"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
Her new home... who would have thought? She has lived the vast majority of her life (though she is still very young, so does it even count?) homeless, bouncing around the Meadow, Forest, and Taiga with her dam. Cress used to speak so wistfully of Taiga, which was to be her home before it was made uninhabitable. She had described to Dawn the beautiful pine trees and the rolling fog, and explained that it wasn’t so different from the kingdom she had grown up in, which was located in a valley nestled between towering mountains and protected by a pack of wolves.
Maybe it was then that the golden girl had fallen in love with the mere idea of living in a kingdom, though to her the Valley seemed dark and dreary and she could never find herself loving Taiga with its towering redwoods and vast emptiness. She is sure that it had been a bustling land once upon a time, but that day and age was long past and she mostly just felt lonely when she was there. She needed a home full of life, full of light, full of laughter. In her imagination her future home had wide open spaces to run and rolling hills where she could frolic with friends.
In reality, it’s so much better.
To say her new home is paradise might be exaggerating just a tad, but she honestly loves it so much already. She already has a friend here—Rhaegor, her Sunny—and the mountains are more beautiful than she could have thought possible.
The early morning sunlight finds her belly-deep in the crystal-clear lake, sighing in contentment as the water tickles her stomach. The water is freezing cold but she likes it—she is half polar bear, after all, so she loves the cold more than anything. Icy water is just as heavenly as everything else in the kingdom, and she can’t help but to close her eyes and sigh. She is happy here, even if she misses her dam terribly. She will make a life here.
10-25-2018, 09:12 PM (This post was last modified: 11-08-2018, 10:19 PM by Kensa.)
Kensa loves the lake but this time of year it’s already gotten a little too cold for her. She is headed down the lake path at a rolling, lazy walk, just taking in the color and crispness of fall in Hyaline. She decides that she’ll go looking for acorns in that stand of oak trees on the other side of the water, they have gone all crimson and gold and she would generally like to get a closer look at them, and so she continues toward the lake so she can skirt its rim and head up into the hardwoods on the other side. When the young mare draws nearer to the shore she notices the golden filly wading in the cold, cold water. She looks, from Kensa’s vantage, to be as happy as can be.
Amused and interested in how the child is not freezing her legs off, the chestnut mare picks up a trot until she draws within speaking distance of the unfamiliar girl. Stopping on the shore she drops her head to sniff at the sharp fragrance of the chilly water before her, just to confirm it hasn’t somehow gotten warmer.
Looking fully on the filly, she greets her in a rather obvious but unselfconscious way. “Hi there! Aren’t you cold?” Although adventurous the chestnut does not want to brave the cold water but steps in curiously all the same and paws at the surface of the water, crystal droplet splashing up just as frigid as she’d expected.
“I’m Kensa. Are you new here? I don’t think we’ve met.” She adds, and minces back away from the water that has begun to numb her up to her fetlocks.
10-26-2018, 02:28 AM (This post was last modified: 11-11-2018, 10:50 AM by Ilma.)
Ilma
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
Hyaline takes some getting used to in the first fall and winter one spends here, she knows - the water is icy from fall to halfway through spring, because the lake is being fed from the eternal snowy peaks and metlgin glaciers. Even in summer, it doesn’t get very hot in the lake; then, it is usually a welcome place to cool down. But this late in fall, she simply doesn’t expect anyone to go in, unless they happen to be a water-creature perhaps. Except Solace’s brother, who’d just run into the waters in the midst of winter, so used to the cold or just too excited to care perhaps.
The girls down here are neither, and when she comes across them on her morning walk by the lake, she crosses over to them with a small smile, wondering how many recruits she’s missed out on this summer. One of them is Kensa, who’d arrived this spring, and one a palomino filly that she also hasn’t met yet. Honestly, sometime last spring and summer, when she wasn’t looking, a suspiciously large n
(and growing) number of young girls seems to have flooded to Hyaline, and she’s pretty sure she knows the reason - and not sure if she likes it. For some of them, Hyaline could be a true fit, with shared beliefs and working here towards the goal of helping Hyaline open up to refugees. Others, they’ll only find a crushed heart or have to settle with the idea of sharing, because she doesn’t think the boy has recruited them solely by explaining what the kingdom was all about.
She smiles at them nonetheless, knowing they have to find out on their own if this is a place to stay or leave behind. ”Good morning. I do believe we have the same questions,” she opens with, and looks from one to another, ”So I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.”
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
11-02-2018, 10:25 PM (This post was last modified: 11-02-2018, 10:26 PM by Dawn.)
