[Illusionist]

Owner       >>> Rondell
 Name                >>> Mosaic "Moe"
 Gender         >>> Gelded Male
 Adoption Price         >>>  1 rare
 Training         >>> [fully trained]
  =====
  . loyal
  . brave
  . loves trees of all kind

 [Discipline >>>>> ]
 [Shows Entered > R: W: E:]
 [Shows Won >>>> R: W: E:]

[Ej > ] [Ep > ]
 [Eh > ] [Ws > ]
 [Wp > ] [Wt > ]
 [Rf > ] [Rs > ]

[Rondell]

---- Moe uses THIS color (#cfb300) in the fanclub/in RPs. ----

Personal Preferences:

................................

Likes:
*Napping in the sun
*Sand
*Prickly-pears
*Belly rubs
*Trees

Dislikes:
*Winter
*Rain
*Rowdy Nera
*Efialtes
*Snakes

Favorites:
*Tree - Oak/Sycamore
*Season - Summer
*Treat - Prickly-pears
*Pastime - Sleeping
*Place - up a tree

Herd Dynamics:

0 Sam --> The underdog. Moe considers him to be nothing even remotely resembling a threat, and so ignores him most of the time. He only acknowledges his existence when he steps in-between F and him, to prevent the former's bullying from causing injury to the latter.

0 Curare --> The impsh one. Being a gelding, Moe has little to no interest in mares. In addition, Curare's boldness is, in his opinion, quite unbecoming in on of the fairer sex. So if he's not pointedly ignoring her flirtations, he's actively avoiding her.

0 Mosaic (Moe) --> The unofficial, passive aggressive leader that rules by virtue of his massive size and strength. Nevertheless, he usually naps in the background (often up a tree) and lets Efialtes think he's the boss until something gets out of hand and he has to step in to reestablish order. For example, a direct challenge from F is a sure-fire way to get him moving.

0 Pennyroyal (Penny) --> Motherly and sweet to the core. She's everything Moe's ideal mare would be if he weren't a gelding. As such, he quite enjoys spending time with her.

0 Efialtes (F) --> He's hot stuff, and he knows it. Moe didn't like F from the start, and their relationship has only gone downhill since F mated with Penny. If he were of a more violent bent he'd most likely be the first one in the herd to teach the young stallion a lesson and send him packing. As it stands, though, Moe really only ever gets around to putting him in his place when he oversteps his boundaries noticeably.

0 Ikelos --> The fragile prince. At first there was a bit of innate resentment on Moe's part because Ikelos is Efialtes' son. But over time, as F began to pick on his son and Ikelos grew to favor his mother in both looks and manner, Moe came to accept the massively smaller colt on the basis of his own virtues. He's quite inoffensive. Even polite.

0 Fantasia (Fanny) --> The strong-minded princess. As with Curare, Moe believes Fantasia to be a quite un-mare-like mare. She's far too bold and competitive, even going so far as to clash with her father, whom she so strongly resembles in every way. Due to his resentment for F, however, this little habit of hers has actually gained her a few points. So Moe is much more likely to tolerate Fanny than Curare. Still. He doesn't enjoy her company by any stretch of the imagination.



Origin:

0 In Character: I found him while on vacation in an arid region off to the west of where I live and normally spend my time. He had taken shelter from the heat of the day in a river valley, which was heavily wooded and stood as a stark contrast to the desert which surrounded it. Upon notifying the agency about my discovery and paying a small fee, they captured him for me and shipped him east to my stables, where he's lived ever since.

0 Actual: Moe was my third Nera and a thoughtful gift from my friend Puddlebyonthemarsh, who spotted him and adopted him for me soon after he was created. <3

[Rondell]

Mosaic's Training

0______________________________0

As I hung over the fence watching my herd mill about in the field beyond, I couldn't help but be struck yet again by how strange Mosaic was compared to his fellows. To begin with the obvious, he was by far the largest of my Nera. He possessed a sturdy build that made him stick out like a sore thumb when he stood with the rest and, had he been a human, I often thought that he would have made a good (american) football player. He just had that sort of look to him, especially when he was side-by-side with the far smaller and far more delicately structured Ikelos - Penny's new foal, not even a week old yet. But it was more than that. For example: Even as I stood there, the gelding was off by himself, working his way up the trunk of a massive old oak that grew off toward the west side of the paddock. I knew from experience that he'd be up there for a couple hours at least, sprawled out on his favorite branch. If it were Autumn he'd be eating acorns. But seeing as it was barely even spring yet he'd just be up there napping. Moe loved trees. Especially trees that were large enough for him to haul is great bulk up into their branches. And nine times out of ten, if you couldn't find him, just look up.

