Beqanna - Nerine

One With the Ocean

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 21:20:09 +0000

The ocean during winter isn't always the best place to be. But for Enuis, the ocean is perfect no matter what. And so, despite the icy wind and freezing water, the stallion is slowly making his way along the chilled beach. The sun is peeping weakly through the winter clouds and the weather is is cold and windy. The gold flecks on the stallions coat sparkle faintly as he slowly prods through the wet sand. His hooves leave perfect round prints that are washed away several seconds later. His breathing is slow and calm and every exhale leaves behind a cloudy puff. He is walking slowly, perfectly relaxed and calm.

He loves the ocean. Maybe because he is so similar to it. So calm and rhythmic. Serene and beautiful. And yet, at any moment could unleash such enormous wrath. The loved the ocean because he related to it. Its deep endlessness full of mysteries, beauty, and things no one could imagine.

Enuis let his hooves fall motionless. He stood for a moment staring over the dark grey-blue waters. He felt so small and insignificant while looking at this enormous body of water. Yet at the same time it gave him such a rush of power and energy. He blinked in surprise as his trance was broken by a strong gust of wind. He shook his head, sending water flying from his damp mane. The wind was picking up. The stallion turned and began cantering up the beach, heading to a narrow rocky path that led to the top of the towering cliffs. He scrambled up the cliff wall as the wind began to pick up. At the top of the cliffs the harsh wind finally died down a bit and he stopped to catch his breath.

Im tired. He realized as a sudden wave of exhaustion hit him. The cold, wet and windy beach and worn him out. Heaving a sigh he began a slow walk away from the cliff side, looking for shelter to rest. It was exactly what he had done yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, and many days before. He had such an aimless and boring life. But he didn't mind it much. At least thats what he convinced himself. He did love his calm and quiet walks by the beach. Away from other horses that just tired him out.

He didn't particularly enjoy spending time with others of his kind. He didn't like to burden himself with listening to others talk about things he had no clue of. Once in a while he would come across someone who was worth his time and energy. Someone interesting, that didnt want to either kill him or bore him with their talk. But that wasn't often and Enuis found himself better off not seeking interactions.

And so, the stallion plodded along until he found safety under a large draping tree.

Be our guest

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 22:23:47 +0000

Somewhere near the kingdom of Baltia, if you happen to be standing along the shoreline, a small (very harmless) army of brightly colored frogs begin making their way out of the water. Some are orange and blue, others pink and purple, some sparkle like glitter. They ribbit and croak and…sing?.... as they hop along their way. How they know where to go is entirely uncertain, but they disperse, each in the direction of their targeted land. They seem to be dragging a small package of sorts held together by seaweed.

As they reach their destination, they begin to sing. Or at least, something akin to singing. The tune is not lovely and there’s some croaking involved, but the words are intelligible. You can almost forgive the frogs for being off key for the sheer fact that they can speak at all.

We invite you to our feast,
beneath the briny deep,
to celebrate new friends and new beginnings,
and to share a meal.

We bring with us a treat,
breath beneath the waves.
Take one or five,
there are plenty for all.

The frogs finish their song and stay put. Though their voices carry well, they know that their job is to deliver the message a few times before hopping home. In addition, they will wait for someone to collect the kelp package, for they are well trained frogs. Inside that package are many small, round plants that are clearly the “treat” for breathing underwater.

***

Everyone in Beqanna is cordially invited to a feast in Baltia for the duration of April. Throughout this month your character can breathe underwater and may visit the kingdom as much as they like. You may have individual threads or just participate in the main feast (coming soon). Have fun!

lately you've been on my mind

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 17:30:54 +0000

ISRAFEL

It had been a few years since Israfel had come home to live in Nerine, to live with Reave, but it didn’t feel like a long time. Her days were filled with sunshine instead of shadows - with standing on the cliffs and watching the weather move across the ocean. Even the changing of the Beqanna landscape did not faze her here. Nerine was still whole and safe and that was all that mattered.

She is wandering around those cliffs this morning, the spring sunshine sending shafts through the clouds that glint on her golden coat.

