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Post by Shinko on Jun 15, 2018 16:00:18 GMT -5
Round 3: A Seething Forest Tensions escalated at the meeting as all sides seemed to disagree on what to do, or if indeed there was anything they could do. Kohimu was emphatic that he, with his plan to resolve ‘the shadow’ by paying final respects to Beech’s body and transporting it to her family, had found the solution. Some seemed inclined to agree that he must be right, whether through sincere conviction or just desperation for an easy fix. Others, Quicksnap among them, vehemently disagreed, pointing out that the murders had not started with only Beech; she was just the first ghost to get back up and start walking around. Some whispered fearfully that perhaps the Spirit of Naelus was angry with them; perhaps this was a punishment sent by their protector, for some trespass they could not begin to guess. A rather loud faction, however, dismissed both of these notions. The shadow, they insisted, must have started with someone alive. Someone with a personal ax to grind. A mortal traitor on the island, who had gotten their paws or claws or whatever appendages on a dark power from the outside, and were using it to destroy Naelus. There was much arguing. Feathers mantled, fangs were bared, claws and talons dug into the loamy soil. Magic crackled and flashed. But in the end, cooler heads prevailed. Though nothing concrete was decided, the feathers settled, the lips closed over teeth, the claws were put away. Determined that his idea was worth trying if nothing else, Kohimu left the meeting to travel back to the beach to retrieve Beech’s family and conduct a proper funeral for the thylacine, taking with him any who were amenable to attending. Some followed him out of curiosity, some out of sincere hope, and others just to watch him proved wrong. Regardless of reason, enough departed when the taniwha did that those who remained didn’t really see a point in continuing the meeting. By the time the moon had crested the top of the trees, the clearing was empty. By some miracle, in spite of the suspicion and fear that had been so thick one might have sliced it with a claw, no one else’s blood had joined that of the huemul deer in the grass. * * * * * Several hours later, under the cover of the nightly mist, another meeting was taking place. Popular media in the human world likes to portray the dire wolf as giant- as big or bigger than the megafauna it was contemporary with. But it wasn’t actually all that much larger than the gray wolf, at least not in height. What it lacked in height, however, it made up with sheer mass and muscle. “They aren’t going to act,” one of the grey and bronze dire wolves snarled bitterly. “Cowards, the whole bloody lot. They’re just going to sit around and wait for the shadow to corrupt all of us.” “Who cares if the thylacine’s body is left for scavengers to pick over?” added another dire. “It’s easy for magical creatures like the sea-lizard,” called a third wolf, this one much smaller and creamy in color. She was not a dire, but an Asian hokkaido wolf. “They’re immortal. They don’t have any fear of death.” “And they watch so many mortal lives come and go I bet they don’t even care anymore,” added a long tailed, short legged canid with red fur called a leptocyon. “They’ll watch us all rot while they putter away with magic mumbo-jumbo.” “Then let’s do something about it ourselves!” the first dire cried. “We’ll figure out where the shadow-corruption is coming from and put a real stop to it!” “How?” asked a frightened looking hokkaido male. “We’ll round up all the animals in the woods!” The dire said. “If we get ‘em together in threes and fours then they can’t fight back, and we can question them about what’s going on! Somebody is bound to know something! And if they won’t talk...” he snapped his teeth together meaningfully, and there was a chorus of approval. “We can strike at dawn!” a Honshū wolf suggested. “While the mist is still thick on the ground. They won’t even see us coming!” And so it was that as the first feeble rays of light began to illuminate the foggy island morn, that the forest began to swarm with angry, determined wolves. The LIONHEART has protected the execution victim. Optional Scenario 1: A large group of canids in the Highwind woods and Shadowed Pines- dire wolves and Hokkaido/Sakhalin wolves mostly, with a few others in the mix- have taken it upon themselves to round up the residents of the woods for questioning! Is your character dragged into an interrogation group? (Feel free to control an NPC canid.)
Optional Scenario 2: Kohimu the taniwha has returned to the Waterfall Basin to give Beech a proper funeral, in the hopes this will allow her spirit to pass on. Join him and the living thylacines in this effort. (And engage in a more lowkey interaction.)
Mandatory Conditions: It is early morning, and very foggy.
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Post by Thorn on Jun 15, 2018 19:09:29 GMT -5
Kohimu was ashamed to admit that he'd lost his cool back there, but it hurt they had so little faith in him. Didn't it make sense that a violent death might procure an unhappy spirit? So what if no others had risen- surely this only went to prove that something about Beech's death in particular remained unaddressed? The thylacines seemed confused, and Kohimu very quickly discovered how difficult it is to explain funerary rites to a creature which has no concept of such things. He wished Te Tai were there very badly indeed- cranky as he was, Tai was much better at explaining unfamiliar concepts than Kohimu himself. Eventually, he managed to get the point across- that they needed to express their grief the way they normally would, but over Beech's body, which he'd helped move back here to her home. For his part, Kohimu spoke of Beech as honestly and openly as he could- of that courage and curiosity he so admired, their travels together (infrequent, but now cherished memories), and how she'd first introduced him to her friend Quicksnap. His markings shimmered, of course, and voluntarily calling up these memories didn't make him feel any better. But that was the point, wasn't it? An open outpouring of grief. Tangi. He'd been doing this his whole life, but it had been so many years since he'd lost a friend in such a violent fashion. That kind of grief was very different from the common sort. (He still found it difficult to look at her body, but forced himself to do so. It was cowardly, after all, to shy away at a time like this.) The unicorn, Inara, wanted to help her deer friend as well. With assistance, she'd moved him all the way from the woods to the coast, and now she stood looking out at the sea. Kohimu tried not to glance over too often. He hadn't known Reicato, after all, and this moment wasn't his to share. But it had been so senseless, Reicato's death, and even without knowing him Kohimu still felt a stab of sharper sorrow when he thought about it. Inara was so brave. Kohimu wished he was half as brave as her. The little pack of kuri dogs clustered around the taniwha. Many of them hadn't seen a scimon before, and snuffled inquiringly at Roda, before getting bored and wandering off to investigate the rest of the crowd. Only one of them, a black-and-white female, remained. "Kahu, can you do something for me?" the taniwha asked. She sprang to attention. "Ā?" "Could you please find Te Tai? Just let him know what's going on." She nodded and nudged him with her nose. "Āe, āe. I'll be back before you know it, Kohimu. Try to relax." Kohimu explains strange humanish concepts to Beech's family ( Shinko)! This is some general scene-setting, so not a lot really goes on. But he does make some nice observations regarding Ginz ❤'s Inara and Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)'s Reicato, and June Scarlet's Roda gets snuffled at by some curious new doggo npcs! (Kuris are about the size of a collie. What she's saying just means 'yes', or 'okay', but I chose to translate these particular words because they sound a little bit similar to the Maori word for the noise dogs make. =P (Au, au!)
