[PRP] the road less travelled by [Foxy / Shush]

[Maxx D]

Her little critters had caught up when she stood in the clearing, mulling the paths ahead. The last time she'd met Shush, she had one Heart, now Teeth and Eyes followed, scuttling and slinking about her hooves, making little growls at one another.

Foxy paid them no mind, straining to view what was beyond the brush on the left, and the flatlands on the right. It was very, very dense brush, but beyond was a little brook - the subtle sparkle from the moon tipped her off - and the flatlands were endless, bearing the hoofsteps of kin before them. Indeed, she had heard of an odd tribe of kin here, and she was rather wary of running the poor girl into strange company. In this darkness, it was probably better to head to the water.

She was a totoma, and she feared no brush - she would stamp her way through. Her path would not be so clear-cut now though, and it might be better for Shush to have some guidance.

"Shush," she said, having abused the knowledge of her name for the vast distances they'd since travelled, "there is a thick brush to get through, and it might be better for you to have my Eyes."

"Eyes," Foxy instructed her fennec fox to her, before realising anew that it wasn't so much romantic as offensive, but it was too late now. "Shush darling, this is my fennec. Don't be frightened when you feel Eyes."  

[Jun D]

Shush had become used to the occasional patter of one little set of paws. The doe had had that one, when they'd first met. Albeit their meeting was delayed, and strange, and she had turned tail and run after that. It came and went, she had noticed, the occasional patter: sometimes she heard it, sometimes she didn't. Sometimes the doe spoke to it, and sometimes she cursed; sometimes she didn't. She had garnered, from the doe's comments (and curses), that it was a manner of creature called a rox. That it had a name, and she called it Heart. That was Heart, the rox. She had become used to the patter of one little set of paws.

She was not used to three.

The first time she had met Heart, she'd turned tail and run. Now there were three, and it was hard not to run, but she would lead the doe to the mountains, if she could. There had still been things she hoped to say. So, she did not run.

"Eyes…" she repeated, hesitant.

Eyes. It was a name, and it was a manner of creature called a fennec. It had dainty steps, smaller than Heart's. A fennec was a creature smaller than a rox. The third, she did not know yet, but it had a harder bite than a fennec or a rox: she had heard the tearing of its teeth, and an echo of the swish-slip-swish.

But this was the fennec; it was Eyes. It was a small creature. She would not run.  

[Maxx D]

"There's a good girl," Foxy said kindly and tenderly, also ambiguously, though to her it was quite obvious because she hadn't bothered to investigate what sex Eyes actually was.

Eyes gently and cautiously approached, then swished its fluffy tail against her hoof, ever so slightly, then slid its body against her ankle.

"Eyes is a sweetheart," she started to trample the beginnings of the brush into bits. "It's Teeth that bites."

Two does and three pets made their deliberate way through the unexplored brush, as the noises of kin emanated from elsewhere.

END