"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
-So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me-
when morning dawned, Eyas told Gale that she was going. He could take all the time he wanted to get things ready, since the two self-made protectors of Island Resort were technically leaving the entire Island behind, but she would head out right then. He could even join her in a day or two if he wanted, though when Eyas stood at her highest and pressed her forehead into his warm, blue skin she doubted (hoped) it wouldn’t be quite that long.
If it weren’t a necessary thing she wouldn’t leave at all, and she wouldn’t dare leave her twin behind without her. But this Wolfbane ordeal… it had quickly turned into a necessary ‘thing’ she needed to fix right away.
As Eyas cantered down the white-sand shoreline and took off with a leap into the balmy summer sky, she thought of how her father’s problems had started to turn into an increasingly gigantic nightmare. His choices had seemed random and senseless, but now she could see the way each was branching out from the source - himself. She could piece them together through his sight and the vision he was building for himself now included so many new, innocent lives. The thought unnerved her, and she did her best to focus her energies away from a tempting peek and instead on what had happened the night before.
She’d met a god, not a magician. Eyas was pretty sure of that, if nothing else. She’d been given an audience with the Dark God himself and it’d been truly terrifying. She didn’t feel free from his eye right now, soaring higher towards the sun just to try and warm away the sudden chill settling into her bones. And she certainly didn’t feel lighter knowing he’d bestowed hidden knowledge unto her, to do with as she saw fit. Eyas knew well enough that nothing in Beqanna was given freely. Nothing.
But he’d given me what I asked for. I do owe for asking. She thought to herself as she landed, smoothly trotting her way out of the fringes of Sylva and Taiga’s blended woods. Ahead of her loomed Loess, her birth home, and all of the residual feelings of despondency she’d done well to hide since Eyas had left many years ago. It’s power over her was like a magnet, pulling her step by step and whispering long-forgotten memories as bait. But she paused before entering, folding her black-and-white wings over her little pony body as she came to stand under the reaching shadow of a completely burnt and hollowed-out tree trunk.
“I came as soon as I could. You ready?” She swung her head behind her, knowing exactly the step and shape of the figure who’d been left waiting on her arrival. Eyas smiled her black-lipped grin at Santana and swung her tail at her hips. The flies had begun to gather around, eager for a taste of her blood and sweat from that morning’s flight.
EYAS
@[Santana] and any of the residing Lepane family! *it's happening*
Santana stretched, cat-like and luxurious as fingers of rosy sunlight caressed the sky. His wings rose to brush the lower branches of the trees he'd been sleeping beneath, knocking a shower of twigs and leaves on his back. With a brisk shake, he took a last look at the forest that had sheltered him for this night, and many before it.
The moon still hung in the sky, translucent in the brightening blue where it peeked through the trees. It watched the draconic stallion as he moved toward the border, toward the woman he was meeting there.
He was solemn this morning, but at peace. His dreams had been comforting things. Grounding, where he had needed it. Hooves sank deep into the hummus while he came to a rest in sight of the blackened landmark. It was a gnarled titan, unmissable and imposing. There was no sooty pegasus mare beneath the lightning struck tower. Not yet.
He was equine, but armored. Scaled from head to toe. Crowned in frost-rhimed horns and grinning with a mouth full of jagged teeth. "Born ready, my darling witch." He replied as she approached. He snapped playfully at a buzzing black fly, before centering his mismatched gaze on her heavily. Flames blue and amber simmered in his eyes, kindling for the day ahead.
"So tell me," he drawled, shaking the tangled knots of his forelock back. "How is this going down? Or am I being optimistic in thinking you have a real plan." There was no reproach in his tone as he said this. Merely resignation that throwing his lot in with the feathered mare was to accept that things would be on the wing more often than not. Still though, he would be more comfortable with some sort of outline as to what was expected of him today.
Gale run away with me-- lost souls and reverie running wild and running free
It had taken some time to convince Erne to stay behind, and Gale is forced to fly harder than he’d intended in order to catch her. The rainbow of their island shrinks beneath him, and the white-haired stallion shakes his head as if to silence the plaintive cry of the osprey that rises from below.
