"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
04-07-2016, 08:15 PM (This post was last modified: 04-07-2016, 08:18 PM by Kerowyn.)
when the words lay heavy on my heart i am lost, led only by the stars
Her mother is gone - not gone like before, when she physically left the world, but gone, and never coming back. No voice, no companionship, no nothing. Nothing except the knowledge that she left Kerowyn in order to - what? - seek revenge for rape? The bay mare’s mind flashes to memories of being unable to move, of his weight on her, of the light and his destruction. She shudders, and that isn’t just the frigid northern air as it drifts across her skin. The white snowflake on her head feels almost normal now, and she is briefly reminded again of the past, though this time it is with fondness. The kindly Mr. Winter gave her a small boost of confidence when he chose her.
If only it could have done more.
So now, here Kerowyn stands, gazing up at the massive barrier to the frozen Kingdom. She sighs heavily, almost as heavily as the weights that grow in her belly. Children, her mother had said, and so she must assume by the girth of her stomach that she is carrying twins. She is a slight figure, taking more after her mother’s side than her father’s; but that is really of no matter. Twins make any mare look huge. Her eyes - the color of the open sky and the color of arctic glaciers - gazes questionally around. No one is to be seen.
Where else can she go? Not to the Desert - not yet. Not until the children are born and they can travel. As it is, this will be a brief visit, as she does not care to give birth here. But her ghosts are strong. Painfully, achingly strong. So for now, Kerowyn will seek her father. If he’s even still around. How could he stand such weather?
kerowyn
brennen x morphine
i had every intention of posting this before birthing season, so can we pretend it's at the end of winter still. she's preggers. won't be a long thread!
He knows how it is to be without a mother, he also had grew up without a father. In fact, he had grown up alone, hidden in a dark corner of a dark kingdom. Considered that all it wasn’t even that strange that he had developed this imaginary friend, only to learn the truth years later. However, Brynmor had left most of his past behind. The imaginary voice had left his mind and he had felt a place he truly felt at home. The Tundra was home, just as Roan’s side. And he genuinely loved both.
With Offspring away on business elsewhere the graying male was left in charge. When he first had entered the Tundra – when the world had been completely dark to him – he never would’ve guessed he would get this far. Brynmor finds comfort and satisfaction in the way he can contribute to his home, the way he can repay her and the brotherhood for giving him a chance when he had been almost useless. The Chamber hadn’t kicked him out for nothing after all. But that was all in the past now.
Instead the formerly blind male finds himself standing near the only entrance to the Tundra’s land – invisible that is. He had finally mastered the reward that had come with his promotion to counselor, able to stay invisible as long as he wanted and when he wanted. Even when moving. Silently he stands there, watching the bay mare. Her pregnancy was showing clearly, there was no way around it, but the winter gifted woman looks a little out of place.
As he lets his cloak of invisibility fall he steps forward, trying to make it look like he just stepped out of the wall’s shadow. ”Good day, welcome. What has brought you to the Tundra?” Even though Brynmor is still direct as ever, he had learned his lesson from the time he and Offspring had found Dragonglass wandering their lands. His voice and whole expression was much friendlier than back then. Dipping his head slightly his blue eyes take in her appearance more closely, carefully sniffing her scent in an attempt to find any connections to the Tundra. He finds none.
when the words lay heavy on my heart i am lost, led only by the stars
In her heart of hearts, Kerowyn hopes that her father will still be in his winter fortress, but it has been years since she’s seen him. As far as she knew, her mother’s death was a hard blow to the ice general’s life. She’s sure he’s since recovered, because time heals all wounds and the man is as immortal as the wall he stands behind. The bay woman really knows very little about her father, and can only hope that it isn’t too late to kindle some sort of relationship with him. She’s sure he has many children by now, but there was only one Morphine, and only two of their children. He must be a great-great grandfather a hundred times over, but these children will be hers, and in the end, he is the only one she has left.
