"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
i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
Though the water is now shallow enough to stand, Ivar continues to float. The pied colt is never ready to give up the water so readily; given his druthers he’d rather always be at least slightly damp. His long pale legs are tucked under him as he drifts along in the current of Kylin’s movement. She’s returning to shore, but she does not make it all the way there. She stops, still in the water, and Ivar straightens his legs to stand beside her. The panic of her earlier racing heart is subsiding.
(too late now. not fun anymore.)
“You were floating,” he tells her with a grin. The elation on her face is thrilling in a new sort of way; he enjoys seeing her this happy. He is glad he – or at least his suggestion of swimming – is the cause of her smile.
Ivar takes a few more steps to match hers, feeling the warmth of the humid air drift across his broad black back as it breaks the water. He’s tall enough that it does, even though Kylin’s back remains submerged. He does not mind.
They’ve only ever been friendly before, childhood playmates sharing a fascination with water. So when Kylin reaches out to thank him with a gentle brush of her muzzle, Ivar surprises himself by returning the gesture with a kiss. It is soft and fleeting and he pulls away so quickly. Not embarrassed, just unsure.
(ohh. i see now. different)
Her cheek was salty from exertion and not the sea, and though Ivar wonders (longs even) to see if her jaw, her throat, her soft neck are the same, he does not act. He’d rather swim more often than risk scaring her away with unwanted advances. She was Ivar’s first friend, after all, and losing her to the too-adult sensations that swirl heavily through the autumn air is the rare risk that he is not willing to take.
“Oh yes,” he tells her, “We can swim any time you’d like.”
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
He tells her "ooh love".
Standing on the sandy bottom of the spring Kylin catches her breath quickly. It’s not that she isn’t used to a workout, just the whole swimming thing was full of new experiences. The good ones she carries with her, the bad one she forgets. Ivar makes it easy for her too, still floating before joining her. ”I was..” she mumbles in reply, still not entirely able to wrap her head around it. ”You showed me how to swim!”
Her lips curl up at the sweet kiss and if it was possible she would’ve blushed at it. A kiss she knew, of course, but not coming from someone that wasn’t family. And that Ivar considers them close enough for such intimate gesture, it makes her stomach flutter. ”Thank you” she tells him softly.
That moment she decides to keep practising how to swim, in shallow water to start with. Kylin is already imaging the surprise looked on his face when she would show him how much she had improved. He would like that, right? ”I’d like that, I want to become just as good at swimming as you are” she tells him excited, though she knows that is not quite a realistic goal. But it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Her hazel gaze hold his for a moment longer, then she steps back, towards the little spot in the spring where sunshine shines down on. Most other rays are blocked by Ischia’s jungle, except for the few that peek through. Kylin shakes her head – more of her body isn’t really of use since the water still reaches higher than her withers – sending some droplets in all directions around her. For a moment she just enjoys the sunlight on her skin, basking in it, before remembering Ivar again. ”Shall we stay and enjoy the spring a little longer, or would you like to see some more of Ischia?”
i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
Everyone can swim, Ivar thinks, but so few of them try. Kylin was willing to though, and Ivar is not disappointed at her effort. She’d done well with her enthusiasm, and he is smiling. The smile grows as she thanks him for the kiss, even if she doesn’t return it. He only wants her to enjoy swimming, after all, and perhaps his company as much as he enjoys hers.
Kylin steps a little deeper into the water, where the bright rays of the sun can reach the pool. Ivar remains in the shadows, watching her wordlessly. She really is quite lovely with her lavender figure and pale mane, but he swallows down the hunger with minimal effort. Friends, he reminds himself.
When she finally looks back at him, the pied colt smiles and pauses to consider her offer.
(stay in the water. there’s still time.)
“I want to see the rest of Ischia.” He tells her. The water calls to him, but so does the unexplored greenery of Kylin’s island home. He’s seen only the beach, a bit of jungle, and this pool. Who knows what lies in the shadows of the jungle? The thought is thrilling in a new way, and he wades through the shallows until he can clamber onto dry land. Water drips down his dark hide and streams from his corded man, but he does not attempt to shake himself dry. He’d rather keep the water as long as possible.
“So who else lives with you here?” He asks curiously as he waits for Kylin to leave the water. “I know you said your dad moved you here from Hyaline, right?”
