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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


    [private]  i feel a bad moon rising; wolfbane
    #1
    ooc: since Lepis is also a captive in Hyaline i wanted to clarify that this is NOT an escape thread even though Lepis is talking about an escape. If you want to have a Hyaline pony be creeping on them from a distance that's totes fine, but otherwise it's a private thread :D

    I had forgotten what he was like, I realize. The last year has passed in a dizzying whirl, all of the memories seeming almost impossibly recent. In all those memories Wolfbane had been absent, and having him here in front of me takes a moment of adjustment. The palomino king does not fit in the world I've crafted for myself, and though the smile doesn't quiver on my lips there is a sudden sobriety to the way my blue-grey eyes take him in. 

    My crafted world has been crumbling for weeks now, I remember. Who is to say that I could not create a space for him as I begin to rebuild it? The idea is as tempting as it is subconscious, and my smile grows more tender for the briefest of moments. At his question I flare my wings proudly, their tricolored expanse gleaming brightly even in the fading light.

    "They're as good as new." I reply. He says that they make his seem plain, and I shake my head with a smile that crinkles the edges of my slightly downcast eyes. I disagree. His wings are solid colored, but they are certainly not plain. They are longer than mine (as they must be for his greater size), but the familiar shape of them causes me to wonder if perhaps I might have found a match in the air. I had grown up with a mother who rarely flew and an uncle who was far more powerful than he was agile, and I have been without a companion in the air since my wings were broken eighteen months ago. 

    The idea sends a thrill down my navy spine, which is released as a playful buck as I flare my wings wider. The gust of cold air that ripples down Hyaline's east flowing river is impossible to resist. Taking advantage of the high land we stand on, I leap from my standstill and drop over the edge of the cliff with a laugh that disappears moments after as I do.

    The cliff face speeds past me as I tuck my forelegs to my chest and pull my wings ever tighter. Only when I am meters from the earth below do I pull up, buoyed by the bitter wind and the speed of my dive.

    This is what freedom feels like.

    I release a breath I didn't know I'd been holding, a long sigh that is torn from my blue lips by the low hanging clouds I've just entered. I hadn't flown in two weeks, I realize as the muscle that work now to keep me aloft cry out from disuse. It seems impossible for time to have passed so quickly, and yet here we are. Below me is a flash of gold and I pull my wings in to drop down, hoping to surprise Wolfbane by appearing directly ahead of him from my hiding place of cloud. 

    "I certainly hope you've come to talk about rescuing me," I say, the teasing tone of the words a fitting match for the smile that brightens my narrow face. The muscles for that were dusty as well, but they protest less the longer we remain airborne. "Or are you going to tell me what that meeting Arthas held was all about?" I'd seen it from the air on my return trip to Hyaline after finding Castile, a dozen tiny horses clustered together in a place I was not allowed to land.

    "While we're up here though, I think you could - at the very least - tell me where you've been." That sounds a little more serious, Cleric to Lord. It is tempered, however, by the casual loop that I perform immediately afterward, and the proud smirk I give to the king when I am level again, which I hope looks suspiciously like a dare.

    @[Wolfbane]
    i word vomited on you sorry not sorry
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    #2

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

    Admittedly it’s been a while since anyone’s invigorated his sense of competition. In his youth he and Gansey often went against one another as brothers are apt to do, and Tephra was almost impeccably perfect for the unlearned Pegasus. Once grown Bane had trekked inland and found a ribald stallion of similar age named Trekori - the Ischian - who’d given him a run for his money.

    Ever since then he’s been on his own in the sky; childish games were for children, after all, but the instant Lepis takes off he doesn’t hesitate, copping a jerky rear in retaliation to her buck before diving off over the hanging precipice. They look like a pair of thrill-seekers, plummeting recklessly through hundreds of feet with only whooping laughs. As intent as Wolfbane is on beating his Cleric to an inevitable death, she manages to pull up from the descent without him noticing.

