I have a few questions/discussion ideas about Daine's various animal companions and what happened to them after Immortals ended. SOME MINOR TC SPOILERS!

1) Zek the marmoset: In either FT or Page, Kel and her friends visit Jon's menagerie and find Daine, Numair, and Lindhall there visiting the tribe of pygmy marmosets. Zek must be one of these marmosets, so did he find a new mate and have little ones, or did Daine track down his original mate and children and bring them back to Tortall?
2) Kitten: Okay, she's not technically an animal, but anyway. What ever happened to Kitten? The last we see of her is in Page, but she's mentioned as still living in the mortal realms with Daine as of Lady Knight, in the glossary entry about dragons. However, there is no entry about dragons in TC, and Kitten isn't mentioned in Sarralyn's Naming Ceremony scene at all, even though all of Daine's other animal friends are (Cloud, Tkaa, Barzha, the Long Lake wolves and dogs, Flicker and his family, etc.) So did Kitten go back to the Dragonlands, or was she just forgotten/not there? It seems more likely she returned to the Dragonlands since Daine and Numair were both on the move so much during the Scanran War, but I hope she hasn't...
3) Cloud: Cloud's still around in TC, since she appears at the Naming Ceremony, but she must be getting pretty old by now! Between WM and TC there's a space of 13 years, and Cloud was no yearling in WM. So how old is she now?

EDITED to add a spoiler warning.

Just Finished: Vacations From Hell by Libba Bray, etc.
Currently Reading: The Singing by Alison Croggon

Novel Count for 2010: 26

Ok Cloud first. Cloud was what 3 in WM + 13 years in TC now I'v known some horses that have lived to 20 which is a very old age so cloud is probably in retirement
Kitten as we know is a dragon and dragons live for a LONG time so kitten probably still lives with Daine with constant visits to the dragon lands
Now Zek I don't know she might have tracked down his original mate and kids but if she had gone to all that trouble why didn't she just put him back in his original habitat. So maybe she got him a new mate.



those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter

I can't really add to that. I'm surprised Kitten isn't mentioned... maybe she's jealous of the baby or something... *hasn't read TC*

*raises eyebrow* Still oblivious? I can't turn without finding spoilers.

~Steph~
Spirit Leader of the Boxers or Briefs International Fan Club

I just don't turn. I haven't even read the TQ excerpt.

...when it gets released, let's have a party, 'k?

Yeah!! Party!! wait...why are we partying again?... oh well! I'll bring Twister!! haha hours of fun watching idiots fall on their buts Mwahahahaha

IBBY

I have a flag and i'm not afraid to use it!!~Color Gaurd threat

It don't need no stinkin' underwear!~ Tamora Pierce when speaking about the Chamber of Ordeal

Some horses live to be thirty or older. I know a horse who was about 36 the last time I saw him. I guess it really depends on the horse.

Love always,
Rilana

Cloud's a pony.

~Steph~
Spirit Leader of the Boxers or Briefs International Fan Club

What's the difference? (besides size)

Love always,
Rilana

Ponies are cuter and smell more, in my (brief) experience.

ponies live longer than horses alot of the time. they are more hardy.
Kel
-You can not train a horse with a yell and expect him to respond to a whisper.-
-Save a horse, ride a cowboy.- "Big & Rich"
<br><center><img src="" alt="You are Kel! Based on the book series by Tamora Pi

>Ok Cloud first. Cloud was what 3 in WM + 13 years in TC now I'v
>known some horses that have lived to 20 which is a very old age so
>cloud is probably in retirement

LOL! i knew a horse that was 35+ it was a great horse tho, full of energy it was so cool

I feel like I've lost everything, when you're gone

Currently Reading: The Half Blood Prince

>Ok Cloud first. Cloud was what 3 in WM + 13 years in TC now I'v
>known some horses that have lived to 20 which is a very old age so
>cloud is probably in retirement

That should go for Darkmoon as well, he first appeared in Wild Magic, and is still going strong as Alanna's horse in Trickster's Choice.

Cloud ~~ well if she was really 3 in WM and TC is 13 years later then she would be 16. Now I'm looking out my window RIGHT NOW at my 21 years old pony and 23 year old horse. In another pasture we have a 26 year old horse, none of these animals of mine had particularly easy lives one of them had been working hard for 18 of his 23 yrs. Now I know this is rambling but, I had to explain that I do know what I'm talking about here. The difference between horses and ponies is size horses are over 14.2 hands tall and ponies are 14.2 hands and under. Ponies often live longer than horses. So Cloud has atleast 10 more years considering Diane is a healer.

hope that helps.

Arianneleigh

ps. horses and ponies smell the same.

Just being a healer doesn't mean you can extend life- ok, she's less likely to die of a disease, but she may just die of old age.

Daine doesn't just heal animals, she strengthens them too. At least I think so...

~Steph~
Spirit Leader of the Boxers or Briefs International Fan Club

Isn't it that she regenerates their store of wild magic- their life force, as it were? When she's healing the emperor's birds, she talks about how their wild magic is down to a flickering ember, and burning out the shadows in it...

So does that mean it strengthens them too? Or does it just make them better? Daine would probably strengthen them anyway, I think.

