"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
when the words lay heavy on my heart i am lost, led only by the stars
Some part of her knew that she would one day return to Beqanna. It is her mother’s home, where Caeli still presumably lingers, and her father as well. Those relationships drifted off into the distant pass, as some vestigial happy memories of a time before Death. Her mother lives on, though. Not in the traditional sense, for she could not curl her petite figure up against her, nor could she ever lay eyes on on that gentle smile again. But the magic of her mother worked in some mysterious way (Kerowyn should not be surprised, Morphine was always rather fantastically mysterious to her), and her conscience chose to reside in her daughter’s head.
A gift, her mother always said, to make up for leaving so soon.
You don’t have to do this, her mother says. You don’t have to return.
Kerowyn knows she doesn’t, but she has yet to find a place that feels like a home.
Maybe it’s time to return. It can’t hurt. You don't know Beqanna, love, her mother warns.
She wades across the high summer grass, enjoying the pleasant feeling of a light tickle across her belly. Heat lingers in the air, but it is not the warmth of the Desert. She looks across the open area, towards the South and the source of the warm breeze. Her eyes go distant, empty as the cloudless sky they mirror; lost in thought and swimming in memories, Kerowyn turns inward. She is a thinker, a feeler, and some part of her has always lived elsewhere, it seems. Off with the fairies, or somewhere in the land of the Lotus Eaters. Wherever she is, it is a happy place, for a faint smile spreads across her lips with an all too innocent air.
03-18-2016, 04:16 PM (This post was last modified: 03-18-2016, 04:19 PM by Pompey.)
she tried to turn me on to Jesus, but I turned on to the devil's ways and I turned out to be the only hell my momma ever raised
The bay mare should have listened to her mother.
He sensed her far before he ever saw her. Something about her just called to him, pulling him closer. He couldn’t pin-point what – he had no clue as to their respective ancestors’ history together. All he knew was that he wanted her… and she would soon be his.
From the edge of the forest he watched, his own bay form hidden in the darkening autumn twilight. His dark eyes focused on her elegant form, so pure… so innocent… so perfect. His nostrils flared, hungrily drinking in her scent, intoxicated by her musk indicative of a season that would soon dawn upon them.
Without a thought, he froze her in place, rendering her limbs wholly immobile. Meeting girls is easy when you have magic, he thought to himself with sinful pleasure. He emerged from the shadows soon after, light-heartedly sauntering towards her. His dark eyes shone with anticipation as he neared and drew himself to a halt right before her.
“Hello gorgeous,” he sneered, reaching out his muzzle to caress her cheek. “It’s quite a dangerous time to be alone,” he continued, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. His muzzle traced along the curve of her cheek as he spoke, continuing down her soft neck, along her back, towards her tail.
“Good thing I’m here,” he jeered at her as he snapped his attention back to her face. A moment later, he was upon her, grunting with uninhibited abandon. It had been so long since he’d felt the touch of a lady, and her warmth was inebriating.
Once the deed was done, he slid back down to trace his muzzle back up her back, along her neck, returning to her cheek. Yet, as soon as he touched her cheek, he felt some strange feeling jolt through his body. He pulled his muzzle back suddenly, or attempted to, but found himself as immobile as she. Or, more accurately, as she had been just a second before, but no longer.
Terrified, he willed his powers to give him freedom and hold her hostage again, but to no avail. Sure he had magic, but there was something greater at play here, and that something was awfully mortified that her great grandson had just raped her best friend’s daughter.
when the words lay heavy on my heart i am lost, led only by the stars
If Allanna - or whatever was left of Allanna - hadn’t raised objection to her descendant’s despicable actions, Pompey probably would have gotten away with it. Morphine alone is not strong enough to punish him, as that had never been her intention when she sent a fraction of her consiousness into her daughter. Neither Kerowyn, nor her mother, have ever encountered anything like this, never been subject to such irrational violence, and never been a victim. Her family weren’t victims. Maybe it’s been pure luck since she left Beqanna, or maybe it’s just a sense of otherness about Kerowyn, but they’ve been flying solo ever since they left. No threat from roaming stallions, nothing the little bay mare couldn’t outrun. This? This is… a hammer’s blow to a pane of glass that is held together by duck tape. Serviceable for a number of years, but ultimately fallible. Ugly, and sometimes the wind whistles through, but it holds up. It works.
How can it work after this?
Kerowyn’s body goes numb while her mother simmers inside. Pompey’s snide words aren’t strong enough to draw her into the real world again, so she does as best she can to mend the trauma as it occurs. There is nothing that can completely soothe her daughter’s mind, or take away the physical violation and the twins that will blossom in her womb. She is a flicker of light in Kerowyn’s mind, until a breath of air from the very distant past comes barreling in.
