"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
all that we have amassed sits before us, shattered into ash
She is worn out, so worn out.
Once she had thought herself like fire, but perhaps she is more like the ocean--coming in with the tide and out with the cycle of the moon. She is here one moment and gone the next much like the brush of the waves on the shoreline and only rarely does she bring anything useful to the surface. She had felt like a dragon once, with the flames in her chest in the fire on her tongue, but the fires died out and she has not found a way yet to revive them. So for now she is the ocean; she is blue and vast and changing with the hours.
She returns not with a bang but with a whisper, the dawn silent as she picks her way through the dense grass. Summer is turning to autumn and the morning holds the threat of a chill that she embraces fondly, brown eyes closing as she breathes in deeply. There are not many others about this early, but she knows they will come; they always do.
Rhaenyra is no longer attached to her side, and it is something that she feels oddly about, though the young mare has been gone for several years already. She'll be, what, four now? It is not so strange for a young filly to leave her mother's side, but she is the last piece of Cress's former life left. Even Flamebrand has vanished as well. Their father? She has not seen him since their last coupling, not even as a whisper on the wind. She is not wholly surprised--Flamevein had always been that way and had never truly been hers to lay a claim to.
She just misses the past.
She misses her flames; she misses having something to fight for. She longs for the time of dragons and shapeshifters and maybe, just maybe, a piece of her craves the war she once fought in.
In one way they were quite alike. Though Jinju still thought of herself as fire. Sometimes small and weak, one that would need protection and shelter to keep burning, and sometimes big and hot like the deepest pit in hell. However, she does not long for the past. Jinju had only been a child when the reckoning had happened and although she did miss her foster mom Lexa, her life was here and now in the Taiga with her new family.
But, she too, had to work to earn he powers back. First she hadn’t known she had them, her magician mother had pointed her hidden talent out. Still Jinju didn’t think she had honed the fire, yet she was sure she wouldn’t want to go without ever again. It was as much part of her as her beating heart.
When she had asked her father how she could help him through these hard times, he had answered that he mostly needed her at his side. But next to that, he had asked her to look for others to join their family. So the inky black mare is back in the field. She had only visited the place a couple of times, preferring to stay in the Taiga except for some occasional trips to the forest.
She isn’t sure what makes her approach the golden mare. Perhaps it’s the worn out look that hangs over her, maybe it’s one’s fire answering the other’s. When Jinju is close enough to see the absence of ears she’s not able to hide her surprise and shock, and without any other place to look at, she casts her ruby gaze towards the ground, flustered. ”Uhm, hi..” she starts off, a half assed greeting.
You wouldn’t need eyes to see that she had little to no experience in this field.
He brought with him an early Winter. The cold surrounded him and his breath fogged before him no matter the heat of day. It hadn’t always been this way. At one time, it had been safely within him, only tapped into as he wished it. But with all the changes in his life, all the difficulties and powerful emotions, all the heartache, he no longer had the control he once held over it. Now it glittered across his skin in a sheet of frost that would burn at the touch. It melted down black and lithe legs as he moved only to re-form again, melt again. Re-form and melt. It seemed the only person safe from his icy touch was his daughter. His daughter of fire.
With the deadly grace of a silent hunter, he approached and slid in place at her side without a word, letting the secret smile in his eyes greet her. Not of his own blood, she stood taller than him, thick with muscle with eyes of bloodfire. The heat radiating from her body began dissolving the sheet of winter from his coat, baring the dabs of royal purple across his side and back, clearing the black of his coat to a damp, polished shine. It didn’t much matter to him, though. He knew if he stepped away from her, the frost would just reappear again. But that didn’t much concern him.
The cold never bothered him, anyway.
He turned piercing eyes to her chosen companion, bright and glacial blue, alive with his magic whether he wished it or no. Outwardly, he was stoic and calm, so steady. But there was a torrential blizzard of emotions within him, the whole reason his Winter was residing outside his body currently at all. It would take time. He would get through it.
