Stallion of the River Flowers [Concluded]

[Jennalyn]

Desertrenewed~River scanned the forests surrounding the Song of the Rainbow Hotsprings, his creamy orange-tufted legfur damp from the wet earth around one of the bubbling pools that gave the area its name. It had been nice to dip his hooves in the warm, steamy waters. His own territory's spring was warm, but cooled somewhat by the waters of a nearby underground river. It didn't have the same snap and hiss of these forest springs.

What he searched for was, very specifically, a mare or two to bring back with him to his territory and defend as his own. His two current mares, Satinpetal~Sigh and Tintedblade~Glint, were guarding their flowering home in his absence but he didn't wish to leave them there for long. The very though of an intruder happening upon their home while he was away sent an unpleasant shiver down his furred spine.

He was away from most of the marked territory in this area, not wishing to step on the toes of other stallions or poach anyone's claimed mares. Nevertheless, some sign of other forest inhabitants would be nice. It was odd being so alone in a place so well-forested. As a stallion witha song to tend, he was rarely without companies these days.

---

Edit: This roleplay has concluded with Hissingwaves~Whisper being accepted into the Song of the River Flowers as its third mare.

[luciferforce]

Hissingwaves~Whisper's ears twitch slightly, the soft tread of a furred hooves of a fellow Sam. She was "busy" admiring the fall of leaves upon the water of the spring. In actuality, she was bored and somewhat lonely. But no one would know that. That was something Hissingwaves~Whisper would never admit to.

She spent a few moments in quiet contemplation. Should she get up and investigate, or waste more time here? Her time away from Crystalgrass~Dew made her realize just how quiet a forest could be. So she stood, stretching out and fluffing her mane. Trotting to where she thought she saw a flash of teal and orange, Whisper stuck her head through some thick foliage.

[Jennalyn]

Hearing the rustle of another creature making its way through the underbrush, River's head turned to the right and he peered at the foliage nearest him. Nothing but the noise was there at first, until a bright blue head poked through the leaves and he was gazing into beautiful black eyes. They were unlike his own and those of his mares, their solid color exotic and new to him. How intriguing.

He turned to face this unknown mare fully, inclining his head downward in respect of both her presence and her gender. Though he couldn't see the rest of her body, the light lavender shading of her muzzle left him wondering if the color was repeated anywhere else. Very interesting. With his luck, her stallion would be right behind her, ready to remove him from a territory he'd missed the marker of.

Before something like that could happen, he took the initiative and introduced himself. "Good day to you. I hope I'm not intyruding on youyr home. My name is Deseyrtyrenewed~yRiver. And you ayre?"

He held himself still, eyes on her but other sense pricked to detect the approach of anyone else. Being caught in someone else's territory, despite how careful he'd been, was certainly possible in an area as well-populated as this one. The last number he'd heard around the grapevine was upwards of two hundred samanayrs in residence.

[luciferforce]

Whisper regarded him carefully, more o fher body emerging from the foliage as caution was thrown to the wind and curiousity took over. She'd only ever met one other stallion, and he seemed much calmer than Dew. This was something she wholeheartedly approved of. His eyes were different as well. A soft, deep sapphire very much unlike the solid of her and her companion, Dew.

She stepped carefully from the underbrush, quietly looking him over. He seemed safe enough. Safe enough to speak to. "This is not my home. I am known as Hissingwaves~Whispeyr. Is this youyr home?" She was just there to visit, and perhaps meet someone else, so she was quite content as-is.

Forest green hooves pushed through the damp dirt as Whisper stepped even closer. His hair was odd too, and stripes? Teal stripes lined his body. She'd never seen anything like him before.

[Jennalyn]

This vividly colored mare approached River and he stood a little taller, never one to slouch when trying to make an impression. When he held his neck just so, the stripes fell in a very attractive pattern, or so he'd once been told by Glint. He was a young stallion and not above a bit of vanity when he thought it could further his place in an encounter.

"A pleasuyre to meet you, Hissingwaves~Whispeyr," he offered as a pleasantry, "and no. I do not make my home heyre. A yriveyr spyring seveyral days' walk fyrom heyre is wheyre my mayres and I live. Ouyr song is much smaller than any ayround this place."

Always a social creature, the striped stallion had been taking advantage of the relaxed scene in this part of the world to speak without guarding every word he made. Here, he wouldn't endanger the safety of his mares by revealing anything. It was fine to speak and be open. Such a pleasant change.

"So wheyre do you hail fyrom, if not neayrby?" He blinked at her curiously, his eyes a large, deep blue.