Oh god. Could it be? Allanna? her mother cries out, grasping at what must surely be a figment of her imagination.
But then the stallion freezes, and she knows her Miracle is nigh.
Morphine has a fraction of her strength and Kerowyn has no aptitude to channel it, but even an old, old, old magician can summon up new tricks. Hold on, darling, her mother says, choosing not to tell her that this may be goodbye. Like a moth to the flame, she reaches for that familiar presence, and summons all of her strength, pulling from blood and bone and the magic that infuses the very air around them. Kerowyn begins to glow, from the inside. Light emanates from her eyes and ears and sets her mane on end. A trail of it, no - more like a stream - pours out of her Kerowyn’s body as her mother drains herself from it.
I love you, darling. Be strong… she says in parting, knowing that in taking out this monster, she will forever remove herself from this world. There is no choice. It is the greatest sacrifice that a mother can make for her child, and she has always been willing to do it. She just needs a little help, and so she reaches out to Allanna, to the sister she’s always mourned.
Allanna?
The question remains unspoken. She could not voice the request to have her help kill her great-grandson; that is not Morphine’s way. She would rather say - help me save my daughter.
she tried to turn me on to Jesus, but I turned on to the devil's ways and I turned out to be the only hell my momma ever raised
“Hey old friend,” the bay stallion heard, but by now, he knew full well that the recipient is not him. The voice is feminine, and quite calm and gentle in demeanor, which only alarmed him more.
Terrified at this point, he tries to thrash out, with no avail. The only movement he manages is of his eyeballs, and in sheer terror they roll back, trying to see what has snuck up on him as he had been distracted. His lifetime of magic had made him quite careless, for he had never encountered another magician that had any reason to confront him.
Of course, that would have been too easy. Nothing had “snuck up” on him.
“It’s nice to see you again. I’ve missed you so. I just wish it had been under different circumstances,” the voice continues. By now, the bay stallion could feel an electrifying tingle run through his veins. He tries his best to scream, but nothing comes out.
“I do apologize for this shameful descendant of mine,” she offers. At any other point, Pompey would have eagerly fought whoever dared call him shameful, but he had greater worries at this point. He could feel some strange supernatural energy emit from the mare, and in some bizarre fashion, he felt something strange enter him.
Before long, the bay stallion was glowing. But definitely not in any sort of attractive manner.
“Would you do me the honor?” he heard the voice continue, though by now, the ringing in his ears had all but entirely muffled the sound to a whisper. He could feel the pressure building in his head, in his body, in every vein and artery and muscle and tendon and bone. It hurt like hell. He felt like he was about to explode.
Unbeknownst to him, that was exactly what a long-deceased strawberry roan had in plan. She just wanted to save the final blow for her best friend.
04-07-2016, 04:32 PM (This post was last modified: 04-07-2016, 04:33 PM by Kerowyn.)
when the words lay heavy on my heart i am lost, led only by the stars
What I wouldn’t give to be able to hug you right now, her mother says, and Kerowyn knows it isn’t directed towards her, but towards the distinctly female voice that is coming from the stallion. It’s all a mystery, a terrifying mystery and all the little bay mare wants to do is run far far away. Alas, her body is frozen, and even if she was able to move, where would she run to? Where is safe? To the frozen wasteland of the Tundra, where her father might still be living, or to the barren Desert of her mother, which holds such tainted memories?
So perhaps it’s best to stay here. But why did her mother say goodbye? And why was her voice so much more on the outside than the inside? As far as Kerowyn knows, no one else has ever been able to hear her mother.
I wish it didn’t have to be this way, dear… but her mother sighs, sounding resolved. At least there will children. Part of us, together again. And at that, she sounds pleased, though Kerowyn hasn’t the foggiest idea who this other voice is, and why she is so important to her mother. It can’t be Seraph, and it isn’t her father, so who?; the life before Morphine returned to the Desert is a mystery, and though Kerowyn knows her mother was so very old when she died, she knows little else.
Goodbye. I love you - to whom her mother says this, isn’t entirely clear, but just as soon as she’s finished, the light that was Morphine swoops into the stallion and if it is possible to glow any more, he does so. He is ablaze now, like the sun, and Kerowyn must step back and avert her eyes. There is a blast of light that sends her stumbling and reeling, and temporarily blind. And then there is silence - and when Kerowyn opens her pretty blue eyes, the stallion is no more.
And her head is all too quiet - frighteningly so.
kerowyn
brennen x morphine
i'm going to get the birthing post up next tonight. SO sorry this took so long!
@[Dianna]
