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Prompt 1.

The foal hadn't planned on exploring today infact he had rather decided to try his fathers way of things and to make himself look good. His father seemed to take so much pride in the way he looked and of course it would be natural for father and son to be alike, wouldn't it? He could think so anyway.

Maybe it was fate or one of those strange things people talk about when he came across the muddy path. His parents weren't looking at him and without a doubt the first thing he wanted to do was to run down it and roll in the mud! After all isn't that what all foals do? However there was a slight dilema. If he got himself caked in mud his father would be far from pleased but, he would have a good time and get to explore some. Maybe he could find a shallow stream to wash in before coming back. Yep there had to be one around somewhere.

Checking to make sure no one was watching he did the one thing he knew he would probably regret later, he walked down the path. Well trotted down the path was more accurate. In fact even that might not have been right. As each little hoof fell and lifted in and out of the mud, the mud decided to have a flying lesson at the same time and it wasn't long before the lower parts of his legs were suddenly a rather brown colour. He would however deal with it later.

It was strange growing up as he did, he loved to look good because he gathered it was right to be proud in his appearance but yet he liked to play and the two never seemed to fit together properly. He was sure it would when he was older for it had worked for his father hadn't it? His father always looked good and he was certain his father had fun, everyone did didn't they?

As he made his way down the path, getting muddier as he went he found it wasn't really leading anywhere apart from into one of those deep dark forests you hear about in stories. However he hadn't heard any of those stories so instead of realising that the light was fading due to the mass of leaves above him, he thought that the sun was going to bed already. How strange.

He turned to head home, knowing his father wouldn't be happy about his now really muddy coat and he didn't want to be in trouble for wandering off because it had got dark! However something strange happened. As he was walking home the sun for some reason had changed it's mind about going to bed. Though the sun wasn't going to fool him not today. He knew he would get in trouble if he wasn't back before it was dark and so he headed back, going as fast as he could without realising that doing so was just making him dirtier.

As he reached the end of the path, he saw at least two sets of eyes looking at him. He just gave them a sheepish smile, his beautiful body caked in mud and his short mane and tail matted with mud. Oh what a sight! Then again, some people think mud is good for the skin, what an excuse!

Username: Kyribird
Foal Name: Zahrah
Prompt #2:
Your father and your mother decide its within your best interest to part and go their separate ways. Your two siblings have chosen to go with your nurturing mother, and now it is your turn to decide whether to join your mother and siblings or tag along with your self-absorbed father. What choice do you make and why? Please RP out the child's response to the scenario~

"I..." The small foal started, eyes looking back and forth between the two Soquili which had brought her into the world. She didn't quite understand why her mother and father would decide to go their separate ways, and she had a million questions she wanted to ask. Would she be able to see Mother, if she went with Dorian? Or would she be cut off from her mother and siblings until she was old enough to venture out on her own? Would Dorian ever come to see her, should she stay with the safety and security that 'Lani offered? But these weren't the only two things the filly had to consider.

Somewhere in her child like comprehension of the world, Zahrah knew that there were more lives to consider than just her own, and the lives of her sister and brother. More than the lives of her father and mother. There were two sets of grandparents, and aunts and uncles and cousins. This wasn't a choice between Dorian and Anolani. This was a choice between two whole and complete families that she was a very integral part of!

She was waffling, and she knew it. This was power, she recognized it. The power to choose her own road, and it was something her parents had given her in confidence. This, she should be proud of. That she had earned the right to choose, and not follow blindly. Somewhere, though, the filly wished to just be a filly and follow her parents wherever they went. Let them choose, and make the harder decisions. Wouldn't adult hood come soon enough?

"Zahrah," Her mother said gently, "No matter what you choose, both your father and I will love you no less. You must follow your own heart, little one."

"What about Aunt Resonance, Aunt Daphne? Uncle Reflection and Uncle Sigao? Or Uncle Eccelcese and Uncle Sianadh? Grandma and Grandpa? What about my cousins?" The question finally poured from the filly as she looked about ready to cry, "I really like my cousins," her voice hushed, "What road to take? What family to go with? Why make me choose?"

