"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
The jungle is quiet, pressed into silence by the rain that falls in sheets around her. The birds are in their nests and the monkeys pressed beneath the canopy. Ephrelle walks between the widely spaced trees in the oldest part of the forest, feeling the rain seep through her thin coat and watching it bead on her long lashes before she bats it away. She grows every day – not so obviously as she had in her first year of life of course. She resembles each of her parents, though she knows only Dorne, and will someday be a lovely creature. For now she is a leggy yearling with a straight profile, and were it not for her varnished appaloosa coat and the well-mixed blood of Beqanna’s populace, she might easily be mistaken for a young Andalusian.
The honeybee on her chest is hanging upside down on one of the petals of her crimson flower, shielding itself from the rain that cannot truly harm it. Since she had sworn herself to the jungle, it has been busy on her coat, flying back and forth from one end of her body to the other. When she truly joins the ranks it will begin to expand on itself, but for now the only evidence of its existence beside the tiny bee itself is the smallest of golden hexagons below her left eye.
Ephrelle is not looking for anyone today, and she knows that most of her sisters (how strange it still seems; she is truly a part of them now!) will be sheltering themselves from the storm. The thunder has already begun to grow distant, signaling the end of the storm, but the young mare has been walking through it since the beginning, several hours past. She is avoiding her mother, though she will not admit this, knowing that each passing hour brings Dorne’s departure closer. Don’t think about it, she tells herself, think of something else.
Ahead, she sees something moving through the trees, and she stops. Her sense of smell is impaired by the rain, but after a few seconds of observation she is sure that it is no dangerous leopard, and carries on. Once closer, she sees another horse – neither her mother nor her brother – and she approaches with a smile and a quiet: “Hello.”
Malka had always been the odd ball out, doing things that others wouldn't expect one to do. And so, here she was today, high up in the tree top enjoying the ran that fell down upon her feathered back. She had always enjoyed the jungle rains as it was a good chance for her to rinse out her feathers without having to splash in the crocodile infested rivers. She enjoyed the rain and once she was done rinsing her feathers out, she flew down to the ground and allowed herself to shift back into her equine form, keeping her waterproof feathers instead of her equine coat in order to stay warm and dry. She enjoys the quietness that comes with a rainfall, basking in the solitude and enjoying the time to herself to graze quietly under the trickling of rain that makes its way through the canopy.
She hears a sound behind her and lifts her head slowly, ears flicking towards it. It did not sound like the sneaking pace of cat feet on the undergrowth nor the scurrying feet of the many small animals that habitated in the Jungle. When she heard words reach her ears though, she turned slowly to greet the horse that approached. Malka had never seen her before, though she hadn't been around much recently, so this was not much of a surprise to her.
Malka quickly realized that she probably looked quite the sight, with an equine shape, blue and green feathers covering her body and red feathers over her chest. And even under all of those feathers, her amazon tattoo, showed through it all, with a small flock of the similarly colored queztal birds flying down her right side.
"Hello there", she greets the younger mare with an easy smile. Malka had always enjoyed the youth of Beqanna because they offered a liveliness that many of the older horses did not carry any more. "My name is Malka," she offers after a short moment, with a light dip of her head and a gentle flickering of her ears.
Malka
immortal, quetzal-shifting Lekh, Kosi & Erinak of the 'Zons
Ephrelle, having heard all sorts of fantastic stories from her mother, is not put off by the odd feathering of the Amazon that she’s approached. She assumes that the older mare can probably shift fully to a bird as well, and she has seen a bird with coloring quite similar only a few days before. “Hello Malka,” she says, looking up at the older female with a bright smile. Though no longer a child and well into adolescence, Ellie has always been a light-hearted creature. “I’m Ephrelle, but you can call me Ellie.”
The only friend that she has made in the Amazons thus far has been Nayl. Ellie is besotted with the other girl and considers her the ultimate Amazons despite the fact that Nayl is no older than Ephrelle herself. Yet they’ve both already sworn themselves to the jungle, something that Ephrelle couldn’t help but notice that the queen’s daughter hadn’t done. How can a princess of the Amazons not know in her heart that she will be loyal to the kingdom? It’s a puzzling thought, but Ephrelle’s lineage is full of horses that have died devoted to their kingdoms, so perhaps her ease of pledging loyalty is to be expected.
“Have you lived in the Amazons very long?” She asks, curious. Having been born in the kingdom Ephrelle has never known a world other than this one. She knows they are out there from her mother’s stories, but she is not yet interested in exploring unless it serves some other purpose. “I’ve lived here my whole life,” she adds, in case Malka wants to know.