She is close enough to see the beach below, and knows there are caves down there - but she hasn’t been in them since that first day. Sometimes, when she spots those golden birds circling in the sky she remembers how long it had been before she stopped feeling like blood was coating her.

Israfel hasn’t even used that ability since that day either - finding no desire to walk around disintegrating rocks or trees.

Nothing but seagulls are swooping through the air now and the golden mare turns her attention away from the ocean - hoping, as she does every day, to see a glimpse of a bone-armoured stallion walking around his kingdom.

Nowhere to go, nowhere to be; Any

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 21:42:16 +0000

Bardot

I know what sin is

If only she had stayed in the redwoods. She hadn’t.

After ghosting the woods of mist for so long, the pull for some sort of companionship (the need to do something) finally outweighs her desire to wait and see. The little unicorn leaves the safety of the fog only a few days before a certain trio arrives in it. Fate or chance? It was left to be seen.

It is Nerine that she travels to, curious if the land was as quiet as the one she had come from. It interested her, this place that had once held the last of the Amazonians and that her dearly departed mother had spoken fondly of. If it hadn’t been for Yanhau, she might have come to the granite cliffs long before she had gone to Taiga. Liz had shared with her the stories of Nayl and her time in Nerine including what had happened to her when she had been pregnant with her brother. How Obscene’s father and Nayl had destroyed part of Sylva to free her from a family member that she didn’t like speaking of. It had only further peaked her interest, had made a mental checkpoint to discovery the history herself.

Then the South had fallen and other things had taken priority, the thought of traveling shoved to the back of her mind.

Now, she has nothing but time. Once again completely on her own with no ties to anywhere or anyone.

Beneath her thick winter coat, she can feel the cold seeping into her bones from the persistent rain that covers the Kingdom in a gray haze. Golden eyes take in the new surroundings with interest, picking her way carefully through the silvery sand and then through the boggy moors and wonders how on earth her mother had come to love this place. It’s so open, so exposed. How had the Amazonians of the jungle come to call this place home?

The more she travels through the territory, the better she comes to understand exactly what they had seen in this place. There is a wild beauty to Nerine that does, in a strange way, remind her of the untamed jungle. And that’s what it is, this place is untamed. Free. By the time she rises over a cliff, hooves striking against the granite as she comes to settle and observe the view, and sees the ocean spread wide in front of her… She smiles. No wonder Tantalize had liked it here. She gets it now.

They may call me a sinner, but I am at peace with myself;

html © dante.

my bad habits lead to you

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 19:15:28 +0000

In the lull of the nearby crashing waves, Aela began to let herself relax. Her blue eyes closed and for a moment, she just listened to the world around her. It was one of the first times that she had attempted to use the full potential of her power since the sinking; she allowed her emotions out and surrounding ones in. This particular cave was empty, apart from a few memories. Voices came echoing from the past, murmurs that Aela couldn’t entirely make out. But she felt them, the emotions that came flooding in.

This particular cave had been a favorite place for someone. She could sense the peace and relief, the warm sense of familiarity and belonging. Perhaps that's why Aela had laid the initial claim to this one. It had reminded her of the one that Heartfire preferred, and coming back to herself, the palomino wondered just how many of these secret spaces her grandmother once inhabited.

The thought of the Seer made her smile, even behind closed eyes, and the thought of another turned that smile into a grin. In the weeks since she had returned to Taiga, she had felt the familiar flash across her sight (several times) and had known instantly who it was, as she knows now. It was only a matter of time before she and Reave crossed paths again.

Opening her brilliant eyes, Aela stepped towards the mouth of her cave and glanced towards the sky, searching the clouds for a glimpse of Rune.

in a faith forgotten land, reave

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:20:43 +0000

CASIMIRA

dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah

It has been years since she has last been to Nerine—not since Heartfire was queen.

While the rocky shores of the north had not been her home for long she still held a fondness for the place that had housed her when she was truly, utterly lost. When she was still refusing to let go of feeling as if she had failed Tephra, when she had fallen for Badden only for it to crash and burn. Something about the ruggedness of the terrain, and the constant cold and cloak of mist had felt like shelter; a place to hide without feeling like she was hiding.

