|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:45 am
The stallion blinked dazedly up at the tree above him.
...A sort of brownish-blue colour.
The stallion heaved an exhausted sigh at his lack of a better simile and dropped his head back to the bare earth he lay on.
He was quite a pitiful sight in all; once lustrous coat gone dusty, curling mane and tail knotted and tangled, sleek muscle faded away to visible ribs and hips. Yes. All in all, life was not treating the silver-marked Ichsa very well of late. The near skeletal creature gave a soft snort of disgust at his general condition and situation before rolling one eye up to regard the source of at least some of his problems.
“You,” he told the fruit firmly, “are a right pain in the arse.” Unsurprisingly, the fruit did not respond and the blue creature gave another disgusted snort before forcing himself into a more upright position. This, the Ichsa considered darkly as he lent his weight back against the trunk, was why Nequus had mates. Damn all bloodthirsty mixed bloods to hell, or possibly somewhere even less pleasant than that. Damn him for not being here.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:13 am
Why was Utena in Shrilal? To find Anthy's tree. Was she having any luck? Of course! not.
"Greeieee, Why can't there be a big flashing light above it?" Her vocal sounds never ceased to vary with her changes of moods. "Mumph, well that certainly isn't it," she noted at black gnarled tree that appeared to be burnt to the core.
Making her way this way and that she eventually stumbled across the poor sould known as . . . well she didn't know his name. She did, however, know he looked absolutely horrendous and that he 'guarded' a young fruit tree in a very stoic fashion.
"Uh, hi," she managed, a slight smile on her face. She took it that he hadn't eaten in months. She hoped she hadn't caused her parents this much distress. Was she supposed to smile, look saddened for him, happy for his tree? Go get him food? Eiee this was complicated!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:32 am
The voice snapped him out of the half doze he had slipped into, there wasn’t really that much to do but sleep these days, and the Ichsa scrambled awkwardly to his hooves, heart pounding. Something had crept up on him; that’d teach him to do something as stupid as sleep, he'd have to find something else to do with his time from now on. Snorting and attempting to look vaguely threatening, the blue-eyed stallion turned in the direction that he thought the voice had come from.
A mare of his own kind stood before him. She was big. She probably had about a hand on him and she was fed and fit and... Smiling. The deeply-hued stallion relaxed a notch, though he remained as tensed and ready to act as he could muster given the circumstances. After a few moments the small Nequus even managed to smile back, albeit wearily.
“Umm... hi.” He wasn’t sure what she’d actually said to him, but it was a safe bet that it had been a greeting rather than something alone the lines of ‘I am here to drink your blood and feast on your flesh’ so ‘umm hi’ was probably an alright thing to have said. Feeling rather muddled, the tatty Ichsa waited for the mare to either say hi back if she hadn’t said that already or to move onto whatever the next stage in conversation was. Names, probably.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:11 pm
Whoops. Looks like she had caught him while he was sleeping. It was a good thing he didn't make it his first instinct to strike out with his hooves or she'd have obtained a rather nice print on the side of her cheek.
His greeting was about as fragile and insignifigant as hers. She forgave him, though, how could she not?
"I'll be right back, don't go anywhere," she said dashing off and leaving no explanation to where she was going.
- - -
She could only fit so much in her mouth. Things were falling right and left. The stem of the valley fruit slipped between her teeth and her whole carefully stacked bunch of items came hurtling to the ground.
So much for right back. . .
Grumbling idly to herself she reorganized the bunch, making sure it wouldn't fall this time. Pushing her makeshift containers grass sides together she bit down and heaved up with her head.
It was darn well heavy.
But somehow, through determination and her lacking luck she made it back, setting the contents lightly down near Maurice.
"Here."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:34 pm
In her absence, the skinny Ichsa had flopped back to the ground to save on energy. He had just been considering that she was a very odd person indeed when she returned, carrying something in her mouth.
When she set it down beside him he found himself lost for both thought and words.
He’d known that he probably wouldn’t last much longer but, stubborn creature that he was, he had refused to look at the facts until now. This mare, whose name he did not yet know, had undoubtedly saved his life, probably the life of the fruit still growing on its tree too; he had no idea how you knew when a fruit was ready to fall and hatch.
For quite some time, the thin creature simply stared at the food before him. Eventually however, reality clicked back in and, with a quick glance up at the pink-maned mare he pulled a chunk off the nearest piece of fruit and gulped it down. Now was hardly the time for immediate thanks or manners.
