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 Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:04 pm
The mare scuffed the ground again and ruffled her wings up, beat them against the air a few times to loosen the tension in them before settling them back by her flanks. Diego’s mare. She’s sworn she wouldn’t do it when she’d first met him, but that had been the assertion of an impulsive, irrational child who hadn’t yet thought through the implication of her actions. She wished she’d never gone to see Nyx, never realized until too late that her cousin would take her place if she failed to reappear. It would have been wrong, of course, but it would have been easier. She could have said to herself that if she’d known she would have gone back, feel like a wonderful moral creature but have kept her freedom. Still. Things never seemed to turn out the easiest or the nicest way, not for her at any rate.
“So.” The Jala raised her head at last to regard the golden form before her. “We’re mates now. I hear you’re not quite as big an arsehole as you used to be so... I guess we’d better get to know each other.” Before they had to Get To Know each other, as it were. She still shuddered a little at that thought, still didn’t want foals... but she didn’t really have a lot of choice, now did she? She never had any choices.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:09 pm
“Well...” Great start Diego, great start. “I... I ah... I suppose we could work out if we have anything in common.” Egh, not much better. “I... I discovered that I quite like to travel and umm... This isn’t going very well, is it?” Perhaps honesty was the best policy rather than trying to fumble along with smiles and such. “I didn’t want this either, you know, but at least you seem like somebody I’ll be able to hold a decent conversation with... Did your father say anything specific to you about foals?” Perhaps that last had been too honest, too blunt and too soon but what the hell, things could hardly get worse, now could they?
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:11 pm
She had to admit to being a tad taken aback by that, but she hoped it didn’t show too much in her face of bearing. She didn’t want Diego to know he’d caught her off balance. “Well... He heavily implied that production should begin soon,” she managed after a few moments with a snort of what she hoped sounded like derision. “I suppose he’s right though, the sooner our union bears fruit, har har, the better it will look to both herds and the better allegiances will be formed yadieyada. We’re supposed to be the perfect pretty couple for people to aww over, and the perfect pretty couple should also have foals for people to awww over. Oh and more than one always looks good you know, I hope you haven’t used up all your potency on that crop of six you went off and had.” Maybe that had been harsh, but whatever; she wasn’t in the mood to walk lightly around feelings today.
“If you can manage it,” the purple-striped mare went on, “three or four would be just about perfect so far as I’m concerned. I’m sure everybody would be over the moon if we produced six, and I’ve no doubt people would giggle over you pulling that off twice in a row, but I’d rather not have to deal with six.” True this shining-coated stallion had got a less healthy mare than she through a tree of six, but that didn’t mean she wanted to go through it. Three or four would be quite sufficient; a nice balance between her heath and sanity and what would look good to everybody else.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:14 pm
Despite himself, the stallion laughed. “I’ll make a mental note of that,” he said with a snort, “three or four fruits, well, I shall do my best I suppose... I still think that six would be brilliant though, although maybe that’s just for my ego.” He gave his mate a grin at this point to show he was at least partially joking. “In any case, no matter how many we end up with I will look after you, and no doubt there will be a hoard of hangers on willing to help too in the hopes that we might look favorably upon them in the future, decide to mate our foals to theirs or something.”
...Now there was a thought. Would he try to arrange mates for his foals from this match? It was the right thing to do so far as being a herd leader went, but so far as being a father... Well, that was quite another matter. Even though he himself had been raised to expect what was happening to him now he didn’t like it. He didn’t hate his sire for it, but the whole mess did make him unhappy. He didn’t think he wanted to do that to his own children, or his brother’s if the dear daft stallion ever got around to having any but he had a feeling that he might have little real choice in the matter. Funny that; even as a herd leader he might not really have any choice but to do what he didn’t want to do.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:18 pm
She was surprised by his humor to say the least. It didn’t endear him to her, not yet, but it was promising for the future. She hoped he was joking about arranging mates for their foals (that was still an uncomfortable thought no matter how many times she thought it) the last thing she wanted to do was force on another what had been forced on her. “Won’t it be your brother doing that in any case?” she asked for something to say; she had already gathered from her father who had gathered it from Diego’s father that it was to be her golden mate with the real power.
