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 Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:35 am
Giving her tired body a shake, she’d been running hard most of the morning, the young Jala stepped up to the edge of the cliff, spread out her black-feathered wings and kicked off into empty space. The wind of her speed tugged her mane and tail out behind her as she swooped downwards, and Sekhmet found herself grinning again. Today was definitely looking to be a good day.
A few moments later, she landed in the sand with an awkward series of thumps, and a slightly startled snort at how the grains shifted beneath her hooves. She’d been told it was a bit odd the first time you stood on it, perhaps she ought to have come in more slowly. Ah well, she hadn’t done herself any harm and there had been nobody to see her slight stumble. Sekhmet smiled, gave herself another shake and trotted towards the ocean to investigate its shallows. All was well.
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Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:45 am
Grinning to himself, Spyke trotted out of his home cave and set off towards the object of his interest with his ears perked attentively forward. Yes; very nice view from the rear, the striping did wonders for accentuating her assets and such a long silky tail. That would get all tangled up with seaweed and sand; he’d have to take her up to the river and help her wash it later on.
For now though, introductions were in order. A grin came to the young Ichsa stallion’s face and he halted some way behind the larger Nequus; she didn’t seem to have noticed his approach of engrossed was she with watching little wavelets lap up over her hooves.
Still grinning, Spyke cleared his throat. “Hi there, nice day isn’ it?” Thank all Gods his father had vanished for the day; last thing he needed was the elder Nequus giving him dissaproving looks while he was trying to make friends.
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 5:26 am
The voice took her by surprise, and the gold-eyed Jala stared up, whirling around with a snort and pinning back her ears. The creature before her, however, didn’t look threatening, and his words hadn’t been either. Perking her ears back up, Sekhmet smiled at the small Ichsa. “Yea, it is; I was so busy enjoying it I didn’t notice you coming up behind me.” He looked as though he lived here or at least came here a lot; the ease of his stance and the way he didn’t gawp about as she had been indicated that much at least. “Quirne’s pretty awesome,” the striped mare added with a grin, “I was told it was but words don’t do justice to it.”
So big, so open... But what did a Nequus live on here? The stallion before her was small and slight, but she could make out a little sleek muscle under his coat so she guessed it was just the way he was naturally built, most Ichsa were slim. Small size didn’t mean he didn’t get enough to eat either; again it was probably just how he was, Ichsa weren't famed for height or anything. His coat was shiny with heath and his eyes were bright after all. Perhaps he was used to the coarse grass on the clifftops and got all he needed from it, or maybe he ate other things too to keep him in such good condition.
Suddenly becoming aware that she’d been regarding the white-horned stallion in silence for a while, the feather-winged mare gave a lopsided grin. “Sorry, got lost in thought there; I’m Sekhmet, who’re you?” Hopefully he hadn’t taken her distraction for interest in him; he was attractive enough she supposed but a bit small and a bit too, well, Ichsa. Some people were attracted to breeds other than their own, she knew, but she wasn’t one of those people. Recognizing and appreciating good looks was very different from real desire or interest.
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 5:39 am
The tendril-winged stallion grinned back; lost in thought hu? “Name’s Spyke,” he said with a nod, “and it certainly is nice around ‘ere... You come ‘ere lookin’ for someone specific, or will my company do?” He hoped his company would do; he didn’t get to meet enough people his own age, let alone enough attractive or interesting people. It seemed that most of the people who came to visit the coast casually were either already attached, pining, old, mooning idiots or some combination of the above. From her words and actions so far, the only real possibility with this Sekhmet was that she was already attached and waiting to meet her lover.
Well, that would be tolerable he suppose. He could at least hang around with her for a bit even if flirting was off the agenda. Perhaps she could tell him something about wherever it was she came from. It would be nice to know more about the wider world; his memories of the journey from Shrilal were hazy at best and he hadn’t been out of sight of the ocean since. Despite how much he loved his home, Spyke was beginning to feel restive.
