Her nostrils flared as a rush of fresh air laid the scents of an entire new world before her. Trembling March followed her nose, but made sure to maintain contact with her brothers and sisters, as she stepped out into the dappled light of the swamp. Digger's enthusiasm was contagious, but March was hesitant to approach her newly extended family members. She timidly stepped alongside Digger, and whispered into her ear.
"D-do you think you could introduce me? I can't t-trust myself to s-speak." she asked, before regarding the Kimeti with a hopeful smile.
It was then the softly glowing doe started to come closer to the gathering, the words exchanged by the many attendants suddenly foreign to her. Yet this didn't deter her, her expression calm as she looked around in wonder.
And then she saw one of the new creatures, the Zikwa--or so she had gathered, hearing little bits of conversation here and there. Eve's markings glowed subtly, the light coming from the Zikwa's was rather comforting.
"Greetings," she started to the blue-green doe, moving around her to observe her. She followed at this doe even though she wasn't sure her voice was heard, the kimeti's head bowed as she not so subtly stared at Creeping Moss.
Aric Val
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Roadkill
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:30 pm
"Ooh, I'm not yelling!" Digger tossed her head back and forth. "Yelling sounds so mean. I'm just excited about, uh, everything!" She laughed again. Digger couldn't concentrate much on her surroundings, but she could definitely concentrate on all the kin around her.
Before she could continue to blab on, a familiar voice whispered in her ear. Oh, March, she had to be included in this shindig. No buts about it! Digger nodded to March and turned to face Breeze again. "This is the most wonderful Trembling March!" Digger bowed her head down low in respect to the other doe. "Be sure to welcome her, too!"
SilverShieldwolf
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:39 pm
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She grinned some. "I think we were all lost without each other." Cryptic. Though they remembered they didn't make much contact either. "I gladly come to the Swamp, thank you Hero." Creeping Moss nudged the other doe, glad for the introductions.
Aric Val
The glow of another caught her eyes. Though it was not from another Zikwa but from one of the Kimeti. The soft yellows, in such a fine small pattern. It was quite amazing. "Hello to you too."
She smiled some and looked at the doe. "They call me Creeping Moss, I am told that I look to have moss growing on me."
Pulse, ears fanning out, suddenly starts: the others! The others have finally arrived! The zikwa bobs its head in a nod to Wood Spider, and then speaks -- Spider can't help but wonder at Pulse's odd breathless voice (she had met another kimeti with a voice like that, but he had been kicked in the throat), "Thank you for welcoming us -- we will meet again, I must find my friends."
Pulse is not normally this awkward, but rising to the surface of the swamp to find a party going on is awkward indeed. The zikwa makes a blurry, haphazard way through the press of kin, trying to find where to put feet on ground that shifts and moves under your weight. Eventually, following the sound of familiar voices, Pulse puts a velvet nose against Ghost's flank and then smiles at her: "I thought I heard you. And the others." A pause. "I smell flowers."
"I smell them too." Ghost's tone is distracted, though, distant, and though she tips her head toward Pulse, she doesn't turn her head. Instead, those sightless eyes remain fixed on Willow, the glow of her eyes, the shimmer of her breath in the air. They are a halo that outlines the kimeti form, which gives some idea of her shape, without quite clarifying the details. It is just enough to show her that they are different.
For her part, Willow turns her head to give Woodspider a look that is less than amused, and finally pulls herself together. She does not appreciate being shown up. So, at last, she gathers her voice so that her own town rings out a bit more, she regathers that majestic mantle around her.
"Yes," And her first attempt is too loud. She clears her throat to soften it. "Yes. We heard tale of your arrival, and were lying in wait to be the first you meet. Welcome to the swamp."
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:45 pm
Breeze was utterly fascinated, even though he was listening to some pretty idle prattle, when he thought about it. (Zikwa! Wow!) Before he knew it, a third zikwa stepped forward, introduced by Digger as Trembling March.
Wearing a winning grin that he was beginning to suspect they couldn't actually see, Breeze offered a shallow bow and complied with Digger's request by saying, "Welcome, then, Trembling March." To all three, he said, "My name is Wildflower Breeze. It's a pleasure to meet you all.
"This place, specifically, isn't my home," he said to the second zikwa, "but the swamp is. It was sort of a broad welcome."
Frenzy had been roaming the far corners of the Swamp when Longstride's news had reached her. Time had mellowed her usual ravenous hunger, and let it spread to other avenues; her curiosity was now no less fierce than her hunter's instincts, so she'd thrown in a dry promise to not try and take a bite out of any new friends they made, and started making her way to the emergence point.