That was one of the reasons it had been such an important match, she supposed; in theory, she was in a position to influence the policies and such of the larger herd to the benefit of her own people. The purple and black mare had a feeling however, that influencing Diego if he didn’t want to be influenced might not be a very easy tack even for the most skilled and subtle of diplomats let alone a kick-it-until-it-stops-moving type like her. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a good mind, because she did; a very good one. It just wasn’t all that great at flattering and manipulating people, that was all. Ha, still, perhaps if she just asked her darling mate would do as her father had asked her to ask just to see her pretty smile. Egh.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:21 pm
Diego chuckled and gave a slight shake of his head. “No, no that’ll be me if it’s done at all. I’ll be calling the stunts once father either dies or retires; you must have noticed that my dear sibling isn’t exactly the brightest star in the sky?” Perhaps she believed his father so in love with tradition and succession lines that he wouldn’t adapt to a less than brilliant first child. Well, fair enough he supposed; she couldn’t be feeling all that kindly disposed to any of his herd right now least of all himself and his sire. “Yes,” the blue-eyed creature went on after a moment with a nod, “as I say, I’ll be his ‘advisor’, which means he does what I tell him to unless he thinks it’s utterly insane, in which case he asks me to explain it again, understands and then he does it.”
Perhaps it was pride and vanity, but Diego couldn’t see himself coming out with any really stupid ideas. “Of course,” he added as he spotted the frown beginning to form on his mate’s face, “you are always welcome to tell me if you spot me becoming a despotic tyrant or a gibbering idiot. Input from another fine mind is always welcome. Don’t promise to listen every time, but I will certainly take suggestions on board if they make sense to me.” Perhaps, Diego considered as he studied the strong featured beauty before him, he would have a good wing-mare in this one after all. It was always good to have somebody to bounce ideas off and to offer suggestions of their own when you were stumped, right? Perhaps she hadn’t been such a terrible choice after all even if she did seem to have a strong tendency to kick first and think later.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:24 pm
Bastet gave a snort and an almost-smile. “Thanks, I’ll be sure to let you know if you start cackling and saying things like ‘they said I was mad, maaaaad’... Actually if you do that I’ll probably just kick you in the rump for taking the piss but yea, if you start making daft decisions you’ll be hearing for me.” Well, maybe it was going to be easier to influence him than she’d thought... Well, not really influence; the word had the wrong flavor to it, implied fooling him somehow rather than offering suggestions, advice, requests.
“Yea, I did notice that actually,” she went on, referring back to Diego’s words on his brother. “Nice guy, dumb as a stick; that was the impression I got anyway. He was following a butterfly when I first met him. It was about a year ago, he wandered into my lands following after that butterfly and got himself lost. I had to take him to father to find somebody to lead him home...” She remembered watching his gentle smile, hearing him laugh at a silly joke she’d told and wondering how that kind creature could possibly be related to golden-hearted Diego. Now though, she could see the similarity between them. Diego was wearing that sort of smile too, but unlike his sibling his eyes held intellect as well as life. Perhaps, if things kept going this way, things might not be so bad after all.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:29 pm
Diego chuckled and shook his head. “Yes, yes that sounds like my brother poor daft thing. We used to joke that he must’ve bashed his head when his fruit fell from his tree and addles his brains. Still, addled or not he knows how to look the part of a leader... even if everyone does seem to realize that I’m going to be the real boss...” The blue-eyed stallion frowned and shrugged his wings. “All seems a bit much trouble to go to if everyone knows, but I suppose that politics for you. Everybody knows that nobody really means or is what they say but nobody says anything about it, because it’s politics. Or something.”
Funny. He’d never thought much about that sort of thing before he’d left the herd. Maybe travel really did broaden the mind or whatever it was it was suppose to do. After seeing the workings of life away from a comfortable herd, a lot of things seemed a bit... Silly. All the weaving and bobbing of manners and the masked intentions and who you could and couldn’t be friends with depending on power and favor within the herd. How had he ever been good at this sort of thing?... Well, actually he was still good at it, he just wasn’t proud of being good at it anymore. Ah well.
