Colorists Love...DRABBLES FOR FREE TICKETS!

[Amorpheous]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF MONSTER!
Kin Name: Mortal Fright
Drabble:

Most foals saw monsters in the shadows, hidden in the darkness, prowling the night. Most foals did not look at their parents and see monsters hidden behind smiling faces, soft touches, offers of food. Most foals, and most kin, do not look inside and see a monster. Those who do are rarely afraid. There are those who are afraid though, those who have turned their eyes inward and found themselves something worth being afraid of. Her naming dream had taught her fear, but it was the Swamp, and the creatures that lived in it, that had taught her to be afraid of herself and helped her to know that she was monster.

So she feared not the dark and its monsters—there was already one with her at all times, eating away at her heart. She sought out those monsters and found them not full of sharp teeth, mouths dripping with blood, but hidden in the bodies of kin just like her. They were handsome, beautiful, and they were monstrous, but they were unafraid. They hardly knew the evil they were capable of and wrecked their terrible will upon others with little thought to its consequences.

She let them though, she let them exert their will over her for what was capable of destroying a monster but another monster?  

[Amorpheous]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF DRAGON!
Kin Name: Through Your Eyes
Drabble:

Sometimes at night, Through Your Eyes dreamed of dragons the way that her siblings dreamed of dragons—large, fearsome, covered in scales and breathing fire. She knew that dragons were no such thing, yet those were the images that lived in her dreams even though they had not birthed her and given her a name doused in fire. Those were the dreams the MotherFather had given her siblings—perhaps a gift and an impossible burden.

For all that her siblings and her failed to shared, they shared that much at least—a dream that had no place in the world. The difference here was that her siblings had longed for the imaginary world of their dreams and she had chosen to forget hers. They lived in those dreams and she had forged her own path. For that, she was stronger than them, stronger than their dreams of an impossible reality where they ruled land and sky with fire and claws.

No, their submission to their dreams was a weakness that she had chosen to overcome. That was why they remained tied to the same trees and bogs that had cradled their births while she was free to traverse the Swamp as she wished. There was a time when they had looked at her and wondered how they could be siblings for she was no dragon.

Dragons, she had to laugh. She had seen real dragons and they too were nothing to be afraid of, nothing to aspire to be.  

[Soldier of Song]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF OCEAN!
Kin Name: Islands in the Stream & Engage to Heal
Drabble:

Over the course of his wandering, Fool tended to meet a lot of kin. He tended to try avoiding them, too, but sometimes he could find benefit from a short collusion. It helped that the buck he had met was a fellow Kiokote, though Fool felt leery of that, too. This buck had been born in the swamp, unaware of the floods that brought many of them, including Fool, here.

Isles hadn't learned of the floods, but if he had, he would've wondered if his naming dream was tied to that. He became fascinated with drowning anyway, though he did not plan to drown this buck. He'd promised this stranger somewhere he could find plentiful food, because he looked like he'd needed it. He looked like he'd been literally running himself ragged.

They walked in silence, Isles quickly learning this buck wasn't the talkative type and being okay with that, pointing out landmarks here or path-marks there that might guide him to their destination when he should next need it, receiving only grunts or nods in return. The trees began thinning, the earth beneath their hooves giving way to something siltier, and finally...

Before them spread the great expanse of sand and salt-water that Isles knew and loved as the ocean. He breathed in deep, taking in its comforting scent -- and let it out with a surprised gasp at the reaction of the Kiokote next to him. Fool bristled, lips pulling back to bare his teeth in a snarl that reminded Isles of an Eaglehound, and the way he tossed his head, too, was not unlike the way the feral hound tore its prey.

In the water, Fool saw the bodies of other Kiokote. Some of them struggling to keep their head above the waves, some of them already gone and being tossed. It was a flood of unimaginable proportions, and yet visible before his wild eyes, un-moving except for an ebb and flow that still threatened to pull him in with the rest unless -- he ran.

Flinching away from the sand kicked up by the maddened buck's hooves, Isles did not watch him go. Instead, he looked over at the sea, wondering what in Matope could have possibly inspired such a dramatic reaction. He did not see what Fool had seen, though if he had, he likely would have reveled in it instead.

 

[musicaloner7]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF MONSTER!
Kin Name: Blue Heart
Drabble: As Blue Heart continued her stay in the rather tranquil and serene forest, listening to the gentle rustle of foliage as wind skated through and along the delicate surfaces. The sweet songs that were exchanged between the various avians that lived there. Distant and muffled pecking, or hammering, along with scratching would echo in and out, of critters scurrying, burrowing, and hunting about. The place was so lively, and the doe was hypersensitive to every little chance made to her surroundings.