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
He tells her "ooh love".
She could walk on water, so why would she bother to swim? Until she had met Ivar, the thought of swimming had never crossed her mind. Not that she disliked the idea, but she had simply never thought of the possibility. Ivar had showed her. Ivar had taught her. And Kylin couldn’t be more thrilled. It was more fun that she ever could’ve imagined.
It shows in every fiber of her being. Her lips are curled up in a smile, ears are mostly pinned forward and her hazel eyes twinkle in delight. Now she’s used to the water actually feels very good on her skin and in a crazy ebullition Kylin squeezes her eyes shut before dipping her head in the water. It’s cold and wet and the water flows into her nose, but strangely good too.
With a snort she surfaces again, shaking her head and neck – like she had done only moments before – to shake off the water. Carefully she blinks her eyes to prevent the droplets from hurting them, grinning widely at Ivar. And at that moment, Kylin is sure she would like to stay here a little longer. Just them in the water.
She regrets asking him, but if he wanted to explore the other parts of the isle, who was she to tell him no? Kylin watches him move, dark and white coat completely soaked. Almost looked like it was supposed to be like that. She likes it, how could she not? She was a child of the water too. Only when he reaches the shore she follows him out. Slow at first, but able to quicken her step a little as she nears the shore.
Unlike Ivar Kylin does shake her body, sending droplets all around them, though it’s impossible to be instantly dry. ”My family, mostly. Father and Mother, uncle Reilly and then my twin brother and our little sister of course. Dad adopted a boy too and other than that some of the former Queen and her family still lives here silently. It’s like our sanctuary” she answers him. Then of course there were a couple of more, but none Kylin had actually met.
She nods, though perhaps more to herself than really to Ivar. As she brushes past him Kylin reaches out a little, gently brushing her muzzle along his side before playfully tugging at a still dripping strand of his mane. ”Come, this way” she says, turning left and back into the thicker vegetation. ”We temporary moved to Hyaline. Ischia was under attack then and Dad wanted to claim a safe place for our family. But then, when he went back to check, Ischia was almost deserted. No trace of whoever had tried to take it and thus dad moved us back. We like the water.”
Ischia was home. She had enjoyed Hyaline, like one would enjoy a vacation or trip elsewhere, but Ischia was home. This was where they would come home to. Tilting her purple head a little she glances across her shoulder, trying to see if Ivar was still following closely. She stops, ears twitching towards the sound that comes from in front of them, a secretive smile on her lips. ”We should be very quiet from now on” she whispers when he’s close enough to hear her. ”We would scare them otherwise.”
Once Kylin is sure that he understood her she grins at him one more time before dipping her head to dive under a big leave that crossed their path. It slides down her neck and back and then she’s gone. Carefully one hoof in front of the other, until she stands still. ”Look up” she tells Ivar softly, her gaze already up in the air. The parrots were Ischia’s only other habitant, colorful nestling in the trees around them. ”Aren’t they beautiful?”
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
Standing on the shore, Ivar watches Kylin in the water. He’s acknowledged to himself that she is lovely, and that perhaps someday he might try to kiss her again. That she lingers in the pool even after he’s ashore only strengthens that resolve; he immediately regrets his decision to explore the island rather than remain here. When the pied mare ducks her head below the water,
(oh oh OH)
He swallows audibly. Fortunately, she’s got ears full of water and he’s a fair distance away. The struggle to keep himself on dry land and not leap forward to drive her to deeper water is more difficult than he’d have like. The lure of autumn has passed though, and a distant avian shriek slices through his primeval brain. Not now. He’s a young man amped up on the hormones of adulthood but he is not driven entirely by his instincts. Friends. They’re friends.
The answer to his question was a good distraction; Ivar tries to remember the names. The former queen; was that Ea, he wonders? Mother had not been sure who ruled the island kingdom, but her caution as to political instability hadn’t been enough to sway Ivar. He’d wanted to see Kylin, after all; very little would have dissuaded him.
Kylin distracts him from his distraction.
She slides her muzzle along his side as she moved ahead, tugging playfully at his mane even as she expands upon her earlier answer. He does his best to pay attention, though when she glances back to see if he is following closely, it’s not her eyes that have Ivar’s attention. He draws even to her quickly, offering her a charming smile to cover his adolescent faux pas. Nodding at her request for silence, Ivar follows her quietly.
