"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
She had almost let herself talk herself out of it a thousand times. She had almost let the wilds pull her back into its clutches. She had almost let herself disappear again. Instead she had left the River, heavy with the rains and the runoff from the Mountain. The Forest had been so like their home that she had almost skirted around it, taking the longer way instead of going straight thought. But she had gritted her teeth and strengthened her resolve to take her time going through it. She jumped now and again, sure, but by the time she escaped the other side her body no longer felt like a lifewire, jumping and crackling every second.
She crossed through the border of Leoss and Hyaline, leaning more towards Leoss with the lack of big hilly things to climb up and down over. She zigged and zagged, until she hit the border of Taiga with its giant pine trees. Until finally, she found herself along the edges of Nerine.
Her body was tired and she was thankful that there hadn’t been that many others she had seen close up. She wasn’t too sure about the whole plague and how it worked but she would take her chances here for a little while. Unless she hated it and then it would not be that long at all. However, she is quiet, watching from the edges for a long while until she sees him. A small whicker of hello to catch his attention before she detaches herself from the shadowy edges of one of the small pine trees near the edge of the border.
“Hi.” She says with a small, absolutely tiny curling of her lips. She was alert, but perhaps not as terrified as she had been that day so long ago when he and the other Eilidh had found her near the River in the dark.
Glaciers melting in the dead of night and the superstars sucked into the supermassive
Through all that has happened, he had still managed to wonder what had become of Willa and Eilidh, both. He figures that the ebony mare probably would have talked to the silver bay roan, even though his curiosity is never truly sated, he thinks that waltzing into the meadow and calling out for them woild give them more than just a little scare. So if they wanted to visit Nerine, or talk to him, or really ask him anything, he’d have to wait here.
Plus, it had been incredibly busy in the meantime. A plague had struck, Nerine had moved a little further away from the river, an icy island had erupted out of nowhere, others had come to claim it, he’d come to claim it, war almost broke out, then the claimers went into hiding, then there were twins instead of a single foal (and even the pregnancy alone had been a bit of a surprise), then diplomats came and everybody would say he was being stupid about it, and through all that, Chryseis had decided she could be friends with a Kelpie and have a boyfriend but not tell her family about it - nah-ah!
Anyway, he hadn’t come looking. Not because he didn’t care, but because in all cases it had been better not to. It still brings a smile to his face that she had, indeed, come. He’s tearing the grasses loose to eat some at that moment, on his chosen spot near the southern border, a point from which he can see most of it with his dragon-vision. It takes her longer to spy him, although probably not that long. He’s shiny enough after all. Especially since he went out of his length to help the fairies get some of the Isle’s magic to heal the world of the sickness - now he’s gotten a layer of ice on his body, and as he moves his head up and takes his time to walk towards her to greet her, he just hopes it’s not too much. Then again maybe he’ll look less like her personal demon now. Who knows, really.
”Willa!” Happy for her to visit at any rate, he greets her from a distance, not quite sure if he should come any closer. He stops, smiles at her, head tilted slightly, but back straight again quickly. ”I hope your travels were safe.” he adds, as a common opening. She looks a bit tired, or maybe just wary like before. But she’s not looking terrified. That’s one thing, yes?
you set my soul alight
HTML by Vanilla Custard
@[Willa]
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
She had thought to first find Eilidh and talk to her first, but that would have kept her within the places she felt the least dangerous. Which didn’t really make much sense in hindsight as those places were perhaps the most unpredictable and uncontrollable. But she hadn’t she had instead forged out and about to take the long trek to Nerine to find the home that Leilan had spoken so passionately about.
She itches not to back herself up away from him as he approaches. She doesn’t move and even if her muscles tensed, it was only briefly before she relaxed them again. She didn’t need to be terrified of him yet. After all Tarnished had been a perfect gentleman before he had brought her home and claimed her.
Then the monster had surfaced.
But this was different right? Nerine wasn’t a herd. It was a kingdom and what one did, he would have to answer for. It wasn’t as easy to hid the monsters now, in the lands that had gotten smaller and fewer.
He was different but not in a way that scared her. Although the fact that he seemed to gather more power made her a little bit wary. Power was a thing that she had not had a lot of in her life. Physically with the gifted traits from the fairies or in her relationship with Tarnished. It had been taken from her enough times that she knew those with power often wanted more. To feel superior.
But he still seemed nice enough and that smile on his face indicated he was glad to see her.”Hello Leilan.” She says, a small smile curling up her lips in greetings as she notes the distance he had put between them, out of concern for her. She steps a step or two closer, making a point to herself, but maybe it takes her just a moment to stop ducking her head and make eye contact with him again. “They were safe enough. It seems quieter out there with the worries of the plague going around.” She says a slight tilt of her head back towards where she had come from.
“How are you doing?” Social necessities were something she was going to have to get used to again it seemed.
Glaciers melting in the dead of night and the superstars sucked into the supermassive
Willa seems, all things taken into account, just a tad tiny teeny bit less scared than before. Whether that is due to their meeting remains to be seen, but perhaps she had found a bit more peace of mind. Or the plague might have helped - ironic as it may sound, it had rid the common lands from being overcrowded somehow, like she states herself.
He notes how she brings herself to coming closer; she can make the two steps she takes seem like travelling two mountains, yet, she does it, and that’s something. To him, more or less confirmation of what he sees in her stance, and the way she doesn’t totally avert looking him in the eye. So, he allows himself to smile back at her a bit before answering. ”Yes, seems like they are. It’s concerning how everybody is fleeing to the safe lands, in a way, but I guess maybe for you, it’s been a good thing.” Knowing full well how much she preferred the quiet.
She brings herself to converse with a question. He makes a face. ”Too many things going on at once, I guess. Half this kingdom fled to the nearby plague-free island, Icicle Isle, and then some others showed up there but with intentions I couldn’t quite get behind. Needless so say we’ve been having some trouble sorting out leadership there. I’d hoped it could have just been a territory for Nerine, so that everyone can be welcomed.” He doesn’t add exactly how involved he is; probably she doesn’t want or need to know. If she does, she can ask, but honestly, his titles are not something he likes to boast about. There must have been a time when he was younger, that he might have - a shiny title as an addition to his shiny self. But even then he’d said that ruling would suck, and he still stood behind it, but he had also had to help his wife rule Nerine in some way, and had figured that ruling a Territory for her (without having to do the diplomatic relations himself) could help her in the way that she didn’t have to worry about it much. ”Then there’s still my teenage kids running around the world and other lands that have settled issues like these already, coming knocking at our doors for diplomatic discussions.” A wry smile. Surely she understands that some things had taken him more time to deal with than he had anticipated.
Then again Willa was simply one looking for a safe place, and perhaps she had no interest in diplomacy and kingdom business at the moment. He muses about that, falling silent a moment before he changes the subject. ”Would you like to stay and meet other residents of Nerine? There’s some here that I think...” he tilts his head thoughtfully, looks back at her then. ”It could be helpful for you, I think.”
you set my soul alight
HTML by Vanilla Custard
@[Willa]
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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