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 Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:24 pm
Dear mother..if only she'd not named her when she was half lucid from labour! That was Neve's opinion at any rate. If not, Marut would have been named differently, given a feminine name at any rate, and would have grown into a lady. Instead of the mess that was clomping home right now.
The mare sneezed; daaamn..that was all she needed, to have caught a chill. Neve would never quit now. Oh well, she wanted to see her family, so would have to face the wrath of mother if it was anything more than just errant dust causing her to sneeze.
She was now almost home, familiar trees, and a lingering scent that made her feel welcome greeted her as she plodded on, casting around now for sight or sound of any of her family.
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Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:18 am
 Vartan no longer lived in glade where he'd been raised. Indeed, he'd left the area almost immediately after growing into an adult. Given the choice between staying home and smashing his brother's muzzle into a bloody ruin, or roaming free throughout the countryside, he had chosen the latter option without hesitation. The world would be a better place without smug, supercilious Ishmael in it, dazzling the weak and bilking the innocent with his exotic airs, but Vartan couldn't bring himself to hurt his mother by eliminating his brother. Sometimes even he had to concede to sentiment.
Family attachment was a powerful force, no matter how much he might have liked to be free of his accursed Kalona heritage. And so it was that Vartan made the occasional trek back to assure his parents that he was still as alive and ornery as ever. Once a month he cantered through the old, familiar paths of his youth, and marveled at how different they looked from on high.
"Marut? Is that you?" Vartan picked up speed, drawing closer to the hoof-prints he heard in the distance. It had damn well better be her. He didn't think he could deal well with Maharet's dithering when he was this tired from traveling.
His hopes were rewarded when he caught sight of a familiar dark head.
Vartan snorted and slowed to a walk. An ugly scar ran all down his flank, hampering his movement and shining with a sickly gloss. It was obvious that wherever he'd been, he'd been in a fight.
"Heh." He smiled. "You look like hell warmed over."
From anyone else, that would be a rude and dismissive greeting. From Vartan, it was a practically a jump for joy.
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Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:22 am
Marut caught Vartan's scent before she saw him, her hair having slipped over her eyes again. She flicked it back, and poked her tongue out at her brother;
'Love you too Vartan,' she said, grinning at the stallion.
'And what, you're surprised? Clean is for those prissy mares, the ones who give a rat's bottom as to whether their mane is tangled or not.' she snorted, walking over to her brother and giving him a friendly butt with her nose on the side of his neck. As she drew closer to him, she caught sight of the fresh scar, and let out a whistling breath.
'Hey, who did that?' she asked, looking at him sharply. He'd not had a run in with Ishmael had he?
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:09 am
Vartan's hair was nearly as long as his sister's, though it had no unique fall to it, and it was thankfully much less likely to draw the wandering eyes of local males. The stallion guessed that he should get it cut or braided to keep it out of his way, but damned if he was going to waste any time on styling his hair. He was no prancing idiot. He had principles and standards to uphold. If twigs and leaves got caught in it, then so be it.
A guy like him had to do what he could to look rugged. Nature had only given him pinks and purples and blacks to work with.
"No one you'd know." He cleared his throat, looking almost embarrassed. It was a damn good thing that Soquili couldn't flush through their fur. "It was a- thing. Had a scrap a few miles over, is all. Wound got infected. It's fine now."
Time to change the subject before Marut noticed the scrapes on his belly as well.
"What about you? Finally taking off from here? You look like you got in a fight with a bog."
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:49 pm
Marut flicked her mane from her face yet again, and eyeballed him. Why was he being so evasive about who he'd got into a fight with?
'I'm glad it's fine now,' she replied, still regarding him thoughtfully.
'So what, you got your butt kicked by a girl, is that why you're not saying who it was?' she hazarded a guess with a small grin. She did actually want to know who did it because she was't happy that he'd gotten so scarred. Her sparring with him was fine, anyone else and she wanted to bite them. And kick them.
'I came back to see my darling brothers, and I am sure to get a tongue lashing from my mother. And I've not entirely left the area, Maharet does tend to worry if we're gone for a while. Even more than mum.' she rolled her eyes.
'I had fun,' Marut countered.
'You remember that? Least I didn't come back here all banged up.' she snorted at him.
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:09 pm
At that, Vartan cracked a small grin. For a moment looked like the open, fun-loving Soquili he might have been, if he hadn't been a natural-born b*****d.
Then the moment passed, and Vartan was back to being Vartan.
"You're kidding, right?" He butted his muzzle against his sister's shoulder. "Knowing Mom, and with all the scraps I got into with you? It doesn't matter if an opponent is mare or a stallion. I don't buy into that chivalry bullshit, and I don't prance around a fight with a mare like a whiny little colt. Strength is the only thing that's important."
Vartan raised his head to look at the canopy, his dark mane flapping back in the breeze.
"Got into a fight with a bitchy mare a few cliffs over. Wound got infected, and I ended up staying with her for a while. That's all. I don't care about the scar."
In fact, he sort of liked it. It was proof of who he really was, underneath the roses and the pink and all that damn hair.
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:00 am
'You still didn't tell me outright straight away though,' Marut pointed out, grinning still. There had to be something he was hiding, but she'd wheedle it out of him eventually.
