[PRP] Helping Hooves ((Ocala & Auguste))

[Katjive]

It was another lonesome day on her quest to become the world's greatest explorer. The weather was glorious, the sun shining right in her eyes as she trudged up a muddy hill, her coat dripping wet from last night's rain. Ocala sighed as she looked at her mud and grass covered hooves. Wasn't it bad enough that she had to go on this ridiculous quest to prove that she wasn't a flop? That she was more than her mother's illegitimate daughter, born into a life of hiding in other's shadows. Ocala shook her mane. She was doing this to prove that she wasn't invisible. That she was somebody, and someone to be admired at that. And so she stubbornly trudged up that hill, forcing herself on to god know's where.

Of course she knew where she was going....right? Wrong. Ocala was dead lost, just like always. Always deluding herself that she knew where she was going, she often walked in circles for days without realizing that she was going essentially nowhere. It was a problem, but Ocala tried not to let it get to her. After all, who says you can't be an explorer, even if you have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever?

As she crested the hill, she peered down into the next valley and saw something that looked suspiciously like another Soquili. A handsome one at that. Somehow, she always managed to find the handsome ones, but they'd all proven to be completely useless so far. Always dashing off to save some other damsel in distress. Nevertheless, Ocala would be polite to this one, just like the others. After all, she liked having stallions around. She loved having anyone around. Exploring was a lonesome task.

So, she walked up beside him, unhappily aware of her dirty hooves, and flashed him a timid smile. "Hi. My name is Ocala...um, what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Are you lost, too?" she said, shuffling her hooves and peering shyly at him from the corners of her eyelids. She was doing better about approaching others. When she first set out, she would run and hide, but she'd at least learned to go up and speak to them...although she hadn't quite managed to look confident while doing so.

 

[derivative]

It was a dismal day to be lost.

Not only did he have absolutely no inkling of where he was, Auguste had found himself covered in mud and ice once again - not exactly his favorite combination. The feathering on his hooves was stiff and crunched when he walked, and his normally beautiful dark coat was tinged a definite brown nearly all the way up his legs. He was a vain stallion; he could admit it; and he hated it.

Perhaps this land had pretty, friendly mares, but there were many who could boast the same which did not turn him brown.

Snorting, annoyed with himself and his situation at large, he lifted a hoof and aimed it at a patch of ice, looking a little satisfied when it shattered and he was able to break through to the water below. He drank a bit, not pleased in the least by the icy temperatures, and raised his head once more to continue onward.

After all, there had to be something to work toward, right?

He didn't get much opportunity to continue looking, however. Before he'd made it two steps he'd been approached by a pretty little thing, and he hiked his eyebrows, expression largely unmoving as she introduced herself and guessed his predicament. Was he really so obvious?

But! Ah! She'd said lost too. So he wasn't the only one. Perhaps she was not native to the Kawani lands, as he was?

"Yes. I am lost." His voice was gruff, and his dark eyes roved past her to look at the maze-like line of trees in front of him. "I am new to these parts, and it is unfortunately painfully obvious."

Gaze traveling back to - Ocala, she said? - he stared at her in quiet contemplation before angling his head slightly. "Auguste."

 

[Katjive]

He seemed so irritably stern, she decided, listening to the sharp edges in his voice. No matter. If he was to be gruff, that was his decision. She blinked her blue eyes, so like her mother's, and smiled at him. "It's okay to be lost, you know. I'm trying to become an explorer, and I get lost all the time. You get used to it...I guess." She frowned for a minute. Truth be told, it wasn't ever fun to be lost. Not for her, and certainly not for him either.

"Anyway, it's great to meet you, Auguste. I'd offer to show you around, but...I honestly haven't the foggiest idea where I am so I probably can't help you much," she said, an apologetic smile on her face. She couldn't help but notice that he was as dirt-encrusted as she was, but he seemed to be having a harder time of it than she was. "Since we're both lost, we may as well travel together...if that's okay with you?"

Ocala found herself wondering what this stallion's story was. He seemed so tough, but...was he really just a hard-as-nails stallion? He was the first Soquili she'd met that wasn't overtly friendly....well, besides that half-crazed Kalona. But he didn't count. He had wanted only to make her a snack, not make polite pleasantries.

But this stallion was different, somehow. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he wasn't like any other stallion she'd met. But of course she couldn't ask him about it, oh no. That would be terribly rude, not to mention that she'd be prying into his personal life. Perhaps, if they became friends, he would tell her what it was that made him different. What had made him this gruff Soquili with calculating eyes? Surely he wasn't always like this.

 

[derivative]

The mares here were so friendly. It made him wonder, a little, if Meena hadn't lied to him concerning a shortage of stallions; certainly back home there had been a good deal of flirtatious mares, but not many who seemed to have no motive aside from giving aide. While he felt a little ridiculous for feeling suspicious, he really couldn't help it.

Really, they had no mates to rush in and make certain their mares were not being swept away with an unfamiliar stallion? Though a bit older, he certainly was still attractive enough. Perhaps a bit lacking in social graces, but then, that added to the charm of a foreign male, so he'd heard.

Regardless, he knew he wouldn't have let his mate - or daughter - or any female relative, really - wander around unescorted far from home. If she had no family or mate, then it explained a great deal, but this mare said she was an explorer. And Meena, she had mentioned an extensive family.

Things were very different here from what he was used to.

Musing on that, he offered grudgingly, "We may as well. Night will be coming before we know it, and it's bound to get rather cold."

Truth be told, he was looking for a place to rest for the night, anyhow. He could always huddle under a tree, he supposed, but that wouldn't provide much warmth. He was dreadfully tired of being cold, and moreso of snow. Damn the weather, anyway.

Ears flicking toward Ocala, he asked without preamble, "You travel alone, then? Have you no mate, brothers, father to escort you?"

It seemed so strange to him. He was a protector, a guardian of his family. To think that it could be otherwise, even for another culture... was truly baffling to him.

 

[Katjive]

Ocala suppressed a flurry of emotion in her heart at the mention of her family. She hadn't thought of her father or her brother for the longest time.

"I....you see....my father and my brother, they...they don't really want much to do with me these days. My parents didn't stay together, you see...and I haven't seen or spoken to my brother or my father since I was a foal." She looked up into his eyes, trying to be brave, trying to hide that she really did wish her father and brother had stayed a part of her life.

"And I have no mate. There was one I cared about, but...it didn't work out." Ocala had loved twice, one a real love broken by outside circumstances, the other a mere infatuation with someone who could have been her knight in shining armor. Neither one had lasted, and though she had been heartbroken, she had learned to deal with the sorrow that came from such inner wounds.

"So...yes. I travel alone. It may not be the safest thing to do, but...I manage." If you called managing being constantly lost and almost being eaten.

She wondered why he was so interested in why she was alone. It was common for mares to travel unaccompanied, but perhaps he was cut from a more old-fashioned cloth. Regardless, he seemed to be the first stallion to feel abashed that she was on her own. Did that mean he wouldn't leave like the others? Ocala didn't know. She did know that night was truly falling quickly, as it often did in wintertime, and she was glad to have company on this frosty evening.

"Brr!" she murmured, shivering a little despite her fur. "Did you want to find someplace to rest for the night? Like you said, it's going to be cold tonight."

Ocala was pleasantly surprised by his hint of emotion. Perhaps this stallion was gruff, but she was certain there was more to him than that. He was clearly capable of kindness, to even inquire as to why she was out here alone. She smiled, glad to have found someone so intriguing as he.