During nightfall, when she'd return home to curl up in her bed, she would find herself listening more intently then. When she'd been a foal, just dipping into her adolescent years, she could recall being very alert and nervous to every scratch, hum, or whisper that would utter. Her very skin would crawl, imagination concocting all sorts of ideas of what could be lurking in wait for her... waiting to get a snap at her bony little legs, and thicker hide. Never would she have ever admitted to being afraid of possible monsters lurking about in the darkness, but... she would spend a few sleepless nights in preparation for their possibility.

Now a seasoned fighter, she didn't have those worries anymore... yet the alter nature and habit remained. Prepared, and ready... just in case.  

[thyPOPE]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF TURTLES!
Kin Name: Soothe
Drabble: She didn't often head out here (there were far too many kin for that), but that was okay. She had a caiman for guard now, and Strong Bones...could be surprisingly clever with conserving food. Or maybe the caiman just didn't like the smell of rotting flesh. She wouldn't begrudge it a sensitive nose, after...

Ick. She didn't want to think about it.

Well, anyway. This was a peaceful little watering hole a little ways off from Ghost-Thistle's mound, and she was pleased enough to be out here. "Let me know if you spot any kin," she told Bright Eyes, only half-joking. She had a certain amount of distrust for them. You never knew who would be needlessly violent.

In the meantime, she'd...oh!

There was a little group of eggs sitting next to a tree - intact perhaps because they'd been hiding in the shade. Around half of them looked like they'd hatched, actually - and she could actually see with some dismay indents where there'd been eggs previously. Someone had stolen them, and probably to eat. Well: Soothe had never had a ton of faith in kin-kind. That was okay, though, she reminded herself: kin had to eat.

It just would've been nicer if they'd given these...things...a fighting chance.

Actually, wasn't that a bit odd? They looked far too big for snakes, and birds didn't generally lay their eggs out here. Rise and Shine was notoriously protective of their chicken eggs, too: they were an exclusive product, after all.

That was when she saw it, brown and white and slowly easing its way toward the watering hole. A little turtle! It left moist trails behind it, which was fairly ordinary for hatching animals, so she didn't pay them much mind.

Well, not until she saw the turtle enter the water. A little spot of red bloomed from - oh, oh no! She dashed over as quickly as she dared. It was not very quick: she didn't want to cause the turtle undue distress, after all. She needed...she needed to do something about this. How had it been hurt? Oh, her supplies were all back home - but she could fetch a leaf, perhaps, and mud for an adhesive, and bundle it up? That was probably the best plan. She did so, and found the turtle again. "Oh," she said to it. "Don't - this will only be for so long," she said, inclining her head. "I'm very sorry, but..."

Well, that leg injury wasn't going to heal itself. She'd need so much time for this...it was a good thing that Strong Bones was all healed up now.

She picked the turtle up as gently as she could and resettled it on her caiman's back. Unfortunately it noticed, and began to retreat inside its hard shell in response. It was an understandable reaction, of course - Soothe was large, and unfamiliar, and she'd just picked it up as though she was going to eat it. But it was counterproductive to her goal, which was to prevent further loss of blood. "Don't do that," she said. "Here, look - " She looked around again, and whistled to Quick Feet.

It was a signal for it to go fishing, which it promptly did. In the meantime she looked for promising reeds - there. That looked flavorful, and enticing. She hoped? She'd never been a turtle.

Carefully she arranged the little meal on her caiman's back, although she had to bisect Quick Feet's fish so that they wouldn't move, and of course - well, of course her own assistants required a small tax. It was their due. Then it was a matter of waiting until the turtle felt safe to emerge again, and Soothe quickly wrapped the leaf and some twigs around the leg that looked wrong, and secured it with as much mud as she dared - she didn't want the mud to enter the injury, although of course...it was difficult to wash, in a swamp.

"I'll need to get you home to look at this," she said, shaking her head. "But this will do, for now. Eat up."

She was glad she'd made friends with Strong Bones. It made the transportation much easier. Soon - soon this turtle would heal up.  

[musicaloner7]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF MAGIC!
Kin Name: Blue Heart
Drabble: It wasn't often that she was challenged, as of late. While the perilous journey she'd taken upon herself was difficult and taxing, it didn't really exercise all of her abilities or the whole of her body. Not only that, but it didn't do much for her fighting moxie. While she would train daily, it wasn't the same as true combat, horns to horns, hooves to hooves.