In fact, that's how we first met.

Back then my Nera herd had numbered just two - Sam and Curare - and I had left both of them back home in capable hands in favor of having a couple days to myself. Yet instead of going on vacation to a beach or paying a visit to any particular city of note, I'd chosen to go hiking in a semi-arid region not too far away from from home. Why, I have no idea. It had sounded like fun at the time. It was certainly something different. And, seeing as different was what I was after, it had seemed ideal.

Nevertheless, I had quickly grown tired of the seemingly endless acres of cacti, sand and rocks, with only a glimpse of an occasional reptile to break the monotony. So I had ventured toward a spot of green I had seen from the top of a hill. It turned out to be a river valley, vastly different form the surrounding land. It was like I had been teleported to another world. Gone was the cracked yellow ground. In its place, the grass that grew alongside the life-giving river was thick and green, flourishing in the shade of the many bushes and trees that grew in the rich earth deposited by the water. Birds sang in the canopy. Insects hummed in the air. The temperature also seemed to have dropped several degrees, which was a welcome change from the blazing heat of the desert. The only constant were the little lizards I'd occasionally see as they scurried away from me. They seemed to be just at home here as they'd been out on the arid plain.

There was one amazing tree that dominated the valley - a Sycamore with massive, spreading branches and what looked like an acre of shade underneath. To me, still fresh from my hike in the desert, it looked like nothing short of paradise!

I quickly made my way to this giant and found a comfortable niche between two roots to settle in for a while. I must have dozed off, because the next thing I know, an odd sound had startled me awake. This was quickly followed by a none-too-gentle tap on the head. Far more startled than I'd care to admit, I scrambled to my feet so quickly that I stumbled over the roots of the tree. I only just managed to avoid hitting the ground. Several feet away from the sycamore's trunk, I turned and looked up.

The first thing I saw was something that looked like a fat, striped snake hanging down through the leaves, twitching back and forth slowly, holding my hat in its mouth. This caused me to blink. No. Wait a minute. It wasn't a snake at all. It was... a tail. A very suspiciously familiar tail... my eyes slowly followed it upward, searching for the animal it was attached to. Using my hand to shade my eyes, I was only just able to spot a very large Neravonti as it lay sprawled on one of the Sycamore's lower branches.

A Neravontii up a tree... Of all the luck! I came out to this remote spot just to take a break from my Nera, and end up finding another Nera!

And the rest is history.

As I stood there watching Moe watch Efialtes from his perch in the oak, his variegated hide still reminded me of nothing less than the spiny lizards I'd seen both out in the desert and down in the valley on the day we'd first met. It's why I'd named him as I had - the pattern on a lizard's back is made up of hundreds of individual scales like the individual pieces of stone or glass that make up a mosaic. And while he had neither scale nor stone upon his soft, peach-fuzz hide, he had bore the same pattern as those lizards.

I really needed to work with him a bit more. He was a great companion, but he could be so much more if given the chance. After all, he still had no clue what a saddle was.

[Rondell]

Without a doubt, big 'ol Moe holds the record in my herd for going the longest without having any sort of saddle training. By the time I finally got around to trying to work with him I'd already owned him very nearly five whole months, and that entire time he'd had nothing to do but laze about in the paddock and get fat. Well... fat-ER, anyway, as he hadn't exactly been svelte to begin with - he just had that chunky sort of build. Of course the upside to this massive delay was that we had gotten to know each other pretty well. I did my absolute best to spend time with each of my Neras every day, even if I didn't always get around to riding them. So he pretty much knew what to expect from me by then. Just as I more or less knew what to expect from him. And then there was the fact that he'd seen me tack up the rest of the herd. He'd even gone along with me on a couple of trail rides. So Moe knew good and well what a saddle was. He had absolutely no fear of them, and knew they did no harm to the Nera who carried them around on their backs.

Still, I wasn't entirely sure how he'd react to having one of his very own.

By the time I'd picked out a saddle and girth I thought would fit Moe, the herd knew something was going on. It hadn't even been a full week since I'd taken Ikelos out on his first trail ride, and they had come to know the difference between my gathering things up for a causal jaunt and my getting things together with a purpose. I guess it was my body language or something. Darn alien equids. I never could just spring something on them. This in mind, I left my armload of tack in the bullpen and headed for the pasture.

When I reached the fence, Curare, Pennyroyal and Fantasia were all hovering curiously around the pasture gate with Sam and Ikelos not too far off. It only took a few more seconds for Moe himself to trot up, his long fuzzy ears perked forward in curiosity. He didn't object when I slipped his halter on, nor did he object when I opened the gate and led him out, all the while being careful not to let Efialtes slip out behind him. And to top things off, he didn't so much as spare a glance for the saddle when we reached the bullpen. I allowed myself a smile. The last time I'd had it this easy was when I'd been training Penny, and that had been... what? Four Neravontii ago?

