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 Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 2:57 pm
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:08 pm
If Phala had hated his life before he loathed it now. After the winter attack some time ago it seemed life within the herd had only gotten worse. So many had been killed, many who he thought would never go, some that he was actually sad to see go. If that hadn't been hard enough now he was seen as Phala- Attacker of Foals. It was his own doing in the end but it didn't make it any better. The only good thing that had come from the traumatic event was his sister's inheritance as herd alpha.
Phala was proud of her, more than any could understand, but it made it close to impossible to get a moment alone with her these days. For once he'd managed to spirit her off hopefully for a chance to relax. "I found some bushes that still have berries on them." He said to her with a smile that only his siblings knew. "They're probably still sweet and good to eat."
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:17 pm
"Yeah? That sounds nice." Shrivatsa smiled at her brother. Smiling came more easily to her these days. Since becoming the new Padmapani alpha, Shrivatsa had forced many hopeful or comforting expressions onto her normally static face. Others liked it when she smiled. She had partially been mimicking the departed Vara's expressions and mannerisms, partially been doing just what she thought would make others more comfortable. The more she faked cheer or warmth the better she became at it. There were some times, like today, that it wasn't even quite as forced as she might try to convince herself.
She liked being able to spend time alone with her brother even if it was a little strange. He had developed a bad reputation since the attack on the herd, but Shrivatsa couldn't bring herself to treat him any differently. She knew that, as alpha, she ought to be stern and reprimand him, but he was getting enough of that from the others already. Around him, she didn't have to pretend to be the wise leader. She could finally relax and be herself, even if the "herself" she was had been changing lately.
"Where are we, anyways?" She blinked around them. "I don't remember this place."
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:29 pm
Uwasa's tail swayed behind her as she trotted ahead of her fathers. They'd just been visiting her mother's herd but after taking one look at her newly found skull accessory they'd politely let Uwasa and her father's do as they pleased for the remainder of the visit. Her mother had opted to stay with her family for a while but Torao had decided now would be a fine time to go explore the region more. Uwasa was thrilled.
As she was moving briskly along she noticed a couple shapes. Her tail stilled and she grinned. Locals! She turned sharply and picked up the pace to go and great them. The closer she got the more details she was able to pick out. When she was several yards away something in particular caught her eye, their markings. "Sun people." She gasped before racing towards them in excitement.
"Good afternoon!" She called in her fathers' native language. She didn't think she'd ever see more people from their home land here. What luck! "It's nice weather today, ne?" One even had a pelt too!
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:34 pm
"I don't know." He admitted. "Found it one day while I was out walking." He wasn't even sure if they were still in the herd's territory, not that it mattered much to him. He didn't feel bound to the territory like some of the others did.
He was about to brush it off until he herd the sound of rapidly approaching hooves. He turned around to face the sound and snarled at the horse racing towards them. Maybe this was why many avoided straying from the boundaries. Had the wandered into the territory of aggressive soquili? He braced himself for an attack but instead was greeted by a grinning face babbling some bizarre nonsense.
"Uh...Shri...I think we found a crazy one..." He muttered to his sister not sure what to do.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:45 pm
Shrivatsa instinctively ducked behind her more aggressive brother at the sound of approaching hoofbeats. She no longer trusted strangers in the woods. The owner of those hooves could just as easily be a kalona or skinwalker as a unicorn or wind. Adrenaline pumped through her and she prepared for fight or flight... which seemed a little silly once they were confronted by the smiling stranger.
Shrivatsa let out a tense sigh of relief and emerged from hiding behind her brother. Even though she strained to catch any word she could recognize, she understood nothing of what the mare was saying. She didn't respond to her brother's comment but wondered if the mare might indeed be a little unhinged. "... Excuse me?" she asked.
Blinking, she noticed several odd things about this mare. She wore a skull in her hair like some sort of decoration. That didn't mean that the stranger was dangerous, but she was certainly unusual. The tail was strange too. It looked more like the tail of a panther than any sort of soquili Shrivatsa had ever known. Carefully, she pushed aside unpleasant implications that panthers had for her. The mare clearly was no skinwalker.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 4:04 pm
Uwasa blinked at the two. The mare with fox-like ears had hidden herself behind the stallion who had been snarling at her. Were they scared of her even though they were both larger than she was? She wondered if it was the skull she had found or maybe it was just that they couldn't understand her.
"You...don't understand?" She sighed feeling completely crushed. She had been so sure that they were like her fathers. "You can't speak the language of the Sun's Home can you?" That was sad. She'd still be limited to conversing with her fathers and uncle Akiyo. "Do your parents maybe?" That would be okay too. Give her more practice. He fathers understood her well enough but there was no telling what others would think of her speech.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 4:11 pm
Maybe she wasn't as crazy as Phala initially thought, just weird. Who came up to perfect strangers and babbled in some weird language if they knew the one everyone spoke perfectly well? "No one talks like that here!" He snapped feeling particularly irritated. This strange girl had interrupted his time with his sister and then acted like it was a crime to not know what she was saying. "Why would we?" This was stupid.