There was a feeling, a sensation she couldn't quite put a hoof on, that she felt when engaged in a spar with another creature. Her senses felt heightened, and something from deep within her welled up and took over, making her feel more agile, and able to move however and when ever she needed. Her mind also switched into a different mode, cutting out any unnecessary thought, or lingering presence around that was insignificant. No when she was battling, she was a different doe...

The adrenaline that would course through her veins and pump her up, how she focused so intensely on her target.. surely it had to be some sort of magic that took her over and enhanced her from the usual stoic, and hardened creature she normally was. There was no other feeling that could compare, and nothing else that could emulate the sensation as when she was in her element.  

[thyPOPE]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF RUNNING!
Kin Name: Hurry Up
Drabble: Make no mistake: this was a chase. He and his gryphon had come a long, long way, but even so there were limits to any kin's speed. Even a kiokote survived largely on endurance rather than pure speed. Unfortunately when their prey was both intelligent and nimble...

Okay. Perhaps he should backtrack. He knew exactly what was easy to catch, and still made for a rewarding dinner. He wasn't some dunce. No, Hurry Up was a seasoned hunter, who kept his trophies minimal. He only needed enough so that he'd survive fine over the next couple of days. This was just - this was just training. He wasn't going to kill or even injure this foxbun, even if he caught it. After all, half the fun was proving that he could have subdued it.

But unfortunately, when said foxbun was small as well as quick, their chase looked a bit less like a run and a bit more like two creatures stumbling around in confusion. That perhaps did make it sound like they were incompetent. This wasn't the case, of course. They were fairly certain what small area the foxbun was in - not in the least because it made the occasional yelping noise, and, well, Caution was coming from the other side, which meant it'd have been truly unwise for the little thing to head that way. But they needed to get it out of the tall grass and out somewhere more open, so he could really spring a trap.

That was okay, too. All that required was a bit more running.  

[Amorpheous]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF CREATION!
Kin Name: Through the Flesh
Drabble:

If you lay very still in the Swamp, you could forget yourself, forget what your body feels like, forget that you breathe using lungs instead of through leaves and steps.

Through the Flesh had discovered this as a small filly.

The first time she had become submerged in the mud, it was an accident. She had been trying to climb over the roots of a tree to get to a berry bush, the blood red shine of the berries capturing her attention. She had yet to understand what a body was, yet to understand that, though she could not quite feel it and understand it fully because of the illusions that one was taught to view the world through, the berries were no less her than her legs.

She slipped and fell into a pool of mud; the more she struggled, the more encased she became. Finally, she went still, fearful of what it would mean if she could not escape, but she was tired and she had hope yet that her fathers would find her if she just waited.

In her fatigue, she truly listened for the first time. She let herself feel for the first time. She could not comprehend it at the time, could not overcome the barriers that had been constructed for the sake of easiness, what it was that she was experiencing. It seemed to her that the Swamp was simply flooding in, infusing her limbs with the very essence of being alive.

It was so loud.

She began to cry for the noise that filled her ears and mind, for the loss of her limbs, for the feeling of being subsumed to the world around her. She began to struggle again and the Swamp fell away—she was of her own body again. She could feel her legs again and she did feel so lost.

It was her crying that eventually caught the attention of Omen who plucked her gently from the mud and smoothed back her hair. They settled into a clean pool of water together and she refused to let them sit in silence. If she stopped talking, she could hear his heart beating and it terrified her. It made her too aware of her own heartbeat and then, if she listened to closely, they merged and became the same, pounding away in her ears and she lost sight of where she ended and her father began and the line between flesh and water.

She had never talked so much in her life, and soon she would she would fail to talk so much ever again, but Omen indulged her. What was a constant stream of chatter from your daughter but a way to comfort herself after what must have seemed a life threatening experience?

It was not her brush with mortality that consumed her every waking moment from that day on, but the new knowledge that she, and everyone and everything around her, were not what they thought. If they listened close enough, if they stayed still enough, and let their minds go, they could see everything and they would understand.

Her fathers liked to tell her that the MotherFather had created all them individual and unique, but she knew that it was only their insistence on using their bodies to understand this world that made it so.  

