[PRP] Get out. (Reiko and Sangmu)

[Revolutionary Roniel]

It was a beautiful day to be soaking in the hotspring. It was early spring during a time some might still call winter. The air still had enough lingering chill to it to make the hotspring comfortable but was warm enough that she wouldn't freeze when she emerged. That was especially relevant today. Her friend and attendant, Tatsuji, was absent. He had personal matters to attend to today and so she had to manage her own relaxation. There would be no combing of her mane and gentle toweling off of her fetlocks today. She would have sighed, but she couldn't bring herself to think poorly of such a lovely day.

Her eyes shut with pleasure as she felt the warm water moving gently along her legs. This hotspring was one of the best kept secrets of her family, and she hoped it stayed that way.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Sangmu was happy. It had been so long since she'd visited her friend Freyja! The cerynei-flutter was just as coy and catty as ever, but in a way that made you laugh rather than be angry. They had spent all of the previous day together and today had parted ways. Before they had, Freyja had let Sangmu in on a little secret. There was apparently a hotspring nearby! Freyja had other things to do and couldn't come with, but Sangmu didn't mind being on her own from time to time. She had never been in a hotspring before and looked forward to the experience.

She passed by the massive rock that looked like it had been hacked into two pieces. That's when she knew she'd arrived. She went around it, and there the hotspring was! Mist rose gently from the surface and its waters swirled pale with the minerals suspended within. There was a kirin already there. Even better!

"Hello!" Sangmu said brightly. She loved meeting new people. "My name is Sangmu. My friend told me about this place."  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Reiko looked like someone had just spit in her oats. She didn't want to share the hotspring. It was as simple as that. The few other times there had been soquili to compete with her for its space, Tatsuji had swiftly hurried them off. Now Tatsuji wasn't here and she would have to fend for herself if she wanted privacy.

"This is a private hotspring," she said with a voice that threatened to freeze the water to ice. "Please find somewhere else to bathe, if that is your intention." She spoke with softly accented words and a lofty diction. She considered herself above the usual soquili crowd, of which this soquili was certainly part of.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Sangmu blinked. She could barely believe what she was hearing. She was no stranger to standoffish soquili but normally they could be won over with a welcoming attitude. She wasn't used to being point blank denied.

"I..." She trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence. "I'm sorry," she said, more confused than anything. "My friend told me about this place. "She said she came by here pretty often." What she wanted to say was that it couldn't be private, since her friend obviously knew about it and used it. She didn't think that would have been as polite, though.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Reiko gave a heavy and obvious sigh. Tatsuji would have solved all of this. Now she had to deal with it herself. Unenthused, she looked over the mare. She was pretty enough, she supposed. Not to her taste, but others might find her attractive. Reiko's practiced eye picked out cloven hooves and a leonine tail. A unicorn halfbreed. Many couldn't tell the difference between the tail of a unicorn and a kirin, but it really was quite obvious when you paid attention to such things.

"Fine, you may join me." She wasn't pleased at all by this development but recognized that to be a citizen in the world that one had to make concessions from time to time. "Just don't... crowd me." She flicked a hoof idly away from herself, as if already brushing off unwanted contact.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Sangmu's ears flicked one way and another. It was an invitation but not exactly a welcoming one. Still, she had come all this way and wanted to be able to talk to Freyja about the hotspring later. "Thank you!" She forced herself to act more cheery than she felt. She carefully began taking off her accessories, laying them in a neat pile on a clean rock.

"I've heard that this spring has minerals that make your legs feel amazing," she said. What Freyja really had told her was that old folks loved the spring because it made them less sore and crotchety, but Sangmu wasn't about to repeat that.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Reiko sighed again. Sighing was something she did a lot of when in the presence of soquili that weren't her family. They just... wore her out.

"Yes, that's true. But it's more the hot water that helps the body more than the minerals," she told the mare. The hot water had a magical way of working into every muscle and unwinding it. Reiko tried to keep up her grumpiness but even for her it was difficult in the relaxing aura of the hotspring. If she couldn't be grumpy, she'd settle for being apathetic.

"But others might disagree." She shrugged, uncaring. In her opinion, drinking mineral water probably had more benefit than soaking in it.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"Mm-hm," replied Sangmu, slipping her arm band off. There. Now she was ready. She gave the kirin mare one final uncertain look before stepping to the edge of the spring. It looked like someone had actually arranged rocks in a brief series of steps leading into the water. She began to step into it and immediately was surprised by the heat. She actually had to pause to let her legs acclimatize to it before she could tolerate going in further.

