|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:57 am
 (( Adult Cert)) Agave knew, knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would be in big big trouble should he be caught out here without permission - in fact he would likely find himself on the receiving end of some less then pleasant training and few hard knocks from his 'teacher' She-ra. But once on a while the little colt considered such chances worth while and really who could blame him from attempting to take a break now and again from the constant training and working and generally harsh nature of his home?
Well his mother would say he could be blamed and he was sure She-ra would agree with her but to be honest Agave didn't much care, he just wanted to explore a little bit, see something other then rocks and caves and spiders for once and while it might not have been the smartest idea to enter his head he was going to do it anyways..and so he had made his way quietly down the mountain to the lands below in the hopes of exploring at least a little bit before he got caught.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:11 am
 Her parents had taken the family for a small trip away from their ocean home. It had been a fun and strange experience. The first night she had missed the sound of the rolling ocean waves and had struggled to fall asleep. The further they moved away from the familiar the more Aquitaine had wanted to go home. But her parents had assured her that soon they would go home and that experiences like these were good. So outside of breaking away from her family and trying to make it home by herself, which she would never do anyways, Aquitaine was stuck out here. At the moment her family was resting in a clearing, her brothers were being rowdy and she snuck away to get some quiet time. Everything here was so different. Where she was used to endless sand and water out here it was seas of grass and trees.
Aquitaine made sure not to venture too far from her parents but a little alone time would be good. She decided to pick some flowers to bring back to her mother, knowing how much her mother loved flowers. This meadow before her was full of so many different colors and types of flowers it was hard to pick only a few. Lowering her head Aquitaine began the careful process of snipping off the stems with her teeth and placing the various flowers in a neat pile. Once she collected enough she would gather them all up and bring them back. Her long slender tail waved slowly behind her as she set about her task, for the moment forgetting she was in a new and strange land where she should be paying attention to her surroundings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:23 am
Agave was finding himself more then just a little bit overwhelmed by his surroundings now that he had made his way down from the mountain where he typically resided - oh sure he had often stood up on one of the ledge and looked down at the green sea of grass and colorful things called flowers a time or two, he'd even been able to see the darker line of tree's further off..but seeing it from far above was a good deal different then seeing it close up like this.
For one thing the grass tickled his feet with the way it brushed against his legs - rocks certainly did nothing but rap you a good one if you didn't pay attention to where you were stepping and while the tickling wasn't was bad sensation it was different enough that Agave found himself walking with an exaggerated step to keep it from getting to out of hand..and for another thing the meadow smelled...all sweet and really it was almost sickly when you weren't used to it, turned out that those colorful dots he'd seen from above were some sort of smelly bright colorful grass that made you sneeze if you sniffed at it to closely.
Really it was all quite a bit to take in and he really wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings either when he came around a bush and found himself face to face with a blue foal. Squeaking slightly in surprise Agave almost..almost bounded away to hide behind the bush he'd appeared from..but it seems that some of his training was begining to sink in because rather then follow that initial instinct to run away he stood his ground and merely eyed the other foal with a somewhat wary look on his face. "Who are you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:34 am
The squeak caused Aquitaine's head to snap up, the flower she had been gathering fell from her teeth. She had expected to see another Soquili out here besides her family let alone another foal. And to make matters more interesting the foal was different looking, much like how she and her brothers were completely different from their parents. Did he have normal parents like she did or where his parents of the same odd variety? And more importantly why was he standing in such an defensive position? After all he had been the one to come up on her unexpectedly. Taking a moment to get her curiosity out of the way Aquitaine let her eyes quickly roam over the colt. Why he was covered in spikes! At first she had though there were only a few but his entire back and parts of his legs were riddled with them.
"I'm Aquitaine. Who are you?" His wary look made her wonder if she had seen other foals before, or perhaps he was surprised to see someone who looked similar to him. She cast a quick glance around the meadow. There were no others out, so where were his parents? Was he on his own or were his parents simply lurking out there, watching from the shadows? "Do you live around here?" She finally asked her eyes returning to him. Wait a second. Were his eyes glowing? And...did he have more than two? That was very interesting indeed! But she knew what it was like to be questioned about strange features so she kept quiet about them for now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:49 am
Agave watched the filly warily for several long moments - he was quite sure that she was going to jump at him at any second and fight him..or maybe call in some other Soqulli to capture him and lead him off to the terrible life the way She-ra kept telling him the weaker Soquili down here in the meadow lived. But the blue filly did not seem to have any such thoughts on her mind - in fact she seemed somewhat startled by his appearance herself and maybe even a bit..curious?
