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 Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 12:31 pm
OPEN FOR BUSINESS!  Conundrum, in all his rainbow-colored, puzzle-patterned glory, was lonely and bored. He'd already explored most, if not all, of the small little Oasis he'd found so many days ago (he'd really lost track), but Conundrum was in no mood to get lost out in the desert. At least, not anymore.
Because, really, that 'vision', with the Modideities speaking to him? It seemed more like a very realistic, very memorable dream. Who's to say if he really was protected from the heat of the desert? What if he tried it and he ended up a meal or three for a friendly pack of vultures?
Chuffing mentally, Conundrum stood slowly, his joints popping as he flexed. It was time to get off his bum and do something--anything. He was the Elder of...
Conundrum corrected himself with a loud sigh. He was the ex-Elder of the amazing Enigma Tribe, which had long since been disbanded. He didn't know where any of his old packmates were, the ones who had helped raise, some from kithood. His best friend, his Shaman, was gone too. And Rave...
No. No, none of that today. Conundrum snapped at himself mentally, snorting at himself. It was time to stop being...what was it the humans called it? Right, being emo. Whatever that meant. It was time to stop being so down and see if this 'blessing' was nothing more than a nice dream or not.
Conundrum made his way slowly from the clear blue stream, his big paws barely making a sound, though the jewels in his hair clinked against themselves. It was quiet here. Peaceful.
But he was restless. There had to be more. At least, that's what Conny was thinking as he came to a halt at the edge of The Oasis, blinking into the bright desert sunlight. Which way to go?
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 12:49 pm
 How long had the earth elemental been in the desert? He didn't know. Long enough. Too long. By rights, he should be dead right now, considering how long it had last been since he'd had anything to drink. By continuing to walk, and thus continuing to use up what little energy he had left, he was only speeding up his own death. He knew that.
But Kalevi had never been one to just give in, lie down, and die.
He wasn't sure how much longer he could go on, though--each step took a monumental amount of energy now. Could he make it another ten steps? Another five, even?
No. Another one? Yes, he could do that.
And now another one? Maybe. He was trying, he was trying to move, but it was so hard, and...
Kalevi blinked, feeling something other than sand under his paws. For the first time in days, he looked up from staring at his paws. To see an osasis.
A mirage.
So, this was the end for him, he thought, as his willpower finally gave out, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:05 pm
Conundrum's ear twitched as he heard a twig snap, then a thud on the grass. It sounded big, bigger than any of the animals that inhabited The Oasis with him--unless mountain lions had taken to living in the desert.
His curiosity piqued, Conny moved away from the desert and turned back to the trees, only barely stopping himself from tipping over the brown, vine-y Modifox at his feet. Conny blinked once, twice. Another Modifox? Here? How?
Shaking away his questions, Conundrum realized that this fox needed help; his breathing was shallow and his eyes were closed and he had slight tremors moving through his body. Conundrum strained his mind to remember all the thing Nero had taught him, back when they had been together in Enigma, but all he could come up with was 'water'. Well, that sorta made sense, right?
Before he could second guess himself, Conundrum was kneeling down next to the large fox with the funny hair and slipping beneath him. After a few awkward scrambling moments, Conundrum had the smaller fox across his shoulders and Conundrum was walking toward the spring.
Maybe this 'blessing' was true after all.
Conny carefully kneeled down, letting the unconscious body of the other fox slide off him, the tips of his toes dipping into the spring.
"Uhh..." Conny said aloud, glancing around desperately. "Wake up?" Conny tried, nudging the fox gently with his nose, moving his face closer to the water, but not in it--he didn't want this fox to have survived the desert only to drown in what he needed. "Please?"
Conny looked up at the sky, though the green leafy ceiling and whispered, "If you are real, please help him,"
That was as close to a prayer as those 'Modideities' would get out of him.
Conny hesitated, then slowly reached a paw into the spring and gently splashed a few droplets of water onto the earthy fox, hoping it would wake him up.
"It's okay, you're safe," Conny tried to reassure his unconscious form. "You have water and a place to sleep. Please wake up?" When nothing happened instantaneously, Conny sighed and just laid down next to him, figuring he'd been too late--the fox was just going to die.
"Sorry," Conny mumbled to the other fox, looking glumly at the water again.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:26 pm
There was a voice. Another fox. Kalevi skittered away from the other fox.
Or, at least that was what he tried to do. What actually happened was, before he was even fully conscious, Kalevi leaned over again. Face-first into the water this time.
He was going to drown in the middle of the desert. Kalevi had thought he'd be okay with whatever way he ended up dying, but he was starting to think this was the worst death ever.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:30 pm
"Wha--hey!" Conundrum said, yelping in surprise as the other fox tumbled into the water. "Stop that!" Conundrum barked in surprise, leaning down and grabbing whatever bit of fur he could find and yanking him back onto shore.
"Water is for drinking, not drowning in," Conny grumbled--playfully? as he shook his head free of the water droplets. Though, his attention was still on the brown and leafy fox. "What's your name? Actually, don't talk. Are you hungry? Just nod or shake your head, 'cause you should probably save your energy...or something, anyways."
