"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
if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes
Amet had found her in the Forest, in the same clearing that she had found Sakir after their desertion of the Dunes. He hadn't known what to say to his younger sister (a sad normality), only that he had wanted her back in Hyaline. Wanted to feel like siblings again. She had refused, though, placing blame on the embarrassment she would feel upon returning to the home she had destroyed. Amet doesn't care anymore about what she had done (she was a child, just as he had been). His only hope is to have Iset back in Hyaline permanently, safe and reunited with himself and Sakir.
He had agreed to give her time. At least, now, she knows that the borders have always been open for her return and Amet can focus his worries onto a newly blossoming issue: Sakir's absence. The gilded stallion had expected the events with Iset to upset his younger brother, and so had refrained from overwhelming Sakir with questions on his well-being or his daily activities. It's been far too long since he has seen his brother now and Amet is scouring the contours of his home to find Iset's twin brother, first the monticules that their sister used to frequent and then the thick portions of Hyaline's forest that he does not venture through enough. There is no indication of Sakir, neither high or low, and a mixture of frustration and worry begins to settle in Amet's stomach.
The young Dragon King nearly decides to quiet for the evening, to return lakeside and appreciate the way the sun paints their home orange before finally dipping beneath the horizon, when a familiar metallic frame slips between a thicket of red maples before him. Amet snorts tersely, his hooves digging into the soft forest floor in pursuit. The distance between them disappears quietly and Amet's lips twist into a small frown as he stops a few yards away. "Sakir," he greets his younger brother, amber eyes watching his face closely. "I wanted you to know that I found Iset and asked for her to come back." He doesn't elaborate, knows that Sakir is more familiar with Iset's stubbornness than anyone else could ever be.
"And where have you been?" he inquires succinctly before falling silent and waiting for Sakir to explain the last few months.
Amet
@[Sakir]
@[Iset] - Up to you if you want to join ♥ Figured I'd give you this option to have her show up if it's something you're interested in.
Hyaline was darkening, darker here within the forest when Sakir heard the gentle thud of hooves, the crackle of leaf litter, and he knew he had been found. It was rare anyone would venture this deep, it was why he lingered here when he was in residence. Who chose to pursue him now? Who had cared to?
Amet… of course. And he turned so that he faced his brother squarely, his expression defiantly sad. He knew it hadn’t been right to seek this sort of solitude, to shirk off all duty and disappear. But he had, and it’d been easy. And yet, Sakir also knew eventually his brother would come for him. And here Amet was, his amber eyes locking with his. Iset... why did he need to speak of her? To make it once again so raw. He could feel his heart pound behind his eyes and that he was suddenly aware that he drew breath and it was shaky. “You asked her?” It was almost an accusation, a bleed of emotion finally breaking through the numbness which cocooned him for what seemed an age. His voice was scratchy from disuse, but there was no mistaking the angry disbelief. In fact, it felt good to channel that anger towards someone finally, as if the splitting of this family was solely Amet’s fault. “You don’t ask her... you, you tell her we love her, you persuade her, you…” encourage her, calm her, work with her… you do whatever it takes to get her to come back to you.
Breathe, just breathe… it always worked well with his twin. He held his breath and counted before exhaling slow and with control.
‘And where have you been?’ Amet asked him, and it felt rather pointed. Deservedly so he supposed. He’d grown from child to man alone and away from everyone. Solitude had never suited him and yet, without Iset he had fallen into it so easily. Hyaline hadn’t needed to bear witness to the uselessness of his grief. “Here and there.” He replied when he finally had a handle of his emotion. He wasn’t sure how much Amet would understand, though his dulled scales and sunken face probably gave his brother some sort of an indication of how not up to the task he was at the moment. “I know I haven’t been the brother you need.” He had chosen to neglect everything, fleeing in a way much like Iset had done, just differently, Sakir suddenly realised. “Is there something else you want?” He asked his brother in an eerily distant way.
if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes
Sakir's gaunt face shoves Amet back to the Dunes and the traumas that had transpired there. He's suddenly woozy as His angry face swims through his thoughts, twisted and loud-mouthed as he encroached upon Iset and Sakir. Amet can't remember what He had been yelling (there had only been so much the young boy could keep in his head before it started to drive him nuts), instead it's the mixture of fear and defiance on his siblings' faces that he can remember as if they are still standing before him, resentful and damaged.
Their look-alike golden eyes remain fixed to each other as Amet coerces his thoughts back to the present, effectively locking Him away where He belongs. Sakir's accusatory retort draws a sharp inhale from the Dragon King and he takes a step back, hurt settling in the look upon his face. "You think that I didn't try those things? You think that I didn't beg her to come home?" Amet's ears have hidden themselves in their bed of tousled mane, an indignant mask to distract from the reddening of his gold-flecked eyes and the tears that threaten to well over.
