[OrP] Hindered Steps

[Shiningamisgirl]

Thunderstep grunted and slipped, giving the ground one of his most fierce glowers; imagining, that if the earth had been a sentient thing, it would have trembled and fled. Sadly his imagination did not transcend into reality, and the ground stayed as it was, rough mucky terrain that felt new and strange beneath his hooves. Pit's of mud that sucked and gurgled, as the climate became more moist, more humid and swamp-like, and surprisingly lush in some areas.

Thunderstep was determined to overcome it all though, this newness. He would explore this whole land if need be, until his ache was lulled away into nothingness. Thunderstep found himself thinking back to his homeland, the plains were so different from here, far stretched and dry. With endless amounts of room to run and sky to see. For some reason he could not find it in himself to miss the place, the excitement these new travels had brought him, was more then enough to keep him from thinking of home ever again.

The one thing Thunderstep was starting to miss was signs of life, something more then listless insects and the occasional strange birdsong. Was there not supposed to be a great abundance of life here? Or had all his dreams been wrong, all those old story's just that, story's, fake.

Just as quickly as his mood had begun to brighten, it soured again. Falling right back into his own grumpy silence while he made his way into the new territory..

 

[Shiningamisgirl]

Thunderstep stumbled again, grunting unceremoniously as his frustration grew bit by bit. This new terrain, he was sure he would learn it in time, but for the moment he was quite sick of all this stop and go sinking. One leg would always seem to sink just a bit deeper then the rest, leaving him feeling three legged and hobbled. Something a creature of the plains was quite unaccustomed to, thunder was used to having endless hard flat space to run on, no pits or tangles or mud..

A strange sound catching his ears, making them flick and swivel, twisting his head curiously to glance out at the path behind him, he did not see much as it all looked one and the same to him. So many different shades of mud and shadows simply blending together in one big mass. This sound was new though, he'd dismissed it as himself originally. What with all the grunting and sloshing and silent complaining he was doing. Now that he had a chance to stop and listen he could see, that maybe it was something else entirely. Or maybe someone else?

Thunderstep snorted and stared for the longest time, squinting as he looked to catch the odd shifting in those shadows. Wondering quite avidly whether it was predator or prey stalking him this time? He'd seen neither so far..but then again, maybe he'd not been looking hard enough?

Thunder would have stopped and waited just to see this gentle noise making thing. Hunkered down and until it appeared, and then bolted or hunted, depending on what it was. He found that the longer he stood the deeper he stuck, and so had to keep moving through the muck, even if it was only at a snails pace.

 

[Shiningamisgirl]

Thundersteps head snapped around, red brown eyes narrowing at the suddenly swift approaching figure. He knew something'd been following him! Just knew it, he almost wondered if if he should have ignored his knowings and kept on. The way this other strange and yet similarly shaped creature moved so swiftly and effortless across the field. It had Tunder hoping it was not a hungry thing..

The gentle voice soothed whatever worries were beginning to bubble up in his mind. Bringing up new curiosity's with it.Obviously this one could speak, though how much was questionable. And it sounded female..Though who knew, maybe all creatures in this land sounded gentle and feminine, even the more nasty ones.

"Hnn.." Thunderstep grunted and swished his tail, slipping a bit as he turned to face her slowly. "So you are who has been my shadow these past few steps." Thunder eyed her slowly, a seemingly ever present expression of seriousness on his face as he spoke. "You are not like me..not what I imagined to find..yet you move so well. How?" He couldn't stand the not knowing, the stumbling and bumbling about. This creature had a trick to getting through this mud, one that made it swift despite its more stocky looking features, little horns and long ropelike tail... He had to know it.

 

[Shiningamisgirl]

Thundersteps eyes widened slightly, a bit surprised, realizing just how long she'd been keeping pace with him, and he'd hardly even noticed until she got careless..and noisy.."You..Kimeti..tread very softly." Trying the word out slowly. His own voice low and dry sounding, rumbling almost like falling gravel.