The filly went back and forth, her brain going into hyperdrive as she tried to sort her thoughts from heads and tails. "And why are you so selfish as to even bring the problem of making us choose? You're mother and father. You are supposed to protect us, love us, and be there. But you are splitting apart, and making us go through life without one or the other? Do what's right for us, and not yourselves! What's best for us is to stay together!"

The hushed voice raised to an angry one as her head moved back and forth between her parents. How was she supposed to choose? Her parents seemed at a loss for words, obviously not expecting it from the soft spoken filly.

"I choose not to choose," Zahrah said after a few moments of silence as she gathered her wits and bundled them neatly together. Her breathing calmed, she deflated. What point was there being angry at something that she could not change? Rationality wasn't something she generally fell back on, but this time it was all she had to hold on to. "Asking me to choose between people I love is cruel, and I will not do it. May the decision be in your hands."

Without waiting for a response from either parent, Zahrah turned on her small legs and galloped off to her quiet spot. The place she went when she wanted to be alone, to think. Where the silence was her best friend, and the calmness of the trees and the stillness of the water gave her strength.

This time, she prayed that her parents would make the right decision, and the one she refused to make herself.

Name: Kaisan
Prompt of Choice: 1
Name of foal: Amynta (Am-yan-ta)

Amynta yawned, neck stretched out as she shook her wild spiky mane. A mane that made both of her parents despair when ever it came to grooming time. For it simply would not do as it was told, much like their wayward daughter. Mane and filly both stuck out like a sore thumb in the well groomed and beautiful family. Not to say that the filly wasn't beautiful, with her dark coat sporting luminescent teal stripes and her blue-white belly looking like a burning flame. But she wasn't the well groomed, polite little filly her mother thought she was, or the well groomed future stallion-magnet her father expected.

Gyaaaaah!! The filly mewled in her head, blue eyes lifting to glare at the back end of her parents as they walked in front of her. She did not want to go to the wide open pasture and chat to random aunts and uncles about how much she had grown since yesterday or what she was planning to do with her future. The filly couldn't give a flying hoof what her future held if it was beyond the next five minutes. She was bored damnit!

Something caught her eye off to one side. A half hidden pathway that looked gloriously muddy and wonderfully fun. Sneaking a look at her chattering parents behind's from under the silken mass of her forelock, the little filly gave a wicked grin and slipped off the path and crept carefully into the bushes where the faint trail started. This was so much better than standing in a grassy field talking with dear ancient Aunt Mildred!

Hidden in the thick brush, the little filly crept forward, barely able to contain her excitement. Dirt! She would get to play in the dirt!!! With a sudden flick of her heals the little dark-coated female dashed along the path, leaping and dancing in the thick heavy mud and taking flying leaps into any puddle of water she came across.

Some time and several coats of mud later, Amynta finally had her fill of rolling around in the rain-soaked earth and returned to the main path. Ears pricked forwards, one decorated with a small twig that had gotten stuck to the mud, the little filly pranced happily down the track towards where the rest of her family had gathered.

Grinning from ear to ear, the little mud-covered imp trotted out from the trees and into the open area where the family always held their little get-togethers. Showing no sign of repentance the filthy little female pranced over to her two siblings who looked completely aghast at the state she had gotten herself into. Mud covered every inch of her normally clean coat, leaves and bits of twig stuck to the mud, making her resemble some primeval ooze monster more than a petite and rather beautiful soquili filly. Her mane, normally long and silky, if somewhat unruly, was plastered to her face and neck by the muddy mess, forming lumps and knots under the mud-coat. Her tail was in a similar condition, the fluffy baby-tail gone, replaced by a lank, limp glob of muddy strands interwoven with twigs and leaves and even bits if bark.

