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 Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:48 pm
Instead of them setting about to meaningless quarrels, she made them all go on tasks. Scouting parties for water, for paths, for food. The last was of little concern to her, but it gave them something to do. The remainder were given flight exercises. The cliffs in the lands where they were going were few and far between. Though the Katilenuck may have been the finest flyers ever to be bred, they were being dragged out of their element.
In a fuming rage, the blood of the troublemaker marking her face, Storm had left them to their duties. She'd ventured towards Ryuten in hopes of something to calm her spirit. Humans seemed to have the desired effect on her head. They seemed simpler than Nequus. Gentler. Beautiful almost.
It was then that she'd received a nasty jab. It was her own fault for using her seer powers so readily wherever she went, but it didn't make her feel any less upset. Gritting her teeth, she'd changed course, and it brought her to where she was now.
A purple mare with dark stripes, and a golden stallion with a short cropped mane that gave him a stout and powerful appearance. They had three daughters, and one wasn't there. Well, none were visible, but the aforementioned had vanished. Storm would have felt remorse, save for the fact the mother didn't seem saddened by this news. In fact, if she had felt correctly, this mare was happy at the prospect of her daughter no longer being among them.
"Ryuten is an interesting place to live," she told them. Her left eyebrow was raised, and she stood rather nonchalantly behind.
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:34 pm
Before his brain had even registered what his eyes had seen, Diego had taken a half-step in front of his mate and set his ears somewhat back in suspicion. Crossbreed, a bloodied crossbreed at that. What the hell could she want from him? If she’d harmed any of his herd, she was going to regret it and he didn’t give a flying drek how much bigger than him she was, or how sharp her horn.
“Yes,” the golden stallion said after a moment, “I suppose it is. You are in the northmost reaches of the herdlands of Estavan, is there something I can do for you, stranger?” If she was here in peace, which was hard to believe from the blood that was not her own, he would be happy enough to tolerate her. Gods knew crossbloods weren’t his favorite sorts in the world, but it was hardly their fault that their parents lacked anything that even vaguely resembled judgment.
Well that was unexpected. Bastet blinked at her mate’s protective stance, attempting to get her mind around it. Sure she knew they were getting on now, but she hadn’t expected him to go putting himself in front of a meaning crossbreed for him... No, and that wasn’t a marking on her face. Bastet narrowed her eyes calculatingly, her ears adopting a set much like her mate’s. So, just who had this little, big rather, lady been maiming? If it was somebody she knew, dapple bottom was getting a mouthful of hoof and that was for damn sure.
As there wasn’t really anything she could add to Diego’s words, for now at least, Bastet maneuvered herself subtly so that she stood by the blue-eyed stallion’s side rather than behind him. Though the gesture was somewhat sweet, she wasn’t entirely welcome.
The day she was somebody’s pretty little mare who needed looking after was the day she laid down and died from sheer shame.
Watching the tall mare carefully, Bastet waited to see what would happen next, for once not leaping in and letting her temper take control of her muscles. If a fight wasn’t needed, then it ought to be avoided; so was always the way with horned breeds. Of half breeds.
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:55 pm
Storm rolled her eyes at Diego's protective stance. Typical attitude - harmed the herd, revenge, blah, la de da doo. It was enough to make her wretch. Save for the fact that she didn't.
"Ugh, you people are claiming ownership of lands now?" Storm complained with a groan. "I'm not going to make it out of here without golden fancies chasing me with warcries, am I?" She clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and ended up shrugging it off. As forward as Diego was, Storm had a guess that their military experience wasn't top notch. Besides, the Katilenuck were fast on their feet, and Storm was just itching to see how long it would take them to get there.
"Yes, though, besides the point. You can do something for me." She grinned quite avidly, her eyes flashing towards Bastet. Oh, she was pretty enough. "It's quarter breed," she corrected Bastet. "If that."
She paused. "You're looking at me like I'm a halfbreed. Cut it out." The second sentence would likely drive out the notion she was a seer. She didn't want Diego knowing. Not just yet.
