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 Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:41 pm
Wrapped up in potential arrangements as he was, Chimalsi failed to notice the swift succession of emotional changes that took place on the brown countenance, all of them connected to his offhand comments. Nothing had been said to deliberately upset her, the amendments to her vocabulary and hopeful curiosity little more than reflex after she had proven herself to be uninformed concerning the squirrel's actions. And she'd effectively done the same to him, though the modification was a worthy one, something he needed to give more thought to and expand on. He would ask his love what she wanted best, what would sate her comely fixation and feed the bronze, unmoving fires that made up her core, collected back when he had started with small, cheap trinkets to please her.
A different voice injected into his thoughts broke pattern, and he startled out of his head as though he'd been lost in a fog, blinking at her to clear his vision. She was off again, apparently with bigger and better prizes in mind. He stared after the retreating flank for a moment before moving to follow, steps muffled and slow, not quite certain where she was going, but finding that the dun colored female was easy enough to track even when he lost sight of her. Running water ahead caught his ears, both shapely triangles angling forward as he moved into a canter, knowing that this was the path she'd taken as well. They were getting farther away from the crossroads, but intrigue for what the grown filly had hinted at made him forget his own excavating.
Weaving around a potbellied tree, he arrived just in time to see her leap forward into the spring, a carefree gesture that sent waves sloshing up the banks. The stallion held his stance with a tinge of bewilderment as she lengthened her neck to reach something further out, dragging it off of the disturbed surface like a speck from a warped mirror. He caught a flash of white before her body blocked his view, and the interest that had been trampled by confusion sparked anew. A pearl? It had looked a little large, but he wasn't about to complain, though he'd never heard that they floated up to be fished out by any lucky observer.
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:14 pm
Careful... had to be so careful! The tiniest rip in the green leaf, an improper spash of water... anything could mar the perfection of the blossom, and Alyssum could not bear to fail again, simply because she was clumsy! She slowly made her way backwards towards the bank, disturbing the silt beneath her hooves with her deliberate movements. The sloshing sounds around her only encouraged her on, and had her teeth not been gently attached to her prize, she would have given a cry of triumph.
When all four hooves touched solid earth, the mare released her treasure and took a step back. When certain that she would not accidentally crush it, she shook off each of her wet legs, glaring with annoyance at the tips of her mane as they half-clung to her neck. Well, she wouldn't look her best, but at least the Golden One would not be disappointed.
Re-composed, she picked up the delicate bloom again, but when she spun around to make her way back, the sight of the stallion gleaming in the sun startled her, making her half-jump. Then, sheepishly, she walked over slowly, settling the flower at his bronze hooves. "Here, Golden One... this will live as long as there is water. Will... this do?"
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:24 pm
It was not, the bearded male quickly realized, like any kind of pearl that he'd ever seen. Maybe if a pearl peeled from the top like some sort of specialized onion, spreading out its layers in paper-thin, ornamental fingers. A water lily, fairly rare considering the time of year, and all the more surprising for the way it was being presented. She placed the dewy flower at his feet with as much reverence as he often exercised when adding his latest triumph to his trove, her speech implying that she wished it would suit his needs. The stallion studied it for a long moment, appraising the alabaster petals shot through with faint yellow in its center, like a soft, neutral hand jealously cupping the color in lest it seep out and rendezvous with the dark green.
He had told her to seek out things like the necklace hung around his neck or the scales he bore, and she had come back to him with a hit-and-run dragonfly, and then a ghostly, fragile flower. The way her mind worked perplexed him, the doors she had worked open hanging on their hinges still, trying to decide what to do next. The lily was a living thing, but it seemed a step down from the flying treasure she'd hoped would work before, due in part because he had been unclear. What did he want?
His tail curved forward once again, the tip sliding under the pad, carefully balancing before flipping it around to awkwardly deposit the delicate cargo on his back, a blossom adrift in desert gold. There was a small pond shaped near the back of his cavern, one that held fresh water in the spring when the snowmelt cascaded down and flushed out any growing stagnation. If it was only water that it needed, then he had that, even though he wasn't entirely sure why he didn't point out that she was wrong once again. Perhaps it was remorse for frightening her earlier, a metal-graced apparition that arrived out of the trees to make her leap in place. Whatever the case, it seemed somehow easier just to take it and issue a nod in her direction. "Yes, I believe so. Thank you."
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:07 pm
Alyssum watched with nervous energy as the stallion perused her offering, her damp hooves alternatively pawing at the soil and holding perfectly still. She felt like a foal again when giving a gift to one of her parents, yearning for a few words of approval and that sparkle to come into their eyes, that shine that showed that they loved it. Perhaps the Golden One would not give that look, however... not when he glimmered so much already, not when he was so carefully restrained.
However, when his tail fished for the plant with such obvious care to place it atop his back, her own expression expressed enough joy for the both of them. At his gratitude, she only inclined her head, her voice uncharacteristically soft, "You're welcome. I'm glad to help, and it's the least I could do after you helped me."
Her natural curiousity soon squirreled to the surface, however, and she straightened up from her half-bow to tilt her head. "But... where does the flower go now?"
