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 Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 10:29 am
 ((Note: Djose is as large as soquili are canonically allowed to be. The others are average size for a colt and mare. Djose's just massive.))Cordelia | Djose | Grimm
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 10:30 am
Cordelia kept a quick pace as she marched the colt out of her land. She’d stumbled upon his basket some time ago and once he had hatched Cordelia had discovered that he suffered from an unusual malady of the spirits. He was falling apart in places and bleeding in others. She had been quite certain that he would vanish within an hour or two. She had been wrong. Three days had passed since the basket had opened and the foal was still with them. The bits that flickered and faded into nothing somehow continued their vanishing act without ever spreading and he had not bled to death from the lotus wound on his chest. Cordelia did not feel the child’s fate had improved any despite the fact that he would live. He had still been cursed by the spirits and she would have nothing to do with him. Her life was miserable enough without having to deal with his curse on top of her own.
It had been the words of the unusual white mare that had stopped Cordelia from simply abandoning the foal where he stood. Cordelia felt his parents may have been on to something when they had left him in the dead forest. The mare Alyse had had different feelings. She had wanted to take the foal some place safe where he might find help. She had also started to lead the child straight to a skinwalker’s territory when she had attempted to help. Cordelia was not cruel enough to put the child through a skinwalker’s wrath (nor did she wish to risk giving the beast a weapon to use) so she had taken it upon herself to escort the child out of her dead wood.
They were getting close. The trees were starting to look livelier. The rot hadn’t yet spread this far out.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 10:35 am
Grim. Grrrim. Grimm. The colt was running the word over and over in his head. The word was what they kept calling him, the mares that were not his mother. They couldn’t be his mother, he could smell it, and more than that, they both refused to touch him. It wasn’t that he understood what a mother was, only that he knew something was missing that was supposed to be there. Something warm and comforting. Something safe and soft. It was supposed to be there and it wasn’t so it couldn’t be the two that he had seen so far. Still, he had nothing else to cling to and so he followed after the cold-tempered mare as she led him through the rotting forest.
His paws made little noise against the cold ground but the mare seemed to know he was still following her. She hadn’t looked back once since they had started. He looked up at her sadly. “Grimmm.” He murmured softly. “Grrrrrii-” He stopped suddenly. What was that? His ears twitched. He thought he had heard something off to the side, a rustling sound in the trees. He stopped and looked harder into the foliage to see if something was there. It just looked like more trees until one of them moved.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:03 am
The great wolf mare toward over most of her kind, she always had. The spirits had blessed her with this size and strength so that she may do great good. She had known this from a young age. Once she had grown to her full size and strengthened her mind enough she had set out to find a home of her own. She had selected a forest, a simple place unclaimed by any of her kind, and set herself to protecting it. Each day she spent wandering the paths ensuring that the balance of the woods remained unchanged.
This day brought her out to the edges of her territory. Her land had once been larger but a rot had claimed the trees here. It was a sickness that she could not stop no matter what she tried. Uprooting the trees had done nothing to halt the disease’s progress, for now all she could do was monitor its progression. As she approached the area she caught a scent on the wind mingled with the ever present sickening scent of tree rot. There were others in the area?
It wasn’t unheard of but it was strange. The great beast shook out her heavy mane and moved toward the scent determined to discover who was walking about the wood. What she saw was most unusual. There was a mare with a pale blue coat marked with designs of bone and bloom wearing fabric like a human. It was not the mare that interested her. It was the colt following in her wake. He was one of her kind, the kin of wolves and horses alike. He had two tails more like a lion’s than a wolf’s but he would still be a grand creature one day, if raised properly.
Her eyes moved between the foal and the mare. She sensed no familiarity between them, they weren’t family. Did the mare want this child for something? The fur at the back of her neck raised, something wasn’t right.
She stepped out from around the trees and came to a stop before the pair. “What brings you to this part of the wood?” She inquired in a deep voice.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:10 am
Cordelia's heart nearly stopped as the giant stepped into her path. She had to crane her neck back to meet the other's eyes and while the other had done nothing to threaten Cordelia she couldn't help but feel as though her life was in danger. She backed away quickly nearly tripping over the child she'd been leading away all while gawking at the mare. She was covered in a dense fur and had three long furred tails to go with it. Where hooves should have been paws were and her ears were like a wolf's. Her glowing eyes darted down to the child. This was his mother?
Cordelia trembled slightly before turning and running back into the rotted forest. It was safe there. Nothing lived there. Nothing wanted to go in there. The beasts wouldn't follow. She had thought herself terrifying before because of her ghoulish eyes. She was no longer the most fearsome thing in the area. The spirits had delivered unto her a cursed child indeed and now she was rid of him.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:20 am
Grimm wasn't sure what had happened. The thing he had seen moved out in front of him and the mare. He realized that what he had been looking at hadn't been a small tree but a very large leg belonging to this mare. He stared at her just like Cordelia did but not out of fear. He was in awe of this great creature. He was only just tall enough to reach her belly and if he had been concerned about his appearance before his mind was laid to ease looking at her. She was like him, clawed and furred with more than one tail. His jaw dropped. Would he grow to be that large too?
