"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
05-04-2020, 12:00 AM (This post was last modified: 05-04-2020, 12:00 AM by yadigar.)
i don't want anything from her
except her red apple heart.
something i can bite into quickly
without making a mess.
Winter is gentle on them here is the Cove. The sea brings warm winds from far off places and snow has a hard time collecting beyond the morning frost. Today is an especially clear day, and Yadigar is delighted that their parents are busy visiting family in Pangea for a while. Clarissa always tells the brood not to play so rough but the command falls on deaf ears. The clutch is rowdy and refuses to be tamed. Their scales are still soft enough that their talons scrape one another, and yet they never seem to mind.
He is the youngest and often perceived as the weakest of the three. This is why Gar believes he has much to prove, and so he stalks through the tall grasses with his wings tucked tight to his sides. His tail drags low behind him so as not to give away his position. While each of his sisters are perfectly capable of seeing, he relies on their warmth just as their father does. Using his one good eye often throws off his depth perception and ruins all of his fun stalking the girls. The pits just behind his nostrils tell him Asphyxea is just up ahead snacking on something. He can see the outline of her clearly against the cold backdrop.
Whatever it is she has, he wants it, and maybe a game of tag as well.
Yadigar digs his talons into the ground as he positions himself carefully, his back end rising up just a bit as he gathers his energy. He eyes her shoulders and wonders if he can knock her onto her side the way she often did by sneaking up on his blind side. What perfect revenge that would be! The thought nearly makes him laugh aloud but he bites his tongue to keep quiet.
A few more seconds of thinking, and then he kicks off with his hind legs. His talons stretch out and his wings spread wide to scare her. It doesn’t occur to him that he might actually spook her for the first time or how soft their little bodies still are.
YadigaR
when i close my eyes, i'm a statue
that she wants to run her tongue over.
when i close my eyes, i cut it off and keep it.
05-09-2020, 05:58 PM (This post was last modified: 05-11-2020, 08:34 AM by asphyxea.)
asphyxea
i've been around this world and now everything's a bore i don't know that much, but i know about keeping score
Asphyxea, as petulant and as proud as ever, is revelling in her prize. It wasn't long ago that she had asked her mother to fly to Hyaline and bring home some fruit. Her parents' stories of other kingdoms often included things Phyx lusts after and - a sweet, sweet plum is just the thing to sate her child's ferocity.
Little tendrils of fire and smoke rise from the corners of her mouth. It's an instinctual reaction, one that shows how pleased she is with her little pile of fruit sure to give her a stomach ache. Her little talons dig excitedly into the ground as she crouches to take an excited bite -
- only to be horribly interrupted by her mischievous brother.
The filly screeches, flipping around to face the noise only to find wings she doesn't realize are wings closing around her. Panic rises in her chest and she truly thinks she is about to die, that this creature with talons and a fierce jump couldn't possibly her brother.
Gar's leap knocks Asphyxea over, and she lands with and oomph on her side. She flips over immediately, kicking her legs and flexing her talons to protect herself. The creature flies off of her and if it makes a cry of pain, the teal girl doesn't hear it over the ringing in her ears.
Phyx flies upward then spins around, kicking sand up at she goes. She stares at the creature, suddenly realizing its her brother at the same time she realizes there is blood on her front claws.
"Yadigar!" she screeches again, rushing forward, furious. The plums are scattered and crushed, forgotten. Phyx looks at them, even angrier, and then realizes with a deflating chest that her brother is still crouching - hurt.
"Gar?" she says, this time whispering, moving forward to press her nose to his face. "Are you okay?"
and if there's one thing i know for sure, it'd be a long cold day in hell when i take you back
05-12-2020, 12:22 PM (This post was last modified: 05-12-2020, 12:23 PM by yadigar.)
i don't want anything from her
except her red apple heart.
something i can bite into quickly
without making a mess.
He is surprised when she flips onto her back beneath him, still thrashing and snarling until there is a flash of pain. The shock sets in first and numbs him for a few precious seconds as it is his turn to tumble onto his back this time. The world is black now – black and yet white hot once the pain comes rushing back like a tidal wave. His own blood is nearly scalding as it dribbles so freely down his face. Yadigar does not even hear his own screaming as he writhes in pain. He is on his stomach now, hind legs flexing and trembling.
