Peace and Quiet {Nepelle Herd}

[Tiggs]

Fira’s eyes showed their whites as they rolled, her nostrils flaring red. The roan spoke to Nepelle, but she interjected. “You fool! She might be my daughter, but he is not her father. She is a daughter of the King! And no fool colt like you is worthy of her.” Scraping the ground with a hoof, she drew a furrow into it.

Kurrin was pacing anxious circles, her flanks lathered from the run and her stress. She was not afraid of Nepelle’s anger, she understood he had to fight, but she just needed his comforting right now rather than to watch a showdown. At the sound of a twig breaking in the trees, Kurrin shied frightfully. It was the colt! Come back to harass her again. Each expelled breath had a slight whimper to it, and she began to back away from the origin of the noise.

Fira heard the sound, and interpreted it as Alinta making her way back. Tossing her head, she glared at the roan but left Nepelle to handle the fallout. She stomped along the tree line, and cut into it where she estimated the noise to have come from. Alinta had run off this way, but it was not her daughter that she came face-to-face with.

Squealing, Fira bared her teeth at the sight of the roan mob hiding in the trees. They were all mares, but the colt received a jolt when the chestnut mare snapped her teeth his way. Omeo snorted and stewarded Kaiela behind him. The colt was a good deal taller than his sister, always being the larger of the pair, and so he fairly eclipsed her body from the angry mare.

Jiba, stunned, pressed up against her mother’s rump. Her dark eyes were wide, and she blinked slowly. Fira meanwhile was glaring between the two adults. They were familiar. “You.” She narrowed her eyes at the strawberry roan mare at the back of the group. “You’re a King’s mare.” She looked to the blue roan mare. “Both of you.” She lifted her head and sniffed the air, but she smelt no stallions nearby, and no scent of any clinging to them. The only male they’d been in contact with was the yearling colt at their side.

“Are you lost? Don’t bother asking me for directions, I’m not helping you. You got yourselves lost.” She sniffed haughtily and barged past them. Alinta had come down this way, she must be nearby. She wouldn’t go far.

Omeo frowned, ears held loosely back. What a strange, grumpy old mare. He nuzzled his sister’s shoulder, comforting her. The colt had always been close to his sister, and the two were nearly inseparable. This was one of those times when he felt it best to leave her with their mother. He glanced to Kala, and with a promise to be back, he trotted after the chestnut mare. It was probably best that his mother, aunt and sisters meet the raging stallion without him present. It was unlikely he would be welcomed.

He caught up quickly, and cleared his throat. The chestnut mare flicked and ear but otherwise gave no sign she recognised his existence. Instead she looked around, poking her nose into every thicket of bush. “What are you looking for?” He asked in his soft tempered voice, still following.

Fira huffed and kept looking.

“I might be able to help.” Omeo tried again.

Fira stopped and turned to face him. “I’m looking for my daughter, but don’t you get any ideas in that little head of yours, she belongs to a stallion who would crush you like a twig.”

Omeo huffed, dismissing the threat. “The bay? I saw her, she was scared.” He turned off the trail, following a tight path. Fira glared after him, but followed after a moment. The colt was not permitted to be alone with her daughter.

The bay dun roan pushed through the spiky bush, and came to the patch of ti-tree that the filly had headed into. He sniffed at the copse and huffed, almost sneezing at the strong scent. He nickered, encouraging the bay filly out.

Fira took longer to make her way through the tight path, and she stormed out just as Omeo was reaching into the foliage. She nipped the colt’s rump and he withdrew his head from the leaves. He frowned, but backed up as the mare muscled her way in. “Alinta? Stop hiding and come out here. You shouldn’t have run off! There are strange stallions around, who knows if one of them might have come and taken you away and hurt you! What were you thinking?” The barrage of questions and observations kept coming, none of them kind.

[Ehetere]

“My lead mare speaks the truth,” continued Nepelle as soon as Fira had finished. “She is -“ He would have continued further were is not for the snapping of twigs averting his attention. His ears pricked forward and she snorted ever so quietly. He hoped that if was little Alinta returning. That would make things an awful lot easier. Fira went to investigate, and a moment later she squealed, causing Nepelle to jump slightly and his eyes to roll. He was faced with a difficult decision: go and see what Fira had discovered or stay here and protect Kurrin who was still standing behind him. He had no idea whether the roan stallion had any designs on her and he wasn’t about to take any chances after what had just happened.

