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 Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2023 3:36 pm
This is a solo RP between my Soq Thuraya Airëmirë and Esmerelda. Please do not post. Thuraya posts in Pale Cornflower Blue*, Esmerelda posts in Lime.  Esme stretched out her vibrant wings as she trotted along the river banks a few days' journey away from the Silver Willow Bell Herd. As rich in willow trees the herd lands were, the young Wind mare had felt like making a journey further afield, get away for a week, see the rest of the natural world, not overharvest their own willow thickets, maybe find new herbs to try mixing with willow to find out their medicinal properties.
Esme was no unicorn, there hadn't been any unicorns in the family in a couple generations, as far as she knew. The only magic she had was the flight her wings gave her, and even that was pretty prosaic. But that hadn't stopped her from developing an interest in herb lore. And the willows of her herd's lands had been a good way to start learning the medical side of plants.
Admittedly, though, this was partly a way to find out if there were any medicines that could soothe the heartache her mother seemed to carry along since Esme's father had left them. Much as Esme wanted to love and defend her father, her father's decision to leave her mother for another mare who'd apparently always hated Esme's mother still hurt a lot years later. Fortunately, the Silver Willow Bell Herd had been mostly comprised of family members, and the entirety of the herd had been happy to accept Esme's mother and any and all children she might bring with. Esme's mother hadn't felt ready to stay, but Esme had been happy to find the comforting acceptance of the extended family.
So lost in thought was the young Wind mare that she didn't notice the unusual little plant growing in the trail ahead of her until she nearly tripped over it. Thuraya fluttered along the riverbanks, enjoying the warmth as she zipped between the spring sunbeams. She was much further inland than she normally came, enjoying the lack of sea salt on her wings. Honestly, if getting her wings wet was this optional, moving inland seemed an incredibly tempting thing to do. Her only regret would be moving far away from her first friend, Gahz'rilla. Being a rather large mer, he wouldn't really be able to follow her inland, or at least, not very far. Some of the estuaries along the coast were pretty shallow, and so were some of the salt marshes and sloughs. A conundrum. In the meantime, she could always go inland on shorter visits.
Like she was doing right now.
Currently, she was a little larger than a butterflyfish, and enjoying the trailing branches of some kind of tree whose branches hung toward the water in a permanent fountain of foliage. It was honestly quite pretty, and Thuraya idly wondered how many plants on land did this. Did any of the flowering trees do it? That could be really pretty, a fountain of flowers.
She heard a sound from the trail alongside the river, the sound of hoofbeats in soft dirt and a bell jingling cheerfully. Around the trail ahead of her came a black mare splashed with the brightest of green stars, green on her hooves, green on the tips of her hair, green on her primary feathers, and sparkling green eyes. A silver bell jingled merrily from her right ear, and she bore pouches full of foliage and branches from the fountaining tree.
And she was about to trip over an odd plant in the middle of the trail when she stopped.
Zipping over, Thuraya increased her size to normal, and called out, "Good day! Pretty plants in this area, yeah?"
Yes. Very casual and informed, Thuraya had just as good as admitted that she didn't know anything about the local vegetation. Oh, well, hopefully this mare would be nice.*Pale Cornflower Blue = #ABCDEF
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2023 3:53 pm
Esme blinked, distracted from the odd little plant in the trail by the presence of the unfamiliar Flutter. Flutter-kirin-kelpi hybrid, was her best guess, with a very fluffy ruff around the base of her neck, fluffy moth antennae, and bedecked in flowers. Well, whatever the nature of this stranger, Esme probably had a friend in enjoying plants.
"Hi," she replied warmly, dipping her head to the sound of her jingling silver bell. "Yes, it is pretty countryside around here." The unfamiliar mare had spoken oddly, and had kelpi fins...so...had she grown up by or in the sea? In the sea probably wasn't very good for her wings. Esme's wings might be fine, but the other mare probably didn't enjoy wet wings.
But she didn't ask that, since it seemed a little invasive, and Esme was trying to be better about being a pest.
"I'm Esmerelda, though you can call me Esme. What's your name, and what brings you here on a nice day like this?" As if she couldn't guess, a wooded river like this was vibrant with life, and, for anyone growing up along waterways who loved plants, it was a smorgasbord of greenery.
