[PRP] A Little Help from The Friends [ Distant Thunder/The Friends]

[Maxx]

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"I don't think you're upset about quite the right thing here," Pointed Mercy said with some confusion, "I mean...I thought it'd be about the lying as opposed to the child-having, really."

[Maxx]

"Did I not say 'the lying snake of an acha,'" he craned his head up to check around for acha, "not that I think that of all acha, just...just this one. However, I am upset about this. You all - you all grew up here, half of you being the kid-abandoning sort, but I'm from the plains, you know, we raise our children there. I need them with my Swampdamned soulmate."

[Jun]

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"I would not abandon my children!" Prevail protested, passionately, for he felt very passionately about children, the poor dears, "but I will not take it personally. I understand your desires. I would love to raise children too.

"But," he sighed, his eyes distantly fixed upon some hypothetical point in his endless fount of romanticism, "if the Swamp were to show you a soulmate, and no children, in your dream, perhaps that is as ought. Could there be anything more poetic? To live as the Swamp would will. Ah, there will always be children to raise - the poor dears!"

[Maxx]

"I mean, we've got some abandoned kids right now," Illumination said, rather annoyed, gesturing with his muzzle the sleeping foals in the distance, "and you both have children..."

[Maxx]

To which, Thunder made unhappy groaning noises.

[Jun]

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It was at this point that Terrible Charm unexpectedly stood up, having been resting a little way away from the rest of the Tribe, staring thoughtfully across the stream at the camp of their evil foes. It turned out he had been listening, after all.

"Without making light of your unfortunate situation," he raised his fine muzzle, about to make light of his unfortunate situation, "I find it all rather silly, a doe or a buck, Swamp-sent or not. One should fight for all children, raise up all you find in need. And then after that - why, what should one care? One lives to fight for those who cannot, and when the fight is spent, one dies. What more could one ask from a companion who succors your sorrows and shares your joys?

"I could not care less if it were a doe or buck I live beside, I die beside."

And he tossed his golden locks back into the wind, looking very noble and attractive in his conviction.

[Maxx]

"Hear, hear!" Mercy cried in agreement, as Charm had eloquently prised the words he could not from his heart.

Illumination too smiled in agreement, grateful for such a noble speech he could not bring to his father. He looked down, hopefully.

[Maxx]

His father stayed silent, though eyes open, with age in his eyes - or so he felt.

"You do fine work," he said eventually, turning away from the fruit, "it reminds me of my time as a young buck, back in the plains, after The Flood.

"Thank you."

And he left it at that, rolling over to sleep.

[Maxx]

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"To freedom and love!" Take the Watch, a father himself (and a poor one), called merrily, to the end of the night.

* * * * * * *

[Maxx]

In the morning, with a terrible headache and a dog at his heels, Distant Thunder went to seek the sweetest fruit they had found, and brought back a bountiful bough for The Friends and their abandoned children. He looked across the peaceful landscape of kin, and heard the bustle of their sworn enemies opposite. So many complications, the Swamp brought to them, and how imperfect it all was.

In the face of these sleeping faces, including that of his gentle son, his ideals seemed so very laughable.

"Come," he uttered to the dog, "bring me to him."

END