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 Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:15 pm
 He's pissed. He's pissed and upset and really damn down because the other two-thirds of his entertaining trio have decided to "take a break to find our artistic centers"--those damn dancers had been into the mellow mushrooms again!--and he's heading back to the desert he came from, singing his feelings to the pale blue sky as the heat gets higher. " Lonely, I'm not lonely, I'll show them, it doesn't matter!
I'm fine, and really dandy, when your bones, I will shatter!" And maybe plotting murder. Or at the very least, the highly painful and possibly permanent maiming of his partners. "Oh, shut up, Found, you stupid fox," he tells the pale, big-eared critter trotting around his hooves as it snickers. "I know it's not great, but hey, I feel better! And one of these days I'll show that great bloody big oaf Acid exactly how well this Acha can dance!" He executes a complicated trip-step-weave that ends with his forelegs in the air like graceful flower stems, his tail floating in an unfelt breeze. "I'd like to him try that with those ungainly hooves."
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:03 am
As Twilight gains the crest of a rise before him, a silhouette appears backlit against the sky: at first dazzling to look at because of the bright sun, but eventually resolving itself into the shape of a kimeti. It is a lean, weatherbeaten thing, without the back spines so typical of its kind; its legs are long, there are hollows behind its ribs, and its hair is crusted with sand, but there is a peculiar charisma about him. At his feet are a mongoose and a fennec, currently engaged in a fight over some small scrap of meat the mongoose dug up; Slide is currently paying no attention to them. In fact, he rather wishes he would have left one or the other at home. Pillar, the mongoose, is horrifically jealous of Dune, the fennec. When the acha nears, Slide shakes himself out of whatever doze he had been in (the sun is so warm, perfect for napping) and descends the dune, lazily sliding his way down in a way that leaves no tracks behind him. He seems an old hand at this, despite the fact that kimeti are supposed to come from the swamp. "Plotting something, are you?" His voice is harsh and creaky from disuse. This close up, his eyes are a searing, brightly-glowing blue.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 4:44 pm
So intent on keeping the pose that honors the red moons that rise over the desert, Twilight misses the flicker of movement until Found twitches and yips at the strange Kimeti. "Oh, you know," Twilight says lightly as he drops back to rest his dainty hooves in the golden sands, tail flicking to brush across the fennec's ears, "just the usual murder, mayhem and complete annihilation of someone's pride."
He is entranced by the blazing blue eyes; he's seen other glowing eyes, but none this vibrant, and his mind races to compose a lyric deserving to recall the shade. He fails for the moment, and pushes to the back of his mind to contemplate later, and looks at the buck.
"Were you born of the sands, Kimeti?" It's interesting to Twilight, as he's only heard stories of a golden buck with blazing eyes and a shaggy mane braving the harsh clime of this area. And this buck does not match the stories--but then, sometimes stories and songs are jumbled by the visions produced by cactus flesh. So he wonders if there are now two Kimeti who have desert-spirits instead of swamp-spirits.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:38 pm
"No," Slide says, sounding relieved that an acha has asked him an interesting question rather than one completely daft or ridiculous -- his whole expression warms. "Though my dream -- do you acha have such things? -- was in the desert. Are there vast dunes? And do things live under the sand?" He is so forward in asking these questions that it might seem strange, but they are questions he has been asking all of his life. At his feet, Dune -- the little pale-colored fennec -- suddenly comes alive, gets up with a series of high-pitched yips, and races forward to perk its giant ears up at the other fennec. Dune is gangly, long-limbed, not-quite-grown. Slide blinks at them, and then says -- to the acha -- "I am Walks Without Rhythm. That is Dune," and this," he nods to the mongoose, "is Pillar."
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:08 pm
"Yes, we dream in the egg as it bakes in the sun and is cooled by the moon," Twilight replies. "I am A Hidden Twilight, though, please, call me Twilight." He executes a bow, full of theatrical flourishes and a couple of simple dance steps. "The fennec fox beside me is Found," and here the light cream fox backflips and proceeds to pounce on Dune. "Forgive her, she's restless," Twilight sighs, then turns back to the questions he has been asked.
