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 Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:17 am
Nehanda had been inside when the pod burst. Now, she stared down in speechless amazement at the gryphon curled within her hand. She opened her mouth, but no sound was able to emerge. Gamely, she swalloed and tried again. "Hi."
Blinking her eyes, the little gryphon lifted her head and stared around her, finally resting her gaze upon the older Aerandir. Eyes narrowed, scarlet wings fluttered. "Croaaak?"
"Oh, wow." Holding the gryphon carefully against her, Nehanda rushed downstairs. "Foenix! Foenix! She's here! Theseedpodburstandshecameoutandshe'sactaullyhere!" Breathless, she burst into Foenix's room, where the woman had been reading.
Foenix put down her book and swiftly crossed the room. "Well, don't smother her; let me see!" She raised a single finger and stroked it down the back of the new arrival. "Well, hello there. Aren't you gorgeous?" Looking back up at Nehanda, Foenix raised an eyebrow. Have you decided upon a name?"
The large hands grasping her had relaxed. Stretching her wings out, the gryphon flapped them and croaked again. What was going on? where was she? Who the hell were these people, and why were they talking over her head?
Staring at her guardian, Nehanda's mind blanked. Name? Oh, no, she needed a name, right now! Only one thing came to mind. "Cerise," she burst out. "It, uh, it's a red color. I mean, it's not that original, but it's pretty. And she's pretty. And she's really red. And she should have a pretty name."
Foenix grinned. This was amusing. She looked down at the gryphon. "Do you like that? Shall we call you Cerise?"
Feeling calmer now that she wasn't in danger of being hauled around and babbled over, -she hoped- the feline/parrot creature considered. Name? She assumed this was something that would be attached to her permanantly. Cerise had a nice sound to it, rolling softly over her ears. She twisted her head and considered for a moment, then bobbed her head up and down. Cerise would do.
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Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 2:50 pm
Cerise -and she was still debating whether or not she actually liked the name that had been given to her- prowled silently along the wall, making her way toward the kitchen. Since Nehanda, the big winged Person, insisted upon going outside for . . . something . . . she was taking advantage of the solitude to explore the house.
She liked it, so far. The house was quiet and cool. As she slinked from the shadow of the hall doorway into the main room, golden eyes quickly took in everything. The furniture looked nice, and soft. She liked soft things. They felt good beneath the pads on her feet. Cerise approached the sofa. reaching out, she touched it with one paw. Yes, it too was soft.
Sharp claws were extended, and Cerise began to knead the arm of the sofa. She clacked her beak and gave a soft "croaaak" in pleasure. It felt so very good to scratch, to sharpen claws and massage the paws. This was good. It felt good.
Leaving off for a moment, she returned to the shadows near the walls, making her way into the kitchen. She liked soft things, but she liked quiet and darkness even more. If she stared hard enough into those shadows, she'd discovered that there were . . . things . . . there. Undiscernable shapes that she found interesting.
"What- what the hell happened to the sofa!" The voice of the other Person, the short one with the long red head fur, came from the main room.
Cerise felt a sudden urge to hide.
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:26 am
Foenix knew that Nehanda was puzzled by what she was doing, but ddn't bother to explain. Base and stump were sturdy, and she quickly wound the thick, bristling rope around the stump, creating a well-layered post.
"If Cerise destroys any more furniture, I'm going to be very unhappy."
Nehanda colored unhappily. "I'm sorry, Foenix. I should have done more research on cat habits. And on parrots. I didn't realize both liked to rip things."
It was true. Most cats liked to claw and knead. It sharpened their claws and provided something of a paw massage. Parrots, on the other hand, were also very enterprising -destructive was the word Foenix used- creatures. In the wild, they spent the majority of their time finding food, and figuring out how to get said food from within nut shells, or out from underneath the bark of trees. Domesticated birds needed to be provided with toys of cloth and wood to tear apart.