His ears pricked up Fira’s words fairly easily, and as they did, his eyes widened. The King? Tingara? Was he somewhere nearby? Nepelle had not consciously admitted it to himself, but he had been avoiding the black King in fear of punishment for not returning Fira as soon as he recognized her as one of the King’s missing herd. And she was about to have their first foal as well; which would further reveal his disloyalty. And Kings were not kings for no reason. They were the best fighters in the whole High Country, and he had no desire to be beaten to a pulp any time soon.

All the same, Nepelle was curious and when it was clear Fira had gone storming off, he called out to the unseen mares. At the very least he could ask them why they were separated from their stallion. He then turned his attention back to the roan, who was still seeming civil enough. But he had to make a choice now. He knew the truth of the situation; Alinta was not his daughter. He would have to challenge Nepelle if he wanted her, because if there was one form of retribution he feared above the King’s it was Fira’s. And retribution was what would surely follow if he simply handed over her daughter. Nepelle was offering him the choice of leaving as well, preferably before Fira returned and would most likely try beat the stallion herself.

[tingara]

Shivering violently, Alinta hid herself deeper in the ti-tree thicket. The smell from the plants made her eyes water and her nose itch terribly but at least she was safe here. There were no strange and frightening stallions and no chance said strange and frightening stallions would be able to pick up her scent over the ti-tree. At last she thought she was safe and began to settle herself down, her breathing slowing and then regulating.

The wildbay filly had no intentions of leaving her copse until a soft call sounded through the leaves. It had come from a male but it didn’t sound like that stallion that had snuck up on her before. Tentatively Alinta answered quietly, creeping towards the new horse. At once she shrunk back when her mother came into view. ”Yes mother, I’m sorry mother, I know mother,” the filly answered automatically, head hanging low to show the mare how sorry she was.

Alinta stepped from the thicket of ti-tree, giving one last sneeze as she did so. As she walked to her mother her eyes passed over a colt she had never seen before and widened in curiosity. He must have been who the gentle voice belonged to. Excitedly, forgetting her mother, the bay filly moved to the colt and touched his nose with hers. ”I’m Alinta, who are you?” she asked cheerfully.

[Tiggs]

OOC: Just gunna mash this in here as it only affects Omeo and Alinta

Fira started to herd Alinta to the tight little path when her daughter suddenly had a spur of action that was very unlike her. Agast, she stared as her daughter greeted the colt. Omeo however was delighted, and he pressed his nose to hers firmly. “My name is Omeo. OW!”

Fira had recovered from her momentary disbelief and had bitten Omeo firmly on the nose. The colt wheeled away, his nose stinging. The chestnut mare had caught his delicate nostril, and the outer edge of it was bleeding. The yearling was shocked. Never had he been bitten so harshly, even in play with his friend Kurrawa. The mare was horrible!

Eyes wide, the young colt gave the pretty bay filly a hopeless look before he turned and fled the mare back to the safety of his mother and aunt. Satisfied, Fira turned her daughter toward the path none-too-gently. “What did I tell you about colts? Don’t touch them, don’t talk to them; don’t even look at them!” Shaking her head in despair, Fira gave her daughter a gentle nudge on the shoulder. “You are a King’s daughter. No stallion but the best should you waste your time on. That yearling is troublesome, and no good for you! I’m only looking after you, you know that. Keep away from the colt, Alinta, he’s not in your league.”

[yaruka]

Poor Wangara. He certainly had not expected this when he'd come to woo away the young filly. The chestnut mare appeared quite mad, and, quite frankly, he was not sure he'd be able to win against the chestnut stallion. And even if he did manage to win by some miracle, well, the mare would probably kill him anyways. So it was with regret, but without much hesitancy, that the sooty blue roan dipped his head to the two chestnuts.
"My mistake, I am sorry. I did not mean to disturb your peace."
Just then the sharp snapping of a branch called the chestnuts' attention elsewhere and, seizing his oppertunity, Wangara turned and trotted off through the brush, his ears flickering to catch the sounds of what was going on the in the clearing. He wasn't quite sure he'd put it past that mare to come chasing after him and he wasn't really in the mood for getting attacked by a deranged horse. As he listened the stallion grew steadily more amazed, it seemed the clearing had now filled with horses from the King's herd. It seemed he had been right to leave, Wangara wasn't shy but he'd had quite commotion for today already. As he trotted away he thought wistfully of the wild bay filly. Perhaps he would come back for her some day, though he would certainly be more careful if he did.

