[PRP] Time To Part [Azalea x Ascent]

[purplerosesbeauty]

Quote:

the hardest part of traveling is saying goodbye

He had always had a traveler's heart, something in his kiokote heritage, his bloodline, some unknown and deep part of his body that compelled him to travel - beyond the Ache that all kin felt at the edges of the swamp. He wanted to go, and when that urge compelled him, he took it up. He was distant from his family, so companionship during travel had been few and far between.

And yet, when he came across this particular pool of water, something told him to wait. And he did. Gathering supplies for a long travel, being well rested, well fed, and well watered. Azalea even took a moment to pull some flowers from the ground, arranging them prettily on the ground. He hoped in his travels he would find more pretty flowers.

Gl!tch~

let me know if this needs any changes!

 

[Gl!tch~]

Ascent loved a good adventure, and taking time to explore on her own had been fun. However, while many continued on their own, she still had to return to her brother. The rest of her family wandered on their own paths, but she had always been close to Reach. And now that she had her fun, she wanted to return to some semblance of home.

Even so, she wasn't in the greatest rush. She would find him eventually. Content with the fact, Ascent stopped a moment at a nice, small pool.

When she looked up from taking a drink, she caught sight of a fellow kin. Kiokote, like one half of her heritage. Well-met!

"Hello!" she called, and soon wandered over. "You seem to be having fun. What are you doing with those?" Ascent asked, curious and in good spirits. A tickled curiosity of sorts.

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

"Oh! Hello," he responded. The sudden voice of another kin broke Azalea from his thoughts. He glanced up at the acha doe - pretty, and colorful, and shuffled his hooves at her question. "I was just, you know. It is fun to arrange them. I like to make flowers look nice. I'm Azalea. So I guess flowers have always been something special to me..."

He paused, and tilted his head. "Do you like it?" The doe's markings reminded him of a flower, small pink circles on cream and water-green. It was nice.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

"I think they look really nice!" she agreed with a laugh. "Azalea...your naming dream really stuck!" Especially with that marking on his back that kind of looked like a flower, too. "I'm Ascent! I don't think it's as big a part of my life... I can't fly, you know." She laughed again.

A small breeze picked up not long after.

"Well, look at that. I think it's time I continued on my way. Do you have a den here or are you on the move, too, Azalea?" It was just fun to say his name.

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

Azalea beamed. He hadn't really shared his flower arrangements before... "Yeah, I imagine yours was probably interesting though," he said with a laugh. Ascent. "It's a lovely name."

He stepped forward a little. "A den? No, no, not anywhere near here. I was on the move too. Always moving. Just resting up before my next long journey. I was thinking I would return somewhere in the swamp, somewhere I could find more flowers... Wherever my hooves take me." He lifted his head. "Do you have a specific destination in mind? I could accompany you, Ascent."

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Azalea used a lot of singular 'I' as he spoke. "No herd, then, either?" she asked. A lone wanderer. Always alone? Ascent couldn't imagine. Not that she had her own herd, but... Another person was more than nothing.

"Me?" Her tail lashed to and fro. She clearly enjoyed the chance to talk. "I'm going back to my brother! He'll probably be where I saw him last... If not, maybe closer, if he tries to follow from where he thought I went or something. He wouldn't leave me behind, even with the Ache and all. Maybe someday we'll come back this way! The hills shouldn't be too far from here, right? I think it'd be good for him to see where his kind are from."

But that didn't explain where she was going, did it? "I'm going...well, it's definitely more swampy than here. But there should be some nice lotus blooms on the way!" It was just a matter of telling where she was and where she should go landmark after landmark, in an endless swamp where it all started to bleed together sometimes.

"Ah, but I'd love for you to come along! If that's where you think your hooves are taking you," she laughed.

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

"No herd, I mean... my family and I aren't all that close. I have two full-blood brothers, and many more half siblings I imagine, but... we don't speak much or spend time together. When we blossomed into adulthood we went our separate paths." He thought it must be nice to have family waiting and caring for you. He never knew his father, and his mother... well, she had her own business. Azalea knew to respect it.

"Your brother, is he kiokote also? You mentioned 'his kind'..." He paused, glancing toward the hills, then back toward where he knew in his heart the swamp lay. Still, he looked at Ascent and smiled.

"Let me check," he said, and drummed his hooves in the ground briefly, frivolous and playful. He wanted to see the lotus blossoms, the wildflowers. Everything there was to see. "Well, it seems they are saying I should come along, after all. You definitely seem the type who makes a good travel companion, Ascent."

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Azalea's drumming made Ascent giggle and prance a little in delight. "Well, there you go! We can walk and talk, can't we?"

The acha passed the arranged flowers and nosed them respectfully before starting on her way, only pausing once to see if Azalea was keeping up with her. Being a kiokote, he likely could. They were supposed to be sporty things and all. And maybe that bit of her own heritage fed off of his, making her anxious to continue on their way.

"So, yes! My brother is a kiokote. Another of my brothers is as well, as is my father. So that leaves me, my mother, and my one other brother as acha. It's a motley mix, but that makes things interesting!"

She had to pause for a moment, though. To let herself reminisce.

