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Post by barina on May 14, 2008 0:56:29 GMT
Baree saw a black colt run towards him and whinnied again with joy to see other horses. The other colt skidded to a halt at the base of the hill: "Who are you!" he called "I'ma Cobalt!" Baree was just about to reply to him when a filly joined the other foal. Then a huge black stallion and a mare appeared and Baree shrunk back in sudden shyness. "I have no herd or mother," he replied to their questions, glad the mare at least seemed gentle. The stallion he was a little intimidated by.
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Post by Tiggs on May 14, 2008 9:00:10 GMT
Confused as to why Burnum was suddenly somewhere else, Kimba turned carefully on her ungainly legs and whinnied again. She raced forward again, her ears twisting forward as she began to enjoy this new game.
Fira snorted at Tingara, baring her teeth. "You think I stay here for the company? I'm waiting for Aleo to return. You can't drive me away: I'm leaving. I'm going to find Aleo, and when I do, I'm going to tell him how easily you turned from him and placed your loyalty in this weakling! You're all traitors, the lot of you!" Nostrils flaring, their insides as red as the whites of her eyes, she called Kimba away and with that, led her chestnut foal away and out of the valley.
Crayola had been watching her red and white mottled son, and was proud of his efforts. She whinnied to call him back when Fira made her exit. She nuzzled her darkest son, nibbling at his short mane. Looking up as the new foal arrived, Crayola nickered a greeting and trotted over. She pushed through to see the light brown colt, and sniffed at his face and mane. She'd quite easily adopt the third colt, but she wouldn't be able to provide enough milk for three. However Crayola didn't think of this as she investigated the new foal.
Ammi sighed in relief as the chestnut left, and stepped out from behind her rock. Eyeing up all the foals, it was like a buffet laid out that she wasn't allowed to eat. Her stomach rumbled, but she forced herself to think about the task at hand. She yapped at the black stallion, calling him back. "It's about Aleo, he's gone. I know you must know this already, but he's gone, completely. I can't find him. I was with him when he fought a young stallion, then he chased him through the bush and I lost them both. They went over some rocks and through a stream. I couldn't pick up Aleo's scent after that, but the stallion he fought - he's still alive. Aleo should have been able to kill him easily. But he's still alive. He was battered and bruised." She was rushing now, aware that time was short. "His name is Nevada. He must have been the last horse to see Aleo alive. I think he killed Aleo. I tried for days to find Aleo, but when I couldn't I found Nevada again. He's healed up mostly, and he's coming--"
Her sentence was cut off by a ringing call from the top of the valley. A white shape stood silhouetted against the bright blue sky. His mane and tail flowed in the cool wind and he looked proud with his youth. He called again. It wasn't a challenge, he had no ideas of fighting Tingara yet. It appeared the black stallion was indeed the new King. Aleo was no where to be seen, and Nevada had been watching a long while. Now Aleo was gone, his mares were left available. He knew Tingara would hold on to most of them, but there was one in particular that he knew Tingara couldn't keep.
Nevada reared up on the valley's edge, safe from any attack Tingara might plan. The path was long and winding to get up the sheer cliff Nevada had positioned himself on. By the time the black stallion made it up, Nevada would be long gone. He called out for Dilali, and any other of Aleo's mares that might want to join him. Their foals would be a problem, but he offered their safety in return for the mare's loyalty. They were children of Aleo, but Nevada knew he couldn't hope to keep the mares without their newborn foals. He turned and reared and danced on the valley's ridge, trying to draw the mares to him with his athleticism and grace. It was a thrill to try for them right in front of Tingara. Nevada's smile echoed in his voice as he called again.
He'd always wanted Dilali. She was fantastically beautiful and rare like Brael. He wanted his herd to be full of wonderful mares, and here was his chance to persuade Dilali to come with him willingly. She was Tingara's sister. The black couldn't keep her, so she was a free mare to claim in Nevada's eyes. He offered her and her foal safety and companionship in return for her company and loyalty. He hadn't come here with the intention of expanding his herd, but the opportunity was too great to resist.
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Post by tingara on May 14, 2008 9:47:25 GMT
Tingara's expression softened, " If you are indeed alone you may stay here. I don't know which mare will take you in though." tingara shook his head at Crayola to say, 'No, you already have two to look after.'.
