Assume this is before Michael/Sasha events. He's gone round the south of Connlaoth and into northern Serendipity, and when he finally gets a horse he'll head up to Reajh...where Michael will eventually meet him and hijinks will occur!
[center:3s1ljr4c]***[/center:3s1ljr4c]
The livestock markets weren't usually where he set up shop. He knew his way around the pens as well as anyone could, but...yeah. Something about the smell - lanolin, dust, the towering mountains of muck each with a little civilisation of glossy black flies hovering above it - tended to put people off buying stuff like furs, and mead, and basically all the things that were his stock in trade!
There was a better market in Serendipity than in Connlaoth for some things - especially obsidian and amber and such like he was carrying in his pockets even now; something about them made them excellent for the little magics, household charms, minor fortune telling and such, and it'd been well worth making the trip. Further south than was his usual stomping ground, and he'd be cutting it fine on the return trip buck up Hyoite way, but...after the colic incident (poor old Nigella, the kindest thing to do in the end was to kill her, rolling around on the ground in agony with her guts all knotted) the plain and simple truth of it was that he needed another horse.
Sasha was big. He was strong. He'd pulled the Wonder Tent himself for a while after the colic incident - just until he could find a decent beast to take the load again - and it hadn't been so very difficult for him, not enough that he wouldn't do it again if he had to. It was just that a horse was faster, and if he didn't make it up into Sionad on schedule...well.
He'd freeze to death when winter caught him on the way, and half the tundra settlements might not have enough stored to have everyone last through either. There. If you asked a sionadyaki about winter, they didn't laugh much!
He rolled a bead across his knuckles thoughtfully, and tried to find a good place to start looking for another horse.
Eshe had never been this far north before and she could hardly keep her eyes in her head. It was so different from Adela and Essyrn and the villages between. Absently stroking the nose of one of her horses, mostly sturdy powerful planes ponies, though she still had a few of the sleek, graceful desert horses. They seemed to be much more popular up north than the ponies.
She wasn't sure why. Sure, they were fast and quick, but they lacked the staying power of the ponies. But the people here seemed so obsessed with looks. Yet they were all intimidated by Eshe's great beauty! Not many people talked to her and they all kept staring at her.
Huffing, the okapitaur tossed her head, shifting the myriad of tiny braids off her shoulder to behind her back. Though there finally seemed to be a customer! A huge man with a giant beard that had Eshe's attention immediately. She wasn't all that used to beards yet, her people didn't grow them!
"Woooow! It's so big! Can Eshe touch it?"
He'd thought it was a child at first, so he looked down.
Nope. No child. No one there, except some legs that definitely didn't belong to any of the horses he'd been looking at. Unexpectedly...stripy...legs, too slender for horse legs, with neat little white-socked hooves on the ends. More than the usual allotment of legs for a person, too.
Well now, this was new. So he looked up.
"Oh, hello!"
It was a woman. Well, sort of a woman. A different kind, shall we say?
Very tall. Taller than him, which he had to admit was probably a first. Very brown, with long hair and long limbs and her lower body fading off into rich brown fur and those stripy not-horse legs...and not a scrap of clothing anywhere, unless the roughly seven thousand beads braided into her hair could be made to count.
She was grinning at him. It would have been really, really hard not to smile back. Especially with the whole 'I-have-no-clothes' thing going on. Free cleavage was always a bonus in his day, even if he didn't know quite what sort of a person it was attached to.
"I'll tell you what...if you can find a way to get me up there..."
(That was a sentence he'd honestly thought he'd never have cause to say!)
"Eshe? Is that your name? If you can get me up there, you can touch my beard."
He paused to think about it for a moment. Her...fur (it was fur, and he had to distinguish it from the braids somehow) seemed to lie very flat, very smooth. Like close cropped velvet.
"Be careful though. My hair's not like yours. Beards can be prickly!"
Eshe gave a loud laugh, already liking the man, "Eshe can each you just fine!" She had gotten used to bending down to interact with Sita and other humans, plus, he head was just about level with her chest, which made touching his beard easy.
Her delicate hands came up and smooshed into his beard, another delighted laugh escaping her, "It is prickly! So stiff! Eshe likes it!" Her hands rubbed along in vigorously, her thumbs playing with the part above his lip, "How do you kiss girls with it!"