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Post by Rabbit ♠ on Jun 15, 2018 19:54:10 GMT -5
((Collab between Rabbit ♠ and June Scarlet )) The dawn broke over an island shrouded in mist. Julaine woke up early, as was her norm. She scurried down her tree, and started gathering nuts to eat for breakfast. As she started to gnaw of the tough shell of a walnut, she heard something behind her. She turned around to spot a cunicanine. The cunicanine was cowering behind something. It was hard to make out through the thick fog. It appeared to be another animal. “Kopi, there is no reason for you to cower,” a voice said. This animal sounded rather annoyed. Julaine set down her walnut and came a step closer. “I would disagree,” she said. “There’s every reason to cower. Though I prefer running up a tree myself.” “I told you, Tash,” the cunicanine - Kopi, the voice said - informed. He carefully walked out from behind the figure. “If I was close to my warren, I’d just hide in there until further notice.” “That wouldn’t be good for you, Kopi,” the voice whined. The animal approached Julaine. It was clear that she was an artacat. “Better than facing the dangerous darkness,” said Julaine. “Speaking of the darkness,” said the cold snarl of a new voice, “I have a few questions for you.” All three of them turned to find a wolf facing them. Julaine bounded for a tree only to find another wolf in the way. Kopi began to panic. What was he going to do? There had to be something he could do. His gut told him that this wasn’t going to end well. He had to get away somehow. And so, he decided to run. Without missing a beat, Tash calmly placed her paw onto one of Kopi’s ears that were on the ground, stopping him from bolting away. “A wise choice,” said the first wolf. “There’s nothing to be scared of. We only want to track down the source of this shadow corruption, and if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. However, if you do have something to hide, please, feel free to try running. See how far you can get.” “Are you sure you’re not just saying that because you’re hungry?” Kopi nervously asked. “ Kopi!” Tash hissed. She looked up at the first wolf. “I’m sorry about my brother. He’s always like this. Scared of everything. What do you want to ask?” The second wolf approached the three. Kopi tried to hop back. Tash calmly looked up at the second wolf. “Tell me, did any of you know the tiger before the incident?” the second wolf asked. “No,” said Julaine, looking around nervously for an escape, “or at least, I didn’t.” “I-I don’t think we talked to the tiger before,” Kopi said. He looked at Tash. “We didn’t, did we?” “No, we did not know the tiger beforehand,” Tash responded. She took her paw off of Kopi’s ear. It was clear to her that he wasn’t going to try to run away again. “Do you have any idea what came over the tiger, the shadow the Thylacine talked about?” the first wolf growled. “No idea,” said Julaine. “Absolutely none,” Kopi added. He plopped onto the ground and sprawled out. “And it’s all going to get us and we’re all going to die horrible deaths.” Tash rolled her eyes. Kopi was always a bit pessimistic, but it had been worse ever since the murders started. As concerning as they were, an attitude like that was going to get Kopi into a load of trouble. “We’re not going to die horrible deaths,” Tash groaned. She was getting tired of dealing with him acting this way. “Kopi, we’re going to be fine. Everyone is going to find out what this darkness is and get rid of it.” “We’re going to get to the bottom of this one way or another,” the first wolf agreed. “Good,” said Julaine, “I hope you wolves figure it out. But as you can see, we know nothing about what’s going on.” The first wolf looked to the second. “What do you think? Are we going to get any useful information from these rodents?” “I don’t think so,” the second answered. He looked down at the three animals. “They haven’t told us anything that could help us so far, I doubt they’ll do so any time soon.” “I’m sorry we couldn’t help,” Kopi squeaked. “I hope you can figure out what’s going on soon.” The second wolf focused on Kopi. The look on the wolf’s face unnerved him. “We will, little one. We’ll figure it out sooner or later.” It’s dawn, the birds are singing, the scimons are gathering their breakfast, and Kopi is cowering. Tash tries to get him to stop, but Julaine agrees that cowering is an appropriate response to the Darkness. “Speaking of darkness,” the wolves say, starting their interrogation. They don’t get much information from the three of them, though.
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Post by Shinko on Jun 15, 2018 21:28:25 GMT -5
“Get back here you little wretch!” Mochi bobbed and weaved through the forest undergrowth, acutely aware of the crashing noises coming from the undergrowth behind them. Normally, out in the open of the Endless Meadow, they could have easily outpaced the wolves presently giving chase. Unfortunately, their speed was greatly hampered by the close quarters in the forest, as was their ability to keep tabs on their pursuers. Under a bush, over a fallen log, around the side of a massive oak, up the face of a boulder and down the other side. Their world had narrowed to the next obstacle, and the next, and the next, all while their ears were swivelled back towards the harsh panting and angry snarls of the predators. They’d spent the night under a blackberry bush in the Shadowed Pines, resting before the trip back to their warren the next day. However, they’d been rather rudely awakened by the sight of massive gray paws digging at the dirt of their hiding place, and fiersome voices calling out to them to show themselves if they knew what was good for them. On the moon, Mochi’s kin had never been hunted. Never suffered the indignity of being a prey item. That was what their ability to prepare rice cakes was for after all- so they didn’t need to give of their own flesh. Unfortunately, on Naelus there were a good few predators who much preferred the taste of Mochi-capital-M to the taste of mochi-lowercase-m, and the moon rabbit had hightailed it out of the back of the bush while the dire wolves were distracted digging at the front. Unfortunately, the rabbit’s lack of familiarity with the woods proved their undoing. In their headlong flight they failed to realize they were coming up on a stream until it was mere meters ahead, and with a jolt Mochi realized they were trapped. They could swim, certainly, but the dires were tall enough to wade, and would catch Mochi for sure if they tried crossing the water. No time to deliberate- if they couldn’t run, they’d have to fight. With the panting of the wolves rapidly coming close behind them, Mochi flicked their wrist to fling the hammer-bracelet up so they could catch the tool in their paws. As their digits closed over the handle, the kine expanded in size until the head was as big around as Mochi’s skull. With seconds to spare the moon rabbit leapt and spun, swinging the hammer as hard as they could. It connected satisfyingly with the side of the jaw on a dire that had been about to grab Mochi. The wolf rolled with the impact, yelping in pain and holding a paw to the point of impact. The other wolves pulled back, hesitating. Mochi finally got a good look at them- three dires, a Honshū, and a hokkaido. “Aren’t I a little small to feed a pack of five?” Mochi demanded between panting, balancing as best they could on their hind legs while still keeping the hammer poised. “Who said anything about food, little bun?” the hokkaido wolf asked jeeringly. “We just want to take you on a little walk is all. Have a nice conversation.” “Uh-huh,” Mochi said, silver eyes narrowed skeptically. “You coulda just asked. I would’ve made snacks, even.” “You’ll forgive us if we’re not interested in your food,” one of the dires snarled. “Who knows, could be how that shadow’s getting around, couldn’t it? Poisoned grub seems as likely as anything else.” “What? That’s dumb,” Mochi retorted. Anything further they might have said, however, was forestalled when one of the dires suddenly lunged, fangs bared. Mochi brought their hammer around, weaving to the side and catching the wolf on the shoulder so that she tumbled into the stream. Before the rabbit could get their legs back under them, however, a powerful set of jaws caught one of their haunches and they squealed in pain. “No more of that, now,” the hokkaido wolf growled, glaring at Mochi as they dangled from the jaws of the last uninjured dire. “You’re coming with us, bun. And if you don’t want to make yourself look even more guilty than you already do, you’ll come quietly.” Mochi swallowed hard, letting their hammer shrink back down so that the chord wasn’t threatening to dislocate their shoulder. “I don’t know anything, honest.” “You was awful casual yesterday though, wasn’t ya?” growled the dire that Mochi had struck first, spitting a globule of blood from between their teeth. “Tiger murders a deer, and there you were handing out snacks. Didn’t you care?” “Well duh, but everyone was scared already!” Mochi bleated, swinging from the wolf’s jaws as it started to turn back the way they had come. “I didn’t want to make it worse, I wanted to help everybody calm down!” “We’ll see,” the hokkaido wolf snarled, falling into step with its packmates. “I get the feeling after a few nips, you might just find yourself singing a different tune.” Mochi tries first to run from, then to fight a group of wolves chasing them. Sadly they fail at both, though not without a seriously admirable effort. They’re currently being carried to… somewhere. Maybe to where your character has been cornered? Ooor perhaps your character could jump in to save Mochi before they get there?
