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 Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:47 pm
 It takes Many Voices a few days to reach the swamp, even at Desert Spring's pace: it is far more sedate than Slide's pace would have been. That would likely have been grueling -- he is used to traveling at his own speed, a speed which Meets-the-Sea can easily match. Two nearly full-grown fillies are not as swift. The journey is filled with chatter -- mostly Many Voices' own voice, as she finds things to talk about, complain about, and discuss. In her own head, her other-voice provides incessant commentary about the food, the weather, the humidity, the swamp, the sky, the desert, their father -- .. and each time, she shakes her head, ears flicking forward and then back, and resumes paying attention to her sister. As they get closer to the desert, they begin foraging for food; if Desert Spring is to be believed, the food stores in the borderlands cave are not endless. Many Voices is currently head and shoulders in a bramblebush, pulling out the large, vine-swollen ripe fruits to put them in a pile on a large leaf. "--are you sure we won't be a burden? It would be a pain to have to come back, because there isn't enough food..."
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 6:01 pm
 Desert Spring snorts, her own head digging through the fallen leaves at the base of a tree for mushrooms. "He didn't seem quite the type to invite us just to be polite," she responds, unearthing a small cap and tossing it over to her sister's gathering-leaf. "Besides," she continues, "his mate is pregnant and she seemed more than willing to have a few more hooves around to help with the young ones once they're born. As long as we pull our own weight, I'm sure we will be welcome."
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:34 pm
"I don't want to be someone's workhorse," Many Voices says, picking up her head to regard her sister: the voice inside of her head, for once, is in complete accordance with her. But eventually, once the pile of foodstuffs is knee-high, she acquiesces, and shrugs. "But if he offered, and his mate is fine with it -- .. I guess this is our home now."
She wondered at this for a moment, her whole body still: not even her tail lashed from side to side. "I wonder what his mate is like -- I can't imagine anyone living with him, from what you've told me." Of course, stories and legends tend to accumulate weight on their travels (one could ask anyone and hear that as the swamp's honest truth), like a rolling boulder-- Slide's reputation precedes him quite far.
"Anyway," she continues, brisk and businesslike as she begins to roll the leaf up, using a broken green branch (full of sap) as a sort of glue, "We should get going, it's nearly nightfall."
-*-
In his turn, Slide has been preparing the cave for more visitors, and not just pets this time, or a roving eaglehound: he came back to the cave full of energy and vitality, more talkative than he had been in weeks. The first words out of his mouth had been "I have found two of my daughters." And then he had given himself over to shifting around foodstores and, with the tortoise's help, clearing out the second chamber of the cave, which was nearly as big as the first.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:45 am
Desert Spring says nothing to her sister's complaints -- she is used to Many Voices' chatter and knows she will come around to the same conclusion Spring has eventually -- to have a family will be well worth the effort. "I'm sure we'll find out what his mate is like soon enough," Spring replies as her sister gathers up the leaf full of food. As the two trot off, continuing their journey to the borderlands, a brown wolf falls in with them, carrying the carcass of some small mammal in its mouth -- Water Hunter's own offering to what he will soon come to see as his pack. ---  When Walks Without Rhythm had come home and announced the discovery of his daughters, Meets-the-Sea admitted to herself a bit of surprise. She had not known that the buck had any children other than the ones she was currently carrying -- but then again, she did not know much about Slide's past, at least not in detail. He was not a talkative buck, and most of what Meets' knew about him had been gleaned from her own skill at observation. And he certainly seemed excited about the prospect of his daughters' arrival. Although by now Meets' pregnancy was beginning to show and she couldn't help with the more physically exerting tasks, she helped prepare the cave for the newcomers in her own ways -- sending out Seafoam, her foxbun, to gather what food supplies she could find and bring back in her little paws, checking and double-checking the water collectors and storage wells, and foraging on her own when she got too antsy to stay at home all day. By the time the two younger does arrived, the cave had nearly doubled in size and was beginning to look even more like a permanent home.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 12:07 pm
Walks Without Rhythm had never expected to procreate. Before meeting Meets-the-Sea, he had been perfectly happy to remain solitary, enjoying only Pillar's company. The mongoose had been all he thought he had needed.
