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 Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 9:28 am
 It had been a hard decision for Kaikea to make to leave her family and follow her hooves to whatever awaited her. She had wanted to stay with them, since she loved her family dearly, and yet she had too much of her mother and grandmother in her, both mares lives had been filled with wandering and now it was Kaikea's turn to take that path. The hardest part had been leaving her mother, whom she had spent a great deal of time with, but she promised that she would return to visit as often as possible and she would keep to that promise.
There was so much to see and discover in these lands. Her home area had been beautiful and yet each day she had discovered something new to behold. If only she had someone to share this with. Kaikea tucked away everything she had seen into her memories so that when she saw her mother or other member of her family she could tell them all about it.
For days she had traveled, and then weeks. She wasn't sure of exactly how much distance she had put between herself and her home but she knew it would take another very long walk to return there. While Kaikea normally paid close attention to the lands around her, today her mind had wandered as much as she had and she walked along a forest path without truly seeing what was around her. It was dangerous to do this of course, but she couldn't help it, today she just didn't feel like traveling, especially alone.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 9:39 am
 Calfuray had been rejoined with her sisters for quite some time now and while there was still a touch of unease among them all it seemed that the Sisters had come to grips that she was no longer the mare she had been..indeed, did not even recall that mare. Calfuray had started this journey in hopes that eh familiar lands and herd would jog some of her memories, return to her some semblance of self, and while some things seemed familiar and she was once in a while struck by a sense of deja vu she had pretty much come to terms with the fact that her old life was gone. A blessing in some ways... from what she had overheard it seemed her old self had not always been a good sort of Soquili and now..well now she had a fresh start. A clean slate ... perhaps her injuries had been a blessing in disguise.
In any case all of this wool gathering was hardly helping her with today's mission, she was supposed to be keeping an eye out for some strange flower that Yakut wanted - and while she intended to look for it, part of Calfuray was convinced that the mare had just ... made it up. She was a bit odd Yakut. Shaking her head she turned her attention back to the path she was on and jumped slightly when, through the shadows ahead, she caught a glimmer of movement. Who was that? She was fairly certain that the other searchers had been given a different segment of the herds territory to search. Picking up the pace and not really expecting to find a stranger she called out to the movement ahead with the surety that it was another herd member . "Hello? Hello..this is my search grid..I think you've wandered out of yours!"
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 10:01 am
Kaikea had not expected a voice to suddenly call out to her and the mare couldn't help but start a little as she was brought out of her thoughts and got her first good look at the area she had wandered in to. But she didn't look very long, because it appeared she wasn't alone. Though she couldn't see the other Soquili she had heard them clear as day. But what had confused her were the words, something about a search grid. Had she stumbled upon something she shouldn't have? Worry creased her brow as she thought over her choices, she could run but that would probably end in disaster for her, she could...well her only other option really was to reply to the voice and pray that they were friendly.
"Uh...hello." She paused and then continued. "I...uh...I don't know what you mean by search grid." With tentative steps Kaikea moved towards where she had heard the voice coming from. It had sounded like a mare, so she felt like she could relax a bit. She knew that there were some mares out there that were not the nicest, but she took her chances with this one. Of course, if the mare was searching for prey with a partner than she might have just presented herself to them as dinner. It won't be like that, she told herself, it will all work out, just you want and see. Another step and then she stopped, waiting to see if this stranger would show herself among the trees. As she was searching amid the trucks Kaikea thought she caught a flash of color, some purple but then when she focused on that spot all she saw was the browns of tree trunks.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 10:11 am
The forest was quite thick in this part of the herds territory and Calfuray took more time then she at first thought to make her way through it all towards the voice that she heard tentatively answering her, at least by the voice it was a mare which meant she wouldn't have to deal with any of the slaves. Some of them were nice enough but others were dimwitted and another just plain annoying. A mare though she could handle ... even if this one had somehow missed the days orders.