"I like that couch an awful lot. You're both lucky that the damage can be hidden, because I don't have enough of the suede left to make a new slip cover." Foenix tied the rope off and tucked the ends down inside. Standing up, she hefted the object and handed it off to Nehanda. "It's a scratching post. The cats I used to have liked this sort a lot. It's easy to repair, because you just replace the rope. We can also make toys from scrap fabric. "
The Aerandir nodded. "That's really neat. I probably should have asked you about cat behavior. And I did tell Cerise that she's not to claw any more of the furniture. I think she liked the piece of balsa wood I gave her to nibble at."
In fact, she'd left the gryphon knawing away at the end, alternating between peeling up pieces with her beak and clawing the ends of the soft wood with very sharp claws. Nehanda had spent a good thirty minutes explaining that destroying furniture -or anything not given to her to play with, actually- was a Bad Thing. Cerise had craaked and made an odd growling noise from deep in her throat, but had reluctantly nodded in the end.
Foenix sighed, and softened. "Cerise is your responsibility, Nehanda. I'm sorry I snapped like that. I certainly can't complain about getting to raise another Aerandir, and I'm willing to help out however much you need. But please, please let me know before you bring any more sentient beings home with you."
Nehanda hugged her guardian. "I will. I promise."
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:04 pm
The Winged Person approached Cerise in her chosen spot beneath the coffee table. It was nice under there, very dark, and the Other Person had put a folded up blanket there for her to sprawl around in. The blanket was old, and somewhat ratty, and covering in fascinating smells. Cerise had clawed and kneaded it into a tattered circle that fit her curled up form perfectly.
"Cerise, I have a present for you. Won't you come out?" asked the Winged Person.
Cerise chose to ignore her. She liked where she was, with the shadows around her. She idly flicked a wing, and reached out with her beak to preen a few hairs back into place.
"Hmph. Fine." A moment later, Cerise's sharp ears detected the sound of a container opening. There was a smell, faint but growing slowly stronger. It was . . . really appealing. Cerise wanted whatever was making that smell.
But she didn't want to leave her nest.
"It's right here, Cerise. You'll like it, I promise." The Winged Person's voice was coaxing, and the intreguing smell grew even stronger.
She couldn't take it any longer. Gathering up her haunches, Cerise sprang out from beneath the coffee table. There was something, greens and browns and dead plant colors, scattered about on the floor. It crunched beneath her paws as she batted at a small pile. Lowering her beak, she sniffed.
Ooooohhhhhhhh.
Abandoning all dignity, she dropped to her side and began to roll. This stuff was wonderful. She licked some up, quivered in happiness, and began to roll some more.
Nehanda stood to the side, watching with a grin on her face.
"Catnip?" Foenix had come up beside her.
Nehanda nodded. "As soon as I figured out that the fluff came from a cat, I planted some outside. It grows really well here, as long as I keep it in the shade."
The human woman nodded. "Great idea. It's also very nice for headaches, and as a general soothing tea-" She stopped, shrugged. "But you'd know that already, I suppose."
Nehanda shrugged as well. "You did teach me pretty well, Foenix. And I loved listening to the stories about the cats you used to have.
Cerise ignored them completely. She was much too busy loving her favorite new herb.
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:57 am
Cerise studied the shadows.
She didn't really understand why the Winged Person wanted to spend so much time outdoors. The sun wasn't painful -in fact, it did feel rather nice on her fur- but it was so . . . bright. It sat up there in the sky, so bright and shiny. It was so bright that she couldn't look directly at it.
Cerise had decided that she wouldn't like something she couldn't see very well. And that was that.
But the shadows were so nice and cool. They welcomed and accepted her.
At present, the sun was low over the trees, and that created long shadows that reached over across the room. She stared at a particular shadow over in the corner. It was thrown by one of the larger potted plants the Winged Person had placed on the window sill. The plant was sick, which was why Nehanda had brought it indoors. Several of the leaves had wilted and fallen off, and the stem was yellowish and sickly looking.
