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 Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:23 pm
André was awake, of course, but he couldn't be bothered to watch something so frivolous as a sunrise. The striped foal had awoken quite early to rush to the nearest lake to look at his reflection. He trotted down to the bank and stood with his hooves nearly touching the water, staring down at the pristine surface, studying the gold-striped colt in the water. He snorted a bit as he noticed an unruly lock of mane behind his ear, but that could easily be fixed. He ruffled his wings before lowering his head and rubbing the problem spot of mane against a slender foreleg. That done, he turned his head and outstretched a small wing, prodding at the lock of hair as best he could. He turned finally to his reflection again, and noted that for all his efforts, it didn't do all that much. Still, it looked better than before; he'd have to go see the two-legs again soon anyway, to be brushed and groomed and all that. That meant he could play as much as he wanted today, and eat as many messy fruits as he could find -- or reach.
With that thought in mind, the blue-eyed creature turned and loped towards a small grove of elppa trees, and slowed to a trot as he circled around the one with the lowest branches. He sighed a bit and frowned lopsidedly, staring up at the luscious fruits. He'd learned early on, the hard way unfortunately, that elppas already on the ground are not supposed to be eaten. He shuddered a bit at the memory.
But still, he wouldn't let a little height -- or bad-tasting memories -- stop him, and he was determined to have himself a delicious helping of elppas for breakfast. He paced closer to the trunk and lifted himself onto his hind legs, placing his small forehooves onto the tree. He stretched his neck out as much as he could and opened his mouth, trying to reach the tasty treats, but to no avail. He snorted in irritation and his ears flicked backwards, and he carefully paced closer with his hindhooves before placing his front ones higher up on the tree, and stretching his neck out more. Nope, still nothing.
He dropped to the ground and glared up at the tree and offered it another snort. This couldn't happen, not at all; a simple tree could not best André, son of Diego and Bastet. Well. He would just have to teach it some manners. If it didn't want him to have a single fruit, then he would have to force it to. He took a few steps to the side, staring at the lowest branch before spreading his legs out. He stretched out his wings and beat them a few times before he wiggled his rump and jumped into the air as high as he could, flapping his wings furiously in an attempt to either gain altitude or stay in the air longer. Whether it was because of his actions or simply sheer luck, his teeth closed around the slender branch and as he dropped to the ground, he yanked it down with him as far as he could get it and held it there. Ha! Success!
He paused, furrowing his brow and blinking at the multitude of tasty elppas on the obtained branch, which was straining to stay attached to the rest of the tree, and wondered... How could he get at them now, if his mouth was full? "Mmffpmmnn," was the muffled word he spoke around the branch, ears flicking back in irritation once more.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 5:00 am
Before very long, she arrived at the lake her brother had inspected his reflection in not so long ago and took a quick look at her striped face in the water. On determining that there was nothing unsightly affixed to it, she lowered her head to the glimmering surface and drank her fill before raising her head and taking another look at the rising disc of the sun. It was, as ever, really very pretty, but as ever it couldn’t hold her attention for very long; breakfast still had not been consumed and she was hungry. As such, the gold-eyed Jala set off at a trot for the closest source of tasty food; an elppa grove at a trot.
It didn’t take her very long to arrive there, and when she did arrive she had a smile on her face. She had been in a perfect position to watch her sibling’s efforts, and while she was impressed that he’d managed in the end there was no denying that he’d looked hilarious doing it. “Morning waru,” the filly said with a smile as she trotted over to him, “and how are you today?” Questions asked, Sekhmet set about plucking four of the tastiest looking blue fruits and setting them down in the grass. Two each ought to be plenty for breakfast, she felt.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 5:28 pm
The slender colt hadn't noticed his tree-sibling until she spoke, and the sudden voice made him freeze, if only for a moment or two. Bright blue eyes flitted to the striped filly as he uttered a muffled "Mmnnngn" in reply. He frowned at the branch still in his muzzle; well that certainly wouldn't do. He waited until she had picked four elppas from the captive limb before he set it free, ignoring it as it swung back up to join its brethren, but not before leaving a parting gift. One plump fruit was loose enough that, when the branch heaved upwards, the stem separated from the branch and the elppa fell, landing squarely on the colt's head. "Morni--ack!" He glared at the offending fruit a bit before pushing it none too kindly toward the four others, then attempted a proper greeting for the third time.
