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They say that the bond between father and child is one of the strongest in existance. However, even after a couple of children with his partner, nobody told this dad that not only do children come in all shapes and sizes and have their own ideas, but when they want something, they want it now. Nobody is ever going to tell them otherwise. Nobody is going to make them do anything. Much to his dismay, his newest child is already giving him a run for his money. Maybe he should have taken the offer of those free parenting classes back when his first child was born...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxYour Goalxxxxxx

Your role is to take on the life of a fresh new sire of a wonderful tiny foal. Your partner has been quite tired as of late, having stayed up late night after night to take care of your new charge. They've done all the chores around your home, gathered all the food, made sure you and your older children are well taken care of, basically making your life the epitome of perfection. To say thank you to them, you offer to take care of your child for the day, allowing them to spend it in peace and relaxation. However, once they've left, you fail to realize until it's too late that your other children have already bailed on you before you could ask for their assistance. As a sly grin crosses your youngest face, you begin to wonder just what you've gotten yourself into.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxBasic Infoxxxxxx

Each prompt below is based off of one of the chores you try to do through out the day. Pick one (or multiple if you'd like) and write about it. Just remember, this foal is not going to make your life easy. Not by a long shot. You're not the momma.

01: Trying to give your child a bath
02: Trying to make a meal
03: Trying to iniate nap time
04: Trying to clean up your home
05: Trying to keep play time safe
06: Trying to get your child ready for bed
07: Open prompt

xxxxxxxxxxxxxThe Rulesxxxxxx

• Follow all of Gaia's ToS and Soquili Shop Rules.
  
• No proxies.
  
• You may edit your post up until the ending date. If you do just put a simple note at the top of your entry. Any edits after the closing date will not count. I will know if you break this rule.
  
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• If you win elsewhere or wish to be removed from the game, please post here.
  
• This will count as your freebie for the event.
  
• This will be judged by myself and possibly two others if I can't choose just one entry.
  
• If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to either PM me or post here.
  

Username: Moon_Princess_Yuki
Soquili Name: Jokul
Short Personality Blurb: Bad boy gone soft. Rebelled at a young age running from place to place messing with anyone and everyone in his small community vowing to never settle down, but you know what happens to most vows as a young person. He still has an edge to him and just watch what happens if you mess with is family. He didn't truly settle till after he had his first kid and now he spends a great deal of his time playing with his kids or doing legitimate work stuff.
Extra: His wife was just as rebellious when they were younger, and he was the one who started to talk about marriage and kids first. (she found it hilarious and half agreed to marry him just to see him all settled down. she laughed for an hour straight when he proposed, but like in a good way.)

---

Prompt(s) Picked: 03: Trying to initiate nap time
Entry: Jok sighed deeply. He'd just managed to finish feeding his youngest some food, mostly the kid just made art with it or tried to put it under the table, but in the end all the food was gone and it was time to put them down for a nap. Maybe fifty napes, gods this is exhausting he doesn't understand how Riki, his wife, could do this all day. but wasn't that why he decided to take over for a day so she could rest? Maybe he should consider helping more often, shes definitely tough enough to handle the load but should she have to?

Ugh, no time for thinking the kids trying to sneak away, "Oi little one where do you thin your going?"

"Outside?" said with a sheepish grin, yeah 'outside' more like running away.

"No your not, after lunch is nap time and you know it."

"But mah lets me run around for an hour after lunch, to burn off the energy" what? is that a pity look? or a scheming look? Does she let them do that or are they trying to pull a fast one? Gods he needed to pay more attention, how'd it even happen that he was so out of touch with his wife's life? He barely even knew how to care for his own kid.

"Yeah well I'm not your mah so get your butt to bed, or do you want me to read yah some stories first to get yah good an' bored first?"

"NO! I mean, um I'm suddenly very tired and ready for bed. Yeah." Now that's the look he was looking for, good old fashion parental terror. Maybe mutual respect or open communication would be better, but where to start with the kid? no threatening harmless boredom was much simpler.

"good now go one get to bed I don't wanna see yah dawdlin' for too long."

And that was that right? Kid was asleep so he could rest for a bit, relax for the hour of nap time he has. But no of course not, ten minutes in and he hears the unmistakable clack of moving hooves. And the only one besides him still left at home was the kid.

"gods forsaken, is that kid sneaking out? ugh, I didn't pull the sneak out trick till i was at least a teen. Murph can't just let 'em go cin I? It'd be a bad example. Don't want 'em growing up like es pah or mah." Horrified by the thought he gets up and stretches, using his longer limbs and superior knowledge of the land he cuts them off before they can get too far and levels a pretty hefty glare at them.

