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 Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 12:51 pm
Midagi was a bit taken aback at the defiance in the little filly’s expression. Maybe she wasn’t as young as he had thought she was. She was definitely a tiny little creature, maybe she belonged to one of those mini races that he had heard of. He had even met a mini or two, though none of the ones he had met had possessed the cute little horns this one did. He had also never encountered a mini foal before, so he had no real frame of reference. Perhaps a different approach was needed with this filly. Until he was informed otherwise, he would treat her as an unfamiliar creature and give her all the respect that he would give a strange adult. For all he knew, that was exactly what she was, a very, very tiny little lady. “My name is Midagi Royale. May I ask what brought you here, Miss Nova?”
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 12:58 pm
Little Nova perked up a bit. Something had changed, he wasn’t taking that tone with her anymore. He still didn’t sound like Mommy or Daddy, but he wasn’t talking down to her anymore. She wasn’t sure why he had suddenly changed his attitude, but she wasn’t going to question it. At least, not out loud. This would save her from having to bite his ankles, which she would have been sorely temped to do if he had kept up that tone. What had he asked her? Oh, yeah. “I was following a cricket and then I saw you. What are you doing?” she asked, bouncing a bit when she realized she could satisfy her curiosity.
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 1:01 pm
“What am I doing?” he repeated, started. Wasn’t that obvious? He certainly thought it was. Why else would he be in this rocky meadow, pushing around stones and boulders? Clearly he was working on building himself a new home. Maybe that wasn’t what she was asking, though. Perhaps she was wondering why he was building his home there, of all places. That, too, he thought would be obvious. This was the most tactically viable location he had found. Or maybe she hadn’t traveled far enough to realize that. She was young. He would give the obvious answer, and let her elaborate as needed. “I’m building a home.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 1:22 pm
“A home, really?” That was nice, but that didn’t look like what he was doing at all. “Why were you digging at the rock, then? Are you making a bunny home?” That was what Grimm did when he was making a home for himself. Of course, he also did that when he was trying to mess with Daddy. Or when he was trying to hide evidence of something from Mommy. That didn’t happen often, though. Grimm wasn’t really afraid of Mommy. She tended to find his antics funny. So maybe Midagi was working on a bunny home or a home for a little mousey. They lived in holes like bunnies, didn’t they? She had always thought that they did, anyway.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 2:38 pm
A bunny? She thought he was digging a hole for a rabbit? He had no familiar. Granted, she had no way of knowing that. And, when looking at his actions with the objectivity of a third party observer, he could see how his actions might be viewed as just digging a hole. “No,” he tried to explain, uncertain how exactly to make his intentions clear. “I will build a dwelling around this clearing. This boulder is in the middle. I am trying to dig it up so that I might remove it.” Was that clear enough? He wondered if he should elaborate further. And then he frowned a bit as he wondered why he was even bothering to explain. Sure, he had decided to treat her all the respect due a stranger, but that didn’t mean he had to explain his every move and intention. Unless, of course, she was going to be a neighbor. That could certainly change things. “Do you live in these parts?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 2:49 pm
“Yep,” she confirmed. “I live with my mommy and daddy and brother a little ways away from here. Sometimes my big sisters come by and visit, but it’s mostly me and mommy and daddy and Wolfie. That’s my brother.” She wasn’t sure if he really needed that last bit of information, but she was on a roll. “How are you gonna move the big rock? It’s as big as you! I can’t move things as big as me. I don’t think Daddy can either, but I don’t know. I’ve never seen him try. Mommy could move it, though. She can do anything.” At least, Nova had never seen Zahavah fail at anything. Still, she had all the faith any child had in her mother. Daddy was a little jumpy, but mommy was bigger than life. Even if she was smaller than Daddy.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 3:04 pm
“Is your mother very strong, then?” Maybe he should take the little one home and speak to her mother. If the mother was really as strong as the child thought, then he could certainly use the help. Of course, there was the possibility that the mother wasn’t really that strong, that her daughter merely thought she was capable of anything. Though he had basically raised himself, he remembered many of his childhood friends thinking their parents were infallible. Either way, though, he should definitely take the child back to her parents before they got too worried.
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 7:52 pm
“Yep, she’s really, really strong,” Nova confirmed, cheerfully. This was a topic she knew was safe to talk about. Mommy could take care of herself no matter what. “She’s always taking care of Daddy by beating up his monsters. She can move your rock, too, I’ll bet! If you want her help, anyway. And if Daddy likes you. Mommy usually likes the same people Daddy does.” Then again, Mommy liked people Daddy didn’t like. That was probably because Daddy liked very few people. Most strangers he met scared him, and then Mommy had to convince him they weren’t monsters or beat them up and chase them away. Sometimes Grimm got involved, and then it was a lot of fun to watch. “Maybe you shouldn’t talk to Mommy,” she mused. This Midagi fellow didn’t strike her as the type who could handle Mommy’s particular brand of protection.