Sasha laughed.
"I guess that depends on how she likes to be kissed. How do you kiss boys without one?"
Wait. Wait. There was a thought trying to get in here...
He'd heard of centaurs before. He'd seen a couple of goaty-legged people around, once or twice. Still, short of her hanging a big sign around her neck (and covering up the free cleavage, what a shame) he'd have no idea where to start guessing what her back end might be! For all he knew, they hatched. Or burst out of each other's heads fully formed. Or...something.
"People like you...they do have boys, right?"
Eshe paused, blinking as Sasha's question. She was perfectly normal and people's lack of understanding about her race made no sense to her. Of course they would know!
"Why wouldn't there be boys?" She laughed and rubbed his beard again, lowering her face down to rub a cheek against his beard, squealing in delight, "It's so weird! All prickly!"
Finally she let Sasha's face go, still smiling brightly at him, "Eshe likes you! Eshe give you good deal!"
"Begging your pardon, sweet thing. I just haven't seen anyone quite like you before, and I'm an ignorant old donkey who asks silly questions."
Sasha leaned on the railing of the stockyard. There were plenty of sturdy looking animals in there, but coming from the south...
"Have you got any horses that would be okay with cold?"
"Donkey? You aren't a donkey!" Eshe laughed again, adoring the funny old man that was talking to her. He was like Sita in some ways, which made Eshe like him more. She hadn't gotten to spend as much time with Sita this year as she normally did, with all the traveling to come this far North.
Turning her attention to the horses, she ignored the leggy desert breed and pointed out a few of the smaller, shaggier ponies, "That one, that one and that one. They are good. Very tough. That one," Eshe pointed to the first one again, "She has the stamina of a bull! Feisty and stubborn. Good pick!"
"This one? You think this one, hey?"
Sasha peered at it. Shaggy bay, almost as round as a barrel but solid with muscle rather than fat...good teeth when he slid his thumb under its lips to check (though he had to jerk his hand back again pretty quickly afterwards!)...
"See, where I live is very, very cold, much colder than this. I don't want her to be uncomfortable or sad. You trust me?"
Eshe actually had no idea how cold things could get, as she was from the jungle, but many of the ponies came from the mountains, so she nodded, "Yes yes! She comes from the high up! See her thick coat!"
Reaching over, Eshe stroked the bay's neck, ruffling the long mane, "Why? You think she not sturdy enough?"
"She's perfect. I'm more worried about me. You sure you want to give one of your good, strong ponies to me?"
Sasha winked.
"After all, I'm mean and nasty. I'll probably just end up insulting her and putting the wrong colour beads through her mane."
Eshe frowned, arms crossed under her breasts, "Eshe wont give her ponies to anyone mean. Don't insult Eshe by saying she would." Puffing her cheeks out, one hoof stamped irritably, "You are nice, even if you haven't told Eshe your name."
"My name?"
It took him a second to realise what she was talking about, but eventually it got through. Sasha slapped himself on the forehead.
"Oh! Oh, yeah. Sorry. How rude of me." He bowed theatrically, and kissed her hand (with bonus extra whiskers, since she'd been so entertained!). It seemed like a good thing to do at the time. "I'm Sasha."
That had Eshe squealing with laughter, her annoyance vanished at the feel of his whiskers, "Noooo! They are so scratchy! Sasha is like a brush!"
With another squeal, Eshe hugged him against her chest, giving him a face full of her small breasts, "Eshe likes Sasha! What a silly name!"
"Whoa!"
For someone so lightly built on the top half, Eshe was strong! It was probably something to do with the four legs bracing her in place, but he had to be impressed that she could jerk him around so easily...ah well, at least he got free hugs out of it. Free breast hugs too, and personally he'd always considered those the best kind.
He was pretty sorely tempted to blow raspberries or something, just to see her reaction. Maybe it wasn't the best place to do it, but the thought was a nice one. Apparently beardy kisses were hugely entertaining now?
He laughed.
"What's wrong with my name? I like my name! I've had it since I was a little boy!"
"It's funny on Eshe's tongue! Sasha, Sasha, Sasha!" Eshe giggled again, still cuddling him against her chest. She tended to spend a lot of time with Sita like this, so it was second nature for her to curl against a human again.