"Oh um hey da, um I thought you were taking a nap..." Guilty, he better feel guilty

"Naw see that's you kid who's supposed to be napping. Yah know what happens to bad kids that don't nap when their paw asks em too?"

"Uhg um they respect their gall and lets them go have fun?"

"Heh, no worse" pause for dramatic effect, a few seconds more to really instill terror, then pounce covering the kids in kisses and hugs. "They get smothered in love till they finally go to bed!"

"No! Heheheh ahahah stop! da! hahaha heheh aahhh" It's weird that this was the first time in awhile he'd heard his kid laugh this much, had he really been that neglectful? Just leaving the kid stuff to the wife? wow no that had to change this was too important to him to let it go again.

"You ready to go to bed now?" He said showering the kid with more kisses an arm around his shoulders. "I could just keeping hugging yah forever yah know"

"No! hehe, fine I'll go to bed! hahah"

"And stay in bed for a full hour?"

"Hehehe yeah da a full hour I promise." He said with a wide smile, not a grin. Maybe they'd actually listen this time? felt like it.

"Key lets head back. And hey maybe if your real good we can have ice cream for dinner."

"Wha! mah would never allow that!"

"Yeah? Well I'm not mah am I?" He said with a sneaky grin and a light bump of his shoulder into his kids.

"I'll be real good!"

-----

That night after everyone was home and the kids in bed Riki and Jokul talked in hushed whispers.

"So how was it?" Riki asked a little worried for her husband but definitely thankful for the break.

"Pretty good hon, first half the kid was a little terror but we had a talk and it all worked out. But to the heavens do you work hard hon, I never realized."

"Yeah you did or I'd've been the one doing all the work today."

"Naw I just saw how tired you were but I could never understand, I'm gonna do better now, help with some house chores or with the kids. Just anything to make it easier on you."

"Hmm we'll see"

"Huh? I thought you'd jump at the chance"

"Well there's a reason I do all the house worth darling. You suck at it. But I really appreciate the reprieve today, and maybe you could try and take care of the kids more."

"I wouldn't say I suck at house work" He mumbles before saying allowed, "Anything to help hon anything."

"Heh thanks" She replies nuzzling his neck gently feeling just as loved as the day they married.

Username: AstoriaFallen
Soquili Name: Arlo
Short Personality Blurb: He's a family guy through and through. Tough, reliable and a reasonably hard worker. He doesn't often understand why the wife is so exhausted after staying home with the kids but after today he's never going to second guess her ever again!
Extra: You guys are awesome.

---

Prompt(s) Picked:
05: Trying to keep play time safe
02: Trying to make a meal
04: Trying to clean up your home

Entry: Arlo was pretty excited to be able to spend the whole day with his offspring, to include the newest member of the family. However, it seemed that everything was going south rather quickly. Right off the bat the eldest had disappeared, leaving him alone with a rather devious youngster. Gulping to himself he figured he could at least try and occupy the young one's mind with some games, hould be easy right?.

Two hours later and a bandaged front paw Arlo was about to give up on play time. What was hide and seek turned into keep the baby from going into others living arrangements. This included a rather nasty wolverine den at one point and of course he was the one who ended up getting bitten. Frankly he was glad it wasn't the little one because his significant other would have his hide tanned quicker than a blink of his eye. He had tried other games after that as well but nothing seemed to keep their child's interest, not to mention the little bugger kept finding the worst possible things to play with instead! How he had gotten his claws on the things he had, he didn't know and Arlo was growing frustrated. How did she do it?

Giving up on play time he figured he could at least try and get the tyke to eat something. Digging through the storage he found a nice meaty leg from last night and decided this would do well. Making sure the youngster was within sight he began to carve up the food with his claws, which didn't take but a minute. Turning around to pick up the baby he realized, with horror, they had vanished! Wide eyed and frantic he moved away from the food and began to look around. How had they disappeared so quick!! There wasn't that much to hide behind, let alone in and Arlo was starting to panic. If mother came home and found that he had lost their youngest she'd have his hide as a decorative carpet!

In the course of about 5 minutes he had torn up the living area and scoured outside for the little munchkin. Heading back inside to grab something before traveling further he found the little guy just sitting there eating the meat he had cut up. Where had he come from! He had searched everywhere and there was no way he could have stayed hidden. The little guy just looked at Arlo and gave him a toothy grin and munched happily away on the meat. With a sigh Arlo took a look around and realized that he was going to have to make sure this place was clean before the wife got back. Needless to say she didn't have to know that the baby went missing for all of 15 minutes.

