So this was a place called the Dawn Court, in lands known as Novus, with deities that pocketed shrines everywhere. One for each court, he had been told, and the father of them all, Tempus. Certainly it was different from his own belief system; he'd never really heard of deities that looked over the lands. It was a new concept, and one that he was attempting to understand. From someone that had come from a logical place, it seemed more fairytale-ish than anything, and didn't seem to make any sense.
Perhaps he would have to scrounge up some proof somewhere, potentially. See if he could find something that would sway his beliefs in the logical and the rest of the world.
Granted, it was likely that deities existed, and if they did, maybe it was only here. Back where he had come from, such things did not exist, but as he had wandered through the lands after, he had seen a great many things and saw some in prayer and some use magic. Things he did not quite grasp himself, but hungered to know about. Perhaps it was all in the religions, the deities, the prayers. Maybe things didn't have to make sense to him to be real.
Shaking his head, Orion lowered it, sipping on a mouthful of water and allowing himself to relax, wavy curls of white cascading over his neck and head, some stray locks dipping in to the water beside scarred lips.
@Ipomoea || give him some sunshine and love po ;o;
It seemed as if overnight, the world had flipped itself upside-down. Ipomoea had awoken in a new room, with a new rank dancing through his mind and on the lips of his servants, and as if that alone wasn’t enough of a shock, he was given a new surprise not far outside the castle.
Every step he took resulted in a blossoming of flowers: their petals small and dainty, filling in the places his hooves had graced. 'Those hadn't been there before...' A quizzical frown filled out his lips.
He was testing it now, delicately placing one hoof upon the ground in front of him, then quickly retracting it and dropping his head down low to observe. Sure enough, the grass seemed to bounce back up in an instant, taller than it had been in the instant before he’d stepped down. Delicate wildflowers sprouted and bloomed right before his eyes, captivating his attention. Never had he heard of such a phenomenon as this occurring: and he had read quite the number of books on flora and fauna.
Perhaps Somnus could give him some answers? With a snort, he turned away from the hoof prints, lifting into a spirited trot that would take him back to the capitol.
Unable to hold back his excitement at the discovery he found himself rushing headfirst, tiny wings flaring as if they, too, wished to help pull him forward, faster and faster, until he rounded a corner—
And nearly ran headfirst into a white-and-grey splashed stallion, head lowered to the water.
“Oh!” The air rushed out of him audibly, swerving and stumbling to a stop, although he couldn’t prevent his body from shoulder-checking the other horse, throwing himself off balance in the process. “I’m so sorry!” His wings folded themselves tightly against his fetlocks, wrapping themselves several times in a display of nervousness.
“Are you alright? I didn’t see you there, I should have been going slower and I—I didn’t hurt you, did I?” His red eyes were filled with worry and distress, already checking the stallion over for any signs of bruises or scrapes, feeling like a fool. This wasn’t how Regents were supposed to act, was it? Hardly a day in and he was already terrorizing the community.
It was a good thing that Orion was built a little study, and that he had his legs planted enough to allow him to drink water. The sound of hooves rushing around had him lifting his horned head, and he licked his lips to catch the last few drops of liquid in time to turn his head as a brown and white blur came headlong at him.
The exiled man squared his shoulders at the last second, feeling their bodies collide and his own go a little off balance to the side. As hard of a hit as it was, he was able to catch himself on his hooves with a stagger, front legs sinking in to the water as his head lifted up again. He felt the bloom of an ache, and it would bruise, but instead of looking offended or hurt, the stallion allowed a rumble to start in his chest, and he started to laugh. It was small at first, but soon poured out of him in shaking laughter as his head leaned back a little, his chest jumping just a little with the sound.
"Well, I can't say I've met someone in this way before," he mused in a low tone, taking it in a good natured way as his ears pricked forward, and he still chuckled, finally recognizing that the blur was in fact another horse. A stallion at that, with willowy limbs and a grace that Orion would never in his life be able to achieve. "No, no, you didn't hurt me. You must have been in an awful rush for something. Are you alright?" he asked, a little more worried about the other paint than himself.
If there was an emergency, he didn't want to be the one that stood in the way, after all. "A little bit of bruising won't hurt me. It's alright," he finally uttered, and his body relaxed as his eyes lit up slightly, his head tipping and the scarred side turning away from him. "I do hope I'm not impeding you, if there's an emergency. If there is, there's really no need to worry about me anyway. I'm alright."
The laughter bubbling from the other stallion’s mouth seemed oddly out of place, even to Ipomoea. But slowly, ever so slowly, a smile creeped into the corners of his lips, the confusion draining from his face and being taken over by mirth.
