"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
Soaring over the stretch of Taiga forest that blended into the river beside the Mountain, Cheri pursed her mouth open and closed her eyes. She was stretched out from tip to tail, a linear black form high above the cloud cover that dipped in and out of sight from above. Her wings, bright green and alive with an ethereal green glow, stretched themselves to their furthest and trembled from the shifting updrafts. They were perfectly adept at catching the winds best suited for gliding and hovering, something Cheri had always known. Now that she could somewhat alter the speed and intensity of them, the winds only amplified her ability to stay afloat for hours.
Eyes still firmly shut, Cheri tipped herself to one side and spiraled. She pulled her gleaming wings in, pressed them firmly to her ribs and the spirals focused, increased in speed, and sent her tumbling through the mottled blue-and-white heavens.
The foil of the wind, the part that creates a semi-visible barrier over whatever object is cutting right through it, haloed around the rocketing pegasus until the last moment. Cheri neared the treeline and opened her wings in one snapping motion, leveling out with a stomach-dropping quickness. She opened her eyes, grinning. Perfect, she thought to herself. If only Targaryen could see her now …
Like a passing cloud the thought drifted away, and in exactly the same manner Cheri drifted down from the spearheads of ancient pines and silvergreens to land prettily along the shore of the northern rapids. She huffed, walking a few meters along the uneven terrain while her muscles cooled, thinking about the quietness and the forest hidden deep within the fog to her left. For a moment the appaloosa paused, her wings partially opened and her head raised toward the borders of the herdland she had grown up in.
The moment passed.
Instead she turned her back to it and made for the sloping bank littered with river pebbles, thirsty and in need of a quick drink before she made her way to the frozen Isle.
Having left Reave behind in Nerine, Aela openly traveled through Taiga again.
A few months before, Nashua had nearly threatened to banish her if she ever came to the Taiga again (though, really, Aela hadn’t meant to project a memory of Lilliana. But they had been by the sea - by a beach that their dam had favored - and it hadn’t been hard for Aela to reach into the past to find a horrible memory to fling at her estranged brother while he seethed at her). But now, the forest is quiet.
There are a few echoes left behind; Aela can hear the laughter of foals as they race between the Redwoods. Lover’s quarrels pierce through the fog with their sharp words. But most of the memories she finds are like the Northern Forest itself, dim and distant and to Aela, best forgotten.
She had gravitated back towards her old trail after a time. The thrill of cutting through Taiga was long gone like its Guardian. There was always the chance that the Freyr might find her, but according to Reave, the copper pegasus was too busy worrying over his stolen son and missing brother to notice much else. So she left the Redwoods to their ghosts and turned towards the River, intending on following it down towards the Forest before she would eventually have to pass through Loess to reach the idyllic Pampas and its multitudes of flowers.
Eventually, but not at this exact moment.
Aela had caught the landing of the slender pegasus, her dark coat standing out against the greenery of summer. Her crystals gleamed in the sunlight and the palomino didn’t need to guess as to who the stunning stranger was. She had seen her enough, lingering in the back of Obscene’s mind. ”Cheri,” she calls out, making her own way towards the river bank. A wry smile crosses Aela’s pale lips, thinking of the last time they had met in Loess.
A gathering that had been rather entertaining for the Empath.
Taiga lingers at their backs and Aela tilts her pretty head curiously, unable to refrain from asking with it looming so close, "not pining after your lost relations, are you?”
Softly crunching hooves and the sound of her name in a tone that felt familiar, but unwelcome. Cheri lifted her head from the flowing riverbank waters before she could take her first sip, turning to spy Aela approaching from the direction of Taiga’s forest. She couldn’t help it. Her first reaction was to feel annoyed at the sight of Aela and her never-quite-right smile. The habit (formed long ago) was a hard one to break. Regretfully Cheri had lost her desire to bend it any further, and today she felt more like herself than ever. She felt like being open, a rare mood usually reserved for horses she respected.
“You mean our relations?” The dark-furred pegasus corrected Aela with a soft grin. She resumed drinking in no apparent hurry, taking the time to fill her mouth and savor the swallow afterwards.
“I take it you’re no minder reader.” Cheri more or less answered the palomino’s question, amused at the phrasing Obscene’s court member had chosen. The way she’d said it through a crooked, impish grin. As if pining over one’s lost family was a waste of time. As if she possibly knew or could ever dream of understanding Cheri’s innermost thoughts.
There were always levels, and Cheri knew that even the closest of her peers had never really understood or glimpsed the lowest of hers.
“Do you visit Taiga often, Aela?” The traveling mare from Loess wanted to know.
