"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
05-22-2018, 09:05 AM (This post was last modified: 05-22-2018, 09:35 AM by Levi.)
He had only been meant to be gone a day, a week at most, but his hunt had dragged on for longer than he would have ever guessed.
Levi had paced from one side of the continent to the other in his search, fury and hopelessness tearing his heart in a different direction. He would not stop until he found her, he told himself as his body collapsed from exhaustion every other night; she would not leave without telling me.
But then a year had passed, maybe more, and finally it was obvious, even to the fool that he was.
She was gone.
She had never truly considered him, his feelings, his needs.
She had burned him, shamed him, drawn words from his mouth he had given to no one else, but worst of all, she had left him.
It took a year, but finally his foolish heart admitted this, and beaten down, he slept.
He slept, slept, slept, and slept some more.
His body ached from the sleeping, from the days of nothingness and rain on his back. He slept longer and harder than any mortal creature could - a sleep like drowning, violent and sickening, and every time he woke he could taste the bile in his ashen mouth.
So, he returns to his home, because he had nowhere else to be, and he watches. Maybe they have seen him over the last week or so, maybe no one had noticed his dark and burning figure. He did not hide, but he could not approach them.
(It had always been her and him - the rest were them. Maybe he fucked them, maybe he felt love for them, but they were always them, and they were always us.)
With a flick of his tail of flame, he banishes these thoughts of his sister.
Ceara was nothing to him now - that was the way it had to be if he was going to go on.
They, were all he had now - if they would even have him - and something inside of him ached for the camaraderie he had left behind.
But somewhere inside of him, She laughs because she will always be there, and he will never be more than the burning shadow of a mighty king.
Levi
so scream you, out from behind the bitter ache.
this is probably very confusing to anyone who doesn't know his history, but basically his is volatile, depressed, and missing his sister
Like her, he had disappeared from. She had not expected him too, because why would he? Father of two boys, the whole world at this feet, and yet, something had driven him away. Was it the same something that had kept him from loving her? Amorette cannot help but to wonder. She hates herself for it, but the ebony woman has to admit that she had been glad that he hadn’t been around when she returned. She had been a mess, and facing him probably wouldn’t have done her any good.
But now he’s back. She has no way around his massive, flaming presence. And she does not know if she should cry, or scream out in joy.
Her feet are frozen as she watches him. He seems lost, broken, as if he has lost his spirit. Yes, his mane and tail are still formed by the flames she knows so well, the flames she has admired more than once, but that seems the only part of him that is alive. Much like the state she’d found him during their one night of passion.
It had always been him. Though she hadn’t realized until that particular night, and its aftermath. He had given her the most wonderful thing in the world, because Byrne is just that in Amore’s eyes, but that does not change that she had longed for more. He is her childhood crush, even though she had already been a young adult when they had first met.
Unable to stop herself, Amorette finds herself approaching him. Her step is hesitant, and slow, but each step brings her nearer. Confusion and hurt show upon her features, but love too. She does still care for him. How could she not? He was her son’s father. But what is she to him? What had she been to him?
“Levi..?” his name leaves her lips questioningly, and her ears swirl around uncertain. She stands completely still, except for her black and golden mane and tail that sway with the soft spring breeze.
Disappearing without a trace seemed to run in the family.
When his twin vanished seven years again, he had no idea abandonment would be a pattern which would haunt him, and that he would perpetuate. He had sworn to never do it, to never be so irresponsible or unfeeling to those he was bound to by blood. But before even his tenth year of life, he had unintentionally given in to the hereditary vice.
His sons had grown from newborns into athletic colts, and he had been nothing but a name on their mother's lips.
But now that he is back, and Levi is not surprised to see that Amore is the first to seek him out... or maybe just stumble across him. The autumn night they had spent together had been in his thoughts continuously this last fall when he had refused to find another such companion. He took no partners after the births of his sons, he had learned his lesson.
With some selfish satisfaction, he notes that her sides lack the weight of pregnancy, but he rebukes himself the second the thought crosses his mind. The instinctual part of his equine brain wants to claim her, to hide her away and call her his own, but his logical part knows this can never be. Tephra is Warrick's kingdom, and she is an integral part of that machine.