It was hard to say really - Agave was not very good at reading the expressions of others yet and while the filly might look a good deal different from other Soquilli who lived in the area Agave did not find such things odd at all, such oddities were practically the norm at home. "Agave Noctis..I live up on the mountain " He told her with a nod in the mountain's direction..not that anyone could really miss it. It was after all..a freaking mountain. "What are you doing with all that smelly sneeze grass?" He asked after a few moments of silence. Since it didn't look like she was going to attack him well..he might as well satisfy his curiosity right?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:00 pm
Agave Noctis, what a different name. Even so, she knew what being different was all about. She smiled in a friendly manner. "Agave Noctis...can I call you Agave for short?" If he didn't want his name shortened then she would simply go on calling him by his full name. Her attention turned to the mountain for a moment when he told her that he lived up there. She had seen the mountain while traveling towards this area, and it was enormous yet dark looking. There seemed to be very little vegetation growing up there. She would have never imagined anyone would live in such a barren area. The beach she lived on didn't have much, yet there was a large stand of trees and plenty of grass nearby so it had some things compared to the mountain. "I live near the ocean." She explained turned her attention from the mountain to Agave again.
Hearing his next question Aquitaine couldn't help but let out a small laugh. Smelly sneeze grass? She supposed if he lived up on that barren mountain he would have little knowledge of vegetation. "I was collecting flowers, to bring back to my mother." Aquitaine pointed with her nose towards a small pile of flowers not far away. "And this isn't smelly sneeze grass. It's just normal grass." She pointed out, not trying to make him look stupid but simply letting him know more about the grass. "It grows in lots of places. Sometimes there are flowers in the grass, other times there other plants." Explaining grass to the colt made her wonder what he ate if he didn't exactly know what grass was.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:30 am
"That's what most call me" Agave told the filly which was about as close to his permission as she was likely to get at this point. When she spoke of living near the ocean his ear rpicked a little bit - he had heard of such a place before, it had been mention in one of his caregivers stories and when he had asked for its meaning been told that it was a large body of salty water. A large body of water to Agave meant that it was some sort of giant lake with a foul taste - he wasn't sure why someone would want to live in such a place really. Still he was eager to prove to this filly that he knew something and so stated in a knowing voice "Ocean, that a giant lake with gross water right? I've heard of them before, it must be terrible to live there and drink that gross water" He went on completely unaware that he was doing ntohing but showing how very little he really did know.
Of course then she went on to try and explain grass to her - of course he knew what grass was! Although granted the grass up on the mountains was more of a brown color and was somewhat tough and far less tasty. Clearly she hadn't understood what he had been asking about "No no..not the regular grass - I know what grass is..but why are you eating that colorful smelly type that makes you sneeze?" He asked again motioning with his muzzle this time towards the flowers she had been picking earlier.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:01 pm
Well at least she could call him just Agave. It was the first step in the right direction, though honestly if he had have wanted her to use his full name she would have. Of course anything she was about to say was interrupted by his explanation of what an ocean was. Aquitaine once again fought the smile that wished to form itself upon her lips. Was that truly what he thought an ocean was? Just who taught him these things? If it was his parents they weren't giving him the entire truths. Yet, he was partially right. Ocean water did taste somewhat gross and did nothing to slack ones thirst to boot. "Yeah," she said in slight agreement. "It doesn't taste very good. But we don't drink the ocean water. There's a pond that we drink from that has fresh water in it."
