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Snow-Blind took the buck's lead and rose onto his hind legs, scanning the crowd.

It was amazing! The Kiocut things where everywhere! They were still pretty short, he was hoping they'd be bigger, but he couldn't see the little things anywhere.

Then, suddenly, he saw one, leaving the crowd to line up with other racers at the starting line. It was so tiny!! Snow-Blind gasped despite himself.

"Let's go find some and talk to them!" and before his new companion could respond, he was off into the crowd.

The call for the race to start went out and his siblings moved off to answer the call. He nearly moved to join them, but caught himself in time, and instead turned his back to the sight.

Once Forgotten turned mid heavy sigh to look at Scattered when she spoke. After a moment he smiled and shook his head. “No, it’s alright. I will stay with you. I don’t need to prove my speed to anyone.” Oh but how he wanted too. “Don’t be sorry.”

He glanced over towards the cypress and tried not to let the jealousy overwhelm him too much. “We have a job to do anyway.” If he gave himself something productive to do it would be better. “I need to find some of these not-Kiokote to talk to and ask about our father. Just stay by my side.”

Shadowstalk huffed as he caught up to Acorn.

"What? After all this time of being apart, you're just going to run away? Not even a hello?" he said, sweat tickling his nose. Maybe she really did hate him. Not that he blamed her. He had been quite an a** to her. But really that's just how the kiokote was..

And she was pretty much the only one he knew in this crowd. It made him feel obligated to stick by her side. Whether she liked it or not. Buddy system, right?

The announcement of a race perked Shadow's ears and tail. "Well then, lets race, hm? Doesn't matter who wins the race itself, let's race eachother. If I win, you have to spend the whole day with me." he grinned, knowing the mere thought of it should revolt her. "But if you win, I'll never bother you again. Sound fair?" he said, the last of the conditions melting his grin away. What would he do without his favorite victim?

Nightmare remained silent, her glare capable of expressing her anger towards the buck. She watched the two move off, and raised her chin with a hmph! He speaks of manners when he has little himself as well. she thought, turning away.

Hearing the announcement of a race, the thorned doe took her place on the sidelines, content to watch the competitors and hoping to lure a strong one into her "web". She can't let a simple annoyance like -that buck- get in the way of her plan today. It was due time for her to birth a clutch of her own. But so many bucks were unworthy of siring her offspring, she had to go the distance to find a suitable father. Strong, smart, and preferably obedient. Or perhaps not the last one, that could make things fun, interesting.

Either way, she had a lot of observing to do, and her owlcat curled up in another impossible-looking position on her back.







Wayfinder flinched and cowered at first with the presence of another one of these strange creatures. Her slightly smaller size in regards to the otherbuck and her feminine voice cause Way to assume she was female. He tried to spot another difference. Her horns pointed upwards, towards the sky, rather than curving around her ears. Maybe that meant she was female...

But she stood up for him, for a stranger. He pressed against her side, instinctively, even though the black buck claimed he meant no harm to him. But the fact of the matter was, he still didn't know what the other-buck wanted. Why he kept interrogating him with his assertive manners. It frightened the small Acha. It also humiliated him that he continued to be mistaken for a doe or foal.

But he remained silent, standing slightly behind the other-doe with his sand dog watching carefully. His ears flicked at the voice that announced the games, but his eyes watched the otherbuck warily and he did not move.

"Oh, you know there's no way you can beat me," Plainsfire countered as she tried to jump clean over Bounce. "You'll be so far behind me you won't even be able to see me!"

Stormbreaker was the last to leave the small group of his siblings, but it was quite literally only a hop, skip and a bound for the buck to catch up -- leaping up over Rock Squirrel as if he had springs in his feet. Stormbreaker rarely allowed himself to indulge in such leaps. Maybe he felt that he needed to be the reliable one, the one with all four hooves on the ground for his siblings; after all, Once Forgotten didn't do things like that.

But sometimes it was good to cut loose. He laughed, wildly, and then wheeled around his siblings. They alone out of all of the kiokote here had glowing markings, and they would show everyone else what for.

