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 Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:26 am
The googly eyes from before had been unsettling, but the burning fervour that brightened them now actually made her want to physically step back from the exclaiming buck. The tone of her voice very much reflected her unease, though she tried her best to keep her wording tactful: "Er. It varies, Cry didn't say his till we were half-grown. I, um, wouldn't put too much pressure on them."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:28 am
Once the conversation had turned to possibly depressing thoughts of unsaid names, Rise's brain actually seemed to shut off, instead replaced by a passionate cry of "oh my little babies, I wish you would tell me your names now! Daddy does so want to know, my darlings," and he nuzzled the nearest foal.
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:29 am
She physically stepped back from the exclaiming buck. "Oooooooookay."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:30 am
Yes, his mind was running on a thoroughly different path now, driven by the passions of parenthood. "I wonder which are named after Grey and which are named after me," he mused in a naturally egotistical, fatherly manner.
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:32 am
"Most kimeti's names," she attempted, from a slightly safer distance away, "don't have anything to do with their parents', you do know."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:34 am
"Ah," he noted, leaning down to nudge the lightly coloured foal, tinged with a hint of blue and harsh white shards. "This one looks so much like Grey," eyes misty and sentimental. "Oh, I do wonder if he's got anything of her name."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:36 am
"That is," she tried to phrase this as delicately as possible, "probably a very unreasonable expectation to put upon a baby."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:39 am
All practicality, shut out by pervading idealism. "And this little girl," he cooed, nosing the top of her fiery little head, "is coloured just like me..."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:55 am
"Felllll?" she appealed to the last resort, "some help hereeee?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:57 am
From his dewy-eyed stupor of babby-induced contentment, Fell roused just enough to sigh, "Don't be silly, Rise."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:01 am
Rise sighed right back, the gentle tones of Fell's soothing reprimand drifting through his headmist of happiness. "Yes, yes," he admitted, that fatherly egotism deflated and suitably replaced by loving shame, "it doesn't matter what they're called. I just wish I could know what their names are. I wish they would tell me now."
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:07 am
Cue gave up. This entire scene was beyond reason. Half-pitying, half-fearful, she tossed over her shoulder as she wandered away, "Give them a couple of days." Her departure went unnoticed.
*******
i. Come Running
As it turned out, the first did take but a couple of days - and whether fortunately or otherwise, she was there to witness it. Cue had dallied - she'd found the foals far...well. Cuter, than she'd expected to. Of course, she hadn't expected to find them cute at all, but they had proven to be...endearing, even. Yes. If she allowed herself to consider it, she might have been somewhat frightened. As it were, she did not, and their little milestones - opening their eyes, their first few stumbling steps, the copious amounts of falling over - amused her. Especially the falling over. The ceaseless fawning of their dad - and other not-really-dad, mum naturally excluded herself from the celebrations - she could have done without.
But the baby food was a smashing success. Most of the little things had gobbled up whatever mash they were offered, and only the prudence of those around the ecstatic father had prevented them from ballooning in their infancy. Much discussion of adding a baby food line to the main pickling business had taken place. Cue privately suspected that there were hardly many - any - other kimeti parents in the swamp so enamoured with their offspring as to pamper them thus. Then again, the small pet food selection debuted after The Games was doing very well - that was something she would never understand, so what would she know about the potential popularity of baby food?
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 4:06 am
Rise sat with his clutch at the side of the shopfront, pretending to have an eye on the sunning but really having eyes only for his children. Surrounded by family, blood or otherwise, was his ultimate joy - he had his little girl, his cloudless sunrise, seated in front of him, tolerating a thorough grooming. Though he would never admit it (he did want to believe he loved them all too much to measure), it was obvious that the girls were his little treasures, and perhaps the boy whom he thought looked very much like his beloved Grey.
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 4:14 am
Fell held position at the other end of the clutch, watching over the foals dutifully, the goofy grin on his face still not entirely worn off from the first day. As per Weep's internal prediction, he had taken up the post of unofficial nanny, and he wasn't in the least bit unhappy about it. Babies! Who'd have know they were so...darling?
It was precisely as he was contemplating their darlingitude with a fond, fond eye that he spotted a slithering streak - little hooves tumbled, a high startled cry from one of the foals - he was on his hooves instantly, but before he could properly move, a burning flash darted past him -
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 4:20 am
- and that burning flash had, in an instant, halted and stomped the head of an unfortunate snake flat.
Rise gawked, his tongue half-hanging out, at his half-groomed daughter, black hooves decorated with blood, and her golden eyes glowing intensely. She caught his glance and said, in her childishly stern way, as if it were something he should have already known:
"Come Running."
It took a while to dawn upon her father that she had just spoken her name, and the astonishment gave way to pure delight.
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