Leaving her two siblings cringing in abject horror, Amynta pranced proudly over to her two parents where they stood chatting to one of her relatives. She grinned as her father glanced at her, watching gleefully as he did a double take, staring at his daughter-come-mud-monster with his mouth open in shock. Her mother, noticing that something had re-directed Dorian’s attention, also looked over at what had once been her clean daughter. Amynta beamed at her parents, ignoring the horrified look on her father’s face and the startled one on her mother’s. “Hi!!!!” She chirped happily, mud-heavy tail flicking with youthful joy before she darted off to go torment her siblings, a game that involved chasing them around and threatening to get them muddy too. Oh what a life!

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Prompt of Choice: 2
Same filly as prompt 1

Amynta sighed softly, dark ears dipped to each side. The filly was for once calm and quiet, curled up against her dam’s back as the family lay sleeping for the night. She didn’t know where her father was, presumably he was close by; waiting for her decision. Though she knew it was only her mother that had kept him even that close since the announcement earlier that day.

Short little tail shifted, tucking in closer against the filly’s rump as a silent breath escaped tiny nostrils. Slender, delicate legs tucked tight under her body she lay quietly, listening to the soft sounds of her family sleeping around her. It seems almost like a dream, or a nightmare… how could they have told her just hours ago that their family was splitting up? That she had to choose between her parents? She loved her mother, so much so that she even regretted the smallest upset between them. Even though they happened frequently she really did want to make her dam proud. The thought of never seeing Anolani again made her chest ache and her eyes water. Squeezing her lids tightly together, ears dropping a little further she took a deep breath and calmed herself.

They had asked her as an adult, she wanted to live up to their expectations and make an adult’s decision. But… No. She scolded herself mentally. She wouldn’t cry like a baby, she was a mare… or, would be some day. She wanted to make her mother proud even if that ment not seeing each other.

Lifting her head she looked round, over her dam’s back at her two siblings. They had already chosen to stay with their mother. Only her father, Dorian, was leaving on his own. Who would she go with? She knew that she would have a safe, easy life with her dam. Well, maybe not safe, but she knew with that child’s trust and certainty, that her mother would protect her and her siblings. But that was the easy way out… there was something in her that wanted more, something that demanded that she test herself, and grow into a strong soquili mare who could hold her own in the world.

Turning her head she looked out at the darkness, to where she guessed her father had gone to for the night. Yeah, she knew Dorian wasn’t the best father in the world. He was self-interested and rather absent minded where the foals were concerned, and a life with him would be harder, but full of new places and new soquili to get to know. He might ignore her and run away if there was trouble, or otherwise not be the perfect role-model, but he could provide the experiences she knew she needed. She could follow him to new lands, meet all kinds of new creatures.

The thought of surviving on her own merit, of earning the respect of other soquili and maybe even a finding a familiar of her own made her heart swell with excitement. She knew who she would choose when morning came.

You technically have until Saturday, at 12:00 p.m. central [noon] to make one. ;D

i'm repsonding to both prompts
Name: fatcat17
Foal Name/Gender: Amalio/male

Quote:

Why do they fight so? Why aren't they happy like everyone else? Is it my fault that they fight all the time? Who should I go with? I don't want father to be lonely, but i don't want to hurt mum cause i chose him over her...

Amalio thought to himself as the colorful family walked along a peaceful path in the woods. He hadn't really thought of it before, but he didn't think it was entirely impossible that his mum and pop were always this irritated with each other. The path that they walked was a shady one, not quite in the sun because the many trees lining the way. If it weren't for the loud arguments coming from his parents, this would probably have very easily become Amalio's favorite place in the world. Oh well, that faint hope was ruined because they just kept on going at it with longer and longer words the young foal didn't understand.

At one particularly sunny patch on the path Amalio glanced to his left to see a small trail leading off a little downhill. The little trail looked muddy at best, but nonetheless a thankful escape from the long words and harsh remarks going back and forth between Amalio's parents. Amalio slipped off to the side and started his own adventure down this new trail, still pondering his choice between which parent to spend what seemed like forever with. Ahead on the path, the the downward slope made a drastic drop, in a near vertical hill. Amalio hadn't noticed the sudden drop ahead of time, and thus had begun skipping. Upon reaching the edge of the slope, Amalio managed to trip on a small rock, and began a long slide down the slippery slope.

