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 Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:04 pm
She hadn't found Himemiya's tree that day. She'd go back and look for it again soon, but she'd seen so many it had begun to hurt her head. Maybe that's why she was here, because there were no trees. Or maybe it was because she wanted to see that Fawkes creature again. The hornless one.
She had questions for him that had stirred in her head. Always so many questions. She had things to ask everyone, and the rock that she was standing next to wasn't giving her any answers.
"I don't know, well its pretty. Kind of green. Juuri had eyes like that. Kind of green." She repeated her phrase, noting how it flashed dejavu in her mind.
"Anthy's eyes were prettier." Weren't they? She cocked her head to the side. "It's kind of foamy, too. I wonder, if. . ." Nah, couldn't be.
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:40 pm
 Common sense. Spyke had not yet developed any, and perhaps he never would. Sneaking away from his dozing sire had seemed like a fine adventure to him and so far it was. The air was crisp and cold, the sea lapped up and down the sand with gentle sighs and there were many small creatures to investigate in the sand. It was with one of these that the colt was preoccupied with; a little scuttling thing with six legs and two big claws. He could run rings around it, but had discovered quickly that getting close was a bad idea; his nose smarted from where the shelled thing had caught him a sharp pinch.
Still, it was fun to jog along after it, to watch its funny sideways run and to feel the wind play through his tendril wings and his deep blue mane and tail, to smell the sea and to feel the shift of sand underhoof. Yes. This was definitely the best place he’d seen in his short life. D’ob had been nice, as had the crystal lands but... Well, they’d been... nice.
Just as he was wondering if that even made sense, the young Ichsa spotted a set of hooves a little way ahead of him and skidded to a halt. The crab scuttled away, and the foal raised his vivid blue eyes to inspect the other Nequus. She was an Ichsa like he was but... but she didn’t seem to have any wings. Still, as that wasn’t the sort of thing you said to another person right off, the youth cleared his throat and smiled politely up at the tall mare.
“Hi,” he said after a moment, “ ‘m name’s Spyke; nice day in’it?”
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:51 pm
Utena didn't seem to hear him at first.
"Yeah, nice day," she answered, and then flipped.
"Jumpingjahoovafoots!" she exclaimed, sidestepping when she got a good few of the foal. "I didn't even see you there!" She caught her breath, and her composure shortly after, her ears rotating in embarrasment.
He was cute. . . sort of. As cute as youth could get, she guessed.
"Uh. . . nice to meet you Spyke," she continued, vaguely recalling that was his name. If she'd been paying more attention instead of falling off into space this wouldn't have been a problem. "I'm Tenjou Utena, but you can just call me Utena." There was no need for respectful surnames, not anymore.
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:11 pm
Spyke grinned at her, he hadn’t been aware of being stealthy but he supposed he must have been; go him! “Sorry,” he chuckled with a dip of his head. “Didn’ see you ‘till a moment ago if I’m honest... Utena hu...?”
Humm... Now why did that name jangle at the back of his mind? It was something he ought to know, something he’d been told... Utena. Utena the Ichsa? Utena the pink? Utena with no wings! Of course; the pale mare with the rose marking and no wings!
“Ohhhh,” the colt grinned again as he reached his conclusion, “I know you, of you anyways. Y’ met my Dad in Shrilal, ‘e said y’ brought food for him once...”
He couldn’t remember anything else his sire had said about her, if indeed he had said anything else, but Spyke had been left with the distinct impression that the blue stallion felt indebted to her for that moment of simple kindness she had shown to him; to both of them in fact. Perhaps that made him indebted too, he wasn’t quite sure of how such things worked yet. Still, perhaps he would find out in a moment; maybe she would ask something of him or his father in return, who knew?
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:28 pm
Utena was quick to defend herself. Sure, she wasn't a tiny midget still, but she was definately a young girl, and young girls did not get caught unawares by litte children. "I was just lost in thought is all," she explained.