"A search grid!" She answered in exasperation "You know for the flower that Yak...oh" She exlaimed when she finally came out of the brush to lay eyes upon the brown mare before her. "Your not part of the herd." Was the next thing to bumble out of her mouth, but it was so rare to find a stranger just wandering about out here that she was still a little bit in shock and it took her a few moments to backpedal. "I mean ... I'm sorry, I thought when I saw you through the trees that you were a part of my herd, My mistake." She apologized in an attempt to seem at least a little bit polite.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:08 am
Kaikea came to a stop as the other mare came into view. The mare was still talking about a search grid, and then abruptly stopped as soon as she saw Kaikea. To make matters worse there was mention of a herd, and the obviously point that Kaikea wasn't a part of it. Kaikea had made it a point to avoid herd lands whenever she was traveling because one could never know which herds were safe to be around and which ones weren't. Could this mare be searching for an intruder on their lands? No, that couldn't be, she had mentioned a flower briefly before realizing she wasn't talking to another herd member. Kaikea was left standing there not sure what to do. She should probably just leave, being in a herds land probably wasn't the best idea, but she couldn't make herself move. She looked over the mares purple coat, it was a very nice shade with hints of other colors subtly mixed in and the white markings truly stood out on her hide.
"I...didn't know..." She managed to say and then gave her head a slight shake. "I wasn't aware this was herd territory. I'm sorry to have intruded on your herds land." She said with a dip of her head. Really she should leave, but if the mare was looking for something, then perhaps she could help. "You mentioned a flower. Perhaps I can help you look for it and then I will be on my way." Kaikea believed the offering help may be the best way to get out of this situation safely. "I am Kaikea." She hoped the mare would accept her offer of help, because Kaikea really didn't want to leave just yet. It had been so many days since she had last seen another Soquili that she was almost desperate to hold a conversation, even if it was a short one.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:54 am
Calfuray was somewhat embarrassed by the manner in which she had spoke to this pretty stranger, she could tell by the mare reactions and the way she responded that she had probably made her nervous - in all likelihood she thought herself in trouble for venturing into herd lands. Given that she was female however this wasn't the case - and even if she had been male Calfuray was far more forgiving then many of the sisters and would have simply escorted her out politely. Of course the stranger had no way of knowing any of this so she did her best to give her a warm and welcoming look, though she had heard from many that her white mask and imposing horn sometimes made such an expression difficult to convey.
"Oh it's fine, I assure you, you haven't done anything wrong." She stated in an attempt to further reassure the mare. "I was just surprised - it's quite rare that we get newcomers around here." She went on to further explain her earlier statement. Thankfully the mare did not seem about to run off - which was nice, now that she had run into the stranger Calfuray was kind of looking forward to speaking with someone new, it had been a long winter and she was as ever curious about the happenings in the world beyond the herd.
"I'm Calfuray Arrats - though most just cal me Calfuray..or Cal even, it doesn't really matter. It's a pleasure to meet you and yes..I'm looking for a flower, our herd shaman has requested a rather rare blossom for ..something or another - to be honest I don't always understand everything that mare does but here I am out searching anyways!" She added with a slight laugh.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:06 am
Kaikea couldn't help but let out an audible sigh of relief as the mare spoke once more and explained that she hadn't done anything wrong. She had been so worried there for a few moments. One of the first things her mother had taught her was to always watch out for herd territories and avoid them whenever she could. It wasn't because all herds were bad but because it was nearly impossible to tell if a herd was bad until it was too late. It was that information that Kaikea had always listened to...with the exception of today of course, but in her defense she hadn't seen any obvious signs of herd activity so they must have a very large territory or something. At least the mare appeared to be friendly and that was a good sign. "I guess I wasn't paying much attention when I crossed into your lands...I didn't see any signs that would mark this as herd territory and you are the first member I have seen."
"Calfuray." She said with a smile. "It's a very nice name and it is nice to meet you as well." She listened as it was explained that the herds shaman had sent Calfuray out looking for some rare flower. "What does the flower look like? I can help you look for it, I passed a few flowers along the way here, though if it's a rare flower I can't guarantee any of the ones I saw are it." Even if she hadn't already seen the flower, two sets of eyes would surely be able to find it better than one. Plus she had to admit she was just a bit curious about this mare and her herd, but she would hold off asking questions about that until the flower was found.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:27 am
"Well to be fair the lands were abandoned for a time and we have only recently moved back, my sisters and I are still trying to reestablish a great deal of our old boarders.: She explained to the mare - really it was no wonder that she hadn't noticed and Calfuray was certain that it was the general remoteness of the herd which had kept them from experiencing many more intruders rather then the security they were still trying to establish. Something she might bring up the next time she spoke with their new queen.