She knew only vaguely of the way the kingdom seat had shifted around over the years, and while she should have probably paid a visit to Icicle Isle, she never had. But now that rumors had made it to Tephra that the throne once again sat with Nerine, her interest had been piqued enough that she set off for the northern kingdom early in the morning, curious to see who holds the crown now.

When she touches down the kingdom is still shrouded in fog, Nerine noticeably much more frigid than the jungle kingdom she had just left. A shiver runs the length of her spine and she hugs her dragon wings close to her side, an armor of scales lacing across her body in an attempt to ward off the bitter wind that kept whipping through. There was a cover of broody looking clouds above, which she knows means it will likely rain soon, and she predicts this will likely be a short visit.

Slowly she begins to make her way through the kingdom, certain that who she is looking for will find her soon enough.

I saw the end in the mist of the river

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 15:40:15 +0000

i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

His legs itch to escape, bitter memories shoved as far back as he can quell them. He’s not certain he would ever be able to look at these cliffs the same way. And yet, it is still as much a home as anything ever had been. Logic tells him he is not trapped, but instinct is such a hard beast to beat.

So he does the only thing he can - he charges into it with all the reckless abandon he can muster.

Though perhaps in this case charge is not the right word. More accurately, he walks with steadfast footfalls despite the itch raging along his skin demanding flight. Rune is near - an undeniable, if unacknowledged, comfort. He hadn’t been there then. His presence serves as irrefutable proof that he is no longer trapped in a nightmare.

He might have laughed at that if his chest weren’t so heavy. If laughter didn’t feel like a world apart. But he would not let that nightmare win. Not when these wild moors are as much a part of him now as his bones.

Instead he simply breathes in the salty tang of the air, the whispers of heather and peat tangling along the edges. There is a familiarity here that hadn’t been there then. It’s foolish to think his nightmare is domestication in this untameable land. And yet, it makes more sense than he had ever imagined. The brutality of sameness would always be the end of him.

With slow steps, he finds the cliffs overlooking the narrow strait separating his brother’s lands from his. He would need to find him soon. With so much change - so much hanging on this dangerous precipice - he needs to. But today, this moment, this heartbeat of time, he focuses instead on conquering the fear in his heart. There is no room for such a dangerous emotion in his life. Not right now. Not ever, if he can help it.

reave

and he will smell like the sea

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 14:46:34 +0000

There’s a shadow growing in her heart, a gloom settling in the back of her mind. It been slow and subtly, creeping across her like shadows over the ground after the noon sun. First a flitter of apathy in the morning into solemn glances at day’s end. The rest of the time was filled constantly by at eerie silence.

Those same shadows—she sees reflected in Aela’s eyes.

It both revolted her and drew her in.

She comes like a cooling shadow in a scorching desert. Elliana was as ghostlike as her mother was sun goddess like, the dark shadow girl. She shuffles quietly as the air moves around her, as if she too could speak to it like her ancestors of old. There is a confused storm raging in her heart. She misses her godfather, her closest friend, and all the friends she has met in her short life.

She can remember her mother’s stories, if fleetingly. More than that, she remembers the dreams she used to have.

Dreams of dancing, of twirling into a garden in a world beyond this one, where lie many great treasures and secrets to be found. Elliana had taken the disappearance of Po perhaps the hardest of all, because she knew Andras missed him, and because she had loved Po perhaps more than her mother. He had been her blooming flower horse, the parent she wanted instead of the parents she had, and and most importantly a valuable friend that had, once upon a time, promised Elliana a world of adventure. Elliana lingers in this life, quietly, maybe hoping he might come back, someday, come back and find her.

The garden was exactly as it was when she’d left it not all that long ago: full of sunshine, full of peace. It was as if a snapshot had been taken of it and immortalized, rendering it immobilized in time despite the whirlwind of events that took place. It feels like centuries since she has been here, she wonders if Reave has been here since, wonders how many flowers have bloomed, how many she will keep from doing so with her shadow looming in.

(shadows whisper and laugh, you don't belong here)

(and then it is quiet, so quiet that if sunlight could make noise, it would boom its presence.)

This silence she hears, she thinks for a moment it is the loveliest she has ever heard.

