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 Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:34 pm
 Every day he'd been able to see a little more, and walk slightly more steady. Finally, one morning, Soul Drift opens his eyes and discovers that he can see things more clearly than ever. He stands, moving on legs that are still somewhat wobbly, and steps out of his little haven-- a depression in the earth beneath a large boulder that forms a cave.
The sun is bright and green as it filters through the canopy of leaves overhead, and the birds whistle and call to one another. The sound of his hooves crunching through the leaves sounds extremely loud to him. It makes him feel small and vulnerable, but his sense of adventure wars with his feeling of smallness. The Swamp calls to him, as it had even before he'd tumbled to the earth and slept for a few days, nestled in the cave that he'd crawled to instinctively. The Swamp whispers a song that's as seductive as the sweet berries near the river, and he follows it haltingly, casting a glance back at his haven.
There will be more shelters along the way... he thinks to himself. After all, he cannot deny the call in his heart. Finally, determined, he sets off away from the area without another wayward glance back. In search of what, he doesn't know.
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:09 am
 Leaf-rustle had only been able to stand for a few days - but she hadn't wasted any time. The leaves that had whispered to her in her dreams, before her birth, were still there when she tumbled out of her sac and laid on the ground -- and they still laughed and whispered. She couldn't quite remember what they had said, and she couldn't understand them now, but it had left her determined to go find someone (or some thing) that could translate. So far she has had little luck -- at the present moment, as the sun glints through the Swamp and spangles the water, she is covered up to her knees in mud, her tail is flicking more mud across her flanks, and she is considering making her way to somewhere Else. This just isn't working. She sighs, swivels her ears around backwards in distaste, and lifts a hoof to begin walking again, when a pale-coated Thing walks through her line of vision. That's all it takes to set her loping awkwardly towards the figure until it resolves itself into another kimeti. "Oh," she says. "Hello. Who're you?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 2:19 am
(Edit: I'm trying to think of a nickname for him.. Spirit, maybe? xD suggestions are welcome. I might post something in the main thread about it too )
As the Swamp calls to him, Soul Drift makes his way through a muddied area. The ground sucks at his hooves making wet, squelching sounds, and he grimaces at the slimy texture of it. Not that it's so terrible, but he'd never ventured this far from his relatively dry cave before. Every new creature, sound, and sensation is worth it's discovery, after all.
Still, when he hears more of the wet, sucking sounds from his left, the colt pauses, turning to face the other kimeti, a filly he notes that is about his own age.
"Oh.." Slightly surprised, but intrigued, Soul Drift cranes his neck forward and takes a small step forward, graceful and with a calming air about him. "Hello. When the Swamp sang to me I was called Soul Drift. And you?" He smells the air around him, a tantalizingly elusive scent on the edges of his memory. It takes him a few moments to recognize it, until a flash of surprise knits across his features.
"You smell familiar-- like me, only different.."
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:26 am
She leans forward just far enough to touch noses with him -- and then stumbles backward in surprise, fast enough that her legs tangle underneath her and she ends up sitting heavily in the mud. Almost immediately she frowns, but then cants her head at him, flicking some mud off of an ear. "I'm Leaf-rustle ... but you can call me Leaf." She pauses and shakes her head to get the mud off of it. While her body doesn't quite work the way it should (given that it's only a few days old), she's smart, and that, at least, shows. "I -- I think maybe ... we could be ... related?" She isn't certain, but it smells that way. At least underneath the mud. "Where did you come from?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:04 pm
Unable to help himself, Soul Drift blinks in surprise and takes a half-startled step back at the sudden touch of their noses. Bursting into sudden laughter as Leaf splashes into the mud, he loses his own footing and slides down as his legs, still a bit unstable, give out on him. His laughter cuts off for a moment before he's off again, laughing harder than before, even with mud clear up to his flanks and splashed against his throat and one side of his face. Finally quieting, the colt blinks at Leaf, and shifts in the mud with a small sigh and a snort of amusement. "So much for trying not to get dirty in this mess.... Though I think you're right. My old cave isn't very far from here. I was walking for a few hours before you came... though I think it's going to get dark soon. We should try to find our way out of here. The Swamp will guide us." He speaks confidently, and stands, shaking his head and tail to fling some of the mud off. "You can call me Soul if you like," he smiles and looks back at her before following the many whispers of the Swamp to find dryer ground.
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:24 pm
She blinks -- and giggles at him, now that they're both painted in all of the colors of the swamp. Her green and orange coat is now almost uniformly brown; she looks like some sort of mud-creature having risen out of the depths. But because the mud is the Swamp, aside from being cold and sticky, well ... it's really not all that bad. Besides, it found her Soul. She heaves herself up out of the mud and shakes her head to clear some of the thick, gloppy mess off, and then kicks up her heels in excitement. Going someplace new is an adventure, and if it's dry ... that's even better. "Let's go! I can show you these berries I found. They're kind of -- tart. It makes your lips pucker."