She watched the wheels turning in his head. Did she look like that when she was thinking very hard? She hoped not. It went from 'cute' to distorted.
"Oh really?" she seemed almost joyed by the situation, but the sentence quickly turned dark as she realized what people knowing her outside of Ohtori might mean. Thankfully, her worst fears were not going to come true.
As he finished up, her own brain clicked into place. "Oh! Oh my goodness!" How had she not seen it before? Blue and Brown? Just like the tree, and just like Maurice. It couldn't have been more than a few months ago that she'd seen him, but it did feel like a long time. Being alone would do that to you, she supposed.
She resisted the urge to say, 'I stumbled across your father when you were just a fruit, you're rather big now!', as it was something she remembered her relatives saying back before their family was not much of one.
"I take it he's doing well, then?" Come to think of it, she hadn't seen this boys parents.
"Actually, where is your father?" She scanned the area as if expecting him to leap out and tackle her viciously. Maybe not quite that dramatic, it didn't seem like a very Maurice-like thing to do.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:54 pm
Spyke grinned and flicked his short blue tail. “Yep, definitely getting big now. Dad says I eat like an Aeri.” This was, the youth felt, broadly true but it was also a touch hypocritical or whatever the word was. Still, he could put up with that from the curly-maned Ichsa; everybody was entitled to be a bit of a hypocritical every so often... Or was it hypocrite? Well, whatever.
As Utena went on, the brown colt nodded. “He’s fine, yea, asleep when I snuck off... Umm... Hu...” The young Ichsa grinned sheepishly and flicked his dark wings a few times. “When I decided to come out for a walk,” he amended, despite the fact that there was no point in doing so. “We live in a cave jus’ down the beach a bit,” he went on as though nothing had happened, “chances are he’s still there dozin’; was up most of the night doin’... somethin’, I dunno what, didn’ ask.”
He never did ask where the elder Ichsa went when he wandered out of the cave by himself. Sometimes his father was gone a few minutes, sometimes a few hours as he had been the night before but the pale-winged Nequus always came back with an air of calm and peace about him. Whatever it was, Spyke reasoned, was private and made the well-built stallion happy, so it was probably fine and he’d never got to the stage of feeling lonely so why pry?
“Y’ wanna come see the cave?” it occurred to the foal a few moments later. “ ‘m sure he’d be ‘appy t’ see y’,” he added with a smile and a nod to the tall mare.
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:26 am
Wakaba didn't eat all that much, Utena mused with a frown. She did her best to make a lot, though. Everything certainly tasted better than what Himemiya had launched together. Still, Utena preferred just plain grass. Much preferred it.
Utena chuckled when he found his Freudin slip. She winked at him and in a whisper, "It's okay, I won't tell." It was their little secret from this point on. Of course, Utena wasn't a completely dolt and she guessed that 'going for a walk' happened on a regular basis and wasn't to highly accepted by Maurice.
Utena was glad to see that a few things were similar to Ohtori. A lot of the Nequus lived in tree shelters in D'ob, but she'd found them lacking in her desires. A cave was far closer to the well-crafted stone that made up the school. Heck, it was all pretty much a cave anyway. However, the said cave had a lot of labor put into it. Now that that memory blurble was out of the way. . .
"I'd love to come see where you live!" Utena chimed merily, glad that she'd be able to see Maurice again. She'd like him. Quite a lot, in fact. For her, that was a feet, most males, no, most people left her unnerved these days.
"I hope your father doesn't mind me barging in on his naptime," she worried with a smile, waiting for Spyke to show her the way.
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Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:16 am
Spyke grinned at the other Ichsa and turned away to trot back the way he’d come. “I’m sure ‘e won’t,” the colt offered with a nod. “If y’ can wake ‘im up shot of kickin’ ‘im, ‘e doesn’ mind.” He hadn’t come as far as he’d thought in his pursuit of the little shelled beastie, the brown and blue foal noted a moment later; they were drawing close to the entrance of the cave already.