But things change, as things so often do. Even sand dunes resculpt and change given enough time: every fortnight, a new desert.
At the moment, Pillar and Dune are chattering back and forth; the fennec has never quite grown into his huge ears, and Pillar, when driven to extremes, uses them as prime nipping targets. A fight breaks out, and a moment later the fox squeals as the mongoose nips one of his ears, and after that, both creatures shoot out of the cave as if their tails are on fire. Slide regards them with a long-suffering expression, and then sneezes twice. Both he and Knows No Better have been widening the passage into the other chamber, and they are coated in rock dust. The tortoise doesn't seem to mind.
"They should be here today," the buck says, his voice a grate because of all of the dust. "I think we are prepared. If I know the one, she will have brought her own food." He almost snorts out loud in laughter, thinking of Desert Spring with the berry branch. "She will be bringing a wolf, though it is not a big one." Slide had never seen a wolf before, familiar only with the sand dogs and eaglehounds of the acha and kimeti: he had had to ask what it was, privately, to avoid embarassment.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:30 pm
Meets-the-Sea tilts her head in thought before speaking. "I don't think I've ever seen a wolf before," she replies finally, harboring none of Slide's fears of embarrassment herself -- though this was not always the case. Meets' own penchant for fear and anxiety had somehow proved something the doe had grown out of, though not without the help of a few choice individuals -- Wood Spider, for one, and Slide himself, of course. Her demeanor seems to exude a calm sort of bliss as she turns and smiles at her mate. "I am looking forward to meeting them all."---  Not far from the cave's entrance, a white and blue foxbun peeked its head up from where it was gathering the sweet roots of one of the few plants that managed to survive in the borderlands. Coming towards the little creature were two does and a rather unusual looking dog. With a root still clenched between its teeth, the foxbun hops out in front of the small party, and sits for a moment, twitching its ears. Then, as if in indication that they should follow it, the bun turns on its heels and leads the way toward the cave's entrance, her little fluff of a tail wiggling behind her.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 8:16 pm
Many Voices stares at the foxbun for a moment, hauling up short; she had been taking a turn carrying the branches and other assorted foodstuffs they'd brought with them to the borderlands, and her voice is queerly muffled by the branch in her mouth: "Is that a foxbun?" She sets the branch down at her feet a moment later, tilting her head at it -- if it is a foxbun, and she's certain it is, it is the single most fearless foxbun in all of existence. "--it's not scared of Water Hunter at all. Do you think it belongs to -- dad?"
The shadow of a cave lies ahead on the horizon, just within Many Voices' view -- and the foxbun is heading towards it. Picking up the branch hurriedly, so as not to lose her way, she follows, assuming that Desert Spring is not far behind.
---
"I hoped you would," Slide says, relieved but not surprised: Meets-the-Sea has a compassionate heart. "Two daughters; I have met Desert Spring. She returned to the swamp to fetch her sister, Many Voices." His eyes glitter from within the shade of the cave. "I have not asked how she came by her name."
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:13 am
Water Hunter, who is already carrying the carcass of a dead creature in his mouth, would not have pounced on the little foxbun unless Spring had told him to -- but there is, of course, no way the foxbun could have known that. It is either very brave or very stupid, then. Desert Spring tilts her head.
"I don't think so. He had a tortoise with him, and he mentioned something about a mongoose and a...fennec?" the doe hesitates on the last word, only having heard it spoken once before. Still, something about it seems almost vaguely familiar, as if something she has heard in a dream. She shakes her head. "Perhaps it belongs to his mate. I'm sure we'll soon find out." Clicking at Water Hunter, Spring follows her sister and the foxbun the rest of the way to the cave.
---
"Desert Spring," Meets pronounces, testing the name on her tongue. "Well, we know at least one of them shares your dreams of the sands." She steps over to Slide and nuzzles her head briefly along the weatherworn skin of his neck. "I'm sure we will hear many stories of both of their dreams."
Flicking her ears backwards to a sound at the entrance of the cave, Meets turns. "Welcome back, Seafoam," she says to the little foxbun who has appeared in the cave's entrance. The bun twitches her tail and hops over to the food storage area to deposit her root. The shadow-silhouettes of two does rise into the cave, the setting sun behind them casting their bodies into shadow. "I see you've brought us some friends."
