"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
She had grown comfortable in Ischia, the kingdom that was promisingly quiet. She certainly was happy it wasn't too busy, having another equine always around would have been rather anxiety filled for her. Luckily she seems to only find another equine when she seeks them out, traveling through beqanna.
Today the girl travels in her crow form, she had wings in her equine form but it was more fun to fly as a bird! And as she glides through the kingdom she finds her way to the shoreline. The black crow glides over the water, the rough waves sprinkling her feathers. She pulls back up to the sky and as she glances into the water she sees something she has never seen before! She wasn't sure what exactly it was...a horse?
She quickly dove for the shore, growing closer she shifts back to her teal and white equine form. Her wings flap for a moment before finding a comfortable spot tucked onto her back. She moves closed to the water and looks out, looking for the glimpse red creature in a sea of blues.
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They’re a family of water creatures. Once, his father had been an ice-creature, but Brennen’s world had thawed when Beqanna changed, that thaw finalized when he was granted the water magic. And mother was a water creature too, though admittedly she and his sisters were nothing like Luath. The yearling has been trying to get close to his newest siblings now for days, swimming closer and closer to the satellite island where father had set up his new lover and the twins he’d borne, but it was just so cold. Father had explained something about Nihlus missing some Tundra, but Luthe didn’t really understand. He just knew he preferred the warmer waters closer to the big island. So he doesn’t know if either of the new babies are anything like him.
Waves froth around him as he surfaces briefly, though he doesn’t take note of the bird overheard, but then the brightly colored colt is diving again, coasting along the bottom of the sea and snapping up some of his favorite fishy delicacies. It’s easier to hunt here, in the deep water; people tend to get squeamish when he hunts on land, when he looks like just another herbivore if he keeps his mouth closed firmly on a mouthful of sharp teeth. His tummy is pleasantly full when he surfaces again, spotting the vague outline of a horse and the fuzzy shape of legs through the water long before he reaches air. It’s not a familiar face that clarifies into sharp lines as he pops out of the water: his equine-shaped head and wild tangled mane first, propped on a scaled neck.
He doesn’t emerge onto the beach entirely, his strong fish-tail still underwater. He just blinks at the stranger from curious amber eyes as she, surely, stares back at him. Father has warned him not to rush meetings with strangers, because being supernaturally pretty (well, cute, still, at this age) doesn’t stop most of them from seeing how dangerous he could be. “Hello,” he offers after a moment.
She glances around, unable to capture whatever it was she saw from the sky. Her hooves have now submerged in the water, as she eagerly looks on. Her curiosity was killing her, and in this moment she wishes she had some sort of swimming trait, something to make exploring the ocean easier.
She almost thought she imagined the whole thing, but just as the disappointment settled in it appeared. It's almost like it knew that she was looking for it, he was part horse and his appearance alone peaked her interest.
He was a blue that faded into red, his horse half stands on the shore while his fish tail stays in the water. For a moment her eyes burst open in amazement, he gives a greeting to her but she was too mesmerized to respond.
She blinks a few times as it was probably an awkward time that passed since he greeted her. She probably looked rude, staring at him like a speciemen. Shaking off the interest and thoughts that took over her mind, her gaze finds his and she looks at him with a gentle smile. Hi! she excitedly said, it was always amazing to her the creatures that lurked beqanna, and even more amazing he seemed kind in nature. My name is Vita, what brings you to Ischia? She asks, more confident in talking with him and perhaps it was because her curiosity was leading her to.
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He takes it as quite a promising sign that she doesn’t flee from him. Even after the initial moment of shocked silence, his bright amber eyes trained on her blue ones, he half expects her to turn and flee up the beach; when she doesn’t, the colt relaxes a little, ears pricked forward as he studies her in return. He might be an odd color, but he lives mostly underwater, and he’s a predator. She’s neither, though he supposes as he tracks the length of her wings that the teal-and-white pattern might be quite good camouflage in the sky, amongst the clouds.