"How is it different to yours, Eshe my Eshe?"
Yeah, he was shitstirring. But it was fun. Her peered up at her.
"So...I can have the horse? And it doesn't matter if I don't make her look as pretty as you?"
"Because Eshe is a normal name. Sasha is a funny name." Eshe pouted, her hoof stamping again, "Eshe doesn't have a silly name. And maybe Eshe wont let Sasha have a good pony if he's going to be mean."
Oh dear. She seemed upset. Sasha...had honestly never seen such an impressive pout!
And then there was the stamping. If she wanted to, Eshe could probably crush a man's toes to pulp with those hooves.
He might have to fix this, and quickly, or he'd be stuck pulling the Wonder Tent by hand for the term of his natural life. Quite possibly with pulped-up toes. You'd have to be a bit on the crazy side to think that sounded anything like an appealing prospect for a man.
"I'm sorry. I was only joking. I didn't realise you'd be upset, sweeting, or I never would have said it. Eshe is a very nice name, very pretty. Better than mine. Much better than mine. Mine's only a nickname, you know, for little boys?"
He smiled.
"You want I should make it up to you?"
"Yes. Eshe is a beautiful name for a beautiful desert flower!" She had adored Sita from the moment he had called her that and she used the term now, still pouting at Sasha, "Eshe was nice to Sasha and giving him a good pony and he was mean! Eshes is a delicate lady!"
Reaching over, she jabbed his chest with a finger, "Sasha better make it up to Eshe good! Or Eshe wont like him!"
"I do beg your pardon, Eshe my lovely."
He was starting to pick up on something of a pattern here. The more extravagant he could be - and yeah, if he tried, he could probably come up with plenty! - the more she seemed to like it. Okay. Right we are then.
Sasha could live with that.
"I'll make it up to you. Since I'm a great stupid lump of a boy who clearly doesn't know a delicate lady when he sees one, you can even decide how. What would a beautiful desert flower like yourself like best?"
Eshe wasn't quite ready to unbend and she glared at Sasha, though it had much less heat in it than it had before, "Eshe doesn't know. Sasha was so mean! Eshe's feelings were hurt and she doesn't forgive Sasha yet!"
"Hmmmm...oh, I know! You're stunningly beautiful already, my love, but what if I could make you even prettier? Would that be good?"
Eshe's expression was a little suspicious, but she leaned closer, unable to totally mask her excitement, "How would Sasha make Eshe prettier?"
Eshe had beads of all different colours strung through her hair. White, red, green, dark blue...but Sasha was willing to bet she'd never worn or seen anything like what he could give her. He dug his hand in his pocket, felt around and came up with a handful of beads.
Amber. Smooth black obsidian. Icy blue soapstone oiled until it gleamed. Whale bone, intricately carved.
"You see the black ones? They come out of a volcano, powerful and beautiful just like you."
He moved his finger slightly, pointing out a smoothly polished bone.
"Have you ever seen a whale? It's like...a giant fish, the biggest fish you can imagine, as big as a mountain."
Eshe gasped, hands flying to her mouth as she stared wide eyed at the beads Sasha pulled out. They were the most beautiful things she had ever seen in her life! The colors! Her dark eyes lifted to Sasha's face, her anger at him vanished, "These are for Eshe?"
"If you want them."
Sasha smiled. She was so pleased, ray of sunshine pleased. It was contagious.
"They don't suit me, but I think they'd look beautiful for you."
Eshe squealed and her hands quickly went to work on the beads in her own hair, removing them and shoving them in the pouches she wore around her waist, "Help Eshe! She wants to wear the new pretty ones!"
They were so beautiful! So delicate and lovely and the colors were stunning!
"Hold it just one moment, my lovely one. If we're going to do this, then I think we should do it properly, as befits someone with your refinement and good taste..."
Not that he was an expert on this or anything, but a holding pen for livestock was hardly the place for a makeover. Come on. Really. It just wasn't. There was a tent nearby, a sort of shaded place with a bucket of water, and a dipper for merchants or thirsty shoppers to drink from. That might do...