Fira was leaving on a hopeless crusade but Tingara knew he couldn't stop her, even with the truth. He listened to Ammi, eyes wide. Nevada couldn't have killed Aleo, he was too young. A wild neigh pierced Tingara's thoughts, speak of the devil. There was Nevada on the ridge above the valley, rearing for the world to see. He called for the ex-king's mares. Tingara reared, showing off his new found strength and beauty. His ebony muscles rippled in the afternoon sun. His black mane flowed as he tossed his head and answered Nevada's call, an answer that said, 'I'm not to be messed with.'
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Dilali looked up as Nevada called for her and her alone. Her blues eyes widened and she pushed Birubi closer to her side. Dilali's heart was torn, loyalty to her mate, now gone, still pumped through her but a new longing filled her too. A longing to run with a handsome, wild stallion (that wasn't her brother) for the rest of her life, to be deeply loved again.
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Seeing the look on Dilali's face, Tingara nickered reassuringly.
"Go," he said softly, she was the only mare that Nevada would ever be allowed to take from this valley, ever.
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Dilali called to Nevada to tell him to wait for her. She felt Birubi quivering beside her.
"It's ok little one," she said softly. Her heart raced as she said goodbye to everyone and a tear rolled down her cheek.
"Thank you for being a rock for me," she whispered softly to Tingara and Crayola. Dilali pushed Birubi up the path and stopped to gasp when she finally got close to the silver stallion. She saw the bruises and gashes that couldn't be seen from below. She smiled and went to nuzzle Nevada.
"You promised me and my filly safety, well I'm going to take you up on that," she said strongly. The one thing that was more important than anything was Birubi.
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Poor Birubi had no idea what was going on, everything was such a blur. One minute she was playing with her siblings and cousins, the next she was being driven away from them. She whinnied a hurried goodbye, but chances were that she'd come back.
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Prisma watched Tingara's display and started to mimick him. His lack of balance forced him to go backwards in a circle as he reared. He whinnied shrilly as he fell backwards, rolling pathetically on the ground as he tried to get himself up again.
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Valatone
Inactive
Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!
Posts: 335
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Post by Valatone on May 14, 2008 10:10:59 GMT
Cobalt stopped in front of Baree and turned around, watching Nevada's display. He saw Kimba, and then Birubi, disapearing out of sight. He whinnied to them, "Come back, come back!" he nickered, now deeply saddened that his friends were leaving. Who was this silver stallion that his father didn't like? Was he this 'Aleo'? Cobalt had no idea, but he'd learn later in life. He pressed close to his mother, scared of the pale stallion. Now he only had a cousin and half brother to play with, which depressed him. Nickering once more to Birubi, he hoped it would work, but deep down he too knew it was hopeless to call anyone back.
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Valatone was sad to see her little son depressed. She hadn't gotten to know Dilali very much, but she knew that Cobalt liked Birubi a lot. The perlino mare was pleased with Fira gone, and she knew that Cobalt liked Kimba, but not as much as his other friends.
Valatone looked up at Nevada. The young stallion had dared to come near the new king, but she knew it was only for Tingara's sister. Nothing would draw her away from Tingara now, that he was truely king. Nevada would become a great enemy in times to come, but she hoped her stallion would be ready.
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Post by Illu on May 14, 2008 11:05:09 GMT
Binda was more than pleased with Fira’s self imposed exile. If the idiot mare wanted to keep up hope, she could.
Suddenly a rogue neigh appeared out of nowhere, and Binda looked up in surprise. Wow, he was pretty. Still, Tingara was the King, and while the black maintained that title she wasn’t going anywhere. Despite this, she felt a pang of annoyance when Nevada called out only for Dilali. What? She wasn’t good enough for this fool? Never matter, maybe he was only sticking to mares he could pick up as freebies, therefore he wasn’t so great, so yeah, Tingara was still The Awesome.
Burnum was just starting to enjoy himself too when Kimba suddenly went off to her mother. Feeling slightly down as he watched them go, then trotted over to Crayola to see what all the fuss was about. When Nevada neighed, he visibly jumped. What’s this, another stallion? Binda had mercifully placed herself next to Crayola to see what was happening, so he planted himself between the two of them to watch.
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Nevada wasn’t going to have his alone time for long. Just as Dilali was halfway up the rise, a black head with a white mane suddenly pokeed its head out of the trees a way behind Nevada. ”Nevaadaa! Why are you taking so long? I just thought of something,” Brael complained, sounding whinyer than normal, if it was possible. She started to walk over but caught herself when she saw what was going on. Oooh, he was challenging someone was he? Oh, wait, no, he was just fetching a mare. Pfft. Why couldn’t the guy be happy with what he had?
