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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 12:08 pm
 Frosty had spent most of the morning exploring the small meadow in which she found herself, and now it was definitely time for lunch. She had sniffed at a particularly delicious smelling section of grass earlier, and was now in the process of trying to find it again. She was completely oblivious to the idea that there could be other Soquili in the area, or other living things at all. The young foal hadn't had a lot of life experience yet, really, so it was understandable. But what better time to learn than the present, right? This was not what the hungry little one was thinking about though as she walked slowly around the meadow with her nose in the grass. When a grasshopper was disturbed by her investigation and flew out of the green carpet, the foal's brown eyes widened in fright, before narrowing in curiosity. Frosty was becoming more and more curious, and much less cautious.... This is what happened to a foal without a biological mother to guide them.... Just as she was about to pursue the strange jumping-bug, though, Frosty's stomach rumbled a reminder to her. She really was quite hungry. Resigning herself to only mediocre grass and putting the insect on her mental to-investigate list, the small foal stuck her maw back into the grass and tore off a mouthful of blades, chewing thoughtfully as she stared off into the distance, completely unaware that anyone else existed in the world.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 2:16 pm

Ostara trotted along her way amiably. She had a mind to try to find one of her other usdia companions to spend the day with. It had been a while since she had seen the friendly and entertaining Leap. Maybe she'd be able to find him on her way! Snitch had been quite the fun one to be around as well. She imagined that she would be quite happy with either of their company... or really anyone else that was of a friendly sort.
She blinked as the forest suddenly gave way to meadow grass. It was a beautiful area, lush and verdant with growth. With winter starting to creep up on the land she supposed she ought to try to enjoy such scenery while it lasted.
Such scenery and such company, apparently. She belatedly noticed the gray filly grazing amidst the grass and grasshoppers. Ostara put a friendly smile upon her face as she approached. She did enjoy the company of foals. They weren't nearly so stuffy as their older counterparts and she didn't have to look up to talk to them.
"Hello, hello!" she called as she grew closer. She hoped that her friendly demeanor would keep the filly from being skittery around a stranger.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 7:18 pm
Frosty had been munching on her second hearty mouthful of grass and gazing off into the distance when a voice caught her attention. She flicked her ears around, and her body followed as soon as she got a lock on where the greeting had come from. She wasn't very used to verbal communication yet, so she must have looked a bit ridiculous as she puzzled out what was going on....
A further look of confusion crossed the filly's features as she looked at what had spoken to her. Her head tilted slightly to the left as she considered what she was seeing. Frosty had met adult Soquili before, and she vaguely knew what she looked like, and she was a foal, but this creature was neither a foal, nor an adult, but looked strangely similar to both. And it was talking to her.... And she understood it.... And she should probably respond so that she didn't look like an idiot.
"H-hi...." Her voice was a bit quavering, for one thing, she hadn't heard herself speak that much. The creature did look friendly though, or at least if it had been an adult making that expression, Frosty would assume they meant well.... And since that was all she knew, she had to go with that assumption. She would not flee though, since her curiosity was far stronger than any inkling of fear.
But her patience quickly ran out, along with a small scrap of fear, and the filly blurted out, "What ARE you?" At which point she starting with her staring again as she evaluated how this creature was similar and different from herself and adult Soquili.
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:52 am
If an adult soquili had given Ostara that sort of response to a friendly greeting she might have taken affront. When shown such shock from a foal, however, it became amusing instead of insulting. She had a hard time not bursting into laughter at the poor thing's confusion. Foals were dear little creatures indeed.
"I'm an usdia." She turned herself in a quick circle, showing off all sides of her. "An usdia. See?"
She did smile then and her blue eyes were crinkled with unuttered laughter. "We're like soquili but smaller. We're really not that much different except for our size." She remembered her first time seeing a grown soquili. She had responded much the same as this one was responding to her, with disbelief, shock, and a little intimidation.
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:01 pm
Frosty hadn't thought for a moment about being insulting, and the fact that she didn't get a sharp whack in the nose was lucky for the foal. She was still learning about her world after all, and without parents to guide her, what else was she supposed to do besides ask every question she could think of. As the usdia spoke the word, the gray foal mouthed it as well, trying to get the vowels in their places. It was really quite nice of the usdia to turn for Frosty, a fact which for once didn't escape the foal, since she was quite delighted to get to see all sides without having to walk around herself. Her legs were still getting used to holding her up all the time.... Nodding at the usdia, the foal smiled, "Cool!" A delighted grin spread across her features, and she was happy when it was reflected in the other's face as well.
