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 Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 6:04 pm
So Koa found his way down to the beach and began one of his favorite activities - hunting for sea glass that the ocean had washed up. Shells were easy; there were a million shells to the hoof-full. But sea glass? Sea glass was special. It was shimmery, shiny, and beautiful. And rare, too. Not as easy to come-by. He had a small collection of it back in the cave, and he was always looking to expand it.
He ventured into the ocean itself, finding that he sometimes had better luck not waiting for the ocean to bring the sea glass to him and instead digging to find it himself. He ducked under, his big tail splashing behind him as he went. Sometimes it was more dangerous, sure, since they weren't all the way smoothed down until they came to the beach, but.
Well, these were the risks one had to take when one was a Bona-Fide Sea Glass Hunter.
He ventured further out, pawing his way down to the sand. He dug through, digging up huge clouds of sandy dust all around him. He dug and dug, until he found--
"Ha!" The bubbles emerged from his mouth and he made his way back to the surface and went back to shore, examining his prize. It was blue - one of Koa's favorite colors - and shimmering, and sparkled, and that was all he could really ask for from sea glass. It wasn't orange or red, elusive as they were, but.
Well, it would have to do.
((WC: 317))
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2025 8:53 pm
And, he supposed, it was.
However! Helio believed that it was important to embrace, nurture and support his inner child - it hadn't been so long ago that he was a child on the outside, too, after all. So why shouldn't he act like it?
At least, that was what he told himself, when his mom's voice piped up in his head and told him that he shouldn't do whatever it was he was about to do. Which happened a lot.
It was harder now than it was when he was small - he had to find bigger bushes, and squinch himself down further than he used to when he was a kid. It was a tried and true method of trickery, and Helio ducked down and waited for his latest victims to come his way.
Helio settled his forehead into place, allowing his branched antlers to remain seen - he just had to wait, and hope, that someone would come along and touch them or even get near to touching them, and that would be enough.
...
...
...
Had it always been so boring? Playing tricks on people was supposed to be fun, but instead, here he was, almost falling asleep as he waited for someone, anyone, to fall into his carefully laid trap.
No one came.
Finally, Helio stood up. A bird squawked - it had been about to land on his antlers.
That was the sum total of creatures he managed to startle that day. Gods, maybe he did need to grow up...maybe kid stuff just wasn't fun anymore. Was this what adulthood was like? Helio Strata did not approve in the least. Ridiculous. What was he supposed to do for fun, if not tricking people, playing with them? Ughhhh. Boring. Boring boring boring.
For the first time, Helio began to feel his age - no longer a child, but not yet an adult, and hating every inch of growth that the march of time forced upon him.
((WC: 331))
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2025 3:37 pm
--- END MARCH, BEGIN APRIL ---
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2025 4:16 pm
It was hard being on her own, with no home and no company, but Prima Rosa wasn't ready to give up. Not yet. Not when she'd come this far from home. It couldn't be for nothing. If she went home - gave up - then what would she be? A failure, not to mention, she wouldn't be any better off than when she'd left her cave to beginwith. She couldn't have come all this way to learn nothing and see nothing but some spectacular aerial views. There had to be more that was just waiting for her to find.
Prima Rosa let out a forlorn sigh. Night was falling rapidly, and bringing the threat of rain in the distance by way of thunder and distant lightning. The birds had noticed it too, and all of them had fled for dryer land and safer trees. Prima didn't dare try to take to the sky to find a new place to rest - instead, she resigned herself to spending another night in this cave, with the promise to herself that she'd take off tomorrow and continue her hunt for...
For whatever it was she was hunting for.
Prima Rosa was almost asleep, comfortably dozing toward dreamland, when she heard a sound. Her ears pricked forward and she lifted her head; there was no one she could see at the entrance to the cave, but that didn't mean no one was there. She squinted into the murk - it had started to rain properly now, making visibility a challenge at best.
She heard another soft scurry and frowned. An animal, maybe? Trying to escape the storm?
"Hello?" Prima Rosa called, just in case it was capable of speech. She couldn't imagine something so small to be anything like deadly or dangerous to her, but...it was better to be sure. She got to her feet and made her way cautiously toward the mouth of the cave, not seeing any source of the noise - until a twinkle caught her eye.
Was that...a mouse? It was clutching a gem, and seemed to have gems...growing out of its body, or at least attached to them, and it was one of the more baffling sites Prima had seen on her journey so far.
"It's okay," Prima said softly. "I won't hurt you. Do you have a name?"
