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 Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:23 am
Dahak paused outside the glade and looked down at his companion. “Well, that’s all you’re getting; her majesty is either already there or will arrive very soon. I have work to do, so I couldn’t hang around to keep you from making a fool of yourself even if I wished to. Goodbye for now... and do come and tell me how it went; I shall enjoy either welcoming a new herd mate or laughing at you for messing up.”
Sekhmet watched him turn away and leap gracefully into the air with a slight smile on her lips. “Git,” she murmured without rancor. Last night had been... interesting. Nothing had ‘happened’ between them but... but it had been nice to have someone to sleep beside, and it had been nice to talk to him. They’d teased each other, quite viciously at first but then they’d laughed together.
Shaking her head and smiling faintly to herself, Sekhmet entered the glade and tried not to feel too nervous.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:21 am
As the striped mare entered, Savit spread her feathered wings a bit and offered her a smile. "Welcome, newcomer Sekhmet. How are you this morning?" She questioned, ears perked as she folded her wings comfortably against her flanks. Yes, she was even prettier up close. Hopefully she wouldn't be too pestered by the stallions in the herd, despite her lack of blessed markings.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:29 am
Sekhmet smiled at the tall mare and bobbed her head respectfully, hoping that there wasn’t some standard gesture you were supposed to make to the queen. Surely Dahak would have told her if there was such a thing... Well he might have. “I’m very well thank you your majesty,” was majesty right, or should it be highness or something? Oh well, too late to worry about such fine details now.
“I hope you’re well too... So... I expect Dahak told you, your majesty, that I requested to meet with you because I want to join your herd... Thank you for agreeing to it at such short notice by the way; I’m sure you’re very busy.” Certainly her parents had always been quite busy with this and that, and for one they weren’t even herd leaders and for another, Estavan’s herd was tiny compared to the Katilenuck.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:40 am
"Good, very good." It went without saying that the black Jala was probably nervous, they always seemed to be. "Yes, of course; he spoke well of you," she said with a smile, hoping to ease her nervousness a bit. Busy? That was putting it mildly, ugh. But, Sekhmet didn't need to know with what she was busy, so she merely smiled and nodded her slender head. "Yes, I have been rather busy as of late, but I can always make time to welcome a new member into the herd." And this one hadn't waited around forever, like one other newcomer she knew - and so did the rest of the herd. But that was beside the point.
"So, Sekhmet, I can see you are quite interested in joining, but before you are accepted, I must ask you several questions, to ensure that you're truly interested and have been paying attention to the herd thus far. Nothing that hard, I can assure you, if you've been paying attention." And she probably had; Dahak had said she was intelligent, and nothing she'd seen so far of the girl had done anything to change that impression. Without waiting for an answer, the Queen tossed her locks of curly mane to the other side, thinking of several questions. "First, I'd like you to name the Royals. The magic users and my first two included - you needn't name my other children." There were five, after all, and as simply princes and princesses, weren't as important as her first two. That, and she knew even some members of the herd didn't know all of them, silly things. Even though Ka was merely a prince as well, he was her first-born and with Yi being, well, Yi, his importance was boosted quite a bit.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:49 am
The striped mare cleared her throat and frowned; this wasn’t hard, she knew this off the top of her head. Still, she found herself pausing to make sure she didn’t mess up. “Well firstly there’s you; queen Savit’Taren, and your mate king Mavasu. Your eldest son, and child, is prince Ka, and your eldest daughter is heiress Yi. The two magic users are illusionist Mordre and shaman Dahak... Oh, umm, I’m not certain if your royal advisor Xla’Lanan counts as well?” She was sure she could name the younger five royals too, but she didn’t want to seem as thought she was showing off... And yet she wanted to seem more than mediocre to the queen. It was a difficult balancing act.
“If... if it would please your majesty,” Sekhmet went on after a moment, “I believe I could name the other princes and princesses as well. I don’t want to seem like I’m showing off your majesty; I just want to demonstrate to you that I really have tried to learn about your herd before coming to see you.” There, she was sure that would be acceptable to the pale-coated mare; she seemed kind and sensible so far after all.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:57 am
The brindled mare nodded her head at each name; Sekhmet had said king for Mavasu instead of patriarch, but that was alright, she was knew and would learn fairly quickly. She couldn't expect a newcomer to know every single detail about the herd in only a few weeks. At the last few sentences, she smiled and nodded once more. "I don't doubt that you could," she said. Some would say so and if she asked them, wouldn't be able to - but Sekhmet seemed smart, and she didn't seem like she was lying about it, but still. "Then you may name my other children, and yes, Xla'Lanan counts as a Royal; he is the Royal Advisor." There was also another magic-user, but few knew of her powers and it would stay that way for quite some time.
