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 Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:01 am
Smiling behind his bone mask, the Aeri turned his blank orange gaze onto the two Bae-winged females who accompanied him. “Welcome to Qurine,” he said, stretching out one orange wing to indicate the body of water that stretched to the horizon before them, “magnificent, isn’t it?” He hoped they would think so; ever since he had met Vox here so long ago now the seaside had been one of his favorite places in the world, and he hoped that it would soon be one of his mate and daughter’s favorite places, too.
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:19 am
Lydia was rather excited. She had never been to the ocean before, nowhere near it, and the strong, rich scents of the water, sand, and clean, crisp air filled her lungs to her enjoyment. She had gotten rather tired of the damp, musty smell of the forest, and the sight of the clear blue sky above warmed her heart to new levels.
"I can't believe I've never thought of coming here before," she said absently, sniffing tenderly at a rock with a bizarre fish-shaped burn on the side. There were hoofprints everywhere, but she paid no heed; the scent was old, the former inhabitants of the area long gone.
"It's beautiful," she breathed after a moment, looking behind her to watch her daughter as she explored the beach for the first time.
The sight of her father and mother bonding over something such as this almost disgusted Alice.
Not that her parents were those gross, lovey-dovey PDA monsters that she'd always hated, no, but she thought it was kind of odd that they'd bond over the smell of rotting fish and water that was much too salty to drink.
But, the young mare wanted to make her parents happy. No matter how much they bothered her with their cliched look at the ocean, she still loved them and cared for them deeply. As she caught her parents looking back at her, she pretended to be much too interested in a small beach-dwelling tree to notice.
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:37 am
Lucius chuckled softly, pleased that both mares seemed to like the place. “It is, isn’t it?” he added after a moment with a nod to his mate. “Remarkable, too. This sand is made up of countless tiny pieces of rock and shell, broken up by the action of the sea. I cannot imagine how many suns it must take for the process to occur, but that it does is the only thing that makes sense. The sand, you see, is almost always in base the same colour as the nearest cliffs, or the cliffs up current of a given place.”
He was aware, of course, that his family might find this ‘fact’ really quite dull, be he was pleased with himself for deducing that it must be the case, and that was what really mattered. One should always approve of oneself.
“So,” the red-maned stallion stretched his wings and flapped them a few times to get rid of a little stiffness before settling them back by his flanks, “does anyone have a particular direction they would like to explore in? There are a couple of caves down that way,” Lucius gestured with his right wing, “and a big stack of rock cut off from the main cliff that way,” he gestured with the other wing. “Also in that direction,” he went on, “is an area of rock rather than sand; the sea makes pools in that rock and many interesting creatures live in them.”
Hopefully he wasn’t being a gigantic dork again, sometimes his mouth just went into auto-ramble and gave the poor people near to him piles and piles of information that they had neither wanted nor needed. This was, Lucius considered, one of the disadvantages to having an exemplary brain.
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Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:01 pm
"Caves?" Lydia asked, her eyes sparkling. She was enthralled by the thought of being able to explore a cave; a deep, dark cavern that wasn't explored often and was always full of the most beautiful scenery.
"I'd love to go to a cave," she said, smiling as she stepped closer to Lucius and pressed the side of her body against his. She ignored the bones he wore over his coat, seeking shelter under his large, orange wing. She shivered involuntarily; though the day was warm, a slight breeze blew off of the ocean, making her a tad chilly.
Lydia looked at her daughter, who was looking out at the horizon. "Alice, do you want to go to a cave?"
Alice looked at her parents. Her mom seemed cozy, her dad was reveling in his ginormous brain. What did she have to offer, what good qualities did she inherit from them? She didn't inherit her father's uncanny ability to be the smartest living creature ever, and didn't get the gene of relative cluelessness from her mother. She felt... alone.
"Caves sound alright," she said casually, beginning to trot in the direction of the caves as fast as possible, so as to get ahead of her parents lovey-doveyness. There was only so much one could take.
"I'll meet you there!" she called back to them, jumping over a medium-sized rock and ducking behind a bush.
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:46 am
Lucius smiled at the retreating figure of his daughter for a moment before tucking the wing Lydia had snugged under more securely around her and setting off at an easy walk. “It seems like just yesterday she was a foal,” he commented to his mate with a smile. “I’ve always heard it said that children seem to grow up quickly, but I hadn’t appreciated the truth of that until now.” Doubtless Alice would be ready to leave their company soon, and while that thought made him a little sad it made him happy too. If she was ready to go off and start her adult life, then he and Lydia had done their duty to her. He hoped that she’d be happy, and sometimes worried that she wouldn’t be. Whilst she wasn’t the most obvious cross in the world, there would be many Nequus who realized that she was too tall to be a Bae and ostracized her accordingly. Still, there would be those that did accept her, he was sure; she would make friends and maybe a mate some day and life a happy life that would still feature himself and his mate from time to time, or so he hoped.
“Some of the caves are rather shallow,” the curly-maned stallion said as he realized he’d been silent from some time, “but some of them are deep enough to be near pitch black at their furthest reaches. Fortunately, however, all the ones around here have smooth sand floors so provided you go quite carefully you’re unlikely to injure yourself.”
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:34 pm
Lydia barely noticed Lucius's momentary lapse in speech. She, too, was trapped in thought; not of just how Alice had grown so quickly, and how now she was a grown mare, capable of her own thoughts and actions... but how she had spoken of something like this with Rosemary when they were foals. How she had listed off every desirable trait she wanted in her future spawn, and how Alice now encompassed them all; smart, beautiful, and she had the majority of her marbles. She had imagined her to be a purebred Bae, but Lydia didn't really mind that she wasn't, as in her eyes, Alice was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, crossbreed or not.
She shook herself from her thoughts, focusing intently on Lucius's words. "Well, all the better for me to explore!" she said enthusiastically, staying securely tucked under her mate's wing.
Alice hid behind the bush, her Bae wings pulled back toward her body tightly as she squeezed through the foliage. She watched her parents slowly amble past, a bone-clad knight and a blood-spattered maiden. It seemed like some sort of morbid fairytale; "The tortured-soul of the damsel in distress met her Prince Charming in a stallion that paraded around with the bones of another creature on his back. It was love at first sight. Then, they made their troubled, disturbed daughter and released her into the world. And they all lived happily ever after."
Alice resisted the urge to gag slightly, and flicked her curly red forelock out of her eyes before continuing toward the caves, hidden behind thick, green foliage. She loved her parents, always would, but she didn't need to spend every waking moment with them; she was planning on telling them that she was leaving the area after they were done in the caves. She had enough common sense to wait until her mother had calmed down, until she was able to handle such news, before spilling the proverbial beans. She loved her family too much.
At the last possible moment, she emerged from behind the bushes, frowning as a stick fell from her tail. She looked up at her parents, her frown almost overshadowed by the sparkle in her eyes. "Bad idea, me going the scenic route," she said.
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 7:58 am
Lucius chuckled as Alice reappeared, somewhat disheveled by her trip through the vegetation. "Nevermind, you made it without incident and that's the main thing..." Humm. This one looked like a good start. "Let's have a look in here then, shall we?" Lucius suggested, stepping into the cavern. It looked like this was a fairly deep one; it would be shadowy at the back, but not too dark to see fortunately.
"Have to wonder how caves are formed," he said thoughtfully, voice echoing back off the rocks. "It must be the action of the sea of course... I suppose perhaps a place where the rock is softer might become hollowed out over time. That would explain it."
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