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 Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:41 am
In her youth she'd dutifully stayed away from distracting her mother at her tasks. However, as she progressed in age she'd start to show up randomly. Her poor mother was now subject to the sight of Zara at least four times between every full moon.
Today was one of the days that the blue coated mare decided to do her intrusive learning. Wearing no particular expression in particular she wound her way up the clifftops - preferring not to fly. As a lady she found it unnecessary to fly save for would it became unavoidable. She much preferred the safety of the ground. Call it a discrace to the Katilenuck if you'd like, but she was a mare afterall. Her strength came from her brain, not from her flight patterns.
"Hello, mother," she greeted, stepping over the last precipice to the tactition's grounds.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:57 am
The tall mare turned her head to smile at her daughter around the length of wood before moving the stones into the appropriate place and leaning her shoving stick against a rock. “Zara,” she said with a nod and another smile, “how are you today?” Though she hadn’t ever said it aloud, she liked it when her daughter came up to see here here and not just for the company of her offspring.
Having had only one girl-child she had been a little worried that she wouldn’t have anyone to follow in her hoofprints. Zara had show a bright mind from fillyhood and that had been promising, but it was her interest in the affairs of the tacticians that was most pleasing to Undine. When the time came, she was confident that her daughter would have what it took to join the ranks of the herd’s battle-planners, and to be a good one at that. Any chance she had to give the other mare an advantage over her peers, Undine felt, was one that must be taken.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:29 am
And until that time came, Zara was perfectly willing to follow her mother's every word. She eyed the stones carefully, able to pick out what several of them meant.
"I can't complain," she answered with a soft smile. "How about you?"
"Bae, again?" she said, breaking her eyes from the arrangement to look at her mother. She never understood why the drones of them ever bothered to come anywhere near. They were quickly whiped out, and it wasn't as if Fyhi was optimal.
"I wish they would stay in the valley where they belong."
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:51 am
Undine frowned down at the markers. “Yes,” she said with a nod, “blasted bae again and I agree. Haven’t even had the decency to bring any civvies with them we could take a slaves; they’ll all have to be killed or driven off, no chance they’d ever be any use to anyone.” The paint mare shook her head and gave a sigh. “Three good stallions we’ve lost to these idiots, and only one of those was even a soldier. They ambushed four lads two days back and only one of them managed to escape. The soldier had only been accepted into the ranks a week ago and the other two dead were just civilians.”
It was things like that that really made her angry. She could accept that sometimes soldiers died, but it was different when the low-bloods killed those not trained to defend themselves. She would take great satisfaction in wiping the vile little things out, or having the wiped out by her plans in any case.
“Still, they won’t get away,” the tactician said with a nod to the markers. “I’ve sent shrila-Ochre off to give the word to a secondary force to move in before heading back to look over the battle. Undine picked her tool up again and shoved a ten-strong and a five-strong Katilenuck marker across the dirt to a position behind the enemy. Once they were in place, the brindled mare re-defined a few lines that had been scuffed and set her tool down. “Pincer movement,” she said with a nod. “Those bae will be caught between our two forces and crushed like the bugs they are.”
If all went well, it would be a memorable victory for the herd and for herself. Not because the enemy force was large or especially dangerous, but because of what they had done before they were met by tried warriors. The Katilenuck did not take kindly to the murder of their own by the low breeds, not kindly at all.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:05 am
She waved off the grim details in her head having no concern with who lived or died saved for those who she would be sending into battle. It was the queen and advisors place to decide what to act on. They only decided where, how, and when. If she started caring about every bloke that went to join Jala she'd cease to be in control, and that would be a costly venture indeed.
The use of the flying Shrila was ingenious. Most of the world hadn't figured out their use yet - or that the Katilenuck knew of it, anyway. They were quick, and most of all they could fly. She nodded and noted the way that her mother moved the markers with accuracy. She found moving the stupid rocks cumbersome in her youth. They always escaped her shoving stick.
It all looked so perfect in the dirt. Like a plan that couldn't fail.
"Why do you suppose only Mordre has magic, mother?" It was not completely off-topic, as she'd always wondered what they'd do if faced with another herd with such capabilties. It seemed like it would throw off all their teachings thus far. Would it level the playing fields?
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:22 am
The yellow-eyed mare frowned thoughtfully, taking her time over forming an answer. “I don’t know,” she said eventually with a shake of her head. “I don’t think anyone knows what brings magic out in the blood to be honest... It would be interesting to know; useful, too. If we knew what made a Nequus begin to develop powers... Well, the advantages of that are clear.”
