i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Printable Version +- Beqanna (https://beqanna.com/forum) +-- Forum: OOC (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=24) +--- Forum: Archive (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=81) +---- Forum: Lands (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=98) +----- Forum: Loess (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=88) +----- Thread: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash (/showthread.php?tid=24322) |
i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Pteron - 07-17-2019 The air at the northern coast still bites at him despite the passing of the equinox, and Pteron briefly longs for the already-shed protection of his dun winter’s coat. The first light has just begun to edge over Nerine, casting the water ahead and sand at his hooves into a myriad of shades of blue. Pteron enjoys this time of day, enjoys watching the dawn’s light sparkle off the distant glaciers of the Icicle Isle. The dawn grows infinitesimally brighter. The moment a path becomes clear, a soft depression in the sand that leads to a deeper one through the woods, Pteron departs. Had he traveled by wing, the journey would have been far shorter. Instead, he takes the central path, albeit at an occasional canter, and arrives at the edge of the land exhausted but pleased with himself by noon. As he stands at the border, his gaze sweeps the open air above him, finally free from the crowding redwood canopy. A bright spring sky spreads wide, and Pteron is unable to resist the allure. Despite the tired buzz of his legs, the pegasus’ wings are still fresh, and he banks and wheels for a few minutes for the joy of the wind in his mane. When he lights down, it is at the salty shore of the crescent salt lake. He’s no interest in drinking the saltwater, but he follows the inner curve until he finds the sweetwater spring that flows into the lake. There he drinks enough to slake his thirst and then turns to look around, curious who might be about. He has not returned to Loess since his departure six months past, and he wonders what might have changed. The smoking remnants of the maze have vanished, blending with the rolling hills and scrubland that Pteron remembers so fondly. Has anyone new come to the hilly kingdom, he wonders. Has anyone left? The young stallion seeks out the familiar piebald coats of his dragonkin, but looks also for a pattern of blue on white on gold, curious if Ori still remains. Had her captivity ended with the Tephran war, he wonders, or does Castile still hold her as a breathing bargaining chip? The nearby hills remain empty a while long, and so Pteron takes another long draught and considers the location of the nearest hotspring. Though not nearly as cold as northern Taiga, there is enough of a chill in the air here that a hot soak might be fun. @[Oriash] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Oriash - 07-17-2019 Oriash but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too. @[Pteron] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Pteron - 07-17-2019 When the shadow of the fern reaches the little patch of prickly pear, he tells himself. That’s when he’ll give up waiting here by the shoreline and head out in search of a hot spring. There’s no use wasting the daylight, Pteron thinks, but in the end the fern shadow has crept across only half the distance when he is greeted. The stallion hears them first, pricking his pale ears toward the sound of hooves. The coming horse is just appearing around the edge of nearby hill when Pteron spots them, and when the stallion recognizes her he smiles. Though she is in some ways much changed, there is no denying the identity of the filly he considers a friend despite their time apart. The bright leopard spots on the snow white, the golden wings. Even the antlers, though those have become far more impressive since the last time he’d seen them. They must grow like the deer they resemble, Pteron decides, with additional tines for each passing year. Yes, he recalls, Aegean’s antlers had been just a bit larger than these when they’d met on the shore of the Silver Cove. How big they must be now. Pteron is glancing at Ori’s antler admiringly as she approaches, and when his olive gaze meets hers it is with a happy smile. Pteron considers reaching out to her the way he would his family, but decides against it at the last moment. He’d rather not be too forward regardless of the friendship he feels for her, and so instead returns her greeting with a happy wicker of his own. “It’s good to see you too,” He tells her with a smile. “I’d wanted to come back sooner but I’ve been busy; trying to learn a whole territory in six months isn’t an easy task.” The pegasus knows the more populous areas of his northern home now, but there are still a great many hidden places in the shadows of the redwoods. “What about you, Ori? What have you been up to this winter?” @[Oriash] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Oriash - 07-23-2019 Oriash but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too. @[Pteron] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Pteron - 07-29-2019 “Taiga.” He tells her without hesitation, gesturing without thought to the distant forest. It is lost from sight beyond the rolling hills, but the pungent scent of the trees never really seems to leave his nose. It is like the stone dust of Loess had been when he’d called this place home, and like the sweet wildflowers of the Pampas where he’d been born. It is a reminder of where his parents are, of where his home is. Pteron quashes the question that always rises, the lingering doubt that Taiga is truly his home. Where