"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
@Demi i was thinking timeline wise this is post-helping with the quest? just needed it to be nighttime for the Moon!
Ruhr watches Demi for a while after he's sure sure she's fallen asleep, his navy eyes as deep as the sky hardly visible between the branches overhead. Though he’s now seen her transform several times, and into a myriad of shapes, he still finds it remarkable. Such a gift, he thinks, his eyes tracing the speckled pattern along her pale sides and rump. What does the Moon have in store for her, he wonders, and what does She expect of him?
He will find no answers here, the stallion knows.
Perhaps he can find them in the water.
Slipping from beneath the spring-thick boughs, Ruhr leaves the sleeping Demi. He seeks out a shallow stream they’d passed not long before settling down for the evening, and with a few adjustments of the silty soil of the bank, he soon has a still pool into which to peer.
Time passes, but he does not pay it any mind. It might have been a few minutes or several hours; Ruhr cannot predict how long it will take. He can only wait and pray that She favors him.
Tonight, she does.
It begins as a ripple at the edges of the pool, spreading out like smoke until a silver sheen overtakes the entirety of the pool.
Green, so much green. The birds are bright and in the distance, a blue sea crashes on a black sand shore. Before the mountain is Demi, in her equine form. Beside her, Ruhr recognizes himself.
The vision vanishes, leaving only a shallow pool of muddy water.
Her meaning is the opposite, as clear as the quick flowing stream from which he now takes a long drink. That had surely been Tephra, he thinks, the land that Demi had described to the purple spotted stallion. They’d been there together, he and Demi, and so they will be.
Is that his purpose, then? To help in the restoration of the kingdom, or to accompany Demi there? His time with Her chosen has always been brief, just long enough for him to aid them in some way. Though he has no doubt that it is to Demi that She had led him, Ruhr has not yet divined his purpose. He’d settled for guard as a default, knowing a chipped blade to be better than none at all.
This vision had offered him no guidance in that respect, but it has at least given him a location, and reaffirmed Her choice of the red-headed mare. Ruhr returns to her now, through the darkness with wary dark eyes. His limp is impossible to hide, but he moves steadily despite it, returning to the edge of the clearing where they’d stopped for the night as the dawn begins to break.
The dreams that come to me tonight are both past memories and present events. Since hearing of Tephras sure return I think of my family. The volcanic isle was sure to attract my aquatic sister. She had always fancied tropical paradises and Tephra was nothing short of that.
The conscious thoughts bring forth dreams of soaring above the palm trees with the large flocks of parrots. My sharp eyes trained on the rocky earth and brackish waters below. It is then a prism of colors reflecting in the shallows catches my attention. A gleeful warmth fills me as I recognize the mirage image shimmering in the waters. Deiti!
I swiftly plunge from the sky and shift into a semi-aquatic bird. I catch up to her, a smiling expression lighting up my face. She looks to me with her familiar blue reptile eyes. My own mismatched pair staring back at her, as my sleek black and white body glides thru the waters beside her. She smiles her crocodilian like smile as soundless words vibrate within my mind, Hello sister.
My movements stop as I try to figure out if the words had been my thoughts. They felt foreign and without my usual excitement. I watch her curl back around and stop before me. The confusion on my face must have been unmistakable and again I hear soundless words that are not mine, What's wrong. Her face tilts as she treads the waters with me for a moment. I'm not sure, I think...
----
Back in the plane of reality the sun begins to rise. Warm rays of light tickle my muzzle, waking me from the dream world.
My eyelids flutter open as my gaze shifts around in a dazed state. Slowly my head lifts as I realize it was only a dream. A yawn draws sleepily from my lips, my body shifting to loosen my stiffened joints.
Turning my red face I find Ruhr not far. I smile kindly before speaking, "Good morning." I reach my muzzle low to scratch an itch on my leg before my body shakes away the evening. "Where are we flying to today?" I ask my newfound friend.
Legends & Myths
@ Ruhr She had a dream about her telepathy she hasn't discovered yet. Shifted form is Penguin in dream.
//Avian Shifting-Phoenix Type Immortality\\
Her appearance will be noted
at the end of each reply.
