it was not your fault but mine

[Nashua]

Finding Gale on the Island Resort was, perhaps, the thing he had least expected. 

The spring storm has finally moved off enough that Nashua can think of returning home once his wings dry out. He’ll have plenty of other things to think about, too. But his mind goes first to Yanhua and Nash has to fight internally with himself about leaving immediately to find his twin brother. 

Waterlogged wings would make travel slow and tire him out. Better to let his wings dry and get some rest before he left so he could make the journey back to Taiga that much swifter. One dark brown ear flicks to the sound of thunder still rumbling in the distance and Nashua shakes his wings out again for… He doesn’t know. The sixth? Seventh time? The two-year-old pegasus has lost track. 

He moves along the beach, heading towards the Northeast part of the island. As soon as the weather permits, the trip home will be quicker from that point of the tropical islet. What he doesn’t expect to find on the black sand beach is another wanderer. Nash stops when he spots the figure - some stray part of the night sky that got wrapped around the stallion in front of him instead. 

Nashua eyes the celestial-marked male - especially the tattoo on his left shoulder - before a lopsided smile emerges on his pale mouth. "Wonderful weather we’re having,” the young pegasus jokes, his heading tilting towards the dark clouds that had begun to vanish on the horizon. The wind picks up again and the older stallion doesn’t have any of the brine or saline clinging to his skin as Gale had. He gets a faint whiff of sulfur and can take a guess where the other horse might come from. 

"Care for some company?” Nash asks and partially flares his still-soaked wings from the previous downpour. The smile turns boyish and it’s meaning obvious: Nashua certainly had the time if the other male didn’t mind some conversation. 

nashua

and the days you defend will turn to gold

html by castlegraphics; art by KHARTHIAN

@[Aedan]

[Aedan]

aedan --

He’d started the day with Vita and Bran, as he always did, though after some time he found himself kind of useless in that trio. There were days he’d take Bran out just the two of them, and other days all three would do something. And there were days when Vita and her son needed their own time together and so Aedan left. Maybe one of these days he’d get a job and try being productive, but that had never proven to be his strength once upon a time. Though he was older than when he’d tried many years ago.

Today he finds himself wandering the beaches. They’d never really gotten the chance to decide where home might be. Aedan had just enough time to talk to Gale before Vita made her way here and gave birth to their first child. He didn’t know he could love quite so much, and while he is so thankful and full of joy, it is also absolutely terrifying.

The sound of another male’s voice is a welcome distraction from his thoughts, and he turns his attention to see a young man making his way over toward him. His wings seem to be rather wet from the rather constant rain of this place, though Aedan found he didn’t necessarily mind the somewhat crummy weather. He’s always been a creature of the night, and he didn’t mind a dreary day either. ”Sure,” he says in a casual, easy going away.

Aedan steps to the aside slightly, giving the other man space to join him. ”Are you from here?” he asks, given that it’s not like he knows anyone else around these parts (if there even if anyone). ”I’m Aedan, by the way.”

@[Nashua]

[Nashua]

The thoughtful wanderer Nashua had happened across seemed just as content to amble with him as he had alone. It’s an easy thing to do, Nash thinks. There is something about walking a beach that could slow down any amount of time. The peaceful lull of the waves. The calming blue strokes of Island Resort’s turning tide.

If his thoughts weren’t already soaring home, the traveler could easily wander here too (days that he imagines could easily turn into weeks).

He holds his wings out partially from his sides as the last few drops run in rivulets and drop to the black sand they stand on; Nashua looks more apologetic than charming. His smile still stays lopsided but it’s more rueful than charismatic. The glamorous life of a pegasus. The midnight-marked stallion moves to the side with an invitation and Nashua, never hesitant to make a new acquaintance, tucks his wings back and easily accepts.

Nashua gives a nod and starts to fall into stride with the older man. "I’m not,” says the younger one. He turns his head to the side to glance at Aedan, "I was born in Taiga though I recently took up residence on the Isle.” He says before he can correct himself. "Icicle Isle.” A once-polar opposite to the island that the two stallions found themselves walking on. Nash nods again, acknowledging the name of his companion. @[Aedan].