[luciferforce]

Whisper tilted her head, listening carefully to everything River explained. His voice was of a different, more pleasant tone that Dew's high-pitched chitter. Sometimes he reminded her of a suger-hyper bird, chattering quickly to anyone that would listen. "You have a Song? And not fyrom ayround heyre?" Blinking slowly, her mind churned over this information. Often, Dew would speak of Songs, of large groups of bonded Samanayrs who would travel and eat and sleep as one collective unit, and that all within the unit were friends.

She cast a glance in the opposite direction. "My home is about a day's walk fyrom heyre. I have no Song. I just live with a fyriend of mine, Cyrstalgyrass~Dew." So she'd been alone somewhat. She wasn't about to feel terrible about it. Not out in the open. Not in front of anyone else. If she showed weakness, she might be abandoned. While the thought danced through her mind at times, she knew Dew was too scatterbrained to even consider such a thing.

The mare wandered closer to River ever so slightly, not even noticing. She could not admit to herself the comfort she felt from meeting someone not as "active" as Dew.

[Jennalyn]

River watched this pretty young mare as she continued to approach him, holding his ground and very curious. So she wasn't affiliated with a song and thus had no stallion to protect her at present. How very interesting. She must be relatively young and fresh from her song of birth to be so lovely and yet unattached. He preferred not to remember times before he formed his own song, the challenges he faced as a roving young male looking for his place unpleasant to recall. Few were hospitable to a wanderer who might attempt to usurp land or mares.

"This Cyrystalgyrass~Dew must be veyry lucky, to live with someone like yoyrself," he commented, complimenting her even as he did so. It was meant sincerely, though it might seem shallow to some observers. "So tell me, ayre you without a song by choice or by ciyrcumstance?"

He settled himself as he asked the question, his hind legs folding up in an odd position behind him and his neck arching in what could be taken as his natural sitting posture. It was very confident and more than a little showy, but also very attractive. His own mares liked it, and most others didn't matter enough for him to care to change it. Besides, it gave him the air if a stallion who knew his business, a good look when facing those who might want to challenge his youth and relative inexperience.

[luciferforce]

Had she been without a song by choice or circumstance? The htought intruiged Whisper. She settled down herself, laying on all fours, raising her head to think and listen. After a few moments of silence, she decided upon her answer. "I am without a song by ciyrcumstance, I suppose. Dew is my fyriend and my fyriend only. I would not want to be in a song with him. I like him, yes, but he is too hypeyr for my tastes."

She tossed her head, forest green mane flapping over her neck. She was beginning to like this Desertrenewed~River. He was much calmer, and seemed to have much more of an authoritative, yet gentle nature. Whisper allowed a small smile to play across her lips. And his orange mane was cute too.

"Do you like youyr song? Is it something you love?" Whisper asked suddenly. It was quite important to her. Moreso than she would say.

[Jennalyn]

River had been mulling over Whisper's earlier comments on her companion and friend, apparently another stallion, when she asked her sudden question and caught him off guard. He blinked and slowed down her question, digesting it for a second before attempting to answer.

"Like it? Love it? Yes...I suppose I do, but those woyrds ayren't yreally enough to coveyr what you feel towayrds youyr song." He paused, almost seeming to taste the words before he let them leave. He was obviously thinking hard on the subject.

"It's deep," he said finally, "like what you'd feel foyr a payrent, but moyreso. It's loyalty and love and devotion all wyrapped up into one package. I've neveyr thought about it so plainly befoyre now, though. When you make a song and sing with youyr mates, you all belong to something gyreateyr than youyrselves. It's a good feeling."

His expression had gone misty as he spoke about it. Trying to call up the sensation was easy, something that he chose to do often, but expressing it in words was harder than he ever would have thought. It would be embarrassing to talk about something so personal with another stallion, or even someone else's mare, but he felt comfortable enough around her to try and explain.

[luciferforce]

Whisper smiled brightly then. That was what she wanted to hear. She was used to Dew's blundering around the subject, but River spoke of it outright. Something she wished to hear since she came into this world. "I don't know my payrents, but I can imagine how wondeyrful it must feel, to belong to something gyreateyr than youyrself."

She looked up at the sky then, a bit misty in the eyes. But she did not wish to show anyone else that. Why couldn't she let her guard down completely? And why was it that she could release, even a little bit, around a stranger? But was he a stranger anymore?

The mare lifted herself then, resolved not to sink into some sort of depression. She wanted to have high spirits now. River's deep blue eyes helped too. "I'm glad you love it so. I always wondeyred what such a thing felt like."

