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 Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:13 pm
Once he had freed himself of as much water as he felt he could, the blue-eyed stallion dropped down into the grass to wait for the curls on his tail to coil themselves back enough so that it didn’t drag on the ground behind him. It wasn’t like he had anywhere important to be today anyway. Yawing to himself and giving his tendril wings a few more flicks, the dark-bodied Ichsa proceeded to doze. He did like D’ob in the winter.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:10 pm
And now, here, in the heart of the valley, the climate was much warmer and more temperate. That was always nice. The pink-speckled mare allowed a grin to form on her muzzle as she pranced around in circles. Oh, how beautiful this place was! So much more lush grass and beautiful flowers and energy than her old home. So overjoyed was she, that she couldn't help but hum a happy little tune. And who didn't like that? ...she wouldn't answer that. Those jerks back in her herd -- no, her father's herd, she was no longer a part of it -- didn't appreciate or understand her talents. She would not, would not be just a pawn for her father to shove whichever way he wants.
Pushing all negative thoughts aside, the gray Ichsa continued her circular prancing, until she paused and noticed a blue head pop out of a nearby body of water, followed by a blue Ichsa body as the sopping wet stallion plopped himself down on the ground. What in the world...? She paused mid-prance, one foreleg quite high in the air as she'd prepared to take another step. The sight was just so peculiar; why would anyone go swimming in the dead of winter? Even if the valley was warm, it just.. just.... She couldn't understand it.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:30 pm
For a while, the dark Ichsa did not notice that he had company. When the buzzing of a fly near his face caused him to pry open one eyes however, he spotted the grey and pink shape and raised his head. Ehh... Ichsa. Great. Well, Niz was nice but by and large the rest of his kind were... Still, by and large was not all, this mare might be a perfectly decent sort. She was looking at him strangely though. Away from the assurance of his ocean home, it enough to put him slightly on edge. Did he have something stuck to him? Did he look like somebody she knew? Oh Gods don’t let her be from his old herd, that would be disastrous.
Still, there was probably nothing for it but to talk to her; he had no intention of running away and she would be aware by now that he was aware of her and not talking to her would just be rude. Oh well, here went; he’d just have to hope that nothing tangled up in his tail whilst it was still dragging. Pushing himself to his hooves, the silver marked stallion began to walk towards the interestingly marked mare.
Some little way away from her, he halted and offered her a smile. “Hi there,” that was a start, “haven’t seen you about before,” not that he lived here regularly or had been here long, “ ‘m name’s Maurice.” Well... well now it was her move. Hopefully she’d introduce herself back and wouldn’t turn out to be a b***h. If she did... well... he’d deal with it, he was good at dealing with stuff now, right? Right.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:40 pm
Huh. He hadn't jumped up immediately, nor had he been excited by her appearance, and neither had he offered to get her anything. That's what everyone in her herd did. ....this was... was... wonderful! It was so annoying to be the center of attention, though she had only put up with it because Milo had told her it was a good idea. And now Milo wasn't here to advise her on what to do. Oh, he'd come closer and introduced himself. What a strange accent, huh...
She snapped out of her reverie with these last few thoughts and swiftly placed her hoof back on the ground, offering him a smile. Would it be alright to talk with this one? ..yes, yes it would; he wasn't like the annoying members of her herd. She'd remember him if he was from there. "Sonata," she murmured in her melodic voice, her beautiful voice; she had every reason to be proud of such a voice. Mother always said she was her little princess with the voice of an angel, and mother was always right. Milo said so, and he agreed with her mother. That made it okay, right? "Pleasure to meet you, Maurice."
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:55 pm
Phew, this was a good start, she wasn’t being a nasty little twerp. Yet. Muttered a vicious, unpleasant voice in the back of his mind that the stallion quickly pushed down. “You too Sonata,” Maurice offered with a smile, trying not to mangle the name too much with his less than upper class tones. “Pretty name,” he commented after a moment with another smile, shivering his wings a couple to times to shake more water off onto the ground, but not hard enough to fling it over at the interestingly marked mare.
He probably ought to say something else. Damn his lack of conversational skills. “So... y’ been in D’ob long Sonata?” Well, not bad. Not great but not bad.
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 2:19 pm
Polite, this one was; and not the fake, suck-up polite as the herd had been from whence she'd come. That was a refreshing thing. No reason to be unnerved by him at all. So why did she feel that way anyway?
"How long?" Oh dear, she wasn't good at this 'conversation' thing... What should she say? Hum.. "Umm... I think... I.. Oh dear, uhh..." And now she looked like a fool. Honestly; it wasn't her fault she'd been kept in her herdlands and nowhere else since leaving Shrilal. She hadn't any idea of the boundaries of other lands, nor what was the end of one territory and the start of another. All she knew was when she left her herdlands there was snow, and that was near Casa Tiner; now, there was no snow, and she assumed she was in D'ob. But where did Casa Tiner end and D'ob begin? She hadn't any idea. But he was waiting for an answer, so an answer she would give. "I.. I'm not too sure," she murmured, wincing at how stupid she must've sounded. Why hadn't anyone ever taught her the geography of the rest of Urin? Because they always assumed she'd be a trophy mare to hand off to a pretty boy when she reached a certain age, and she'd never leave their lands, therefore never needing to know anything of the world outside.
