[PRP] Hunting (Uttam / Hel)

[Lucyal]

It had come up sometime in a conversation with Uttam, that apparently Gramps needed some Tundra Mammoth tusks for some of this...science whatever he did when Hel wasn't around stuff. Well, Hel just thought it'd be awesome if she took the initiative and went ahead and retrieved some for the Famine sage. She just hoped he'd be so pleased! The thought of making Gramps pleased was making her giddy.

So thus Hel stood outside Uttam's tent, along with her familiar, dressed for some much colder weather. Currently Hel was cinching down a quilted cover onto the back of her familiar, and she looked over her shoulder at the tent.

"ARE YOU READY, UNCUTTA?"

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Uttam regretted bringing up the fact that Sal needed Mammoth tusks. He especially regretted playing along with Hel when she said something about retrieving them for him. He didn't think she was actually serious! He groaned a little when she called out for him, woeful and dreading the oncoming winter.

He was desert born and desert raised. No fat on his body, an part of it exposed due to the nature of his being. He'd brought all the blankets and shawls he could find and bundled himself up in them, looking like an enormous cocoon of annoyance.

"Yes, yes, I'm as ready as I'll ever be..." Uttam sighed, sizing up her bird mount. Hm... a raven? A very large Raven. "So, this is your Famine you were telling me of? He is very... pretty."

Lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

Hel did have to laugh once Uttam did come out...all bundled up. Not that there was anything wrong with bundling up, it was just...since he was so used to the heat and what not...Uttam was really bundled up. Plus that grumpy look? Priceless. The reaper grinned, finishing cinching up the padded quilt before she threw the saddle onto her familiar's back, and started to tie that down as well.

"Mm!" She replied cheerfully. "Its name is Famine, ya, but everyone just calls it Chocobo!" Hel chuckled. "My beau started it! He plays a lot of those video games, yanno, those electronic box things on scree vees? He says it is a creature from a game called 'Last Fantasy'!" While Hel cinched up the saddle next, said familiar had swiveled its neck around to c**k its head to stare at Uttam, sizing him up as well.

"Kweh!" It chirped in greeting.

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Cho..cobo...?" Uttam puzzled out, looking the massive Raven thing and reaching out to pat its beak, not touching it yet, but only asking permission with an outstretched hand. Jack he hoped it wouldn't bite his hand off.

"Ah.. yes. Video games." The soldier balked, not really sure how to reply. He'd seen them once, was very much intrigued by them, but... hrm. They were oddly disenchanting when one looked at how they were made. Not a bunch of tiny creeple in a box was certainly a disappointment.

"Hel... can Famine carry us both?"

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"Ya!" Hel replied, buckling down the familiar's breast plate to the saddle, and uncurling the stirrups.

Meanwhile, the familiar had cocked its head at an odd angle to stare at Uttam's hand with one eye. It then turned its head another way, and sniffed it, even though the nostrils on its beak couldn't flare with the movement. It then paused a moment before it leaned past Uttam's head and just rubbed its head against the horseman's. Because Uttam just loved all the affection.

Hel snorted. "Uh, ya." She replied, as if it was pretty obvious. "It can carry two beings just fine! Besides, with you and I, it is more like one and a half!" She grinned, patting the familiar on its shoulder. "You are like a twig, after all." The reaper then pulled herself up into the saddle, and got situated. She then held out a hand to Uttam, so that he could climb up behind her.

"Ready?"

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Uttam nearly squawked as the beast nuzzled him. The Famine Slacker was not very used to affections, even from animals. Certianly not a Reaper's Familiar. Plus, well... the bird was quite large. It could probably bite his face off. Seeing such a bird give him genteel and loving motions... yes, very odd.

"Peh. It is good to be a stick in my clan. Less likely to see us hiding and waiting." He intoned a sing-song mockery, shaking his head. Sneaking and being a shade was good fun and all, but they relied on bugs and diseases. They were unseen. It was cowardly, just as cowardly as hanging back and doing nothing.

It took a coward to know a coward.

Uttam took Hel's hand and awkwardly mounted the saddle, gulping. He'd never flown before, it seemed safe, however? Though, there was always the chance of him falling. He'd just dissipate, sure, but that was still painful. Very painful.

"As ready as I can be." He sighed, holding onto Hel like he'd seen in some old posters. Augh, touching.

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"Hold onto me however you need!" Hel said, looking over her shoulder at the horseman behind her as he settled. "It goes without saying...but ya, you want to hold on tight." She grinned widely, and then looked forward.

"Alright!" She whooped, pumping a fist into the air as she grabbed the reigns with the other. "LET US GO!" She exclaimed, pointing forward, and Famine wasted no time. The familiar's powerful legs immediately set them running down the aisle of tents, and it was picking up speed. It then jumped, landing on a sturdy structure before it kicked off of that and shot into the air. The familiar's large black wings quickly went to work, and with loud and heavy swoops the ground beneath them started to get smaller and smaller.

