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    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


    Let the shadows fall behind us || Kagerus
    #1

    Tangerine

    In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep

    Tangerine had stopped counting her years after her childbearing years had ended, but the grey whiskers on her chin suggest that quite a few have passed. The hollows above her eyes deepened with each passing season, despite the healthy weight which rounded her hips and shoulders. She is not the young mare who had run at Warrick's side and raised his children, but there is something of the girl still in her. A quality which is easy to see as Tang's liquid-honey eyes catch the night's full-moon light.

    The twisting dreadlocks and tendrils of her tricolor mane fall well past her shoulder, woven with smuggled oddities from across Beqanna and beyond. It's heavy mass drapes to one side of her neck, opposite the thick, spiral brand. The wild mare had stopped trying to cover Carnage's mark years ago: when time, and other memories, had weakened the importance of his touch in her story.

    To see her, she is a wild creature with wise old eyes that still sparkled with mischief, as much so tonight as ever.

    It had taken her most of the day to pick her way up the side of the volcano, but she had passed the time mumbling and laughing to her craggy, old friend as she went. The seer's dreams had told a story to her weeks ago, and she had been looking forward to its fulfillment. By the time the May Moon reaches its apex, she is standing knee-deep in the pool which feeds Tehpra's new waterfall. Her expectant is gaze cast out across the map of Tephra below, and a chill passes over her as she feels particles of magic begin to move in the air around her.

    "Hello, Kagerus." Tang cackles her greeting, her pink and grey lips spread wide with the unabashed enjoyment she always felt when her prophecies came to be.



    @[Kagerus] <3
    [Image: tzang]




    #2

    K

    oh me oh my, i thought it was a dream...

    Our dreams take turns of turbulence, riding an invisible wave of life-energy which waxes and wanes with the moon and our hearts. In other words, we fluctuate; from the grotto we found outside of Beqanna which I shaped to be just like ours in Hyaline (plus a few niceties since I can procure those with ease these days; my lady deserves the softest of bedding, after all), we ponder our realities. 

    Solace and I's lives stand in brilliant contrast to the ones we led as Caretakers and the adjustment to this slower, more lackadaisical time of our lives happens, as I mentioned, in waves. Some days, we miss the chaos and excitement of leading our peoples; I know that I often dream of having amassed the largest empire in Beqanna when the plague hit. Most other days, grace enters our hearts as we bask in the sunlight and in moonlit pools, enjoying each others companies and existing purely in the moment. We always miss our family, though.

    "I can always take you back with me for a visit, you know," I murmur to my wife, sleep glazing my voice. Solace murmurs her response, something about not being ready yet (we'd left in such a difficult manner; every time I think upon Oriash I feel the pang of guilt I know that Solace does, too). My lips find their way to her divine skull, a kiss pressed there just so. "Okay sweetheart," I breathe. "Whenever you are ready."

    We go to dream together this night but a wild tangent calls me away from Soso's side. A waterfall and a volcano materialize in the dreamscape to the tune of this tangent; with a glance to Solace, I know I am free to go. My occasional teleportations back into Beqanna bother my solitudinal wife little to none, and she always likes hearing my stories upon return. So, I relinquish my control, allowing the scenery to surpass the dream state until a volcano-warmed pool laps at my knees.

    As the haze of the dream lifts, I hang on to the thread of Solace's consciousness for as long as I can; and as my vision feeds into the final remnants of the dream, I hear my wife's joyous, laugh-filled greeting as echoes which warm my heart.

    Hello, Kagerus. The mare's voice dances and cackles in the night air, almost as colourful as the tricolor of her hide. To behold the woman who birthed my wife with the May Moon lighting her hide takes my breath away; despite having met Tangerine at a distance a number of times during my stint as the East's Caretaker, she and I have yet to have the pleasure of each other's private company.

    "Tangerine," I call back, my voice somewhat more subdued than her own but no less warm or inquisitive. The gloss of the pool below shatters as I wade through it, my legs carrying me to face the elder mare head on. Naked tonight (without antlers to crown me), I extend my neck and blow warm air into the other's pink and grey nostrils. My words continue as I straighten.

    "What a pleasant surprise, to have been called to you this evening. I must say, Tephra has gotten more beautiful since the last time I was here." A cast of my gaze reveals the midnight horizons of this land, far off and shrouded in darkness. "But, the company suits me more than the landscape. Solace said to tell you hello." The jaunt of my grin is easy and playful; Tang reminds me in so many ways of my father Kavi that I find it difficult not to be at ease. "I'm sure I can expect to return the message?"





    [Image: kag]
    dreamweaver
    #3

    Tangerine

    In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep


    Kagerus appears, dripping in magic looking as fine and fit as the first day Tangerine saw her, an easy smile splashed across her face. There is a freshness in the air around the dreamweaver that sets the old mother's heart at ease. If Kagerus was happy, then all was well in whatever corner of the world she and Solace had chosen to occupy. 

    As the dark mare wades across the pool, Tangerine uses the moment to briefly confirm that all is well. It was an old habit, to check for signs of battles fought or tokens gained, but Kagerus doesn't show her battles, or her years, on her body. Tangerine still wasn't sure if immortality was a gift or a curse, but she was glad her daughter's wife had it. When she had first heard that Kagerus was 10 years her senior, the usually open-minded mare to give a little snort. But she had not been raised in a land where life often extended past twenty-odd years. It was a concern that passed quickly once she understood that her daughter would not be left alone, pining for a lost lover for half her life. No, it had been many years since she had any doubts about Solace's choice of partner.

