"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
there was something in the water, now that something's in me
i can't go back, but the reeds are growing out of my fingertips
Though war hangs on the horizon like a second sun refusing to rise, there is no sign of it in the kingdom.
Spring is upon them, and the meadows are full of wildflowers and stumbling fawns. The forests are cool and quiet, and the ground between the trees is littered with the sapling of the most common trees in the kingdom – oak, beech, hickory, and chestnut. The air is warm , and the morning dew has only just evaporated from the greenery.
Texas walks beside the river that flows from the waterfall, pausing now and then to kick a rock or branch into the flowing water but never turning to watch it drift downstream. He has contemplated announcing the competition he had discussed with the members of the kingdom, but knows that war time is not a good time for that, Best to wait until after, when loyalties are less sure, when horses might find themselves looking for a kingdom that has less restrictions.
He needs to mock, needs to steal, needs to recruit, but for now he simply walks along the edge of the river in search of something to distract him.
The new mother observes the king as he makes his way along the shore away from the Falls. His vision seemed clouded, distracted as heavy hooves seem to pull the old man, drifting like the very current of the river to his side.
Her new daughter, Josselyn, had finished her meal and is full of energy as she attempts to catch a grasshopper that springs by. Her tiny form wobbling quite ungainly after it, her mother keeping a watchful eye. Little Joss pays no mind to the stallion until she practically runs into him, prompting the little girl to squeak and turn a little fluffy tail and get back to her mother's warm side. Huge chocolate eyes peering from between Ygritte's front legs, the little pink star on her brow blending with her mother's own pointed hue.
Ygritte laughs gently and places a light kiss on the girls poll before looking back to Texas. Pretty day." The statement is simply said to break the trance he seemed to drown in. "What bothers you, Texas?" Vocals are soft as to not be so prodding but she is concerned. Perhaps she could help in someway but heavy is the head that wears the crown. The little girl takes a step from beneath her mother and Ygritte smiles down at her, encouraging the little bay girl. "Meet your newest kingdom member, Josselyn." She nods gently with a proud smile, waiting for the king to speak.
there was something in the water, now that something's in me
i can't go back, but the reeds are growing out of my fingertips
He’s not expecting to be disturbed, but the glower that he gives the bay filly who runs into him lasts only a moment. Her quick scuttle back to Ygritte’s side brings a faint smile to his dark mouth – at least she has good instincts – and he greets the pink and brown mare with a broader smile as she approaches. The mare is by far the most useful member of the kingdom – including himself – and he’s no problem taking credit for it.
She comments on the weather and he glances up before nodding in agreement. The question about his worries is given much less attention, merely a shrug and a brief shake of his head before he focuses on the filly, who has gathered enough courage to step away from her mother and try to approach again. “Hello Josselyn,” he says, stretching out his dark nose for her to touch if she wants to. Afterwards he glances over her tiny figure with an approving nod before looking back at Ygritte.
“She doesn’t look much like me,” he says, “More like your mother, I think.” She might look like her father, he supposes, but Texas is not exceptionally good with faces, even those that his daughter has recruited to the kingdom. The bay stallion, ever certain that everyone knows what he does, has never considered that Ygritte might not know that she is his daughter.
The little girl stretches as loooong as her lanky body would go to barely brush against the huge male's largely whiskered maw. Her mother's eyes had been on her with a small, dreamy smile as Texas makes the remark-
"What?"
-the brow furrowing and lids squinting as her eyes roll in their sockets to meet the almost matching brown ones that she herself possessed. An almost monotone lowness of her voice causes the girl to retract as she had always heard her mother's light, airy voice and this new voice was not a good one. Josselyn stares at her mother with the same big brown as Texas and Ygritte.
"Go find your father, little one." Ygritte's voice has lifted back to the usual tone as she spoke to Josselyn, giving her a little kiss on her poll and a nip to her hind as the pink star girl laughed and did as she was told.
"My mother was Nativity. You...knew her?" Honestly it was the best way for Ygritte to put her thoughts together as she moves closer towards Texas, her skull tilting slightly to the side and practically examining him for resemblance. She knew what he was about to say but the shock was still settling in in waves like the influx of the tide. With each lick, the realization was settling in, overwhelming her.