"Morning, waru." Third time's the charm. "I'm just fine, I've been up for a while. I wanted to get to the elppa trees before everyone else could get the good ones," the golden-striped colt explained as he eyed the fruits she'd picked. Perfect, of course. He waited though, despite his stomach grumbling in disagreement. Ladies first, and even though he didn't want to admit his sister was one, she was still a girl and therefore got to go first. He didn't know who made up that dumb idea. "How are you?" He'd always disliked asking the question, she looked fine. However, he wanted to make sure, as he wanted to make sure she was in good shape to play after they'd eaten their breakfast.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:10 pm
Sekhmet smiled and, selected the elppa closest to her. “Good plan,” she said with a nod, “and I’m alright thank you. I’ve not been up very long; the sun woke me.” First messages of the day imparted, the striped filly lowered her head to the blue lumpy thing and took a good bite out of it, glad not for the first time that her dark coat hid any juice she might get on herself. The flesh was perfect, sweet and crisp and refreshing; perfect for an invigorating breakfast, she was glad her brother had taken the trouble to grab that branch.
“So,” Sekhmet raised her head from her food and gave her sibling another smile, “you up to anything special today?” She had a lot to do herself; a lot of planning. She couldn’t sensibly remain here much longer, not with her getting older every day and therefore closer to becoming somebody’s mare, somebody’s prize mate. That was not going to happen if she had any say in the matter, not ever; to heck with duty and the like, she wasn’t going to let her life end the day she was old enough to be promised.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 11:43 pm
"The sun tends to do that," he commented, lowering his head a bit to rid himself of an itch on his knee. With those questions aside, the irritating kind that never really told you anything you didn't already know, the golden-striped colt ruffled his feathery wings. "Well, I did want to play a while today. Maybe you, Sao and I could all play a game?" He suggested with a flick of his tail and a curious tilt of his head.
The instant she took a bite out of her elppa and he had finished speaking, for the moment anyway, he dipped his muzzle down and took a rather large bite out of the delicious fruit, savoring its wonderful taste. Elppas were the perfect thing for breakfast, and he was glad they had a grove so close by. After swallowing, he turned his head to yawn politely behind a wing, which attested to how early he rose that morning. With another ruffle of his feathers, the slender jala turned back to his sibling, eying her curiously. "What about you, waru?" He quizzed, flicking an ear idly. "What do you have planned for today?" She always seemed to have something going on, although he hardly ever knew what it was.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 3:51 am
The striped filly raised her head from her breakfast with a smile. “Nothing I can’t put on hold for a game,” she said with a nod, “that sounds like more fun than whatever else I would have done anyway.” All she really needed to do was decide which direction she would head in when she did set off Yisi still sounded like a good idea for being easy to hide in, but D’ob attracted her too for the safety of the place. Perhaps she ought to just choose at random; she had no real way of knowing which would be best in the end.
The only other thing she needed to consider was who to tell. There were only two people she might tell, her siblings, but she still wasn’t sure about it. Perhaps they would come with her, that would be quite nice but she’d feel awful for their parents if all three of them were to disappear. Perhaps they would tell on her; though she doubted they would it was still something she felt she needed to consider. She couldn’t afford for something like that to happen, that would be disastrous.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 11:40 am
"Great!" He exclaimed, flicking his short tail again with a grin. Wonderful, he'd get to run around and get messy and dirty with his sibling today, before he headed off to the two-legs tomorrow. He preferred being clean to being dirty any day, but if he already needed a bath and a good grooming, he might as well make the most of it and go all out in games. At least, until he could find time to rush off to the humans again. "What game shall we play after breakfast? Tag, hide-and-seek? Uhh.. Go for a jump in the river?" Thankfully it wasn't one of the deeper or faster rivers, and he considered it perfect for foals to play in. It also helped that he'd herd other adult nequus saying such, as well.