His laughter pierced the air like a collection of bells chiming in the wind, pure and clear and innocent. It swept the anxiety and worry out of his heart, freeing up the room for his youthful nature to shyly come forward once more. With each breath his laughter swelled, louder and louder, wilder and wilder, until both of their chests were jumping as the two painted stallions laughed with the unexpected surprise of their run in.
And like a couple of children reacting to the sound of joy, his wings lifted and danced of their own accord, their delicate feathers brushing the bones of his canon and ankle, buffeting him with the tiny wind they created.
It wasn’t until his ribs began to ache that Ipomoea was able to pull himself back together in time to catch the horned man’s words. “I wish I could say the same,” he admitted, shaking his head at his own foolishness. He’d been a reckless child, running around carelessly in whichever way he’d fancied. Of course he had been smaller then, and the repercussions of running into another horse had never been big. ”But now that I’m the Regent…”
“Actually I, it wasn’t anything especially important.” The strange phenomenon that had captured his mind and his curiosity really hadn’t been of a life and death matter. “I think I’m alright, too, just surprised to see you, is all.” The Court had been so quiet lately—it was hardly an excuse for his behavior, but he had seemed to have forgotten that it wasn’t only himself who wandered the grounds.
“I’m glad you’re alright.” Really, he was. Ipomoea wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself otherwise.
Suddenly curious, he leaned his head forward to get a better look at the scarred stallion, at his pale eyes and the distinguishable horns that Ipomoea had never seen the like of which before.
"Well then I'm glad to know I wasn't in the way of something too dreadfully important. Would've made me feel more awkward for stepping in your path." Orion was more than lighthearted with his tone, smiling to himself and feeling his muscles ease up again, relaxing. He'd been tensed without really realizing it, funnily enough.
Blinking, the grullo paint was a little taken aback by how the other pushed his face closer, but he didn't draw away. The man was more than aware of his scarring, of the peculiar shape around his eye that took on the formation of a bite mark, and the scratches across his lips. His regal head tilted a little, and he tipped it curiously, waves of locks falling along his horns and features as he smiled warmly toward the bay paint.
"If you had, I'd be surprised. I'm new here," he admitted, shuffling a hoof under him and sending up a couple seeds from a dandelion as he did. "My name is Orion, it's a pleasure to meet you," came the greeting, and his head dipped a little before lifting up again.
With every word, every soothing tone, Ipomoea could feel his worries easing away like pollen scattered by the wind. His ears pricked forward agreeably, tail brushing the backs of his hocks in a lazy arc. “Please, it was my own fault.” From now on, he would save his running for actual emergencies—or for the open expanse of a meadow.
“That would explain it then, yes. I’m Ipomoea,” he replied, bobbing his head as if to punctuate each syllable. “Dawn’s Regent.” Embarrassment for his actions colored his cheeks for only a second before he pushed it away. It was his young naivety that let him rest easy in the belief that mistakes wouldn’t change the way others looked at him; so far, he had simply gotten lucky in the company he kept. “It’s nice to meet you, Orion.”
He scrapped his black-and-white striped hoof against the ground, watching the way the dust rose up and resettled. The delicate feathers of his wings carved lines through the grass, feeling their blades part on either side.
“I hope I haven’t kept you from anything?” he asked, peeking at the paint through his long lashes. “I was on my way to the capitol, if you would like to walk with me.”
Emphasis on walk—lest he barrel his way through another unsuspecting fellow.
Regent, was it? He supposed that was more amusing than anything, considering that he had come barreling in full force. He couldn't blame the young lad though, especially if he was attempting to go somewhere. Shaking his head, Orion smiled more, chuckling.
"Not at all. I was on my way there myself, but it would be lovely to have some company. Especially someone that can give me an insight to the Court and what's where?" The scarred man shook himself off a little, dust flecking off his multicolored flanks, and he offered a smile as his horned head bobbed a little, more out of excitement than anything else.
"So lead the way, my dear companion! And I shall listen to everything you have to teach me about Dawn Court." He was eager to learn more about this place, and move on to learn about the others as well. Perhaps there were books he could bury his nose in? Things like that, so he knew what he was a part of.
Ipomoea smiled once more, the wings upon his ankles fluttering open and closed in excitement. He bobbed his head and began leading the way back to the capitol, a few stray petals loosing themselves in the wind as he went. “Follow me, then!”
As he walked, he also talked: his voice a consistent chatter, high-pitched and boyish as they walked. He talked of the Dawn Court’s beginning, of the very first king who was appointed by Oriens himself—and that got him further talking about Oriens, the patron god of Delumine. He talked of his own reasoning for coming to the Dawn Court, for he had not been born here, but rather in Solterra—and as Odet came whirling at him from within the castle, he talked also of how he had met the songbird and became his bonded.
All the while, his voice was filled with eagerness and kindness, for he hoped more than anything that Orion would fall as much in love with the Court as Ipomoea himself had. Together, the two spotted horses walked and talked.
