Krava Life (Patreon)

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Life of Krava

Krava tend to live in the current generation. Finding a partner, marrying, and taking care of their young is the extent of the average krava's familial bonds. Their care for their parents and grandparents fades with each generational difference. Krava find krava and ponies to be appealing in different ways. Those raised rurally will be more drawn to their own kind, while city-raised krava find either to be a suitable romantic target.

Krava do not typically produce young out of wedlock, but it does happen, more commonly in cities than out. Single parents devote themselves fully to their children, often working extended hours to earn enough to keep their family solvent. Married parents share in their duties, both working and raising their children in as equal a sharing as they can. Krava genetics are not persistant. While a pony child may yield a krava grandchild, a pony grandchild has basically no chance of any krava children of their own if it hadn't shown up by then.

The raising of a krava depends wildly on its surroundings. Most krava parents take after their community, falling in line with the prevailing pony cultural ideals of young raising. Left to their own devices in their own towns, krava are watchful parents until the young reaches five years of age, when they begin to be mentored and raised by a community-chosen teacher to learn their place as an adult. Once a krava reaches adulthood, it simply moves out, welcomed as a full member of the krava community.

If a krava has raised their first children to adulthood, it is often then that they may consider speaking the truth of themselves to their partner, but most don't. Unless they are absolutely certain of the unshakable nature of the bond they have with their pony consort, they will carry their secret to the grave, insisting that they are an exotic breed of pony, an odd tribe, rather than a different species entirely. It is often an easier lie to bear than the 'truth' that has little bearing on the life they lead.

An adult krava often seeks out their place in the social order. A krava will feel restless and irritated when they aren't sure. This is the time that most krava societal issues will rise, but the idea of rebellious young adults is hardly unique to the krava. Once they have felt out their place in the social order, most will accept it and build a life around it. They will seek out others of similar strata as friends and partners, obey the orders of those above them and just as happily make demands of those they perceive as below them.

As krava gain in years, they begin to put more thought towards their family, even as their family forgets them. They will stop by their distant children and seek to be a positive factor in their life as best they can. They will seek out youth centers of people not of their direct blood, donating time and services to help the younger generation. They are as devoted to the young as the kravan young and adults ignore the older. Fortunately for city-dwellers, pony youth are often very grateful and thankful of such doting krava, returning the affection they give.

Death often comes to krava in the still of night. They simply do not awaken. If they have a living partner, it falls on them to see their physical remains taken care of. In rural communities, the body is loaded on a cart and carried through town as the grieved lows their lament. If the partner is too frail to accomplish this, other krava will assist in this moment of sadness, often joining in the sad calling. In this moment of death, the young will pay heed to the old. Others that knew the krava well will join the procession, calling out to the universe in their grief. The calls will not end until the body is properly set to rest deep within the earth and covered.