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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 5:30 pm
Mir’s eyes were heavy as she rolled over onto her back, pawing and shoving at her siblings to try and find a more comfortable position. It seemed, though, that she was destined to be awake. She huffed as she forced her eyes opened and rolled out of the nest. Mirella was surprised to find that it was early enough, still, that even her parents were still curled up in the nest, fast asleep.
She’d been out of her egg long enough, now, that she was able to walk without tripping over her own tail. Mir glanced around, eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light of the forest around them. It didn’t take long before she found herself sniffing around their nest and wandering over the outskirts of their territory. It seemed like it had been ages since they’d last all gone out together and Mir was growing tired of sitting at the nest.
She wanted to explore. She lifted her nose into the air and sniffed. She didn’t smell danger. Danger had a scent, right? Mir glanced back to the nest, eying her still sleeping parents and siblings. She just wanted to explore a little. She wouldn’t stay gone for long. With a ruffle of her wings she bounded off out into the forest, eager to explore the land beyond where they called home.
Mirela trilled happily as she pounced at insects that scurried out of her way. She spent the better half of an hour just running around and trampling on small plants and going after anything that moved. Before long, though, her stomach growled and she whined. Leaving the nest as early as she had, there had been no breakfast for her. She raised her snout to the air, sniffing for any signs of food. As the winds shifted something caught her attention. A strange smell. One she had never smelled before. It didn’t smell like a khehora. Was it food?
She followed her nose, quickly coming upon what her parents had described, once, as a magescian camp. Something little khehoras were suppose to stay away from. She was hungry, though and her curiosity had the best of her. Slowly and quietly she moved into the camp, careful not to disturbed the obvious lump of a person sleeping. She sniffed at the packs laying on the ground, searching for anything that she would be able to eat.
As she moved over to where the magescian was laying, something caught her attention. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. As she glanced over, a tail twitched and swished. An obvious invitation to play to Mirela’s young mind. She crouched down low, hunger and food temporarily forgotten in favor of play. Wiggling her butt she moved to pounce, coming up short as the tail jerked away. Mir huffed as she moved in closer, stretching her paw out slowly to paw at the now still appendage. Just as she got close enough to bat at the tail, it twitched, scaring her and causing her to squeak and jump back in surprise.
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 7:51 pm
Detraeus grunted in his sleep, tail twitching of its own accord as he did. It was a light sleep, seeing as he had made camp not long ago — and early, comparatively, at that — but his body was exhausted enough from the process of his recent ‘growths’ that he had figured it wiser to remain behind for several more days before making the final leg to Eowyn. The sea never favored him, and the last thing he needed was nausea and lack of nutrients in addition to an already weakened and recovering body.
His jerked awake.
At first, he sought only to determine what woke him, blades already in his hands and untested wings spreading wide on instinct. A beast? A traveler? An approaching storm? Nothing seemed immediately evident, but his senses were on high alert, new tail stiff and wary, sweeping from side to side. Then, he found it, his tail tip butting up against something directly behind him, and his weapons were drawn before he even turned. At the sight that greeted him, though, he blinked, wings flitting back in towards himself and tail swishing away.
An infant khehora, recently hatched, but clearly playful and adventurous enough to have made it this far out, to his camp, and — from the looks of things — alone. Resheathing his blades, he tilted his head, expression and posture softening on instinct.
“You look far from home,” he said, tone gentle. “Trying to steal my food, are you?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 8:06 pm
Mirela tilted her head as she watched the magescian move. When he turned around, weapons raised she lowered her wings and sank back a bit. Her attention caught back on his tail, watching as it swayed back and forth. She wanted to pounce again, wanted to play. She didn’t dare, however, now that the man was awake. At the sound of his voice her gaze flit back to him. Mir tilted her head as he spoke, not sure what he was saying. It sounded pleasant enough. She mewed and got up to walk over towards him, nudging his leg with her snout.
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 8:41 pm
Detraeus gave a quiet grunt, watching as the little — well, not so terribly little, since no khehora really was — creature nosed at his boot. It seemed to have been focussed on his tail earlier, so he swished it, bringing it back around and trying to catch the orakoi’s attention before nudging gently at its side with the soft end of it. While still fairly new, the appendage was acclimating itself to his body nicely, the previously tender — practically raw — new flesh hardening and toughening into a resilient, pliable leathery skin, much like that which made up his wings. Toughened enough, anyway, to stand touch and pressure without giving him pain or rubbing away skin.
As he worked to draw its focus away, he leaned over, gripping his main pouch and sifting through to where he kept some of his food stores. He still had ample fresh meat from one of his recent hunts the night before, and after unwrapping it, he held a thin slice out, wondering all the while where the hatchling’s nest was. Surely it couldn’t have wandered all that far at this age…
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 8:45 pm
Mir’s attention went back to the tail as he swished it back and forth, enticing her to play. She crouched low, wiggling her butt right before pouncing towards it. She missed her target, tumbling over and onto her side in a failed attempt at pinning the tail down. She huffed before pushing herself back up and refocusing on the tail. Just before another pounce, though, she caught wind of something. Her nose twitched as she sniffed the air. Her gaze instantly went to the meat in the magescian’s hands. Mir moved close, sitting down and staring up at the food as she wagged her tail and mewed.
