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    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


    this is going to bring me clarity
    #1
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Ahead of them is a youthful looking creature that he knows only is the son of his brother. Which brother he is not certain, but it does not matter much.

    Gale glances over at Mazikeen, and is surprised to see recognition on her face. He looks back at the child, and then at the Alpha, and wonders how she knows him. The Curse is not certain - like most of his host’s family, the memories of his brothers are blurred and unreliable. Does he know this child?

    It doesn’t matter, and he looks back at Mazikeen.

    “Would you like to tell the boy what’s happening, or shall I?” The Curse will terrify him if she allows him to speak more, that is for sure, but it offers her this opportunity to do something else. As long as she remains obedient, of course, and it feels certain she will. It trusts their recent engagement to keep her emotionally off balance, eager to keep things peaceful, and compliant.

    He smiles, and wonders what exactly he might ask for in exchange for his nephew. Will Mazikeen object to sending bits of @bolder back to his family? Or will she make up the difference in the ransom they demand?

    @Mazikeen


    this is a steal for Bolder, to Hyaline, with a year sentence but Gale would prefer to shorten the sentence for a ransom. Star gave ooc permission for him to be stolen since he doesn't have an account yet!
    Reply
    #2
    mazikeen
    Mazikeen does not have a second to think about this new trick of Gale’s, the one that has them appear in Taiga in the blink of an eye. Her head is spinning from the events that have already transpired tonight, memories of teeth against her throat and an easing of her obedience. It is good to have something else to focus on, even though she is queasy with both the fact that Bolder is who she had first thought of and what they are here to do.

    A small smile appears in her orange eyes and she hopes the boy will recognize her even though she is a dark, winged panther crowned with glowing horns. She’s about to greet him when Gale turns to her and speaks. She shoots him a murderous look - letting him know that he should keep his mouth shut - before she focuses on Bolder.

    It is not hard for that smile to return, her memories of their shiting lesson by the lake are fond ones and she had wanted to see him again. And she had hoped, too, that since he was a familiar face the handling of the ransom might go easier.

    “Hey, Bolder.” Now she gestures to the lion at her, as though this is any other visit. There are burning markings down her back still, though she knows only Gale will recognize what they mean. “This is your uncle, Gale.” Mazikeen feels disconnected from the friendly tone of voice she’s using, from how easy it is to pull on this mask in front of the now-yearling. She refrains from describing her companion as anything that begins with the word 'my'. Her relationship with Gale had been confusing to define a year ago and it had only gotten steadily worse and worse.

    Mazikeen's never tried to kidnap someone before but she knows this boy, and thinks it'll be easier if he knows who they both are - and maybe, just maybe, he will come willingly. “I’d like for you to come back to Hyaline with us, okay? We can practice some more of your shifting. Gale's pretty good at it too.” Sadness and revulsion threaten to break the easy manner with which she's speaking as she gestures for Bolder to join them. She doesn't know how close he has to be for Gale to take them out of here, or if they'll need to leave the old-fashioned way. She's just hoping they won't have to physically grab him in order to finish what they've started.
    Reply
    #3
    The old Goaticorn had more or less abandoned doing the rounds. Taiga was, as he’d always said, an open place for horsekind to enter and exit freely. If that useless boy Targaryen was ever around (he thought with an elder’s gruff appreciation) well then he could do it. Or maybe Reynard might get an itch to help. Or someone else, he didn’t care.

    But the ingression of a pair of horses deep into the inner heartswood did peak the interest of the bearded, somewhat lucid stallion.

    Residue. The sticky, clinging memory of an encounter he’d had with Mazikeen suddenly came to mind - bringing a moment of clarity with it - and Yan raised a cotton-filled head toward the source of it. His companion, a hefty hen chicken covered in bold, red feathers, pecked once or twice at his forehead to keep him focused. At her behest the long-legged hybrid took off in a trot to meet the Hyaline leader.

    Upon his arrival he exclaimed, “What’s this?! Mazikeen? Gale?” At the magnificent pair, and then (looking down) he saw Bolder - Nash’s boy. “And little brave Bolder too?”