With another dip of his muzzle he took yet another chunk out of the elppa, studying the nearly fully devoured fruit. The striped colt chewed on it thoughtfully before swallowing. "Hey Sekhmet," he began, after licking the extra elppa juice off his lips. Mmm, he loved elppas. "How are ute and riruy?" He didn't mind calling their sire such a name in front of her, as his tree-sibling surely called him the same thing, just.. not around other adults. He never understood why it was better to say trie in those situations. They said ute alone or in public, that didn't matter. Something to ask his father about, surely. "I didn't see them much yesterday, they must have been busy."
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 12:02 pm
Sekhmet finished off her first elppa and nodded her head. “Yes, they’re fine so far as I know; there was some official thing yesterday when anyone in the herd can come along to the leaders with a problem so I guess they were busy with that.” She’d been trying to see a bit less of them in person these days; not enough to be suspicious but enough so that perhaps they would miss her a little less when she left. She didn’t want to hurt them but, in the end, the position of her birth and the politics of the herd had left her with no other option.
The black-winged filly flicked her tail at a passing fly, having a mouthful of her second elppa before raising her head to say; “I don’t really mind what we play. We could probably get all of them done in a day if nothing else comes up.” It would be good to spend a nice long stretch of time with her brother and sister, to be a silly foal and nothing more for a time. Soon she was going to have to grow up and face the world all by herself; she knew that foals could survive like that, one or two members of the herd had never known family even from the moment of birth. She, part grown and with a good head on her, would do just fine.
She still needed to decide whether or not to tell her brother and sister about her plans.
Sekhmet turned her golden eyes back onto her brother and longed not to hurt him as she knew she must her sire and dam. She couldn’t just leave and not tell him, but she couldn’t be found out. She had never really had a secret to ask him to keep before so she didn’t know if he’d be any good at it or not. Perhaps she would find that out before reaching a final decision
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:45 pm
The golden-striped colt took a last bite of his first elppa, and he tilted his head a bit while chewing, listening to his sister's words. "Ah," he said after swallowing. Mmm, elppas. "That explains it, then. Adults have weird official things, don't they? Why doesn't everyone just go to them with problems when they surface? Why must they wait?" It just didn't make much sense to him. He'd live with it, of course, as he should, but that didn't mean he understood most of it.
"Wonderful!" He really did need a good play day every once in a while, instead of just a short game here or there. He felt more his age when he was around his siblings. Blue-stained teeth closed around his second elppa as he took a rather large bite of the delicious fruit, ignoring the sweet juice that was dripping down his muzzle for the time being. He offered her an amusing blue grin after swallowing and licking away the extra juice. "I don't know what would come up, we don't have any official things to worry about yet. ...do we?" He asked, the last part a bit more serious as the grin faded. They didn't have anything like that to do, right? He didn't think so, but the thought that they might and he didn't know about it made him rather nervous.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:02 am
Sekhmet paused mid-chew as her brother asked that last and looked at her elppa thoughtfully for a moment before finishing her mouthful and raising her head. “Well, not yet,” she said with a wing shrug, “not really anyway but... Well, one day we might, you know, have to take whatever mates are best for the herd like ute and riruy did. Seems a pretty dumb thing to do to me but grown ups are pretty dumb... I guess it’s not going to happen for a while but it’s something I’ve been thinking about at least.”
It seemed such a shame to put a damper on the day right at the start, especially when it had been looking so bright but she wasn’t going to lie to her brother and it would be good to find out his thoughts on the matter she supposed... What if he condemned her plans though? She’d still do it, she knew she would, but it would be another wrench if Andre would hate her for abandoning her duties. She couldn’t just grin and bear it like her parents had, she knew that as clearly as she knew her name; she didn’t have that kind of selflessness in her.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:02 am
His brows furrowed as he took another bite at the delicious elppa, and he chewed thoughtfully. He'd never really asked or wondered about the circumstances around their parents' meeting, but he'd caught wisps of conversations he probably should have been listening to, so the idea was a familiar one. Now that he thought about it, their parents seemed more like friends than mates. At least, not like the other mates in the herd. He'd seen other foals with their parents, and they acted differently than ute and riruy did. He couldn't quite explain it, but they just... did.
