[SOLO] New Kids (Telumbë x Eyvind)

[Nori Ishida]

The rain was falling lightly over the swamp, creating an echoing chorus of raindrops splashing into the murky water. Telumbë was standing knee-deep in that water, listening to the soft patter, her eyes closed and a slight smile on her face. There were many who despised the rain, running to hide whenever drops began to fall, but Telumbë liked the rain. It aided her swampy home, awakening all kinds of new plant life, and providing moisture for the many species of fungi she so loved. Most of her family had always found her obsession with mushrooms to be silly but she appreciated their many shapes and sizes, and their endless uses. Many were great and tasty sources of food, some could cure sicknesses or ease a worried mind, and there were some that could be used for a bit of fun, if you knew the right ones to pick. Which Telumbë did, of course. It was actually more important to know the ones not to pick. As useful as they were, mushrooms could be just as deadly.

Turning back towards the bank of the swamp, she sloshed her way to shore, her coat glistening with the collection of raindrops gathering in her fur and sliding down her face and body. The morning was getting late and she had yet to eat, having gotten caught up in the beauty of the morning drizzle. With mushrooms ever on her mind, she climbed out of the water and followed a trail into the trees, bending her head low in search of some fungus-y friends to feast on.  

[Nori Ishida]

A series of flustered grunts and sighs preceded the chestnut stallion as he moved along under the cover of the trees. He absolutely hated the rain, it did awful things to his curls and was just generally unpleasant. There had been a steady light drizzle all morning, but there was no telling if it would pick up and turn into a downpour. Continuing along through the woods, his nose began to wrinkle as a musty smell began to fill the air around him.
“Ugh,” Eyvind moaned. He had taken shelter beneath the trees only to stumble upon the banks of what appeared to be a swamp. A few yards away the muddy ground sloped downward into stagnant, slimy water overgrown with algae and floating lily pads. The tall oaks of the surrounding forest changed to cypress trees growing right out of the water, their knobby roots emerging like stalagmites from the murky pool.

He moved along the bank, cringing as his feet sank into the mud and made a horrible sucking sound every time he raised a hoof to take another step. This mess and muck was not Eyvind’s cup of tea at all, and he was absolutely miserable. He glanced overhead, wondering if the raindrops were getting heavier or if he was just imagining it, continuing along the bank in search of someplace, anyplace, drier and less muddy than where he was now, his disgusted groans growing louder and more frequent as he went along.  

[Nori Ishida]

Telumbë’s nose was deep in the marshy undergrowth lining the banks of the swamp, attempting to sniff out the mushrooms she knew to grow here. Her ears were filled with the rustling of the leaves she was pushing aside in her search, but soon she picked up another sound. She raised her head quickly, her ears perking up and swiveling around, trying to pick up the direction the sound was coming from. Honing in on the general area the noise was coming from, she turned and looked back along the banks of the swamp behind her. It sounded like a voice, an unpleasant one, perhaps in some trouble. With a blink, she suddenly shrunk down to her miniature size, fluttering her wings to hover in mid-air before zipping off down the bank of the swamp.

It didn’t take long for her to catch sight of the source of the sound. A chestnut-colored stallion was picking his way along the muddy bank of the swamp, an absolutely miserable grimace on his face. Though this stallion seemed quite unhappy, Telumbë did not think he was a threat. On the contrary, he looked like he was so preoccupied that it would be easy to catch him by surprise. Flitting behind a patch of cattails by the swamp, she continued watching the stallion approach. She couldn’t help but giggle at his moaning and whining and wondered what he was doing in a place like this if he hated it so much.  

[Nori Ishida]

Eyvind was so miserable he could cry. He frowned at his mud-caked fetlocks and could feel his mane hanging limp and lifeless on his neck. He was glad there was nobody around to see him like this. He prided himself on his appearance and this mess that the rain had made of him was far from presentable, let alone up to his normal standards of preened beauty. As if to kick him when he was down, the drops overhead were indeed getting heavier. The downpour he had feared seemed to be on its way, and he threw back his head to scream at the sky.

“Enough already!!” He shouted, his voice cracking in his misery. He huffed and stomped his feet, which only served to splatter mud up onto his legs and belly. His frustration was ringing in his ears when suddenly he heard a light giggling. He paused his tantrum and looked around frantically, searching for the source of the laughter.

“Who’s there?” He called out, embarrassment rising warmly in his cheeks at the thought of somebody seeing him throwing a fit in his dirtied state.
 

[Nori Ishida]

Her giggling grew as the stallion’s temper flared and she watched him stomping around in the mud. She found herself rolling with laughter in midair as he shouted at the sky, then gasped and stopped abruptly as he called out. She had been less than stealthy and had been found out! No matter, she was always interested in meeting new soquili, and this one was already so entertaining! Flitting out from behind the cattails, she hovered lazily over to the stallion, floating momentarily in front of his face before regaining her full size and landing to stand in the mud in front of him.

“Hi there! My name’s Telumbë. You sure do look out of your element! What are you doing here?” Her tone was friendly and inquisitive, not accusing. She was genuinely curious what had brought this stallion to a place he appeared to despise so much.
 

[Nori Ishida]

He watched, aghast, as the mare fluttered out from a patch of cattails and grew before his eyes. How long had she been watching him? Had she been laughing at him?? What a rude and nosy little thing! His embarrassment quickly turned to rage as she introduced herself, acting as if she hadn’t just been spying on him.

“What’s it to you? Why were you watching me?” Continuing to stoke his temper, the rain continued to fall with more force, and on top of his discomfort, he was starting to feel a little unsafe. He looked over the mare, noticing her mossy coat and the mushrooms sprouting from her body. Though slightly disgusted, he noted that she looked like somebody who would be very familiar with this area. “Tell me!” he demanded. “Is there somewhere we can take shelter from this storm?”  

[Nori Ishida]

Telumbë was again unable to help her giggling as the stallion shouted demands at her. “Well, you were making such a racket, I had to come and see what was going on!” She flitted her wings, grinning slyly at the stallion. “Yes, yes. There’s a cave just around the other side of the swamp.” She turned her gaze upwards, squinting in the falling rain, as a far off roll of thunder rumbled quietly in the distance. “We should be able to make it before this really kicks off. Follow me!”

She walked past the stallion, leading him back the way he had come, following the curve of the swamp’s bank. She would occasionally skip into the air, fluttering along for a few paces before retuning back to the ground. They reached the mouth of the cave just as another roll of thunder sounded, this time a little bit closer.

“This should keep us safe until this passes, and give you some time to clean up and dry off.” She giggled again, “maybe pay a bit more attention to the weather next time if you hate the rain so much.”  

[Nori Ishida]

Biting back his retort, he held his tongue as she offered to take him to shelter. As indignant as he was at her constant giggling, he was immensely uncomfortable and just wanted to be out of this rain. He shuddered as the thunder rolled off in the distance, mumbling a quiet “thank you” as he followed Telumbë along the muddy banks of the swamp.

Once inside the cave, he shook the water from his body, splattering mud against the rocky floor and walls of the shelter. He turned to look at the mare, not unaware of her teasing tone, but also not want to be ungrateful for her help.

“Yes, well…I’ll pay more attention in the future, then. I appreciate your help. I don’t know how you live in a place like this.” He shuddered at the thought as another clap of thunder rang out.


(Total word count: 1568 )