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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    nayl;
    #1
    ”I couldn’t resist,” she said, still not moving back. ”You would have loved the Tundra if it still existed.” He could neither agree nor disagree as he’d never been there, so he didn’t comment. And as a silence fell between them, she didn’t back away. He didn’t either. Standing just as close with her hot breath fogging in the chill. Only briefly did she retreat, long enough to brush the damp cold from her nose, and he watched without expression as it slid in droplets down her toned leg.

    She was attractive.
    He wasn't blind.

    She shrugged at his offer, but agreed to join him with an added warning on that “honest company” he mentioned. Too honest. ”Like me, I suppose,” she supplied. He glanced at her, already shifting to lead them home. He wasn’t sure how truthful that statement was. She seemed like one that could lie easily and convincingly if she chose to. He supposed it would matter whether she chose to or not, in the end. Still, he couldn’t think of a time when he wouldn’t have preferred honesty.
     
    I’m bored. You’re not enough anymore. I want another man, any other man would certainly have been better than finding her with one. A complete stranger. Guess it didn’t matter where it came from, so long as she got what she wanted. So long as it wasn’t her husband.
     
    His jaw twitched and his eyes hardened, but he continued to hold his silence for now. ”Let’s see this new and improved Taiga,” she said. He shook his head at that. Not new, not improved. Just different. Like him. Just strange and isolated and uninteresting.
     
    Like him.
     
    ”I have questions that I want to ask at some point. Nothing bad.” He glanced at her again, wondering what things she would want to know. He didn’t feel like the Taiga had any secrets, so she may as well ask now if she wanted. He gave her the main differences since the last time she’d been to the Taiga as he walked with her, first.
     
    ”Reagan no longer leads, nor lives here.” Not really one to waste time, he was direct and carefully emotionless as they crossed the riverbed separating Taiga from the forest. His tone didn’t offer any explanations on that, nor did it invite questions. It was something he didn’t talk about. He refused to soil his wife’s name anymore than she had already done herself. She was only spoken of with respect in his home, no matter his own pain.
     
    Ex-wife.
    He kept forgetting to correct himself lately.
     
    ”It’s mostly only me and my family, now.” What’s left of them. ”The ranking system was pointless and unused, so I have done away with it.” He shrugged, leading them to pause a bit further into his home. He tested the air for Jinju and Polaris. He had returned to free his eldest of baby-sitting, after all, but they would find him in their own time now that he was home. Bright, glacial eyes leveled on her again.

    "What questions do you have?"


    @[Nayl]



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    #2
    I am not afraid... I was born to do this.
    ”No longer here?” She asks, but doesn’t press for more as they dive deeper into Taiga’s embrace. The dappled sunlight is ominous in comparison to the open coastland of Nerine. It’s shaded, grim, and smells of the damp leaves and shadows. She says nothing of it, merely observing each and every tree, rock, and bird. Coniferous trees in comparison to Sylva’s deciduous, but she can still smell her subkingdom only a few miles away. A fleeting smile touches a corner of her mouth as her eyes trace back behind her to where the wind brings her the familiar scent, but then she looks at Ruan again and his home surrounding them. ”I’m sure it’s with good reason she is no longer here,” but then she lets the topic wither away as she draws to a stop.

    ”So this is truly Taiga. I had only seen the border,” it had been so long ago when the lands were new. It was when Nayl first ascended the throne and came to power. Has she really had this crown atop her head for so long? She has most certainly outdone her predecessor.

    But much like her, Ruan turns his attention to what matters, minimal small talk. Her brow lifts as she looks at him, her eyes flashing with intrigue. She turns to face him but then looks off to the side to hear the distant voices of his kin. A brief consideration of them holds her at a steady quiet before her gaze flickers back to the icy king. ”Only you and some family members with no ranks,” she murmurs thoughtfully as her shoulders ripple in an idle shrug, ”which makes me fear for the safety of your home.” Her voice is silk as the words slip from her tongue. ”I walked in on a conversation of former Pangeans threatening to overtake much of Beqanna. I fear they would find Taiga to be a target.” She doesn’t indulge in telling him that she stopped that meeting, crushing it before it could truly begin. They saw her and many abandoned their self-proclaimed leader. Silence had ensued.

    ”Nerine has the strength and numbers to protect Taiga should you be willing to come to an agreement…” she trails off, slowly blinking and looking at Ruan curiously.


    queen of nerine
    daughter of covet & myrina
    Reply
    #3
    ”No longer here?” she asked, but he didn’t respond, and she didn’t press further. They let the topic fall away as though it had never happened.

    He watched as she took in their surroundings, his home, the place his family had been born and raised. A full generation now, with the birth of Jinju’s son. The tall redwoods, some as thick as a horse’s body was long, stood like quiet sentries, watchful and stoic. The scent of the wild woods, the crisp air and pine and misty almost-rain, came alive with each snap underfoot in a burst of natural fragrance. The fog would roll in from the sea later, he knew, and would blanket their mysterious home in the familiar cover of stealth the Guardians knew and loved so well. This place had become a part of them as much as they had become a part of it. Caretakers and protectors of their forest, and their families, each of them.

    ”I’m sure it’s with good reason she is no longer here,” she added, and they both let that drift into the silence too. She looked towards the neighboring forest with a small smile, and his head tilted. Djinni had mentioned Nerine when he’d asked her suggestion of places to visit first. They must be familiar, the Queen of Nerine, and the Queen of Sylva. Friends or allies or both.

    Her attention shifted to the distant voices of his daughters, Jinju’s so loving and happily telling a story to whichever children were around her today. Her endless care and strong sense of protection seemed to attract the little ones. Nayl remained quiet as she listened briefly, before turning back to him again. ”Only you and some family members with no ranks,” she said quietly with a shrug. Something about it sent a bolt of warning down his back and he watched her closely. ”Which makes me fear for the safety of your home.” His eyes remained trained on hers, passive though focused, wary and alert as she spoke again.

    ”I walked in on a conversation of former Pangeans threatening to overtake much of Beqanna. I fear they would find Taiga to be a target. Nerine has the strength and numbers to protect Taiga should you be willing to come to an agreement..”

    He stood quiet as he took that in, let it twist and untangle in his mind before it drifted to settle.  The warning, or threat, formed a hard knot in his belly, but he was outwardly unchanged. The logic was a little off. If they were but a small unit, just a family of wanderers and stragglers, what interest were they to her? If that’s all she thought they were, what did she think they could offer her in return? Why would she bother to offer them such aid?

    And why would anyone find Taiga to be a target? He had no enemies, and their forest was thriving. They may not have the numbers of some of the other kingdoms, but they were living actively within their home, keeping it and each other loved and protected, and growing in numbers as they saw fit to. They were peaceful and quiet and kept to themselves. They didn’t stir up trouble for others, and didn’t do anything that would ask trouble to befall any of their fellow Taigans. So why would anyone want to target them at all? It wasn’t logical.

    But then. Sometimes fools didn’t think through their actions.
    Sometimes people purposely break trust and expect everyone to accept it as an honest mistake.

    ”If we’re so insignificant, and you are so strong, then why would you make such an offer? What exactly would you be asking for in return for your generous protection?” he asked evenly, allowing no hint of which direction his thoughts were going on the matter to slip through. He could accept, he could deny, but without more information, it was just a game of poker. His intentions were as buried and hidden as hers were.



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