He led her over to it and bowed. Extravagantly. She seemed to need that sort of big gesture. Now, something for her to sit on...there was no way he could reach to help her like she wanted if she was still standing up!
He wore a lot less clothing when he came south. It was almost like being in his undies all the time - and yeah, that thought had entertained him quite a lot over the years! No layers, no nothing, just the rough linen shirt that was usually a second layer wedged between skintight wool and a thick felted coat, tied with another strip of linen for a belt. He whipped it off and spread it in a particularly shaded spot.
In the absence of anything better, it would have to do.
"Kneel down on this please, love...can someone here magic us up a mirror? Anyone? Aha, thank you...Bueller, you said your name was?"
He settled in behind her to start stripping away the beads.
Eshe beamed at Sasha, eating up the flattery and grand gestures. She didn't really get the point of him spreading down the cloth, but then, humans were odd creatures. Maybe it was a ritual? With a small laugh, she carefully lowered herself down, the movement practiced after living in a tent with Sita for years.
Once she was settled, Eshe went back to work at pulling out her old beads, "Sasha has lots of pretty things! Even though Sasha is so small, Eshe bets he has many bed partners!"
"Some, when I'm very lucky or ask them nicely. None quite like you, of course, but I've known some lovely women...a few nice men too, but that's a little different. And I'm not so small, not for a human. If I had four great long legs like you, I bet I'd be taller."
There was a rhythm to picking out these beads. He hummed softly, a childish little tuneless thing. In the back of his head, he wondered...she obviously brushed her hair, but did she go over the back of herself, that oily fur that lay dense and sleekly flat...did she do that with a curry comb or something after she was grooming the horses?
"Sasha is tiny!" Eshe laughed, reaching over to tug on his beard, "You are like a baby! Sita too! All the people here are little!" She wrinkled her nose, the white lines that decorated her face crinkling, "And not enough legs!"
Picking through the beads, Eshe started to tie the beads onto the ends of her braids, admiring herself happily.
"I dunno, I'm a pretty hairy baby. And I cry lots."
Sasha studied himself critically.
"An extra pair of legs might suit me though. What do you think? Would I make a good..." oh shit, what WAS she? "person like you?"
"Babies can be hairy." Granted, the babies hair she was talking about was all on their okapi bits, but that was besides the point. Glancing up from her work, she pursed her lips, looking Sasha over critically, "Yes. You would make a good okapi. Very exotic. Sasha is so pale!" She nodded before going back to her beads, "Eshe would even allow Sasha to mount her."
"Mount y-oh. Oh, I get it. Well, I'd be a very lucky okapi then, too!" He stumbled a bit over the unfamiliar word, but on the whole it wasn't too bad. Eshe might not even have noticed. "It's not every day a beautiful lady like yourself takes a shine to me!"
Sasha was saying all the right things and Eshe was almost glowing with happiness. She had new pretties and compliments and a beard to play with!
"Oh yes. Sasha would be very honored, but Eshe likes him. It's a sad Sasha's penis is too small to satisfy."
"Too small? Too small?! Eshe, Eshe my dove, you've never even seen it."
Sasha hadn't needed to braid anyone's hair for years. Fortunately, the skills seemed to be coming back to him little by little. Still a little messy of course, but so far Eshe hadn't complained.
"Besides, you're hurting my feelings!" He wiped away an imaginary tear. "I've never had a human woman say I was too small before...I can't help it if I'm not as magnificent as an okapi..."
"But you are small. Like a baby." Eshe shrugged her shoulders. Sita got the same way when she mentioned his tiny penis, "I am sure you were okay with sex, but no woman could be satisfied with so small a tool."
She laughed, amused by how silly Sasha was, "But you shouldn't worry. You are very nice. Girls will like you anyway!"
"Well, my tiny human penis and I are very happy together. What would I have done before I met you if it made human girls cry?"
"Sasha wouldn't make girls cry. He's too nice." Eshe giggled and shook her head, "Besides, the girls would like it if you had a real penis!"
Eshe of course, referred to proper okapi woman, because she always defaulted to them, and who wouldn't want to sleep with okapi woman?
"Women like you, maybe...but Eshe my Eshe, I haven't met any women like you until today. The girls I usually like are human girls, smaller than I am! It wouldn't be fair to them if only okapi-sized men would do, when most of them will never meet one..."