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 7:55 pm
“Why not?” he asked. He was back to thinking of the foal as a child, though he knew better now than to speak to her as one. The only annoyed expression he had gotten from her had been when he tried to keep his voice soothing. The little one was clearly intelligent, so maybe she wasn’t an infant. An adolescent, maybe, or a very bright little child. Either was possible, and both meant the same thing. He shouldn’t talk down to her. He had to wonder now if her sudden reluctance to let him meet her mother was because she didn’t trust him, or if she was worried she would get into trouble. Was she from a bad home? She didn’t speak or act like a child who was accustomed to being yelled at or otherwise hurt. But appearances could certainly be deceiving.
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 7:59 pm
“Cuz sometimes Mommy doesn’t like people Daddy doesn’t like, and when she doesn’t like someone, she chases ‘em off. Sometimes they get hurt, sometimes she gets hurt. It usually upsets daddy,” she explained, patiently. “Mommy likes to fight, though. Sometimes she’ll fight even if she likes someone. Akis calls mommy a brawler. She said it means that Mommy will pick a fight if she likes you. But that never made sense to me, since Mommy will fight someone she doesn’t like. Maybe it’s cuz she does it with a smile when she likes someone?” At least, that was the only conclusion she had ever been able to come up with.
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 8:11 pm
“I… see,” Midagi said slowly, trying to process that. He had come across brawlers, of course. One didn’t travel as much as he did without meeting a wide array of personalities. But one thing he knew was that a small percentage of brawlers hurt everyone around them, including the ones they loved. Did that include this child? Concern filled him, but he was hesitant to get involved. Mothers could be scary when it came to protecting their children, but he knew all too well that some mothers lacked the maternal instinct their children required. “And does your mommy ever fight you?” he asked, hesitantly. He could be stepping into a sink hole here and he knew he had to step carefully.
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 8:02 pm
Does her mommy ever fight her? Why in the world would Mommy want to fight her? “Mommy doesn’t fight anyone smaller or weaker than her,” Nova informed the stranger, sagely. That, she felt, should have said it all but then again, she would have thought that it’d be obvious that Mommy would never hurt her or her brother, even when playing around. She considered telling the stranger that. She could see the doubt on his face. Did he think that Mommy was a bad person? She didn’t like that idea one bit, not one bit at all. “Mommy would never, ever, ever hurt me,” she added, to try and convince him. If he DID meet Mommy, which she figured would happen eventually, then it would be best if he didn’t do something stupid and make Mommy mad.
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 8:03 pm
Midagi studied the little foal carefully. She seemed pretty adamant about what she was saying. In fact, he could see just how much she seemed to love her mother. Maybe he was worrying for nothing. That was a relief. He decided then and there that he wouldn’t act in haste. Until he had a chance to meet this mare and see how she interacted with her child, he would assume that she limited her violence to threats to her family. It was highly possible that she was one of the good mothers. After all, just because he had been unfortunate enough to have one of the few mothers who lacked maternal instincts did not mean that was normal for everyone else. He knew this. It was just hard to remember sometimes. “Alright, then if you don’t think I should meet your mother, do you think you should go home and let her know that you’re alright?”
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 8:04 pm
“Oh, Mommy will find me when she starts to worry,” Nova assured him with confidence. This was not the first time she had wandered off, after all. Usually she stuck close to home, but not always. Sometimes, like today, something distracted her enough to lead her further away from her family than normal. When that happened, Mommy would find her after a couple hours. And when Mommy didn’t find her, Grimm usually did. Sometimes Wolfie would track her down, but that was usually more a matter of him getting into his own puddle of trouble and stumbling across her. Wolfie was by far more adventuresome than she was. He and their older sisters took after Mommy that way. At least, that was what Mommy always said.
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 8:05 pm
“You won’t get in trouble if she has to come looking for you?” Midagi asked, startled and a bit confused. Did this mare have maternal instinct or not? Or were they closer to the child’s home than she had led him to believe? Maybe it was neither of those possibilities. Maybe little Nova simply underestimated how worried her parents would be about here. Children did have a rather simplistic view of the world. They rarely took dangers into account, or the worry they would cause others, because they trusted too much to think about it in the first place. The fact that she had approached him, a complete stranger, spoke volumes of that very trust.
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