“Still, whatever makes people happy I suppose,” the gold stallion said with another wing shrug. “Besides,” he chuckled and shook his head, “it would be cruel to change plans this late in the game; it took enough time to get my brother used to the idea of how things were going to work once, I’d hate to have to undo all that explaining and then explain something else to him.” Getting new ideas into his sibling’s skull, at least that kind of new idea, was somewhat akin to trying to get water to run uphill.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:33 pm
The golden-hooved Nequus sighed and nodded her agreement. “Yea, stupid as it is I suppose it’s the best we can do. Politics are stupid, if you ask me, because most people are too. Not in the way that your brother is but in a... I don’t know, a more... more...” She had no idea at all what she was trying to say. Damn. “Not as in they lack common sense or intellect but... I don’t know; they get sucked into things and follow along too easily. Herd stupidity, I guess though that doesn’t really express what I’m trying to say...”
...She was trying to express her ideas to Diego. They were having a civilized conversation. They had common ground in thinking that herds were innately daft entities, or so it seemed. Wow. It wasn’t exactly the basis for a wonderful new friendship or anything like that but it was the foundation of mutual respect, and perhaps friendship could come from there. She hoped so. She wanted her mate to turn out to be a stallion she could not only tolerate but actually be fond of, too.
“Hey,” she commented with an amused snort, “check it out; we’re getting along.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:35 pm
The golden Jala had to laugh at that. “Shush,” he mock chided, “you’ll scare it off.” They were getting on actually. Not like old friends who’d known one another for ever or like a love-at-second-sight couple but like two intelligent Nequus who didn’t have anything too much against one another. That was a relief, he had to admit; he had feared that he might end up spending the whole of his life in a never-ending and very private argument. If if things never got more friendly than this, which he suspected they might, it would be a bearable existence.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:36 pm
The tall mare gave a slightly wan smile and nodded. “Yea, I’d hate to do that... Listen...” Egh, this was going to hurt her pride like hell. Oh well, nothing to be done about it; it would be a niggle in the back of her mind forever if she didn’t. “Diego... I... Look I... I’m sorry for how I treated you on our first meeting. I thought... Well, to be honest I didn’t even give you a chance. I know I can’t make another first impression, but I don’t want you to think that how I behaved is representative of my character... Well I guess the temper bit is but... but usually I don’t judge people like that. It was just that... well that I’d heard all this stuff about you, and then I was told to be your mate I... I’m just sorry, okay?” There, it was said now. Hopefully he’d accept the apology and they could move on from it.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:41 pm
Diego sighed and return the not very happy smile. “Honetly, in your place I’d probably have judged me too. I wouldn’t have kicked me but I’d’ve given me a good tongue lashing for sure. It’s Nequus nature to lash out in circumstances like that, I think. I’m not entirely sure I was myself on our first meeting either; I wasn’t thinking all that clearly to be honest... Odd to go from total freedom to this, you know? I’d really got to like going my own way, beholden to none but myself and those I chose to associate with. Still. I guess not everyone can get what they want, humm?”
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:45 pm
Bastet nodded slowly. “Yea,” she sighed, “guess not... Well...” Now what? The conversation had run out and that couldn’t be a good thing given what was expected of them. “So... You... You want to get something to eat?” Phew, good save. Well, awful save actually but any save was good enough for her at that moment. They’d have to get around to It eventually of course, but the longer it could be put off the better. Hoping that Diego felt the same, the striped mare waited for a reply and tried not to think about foals, or how it might feel to have your strength pulled away by a growing tree and its burden of fruits. She’d never actually asked anyone what it felt like. That felt like a bit of an oversight now; she had no idea what to expect from it at all.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:47 pm
The stallion gave a half smile at her fumbling for words and nodded. “Sure, there’s probably plenty of fruit left from the ceremony; let’s go and find some shall we?” Honestly, he was glad to procrastinate for a while. He needed time to steel his nerves and get used to the idea that, if all went to plan, he’d be a father again soon. Still, he’d enjoyed it the first time around; who said he wouldn’t again? Now that Bastet had proved herself to be not too mad and he was fairly sure that he could come to like her their foals might not even end to too badly messed up by their relationship.
At the mare’s silent nod, he understood her lack of desire for conversation, the blue-eyed creature set off towards the copse where he remembered baskets being taken once all the festivities had been wrapped up. Honestly he wasn’t hungry in the least, he doubted Bastet really was either, but he couldn’t think of a better distraction so this one would have to do. Trying not to feel too much like a nervous wreck, Diego walked on towards the cluster of trees, his mate by his side.
This, he decided with a glance over at her tall dark form, was going to take a lot of getting used to.
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