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 Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:35 am
‘That’ of course was Aquila, the poor girl had looked more horrified with every Nequus they met. He hadn’t wanted her to come along for that very reason; the reaction people had to him gave his daughter a glimpse of who he had been before that hard winter had pushed him away from his herd. She liked what she saw not at all. He didn’t like it very much either. Some of the mares and stallions he had once loved to torment still cowered at the sight of him. Others were merely silent and seething at his return; they'd probably thought him dead and were most dissapointed to be proven wrong.
None of them knew his difference yet though, he hadn’t stopped to talk to them for long enough for it to show that whilst he was still a proud creature he was no longer as cruel as he had been. No longer wanted a fan-club either. Still, they didn’t know yet but his father and his brother did and that was... that was alright. That wasn’t the problem, wasn’t what made him walk back and forth across the rise.
The problem was that his father had found him a mate and that she should have arrived mid-morning. It was now early afternoon.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:56 am
Still, after that she had been provided with a daft bint of a guide who had waxed poetic about the golden price she was being bartered off to. She’d known most of it before; she’d heard of the cruel stallion of gold and had expected to be told to become his mate some time ago. When he’d vanished and the herd’s leader had been sending folk asking after him every which way she’d thought that perhaps her luck was in and he’d broken his pretty neck somewhere.
Apparently the fates were laughing at her; just as she’d been talking her father around to letting her be something other than a bargaining chip for the herd the beautiful Diego had trotted back to his herd with a b*****d daughter at his back by all accounts. Her bint of a guide had informed her that he had six of the b*****d children, all from the same tree. She pitied the poor mare who had fed that brood, and who had no doubt had to put up with the idiot stallion’s posturing.
Her bint of a guide had stopped talking to her some minutes ago, fortunately, but this was only because they’d come within sight of the meeting place and she had insisted on letting the idiot trot back off to her friends. Doubtless the bint was telling them all about the lucky b***h who got to shag beautiful Diego. Just great.
The striped mare was standing at the bottom of the rise now. She couldn’t see the figure who stood at the top anymore but she’d spotted him a while back when the rise’s top had still been visible; presumably he was still there. Snorting to herself, Bastet set off up the hill; she’d put this off too long already; time to meet the b*****d and persuade him she was unsuitable as quickly as possible.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:07 am
Reaching one end of his pacing route, Diego turned about and started back. About half way to the other end of his now well-trodden course, he spotted a figure just topping the rise. She was lovely. Black, purple, grey, gold... and her ears were laid flat against her skull. Oh dear. His reputation probably proceeded him, didn’t it? Yes, yes she was looking at him like one might look at a patch of rotten berries. Oh great. Just great. Just what he hadn’t needed. As if being told to produce children with her hadn’t been bad enough no matter how pretty she might be; she hated him already too. What stories had she been told of him? The less she knew the better. From the look on her face she knew quite a lot. She’d come to a halt and was glaring at him. Oh great. Well, time to take the plunge then.
“Hello,” Diego said with a bow to the creature before him. “My name is Diego... you must be Bastet.”
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:17 am
‘You must be Bastet.’ And she’d been told that this stallion was ‘a brilliant mind’. Yesh, some people needed to raise their standards. “No s**t Sherlock,” she said aloud with a snort, ears still flattened against her head. “Just to let you know from the start, this isn’t happening, I just thought it might be polite of me to come and tell you in person. You can forget this little match of yours, I’d never mate with a stallion like you.”
There, it was said; hopefully he’d explode in a fit of rage and attack her or something to give her a way out of this other than leaving her herd. She didn’t want to have to do that. She loved her father, her mother, her brother and her sister but she didn’t want to be a tool like her sister was. Oh the stallion picked out for her elder sibling had been nice enough but there was no love there, no real happiness for either of them. She didn’t want that for herself; hells she hadn’t even decided if she wanted a mate and foals at all yet; she was hardly going to go plunging into something she didn’t think she wanted on somebody else’s terms especially not if the sire was somebody like that.
Giving a proud toss of her head, the striped mare awaited a response from bob-tailed male before her. Let him fight her, give her a chance to ruin his lovely face; that might make her father think twice before trying something like this again. She loved the old fool, and knew he loved her too but sometimes her sire knew her not at all, that or he placed his own ends over her happiness. She didn’t want to believe that of him.
Just let the golden fool take her on...
