"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
everything we are, it just went away with a slide of the tongue and a sour taste
She had almost forgotten that she had promised to visit two kingdoms, in the light of everything that was going on. Solace had gently reminded her of her impending trip to Nerine after their long conversation on the beach, and she wakes in the morning feeling fully rested for the first time in a long time. She has to travel through Hyaline today, and can’t help but to be incredibly excited to see the land she had fallen in love with before the plague had struck. She is nervous, too, knowing that the plague has its hold over both of these lands, but she also has faith in her mother’s healing if she were to ever fall ill. Cress would never let her littlest child die—she would die to save any of them.
As the sun rises she is already off, cantering slowly along the beaches. It isn’t long before the black sand under her hooves gives way to gold, and she lets loose a joyful whinny as the first mountains of Hyaline come into view. She hugs the coastline as she goes, shifting into her bear for the swim across the first of the rivers separating her from Nerine. Midday comes and goes as she traverses the beaches edging Hyaline, the mountains begging her to return to the crystal-clear pool in the center of the kingdom. On the way back, she thinks as she finds the border stream between Hyaline and Taiga, and shifts once more to cross it.
On the other side, she sheds her bear easily, slipping back into a more welcoming skin as she moves along this brief portion of Taiga’s coast. She sees no one as she finds the border of Nerine, but she knows from traveling to Tephra that Taiga is a very large expanse of land. She glances behind her as she straddles the border of the two kingdoms, but there is no one.
Facing forward again, she plants her hooves solidly outside of Nerine, adrenaline coursing through her. She is more confident than she was on the trip to Tephra, but she is still incredibly nervous. Before, she had been with a queen. Today, she is alone. Might as well get this over with. She lifts her head and whinnies, announcing her presence to the residents of the Northern kingdom. I am here, let’s talk.
01-08-2019, 06:26 PM (This post was last modified: 01-09-2019, 10:08 AM by Heartfire.)
She's got the devil's eyes
Curiosity draws her to the borders of Nerine, to the woman that waits there for someone to greet her. It’s not often she elects to meet those journeying here for diplomatic relations, but given everything that had changed recently, she has grown rather curious. Besides, it might behoove to start being more physically present and less of a fly on the wall. Perhaps.
She is always aware of what goes on this kingdom, even when she is unseen. But she thinks the days of her ability to remain unseen are growing a bit thin.
The girl at the border is young, clearly new to diplomatic missions. Normally that might have been something that did not draw her interest, but she is rather curious about the eastern territories. She’d been to visit all the rest fairly recently, but this is one she had not gone to yet. So this girl, despite her youth, could likely give her insight.
She approaches easily, her step steady but unhurried, her features neutral, approachable, the blue eyes that peer from that dark mask sharp and inscrutable. The girl seems both excited and nervous, her emotions almost palpable in the energy that surrounds her. Uncertain without the steadying influence of an elder diplomat. She does wonder at that, that they might send someone so inexperienced. But time would tell, no doubt.
“Hello,” she greets easily, eyeing the girl openly, though she remains friendly, expression mild. “I am Heartfire. What brings you to Nerine?”
She's taken her time to return, and every step felt like dread. Not because what she had done wasn't right - she'll stand by it today, tomorrow, and every day after - but because she had not told anyone, because it had been so very dangerous, because she'd made it all the way there and back purely out of luck.
But when she nears the border, a whinny sounds, a girl or a young mare, perhaps a little older than Brazen and Dagen, or Eurwen herself.
The two-year old is greeted by another before the rose-gold girl can meet her, but she joins the little group nonetheless. Perhaps she can do something good for the kingdom instead of the world - sound a whole lot less dangerous. The image of the monster briefly crosses before her eyes at the memory, but she pushes it away. No. She will not give in.
She hasn't spied her mother or father yet, but she figures one of them, or even her Grammama or Sheen or 'Seis, will probably show up soon. And they may or may not lecture her about leaving without notice, but probably they won't do it right now. At least, she can hope.
"Hi," she says (more meekly than she would have wanted, but at least she said something and didn't just shyly stare at them, right?). She shuts down a little after that, looking from the blue and white mare (she smells of Nerine, she asks the right question) to the visitor, not sure what to say or ask for a moment.
