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 Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:37 pm
If a Ranger or Scout is caught by a storm near the borders of Noctua it's a miracle to find any sort of shelter at all. It's only through blind luck that this particular shelter was found in time to flee from the oncoming storm, as it's definitely nice enough to have been used as a way-station by the Rangers if its location was known. This particular hollowed-out tree has seen some use recently... and not by Sentinels. Shards of pure white eggs litter the ground.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:12 pm
 Hazel was beside herself as she watched the rain come drip drip dripping down. She'd found such a nice shelter, she was safe for sure...but she couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't given in to Liam's request for her to give up her job a while and stay more than the scant week she had. She could barely think about it...Where was her mate in this mess of a storm? Was he alright? What about his charges, the eggs and hungry fledgelings? If anything had happened...
She stared out into the raging sheets of rain, willing the trees to part so she could see her love. Oh, if only the rain would slow she would fly to his side in a heartbeat...the pain of knowing that even if he was hurt, was in danger somewhere, and that she couldn't make it to his side, even in good weather was overwhelming. And with such foul conditions...She might as well be on Helios' face itself, as far as she was from friends and family...All alone in the tree, she shivered, puffing against the wet and the cold. As she shifted, finally meaning to turn away from that lonely sight from the hollow's opening, something crunched beneath her foot. Peering down through the gloom she saw them. Shells...With a glimmer of curiosity, and hope to stave off her worries with the distraction, she bent and lifted one in her beak...so white...what could it be from?
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:33 am
 Steering carefully and with a few struggles in the driving rain and wind, Stormbringer's wings were tired, his breath coming in gasps as he tried to reach the small, usually undisturbed and undesirable "emergency shelter". He'd used it only once and a very long time ago - he was younger then, just graduated and entered to the ranks of Ranger, and it had been a cold winter night where clouds pregnant with moisture and rain suddenly bled out their weight while he was patrolling. Because it had been so cold, any potential prey lay snug in their nests and burrows, warm and out of the freezing rain and blinding snow. The then-young male had sought safety in the hollow, waiting there until morning to continue his duties and report. He had been quite frightened by that first experience, being out near the borders in a terrible blizzard, a ranger novice and quite alone.
The silver necklace and amber amulet beat furiously against his chest and shoulders as it was flung about by the wind, and he had to take it up into his beak so that he could have clear vision as he weaved through the trees, the spot in sight now. He was unafraid of rain, lightning, and thunder, for it was what he was named for - the Thunderbird, the thunderstorm, Stormbringer - where the night of his hatching brought fierce rain and Thunderbird calls. Sharp talons grabbed hold of the lip of the hollow as he was nearly thrown into it, feathers dripping still even has he shook himself, wings soaked and golden eyes blinking back rain as he peered into the tree.
"... Hello?" He inquired, hearing some movement - sounded like the cracking of shells - and instantly ducked his head and moved inside, curiosity alighted as his mind rolled over the possibility of finding a newly-hatched Sentinel on the borders. "Is anyone here?"
His wings snapped open, startled by the shadow and a set of golden eyes that was illuminated by a streak of lightning, and he knew it to be no hatchling. "Who... show yourself! State your name and status with Noctua!" He called, voice deep and threatening - as a seasoned ranger, he should've known to check quarters more closely, for being in them with another unknown could easily turn ugly, and being so close to the borders... one could never be sure who you were going to run into.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:40 am
Hazel was frankly startled by the sudden voice behind her, and she cried out, thinking for a moment that it was her own Liam come through the storm for her. She bit into the shell as she spun, causing it to crackle eerily and tumble from her beak. A second flash of lightning revealed it was indeed not her mate, but another make...a ghost by the look of him. It seemed the flashing lights that were said to come from the Thunderbird's eyes lingered on his wings, making a streak of his own there. She hissed in sudden anger that he was not whom she expected, wings flaring to make her quite diminutive form larger...well in her case, making it seem quite average. "State your own name, stranger!" She could see he was indeed not a Spectre or some other creature, but her fear for her family and anger at being threatened muddled her thinking. "I am Hazel, Ranger of Noctua!" She did add, her defensive stance remaining firm, though she managed to stop hissing.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:04 am
Player: Eric Stratton
Name: Sylverbeth
Species: Sentinel of Noctua
Age: Young Adult
Hatch Date: May 13
Type: Deep Woods
Task: Watcher
Sylver managed to make his way to the only shelter he could find. He perched in a tree that had very little cover.
