"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
04-13-2015, 09:51 PM (This post was last modified: 07-12-2015, 04:37 PM by Camrynn.)
We do what we must,
Because we can.
Wise men say that it is good for one to live as the simplest of creatures.
They may or may not have been thinking of squirrels when they said that.
But Camrynn is a creature of infinite curiosity. She wonders about everything, seeking out knowledge and answers wherever she can find them, teasing them out of the minds of horses on every reach of Beqanna (and beyond) like the finest of spider's silk. But there is only so much that they can know. The rest must be learned by experience.
It is quiet when she finds the meadow. The grasses are long and tall at this time of year, waving lazily in the summer winds. It is hot, almost oppressively so, and the openness of the meadow offers little relief. She is as quiet as the meadow itself, hovering around the fringes, deciding what she wants to do next.
It's then that she hears the small squeak and feels the acorn drop next to her.
She turns her head to look at it, a tiny acorn next to her incongruously large (by comparison) hoof. Her gaze travels upward, finding a grey squirrel nestled in the branches above her, obviously having just lost what was intended to be dinner. She tilts her head, considering him as he starts to clamber down the trunk, making his half-graceful, half-ridiculous way to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, the black mare is gone, replaced instead with a black squirrel. Her tail curves gracefully above her back, beautiful and silky. Her coat is uniform and dark. She's a beautiful mare, and she makes an equally beautiful squirrel.
And she's decided she wants this other squirrel's nuts.
Well, nut.
She grabs it between her two tiny front paws, nose twitching as she stares him down. She briefly debates whether she can reasonably stick it into her mouth, ultimately deciding against it more because she'd hate to look so chubby than because she believes it's impossible. Instead, she clutches it tightly to her chest and tries to decide exactly how squirrels fight. Her advanced knowledge fails her, she can't pull anything useful from the other squirrel's mind, and she screws up her tiny squirrel-face as she tries to come up with a solution.
So she chooses the solution that never fails. She decides to use her words.
"THIS IS MINE NOW." She says confidently, commandingly, in remarkably fluent squirrel. There's just one problem: squirrels don't seem to have much in the way of language, or if they do, no one taught this poor grey squirrel. He looks at her like she's an alien, every muscle of his body absolutely terrified. For good measure, she hisses at him (a gentle hiss, meant to shoo him away more than to scare him further) and he takes off running like a bat out of hell.
Oh well, No skin off her teeth. Or tail. Or whatever.
Tucking the nut rather neatly between her teeth, she scampers up the tree and takes his place on the branch. It is cooler up here, she notes with interest. There is more of a breeze. And somehow, in this form, her coat isn't so hot – not that she's ever truly hot, being comfortable in every temperature is one of the best uses of magic, and one of the earliest she taught herself.
Contented, she curls her tail around herself, looking out across the meadow as she prepares to take the first curious bite hard-won acorn.
Nish isn’t so much a wise man as he is a simple man.
He simply learns from experience and experience has taught him that the lowly squirrel often goes unnoticed by its’ equine ‘superiors.’ Thus, gathering information is made incredibly easy; he could barter with kingdoms the things he has heard, if he ever heard anything besides who was sleeping with whom and what the faeries said the gender of such and such mare’s cousin’s foal was going to be. Maybe he should just make everyone sick instead.
Yes, yes. A plague brought on by rabid squirrels sounds quite nice.
Except Dominion might catch something.
And he quite likes her.
She isn’t nearly as irritating as everyone else seems to be, nor even half as stupid.
Actually, she’s pretty smart.
And….
Nish, leaving it at that, decides to let his squirrel instincts take over and lo and behold he finds himself heading towards the first acorn tree he can find. Which is in the middle of the meadow, no less. Where trees are sparse except around the edges and the grass is long and tall and keeps mostly everything else hidden. Which is stupid. Maybe if he made himself a little bit bigger – yup, five feet at the shoulder and fourteen feet long (giant fluffy tail included). Totally ordinary squirrel.
“OH. MY. GOD!” Overprotective Mama Bear Mare shrieks, gathering up her daughter and nearly trampling her son in the process; that’s the thing about twins, he supposes. If you kill one there’s always an identical or almost identical one to take their place. So it’s fine. Totally fine.
Except the boy falls down, scrapes his knee, starts to cry and then Tarnished feels a little bad about it.
“Meh,” Nish grumbles in his squirrel voice, checking the child before the crazed mother comes back to chase him off and, again, almost tramples her son in the process.
‘Must be a new Amazon.’
--
A couple of hours, a few hoofprints, some shifting, and a little bit of explaining later, Nish again finds himself in his massive squirrel body – but this time he’s closing in on the tree. He barely misses the entire exchange between the black squirrel and her opponent; which, for circumstance’s sake, is pretty fortunate. He might have turned tail and ran if he knew – if he even assumed he was in the presence of a magician. They were not to be toyed with, his mothers had done everything in their power to make sure that lesson stuck.
And it has.
