"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
Summer truly brings a beautiful serene atmosphere to the hills. While the sun's rays reach each and every corner, the brilliant light dances across the tall green grasses, causing them to sparkle in the wind. And with the warm weather comes the small creatures of varying sizes, small bunnies with their little ones and squirrels running and darting through the trees. It is truly beautiful how wild this place is, how unique with it's different inhabitants and diverse vegetation.
She is happy that she had stopped here, grateful even to have had the opportunity to claim this place as her home for the time being. For like she had hinted at before, this wasn't something she would do forever. One day, maybe soon, she'd pass it on to the next who was even more ready for it, and more worthy of it then she was. Her only desire was to get it started, to increase it numbers. Then she would leave it in the most capable of hands so to speak.
As she stands on one of the many hillsides she thinks over her plans, trying to figure out what would best suit the home that, hopefully, many others would call home. She doesn't want to fail them, though she doesn't want to go too over the top either. She simply wants to provide what the consenus wants most of all in reasonable and fair ways. It is then she spots Spear and his bright painted coat amonst the green grass and with it she realizes that instead of trying to work it out on her own, it would be best to talk to those who had chosen to join her here.
Stepping forward she lets out a soft nicker to the taller stallion in greeting and quickly picks up her pace into a fluid trot as she heads towards him. It takes her a minute, understandably due to her short legs, to reach the other. Yet when she does she comes to a graceful stop beside him and allows a smile to stretch across her velvet pink lips. "Spear! Hello!" Her voice is singsong sweet as she greets the other. "I'm happy to see you! How are you liking the hills?"
An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend.
Most of his time thus far has been spent in idle grazing and small explorations of the hills and the springs that crisscross their cragged faces; mostly, he just watches the hares hopping about as he grazes, the grass and his feathered legs mingling together like old friends.
So far, it just seems to be the little spotted mare and himself that claim (he hasn’t claimed it in the traditional sense, just said he’d like to stay and he has) this place for a length of time and the rest seem to come and go fast enough that their scents don’t remain long on the air or their tracks on the earth. He’s come across his own hoofprints often enough that he thinks he’s been one of the few to traverse back and forth across the hills.
Spear likes that it is not entirely a gentle terrain, and that it reminds him of a place far from here that he has spent a good amount of time in. (He thinks of a mare there, and has no idea if she has a long-legged foal by her side now that looks a little something like him and her, and he realizes that he’ll never really know…) The cacti are familiar in their barbed arms and unusual shapes that throw long strange shadows on the ground, and the pine brush is also familiar to him - he remembers, but shakes it out of his head and resumes the comfortable tedium of grazing on the green nutrient-rich grass that fills his belly.
He cranes an ear towards the soft nicker, raising his head to watch the spotted mare trot towards him. It takes her a good minute because she lacks the height that he has, and her smallness reminds him of his twin sister only Crota is more plump and plucky where Spark was just small and slight, like a slip of smoke or a sliver of sunlight. His mismatched eyes never leave her, from the way the feathers bob and dance in her mane to the way she smiles already. He finds it easy to smile back at her, “Crota, good to see you too. Been quiet here when you’re off and about,” he mentions, having noticed her come and go quite a bit, and presumably to thicken their ranks in the hills and give the land a fighting chance to survive when the mists come take them back.
“I like the hills very much. They remind me of a place not unlike them that I once knew.”
It would be wrong to say that she didn't appreciate Spear's staying in the hills with her despite it's constant emptiness. She didn't know what she would do without him here and she was truly grateful that he had stayed since the first moment of their making the hills their home. Caw was another that she was grateful for. Though she hid in the shadows often, Crota constantly caught the other mare's scent drifting through the hills and their strong cut edges. Though like Spear, Crota spent many days coming across her own hoofprints in the soft dirt that covers the hills and she wonders when, if ever, it will be full of other faces other than her own and the two that she had been so lucky to have join her. It's not that she doesn't like spending her time in the hills with Spear and Caw. She simply wants the hills to be known as a positive home for many more where they two can enjoy what they are and have been able to.
It is for this reason that Crota is constantly gone, traveling back and forth from the field and the meadow before finally returning home. She works hard, hoping that her efforts will one day pay off so that she can sit back and enjoy what came to be. With a quiet grace she watches Spear, her bright blue eyes searching his face, resting momentarily on the red eye that was so interesting to her. For she had never known until she met the other that eyes were capable of being any other color than brown or blue and the way the sun bounces off the brilliant color of his eye makes it seem even more beautiful.
It's when he smiles though, the action stretching his velvet lips upwards, that makes her eye travel to them and for a moment she is taken aback by his kindness. She isn't used to this. She had been alone for far to long and for a moment she is unable to say anything, her smile growing slightly. "I am sorry I haven't been here to keep you company, Spear," her words are kind and her apology genuine. She doesn't like leaving him and Caw here alone among the hills. "I am hoping that one day my efforts will pay off and I won't have to leave so often," with a soft sigh she looks off towards the hills, her smile faltering slightly as worry threatens to overtake her features. "I want our home to be a great one, you know? I don't want the mists to overtake us once more."
She then looks back to Spear, her eyes searching his. She doesn't want to admit her worries, but she tries. She feels as though he is capable of being a sort of confidant; though deep down she already considers him a friend. Somehow his joining her on day one had instantly made him such to her, as unusual as that may sound. It's his voice breaking through the air as he talks about the hills that draws her attention, her ears pricking forward in a show of happiness. "I am so glad you like this place, Spear. I like the hills very much as well." Her smile suddenly grows, the worry dissipating from her features as their conversation switches to their home. Though what draws her further into their conversation is his mention of somewhere else. For a moment she hesitates, not sure if this is something she should ask about. Though after a second she mentally shrugs away the hesitation, her voice slipping into the temporary silence. "Can you tell me about the place that it reminds you of? Was it just as beautiful as the hills?"
@[Kristin] It got weird at the end because I got distracted :| MY BAD. <3
