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 Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 9:12 pm
 The leaves crunched under Shane and Raven's boots as they walked along the forest path at Domingo Park. The air was cold and nipped slightly at the skin but it wasn't as cold as the air that buffeted them as they whipped down the road towards the park on Shane's motorcycle. Already as the approached the entrance, they could both hear chirps and distant shrieks of animals. At the entrance, they paid for their parking and entrance fees, funds which go would towards the conservation of the park. Once they were past the entrance archway, made with carved totem polls, Raven raced ahead with a spare binocular bag that Shane had given to her, because they were going to go bird watching.
"Hey! Slow down!" Shane hollered as Raven raced ahead. The paths were all dirt, and the marsh was tricky. Shane jogged carefully up to where Raven was. "It's really easy to get lost and fall in around here, be careful."
"Oh, okay." Raven said, nodding with a smile. "Do you know where we should go?!"
"Umm," Shane pondered, happy that Raven was already having some fun with the idea "Well, let's see if we keep going along that bridge over there to the east until we can find a good gap of dirt to stand on and get a view of a large part of the marsh. Then we might be able to see a crane or heron, at worst we'll see some geese or ducks."
"Okay, let's go then!" Raven laughed and started to walk in the indicated direction, for only about another five minutes, before she started to run again.
"Arg! Raveeen, wait up!" Shane called, chasing after her. Great, at this rate, they'll have scared off all the wildlife with their antics by the time they even got there.
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Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 9:44 pm
Sadly, any wildlife Raven might have been approaching had probably already been scared off by Duff Violet. The little girl had already received a suggestion that she quiet down from a rather stern-looking Ranger/Litter Remover/b***h, but she had mostly ignored it. Although better behaved than her little sister Beth, Duff could still be quite contrary when she wanted to. Robert had learned that the best way to get along with his unwanted girls was to let them do whatever they pleased.
Right now, whatever Duff pleased included...standing perfectly still? Bob approached the little dinosaur and looked down at her. "What's wrong?"
Duff pulled at the fuzzy collar of her puffy coat and looked up at her guardian. "Someone's comin'."
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Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:30 pm
Raven skipped across the wooden bridge with Shane walking briskly to keep up with her. Upon seeing Duff she stopped and called back to Shane.
"Hey, I think I found some...oh wait, nevermind!" Raven said, blushing at her mistake. She was so excited that she thought that Duff was some sort of large lizard from the marsh, until she realized that it was too human-looking.
Shane came closely behind Raven's heels and spotted Duff and the other people there. He tried not to stare at the odd family and tried to remember that his was just as weird, but it wasn't working too well.
"Hey!" Raven said, snapping out of his staring contest with himself "I think I can see the marsh from here!" Raven said climbing down a small slope towards the edge of the marsh.
"Woah, don't get too close," Shane said, going after her.
"Hmmm, I don't see anything." Raven said, putting her binoculars up to her face and fiddling with the focusing dial every ten seconds.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:50 pm
Duff followed, but chose to stay on the bridge when Raven and Shane approached the marsh.
"What you lookin' for?" she asked loudly, peering out in the direction Raven's binoculars were pointed.
Robert continued following more slowly. He had been hoping they might leave soon, but he could see that Duff was intrigued by this new girl and her blue hair. Truthfully, so was he.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 4:07 pm
Alice raced around not thinking at all about frightening animals, her mum was once more combining work with family and was sitting near the edge of the marsh making sketches and some watercolours.
Alice had been told that she was old enough now to be a bit responsible for herself but that she wasn't to go too far from where her mum was since the marsh could be dangerous. Originally all she was interested in was exploring the near by paths but then she felt it, that old familiar tingle, an Eden was near.
Without really thinking about it Alice dashed off in the direction of her feeling, she wondered if it was someone she had met before or someone else. Either way it would be fun and she could find out what brought them here as well.
Kiri looked up as she daughter dashed off in the direction of a bridge. She frowned slightly at this but didn't worry too much, despite being a bit impulsive Alice was for the most part a pratical child and Kiri had given her some basic warnings about the marsh before letting her explore.
Still it wouldn't hurt to relocate to somewhere closer, packing up her gear she prepared to follow her daughter.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:30 pm
"Would you look at that?" Nai, snapped from her spot a few feet before the bridge. Of all the cold mis--all right, it wasn't so miserable, but of all the cold fall days, every parent just had to bring their child to this place. There were lots of parks out there, why this one? She shook her head in disapproval.
