Samanayrs

Humming an idle tune, Quirk dug his colorful claws into the soft, loamy soil surrounding the small stream in his territory. He and his mares weren't fortunate enough to claim a true hotspring, but the fresh water and heavy vegetation served them well. During the winter, a pack of Oquiesa habitually moved near the area and terrorized the local Songs, but they hadn't seen traces of the predators' arrival as of yet. He hoped they might have another few weeks of peace before the weather turned cool enough to invite the canines southward.

He hoped, and his mares planned, and together they would handle the situation.

Nearby, his first and thus far only filly splashed in a shallow pool. The water had gathered during last night's rain and would evaporate by evening. She chased the autumn leaves floating on the surface of the water, rearing and flapping her oversized wings before pouncing them with glee.

Two sets of long, flexible ears pricked up at a sound across the stream.


((This will not be my finest quality RP, for which I apologize. xD Buuut it'll be cute.)

Hunter would be honest, finding a body of water that you wouldn't get chased away from was kinda difficult. All he wanted was a drink of water, but all kinds of stallions seemed to think he was after their mares (like he was mini instead of young...) or wanted to eat their children, or that O'Qui wanted to eat their children, and they were shooed away before they could get more than a sip!

Vegetation was plentiful at least (unlike the snowy lands he'd trudged through to get here), but he may well stoop to begging at this point for some water!

Which is when his companion's ears perked up and she licked her lips hopefully. Hunter didn't think he was in anyone's territory yet... Could they have gotten lucky?

O'Qui broke into a run ahead of him, excitement and thirst overriding caution. He briefly lost sight of her, but the colt wasn't worried until he reached a break in the foliage to find the pup frozen near the water's edge, eyes trained just a little further up stream. She knew by now that other Sams usually spelled trouble, and was waiting for her master's instruction.

He whispered as quietly as he could, "Come her, girl. Quiet, tip-toe, come here..."

Quirk's mares might have been far more alarmed than their stallion by the sudden appearance of what seemed a miniature Oquiesa pup in their midst. He simply stared at the creature in bemusement, flexing his toes and flicking his ears as he tried to decide on a response. He wasn't one for swift action, this stallion.

His daughter reacted much more quickly, squealing and bouncing in the puddle, an eager splash that drenched her sopping wings even more. "Papa, look!" she cried in a mixture of alarm and delight. "It has a tail like you!"

Her eager prancing led her first forward and then back, uncertain but energetic. She eventually raced back to her father, ears flailing this way and that as she diverted her attention.

"I don't smell Oquiesa, though," he murmured. It seemed a good idea to stand, stretching briefly in case he had to run, while his daughter pranced around him with a child's antsy excitement.

The colt's alarm rose a little higher when O'Qui opted not to move. Her ears were pulled back, and her tail dropped a little as though in submission. She must really have been desperate for that water if she was willing to disobey Hunter. Her tail wagged weakly in an attempt to appear friendly.

Welp. What else could he do? The little Sam crept carefully from the bush he was hiding in, expression at first one of hesitation that then became a sheepish smile as he approached his pet. "Hi there! We're just looking for a drink of water, I promise we aren't here to hurt anyone..."

Oh, yeah, good goin' dummy. What if he didn't think you were gonna hurt anyone, but he's gonna be suspicious now that you said you wouldn't. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It was getting down to life or death here, they couldn't afford stupid mistakes! Well, it was already out of his mouth. "O'Qui, go drink." he muttered to the pup, nudging her forward with his shoulder, "Before they wise up and chase us off."

She took a few hesitant steps forward, but kept her eyes trained on the larger Sam, waiting for him to make his move.

A Samanayr foal? Quirk's bemusement only grew. "Is the Oquiesa pup yours?" he asked unnecessarily, the inclusion of 'we' an obvious indication. Or was it? "Are there more of you?"

The younger filly peered around her father's thin legs, golden eyes shining with curiosity. Her small legs trembled with the desire to bound forward. "Who are they?" she whispered loudly, looking up at the stallion.

He glanced back down and rolled his shoulders in a small shrug. He'd never seen them before, not in the area nor out of it. "I don't know." And slightly louder, "Who are you?"

Well, at least he was asking questions first. "Yeah, O'Qui's mine. Though... she's not an O'Quiesa, awesome as that would be..." The last bit came out more of a mumble. Hunter usually tried to keep his desire for an actual O'Quiesa quiet around the odd puppy creature, though she didn't seem to care that much.

"What, other Sams? Nah, just me an' her," Ah, yeah, the whole other Sams thing. Apparently it was strange for a yearling to be wandering around without adult supervision? But whatever. He had O'Qui, and he'd been doing a lot better for himself with her around. "I'm Hunter of the Frigid Tundra and this is O'Qui, my traveling companion." This stallion, though clearly still a bit wary (probably because of that teeny tiny little filly by his foot), didn't seem the aggressive or easily spooked type which was definitely good news for the little duo.

Hunter relaxed his posture before nudging the pup to do the same. This male wasn't about to attack. "May I ask your name?"

The little pet looked like an Oquiesa... sort of. Then again, he'd never seen one of their pups in person. Maybe it didn't. And who knew what the Sharians might breed as pets these days? With a small shrug, he mentally dismissed the matter of the creature so long as it behaved peacefully.

"Certainly. My name is Quirk of the Painted Muse - my daughter hasn't reached her nameday. We call her Sprite for now."

From beneath him, Sprite's ears flicked straight up in an effort to make her appear taller. "I'm getting closer!" she declared. "It's not far off."

It was... but Quirk felt no need to contradict the filly. "If you mean no harm and you're just passing through, you're welcome to join my mares and I for a meal. Our territory is small, but we have no conflicts with the neighbors."

"Where do you come from?" Sprite blurted out eagerly as soon as her father had made his offer. "Is it far away? Is it cold? You're both very fluffy. Do you like winter? I haven't seen snow yet!"

Oh yeah, he'd almost forgotten that the 'Official Name Day' was a thing. Hunter supposed he was about a yearling when that Mystic had suggested his name, which was when the name day was supposed to be, right? So it had all worked out.

He smiled a toothy grin at the tiny filly. He'd always kinda wanted another Sam closer to his age to hang out with. Sprite was... a little young perhaps, but she had that plucky curiosity the cub- er- colt loved to see in a Sam.

"Wow, really?! Thank you so, so much! That's so much more than we could've asked for!" He splashed his way across the little river to join them on their side of it, O'Qui right on his tail. And then the filly started asking a long stream of questions. Ooh, Hunter was starting to like her a lot. "I'm from way up North where it's always cold, even in the summer! My opinion on winter depends on where you're spending it, as I definitely wouldn't reccommend being up North when the snows hit. Some places up there, the snow can get even taller than the biggest tree you can imagine, and it's all white and really cold, and when it falls it makes everything quiet like it muffles all the sound in the air. It's really cool the first time, but the novelty wears off fast which is why we're down here."

The colt could ramble on all day about his travels, could make up new stories to tell for weeks on end. They should probably interrupt him before he got on a roll.