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 Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:34 pm
Donner briefly nosed at the grass, trying to comfort himself with food. It wasn’t that rare for the bull to be worried about something, but normally he had the perfect solution for the problem, but this one was more worrying than normal. It wasn’t simply one problem. It was several. The grass under his hooves was dying, just starting to turn brown around the edges. The first crisp autumn winds were already whisking their way through the leaves of the trees, warning him of what was coming: Anlach.
Most bulls would be pre-occupied with the rut coming, but there was something even more important than that on Donner’s mind at the moment. The other herd. The… what had the black stag called it? Ah, yes… the Firebringer herd. Donner had never before encountered a red deer before meeting Brychan, a black stag, but he didn’t like them. There was just something disconcerting about a herd where the cows didn’t have antlers and the bulls did all the Outriding duties. Not to mention, just one deer in charge! Ha! How could that possibly work?
But, apparently, it did. That wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was this Firebringer herd was much larger than Artali Isjaki. Even if all the cows joined in, the reindeer herd wouldn’t be large enough to force the red deer back. If there was some sort of attack… and Brychan had shown entirely too much interest in meeting the reindeer cows. Far too much for Donner’s comfort.
The bull took another large mouthful of grass, chewing as his thoughts chased each other in an endless circle. Sesilida. That name was often on Donner’s mind, especially with Anlach coming. Last Anlach, he had approached her and she had told him to let her ‘think about it’. She still didn’t have an answer, as far as he knew. Did he do something wrong? How was he supposed to approach her again?
There was no doubt about it… Donner needed a cow’s advice. He needed to talk to his sister.
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:33 pm
And oh what perfect timing. ...or was it a technically coincidence?
"My, somebody seems to be troubled." Came the husky feminine words as the cream-backed cow seemed to walk out of thin air behind her earthen hued brother. A small chuckle sounded from her throat and mingled with the tinkering bells that hung around her neck.
"Are you still mulling over those Firebringer deer?" She mused, and canted her head to the right. Blitzen still found it rather amusing to disagree with her eldest sibling on such "foreign" matters, even when she agreed with a few things.
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:46 pm
One of these days, Donner would have to figure out how Blitzen moved so quietly, despite the bells on her neck. They all had bells. Well, except for Glosoli and Sesilida. And Aderyn and her daughter. And Tumi. But, pretty much everyone else was belled. It was a pain to get them off… eventually, they would fall off on their own.
“Mrug,” Donner answered eloquently, partly because his sister was perfectly correct in her assumption and also because his mouth was still partly full of grass. Once he had his mouth cleared, he nodded glumly. “I should’ve handled it differently. Who knows what they’re planning… they’re just a week or so away, you know. I’ve been thinking of trying to move the herd again…” he didn’t want to do that. Everyone was finally settled in. Admittedly, most of the herd traveled around a lot outside of Anlach, but they still tended to call this spot ‘home’.
“What would you have done, Blitzen?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:54 pm
Blitzen raised a furry brow for a short second as she looked to her brother before she gave a light chuckle. "Honestly? I wouldn't have done much differently; we've never seen such other animals before, and we don't know their laws or the exact workings of their herd. ..." She glanced at the ground and pawed the cold dirt and grass.
"However..." she stopped moving her hoof and looked at him again, "I think you're thinking too much into their oddities; your views of them are becoming more paranoid than just cautious. Remember that we're the foreign ones here and we're in no such ground to show any future... ideas what could make us seem threatening in any way possible."
Blitz had a feeling that he'd probably take offense to her words, but even so, she fell silent to allow him to comment before she went on.
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Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 4:09 pm
Donner snorted softly at the idea that they could be a threat to the Firebringer herd. Sure, the red deer were titchy little things compared to the strong and robust reindeer, but he doubted that his little herd of… what was it now? Eleven deer? Something around there… eleven reindeer could not stand against a herd of fifty or so red deer. Not to mention, the reindeer were harmless! True to his nature, Donner listened to Blitzen’s words, even if they sounded somewhat nonsensical to him. “I know, I know… it’s completely paranoid and I’m overreacting,” he said sarcastically, knowing full and well what some of the other reindeer said about him. “It’s Anlach, I’m sure.” Of course. It was all Anlach’s fault.
Well, at least she had said she agreed with the way he handled the situation. That would shut Dasher up for a little while. Speaking of Dasher, he hadn’t quite forgotten the bull’s interest in his sister. Thank Herne she had more sense than that! Still, the bull would probably make another move this Anlach too… “Dash is going to ask you again this Anlach, I think,” he said slowly, but with certainty weighing his every word. “Have you considered joining Anlach this year, Blitz?”
Pft. Yeah. He was trying to figure out what bulls Blitzen had her eyes on, if only so he could run off after them and ruthlessly interrogate them about how they will take care of her and their possible younglings.
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Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:24 pm
Blitzen had opened her mouth to give a reply towards his first comment, but that action fell short as she gave a sudden snort about the Dasher/Anlach thing.
"PHHHBTT, haaaaa, that's funny," she chuckled in a fairly sarcastic tone before snorting once more and turning a bit more serious. "I've thought about it, but my mind's still not on any sort of decision." She flicked an ear and watched her brother. Like she'd tell him anyways...
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Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:21 pm
Donner relaxed slightly once he heard that his little sister hadn’t come to a decision. Well, so long as she didn’t end up with Dasher---and it didn’t sound like she would---Donner was ok. In his mind, Blitzen was still little more than a little fawnlet, still all wobbly knees and floppy ears. It was weird to think of her as a fully grown cow in her own right, no matter how many times he saw her fight.