Giving Utena another smile, Spyke indicated it with a flick of one small wing. “Here we are then,” he added aloud as he slowed to to walk and stepped inside, giving a whicker of greeting as he did so. “Hey Dad, wake up will y’? Got a guest.”
Maurice, who had been dreaming fuzzily of nothing in particular, blinked to wakefulness at the familiar voice and raised his head. Spyke had a guest, hu? Daft little twerp had wandered off again then. Still, he always came home in one piece so it was probably...
The well built stallion scrambled to his hooves with a smile as he spotted who the guest in question was. “Utena! Didn’ expect t’ see you ‘ere... not that ‘m not glad to of course, I am; how’ve you been?” Gah. Damn sleepy tongue making him even less eloquent than usual. Oh well, no help for it; hopefully she wouldn’t mind too much, the last thing he wanted to do was annoy or insult the tall mare.
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:17 am
Utena let out a smirk at the colt's frisky behavior. She didn't think she'd be doing much kicking today, or, at least, she hoped not. She chewed on the question for a moment before mentally shrugging it off and blindy following the colt wherever he willed. When the cave came into view she peered at it with interest and gave a polite smile, but was still obviously apprhensive of anything stone. It wasn't that she didn't like it, it was just that she was afraid of having nightmares afterwords, or worse yet, an upset conscience.
"You're not terribly polite, are you?" Utena asked the colt with a chuckle. Her aunt (and her teachers) would have had her hair for speaking like that to her father. It was odd to have a lack of a last name, too, though she remembered that most outside of Ohtori did not, and some inside preferred to pretend they never received one.
She grinned when he saw his discomposure. Let us hope she never got caught asleep like that. "It's great to see you to, Maurice," she responded, the expression of joy still present. "I've been well enough. I thought I'd come visit the ocean. Fresh air does good for a Nequus' mind, I hear." She hadn't been here long, but it was helping, right? Right. Of course it was. No one would have a reason for lying to her about that silly thing.
"You have a nice place here," she told him, her gaze darting about her surroundings. They certainly wouldn't get wet. "Does it storm here often?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:11 am
Spyke grinned up at Utena. “Not to ‘im I’m not,” he said with a mischievous smirk before cantering over to his sire and nipping the larger Nequus playfully on the shoulder.
Maurice made to n** back, but the brown colt had already danced away and he settled for giving a snort of amusement and keeping a closer watch on the boy in case he decided to try it again. Shaking his head to himself, the blue stallion turned most of his attention back to his guest.
“Thanks,” he said with a smile and a nod, “I certainly like it ‘ere. Spent ages pickin’ an ‘ome out when I first moved ‘ere... I’ve ‘eard it said that the sea air clears y’ mind an’ I’ve found it t’ be so m’self. Guess it might not be the same for everyone, like some people might think best ‘alf way up a mountain or in a forest or whatever but... Yea, I see things a lot clearer here than anywhere else in the world.” Had that made sense? He thought it had, it had made sense to him at any rate.
“Storms are mostly over f’ the year now,” Maurice went on, “the worst of ‘em are anyways. Prob’ly won’ get any more bad enough t’ do more than wash the floor but if y’ about the coast in a storm it’s always best t’ clear out of caves an’ that an’ get up the cliffs an’ back a bit. Sometimes big waves can come on real sudden, an’ believe me y’ don’ want t’ be in their way.” That little speech had been as much for Spyke as for Utena; he suspected the pink-maned female would have the sense to figure that out for herself but Spyke... Well, the boy was definitely bright but he was also really, really stupid. Very much like his mother, actually.
“D’ y’ know ‘ow long y’ goin’ t’ be staying ‘ere in Qurine?” it occurred to the blue stallion to ask after a moment. “Y’re welcome t’ stay ‘ere with us if y’re looking for a good place t’ shelter for as long as y’ do stay.” He liked the wingless mare, true he didn’t know her in the least yet but he liked her nonetheless and besides, he still owed her big time. Giving her an offer of shelter didn’t even begin to cover that, but it was a place to start at the very least.