It was one of the finer mysteries of Gaia she had yet to to completely grasp, what drew these masses of children together in the strangest of places? She withdrew from her kiddy-care bag a slice of bread that had been meant to feed the ducks (even if it technically wasn't allowed) and bit into it. "Look Eba--" she chewed with her mouth slightly open, "fwends. Go play." Ah, she could just find a bench somewhere and let these things go about as they usually did. Besides, she could only stand up for so long these days...hopefully the twins would be born soon, but until then she would just have to make due with rolling about like a big tick.
Eva nearly tripped as Nai left him to fend on his own. Children, here?! It...it had been so long since he had been around others his own age, let alone other Eden’s. Well, he wasn’t sure about that last one being so true, it just made it seem more intimidating that he could run into these kids again down at HQ. His ears fell flat and his tail swished nervously, but when a nagging glance from his caretaker told him to ‘get going’, he did. Slowly…ever so slowly, he moved down towards the group, if nothing else he could go look at the water. That would be cool.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:18 pm
"Hmm, well I'm looking for a crane or something, maybe even a duck!" Raven paused "Those are types of birds, a crane is a really big blue bird...oh, but not me." Raven laughed, putting down the binoculars.
"Shane, I don't see anything." Raven complained.
"Really?" He asked, putting his own binoculars up to his eyes and scouring the surface of the water. She was right, there wasn't anything on the marsh save for some bugs and....
SPLASH!
"Oh look, look, Raven! Did you see that?!" Shane whispered.
"What was that? I didn't see anything." Raven said, putting her own binoculars back up to her face.
"Aww, I guess you missed it. It was a fish jumping."
"They can do that?!" Raven asked.
"Well, yeah. How else do you think they eat bugs?"
"Oh...well, I guess you're right. Rumkai, don't get too close to the water, I don't want to loose..." Raven took off her binoculars and looked around for where Rumkai could've gotten to. "Uh-oh! Wherdja go?!"
Raven dashed up the side of the hill towards where she heard Rumkai calling her, she feared he was in some kind of danger and raced right past the blond fuzzy Eden. She'd say 'hi' to her after she rescued Rumkai.
"Rumkai, where are...!" Raven paused when she came face to face with a familiar sight. Rumkai was perfectly fine, perched directly on the nose of,
"Eva! Wow, oh my gosh!! You-you've gotten...taller!" Raven paused "Yeah, I know Rum, I wonder...do you remember me at all?" She was also a little worried that maybe the boy had indeed never learned to talk. She teetered with excitement and beamed as she continued to size him up, over and over.
Meanwhile Shane sighed as he was still on the other side of the bridge, having totally given up keeping up with Raven. He'd just wait until she came running just as quickly back, he could hear her 'oh my gosh' from across the way anyways so he knew she and Rum were okay.
Still, he looked up the path she ran along just to be sure, and caught sight of a blond puppy-looking thing...girl coming up the way with somebody else. Well, so much for a quiet outing it seemed.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:05 pm
"HEY!" Duff shrieked as Raven ran away. They had been talking, hadn't they? Big kids were weird. Duff stomped her boot halfheartedly and turned to watch Raven run off, her gaze caught by a largish puppy girl along the way. Jackpot!
Duff jogged up to Alice, unwilling to admit her hope that this big kid wouldn't find some other big kid thing to do too. "Hiiiiii," she said, adjusting her hat. "Where you goin'?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:12 am
Despite the fact Alice had been running at the bridge when Raven passed her going the other way she managed to make a full 180 turn and stop without falling over, Alice had always had good balance and it had gotten better since she grew into a kid.
She wondered if she should run after the blue girl who had run past, since now she could sense two tingles in that direction but before she could decide on what to do she heard a voice behind her.
Turning she saw the little lizard girl and with her usual friendliness she grinned and sat on her heels so she was the same height as this new kid. She then proceeded to give Duff a big hug. Growing up hadn't broken her bad habits.
This habit taken care of she offered Duff a hand, fully intending to take her over to investigate the other two. She hadn't yet considered the height difference and the option of calling out to the others didn't even occur to her, nor did the age gap.
Kiri noticed this and quickly started looking around for the toddler's parent/s. Behaviour which was cute in a toddler was a bit weird in a child and while she knew that Alice meant good not bad there was no guarentee that the kid's parents would. Worst part was that Alice still didn't talk much and was even less inclined to explain herself.