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Post by Tiger on Jun 16, 2018 1:11:37 GMT -5
Note: this is rather long (~2,400 words) and concerns side-characters, so uh, feel free to skip/just read the summary if you aren't interested in following the plotlines of the NPC dinosaurs/NPC wolves.“Think about it,” Deinos growled as he continued on the scent trail. “They weren’t at the meeting. The wounds weren’t from a cat, and the crocodile would’ve said if it looked like a dog, and what animals d’you know that’d take on a thylacine and leave it torn up and shredded? And then find it a fun game to twist up a tiger’s head?” “Not saying it doesn’t sound like them,” his cousin Kaline grumbled. “I just don’t know how they’d pull it off.” The third dire wolf, a notch-eared male named Radul, said, “Oh, the dark is probably coming from a magical creature. But maybe it’s got friends, and those friends can tell us what it is.” Deinos said, “And when the tiger lost control, she made plenty of noise - but whatever killed the thylacine, it knew to keep it quiet. That’s not a predator going crazy, that’s killers planning a murder.” “Even if they aren’t part of it themselves, they’re almost as nosy at the little green-necks,” Radul said. Kaline brrfed in dry amusement. “They’ll know something.” “ That I can agree with.” “Good to he - “ Deinos suddenly dug in his paws, looking up sharply. Kaline and Radul came to similarly quick stops behind him. “What?” Kaline breathed. “...Something between those trees.” Deinos crouched and prowled closer. The smell they’d been following hit his nose again, but stronger, sharper, fuller. A lot like bird, a bit like mammal, a bit something his nose didn’t quite take to, like it knew it was a few millenia too late to be smelling it. Dinosaur.And there, between the trees, he could see three in a clearing ahead. Two-legged dinosaurs, long arms and covered in feathers, including big ones swooping back from their heads. It was still a touch too dim for Deinos to see much color, but the lighter patches of color on the feather-tips marked where the more vibrant shades would appear by daylight. They were only a touch taller than the dire wolves when standing - but right now, they seemed to be sitting. Sleeping, perhaps? It would be best to startle them that way, get the upper paw before the raptors got to their feet and unleashed their overlong toe claws. “Our lucky night,” Radul whispered. “Let’s go!” Deinos would normally have said to wait, to think things through, to scout the area. But three raptors alone, three raptors who probably knew something, after a day where Deinos - all the wolves, really - had spent hours with their nerves stretched thin, waiting for another animal to attack someone? He didn’t hesitate. They sprang into the little patch of scrub, snarling and snapping their teeth - and two of the raptors leaped up almost at once, hissing and screeching in return. Their feathers puffed and crests rose, like clumsy mirrors of the wolves’ hackles and ears. The third one shifted its head; one eye gleamed briefly with reflected light. It was still sitting, why hadn’t it - “That one’s injured!” Kaline barked. “Something’s wrong with its leg!” One of the raptors pivoted to face her, extending its clawed, feathered arms and gaping its mouth wide to screech. “How’d that happen, huh?” Rudel demanded, prowling back and forth across from the other raptor. “Get into a fight?” A sharp thok drew Deinos’ attention - he whirled around - nothing behind him, but then - “So the wolves are wandering around and looking for trouble!” Deinos followed the voice upward, and that was when he saw it; a raptor in the tree, steadying herself near the base of a thick branch. The long talon on her left foot tapped against the branch again - thok! The big lizard looked down at Deinos, mouth curved upward, teeth slightly exposed. If there was one raptor in the trees… Dienos looked around, teeth baring of their own accord. He spotted at least two more - a ring of three around a ring of three around a cluster of three. “We’re not looking for trouble,” Kaline growled, addressing the raptor who had spoken to them. “We’re looking for answers.” She snapped her teeth on the air again. “What do you know about the shadow?” The raptor’s tail flicked gently; it was a huge plumed thing that hung mostly straight, very little give to it. The feathers were smattered with whatever lighter coloring the raptor was accented with. “That’d be the darkness the Coelophyses were yammering about?” “The one that made a tiger murder a deer today!” Radul shouted. The raptor’s mouth opened a little more. “Big cat killing a deer? Never thought I’d hear that!” The Velociraptors in the trees chirruped and clicked, their tails swaying, too. Deinos growled back at them. “Oh, this is funny, is it? The deer was murdered, not hunted!” “You would’ve known,” Kaline said with a sneer, “if you’d been there.” With a disdainful hiss, the raptor said, “Forgive a matriarch the decision to tend to her wounded.” “Wounded - in a fight with a thylacine, perhaps?” The raptor looked back down at Deinos. “A fight with age, speed, and a foot caught in a burrow.” “ Sure.” Kaline crouched, baring her teeth at the raptor standing between her and the wounded dinosaur. “How about we check that leg and see if its got any bites on it?” The raptor standing guard hissed at her. “Go on, take a step closer - I’ll make sure you see some bites!” “So quick with the threats!” Radul said. “Isn’t so easy to come back from the edge, is it?” “Hold your place - both of you,” the raptor matriarch said - but to Deinos, she added, “You or your pack attack mine, and it isn’t breaking the Spirit’s law to kill you.” “Spirit’s law says defend, not murder.” “Sounds like the Spirit’s about to be too busy to go around nitpicking all the laws.” Another gape-mouthed grin. “There’s a motive right there!” Kaline said, stamping a paw for emphasis. “Break the Spirit’s highest law, and you can sneak minor breaks by!” “ Hrrrrr. Your heads so full of fur you can’t understand a joke?” “Yours so full of feathers you can’t tell this ain’t the time for jokes?” Radul snarled back. “We’re not leaving until we get answers, you overgrown bird - how long d’you wanna sit in that tree?” “How long do you want to sit under a pack of deinonychus?” Another round of clicking from the trees. “Seems we're at a stalemate." Deinos growled, looked around, tried to think. The raptor was right, for the moment - but he was certain they were involved, they had to be. He just needed to find something to use, a way to get them to talk… His nose twitched, and he wrinkled it at the strong raptor smell - and then realized… "This is your territory.” A second eyelid swiped over the raptor’s eye. “I don’t like your tone, wolf.” The other raptors hissed. Deinos put his muzzle close to the ground and started to search, careful to never keep his back to the raptors without one of his companions watching that direction. The raptors snarled from the treetops. “...What are you doing?” Kaline demanded in a rough whisper. Deinos didn’t answer her. His nose led him to a different sort of raptor scent, and he followed it - yes, that broken tree stump with the hollow bottom sure looked like… “Yellowtail!