    Wasn’t this a surprise!

    He sensed nothing of the tension that might’ve been obvious to anyone else happening on the scene, had little to no inclination of what was actually happening or had been occurring beyond the boundaries of his magical forest. If anything, his appearance could forestall the moment to come - but Yanhua didn’t decipher true intentions anymore. He wandered the woods and muttered to himself most days.

    But then, suspiciously, his eyes narrowed.

    “Wait a minute…” The horned chestnut acted serious. The hen atop his his (nested comfortably between his two large, backwards-curving horns) clucked low and long: trrrrk trrrk

    “Is it my birthday?” Yan’s expression brightened, sure he’d figured out what was going on. “Are you all planning a surprise party?!!”


    OOC: I’m not sure if this qualifies as a block but it’s certainly “something”.
    Reply
    #4

    Frowning into the trees, Noel silently counts, peering through the brush and around trunks. Four. She’s quite certain there’s only four. With a soft sigh, Noel undertakes the task of tracking down her missing son, far more exasperated than worried. They do have a penchant for slipping away though, and with Nash away, it has become infinitely more difficult to keep track of them all at once.

    He couldn’t have gone far though.

    Drifting quietly through the trees, footsteps fading slowly behind, it doesn’t take her long to hear the sound of voices. Turning towards them, she approaches cautiously, not wishing to interrupt if it were something important. When she catches sight of Bolder however, she abandons caution in favor of collecting her son. She’s not certain why he had decided to insert himself in such a meeting, but she is quite certain he shouldn’t be there.

    It doesn’t take her long to realize something is not quite right nowever. White feathers ruffling as she lifts her wings, she glances between the two strangers, a frown pulling at her lips. After a moment, her gaze falls to her son. “Come here Bolder,” she says softly, unable to keep the thread of urgency from her voice. “Let’s leave them to their discussion, we shouldn’t be interrupting.”

    - noel



    Noel is also here to block
    Reply
    #5



    Tornados from a butterfly's wing


    Concern riddled the ebon mare, for reasons that grew more apparent as days went by. Yanhua, stalwart fulcrum of their family, had been acting out of character lately. Borderline had been ill, they said. And Leilan had intervened. That had been all, she'd thought, but her mate's behavior following the event had spoken differently. 

    Touching on his emotions, she found Confusion muddled everything else. It was so deep and entwined with everything else that the little mare was having difficulty suggesting anything new. Whatever emotion she tried was quickly contaminated with his overarching bewilderment. She didn't know what to make of it, and halfway to making up her mind to pay the ice dragon a visit herself, if only to sort out exactly what had triggered this change. 

    That half-mind made itself up when she stumbled on the scene of her golden mate rambling almost incoherently to a trio of others. Bolder, she recognized. The nephew was of an age with Saturnelle and Wit, children of the tight knit forest family. The other two, grown horses that she knew by description only, felt less certain in these woods. 

    "Gale, isn't it?" She asked offhanded, her attention focused mainly on the fuzzy-minded Yan. Her shoulder butted up to his, her stained-glass wings shuddering briefly at the contact. "And... Mazikeen, if I'm not mistaken?" She smiled faintly at the pair, lovers from what she knew. And yet... Something nagged at her, a tightness in the air that belied any romance. Sadness, Fear, Revulsion... Something cold stroked Ama's spine. 

    This wasn't right. Not in the slightest, and her crystalline eyes narrowed slightly at the realization. And it was worse than she knew. Carefully, carefully, she stepped back internally, trying to unweave the threads of emotions and walk them back to their originators. 

    They all lead back to the starkly colored woman. Of the striped stallion she could feel nothing. No emotions, no feelings of any sort resonated from him. She could have gotten a better reading from a rock. Whatever he was, he wasn't a horse. Not really. 

