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 Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 4:26 pm
 The princeling of the Burning Sun did as much work as his comrades did. Bard though he may be, every member of the clan was expected to pull their own weight. As the princeling and the future leader, Llewelyn considered his own weight to pull to be a particularly heavy one. His mother silently agreed, and made no objection when he volunteered to go on patrols every day. The border needed to be kept safe. Incursions needed to be noted. Every strange event needed to be shared, and who better to record these encounters than a bard? Llewelyn's entire job as the "battle bard," after all, was to observe and to be able to recite back anything that happened. With that in mind, it was only natural that Llew would do as much as he could to see as much as he could.
Ideally, he would like, someday, to journey. To find new places, to meet new people. But he was an heir--he would need an excuse to do it. He couldn't just up and leave. He needed a reason to up and leave. So until then, the most exciting part of the day had to be intervening in arguments, learning how to manage people, and, of course, patrolling the borders. Today he had the southern border. It wasn't as much of a worry as the eastern border, the one they shared with the Shadow herd, but it was far more intensive than their western border with the sea. Llew paused in his journey and sighed, looking out into the distance, as if that would magically make life more exciting.
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Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:02 pm
 She'd never had a settled life, like day into night and her parents had been from opposite sides of the political spectrum and she their product had no place among the herd as a reminder of the crime hence her banishment. Khepri had no notion of what she was to do now, she had simply just been wandering. The experience along had been wonderful, but it had been hard. She looked like her father but she was far from strong like him. Everything she had known was gone and she could never return there.
She hoped one day to find a herd like her old one in which she could live. But for now, she was here in this place full of green, where food was plentiful. She hadn't even inherited her father's appetite. She still ate grass, the only thing that seemed to pass was his more fearsome features. But she had come to the edge of the green which lay the sea, steep cliffs and she should hear the water crashing against the rocky shore.
She hardly pay attention to the fact there was another here.
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Ice_Dragon_Demon
Ice_Dragon_Demon
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Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:39 pm
And here, at last, the western part of the border, or, if you were feeling precise, the southwestern part. Here, the territory bordered on the sea, great, tall cliffs with the crashing of the waves below. There were paths down to the narrow beach, strewn with kelp fronds, crab carapaces, and clam shells, but most of the time, Llew just stood on the top of the cliff and stared out to sea, letting the wind blow through his dark mane. All was quiet on the border. A good day, then, though boring. The half-arcturus stallion stood on the edge of the cliff, staring out at the approaching waves, listening to the squawking of gulls and splash of water. Yes. Quiet. That was something to be commended, but...still, he longed in his heart for adventure.
He'd never been outside before. He looked to the south, towards a place he didn't know. He blinked. Standing there, watching the ocean as well, just outside of his family's turf, was a half-arcturus, half-solara mare. She was...well, she was very pretty. Chestnut with blue markings. Llew would be the first to admit that he was a sucker for that sort of color combination. They didn't get many solara out here, and he couldn't remember ever having met a solara-arcturus cross. Cautiously, in case she didn't want to be disturbed, he walked over to her. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he said just loud enough to be heard over the ocean. He didn't mention that this was his herd's territory; he didn't see the point of it, at least, not yet. He wanted to be friendly, not off-putting.
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Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 11:01 pm
Khepri's crimson eyes shifted to Llew. Though Khepri remained facing the ocean. She glanced at Llew's from her peripherals. He was handsome, a sunset stallion with monarch wing markings. he was like her in the fact he too was a cross breed, he had arcturus hooves and a tail but lacking the tell tale horn. A starborn cross she garnered. She'd never seen his like before, it was curious, or interesting maybe? Did Commoners here freely mingle species? She did find herself intrigued however calmly she shifted her eyes back to the sea. The stallion he had snuck up on her, not that it had been hard with her lost in thought.
"It is." she answered finally after a long silence. The smell and feel of the sea was not something she had felt before being raised in the desert. Bodies of water were scarce to begin with, one so vast was virtually untold of. Only once had she been told the desert met the sea. She had never discovered where. She was banished from the desert and her home after all. "Is it always like this?" she asked.
The sea was nice, it felt cold when the wind blew off the water up the cliff. Why Did it do that? she wondered it felt refreshing and wonderful oddly. Her gaze shifted again to the stallion beside her. "Who are you?"
