The forest was abuzz with activity despite the late hour, nocturnal insects coming alive and flitting through the humid air. Fireflies danced through the trees and the bushes, darting in and around his legs with every measured step and about his ears as he moved through the green grasses. The gentle, bubbling babble of the Amare Creek could be heard over the din of nocturnal life, but Somnus couldn’t find it in himself to appreciate the beauty and splendor around him.
The festival had passed, and with its unfortunate passing, the stresses of Kingship and the Court returned tenfold to his shoulders, once more becoming that heavy mantle that so thoroughly encumbered him. While not a foolish man, Somnus still found his ineptitude crippling. It waged a war against his insufferable perfectionism, and right now, his mental stability was right in the middle of the battlefield. Was he doing enough? Would it ever be enough? Did he need to do more? Would the people then be satisfied? There was no greater servant than a King. He understood that now. Everything that he did, every decision, needed to be the best for his Court. The amount of pressure such thoughts inflicted were nearly maddening, and the dunalino found himself seeking solitude before his carefully constructed façade of professionalism began to dwindle.
He had departed the Dawn Court capitol hours before and followed the Rapax, driven by his desire for isolation to attempt to clear his head. Alba had not accompanied him, instead remaining at the Citadel. What she was doing, he couldn’t fathom, but he quite appreciated the natural silence around him without his bond-mate’s judgmental gaze.
A golden ghost he was, listless and wandering, Somnus wove through the trees and the brush, losing himself in the moment. It wasn’t until he arrived at the lazy creek that he paused, cocked a hoof, and lowered his head with a heavy sigh. Verdant eyes rolled upwards, taking in the sight of a star-filled sky, and his heart clenched painfully in his chest. So much loss, so much agony, all buried inside and never addressed… Yet there was no time. There was no time to mourn, to understand, to accept. He had duties now, obligations of the weight he had never before understood, and there still wasn’t time.
I’m sorry…
Letting his eyes slide shut, Somnus did his best to relax and not drown beneath the weight of stress and heartache, his golden posture wretched and forlorn as he stood at the side of the bubbling creek.
---
Hours before and back at the Citadel, an owl swooped through the evening skylight, its pace quick and desperate. The barn owl, for it could be no other, darted through the air with poise and elegance dampened only by her desperation to find a single figure of sunshine and ivory. ‘Where, where?’ The barn owl asked herself, wings pushing herself through the air with silent ease, ‘Where are you?’
Only one person would do on this night. Not Ulric, not Ipomoea, not Orion. Though their presences were loved and appreciated all the same, only one would truly be able to reach her beloved, yet sometimes remarkably idiotic, bond-mate, and Alba would not stop until she found her. Wise as all owls were, when Alba could not find her target in the courtyard of the Citadel, she instead turned towards the building itself. Higher and higher she flew, knowing the exact chamber in which she sought. This would not be the first time she had visited here. Arriving at the window, Alba’s sharp talons outstretched and she perched upon the stone sill.
Puffing out her chest, Alba gave a mighty shriek, hoping to snag the sunshine maiden’s attention. Impatiently, then, she pecked her beak against the glass, quick and in rapid succession. Only when her beckoning was answered did Alba ruffle her wings, clearly disgruntled, wishing that she could use words with Eulalie as she was able to do with Somnus. Still, her actions would certainly speak clearer than any word could.
‘Hurry, hurry! Follow me! If we hurry, we can catch up with him!’
tag: @Eulalie
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
"Against the odds, against the grain we lean, like gardens toward light.
We reach with all of our might for such a noble aim as love."
Late into the festival week, Eulalie had disappeared back to the court carried only by the heavy drumming of her feet and the racing, thrumming of her heart. Fear was a wild, uncontrollable thing that she had not felt in more than a year’s time. Not since coming to Delumine, her escape, her second chance. But that fateful glance at the festival had changed everything.