Sasha sighed. Dramatically.
"How sad would they be after I was gone?"
"Sasha just needs to meet real woman." Eshe flicked her short tail, tying another bead into her hair, "And those girls just need to meet real men. Humans are just too small."
"But Eshe...most human girls don't like to share. Especially not their men. If the human women all want okapi men, what will the okapi women do?"
"Okapi woman are smart." Eshe laughed, "Okapi woman know how to share. Besides, okapi woman are much prettier. Human woman don't have stripes."
Really, Sasha was so dense! He was like a baby! Slow and small and funny.
"Very true, but I like them anyway. Someone like me, with my tiny human penis, I'm lucky to talk to girls at all."
"That's true." Eshe nodded, finishing the last of her braids, twisting her hair so the new beads clicked together, "But Sasha is charming, so that helps. Girls will forgive his inadequate penis."
"I'm so glad to hear that...and I do believe we are done. Do you feel pretty?"
"Yes! Eshe is beautiful! Sasha has such pretty beads!" Eshe threw her arms around Sasha's neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Eshe will let you pick out a horse!"
"You were always stunning, lovey, but the beads don't hurt. Now about that horse..."
Sasha glanced over to the holding pen. It was hard to see the three she'd pointed out before from this distance - there were a lot of horses in there, a lot of movement, a lot of legs! - and bay was a pretty common coat.
"I trust you to give me a good one. I need one that's good in the cold...oh, and it's not for riding. It's got to pull a cart. What do you think?"
"Oh...for a cart. Sasha should have said that! Eshe knows the perfect girl!" Watching Eshe get up was a kind of impressive sight. It took a lot of awkward effort, her large bulk not well suited and all for legs kicking until she managed to get them under her body and heave herself up.
Steadying herself, Eshe took a few steps, then looked around, "Eshe has a pretty one, shaggy and fat! She's got a bad riding gait, like a bag of rocks, but she is strong. Good chest."
"She sounds perfect. Thank you, sweet girl."
Sasha kissed her on the cheek. It was a bit of a stretch.
"I just hope a handful of beads counts as payment. You don't need my help, all the okapi boys would run after you anyway, but...yeah, now they'll do it because they think you're a princess."
Eshe flushed happily, giggling as she clapped her hands in delight, "Eshe will take the beads as payment and Sasha must promise to treat his pony like a wife!"
Reaching over, Eshe kissed Sasha's cheek again, loving how strange and exotic his beard felt against her face.
"Like my wife? Are you sure?"
Sasha laughed and winked.
"She wouldn't like a human husband any better than you would. Maybe I better treat her like my daughter instead, huh?"
"Not like that!" Eshe laughed, deep and rich, amused by Sasha again. He was so funny! "But Sasha must treat her like like Sasha would his wife! Listen when she nags Sasha, treat her like a partner. Sasha will care for her, she will care for Sasha!"
Eshe reached over and touched his nose, "She is smart and strong and beautiful. Sasha would do well to listen!"
"Oh, you mean like my MOTHER! Will she wash my socks for me?"
It was enormous amounts of fun to wind Eshe up!
"Sasha!" Eshe made an angry sound, stomping her front hoof in anger, her expression annoyed, "Stop teasing! And what is a sok?"
"But you're so much fun to tease, love. I can't help myself!"
"Well do!" Eshe snorted again, still feeling ruffled. She wasn't supposed to be teased! She was a rare and beautiful flower! Not for teasing!
"All right, I'm sorry. I'll tell you what...do your legs get cold when you come this far north?"
Eshe huffed another moment, still looking quite put out, her foot pawing at the ground, "Well....yes. Eshe wasn't made for such cold places. Eshe is delicate."
Sasha stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"I think I can get you something to keep your legs warm. AND it's even stripy, so you can have two beautiful sets of stripes instead of one. This is what socks are for. If I cut the bottom of them out, so they went over your hooves...would you like that?"
This had Eshe's interest. She was a fan of anything that made her more beautiful and stripes were the utter epitome of beauty. Giving Sasha a suspicious look, she nodded her head, "Eshe would like to have those. Eshe likes stripes."
"In that case..."
