The moon hung in an unsettling way, masked by dark clouds that have already begun to haunt the nights this early into Orangemoon. Your eyes flicker around nervously, watchful and dulled with that glaze that you wear so neatly; your canine companion thinks very little of your constant on-edge panic attacks and shuffles along over the warm sand at your side. All around you the ocean thrums against the still newly shaped coast, the rusty splash of color cast from the sky making the beach look much more red than it would usually appear.

How many times have you found yourself in this exact position? one of us mumbles, our beady black eyes reaching out to spy the stars from behind shrouded night skies; each of us lies on our bellies, our round faces held by hot hands on the end up propped-up elbows. Instead of a response, you stare into the distance, watching the ocean water beat itself by creating large breaking waves off of the shoreline. Below you in her favorite position sits Ouija, her oily eyes watching the water with you, fascinated by the motions and reflecting colors. Silently, your eyes cast down on the young fox, the softest of smiles touching the corners of your ruby lips.

"Not to bad.. right?" your raspy voice slips from your throat like a rudely awakened teenage boy, crackling in your dry throat as you speak. Ouija's only response is the twitch of her ears and a sleepy blink. The smile lingers on your features, but settles again to a near straight line along your mouth. We sigh inside of our white-washed apartment, a couple of us rolling around on potbellies while the others of us stand up awkwardly, our make believe bones popping and creaking as we climb up.

The wind floats over the water in steady gusts, playing with the curled knots and wavy messes of hair coating your neck. The grumbling waves playing along the shelf of rock creates both a comforting and a slightly disturbed twist in your gut; Everything bothers you we scoff, waving our hands at you in disgust. Up from her post alongside your leg, the white fox slinks into the shallow water, her paws disappearing into the froth of sea foam as it is pushed up in thin lines. Quiet and cautious, you watch your companion as she dips into the unwelcoming waters.

Nostrils flutter, a deep breath drawing in salty air as if you can't get enough, before dark eyelids droop heavily and the breath is released in a sigh. From here, your mind begins to wander and gather everything that you have encountered in the past few days.

Text here "Chat here." Voices here
Tagged: @[Ranjiri] and @[Ryuu]
Ooc: Shitty start, but it's up!

Table by Frostie

 ranjiri & ryuu

 so while you're outside looking in, describing what you see remember what you're looking at is me


I can't remember a time when I've ever been happier than when I was when you were by my side. I didn't need any other companionship other than the little foal that I had rescued off of the beach, as far as I was concerned.

The day had started off much like any of our other days had. I woke while you were still sleeping next to me, tucked under my wing. I've always suspected that my wing felt something like a shield to you, guarding you from the heat of the sun and from the eyes of anyone that you wanted to hide from. So long as you wanted the protection of my wing you would have it. I waited for you to wake and when you did I took you to the lake and let you soak your hooves in the cold water to ease the tenderness. It always seemed to help you when you did so.

Our days were relatively quiet because you rarely spoke. I learned to read your body language and understand what you wanted. I knew when you looked at a certain object then back to me that you wanted me to explain what it was and I would, to the best of my ability. You have to understand that I was still young and was still learning about the ways of the world, myself. I may not have been the smartest to mother you, but I tried. I remember hoping that what I was able to teach you would be enough and that you would not be disappointed in me for my own shortcomings.

After soaking your hooves we went about our daily routine of grazing together and resting together when I suspected your hooves began to ache. That particular day we wandered much father than usual and ended up on the beach. The air seemed to be cooler there thanks in part to the ocean. I remember being on a much different beach when I had been about your age. I remembered running and playing with my mother's bear companion. It was not the first time that I wished that you were able to play without pain. My thoughts then drifted to the Foothills that had been my home and the healers there and I thought I remembered them speaking of salt water helping with inflammation and I thought that, perhaps, the salt water would be good for your hooves.

"Follow me." I murmured and led the way to the ocean. It was to my knees and I turned to give you an encouraging smile. "The water feels good. I bet it'll feel good on your hooves." As I waited for you to make your decision I took notice of a stallion and a fox. "Hello.." I called over to them, but they did not retain my attention for long because they were not the center of my world. No. My world was standing on four spindly legs on the beach with me.



"Jiji speaks."

"Ryuu speaks."

