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 Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:42 pm
Kumarajiva looked around, ears flicking. He wasn't outside of the territory of the Padmapani herd. Really, he wasn't even that far away from the herd in general. He expected that his mother would come running if he shouted, not that he expected to have to do that. He knew that the elder Hayagriva and other members of the herd patrolled the area for danger. With the assurance of the young, he didn't think that anything could possibly hurt him as long as he stayed within Padmapani territory.
He walked up to the edge of a small pond, peering in curiously. He could see small fish swimming in the shallows. Were they tadpoles? They had big fat heads and smaller wriggling tails. Fascinated, he stared. There were so many of them! He leaned out a little further to watch them, but sighed in disappointment when they disappeared into the depths at the sight of movement.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:49 pm
 (oops... lost her foal cert!)
Freyja smiled mischeviously. Unlike the more rules-inclined Kumarajiva, she danced to her own beat. Her mother didn't know where she was, and that made it all the more fun. She wondered if she'd get scolded for sneaking off like this. It was worth it either way as far as she was concerned.
As she walked, she occasionally took small jumps into the air, fluttering her wings as she did so. Other foals had told her before that her wings were too small to fly, but she disagreed. They were small, but she had the light bones of a flutter... or so she told herself. Sure that she'd be able to fly with enough practice, she bounded in the air again. When she landed, she noticed she wasn't alone.
"Hi!" she said in surprise. It was a unicorn! She recognized the horn from her mother and siblings, but she'd never seen a soquili with the tail before. At least... she thought that was a unicorn tail.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:53 pm
"Hi?" very surprised himself, Kuma found himself repeating the greeting back at the filly. Who was that? She definitely wasn't a Padmapani filly. He knew all the foals in the herd and she didn't look a thing like the floral and colorful bunch he was usually surrounded by. "How did you get here?" he found himself asking. Had she somehow sneaked in past the patrols and the guards?
Belatedly, he realized that was a little stupid. She couldn't have sneaked in herself, she would have had to bring her family with. So where was her family? Shaking his head a little, Kuma heard something splash into the water behind him. What was that?
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 8:00 pm
"How did I get here?" Just like Kuma had repeated her, Freyja repeated his words back to him in confusion. "I... walked?" Her ears flicked back and forth uncertainly. "Is this place supposed to be secret? It really isn't that hard to find." After all, she had found it accidentally.
She tilted her head a little, then looked past the foal to the pond behind him. Catching sight of something there, her face broke into a grin. "Look! A frog!" Delighted, she bounded past the colt to look at it. Her smile turned into a grimace of dismay when the frog bounded into the water. "Awwww... it ran away!" she whined.
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:03 am
Kumarajiva turned around, but he was also too slow to see the frog. He frowned a little at that, then frowned a little more when he remembered his line of questioning. Right. What was she doing here? "Does the alpha know you're here?" he asked. "Alpha Shrivatsa. Or Protector Hayagriva." Those were two names that everyone in the Padmapani herd were very familiar with. Their kind and brave leaders.
"If they don't know about you, you shouldn't be here," he said, with almost a hint of stubbornness. He didn't like the idea of strangers sneaking into herd territory. If a little filly could make it in, what else could sneak past too? Almost nervous, he glanced around, imagining kalonas and skinwalkers that might be lurking just beyond his vision.
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:06 am
"I haven't exactly gone and told them my name," replied Freyja. Not looking at the colt for the moment, she kept on peering into the waters in front of her. She thought she could see where the frog sat on the bottom of the water. There was something down there, anyways. Little fish were swimming around too, many more than she would have thought would be in such a small place. It was really cool to look at, and that doofus of a colt was asking her about permission and boring things like that.
"Why don't you go and tell them if you're so worried?" she asked, unimpressed. "I could have diseases." She perked up mischievously at this, eyes twinkling. "Maybe I brought diseases in with me. I could infect you!" She had been sick a few times in her young life and understood that illness tended to frighten people.
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:09 am
"Diseases" Kuma's head snapped back in revulsion at the idea. She looked perfectly healthy so he had to assume that she was joking, but why would she joke about something like that? "If you are sick, it must be frog disease," he said, teasing. "You catch frog disease from looking at frogs too much."
It wasn't exactly a clever retort, but it seemed more impressive in his youthful mind. He'd heard something about how touching a frog could give you warts, but hadn't actually seen that happen to someone. He personally rather liked them, but it didn't sound too strange that one could make you sick. They were very different from a soquili, after all. He glanced around again, wondering if her parents might come charging over to collect her. Apparently not!
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:12 am
"You're the one with frog disease." Freyja finally looked at him squarely, eying his breed features, colors, and markings. "See?" she gestured to his flank with one tiny hoof. "You have lilly pads and stuff on your fur." His markings were unmistakably of those sorts of watery plants.
"Frogs like to sit on lilly pads. Because you have lilly pads on you, frog disease." She gave a feline smile and pranced away from the water's edge, smug at coming to her conclusion. Her mother had a unicorn horn like he did, but his tail was pretty strange. It almost looked like a cat's tail, or maybe a thin fox tail.
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