[private] leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Printable Version +- Beqanna (https://beqanna.com/forum) +-- Forum: Explore (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: The Common Lands (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=72) +---- Forum: Forest (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=73) +---- Thread: [private] leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka (/showthread.php?tid=26775) Pages:
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leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Pteron - 05-01-2020 ----------------tell me: who do i run to? Pteron does that last one now, though his ears and nose do much of the watch; his olive eyes are half-closed. It’s hard to keep them open when he is this tired, but he can tell that Aegean is already fast asleep. Pteron’s head rests on the dip of his lover’s back, and the deep and steady breathing of the antlered stallion as he sleeps is as reassuring as it is soporific. Pteron’s eyes drift all the way shut again, and he dozes off. He wakes when his head rest stirs beneath him. Pteron shakes his head as if to banish sleep, and pulls away after pressing a brief touch to the other’s shoulder. He’ll not be able to stay awake if he stays like this. They need a better nest than a thicket in the woods, Pteron thinks, and not for the first time. The pegasus shakes his head a second time, and it spreads to a roll of his neck, then shoulders, and a flare of his massive blue and white wings. There’s barely enough room to spread them full, and soon the tall stallion snaps them back to his sides. In another moment they are gone entirely. Still there, of course, but invisible to the naked eye. As Pteron begins the short patrol route that he has established in this part of the Forest, the sleep slowly falls away. It often does, once he is moving. He makes his way through the patch of beech, across the the ravine gurgling with water from yesterday’s thunderstorm, and up the small hill from whose peak he can just make out the outline of the Mountain. Pteron feels uncomfortably close to the place, and shivers. He tells himself it is the autumn chill though, an easy excuse with how bitter it blows. His invisible wings are good for blocking it at least, but he finds himself longing for warmth. He begins to move down the hill, ready to complete the last quarter of his patrol. But there is a sound in the shadows of the woods, and he grows still as he searches for the source of it. -- pteron -- @[Svedka] RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall - Svedka - 05-01-2020 let my shadows prove the sunshine svedka @[Pteron] RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall - Pteron - 05-01-2020 ----------------tell me: who do i run to? For the briefest moment the other looks familiar to Pteron, but then his head turns and the resemblance is gone. It was too quick for him to recognize, and instead leaves him with the sense that this horse – who he has never seen before – is someone that he knows. Svedka adds to this with the casual way he speaks, as though picking up the threads of an earlier exchange. By the time he introduces himself as Svedka, Pteron is smiling. He takes in Svedka out of habit, tracing the pattern of white and gold on the coat and the tint of blue in his mane and tail. Those are colors that Pteron thinks of as the colors of his family, and he wonders if perhaps this Svedka is a relative. “I’m Pteron,” says the dun stallion, shifting his weight a bit so he no longer stands half-frozen and heading downhill. Charmed as eased as he is by the friendly company of the other horse, Pteron finds himself nodding along to darker thoughts at the reminder that there are dangers lurking in the night. “I’m looking out for danger,” he admits, gesturing ahead to where the obvious sign of the route that he frequently walks is visible in the light of the moon. Its odd behavior in a horse living in the common lands, but it feels right, making a permanent home for himself and Aegean. The thought of still being there when the children arrives makes him anxious, but there are months still to broach this. So he tells himself. “My…” He remembers in an instant how quickly titles had changed things between himself and Aquaria, how solidly he’d found himself bound to Reia, and finishes without the slightest hesitation: “companion rests not far from here. I take the evening watch for us. I’m Pteron. Do you live around here?” The question is asked with genuine curiosity; it would be nice to have more permanent neighbors than the vagabonds of the Forest. @[Svedka] -- pteron -- RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall - Svedka - 05-03-2020 let my shadows prove the sunshine Svedka’s eyes never seem to lose their hint of playfulness, as if adventure or excitement is just around the corner. It’s a trait that he clings to now, though once before it wasn’t something he even thought about. But he has found the more that he remains who he’s always been, the predator had a harder time making an appearance. So the goldenrod and ivory stallion leans into the most prominent of his personality traits - his boldness, spontaneity, confidence - in hopes of keeping his other side at bay. It has worked, for the time being. He cannot remember the last time he woke up in a cold sweat, his face and forelegs covered in dried blood, with no memories of his blacking out. Not knowing his whereabouts, along with the lion’s meat in his stomach, always left him nauseous for days. svedka @[Pteron] RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Pteron - 05-03-2020 ----------------tell me: who do i run to? He looks back up quickly, though. It is less that he is distrustful of Svedka and more that he is primed to watch for danger. While the other man talks, some part of Pteron remains ever elsewhere, his attention never quite settling fully on the smiling stallion in front of him. He’s not look at him closely enough to question the changes in the other’s face as he lies. Not that he would have noticed with complete attention though, Pteron has never been very good at the niceties of diplomacy. Svedka mentions Hyaline, summoning thoughts of Aegean sleeping peacefully in the distance. Pteron’s dark mouth almost turns up into a smile, until the other mentions the war. How long has he been displaced, Pteron wonders? Years, or even decades? Having been wandering little over a year, Pteron cannot image what it might be like to be so long with an anchor. The thought makes him a little sad, and he’s shaking his head even before Svedka clarifies that he means the Forest. “I don’t like it,” the dun admits, letting the blue strands of his mane resettle against his pied shoulder. “I don’t have much preference in where I rest my head, but I like it to be with more permanent faces