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(( Cael and Eilonwy :: Aug 23 2009 ))

Satou leaned into the window and watched her children in the yard for all of about thirty seconds before she realized that she really didn't want to know what they were doing, if only because they were her children and were bound to be like she had been when she was small... or like Lysius when he was small.... "My children are going to be wild beasts." She muttered the phrase as she caught sight of her son, Caelis, streaking by on the back of a goat wielding a stick at some imaginary foe. The second he was out of sight she blinked at the front yard, more shocked over the fact that she really wasn't shocked at all. "And those poor goats."

No sooner had she mumbled that phrase then her daughter came streaking by on the second goat given to the family by the center. Satou sighed and retreated from the window. One of them would be crying soon enough, she just knew it.

~~~~

Cael slid sidways on the spotty goat and gripped its mane hard in an effort to not fall off, making the goat beat it's irritation. "Geedi!" He shouted and waved his stick in a vailant effort to stab at his sister, though the motion of it just sent him flying off his goat backwards. As he landed in the grass at the edge of the fence he laughed and rolled to his litt feet, small sticks and grass poked through his blonde hair as he ran at his sister's goat. "I gottcha!" He screeched and tripped falling flat on his face.

Face down and giggling in the grass, Spuckler the goat trotted over and began to eat the grass from his hair...

Eilonwy had somehow managed to remain mounted, little legs firmly gripping the rotund goat belly beneath her. One hand held a stick, and both hands held the goat's stubby horns. Coincidentally, the stick was trying to shove its way through the goat's ear. Her trusty mount, Spuckler, hardly seemed to notice. Eilowny giggled triumphantly as Spuckler set about nibbling at Caelis's hair, and risked freeing one hand to wave her stick-sword about triumphantly.

"You don'! You fell!" The little girl gave a swing towards her brother with the stick, nearly unseating herself in the process. "I ween!"

Cael spun and flipped over just in time to get a stick to the ribs. He responded with an apropriate 'oof' and then scampered away in search of his mount... which as it would seem was happily munching the flower bush up next to the house. Cael shreiked and toddled off to the goat, which ignored him.

"Nuh uh! You doan win just cause, you gotta... um..." He lost track of his words as his attention switched to trying to climb back onto a goat that kept sidestepping him. After about four failed tries, Cael climbed the log fence next to the house and leapt onto the animal in a manner more suited to Uuthlis and other creatures with wings. Poog, the goat, responded to the attack with a bleat and attempted to grab his passenger by the hair.

Cael squealed again and kicked at the goat, laying full out across the animal's back so he wouldn't slide off... of course that meant that he no longer had a stick to joust with, but that didn't stop him from riding the goat as it charged towards his sister.

Eilonwy's entire focus, while Caelis was attempting to remount his goat, was on successfully waving about her stick while managing to stay seated. It was much more challenging than it looked. With every step, Spuckler's entire back would sway, and Eilonwy would give a giggling shriek and grab for the goat's horns to prevent herself from toppling over. In one such grab, her stick fell from her hands; Spuckler picked it up and proceeded to munch.

"Spuck-leeeer, don' ead thad! Gimme it!" she whined, laying forward on the goat's neck to tug at the stick firmly held in his mouth. Caelis's triumphant squeal diverted her attention briefly, and she shrieked in terror as Poog "charged" her way. "Moove, Spuck! Moooove!" Spuckler, ever attentive, calmly moved aside as Poog stormed past. Eilonwy stuck her tongue out after her brother, and resumed attempting to tug her sword free.

Cael's goat went sailing past Spuckler and Eilonwy and he hollered his protests. "No Poog! No fair! go back go back!" but all the pulling and prodding he could do wouldn't make the goat listen to him. It skirted the fence, trying to n** at the annoyance on it's back and made it's way back around behind Spuckler. Cael gave a whoop of encouragement as the goat apparently became irritated enough to try and headbutt it's counterpart in the hind quarters. .... ... though the efforts on Poog's part were making it incredibly difficult for Cael to keep his little grip.

This time Spuckler did start, tearing off across the yard with a squealing Eilonwy clinging to his back. The goat encountered a fence and made a sharp turn, and the little girl finally overbalanced and toppled from his back; however, her grip on the sword-stick paid off, for the yank of her fall freed it from the goat as she sprawled to the ground. Spuckler hardly seemed to care, and resumed his lazy meandering only moments later.

