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 Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:19 pm
 Lounging on her side on a riverbank, head stretched along the ground, Cicadasong peers through the grass at an owlcat slinking along a fallen branch, sliding into and out of the patches of shadow cast by the mangroves. She heaves a forlorn sigh. No bother chasing this one. Lynxes, owlcats, foxbuns a-plenty, and somehow Chirp always comes up the loser. But she wants something cute to play with, dammit. She needs to put flowers behind ears and sing silly songs at some gratifyingly receptive audience, and the closest thing she has is Mirebeat. Not good enough. Her brother may be remarkably tolerant at times, but he is not cute. Stupid uterus. Stupid biological clock. Stupid girls. She exhales, flattening grass stems, and the owlcat bounds away, startled by some hidden visitor.
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Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:32 pm
It's warm, but not too warm, and her hooves sink slightly into the ground as she stumbles along. She's strong enough to walk, now, but not coordinated enough to manage without occasionally planting her face in the mud. But that's okay- she feels the need to be moving anyways, like an itch in her legs that doesn't subside until she's walking once more. For a while, now, she's been splashing quietly through water- river- the slippery rocks proving slightly more difficult to traverse than the mulchy ground just a few steps away.
She's not quite smart enough yet to get out of the water and onto relatively drier land.
She manages to make it quite a ways before her little stomach starts to growl, and she finally stumbles out of the water, somehow surprised as she falls to her knees, legs simply folding under her. How did that happen? No matter. She looks around, waiting for her silly, weak legs to cooperate once more.
This is a nice place to rest. But not for too long.
Just for a moment.
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Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:36 pm
At the sound of the little splash, Cicadasong absently lifts her head--does it like she expects to see something bitter and miserable. She has a look on her face that speaks to vast boredom.
It quickly disintegrates.
Scrambling to her feet, Chirp carefully steps off the bank and into the shallow water, stopping to pull a mouthful of tender green leaves off a dandelion bobbing on the bank. These she extends like an offering, hoping they'll be smelled, as she wades with delight towards the newcomer. She actually squeals. Just a little, though, and under her breath. No sense scaring the thing.
"Hey there, sweetie," she coos, a bit encumbered by her mouthful of leaves.
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Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:51 pm
Her head tilts as she smells something. It makes her think... tender. Tasty. She stretches her neck out, little teeth catching in the greens and pulling them towards herself, chewing as she listens to the words. They don't mean much yet, but the tone is sweet, if a bit overdone, and she swallows, then lets loose a little sound that is in her mind questioning but in actuality sounds delighted, high and soft.
How nice, something brought her food. It's a new concept, but one she embraces quite readily. She does not mind being brought food, not at all.
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Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:18 pm
Having relinquished the mouthful, Chirp is free to fully express her delight. The sincerity of her admiration overrides any real affectation that may have stemmed from trying to lure the little thing in: she is all genuinely smitten now. "Aren't you a darling? A little trusting, though. It's dangerous to take gifts from strangers. Look how pretty you are!"
This last comes as Chirp describes a full circle around the seated foal, splashing merrily through the shallows to get the full view. "You're so... tiny. Can you talk yet? Do you have a name?" She is lowering her neck now, peering intently at the foal's little face and smelling of the grass she was lying in.
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Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:37 pm
Drifts isn't sure what the sounds the larger creature is making mean, but they're good sounds, she thinks, happy sounds, and she responds in kind, though there's no solid sounds to stick the loose ones together, nothing there to make words out of them- not yet. She hasn't been around Kimeti that talk, before, to learn words and sentences.
There's something soft closeby, smelling of grass, sharp, succulent, and she leans forward, nose butting against Chirp's unintentionally. Bewildered, she freezes, then bumps her nose forward again. There's give, so it's not a tree- too soft for a rock or a sheer cliff wall, either.
She tilts her head, nose rubbing against the larger doe's, unsure what to make of it.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 3:59 pm
If Chirp could melt, she would. As it is, she opts to let her knees gently fold under her, bringing her more on level with her new friend and returning the nuzzle gently, with a little more intention in the hopes that it will make sense to the foal what is happening. Perhaps it is time for some instruction! True, Kimeti tend to learn to speak whether they're exposed to speech or not, but it's easy to speed the process with a little tutoring.
"Hiii," says Chirp carefully, bumping the foal's nose gently with hers. And then, deliberately and slowly: "Hi. Hi." She pauses, and apparently forgetting or not caring that the foal can't understand, prompts her: "Now you go. Hiii."
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 4:28 pm
It's nudging her nose, and it's soft and good and she leans into the touch quite happily, listening to the sounds it makes. It repeats one of them, over and over, and she gets a strange itching in the back of her throat. It won't be the first time she's imitated something she's heard, and air whistles over the back of her throat and out her mouth.
'Hhhiiiiiii...' It sounds off, not quite right, and she's not quite sure what the sound means, but she has a feeling that sooner or later she will, regardless. She bumps her nose against the larger creature's and then pulls back, ears flicking. Hmm. 'Hhiiiii.' It sounds... better, more like what the other one did.
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm
Chirp squeaks again. Good lord, this thing is cute. "Oh! Good job! You're smart, I think it took Mirebeat about ten goes."
Casting about for some sort of further motivation, she nabs a drifting bit of surface-dwelling greenery, fresh and wholesome, and drops it into the water in front of the foal like an offering to a goddess. A goddess of cute. "Food!" she explains happily. She plucks one of the finer-looking leaves and tucks it behind Drift's ear, leaning back to admire the effect. And then another. Oh boy. This is going to get ridiculous quickly.
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:14 pm
The next string of sounds is far too long and confusing for her to even contemplate imitating, but then there's a small 'splish!' and she noses forward, letting loose a delighted sound at the scent of more food. She nibbles, but leaves most of it there, floating between her awkwardly folded front legs- she's not really terribly hungry anymore, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
Her ear flicks at the feel of something behind it, trapped there by the positioning of the appendage, and she tilts her head, one way, then the other. It stays in place. She shakes her head, and it still stays in place. Hmmm.
Clearly, the only option is to roll, and that's what she does, slowly tipping over onto her side, splashing into the water and rolling until she's thoroughly soaked. When she comes up, shaking her head to rid her ears of the water, it's still there.
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