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 Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:05 am
She wasn’t ready.
That was the thought the sprung to mind as Diego spoke. It was one thing to be drained by this tree, that was easy; all she had to do was be here. When the fruits were foals she’d have to somehow become a mother. She wasn’t cut out for it, wasn’t old enough or patient enough or warm enough. She had nothing against the three fruits dangling from their branch; it wasn’t their fault and she didn’t want them to suffer for their circumstances. Foals should be born to Nequus in love, to Nequus who at least knew one another more than a scrap. She hoped they stayed up on that tree forever. She wasn’t ready. She couldn’t cope.
Even as these thoughts ran through her head, a gust of winter-spring wind whipped up her long mane and tail, ruffled the feathers of her wings.
In its wake there were three soft thumps.
The fruits had fallen.
Bastet gulped. “Oh dear.”
Diego rolled his eyes at her a little, but felt rather too sorry for her to comment. “Come on,” the golden Jala said giving his mate a nudge towards the fruits and moving to them himself. “Seems I’m an even better guess than I thought,” he said with a chuckle and a shake of his head as he trained his vivid blue eyes on the three bright coloured things. “My bets are on the big one to hatch first,” he commented in an attempt to dispel the nervousness he could almost feel pouring from Bastet. “Yours?”
But his mate didn’t answer, and he didn’t press the matter. There were more important things to attend to right now, like the fact that very soon he would be a father of nine rather than six. Oh Gods; if that wasn’t a scary thought he didn’t know what was. Ah well, he was awesome; he’d cope just fine, he had last time when he’d had six to cope with and not a clue of what to do. Everything would be fine. He just hoped Bastet had some good name ideas, he was almost out after the last lost.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:43 am
The small foal rustled a bit after it fell from the tree, then paused for several moments. Suddenly the striped fruit bulged in random places before pausing again, the bulges still present and threatening to burst through the sides of the fruit at any moment. One of them presently disappeared, then popped up in another spot. Slowly, the foal inside, as if testing the strength of the confining fruit, very slowly pressed some appendage into the side until the bulge couldn't grow any larger, then it just as slowly grew smaller. After several such instances the bulge disappeared, but suddenly a pale hoof flew threw the spot the bulge had been. For a moment the hoof merely remained motionless, but presently it wiggled and disappeared inside once more. After a pause, the same hoof -- possibly a different one -- struck threw a different portion of the fruit, then disappeared.
After a short pause with much rustling inside the fruit, four small bulges appeared rather close together away from the two holes, and after a moment the top of the fruit between the holes split apart, and the striped foal tumbled out.
Rolling onto his side, the colt quickly ruffled his wings, wriggled his stubby tail, swiveled his ears all around, and started snorting and snuffling. After a moment or two he let out a rather large sneeze before snorting irritatedly. Turning his bright blue eyes onto the pure gold stallion beside the black and purple mare, he tilted his head to the side for a moment. The golden one wasn't laying down, as he himself was; he was standing, and the little striped creature wanted to as well. With a small effort, the little colt hoisted himself onto spindly legs. Although uncertain in his actions and with slightly wobbly legs, the feather-winged creature managed to stay standing. With a broad grin the little Jala whinnied before stumbling closer to his parents, rather proud of himself for managing to stand and walk without help.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:08 pm
'Kerplunk!' the purple fruit fell from the tree and laid still a moment. Nothing moved for an even longer moment and then the fruit wiggled. 'Wiggle, wiggle, bounce!'. The life inside the fruit wanted out. It was cramped and had no room to move. A small lump appeared on the fruit skin which kept getting bigger and bigger. It then receded and became a normal fruit once more. Nothing moved for a few moments. Then the lump appeared once more but it bulged even faster then before. A second and then a third one joined the first. After a few moments the lumps broke and out popped three hooves. The hooves started flailing trying to work the rest of the body out of the fruit.
It took awhile for the little foal to emerge from it's fruit. With a pop and a soft splash of the fruit falling back to the ground the purple foal shook it's head. Her eyes fluttered and tried to adjust getting used to the bright light. Maybe it had been better off staying inside it's old confines. It wasn't at all bright in there. Her vision now used to the light the foal looked around at it's new surroundings. She saw two big things and a smaller one already standing. This new foal had no interest in standing so instead of making any attempt to stand it laid it's head down and closed it's eyes. The light was to bright for it's liking.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:56 pm
Just as her siblings had done, she blinked about herself and as her brother had done she attempted to get to her hooves. She wobbled there for a few moment before sinking back down, apparently choosing to lie down under her own power rather than suffer the indignity of falling.