She had been dancing her way through the lantern-lit crowd, laughter bubbling out of her chest and a sparkle in her dark eyes when an all too familiar voice had frozen her in place. Turning her head, she had been greeted by the face of someone she had thought she would never see again. The man her parents had sold her to as a youth—she loathed to even think his name—stood amongst the gathered bodies talking to a young woman dressed in fine silks with her hair pulled up in intricate wrappings. Inside, Eulalie could not help but wonder if she was another pet of his. Had he merely replaced her with someone else, to torture and to rob of freedom and of life? On the outside, she merely stared.
He had begun to turn in her direction and it was as though something feral was clawing its way into her. Eulalie turned and fled, pushing her way through the bodies. Had the crowd been this large the entire time? The bodies so close together? She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t get through. And what if he noticed her? What then? It took her too long to reach the edges of the festival, to bolt out from beneath the cover of trees. Suddenly, the warm summer air had become stifling.
It took her the entire trip back to the court to realize that the emotion rising up inside her, choking her, was panic. It did not subside, even after minutes, hours. Days. The ivory and sunshine woman had hidden herself away, high within the walls of the citadel and fought against the tremors that zipped beneath her skin and the hummingbird vibrating of her pulse. She thought she had gotten the closure she needed, but then why, oh why, was she so afraid he would come bursting through the doors and drag her away and back to Solterra, to chain her up and to scar her again?
She did not sleep, did not eat. Every time she closed her eyes all she saw was his dark, dappled skin and his wicked, wicked smile warning her not to step out of line. She had been his prize, and even after all this time he still had a hold of her like a snake—wringing the life from her veins and the light from her eyes.
The woman did not know how many days had passed when a screeching came from outside the window She did not answer, could not gather the care to see what might be waiting for her beyond it. When the summons persisted, tap-tap-tapping, Eulalie forced herself to standing. All the way to the window her legs trembled, a sheen of sweat to her normally fine coat. There, upon the sill, waited a familiar owl. Alba’s presence spiked unease within her chest. Even more unsettling than that of seeing a demon from her past was the thought that something was wrong with Somnus.
Somnus.
Eulalie descended the tower as quickly as she could, and Alba waited for her, to lead her through the dark. She could never know what the barn owl was thinking, but could feel the urgency in the rush of her wings, the ruffle of her feathers. She followed Somnus’ bonded all along the Rapax, past where it branched off to flow south and became Amare Creek. How long had it taken Alba to come back to the court to find her? How long had Somnus been alone?
Oh and it took so long, ages it felt like, for the gilded man to come into sight standing so forlornly along the bank of the water. Her pace slowed until she had come to a stop behind him. In the dark hours of twilight, fireflies dancing all around them, it might be hard to see the darkness under her eyes, the echoes of exhaustion creeping along her skin. Despite everything her mind had put her body through, despite the lingering anxiety that drummed against her ribcage, she had come for him. She would always come for him.
Eulalie stepped forward slowly, coming closer to his side where she reached out her nose and brushed it gently along his flank. Her earth eyes inquired, searching for the verdant green she realized she so coveted, looking at the lines of burden in his face.
An ear tilted back at the sound of someone approaching. The lush grasses parted beneath the force of a cautious step, yet Somnus did not turn his head to see who it was. There was no urgency in the pace that waded through tall grasses and a sea of flickering fireflies, no threat of ambush or danger. A scent, warm and welcome and familiar, greeted his nostrils before a fleeting touch pressed against the smoothness of his flank. It was a gentle caress of familiarity, of understanding, and only then did Somnus turn his head to see who had joined him.
She spoke in turn with his motion, and his eyes, tired emerald depths, found her own earthen shade as his name left her lips.
Somnus. His name, so simple and plain a word, yet the message was clear as it was spoken within a dulcet voice; I’m here.
A moment of breathless silence, filled only by the chirrups of the nocturnal insects and the babble of the creek. “Eulalie.”I know.
Above them, Alba fluttered up to perch into the branches of a nearby tree. The barn owl stared at both equines with a look of careful scrutiny, concern shining within beady black eyes. She gave a flutter of mottled wings, clearly pleased with herself, before turning her attention on the fireflies that danced around them. With a loud hiss and a pop! of impatience, Alba spread her wings once more and dropped out of the branch to leave the two equines to their own devices.