    It’s only when he jerks up to coast frighteningly low above the ground that he realizes she’s disappeared. Before he can call out she reads his mind, dipping gracefully from the cover of a heavy cloud to take point, and by then he’s far from hiding the pure elation gleaming on his youthful, handsome face.

    “I highly doubt you’re the type of princess that needs rescuing,” Bane replies, a lazy, toothy smile settling over his lips to match the tempo of his wingbeats, “I’ll indulge you anyways. Only because I like you so much.”

    Entranced, the drake watches her arcing maneuver with an impressed sort of demeanor, flicking his wings perfectly straight alongside his body to curve up to her left before tucking them close again and barrel-rolling right underneath her blue-barred legs. On the other side he stretches them full again and rights himself, swinging a bit like a pendulum before leveling out.

    “I went looking for Wishbone. We grew up inseparable on Tephra; it seemed only right. If I had up and disappeared there’s no doubt in my mind she’d try to follow.” He shrugs, flapping a few more times, “Some things don’t like being found, I guess. Arthas could only assume I wasn’t coming back … until I did.”

    For a moment he toys with his invisibility, flickering in and out of transparency, deciding in the end to settle on being whole. It mirrors his inward annoyance at the once-Nerinian Queen, but with a casual glance towards the alluring mare beside him he brushes the emotion away and favors present company above friendships lost. “Talk to me about Hyaline, please.” The floating stallion requests next, “I admire your effort, find humor in the backfire, and have some thoughts about how we could work it into our favor.”

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis] favor returned lol
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
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    #3
    He teases me, something that has been as absent in my life as the golden king. The resulting smile comes without thought as he mentions my rescue, and I volley back that: ”You just don’t want anyone to think you’re neglecting your duties again.” I am only returning the harmless jab in kind, but as the winged stallion answers my last question, the playful expression slips from my face.  

    I knew little about the Nerinian queen, having only met her the once, on the day we surrendered Klaudius. Her history with Wolfbane is one I hadn’t known, and I am - strangely - curious if they had been more than friends. Probably, I reason internally; it is best for kingdom relations if there are tighter bonds between the monarchs than just alliances and contracts. The thought doesn’t bother me, for I am not a jealous creature. It does strike an interest in looking at Wolfbane again, and I watch as the agile stallion rolls effortlessly beneath me. He’s certainly handsome, but he is the king and I am the Cleric bound to another man.

    When he asks about Hyaline I am greatful for the change of subject, even if it is not a topic I am especially fond of.

    ”I’d only wanted to tip the bargaining scales in our favor,” I tell him. ”I’d already met Ilma, and was going to steal her and immediately release her, with the reminder that she was in Loess’ debt and owed us a favor.”

    It had been a simple plan, straightforward and without complexities. A friendly steal wouldn’t have carried with it the debt that a commuted year’s sentence would have, but telling Hyaline this ahead of time would have made the whole exercise pointless. I don’t have to say this aloud, I feel, because Wolfbane has made his position known: if the aim is to advance Loess, most things are forgivable. This had been a rather large thing of course, but the lack of immediate rebuke leads me to think he is not aggravated by my behavior.

    ”Then Kagerus and Solace threatened us by implying Nerine would turn on us, along with Ischia and Tephra.”Here is where I allowed my pride to get the best of me, and I glance away before I speak, my downcast eyes saying what I won’t. ”I tried to steal her again after that, just to show them we won’t be cowed. I failed, and that same day Ilma stole me. I’ve been their captive since. Ilma expects us to be able to discuss my release without arguing, but if she thinks being ‘ready’ to talk means admitting that I was wrong and she was right, she might have to keep me the whole year.”

    Rather than meet his gaze immediately, I attempt to copy his barrel roll. It’s not a move I’m familiar with, but the effort gives me something else to concentrate on other than our conversation. My first attempt is clumsy, but I am beginning to catch on, and by the third try I’m grinning widely.