“ one of the raptors hissed. Deinos stuck his muzzle into the hollow just as he heard a loud thump and snarls behind him - with a growl of his own, Deinos wriggled his head around until he felt something a little too soft and warm and he snatched it up - He turned to find the big raptor matriarch down from the trees, facing down Kaline and Radul, with one of the hatchling raptors in its mouth. The little thing wriggled and squawked, trying to bite and claw at Deinos’ nose. The raptors hissing made it sound like he was up to his ears in snakes. “Deinos...” Kaline’s eyes had gone huge and her tail and ears both flattened. “Deinos, what are you - “ Radul looked similarly shocked, but regained his composure with a shake of his fur. “No - now we have a stalemate!” Yellowtail snarled. “You come here and accuse us of murder, and then you attack our hatchlings?” Deinos’ heart was pounding hard and his mouth felt dry - he didn’t want to be doing this, but the raptors were leaving him no choice! He wouldn’t actually hurt the baby… but if the raptors were involved, then it was more important to get them talking than anything else. “Put. Them. Down.” Yellowtail ordered. She spread her feet wide and crouched - pouncing stance. The other two raptors dropped out of the trees. “Deinos, do it,” Kaline said, “Drop it!” No. Not when they were this close! Deinos lifted a back foot and kicked the tree. Lightly. The raptors still flinched and hissed and Yellowtail’s claws shot forward into the ground briefly before she yanked them back up. They left deep puncture marks in the soft earth. Deinos did his best to ignore that, and instead nodded broadly toward the wounded raptor. Yellowtail snarled, and so did the raptors around their injured packmember - but the injured raptor sighed and said, “Move. I’ll get up and let them look.” One of the raptors around him still refused to move until the raptor nudged its leg with his nose. The injured raptor rose to his feet - or foot, rather, as he immediately pulled one of his legs up to his belly with a rough snarl. “Well?” he snapped. The raptor who had only reluctantly moved aside hissed at Kaline and added, “Go on - look! Baby-snatching cowards - you want to see a running-wound so bad? Go!” Kaline shot Deinos a look that said if she was attacked by raptors, he could expect every inch of that pain inflicted on him in turn - but she prowled close to study the wounded leg. The tension hadn’t seemed like it could get any tighter, but Deinos could barely breathe through the cloud of anxiety as he watched his cousin investigate with her nose a breath away from a five-inch sickle claw. The raptors usually used their elongated claws for climbing, and for pinning things, not for hunting. But an animal would have to be a fool not to realize that at that distance, the claw was as deadly as a cave bear’s paw. “...I don’t see any bites,” Kaline said. The raptors hissed and snapped their teeth in an ugly chorus. “What?! They must - “ Radul bounded forward, drawing a squawk from the other raptor - and it lashed out with a clawed hand. Radul jerked back with a yelp - he looked back up quickly, both eyes thankfully intact - but his cheek freshly marred with slashes already welling with blood. Radul’s teeth were bared and his jowls trembled - the look in his eyes were so enraged and hateful that Deinos felt like he was looking at a completely different wolf. The raptor met his gaze squarely and puffed her feathers. “Radul!” Kaline barked. She looked hastily between the three raptors, and then lunged, ducking between them and snatching Radul’s scruff to yank him away from the raptor. She shoved him toward the edge of the trees, looked back over her shoulder. “Deinos!” Yellowtail and Deinos’ eyes met. The deinonychus bared her teeth - “Don’t you dare!” Deinos took a step back...then turned sharply, rammed the side of the tree with his shoulder, and bolted into the woods with the stolen hatchling still in his jaws. As long as he had the baby, they couldn’t attack him, as long as he had the baby, they couldn’t attack him, as long as he had the baby - Yellowtail screeched in the direction the wolf had gone, four steps after him before she could rein herself in. “Stop!” she ordered, and then repeated it in the sharp hissing language the raptors used when hunting. Her raptors stopped, giving her incredulous looks. “They’re escaping!” one of her daughters protested. “I do not care about those two. You and Windteeth, get into the trees. Warn the other animals - I want the wolves greeted with teeth everywhere they go.” The two raptors immediately went for the nearest trees, scrabbling up the trunks and beginning to make their way through the canopy. “Driftstone, Shadowstep - the leader. If he hurts the hatchling - I want him in pieces.” Her oldest son and his mate darted off obediently. Yellowtail’s brother hobbled over to the jostled nesting tree, and helped her retrieve and check the hatchlings. None of them were seriously hurt, just shaken. As they nosed the babies back into the creche, Yellowtail’s brother said, “I’ll guard these. Go find the wolf. And if he breaks the law…” “He will not be the last one to break it,” Yellowtail snarled, and she set off after Driftstone and Shadowstep. ...well that went from zero to sixty a lot faster than I intended.
Very very very long story short - three dire wolves Deinos, Kaline, and Radul go to question the raptors. The raptors know nothing, but the wolves are convinced they were at least responsible for Beech’s death, and insist on inspecting one of the raptors’ wounded legs. Things are in a stalemate because nobody’s giving ground but nobody will attack outright, either (the wolves because they’re outnumbered, the raptors because breaking the Spirit’s law maybe isn’t the best idea).
Deinos gets the idea to use a hatchling as a hostage. This does not make the raptors any happier, but they let Kaline see the wounded leg. When Radul lunges over to check, a raptor slashes him in surprise. The wolves bail, Kaline and Radul in one direction, Deinos - still carrying the hatchling - in another.
The raptor leader Yellowtail sends two raptors to warn the other animals about the wolves, two more after Deinos, and after leaving her brother in charge of watching over the other hatchlings, goes to chase down Deinos as well, vowing to kill him if he kills the hatchling.
Deinos and company might join another group of wolves or something...? I'm not sure what group or how, but it feels like integrating back into the roleplay would probably, y'know, make this post have a point.
Dilophosaurs will get a post tomorrow (er...later today. Saturday.), I...I think this is enough for one evening...slash super-early morning.