Cerise was pretty sure that it was dying. The Winged Person had looked sad as she trimmed wilted bits of it.
She crept a little closer to the shadow. There was something within it that moved, spinning and gyrating slowly. A few paws closer, and she padded softly at the thing.
It wasn't there.
Or, rather, it was there; she could see it, but she couldn't touch it. It was simply a dark shape, moving and changing and oh, so very intriguing.
"What are you hunting, Cerise?" Two slender hands reached down and scooped the little gryphon up, reaching up and under to scritch in that perfect spot below her chin.
Cerise growled low in her throat as she found herself carried away from the shadow and the interesting thing. She wanted to go back to it, to figure out what it was. True, the scritching felt pretty nice, but the Woman had scooped her up without permission. "Croaak!"
"Oh, hush. There was nothing there. You were batting at shadows." Foenix sighed and rolled her eyes. Such an odd creature. And Nehanda had been so sweet and well-behaved . . .
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 10:42 am
((200th Post! Go me!))
Nehanda winced as another claw caught her arm, and resisted the desire to hold Cerise up and shake her. Instead, she lifted the hissing bundle of gryphon and whispered, "Cut it out! We're going to the beach, and you're going to like it. I've got to get you out of the house before Foenix realises that you 'killed' her sweater. She liked that sweater! A lot!" The swan girl rolled her eyes as she grabbed up her carry-sak and all but ran out the front door.
"We're going to have a nice, relaxing afternoon at the beach. You're going to behave yourself. We will not be here when Foenix finds her sweater. And maybe, just maybe, if we're lucky, she will have time to cool down and she will not want to kill you by the time we get home."
Cerise reached out wildly with a paw, trying to make contact with flesh. As far as she was concerned, that sweater had been fair play. The Red-Furred Person had left it out on a chair, and it was fuzzy. Cerise liked fuzzy things. She liked to destroy fuzzy things, to rip and tear them apart. It was satisfying.
But now, the Winged Person was making her go outside!!!!! She narrowed her sensitive eyes and hissed as the sunlight hit her. The bright light was evil and bad and she hated it. And what was a beach? She already knew that she wouldn't like it.
"I just don't get it. I gave you toys. I gave you a lot of toys. I even put catnip in some of them!" Holding her 'baby sister' firmly, Nehanda continued down along the path toward the beach. "I just don't get it!"
Cerise thought that the Winged Person's voice sounded pretty funny when it got all high-pitched as it was now. Perhaps she should tear up more sweaters if it produced such an amusing effect.
Although this forced ouside journey was not so amusing. Finally abandoning her struggle, Cerise hung limply in Nehanda's grasp, content to simply hiss her displeasure. The Winged Person was too big and strong, so she would just conserve her energy for later.
Nehanda smiled as they broke through the trees and walked out onto the beach. "Ah. Here we are."
Withouth the lovely shadows cast by the trees, the evil sunlight was even brighter now. Cerise looked up to hiss again, she froze as she got her first good look at the beach.
Down past the sand, that blue stuff . . . was that water? Was that all water?
The cat gryphon's eyes widened in horror.
This must be punishment.
She would never, never touch another sweater again.
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:25 am
((Reserved for Journal entry after RP with Pueblo and Pie))
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Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:42 am
Nehanda landed in the pretty clearing and checked the note in her hand. It seemed that another set of artifacts had been discovered, and yet another guardian had been invited to Ar'Idil. She smiled to herself. This was the right address!
Reaching back into her carrysak, she removed the seedpod that now carried the fluff and feather. They were very pretty, and she had wondered what the gryphon would look like as she inserted them into the pod and replaced the stemmed podem. The pod was one of the larger ones she had, easily twice the size of her fist.