Spyke nodded along to his father’s words on storms. Right, he’d heard this one before; get up and back and no don’t sneak back for a better look without me Spyke I know what you’re thinking you little horror.
He knew that the black-horned stallion laid down such rules for good reason but it was just too tempting to stick his nose where he’d been told not to, or in this case to try to slip up to the edge of the cliffs and see the massive waves wash up towards him. Still, after the scolding he’d got last time he’d done that he probably wouldn’t repeat the trick.
Spyke grinned to himself again and trotted back close to his sire. The elder Ichsa was watching him suspiciously, and so he gave the blue stallion an affectionate nuzzle rather than another n**. It was fun to tease the tendril-winged Nequus, it really was.
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:11 am
It took Utena this long to realize how much like his father the young colt sounded. In fact, they talked in much the same way. Their words were often cut short in the same places, and the foal at that small chirrup of an accent. It was a pleasant sound, there wasn't anything wrong with it. She had just noticed the smiliarities. That was all.
She tried to hold back the chuckle that formed at the corner of her mouth. The foals antics reminded her a lot of ChuChu. If he'd been a small purple creature with thumbs, she could liably see him jabbing a sword towards his father and scurrying away as if nothing was wrong. Then again, he wasn't a tiny purple familiar, he was a Nequus and this behavior might be slightly more threatening than something that wasn't even close to your size.
The ocean wave warning was headed. It was best not to learn that particular lesson her own. She didn't feel like taking in a lungfull of water any time soon.
She blinked, realizing she hadn't known the answer herself. "Well, no, I just came, and now," she laughed at herself. "I've just suddenly realized that I don't know where to find food or otherwise." Way to plan ahead, oh pink prince.
"Stay with you? Of course! I'd love to. No, I'd be honored to stay with you, Maurice. Your son, too." She grinned at the mischevious creature. "I bet he has lots of things to teach me." She winked at the little colt, but on the inside she was bursting with excitement. It would be wonderful to have company again, especially one so pleasant as Maurice.
"Were you like that when you were young?" she questioned, noting how sly Spyke found himself.
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:45 am
Maurice gave a lopsided grin at that question. “No, no I wasn’t; I was ‘orrible I was. ...More ‘orrible that is.” And she could interpret that how she liked; he highly doubted that the long-horned mare would make the leap of imagination that would bring her to the fact of the matter. Said fact was of course that a whole new word would have been needed to describe the sort of colt he’d been. Like evil, but... eviler.
“I expect,” the blue-stallion went on after a few moments, “that there are a lot of things that Spyke ‘ere would love to teach you. Probably mostly all the most inventive ways to almost break y’ neck t’ being with.”
He was promptly nipped for this comment, but he’d been expecting it and so the silver-marked Ichsa had time to duck his head down and give his son’s tail a good yanking. The colt gave a surprised squeak followed by what he would no doubt later deny was a giggle before prancing away to hide behind Utena.
“As f’ me,” Maurice went on as though he had not been interrupted, “I’ll be ‘appy t’ show you the best places t’ get food and water ‘ereabouts. The specifics won’ apply t’ the rest of Qurine of course, but if y’re ever traveling along the coast for a significant period of time, lookin’ f’ the same sort of features I’ll point out t’ you should serve y’ well enough; I picked it up pretty quick when I arrived.”
