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 Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:49 am
When he'd first felt the draw he'd quickly left, offering his apologies to everyone he saw. His family took priority this time around. This he had to be sure of. He wanted to see his family grow, and maybe, just maybe, he could raise a son to advise the queen in his place. None of the one's before had fit the quota. They were all too . . . but they were his children, and he loved them all the same.
Now, he'd stacked up a nice reserve of food for Undine. It would likely last her a few days. Well her and him. At least in the beginning he was determined to give her more breaks than he had before. There would be no running back and forth this time. Not to mention if that Reya returned that Undine had spoken of. He shuddered at the thought of it. Both of them needed to be here to watch the tree.
Their red and blue trees were a beautiful sight, not quite tall enough to begin winding yet, but beautiful all the same. Very different than the tree of their original five, but similar in a way as well. He felt his chest burst with pride as he settled down to wait for Undine.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:19 pm
So she was to be a mother again, that was what the pulling feeling was and she’d know it in a heartbeat of feeling it. It was still almost unbelievable to her that she and Xla were mates, or as close to it as two busy Nequus could get. She wondered vaguely as she homed in on the tugging if he was ahead of her or behind, for surely he had felt it too. If he hadn’t though, doubtless Dahak would tell him where she’d gone and he would be on the way. He was a busy stallion, but she didn’t think that he would abandon her to cope alone with this. They were his children too, after all.
Even as these thoughts ran through her mind, the tall mare’s yellow eyes caught on the saplings she knew were her’s and his, and indeed on the stallion himself. He must have set out the very second he’d felt it to beat her here, and that thought made the shrewd Katilenuck smile to herself. He was a good stallion was Xla... well, perhaps not but he was a stallion she liked for sure. Loved even, she thought she loved him anyway. There wasn’t time to examine her feelings further however; the ground was coming up towards her and her forehooves had reached out for it without any need for prompting from her mind.
She landed softly, gracefully a little way away from her mate and their second tree and quickly closed the last of the gap at a brisk trot. “Well,” Undine said with a smile as she came to a halt, “here we are again, humm?” How many would there be this time? One? Two? Three? More? There wasn’t any way to tell at this stage, and honestly she didn’t much mind. She loved all of the children she had right now, and however many sprung from this tree would be loved as much as they whether it was just one or six.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:14 pm
Xla'Lanan had just started to drift off when he heard the silent footfalls of Undine hit the earth not to far away. He snapped to alert, his ears automatically pinning in warning just in case it was some foreign stranger come to attack. His feature's noteably relaxed as Undine came near, and he gave a mental sigh of thanks.
No matter how brave he was, the safety of his children still left him a bit unnerved.
He smiled at her as she approached. It was good to see she'd been able to get off of her tactition's duties so soon. It was good to see that he'd gotten off his own duties as well.
He rose and stretched is wide wings, pulling at each end feather to give the rest some room to move. He hadn't been waiting there for very long, but it was fun to act.
"Mmm, we are." He paused, a small chuckle on his face. "I wonder what their siblings are going to think of them?" He paused.
"I don't think that Zara will take to kindly to nanny duties." The thought of the hard-faced mare being surrounded by many children left him smug. "Dahak may be the only reliable one." Besides, he didn't think that Undine would appreciate Zara being taken away from her studies. As of yet Dahak was off doing goodness knew what, but he didn't appear to be busy with anything important.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:13 pm
Undine chuckled at her mate’s words and attempted to imagine her daughter caring for foals. The image wouldn’t come. “Well, about time he did something other than wander about the place with the Bae slave of his and a smug smile on his face,” the mare said with a snort and a shake of her head. “Always was an odd one, perhaps being asked to look after younger siblings will ground him a bit. I told him where I was off to, by the by, so if you didn’t have time everyone who needs to know probably does by now.”