When the mare offered to help Calfuray paused for split second - should she accept the help? The herd could be finicky and secret about such things but looking for a flower hardly seemed damaging and it wasn't like she was accepting help from an outside male or anything so crass. "I would love the help." She stated after a few seconds "Supposedly it is a orange flower with blue spots, I have never seen or heard of such a thing but Yakut insists that it is out here...somewhere.."
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:24 pm
Kaikea nodded as she listened to Calfuray as she explained about the herd only recently returning to these lands after being abandoned for a time. She found that strange, well not really, but why would they abandon their lands? The lands, from what little she had seen of them thus far looked to be able to support a fairly good sized herd. She could see no sign of fire or anything else that would have pushed the herd out. "Why was the land abandoned?" She finally asked, unable to resist her curiosity. "And you said your sisters and you are trying to re-establish the borders. Does that mean that it's a family herd?" She fell silent for a moment before looked at Calfuray. "I'm sorry...I really shouldn't be prying into your herds life. It's just that...I've never been in a herd and I'm curious about them."
In all her travels she tried to avoid herds, because one could never know which were good and which were bad. But now that she had found one that had a friendly member she was just dying to know what it was like to live in one. Of course she perked up when Calfuray agreed to letting her help look from the flower. "Orange with blue spots?" Kaikea thought about the flowers she had passed on the way here. Honestly she hadn't paid all that much attention to them, she was more curious about what lay in front of her, not what was near her hooves. "I don't think any of the flowers I passed looked like that...but we could take a look just to make sure." Wouldn't she feel bad if she said it wasn't there and only to find out later that she had indeed walked right past the flower that Calfuray was looking for.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:07 am
Since she had already decided to let Kaikea stick around and help her look for Yakuts flower then Calfuray decided there wasn't any harm in telling her a bit about the herd either.
"It's kind of a long story but I can tell you the jist of it while we look." She started out, recalling what she had been told about the war because although she had taken part in it she couldn't actually remember any of it, what she knew now she had learned through the words of others. "The old Queen and leader of the herd died without producing an heir - there were arguments and infighting over who would be best suited to lead the herd with her gone, the fighting devolved into a war and eventually the herd was scattered. Penthesilea,however was not content to let the herd remain broken and scattered and as the old Queen had named her the next ruler on her deathbed - despite the lack of blood relation - she took it upon herself to regather the herd and bring us back to our homelands so that we might once more live and follow our culture. I say sisters but that is merely a title for my herdmates, our herd believes that females should be the ruling class as males are often rash and prone to ill considered decisions...so the males in the herd hold the lowest of ranks and have no great power while the females rule, make decisions and fight for the herds safety..we are all sisters in the herd." It was a bit of a short summary but Calfuray thought she had gotten the main ideas out right.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:28 am
Kaikea began looking around for this flower. She had no idea if it would be found at the base of a tree, or in a meadow or anything else, just that it was orange with blue spots. As she searched she listened to Calfuray tell her a bit about the herd. The part about a war, and a dying queen and the herd scattering sounded quite horrible. She couldn't imagine going through something like that. Honestly comparing her life a minor travels to what Calfuray and her herd went through, well her life was pretty tame. She glanced up now and then to look at Calfuray as she continued to explain the herd and how females were the superior gender, while males held the lowest rank. It certainly was a different herd. Of the few herds she had encountered in her travels most looked at each gender equally.
At first she wasn't sure what to say to that, so she kept her attention focused on the ground looking for the flower. "I'm sure going through a war was scary." She finally said. "But it must be nice to have your home lands back and your old life restored.." A bit of orange caught her attention and she took a couple of quick steps to get a closer look. But once she had a clear view of the flower it was easy to see that it was not the one that she needed to find. It was orange, but instead of blue spots it had brown stripes along the edges of the petals.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:37 am
Calfuray wasn't sure what she expected Kaikea's reaction to her herds story to be, to be honest she was still attempting to wrap her mind around it herself though she had come to the conclusion that she did indeed belong here. "I expect that it was." She allowed after a few moments of silent thought "But I can't remember any of it, I was wounded during the fighting and lost my memories. I washed up on a beach near the coast and was found by Aleu our herds ..well I guess she's a storyteller and historian really, Aleu told me who I was and where I had come from - I get fragments sometimes, a sense of familiarity but I don't recall anything of my former life or the war, probably a blessing in the end." she told the brown mare with slight laugh.
