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 Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:01 am
It was way too hot. Somehow it felt like they'd been through this before and they had just a year ago. It was funny how quickly time seemed to pass in chaos and life had been chaos for the last several months for Hisoka, Torao and Sabella. As expected Sabella's herd had turned up as soon as the paths were clear enough to walk on. It had come to no one's surprise when they were disappointed by the lone basket. The had gone so far as to insult Torao's abilities as a stallion and only Sabella's pleading had stopped him from breaking the other's leg. It had not, however, stopped Hisoka's partner from dealing out several bruises that would be easily forgotten.
They had not seen that particular kirin again but there had been others. The three had come to appreciate the visits when the bunch were friends of Sabella. These friends tended to come with gifts of food and they were less pushy. Other's came with lists of name suggestions and parenting tips. These visits were more annoying but not unbearable. The really troublesome visits came from the groups of older stallions. They wanted the child to be raised within the herd and no amount of protesting from the three would convince them otherwise.
Those visits had stopped a month ago after one stallion had tried to steal the basket. Hisoka hadn't told anyone exactly what had happened after he had caught up to the stallion that night. All he had said was that the stallion was still alive and he left it at that. He had shown the gods exactly what he was still capable of and no one, not even Sabella, had questioned his judgement this time. It had been for the best and it had gotten Sabella's herd to stop trying to lay claim to the basket.
Hisoka stood near the basket looking on in wonder. It had been unusually active lately. Most of the time you wouldn't think there was anything inside of it but for the last week they'd been observing strange things. This morning Hisoka had woken to find that it had somehow flipped itself onto it's lid. Currently it was emitting a strange sort of grumbling sound and twitching. "Do you think...it's trying to get out?" Hisoka asked looking to his companions for answers. "Should we help?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:03 am
Sabella was anxious. It felt like she hadn't had any peace since the snow had melted. If it wasn't a visit from her herd it was something to do with the basket or some scheme to get rid of her herd. The only time she really got to herself were the moments when Hisoka looked after the basket so she could get her own food or bathe or meditate. She relished those moments but it looked as though they would be coming to an end soon. Hisoka was right, the foal was trying to get out.
"Nichi said we shouldn't..." She said watching the basket shake and jolt like something was beating against it. Maybe Nichi was wrong though. If the basket had been more active the entire time Sabella wouldn't question the fox's advice. The kirin took a tentative step towards her basket then leaped backwards when a hoof shot through the lid. It took her heart a moment to settle and in that time the foal began kicking at the lid repeatedly until it was in tatters.
"I don't think it needs our help..." She said watching in awe as the hole continued to grow in size until a little peach colored ball of foal came tumbling out of the top to law sprawled out on it's back. Sabella didn't move at first, still surprised to see the child, but after a second or too she carefully moved to it's side and nuzzled it's neck. "Hello little one. Little...girl." She smiled. She had a daughter not a son like her entire herd had been hoping.
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:32 am
Torao had known that the basket was going to hatch soon he just hadn't been expecting it right at this very second. It took him a while to fully comprehend what was going on. Hisoka and Sabella were standing near the foal, the filly as Sabella had pointed out. They seemed to be so concerned with getting aquainted with her that they hadn't noticed something Torao was having a hard time over looking.
"Tail." He said finally as he made his way over drawing a confused look from Hisoka. "Look at her tail. She has a cat's tail." It seemed like speaking in their native language would be the quickest way to get Hisoka to understand. Sure enough Hisoka got the message and looked to the filly's tail. Torao watched as Sabella seemed to catch on and look over as well. Then the three exchanged confused and slightly concerned looks.
Where had she gotten a tail like that?
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:06 pm
Several hours had passed since the filly had first emerged and the three had formed a sort of gate at the cave entrance to keep her inside as she got used to her legs. While they watched they had been discussing the unusual aspects of the child. Not only did she have the tail of a cat but she had unusually fuzzy ears and what appeared to be small fangs. Hisoka's first explanation was that she was possessed by a cat demon. Sabella had taken offense and had managed to talk Hisoka into silence. The entire thing had amused Torao but that didn't change the fact that there was something odd going on. Somehow she had ended up with Sabella's eye markings, his tiger circle and stripe mark and mysteriously enough Hisoka's whiskers. She also seemed to have marks that were either skulls or evil octopi and no one could settle on which the were. Either way they were unusual.
The discussion of her features had died down only to be replaced by the lighter subject of name. Somewhere along the line Hisoka and Torao had silently agreed that she would have a name from there homeland. Sabella had enough creatures running around with a name like hers. "How about Umiko?" Torao suggested.
"We aren't anywhere near the sea." Hisoka responded without much consideration. "How did you pick that name?"
"She's got evil jellyfish." He retorted. "That's good enough."
"No it's not!" Hisoka scowled stomping his foot. They weren't naming her based on tiny marks on her coat. "Besides, they aren't jellyfish. They are octopuses."
