The days were longer and longer now, and it was a good thing for this hyperactive little foal. Today, she'd wandered to the forests' edge and grinned at all the trees and all the new scents. Clearly there had been plenty of others here, as their hoove prints were in the dirt. So, Jaloo's own hooves walked in the bigger ones of the adults, not knowing where she was going. Her blue eyes were concentrating on the ground and not in front of her, causing her to run straight into a tree by misstepping. Wincing at the thud she heard and the pain in her head, the filly whined a bit and looked up. It was a dead looking tree with almost no leaves. "Hah. Poor tree. No one loves you." She said, standing up on her hind legs and putting her front hooves against the trunk, pushing in it. The bark crunched under her weight and she blinked a bit more. "Uuuh.... Not cool, tree. Not cool."The forest was a very boring place when you were a lonely colt who lived there with his recluse mother. Thunder was traveling to the edge of the forest just for something to do, in the hopes that he would meet one of the passer-bys who had left all the prints in the earth. To keep himself amused he imaged that he was a rogue stallion, ready to conquer the world on his own. He started to stomp around with his head raised proudly, until he heard someone speak, followed by a crunch. Curious, he kept going and spotted Jaloo, who seemed to be talking to it. Thunder began to laugh. "What ARE you doing?"
Jaloo jumped back away from the tree and turned around so fast, she made herself dizzy. The girl had to blink and shake her head hard before looking to the colt with an arched brow. "Talking to the crunchy tree. Is it a crime?" She asked, snorting and moved over to him, She circled him like a hawk, examining the weirdly colored male with a grin on her face. "You're 'bout the same size as my brothers! I bet I'm faster than you." Blue eyes squinted as she put on a huge smile on her face, getting back in front of the colt, laughing. "Do you live here? Do you know who made the tracks?"
Thunder snorted at her reaction, and how she seemed to have to clear her head before talking to him. Was she alright? She was so brightly colored too, that he had to look away and let his eyes adjust. He was much too used to the dull greens and browns that made up the most part of the forest. "A crunchy.. tree? Okay if you say so." He let he circle him for a moment, standing up even taller in an effort to make himself look impressive. "But it's weird talking to stuff that can't answer!" She stopped in front of him next, bombarding him with questions. "Yeah I live around here, but I don't know who made these tracks. And hey! Nobody is faster than me!" His look dared her to say otherwise."It's better than a soggy tree, I guess." She said with a bit of a grin, noticing the way he stood up straight and proper. It was kind of funny how he was trying to make himself bigger. She didn't care about how big he was, and it was obvious with a snort. "You're so weird. How do you not know who made them when you live here? I mean.... You LIVE here. You totally don't pay attention, do you?" A laugh tickled her throat before she rolled her eyes. "I'm the fastest ever. I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm weird? Coming from someone who was talking to a tree... Yep, I believe you." Thunder rolled his bright eyes to mock hers, though he was grinning. "I don't live HERE, I live in the forest, but closer to the two-leggers than here." He said it like it should've been obvious, giving Jaloo a look. "Strangers walk down here all the time! I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." He stopped to think about that for a second, then decided he didn't care if he talked to Jaloo or not. It was too late at this point anyways. "Hah, and I don't believe you're faster than me. Wanna prove it?" Her snort hadn't gone completely unnoticed so Thunder felt even more like he needed to impress her more than ever, on top of that.
Snorting at his mocking, she listened to him and arched a brow. The two leggers? She'd only heard about them. Never seen them or smelled them before. "But ain't I a stranger? I won't be now. I'm Jaloo. I'm the fastest, best girl ever and I sing on top of it all." It was obvious she was trying to outshine him, wanting nothing more than to say she was the best of both genders. Jaloo was way more than up for the challenge. "We can't race with all these trees. Let's go to the plains and race there. Nice and flat! That, and when I get hungry, it's grass. Grass is good."
"Fastest best girl?" Well, maybe he'd give her that. "You may be the best girl Jaloo, but ya can't beat me! I'm Thunder Strafe, or just Thunder. And I'm called that because-" He jumped back and reared, kicking the air with his front hooves, before landing with a thud. "I'm strong and loud and proud like thunder!" He shouted so loudly that birds in a nearby tree began to squawk in protest. He looked at the tree sheepishly, then back at Jaloo. "Yeah let's go! Then we'll see who's fast." And something to eat was always good, too. With that he bounded into the forest in the estimated direction of the plains. He didn't go there often since his mother seemed to be scared of it, but he knew roughly where it was. Even if he got lost it didn't matter much to him anyways; he was convinced that he could conquer anything that got in his way.
"Loud is right," she muttered under her breath and snorted a bit. So Thunder took off, and Jaloo took her time following him. She didn't want to get worn out before making to the plains, even. That'd just be stupid. Like the boy was. Grinning at the thought, she chuckled and watched as he went the wrong direction and whistled to get his attention. "This way, smarty!" She called out, giving him the sweetest smile the girl could muster. Jaloo wasn't mean, per say. Just really cocky.