Well, in any case . . . she stepped up onto the porch with a soft clopping of hoofs and craned her head to look in through the window. It looked inhabited, but no one seemed to be at home. Nehanda shrugged and knocked, then placed the seed pod, carefully wrapped and secure against wet or chill (not that chill was likely in this warm climate!), next to the door. She also included a short note.Quote: Dear Newcomer- Welcome to the islands! Here is the seed pod containing the fluff and feather that will eventually become your Aerandir charge. Please do not drop the pod, or attempt to open it. Keep it warm and dry, and let the gryphon develop on it own. Once ready, he or she will make its own way out! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. I live over on Cetalu with my guardian, Foenixfyre. ~Nehanda
~ * ~ * ~
Upon arriving home, Nehanda landed on the porch and flopped into the swing with a happy sigh, dropping her carrysak down by her hooves. She really felt as though she was a real, contributing member of the islands now. The seedpods that she had been shown in her growth dream were incredible.
A piece of paper caught her eye. It was the note she had received from Acia, along with the new fluff and feather. She reached down, intending to crumple is up for the garbage. Eh, Foenix would be grumpy if she left trash lying around.
However, as she picked the note up, the swan maiden noticed something that made her eyes round and her breath catch.
Quote: Nehanda- Another fluff and feather are ready to be placed in a seedpod for their new guardian. Would you mind takeing care of that, and delivering the pod? The address is #5 Cetalu, so it's quite close to you. Thank you! ~Acia
She'd delivered the seedpod to the wrong island!
Nehanda jumped to her feet and ran off the porch. She leapt into the air and flew as quickly as she could toward Ar'Idil. She needed to rescue that seedpod!
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Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:36 am
It was an exhausted Aerandir who finally arrived home. Bypassing the swing this time, she walked straight back through the house, providing only a half-hearted wave to Foenix's greeting, until she reached her room.
Nehanda flopped onto her bed and groaned. "So stupid . . ."
She sat up again and reached for her journal.
Quote: 10.23.06 Hi, Jornal. I just make the dumbest mistake of my life. Seems that since I figured out the mystery of the seedpods, and since plants and herbalism are my job, I've been unofficially put in charge of packing up fluff and feathers so they can join. That's really cool! I mean, I get to help create Aerandir! That's amazing! But I also gotta deliver them. Acia sent me a set and a note with the adress yesterday. I opened a pod, sealed everything up tight, and dropped the pod off. Hunky dory, right? WRONG! I brought the pod to the wrong island! Of course, I fixed everything as soon as I realized, but the new guardian -who lives almost next door, by the way- is a total grouch. He's an old human. I think there's something wrong with his leg, because he uses a cane. And even though I really apologized, and nothing happened to the pod, I don't think he really wanted to forgive me. The pod was only alone for an hour, tops! Maybe I was too cheerful? And I made a complete fool of myself, babbling away all this information, just because he made me nervous. Maybe that's what he didn't like. Well, I guess that first impressions weren't too good on either side of the deal. Hopefully I'll be able to convince Nathaniel -that's the guardian's name- that I'm not a total flake. I did, after all, offer him any help he might need or want. That has to count for something, right? From what I've read and seen, older humans get kind of set in their ways. They don't seem to like surprises, and they don't seem to like not knowing things. And he didn't seem too against the idea of giving out candy on Halloween. Oh, I completely forgot to write about that! This year, I'm going to take the younger kids around the islands for trick-or-treating! I think it'll be lots of fun. Pueblo's going to help me out a little, too. Foenix is helping me with my costume. She's sewing my outfit, although I'm responsible for the rest. I'm going as a nymph. Or a dryad, if you prefer. It's gonna be fun! ((RP with Nathaniel found here.))
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Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:35 am
Nehanda danced around the room, holding her nearly-completed halloween costume up against her. Everything was perfect! Almost everyone on the two islands was going to come on her trick-or-treat excusion. The scary old guy down the way was setting up some sort of haunted house, and someone was doing Bobbing for Apples, and it was going to be great!
