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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    [open]  of stones and glass houses [Aquaria/any]
    #1

    but Icarus flew too high


    It took some doing, and quite a bit of time, but Warbird finally found the land they called Ischia. Half of his time spent away from the place where Aquaria said she called home was spent garnering up his courage and convincing himself it was a necessary trip. Of course it was necessary. Warbird isn't the type to love and leave, and even if that's what the lovely Nereid woman had wanted, it had left the stallion flat footed and uncertain. Did she even want to see him again? 

    Doubt plagued him, but there is only one way for the stallion to find out. So, Warbird had set off in search of Ischia. He had a duty, he felt, to check up on her -- it wouldn't be gentlemanly not to, even though he suspects that far too much time has passed for it to be considered proper. But the deed was done, and she had been in heat... he has to know if anything came of their night of drunken debauchery.

    Asking here and there, Warbird's gaze finally settles on the mountainous tropical paradise that the denizens of Beqanna had lead him to. The air here is stiflingly hot and humid, even as he flies over the hills and greenery, banking towards the coast. Surely that is were a pretty mermaid could be found. 

    But, there is quite a bit of shoreline to explore. Landing daintily, the striped champagne man tucks his wings to his sides, lifts his head and takes in a deep breath: steady, Warbird. Steady

    And he sets off at a walk on the beach.

    WARBIRD





    @[Aquaria]
    [Image: CqmvRSM.png]
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    #2
    aquaria
    - THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -

    Her head dropped to the grass she'd been cropping, a quick meal before she set out searching again. The whole isle was on alert now, and she had to keep up her strength. The salt stained hair of her coat was as pale as the scales that usually covered her, if far from lustrous. She was tired, very tired, and this bit of salty grass was the first thing she'd eaten since morning yesterday. 

    Her ears rotated constantly as she ate, filtering through the crash of the waves and the cries of the birds in hopes of catching her children's voices. The parrots chattered endlessly though, screaming and screeching for all they were worth, and the seamare wished she could scream with them. Maybe later. Maybe when she could breath again, she would scream. 

    When her head shot up to catch the sound of footsteps approaching, her heart leapt into her throat. Was it her children? Was it someone else with news? She took an eager step towards them until the antlers and the head holding them emerged from the bend in the beach. Her heart, which had risen so soon, plummeted beneath her gut with a sickening lurch. 

    "Warbird," 

    A hysterical laugh forced its way past her throat, only to be cut off sharply. Of all the times he could have chosen to show up, now was surely the worst. Now, when the twins she'd borne of their one night of acquaintance were missing, and she didn't even know where to begin looking for them. It seemed like a sick joke, something the fairies in old stories would have brought about. Try as she might though, the ragged mermare couldn't think of what she might have done to bring on their wrath. 

    She should say something, she knew. It was rude to just stand here staring at the man. But the sooner she spoke, the sooner he'd ask how she was, and she knew she couldn't lie to him. Not about this. So she let the silence stretch, knowing when it broke so would she.

    - MY ONLY RIVAL IS WITHIN -

    @[Warbird]
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    #3

    but Icarus flew too high


    The heat would be horribly oppressive if it weren't for the remarkably cool breeze blowing in from the ocean. Warbird sighs softly, head bobbing just a little with every step, hooves sinking in the crystal white sand. He is unused to traveling on ground like this -- the antlered stallion struggles some, muscles beginning to ache after only an hour of slogging through it. The tide has begun to go out, though, so Warbird shifts his path down closer to the ocean where the ground is packed more firmly. That makes it easier. 

    He comes around a bend, head level with his withers, and spots someone nearby. It's a female, and ... a familiar one, if her scent is anything to go by. But... that doesn't look like the same Aquaria he'd seen all those months ago. Warbird comes up short, head lifting in surprise, ears locking on her as she laughs. It's an unhinged sort of sound. What on Earth had happened to her?

    The stallion reaches out with his nose, but comes short of touching her. 

    "...Aquaria, what happened?" his deep, bassy voice asks in genuine concern. "What is wrong?"