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 9:18 pm
Detraeus chuckled, a soft, rare sound as he lowered the meat towards the eager orakoi’s snout, and an equally rare smile edged at the corner of his lips as the little thing gobbled it readily, as though it hadn’t eaten since it’d hatched. Which, he knew of course, couldn’t have been true. Overall, it looked very well fed: plump in a way which most healthy young things were, but not overly so, strong, and clearly adventurous and bursting with energy. Somewhere, it had to have a nest, and waiting parents. This in mind, Detraeus offered over another small scrap of meat before standing, slowly — not wanting to startle the thing — and taking a careful scope of the area to determine where it had wandered in from.
The task wasn’t hard.
Apparently it — she, Detraeus noted after crouching again and taking a closer look from a safe distance — had been just as energetic on the way over as she was now. He squinted, eyeing her path thoughtfully for a moment before strapping on his quiver, bow, and a few spare blades.
“Come, little one,” he said, folding away his remaining stores of meat, out of reach, before standing and swishing his tail to catch her attention. “Let’s go for a walk.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 9:28 pm
Mir gobbled up the food quickly, her stomach happy to finally have some food in it. She’d been up for quite some time now and was use to having already ate. When he stood, she watched him for only a little while before her attention flicked back over his camp. So much more to get into. Was there more food elsewhere? Just as she was about to move to sniff around his other things she heard his voice again. Her attention flicked back to him, instantly going back to his tail. Another game? She trilled happily before taking off after him.
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:29 pm
When he knew he had her attention and her padded footsteps sounded behind him, Detraeus relaxed a fraction, glad it was that easy, and lead the way. He split his focus, most of it on piecing together the little orakoi’s — fairly obvious — trail, and the rest of it on keeping his tail active enough to keep her interest, occasionally letting her catch it or nudging her gently with it to give her ‘game’ livelihood. As anticipated, she hadn’t made it terribly far from home, though a good bit further than Detraeus would have originally guessed, and he slowed his pace as he closed in on the nest.
Feral khehora, he knew, did not tend to take kindly to Magescians — not that he blamed them in the least, given the number of egg thieves out there — but he did not wish to risk his safety regardless, or cause the parents to think he’d ‘stolen’ their new hatchling. Thus, a safe distance from the nest, he stopped and crouched, looping his tail around close to himself and nudging his head towards the nest. It looked, in its current state, as though one of the parents was already out searching, and he knew he wouldn’t have long — if any time at all — before the remaining one sniffed out his presence.
“Go on,” he said, giving the curious girl a gentle nudge. “Someone’s missing you.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:41 pm
Mir whined slightly as he took his tail away from her. She moved up next to him, nudging her snout against his side even as he spoke. She could smell home, knew that her family was near. She had no interest in returning just yet. She wanted to play more. She pawed at his tail, trying to make him play with her more.
“Mirela.” A rumbling voice sounded behind the duo and Mir jumped, startled by the sound of her mother’s voice. She mewed as she turned to look up at her mother. “What are you doing with my daughter?” A low growl sounded from Kerubi’s throat as she bent to bring her head level with the stranger’s. Mir mewed again, bounding over to her mother and rubbing up against her neck.
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:53 pm
Detraeus stood slowly, posture rigid and palm near to hilt of his dagger, though he did not yet reach for it, not wanting to cause unnecessary alarm if he could avoid it. All the same, he met the khehora’s stare head on, unblinking, before he answered. “Returning her,” he said, his voice low and chilly with veiled warning, “…after she paid my camp an uninvited visit this morning. Your gratitude is much appreciated.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:57 pm
Kerubi eyed him carefully as Mir rubbed up against her. Finally, at the persistence of her daughter she tore her gaze away from him and nudged at Mirela with her snout. She checked Mir over, making sure there were no hidden injuries. When she was satisfied, her tail wrapped around Mir and she looked back up. “I am grateful oblivionite.” She eyed him carefully, bowing her head and sniffing at him. “You are a rare one and I thank you for returning my daughter.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 11:16 pm
Detraeus blinked, surprised at the ease with which the khehora dropped her defensive tone, but after, he simply nodded. Letting his hand drop further away from his weapons, he relaxed his posture and turned to go. Not fifteen paces out, however, he heard a familiar whine, a quick chirrup of something in draconic that sounded like a reprimand, and a plop and rustling of leaves before a happy trill sounded behind him and something batted at his tail. He glanced back eyebrows arched, and looked once to the mother before crouching before the orakoi.
“Not me, little one,” he said, touching his fingers gently to her curious snout and petting with the grain of her scales. “I don’t make good company for long, I promise. Go mind your mother. Not everyone is so lucky as to have one.” After some persuasion, much whining and, eventually, the help of said mother, the hatchling was successfully held back as Detraeus made his way back towards his camp, disappearing into the murky foliage of Soudul’s swampland.
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