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 Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2016 11:03 am
 They had been traveling now for what seemed like a very long time and although Kaliri was well aware that she could have made the trip in half the time had she simply flown the entire way she found herself rather enjoying the slower pace.
Of course that probably had something to do with her traveling companion. Traveling with Derecho was a great deal of fun even when they just found themselves chatting about nothing, Kaliri didn't think she had ever spent time with someone for quite this long and still feel like there was so much left to talk about and she wondered idly if that was how her mother and father felt when together.
"Oh look over there, I think I see some berry bushes, looks like a good place to stop for lunch maybe." She stated, somewhat pleased to have spotted the berries, it would add a bit of flavor to the meal - while she enjoyed traveling with Derecho the area they were currently traveling through was somewhat lacking appealing grasses, they were still to high up in the hills and all the vegetation was tough and tasteless for the most part.
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2016 12:01 pm
 This journey had so far been a very good one. Derecho was thrilled to see so much new land, for he had never really traveled far from his birth herd before. Of course, the best part of the journey was spending time with Kaliri. They had talked so much while they walked, which helped to make the long hours of walking go by faster. He had learned much about her and her family in that time and he had also shared plenty about himself with her. The more he learned, the more he was excited about the prospect of meeting her family. Oh, he was still nervous about meeting her parents, but they sounded like such nice individuals - as well as the herd they lived with. He had never met an Usdia before, so meeting a whole herd of them - a herd that was like an extended family for Kaliri, would be quite a treat.
Derecho nodded at her suggestion. "That sounds good, a quick rest would do us some good as well." They had been making good time all things considered, though had they been able to fly, they would have been there by now. But also, had they flown, they would not have been able to learn so much about each other. All in all, things were going well and he looked forward to the next part of the journey, to see this herd and Kaliri's family and the area they called home.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2016 5:25 am
At Derecho's agreement Kaliri changed her course and headed towards the berry bushes, thankfully it didn't look like the bushes had been picked clean by the rest of wildlife yet and there would be plenty for the both of them. As she got closer Kaliri inhaled deeply enjoying the berries sweet scent and all but closed her eyes to enjoy it as she waded into the thicket.
She hadn't gotten very far however when she all but tripped over something that certainly didn't feel like a berry bush. umping back and opening her eyes in statement Kaliri look down to see what it was gasped in shock. "Oh my! Derecho!' She called out to the stallion behind her before looking wildly around. Surely they couldn't be out here alone right?
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 6:14 pm
He had only been a short distance away from Kaliri when she called out. Had she gotten her leg armor stuck on a branch? While he doubted that would cause her to call to him in such a manner, he nonetheless hurried to see what was the matter. He stepped cautiously up beside her. Kaliri was looking in every direction and so he couldn't figure out what was going on.
"What is-" He never got to finish the question, as he caught site of the colorful items hidden among the berry bushes. His eyes went wide and he couldn't help but take a quick step back away from them. Those couldn't be what he thought they were. "Are those...?" He just couldn't bring himself to say the word 'basket' for some reason.
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 10:14 am
"Yes." Kaliri replied "Yes those are exactly what you think they are." She went on, her eyes still sweeping the area. "Surely they can't be here alone right? I mean who would leave baskets out here all by themselves." She asked the stallion, a worried tone starting to creep into her voice.
"I mean..how do we even know they are okay? I don't know anything about baskets...do you know anything about baskets?" Maybe he did, maybe his herd had had baskets that he had helped take care of..or something. Sure she herself had seen baskets before but she had never put any thought towards taking care of them, or even foals one they opened for that matter either.
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 11:04 am
Derecho swallowed hard. He couldn't exactly explain why the site of these baskets frightened him, but they did. Perhaps it was his general lack of knowledge baskets and foals that terrified him so. He shok his head, trying to clear his thoughts and in an attempt to answer Kaliri's questions. "Perhaps..." Well he didn't know, so he made a guess. "Perhaps the parents are nearby and they left them here, where they were safe to attend to something." It could be a possibility, and yet they hadn't seen another Soquili in some time.