Glowering after the goat, Eilonwy climbed to her feet and dusted off her dirt-crusted knees with a hand. There was a grass stain on her dress. She frowned pointedly at it for a long moment before shrieking after the goat in a high-pitched whine. "Spuck-leeeeer, ged back 'ere! Spuck-LER!" She stomped a foot and, when that proved fruitless, threw the stick after him. It fell short. "Spuck-LEEEER!" Another stomp.

After a brief pause, she waddled after the goat and retrieved her stick, then threw both arms over his back and attempted to pull herself back on. Spuckler, the more tolerant of the two goats, patiently held still (ignored her and munched a flowerbed), and soon Eilonwy was astride once more--backwards. The sword was triumphantly held aloft.

Cael finally lost his grip in Poog and went sprawling into the grass again. He decided that he didn't care much for the mount at the moment, and stooped to retrieve the stick from the ground. As his sister struggled to get back on top of her goat he covered the ground between them and just missed her as she managed to scale the side of Spuckler. Tripping once again, he also managed to get grass stains on his pants, though, unlike his sister he didn't spare them even a moment's thought.

As she reached her mount he climbed to his feet and leaned against the goat's haunches grabbing for Eilonwy's foot and swinging wildly at the goat with his stick in the other hand. "Aaaagggghhhhaaaaa!" His cry went up and down the scale... sort of a tarzan style battle call.

"Caelis, don!" Eilonwy screeched as he grabbed her foot, hefting a swing of her stick his way. However, Caelis's swing caught poor Spuckler first, and the goat bolted off once more. With Caelis still holding her foot, Eilonwy didn't. She toppled back off the goat to land atop her brother, and thwapped him over the head with her sword-stick, pouting. "I jus' god back on!"

He squinted at her, up so close to his face and somehow managed a scowl. "Yeah well, now yur off!" He tried to roll her off him so that he might get a better swipe at her, but as it was all he could manage was a few harmless thwacks against the back her of legs. With a grunt, Cael looked up to see a goat approaching them slowly with a look of ignorance in it's eyes. He couldn't tell if it was Poog or Spuckler, but with Spuckler's spit still caking his hair from earlier he assumed it was the later. "Spuck no!" He tried to wiggle his sister away but they were pretty tangled. "Leewee, he's gonna eat our hairs!" It was almost mock panic, but there was probably some real worry in there.

"Mean!" she huffed, clinging defiantly to his shirt with a hand to avoid being shoved aside. She had no intentions of letting him up any time soon, and retaliated in turn, buffeting his head with the flimsy sword-stick. Caelis's cry and warning, however, did divert her attention, and she struggled upright--still pointedly sitting on her brother--and clutched at her much-abused and frayed braid, looking horrified. "Spuck, no! Spuck--ead Caelis's hairs, nod mine!" Flashing baby teeth, and with one hand still protectively clutching her own braid, she waved the goat towards her brother's head.

Cael squealed his protest and swung his stick wildly about his head, probably hitting his sister as many times as he hit himself and Spuckler. Unfortunately for Cael, Spuck had obviously become imune to the stick and had developed a taste for the boy's blonde hair. Spuckler deftly avoided about 3/4ths of the swings and took the rest like a pro right in the head and ears.... but he still managed to get a mouthful of Cael's hair with Eilonwy's prompting. Cael, of course, protested loudly.

"Nooooouuuuuuueeeee!" and with an angry cry he turned his stick on his sister, swiping almost blindly at her as she sat on him. "It's your fauuult. Spuck no, your fualt!" He spared a swing or two for the goat sucking on his head, but most were all for Eilonwy.

Eilonwy giggled triumphantly as Spuckler munched away, so pleased that even the thwacks from Caelis's stick couldn't dampen her spirits. Not in the first couple of minutes, anyway. Eventually they did get annoying, and Eilonwy abandoned her own sword in favor of grabbing hold of her brother's. Frowning with concentration, she attempted to tug it free of his grip without pulling him away from the hungry Spuck. "Stop hiddin' me meany!"