“Well,” said Diego once he had recovered himself enough to speak, “aren’t you three lovely.” He shot a grin down at the gold striped lad standing before him; a third son for him. “Your name,” he told the colt as a name popped into his head seemingly from nowhere, “can be Andre, I get to name you because we’re both lads. I’ll leave your sisters to your mother, how’s that?”
The purple one, the one who had come from the large fruit, didn’t look too thrilled to have been thrust into the world poor thing. Well, she’d adjust; everyone did in the end. Well, most did in any case and he was sure that any child of his would cope; his bloodline was not made for failure, not in the least. The last of his new children, the black filly, seemed to have inherited his pride already. Her mother’s pride too come to that.
It would be interesting to see how these early traits panned out; with some of his first children their early attitudes had stuck. Others had changed, and he wasn’t sure if there was a way to tell which way things would go. Ah well, it hardly mattered for now; what mattered was taking care of the three little foals, making sure they ate and drank well and that they all learned to speak and walk and run and fly. Diego smiled to himself and lent down to nuzzle his son’s face; he did enjoy being a father.
Bastet, somewhat overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of three foals which were apparently her children said; “err...” in a less than decisive manner. Names. How was she meant to decide on what the world would know her two daughters as? Two daughters. One son. She was not ready for this, she wasn’t ready to be a mother. She wasn’t even sure if she loved them or not yet. She was proud that they’d all hatched well and that they were healthy looking, she supposed, but was there love there too? She didn’t know.
“Okay then,” the stripy mare said eventually, “young purple there can be... be... Saoirse. I had a friend called that when I was little, but her family left the herd for some reason and I never saw her again.” She’d utterly forgotten about the little Bae until now. Oh well, wherever she was she had a foal named after her now. “And you...” She looked at the stripy filly, who looked back at her expectantly. “Erm... well you can be Sekhmet, my mother nearly called me that, so there. Now everyone has a name...”
Now what? Was she meant to make them eat? Sleep? Drink? Trying to run around a bit? Why had nobody told her this after her mating to Diego? Perhaps this went along with the family pride thing; you were meant to figure it out for yourself. Sounded a bit stupid to her, but then people were a bit stupid in general so it followed even if it didn’t make any rational kind of sense.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:11 pm
Andre. Andre was his name, and what he was to be called. Andre. He couldn't help but grin broadly as the golden stallion -- father, no; dad perhaps. Daddy didn't seem to fit well -- nuzzled him, and he flicked his stub of a tail as he danced in place, whinnying at the taller male. He reared a bit playfully, stumbling back as he did so though he managed to stay standing, and beat his feathered wings a few times.
He pranced forward, ears swiveling, and he trotted all around his sire in a circle, studying him very carefully. Satisfied, he turned and did the same to his dam. Mom? Yes, mom; that sounded good. He paused, however, and frowned as he studied her. Her mane and tail were quite a bit longer than dad's, and, with a quick look to his siblings, much longer than theirs, as well. His face suddenly brightened as he reached up and nipped at her mane, tugging at it to test something. With a frown he let go and turned to his father, prancing closer. With bright blue eyes he peered up at the short golden mane, and he tilted his head to the side. He snorted as his ears swiveled back, and he reared again and attempted to reach it. Upon finding that he couldn't he frowned and planted his forehooves down again before snorting once more. This didn't bother him long, however, as he decided on the next best thing. He grinned and, perking his ears forward, pranced behind his father and presently managed to n** at a bit of his tail, tugging on it just as he had Bastet's mane.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:41 pm
The little foal raised her head when she heard the two big ones talking. She batted her eyes at both of the tall ones and decided that she was bored laying here. Not paying any mind to the goings on she put her two front hooves in front of her and pushed her two back ones behind her. Once she got them in place she tried to push herself up to stand like the others. The purple foal got half way up before she fell over on her side. Hearing the black and purple one talk to her she turned her ears to listen. 'Saoirse?' Interesting.