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Post by Celestial on Jun 16, 2018 9:18:57 GMT -5
Svar tried to sleep after the meeting, but with his mind still occupied by the murders and the fear that, somehow, humans had invaded the island, sleep did not come easy. He had stayed awake all night, shining like a beacon through the fog as he moved from place to place around the Endless Meadow (trees would obscure his view), listening for any noise or anything that sounded like the gutteral growling that humans called speech. By the time morning came, the firebird was exhausted. Exhaustion, however, brought with it a small blessing: it dulled the paranoia that he constantly lived with. Svar flew around low to the ground, looking for a hole in a dead tree that would obscure his radiance and provide a good means to escape if he needed. Not an easy task, but a necessary one. Luck, however, was not on his side: he had strayed too far from the hole he had used last time and there was nowhere around that could serve as good cover. Not that it was anything new: Svar had grown very used to the thought that his feathers brought misfortune. In the end, the firebird settled for a cluster of thick foliage that would obscure most of his radiance. He tucked his head under his wing and fell into a fitful sleep. He was rudely awakened as something sent him tumbling to the ground. Svar shrieked, just barely managing to snap his wings out in order to stop himself falling to his death. As he fell, he saw the apologetic face of a phlaocyon looking down at him. "I'm sorry," the creature called. "They made me do it." "Who?" the firebird leapt up to his feet only to feel a paw on his tail. He turned and was met with off-white teeth set into a canine jaw. A wolf! Svar froze with fear, looking into its brown eyes and reddish face. Reddish? Perhaps it was not one of those wolves? "Glad we caught you," the red wolf spoke. "Don't worry, we're not after food." "Indeed," another wolf, slightly obscured by the mists, spoke. "We're all just asking a few questions to figure out what's this corruption is. Maybe you, a magical creature, would know." "I don't know an-" Svar broke off as the second wolf stepped out of the shadows. A grey wolf. Smaller than the wolves that cooperated with the humans to hunt his kind but still a grey wolf. It was happening again. A wolf was trying to hunt him down, no doubt to turn him over to a human hero, just watching and waiting out there in the mist. "NO!" Svar shrieked and thrashed, flapping his wings in order to get airborne. "I am not coming with you! You are not taking me prisoner! I don't want to go back into a cage!" "Calm down!" the red wolf struggled desperately to keep Svar pinned to the ground by his tail amidst the firebird's increasingly panicked thrashing. "Like he said, we're not-" She was cut off by another shriek from the firebird. Pearls were being scattered in all directions. Beneath the ethiopian wolf's paw, Svar was growing ever hotter. She looked up at the grey wolf, assuming he was the leader. "Jurou, it's no use. He'll get away before we can ask him" "Let me help," the grey wolf, Jurou, stepped closer and tried to grasp Svar around the body. The firebird screamed. His glow suddenly became even brighter and flames began to lick under the gaps in his feathers. Without warning, a corona of radiance burst forth from his plumes, hitting the two wolves. They yelped, leaping away from the flames, allowing Svar to take off. He did not know where he was flying, nor did he care. All he wanted to do was be away from the grey wolf. Maybe it was not the wolf who had helped the tsarevich locate him as payment for eating his horse but it did not matter to Svar. As far as he was concerned, he was not taking that chance ever again. He had spent a century and a half trapped in a golden cage, being freed only to pass from one hero to another, and he was not going back to being an ornament, a symbol of conquest that the humans adopted. He was greater than that! The servant of a sun god - no matter how forgotten- deserved better! The trees beneath him gave way to the Endless Meadow, and the Meadow gave way to waterfalls. Svar flew for what felt like hours until every muscle in his body ached. With one final burst of flame to give him some extra speed, he fell from the sky like a comet, landing in the sand. The grains got under his feathers, and he shook himself weakly, but all that resulted in was him getting more of the stuff on him. Water and sand. His two favourite elements. At the moment, however, compared to the roving bands of wolves, they seemed like the lesser evil. "Never again. I'm not being caught again. A wolf will not sell me to a human again," he murmured quiely over and over. Svar does not have a good morning. For starters, he cannot find a nice roosting place for himself so he is forced to settle for something inferior. Then he is knocked out of it by an extinct raccoon-like creature. Then he is cornered by an Ethiopian Wolf and a Honshu Wolf, the sight of which makes him freak out because a grey wolf was instrumental in helping capture him for a human hero once. The two wolves cannot contain a ball of panic and literal fire, allowing Svar to get away. He flies for a good long stretch of time, covering about 15/20 miles from sheer panic, and finally falls down, exhausted, where the funeral is being held for Beech. Kohimu, Roda and Inara ( Thorn , June Scarlet and Ginz ❤ ) are probably there to witness him come tumbling out of the sky. I am also looking for beasties for Morag to tag along with. =D
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Post by Tiger on Jun 16, 2018 12:32:02 GMT -5
Taakeyrr had slept poorly, and when the sky started turning just the slightest bit more blue and black, she gave up, got to her feet, and left the den and her sleeping sister and father. She didn’t go far at first, settling on her belly in some soft grass a short distance from the mouth of the cavern and sat in the fog, listening to the crickets chirruping. She’d intended it to be relaxing, but she just found her thoughts racing faster and faster. That was...probably to be expected. Murder was an unprecedented event on Naelus. ...So was the return of the dead. Taakeyrr shuddered, feathers fluffing. She hadn’t liked the look of the thylacine that way - glowing and semi-transparent and that missing leg… Some of the other animals had had words for it, but not Taakeyrr. Dilophosaurs didn’t have much to do with matters beyond death - and why should they? Their species had lived here even longer than they had lived on Pangea, and hadn’t seen a single… thing like that. So clearly anything after death was the Spirit’s domain, and clearly it did a good job with that. ...Until now. Taakeyrr had heard a lot of theories, a lot of them frightening ones. But the one that stuck in her mind the most was that Beech hadn’t gotten a proper… …well. Taakeyrr couldn’t quite remember the word. Something about the body not being put where it was supposed to be? That seemed right, although the concept seemed odd. Predators left the bones of their prey wherever they had died, or brought the food back to their own lairs, and this hadn’t been a problem before now. Or was that only because the bodies were used? While Beech had been killed for no purpose and left like a taunt? ...All right, Taakeyrr was imaginative enough to see that making the Spirit mad enough to let some other unprecedented things happen. The one who had spoken most about it, the big lizardy sea-beast, had been arranging to do some ritual with Beech’s body. It had been quite a few hours by now, and Taakeyrr wondered if she should go at all….but maybe it was better to go late than not at all? More likely, though, they wouldn’t care as long as she wasn’t there to do any more damage to the body, or bring that glowing, cold-voiced creature back. (Or...should they be trying to bring it back? It… she, hadn’t remembered anything, not at the time, but what if, with some more time and effort....?, None of Taakeyrr’s questions were going to be answered either way while she was stuck sitting here. With a huff, she got to her feet, and made it two steps. “You’re going back to the Crags?” Taakeyrr’s whole body tensed as she looked over her shoulder. Xsabasksis. At this shorter distance, the size difference between them was clearer than it had been in the clearing. Xsabasksis wasn’t much taller than Taakeyrr, but she was definitely bigger, wider, built more powerfully. “No,” Taakeyrr said to Xsabaskis’ accusation. “To the beach. Using the slope. ...For the...the thing with the thylacines.” Her tail whipped from base to tip. “I’m allowed to go to the beach, Xsabaskis.” “You shouldn’t go there alone; I’ll come with you.” “What? No. You should stay with - “ “Our father can take care of himself. I’m