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Ice_Dragon_Demon
Ice_Dragon_Demon
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Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2014 4:19 pm
The mare's lovely, fiery eyes turned to glance at him and Llew smiled. His own orange eyes locked onto hers--it was not polite to look at a mare's body while speaking to her. It indicated a lack of respect and a lack of gentility. Llew had yet to meet a mare who would meekly let him disrespect her; most of the mares he knew could easily beat him in a fight. Besides, disrespect was...not fair to someone who had given him no reason to disrespect her. The end of his tail flicked around his ankles, but he kept it low and non-threatening.
It was a long time before the mare spoke--almost long enough to make the energetic stallion uncomfortable. "Most of the time," he said quickly. At a more moderate pace, he added, "Though when it rains, it's a different matter. But yes, salty breeze, big waves. It's high tide now." Well, okay, maybe that wasn't what she meant? Why would she ask about the sea being like this? "Or do you mean the weather?
"I'm Llewelyn, m'lady." He bowed his head. "Princeling and bard, heir to Rhia Sepaia of the Burning Sun Clan of Sunflare. May I have the joy of knowing your name?" He hoped that sounded polite. Diplomacy was not yet his strong suit--his mother preferred to use Mintos and Laminira as their official diplomats (unless Sir Gawain was involved, naturally).
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 10:57 pm
The etiquette her mother taught her instantly kicked in she hadn't expected to use it so suddenly. she hadn't the slightest a prince from the herd would appear either. Khepri gave him a gracious bow. "Please forgive me your highness I did not know." She mare straightened formally "I am Khepri," she answered she was daughter of an aristocrat and a soldier but she was also a curse to her family's honor. "I Will go, a prince should not associate himself with one such as myself, I have been banished from my herd highness." she began to leave with another gracious bow to the princeling. She was honestly shocked and feared retribution should she stay in his presence for too long. She was a tainted child after all.
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Ice_Dragon_Demon
Ice_Dragon_Demon
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 3:06 pm
Llew's heart skipped a beat as the mare's posture changed, followed so quickly by her rejection. It was a very polite rejection, though! A very considerate one, and one obviously that stemmed from etiquette and tradition and hierarchy and oh, this conversation had taken a turn for the worse, why had he told her his rank?!
"It's alright, please, Lady Khepri! O-or, Khepri," he added belatedly. She would correct him if he addressed her with a rank that was not hers, and that would be no good at all! "Please. You have given no offence, and rest assured, my clan and my family would not think ill of you." He smiled. "I am young and inexperienced, and a princeling isn't all that high up in the ranks..." He stopped. He honestly didn't know if he was making this better or worse. He wanted to impress Khepri. Why? Well, that was an easy answer. He was a red-blooded young stallion, and she was a graceful mare. There were some stallions who preferred another fella, and that was alright, but Llew had an eye for mares instead. If you liked a mare, you wanted to impress her so that you would grow...irresistible in her eyes, or something like that, Llew had never really been entirely clear on the reasons for these things--
And yet, impressing her did not seem to be a good idea. His rank and, well, what impressiveness he had, was pushing her away, as though he was too fancy for her. Too fancy? Everyone thought of him as a youngster still, and no one thought it likely that he would inherit soon. His mother was the impressive one, as was the Ard-Rhigh and the Rhianna...
"I confess, I feel I have gotten onto a bad footing here," he said finally. "I'm having trouble explaining myself. I suppose what I mean is that I am only minor nobility, in a herd where even the great nobles rub shoulders with the common folk. Not that you seem common to me," he added quickly. He didn't want to offend her worse than he already had, after all...
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 3:27 pm
Khepri paused in surprise as the stallion clamored to regain his footing at her sudden rejection. It truly did surprised her, why was he so interested in talking to her? She was no one. "I am a banished mare," she reminded him coolly with a bit of a softer expression. she gave a light sigh at his persistence "Had I only taken the traits of my mother I would have been a Lady," she explained calmly.
"Khepri is fine." she watched him curiously for a time as he tried to reassure her. He wasn't taken back at all. He was strange, usually it was the opposite. The first thought was usually distrust, and fear. This was just... strange. Even stranger, as he continued, the royalty of his herd mixed with the common blood. had her herd been like that, it would have been unlikely for her to have been banished in truth she was a little envious.
"Your mother was common born?" it interested her and she brightened a bit as she gave the young princeling her attention. "I too am a mixed blood, though undesired and forbidden by my herd's rules."
