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 Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:49 pm
 Nyomi was grumbling under her breath. Something she seemed to be doing increasingly as of late. The words were broken and mixed up so not even she knew what she was saying sometimes. To everyone else it surely looked no better. One more crazy Star in the world, muttering under their breath about the sky knew what. The fur itched. It itched so badly in a spot she couldn't scratch. In the middle of her back, hidden beneath the pelt, where her hoof couldn't reach. Rolling on the ground did little more than just dirty it up. The white had flecks of brown, the orange a shade darker in places. She had suspensions there was a stick lodged in there somewhere on the tail end, but she hadn't looked back to check.
Twigs snapped in the distance, going the same direction as her. The orange mare kept one ear trained towards it, always in attention to her two companions as they moved along their quest. Useless quest, but she kept this to herself. Her mother still had hopes of finding her lost lover. If he was out here somewhere, he should have been found by now. At least that was what Nyomi had to say on the matter. Nyomi, however, was still a young mare and the world was a very large place. There was no saying Akito wasn't on the move trying to find Kyouka, too, and they kept missing each other.
Still, she very much doubted this. On the other hand, Akito was at the Manor once. He knew where it was. Why had he never showed up?
Instead, the only beings who visited the Manor were unsavory. The mystery stallion with the cloven hooves continued to elude her. And those damned wolves would not leave her be. She was fortunate about the time her patience really started to wear thin, her mother and her companion had decided it was time to wander the wilderness, again.
It also gave her a chance to check out a side of her family she had never known before. Now that her mother had finally given up details on who her sire was, she could scope out where he might be.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:00 am
 Anything to get away from his nephew's inane chattering. Feral had run off again. He needed to get away from his family, from the plotting, from the scheming, from everything that was daily life among the Shadow herd. He...well, he didn't like being a Shadow member. He didn't like it at all. But it was what he was, and he held no illusions of having a place anywhere else. He didn't want to live anywhere else, and no one would want him there. So he was stuck here, living from day to day, always keeping an ear out and keeping on top of intrigue. It was annoying, but it had to happen. There wasn't much else to do.
More and more he found himself on the border of their territory, watching. He wasn't very good at blending in, with his eyeshocking orange coat, but here he was, doing something that was clearly not his jurisdiction. This was the army's job--where were they?! Oh, right, training. Always training. Because if an attack had never happened on the herd, then surely, surely an attack would happen any day now. Brother. Was there anyone he was related to that he didn't hate?
A crackling of leaves, twigs snapping. Feral's eyes narrowed and he made his way towards the noise. He paused in the middle of a dead thicket in the shade of a tree that had surely killed it for lack of light. The dried, brown leaves might hide him for a little while as he watched the wolf-pelted mare that walked through the woods, seemingly without care. Green mane and tail. Orange pelt, the same shade as his. The same stick-thin stripes. Oh brother. His slut of a father had been busy again, hadn't he.
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:30 pm
Nyomi drew closer to where she thought it would be. The home of her other family. A welcome introduction was far from her mind. She fully expected to be tossed out with full ceremony. No one who had or came from a herd with a kind heart could have taken advantage of her mother as he did. No welcoming herd could respect those kind of morals. Or, lack there of. He had taken her brothers with him, so they knew what he had been up to.
Perhaps she might even see her true born brothers. It had been so long ago they had left, she couldn't even remember what they looked like. Were they orange like her, with the horrid stripes that made her look so like a pumpkin? Like such an ugly pumpkin when her mother was so beautiful. Even her dead sister, whose spirit she sometimes saw in the Manor, was pretty. Had Amani been allowed to grow up, she would have been quite the beauty. Such a waste it would have been to leave that beauty to the wills of random stallions all for the good of getting female heirs.
She never did like that rule. When the Kuze Shrine was restored to its former glory, that rule must be destroyed. A mare should be free to decide when she wanted to have children. Not have random stallions brought to her all the time during the winter. It wasn't like they were going to die out if they didn't breed as often as possible. Even now, Nyomi wasn't worried about the future of the shrine.
