worn off it did not seem as scary as it had when she first got back, but something haunted her still. Something made her wary of finding the courage to walk right in there and rescue Malik.
It sits like a rock in her heart, this weakness. No matter that their mother wouldn’t want her to go, not on her own. He is her brother, her first and best friend, and she misses him. She shouldn’t let something like fear or the fact that she’s still young, still small, stop her.
But of course it does.
She’s followed by her companion, the vivid bright blue of his fire not as magnificent in the bright sunlight but still, she thinks, impressive as they wander through the meadow. Hoping to find a familiar face - like they could just turn around one day and find Malik standing there with a grin.
Her brother isn’t who she sees, though - but it is a boy who looks a little older than her. His colouring matches the daylight more than hers, even with the bright moon-marking on his face. Sickle’s mismatched eyes blink once but she hadn’t quite learned to hesitate yet - so she goes over, even though her greeting is a bright but uninspired “Hello!” while her companion lands on her back and peers around her neck to take a look at the stranger.
08-08-2021, 07:43 PM (This post was last modified: 08-08-2021, 07:44 PM by bolder.)
If they had been talking about siblings, Bolder would have told the approaching filly that he understands.
He was born alongside a brother and a sister. While he enjoys the freedom that Hyaline gives him (and how ironic, given the boy is technically a captive), he does miss his siblings. He'd been fortunate that his grandmother (his grandsire - Ishmael? - was somewhere else) lived within the Eastern Kingdom and visiting with her helped fight off the pangs of homesickness he sometimes had.
When he missed Lumi and Ellie arguing.
When he missed Saffron and his smirks, and Bravely and her impish intrigues.
Bolder hadn't been sure what to expect of the Meadow. As a youngling in Taiga, they had hardly left the borders. Noel wasn't as prone to stay within the Redwoods as some of the other northerners had been but when they did venture, it usually was to Nerine. This is his first journey into the Common Lands and Bolder holds his chest a little, trying to appear older than he is. A few of the older stallions eye him but nobody seems to pay the young pegasus much mind.
Nobody except the striped filly who approaches.
Tilting his head towards her, Bolder watches the dark girl approach. Her black stripes - though thinner - remind the chestnut adolescent of the gold ones wrapped around his legs and barring his haunches. There's something familiar about her, even if he can't quite place what. "Oh, hello." Bolder greets her, unsure of what to do after somebody has been greeted. It's not like with his brother and sister - they would have just quipped to each other. With his Aunt and Uncle, he had gotten used to shifting into whatever shape they encouraged him to. He fights off the urge to become something else.
At least for now.
"Is that...?" Bolder turns his sienna nose towards the glowing bird on her back. She stands comfortable with it, obviously familiar with the feeling. "Is that somebody?" he asks, because while Bolder has never considered carrying Aunt Maze or Uncle Gale on his back, perhaps somebody else might carry their family around with them.
For a moment she’s confused about what the older boy is looking at, but then Sickle’s cautious grin grows brighter with laughter at the boy’s question. She turns her head around to meet the eyes of her companion and finds that he is grinning too. The phoenix enjoys being noticed, almost as much as he enjoys being admired, and Sickle can feel satisfaction radiating through their bond. It helps soothe her own troubles a little, knowing he’s happy, and while she doesn’t forget the things that are troubling her she feels herself already begin to lighten at the prospect of a new friend.
She’s shaking her head with that grin still as she turns back around, angling herself a little to give both the bird and the chestnut boy a better vantage point of each other as she says “No! No, that’s just my companion.” The phoenix ruffles his blue-fire feathers a little and gives a small nod in greeting (both he and Sickle often forget that others can’t hear him and they’ve been practicing otherwise).
Now her orange and blue eyes scan him over, realizing that there’s something missing. “You don’t have one?” Or maybe it was just off somewhere else - she saw her mom without Malou often and Aeson didn’t have one. But still most of those she knew had a companion and she's gotten used to the extra set of animals to practice turning into when she's playing with her shifting.
08-10-2021, 09:48 PM (This post was last modified: 08-10-2021, 09:49 PM by bolder.)
Bolder knows about companion animals. His Uncle supposedly has one, but he’s never seen the osprey. He only knows it exists because it's been mentioned in his presence before. And besides that, the young pegasus has heard of others having companion animals as well. It’s just his first time seeing and having spent so much time shifting - mimicking other animals, he wonders what a bond with one might be like.
His head tilts towards the glowing bird, admiring the brilliance of its feathers.
Unable to help himself, the chestnut color he wears starts to fade as Bolder tries to replicate the precise shade of blue of the young filly’s companion. It takes a little more work to cover the gold shimmer of his stripes but they rescind as well and the adolescent shifter becomes a shade that lingers somewhere between the summer sky and the bird. He’s grinning when he glances back to Sickle, proud of how quick and precise that he was becoming. Both his mentors can do it in a blink, and Bolder thinks that eventually he might be able to do the same.
”No,” he tells her thoughtfully. ”How does it happen?” Bolder raises his brilliant blue head towards her bonded. ”Have they always been with you?” He asks, genuinely curious to know.
Both Sickle’s and the phoenix’s eyes widen when the chestnut boy changes to blue - she watches the change with delight. She’s never witnessed someone else change colour before - Malik could shift animals and she could see her colour change on her legs but it was something else entirely to see it on another. Her smile brightens and matches his when he turns to look back at them, and the phoenix on her back trills a note of approval. It’s not quite an exact match, but without being set on blue fire Sickle isn’t sure anyone could do it.
She’s a little disappointed that the colt doesn’t have a companion, but she’s still delighted by his colour change so the negativity does not stick in her mind.