But as she speaks his name and he remembers their night together in a different way. She had healed him of the wounds his other family had left him with, she had always had only ever tried to help him, and she had always put him at ease during their days together.
He knows as he finds her dark, forlorn eyes that he gravely wronged her.
"Amore," he sighs in response to his name on her lips, but the weight their year apart hangs heavily between them, and he feels he has little right to step closer to her. He asks the second question which comes to mind because he knows he will have to earn back the right to know her again.
Last thing she ever wanted for Byrne was too absent parents. And yet, things had happened that way. Not only Levi had left, Amorette had too. Something she is not proud of, yet neither is she too vain to admit it if it would be brought up. She is less sure if she is able to tell him the reasoning behind her own disappearance too.
He is the flame, and she the moth drawn to it. Ironic much, but the ebony woman is unable to resist. Just like last time she is upset with him, and he looks equally as a mess now as he had back then. The only difference is that she meets him with hesitance.
She would have been his. If he had stayed, if he had asked. No, he had her without all that, but after their night together Amore had soon learned he was never hers. Would never be hers either. The flash of possessiveness upon his face does nothing to sooth her pain. He was glad, that she had not ran to another?
Often, Amorette is the one that closes the distance between her and another. Today she does not, rather keeping some distance between them to keep her head clear. If that is even possible. Tears are already wetting her eyes and threatening to spill. Hearing how her name falls from his lips does not help, nor that he asks about Byrne. But at least he uses our. Sadly enough, it is not a question she can answer, not in great detail. “He.. He is doing well.. He comes and goes, doesn’t daily… need me anymore.” Much to her own sadness. Amore has never been able to be the mother to him that she had wanted to be.
She does not lash out, she does not criticize him, and a flicker of hope flashes in his broad chest. His mismatched eyes search her own, noting the dancing tears ready to spill, and his resolve to remain distant weakens.
Stepping forward the heavy stallion brings himself to halt once they are close enough to touch if he or she reached out their muzzle, but here he remains. Her voice comes gently in response to his question, and her answer tells him what he needs to know. He lets the topic drop.
"...and you?" the soft voice presses, drawing from him another sigh, but this one is followed by a sad smile.
"Awful," he responds honestly, with a quiet laugh mixed in with the word as he shakes his heavy skull. She knows him well enough to know it by looking at him, and he had never been a liar anyway. But his eyes no longer have the defeated numbness they had held for the last year, and his fire burns a little brighter.
"Slept too much, ate too little," he adds with an impartial shrug. "I never found my sister again after our argument. She vanished, along with my father and her mother." With this last statement, some of the bitterness he harbors seeps out, displacing his nonchalant mask for a moment. His heart had broken, alone in the forest and that was a difficult thing to hide from his one-time friend.
"Once I finally realized that they were really gone... I don't know... I just couldn't come back here."
The distance between them is as a sore spot, a constant, dull ache that never seems to leave. Amorette wants nothing more but for it to end, however, she is more hesitant to close the distance. She needs her head clear, and yet, just seeing him is enough to make her head swirl. So when Levi steps nearer, her resolve breaks. Hesitantly the ebony woman extends her neck, offering her nose to the flaming sabino. A lump forms in her throat, making it hard to speak.
She just watches him, not meeting to hear him say he is not doing well, he looks like a wreck. Both his physical state and the almost empty look in his eyes. There is a pang in her chest - she does care for him after all - and it is enough for Amore to reach out a second time and press her muzzle more firmly against his. She simply cares too much, putting her oen pain and discomfort in the second place.
She does not say she is sorry, nor is she able to tell him it is all okay. It isn't. He is lost, having lost his family, but through that, Byrne has lost his too. Amorette has only herself to blame for her disappearance, she should have been there, but so should Levi have. However, she does not tell him, no need to put extra salt in an open wound.
"You're back now.." she whispers, pulling back to study his face with her dark eyes. Eyes that do not hide her own pain and struggles. "It is not too late to get to know your son.." a pause as she realises something, something that has her glancing away. ".. two sons. They would be happy to have a father.." He has more family beside his parents and siblings. Not a family, but family nonetheless. Both Byrne and Zain are two year old already, and neither need their mother anymore, but Amore likes to believe that it is not too late for Levi to get to know them.
