“Charmeeeiiine! Charmeine!” The little singsong tones of her younger sister couldn’t be ignored any longer. Charmeine huffed a sigh and tossed her head, throwing her pale strands of hair out of her blue eyes. She fixed her sister with a look that was more annoyed than she actually was.
“What do you want, Parisa?” Charmaine asked, tone pointed. She chewed the rest of the summer grasses she’d been grazing on.
The filly drew in closer, shooting a quick look over her dark rump toward where their mother was grazing some ways away, then back at her older sister. “Can you ask mom if we can go play?” She had lowered her voice to a near whisper. Charmeine’s expression grew somewhat suspicious.
“Did you already ask mom and she said no?”
“No…” Parisa looked away, and Charmeine knew the truth. She softened, though, as she often did for her little sister. As annoyed as she might’ve pretended to be, Charmeine loved Parisa, and she even loved how much the young filly looked up to her. Rolling her eyes she stretched her neck out and playfully bumped Parisa’s brown cheek.
“You’re lying, but alright. I’ll ask.”
Parisa’s expression went quite quickly from guilty to excited and Charmeine let out a soft laugh before flicking her tail and walking toward their mother.
After that it wasn’t much longer until she and Parisa were trotting through the Bay forest, Parisa asking her usual youthfully innocent questions and Charmeine doing her best to answer them. Their voices floated above the chirpings of warblers and song sparrows but slowly drew quiet as Parisa chose to investigate a shallow pool of water and Charmeine decided to graze. She watched her sister splash about, chasing minnows, sticking her nose into the cold water, blowing bubbles and ripping it back out with a shriek of giggles. Little droplets of water went flying, some eventually spattering Charmeine across her face and neck. She snorted, flicking her tail and turning her ears back at the sudden chill the water brought. Parisa, of course, thought it was hilarious and giggled again before leaping toward the direction of her older sister, splashing her hooves into the water and sending more than just a few droplets splashing over Charmeine.
“Parisa!” Charmeine squealed in offense and snorted, her pale bangs slick and stuck to her now-wet face.
“Sorry!”
“No you’re not!” Charmeine growled and leapt forward, causing Parisa to squeal, whites of her eyes briefly flashing as she tucked her haunches and scrambled awkwardly through the water. Charmeine splashed into the river, sending little waves launching out to splash over Parisa’s back-end as the little filly scrambled up the other side of the bank. Charmeine wasn’t letting her get away that easily, though, and kept running after her, lowering her head and stretching her neck with an intent to give her little sister a nip for good measure.
Parisa’s tail flicked up off her rump as she collected her long legs under her and burst forward, running at full, chaotic speed as she began darting around trees and down through the forest.
“Wait! Parisa, not so fast!” Charmeine called out behind her, a little panicked as the dark filly darted far enough ahead it wasn’t as easy to make her out like it had been before. She raced off after her, leaping over a fallen log and skirting around a few large rocks, kicking them out behind her as she did. Charmeine could hear their full thuds behind her and even a cracking snap as one bounced off the trunk of a pine tree, chipping the dark bark to reveal the soft pale wood underneath. None of the damage was registered, though, as she raced after her sister, who she could no longer see.
Up ahead there was a yelp and some crashes, some snapping of brush and the dull push of soil eroding away…
“Parisa?!” Charmeine yelped, throwing her weight forward as she burst out of the forest and had to throw her weight back into her haunches, slamming them down as she struggled to come quickly to a stop. Right at the edge of the forest was where the beach gave way, transitioning down from earth to coarse black sand, it was particularly steep here, and Parisa hadn’t stopped in time and instead went careening down the slope. She was now a crumpled tangle of long limbs down at the bottom. Charmeine’s tail flagged off her rump as she paced quickly back and forth, snorting and looking fearfully down at her sister.
“Parisa? Parisa are you okay?” She cried down to her, but Parisa only groaned. Charmeine tried to climb down the slope, but her instincts pulled her scrambling back up. She huffed a hard breath and started toward the left, down where the hillside gradually sloped and she could safely leap down to the beach.
The sand gave way to her weight as she thudded down onto it, then moved for her sister’s side. She gently nosed Parisa, sniffing over her and checking for the worst injuries she could imagine.
Thankfully, Parisa was fine.
“I’m okay Char,” Parisa whined, nibbling at the hairs off her sister’s cheek to get Charmeine to stop poking at her.
“Are you sure? Nothings broken?”
“I don’t think so… just sore,” the young filly complained, lips thinning in discomfort as she tried to struggle back up to her feet. She fell back down with a huff, ears flicking back, then forward, and pulled herself upward again. This time she made it, though she favored her right front leg, holding it up in the air between her and her sister. Charmeine lowered her lips to touch it gently, but didn’t feel much heat or smell any blood or break in skin. They were lucky, she hadn’t seemed to have gravely injured herself.
“Oh, look Charmeine!” Parisa said with hushed wonder, slowly lowering her hoof back down to the ground. She had her large ears (slightly curved inward at their tips) pointed forward as she looked at the distant ocean just down the shoreline. The pair had never come this close to the ocean - their mother hated the ocean and spoke often of how dangerous and scary a thing it was. Maziel didn’t want to be anywhere near it and she especially wouldn’t like the thought of her daughters near it either. Charmeine knew the ocean was the reason she did not know her blood-father, or if he was even still alive. She felt a shiver sweep down her spine, watching the dark waves crash up the beach with their mighty tremble.
“Come on Parisa,” she said, “Let’s go back to mom and the herd before anything else bad happens. We've tested our luck enough today.”
"But I just want to see the ocean a little closer... pleeease?"
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