There is Caeli, of course… but sometimes she wonders if her black twin was but a sunlit dream, some figment of her imagination that her mother conjured up to keep her company. It isn’t likely that every kick in the womb, every snuggle beneath the star-spotted sky could be completely fictional, but to doubt that would be to doubt her mother’s power - and Kerowyn could never do that. Kerowyn could also never doubt the goodness of her mother, and so she knows that her twin is flesh and bone, even though the days they spent together feel like no more than a dream.
This cold, however, is far from the world they’d grown up in. Her pale blue eyes lose focus as she contemplates how very different she is now, than she was a couple of years ago. It isn’t surprising that she doesn’t notice the invisible stallion and visibly jumps some time after he reveals himself. She gasps, and takes a hasty step backwards. It is reflexive, betraying her true nature when it comes to fight or flight. “Oh!” she says softly, before trying to collect herself.
“Thank you.” - no, she must not stammer, she must not be timid or quiet. She must be as her mother wanted her to be, not some fearful little creature that allows herself to be taken advantage of. “I’m - I’m looking for my father. Brennen. Is he here?” She searches his face for some sort of sign other than polite duty. A yes would mean the world to her; a no might break her heart. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen him.” she says as an addendum, as if he were the gatekeeper, and she a supplicant. If she begged enough, if she reasoned with him, he just might give her the answer she’s looking for.
OOC; A but rushed and rough, has been a months since I last wrote in English..
His blue eyes meet hers and a soft smile pulls on the corners of his lips. His ears tip forward as he listens to her. However, Brynmor doesn’t fail to study her at the same time. He’s curious to learn her intentions, the reason behind her visit to the Tundra. There must be one, and it is only natural for Brynmor to assume that it is linked to her swollen stomach. Until that point he’s right, but he wouldn’t have thought that she had been looking for her father. The father of the child in her womb would have bene his first guess.
He tries to not show it, but he doesn’t need a mirror to see how he failed at that. Instead he offers her an apologetic smile. ”Brennen is a part of the brotherhood” he confirms, telling her that Tundra is still the immortal man’s home. It doesn’t stop him from pausing, because he cannot tell her where the bay stallion is, as he hadn’t been around lately. ”He’s always considered a part of our kingdom, but sadly enough I’d have to admit that I haven’t seen him in a while. He comes and goes, but thus far he had always come back home in the end.”
Brynmor silently studies her, hoping that she wouldn’t take his words too hardly. Brennen had always been a respected brother in the gray man’s eyes, but he would have to admit that he couldn’t really say if the warrior had contributed much to their home since Brynmor himself had found his way to the Tundra. Nonetheless he was still hoping to see that changed, as he personally valued the veteran’s experience and therefor view on certain matters.
”My name is Brynmor, is there something that I can do for you, in Brennen’s absence?” He would hate it to send her away like this, without getting anything done. But right now it was impossible for him to tell her where her father was.
and the light of a fading star is what you were, is what you are
She knew she was grasping at straws, hoping beyond hope for one of her wildest dreams to come true; but that wasn’t the sort of luck Kerowyn was used to. She rarely wins. One of the twins in her belly shifts, and she winces a bit. It’s poorly timed, coinciding with the stallion’s confession that he hasn’t seen her father in quite some time. It makes her seem weaker than she is, a poor excuse for a daughter of heat and ice. The bay woman does manage to keep her face from falling too much, though the perhaps that’s merely because the realization that she really is all alone hasn’t quite hit her yet.
Her eyes dart towards Brynmor, and she nods her head slowly. Now that Kerowyn knows, she is eager to leave the cold kingdom. “I see,” she says softly, as though it might crack if she spoke any louder. “Thank you, Brynmor. I’m afraid you can’t do anything, I -” no, don’t let it break! She breathes. “I was just looking for a familiar face. Please, if you see him, will you tell him Kerowyn is back? I would be forever grateful.” She offers the stallion a small smile and turns heavily on her heels. The truth was that she didn’t expect the man to remember her name by the time Brennen graced the kingdom with his presence. The immortals think of time far differently than their mortal counterparts.
A smidgen of hope still burned for Caeli, but even that, too, would dim with time. She ought to look to the future, she resolves as the trudges away from the towering wall. She should think of the twins.