~Steph~
Spirit Leader of the Boxers or Briefs International Fan Club

I always figured therre was only so much gift a body could hold- when Alanna has the extra magic she is ill in LR. So the amount of gift is the amount of life... I'm starting a thread on this.

Thanks for the info! I'm pretty uninformed when it comes to horses - I know that some breeds of ponies live longer than others, but I couldn't tell you how long any of them live.

Where did we get the info that Cloud was 3 in WM?

Just Finished: Vacations From Hell by Libba Bray, etc.
Currently Reading: The Singing by Alison Croggon

Novel Count for 2010: 26

>Cloud ~~ well if she was really 3 in WM and TC is 13 years later
>then she would be 16. Now I'm looking out my window RIGHT NOW at my
>21 years old pony and 23 year old horse. In another pasture we have
>a 26 year old horse, none of these animals of mine had particularly
>easy lives one of them had been working hard for 18 of his 23 yrs.
>Now I know this is rambling but, I had to explain that I do know
>what I'm talking about here. The difference between horses and
>ponies is size horses are over 14.2 hands tall and ponies are 14.2
>hands and under. Ponies often live longer than horses. So Cloud
>has atleast 10 more years considering Diane is a healer.


you can't forget that each hand is 4 inces...... i have a 20 year old mare and a 23 year old mare. my 23 year old sitll acts like she's 5, my 20 year old acts like she 15, they both have anothere good 5-10 years before i'm gunna retire them if thye don't get hurt....

~~~~~~!~~~~~~~
~~~~~Abby~~~~~
~~~~~~!~~~~~~~




http://www.another-place.org/tegalto/quiz/tortallquiz.html">Who in Tortall are you? - Quiz

yeah horses and povies can live for a really long time, ther is one lesson horse at the stable I ride at that is like 30 something and still works, he's a good old guy

http://onmysleve.blogspot.com/

Whats a povie? I think I want one! Anyway, C's right, my friend has a horse and he's turning 40 this year!! Woa. Go Toby.

IBBY

I have a flag and i'm not afraid to use it!!~Color Gaurd threat

It don't need no stinkin' underwear!~ Tamora Pierce when speaking about the Chamber of Ordeal

Just about Zek unless daine did find his old mate he wouldn't have taken a new one it's mentioned that they only have one mate their entire life like ducks. just thought I'd mention it

Who in Tortall are you? - Quiz by Teggo

wow ducks mate for life? I thought that was swans... ... ...


*goes to askjeeves.com. to look*

with love,
from,
~me~
=^.^=

My bio teacher says all birds...

I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
with a pink carnation and a pickup truck

Whoa. I sort of remember this thread. I also remember the blinkies I used are very, very old.

~Steph~

<Cloud's still around in TC, since she appears at the Naming Ceremony, but she must be getting pretty old by now! Between WM and TC there's a space of 13 years, and Cloud was no yearling in WM. So how old is she now?


Remember that prolonged contant with Daine changes animals intellegence. It stands to reason that it might change their aging process.

rose stone

1. Zek. I don't think marmosets would refuse to mate if their previous mates were no longer around. In any case, Daine wouldn't be able to track down his previous mate and children. While she isn't forbidden to return to Carthak, and Kaddar doesn't exactly bear her any ill-will, well, it's kinda hard for people to forgive the person who trashed an entire palace and killed (to all intents and purposes) an emperor, not to mention a bunch of soldiers and staff. She isn't really welcome. Instead she helped the staff at the menagerie find Zek a new mate, and they took care of the babies themselves.

2. Kitten. Kitten is very much still with Daine and Numair! She was present at the naming, but I couldn't exactly identify her by name because it was a vision I was describing (and it was Aly's story, not Daine's). Moreover, she can't always keep up when Daine or Numair have to move fast--she doesn't care for being jounced on a galloping horse at all, and if Daine has to shape-shift, Kit gets left behind, because she won't be able to fly for a few centuries yet. She has her own friends when the Salmalíns aren't around, and her own things to do. She was under the table at the dinner where Aly and Nawat said goodbye to the Tortallan delegation, talking with the darkings. Just because I can't fit her in (my editors will ask me to cut, because my story has to be about my main character--unless she interacts with Kit, I can't mention her because it's too confusing without an explanation) doesn't mean she isn't there!

3. Cloud is also very much around. She hasn't slowed down or mellowed much, either. She has had a few foals, but they're grown and doing her proud. And soon she'll be teaching a new generation how to act around ponies!

Daine's skill can heal when she gets sick or chewed up, and her influence has made Cloud smarter in human terms, but neither she nor Daine would want her life expectancy extended beyond what a healthy pony is due. Don't forget, they're a lot more bound to the cycles of nature than we are. And Cloud has plenty more good years yet!

Tammy

“No person is your friend who demands your silence.”
Alice Walker

:D Thank you, Tammy! Although this thread is rather old, but that's really helpful and informative!

Just Finished: Vacations From Hell by Libba Bray, etc.
Currently Reading: The Singing by Alison Croggon

Novel Count for 2010: 26

Ooops I hadn't read the threads before.