Chance Meetings, and overwhelming joys

[Albyumez]

Alby tore excitedly through the grass and wildflowers, his nostrils flaring madly. He was in a new place, he didn't know anyone, didn't even know if anyone was there, and it made him insanely thrilled to be alive. Lowering his head briefly between charges, Alby spotted dozens of small things of interest; a stunning flower, a bee, his own hoofprint... all was new, exciting and fresh. Charging with his head tilted up and back one last time, the small, scruffy bay stallion came to an abrupt halt, his long mane and tail alone betraying his previous manical movements.

Sniffing the air curiously, the young stallion tried to distinguish animal scents from that of the salty ocean behind him, but his small nostrils found nothing. Turning in a tight circle, he stared down at the trails of hoofprints dotting the land, and trotted eagerly towards them. Following them carefully, he began to scent them, before realising with a jolt that they were his own, and he was moving in circles. Immediately forgetting this moment of stupidity, Alby strode towards a small stream, finding great pleasure in splashing himself with it daintily. Before long, the happy little being was rolling merrily in the damp ground surrounding the stream, uttering high pitched shrieks of excitement. He liked this place. Heaving himself onto his dainty hooves, he shook himself violently, almost losing his footing. His stocky little legs caught him easily, long used to the challenge of keeping the strange little man upright.

With a comical expression on his handsome, scruffy face, Alby peered around hopefully, his eyes wide open, drinking in every minute detail of this painfully happy day.

[Never Give Up]

Standing atop the bluff that overlooked the small cove below was a very perplexed hunk of an equine. Having scented another stallion on his lands, naturally Never had come as quickly and quietly as possible to assess the threat to his position here. Of course, there was no herd, for him to watch or care for, but for now he didn't mind. It was the land he was protecting, for he had claimed it as his own and would not see it taken from him.

But now that he had gotten a look at this.. "threat".. suddenly, it didn't seem so threatening.

Standing downwind from the smaller stallion, Never had been watching the strange runt for some time, debating the appropriate course of action. Should he run the other off, or invite him to stay as a companion? The bulky leader wasn't exactly sure he was quite that desperate for companionship. He had rather hoped that his first companion would be a lovely little mare, dainty and perhaps a bit shy, to complement his own marvelous size and boldness. But instead, he got...

Looking more and more puzzled, Never observed as the other stallion, still oblivious to the leader's presence, ran around in a circle, following his own hoofprints. Imbecile. The golden stallion's ears went back slightly. If this pint-sized creature was truly as idiotic as he looked now, then he would undoubtedly not be a wise choice as a companion, and, perhaps, the foundation of a herd. Heaving a sigh of resignation, Never began to descend the bluff, showing a surprising nimbleness that one would not expect from so large a beast.

He had to check this creature out.

[Fresco]

Long eyelashes lifted, and warm chocolate eyes drank in the embracing light that had been washing the land all morning. Fresco didn't know how long she'd journeyed the previous night; but the moon had been full, and enchanting. She had followed it, intending to meet it where it touched the ground before sunrise. Why did it leave? Where did it go? Why didn't it want to be her friend? All through the night the filly had been dizzyed with these questions.

She'd lain down, disheartened, when the moon had disappeared beyond the horizon. Weariness had quickly enveloped her, as her dispair had seeped deeply into her bones. Fresco felt rejection quite plainly; without the objective mind to appreciate why others might not like her, she simply expected everyone and everything to have for her, the same sort of enthusiasm that she had for them.

With dish-sized hooves gathered carefully around her, the filly began to wake the rest of herself up, stretching her thick neck out, and shaking her peppered mane to the other side. Inhaling deeply, the bulky youngster quickly hauled herself to her feet; quickly correcting the overbalance (and denying her legs the satisfaction of tipping her over again) and was righted.

She could hear the sounds of mad dashing coming from a place not far from where she stood. Naturally, she had to find out where they were coming from, and who was making them.

It was a potential friend, after all, so who could risk the chance of not saying hello?