"It's hot!" she laughed, smile fading as she realized how silly she must sound to the mare that already probably didn't want her in there. She brought herself in the rest of the way. The steam clung to her mane. She had the feeling that even the parts of her that didn't submerge would end up soaking by the end of it. "I wish we had one of these closer to my herd," she admitted happily.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Uzoamaka ached. She felt the ache in her muscles, in her skull, somehow even her tail felt strained. She just finished one of the toughest caravan missions she'd had in years. She'd been helping pull a cart full of grain. She readily volunteered for tasks like these but this cart had been overloaded. By the time anyone realized the mistake it was too late. The grain couldn't be left behind and they were short-staffed on soquili as it was. She'd had to pull the cart with only an elderly wind stallion to help her.

They hadn't scheduled much in the way of a break, only a couple days. The thought of having to be hitched back up to the cart again, even with a lighter load, filled her with gloom. She had come up to the hotsprings hoping to soak herself, desperate to get rid of some of the soreness before piling more on top of it.

She wasn't surprised to see other soquili already there. It was rare to find such pleasant hotsprings that soquili could use. "Hello," she said tiredly, starting to take her gear off herself.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Reiko twitched when she saw the striped unicorn. She had only just let the halfbreed in. What was supposed to be a private bath was getting less private by the minute. "There really isn't room," she said sharply. She could think of nothing more disgusting than being pressed up against hot sweating horse bodies, polluting the clear clean water.

"I'm sorry," she said, not really sorry at all, "But you're going to have to wait or come back some other time." Her words were clipped, authoritative. She could sense the pink mare's eyes on her but couldn't care less. She refused to consider herself anything less than justified. She had been here first. They were lucky she was even giving them that much consideration.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Sangmu was having regrets. She was keenly aware that she sat in the water already. It must look terrible to the unicorn to have the kirin trying to turn her away when she was already there.

"We can fit one more, cant we?" she asked pleadingly. "I really don't mind sharing space over here. There's still plenty of room." She tried to push back her anxiety and smile warmly. "My name is Sangmu." She hadn't gotten around to introducing herself to the kirin and thought it might be best to introduce some social graces into the situation.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Uzoamaka glared flatly at the kirin. Apparently she'd discovered a local snob. She was relieved to see that at least the pink mare, Sangmu, seemed to be kinder.

"Thank you," she said, pointedly addressing Sangmu. She normally attempted to be more diplomatic but was too exhausted and grumpy to do otherwise. "My name is Uzoamaka. I've had a very tiring day and appreciate it." She finished laying down her last flower and headed for the edge of the spring.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Reiko huffed. Her cool demeanor was slipping and she struggled to keep it in place. "Very well. If Sangmu doesn't mind being crowded then she may make that choice." She hoped it was clear that she didn't plan on moving herself. She definitely didn't plan on leaving the spring. That would just be shameful.

She looked at Uzoamaka's discarded gear with disdainful fascination. She thought the color probably would have been garish if it wasn't so dusty and trail-worn. It looked like she'd been wearing the same thing for years. She'd had her beautiful pelt for a long time but she kept it spotless. She couldn't imagine herself being caught in public looking that unkept. Her aggravation was making her petty. Even though she said none of these observations out loud, it wasn't hard to guess what she might be thinking.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

The awkwardness only increased. Sangmu couldn't help but notice that the kirin hadn't given her name out in the introductions. Why wasn't she surprised?

She tried to look friendly and welcoming for Uzoamaka. She thought with fascination about the gear that she'd been wearing a moment ago. "Do you work with humans?" she asked brightly. "We don't have many humans near my herd so don't do much with them." Sometimes groups of humans would pass through, but not for long. The times when the humans were around sometimes felt like a festival. She loved playing with the human children, giving them rides and letting them braid flowers into her mane. Thinking of this, her smile grew more genuine.

"I've heard that some herds and human tribes live together, running across the plains following buffalo herds." She didn't like the idea of hunting, but working together with a human like that had to be something special.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Uzoamaka wondered how long it would be until the kirin lost her temper. She'd met the type before, normally the children of some of the rich traders that her caravans worked with. They were so used to having their way that anything less than total obeisance was seen as an insult. She did her best to maintain cordiality with those sorts when she was on the job, but she wasn't on the job now. She was relaxing and she wasn't about to clear off just so some pampered kirin could hoard a hotspring to herself.

Sangmu seemed like much more pleasant company. Uzoamaka was used to people asking about her profession but it didn't really bother her. To more "wild" soquili, she could imagine how a life spent working with humans might be bizarre. She'd met a few misguided sorts who had tried to convince her that to work with humans was to be enslaved by them. Somehow she didn't think the cheery pink unicorn would have that problem.

"I am part of a caravan that is about two-thirds humans and one-third soquili or familiars," she replied pleasantly.