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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


    [open]  The sun hung from a string, looking down on the world - any
    #1
    We got older and I should have known
    that I’d feel colder when I walk alone
    When silence greets you at the Mountain, what do you do?

    In Leilan’s case, that’s a hard one to answer. Any normal horse would take their loss and go home. But the scaled roan doesn’t really think he has a home - and I can hear you think it: ‘field, much?’, but unfortunately that’s not up the trickster’s sleeve either.

    Former Leilan would have definitely gone on a rampage. This one though - well, we may not know him yet. Or at least, he’s different than he has been, and as such, the angry snowball that ran off the Mountain earlier, has cooled down by the way he’s down to earth.

    As such, now he’s wondering what he could possibly do next.

    Having taken to the meadow to graze, he soon realizes that that is not where he belongs, and is already on the move. Restless feet bring him around the world, but he’s not planning on going to Nerine quite yet. He crosses Pangea’s borders and into Hyaline, wondering if the high peaks are a new place for a frosty, dragon-like horse. His tail swishes absentmindedly amidst the valleys, and then he simply makes his way up, up, up. The sun and some of the green buds nearby seem to want to tell him it’s spring or nearly spring, and he really doesn’t think he wants to know if today is a hot day.

    He’s hotheaded enough himself, no need for new hotness to be added.

    But if we’re really honest then that probably won’t be a rule he’ll live by for long.

    For now though, the frost dragon is content with lying down, in a position on a grey, rocky, mountainous ledge. Overlooking the valleys below, he muses if any of his former friends are still out there - and where he could possibly go to see if any of his family are still around.
    Leilan
    no. 7 | ice forged in fire
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
    |
    #2

    i never said that i would be your lover
    i never said that i would be your friend
    i never said that i would take no other

    She has assigned her few proactive members to visit the territories and herds around them and has begun to make her own visits to the kingdoms, independent of Pangea or the crown’s interests. Kensa is part of the East and yet the habit of putting Hyaline first remains even when her own husband is settling into the throne. 

    Kensa is returned from an errand and roaming up into the heights, eager to stretch her legs upon the familiar and challenging terrain of her home. She pauses once in her zig-zagging ascent up a steep mountainside to watch her oldest son (brilliantly golden and substantially built) loping Eastward. He doesn’t sneak but she is not entirely pleased to see him visiting Pangea, knowing his purpose.  He is a stallion now and though his mooning after Dawn is no longer the cute crush of a little boy she is in no more position to prevent it than she had been when he was weeks old. He is bound to be hurt, she does not see in him her own romantic resilience or his father's hungry indifference. She endeavors to put those worries away and climb higher, refocusing on the splendor of these savage heights rather than the heartbreaks her most beloveds are doomed to suffer.

    For not the first time an unfamiliar scent catches the Primarch’s attention. At this height the stranger is not just passing through and so she puts her feet to the flinty trail that will take her in the direction of the stallion, she thinks she knows where he might be lingering.

    “Not a bad spot to take in the view though our tourists don’t usually come so high.” Her topaz eyes take in his scales which bear a layer of frost like the rime that forms upon the clear lake-ice in winter. It is strange and beautiful (she is given to finding something to appreciate in just about everything) but she remains quiet on that count. “Kensa.” She says, a quick and simple introduction though she keeps her distance so as not to disturb his comfortable reclined position.  “Have you visited Hyaline before?”

    kensa
    love is madness


    @[Leilan]
    #3
    We got older and I should have known
    that I’d feel colder when I walk alone
    Hyaline is not what it used to be years ago, that is clear. The horses below are perhaps few but none of them seem like the ‘frightened prey’ type, which is unfortunately what many of those before them had been quite exactly. It is no longer a sanctuary - but no doubt all the prey horses had ran away to a safe land when the sickness spread through the lands. Now, it has been cured - and like all the lands, things need to get settled once more.

    Perhaps if he knew about the war between Loess and Tephra, he would have pointed out that that was an exact example of what he meant by that. Alas, he left before it happened and only recently returned, too recently to know or - more importantly - for him to care. He’d spend a blissful time away with his wife, and then he had to spoil it all by being homesick.

    Lovely.

    But not so homesick that he wanted to go to Icicle Isle or even Nerine - no, that seemed like a chapter in the past. The only other really icy place is here - and to be honest, the sheltered caves and rocks may make this an even more perfect habitat for a dragon, than the former.

    The mare who approaches him is pretty - so very pretty it is almost disturbing; topaz on liver chestnut splashed with white, mane a golden flaxen color to match. The near unnatural glow of attraction reminds him of a mermaid, but he refrains from recalling the girl who would have killed him had he not been made immortal just then - immortality he gave away for protection to his firstborn.