else could his home be? Surely it is there among the redwood trees, where the sky is hidden and his wings stay pressed against his sides more often than not. The young stallion would sometimes swear his bones themselves were growing heavier with the time spent on the ground. “I don’t think I want to live there.” He adds abruptly, and it is clear from the expression on his startled face that he’d meant to keep that to himself. Well, he supposes, the cat’s out of the bag and Ori is far less likely to react negatively to this admission than he thinks his family will. “But I don’t think I know where I want to live either. I mean, Taiga is nice and all and I like Loess but like,” He trails off after the sudden chatter, both because he doesn’t really have anything to compare this sensation to, and also because Ori’s wing has suddenly disappeared. Recalling their meeting with a delighted grin he reaches forward to where it had been. He knows that the wrist of her wings should be brushing against his curiously questing mouth, yet he tastes nothing but air. “You’ve gotten better,” he says to the space where Oriash had been. Olive eyes trace the gust of wind that shakes the grass around them, and it doesn’t occur to him until after that the breeze too has been a figment of her magic. “Much better,” he amends when she reappears, grinning widely. “Is that even you?” He glances around himself, as though the Oriash in front of him might be the illusion and the real one still hidden from his sight by trickery. @[Oriash] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Oriash - 08-07-2019 Oriash but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too. @[Pteron] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Pteron - 08-10-2019 A soft breath of true wind ripples past them as Oriash confirms that the figure in front of him is truly her. It carries with it the scent of full summer, and the warmth of earth baked beneath the sun. Ori no longer smells of the Silver Cove, Pteron realizes. The last time he’d seen her there had remained something of the coastal kingdom, yet the leopard filly in front of him is entirely of Loess. The tobiano stallion has wondered why she’d stayed past the terms of her captivity and then after the smoke of war cleared, but he has been grateful enough for her continued presence that he’d not dug further for answers. Pteron knows that there are changes in the West, and that the Sanctuary that her mothers had founded is reshaping itself into a new creature. He does not know much beyond that change is happening; the details are not of much interest to the olive-eyed stallion. Those eyes are fixed on Oriash as she answers him. There is no qualifier in what she says, but the pause after her admission of liking it in Loess sounds to Pteron like empathy much more than sympathy. It reminds him that he has never asked. “There’s nothing keep you here,” he says, and though his tone betrays nothing his green gaze does flick back toward her briefly from the horizon onto which it has wandered. “You could go and see everything else that’s out there.” He lets that hang there for only a moment, adding: “I’ve heard the Icicle Isle has the best views of the northern lights in the winter, but I bet they’d still be nice in the fall. We wouldn’t turn to icicles if we go early enough either.” @[Oriash] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Oriash - 08-28-2019 Oriash but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too. @[Pteron] RE: i've never fallen from quite this high; oriash - Pteron - 09-01-2019 “Yes. We.” He replies, reaching out to bump his nose against her jaw playfully. “You’ll need me there to pull you out of a snowdrift if you get stuck,” Pteron adds with a grin as he pulls away. “Make sure you practice in the meantime,” he gestures at her bicolored wings with his blue muzzle, shrugging his own as he does. “It’s not going to be an easy flight across the ocean in the dark.” Because of course they’ll fly in the dark; that is the most adventurous sort of time to fly. They’ll get there just in time to see the best of the lights, and be gone before anyone finds them. Pteron knows that the place is cold, but he is without fear when it comes to weather. “I have to get back to Taiga now,” he says as a glance down at his shadow reveals how quickly time has passed. It’s always this way with Ori, Pteron realizes. Hours slip by and he feels like it has been barely a moment. It’s a trait Oriash shares with her brother, though one that Pteron thinks it might be best that she and Aegean do not know they share. “But meet me in Taiga before the next new moon, and we’ll go see the lights.” Pteron steps forward again, and this time he wraps his head over and around her neck in a hug. The night black strands of her mane are dusted with Loessian red, and her skin smells of the hills and both the sweet and brackish springs that hide in them. He’s hugged her before, and it was no different than hugging Marni or Eyas. They don’t smell like Loess though, like memories of a time when things were simpler, and they don’t have antlers that bring to mind memories that heat his blood or have such very long lashes veiling their pretty eyes. Pteron flushes and pulls away, turning to pluck a stray feather from his spreading wings rather than meet her gaze. He straightens a few more, and when he is able to look at her again, there’s no sign at all of his wayward thoughts. “I’ll see you soon, Ori.” The young stallion tells her. Then he spreads his wings, breaks into a gallop, and at the crest of the nearest hill lifts off into the sky. @[Oriash] When you’re back maybe we can start a thread in Taiga and/or the Icicle Isle? I’m good with either! |