But Nish, in his squirrely state, isn’t half as clever as usual and it doesn’t occur to him that black squirrels might be a little bit beyond the norm. He’s sure he’s seen one before, somewhere. Maybe. It doesn’t matter, because his giant nose is twitching and his mouth is watering. He wants that nut, no matter the cost. “MINE. NOW!” Nish half-chirps, half-bellows before diving at the (well, let’s face it, in comparison to him currently) miniscule black squirrel.
Vanquish x Nocturnal equus mutatio, immortality, disease manipulation, trait immunity
Not that it necessarily distresses her to see the larger squirrel bearing down on her. Not that it even distresses her to see the larger squirrel moving in and pouncing on her. She doesn't have much concept of danger, and a large squirrel like this is simply no exception. There is nothing it could do to harm her; she could freeze and rewind time, teleport herself away, do any of an almost limitless variety of things to make sure that she stayed safe. But that just doesn’t seem sporting here, and so she'll need to respond in a more normal, more squirrelish way (not that there is really a "squirrelish" way to respond to being pounced on by a five foot high, fifteen foot long squirrel, being as that is absolutely not something that happens in nature). Luckily, she's smaller, which in this case gives her the advantage of speed and agility.
She tucks the acorn in between her teeth and leaps out from underneath the dive. She lands lithely on the ground, balancing herself easily after the jump. She skitters up the trunk of the tree some 25 feet, moving as fast as squirrels tend to move, zigzagging so his overly large paws can't squish her. She's counting on the fact that she's smaller and far more limber than he is. Squirrels of his enormous size are simply not meant to exist; she can only assume they are also not meant to climb trees, and that some of his movements may be a little more awkward and ungainly due to size imbalances with his muscles and limbs.
She takes the nut out, holding it neatly between her two paws, but doesn't take a bite. "You wish." she chirps in perfect squirrel, mimicking his language exactly. She isn't sure whether he's speaking horse-squirrel, or just squirrel, but she understands him well enough and can only assume that means he can understand her as well.
"It's really rude, you know, stealing food." she chides him from up on her branch. If he tries to come closer, she'll simply scamper further up in the branches. Luckily for her, this is really quite a tall tree. "I earned this dinner fair and square."
She's quite certain this is no natural squirrel. If the size weren't a dead giveaway she'd have been able to tell it easily enough from the magic. No normal squirrel feels like this. And if all of that hadn't been enough, there's the way that he speaks. As she had just learned, most squirrels don't really do the whole language thing.
A thought occurs to her, and she scampers to the branch above her, making a conveniently placed acorn grow incredibly giant as she does so. It's a good thirty feet off the ground, easily the size of Nish's squirrel head. How the tree can even hold it is something of a mystery. "And besides, my acorn wouldn't do much for you anyway." she says, perched just above this incredibly large acorn, her tiny (normal sized) one still in her hands.
"I think this is more your speed." and with a gentle kick she sends the giant acorn tumbling through empty air, thirty feet directly above Nish's head.
CAMRYNN
co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
“Survival of the fittest, darling,” he shrugs, absentmindedly rubbing his little—err, giant squirrely mitts together. Heights aren’t usually his thing, but he wants that goddamn nut. A lot. A whole hell of a lot. He’d chew his own tail off for it, probably. Maybe. Whatever. Without further ado, the big (suddenly) blue squirrel begins making his way up the tree—albeit clumsily. The whole thing starts rocking back and forth, creaking and groaning, and he keeps right on climbing.
He’ll bring the fucking tree down if that’s what it takes.
The black squirrel scampers even further up through the boughs when he gets a little too close for comfort. Snorting, he pauses only long enough to listen to her try to make a point about her acorn being too small for him; that isn’t a problem, and (unfortunately for him) he chooses that moment to shrink himself back down to normal squirrel size to prove her wrong. And that’s when he gets hit with the biggest goddamn acorn he’s ever seen. Even hurtling towards the earth, he can’t help but hug it thought—it’s beautiful, it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever laid eyes on and right before he dies, he sheds a little tear of appreciation for it.
Kidding, but tears were shed nonetheless.
From the dust comes a great roar.
The scaly, furry beast rises up—acorn in hand—and proceeds to hit his chest with his free paw like an enraged gorilla. He’s at least sixty feet tall, with an armor-plated belly and shiny white spikes as white as his bucked teeth protruding from his fuzzy nose all the way to the back of his head. Two spikes jut out of the fur at the tip of his tail and throwing back his head, he breathes a jet of fire into the air.
Sneering, the mighty Squirrelzilla swings his thick tail at the puny little tree and its’ ant-sized occupant without as much as a second thought.
Vanquish x Nocturnal equus mutatio, immortality, disease manipulation, trait immunity
Well, this day just keeps getting more interesting.
She can’t help smiling to herself as he rises from the dust, his wordless roar a source of amusement more than concern. She has no doubt, no doubt at all that she can still outmatch him. She also knows with absolute certainty that doing so will be incredibly entertaining. At least, for her.