The most obvious distinguishing feature his coat had was the pockets. Lots of pockets. Sometimes he got a few funny looks when he had to dig through them all, but it was just common sense, really. How else was he supposed to keep a dry pair of socks close by when the permafrost melted and he was ankle deep in bog? Or some food? Or even a needle and thread to fix those minor incidents?
Sasha paused. Which pocket had he left the socks in?
Handful of gold flakes, in a little bag...no. Small gods...that was personal, so no. Needles, threaded through a square of sealskin...no. Dried fruit...no. Whetstone...no. Ball of string...no. Live mouse...no.
Aha! Got them!
Eshe stared in growing wonderment as Sasha dug through pocket after pocket, her eyes wide and her mouth opened in a small 'o'. The mouse got a small squeal from Eshe, backing quickly up. Rodents scared her, made her jittery.
The socks got a gasp. Eshe had seen humans wear them before, but none with stripes. Still wary of the mouse in his pocket, she made grabby hands at Sasha, "And Eshe can wear those?"
"Give me half a moment to cut the bottom out..." he was doing it already...a little ragged at the edges, but it would do. She could make up some garbage about it being the latest fashion.
"There, all yours. My mother made them, so they're very warm." Also very...eyecatching. There was purple involved. And some green. And red. And yellow, let's not forget the yellow.
Eshe's jaw dropped and she grabbed the socks, hugging them, "They are so beautiful! How does Eshe wear them? Oh! No one will be able to resist Eshe in these!"
"Oh, you sort of...roll them over your feet, up your legs. See?" He pulled his own trouser leg up to show her.
Of course, these socks were very long. It was a practical consideration, but still, very long indeed. The socks his mother made - she was...legendary for her socks, as much for the colour scheme and overwhelming knobblyness as for the warmth! - usually reached almost to the knee on him, so there was no telling what they might look like on Eshe!
It was a little awkward for Eshe to reach her own hoof, which took some awkward dancing on her part, but eventually she had the socks on and pulled on as far as they would go. Clapping, Eshe pranced around, "Now Eshe has stripes on all her legs!"
"And very beautiful stripes, too!"
Sasha almost couldn't get the words out through laughing.
With a delighted squeal, Eshe threw herself at Sasha again, giving him a kiss on the mouth before dancing away again to prance and twirl, thrilled with her new beads and her socks and life was perfect!
He was so surprised he fell over.
Eshe paused in her cavorting, blinking down at Sasha, "What are you doing down there?"
"Tea break."
"What?"
"Sorry. Just trying to hide the fact that I'm woefully underdressed. You in all your finery, with your beads and your socks...I can't compete!"
"And you needed tea?" Eshe frowned, bending down to study Sasha, "Sasha is strange. But if Sasha wants, Eshe can braid his beard!"
"You think you could make me pretty?"
The idea appealed to him for some reason. No idea why, but it might be fun.
"Oh yes! Not Eshe pretty, but pretty!" No need to get his hopes up, "Eshe braids good!"
"Well then...shall we?"
Giggling, Eshe took a seat again, legs folding under her as she awkwardly lowered herself down. Humming happily, she started to braid his beard, "Does Sasha have more beads?"
"Look in my pockets. I have lots of stuff. Maybe beads."
Eshe snorted, "Eshe isn't putting her hands in those! There are mice!"
"Oh, that's only Poldek. He keeps me company. He's very clean, and soft, and probably more worried about you than you are about him. Want to meet him?"
Yes, he kept a little sheepskin mousey nest in one pocket of his coat - he was only a little mouse, he might get cold. It wasn't exactly a secret any more, or at least not now Eshe knew!
"No! It is creepy! Eshe doesn't like him!" The okapitaur wrinkled her nose and leaning away from him, "Eshe doesn't like mice!"
"All right, all right, he'll stay in his pocket. Poldek, stay there!"
Sasha reached into another pocket. This one was almost certainly a mouse free zone, and if he was remembering rightly he had a few little trinkets in there...
"What about these?"
Eshe snorted, feeling a little insulted Sasha would even suggest a lady such as herself deal with mice. The little charms brought a smile to her face and she nodded, hands working his beard into quick braids, "Those are perfect!"
"I feel so pretty. Am I pretty?"