“I’m Luath,” he introduces himself in return, giving a little bit of a smile. Physically, he and his sire could not be more different, but his father’s influence makes itself known more in mannerisms and behaviors – most of Brennen’s friends and lovers would have easily said that little half-smile and noncommittal expression was straight off of the bay magician’s face. For Luath, it was more practical than mysterious; keeping his sharp teeth hidden was something he’d learned quite early on. In a world filled with horses, it was safer for him to pass as mostly harmless.
Relatively sure now that he won’t need to escape back into the water to evade some sort of terror-filled attack, the boy trades his strong tail-fin for two quite normal legs, the process eerily smooth: he loses all of his fins, but the scales remain, a protection gifted to him even in this more horselike form. “I live here.” He blinks, considers this statement but in the end does not revise it. Still, he could see that it might cause concern – for the most part, after all, Mother has been cultivating the islands as a haven for mares, so his presence might be a thorn in the side to some…. “Adria is my mom,” he adds in explanation. Surely this is permissible? He is not even two yet, after all, plenty young enough to be living with his mother.
His father, Nihlus, and the twins on an outlying island might be another story entirely, but who is going to tell the water-mage, surrounded by his element, to leave? Probably nobody, so Luthe is pretty confident that his family isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Besides, leaving would mean father would be leaving Luath and Ionia, too, and the colt is sure he doesn’t want to do that. At least, not until he’s convinced Luath is old enough to understand that eating people is bad. Luthe hasn’t ever eaten anybody yet, but sometimes he moves a certain way and Mother still is frightened. Brennen assures him that sometime, he’ll only be frightening when he wants to be. “Do you live here?”
She gazes at him, fascinated with his half horse....half fish? She had never seen such a form, she was able to shift into a crow herself and so it certainly didn't surprise her that he was capable of living in such a form.
For a moment her mind wanders, wondering if Adria could shift like this? But she doesn't ponder it too long as he introduces himself! Luath, he says, and she engraves it to her memory.
Before her own eyes the boy swaps his tail for legs like her own. She watches again with fascination, but before she could embarass herself with some silly comment he breaks the silence. He notes he lives here, and the wings on her back almost lifted her off the ground with joy. Really!?!? She exclaims, they were nearly the same age AND he lives here!
She certainly enjoyed that the island was mainly made up of mares, or at least that's what she heard, but Luath seemed harmless! At least compared to some of the stallions she has met. He notes that Adria is his mom, and instantly she claims them as friends in her mind. I haven't met anyone besides Adria here...I'm so happy to have met you!
He asks if she lives here and she excitedly shakes her head. Yes! For almost a year now! Do you stay in Ischia often....I only ask because this is the first we've met. Though Vita was quiet the traveler herself, and the half fish equine would surely be enjoying the beqanna water at every chance. Still, she has some hope that perhaps he will visit the land more often now that they met.
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She nearly levitates off the sand when he announces that Ischia is his home, and he can't help his eyes widening slightly, unused to the sheer enthusiasm she is exhibiting. Luath doesn't take a step back but he doesn't step forward, uncertain what to do in the face of this completely new experience. She's neither an authority figure, nor afraid of him, nor a sibling. What is she? Luath doesn't know; he doesn't have any friends, and she'll be his first, and he's not sure how that works.
Still, he offers another tentative smile and finally steps forward again, closing a little bit of the distance between them. She has apparently only met his mother, but he's sure that will change eventually. It's not exactly an abandoned land. "Well I don't live anywhere else," he says a little self-consciously, "But I'm usually in the water." The boy glances back behind him at the depths of the sea which a smile that nothing on land has ever gotten. Maybe someday he'll find something on land that calls to him as much as the ocean. He realizes that there has been silence for a moment and endeavors to fill it. "My family lives here, I'm sure if you've met Mother you'll meet everyone else eventually. My father, and my twin sister." A tendril of thought is given to why Ionia hadn't been with Adria, but he is often not with his parents anymore, perhaps Ionia is also becoming more independent. If something had happened, he would have heard.
Vita was certainly a lot to take in, her bubbly upfront personality could easily scare a more timid equine. Luath didn't appear to be timid, but he also didn't seem to be to big a fan of her extrovert character.