"Yes, there are vast dunes, many times taller than the tallest tree in the Swamp, ever changing and growing or shrinking. There are fierce winds that blow the dunes to suit whims. And many things reside below the shifting sands; some are good, some not so. The sand dogs and the fennecs know to avoid certain holes for fear of the venomous creatures inside. There are insects that sting the leg and paralyze or kill the Kin who's been stung. And it's never quick."
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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 3:33 pm
Dune shrieks its little fox shriek and flattens itself against the ground: the fennec, still in its gangly-limbed adolescence, isn't quite sure what to make of another fennec. Pillar, seeing the shenanigans perpetuated by the two foxes, simply leaps up onto Slide's back and peers at Twilight. The buck himself listens intently to the acha's words and then nods, seeming momentarily sated: "So there are no worms underneath the sand?" Something in his tone suggests he doesn't mean the earthworms that the fennecs and dogs hunt: these are larger. "I dreamed of them -- mouths capable of swallowing kimeti whole."
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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:01 pm
Twilight sighs again when the other fennec fails to engage his own dear one. "Found, let Dune go. It's not playtime." He waits patiently as his lovely fennec reluctantly lets go and returns to sit at his side, cleaning paws as Twilight studies the mongoose studying him and greets it with a short nod; he's never quite gotten past the the thought that a mongoose would make a good meal, but Kimeti tend to shriek when named pets are eaten by someone. Maybe they're raising the critters for their own meals, though he's never heard anything about it.
"There are stories of great worms that chase Acha down and swallow them whole, but I myself have never encountered such a thing of nightmares. Some think they're but myths, stories told to give excuse when an Acha did not come back from a hunt." There's a flippant, disbelieving tone to Twilight's words, a subtle disdain for what he sees as selective blindness. Likely those missing Acha found something more interesting than the desert--though what it was, he couldn't fathom.
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:52 am
The mongoose is fearless. It creeps forward on tiny paws to put its own wet, twitching nose against the fennec's. At the moment of touch, Pillar springs backwards and away, chattering furiously. A moment later he bounces forward again, bobbing and weaving in a slightly crazed fashion. It makes the buck smile thinly ... which is apparently the only such expression he manages. All of his smiles are thin.
He nods at the validity of the acha's statement -- completely ignoring the tone in Twilight's voice. For Slide, the great sandworms of the desert are real, if they still have never been found. "I have attempted to find the desert and those worms. I have not yet made it there, but I would like to, one day. Your kind have made the swamp their home, haven't you? The other acha I have met," and here Slide seems to withhold some sort of judgement, "Have not been so informative."
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:03 am
Found is delighted with the invitation to play, and bounds happily after the mongoose, yipping and wagging the bushy tail fennecs are known for. Twilight laughs; he's never seen his pet so happy.
"Indeed, some of my kind have adopted the swamp as home, though they keep the secrets of home.There are some stubborn ones who remain in the desert, though. My own dream urged me to find the swamp, and I cannot complain much about it. It feels like home, but so does the desert. It's a sad feeling, that no matter where you rest, a piece of you is not at home." Twilight sighs, shaking off his sudden melancholy. "Anyway, if you do visit the desert when I am there, I would extend my services as guide and host. We can go worm-hunting. And if you're in the swamp, my troupe members and I would be pleased to present our skills in the singing and dancing of stories and legends of old."
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:07 am
This, apparently, is everything (and more) that Slide has ever wished to hear. The buck's face lights up: even his mate would not recognize him in that sublime moment. It is beneath Slide to dance in joy or even to smile with all of his teeth, but with his ears pricked forward, eyes alight, and his lips curled in a smile, his reaction is more than most kin will ever see. "Thank you," he begins; "I have been .. funneling resources towards that end. If I make it to the desert I will seek you out. But -- perhaps my mate and I will listen to your songs, here in the swamp, should we pass."
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 3:59 pm
Twilight gives the buck a grin and a sketches a quick bow. "You and your mate are ever welcome with me and mine. And of course, any offspring you have are welcome, as well. Bring stories with you, and we'll craft something around them. But for now, friend, I must go. The dunes call, and I have plans to plan. See you around, friend!" With a last grin and flick of his tail, A Hidden Twilight saunters off to continue his journey back into the dunes.
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