Meanwhile, he noted the gold and cream woman, a secret fight in her eyes, the tone of fit muscles accustomed to..what? Battle? Travel? He thought he might have understood what had attracted Jinju to her, and was thus far pleased with her choice. They didn't make a habit of bringing just anyone home to the Taiga.
He could sense Jinju’s uncertainty, though, the rare slip in her confidence that she’d worked so hard to form as a timid child tucked beneath his large wing. She would have to take comfort in his presence alone this time. All that were left of those magnificent wings were the wickedly smiling scars down his sides. But it would be enough, she’d come a long way from those days of taking shelter in his shadow. So, he would initiate, get her started and let her take over. He had faith in her abilities to take on the choosing of who might join their unit, their home.
”Hello,” a voice of distant thunder beyond the fog of a starless night, intangible and untamed, the quiet of endless dark. ”I’m Ruan, this is my daughter Jinju,” he offered with a nod towards her. Though it was no longer possible for her to pass as a child of his blood now that she was full grown and so visibly different, he still viewed her as his firstborn and always would.
”And you are?” he asked with a curious tilt to his head and the ghost of a smile.
all that we have amassed sits before us, shattered into ash
Sometimes Cress finds it hard to believe that she is the same girl who swallowed a dragon. She is the girl who faced down her worst fears--the deaths of her parents and the disappointment of her dearest friend--and accepted them. She was thrust into the lair of the Dark God and she survived. She'd been forced to face down a dragon and she had survived the encounter, her and the six others that had been taken by Carnage as well. She had been changed and molded by the flames of his lair, but sometimes she wonders if she's still that same mare.
She's been living so long without her firebreathing now, she's almost forgotten what the flames feel like. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do to be able to retrieve her fire, and though she felt completely naked without them at first, over the years she has grown accustomed to them being gone. It's her healing that she truly longs to bring back; she had felt useful with her natural-born ability. She could help others with her healing and it's a power she had carried with her since birth. Her firebreathing was thrust upon her and even though she had grown used to the flames and used them as if she were born for it, they weren't her healing ability.
As she thought, the morning is still crisp when she is approached, first by a young black mare. She registers the shock on the other's face as she takes in Cress' marred appearance--some days she forgets her earless-ness--but doesn't react to it; years of seeing horses react to her has desensitized her to it. The mare speaks, clearly feeling awkward, and Cress offers her a small smile as an icy stallion slips next to the stranger.
He introduces the both of them and Cress smiles again, noting the fire in his blue eyes; blue eyes that make her think of her absent daughter. "A pleasure to meet you both, Jinju, Ruan," she responds, dipping her head to each of them in turn. "I'm Cress. Formerly briefly of Tephra but I've been homeless for many years now." Oh, Tephra. To think she was there when the land was newly formed, helping Magnus and Offspring and Eight recruit new members to the territory. "Where are you two from?"
He comes to her rescue. It does not surprise her, though she had not expected it, but she cannot say she dislikes it. He had been one of the two rocks in her life and it was good to know he still supported her. Jinju also trusted him to let her figure things out on her own, but guide and support her when needed and desired. He could’ve let her struggle on her own, or give her confidence in his presence and show her how she could best address the situation.
His ice runs a shiver down her spine, but it’s soon gone as her heat inside her flares up. Her muzzle touches his cheek in a silent greeting, lips curled up in a warm smile. The smile still lies on her lips as Jinju turns her ruby gaze back to the golden mare, but only for a short while as she remembers why she had gotten so flustered by looking at her again. It was rude of her, and she knew it.
She dips her head when the mare replies. She was kind, where she didn’t have to be. Jinju wouldn’t be able to blame her for it. ”I’m sorry.. That was rude of me” she thus offers, lifting her gaze slowly to meet Cress’. This time she does not look away. She had heard of the Tephra, she had greeted its diplomats once too, but never visited. The question about their home, however, is easy to answer. ”We live in the Taiga. A pine tree forest not too far away from here.”
