Setting Suns (Caelum)

[Nashira]

Winter 18, 511 AV Nashira's hands clutched the edge of the fabric, crumbling it in her sparkling palms. Her thumbs danced across the smooth expanse as she tugged on them lightly, pulling her cloak forward, so as to help block the wind. The fabric often caught on her horns, which curled away from her bed of brown hair, much like a ram's horns might, causing her to hold her head down a bit, so that the Zulrav's breath couldn't caress her features quite as often. As she glided along, over a thin, fresh bed of white snow, the Ethaefal's footsteps trailed behind in her wake. Why must it always be so petching cold? Shira wondered as she forced herself onwards, towards where she was certain she had seen the last line of Denvali buildings earlier in the morning. This time of year, whenever Syan chooses to retract her light. Hiding it behind the grey clouds which have replaced the white. Shaking her head lightly, the Ethaefal gave her hood another few, light tugs, trying to bring it over the point of her horns. But it refused to budge, and then remain in that place. Shaking her head as she continued on, Nashira decided it best to simply give up on it, and hold the fabric in place, so that the wind would leave her. So that she could hide, in part, what she was. If someone wasn't really looking. Considering it could be more than a bit difficult to miss the horns and sparkling skin.

[Caelum]

The sun stretched shadows out like sails scrabbling at this city’s rock infested shore. They threw themselves stark in contrast to the snow, not yet pocked with flaws of feet and wind and melt. Clash of thunder in a clear sky spoke of the waves struggling to thaw themselves against the distant beaches, unconcerned with the wind’s flirtation. Caelum stood in a snow bank, a dapple grey stallion butting his nose into his back. A hand was raised, shading eyes narrowed against Syna’s reflective glare. He glittered, unhidden, a tarnished glow that sputtered embers in his hair and shone brighter yet off Rak’keli’s mark emblazoned on the back of his right hand. He saw right through her. Like a line of djed yawned between their chests, the ethaefal’s passage had been marked and what ultimately gave him pause. “There’s ice beneath the snow there,” he spoke when she drew near. A cant of his chin took in a swath of fluffy seeming snow near the base of the treeline. “Have a care.” His eyes, though, they lingered on her, bright with unvoiced heresies in the sunlight.

[Nashira]

As Nashira continued along her path, she was surprised to find that an incessant clicking sound kept on reaching her ears. It seemed far off, with how the wind howled, and how the nearby sea seemed to churn. Waves crashing into the shore, the rocky expanse of the shoreline. She thought that the clicking must be a horse, more than likely adorned with a rider, but, given the weather, she wasn't so sure she wished to believe her senses, thinking that only she would be crazy enough to brave the elements. It startled her then, when a voice cut through the thunder, causing her to look up, into the eyes of another of her kind. Although, he seemed to shine all the less brightly than she, despite his being another of Syna's children. "Is that why it's so slippery?" Nashira asked, as she pulled her hood back down, allowing the fabric to pool about her neck, as though it were a scarf. "It's not too surprising this time of year. Although, the ice must make it all the more difficult to ride around on a horse; the cold all the more likely for them to want to stay inside where it's warm, and disobey their master. However did you coax your friend outside, and why?" she asked, as she raised her right hand and gave Caelum's mount a few soft pats on the snout. Nashira thought she could hear the horse snorting, as small puffs of silver smoke escaped its nostrils. "I'm Nashira," the Ethaefal explained, as she allowed her hand to come to a rest on the horse's snout, "and who might you be?" she asked, as she stared up, and into Caelum's eyes, trying to find what was hidden there.

[Caelum]

Caelum regarded his fellow sun-child with a queer expression, a cross between thoughtful and guarded. "I was told there were several other ethaefal in Denval," he hedged eventually and slid the leather strap of his sack off a rangy shoulder. The string cinching the sack's mouth was loosened so that Nashira could peer within at the collection of purple cone flowers and wide, glossy leaves boasting of five spikes apiece. "Vega," and he jerked his chin at the soft-snorting Windrunner, "Is willing enough. Winter medicinal herbs," he explained. "They needed to be collected for the clinic stores." Vega nuzzled into Nashira's hand, breath steaming in the cold hair. Caelum blinked and looked down while closing the sack. "Caelum," he muttered, gruff. "A pleasure to meet you, Nashira. Have you been here long?"