    Kagerus reaches out with her muzzle, passing messages back and forth in the Ancient Way, and what Tang finds piques her interest. The scents her companion carries are not of Beqanna, and Tang's interest is easy to read as she pulls the air deep into her lungs. It is one thing to know that the bay mare has been traveling in far-off lands, and another to feel it in the energy around her. Hitchhiking leaves and smaller things, particles of places Tang has never been, they carry information which is irresistible to the old mare

    "Not much in the world that can rival a good waterfall," she agrees, pulling her face away once she has gathered all there is to know from the exchange of scents, "but you know much more about that than I."

    "I'm beyond the age of jealousy," she continues, as if one ever outgrew such primal passions, "but if ever I were to feel such a thing again, it would for what you have, Kagerus."

     "But such a talent would have gotten me into trouble in my younger years," she regresses, "So all worked out the way it should have."

    Her weight shifts and her bones creak, a sound which never rises above the rush of water around them. But Kaugerus' company is enough to distract her from her old aches for now. 

    "I have a feeling I will be able to tell her myself so enough," she replies coyly. Her dreams were far from concrete ideas, but she had seen hints that she may be seeing more of Kagerus and Solace very soon.

    "But surely you didn't return just to see you old mother in law," she says without attempting to settle the laugh which bubbles up from deep within her chest. "Tell me what called to away from your wife and little Indius and Iridian." 

    [Image: tzang]




    #4
    Kagerus
    { and in my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times }

    In the green-blue of the Tephran moonlight, Tang graces me with her voice -- deep and full, indicative of a life well lived. My lips and brows quirk at her words, my mind somewhat caught up on how beautiful and familiar this mare seems to me. Like a mixture of my father and my wife (what a strange thing to say but far be it for me to condemn the intricacies and patterns of close-bonded families) she stands, her aura a crow of pride, autonomy, and adventure; it simmered now rather than boiled, now, but was apparent nonetheless.

    "Coming from you, that's nearly a request," I toss back. "You know full-well that I can take you anywhere you'd please. There are adventures yet for you, or so I dream." A wink punctuates my sentence, my smile a direct reference to the joy this conversation brings me. "Anyway, that's about all you're missing out on from me. We both were in love last I recalled. And -- I do hope that Warrick is doing well in his retirement." A pang in my chest tells me that I want to say something with regard to their old age, to the chance of their passing -- but my connection to the afterlife stops me and allows me to take a deep breath.

    Luck becomes me, in that way. Death represents but a new chapter for the relationships I hold.

    I have a feeling I will be able to tell her myself soon enough, allows Tang with a coy twist of her tone. My ears perk at the words, nutmeg eyes slivering in mock-suspicion. What does she know? I thrum a rhythm of curiosity in the water beneath us, sending particles of water vibrating in intricate patterns; they splash and play a tinkling accompaniment to the lyrics of our conversation. But surely you didn't return just to see your old mother in law - hahaha. Tell me what called you away from your wife and little Indius and Iridian.

    The doting-daughter rebuttal I'd had on the tip of my tongue tangles at the Seer's last words and I choke a little, the sound shifting to laughter without hesitation. "Uncanny," I chortle, shaking my scarred head in a wide arc, back-and-forth. When I recollect myself somewhat, I turn a keen eye upon Tangerine, my laughter yet evident in their depths. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that, you know."

    Indius. Iridian. Their names (selected but nights ago) bring up feelings that don't quite have words yet; warmth, spirit, color. The essences of our sixth and seventh children had only just become noticeable this week, and Solace and I had waited some time to confirm that there is, in fact, two little souls growing in her womb. When their dreams presented as distinct and separate, we rejoiced: twins. Twins! The warmth of my expression conveys the depths of my love for them in the moments where I contemplate my response.

    "Well, I happen to have sensed you here as I slept, but... I am also in search of a place to settle down within Beqannan borders once more. It must be years now since Solace and I abdicated the East's throne and later departed..." Memories of her ill pregnancy and of the quest wherein I died in an effort to cure the land of its plague cloud my mind for a moment, poignant and undeniable. A quick snap of my head clears those thoughts, however. "And, as you have seen, we are expecting." My smile takes on a proud edge, chin tilted just that much higher as I think upon the babes. "I've promised Solace a vineyard in exchange for our return -- though of course, she doesn't need the convincing. I just like to spoil her." My laughter vibrates in time with the water below.

    Speaking of the water, it rises up now. Shaped by my mind, it forms two small bodies, foals who will hopefully come to be within the next year. They shimmer blue and green, rearing up on their watery hind legs to mock-battle one another before racing around the pool. When they stop before me with breathless heaving chests and brilliant smiles, I cannot help but to smile back before allowing them to fold back into the pond.

    The smile weakens, though, as I meet Tang's eyes again. Memories of the times I failed as a mother cause my throat to tighten.

    "I just hope to do well by them. It's the least they deserve."

    [Image: kag]
    dreamweaver




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