    WARBIRD





    @[Aquaria]
    [Image: CqmvRSM.png]
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    #4
    aquaria
    - THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -

    A shaky breath was all she could muster at first. It ballooned past her throat unwillingly, painfully, ending in a hiccup that squeezed her heart. The worry in his eyes was physically painful to her, a concern she felt would dissolve into hatred the moment he knew the truth. Could she lie? 

    The thought swam temptingly before her, a ray of hope that she might spare herself this one more stone. That she might spare him the weight of her guilt. The falsehood tasted like tar on her tongue, bitter and heavy. 

    "They're gone," 

    The words were not the ones she meant to say. She choked on them, gasped, and let her mouth snap shut again as if that would reel them back in. Hot liquid pooled in her eyes, distorting the stallion's face to a watery blur of gold and black. With furious blinks he was brought back into focus. The down side of which was that she could again see the gentle concern in his eyes. 

    There was a few stuttering breaths between them while she gathered herself, her expression distant as if she were the one lost, and not the children they had made together. Children he did not even know yet existed. So start there, she decided, figuring the beginning was the best place to start most things. 

    "I'm so sorry, Warbird. I should have known better but-" her throat tightened painfully. "But I was lonely, so lonely, and you were there! I didn't think... I guess that's all, really, I didn't think. But we made foals. Twins. They're beautiful, and perfect. And now they're missing." Shining, silent tears tracked down her cheeks as she spoke, the last words barely audible. 

    That he was here at all was a complication she'd pretended not to anticipate, but now it seemed only right that she pay for keeping the twins to herself this way. Now neither of them had the children, and she knew there was only herself to blame.

    - MY ONLY RIVAL IS WITHIN -

    @[Warbird]
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    #5

    but Icarus flew too high


    Something is so, so wrong. It pains the golden stallion to see what he viewed as a powerful, independent woman this upset, and he knows that nothing short of something greatly important would put her in such a state. He wavers, desperately wanting to touch and comfort but somehow knowing he has to give Aquaria her space. 

    Her words, at first, make no sense. Warbird's dark lips open to ask who is gone, but the normally pearly scaled mare quickly goes on with what she wants to tell him. It strikes him like a kick to the gut when those words fall from her tongue in time with the tears that stream from her eyes. 

    Foals. Twins

    He has babies here, somewhere, and it took him this long to come find her? Shame settles like a stone in his heart, making it hard to breathe. 

    He made babies with this woman, and they are missing

    Warbird no longer hesitates. The antlered stallion closes the short distance between them and gently, oh so gently, presses his nose against her cheek. "Shhhh," he coos, sidestepping so he can be beside her, and tuck his nearside wing over her back. 

    "We will find them. I will fly as far as necessary to find them." There is a finality to his voice, though his tone remains soft. "You must tell me what they look like, and if you have any enemies here in Ischia or abroad. We will find them, Aquaria. I promise you that."

    WARBIRD





    @[Aquaria]
    [Image: CqmvRSM.png]
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    #6
    aquaria
    - THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -

    She flinched at his touch, defiant that she deserved any kind of comfort when she had let their children vanish. There was no time for it, besides. 

    Shaking the stallion's wing gently away, the seamare stepped away, looking at him grimly. Later, when the foals were found, then she might consider his reaction a kindness. For now though, it seemed misplaced. If he was willing to help in the searching, that would mean more than any soft embrace or words of comfort could. 

    She began to move and speak simultaneously. Her few mouthfuls of salt grass would have to be sustenance enough for the time being. "A boy and a girl," she described, gesturing that the gold banded stallion ought to follow her as she moved along the shore. "The girl has wings and antlers, and they both are sea born. She is dark, he is golden and I think they would not leave each other if they could avoid it." 

    That was her hope, anyway. That wherever the twins were, they had each other. She picked her way past driftwood and bladderwrack that had washed upon the shore, every sense keyed for signs of the missing pair. Some whisp of scent, some scrap of hair or a loosened scale. Any clue that would lead her to her children. 

    - MY ONLY RIVAL IS WITHIN -


    @[Warbird]
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