|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:15 pm
Every time he looks back on his life, he is running.
He can’t remember a time he wasn’t running, anywhere, nowhere, nowhere he knew at all. He had been running for days now - running so far, so long, he no longer remembered what he was running from. That was just right, no longer remembering; that was just right, and so he finally stopped.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:17 pm
The brush was being very uncooperative. She was sure there were berries here yesterday and she'd pushed a few branches back into the foliage to save them - but they were gone. Squirrels? Foxbuns? Pesky little rodents. She rummaged about in frustration, pushing leaves here and there, hoofsteps getting increasingly agitated. What was the point of planning if somebody was going to come around and bungle it up? Phlox was deadly unimpressed by today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:19 pm
He shied, wheeled away like a frightened foal at the sudden sound - he had thought he was alone.
“Who’s there?” he started, and his voice was nervous, which was all wrong. He didn’t like that, so he tried again, deliberately harsh this time, with a edge of a growl.
“You’d better show yourself, or you’ll regret it.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:19 pm
Phlox was not in the mood for a boy of a buck practicing his threats on an empty bush. She stood straight up, deliberate and slow, rustling the leaves all she damn liked on her head's way up. The branches snapped and parted, combing through her short mane and her head rose like a crocodile in the water.
"Regret what?" She snapped back, irate and extremely unimpressed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:19 pm
She wasn’t what he expected. She was a slip of a doe. A slip of a doe, but her jaw was hard, and she glared at him, eyes blazing. She was, a part of his mind supplied, a very beautiful doe, but her jaw was so hard, and her eyes were much harder than his. It was her eyes, really, that held him. Such hard eyes, with such fire. She was a slip of a doe, and she scared him. He was so scared of her, he forgot how to move, and so he stood there, gaping.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:20 pm
"That was pathetic and rude, and I'm not sure which is worse." Phlox shook her head, stern. "You sounded like a right idiot there, so tough after jumping like a little foal. If it were any self-respecting buck, why, I daresay he would've fought you for such a silly threat. But it's either your lucky or unlucky day that it's just me, because I'm in a bad mood and I can't be bothered to teach you a lesson." She may have been apathetic about beating him up, but her nagging was always automatic. "Now what?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:20 pm
That was when he realised he was expected to speak. What was he to say? He gaped a moment more, closed his mouth, opened it again, closed it, and cleared his throat. He looked down, clearly chastened. ”I’m sorry,” he stammered, penitently.
”So sorry,” he repeated. He couldn’t quite remember what he was meant to be apologising for now, but he would apologise as many times as her hard, blazing eyes demanded.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:22 pm
She did have that sort of effect on kin after a good speech, but the buck's earnest misery was so bizarre and sudden that she felt like it came from a place beyond her reach. Curious, she probed further:
"That's all you can say after all that posturing? Goodness. If you were going to regret it, why would you say such ridiculous things in the first place?"
She stamped her way out of the bush, tilting her head at him. "Just sorry? You were saying a lot more earlier when there was no one there to listen. Go on then, what else is there?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:22 pm
She said a lot, and she was clever. She scared him and he didn’t hear all that tumbled from her lips, but he peered up meekly, and her eyes are still hard, still blazing, still demanding more.
”I’m really sorry,” he said, wretched, every fibre of his being bowed down, wretched, ”I really am. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:23 pm
She lowered herself to his trembling shoulders, stared a while at his pathetic form, and sighed. He was pathetic. He simply could not comprehend anything except that he was In Trouble and probably not even sure what for. Exasperating, but not worth the time needling. "Well." She said, mostly to herself, and once again straightened up to dismiss the situation and started to leave, face grim. Berries needed finding and eating, and she was going to get there before a squirrel did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:24 pm
Then he did look up at her, fully, gold eyes wide and glowing softly from the dark bruise as she walked away. Was that it? That was all? Even as she tossed her head at the last her eyes were burning. Was she still angry with him? He had done her wrong. He wasn’t sure what anymore, but she was still angry with him, and that didn’t feel right. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, or why, but as she walked farther and farther away, he picked up his hooves and started to follow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:24 pm
She thought perhaps he was just going the same way, making his apologies all the more pathetic and tragic, but after a bit of winding, starting and stopping, she realised the fellow was following her, which would have been creepy had he a spine. She waited for him to pause as she deliberately halted, then spun around and accused, incredulously, "what are you following me for?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:25 pm
Her eyes were hard again and he dropped his gaze. His hooves had stilled and so he stared at them, neatly together. Are you still angry with me? he thought to ask - but then he didn’t quite dare.
”...I don’t know where else to go,” he eventually said, because it was also the truth.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:26 pm
"Oh." Phlox said tartly, her mouth quirking up one side in a wry, thin smile. Oh well. His words seemed convincing, and he certainly didn't seem smart enough to lie. If she was going to be murdered by a very clever killer, she opined, at least it would be a surprise. But it was much more likely that he just needed some company and direction. "Alright, I guess I'll have to take care of you then," and her tone was airy, condescending but no longer derisive. "Come along."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:27 pm
Her eyes were no longer hard. The smallest smile lapped at his lips as he moved his hooves to trail her again; she was no longer angry with him. He felt at peace.
He felt also, consciously or not, the first faint stirrings of a kind of need - a neediness; if he’d thought to think about it, which he did not, he might have realised that was the way it always began, and as soon as it began it was the beginning of the end. But he did not.
*******
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
