She hadn't believed him. He had tried to tell her and she just didn't believe him. Well, today his scuttle scale friend was just going to have to see for herself! Dousan walked toward the particular glade his parents resided in, Romy clinging to his back for speed's sake. There was a bit of a family get together planned and Romy simply didn't believe the buck when he said his family was quite large. Being a fully fledged adult and often busy with his own dealings, she hadn't seen much in the way of familial interaction and had assumed Dousan was maybe an only child. Far, far from it. Of course, he wasn't exactly in the habit of greeting his kin by their family titles either. No 'Hey, sister! How's it going', or 'Man, brother, it's good to see you'. On top of that, Romy wasn't with him all day, every day. If he caught a family member out and about, he'd catch up, chat a bit, then go on his way.
The buck was trotting along quite pleased with the thought of Romy's expression when there was the reveal. The sky was utterly clear, the day very bright and warm. He had intentionally made sure they'd arrive a little late to let as many of his family gather together before his arrival as possible. Passing between a few large trees with low hanging branches, they broke into the clearing to the sound of many chattering voices, old and young. "Hello, family," Dousan chimed brightly, smiling similarly so. "Sorry we're late!"
Romy was stock still on his back, staring astonished at the scene before them. She muttered to the buck. "How-how many sibling did you say you had?"
He had nodded to each indicated family member in turn for the scuttle scale's benefit. "In order, an elder sister, then myself, then three younger siblings, my twin younger sisters over there, and my baby brother there." Of course, baby being relative. All of his siblings were adults or young adults in their own rights. At least half of them had foals of their own. "And, of course, there's my three half siblings. My folks are madly in love with each other, but also have expressed their love for a few of their dear, trusted friends by having kids with them. Kinda sweet, huh?" It was then a gaggle of no less than six foals came sprinting their way, chorus cries of 'Uncle Dousan, Uncle Dousan!' preceding them. Romy gripped tighter to prepare and then suddenly they were thronged. "Hey, you rascals! Look at all of you! Gosh, you're getting so big!" The buck kept moving to keep from any of his nieces and nephews from trying to jump up on him since he had a passenger. He nuzzled, nosed, and preened any young relation that got within his reach. "You are all huffing and puffing a storm! Surely I wasn't so very late. How hard have you been playing? Gracious!" He laughed at the answered that were pitched his way. Several tales came of adventures and games, layering over each other. "Tell you all what, if you gather close, I'll help you all out a bit, yeah? Sit down here in the shade and let me see what I can do."
Dousan moved around to allow the foals space to arrange themselves how they wanted. Once everyone was settled, he gave them a wink and held his head high, eyes closing as he focused on his gift. The tip glowed with a warm yellow light as he tuned into his cool ability. In the area immediately around him and the gaggle of his young relations, it cooled by several degrees, which compounded by the shade, drew comfortable sighs or surprised gasps from the foals settled about his hooves. Having done so, he sighed and gently booped each youngster with his nose. "You guys rest a moment. It won't last too long, but it'll help cool you down a bit before you get back to it, okay?" He then extricated himself from the cluster of his nieces and nephews to approach his parents, adepts both.
He greeted them fondly and introduced them to Romy, who finally slid off of his back to stand on her own feet. Then came the arduous task of introducing her to everyone else. When cool wore off, the youngsters were content to play around on their own, figuring Dousan's circulating to be boring adult chatter. All in all, the afternoon was a rousing success, plenty of food, loads of good company. Before long it was time for the pair to leave, and after much farewelling Dousan and Romy were heading back toward the buck's den. "So, what do you think? Think you can remember everyone's names?" Dousan teased.
"It's...a lot, but I can see in them how you came to be who you are. They all seemed so nice." She paused at his teasing. "Aaaaah, probably not? Give me a few days to memorize and maybe. My head is still spinning from everything!"
The buck laughed and nodded sagely. "We can take it easy for the rest of the day. Most of my family is usually scattered about Homewood or taking off to tend to Vykeli elsewhere. It's a rare thing for us all to gather together, so we have a lot of catching up and celebrating to do when we do. You know, to make up for all the time we've had apart. We all have our own things going on, but we cherish our time when we can share it." Romy nodded sleepily. Dousan smiled and continued on in silence toward their home. Of course, that was just his directly related family. Dousan firmly believed in chosen family and loved ones too, the friends and folks who you simply couldn't see not being in your life.
[WC: 981]
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