”I’m going hunting,” her voice echoed within Somnus’ own head, satisfied yet straightforward, ”I didn’t want you to be alone, so I found her. I hope you don’t mind.” The barn owl’s insight was humbling, and Somnus found that he did not deserve her thoughtfulness. Still, he sent a feeling of gratitude, of affection, of adoration in her direction, letting it flow between their bonds, before the dunalino let himself focus completely upon the ivory and sunshine maiden who had traveled so very far, just for him.
“Eulalie.” Again, her name. It was a tired sigh upon his lips, yet one of relief. “I… Did not expect to see you.” It meant so much to him that she had come, that she had put aside whatever she had been doing to see him… Yet the longer that he stared back at her, the more that his eyes adjusted to the darkness that only grew about them despite the flickering lights of the fireflies, Somnus found that he grew concerned. There was something different about her. She seemed… Off? Gaunt, perhaps. Had she not been eating or drinking? Was she ill? There was an exhaustion to her stunning brown eyes that had not been there during their excursion at the festival, a listless sort of finality that did not belong in the gaze of a woman so vivacious. It was as if all of the joy and radiance that she had so brazenly displayed, so proudly wore like a piece of jewelry, had been sucked dry. What had happened?
His own transgressions and guilt pushed aside, forgotten and ignored for the time being, Somnus made a motion with his muzzle for Eulalie to step closer, so that they stood an intimate side by side. His worry for her welfare outweighed everything else, and it came as no surprise that the Dawn King realized that he, too, would drop everything for her. “… Are you alright? You look troubled, darling.”
Darling.
The endearment slipped out without his knowledge, yet Somnus found he didn’t want to take it back. When was the last time that he called anyone such a thing? Had there ever been a time? He didn’t know.
tag: @Eulalie <3
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
"Against the odds, against the grain we lean, like gardens toward light.
We reach with all of our might for such a noble aim as love."
The sound of her name on his lips brought a gentle smile to Eulalie’s face, and her eyes never left Somnus’ own as he turned to her. She searched his face, wishing to take all his worries, all his fears and hurts into herself. Although she knew she could never take the weight entirely from his shoulders, she was more than willing to help him shoulder it. He never needed to be alone. Nobody should ever be alone.
She did not register the moment Alba left them alone, taking off into the night with a flurry of wing beats. It was only them and the fireflies and the stars in the sky above them; the babbling of the creek and the chirp of crickets creating a tranquil soundtrack around them. Eulalie knew so little of his troubles, though she could see from their interactions that he spent perhaps too much time letting the responsibilities of his position getting to him. What else, she wondered, plagued him? The sunshine woman wondered how she might ease his mind.
He beckoned her forward and she stepped up to his side, the down of his wings brushing against her side, all of him encompassing her as she allowed him to take all of her attention. Her heart tightened at his words, at the endearment that fluttered along behind it like a banner in the wind. When her heart beat faster, she knew this time it was not for fear. Knowing that she must look like she hadn’t slept, hadn’t been well at all and that he’d noticed, despite the things that burdened him and weighed him down. It brought a sort of swelling, rising warmth within her.
“You are the one standing here in the dark on your lonesome. I think perhaps I should be asking if you are alright… don’t you? You can tell me what is on your mind.” Eulalie could not help the smile on her face, soft and curling slightly at the corners of her lips. It was a somber, wistful thing, fleeting though the warmth remained within her. She breathed in deeply, looking away briefly to gather her thoughts, her truth. Then, she looked back at the golden man beside her, searching the green depths of his eyes.
“I saw a monster, parading in a man’s skin,” she said softly, and her voice wavered slightly, her eyes closing to breath in again. To push down the lingering dread that creeped along her spine. “One which I had hoped never to see again.” When she opened her eyes then, they spoke volumes more than she could at that moment and without thought Eulalie leaned a little closer to Somnus, taking comfort in his heat, his presence at her side. “I’m just glad not to be alone right now,” she said, the truth spilling from her like water as she took him in again, “I’m glad to be here, with you.”
