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 Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:30 pm
His tail was flicking at his left side, bobbing gently as he nodded to it. It wasn't being as argumentative as it usually was, and actually had some funny stories today. It, all in all, was a fairly relaxing afternoon stroll.
That was until he came up on wooden bridge he'd never seen before. It was made of wood, with stone posts on either side for support. It looked weathered, a few boards missing...but sturdy none the less. It arched over a deep part of the creek and marsh that ran through the swamp, enough that a full grown soq could swim under it.
Zelfrax glanced at his tail, "Where did this come from?"
He paused, tilting his head. He shook his head, "No! No, it has not always been here! I'd have seen it. I've been all over this swamp..."
He stamped his hoof on one of the wooden planks, looking down at it. He leaned down close to the nearest post, inspecting it. "Who'd want to come out here and build a bridge anyway? Not like many venture around this area...."
A pause to look at his tail, then a slight nod. "I suppose it's for all those lost mares that keep wandering around here..."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:26 am
So the bridge needed repairing. All the better for a spindly little leg to slip through the gaps and get a goat--or three--stuck where they didn't want to be stuck. So the wood was weathered. Hepzibane didn't mind. She didn't go over it anyway. Under was her preference. Under, where the water was cool and still and swamp things swam or slithered or crawled by her legs. Under where the sun didn't beat down and bake her while she waited, and where she had the best angle of surprise and fear-causing. Sometimes, the truly startled splashed right off the side and into the water itself. Always good for a laugh, it was. So it wasn't a perfect bridge. It was hers, and it was staying that way. The sound of a voice coming closer had her ducking into the arch of the shadow under the bridge. She wasn't all that hungry at the moment--fortunate for whoever this might be--but she was always in a mood to give some nosy so-and-so a fright, so she hunkered down, tail sliding slowly, silently through the water and she waited. Waaaaited. Waaaaaaait for it...Peering around the edge of the bridge as the--what sort of tail was that?--talked to himself, Hepzibane flicked an ear, tilted her head, and shifted her weight a bit. Come on, come on. "Don't have to be a mare," her voice echoed up from between the boards. "Try your luck, ponyfish. Step across."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 2:28 pm
Zelfrax frowned at the voice, then sighed. "Well, that's just great...now I'm hearing the voices too."
He looked down at the bridge, then around to see if anyone else was about. He didn't see another soul in the area. Maybe he'd finally slipped his mind and followed his father's path. Or, maybe it really was a spirit. He thought he might better take precaution.
"Oh great spirit of this weathered and...somewhat down trodden bridge," The stallion said to the wooden boards under his hooves. "Please don't haunt me. My dad is much better for haunting...he'll even argue with you and stuff."
He paused and looked at his tail twitching near his left shoulder. He frowned, then looked down at the boards again, this time leaning closer to them to look between them. "You're right...there's something down there. Hello down there! Are you hurt?"
Zel thought about it, then stepped off the bridge. He moved down to where he could look under the bridge, "Spirit? Are you in need of help?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:03 pm
Oh ho, so he was going to risk it after all. She could do with a nice bite of fishpony, she thought. Meatier than a fish, fresher than goat. They were a little stringy, and gamey after all. So she readied herself, tail moving quickly enough to make little ripples in the murky water. She crouched even closer to the water. When she was ready, she'd squirt out from under the bridge and leap up over the side and...
Wait, what was he doing? Where was he going? Peering down at her through a gap like that? She ought to have put out his eye. Spat water at him at least. Maybe jabbed him in the nose with a horn just to get his nose out of places it didn't belong. Spirit, hnf. Hepzibane was no spirit. She was real and solid and to be feared, oh yes, oh yes.
Except he clearly didn't, if he was coming to investigate. So when he peered under the bridge, she summoned all that pent up energy she'd been storing and rushed at him, sloshing and slogging out of her hiding place with a great deal of splashing and kicking up muck. "NOOOOOOOOO!" she roared. Or more precisely growled. "Nooo, I ain't a spirit an' I don't need no help! Graaaar!
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:22 pm
What? Another mare? Zelfrax just stared at her roaring at him. He shook his head and sighed. "I should have known...is this swamp an attractant for females? Now you're just coming out of the wood work..."
He nodded at his tail, then looked at her. "You look like you need help, covered in muck like that. Or...are you hiding from the fish people? Is that why you're under this decrepit bridge?"
He took a step down into the water to look under the bridge. "It's not really a good hiding place if you call out to anyone that walks over head. You got a nice collection of wind chimes, though..."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:50 pm
Hepzibane looked down at herself, at him, flicked an ear and snorted. "I like the muck just fine. And you, you're giving your tail a say." She snorted, amused by her own observation, at least. "'magine that. Giving me trouble over my -- those are not windchimes." Yes, she'd been listening, thank you. "Those are rattles and I need them and Hepzibane don't hide from nobody, nohow." Snort.
Besides. She tilted her head, then stamped a fish. "'sides, what're you if you ain't a fishpeople. Fishpony." Another rough sound of amusement. "Fish...tree...pony..." Her gaze roved over him, picking out pieces and trying to put them together. Horns. He had horns! "Goat." Her eyes narrowed. "Fishtreeponygoat. Thing."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 4:14 pm
A...goat? The hell she said. "I'm not a goat! I'm part kelpi. My mom was part demon...I got her horns."
