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 Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:32 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:47 pm
Liani
~~~
Liani couldn't recall the last time she'd felt so alive, so invigorated! She'd lost count of how many years she'd spent in the Kawani lands so far, drifting aimlessly from place to place. In all that time, she'd never even considered setting down roots; occasionally she took interest in a passing Soquili, but it was only ever minor. There was never any deeper connection, never anything to grab her interest for long. The most she'd ever stayed in one place was...
She paused, frowning as she attempted to determine the answer to that question. Was it that time she'd spent a few months with that little Usdia herd on the high plains? Or had she spent more time with that Soquili mare on that 'meditation retreat' on the northern plateau? She couldn't say for sure; time had never had any real meaning for Liani. Though if she were being honest, she couldn't say that anything had any real meaning, or ever had.
Aimlessly, Liani let out a light puff of breath, watching her black mane fly up and then drift back down over her eyes. She had grown up in a cavalier family; her parents had been lifemates, but had referred to their arrangement as 'open.' Liani had two siblings, and a few cousins; ironically, it was one of her cousins that resembled her the most. When they had only been foals, Foliegh had frequently been mistaken as her twin brother; but then, when your father and your cousin's father were twin brothers, you probably had a higher-than-normal chance of looking like your cousin!
Either way, Liani's upbringing had been very relaxed. Her parents didn't really believe in rules; they felt that rules and discipline stifled creativity and self-expression. Consequently, Liani and her sisters had essentially raised themselves from a young age, doing whatever it was they felt like doing. It had occasionally been a daredevil existence, but Liani must have had a particularly talented guardian angel. Whatever the explanation, she made it to adulthood without having suffered any permanent damage.
But on the down side, adulthood had no real allure for the young Usdia, either. She had always enjoyed the freedom that supposedly heralded adulthood; she had never felt any particular draw to the adult world beyond what she already had. The idea of a family of her own, either mate or foals, was nothing to her. She had never suffered by her family, but they had hardly been what you might call a good example. So, lacking in any of the real dreams and goals of a freshly minted adult, Liani had just...drifted.
She had never been an ambitious Usdia, a particularly social Usdia, or an Usdia with anything resembling goals. One month had blended into the next as she explored further and further afield. At first, she had made a point of drifting homeward on a regular basis; however, as more and more time passed she broke off, figuring that it was just as easy for them to come find her as it was for her to go find them. The fact that they tended to stay in one area while she was constantly on the move was moot; the true facts of the matter were that it was simply taking far too much effort to keep trekking home.
It wasn't like she really missed them, after all, or vice versa.
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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:14 pm
Mardi
~~~
The sun was finally starting to rise, the dark clouds were lifting, and a bright new day was dawning. In other words...the drought was finally over!
Mardi felt fabulous. After spending a ridiculous amount of time dealing with solitude, Soquili with negative emotions, or flat-out catastrophes, she had finally found her groove: not one, not two, but THREE actual happy Soquili social interactions, all within days of one another. Mardi had always had a naturally cheery disposition, but it had been tested to the max over the past several months. She had never been gifted when it came to dealing with unpleasantness, and there had been a lot of unpleasantness in the Kawani lands over the past year and some. Due to her transient nature, she had not been personally affected by the tragedies of war and fire, but it had been impossible to avoid their sphere of influence.
And while she didn't mean to be uncaring, dealing with such negativity had no appeal for her. She loved socialization more than anything, but it had to be happy socialization. The whole point in hanging out with other Soquili was to have a good time; if they were down in the dumps, then it was only a matter of time before Mardi herself got down in the dumps. Well, either that, or she simply dumped them and moved on. Was it her fault she was a horrible therapist?
For a few months, she had even considered leaving the Kawani lands entirely. It wasn't like this was her homeland, after all; she had been born beyond the forest, in a land to the west. But even as an adolescent she had felt a pull to a life of more action and vivacity than her quiet homeland could provide; Soquili there lived in small family groups of no more than ten, keeping to themselves for the most part. It was very rare that the herds would mingle; they tended to keep to themselves until the young in the families grew up and wanted to branch out their own. Twice a year there would be large gatherings of the herds for the express purpose of introducing the young adults to each other; beyond that, it was a very restricted social scene.
And for a Soquili like Mardi, who craved novelty and loved meeting new Soquili, it was a stifling existence. While still a foal, she would announce to anyone within range that it was a silly system, that there was more to life than seeing the same faces and the same spaces day after day. She had been chided, reminded of the importance of family, and told that she would come to understand the beauty of their way of life as she grew up. Mardi had remained skeptical, but what could a foal do?
Nothing, except grow up and move on! And move on she had, spurred onwards by her family's indulgent belief that she would be back soon, that she just needed to sow some wild oats elsewhere.
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Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 9:49 am
Liani
~~~
There were few things that had held Liani's attention in life. Her family was a convenience in some ways, a hindrance in others; the most significant thing she had ever been able to say about her family was they gave her her start. But there had been very little momentum in that start, and she had not felt much enthusiasm to try and build up more. Some Soquili who came from indifferent families sank into depression; others tried to make up for the loss by running off to make as many non-related friends as possible. Liani had done neither of these things; zealous activity of any kind was abhorrent to her indolent nature, and she was too self-confident to spend much time feeling bad about herself. Instead, she had simply ambled off, having no real plan or desire to do...well, anything.