@Somnus I just can't with them -insert sobbing emoji-
05-23-2018, 09:53 PM
Played by
Sparrow [PM] Posts: 196 — Threads: 34 Signos: 25
They settle, side by side, ivory and golden creatures as they are marring the otherwise setting darkness around their shoulders and above their heads. The fireflies continue to flit about around them, dancing the waltz of their kind, blinking in, out, in, out… It was almost hypnotic, mesmerizing in their grand display of lights. One of them darts about Somnus’ face and his eyes, tired verdant, focus upon it as it buzzes lazily past. The innocence of their evening, of his solitude and surprise company amidst a place so peaceful, makes him smile.
Fate.
Was it? That was certainly not for him to decide, for Somnus did not honestly know what to think of fate. Oh, he challenged it, believing that should you carry enough heart and passion you could re-shape a fate all your own, but… Fate was inevitable. What it could be, however, was a mystery for the ages.
The Dawn King’s gaze drifted sidelong, parting from the dancing firefly to instead focus at the sweet maiden at his side. He could feel the curve of her barrel pressed against the down of his wing, but he did not try to move. Her touch, however brief or accidental, was a welcome one. Eulalie, cherubic and pretty, golden tresses braided away from her lovely face… Somnus could not stop the warmth that bloomed within his heart, pooling amidst his chest, cloying, choking, an all-consuming fire. Oh, but he had felt this before, the inklings of something so much more, once upon a time in a land far away from Novus’ northernmost soil.
’You can tell me what is on your mind.’ He could. Oh, he could. Somnus knew, right then and there, that he could lay the entirety of his damned, troubled soul bare for her to see, and Eulalie would not think any less of him. He was not a perfect man, despite his tedious perfectionism. It was by his own faults and transgressions of the past that spurred such a nature, such a mad need of perfection, of an utterly immaculate performance. Letting out a long, patient breath, the Dawn King dipped his head in a solemn nod. “I know.”
Yet his primary concern was not on himself, not now. Right now, his focus was upon the lively warrior at his side. A warrior. How he oftentimes forgot, for Eulalie was nothing like any warrior he had ever crossed paths with in the past. Fiery and passionate, fierce and cunning, but so gentle, so patient, so kind. An ear flicked in the pale woman’s direction and his head turned, regarding her more steadily as she spoke. Immediately distress pooled into his gut.
A demon, parading about as a man? There was something distant within Eulalie’s earthen eyes, something haunted. It was the haunted gaze of a survivor, of seeing a different time, a troubling time. It was not a hard skill to learn, to physically stand in one place but mentally be a million miles away. Gods knew Somnus was a master of it. Clearly this was something of a time long before Eulalie’s life in Delumine, and he could not help but wonder just what it might be. What troubling secrets was she keeping, locked away behind lovely smiles and beautiful eyes?
“Darling…” The endearment came once again but Somnus did not try and take it back. It felt right, leaving his lips. Reaching out through the sparse distance between them, Somnus intended to press the velvet of his muzzle against Eulalie’s own, yet only if she allowed. He was not one to force his affection, yet she seemed so lost in that moment, and Somnus wanted nothing more than to wish his light was bright enough to guide her home from that dark spot in her mind. “He cannot harm you anymore. I will not let him. My word may not have much weight, but I promise; so long as I draw breath, he will not harm you. I will keep you safe. That is my vow.”
Please… Let me atone for my sins by allowing me this one promise.