There lies a wide grin on her lips now and she had taken a step away from Ruan, and closer towards their newest companion. Her neck extended to offer Cress her nose, not only to exchange scents, but also to allow the golden mare to smell the sweet spice of the pine trees on her coat. ”It’s basically on the other side of the forest from here. It’s home.”
He was quiet as Jinju seemed to regain her balance, her strength, listened as she apologized for something he must have missed. She was one always quick to recover from her mistakes, and he had always admired that about her. Their new companion didn’t seem to mind whatever it had been, gracing her with a friendly smile and introducing herself. Cress, from Tephra. He reflected on that silently as Jinju took the lead again, confident once more.
She stepped away from him as she spoke of their Taiga, described it and offered her black muzzle for greeting and a scent of home.
"You don't wish to return to Tephra?" he asked, puzzled and curious. He didn't know anyone from Tephra save for a brief meeting with Magnus, and of course he well knew his former king, Eight. Had seen him since the Reckoning on.. painful matters, but the man still held a great deal of his respect. Ah, and Aranea. He hadn't seen her in so long now though, his silent friend. He'd never been there himself, but the people had seemed quite pleased with it.
"I'm sure Magnus would do what he could to welcome you back." He didn't really know the man that well, but Magnus had seemed the type to care for his own. "Of course, you're welcome to visit our home if it sounds enjoyable. Strong redwood pine, a creek through it and river marking the shift from the Forest." He loved how it always smelled fresh, like mountains after rain. Crisp and clear. A place they could be as wild as their hearts, a number of them shape-shifters of some form or another. He, too, had once hunted by night as wolf. But no longer.
The temperature around him dropped suddenly with the weight in his chest and he took a step back so as not to chill them with it. His demeanor cooled a little too, reminded of.. things. He tried a smile again though, "Would you like to join us for a visit?" Or to stay.
all that we have amassed sits before us, shattered into ash
Occasionally, she wonders what happened to the other former members of the Valley. Perhaps they had wandered and gathered until they found a new home of their own, or perhaps they dispersed to separate corners of the strange, new Beqanna. She had agreed to join Eight out of necessity and hope that their new home would be something like the old, but it was never anywhere close. There was no mountainous terrain to traverse, no hint of the wolves that had once lulled her to sleep. More than anything else she misses losing herself in the pine forest, the crunch of fallen needles under her hooves and the smell of sap and pollen all around.
Tephra had been different, built around an active volcano. The steam and lava keeps the land humid and hot, even for the dragon-girl. There were no endless pines or, for that matter, many trees at all. It was a dangerous place to live and perhaps she should return there, but she can't bring herself to go back. Not without her own source of heat by her side. Without Flamevein, what's the point? His body of fire can keep her warm through even the coldest of nights, but he has not been by her side for many years.
She simply cannot go back.
"There is nothing to apologize for, Jinju," she assures the younger mare. "I have been without my ears for so long now, I have almost forgotten I am scarred at all." But she hasn't, really. The scars never fade, especially from one's mind. A peek under her forelock would show the bits of meat and skull where she was never able to heal herself fully, and her ears tell the rest of the story. The dragon upon her chest, too, is a scar in it's own right, but Cress does not burden them with her baggage. It is for her to carry, and her alone.
Jinju describes their home as a pine forest, and Cress perks back up instantly, her smile growing broad. "A pine forest? I grew up in a pine forest, before all of... this happened," she adds with a glance around. Before the Reckoning, she means; before they stripped everyone's abilities away and destroyed their homes, forcing everyone to band together to create new lands, new homes, new alliances. It makes her feel old just thinking about it, though the Reckoning wasn't too many years ago. She has to remind herself that the Valley will never return, and she must move on from her painful past.
Looking to Ruan, she hopes she can mask the pain in her eyes. "I never knew Magnus, only Eight and, briefly, Offspring," she tells the icy stallion. "I'm sure they would welcome me back, but Tephra was never truly home. I yearn for pine wood and mountains, the kingdom of my childhood, even though I know it is destroyed. The Taiga sounds like a wonderful place, though. I would be honored if you will have me."