Around him, the grey of the pre-dawn woods is slowly warmed by the golden light of morning. By the time he makes it back to the clearing where he had left Demi, bright rays of light illuminate the still dozing mare. Ruhr watches her for a while, lost in thought.
When she rouses, he meets her gaze with a smile.
“Good morning,” he replies.
Where are we flying, she asks, and Ruhr lifts his brow in surprise. He ‘d expected her to tell him, accustomed as he is to following the lead of another. Yet as soon as she’d asked, he’d known his answer, and does not hesitate to give it. .
“Stratos.”
That is where his kind belong, surrounded only by the wind and sky. With her avian shifting, Demi is far more like a Stratosian than most, and though he has no doubt in the Moon’s plans for Demi and Tephra, he is still eager to show her the land among the clouds.
“It’s across the sea,” he continues, “Just south of the land they call the Gates. Are you up for a long flight?”
Though I have roamed this world for a long while, I stuck to the mainland's. My previous life of avian solitude has since left me, and I thirst for exploration and purpose.
When Ruhr says the name of the place, it is only something I have overheard in chatter amongst the equines. I smile at the idea of discovering someplace new, especially with my new friend taking the lead.
I stretch in preparation at his question before replying with a smirk, "Does a bird have wings?"
My form phases into the one of both species. Hippogriff, as it has been told to me. My multi-hued wings outstretch with a few lazy thrusts, as my clawed forelimbs knead the soil beneath them. Ready, I think with enthusiastic determination.
I wait for Ruhr to show me the way before taking to the skies.
Legends & Myths
Shifted form- Hippogriff
@ Ruhr Anything in bold italicized, without quotation marks, can be something she may "say" telepathically(unknowingly at this point lol)
//Avian Shifting-Phoenix Type Immortality\\
Her appearance will be noted
at the end of each reply.
Despite his time spent in the Chamber, Ruhr has never been especially fond of the terrestrial lands of Beqanna. He visits them only for the sake of the Moon. Her visions come only while he stands on the earth, a mystery that Ruhr cannot fathom. And twice now She has chosen those of Beqanna rather than Stratosians. Ruhr wonders if this is because his kind are becoming more rare, or if the Moon finds those that remain to be lacking.
Demi is certainly not lacking in any way, and her response to Ruhr’s question brings an amused smile to the grey stallion’s face.
He watches intently as she transforms, her body shifting into that of a hippogriff. A fitting shape for this journey to Stratos, he thinks, and at her ‘Ready’ he spreads his wings.
It is only as he takes to the skies, wings pumping rapidly, that he realizes her beaked mouth hadn’t moved as she’d announced her preparedness. But he cannot think on it too long, focused as he is on gaining altitude. He cannot run to take off, not with his limp, rather leaps into the sky, relying on his broad wingspan and light weight to take him into the sky.
He succeeds, and with a few tight spirals to stretch and perhaps to show off, he levels off beside Demi as they soar across the ocean.
“Is it telepathy?” he asks over the wind, “or some other Gift that allows you to speak within my mind?”
I allow my companion to take to the skies first. The way he leaps into the atmosphere without gaining momentum is only mildly perplexing. But then again, in my avian forms, I only needed to leap too. For such a heavy form, as I have manifested now, I don't dare.
While he gains altitude, I run along the earth below --awkwardly. Talons functioned a bit differently than hooves and it takes a few strides to find a nice rhythm. Once found, I look up to the skies and see he is in a good spot, so with wings spread wide I begin to lift off the earth. My talons claw at the air as I turn left sharply.
My rusty colored head tilts to view Ruhr's spiraling trick in the sky. With ease I join him, the joy within me can't be contained and I shout internally, Watch this! I climb to a bit higher elevation and perform a barrel roll, dropping sharply and twirling before plateauing at his side.
Find a good pace next to him, I watch the white capped waves forming on the ocean's surface below. There weren't many formations I haven't flown over, but I had yet to experience flight with another of an equine species before. I wonder briefly if the silence would be awkward...
I do not wonder long before he makes mention of me speaking. With as much of a confused look as an avian could give, I look to him with question, You hear me? My thoughts are simple and broken as they transmit. So much thought was given to my speech that I forget to keep flapping my wings. My elevation declines slightly before I realize my error and begin to thrust my feathered appendages again.