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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:00 pm
Feeling happy, despite the gooey mud slowly drying to his coat, Soul leads them through the Swamp and the tunnels of large Cypress trees. When the fireflies begin to come out, the ground beneath their hooves is finally more solid than mud, and they only have to go a little bit farther before reaching a huge fallen log hollowed out and big enough for two young kimeti to fit snugly together against the faint chill of the night. A nearby stream, one of the few clear bodies of water in the swamp, gurgles and laughs at them nearby.
Heading over to it, Soul dips his snout to take a drink and sighs at it's sweet, refreshing taste before stepping into it and sinking down to let the gentle current wash the worst of the mud away.
"You should come in, the water feels good, Leaf."
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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 10:15 pm
Leaf stands for a moment on the edge of the water, looking thoughtful -- her ears swivel around, trying to catch the noises of the wind through the leaves, the buzz of the fireflies, the slap-plop! of a frog jumping into the water, and then the splash of Soul moving into the little stream. After a moment, she can't hear whatever it was she was listening to, and then carefully [almost primly] picks her way into the stream, pausing after she gets her hooves wet.
"The Swamp has so much to say tonight!" She picks her way into the stream little by little until she discovers mud dissolving from her coat; then, it's all one big rush. "Do you hear?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:28 pm
Soul smiles at Leaf as she enters the stream.
"Yes.. The Swamp is always speaking.. Even when it's completely silent. Tonight it's especially noticeable though. Maybe the Mother-Father is happy that we found each other-- do you think? I was thinking... we're about the same age, and your smell is so familiar. Do you think maybe we are brother and sister?" A light appears in his eyes at this thought, one of happiness.
"Perhaps there are others of us nearby? I'd so love to meet them..." His voice quiets to nothing, and he peers up at the darkening canopy around them, the fireflies all the more numerous and noticeable, their little halos casting hypnotic patterns, ever-shifting, through the air.
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Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 2:35 pm
The thought that she could have found a brother makes her kick her feet up in the air, sending droplets of water up through the leaves to annoy the fireflies. They swirl around in the air, making the little yellow reflections on the water bounce and mingle for a moment. "Maybe! Do you think we should find the others..? The Swamp is very big." However, for all that the Swamp is very large to a small filly (and foal), she has not one ounce of fear that they might lose their way. She turns a circle around Soul, regarding him from all sides. "I think it's a wonderful idea."
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Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 3:47 pm
Soul grins at her enthusiasm, and feels a surge of happiness as he lifts himself from the water with a laugh, and playfully splashes her. "Yes! We I'm sure the Swamp will guide us. Even if we don't find all our clutch-brothers and clutch-sisters there will be others out there for us to meet.."
He moves and laughs at the fireflies dancing around them, the excited energy making the Swamp sing around them. Catching one in his mouth, he grins, teeth closed as the glow lights up his mouth, creating a dim glow.
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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 10:45 pm
Leaf blinks at him -- tilts her head one way and then the other, making her large filly's ears flop about -- and then races back up the shore to solid ground, leaping for a firefly and missing. "What are you waiting for, fly-eater? Come on!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:33 pm
Their hooves splash through the shallow stream, and Soul bounds up the gentle slope to dryer ground, laughing. As a result, the firefly he had caught zips out of his mouth, blinking on and off as if in dismay, and he pounces toward Leaf, the front half of his body lowered playfully, tail flicking in excitement.
"Fly-catcher? I'll show you fly-catcher," he smirks at her, a teasing glint in his blue eyes, and bounds toward one of the glowing insects, missing it by a hair's breadth before trying again for another one.
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Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:49 pm
Leaf races up the embankment as fast as she can, leaving hoof-shaped divots in the mud behind her. In pursuit of a firefly (who seems to be wanting to fly very far away, very quickly -- away from the two young kimeti), she leaps gracefully over a mangrove root and catches the firefly at the peak of her jump. Landing on all fours, she flips her tail and forth and grins at him, cheeks puffed out. She speaks through closed teeth, and her words are a little indistinct... but her mouth does glow a quite fetching shade of gold. "Never gonna catch sisters'n brothers this way!" As soon as Soul moves, so much as twitches, she's off again and racing into the forest, firefly in tow.
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:15 am
Soul chuckles at his sister's glowing mouth, and races after her in the dark of the night. The fireflies keep their path lit with a dim glow, as well as the occasional sprinkling of moonlight through the heavy canopy above. As the dew begins to settle, trickling down into the earth and falling on them like rain, Soul shakes his coat, laughing as he does so. The crunch of leaves and the pound of hooves and heart create a staccato rhythm as they move through the Swamp in the dance of youth and innocence, and the young Kimeti feels in his heart that something here is right.
Finally catching up to his quick-footed sibling, Soul bumps into her sending them sprawling and tumbling into the soft earth below, laughing and panting with glee, his eyes lit with delight and the fireflies the Motherfather captured for them so long ago.
"Ha... caught you!"
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