But when he takes back his initial home and states that he mainly lives in the water she grows a tad sad. The excitement that once gleemed in her eyes now dimmed. Oh, I see all the equines she had met had some sort of water trait. She knew they were on an island, but she had hoped for some more land dwelling friends.
When he speaks again he mentions the residents of Ischia, and he has peaked her interest. His father, his twin sister? Her eyes perk open at the thought of making new friends. Do they all swim like you? It would make sense, and explain why she hadn't seen them yet.
Do you come from far away? He asks, and though she wasn't a fan of talking about her birth home, she had bombarded him with enough questions. Well...not super close, I was born in Nerine. Thankfully she had wings to bring her to the island so she didn't have to swim. I lived in nomad lands for a while until I came to Ischia. She glances at him with a smile, it was refreshing to talk about her past and see where she is now.
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He catches the flicker of disappointment across her face when he says he spends most of his time in the water, but he doesn’t want to lie to her. Luath does spend most of his time submerged – though if the islands are going to be filling up with interesting people, maybe he will come ashore more often. If he has friends, he’ll have a reason not to spend all his time hunting. He hasn’t slept aground since he stopped sleeping ‘in the nest’, as it were, with Adria and Ionia (preferring the rocking cradle of the waves) but he could be persuaded to be awake on the ground.
“Mom is like me. Kind of,” Adria is not a kelpie, but she is a water-creature. Not one with the same tendencies as Luath, which has always been a distance between them. “Ionia, my twin, she’s not. Actually, she breathes fire.” His eyes crinkle in a silent laugh, thinking of his mother’s absolute perplexion over his totally un-aquatic sister. It fades because she’d still thought of Ionia as the less dangerous twin, which stung a little (not that she was wrong). “My father. Brennen.” He has to think about this one, how does one describe Brennen? “He doesn’t live in the water, but he’s a water mage. And he does live in Ischia, but he and his mate live on one of the smaller islands, with my half-siblings. I’m sure you’ll see him around eventually. He has a parrot.”
The parrot is, at this point, a part of Brennen. At least in the opinion of his young son. Though he does wonder where the bird lives when Brennen and Nihlus are basically living in a winter wonderland, because surely the tropical bird doesn’t like it. Maybe it just returns to its flock here on the main island until the mage calls it, or something. She names her home, and it’s not a place he’s ever been, though he’s swum its shores. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. He hadn’t climbed out onto the beach. He knows, vaguely, that Nerine is the place his father should live, the place to which he swears his allegiance, but he’s never really thought about it since as far as he can tell, Brennen lives in Ischia. “Well, welcome to Ischia,” he tilts his head. “Have you had a chance to explore much?”
She wonders what it is like to be able to dive into the ocean, to have no need to come back up for air. Everyone she has met so far on Ischia has been some sort of water carrier, and at this point she almost feels left out.
Though her thoughts fade as Luath speaks again. This time he begins to tell her all about his family, which sounds large! He says that Adria is like him, and she understands to an extent as she has seen Adria manipulate water before.
He goes on to introduce a twin! Ionia a name that she engraves to her memory. She paints a picture of the girl in her mind, was she blue and red like Luath too? But when Luath mentions that she was different, a fire breather rather than a water dweller she grows more curious! There was another land dweller like Vita in Ischia?!
She remains silent as he goes on to talk about his father, Brennen, who also doesnt dwell in the water but has powers to control it. Wow, the word of amazement whispers as he describes his family to her. It was amazing that they were all so close with each other, as well as the broad horizon of traits in there family.
I hope to meet them all! she says with a smile, Vita was curious of everything and everyone. She wanted to talk to anyone who would listen to her, but in this moment she clings to the forming friendship between her and Luath.
Luath speaks again, welcoming her to Ischia, and Vita smiles in return. He asks if she has had time to explore and her wings rustle with excitement. A little bit! I've explored a lot of the surrounding kingdoms, but I'm sure you know Ischia better than I do! She leaves it an invintation to explore the island together, or allow him to seep back into the ocean if he'd like.