« r » |

remember when i broke you down to tears

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 16:26:35 +0000

Leilan's portals are much like the Magician. They are sporadic and unpredictable (the last time Nashua used one, he had arrived in Silver Cove). But his Mentor has vanished again and Nashua doesn't mind making the journey to the mainland the traditional way. Winter has started to spread out from the Isle in icy tendrils all across Beqanna (the pegasus thought he had seen a layer of gleaming ice as he flown over the Pampas, of frost gleaming on the canyons in the morning sun the day that he left Loess after Cheri's Accord).

Returning to the Isle would not be a warm welcome.

But the last stop before returning to his kingdom is the most important.

Noel hadn't been in Taiga when he landed, which wasn't unusual. She had been raised in Nerine, and when the striped stallion hadn't found his mate in the Redwoods in the past, he learned that she could be found among the granite and the moorlands. Perhaps she preferred the open sky, but it was always easiest to find her along the coast, near the many caves that had helped the former kingdom seat gain its secretive and solitary reputation.

There is a sense of relief when he finds her (there always is), a small piece of pale heaven tucked against the drab gray of their grounded world.

Despite how glad he is to see her, the bright green of his gaze falters when it finds the depthless black of her own. He's been away to the South - for the Coronation of his niece and to talk about the current political state of Beqanna - but he hasn't come any closer to bringing their son home or seeking retribution on Gale or Mazikeen (a death wish, he has to remind himself). It's just another reminder that when he might finally get the chance to be a good king, the price paid for it falls with his family.

"Have you been to Hyaline?" he asks hesitantly, wondering if she had news of Bolder, wanting to reach for her and failing at that as well.

NASHUA

i taste the bitterness [Reave; Any]

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 18:49:15 +0000

Dark wings bring dark tidings, some might say. But on this crisp autumn day, they merely bore upon them a stranger soaring far above the northern lands. A harbinger of something not yet put to words. A plan not yet in motion. Knowledge is power, after all. And he needed more.

For hours he had surged overhead after setting out from the far more familiar confines of the "common lands," letting the chill wind carry him ever onward as his molten gaze skimmed the ground below, devouring it mile-by-mile while he committed every detail of the unfolding scenery to memory. And yet still it was not enough, for there are some things one can only learn from others as opposed to mere observation.

So it was that the midnight pegasus found his arcing, aerial path bringing him closer and closer to the tumultuous crash of the stormy sea down below as the waves raged against the cliffside. A wind tinged with the heady scents of salt and sand accompanied him as he went, sending the tangled tendrils of his mane and tail to whipping against his scarred pelt, lashing against him with every beat of his wings.

The polite thing to do would have been to circle about while still airborne, hunting for the lord -- or lady -- of this land before touching down. But Cassiell was not always polite. So he landed, hooves of tarnished bronze digging harshly into the sandy beach as he did so. A fleeting mark upon the earth which would be erased as soon as high tide came in. Feathered appendages tucking themselves against the expanse of his powerful torso, the stallion then set off at an unhurried pace as he forged just a bit deeper into this beachside domain, his ears flickering this way and that all the while. His skull lifted, nostrils flaring as he scented at the wind, hunting for signs of life. For others.

Mounting a nearby cliff, his hooves striking against granite with each step, the brute then brought his great frame to a halt in favor of adopting a fairly nonchalant stance with his right hock cocked and his long tail swishing aimlessly from side-to-side. An intruder waiting for an audience, clearly, but one who posed little threat.

For the moment.

cassiell

temperance is a virtue

Dark Pegasus by Tatiana Yamshanova used with permission.

Any others welcome to join.

rules were made for breaking so lets burn this machine; Crowns

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 17:58:27 +0000

i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

The moon is high and bright overhead, hanging full and heavy in its distant bed of velvet. The light it casts catches on the stark, stony edges of the cliff faces angling towards the sea, bathing the occupants in a soft glow. Reave stands on the edges of those cliffs, staring idly at the waves crashing far below. The glowing bone that bites through red and white skin cannot compete with the luminescence of the moon, but they wash his streaked skin with their faint light.

