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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]  and we're finally aligning; any
    #1

    The warm spring sun is at her back as the almost two-year old ventures out into the world.

    She’s been sneaking away from her father her entire life to explore her surroundings in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be possible if he knew.  She does it when he is plagued by his nightmares, usually at night when the moon hangs suspended in the sky above.  It is the only light she’s traveled by, the moonlight, her constant companion; today is the first time she’s been allowed to really leave Sabrael’s side with his blessing while the sun is up.

    Altais is filling out from the scrawny girl she’d been, but there is still a touch of childhood left in the naivety of her pale purple eyes and the ever-present bounce in her step.  It is evident that she has never been touched by the dark, even as she’s traveled through it - Sabrael had made sure of that.  She has had an idyllic first couple of years growing up in the wild parts of their world with only the birds and small animals as friends.  Altais had always asked after the other children, always asked to play with them if she saw them in the distance, but she had always been denied.  It could be dangerous, her father had told her, you just never know where the monsters lurk.  Today, she wonders if she will find out.

    Shadows replace the sun on her topline, and she shivers at the sudden change in temperature.  She’s not thinking of monsters, though, not worried about the transition from light to dark; Altais had spent those hours between sundown and sunup showing herself that there is nothing to be afraid of.  Instead, she looks for signs of life.  Eagerness to experience all she can curls like a coil in her breast ready to spring.  She moves gently over the leaf litter and steps further into the shadows without fear.

    altais

    Photo by Sean Pierce at Unsplash



    ooc: sorry it's short! getting to know her still
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    #2
    Sea scent still clings to his dark hard, and Quell tosses the damp curtain away from his mismatched eyes. One silver eye (like his mother’s) and one gold eye (like his father’s) stare out at the shadowy Meadow from a darkly handsome face. Unlike either of his parents, Quell lacks any sort of ethereal beauty. It would look out of place on him anyway, with his well-scarred sides and near-constant frown.

    That frown settles now on a dark-haired girl who moves through the gathering night with no fear at all.

    “What’re you doing out here?” He asks abruptly, his voice a low rumble in the darkness. He steps out of the tall thicket of grasses in which he stood, revealing himself in the weak starlight. Quell is not sure if she had seen him, standing there quietly, but he is now difficult to miss, even in the soft light. The scales of his black dragon wings fade into speckled grey skin. He still wears the color pattern of his pinniped shape, a freckled leopard seal. In his natural state, black and white and gold, he’d be nearly impossible to see. He considers shifting back, as holding the pattern does require some focus, but had decided against it.

    If he is already wearing the skin, it is quicker to shift other parts of his anatomy as well.

    He practices that now, perhaps to see how far from fearful the girl is, and yawns to reveal a set of teeth made for fleshy meals. Some part of him finds the idea of frightening her appealing, though he cannot say why. The last wandering girl he'd found he'd been eager to usher away from danger, yet he feels no similar urge for this colorful stranger. Is it because she is not a child, or because she is nearer his own age? She is old enough to know better, for sure, and yet still she is out here in the darkness. 

    The part of him that does not wish to frighten her instead admires her, and the boldness of someone who looks so fragile.

    @[Altais]
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    #3

    The night blooms around her like a flower opening.  

    But instead of petals, it is the delicate play of shadows under the streaming moonlight that spreads before the wandering girl.  She delights in the silvered bark of a thick oak tree.  She is mesmerized by the deep canyons of its skin and the way the shadows seem to lie in wait between each one; she knows waiting herself and wonders how many years this tree has been rooted here between worlds both dark and light.

    It is a sobering thought, but Altais won’t let it ruin her good mood.

    The filly presses on until the soft light glowing like embers beyond the treeline is far behind her.  Ahead, blue-white light only cascades down through the jutting boughs of the trees here and there to speckle and sparkle the ground.  She doesn’t miss the stars, she finds, despite her resemblance to them.  She doesn’t search for them in desperation every time she comes to pass under a hole in the canopy.  Not even a glimpse of Ursa major out of the corner of her eye garners a second glance.  She is absorbed by the night and the dark and her own fearlessness.

    “Oh,” her voice pierces the sacred quiet like an arrow when he surprises her.  He doesn’t scare her though, and that is an important distinction to Altais.  She merely hadn’t seen him there.  But when she does, she turns to take him in fully, her amethyst eyes open and trusting.  She sees that he is like her in many ways that he doesn’t realize yet.  Maybe if he is not one of Father’s monsters, she will show him.  Maybe if he is a monster, she will still show him.  A sweet smile curls her lips and she cocks her head at him.  “I didn’t realize Out Here had its own king.  Should I bow before continuing on?”

    altais

    Photo by Sean Pierce at Unsplash



    @[quell]
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