"No." he thought to himself. "No, this is no good."
Desperate and worried, he searched harder and came to an old hollow tree. He landed and cautiously moved towards the entrance. He saw movement and immediately started to move away. The rain was the only reason he did not risk moving on. He gathered himself and moved back to the entrance.
"Calm yourself." he told himself. "This isn't how an elite would act."
He carefully poked his head in.
"H-hello?" he spoke quietly.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:18 am
Golden eyes blinked quickly, head dropping down into his chest feathers as she defended her own. He had no idea who it was, but they seemed slightly disappointed... and upon hearing the Deep Wood's voice, so was he. Her actions only fueled his cruel dislike of females and a deep scowl caused his brows to furrow, tufts laying flat on his head as his feathers lifted along his back and neck. He knew he would've done the same if he was stumbled upon in such a storm as this and at the borders, no less...
Even so, he was relieved that it was not some predator or even a Spectre, female or no, and his own stance was somewhat more relaxed as he felt less threatened. He kept an eye on her though, and another on the roost's entrance, the storm battering the forest around them and veiling the mountains in a thick cloud of mist.
"Stormbringer, Ranger of Noct--," he paused abruptly, noticing the bits of shells at her feet, and his eyes widened considerably, a slack beak and raised feathers adding to his shocked expression. "N-Noctus! Those look like... but they can't be, can they? Pure white..." his deep, rumbling voice was lost in a sudden roar of thunder, and he lifted wild eyes to Hazel in disbelief.
"You found these here, did you? Do you think that they could be...," he shook his head furiously, spraying the hollow with water as it sprung from soaked and painted feathers. Nothing was impossible with the arrival of the Spectre chick, Tempest, and these very shells looked the same.
At the small call of "Hello" on the wind, the Ghost male started, his head turned sharply to the entrance, wings spread and chest puffed out, his body swelling to a threatening size just as Hazel had done. "Who goes there! State your name and status!" Storm called as was customary, his gaze flitting from Hazel to the storm outside, until the male poked his head inside the shelter.
"Great Noctus, Sylverbeth, get in here! Wha- who! What are you doing all the way out here!?" He stepped aside and further to the back of the hollow to allow room for his acquaintance, reluctant to get much closer to the female, though he sucked it up for the moment with a grunt.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 6:37 pm
Hazel slowly dropped her bristle as the new male conversed with the other one...They were rangers too? That put her much more at ease. Her usual sunny attitude didn't return right off, but she seemed much less upset now. She hunched down and picked up another shard of the shells, eying it as she held it up to catch some light when the lightning flared. "It does look rather...like a Spectre egg, doesn't it? But these are relatively fresh...where do you think what came from them might be?"
Noting Storm's reluctance to near her, Hazel sighed and brushed on past. She offered a quick smile to the younger Sentinel, and leaned out into the rain, peering down at the ground below for any signs of a fallen hatchling or the like. "I don't see anything..."
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:06 pm
Sylver slowly made his way into the tree. He looked at the suspiciously.
"I, I was hunting out here." he said in an unsure tone.
"I got caught up in the storm."
Upon hearing the word Spectre, Sylver riled up.
"Do you really think it is?"
He was growing exceedingly nervous. Not only was he being forced in close contact with other, but now the potential for a Spectre attack?
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:18 pm
"You should thank Noctus you weren't blown any further," He nodded his head sharply, turning his head back towards Hazel and the egg shards. He moved broken pieces around with a foot and watching them crumble. Leaning low, Storm examined the eggs closely, golden eyes squinted as he tapped another small piece with his beak.
"That's exactly what it looks like, to me. Spectre eggs... within the borders..." the Ghost ranger hissed briefly, feathers spiking as he begun to pace in the small space, mindful of the shells. "When the storm lifts we must take these pieces to some authority, whether it be an elite or the Brigadier himself. They will either confirm or deny our theories."
