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 Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 5:53 am
 Reoakee was sitting out back behind her shop drawing in her sketch book and Luin was busy in the village making rounds so Reo didn’t have to go. It had taken Mei five apple tarts before Luin had agreed to it, but that was just fine to the Skh’et. It ment that Alu-lot could be alone in the fields to the south of the village without any interruptions. She knew that the others knew she wouldn’t be alone, but they never mentioned the name that made Alu-lote remember those bitter-sweet memories. She had been so happy when Losa had come back but so sad when her daughter was different than she had been. Still the two of them had found a balance of sorts after a time. Losa and Alu-lote could talk about things just fine as long as Alu-lote didn’t try to convince her daughter that humans could be trusted. In a way it was like speaking with Dante. Alu-lote would never force the stallion she loved to stay with her at Reo’s shop and she knew that he would never force her to pick between Reo and himself. Of course Losa wouldn’t be joining her out in the fields until near sunset so having this time to herself, Alu-lote was considering taking a flight. The air was clear and calm and she wanted to fly. Stretching her wings out she quickly looked around. The last time she had been considering a flight she had ended up helping a lost little foal and as much as she didn’t mind that Alu-lote wanted to know that she could take off without worry first rather than starting flying and have to end it so soon. The land was clear as far as Alu-lote could see. Smiling to herself she started to run a bit first so that she could warm up. A speck off the west was in her vision but she ignored it not thinking it could be important.(wow so much has happened since Dante left.. and post to long for pretty post color... OTL)
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:34 am
 It had been a long winter in the mountains, and Dante was passing glad to be leaving it. When he'd taken his son to see his homelands, he hadn't expected the younger stallion to take to the snows like a duck in water. But take to it he had, so much so that Valerio had decided to fly home a couple days late just to enjoy the mountains more. So Dante flew alone, looking foreword to the much milder weather of the flat lands. And of course, to seeing his little family complete once more. Little shy Losa, and... Alu-lote. How he missed her, that beautiful mare who'd opened his heart and showed him a world full of strange creatures he'd never imagined, who accepted him and all his country bumpkin ways without missing a beat. She'd even allowed him to leave with her little boy, when he'd felt the call of the wilds too strong to ignore. Dante beat his wings a couple times, flying just a bit higher to catch a thermal. Now there was how to make a long-distance journey easy, catch all the wind drafts and let them lead you in the right direction. It had taken a rough couple of weeks to teach Val the same trick, but Dante remembered with pleasure the moment Val had gotten it right. A glorious day indeed.
Far below, he spotted the lake he'd raced Alu-lote to. Seemed like ages and ages ago, like it happened to a completely different stallion. He smiled and dipped his wings down, aiming to land in the lake itself. Might as well be clean before he got to the village. Alu-lote always told him how much she loved his white coat. She'd probably like it better without the sweat of the long journey all over it.((It's all good. ;D))
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:54 am
Oh how amazing the wind felt. Alu-lote rand further south than she had intended but it wasn’t an issue since she had nowhere she had to be today until later. Finally deciding that she had stretched enough she launched herself off the ground and up into the air. It felt so good to be in the skies again that she laughed aloud. She flapped hard so that she could up higher into the clouds. She banked and rolled with the cold winds there before finding a warm thermal that carried her even higher. She danced in the air savoring it’s feel in her mane and feathers. Her heart hammered with the excursion she was putting her body through. She looked down and saw the lake where she had first met Dante at. That brought back a sea of memories which stopped her from looking to closely at it. Their race and playing, the result had been two beautiful babies who Alu-lote cherished and loved. It was a bond that she never thought could be severed no matter the time or distance. In a way it was true after all her daughter had come back after having grown up. Her wings grumbled at her for not having used them in so long and then just expecting peek performance. Listening to her muscles she decided to land and walk for a while. She could always fly back later.
Finding a place to land in the grasslands would have been easy but she didn’t want to just land and be done with things. Gliding to the ground no sooner did her hooves touch the ground than Alu-lote was off running again. She wasn’t headed exactly north but along the river that flowed down from the forests up north. This way she could end up back at the village without really paying attention to where she was headed.