Cael held valiantly to the stick, one hand between Eilonwy's and the other gripping the swishing end. He hollered at the goat and at his sister, but it was no avail. eventually he had to abandon the stick in order to fend Spuckler off his hair. With a deft swipe of his hand he sent a small fist up the goat's nose, causing the animal to bleat and sneeze all over the two children. Covered in Goat snot and without a stick to fend his sister off, Cael decided to use his own snot covered body as a weapon. Never even thinking that Eilonwy probably has as much sneeze residue on her as he did, he launched himself forward and wrapped both his arms around her torso in a tight snotty hug.

Poor Spuckler sneezed, and Eilonwy shrieked, immediately releasing her own grip on the stick as her hands flew up to cover her face. "Ewwwwwwww, Spuck-leeeer, ewwww--" Another shriek interrupted her whines as Caelis attacked her with his snot-covered self. "EwwwWWWWW! Ged off ged off ged off!" she shouted, squirming about and kicking at Caelis's shins. Boogers were just too much to handle.

He didn't mind the kicks to the shins like he should have, since now he was in the winning slot. All it took were a few goat boogers and a grassstained brother hug. He would have grinned if part of him wasn't worried about getting goat boogers in his mouth. "I gobt you now!" He held on for dear life as she struggled, while trying to keep an eye on the goats that were still walking around the yard. He wasn't really intersted in getting another hairdo from the inside of Poog's mouth.

As Eilonwy wiggled around in his grip he realized that Goat's boogers were slippery and she was becoming more and more difficult to hang onto.

Oh, he had gone too far. She squirmed and flailed and whined and 'ewww'd, and finally admitted defeat--sort of. It wasn't really defeat if she got Caelis in trouble for it. Eilonwy abandoned her struggling, took a big, deep breath, and shrieked: "MOMMEEEEEEEE, CAELIS IS BEIN' MEAN! MOMMEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Satou was up and at the door faster than she would have been if she'd waited for the 'caelis is being mean' part of the hollering. She knew they were out there with sticks, riding the goats around and generally getting into fights... she didn't want one of them to break a leg or stab out an eye. But what she saw made her laugh inwardly. Eilonwy sitting on her brother, while he hugged her. Both of them covered in grass stains, small peices of green half chewed grass and god only knew what else. The goats were off a short distance keeping the lawn from getting too tall, and looking rather innocent of any crimes. Satou crossed the lawn and Lifted Eilonwy under the arms so that she was a few feet off the ground. Caelis made a valliant effort to keep a decent grip on his sister but he really wasn't that strong and his arms came away, letting him fall back down into the grass. "Aww. Mommy!" He protested with a scowl.

Up close Satou could see that there was more to the little green bits of grass all over them than had been apparent to begin with... it was some kind of drippy slime? "Caelis, what is this?"

"Spit." He pulled himself to his feet.

"You spit on your sister!?!" the horror in Satou's voice was more than apparent as she set Eilonwy on her hip and stared down on her son.

"Nope." Caelis pointed at a goat, he wasn't sure if it was spuckler or poog at this point, and smiled. "he did."

Satou looked at her daughter, and then at her son, and then at the goats... and then she laughed. grinning at her daughter in an almost unkind way she addressed the child that looked so much like her father. "you done getting dirty? you want to get cleaned up?"

While Satou considered Caelis, Eilonwy peered down at him from her perch on high, making rude faces at her brother while her mother's eyes were elsewhere. As Satou's attention returned to her, the little girl considered the offer, debating the merits of a bath versus hitting Caelis with a stick. "No," she finally decided, pointing towards her discarded stick-sword. "Down, pleeze."

Satou calmly set the girl back down on the grass and watched her go for her stick. She turned to Caelis and asked him a similar question.

"Nuh." Came the muffled reply as the boy was rolling across the grass in an effort to reobtain his original stick, and Satou shook her head at her children. If this was any indication of even a fraction of what her children were going to be like as they grew she'd either be the proud mother of the next sargtlin and and one of the best patrol warriors in the village, or she'd be the proud and tired mother of the only eyepatch wearing, battered and broken brawlers in the village. She sighed as she watched her son tear across the yard, chased by a goat and then headed back towards the house. On her way in she saw that Poog was waiting patiently to be let into the side yard.

"I don't blame you." She said to the goat as she opened the fence for it. "I'd run for my life too."