Summer Solstice 2021 | Hide and Seek Ultimate

Baroque and Nox set a hoof in Phaedra not a minute too late for the summer solstice. On the way there, Nox had explained to his son that quirlicorns were granted their magics by the cycle of the sun and moon, hence why solstices warranted such massive celebrations as the one Anevay of the Desert Region was hosting.

The foal and his father had taken the shortest route there, cutting directly through the mainland to the coast and following the water line to Phaedra, hoping to reach the land by sunrise after resting at one of the oases nearby. However, nothing could have prepared the two quirlicorns for the massive shift in the jungle; the ground was shaken with great intensity every few minutes (enough to make a foal loose and footing and having to rely on his father's shoulder everytime) and every moment of stability was punctuated with loud crashes of thunder, with the cherry on the cake being a vast, dark vortex painted over the sky.

Baroque brushed some sweat off his coat and considered asking his father to turn back and leave for the safety of the oasis again. However, he knew that however passionate and grand Anevay could be, she couldn't possibly want to hurt anyone, right?

"Please, please make it stop," Baroque heard a voice whimper in between thunder clashes. The foal looked for any sign of a quirlicorn, a hint of a mane in the thick foliage or hoof prints in the mud. Finding none, he presumed his zoolingualism magic had kicked in and he looked in the trees for an animal in distress. Remembering the flocks of parrots which had escaped the jungle earlier that day, screeching in terror, Baroque decided to look for a more vulnerable animal like a snake or a monkey or… a parrot?

The foal lifted a leaf with his roof to discover a cowering dark bird with a blood red throat.

"Oh no," Nox said, catching sight of the bird at the same time as his son. "Are its wings broken?"

"Are you alright?" Baroque asked, first in quirlicorn language, then in parrot chirps. He had discovered that, while animals living near settlements understood their language fairly well, the more isolated kind could only communicate in their native tongue. Thanks to his zoolingualism magic, the foal's mouth could mimic sounds that could normally only be produced by specific palates and sets of lungs. It was the most powerful or coolest recorded magic in the quirliverse, but it was certainly versatile, unlike conjuring fire.

The parrot's eyes snapped open. 

"You can hear me?" it asked.

Baroque nodded energetically. 

"Are you injured? I saw all of your friends fly off this morning. Shouldn't you be with them?"

"Well, I have been trying to keep up with them, but mom said no." 

"Uh?"

The parrot looked away in embarrassment. 

"Uh, my mother was a kakapo," it elaborated.

Baroque blinked. "What's a kakapo?" Whatever that was, he didn't intend to be rude by asking. 

"You know, an owl parrot. Can't fly." The parrot shook its wings hopelessly.

The ground shook and the bird hid its face in its wings. Baroque fell back unto his father. 

"What is it saying, son?"

"It says it's a species of bird that can't fly, so it was stuck in the jungle when the festivities began," Baroque briefed in quirlicorn language. 

"How unfortunate. Are there any more like this in the jungle?"

Baroque repeated the question to the bird, after nudging its wings away from its face. 

The parrot shook its head.

"Not that I know of." 

Baroque pleadingly looked at his father. 

"Oh father, is there anything we can do to save it?"

Nox thought for a moment.

"Well, I don't think Anevay's chaos will reach this part of the jungle, but we could bring him to the oasis we came from. But that would cause us to miss the celebration."

As much as Baroque pitied the parrot, he wasn't sure he liked that option. Then again, judging from the caprices of the environment this far from the main attraction, he could only fathom what they were walking into.

"We can also bring him to the oasis in Phaedra, but we'd have to take it with us through the chaos."

Baroque chirped the suggestion at the bird.

"Oh please, take me with you! Wherever you go, I'll be safer with you than in the wild. You don't want to know the things I need to do in order to keep those slimy snakes off my back."

The two quirlicorns made the decision to have the parrot settled down in Nox's saddle bag, but the parrot insisted that it was afraid of the dark and would rather be able to spot any source of danger for itself.

"What's your name, anyways?" Baroque asked. He introduced himself by pronouncing his name in the Quirlicorn tongue. Names simply didn't translate well, especially since bird culture didn't really recognize art movements as deserving words.

The bird chirped in a set pattern which the foal inferred was its name. 

"Oh, I don't think my father will be able to pronounce that, should he need to address you."

"That's alright, I'm fine with nicknames," the bird said, as it climbed onto the foal's pink antlers. "You have a beautiful coat, by the way. I think I'm going to call you 'dawn'." Baroque liked the sound of that in parrot language. It was like a little song that welcomed the sun and all of its blessings.

"How about I call you 'Sing'?" Baroque asked. He knew the parrot didn't know what that meant, but he knew it wouldn't mind.