Then, a haggard sigh, strained and troubled. She had opened her heart to him, and he would do the same for her. “I… Am troubled, yet I detest to add more weight upon your own shoulders. I shouldn’t burden you with this, but… I fear that keeping it inside will only cripple me.” His wing shifted, the mottled feathers spreading to press closer, almost intimately, against Eulalie’s side. Suddenly, despite the fact that there was no distance between them, he felt as though it was still far too vast. He suddenly yearned for something more, something more visceral, something tangible. Comfort of the most basic, instinctual kind. “The weight of kingship is heavy, and I am daunted by its burden. I feel as though I am not doing enough for our Court, and… I struggle. To manage such a weight.”
tag: @Eulalie
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
"Against the odds, against the grain we lean, like gardens toward light.
We reach with all of our might for such a noble aim as love."
It was such a simple thing, the pair standing there side by side. From a distance they might appear just as a couple partaking in each other’s company. But the feelings roiling underneath their skin. the stresses bearing down on their shoulders, were so much more complex than that. They were ghosts of the past and worries of the future, and the pressure to do right and good. They stood among the fireflies and the dry summer grasses but they were both far away from this night. They might be wading through their own troubles, but those struggles had brought them here, together.
Somnus reached his muzzle out to her and Eulalie closed her eyes at the velvet touch of his nose against hers, a soft smile shaping her lips. It was like a warmth inside her, a flowing, electric thing that ran through her veins. She returned the gesture, turning her head to press her muzzle gently against his in a caress of ivory and golden skin. “I believe you,” the woman breathed, once more finding comfort in his place at her side, at his promise spoken to her upon the summer air, “I trust you.” And she did, she realized, though that statement slipped off her tongue without intention. Of everything the golden man had showed her, given her, a reason not to have faith in him was not one of them.
He sighed, and her earth eyes searched his face again, hearing the weight that was sitting heavily upon him, rather than simply seeing or feeling it. “Tell me,” she encouraged him, knowing it would ease him as much as it would allow her to aid in whatever way she could, and tell her he did. Eulalie listened to Somnus’ confession of how he was feeling and though she could not understand the pressures of leading a kingdom, nor the ways it could eat away at someone, she could empathize. One thing she did understand was the feeling of not being adequate or doing a sufficient job, but, “You are so much more than you can see,” she said, recalling the words with fondness as she had spoken them to him the first day they had met. She felt they were more true now than ever. “Everything that you do for the court is enough, and your people love you.”
The ivory and sunshine woman reached out to him, and if he would let her, she would gently touch her head against the curve of his neck. Eulalie closed her eyes and breathed in, and Somnus’ smell surrounded her, enveloped her. Her heart raced, but it was a different feeling than either that had set it to the hummingbird pace it had reached so far. It pushed passed the panic and the darkness that wanted so much to settle within her heart. It was a need she felt deep within her, a longing to feel a connection to another, beyond any she had so far. She whispered, “Let me take some of the weight from you.”
The words were surprising to hear, yet so very welcome. They settled within his head and wrapped about his heart, shielding him from the doubts that so threatened to drown him. Trust was something that should not so casually be given, and so knowing that he had received such a precious blessing was humbling beyond compare. The dunalino held his stance, held his silence and his once-sharp tongue, letting the weight and the implication of her words, both spoken and unspoken, wrap around him.
’I trust you.’
… Why?
What had he done to earn such an inestimable gift? What noble action had he performed to receive such an intimate part of Eulalie’s being? For a long while he simply stood, not as a King, not as a tactician, but just as a man. A simple, flawed man. His eyes, that piercing emerald, remained rooted and transfixed upon Eulalie’s own earthen gaze. In her eyes swam a loyalty so profound, so giving, along with understanding, with affection, with warmth. He, a man lost at sea, and Eulalie, the land for which he so desperately reached out for.
Promise was what he saw in her eyes, so deep, so profound, so expressive. This fierce warrior, this gentle heart, held Somnus in her highest regard… And such devotion was extraordinary. He simply could not fathom it. Yet just as she stated her trust for him, Somnus found that it was returned wholly and completely. There were few that he felt he could trust with everything that he was. Alba, Ulric, Ipomoea, Florentine… Now, Eulalie was added to that special place, to his inner circle.
Unbidden, he smiled. “As do I.” Simple. Precise. He knew that he did not need to extrapolate for Eulalie to understand.
