|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:11 am
 Carefully, Scythe maneuvered himself into position to support Megaera. He ended up with one of his wings draped over her. The quasi-romantic gesture made him a little self-conscious. He hoped the unicorn mare wouldn't take anything from it. He was just trying to help her hobble her way back to the Padmapani herd healers, that was all. Much to the dismay of some mares he knew, Scythe currently had little interest in settling down with a mate.
"Tell me," he said as he took his first step with her. "How exactly did this happen?" He had found Megaera grimacing in pain in the middle of an open field. He hadn't been able to see anything for her to trip over. There weren't any trees and the rocks were large enough to lodge in a hoof perhaps, but not trip anyone.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:19 am
"I'm really sorry about this." Megaera could feel herself burning up with embarrassment. She considered herself a sturdy unicorn, not like the fancy ones that walked around like they were spirits of the forest or something. She had nothing against unicorns like that, she just knew that she was more of the earthy sort. She never had thought she'd find herself lying around waiting for prince charming to show up. Scythe was a pretty decent prince charming, but Meg didn't think that was really the role he was looking for.
"It was groundhogs," she reluctantly admitted. "I stuck my hoof straight into a hog hole and must have hurt it falling down." She looked around but was unable to find the hole that had tripped her up. She wanted to point it out for proof that she wasn't just a clumsy oaf.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:23 am
"Hm." Scythe nodded in acknowledgement. He could remember now seeing groundhogs around the area. They were more dangerous than wolves, in his opinion. They could spot wolves coming and had never had a serious encounter with them. Groundhogs on the other hand... Lately there had practically been an epidemic of soquili limping their way to the unicorns to get a leg healed after tripping on a hole.
"Well, just watch out for them when you're around here." He looked over the waving grass. It wasn't easy to spot anything on the ground unless you were practically on top of it. "We probably have a colony forming." He wondered if they could convince the colony to move elsewhere if that was true. They didn't have any members with groundhog familiars, but they still might be able to do it personally.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:28 am
"Right, probably is," agreed Meg. She leaned heavily against Scythe as she worked on keeping herself on her hooves. Her leg that had taken most of the damage could barely hold any weight now. She was stuck in an awkward hopping gait that she could tell would tire her out quickly. The only good thing to be said about the situation was that Scythe's feathered wing was keeping her back nicely warm from winter's chill. It was a small consolation, at least.
"Hey look!" She squinted into the distance. "I think I see one of them there!" There was some sort of animal shambling low to the ground. It didn't have natural colors. Brightly-colored spots caught the light in shades that would look more at home on a flower than on an animal. "That's probably their leader. Looks like they have at least one critter with a brain in their bunch." Most animals couldn't speak or reason like soquili. That groundhog was probably one that could. She heard that some soquili took groundhogs like that on as familiars, though she couldn't imagine why anyone would want to keep company with obnoxious vermin like that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:26 pm
"I think you're right." Scythe watched the colorful groundhog as it ambled over grassy tussocks, pausing to root around here or there. It would be easy to remember a colorful groundhog like that. "I'll get out here sometime later and see if I can find it to talk." As they took another lurching step forward, he gave it some thought.
"I think that someone has a ferret familiar. We could send the ferret down and in to find the leader and ask her to come out if we can't find her on our own." If not a ferret, then plenty of others had small companions. Utena had a mouse, but it wasn't the brightest creature. Scythe doubted that the leader of the groundhogs would be terribly impressed with a mouse that could barely utter a word beyond its own name.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:30 pm
"A ferret?!" Megaera exclaimed with such force that she almost lost her footing again. She staggered forward but luckily Scythe was there to support and catch her. She grimaced in pain at the jarring, and stared incredulously at Scythe once she had recovered her bearing.
"Don't you know that ferrets can eat little guys like these? If you go sending a ferret in there... it's as good as saying that we want to kill them all!" Did Scythe think that sharp little ferret teeth were for show? Megaera had seen plenty of ferrets and weasels preying on small animals during her time traveling. "A ferret is the last thing we should send," she said decisively. That would be the equivalent of sending a pack of wolves to negotiate with a herd of soquili. Some wolves were decent creatures, but most of them would eat a soquili without a qualm if they could get their teeth on them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:35 pm
Inwardly, Scythe cringed. He should have remembered that. He was used to thinking of ferrets as most soquili saw them, clever and interesting companions. He imagined that from a groundhog's perspective they must look a lot different. Chagrined, he kept steadily walking forward and supporting Megaera. He didn't know if he could catch her if she lurched like that again. He resolved to try to say only things that she wouldn't find quite so exciting.
"Not ferrets, then." He mentally reviewed the other herd members and their familiars. "Rabbits. Capriccia has a rabbit. I think that would send more of a neutral signal." He almost expected Megaera to cry out with reasons that groundhogs hated rabbits after her last outburst.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:38 pm
"Rabbits would be much better," Megaera agreed. As they slowly moved forward, she looked over her shoulder one last time. "But it still might just be easier to avoid the place entirely, you know." Even after the groundhogs moved away the area would still be full of their holes for a long time. It would take a few strong storms to collapse the tunnels in a significant way and they had been having mild weather so far that year.