"I like the way it sounds," the parrot giggled, "Sing," it repeated, perfectly imitating the pronunciation.

"Are you a boy or a girl, Sing?" Baroque asked a little quieter. Bird voices didn't have the advantage of indicating the individual's gender.

"I'm a male, and a good looking one at that, if I dare say so myself." The bird puffed its chest proudly. Baroque laughed.

"Well, I'm glad you've made a friend," Noxaeterna whinnied. "Hold on to your feathers, Mr. Sing, because we are headed to chaos centrale!"

The earthquakes and rumbles of thunder only increased as they approached the meeting point; in fact, they discovered that lightning was shooting directly on the grounds of the meadow, leaving grey ashes and, occasionally, flames where they had struck.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather hide in Father’s saddle, Sing?” Baroque asked the shaking bird. 

“I’d- I’d rather see where the danger is in case- in case anything does happen.”

Something stood out from the chaotic fiery red and blue from the fire and lightning. A soothing red and yellow-coated quirlicorn standing to the sides of the meadow signaled them to come nearer. Baroque regained his footing and followed his father who trotted towards the stranger. 

Nox bowed lightly. 

Baroque could not hear what the two stallions were telling each other. He was far too distracted by the tremors and by a pair of goat-looking creatures whose coat was on fire that happened to be galloping by setting any plant they touched ablaze. 

“Eek! Where will I live after this,” Sing wailed. His voice was muffled by a clash of thunder.

In absence of thunder, the voices of the stallions come clear. 

“Anevay has promised a great gift to those who find her amidst the chaos by the end of the day.” There was a pause.

“What if we don’t make it?” 

Baroque looks and briefly made eye contact with his father. They looked wary. The red and yellow stallion shook his head.

“Not to worry. I’ll see that you do. Enjoy your stay now.” 

And with that, the stranger turned his attention to a couple of newcomers, who seemed rather at peace with the idea of spending a day in a jungle on fire.

Nox pulled Baroque closer to him. 

“Do not touch anything, now, son,” his father instructed him.

“Who was that?” Baroque looked back at the stallion, whose voice was now veiled by the distance and cracking of flames. 

“That,” Nox said, “was Warpaint. He is assisting Anevay this solstice.”

The foal shook his head understandingly. A safety net, one might call it. Only a deity could keep another deity in check, he reasoned.

Although, he found himself wondering how the hierarchy of deities worked. Grandmother, he knew, was close friends with the greater regional deities, but he had never seen them interact. Word went that she had sent Sonnet to assist Frysil during the spring Equinox, but that was the extent of his knowledge. Sonnet…

Nox abruptly stopped to investigate some flowers, mumbling something about how his mother would love them. Baroque was too caught up in his musings to notice this and continued on his walk alone. The foal stopped abruptly.

Beyond a bush with magma blooms was Anevay! Baroque stomped his hooves excitingly and pivoted to tell his father, when he noticed that someone was already talking to her. And that someone was none other than Sonnet.

“Somebody you know?” Sing asked, fanning the foal’s eyes with his useless wings to startle him out of his staring. Baroque attempted jumping away from the feathers. The bird was solidly anchored on his antler.

“That’s my brother!” the foal exclaimed. He slid his head as close to the bush as he could without getting burnt. 

“Well, then. Aren’t you going to say hello?”

“Shhh.” 

Baroque couldn’t hear very well, but when the ground stood still and the sky was clear, he could catch more that he wished he could here.

“Minuet could easily end up taking over Candentia, and I could move out here,” Sonnet said. 

“You already wield some of my magic, the best magic, so I’d say you should move here! No questions asked!” 

The foal pulled back, shaking his head. Sonnet, abandon Candentia? That was impossible! He played what the deity had said over and over in his head, the words slowly infiltrating his every thought. Sonnet was very powerful; he wielded much magic, some for each of the regions. Baroque shook his tail at the memory of Sonnet using his pyrokinesis on him. Anevay spoke the truth, he wielded good magic. The best magic.

Sing poked his forehead. “Hey kid, are you okay? What did they say?” 

A tremor sent the foal and his companion head first into the hot ground. While his hooves were perfectly tailored to thread the hot ground, the foal quickly felt his skin burn. 

“Ow!”

He ran back to his father crying, but the cause of his chagrin was more the betrayal he felt than his burns.

Nox quickly wrapped the foal with his long tail and asked what happened. He didn't wait for a response, however, and quickly assumed it was due to the event.

"Come, Rockie, we are leaving. This event is not appropriate for a foal your age."

Baroque sniffed back his tears, thinking about Anevay and how they had almost won the game, if he could even call it that. Not to mention Sonnet. Father would be delighted to see him again, he thought.