So far, this was proving to be a nice change of pace.

After giving Moe a good brushing to relax him and rid his soft, short fur of dust, I gave him a moment or two wander around before heading to scoop up the saddle I'd set on the top rail of the fence. Moe watched me with interest. He even took a small step in my direction. When I turned around with the saddle in my arms, he stretched out his neck and nibbled at the leather until I tapped him on the nose and he withdrew. I was left free to simply walk around to his right side, reach up, and place the saddle on his back. I didn't even bother hooking him into the crossties.

The instant Moe felt the weight of the saddle on his back, he shifted his weight slightly and craned his head around to look at the thing on his back. He sniffed it curiously before giving the bit he could reach another nibble. At this point, figuring that he'd done all he could do from that angle, he brought the hand on the tip of his tail into play and used it to pick and poke every inch of the saddle that he could reach, including the loose girth and the slack chest straps. All the while, his feet didn't move an inch.

After what seemed like an eternity, Moe snorted and turned to face me, his nostrils flaring. I met his empty empty eye-sockets, my arms crossed in front of me. And we just stared at each other for a moment. Suddenly, the huge Nera took a step forward and gave my face a huge, sloppy lick. It was almost as if he were getting even with me for sticking the saddle on his back. He then casually wandered off to explore the rest of the pen, leaving me to make an interesting array of noises to express my disgust while I endeavored to wipe the lenses covering my eyes clean of Neravontii spit. Of course, I was then left with slimy hands. I chose to solve this problem by closing the distance between myself and Moe and using his flank to dry them. If he cared, he showed no sign. He simply flicked an ear in my direction. Thus, finding myself as cleaned as I was going to get without a good dry-cleaning, I set about doing up the buckles on the saddle.

Once more, Moe really didn't seem to care.

He was much more interested in the small oak tree on the other side of the bullpen fence, whose branches sported plenty of tender shoots and leaves for him to munch.

[Rondell]

Moe's first ride was an impulsive thing - not something I sat down and planned, not something I marked on the calender, and not something I really expect to do ever again. This is mostly because it was stupid. And mostly because I don't think I'd be able to get away with it on any other Nera.

Shall I elaborate?

Yes. I think I shall.

The weather had been unusually mild for late spring going on early summer, and having taken care of pretty much everything that had been tying me up for the past couple of months, I had gotten it into my head to go on a celebratory picnic. So I spent half the morning packing my basket with all sorts of things, including a book, some water, a hat, an umbrella, a yo-yo, and even a Frisbee, although what I planned on doing with it I'm not sure. It just seemed like the sort of thing one would take on a picnic. Of course the only food I shoved into the depths of the basket that I must have borrowed from Marry Poppins consisted of Neravontii snacks. Being a technically non-living being made of cloth and metal, I don't really eat much, you see. Nevertheless, when I had finished, the basket probably weighed more than I did.

The next step was picking a couple of Neravontii to go along with me. So, lugging my basket along with me, I headed out to the barn.

The first Nera I saw was Efialtes, in the process of climbing over the pasture fence. When he spotted me, he flicked his tail playfully and flared his nostrils, pausing only for a moment before pushing off with his back feet and clearing the fence entirely. He then made a b-line for the refrigerated storage shed. Which I wasn't too concerned about. After all, I'd not only locked the thing up tight, but had reinforced the walls and door as well. It had only taken one break-in for me to learn my lesson. That had been months ago. Yet F never stopped hoping that I'd forget myself and leave the door open so that he could gorge himself on the meat within. Once he figured out he couldn't get into it, he'd give up and sulk back to the pasture. Until tomorrow. When he'd try again. With a sigh, I shook my head. Efialtes definitely wasn't going on my trail-ride today. I loved him dearly, but there were times I just didn't feel like dealing with his shenanigans.

When I reached the barn, I found Pennyroyal and Sam fast asleep in the former's stall. I was careful not to wake them as I passed by, once on my way to the tack room, once on my way back out, arms laden with gear. I didn't want either of them to go with me badly enough to disturb them.

My mind turned over the three remaining possibilities as I made my way back to the pasture - there would have been four, but Fantasia was out automatically as I hadn't so much as put a bridle on her yet. As for the others, I knew Ikelos absolutely loved trail rides. So he was the most obvious choice. As long as he was in a fair mood today, I'd most likely take him along as my mount. Besides, we hadn't yet had many opportunities to just go out and ride together... the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Of course I knew that taking Ikelos along meant that I wouldn't be taking Curare along as my basket-carrier. There was too much friction between the two, and that wouldn't be fair for either of them.

