[OOM] Eiattu - Grasslands

[fighting_mad]

Plourr rolls onto her back and stares up at the blue sky, shading her eyes with one hand. It's a warm day, a few wispy clouds scudding across the sky and the sun shining bright. The two thaks are quite happily tucking into their feed nearby, tethered to a fallen tree, and the tall blades of grass wave softly in the wind all through the field. Best yet, there's no sign of anyone else or any manmade object as far as the eye can see; just grass, thaks, forest, and sky. She closes her eyes and lets the sun warm her face.

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[fighting_mad]

The last flat stretch before the outskirts of the city, gunning for the small, lesser-used back gates of the palace, and Koer is beginning to tire. "Come on!" Plourr urges her over the thunder of rain and webbed feet.

[eiattu_pride]

Rial draws closer, closer, until his laughter is in Plourr's ear and he could reach out and just touch her back.

"Eldest first!"

[fighting_mad]

"I'll sneak you bluefruit if you blow him out of the water," Plourr tells Koer, ignoring the taunt, and even she is surprised by the thak's sudden surge.

Some wise, enterprising soul in the control room opens the heavy gates, and the thaks and riders fly through into the courtyard, the princess leading.

Plourr reins in the thak, keeping her seat easily as Koer skids in the slippery mud. She dismounts almost before the mare has halted, keeping the reins in hand as her boots go squelch into the mud. She fondly pats the panting creature's neck. "Bluefruit for a week, girl."

The princess is soaked to the skin, covered in mud and grime, clothing and hair plastered to her -- and she is also grinning fit to crack her face as she glances back. "Better luck next time!" she calls to Rial, the very picture of smug arrogance.

[eiattu_pride]

Rial slides in only seconds after her, far less graceful as his boots hit the mud and he almost slides over. Still, he slides the reins over his thak's head in one easy movement, sticking his tongue out at Plourr.

"You cheated."

[fighting_mad]

"I," she says, looking up to the sky and closing her eyes, letting the rain pour down her face, "did no such thing. There were no rules." She glances to him after a moment, smirking as she blinks water out of her eyes. "Besides, princesses don't cheat."

[eiattu_pride]

Rial huffs, and squeegees water out of his hair. It doesn't really help, given the current downpour, but at least he's getting the old water out?

"Then, obviously, you are not a princess."

[fighting_mad]

Plourr's only response is a shout of laughter and a click of the tongue to Koer, leading her toward the stables.

Still laughing, mind.

[eiattu_pride]

"You're not," Rial calls after her, and tosses a bit of mud in her direction.

Then, rather squashily, sets off towards the stables.

[fighting_mad]

Koer has a nasty habit of body-checking her mistress (really, they are kindred spirits) from time to time, and it is to her own misfortune that she chose that precise moment to do so. Plourr staggers to one side, but the tossed mud goes splat against Koer's rump. The thak squawks indignantly and swishes her muscular tail, and Plourr, oblivious to the shot that was just taken for her, swats her scaly orange muzzle.

"No rules!" she shouts over her shoulder. The stable doors have already been rolled open; from the looks of it, the few hands standing under the shelter of the roof have been watching the rain come down.

They stare at the princess of the realm, heir-apparent to the royal throne of Eiattu IV, and the filthy princess treats them to a serene nod as she passes. Inside the barn, it is warm and dry and smells of animals, tall grass, and feed, and Plourr slicks her hair back with her free had, leading Koer back toward her designated stall.

[eiattu_pride]

Rial smiles cheerfully at the stable-hands and shouts after her "Still cheated." Leading Erantu to his stall, he begins unsaddling the tired thak, brushing hair out of his eyes.

"Cheater," he mumbles, and makes a rather rude hand gesture in her general direction.

[fighting_mad]

She makes it right back as she balances the saddle on the stall door. "Try not to be a sore loser, sweetheart," she says, grinning and slipping the bit out of Koer's mouth and the bridle off her face. Koer digs her nose into her shoulder, already searching for bluefruit, and Plourr strokes her forelock, picking up a cloth and wiping down the wet scales of her face. "It's unbecoming."

[eiattu_pride]

"Yeah, yeah."

Rial unbuckles the bridle, takes off the saddle and sets the saddlepad upside-down to dry. "Cheating is unbecoming."

[fighting_mad]

Plourr sniggers cheerfully enough--if still smug as a well-fed thuvasaur--and doesn't dignify that with a response, rubbing Koer down. She talks to her quietly, and there may be a hum or two under her breath, though she wouldn't easily admit that one.

[eiattu_pride]

When Rial's finished grooming Erantu (and maybe he slips the thak a little piece of bluefruit he'd been saving for himself) he stands in front of Koer's stall, attempting to squeeze water from his hair.

"Ready?"

[fighting_mad]

Plourr ruffles a content Koer's mane and slips out of the stall, picking at the fabric of her soaked trousers, which are sticking to her like an uncomfortable second skin, just like the rest of her clothes. She leans against Rial a moment. "As long as you're finished sulking because I beat you," she says, grinning up at him.

[eiattu_pride]

"I," Rial informs her, "am not done. I shall go to our quarters and spend the rest of the night sulking in my wet clothes, telling all my troubles to Wainthropp, until the next morning."

Beat.

"That's when I die of a broken heart."

[fighting_mad]

She's snickering before he has even finished, leaning into him harder, and she laughs outright, by the end.

"Or of the common cold," she says wryly, kissing his cheek.

[eiattu_pride]

Rial grins at her, before remembering that he's supposed to be sulking. "Never. That's far too ordinary."

Slipping an arm around her shoulders, "Besides, I don't get sick. Who would take care of the datawork?"

[fighting_mad]

"Me," she points out, still wry, and she heads for the barn doors. She may not sling an arm around him in return, but it should be said that she certainly doesn't go out of her way to dislodge his.

A stablehand starts to offer an umbrella in their general direction, but Plourr just snorts and heads back out into the downpour.

[eiattu_pride]

"Gods help us," says Rial, deadpan, and shakes his head at the offered umbrella.

[fighting_mad]

"Yeah," she says, the rain immediately pounding her hair flat again as she turns an easy grin on him, picking her way through the mud under his arm. "Don't die."

[eiattu_pride]

Rial squeezes her shoulder lightly, rain pouring down onto him. "Never, my princess."

[fighting_mad]

"Oho, immortal, are you?" she says, laughing, paying more attention to him than she is to the eventual goal of the side entrance across the courtyard.

[eiattu_pride]

"Of course," he says, grinning. "Skin of steel and a heart of...something impenetrable."

[fighting_mad]

They're both grinning fit to bust, dripping and muddy and looking decidedly unroyal, when Plourr tugs him through the door. It's the servants' level of the palace, but it's closest and besides, Plourr has never thought herself above being down here. More specifically, it is one of the kitchens, populated by precisely one boy, peeling tubers.

He stares to his heart's content. Plourr quirks an eyebrow at him and says to Rial, "Shielded, maybe?"