"Hmm.." He pondered, wrinkling his nose. "Well, that's a bit weird. Other adults get to choose mates, why didn't ute or riruy get to do that?" Nevermind that they might have to have the same thing, not that it bothered him overmuch. He didn't have any particular interest in any of the fillies of the herd, nevermind that he probably wouldn't feel such things until he grew older, so the idea of his parents picking someone for him to be friends with and have children with eventually didn't seem to be too bad, atl east for him. Then he wouldn't have to bother with it himself. It didn't occur to him that there could be anyone outside the herd that he might one day gain special feelings for.
He offered his sister a wing shrug, and flicked his stubby tail. "I think grown-ups should stay as smart as they were when they were foals, then they wouldn't come up with such weird ideas," he suggested, taking another bite of his elppa. "Like making everyone wait to ask questions, too -- didn't they always tell us that questions are good? They help you learn, or some such silly thing."
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:35 am
Sekhmet rolled her eyes and gave a snort of amusement. “You’ve got that right; I don’t see why they have to make up all these rules and special times and ways you can ask for things. I think it would go a lot better for everyone if people just said what they thought rather than edging around it the whole time. As to why mates get picked out for people like us...” The black filly frowned thoughtfully for a few moments before shrugging her wings. “For the good of the herd? I don’t know any more than that, and that doesn’t actually explain much, does it?” It seemed an even stupider thing now, now that she realized how stupid arranged matings were. So you got mated to somebody from a different herd who was also high up; could herds not just be friends without having to have their ‘good’ blood tied together?
“I don’t think I’d like somebody else to choose my mate for me,” Sekhmet went on after a moment, deciding that she might at least try to get a feel for her brother’s opinions on such a stance. “I mean... I guess riruy and ute kind of love each other but I want to get to pick for myself and... I think when I grow up, I’ll have to act different to how I feel to be a good mare. All the mares in the herd are so polite and graceful and... giggly. I don’t think I’d be any good at being like that.” She had her mother’s rough, honest way of laughing, or at least the way her mother laughed when not in ‘company’. She didn’t want to have to act like she was something she wasn’t just to please the herd.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:45 am
He wrinkled his nose again, and chuckled a bit. "Grown-ups always act so smart and tough, but now that I think about it, they come up with the weirdest things. We have fun games and we get to run around and play, and I know some grown-ups like to, too, but no, they came up with the idea to do 'official' things, so they have to stand around all day and not have any fun." Honestly, why were grown-ups so dumb sometimes? If they wanted to do fun stuff, why not just... do it? Unless they didn't want to get dirty, because he could sympathize with that wholeheartedly.
He clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth in thought, and ruffled his mall wings a bit. "Well... No, it doesn't really explain much, does it?" 'For the good of the herd' really wasn't that good of an explanation for such a thing. How was it good for the herd? "I don't... I don't think I'd mind it that much, really. Then I wouldn't have to bother looking for one myself, if ute and riruy picked one out for me. I'm sure they would pick a nice one too, and not one that would be mean to me or anything." At least, he hoped not. He tilted his head thoughtfully though, studying his sister. Now that he really thought about it, she acted a lot like ute did when it was just them. If that was how their mother really acted, then that meant she had to force herself to be all polite and graceful and giggly, as Sekhmet had put it, when around even so much as one other person. No, he couldn't see his sister ever molding herself to fit into someone else's expectations. "I don't think you should have one picked for you, you act too much like ute when she's not around any of the herd. I don't think you could ever act any different than that," he said, hoping she understood what he meant by it. It wasn't a compliment or an insult or anything, just something he'd taken note of and was relaying to her as something of interest.