He slid, down down down, all the while the small, colorful foal was screaming for someone to save him. Luckily fro Amalio, his parents had been walking unbelievably slow and so they heard him screaming away. They turned around, seeing that Amalio wasn't behind them, they began running back along the path, they quickly came upon the muddy path. Dorian paused a moment before continuing his gallop after his son.

At the bottom of the steep slope, Amalio had finally stopped sliding, the new problem was: how to get back up. He stared at his hooves for a moment before looking up just in time to see his father crashing down the slope and his mum standing at the top of the hill staring in disbelief. Amalio jumped up and nuzzled his father, just glad that neither of them were dead or stranded. It was then that he had decided he would go with his father. He definitely didn't want his mum to be overwhelmed with three foals running around her ankles, and his father needed the companionship, and something to look after, and someone to look after him.

Username: Brize
Name of foal: Isley (if female, the name will be Ilona)
Gender (for prompt): Male
Prompt: #1

Isley trotted gingerly behind his parents, careful to keep his hooves clear of any slippery muck or vegetable matter strewn across the dirt path. The gangly colt had been going awkward growth spurts since the day he stepped out of his basket. His legs were too spindly to be steady, he constantly misjudged how fast he needed to canter to leap over dead trees and dry creek-beds, and on several memorable occasions he'd even tripped over his own tail.

Father never looked at Isley with anything other than impatience and disappointment. His little accidents had added up to make him one colossal failure of a son. Yet Isley was determined to change, even if it meant trailing far behind his family, and watching his steps while his siblings laughed and galloped through the ripe gold fields of summer. Father was strong, independent, and handsome - everything that Isley was not - and Isley was determined to become more like his hero.

The young soquili was so caught up in trying to keep his balance that it took him several minutes to realize that his parents had turned around a corner and out of sight. He had been left all alone in the forest, with only a fork in the road to keep him company.

"F-father? Mother?" Isley called out. Worry coiled and twisted in his gut. "Hello? Are- um, are you there?"

Only the chirping sparrows answered.

"Oh. Um. Oh. Oh dear."

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. What was Isley to do? He did not like being far from his mother. He frequently injured himself, and she was the only one who knew how to sooth him. Mother would take him to cold streams to ice his bruises and ruffle his hair and tell him that he was a handsome boy now matter how many tumbles he took. Isley was not good at being brave without her.

The colt shifted his weight nervously from hoof to hoof. It was obvious which path his parents had gone down. Father would never give preference to deep mud over hard-packed soil. B-but...

But Isley felt himself strangely drawn to the road less travelled.

It didn't make sense. All that mud was terrifying! It would ruin his mane, and Father would be so exasperated. Isley knew that his parents didn't always get along, and that it was all his fault for upsetting people with his clumsiness. He was the wedge between them. He had to work as hard as he could to keep his family together.

But if Isley tried to pick up his pace, he would only falter into a ditch or get caught up in a bramble, wasn't that right? Father would be disappointed either way. Isley would have to redouble his efforts at grooming that night.

He drew a shaky breath before allowing himself to stumble into the damp loam, letting it cool and soothe his aching muscles.

And for one brief, shining moment, he relaxed.

Name: Talassaene
Gender for response purposes: Female
Prompt: #2


This entire meeting would have gone over a whole lot better had it rained.

Everything, from the selfish request to the fake pageantry she should have been accustomed too by now, it all would have been at least laughable had the sad eyes been highlighted by thunderclouds, reflecting distant lightning and at least giving credible reason to shed tears.


But no, it hadn't been raining... not even threatening to rain.

Instead, the weather was lovely, idyllic and bittersweet. The just-right springtime warmth, normally the type to frolic in, failed to keep the cold horror from spreading through her delicate young frame as she patiently listened to her parent's recital. The breeze, laced pleasantly with the scent of an unknown flower, gently pulled at her mane and tossed her short tail about her hocks... mocking the silent limbs it usually caressed.