Once more she pushed her hooves out and tried pushing herself up. Once again she failed to stand. She huffed and pouted at her second failure. This was not easy! Taking a few minutes rest the foal caught her breathe before trying once more. She took her time in pushing herself up and a few moments later she was finally standing. Standing there a bit wobbly she held her head up high and proud glad to have been successful. The next challenge would actually be moving her legs and still stay standing. For now she was happy just standing here.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:44 pm
Diego chuckled as his son tugged at Bastet’s and then laughed as the colt came around to do the same to his tail. “Yes,” he said with a nod, “your mother wears her hair long she does. I personally can’t stand the upkeep of such a thing but doesn’t it make her look pretty? Short is good on me, might be for you too, too early to tell yet, but long definitely suits her.” He didn’t know how much of that Andre had followed, but it didn’t much matter; it had been as much aimed at the stripy mare as at the stripy colt. Poor girl, she hadn’t asked for or deserved this. Still, he hoped she loved them, or came to love them if she didn’t already. He himself had grown up without a mother with no trouble at all, but he had a feeling that it would be another thing entirely to have a mother present but one who did not love you. He’d have to get in contact with Iona, even if Bastet didn’t love them she would and a mother surrogate was better than none at all.
Bastet smiled softly at her mate for a moment before pacing over to the purple filly. Saoirse that was. Sao perhaps. “You’re doing well there,” she told her eldest daughter with a smile. “Keep at it, you’ll get it down in no time, I’m sure you will.” It was an effort to think of motherly things to say, but she was willing to make the effort. These foals deserved a mother and she was the only one they had so she’d just have to be enough, wouldn’t she? She hadn’t needed her own dam much, but when she had the mare had been there. She just hoped she’d be able to do the same for these three. She hoped they never had to be mated to politically convenient Nequus, never have to have foals of their own before they were ready. Foals they weren’t sure thy could love. It just wouldn’t be right. It just wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. Not on them, not on her. She hoped it didn’t hurt any of them too badly in days to come. She wanted to love them, of course, but... but as yet the feeling wasn’t there. Pretty foals, but not foals she loved. Yet. She had to hang onto that yet.
Sekhmet, because that was now her name, snorted and got back to her hooves as she watched her brother’s antics. Andre, Saoirse and Sekhmet. Giving a pleased whinny, the striped filly stumbled over to her brother, almost falling several times, and gave his gold tail a slight tug. It was good to be alive and aware, or so she thought. She thought she thought anyway. Turning about a little she spotted her sister and gave a whinny to her as well. Everything was a bit confusing and overwhelming right now but she felt the need to greet her siblings no matter how dazed she was feeling by the flood of new information coming through eyes, ears, nose and skin.
Snorting again, the black Jala looked from one parent to the other for a few moments and, deciding that she ought, gave a whinny to them as well. Andre, Saoirse, Sekhmet, mother and father. This was her family, she wasn’t sure how she knew that but know it she did. It was probably just one of those things, she decided even as she tried to work out what the rest of the things might be.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:39 pm
The striped colt grinned at his sire, wriggling his stubby tail, and did his best to stumble over the words spoken in his attempt to understand. Mother. Hair. Pretty. Short. He wasn't sure what these meant, exactly, but he decided 'mother' must be the purple-striped mare he'd dubbed 'mom' and the other three words must describe the things on them he'd tugged. Quite pleased that he had figured out these things on his own, he whinnied proudly. He had been about to prance somewhere when he felt a sudden tug on his own tail and he squealed, whirling around to see the cause of such a strange, unprecedented feeling.
The black filly -- sister? Sekhmet; Sekhment his mom had called her, so Sekhmet she was, just as he was Andre -- had done something to him. It didn't take the colt long to decide that she had done to him what he had done to his father. With another whinny he grinned at his striped sister, prancing over to tug at her tail to see what she did. And, deciding that this was a normal thing that must be done, he pranced over to the purple filly -- Saoirse, he remembered his mom had called her -- and gave her tail a similar tug. And, to top it all off, he trotted over to his dam and studied her long tail a moment before giving it a sharp tug. Very proud of himself at this, he pranced over between his parents and looked to both before adopting his striped sister's form of greeting, and presently whinnied at both of them.
