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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 feel a bad moon rising; wolfbane
    #1
    Winter beneath the trees has been as dreary as she’d imagined. The ability to wait, to bide her time, patience; these are not virtues that the dun mare possesses in vast reserves. Sending diplomats out in the cold is foolish, and Taiga is not so populated that losing one is an option. Lepis had spent nearly a year planning and she is eager to begin, but nothing can be set in motion until the spring thaw. And so the pegasus has spent much of the last few months pacing. The habit has given her a good grasp of the wooded realm that she rules but little else. She has made some changes to her grand vision, small tweaks and adjustments, and as she trots through the woods, she realizes that she should probably let her husband know of them.

    Wolfbane has always humored her in all things (their move into Taiga being one of them), and so she returns that as best she knows how. Today, that includes sharing with him the way in which her machinations of world domination have altered in the past few weeks. Mostly recalculations in the time it might take an army to swim from the border of Taiga to the Icicle Isle (she’d not factored in the current last time), but there is a thing that she suspects her husband might find especially interesting that affects her plans to takeover their world.

    She’d thought their return to status quo after Gale’s death had occurred too late in the season, but she has felt a distinct sort of quickening of late. She does hope its just one this time. No mare should suffer triplets, Lepis thinks with a sharp snort. The sound startles her out of her own thoughts, and the winged mare realizes that she stands not far from one of their favorite haunts. A great redwood had been uprooted by some massive force, but rather than fall to the earth it had been caught by its fellows. The fall must have been eons ago, for the tree has grown roots from the trunk for stability. So stable, in fact, that a horse might walk upon it as Lepis has a time or two

    The fog is thick, but so is the scent of her mate. At the base of the tree, a natural hollow has formed, one where they have spent many a night. She cannot make Wolfbane out until she is within a few yards of him, but she does not hesitate to sidle up next to him. 

    “Do you think it’ll get warm soon?” She asks him as she presses her cold muzzle against the warmth of his neck. “I’m ready for spring.”


    @[Wolfbane]
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    #2

    ALL THE DOUBT YOU'RE STANDING IN BETWEEN

    In the wake of Gale’s death and their move to Taiga, normalcy has since invaded Wolfbane’s day-to-day life. It came over him like an unexpected visitor and settled in for the cold winter, fueling the striped pegasus to travel, recruit, and try to settle internal issues. It came into Lepis’ life as well and left her ripening. Wolfbane had heard the second heartbeat inside of his mate as soon as it began to flutter. That alone had kept him rooted to this place and these woods, like a ghost in the fog that never seemed too far away from Lepis when she wanted him.

    In new ways he senses her desires without having to read her mind, so he uncurls from the shadows of the fog to envelope his beloved wife and leader into the waiting embrace of his strong, bent neck and brawny shoulder. The rest of her lingers at his side where their mutual curves fit together as lovers should, and he relishes the strong signs of life already inside her. She is lovely in her ferocity against the season. He laughs and turns his nose to her waiting cheek, hums “Sooner than we think. One cold front is pushing through the next moon cycle and then spring will be chasing behind it. You’ll see.”

    The way he said it was like a certainty. “The baby is healthy.” He murmured. Of course it was. Lepis had brought two individual foals and then triplets to term on her own. She was a fantastic mother. A rarity in these times. He could adore her for that alone. Wolfbane’s eyes rose over the top of her two-toned forelock to glance down at her spread ribs and flat spine. Their pupils dilated and then shifted rapidly, from one animal to another each time he blinked. He could see past her skin and bone with certain eyes, and could see the warm glow of another body tucked inside her own.

    She wouldn’t have to worry about multiples this season. If she wanted to know the gender, he might be able to taste her blood and let her know. For now he thinks he should just listen, though.

    “And you? How are you?” Her husband wants to know. “Is it the season or something else?” He teases her, lowering his chin and playfully tugging at her lovely hair. “Taiga’s no Loess.”

    WITH WOUNDS THAT NO ONE ELSE HAS SEEN

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
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    #3
    The dun mare had given a brief glimpse of her feelings about Taiga compared to Loess to Izora Lethia, mentioning that she misses the lack of sky. And she does; the thick green canopy is beautiful but it is not the open air. The pine-cushioned earth is soft and pungent and the trees themselves are marvels. But it is not Loess.

    “I miss Loess.” She says. “There’s not enough sky here, and your grandam reminds me of my Mother.” She makes Lepis feel like a child, the navy-haired mare doesn’t say. Always nearby, always watching, never allowing Lepis the freedom she craves. It is freedom she wants, after all. Not power, like the roan mare thinks, not even respect. The three often come hand-in-hand, but Lepis has had plenty of time to dwell on the difference.

    Wolfbane’s tug at her mane is returned with a playful nip to his yellow shoulder, followed by an affectionate kiss to the same spot. She raises her head to rest her jaw against the bristling hair along her husband’s neck. The softly prickling sensation is familiar, and the Comtesse wonders with half-closed eyes if perhaps this child will inherit their father’s mane. It is only then that she realizes what Bane has said, that he knows of the child growing within her already.

