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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


    I take what's mine and then some more || Lepis ||
    #1

    - Are you thinking of me when you love him? -

    Wolfbane only knows her name, can only recall the familiar pattern of her coat and how she’d stood there - broken wing at her side - while the entire world around her changed.

    It seems unfair. If he were to put himself in her shoes, (and he does this with as much sincerity as he can muster) it wouldn’t be a difficult thing for him to do exactly as Despayr had done: turn tail and just freaking leave. In fact he actually did do just that once he’d come of age; spread his literal wings and flown as far away from Tephra as he could manage, and right now he seemed all the better for it. So he doesn’t begrudge one mare’s departure, only finds himself curiously seeking out the other who’d decided to stay when, really, it seemed she had nothing to stay for.

    Or maybe he just didn’t fully understand.

    Bane wants to try, at least. “Lepis, a moment.” He calls out to her, moving away from the paltry gathering of his coronation once it came to an end, “I hope you don’t mind me being so forward but … how did that come about?” The blue-striped male asks, tilting a knowing eye to her shattered appendage. 

    Be it brief or long, he wants to know. If he was meant to guide this land into a future, it would have to start by amending old wrongdoings and proving to those who followed him that his word was as good as stone, and he doesn’t see a better opportunity for planting the first seed of trust in anyone else. Arthas had already given every ounce of his to the new heir and leader, now he just needs to see that same hopeful glint of light in Lepis’ stormy eyes.

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
    #2
    I have turned away - my eyes seek out the quest path back to the seclusion of the more rugged hills - when I hear my name. It is not a voice I am familiar with, which means it can only be Wolfbane. Twisting only my head, I glance over my left shoulder to see that the new king is coming toward.

    Already?

    My blue-grey eyes seek out Arthas, but the dappled stallion has other matters to attend to, and so I face the palomino stallion alone. There is doubt in my expression and in the way I cannot help but lean away from him, but I do not back away. Instead I face him squarely, glancing up into his blue-masked face even as my heart patters rapidly. I'm no longer certain of protocol; I had been a queen, then a king's consort, then another's captive. Now there is another king and my position is tenuous at best.

    I'd been expecting questions (nay, demands), but what he asks me leaves me blinking for a moment. He wants to know about my broken wing? Why does that matter? Does he know that reminding me of its crooked healing brings back the memory of the breaking - is this a ploy?

    No, I decide, he seems innocent enough. Curiosity is all it is, but still I am untrusting. Only habit and training (keep the men happy, Lepis, and you will live. give them what they want and tell them what they want to hear) keep me honest.

    "I failed at a diplomatic mission." I tell him. "I was punished."

    I shift my weight, pulling my wings as close to me as I can like some sort of feathered shield. The shattered wing  had not been the only casualty of that punishment, but it is the most obvious. My left wing has healed much more readily, and the blood Modicum Mortem had drawn - both inside and out - has long since scabbed over. The marks of his teeth along my crest blend with the others, and the silvery scars from his hooves are no deeper than the rest of them.  

    "I learned my lesson." I add, least he think I was not properly disciplined. "I won't fail again."
    #3

    - Are you thinking of me when you love him? -

    Everything has meaning. The sharp flicker of Lepis’ eyes as a first response to his question tugs a warm smile from somewhere inside of Bane. She doesn’t trust his intrusion but she won’t deny him a direct answer, either. The palomino takes it as a good sign; he can build from nothing and this mare (this cream-colored, navy-tinged, rather austere woman) is willing enough to let him try.

    “The next time,” He answers her shortly, the bright points of his blue face darkening to take on a serious edge, “I’ll be with you.”

    Then, the storm disturbing his once smooth and angular face all but disappears and in the next moment, Wolfbane ruffles his own wings for comfort before continuing on. “I’d actually like to be with you often, if that’s something you can stomach.” He chuckles, with a sea-worn voice as rough as stone and warm like forged iron, “Loess still needs a diplomat and I … well I need someone to watch my mouth for me.” The blue-barred stallion explains.

    He doesn’t hesitate to let his hazel eyes find her own - there was boldness in his character and blood; Lepis would come to understand - and he sees in her a bit of flint yet to spark. It intrigues him, so much so that he finds himself asking, “Would you take on the role as Cleric here and be my confidant, Lepis?”

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
    #4
    He might not mean his words to be a threat, but that is how I interpret them. How else could? He'll be with me, making sure I do not step out of line and fail again. Only after I am frowning do I realize that he'd also implied I'd be given the chance to try again, and I am suddenly torn between emotions.

