"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
It's not immediately clear how she came to be where she is now. It may never be. She remembers the foreboding rumble, the tremors in the earth... the way that Sylva had cracked beneath their hooves as it began to succumb to the ocean waters sent to drown it. She remembers the panic, and tries to push a similar feeling away now. There was the moment, heart-rending, that she had realized there was no helping Sylva, no helping Loess. She could only worry about herself, her family - oh, her family. Lillibet and Link had been nowhere to be found, and the Genie could only hope upon hope that the wishes she'd sent into the universe to keep them safe had been granted. She never did know how far her magical reach was.
But Ledger had been there, with her, beside her just as he always had been. A dependable protector. The keeper of her heart. And she had wished to save him as their home, her beloved South, had fallen into the sea.
The time between then and now does not feel real. Oceane does not know how much time has passed, how long she and Ledger have been gone, or what has become of Beqanna since the land had shook so voraciously. But she does know that she is cold. Freezing, even. And as she opens her bright eyes for the first time in who knows how long, she sees why.
Upon an ice floe she and Ledger rest. Oceane's opaline body rests on her side, pressed against the ice uncomfortably. She shivers, flicks an ear, attempts to raise herself from the unnatural boat they have somehow found themselves upon. Her palomino mate is beside her, and it's with immense gratefulness that tears well in her eyes. They'd survived. He had survived. It gives her hope for their children.
With a quiet nicker, the former Queen of Sylva rises from the ice shelf. A wind, calm but icy, buffets them with no clear heading and it's with a mixture of mild concern and relief that she gazes upon their surroundings. There is nothing much beyond the ocean, but they are alive. With a lavender muzzle, she reaches down to nudge at her lover before breaking the windswept silence.
“Ledger?” She nudges him gently against as the ice sways beneath them. “Ledger, wake up,” the request is mixed with warmth and urgency, and when he finally starts to stir she turns her gaze to the watery horizon that awaits them.
The earth had been an angry thing. Shaking, rumbling. The one-eyed stallion had faced many terrible things in his long life and still he had not been prepared for that. It had been pandemonium. The children were nowhere to be found. Even the Hippogriff (my hippogriff) was missing. The only fortune was that he had been with her, his heart. Their wishes combined (I wish for Link & Lillibet to be safe. I wish for Oceane to be safe.) There is no wish for himself, his only care is for them. My family. My family.
Hopefully it was enough. He prayed that it was enough. The ocean rose and then….
His dreams are wild, broken, fragmented. There is a splintering pain of an icicle in his chest, a bear ripping at his face, maniacal laughter. A girl of glass that’s screaming and falling, a mare and a stallion staring at him with disdain. Nightmares that he hadn’t dreamed of in some time. Magnus stands before him and the branded stallion crumples with shame and a million things that were still left unsaid between them. And then…. Her scent wraps around him like a warm blanket. Safe, secure. His name on her lips and her kisses fluttering over his golden skin. This is a dream he doesn’t want to wake from.
Her nudge against his neck is more persistent and blearily, his good eye opens. The events of what had happened slowly begin to come back as he stirs and panic begins to rear its ugly head again as he looks around them with dismay. They have somehow ended up in the middle of the ocean, buoyed by an ice floe. His first concern is for her, noticing the way she shivers as she looks towards the horizon. In a blink of an eye, he becomes ursine and carefully brings her into a gentle embrace within the warm layers of his snowy coat. He is cautious with his claws as he grazes them along her cheek, worry etched in the eye that was left. “Are you alright?”
Glancing past her to the endless ocean, a soft growl rumbles deep in his chest with distress. The twins aren’t here. It is an old wound that reopens, this is not the first pair of children he had failed to protect and his beating heart spasms painfully in his X marked chest as the weight of anxiety settles firmly on his hunched shoulders. “Perhaps I can push us to shore?” He finally muses aloud, looking at her uncertainly. “If we have any idea where that might be..”
When Ledger doesn’t immediately wake at her urging, worry blooms within her. Though he looks fine physically at close inspection, Oceane knows that there could be any number of unseen things that could be wreaking havoc inside him. She first suspects frostbite or hypothermia, but that is quickly dismissed – Ledger is too much polar bear to allow for his equine frame to suffer something so easily avoidable for a thick-furred ursine. Oceane nudges his palomino cheek again, her own breath bated until finally his good eye flutters open. Despite the circumstances, a wide smile breaks the hardness of her face and the former Sylvan sovereign expels her relief in a quiet sigh. The same emotions that had run their course across Oceane’s opaline face now play across Ledger’s and she nickers quietly in understanding, but otherwise remains silent to allow him a moment to catch his bearings.
Her mate’s shift to bear is sudden but not unexpected. She has long since grown used to the natural way his body morphs from prey to predator and, while her golden eyes still linger appreciatively on his whetted teeth and impressive claws, her heart no longer beats itself into an instinctual fear response at the ursine’s close presence. She knows, both in her heart and on a more animalistic level, that she is nothing but safe in Ledger’s arms.
“Yes, love,” she tells him gently as his massive paw strokes the contours of her face, “I’m okay. Are you?” Her own inquiry is met with a low rumble. It emanates from deep in his chest and their close proximity causes a vibration in Oceane as she nestles against him on the ice floe. She knows exactly where his thoughts have gone as his eyes rove the sea around them, frantic for some indication of land upon the horizon. “We will find them,” she whispers into his rounded ear, trying her best to reassure him without allowing her own voice to hitch.
Their icy raft bobs on the waters and Oceane turns her eyes to the sky as Ledger searches for solutions. She nickers at him, a quiet giggle bubbling from her lips as she offers him a gentle nudge. “How about I find the nearest land, and then you can wish us to shore?” She pulls herself from his embrace and shivers instantly at the biting arctic air as she unfurls her feathered wings. “As long as these still work, anyway.” Taking flight from the small ice floe requires more strength than she had anticipated, but after a few mighty beats of her expansive wings, the lavender and turquoise Genie is airborne. She coasts in one sweeping circle around the ice raft that now only houses Ledger before rising and rising into the air, her golden eyes surveying the ocean and beyond.
Thankfully, it only takes her a few minutes of flying to the east to spot the shore of an icy isle. Though perhaps not the most welcoming climate-wise, she supposes that it’s their best option - who knows how weak her magic is now that it has been dormant for such a long time. They best not chance a magical journey any longer than necessary.
Finding her way back to Ledger, she offers an airborne smile full of glee and fatigue as she glides around him in the air, uncertain of whether or not she should chance landing on their raft. “Wish us to the island to the east, my love,” she calls over the flap of her wings, the heady anticipation of her blossoming magic bringing a bright gleam to her molten eyes.