She falls back to the very basics. "I'm Eurwen. Where are you from?"
lies the seed that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose
Glaciers melting in the dead of night and the superstars sucked into the supermassive
"I guess we should have hurried a bit more?" the scaled roan asks his companion. There had been a meeting before this, but the Eastern Primarch had requested to go to Nerine as well - seems now, that he had made an appointment with this young mare to tell whoever showed up the same thing they'd told him. It felt a bit pointless for Leilan to stick around this meeting as well, and hear the same story again. But perhaps his wife -or his niece, seeing as she had a tendency to show up- had other insights from the same words.
But whatever else happened, he'd fulfil this little bit of duty and escort the Hyaline leader to Nerine. To the south of it, even; since that there was the border. That's why they're a little late; the crossing between the cold Isle and Nerine is the easiest all the way in the north.
Leilan doesn't phase when he spies Heartfire at the meeting already, though he is a bit more surprised at Eurwen. Something about his youngest daughter was decidedly different, and he didn't mean the slight colour change. Hmm. Well, if he was to keep up his don't get involved again strategy, he probably shouldn't ask. Still, he gave her a curious look as he neared, before looking from her to the blue roan sabino, and then to the young mare (or, teenager) at the border. Another example of the youths taking over the world.
"Good day," he tells her, then looks to Litotes for perhaps an answer to Heartfire's lingering question. "My name's Leilan." he adds to the palomino girl, though he doesn't add anything else. This is why he dislikes politics, he thinks. It's just soo much restraint and playing nice.
you set my soul alight
HTML by Vanilla Custard
@[litotes] figured we shouldn't keep dawn waiting too long xD
@[Breckin] for tag correction ^^
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
01-14-2019, 07:26 PM (This post was last modified: 01-14-2019, 07:26 PM by litotes.)
boy what's normal to you? 'cause that sure ain't normal to me.
Litotes’ smile is genial as he and Leilan rush to the border of Nerine and Taiga. He lets his mild embarrassment pass at forgetting he said he would meet Dawn there, figuring she will find company quick enough. Dawn can certainly handle herself, though he does worry about the fragile girl he met on the beach. She possesses so much more than she realizes - he hopes a trip like this will help her realize that.
“Perhaps, though I have to say I’m glad I got to get to know you better.” The Primarch means that - it is not often he finds someone he can bump shoulders with. Crassness is not something that comes easily to him, but the true nature of Leilan puts him at ease - that, and Lie thinks the draconic stallion may have a bad side he wants to avoid.
No matter, though: banter is well and good after such formal relations.
Velk’s healing lingers, causing gratitude to wash over Litotes once more. He thinks he should find the stallion and offer him something in return, though he does not know just what - perhaps a favor. His thoughts hover there as they travel, the border quickly beginning to loom ahead. As they approach, the figures of three females begin to take shape. Dawn’s brilliant palomino sticks out, but the little body of a filly is what catches Lie’s eye the most. A child greeting diplomats? The cremello swallows a laugh, thinking what an ambitious little one.
“Hello all,” Lie offers, settling in next to Dawn after nudging her playfully. “My name is Litotes, Primarch of Hyaline. We’re here to inquire about how the North has settled in the midst of the plague.”
Leilan introduces himself after the cremello finishes, and Lie adds to Dawn, “Yes, Leilan the icicle has already informed me about nearly all we need to know, though I was hoping to see Breckin here. If that’s not possible, I’m still glad to see some of the diplomatic faces.”
and if i fall would you know that to do? and if i'm caught up would you stay?
everything we are, it just went away with a slide of the tongue and a sour taste
Honestly, she had not expected to be noticed so quickly.
She only waits a few minutes – minutes that are painstakingly long – before a blue woman approaches. She shifts nervously as her blue eyes scrutinize the golden girl, waiting for the woman to come closer before she says anything. Lie is supposed to be here, too, she thinks, a touch of panic coloring her thoughts. She’s not entirely sure that she’s ready for a diplomatic trip on her own yet, and it takes everything in her to plant her hooves to the ground and stay.
“I’m Dawn,” she says politely, desperately trying not to stumble over her words. “I come from Silver Cove, in the east.” She feels herself relaxing as she speaks, and by the time the rose gold filly approaches, she has visibly relaxed enough to cock a hind hoof. She repeats her greeting to the younger girl, a smile touching her lips. It is perhaps unusual for a child to appear at a diplomatic meeting, but Dawn doesn’t mind. She is little more than a child herself, yet here she is.