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:50 am
Saoirse looked up at the one that spoke to her. Mother? That word seemed right. She gave a small whinny in reply to her mother and then looked around at everything. The filly made no motion of moving as she was perfectly content in standing where she was. As she stood there she tried to understand who everyone was. The other tall one. That must be father? The yellow and black small one was what...her brother? The black small one was her...sister? She gave a small affirmative nod as she figured the others out.
All of a sudden she felt a tug on her hind end and she whinnied in protest. As she whinnied she tried to kick her hind legs out to try to defend her hind end. Instead of doing any damage she ended up falling flat on her face. She gave a loud snort at her predicament and proceeded to stand up once more. Now she had reason to try moving. Taking a tentative step and then another one she moved slowly at first then a bit faster as she followed the one that tugged on her tail. She would not allow anyone to pull on her tail if she had anything to do about it.
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:33 am
Sekhmet gave a delighted squeal as her bother yanked at her tail and as he gamboled off to tug at everyone else’s, she followed him with stumbling strides. As he came to a halt and whinnied, she skidded to a stop too and nudged his stripy neck playfully with her black muzzle before prancing away to dive behind her mother. She succeeded in tripping herself up as she peered over her shoulder to see if she was being followed however and for a few moments she lay where she had fallen blinking in surprise at her sudden encounter with the ground. A moment later however she was back on her hooves and trotting around to stand before her mother and to peer up into the mare’s gold eyes.
Bastet snorted as the colt, Andre that was, tugged at her tail and attempted to grab his in return. He was gone before she managed it however, and so the mare gave another snort and shook her head; this was going to be exhausting. When she looked back around, her youngest was looking up at her with a grin on her little muzzle. Did she want to play or what? Not knowing what else to do, the purple-striped mare dipped her head down and nibbled some remnants of fruit out of her daughter’s short mane, watching the progress of her other daughter as she did so. How was she ever going to keep up with her offspring and, come to that, how had Diego ever managed with six?
The stallion in question was watching the foals with pleased amusement; he didn’t remember his last set of children being so active this early on. Perhaps it was because there were but three this time; each one had perhaps gleaned more energy from their dam whilst on the tree and so had been born with muscles and minds more ready to take on the world. They hadn’t spoken yet, though, which his others had. Just went to show that things varied greatly from tree to tree, he supposed.
Diego replied to Andre’s whinny with a snort and a smile, lowering his head to be on eye-level with the gold-striped colt. “Well hello to you too my lad,” he chuckled. “I’d watch out if I were you,” he added, “your sister is coming for a spot of vengeance for the tail tugging I think.” It was good to see Saoirse trying her legs out too now; her unsteady progress assured him that she was as healthy as her siblings. At the rate these three were going they could leave Shrilal within a couple of weeks with no trouble at all.
Once the foals had a decent grasp of speech, he decided, they would return to the herd; it would look far better to return a little alter with happy chattering children than to be back a touch sooner with happy children as yet incapable of chattering. He didn’t much like pandering to image but, so far as he saw it, there was little choice in the matter. Still, the longer these three little ones could go without finding out about all the pretences, and the possibility that they would be mated off even as he and Bastet had been, the better so far as he was concerned. They deserved at least a bit of carefree foalhood before they had to take up the burden of that knowledge.
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:22 am
Completely unaware that he was being followed, until his striped sister nudged at his neck. Giving an excited whinny he pranced after her, flicking his stubby tail, and tugged at her tail as she paused in front of their dam.
With a broad grin he turned and trotted playfully to his purple sibling, prancing around her to give her tail another tug. If everyone was pulling at the fluffy things he had been tugging, then that must mean it was the best thing to do. So, with a playful squeal he jumped away from his sister, galloping to the best of his ability -- more like stumbling -- behind both parents. First he grabbed his father's tail and gave it a tug before prancing over to Bastet to do the same. The things he was pulling must be tails, as dad had mentioned. Grinning at his ability to figure out such things, he pranced over and nipped at his father's shoulder before whinnying proudly.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 7:40 am
Diego gave a snort of amusement at his son’s antics and nudged the colt’s shoulder with his muzzle. “I can see you’re going to be a game to look after,” he commented with a chuckle and smile up at his mate. She smiled back, but it wasn’t an especially happy smile. Well, perhaps she’d grow maternal feeling over time. He hoped so. If not... well, the foals would have other mares to dote on them. Iona for one if he could track her down would adore them, he knew. His father’s mate, the foals’ older siblings... Yes, even if Bastet did not come to truly love them there would be others to take her place. It would be fine.