When she speaks his name the first time, it falls on ears that are full of his own shrieking, too muffled to make sense of. His small wings curl around his face as his milky eye begins to weep openly over the agony throbbing through his entire skull. Gar’s small chest heaves with panicked breaths until he realizes she’s coming near him. He skitters back, the swirling white of his blind eye staring into depthless nothing when she asks if he’s okay.
“It.. it hurts..” he sobs, desperately trying to see her through the emptiness of his vision. “Where are you?”
A new wave of pain sinks him back to his knees and he hisses through clenched teeth. Slowly, dimly at first, he sees the world as their father does – blurs of warmth and cold. His vision returns as it had before he pounced, and he can vaguely recognize her outline now. Yadigar lifts his chin, still shaking terribly, as he watches her. Where there had once been a beautiful golden eye, blood so thick it seems black runs down his jaw.
“Phyx, I’m scared,” he whispers, his voice thin as air.
YadigaR
when i close my eyes, i'm a statue
that she wants to run her tongue over.
when i close my eyes, i cut it off and keep it.
@[asphyxea] do i feel bad? yes. will i continue to torture him? also yes.
i've been around this world and now everything's a bore i don't know that much, but i know about keeping score
"Gar?" Phyx repeats, voice hitching and cracking as she realizes something is very, very wrong. When her brother reels away from her, her chest tightens and her eyes well with tears. "Gar, what's happening?" she asks. She sounds small, frightened, so different from the petulant, spoiled girl munching on fruit just moments before. Her brother has never shied from her like that before.
Phyx will never forget the way he flinched.
"I'm right here, Gar," the dragon girl whispers, hesitantly stepping closer to him. She drops her muzzle close to the ground and peers at him with concerned eyes. Phyx finally sees the blood dripping down his face, like red, wrong tears. "Oh, no," she whispers under her breath, whimpering, digging anxious claws into the malleable earth.
"Should I get Dad?" the girl asks in a panic, suddenly lifting her small head to its fullest height. She frantically spins a circle, dizzy gaze flicking back and forth in desperate attempts to find Ghaul. "Dad!" she yells, then turns back to Yadigar and hurriedly traces her nose over his neck.
"I don't know what to do," Phyx whispers.
and if there's one thing i know for sure, it'd be a long cold day in hell when i take you back
And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire
He hears Yadigar shrieking and his head snaps upward, ears strained forward for half a second before he takes flight. Initially, he assumes someone has attacked his brood, and his blood boils at the thought of it. His massive wings pump wildly until he’s hurtling across the sky and over the waves of green grasses. It takes only seconds for him to find them despite his son quieting. Ghaul lands with a reckless sliding and uses that momentum to hurry closer to the pair.
“Asphyxea, who did this?” he demands, his teeth clacking harshly together around the words as the boy looks up at him. Ghaul moves closer, examining the new shape of his child’s face and the heavy scent of blood coming from him. He lifts a talon and gently holds Yadigar by the chin as he turns him this way and that. “She.. she didn’t mean to..” he mumbles tearfully. The horned king nods slowly and, without warning, his grip tightens harshly around the boy’s face. He whimpers softly in confusion as Ghaul inhales deeply.
And then fire billows from him, scorching all the damaged tissue while the tiny drake begins to scream once more. He writhes and thrashes and pleads for him to stop. His little tail whips back and forth until Ghaul’s flames die down. Yadigar trembles and quivers while he is re-examined, crying and gasping in terror. The elder monster drops him at last before turning to Asphyxea. He considers her for a while with clicks and croons emanating from his throat.
Then, at long last, he steps closer and presses a kiss to her forehead.
“You are the first to shed another’s blood. You burn the brightest, my child,” he says with a grin full of crooked fangs. “Yadigar, you will have to do something much greater to reclaim your right as heir. I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
And then he turns and begins the walk back to Pangea, leaving his only son weeping on the ground in a heap of blood and agony.
