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 Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:18 am
The sleek golden stallion trotted to a halt before the pair of saplings, a vaguely smug expression spreading across his muzzle. He’d known it; once you’d felt that call once you remembered it forever after. They were a healthy looking little pair, the saplings were; one as gold as he and the other black webbed through with purple like his... mate.
It was still hard to think of her as his mate, and hard to think of Iona as a mare in love with somebody else. He kept nearly slipping up and referring to the rich purple mare as his mate, but each time he managed to catch himself or had done so far. Hopefully he would continue to do so, he didn’t like the thought of what could happen if he made that mistake in front of the herd.
“So,” he said eventually, turning to the tall mare by his side, “what do you think?” He hoped her enthusiasm for motherhood grew as the sapling did. At the moment, so far as he was aware, she was dreading it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:27 am
He was not as bad as she’d thought, the gold-hooved mare considered with a glance at the smaller Jala, but he did not feel like her mate. He felt like a stranger, whom she had no particular desire to know. She did not know him. They had spoken little about themselves in the couple of weeks they had been official mates, spoken little at all come to that. Their time had been so occupied by well-wishers and hangers on though that it probably hadn’t been notable to any but the most astute, and to the couple themselves. She shuddered to think how much worse the generalized sucking up would be when they returned, especially by the parents of young foals sniffing about for a good match.
“So now what?” the black-coated mare asked, tuning to face her, egh, her mate fully. “I just... sort of stay here and wait while you run about getting food for me?” She had a feeling that was the basic gist of it, but if there was more to it than that she could claim her words were meant sarcastically. She wasn’t sure that Diego would buy it, but oh well; one could only try one’s best after all.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:37 am
Diego, surprised to find that he was a little hurt by her lack of feeling for their children, nodded. “Yes, that’s more or less it. I’m afraid it will be a rather dull time for you at least at first. Later on you’ll probably be too tired and weak to notice how bored you are." He didn't want to scare her much, but he did want to scare her a bit after that airy shrug. Pretty colours indeed. She really was resistant to the idea of being his mate, of being a mother, of doing what was only good and right for their two herds. Daft wench.
Surely though some instincts within her would be sparked when the fruits began to bud, or failing that when they hatched. Surely she would protect the saplings and the fruits if any tried to harm them. Surely she would... Perhaps he would have to get somebody to come to keep her company and keep an eye on her. He didn’t want his children murdered by the stripy mare in a hunger madness; he had been told that taking the lives of their own fruits was most common in mothers with a lack of feeling for them. ...Yet who could he call on? He had no friends in the herd, though his old cronies still thought they were in no matter how he tried to push them away. They were putting it down to him wanting to spend time with his lovely mate, wink-wink nudge-nudge. Idiots.
“I’m sure you could get a friend to come and keep you company if you wanted,” the bob-tailed Jala said eventually on the premise that somebody he didn’t know with her was better than the bastards he did or than nobody at all.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:51 am
The gold-eyed mare snorted and gave a proud toss of her head. “No thanks,” she said coolly, tossing her head again to flick her mane out of her face that had fallen there in the initial (and slightly melodramatic) motion. “My mother had told me it is a matter of family pride to accept no help from any save the sire of our children in these days. It has been that way for generations, and if we’re going to carry on being the perfect couple I shall just have to keep myself entertained while these things here get on with growing. Perhaps I shall have an epiphany, a deep spiritual experience or something like that and return home enlightened and a better person for it all.”
Besides, she didn’t even know who she’d ask. Her parents were inseparable, and her father had to remain with her herd. Her sister was busy with foals of her own and she wasn’t close enough to her cousins or any other members of her herd to ask them. She had always been a bit sperate from them; one of the ruling family who wanted to be a border guard didn’t really have a place anywhere. Well. She had her place now, and no doubt she would stagnate in it until she died. She hadn’t yet had the chance to bring up taking trips to explore the world with Diego. It would have to wait until her children were grown in any case. Presumably she would be stuck doing motherly things in that time like, Bastet frowned thoughtfully, like telling stories and... things. She wasn’t really sure what most foals wanted from their parents, she herself had been precocious and independent and had spent her fillyhood days playing with the colts, returning to her mother only when it was time to hear a story and sleep.
She was, Bastet decided mournfully as she turned her eyes back onto the saplings, going to be awful at this.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:02 am
Diego blinked, a little taken aback by the force of her response. He spent quite a lot of his time being taken aback by this mare, he considered with an internal sigh even as he nodded to her words. “Well, alright, fair enough. If you do start to feel enlightened let me know and I’ll carefully document the changes in you for future story material about what a great pair we are. Won’t that be nice for us.” Why yes, he was capable of playing the sarcasm game too. Epiphanys and spiritual awakenings his shiny golden backside, she was just trying to piss him off now. Maybe she hoped he’d start a fight with her for whatever mad reason.
