"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
Dusk is drawing close and Sickle and her companion begin to glow a little brighter as the light of another summer day fades. They are just returning from exploring and Malou leaves them once they cross over the border, off to go find Wishbone. Sickle doesn’t follow right away - though certainly not with any malicious reasoning. She’s been oscillating between finding comfort in her mom’s presence and feeling the weight of Malik’s absence even more significantly when it is just the two of them. Sometimes it’s easier not to think about it.
And wandering her home in the growing darkness is one of her favourite things.
The blue fire from her phoenix merges with the iridescent glow from her own coat, casting cool-coloured lights on the thick waxy leaves and bright summer flowers blooming beneath the canopy. Overhead somewhere, the stars are beginning to come out and the sky is turning deeper shades of pink and purple, but Sickle’s gaze has never lingered too long on the sky. There are always so many things to watch down at eye level, or even smaller when she can manage it.
Her shifting has not been cooperating as reliably lately but tonight she’s able to turn into an iridescent blue ocelot and she slips into the smaller world of shrubs and bushes and hidden pathways. The phoenix is never far behind, coasting above and landing on branches while she pauses - sniffing around here and there. As far as being incognito goes, the two don’t do a very good job of it - what with their glowing getting brighter as the shadows deepen. But then, this is their home - they aren’t trying to be sneaky. And the small matter of the fact that Sickle had been taken from it once is conveniently forgotten while she’s trying hard to distract herself from other things as she scampers across one of the well-used trails after a particularly feisty beetle she had disturbed from the leaf litter.
I can see through you, see your true colors Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me
With each step he takes to Tephra, he can feel the heat of his hatred burning him to cinders.
He had vowed to never come back to this place. Just a wasteland of ash and broken promises.
But he had made a deal and it was one that he intended on delivering. One way or another.
The familiar looming shadow of the volcano appears and he grits his teeth as a muscle spasms through his jaw, crimson eyes glaring down to the ashland below.
His birthplace.
His burdensome monkey.
He is quiet for a moment, not even glancing at his companions to acknowledge their presence. “Find her.” He finally whispers and sets off into the dusky sunset, looking for the girl that Gale had told him about. He had brought Light along for this excursion and the Wisp lights the way as the land begins to purple and darken around them.
It’s Light that mentions the brightness streaking across the sky in the distance. It is easy to follow their trail as they make no attempt to hide it. It’s not long before the glittering stallion is searching old trails that he had once explored as a child. His jaw spasms again and his glittering eyes narrow as the Wisp calls to him and sure enough a strange sight opens up to him. A glowing iridescent ocelot (something he reluctantly remembers from the jungle) and an even brighter bird. The Wisp lazily whirls around them as the Dark Fae Prince approaches the small cat creature and peers down at it with his smug smile and glittering vibrant red eyes. “Now what are you I wonder?”
obscene
OOC: Obscene is attempting to steal Sickle for one year captivity in the Pampas (if he doesn't hand her over to Gale first)
08-23-2021, 07:54 PM (This post was last modified: 08-23-2021, 07:54 PM by Aela.)
Though the day is growing dim, Aela can see the small orb of light hovering ahead. A Whisp of some kind, a supernatural companion to the Pampas Prince. And more than that, from where the slender palomino weaves through the jungle ferns, she can sense Obscene's anger. It wouldn't take much to provoke him, she realizes. He might not even notice the manifestation of Aela's magic, not when his own emotions are so strong.
He could erupt - a violent display of rage - in a way that the volcano never has.
She glances briefly towards the looming Tephran volcano in the hazy distance, and thinks of her last visit here. This ache will only get in her way, and Aela refuses to acknowledge it. She banishes the emotion with a shake of her lovely head and focuses on following Obscene, only glancing back to see if Lord Wherewolf had followed. The buckskin pegasus had expressed some interest in coming - if only out of curiosity - and the Seneschal looked back to see if the winged stallion had actually come along.
The glowing orb ahead vanishes, and from this distance, Aela can hear the steady rumble of Obscene's voice.
Aela ventures from the shadows to greet the sound and her blue eyes rest on the small, glowing ocelot. A rather brilliant bird isn't far, perched on a branch near the small animal. The young feline shimmers a familiar shade of iridescent blue, a hue familial that Aela has seen on her brother, Gale. She hadn't thought that the child might be a shifter like her half-sibling, but the golden mare finds herself pleased with this discovery. If they were to keep Sickle - instead of returning her to Hyaline - it could give them more opportunities to mold the girl into something else entirely.
But first is the matter of getting her back to the Pampas.
"Sickle?" Aela asks the child as she approaches, feeling the emotions from the horses gathered nearby shaping her into something else. Who Obscene might see in his anger might not be who Sickle sees in her curiosity (or so Aela hopes). The last time that she had tried this, the Empath had been shaped by the fear from the Islandres leader, Islay. She still isn't entirely sure what the two-toned mare had seen, but it had terrified Islay enough that she came back to the Pampas quietly. There is no fear to be found tonight - not yet - and as the night deepens, Aela starts to softly glow, hoping that she has just enough light to reveal a face that the girl knows, a face that she might trust enough to follow.
