[OTP/ORP] Dancing Just to Dance (Finished)

[Samuel Carlin]

The days when Shines-Bright woke in a bad mood were few and far between. She didn't have reason to be sad or angry or upset about anything. Not often, at least, and for that she felt very grateful. She knew that others had suffered hardships or injuries. She knew that there could be Bad Things happening in the Swamp even now, but those thoughts didn't dampen her mood.

In fact, today, thinking of all that could be out there had put a little more spring in her step. She'd chased a moth over a tangle of roots just because she liked the way it flew, and now, despite the fact that her game had lead her far from home, she felt no fear. Instead, she felt a little like dancing.

So she put her head down and kicked up her rear hooves and spun in a circle, laughing at herself.  

[phoenix kiss]

After a moment, she might become aware that someone is watching her -- perhaps she sees a glimpse of the figure, or just senses it there. Whoever it is isn't unfriendly. In fact, it's quite the opposite; the figure is watching with avid interest and amusement in her jewel-like, ruby red eyes.

But kimeti don't have ruby red eyes. Not like these, which lack the soft glow so common to the kimeti. Nor is this figure built quite right: it has longer legs, a longer mane and tail. It's built for speed and flatlands instead of endurance and marshes. And it doesn't stop moving: stamping a hoof, lashing its tail, flicking an ear to drive away a pesky fly.

The figure resolves itself into a she when she speaks. Its voice carries a strange accent and a bell-like tone to it... which renders her questioning expression all the more innocent. "Why do you dance?"  

[Samuel Carlin]

Shines-Bright has never been a shy creature so she doesn't mind an audience. She kicks a few more times, bucks and wheels, weight on her front hooves. It feels good and she gives in to the feeling.

Until she remembers that she didn't see another soul on the way out here, save the moth. Granted, there are places everywhere to hide and she could have missed seeing another kimeti just by being on the wrong side of the thick trunk of a tree.

It's a flash of red and then the way that strange, long tail moves that stop her dance and she lifts her head, alert and aware and heart pounding even before the creature speaks. One ear twitching forward, Shines-Bright takes a moment to answer. "I. I felt like it. I felt like I had to," she amends. And, despite herself, a little of that joy creeps into her body language again. "It felt good."  

[phoenix kiss]

It takes Windjammer a moment to figure out how anyone could dance in the sucking mud; even now she can feel it clinging at her hooves. It's part of the reason she keeps shifting her weight, dancing in place -- she much prefers the hard-packed dirt of the plains. But if the stories are true, the kimeti wanted to stay in the swamp, and they love it so that of course they would dance. The kiokote shrugs and then offers a small smile, flicking her tail against her flanks [and cringing inwardly when doing so stripes her sides with mud]. "I have never been much for dancing," she says, turning in a circle, "I prefer to run. Running just for the fun of it. I enjoy the speed. To run as fast as the wind, or faster!"

She pauses and then bobs her head, "I'm called Windjammer."  

[Samuel Carlin]

Shines-Bright watches every movement Windjammer makes, and there are so many. Curiosity pushes her to take one step, and then a second, closer. If, for some reason, those long legs of hers should suddenly change and end in wicked claws, rather than hooves, it'd be safest to be out of their reach, and yet? And yet she can't stay too far away. She's never seen anyone like the other mare. She even gives the air a tentative sniff, as if that would tell her something more.

She doesn't laugh at the mud-striping. She's managed to stay more or less clean, but she also knows how to keep her tail out of the muck. She does bounce a bit when Windjammer turns in a circle and she tilts her ears forward again. Happy. Excited. She wants to spin, too.

"I don't run fast," she confesses. "Fast as I can, but not as fast as the wind. Can you really go so quickly?" Her gaze flickers down to Windjammer's legs again, and she has her answer. Anything with legs like that would be able to move. A blink and her own head-bob. "My name is Shines-Bright."  

[phoenix kiss]

Windjammer seems to be familiar enough with the kimeti that Shines-Bright's study of her goes politely ignored. She looks around at the Swamp, and though all she can see is mud... this is also the furthest she's ventured into it. The plains call to her like a siren, but the desire to explore and tell her father (and her family) what she has seen overrides it. "My people love to run. It's all we know. The faster someone can go... the happier they are." She dips her head to sniff the mud, pulls a face. "Of course, we have dirt -- packed hard by the sun and by hooves. Have you ever been to the plains? I met more of your kind there once, on the edge... but they could not leave the Swamp. They would not last."  

[SilverShieldwolf]

Finding Water trotted after Star Finder when she came upon a Kimeti dancing. She stopped and watched as the light color doe kicked and twirled.

As she watched another came into view. She tilted her head as she tried to figure out what was so different. As she heard them talk, she nodded her head, That was the difference.

She stepped out from where she watched, the mongoose on her back. "Hello."  