"Octopi."
Hisoka shot Torao an angry look before moving on. "Umeki?"
"And where did you get that from huh?" Torao challenged. "There was at least some reason for Umiko. Besides! She looks like a peach not a plum! We'll call her Momo." Torao nodded his head firmly clearly anticipating the end of the discussion.
Hisoka headbutted the larger stallion in protest. "She's not a food! If momo anything it would have to be Momoko."
"No! That's like that stupid human story Momotarou." Torao countered shoving Hisoka to the side. "We should give her something auspicious like Gin."
"And where do you see silver?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:26 pm
Sabella sighed and left the rough line to go stand by her daughter. They'd been ignoring any input she had anyway it was best to just let them settle it themselves. All the names she had heard so far were strange to her ears, some more than others, but she liked the foreign sound. Whatever they settled on it would suit the child, she had no doubt about it. For either of them to agree it would have to be the perfect name after all.
"I don't imagine you care what name you get now anyway." She said bending down to n** at her daughter's darker than midnight hair. She was a small filly but she was beautiful. The colors on her pelt flowed from to another smooth as the sunset and her markings looked to be down by a master painter. When she was grown Sabella could tell that there would be trouble. It didn't seem likely that Torao or Hisoka would let any boy within a mile of her but that wouldn't stop them from trying.
"And I suppose if you do not like it you can always tell everyone to call you something else anyway."
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:32 pm
The filly didn't really understand what was going on. Everyone had taken an interest in her tail for some reason. She could see why. It was amazing. If she looked at it and thought about it it moved! Sometimes it would move even when she didn't think about it. What didn't make sense to her was what everyone was saying. She couldn't even understand an eighth of what was being said but they didn't sound like she felt right now. She felt good bounding around the cave. Occasionally she would lose her footing and fall and someone would check on her but mostly they stood still in a line. How boring.
She smiled when her mom came over. She knew it was her mom. She recognized her scent and her voice. There was no mistaking those things. She rubbed against her mother happily as her mother spoke to her. She didn't know what her mom was saying but she didn't care. She was just glad to be near. Her soft voice was also a nice break from the sounds of the other two bickering. She could still hear them still in the background and wondered exactly what they were saying.
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:22 am
It was beginning to look like they would never agree on a name. They both had their own little mental pile of names or words that could serve as names but it didn't look like they had picked anything similar. Hisoka glared at Torao as he suggested the name Bochi, graveyard, out of spite alone. What had begun as a relatively pleasant conversation had quickly spiraled into a fight that some might claim to be a power struggle. Neither was willing to give in to the other and compromise seemed completely out of the question.
"We are not giving her a name like that." Hisoka growled looking like he would very much like to drag Torao outside and beat him. "It should be something pretty like Botan or Bara."
"It always comes back to flowers with you doesn't it?" Flowers were nice but Torao just couldn't understand why Hisoka always seemed to come back to the plant names. Torao wanted something a bit less common than flowers for a name. "Why not something cool like Bannin."
"Because she is not a dog." They were getting no where. Maybe they should have let Sabella name the kid after all. "She's a cat."
"And I suppose you want to name her 'guard cat' then?"
"Don't be stupid! She's not a guard anything!"
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:37 am
Sabella just shook her head at the growing anger between the two boys. It was time for an intervention or they'd keep at it until someone ended up bruised and bloody, maybe even both of them. "Come on dear, let's take care of your fathers." She said before leading the way over to the quarreling stallions.
"If I may," she interjected keeping her voice calm and diplomatic. "The names you have both come up with are wonderful...but...I fear if you can't decide on something she will go nameless for far too long. Perhaps you could try a different approach, find a name with some meaning for you two that other people won't know. A secret meaning. I think that would make it special, don't you?"
She had only grown bolder since having a baby, mostly because of Nichi's coaching. The fox wasn't around all the time so she had taught Sabella how to get the boys to do things quickly if they needed doing. Between that and needing to defend her baby from her herd she had broken out of her more docile nature. Luckily it seemed that the boys approved.*~~~***~~~*
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Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:44 am
Many hours passed after her mother gave the stallions the suggestion. The newly hatched filly had spent the time running, trotting and bouncing in circles around the cave. She had almost grown accustomed to movement when Torao had uttered one word: uwasa.
They thought it could be the filly's name. She wasn't sure what the purpose of a name was but she liked the sound of her's. Torao explained that it meant rumor. Words whispered in secret. Hisoka had looked like he had wanted to argue but was silenced by Torao's explanation. It was for Hisoka that she was named so while he and Sabella had made the child's flesh, blood and bone Hisoka would always have the child's name. Her identity came from him.
They had all agreed that it fit. When they asked Uwasa what she thought of her name she just smiled bright as the sun. "Like!" She exclaimed having heard all three say it before. "Like!" And just like that the filly was named.
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