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:27 pm
The damp pad was a cool spot against his spine, beads of water and dirt bonding like makeshift roots to keep it from sliding too much while he carefully shifted to experiment. He didn't want to drop it, especially not with her still looking on, all earnest eye-fluttering and servile head dips. She seemed almost too proud of the achievement, like she'd shaped a world and hidden it inside the petals somewhere to be found later in the comfort of solitude. Or maybe it was a more juvenile pleasure, something derived from wanting and given for guilt. His mind was too busy working out the specifics of other, more elaborate things to tarry on what he was currently feeling, or what it was he was supposed to give her beyond a calm - if slightly remote - smile. He'd helped her? He was already beginning to forget, some slight, pointless memory in comparison.
But her question drew him back with a leathery snap, creatures like bats in his head taking off and shrieking sonar threat. What was she looking for? What did she plan on picking out of the ruts in his brain where he'd walked all too often and found nothing new? Mistrust that came so fast and harsh was difficult to quell, and his body instantly stiffened with it, trying to decide how to take her snout and forcibly point it elsewhere. The petals on his back bounced in the breeze, curious at the rigid change when water itself was so malleable.
"My home." Chimalsi let it drop in a low tone, watching the mare with hooded eyes to see if her interest was more than it should have been. "It all goes there." For her, he added mentally, feeling the weight around his neck pull heavier, sympathetic magic tying them even while he was away. She would be angry if she knew, if she wasn't aware already of his stint into infidelity with this purple-eyed Soquili who threw sweat and grins his way without an exchange of names. It was the Golden One, an idealized and unwavering title, whereas he thought of her only in terms of gender and color.
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Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:36 pm
"In your home?" A puzzled expression entered her eyes, the slightest of frowns crossing her face as her mind tried to solve a problem. Her thought processes, at their finest, were slow and warped in comparison to others, not from stupidity, but from a simplistic, earth-bound sense of reality. So when the stallion spoke of 'all of it,' it implied that he had more. This and this alone prompted her to ask, "So... that means you must have tons of stuff. Doesn't it get crowded? And how do you know where everything is?"
When the kirin stiffened, another unbidden thought rose to her mind, the stock-still motion reminding her of a certain ball of fluff that she had seen not too long ago. She found herself whispering, not quite believing her thought but eager to know if it was true, "You... you won't bury it in the ground, like the nut-gatherer, do you? Because... because if you do that, the flower will die!"
To stress her point, she stomped the earth with her hoof, purple eyes open and earnest in contrast to his hooded gaze. She could see he was unhappy, but she pressed on. "It can't grow like that. It's not like other flowers, not like daisies or lilies or... or even alyssum, where you plant seeds in the soil! It just needs water. Lots and lots of water."
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:19 pm
The mare's innocuous questions were beginning to suggest a kind of familiarity about his home life, something he had wanted to ward against from the very beginning. It was uncomplicated to be friendly, certainly, but the second the same was attempted in return, he began to feel discomfort welling fresh over the scab of inconvenience. And what did she care how much he possessed? Hearing his beloved referred to in terms of crowding made his lip curl, accusations on his lack of organization stinging more than the young girl knew. He snorted loudly, the fronts of his hooves lightly piercing the ground, his annoyance churning darkly into something more.
But her sudden insistence threw his temper sideways, and he stood staring blankly at her foot-stomping, raised-voice ways, trying to decide how much offense she was trying to pay. That so much fuss was being raised about one tiny blossom seemed strange to him, especially her assumption that he would dig a ditch and put it in the ground. The idea wouldn't have occurred to him, and even if it had, he was not about to agree on a flowery funeral of that variety, or any kind of burying action. He was designed to unearth things, not to entomb them. Doing otherwise rang just as wrongly to him as it appeared to with her.
"There is water." He cut her off before her diatribe could continue, his tail flicking with residual irritability. "Enough for one flower so small." He rather doubted that would keep it from dying eventually, but if such reassurance would repair any misgivings between them, then he was more than willing to spit it out. Feeling that was sufficient, he departed, the lily waving from his back as he returned to the crossroads, almost too nettled to keep looking around for the real treasures he'd been seeking. Almost.
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:35 pm
Something had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. As Alyssum watched the retreating figure of honey-gold with a dot of cream-white, this was all she could think. That and one other thing, one other musing that fizzled straight from her brain and into her bowels, making them ache, forcing her strong heart to burn. It was her fault. It was all her fault.
She lifted an ebony hoof to go after the stallion, wanting desperately to repair the damage she had never meant to inflict. But a memory prevented her from following, the memory of how that handsome countenance had melted, re-molding itself into a fearsome, warrior mask. How, to match his new face, the lithe, peaceful form had become agressive. And she had caused this change, she had insulted him, angered him.
The mare took a carrion comfort in the fact that at least the lily that she had dived after would be cared for properly, placed to flourish in the water and not into any kind of soil. Her suggestion of his ignorance, her foolish imagination, linking the scaled being to the furry one she had seen earlier, had certainly been an unintended insult, and her ears fell in regret. Now she would never know more about this being that had, for a shinin moment, come into her life. And she had no one to blame but herself.
Alyssum turned back towards the stream, clopping down the bank in the opposite direction of the kirin. Casting a last glance back, she found herself whispering, her apology for no one but the wind. "I'm sorry, Golden One."
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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