The Wind at Midnight

Featuring Tzilan and Roxanne

Early Autumn, 758 of the New Age
Windborne, The Cape

---

Roxanne
The nights were growing colder as autumn began to rear it’s head. The breeze coming off the ocean was crisp and cool. It was refreshing compared to the hot air from summer. Heat was something Roxanne wasn’t a fan of. She much preferred the cool of autumn and spring. The wind always picked up more during the cooler seasons as well, and the companionship she felt with it really made her feel safe.

Her dark hooves were bathed in the surf as she stood facing the north. “I hope that you can show me more this evening,” she said softly, her brown eyes looking up at the stars. “I want to learn all I can.” The wind picked up and whipped her black hair out behind her. It was a beautiful night. So peaceful and quiet. Perfect to listen to the small whispers she heard from the wind.

The bay doe concentrated, wrinkling the scar that stretched across her face. Soon an air current was buffeting around her. Not a strong one, but it was there. Roxanne snorted and sent it out into the surf. The whirlwind twisted about on itself, picking up droplets of the white surf. Concentration filled her eyes and she began to sweat. C’mon… keep holding it…. The wind ceased and Roxanne sighed, stumbling a bit. Might’ve held that one too long. The doe sighed and smiled, turning her attention back to the northern horizon.

Tzilan
Autumn brought its joys and its pains for Tzilan. The wind, so absent and dull through the hot summer, would return; but the herd would be fraught with tensions that the lean stag wished to keep away. They were only a handful still, but all the same the heat of hormones stained the air and made even the calmest of stags tense and irritable. The cool of night was a welcome relief. Gentle breezes were wafting in from the ocean, easing tension and soothing the bickering and tussling.

The leader of the Cape naturally stayed away from most of the herd during these first days of Autumn. He did not wish to catch the intoxicating scent of does newly in heat; he had other things he must be thinking of and so he had drifted here, down towards the seafront.

As night approached he had dozed, but now that the clear sky was studded with stars something made him wake. There, below him on the beach stood a bay doe he recognised as one of his own - another refugee, like himself, he remembered - toying with the wind. She had some strength, but it seemed she lacked something as the whirlwind she had conjured fell in upon itself as she sent it out to sea.

Slowly, the palomino stag stepped towards her and called a little breeze of his own to carry his quiet voice.

“Are you training, little bird?” he asked, remembering her only for the scar on her face and the feather she wore in her mane. “The wind does not follow your will tonight.”

Roxanne
The silence enveloped her as she stood. She wanted to hear the voice of the wind like she had when she was young and how she had every so often on these lonely nights. Her eyes were closed and her breathing evened out. It had taken her a moment to recuperate from the exertion of creating the whirlwind, but she now felt her strength returning and she was ready.

Suddenly, a voice carried on the wind caught her attention. Roxanne opened her eyes and looked around. “Molach?” she whispered, but then her eyes fell on a familiar figure. The sooty palomino was coming toward her and her heart jumped in her chest. Tzilan was the leader of the Cape and an incredibly powerful wind wielder. To be precise, she was a little star struck. A feeling the strong-willed doe wasn’t used to.

“Yes, I prefer training at night when I can be sure there are no others around. It’s easier to listen,” she said and smiled, taking a few steps toward him. She stopped and dipped her head respectfully to her leader. When he mentioned her inadequate magical skill, she cringed. “No… unfortunately it does not. But that’s why I’m training.”

Tzilan
At the doe’s first whisper, thinking him the very voice on the wind, Tzilan could not help but smile ever so slightly - it was good to see one so dedicated to the wind that they hoped any words it carried were of the voice it gave itself. He stepped closer, his head dipping in a mirror of her own greeting, allowing her the respect she deserved. Any wind-listener should be treated gracefully.

“If you would allow me, I could offer my assistance,” he replied. They were close enough now that he did not send a breeze to carry his words, and his gaze turned to the sea almost at once, where the gusts she had directed had stopped obeying her.

“The wind is a part of us, we breathe it in, and yet we still command it,” the stag murmured, almost to himself. “It is give and take, Roxanne,” he said, turning to her, the bay doe’s name suddenly blossoming in his mind.

“Show me how you direct the wind.”

Roxanne
“Of course,” she said and stepped back toward the sea. She couldn’t believe he was helping her with her magic. He, the one who was the greatest wind wielder in all of the Isles. He, the one who was so devoted to the wind that he had never participated in a rut. He, who was the leader of the small band she had grown to know as family. It was a little overwhelming, but she knew she had to try.

Roxanne took a deep breath and another, letting her heart calm and the air fill her lungs. She softly closed her eyes and reached into the back of her mind, the place she felt the presence of the wind and her magic more strongly. Breathe it in… it’s a part of us… a part of me…

The blood bay opened her eyes and widened her stance, concentrating on the wind around her. Soon the currents were swirling about her, whipping up her black mane and tail. She slowly cast the breeze out to the sea, buffeting it into the waves. Again it picked up the white foam of the waves which reflected the light of the full moon.

Suddenly sweat began to spring up on her brow and she snorted. Hold it… just a little longer! The wind whipped out of her grasp and she gasped, stumbling over herself and feeling very light headed. She panted and looked up at Tzilan. She knew exerting her magic that far was dangerous, but she wanted so badly to impress him. Now she just felt like a foolish filly.

