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“And Madeira goes long down past the crest of the hill! He tail is flying behind her, her mane is whipping in the wind! The other Soq can’t catch her; they can’t even see her to touch her! She makes her way past the pond, neatly clearing the dead log as she rounds the southern tip. If she can just keep up this pace, then it is a shoe-in that Madeira will be the victor!”

The narration was delivered in an energetic voice that carried along as Madeira raced around the outer edge of a small boggy pond. It had started out as a whim; a naturally social and energetic creature, Madeira was never good at being alone. Consequently, when she found herself alone she tended to either talk to herself, talk to imaginary companions, or, as was currently the case, start a narration. It certainly made things more interesting that moping along on her own!

She had started out talking to herself: “Come on, Maddie; you can do better than this pouting; you might LIKE to have someone to play with, but do you really need that? Are you that desperate? Why, there’s a ton of stuff you can do here on your own. Just look at that great little pond with all those trees? You could always run an obstacle course, or even a race! I bet if you timed yourself you could figure out some sort of record…”

And that was all it had taken to get her running, the conversation turning into a narration. And she was laughing as she passed the southern end of the pond…

Only to step into a boggy area and going tumbling heels over head into the marsh. SPLASH!

Ok, yes, it was not quite a planned thing for Madeira to go flying hooves over head into a bog. It was even less of a planned thing to have said boggy plummet witnessed! However, Madeira had never been the sort of mare to let little things like that bother her; instead, she preferred to see and enjoy the humor in the situation. She had been sitting ruefully in the pond, trying to figure out the best way to extricate herself, when the other mare’s amused laughter drifted over, followed immediately by the mare herself. Maddie had never been one to ignore laughter, and she joined in with good humor.

“Yeah, I think that my fall needs more practice. I think if I’d tumbled with a bit more grace, I might have been onto something; instead, I’m just into something.” She chuckled, rising to her feet and shaking off a few clinging lily pads. “But while I’m into it, I’d love to join you for a swim. I might as well get thoroughly soaked before attempting to dry out, right?” She laughed again, then offered the other mare a bright, beaming smile. “I’m Maddie, by the way; Maddie, the athletically invincible, unless attacked by a bog.”

Grinning, Madeira moved her head to the side to avoid taking a wave to the face. Although the water was only up to the other mare's shins, Maddie herself had tumbled into the water and was basically lying down, meaning the water came up to just below her neck. Not an unpleasant state of affairs, given the warmth of the day...

But there was only so much entertainment one could get out of lying in the shallows. As the other mare splashed out into the deeper water, Maddie extricated herself and waded out into the deeper water as well. "Well, I hope for your sake that you have gills somewhere if you plan to live out here; otherwise you're going to end up getting waterlogged...at some point." Grinning, she drew back her lion tail and whipped it at the water, sending a sharp cascade of water at the other mare as she emerged from her dunking. "Splash fight!"

"Hey, all's fair in love and water war, Elliot! You have to use all of the advantages nature gave you, up to and including tails." With a playful grin, Maddie held up her tail, which she waggled at Elliot in a teasing manner. Unlike Elliot's hair tail, her tail was long, strong, flexible, and even prehensile; if needed, she could use it to pick up something. Or, in this case, to scoop up and fling water!

But obviously Elliot wasn't going to let her little tail handicap her; it was only moments after crying out 'no fair' that the other mare had ducked under the water and started bobbing up and down like a cork, sending waves of water in Maddie's direction. Oh yes, it was on now! Laughing, Maddie attempted to dodge the majority of the water, using her own tail and front legs to churn up some waves of her own. "For victory!"

It was not a good day to be a water strider in that pond...

Madeira couldn't resist sending one final splash in Ellliot's direction as the other mare called for a truce, but after that last shot she stood still, water dripping down from every surface. Adrenaline had kept her energy levels high, but now that it was gone she too was feeling a bit...well, a bit tired. While standing knee-deep in the water, she gave herself a few vigorous shakes to clear her ears and her mane, then waded towards the bank herself. With a slight grunt, she pulled herself up onto the bank after Elliot, putting a respectable distance between the two of them before shaking once more.

"Well, no one can say we haven't been thoroughly washed today, huh Elliot? Pond scum aside, of course," She added with a grin as she flicked some clinging algae off her flank. "But thank goodness for short hair, am I right?" Smiling, she gestured from her own short, curly mane to Elliot's equally short, wild style. She knew a lot of Soquili who would be struggling with waterlogged manes and tails at this point; not them, obviously!

Refreshed; yes, that was a perfect way to describe the way Maddie was feeling at the moment. The water had refreshed her body, and the laughter was going a long way to refresh her spirit. While it was true she had a generally positive and upbeat nature, it wasn't perpetually recharging; she had to get a good dose of interaction with her fellow Soquili once in a while to keep herself going. So yes, at the moment she was feeling extremely refreshed!

She was going to follow up on the short hair thing, but Elliot's suggested struck her as much more appealing. Run? Why yes, of course she would run! Hadn't she been running a race with herself when they first met? So she gave Elliot a wide, beaming smile and a nod. "Of course, I'd love to run with you! Do you want to run a race, or just run together? Our legs look about the same length, I bet we could keep pace with one another pretty well! But I bet we could also have a challenging race...so, I'm up for whatever you think sounds the best," she finished with a laugh. She could be so indecisive some times!