It was odd that she found herself opening up to this strange mare but Calfuray could not talk about these sort of things with the herd, at least not all of them, it would only draw suspicion or pity and Calfuray wanted neither of those. Snorting slighty as she found yet another flower that failed to meet all of Yakut's description she looked towards the brown mare. "But what of you? How do you find yourself out here by yourself? Where is your herd? Your family?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 5:26 pm
Kaikea paused in her search for the flower to look up at Calfuray. Being through a war that ripped apart ones herd was one thing, but also loosing their memories of that event and who you were, that must be really tough. "I can't imagine going through that. I understand how it could be seen as a blessing but..." She paused for a moment and then asked the question anyways. "Don't you wonder about who you were before? Sure others can tell you, but being told and knowing something for certain because your gut and memory tells you is something completely different." At least Calfuray had a herd to tell her about who she was, but what if she hadn't? Imagine living life knowing you didn't know your past but unable to remember it no matter what.
With a slight shake of her head she resumed looking for the elusive flower. She glanced up at Calfuray's question. "No herd. Closest thing I had to that was my family, mother, father, sister and brother. My mother was a wanderer by nature, as was her mother and I picked up the habit from my mother. And that's how I ended up here." She said with a laugh. "My mother always told me that, like her, I would likely wander until I found what I was looking for...but to be honest I don't know what I am looking for. And I don't think my mother knows that yet either since she still follows those wandering ways." She rounded another tree but the flower over her was a pale pink. "I don't see this flower anywhere."
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:32 am
"Oh I did for a while." Calfuray admit "I spent a great deal of time trying to remember but nothing really came from it and after a while I decided that if my memories were meant to come back then they would and there was nothing I could do about it either way - better to focus on the Soquili I want to be now then the one I was in the past I guess?" The mare remarked, she wasn't sure if it was the right decision or just a poor excuse she made to avoid dealing with the failure of her memories to return...but it worked, at the very least she rarely felt burdened by it anymore and she supposed that was something.
Bringing her attention back to the mare beside her Calfuray listened to her story, she supposed that wandering could be exciting and perhaps fun for a time but it also sounded somewhat lonely, despite not knowing who she truly was Calfuray could not fathom returning to the lonely life she had been living before Aleu found her. She might not know who she had been but she certainly knew where she belonged and belonging was important. "That sounds kind of lonely." She told the mare, somewhat saddened by the thought of her endless wandering. Still she wasn't sure what she could do about it.
"Me either." She remarked, with a final glance around the area. "I think Yakut must have imagined it or something.." She stated with a sigh and then another thought struck her, she liked this friendly wanderer - the mare had been willing to stop and help her look for a silly flower and the least Calfuray could do was give her a taste of true herd life. She would be welcome to visit seeing as she was a mare. "Do you..maybe want to come and rest among the herd for a while? I need to tell Yakut I couldn't find her silly flower and there is ill weather coming in, I can feel it in my old injuries..it might not be safe to keep wandering alone until it has passed." She offered. It was going to rain..or storm, Calfuray wasn't sure how bad it would be but it was a good excuse.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:45 am
Kaikea thought about that for a moment. "I think that's a good way to look at it." She wasn't sure if she had been in Calfuray's position that she would be so willing to leave those lost memories behind. But like Calfuray said, if they were meant to be remembered than they would. She stopped looking for the flower just then and couldn't help but pause when Calfuray made a comment about how lonely the life of a wanderer sounded. The truth was, it was lonely. Not always, as in the case of right now, because she was spending time with someone, but as a general thing wandering was lonely. The only reason Kaikea continued on as she did was because she felt lost in a way, she didn't know what to do with her life and so wandering seemed like the best solution to that until something better came along.
She let out a sigh that ended up being a lot louder than she had anticipated. "It is lonely. My mother usually travels with someone, she took me out a lot when I was younger, but she also has a friend she travels with quite often too. But I am almost always by myself." She looked up at Calfuray then. "But I'm not alone right now." She told the mare with a smile.
Her ears perked forward at Calfuray's offer. She hadn't been expecting that, and yet she couldn't hide how happy she felt at the prospect of being invited into someones world for a short period of time. "I would love to." She said a bit too excitedly and then in a more neutral tone said. "After all, if there is a storm coming I should wait it out." Yes, that would be the excuse she would use, but in all honestly she really wanted to see this herd and Calfuray had spoken of, and more so she just wasn't to spend more time with her as well.
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