"Oh--oh! Hello!" the mouse squeaked out, clutching the gem to her chest. "I'm so sorry to intrude, I--it's just that the rain is coming down quite ferociously and I didn't want to get swept away again, that happened to me once and it was most unpleasant and I would rather not it happen again, you understand! I didn't know this cave was occupied, I am so sorry for interrupting you! I--I don't mind staying right here--" she was cut off by a rumble of thunder and a bright flash of lightning, which made her jump and, seemingly by instinct alone, run to hide behind one of Prima's legs.
"M-maybe if it's--if you don't mind, I--I could come a little further into this cave? If you don't mind the intrusion?"
In spite of herself, Prima was taken by the little mouse, and pitied her. She wanted to help, if help was something she could provide - and it seemed like she could, since all the little mouse needed was shelter to wait out the storm.
"Of course you can," Prima Rosa said. "Don't be silly. Come, come in, away from all this," she said, carefully stepping around the little mouse to lead her back into the cave. "Did you tell me your name? I'm Prima Rosa."
"Oh! Oh, thank you!" the mouse darted to keep up with the Soquili, her little feet making a soft scuffling on the cave floor. "My name is Beryl. It's nice to--to meet someone, someone kind, in weather like this!"
Prima Rosa smiled as they settled down. Prima dropped one of her wings down and used it to dry the little mouse off. "Beryl. It's nice to meet you too, little friend."
And so they were friends - from that moment forward, one never went anywhere without the other.
((WC: 568 for Prima!
WC: 168 for Beryl!))
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2025 12:05 pm
He was so ready for spring.
What he had not counted on was what came with spring: babies. Everywhere he looked, there were infants of some breed or another. Birds, rabbits, even among the herd he was beginning to call home - baskets were appearing, seemingly around every corner.
Jack had never thought he'd have that. He'd never thought he'd want to have that; he had lost so much already, and the idea of having a gift like a child and then somehow losing it was unbearable to him.
But that had been before Candra. With Candra, everything seemed....possible. New. things that he'd written off as impossibilities suddenly sounded more like goals to work for than dreams to tuck away in the back of his mind.
He hadn't spoken to Candra about it - not yet. He didn't know what she wanted. He would never forgive himself if she agreed to something like this just because he wanted it; it had to be both of them. They were a team.
But...planning could, maybe, come later. For now, Jack just enjoyed the little bouncing bunnies sniffing out fields of clover, and thought about how beautiful his mate was - and how beautiful their children might, someday, be.
((WC: 251))
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2025 9:07 am
The problem with doing something new was that it was....well...new, and Helio had no idea what to get her. What did moms like? Bossing people around? Chores? Those things couldn't be wrapped with a bow. He pondered as he wandered, having found himself on a beach far from home - he was sure that being this far away, in a new place, would give him some new ideas, but it wasn't like a new idea would spring forth from the sea and announce itself--
"Hey!" Helio yelped, taking to the air straight from the ground out of sheer surprise as a mountain of a stallion sprung forth from the sea and failed to announce himself. "How long were you--hey!" Helio said again, more plaintive this time as the stallion shook himself, making water droplets splash everywhere, including Helio Strata himself. The stallion was huge and brightly colored and appeared to have four legs (and a very large swishy tail), but Helio had been wandering down the beach for quite a while and hadn't seen this stallion enter the sea.
"How long were you down there?"
Being a mixed breed as he was, Koa Ahi couldn't spend quite as much time under the water as some of his friends, but he could certainly keep up and outpace the average land-based Soquili, easy-peasy. He didn't think much about it as he ventured down into the ocean for his daily sea glass hunt, and he didn't think much about how much time he spent at the sea floor, pawing through sand and rocks to find what he was looking for. In fact, he didn't think much about how long he'd been down there even as he emerged, much later in the day, carefully clutching his prizes as he made his way back to the surface.
He emerged and shook his mighty head, clearing the water from his eyes, and--oh, oops. Startled a passing stallion, apparently. His mouth was full of sea glass, carefully collected, so he had to open his mouth and catch the falling glass against his chest before he could speak. He gave himself a mighty shake as he made his way to shore, then released the glass from his mouth - carefully, so as not to cut his mouth or his front leg - and then gave the stallion a big smile.
"Sorry 'bout that, didn't mean to startle you!" Koa said cheerily. "I guess I've been down there for..." he glanced up at the sky, noting the different placement of the sun, and shrugged. "An hour or two, maybe more." Noting the stallion's agog expression, Koa Ahi grinned wider. "What, never met a Kelpi before?"