Thuraya smiled warmly, returning Esme's warm tone herself. "Thuraya Airëmirë, though you can call me Thuraya. I lived my whole life by the sea, and wanted to see the plants that grow further inland, and this seemed like the perfect time of year to do it," she added enthusiastically. "Ummm, if you wouldn't mind telling me...what kind of branches are you carrying? I haven't learned the name of that plant," she added apologetically. At least Esme didn't seem to think Thuraya was weird for being unfamiliar with these kinds of plants.
Her emerald eyes flicked down to the strange plant between them. It had thick buds, short vines, large leaves, and sported a few white, round flowers marked with a star shape in the center. It was cute, in a primordial kind of way, like a sea pen had intermingled with one of those vining plants with similar flowers that she had seen growing around other plants. Honestly, she should probably ask about that plant at some point, too, just as she should ask about the plant before the two mares. Maybe Esme knew something about it?
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2023 4:11 pm
Esme nodded. Springtime was an excellent time for a plant-loving Soquili to wander the greener parts of the world. The next question confirmed that Thuraya probably hadn't talked much to terrestrial Soquili. "These? These are willow branches," she replied, nodding toward the weeping willows along the riverbank. "Weeping willow branches are the best for basketry, and it's an easy way to get ingredients for anything that requires parts of a willow tree."
Her lime-green eyes strayed back toward the strange plant on the trail. It looked pretty primeval, with leaves that looked jungle-y, and vines and blossoms that reminded her of morning glories. Pretty as morning glories were, if this was the sort of plant to colonize its surroundings...cultivation probably wasn't worth it. From what she hazily recalled, morning glories could be far more trouble than they were worth, and she'd heard stories that included words and phrases like "drug" and "bad trip." Whatever this was, it was pretty, but probably not something she wanted to play with.
Thuraya nodded curiously. She'd seen baskets, though she was more familiar with shells than baskets. Esme probably knew what she was talking about. She'd get back to the "weeping" thing in a moment. Though she ached to know what Esme meant by "weeping." Was that what it was called when branches hung down like that? The branches of the weeping willows along the river had seemed incredibly soft, waving flexibly in the least breeze.
"So...have you seen a plant like this before?" Thuraya asked, delicately indicating with a cloven hoof toward the plant in the trail. "And can you tell me more about whatever this 'weeping' thing is?" Scratch that, get all questions out now. Not only was she curious, but Gahz'rilla would probably want to hear of plants like these, too.
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2023 7:22 pm
"I'm not sure; I've never seen a plant exactly like it," Esme replied slowly, thoughtfully. "Its flowers and vines look kinda like morning glories, but its leaves look wrong for morning glories; morning glories usually have more rounded leaves, with no slits in the sides, just smooth edges, except for one sharper tip. They're pretty, but I wouldn't recommend eating the flowers," she continued clinically. "But, even if it's not a morning glory, eating strange plants probably isn't a good idea."
Thuraya blinked. Morning glory? Another name to file away for later reference. Avoid eating strange plants? That was...limiting, but...
"What about drinking the nectar? Is that probably okay?" she asked curiously. So far, she'd experienced no adverse effects from any nectar, but this would be important to note, if anything was known to be bad to ingest.
This time it was Esme's turn to blink. "Nectar? That's probably fine. I haven't heard of any Flutters getting sick off of nectar," she replied honestly. A Flutter might be able to drink the nectar safely, now that Esme thought about it. And since she apparently had some cousins who were Flutters, and hadn't heard of anything like them getting sick off of nectar, nectar was probably fine.
Thuraya nodded in relief. That was good. "Its leaves look a bit like a sea pen," she mused, "But those are animals, not plants. Could you teach me about other plants? I can help you take the willow branches back to wherever you're going, if you're willing to teach me about terrestrial plants. And, maybe, we can look in on our strange little plant at a later point, after we part ways?"
At Esme's nod, Thuraya smiled and held still as Esme shifted some of her load onto the Flutter's shoulder, and they began to travel to Esme's home, talking about plants both terrestrial and marine, both making a mental note as to where to find the strange plant later that year.
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