(*head desk* she needs to pay attention or she'll miss Dante unless he gets her attention. Ugh. I shouldn't have had her in a box in my head so long all she wants to do is fly and run)
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:15 am
Lower and lower Dante went, carefully controlling his decent to make sure a rogue bit of wind would wrench his wings out of place. At first he was concentrating so hard he didn't see anything but his goal. As soon as he was sure of his safe landing, he let his gaze wander more. That was when he spotted the mare running far below. It looked like she had just landed, in the process of pulling in her wings again. With an unexpectedly large thump in his chest, he recognized her as Alu-lote. Even at this distance, it was impossible to mistake. No Losa, so the filly - wait, mare, the children were grown, he had to remember that - was probably at the village. So this meeting would be like their first, with no one else to witness. Without even pausing to think about it, Dante adjusted his course so that he was aiming himself to land just behind where she'd be in a few moments. The lake would feel good, but seeing her again felt better. He let a grin stretch his lips, and wondered if she would see him before he landed. He decided in a moment of impish glee that he wasn't going to call out - if she spotted him, awesome, but if she didn't, then she'd get scared out of a year of growth. "No better than a colt, you are," he muttered to himself with a low chuckle.((He'll scare her if she doesn't. xD ))
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:49 am
Running full tilt she swerved off to he side when something large came into her vision suddenly. She dropped to her haunches and ended up skidding a bit before she could stop all the way and turn. She had been ready to chew the ear off whatever had interfered with her run when she got a good look at the cause of the trouble. Letting out a high pitched squee that would have driven through the roof she launched herself back up to all fours and shook off the dirt she had picked up in the skid. “DANTE!” Her eyes looked over Dante’s frame wanting to see that he was alright and memorize his features all over again. It seemed like he had been for years and years. So much had happened she wanted to tell it all to him and let him know how much she missed him. Seeing him again was like seeing the sunrise after having lived in a cave for months on end. Moving forward she rubbed her head along his neck. He was filthy but she didn’t care. “Dante. You’re back.” Realizing what she was doing she stopped and pulled back embarrassed. She looked around for their son knowing how it much be awkward to see his parents behaving like she was. “ah were is our son?” She didn’t think anything was wrong because Dante didn’t look worried, but she wanted to be certain.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 8:10 am
Her sudden turn and fierce glare worried him for just a moment before her squeal of joy rang in his ears. He laughed and landed quickly, throwing up a bit of sod before carefully turning back to her. His eyes drank in her beauty. She looked just like his dreams had kept her, better than his memories could do justice to, and it might just be his own wishful thinking, but it looked like she'd missed him just as much. He yearned towards her, wanting to touch but not wanting to rub his sweat all over her. Alu-lote seemed to anticipate it and rubbed against him herself, so he returned the pressure, taking joy in her simple presence. "Yes, I'm back," he said with a smile, laughing a little at her embarresed shuffle. "Val's a day or so behind. There was a good snowstorm just before we left, and he wanted to enjoy the snow a bit longer. You should have seen him in the mountains, Alu-lote, he's a natural out there. And where's Losa, in the village?" Dante missed his little girl too, after all. But he was a little glad she wasn't going to see him at the moment, dirty as he was.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 8:33 am
Hearing that their son was still back in the mountains Alu-lote didn’t feel the least bit gilty in pressing herself once more against Dante. She stopped rubbing her head up and down when he mentioned Losa. “No. Losa .. she doesn’t go into the village anymore.” Pulling her head back she looked at the stallion. “Oh Dante I have so much to tell you.” Where should she start. “Losa is ok, she’s not hurt or anything. You should see how beautiful she grew up to be. I know you’d be proud of her but Dante.” Swallowing she looked at him. “She was gone for a while. I don’t know where, I don’t know how, but she was gone. She’s back now but Dante, she doesn’t trust humans and won’t tell me where she was.” Shaking her head she wasn’t sure if she was babbling or not. She had gotten used to the situation, but now to try and explain it all to Dante made the subject feel foreign to her all over again. At least she wasn’t crying or anything like that. That would have made matters worse. “I don’t even know how to tell you everything. I’m sorry. It’s just so much has happened with Luin and Mei coming and Losa being gone and then coming back. I must be rambling.” She took a breath and looked at Dante. “Maybe I should just start at the beginning.?”
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 9:05 am
His joy faded and his heart became ice as Alu-lote tried to describe what had happened to Losa. A deep rage he couldn't describe suddenly kindled within him. Not anger at Alu-lote, but at whatever nameless fiends had dared hurt his little girl. And himself, because he hadn't been there when she had needed him. Sweet Losa, darling and trusting Losa, now not even staying in the place she was born because she couldn't trust humans? Something terrible had happened, and he had not protected her. He swallowed hard and focused on Alu-lote, hoping she didn't see the rage and misunderstand it. "...I think you'll need to explain from the start," he said quietly, looking off towards the lake and back at her. "And I need to get this travel crud off. So you can start explaining while we walk." He'd caught the names she'd dropped too, but didn't know who any of them were. He'd leave it alone until she explained in detail.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 10:57 am