“Well,” the blue-eyed Nequus went on before his darling mate could come up with a witty riposte, “I had best be off and finding you some food from the humans. I may just stop there a little while to let them brush me, you know, so we keep looking like a lovely couple. We’ll have to hide you while you’re looking disheveled of course, looking immaculate at all times is a proud tradition of my family. If we’re respecting your traditions we’d best respect mine too, humm?” Proud stupid stubborn bint; she was as mad as a moonstruck Ichsa and as violent and belligerent as a Reya. His initial assessment of her had been almost completely accurate; she had only seemed decent on their second meeting because she felt bad for judging him on his reputation at their first, he was sure of it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:17 am
Bestet set her ears back against her skull and stamped a hoof in annoyance. “Well get out of my sight then you egotistical little berk, and take your time coming back. I’m sure I would hate for you to go un-primped on my account. Oh and don’t bring any pears, I hate pears.” Arse, arse arse, arse arse! Oh to plant a hoof up his pretty little backside! Appearances and obligation and duty and gah! She really hoped he calmed down as time went by, that or she stopped noticing her surroundings as promised. She was getting really sick of that self-satisfied tone of voice he had. How had she ever started to think that he might be decent? Oh he’d put on a lovely little show of amiability after their bonding ceremony, presumably so that she wouldn’t take it into her head to run off before some saplings were well and truly sprouting. Arse, arse, arsity, arse arse. She hoped he tripped over his trailing ego and ruined his pretty face. Arse.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:29 am
Diego gritted his teeth, refusing to sink to her level of childishness by giving any other sign of his annoyance. “Very well,” he said stiffly, turning away from his mate and their saplings, “no pears. I’ll see you in a few days, try to keep out of trouble, will you?” With these words, the blue-eyed Jala took off into a gallop from a standing start, beating his wings against the air and soaring into the sky before her had gone even twenty paces. This whole thing, Diego considered grimly as he banked northwards towards Ryuten, was going to be the biggest trial his patience had ever faced.
*****
It was a few days later, and Diego was gliding groundward with a mouthful of basket. The humans had recognized him, and he them. Though they had all looked alike to him at first, he was getting pretty good at telling them apart and was, he felt, making a few particular friends. He hadn’t stayed to be brushed, of course, but they had groomed him a little while he had waited and Bastet could make of that whatever she liked. Sighing as best he could around the handle he held between his teeth, the blue-eyed creature touched down mere paces from the pair of saplings and the dark mare who had just woken from her doze beside them.
The saplings were a little taller.
Bastet looked as grouchy as when he’d left.
Diego set the basket down and tried for a smile, his temper had cooled in his time away and he was keen to avoid further confrontation if at all possible. “Well, I’m back. No pears, just like like you asked... Everything been alright here?” There, he was sure even she couldn’t find something in that to get annoyed about. Farily sure in any case.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:37 am
The thud of hooves jerked her from a detailed inspection of the insides of her eyelids and Bastet blinked to wakefulness, clambering to her hooves as her mate spoke. “Oh... Well thanks.” It all looked good; mostly apples but a few leaf wrapped packages which she suspected contained soft berries of one sort and another. There were some carrots, too, and that made her smile a bit; she did like carrots. “Things have been boring,” she said after a moment with a shrug. “I saw a Bae fly past yesterday morning, and that was pretty much the highlight...” He was being tolerable again. How was she ever to get used to the stallion if he was going to be so damn in consistent?
“You be staying a while before heading off again?” She imagined he would be; there was quite a lot of food here, enough to last her a good few days... But if he was eating too then that time was halved and then there would be the time it took him to go to Ryuten and back again. So maybe he’d be off again almost right away. She wasn’t sure if that was a relief or a disappointment; despite herself she was beginning to get the feeling that she ought to know at least a bit about him before the fruit or fruits that came from these saplings hatched into foals.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:46 am
The blue-eyed stallion shrugged his wings and then flapped them a few times as he realized that they were rather stiff. “Depends on what you mean by a while,” he elaborated. “I think tomorrow morning would be a good time for me to set off again... unless you’d rather I went now.” He was tired, but if it avoided them getting into another verbal sparring match he was willing to just munch an apple and head off again. He could always hang around Ryuten for a little while to keep himself out of the way or whatever, or maybe just take the trip at a more leisurely pace.
Still, he hoped she didn’t want him gone; he wanted to spend some time here with the growing saplings he’d be working so hard to support from now until the fruit or fruits they bore hatched. It was easier to keep moving and being a good father if you’d spent a bit of time with the trees, or so he had found at any rate.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:53 am
Bastet shook her head. “No, no it’s fine; hang around if you like... Gives me somebody to talk to even if it is you... So... So tell me about this Iona, hu? I’ve heard all rumors and no facts about her save what Udi told me and that was just that you loved her.” Not the best topic of conversation ever perhaps, but it was better than nothing and perhaps he would seem a better stallion when he spoke of something he loved.
As yet all she had really spoken of with him were topics that either depressed them both or made them both angry. Perhaps that was where she’d been going wrong so far, seeing the negative side of him and not the positive. Perhaps that was why he seemed to dislike her, too. She hadn’t exactly been a joy to be around now that she looked back on it. Perhaps they both needed to try a bit harder to just be optimistic and to make the best of the situation thrust upon them. It was worth a try, for sure.