((OOC: Sorry this took so long Dx Holiday weekend + birthday = crazy))
"Oh yes! But not as pretty as Eshe. But that's okay, girls will still like you." Once she was finished, she leaned over and kissed him on the mouth again, "There! Perfect!"
"I don't think I could ever be as pretty as you. No stripes."
"Yes. It's really sad, but you have a good smile, so you'll be okay." Eshe patted his cheek, sorry that humans had to be so ugly and stripless.
"Oh good. That's rather reassuring." Sasha winked. "It would be nice to have stripes though. I gave you all of mine."
Eshe looked down at her legs, then back up at Sasha, "Can you make more stripes so you can wear them again?"
"I'll have to ask my mother. She's always so cross at me when I ruin my clothes...or give them away...or put animals in the pockets and don't warn her..."
"Sasha shouldn't put mice in the pockets." Eshe snorted, tossing her head, expression disgusted, "That is bad. But giving Eshe more pretty stripes is good. She will understand."
"You think so? She does like to tell me I'm handsome, but...she's my mother. They're supposed to say that."
"Of course. And Sasha is nice to look at with his funny beard!"
"Oh, she liked me even before I had a beard. I think. Sometimes it's hard to tell with mothers."
Unthinkingly, Sasha rubbed his knuckles. His mother was no weakling. Some of the things she could do with a ladle damn well hurt!
"Huh?" Eshe tilted her head, puzzled, "Why wouldn't she love her Sasha? And why is Sasha's hands hurt?" Eshe reached over and took Sasha's hand in both of hers, "Did Sasha hurt himself?"
"No, lovey. I was just a bit of a naughty boy sometimes."
That? Was the understatement of the year.
Always borrowing things without asking, taking them off to some hidden corner to tinker with them. The attention span of a drunken gnat. A heathy dose of I wonder what happens when I do THIS?
"Bit of a naughty boy, and Ma has this spoon that she likes to crack over knuckles...she's quick, too!"
Eshe's eyes widened, mouth slightly parted, "She hit Sasha? Why?!" Eshe couldn't imagine using violence like that. It was unheard of in her tribe, physically violence was deeply frowned on.
"Sometimes little boys - or even big boys like me - do stupid things, or wander off and get lost in winter, or all sorts of stuff. A clip around the ear teaches them not to do it again."
He smiled.
"It's only a love tap. She can't hurt me much anyway, she's only," a quick gesture to around his elbow height, "this tall!"
"But you shouldn't hit people!" Eshe was ready to launch into an indigent speech when Sasha made his gesture. Her mouth dropped and she gasped, staring at Sasha, "Sasha's mother is a child?! HOW?!"
"Humans are little, remember? You thought I was like a baby, and by human standards I'm enormous."
Sasha made a broad, sweeping gesture with his arm. They could see a fairly big slice of the marketplace from where they were standing, and there were people everywhere.
"I'm bigger than almost all of those people. Mama is about the same size as them, a little shorter. You'd never notice though - she dominates the room!"
Eshe wrinkled her nose, obviously trying to work that out in her head. She opened her mouth, closed it, then frowned, "Eshe...guesses that is right."
"We can't all have such magnificent long legs as you, my love. If we did, then how would anyone know you were especially lovely? Small people are better for cuddles, anyway."
"Eshe still thinks that is too small." The okapitaur tossed her head, huffing a little at the idea there was someone better for cuddling than she was. She reached over and lightly tugged at Sasha's beard again, "Tell Eshe something fun!"
"What sort of fun, my sweet?"
"Oh, um, something that will make Eshe laugh!"
"In that case..."
What did an okapi eat? Grass, like he assumed whatever the bottom half of her might have liked if it had a head to eat with? Human food? What sort of human food?
"Let me buy you something tasty, and we'll see if we can stir up a little fun! Have you ever heard a drunk man sing?"
"Oh yes!" Eshe clapped her hands and stood up quickly in a tangle of legs and hooves. Prancing lightly, she beamed at Sasha, "You will take Eshe out tonight yes?"
"Oh yes, my love. We'll have a wonderful time, and you'll be the talk of the town."
"Really? Why?" Eshe wasn't a native speaker and while fluent, she occasionally misunderstood things, "Because Eshe is so beautiful?"