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Ice_Dragon_Demon
Ice_Dragon_Demon
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Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 9:24 pm
Banished? Around here that was generally a bad sign, a very bad sign, but she wasn't from around here, was she? She certainly didn't act like any herd he knew about, and he'd been careful to learn about as many of them as possible. In all likelihood she came from some southern herd where the standards were very different than they were around here.
Mind you, he'd already gotten the impression that the casual way in which the classes mingled in the Sunflare herd was unusual. Maybe it was their clan structure. Or maybe it was, as she'd said... He dipped his head. "Yes, my mother was common-born. In our herd actions are just as important as heritage, and any star who proves themselves may rise to a high rank indeed." He smiled. "I've never thought about that before, but I guess the way my herd works is strange to the rest of the world?" He already knew the answer to that, but he wanted to give her a chance to voice her opinion, voice exactly why that was strange and how. Maybe she'd explain then why she was banished--had she gotten too familiar with a prince or something?
Or...mixed blood, eh? He glanced again at her wings and her cloven hooves. Was she mixed blood because of class, or was it her breed as well that made her "mixed"? Urgh, that was a frightening thought. Arion, Starborn, and Arcturus had mixed freely in the Sunflare since before Llew was born. If some people thought that was weird, well...that made Llew's entire life weird. The founder of their herd had taken a mare of a different breed as his mate. His mother had taken the grandchild of that union as a lover, producing Llew. Khepri's herd would probably find it very weird indeed that a half-Arcturus could inherit anything with Starborn blood in him. He wasn't sure he wanted to meet them at all. Not without a considerable show of rank, to show that he was better than them.
Llew smiled. Prove he was better than them...he'd never wanted to prove he was better than anyone else in his entire adult life. When he was a kid and goofing off with Gar, sure, but...not to some strange herd. Weird how strangers make us reexamine our lives. "I can't say mixed blood bothers me all that much, Miss Khepri," he said. "Being mixed myself." He flicked his tail and dipped his head to draw attention to the lack of a horn.
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Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:59 pm
The herd seemed, very different from her own "That is a surprise, she must be quite notable then." What he described was indeed unusual. To be thought well on merit. Perhaps if her home had been like this she would have lived a happier life. Khepri gave Llew a nod. "Your home is indeed strange an unusual." her herd valued the purity of blood above all.
He continued to smile kindly at her with little Judgement of her mixed heritage. Strange as it was it was nice, not to be hated for being born. "My father was a warrior and my mother a noble." the mare explained "They were simply not meant to be," Khepri explained to the stallion "I was the result of that union that should not have been."
She stared out at the ocean again for a moment. It seemed a lot nicer here. She looked back to Llew as he flicked his tail, she hadn't noticed until now his tail. and her eyes widened he was just like her but unlike herself he was loved by his herd and family. She was envious. Why couldn't she have been loved like that? "I see." she said quietly
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Ice_Dragon_Demon
Ice_Dragon_Demon
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Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:39 pm
Ah, so Llew had been right--the matter of race was indeed a sensitive subject in her homeland. He hadn't meant to make her jealous or...however she was feeling. He was honest enough with himself to know that he had no idea how Khepri was feeling right now. He'd never been in her situation, let alone his entire life, so he would never know how precisely she felt, even if she explained it to him. There were some things even a bard like him could never put to words.
Maybe music. Maybe later. "I like to think my mother is notable," he said. "She's a good leader, and she cares a lot about us, not just about her family."
He tilted his head. Given her reaction to his race, he wasn't sure if he should tell her about his family history...it wasn't dark, not by any means, but the odd thing was...the odd thing was that he came from a similar background. He, too, was half-arcturus, and his parents were also a noble and a warrior. Only in his case, the warrior technically outranked the noble...and more to the point, no one cared about that in Sunflare. The Ard-Rhigh was less a king in his own right and more like...a patriarch, a grandfather-like figure even to those who could not claim him in their ancestry. Sunflare wasn't a kingdom, not really--it was a family, a big, stretched-out family.
"Miss Khepri...would you like a place to stay for the night...? We would be honored to have you as our guest, no matter who or what your family is or was. We do not judge on that in the Sunflare--we only judge on who a person is, not on what their parents did." He wasn't sure if she'd accept, but he'd like to get to know her better, beyond just her parentage.
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