[Nashira]

"Wouldn't know," Nashira commented, as she drew her hand down the length of Vega's nose, and then back up, stroking it softly. "Haven't met any before you," she added with a small nod at the sight of the herbs. Someone is a healer, the Ethaefal thought, as she pat the horse's snout a few more times before drawing her hand away. Or simply desperate for work. Must be difficult to find something in such a desolate place as this. Especially for one of our kind. Although, it's a bit difficult to say for certain until you've tried your hand at it yourself. Shrugging silently to herself as the cool winter air nipped at her nose, and caused her chest to feel all the more tight, Nashira looked up, into Caelum's eyes. "But then again, I haven't been here more than a few seasons," Nashira wore on. "So how likely is one to meet the others in such a short amount of time, in a place so full of people?" The Ethaefal paused a moment, tilting her head slightly to the side. "How about you, how long have you and Vega been in these parts?" she asked, as she glanced at the windrunner. She thought she could see it trembling a bit, its eyes growing a bit wider. Or perhaps, it was simply her imagination gnawing on the outer reaches of her mind. For she was most definitely, not getting any warmer. Deciding it best to simply use everything at her disposal in order to end the conversation and get what she wanted, Nashira willed her magic to her. She could feel the pool of hypnotic djed which rested in the pit of her stomach bubbling. Rising to her need, until the steamy tendrils settled behind her eyes. The ends of the fire which burned within her. It seemed to blind her, make her lose sight of everything else but it and Caelum's eyes upon hers. The dark orbs of her pupils expanding as the first of her words came through. Words dripping with her hypnotic djed, her will. "Come," the Ethaefal insisted. "It is getting cold. Why don't we all go inside, so we don't freeze?" Nashira asked. "It cannot be good for the horse. Its heart." Nashira's eyes sparkled as did her skin. She was waiting for an answer. But even if she was refused, Caelum would fail to find her here much longer. The insistence of her magic too. Its call.

[Caelum]

"Any in Denval or any at all?" Caelum wanted to know. Eyebrows nettled, quizzing out her countenance in the over bright light. It leeched all the color from the world while Syna joined hands with Morwen in an icy jig. It fed them, though, that day light, absorbed by their flesh and lips like honeywine to nourish their earth-bound bodies. Kaleidoscopes, he realized, were what her eyes caused him to envision. They held lavender bursts of dead galaxies along the borders of their golden color and it entranced, enticed. He exhaled. "Yes," he heard himself agreeing, "Let's go inside. It's petching cold." The curse blistered his tongue when he shouldered his bag. A shake of his head threw sparks across the snow, but the truth was that his shadow remained longer yet. A splotch of ink, it was, tailing them as they fell into step up the sea cliff's incline. At the top sprawled the historic Denval garrison, long since remodeled into a free clinic for the beleaguered community. The barren branches of pecan trees lining the road scrabbled at each other in the breeze. "What brought you to Denval, Nashira?" He asked between the beat of Vega's hooves against the frozen lane.

[Nashira]

"Any in Denval," Nashira responded, without giving the question much thought. She smiled weakly, her eyes flashing a little, as she scratched Vega affectionately behind the ear, before pulling away, and allowing Caelum to lead the two of them to shelter. She could feel herself padding lightly. Moving in step with the horse's clips and claps. She could sense her chest rising and falling slightly, as wisps of silver joined the horse's. She could hear the wind whistling, feel it circling her as she moved herself along. "Nothing in particular," Shira commented, after pushing herself over a rockier portion of the ground. Ambling awkwardly after the horse, who seemed to be making better time. Having no problem with the challenging nature of the elements that surrounded them, and made up the earthen bed beneath their feet. Vega's stride was simply greater than Shira's. Couple that with the protective shoeing that lined her feet, and the horse seemed all the more difficult to keep up with, now that the Ethaefal was shivering, and had spent a good deal of her energy traveling, as well as trying to keep herself warm. "It's just nice to travel sometimes. To see what there is to see. To move on when one life seems to fall apart, or grow stale. Making way for a new path. A new way of living, a new way of seeing." Shira paused. "Hopefully that makes some sense." The Ethaefal paused as she leapt from one rock to another, pushing herself a little harder to keep up. "Anyway... what brings you here? Surely you didn't fall into such a turbulent sea. You must have come from somewhere else. To the north, past the bay, if I had to guess. From the place where Vega's breed is most commonly found." Again, the Ethaefal fell silent, waiting, for an answer as they came upon a building, perched on a cliff, overlooking the water. Shira could hear the deep blue crashing into the rocky shore. Spray assaulting everything that lay below as she came up beside Caelum. She had seen this place before. She knew she had, but she simply didn't know what it was, and that made her somewhat reluctant to approach. Not knowing what lay inside, and if she'd be entirely welcome.