"Nashua,” he replies. The winged colt had been grounded because of the storm but he wonders, "what brought you out to the Island?” It's a territory that he's heard little about and the residents even less so Nash wonders if Aedan had come seeking the quiet or something else.

nashua

and the days you defend will turn to gold

html by castlegraphics; art by KHARTHIAN

[Aedan]

Aedan can see the clearly wet wings, though he can’t really sympathize. He has no wings and so he cannot understand what it is like. He does not even know what it is like to fly, though perhaps he could learn the joys. There is a way, though his power would be far too useless during the day. It would only be at night that he could use his traits to lift him into the air, and perhaps he ought to figure it out. Not because he cares to travel faster from one place to the next (after all, the journey is the most fun part), but rather to fly with Vita. That is not a thing they have ever done, but he has not yet quite figured out just what his power can do. He has only discovered bits of it.

The pegasus falls into step with him easily enough, offering an answer to his question. ”I have never visited there,” he says, the conversation flowing easily. Aedan has visited many places, though most have been outside of Beqanna. Still, he’d been an explorer in his younger days, a thing he’d lost as he’d grown (though perhaps now would refind). ”What is it like there?”

Nashua gives a name and his own question. ”I was raised in Tephra. A lovely place, but never quite home. I was seeking a place that actually felt like home and came to visit. My wife,” (the word still feels strange to him; perhaps it always will), ”ended up giving birth here before we could make a decision. So at least for now, it seems we will not be leaving.” Perhaps there would be a time when they decided to go elsewhere, but this did not seem like a bad place to live or raise a family.

aedan

the night is more alive and more
richly colored than the day.

@[Nashua]

[Nashua]

Nash gives his brown wings one more slight shake before settling alongside the galaxy-marked stallion. The younger stallion looks ahead but an ear that flicks to the sound of Aedan’s voice and catches his question. He wonders momentarily if his companion means Taiga or the Isle. Compromising, the pegasus answers with both. "Changing,” he says of Icicle Isle, meaning it’s scorched ground and the residents. "The Freyr - Leilan - has been hosting wards from all corners of Beqanna.” That, perhaps, wasn’t anything new for the Land of the Sunrise.

Kingdoms had fostered the youth of royalty and diplomats before. "We learn about the arts of war but also what it looks like.” He ends on that note somewhat grimly as his good-natured smile thins to a line. There is a group of rambunctious colts that spar and run and test their wings on Leilan’s shore. For the ones that want to learn how to fight (and Nash is certainly one of them), they learn about the devastation that can come after. "There’s talk about the possibility of Magicians or healers coming soon, to help revitalize the land.” A few more steps and Nashua glances over to @[Aedan], suddenly curious to see his reaction. That was what Nash found the most exciting - he liked the idea that he might be a part of this new beginning for Icicle Isle.

"And as for Taiga,” he grins and it shines. There is warmth coming from the broadness of that smile. For as much as Nashua will try to fill his future with adventure and exploration, there will always be an anchoring love for his boyhood home. "It’s a place I think every horse should see at least once.” His green eyes brighten, thinking of its proud Redwoods. A horse would never find a mightier forest in all of Beqanna.

The pair continue to walk along the dark shores of paradise and the pegasus listens as Aedan explains that he was raised in Tephra. A wife and the start of a family was the start of setting his roots in the sandy ground of Island Resort. Though he hasn’t seen everything that Beqanna has to offer (yet), Nash thinks there could be worse places to live or to raise a child. The scent of tropical flowers wafting sweetly on the wind seem to agree with him. And with beaches like this?

There was a world of possibilities to be had here without ever leaving the coastline.