‘We’ll be back in no time,’ thinks the brindle pegasus, and though he can still sense Erne’s displeasure, the seahawk falls quiet behind him. Soon the only sound is the wind in his navy ears and the splash of water beneath him. The set of his brow is determined as the water he flies over turns into jungle, and then then Sylvan forest, and finally the red rocks of Loess. Gale is sure now that the reason his mother had reacted to his last visit the way she had was because she had thought he was Wolfbane, and he cannot blame her. It still hurts, but he does not blame her.
He lands a bit away from where he sees Eyas speaking with a pale stallion. That is Santana, he suspects, and allows them a moment to speak quietly together before he joins them. As he does, he takes a moment to look over the other man, curious about this dragon who has agreed to help them in this monumental task. The pattern of frost on his horns is a nice touch, Gale decides, having become rather partial to the use of his horns since attaining them from the Mountain. Does he mean to be the brawn in this battle the way that Gale does, the brindle wonders as he sidles up to his sister?
Eyas is the brains of this operation, after all. Gale’s breathing heavy with exertion, and the stripes of palest cream that color his ribs rise and fall rapidly. Despite that, he is grinning, the determination he feels melding with anticipation and a sense of finality. At last, this day has come. He says nothing before he draws even with them, but he does tweak at Eyas’ sight and cast everything she sees a shade of pale blue, his silent and unique hello.
Only then does he ask: “When do you think he’ll be here?”
some say I should learn to cry but I only learned how to fight and I know everything must die but nothing fades like the light
There's a hitch in the air that catches Elio's tangled, crimson mane and weaves it into volumnious knots. He shakes his proud head, silvery scars reflecting the bright light from above. He can sense it, the difference, a disturbance. If he were not a keen creature, the roiling in his gut would have tipped him off.
Golden and red, lean from long days of travelling and scarred from various reckless encounters, he looks so different from the Elio his family knows. No longer a boy, but also too phantom to be a man: he exists like a relic, rough-edged and more of a symbol or a sacrifice than a living being.
They gather, Lio's lost siblings and the pale dragon. He hardly knows they are there, but the anxious thrum of his heart tells him to keep moving. To find them. That Loess is not nearly as quiet as it has fooled itself to be. He presses tense, dark lips together. The rapid trot of his hooves is not enough. He begins to stomp so hard into the earth that dirt kicks up behind him.
Elio sees Santana first: glittering and certain and so like the rest of Loess that he almost thinks to turn away. Gale is eye-catching enough, though, that the golden stallion stops and stares, mouth set hard in observance. From there, he finds Eyas. The sister with all of the adventures. The hidden one.
"What are you preparing for?" Elio calls from some distance, lifting his head to its full height. He can't help himself. Their decisions are certainly what caused this disturbance.
@[Eyas] @[Santana] @[Gale] you may all punch me one (1) time for not realizing this thread is here
06-21-2020, 02:54 PM (This post was last modified: 06-21-2020, 02:54 PM by Eyas.)
I've got you deep in the heart of me
-So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me-
Darling? Eyas thought to herself, twitching her smokey black lips into a half-smile. That was new. The “witch” part he tacked on at the end wasn’t, but lately she’d been thinking he sounded more endearing and less endangering about it. Satana’s teeth clacked together over a fly, and the little buckskin pegasus settled in beside him. She looked up at his fearsome expression, eyes sparkling. “I have two plans, mister frosty.” The pony mare took a shot at his unusual choice of appearance. He reminded her of the old knight tales before bedtime, when she’d been a young foal here in Loess.
“But let’s just hope that we’ll only need one, alright?” Eyas’ smile faded away after she finished. Her face, once casual, went rigid. She glanced away from the armored horse beside her and out into the expanse of her birth home, peering...
When she snapped to her senses a moment later, Eyas knowingly turned towards the sound of Gale approaching, beaming. “Brother.” She called him aloud, for ‘Tana’s sake alone. She stepped comfortably forward and rubbed her face over the smooth, cool stripes patterning his skin, and silently shared with him the vision of all that she’d seen since they’d separated earlier. In return, he tweaked her sight; Eyas blinked and laughed a short, crisp laugh at his ingenuity. She liked the blue-colored world he showed her. “He won’t keep us waiting long.”
