[PRP] Exterminate Exterminate [ Scandal / Bitter End ]

[Jun D]

Scandal kicked through the swamp, sullen and ill-at-ease. She hadn't been feeling very well lately, and she hadn't been able to fight - literally - that feeling away. It was a foreign sensation for a doe whose modus operandi was to stomp everything into submission.

Maybe all the fermented juices were catching up.

"Dammit," she muttered under her breath, splashing through the marsh. It had come with such delightful company too, the last time she'd imbibed. Heck, she hadn't had a drink in too long. If you can't beat them, join them.

Maybe she'd grab Milkthistle and go for another round. If you drank enough fermented juice, you wouldn't feel a thing no more.  

[Maxx D]

Alongside her every move was an ever-present, unceasing rustle - it intensified with each move, and there was the softest pitter patter of many feet, and then there was the worm. It peered comically over the brush at the direly unhappy doe, and took a slow, stealthy round with its many little feet, before emerging behind her, following her soggy steps. The intent way it continued to seek her out betrayed a sense of it seeming to know something - something she did not. Head down, it quietly slithered up just behind her back hoof.

Little limbs reached out, to gently grasp and brush against the fluff of her tail.  

[Jun D]

Scandal slowly turned her head to look down at the multi-limbed assailant.

"Disgusting," she pronounced.

That was way too many legs.

She lifted a steely hoof to splatter its little wormy brains across the marsh.  

[Maxx D]

It would have looked offended at the notion of it being "disgusting" (not that it disagreed per se, but moreso that it was something that shouldn't have been said to its face in polite company), if not for the imminent danger her next move presented. So forceful her hoof and so determined her face that for the first time as a greater cave worm, Bitter End felt bodily threatened. It was then a mare that put her leg out real far in an attempt to deflect the blow from her little wormy brains, and snapped "WATCH IT. YOU'RE PREGNANT."  

[Jun D]

Scandal stared at the sudden mare, browridges drawn together in incredulity.

"Why would you choose to use a disgusting form like that," she said, "when you could look like this?"

And then, less importantly, "Wait - I'm WHAT?"  

[Maxx D]

Both her prior vague offense (offset by a self-defense instinct) and her adrenaline-driven instinct slowed and dissipated at her quip - Bitter End would never miss a compliment where she could help it. It sounded like a compliment. She was pretty sure it was one, and so she would take it.

".....thanks - ?" she said, tilting her head with some mild confusion. "You're cute too. That's probably why you're pregnant. With child. Impending sacs. Anyway," more importantly, she had to remind herself, "most kin are scared of giant worms, not stomp-happy!"  

[Jun D]

She continued to stare.

"Why?" she said, "they're worms. Just more disgusting."

Then she abruptly shook her head.

"Anyway, that can't be right. There must be a mistake," after a moment's thought, she added, "I need a drink...heeey...d'you reckon if I drink enough -"  

[Maxx D]

The immediate alarm knocked the indignity out of her head for a moment. "Noooooo. That'd definitely be dangerous for everyone involved, including you. And don't squash them when they come out." The last part was almost sarcastic, but also a bit fearful. Boy, this was not how she anticipated her blessing going. Maybe all these disasters was the Motherfather finally finding out that she wasn't worthy and making her atone for her -

- she shook her head a little sternly in return. "My mother - Father - says that....drinking that much is probably no good for you anyway and you should hold off for a while more."  

[Jun D]

Oh, now, that was a problem.

"What? I'm not supposed to drink...the whole time?!"  

[Maxx D]

Bitter End considered the wisdom of telling this doe that a 'reasonable amount' would be all right, because she was pretty sure that her idea of reasonable would be very very different.

"..............yes."  

[Jun D]

There was a time and place for dignity. This was not it. This was a full-blown crisis. Slowly, she gave up on life and sank into the mud.

"Can you just tell your Motherfather to take me now?"  

[Maxx D]

End actually felt like she was taking this relatively well when she was attempting to crush her worm brains just a little while ago, so she kindly, but perhaps a tad misguidedly said:

"May your children be hardy, to last out your drought," she mused, nosing the floored doe. "and hopefully you'll be strong enough to last it too."

With a condescending head pat (with her muzzle), she took her leave.  

[Jun D]

"That's not what I asked for!" she yelled at the retreating mare, but that was a good-looking lady, so she let it slide.

After wallowing in her misery (and mud) for a moment more, she pulled herself up and splashed off in some cleaner (not anymore) water.

Children. Feck it. She really needed a drink. But a non-fermented one. Well. Maybe just a little fermented. A little tipple.

*****

Needless to say, it did not end up just a little tipple, and it was a good thing those babies were blessed.

END