Thinking of all those possibilities and his own youth in Taiga makes him curious. "What was growing up in Tephra like?” Teasing, he adds: "Ever try climbing the volcano?”

nashua

and the days you defend will turn to gold

html by castlegraphics; art by KHARTHIAN

[Aedan]

Aedan listens as the young man speaks about the Isle. There’s something vaguely akin to jealousy, to realise that this boy was shaped by someone who cared. Not that his parents didn’t care about him, but they never gave him a direction. No one trained him in either diplomacy or war. No one suggested he find a purpose. No one until Vita, that is. Perhaps, in so many ways, it had always been Vita giving him any reason at all to care, to keep going.

Aedan cocks his head slightly at the mention of revitalizing the land. ”Forgive my ignorance, but I admit Vita and I left Beqanna for a while. What happened?” He knows nothing of the destruction Castile wreaked upon the Isle, though he would at least recognize the name.

Nash’s smile is infectious though, and Aedan grins in response. ”Well, then I will make it a point to visit one day.” Though the topic turns to Tephra, and perhaps like Nash, there will always be a part of his heart that loves his birth land. It was his first home, if not his forever home. ”Of course I did,” he says with a rougish grin. ”A trip that was cut short when their was too much lava to pass on foot, and the heat. It’s impossibly and miserably hot as you climb that thing. Wings would probably have made the trip a bit easier.” He hadn’t had quite the same power as a boy that he did now, though admittedly, he still doesn’t tend to fly.

aedan

the night is more alive and more
richly colored than the day.

@[Nashua]

[Nashua]

There have been some misfortunes in Nashua's young life and @[Aedan] assumes right, that there have been some fortunes as well. His story is perhaps not unique. A distant father. An absent mother. The loss of both parents had forced he and Yanhua to grow up quicker than most colts their age. They were safe in Taiga but safe is nothing against the loss of a mother. It did nothing to keep them warm at night. It did nothing to put their nightmares to rest.

They had been fortunate to have Mother-Aunts. There had been Lethy and Elio and Celina. There had been Leilan, who seemed to take an interest in the wayward Nashua who wandered then as he does now. Maybe he recognized a compass needed a path to point down. Maybe there was a searching in Nash that Leilan recognized, something he had already found.

It's given Nashua purpose and in all his wanderings, it gives him a course.

If not for the Freyr, the chestnut pegasus might have found it harder to smile so amiably with Aedan. It makes it easy to speak of what happened to the Isle without ire. "It was razed by a dragon named Castile," Nashua explains. "There were others as well... but that seems to the name that the Northerner's remember." The young stallion shrugs his shoulders. He had never met the former King of Loess. "They said that he went mad and feral on Fey Magic. Undone by it and so he sought to undo something."

The Isle, his silence says.
(And now they would reshape and remake it, the glint of determination in his green eyes show.)

That the celestial-marked stallion says he will visit Taiga makes the infectious smile turn to a broad one. "Ask for my brother, Yanhua, or my mother, Lilliana, if you do. They would like your stars." He has been raised up on stories of them. An appreciation for them stems deep within his bloodline and Nashua thinks that his family would admire Aedan as he does now. "If your little one can make the journey, there is no better place to play hide-and-seek." Nash says with the experience of a child who knows and he grins. He had been a colt who hid beneath the large ferns and behind the wide trunks of Redwood trees, who had learned to disappear in the fog.

"Perhaps," the striped pegasus banters back. "Though the heat would have bothered me as well." His last visit to Tephra hadn't been about the volcano, he remembers. He had been disappointed that the yearlings they had encountered that day had been more interested in its lake. "I used to think that the cold would bother me, too. But places seem to have a way of growing on you."

NASHUA

[Aedan]

”Ah,” he says, offering a sympathetic nod when Nash tells him of the dragon who burned (or really, perhaps mostly melted) a place made of ice. There is no pity though, because Aedan doesn’t necessarily do pity. Understanding, sympathy, but not pity. ”I gather the fey are well...fey. They have a purpose to serve, but one that we do not entirely understand.” His own parents had told him of their experience with the fey - something altogether different and yet...not. In the end, hadn’t the fairy sent his father to face the mess he had created? That seemed to be what they did. Made all the mortals see in ways they otherwise might not.

Sometimes it was not a pretty thing for those around them, though.