Smiling to herself, the blue and white Jala inspected the almost visibly growing pair of saplings. “I hope they like them,” she said, meaning the quartet of tree siblings. “Or it,” she added, in case there was but a single fruit on the tree that would soon be. “Feels like just yesterday we were here the first time,” the tactician added, moving closer to the saplings and inspecting the vital colours of their bark. “Doesn’t time fly when you’re busy?” she added with a shake of her head; it was still odd to see herself as the mother of foals at times, and almost always odd to see herself as the mother of grown children. Soon, if they were going to specialize in any area, they would have to make their choices and take whatever tests necessary. So far as she knew, Zara was the only one with any real ambition on that score. It was a trifle disappointing, she supposed, but what true stations were there that were open to a stallion? She couldn’t see any of her boys as soldiers, and though Dahak had the brain he hadn’t followed in his father’s hoofprints as he might have. He always insisted he had plans of his own, the odd boy.
“So,” the tall mare turned to her mate with another smile, “any guesses on how many we’ll get this time?” She was exited, she had to admit. To see the saplings grow, the fruits bud and swell, to observe their colours and patterns, to guess at the occupants and then to see the new little foals so full of potential... Yes, she was glad that she was having more foals indeed, and glad that it was Xla and not anyone else who was the sire. Romance it was not, but love it was, she was sure.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:06 pm
Xla'Lanan gave a heavy sigh at the mention of Dahak and his slave. He had nothing against having one, but his son did need to do a few things for himself now and then. Heaven forbid he god attached to the thing. Slaves were meant to come and go, surely he knew that? "A bit too smug if you ask me," he responded gruffly, his face contorting into a grimace as she watched the tree. "One would hope they would." More likely they'd make him more of a nuisance. There was nothing like foals to make you feel extra important.
"Oh, I think they will." Even if they didn't, he'd make sure they treated their siblings with respect. They were all family, afterall, and Xla would make sure they knew it. The frown left his face. "Yes, time does." It was amazing to think that all those running runts were now grown stallions and mare. The little terrorizors that existed before now had the muscles (and some the brains) to extend their reach to the rest of the herd.
His face crinkled at the mention of how many. "Oh goodness, I hope only one." He wasn't sure he could handle four again. "Watch us get six," he answered himself bitterly.
"But I do hope there is a son in there somewhere. . . " Just maybe, just maybe this time. He wanted to go on adventures with the boy. Maybe they could go to the ocean together, run some crazy erand for the queen. He did love his insane errands. It made him feel special, and in some ways expendable, but he ignored that part.
A mischevious grin marked his face. "Do you want a whole heap of them again?" He gave a small funny noise in the back of his throat. "They make me feel old."
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:02 am
Undine chuckled at her mate’s words, nodding to his sentiment as she turned back to inspect the saplings again as if this would give her some clue as to how many buds there would be once they began to twine. “One, two, maybe even three would be ideal,” she said aloud. “I’m sure I should love six foals very well, but I would rather four of the six were ones we already have; I swear it’s only the last few months I’ve had time to myself without constant whines for me to do this or that or the other.... And yes, I must admit that children make me feel old too. I’m not sure if that’ll be any better with fewer, but I hope it will be.”
The tall mare gave a snort and a lopsided smile to the red-backed stallion beside her. “How about we hope for two; one colt one filly? Another daughter would be nice I think.” Hopefully a bright daughter like Zara was; she wasn’t quite sure what she’d do with a dim filly.
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Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:51 am
Xla'lanan chuckled at the memory. He had to admit that he often just sent the children running to their mother. 'Go see the tactition,' he told them. 'She's the smart one.'
And he'd get such retorts as 'But you're the advisor'. He wondered if it was a game that every parent played. How many times could you send the child from one adult to the other before they gave up and stuck to one with persistance?
"We'll be able to keep track of them, at least." He hoped. The four they had now pracitically ran wild.
"Two sounds like a very nice number."
--
And so the days traversed by the by, and the tree grew bigger. Xla made sure there was plenty of food and he refused to leave for anything else. Simply refused.
The tree, with its clashing colors, began to conform into two small buds.
"Looks like half our wish is true," Xla'Lanan noted it one morning after bringing some food for a no doubt worried mother.
