Rumour Has It

by daOtterGuy

Journal Entry 1

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Dear Mum,

This morning was quite the hullabaloo! Hemline and I were just minding our own business fixing up Spit Take’s rather substantial hat collection when Lacey came careening through the front door claiming that she couldn’t find her brother Dust Cropper anywhere and that he was missing.

Hemline chided Lacey for interrupting our work and asked her if she was sure. Lacey replied that she double absolutely was. Hem then asked if Dust was pulling one of his pranks again and Lacey looked riper than a tomato when she answered with a drawn-out no. It was pretty obvious that those two were up to no good again and I confess that I found myself chuckling at her foalishness.

Course, Hem didn’t believe her one bit. Rolled her eyes with a weary sigh over having to deal with their antics again. Told Lacey that she would come with her to look for him while I continued working. Sat by myself stitching hats ‘til sundown before Hemline returned. Looked rightly peeved as she stomped through the shop with a tight-lipped Lacey trailing behind her.

She ripped right into the poor filly, telling her to give up on this wild goose chase and tell her where her brother was hiding. The filly wouldn’t budge. After another tongue lashing, Lacey finally shouted out that Dust had been taken by a monster. There’d been a gaggle of giggles about the shop alongside myself as Hemline stared down Lacey with a mother’s righteous fury. Wasn’t the first time the little filly had claimed her brother had gotten eaten by some beastie in the Badlands.

Hem started on another tirade as she tried to pry out Dust’s hiding spot from Lacey, but she was adamant that some monster made of darkness made off with the poor colt.

Exasperatedly, Hemline told Lacey it was getting dark and she needed to tell her where Dusk was so she could bring him home. Cheeky filly still refused to say. The gall on that one! Fed up with the whole thing, Hem ended up telling Lacey to go to her room and that she and I would go find the colt.

We searched right up until the moon rose into the night sky, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Though this latest prank was annoying, I had to give it to Dust. This was definitely one of his better hidey-holes if he could last this long without us stumbling across him.

We ended up calling off the search and returning to the shop. Hem was furious, but since Lacey wasn’t cooperating, there wasn’t much either of us could do. She decided to just call it a night and we’d get back to it in the morning. As Hem said, ‘if that doofus colt of mine wants to sleep out in the cold, so be it'.

I retired to the bedroom and started writing to you like I always do. I’m sure I’ll wake up to Hem’s screeching in the morning when Dust comes crawling back into the store hungry. Good night, mum.

Love, Cross

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Comments

[overdue]

that detail of her mom already being dead changes a lot about the tone of this