[Mika_Yumi]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF OCEAN!
Kin Name: Figment of Imagination
Drabble: There were not many things that Figment of Imagination hadn’t heard. In his time in the desert and in the swamp, and on the journey there, he had traveled through all sorts of environments with more sounds than he could count. Winds whistling through deep, close canyons was one of his favorite sounds – one of the sounds he missed the most from his home, there was no real comparison in the swamp.

He did have a new favorite sound in his new home, though. He had always loved the sound of water, but the first time he hear the sound it made rippling over rocks, flowing down from one pool to another, it tickled his ears in a way he couldn’t quite describe. It made him long for more. He had created small splashes and large splashes in pools of swamp water. He’d heard the rain patter lightly on leaves overhead, and beat down against tree trunks. One of his other favorite sounds was after one storm when he’d accidentally run into a container of some kind someone had left hanging, and a torrent of water splashed down into the swamp below.

He had become slightly obsessed with the sound of water for a time when he had first arrived in the swamp, and was eventually convinced that his favorite sound yet would never be heard – the sound of the ocean. He had heard stories, had dreamed of the movements he imagined it had, the way water would flow around him if it had no immediate boundaries. He could only imagine what waves would sound like – a larger, louder, swifter versions of the waves against swamp shores, waters dumping into swampy pools below. But the swamp was soft, obscured with mud, algae, leaves… The ocean would be clear, too open to be weighed down with simple algae. Water rolling into water…

Perhaps someday he would hear the ocean’s music. For the time being, he settled for imagining; making waves against silty shores, following rivers of water into algae-covered pools…  

[Anhelisk]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF THE OCEAN!
beauty | chicken | creation | dragon | firewater | magic | monster | mushroom | ocean | running | smash | turtle
Kin Name: Abyss
Drabble: The ocean is beautiful, strong and ruthless. It's vast, and powerful, stretching further than her poor eyes can see– than a bat can fly, than an eagle can soar. It's depthless, boundless, and reminds her of some of the endless chasms of water that existed in the caves of her birth- with one exception. These waters are teeming with life, and mystery. There are fish in these waters– bigger ones than the ones she occasionally found. Some have shells, some have five arms and crawl strangely– but her favourite ones are the ones with tentacles like hers. They come in different shapes and sizes, but they have beaks, and they are effective hunters and show a shrewd, alien intelligence like none other.

The caves below the mountains never had anything quite so familiar to her, never so close to her heart. The squids, the octopi, and the cuttlefish show her that the swamp has mysteries and wonders beyond the darkness she emerged from, that her choice, however impossible to turn back from, wasn't the wrong choice after all.

She never knew that she could feel quite so at home. She sees this, and wishes to stay. She sees this, and knows she's found a new home.  

[thyPOPE]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF MUSHROOM!
Kin Name: Time to Go
Drabble: There were many kin who liked fungi for their hallucinogenic effects. Time to Go, on the other hand - well, she certainly could appreciate them. Perhaps...not when she herself was using them. It'd been funny on stodgy Westward Bound, though!

But it was clear to her that mushrooms had other properties. Perhaps that was a good thing, though: so many kin seemed to react well to mushrooms that produced strange visions, especially in light of that booth at the winter market. It meant the demand for other sorts of mushrooms was drying up. But mark her words: soon, it'd be Westfen that was laughing. Mushrooms stored well for fairly long periods of time - well, relative to, say, berries, anyway - and they tasted quite scrumptious. Also, well. Some mushrooms had rather less than salutary effects, which pleased Time to Go to no end.

It was all of the above that she was searching for today. She had gone a little out of bounds for it, but the area near Westfen's claimed territory was fairly unoccupied. She had no idea why. Anyway, it was polite to only gather here once in a while...

But if everyone else was only paying attention to psychoactive species, it'd certainly do Time to Go well to profit off everything else. It wasn't like they wanted these, right? Not for now, anyway.  

[musicaloner7]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF FIREWATER!
Kin Name: Blue Heart
Drabble: When on a daily run through the new and comforting forest she'd decided to reside in, racing with some of the local smaller creatures who found game in leaping or soaring beside her, the doe happened upon another kin. It was surprising, having been so used to being alone, she was thrown off her stride.

Stuttering to a halt, her ears flicked right up, and her muscles tightened at the ready for either a fight, or passive exchange. Watching the foreign kin approach her, she noted the various baubles hanging off of them, made of old wood, and sloshing with contents. The other kin smiled warmly to her, their eyes glazed over, and their steps not very steady.... With a turn of their head, they unhooked one of the little dangling containers, dropping it clumsily before Blue Heart's hooves... nosing it unnecessarily closer to her. Standing firm she didn't budge, watching as they ambled on around her and continued on their way, as if nothing was the matter.