08-23-2021, 08:49 PM (This post was last modified: 08-23-2021, 08:50 PM by Aela.)
Aela feels her blue eyes narrow on the dark appaloosa - just a moment - before her golden brow smooths back out. Cheri offers her a soft grin that the palomino doesn't return. There is only a distant sense of discontent in the air, which strikes Aela as odd. It only makes her regard the Loessian with a keen stare. The last time that her magic had been so obscured had been in the presence of Gale...
Her delicate ears flick back briefly at the mention of our relations, but just as Cheri isn't overly eager to finish her drink, Aela isn't overly eager to speak of those relations. Not just yet, anyway. She reaches down and takes a small sip of her own while she gathers her thoughts. It's only when she lifts her head that she replies to Cheri with another not quite smile, with a sparkling glance that revealed none of Aela's secrets. "Oh, you have no idea."
Very few did where it concerned Aela.
"I used to," she chimes back to Cheri, giving the mentioned forest a cursory glance. Aela gave her slender shoulders a shrug, as if the thought mattered little to her, before returning her attention to the Loessian heir. "It used to be a great deal of fun. Nashua would come charging in, throwing around all kinds of threats." He'd threatened her with banishment the last time she came through, and it only made the Pampas mare more determined to cross through the Northern territory. Her brother hadn't acknowledged her at first, allowing her to come and go through as she pleased. It was only after her increasing visits with Reave - their brother - and that Aela had sought Nashua out directly, that his apprehension towards her turned to open hostility.
A great source of pain for their biological mother is, what he called her.
A wound that never fully healed, one that Aela had apparently re-opened again and again every time Lilliana had glimpsed her golden coat.
"But it would seem he's been distracted lately," Aela finishes with a sigh, as if they had been talking of trivial gossip and not the theft of a Prince, an entire herd vanishing into the Taigan mist before her expression brightens back to Cheri. "What brings you to the bog then?"
08-24-2021, 04:55 PM (This post was last modified: 08-24-2021, 04:56 PM by Cheri.)
Truth was, Cheri didn’t think much about Aela when she wasn’t prompted to. Unless the palomino’s name came up in conversation or (for example) she suddenly appeared from the dingy woods, Cheri was pretty content to go on about her business. She suspected as much from Aela where she was concerned; that the little mare to her right would spend any of her personal time thinking about Cheri seemed illogical. The two had almost nothing in common and even less reason to try and make an effort toward friendship. Obscene’s comment about the two horses being alike was even more ridiculous to Cheri now that she was confronted with the authentic version.
Aela never had been and never would be family to Cheri. She didn’t care how closely tied they were by blood, she only tolerated the fact as it was: somewhere along the line a couple of horses had sex and the product was Aela. It was only the ill side of fate that proved one of that couple to be distantly related to Cheri.
But, for the sake of end goals and higher purposes she could stomach the sideways grins and never ending circles Obscene’s lapdog liked to talk in.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Cheri laughed at the Schenescal's question, amused at how much she was learning in such a short time. Her Uncle Nash? Threatening sweet, lovely little Aela? Well well, Cheri reasoned the mare from Brilliant Pampas must’ve done something very naughty indeed. “Isn’t it obvious that I’m taking a drink and resting my wings?” The pegasus talked in a circle of her own, rather liking this chit-chat they had going between them.
Very invigorating.
“Tell me Aela,” Cheri cut her off before she had a chance to respond, “when I am Queen regent of all the southern lands, will you come to my coronation and bow your head to me?” She asked, her tone a bit more cutting than she had intended. Or perhaps it was exactly the tone she meant to take. Aela would have to guess, or call upon the things Cheri had no idea about in order to solve the fun puzzle.
Her delicate, feminine features never changed. The complacent smile that suited her best grew in the silence afterward, as sharp as the way her crystalline-green eyes seemed to cut right through Aela where she stood. She held perfectly still and waited, eager to know the answer and hear it straight from the source.
08-27-2021, 04:44 PM (This post was last modified: 09-06-2021, 04:14 PM by Aela.)
"How foolish of me," Aela says lightly as she lifts her head from the rushing river. She smiles at Cheri, though she doubts that the onyx mare will find her retort amusing. "I was thinking there might be more to it," she carries on, accepting that perhaps this is what the Loessian heir did with her spare time.
How quaint to flutter about, she thinks.
But the palomino was familiar with the concept that looks could be deceiving, and Aela had heard enough about Cheri from others to know that there was a little more to the light-winged creature. She had plans it seemed for Loess, ideas that Obscene had mentioned that they might find interesting. It would be easy to doubt, especially given the vapid reply that the future Queen gave, but the palomino enjoys that the appaloosa seems receptive enough to play one of her games.
