04-02-2018, 09:51 PM
hold me in this wild, wild world
'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
It’s true that Brennen had felt little need to prove himself in the fae’s games, but less because of his age and more because he’s already proven himself time and again in battle, and even now is competing in his second Alliance. Better, overall, to let the young and the unproven fight their way to prizes and recognition in the games, and he to conserve his energy for his next Alliance battle and for the plotting and planning he was doing at home. And while they had not been alone on the field by any means, the young had certainly thrived in the competition; he approved heartily of the confidence it had added to the steps of his own family, and while something tells him this stallion in front of him doesn’t have any confidence issues, he’s sure that the win is a feather in his cap nonetheless.
The birds are almost never silent while the sun is out, but they quiet a bit when Brennen reaches the stranger, those with their own nests and mates and chicks to care for heading back to said nests, leaving only some of them to watch and study the men as they walk along the beach. The boy – and okay so he’s pretty grown, but he has nothing on Brennen – introduces himself and says his mother sent him, and Brennen takes another look at him, searching for familiar features. He knows many Nerinians, but he thinks Scorch is the most likely to have sent him a son already; Hestia is very much on-board with the plan, but not to the same degree as his friend. And like Brennen, and unlike Hestia, Scorch has many descendants.
He likes the younger stallion already, the words and irreverent tone reminding him of…someone. He hasn’t placed who that might be, but he returns the smile with a quick quirk of his own lips and a shake of his head (for once, free of feathered passengers clinging to his dark mane). “I am quite fond of a number of past and present Amazons,” he offers in reply, “but no, Nerine was not for me, not for the long-term. They bleed Amazons out of their very pores, no matter what they’d like to think, and a precious few stallions could hope to have a fair shot there.” He doesn’t know that even now, Nayl is protesting Hestia’s pledge to help Brennen regain his Brotherhood, on the claim that she had given him everything he could have wanted and he had not stayed.
The bay warrior remembers it quite differently. He remembers the feeling of being given his due respect for being the warrior he was, but knowing he’d never hold true rank amongst them. Of Nayl announcing her plan to have all men prove themselves in the gladiators before being allowed any rank or recognition at all. Of offering her Hyaline, rather than taking it for himself, and still it had barely been good enough. No. He respects her still for what she had done for the remains of the sisterhood that called Nerine home, but it had been no home for a Brother of the Tundra. “It’s marginally better here, though the current Queen allows it to grow stagnate and purposeless, just as it was when we found it and she declared herself Queen because some jewel came along and attached itself to her head.”
The jewel, just like the previous Keeper’s abdication, still puzzles Brennen. He had respected Circinae, but found her successor lacking. And the lands had been, as a rule, rather hands-off their people in the new world (so unlike the near-sentient lands of old) that he has never felt truly comfortable with this one-time show of brief life supposedly from the Island itself. It certainly does not impede his plans in any way. “But it will not stay that way for long, which I’m sure is why Scorch sent you to find me. Tell me, Leilan, as a child of an Amazon lady, have you ever considered the Brotherhood of old?” He seems a smart kid, and being Scorch’s, Brennen has no doubt he is intelligent even if he prefers to play another public role. He remembers now – Leilan reminds him of Nihlus. And of Nihlus, he had eventually grown quite fond, despite their rocky start. Brennen is sure that the near-stranger can infer from Brennen’s words that they are planning some sort of coup.
The birds are almost never silent while the sun is out, but they quiet a bit when Brennen reaches the stranger, those with their own nests and mates and chicks to care for heading back to said nests, leaving only some of them to watch and study the men as they walk along the beach. The boy – and okay so he’s pretty grown, but he has nothing on Brennen – introduces himself and says his mother sent him, and Brennen takes another look at him, searching for familiar features. He knows many Nerinians, but he thinks Scorch is the most likely to have sent him a son already; Hestia is very much on-board with the plan, but not to the same degree as his friend. And like Brennen, and unlike Hestia, Scorch has many descendants.
He likes the younger stallion already, the words and irreverent tone reminding him of…someone. He hasn’t placed who that might be, but he returns the smile with a quick quirk of his own lips and a shake of his head (for once, free of feathered passengers clinging to his dark mane). “I am quite fond of a number of past and present Amazons,” he offers in reply, “but no, Nerine was not for me, not for the long-term. They bleed Amazons out of their very pores, no matter what they’d like to think, and a precious few stallions could hope to have a fair shot there.” He doesn’t know that even now, Nayl is protesting Hestia’s pledge to help Brennen regain his Brotherhood, on the claim that she had given him everything he could have wanted and he had not stayed.
The bay warrior remembers it quite differently. He remembers the feeling of being given his due respect for being the warrior he was, but knowing he’d never hold true rank amongst them. Of Nayl announcing her plan to have all men prove themselves in the gladiators before being allowed any rank or recognition at all. Of offering her Hyaline, rather than taking it for himself, and still it had barely been good enough. No. He respects her still for what she had done for the remains of the sisterhood that called Nerine home, but it had been no home for a Brother of the Tundra. “It’s marginally better here, though the current Queen allows it to grow stagnate and purposeless, just as it was when we found it and she declared herself Queen because some jewel came along and attached itself to her head.”
The jewel, just like the previous Keeper’s abdication, still puzzles Brennen. He had respected Circinae, but found her successor lacking. And the lands had been, as a rule, rather hands-off their people in the new world (so unlike the near-sentient lands of old) that he has never felt truly comfortable with this one-time show of brief life supposedly from the Island itself. It certainly does not impede his plans in any way. “But it will not stay that way for long, which I’m sure is why Scorch sent you to find me. Tell me, Leilan, as a child of an Amazon lady, have you ever considered the Brotherhood of old?” He seems a smart kid, and being Scorch’s, Brennen has no doubt he is intelligent even if he prefers to play another public role. He remembers now – Leilan reminds him of Nihlus. And of Nihlus, he had eventually grown quite fond, despite their rocky start. Brennen is sure that the near-stranger can infer from Brennen’s words that they are planning some sort of coup.
hold me in this wild, wild world
and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
BRENNEN