“Well,” the gold stallion said with a yawn, “I for one am rather tired. How about we learn how to sleep, humm?”
Sekhmet looked around as her father began to speak again and whinnied softly as he finished. Sleep. That, some part of her mind told her, was when you lay down and closed your eyes and rested. Her sire was pacing over to the base of their tree already and casting himself down beneath it so she trotted over to join him, dropping to the bare earth before him and snuggling herself up against his chest. Giving a yawn, the black filly closed her eyes and drifted almost instantly off to sleep. Tail tugging and learning to walk, she decided distantly as dreams began to set in, was a very tiring business indeed.
Bastet smiled at Diego again as he spoke and nodded; sleep sounded like a good idea to her, she couldn’t remember feeling this tired ever before. Yawing in sympathy with her stripy daughter, the Jala mare moved over to the tree and settled herself down close to Diego and Sekhmet. They were a family after all, she considered as she settled her wings more comfortably against her flanks, they ought to rest near to one another and he wasn’t a bad stallion. Quite likable, really but he wasn’t... The tiger-striped mare cut that thought off where it was. There were many things he wasn’t, but at least he was a decent person and decent company. Perhaps more feeling would grow in time, she considered as she watched the gold Jala dip his head down to nuzzle at Sekhmet’s small flank. Then again, perhaps it would not.
Sighing to herself, the long-maned mare turned her gaze onto her other two children. “You pair going to join us?” she asked with a smile, half raising one wing to allow one of them to come and cuddle up against her side. Diego, she noted out of the corner of her eye, was doing the same. Finding that she rather hoped at least one of the pair would choose to come to her rather than him, Bastet waited.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 8:41 am
Sleep? The little colt hadn't ever heard the word before, but somehow he knew it involved laying down - like his parents and sister were doing. His mind switched gears as he let out a rather large yawn, then shook himself all over. He trotted closer to both parents and grinned at both, looking back and forth between the two. Sekhmet was with dad, and mom looked lonely...
So, with a whicker to both he pranced over to his dam before flopping (rather gracefully, of course) onto his side next to her. That done, he wiggled closer and settled himself beneath her wing, then reached up to n** at her mane again. Another yawn overcame him then, and he offered his new family a soft whicker before he laid his head down, flicking his stubby tail in an attempt to tuck it securely around his small body.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:30 am
The little filly shook her head as she paused in her attempt to get her brother. She decided that she'd would attack his tail later on and wanted to find something else to do. Saoirse was just about to go off and wander a bit when her father suggested this word sleep. Sleep? Why? She didn't want to sleep she wanted to explore and find new things. Not. Sleep. In protest she whinnied and stamped her hooves for a few moments but eventually made her way over to where all the others were laying down.
Though she did not go towards either her mother or father. Saoirse wanted to be able to go away exploring if possible and knew that it would probably be a bad thing if she was found not sleeping. She slowly lowered herself to the ground with a small fall when she had almost reached the ground. Laying down and standing up were going to be complicated. Placing her head on her legs she made it seem like she was going to sleep.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:54 pm
As the other two foals settled themselves, Diego tucked his wing back in by his side and gave a yawn. “Well, night everyone,” he murmured, “rest well.” So saying, the golden Jala closed his eyes and gave a contented sigh. Three healthy, active children. No doubt they’d be exhausting for a good while, but that wasn’t a problem, he could deal with that just fine. The harder bit, he decided as he began to drift toward sleep, would be returning to the herd once more and taking up the pretence of being in love with Bastet. Oh well. So went life. With one last shuffle of his wings and one last yawn, Diego drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Bastet settled her warm feathery wing over Andre as he came to her side and closed her eyes just as Diego had. Just as he had, too, she found her mind wandering to their return to the herd. Would her children be doomed to take mates as she had been? She had no idea, and less idea than that about how to ask Diego about it. For one she wouldn’t know how to bring the subject up but mostly she was afraid of his answer. Still, the tall mare smiled slightly as Andre tugged at her mane, for now there was nothing she could do about it. For now, she would sleep and forget about tomorrow. Sleep was good.
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