He only has to want to. And fix things with both young stallions himself.
@[Levi]
Sorry for the wait! This is a phone post so pleaaaase forgive me all the mistakes!
She touches him, and it is the first time anyone has touched him in over a year. He presses into the simple gesture, the calming sensation it brings him overriding the shame that could have come from this need.
He may be discovering that he was immortal, but he still needed touch, he still neede to feel like someone cared.
She draws away, and his mismatched gaze returns to her dark eyes as they search him. She speaks again and it is not to voice her own complaints, because surely there were many charges she could level against him, but to advocate for her son and the son of Kolera.
"You're right," he says, wondering if it is too late for him to be apart of his boy's lives. But of course she was right, he had to try.
Braver now, her runs his muzzle under her jaw for a moment more. He thinks back to the mare he had first swum in the ocean with years ago, and he misses her. The day of laughing and relaxed wandering they had shared together had show him another side of himself.
"Amore," he says as he draws away so that she will not mistake his intentions. He smiles again, hoping that maybe together they can find their stride once again. "Let's get cleaned up, Tephra needs us at our best."
@[Amorette] Maybe we can wrap this up and we can start a new one?
A little voice in the back of her mind tells her that she should be on guard, that she shouldn't have approached hom, let alone touch and allowing to touch. She simply cannot help it, Levi is a much part of her life as Byrne is, and even if not, there is no way that the ebony woman would turn her back on someone in need. Even if it meant she confronts herself with feelings that have her mind spinning.
There are many complains, but Amorette does not voice them. Well, at least not the ones concerning herself. She hasn't shied away from brining up Byrne. "They deserve to know you.." He is, after all, their rather. She does not say it to put pressure on him, but instead hopes ro motivate him.
As he reaches out to touch her, her first reaction is to freeze. It takes a moment to relax in the touch, and as she does she sighs softly. So much has changed. But not the way he speaks her name. Her dark eyes find his mismatching ones, not expecting to laugh. The sound is soft and gentle, and with a light shake of her head Amorette glances away. "Are you trying to say that I look bad?" she teases him, but nonetheless turning around to find the nearest body of water.
"A lot has happened.." she says, expression grave as she glances up at the tall sabino. "Bad things.."
@[Levi] Works for me! Shall I start a new one? Or do you wanna start one including a reply to my last post?
She teases him and the tension shatters around them. He takes a deep breath, the relaxed expression he wears never changing. She stays close to her flank as they make their way to the water but does not intrude on her personal space again.
'Are you trying to say that I look bad?' She asks, and he shakes his head with a deep chuckle. "I still see Tephra's beautiful volcano goddess," he suggests to the healer, "she just needs a swim in the ocean to clear away the soot."
As they reach the beach his heavy hooves sink into the damp sand. He strides into the waves, a feeling of contentment washing over him as Tephra's warm waters surround him once again. But once again the mood changes as his companion begins to introduce the events which had happened during his absence. The tone of her voice is concerning, and as the seafoam swirls around his belly, he halts.
"Tell me," he says as his brow furrows. "Is Tephra in danger? What has happened?"
It is easy to fall back in to their old banter, so very natural and it just feels right. It does not she had forgiven him, that she has forgiven herself, but with all what has happened she needs an escape. Levi offers her one, and Amore is more than ready to take it. Any longer and she’d go insane.
His excuse make her grin slightly, and shake her head as if she’s wondering what’s wrong with him. “Oh hush, I’m nothing like the goddess Pélè” she shoots right back at him, but it would be a lie to say that his words do not fluster her. “And you’re still insinuating that I look like a mess. Real charmer you are.”
When they reach the beach, she hesitates and lingers behind. Dark eyes follow his flaming figure, watching how the fire reacts to the water. Amorette vividly remember how she had once seen them go up in smoke, like a smoking volcano. But the smile at the memory soon disappears as she nods. “We’re all are. All the lands.. Ever since Sylva’s new ruler… so many lost..” she murmurs, her heart hurting for all the pain and grief that had caused because of one wicked being.
Whenever she closes her eyes, she sees them. Their bodies, or what is left of it, murdered in cold blood. Instantly tears wet her eyes, and when she tries to take a deep breath to calm herself, sobs break past the barrier of her lips. “They.. They were only children..”
