Even still, it took three to bring the change needed to this one. He was half sea, yes, and half sands - temperamental, resilient, the strongest aspects of both his parents. He had thought himself determined; until he finally met someone who knew his mother.
Torrent, his name was, and a torrent the fellow surely was, for Keidas had found himself being swept along in grand plans with hardly any say in the matter. This one would be different; he wouldn't interact. He would watch, only, standing upon a hill as hardly more than an outline, observing everything that happened. Torrent was there to usher him along when the time came; and how someone could be so gentle, so kind, and still so infuriatingly pushy was beyond comprehension.
Come along, come along, he would say, and the trees would pass, the rough brush changing to soft grasses, and here they were.
~*~*~*~*~
We've got this, Bubble reminded her, and gave the small mare walking beside him a gentle bump with his nose. Sign smiled timidly, though she looked to the wolf walking beside her for comfort, rather than to her new friend.
They were quite a sight, the three of them. Sign wore shells of every vibrant color and design woven into her mane and tail - some had grown slightly faded in the sun, they'd been worn for so long. It was something started for simple enjoyment, but had become a symbol of her personal growth by this point. She strung herself in the jewels of the ocean to show that she was just as precious.
Bubble trotted slightly ahead of her, still damp and dripping from his lagoon. He had a light bounce to his step, but it wasn't from any excitement on his part; if anything he was almost as anxious as Sign was. But she needed him here, she said this was a portent, that he would come to them now. He had to be there.
The wolf on her other side was easily as large as she was, their shoulders brushing every so often to remind the quiet mare that she was still there. Ice-blue eyes with strange pupils, and a gentle heat wafting from the flames that made up her coat - blue-white, the blue more an indication in the glow than in the fires themselves.
I will send the call, Songhue said gently, drawing to a stop once she saw the horned stallion in the distance. Be ready; it will be strongest for you, with our bond.
They nodded as one, and Sign leaned against Bubble to brace her as the firey wolf sent her call to the skies. Fire answered, burning in waves as clouds gathered and lightning cracked, and the pair beside her flinched from the onrush of energy ripping through their bond. A call sent throughout the lands, through Serians to link into bondeds, a summoning.
She touched each of them again, a soft nuzzle, and with a shimmer was gone.
She only called the Bonded, Bubble reminded her, and tucked a bit of her heavy mane aside to keep her from withdrawing into herself. It would pass through anyone else the way it did for us.
It didn't mean that only those who would bond would show, but it did mean that anyone else who did come would have been specifically selected by the Bonded themselves. It wasn't that she was afraid of others, not really, but Sign was painfully shy. With the Bondeds, she at least had a purpose, something to accomplish; something that mattered.
She had to take care of her son. She had met him only once, the barest moment to say hello, and had hardly been able to see him before he had gone to stay with her mate, to be raised by others. Sign had no idea what sort of mother she was, or what kind of a mother she could have been at least, and it may well be too late to repair anything. He was fully grown; he could fight his own battles, now.
And yet, here she was.
She took a breath, let it out, a rough huff of air; and Bubble moved away, honest excitement adding a little jig to his steps as she lifted her head high.
She would see him cared for. She had seen it in the clouds, in the waves that reached her cove, in the patterns of the fish, in the very stars; the signs, the portents, they couldn't be denied. Someone had come now, when her son was at his greatest need, and that, too, was a sign. She didn't understand the why of it, not yet, but one didn't always understand such things. She just knew he had to be there.
Bubble looked up, searching for those who would answer the call, only to see Torrent ushering Keidas around in circles. Not yet, not yet came the words through the wind, You need a clearer head, my friend, not yet.
That was why he was here, then. Sign would give the tests, would determine the match, and he would guide her. He was skilled at the needs of life, of the terms needed to thrive, and knew it in his bones that the restless pair in the distance pitted their wills against the need to confront an absent mother. Newly bonded himself, he knew what would be most needed for the stranger to find his peace.
With knowing came a stirring inside of him, a desire to see it so done. It seemed the word for the day was determination, each of them stubbornly set to their tasks.
OOC| This one is going to be a bit different; as you can see, nobody is going to RP Keidas himself, but Bubble is going to determine what's needed and Sign is going to determine how to fill those needs. Once everyone is here (and I have more reliable access to computers again) They'll give the first of 3 phases. Your job is, basically, to convince a newly-bonded Serian that you're a stable home, and to convince a mother that you'll properly care for her son - how you do that will be revealed as the "game" goes on. Good luck!
Sign:
Bubble:
Torrent:
Keidas:
))