There’s a low chatter audible on this side of the dense greenery. Ivar’s brown eyes follow the direction of Kylin’s to the source. Dozens of colorful little birds perch in the trees around them. Accustomed to the drabber birds of Sylva, these parrots are bright as jewels. Like the macaws of Tephra, he thinks, but much less raucous. “They really are,” he agrees, his eyes roving from tree to tree as he attempts to count them. They move too quickly. Ivar soon abandons the effort and turns back to his lavender and white companion. “What other animals do you have here?”
06-28-2017, 03:48 PM (This post was last modified: 06-28-2017, 03:48 PM by Kylin.)
kylin
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
He tells her "ooh love".
If she only had Kharon’s ability to read minds, then she surely would’ve been flustered by his thoughts. Probably quite flattered too. But she doesn’t. And with the autumn not having any effect on her – yet – she is completely oblivious to it all. Or at least, all that go further a normal good friendship.
That there is at least some sort of connect, she’s aware of. After all, Kylin is rather fond of Ivar too. It’s not like she would get this close and cosy with someone she didn’t like, or know. And thus far he hadn’t let her down either.
So she’s more than thrilled to learn that she’s not disappointing him either. That is how she interpret his words. Kylin is smiling, only tearing her gaze away from the colourful birds to quickly look at Ivar. Though she did not expect him to meet her gaze this quickly. The birds still chatter all around them, wings carrying them from tree to tree as they don’t seemed too spooked by their arrival. ”No” she shakes her head, glancing up for a short second before looking at Ivar again. ”Not that I know of. Just us and the parrots – that is how dad calls them. Ischia is pretty quiet.”
Well there was this huge creature she had ran into on the beach, but Kylin wasn’t sure what it was. Nor if it actually belonged on the isle, so she decides not to mention it. Her experience with it hadn’t been too good either. So instead she turns to look at the huge tree that not too far from them, it’s branches full of birds. ”Do you see that huge tree over there?” she asks her Ivar, nodding to it as she speaks. ”It’s the biggest one in whole Ischia. I like to call it mother tree.”
She doesn’t know why she tells him, suddenly feeling a little silly about it. Who named a tree after all? But it’s too late to take her words back now, Kylin just hoped he wouldn’t find her too crazy.
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
When Kylin tells him that the parrots are the only other animals on the island, Ivar looks up again. Parrots – different from macaws, he is certain. They’re smaller and Ivar father likes their rainbow of colors. He’s always been fond of the unnatural: perhaps because his mother changed herself so many times during his childhood. Bristol’s amethyst wings, Longclaw’s blue coat, Heda’s navy wings: he has fond memories of these all. Kylin’s lavender and white coat is no different, and as he searches the branches overhead, Ivar finds no bird with a shade of lavender quite like the worn by the filly beside him.
Yes, he decides, she is special.
What that means to him exactly isn’t quite clear, for the thought leaves him as soon as he follows Kylin’s gaze to the tree.
“Woah,” he says with genuine appreciation. “That’s huge.”
Ivar is trying to remember if he’s ever seen a tree so large before. He is walking closer without conscious thought, brushing through the greenery as he draws nearer. Ivar trusts that Kylin isn’t far behind him as they make their way to the base of the Mother Tree.
“Oh yeah,” he says, his voice somewhat muffled from the way his head is positioned. He’s looking directly up as high as he can, to the distant leaves the block the sunlight. “This is definitely the biggest tree I’ve seen. I mean, Loess had some pretty big ones and the Taiga’s are really high, but I think this one wins.” He lists the foreign kingdoms casually, as though it’s only expected that one has seen the trees across Beqanna.
“Did you know,” asks Ivar as he brings his gaze down from the canopy and back to Kylin, “That all of Beqanna isn’t even ten years old yet? She says this whole place just popped up out of nowhere and the ‘Old Beqanna’ disappeared. That’s what my Mom said.”
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
Like a flower waiting to bloom. ”It is” she agrees with a soft mumble, wide grin tugging on her lips. Relieved that he didn’t laughed at her and didn’t seem to find her too crazy.