"I...know nothing about bas...baskets." There he managed to say the word.
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 11:22 am
"I hope not!" Kaliri declared "That just seems terribly irresponsible don't you think? I mean I almost tripped on them and these are berry bushes! What if a bear had come along?!" For some reason the thought of the poor baskets being purposefully left here alone made her angry.
"I suppose we ought to look for around some, see if we can find the parents - I mean we can't just eat our lunch and leave knowing they are here." No it seemed like they might be staying for a while unless the parents sowed up and if they did...well Kaliri had a few things on her mind to say to them about how they were looking after their foals!
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 11:29 am
"We don't know what the circumstances were. Perhaps they had no choice." And they wouldn't know until they found the parents. At her suggestion of looking for the parents he shook his head. "If we both go looking for them...then we are no better than the parents who left them here." That was assuming they were truly abandoned and not just forced to leave under duress or something. "You stay here. I'll look for them. That way if they do return we can know what happened." He gave her a nuzzle of reassurance, and then moved off. He hated to admit it, but he was glad to put some distance between himself and those baskets. Why were such small innocent things so terrifying to him?
Derecho had spend quite some time roaming the area looking for any sigh of the baskets parents but in the end he had come up with nothing. The few trails he had found were perhaps a few days old. He didn't want to bring back the bad news to Kaliri but there was no choice. He hurried back to her, and shook his head. "I couldn't find anyone." He told her and started to wonder just what would happen next.
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 12:02 pm
While Derecho was gone Kaliri found herself hoping against hope that the parents would return, perhaps they would come back with a story of being chased away and being forced to hide the baskets to keep them safe..or something. At this point Kaliri would be willing to accept almost any excuse as long as they promised to keep an eye on them from now on.
But..that was not to be the case, no parents returned and when Derecho finally came back with no one behind him Kaliri heaved out a sigh. "Well...I guess we are staying then." It was a frightening prospect..of course she would continue to hold out hope that the parents would return but if they didn't well...it looked like she was going to be a parent.
How terrifying!
Sure she wanted a family with Derecho but up until now that had been a point of time well off in the future, certainly she didn't feel ready to take it on now. Fate however seemed to have other ideas and really there was nothing she could do about it now.
"Maybe..maybe they will still come back.." She told her mate hopefully, nuzzling him reassuringly.
And the pair continued to hope for just such a miracle..but days turned into weeks and then months and finally Kaliri and Derecho had been forced to accept their new role in life.....parents.
**********************************************************************************
It had been about a week or so since the baskets had finally opened and while they had done everything they could think of to prepare, Kaliri was still feeling pretty new to this whole parenting thing. Certainly it was going to stall their trip for a while - they could hardly go wandering about the lands with newborns in tow! Her family would understand she was sure..but she hoped they wouldn't worry to much about her lengthy absence.
"Drake!" She called out suddenly "Please come back here! Your wandering much to far into the woods!" Okay so maybe she was being a bit over protective..but well, just how much freedom were you supposed to give a foal? She certainly couldn't remember and life growing up in the Little Mountain herd had been one filled with the watchful eyes of so many family members that she was pretty sure no one had to worry much about a foal getting lost or hurt. It wasn't like here where there were only two of them to keep an eye on the curious little creatures.
"Aw mom! I just wanted to go and look at those stumps, its so boring here by the bushes! Can't we go somewhere? Do something?" He asked, a bit of a plea in his voice. Surely there must be somewhere they could go that his parents would consider safe, somewhere that was fun.
Glancing at his father he upped his demand "Pleeeeasssseeee just for a litttle while" The colt tried to wheedle his way into an adventure. He was getting tired of staying here all the time and thus far all of his attempts to sneak off had been caught. He really needed to learn how to sneak better.
