[PRP - FIN] Silence of the Day [Tsong + Parvati]

[ATh e a r t]

As the sun beat down on the earth, everything seemed to be inactive; the heat was so unbearable, making everything hide in the shadows the best that they could. The only thing audible to Tsong as he sat near the banks of the dark blue ocean was the crashing of the waves and the slight whistle of a breeze.

"I can't decide whether it's a good or bad day today," he thought with a sigh. His brown, transparent wings were stretched like a resting moth, letting them give some to the shade to his body, allowing for his golden orange-brown coat to sweat as little as possible. Next to him, he could see some small shells scatter across the beach. If he was lucky, sometimes he'd see a little crab pop out of no where and disappear again. Tsong made it a game for himself, counting as many as he could see. His boredom and loneliness was growing as the day slowly passed.

He looked out towards the vast ocean, wondering about the different things that might be living out there. Tsong was gazing out into the horizon for so long that, eventually, he spaced out and all he could do was think of the silence of this day.

 

[elfstar89]

Parva stepped high and happily. For once, this land was as warm as her homeland, and soon the gold of the impending harvest time would coat the vegetation. In some places she'd passed through, the hills were already a flaxen gold.

She smiled as she stepped onto the shore. The only thing she liked better about summer than the warmth was cooling herself off in the water, something she thoroughly intended on doing. Sadly, these parts did not seem as prone as her home to monsoons, but the sea...the sea she had only a very few times seen until she'd come to these lands more than made up for the loss of the monsoon.

Her black hooves made poor purchase on the creamy, baking sands until she got to the brown earth where the water cooled and smoothed the sand. Delighted to feel the cold surf cooling her body, she played in the waves for a few moments. Once she was wet enough and cold enough, she sloshed her way back to the wet sand, shook herself, and broke into a gallop along the shore, her cloven hooves kicking up very little sand.

So happy was she to run like this, as she always had while on the beach that it was some minutes before her sapphire eyes noticed a the figure of a Soquili stallion of the sort known as Flutters laying on the ground, trying to shade himself with his delicate wings. He was so burning bright and so warmly hued like the sun that she thought for a moment she saw Surya, the god of the sun from back home. Blinking as she ran, she realized it was just a Flutter, but one of the more brilliantly hued ones she'd ever seen or heard of in her life.

She slowed to a trot and eventually to a stop, her sapphire eyes fixated on him. A sea breeze blew up, blowing her black-and-red mane until it streamed out over her shoulders. The sun reflected off the still damp parts of her coat, making her whiteness gleam like the snow on an early winter morning. She didn't know how long she stood watching him, transifixed by him.  

[ATh e a r t]

Hearing a sudden noise behind him, Tsong snapped out of his daze. The day had all of a sudden become not-so-silent as he heard other hooves on the sand. He looked behind him and saw that it was a mare he had never met before; she had black and red hair and tail that seemed... to flow beautifully with the wind. In addition to that, even with the heat, her red and white coat seemed... More than gorgeous.

Still gazing on her, Tsong clumsily got to his feet, almost tripping over himself, and walked slowly over to the mare. "Hi, um... Miss..."

He noticed that he was still staring at her, this time looking into her blue eyes. "She's... so gorgeous..." He kept admiring her: her tri-toned horn, her dainty black hooves...

Tsong finally noticed that he was being extremely rude, and snapped himself out of that mental state by roughly shaking his head. "Sorry..." He finally spoke to her again. "I was being rude, b-but I couldn't help myself."

He was hoping that she wouldn't be able to see the red blush growing under his orange coat.

 

[elfstar89]

Parva shook herself out of her awed daze. "My name is Parvati," she supplied shyly. "You were not being rude; I was rude to stare at you for so long without introducing myself." Yes, that was right, she shouldn't have been staring so long and hard at him. Even if he did burn like the sun she'd admired since she was a filly.

A slightly guilty laugh broke from her dark red lips. "I am afraid I could not help but stare at you, since you burn like the sun," she added, and then blushed, something she had never done around other stallions she'd met. Good thing her head was a rich red; he wouldn't see her blush.

"What is your name?" she asked after a few shy minutes of awkward silence.  

[ATh e a r t]

Looking down at the sand, Tsong could feel that his cheeks were still burning red. He pawed at the sand a little bit with one hoof. "Who would of thought that I'd end up as giddy as a school girl with this mare already..."

"M-my name is Tsong," he told her with a shy smile on his face. "I guess we were both... Unknowingly staring for at each other."

He gave her a really sweet smile and couldn't help himself but stare into her blue eyes again. They seemed to shine like sapphires, but her eyes were definitely more beautiful. "Your name is quite exquisite, Parvati," Tsong said while still staring into her eyes.

Tsong broke the gaze just for a little while to use his head to motion towards where the waves hit the sand. "Would you like to take a walk with me." His eyes seemed to be pleading hers.

 

[elfstar89]

Parva didn't even notice the pleading expression, since her heart was in her throat for one burning moment. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Tsong." She smiled, trying not to look too awed, and continued. "I would be deeply honored to walk with you," she said, and at that point, she went red enough all over that it was obvious she was blushing. The full body blush didn't last long, but it was rather obvious, especially since she lowered her head and eyes for a moment to try to hide the expression that matched the blush.  

[ATh e a r t]

Tsong's heart beat faster as he heard Parvati accepting his offer. His heart and mind screamed with happiness. He turned around and walked a little bit towards the waves until he saw that Parva had put her head down a little.