[Samuel Carlin]

"But what do you have to run from, that you must go so fast?" Running without a reason, especially as fast as one could go, makes little sense to Shines-Bright. As little as dancing at the edge of the swamp does to Windjammer no doubt. "And if you can run so fast, can't whatever chases you run just as quickly to catch?"

A question for a question seemed like a fair trade. Shines took a moment to look around the area, noting trees and the way the sky opened up beyond them, just over there, the way Windjammer had come. "I don't think I've come this way before. And the plains..." Her attention drifted back to the long-legged mare as she shook her head. "I've never been there. Is it far from here?"

Her ear twitched toward the new arrival before she turned her head and looked. Kimeti. Familiar, if not a friend. Shines looked between both mares and smiled, tail swinging idly. "Hello," she called. "Come and meet a new friend."  

[phoenix kiss]

Windjammer blinks at Shines-bright in a way that suggests she doesn't quite understand why the kimeti feel so oddly about running. Possessed of a very, very broad competitive streak, running and exploring, and doing it faster than anyone else is a vital part of the kiokote's personality. "I like to run. I live for it; to feel the ground under your hooves and the wind in your hair. It is like flying! The closest I will ever get. There are cats on the plains that run fast, but they are our friends." She grew up alongside several of the spotted, long-legged cats. They're predators, yes, but friends.

"The plains are not far. They begin just over there, though they are expansive." Noting the other doe timidly approaching, Windjammer dips her head in greeting. "I know of no kimeti who have survived the crossing."  

[SilverShieldwolf]

Finding Water tilts her head to the doe. "A new friend?" She gave her passenger a quick glance at the thought of a new friend.

Now that she can see the other clearly, her eyes give a once over glance, taking in the other differences. These two are the first that she has seen in a long time. "What kind of cats?" She scans the area behind Windjammer. Shaking her head, "I am sorry my manners have scattered. I am Finding Water."  

[Samuel Carlin]

Shines-Bright is equally baffled by this love of running for no reason other than to run. Running as fast as the wind must mean there's a chase going on and that a life is in danger. To run that fast without reason, just for the sake of speed, seems a good way to get a hoof tangled in roots and break a leg, or to plunge chestdeep into softmud and have no hope of clambering free.

But she knows cats. A certain kind of cat anyway. "A lynx?" she offers cheerfully. "The lynxes are good at running through the roots. They can get into very small places and hide where no one would think to look, until you see their eyes." Eyes rather like Windjammer's, come to think of that. Shines-Bright twitched an ear as that thought occurred.  

[phoenix kiss]

Windjammer smiles. It might have just a bit of an edge to it -- not because she's irritated at Shines-bright or the other kimeti, not at all. It's because all this talk of running makes her want to see just how fast she really is.

Glancing to Finding Water, the kiokote nods in a friendly manner, but her attention is locked on the white doe and her odd lack of understanding about running. "Dancing to dance -- it is no different from running to run. You enjoy it, and so do I. There are no roots on the plains, nothing to hide in, or under. Just empty land," she says a bit wistfully, unaware that to a kimeti, this empty land must be horrifying. "And the cats -- not lynxes. They have long legs, and spots. And longer tails. But!"

Always moving, Windjammer had been lashing her tail as she spoke. Stomping a hoof to punctuate her sudden interjection, she offers, "Would you like to race? To see why I love to run so much?"  

[SilverShieldwolf]

Finding Water watched as Windjammer was continually in motion. Her eyes dimmed at the thought of empty land, her body twitched with slight fear. Lost in thought, Star Finder nudged Finding's back at the mention of a race.

"Race to where?" She might not like being in a very open place, but a race sounds like fun. It has been a long time and well Star Finder cheats by running up a tree. Finding Water eyes the area they are in to see what would be the easiest path.  

[Samuel Carlin]

Shines-Bright glances to Finding Water, then back to Windjammer again. A race. Against a creature with legs that long and hooves that are used to hard ground? It would be like racing over the rocks that hide in the water in pools between trees. Probably painful, possibly dangerous.

And yet? And yet there's a curious sort of appeal about trying. She won't win, she knows that, but it's not really about winning, is it? Windjammer's explanation makes sense. She was dancing for no reason. Racing could be better than that.

So she bobs her head and takes a step forward. "Yes," she agrees. "Let's race."  

[phoenix kiss]

"Of course." Windjammer with her oddly formal way of speaking makes this sound like a great sporting event... not just two kimeti and a kiokote racing, for fun, at the edge of the swamp. "We will need a judge, of course; if the mongoose would not mind judging, or Finding Water? We will race to that rock over there," she gestures with her chin, "And the first one to reach it will win the race."

Simple enough, really... considering the rock is some distance away, perhaps a quarter of a smile, and shimmers in the afternoon heat. It is also somewhat into the plains, where the sun beats down beyond even the hardiest of mangroves. It's not far enough to harm the kimeti, but it will place their hooves on packed dirt.