Flicking his ear towards her Thunder corrected his path by bounding right at Jaloo, then turning in the direction she indicated just before he ran into her. Noticing how slow she was going too, he slowed down, if only just a little. It wasn't like him to take a leisurely pace by choice... if he could he would run until he dropped. He tended to drop after a day of adventures in the first place. "I knew that," he said, trying to look smug and save face. "I was just testing you."
She chuckled at him and watched the colt with an amused face. "Riiight. If you say so, Thunder~" She sang out, her voice ringing through the lessening trees. Finally they were at the plains and she took a huge breath in, smelling that fresh grass. Her stomach growled lightly and she felt herself getting embarrassed. Now she hoped he didn't hear that. That'd be her disadvantage for sure; her stomach. She hadn't eaten since earlier that morning. "Maybe.... maybe we could eat first?"
The song in her voice surprised Thunder a little. He couldn't sing; when he tried it sounded more like a bear bellowing than anything remotely like singing. His expression flicked from interested to amused the second her stomach growled. He had been close enough to hear. "Umm, sure. Sounds like you need it," he snickered.
"Oh, shut up..." She muttered softly, sniffing at the ground that she grass to find the sweetest patch. It took her a while of sniffing, and tasting, but she finally found a pach she liked. "Here! Eat here with me. C'mon. It's sweet grass," she murmured around a mouth full, tugging at the tall grass with her teeth and chewing happily, tail flicking to show just how good it was. "Can you sing? Did you like mine?"
Thunder followed Jaloo's lead. The way she searched for good grass was much more delicate than his, if he bothered to look at all... His usual reaction was to wolf down the first green thing in front of his face. When she pointed out the sweet patch of grass he took a nibble. making a 'mmm' of enjoyment. "Can't sing at all. You sounded pretty though," he said, feeling a little awkward over giving a compliment. He took a bigger mouthful of grass and chewed it.
Blinking a bit at the compliment, the filly bit down on some more grass and plucked it up. So basically, Jaloo was acting like she didn't hear him. But that'd be really rude. "...Thanks. I get it from my dad.... We sing together like.... all the time. He's taught me quite a few songs!" She said, chewing and swallowing quickly before going back for more. "So if you can't sing, what do you do?"
Swallowing such a big mouthful of grass was a struggle. When he got it down he asked, "Your dad sings with you?" If Thunder thought singing was girly, he didn't anymore. He looked up to his dad, and sometimes he listened to him better than his mom and primary caretaker. "I go adventuring and stuff... I don't do anything." Thunder looked a little uncertain. Was he supposed to do something special?
"Going on an adventure is something! God, weirdo." She grinned a bit and chuckled, nipping at the grass again. She watched the colt, her head tilted to the side, shaking her head. "Ok. I'm good enough on food. Wanna race now, Thunder?" She asked getting into her starting position. "We'll race to that hill in the distance!
"Okay..." Thunder said, not quite sure why he was being called weirdo this time. Instead of thinking about it he ate a bit more grass, until Jaloo said she ad enough. Finally they could race! He trotted around and then to Jaloo's side, more than ready to go. "Okay, to the hill!" He poised himself to run too. On three? One, two... Three!" With a shout Thunder was off.
She bolted right after him after he said three and tried to keep pace. He was fast, but she knew she was faster. Jaloo tried to pick up her pace, to get ahead of him, but she'd only managed to get neck to neck. It was close, so far. Maybe he'd get worn out from all the running he was doing before.
Thunder pushed himself to the maximum. His breath already coming harder, he glanced at Jaloo who did not seem to be having trouble catching up to him. He tried to go faster, and faster, but he was already going as fast as he was going to get. Maybe if he paced himself he would've been able to get ahead. But he hadn't, and now he was struggling.
She was struggling just as much as he was, and somehow, she managed to fall behind him, not by much. Jaloo's little legs wouldn't carry her any faster, her heart was beating a mile a minute and she just knew she'd lose. Letting out a whine, Thunder got to the hill just seconds before she did and she slowed down before eventually stopping, panting hard, eyes closed. "My....My l-legs feel.... l-like ...wo-wobbles..." She said as she laid herself down, laying her head on the cool grass.
"Whoohoo! Showed you I was faster!" Thunder shouted between gasps, before falling to the ground much less gently than she had. He lay there just breathing for a while, concentrating on the rise and fall of his own chest. Once he could comfortably speak, he looked up to see what Jaloo was doing. "You were close, but not close enough." He bragged a little, but the tone of his voice was not taunting or mean. Then he got to his belly, resting with his legs folded at his sides.
She got comfortable to breath not long before him and sighed heavily, licking the grass a bit. Now Jaloo was thirsty and she hated it. "Well.. whatever. I'm almost faster than you," she murmured, looking to him. Mimicking his pose, blue eyes looked to the sky and smiled. "You thirsty? My throat's so dry and my mouth is.... ugh. Nasty tasting."
Smacking his mouth a little, Thunder discovered that he was getting thirsty too. "I could use a drink..." He got back to his hooves shakily, his legs still feeling weak and unsteady from the run. "Though I don't know where water is, so you'll have to lead the way!"