    She’s been born here, he muses, but neither her nor her mother lived here by now.Briseis’ smell was long gone in the place he’d just walked through. No wonder - last time he’d seen her she had been in Nerine and fancied an Ether. A cousin of his, he believed. Well not that he was really surprised. Surely his good looks were also to be found elsewhere in the bloodline.

    So, when the mare who approached him comments, he knows exactly the look in her eyes when she admires the frost-rimmed scales. And perhaps in his wanting to lose them earlier on the Mountain, he had been too fast, he wonders. If shiny attracts people, it could only work in his favor. Still, the pointy teeth with which he grins at her now, might make her pause. ”Oh, but I’m not a tourist. I do travel, though. A lot.”

    Which is to say, if she doesn’t chase him away (and how would she accomplish that, he wonders) he will stay and live here, but also will visit every other place his heart or feet tell him to go in the meantime.

    Perhaps assuming she understands all this from one comment isn’t quite fair - he knows, but also knows time will tell.

    ”Leilan. And, yes. I did just tell you I do travel a lot. Hyaline was no exception.” he smiles at the mare, waiting for more questions, or for her to leave. He’s not sharing a whole lot, after all. Some people don’t seem to like being teased and drawn out so much - makes them irritated. Some would fight but, honestly, she seems like the type to keep her dignity and just ignore him when he’s too much.

    Perfect.
    Leilan
    no. 7 | ice forged in fire


    @[Kensa]
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
    |
    #4
    KENSA
    KENSA

    Kensa never withdraws from monstrous features, not even the sharp teeth glittering in the man’s smile. She chooses a place for herself on the ledge and gracefully settles down herself, reclining to appreciate the view and better continue their conversation without crowding him. Her blond locks settle about her neck and shoulders in full waves that drift forward around her face when she looks down on the lake and the distant bodies of the others. “I admire that. I would personally like to travel more.” She says this rather primly, mocking herself and acknowledging the banality of polite conversation even though she means what she says.

    Once she’d been eager to see all of Beqanna and even now she still has not done so. Of course as more horses settle here joining her merry band and giving her the ability to delegate she finds more time to roam as well as make some new friends. Of course they sometimes also come to her, and she will make most of her visitors her friends whether they like it or not.

    They do not drift into the boredom that so often consumes introductions. He is teasing her or trying out a bit of rudeness, deviating from the script. Kensa laughs once, soundlessly. Her topaz eyes narrow amused and indulgent. “Very well Leilan, what brings a traveler to Hyaline? Business or pleasure?” Sunlight catches the spray of golden freckles on her  pale face as she tilts her chin one way and then the other on the last three words.
    She does wonder where he has come from. Somewhere cold perhaps, she cannot imagine he prefers the heat while wearing frosted scales. Kensa herself is not particularly fond of winter but does enjoy the cool alpine weather Hyaline is blessed with much of the year.

    run me like a river


    @[Leilan]
    #5
    We got older and I should have known
    that I’d feel colder when I walk alone
    Comfortable on his ledge, the dragon-horse hardly minds when the woman joins him - in fact, being joined by a pretty mare is perhaps a petty victory, but he counts his blessings all the same. He wonders for a moment how much detail she sees when she looks down below, or if perhaps her knowing the place by heart fills in details that he still has to look for, and that she simply knows are there.

    ”What stops you?” he asks her sideways; she said she would like to travel more, but that also implies she doesn’t actually get to it. But the way he sees it, if one truly wants a thing, then the only thing keeping them from it is their head. Other things get priority, but honestly, should they? Still, he’d like to hear her out, if only to get to know her better.

    She’s a no-nonsense type, he deduces when she asks him straight up what brings him here, and he grins at her. ”Neither, or both, depending on how you look at it.” he lets that sink in for a moment, then continues. ”There’s only… maybe three lands in this world I could pick as a suitable living environment. And since I left Icicle Isle to Jesper, I doubt that little icecube or my niece in Nerine, would appreciate seeing my face. So you see, as drawn to the cold as I am, I’m kind of stuck here.” he explains, tilting his head so that his draconic gaze captures her topaz orbs. ”And the view certainly doesn’t disappoint.” he adds casually, as if he means nothing by it. And in a way, he doesn’t - the spotted mare always in the back of his mind; but she isn’t around, and a tiny bit of flirting never hurt. Especially considering the possibility that she chose to stay where she was, and never follow.

