[PRP] Feather Tree Found! [Journey/My Trouble] [FIN]

[Ruriska]

He moved delicately from one mangrove root to the other, climbing higher with each step. The buck never wobbled or hesitated, as if he had spent his entire life in the swamp trees instead of wandering across the near barren deserts. He stood on his hind legs, carefully leaning his front hooves against the mangrove trunk. Closer, but his short stature still left him unable to reach them. Feathers. The Acha smiled in pleasure, staring up into the tree, where what seemed like hundreds of feathers hung from the branches. They set off the brilliant green of the leaves, beautiful ornaments that shifted gently with the day’s gentle wind. How glorious. Journey was immensely pleased to have found such a place; another jewel that he had discovered in his wanderings. He had thought to pluck one down, to remember the moment with, but it seemed such a shame to do so now… and someone had obviously made the effort to put them up there.  

[Jun D]

"Now where has he got to?" the little doe murmured, eyes darting in search of her constant companion. She had sent him ahead with one of the smaller carcasses, but he didn't appear to be at the appointed spot. She frowned. She couldn't possibly meet the client a bird short! And the numbers wouldn't tally properly that way! Perhaps he had gotten lost and had gone back home instead? It wouldn't be the first time (perhaps, she guiltily considered, she should have been a little more clear with her instructions). Home it was then, she decided, nudging the slipping vine of plump fowl back onto her shoulder as she trotted off, for now at any rate.

What she found waiting for her when she got home wasn't at all whom she had expected.

"E-excuse me?" she called. This was...an Acha? What was he doing at her tree?  

[Ruriska]

Jun D

<3

"E-excuse me?"

The Acha turned, sucking in an excited breath. A few nimble steps later, he had completed an effortless descent and was approaching the lovely white Kimeti doe. “Are you the one?’” He asked as he pranced forward. “Is this yours?”  

[Jun D]

Whoah - whoah.

Startled by his enthusiastic approach, she pedaled backwards from his prance, plucked carcasses jostling on her sling. Was she the one? Was this - oh!

"The feathers?" she confirmed, "you're talking about the feathers in the tree? Yes. This is my home. I collect feathers." Did he want something with them?

Ruriska

Finally, Ruri darlin'! Finally. *SHAME*

 

[Ruriska]

Jun D

Sensing her unease at his sudden approach, the buck came to a momentary halt. But Journey was not still for long; he simply could not help but move forward again, this time to study the bird carcasses she had collected. “Marvelous.” He looked back at the tree, tail giving a pleased flick. “I simply thought it was beautiful. You are an artist, madam.”  

[Jun D]

You are an artist, madam. She would not exactly say she was prone to flattery - for one, she did not speak to quite enough Kin to know - but her heart may have fluttered a tad at the sincerity of his sentiment. But, "oh, no - no," she shook her head, flustered at the thought he might think her more than she was, "I'm not an artist - at all. I'm a - I'm just a hunter." She flicked her sling once more, inclining her head in a vaguely apologetic manner.  

[Ruriska]

Jun D

<3

“A hunter,” he said with a knowing nod, “is also an artist.” Journey had run across the desert with Sand Dogs, had watched his brethren so skillfully lead the pack, witnessed the spill of red across the sand. “There is no just. I am proud to be able to meet you this day.”  

[Jun D]

She opened her mouth as if to retort...but the right words did not come and so she shut it again. This elegant creature from the desert, all grace and sprightly charm, was proud to meet her. Thought her an artist - for the tree she desperately filled with the evidence of her weakness. She felt a fraud. "I'm not, really. Really, I'm not." Her voice was small, and she could not look him in the eye. "There's nothing artistic about what I do. It...it's quite silly, honestly - the feathers. I just - can't help them, that's all."

Ruriska

Does he know Rouge? Does he? 8D

 

[Ruriska]

Jun D

Maybehedoes?! ;D

Journey was not going to accept her protests. He simply shook his head and moved in closer, inspecting each bird carcass carefully. “This one,” he said after a moment, indicating a bird with bright yellow plumage, “will make a wonderful addition to the tree.” He stepped, or rather danced, back. “I can’t help but travel. I must put one hoof in front of the other, always going forward; across the desert into the unknown. I suppose that is quite silly too.” He laughed.  

