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 Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:59 am
Interest was what he needed; change. The Utena girl had been interesting, but she was gone with the interesting scaled Reya. The Seer Storm was interesting, but she was nowhere to be seen, was probably far, far away. Damn. So he had to find something else interesting.
Fawkes came to a halt and looked about himself at the rich greeness of D’ob and the pure azure of the summer sky above. He remembered loving these sights, but a memory was all it was and he couldn’t really understand why he’d cared when he had. The sky was blue; oh joy. There was endless green grass; so what?
Snorting to himself, the gold-dappled Ichsa set off once more, scanning for anything out of the ordinary, anything at all to catch his eye and give him a moment of interest. So far as he could see right now, however, D’ob was as dull and full of dull creatures as ever. Just perfect.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:01 am
"Katie-nana, where are we going?"
"Back to Quirne, dearie. You know the sea air's good for you."
Colleen smiled. She'd almost forgotten about the ocean. "It's good for you too, isn't it?" she asked, trotting a few paces to catch the patterned Caris and nudging her fondly.
Katie grinned toothily and nuzzled back. "It's good for everyone. - Hold up, hold up; Ichsa to your right."
Obediently, Colleen stopped in her tracks and turned her head to look. She had to look twice: the Ichsa in question had no horn, and that confused her for a moment. But the wings were right... Oh well, he must have lost his horn somewhere. Poor thing. ...But wasn't he handsome, though? Handsome...and sad. There was no perk about him, no life. He looked as though he had lost something. Colleen could relate. She'd spent so long looking for her Katie-nana, and she was so much happier now she'd found her.
Perhaps she ought to offer to help.
"Shall we go and talk to him, do you think?" Katie prodded gently.
That was all the encouragement Colleen needed. Tossing her mane as neatly back into place as she could - because Runt, the dear girl, had explained that these things were Important when addressing someone attractive for the first time - she trotted in the stallion's direction, wondering what she might say to him.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:20 am
The pure white was what caught his eyes first, and when he turned his head to inspect the other creature more fully, the stallion found himself raising his eyebrows. Not only was she lovely and strikingly patterned, but she seemed to have a matched Carris with her. Pretty on its own wouldn’t have been nearly enough for him, but the harlequin mare with her harlequin companion caught his attention and held it. It seemed the mare was interested in him too, for she was heading towards him at a trot.
Swishing his curly tail, Fawkes came to a halt and watched her approach. “Interesting pair you two make,” he commented once he judged her to be within earshot, “don’t think I’ve ever seen something quite like that before.” It was comical, the way they looked as though they ought to be related and as he said it was quite unique, too. He’d seen brown Carris with brown Nequus and so on but brown was brown; quite common and dull. Not like the sharp patterns and vivid red accents that adorned the mare and her little friend. Perhaps this would be where he found his interest, then, and if not at least he had a pretty mare to look at.
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:47 am
Hurray! He was taking an interest! Colleen beamed. "Nor have we!" she chirped cheerfully. "We're not quite sure how it happened either - Katie-nana found me when I was still in my fruit, and she stayed with me because..." She frowned suddenly. Why had the little Caris decided to stay with her? Not that she wasn't grateful, but still... "...because...I looked like her?"
"Because you looked like me," Katie took over, "and I thought that might mean something. You know, like how fruits often look a bit like their parents? I thought maybe I was supposed to look after her. So I did. And I've been doing so ever since. I'm Kate, just to clear that up."
"And I'm Colleen," said Colleen on cue, smiling again now that everything was starting to make more sense. "We're just passing through here on our way to Quirne."
Introductions made on her side, there was nothing for Colleen to do but wait for the hornless stallion's name in return - and give him a better look over, of course, which she proceeded to do. He was an interesting...no, colour wasn't the word for it. He didn't seem to have a colour as such. He was so heavily dappled in such a variety of shades that she couldn't pin him down to any one of them: it wasn't as simple as saying "dapple grey" or something like that. Was he red? Orange? Gold? Tan brown? He looked - oh, it was terribly cliched, but he looked like nothing so much as a living flame. True, matched pairs like her and Katie weren't something you saw every day. But neither was the strange stallion.