[Albyumez]

Gazing into the distance, Alby became entranced with the movements of grass, and individual sand particles. Taking on a slightly glazed look, he began to wilt slightly, his legs shaking nervously as his weight became loose and free. He was enchanted, and in true fairytale, albeit girly style, he was swooning. Never before had he seen anything quite so tortured, beautiful and ultimately romantic. Still in his dreamy state, a goofy expression on his face, Alby transferred his attentions to the way the hairs moved on a glistening golden hide. Every small movement on the part of the approaching animal made the tiny hairs dance gloriously, reflecting the sun and dazzling his senses. Transferring his gaze marginally, the little bay stallion found himself staring a massive, golden, hulk of a stallion right in the eye. Still oblivious, his intense gaze watched the small chocolate flecks in his eyeball change, widening or narrowing slightly.

Taking a deep sigh of contentment, Alby was jolted back to his reality, he thought he had been marginally alone, yet he was staring at the golden hide and eyes of a large stallion, scenting his extreme masculinity. By this time, Alby was, regrettably, lying in a sodden, romantic heap. Pulling himself rapidly to his feet, he tried desperately to posture himself in something of a manly, stallions-meeting type stance. Uttering a tiny snort of delerious amusement in his posing shadow, Alby held his head high and whinnied cheerfully to the stallion. His voice squeaked a little, and clearing his throat with a gentle "lemme try again," Alby lowered his voice, his face etched with what he hoped was masculine concentration, and whinnied again. Much better.

"Good morning Stallion Sir! Beeee-yooooo-tiful morning! Whatcha." Alby grinned heartily, enjoying the chance to interact. Remembering his place, Alby bowed carefully, chortling easily as he did so. What fun this game was!

"Permission to come aboard Sir?" Alby nickered in hilarity, he felt like a proper reporting worker. Catching another scent on the breeze, Alby's face transformed into one of query, "are you, er.. wearing.. perfume, Sir? Something around here, almost smells like a ... and you're definately NOT a..." his eyes whipping around madly, he spotted her, a large, stunningly gorgeous lump of.. MARE!

Almost nuzzling the new stallion in his excitement, Alby nickered to the stallion about the mare, and the mare about the stallion, and himself about the fun of it all. FRIENDS!!

[Never Give Up]

If Never had eyebrows, he would definitely be raising them in puzzlement. 'His mind is gone...' It was the first thought to enter his head as he watched the small stallion swoon and melt into a puddle at his hooves. Then he watched skeptically as the smaller equine heaved himself to his feet and nickered and whined some nonsense.. well, he certainly wasn't a threat, that much was obvious. In fact, even Never would feel bad for stomping the little stallion into the ground. It would have been too easy.

Shaking his head and snorting, the golden stallion began to reply, only to be cut off by another odd comment. Blinking, he stared at the other male, almost as in disbelief. Either Never was displaying admirable patience, or he was just too dumbfounded to be impatient. He houghed, and something sounding amazingly like 'you idiot' seemed to form in the air between the two stallions. He'd made the correct conclusion about this one when he had stood upon the bluff.

The ocean breeze ruffled Never's mane as he continued to regard the other stallion rather dubiously. However, his attention quickly shifted as the breeze also brought to him a scent that tickled his nose. Nostrils flared to take in the scent, and the pony's incessant chatter was all but unheard as the larger stallion straightened, lifting his head. A mare. That scent was downright heavenly, especially compared to the buffoon next to him. Never snapped back to reality just in time to snap at the smaller stallion for getting too close. However, it was a rather half-hearted attempt, more of a 'go away' than anything else.

Shoving the problem of the smaller stallion to the side for now, Never lifted his head, thrust out his massive chest, and strutted toward the female who had presented herself. Oh she was lovely indeed...

Welcome to my lands.. what is your business here? Though he was clearly still showing off, Never was also not letting the sight of a pretty mare dazzle him too much. Suppose she was from another herd? And he was never unaware of the smaller male behind him.

[Fresco]

Fresco trotted heavily through the thick scrubbery, towards where she thought the hooves had been sounding from. Blindly pushing towards their direction, she was rewarded with the sound of a couple of squealling whinnies. Quickly she hastened towards them, expelling herself from the shrubs unexpectedly; and almost toppling over as her feathers snagged on a low branch.

There were two stallions in the clearing, a small scraggly looking bay, and an enormous, sheeny buckskin who was already making his way towards where she stood. She tried to peer around him, at the bay, who seemed to be chattering happily to himself. She could see the way his tongue kept getting in the way of his lips as he spoke, and she wondered whether he had a lisp. Would it be rude to just ask?