Deciding that chase probably wasn’t going to get played right now after all, Spyke stepped out from behind Utena with another grin. “Yea,” he said with a nod, “Dad’s great at findin’ nice stuff t’ eat; he even found us some apples the other day. They were a lot smaller than the ones y’ get other places like D’ob an’ that but they were really tasty all the same; easy to eat too.” They had left lots of the crisp fruits on their tree, so there would be more to eat today provided somebody else hadn’t found and eaten them all. Hopefully there would be at least some left; grass was all well and good but it did get rather boring if you never got anything else.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:43 am
Somehow Utena couldn't see Maurice as being horrible in the slightest, or 'orrible for that matter. Then again, Spyke didn't seem all that bad, just a bit mischevious. Weren't all children supposed to be a bit playful? She hoped so. It was distinctly hard to remember back to her childhood, and even more so to remind herself that she was still very much a child.
She wasn't sure what was so inventive about breaking one's neck, but then again, she wasn't inclined to find out. "It's going to take a lot of tossling to bring me down," she warned the little foal. After all, a prince never faltered in their task. If dangerous was Spyke's - oh the double entendre - cup of tea, so be it.
She watched the colt skirt behind her with soft eyes, knowing that he might just decide their company was friendly enough to n** as well. "Good to know it's not hard. Compared to classess at Ohtori, that sounds like a breeze." She really should have paid more attention to those, but you know, it was difficult when you were challenged to duels every other second of the day.
"Apples?" Utena had -no- idea what those were. She'd heard of tons of exotic fruit names, but even the word 'apple' sounded foreign. Like it wasn't from their world. They had thing such as blorgnats in Ohtori, yikit, stuegt too. All very Nequus terms, but apples? "What are those like?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:27 am
Maurice, who had been about to ask what Ohtori was, paused as Utena asked the apple question. “Umm, well they’re a kind of fruit. Round, crunchy, y’ can eat the skins... They taste like apples t’ be honest; I don’ think I could really describe them that well if y’ve not had ‘em before. The ones we found the other day are sort of... umm... refreshing? Not too sweet but not really sour either... They’re nice though, or I like ‘em anyways.”
Everyone had heard of apples, surely... Where did Utena come from? She looked young, yes, but was she really young enough not to have come across them before? Apparently so.
“I’ll show you to ‘em alter if y’ want to try them,” the blue stallion went on after a moment before pausing again as he remembered what he’d been going to ask the pink-maned mare. “Where’s Ohtori?... What’s Ohtori come t’ that, I don’ think I’ve ever heard of it before.” It was, apparently, a place where classes happened.
“Apples are good,” Spyke felt the need to put in. “First thing I ever et was an apple, Milo brought them to Dad from the humans apparently. They were quite big apples though, not little ones like the ones we found the other day, but both sorts are apples. I think.” They looked sort of the same, tasted sort of the same too. He didn’t know if they grew the same because he hadn’t seen the tree that Milo must have brought the big apples from but there was no reason to think they weren’t the same thing so far as he could tell.
Ohtori. Honestly he was interested to hear about this place too. He wasn’t sure what classes were, but they didn’t sound like fun. Come to think of it, it sounded like you were taught things in classes given how the wingless mare had brought the place up in response to his father’s offer of showing her where to find food and water. Pleased with himself for that bit of deduction, Spyke grinned and waited to hear about this place called Ohtori.
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:47 pm
They sounded delicious, though the name sounded so distinctly un-Nequus. Perhaps it was something the humans had raised? They had funny terms. Utena hoped they found some of these 'apples', it would be wonderful to have a few new experiences under her horn.
"I'd love to try them," she agreed. The words Ohtori made her ears turn and flicker. The t had such a vile sting to it. Like the t in her own name.
"Yeah, it's. . . well, hard to explain." She took a deep breath and thought on it. "There are many very intelligent Nequus there, and they attempt to tell what they know to the youth. That's what we call class, and we particularily loathe it." She smiled lightly, remembering the hours spent groaning over things they could have just simply done.
"Ohtori itself remains hidden." She paused. "I assume to make sure everyone stays safe." Or entrapped in a cage following the whims of fake promises and hopes, she added in her mind.
"Siyu Milo?" she asked of Spyke. She'd never met any Nequus by this name before.
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