"I should introduce myself then," she began, her expression still moderately toned. "I'm Storm, and you two would be?" Another pause. "Oh yes, but I already know your name, Bastet. I came here to see you."
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:11 pm
Pirvately thinking that he didn’t care if she was purer than the year was long with an attitude like that, Diego gave a snort of derision and allowed his ears and muscles to relax somewhat. “No, Storm, no chasing around. So long as you don’t plan to accost any of our herd, you are most welcome to pass through or even to remain if you so choose.” After all, the blue-eyed stallion considered with an internal scowl, it seemed that quite a lot of members of this particular herd rather liked bastards; she’d probably rise to popularity swifter than a mare leaping up from a thorny bed.
“Since you already seem to know my mate,” the short-maned Jala went on, “my name is Diego.” What did she wanted with the impulsive, stubborn and excessively short-tempered creature beside him? Gods save him if they were old friends or something; last thing he wanted was to have to put up with her because Bastet liked her... but no, his mate was looking quite bemused and rather shocked, too... Well, time would tell, he supposed, and at least the tall cross, of whatever degree she happened to be, wasn’t making too much of a nuisance of herself as yet.
For a moment she had been stunned, then she had passed it off as nothing but now, once more, she was suspicious. Alright, it was possible that the tall mare had heard her name from somewhere and had some business with her but... It was odd. Still, she’d only find out by asking, she supposed. “Really? What for?” She couldn’t think of a better question, and that one ought to get her the answers in any case, if Storm did actually want to talk rather than taunt in any case.
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:29 pm
Storm wanted to laugh at him. He really thought he was all that, didn't he? He had an attitude, as well, just very much hidden. That in itself was a condradiction she despised. She concluded she didn't like him very much, either. Funny how they were both being very civil. Well, it was about as civil as she got when she was visiting someone else's herdlands.
"Accosting your herd would be a boring waste of time: and one with no reason." She didn't just do things for the hell of it. If she did, her status would be changed from 'grumpy' to 'insane'. She was definitely not the latter.
Bastet supposed correctly. Sort of. Storm didn't like handing out information, and she didn't think Bastet's "mate" would take to kindly to anything she had to say. To be truthful, as of yet, she had more questions to ask than things to say. Simple mundane questions that might bore Bastet, but questions never the less. Actually, in regards to the topic, maybe it was only Storm who would find it boring.
"Well, to be absolutely truthful, you're a bit of a legend where I come from," Storm said with an almost girlish grin. She paused and pinned her ears at Diego. "I've always wanted to meet you, but I didn't expect to find a tag along, nor did I expect to find you mated to that tag along."
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:50 pm
Bastet’s jaw all but dropped. She was what now? She was sure she’d never done anything to make a legend of herself anywhere, hells her father probably hadn’t even classified her as a legendary pain in the arse! “I... Am?” The striped mare’s ears perked forward in curiosity, and some of the tension left her body. “Wow,” she grinned back despite herself, something about the tall mostly-Jala’s expression had pulled it up from inside her whether she’d wanted it on her face or not. “I had no idea anyone outside my herd even knew my name... Oh, and Diego’s not a tag along, he’s cool, but... he is my mate, we didn’t get a choice really.” She felt she ought to add that, he’d been decent to her since, well forever really so she ought to at least try to stand up for him.
...It was odd though. Very odd. She’d never, ever done anything of any real note. Lived with her herd, tried to be a guard, got shoved off to be Diego’s mate. Other than the short interlude running away half way across Urin, that was her life. The golden mare before her seemed sincere, but it was quite possible that she was somehow mistaken, or even that she was just a very good actress and actually didn’t think she was some legend at all.
She would, Bastet supposed, have to try to find out and avoid being distracted by the attractive concept of being somebody that people actually wanted to meet for herself rather than her blood and position. Then, of course, there was the matter of her grinning back... What was it about the creature before her? What was it in those mismatched eyes that had prompted the grin, the odd excitement she could feel within her? She was, Bastet decided, damned if she knew.
