take aim and reload - Kylin

[Ivar]

I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take Ivar has always been a lean creature, and it is only during the most recent spring that he truly lost the last vestiges of visible youth. As slight as always, there is now more visible muscle to kelpie, more height to his dark crested neck and a less frequent smile on his mouth. There are too many springs in Loess for Ivar to have remained oblivious to the maturity now reflected in his physical appearance, but he does not feel entirely like an adult yet. He does not know his purpose yet, nor what he wants beyond his immediate thirst and hungers. He knows that he wants Kylin, and that he wants her in more than the easiest way. She’d give in, he knows as he meets her flustered gaze, watches the brightness in her eyes. But he wants more than that. He wants her to be satisfied as well, wants her to be happy and safe. The dueling needs would be more frustrating later in the year, but on this summer day they are easy to ignore. Today he can do what he wants to, and not just what he needs to. It has been some time since he last swam, Kylin’s teasing is accurate. Yet as the piebald kelpie slides beneath the water it feels as if no time has passed at all. If anything, it seems almost easier than ever to swim. Kylin pulls ahead of him in their race as Ivar slips through the water, his front hooves scraping against the sea floor. The kelpie tries to pushes off toward the surface with his hind legs, but finds that his hooves have become a tail, sleek and scaled like the rest of his body. He flicks it, much like he’d buck, and he spirals through the water faster than he could have imagined. Grinning, but far beyond questioning the magic that lives inside Beqanna (and apparently himself), Ivar catches up with the purple mare. He watches her fins as she swims overhead, marveling at their construction, and then races ahead, pulling himself up onto shore and finding that his tail is absent above water, and that he leaves four familiar hoof prints along the beach of the smaller island. “I think I’m still in pretty good shape,” He replies when she catches up, though he does not hide his heavier breathing. king of loess minimal smoky grullo tobiano | equus kelpus

ooc: so i decided to make this when ivar realizes he has a tail in water