Trying for a friendly smile, the striped mare settled herself back down on the ground and pulled a carrot out of the basket as she waited for the golden stallion before her to begin.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:02 am
“Oh.” She really was good at taking him aback, but for a different reason this time. Maybe she’d had that epiphany already. Her asking him a question other than ‘why are you still here?’ could only be a good thing, surely.
“Well certainly,” he said after a moment with a smile, realizing that his period of silence could be taken for annoyance or rudeness or some such. “Well then,” the blue-eyed Jala settled himself down opposite Bastet and selected an apple from the basket for himself, “Iona...” For a moment he was lost in pleasant memories and a soft smile crept over his features. “I suppose,” he said after a few moments of silence, “that I should begin at the beginning...”
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:24 am
It was... Later. She didn’t know how much later, or why that first friendly conversation had suddenly sprung back to mind. Perhaps, the mare considered as she got to her hooves to stretch out her cramped body a little, she was beginning to go mad. Snorting at herself, Bastet beat her wide feathered wings rapidly a few times before giving herself a really good shake. Once she had finished, she was forced to toss her head a few times to get her mane out of her face, but luckily there was nobody about to see her making a fool of herself.
Vision once more unimpaired, the tall Jala peered up at the trio of healthy fat fruits dangling from the tree’s thickest branch. They were definitely their parent’s children in colouring. There was one which looked like her but with Diego’s gold in place of her purple, a mostly black one with a few stripe markings which were a blend of purple and gold and finally a purple one, larger than its two siblings but no more or less healthy so far as she or Diego had been able to see. Perhaps the foal within was an abnormally large one, or perhaps its cocoon of fruit was just thicker than its siblings’.
She still didn’t think she felt as a mother should about them, but she did feel fondness for their smooth shapes and bright colours. Perhaps when they hatched she would love them even. Time would tell, she supposed. Sighing to herself, the striped Jala cast herself back down on the earth and began to consume the last apple of her stock. This was her only real way of keeping track of time these days; when she was out or nearly out of food, Diego would soon be back with more. Smiling a little to herself, the feather-winged creature crunched her way through it before turning her gold eyes to the sky to watch for her mate’s return.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:37 am
Diego was on his way back; just coming in to land in fact. “Eyo,” he said around the basket before setting it down and saying; “hello even. Everything been alright?” He asked that every time he came back now, not because he worried about the tall mare as much as because it was a part of the tentative friendship he had struck up with his mate. They still infuriated each other at time, still growled and snapped and argued over nothing but when he first came back and asked how things had been at least at first they got on. Sometimes they continued to do so, sometimes their talk degenerated into insults and anger but that was happening less these days.
Either they were both being more mature about it all and learning to roll their eyes internally, he knew he at least had been trying to do this, or they were both just getting too tired for it all. Still, either way it didn’t matter too much; what mattered was that a lot of the time they got on okay and sometimes they even got on well and laughed together. Perhaps in time the arguments would dwindle away to occasional, once a season type things and their camaraderie and affection for one another would grow. He hoped that this would be the case; in the times that they got on best he found himself liking and resecting the dark-coated Jala. If he could feel that way for her all or most of the time he was sure he could be happy enough to be her mate. Wasn’t like he could have had the mare he wanted forever in any case, so in a way he’d lost less than Bastet. He’d had his big romance, his great love, his joy, his obsession. She had been flung at him before she’d had any of that, poor thing. Still, life was life and had to be made the best of.
Smiling first at Bastet, then at the tree and then back at his mate, Diego awaited a response to his question.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:44 am
Bastet turned to the smaller Jala with a smile and a nod. “Everything’s been fine thank you." He'd brought her mostly carrots this time; that was pleasing. It was only last time he’d been here that she’d mentioned her love of those particular vegetables and he’d managed to communicate that he wanted more of them to the two legs. Come to that, the first time he’d gone he’d communicated that he didn’t want pears. He was a sharp one, was Diego, she was discovering that more and more the more she spoke with him.
“What do you think?” she asked after a few moments with a nod to the tree. She always asked him this just as he always asked if everything had been alright. Seen as he’d had a tree before, she guessed that he might know when fruits were ready to fall and he certainly behaved as though he did. The last couple of times he’d been here he’d said ‘soon.’ She really hoped he was right; despite the truly vast amount of food she was eating she was still losing weight and in fact had got rather skinny of late. How he had cared for Iona and a tree of six she was sure she didn’t know.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:49 am
Diego frowned thoughtfully and walked towards the tree, leaning up to peer at the trio of fruits, nosing each one in turn. All three moved more and more easily than they had before; the stems were loosening. Diego turned back to Bastet and gave her a wide grin. “Very soon,” he said with a nod, feeling the excitement building within him at the unexpected discovery. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they fell and hatched today, actually.” He was going to be a father again, and soon too. That thought was at once frightening and exhilarating. Three foals he would have soon, three little foals and this time he actually knew what he was doing. “I think,” he went on with a chuckle, “that we ought to start thinking of some possible names for them.”
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