...Bastet? A legend? Hells, she’d never mentioned that... but apparently she hadn’t known herself. This was weird. Well, at least she’d said he wasn’t a tag along for whatever it mattered... Actually it did matter, but not because he minded what this Storm thought of him. That the gold-hooved mare thought to give him a complement, however generic and in passing, whilst having her ego stroked was an encouraging sign.
The matter of why Bastet was a legend if indeed she really was, he was quite prepared to believed that the white-maned cross was making it up for her own purposes, still remained however. Still, perhaps Storm would explain soon; she was certainly looking the perfect picture of an adoring fan, though the girly smile did go rather badly with the blood...
“If you wish to speak to Bastet in private,” the blue-eyed stallion said evenly after a moment, “I would be happy to take myself out of earshot.” Bastet could, after all, take care of herself by and large, and he wasn’t planning on going far enough to be too far to help if needed in any case.
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:12 am
"Well, more or less," Storm hurriedly corrected. She didn't want to give the mare a heart attack, or even bring her hopes up too severely. For petes sake, she just wanted to get rid of smelly old Diego here. Smelly, maybe not, but definitely old.
"Don't worry, you're well known enough other places." Storm wanted to add, 'as being a failure and going with the system', but she knew that would be a step far over te line.
"Yes, D-," she stopped and bit her tongue. "Sorry, I'm used to an odd system of formality. I would appreciate your distance." She watched him as he left, keeping an eye on him and almost all of her seer powers. She wanted to see exactly where he went, who he was with, and then she'd make bloody sure he was out of earshot. As funny as it would be to see this whole herd down in flames, it wouldn't have been fair to the purple mother before her. Love for a daughter was at least one thing that could bring them together, even if Storm fought it the whole time.
"Now, as to why I'm really here. . ." Storm changed her whole demeaner as fast as the winter's snow came and went. "You're setting yourself up for trouble, Bastet. Diego is going to catch on someday, and if he doesn't catch onto that, your mind is certainly a ******** for drek." To be truthful, it was one of those specimens that hurt to read. She was so condradictory. She almost seemed to love Diego, but she could never feel passion for him. She loved her children, but she wished only to be free. In short, she hated her life, but was too happy to do anything about it.
The worst part, was she didn't know what she wanted just yet. It was time for a test.
"I met a mare once, quite like you. Wanting to get away from her parents. She had hair like fire, and eyes like the sun. Her body was well toned, and she was fit enough to take on all the stallions that dared to come after her. She asked her father if she could challenge them, just to prove to them she needed no protection. Her father, though set on the rules of marriage, was quite inclined to let her continue." Storm clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "In the end she challenged the wrong person and died."
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:32 am
True to his word, the blue-eyed stallion moved out of hearing range of anything quieter than a scream. Bastet, known in some other place for something unspecified. He wished he knew what. He didn’t think his mate a good enough actress to hide some heroic or iconic identity from him, but he wasn’t sure.
The best pretenders of all were of course the ones you never expected it from. Angry, short-tempered and sometimes resentful Bastet could be just such a mare. Diego snorted to himself and shook his head, coming to a halt under the shade of a friendly tree. It was possible, he decided as he settled himself down to wait, but not probable.
Bastet stared. Oh drek. A seer. “I... Well I can’t very well tell him,” the purple-striped mare managed once she had overcome her shock. “He’d be devastated to know that she left of her own free will...”
Yet wasn’t he devastated, too, at the possibility that she had not? Damn. She hated doubts; really hated them, because usually it turned out that her first choice had been the wrong one. Running away at first had been wrong, and she had corrected it. Treating Diego like drek had been wrong, and she’d corrected that too. Was hiding what she knew from her mate a mistake as well? Damn.
Bastet shook her head to herself a few times before focusing back on the seer before her. “So what’s the moral of the story then?” she asked with a shrug of her wings. “Don’t fight every blood stallion that thinks his a big shot? That I should listen more carefully to my father?”