Frozen, as if caught in a rainstorm, Talassaene had just stared at both of her parents... selfishly unbelieving that they would do this too her, staggered by the fact that her other siblings had somehow already made their decisions... and wondering if the selfish part of her own nature would bring her to a decision of her own. Should she go with her mother; the gentle, nurturing spirit that had sung her lullabies in the night? Or Father; the often incomprehensible figure she felt close too.. yet so distant from at the same time?

Curiosity would have her go with her father, if only to finally unravel how she truly felt about him, while the need for security and comfort would probably bend her towards her mother's side.. as it had likely done with her two sisters. But what of her own will? The part of her spirit that would define her as an adult? What of what Talassaene, a holistic being, would want? To satisfy curiosity, she would give up security... to satisfy her need for security... she would lose that part of herself that was her father's daughter. She wanted to know WHY she had to choose, WHY were they laying this huge decision at the feet of three young fillies with scarcely a summer of life experience between them!

WHY!

She wouldn't let them do this too her! She couldn't! So she had kept her tears at bay, and told them she wouldn't have anything to do with either of them, not until she was grown and could understand WHY they had reached this point.




So that was why, now, she wished it had been raining... for a long downpour could have given her father a reason to run for cover... given her mother and her two sisters a reason to leave as well, after all, mother wouldn't want the little girls to get sick right? Right?

But no, her father had gone off without a reason, as had her mother and her sisters.




But not she, not Talassaene, for in her own mind.. it was raining.





And the rain gave her a reason to cry.

Name: Katjive
Foal Name: Khloe
Gender (For prompt): Female
Prompt#2:

Your father and your mother decide its within your best interest to part and go their separate ways. Your two siblings have chosen to go with your nurturing mother, and now it is your turn to decide whether to join your mother and siblings or tag along with your self-absorbed father. What choice do you make and why? Please RP out the child's response to the scenario~



"But why!!!" Khloe sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "Why do I have to choose! I love you both, I don't want to never see one of you again!!"

It had been a beautiful morning. The sky was blue and full of clouds, and Khloe had woken up from where she had been snuggled up to her siblings. She hadn't known what was going to happen that day, hadn't even the slightest hint. So when her parents, who she loved so very much, informed the foals that they were going to separate, she was devastated.

Now, burying her face in Dorian's leg, she clung to her Daddy, feeling as if her whole world was falling apart. "I love you..." she said, almost pleadingly. "Please...stay with us..." But of course, that was not to be. Khloe had to make a choice.

Wandering over to her mother, her face a mask of tears, she snuggled up to Anolani, and looked at her siblings, her mother, and her father, in turn. Who to stay with? Who would she leave?

Her father...he wasn't the most lovable sort. But love him she did, as only a little girl could love her Daddy. He was strong and brave, but he didn't really want a family. Would he care for her? Khloe didn't know.

Her mother was an entirely different story. Khloe's siblings had already chosen to stay with Anolani, so choosing her mother meant keeping the majority of her family together. Khloe could keep her playmates, and her wonderful mother. Khloe loved her mother more than words could say. She was so sweet, kind, and gentle, and she always knew what to say to make Khloe feel happy again...even when her heart was a storm of rain and ice.

But even she couldn't stop the torrents of water flooding from Khloe's eyes. Not this time.

Although she didn't understand the reasoning behind all of this, and she didn't want her parents to separate, she knew that she had to make a decision.

Khloe walked over to her father, and gave him a last nuzzle. "I love you...always know I love you, and I want you in my life. But..." she broke off with a sob. "But, I need Mama...and my siblings." Khloe stepped back, and looked up at her father, the stallion she had always admired.

"Goodbye...Daddy."

Heartbroken, she walked back to her mother's side, burying her face in her mother's mane so that she wouldn't have to see Dorian walk away. She would never really understand why this had to happen, although she would eventually come to accept it. But she would always feel as if there was something missing, a void left by the absence of her father's love.

Turning to Anolani, the mother that she couldn't give up, whose love and kindness were evident in the motherly smile that met Khloe's eyes, she whispered, "Mama...will he ever come back?" Her mother's smile dimmed with uncertainty, and Khloe turned and wept into her mother's mane.