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 Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:32 pm
"Real helpful, Bird." Restless, Sabriel got back up again and walked to the far side of the craft, then paced around back there until that got too frustrating. He thumped his way over to the paddle, thumped back to Len, and held it out beside her, hoping she'd some practice with this boating thing. "You try?" She had longer arms, after all, and probably wouldn't mind the water.
If they could just get the raft off this stupid rock...rockbar thing, getting Prince back would be a piece of cake.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:47 pm
"Well, I'm not trying very hard," Lenore said patiently, looking out onto the water still. Glancing at the paddle, she shrugged and nodded, taking it. "Hell, it's worth a shot."
Standing and bracing her legs against the raft, she sunk the paddle into the water and strained as she tried to push the craft off. Spitting casual curses under her breath as she pushed and shoved, she smiled slightly as the raft moved forward a bit.
"There's a start," she said, straining harder. "What direction we going?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:31 pm
Sabriel performed a silent dance of victory, spirits lifting. It was too bad the fog didn't lift with them - he gave up, still blind to all but a few feet surrounding them, and pointed off in the direction that felt the most right. "Thattaway!"
He gave a frightened hiss as the moving raft threatened to knock him off the feet and quickly dropped to all fours, clinging to it like a lifeline. At Lenore's efforts the raft broke free of the rocks with a loud crnnnching sound and began to drift off, rocking and dipping over the tiny waves distorting the water's surface.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:28 pm
A little perturbed by the fog, Lenore nonetheless nodded and steered the raft where Sabriel wanted.
"Alright. Keep an eye out for him," Len said as she paddled. "And try not to fall in."
Since I might not want to fish you out again, she added silently.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:41 pm
"'Kay." Sabriel said warily, catching a hint of those unspoken words. Keeping an eye out for Prince in the fog, he nonetheless stayed where he was, not trusting the edges of the raft right now.
And so they drifted on. The fog was a wall of blank white, shifting and shadowing but flickering close rarely, being pushed away by the motion of their craft. He'd begun to get worried that they hadn't gone the right way when a light breeze picked up, spilling fog over them both - and then being breezed away. A distinct line of darkness started to appear up ahead, and soon resolved into a shoreline. But it wasn't the possibility of crashing that startled Sabriel so much.
Prince! The lion was lyin' on the shore, apparently washed up, and was hard to see...but definitely was there. The fog was getting thinner and thinner by the minute. He poked urgently at the Bird's shoulder and pointed at the spot. "Hurry up!" he urged, shifting worriedly from foot to foot.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:02 pm
"Alright, alright," Len said, paddling faster. "Little caalsta blazeh. D'you see him?"
The raft went smoothly through the water, gaining on the shoreline quickly. Looking around, unimpressed, Len snorted and drew the paddle onto the raft. Jumping off and wading onto the island, she threw her arms wide.
"We're here," she said, though she wasn't quite sure where "here" was yet.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:13 pm
...what did she just call him?
Sabriel gingerly stepped to a less watery spot in the shadows and dashed across, landing with a tremendous explosion of sand. Giving his now coated fur a disgruntled look, he shook some of it off and wandered over to where Len stood, still shedding sand all the way. So where was Prince? He looked around the beach, trying to spot a splash of white against off-white.
Spotting the lion, he forgot about the sand and frustration and EVERYTHING and raced over to his friend, reaching down to scoop the plushie up, fishy-smelling or not, and was beaten to it. Something darted down from the trees and snatched the lion up, flying back from whence it came.
Sabriel stared after it, swaying a little with shock. What the-?! NO. This was NOT FAIR.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:17 pm
"What the-"
Watching the Thing swoop down from the trees and steal Prince, Lenore was hard-put to laugh and groan in sympathy.
"Well...ergh. That sucks." she said, hands on hips. "Now what?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:21 pm
He was still staring. Horrified. This was not right. A world in which Princes were stolen multiple times was not allowed to exist.
Shaking out of it, at least a tiny bit, Sabriel managed to stop watching the trees and pay attention to Len instead. Now what? He shook his head, loosing the shock a bit more, and then gestured imperiously towards the forest. "Get 'em back." he growled, stalking off in that direction himself.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:29 pm
Sighing, Len waved to Sadako, who'd elected to stay on the raft.
"Watch the boat," she said boredly. Trailing after Sabriel, she fixed her eyes to the trees, scanning branches for a tell-tale blob of white.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:43 pm
The mysterious plushienapper didn't show itself as they entered the forest. It stayed hidden while Sabriel tromped around, muttering angrily, peered up into branches, and generally made a lot of noise in a very irritated fashion.
But those activities started to slow, and that's when it decided to appear. A small shuffling of feet, and a squirrel showed itself to be perched not far above Len's head, dangling the plushie in its front paws. The movement caught Sabriel's eyes - he let out a strangled yell and threw himself at the trunk, barely missing Lenore. It hopped a few branches higher, chittering.
"Do something!" he demanded, turning on Len instead when it proved impossible to get to. "Knock it outta the tree. SOMETHING."
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:47 pm
"Al-RIGHT! Gods, stop freaking ordering me around," Lenore snapped, eyes searching through the trees for the squirrel. Irritated beyond words, she willed the breeze that hissed through the leaves into stronger, more vicious life.
"Knock the stupid thing to the ground," she told the winds. As if they were listening, they began to howl, shredding leaves and snapping off smaller branches. Lenore began to feel fatigued with the force she was using, but ignored it.
"I can't keep it up forever, you gotta help me," she told the Cat, feeling more and more tired by the second.
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:57 pm
Sabriel would have snapped something back, but the familiar tingle of magic prickled his fur, only with the force that Lenore was using, the feeling was icy cold and he involuntarily stepped back, shaking from head to foot to the tips of all seven tails.
And then, there was also the matter of rustlings in the branches above them that were not caused by the wind. All of a sudden several more furry somethings leapt at Lenore, even as her intended target wobbled and fell, screeching - both Sabriel and the squirrels leapt for Prince, but the toddler was once again unlucky. A gang of squirrels raced off for the lake in the center of the island, dragging Prince along like a banner.
It would have been hilarious had the horrible little creatures not been completely pissed off. For that matter, so was Sabriel. He went tearing after the ones who had captured Prince, leaving the Bird to deal with her own furry attack squadron.
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Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:17 pm
"Oh, come on."
Spinning 'round with wings outspread, trying to ward off her horde of squirrelly assailants, Lenore prayed she wouldn't get bitten and end up with rabies.
"My best friend's a squirrel, you know," she said, trying to reason with the creatures. "So I really don't want to hurt you-OW. OWWW."
A squirrel had become entangled in her spidery fingers when she'd tried to brush it off, and it was currently attempting to bite them all off. She glared at the creature furiously, the winds dying with such abruptness it was truly unnatural.
"Why you little!"
Flinging her arm out, she sent the squirrel rocketing through the trees, where it crashlanded against a pine.
"Go ahead! Dammit, just try it!" she snarled at the rest of the squirrels. "Go a-freakin'-head! I will so ABSOLUTELY cut your tails off!"
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:58 am
Like magic, the squirrels disappeared at the crack of squirrel hitting tree, and reorganized on a branch nearby. They got close in a conference consisting of chitters and squeaks, actually looking to be discussing something - maybe it was the proximity of the Forest that made them so smart. Was she worth attacking? Hadn't it been the cat and the guy that cut down the tree, that the fox had warned them about? And she did smell a little like squirrel...
Finally making a decision, all the squirrels turned tail and ran, all except one. THAT one was either brave or extremely moronic (or both) and leapt at Lenore for a second round.
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