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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


    [private]  i had a feeling so peculiar, aedan
    #1

    Islay wasn't usually prone to spiteful thoughts, but the moment she had heard that Southern Kingdom was swallowed by the sea, she found some minute amount of joy at imagining the Pampas underneath the water. Her time there had been mostly uneventful; the hardest part of her captivity had been the journey there when she had been forced through Tephran jungle by the Seneschal that Islay would come to learn was called Aela, and her accomplice, a rather suspicious stallion by the name of Erupt.

    She had stayed in the Flower Court for a year, learning about all the plans to expand and the great power they learned to achieve (by both recruiting and stealing). And then it seemed as quickly as the Flower Court had emerged - like a blossom in springtime - something in its ascension caused it to wither. The summer heat could be sweltering at times in Islandres, but Islay was simply glad to be home and glad that it hadn't been their island that had been claimed by the Gods.

    Their island remained virtually unchanged, looking almost exactly as it had when Gale had left it to her and Fenwe's care.

    Sighing, the tobiano mare emerged from the ocean. She had been wading in an attempt to escape the heat, and as the sun began to set, Islay began to make her way out of the crashing surf. The salt tangled her mane and tail; it clung to her skin as she made her way up the beach and left the island-mare content as she settled amongst the saltgrass. Home enveloped her in every sense of the word and as the sun started to sink below the horizon, Islay looked up to the waking stars, feeling a glimmering relief that darkness would be upon them soon.

    @Aedan

    [Image: lSYWxe.png]
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    #2
    Islandres never did change, really, except that Vita came and went like the untamable girl he’d fallen in love with so many years ago. Aedan wasn’t surprised that she had left again, though he had been surprised at how long she’d been gone. Eventually worry had gotten the best of him, and he’d left their children (full grown and fully capable) to search for her. The world was vast, and he hadn’t had a clue where to begin. Time disappeared around him far faster than he might have anticipated.

    Part of him had forgotten what it had been like to be young, to slip away and explore new lands (new worlds, now). He’d forgotten just how much he’d enjoyed it. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed fatherhood (oh, it was his favorite thing in all the worlds), but he’d forgotten that he had other loves as well. Admittedly, he did not rush home.

    Admittedly, he did not find Vita either.

    Eventually though, Beqanna calls him. He’d been gone so long, and missed his home and his family. Too much time has passed, and he makes his way back to his home now as night begins to fall. It looks the same, though much has transpired which he knows nothing about. Instead, he can only hope that Islay will still be there.

    He nickers loudly, breaking into a canter across the sandy beach when he spots her. He is surrounded by his usual glow, the soft aura of stars that he has always called to himself. He (and his daughter) are so vastly powerful, and yet he’s always loved such a simple piece of his magic. ”Islay,” he says as he approaches, slowing to a walk before reaching out to touch her nose with his own. ”Oh, Islay. How I have missed you.” This - she - is why he learned to stay.

    aedan

    the night is more alive and more
    richly colored than the day.



    @Islay

    Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission

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    #3

    Her days are spent as consistently as the tides coming and going.

    She frequents her favorite grazing spots, moves along the familiar black sand beaches, and when the weather is fair enough, she wades into the water and imagines what it might be like to be a kelpie or a nereid. The sea often tugs and pulls against her, and yet it has never been the ocean that has truly captivated her imagination.

    As soon as the sun had set, Islay would glance up and her blue eyes would seek out the stars. She had done it during the Eclipse when there had been none to find, after both her parents had left Islandres, and when she had been in the Pampas. It was a foalhood habit that she had never quite grown out of, and she got older, it was one that she became increasingly glad she kept. As a young filly, she had seen those stars when she had brushed against Aedan's dark side for reassurance. As she got older, even if those same stars made her still feel small, Islay was glad for their familiarity.

    They always put her in mind of her father, and reminded her that no matter where her family roamed, they were all beneath the same sky.

    Tonight brings a change, and though the violet-blue evening brings its usual celestial sentinels, it brings another that Islay hadn't been expecting. The stars are not silent tonight. She turns her face towards the sound of a nicker and smiles immediately when she sees the soft glow emanating from him. Moving into an eager trot, Islay moved forward to greet him and called out "Father!" in return.

    "You're back," she tells him softly, moving out to gingerly touch him and finding herself surprised that he was real, warm, and solid and here, not crafted out of stardust and her memories.

    @Aedan

    [Image: lSYWxe.png]
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    #4
    He has not entirely realized that he'd been afraid she would not be here. After all, he didn't expect her to stay in her childhood home waiting for him to return. If she had not been here, he would have sought her too, and then if that failed, he would have stayed here until she'd come home to find him. For he trusts that she would, trusts that time and distance could not really separate them. He loved all his children equally, of course, but there was a bond between Islay and him that was not shared with the others, one that went deeper than blood and reached into their shared power instead.