The topic drifts on to Taiga, and the mention of his stars makes him grin slightly. Aedan had no need for fairy magic, but he’d been gifted so much of the night that he could not ask for more from them. He did not need even, even if he was largely powerless during the day (he could pick at the shadows, but it wasn’t really the same). That did not bother him though. ”Sometimes I think I am little more than a spectacle. I find myself glad there are others even more strangely colored than I.” The tone of his voice is easy and casual though, carrying on conversation in a joking manner. It is clear being a bit of a spectacle did not bother him. He was a piece of the night, after all. A strange thing for an equine to be.

Aedan chuckles as the conversation continues. “I imagine being a man of snow would make it even harder to withstand the heat now. Perhaps that is a journey best left for the middle of a cold, winter night. I could climb the stars instead and hug the coolness of the evening to me.” He sounds just a bit wistful at the mention of the night. Though he was used to living during the daylight, as many did, he was often awake in the evenings as well, finding he’d nap instead when the days gave him pause. There was too much for him to love at night to waste the time, even if most did not enjoy it with him.

aedan

the night is more alive and more
richly colored than the day.

[Nashua]

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

"Is it something for us mere mortals to know?” Nashua teases. He has been the Mountain twice and the feeling of the rock beneath his hooves was like… anything he had ever known. The chestnut pegasus knew he could wander and explore the four wide corners of Beqanna and never known a pulse of Magic that strong.

His own quest from the faeries is still something that he has been considering and has told himself that eventually, he might come to understand. Perhaps. If it was something that the Mountain wanted him to realize, he thinks as he walks alongside Aedan. The grace of Magic or something of the like, he supposes.

Nashua flicks his flaxen tail and continues to walk, listening as the star-marked stallion shares more of himself. Nash’s green eyes glance over the constellations that dot Aedan’s neck and the young pegasus smiles. "It’s an easy thing to admire the stars,” he says. The pegasus keeps the current tone flowing between them, this easy banter but it’s the truth he speaks when he adds, "I often keep company with Polaris.” He speaks of the North star, that enduring guide which makes even the playful Nashua feel ephemeral.

And then joking again adds with a grin, "hard to get lost so long as the same star points North.”

But what @[Aedan] speaks of next is the thing that lights Nashua to his very core; the winged youth has yet to learn limits. "Why stop at the stars?” He wonders and looks up, despite the hour of the day they find themselves in. His short two years clearly visible, "do you think that the night goes further than we can see?”

NASHUA

html by castlegraphics; art by MirrorLands

[Aedan]

Aedan chuckles at that. “Probably not,” he says with an amused grin. He has never made the trip to the Mountain, though he had no need of additional magic. In all reality, he barely scratched the surface of what he could do, usually doing little more than to call to the light of the stars in the evenings. What need does he have of yet more power?

They continue to walk and talk with ease, and Aedan finds he likes the young stallion. Not that Aedan dislikes most people, but he can appreciate some more than others. “If I could speak to the stars, I wonder what Polaris might say. How many stories could such a being tell us?” He can do many things, but speaking to stars is not one of them. It is entirely likely that stars cannot talk at all, that they are not sentient beings, but he likes to think of them as such. There is hardly anything wrong with a bit of fanciful thinking.

Aedan chuckles at the joke though. ”Perhaps Polaris just tells stories of how imbeciles manage to get lost despite his help.” A clear joke, and probably a bad one, but he really can’t help himself.

Nashua seems to light up at the next part though, alive with desire and dreams. Aedan grins slightly. ”There is far more than we can see. More stars, more planets, more galaxies. I cannot reach past the stars in our sky with my power, but I do know it is out there.” Around them, he lets darkness fall, calling to it subtly. He stops walking for a moment, the area around them turning pitch black, though in the distance the sun can still be seen. The night sky comes with a world of stars though, and if you imagine, you can imagine them stretching forever. Some might gleam brighter, a different color, planets that might house more life. Things they might never know. ”It is a beautiful thing, the night. It is a shame too many are afraid.”

aedan

the night is more alive and more
richly colored than the day.

@[Nashua]