Her attention turn to the 'other grass' and this time she did smile. "Oh, those are flowers. They are like grass in a way since they are both plants. But flowers are special, they only grow in warmer weather and come in all kinds of shapes and colors." Aquitaine sighed happily, she did love flowers much like her mother. And in fact that was why she had been out here picking some, to bring back to her mother. She would have asked if he wanted to pick some for his mother but honestly Aquitaine wasn't sure he had a mother or if he did that she would appreciate them. "I was picking some for my mother." She finally said, allowing him to decide on his own if he wanted to join her in this activity or not. One thing was for certain, something she picked up even at this young age, was that whoever was raising and teaching Agave wasn't doing that good of a job. It never occurred to her that perhaps they were deliberately warping his mind in such a way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:07 pm
"Well that makes more sense I suppose" Agave stated with a slight nod of his headwhen she explained about drinking the pond water and not that gross sounding ocean water. "I had to drink swamp water once - I bet its worse then Ocean water, it's got slime on it but my trainer says that doing unpleasant things is just a part of life and then because I complained she made me drink it for a whole month" He told her in a somewhat proud voice - maybe it was odd to be proud of such a thing but Agave was..because he'd done it and as it had been explained to him such a feat made him stronger and better able to survive in harsh area's.
Perhaps that was why she was picking flowers for her mother. Some sort of training though Agave couldn't understand what sort exactly...unless. Right..how could he not have known! "Oh is it part of your training, is she going ot make poisons out of them?" He asked, smiling at having figured it out. Of course she was going to make a poison out of them. "Is she going to poison something and feed it to her pets?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:22 pm
A shiver ran down Aquitaine's spine at the thought of drinking swamp water. "Ew! That's gross!" She couldn't stop herself from saying that. And while she somewhat regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth she also knew it was the truth. She would only drink swamp water as a last resort to prevent herself from dying of dehydration, and even then it wouldn't be something she would want to do. And certainly she would not be so proud about doing it either. Now she was really wondering just who this trainer was that seemed to be corrupting Agave's mind and why they were doing this. This must be the evil her parents spoke of, some Soquili were bad, others good, and clearly whoever was in charge of Agave's training was on the bad side of things.
Of course, the drinking swamp water thing was nothing compared to what Agave said next.
Aquitaine felt her jaw drop. He couldn't be serious. And yet, he had said it so freely that she was certain he wasn't joking. After all the things he had said previous it made sense but it was still shocking. He thought she was collecting flowers to make poisons! "NO!" She said in a shocked voice. "Um...I mean...I'm not picking them to make poisons. That's...well that's just not what I'm doing with them." Aquitaine had to give her head a shake to sort out her thoughts. "We don't do anything like that with flowers. My mother wears then in her hair, to make herself pretty." Not that Aquitaine thought her mother was pretty without them, her mother was, after all, the more beautiful Soquili. "We would never hurt creatures with poisons. That's terrible!" Again she spoke without thinking, but honestly what Agave had said was so wrong! Now more than ever she could see the corruption his trainer and perhaps mother had bestowed upon him. She wanted to help him, to show him the error of those ways, but how. They were just foals and it's not like she could whisk him away to safety. If she did that his trainer would likely hunt her down and poison her. Aquitaine shuddered at the thought.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 6:12 am
"Of course it's gross" Agave agreed with the filly, giving a slight laugh "But thats why they make me do it - to prove that I can do even hard gross things" He told her, once more a slightly proud tone entering his voice - it seemed that Agave didn't even realize how utterly abusive that sentence made his family seem to someone who had grown up in a more loving family.
Of course he was completely baffled by the fillies words about picking flowers to look pretty...why would someone want to waste time looking pretty? They would just get all messed up again during training or fighting and such. "But don't the flowers get all messed up when she goes and fights?" He asked after a few moments though he was loathe to admit that he didn't know something. "And how do you know your poisons work if you don't test them first?" He asked with a slightly arched brow, because really if she wasn't willing to harm a few animals to test her poisons then there was no way to know if they worked or not "If you don't check to make sure your poisons work you'll get beaten when you show your trainer" He went on as though warning her of possible danger.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:02 am
Well there was one thing they agreed on...if only for a moment. Swamp water was gross no matter who was drinking it. But then as we went on about the reason being doing so Aquitaine realized that this colts world was so very different and wrong from her own that she didn't really know what to say. What kind of a parent or mentor did those things? Much as she liked to have said something no words came to her, so instead Aquitaine just stood there, looking at the spiked colt as he continued on about the poisons and other unpleasant things. It wasn't until a while after Agave stopped talking that Aquitaine realized that perhaps she would need to change tactics, if only temporarily. This colt, his lifestyle and the things he was saying honestly frightened her a bit. But she couldn't just run off to the safety of her family. No, what she needed to do was gain his trust a bit and then and only then could she turn her back to him and return to her family.
