Second time around, the trip through the sky wasn't so bad. In fact, Lace thought he was beginning to understand why the pegasi loved flying so much; there was a sense of incredible freedom in the feeling of hovering weightless in the air, and then it didn't matter much that he still felt solidness beneath the hooves and didn't move a muscle on his own. His faith in the sturdiness of the clouds that carried him was growing as well. It was hard to keep doubting them when he had been bouncing between them like a rabbit on speed in the race - though, as he muttered to the dragon when he landed on the firm soils of the Caela Insula, he still preferred walking on his own legs.
"Try with wings next time" she suggested and landed on the broad back of the stallion, taloned paws rattling over the chain that kept Mirage's amulet secured around his neck. Lace squirmed internally at this, as much tempted by the idea of becoming a dragon even for a short span of time as he was reluctant to waste the gift on his own amusement. "Silly, ask Moon for it then" the White snorted, easily following the sway of his thoughts; "I'm not the Dragonheart" he objected as he began walking towards the forested area surrounding the tent city, glancing over the shoulder to look at his soul-bound with a slight frown. "There is no dragon within me except you..."
"You are Silverthorn" she replied simply and coiled the tail around her feet. "Dragonheart chose you as mate - are as much dragon as she is."
"Well, she have a funny way of showing her love, doesn't she" he muttered. Fajira cooed sadly at this but didn't reply; she missed the golden dragons too, Mirage and Akaith alike.
Continuing on in close-knit silence until they stepped in beneath the shade of the trees, the grullo took a deep breath and allowed the peace of the nature around them to calm him down, soothing his worries and wiping the frown away from the face. It was a homecoming of sorts, one that he felt each time he ducked beneath whispering canopies and let the mind extend to the trees around. He didn't hear them, per say, but with the magic in his veins he could sense their health, their connection to the earth and the sky, sensed the life-force rushing through trunk and root and limb out into the very leaves. He could feel how the sap was slowing down, thickening as it retreated deep into the core of the heartwood in preparation for the cold season, he felt the drying of the leaves like a whispered lament, an eulogy of summers death and the bittersweet longing for spring, so far off. He knew that if he reached out and coaxed the timber just so he would be able to make it bend to his will, twisting and churning, growing and extending until an object of his imagination had taken shape. He knew that if he really put in time and effort he would be able to create a palace of living tree, strong and resilient and ever-growing...
But he didn't. He had always felt guilty over this ability, ashamed as though he was doing something wrong, something preposterous - almost heretic, by shaping living matter to his will. Somewhere deep down he couldn't believe that the magic he possessed, this mysterious power that had awoken within by coming to Helovia was truly his, truly something that was good and honest and reliable...
At least he had given up on trying to block it out. That path had almost driven him mad, to feel it stir and shift and coil within, reaching out whenever his mood swayed. Living in a forest had been tough then, constantly unable to get away from the feeling of life and death all around him and loathing his own desire to alter it.
"I still wonder why, though" he murmured to the dragon as he stopped within a clearing, smiling as he looked out over the magnificence of the scenery; dazzling sunlight trickling down through a marvelous display of gold and red foliage that looked as though on fire, a light breeze wafting through grasses high enough to tickle his belly - and just by the tree-line on the other side, a rushing, chuckling stream that glittered merrily on its way off, likely towards one of the many waterfalls on the edge of the island.
"Why what" she cooed absently, interest immediately caught by the glimmer of scaly fish beneath the frothing, gurgling surface. She slid off his back and spread the pale wings, drifting easily through the air to land on a rock by the brink to perch, eyes avid and alert as she followed the scattering shapes below.
"Why I have this ability" he expanded, head turning this way and that as he looked around with lazy admiration - he had always liked Orangemoon, the season of his own birth. "You know how many there are, I've never come across two horses with the same gift. Not even the healers use the same methods despite the purpose being the same. Of all the things, why trees, why wood and earth? It's nothing like the balls of fire at all..."
Looking over towards the little dragoness for answers, he was met instead with a disinterested flick of a tail; then she plunged into the water, leaving him to laugh and shake his head at the sight of her scuttling downstream in hot pursuit of a large, juicy trout that was almost the same size as her.
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@[Official] Using my VotG pass to request an audience with Earth God. Wish to quest for [Magic: Earth x Water (U) | Plant manipulation: Able to grow plants from seed and manipulate them at will, retaining the ability to craft from wood.]
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