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 Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:10 pm
 Twitching and flickering its wings and long body allowed a dragonfly to maneuver around the damp atmosphere of the bog. Its movements were reminiscent of a hummingbird, only quicker and lighter to the touch, and had a trail only a keen sense of hearing could detect. The humming passed by many an ear, each in turn ignoring the sound: nobody seemed to want to play today.
After hovering around for a mere few seconds, the insect found a perch amongst the scattered twigs and rocks, and gently settled at the top of the soft brown mound that nestled its way between the roots of a young tree. Unfortunately for the dragonfly, the mound would have none of that perching business; the body immediately gave a short spasm, and the dragonfly was off again in hot pursuit of a less-than-active resting spot.
The body shivered, and ever so slowly, a soft brown nose poked through what now appeared to be limbs, long and gangly, and currently curled around the body of the dark colt. His nostrils flared to take in the morning air, and no sooner was it met with a ferocious sneeze expelled from his mouth. Big ears swiveled about, taking in the noise he just made and any other in his surroundings, but alas, it was quiet.
A little too quiet for his own comfort and, in the end, attention span.
Haze-after-dusk had been able to see for a few days now, though hasn't had the motivation to really see until now. With a sense of bravery and curiosity, the colt pushed himself up in a few clumsy motions, and finally, when he felt stable enough, opened his bright, green eyes to see the world around him.
And what a sight it was.
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 6:49 am
Left hoof, right hoof...it was still a struggle for Sleep-Bringing Flower, but sure enough, she was walking on those four elegant legs of hers. Left foot, right foot, left hoof, right hoof, trip. The little one regained her footing and began again, tail swashing enthusiastically, though her half-lidded eyes spoke of lethargy. The brightly painted filly had been awake since dawn, marveling in the gentle purple hue that overtook the swamp in the early morning. The sun had illuminated all before her, and where once there was gray, there was now an unending landscape of browns, greens and brightly colored insects and birds. She was completely at peace.
Being a curious little Kimeti, Sleep's questions rose with the morning and only settled with the rising of the moon. Because there were no creatures to ask (she had yet to meet any Kimeti) she began entertaining herself with her own simple explanations. Why was the earth soft? Well, surely, it was once hard but many feet like hers had trampled it so. Why were the leaves green? Because they were envious of the beautiful flowers. What about the birds? They used to be Kimeti, too, but the swamp became so crowded that they took to the sky. She was a very clever, imaginative little filly, and surely had a bit of an active imagination.
So, when Sleep heard the tranquil beauty of the swamp disrupted by a cacophonous sneeze...well, that was a creature of the bog greeting her! Not wanting to be rude, the little one's green eyes scanned the earth to find the owner of the sneeze, settling on a brown mound on the distance that appeared to be squirming about. Mud? A mound of mud said hello? The filly giggled in her tired, bell-like trill of a voice, clomping childishly toward the mound. Her tired feet dragged lightly across the muck, kicking up brown water as she went. She settled a few feet from the brown mound, delighted to find it was not a pile of mud, but another four legged, large eared creature like her.
Tilting her blue-tinted head to the side, Sleep flared her nostrils a bit, sniffing around the stranger. Once she was satisfied, the little one let out a gentle "Hello."
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:12 am
Everything was almost too overwhelming. Even in his dreams, the world never looked this vast, this saturated with color and life. With his eyes open and vision finally clear, his senses of smell and hearing seemed to have intensified in bounds. It was amazing to finally put pieces together that were originally so cloudy and muddled in his sleep.
That sweet scent that tickled his nostrils were none other than those tiny wildflowers that grew at the base of 'his' tree. The humming that would fluctuate in noise capacity around his growing ears were dragonflies, with the power to hover in mid-air almost effortlessly with long and transparent wings. The murk and sticky texture that enveloped his legs were mud, and not only did it embrace his body, but it covered the land for as far as he could see, including that bright pink thing over there that's slowly making its way towards him.
Haze blinked a few times and took another glance in the direction where the filly was, and stared. He hadn't ever seen another one of his kind before, and the notion thrilled and terrified him at the same time; after all, he didn't quite know what to expect from the meeting. He pricked his ears forward and listened to her every muffled step until she was finally a few feet away from him, from which he couldn't help but take a few clumsy steps backwards, unknowingly cornering himself. His eyes widened at the greeting, and it took a lot of effort on his part to finally reply in his own shy voice: " 'lo."