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Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:06 pm
Undine smiled at his approach, glad to see him again despite the fact that the Advisor had not been gone long, and gave a nod of her head. “Indeed it does,” she agreed, running her yellow eyes over the twin buds. “We’ve, what? One in three chance of getting the other part?” the blue paint flapped her stiff wings a few times to relieve some of the tension there and dipped her head to munch on some of the supplies that Xla’lanan had brought for her. After a few moments, she raised her head once more and gave her mate another smile. “Not bad odd in my opinion,” she concluded with a smile, turning her attention back to the tree.
It was growing well, for sure; she knew a bit more about such things now having had one set of children already and her practiced mother’s eyes made out no fault or sickness on the growing tree or on its buds. Things would be easier this time, much easier and that was good to know. She’d managed four fruits without going nuts as some mares did, so two ought to be a breeze with how well Xla was looking after her. His more frequent presence at her side was a comfort too, she had to say. It was nice not to be alone.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:11 pm
One in three sounded correct to him. He'd never been an expert in math, but he supposed one would have to be in order to do Tactician work. Knowing how many and where they were at all times was crucial, or so he gathered. Neither one talked much of their work away from their work. It was decided that subjects such as those were left untouched. He wondered who decided it?
"No, very good odds if I say so myself." He was saying so, too. Keep your hopes up, he told himself repeatedly.
Even then, if he did have a son there was no way of telling how it would grow up. There was Dahak, who was odd. Urien who, well, wasn't at all there in the head. Then there was Xladine, and he just wasn't about at all.
Which was why this time he'd practically run their lives. No child of his was growing up to end up like Urien again, that was for sure. Nor Dahak, either. Good soul though he was, he was just far too odd.
"There seem to be a lot of other families," Xla'Lanan noted. Most of them crossbreeds, but he'd spotted one Jala group a ways away. "Looks like our kids will have some company, at least in the beginning." Though they wouldn't be off playing with crossbreeds. Oh no, he wouldn't have that kind of behavior.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:37 pm
Undine smiled and bobbed her head. “That’s good, foals should have other foals to play with.” She assumed, of course, that he meant Jala families. The only way her foals were going near other breeds was if they were slaves and even then only maybe. She’d sometimes wondered if some of Dahak’s oddness was down to him finding and claiming that Bae so early in life. She couldn’t find a reason to explain Urien though, so perhaps they’d just been a strange brood. She loved them all of course, she did but... but sometimes she wished that her boys were more...
Katilenuck.
Still, at least she had Zara and perhaps soon another daughter. If not... Well, perhaps she would get a pair of normal colts out of it. Nobody dared say anything about it what with her being who she was and Xla being who he was but the yellow-eyed tactician suspected that many of the herd harbored a sense of amusement over her children. Perhaps, she considered darkly, it made them feel better about being of so little consequence in comparison to her mate and herself.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:56 pm
Xla'lanan agreed with her wholeheartedly. He had not played with too many in his youth, but that noted, it was because he was near to the oddness of his own sons. The irony.
He stifled a yawn and plodded over to her side, lowering himself down with his back to hers. She was a comforting presence, though he wouldn't admit it. He'd been out of the lands many times, yes, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. Speaking of, he really should go and pick up something for the queen from the humans.
As a sorry for his absence or something along those lines. For now, he was tired.
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:13 am
Undine felt a sympathetic yawn try to rise in her throat and swallowed it with some difficulty. “Well,” she sighed as her mate dropped down by her side, “I think sleep sounds like a good idea for now; it feels a lot less taxing this time around but I’m still tired.”
He probably was too; sometimes she wondered if stallions really had it much easier with all that running about and worrying they had to do. Still, he was here now, resting beside her and that was good; she liked it when he could stay with her for a while. Even though their becoming mates hadn’t exactly been intended and had been far from romantic she was deeply fond of the blue-eyed stallion; loved him even. She certainly didn’t know what she’d do if he wasn’t around, and not just for the sake of their children, either.
Allowing her body to relax back against her mate’s the yellow-eyed mare repressed another yawn. “Night Xla,” she said with a smile once it had passed, “rest well.”
With these words, the tactician closed her vivid yellow eyes and drifted swiftly toward sleep and dreams of new foals. She really hoped there was a filly within one of those buds.
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