((Helio WC: 258
Koa WC: 259))
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2025 1:28 pm
It did not get better when they crawled out of their baskets. There was nothing he wouldn't do for his children - and they knew it, too. They figured out right away that Rudolph was a soft touch, and he was powerless to fight against it. It was rare that the answer to a request was no, and it was rarer still that Rudolph would actually tell them no, even if he should have.
But when Olive, his youngest daughter, told him she wanted to butt heads with him the way her siblings did - her siblings with antlers - Rudolph couldn't bear the idea of giving in to her.
"What if you got hurt," Rudolph said, as Olive sniffled at him. "If my antlers poked you in the eye, I'd never forgive myself, little O," Rudolph said, trying to keep the sniffling from turning into a full-blown meltdown. "I'm not going to hurt one little hair on your head, sweetheart, I'm sorry. I know your skull is plenty thick," he added quickly, giving her a gentle nuzzle, "but I'm not gonna take the risk, kiddo, I'm sorry."
And then Olive started to cry.
"But Daddyyyy," Olive wailed, at the top of her little lungs. "Daddy, you headbutt with Oliver and Annabelle all the tiiiiiiiiiiiiime! It's not fair! I want to learn to butt heads too! Daddy, please? I promise you won't hurt me! I'm strong, I'm super strong! I'm way stronger than Oli and Annie! If they can take it I can too!" Olive did all but stamp her little hoof, her little tail wiggling in consternation.
"Really, Daddy, I can take it! See, I can hurt you without antlers!" Olive butted her head against Rudolph's leg as hard as she could - she was sure she felt it buckle slightly. "See, see! Bonk! I bonked, and I don't need antlers for it! Please, Daddy, please? I can wrestle! I'm strong!"
Olive was fully weeping now, and she was rapidly approaching the point at which nobody, not even her own daddy, would be able to understand any of the words she was saying.
So she bonked his leg again, but not as hard this time. And again, pleadingly. Just because she didn't have antlers didn't mean she couldn't headbutt just as well - or better, maybe! - as her brother and sister. She knew it. She knew it! If Daddy would just give her a chance and butt her head!!!
"Daddy," Olive whimpered, finally giving up and snuggling into his big chest, letting him duck his leg around her to hold her close. "But Daddy, what if a bad guy--" she hicced through her tears, "what if a bad guy with antlers tries to get me? How do I fight him off if you won't teach me how to headbonk?"
Olive almost felt bad, when she saw the stricken look on her father's face. He reached for words, and Olive stuck her lip out even further, and...
Rudolph bonked her head, gently.
"THANK YOU DADDY," Olive yelled through her tears, immediately bonking her father back. "Harder, I'm strong! I can totally take it!"
When he bonked her a little too hard and knocked her flat on her butt - and said that was why they called it a head-butt - Olive didn't cry. Instead, she laughed, because it meant that her daddy was finally taking her seriously, which meant she could show him - show all of them - just how strong she really was.
((Rudy WC: 253
Olive WC: 385))
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2025 2:04 pm
Lenox Bluebreeze did not particularly enjoy spring. He didn't mind the temperature - that was perfectly pleasant, especially after the harsh winds of winter - but what he did mind was mud, and with the rain and the rivers, mud was absolutely everywhere.
Lenox prided himself on his appearance - generations of Bluebreezes had conspired to produce a specimen like himself, and it was his duty to wear it well, keep it safe, and be a strong representative of the Bluebreeze family to the rest of the world.
He could not do these things if he was covered in mud.
He'd asked some of his servants to set about building a bridge. Not over the rivers, rising though they were - stone bridges had been built generations ago, and were for the moment, holding fast against the high water mark. No, Lenox needed a bridge for the mud. It didn't need to be anything fancy - just some raised would be fine, so long as it allowed him to move about his property safely and cleanly.
This was apparently a much more difficult request than he had thought it would be. After a week, there was a path of long wooden slats, but when Lenox put his weight on them, down they sank into the murk, nearly leaving him trapped there.
He knew the servants were not gifted with intelligence. He knew he had to be gentle, kind with them; encourage them as far as their capacity would allow. He tried not to be upset when the wood sunk and sunk and nearly got gulped up in its entirety. He hadn't meant literally just lay some wood down - he didn't know the specifics, it wasn't his job to know, but surely someone knew how to build a sturdy platform even in inclement conditions.
Lenox let out a deep, annoyed sigh as he stared out at his territory. He'd been forced inside, at least until the weather cleared.