However she didn't have long to ponder over the speech impediment of the small stallion, before her vision was completely obscured with buckskin hide. While Fresco was no petite riding pony herself, it was as though this stallion was able to inflate himself to look bigger than any other horse he encountered. Even with the breeze that was springing up, allowing Fresco some rare binocular vision, she could see nothing but shiny gold muscles.

Welcome to my lands.. what is your business here?

I'm sorry, I didn't know these were your lands, I fell asleep after I was chasing the moon last night, you see, she left me and didn't want to play. Do you know why she didn't want to play? I don't. I don't know why she doesn't like me. But you might like me! That would be nice. My name is Fresco. What is your name? Do you know if that boy over there has a lisp? He looks like he does. He's little, and cute. Can I keep him?"

[Albyumez]

Ignoring the stallions angry snap as sporadic insanity on his part, Alby shifted his eyes rapidly between his new friend Sir, and the stunning new addition to the little gathering. Although Alby hadn't had a "real live" relationship of his own, he had heard something of the tomfoolery, and watched his childhood friends slip away to it. Watching with vague pride, and turning his expression into one of masculine competence and ability to cope with the situation, Alby trotted after Sir, two strides behind, one to the left.

Pausing somewhat behind his new friends, Alby happened to glance at his own tongue as it swished by on its merry path. Entranced and excited by this new game, the little stallion slowly went cross-eyed, following the movements of his seemingly quick-witted tongue. Oooh, you cheeky little devil! he chuckled happily, trying to taunt his tongue into submission. With his mind so intensely focussed on his tongue, his legs sped off with an unused, rusty part of his mind, and started to move his torso towards the Encounter. Har HAR! He cried, as he pinned his tongue in his awesome sight, also pinning something remotely leg-like. With feathers. Blinking in mild confusion, he muttered a "better luck next time" to his rogue tongue, and took the time to investigate this.. leg.

Peering at it from every possible angle, taking a step in either direction, he concluded powerfully, it was definately a horse. Or a bit of a horse. He had been investigating this feather leg very closely, his face parallel to the leg, approximately an inch away from it. How could it be that this.. leg.. stood alone? Thinking for a moment, Alby's face shone with wisened knowledge, duh. The little man took a step back, watching a pretty, extremely large, extremely female mare jump into his vision. Pulling a face that suggested he was onto her game, Alby turned to glance at Sir, nodding briefly to communicate that all was well, he was onto her. No-one could mess with the master! Turning his gaze back to the mare, Alby twisted his lips into a crooked, toothy smile.. "Whatcha girly!" He winked at her cheerfully before taking a step back, understanding with every fibre of his being that the stallion had first dibs on this new playmate. With a solemn, grinning nod to Sir, Alby stood quietly, overlooking the interaction with great interest.

[Never Give Up]

Never listened to the filly with perked ears and none of the impatience or shock that seemed to affect him when he listened to the other beast. In fact, he looked almost paternal.. what a young filly she was. She should still be at her dam's side. Absently, the stallion wondered what had become of the filly's mother. Unfortunately, his wonderings were dashed as the smaller stallion came and ploughed right into the filly's leg. Never stamped with impatience, looking as though he'd like to rip the strange little stallion's tongue off. Though he did, of course, look quite intimidating, neither of these individuals was his to punish.

Yet.

So with his natural urge to get violent held in check (barely), he gave the other stallion a harsh shove to get him out of the way. He then snaked his thick neck around and pinned his ears in a most belligerent warning, even as the other backed away with that horribly stupid grin on his face. Ugh. Snorting, Never turned back to the young filly before him just in time to hear her say 'can I keep him?'. One ear perked toward the filly, and the stallion looked rather dubious. What strange female whim was this? Shaking his head, Never mustered the patience to deal with this situation to the best of his ability, though he was clearly somewhat puzzled by it all.

Lady, if you want this.. insane scrap of equine existence.. be my guest. He paused, wondering if he should explain that the moon was just a cold thing that moved across the sky, counterpart to the hot, bright sun. But he decided to leave it for another time. She was still just a filly. An imaginative one, but a young filly nonetheless. He would have to be careful with her. Since you are wandering, I presume you have no home..?