    ”Tell me what you have planned,” I respond at last. ”And how I can help.”
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    #4

    WOLFBANE

    What Lepis tells him is exactly as Wolfbane would've guessed it. Others in his position might rush into anger about actions performed on behalf of a Kingdom, especially those taken with no warning and ending with negative success, but he’s thankful there’s no ‘other’ in his place at this particular moment. The empathetically manipulative mare was his Cleric for a reason; she was culled from birth and groomed for a future reign, the best advisor he’d ever come across and the only one he wanted at his right hand. The idea that she could’ve used Ilma as a bargaining chip was as powerful a move as it was useful.

    There’s obviously no need to tell her what a brilliant strategist she is, but he does anyway. “Very mercenary of you, genius really.” Bane slips in the pause after her speech and before her request, “Seems to me you’ve proved what we’ve known all along - Hyaline is more bark than bite.” The Lord smiles, a genuinely devious thing even though his companion can’t see it from the way she’s glancing away.

    It would be hard for Wolfbane to admit he admired anyone, even his mentor and guide Arthas, yet the mixture of fire and ice he watches her reveal is building something akin to that within him when it concerns the enigma that is ‘Lepis’. Thoughts of a very unprofessional nature creep into the back of his mind, refusing to vacate his sensibilities as the royal-and-créme pegasus mimics a few rolls. “Do you suppose that you could arrange a meeting with your new captors and myself? Just a casual tete-a-tete in the Riverlands, I might even bring your dashing hubby along for appearance sake. I think …” He begins, tilting himself as near as he could manage towards her with the wind to whip away any words not meant for eavesdropping ears.

    “... and none will be the wiser for it.” The drake finishes, pulling away again in true cheshire cat form. Dastardly was what it was, this plan of theirs, and a hail mary at that … still, it could work in the right conditions. A giddy sort of elation courses through his veins, sending the brightly-patterned stallion spiraling downwards to flatten out again just above the River’s choppy waters. He makes as if to gallop, extending his gait to touch down lightly on the surface so that it looks as if he’s racing atop the churning rapids, sending rainbow-colored arcs of water spraying in his wake.

    “Perhaps you’re just destined to be a captive your whole life!” He shouts above the cacophony, far too pleased with life in general, “We’re probably tempting fate, but I say fuck it!! What’s life without a little risk?!”

    || The Pirate Lord of Loess ||



    @[Lepis]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
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    #5
    The praise he gives me is not expected and it startles a proud grin before I can mask it. Softening it with words is my unconscious reaction, though the warmth of the compliments (for I take them as such) remains a pleasant weight in my chest.

    "I was just trying to do what you would," I say before I duck my head, following with the rest of my body as I flip forward through the air. My wings fold as closely to my body as they can, mirroring his rolls until he pauses to speak again. This high, the thermals are easy to ride, and my feathered appendages keep me aloft with minimal beating to hear what the king as to say.

    I'm grinning when he pulls away, pleasure at the plan he's formulated plainly visible on my blue face. It's easy to focus on the plot and not the way he'd phrased it. There was a sour taste at the back of my mouth with the reminder of Arthas. Not at his memory, but rather at the way the dappled stallion and I had last parted ways. I do not have time to linger on it long, as the golden horse beside me is suddenly gone.

    He dives and for a moment I only watch with a grin, enjoying the spiraling shape he makes against the snowy earth below before I move to follow. The speed at with I follow is risky, and indeed I my hind legs dip beneath the icy water before I can pull out of my dive. Still, the burn of my muscle as I keep myself aloft is exhilarating, the adrenaline it sends coursing through my veins a heady drug that I had nearly forgotten. Risk aversion is something I have always valued, yet that falls away as I laugh aloud at his daring proclamation.

    The consequences of our efforts - if they are to fail - would be extreme, but I find that as I feel the wind blowing through my wings and see the gold and blue of Wolfbane beside me that I care very little about them at all.
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