He was going to pick up a few things while the little one was occupied with the food and started re-organizing everything. As he moved in a calculated pattern he glanced back to make sure the little one was still eating and sure enough he was. Satisfied he went back to picking up stuff but when he was done he turned around to see that the little rug rat had decided to make a mess of the stuff he had just cleaned! Giving Arlo a very taunting grin he giggled and decided to climb on daddies tail while he went over to pick up the stuff he had just thrown about.

Wincing as the little ones claws dug into him he attempted to pick up the stuff again but this time the child wanted to gnaw on him and wack him in the head with his tail. He was definitely not making this easy by any means! Finally after what seemed like forever he finally got it all picked up and the little one had finally decided to fall asleep on his back. Not wanting to move him he just let him sleep there and decided he'd just stand here and take a rest while that was going on.

Username: Kivras
Soquili Name: Varokk
Short Personality Blurb: Honor-bound and too stern to see when others are joking with him, Varokk has little to no time for...games. Slowly, the young stallion is loosening up, but doing so on his terms. Any attempts at forcing him to change results in a stone face, and several steps backwards.
Extra: For all intents and purposes, I've 'Paired' him with my gal Requin just for the sake of keeping myself straight in the story. c:

---

Prompt(s) Picked: 07: Open prompt
Entry:

"Your turn."

Rousing himself from a nap in a spot of sunshine, Varokk was greeted by the face of the sea-bound mare. Requin hadn't come around since their last tryst, since she'd told him she was with foal again. Good riddance, up till that point. He had worried that she'd lost it, but thought nothing more. After all, she was just a one-off. No one to form an attachment to. You know, aside from the fact that their little meetings always resulted in children.

Unfortunately as he shook himself free of dust and rose to his claws....He couldn't deny the little colt's relation to himself.

"...What do you mean 'my turn'?" Varokk inquired as the colt already started to prance around and inspect him.

"I mean. Your turn." Requin gave a heavy, dramatic sigh, swishing her tail back and forth lazily. She tried her best to look utterly exhausted, put on a show for him. "I need some...'me-time'. And You liked being with Illena and Arturos well enough...Right?"

While she was right, something seemed.....off about this little colt. Where his other two spawn were well-behaved and didn't stick their noses into other people's business, Varokk had to keep whipping his tail around to keep this little colt away from sticking his nose where it definitely didn't belong!

But, his fondness for the shark-like mare won out, and he heaved a sigh. "Alri---"

Without finishing, Requin was gone beneath the waves.

Scowling slightly at her rush to dump the colt on him, he turned to go back to his sunspot.

"Are you my dad?" The colt asked just before placing his front claws on the end of Varokk's tail. The stallion didn't stop walking, and as a result drug the colt along with him.

"Yes." Was Varokk's short, curt reply. "And we are going to sleep until Req-- Mommy comes back."

"I already napped! Momma said we'd play a lot of games!"

"...What." Snapping his head around to stare at the colt, Varokk's ears twitched. Of course Requin would promise things she didn't fully expect to happen. She'd done it so many times before, but why would she do something like that to their youngest son?

"Yeah! Yeah! Let's play, dad! I wanna-wanna-wanna!" The colt's energy was overflowing at this point as he let go of Varokk's tail to run around, kick up dirt and-- Well, trip over a small turtle that was just crossing and land on his face.

A momentary expression of concern crossed Varokk's face, and he took a step over to his son. Was he hurt? Would he stat crying? Would Requin think he'd hurt him?!

So many thought raced through his mind, but they were all for naught as the colt stood right back up with a huge grin on his face. Completely and totally fine, if not for the scrapes on his muzzle. Varokk sighed softly in relief.

"Let's..."

"PLAY?!"

This wasn't going to be easy. At all.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After playtime, consisting of Varokk watching while his son (Whom he was told was named Nekaro thank you very much) ran around, mauled tree trunks, picked up critters and threw them, splashed in puddles then ran around in dirt, came food time.

Nekaro had proven to be a bit of a picky eater. Unlike Varokk, he didn't seem to enjoy red meat, and begged and pleaded for fish. And unlike his mother, Varokk didn't have the expertise of catching the fish. Fished slipped from his grasp, and on one occasion he very nearly bit into one of those spiky-balloon fish that he only just recalled was poisonous in time.

"Kiddo, it's just not going to work, I can't..."