Some might call it unnatural, but Undine didn’t much care about that; give her a warrior with magic and the things she could do! It was a shame the Illusionist hadn’t the time to assist in any but the most dire of circumstances, it truly was. With a small network of Jala with his abilities, or some other gift which could be put to use in battle, the Katilenuck could take on the world, she was sure of it. If some low-blood who had come by magic moved against them however... well, it was said that Mordre could sense other beings of power, so perhaps they would have early warning at least. She hoped so. The idea of an enemy magic user catching them by surprise was most unsavory.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:33 am
Zara had inherited her mother's views on the magic. She herself had no desire for it, but it would certainly be the advantage that would place Katilenuck on the eternal nations list.
An army of magic right at her hooftips. The prospect was empowering, and if there was something that Zara liked it was most certainly that. "We'd be," she paused to laugh at the craziness of it all. "Almost like gods."
Then again, perhaps it was the gods themselves that created. In which case the Katilenuck would no longer be seeing magic within their bounds as Jala herself was no longer in existance. Or, was this just what they thought? Who really knew? They all heard the legends, but stories had to come from somewhere.
"When are you going to stage the attack?" she switched subjects again.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:53 am
Undine smiled at that thought. Almost like Gods. Now there would be a thing. Soldiers marching over all the land, enforcing the proper order and the awakening of those of their kin who did not realize their superiority to the truth of the matter. It was a wild fantasy, but a pleasant one nonetheless and besides, what were fantasies for but being wild?
“Humm?” Zara had spoken again. "Oh, it should be underway right now,” the tall mare said with a nod. “Ochre was to tell them to move right away, no sense risking the situation down there changing so much as to make the move a useless one. By sundown it will all be over, all that will remain will be to have some slaves haul the corpses away.”
Yes, soon it would be another good job well done. So far in the battle on their side there had been injuries only. It would be good if none of the soldiers fell; not only were good warriors a limited resource but battles which contained zero losses for the herd always made one look good.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:04 pm
By sundown?
"Don't you ever get the desire to see what actually happens in your plans?" They sat here, playing with rocks that were lives. They were playing with lives. It was a fun concept.
Still, she'd love to be able to see what she toyed with in action. It would make her little game seem more real. Perhaps the tactitions avoided it for the smell of blood. Perhaps they didn't really wish to know what happened.
Everyone had a heart, after all. Hers just hadn't found its way to her body yet.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:15 pm
The blue and white mare looked down at her little stones thoughtfully. “Sometimes,” she said with a nod. “I’d be able to react to changes far more quickly if I was down there I suppose but...” She shrugged her wings. “My brain is too valuable to risk some bright spark deciding to take out the mare who just seems to be watching and shouting things at the stallions.”
Not only was her brain, and her personage, valuable to the herd, it was valuable to her, too. She’d grown a bit of a backbone out in Shrilal but that didn’t mean she was about to go risking her neck when she didn’t have to; that would be foolishness, not courage.
“It would be interesting I suppose,” the Jala concluded, raising her eyes to regard her daughter again with a smile, “but not quite interesting enough to make me want to take a risk like that with myself.”
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:11 pm
Her mother had a good point, though what Zara had in mind involved no shouting. She was too fearful of her own life for that. There was much more hiding in the plan. Wasn't it funny? Her, afraid. The cold one?
"Thank goodness I have a smart mother," she answered with a well practiced smile in return. When was it that she stopped feeling and started pretending? Had it been slow, or was it sudden? And why was she reconsidering it now? Was it because her mother brought forth her most childish of feelings? It must have been. This was a distadvantage to her own chess game.
Still, Undine was her mother. Duty told her to give respect where respect was needed. There would be no backstabbing here.
"Well, I've asked enough questions. Quiz me."
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:03 am
Undine chuckled and nodded. “Thank goodness indeed, and thank goodness I have a smart daughter.” Yes, the young mare who stood before her would do her proud. Within the herd, Undine had found, there were tacticians and then there were Tacticians. She was the latter, and she had no doubt that one day Zara would be as well. It went with the blood, or so it seemed. She would have to tell her daughter about her own mother one of these days. Still, not right now.
“Right then,” the yellow-eyed mare said with a nod as she searched her mind for scenarios for her offspring to solve, “let us begin...”
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