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:34 am
Diego scowled; what an uppity little b***h she was. No matter what she might know, or think she knew, about him there was no call to be so crass about the matter. And she talked as if he was somehow happier about this than she was. “Well, I hate to bust you bubble,” the blue-eyed stallion said coolly with a flick of his bob-tail, “but this isn’t my little match. This little match is your father’s and my father’s, believe you me I’m not exactly over the moon about this either.”
He shouldn’t have come back, shouldn’t have stayed at any rate. He should have just told everyone he was alight and then run back to Iona as fast as his legs would carry him... but she was in love with Libra. He couldn’t live in another creature’s shadow like that. Well then, perhaps he should just have run to nowhere in particular and started hunting for a mate of his own; surely almost anyone would be better than this twit.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:48 am
That gave her a pause, caused her ears to finally perk back up into a less hostile position. “Oh...” She didn’t know what else to say than that. She could almost feel sorry for him, being pushed into this the same way she was but... but he was proud gold Diego who tore good people apart with his tongue if they didn’t bow down before him. Resolve stiffening once more, the purple-marked mare gave a disgusted snort and shook her head. “Then why are you even here?" she demanded with a stamp of one hoof. "Why haven’t you run back off into obscurity? Too glad to have your fans back, are you? I know all about you, you foul son of a b***h, so don’t try the pity card with me because it damn well won’t work.”
Getting stuck in a mating like this was just exactly what he’d earned with his cruelties and his pride and his selfishness. To her, heart of gold fitted better to him than it did to a good Nequus. Shining, beautiful, brilliant but cold to the touch, so very cold and coveted for what it appeared to be. Valued only because it was valued, not because it was good for anything. He’d earned his fate... but what of herself? What had she done to deserve this, or was fate not a fair thing?... No, she supposed it was not. Sometimes what it dealt out was fitting and other times it was not. She couldn’t imagine that this b*****d’s many many victims had done anything to deserve what he did to them, coudn’t imagine either what evil she could have committed to be stuck with the glossy git.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:06 am
That made him angry, angrier than he’d been in a long time and the gold stallion’s ears pinned themselves back as flat against his skull as the mare’s had been a moment ago. “Don’t you dare call my mother a b***h you little hussy,” he snapped, the barbed words coming back to him as easily as water flows downhill. “You want to know why I’m here?” he went on, advancing on the gold-eyed Jala. “Fine, let me tell you; I happen to be here because, much though this may be hard for you to grasp, the self is not always the most important thing in the world. I am here because this match will be good for my family, and for my herd. You’ve got a lot of nerve, wench, insulting and questioning me when you’ve already told me that what you want comes so very highly above what might be good for your kin. If I were your father, I’d be ashamed to call you daughter.”
His mother. He’d never known her. This mare had never known her. How dare she? Perhaps son of a b***h had just been meant as an insult to him but frankly he didn’t give a damn right now. Nobody but nobody got away with calling his mother a b***h. He’d make this little harpy his mate now if it was the last thing he ever did, oh yes, she would rue the day she had spoken so thoughtlessly of the dead.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:26 am
Well, this was a bit more like it. She felt a little bad now that she remembered the stallion’s mother was dead... but still, she didn’t feel bad that she might have hurt him, just bad for the poor mare who had born such a child and never known it. If there was an afterlife she had no doubt the repeatedly beautiful and kind mare was cringing over this stallion from it. Still, that aside this was more like it. He was angry now, with luck he’d snap soon and declare that he never wanted to see her again.
“That’s rich,” she spat. “You going on to me about being selfish? Come on golden prince; everybody knows you’re out for you and you alone. Oh you might say you’re doing this for your family but I bet this is the only way you could buy back into your cushy little life after gallivanting off and getting some poor mare knocked up with no less than six fruits. Bet that’s been a bit of an embarrassment for dear daddy; his golden boy going off and sewing wild oats, not very proper at all. Why’d you do it? Fancied a bit of adventure did you, blue-eyes? Decided it didn’t taste too sweet when you were running back and forth trying to provide for a mother of six?” He was... egh! He was intolerable! She’d be refusing the match whatever stallion was placed before her but this, this! Hypocritical little s**t, that was what he was and she was still dying for a chance to plant a hoof between those lovely blue eyes of his.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:49 am
She was the limit. She really was the effing limit. Bitchbitchbitchbitchbitchb***h! She thought she knew him from rumors, from stories? Bah! Maybe that was who he had been but she wasn’t even giving him a chance! Gods knew he’d tried to give her the benefit of the doubt despite his feelings about this meeting but she insisted on snapping a bitching and growling at every possible opportunity! And he’d thought he’d been determined to get out of this match one way or another.