Silence fell between them once more, but Somnus was growing accustomed to such a thing. They stood as close as they could while still remaining one separate being. Should anyone happen upon them, surely they would think them caught in the intimate position of two lovers seeking a secluded evening alone… He thought nothing of it. Hopefully no one would interrupt their private moment. His heart began to slow, his anxieties beginning to flood from his system, simply from her touch alone. Oh, but she was so warm. Somnus found himself drowning in her scent, in the might and glory of her presence. By the Gods, but what was wrong with him? Was he so lost in himself, so distraught, that he was beginning to grow mad? Or was this something else?
Then, blessed salvation. ’You are so much more than you can see.’ Those words reminded him of a familiar conversation, one not so far in the past. He continued to hold her gaze, his own nearly imploring as he searched the ivory and sunshine maiden’s pretty face for falsehoods. There were none.
Bravely, Eulalie pressed against the curve of his neck. Somnus’ breath hitched momentarily, but he found himself relaxing into her affection. ”Eulalie…” She was speaking then, her voice deep, holding promise. Was he not the only one who felt the stirrings for something tangible, something desperate? Did Eulalie as well, feel the need for a primal sort of comfort? Shifting where he stood, the Dawn King changed his stance so that they were no longer standing side by side, but instead, so that they were nearly facing one another. Not once did he pull away from the warrior’s caress, keeping them pressed together even as he moved. Then, with a deep sigh as though a heavy weight had finally been removed from his shoulders, Somnus buried his face within the beautiful, golden tresses presented before him. For a moment he remained that way, locked in such an intimate embrace, before pulling back if only enough to meet Eulalie’s eyes.
“If only you will allow me to do the same for you, darling. Tonight… Just let it be us. Let us forget the world, let us forget our troubles and our burdens. Just let it be us, if...” Somnus trailed off, uncharacteristically nervous. His heart raced, but where he had once been filled with cold panic, it was now replaced with warm acceptance. If she could have faith in him, then perhaps Somnus could have faith in himself. Yet that, of course, was a thought for another time, for daylight. Such musings no longer had a place among their little paradise. Pressing his muzzle into the golden braids of her mane, the dunalino once more inhaled her scent, before placing a soft kiss against her jaw.
“… If you will have me.”
tag: @Eulalie - <3 Let me just drown in all these sappy feels, rip
Officially Somnus’ closing ‘FTB’ post!
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
"Against the odds, against the grain we lean, like gardens toward light.
We reach with all of our might for such a noble aim as love."
What she wouldn't give to know what was going through his mind, to see and understand as their gazes remained locked. Eulalie did not look away, knowing he would be able to read everything in her eyes, the openness, trueness of her words. Though she could not make him believe her, she hoped he would. In her life she had always had so much to give, and yet nobody to give it to until coming to Delumine. This brilliant, bright, beautiful man was worth giving it to. That much she knew.
She believed in simple things. In small things that were always more than they appeared. One of those things was the words he spoke, extending to her the same truth she had set out before him. So few words, but the sunshine woman did understand. She did not need anything other than that, she could have been happy then. But Somnus accepted her touch when she reached out for him and he spoke her name and she felt a tugging, pulling within her. A warmth, a longing, and she thought that he might have felt too.
Her head turned with the movement of his body as they remained in their embrace, and her breathing quickened, her chest rising and falling in cadence. He buried himself within her golden hair and she gently brushed her muzzle along his neck. The ivory warrior gave herself over to the sensation of Somnus, the feeling of the touch of their skin. She drowned in him, happily, gladly, and when he pulled slowly away her earth eyes met his vibrant green and Eulalie smiled. It was not a question in her mind of whether she could and would.
She breathed in slowly, attempting to steady her racing, fluttering, soaring heart as his lips pressed against her jaw. "Yes," she said to him, her voice a whisper on the night air. There was nothing and no one but them, even with the creek beside them and the fireflies around them and the stars above them. She pressed herself closer to him and let herself forget the world, even if just for this one night.