    Oh how they both loved the night and the stars. They would always be together, even if they looked at different constellations above their head, even if they were galaxies apart. But he was always in the night, as she was always in the stars that graced it.

    "I am. I am sorry to report that I could not find your mother though. The worlds are vast. Beautiful, oh so beautiful, but vast. How can a single man find a wandering soul with so many places to go?" Vita would always be a wandering soul, and there was nothing he could (or would) do to tame it. He can only hope and pray that she is alright. "But tell me, how are you? What have I missed?" He cared far more to know what had been happening with her than to dream of the worlds he'd left behind. They were beautiful, but they were nothing compared to his girl. 

    aedan

    the night is more alive and more
    richly colored than the day.



    @Islay

    Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission

    Reply
    #5

    Islay had never imagined leaving Islandres.

    Why would she?

    She could bring the Heavens to the shore, if she wished it. She could bring the stars and moons and the heavens here, without ever having to leave the beach. The two-toned mare hadn’t inherited her mother’s desire to wander. And perhaps this desire to stay on her island belongs to her father, Aedan.

    Perhaps this is just something else she shares with her sire.

    But once she had regained her freedom, she had come quietly back to her childhood home. The other horses that called this place home came and went like the tides, an ebb and flow of presence that was perpetually coming and going. Sometimes the Mainlanders came to see what this corner of Tephra held and they stayed; sometimes they enjoyed the marsh grasses and then left.

    It never bothered Islay what happened. She was a constant in this place, and now with the arrival of Aedan, she is more glad than ever of that. Her mother was like the wind. Capable of going in any direction, of being everywhere and anywhere. Pressed against the warmth of her father, the piebald woman was incapable of holding anything but happiness in his presence.

    Vita would come again, and until then, they would have each other.

    ”I’m alright,” Islay murmurs to him truthfully. ”You and Mama missed the Darkness.” She goes on to tell him, explaining the Eclipse and the monsters it brought. The young mare explained that she spent most of it on the Island, and Islandres seemed to be spared the worst of what the darkness wrought. Perhaps the Monsters couldn’t swim. Perhaps they feared the tides and currents.

    It had only made her love this island more.

    ”But the Light came back, as you did.” She continued earnestly and then reached out to nudge the recently-returned traveler again tentatively. ”Something else has happened... the ground shook and I haven't been to the Mainland to find out, but something feels... wrong."

    @Aedan

    [Image: lSYWxe.png]
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    #6
    He had missed a lot, it seems. Islay tells him of the “darkness” and all that came with it. Perpetual darkness, here in Beqanna. He imagines in some way that did not bother her, and yet, it was not the night as they knew and loved it. That sort of darkness is something entirely different, entirely other. It is unnatural and wrong, unlike the sky that simply happened to lack the sun.

    There is more, though he finds himself cherishing the gentle nudge of her nose instead of worrying about yet another thing Beqanna had thrown at them. There was always another thing here. An earthquake, and something wrong. He trusts his daughter’s instincts though, and tucks the information away. ”I’m sorry you were left alone for so much, not that you need me,” he says with a chuckle and proud smile, reaching out to ruffling her mane slightly with his nose. ”Do you think this earthquake is something worth investigating?” Part of him simply wants to stay on the island, live in the bliss that only comes with ignorance, and yet if something was going to come to threaten the peace they enjoyed here, perhaps they ought to be slightly more prepared.

    aedan

    the night is more alive and more
    richly colored than the day.



    @Islay

    Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission

    Reply
    #7

    It was not the night as they knew it. It had been something different, but that has been something Islay has come to associate with living. Things never can quite go to what they were. Change is an inevitable force, something that surrounds them as much as the dark of night and the light of day. It had been the first trial that Islay had experienced, but she had overcome it. It had been surviving the Eternal Night that told her that she could endure her captivity in the Pampas and that regardless of what had happened on the mainland, Islandres would be fine.

    Islay smiles as Aedan ruffles her blue-and-white mane and lowers her head so that it’s easier for her to imagine again what this had been like when she had been small and it had been easier to fit in the crook of her father’s shoulder. I’ll always need you, she thinks, and though she doesn’t say it out loud, the way that the young tobiano settles against her sire’s broadside certainly does. Her star-summoner father might wander in pursuit of her mother or perhaps even the heavens themselves, but it will never change how she feels now. The way she feels safe and protected, listening to the soft lullaby of the waves behind them.

    ”Gale left me the island,” she goes on to explain; it was another reason why she had never ventured far. Islay might not want to be it’s leader, but it felt wrong to abandon the island completely. ”It felt wrong to just… leave.” She admits quietly, ”even when the earth shook.”

    Should she admit to Aedan that she was afraid of leaving again?

    Could she leave Islandres again?

    "Do you think we should go look?" Islay asks him softly, her voice sounding fainter, suddenly much younger and unsure.

    @Aedan

    [Image: lSYWxe.png]
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