Exhaustion from playtime aside, Varokk was more than a little concerned that Nekaro would get ill if force-fed red meat. His energy had been depleted, but he still stood next to his father happily, swishing his sharky tail back and forth.

"Um...well! How about you get those!" Pointing with a claw, the colt was talking about...what looked like...odd rocks?

Arching a brow at his son, Varokk decided to humor the child, dipping his head under the water to grab a mouthful of the rocks with his teeth. they tasted...a lot like that 'chalk' stuff.

Spitting them out onto the beach, his eyes widened as he watched Nekaro pick one up, gnaw on it until it seemed to crack, then spit out the 'rock' to reveal the tasty meaty inside bits. Varokk's eyes widened even further, if possible, and he stepped closer to his son and the odd rocks.

"What..." He began, but was quickly interrupted by his son nearly shoving the hunk of fleshy bits into his face. A bit pecking himself, he took the offered...meat? And chewed.

"It's called 'shellfish', dad! Momma says they're for, um...lazy butts!" Nekaro giggled. "Momma uses another word, but sissy says it's a bad word."

Bad words, huh? Varokk made a mental note to have a little talk with Requin about her language around foals. But at the moment, he was quite impressed with the taste of the shellfish, and figured that, while he managed to grab five of the...shellfish, it wouldn't be nearly enough for the both of them. Nekaro watched in delight.

"See!? It's good! It---" Trailing off, Nekaro's eyes were caught by movement. Some sort of sea creature was making it's way out of the water, and without saying anything, he trotted after it curiously.

Surfacing after filling his mouth full of the shellfish, Varokk spit them onto the ground in a pile, proud that he was able to find so many. "Alright kiddo, let's..."

Oh no.

Immediately abandoning the food pile, Varokk chased after the footprints in the sand. Of course, a bonding moment was too good to be true, Nekaro had the attentionspan of a finch! and now he had wandered off into the dense jungle!

Oh ancestors above, where was Requin!? He wasn't cut out to be a mother!

...Wait.

Username: Tsunake
Soquili Name: Muata
Short Personality Blurb: Though capable of more complex thought and reasoning, Muata allows his more base instinct to dominate his actions. He is a taciturn and reserved creature, not quick to anger, but will easily and willingly use force to get what he needs. Friends and companions are not something he seeks: he is a solitary creature, and is just fine being on his own.
Extra: Unbeknownst to him, his current partner of choice is an omnivore. To his knowledge, he and his offspring are all true carnivores, and it is in his best benefit to ensure they make it to adulthood to carry on his genes.

---

Prompt(s) Picked: A mix between 2 and 7.

Entry: Raising offspring had not been quite what he'd imagined it to be. For the most part, Muata had stayed back, simply guarding the territory that the mare had chosen and providing food for her as needed. She had done the brunt of the work of rearing the clutch, and indeed, their oldest two children were growing quickly. The mare needed to venture off on her own for a time, which left the stallion in charge of supervising their offspring. His two oldest had ventured into the brush on their own, scaly tails swinging with eagerness as they snapped their jaws at one another.

Muata kept an idle ear twisted in that direction in case the whelps needed his aid, but they were at the age where they were beginning to fend for themselves. His youngest, however....

His bright, predatory gaze fell upon the runt of the group, who was currently staring balefully back at him. Soon, its muzzled curled up to bare its teeth, and the little beast hissed at him. The stallion tilted his head slightly, not understanding the vitriol being offered his way.

"Not mama." The foal growled, snapping its jaws and stomping its feet in the beginnings of a tantrum. "Not mama!"

Nonplussed, Muata was forced to think about his next choice of action, his brows furrowing. He had no doubt the child was hungry...

The next logical step would be to feed it. Without a word, the big stallion slipped off into the forest, leaving the foal glaring warily at his back. It wouldn't be long until he returned, a badly wounded squirrel held gently in his jaws...

...only to realize his foal was nowhere to be found.

He was able to track it down easily enough with scent, though the baby seemed very displeased to have been found. Without ceremony, he dropped the wounded creature in front of it. Most young predators learned to hunt in this fashion; the smell and taste of hot blood paired with the writhing motion of prey fueled even the most stubborn hatchling.

The foal gingerly extended its neck to sniff the weakly thrashing squirrel before it promptly recoiled, sneezing and snorting with a look of disgust. Muata tilted his head slowly from one side to the other, not understanding what the problem was.

"No!" Howled the small beast, trying to shove the dying animal away from it. Perhaps squirrel meat was not to its tastes? With a rumbling sigh, he headed back into the bush to find something else that would be more suitable to his child's picky palate. This turned into a long and aggravating quest. He brought back a rabbit, a crow, a raccoon--even a haunch of deer! The foal refused them all, reacting with disgust and distaste.