'Huh, so it was a mare? How come you ended up hanging around with the vicious b***h then?' she raised an eyebrow..after flipping her mane out of her face once more.
'Can I kick her about for you?' she offered, winking, and she nudged him back. Her family members were the only ones she'd ever shown affection to so far, and so when she was around them, it was the only time she was tactile in a non-combative way.
'See, now here was me thinking you'd been fighting with him again.'
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:05 pm
Vartan made a low, disgruntled sound in the back of his throat, then bit back a gruff sort of laugh. He let Ishmael's bullshit roll off his back, because he knew exactly how much his brother was full of it. But Marut was exceptionally good at teasing him.
He'd missed it, to be honest. It reminded him of his foalhood days, when he'd yet to taste blood on the tip of his tongue and the world was free and easy.
"Hah! I'll fight my own damn battles, thanks. As far as vicious bitches go-" Aa small, sly grin spread across his features in spite of himself. "You could say I like a challenge."
Vartan wasn't exactly a tactile guy himself, but he made exceptions for his favorite sister. He flicked his tail out to slap her flank in retaliation. Considering how competitive they both were, this could easily devolve into a childish shoving war.
"I don't engage Ishmael anymore. He's not a challenge, he's a joke, and if it weren't for those damn wings, he'dve had the crap beat out of him a long time ago for pissing off the wrong Soquili with his moronic little games."
Vartan looked to the path, so that Marut wouldn't have to see the hardness in his eyes.
"It's better for Mom - for everyone - if I don't see him again. I don't know how you do it."
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Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:14 am
Marut raised an eyebrow; weeeird. He actually liked being beaten around by a female? She'd not gotten to understand male & female relationships that weren't family based yet, and of course she wasn't an actual male so she didn't find aggressive mares a turn on.
'Git,' she said fondly, grinning as she flicked him with her own tail, of course making it a tad harder than he'd hit her!
She frowned though, at his words about their brother. She'd never understood the rivalry between them, it was so. So vicious. When they fought she would often get a rumbly belly feeling and she felt it a bit now as he spoke.
'Because he's my brother, same as you are.' she sighed.
'You're both stupid, but I still love you.' and she thwacked him with her tail again, just so he didn't think she'd gone mushy.
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:57 pm
"Heh. Whatever you say, little sister."
Vartan took the smacking with relatively good grace. He'd given up on getting his sisters to perceive Ishmael the way he did a long time ago. If no one but him could see that his brother was obviously an evil little b*****d, then he'd simply have to watch, and wait, and help pick up the pieces when things went foul. There was no point in ranting on when it'd do no good.
He cast a glance at a mostly grown-over path that began up ahead of them.
"Want to take the long way, so you can enjoy that mud a little longer? Or is Mom not on your back anymore?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:29 am
'Yeah, yeah rosy.' Marut grinned at Vartan. Marut would never think of Ishmael the same way that Vartan did. Not even if he was vicious to her, attacked her for some reason. She might stay away from him, but would always have her sisterly love for the both of them.
'Mum hasn't seen me yet,' she snickered.
'She'll pitch a fit, I know she will. Go on again about how I'll never give her grand-children if I look like a pig.'
She looked down the path he had glanced towards; tangling weeds, and splashing mud.
'Let's go then!'
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:24 pm
Brother and sister took off down the path, and deliberately got themselves as dirty, windblown, and mussy as possible. In his youth Vartan had been picky about his appearance, but Uncle Zevach had drilled that kind of vanity right out of him.
Racing through the trees with Marut at his side almost made Vartan feel like a foal again. There weren't many worries in this world that couldn't be driven away by the wind in his face and a healthy ache in his muscles.
"Heh. You know what would really give Mom fits?"
((PS: It's Vartan, not Vatsa. ; ) ))
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:40 am
(( Lol, I've done that a few times lately XD ))
Marut felt the mud squelch under her hooves as they meandered, occasionally lifting her legs up higher to splash her brother. Her tail dragged behind her in the muck, and she felt the teeniest twinge of guilt at all the work that Neve would have to do to make her look presentable again. Oh well, that was far off.
'No, tell me?' she asked tentatively. If he was going to suggest doing something to their brother Ishmael, she'd have to slap him with her tail.
Their mother was actually fairly close by, sunning herself and grazing in an open area the other side of the twisting path they were taking. She paused whilst chewing on a mouthful of grass, her ears flicking.
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:00 pm
Do something to Ishmael? Hardly. The whole reason Vartan strayed away from his ancestral lands was to avoid having to do anything related to Ishmael. The farther away he was from that smug little b*****d, the better. Vartan wouldn't break his discipline for a cheap thrill.
The stallion took note of the hesitation in Marut's voice, and retaliated by kicking some dead leaves in her direction.
"What's the matter? Have you gone girly on me?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:23 pm
Neve shook her head and went back to grazing, slowly meandering around the field, her tail flicking at inquisitive flies.
Marut butted at him properly this time, a fairly hard one;
'Never! Git,' she said.
'I never know what's swirling in that mind of yours is all. But tell me, what would really give our mother fits?'
Marut couldn't imagine it would top how they both looked right now; well especially how she looked!
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