“When I came out of the wallow after the attack, the first thing that struck me was the silence,” Soren explained, blowing out a long, slow breath as he continued to snuggle with his mate, soaking up his warmth when the chill wanted to invade with the memory. “It was never silent there. Kids were always playing along the banks of the wallow, or in it. Laughing, splashing with their little rhino friends or running in and out of the house, tracking footprints everywhere.”
“Did it ever make you mad when they did that?” Taggart questioned.
“Naa, I loved seeing them happy. What’s a little mud when you have water to clean it away and sweet-smelling herbs and citrus juice to help make the floor sparkle?”
“Nothing, I guess.”
“Exactly. They’re only little for a short time, so why not let them enjoy every part of it?”
“No reason, when you put it that way.”
“I miss it,” Soren admitted quietly. “The games, the joy, all the good food cooking, the stories people shared, especially of the past. Sometimes one person would start and then someone else would tell more of it. Like the one about the time Uncle Glen and a friend of his decided to organize warthog races.”
“Warthog races?”
“Yup.”
“Oh, you have to share it now.”
Giggling, Soren peppered a line of kisses along Taggart’s jaw until he started giggling and squirming too.
“No fair trying to distract me,” Taggart complained. “I want to hear the story.”
“And I’ll tell it, but distracting you is fun.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yup,” Soren replied, as Taggart tickled him and made him squirm until he was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe.
“I give, I give, I give,” Soren squeaked in between gasps.
“Uh-huh, see, I can distract, too.”
“I see and I like it.”
They sighed together and then returned to cuddling and stroking their skin over one another’s, like a soothing mechanism.
“Okay, so Uncle Glen and the warthog races,” Soren said, once their breathing had fallen into sync. “It was such a novel idea and so much fun for everyone, and it all started when Uncle Glen and his friend Elija accidentally spooked a pair of rhinos who were already in a bad mood. They chased them out of the brush and past the wallow, Uncle Glen in his oxpecker form riding on Elija’s back like a jockey tweeting up a storm, and none of it was acceptable language for the little ears that were nearby. When he streaked past me, he was squawking, ‘oh shit, oh shit, oh shit’. Not that anyone could blame him. Those rhinos were gaining on them, snorting and bellowing, with their hooves pounding against the dirt. It was total chaos before they lost them under the porch of the house.”
When Taggart started giggling, Soren took a moment just to enjoy the sound, especially after how worried he’d been about his mate earlier.
“Of course, afterwards, Uncle Glen tried to play it off like he’d never been in any danger or worried in the slightest, while his friend Elija kept getting shit from their other friends about neverhaving seen him move so fast. Of course, he just took it as a challenge, to prove to them he could outrun them any day, so he and Uncle Glen arranged ‘the warthog races’. They marked out the same path the chase had taken, and each warthog had an oxpecker on their back while they ran. If your oxpecker came loose, you lost, even if you crossed the finish line first.”
“How many races did they hold?” Taggart asked, still giggling.
“Too many to count,” Soren replied. “It was a hit, right off the bat.”
“Do you ever ride in one?”
“I sure did. It was so much fun. We didn’t finish, though. We came around the wallow too close to the edge, and it crumbled and sent us tumbling into the water. My feathers were a mess, but it was so exciting it didn’t matter that I had to take a soapy bath afterwards. I just tweeted and splashed around while one of my brothers cleaned the mud off me.”
“Did you ever ride a rhino in a race?”
“Oh no, that would have been much too scary, they’re so powerful,” Soren explained solemnly. “And I was not that brave. But I’m looking forward to riding on our mate’s back.”
“So am I.”
“And we’ve definitely got to have someone take pictures so we can frame it.”