Malka stands easily before the appaloosa, the rain that manages to drips its way through the canopy falling upon her back. Her ears prick forward as the younger mare speaks and Malka smiles. "It's nice to meet you, Ellie!" she replies, her feathered tail swishing softly behind her.
Malka had spent much of her life coming in and out of the Jungle. She was the daughter of an amazonian adviser and Falls King, but she had never found the calling to go to the Falls. She had been well into her older years before she had taken the oath to become an amazon, even though she had avidly served in her ranks several times before making herself official. As Ellie speaks, Malka chuckles softly. "I was born here and have resided among the sisterhood off and on my entire life," she says with a soft shake of her head. "No matter how many times I leave, something just always draws me back here," she says. She couldn't say what that something was, for she had never figured it out herself. But she had long discovered that no matter where she went, she would wind up in the Jungle once again.
Malka
immortal, quetzal-shifting Lekh, Kosi & Erinak of the 'Zons
Thus far, Malka seems far more animated than Ephrelle’s only other friend. While she finds othing at all wrong with Nayl’s ore somber matter, it is rather fun talking with someone that does not seem quite so serious. Ephrelle likes fun after all, and is most inclined to seek it out.
Greatness had skipped a generation in Ephrelle’s family. She and her twin brother are not the children of kings and queens like their parents and grandparents had been. Ammit and Dorne led quiet, mostly uneventful lives. Farther back, of course, their bloodline is more colorful (both figuratively and literally), but It has never occurred to Ephrelle that perhaps if their mother had been better at following the example of the rest of her family that she and Roe might be royalty rather than simply children of the Jungle. She is just as happy being herself, even after listening to Nayl talk about bloodlines, and she is glad to hear that Malka seems to be like her in that. A native.
“I like it here,” she tells the older horse, “I do think that I’d ever want to leave.” Desptie her youth, she is clearly determined; there is no hesitation in her green eyes as she says the words. She’s clearly sworn herself to the Jungle, but it seems that the oath is something that must be proven each and every day. “What do you do here?” She asks, taking a moment to look over the bright feathers that cover the mare. Do they have some purpose? “I joined both castes but I don’t’ think I’m very good at anything yet.”
06-23-2015, 08:11 PM (This post was last modified: 06-23-2015, 08:12 PM by Malka.)
Faith is the bird that feels the light
when the dawn is still dark.
Being born to royalty means nothing among the kinds of Beqanna. So many kingdoms had been loss to the hands up surpassors and the crown handed down to those most deserving. Malka was the daughter of the 'Falls king and a 'Zons ambassador, but even now had no desire to be anymore than that. Her parents lineage and importance made no difference to her and she never wanted to be the kind of horse who rode their parents' coattails all the way to success. Malka enjoyed being just another horse in the Jungle. Noone looked down upon her when she took time for herself. She was not ultimately required to be uber diplomatic or well-versed in all of the Beqanna hullabaloo -- she could just be herself, anytime and anyplace that she chose.
"The Jungle is a pleasant place to live, I quite enjoy it myself," she replies to the young mare's comment. Malka had visited many other places in her life time (from the Tundra, to the Chamber slave pens, and everything in between), and she always ended back up under the trees with the howler monkeys and jaguars sounds reaching her ears from far off in the distance. The look of determination in her eyes makes Malka realize that she is going to be quite the force to reckon with when she gets older, a fact that brings a small smile to her lips. Ellie's next question though makes Malka pause for a moment. She knew what ranks she held in the Jungle, but none of them really defined her in the sense that most would think of them. After a moment of consideration, Malka finally replies, "I'm the queen's confidant - the one person who she can always voice her opinions to without feeling she will be criticized." Malka lets her ears flicker softly on top of her head as she thinks of her friend. "Being in charge is hard work and everyone has an opinion on how it should be done. Right, wrong, or indifferent, it's my job to be by her side - no matter what," she adds. She falls quiet than as she thinks back on her own words, words that had flowed so easily from her lips. With her constant absence, she knew she was not being the best pole for Scorch to lean on. She did know though that whenever she was around, Scorch knew that she had a private ear to talk to.
Malka
immortal, quetzal-shifting Lekh, Kosi & Erinak of the 'Zons
(OOC: Sorry for the really late reply. I've been slammed with work, my dad getting sick, and my own surgery/recovery!)
