home is behind the world ahead
there are many paths to tread

The way down the cliffside had not been easy - however, Toulouse had landed on these shores once, when the boat he had bartered a ride upon had dumped him unceremoniously on Terrastella’s rocky shores. He had found a similar path then, one that twisted its way up the side of the rock and deposited him safely on the grass above.

Perhaps that was why he had braved the cliffside now, with its treacherous path and the sea wind clawing at his hair - because of experience.

He would have laughed then, if he wasn’t concentrating on where to put his feet.

Toulouse picks his way carefully along the past, and his relief is nearly palpable when the cliffside opens up and reveals a cave cut into the side. Any sense of caution is thrown to the wind then as he lets the shadows swallow him alive, and he treads where only dark and vile creatures dwell. Somehow it feels right, although he doesn’t admit so even to himself.

His footsteps ring out against the stone floor, polished smooth by the waves and the wind and whatever chisels the carvers had used. They echo across through the cave, bouncing off the walls - and as he pushes aside the cell door, he sees for the first time that he is not alone. He had half expected to find a prisoner here - or perhaps the remains of one - but one looks tells him that she is no outlaw, and she did not write the note that has been left for them.

He draws alongside her silently, and tilts his eyes up to read.

One great eye gazes out from the ocean.
Laid to waste by that which eats but has no mouth,
Always hungry, fed by those black of heart.
Roman greensward west by south.

He lifts one brow, mirroring her expression.

“Not even a bit.” His voice is smooth, almost lazy; as if it had been a small amount of effort that brought him here. He looks at her from the corner of one eye, gaze lingering over the smile that turns her lips upwards.

That which eats, but has no mouth…

A thousand possibilities race through his mind, but only one seems to fit.

“The ocean carved these caves, at least in the beginning, before Terarstella’s builders further remodeled them,” he says slowly, thoughtfully. “The ocean. It eats away at the rock until only a pillar remains, and that too, eventually falls prey to it.” Perhaps that was Novus’ fate, to one day be reduced to sand to line the bottom of an ever-growing ocean. He shakes his head.

“We?” He looks at her properly now, with interest. She would do nicely. Toulouse had not intended to accept help from this venture - but she was offering. And the innocence he found in her voice was strangely alluring. It reminds him distantly of the boy from Dawn, the pegasus that was only too eager to say whatever it was Toulouse wanted to hear…

He smiles back, and the wolfish glint in his eyes is fleeting. 

“Is there an island south of Terrastella, do you know?”




@Juniper these will get better I promise
I love jun

home is behind the world ahead
there are many paths to tread

He laughs, and it’s all teeth and charm. Their scarves are curling together, green and grey interchanging, and he presses himself closer to her.

”Well,” he says, his voice low as he turns to look at her. ”I suppose I can’t argue with that, can I?”

He twists his head to look back at the inscription, his eyes weaving down each curved line of red. He pretends to focus, pretends to recite the words to himself the same way she has - but he already knows the words by heart, as if their bloody letters had been carved into his own heart. Toulouse never did forget anything, let alone something as important - as mysterious and tantalizing in its enigma - as this.

His teeth are white and bright in the darkness when he smiles. ”I do. Let’s be off then.”

The outside air is cool and refreshing, the sea sending waves of mist and salt over them both. He stops at the edge of the cliff, and takes a moment to braid his hair back from his face, although it’s hard when the wind keeps trying to tear it out of his grasp. He smoothes it down with more rose oil, and ties it off in a bun.

In the distance is the island, bobbing like a sailboat among the waves.

”Quite the trip from here to there,” he comments dryly. ”It’s been a while since I last swam in the ocean.” His tone alone conveys his displeasure at the idea of having to swim in it now. The last time Toulouse had been in the ocean, he had been washing up like a drowned rat on these very shores.

He was not too keen on repeating the process, not even for Prudence.




@Juniper 
figured this one could be the actual getting-to-the-island one??
since the other thread is them already on the island now

home is behind the world ahead
there are many paths to tread

He can feel her amusement - it’s bleeding from her every pore, coloring the air around them until it chafes against his skin and sets his jaw tightly in a smile he refuses to let drop. Even through the insult, and the laughter, and the soft purr of her voice, he smiles. And all the while he thinks that she does not know the rage that coils like a snake inside of his chest, or how close it is to striking.

If he was more like his brother today, he might have already snapped.

But he is not a wolf today, hungry and pacing at the door of a lamb; he needs her, the same way she needs him. So despite the turmoil growing inside of him he laughs along with her and tries to not let his voice sound too sharp, tries to not let his teeth glint too brightly in the Terrastellan sun.

”And what sort of story would you like to hear?” he asks her, as he settles down and pulls his hair into a tight bun (the sea spray was making it curled and knotted already, hanging heavily against his neck). ”I can tell you what a dozen different worlds are like, and what sort of monsters tread the waters separating them. Or maybe you would prefer a love story, a modern Romeo and Juliet?” Never mind the fact that both of them died in the end; maybe that would be them, sinking each other beneath the waves.

The island is waiting for them though, and he’s happy to let her talk of goddesses and favor and sacrifice if it means bringing him one step closer to Prudence.

Toulouse tears his eyes from the island to look at her, even as she turns to look at him. And for just a moment he is quiet, pondering her words. But then his lips split into a smile, and laughter pours forth like the waves.

”You have no idea,” he smiles wickedly. ”Perhaps Vespera should smite me where I stand - the things I’ve done may be too much for even a goddess to pardon.”

And he’s only half-joking.




@Juniper 
wow this has been so long, but i’m happy to continue if you are??