Tiliting his head slightly at Hazel's remark, he sidled past Sylver and poked his own head out of the entrance, looking down below and then up into the canopy, eyes narrowed from the constant drops of rain that pelted his feathers and face. "They could've fled the storm... but where they went is a mystery. Let us hope they're not still here. You didn't see anything strange before you came, did you Sylverbeth?"
Stormbringer withdrew his head quickly as the Thunderbird called, supposed-spectre shells being watched from the corner of his eyes, and gave his chest feathers a nervous preen.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:07 pm
There's a brief lull in the wind. There's nothing much special about this in and of itself, as it has happened every now and then. What's really different about this time, however, is that a different sound cuts through the moanings of the wind: A shrill, hoarse, drawn-out cry, from somewhere far off in the distance.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:18 pm
Hazel looked on a while longer into the underbrush, resisting the instinct to get in from the rain. Had there been Spectres at all? Had they really come into the Sentinels' land?...She breathed deeply in the momentary calm, the change of pace snapping her to enough to decide to finally go in...but then, the sound! Oh what a sound it was, so guttural and fey! "That...was no cry of the Thunderbird!" She shuffled hurriedly into the shelter, buffeting Storm and Sylver with her wings. "Did you hear that? Have you ever heard anything like it?" Between the three of them, all rangers, they should have at least one heard it...
Distantly Hazel realized she was wondering what an adult Spectre sounded like...She had heard the fledgling in the roosts back near her new home, and it was not so far fetched from this call. She poofed up in agitation, thinking how to best defend herself, if it was a Spectre, and it found them here with must then be the remnants of its own eggs.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:12 pm
At hearing the piercing cry, Sylver, in a nervous tick, hunched down and spread his wings in the already limited space.
"Oh no. Are we in trouble?" he asked sounding more like a fledgling than a young adult.
He retracted his wings and began to dance nervously.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:33 pm
The ranger stiffened at the touch of Hazel's wings as she passed, more out of habit than anything, as his attention was drawn to the sound that was nothing akin to the loud peals of thunder. Storm's hissing started up again at the cry, much more noticeable, and he turned his head left and right out of the entrance, searching for any sign of the cry's origin. Ear tufts were pressed firmly against his head, feathers spiking as he spread his wings, flapped in warning, and then folded them again.
"I... don't think I've ever heard such a sound. It could very well be... I definitely wouldn't throw the idea out. Better to expect the worst..." The ghost male's brows furrowed, thinking back also to the awkward screams of the Spectre child. He could imagine an adult sounding something similar, and a shudder fell through his body, made noticeable by a visible ripple in his feathers.
"This... this is not a safe place. Not safe at all, even as Rangers go," he mumbled, eyes flitting around to every tree he could see. "If it were not so close to the borders and the wind wasn't so strong, I'd fancy leaving... but there are so few shelters out here." He cast a worried glance towards Sylverbeth and then at Hazel, his gut writhing. He was usually much calmer than this, so... at home with strange silence and sounds, the distance of the borders, the pull of the mysterious, but fear scraped at his insides, made him quake and jerk and breathe heavily, rapidly, ears yearning for some telltale sign that something was coming.
It was all he could do to keep himself from launching towards the Deep Wood.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:52 pm
Hazel's own worries and fear dwindled at the sight of her roost-companions in such state of alarm. Sylver seemed near to passing out, and Storm kept making as if to leave...She had to calm herself, be sensible enough for the lot of them. Taking a deep breath to calm her rapid pulse, she shushed the others gently. "Now think...Whatever that was, it sounded like there was only one. There are three of us...even if it is a Spectre, We can handle it." She aimed hr argument more towards Storm. A fainted bird could be revived, but one flung out into the storm could not be recovered so easily. "If it is, and it does attack, it will have to fight off the weather as well. It can't have it any easier than we do, so staying here is best. Think, if something did come at us, it would have to fight while hovering. We can perch and use our Wills to win." She realized her words were having some effect, mainly because her own nerves had subsided into a dull worry. "We'll be fine."
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:31 pm
Sylver's breathing slowed, but it was still heavy. He fluffed up and tryed to put on a brave facade.
"You're right. We can handle it." he stated proudly.
His thoughts shifted to Tempest.
"What if they are making there way in here for that thing?" he asked bitterly.
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