InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Grow old with me...?"

Ranulf Ilyien (ignis_quaedam) wrote in lost_world,
@ 2013-07-24 22:18:00

Entry tags:

!status: complete, dreamlands, ranulf ilyien, sabev kimyxa

Visions (Sabev)
After seeing the strange, strong woman who called herself 'Jack' to safety, Ilyien walked for a time in the deep night streets. He was far from the place where he'd taken up residence, and wasn't particularly keen on returning at the moment. Because he was not expected to show to the ship yards the following morning, he had no obligation to see to the need for rest that his human body preferred. And so he walked.

Eventually, when he'd bled all the vestiges of anger out of his heart, he found himself staring up at the building where he and his companion resided. He had not yet reached out to her mentally. The knowledge that she was there was still a constant. But he didn't allow her access to anything else. Sabev couldn't even know that he stood here. Quietly, he returned to his room and began dressing for sleep.

Not long after his return, he dropped between the sheets and closed his eyes. Consciousness faded.

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incendia
2013-07-25 10:59 pm UTC (link)

Sabev had no idea where she was. She recalled curling up in her bed, pulling the covers tightly around herself. A thing done more for the comfort of the weight than anything else. She wasn't cold. And if she had been, she could have just upped her own body temperature, not bothering with the sheet and blankets. But she liked the way that they smelled, and the way that they felt against her skin. Newly cleaned.

She had considered waiting up for Ilyien, to talk to him, eventually deciding that she would let him come to her when he was ready. She could't push at him and hope that he'd just stop being mad because she said so. She understood his anger and his frustration at her. He needed time. And she needed to figure out a balance between keeping secrets and living with all of these new people.

The fact that she could not feel him also bothered her. She'd gotten so used to knowing, absolutely knowing, that the loss of him was great. That she could upset him to that point bothered her.

Her dreams were rough at first. She had the sensation of falling, of seeking in the darkness for something she knew was there and couldn't touch. A far away flame that she wanted to warm herself by that she couldn't get any closer to, no matter how fast she ran. And then there were stairs. The darkness opened up into a long stairway going down. Curious, Sabev followed. At the bottom, she found two great dead beasts, beyond them...

Brightness.

The vivid colors made Sabev gasp. She had been so long without, it took her eyes a moment to adjust. Was everything here brighter because of the monochrome she had been living in? Or was it brighter because that was just the nature of it? The forest seemed to be a singular being, breathing, moving as one. There were flowers scattered here and there. A pond.

When she glanced down at herself, wanting to see the pale color of her human skin again, Sabev discovered that there was no skin there at all.

Only fire.

It had been so long since she'd been in this form, her true form, the way that she had been born, the way she was meant to be. It was dangerous, she knew, but this was a dream, what could it hurt? Though it all felt so very real. She could smell the air, the plants, she could feel the breeze feeding the flames of her wings.

Sabev took to the air, the long plumage of her tail dancing gracefully behind her as she flew. She danced in the sky, above the tops of the trees, darting carefully between them, swooping and looping. Delight filled her, and she didn't shield it. She was the only one there, the only creature outside of the little forest animals who wouldn't care as long as she didn't try to hurt them.

Why had she never had a dream like this before? All others paled.

The phoenix drove herself straight up, higher and higher, then turned to plummet toward the ground in a glorious freefall.

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ignis_quaedam
2013-07-26 05:32 am UTC (link)

Ilyien stood in the center of a meadow, green everywhere around him. It was a wild place, untouched by the efforts of civilization. The familiar feel of leather armor and dependable boots and the weight of weaponry put him immediately at ease. He looked down and found himself in his old traveling armor - a remnant of his life, after being exiled in dishonor from his brothers in the Obsidian Circle to the unknown Outer Realms. A bitter smile touched his mouth in one unguarded moment.

But then - blazing light from above, brighter than the sun, casting illumination in a path across the grass in front of him, and growing brighter. Ilyien look up -- and his entire being responded. The emotion of seeing one of his own kind in free flight left him undone, breathless with wonder and yearning and shame.

She was beautiful, he saw - the crisp lines of her coloring spoke of her high lineage. Vibrant purple fanned through her plumage, offset by royal blue through her main crimson-orange coloring. And her eyes -- her eyes, a deep blue-gray that he could see, even in the sky. Everything in him ached to join her. Everything in him told him to leave before he embarrassed her with his human-shaped presence.

But he did neither. He took a few steps closer to the edge of the treeline, and watched her in flight, being very careful to shield his mind from her. It would have been polite to at least announce his presence - were he not in disgrace. No, better for her not to know --

-- and then, that amazing drop from her heights, an expression of her joyous spirit in abandon. His leather gloves creaked with the pressure of his clenched fists. He should leave now. But his boots were firmly rooted to the ground.