    That in itself isn't unusual - it is a frequent hazard of my gift - but to have it come from an external force adds confusion to the fear and the budding hope. My response is to shut down entirely, and I am grateful for it when I hear what he has to say next.

    I know how men react to my excitement, and so I bite it back from my voice, from my expression.

    "If that is what you want, Your Majesty." I reply. I should look down, I know, I should be demure. But he is trying to catch my eye, and it seems that I should at least give him that. His laugh had been warm, warm like the loessian limestone on a summer's day. This is the honeymoon phase, I've come to know, when he is kind and gentle. He'll want more soon, and the patience will leave him and he will find flaws in everything I do. The cycle had been pressed into me until I cannot forget. I mustn't forget, not when my survival depends on it.

    @[Wolfbane]
    #5

    - Are you thinking of me when you love him? -

    Despite his best efforts, Wolfbane can see himself failing. Was it natural to find this sort of resistance in his own residents? Had Lepis come to expect solitude and anger from her previous workings in this place? Reluctantly, the striped Loessian stallion admits to himself that he’s frustrated - he’d thought perhaps she might be more intrigued by the idea, (and for a moment, intrigued in him) but all the same he locks these emotions away and clears his face of any disappointment, only asking her a simple, “What is it that you want?”

    Tersely, his jaw tilts until the palomino finds himself staring to the outward expanse of rocky hills, all beautiful and unique in the tandem of this land, every one of them without purpose and yet existing for the thrill of being pleasantly viewed by someone else. “I won’t cage you here. Think on it if you like - you know now that I want you.” he offers instead, “The ball’s in your court.”

    Again his eyes find hers but this time, they seem reserved and mannerly, as if her own hesitation has seeped through his skin. “If you know for sure that you’re up for it, or even if you’d like to get to know me more, just call for me.” The winged man says, willing to let her go as she’d wished before he’d stopped her, “I’ll be waiting for you.” Bane cements, nodding once in her direction before bypassing Lepis altogether to take a more favourable route towards the ocean.

    She could follow if she liked or be alone with her thoughts; for now Bane was content to let her come to terms with what he proposed.

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis] this isn't an end persay! Just Wolfbane not wanting to make her uncomfortable anymore Smile
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
    #6
    What do I want?

    What do I want? I can't remember the last time I'd been asked that; have I ever? My life has always been what others want: what Loess wanted, what Arthas wanted, what my captors in Sylva wanted. It is not a woman's place to want things; it is her place to wakes sure that others wants are satisfied.

    I am uncaged; the decision is mine to make. Wolfbane says these things like they are normal, like there is nothing unusual in what he offers me so casually. The confusion flickers across my face entirely unshielded; I am too torn to battle both my emotions and my expressions.

    What do I want?

    I want the last year to have never happened. That's what I want. Wolfbane can't know that twelve months ago I was a different creature entirely; bright, cheerful, happy. He is not the source of my resistance, and neither is Loess. But it never even occurs to me that he might think otherwise, that he might find himself responsible for the way I react.

    He turns to the terrain, and when he looks back again the warmth that I'd felt from him a moment ago seems to have seeped away. Was that my fault as well? Had he wanted a different reaction? He offers a chance to get to know him better, and I realize that yes - that is what I want. I am not sure why. He is still a stranger. But he is also the king, and he had asked what I wanted.

    'I'll be waiting for you,' he says, and it seems he means to leave. I don't want him to, I realize. This might not be what he'd meant, but acknowledging what I don't want is somehow easier than allowing myself to think about what I do want. I don't want to spend another fretful night with my terrors, and if I return to the shelter of my scrub that is certainly what I will do.

    "Wait." I say, turning my head to see his departing back, and continuing the motion with my forequarters. It takes a few lengths of a choppy trot to catch up to him, but I slow to a walk when I do, careful to keep a distance between us that Arthas would approve of.

    "I want to be a diplomat." I tell the ground at my feet as we walk along. "And I want to see Beqanna. I've only been here and Sylva and Ischia, the once." I do my best to keep the excitement from my voice, but there is a softness to the line of my navy mouth where a smile is almost forming.
    #7

    - Are you thinking of me when you love him? -

    Inevitably, the cupids bow of Longclaw’s blue-stained lips turns itself into a smile as Lepis calls for him to wait. Victory in any form feels good to him, and her acceptance certainly feels like a victory, but this particular case means Loess will remain intact and assuredly better off than it was before. Bane finds there’s little to doubt when it comes to her loyalty for their shared, hilly kingdom. The measure of her scars is more than the accumulation of her failings: it reads to him like a badge of honor.