“The thing about things that ‘everybody knows’,” the sleek stallion said flatly, his anger going controlled and cold; the sort of anger that led you to arrange a tragic ‘accident’ rather than the hot kind that made you beat somebody’s skull in, “is that they’re usually wrong. I am not what you think I am, and have not been for some time now. I changed in my time away and I don’t want that cushy life you think I want anymore and I really don’t want the fan-fillies. I want to go back to the mare I love but instead, because I love my family, I’m stuck here talking to you, you self righteous, short-tempered, stubborn-arsed little b***h.”
Taking another pace toward the other Jala, Diego bared his teeth. “I’ve got news for you, princess,” he hissed under his breath. “Short of running away from home like a petulant filly, you’ve no way out of this match so you might as well learn to put up with me. Understand?” Oh he hoped it hit her soon, he hoped it hit her and he hoped it hurt her. She would have his children, and they would have a nice idealized relationship for everyone to sigh over. They would be the perfect royal pair, both so beautiful, both so intelligent, both such bright shining stars with such beautiful children. He’d had his family of love. Now he would have his family of duty. So it went, payment for the wrong he had done in his life. He just hoped that the foals who would come wouldn’t be too messed up by all the facades he and this damn b***h of a mare would put on for the world.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:08 am
It did hit her, and she didn’t like it a bit. He was treating her like some stupid little child but he was damn well right! As long as she remained in her father’s herd this b*****d was her fate. She would not, could not imagine what a life of lies she would have to live because Gods knew she’d have to pretend to be happy just as her sister did. How she loathed the gold stallion for being the instrument of her imprisonment.
“Oh, you’ve changed have you?” she snapped. “Well woopie-do for you sunshine; I don’t give a crap. Whatever you are or aren’t now you are damned by what you were until you’ve done some damn good atoning, or are you not quite that changed that you're actually willing to do good in the world?” Perhaps if she was lucky one or other of their fathers would see how they hated one another and call this off; find some other creatures of their herd to bind together to bring alliance, sharing of grazing land and support should other herds attack. Perhaps one of Diego’s b*****d children could be mated to some other relative of her father’s... But no. No. She could practically see it coming. It would be them. Her and Diego. Trapped together. This was too much to bear. If he wasn’t going to start something then she was. It was the only way to stay free.
Giving a cry of rage and frustration, the purple-striped mare reared up on her hind legs and struck out at the smaller Nequus viciously with her fore hooves. It was the only way.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:26 am
The hooves almost caught him full in the face but he managed to dodge just in time to take the blow on the shoulder instead. Giving a grunt of pain, the blue-eyed stallion danced backwards. “What are you doing you crazy b***h?” he demanded. But she was coming at him again already and he had no chance to think, only time to act. Giving a snort, the sleek Jala rose up to meet her assault and managed to catch her a good blow on the forearm, which sent her stumbling backward a few paces. She had some natural talent, Diego considered as he moved backwards and began to circle the angry mare, but she’d never trained for fighting as he had.
“Don’t be an idiot,” the stallion snapped as she made another rush at him and he twisted aside to deliver a kick to her stripy rump. “You don’t stand a chance against me,” he went on as she cried out in anger and pain and spun around to lash out at him with her teeth. “You’ll just end up getting hurt,” he concluded as he wove aside and nipped her sharply on the neck. Stupid b***h though she was, he’d never been the sort to enjoy dealing out pain. Well, not physical pain at any rate. "What the hell brought this on, anyway?" he asked as his intended snarled at him and attempted to plant a hoof between her eyes, another blow he managed to slip out of the way of.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:31 pm
He was better than her. She hadn’t expected that of the playboy prince she’d heard tell of. Nevertheless, she couldn’t give up even if it seemed he wasn’t going to be a convenient little stallion and fight back with all his strength.