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:09 am
Well, wasn’t she quite the perky one. Fawkes nodded and flicked his wings in a shrug. “Well, fair enough then. Oh, and I’m Fawkes.” Quirne was it? Well there was one thing to be said for that place, it was a lot more interesting than D’ob was. Perhaps he’d have to head back there soon, or perhaps not if D’ob continued to provide pretty things to look at. The mare wasn’t the sort he’d considered beautiful in his youth, he’d liked more muted tones and subtle patterns but after her he’d somewhat gone off the understated sort. The bolder and more contrasting they were the better he liked them these days, within reason of course. Purple and green still was not and never would be his look of choice but the red-marked mare... She was quite lovely to look at even if she was a complete airhead.
“Perhaps I’ll tag along with you,” the red-eyed stallion said after a few moments. “There’s bugger all else to occupy me after all. Nothing quite so nice as the scenery in D’ob.” You could get bored of it in one sun, let alone one lifetime and after so very many of those, Fawkes was heartily sick of the green place. The only reason for coming here, he found, was if food elsewhere was scarce, or in a desperate attempt to make him appreciate other areas of Urin a little more.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:20 pm
There was something about the way he'd said "nice" that made Colleen think it probably wasn't a good thing. Dull, perhaps, was what he'd really meant - mo-no-to-nous, as Katie-nana had once spelled out to her when she was very young. Same old, same old. Looking around, she could understand what he meant. There was contentment here, she supposed, if one could be content with a peaceful and uneventful life. To her, it sounded...well, monotonous. She wanted to see everywhere. D'ob was all right to come back to, but only for a day or so at a time. It was a good place to pass through. Yisi Rishunesafarina, though, the Crystal Lands...now there was variety. Mystery. The chatter of water instead of the chatter of Nequus. Perhaps this Fawkes chap would like it better there. He sounded fairly well-travelled, though - he'd probably been there quite a few times already. It was hard not to go there if you were going anywhere else.
"I'd like that," she said in answer to his question, smiling in a welcoming fashion. "Katie-nana, would it be all right for Fawkes to come too?"
Katie wagged her tails cheerfully. "Of course, dearie. Urin is free for us all. We'd be glad to have you, sir."
Colleen gave a gleeful little hop-skip. "H'hee! Goodness, I'm all excited now. By the way - " This was addressed to Fawkes. " - if ever I start to annoy you, do feel free to tell me to shut up. I know I get chattery; I shan't be offended."
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:44 am
Perhaps, Fawkes considered, he ought not to have decided to say he’d go with them after all. They were so bloody cheery. Still, better cheery weirdos than D’ob, and Colleen was still something to look at. “Oh no fear on that score,” the lithe stallion snorted as the diamond mare spoke again, “I never hold back from giving my opinion when it’s warranted.” The annoyance of their perkiness, however, was not one worth mentioning as yet. Perhaps if it continued to grate, though, he would; that or he’d just part company with them.
“So then, off to Qurine we go,” the red-eyed stallion said, throwing another contemptuous glance around at the pleasant greenness of D’ob. “Take it you’ve both been there before?” he added, realizing with a scowl that conversation without a point wasn’t something he was very good at anymore. ‘Oh and how are you?’ when somebody looked just fine was just about as daft as ‘it’s a nice day’ when the sun was high and warm in the sky but tempered by a gentle breeze and then of course there was the old favorite ‘so this is it, we’re going to die’ when surrounded by angry warriors who had just been given the order to tear you apart.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:11 pm
"Yes, we both have," Colleen answered for the pair - Katie had trotted ahead, presumably to give her some time with her new herbivorous (and rather good-looking) friend. "Though the last time I was there, everything was a bit...confused."
Her memories of the ocean were vague. She'd been in a daze at the time, alternating between aimless wandering and suddenly finding herself crying - for what, or for whom, she knew not. Katie had wandered at her side, tails drooping, making worried little whining sounds. Eventually she'd herded her away, once the fog had begun to clear. Food had been scarce for her by the sea, and the plenty of Yisi and D'ob had gradually revived her. But the ocean, Katie always maintained, had slowly woken her from her walking sleep.
How she had come to that state of exile, dragging hoof after hoof along the shore, was a mystery to her. All she knew was that she had arrived so encrusted with dry blood - her own? Someone else's? Both? - that a single dip in the bitter salt water had not been enough to wash it away. And she knew too, without Katie having to tell her, that this was no tale to tell to a new acquaintance. People tended to be a bit funny about blood.