Taking a breath she shuddered. He was angry and she knew it. He didn’t blame her after all she was here when their daughter had been taken. She had failed to protect their children. It was her fault. Nodding she followed him trying to put things together in her head while she walked. She could use a bath too she realized. “Well after you left things were calm for a while my friend Sharsa came to visit and congratulated me on having children. I was going to ask her to watch them from time to time since I think she’d be good at it and had no little ones of her own. Sometime after that there was a large storm. During this storm two things happened. The first was something was disturbing Reoakee so I ventured into the kitchen to investigate. You know how the stables connect right to the kitchen? Well I was in there when an Azrein came out. Her name is Luin Olos Ithil Mallen.” Alu-lote’s mouth twitched like she knew a joke when she said the name. “It seems she’s a Azrein from a different plane. She’s also bonded to Reoakee. Then when we went back into the stables I didn’t think anything was wrong. A basket was upturned but I thought the wind might have done it. Losa was… Losa was gone and I didn’t realize it until later in the night when I went to check on her after a loud clap of thunder. You know how she hated that.” She looked at Dante seeing if he had any questions so far.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 11:59 am
Dante listened quietly, nodding mostly to himself. If he understood the system right, Reo's new Azrein Luin was one of the Bonded, and probably had not done anything to Losa. At least, not if she still lived in the shop with them. There was no way the filly had been taken anywhere near the village - Dante was confident Alu-lote knew the area well enough she would have found her quickly. No, when Losa had been taken, she had been taken far away. So either Luin had nothing to do with it, or the other mare Alu-lote had mentioned - Sharsa - had taken her. His eyes narrowed. "This Sharsa, did you see her after the storm?" He figured there were three possibilities - Luin distracted and Sharsa took her, Sharsa worked alone and Luin was an unfortunate accomplice, or something else had stolen her. Losa had known better than running off, especially during a storm; Dante remembered well how she would duck as much into his body as she could every time she heard a clap of thunder, when they sat together during storms. He wished he had come home sooner. It would have been far easier to track down everything soon after it had happened.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 12:34 pm
Nodding she thought about the times Sharsa had visited since then. “Yes in fact I saw her the next morning. She was shocked to hear about Losa and even helped me look for her. She didn’t seem to know the area all that well so she looked with me while Reo looked with Luin.” Alu-lote didn’t know why he wanted to know about Sharsa. The two had been friends for quite some time. Alu-lote didn’t think Sharsa could be evil at all. She picked up her story. “We searched but couldn’t find her. Sharsa. She avoided Reo because she’s scared of humans but she was a big help searching the woods. I was … distraught for a time.” It was the mildest way of putting things. Alu-lote had been a mess, had it not been for Reo she would have broken down completely. “It got quite again as time stretched on and Reo and Luin went to the big flower festival. I didn’t have the heart to go. They came back and it was uneventful until Mei came to the shop. She’s a little shk’et who has become something of Reo’s assistant. She cleans and cooks so she has a place to stay. She’s very sweet and shy. Since then we’ve had some strange company here and there but there was no sign of Lose until out of the blue she showed up while I was on a walk south of the village.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:29 pm
Dante wondered why that bothered him. Alu-lote clearly trusted Sharsa, but with the little bit she'd told him, that was the only suspect he returned to. He supposed it was probably because he preferred there being some kind of connection. If Losa's kidnapping had been truly random, than there was virtually no chance of being able to find out what had happened, unless Losa herself broke her silence over the matter. Possible she could unburden herself to him, but he doubted it - not to the absent father who had not been there for her during her time of greatest need, even if that father wasn't exactly known to be a friend of humans. He sighed, and nuzzled Alu-lote as they walked. He didn't want her to feel guilty anymore. "Whoever did it had been watching you, and knew when you left the stables. Don't blame yourself anymore, love." He blinked. "Wait, what on earth is a shk'et?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:05 am
That thought made her uncomfortable. Who could have been watching her in a storm? How close had they been to her the entire time? “It’s hard sometimes.” She looked at Dante. “Oh I meant a Skeh't. The little rabbit like people. My mouth was moving faster than my mind could keep up I’m afraid.” She shook her head ruefully. “Where was I? oh.. right. Losa showed up out of the blue walking up to me and ‘Hello mother, I’ve missed you, how is everyone?’ I nearly dropped dead on the spot Dante.” Her eyes teared up a bit. “I tried to get her to come home but she said she couldn’t live at a spot were humans were, but she’d stick around. I asked her what happened and she just shook her head saying she didn’t want to talk about it. I brought it up so many times but never pushed her not wanting to lose her again. Then when I relised she wouldn’t tell me I just let it go. I know she’ll tell me when she feels like it. There are times I just don’t know though.” Reaching the water she didn’t stop moving and just headed into it shivering a bit. “I’m just glad she’s back and safe now.”
(and super summery done. *claps dust off hands* That should do it. )
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Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:23 am
The pain in her voice made him want to kick in the throat of the one who had caused it. He thought of the happiness he'd left behind, how it had changed, and wanted to kick himself more. At least Losa was safe now, even if she had been changed by her ordeal. As had her mother. "Maybe she'll feel free to talk to Valerio, when he gets here," he offered, stepping carefully into the chilly lake after Alu-lote. "I wish I could do more for her. And for you," he added, nuzzling her neck and spreading his wings out. One stretched over her. "You don't deserve all the guilt, Alu-lote. It is my fault too. I should have been here."
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Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:01 am
“Perhaps.” She stopped and waited for Dante to be in the water as far as she was. Leaning she nuzzled him. “Don’t be silly Dante. You do more than enough just by being her e with me now.” She breathed in his scent and took comfort in his presence. “I don’t know if you being there would have made any difference. I would have gone in to see what the fuss with Reo was and you would have gone in with me to make sure I would be alright. Then who would have watched Losa and Valerio would have been there too. At least while he was off training with you he was spared from being taken as well.” It hurt to lose one child. It would have killed her to lose two.
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