Before she can say anything else, yet another approaches, this one a scaled roan stallion. Litotes is hot on his heels, and Dawn sighs in relief as he moves to stand beside her. “I’m Dawn,” she tells Leilan, nodding her head respectfully to the older stallion. Litotes is doing the most of the talking, however, and she just nods in agreement with him. “Solace still wanted me to visit Nerine,” she adds, “if nothing more than for the experience of visiting other kingdoms.” With the appearance of Litotes, her nervousness had seemingly melted away. “Is Breckin around?” It is not a prying question, simply one borne of curiosity. She’s never met another queen aside from her own, and her mother had always told her she was too curious for her own good.
It is not long before others appear, as is so often the case in these things. First is the girl, Leilan and Breckin's young daughter, painfully shy but determined nonetheless. Changed by her recent quest. Though Heartfire would say nothing of it, she has seen much through her children. Seen the trials they had suffered under.
And Leilan, when he appears, makes no comment either on his absentee daughter. But then, as a parent, there is only so much of the world one can protect their children from. And ultimately, that they had returned safe is all that matters.
Her attention shifts then to the stallion accompanying Leilan, one who introduces himself as primarch of Hyaline. Interesting, that.
She scrutinizes the man as he speaks, curious about the one who now claims leadership. From what she has seen already, not the primary kingdom of the east, but not without some influence of its own either.
“I'm certain Leilan has informed you well,” She agrees mildly, though her bright blue gaze remains sharp. She turns her attention briefly to Dawn as she asks after Breckin, echoing Litotes pointed comment. “She is around,” she replies noncommittally, neatly sidestepping the question before flicking her eyes back towards Litotes. “If there is anything Leilan was unable to answer, I may be able to help.” She pauses then, giving them a moment to consider, her face shifting slowly between the odd pair of diplomats. “And the Eastern lands? You are all settled then?”
A superfluous question perhaps, given her abilities. But then, they needn't know that. And who knows, perhaps they would have something to share she didn't already know.
01-30-2019, 11:32 AM (This post was last modified: 01-30-2019, 11:32 AM by Eurwen.)
Eurwen
diamonds are found only in the darkness of earth as truth lies in the darkness of mind
The spotted filly catches her father's glance only briefly; not quite sure if he is questioning her openly or not, she averts her gaze to the male he brings with him, it sounds like they're friends, maybe? He looks sick, he might have been fleeing to the safety to the Isle - but no. He knows the two-year old who was sent on a diplomatic mission, and soon enough Eurwen's silent questions are being answered by the flow of the conversation.
She bites her lower lip in an attempt not to giggle when Litotes calls her dad 'Leilan the icicle' because he looks, in fact, pretty much just like an icicle she thinks - but looks more serious when the visitors ask about her mother. Having been away, she hasn't seen her yet, though she will make a point to find her if she doesn't show up here. Heartfire's answer is, she hopes, satisfactory and evasive enough, as if perhaps her adult cousin doesn't think it's needed for the queen herself to show up at this meeting. Internally, the pink-spotted girl is probably wondering exactly the same thing as Heartfire, but she blinks a few times is of to re-set, and smiles at Dawn. "Have you visited many other lands yet?" she wishes to know - not just because she wants a description of them, though it might seem so - but if the east sends out diplomats, it would be good for Nerine to do maybe the same and, if the east has friendly relations, maybe they can introduce her to the others as well?
She glances at Heartfire and Leilan quickly - perhaps she wouldn't be allowed, yet. That'd be a bummer.
sorry for being so slow! I wasn't sure if I needed to wait for Breckin
We got older and I should have known that I’d feel colder when I walk alone
The conversation continues, in which Lie asks the same question again, wanting to meet the highest of authority. This time however, the scaled roan stallion isn't the one answering, leaving such to Heartfire. He lets himself become rather abundant as other people talk and even Eurwen manages a question in her small girly voice. She gets a small, slightly proud smile before he focuses back on the others, though he isn't sure that his daughter even saw it, focused as she was on Dawn (who, if he estimates correctly, might just be seen as some kind of role model).
He stays a little while, but hearing Heartfire question about the East and then Eurwen about the other lands, he doesn't think he'll acquire any new information by lingering here, nor can he give much more than what he already told Litotes. "If you'll excuse me. I'm sure Heartfire is a much better source of information on Nerine than I am."
Those in Nerine know that that is in fact not true, but he can't help but wonder if Breckin is quite alright and if she knows people are asking - in which case he better go find her. Surely Heartfire doesn't need him to say that aloud though, and so he bids his farewell quickly. "It's been nice talking to you Litotes, and Dawn too. Give my regards to your queens when you return."
Leilan
no. 7 | ice forged in fire
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
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