[P] Entering Dusk

[Below Zero]

Below Zero

my frost philosophy will put no curse on me

Bel had never really thought or pondered hard on how big the world might be, it had never been a concern of hers. Sure, she knew that there was more out there than ice shelves, frozen water and arctic conditions – she experienced that proof whenever the pod made way for what she amusingly called the ‘spawning grounds,’ were the lifemates of the pod would have their foals and let them grow big enough to be able to keep up with the pod when they journeyed back to their arctic world. Those tropical climates were a rare treat, experienced once every other year or so (sometimes longer if the pod was lacking any lifemated pairs, or if the years had been too harsh to make foaling possible.

But she’d never thought beyond that as to what might be . . . out there. Now, she was beginning to realize there could be more she hadn’t yet seen, more she didn’t know about . . . more that was foreign to the lady of the seas. She felt that for certain when she’d come to Novus – a world she’d never thought could exist before. Even now as the lands of the Dusk began to sing to her in a song of the land, she was curious to see the rest of the island, to see what secrets and wonders it held. To find the hidden grottos, the forgotten valleys, the lost secrets; if this land had an Atlantis of its own, she wanted to find it, to reveal in the unknown, the lost, the forgotten – the refound. Because she too had been refound by leaving the Pod. Casting off her icy layers for a climate that didn’t leave her shivering in the cold, praying for vapors to warm her faster.

For now though, she was content to learn more about her new found home from her new Triton. Of course, she was soon going to find out that to more traditional name for King in her people’s culture fit him a bit better than she’d thought. His words caught her by surprise, even as she waited to hear who also wept the water from their skin. His myself was not the answer she’d expected, and it was enough to draw her attention too much from her ability to walk, and her hooves stumbled, the aquatic mare nearly tumbling to the ground, even as her tail thrashed a second in a desperate plea of balance, her legs splaying quickly to greaten her center. Once she was certain that she wasn’t going to become more even more acquainted with the earth did she turn to stare at him in shock.

“You?” She repeated, her tone filled with curiosity and a touch of excitement at the thought of someone similar even if by magical means. She tilted her head, even as she slowly drew her limbs back under her, shifting a second to make sure her balance had returned, before her attention turned back to him, and she had to smile slightly at the look he had, she had recognized the embarrassment in the tone (she’d had her own experiences with embarrassment in front of others – usually her parents after a failed exploration). As he looked up, however, his expression had turned distinctly boyish, eyes bright, hair ruffled. She tilted her head as she waited for the explanation – and she didn’t have to wait long.

She listened eagerly as he spoke of first recovering his magic, and his loss of control during high emotion that led to condensation. She couldn’t help it, his wording, his expression, all of it together, she shook her head with a soft giggle, “Oh goodness, I can definitely understand how you could be relieved to be beyond that.” She mused with a shake of her head, “Although, it’d still be a neat party trick. What sort of magic allows you to condensate, though? I’m assuming some sort of water or weather magic? I’m afraid I’m not too knowledge-able with the magic aspects of Novus . . . . Under the water, we either didn’t have magic, or we never noticed.” No, they had sights of disbelief, and stories of forgotten planets.

She smiled before adding, “Well, condensating can’t be too bad . . . when I was little, I had issues with my vapors properly regulating my temperature. Nearly boiled my skin when the temperature rose instead of fell during a swim in a warmer location than my pod’s home.” She shared in return – one embarrassing story for another.

When he spoke of believing all stories however she tilted her head with curiosity, before smiling brightly, “The elders of my pod would have loved you, then! My people tell our history through stories – both the ones that we know are true, and the ones less realistic. Most of the young outgrew them soon enough, but the elders loved to tell them. I used to pass the evenings listening to them speak of where we had come from.” The topic soon turned onto the season, and Below Zero listened eagerly, her eyes widening at the thought of thunderstorms that didn’t drop snow and ice, and the heat of summer, foreign concepts for the most part.

“Well, then I certainly look forward to each season, I’m sure I’ll experience weather I never dreamed of before!” Sure she’d seen her share of blizzards that lasted days, cold chills that seemed to freeze the very vegetation . . . . but cold and ice wasn’t all there was to life, and she was looking forward to seeing the rest of the elements as well.

They continue to walk as she speaks more of where she came from, and more particularly the effects of breathing and why she preferred the beauty of the sea. She tilted her head at his words, a soft smile touching her face, “I don’t know if you’ll ever see some of the stuff I have. Some of the most fantastical sights lay far below the ocean’s surface, where light barely touches, and most fish have a light of their own,” Such as herself, it made exploring so much easier when you could generate your own light in the darkness, “But the reefs just beyond the shores of the sea – that very sea that borders your territory . . . It’s alive with color. I’ll be happy to show you were. You might not be able to breath underwater, but I’m sure you can hold your breath long enough to at least see it. You just have to know where to swim to.”
Thoughts
Speech
Tagging: @Asterion ; feel free to wrap it up in the next post. I so very much enjoyed their meeting! We most thread them again some time!

i feel no cold, i feel no fear inside my mind
Now I'm full of energy

[Asterion]

I want to be with those who know secret things
or else alone

Asterion doesn’t expect the breadth of her reaction to what, to him, was a bit of an embarrassing confession - when she stumbles he turns toward her, offering his shoulder for balance, but she rights herself without him and he steps back, a little bemused.

Me, his sheepish smile says, and somewhere above him he thinks he can hear Cirrus’s laugh, the throaty chuckle of a gull.

When Below Zero giggles, too, and when she answers him, it is hard to believe that he was wary even for a moment of her. Her openness is disarming, her charm and happiness contagious; what had been a standard day has become a good one, thanks to the stranger.

“Being able to survive below the surface sounds magic enough to me,” he says. “But I was born with the ability to manipulate water - I lost it for a while, when I first came to Novus, but now it is stronger than ever.” He is saved from having to go into depth - or give a demonstration - by the sharing of her own childhood story, to which he chuckles softly. “There would be so much to learn in a world as wide as that one.”

He keeps an ear turned on her as they walk, and though his gaze wanders - still searching out the remnants of the flooding two years ago, like running a finger over an old wound - it touches on her every once in a while, both in curiosity and concern. If she stumbles again, he wants to be there to catch her. But it seems that Bel is finding her land-legs; as she speaks he forgets his concern, listening to her voice rise and fall like waves as she describes the world below the surface.

“I would love that,” he says, not hiding the eagerness in his voice. The king wonders about his magic, and whether it might allow him to breathe underwater; he has never tested it to that extent, but it is a whirlpool within him, the depth unknown. “I’ll be your guide to this world, if you’ll be mine to yours.”

To his surprise - and almost dismay - the walls of the city rise before them like the gray stone of the cliffs. Within the gate is noise and necessity, all the duties that wait for him. But today Asterion thinks that they can wait just a while longer.

“This is Terrastella,” he says, turning back to her, and there is a quiet kind of pride in his words and in his eyes. “The heart of the Dusk Court. Come with me - there is much to explore.” And with a nod, he follows her into the city.



@Below Zero this closer is poop but NEW FRIENDS

Asterion.

credits