[PRP] Churning waters and changing paths (many)

[Revolutionary Roniel]

How in the world had he gotten roped into this? That was the question that Riddle kept returning to. He'd been traveling back to the herd. That was unremarkable. The storm, however, was exceedingly out of the ordinary. He'd taken shelter and managed to not get blown away, but the bridge he'd been planning on crossing hadn't been so lucky. He remembered that moment clearly, standing at the side of the swollen river and staring at the broken remains of the wooden bridge he'd crossed so many times.

He hadn't been alone then. There had been half a dozen other soquili in the same predicament as him. That wasn't the problem. The problem was what happened when he casually mentioned that he was going to a different river crossing upstream. That had been when they'd all decided to come with him, and he'd become their accidental guide. He was trying to be a good sport about it, he really was. He just didn't know how much more inane prattle from forced companions he could tolerate.

Trying to keep his frown from reaching his face, he continued on, tracing their path parallel to the thrashing river.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

While Riddle led the way from the front, Kurosawa guarded the party from behind. That was his job, of course. He was an elite warrior, one of the fabled ranks of berserkers trained in a technique that had been passed down for hundreds of years. He had hoped to become a general someday. Now he was practically a babysitter.

He glared at his ward, the mare Reiko. She had her family were under his protection, an assignment he did not treasure. She was nobility and he would not have chafed so much at this task had it not been for the massive displacement that had been necessary to carry it out. Nothing in the Kawani lands gave him joy as his homeland had.

He wasn't particularly pleased about the bridge either. A detour meant more time on the road, and he was ready to be back among familiarity. Shuji walked beside him in stoic silence, but Kurosawa got the impression he was even more fed up.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Reiko walked in silence for now, beside the only other mare in their party. She was even more somber than usual, thinking back on the last few days. The storm had frightened her more than she ever would dare to admit. The way the winds had howled, she thought there would be nothing left standing. It had seemed a close thing, too. Trees had bent then cracked, and many of the human structures in the area they were sheltering in had been carried away as well. She'd never seen a storm like that. Kurosawa had some word for it, but she couldn't recall what it was.

A human had died that terrible night. In a distant manner, she thought they had been lucky to only lose one. She thought about this as she continued, mud sucking at her hooves and flicking droplets onto her usually pristine coat. Not even Tatsuji could muster words at a time like this. Her otter familiar, servant, and friend sat upon her back. It was rare that he rode her, but they had been walking for so long that she had thought it kinder to carry him.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Yukina Li wished someone would say something. It was starting to get awfully boring, all this walking in dead silence. She bit her lip and frowned a little, glancing sideways at Reiko. The kirin trudged forwards in cold silence. Yukina didn't think Reiko would be good for conversation right now. She quickly took stock of the rest of the group. Riddle seemed cranky. Kurosawa was too serious. That left the flutter, Laurentian. Smiling, she slowed her pace until he came along side her before quickening her steps to match his.

"Where were you when the storm hit?" she asked, smiling in a pleasant and cheerful manner. She'd been within a system of caves, led there by an exceptionally helpful and surprisingly non-intimidating family of bears. Bears got judged quite unfairly sometimes, she thought.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Laurentian was so tired. He wasn't really one for long distance travel. He personally preferred to flit from flower to flower than walk from village to village. The group had taken a break to graze a couple hours ago, but it seemed like forever now. Knowing that he was the weakest in the group, he didn't feel it would be right if he asked them to pause again. However, his head was drooping lower and lower the longer they went on.

As Yukina came to talk to him, he let himself perk up a little. He rather liked her bright ways. At her question, he let out a small grimace. "I was in a hollow tree," he said, thinking back to it. He'd shrunk himself enough to fit, but it hadn't been comfortable. He'd spent almost the entire storm thinking the tree was about to topple and take him crashing to the ground with him. It hadn't been fun.

"Do you think we're far from the new bridge?" Maybe he could change the subject.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"We're not far," called back Riddle from the front. He knew he wasn't the one the question was directed at, but he was the only one who could properly answer. "And it's not a new bridge. Quite the opposite, really." A memory popped into his mind, the clattering sound of his hooves crossing it the last time he'd been through.

"It's very old and made of stone. Stone is stronger than wood. It will be there." He added this last statement as an afterthought, a promise or hope for stable masonry.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Kurosawa was perhaps the one most familiar with storms like that in the group. His homeland had been battered by typhoons throughout his life. Some had passed by much like this one, full of sound and fury but leaving all but trees and unstable structures relatively intact. Others were like the wrath of the gods, sweeping away entire villages with hardly a trace. The soquili here were so frightened by a relatively small typhoon. He wondered what they'd do if they had felt the winds of a true monster of a typhoon.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Reiko looked at the river ahead of them. She saw white water rushing over stone and lashing sandy banks. She saw broken bits of trees and shrubs everywhere, littering debris through the flow. Who would clean the rivers? She wondered as she inspected the destruction.

Looking even further ahead, she saw something that looked a little different. "Is that...?" For a moment she'd thought it might be the bridge, but it clearly did not span the river. It looked like a small ramp of worked stone, overhanging the river slightly and then stopping.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Yukina felt a stab of guilt. She hadn't been very perturbed by the storm, nestled in the furry warmth of a bear family, but she had been lucky. She knew that most had not been so fortunate, and apparently it was somewhat of a sore spot for Laurentian still. She was happy to seize upon another conversation topic, but then Riddle called down from ahead, making the whole endeavor have an air of awkwardness rather than friendly encounter.

"That's good, at least," she said to Laurentian, trying to get their little talk going again. "I think I'll remember this way, even if the other one was shorter. Just think of how it will look when the leaves start changing color!" She smiled warmly, remembering the colors of last fall. "It'll happen soon too. I've already seen a couple trees going orange."  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Now this was an area where Laurentian was much more comfortable. Immediately he warmed to the new subject. "Oh yes, I agree." He looked around him, taking in the battered trees in a new light. "The damage looks bad, but trees can recover from a lot." He laughed in memory of an occasion. "I saw a human chop down a sapling. The sapling looked dead, but the very next week there were new buds and leaves sprouting out of the stump."