He came back and used his muzzle to lift her head up again. Her hair was in the way of her eyes, and again, he used his muzzle, parting the hair that was blocking her face.

Softly, he spoke to her. "Sorry if that was too... Intimate. I really just wanted to see your eyes." Getting extremely shy from his boldness, he turned away from her and walked towards the crashing waves again. "That was stupid of me..."

 

[elfstar89]

Parva shook her head, looking up with a shy smile. "It was not too intimate." That he wanted to see her eyes startled her...and made her happy somewhere deep down inside. She smiled more happily and stepped toward the waves after him, not sure of what to say to someone like Tsong.  

[ATh e a r t]

Tsong looked back at Parvati and gave her a relieved smile. "I-I'm glad you didn't mind. I just t-thought that your eyes are so beautiful that it was a shame to cover them up."

He finally reached the water's edge and felt the cool water against his hooves. It felt nice compared to the heat on the rest of his body. "Do you just want to walk and... Talk?" He wasn't sure what they would talk about, but his shyness would keep him from being too... Shy to do much.

The sun was getting slowly lower in the sky; the sky was turning from the blue of the day to slowly darker opposite of the sun. "We could always watch the sunset together," he said to her while blushing, unable to look at her all of a sudden.

 

[elfstar89]

"What would you like to talk about?" Parva asked shyly. "And yes, I would definitely like to watch the sunset with you." She was also blushing, not wanting to show a blush to someone who might only see her as a friend, but when she peeked at his face, she glimpsed a faint red tint to the cheeks. She smiled a little more assuredly and, before she knew what she was doing, gave a quick nuzzle and then very quickly dropped her head to hide any shy embarrassment in her sapphire eyes.  

[ATh e a r t]

Tsong was very shocked at the nuzzle, and he turned even redder. He wanted to return the nuzzle, but at the moment, he thought it best to wait just a bit.

He looked up at the sky. "Well, how about just about you? Like... Where you came from, how is your life like, and such." His mind wandered off a little bit and became a little sad. "What if she has a mate already...?"

"Or we can play the game of... 20 questions," he suggested to her with a half-worried smile. "We would go back and forth, each asking one question for the other to answer until we both would of asked 20 questions -- You would be the first to ask, of course."

 

[elfstar89]

Parva's head rose. "I am afraid I've never played 20 questions, and I have never heard of it either," she said with curiosity and a touch of regret. Were there things she'd missed as a filly from growing up rather isolated back in Bharata?

She shook herself a little. "I came from very far away, across the sea, from the northern part of a land we called Bharata, but I think the pale faces here call India." A soft smile of nostalgia came over her. "It was a warm and bright and colorful place where we always knew the sun and the summer. We knew very little winter, except in the highest mountains." She looked up and out across the waters. "I have a son. Three sons, actually, but the two eldest stayed with their patar--their father, as you say it here--when their patar and I parted ways after having children."

Her smile took on a cast of motherly pride. "My Ganesha is a clever son and a good son. He has a mate now, so spends most of his time with her. I've heard that she is a very sweet one, a Flutter, like you," she added, looking up towards his pale, warm-hued eyes.  

[ATh e a r t]

"20 questions is just a... pretty much a 'get to know each other' game," he told her with a smile. "It's pretty much like... No matter what the other person asks, you'd have to tell the truth."

He looked at Parvati and winked.

"Your land seems wonderful," Tsong told her as he tried to image the world that she came from. "Your family seems wonderful as well." Smiling, he thought about her family, he couldn't help but start the 20 question game himself.

"May I ask, as my first question, why you are not with the patar of your sons?" He was hoping he wasn't being too straight forward, but his curiosity couldn't help it. "I hope I said patar right... I wanted to give it a try."

Tsong laughed a little.

 

[elfstar89]

Parva smiled, a touch guiltily, looking firmly out to sea. Given that she'd recently heard that some Soquili mated for life, her answer was not going to be a nice one. "In the beliefs of Hinduism, a religion in India, having children is a sacred duty. I had never until very recently heard of Soquili mating for life, so I bore children in accordance with my sacred duty to have children." She gave a sad laugh. "It is not the nicest story in response to the question, but not all stories are nice."

She glanced up briefly toward where the sun looked a few feet from the waves. "It is now my turn for a question. Hmmm. Do you have a family?" Drat. She wanted to blush at that, but at least it sounded pretty harmless. It could refer to his parents and his siblings, at least.  

[ATh e a r t]

Tsong looked over at Parvati with genuine sadness in his eyes. "That's too bad..." He was silent for a little while, but finally decided to speak again. He had to have confidence in himself that he could talk to this mare.

He spoke quietly. "I think it's always best to start a family with someone you care about... Not because you have to." Honestly, if Tsong had to start a life with someone he didn't love, he didn't know what he would do. It just wasn't something that he'd ever thought of, nor would he ever accept having to do that.

Finally, he returned the nuzzle that she had given him earlier. "As for me, I have no family, no herd. I guess you can say I just wander from place to place meeting people. In a sense... Looking for the right one. It's kind of lonely, but I've met wonderful Soquili through traveling."

He looked up at the sky and smiled. In all honestly, Tsong would be very happy to either travel with someone, or settle down. "My turn to ask," he looked over her and smiled. "Question two! From your native land, how did you end up here?"