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 Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:25 pm
The rest of the day had passed at a glacial pace. It was a day of questions and answers for both Lorenna and the twins. Lorenna had never met anyone who didn't have a name, or at least not anyone who could speak. She had learned that they had never known a mother or a father though the elder of the two did recall a mare, Lorenna told them that she had probably been their mother. Lorenna explained many things that the twins didn't understand but some concepts were too vague for her to explain. Before they knew it the sun had set and the boys had found a place to curl up and sleep. Lorenna had decided to send Khaa out with a description of the boys in the morning but there had been so much to cover during the rest of the day. Like the matter of the boys' names.
She stood near the foals watching them as she slept. She didn't feel that she had the right to name them, they weren't her children after all, but she couldn't let them run around nameless. She had briefly entertained the thought of calling them One and Two but had decided against it barely a minute later. They needed real names to go by and she couldn't think of anything. She decided to sleep on it, perhaps something would come to her in the night.
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Lorenna awoke the next morning feeling particularly disoriented. She'd dreamed that she was back overseas in her old homeland. It was strange to wake up away from the stone pathways and buildings to a snowy wood. She remembered where she was after a short while and then looked to the foals still sleeping under the tree.
She smiled as sudden inspiration found her, names from her own home that just seemed to suit the boys. "Fletcher and Thatcher..." She laughed quietly through her nose. It hadn't been so hard to find names for them after all, she only hoped they actually liked them so she didn't have to start thinking again.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:18 am
The next morning the twins awoke to the sounds of voices nearby. With swiftly beating hearts the two quickly untangled themselves from their sleeping positions and got to their feet. They had forgotten all about Lorenna as they had slept and had no idea who was speaking. All they knew was that it was the voice of a mare accompanied by strange, quiet, raspy voice coming from high up. The younger of the two moved first. With a stern and determined look on his little face and his tail erect he marched toward the voices his older brother not two steps behind, a perfect mirror of his sibling.
As they approached the strange fog of sleep left them and they were able to remember the events of the previous day. As their memories returned they began to recognize the female voice as Lorenna's. Their serious expressions shifted to the curious and their fluffy tails dropped back down into a relaxed position. They still did not know to whom she was speaking but they believed that Lorenna was kind and didn't think she would do anything to hurt them. If she was speaking to someone then they must be of a decent sort.
Before long they found Lorenna standing beneath a sizable oak with bared branches speaking to a black bird with a white mark emblazoned on it's head. The two watched quietly, curiously, as the mare spoke to the bird. It didn't take them long to figure out that she was describing them and the nature of their situation to the bird.
The younger of the two scowled and stomped forward with his ears back. "Lorenna!" He snapped announcing his presence and glowering at the mare all at the same time. "Why are you telling birds everything?" He didn't have any particular reason to distrust the bird nor did he have any real reason to keep the information secret but he didn't like it all the same. His brother was right behind him happy to back his twin up.
"They're not going to care! They're birds!" He added, his younger brother nodded his head firmly in agreement. Everyone knew that birds didn't care anything about soquili troubles. That was just how they were.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:43 am
"Their coats are light in color, quite a bit like fresh snow in shadow actually, with bright green eyes." Lorenna was telling the bird Khaa. She had been explaining things to him for the last half hour. He was going to carry a message to all the other birds in her network as well as passing it along to any other bird or spirit-touched animal he came across. The message would contain a description of the two along with a small explanation and simple instructions on how to find her and the twins. "They're completely identical and purebred cerynei from the looks of things. That should narrow down the range of who their parents could be at the very least. They are very young, Khaa, too young to be parent-less." Lorenna sighed and shook her head. It wasn't entirely unusual for foals to be abandoned or have their parents killed but it seemed strange that no one had taken them in yet. Was it because no one, aside from herself, had thought to ask about their parents before?
She heard a small angry voice ringing out from behind her and slowly she raised her eyes skyward. Or perhaps it was because they were demanding and pushy little things that no one wanted. Lorenna pushed the thought into the back of her mind and turned to answer the accusations of the children that had somehow ended up in her care. She was not the motherly type, nor did she want to be. But still, they needed help and it seemed that, at least these days, that was what she lived for, whether she wanted it or not.
