Featuring Lord Nuallan and Lady Celestine
Autumn, 763 of the New Age
Glenmore, Royal Glades
Celestine
There was no doubt that a new season was approaching. Warm colours were abundant, coming from the trees and onto the ground. It was autumn. The heat was slowly beginning to lose its power, a cream noticed, as a cool breeze blew through her short, light blonde locks.
The day had been long and boring. Mother didn’t allow her to go off and play today, which made her a little upset. But in a way, mother’s reason did make sense. It was rut, the time of all that icky love and fighting stuff. Her mother was worried she would get trampled in a fight, and Celestine did not want that to happen, so she obeyed with disappointment.
But now it was later in the day, and the frequent sounds of clashing antlers from earlier had died down. After convincing, mother had finally let her go to play, but of course, whenever she was sent to play, she couldn’t seem to find any of the fawns she met. Standing in the open meadow of The Royal Glades, Celestine scanned the other fawnlings. Yet then her eyes stopped, not on anyone she knew, or was it?
“Lord Knoxsh?” She hadn’t seen him ever since her sister was born, and how she missed those bold stripes of his. Before even Celestine knew it, her dainty legs were already trotting his way. As she got closer, she realized it wasn’t the Lord, but that didn’t stop her.
“You look like Lord Knoxsh!” she exclaimed.
Nuallan
The trees had started changing color again, no longer were they vibrant green, but bright oranges, reds and yellows. Pretty colors a fawn would enjoy, if not for the fact it meant it was going to get cold again. The white stuff was pretty but it wasn’t fun to walk on, honestly it was downright irritating. The shiny white stuff particularly liked to make one lose his footing, and crash into other fawns and the big ones that wandered about. Who the striped colt found didn’t like being crashed into at all.
Even with the unpleasant thoughts of the not warm stuff swirling in his head, Nuallan was enjoying the relief from summer’s much too warm grip, finally being able to run and bounce without getting too hot. Leaf piles were especially fun to play with, running towards them as fast as your legs could carry you and then jumping into them with a squeak of delight. The bright colors as they swirled above and around you. It was a lot of fun, even though the big ones gave the little Lordling dirty looks for making a mess. He didn’t care. He was having fun.
But it wasn’t all that fun for long when you were playing by yourself, most of the other fawns were either tucked tight against their mother’s side or simply not here. It wasn’t long before Nuallan took up his other favorite game. Which was sneaking up on and listening to the big ones talking. It took a lot of effort to sneak up on the big ones, and even more to not get chased away as soon as you settled in to snoop. He got chased away more than he succeeded, but it didn’t stop him from trying.
Knoxsh? Nuallan tipped his head back to stare at the other fawn, he looked like the Knoxsh? Did they mean the Knock? The one that he and his mam now lived with? Well, he guessed they did sort of look alike, but he thought his stripes much nicer than the Knock’s. He wiggled his ears trying to find the right words, “I looks a Knock?” He shook his head a little. “My stripe nicer!” That didn’t sound right at all, but he didn’t have much practice with speaking. He hoped the other would understand what he meant anyway.
“Humm… Who you?” Nuallan chirped happily.
Celestine
The striped colt turned his gaze to hers, and once the blue-eyed filly caught a glimpse of his rich, coffee-coloured brown eyes she knew for sure it wasn’t Knox, even though she could already tell it wasn’t him in the first place with this colts blacker coat. The filly was a little disappointed, finding out that he wasn’t Lord Knox after all, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from his. The colt was slightly larger in size and build. And his mane and tail were short, but straight and slightly messy. The appearance wanted to make the cream-coloured filly giggle, but she didn’t want to be rude.
“What a Knock? I said Knoxsh! You look like duh stripe Lord!” she repeated again, although she wasn’t so happy with her wording. But she knew she would get better, in time. On hearing what the colt said, she moved forward and slowly walked around him, inspecting his silver grulla colour and his pretty stripes. What was the difference? “Stripe look same…” she said simply, turning her eyes back to the colt. Although she had to admit, it had been a while since she saw the Lord.
After realizing her eyes had drifted to the side, she turned back and locked them on the colt’s before her. “I be Celestine, a Lady az a matter of facs. Who be you?” she asked, large, curious ears forward.
Nuallan
He looked like a Knoxsh, not the Knock, a striped Lord? It was than he wondered if Knock and Knoxsh were the same thing or rather the same big one, he hadn’t seen many others with stripes yet. Shrugging it off the lordling watched the creamy hind walk around him, her blue eyes inspecting his flashy coat before she stated they looked the same, Nuallan couldn’t help the look of surprise that crossed his face. How could the stripes look the same, was he the only one that had noticed they didn’t? Well, that was disconcerting.
Nuallan’s ears perked up when she said she was a Lady, Lady Celstine? “Lady Celsstine.” He said slowly, he tipped his head forward as he’d seen others do. “I Lord Nu-lan.” He tried to draw out the sound the way his mother did, but it still came out funny and not quite his name, it was still close enough he figured. He grinned happily at her, his messy tail flicking in a pleased fashion.
Celestine
“Lord Nulan!” she repeated, letting his name slip off her tongue. “I like you name!” She gigged softly. “What you doin here alone anyway? Surely you have odder filly fwends, hmmm!” she giggled again, nudging his shoulder and fluttering her eyes before bursting into laughter. “Only teazing! Who you dad? Is it Knoxsh? I mean, you look like him, sooo…..”
Nuallan
Nuallan tipped his head, ears flopping over to the same side. She sure talked a lot, definitely knew more words than him. Frustrating. He tried very hard to learn words, but there were so many to learn. He swore old ones fell out of his head whenever new ones came in. “I like yous too?” He smiled, compliments were supposed to be nice for hinds. Suddenly she asked about filly friends, and nudged his shoulder with a giggle. Only for the creamy hind to say she was only teasing, hind’s seemed to like teasing, and doing that fluttery thing with their eyes. “I few friends!” He chirped, he’d made a couple friends, and that was a good thing!
Celestine asked about his dad and the Knoxsh again. The stripped colt figured she must mean the Knock and nodded, “Yes?” He really wasn’t sure, but they probably were one and the same so. He popped up from his spot on the ground, stretching his stiff limbs and shaking out his tail.
Celestine
Celestine circled the striped colt, blue eyes scanning him carefully as her creamy tail swayed back and forth. He surely looked like the striped stag she once, who also suddenly disappeared, although the colt’s mane was different. It was like hers- straight and in thin strands, unlike Knox’s who was in tight, thick bundles. Perhaps the young lord could lead her to him, and she can finally ask why he suddenly left. It was all quite confusing to the filly. He had been seeing her and her mother quite often until after her sister was born, he suddenly vanished. If the creamy filly had her way, she would go out to look for him, but it was mother’s rule that she had to stay within eye distance.
Just then the filly’s ears burst forward. Her mother was calling, it was time to go home. She jumped in front of the striped colt, smile large and wide. “T’was nice meetin you Lord Nulan! I see you soon hopully one dayz.” And with a twirl, she raced off toward the sound of her mother.