Nevada’s small hints about staying safe seemed to be having some effect, because she managed to keep herself back out of sight from those down below. Well, for the most part, she did risk raising her head to take a glance, but she was confident enough that she wasn’t spotted. When Dilali came over the top, she did feel a little underwhelmed. She was expecting some kind of magical super mare for Nevada to actually dare leave her to take the risk. Oh well, she’d do.
Putting on her best look of Queenly Nicelyness, she gave Dilali and greeting nod and as happy a happy face as she could muster. Only the nice ones get Queen. Only the nice ones get Queen. Queeny Queen Queen. No Queeny for newcomer with funny tan. Aaaall for Brael.
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Post by Tiggs on May 14, 2008 12:32:03 GMT
Nevada let out a gleeful neigh as Dilali began to climb to path toward him. He struck a proud pose, and watched her come. When Brael spoke behind him, he turned his head and hissed: "Brael? What are you doing here? Where's Baramay?" He stepped back from the edge, dipping out of view briefly while he checked Brael. She didn't seem to be hurt, but he gave a smug smile as he noticed her abdomen was starting to fill out. Luckily she hadn't noticed yet, he had a feeling she'd complain. "Wait one moment, stay still."
He turned back to the valley, peeking over the edge. Dilali was almost at the top. He nickered to her, and stepped back as she crested the top of the path. "Hello, Dilali." He'd made a victory over Aleo at last. The old King may have been gone, but now he had Dilali, he felt that it was really true. Aleo had always thwarted him each time he tried to charm Dilali for himself. But this year Nevada was the four year old. He could finally hope to keep hold of the lovely coloured grey. He nuzzled her browned muzzle, and huffed warm air at her little grey and brown foal. It smelt of her and Aleo - hopefully she'd grow out of her father's smell, it made him edgy.
"My offer stands. You and your foal can roam safely with me." He reared again on the ridge for dramatic effect and backed away, gesturing for Dilali to follow. The foal would slow them, so they had to get away before Tingara decided to come and warn him off. Nudging Brael in front of him, he told her to talk as they travelled. Whatever it was probably trivial, and he wanted to get back to Baramay.
Crayola had been happily ignoring the whole performance, being more interested in the colt. Tingara's warning confused her. Why couldn't she look after this colt too? Who else would do it? She couldn't comprehend that Binda and Valatone both had milk to spare. She tried to nudge the brown colt to nurse, still confused as to why she couldn't look after this foal like she did with her others. She dropped her head to graze, ripping up mouthfuls of grass. She felt the urge to eat excessively, knowing instinctively that the more she ate, the more milk she'd be able to make. Three foals was too much for any mother, but Crayola didn't seem to realise.
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Post by barina on May 14, 2008 23:14:01 GMT
Baree happily nickered to the new mare that came over to him, allowing her to snuffle his face and mane. He lipped at a long strand of her mane that fell down over his nose and tugged gently, closing his eyes. He knew it wouldn't give him milk, but it was habit and it soothed him. He opened his eyes again when he got the sudden feeling of being watched and gave a slight tremor as he met the stare of the coyote eyeing the foals with hungry eyes. He definately needed a herd. The huge black stallion looked at him kindly "If you are indeed alone you may stay here. I don't know which mare will take you in though." Baree looked up at him in relief and delight "Thank you sir" he whinnied in a high pitched voice which betrayed just how young he truly was. He was just about to settle in the grass--he was exhausted from all that traveling--when the call of another stallion was heard from over the hill. He looked over with wide eyes to see a silver stallion rearing and cavorting on the crest of the hill. He heard the black stallion's challenge to the other, all the time swinging his young his head from side to side to keep up with all the action. A dun mare and her foal left, and he saw Cobalt and another roan foal's distress at their departure. He felt bad for them, he had never really had much of a family, but he knew the pain of loss and his was all to recent. When the strange stallion had left with the mare and foal, he flopped down on the grass, his long spindly legs simply collapsing beneath him in his fatigue. He felt the appaloosa mare nudge him dimly through his sleep. Uncertainly, he got up once again, swaying from the combination of tiredness and lack of nutrition. The mare pushed him towards her belly and comprehending, he latched on to her milk and began to suckle eagerly. When he had drank his full he nickered thanks to her, not forgetting his manners, then sighed contentedly and flopped down once again, milk still dripping from his whiskers, and fell into a deep sleep, his sweet head nodding on to his chest. OOC:ll wow, lots happened, I feel like Baree, overwhelmed  just a note, Baree is more grey than brown, kind of a grey with chesnut/muddy brown mixed in  just so you know  |
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Post by Illu on May 15, 2008 12:06:58 GMT
Brael was quite happy with the momentary attention, as always. She did notice his glance at her stomach though, which made her a bit uneasy. Oh, so he noticed she was getting fat too did he? Nevermind, she’d have to eat less food again to try and shed the inexplicable kilo’s she was gaining.