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:03 pm
He had not been ready to be a father. True, the foals were not his by blood, but he and Kaliri were raising them as their own. Even so, it had been a frightening prospect at first and when the foals had finally emerged he was a nervous wreck. When he had left his family's herd to go on their journey with Kaliri he hadn't expected anything major to happen. They would travel to her own herd, they would learn more about each other and bond and that was it. Now, he was a father and trying to cope with that.
He knew nothing about foals. Sure, he had been one once, but that's where his knowledge of them ended. Now he was in this extreme learning curve and unfortunately so was Kaliri. He might have been a bit more comfortable if she had known some things about raising foals. Looking down at Drake the stallion considered his sons request. "Well..." He looked over at Farstrider and then Kaliri and then back to Drake. He did want to get moving again, and then foals were getting stronger. He looked at Kaliri again. "We can't stay here forever." He was aware she knew that already. "Perhaps it's time to continue on with our journey. Go as far as they can each day. They can learn things along the way." Besides, he was itching to get moving again. Farstrider had been about to follow Drake when their mother called out. They weren't really allowed to go far, though he wasn't sure why, and sometimes he didn't mind. But much like his brother, he was wanting to see something new. They had thoroughly explored this area, under the watchful gaze of their mother, and it would be nice to see something new. "Yeah, can we go somewhere new?" He added to his brothers request. He focused on their father as well, knowing he was the one more likely to accept their request.
Hearing his fathers suggestion the colt perked up. Traveling would be great. They could see so many new things. "We can travel far, can't we Drake?" Anything to get out of this small area they had been in for the last little while.
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:57 pm
"Of course we can!" Drake affirmed "I mean you don't have 'Far' in your name for nothing!" The colt joked with is brother, really though he was sure they could go quite a ways, they played all day long and were only slightly tired by the time it got dark so what was the difference between playing and walking all day? Probably not much as far as he could see.
"Really we can and we will learn so much and we will get to meet your family and I know how much you want all of that!" Drake went on, turning his gaze to look upon his mother. If nothing else he knew how to get her to agree to things, I mean she was always after them to pay attention when she tried to teach them things and she nad father were always talking about how much they wanted to continue to meet her family so it was a no brainer really.
Kaliri looked between the colts for few moments and then to Derecho. It was true..all of it, in fact she was pretty sure they could have left a few days ago - the two of them were just scared to leave. Scared because leaving meant for sure that there wa no chance of the foals real parents finding them and scared because they had no idea how to travel with foals either.
It was time to face facts however, they had to leave at some point and by this time it was highly unlikely that the foals parents would return and honestly Kaliri wasn't sure she wanted them to anymore, as much as she didn't know how to be a mother she did know she had become attached to the two colts.
"Alright, your all right...we should go. Its past time for us to leave." She said with a sigh and yet a bit of excitement raced through her at the prospect of continuing on wards at long last.
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 2:23 pm
"That's right!" He agreed with an over exaggerated nod of the head. Farstrider listened as Drake laid out even more reasons why they should go. There was no way mother could say no now and he enthusiastically turned his attention towards her waiting for her answer. When she finally agreed, he couldn't help but dance with excitement. "Yes!" They were finally getting out of here.
"Come on let's go!" Giving his bother a friendly bump the colt set off, even if he didn't exactly know which direction they had to travel in. If it was the wrong way, surely his parents would correct him. "How long do you think it will take to get there?" He asked his brother. "I bet we'll find all kinds of neat things along the way." And so their first real adventure began and he couldn't wait to see what awaited them on the other side of the meadow and beyond.
Derecho wasn't sure if he or the colts were more relieved with Kaliri's decision. As Farstrider took off he couldn't help but shake his head. Now they were in for a whole new set of challenges. Keeping track of the foals in this small area was easy, out in the wide open world...that will be much harder, especially since they were so curious and energetic. Though he was happy to see they were so active. His own foalhood hadn't been that way, as his overall weakness had hampered him in many ways.