For quite some time again, the blue-coated Ichsa concentrated on feeding his starved body but before a truly long time had passed he became aware that eating too much on a hunger-shrunken stomach would only make him ill. This in mind, he ignored his body’s insistence that it wanted more food and raised his head slowly to regard the tall Ichsa mare once more. He opened his mouth a few times to speak, but words failed him. He wasn’t eloquent in the most mundane of situations; finding a way to express his gratitude to her was utterly beyond him.
Giving up on speech, the black-horned stallion settled for giving the other Ichsa a smile. He hoped it expressed his feelings better than he could. “Hi,” the tendril-winged Nequus said again. “M’ name’s Maurice... I...” Yea, that was definitely the best his brain was going to come up with. Oh well not everyone could be...
The mare didn’t have any wings.
He’d looked at her several times now, a few of those times for quite some... err... time. How had he missed that detail? He must have been more out of his head than he’d realized.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:00 pm
Utena stood politely, looking at all the trees and branches while she waited for him to eat. It just didn't seem right to watch him in a sort of 'weak' state. Besides, fruit trees were always very interesting.
When he spoke again, her ears turned first as she smiled. Moments later she gummed up the courage to look in his direction. He looked much better, at least mentally.
"I'm Utena Tenjou, but you can just call me Utena," she answered merily. Poor sap.
"I bet you're a proud father, hmm?" she asked him, finding words where he could not.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:34 pm
Maurice had to grin at that. “Damn straight, good t’ meet y’ Utena by the way... ‘m damn lucky you ‘appened along.” She seemed to understand in any case, so he probably didn’t have to worry about getting the right words to form in his head. Still grinning, the blue Ichsa turned his eyes upwards and regarded the fruit once more. “Kinda feel like ‘m blunderin’ about in the dark, but I expect everybody does with their first at least.”
Would she know anything useful? Sure the wingless mare looked pretty young but she might’ve had younger siblings and be able to guess how much longer he might be trapped here. He hated being trapped here; he felt as though there was some enemy in every shadow, hiding behind every drown tree but if he got up and went over to look, he began to panic that there might really have been something in the other direction that had seen him leave his post and started to creep towards the brownish-blue tree. Paranoia was more a of a pain in the arse than inconvenient immobile fruits.
“So,” conversation was a bit awkward having to look up at her the whole time, but it wasn’t awkward enough to make him bother with getting up, “you ‘ere t’ visit y’ tree, Utena?” Utena. It was quite a pretty name. A damn odd one, but quite pretty nevertheless.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:06 am
The phrase he used caught her off guard. She wasn't sure quite why, but there was something unnerving about it. She attempted not to let it show through, but shock typically got through to another's face.
Seeing as he turned to look at the fruit, she did too. It was a marvel, these winding branches and twisting trees. Really, it was. In fact, this might have been more beautiful and amazing than anything she'd ever seen in Ohtori. Trees really were spectacular. She would have to and visit hers after she had found Anthy's. There were so many blasted trees!
"Huh?" she said, caught staring off into space. "Oh." She paused to think of a response. 'I'm here to look at a friends tree', just didn't seem like it would do. 'Yes,' seemed a more appropriate answer.
"I'm looking for someone else's, actually," she responded with a chuckle.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:33 am
For a moment there was a flicker of something across the pale mare’s face. Surprise? Shock? Odd, certainly. Still, it was gone in a moment or two so it probably wasn’t all that important... right? Yes, right.
Whose tree could she be looking for anyway? The silver-marked Nequus considered this question carefully, pushing the strange flicker of emotion that had crossed Utena’s face to the back of his mind. Was she looking for a friend’s? A sibling’s? A parent’s? A lover’s? Having had nobody to talk to for quite some time, the blue stallion was hard pressed not to jump in and ask her; he didn’t want to come off as nosey after she’d been so good to him so it was probably better not to quiz her on that score.
“Yea?” he said instead with a smile. “Havin’ any luck?” He wanted to offer to help, not that he would know where to start or what the tree she was searching for looked like, but for decidedly obvious reasons that wasn’t an option. Oh well.
...It was still tempting to ask her whose tree she wanted to find, she hadn’t seemed sensitive about it or anything, but the thin Ichsa still forced himself to keep his mouth shut. She might tell him of her own accord, and if not he could ask later if it felt like a natural thing to ask and if not, well, not finding out was hardly going to kill him now was it?
He might, he considered, have asked her but for that inexplicably shocked expression she had worn. True it didn’t seem to have been related to his question but... But it had been odd.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:43 am
Utena's heart sank and her body sagged on her legs just a little bit.
"No," she admitted disdainfully, with another glance at the surrounding foliage.
"It doesn't help that I don't have any idea what it looks like." Anthy had never told her, and Utena now wished she'd had the strength to ask. She was sure Anthy was born in this outer world, though. That tree blooming in the forbidden forest could not have been hers.