He eyed the 'rattles', then the mare. Awful old to be playing with rattles, aren't ya? I mean...those are for foals, right?"
The stallion looked at his tail, then smirked at the mare, "But you were hiding just when I walked up. So, you do hide from people..."
He leaned close to her, eying her horns and tusks. "What are you anyway? I've never seen a mare with fangs...maybe you are a spirit. Can you tell that other spirit that lives in the garden to leave my father alone?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 5:43 pm
Hepzibane rolled her eyes, an impressive feat. "They ain't foal rattles. They're to spook the ones what're easy to spook." Which obviously he was not. It was a good thing that she wasn't hungry, because otherwise she'd have been very disappointed. And quite possibly even shorter tempered than normal. "Part demon." She added another snort for good measure. "How d'you get to be part a demon. Eat 'em?" Her laughter was no more attractive than she was, covered in swamp muck at the moment. It was a hitching half-brayed, half-snorted sound, but it meant that she was amused, fairly clearly as she stamped her hooves and slapped her wet tail against her own leg.
Until he accused her of hiding. Then she stopped laughing completely. "Wasn't hidin' 'cause I was a-scared." She gave him a Look. A 'where have you been in the world that you don't know what I am' Look. She licked her lips and for a second, the big fang on the other side of her mouth popped into sight as the first disappeared. Then they switched again and her lips wrinkled around the one sticking out. "'m not no spirit." Clearly. "'ma troll."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:44 pm
"A troll?" Zel tilted his head, looking her over. "How does one become a troll? You're the first I've seen. You got horns like me...so I thought you might be like Mother...she had horns and trees..."
He shook his head, "No...you don't eat the demon. I...don't know how she got to be part demon. She left, because Father forgot she was there a lot. I never thought to ask about it. Father tells me I'm part demon, when he sees me. Most times he just doesn't notice. Too busy arguing with the garden."
The stallion walked over to the 'wind chimes', nosing one of them to make it rattle. "Do these really work? I'd think they'd sound like tree branches moving around. You should get some metal from the two-leggers to add in. Not little pieces, big ones...so it can sound like an army under their hooves. Or a thunder storm about to rise out of the swamp."
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:27 pm
She blinked at him a few times. Flicked one ear and then the other, then licked her own nose. That was thought on display right there, as she tried to puzzle through how to explain being a troll when she ...couldn't. She finally settled on the simple answer. "You don't becomes anything. You is a troll or you ain't." Simple as that. "Like bein' a demon, I guess. Can't be part a troll for eatin' a troll. 'sides, troll don't taste good, case you get ideas." She snorted and slapped her leg with her tail again.
She was about to ask about that arguing with the garden thing when he started poking at her rattles. She splooshed right back into the water and waded over, more or less getting in his way. "'course they work," she argued. "You see anything else out here makes that kinda sound? Some goat come a-cloppin' over my bridge, he don' expect to hear," and she poked the rattles again to make them clack together. "Makes 'im jumpy. Clumsy too." She exhaled, almost a wistful sigh. "Clumsy goat is a good meal."
She shook it off a moment later, a full body shake that made a little wave on the surface of the swamp water. "Got no use for a two-leg nor none of that met-tal."
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:07 am
"But the metal would making these rattles scarier. The goats would think an army was after them....they might jump off the bridge to hide," Zelfrax offered, looking at the swamp around them. "Father has a pet two-legger that cooks our meals for us. He comes early in the day and leaves in the afternoon. I dunno why...I think the house we live in used to be his or something..."
He started walking away from the bridge, sloshing along in the water. His tail flicked a little, causing ripples in the water behind him. He seemed to be looking for something. He paused, then glanced back at his tail, then at the mare. "Sometimes there is shells and washed up two-legger junk at the beach, and sometimes I find is lying around in here. There's also a broken tower on the other side of the swamp....maybe there's stuff there."
The stallion looked down, walking back. "Or...I could get some pots and stuff from my Father. He really only uses the large cooking pot on the fire..."
He looked at her, "There might be some stew cooking by now. Grimsby should have started making food by now."
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:38 am
Hepzibane snorted and flicked an ear again. "An army, he says. Get herself an army. Hepzibane don't need an army to get her goats. All she needs is a stubborn-headed fool," which all goats were, to her mind, "a nervous soul, an' these." She bumped the wooden rattles with her nose again, making them clack satisfactorily.
Then there he went, wandering off, and dragging that tail of his behind him. Or not dragging, really. She flicked her tail while she was thinking about his. It was a curious thing. Curiously ... interesting, really. She tilted her head a bit, licked her lips while she chose words, then ventured out from under the bridge again, after him. "Izzat any good for swimming with? Your tail, I mean. Not much for swimmin', mind, but with a tail like that, you could really go, couldn't you? Like a regular fish you'd be." Whether he admitted to being part fish or not. Because clearly, with that tail, he was part fish. Kelpi. Pft.
Wait. Waaaaait. She stopped following him and lifted her head, suddenly suspicious. Her eyes narrowed. "Why'sit you're bein' so helpful, then? Not after Hepzi's bridge, are you, fishpony? Because this here bridge is mine, fair and square an' it's kept her fed well enough since ... well. Since whenever it has." Except that she really hadn't had a decent mouthful of goat in a while and ...oh. Oh, the mention of food. And stew.
She shifted her weight a bit, prying one forehoof out of the muck, and then the other as the water sloshed again. "What sort of stew, then?"
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