Ears tilting forward, Thunderstep found himself listening carefully to every little word she, (and it was definitely a 'she' in his mind) said. Her accent seemed strange, yet pleasant to listen to. "I am Kiokote, and yes, your walking." Thunder nodded, finding his own confusion in watching hers, how could she not know how she walked, it was not a magical thing. At least he hoped not, for he was quite sure he was not a magical being.

"I too walk as I always have. Yet this place, it sucks at me like a starving foal." Thunderstep was not about to allow himself to be eaten by the swamp. Taking her suggestion to heart, he searches for firmer ground, finding himself taking a few wide gaited, awkward steps. Circling around the slowly for a moment. Moss and rocks..he felt like a bug-eater, skittering from rock to rock for his purchase.

"Kimeti..This is..odd, but better" Thunderstep sighed deeply and shook his head.

 

[Shiningamisgirl]

Thunderstep thought about it, and realized that she was right. He could only imagine how one like herself would do on the wide hard planes..Her hooves seemed so different from his own, flat and wide with fur covering them like sheaths, shorter thick legs, well muscled yet graceful all the same. "Oh I will..and hopefully soon." He had to get used to it, his home was no longer his home, not in all the ways it had been so long ago. Even if he was ever openly welcome to return, and this he deeply doubted, he did not feel as if he could be bothered with the journey back. There was nothing back there worth making this trip twice.

"Kiokote run..there is endless space for it, back home." Thunderstep nodded, quirking his head and eying the female with great curiosity at this new name of hers..Kimeti was her species, Mudslide was her title? "I am Thunderstep, and I came alone. There may be others though, surely there are always a few who catch it." Thunderstep huffed, a slight twitch of a grin crossing his features. He was not planning on running into his own kind, but he knew there were many who caught the ache and followed it..and now he knew where they followed it to.

 

[Shiningamisgirl]

"Not thee fastest..but fast enough." Thunderstep shrugged modestly, or at least the Kiokote equivalent of a shrug. He was not in the mood for bragging, lest he would have spun this Kimeti such a grand tale of his many races. The time he'd won against the lightning..that would have made a good story. "Running is our way, we live for it." It was true enough for most of his kind he was sure, those who did not live for speed lived for strength or other meaningful things of that nature.

He would have loved a place to run, but this mud..troublesome as it was, still managed to be quite fascinating, if only because there was so much of it everywhere. "Hnn, we have games, but those are for foals." Ears flicking back as she questioned the..illness..He wondered how much to tell, wondered if it would even make sense to one who'd never felt it. It rarely made sense to those who did catch it, let alone an outsider.

"We do..always at least a few catch it, and always at different times. Some simply wait it out until it goes away, and others..well others go away. For that is the only other cure." Thunderstep found himself grinning at the female, so many questions she had, and she was right to have them to. It was interesting to see the worry she held at a strange thing..

"Yes, I have it. It is the Ache, it is strange visions and wanderlust in its strongest sense. An almost undeniable urge to leave your home and come..well, come here I suppose." Thunderstep chuckled deeply, surprised that he was smiling about this at all, but it was rather fun to explain, and he'd never had the chance to tell another soul about it before. "Heh, do not worry so..by we I mean 'Kiokote' I do not know if your kind can catch it like we do. I do not think it is contagious either." Thunderstep didn't think it was dangerous either, then again he hadn't seen enough of this land to decide on that yet. Who knew what hungry things lurked here..

 

[Shiningamisgirl]

Thunderstep felt himself tense as she began her circling, nostrils flaring slightly, watching her intently for a few moments before realizing she was simply being curious. Very very curious this one was, full of questions, and Thunderstep found himself eager to answer. How long had it been since he'd spoken to anyone? He'd not come across a single soul on his journey out here, not anything of any intelligence at least.. "I..I don't know" Truthfully Thunderstep had never thought of it before, he'd never personally known anyone who'd caught the ache and left before. Certainly didn't have any experience with those who had returned, because to his knowledge none ever had..never did, not in the time since he was birthed or at least three generations before him.

