"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
‘The world is music, Minah,’ her mother told her, something that her golden grandmother had passed onto Kalina, and so Kalina tells her daughter the same. ‘You just have to listen.’ And Minah has carried this with her into her adulthood and to the different lands she has traveled to. Ocean waves were steady beating drums. The shifting sands, they were gentle strings of violins. Sunrise and sunset, well, an entire orchestra came out to perform.
She finds the music now, sitting in the land of Loess, the land where she has learned her brother is Champion. At least he is still alive, Minah thinks to herself. He is alive and soon, so very soon, she would see him again. How much had he changed? How much had she changed. There was a reason Orani told her to come here, the stars had told her of great battles and had painted a picture of crimson staining Tarian’s silver coat.
Loess is mountainous and chilled, desperately Minah searches for some sort of reminder of the desert home she had lived in, trying to place her feet of familiar ground and offer herself some sort of reassurance. Brown eyes concentrate on a particular stone near a particular peak and decides it reminds her of a boulder she would often pass on her daily strolls with Valda. It is enough (though just barely) to quiet the hammering in her chest. At least for now.
When she spots him, Minah remembers another thing one of her family members told her as her quiet heart roars back to life as a desperate thundering inside her chest.
Monsters slumber before they rise.
They are never truly gone.
Her heart races when she encounters yet another strange man and Minah cannot help but worry herself—has she woken one of those dreaded monsters from its sleep?
I tried to sell my soul last night Funny, he wouldn't even take a bite
Ashhal’s world is most definitely not music. Unless one imagined music consisting of a lot of grunting and cussing. And if anyone ever happened across him with his eyes closed while he appeared to be listening, he was almost certainly asleep. And about to be irritable as fuck when he woke up.
When she finds him however, he is doing neither of those things. In fact, when she finds him, he is staring at a rather large cactus with a fierce scowl dragging at the edges of his lips. It would undoubtedly be an amusing sight to anyone who didn’t know him. Or even to anyone who did. In truth, he was just contemplating the best way to take the thing down.
He might have done it just for fun, but today, surprise of all surprises, he actually has a goal in mind. He had claimed this small corner as his because it is perfectly situated for sunning in the afternoon with a small spring nearby to cool off afterwards. If Ashhal was going to make himself comfortable here… well, he would damned well do it right. And at this particular moment, doing it right included expanding his small clearing to a sufficient size to allow him to fully stretch his wings.
He might have laughed if he had known she worried she had woken a monster from his slumber. Truthfully, he would have agreed with her. He is no gentleman in any sense of the word. Luckily, mind reading is not one of his limited talents, so when he spots her peering uncertainly at him from a short distance away, his scowl only deepens. For a split second, he thinks Tarian has come to pester the fuck out of him again. Just as quickly however, he notes the figure is far too petite - and most importantly, wingless. Had she been another stallion, he would have immediately told her, in no uncertain terms, to leave him the hell alone. He’s still tempted to, but given that she is not, in fact, a stallion, it means that at least one of his favorite activities is quite possibly on the table.
Not that the possibility helps improve his charm overly much when he finally does greet her. “What the hell do you want?”
She makes eye contact with him and Minah cannot deny that she is fascinated for a moment. From a sheltered childhood surround by mostly her family, to having been raised by the Donietas alongside her sister, males outside of her family were a thing not commonly seen by the dappling mare. Her vow had been easy to take, she had held it up and pressed it against her petite breast without question. It did mean she did not actively ever seek out those of the opposite sex, and they certainly did not make their way into the desert if they could help it.
There had been nothing to prepare her for rudeness.
Standoffish, sure, quiet, sure, even boisterous, but rude— Minah is nearly struck dumb on the spot. Brown eyes grow wide and she looks around for her brother who is here, but not here, here, and suddenly she wishes her silver knight were here to save her, but he doesn't come.
And so Minah is left with the dragon in his stead.
His words drop through the silence like guillotine and Minah physically moves her body back and away from him. Her heart fluttering, the curiosity no longer there, instead replaced by a nervous shaking that rattles her bones. While the Donietas had not been male hating (after all Jay was there often as was Tarian) but it was expressed by Valda that there was a certain safety among female and away from the male kind.
“I was looking for my brother.” Tarian. She is hesitant though, what if this stranger does not know her brother is here? What if he was looking for Tarian for all the wrong reasons? While her childhood was sheltered, and her life never threatened within the Donietas, the family stories have taught her to be cautious, if not exceedingly so. “Are you from here?” She asks him. “Do you live in Loess?” She wants to ask, are you safe? But she knows lies are just the easy as the truth for those who do not put stock into it. She cannot help herself though, she is desperate for information regarding her sibling.