As the zikwa emerged, Frenzy hung back, studying the new arrivals with interest. The kiokote had brought floods; the totoma, snow and ice. The acha and the zikwa, it seemed, were rather more placid than their fierce and competitive brethren. They were strange, wrinkly creatures, she determined, but the Swamp took many faces -- she herself was living proof of that -- and they had their place as well.
Her grin stretched up at the corners, without her even noticing. There were more Legendaries in the clearing than she's met in her largely-solitary life. She tilted her head in deference to Bitterleaf; the years had not lessened the respect she felt for the old mare. Even though her presence among the Tidewalkers was more irregular than not, she still considered the southern beaches home.
More curiously, none of the zikwa had reacted to the odd phenomena surrounding the mares and stags. She drew closer to the gathering, wondering at their filmed-over eyes. Then again, if they spent all their time in the dark, eyes were perhaps not as crucial as they were on the surface.
((Rushed, late post is rushed and late, sorry! I can't check the thread regularly, so if anyone wants to interact with Frenzy, just quote me <3))
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:56 pm
elvyralani
Her eyes wandered on the bright greens of Creeping Moss, eyes darting up to meet the other does eyes even though she did realize she may not exactly see her. Eve gave her a small, subtle smile. "My name is Evenfall," she said quietly, bowing her head. "Creeping Moss, it is lovely to meet you. And yes--- very much like moss-- glowing moss."
Eve took notice of Hero nearby and a few other kimeti but her focus was soley on the Zikwa--such a wonderful discovery and she felt fortunate to witness it. Her eyes caught of another bright golden Zikwa nearby, it seemed that she could not keep still. "So what do you make of the swamp so far?" She asked Creeping Moss.
Aric Val
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SilverShieldwolf
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:18 pm
Her tail twitched as Trembling March came up. Mute turned, stepping a little away from Wildflower Breeze. "Are there many like you, Wildflower Breeze?" Moving to be closer to the other two, who could be use to her ways, Soundless Voice ended up in the welcoming party's mint vine. "Oh...oh not again! I can't believe it." Her voice dropped a bit, "What a way to meet your cousins, Mute."
Kitty Sprightt
Roadkill
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:41 pm
elvyralani
Roadkill
Uncharacteristically silent all this time, standing still with his mouth gaping and eyes wide at the new arrivals, Runs with Death regained his speech. He had picked up a few names by listening to the conversation, and wanted to talk to all of the Zikwa at once.
"Welcome, welcome, cousins!" he said loudly, bouncing around. He had been keeping an eye on the Zikwa called Digger. She seemed less fragile and shy than the rest. Just his type. He bounded up to her. "Hi, Digger! I'm Runs with Death!"
Before she could answer, he had leapt over to Creeping Moss to say hello as well. "Hi, Creeping Moss! You're so pretty! You're all so pretty...!"
Runs with Death was so excited he couldn't stop bounding and prancing around saying hello to everyone. He hoped they would all be his friends.
(OOC: I'm sharing a hotel room with someone else tonight and they've gone to sleep so I've gotta sign off for the night. I'll be back tomorrow!)
It seemed that those gathered had far more information than she currently possessed. They seemed excited by the arrival of these strange creatures and certainly quick to welcome them to the swamp, as if they had been expected. She supposed they had, otherwise there would have been no reason to gather.
Swarm however, had not heard the old stories nor had she ever heard the name Zikwa ever muttered until this day. She was not ashamed by this lacking in knowledge. It was hardly surprising after all. Swarm was making an effort to learn about her own kind, but it was slow process, especially when she often chose to retreat back into a wasp’s nature.
She moved closer. Brother hung back but Sister remained on the Kimeti’s back, ever watchful.
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:27 pm
Her hunter's instincts marked them as weak - almost a lie: almost they marked them as prey. It was the clinging musk of earth, the leathery hide, the way they turned their heads this way and that to best use their half-blind eyes. Cue Queue had killed many a molerat in her time.
And so Cue Queue hung back from the pack in a half-lean, weight canted against a resting limb. It was not becoming of a Legendary to think such thoughts about their returning cousins. She was, she mused, flickering a wry glance across her ostensible and more ostentatious brethren, a heck of a lousy Legendary.
Next to her, her constant companion hovered, mandibles clicking as its glassy wings whirred. Twice Removed was unusually agitated - but it wasn't the leathery Kin that had gotten him worked up. It was their not-much-less leathery pets, the massive bats that flapped their stretching wings. Twice did not much like the feel of them, it seemed, and longed for fight or flight - and the former was, Cue indicated with a meaningful look, out of the question.