"What do you think your family will say...once we arrive?" He had been looking forward to meeting her family for some time now, still was, but now he wondered how they would react when their daughter not only returned with a stallion, but with foals in tow as well. And to make it worse, in a way, the foals even looked like they were their true children. How had that happened? What was the chance of coming across baskets that so deeply reflected their own colors and markings?
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 10:15 am
Drake shrugged slightly as he hurried off with his brother before their parents could change their minds. "Who knows really? I mean from listening to them it sounds like a pretty long trip...but then they are kind of slow and if we hurry them along it might not take that long." He suggested. He was fairly certain that if he and his brother rushed ahead their parents would rush to keep up and then they could hurry past all this boring stuff and slow down at all the interesting stuff. It was a good plan to his foalish mind.
"And when we see interesting stuff we can slow down to play." He added so that his brother would also be aware of his completely genius plan. Glancing back he saw his parents following them a little bit behind. Clearly they must have picked the right direction then and as he thought they were hurrying to keep up. See his plan was working already!
Kaliri was somewhat taken aback as the foals rushed off without so much as a by your leave, luckily they rushed off in the right direction at least but who knew what sort of terrain they were rushing into? She and Derecho had been so busy just trying to raise them to this point that extensive searching of the area had kind of fallen by the wayside. Giving Derecho and exasperated look she hurried to tro after the foals "Hey you two! Don't get too far ahead of us! It might not be safe!" She yelled ahead though who knew if they were listening to her.
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 10:43 am
"They aren't that slow." Fairstrider said, but in reality, he did feel like his parents moved too slow at times. Though that could be because he was impatient and had far too much energy to burn at times. "Let's not hurry too much...or else we might miss stuff." There needed to be a delicate balance between rushing into this adventure and seeing all the nifty sites along the way. He was sure that as the days of travel progressed they would find a good pace to keep thing interesting but not tire themselves out too quickly.
"It's a nice plan." He said to his brother as he trotted along. "But I bet I'll find something interesting before you do." A little friendly brotherly competition would be an extra fun addition to their trip.
A small laugh escaped Derecho as Kaliri flashed him that look. "Let them have some freedom. It's a precious thing to have when you are a foal and not everyone gets it." It made him think of his own foalhood. Technically he had had the freedom of the entire herds range at his disposal, yet he lacked a whole different freedom. The freedom to run, jump, play and be a typical foal. He did not want to deny these foals that. Sure he wanted to keep them safe as well, but there had to be a balance. So far they had been perhaps too much on the nurturing and protective side of parenting, now it was time to loosen the reins a bit and let the foals be foals. As long as they were still close enough to watch and help if needed. Again, it was all about the balance.
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Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:47 am
"yeah, your right...we don't want to miss anything, who knows if we will ever come this way again right?" That would be unfortunate..but he didn't really want to linger about in every meadow either, they had spent their entire lives in meadows so far and honestly they could be a bit boring. He wanted to see Mountains and forests and waterfalls! Things he had heard his parents talking about but had yet to actually see. Everything sounded so wonderfully new and interesting.
"Bet you won't" He told his brother, accepting the challenge with a slight snort. Of course Drake wasn't entirely sure what sort of 'interesting' thing he ought to be looking for but he was sure that he would know it when he saw it! Maybe it would be a cave...or a canyon or some sort of exotic wildlife. hearing his mother calling out to them drake paused and glanced behind him for a second
"We won't!" He shouted back to assure her before trotting to catch back up with his brother
Kaliri sighed slightly, it was so hard to just let go and give them that freedom though! Derecho was right of course, it was a gift that not all foals got and one that she wanted to give them - but it was hard, she wanted to keep them safe and knowing that they had been abandoned before they were even out of the basket made her even more inclined to be a bit over protective. Still she slowed down and walk beside her mate again while the foals fooled around ahead of them.
"Your right" She admit with another sigh "But no one ever told me it would be so hard to do."
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