"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
devils speak of the ways in which she'll manifest; angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress.
Tephra.
The volcano stands a striking testament to the sheer uselessness of the denizens below. It is unlike the Mountain - capital M - lacking the striking mysticism that makes it seem fake. False. Like it might shift again and leave Beqanna with nothing more than rot to cling to. Ajatar was born after this tumultuous disruption, she doesn't know of the lands before it all happened. She knows only Pangea, which is gone, and the meadow, which she's left to follow Longclaw into the land he called Tephra.
"Wow," she breathes, awe clinging to her eyelashes like dew. She looks so young and so naive, as though it never occurred to her to fear or travel or harbor terror. She thinks back to their conversation from earlier - do you ever have a choice as a child? Maybe not, but now? As an adult? She can travel the world without worry about her mother popping up to destroy her new life. What a freeing thought! What a wonderful idea!
Don't be afraid when the night wolves cry, feast on their bones, suck the marrow dry.
“Truly.” He tells Ajatar, eyes bright with the same fascination she feels now (though his gaze never strays from her.) Water laps at their heels - the tide had been low enough for safe passage without much swimming, and the sun has just begun to slide along the lower bell-curve of her journey. The evening could not have been more perfect, the temperature: humid. Water clings to his belly, sides, sticks with unnecessary heat to the valleys of his body so that he might sweat along his chest and neck. “It could be yours, too, if that’s what you’d like.”
The offer is nonchalant in its exertion and his attention finally redirects to the shattered kingdom. Tephra is many islands hewn into separate entities by the criss-cross of rivers and, up until this point, even Longclaw has not had the time to explore them all. Daunting as that prospect may seem with night encroaching, he doesn’t worry; a blue tendril of flame appears above them, hovering noiselessly as a guiding orb of light, should they need it. The effect of its glow doubles the shadows about them both and now every trace of kindness or false empathy in his features is gone. The evening, so different from the day, still becomes him though. Hardened as he is by sharp lines and edges, Longclaw still manages a smile as he moves ahead. “Should we get a closer look at the Volcano first, or simply go where our feet lead us?”
Dealer’s choice. He wants her to feel as if she’s in control. Overhead, undaunted by wind or the water in the air, his flame maintains as their north star. “Welcome to Tephra.” He murmurs.
Bound for trouble from the start I've been walking through this old world in the dark
Finally reunited with Ellyse, a change has overcome the skeletal one eyed stallion. His appetite and enthusiasm for life was slowly returning. Already he was starting to look a little less gaunt, his figure hinting at the handsome stallion hidden beneath the ravaged remains of his body. They had promised themselves to each other and confirmed it that night on the beach. Slowly he was trying to let go of his resentment towards Dahmer and whatever had happened before they had found each other.
Now when he meets the other residents of the volcano, it’s because he wants to. Not simply meant as a distraction or trying to avoid her. His life was finally sparkling with hope, with love. It’s with this pleasant awareness that he approaches the two with good humor. Night had fallen but it was hard to miss the flickering blue orb that casted their silhouettes in it’s cool light. ”I always prefer the ocean but it’s best admired in the light of day.” He had yet to approach the volcano, it’s heat and threat of death not appealing to him in the least. Usually he stayed by the border lines or in the soothing cool waves of the ocean where it was easiest to escape the sweltering humidity.
”I don’t believe I’ve seen either of you before. I’m Ledger.” There’s no hostility in his voice, merely curiosity and a new willingness to interact with others.
devils speak of the ways in which she'll manifest; angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress.
Her eyes tilt up at the blue flame - unnatural, vibrant thing it was - and she knows instantly it comes from him. How else? It is his magical power, his strange ability that almost every inhabitant seems to hone and have. She watches with a sense of wonderment as it twinkles overhead and shines light as the sun begins her slow dip behind the great volcano. Where to first - really? There are infinite choices and infinite time. She revels in both these realizations. Once upon a time immortality seemed excessive, unfair. That was when it involved countless lifetimes in Pangea with her mother.
But Pangea is gone, and Tephra lives.
She is about to answer when another approaches - a thin man with a missing eye, who speaks to them both with a sense of unfamiliarity. Despite herself Ajatar glances up to the lighted orb overhead, curious. Will he extinguish it now that they've been discovered? She thinks of her own power, brewing beneath the surface, promising to flood a land or destroy a herd at any moment. The thought sends a shiver down her spine - no. She'll control it. Nothing here has threatened her, she doesn't live in constant fear of prevocation anymore. Rodrick said she could control it, after all, if she only tried...
"Ajatar," she greets, snapping herself from her tumultuous thoughts. She follows it with a smile - quick, wide, the type of smile only an innocent child could muster, though she is no longer a child. Could holding such a darkness keep her so naive for so long? What a strange turn of events. "The ocean sounds lovely, but I can't help but be in awe of...that." She turns her gaze to the great volcano to emphasize her point.
Don't be afraid when the night wolves cry, feast on their bones, suck the marrow dry.
