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 Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:33 pm
The Orchard Trees are planted here in rows. Every year, we collect either fruits or seeds from them, depending on the species. Visitors are welcome to snack on any ripe fruit they like, as long as they read the signs to make sure a fruit is edible. There are currently ripe apples of a few varieties fresh for the picking. Who may post:Any parent with a plant anchored in the Orchard Staff members People invited by someone listed above
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Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:18 pm
Gazzy slinks into the orchard, trying to stuff the flashlight she brought with her into a pocket. She had a backpack, but that was already stuffed full of her food rations, waterbottle, rope... etc. She had tried, but her flashlight just wouldn't fit.
Mumbling a little, she munches on a kingsize crunch bar (from trick or treating) she had brought along. "Where to start looking?" her eyes scan the area, fine-tuned to search for any movement, or any hints pointing to where she should start looking.
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Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:30 pm
A cluster of apple trees stood to Gazzy's left. On the ground underneath one of the trees, she would see the traces of several apple cores if she looked in the right place. The ground around the tree was stippled with footprints...it seemed that deer had been here.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 9:53 pm
Taroshi ran freely around the trees laughing to herself. "I'm in heaven" she squealed. People had often playfully mocked her about her hunger that always seemed to over shadow anything else, and being here, where she could just pluck her food from nature made her truly feel like she had actually died from the spiders poison, and had now ended up in heaven. Looking around, her eyes were big. The was so much fruit, so little time!! She had no idea were to start. Looking up to see what she was currently standing under, she saw a tree filled with red apples. "APPLES!!!" She squealed, even louder than before, grabbed the best one she could find, and sat contently underneath the tree, munching on her new-found gold.
Being the ever practical one, she had brought along a notepad and something to write with. "ok, what do I know so far?" she mused to herself. "Besides that fact that these apples are delicious, I know that there is an evil, evil spider lurking in the green house. I sure as somthing-I-wont-say hope that Kitten didn't run into THAT thing... hey... wait... That just might be true! That spider really DID have a taste for blood... that theory isn't half bad..." she scribbled it down in her notepad, after adding the other obvious information (where Kitten worked, where she was known to be etc.). ((GOD I had so much fun writing the first part!!!))
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:07 am
The wind blowing through the orchard trees made a delightful tinkling sound as the late autumn leaves rustled together. It was a perfect day, with crisp scents and watery sunshine. The apples she munched on had a rich delicious flavor. It would have been the perfect picnic spot...
But something hard and rounded was making Taroshi's seat a little uncomfortable. The handle of a small knife was nudging into her thigh, the blade embedded in the ground beside the tree.
A few paces away the remnants of the apples still sat on the ground, surrounded by deer hoof-prints. And...were those boot-prints amidst the hoof marks? They might have been. It would require closer inspection to be sure
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:03 pm
"Can't you sit down and have a peaceful break for once?" Taroshi said in a very annoyed tone, as she felt something cut into her tight, it was probably just a stone that had decided it would ruin her perfect day! She moved herself a bit to remove the rock, but it just wouldn't bulge. She looked down in confusion, and her confusion only grew when she saw just what she had been sitting on. It was a small knife, or rather, the handle of a small knife. What was it doing there? She stood up, and with a small effort, she pulled the blade out of the ground. This was weird, why would somebody just leave a knife like that? There HAD to be some other clues here! Looking around, she finally found what she was looking for. There, just a few meters away the ground was filled with apple cores and... deer and boot-prints? Taroshi walked the few meters and inspected the prints. Yes, sure enough. Someone had been here before her. That someone could still just have been another participant, but she doubted it. She wrote down another theory in her notebook. "got...in...a...fight...with...a....deer...over...apples... wait no, scratch the last part, ehe" she said as she was writing. She placed the notepad inside her bag again and sat down to inspect the knife, there was something peculiar about this whole thing!
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:40 pm
As Taroshi had suspected, the prints were definitely from a person. However, while the deer prints led away through the orchard, the boots had apparently followed a different path...small hints of human passage showed where this person had left the orchard and gone back into the Glen...toward the River.