[Jennalyn]

Focusing once again on the mare before him, River listened attentively as she spoke and watched her expression shift from happy to upset, and then again to happy. "You're veyry pyretty when you smile, Hissingwaves~Whispeyr," he observed with a light smile of his own. "You should do it moyre often, I think. Of couyrse, who am I?"

He laughed and shook his mane back, his frond-like orange fetlock just reaching down to brush his head once again. The motion accomplished nothing more than shifting it a little to the left.

"But yes, you can't help but be happy when suyrrounded by youyr songmates on a cleayr moonlit night. The insects buzz so softly ayround ouyr flowers and the lightning bugs make eveyrything glow and spayrkle." His words expressed a deep fondness for the home he'd made and the company he kept. "Someday, I have no doubt you'll find youyr place with some lucky stallion and sing youyr alongside him and his otheyr mayres."

[luciferforce]

Whisper allowed herself a short laugh. Those lightning bugs sounded quite lovely. No, lovely was a word not strong enough for such a wonderous sight. Nothing like the lightning bugs have ever touched the small hotspring Dew and she had shared. She idly wondered whether it was geographic location, or something else, that held the lightning bugs back.

"What byrings you to this hotspyring then, yRiveyr? If eveyrthing is so wondeyrful back home, why do you spend youyr time heyre?" The question was one that suddenly dawned on her. Why was she here anyhow? Boredom? Lonelyness? A sense of adventure?

Even Whisper wasn't sure what brought her to the hotspring then. Perhaps it was a mixture of all three. Dew probably didn't even notice she was gone, being easily distracted. He was probably chasing some butterfly for hours on end. He wasn't that fun to talk to anyway...

[Jennalyn]

River tilted his head and regarded this lovely mare before him, debating with himself. His large blue eyes blinked slowly as he thought on his words. Should he say his purpose so bluntly or just refer to it in passing? Some mares would no doubt take offense to a stallion "on the prowl" around them. She didn't seem like one of those, though. Saying it straight out might be the best option.

He buried whatever hesitance he may have had and stated his purpose with his typical confidence. "Tyruth be told, my mayres and I decided that it was time to go looking for new membeyrs to join ouyr song. The Song of the yRainbow Hotspyrings is such a well-known gatheyring place for other samanayrs of all types that it seemed the best to check fiyrst. Theyre weyre bound to be mayres without a song to call theiyr own. And...it looks like we weyre yright. Afteyr all, I found you, didn't I?"

He blinked again, this time more rapidly, the only sign of his nervousness that he let show on his countenance. Despite his self-assured attitude, he was still inexperienced when compared with the leaders of many other songs and he well knew it. There was a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and sometimes he wasn't sure where he stood on it.

[luciferforce]

(( River's such a sweetie. ;_; <3 ))

Whisper took in his words carefully. Looking for new members? Whatever place he held as his own sounded wonderful, with new Samanayrs to meet and lightning bugs to watch, and that feeling... that feeling of belonging. It was then that Whisper knew what she had been searching for since birth. Dew never understood when she explained it to him. Either that, or he never listened.

She trotted slowly towards the somewhat-nervous stallion and tilted her head. "You think I am woyrthy enough to be a payrt of youyr Song? At least, for consideyration..." She wasn't sure how strangers might take her appearance. Some might think of her as less than normal, because of her eyes or her coloring.

She looked down at her lavender feet. Would she be accepted by him? And if so, by the others in the song? Such indecision was uncharacteristic of her, and she knew it. But such a decision had never been placed on her. And why was she even worrying about it? River hadn't asked her outright to join the song. Whisper shook her head. Stop getting ahead of yourself. It's unlike you.

[Jennalyn]

((He's so much fun to write for, with his cheeky good cheer. *grin*))

Holding his breath as he waited for a reaction, River slowly let it go when she approached without anger and spoke. Her words gave him real confidence to bolster his timid resolve and his careful expression dissolved into a cheeky grin.

"Moyre than consideyration," he agreed, tone cheerful and up-beat. "I think I could be bold enough to say that you would be peyrfect with us in ouyr home. You would love it theyre, I know you would. The hotspyring and the floweyrs and the bugs and eveyrything else. Satinpetal~Sigh and Tintedblade~Glint would love you, I can tell, though it would take a little while for Sigh to get to know you. She's veyry timid ayround eveyryone."

He laughed a little and shook his head again, stepping up until he was right next to her and looking at her pretty, colorful face. The charming, self-assured young stallion was in his element now. "Would youyr companion miss you teyrribly if you weyre to leave him, or do you think we could steal you away fyrom him for a little while...Whispeyr?"