It was all very well for the mare in the story, she could picture her well; her mane and tail would be thick and curly and her body sleek but strong, but it didn’t help her so far as she could see. Idiot Bastet was not, far from it, but she had never paid too much attention to things such as words games, or picking the meaning out of stories about striking but apparently misguided mares.
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:59 am
"There isn't any moral to that story," Storm groaned. Honestly, just because she was a seer didn't mean she could go out spitting fanciful riddles. To be truthful, it was a very sad story at best.
"But if you must have a moral, it's to learn to love what you already have." There, she could chew on that one and spit it out to make the grass grow taller. People these days were so. . . aggravating! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the stallions had driven her insane, or maybe she was just on one this week. This mare, who did it remind Storm of?
"You sound just like that stupid pink mare I saw on Fyhi," Storm suddenly realized. "Oh yes, just like her." She thought on that one for a moment, stuck the story and the minds together and presto.
"That's why," Storm thought allowed. "You're. . . " a laugh came to her lips at the irony of it all. "That's why you can't be happy. You're absolutely, irrefutably homosexual."
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:16 pm
The dark-coated mare stared. Again. “You what now?” Gay? She wasn’t gay... Well okay she’d never liked stallions like other mares seemed to, but she could recognize a handsome one when she saw one. She had lots of male friends, she got on wonderfully with them, sparred with them and ran with them and flew with them. By and large, she found mares a bit silly and fussy. She met the odd good one, of course, and got on wonderfully with those few good ones but mostly they’d be travelers, soon to move on and leave her with her stallion friends again. She couldn’t be gay; she had a mate, and foals and...
So, fine, find me a pretty princess to protect, then I’ll have a mate for you riruy.
Bastet scowled at the memory. She’d been a daft filly just messing about, it didn’t mean anything, she’d just meant that she couldn’t see herself with a stallion when she was often so much like one herself...
Oh.
Bastet regarded the tall seer before her and remembered how easily and inexplicably she’d smiled along with her smile. Seers knew your mind, not your heart so far as she was aware but definitely your mind. Had the mostly-Jala seen something to make her say that, or was the magic user just trying to mess with her head? Either was possible she supposed but, the muscled mare scowled to herself, but it would certainly explain a whole lot.
“I think,” the gold-hooved mare said after a very long pause, “that you may have a point...” It was an enormous thing to consider so suddenly but it wasn’t a ridiculous idea that she could just pass off as nothing. It was possible, quite possible, and it definitely explained why, though she recognized handsomness in a male, it didn’t affect her in the least, and explained too why she had, as an adolescent, liked to lie in the shade with the young stallions and watch the young mares wander gracefully about together.
At the time, she’d thought that she was just appreciating beauty but now she was beginning to think that she might actually have been Appreciating it. Damn. This was going to be a hell of a possibility to explain to Diego... She should probably work it out for sure first, though. No sense telling him something that might not turn out to be true after all.
...It would explain a whole lot.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:56 am
Storm just shrugged it off and waited. She cocked her jaw and enjoyed the scenery while Bastet went over the inevitable flashbacks in her head. They were interesting enough, sort of. She drug her tongue along her teeth and stifled a yawn, though she was inwardly thankful that Bastet had not turned into a raging ball of fire and attacked her on the spot. Some Nequus were known to do it. Some Nequus were crazy.
After Bastet was done with her litle escapade into her past, Storm turned to grin at her. Just to offer her that little knowing smile she so liked. And, of course she had a point. She was a seer, and above all Storm, and therefore she always had some sort of point to make. Otherwise she wouldn't speak to you. That point was perhaps the only certain trait about her.
"You have plenty of time to think on it," Storm told her. "Diego is smart, but he trusts you. This might slide by, but the other. . . " She shook her head and sighed.