coming with you.” “I don’t need - “ Xsabaskis interrupted her with a growl and said, “The thylacine was wandering off on her own when she got attacked! Do you want to be the next one killed and turned into a - a creature like that blue thing?” Taakeyrr faltered. She hadn’t considered that - but it was true. She had no desire to be like that mist-like echo of an animal, a cold voice and a missing limb and no memory of anything else. “Fine; you can come,” she said, turning back the way she’d been going.. “But I’m letting you come. You’re not in charge of us all yet.” Xsabaskis sighed, but she didn’t disagree, and followed half a step behind Taakeyrr for once, instead of darting ahead to take the lead. Taakeyrr was relieved - a journey she didn’t have to take with her view half-obscured by her sister’s tailfeathers. They had gone on little adventures together all the time when they’d been younger. Xsabaskis hadn’t been so bossy back then. Their mother had still been alive. Reshan would join them on some of their escapades. Taakeyrr missed those days. She wondered if Xsabaskis ever did, too. ...Oh well. There were more important things to worry about right now. ------- As they got closer to the beach, it began to get a little lighter. They could hear a lot of noise from the forest, which seems a little odd; maybe everyone else had had trouble sleeping. Taakeyrr swore she heard wolf howls at one point. “...Xabaskis - is it just me, or - “ She glanced up, stopped, tilted her head. “...What is that?” A second, and then Xsabaskis snorted in surprise. “Fire in the sky?” Taakeyrr padded a few steps forward, then chirruped. “It’s a bird! The bird that has fire in its feathers!” “It’s heading for the beach,” Xsabaskis said. “ Down toward the beach.” “Let’s go find it!” “Taak - “ Taakeyrr heard Xasbaskis huff, but when she glanced back over her shoulder, her sister was picking up her pace into a run, too. A little purr-like growl rose in Taakeyrr’s throat as she turned back ahead, quickly approaching the slope angling down past the waterfalls and onto the sandy shores. She skid to a halt where the grass fully gave way to sand. Xsabaskis was far enough behind to have a chance to slow down and come to a more graceful stop. “There’s still a lot of animals here,” Taakeyrr whispered, looking around the beach. Xasbaskis made a few clicks of amusement. “You have to learn to talk to them someday, Taak. ...Just make sure you’re nice. And don’t ask any insensitive questions.” Taakeyrr’s feathers rustled irritably - she should have known better than to let Xsabaskis follow her here. “I’m not an idiot. And she prowled out onto the sand...trying not to think about how she didn’t know some of these creatures’ species names, let alone knowing none of their real names. Mostly a setup post. Taakeyrr and Xsabaskis go to the beach for the funeral. I’ll initiate some interactions when it’s less “a half hour ‘til my mom gets here to help me with my washing machine” and I know where other people are. Or you can initiate interactions with the dilos, zomg They spot Svar en route to crash-landing ( Celestial). Others on the beach - Shinko and Thorn(Soaitsae post coming probably sometime tonight)
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Post by Shinko on Jun 16, 2018 12:48:17 GMT -5
Eucalyptus winced a bit as she felt tiny needle teeth suckling from inside of her pouch. One month to go before her newest litter would be big enough to survive the outside world. Beech had so been looking forward to meeting her newest siblings… As if he sensed his mother’s train of thought, her son Shara bumped his head soothingly against her haunch. She cast him a wan smile. He’d shared the pouch with Beech, and while the two had squabbled like crows over a carcass Euki knew he missed his sister too. Euki hadn’t been entirely enthusiastic when Kohimu approached the pack and asked them to make a public show of their grief for the lost family member. That was normally a private matter, after all. Euki’s mother, the elderly thylacine Dyandra, had very nearly bitten him before the triplets restrained her. Even now she was casty wary, suspicious looks over her shoulder at the other animals that had gathered to witness the taniwha’s spectacle. Their home den was in a huge hollowed out log, which had fallen from the forest on the cliff above and eventually washed back up on the beach. Normally the family didn’t like strangers so close to it, but Eucalyptus and her mate Bottlebrush had agreed to make an exception in the name of helping the island be safer- “It’s what she would want,” Bottlebrush had pointed out reasonably and none of them could dispute the validity of that. It was hard to see the body. Only the Bottlebrush had seen it at the falls, and it was clear from the way he averted his gaze that he wasn’t keen to see it a second time. Not his daughter, shredded as she’d been. For want of any other idea of what to do, Eucalyptus padded over to the limp form and lay beside it, her back legs sprawled sideways to displace the joeys in her pouch. Shara came up to lay at her back, his spine pressed against hers, and Dyandra sat silent sentinel behind them both. Once Kohimu had finished making his speech, Shara lifted his head and started to keen into the sky. Euki joined him, and Dyandra looked around at the crowd with her short fur bristling, as if daring them to interrupt the moment. Bottlebrush and the triplets, however, seemed to have had enough. Beech’s father ran off down the sand, into the ocean shallows and away from the rest of the funeral. The girls, meanwhile, split off in separate directions into the crowd. Abruptly, a fireball fell out of the sky and crashed into the sand, making the animals jump. Heath, the smallest of the thylacine sisters, was closest to the impact site, and pushed the rest of the way through the crowd. Spotting the lingering flames, she realized that nested in the middle of the embers was the weakly flopping form of a bird.Heath spun on her heels, darting to the ocean’s edge and grabbing a huge conch shell. She dumped the shell into the seawater long enough that it completely filled, then dashed back to the bird. Tilting her head, she then dumped the entire load over him, wincing as steam rose from the dousing flames. “Are you alright?” she demanded, dropping the shell and sniffing the bird all over for burns. Meanwhile the middle sister, Bluebell, was distracted by the sudden arrival of two altogether different sorts of birds. Her ears pricked, she dashed towards them, nostrils flaring warily. They’d come down the slope awfully fast… “What’s wrong?” Bluebell demanded. “What’s your hurry? Has something else happened?” Brooms. So many brooms. Kill your face Thorn. 8D The thylacines don't quite know what to make of this public mourning business, but after some initial resistance agree to at least try. Points to note for interaction purposes! Beech’s mother (Eucalyptus), brother (Shara) and grandmother (Dyandra) are sitting near the body. Approach them if you like, although grandma is a little cranky. Beech’s father (Bottlebrush) is nope’d out and ran off. He’s further down the beach if anyone wants to follow him. Finally, Beech’s three older sisters (Acacia, Bluebell, and Heath) are mingling with the crowd, looking for a distraction. Bluebell accosts Taakeyrr & Xsabaskis ( Tiger) worried they ran down to deliver a message, and Heath helpfully dumps seawater over Svar to douse the fire on him. ( Celestial) Acacia is free to interact with. Don’t take any of my interactions as a lockout to also interacting with that same character- remember I have seven thylas to fling places =P
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Post by June Scarlet on Jun 16, 2018 21:29:47 GMT -5
Roda rode Kohimu all the way to the beach. They stayed in silence most of the way, given the procession of animals that followed them for the gathering. Once at the beach, a little pack of kuri dogs snuffled at her curiously. Once they had wandered off, Roda finally climbed down from the taniwha's shoulders. Roda looked over where the body lay, but couldn't bring herself to get any closer. It had been so needlessly violent, it was hard for her to see. She stayed with the crowd for a bit before finally working up the courage to approach Beech's family gathered nearby. Roda came up to Eucalyptus and said, "I'm so sorry for your loss. I've lost family to predators, and I know it's never easy, but this must be especially hard to deal with." She was distracted from the conversation however by a fiery bird coming in for a landing. "Oh wow, that's something you don't see every day." Roda rides down to the beach on Taniwha Taxi Thorn, gets snuffled by some Kuri dogs, visits Eucalyptus Shinko and pays her respects to the family, and spots a fiery bird Celestial coming in for a landing.