So she did the only thing she could think of and began to agree with him on certain things. "Well...I guess that's why she needs new flowers all the time, cause the get messed up." That wasn't so far to say, afterall, she had seen her mother replace the flowers a few times, though it was often because they became dislodged or damaged due to dancing, not fighting. The poisons subject would need to be addressed carefully, she didn't want to encourage him to test poisons or kill innocent creatures but she did need to maybe show some interest in it. "Maybe...my trainer isn't teaching me well...that's why I don't know these things." Then she added a bit of a shrug. "Guess we all can't have good teachers like you have." If this change of strategies didn't work then she would change tactics again or run for her life and tell her parents.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:21 pm
Agave began to get the impression that his 'big and bad' approach to impressing her wasn't working all that well. Maybe she didn't like bragging. TO be honest Agave wasn't all that fond of it himself..he'd just learned that to get a little bit of respect and peace back home it was necessary. Maybe he didn't have to keep up such a front with this filly - she seemed nice enough really, if she was going to challenge him to a fight then she probably would have done it already.
"Oh" He told her when she explained about the flowers "I suppose that makes sense then" And then he crumbled a little bit when she went on to talk about his mentor. Glancing around with a critical eye as though making sure he wasn't being watched he stepped closer to the filly and lowered his voice to a whisper "I..I don't really like my trainer to be honest, she's kind of mean and scary. If yours isn't scary then your lucky..I'll probably get punished when they find out I snuck away" He told her mournfully before regaining his proud posture..he didn't want her to thin he was a sissy "But it was worth it and I'm not afraid"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:35 am
Well now, this was a new development. When he stepped closer she remained where she was, though certainly alert since he had glanced about before doing so, but it seemed he just wanted to say something and not be heard by anyone who may be lurking around unseen. Aquitaine had not expected him to say such things to her. In fact, if anything she suspected he might be telling her that her 'trainer' was a terrible one or something else. But the fact that he admitted that he didn't like his trainer because she was mean and would punish him for sneaking off, it was quite shocking. So perhaps he wasn't as bad off as she first thought he was, if he didn't like his trainer then there was a chance he could be saved. Not now of course, they were both too young to do something reckless like trying to sneak him away from his trainer, but in the future, as long as he still held onto this thought it was possible.
At first she didn't know what to say. How did one continue a conversation after being told such things. Some Soquili might have shrugged off the colts comments or told him to buck up and take it like a man, but Aquitaine knew that that was not what she would do. Instead she remained quiet for a few moments thinking of the right words to say. They unfortunately didn't come. And then just whens he was about to say something random a thought popped into her head. "I don't think we are supposed to like trainers. They push us to do things, to better ourselves. They can't afford to be our friends as that would make them more lenient with us and then in turn they would fail us in our training. And they punish us for doing things like sneaking off because their trainers did it to them when they were younger." It was a cruel thought but Aquitaine was certain it was true. Cruelty bred more cruelty after all. Of course when he mentioned it was worth sneaking out she couldn't help but smile. "It's good to get away sometimes." Had she not snuck away from her parents then she would have never met Agave, and had he not met her, who knows what would happen to him. Now she had a friend who was mistreated at the moment but one day she would certainly try to find him again and see if she could help him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:04 am
Agave listened to the other foals words with a serious expression on his face - as though he was really mulling over what she had said. It was probably true what she said, his mother had helped train his trainer and that she had punished her severely when his trainer had misbehaved was almost a given. "My mother helped train my trainer" He told Aquitaine mournfully "I know that she punished She-ra, she probably made her pet spiders bite her a lot" He went on. "It hurts when they bite but She-ra says that pain makes us remember and keep from repeating our mistakes." He went on.
"Does your family and trainer have mean pets?" He asked, suddenly curious about the other foals family - so far all he really knew about them was that her mother liked flowers - which he still felt was a bit silly but she was an adult so she probably had her reasons. In any case he certainly wasn't going to question it if he ever met them - to do so would only get him into trouble and Agave disliked being in trouble for something as silly as commenting about flowers - if he was going to get himself punished then he was going to get himself punished for something worthwhile - like sneaking off and missing a whole day's training. In fact he was feeling pretty proud of himself for having gotten so far without being caught.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