"And don't you dare wander off either," she murmured, "if I am to suffer this, you will too." The wasp showed no signs of acknowledgement, but neither did it wing away.
More and more, their strange cousins emerged, squinting into the light. More and more, the Legendaries were drawn into welcome. Cue did not move, content (an understatement) to remain apart. The Zikwa sang the dead to rest, that much she knew. She was rather intimately involved with death herself, but in a more...physical way. As Hunter, she was inclined to make the dead dead, and Swamp do the rest. Her cycle required no rituals - the cycle was ritual enough.
As she occupied herself with such petulant thoughts, the clicking mandibles next to her chittered to a stop, the whir of wings taking on a different rhythm. Twice had spotted another wasp. It no longer hovered in place, instead weaving back and forward restlessly, a blatant telegraphing of its intentions. From contrariness as much as anything else, Cue deigned not to notice, till the buzzing grew so insistent as to be annoying.
"Fine, fine," she snapped, pulling herself into a canter as the grateful wasp darted away towards the green and white pair flanking a dark doe. If Twice was going to socialise, she supposed so ought she. Gliding reluctantly around the fringes of the fray, she slid a skeptical eye about the Zikwa for one unattended.
Fish Bones had let his mind wander, and missed the first Zikwa to emerge. Not until Bone Collector tapped him did he realize they were there. Blinking to clear mental images, he looks them over, taking in each detail he can see. Glowing marks, something hardly seen on other-kin. But a reasonable adaptation to living in darkness. Fish Bones smiled to see all the kin who came to greet the Zikwa. Finally, the MotherFather's children had returned. ---
Ghost would not normally submit herself to such a large gathering, but after seeing several kin - many legendaries among them - heading in one direction she couldn't shake the curiosity. So gathering up her pets she set off after them. Due to a slower pace she doesn't reach Ghost Thistle's mound until after many have joined there, and is shocked to see a new kind of other-kin in the mix. With Skunk on her back and Copper Fox trotting at her heels, Ghost threads her way through the crowd, wide eyed and taking in all the sights. So engrossed is she in looking at everyone that Ghost bumps into several forms. Each time she stops and bows her head, once she gains the kin's attention, as an apology. Lacking the ability to speak this is the best Ghost can do.
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:46 pm
One side of Wood Spider's mouth curls up in a smile that is just about as unfriendly as any she has ever given -- which is really not all that bad at all. It's just a bit less genuine than others, though to be fair, she is happy to see Willows-breath, and is unsurprised that she ascended.
Seeing the flick of a blue and black fin over the heads of the assembled, and the rise of sleek, dark-brown horns next to it .. she can only imagine who else is here. Who else has been swamp-touched. Bowing her head in a nod to the other mare, she slips away and is almost immediately swallowed up by the crowd -- there are advantages to being so small.
hybridic
WOOD SPIDER MEETS AND SLIDE
Pulse squints -- as if this will help at all -- and then leans forward, fractionally, getting a whiff of the flowers. "Do all kin smell so good? Not like -- earth, or rock." The caves are not especially fragrant.
phoenix kiss Crew
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Ruriska
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:39 pm
Swarm was keeping a sharp eye on all of the proceedings and she certainly did not miss the arrival of a dark Legendary and her wasp companion. Her interest, naturally, was on the insect rather than the Kimeti and she was pleased when the male wasp noticed them and decided to come over.
Brother was having none of it and as the other male closed in on them, he moved forward with a furious buzz. Sister made a clicking sound of annoyance from her place on Swarm’s back, as if reprimanding his rudeness.
Swarm clucked her tongue and Brother moodily retreated before open wasp warfare could take place.
Her nostrils flared as a rush of fresh air laid the scents of an entire new world before her. Trembling March followed her nose, but made sure to maintain contact with her brothers and sisters, as she stepped out into the dappled light of the swamp. Digger's enthusiasm was contagious, but March was hesitant to approach her newly extended family members. She timidly stepped alongside Digger, and whispered into her ear.
Pulse, ears fanning out, suddenly starts: the others! The others have finally arrived! The zikwa bobs its head in a nod to Wood Spider, and then speaks -- Spider can't help but wonder at Pulse's odd breathless voice (she had met another kimeti with a voice like that, but he had been kicked in the throat), "Thank you for welcoming us -- we will meet again, I must find my friends." 