The open water spreads beneath him, wide and vividly blue. The white foam of the waves is mirrored in the low hanging clouds above the horizon, stretching as far as his eyes could see. Far to their left, the dead grey sand meets the water, and the green smudge above the horizon far to their right is hardly discernible as the rolling hills of the Gates. Ruhr has flown this way before, and is in no hurry as they soar across the sea.
At her command to ‘Watch this’, he does, the sky blue of his eyes tracing her flight across the sky. She moves upward, farther away from the Baltian waters that stretch beneath them, and Ruhr drifts a bit higher himself, still watching as the hippogriff barrel rolls down through the sky. Her control over the new shape is impressive, as is the strength and coordination necessary for such a maneuver. Had the Moon given her such ability, he wonders, or had she been chosen because of them?
He nods appreciatively, the gesture exaggerated to be visible as they fly, and he angles his wings to take them higher. The farther they are from the surface of the sea, the more comfortable he becomes. There has been no war in years, not even from the Baltians, but one can never be too careful.
When he asks about her ability, Demi is visibly startled. She drops, quickly enough that his eyes widen in concern, but she catches herself before she descends far.
“I can.” He replies over the wind, “I hear you, but not with my ears.” He’s not sure how to describe it. He knows it is her voice not because it sounds like her, but because it feels like her.
Around them, the wind changes, sweeping in from the east. Ruhr banks right to follow it, the brightly colored feathers of his wings glittering in the sun. He is grateful for the necessary movement, giving him something to focus on as he considers.
A new blessing from the Moon? A gift intended as confirmation that she was Chosen? That seems most plausible, Ruhr decides, though he will ask the Moon. When though, he thinks as they soar closer to Stratos. She has never spoken to him there but perhaps, with Demi…There is no fathoming the magic of the Moon, Ruhr knows.
Ahead of them the clouds of Stratos grow ever larger.
Briefly the thought of him being able to hear me causes me to blush beneath the rust-colored feathers. Had I always had this ability and never known? What more had I unknowingly said silently to myself that others had heard but never knew where it came? I guessed that was better than them knowing it was from me...
The wind ruffles my feathers, awakening me to the present. Ruhr banks right and instinctively I adjust to follow. Flying was more natural than anything to me, having spent nearly my entire existence upon the winds in various forms. When I wanted company then, I often gathered with the flocks, inconspicuously. But now I was grateful to have someone to talk though, no matter how weird it felt.
As we continue strange clouds of ominous proportions appear in the near distance. They look different; I think, as I look to my brightly colored exploring partner.
When though...
My head caulks in slight confusion, my mismatched eyes shift their focus around me as if to find where the misplaced words came from. My perplexion is slight and hopefully unnoticed. Hearing things now might push me over the edge of delirium. The idea of hearing someone else's thoughts does not even occur to me.
With another thrust of my wings, I shake the thoughts away, my smile returning as I focus now on the sights before me.
The more he thinks about it, the more sure Ruhr becomes that Demi’s ability to speak within his mind is a gift from the Moon. Demi has been blessed far more than any other he has known, even in this place where Magic seems to sprout from the very earth.
Though she has yet to express any interest in power, he is certain it will come soon. How could the Moon gift someone with such strength if it were not intended to rule and conquer? Ruhr knows he’d been guided to her to help with this goal, and he is content to bide his time until it comes.
The Moon will give him as much time as he needs, after all. She will give him endless eons, if only he remains dedicated and faithful. He is in no hurry at all.
Can she hear his thoughts, he wonders? Had she heard his dedication, his commitment? Had she heard him speaking to the Moon?
The thought startles him - he has confessed things to Her that he’d never speak aloud. Had Demi heard them? Ruhr does not notice her confusion, wracking his memory for what he has thought recently. He glances back toward hippogriff, and finds that the moon-speckled mare is smiling as she takes in the sight of Stratos.
Beautiful. She is beautiful, and powerful, and destined for glorious things. Will others see it, he wonders? Or will he have to make them see it?
The former, he thinks as he makes to land on a cloud, the softness of the surface a balm to his right foreleg as he alights with the easy grace of a creature made almost entirely of air and feathers.
”Welcome to Stratos,” he says when they are standing together again. ”It was larger once, and more populous, but…” He trails off with a shrug, not eager to remember the history.
Ruhr