She tucked her wings close to her sides, the white feather tips brushing past her hips and curving over her dark tail, waiting. In the distance a dry cloud of dust curled up on the horizon, though Eyas had to squint past the rising sun to see it. Surely, she thought, we must seem like a quiet threat. Three horses impassively waiting together outside Kingdom borders, two brutish stallions flanking one small, shrewd mare. Eyas wanted to slip inside of Santana - see her approaching sibling the way only a dragonborn could - but she anxiously refrained, remembering his one request on Island Resort.
The dust billowed out and finally, finally after so many years, Elio their brother was reunited with them. He was a stout, hard stallion like nearly all of her brothers; there was iron in the shape of him when slowed to a stop. His face was impassive, but at such a close distance Eyas marveled to herself at its similarity to their sire’s. Elio shared a strong resemblance to Wolfbane, and for a moment her confidence faltered.
“To meet with you.” She replied somberly, “And to meet with mom.” Eyas stepped forward, distancing herself from the males. “This is Santana, a friend.” She pointed with her nose toward the ice-scaled stallion, “Gale - Elio. Elio - Gale.” The petite mare smiled, glancing between her family members.
'Tana exhaled a sulphurous burst of hot air, one brow quirked. Mister Frosty? Really? There was no time to bicker over nicknames, however. They were no longer on their own.
The draconic stallion flexed his wings, let the sunlight refract from their icy surfaces. The newcomer carried the island scent that Eyas shared, clean and sweet. Something unspoken passed between the sea colored stallion and his lithe sister, something that brought a smile to the pegasus mare's face. Tana shifted, the odd sensation of being left out licking at his heels. He'd been that close with his brother, once. It was a feeling he missed.
There was no time to dwell on his own broken relationships, though. Not when they had bigger fish to fry. The sky held the last of their party, and he caught sight of fire in the air with a flicker of fascination. Brilliant gold and red that soared towards them like a fragment of sunlight. By the time the fourth to their party arrived, he had settled into his quiet role. Not the mind, but maybe the muscle.
While the trio of siblings completed their greetings, 'Tana stepped back. He watched them through the white curtain of his forelock, noting how different they looked from one another. Different, and yet markedly alike. The way Eyas and her flame colored brother held their wings, the shapes of their faces and legs. Tiny similarities and mannerisms that marked them as close kin.
He nodded in acknowledgment of her introductions. Elio. Gale. Names for the faces so like Eyas'. Maudlin energy fell from her shoulders. This was a sad meeting for her, he knew it would be. But this reunion didn't have the jubilant air one would hope for when setting family after a long time gone. Twin spires of smoke twisted from his nostrils as he realized this. The tawny mare would despise him for pitying her, and so he let himself feel only solidarity for family lost.
Tail whisking in the breeze, he glanced at them all in turn before settling his gaze on Eyas once again. "Is this everyone? Or are there more mystery siblings to meet?" She'd mentioned finding their mother. Perhaps though that was a separate occasion from their current gathering.
Gale run away with me-- lost souls and reverie running wild and running free
Pressing the plane of his cheek against Eyas’ black mane, Gale smiles at her laughter. His blue world had pleased her.
Gale has never seen Elio with his own eyes, and so he stares for a long while, taking in the shape and size and color of this familiar stranger with an intense golden stare. Gale’s previous conceptualization of the crimson-marked stallion had been patchy, a piecework compilation of what others had seen of him. This is different though, and a slow smile begins to grow as the time ticks on, a feeling of contentment growing at the nearness of this brother he has looked forward to meeting.
Elio had not been part of the family that Gale had lost, but he is a part of the family he has returned too. Gale is not put off by his younger sibling’s resemblance to their father in the same manner Eyas is; rather he takes pleasure in the similarities, knowing that they mark them as family. It is nice, he thinks, to be able to recognize family immediately.
Eyas introduces them all, her voice softm and Gale glances at her. There is worry in his pale eyes, for her and for their purpose here, but he does not speak it aloud. Instead, he nods his own greeting to Santana, respectful and polite. The dragon wants to know if there are more mystery siblings, and it startles a laugh from Gale. The sound seems almost out of place, but it matches the wry expression on the brindle pegasus’ face and the humor in his eyes.
“There’s one you don’t want to meet, and five that are too small to be helpful. The other…” he trails off for a moment, clearly attempting to be sure he does not forget anyone, “Three aren’t anywhere nearby.” Marni and Tiercel have shut themselves off from Gale and his magics, but the lush jungle that their oldest sibling stands in is far from dry Loess. It is habit for him to flick through all the family’s vision at once, and what his mother sees is not so different from the red land in front of Gale.