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Post by Tiger on Jun 16, 2018 21:50:45 GMT -5
Taakeyrr tensed when one of the thylacines charged toward them. Xsabaskis leaned forward a little, holding her ground but not quite looking aggressive. “What’s wrong? What’s your hurry?” the thylacine demanded. ” Has something else happened?”Taakeyrr’s head tilted. “What? No! ...I don’t think so, anyway. We just…” ...Suddenly it sounded very heartless to say that they - she - had come to the beach to talk about the dead rising. Perhaps she had not thought this all the way through. “...We just wanted to make sure everything here was...okay.” She glanced toward the sea-beast who had been crusading for this whole event. Xsabaskis added, “We came down so quickly because of...ah, that.” She nodded toward the place the bird had landed - just as another thylacine dumped a conch shell of water on it. She raised her voice a little. “Are they okay?” The dilos tell Bluebell ( Shinko) there’s nothing wrong (that they know of) and that they came to see that everything was okay (sort of true) and that they came running because of Svar’s magnificent crash-landing ( Celestial). (Xsabaskis calls to ask if he’s okay, which could be answered by Heath or Svar, whoever wants to reply first).
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Post by Ginz ❤ on Jun 17, 2018 0:41:28 GMT -5
Inara liked spending most of her time in the northern half of Naelus. The Highwind Woods were the place she felt most at home in, and the Endless Meadow was her favorite place to graze, by far. She almost never found a reason to trek all the way down to the beach. But today, regrettably, she did. The previous day, as she mourned Recaito, she couldn’t help but overhear some of the other animals wondering what to do about him. She didn’t want to think about it, but it did seem wrong to leave him where it happened, considering the circumstances. It was too painful. Suddenly, the memory of a conversation she once had with the huemul deer had come flashing back to her. “Perhaps out to sea,” he had said, “where I could drift back home… to her,” Inara didn’t know who she was, but she felt a slight pang of jealously when Recaito mentioned her, though she brushed it off quickly. The unicorn didn’t quite understand her friend’s choice for a resting spot, but she wanted to honor his wishes. For Inara, Naelus was home. She had been born on the island, and although she had heard stories of other lands, that’s all they were to her: stories. But she knew not everyone was like her. It had been no easy task to move Recaito from the woods to the coast, but thankfully, she had had assistance. Still, she couldn’t tell if she felt more exhausted physically or emotionally. Both had taken a toll on her. Letting go was the hardest of all. They had laid the deer down on the sand and let the waves come and take him away in their embrace. The morning was so foggy, it didn’t take long for Recaito to be swallowed by the fog. Inara stood at the shore for a while, looking out at the sea, directly at the spot where her best friend had disappeared into the mist. She hoped the Spirit would guide him in his journey. She hoped he would end up where he wanted. All of a sudden, a bright orange reflection appeared in the water, pulling Inara out of her absentminded state. She turned her head around just in time to see something fall down near where the thylacine family had gathered. Inara had kept a slight distance from them up until then. She didn’t want to be disrespectful, but she hadn’t known Beech personally, like she did Recaito, and she wanted to take her time to say goodbye to her friend. However, now seemed a good moment as any to walk over and pay her respects, (aside from finding out exactly what that bright thing had been). A couple of pygmy dinosaurs also arrived at that scene in that moment. Inara recognized them as the ones who had held the tigress back the previous day. She followed them, hoping she’d have a chance to thank them for that. She opened her mouth, but all that came out was a soft gasp. She was close enough now that she could see now. It was a bird, and although it looked disheveled and wet, his beautiful glowing plumage was remarkable. Inara finds herself at the beach to honor Recaito's ( Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff) ) final wish to be taken out to sea so he can drift back home. She sees the unidentified falling object ( Celestial ) and the newcomer 'dilos ( Tiger ) and approaches the group that is gathered for Beech's funeral ( Shinko ). As she gets closer, she is impressed by Svar's beautiful plumage. (Tagging others who are also around: Thorn , June Scarlet )
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Post by Coaster on Jun 17, 2018 3:15:39 GMT -5
As Genevieve trudged through the damp undergrowth of the forest amid the unusually dense fog, she lamented being cold and soggy yet again, but as she had managed to retrieve her viney cowl from the place in which she had stowed it and was presently venturing back towards the more populous areas of the island to investigate the recent developments, she could at least enjoy the relative ease from anxiety provided by a small amount of camouflage--though typically a more vibrantly green garment than the disgustingly moist fallen leaves that marred the forest floor on such a misty day, the mud applied to both it and herself in her toil to wade through those leaves likely returned it to a more neutral tone. Alas, camouflage was not particularly useful when at least one smelly canine decided to skip by in pursuit of whatever prattish Game their fancy had spontaneously put them to, stepping squarely on Genevieve in the process and tangling her cloak up in one of its legs. Granted, stuck though she already was, stuck cats are of course wont to flail in panic and likely sink their claws into whatever is keeping them stuck to begin with. It was rather hard for Genevieve to tell for certain amid her scrabbling and yowling, but there seemed to be a flash of scales and downy feathers amid the fur, and then more fur, and some teeth, and more feathers perhaps? She'd already had to purge at that ghostly thylacine last night, now was certainly not a good time for further dizziness. Genevieve is just minding her own business, now toting her fabulous vine scarf, when all of a sudden this uppity wolf ( Tiger)--presumably Deino, who may or may not have hooked back up with the other two wolves by this point?--decides to run her over, and she gets stuck to him, and starts clawing, and things are messy.
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Post by Draco on Jun 17, 2018 7:17:03 GMT -5
Two wolves are sniffing around the woods until they reach the clearing the meeting was held the previous day. There still snoozing was Kuzen. "This salamander is just sleeping here. Shouldn't it be in the water or something?" "That's not a salamander, look at it's shell. It's obviously a turtle. And I think it's dead." They sniff at Kuzen. "No, it's alive. Should we bring it in for questioning?" "Of course, it's what we're out here for. Let's hurry up, I'm getting hungry." The first wolf nudges Kuzen several times trying to wake him. Instead he just snorts and snores louder. Confused the wolf gently bites the edge of shell around the back of Kuzen's neck and picks him up, taking him away. --- Kuzen wakes up and stretches. He looks around at his surroundings and is both confused and a bit startled by what he finds. He was not in a familiar place, and there were large dogs, no wolves, everywhere. He glances around and notices there is no real escape, he was surrounded. "Well this isn't good..." Two wolves pick up Kuzen and take him to be interrogated.