    The physical changes her mate has undergone had been easy to rationalize; sometimes Beqanna simply happens to a creature and they’ve no control over it. More wings, no wings, a difference in size. Minor shiftings like these are nothing spectacular. She herself had only grow wings after wishing for them especially hard on her six-month birthday. But there are other things too, things that are not visible to the naked eye. Things like her own empathic power, things like the invisibility that her children play with as easily as she’d played with flowers.

    “Does she have wings?” Lepis asks, her curiosity over the child in her womb winning out over her interest in Wolfbane’s precise abilities. The dun mare is already sure that the child is a girl. This pregnancy feels like Marni’s had. The child might be healthy, but Lepis is frequently morningsick. “If she does, I think I’d like to name her Celina.” The name is from a childhood story she half-remembers, a tale about a girl who had loved the clouds so much she’d turned into a bird. “Do you like it?”

    @[Wolfbane]
    Reply
    #4

    ALL THE DOUBT YOU'RE STANDING IN BETWEEN

    “Mhmm.” Bane agreed with her statement about Loess… and his grandmere. His mouth was preoccupied parting the several strands of thickly-wound mane that hung in ombre cords across Lepis’ bowcurve neck, picking the white from the blue. He felt the sharp prick of her teeth on his shoulder and mumbled a dark laugh against her skin.

    Heartfire, Heda, Lepis and even Eyas; nearly all the influential mares revolving around Bane’s life seemed hellbent on pushing each other’s buttons. They’re too similar to one another and won’t admit it, he thought devilishly, purring in a thick bass like some satin black jungle cat as Lepis wound herself into his embrace.

    He preferred her close, where he could feel the rush of blood thumping wildly through her veins and enjoy the rhythmic sound of her airy breaths. Every curve of her tawny gold body was more than a physical recognition on his part; Wolfbane understood now how to adjust actual parts of himself to better suit his mate. He could re-form the shape of his neck and shoulders, ribs and hips in order to perfectly fit her against his side.

    “She…” He hummed softly, glancing over his wife’s back again, “does. She’s got wings.” Wolfbane smirked, lowering his teeth to scrape her tense shoulder muscles. “Our daughter Celina has wings and you know I already love her, Lepis.”

    How could he not? He pulled back to glance at the woman bound so tightly to his future and thought of everything that’d brought them this far. “Are you happy?” He asked her seriously. About what he doesn’t specify, but it’s obvious Wolfbane is intensely sincere about the answer. The stallion is eerily fixed and composed, hardly breathing and certainly not moving while he waits, suspended, for her answer.

    WITH WOUNDS THAT NO ONE ELSE HAS SEEN

    WOLFBANE



    @[Lepis]
    [Image: Wolfbane2.png][Image: 3bCHvj.png]
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    #5
    The sensation of Wolfbane’s careful separation of the colors in her frosted mane is soft and soothing. Lepis’ storm blue eyes had half-closed and she makes a quiet sound of pleasure as she leans further into him. Being tucked against his side is something familiar in this northern place, a place full of the unchanging sensation of belonging that she has never had to falsely produce. He no longer smells of the dry dust and flora of Loess, Leis has found, but the crisp pine and humid air are not an unpleasant taste as she glides her navy lips along the parts of his neck she can reach from her position.

    Here is Lepis’s favorite blue stripe, the one with a jagged edge that does not match its fellows, and here the one that splits into two lines of color only to merge once more at the point of his shoulder. His neck shifts beneath hers as Wolfbane turns to glance at her wide sides. His confirmation that their child is a girl – and that she has wings – brings a satisfied smile to her face. The followup, that he loves her already, brightens it even farther.

    “You’d better,” she says with a laugh, leaning into the pressure of his teeth against her shoulder. “I’ve put a lot of work into her already.”

    She is thinking of that work: eating for two, waddling through the forest rather than soaring above, but as Celina stretches within her (Wolfbane will likely feel it too, tucked so tightly as she is to him) she does not regret a bit of it. She cannot refrain from teasing though, telling Wolfbane that: “Maybe next time you can carry the foal, so you’ve got a better appreciation of what you put me through.” She follows this blame with a kiss to his throat, one with the ghost of teeth and warm desire. Lepis is as guilty as her husband in the proliferation after all; even grossly pregnant with their six child she still feels the stirring of desire as her lips trace the line of his jaw.

    It still as he pulls back, replaced by a somberness as the teasing smile falls away.

    Is she happy?

    It’s not something she has given much thought lately. It’s not something she ever really gives much thought. Prioritizing herself is a common occurrence, but rather than give a flippant comment as she might to anyone else she takes a quiet breath and considers her husband’s question. There is an intensity in him that she does not see often and though she has no intention of trivializing his concern, she does reach out to gently boop her nose against his before she answers.

    “Happier than I have been.” she begins. “But...I thought Taiga would be enough. But it is still so quiet here. I thought there would be...more.” More what she is not sure. More action? More responsibility? More happiness? “Maybe we should have stayed in Loess. Or maybe we should have gone to Nerine instead.” Perhaps a kingdom would have made her happier, she thinks. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. She has dragged her family halfway across their world for her own ambitions, and yet she is still uncertain.

    “Are you?”

    @[Wolfbane]
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