“Mom is here, but I don’t think she knows we are. Should I find her?” He nearly offers to show her – a quick flash of their location like those he teased his siblings with during hide-and-seek – but suspects that might startle her and put her on edge. That is not his intent, and Gale is content to wait for Eyas’ answer and direction.
some say I should learn to cry but I only learned how to fight and I know everything must die but nothing fades like the light
To meet with you.
Elio peers in genuine confusion at the trio, clawing desperately at the door keeping him locked in with this realization. I'm not ready, he thinks. Just a few more days. It hadn't been long enough, he hadn't healed enough: just the thought of Wolfbane stirs the grass in his gut. He wants to blurt it: I'm not ready!
Beneath the golden fur of his face, his skin pales.
Instead of vomiting up his fear, that resilient and stubborn nature his mother had given him takes a robotic control. "Santana, Gale . . . Eyas," the gold stallion murmurs, wondering if he should wander closer, brush his nose against theirs. The echo of jealousy rings beneath his focus: Eyas and Gale look so close.
Where have they been hiding? Why did I have to feel so alone?
It stings, this made-up rejection, keeping Elio rooted to his spot. His muscles tense in minuscule ways, and he peers at them with a steel in his eyes. He can only hope they'll mistake this hurt for a determination to find their father; and in way, it truly is that determination. He knows now is not the time for self-pity, merely shaking off the wound to tend to later.
-So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me-
Oh, she sees the indecision in Elio’s eyes but Eyas stays nice and quiet while her younger brother pales, listening to the horses beside her talk a bit about the other siblings. She wished in her heart of hearts that she could do this alone, if only to spare any other creature from having to confront the monster, but even now she doubts her ability to end this by herself. There might’ve been others once who could’ve done it alone - ended Wolfbane’s life for good - but for some reason they haven’t. For some reason Eyas can’t fathom, their father is still alive and he’s on his way here, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow in the east.
Ready or not, Elio and Eyas, Gale and Santana, Lepis and their poor new baby brother will all have to face Wolfbane.
Together they’re as strong as ever. Together they could bend a nation to its knees, but that power and those resources are better used against the true enemy: evil. She knew this, and it was her duty now to see that Elio understood it as well. So it was with a tentative smile that she heard her name pronounced by Elio and liked it, and an even gentler glance to the side where Gale stood when he asked how they should proceed.
“I’m thinking,” She corrected Elio’s use of the word planning, since it seemed important that Eyas not throw all her eggs into a single basket at first, “we intercept him. And that you should be the one to tell Lepis… i mean mother that we’re all here to help her stop him. She might not believe it from any other source.” The little pegasus mused to her golden-red brother. Her gaze slid away from Gale’s inquiring, hypnotizing stare back to Elio’s determined one.
“Elio,” She spoke softly, stepping closer, “I know he’s on his way here. I can’t get a good look through his eyes - he’s done something weird with his vision, changed it - but I know which direction he was going in before this change happened. I know he’s visited other mares, tried to take an infant foal by force, and that he’ll most likely come here to try a final time.” She paused, breathless as her heart pounded from the spike of anxiety this was bringing on. They really didn’t have time to waste; a few days at best, possibly less the way he traveled.
“Will you help us? Or rather, let us help you and mom? Santana is our brute strength,” Her expression trembled but held its own when she turned to look at the pale, handsome stallion who’d become her friend so suddenly, “Gale is my support and also an added measure of protection for us all.” Her head twisted again, a horsey shrug in their mutual sibling’s direction. She didn't have time to go into detail about how vital Gale was to everything, how she needed him always. “And I… I think I can take control of his body. Maybe. If I have enough time to concentrate and he’s held down, or kept in one place… I don’t know. I hadn’t worked out the final move yet. He’s so damn slippery” She lamented, throwing her eyes to the side and twisting her black mouth into a frown.
EYAS
@[Santana] I think this might be the last one from Eyas, unless I'm just driven to reply after Elio does! GO TEAM
*it's happening*
![[Image: elio-by-dozymare-ddo34i6.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/Hn9wnYb7/elio-by-dozymare-ddo34i6.png)