"When they leave, they do not come back. Some maybe turn back before they get anywhere, but those who really go.." Thunderstep shrugged, it was a troubling thought, had he come to a place that none others had before? Had he simply been lucky and not perished along the way? We're there other places even, better lands, and all his visions had led him astray.

She spoke of stories, and seemed quite curious of his form. Thunderstep found himself unconsciously puffing out his chest and raising his head high. Showing a pride in himself that he didn't truly feel at the moment, not caked in mud and waddling about like a newborn. "I am an exemplary specimen. There's nothing typical about me..Though I suppose, I would look similar to any other of my kind you'd see. Our females and males all share the same form, but you can always tell by the beard." Thunderstep sniffed, he was rather wishing there were other kimeti there as well. He wanted to see more of those hooves that walked so surely through mud..and colors that, seemed to fit very well with the surrounding area.

"Stories of what exactly? The Ache?" Thunderstep gave her a strange glance, he had never once seen a Kimeti in his lands! Nor had anyone he'd known..and if there were stories of them, they were not favored. Maybe because a Kimeti would not have been the most vibrant of creatures in his own land? where the great Cats and Hunter's were revered. Strength, speed and amazing feats valued over the cunning, slow and witty.

 

[Shiningamisgirl]

"Ahh.." Thunderstep found himself more and more curious about these 'Kimeti' as Mudslide spoke, knowing now that the probably came in all different sizes, shapes and colors. His people were all quite similar, some larger then others. Longer legs and faster strides, others with limps gained from hunts or birthings gone wrong, yet it was often those ones who carried greater strength and stamina then the quick hooved ones. "Hn, then you are exceptional. Your colors as well..Though my kind seem to carry the colors of the plains or the skys, or occasionally the creatures around us." Thunderstep disliked being dubbed as 'normal', he certainly didn't think of himself as such. After all, who else could have made the long journey as well as he could? Who else would have found themselves a new life so soon! Let alone one who knew as much as Mudslide seemed to, one as curious as she...None, Thunderstep was sure, but that would be boasting, an that would be bad manners for a first encounter.

Tilting his head curiously, he followed the doe's gaze, eyes flicking across her form and then taking in as much of his own as they could. Seeing quite well the differences, and yet..many things that were the same. They both had four legs, hooves, surely similar structure. He wondered if such stories could be true, if his people really had come from Kimeti of long ago. Those who had made the trip away from this mud and water covered land, to a dryer wider place where they could run and grow into the Kiokote. Even the names they gave themselves sounded similar in ways he couldn't define. The way mudslide pronounced it, the way he thought about Kimeti sounding in his head.

"Mountains, and plains and swamp..I've never seen the mountains. Then again, I wouldn't believe this place existed at all had I not stuck my own hooves in it." Thunderstep smiled softly, intrigued that there may be even more then he could have imagined out there!

"I like the term, Ache, much better." Thunderstep snorted, motherfathers punishment sounded like a terrible thing to have, even worse then the Ache. Though Thunder understood they were relatively the same thing, with different words for them from each culture. "My people have stories as well, harems, and hunting and cats that run like the wind." Thunderstep watched her pace, and he could very much believe her adventure away from the swamp had been anything, but 'fun'. Indeed his own trip out here had been hard and empty, but he'd been so compelled to make it, so determined. That he would have walked until his hooves had worn away into nothingness just to see it fulfilled. Even now he could feel the tug to go deeper into the swamp. The need less painful but still present. He knew it would linger until he had seen those things that filled his visions so vividly.

"I am sorry your experience was unpleasant, but I am also glad you watch these boarders. I may have dug myself a little muddy trench and rotted in it if I hadn't seen some form of life soon." Thunderstep nodded, his eyes sincere, dipping his head in a sort of bow that was for him quite less then formal. Had she been a mare of his harem he would have bowed deeper, and only avoided doing so because he knew raising his hooves would send him sprawling face first into the mud.

"Speaking of life..there are others yes, Kimetie, cats, rock hoppers?"