Perhaps talk with the striped mare before him would pull him out of the pit of indecision he was currently mired in. To stay, or to go? If wherever she came from sounded interesting, he could go and see it. He’d come home afterwards of course but... but seeing the same horizon every day was beginning to chafe. He hadn’t told his father yet; as yet he hadn’t been able to even start a conversation in that direction. How did you go about telling a parent you were tiring of the home they’d provided for you? It seemed ungrateful to want to break away and yet... yet the desire remained.
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 4:07 am
Sekhmet snorted and gave a lopsided grin to the smaller Nequus. “Your company will do fine, Spyke, but for the record, I’m not into Ichsa.” She was fairly sure he’d been eying her up there, better to be safe than sorry. she didn’t want to feel like she was accidentally leading him on or anything, he seemed like a pretty decent sort so far. Plus, of course, stating her lack of interest from the start would save the horned stallion embarrassment later; it was never good to embarrass somebody with a horn in her opinion.
“So,” the gold-eyed mare went on, looking about at her surroundings, “I’m guessing you live near here? Any chance you’d like to show me around a bit?” If he’d only been interested in the possibility of getting lucky, he could excuse himself in short order and doubtless they’d both be happier for it. If he was happy to hang around with her just for the sake of some company however, so much the better. After all, a local would know the best sights to see and the best places to eat, plus the blue-eyed stallion looked to be about her own age, and she’d lacked company her own age of late.
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 4:22 am
Spyke grinned sheepishly and bobbed his head in assent. “Okay, okay, fair enough.” Damn, she was really hot too. Oh well, plenty more fish in the sea. Hu. Well, plenty more hot people in the world in any case, not many seemed to hang around Qurine though.
“Yea, anyway,” the curly-maned stallion gave his companion a grin, “I am from around ‘ere, and I’d be happy t’ show y’ about the place and that if you’re willing to tell me a bit about y’self and where y’ from. I’ve not really been anywhere but here y’ see, and I don’t meet a lot of new people see. It’s be nice t’ ‘ear about the world, and about you.”
Was he still flirting with her? He wasn’t sure, it was sort of hard to tell sometimes. Oh well, the fierce-eyed mare before him would doubtless give him a good solid kick in the face if he started being too forward, and in any case he really did want to know about the places she’d been and about her. There was nothing wrong with curiosity, right? Well, no, of course not. Just so long as he didn’t cross the line between curiosity and being a nosy little b*****d he’d be fine; Sekhmet seemed like a reasonable sort.
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:21 am
Sekhmet blinked and spent a few moments deciphering what the stallion had just said through his accent. “Oh, yea sure,” the striped-mare grinned as she finished the internal translation. “Sounds like a fair deal to me; swap stories and knowledge and that...” Where should she start? She doubted Spyke really wanted her life story, probably just a few bits about family, about how she’d come to be here and that would be fine for things about her. As for things about the rest of the world... well she’d just tell him about the most interesting bits, she supposed, he probably knew the basics of all the lands of Urin even if he hadn’t visited them.
“Right then, about me.” Sekhmet smiled and set off beside Spyke as he turned to the left and began to walk along the beach. “I’ve got two tree-siblings, and six half siblings, got a father and a mother. They don’t get on so well; their mating was arranged by their parents as they were both younger children of herdleaders. That’s pretty much why I’m out here, too, I didn’t want to get mated off to some convenient stallion, you know? I left quite a while ago now I guess; I was still a filly back then. I miss my family and all, but I don’t feel as though I’ve made myself unsuitable enough to go back to them yet. I need to be or to have something that keeps me from being a playing piece, right?”
The feather-winged mare sighed slightly and smiled over at her guide. “My parents love me, I know they do, but... well, this is my life, not theirs. I had to take it for myself one way or another or they’d probably have twisted it to the benefit of the herd. I couldn’t let them do that to me... you understand, right?”
She’d told a couple of other people about the whole thing recently, and she’d got a huge range of reactions; from complete sympathy and understanding to utter condemnation. It depended, she supposed, on how much you valued freedom versus how much you valued duty and tradition. From what she’d gathered so far, Spyke was one of the ones who valued freedom but still, confirmation would be nice...