The young mare had known nothing of Texas (and not that it changed much now) but still seemed to find her notch in Beqanna. She was more gentle than he but was still strong in her own right. Fierce when needed to be and loyal as hell...pulling the best parts from her parents.
But this was certainly something! Texas was her...her-
"Father?" The two syllable word makes her face crook up slightly to the right like a lemon head candy.
Jossleyn pulls away quickly at the change of tone in her mother’s voice, and Texas glances up to meet Ygritte’s gaze with a mildly curious expression. The bay stallion is not sure what has startled her, but since she is not looking for danger, he’s not overly concerned.
Ygritte sends Jossleyn off to find her father, and if Texas were more sentimental he might wonder why his granddaughter is being sent away so quickly after they meet. But he is not, and finds one child no different than any other. He does tell her goodbye though, and then waits for Ygitte to say whatever it was that she needed to send her daughter away for.
She says her mother’s name aloud, and Texas nods slowly, not entirely sure where she is going with the statement. When she asks if he knew her, it is Texas’ turn to frown. “Of course I do. How do you think you and your siblings came about?”
He waits, and it’s only when Ygritte says “Father”, does he realize that perhaps she doesn’t know. Typical Nativity, he thinks; typical Amazonian. “Yep,” he replies, ever eloquent, “That’d be me. ”
Well the look on Ygritte's face causes her to skew her face up in shockangersursprisedisbelief.
"Well...well..." The young woman sputters as she shakes her head, eyes wide before looking straight at the bay stallion. "Why didn't you tell me?" The demand came out rather high in her tones. She stares at him, brows furrowing furthers as her right fore hoof comes down in a stomp to emphasize the 'you' part of her inquiry. She starts to wrap her mind around the concept the other half of her genetics is standing right in front of her and has been this whole time...Wait- What?
Never made it as a wise man. I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing
I’m tired of living like a blind man. I'm sick of sight without a sense of feeling
The flurry of expressions that fly across her face are not a good sign. Mares feeling so many emotions in his presence almost always results in a kick to the head, and Texas would rather avoid that. She manages to speak after sputtering for a few seconds, and Texas isn’t able to stop himself from taking a few steps back in preparation for whatever it is the Ygritte has to say. His self-preservation instinct is, as always, quite reliable.
“I guess I assumed you knew?” He replies, clearly unsure even as he says it. “I thought your mother would have told you.” It’s a mother’s job to dothat sort of telling, isn’t it? It’s obviously not a father’s.
She asks about siblings then – of course she does.
Texas is not possessed of an excellent memory, and even if he were, he’s not at all the type of follow up with mares to see if their frolicking had resulted in offspring. “Nativity and I have…three? Four?” He’s clearly unsure, but he’s seen at least two of them, and knows there are more. Yrgitte’s resemblance to Alona is what caused him to recognize her as his daughter in the first place. “I’m not sure how many half siblings you have. Two dozen? Three?” Most of them are his, of course, but Nativity is equally immortal – who knows what she’s been up to in the years they spent apart.
"Two or three dozen? What the hell?" Ygritte starts to try and remember all the faces she's ever encountered in Beqanna. A whirlwind of names and faces and memories. How many countless relatives had she bumped into and not even known it? The cocoa eyes darken as her brow furrows (striking quite the resemblance to her mother) as looks at Texas. He doesn't seemed to be really off put by what was corresponding between them, in fact, he seemed bored with it. "And I actually have brothers or sisters. Oh good God Texas..." The mare groans as she rolls her eyes at him, lips pressing into a thin line.
Ygritte watches him silently but all the while her thoughts quicken and turn in some wonky order in which to try to understand. But was there really anymore to understand? Any real mystery here?
No.
A sharp inhale followed by a slow exhale. "Well I guess that is that then." It's truly the only conclusion she can come up with and try to put into words. A few moments pass before the smaller mare shrugs her shoulders and looks back to the graying male. "Just because you're my father doesn't mean I'm calling you dad, Texas..." Oh yes, his contribution to her genetics was surely present now as she makes the stubborn remark. But the mare speculated that Texas did not give a fig one way or another about what she called him. "So I suppose I should tell your granddaughter then...I don't think I even want to know about how many grandfoals you have..." A genuine laugh follows now and breaks up the building tension, dissipating it between them.
Ygritte