His thoughts on the matter were interrupted as the pale mare nearly backed into him. He jumped out of the way bringing both of his tails up under his belly and watched as she ran off leaving him alone with a new stranger. His ears drooped as he watched her. She hadn't looked back.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:27 am
In her time in this world she had grown used to creatures fleeing from her. This was, however, the first time that the fleeing ones had left a child behind. Djose looked at the child. He seemed completely despondent over being left behind. She sighed and cleared her throat gently in the hopes of gaining his attention without startling him.
"Was that your mother, child?" She asked softly bringing her head as low as she could so that she might speak on his level. Perhaps she had been mistaken over the situation. Of course, if she had been wrong then she doubted the mare was fit to raise a child of her own anyway. What sort of mother abandoned their offspring?
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:49 am
Grimm's tails bristled as the mare lowered her head. It was nearly the size of his entire body. She could almost certainly take his whole head off in a single bite, and yet he still didn't feel scared. Her voice was deep and warm and she spoke to him. It wasn't like the ones that had found him, they only spoke about him, never directly to him.
He shook his head at the question. She was not his mother. She had been no one to him and hadn't even wanted to try to be someone. It was too clear even to the foal that she wanted him away from her. This mare though... Grimm took a tentative step forward. His ears twitched back nervously as he met the mare's eyes.
"M-mother?" He asked hopefully taking another step forward. His paw hovered just above the ground as he waited for an answer. She looked like him, so much like him, more than the others he had seen. She could be his mother, right? He wanted her to be his mother and if she couldn't be that he wanted her to be something.
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 11:06 am
It was some relief for Djose to learn that the blue mare had not been the child's mother. That did raise the question of who he belonged to though. Were they looking for him. She drew her head back in alarm as the child brought a more troubling issue to the surface. He thought she was his mother.
Djose did not correct him immediately. She knew for fact that she couldn't be his mother, Djose had never had children. She didn't even have a mate. Despite that, the foals question shed a little light on the situation. He did not know who his parents were. That seemed unlikely for a child of such a young age. She had known mothers and they were not known to leave their baskets unattended. For this child to not know who his mother was at all was troubling and spoke of some unknown tragedy.
She believed she could rule out kidnapping. The mare that had abandoned the child hadn't actually seemed to want him. Abandonment seemed possible, the dark of the forest would be a good place to leave something unwanted. More likely, though, the parents had been killed by skinwalkers or some other foul beast that sought to bring senseless death into the world. Djose looked upon the child with new found pity. He looked upon her with such childish hope that it nearly broke her heart.
She was not his mother by right of birth but that was no reason to turn the child away. He would need guidance. If his rightful parents came back then she could return him if they were fit to raising him. Until then, what harm could come from sheltering the boy?
"Would you like me to be your mother?" She asked smiling. "I can be... if you want."
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 2:07 pm
She wasn't saying anything. She wasn't saying anything and she had pulled away. Grimm let his paw drop to the ground. His tails and ears drooped as he lowered his gaze. She didn't want him either. He'd thought she'd be able to understand him at least but it seemed that he was wrong.
Grimm wasn't sure what to do. If she didn't want him then that left him all alone again, which wasn't so different from where he had been before. Maybe she would at least take him somewhere that there were others in case someone there wanted him. As he was thinking of ways to ask this question the mare finally responded. He didn't understand all of the words but he figured out enough to know what the smile meant.
Grimm's ears shot up and he bounced slightly as he rushed forward. He pressed his cheek against her massive leg and rubbed against it. He wasn't going to be alone anymore and that was all he needed to know.
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 2:15 pm
Djose watched as the little child bounced towards her with more joy on his face than she could remember knowing. She felt her heart break and melt all at once as he rubbed against her more like a cat or wolf than a horse. He was so young. Too young to be alone. She was certain that she was making the right choice here even on the off chance that he did have living parents somewhere.
Djose looked down at him steadily before bowing her head to nuzzle his neck and shoulder. She had never had children before but she would love this one as though he were her own... with one small difference.
"What are you called, child?" There was always the chance that someone had named him and she would not take it from him.
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 2:17 pm
Grimm froze for a moment when she moved her head again, she was so large that it was scary even if she wasn't. Then she rubbed against him and relaxed. She asked a question, one of which he knew and understood all of the words.
"GRIMM!" He shouted excitedly. That's who he was. It was what everyone had agreed upon. Now his mother would know who he was too, just as it should be.
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