It always drew attention. How could it not, when the very essence of its light fed off veneration or fear? When Ajatar’s dark eyes alight on the flickering globe, casting admiration with them (beauty recognizes itself, nature wouldn’t have it any other way) his heart swells with sickness and black, inky pride. Outwardly, he grins. They stroll casually enough and it’s without fear that he offers her his world, tiny one that it is. He cannot, not even for the slightest moment, fathom what he’s brought with him inside the borders of this kingdom.
If he did, things might have gone differently.
But, lucky for Ajatar, they haven’t - and Longclaw is only left to suspect innocence as her iron curtain against fear. It even plays so well over her face, lips, when she turns to greet Ledger on his sudden arrival. The shimmering stallion watches her closely, almost with scrutiny when the action of mouth-turning-upwards doesn’t quite reach her gaze. Still, Ledger is waiting and so Longclaw divides his attention while swinging his head aft so that he might pinpoint the dark shape. As the elder male ingresses into the soft blue light, all banter draws to an end with the mention of Tephra’s volcano.
“Ledger -” He nods, “My name is Longclaw and this is my guest.” The leggy shifter concludes. “I’ve only been here long enough to find a spot in Offspring’s Guard, but Warrick can attest to my membership.” He smiles, though the action seems wicked in the blue haze. Names are sometimes the only necessary calling card, but he doubts Ledger’s trust is won so easily. “Join us? I could use a more dependable eye, someone who knows the place.” He chuckles, fully aware of the pun he’s crafted. Conversation, to him, is a tool for revealing what others would rather leave unsaid.
Ledger’s reactions interests him so much that his pupils morph, dilate, until they are predatory and can make out even the finest of details around that single, hollow socket. “Besides,” He mutters half-heartedly, blinking softly in the dim light before his attention focuses wholly again on his slender companion, “I’m sure Ajatar is tiring of me.”
Bound for trouble from the start I've been walking through this old world in the dark
The bear senses something that puzzles it, something that makes it wrinkle it’s snout and tap it’s claws thoughtfully against the stark white bones of it’s cage. It’s enough to make the chestnut stallion sober up from his love drunk fog, enough to keep him on his toes. Perhaps it’s the way the blue light casts strange shadows across their faces, wicked and devilish. Perhaps it’s because the flickering orb twists their smiles into something that seems a little more malicious, less innocent. Perhaps it’s something else entirely, something the bear within him (created of magic) can sixth sense that he cannot.
The smile lingers on his lips but it seems more tense, lips pressed more firmly together. The golden flecks of his good eye catching in the pale light, suddenly guarded. ”Welcome Ajatar.” He dips his muzzle slightly as he speaks, following their gaze to the looming dark shadow that grumbles with molten crimson at it’s top. ”Longclaw.” Another slight nod of his muzzle as that guarded gaze lingers a little longer on him. While he was not familiar with all of Tephra’s residents, he did know Warrick and was part of the Guard himself. It was odd that they had not met before.
The pun is not lost on him as he shifts the object of such mockery once more to the shadows, casting it a rather pensive look. To hide the disappointment and irritation that was stirring within him. The long claw marks that raked across the empty socket reflecting silver in the cool brightness of Longclaw’s power. When he has pushed most of his feelings down, trusting himself to look back, his own dark eye narrows and hardens. The bear within him stirs as he makes direct contact with the wolf like eyes of Longclaw, predator sensing predator. ”As tempting as that invitation is, I’ve never had much desire to see it for myself.” Unable to break away from the shimmering indigo stallion, Ajatar slightly forgotten beside him. ”I’m… Not really a fan of the heat.” Speaking for the beast within who snuffles and pushes with agitation against his ribcage, wanting to get out.
devils speak of the ways in which she'll manifest; angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress.
Perhaps their new companion did have a sixth sense - and if he found something off about Ajatar it was not a misplaced fear. While she'd never do something malicious (yet), historically when she felt wronged or in fear well...she couldn't quite control it yet. She hadn't met anyone who would withstand it other than her mother, the damned magician, with her doomsday eyes and her saccharine smile. She loathed the woman. Had a thought of her risen then, and not in this strange retelling of Ajatar's past, maybe it would have flared up. They'd feel it on their skin first, a strange blistering, usually around the hocks and rising upwards - steady, slow, uncontrolled. Pox. Then it would reach the nose, the lungs and...she usually pulled back by then.
What if she let it go?
She'd no idea what other tricks her companion, Longclaw, had. She marvels once more at the unnatural blue light over them before turning her somber eyes to him once more. "No, you make an excellent travel partner," she says with that same smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. To Ledger - "It's hot, then, on the volcano?" She stumbles over the words, mostly in a curious manner, with no real information tied to the word. Volcano. It looked like a large mountain with unnatural black stuff attached to the side, with jutting trees growing from the wreckage.
Like her - a tall, immovable object more dangerous due to what it conceals than what it shows.
![[Image: sScEgld.png]](http://i.imgur.com/sScEgld.png)
