[PRP] Crashing Wave [ Distant Tidings/Distant Thunder ]

[Jun]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... gs_jun.gif[/imgleft]Just as he'd dreamt him.

Larger than life; bold and strong, effortless. The wild, blond mane, wind-tossed, and free. He was handsome, effortlessly; dashing. His voice boomed, and so did his laugh, charming. He was a fool, no doubt about that, but a charming fool, and he liked daft bucks. He had a look in his eye, suave and assured. Bold.

Just as he'd dreamt him.

Just as he'd dreamt it.

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... idings.png[/imgright]The past week or so had been a whirlwind. After the shock of their serendipitous meeting, he'd shown him the sea. The whole of it (save the bits guarded by those crabby Tidewalkers), the splendour, the darkness – and the deliciousness of the bounty that came out of it. It had been – ah, a dream. When they finally saw fit to return to the Swamp, he'd abandoned the paltry beginnings of the salt haul for Rise & Shine (he'd make up for it some other time), and they'd taken the scenic route back (which, to be fair, was still miles and miles and miles of scrub and harsh travel, but meanderingly so). Once the air had grown thick, and they'd touched the Swamp proper, he'd shown him a berry here, a sweet fruit there – just as he'd dreamt it, they'd run.
Thunderings – and now he knew why he had named the hound so - had sulked for a time after being deattached from the kiokote's ankle, but had warmed considerably since. In fact, Tidings rather suspected the demon dog had become rather more attached (metaphorically speaking) to Thunder than to his own master – but, ah, as if he could blame him for that! A charming fool, he was, and bold – and threw many joints of effortlessly hunted meat to the dog. Could he blame a dog for falling in love? No more than he could blame himself.

Just as he'd dreamt.

[Maxx]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... r_maxx.gif[/imgright]She was so beautiful, ever mercurial, like the waves - slipping here, and rising to press a pretty cheek against him with such candor and sweetness. As she showed him about the lay of the sands, he watched her dainty hooves kick up a dusty storm, unearthing a crab, spearing it with such ferocious precision that it made his heart soar. All sharpness, all curves, all beauty that called to him like the echoes of the sea.

He laughed, when he learnt her name: a perfect name, for what had been much of their lives. No longer were they distant, and the storms they weathered together brought a smile: he knew, just off the shore, the thunder too heralded the rise of tide. Together, at last.

Ever so real, she was, as he followed and led, taking turns to run and chase. As they'd cleaved through the harsh brush, together, delicately picked the sweetest of fruit. Even the dog had ceased to bite and instead frolicked with them as their hooves traversed the swamp and its pleasures. He could almost forgive the Motherfather for keeping these joys from him for such a long, long time, feeling like a young buck again.

"To be this happy," he rolled, heavily, onto his side at the edge of a stream, "feels almost sinful - doesn't it, Tidings? I could only hope to be this happy, always."

[Jun]

"On the contrary," he laughed, skipping onto the rocks in the stream, "everything in my life has felt low and sinful, till I met you. Once I met you, nothing has ever felt so pure.

"Let's be so happy, always," he sighed, and looked dewy-eyed into the distance.

Oh no.

Alright. One thing had not been just as he'd dreamt it. That thing had been the careful avoidance of pockets of civilisation. He had explicitly guided the charming fool here and there away from where he knew groups of Kin milled. He had deliberately abandoned the paltry beginnings of the salt haul for Rise & Shine because he did not want to take Thunder back to Rise & Shine.

Eventually, he would, but…not yet. Because Rise & Shine – and pockets of civilisation – contained many different Acha. And it was only a matter of time before someone clued the charming fool into the fact that his beloved was, in fact, not a doe. Of course, he was going to talk to him about that…eventually. But he needed time to ease into that…surprise. Someone else springing it upon him was not going to work.

Especially not someone like his darling son.

His handsome, honest son.

His honest son, Shallows, who was, at this very moment, walking towards them.

"We really should move on," he lilted, trying to compress all his panic into idle suggestion instead, "right now."

[Maxx]

"Oh you," he mused pleasantly, "you're too clever for me."

He was fine with that, really - it was quickly evident after their first meeting that her mind and tongue was as nimble as her hooves. In his rosy view, he didn't mind being her muscle, taking on the dangers of the swamp to ensure her safe passage. It simply felt Right, just as the Motherfather had planned.

At the moment, Thunder was enjoying the feel of the grass and the warmth of the sun - it felt like a perfect lazy time of day to beckon her over against him, and take a little nap.

"The weather is just right, as is this little patch of grass...why don't you come over for a little while. You should really try it out for yourself. I've flattened the prickly bits."

He rolled over hopefully, head turning to point at the evident imprint of himself upon the turf.
"Come, come."

[Maxx]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]Shallows hadn't ended things off well with his father last time, and in-between the sulking, he had been considering whether he might have been too harsh, or whether his father was just manipulating him. Yet, Shallow was at heart a nice boy, and he felt compelled to say hello to his father.

So he did, suspiciously coming by, but with a jaunty enough trot in front of this new stranger accompanying and rolling on the ground, "hello Father. This is new," with a head tilted towards the kiokote.

[Jun]

Drat.

He just.

Said the thing.

Right there.

Out loud.

[Maxx]

They did look very similar, the younger buck with the same familiar shade of seafoam, pertly standing there. Indeed, he had lovely children.

It took a little while to rattle its way into his sun-addled brain, his love-addled brain, his very slow brain, that could not tell the difference between doe and bucks of a zikwa, kimeti or acha nature.

In no time at all, all the muscles of Thunder's big frame, built from years of running, chasing and hunting, worked together to haul him up to his hooves, and the veins of his thick neck were bulging rather unseemingly as he screamed:

"WHAT?!"

[Jun]

Drat.

"Mmm…" he said brightly, tilting his head prettily, as if nothing in the world could be wrong, "what?"

[Maxx]

"YOU!" Thunder screamed, head accusatorily turned towards the love of his life.

[Maxx]

"He?" Shallows said, confusedly.

[Maxx]

"YOU LIED TO ME!"

[Maxx]

"Oh yeah he does that," Shallows said with some grim satisfaction, backing away from the hulking figure of a kiokote.

[Jun]

Resisting the urge to shoot Shallows a look, he tilted his head just a little bit more (and tensed back on his hooves just a little more too, just in case).

"I wouldn't say I lied," he said, "I can't recall that the matter ever came up. Surely...that...is as the Swamp intended?"

[Maxx]

"The Swamp can go stuff itself," he growled, eyes blazing, "if it would play such a cruel trick as to have my soulmate be a buck; a lying, traitorous, snake of a buck who would take me as his willing fool. I am no buck's fool, Tidings, and it would do us to be Distant, lest I render you from limb to limb as what you have just done to my heart that I entrusted to you, you - you -"

He had run out of speech, this fool of a buck, reduced to a gurgling rage choking out of his heaving neck - his gaze shifted between father and son, then back to father, and he turned to gallop away, his hooves like distant thunder.

[Maxx]

"I would say you deserve each other, except he's gone," Shallows said neatly, starting to trot away also.

"I won't say 'I told you,' Father."