As she puzzled at her notebook, the sound of light crackling came from the direction the deer prints had led. A deer poked its head out from behind a nearby tree, staring at Taroshi for a moment before it stepped out and stamped its front hoof gently.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:15 pm
Taroshi looked up in shock, and with a sight of relieve said "oh, just it's just a deer" she studied the deer more intensely, but didn't see anything wrong with it. "Then why is it here..." she mumbled. She never got to finish the scentence, because at that second, the deer stamped it's hoof again. It was clear to Taroshi that it was a warning. She got up, slowly and said "alright, alright, I'm leaving now, just let me get my things" it was as if the deer understood her, because it backed off a little bit, but Taroshi just shrugged it off with a "weird animal behavior...".
Taroshi decided to back-track. It was obvious that the boot prints led to the river, so she had to get to the river somehow. On her way out of the orchard, she grabbed a few more apples, and some other assorted fruits, and put all of them in the now empty food-bag from her first meal. She found the place where she had entered the orchard, and re-entered the Glen.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:07 pm
B.D. reached the Orchard with out anything else bad happening to him. He walked through the rows of trees, most of them carried fruit and all the trees had little tags on them telling you what kind they were and if their fruit was edible or not. B.D. walked up to the closest tree and looked that the tag, it said Red Delicious Apple. "Yum. I love this kind of apple," said B.D. He reached up and picked one of the fat, red fruits and bit into it. It was sweet and crisp. B.D. finished eating the apple and he buried the core so it could decompose faster. Then he continued to walk along the rows of trees not quite knowing what he was looking for.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:20 pm
Once again the deer heard an intruder in his territory. He swng his head around, oriented to the noise, and charged over to investigate. He was thoroughly irritated at being interrupted so many times today...
His antlers bobbing in warning, the deer came at B.D., trying to push him back the way he had come.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:46 pm
"Woah!" said B.D. trying to push the deer that was trying to push him away from him. "Hold on a sec. What do you want?" The deer was trying to nudge B.D. back to the Glen. The deer looked up and the went back to pushing. B.D. backed up a couple of spaces and wondered why a deer was acting this way. He must be protecting something. Maybe he knows where Kitten is thought B.D. I wonder if he has a name. Maybe this is his orchard and he is angry at me for eating some of his fruit. I wonder who else has run into this deer. "Hey deer, I'm sorry if I am invading your space, but I'm looking for a person named Kitten. She is suppost to be around here, at least I think she is. I wonder if you have seen her around," said B.D. to the deer knowing that it probably wouldn't understand him. The deer advanced on him, but B.D. didn't move. "Do you have a name deer? My name is B.D.," said B.D. because talking made him feel safer. The deer stared at him so B.D. didn't say anything else. "Alright, alright. I'll leave," said B.D. reluctantly. He turned around and started to walk back the way he came.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:15 pm
The deer stared quizzically at B.D. while he talked to it, but seemed satisfied when he turned and left. The deer stood and watched him go, but did not follow him past the Orchard.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:11 pm
Just then a voice crackled over the radio B.D. carried.
~~"Hey searchers, this is Songjewel. How is everybody doing? I'd like you all to radio in and let me know you're okay."~~
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:46 pm
As B.D. walked away from the deer he heard his radio speaking to him, well more like somebody speaking to him on his radio. It was Songjewel and she just wanted to check up on everybody. He took out his radio and said, "Hey Songjewel. Everythings fine with me except that there is a very strange deer out here at the Orchard. Do you know of this deer. It seems that he is trying to keep people out of the orchard, but basically I am fine." He put his radio away and went back into the orchard, but a couple of rows down to see if he could find any thing new if he went in a different place. He went down the row of trees looking out for the deer. I really think he should have a name, he thought. I will call him Ashuko because it sounds good and it reminds me of Elkie and the deer reminds me of Elkie.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:10 pm
~~"Oh yes, that deer is the resident grump. He's..."~~ There was a pause on the radio, and then Songjewel came back on, speaking very quickly.
~~"B.D. I'm going to need you to come back to the front gate please. I will have Natasha meet you there to update you. Thanks."~~
Song's voice clicked off, leaving a silence over the radio channel.
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