It was so hard to find good help nowadays...
((WC: 331))
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2025 2:23 pm
"...Can I help you?" Lycaena finally asked, after the silence had stretched out for what felt like an eternity. "Is there something you need?"
The bunny took a loping hop toward Lycaena, minding how the mare curled a protective claw around the small pouch of pretty gems resting between her feet.
"I believe you could use some company," the bunny said. "My name is Eurema," she introduced herself, reaching up to remove the flowered hat she always wore, so that she could bow respectfully to the mare. "Don't worry, I'm not here for anything untoward," she said, nodding to the pouch of shining gems. "I am to be your familiar, if you would find such an arrangement pleasing."
In truth, it didn't matter much if she found it pleasing or not - Eurema was bonded to Lycaena now, and if she didn't want her close by, then Eurema would guide her and help her from a distance - but she would do so, whether Lycaena wanted it or not.
"It's very nice to meet you, Lycaena."
"...I didn't tell you my name," Lycaena realized, taking a half-step backwards, away from the bunny with the big hat. This was all kind of starting to freak her out a little.
Not to mention, bunnies didn't usually talk.
There were all manner of strange things in the world, though - it was a wild and wide place, and there were all sorts of creatures out there - good and bad both. Bunnies weren't usually bad, she didn't think, but maybe this was a trick or a trap...maybe the bunny wanted her gems...
But what use would a rabbit have for her gems?
"...My familiar?" Lycaena echoed hesitantly. "So...you're here to help me?" At the bunny's nod, Lycaena felt herself relax, just a little. Surely no one would lie about a thing like being someone's familiar. What would they gain from doing a thing like that? Other than her gems, which Lycaena would protect with everything she had, Lycaena had nothing she thought anyone would try to trick her over.
"It's... it's nice to meet you," she finally said, stepping forward to take a small sniff. There was no ill intent on the wind. "If you're my familiar...are we going to travel together now? I mean, would you like to?"
The bunny hopped into step with her, and Lycaena felt herself relax a little further. It might be nice, having some company on the road - especially company that cared about accessories almost as much as Lycaena herself did.
((Lycaena WC: 292
Eurema WC: 150))
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Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2025 8:32 am
But in spite of all of these things, and in spite of the unbothered way through which Prince walked the world, even he noticed when it got too quiet. All the other birds - for he considered himself one of them, hooves and all - had gone silent or scattered, and that was never a good sign. Even the friendly breeze in the trees seemed to have gone quiet, like it was holding its breath.
Prince's heart began to pound slightly as he glanced around.
"...Hello?" he called out, cautious. If there was something out there, it had probably already seen him; his beauty did absolutely nothing for his stealth abilities. "Who's there?"
Prince paused to sniff the air. It didn't smell like he'd wandered into anyone's territory, but...maybe it wasn't a whole herd, but one single individual Soquili? Or a pair? He hoped it wasn't a pair. One he could deal with - running or flying away was easy enough with legs and wings as strong and beautiful as his own - but two? Two was much, much harder. They could surround you, or trap you, or block off your escape routes and--
With two, they could muss his feathers. Prince's heart began pounding faster. He couldn't let that happen.
"Show yourself," he commanded, though he heard his voice waver - he could only hope whoever was watching him mistook it for bravery. "I can see you!"
(He could not, in fact, see them - either of the two mares that had him in their sights.)
Leucosia could see her new target from her shadowed hiding spot in the trees - but she, in turn, could not see the other mare that was also biding her time on the other side of the peacockish horse. So as she hunkered down low to the ground, dagger gripped between her teeth, she thought she was moving in on a clean, easy kill. It didn't seem like this male would put up anything like a real fight.
Males hardly ever did, in her experience - once they were disabled, they were quick to give up the ghost of survival. They were all cowards at their core, and Leucosia knew just how to exploit this innate weakness.
For this male, it would be his wings. She had wings herself, and knew how to use them for aerial combat, but it was less graceful than she liked, fighting in the open sky against another winged foe. When she could use them purely to her advantage to swoop down on a land-based Soquili from above, sure, but Leucosia liked her fights as unfair to her prey as possible. She wouldn't grant any advantage she didn't have to.
So the wings would go first. Then the ankles.
Something had spooked the male - Cosia was sure it wasn't anything she had done. She was also sure that he was lying when he said he could see her - there was no way, with the way his frightened eyes were darting all over the place.
Slowly, so slowly, Cosia crept forward, belly almost touching the ground. When she was in range, she lept and collided--
Not with the peacock male that she had been chasing, but with another female, who was as surprised to have bonked head into Cosia as Cosia was to have bonked into her.