    Turning with a face newly schooled and curiously surprised, the stallion pauses in order for Lepis to catch up. “From here on out you’re my Cleric then.” He responds, head tilted towards the mingle of her navy and white forelock, “As for Beqanna, you’ll see it soon enough.” Bane hums deeply, a shadowy smirk teasing the edges of his mouth where a fang glints.

    “I mean, I do intend to sell our combined powers to the highest bidder ...” The winged male laughs softly, before jerking once more into an easy-gaited walk towards the distant craigs and sea. For a moment he marvels at his strange kiddishness; what he’s said is pretty alarming. Nonetheless, Bane feels some sort of residual wave overtake him as he ambles alongside Lepis. He feels good. “They’ll probably be interested in making sure we’re worth it.”

    Clarity snaps him to his senses, once again her companion turns his face towards her saying, “Those who want their gifts put to auction, of course.” And then he can’t help but laugh. Loess stretches before them, untamed but bearing the tell-tale signs of passage from animals long gone and Wolfbane doesn’t mind, for once, that he’s not flying. The earth around them smells of creosote and pine, while his barred skin grows damp where the humidity settles. “Something you might be interested in?’ He asks in a neutral tone.

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
    #8
    "Cleric," I repeat, tasting the title with genuine interest. "I like it. Certainly sounds better than captive and much less responsibility than queen." It is easier than I'd expected to mention the past so casually. The words slip from between my dark lips without hesitation, though the smile in my blue grey eyes is a half-second behind the one on my mouth. Easier, but not truly simple.

    There is a glint of long teeth behind his teasing smile, and I feel a brief quiver of fear course down my spine. More alarming is the subsequent heat that follows. An effect of the season, I remind myself. Nothing to waste time fretting over. Nothing to give me a reason to trace the slope of his neck to where the muscles join with the feathered base of his wings, marveling at the contrast of brilliant blue to palomino gold. Nothing to think about too much.

    He has turned away by now, giving me uninterrupted time to observe him from my position a half-pace behind. I've slipped into the position without thinking about it at all. It doesn't feel as odd as I'd expected it to - this following a stallion that is not Arthas. I'd thought it would feel strange, unfamiliar, even wrong. But the only thing I feel is happy.

    I listen as he speaks, my blue-rimmed ears tilting toward him even as my gaze watches the surrounding scenery. Sell us to the highest bidder, he says. My head tilts curiously, the webbing of my striped brow wrinkling in interest. Wolfbane speaks of gifts, of power - not of bodies. I would give him either if he asked, of course, and give them willingly. But it is nice to be asked.

    It makes me happy.

    It's easy enough to use those gifts he speaks of. The winged stallion won't know she's doing it; such is the result of a year of constant and never-ending practice. All around them, she reaches. An intangible presence, Lepis races across the ground and through the flora, touching each particle of the world around her. (That part she is unaware of - she is only cognizant of the sensation of reaching another mind.) Into the mind of any conscious being in range, she presses the emotion of distrust.

    Eavesdroppers will find themselves doubting the necessity of listening to the pair of them, and followers will doubt the path they had taken. In her own way, she is ensuring complete privacy for her confession that goes deeper than the security provided by her blue eyes, ears, and flaring nostrils.

    "My mother always taught me to never use my powers for Evil," I tell him. My tone is serious, but there is a wrinkle at the corner of my eye that suggest I am only a moment away from a grin. "I could never make anyone sad or scared." Only Wofbane will feel the emotions that contradict every word I say. Those feeling-laden words are accentuated by my own method of conversation - a millisecond of heartbreaking depression and of utmost terror.

    "But I'll do whatever Loess needs to be happy." That last is stronger than the others, and she does her best to make it longer lasting than the others. There is nothing in my sweet scarred face to suggest that I is anything but innocent of this emotional manipulation. The penultimate poker face, if you will. The single upside to spending six months terrified that each breath would be my last.

    The manipulation of my power - far more variety at one time than I have ever attempted before - is glorious but short-lived. The securing of privacy and the rapid-fire shift between three vastly different emotions has drained me faster than I expected. My tightly held internal barriers quake and rattle, unsettled by this similarity between my own genuine emotion and the emotion I portray. In an unexpected moment of weakness I reach out and brush my muzzle against the stallion's nearby side. The humidity has beaded moisture along his golden skin, and the unexpected dampness manages to fight its way to my conscious mind.

    "Oh, uh, you had a bug." The excuse sounds flimsy even to my ears, but I am sapped dry. There is no well of emotional potential behind me, ready to be formed into impressed, excited, intrigued. There is no control to the way he reacts, and it terrifies me.