Curiously eyeing the container, she sniffed at it, nose wrinkling as she got a strong cologne to piercing through her nostrils. What WAS this???? head jolting a little in reaction, she accidentally bumped her muzzle against the thing, getting some of its moisture on her lips, which she in a subconscious reaction licked to clean... instantly regretting it. Hit with the sharp burn of the contents, she coiled her tail, and recoiled backwards, the backpeddling stopping shortly when she managed toget a grip on herself. What WAS that?? it was awful, and unsavory! Maybe it was poison.... turning her head, she booked it after the kin in question to demand answers for this vile drink.  

[Amorpheous]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF BEAUTY!
Kin Name: Rush of Wind
Drabble:

Beauty was a subjective thing—but it was a thing that most associated with being able to see.

Rush of Wind did not have that luxury, he had only memories of color and graceful movements. How he had blurry shapes that dance across the scars on his eyes, nothing by grey. He knew there was more out there, but it was something being his reach.

He could not tolerate stillness because stillness spoke of stagnancy, they were things that he could not discern. Movement, at least, was still in his reach—no matter how crude.

But it was in stillness that he rediscovered between. He found it in the touch of a nose to his cheek, in the slide of hair across his face, and in the gentle press of a face into the back of his neck. He found it in a voice, timid, but deep, unsure to match his rough song. He found it in whispered comforts and attempts at understanding. He found it in the present rather than the past and it scared him—scared him that he might have wasted his entire life in pursuit of a beauty that could only exist in his mind when he could have found it right in front of him.

So he ran sometimes, he ran and ran, and yet he kept coming back.

It would have been easier if his returns were met with rejections, if there were accusations of inconstancy, but there were none. They would justify his fears and his longings and everything that he had spent his life on; the dream had been a constant—it was easy.

Yet, everything that was easy was always out of reach.

So there was only a happy sigh and, with his eyes closed and heart racing, Rush of Wind could admit that it was the most beautiful thing in the world.  

[thyPOPE]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF FIREWATER!
Kin Name: Constant Contact
Drabble: Everyone liked firewater.

She was pretty sure, anyway. There was a reason it was always in such high demand at large gatherings, even though it burned going down and could taste like especially un-viscous mud.

Constant Contact was trying to change that, though. It didn't have to be this way, right? Firewater could be sweet. That was easily demonstrated by infusing it with fruit, but she felt like that was a cheater's method. Syrups and honeys and fruits...well, they changed the texture, for one. Even though it was a lovely way to enjoy the drink, it wasn't quite the same.

If you thought about it, it was quite obvious. Different brews tasted different. It was Constant Contact's task to figure out what ratios would yield the most pleasant firewater. But between grapes and wheats, she had her work cut out for her. Okay, perhaps that wasn't true: she already knew that fruits made firewater sweeter. It'd be more prudent to start with those, right? And of course, some fruits were sweeter than others.

She'd been working on this problem for a while. Batch after batch after batch of firewater - could it be made consistently? (Relatively consistently, she'd found) What was the best sort?

That, it seemed, was a little more subjective. But there was no time like the present to start polling. Then she could present her findings, to, to - to Rise and Shine, or to the Friends under the White Tree. She could be a hero. Of firewater.  

[musicaloner7]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF DRAGON!
Kin Name: Blue Heart
Drabble: Dragons were a subject she knew very little on. They were something quite elusive, and mystical, and spoken only in tales from her younger days. In some of her travels she'd hear of bards and storytellers go into great, illustrative detail about what these beasts were like, and what they did. It was always laced so elaborately, with so much drama and romance that the doe found herself seeing it to all be too extravagant to be true.

She was very much all about believing it what she could see, and experience, thus these tales fell flat for her. They were an interesting concept and would surely tickle the intrigue of more whimsical types, but for her... there would be no sort of whimsy and awe. However... she would sometimes toy with the idea of challenging one... battling it head to head, seeing if it could really be as powerful as the stories promised. It was as she began to follow that path of thought that she found herself able to find a little curiosity in the creatures, and if it were really possible to find one herself.

When encountering any others who had information on the dragons, she let herself be a little more open to hearing what they had to say, and pulling from them the possible places that dragons resided. If they were real, she would find them, and test her abilities on a hopefully true opponent.