"You don't look small to me! I mean, you're smaller than an adult soquili, but you're the same size as me, and I'm not small!" To emphasize her point, Frosty stretched her neck tall and stamped her front hoof. Any adult that called her small was likely to get a childish glare, since this little one definitely did not think she was little. "But... are your foals smaller than me? 'Cause that would be small...." Frosty tried to imagine this, and ended up with an image kind of like a cross between a fox kit and a soquili, which just didn't look possible, in the foal's mind.
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Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 7:52 am
The filly really was more adorable than any creature had the right to be. Ostara's friendly smile took on this good-humored amusement while she watched the foal's antics. So energetic and curious. In Ostara's mind those were two very good qualities to have in any creature, especially a foal. It was important to learn about things early on in life. When one became older it seemed like it was harder to learn things than before.
She nodded cheerfully in response to the foal's question. "We'd have a hard time of it if the foals were the same size as we were." She doubted that the filly knew the details of exactly why it was that it would be difficult to give birth to a foal the same size you were and Ostara decided not to enlighten her just yet. Her parents could have that lucky task.
"So yes, they're a good deal smaller than you. About half your size." Ostara had never had foals of her own but she had seen other usdia foals to judge their size from.
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Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:32 pm
Frosty's grin only widened as the usdia's expressions grew in happiness. Though she was a bit too forward for her own good, her exuberance for life had not yet gotten the little foal into trouble, and when other creatures were happy around her, Frosty was quite delighted. When her new friend confirmed that foals were smaller, Frosty nodded, though she was still having trouble picturing such a small creature. She stretched her neck around to try to get a good look at her own body, but still couldn't picture it. Shrugging in an equine way, the little foal stopped worrying about it, and when she didn't quite understand what "it" the usdia would have a hard time with, she ignored that as well, figuring that it was one of those things that adults didn't want to tell her. It frustrated her at times when she wanted to know something that the adults wouldn't tell her, but she had figured out that it was better to stop asking and to ask older foals instead. This didn't always lead to the most accurate information, but Frosty believed it happily.
"My name is Frosty by the way! What's yours?" There she went again, completely changing the topic of conversation, but she had gotten bored with it, and realized that she still didn't know what to call her new friend. Everyone had a name right? Frosty hoped so, since otherwise that could get quite confusing....
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Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:42 am
"I'm Ostara." She shook some of the stray bangs that intruded upon her vision out of her face. They had their introduction now! That was a good sign that she was getting along well with the foal. Ostara was glad. New friends, young or old were never something to scoff at.
"Where are your brothers and sisters or your parents?" she asked in a conversational manner. If they were about to sneak up on her it'd be nice to know. "After getting older I have a hard time finding my family anymore. I suppose they're probably still out there and doing all right, but it's always nice to have someone a little closer as well." She continued in the same conversational tone of voice. She wished that she knew where her family was but it was far from any dramatic sort of pain.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 2:43 pm
Ostara, it was not a name that Frosty had heard before, and her lips noticeably moved a bit as she tried to master the sound of the word. There was so much variety in what everyone was called, Frosty was worried that she would have trouble keeping all the names straight! At the usdia's next question, though, Frosty's brow furrowed a bit in thought. Brothers and sisters? She had heard the words used before by other foals, but she was fairly certain that she didn't have any friends of that sort.... But she knew the answer to the second question!
"Umm... I don't think I have brothers and sisters.... I don't think so at least.... But I know that I don't have parents." Of course the foal didn't realize that from a biological perspective she had to have parents, since she had only ever heard of parents as the adult horses that raised foals from when they came out of their basket, and she knew that she didn't have any of them, not really at least. She had met adults on her travels, but none had been around when she came out of her basket, so she was fairly certain they weren't her parents. Frosty tilted her head, though, as Ostara continued on the subject. Though the orange tinted usdia didn't seem that sad, it sounded like a sad thing to Frosty. If she had had a family before, she would be sad that they were gone.... They were hard things to find after all! "That's why it's good to have friends!"
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:21 am
"You don't have parents?" The words spilled out of her mouth and Ostara blinked with surprise. "But certainly you had to-" She cut herself off before she could continue. Something had obviously befallen the parents of this lonely little filly. It wasn't unheard of, really. Sometimes accidents happened. Skinwalkers and kalonas happened too. Even the occasional abandonment wasn't unheard of.
Still, it was sad to actually find the product of one of those cases. Ostara quietly went through the list of larger soquili she was acquainted with. Could any take care of this filly? It was dangerous to be alone when you were that young. It would only be too easy for a wolf to pick off a foal without their family.
"But you've been managing just fine on your own, I see?" She stalled for time while she thought. "That shows a great amount of resourcefulness. You really ought to be proud of yourself!"
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