If not just because of her mother continuing to follow that stupid tradition.
Black eyes watched her surroundings as her ears continued to pivot on top of her head. Where were they all? She thought she was close.
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:36 pm
Feral's half-sister was looking around as if searching for something. Oh well. Time to bite the wasp. He wriggled out of the bush, then stepped out from behind it, making sure to crack some twigs to alert her to his presence. With the ease of someone who had grown up in these dark, thick woods and had long since learned to move about without getting tangled, he stepped out towards her. She looked annoyed or unhappy or frustrated--who was she looking for? Her companions? He hadn't seen them, but he could clearly smell them--a pair of mares traveling on a parallel line to his unknown sister.
If she had even the slightest of wits, she'd recognize his relationship to her. No need, then, to say something awkward about "oh, hey, maybe we're related" or "you look familiar" or "do I know you" or something similarly inane. "I am Feral der Martertod," he murmured. "Plamen von Hoelle isn't here at the moment." He assumed that was why she was here. If it wasn't, then no matter. He wasn't a delicate flower like his mother, forever unable to bear criticism and correction. If he was wrong, he was wrong, and that was that.
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Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 10:00 am
Nyomi kept on track, wincing every now and than when one of her companions snapped a twig. When they wandered, they seemed less aware of their surroundings for the first while. Like their minds were off in another world and their bodies were left here to wander like empty shells. Even to look at their eyes was like looking in a deep pond in which nothing lived. Just depth.
And darkness.
And emptiness.
Reika, however, seemed more aware of things than her mother did. During her good days she could converse almost like a normal Star. For Kyouka, Nyomi guessed she had held onto her pain for so long it was a part of her. She could feel nothing but it. The times she appeared normal were few.
If only there was some way for them to let it go. They had to let it go. Or the shrine would never return to its former glory. Nyomi couldn't do it. It wasn't in her destiny. She needed someone else, but she wasn't sure who.
As the twigs snapped near her, she almost ignored it, thinking it Kyouka or Reika. But then her nose caught up with her. The two mares were in the other direction. This was someone else approaching them.
Turning towards the newcomer, she went into a guarded stance. Which for her wasn't very intimidating.
"Who--" she had started to say. Until the orange coat of the stallion met her dark eyes. Orange, of a similar shade to hers. And the stripes. But the blue flames weren't familiar to her. Nor the accessory on his head. Kuze Shrine clothing was more elegant. More fabric and silk. This had spikes. Like it was meant for intimidation or a fighting style.
And, far as she knew, her whole family was contrived of Starborns.
The gears in Nyomi's head worked as she looked at him. She didn't just have two blood brothers. She had half-sisters, too. Of course. Why should she be surprised?
Her stance changed only slightly. Relation or not, she didn't know this stallion and wouldn't let her guard down. But she wasn't prepared for this. Not to find half-siblings.
"Mm. Who is to say I was looking for him?" Of course she was. Just a little. She had hoped she could find him just as darkness fell. Wouldn't that make a nice reunion? "I have no need to wonder what kind of relation you are. Do you wish to protect him or are you just curious about your father's exploits?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 11:08 am
Feral shrugged his wings. He couldn't say he believed her claim that she wasn't looking for him, but if she wanted to keep up that fantasy, then so be it. It was entirely up to her. There was nothing to gain from imposing the truth on someone who wanted to live a fantasy. That was one of the most important lessons for surviving in the Shadow. Let the queen think she was in charge. Let the general believe that people cared. Feral knew how the world work. He would hold no illusions in himself.
If this mare wanted to pretend that her wanderings were mere coincidence, then so be it. She was all the more fool for it. "My mistake," he murmured. "I jumped to a conclusion, and for that, I apologize." He looked over her guarded stance and hid a smirk. Pathetic. He'd been raised around soldiers. He knew how to fight, and he was confident that he could take her in combat. Luckily for her, he didn't care, and he wasn't inclined to brawl by nature.
"My father," he added, "is a fool prone to constant mistakes. He can protect himself if he so chooses. It is none of my concern."
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