I tried to sell my soul last night Funny, he wouldn't even take a bite
It would have amused him to know that she imagined him a dragon, but fortunately for her, he is no mind reader. He is undoubtedly rude however and has been for a very long time. And he most certainly would not change, not even for a small, innocent young woman. Especially not for a small, innocent young woman.
She had to learn the world is a harsh place at some point or another. Why not from him?
He does not react to her fear in the way one might expect. Rather than softening or finding sympathy within himself, the scowl twisting his lips deepens, eyes darkening to a dangerous and stormy black. He had always found such fear trite. He is far from the most dangerous or fearsome beast out there. If she were terrified of him, she had no chance in the world, protective brother or not.
He might have left her then. Left her to her own devices to end as a meal to someone far worse than he. He might have, until she admitted that she was Tarian’s sister. That fact alone gives him pause. He would hardly call himself friend to the stallion, but he did tolerate him far better than he did most. And that was worth something. Not much, but something.
So, instead, he stalks forward. She’s not likely to be much better off in his company, but she’d at least survive him. “I know Tarian,” he replies, his low voice gravelly and harsh. He doesn’t bother answering her other questions. It should be fairly obvious at this point anyway. “But tell me little mouse,” he continues, his eyes gleaming with a new light as he presses closer. Uncomfortably close for her, he doesn’t doubt. “What incentive do I have to tell you where he is?”
In all of Minah’s bedtime stories—the dragon was always slain at the end of them.
Does Ashhal know this? Maybe in the back of Minah’s mind, she knows this, and he slowly shifts from hungry, fire-breathing dragon, into a handsome stallion.
Minah learned as a child that the world is a harsh place, but she just continues to try to believe otherwise. She looks to her family, even the few that remained close to her and she knew that the ancestors, the gods, the old and the new, have still given her them, and Minah, weak, frail, delicate Minah, she is so stubborn in her love and belief of them.
Minah may be foolish—
but oh is she loved, and she loves in return.
She can feel him, pulling away and suddenly she is so frightened of him going without her, of being alone and looking for Tarian on her own. But the quiet whisper of just who her brother is seems to half him in his tracks.
“You do?” She asks him, suddenly all bright smiles and beaming eyes and a face flushed with excitement. Ashhal could be the bogeyman telling her such news and she would react much the same way.
Little mouse, the nickname rings in her ears and echoes.
And she grows slightly nervous once more. While her body is like stone, there is a slight tremor in her voice. “I don't know. I don't have anything to give,” she says and slowly blinks earthen eyes. She traces a circle in the dirt below her feet, suddenly becoming all to aware of how close he is. “What do you want?”
I tried to sell my soul last night Funny, he wouldn't even take a bite
If he truly were a dragon, he would be a particularly hard one to kill. More’s the pity. (And ironic, though he does not know it, considering a daughter he has never met is in fact a dragon in truth.) Fortunately for everyone involved, he is not. What fire he breathes is simply foul words no maiden would likely care to hear.
It’s not hard to see that she is a rather timid creature, given how she trembles beneath his glare. It’s strangely pleasing in a way, to know that he still has the ability to frighten. But then, he rarely spends any time to speak of around women like Minah. No, his time is most often spent with those who are just as jaded and lost as he is. The last mare he’d been with who still had joy in life had quickly given up on him when she found him far more irascible than she’d anticipated.
Perhaps that’s why her sudden excitement and beaming smile causes his ears to flatten, disappearing into the impossible tangle of his pale mane. It doesn’t last, but it had been enough of a reminder.
He is close enough to feel the heat of her. Close enough he could almost feel her tremors vibrating against him. Just as quickly as the excitement had come, it fades as she stares hard at the ground. As though there is something far more fascinating in her feet than his hard expression.
I don’t have anything to give, she says, and he laughs. It is not a gentle or kind laugh, but he is truly amused at her naivete. It’s been a very long time since he’s been around anyone quite so… simple. “Don’t you?” he grunts skeptically. His wings lift slightly, and he is standing so close the feathered tip of one brushes her shoulder. “I don’t fucking believe that.” For a moment, he stares at her, as though he expects her to suddenly understand. But he knows she won’t, sheltered as she has been, so he continues rather wickedly. “What I want is something far better shown than told.”