They doused your soul in water, but the flames raged higher. And they called you devil's daughter, such a pretty liar.
08-23-2021, 09:50 PM (This post was last modified: 08-29-2021, 05:58 PM by Wherewolf.)
Let's be better strangers
Aela might feel him, but she won't see him, not with the way the invisibility slips over his skin like night swallowing the day. The closeness of the jungle makes him regret his decision to come here - this is not a place for him, with his wings and his Northblood - but the task had piqued even his well-buried interest and the dappled stallion wasn't about to let Ob and Aela have all the fun.
Hunting children is maybe not the most thrilling adventure, but Wherewolf isn't prone to working too hard for his wins.
His feet clip against the black path of an old lava flow, hidden feet that stop abruptly when something - somethings - considerably less concerned with remaining unseen dart across the trail and back into the low brush. Moments later, the fae-prince's voice drips out into the dark night like treacle, and Aela names the creature. Sickle.
The trail they've collided together on is separated from his by the enormous elephant ear leaves of a thick stand of taro plants and he, ever more interested in the easiest option, is disinclined to charge through them or play catch-up 'round the bend. There's a shiver of air and the Wherewolf that appears just behind the little glowing cat is looking skeptical and perhaps a little strange to his "friends" with its distinct lack of wings. His broad head rears back dismissively on the thick curl of his neck, making the tarnished silver of his mane bristle.
"That won't be Sickle," he says as though he believes it, though he knows enough of Aela's power to trust her instinct, if not her, "Probably just another of these damn glowing ocelots, this is the eighth one tonight!"
His short tail snaps, lashing the tobacco and gold of his flanks with false irritation, looking down on the girl with eyes more blue than green.
"Too bad. Malik will be so disappointed if we come home and say we haven't even talked to her."
Sickle and her companion freeze in their game once they realize they are not alone. Even as nervous as she’s become, fear isn’t the strongest emotion she feels. The first one she sees is a stranger - a strange stranger, with elongated ears and bright red eyes. Unconsciously, the ocelot’s eyes turn into a red that matches, but before she can answer the question (something she has often wondered herself - not sure if she even is one of the horses she is surrounded by), her ears twitch at the sound of her name and her eyes return to their natural orange and blue as a smile breaks out.
“Oh, Sundari!” Sickle relaxes, calling out the name of her older cousin - one of the children of Wishbone’s brother Svedka. Someone she’s spent a great deal of time chasing and being chased by through this jungle as they practice their shifting along with Sundari’s twin and mother. And, for a while, Malik too. “Is this a friend of yours?” She gestures to the stallion, her curiosity easily overriding any sense of caution.
So focused is she on the pair that she jumps a little when a voice speaks behind her - but again her nerves are quick to settle because of the words spoken. A small bubble of laughter escapes her at the idea of there being multiple glowing ocelots like her running around in Tephra. Her eyes are shining, feeling at ease with these strangers - seeing proof of her family, the good part of it, standing amongst them soothes whatever worries there might have been. Everything seems to still when the one with the golden dapples mentions her brother, though, and Sickle’s orange and blue gaze widens.
Her shifting flickers with the rush of emotion that she feels - colours of the jungle shift across her coat and she goes from an ocelot to a fawn to a fox to a yearling filly in the time it takes to make a small, instinctual step towards the one who said her brother’s name. The words she manages to whisper are so filled with hope. “You found Malik?!”
this should (hopefully) be too late to be a block but I wanted to reply <3
@Obscene @Aela @Wherewolf
I can see through you, see your true colors Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me
His smile spreads as her eyes change to match his. A changeling child indeed. No wonder the thing in Hyaline had wanted her back. He had wondered to the worth of the child, had wondered why Gale hadn’t come to grab her on his own. He was more than capable, seen in the visions shown to him by his sister and the broken horses the navy stallion had left behind. Perhaps there was something else that lurked beneath the shifter child’s skin that had kept him away. Or perhaps it had to do with Tephra itself?
As his favorite Lord joins the golden mare in their hunt, his blazing gaze turns from the ocelot to the land behind her. Tephra hadn’t always been this quiet, he recalls with reluctance, and he scowls at the ash-land. No. He would not be tempted. As pleased as Aela might be by the thoughts coursing through his head they were here on one mission. And it was standing here before them.
When he turns his head back to his sly companions, he is not expecting the magical mask his Seneschal wears. The ocelot seems to recognize her as someone else, calling out a name he’s never heard before, but it must be someone comforting as she seems curious and at ease. What he sees is far from soothing. In the heat of his barely held together temper, in the wake of the anticipation and adrenaline in finding Sickle, her face ripples with familiarity. He thinks he sees Cheri (more unsettling then he had anticipated), he thinks he sees his mother, but in the end what he unmistakably catches is the blazing gaze of Offspring. One that matches his own.