Perhaps it had been her comment about the Taiga - calling it a bog - that earns Aela such a biting response. The Seneschal fights to keep her smile from curving more, from revealing that she rather enjoyed that Cheri had taken her baiting. Tell me Aela, she says and the slender mare raises her head slightly, as if she was ready to consider the pegasus' question. It deserves a much more direct answer than Aela will give, but there is no changing who the palomino is.
Those who cross her path will learn that they can either submit to Aela, or they can move out of her way.
Bowing is no more in her blood than staying idle is.
"I'd love to," Aela tells Cheri, taking a graceful step away from the River and angles herself in the direction towards the Pampas with a thoughtless flick of her pale tail. "But my position keeps me rather busy these days." She continues and then flashes her trademark wry smile, "Though I'll be sure to send Obscene along with my best regards."
Foolish indeed, Cheri might’ve agreed if she didn’t know Aela better. They both know there’s more to the story. The heir to Loess hadn’t been sure if she wanted Aela to know the full scope of things, her trust in the mare being so little earned or given, so instead she crafts a question that will tell her what (if any) decision is to be made about the little palomino and her place inside Cheri’s world. For Loess is her world, and she will see that it expands and takes root in ways that might prevent any horse from stepping across her path without thinking more than twice first.
Her biting nature has nothing to do with Taiga, and only partially reveals itself because of Obscene’s involvement - which reminds her:
“Request that he keep the spittle to a minimum this time, won’t you?” She slips a wry joke into her reply, acutely aware of how Aela had said that ‘she’ would send him along and not the other way around.
For a long time Cheri had been bitter about the relationship between her early crush and his golden paramour. The two arriving in Loess for a reception with Oceane had been an especially hard day for Cheri, and she’d left her post to search for Targaryen with sage advice from Reave on the matter. Advice that had slowly sunk into her psyche and pivoted the way she felt. Maybe a year ago Aela could’ve wounded Cheri’s pride with that comment, but now?
“I want to admit something to you.” Cheri leveled out. It was hard for such a naturally buoyant tone to sound austere, but she managed. “When you spouted off to Ledger about Obscene filling his court with the “loveliest and most powerful” this world had to offer, I thought you were full of shit.” She couldn’t help but grin.
“But the more reports I received about his budding little territory, the more I saw how your claim emerged as truth. I took note.” She ground the stones beneath her, turning to face Aela’s sideways stance. The river was but a murmur of noise now, overshadowed by her steady stream of consciousness. “I should thank you, really, for bringing so many fascinating oddities to bolster the south’s numbers, but in the end I’ll admit I was disappointed to see you’d passed over the loveliest and the best of them all.” Cheri tilted her chin and the effect was instantaneous: she looked celestial, exuding kindness and emerald warmth from the depths of her being. The world around her seemed to dim in comparison to her glow. She paused for a moment, considering the graceful elegance standing before her.
“You should honestly visit me in Loess more often.” She suggested, finally moving as if her business at the water’s edge was finished. “I like this... ‘girl talk’.”
09-06-2021, 04:13 PM (This post was last modified: 09-06-2021, 04:14 PM by Aela.)
Aela had wanted to wound Cheri's pride. She had hoped that at the very least, the dark-spotted mare would snap back at her in a predictable way. But the appaloosa makes a wry joke of her own, and not for the first time, the Empath recognizes that there was very little that was predictable about the future Queen of Loess.
"I'll let you enjoy it," she says with a flourishing smile, one that brightens a little with her own humor (Aela always has found herself quite funny). "For your big day and all." She won't add that the Pampas Prince and herself crossing paths before Cheri's coronation was unlikely; not when Obscene had been so intent on keeping his space from her.
But their banter pauses, for a moment of Cheri explaining something that makes the slender golden mare seriously consider her against the glaring sunlight.
The earliest steals had been more about opportunity. Tephra had grown eerily quiet, and knowing how much that both Obscene and Skandar hated that volcanic country, Aela had thought that stealing from the Western kingdom could settle many scores. But she had swiped away Islay, and then Enoch, both from the islands, without any consequence. The most recent captive from that same place - her niece, Sickle - had been taken from the kingdom seat and there had been nothing; nothing but the feeling that they were being watched in the quiet flower fields. That something was waiting for the Flower Court to take a wrong step, and as she glances at Cheri, Aela wonders if this might have been the source of the prickling sensation up her slender spine.
But no, she thinks as the Loessian heir raises her pretty head, that hadn't been the angle that Cheri had meant.