"I.. Not too long, I suppose.." Oh dear, better explain her lack of knowledge. "I don't exactly know," she kicked at a patch of grass, her green eyes averted to the ground. "I've always lived with my herd near Casa Tiner, and I never learned anything of other places, so I don't exactly know where that ends and the valley begins to give you an accurate answer." There, maybe that had been a sufficient explanation. But now he'd probably wonder what her parents had taught her. Oh bugger. Milo would know how long she'd been here...
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:53 am
Ah, well that made more sense; he’d be rather confused by her answer at first. Mildly cruel though he felt for thinking it, Maurice was glad that he wasn’t the only awful conversationalist about, too. “Tha’s fair enough,” he said with a nod, “I wasn’t too sure of geography of most of the world ‘till I left my ‘erd. Y’ pick it up pretty quick if that’s any comfort.” Why had she left her herd, actually? Had she got lost?... It didn’t seem likely, she knew where they were now it seemed, so maybe she had left them on purpose. The blue stallion highly doubted, no was certain, that she hadn’t done if for the same reasons he’d left his but still, it was quite nice to meet somebody else who had decided the group they were born into wasn’t for them.
“Per’aps a better question would be when y’ left y’ herd... if y’ don’ mind me askin’ that.” Even though the word ‘why’ hadn’t featured in his question, any mention of her split from her people could be a sore subject for all he knew. Much though she didn’t seem aggressive the blue-eyed stallion was very much aware that if he did touch a nerve, her horn didn’t have all that much distance to cross before it could be poking into his person. Not exactly what one wanted; puncture wounds such as were caused by the horns of his kind were nasty, you couldn’t see how bad they really were on the outside and before you knew it you could be an unconscious heap in the grass. That would definitely not be a good development
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:55 pm
At least he didn't seem to think she was a fool for her answer; it was a good thing she'd tried to redeem herself with the explanation. And... oh dear, more questions... At least, she felt she knew the answer to this question. She thought. ...hoped. "Umm..." Oh dear, now he'd certainly think she was foolish; what type of airhead would he think she was? She furrowed her brows in thought, trying to straighten out her thoughts. Milo would know... "Umm... I'd say I've been gone for... A few weeks, at least. A month or so, maybe a bit more," she offered. There, that sounded about right.
But wait, did he say he was in a herd before, as well? Maybe -- no, he probably hadn't left for the same reasons she had; she couldn't imagine how a stallion would leave because he didn't want to have a pretty mare flung at him. Or perhaps.. maybe they did? She couldn't wrap her head around the idea entirely, even though she tried. "When did you leave your herd?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:16 pm
Maurice paused as he realized that he, as she had been at first, was not sure. Unlike Sonata however, the answer did not come to him and the blue stallion remained in a frozen, confused silence for some moments. “Um... A while ago,” he managed eventually. “It’s all a bit... a bit of a blur t’ be honest.” His head had been a mess when he’d left, had been a mess pretty much up until he’d arrived in Quirne around a year ago in fact. It felt odd though, to not know when he’d run, or been chased off, or left or whatever it had really been. That meant that he wasn’t even sure how old he was. Somehow ‘not very’ didn’t seem to suffice.
“I ah... I was pretty young at the time,” Maurice went on after a moment or two, and he had been. Gods. Not even a grown stallion and he’d been acting like that. Thanks all powers he’d come to his senses, if he hadn’t... well if he hadn’t he probably would have died quite a while ago. The route he had taken in his colthood had no end but death and ruin. He was gladder than ever now that he’d turned off it now, now that he had a home, was happy, had peace. Those were the things he had chased back then, he was sure of it. Quite how he had hoped to achieve them through violence he didn’t know. Oh well, it was done with now and he was not who he had been. That thought, as ever, made the tendril-winged Nequus smile just a little.
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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:20 pm
And now he wasn't sure, either. Well, as bad as it sounded, she was relieved to know she wasn't the only one who didn't know answers to questions she should know, nor the only one who was bad at conversations. "Oh," she said with a nod; she could understand that. "Things like that tend to blur with time, I think." At least, for her it did.
Should she ask why he left his herd? ..no, no; he didn't seem like he wanted to talk about it much, despite the fact she was rather curious to find out. Milo would say that wouldn't be a good question to ask. So what should she talk about? ..oh. Oh dear, there it was again, her horrible conversation skills. Why couldn't she think of anything to say? Oh dear. "Oh!" There we go, there's something, at least. "Where do you live now? Since you've left your herd for so long, I mean." There, that sounded like a good topic. When she found Milo again, he'd certainly be proud of how much she'd improved at conversation. She couldn't help it; the thought brought a little smile to her muzzle.
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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:38 pm
Maurice smiled, more than a little relieved that she hadn’t asked him why he’d left. He’d have to be careful not to slip up and ask her or doubtless the question would be reciprocated. Right now, he was making a good -fairly good- first impression. If he went into details about his colthood, doubtless that would change in a heartbeat.