The harpy eagle that is his most constant companion had settled onto a nearby stone, his massive weight tucked in quiet repose. The stallion ignores him as he often does, though he is as aware of his presence as he is so many others.

With a soft sigh, the bone-marked stallion shifts, restless even in the hours meant for slumber. Turning, the weight of his blue gaze is cast to the garden nestled against the unkind cliffs behind him. It is a monstrous garden, filled with plants hungering for meat rather than sunshine. Reave has long ensured they stay fed, even in this inhospitable climate.

They had once served as the catalyst that rebirthed his mother, and since then he has held a fondness for the strange foliage. Now, they are under his Guardianship as much as any of the other residents here (even if it disgruntled Rune to be asked to hunt for the rodents that keep them fed). Though he cannot be entirely certain, he often gets the sense they understand his care for them. Especially when they do not snap at him as they once had.

With a faint smile edging onto the lines of his mouth, he sweeps his gaze across the wild patch. The garden of Nerine, if one could truly call it a garden. If it is, he supposes that would make him a gardener. He had never imagined himself one, yet here he is, staring at plants he has tended to for nearly two years now.

Lifting his head to the moon above him, he glances up, amusement creeping across his features as the smile on his lips deepens.

reave

but damn you've got the sharpest teeth

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 12:01:47 +0000

GALADRIEL

The change came immediately after Galadriel awoke from the Gods' quest. Her eyes shuttered, rapid-fire and panicked, paired with shallow breathing and anxious nausea. Suddenly, the blue of her coat held all new meaning: she was to water as the earth was to the sun.

She lurched forward then, spun out and exhausted, blinded by an instinct she could not understand. Her vision tunneled to pinpricks, her ears rang, her legs twitched even as she tried to abate them with a reckless gallop. What was the last thing she remembered before being whisked away to that beach? Had it been a day? Had it been years? Did the magic keep her sleeping for longer than she needed to?

It would make sense, wouldn't it? Such a transformation takes time. She wondered what she had left behind and realized nothing--

Save for a wobbly, scaled girl. The memory of her first and only daughter manages to give Rel pause; but not enough of a pause, merely just a stumble in her gallop, for she has always been selfish and careless. She was never going to be a good mother anyway, is what she tells herself. The child surely found what she needed elsewhere, she thinks. (But did Rel ever find what she needed elsewhere? a thought nagging at the back of her mind. No, she did not; but that didn't matter like it might have when she was a child.

What mattered were the cliff faces of the Nerine, the salt spray of the ocean, the sound of waves crashing dangerously against rocks.)

It's there that she stops, chest heaving upon a beach. She might find it ironic if her skin was not crawling with the need to bury herself in the waves. Above her, Autumn storm clouds roll, foretelling of a dangerous ocean. She doesn't care, no--Rel rarely does. She splashes into the frothing gray water, stopping at knee deep and shivering..

this is really bad bc i was desperate to get something out of my brain plz bear with me

the truth is in the gallows

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 01:02:16 +0000

mazikeen

Since meeting Aela, Mazikeen’s mind has drifted more often to Reave and Nerine than it had before. There had been a time during the long stretch of night where she had considered finding him again - after she had completed her quest - and then she had forgotten to pay attention to and finally had stopped caring about anything outside of Hyaline.

Now, though, she finds that she wakes up with the autumn sun and finds herself a little excited about having something to do, even if it is only a visit. So she makes the short trip to Nerine on wings of iridescent blue feathers - a recent favourite. She doesn’t enter through Taiga but rather lands on the cliffs closest to her home, folding the wings at her side as she takes her first look at the land that has been her close neighbour for most of her life.

There is too much sky here, everything is too out in the open, though this does assist her plan for the day. She is not here to sneak around, the whole point is to be found. Preferably by Reave, and if not then by someone who can point her in the right direction.

It will only take a quick look at her to see that she had changed - the curving, glowing horns on her head, the scars that mark her face and heart, the wings at her side hiding the rest. Even the shade of her eyes is a deeper red-orange than it had been when she had met him (though they had stood there in the forest obscured by shadows). And these are only the surface-level changes.

This is not the same Mazikeen he had met that day and she finds that she is curious to discover how the years have changed that boy who had told her the monsters would wipe them all out. Did he still have that practical-yet-depressing view on things?