"I understand how it is for everyone to leave, though." Ascent kept walking, slower than before. "That's part of life, constant change and the coming and the going... But, like the warm and the cold, it all circles back eventually. The swamp provides. We'll meet again someday, I'm sure."

She started to prance again, large circles around Azalea. "Until then we'll all be on our own adventures, which will be great tales to share!"

Ascent broke off the circle, at the farthest most apex of t. Her tail brushed behind her playfully. "Don't you think?"

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

"Wow, that's pretty neat... I- I don't have anything against mixed heritage kin! I'm sure I have mixed heritage family as well, I think my brother had a mate who was kimeti. So I definitely think it's interesting. To be so different and yet so alike." He walked along, a good speed, eager to move, to listen to Ascent.

Azalea watched her prance and move in circles - she had such high energy! She reminded him of a hummingbird, always flitting about. It was cute. "The swamp provides. I know one day we will be entwined again, and important family will make its way back into our lives. We'll find your brother," he said, looking off into the distance.

"Ah, yeah! I think I've had a great many adventures. Having someone to share them with will be lovely. And I'm sure your brother will be excited to hear your stories." He nodded decisively, and swished his tail a bit, before leaping closer to Ascent.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

"I'm not sure how normal it is, mixed heritages. I only know my own family! So. My father comes from kiokote who came from the hills... My mother comes from acha from the desert... So it's very split between the two kinds! I guess I'm closer to my father... Maybe that's how it was destined to be, with our names and all. His is Upward Flight, mine is Ascent. They're pretty similar, huh?"

But she didn't want to keep talking about her family forever! Ascent wanted to know about her new flower friend.

She perked up a little after him getting closer, as if she could perk up much more to start with. And yet, she managed to. Ascent flicked her tail. "I want to know about some of your adventures! I'm sure Reach won't mind if I hear them first..." she egged him on with a cute, winning face. She wanted to hear all about it!

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

"I think they're normal enough, but some kin can be weird about it. Those are very similar names! I think they run in families - I don't know my dad, but my mom is Chrysanthemum, and my brothers are Laurel and Hydrangea. A whole garden," he said with a chuckle. His mom had other kids with flowery names too, he knew. His brother's kids too, some had names like that also. He swished his tail as Ascent egged him on.

"My adventures? Well, I'm happy to share. I like the swamp though, and all the different kin here. You meet a lot of interesting kin. Pretty ones too," he said with a light nod, glancing at Ascent and then looking away. "I've walked across wide streams and waded in deep waters..."

Azalea continued to talk a bit about his adventures - recounting stories of recent travel, of interesting kin he met, of times he was nearly in danger. He walked with Ascent, clearly a bit engaged in his stories, but eager to share them with the acha. His voice was slow and sweet, not in any rush.

He liked that kind of travel best, and after he was finished, he paused. "I spoke for a long time, sorry..."

Gl!tch~

i decided to time skip while he told his stories lmao sorry

 

[Gl!tch~]

Ascent did not know all those flower names at first, but if Azalea called them a 'garden', they must be flowers of some sort! If not plants. She nodded along anyway.

She was happy to listen to Azalea talk, taking point in conversation as she tried to figure out where to go from landmark to landmark. As the sun set, it grew harder. But Azalea's voice calmed her. Even if they ended up lost, they could always retrace their steps and find the right way eventually.

Ascent flicked an ear once it became clear Azalea ran out of steam. She smiled. "What are you talking about? I loved it! When you're alone after a while, it's nice to hear another voice for a bit. And I liked your stories, anyway. I don't have much to compare outside of childhood... Oh!"

She had started to look away, something catching her eye among the reeds in the new dark. Sparks of light. Fireflies! Glowing in bursts here, there, all over the place.

So pretty...

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

Dark already, Azalea walked closer to Ascent until her was practically at her side. How brightly the fireflies glowed in this part of the swamp! "I imagine it might get a bit lonely to travel by oneself so long," he murmured, flickering his eyes to watch the glowing insects. "I'm glad you liked it," he said.

Taking another step forward, he saw some flowers floating in the water, faint but visible with the fireflies' light. Pink flowers... something he hadn't seen, but somehow understood. These must be the lotuses. Still, he turned to Ascent. He could look at them in a moment...

"Have you ever seen so many fireflies in one place, Ascent? They're lovely," he said, laughing a bit.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Her eyes sparkled with the fireflies, watching them. Watching everything, as if she had never seen anything before. So much wonder, the excitement of experiencing something with someone new. "I feel like I have..." she said, stepping forward and letting the fireflies float around her. "Or, maybe, when I was young, I thought however many that night was the most I ever saw. But it was different. I remeber seeing fireflies, probably many times, but tonight I see everything. The swamp, the lilypads, the fireflies...you. It's a nice collection of things. I like it."

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

He watched her, trying not to stare though it was hard because she looked... so pretty. His tail swished from side to side, and he smiled, pressing his body into her side for just a moment. Pressure and warmth in the night, but only briefly. "They are nice, aren't they... I like it too. The fireflies and lilypads and you."

He stepped over to one of the floating flowers, and prodded it with his hoof. "I love to watch them float. Just like the fireflies in the sky, they move leisurely through the water. It's relaxing," he said. He paused.

"I suppose... you still need to move on. To find your brother?"

Gl!tch~