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Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:34 pm
Eva whom had been taking his time viewing the beautiful surroundings about him, stopped as something bright and soft fluttered down onto his nose. He stood still, eyes crossing as he tried to make out this imagine. A butterfly? But no, this one looked so familiar, what was it? What was that name he had for it, that someone had had for it..."Flutterboo?" He mumbled it out loud in confusion, just as--oh no, oh no, he had to sneeze! Out of the way butterfly, out of the--"Ach-chew!" Thankfully Rumkai was quick enough to gracefully lift itself and flutter off to a nearby branch.
Taken a back by his own bodily functions, the Roo child bashful stared up at the young girl whom was now addressing him. He knew her, didn't he? For some reason a name wasn't coming to mind, but Eva could never forget a face, especially the face of someone whom he found pleasant. Straitening up Eva smiled, opened his mouth and "Ah--" ...the words fell short. He tried again, but found that the second time around it just made him more nervous. He wasn't the talkative type to begin with and then...he hadn't met anyone for so long that....
Giving a sheepish smile he just waved at her.
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:27 pm
Ah? Was that all that Eva knew how to say after all this time? Raven's eyes widened at the thought. Still, at least he had said something and waved to him: maybe he just didn't remember her. With a look of friendly concern, Raven pointed to herself and said
"I'm Raven...I met you with your dad a long time ago. I'm here with...umm" Raven didn't really know what to call Shane yet "well, this guy who's looking after me. He's actually probably worried about where I am."
Rumkai fluttered, a little disoriented, down to Raven's shoulder, and flapped his wings.
"There are some other people around there too, we're looking for birds, if you want to come." Raven said, extending a hand to Eva to follow along.
Shane decided to make his way up the hill a little bit to where Duff had gone and was now being hugged. Shane chuckled.
"Don't worry, she'll be back, she just likes to run off like that. What are your names by the way?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:29 pm
Duff didn't react to the hug save for a brief widening of her orange eyes. Her family didn't touch much, and she found herself liking the brief bit of affection. When Alice was done, Duff looked around furtively for her guardian and sister. Wouldn't want them seeing her enjoying something, now would she? Ah, there they were just coming around the curve in the path now. Surely they hadn't seen anything.
The little dinosaur took the other girl's offered hand and looked up at Shane. "Duff!" she replied. "She comin' back?" Yeah, he had said so, but she just wanted to be absolutely sure.
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Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:55 pm
Alice was a little worried about Duff's lack of response to her hug but overall as long as the person didn't clearly dislike it Alice was happy.
Still sitting on her heels Alice looked up at this new comer. He was an adult and wasn't an Eden but he seemed nice and associated with the blue girl so she decided that he was a friend too. Grinning the puppy piped up "Alice" most people that met her found it odd that her voice was so quiet given her energy.
Kiri remained in the background keeping an eye on things but not inclined to intrude if she wasn't needed. She mentally noted that this man must be assoicated with the bird girl she had seen run off and the people rounding the corner were most likely associated with the little dinosaur. The man with Alice seemed nice and friendly. She had yet to make a decision about the man with the other girl.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:12 pm
Uh oh, Eva realized he must have done something very wrong to achieve that look from the ashy-haired girl. "No, I remember you!" He blurted it out with a start and reached out to take her hand. Somehow his quiet attitude had gotten him into a little bit of trouble again, maybe Freize had had right to be concerned. Mnn, not that his new mother cared whether he talked or sat in his room and played by himself..."Uh, S-sorry," he added.
"I lost my train of thought," yes, birdwatching sounded good! If it would make up any disappointment she had felt for his little lapse. Heh, it was strange, he knew her...but it was all foggy in his mind. Had it really been that long? They had never met for long before, but still this was important.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 1:02 pm
"Yeah, she'll be back," Shane reassured Duff "Nice names, Duff and Alice. Nice to meet you"
Raven tried to hide a smile that she finally heard Eva say something. It was pretty silly, she thought, that Eva might not have learned to speak. He was just shy, and that was fine, she used to be as well...still sort of was. Things were just moving too fast for her. Taking Eva's hand, she gently lead him over the bridge to where the other kids were.
"Okay, let's go then." Raven said, as she began walking back, Rumkai fluttering all about her
Shane caught a glimpse of Raven coming up the path and gave her a scolding look.
"Sorry for running," she apologized to Shane and a little bit to the lizard girl, who she realized she had ditched, when she got close enough to do so.
Shane just nodded, and looked at Eva
"Who's you're friend?"
"Oh, sorry. This is Eva," Raven replied with a grin. "Did I miss anything?"
"Nice to meet you Eva," Shane said and shook his head "No, nothing yet. I'm going to go back and take a look."
"Okay, I'll be there in a sec." she said as Shane walked back down the slope.
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