[open] i could never hold a perfect thing and not demolish it, any

[bewitched]

build love, build God, build provinces - build calluses, break promises
'cause i could never hold a perfect thing and not demolish it
______________________
“Bee, I’m cold.”

She doesn’t understand how he could possibly be cold - she can feel the heat rolling off of his little golden body in waves, and if she moves any closer to him, the touch of his flesh will send a rippling burn down her skin. “Um… I could find you some cloves, maybe, or cinnamon?” she responds, glancing back at him with concern in her bright eyes. “Para, you know I don’t really know what I’m doing yet, and I haven’t learned the herbs in this region,” she adds lamely, worried for her twin. She’s only recently learned that she can use the local herbs to aid them, since their mother left to who-knows-where and left them all alone.

It has been mostly a gamble so far, finding out which ones help and which ones hurt. She had once used her telekinesis to pilfer some aloe leaves from across the Pangean border, and the sticky gel inside the leaves had provided relief from the burns on her skin where Para had brushed up against her before they realized he was perpetually hot to the touch. Pretty white chamomile flowers, too, once chewed into a paste, made do before she discovered the prickly aloe plants.

“I’ve heard there’s a volcano here,” Paradox adds as they stand on the border to Tephra, and Bee smiles as she feels the rolling heat of the land. “There’s no way you’ll ever be cold here,” she tells him with a grin, nudging his wing feathers with her nose. His feathers are the only part of his body that don’t burn, and she feels safe as he drapes a wing comfortingly across her back. They are a long way from where they were born, but they were both drawn to this place; this kingdom will be home.

bewitched
tell him he's got bad news coming.

[Raul]

The burly golden stallion made his way through the tangled Tephran jungle, eyes peeled for tell-tale snatches of color. He was searching for little birds eye chilies, though it was early to be looking for them. Still, he was hopeful. They were hot little berries, ruby red at the peak of their ripening. If handled carefully, they were also excellent as a treatment for sore muscles and joints, which was why he sought them out today. 

Warlight, love of his life and bane of his sanity had find herself the owner of a dark bargain. The details were less than certain, but he recognized that she had lost a piece of herself to it. Literally. But with the loss of magic came the loss of her physical strength, and he hoped that he could manufacture some balm for her aches that would ease things for her. 

So far he was striking out. No bushes studded with crimson caught his eye, no hot tang on the air. The buckskin stallion told himself he'd turn back soon, with or without his prize. The sun was rising in the sky, and he'd promised Julia they'd take a swim when it got warm enough. Blowing out a sigh of disappointment, Raul lifted his head to turn home. A thread of sound stopped his tracks. 

He followed it, until the thin voices resolved into a pair of children framed in the green. Unfamiliar faces, without an elder in sight. His brow drew into a slight frown. "Are you lost?" He rasped in his broken voice. It was only with reluctance that the stallion spoke. He knew that he did not come off as the most trust inducing figure at first glance, with his blood marked face and his gravelly voice. They seemed rather lost, though, and if he could offer help, he would. 

@[bewitched]

[bewitched]

build love, build God, build provinces - build calluses, break promises
'cause i could never hold a perfect thing and not demolish it
______________________
It must be something like fate that draws the stallion to the pair of children.

Paradox is tired, and is nearly drifting off to sleep when Bee hears approaching hooves, and the subsequent shifting of her weight is enough to rouse Para from his doze. “Wake up, baby brother,” Bee whispers to him as she stands up straighter, her black-and-white body contrasting brilliantly with Para’s flames. Her brother grumbles his dissent - they’re twins, after all; are they really any different in age other than by mere minutes? - but doesn’t speak, still shivering slightly from the cold.

The golden stallion gleams in the rising sunlight, and Bee watches with intrigue as the sun dances off of his blood-red markings. With a smile that hardly betrays her nerves, she steps forward. “Not lost,” she tells him, “but home.” Her answer is a bit vague, and she wonders if he will understand. She still isn’t quite sure what drew her and her twin to this place, but something within her soul tells her that it is where they need to be.

Without further ado, she bursts into their story, her seafoam eyes twinkling in the sun. “When we were born, our mother couldn’t believe how different we looked - my brother is all sunshine, you see, and I am but dusk and shadows compared to him. She called it a paradox. When I started displaying my proficiency in using herbs and crafting spells, she called me a witch and cast us out. We had different names as infants, I’m sure, but we’ve always called each other Paradox and Bewitched, thanks to our mom.”

It’s an info dump - surely more than the strange stallion ever wanted to hear, but Para has never called his sister subtle.

bewitched
tell him he's got bad news coming.

@[Raul]

[Raul]

It was certainly a lot of information. Raul, tacit in his normal existence, held his tongue as the girl spoke. His eyes widened over some parts, narrowed in others, but he was elsewise still as their story was placed before him. 

She spoke like a creature many times older than she looked, and Raul wondered if that were more magic in disguise. The brother was as quiet as a stone beside her, gilded and grim as a statue. An odd little pair. But odd didn't mean bad. 

The older stallion watched them interact as siblings who have been through too much do. No bickering or whining. Just a protector and their charge, trying to get to their next meal, their next safe place to sleep. Exhaling a long breath, he stretched and nodded along as her monologue came to its end. 

"What brings you to Tephra, then?" He asked, wondering if other family might be found for them to reside with. Or if it was merely the turn of fate that had introduced them to the jungle. It was not a bad place to wind up, all told. Plenty of food, plenty of groves and volcanic crevices to call home. If they stayed, he would not mind ensuring they were situated. 

@[bewitched]