"I'm looking forward to seeing it again," she said, her voice a touch distant. "I think I'll appreciate it more this time."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:33 pm
Fawkes noted the far away tone in the sharply-marked mare’s voice but didn’t feel the need to comment on it or read into it. He was having enough trouble of thinking of thing to say without opening the way to possible angst. He couldn’t stand angst. “Well good,” the gold dappled stallion said eventually, “hopefully we won’t run into any idiots; the ocean does seem to attract them for some reason.” Moon worshipers and romantics and those looking to ‘find’ themselves. It never seemed to go down to well when he told them that if they didn’t shut up they’d ‘find’ themselves at the bottom of a cliff, but then that was the intended effect. He liked it when idiots flounced off in a huff rather than taking up more of his time and decidedly limited patience.
As they walked onward, Fawkes looked his red-splashed companion over again and smiled very slightly. What, he wondered, would she make of his flames if and when he got around to showing them off? It was always good fun to see how people reacted to that and if her reaction was screaming and running, well there were plenty more pretty things in the world for him to stare at... And what would her companion think? The tall Ichsa turned his eyes onto the three-tailed creature trotting along ahead of them and frowned internally. He’d never had much to do with her kind, or any of the creatures that spoke other than Nequus. Hopefully she wouldn’t get in the way of him appreciating Colleen’s arse, he could already tell she was protective of Colleen but what he couldn’t guess was whether or not that would cause her to be an unbearable bore. Shrugging to himself, the red-eyed stallion turned back to Colleen in case she had anything to say about his comment on idiots.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:08 pm
"The ocean," said Katie, dropping back to walk beside them, "attracts mostly those who are not looking for what the ocean really is: salt water, soft sand, a difference in the air. Those who go there for the symbolism tend to leave disappointed. Or in pairs." She grinned, showing off impressive but unthreatening canines. "Though they do say opposites attract, once you enter the realm of moon-worshipping and soul-seeking there's something to be said for Jala of a feather - if only because there ought to be someone who thinks you aren't talking drek, if you'll pardon my language."
Colleen giggled. "That's a naughty word, Katie-nana; you told me never to repeat it."
The Caris chuckled. "That's because at the time you were barely old enough to have a thought of your own, dearie."
"Sometimes I don't think I've ever had a thought of my own," Colleen said with a mild frown. "They all come so suddenly and so out of nowhere that I wonder if lots of other people take turns thinking for me - or am I talking nonsense now?"
Katie laughed, but tellingly didn't answer. "The road ahead's clear - we've had trouble in the past from disagreeable stallions wanting one thing only, you see," she informed Fawkes with a roll of her eyes. "A set of good teeth tends to make them wary enough not to bother."
Technically the horn ought to have done the trick, but what Katie knew - and Colleen subconsciously knew - was that Colleen was too far out of her mind to use it with any degree of sense. Lethal force, for example, meant very little to her. It made sense to have a less deadly deterrent on hand.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:34 pm
Fawkes snorted at that. “The number of stallions who keep their brains in their balls sickens me... Still, if any of them do decide to be an annoyance, I can soon be rid of them.” It was amazing how little you actually had to fight when you could summon flames about your person. The tall stallion smirked a little at that thought and looked down at the Carris named Kati. She was, it seemed, more than just another fool. With pretty Colleen away with the fairies, it would be good to have somebody to talk to. Just because he didn’t especially like the canine didn’t mean he wished to turn away her company; she seemed like the sort who was, well, interesting.
“Perhaps,” the red-eyed stallion said with another smirk, “we’ll find some moony idiots gamboling about in the shallows and tell them about stinger-fish, do you think? Or perhaps we should explain about the carnivorous ones with big teeth you sometimes get. I expect we could thin the ranks of the army of fools no end with a few such well-placed words.” Perhaps she was too kind to want to do that, but he really didn’t much care. If she didn’t want to join in, he was perfectly capable of doing it alone; he’d heard plenty of horror stories of the sea in his time and had had time to commit most to memory, and to consider the most disturbing way to deliver them. Grinning to himself as he searched the depths of his memory for the choicest of these tales, Fawkes walked onward.
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