[Caelum]

“Black Rock,” he confessed while giving an inviting tilt of his head. He led the Windrunner into the sturdy stable built against the easternmost side of the historic garrison. The clop of Vega’s hooves echoed and a rustle from an open stall heralded the poking out of a shining, black horse nose. The wind chill was cut off within the walls, insulated with mud bricks, and the steady burn of braziers illuminated what all the daylight from the windows failed to. “That was a long time ago,” he went on, curious eyes straying back to Nashira. The line of his shoulders, the manner in which he held himself, it still struck the soul a little too wary. “Well, not to some, I imagine, but nine years is long enough. Eh?” Vega was stripped of his tack swiftly and efficiently so that Caelum could take up a brush to perform a hastened but thorough grooming, moving it in wide, circular patterns through the smoke colored hair. “Dira’s waters have a turbulence of their own,” he stuck his tongue in his cheek, biting back a smile. “But, like you, I’ve traveled. I’ve only come to Denval recently, Nashira.” He nodded in the direction of the garrison wall. “Found employment here, a place to lay the head for awhile.”

[Nashira]

"Would never have guessed that," Nashira commented somewhat absently as she hobbled along. "It's a bit ironic, isn't it? Coming to life in a place surrounded by death. In a place where its mistress is one of the few things, if not the only thing, that holds sway." As the words left her lips, the Ethaefal leapt forward, towards the stable doors. She forced them open, and held them to welcome the others before shutting them tightly behind them. Locking out the cold; the rising storm. "It is long enough," Shira whispered, as she followed Caelum into one of the stalls, and simply stood, watching him work. At times, she'd pat Vega's flanks, simply to keep from growing bored, or far too idle for her aging bones. Unwilling to grow stiff with the chill. "Although, my stay in this place hasn't been. Just a few moons, if even that," the hypnotist added, as she looked up, into the fallen's eyes. He didn't carry the scent of the stables. His horse yes, and perhaps the subtle scent of the sea's spray, and the incoming damp. "You're a groomer?" Nashira asked. "Or, do you mean to say that you work inside? This... this is the clinic you mentioned before?" There was a pause, as she tried to pick all of his words apart, and piece everything together. "You're not a healer, are you?" Shira finished, as she stepped lightly out of the stall, leaving Vega to his business now that Caelum had finished his cursory grooming. The Ethaefal hoped he would follow, but she wasn't sure he was ready. For if he worked in this portion, surely there'd be more animals to tend to, if not his own horse, who would more than likely require fresh water, and perhaps, a food refill. She glanced down the length of the stable, towards the door opposite the one they had come in. Nashira assumed this was how one would get inside the clinic, if it weren't simply, another way to get into the open, designed to help diminish any chances of the stable becoming too congested. "If you're done, do you think it'd be ok to go inside and warm up?" Nashira asked, finally, as she gestured towards the other door. "It's in that direction, isn't it?"

[Caelum]

He listened to Nashira while tossing Vega's brush into the waiting bucket. Hot mash and fresh water were poured out for the horse with alacrity. The Drykas that lived beneath his day skin would allow of him no less. As the windrunner buried his nose in the feed trough, Caelum threw a warm blanket over the broad of his back and ducked around him to tie it into place and fend off any chill that might creep past the heating pipes. "No," he looked up with a surprisingly charming smile. "I'm not a groomer. I know my way around a horse, is all. I spend a great deal of time horse back, or did, before arriving here." He stepped out of the stall and secured the latch. His bag was retrieved from the bench along the wall and he shouldered it up before making a polite gesture for Nashira to proceed him down the stable aisle toward the door opposite the one through which they had come. "I work at the clinic as a physician," he explained. He cocked an eyebrow at her. "And, yes, this is the Opal Clinic. Why didn't you think I'd be a healer?" His smile strayed toward a smirk and he side stepped to push open the door to the clinic's main interior hall. The floorboards glowed in the sunlight striking in sharp bars through scattered windows, worn but well cared for. "Are you hungry, Nashira? Or care for some hot tea?"