[Jun D]

"Oh, no," she said earnestly, brightening as she momentarily forgot her shame, "I think it must be amazing to travel so far. You must have seen so many wonderful things? I would love to roam, a little further, perhaps, beyond the Swamp, to see new birds, and - ...well." (Shrugging her morbid sling to complete the thought, awkwardly.) "But I just can't; I can't leave my home: my feathers - I would worry so. What if I returned from a long journey, and they were gone? It has been my life's work."

Ruriska

<3!

 

[Ruriska]

Jun D

My brain seems to imagine all the Acha know each other and are bff’s, especially ours… xD

“Many wonderful things…” He continued to smile, except now there was a mysterious twinkle in his eyes that hinted at all the marvels he had come across. Journey leapt onto a mangrove root, balancing gracefully. “I think you are in the right place, you are where you need to be. But perhaps you could ask a friend to guard your feathers while you experience the world?”  

[Jun D]

"A friend?" she repeated, a little surprised at the thought. Another Kin. Her mind instantly cast itself to sweet Be Mine, whom she had loved dearly ever since she'd pulled her as a filly from the Flood. Certainly, if she'd asked, Be Mine would look after her tree... The Acha's soothing voice and twinkling eyes began to seduce her into the possibility of exploration...no no no no. She could not. Even a normal day's travel saw her mind turned, anxious, towards her jewels. When she'd thought she'd lost them in the flood... No. Journeying was full of unexpected turns. She could not handle the unexpected turn. Everything must be a certain way - particularly her feathers. That was her curse. "No," she finally vocalised, "I wouldn't know what to do if something went wrong. They - they have to be perfect." Another apologetic tilt of her head.

Ruriska

Eheheheh me too, actually - or at least, I always imagined that Rouge, being the horrible busybody that she is, makes the effort to stick her nose into everyone's business at least once. XD

 

[Ruriska]

Jun D

I love Rouge. xD <3 I’m stealing all her rp next. Watch Me wants a piece of her. ;D

“I understand.” He breathed softly, pleased by her response. “Then would you allow me to remain here at your tree, at least until my heart demands I carry on my travels? If you cannot see the world yourself, I would be happy to speak of the desert and share what I have witnessed with you.” Journey would not tell her of everything he had seen and done; just a small snippet here and there, enough to keep her satisfied.  

[Jun D]

He did not judge. He had not pressed her to recant her surety. She had confessed something of her dark compulsions, and he had not judged. And he looked at her - still - as if she were worth looking so at. Ah.

Delivery was demanded of the birds on her vine, and, her companion still not yet returned, she was one short. Any other day and such a circumstance would have driven her mad to fix it - but his voice, his smile, the gleam of his eyes...she felt as if no time had passed at all, and thus deigned to fool herself just this once that time would stand still till all wrongs could be righted, that to tarry and listen to his tale would be just fine. She would pay later, lost and distraught, counting and recounting and hunting in the dark, she knew, but in the magic of the moment, she laid down her sling (in its customary carefully-kept patch where the fowl would remain pristine, naturally) and said "Hold on -" merely to lightly bound up the familiar path through the branches to retrieve...

...it was a magnificent plume, in the same bright yellow he'd singled out, but fading also to cream at the sap-tapped root, and burnished to gold at the feathery ends, like his eyes. "Now here is a head-dress fit for a master storyteller...if you would permit me to adorn you thus?" She smiled, shy and more than a little anxious. This was the way she best knew how to repay kindness - and he had been so kind.

Ruriska

"Piece of me? I wanna piece of him - and I know just which piece, RAWR. ;D" I am sorry she is so terrible

 

[Ruriska]

Jun D

Rouge, you are perfect. XD Junbun, this had been a brilliant rp run! But I have to go catch a bus, so this is my last for the night. <3

Journey watched her, still perched on the tree root, his tail occasionally swaying from one side to the other to keep his balance in check. When she returned, his head lifted high and he marveled at the brilliant plume she had brought him. “Like a beam of sunlight!” He announced and leapt nimbly to the ground. The Acha bent one front leg beneath him, dipping into an elegant bow. “I am honoured to accept.” He looked at her from the bow, giving a playful little grin.