Tzilan
The doe pushed herself hard - too hard perhaps. Even in the starlight Tzilan could see the sweat beading on her flanks and brow as she pushed and pulled at the air across the water - he almost reached out with his own magic, almost, to support her and allow her to control it further but he pulled back and she lost control.

The lean stag nodded, almost to himself, silence hanging between them as the dark doe looked up at him. He did not look at her for the moment and kept his gaze on the sea, sensing the breeze she had created wheeling with delight across the waves and gently, ever so gently, coaxing it back toward shore.

“Each breeze is a living being,” he said at last, pulling the air back to the beach, back to dance around Roxanne’s feet. “Autumn winds are playful children, always wanting to gather into storms that they cannot. They are wilful and wily; you must give more than you take from them, or they will pull away. They are like Spring breezes but different; Spring breezes want to pull you into Summer and bring you flowers and warmth. Autumn winds want to bring winter, they want to be gales.”

He released the breeze and it danced away again, leaping out across the ocean.

“You must remind the Autumn air of how it is in the Spring. Each breeze is different, but they are all the same. Do you understand?” he asked, turning at last to look at the bay doe once more.

Roxanne
When he didn’t look at her, her mind instantly began reeling with ideas of how disappointed he was. How could she make such an ammature mistake? She knew her limits, why did she push herself so hard? Did she think she could bully the wind into following her? Roxanne was kicking herself internally, but then he began to speak.

What he was saying made sense. More sense than she thought it would. It was amazing how much he knew, how wise he was. She hoped one day she would be just as knowledgeable as he was, and be able to converse with the wind as he did. Though she doubted she’d ever be as great as he was.

“So,” Roxanne began, smiling as the wind whipped around her. She could almost feel its playfulness. “All winds are different, but they share the same origin. And the autumn wind doesn’t need a firm hand, but more gentle guidance.” The doe looked up at Tzilan, hoping to get some sort of signal from him that what she was saying was right.

Tzilan
When the doe smiled, he found himself mirroring her and almost instinctively he gave more of his strength to the wind, gusting it around the pair of them with more speed and intensity. He could hear, on the edge of his hearing, the playful laughter of the wind as it swept about them and through their hair - it was glad to have been brought back from the sea now and it was certainly enjoying this game.

“Yes,” Tzilan replied, raising his voice slightly over the delighted wind, “and when the winter comes you must treat it differently again, and again differently in the summer and in the spring. But when you listen, listen to the voice on the wind and it will tell you its moods and guide you.”

With that, he released his control on the wind, and let it fly.

Roxanne
The wind whipped around the two of them. For a moment, she almost heard what sounded like a young chuckle. Could it have been…? When she saw Tzilan smiling, she couldn’t help but feel her heart lift. It was rare she’d seen him smile. The times she saw him he always seemed so serious and devoted. The softness of his eyes and simplicity of his smile was a nice side of him to see.

The wind had moods. She would have to listen closely. When he let the wind go again, she stepped forward and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and tried to quiet her mind. It took a few moments, but when the breeze caught her, she felt elation, joy, and mischief. Was that the wind? It had to be!

Roxanne smiled and opened her eyes, watching the whirlwind for a few moments. Instead of furrowing her brow and blocking her mind into concentration, she opened it and decided to kind of play with the wind in a way. Gently she reached out to the whirlwind and coaxed it over a wave. When she felt herself straining, she drew back, teasing it in a way to follow her. It did. Roxannes smile broadened and she continued this game of tag with the whirlwind.

After a while, she pulled it back to the shore and caused it to whirl around her and Tzilan. It wasn’t as strong as when he had done it, but Roxanne was proud of what she had accomplished. What he had taught her was incredible.

Tzilan
The golden stag could feel the change in her magic more than he saw it. The wind told him of the game the pair were playing in its laughter and play and the doe beside him was calmer, more relaxed this time as her magic danced with the breeze.

His smile, so often a fleeting expression on the dour stag’s face, remained glittering in his eyes as he watched the whirlwind play across the surf. When Roxanne brought the wind back to play about their feet once more it rippled full across his face and the stag was sorely, sorely tempted to dance with the breeze as he sometimes would in the spring.

Not now, though - he had never danced in sight of another - and instead he loaned the doe his power, his magic bolstering her own as the wind whirled and pirouetted about them.

“You learn quickly, Roxanne,” he said, the infectious joy of the wind lighting his normally placid voice. “The wind will honour you!”

He hoped she could hear its laughter and delight as it rushed through their hair. She deserved to hear the joy in the air.

Roxanne
The wind swirled around them, whipping up their manes and pulling the sand up. Roxanne could feel his magic aiding her own and as the wind grew stronger she could swear she heard the faint sounds of laughter. The sand became a cloud around them, blocking out the world so that it was only the two of them there.

The bay looked up to Tzilan so much. He was her leader and she longed to be as adept in the wind as he was. But before this, he had seemed somewhat aloof, untouchable. Now that she was here with him and he was smiling, something she hadn’t seen before this night, he seemed much more real than just some sort of shining idol. Roxanne liked him better this way then as the distant leader.

The laughter seemed stronger now and she laughed with it, letting the breeze carry her laughter up and around them. Her soft brown eyes looked up at Tzilan and her smile broadened. “Thank you Tzilan,” she said and gently brushed her muzzle against his neck in gratitude. “You’ve opened my eyes to something I would never have found on my own.”