"Cerise, drop that!" Foenix's voice echoed down the hallway.
"Foenix, what's wrong?" Putting the costume down, Nehanda quickly made her way into the main room, where she found her guardian on her hands and knees beside the couch.
"The little brat stole some chicken bones from the soup stock I was making. I'm afraid she'll choke on them." The red-head glanced up, and the frustration was clear on her face as she continued to grab after the gryphon.
With a heavy sigh, the swan-maid flopped down to her knees on the other side of the couch. Quickly, while Cerise was still focused on Foenix, Nehanda was able to reach in and grab her. "Got her!" It took a few moments of struggle, but she was eventually able to wrestle the wing joint out of Cerise's beak.
The gryphon croaked and growled and swiped her extended claws after the prize.
Nehanda swallowed back her revulsion over the bones -meat. Ugh, that could have come from someone I know- and handed them over to Foenix. she watched apologetically as the human tied them up in a heavy-duty plastic bag and deposited it all in the garbage. "Sorry, Foenix. I don't know why she's been doing that lately."
"Neither do I. But I'm gonna ground her if she tries it again.
"Yeah, I know. I'll figure something out." Nehanda took the oportunity to escape, an annoyed gryphon tucked tightly under one arm.
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Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:14 pm
(Backdated, 10.31.06 - the first of a long line of journal catch-ups) "You'll like trick-or-treating, Cerise." Nehanda checked the back of her hair in the mirror as she carefully inserted the last of several flowers into her braid. Satisfied, she twirled around with a grin. "What do you think?" The dryad costume that Foenix had suggested was very fetching; a draping in several shades of green covered Nehanda's athletic form, and flowers were used as both hair accesories and jewelry. Foenix had even let her put on make-up! Actually, Nehanda thought it would be pretty simple to make her own from plant dyes. and Pueblo could probably be roped into helping . . .Cerise glanced over, then stretched with a bored and clearly unimpressed yawn. She, on the other hand, had refused to wear a costume. As a matter of fact, the "ghost" costume was lying in several shredded pieces across the room."Hrmph. Keep acting nasty, and I won't bring you along."Is that supposed to be a punishment? the small gryphon wondered.
"Oh, come on! It's going to dark and spooky out. You'll love it! And we're going to go from house to house, getting candy and treats from all the adults! It'll be great!" Foenix had once told her charge about the human tradition of Trick-or-Treating. Now that she was old enough, Nehanda had offered to usher all of the Aerandir children around for some Trick-or-Treating of their own. And it was going to be a hit! Some guardians had even offered to set up some games at their houses.
So, yeah, she was feeling pretty excited.
* * * (Five hours later . . .) Nehanda yawned widely as she settled herself into the chair by her bed and picked up a pen. Quote: 10.31.06 I took everyone trick-or-treating tonight. And by "everyone," I mean nearly every Aerandir on the islands. But it wasn't too hard or anything; a bunch of the guardians came along too. I guess if it had just been me, I might have had a really hard time keeping an eye on everyone! We went to almost every house on the islands. It makes me a little sad to walk by the empty houses though. I wonder whatever happened to Delta? It's like she and her family just disappeared. And she's not the only one . . . Remember that scary old guy I delivered a seed pod to? He actually set up a little haunted house for us. It was great! Not too scary, though. Some of the younger kids got a little freaked out, especially Blanche. She's such a shy little girl. Nothing like I was . . . Cerise actually behaved herself! It didn't hurt that some of the kids really admired her plumage. I think she liked being out and around at night. But that's sort of it, and I'm really tired. All that fun tonight wore me out!
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:27 am
((Backdated, early November))
Tucked deep back into the soothing shadows underneath Foenix's bed, Cerise thought quietly to herself. Her thought time was punctuated by soft growls and an occasional "croak" as she nibbled restlessly on one of the silly toy things the Winged Person had given her. It had the 'cat n**' stuff inside of it, and the young gryphon was determined to get to it. It smelled so good, and it made her feel really . . . well . . . really happy, which was an emotion usually reserved for the destruction of soft furry objects.