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Almost as suddenly as Kaiela's hooves had broken the twig, the little roan family came face to face with an angry looking chestnut mare. The mare glared at them visciously, even reaching forwards to snap at a shocked Omeo. Kala snorted angrily but did nothing to strike back, yet. For suddenly she recognised the chestnut, and knew her to be a mare that she'd prefer not to engage in conflict if at all necessary. Fire's temperment was certainkly quite nasty, at the best of times. But what was the chestnut mare doing here? The last she had seen of her, she was searching in vain for her beloved Aleo. The chestnut roan couldn't say she'd missed her, and she certainly hadn't expected to find her here.

Kaiela had been quite as shocked as the rest of them when a chestnut mare had suddenly stuck her face into their copse of trees, but when the chestnut ventured a nip in Omeo's direction she had squealed angrily, until Omeo had sheparded her behind his body. The colt was certainly a good deal taller and wider than her, and Kaiela had to stretch her neck to peer around him and glare at the chestnut. How dare she do that to her good brother?

Suddenly Fira seemed to recognize them also, and rudely she assured them that she would not help them were they lost.
"No, we are not lost," she replied evenly to the chestnut mare, not bothering to elaborate. Fira certainly didn't care.

Kaiela relaxed slightly at Omeo reassuring nuzzle, sighing softly. She always felt safe around her brother. But the relief she had felt suddenly disappeared as her brother good-naturedly offered to assist the chestnut mare. Kaiela's ears flickered back uneasily, she did not like him going off by himself with this cruel-seeming other horse. She was about to follow him but for once conceded to stay behind when he nudged towards Kala. Perhaps it were better if only he went, after all, the filly they were seeking seemed unlikely to come out of hiding any time soon. Forcing a whole crowd upon her wouldn't help the matter. And the sooner they found her, the sooner Omeo could return. He would be able to handle it, she had faith in her brother.
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Jiba moved close to Jannali's side and the fear her daughter felt because of the aggressive mare seemed to awaken something in the blue roan. As the chestnut's haughty gaze passed over them she pinned her ears, clacking her teeth warningly when the chestnut barged past them.

Kala tossed her head, slightly distressed by all the tension and her dark eyes grew concerned as Omeo made his offer to help the chestnut. But Omeo was old enough to care for himself, and sensible enough not to aggravate Fira further. With a gentle nod she watched him go.

As the chestnut and her son disappeared into the brush Kala glanced back into the clearing as the sound of the one of the unknown stallion's met her ears. Scenting the air she realised that the other had disappeared, good, one stallion was better to deal with than two. Not seeing how it could do any harm at this stage, she nickered back to the stallion, stepping softly from her cover and watching him curiously. Jannali stayed behind, her eyes glassing over again now that the moment of concern for her precious daughter had passed. Kaiela stayed in her mother's shadow, also watching the tall chestnut stallion with a mixture of fascination and shyness. Without her brother here the filly seemed even smaller than usual.

[Ehetere]

Nepelle nodded in farewell as the other stallion retreated - he was wise and obviously a horse of integrity. He was glad that he had not been forced to fight him. With a low nicker of respect and thanks, Nepelle returned his attention to the new arrivals on the scene; two of Tingara’s mares.

They were both roans; pretty ones at that, and both looked rather similar. The blue roan was still sheltering in the cover of the trees, but the chestnut roan was brave enough to emerge from the trees. There was a little tan filly hanging behind the chestnut roan as well, and he had to assume that she was the chestnut’s daughter.

He threw a loving glance over his shoulder at Kurrin to make sure she was alright - all of this action after such a peaceful start to the afternoon could be stressful at the best of times. After giving her a comforting nicker, assuring her that everything was alright, he addressed the two mares.

“Greetings, mares of the King,” he said, nodding his head respectfully - he wouldn’t want to be rude to the King’s mares. He was also tempted to say welcome to the madness, but decided that was simply unnecessary. “I am Nepelle, and this is Kurrin, my mate. By the sounds of it you have already run into Fira - who is my lead mare.” There was no way that he could mask the hint of pride in his voice at the mention of Kurrin. He suspected that these mares would already know her since they all came from the same herd, but he had to introduce his mate anyways.

“If you are indeed from the King’s herd, why are you here? Is he nearby? Are you lost?”