And she’s all too happy to answer his questions. “Nope! I found him one day as an egg, and then when he hatched there was this weird moment where we kinda clicked? And I guess we’ve been bonded ever since.” The phoenix preens her mane for a moment and Sickle’s smile grows sheepish. “We haven’t figured out his name yet though.” They try new ones whenever she can think of one, but so far he hasn’t felt like any of them are him.
It’s a much more complicated process than Sickle had ever imagined and she’s glad her own name had been picked out for her.
Her orange and blue gaze focuses back on the now-blue boy and she considers him for a moment before stating. “Maybe you’ll find one like I did!”
Bolder isn't entirely sure how companion animals come about.
As he watches the younger filly, he (uncomfortably) thinks about the rabbit that he accidentally killed. Had that been a companion animal? Finding the thought a little distressing, Bolder decides to focus on his new friend and the phoenix on her back instead.
He listens as she explains that the creature wasn't gifted by magic or anything supernatural. The dark blue girl had stumbled across an egg and then it hatched, revealing the bird that now rested on her shoulders. It seemed so simple and Bolder found himself wondering if he should perhaps roam Hyaline more often as a horse instead of a wolf. Perhaps that creature was a bit unnerving for any nearby animals?
Or perhaps they already knew that Bolder had murdered one of their own, and preferred to keep their distance.
"Have you tried Blue?" he good-naturedly teases the filly, thinking that the suggestion had probably been made a hundred times before. But there is something about the brilliant blue fire of his skin that makes the young shifter think of the sea, of the way that light sometimes reflects off it. "He kind of reminds me of the sea," Bolder continues, a little more contemplative than he normally was. "Like an Oceanus."
Grinning, the striped adolescent gives his head a good shake, trying to settle his unease at the comment of finding a companion of his own. "Or something."
A friendly laugh bubbles out of Sickle when he suggests the name Blue, and she can feel an eye roll through the bond with her phoenix. It was definitely an accurate name, but they were looking for something with a little more...
Well a little more like Oceanus! Sickle's smile turns thoughtful and she tries to sense her companion's opinion through their bond. He seems thoughtful as well, which is a good sign. "I think he likes that!" She twists her head to try to look back at him, her orange eye bright as it meets his blue, burning gaze. "Oceanus." She repeats and the phoenix ruffles his fire-feathers before settling down. Not the nip she's received when she's listed off other names, or the squawk of indignation, so she's pretty sure this is a winner.
Satisfaction eases through Sickle now that this mystery has been solved and her mismatched gaze refocuses on the boy before her.
Even if she didn't get a reply, she hasn't forgotten the idea of him finding a companion of his own. "We gotta repay you for that name somehow. How about we take a look around? Never know if there might be an egg just waiting around to be found?" Her head tilts to the side, her short mane flopping a little as it does - she's eager and full of hope. Hunting around the meadow sounds like a perfect way to distract herself from the other places her thoughts want to drift.
08-27-2021, 12:10 PM (This post was last modified: 08-27-2021, 12:14 PM by bolder.)
Bolder studies the phoenix, because it's a fascinating thing to watch the creature silently communicate with Sickle.
Having no bonded of his own, he doesn't know what that's like. But Bolder is curious to delve into the unknown, wanting to go as deep (if not deeper) than the Hyaline lake where Gale had shown him what wonderful forms were out there. Suggesting a name for a companion is another unknown for the adolescent. He had wondered if the younger filly might find it funny, much the same way Bravely or Saffron had when he suggested naming a Taigan Moose, Majestic. (When he had been smaller, there had been a bear that he saw and wanted to call Bartholemew. That had made his sister Elegance laugh, who claimed bears had no names.)
But the spark-winged bird settles easily on Sickle's back, apparently not objecting to his suggestion.
His smile quirks and the blue yearling glances appreciatively at the phoenix. "We can look...," Bolder tells her, though the thought of just finding a companion still sits uneasy with him. How would he know the difference between bonded and prey? He takes the opportunity to shift, changing easily - thanks to the tutelage of his aunt and uncle - into a lanky wolf. He still shimmers a brilliant blue (like Oceanus), not adopting his usual russet shade. Better to be an animal that another sees coming, because if anything gets the notion to run away from Bolder, he does not want that to be his companion (does one even get a choice?)
He's never been a boisterous colt, but the idea of being tethered to something fearful does not appeal to the young shapeshifter.
Something with an easily-breakable neck even less so.
"Where do you want to start first?" he asks Sickle, ready to prod towards whatever direction she suggests.
A delighted laugh escapes the filly when it’s revealed that her new friend can not only change his colour - he can change shapes too! The phoenix lifts off of Sickle’s shoulder and as soon as he is clear, she shifts into a wolf as well. Her form is a little smaller than the boy’s, and her coat remains a deep iridescent blue. Her two-toned eyes dance with excitement and for a moment a few other colours radiate across her coat - greens from their surroundings, blue from the other wolf - before settling back into her natural colour.
Oceanus circles the pair but leaves them, going off to do - well, probably to keep an eye from a distance. Sickle had plenty of experience ferreting out fun things with her companion, she was looking forward to getting the chance to do so with someone else.
It’s with a pang that she thinks of Malik again but she’s learning that these thoughts will only drag her own if she continues to dwell on them for very long.
“Well, let’s go check out the treeline! That makes sense, if we’re looking for an egg.” She wasn’t sure if companions always arrived in eggs - it was entertaining to think of Malou, her mother’s panther, showing up in such a fashion. But trees meant birds and birds meant eggs and that was good enough for the young wolf as she bounded over to where meadow turned to forest - filled with hope that they’ll be able to find something.
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