He risked a glance back. His brother and the regional deity were hidden by the thick foliage. He put his tail around his father's shoulder and kept walking.

"We were so close to finding Anevay, Father," Baroque said softly. "We should keep searching."

"Well, if you are sure you want to." Nox was hesitant. "There is no shame in abandoning if you feel unsafe. No one in Candentia will judge you for it. Not even Resplendence."

The foal laughed. His cousin could be overbearing sometimes but she didn't have one mean bone in her and he knew he could trust her.

"Hey, over here!" A voice called. It was quickly followed by a deep bark. Baroque's ears peaked.

"Difèrne! I'm glad you could attend the festivities," he heard his father say before he could turn and see the yellow mare painstakingly making her way through some vines. Her large pyrenees dog, Friend, agilely leapt in front of her and ran up to the foal, panting in excitement. She licked his face.

"Ah, good morning, you," Baroque greeted happily. Sing hopped out of the dog's tongue reach and shuddered as she washed the foal's face.

"Please stop," Baroque giggled. 

"I'm sorry, I'm so happy to see you," the dog barked. 

"I know you are."

"My employer was generous enough to give me extra work, so I was able to save up and come here at the last minute," Difèrne spoke to his father. 

She unfolded a pair of yellow wings off her back. "These certainly make traveling easier."

"Congratulations," Nox exclaimed. "They look wonderful," he added. 

"They certainly look very pretty, Miss," Baroque echoed.

Difèrne blushed. "Ah, you know, as long as they match my coat, I'm happy with them. And I told you; no formalities needed with me, Rock." Baroque practiced his tongue not to say 'miss'. "I'm glad I was able to run into you two again. Shall we look for Anevay together?"

"With pleasure," the father and son duo responded in unison. 

"I have a feeling she might be this way." Difèrne indicated the direction where they had met Warpaint earlier with her curly tail.

Baroque suddenly remembered Sonnet. 

"What makes you say that?" Nox asked.

A large scorpion composed of molten rocks crawled by, arriving from the indicated direction. 

"Noted."

The three quirlicorns and their animal companions set off together. Jumping over fire logs, dodging thorny vines, occasionally tripping on flaming borrows. When they reached a particularly clear area, Difèrne put her wings to use. 

"Chasm!" She warned.

The stallion, the foal and the dog stopped abruptly. Difèrne returned. 

"I may be able to fly Friend over…"

Nox began to glow. His body stretched out to one of a hippocampus and two pairs of wings emerged from his back.  

"My wings should be able to carry Baroque and I over the chasm," he said, rhythmically flapping his wings to stay upright. 

Coincidently, at that precise moment, the time of the day was noon. The yellow sunbeams intensified, piercing through the foliage and reaching the quirlicorns. It was the magic of the solstice, the one they had gathered to celebrate and benefit from. 

Difèrne's horn began to shimmer and sparkle, before flashing in a light of blue. 

There was a collective gasp. 

The mare aimed her horn at Friend, and the dog was quickly enveloped in a blue aura. She hovered closer to her owner.

Difèrne gasped in delight. "Telekinesis!" Nox cheered.

"Well that sorts this problem," she said, aiming her horn at Baroque. 

At that time, he also felt changes within him. The magic had taken longer to seep through his young body and find the slivers of power he possessed. Now, it was his turn to feel… strong and mighty.

It began with his antlers. Glitter, much and much glitter. The tingly sensation crawled down his neck, unto his back and down to his hooves.

His mane and tail combusted, standing tall on his head and challenging Anevay's chaos. Feathered wings sprung out from his back as his throat, shoulders and forelegs crystallized, hardening them like diamonds all the while preserving the flexibility of his joints.

In the blink of an eye, Baroque saw all that he was and all that he would become; a tall and sturdy stallion, sturdier than his father, matured by hardships and adventures.

The foal stepped back, disoriented by such a shift in his being. His crystalized forelegs shielded him from the heat emanating from the chasm, but they also robbed him from the sensation of the ground below him.

He stepped forward and immediately collapsed on the ground, having tripped on a vine he could not feel.

"You look amazing, Baroque!" Difèrne exclaimed, rushing at his side to help him up. 

"How fitting," Nox commented, nodding in the foal's mane's direction.

"Not to mention practical," Difèrne added. 

"Go on, try them out," Nox enthusiastically said after studying the pair of wings.

"Please tell me those aren't kakapo wings," Sing mumbled. 

Baroque stretched out the wings and got a feel of the air resistance. Unlike those belonging to his parrot friend, they were large and furnished enough to carry his own weight.

When the grown-ups were sure that he was ready, they took off, gliding over the chasm with ease. Baroque followed after them. His first flight wasn't as elegant as his peers, but it was still a pretty good flight.

