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 Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 6:47 pm
 Night had fallen hours ago, and gradually the swamp had softened, the daytime sights and sounds replaced by glowing fireflies and the cries of insects. In a small clearing, Lightstream stood motionless, blue eyes fixated on the stars. Her glowing blue markings were bright enough to cast light all around her, a most useful trait at night. She lowered her head, towards mud spread over moss. It was the work of a moment to moisten the mud with a nudge of one damp hoof, and she scored a small hole in it. A map of the stars was gradually taking shape on her impromptu canvas. Since she had first opened her eyes to see the night sky, she had made a devoted study of the stars. With each dawn, the memory of the stars' placement faded. Hopefully, her map would be more permanent.
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 2:57 am
 It had been during the day that Always Running had found the spot he was currently racing towards. He and Rose and had first noticed the way the mangroves swooped away from the center of the clearing days ago, but it had always been so overcast he'd never thought of the place as something special. As the best place to observe and follow the stars. He felt quite stupid about that fact now, as though he thought he should have seen it right away. He should have seen it right away. Having snuck away from his heron friend just minutes earlier, there he was. Running, running, running in eager anticipation to witness the miracle of the stars in the one place the swamp seemed to sing "watch them here! I have created for you a place!" His neck craned to the sky, eyes filled with the inky darkness of the sky and the diamond pin-pricks spilled throughout, he should have seen her right away. But no. He didn't see anything but the sky. Then he felt a rather large bump. And then he saw the ground.
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 9:21 am
Lightstream had just started to drift to one side of the clearing to get a better view, but her head was pointed upwards as well.
Thump! Bump! Something knocked her onto her side, but she wasn't worried about whatever it was. A crocodile would not be so clumsy, after all. No, she was concerned about her star-chart. The wet mud was obliterated -- the dry mud was cracked in half. She clambered to her feet, and the fireflies in her eyes cast light over the ruined chart, before she turned her head to see whatever it was.
"I would have expected that from a colt," she remarked lightly, nudging him over to get a good look at him. "What is your name, and where are you going in such a rush?"
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Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 1:09 pm
He had just sort of layed there. It wasn't in the so-dazed-can't-move sort of way so much as he had already rolled over and had a perfect view of the sky. A view of the sky that did not hurt his neck if he looked up for too long. Better yet, he could see something not a star but he did not know what it was. And then he was being nudged.
"I am not a colt."
He said it curtly, and almost as though he were talking to himself and not the doe standing over him. Blinking as her form blocked his view, he rolled. Stood. Blinked again at her as if to say 'now where did you come from?'
"Oh. Hello there," he took a few steps to her side and looked her over to also get a good look at who he was talking to. Which wasn't really hard with the way she glowed in the dark. Honestly, how had he not seen her? "I'm Running. Well, Always Running. Well, I don't always run. No, okay. I do." He looked at her some more, opening and closing his mouth as if he was going to say something and then decided against it repeatedly before he shook his head and moved back to look her in the eyes. "And you are?"
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Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 3:32 pm
Lightstream blinked, darkness rushing over him in the instant before she opened her eyes again. She was practically her own small star. As he answered, one of her ears twitched in mild amusement. His next few words got a soft huff of laughter. "Then you are young at heart, Always Running." Not entirely a bad thing, but she did wonder how he'd managed not to see her.
"I'm Lightstream. A pleasure to meet you. Do you always run so quickly at night?" She drifted away to find more mud, to lay a fresh layer over the ruins of the old. There was nothing to be done for her previous chart; all she could do was make another. There was no rush; the stars would not change so quickly.
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Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 4:19 pm
He smiled as she laughed. At least he was amusing to her. Laughing as well, he shrugged his shoulders in response. "Maybe I am," he said as though he were indulging a huge secret. "Or maybe I'm so old I just don't care anymore what other's think. That's the same thing isn't it?"
"It's a pleasure to mee--" He cut himself off as she drifted away to follow her with curiosity sparking in his eyes. "What in the Swamp are you doing?" She was layering the mud over what looked like writing in the dryer dirt below and as she covered he just watched silently before exclaiming very loudly something very indistinguishable from any words in their language. "A STAR chart!" He said it as if it were something just dawning on him. "You're making a star chart, oh that is just brilliant! You're a very smart doe Lightstream." She really was, he was impressed. Why hadn't he thought of doing that? Amazing.
"I was watching the stars, by the way. There's something red up there, just smaller than the other stars surrounding it. I was excited by it and getting here."
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Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 4:39 pm
"Close enough," she acknowledged. "To be filled with love of life is a blessing." But she had always felt distant from the water and the trees, and closer to the stars.
The compliments got her to flick her tail, ears going down in both embarrassment and pleasure. "It's kindly of you to say so. I spent my filly years watching the stars in clearings like this, and it occurred to me that they seemed to shift from season to season. I had thought that a map would allow me to track their movements."
His description of something red got her to lift her head in sudden interest. "Red? Is that so? Where?" She trotted to him, leaving the mud to begin to dry, tilting her head up to try and find what he spoke of.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 10:01 pm
Without any real concept of personal space, he stood shoulder to shoulder with the doe and pressed his face against hers. Pointing his nose in the right direction there was no choice but for Lightstream's nose to move in the same direction. "You see it there? So out of place but so at peace." He looked sideways and into the depths of the doe's eyes and smiled. "I would hope, at least. Since there isn't really any way to know if a star is at peace. But it looks it, doesn't it?" Stepping away, as though he had to literally always move, Running moved back to her star chart and started adding his own words and stars to the mud.
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Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 11:50 am
Lighstream squeaked as the buck came right next to her, but didn't jump away. Her curiosity was overpowering her need for personal space, and she let him point her towards the curious red thing. "How strange. I'd never noticed."
Of course, there were simply too many stars in the sky for her to track them all. "It does, somehow." She followed him to the chart, letting him make additions. The idea that a kimeti might sabotage her chart had never crossed her mind, and she was interested to see what stars he knew.
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