around, you know?” That someone might prefer to be alone than with others is something that Pteron knows about. He does not understand it, but he knows about it. “We’ve talked of going West,” his tenor voice is warm as he speaks, gesturing in that general direction. “Somewhere warm year round sounds nice. Have you ever been that way before?” In his time wandering, perhaps Svedka has seen Island Resort or Tephra, and knows something about their seasons. Pteron knows Ischia would be wonderful, but he owes a most sincere apology – for leaving his friends without saying goodbye – and he’s not quite sure he is ready to do that quite yet. “I don’t mean to keep you,” Pteron tells him after a moment, “not if you’ve a soft place ahead calling your name.” Svedka had said that they should be asleep, he thinks, but what has brought him out here. “But if you have a while, perhaps you’d join me on a walk? I would appreciate the extra pair of eyes.” He smiles, the expression charming and sincere. @[Svedka] -- pteron -- RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Svedka - 05-05-2020 let my shadows prove the sunshine Pteron is sure not to be distracted by anything, truly looking out for any signs of danger like he had told Svedka previously. Svedka enjoys being a distraction (a habit of his that he simply cannot help himself from doing), but finds it admirable that despite his attempts, Pteron still remembers that danger can lurk around every corner or show up at a moment’s notice. Svedka muses silently, wondering if it is because of the lion lurking inside him that he finds himself not wary in the midst of darkness, shrugging off the natural instinct that equines have to be on edge. svedka @[Pteron] RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Pteron - 05-05-2020 ----------------tell me: who do i run to? “Another thing to add to the ‘pros’ list,” Pteron teases with a half-distracted smile, looking away at the last moment as his flicking ears catch a sound. It’s just a pair of does in the woods though, and he soon turns back. The playfulness simmers more quietly in his olive eyes now, and his smile has faded to something closer to pensive. Though he has tucked his heart safely beside a sleeping Aegean, Pteron still finds himself drawn toward Svedka. The other stallion’s charming smile pulls him in like a moth toward moonlight, and Pteron takes the step that Svedka had not, brushing his shoulder against the other’s companionably. He pulls away without lingering, noting only that Svedka’s skin is exceptionally warm on this cool night. Maybe that is what happens when one is from the tropics, Pteron thinks. Svedka’ss reassuring smile when he asks after Pteron’s companion does exactly as intended. They will talk of Aegean, and there will be no secrets. Secrets are ruinous, Pteron has found, and he has no stomach for them anymore. So Pteron tells Svedka: “Aegean is wonderful. Better than I deserve.” Far better, Pteron reminds himself as he quashes the desire to push away a lock of blue-white hair that has fallen across the Svedka’s face. He looks away, out at the shadows. “He is like the moon,” he continues, but that seems fanciful even as he says it aloud. “He lived in Hyaline once too. Maybe you knew him? His mothers are Kagerus and Solace.” @[Svedka] -- pteron -- RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Svedka - 05-06-2020 let my shadows prove the sunshine The brilliant cerulean of Svedka’s gaze flickers to the darkness of the forest, just as Pteron’s has. He watches the doe as they continue walking, the playful smile that trickles onto his pink lips lingering even when the conversation falls silent between them. The touch of Pteron’s creamy shoulder against his own brings Svedka’s focus from the forest and onto the winged stallion, his smile changing ever-so-slightly to where the blue of his eyes sparkle gently. The touch is nearly electrifying and he follows as Pteron pulls away, returning the gesture by gently tugging one of his blue tendrils with his lips. A chuckle hums in his throat as Svedka straightens, a single ear still trained on Pteron as they continue their moonlit stroll. svedka @[Pteron] RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Pteron - 05-06-2020 ----------------tell me: who do i run to? The name seems to give pause to his companion, and Pteron tilts his head curiously even as he describes the other. But Svedka only laughs, a quiet sound like distant thunder, and asks if that makes Pteron the sun. “So he has said,” Pteron replies, the words softened by Svedka’s touch. Something feels strange (though surely it is not the way his skin quivers where Svedka touches him or the way he reaches back, his blue mouth pressing briefly against the other’s jaw). “Though I find it hard to believe.” He will ask Aeagean about it in the morning, Pteron decides, he seems the sort to be good at solving puzzles. For now though, he brushes it aside to listen to Svedka’s answer, only to discover that the other stallion already has the answer. “You are family!” Pteron exclaims with a laugh. Perhaps a little too loud, for a resting dove shifts suspiciously on her perch as the pair of stallions pass beneath her. “That explains your good looks,” He tells the other, have quieted his voice without losing any of the amusement that sparkles in his olive eyes. “Aegean will be thrilled,” Pteron tells him, chivvying Svedka with soft nips to his shoulder. This easy affection feels good, and knowing that Svedka is more than a stranger makes it all the better. “If you stay till the morning, I’ll introduce you.” The dun stallion promises as he reaches the gully. He’s over it with a quick flap of his wings, but turns to look back at Svedka. “Then you can both compare me to the sun and see how apt the description.” How wrong the description is, he does not say, unaware of the brightness of his smile and the mischief that dances in his eyes even in the darkness. If Svedka means to stay that long, there are a good many ways Pteron can think of to break up the monotony of patrol. One of those ways had resulted in a surprising swell of his lover’s belly though, and Pteron makes a note to avoid that particular amusement. There are other things to do with a handsome not-so-stranger, after all, even when he must also keep an eye out for danger. @[Svedka] -- pteron -- RE: leaving all my past and silhouettes up on the wall; svedka - Svedka - 05-07-2020 let my shadows prove the sunshine “I don’t,” Svedka replies without hesitation, a smug smile finding the pearl pink of his lips, as if challenging Pteron to disagree. He’s already silently decided that he would reference him as the sun from here forward, despite whatever the winged stallion may truly think. Svedka had a feeling he was like the sun anyway; how could he not, with the warmth that he brings him already? svedka @[Pteron] |