“Why?” she snapped as she lashed out again and was dodged. “Why? Because if one of us is hurt badly enough they won’t make us be together, and I’d rather break my leg and die of it than be your mare! I am nobody’s but my own, you hear me?” the tiger-marked Jala cried as she struck at the gold stallion’s sleek neck with a hoof. Whatever it took she would not be his. Whatever it took he would never touch her like that. She would never bear children for this stallion with his heart of gold, never.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:52 pm
The blow landed heavily on his neck and the pain shook Diego out of his stunned disbelief and back to the present. She really was that ******** ignorant, wasn’t she? Yes. She really was. Poor girl, was she really so very much younger than he, exceptionally sheltered or just utterly lacking in common sense? “Don’t be daft,” the stallion growled, moving in to take her on properly now. “You really think one of us getting bloodied and beaten would be a good thing?” He swung aside from a wildly lashing hoof and struck back, hitting her shoulder with a heavy thump. “Don’t be a fool,” he struck out at her right forearm making her yelp in pain and, as she tried to recover herself, he knocked off-balance enough to make her thud to the ground with a sweep of one golden wing. Before she could get back up, he placed a hoof firmly on her neck and lowered his head to be on eye level with the struggling and cursing mare.
“If one of us is badly hurt, you’re probably right in guessing that we won’t be paired anymore. But! This a a big important but let me add. But, what do you think would come after?" He really hoped she would start thinking now rather than acting on angry impulse. "Do you think it would be peace, Bastet? Do you think our fathers would laugh it off together over some apples? Do you really? If you do, you’re a damned fool. No. If one of us is really hurt in this damn stupid little game of yours there will be war and people will die and, I hate to say it, but your herd would lose. Mine is the larger, mine has the more allies, mine would wipe yours out and move into your lands. I don’t want all that death and stupidity, Bastet, but you’re really making it hard to avoid. Now,” he removed his hoof and stepped back, “are you going to be a sensible mare and just bally well accept this, or do I need to hold you down to think about it some more?”
Damn but he was tired; he’d never fought somebody so passionately determined to turn him into paste before. Such fire this little twit had such fire in her belly. If only she weren’t such a self-righteous idiot; it was a great pity that she was a self righteous idiot.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:51 pm
When the hoof was lifted from her throat Bastet made no move to get up. Instead she lay where she was, her barrel heaving with exertion and traitorous tears sliding from her eyes. He was right. He was right again. Why did he have to be right? Why did it have to be this way? It wasn’t... it wasn’t fair. Why had she been born a mare of ‘consequence’? She’d never wanted her position, never used it and now... and now she had to bow to its costs nonetheless.
Heaving her head upright, it felt like such an effort, the black mare glared up at the stallion she was trapped with. “I hate you,” she whispered, “I hate you, and you’re right. I have no choice. We have no choice. There are no choices. I hate you.” She hated herself. She hated her father. She hated the world. Lying her head back down in the grass, the gold-eyed mare gave a soft sob. “I wish I was dead.” She would let him touch her like that. She would bear him foals. She would be his mate, because if she refused she would hurt those she loved most. She hated him for being right.
“So,” the striped Jala murmured after a few moments of silence, “are you going to get it over with or what?” What was... what was it like? She had no idea, she’d only heard it giggled over and vaguely alluded to. She’d never expected to find out with a stallion not of her own choosing. Perhaps she should have done as the gold had; gone out and got herself some bastards and a lover first and then gone back the ‘do her duty’. Still what was done, or rather wasn’t, was done and there was no changing it. She hated him for being right.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:59 pm
Diego sighed out a weary breath and shook his head. “Now hold on there, nothing’s even formally agreed yet. For now, we both have to go back to our fathers and admit we met, I suggest we say we sparred by the by, and then they’ll talk over what exactly this match is going to bring to each side; grazing rights and all that. That’ll take... well a few days I suppose. After that... Well we can at least get to know one another a little, even if it does mean you hating me more and me thinking you’re a bigger twit than we already do, before we have to start producing heirs.”
It was happening. It was really happening. What was he to tell his children? Iona, he knew, would understand or at least accept this but his children... Honestly he had no idea what they’d make of it. Still, the gold stallion gave a slightly wan smile to nobody in particular, perhaps they’d be glad of younger siblings to either love or look down upon.
Shaking his head, the blue-eyed Jala gave Bastet’s rump a prod with one hoof. “Come on, get up girl; we both have places to be. Can you find your way back to where you left your guards alright?” He hoped so, he damn well didn’t want to have to guide her there.
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