"There are so many trees out here!" she commented to him. "I can't imagine that each belongs to a Nequus." She briefly wondered what would happen if someone tried to kill a tree. She'd seen a few dead ones here and there, but they all seemed to be of some strange cause unkown to her. One suffered from wood rot, another burned to the core. Yet, they didn't seem like the natural types of ails that affected trees in Yisi. They were different.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:55 am
Maurice gave her a sympathetic smile, which was about the best he could do. “Sorry t’ ‘ear that, there are an ‘ell of a lot of trees... I think they all belong t’ somebody but I don’ really know that much about this place.” He’d left as soon as he’d been big enough to travel and he’d never asked or been told anything much about the fruitlands. “I guess the best y’ can do is look f’r a tree that reminds you of... this person. I think if y’ know somebody well y’ can... I dunno, y’ can tell some’ow... I think older trees are further in too so that might narrow y’ search down a bit.”
Was that a guess or something he’d been told once? He wished he could remember his colthood a little better; most of it was such a blur that he couldn’t tell assumptions he had made from stories from facts. He’d feel awful if he’d given Utena false information on this; she looked so disappointed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:15 am
Older trees?
She hadn't even thought about it. Here she was, scouring the outer rings, starting from the location of her tree and she hadn't even thought for a second that perhaps Anthy wasn't young at all.
"Thanks, that helps, I think." She didn't really know. There wasn't much she did, as a youth. It was a fact she was going to have to learn to accept.
The thought that she'd just know when she saw it was comforting. Somehow, she felt that this was true and when she did eventually come across it, yes, she would know exactly what it what is. Then . . . well she'd know Anthy was alive, but not that she was safe.
"Maurice?" she questioned after a moment. "What happens when a Nequus dies?"
It was perhaps, a blunt question, but Utena had never had parents to ask the question of. She'd had an aunt, but she always seemed to saddenned and frail to ask the question of. Too young, as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:42 am
...Now what had possessed her to ask that? Frankly it was a thing he had been trying not to think about of late but still, she had asked and he would do his best to tell her. It was the sort of thing that people ought to know. “The tree you came from dies if it was just yours,” the stallion began softly, dropping his gaze from Utena to look at the ground beneath him. “If y’ had tree siblings I think it sort of... changes a bit t’ show that one of the Nequus who came from it is gone. After that a new tree grows, not sure if it’s by your tree or not, as a sort of... memorial I guess. Don’ ‘ave fruits or nothing on them they’re jus’... trees.”
He didn’t know where Lestra’s was.
He’d never even got to see her fruit tree either, or asked where it was.
It had seemed as though there would be plenty of time for such things later.
Ha.
“If y’ mean t’... like the soul or whatever,” the dark stallion went on doggedly, eyes still on the ground, “I’m afraid I can’ answer. I don’ think anyone save a Speaker could tell y’ that...” If he met a Speaker, would he ask them to communicate with his mate for him?... He wasn’t sure. He wanted her to know that he was sorry for not being there but... but something about the idea felt unnatural and wrong. Still, so long as he didn’t run into a Speaker anytime soon he wouldn’t have to decide.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:16 pm
Just a tree.
There was no way in hell Utena was going to be able to tell Anthy's 'dead' tree from all the others that were growing about in their merry manner. Just one more reason to hope that the fall hadn't killed her. Or maybe she should be hoping it had? She didn't know. She just didn't know.
"Thank you. . . " she breathed. It was all she could manage under the current circumstances. It just didn't feel like a subject you leapt out and went right into another. Maybe she would have been better not asking?
"You've been helpful, Maurice, but I really must be going." She hated to leave him like this, all alone with that tree, but sometimes a prince had priorities to pick between.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:33 pm
The blue stallion nodded and tried to give her a smile of encouragement. “I ‘ope y’ find the tree y’ lookin’ for... an’ thanks again.”
She looked awful. Well, not really awful but... Well, not good. Perhaps she didn’t know if the person whose tree she was seeking was alive or not; that would seem to follow on from her question and her reaction to his answer. Maurice gave the tall mare another nod, and tried to smile again. It didn’t work that well; didn’t look like either of them felt much like smiling after that topic of conversation.
“Good luck, Utena an’... maybe some day I’ll be able t’ repay you f’ this. I hope I can anyways.” She seemed like a genuinely nice girl and even if she hadn’t just saved his backside he’d want to help her... but right now he couldn’t. Still, while she seemed young and inexperienced she didn’t seem stupid or incapable. She’d manage. Hopefully.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