@[Ryuu]
@[Voodoo]

 ranjiri & ryuu

 so while you're outside looking in, describing what you see, remember what you're looking at is me




At times I felt that somehow I was letting momma down, speaking so little. I knew she wanted the best for me, wanted me to have friends and be able to run and play like all the other foals. At times I would lay up at night staring at my hooves, wondering if I could simply wish them better with the power of my will. It never happened, but I never stopped trying. Maybe I didn't want to go play with the foals, far preferring the quiet love of my momma to accompany me and fill my days, but if it made momma smile I'd do anything. Not that she ever made me, knowing I would run until my hooves split for her, but I could tell she wished to take away the affliction I'd been born with. I didn't know how to comfort her, not when my words always seemed to be stuck upon some sort of sap in my throat, unable to emerge to wrap around her. I felt like a failure of a son, but her reassurances always were quick to come the moment any expression of doubt came upon my face. She had learned to read me, and it was the highest comfort I could ever achieve, especially knowing she'd practically given up speech for my sake. We had so few friends, it was mostly just momma and Cera and I. But I didn't mind.

No matter how much I'd love to just lay by the water beneath momma's wing, she always presses the importance of exercise, and though my hooves always protest I know she is right. Momma may not think she's always right, but I trust in everything she says and does, and in her I find no flaws that do not hold me at their center. We've learned, together, how to deal with my hooves to the best of our abilities. So I am content, as much as I am able to be, when I walk alongside momma and explore the desert that seems so constant and similar to so many, but which is so varied and colorful to my eyes as an inhabitant. Momma's side is warm and her scent comforting as I limp beside her, and I love her every moment a thousand times more, for the things she does without a second thought; shortening her stride for me, casting her shadow upon my coal canvas to hide me from the sun. Every time I believe I cannot love her more, I am proved wrong.

Belly full and hooves aching on the warm sand, I breathed in the old, nostalgic scent of saltwater, and gave a tiny smile towards momma. It reminded me of when she'd found me, collapsed and crying pitifully upon the beach of the Blue. Recalling the experience I moved closer to her until our skin brushed, tucking my cheek to the curve between her breast and shoulder. I was unbothered by the movement of her legs, as I had learned to walk beside her in such a close manner long ago, as if attached.

Her words beckon me forward and I am ever obedient, stumbling forward on burning hooves that have been pushed to a set of limits I feel forever chained by. And though I hesitate as the water edges toward me with each wave, tiny knees trembling with fearful consideration, momma's voice is there to swaddle me in warmth and protection from where she stands knee deep. If momma trusts it, then I trust it to, and I step into it without another second of doubt. The water is indeed nice, both cool and pleasantly soothing, more so than the water of the Oasis with the added salt content. I give a pleased sigh, one momma has come to separate from the others, and smile up at her shyly as I waddle and wade towards her. She is far taller than me, than I will ever be, and the waves kiss my tiny chest as I come to rest my cheek upon her flank.

Before her greeting registers, I feel hope begin to bloom in my breast. Maybe I can show momma that I can be a normal foal? No matter what my hooves try to do to impede me? So I tentatively dip my muzzle into the water and fling it up to splash at her weakly, eyes and lips smiling despite my silence. Only when her salutations touch my ears I stop, sinking into myself. Be silent, be still. Don't be seen. The adults are having an important conversation right now. All rules drilled into my head, stopping my playfulness in its tracks as I slide to her flank with full intent to hide beneath her wing. Only when I look over to whom she's spoken to do I gasp in surprise. "Father," I clarified, voice shaky and a little scared as I turned to look up at momma. Please don't leave me. Father was father, of course, but momma was my world. I didn't want her to think that just because he was a parent as well that she'd have to give me up, because I would never willingly leave her side.

Blurred images flash through your head like old film reels projected against a tattered sheet, each more fuzzy than the next as you sift through the most recent of your memories. The most prominent is a yelling Aurelia, her glossed eyes glaring at you as you try to push the blame on her; but really, who would lose their child - no, children - and have no idea where they could be? Your chest tightens at the idea of ever losing something so precious, and we cannot help but unbury an old photo of dear Mother and push it into your foggy heap of thoughts. Her soft doe eyes glint as she smiles at you, encouraging you to adventure away from her side, promising that everything would be alright.. Aurelia did exactly what your Father did one of us whispers, copying the voice of your dead mother. Anger filters through your brain, causing your teeth to grit and empty eyes to snap open.

Just as you nearly respond, water is being splashed and a gentle voice is calling out to someone other than you. "I bet it will feel good on your hooves." the soothing voice coaxes, your left ear turning to listen before you are able to see either face. "Hello." the mare chirped, likely directed toward you, but unsure and shy, you disregard the greeting. The smell - though covered in the salty spray of ocean air - is familiar, and your brain connects who the stranger is speaking to as soon as you turn to see the pair: Ryuu and a hybrid mare, pressed so close together it pains you to think that he could find comfort in anyone but his mother. Why would he find comfort, no, ANYTHING in that sinister pile of shit!? one of us growls, obviously unimpressed with the thought of Aurelia being a real mother to something so innocent.