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:31 am
Sleep leaned in curiously, her own ears twitching rhythmically at the sound of the strange colt's voice. It was quiet and nervous, but she was neither offended nor put off by it. She was weary, of course, but expected nothing sinister about the young male.
Sleep was born with a very stable personality, her perception positive and her approach honest. Her head tilted softly, feet braced and sturdy atop the muck. "Are you afraid?" She asked in her gentle voice, tail still swishing calmly behind her. Stepping forward with her right hoof, the filly's nose twitched again, catching the strangers anxiety amongst the scent of wildflowers, not too unlike herself in color.
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:05 am
Although it wasn't too terribly far off since he dropped from his tangled womb, he knew even then that he'd be a kimeti of fewer words than most, and it wasn't because he wasn't intelligent, or because he'd eventually become a very shy and nervous creature, but simply because he felt that actions spoke more than mere words. At this moment, his actions were speaking volumes: he had backed himself up against the rough bark of the tree and wasn't quite keeping a lot of eye contact, swiveling his pupils this way and that to avoid a glimpse of the stranger before him.
Was he afraid? He had to relax and really think about her question. He had no desire to bolt from where he stood, and though he felt anxious, it wasn't so intense that it'd cause a ripple of shivers to go up his spine. No, he was not afraid, but nervous; now that was another question entirely.
He shook his head, causing his ears to flop about almost amusingly by his cheeks. He had calmed, and this was visible in his simple decision to plop his rump onto the soft earth. "Who are you?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 1:16 pm
Sleep, being ever oblivious, took note of the strange colt's anxiousness, but did not make any attempt to back away. She was pleased when his back end settled on the dirt, at least he wouldn't run away from her now. Instead of making herself comfortable, she offered the other a gentle reply in the form of yet another trilling, bubbled laugh. "You have cute ears." she said, surveying the male from head to toe, as if memorizing his every characteristic, from his nervous, darting eyes to the tip of his tail. She made the conclusion that he was a gentle soul, just a bit...excitable.
"I'm called Sleep-Bringing Flower." She added, admiring the colt's dark green scales as she spoke, resulting in a fluid, far-away tone. Wandering back from her half-lidded scrutiny, Sleep suddenly returned the question. "What are you called?" And, before the poor creature had the chance to answer the first question, "Did you wake up here? By this tree?" Her voice was by no means quick or erratic, but is seamed to glide from her, like a lost feather descending from a tree.
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 8:19 pm
He wasn't used to such an intensely loud voice, or in the end, such intensity as a whole vibrating from a single and tiny source such as her. It took a lot concentration and will power to keep himself from rudely shutting his eyes and flicking his ears back to mute as much of the volume as he could, but as it was, he somehow knew that it wouldn't be very polite to. There was one word that flickered in his mind to describe her in all ways that he could from just the few moments he's known her: saturated. Her voice was bright, and it matched her vivid coat in every way he could piece together.
He did, however, crinkle his muzzle to show his disapproval of her comment. "No they're not," he mumbled under his breath before answering her own questions. "Haze-after-dusk, and......I think so." Raising his head and tilting it a little away from the filly, he surveyed his tree for the first time. The roots were large and comforting, and not too far off laid two small twigs that could have easily sustained his cocoon, which by now would no longer be detectable. "Yes...I did. Where did you come from?"
After all, he hadn't detected any signs of other kimeti, so he was surprised to see that one as young as he had found her way to him. Surely, she wasn't from around here.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 9:13 am
Sleep crinkled her snout playfully at the others objection, though she was content enough knowing that his ears were indeed large and cute. "Haze-After-Dusk." She replied quietly, as if marking the name with the colt's face. She surveyed the mangled roots and heavy presence of 'his' tree, nodding her approval. Her's had been far more skinny and tall, which she frequently remembered from the unfriendly awakening the following drop gave her. Shaking some tray muck from her feet, Sleep craned her neck backward, front legs angling with the long, graceful part.