    A hard swallow forced its way past her throat. There was no counting on Yan, not how he was right now. And there was something deeply Afraid in the horned mare, something that had shaken her to the core. Ama was beginning to feel a bit of that herself. There was something bigger at stake now, however. She could sort out the who's and why's later, for now: 

    "Bolder, does your mama know you're visiting?" She asked, putting as much motherly consternation into her voice as she could. "Foals, I swear, they'll get into trouble the first moment you take your eyes off them. Bolder, go run along and find your cousins, Saturnelle has been going on non-stop about the spider-pup she thinks she's gonna tame. Maybe you can talk her out of it? Do you have any children?" She asked switching between Bolder and the adults with concentrated breeziness.

    It was all babble, just to keep them taking while she sorted out what to do about this. First things first was getting the colt away from the quietly bubbling situation. Next was figuring out what had made the stallion so empty, the mare so afraid.

    ...Amarine



    Edit: Ama is also attempting to block
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    #6

    It all happens so fast.

    One moment, Bolder is wandering beneath the Sequoias and wondering what to do with the rest of his day (while practicing darkening his chestnut coat to match the deep shadows and then brightening with the sun). His father has gone back to the Isle and so goes the hope that another visit to Hyaline will happen soon. It is almost always the same with his sire. There is always something else he must do first and then whatever comes after steals the rest of his time.

    And then there is none left to travel to Hyaline.

    The yearling pegasus has been told not to go on his own. He's still too young to venture that far (or so Nashua has said). And that his Aunt Mazikeen is the Alpha of the entire East; he has been reminded that she will be busy raising a family of her own as well as ruling a kingdom. But he still wishes to go. It's often in his young mind and today - as if brought there by Magic - his wish is granted. It isn't quite the white mare (or pastel-colored feline or black-and-brown beast) that he remembers but Bolder suddenly sees her glowing horns and smiles enthusiastically.

    "Maze!" her former pupil chimes in greeting, moving into a high-stepping trot to meet the pair. When he comes to stop in front of them, his silver gaze moves to the lion beside her. Another shifter, he wonders? Having never seen that kind of animal before, he studies the feline creature until his eyes widen at the mention of coming back to Hyaline to practice his shifting again. "Really?" he suddenly asks, because all he has heard from Nashua is no.

    It seems like just thinking of his sire brings his other Uncle - Yanhua - who had, until recently, been a constant presence in the Redwoods. His unkempt mane and the chicken roosting between his horns make the youth concerned and the striped boy looks over his shoulder to see his Aunt Amarine in quick pursuit of her mate and then, finally, his mother. It's her that Bolder goes to reassure first. "Nah, Ma. It's okay." He then looks to his Aunt Ama, "This is Aunt Mazikeen and Uncle Gale." says the boy who has been raised by a large family that has shown him nothing but love and  affection.

    He looks back at Maze to smile again, as if to bridge the two small groups that had formed and he glances up to other Uncle, "Like Uncle Yan." Bolder chirps again and looks back to the pair from Hyaline, "though I don't think he has horns or a beard."

    [Image: 37477440_mkk7ul7XODhpdJ7.png]
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    #7
    REMINDER: only leader(s), the champion, and the horse being stolen can block steals.

    team 1
    GALE: 18
    MAZIKEEN: 17

    team 2
    YANHUA: 5
    BOLDER: 14

    18 v 14 -> steal is successful
    [Image: Leah.png]
    Reply
    #8
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Disinterested in her methods, Gale does not listen to the conversation that passes between the white mare and the boy. Instead he looks into the shadowed woods, alert and wary.

    First is a horned stallion the he recognizes as Gale’s brother, but before he can reply there is an uncomfortable probing sensation, one that must surely be coming from one of the two mares who’ve joined them.

    One of them names other children, and the Curse decides that perhaps later they will come back for this Saturnelle.

    For now, he is eager to be rid of the burden of company.

    “It’s time to go.” He snaps at Mazikeen, ignoring the rest of the assembled horses. And then, before the boy’s mother can reach them, before his aunt or uncle can save him, the three of them - Gale, Mazikeen, and Bolder - are suddenly gone.

    They’ll know where to find them, Gale knows.

    Perhaps when they come to fetch him they’ll bring something worth trading.




    current appearance: navy blue and perlino stallion
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