"If you value your friendship, mutual bond, whatever it is you have with him, I'd suggest telling the tag-a-long the truth about daughter dearest. It may even alleviate his soul a bit." Storm had the horrible urge to go find the daughter and make sure she was safe. Free or no, a mother was a mother, and Bastet would not be one without a worry in her gut and a sorrow in her head.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:24 am
Bastet sighed and felt rather young and foolish. Damn. The seer was, of course, right. Hells, she could see into Diego’s head, so she probably knew what was best. “You’re right,” she didn’t like it much but there was no denying it, “and I should probably talk to him about the other stuff too.”
Her mate had admitted to liking stallion nearly as much or even just as much as he liked mares, perhaps he’d be able to help her out. It wasn’t like he was ever expecting love anyway, perhaps it would be easier on him if he knew... if of course she was gay, which she might not be. A small part of the mare’s head, which had probably know all along, laughed at her for that, but Bastet ignored it. She might just like both or something, right? Right.
“So, Storm, are you planning to hang around long?” she felt a little as though she owed the dappled mare now, and she didn’t like owing people. Well, not a lot she could do unless the seer decided she wanted something of her. Bastet looked the larger Nequus over again, trying to get her head around the revelation that had just been dumped upon her.
To distract herself, the striped Jala considered the blood. Where had that come from? She liked girls? It didn’t look like the mare’s own at all. Liked as in liked? The feather-winged magic user didn’t look as though she’d been in a fight. How did girls and girls even do it?
Bastet shook herself and scowled at her own distraction; she could probably ask Diego later on. He probably wouldn’t laugh too much.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:23 pm
"In due time," Storm answered the first. Somehow she felt that Diego would take better to having it given to him in pieces. Then again, she didn't judge reactions well.
"No," she answered to the question. She had no intention of staying anywhere, especially not with the Katilenucks getting as restless as they were. She had them tasked for now, but who knows what they would come across. It was a dangerous endeavor to bring an army into a world full of the innocent. "You don't owe me anything."
She let the mare stew on the blood. It was more amusing if she didn't know, and besides, she appeared to be using it as a distractant. "Don't think on it too much, you'll hurt your head," Storm wisened her. The last part made her choke on her own spit and laugh.
She tried to regain herself through the coughing, but it was very difficult. Sometimes being in another's mind was very amusing. The fact that Bastet might ask Diego about it just a slight bit funnier.
"Well," she manged after clearing her throat. "Good luck with that."
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:58 pm
Well, it was good that she was released from any debt over the whole thing, but Bastet couldn’t help a small scowl at the seer’s laughter. How was she supposed to know? It wasn’t as if this sort of thing came under the awkward talk her mother had tried to give her when she’d been approaching marehood. She had been very glad she’d already known, Bastet recalled with a soft snort of amusement; if she hadn’t her mother’s awkward ramblings about what happens when a mare and a stallion loved each other very much would have confused the hell out of her.
“Thanks,” the striped mare said eventually with a hint of a grin, “I’ve a feeling I’m going to need it.” Storm was probably right, again. Talk to Diego about Sekhmet first, worry about the lesbian bit another day. “So... unless there’s anything else, I should probably get back to him.” Before she persuaded herself that not telling him was a good idea after all.
It was going to be unpleasant, she was going to get shouted at but it had to be done. He did, after all, deserve to know and it would only get worse the longer she left it. He’d probably find out in the end anyway, so she might as well yank the thorn out now and put up with a bit of bleeding rather than let it work in deeper and deal with everything going foul. ...And where had that bout of fanciness come from? Damn. Diego’s way with words was starting to rub off on her.
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:18 am
Storm closed her mind off quite quickly. She didn't want to know about all the awkward ramblings of Bastet's mother. She'd become better and better at catching warning signs so she didn't have to listen to certain aspects or see certain things, but every once in a while they came back to snatch her.
"No," Storm Bastet's question. There was nothing else. Thank goodness.
With a muted sigh, she watched Bastet leave, and then turned to go herself. Washing off this blood before she gave the fright to anyone else was probably a good idea. She didn't want to deal with it, besides. It tasted very vile.
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