Speaking of cows… thinking of cows always brought Donner’s mind back to the lovely white cow, Sesilida. She was just so beautiful and utterly, utterly ignorant of the fact. There was something precious about that. Donner couldn’t quite describe it, but… she was just sweet, and perfect, and kind, and beautiful, and a whole bunch of other words as well, not a single one of them mean. Sure, she had her faults, but he didn’t pay them any mind.
He would talk to her again soon, but… well, he remembered the last time he had tried to talk to her, tripping over himself like a buck with new prickets. “So… umm…” his voice lowered to a rumble. “Umm… I’ve been thinking… I really like Sesilida,” he said awkwardly.
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Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:59 pm
If reindeer could whistle, Blitzen would've done just that, but since they could not, she only snorted and chuckled in a sisterly-teasing-"I-had-a-feeling" sort of way.
"Do you now?" She eyed him closely and shifted her weight, dead pine needles crunching and sinking into the earth as she did so. Inside her ever busy mind, the storm hued cow let the bashful announcement of her elder sibling tumble around and pair itself with an image of her brother actually with another. it was cute, and she was happy for him. .. but she wasn't going to let that keep her from having her sisterly fun...
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Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:15 pm
If deer could blush, Donner would have blushed right then and there at his sister’s laugh. She knew. She probably had known before HE did. Still, all of her teasing would be worth it if she gave him some advice. Donner patiently waited for the advice, trusting that Blitzen would tell him what he should do eventually.
He waited about five minutes before it occurred to him that he would have to ask for advice. Apparently, his subtle hint of ‘I really like Sesilida’ wasn’t enough to elicit advice from Blitzen. Great… that meant she was sure to tease him more when he actually asked.
“Umm… but… I asked her last Anlach and she said she needed to think about it,” he said slowly, each word carefully chosen to soften the blow to his own ego. “And I’m wondering how to approach her this Anlach… umm… what should I do?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:50 pm
His words evoked a sly smile which then softened a few seconds later when she chuckled. She'd been waiting for this day; the day when she was the one who was definitely on top of the "all-knowing" pillar.
"First off: how'd you approach her last time and how well have you gotten to know her since then?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:38 pm
How had he approached her last time? Donner paused and tried to remember. It had been a while ago, after all… to his surprise, the memory came easily, just as crisp as the morning’s snow fall. “I just walked up to her and started talking about different things,” he explained, wondering if that was the right way to go about thing. He felt certain it was. What else could he do? Randomly go up to a cow and immediately ask about Anlach? That would just be stupid! Even he realized that.
He knew that he had done something spectacularly stupid though and was loathe to admit it to his sister. Still, he knew she would find out about it sooner or later. “Umm… well… she told me that she needed some time to think about it, so I’ve been kinda giving her space…” he rumbled slowly, edging around the fact that he hadn’t actually spoken to her since. He had wanted to, that was true, but it was so easy to find excuses to stay away from her, just in case she thought he was being overbearing.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:16 am
The cow gave a quick eye-roll and let out a small sigh. "So basically you haven't even talked to her since that day, I presume?" She asked, but allowed him no time to really answer for she already knew the answer. "Good job, Don. Gooood job; that's the way to get a cow."
Sarcasm. She was full of it and never kept it hidden.
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:30 pm
Now that Donner thought about it, it was sort of weird to imply avoid Sesilida at all other times. If he did that, then she would think that he was only interested in her for breeding! While that was certainly on his mind, he admired her for more than just her ability to have babies. “She said she needed time to think about it!” he defended his own indefensible actions. Every leader would do that, right? “And I was busy, making rounds, making sure the area is safe…” and with his paranoia, that could take quite a while. Since even Donner knew he had done a stupid thing, he couldn’t defend it for long. He sighed, creating another gust of white steam on the air.
“How should I approach her now? I don’t want to give her the impression that my only interest is Anlach…” that was probably unavoidable now, but maybe Blitzen could give him some advice. There just had to be some sort of female communication thing that Blitzen knew and Donner didn’t.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:59 pm
As he had been talking she had thrown him a few skeptical looks, but now she just tilted her head at him and let a wry smirk lay upon her face. She just couldn't even over the fun fact that her older and all-knowledgeable brother needed advice.
Taking a large breath and letting it billow out of her nostrils, she shifted her weight and took a few meandering steps as if that'd get her female mind working. "Wellllll," she began and tilted her head back for a second in thought, " you can't ask her straight away - your lack of communication has almost ensured that - so you need to span this over several meetings." Her eyes flicked to him.
"Sesilida's shy and modest, so you just need to converse and get your bearings again. Just talk to her, be yourself, and perhaps even try to not bring up Anlach at all." A little smirk flited over her features again, "I know I don't like it when males come up to me just to ask about this hub-bub."
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:45 pm
Donner blinked his wide golden-brown eyes at his sister, trying to take in all of her advice. There wasn’t even that much, but… it sure seemed like there was a lot when he thought about it all. “You don’t like it?” that plainly surprised him. He had sort of assumed females would enjoy male attention. Well, most females. Wouldn’t they want to know that they were attractive? Still… seeing as Blitzen clearly had a better understanding of the female mind than Donner did, he listened to her advice and decided it was a good idea. He wouldn’t bring up Anlach, if it would scare Sesilida away. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten her.
“Be myself? Blitzen, you may have noticed, but there are those who take… issues with me…” mostly, he was referring to Dasher. If Dasher didn’t like him---and he was probably the most influential bull in the herd, aside from Donner himself---then why would anyone else like him? Normally, not being liked didn’t really distress the brown bull. Leaders had to make tough decisions sometimes and those decisions could never make everyone happy. “What should I talk about?”
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