Of course she is not far behind as he approaches the tree. Maybe a little too close even, her breath warming his still wet hindquarters. Kylin has to stop herself from brushing her lips over his skin, not sure if that was appropriate in this situation. She touched Kharon all the time, but that was her brother, not quite the friendship she had with Ivar.
She takes the liberty of watching him, only glancing up at the tree for a sort moment. The tree she knew, studying Ivar was much more interesting. And you’d have to admit, his pose was kind of funny as he stared right up in the sky. Kylin liked it to watch him, but she’d have to admit that his words sparked her curiosity too. ”You’ve been to the other lands?” she asks, unconsciously taking a step closer towards him.
As their gazes meet again, her head tilts slightly, questioningly. For a moment she frowns confused, there was a different Beqanna before this one? She didn’t know. ”No” Kylin tells him softly with a shake of her head. ”Did your mother tell you what it was like?” She was definitely interested in learning more about it.
Kylin wonders if it looked anything like the world she knew. Well, she only knew Ischia and Hyaline and had only recently visited the river with Mother, but she cannot help to be curious to both the old and new lands, the ones she still had to explore. ”What’s your home like?”
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
Ivar – the sharp-toothed, scaled water dragon – is unlikely to find anything too crazy. There are bones at the bottom of his father’s lake and his mother tells tales of lifetimes spent beyond the stars: almost anything is believable.
The constant presence of her behind him hasn’t gone unnoticed, as they wove their way through the greenery he’d felt the warm ghost of her breath across his hindquarters. He’s no more experienced in friendship than she is, but this seems about right. He’s enough of a stallion to want her closer, but those instincts are weaker without the heady pressure of autumn. There’s still to urge to keep her, to protect her, to steal her away to a land of his own, but those are quiet murmurs in a more civilized mind.
He nods when she asks if he’s visited the other lands; what else is there for him to do? Sylva is a quiet kingdom, lacking in the kind of adventure that he is almost ready to seek. Glancing down from the canopy, Ivar sees that she’s taken a step closer to him. He smiles.
“She says everyone just woke up on the mountain one day. One day the old Beqanna was there, and the next day the New Beqanna was.” he’s tried to pry more out of his mother, but she has never been especially interested in the details. The big picture, that’s what is important, Djinni had said.
Kylin asks about Sylva, and Ivar takes a moment to answer. He does love his homeland – that is where his family is – but he has found that the world outside the wooded realm is equally (if not more) thrilling.
“It’s a forest,” he says at last, “and all the trees stay red and yellow like autumn, but all year round. They never turn green, and never fall. There are lots of hills and streams and lakes too. Plenty of places to swim.” He pauses and tilts his head curiously at Kylin, as though he is considering something. “You should come visit sometime.” He tells her, “We can swim again and I can show you around.”
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
Like a flower waiting to bloom.
A pair of lavender ears pin forward as he starts telling her about ‘old Beqanna’. Nobody had ever mentioned such like that, and Kylin had never even thought of the possibility. Why would she? Nothing about the new lands made her guess that the world was still young. The tree in front of them as proof of it. How could it not be at least hundreds of years old? But who was she to question Ivar’s words? ”Just like that?” she asks, a slight confused frown between her brows. ”Why would that be?”
Until the time Mother had suggested that they could go out too, Kylin had never really thought of leaving Ischia in favor to explore elsewhere. Their jungle had still so much more to offer, tough she would have to admit that their little vacation to Hyaline had been very fun too. That moment Kylin decides that next time she should go to Sylva to visit Ivar, after all, he had come all the way to Ischia for her.
And from what he tells her, it surely would be an amazing sight to take in. The corners of her lips curl up until she’s smiling widely. ”It sounds wonderful though. Our jungle is always green, the colors of autumn must be really pretty too!” It would also be a very nice change from the green she looked at every day. Ivar next words make Kylin even smile wider, which was still very much possible if you would wonder that. ”I’d like that! And I promise I’ll show you I’ve gotten better than” she grins at him, nodding her head eagerly a few times.
She would have to practise a lot though, is she ever would want to impress him. Not to show off, just eager to show him that she did like the experience and that she genuinely wanted to join him in his joy and love for swimming. She already loved the water after all. ”Is there a lot to see, not only in Sylva I mean? You’ve been at so many places in this new Beqanna.”
With the first idea of exploring beyond Ischia, having had the first taste of it through Ivar’s words, Kylin now longs to see more.
