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 Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:50 pm
Svanbjorn eyed the mare with distaste. He had never hidden the fact that he didn't understand this ritual of hers. It seemed crude and unseemly. It certainly was unladylike. If she didn't insist on it he would refuse to help her. He was the one, after all, who had to gather the "materials." It was a summer day, gloriously sunny and hot. In that heat, sweat and the smell of it clung to him. Disgusting.
"Are you almost done yet?" he asked with a flick of his tail. "It seems like you've been very thorough to me, and some clean up is needed." He glanced pointedly at the corpse of the young mare. She was a young and pretty thing, barely more than a filly. He had found the wind mare at the local stream. It had been the perfect catch opportunity, though now he was starting to regret having bothered.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:00 pm
"No, I am not done yet," Carmilla replied imperiously. "You know how important this is for me. I'm not going to rush just because you're impatient." She relaxed a little further into her bath. She knew that Svanbjorn had a difficult task in gathering his portion of the materials, but her job wasn't exactly easy either. She had needed to dig a hole in the ground large enough for her to recline in and that had taken her almost the entirety of a messy day. The next task had been to line it with a mixture of leaves and large flat rocks that would enable it to hold liquid. It had taken a long time but it was entirely worth it.
She gently tilted a wing and watched the red liquid rolling over it. The smell that disgusted Svanbjorn melted into the background of her awareness. She was used to it, after all. It wasn't as if this ritual was a new one for her. "Just let me be for a while longer."
She ducked her head lower and let the liquid wet the underside of her neck. In all her life she had known of nothing so luxurious. She sank into the blood of the dead mare and shut her eyes. There was nothing she enjoyed more than her little beauty treatments.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:09 pm
"Very well," he sighed impatiently. He looked down at the mare's corpse again. Her wings splayed brokenly on the filthy ground. With a hoof he nudged them closed into a more dignified position. That looked a little better. It camouflaged the fact that he was standing next to a corpse.
"It's going to be a bother finding something to do with the body," he muttered. He treated himself and behaved as if he was a full kalona, but cannibalism was not one of his sins. He might kill mares for Carmilla but he didn't eat them. The one time he had nibbled at a soquili's corpse he had been filled with such a superstitious loathing that he had never tried again. He didn't like the feeling of being watched. He didn't know whether he feared retribution from the dead body or from the spirit, but he wouldn't be eating any soquili anytime soon. He'd probably have to find some gorge to drop the body in. Dragging the dead mare wasn't going to be a fun chore.
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Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:25 pm
"If you're just going to be gloomy, stop staring and find something else to do!" Carmilla snapped. She glared at Svanbjorn. The last thing she needed during her relaxation was him griping at her. He was useful and quite charming but he could get petulant sometimes. "Please, just leave me here." To drive her point home she turned from him and let her eyes drift shut. He wasn't stupid. He ought to take the hint.
She had been doing these little beauty rituals for years now. Above all things, Carmilla was vain. The day that her mother had told her that she wasn't a filly anymore and needed to leave Carmilla had begun to fear for her beauty. She had gone to an ancient soothsayer and asked her how she might maintain her youth and beauty throughout the years. The answer was what she was doing that moment, bathing in the blood of a mare whose life and beauty she would steal.
So far, Carmilla had no reason to suspect the soothsayer had been lying. Ever since she began taking her baths she had been more beautiful than ever before. Her coat was glossy. Her wings shimmered in even the softest light. She couldn't be more beautiful, so mares kept dying.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 2:29 pm
Svanbjorn sighed and shook his head in exasperation. He should have known better than to attempt to speak with her until she was finished. "Very well then," he said stiffly. "I'll wait for you. Come find me when you're finished." He turned and left her there. If she was offended by his absence then maybe she would take it as a cue to be more polite. He didn't expect much from her, but basic respect was a necessity.
He walked out into the meadow that they had made their home recently. It was full of lush green grass with butterflies that danced about from flower to flower. The grass didn't mean much to him. He ate a diet of predominantly meat. He sometimes would graze out of social boredom when Carmilla was also eating but it wasn't something he would seek out on his own. He was of kalona blood. He deserved better than grass. While Carmilla bathed he glanced around lazily for prey. The rabbits and squirrels had already learned to stay clear of this place. He'd have to range farther if he wanted meat today.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 5:48 pm
Carmilla didn't disdain to say anything while Svanbjorn left. She didn't want to encourage him to be snippy with her and silence could be just as potent as sharp words. She deliberately turned to look somewhere else while he left and once he had gone she relaxed again.
