The Flute Strikes Again

When I played HI2 on Tuesday night this week, I had the Olympics on as well. Poor Shady, my mount, had to endure frequent periods of just standing around doing nothing while the gymnastics and swimming events were happening. Eventually, Shady and I visited Birch Isle to flute a wild horse. To my surprise, somebody was already on Birch Isle when we arrived. The isle had looked deserted when I checked the map seconds before. (I'm guessing the player was in the lighthouse at the time I was checking, because she popped in and out of it at least once when I was watching her red dot.) I considered not even bothering with Birch and bailing to another isle, but the map told me that players were already on all the other Meadow sub isles, so I stayed. While I waited to see if the other player would move on to another isle, I rode around just to make sure she hadn't missed any wild horses.

Well, either she wasn't looking for wilds or didn't have any available horse slots, because I found two on the isle, and they weren't exactly hiding. Wild #1 was the first Marwari wild I have ever seen, and it's HI2's newest breed! I don't think Pepsi's ever come across a newly-introduced breed so quickly in the wild!





As far as Marwaris go, he's quite a nice looking one. His handsome markings and steely coat make him stand out. (Side note: we aren't drooling over the Marwari artwork the way we were the Plateau Persian's, though. Something just looks off about the legs to us, and the coloring is more blocky than many of the newer breeds. Still, they have pleasant faces and those cute curved ears.) It's probably good his stats were so decidedly poor to remove any temptation of keeping him.

The next wild's avatar was a pretty close match to Shady's! She was a Friesian though, not a Mustang. Since I'm not wild about the Friesian artwork, I was thinking what I've thought before when capturing wild Friesians: It would just figure if you had amazing stats. XD





Well, even though she's 5/6, she's not exactly blowing us away with her +29 stat total. I've never really understood what "Garbo-esque" means, and catching her finally prompted me to look it up. My brain assumed it had something to do with overeating, but it turns out I was way off. According to Google, "garboesque" is actually referencing being like the Swedish silent film star Greta Garbo, who was apparently quiet, mysterious, private, and serene. Wow, so deep, HI2! ;^)

By the time I'd caught the wild horses, the other player had departed. I decided it was safe to use the flute, and it brought me this guy:





Mahogany bay. 6/6. Again. Even more evidence for our theory that our flute is made of mahogany wood! I guess the flute attracts great mahogany stallions as well as mares now. =)



Since we caught him during the Olympics, I find it highly appropriate that his avatar has golden hooves. So far we haven't come up with a fitting name for him. Rio is the obvious choice, but one of our HI2 buddies already has a Rio, which takes it out of the running. Maybe something patriotic, like Spangle, Anthem, or Banner? Hmm, this will require more brainstorming.