She was thinking about the Halloween thing that the Winged Person had taken her out for a week or so ago. It had been fun, surprisingly. Usually, all of the Winged Person's forced activities involved fresh air and breezes, and the despised sunlight that hurt her sensitive eyes. Cerise shuddered delicately at the thought.
But this Hallyween thing had really been quite pleasant. It had taken place after sunset, for one thing, and there were all sorts of wonderful shadows absolutely everywhere. After a while, Cerise had needed to stop watching all of the moving things in the shadows, because there were so many, and several other things were going on, and it was all simply too distracting.
There had also been several small peoples running around. They had worn different cloths and hats and other silly things sstuck on and around their bodies, making them look very unusual. The Winged Person had called this stuff 'costumes,' and claimed that they were all really, really cute. 'Cute' was usually punctuated by an upturn in her voice, and the Winged Person giggling a lot.
Cerise didn't care very much about the costumes, but some of the little people had been very interested in her. They had stroked careful hands down her fur, and had called her pretty. She thought this was really quite nice, and so refrainted from chewing on the costumes.
Even though some had involved good hard chewie things, or soft shreddable fabrics.
Cerise thought this had been very considerate of her.
The 'trick or treating' was a little boring, because Cerise wasn't very interested in the 'candy' stuff that had been given out at each house. But that was okay, really.
"Foenix, have you seen Cerise?" The winged Person's voice rang through the house, causing Cerise's fur to stand a bit on end. "She hasn't been outside all day. Don't you think she needs some fresh air?"
Thought time was completely interrupted now. Cerise cringed at the very idea, and abandoned her chew toy in favor of searching out some new hiding place. Perhaps one of the pots in the Winged Person's big room upstairs?
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:23 pm
((Backdated, late November '06))
A pretty day in late November meant a busy one for a gardener. Now that the weather was so very warm, all of Nehanda's plants were growing wildly. Foenix and Kylara helped out when they could, but there was just so much to do!
Up in her little workroom, the swan maiden had a full table covered in seed trays. She'd already separated out the specimens still too young for prinking off. But now she was set to begin the first transplanting of those deemed ready. She lined up her containers, the cell packs, the individual pots and peat cubes. It had become one of her very favorite tasks, even more so than the initial sowing. She felt so much excitement at the placing of a strong, healthy seedling into the home it would occupy until planting time.
She was thinking about trying out her own planting soil. The earth around Cetalu was so very rich; plants seemed to simply spring out of it without any effort from the gardener. However, there were varieties of herb and flower that she found useful that simply weren't meant for tropical climates. Often the local soil was lacking in chemicals or nutrients. Nehanda had worked very hard to provide what they needed, and several times throughout the year received big shipments of such from the mainland.
But wouldn't it be fun to start from scratch and create her very own blend of soil?
It was something to think about in the future.
She filled her containers, tested the moisture, and approved. With care she lifted the young plants one by one, holding them gently by their seed leaves. Transplanting, she made certain that the soil level was the same as it had been in the seed trays. With strong, knowledgeable hands, she firmed the dirt around the roots. It all took time and care, but it was so very worth it to see the tidy trays of seedlings when she was finished.
A small noise down by her ankles brought Nehanda out of the half-trance she sometimes fell into while gardening, and she looked down to see Cerise stalking her tail. She sighed, having been victem to this painful experience before, and flicked the long ivory strands up and out the the gryphon's way. "None of that, naughty thing," she murmured.
She stood and stretched. She had been at work for several hours now, and her plants should be well-settled for now.
"Besides," she bent down and scooped up Cerise, "we all know by now not to leave you to yourself for too long. Shall we go down and see what you've destroyed today?" With a laugh at Cerise's disgrunted reply, the Herbalist left her workroom .
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