[private] like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Printable Version +- Beqanna (https://beqanna.com/forum) +-- Forum: Explore (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: The Common Lands (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=72) +---- Forum: Meadow (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=3) +---- Thread: [private] like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis (/showthread.php?tid=21966) |
like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Solace - 12-03-2018 S Solace we're reeling through an endless fall we are the ever-living ghost of what once was @[Valdis] Hope it's ok that i moved things along by having Sol spot her! Sorry this got super duper rambly RE: like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Valdis - 12-03-2018 And in the darkened underpass I thought, "Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!" The wings. The steady rhythm of wingbeats spurs Valdis’ memory into gear. A shudder cartwheels down the length of her spine as she realizes who it is looming above like a cloud. Even as a young adult, the girl isn’t immune to the shame that wracks her when she has disobeyed orders. Her jaws clench as she counts the bellowing flaps until they’ve stopped. The pause scratches against her nerves. With her eyes cast down, Valdis waits until mother’s footsteps, then voice, breaks the silence. ”Mom,” she whispers, fighting back the cough that wants to rattle her bones and betray her health. When she saw Solace last, it was when their world was shrouded by a sheet of white now. It blocked most of their vision, but they didn’t even join together for the quest at hand. Mother had Kagerus – that’s what mattered, really – and Valdis had the goofy boy, Santana. Obviously, they all survived the ordeal, but they’ve been left with residual frost coating parts of their bodies. A small reminder of their suffering. Valdis shivers when she remembers how the ocean waves – awfully frigid as they were – threatened to drag her beneath the surface and drown her. Without wings and without her fire, she was helpless. Without mother, she was lost. Never below affection, Valdis folds herself into Solace’s open embrace and glides her muzzle along the familiar edges of her shoulder. ”How are you?” Are you avoiding the plague, is what she really means but doesn’t specify in fear that Solace would remember where Valdis said she would be. The Cove was to be her retreat, but instead the girl found her way to the meadow. Instead, she found herself in the company of a hellhound being lured to Sylva. But, of course, Valdis doesn’t admit to all this. She purses her lips tightly into a thin line and takes a step back. Her blue eyes drink in the sight of her mother, reading the concern on her face, but she doesn’t mention it. A breath is slowly exhaled, groping for anything to say, any sort of diversion. ”You look pretty with frost in your hair.” But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask. @[Solace] RE: like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Solace - 12-04-2018 S olace we're reeling through an endless fall we are the ever-living ghost of what once was EDIT: cause it was a mess and i forgot a piece and then had to make it a little cleaner while i was adding the forgotten bit :| RE: like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Valdis - 12-04-2018 And in the darkened underpass I thought, "Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!" Valdis, unknowingly, holds her breath to hear about her mother and brother. Although she herself is infected, her gut churns fearfully for her family. To see them suffer would be an obstacle of her own – powerlessly watch them as they succumbed to the disease. It’s only a matter of time until she exhibits symptoms, too. A periodic cough is enough of a telltale sign, and the frequent nights that she shivers feverishly alone. She is sick, but also afraid to admit it to Solace who peers down at her with concern furrowing her brows. ”Ummm…” she is reduced to a child in the face of her mother, ”Maybe?” By having lied and wandered off the path, Valdis was infected. If she had been a good girl – a perfect daughter – she would have fled with the others and could have been safe within the Cove. But curiosity won. It led her astray and into harm’s way. But it hurts too much to say it aloud, to tell her mother that she was wrong. Valdis glances her eyes away from Solace’s worried gaze, and she searches the rolling hills and wilted grass for a distraction. There is so little left here, however, but it takes just a single name to pull her back from her wandering thoughts. ”Castile?” She echoes with a lifted brow. ”You mean dad?” Although an absent part in her childhood, he at least found them eventually. There’s of course a lingering bitterness when she considers everything he missed, but he could’ve avoided them for the rest of their lives. He could have fled and never met them. Surely it would be better to remain on cordial terms with him than nothing at all. ”You’re so formal around him and uptight,” it hadn’t escaped her notice during their meeting, and even their brief reunion when the contagion initially penetrated Beqanna. It was a reminder of what once was and what will never be. Questions bubble and she almost asks for more. Her mouth is agape, but it closes with further consideration. ”I’ve been here,” she confesses without a second thought, ”First the forest with Rhaegor, then here.” The reason remains an unspoken thing. Could she even provide one if prompted? Doubtful. It had been a chaotic mixture of curiosity, rebellion, and independence. As much as her family loves her, accepts her, it was a surprisingly easy choice to step off the path of expectation and forge her own way. It had consequences (a cough breaks the brief silence), but it has thus far been undoubtedly