"I can always change my mind," Aela lightly says to the other mare. Perhaps there would be a benefit bringing Cheri to the Pampas, and she considers the thought. If the laws of the land had been different, Aela might have done it. But being bound as she was, the golden Empath could only consider it one more reason to continue on her current path; to keep stirring chaos in the hopes that the world that would come after would make more sense.
"But perhaps you might consider this a lesson learned, hmm?" she says, staying by the water's edge as the other mare started to move away. "Don't underestimate me, Cheri."
09-07-2021, 09:43 AM (This post was last modified: 09-07-2021, 09:43 AM by Cheri.)
Did Aela think this was a numbers lesson? She must’ve, considering the way she used a remembered story to pass off a thinly veiled threat. Her lashing tongue felt surprisingly good licking its way across Cheri’s dark pelt, because underneath the surface of the words there lay deeper meanings - small truths that contradicted the golden’s mare’s inane confidence. For one, she risked stepping so far out of line with a horse who could soon become her superior. Doing so meant that Cheri had really pushed a button on the pony. A button large enough that it spurred a vicious response. She liked knowing that: understanding Aela could be rattled enough to strike first and think second, so she couldn’t exactly dredge up the energy to frown.
Aela had made the fault coming to Loess thinking she could laugh at the southerners because Obscene had been there to protect her actions, but in The Game pieces moved all the time. The budding mare Obscene had spit at that day was now a horse capable of making enemies and allies. If anything, Aela’s threat should’ve been taken closer to heart rather than turned on Cheri. “Good advice feeds itself,” The pegasus knew.
If Aela wanted the best and brightest she would have to be… flexible. Lucky for her, in the course of their conversation the Pampas Seneschal had convinced the Loessian heir to bend a little more - for both their sakes.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She assured the palomino mare with a smile. It was hard to keep from laughing, but she managed. Aela looked too serious. “Like I said, you’ve done so much for Loess already I should thank you, so I will: Thank you.” Cheri beamed.
See? She could be nice to those who’d thrust a spear at her throat. Oceane would probably be proud of her right now, Ledger even more so.
“I’d love to stay and take a walk down memory lane with you,” the spotted appaloosa sighed, turning her head to gaze in the direction of Taiga one final time, “but I’d hate to keep you from work. The borders are always open to you.” She said her goodbyes, but her eyes flashed an unspoken “So walk through them before they shut.”
Aela had a short time to reply before Cheri’s wings expanded and she was gone, lifted through the air by a summoned gust of wind and headed north.
09-14-2021, 08:02 PM (This post was last modified: 09-14-2021, 08:04 PM by Aela.)
Aela does not draw lines.
If she had been a mindreader, she might have told Cheri so. The Appaloosa aspired to rule what, a kingdom? New ones rose and fell all the time. Territories changed their allegiances, and catastrophic wars could be fought for trivial causes. What Aela wanted was knowledge - and not just any knowledge - but in studying various forms of Magic (and the way it interacted with others), she hoped to discover the origins of its Creation.
She wanted to know the strengths and weaknesses; the advantages and disadvantages because when her moment comes - when she feels greatness seeping into her beautiful skin, she will become a true force to be reckoned with. Not one to be swallowed, or Cursed, or imprisoned. There will be nothing to stop her, and at that moment, Aela will find what she is truly seeking: divinity.
For now, though, she has to contend with mortal minds like Cheri.
One that seems to think the kindness in her warning (rather generous of her, Aela thinks) comes from something other than that. The dark mare is certainly worthy of the Southern crown. Of the monarchs Aela has so far encountered, she is one of the more interesting. Both her brothers (and Mazikeen) had a habit of scowling at her when they interacted, and so she finds the little tete-a-tete with the pegasus rather refreshing.
It was a change of conversation, at the very least.
Her smile deepens, revealing a dimple that she shares with her biological mother. "Consider it for the good of all Beqanna," Aela says, because someday (though perhaps already), her power will extend far beyond just Loess and its canyons. The Seneschal dips her head in the courtly way that she imagines most horses do in the kingdom that the quartz-and-onyx mare rules. Certainly Ledger, she muses, when he wasn't lusting after the other Queen.
"And I won't keep you from yours," she continues, moving in the direction towards the Flower Court. The warning that flickers in Cheri's viridian eyes catches in Aela's blue ones (and burns there, like the fires that she would summon to anyone who would attempt to corner her), and the Empath slows to offer before leaving: "You really should visit the Pampas again. We have plans to renovate soon."
There is a memory that comes flaring to life - Erupt and his lava streams, Fyr and his fire-fields, Skandar as violent magma that breaks him open, of young Sickle playing among the Pampas flowers - and then Aela blinked while giving her slender shoulders a small shrug, erasing what had been just moments before with divine ease.