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:47 am
Spyke gave his companion a nod and a lopsided grin. “Yea, I get that; I’d be off like a streak of lightning if I thought I was goin’ to get paired off with some mare I never met. Still, I don’ gotta worry about that; me an’ my father are loners, no herd or anything like that to pressure either of us into stuff like that.” The only pressure, in fact, was to remain here and that wasn’t even explicit, it was just the knowledge that if he left, his father wouldn’t come and that the blue stallion would remain here, alone. Damnit.
“So,” the blue-eyed stallion pushed his worries firmly aside and turned his attention back to Sekhmet, “I’m takin’ you t’ see the rock stack first; big tower cut off from the rest of the cliffs, it’s pretty awesome... Y’ were goin’ t’ tell me about the places you been, right?” Maybe if he got a good enough report of the wider world he could persuade his father to come along with him; it would be good to have company if he did decide to go but... but part of him wanted to do at least a bit of exploring alone.
For one it was harder to flirt with people with the elder stallion rolling his eyes every three seconds and for another thing... well, it would just be nice to feel independent for once. Much as he loved his father, it was beginning to become wearisome to be treated like a colt all the time. Maybe if he went off and had a few adventures he could get himself elevated to adult status in the blue stallion’s eyes. It was worth a shot, certainly.
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 10:06 am
The gold-eyed mare nodded her assent to their destination. “That sounds pretty cool, yea, and it must be nice to not have to worry about herd stuff... though I guess it must be kinda lonely, right? Not having had other people your age I mean, or other people at all really.”
She couldn’t imagine growing up with just her parents for company... though Spyke hadn’t even mentioned a mother. Owch. Maybe that didn’t sound so great after all; how dull must it be to have to talk to the same person day after day, and not even a person who you could really talk to, she certainly couldn’t just hang out with her parents like that. The power difference in the relationship was far too clear for her to wish either of them as a constant and exclusive companion; she’d probably have left home sooner if she’d been stuck in a life like that. Still, Spyke seemed happy enough with the situation, so maybe it was best not to being it up.
“Anyway,” the dark-coated mare nodded again, “like you say, I was going to tell you about the places I’ve been...” Where to start? “Yisi’s pretty cool this time of year,” the young mare said eventually, “all the lakes so clear and still you can see perfect reflections of everything in them, plenty of shade, plenty of food, always a new grove or watercourse to explore. I went deep enough in to meet some Dirn once; didn’t go on their rafts but I chatted with them for a while, interesting lot... Ahm... Well D’ob isn’t known for being all that exiting of course but there’s some things worth seeing there; sunsets or sunrises from the top of a hill are lovely, all that greenness and life and so many different Nequus to talk to. Ryuten is nice too, the humans are great fun, and being brushed by them is nice; it’s a shame they can’t understand us really because I think I’d really get on with a few of them I met.”
For a few moments, the strip-faced Jala walked on in silence, racking her brains for anything else to say. She could go in depth more, she supposed, but she couldn’t really think of what to say. The world was the world; seeing it was better than talking about it so far as she was concerned.
Smiling and this thought, she turned her gold eyes back to Spyke. “You should come with me when I go,” she said with a nod, “I could show you all sorts of great places; I’m planning to head to Fyhi at some point, I’ve heard it’s a sight worth seeing and we could avoid the Katilenuck territories if we knew where they were. It’d be cool to have a companion for a change, gets a bit lonely just going around by myself.”
It was an impulsive idea; she didn’t know the stallion at all and for all she knew he had a whole stack of annoying habits that would drive her mad but if that did turn out to be the case she could always part company with him. If you didn’t takes risks on people being idiots, you’d never make any friends after all, and Sekhmet did want to make some friends.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 6:43 am
Spyke blinked. “Come with...” He had wanted to go, sort of, and he wasn’t going to get another chance like this. A companion, a friend to travel with who knew a bit about the world, but who didn’t seem all superior about it. Yes. He could see the world, and then come home for a while and then go explore somewhere else.