Muata was at a loss. What in the hells was he supposed to feed this child? He was trudging back yet again, a dead opossum clutched in his jaws as he reached the clearing. The foal's back was to him, head shoved into some bushes as it noisily chomped away at something. His ears perked with interest, Muata moved forward, eager to see what his child had caught. As he caught a glimpse of the hatchling's antics, however, those ears pinned back flat against his skull.

Berries. The foal was greedily snacking on berries, snapping up the fresh leaves and succulent fruits with delight, oblivious to its father's presence.

For a long time, the stallion stood there in silent observation. His child could not hunt. It could not sustain itself. It would be little more than prey, perhaps falling victim to even its own siblings. No. That would be cruel.

His footsteps were silent as he stalked closer, and in an instant, he'd seized the foal by the back of the neck. It was a swift death, offered by an expert shake of his head and a squeeze of those deadly jaws. The small body hung limp, and though Muata did not feel regret, there was a small pang of sympathy. He carried the body off into the woods, thinking of how he had done the right thing. He would not allow his child to be taken down like a rabbit, living in fear as it scrabbled for its life against those destined to rule the food chain.

He was a good father. He would provide for his other two offspring, ensure that they would live and become strong adults. He would ensure his legacy would survive, and that these children would have children of their own. He was not the mother, coddling and doting.

He was a good father.

Username: XxXPandamoniumXxX
Soquili Name: Blue
Short Personality Blurb: Loner, melodramatic, a complete failure at being a father, weird, a tad crazy, territorial and a complete hazardous stallion. He tends to get into trouble when he isn’t even looking for it.
Extra: He is a complete clutz, it’s a miracle he had children. @___@;;;;

---

Prompt(s) Picked: A mix of 2, 3, and 5
Entry:

If he knew it was going to be like this he would have ran the other way.

This wasn’t easy.
Anyone that said otherwise was a liar.

Momma was getting her much needed rest so it was his turn to prove himself and he was doing a bang up job so far. He thought lunch was going to be easy. He would kill a deer and then feed it to his kin. Nope. Nothing went according to plan at all. He had the perfect deer. A big buck that could have fed them all, but his youngest child decided it was the perfect time to try out his not so great hunting skills. He ended up scaring the deer causing Blue to chase after the buck in a panicked state. This wasn’t good because the buck had the upper hand and soon Blue found himself rolling down a ravine into a small creek. The sound of laughter behind him let him know that his son planned to screw this up.

But that wasn’t all that happened…

After he managed to scrounge together what dignity he had left, he went back to his home with his son following close behind. They were expecting a nice big meal and he had nothing. He would have the bruises to prove he tried and the image of his humiliation in his mind, but he couldn’t feed them. Not now anyway. He attempted to put his son down for a nap even though he had an empty stomach. It was terrible. He couldn’t keep still. He wasn’t tired nor was he even focusing on sleeping. Instead, he decided that complaining about his hunger was a good pass time. This drove Blue up a wall, but he didn’t get angry and internally cried because there was no way his son’s mother was going to help him. He had to leave the area for a moment to compose himself. He didn’t know how she dealt with this every single day. He would end up throwing himself off a cliff. But he sucked it up and went back nearly fainting when he saw that his son had completely destroyed their living area. Everything was a mess and he was running after his older sister trying to tackle her because she decided to pick a fight with him.

More things to do on top of his already growing list but that wasn’t the icing on the cake.

No, instead having his sister lead right into playtime which turned bad right away. Separating a hyper child and a fully groan mare wasn’t fun at all. The shouting match gave him a headache and his son kept taunting her by calling her names. There was no reconciling his or her differences and it was obvious his youngest son just wanted to be the biggest pain in the rump anyone could ever imagine. It was like someone was smashing something against his head. One was screaming in one ear while the other was doing the same in the other ear. It was a nightmare and he knew now what their momma went through. They never listened to him because he didn’t know how to handle them.

The worst part was….
This was nowhere close to being over.

“How am I going to get him to bed?” He grimaced at the thought.

Re-rolling since XxXPandamoniumXxX has already won a familiar from the event!

1. Moon_Princess_Yuki
   
2. belloblossom
   
3. AstoriaFallen
   
4. Rinial Sisterdragon
   
5. Kivras
   
6. She-Ra of Etheria
   
7. xKOVAKtheWOLFx
   XxXPandamoniumXxX