When Kuzen wakes up, notices he's surrounded, and realizes he may be in trouble...
(totally not writing this at 5 in the morning XD and tired)
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Post by Reiqua on Jun 17, 2018 7:45:09 GMT -5
Everyone had long since vacated the clearing by the time she found Yira. It had been a long, sleepless night of searching, but now it seemed her fears were entirely without basis. It was approaching morning when Yira had bounded through the trees towards her, safe, well, and happy. He said that Gali had looked after him. And Muuri could not deny that she had heard a soft slithering sound just at that moment, just as if the rainbow serpent were melting away. Clearly the Spirit knew. There was more for Yira to learn, more for Muuri to teach. And it was not their time yet. The tension eased from her shoulders as she realised the Spirit had had a hand over all this. After a very short rest, Muuri deemed it time to be on the move themselves. She had liked the taniwha’s idea of a mourning for Beech. Or at least that was what she had understood him to be on about. Truth be told she had been a little too preoccupied by her concern for Yira to have paid very close attention. But now, in the pale light of the early morning she bent her steps towards the beach to join the party. A thick fog seemed to have settled over the forest while she slept. She didn’t like it. It seemed to dull not only her vision but also her hearing and smell. Everything sounded muffled and smelled damp. She kept Yira close by her, constantly on the alert for danger. Something about this didn’t feel right. Then she heard it. Footfalls. An animal at least as large as she was. To the southeast. No, to the west. Or was it the south? She paused to listen better, her nose twitching but unable to pick up any scent. Suddenly something appeared out of the fog. A large dire wolf. No, three. Muuri screeched in mixed fear and defiance. She could fight. Or she could run. But Yira could do neither. The little one had frozen several paces away from her. “Climb Yira, climb!” she shrieked even as she pranced away from the reach of the closest wolf’s jaws, “they can’t reach you if you go high enough” With their attention now drawn to the tree Yira had sprung up, the closest wolf leapt high in the air and his jaws closed barely a paw’s breadth from Yira’s tail. “Higher, higher!” Muuri urged him, but the wolf nearest her had taken advantage of her distraction and snapped at her once again, his teeth just barely grazing her shoulder this time. Muuri found herself outmatched with three wolves on one and sprang into a tree also. Unfortunately it was only a small tree and the higher branches would not support her weight. All three wolves now stalked beneath her tree, occasionally jumping up to nip at her paws. Muuri appraised the situation. By herself she would be able to play this game, chance it, make her way into a bigger tree and from tree to tree until she lost them. If Yira were in her pouch that would be an option. But he wasn’t. And she couldn’t. And leaving him here with wolves prowling beneath was not an option either. Even as Muuri tried to evaluate her options, one of the wolves stepped back from the tree, fixed her in her sight and looked appraisingly at their captive. Muuri returned her gaze steadily and saw something unusual in there. This was not a simple hunt. There was something else to it. “What do you want?” she called down cautiously. The wolf leader smiled a sinister smile. “Oh, only to save Naelus from this darkness and from those who are spreading it,” she replied, “beasts like yourself...” she added, eyes narrowed and fangs bared in a gesture of mistrust. “Unless of course you can explain satisfactorily why you and your meeting of morons chose to merely ignore the threat facing us rather than acting.” She licked her lips anticipatorily. “Because it would seem to us that the only reason not to spill the blood of those who are spreading this darkness would be if you were one of them yourself.” At this, both her male companions jumped simultaneously coming close to Muuri’s left forepaw and tail. She twitched her tail nervously and opened her mouth to respond. It seemed that talking to buy time was her only viable option at this stage. But what to say? The idea that she was in some way responsible for this darkness was ludicrous in the extreme. But she had a feeling these wolves wouldn’t be quite so easy to convince. Muuri is reunited with Yira and wants to pay her respects at Beech’s funeral, but is accosted by wolves en route.
A set up post in which the wolves basically accuse her of being a sower unless proven innocent and she pauses to collect her thoughts on what to say to that. How do you prove your innocence to a bunch of raving mad wolves who are determined to believe you guilty?
Actually main reason I’m stopping here is that Rei needs to sleep lol. I’ll post again at some point tomorrow I hope but feel free to join my party in the meantime if you are in need of some interaction. Also if you are doing so, please feel free to use the same wolf npc I was using just for simplicity’s sake.
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Post by Celestial on Jun 17, 2018 7:58:18 GMT -5
"-not being caught again. A wolf will not sell me to a hu-" Cold poured over him. Svar's mantra was cut off by a reflexive inhalation brought on by the shock of the cold. He sputtered and choked as a few droplets trickled into his nostrils. Salty! The firebird looked back at himself, noticing steam already begin to curl off the spikes of his soaked feathers. Great. When it evaporated, he would have to spend hours preening to get rid of the salt and sand. That was assuming he would be able to fly away with all that in his feathers or that he would survive until he dried out enough to be able to fly. Somebody was sniffing over him. “Are you alright?” that same creature asked. Svar cocked his head, turning one eye at the thylacine who was busy checking him over before giving off a wail of despair. "No! I'm soaked to the skin and there's salt and sand in my feathers and it's groooooss!" he cried. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the shell by the thylacine's feet, still glistening with the remains of water. "Why did you do that? I'm a firebird. Water is the last thing I need! How will I be able to escape if somebody comes after me?" He tried to stand up weakly, shaking his wings to get rid of the moisture. By now, the steam curling off him had made his plumage swell up so that he resembled a ball. Svar tucked his head into his feathers, just barely looking out. By now, other creatures besides the thylacine had gathered. There were the two dilophasaurs that he remembered seeing at the meeting- Svar took a few steps away from them, even though he knew that if they wanted to strike, there was nothing he could do- and the unicorn who had been with the deer when they were...cut down by the tiger who had gone berserk. "Please don't look at me, this is really embarassing," the firebird chirruped, still steaming. He took a moment to pick some irritating sand out of the crook of his wing where it was rubbing against his skin. Then he took a quick look around at where he was. The beach, where not far away there was a gathering. He could just barely make out the large form of Kohimu. With shock, Svar realised what he had crash-landed into: Beech's funeral. He had no intention of coming. With his own kind having made themselves immortal, his only experience of funerals had been when he was captured and living among humans. Of those, he had seen too many, with all their varied customs. Most of them he remembered as good riddance: only one of them had made him feel anything close to grief. But this was not for a human. This was for a creature who had died violently here, on Naelus. A twinge of guilt and sadness convulsed in Svar's chest. "Er, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," the firebird said in a timid voice. "Is there...anything I could do to make up for it?" Svar is NOT HAPPY about being doused by Heath( Shinko) trying to help. At first he is damp, and as his internal heat begins to evaporate the water, he turns into a salty, sandy borb. Embarassed at being seen by Taakeyrr and Xsabaskis( Tiger) as well as Inara( Ginz ❤) he tucks his head into his wing. That is before he sees the group of animals with Kohimu( Thorn) and realises where he is and what he interrupted. He timidly asks if there is anything he can do to help. Roda ( June Scarlet) is also at the scene.
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