He'd noticed a while ago that he didn't take after ute as much as his sister. He felt quite comfortable around other herd members, and he acted the same around them as he did around his family -- granted, he was much more playful with the latter, as they would actually play games with him. He'd noticed that he acted like their father more, and he took a small amount of pride in that fact. Granted, he didn't see riruy go about staring at himself in still ponds or lakes like the golden-striped colt did, but he did keep his golden coat quite flawless. Maybe he did? Or maybe he just went to the two-legs frequently, as he himself did? Oh well, it didn't matter that much, really.
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:36 pm
Sekhmet smiled slightly and nodded to her sibling’s words. “Yea, you’re right I think... I’m never going to be able to fit into the herd all that well at all, so I’ll probably just end up being an embarrassment... If I stay.” It was a bit of a leap of faith, she knew, but she trusted her blue-eyed brother and was tiring of holding back from telling him her plan. Her parents would have to be kept in the dark, would have to be left to wonder and worry but she didn’t need to do that to Andre, or to Sao come to that. They deserved to know.
Taking a deep breath, the small filly first glanced about to make sure they were still alone and then met her brother’s eyes and said; “I think I’m going to be leaving soon. The herd that is. I can’t tell ute and riruy or they’d force me to stay but I... well I wanted you to know, right? I’ll come back one day of course, but not until I’ve sort of... sort of made myself unsuitable for being made somebody’s mate. I want... I want to make my own way, not just for the sake of it but because... because this one isn’t the right one for me, I’m sure I’ll be miserable if I just stay here forever and... I’m sorry. I’ll miss you, I’ll miss everyone but I think I have to do it anyway... I’m sorry to just drop this on you.” She’d talked a lot just then, probably babbled and made a fool of herself too. She hoped he understood, hoped he could forgive her for going away, or for planning to anyway. There was still a chance that she’d fail and end up trapped here just like her mother. She didn’t want to contemplate that.
Shivering slightly despite the warmth of the morning, Sekhmet waited for her brother’s response to her revelation and prayed to all the Gods and Goddesses that he wouldn’t betray her. She trusted him but... but this was huge. He might think she was mad or something and feel that the best thing to do for her was to make sure she couldn’t wander off and get herself hurt. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said anything after all...
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Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:08 pm
He offered his tree-sibling a half smile as he opened his mouth to comment on the embarrassment part, when she went on about leaving, and the smile faded from his muzzle. So he merely stood there, mouth half open, while she went on about leaving and being miserable and all that. His first thoughts were rather ruffled, as if her words had rubbed him the wrong way. Wasn't she happy here with them? With their parents, with her siblings? Weren't they good enough for her?
After the initial wave of unspoken anger and disappointment dissipated, the striped colt frowned and glared at his half-eaten elppa, flicking his ears back as he thought about it. She did have a point, and he even said so himself she wouldn't ever act like anyone in the herd - a proper mare, or some such silly thing. It would kill her on the inside not to make her own decisions in life, especially if she couldn't even pick one of the most critical parts of one's life - a mate. To have that chosen for you... Well, it didn't bother him all that much, really, but he gathered that the idea weighed on her mind daily, as if some giant boulder was hovering over her, twenty times the size of even the biggest nequus, just waiting to fall on her when she came of age. It had to feel something like that. Maybe worse.
He flicked his deep blue eyes towards his sister, studying her hesitant expression, and sighed. She had a good head on her shoulders, he knew, and she'd be fine out there all alone. That didn't mean he wanted her to leave, heavens no. He'd much rather her stay with them in the herd, arranged matings or no, but this was ultimately her choice and he wouldn't try to stop her from something she absolutely had to do. No matter how daft it seemed in his mind. "I won't tell," he said, his gaze softening as he gave her three words she would probably be ecstatic to hear. "We'll all miss you, you know that, but... if you have to go, then I won't try and stop you. I won't tell ute and riruy, either." Sure, he could lie to her and run off and tell their parents so she'd have to stay, but he didn't like to lie to his siblings, and besides - he liked keeping secrets. "Have you told Sao yet?"
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