"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
It’s quiet. She’s been home for months, a season, and she hasn’t even seen anyone except Texas and Ygritte. Her own family is out of her reach, or unreachable, but she can’t say she hadn’t hoped to find someone here. It drew the, the power of the waterfall, so it was rare that no one was around. But what Nairne hadn’t realized was how lonely it was to be the one called home – alone.
Once, the Falls would have been filled with laughter, with voices and life. Nairne knows that her mother experienced that time – a time when the twins had been in residence, both with mates and several children and peripheral family members. But they are long since gone – she can stand upon a particular flowered knoll and know that her great-grandparents rest easily beneath her hooves; she can gaze into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and wonder if the particularly bright fish are the ones her mother told her about – but she cannot force them to life here again.
It is up to a new generation to carry the weight of the Falls.
The buckskin girl smiles into the water, her reflection distorted by ripples of bright fish swimming lazily between her hooves. They are shy, the fish, but she has been standing very still in the pool, knee deep, for long enough to make them brave. It’s soothing, trance like, as a jaunt in the waterfall always is. It soothes her heavy heart, giving her the hope to stay, and not to return to the other places where her little family has taken to dwelling.
would you be there to always hold me down?
Nairne
mikhael x natilyn
html base by the lovely kyra | image and modifications by devin
kreios don't you tame your demons, but always keep them on a leash
“I can’t ever get them to swim up to me,” I say to the mare standing in the water, gesturing to the bright fish that swim around her legs. “I think the claws remind them a bit too much of a cat.” I wiggle my toes as I say it, the claws easily visible, and clearly a likely threat to the defenseless little fish.
I’d been dozing behind a nearby rockspur, but the sound of rippling water had woken me. I had emerged to see a buckskin mare who I recognize, but do not know. She lives here, with Texas and Ygritte, and is probably the only one. I have been hiding away, both in the woods and near the waterfall, and only recently have chosen to emerge; I doubt she will recognize me.
“I’m Kreios,” I say, stepping down from the rock I stood on with a feline grace that seems odd on my large, emaciated body, “How long have you lived here? You seem to know your way around.”
She doesn’t hear his approach; there is no tell-tale sound of hooves on rock and pebbly waterfront. The mare is startled, but force of will keeps her still, though a shiver runs across her body. Nairne doesn’t move her feet, not wanting the bright fish to scatter just yet, but she lifts her head at his words and looks up into the stranger’s face.
The words draw her attention to his rather un-horselike feet, and the mystery of his quiet approach is solved. Paws are quieter than hooves, after all, even those with claws in them. But her attention doesn’t dwell there – she lifts her gaze back to the stranger’s face, memorizing it. He seems familiar enough with the waterfall and its surroundings, though she’s never seen him before. “There are few enough true predators in the Falls, I would think they would grow braver.” Of course they might have migrated from father away, come in from the outside in the river, but Nairne likes to think that their population of fish lives happily here, breeding and living and dying all within the microenvironment of the Falls.
“I’m Nairne,” she offers in response, finally stepping away from her fish friends and towards him, though she casts a regretful glance towards the fish as they flee back to deeper waters. “I was born here,” is the answer to the question, with a peaceful smile. “It’s hard to be unfamiliar with childhood haunts. But I have been away, and only recently returned.” It’s strange, to have been gone long enough that nobody really remembers her family dynasty. They might know, perhaps, the names of formers Kings and Queens but it isn’t the same as being welcomed back into the open arms of friends and family. Nairne has started to understand why Natilyn didn’t stay, why she dropped her eldest child off in the Falls and then the rest of the family vanished again.
“And you? Have you lived here long?”
would you be there to always hold me down?
Nairne
mikhael x natilyn
html base by the lovely kyra | image and modifications by devin