"Let's go! Squirrel, Flare, we have to win this. Maybe our father will see, if we win." Hopeful, yes, but also excited; Stormbreaker grinned and continued ahead, hoping to jostle for a position at the beginning of the pack of racers.

-*-

Slide looks at the doe sideways; it's hard to tell where his blue-on-blue eyes rest sometimes, but not now. The look is a Look. Picking up one thickly-furred hoof and setting it down in the same place with a small splash (that makes him twitch -- so much water), he shrugs. He has an entire inventory of them. "I don't think so," he says, his voice a rumble. "I have no speed, merely endurance." Though it's not out of the picture to imagine Slide, with his odd boneless way of walking, wouldn't be half-bad at a sprint. He has no idea whether he could match a kiokote.

"But you," he adds, tipping his head down at Meets, "Seem as though you wish to. You should hurry and join. The racers look as though they are itching to begin." Perhaps this betrays Slide's age, but he has no desire to join the jostling, bouncing kiokote; he can plainly read the desire to burst out into a sprint on their faces.

Pillar, having enough of this conversation, chitters at the kimeti and then leaps up onto Slide's head, resting between his horns. Excited is not an adequate word to describe the mongoose. It looks as though it is about to leap out of its skin; little Pillar fairly vibrates with excitement.

Walks Without Rhythm merely looks around, and then begins walking (in a sedate fashion) to where he will be able to see the race -- and Meets-the-Sea -- better.


-*-


The grey-and-red kiokote who stands atop the rock looks around at the kimeti and kiokote that have gathered to race -- including the strange ones, the set of kiokote that glow. He can only assume they must be halfbreeds, but he has never seen such a thing! After a moment, he swallows and gathers himself up for another roar:

"The race will begin on my count! Racers, to your marks! Remember, this is a race around the field, back to the grandfather tree!

THREE -- TWO -- ONE! GO!"

And, like that -- the racers are off in a flash. They perhaps do not notice the hoarse bark of one kimeti who has lost his mongoose. Pillar, over-excited by the movement and the sudden lurch of a throng of kimeti and kiokote, leaps off of Walks Without Rhythm's shoulder, tiny feet pelting through the sodden grass to try and catch up.

Smudge spluttered incoherently as his sister and the little pink Acha chatted conspiratorially. "Stop that!" he grumbled, wiggling as Charm attempted to attach her charm to his spines more securely. "And stop pretending you know everything about our parents before we were born, just because of your naming dream. Eauhg!"

The frustrated buck was caught off-guard as Rouge scampered off, leaving her strange, tiny little dog in the care of Smudge and his sister. "Wha...what? Wait! I don't want to watch your weird little dog! I --" He blinked down at the whimpering animal, an expression of distaste on his features. A rock bounced off the buck's hoof and his head snapped around to see his sister's owlcat, Talisman, throwing stones. "Charm," he grumbled to his sister, "control your animal, please?" Smudge might not like the little dog, but he didn't want Rouge to come back and find her precious Kisses bleeding to death on the floodplain.

Charm turned to reply to her brother's statement and caught a glimpse of Talisman hurling another stone at the sand dog. "Damn you, Talisman! Those are not for throwing, they're for charms! If you don't stop that right now, I'll offer you to the buck with the salted stuff and let him do his worst!" As a threat, it wasn't the most impressive, but it did get the blasted owlcat to stop throwing her supplies at the poor sand dog. Once she was certain her wayward and mischievous pet wouldn't cause any more trouble for the moment, she turned to her brother. "It's not just because of my naming dream, Smudgy. Nudge and I speak quite a bit. And he has mellowed. You should hear of the way he used to dismiss Wood Spider's charms! Even when she was present! Not that he knew she was until she revealed herself as an Ascended. But still."

Talisman grumbled and hooted grudgingly in the wake of his mistress's threat, but settled down nonetheless. Not like the stupid creature down there could retaliate; it looked like it was barely standing. Clearly, it was an inferior creature to the magnificence that was the owlcat Talisman.