He starts to swing his tail, and Camrynn's magic reaches out to surround and reinforce the tree. When the tail connects, the tree does not move. At all. Not so much as a shaking branch. One tiny leaf falls, but that could just as easily have been nature taking its course as the forceful blow the tree had just received. Camrynn has encased the tree fully with her magic, allowing it (and by extension, her) to be fully undisturbed.
Looking directly at the 60 foot tall battle squirrel, mischief in her tiny squirrely eye, she takes a nice, big bite of the acorn.
Entirely unlike a normal squirrel (yes, research was done on how normal squirrels eat), she chews this big bite for a few moments, using her magic to be sure that she is entirely unmolested during this time. The taste is heavenly (well, for a squirrel) – that perfect blend of nutty flavor with a nice, smooth mouth-feel and a clean, crisp finish. As it turns out, acorns absolutely can be described like wine. At least, if those doing the tasting are squirrels, or are currently pretending to be squirrels.
Chunk of acorn enjoyed, Camrynn sighs. She knows that the 50 foot tall squirrelzilla outside of her tree shelter is not going to deal with himself. And besides, she wouldn't want him to – she's going to thoroughly enjoy what comes next. She just needed a quick little respite – the squirrel vision of a Kit Kat break, if you will. She looks up at squirrelzilla with a wicked squirrel-grin and leaps from the branch.
But she never hits the ground. As she jumps, she grows. She is only 30 feet in length, half his size, but she has an advantage that he lacks: she's decided to give herself wings. They are glorious wings of electric blue, shining unnaturally against the natural blue of the sky. She is armored too, ice-blue plate covering her belly and an ice-blue helmet covering her squirrel head (with the ears sticking out, of course). Beneath the ice blue her coat is a mix of black and hot pink fur, intermingled evenly, not spotted.
In the middle of her chest, encased in an ice blue armor cage, the acorn (now missing the chunk where she'd taken a nice healthy bite) is held securely against a background of armor. Terribly unfair on her part, but Camrynn has never been much of one for chivalrous competition.
Her electric blue wings carry her high into the sky. Diving back down, she tucks her wings in tight, gaining speed. Her tail is conveniently adapted to act as a sort of sky rudder, to empower her to make tight turns that would otherwise be impossible. The tail also has a blade on the end of it, just in case. She's not the most aerodynamic thing, but she manages well enough when she tucks in her legs.
Coming at him from directly above, Camrynn opens her mouth and releases a blast of pure frigid air, cold enough to freeze anything it might hit on contact.
For they are Camrynn and Tarnished, and theirs is the song of ice and fire.
And if Tarnished doesn't dive out of the way real quick, ice is well on its way to an easy victory.
CAMRYNN
co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
SO, anyone is welcome to jump in! Because, well, who wouldn't want to be in the path of two gigantic squirrels dueling for world dominance/a single tiny acorn?
Once there was an old ocean where anyone who saw it would grow old with the sea
She has decided that the meadow suits her very well. There are so many interesting things to see, so many fascinating horses to talk to and spy upon. Not that she has done much spying. Mostly, she has been following the woodland creatures of the meadow around. She has grown quite partial to many of the creatures that inhabit this land. She had spent much her very early life quietly and happily playing with any willing creature she could find. For a happy, curious child, this had been a very satisfying existence. At least, it had been up until now. The urge to explore, to range farther and wider had grown within her. This is how she had stumbled upon the meadow, not so long ago. And once she had found it, she had been hooked.
Today she is following a squirrel. Occasionally, the small gray creature stops to chatter at her. She does not understand its squirrely language, but she is delighted and amused nonetheless. The small critter scampers up and down trees, stopping occasionally with a startling suddenness before continuing on. At one point, it darts quickly across her withers. The sharp claws dig into her skin as it leaps away, leaving small pinpricks in the sensitive flesh. But she does not mind. In mere seconds, the flesh is as smooth as it had been moments before. She thinks nothing of it. She had been like this since the moment of her birth. Any time she had received a scrape or a bruise, her flesh had easily mended. She has no idea that this is unique, that not everyone has this ability. To her, it is simply normal.
She is still following the squirrel when suddenly it darts away, into a tree and across the highway of connecting branches, faster than she can follow. It does not take her long to see the reason for the creature’s sudden disappearance. To her amazement, she sees two of the largest creatures she has ever seen. Aside from being large, they are quite odd. One creature, she thinks it must have once been a squirrel, is covered in scaly armor and spikes. The second creature, which also must be some sort of odd squirrel, is bearing down upon the first from the sky, electric blue wings spread wide. As she watches, it opens its mouth and sends a great blast of frigid air at the first squirrel.
With sudden horror, she realizes that the first one might be in grave danger. Darting forward without a care for her own safety, she screams a warning at the massive creature on the ground, Watch out!!
Only after she has landed herself directly in the center of a giant battle of squirrels does she realize that perhaps she had not thought this all the way through. What can one tiny filly possibly do in the midst of all this?
Elfeya
healing daughter of bother and covet
html c insane | picture c xproziumx.deviantart.com | bg picture c nikita666.deviantart.com
I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. Because who doesn't want a baby in the middle of an epic squirrel battle? :|