”Oh, Baramay’s fine,” she replied quickly, brushing it off. ”What I wanted to say was, do you think you need some new alias or something? All the great Kings had it, like Thowra, The Silver Stallion and all that. What do you think about The Snowgum Stallion? I haven’t asked Baramay yet, so she might have some other ideas,” she rushed, speaking at about a mile a minute, keeping her eye on Dilali and the foal. Aww, baby, cute!
Even though she gave an amused snort when Nevada struck his finishing pose as though tut tut-ing him, she was actually quite pleased. He wasn’t a leggy little baby and more, and he was starting to look like an adult stallion should. ”Don’t worry about him.” she chattered chipperly as Nevada came back. ”That black freak is good for nothing. I heard he inherited Kingship by default! Can you believe that? Never fought anyone or nothing, so I bet he’s absolutely dead useless. I hate to think what the other stallions are saying about him. At least you’re going to earn your place by smacking him into the ground, then we’ll show them what a REAL King should be like!” Being oblivious to Dilali and Tingara being related, she was unaware of the fireworks those few words had the potential to cause. ”Plain colour too,” she added as an afterthought.
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Post by tingara on May 15, 2008 12:40:37 GMT
"That plain, useless stallion down there was the one thing that held everyone together after Aleo disappeared!" Dilali yelled angrily, "and from what I hear the bush chose him to be king because of the nobleness and selflessness he showed in a time of confusion and sadness, not because he was Aleo's friend." she snorted, Dilali was so angry, how could this mare be so ignorant?
"Did I also mention that he's my brother?"
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Baramay trundled through the bush, stopping when she heard Dilali yelling. When it had stopped she cautiously poked her head through the trees. Her eyes brightened as soon as she spotted Dilali and her foal. A new mare and baby!
"I'm here Nevada. Brael and I were just playing a game of catch and obviously I lost," she laughed and began to investigate Birubi.
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Birubi squealed at Baramay and began to rear and act as she'd seen Tingara do. She wasn't going to warm to these strangers easily.
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Tingara watched Nevada warily. He didn't want him as an an enemy, but he would always be a threat, Tingara knew this. As Dilali reached the other stallion, Tingara swore he saw a black and white head poke out from the trees. He shook is head and shrugged it off as an illusion.
Tingara went through the herd, checking on the mares. He payed special attention to Crayola and Binda.
"Good afternoon Binda, Crayola. I hope you are both well," he turned to Crayola to see three foals standing with her.
"Please Crayola be careful, I fear three foals may even be too much for you. If you feed all of them you will become weak from the effort. If you must adopt this new one, share the duty around. I'm sure Binda and Valatone would help," he turned to Binda with a soft pleading expression. Tingara really didn't want to see the beautiful appaloosa mare fade away because of her own selflessness.
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Post by barina on May 16, 2008 1:27:51 GMT
Barina had gotton tired of waiting alone. Garrong's undoubtedly close prescense was making her uneasy and she longed for the company of other horses. So instead of waiting for a stallion to find her, she decided to seek a herd herself, or at least look around a little. So she left her little clearing near the top of the mountain and descended into the lower valleys, carefully leaving no track to be traced. She did not want to run into a certain black stallion anytime soon. Eventually she crested a small cluster of hills and came to look down upon a medium sized herd. She snorted in alarm when she saw a black stallion then relaxed, he was too small and too finely built to be Garrong. She left the trees in which she took cover, intending to go down the valley to introduce herself then hesitated. If she went down there it could mean the end of her indepedance. She ought to make sure that this herd was who she wanted to live with. So she settled herself quietly back in the trees, watching the herd for the rest of the day. Finally, as the sun set she came to the conclusion that this life wasn't for her. Although the herd seemed mainly compromised of nice horses, and the stallion seemed kind, the herd was too big, and there were too many young foals and no horses of her own age. She needed a small herd, a herd that would be traveling constantly in secret, that would be adventurous and seek fun. Sighing almost regretfully, Barina turned and disappeared into the forest, appearing as only a pale wavering figure in the soft evening shadows. She left no trace nor sign to show that she had ever been there.
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Baree slept contentedly beneath the kind appaloosa mare, happily oblivious to the trouble his arrival may cause to the kind hearted Crayola.
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