    @[Wolfbane]
    um im sorry i wrote you a novella
    #9

    - Are you thinking of me when you love him? -

    Lepis is kind enough to humor Wolfbane in his eccentric habits, accepting the strange title and giving him food for thought in return. He wishes he could match the sincere good will the pegasus mare has for him, that one word Queen resting heavy on his thoughts as they meander, so it makes the striped pegasus feel all the more correct for having wanted to appoint her.

    His equally as colorful advisor seems to agree, catching the tilt of Bane’s gaze when she speaks and more often than not the appreciative narrow of his eyes or a quick smile. For her earlier hesitance Lepis is full of surprises, turning a shade serious enough that the fanged male slows his eager steps and finds his neck angling towards her, ears perked. When she mentions her mother and the shackles of restraint he wants to smile himself, to match her easy grin but instead his heart disappears from his chest.

    The world around him grows dull.

    Wolfbane staggers into her fear blinkingly, swept away by the roar of change her power brings and suddenly he’s aware of her “capabilities”. Lepis is doing this to him, grinding her intentions and the clarity of her words - whatever Loess needs - into every dark corner of his mind. Futilely, Bane tries to reject the emotions but they slaughter his self-will, the once quiet mare beside him as stoic and nonchalant as ever when he turns to look at her, eyes wide.

    The moment of pain passes; Wolfbane exhales, realizing all along he’s been shaking. “Yea?” Is all he can manage as Lepis’ mouth brushes over his shoulder, meanwhile he’s struggling to piece together whatever confidence he was wearing before. He feels damn confused. “I’m glad we feel the same way, then.” He chuckles slowly, after a hesitant pause. The new Lord thinks he’s beginning to understand her.

    “I need a break, I think. Coming?” Bane mutters, a burst of a smile appearing every now and then as he twists aside from her to follow a trail downhill. Freshwater cuts through the basin of a few buttes not far from where they are, shaded by a twist of natural and unnatural flora along the banks. Where the scrub grassland fades and the red rock spires begin feels the most homey to Wolfbane, he enjoys the way crimson-orange dust settles over his wings with every step that stirs it loose.

    “You were Queen here, yes?” The pegasus male asks her, stopping to rest weary hooves at the lapping edge of the clear water. The bow of his neck straightens, bringing his head down to plunge into the crisp flow and he drinks, giving a pause. “What was that like?” He wants to know when he rises again, mouth glistening. Despite their interesting conversation thus far he hasn’t forgotten that quip of information and truly, he’s curious to know. With the soft turn of his cheek he admires her - the hidden strength, the fragile existence - and waits patiently for her answer.

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis] that's okay; I kind of wrote you one back??
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
    #10
    He is not immune to my power, I learn, and tuck that information securely away. I have no intention of using it - at least not against Wollfbane - but it has long since become a habit to test everyone I meet. They might not even know it, for I am careful and well-practiced: a pickpocket of the mind. The knowledge I gather has never let me down, unlike most everything else.

    The hesitance in his smile lasts uncomfortably long (everything past a half second feels an eternity), but when our silence is broken I feel a wave of tension break. Wolfbane has not shied away from me, ended the conversation as soon as he was aware that I was the source of his inner turmoil. It has been quite some time since I made someone aware of my powers. I've never even told Arthas; I was not free with the knowledge since I was a child.

    His next question reminds me of that time, and a faint smile appears with the memories.

    "I was."

    For a while after that I'm quiet, concentrating on the path beneath me as the footing grows less reliable. Ahead of me, the palomino stallion is lowering his head for a drink. I step around him and do the same slightly downstream. The water is cold and crisp, but it flows freely this time of day. I know that as the night falls the temperature will as well; by dawn this riverlet will be edged with ice.

    "Loess itself is the same," I finally reply,taking a last mouthful and turning to find Wolfbane watching me. I swallow it quickly, grateful for the minute amount of control that I'd been able to gather over my emotions in the last few moments. "But the residents are all different."

    "For a long time it was only me, my mother Heda , and Uncle Castile." A small herd had shared the realm with us as well, but Imperial and his family had mostly kept to themselves. I hadn't minded (though I did wish, now and again, that their children would play with me) and had been as content as one might imagine.

    "I definitely won't be remembered as a famous leader," I add without bitterness, raising up a dark hoof to paw mindlessly at the water and stone beneath it. "Unless there's a category for youngest queen, of course. I was crowned the moment I was born, though Mother and Uncle Castile were my regents." I'd ruled alone for barely any time at all. "My only notable act as queen was probably crowning Arthas," I add, kicking a flat red pebble deeper into the water as a reason to glance away from Wolfbane's curious eyes.




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