"Second," she said, trying to think of another decent question. That one was easy, yes, but it was meant to be; the first question, anyway, and everyone should know the Royals. "What roles are open to stallions, and what roles to mares? Then, tell me why there is a difference." There, that should be a bit harder, but if she'd been paying attention while wandering about the herd then it should be fairly easy for her to answer.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:14 am
Right, okay, the second question might need a bit more thinking over but she had time. “Okay, so, your other children are princess Lucina, princess Rhapsody, prince Hidalgo, prince Ra’Cuv and prince Aeolus...”
How hard could this next bit be? She knew it all, she was sure, it was just hard to get her brain to formulate sentences, and then get her tongue to get them out right.
“Well... so far as I know there are several roles that either gender cane take on,” she said slowly, “ordinary citizens obviously but I believe that slave traders, doctors and teachers may be either gender too but the last two are more commonly mares? Anyway, the roles that are split by gender are the soldiers and the tacticians. Only stallions can be soldiers, and only mares can be tacticians... So far as I’ve gathered, this is because... well mares are born to be leaders, so planning battles and ordering the movements of stallions is natural to them. They, that is we,” she smiled at the queen a bit, “tend to be more... mmmm... we tend to be sharper in mind... Not to say that stallions are stupid at all but... but mares tend to be better at the tasks a tactician must do, and so that’s why they are tacticians. Of course, it also helps that stallions tend to be physically more powerful than mares, and so make better warriors.”
She hoped she’d expressed herself well. She should have asked more specific questions about such things rather than just listening and trying to put it together for herself. She was fairly sure she’d got everything right but still, it was nerve-racking waiting for the queen’s reaction. She really hoped she hadn’t messed up. She couldn’t stand the thought of being sent away now.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:43 am
She smiled, nodding her head approvingly at the end. "Yes, very good, newcomer Sekhmet. Although you haven't learned all there is to learn in our herd just yet, you've shown me that you've taken a keen interest in learning as much as you can in so little time." It was true, she did make a few minor mistakes, but nothing too bad - and it seemed she really had tried her best to learn and remember everything. Gods knew that it was hard for any newcomer to learn everything about the Katilenuck, but Sekhmet had done a fair job of it so far, better than most new Jala requesting to join the herd. "You may calm down now, Sekhmet; you answered all my questions wonderfully, and I have nothing further to ask to test your knowledge of our herd thus far. Let me be the first to welcome you as a full member of the herd, and I urge you to continue learning as much as you can about the herd."
Yes, it was always nice to have new blood in the herd. Now she could go tell Dahak, and he wouldn't laugh at her for messing up, as he'd said before leaving. "Did you have any questions you needed to ask of me, Sekhmet?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:54 am
Sekhmet grinned as her tension ebbed and bowed her head to the other mare again. “Thank you your majesty; I’ll do my best to deserve the honour of being accepted into your herd.” Because it was supposedly an honor, wasn’t it? They really believed they were the best, chosen by Jala. Perhaps they were right; it certainly was strange that a whole herd of Nequus bore the same markings, there had to be some explanation for that. “I can’t think of anything else I need to ask you, your majesty,” Sekhmet said after a moment of careful thought; the chance to speak with the supreme ruler of the herd probably wouldn’t come up very often after all. Still, seen as there really wasn’t anything she wasn’t going to try to make something up just for the sake of it; the queen would not appreciate having her time wasted.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:04 pm
The brindled Queen bobbed her head with a smile, grateful that Sekhmet had no questions for her. She really was rather busy, and wanted to get back to working on a few specific problems as soon as possible, but she didn't want to seem rude. "Alright then, that's good. If you do have further questions, feel free to approach other members of the herd, or Dahak; I know my daughter Lucina would be thrilled to answer any questions you have as well. You will start out as a regular citizen for now, but if you ever with to enter a specific role, such as teacher or doctor, then I encourage you to find a member of that profession and learn as much as you can." There, that ought to do it.
"I leave you to yourself now, and you may wander about the lands freely and I encourage you to continue learning about our herd. Good day, Sekhmet," she said with a smile and a polite nod of her slender head, before she turned and walked out of the glade. She hated leaving so quickly, but she really was very busy and needed to get back.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:09 pm
Sekhmet watched the queen out of sight, her grin widening. So, that was it; she was in. Slowly, the striped mare got to her hooves and set off towards the edge of the glade. She was a Katilenuck; this alone, she was sure, would be enough to keep her out of the reach of any plans her family had for her. She didn’t look forward to telling them, she couldn’t imagine they’d be pleased... but perhaps they wouldn’t be too angry if she told them how she wanted to do something to improve the lot of the slaves. They might even be happy to hear that there was a stallion here she was interested in, one that couldn’t come away with her. It would turn out alright in the end, and said end surely wasn’t far off now. She would be able to visit home soon. Home.
Still grinning, Sekhmet turned onto the path that would eventually lead her to Dahak’s herb patch. She had some gloating to do.
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