worth it. A soft grin settles across her pretty face when she meets her mother’s apprehensiveness. ”I know. I’m okay,” perhaps not entirely safe, but mostly. At least her fire has returned after placing an icicle at the faeries’ feet in the Mountain. At least she isn’t powerless. ”I made it back with the icicle,” a brief reflection seems adequate to determine her survivability, ”but the faeries are still deciding what to do with me. They liked someone else’s method more than mine and Santana’s.” Her competitive nature growled when it happened. ”But, we made it.” That makes her an adult now, right? A formidable individual? ”And I seemingly made a friend.” Santana, obviously. Little does she know how close they actually are, how the blood that boils in their veins is similar. But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask. @[Solace] An obnoxiously fast reply from me hahaha you're welcome xD RE: like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Solace - 12-13-2018 S olace we're reeling through an endless fall we are the ever-living ghost of what once was @[Valdis] I know you have plans, but thought i would give her a little something to wrestle with RE: like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Valdis - 12-14-2018 And in the darkened underpass I thought, "Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!" Solace’s concern is nearly tangible when she notes the occasional cough from her daughter and the evasive answer. Valdis blinks, half-expecting to be chided for her poor decision but it never comes. Reprimanding would do nothing to heal the girl of her ailments. It would be a waste of breath, really, because what’s done is done. The fever continues working its way through Valdis’ body, poisoning her bloodstream and sinking into her fatigued muscles. She desperately tries to hide it, guarding herself, behind her proud expressions and softened voice that mother knows so well. A snort quivers her nostrils, exhaling roughly in a desperate attempt to harbor her cough. The truth of her infection forges a small amount of tension as they consider the what-if’s, and although there is no sense masking her illness, Valdis doesn’t want to worry her mother even more. There is enough filling Solace’s agenda as she protects Hyaline while still maintaining a family and peace among all. That’s another reason why Valdis hardly responds to mother’s confession of her relationship with father. Shrugging with resignation rather than challenging or fishing for more, she simply says, ”I understand.” Although really she doesn’t. There was a residual tenderness in Castile’s eyes when he looked at Solace, but it hadn’t been mutual. Questions brewed underneath Valdis’ composed surface, but they never left the safe confines of her mind. Things happen for a reason, she tells herself before distracting herself with other matters. They will never be a truly complete and happy family. Growing up with division, Valdis doesn’t expect it to at all change. Not now, not ever. Her life has always been different from the triplets, from the brood Solace has created with Kagerus. It has always been there, that invisible wall, and it pushed against Valdis throughout her childhood. It didn’t falter her love for the family, not at all, but it opened her eyes to see beyond Hyaline and the family she was more or less adopted into. She and Velk are the outliers. It’s only right – perhaps expected – that she steps off their path to create one of her own because she isn’t one of them. She isn’t a full-blooded Hyaline princess. Half of her is a rogue. Nonetheless, Valdis manages to smear a grin across her lips when her sapphire eyes lift to her mother’s. ”I know,” she murmurs even as she questions the validity of it, ”you and Hyaline have always given me what I wanted and needed.” Love, a home, warmth, family. In the way her statement breaks, there is a teetering pause that cradles a heavy ‘but.’ Formulating the words during her hesitation, Valdis glances quickly away toward the distant horizon before she can search Solace’s face again, mustering the bravery to admit her decisions. She almost confesses how out of place she has always felt, but that would only upset mother. It wouldn’t be a balm for the truth – it would be a knife. ”There was this guy,” she bites her lip because it isn’t a dreamy fairytale. Valdis is well aware of the dangers (or at least wary of the potential) and it excites her more than anything else has thus far in life. Sinner has opened up a door of opportunity for her. With a dark charm, he has lured her into his spider web and has sunken his teeth into her. Deciding to be upfront, she finally confesses, ”I’m going to Sylva.” A simple and matter-of-fact answer spoken from the lips of a young adult and not a child, yet it still hurts to defy mother’s hopes and wishes. ”Velk,” she mutters her twin’s name with a weighted sigh, both angry and hurt toward the space between them. ”I don’t see him anymore.” It would be strange to find him and demand (because she wouldn’t ask her own brother – what good is having a twin when you don’t even fight for dominance?) for his help to heal the sickness branching through her. ”It’s okay. I’ll manage,” admittedly, she doesn’t know how. She doesn’t know of any healers and the quest wasn’t enough to take away her symptoms, but mother doesn’t need to know that. ”There’s someone in Sylva that can help once I’m there,” a rose-tinted lie curtained behind a plastic smile. But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask. @[Solace] Well, that ended up a novel lmao RE: like the dawn, you broke the dark - valdis - Solace - 01-03-2019 S olace we're reeling through an endless fall we are the ever-living ghost of what once was @[Valdis] well this embarrassingly late :| Feel free to consider this a closer if that suits her! Sol will probably come visit Sylva sooner or later |