"Father," he breathed, the word hanging in the air as if he were unsure if he should continue or not. Glazed eyes find themselves on the small face of your offspring, a smile replacing the depressed line of frustration on your lips. "Ryuu." Your ears swivel forward, a small wave rolling up further than the last had and causing your companion to stir uncomfortably. Her oil drop eyes flick up at you, the pulse of happiness flooding her body and causing more confusion than anything. At this age, she was beginning to understand some words that play through your head the most, and often she can recall things that you remember as well, even if you had not remembered them as vividly, she could try to sort through and help you reimagine the image.

Spotting the colt, she quickly registers the flood of emotions and finds herself excited as well. In her own mind, she sees the colt when you and her had both met him for the first time, his body much smaller and hair much puffier and shorter. Playfully, her tongue slips out between front teeth and she prances along the edge of the moving waters, not daring to pursue into the deep water that Ryuu and his.. mother - you assume - stand in.

While Ouija plays along the shore, making small yapping noises in hopes of being noticed, you move toward the pair, a gentle smile pulling maroon lips up at the corners. While you move through the mobile water, you can see the worry in your son's eyes. The sight makes you stop a few strides away, leaving a comfortable distance between the pair and yourself before you are able to sort a question out of your mind. "What- You're here? How long have you been here?" It hadn't been that long since you had last seen him, had it? You clench your jaws, wanting to clear your throat but for some reason unable to, so instead you swallow hard.

Instinct begs you to reach out and touch your child, to make sure that he is okay and that he is still whole, but the mare who he hides against is enough to keep you from getting too close; who knows what she would do to defend something so small. Lifeless eyes reach up to the stranger, ears still tipped forward. She sounded nice enough we remind you, prodding you to speak up. "I'm Voodoo, who are you?" the question is almost too straight forward and - though not meant to - could sound like a demanding question rather than a curious one to the wrong ears.

Text here "Chat here." Voices here
Tagged: @[Ranjiri] and @[Ryuu]

Table by Frostie

 ranjiri & ryuu

 so while you're outside looking in, describing what you see remember what you're looking at is me


"Father."

Its hard for me to describe exactly what I was feeling right at that moment when I heard that word pass your lips, but I'll try. I was glad that we had stumbled upon one of your parents but at the same time I was terrified that he would take you away. He was your father and had more of a claim over you than I had, if you could even call it a claim. I felt as if I had been stabbed in the heart because I quickly became convinced that my fears would become a reality. He would whisk you away and you would forget all about me and I would be nothing more than a blip on the radar that would become your life. Surely he would know where your mother was and bring you back to her and give you all the more reason to forget about me. Then more fears arose. If he did take you and bring you back to your real mother how long would it be before she abandoned you again? Would someone else find you that would take care of you or would succumb to mother nature and your memory be washed away in the tides of life?

My fears gradually turned into a stony resolve that I would not let this stallion take you away just because he sired you. My ears tilted back as I watched him walk toward us. I am no fighter by any means. I would rather turn and run from a fight than have to endure it. I am a wimp, I know this much, but there's something about having a child that can turn a mouse into a lion. I looked to you when you did not immediately run to him and, instead, pressed closer to me than you ever had before. It gave me the verification that I needed that you would stay and that chased away my biggest fears. Call me selfish if you will, but I didn't want you to leave. I wanted you to need me... no... I needed you to need me. To give me purpose in a life that had never before had purpose.

I lowered my wing to shield you from view. "He's been here with me for several weeks now. Ever since I found him abandoned on the beach." I answered the question that your father posed to you because I didn't think that you would answer. I had spent enough time with you and had learned to read your body language even when I wasn't looking at you. I could feel it in the way you trembled beneath my feathers that you would not answer. The trembling was all I needed to spur me into movement. I shifted my body so that you would be turned away from your father, Voodoo is what he called himself. This way I could act as more of a buffer between him and you. "Ranjiri." I said when he asked my name.



"."


@[Ryuu]
@[Voodoo]

 ranjiri & ryuu

 so while you're outside looking in, describing what you see, remember what you're looking at is me




Father. It resounded in my head, a mantra, nearly effortless as it rang again and again inside my skull. Words cannot hurt, they said. Applicable to insults crafted from others. Yet my own word was hurting me, oh how it made my head pound! I didn't like change, I didn't like disruption or chaos. All I wanted in my life was the warm side of Momma close by and the Oasis. I had no real goals, no dreams. I simply did what Momma said, tried to make her smile with what few words I ever spoke. Useless colts did not deserve dreams, and I was not worthy of a fate any different than the one I already occupied; making Momma as happy as I could manage. My life was simple, a routine. Yet here, with my father staring me down with eyes I had taken from him, suddenly that routine was shattering beneath my shaking hands. I could only hope Momma would kiss away the sting of the cuts when this all ended, for surely it could only end in pain. For where Father was, surely Mother must be somewhere in hiding. Awaiting the moment she snatched me from Momma's side to do her bidding, or perhaps to look after Annie again. Be the flesh shield that kept her living a little longer should anything attack my flighted sister.