Liani had held little hope when it came to friendship. True, her models for how Soquili behaved and interacted with each other were her family members, but they hardly made her want to find more. So she had never sought out other Soquili, preferring her solitary rambles to the banality of conversation. Early on in her independence, she had met up with a few other roamers; however, those interactions had only reinforced what she already believed: that Soquili, in general, were dull, uninspiring, and had little to contribute to the world at large.
Then one day, she had met a Soquili whose attitude and behaviors were like nothing she had ever encountered. Unlike the Soquili she had met before, he was enthusiastic about EVERYTHING. To this stallion, life was beauty and passion; it was something to be embraced and adored. Not only that, but other Soquili were to be embraced and adored; particularly, he had told her with a roguish grin, when it came to mares. He was brash, he was cocky, he had a way with words like no other creature she'd ever met. He appalled her beyond belief, disgusted her more than she had thought possible...and amused her like she'd never thought anyone could. He was a rover like her, on his way to he knew not where but loving every minute of the journey!
His name was Guilian, and for the first time in her her life, Liani actually felt drawn to another individual. Guilian was crazy in a lot of ways, but he was fun, funny, vibrant; she loved listening to his outrageous thoughts and his charming way of speaking. In spite of her first reservations about social interactions, she found herself wanting to spend more and more time with Guilian, this crazy Soquili stallion who looked so much like her. As they were both travelers with no set destination, they decided to travel together, at least for the time being. Liani was delighted.
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 6:21 pm
Mardi
~~~
At first, Mardi had been equal parts elated and frustrated by her new-found freedom. Elated, because she was finally getting to see the world; frustrated, because that freedom had been so long in coming! While she had felt no guilt relating to her decision to leave her homeland, she had done her best to explain to her family why she couldn't stay and follow the family's traditions. She had explained that she didn't want to go immediately from being regarded as a child to being mated off to a stallion she'd never met previously; that she didn't want to go from being a child herself to having children of her own. That she was bored; that every day was the same stale repeat she'd experienced the day before. Her parents had simply listened indulgently, repeating the same mantra they always had before: this is the way it was, and when she was old enough, she would appreciate it as much as they had.
In the days leading up to Mardi's departure from the home herd, she had amped up her efforts; telling not only her parents but also her siblings of her plans. She was going to see the world, she said; she was going to meet Soquili of all types, not just brightly colored regulars like the many small herds in their home region. She was going to meet Soquili with wings, with horns, with whatever else Soquili had! She wasn't going to settle down, not in the literal sense OR the figurative sense until she had met more Soquili than she could count. She had defiantly stated she didn't intend EVER to settle down with a lifemate; or if she did, it would only be with someone that she knew very well, indeed.
That had gotten a reaction out of her parents, though it was hardly the reaction she had desired. Instead of being commended for creative thinking, or even having the fact she was a different sort of Soquili acknowledged, she had been rounded scolded for such talk, particularly for having such 'dirty and unorthodox views on the sacred role of lifemate.' Her mother had been appalled at what she called Mardi's 'lax morals', and thoroughly upset that Mardi had been willing to discuss such things in the presence of her younger silbings' tender ears.
Needless to say, Mardi had been annoyed and frustrated in turn; it was as though nothing she had said had actually registered with her parents. She hadn't actually meant anything sexual by wanting to know her possible future lifemate, merely that she didn't want to be mated to a stallion she'd known for less than a month of chaperoned encounters! Still, for her parents, freedom and immorality appeared to go hand in hand.
It hadn't been hard to leave after that.
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Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 8:38 am
Liani
~~~
It had been a great ride, travelling with Guilian. He had been everything that Liani herself wasn't, everything she hadn't know. Travelling with him had brought her into contact with new people, new situations. Guilian had been a breath of fresh air; everything had been an adventure with him, or at most, a challenge. There had been no such thing as a problem or a difficulty; not flood, not landslide, not an overly aggressive swarm of mosquitos. Situations that would have driven Liani to distraction if she'd been alone were something to be laughed off in Guilian's presence; there was nothing that seemed to ruffle the wind stallion's feathers.
She should have known it was too good to be true.
Guilian had always been honest with her; it had shocked her from the first, how blunt the stallion could be without sacrificing an ounce of his charm. Liani, who had never experienced anything remotely resembling a crush before, found herself falling head over heels for the stallion even as he told her that he was a rover, a wanderer, and an inconstant. He had told her from the first that he was the type who grew bored easily, that he craved variety in all things and that their close quarters arrangement, platonic as it was, could not last. Liani had nodded and claimed she understood, but had never ceased hoping that she would be the exception, that he would come to value her as much as she valued him. That he would realize that she might be an Usdia and he a Soquili, they could still make things work, that they could be together forever. Yes, it would be a challenge; yes, it would be something out of the ordinary. But they were both already outside the boundaries of societal norms; how would one more egress matter?
So she had told herself, and with each passing day her hopes grew stronger. Guilian had told her he would move on eventually, but as the days became weeks, surely that meant a bond was forming. Surely he was feeling something for her, something that was keeping him close and preventing him from leaving. It was only a matter of time...
How sadly accurate she had been. If she'd known what that time coming would mean, she never would have hoped. Because yes, the time came when everything changed; however, it changed for the worst. Guilian was as kind and charming as ever, but the words pounded in her head with the force of an avalanche: "Well, Liani Chica, this has been a fun and interesting jaunt, yes? But I think it is time for the two of us to part ways, to continue on our own adventures at our own pace, no?" He flashed her his dazzling smile, meant to disarm; even knowing how he used it, Liani couldn't quite resist the power it still had over her. What a smile...what a stallion!
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