"It's worth a try," she added. "Maybe we can offer them something to move. We could offer them... whatever groundhogs like." She chuckled dryly, trying to imagine what their trade goods might be for that transaction.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:37 pm
"Whatever groundhogs like..." There was a sentence to stump Scythe. He wasn't even sure what groundhogs ate. He expected they ate worms and other bugs, or maybe nuts and seeds like squirrels. What else could they find underground? Roots? It would be very difficult for a soquili to produce roots and insects in any great quantity. They only way that would be possible would be if they somehow convinced the Berrythieves flock of birds to help them somehow... which would require paying them, too.
Lost in his thoughts, Scythe grew distracted from his burden and his task. He was so distracted that he didn't even notice the large root jutting out from the ground until it had snagged his hoof. Without the time to do anything but gasp, Scythe fell to the ground. Since Megaera had been leaning on him, she fell along with him. He grimaced in pain. One of his wings was trapped underneath the bulk of Megaera's body.
"Meg... move! Please!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:40 pm
The fall did nothing to help the pain in Megaera's leg. She was so dazed at the shock of it that she didn't even realize she was on top of Scythe until he asked her to move. Belatedly she did her best to move off of him. She rolled awkwardly to one side and managed to heave herself up enough to let him free his wing. Once the golden-feathered appendage was out from beneath her, she let herself collapse back down again.
"What happened?" she asked, lifting her head and concernedly looking Scythe over. "You hurt?" She didn't see anything obvious, but that didn't mean much. She only hoped that he would be able to walk. If both of them were lame and stranded a while away from the herd, they could be in for a long wait before someone tracked them down. It probably wouldn't get dangerous, but it would be uncomfortable all the same.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:45 pm
Once his wing was no longer pinned, Scythe took a moment to calm himself and review his injuries. His wing was sore but it felt like it had just been pinched, not seriously damaged. He had knocked his head when he hit the ground, but he didn't feel dizzy and could still see fine. His legs were the last to be scrutinized by his mental review. Like his wings, they hurt, but he didn't think they were severely damaged. Nothing was badly hurt, except his pride.
"I'm fine," he told Megaera. "I just slipped." He felt like a colt all over again. He hated to think of the look that his parents might give him if they knew that he had tripped and fallen over when trying to help out a herd member who had tripped and fallen over.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:49 pm
Meg couldn't help it. She took one look at the chagrined expression on Scythe's face and burst out laughing. She laughed even through the pain in her leg, and the moisture at the corners of her eyes was from mirth and not pain. "Of course you're fine!" She slapped Scythe's side with a flick of a hoof. "You're made of stronger stuff than little old me!"
She blinked upwards. Something blue and gold hovered in the tip of her vision. When she managed to get the blur into focus she realized it was one of Scythe's feathers, which only made her laugh all the more. "I'm sorry! So sorry! It's just that we were talking about them groundhogs and suddenly we're on the ground. I didn't expect it, that's all."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 10:16 am
Scythe hoped that the blush he could feel in the heat of his face wouldn't be visible through his gold fur. He heaved himself to his feet and shook the crumpled leaves off of himself. He wouldn't be able to properly groom himself until he had gotten Megaera back to the herd. Until then, he'd just have to look like he had been rolling around on the ground.
Once he was up, he realized yet another problem with the current situation. Meg was on the ground and still hurt. How was he going to get her standing again if she couldn't use all three legs? Puzzling over this, he inadvertently stared at her in thought. He could possibly use his tail to help give her some leverage. It wouldn't be able to support her full weight, but maybe it would be enough.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 10:20 am
Once Megaera's chuckling attack had ended, she also began to wonder how she was going to get up. Part of her wanted to just keep lying there on the ground until her leg felt better on its own. Then no one would have to fuss or worry over her and she could get back to Padmapani without assistance. While she considered this, she suddenly noticed Scythe's gaze upon her.
Megaera couldn't say why she suddenly saw Scythe differently as he looked down at her in puzzled worry. Maybe it was the way the sun glanced off his feathers and gave him a golden glow, or maybe it was because she had been pressed up against him while walking and his scent was all in her nose. Whatever the reason, the usually talkative mare suddenly fell silent. A little embarrassed herself now, she looked away.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 10:23 am
What had just happened? One moment he had been trying to figure out how to get Meg off the ground, and the next things were suddenly very awkward. Scythe realized his mistake as soon as Megaera looked away. He had been looking at her for longer than was polite and she had grown uncomfortable... except that wasn't what being uncomfortable usually looked like. In the Padmapani herd, most soquili were related to him in some way. This had kept Scythe insulated from mares and the joys and problems they could bring, so he found himself unsure of what to do in this situation. Was he misreading it? Was Megaera showing signs of affection for him?
For her sake, he hoped she wasn't. He had lived with her for too long to consider her anything other than a herdmate and a friend. "Can you stand?" he gruffly asked her, breaking the silence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