Never one for standing still, Mazikeen moves but keeps close to the cliffs - thinking she stands out enough that she'll be noticed before too long without needing to call out as her eyes continuously scan the moors for movement.

Pink Elephant in the room - Reave

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 17:11:59 +0000

a bright and dangerous spark

It’s their time now.

Their generation - hers and Reave’s, Aela and Obscene’s. Their parents did what they could, their mentors saw the diamonds in the rough, and their allies came in time through friendships or deadly interests. Now the changing of the torch is on the horizon, and soon she will take up a mantle passed down to her through generations. Cheri had thought long and hard about what she would do when that day came.

She flew like a spear of pure wind from Loess, thrust with incredible speed and accuracy now that her ability to amplify the winds had revealed itself to her. Cheri felt a sense of elation and freedom unlike any other when she was alone in the sky, able to play with her weather manipulation while she thought about the odd impossibilities of time and how she’d come to travel through it before. Further down her list of designs she’d noted: travel through time again. It was last on the list, an uncertain possibility. Maybe it had happened just once and never again.

Or maybe she just hadn’t pushed herself hard enough.

Either way she focused on the task at hand instead, flying through a low-hanging cluster of icy drafts that had Nerine appearing on the distant horizon once she’d passed the range of low-growing mountains that separated the northern, windswept plains from their southern herd - her homeland, Taiga.

“I’ll miss you too.” Her father’s voice rang bright and clear in her head, followed by a twinge of guilt as the green-winged pegasus passed over the impossibly high redwoods. Later, She told herself.

It was on the high crevice of the dividing mountain range that she came to land and rest. Still, even in the dead heat of a fine summer season, Nerine’s peaks had a bitter chill to them. Cheri pulled her wings around her and tried not to be annoyed by how the ever-familiar glow of their light dimmed out to reveal plain, similarly-colored green wings of substantial feathers. She assumed that her blessed wings had reached their final form, that finally she’d accomplished enough good deeds to make them as permanent as any other fixture on her divine form.

But it unnerved her how they only seemed to glow when she was in flight. She missed their comforting light, but settled for the dimmer glow of her markings in their absence. Cheri could make do.

She was looking for signs of Reave up here, either him or his companion. (One always seemed to lead to the other.) Her business was in passing, mostly. Eventually she would take her concerns farther north to her uncle, but it seemed only right that she stop here first to … warn? Inform? Her other relatives. Chilled, the heir to the southern throne stomped eagerly at the frostbitten ground to warm herself and wait.

Full-sized image link

Lately I've been so disconnected

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 17:58:17 +0000

I can see through you, see your true colors
Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me

When he leaves the Pampas this time, his wandering is with purpose. It is Reave that he seeks in Nerine, the young bone-clad stallion who had unintentionally (or perhaps it had been intentional) made an impression with his riddling questions and hints of the future. He hadn’t cared before when it came to his life and how it would end. But now, it was different. Now there was a magician who ruled the lake and ate hearts and magic. Now Aela was delving into dangerous waters, now Skandar called the Pampas home… Now he had seen what he was at his core in a land beyond. Now Cheri was a Queen.

The answers are just out of reach, what it all means. What he should do about any of it.

If he should do anything at all.

He suspects Nerine’s Guardian might be able to reveal what he seeks, what he needs to know. It's just a matter of trust, if he can trust the boneman enough to believe him, if he can decide that there is truth in the riddles and visions of beyond. Just as Reave had once brushed past the invisible borders of the Pampas, he does so now as he crosses into the seascape lands. The glittering gold accents along his shoulder and face glimmer in the late afternoon sun and join with the bright glint of the fresh constellation patterned across his chest as muscles ripple beneath his flesh with each step taken further into the territory, his dark crimson gaze searching for the familiar splotched figure of skeleton and horse.

He doesn’t expect to see someone else entirely instead. A bay and blue stallion with watery wings, the one that had offered him warmth in the Isle's festival when he had been but a lowly mortal nothing. “Crowns?” He asks, genuinely surprised as he stops beside him with a grin breaking on those once frowning lips.

obscene