"Mine is there..." she seemed surprised when she couldn't see it, and a trill of panic rushed through her, though for only a moment. Before she could even register her surprise, she was calm and collected, and turning to face Haze again. "It was there, I mean." Her bell-like giggled illuminated the area once again, this time spooking a nearby grasshopper, who darted messily into a close pool of water. "Oh-" She remarked, attention now on the bug, "Sorry, I suppose I'm very excited." Whether the apology was directed at the insect or Haze was unknown.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:15 pm
Haze suddenly saw an abstract reflection of himself when Sleep realized she had traveled too far from her home. It's that feeling of nervousness, anxiety and just a trickle of fear to put one's nerves on edge and legs all a quiver from the slightest of startling noises; it's easy to recognize once you've gone through it. However, had he blinked during the moment he would have missed the connection entirely, because no sooner had he noticed her surprise had she perked up, bubbling with giggles again.
What a strange filly.
The splash of the hopper had filled his ears, and a sense of curiosity led him to forget about what he had witnessed just a few seconds earlier. In another surge of exploration, the brown colt lifted his haunches from the ground and delicately placed his hooves one after the other in an attempt to quietly make his way towards the pool; he wanted to observe the insect, not scare it away!
Once he got as close as he could without dipping his hooves into the water itself, he lowered his head for a better look.
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:09 am
Sleep withdrew slightly at Haze's sudden movement, peeking over his shoulder as he surveyed the sopping bug. He was floating haphazardly atop the mud-stained pool, legs grasping helplessly for land, wings sticky and mashed against his body. The little pink filly would have felt a massive wave of grief and despair had she not been such an eternal optimist.
Nudging Haze delicately with her snout, she motioned to a nearby leaf. 'Look - it could save him.' She noted, speaking more to herself than the brown-colored colt. She made no attempt to sway the bugs fate, but as the leaf drifted closer and closer to him, she felt that rescue was imminent.
The filly had only been awake for a handful of days, but suddenly, a strange thought came over her, '...Haze, have you ever felt that way?' She asked glumly, though her voice still held its characteristic chipper tone. She didn't elaborate on the assumed feeling, though the way she gazed curiously at the helpless, floating bug, she must have been hinting at that lack of control.
Much like she felt only moments after discovering her name, a selection of words picked for her by some higher presence...
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Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:59 am
He couldn't understand what her question was insinuating. Although Sleep's tone of voice was as clear and chipper as it has been since he first heard her trill of laughter, he could tell that she was feeling uncomfortable. Haze, on the other hand, felt no hard emotions as he watched the grasshopper struggle to survive the muddy puddle. For whatever reason he could not explain, he knew that this was something that all manners of life must go through, and that sort of repetitive cycle was almost comforting to him. Even if it meant the loss of a living being.
However, he wasn't about to let someone else see that experience if he felt they potentially weren't ready for that sort of thing. When she nudged him towards the leaf, he knew that she wanted to try and save the hopper, although why she wouldn't do it herself was a bit perplexing to him. Lifting his head from the level of the puddle, he took a step forward to catch the leaf with his mouth, and moving back to his original position, he carefully placed the leaf besides the insect. With any luck, the hopper would be able to find a hidden layer of strength for survival and make it to the leaf, which then he'd slowly slide it back to the safe surface of solid ground.
If the hopper didn't make it, well...then the course was already set for it. At least he had attempted to help.
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Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:01 pm
The filly watched the brown colt contently, though she wasn't expecting him to directly interfere in any way. Her nudge was meant to sway his attention and nothing more. Of course she didn't want the little creature to disappear beneath the murky water forever, but fair is fair - she would leave that to the marsh. But when the colt fetched the leaf and attempted to capture the tiny cricket, she couldn't help but take a few excited steps back, peeking between heavy lids to watch the insect's efforts. Her mind quickly buried it's distress, more interested in the colt's good deed.
As the insect floated ever closer to the leaf, his tiny legs grasping fatefully in all directions, he caught the stem and appeared to stick to it. After a few grueling moments of motionless floating, the insect managed to tip onto the dry surface, the leaf carrying him in the direction of the vast shore. Well, what a tiny little creature would have considered vast. Still, the bug did not move, and whether it was drying off or filled with water was a mystery to Sleep.
She frowned thoughtfully, expelling a deep breath. She had forgotten all about her question at this point, and was once again beaming. "You're very quiet." Chimed the filly, though her voice was more subdued at this point. "I bet you do a lot of thinking." She mused, finding it hard to imagine the inside of his head was as silent as the outside.
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