His resolve hardens (you are a king, not a child, he chides himself silently in an effort to not entirely lose the confidence he has carefully molded and nurtured), his tone now newly sharp as he interrogates his brother. Amet nearly expects Sakir to scoff, to curl his lip up in disdain... but that would have been Iset's first reaction, not Sakir's. Instead, his raspy voice answers noncommittally - here and there - and Amet frowns but doesn't press him. Pushing Sakir further from him will only exacerbate the simmering distress between them.
When Sakir shoulders some of the blame, admitting to his own false steps. Amet's ears hesitantly flutter forward, the hot anger in his chest quelled as he takes a moment to truly inspect the dull scales and sunken eyes of his leather-plated brother. "And I haven't been the brother you need, either," he confesses to his younger brother, suddenly feeling vulnerable and heartsick in the absence of his flaring anger. "I just want our family back, Sakir. That's all I want. Protecting Hyaline and the people who call it home will mean nothing if I don't have you and Iset."
Sakir didn’t know what had transpired between them, wherever it was that Amet had found his headstrong twin. “I don’t know,” he pondered aloud at the mention of begging, though it probably sounded more like an angry nonsensical mumble. But he didn’t care. He was angry, upset, filled with grief for the empty part of his being that couldn’t be whole without her. He liked the way Amet baulked away from him, liked how the hurt was so easily readable as it shifted across his brother’s face. Sakir channelled him, with those cold hard eyes though he could never be so insatiably angry as he had been. This was fleeting, and damn it felt good. And he couldn’t help himself, the words out and loud as he snapped “You didn’t beg her to stay!” back at his brother. “You watched her go.” They both had… though his own lack of action lay buried somewhere in his subconscious.
His deep breathing always helped though. And when Amet didn’t question him further on his whereabouts when his answer had hardly been forthcoming… well, that had helped too.
“No, you haven’t,” he sighed, he knew he hadn’t made that easy, retreating here, away from the heart of the kingdom. Becoming a strange face to many when he needed to be so much more. “it’s been hard without her,” he admitted, “I’m not me anymore.” In more ways than one. He’d changed physically as well. The scales now covered him entirely, and perhaps would gleam a dusky dark bronze if he and Amet stood beneath a light source rather than the swarthy shadowiness cast by the branches they did stand beneath.
“I’m beginning to look more and more like you each day.” And his gaze fell away from Amet’s and instead on the leaf littered soil, downcast and fallen. “Everything’s changed so much. It’s horrible, but sometimes I wish I was back in the sands,” his soul ached to admit that aloud and yet he felt what he felt and Amet needed to understand. “there weren’t many moments, but Iset and I, we could be happy sometimes. Sometimes we could just forget.” Well he could at least, though he never wore Iset’s bruises or endured her physical pain. And in the dunes he also still had her, now he was without.
"You think all this is worth it?" He asked, his eyes purposely still focused away from his brother's. "I'm not so sure."
if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes
You didn't beg her to stay! You watched her go.
Amet's heart shatters at Sakir's choleric accusation, his own mouth threatening to spit back So did you! but he holds his tongue, still so hopeful that he will be able to redeem his relationship with his siblings. The discord between them is hot and new, usually reserved for himself and Iset, but the dragon-scaled King works on finding a way to calm his heart and the blood that pumps through him with ferocity. His amber eyes watch the way Sakir calms, his chest heaving slowly and deeply, and he remembers the way his younger brother would settle Iset whenever she got too heated.
Amet mirrors his brother - inhale exhale inhale exhale.
He readily admits to his own mistakes, forsaking his pride for the brotherly love he has come to yearn for. He can't remember the last time he had seen Sakir smile, and he doubts that this conversation will encourage that type of response from his younger brother. Perhaps, in time, they will all find happiness again. "I can't imagine how you're feeling, Sakir," he offers quietly as the boy with dull, dirty scales admits his own change. Iset's absence had wreaked havoc of Amet's mind and demeanor, but she and Sakir had been inseparable in their youth, and now... Amet frowns deeper as he nickers quietly to his brother. "I will get her back for you, Sakir. It feels so wrong, to see you without her."
They are silent for a time, Amet's amber eyes moving from his brother and to the dusty rays of sun that peak through the branches here and they. They afford minimal light to the underbrush, instead offering only a few beams of floating dust particles. Slowly, the Dragon King's gaze returns to Sakir just as his brother's eyes turn to the forest floor. The comment on his appearance would seem misplaced if Amet didn't know that it was a roundabout way to confess that Sakir had once wanted to be like Amet - the leather-plated stallion is unsure whether or not that is still the case, though he refuses to ask in a situation such as this.
"You could be happy there, with her. Despite the bad..." his throat catches, prompts a sigh from the gilded stallion, "I understand. But I do believe this place is worth it, Sakir. I believe that you and Iset can be happy here, too. And I won't rest until you are."