    But he doesn’t want his good mood spoiled by the image of Breckin’s face of disapproval, which she would likely give him had she heard his remark - he swishes his tail, looking down on the world. It wasn’t so bad to be back here, at all. Beqanna would always draw him back, he knew now - though he wouldn’t dare ask this mare right away if any of his children were running around Hyaline, or anywhere else really. It wouldn’t be very polite to ask a mare about a rather large amount of offspring, sprouting different names (and several mothers named) in hopes of her recognizing them. She hadn’t seemed to recognise his name just now, so perhaps that gave him a relatively clean slate in these mountains.

    Or, you know, probably not, but one could hope and dream, right?
    Leilan
    no. 7 | ice forged in fire


    @[Kensa]
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
    |
    #6
    KENSA
    KENSA

    “Responsibilities, to a degree.” Kensa sighs, admiring Hyaline, her Hyaline. She does not regret being so tied down. In order to clarify she adds. “I am Primarch here, and that is my priority. ” The smile that drifts across her face is contented but edged in a feline ferocity. It pleases her to be so busy with her home, to see it shaping it into something. As of late she has been able to venture out and enjoy some time away, in Loess with a lover, in Nerine on a diplomatic visit. Each of these were their own kind of challenge and pleasure.

    Her head tilts as she listens to Leilan’s explanation, not having expected the brief history he has provided to explain his reason for coming up into Hyaline.

    “Heartfire is your niece? I am recently acquainted with her.” Kensa does not elaborate, as that was a particularly interesting meeting and she is still musing on what transpired. Anyway she is not really certain of the man’s relationship with his family and would not want to sour their meeting with something as pointless as how one or another of them felt about a relative. “I hope you do not long consider yourself to be stuck.  Hyaline is hardly a prison.” This amuses her considering the endeavor she would soon like to undertake. No not a prison, a retreat, a pleasant resort in the mountains for its ‘invited’ guests. She is smiling sunnily when he meets her eyes to compliment the ‘view’ and the grin once more turns cat-like. He’ll win nothing by giving her flirtation to bask in but they can both enjoy it all the same. “It improves all the time.” The chestnut replies, turning an ear back with tongue-in-cheek coyness as she holds his gaze. Laughing softly she shakes her mane back from her face. “Would you tell me about Icicle Isle? I have an envoy on his way there now as it happens. ” A pause as she checks her manner. “I only ask as one traveler to another. I wouldn’t expect for state secrets before you’ve even promised to stick around a few days.”

    She isn’t at all sure what Rouhi will find in the Isle but perhaps Leilan will give her some better understanding of what its residents are like than a brief diplomatic visit ever could. If not she will still get to hear about the northern isle that, like the Cove, had appeared at the dawning of the plague and has sat quietly in the sea ever since.

    run me like a river


    @[Leilan]
    #7
    We got older and I should have known
    that I’d feel colder when I walk alone
    ”Ah, duty. Such a downer, don’t you think?” his tail moves, but only half-heartedly as he never loses his grin and the topic doesn’t seem to interest him. ”I travelled less when on the Isle, as well - but that was only after I’d seen every part of the world at least once.“ he tells her. He shrugs. ”You just gotta find yourself the right babysitter while you make… diplomatic visits.” he tells her; a day, or even two, could be spared easily when one times it between duties. Then again, as a sole ruler it was harder to let go. With regret he looks back on the days when it was uncertain who would lead the little icecube and more so, what they would be doing with it if he left. He’d taken it upon himself to keep watch and tire them out, but at the cost of hardly being able to do what he wanted.

    But it was in the past, and it doesn’t do to dwell on it, he thinks. Instead, he is amused by Kensa’s question, as it is not often someone doesn’t know of him or his family. ”Yes, we’re quite similar in a way, actually. Please tell me she didn’t give you too hard a time though.” he says, wondering if her visit had been all business; it probably was. Sure, his niece isn’t as much of a joker as he is, but they’re both stubborn mules in their own right, not swayed their opinions easily. Kensa might be right not to ask further, as they’d worked together and against one another as easily as they go. Though, he wouldn’t say that the both of them dislike one another.

    He nods when she says Hyaline isn’t a prison. ”Oh, I don’t often get stuck at all,” he replies in a tone that says not to worry about it. He lets the topic switch, as she asks about his former home. He nods. ”There’s not too much to tell - it’s icy, and than means only those with the traits, wits, and probably a certain stubbornness go and actually stay there. I procured it for Nerine as a safeland for our younger ones at the time, though I met too much opposition for that to actually go through before spring.” A sigh, followed by a shake of mane. ”I followed my wife out of Beqanna a year or two back, and left it to Jesper. I believe he is a good warrior, but actually with a head on his shoulders as compared to me.“ he gives her a guilty grin. ”I hope your envoy isn’t afraid of foxes.”
    Leilan
    no. 7 | ice forged in fire

    @[Kensa]
    Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
    |




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