Dawn has never had “important proceedings” to attend as a child, and even now as a young woman. She is not the princess of a kingdom, nor is she the child of someone well-known and well-loved. She has never had responsibilities other than not to wander too far from Mother or scare anyone with her polar bear-shifting, and she is proud to say that she has never done either aside from the time she escaped her dam to visit the Playground. That’s where she first met Sunny, and Clayton as well. Sneaking off to the Playground that day while her mother slept was probably the best decision she's make in her short life.
She hasn’t found the time yet to explore Hyaline fully—though her and Sunny had done a fine job of covering a lot of his favorite spots just a few days past—but one thing is for certain: she loves the lake. The crystal clear, icy cold water makes the bear inside her grumble with contentment, and she desires nothing more than to splash and play for hours. The others may think her strange, but to her this is just the norm. Cress had encouraged her on more than one occasion to follow her instincts, and her instincts told her that the water was where she felt at peace.
Hoofbeats approach and Dawn turns, half-hoping for it to be Sunny. Instead, she sees a chestnut filly, around her age, about to take a step into the water. “No, don’t!” she exclaims, but the other girl is already breaking the surface with a hoof, confirming to herself that the water is, indeed, icy.
“I’m Dawn,” she responds with a grin, taking a few splashing strides towards Kensa as a woman appears along the shoreline, a serene smile decorating her face and wings of literally made of light adorning her shoulders. “My name is Dawn,” she repeats, her smile never faltering. “My mother is a nomad and my best friend in the whole world told me that I should come live here. I miss her terribly, but she wanted me to be happy and with my friend.”
She takes a few more steps towards the shore, so that the water only rises to her knees. It drips from her stomach and patters quietly on the surface of the water, one of the only sounds in a very still morning. “And I love the cold water, it makes the bear happy,” she adds, then pauses. They probably have no idea what she’s talking about. “Um, I can shift. I-into a polar bear. That’s what I meant. It’s why I love the cold water so much.”
for every tyrant, a tear for the vulnerable in every lost soul, the bones of a miracle
Ilma’s approach draws Kensa’s attention from the golden child in the blue lake. The cremello mare has been a polite and rather serious adult in the young chestnut’s experience thus far. The kind of mare that kept everyone in line but also kept her eye out for them too. She could appreciate that, even if a lingering youthful part of her felt a little nervous whenever Ilma appeared, like a kid feeling they had been caught but not sure what they had done.
“Good morning.” She greets the Ambassador in turn and then looks back to Dawn who is splashing into the shallower--freezing--water. “Hello Dawn.” She says warmly, wondering who the girl’s best friend could be. There are a number of children in Hyaline, Kensa not so far removed from their ranks, little more than a teenager herself. The girl has come here and plans to say, while Kensa is delighted to meet someone knew she glances briefly at Ilma, who, as a council member and Ambassador has more business answering to that than she does.
When Dawn mentions that she can shift--into a cold water loving polar bear--Kensa’s eyes widen in surprise and amusement. She is without any of the special traits that make Beqanna’s natives so impressive, glowing wings and changing shapes were all still novelties for her. Rhaegor’s precognition had been a baffling shock. “And your…bear...it likes the cold even when it’s not… out?” She asks haltingly, not sure of the proper phrasing. Her curiosity once again overriding her.
kensa
for every dreamer, a dream. we're unstoppable with something to believe in.
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
Dawn, looks almost caught when the older mare arrives, saying her name although Ilma has the inclination from seeing the two interact a little while earlier, that she'd already done so. But the white mare's eyes gleam when she dips her head, her worried look replaced by a welcoming smile. "And I'm Ilma," she replies smoothly, relaxing in stance a bit as she watches the two girls.
Her diplomatic face almost falls when Dawn mentions her 'best friend in the whole world', fearing the worst then, but it's only a brief glance of her eyes and it is gone - replaces by a more conscious look at the girl when she mentions a polar bear. Her only experience with a shifter so far is a bad one - but Svedka has not had this ability from birth, and bears can hunt fish instead of horses, she tells herself. She draws a short breath, then looks at the lake. "We seem to attract a lot of water-loving animals, so you'll fit right in." She says, then looks at the two girls (one girl, one young woman). "But surely it's not just the water and view that should keep you here? Have any of you considered joining the ranks, perhaps?" she suggests with a small smile. Kensa would do great as a diplomat, no doubt. Dawn, if she proved a fiercesome little bear, perhaps fitted better with the protectors of the lake kingdom. For now, though, she lets the thoughts simply sink in, and shrugs a little. "No need to make decisions right away, though. Dawn, have you ventured any further from the lake yet? Perhaps your bear loves the snows, as well." Come winter, many of the mountaintops will be white, after all.
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[Kensa]@[Dawn]
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