"C'mon Shri, the berries are over this way." He said trying to steer his sister away.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:45 pm
It wasn't madness, it was another language. Some of the older soquili of the herd spoke other languages, but none of them sounded like what the mare had been speaking."I- uh... sorry." Though Phala wanted to leave, Shrivatsa hesitated. She wasn't one who spent a lot of time talking to strangers, but it felt rude to leave practically mid-sentence. She didn't want to cause a scene by pushing past her brother, so she leaned her head down to be seen under his neck.
"We've never heard anything like that in our lives. Sorry." While she was leaning down she found herself staring at the legs of the mare. Around the bottom of each leg were strange markings... strangely familiar markings. "Hey, are you...?" Shrivatsa wasn't certain what she wanted to ask. The question hovered on the tip of her mind, but was elusive.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:41 am
Uwasa coiled her tail around a back leg trying not to look too disappointed. It wasn't working. The frown on her face was deep and her ears refused to stay upright. "No one?" That was just so sad. There was no mistaking those marks. The ones on the mare's forelegs and the ones on the stallion's hind legs in particular echoed those of her fathers'. It seemed that the mare had also noticed the similarities.
"Am I...what?" She tilted her head to the one side with an expectant and knowing smile. She got the feeling she knew what the mare wanted to ask. Their mom or dad probably had marks that looked almost exactly like hers, maybe even their grandmother or grandfather. Either way the commonality had now been noticed and it was only a matter of time until she found out which member from their family originally came from her fathers' home land.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:52 am
It was nice to not have to deal with Sabella's family for once. Torao and Hisoka had left her there only after making it perfectly clear that the would be back for her and that there would be hell to pay if anything happened to her. Torao looked over and grinned at Hisoka. It was all because he'd taken the initiative to break that basket thief's leg before sending him home. Currently they had decided to spend the day following their daughter around. This was fine because following Uwasa meant let her run off wherever and have some nice alone time.
Or at least that's what Torao thought was going to happen. Uwasa had vanished several minutes ago and now that he could see her again Torao could tell that she wasn't alone. He growled and narrowed his eyes at the group trying to make out who she was speaking to. "Trouble..." He said before picking up the pace. He didn't know if it was or not but he wasn't taking chances.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:00 am
Hisoka nodded his head at Torao's utterance of the word trouble. It certainly looked like a situation that could get bad and quickly. She was out numbered and smaller than the pair. It was best to even the odds.
He rushed after Torao in a brisk trot that was just slow enough to look casual but fast enough to cover ground quickly. When he got into earshot he slowed his pace slightly and signaled for Torao to do the same. "Uwasa, are they friends?" He called in his native language to keep the strangers out of the conversation. To his knowledge only himself, Torao, Akiyo and Uwasa knew that particular tongue in these lands. "Are you in danger?" He was not about to risk his only daughter.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:07 am
A chill went down Phala's spine at the smile on the strange mares lips. It was like she knew something that they didn't and that was enough to send up warning flags. "We're leaving, Shri." He said pushing at his sister again. There was something going on and he didn't like it. He was no herd protector but he was definitely his sister's guard.
He looked over his shoulder at the sound of more hooves approaching and froze as he caught sight of two large stallions approaching. One was even larger than he was and the other was speaking what sounded like the same weird language the mare had been using. They knew each other.
Phala stopped pushing his sister and turned to face down the new comers with teeth bared.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:30 pm
"Hey! Cut it out!" Shrivatsa snapped at Phala while being pushed. "I want to-" She almost fell when he was suddenly turning away from her, and almost fell again when she saw why. Two strange stallions, and they didn't look friendly. "Phala," she whispered, her throat tight. Looking at the group of the three of them made her stomach turn. It was like remembering a dream long forgotten, a twisting sense of deja vu.
They both wore pelts on their backs, like Phala. Their markings, like the mare, were strangely familiar. The one with the white pelt even had little lanterns like she and Padmaraja did. Shrivatsa felt the irrational urge to toss her lanterns to the ground. It confused her too much to have that connecting her to these ominous strangers. "We don't mean any harm," was all that she could manage to get out.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:55 am
It seemed that the meeting had completely blown up in Uwasa's face. They didn't want her around at all. At the sound of hoofsteps she turned and grinned. Her fathers had caught up to her but they seemed so worried. Her tail unwound from her leg and she trotted a few paces closer to them stopping only when they reached her side. "I'm alright." She said rubbing her head against Hisoka's chest before moving to rub against Torao's shoulder. "They're just easily spooked." She concluded.
Torao nodded at his daughter before stepping away from the other two and towards the strange white duo. "Tell him that." He said to the mare nodding the the stallion before her. "Cause that one looks like he's looking for a fight he won't win." He locked eyes with the green haired stallion fully intent on staring him into submission.
As Torao stepped forward Hisoka shifted to block Uwasa from view. She said she was fine but Hisoka didn't trust the look of this pair. He could tell what had drawn their young Leopard to speak with them: those marks. He, Torao and Akiyo had never told Uwasa why all three of them happened to have them. It wasn't coincidence. These two didn't have marks quite as distinguishable as a set as his and Torao's were but Hisoka wouldn't have been surprised if there was another game underfoot. Even all the way out here the spirits got vicious. For all he knew it was because they had stopped playing that a new one had started.
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