“Most the time I live down in Quirne,” the blue stallion said with a nod. “It’s beautiful there,” he went on with a slightly distant smile as he pictured his little cavern home and the endless rolling waves... The Ichsa shook himself back to the present and the warm pleasantness of D’ob a moment later. “Reason I’m ‘ere right now is there wasn’t much grazing left this far into winter... Y’ ever been t’ Qurine y’self?” he asked, smiling slightly sheepishly at his momentary lapse in concentration.
If she had been, he’d probably just given her a load of redundant information. Ah well, nothing to be done about it; she probably wouldn’t mind too much in any case. Seen as she’d only recently left her herd though, it was most likely that she hadn’t been. Perhaps he could persuade her to go; in the silver-marked stallion’s opinion everybody should visit Qurine at least once in their lifetime.
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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:56 pm
"Quirne?" She echoed. Oh dear, she'd never heard of that... Dammit. Why hadn't they taught her anything in her herd besides hierarchy and how to survive in a herd? She wasn't part of a herd, and therefore all that knowledge was useless to her. She made a mental note to forget it as soon as possible. "I uhh..." Oh dear, here she was again, looking like a fool. Milo would know what Quirne was. Or better yet, he would've taken her there himself. "I don't think I've ever been... I'm not sure what Quirne is.. I've only been to Shrilal when I was just a filly; I've been in my herdlands since then, until.. not too long ago." Hopefully she wouldn't look too terribly idiotic.
"What is Quirne, and what's it like?" If he lived there -- and spaced out to think about it as well -- he must know all about it. Usually people enjoyed talking about where they lived if they liked living there, right? Right, of course.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 3:54 am
Wow, she really was sheltered if she hadn’t even heard of Qurine. Deprived, too, in his opinion at any rate. “It’s the best place in the the world is what it is,” Maurice told his companion with a grin. “The ocean, yea? It’s this big, big body of water that stretched f’rever. N’ matter how y’ look y’ can’ see an end to it. Y’ come to it first at the cliffs; the view is... is...” He wished he was better with words. As it was, the Ichsa just had to shake his head and settle for; “incredible. Then down below that there’s the beach, stretches miles and miles east and west an’ then there’s the sea. Washes up an’ down the beach all day like somethin’ that’s alive; it’s beautiful on a clear day, breathtakin’ in a storm an’...”
The stallion trailed off and laughed at himself as his own words registered with his brain. “An’ I’m ramblin’ now,” he concluded with a shake of his head. He’d probably made a right twerp of himself harping on like that. Still, it didn’t matter all that much; he thought what he thought and Sonata was entitled to think of what he thought and said however she pleased... That had sort of made sense, but was best not thought back over; it was one of those sentences that could tie your brain in a knot if you looked too hard at it.
“Anyway,” Maurice went on after a moment with a smile to the grey and pink mare before him, “me makin’ an idiot of m’self aside y’ should definitely visit sometime. Due south from anywhere; y’ can’ miss it.”
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:21 pm
"Incredible?" She echoed; she seemed to be doing that a lot with this one. Oh well. She couldn't help but smile, giggling a bit at Maurice's ramblings. "No, it's fine. You must love it there, from how much you talk about it." Milo had told her that; if someone talks forever about something or someone, that means they must really like whatever it is they're talking about. It seemed natural, didn't it? Unless they were complaining about it; then they must like to dislike it. Did that even make sense?
"The ocean..." The pink-speckled mare mused aloud, casting her gaze to the side and swiveling her ears a bit to think. South, and she couldn't miss it? Well, she probably could, with her horrid sense of direction. So horrid, she didn't even have one. She never went anywhere alone and therefore never needed to know which was went where; she relied on her companion for that. Now that she was all alone, she didn't have that other person to rely on. She frowned at herself before looking up at the blue Ichsa and offering him a smile. "Do you think," she began, "you could take me there? I'm afraid I'm not good with directions at all, I've never had to be until just recently. I'm surprised I've made it this far without going in circles..." And she was surprised, she'd expected to wander in at least ten circles by now. Maybe she had, she wasn't sure anymore.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:37 pm
The blue stallion chuckled and nodded to the mare’s request. “Sure,” he replied, “be ‘appy to. I was plannin’ t’ ‘ead back fairly soon anyways; worst of the weather should be gettin’ over with now an' leavin’ in a couple of days plus travellin’ slow should get us there when there’s somethin’ t’ eat again. Won’ be anywhere near as good eatin’ as ‘ere of course, but there ought t’ be enough...” Thinking about it... she did seem very sheltered. He didn’t want to tell her the obvious but if she didn’t know... On balance, it was probably better to say something.
“ ‘ere,” the silver-marked Ichsa said after a moment, “sorry if this is somethin’ y’ already know but... y’ do know not t’ eat too much of the grass here, yea?” There, he’d said it and if she got cross with him for patronizing her... well let her, he was only making sure she didn’t kill herself with the sickness which came with taking too much of D’ob’s rich grass.
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