“Come with y’ I... That sounds like a good idea actually, a great idea but...” But the problem of telling his father he wanted to leave remained. “I dunno though,” the blue and brown stallion came to a halt and looked over his shoulder back towards his home cave. “I dunno what trie would think. I mean... well it seems like... I dunno, like I’d be abandoning him.”
Sighing and shaking his head, Spyke turned back to Sekhmet. “So then, you seem like the insightful sort what d’ you think?” She’d suggested he go with her, maybe she’d have a way for him to bring it about too, maybe their was an obvious solution to the situation that was obvious to an outsider. He hoped there was.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 6:54 am
Sekhmet smiled slightly and shook her head. “Well there’s only one thing you can do; go tell him you’re leaving. You’re an adult, and it’s your life not his.” The striped mare sighed and shook her head again. “I know people always go on about the duty we have to our parents,” she said quietly, “and I agree up to a point; they deserve our respect and our affection if they’ve been good to us but they don’t deserve to dictate how we live. Yes, they raised us and kept us fed and safe and all that but that’s what they’re meant to do, right? We repay them that when we have children of our own and make the same sacrifices they did. They don’t own us, and anyone who thinks they ought to... well I couldn’t understand a person like that.”
Had that been too preachy, or too harsh? Clearly Spyke had a very close relationship with his sire, but maybe it was best that a little distance grow between them. How could you ever really become yourself if you were forever around a parent, forever leaning on them and taking orders from them? Hell knew she was probably biased given her own life choices, but the Jala mare was sure there was truth to her opinions at least at the kernel of it. People needed to grow up, and it was hard for them to do that if they were forever treated as a foal. Still, maybe she shouldn’t have said anything, shouldn’t have tried to impose her ideas on Spyke...
Eh, to hell with it, if he chose to come with her, that was his choice and if he chose to stay here and stagnate that was his choice too. Her words on the matter wouldn’t sway him to doing something he didn’t actually want to. Maybe she was the push he needed to break away from foalhood and take his life for himself. Maybe she was being overly pompous and grossly overestimating her ability of affect the white-horned Ichsa, and her appearance was just speeding up something that would have come soon anyway. Maybe she didn’t really care either way so long as she got her traveling companion... Yea it was definitely that last one.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 7:01 am
As the feather-winged mare finished speaking, Spyke gave a heavy sigh and nodded. “Yea, you’re right.” It was not going to be a fun conversation, not fun at all. “I... I guess I should get it over with, yea?” If he didn’t go pretty damn soon he was going to lose his nerve and say nothing at all. He wouldn’t be happy again until he’d seen the world, his father would understand that, right? He’d want him to be happy, surely. He wouldn’t make him stay here. No, Spyke sighed, he’d let him go without hesitation. He wouldn’t want to, but he would.
“Look, um, Sehkmet,” the curly-maned stallion sighed again, “keep walkin’ this way, you’ll get to the rock stack eventually. I’ll catch y’ up there once I’ve talked to trie, kay?” The sooner he got this over with the better. It wasn’t like he’d be gone forever or anything either; just for a while, just to see the world a little bit and then he’d at least come back to visit. It would be fine. He hoped.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 7:09 am
The gold-eyed mare smiled and nodded. “Yea, okay. Good luck Spyke, and I’ll see you soon.” So saying, Sekhmet gave her companion another encouraging smile and set off along the beach once more. After a moment or two, she heard Spyke turn around and take off at a gallop back the way they’d come. She didn’t turn around to watch him go, there didn’t seem much point given she’d see him again pretty soon anyway.
She didn’t envy the blue-eyed creature at all; she couldn’t imagine having to explain the desire to leave home to a parent who didn’t want you to leave. Smiling slightly to herself, the Jala walked on along the beach, her eyes trained on the horizon for the rock spire Spyke had told her of. She was, Sekhmet considered with a soft chuckle, very fortunate indeed to have had a good reason to leave home and a mother who had supported her. Now she just had to hope that Spyke found his sire to be as accommodating to his plans as Bastet had been to hers.
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