He landed on the other side, gasping for air. His ribcage struggled against his gemstone chest. That, however, was a price he was more than willing to pay for wings.

"It'll be much easier to search for Anevay from the sky, not to mention safer," Nox suggested.

All agreed, and so the quirlicorns navigated through the foliage until they reached the stormy sky above. Their ascent was punctuated with "sorry"s originating from Difèrne, who struggle to control her telekinesis and keep her dog away from the thick branches.

The chaos was unlike anything they had seen before. What they had witnessed from the ground was only an appetizer; the sky was shaky from the powerful gusts of wind and the ground was split into pieces, with each chasm filled with enough flames to consume the entire Quirlicorn lands. Along those pieces of land ran multiple varieties of magma and fire creatures. Some resembled familiar forms, others did not.

Baroque found himself gasping for air as the wind pushed by him at an incredible speed. While his companions expertly hovered in place, the foal resorted to flying circles around them in order to stay close. In the distance, he could see that they were not the only quirlicorns to take the bird's view. A pair of winged quirlicorns glided gracefully across the sky. Baroque studied their posture and mimicked it. It immediately made flying easy. He relaxed.

"There, I think I see her!" Difèrne shouted. 

Baroque wondered where the mare could see the deity. She sure blended in with her chaos.

"I see her too. Are you ready for some real speed, son?"  

Baroque had barely nodded that the grown-ups had dived. He folded his wings and followed suit.

For a moment, he was blinded with fear. He forgot how to use his wings, or even that he had them. He couldn't even hear the screams exiting his mouth. He closed his watering eyes, awaiting for his certain crash.

But it didn't come. The foal was filled with an exuberant feeling. He opened his eyes and saw the world zooming below his hooves. He was untouchable. All the chaos, the earthquakes, the fire, they were far below him.

He stretched out his wings and glided at high speeds, further than Phaedra, further than the entire world! He was free to go wherever he wanted and do as he pleased. For this short day, Baroque would be the best he could be.

His father caught up to him. 

"Anevay is that way," he shouted.

"Uh?" 

"P-p-please, slow down," Sing stuttered. "I can't feel my face."

Using his tail as a rudder, the foal pivoted and followed his father. With a few powerful strokes of his wings, he was able to maintain his speed. 

He studied how his father slowed down, and half-heartedly landed on the ground below.

Anevay greeted the trio with a smile. 

"My, my. At the speed you were going, there's nothing my golems could do. Was this your first flight?"

Baroque realized she was talking to him. 

He nodded.

"Yes madam." Interestingly enough, he didn't really know how to address a deity. The one he knew, he addressed as "grandmother". 

"You're truly a natural. Your mane suits you very well. I look forward to you developing this transformation permanently." Baroque blushed from all the praise. Anevay sighed. "Well, I suppose I lost my bet. I shall give you three a special gift as a reward for all of your efforts."

She touched Baroque's antler with her horn. 

Baroque felt some tingles crawl down his neck and into his chest.

"There you are, little one. Give it a try." 

Baroque focused. He didn't know what would come of this, but, to have had a taste of his regional transformation, and to be given magic directly from Anevay herself to cap it all off… today was truly the best day of his life.

The dirt from the ground gathered into a simplistic bipedal shape and combusted into flames. 

The small creature saluted and ran straight for the nearest chasm.

"Wait no, come back!" Baroque yelled. 

Anevay laughed. "That's one more for my collection. Thank you for playing."

She repeated the procedure with the other two quirlicorns. 

"If I was sitting on your antler, do you think I got super powers too?" Sing asked. He huffed, but no fire creature materialized. "Hmmf, I survived this whole rodeo. You'd think that would warrant some form of reward," the bird pouted.

"Well, I'm sure you can come and have lunch with us," Baroque suggested. 

"That's a great idea," Nox said. "Let's all celebrate this success by dining at Phaedra."

Difèrne shook her head. "As much as I'd love to, my funds wouldn't allow it. I had only planned to stay overnight." 

"Come now, don't be a stranger, Difèrne. I have more than enough for the three of us. We'll be glad to have you. Besides, you spotted Anevay first, so we're indebted to you."

"Well, fine. But only because you insist," the mare said. "Only if you promise to let me return the favor someday." 

The grown-ups having settled their financial debate, the group quickly made it to the nearest hotel to tend to their wounds and eat a copious dinner.

Baroque remained in his regional transformation the entire night. He spent a good amount of time admiring himself in the bathroom mirror. He looked really good like this. Better than Sonnet even. The foal grinned.

And at night, when he was curled up at his father's side peacefully, he finally felt the magic wear off, the wings disappearing like a dream. Although, as opposed to a dream, the foal still vividly remembered them, and knew he could count on seeing them again in the near future.