She savored the moment, knowing it wouldn't last long. A soft sigh escaped her lips and she smiled. She didn't feel guilty in the slightest. She had known many young mares in her life and knew that it was only perhaps one in ten that lived any sort of remarkable life. The other nine were little better than the buffalo that grazed on the plains, dull and stupid without purpose. They weren't losing anything by dying for her.
She was just shutting her eyes again when she noticed a sticky feeling starting to set in. Her bath was over. It was time to remove herself and wash off the residue. She drew herself from her trench and shook moisture from her mane. She walked through the meadow where Svanbjorn was sulking. There was a river on the other side where she would wash.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:06 pm
The soft sound of hoof beats alerted Svanbjorn to Carmilla's approach. He turned to watch her as she emerged into the meadow. Though her treatment was meant to improve her beauty, truly she looked disgusting presently. Her coat was stained dark and strands of her mane stuck to her neck in clumps. He felt repulsed and sneered a little at the sight.
"Why is it that you always wash that off as soon as you're finished?" he asked. "Isn't the purpose of your bath to allow the blood to soak into you? It seems that you're defeating the purpose if you simply wash it away." It irritated him to think that she was wasting his efforts.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:26 pm
Carmilla stared at him pointedly. Svanbjorn was always asking stupid questions to which he already knew the answer. He was doing it entirely to annoy her, she was certain. He found it troublesome to gather her mares so tormented her as his payment. His immaturity was not impressive.
"It doesn't need to sit on me," she replied. "I've already soaked in the properties of the blood. I don't need to let it cake onto me." She shook her head at him and walked right on past. It was obvious that he didn't understand her. Very few ever had.
"Why don't you come with and bathe yourself too. You're not looking as fresh as you usually do." She liked him to look well groomed. It reflected poorly on her when he wasn't.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:05 pm
She was clearly in one of her moods. "I will come with you, but not because of your snipping," he told her. He followed after her with his wings neatly folded. He quickened his pace to arrive at the stream before her. He took the prime spot for himself, a deep place with stable rocks along the bottom. He stepped into the water and appreciated the cool flow past his legs. They had certainly found a lovely location to stay.
He looked over his shoulder to see Carmilla appearing out of the trees. If she was being too slow about washing herself he'd have to get her to hurry it up. He had a carcass to dispose of and wasn't going to do it alone. He might hunt down the mare without her assistance, but he wanted her company at the very least while dragging it off. She wasn't a grateful creature but it wouldn't kill her to pretend that she was every once in a while.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:06 am
Carmilla tutted to herself when she saw that Svanbjorn had already taken the best spot for bathing. She was shorter than he was so there was a limit to where she could stand in the stream to get good water flow without drowning. "Move over," she said commandingly. She walked straight into the water toward him and stood beside him in the cool river.
She gently dipped her wings into the water first. They couldn't tolerate scrubbing so were the hardest to clean off after her beauty treatments. The blood misted away in the water but she frowned as some still clung to her. She probably should have emerged a little sooner.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:09 am
Svanbjorn glared and stepped out of the way for Carmilla. He stood upstream of her so he wouldn't get coated with her bloody runoff. He eyed the red clots floating off of her with distaste. "I have heard that there are some places where biting fish would attack you for giving off that much blood in the water," he told her dubiously. "They could skeletonize a horse in less than the time it would take us to eat an apple." Carmilla was lucky that those sorts of animals only lived in the jungle. Otherwise she'd certainly be devoured.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:12 am
"Don't be ridiculous," chided Carmilla. "I'm sure you're making that up." She reached behind to her tail and groomed it carefully. Soon it was pristine again and she moved to one of her forelegs. "The only thing that might bite me in this river is you, and I think we both know what would happen if you did that." She left the statement hanging threateningly before splashing her whole head underwater.
"If you want to scare me, why don't you just shout 'boo' or something?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:15 am
"It's true, you know," insisted Svanbjorn. "I heard it from a kelpi that once lived in those rivers. He said that he saw humans fall in and get eaten instantly." He chuckled darkly. "The kelpi even said he'd taken a few bites himself. Now kelpis, they are-"
At the look of flat disinterest from his mate he stopped speaking in a huff. For all that he did for her, Carmilla could be a wretched creature sometimes. He pretended to busy himself with his own cleaning. He shivered his wings in the water like a bird would and flicked the shining droplets off after. Soon, he was as bright a white as he could be and spotless from any sort of grime.
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