"Boys," she began as patiently as possible, "I told you yesterday that I was going to try and locate your mother. That is what I am doing here. This bird is going to carry word about you all over the land until we find her for you and I can assure you that he does care very much." She wouldn't deny that most birds didn't care about the affairs of the four-legged world but Khaa and the others would take interest even if it was only because they were paid to do so. Lorenna redirected her attention back to the crow in the tree. "That is all you need to know, Khaa, these are the boys, feel free to add more descriptors about them if you need to. They were not named so don't worry about that. Now, off with you." After dismissing the bird she crossed the way to the children who were almost as large as she was. The sound of beating wings and a said sort of cawing sound told her that Khaa had departed.
"That does remind me." She said pretending that this wasn't something she had been waiting to tell them all morning. "There is the matter of your names or lack there of. I've given it some thought and I've decided that you two deserve them. Would you like them?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:58 am
The twins moved so that they stood shoulder to shoulder as Lorenna addressed them. They traded perplexed looks as she explained that she was searching for their mother with birds and words. That wasn't how they understood searching. They new all about seeking games, they had played them with other foals before, and they all involved being directly involved. To search you used your eyes, your ears and your nose. What Lorenna was doing was an entirely new and foreign concept and neither of the twins knew how to take that. The younger of the two scuffed one of his front hooves in the snow kicking up some powder. He muttered something about it all sounding dumb and the elder brother nodded his head in agreement. Neither thought it would be a particularly good idea to protest. That would just lead to Lorenna proving her point and they would just feel dumber than ever. They had learned that in only one day with the mare. She didn't like being wrong.
Their moods improved substantially when Lorenna suddenly changed the subject to the matter of their names. The two immediately perked up and fixed Lorenna with excited, wide-eyed grins. "We get names?" The youngest asked lifting up a leg as though he meant to move forward but forgot what he was doing halfway through the process. "Real names? Are they going to be good ones?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:08 am
Lorenna had expected some excitement from the pair but the change in their demeanor had been so dramatic that she had to physically fight back the urge to laugh at them. She wasn't quite sure that they were foals anymore, at the moment they were acting quite a lot like puppies. "Yes, you get names and the will be real and good." At least she thought they were good. She wasn't sure what she would do if she hated them and she had to start thinking all over again. Lorenna wasn't some eagerly expectant mother with a list of names that stretched out to the sun and back. She was a regular mare with more important things on her mind than names. Though, looking at the twins' faces was making her question if there actually was anything more important than a name to them. It made her heart twinge in an unpleasant way to think of how strange it must have been going through life without the one thing that everyone else had. She cleared her throat to remove the small lump that had begun to form there.
"Now then, you will be known as Thatcher." She said to the one with his hoof raised. It was a bolder sound so she was fairly sure she would be able to match it with the more head-strong colt. It would at least improve her chances of getting their names right thought she still doubted her success rate would be particularly high. "And you will be Fletcher." She said to the other. It was a softer sound, not that he was softer but he seemed at least a little more likely to tread softly around the points that "Thatcher" would be more prone to barreling straight into. "Fletcher and Thatcher. Do you like your names?" Lorenna found herself silently praying to any spirit that might listen to her at that moment. Please let them like the names, she begged. Please.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:33 am
As Lorenna gave them their names the two grew more and more serious until their faces were so stoic they might have been hewn from stone.
"Thatcher." The youngest parroted as he slowly returned his foot to the ground.
"Fletcher." The eldest said not long after. The two remained quiet for several moments as they each thought over their new names. Names that belonged to them. Names all their own. They knew not the meaning of the names but that hardly mattered.
"Fletcher?"
"Thatcher?" The two looked at each and slowly, very slowly their enormous grins returned.
"Fletcher!"
"Thatcher!"
"Fletcher! Fletcher, I'm Thatcher!" Thatcher said bounding into the air excitedly. "I'm Thatcher! I'm Thatcher! My name! It's Thatcher!"
Fletcher watched his brother with his own legs quivering in excitement. "I know! And I'm Fletcher!"
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The two continued on like this for well over an hour and only stopped when the need for food and drink drained their energy. This was it. This was a start of a brand new life for them. They were no longer just the twins with no names wandering the world and enjoying everything it had to offer. No, now they would be Fletcher and Thatcher, twins wandering the world and enjoying all it has to offer with Lorenna and her weird bird. And somehow, that little difference meant more to them than all the sunsets and sunrises they could take in.
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