As they rapidly climbed into the air, Hel looked back over her shoulder with a laugh.

"You still with us!?"

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Uttam clung a little tighter to Hel, squeezing around her midsection lightly, but as soon as the bird began take-off, he squeezed tighter. He yelped when Famine jumped, then went silent once they were flying.

He looked down, seeing the sea of tents, the academy, everything falling away into motes and particles. They were soaring and climbing higher, into cloud-cover. Uttam's eyes went wide. Flying was... not so bad. Not so bad at all.

"Y-yes. Still here." He stammered with a faint smile, gawking at the experience of flying. He was in the air. In the air and not falling.

"This is... amazing." He murmured. Absolutely amazing.

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

Famine continued to climb, through the clouds, above them and then finally settled into an even flight straight ahead towards their destination. Hel grinned wider, looking down past the familiar's shoulder to see their shadows on the clouds below. She didn't miss the amazement in Uttam's voice, and that pleased her.

"Ya. It is." She looked back at him over her shoulder again. "More impressive than anything I could have done when I had wings."

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Uttam blinked a few times, remembering that she'd told him about her wings earlier. "Wings, hm. Many Famine have wings, as do War. I have no wings. I would not use them, I think." He pondered, lifting a hand out to the side to see if he could grab a cloud. "Except to find better napping spaces." He joked, retracting his hand when he found that, no, clouds could not be held or grabbed on to. There went the plan for a cloud bed.

"You said a Hunter ripped off your wing? Why would they do that?"

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"...There are?" Hel asked, sounding surprised by this. All the Famine horsemen she had seen did not have any..."I mean...I know the Heir of Famine has wings but...I have not seen many others..." Hel didn't go to the Isle of Famine either during the program exchange so... The reaper then chuckled. "Eh. They are over rated when they are on you." She smirked a bit, before looking back over her shoulder at the horseman.

"Ya...back when I was in school...ah...my second year in, I was apart of..." She trailed off for a moment, because at the time it had been a secretive group...but after that whole event, she remembered the stress it brought on Lizzy, the founder...and the group had pretty much come to an end after some more events...but Uttam was no gossip, so she felt pretty secure about telling him. "I was apart of a group of students called SEEDS, and we met in secret and operated in secret to be an information base on Hunters, who at the time we had hardly any information about. Well, one of my team members had a connection going with a hunter...it was some rather shady stuff...but he managed to set up a meeting with one of the...Division Assistants? So we, a large portion SEEDS, were going to ambush him at the Haunted House for information...it...did not go well." She grinned a bit wryly. "Have you ever been in the Haunted House? The rooms shifted and split apart our entire group. Then it started to collapse the rooms on top of each other. The Hunter dropped in on me and sliced off my wings with his weapon. He then later caused one of my best friends to lose his eye..."

Hel rolled a shoulder.

"Crazy s**t, ya?"

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Yes, many insect winged clan members. Some decayed bird's wings. Even a pair of bat wings, I think." He nodded, recounting all those he'd known from his life. He never quite envied them, though. They seemed to be always in the way, extra weight. He didn't need that.

Listening with intent, the soldier made a few nods and grunts as she spoke. Hunters... SEEDS... poked an eye out. Hm. It seemed the Hunters and Students were always crossing paths. The mutilation seemed a little.. unnecessary, however.

"Hmm... that is not a very good thing." He shook his head, frowning. "This friend that is missing an eye, does he swear a lot, may I ask?"

lucyal

 

[Lucyal]

"Ah...I see!" Famine clan was so cool. Way more than just feathered wings!

"Yaaa...it truly is not...but what can you do aside from roll with the punches and deliver some of your own?" She grinned a bit, and then hummed at his question. "Ah...well, only when he is pissed off does he swear a lot..." The reaper chuckled. "His name is Shun! Grim Reaper, shoulder length dark hair, eye patch! Do you know him?"

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Uttam gave a small laugh, nodding furiously. "Yes, yes I know this Shun. I knew him as Shadowstep at first, due to that odd... Wonderland place I told you about the first time we talked. The collective dream. I am beginning to think it was more than a dream, however. He told me many things I did not yet know of. Legacies and the like." Uttam said with a faint smile. He actually liked Shun, and the rest of Penumbra, for what it was worth. They'd made him change his stance on quiet a few things.

"So a Hunter took his eye out? No wonder he is so precautious now."

lucayl

 

[Lucyal]

It actually made Hel pretty happy to hear that one of her good friends knew someone she had newly adopted as family and vice versa. "Oh ya? You do not say..." The reaper then snorted. "Things are always more than a dream at Amityville though, huh?" She nodded her head a bit.

"Ya. A hunter took his eye out." Hel's lips pulled down into a brief frown before she glanced back at Uttam. "And this stays on this bird but his fiance...she was captured and tortured by hunters in their Headquarters as well...so pre-cautious is truly an understatement."

Carhop Cavalier