This left only one Neravontii.

Bracing the saddle against the fence, I freed up one of my hands so I could hang the two bridles I was carrying on the post next to the pasture gate. That done, I hefted the saddle itself and set it on the top rail. Then I only had to take the harness from my shoulder and drape it across the saddle's seat, and I was free to round up my companions for the evening.

--------------------------------------

We were on our way in next to no time - me on Ikelos and the basket sitting securely upon the big, strong back of Moe, who hadn't objected in the slightest to his load. After all, this wasn't the first time I'd used him as a pack Nera. Every single member of the herd had taken their turn at it at one point or another.

For the most part, the ride was smooth and uneventful - the trail was clear and easy to follow.

As the somewhat overcast morning quickly gave way to a bright, sunny and absolutely perfect afternoon, we stopped whenever we felt like it. In clearings, on creek-banks, by boulders, sometimes even in the middle of the trail. And over the course of the afternoon both Moe and Ikelos steadily munched their way through the snacks I had packed. Having started out not knowing who I would bring with me, I hadn't brought the favorite treats of either one, and I hadn't thought to go back to the house and include them before leaving. Nevertheless, both seemed to thoroughly enjoy the sausages I'd brought, along with the turkey sandwiches and ham salad. Perfect picnic food, that!

Later in the evening, as we paused beneath a large sycamore tree of the sort I knew Moe particularly enjoyed, the thought crossed my mind that it would be fun to give Ikelos a break. Just for a moment. I mean, he'd been carrying me all day... sighing deeply, I leaned back against the trunk of the tree and watched the Neravontii snuffle about in the surrounding bushes, satisfying their curiosity and their appetites at the same time. Ikelos caught a mouse. Moe found a chipmunk. I was used to it. And try as I might, I just couldn't get my silly idea to go away!

Before I knew what I was doing, I had taken hold of Moe's halter and led him over to a rock that was about the same size as the mounting block I used back home, even if it was nothing near the same shape. The gelding seemed completely relaxed. For all he knew, I hade decided it was time to go and was getting ready to put the basket back on his back. Which was probably just as well.

It was the work of only a few seconds to scramble up on top of the rock, balancing myself by keeping a hand on the gelding's neck. I chatted to him idly as I found my footing. Then, without bothering to give things a second thought, I climbed aboard.

My weight must've been very near the weight of the basket Moe had been lugging about - I'm really not all that heavy, with most of my body being cloth and stuffing; the only real solid part of me is the aluminum armature that can be likened to a human's skeleton - because aside from a slight shifting as the gelding moved to accommodate the load on his back, he didn't flinch. He just stood there. And stood there. And... stood there. After a minute or so, Moe flicked his ears backward, probably wondering what I was doing. Upon hearing nothing significant, he craned his head around to look at the rock where I'd been standing. Neither you nor I would be surprised to know that he didn't find me there. But he was. Moe let out a startled snort and began casting about the area for me, his nostrils working overtime. When he didn't find anyone but Ikelos, laying down in a patch of sunlight on the opposite side of the clearing, he began wandering around. I knew he could smell me. He had to smell me. And it must have only added to his confusion when he discovered my scent was following him!

I just kept clinging to his back. Pretending to be a basket.

We played this game for what must have been fifteen minutes, until I finally decided that if I didn't let him know where I was he was going to wander off into the woods. Slowly, softly, I moved the fingers on my right hand, giving his shoulder the same sort of scratching I'd have given his neck had I been on the ground.

Moe stopped dead in his tracks almost instantly, his ears snapping back to focus on me. At the same time, his head came around to investigate. Upon spotting my smiling face staring back at him, his tail-hand came up to poke and prod at my person, almost as if he were trying to assure himself he weren't dreaming.

Why he hadn't looked back over his shoulder before this point, I'll never know.

What I do know is that after his initial shock, Moe seemed to relax. He didn't much care that I was on his back. He was used to having stuff on his back. Usually a lot heavier than I was. So my puny self was nothing. The gelding just seemed happy to know where I was again. Giving my knee one final nudge with his large nose, Moe resumed his wandering about the clearing. When he drew near to a sizable clump of roots, I simply swung my leg over and slipped down, landing solidly on top of it and leaving Moe to investigate a hole, from which he pulled a rat snake several seconds later.

With the Nera's bellies full and my madcap whim satisfied, we resumed our ride down the trail.

We didn't return to the barn until well after sundown.

[Rondell]

N/A