The peacock male had heard a twig break - whether it was herself (doubtful) or this new mare, Soliloquy couldn't begin to say, but she'd heard it just as she'd leapt out of her own hiding spot, a half-second too late.
The peacock male had immediately - with more leg strength than she, or apparently, this other mare, had accounted for - flung himself fully into the air and was beating wings through a gap in the trees and taking to the open sky.
Damn. Damn damn damn.
Lily barely had time to register that before she had to duck away from the mare - who seemed very upset that their joint prey had escaped.
"I have no quarrel with you!" Soliloquy shouted, ducking under the point of the knife and rolling out of range. Why did this mare have a dagger?? "No harm was meant!" Lily couldn't quite bring herself to apologize to this crazy mare - she was fairly certain she'd been hunting the peacock male before the other mare had even scented him, but there was no way to prove that - but she also didn't particularly feel like getting stabbed.
"I am a member of the Vulpine Herd, and if you kill me, they will bring retribution down onto your head!"
This finally seemed to give the other female a moment's pause, allowing Lily to catch her breath as she stared, guardedly, at the other female.
"...Your form is impeccable," Soliloquy said, because it was true. "But don't waste your energy on me, fellow hunter, when there is better prey afoot. Or...a-wing, as it might be," she said, nodding to the mare's wings. She herself was stuck on the ground, but this other mare could easily take off after the male that had escaped them both. "Why don't you go make him sorry for making us look foolish?"
Something changed in the female's face, and after a moment's hesitation, the mare took off into the sky, great wings flapping with so much intensity that Lily's hair was battered in the breeze created by them.
Soliloquy swallowed and shook her head. This was why hunting Soquili was a waste of time and effort - at least rabbits and squirrels couldn't fly...
((Prince WC: 325
Leucosia WC: 267
Soliloquy WC: 399))
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2025 9:40 am
--- APRIL END, BEGIN MAY ---
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2025 9:02 pm
Jack was thinking about his future, which meant he was thinking about his past.
Usually, he tried not to. Think about the future, sure - that was infinite possibility, ultimate potential for joy. The past, though...the past was set in stone, and the stone it was set in was dark.
And sad.
But not just sad, Jack reminded himself. He was thinking of his sister, his mother; he was thinking of his faint memories of childhood, and they weren't bad - not at first. Distant memories of playing with his sister; napping with his mother, with his nose tucked into his mother's warm body, feeling her heart beat in time to his. There was warmth there.
There had been love, and that was why there was heartbreak, too. If he hadn't cared, it wouldn't have mattered to lose it.
But he had lost it. His sister, and his mother. His father, he'd lost before he could remember, not even the faintest outline. But his sister, and his mother, they had been warm and real and he missed them, every day.
He would not be an outline for his children, if he were ever lucky enough to have them. He would be warm, real, and present, every day, for as long as he lived. He would not be a memory that his children would have to run away from, to cover up and block out for the pain of it.
He would not pass on his hurt. He would carry it - he would tell his children, Candra, if they asked - but it would end with him. It had to.
((WC: 266))
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2025 8:01 pm
Maybe Hipolito had passed his prime.
It wasn't the first time he'd had this thought, but it was the first time it had lingered for longer than a passing moment. He had enjoyed a wild youth, but his daughter had taken up more time than he'd thought - more years than he'd fully realized. Now she was grown, and probably soon she'd be looking for her own wild young adulthood, or maybe a family of her own, settling down (not that there was anyone in the entire world who was good enough for his daughter, but that was neither here nor there).
He wanted to be young again, too. He wanted to be unencumbered by responsibility. He wanted to be...free, again. There was nothing he would trade in the world he would exchange for his daughter, of course - not for a moment.
But sometimes he wondered what it would've been like if Ofelia had been raised by her mother. Or, perhaps, if he had raised her with Lea - if they had been a team. A partnership.
Hipolito shook his head sharply. He wanted wild freedom, not stability and partnership. Blech. He was old, not that old.
Good grief. He needed to get it together.
He had always prided himself on his independence; he not only didn't need anyone else, he didn't want anyone else (except, of course, his daughter). Hipolito was a lone wolf with a lone pup, now grown, and he didn't need a pack. He didn't need a herd, or a 'support system', or whatever else it was weaker minds and hearts yearned for.
He did not yearn for it. He didn't need it.
He didn't.
And he would keep on telling himself that until he finally believed it.
((WC: 290))
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