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:11 am
Pillar immediately surges down from the natural shelf he calls his nest (and that he jealously guards from the fennec) to sniff the foxbun. Deeming her worthy of entrance, he bounces away, tail frizzing up: the two does are new, and quite big, and Pillar isn't quite sure he likes this yet. The cave is getting too crowded for the mongoose.
Many Voices hesitates at the mouth of the cave, hooves on the line where bare grass and sand meets the rock -- and blinks into the darkness. She can see two blue-on-blue eyes that she guesses must belong to her father; a moment later she sets her jaw to one side, thinking. I think that IS your father, says the voice inside of her head, but what a home he has presented to you all! And after leaving your poor mother in the swamp by herself! And he did not even look for you--
"Shut up," Many Voices says, almost inaudibly, and then smiles, for Walks Without Rhythm has neared the mouth of the cave, looking at his two daughters -- Desert Spring, who he has seen before, and Many Voices, who he has not.
"Welcome," Slide says, his voice a bit hoarse -- either from the dust in the air or emotion. "This is Meets-the-Sea," which is obvious from how closely he stands to the doe, "I hope you will find the cave -- .. suitable," he finishes lamely. A moment later he betrays inward excitement by tossing his head. "We've opened up another chamber. You are just in time."
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:22 pm
If the mongoose thinks the arrival of the two does has made the cave crowded, he will undoubtedly be distraught in a few months when the new children are born. Still, this is yet to come.
A grin spreading across her face, Desert Spring steps ahead of her sister and looks back and forth between Walks Without Rhythm and Meets-the-Sea, blinking her eyes to adjust to the dimness of the cave. "You worry too much," she remarks teasingly in response to her father's worried description of the cave. "It's lovely." She turns from Slide and nods her head to Meets, a pleased smile still on her face. "We're so glad to meet you! I'm Desert Spring, and this is my sister, Many Voices." The brown wolf pads up to Spring's feet and sits, dropping the animal carcass he held in his mouth and wagging his tail. "Oh, and this is Water Hunter, my wolf. We brought food."
Meets-the-Sea can't help but smile as Desert Spring chastises Slide, and there is laughter in her dark eyes when she replies to the doe. "It is wonderful to meet you both as well. And you brought food?" Her eyes rove over the branch Many Voices carries, the leaf-wrapped package, the carcass at Water Hunter's feet. There could be no kinder gesture out here in the borderlands than this.
"Our food stores are over there," she continues, gesturing toward a nook in the cave with her head, "Though you had better eat the meat tonight so it does not spoil." Meets herself does not eat meat, but she begrudges it of no one else -- she simply never developed a taste for it, having grown up alone and unaware of how to hunt. "Come in and make yourselves comfortable, please, and we will eat," she concludes, stepping aside so that the two does and the wolf can pass. Her eyes scan over them as they move, ever observant of the slightest muscle movement that might give her more insight into their personalities. Her gaze lingers on Many Voices -- she had noticed the younger doe mouthing something to herself as she entered the cave, and this has piqued Meets' interest.
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:50 pm
Many Voices could not have hoped for a better welcome than this: her expression had betrayed her worry and doubt, but she perks up at hearing the doe's voice. Given the first look at her father -- wild and weathered and clearly sculpted by his surroundings -- she could not have imagined his mate, but it all makes sense now. She will pick up her leaf-wrapped package and bring it to the store room, remarking -- to no one in particular (at first glance), but in truth to Meets-the-Sea, "I brought berries, and some edible bark and mushrooms. You probably know all of them already," she adds, her tone one of slight deference. Good first impressions are the best, even when the voice in one's head is mocking and petulant.
Slide grunts, and then quickly bends to nose a voracious fennec out of the way: awakened by the smell of meat and berries, the little fox has surged into the store room, yipping shrilly. "Mind your food. Dune," the fennec, "is hungry. Perhaps the wolf can teach him to hunt." Though the wolf is easily twice or three times' Dune's size, the fennec makes this up in ears and attitude. He regards his children: "It appears you two need no such instruction."
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