The soft clicking of scales falling into place can be heard in the gentle night as he rips himself from Aela’s power and returns his attention to Sickle. The smirk lingers faintly on his lips but there is no warmth in his gaze, only an endless inferno as the snake feeds off his rising temper. Growing stronger with each bite. He is quiet when she asks if he is a friend, unable to lie outright, so he merely nods and tries to smother all the feelings that writhe in his stomach. Not doubting at all that Aela’s handiwork was at play.
It is Lord Wherewolf that makes the ultimate move and tightens the noose. Some of that wrath eases as he senses the snare tightening, as he catches the hope in her voice. How… heartwarming. The grin he throws at the dappled stallion is real enough, pleased by his choice of tactics. The three of them causing chaos in the night was proof that dreams do come true, the images he had conjured on their first meeting now a firm reality. Whatever doubt that this wasn’t the prey they hunted vanishes as colors run rampant over the cat’s skin and eventually the child morphs into the filly they had been seeking. Confirmation at its finest.
“Would you like to come with us Sickle?” He finally asks, as if she had a choice. Better she come willingly then by force. He glances around again before flicking his gaze back down to her, making sure there was still nobody coming that might disturb them. “There’s something we want to show you.”
This sensation is new. She knows that whatever is happening (it isn't true shifting like she has Skandar or Obscene do), the emotions beneath her skin are being woven to create a different tapestry. Each of the horses around her are feeling different things, and so when she glances up, she knows that the Pampas Prince's anger isn't directed at her (atleast not this time). His red eyes bore into her and the palomino glances back down to the girl who calls her Sundari instead.
Aela can't see how she appears to the young ocelot, but the few memories she can find reveal another light-gold Tephran wearing pale blue markings. The slender mare recalls Svedka - father of their Champion - and Aela wonders if this bloodline is to Tephra what Lilliana's is to Taiga. She wonders if this is a relation to the star-marked stallion that she knows so well and thought makes it easier to smile softly at the filly, to appear a gentler version of herself than she otherwise is.
Appearing as a relation - and prompted by Wherewolf's rather brilliant mention of Malik - Aela lowers her head towards the yearling to play along. "I went on an adventure," the illusioned mare explains, hoping that this statement was vague enough to appeal to the young Sickle. Even if this Sundari was the quieter, more reserved type of horse, everybody ventured away from their homelands at least once.
"And these are my new friends," says the Empath, tilting her now cream-colored face to Wherewolf and Obscene. If this Malik had gone missing and was important to Sickle, then Aela assumes this Sundari would know that he was missing. The Taigans loved their familial bonds and Aela supposes that the Tephrans wouldn't be much different. "We want to take you to Malik."
It isn't completely a lie. If Gale has stolen a Northern prince and had attempted a Tephran princess, the striped palomino doesn't put it past her brother to have taken this other child. Glancing back to Obscene, she doesn't disagree that they should give her to Gale.
Just not yet, she thinks. Not until a better trade can be made.
They doused your soul in water, but the flames raged higher. And they called you devil's daughter, such a pretty liar.
08-29-2021, 05:56 PM (This post was last modified: 08-29-2021, 05:58 PM by Wherewolf.)
Let's be better strangers
It doesn't matter to Wherewolf if they keep Sickle or send her off to Gale, he's come along for the fun of it and not for the politics, so he's more than willing to let the bulk of responsibility fall on Aela and Obscene who seem to care so deeply. The girl thinks Aela is someone else, even Obscene's expression runs through a litany of changes, but to him, to Wherewolf, the golden mare stays herself, and he isn't sure why. Is it something broken inside of him, or is it a fault in the others? The way Sickle so readily accepts that Aela is her friend makes him feel more secure in his own position. Nothing good will come of Aela's illusions - at least, not for those susceptible to them. His frown deepens for half a breath, but the child turns to him in the next, and her shape changes quickly enough to make him feel a bit ill, but it lands, unmistakably, on equine.
It is Sickle. She steps towards him, drawn by his lure, and his frown becomes a begrudging smile, all fang. He nods. Oh yes, he thinks coldly, we've found Malik, alright.
The others answer for him, saving him from scaring her again. Aela picks up his cue quickly, appealing to the girl's sense of adventure, but Obscene's nervousness is catching. Wherewolf - the real Wherewolf - on his separate path, is pacing, ears tight forward and eyes scanning the dense foliage. Anyone with a brain would try to stop them - three foreign adults with a Tephran child? Ridiculous. They are running out of time.
The Duplicate drops its head to Sickle's level.
"Your brother has been ill, Sickle, or we would have brought him back to you. It's still very touch-and-go, and I'm afraid we might not have much time. Will you come with us? He wants to see you so badly." He pauses as if to let this bad news set in, and his eyes drift to the little blue phoenix sitting nearby.
"I don't think we have time to find Wishbone, but I'm sure your companion would be willing to carry the message, given the circumstances?"
Obscene cannot lie, and Aela tempers hers, but Wherewolf has no such qualms. He only wonders about the girl's knowledge of Beqanna's geography.
![[Image: Obscene-Pixel.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/fTkjKh9Q/Obscene-Pixel.png){kind=tracking}