Momma's fear was as thick and cloying as mine, I could feel her tension in the vibrato of her feathers, singing a tale of dread and despair. It soothed the aching scars on my heart, to know she was just as scared to lose me as I was of parting from her. But Father had always been kind...always, who was I trying to kid? I'd met my sire only twice, brief instances barely inscribed upon my mind. Were it not for my lack of any friends, I could have easily forgotten his face. Momma turned to look at me; red, red eyes and dark, dark lashes. A language I knew by heart already. A simple glance that translated into entire tomes of confessions. Love. It still staggered me, to see the power of her love, to see my scraggly, toothpick-thin form reflected in her eyes and yet still have her regard me with such tenderness. What in me could she possibly love?

I daren't question it.

I am shuffled aside, farther from father and tucked tight beneath Momma's wing. I butt the side of my horns against her shoulder, a nervous habit, a way of reassuring myself that she was there. She was tangible. She was...protecting me. And though I knew Father would never attempt to harm her, nor I, it made my insides warm and my knees weak. Momma always said battle was a sad, disparaging ideal. And yet she would throw herself before me, between any danger and my useless soul, and she would defend. Protect. Sacrifice it all for me. I desired to cry from so simple an action, but insistent barking, quite like Ilaria, drew away my attention. "Ouija," I breathe, recalling her name. Bend my crown to my own shoulder to peer backwards, past Momma's wing, to see the little fox.

"Father is not bad," I murmur as I straighten, practically plastering myself to Momma's side. "Mother the bad one," I remind her, barely a whisper. It was Mother I did not care to remember. As if I possibly could remember, with how often she was gone. Leaving her defenseless twins to battle the world uselessly. No, Father was not bad. At least, I didn't think so.

@[Voodoo]

We can feel panic building in your chest, in your stomach and tightening your throat; you're slowly suffocating yourself.. unintentionally. While you had approached, the boy only buried himself deeper into the cove beneath the golden touched mare's wing. Another hard swallow passed through your tight throat, your jaws flexing under dark hide and Ryuu disappears behind a dark wing. "He's been here with me for several weeks now. Ever since I found him abandoned on the beach." For once, silence fills your skull. We have nothing to say, and you yourself cannot imagine a child being found, alone, in the wilderness.. so far from where his birth mother called home.

Abandoned? one of us finally squeaks. Your jaw becomes slack and drops open, stunned by the flaxen haired woman's words. "Ranjiri." she adds, closing your second question. Secretly, we grab the woman's name and stash it deep into a new file, knowing that you will meet with her again in the future, but you can barely concentrate on anything but the tiniest bit of golden and red stockings that tremble in the water. "She just.." You pause, choking back a choke before you look like a complete idiot to your son. Another hard swallow and a quick throat clearing rattles us around. "She left you, alone?"

You had at least hoped to hear that Ranjiri had been sought out for whatever reason by Aurelia; the possibility of them being distant friends who had talked about their shared love for children (which we now know is laughable) crossed your mind, but you could only shove that away as quickly as it came. "How?" you whisper, your eyes finding themselves on the lively gaze of Ryuu's loving mother.

Once more, Ouija paws at the moving waves, whining as she hears her name come from behind the black and gold shield. She wants so badly to play, but the water only intimidates her. From her weak - but growing - mental bond, Ouija cries in your head; something you cannot actually hear, but feel. Her heart hurt while she watched the show play out in front of her, but she wasn't sure why or what was even happening. She only knew that she wanted to help.

Unable to focus on anything but the destroyed life of your first born, you take a deep breath, attempting to make eye contact with Ranjiri while she hides Ryuu from your sight. His small voice is barely a squeak from under her guard, but you don't hone in, in fear of the boy not trusting you even more. But why should he trust you? You were not there to take him under and help him grow. He has no reason to trust some one he does not know.

"I'm sorry Ryuu." Glazed eyes become hot and wet with tears. They tremble on the edge of your eyelids and threaten to spill over and join the sea.

Text here "Chat here." Voices here
Tagged: @[Ranjiri] and @[Ryuu]

Table by Frostie