Well, that was lame, but it sounded sorta-kinda feasible. How he wished Nero were here, he'd know what to do.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:49 pm
Once Kalevi came fully to, and realized he was not dead, the first thing he noticed was he was thirsty enough to drink the spring dry. The second was that he was hungry enough to eat an entire herd of deer.
The third was that he wanted the other modi far, far, far away from him. He didn't know what the rainbow colored modi was planning, and he didn't care. His survival instincts had kicked back in, and they told him to have nothing to do with any strange foxes, like this one.
So Kalevi simply stared at the rainbow modi while he lapped up the water, to keep an eye on him, not answering any of his questions at all.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:19 pm
Conny watched the other fox as he drank--he was at least doing that, which was good. That he wasn't answering his questions didn't particularly bother Conny; his own mind had been basically a blank slate for his first few days at The Oasis.
Sensing the other fox's distrust, Conundrum moved a few feet away from him, then laid back down, his feet in the spring.
Until he heard a rustling in the bushes: food. Without a moment of hesitation, Conny sprung into the bushes, only totrot back with two squirrels in his mouth, one for each of them.
"Here you go," Conny said, dropping one near him, then moving back away. "Eat up,"
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:24 pm
Kalevi somehow managed to keep one eye trained on the dead squirrel (he wasn't even going to ask what that was doing in the desert), the other on the colorful modi.
The one who had brought him food, maybe even the one who had taken him to the water. Why? Why was he helping him? What did he hope to gain? That was the question in which Kalevi was far more interested.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 3:12 pm
"Er...have you lost your voice or something? Are you sick? Or are you...like, mute, or deaf? Well, if you were deaf, you can't hear me, so I should stop wasting my breath..." Conny trailed off, again looking down at the water. He supposed he could understand why he wasn't talking, if he could--Conny hadn't spoken either, but then again, Conny hadn't had anyone to speak to.
"What's your name?" Conny tried again.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 3:18 pm
"No."
Kalevi stared at the dead squirrel warily. He didn't trust it, because it was a favor, and that favor was going to be called in at some time, and he had no idea what sort of favor the rainbow fox would want. All he knew is he didn't want to have any obligations like that being held over his head.
But he was so hungry...
Survival instincts won over pride, and he nearly swallowed the squirrel whole.
And if the rainbow fox tried to call on that debt, Kalevi decided, he was going to leave. It didn't matter if he died, anyway, he had no tribe, no allies, no home anymore. He had nothing at all.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 3:45 pm
"Good." Conny answered, pauseing for a moment before nudging the rest of his mostly-uneaten squirrel over to the brown fox. "Looks like you need it more'n I do," Conny said with a shrug. He might not have a Tribe or a family (besides his biological sisters--and even then...) anymore, but the instinct to help was still there, somewhere.
Besides. He wasn't that hungry anyway.
Conny let out a loud yawn as he rested his head back on his paws, his big fluffy tail twitching slightly.
"What should I call you?" Conny asked after a few moments of silence.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 5:34 pm
Kalevi devoured that one quickly enough, too.
"Doesn't matter." He wasn't exactly planning on sticking around. But after his near-death experience in the desert, he might not have a choice about that.
While he was comfortable with his own mortality, he wasn't suicidal, not yet, and so he wasn't planning on going back into the desert any time soon.
But he really didn't want to be stuck here, with the rainbow fox, either.
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 3:00 pm
Conny didn't mind his not talking much at all, because he understood it. "Well, I suppose I shall just have to call you Sir. Sir, you may stay in my--this, this-- Oasis for as long as you want or need." Conundrum paused, then explained, almost grudgingly, "Supposedly, this Oasis is protected by a Modideity. I don't know if that is true or not, but no harm has come to me. Yet." Conny shrugged, figuring it was just a matter of time before a scorpion stabbed him in his sleep or something.
"But, either way, you can stay for as long as you want and help yourself to whatever you like."
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 3:04 pm
Could stay as long as he liked? Could help himself to anything he liked?
Kalevi wasn't exactly one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but, to use another cliche, if something was too good to be true, it probably was. And this was far, far, far to good to exist. Not without some major strings attached.
Okay. So, he'd bite.
"Why?" Why was this other fox doing this? Why was he offering so much?
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Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 11:37 am
Conundrum shrugged--he supposed it was a fair question, but Conny was a little bit sad that the world had come to such a thing that one couldn't be nice tot a stranger without be suspected of something or another.
Then again, maybe it was just this fox. Shrugging again, Conny answered, "Because this isn't mine," Conny eventually decided on. "I found it the same as you did, I have no claim to it. Anyone who finds the place or needs it is more than welcome to it." Conny said easily. "I have no right to tell you what you can or cannot do, Sir." He added as an afterthought. He wasn't an Elder of a Tribe anymore, he was just a lonely fox in a body that seemed to big for him. He had no right to tell anybody what to do.
Shaking his head to clear it, Conny looked back down at the spring, watching his reflection.
Once upon a much simpler time, Conundrum would've believed that the Modideities who had supposedly spoken to him had sent this odd fox here. But now was a very different time, and Conundrum was a true believer in sheer dumb luck--or unluck, for the leafy fox, since he clearly didn't want to be here, talking to some stranger.
"I can go if you like," Conundrum eventually said, still looking at his reflection. "I understand wanting to be alone while you are here." This last was said with so much bitterness that Conundrum heard it himself and almost felt bad for voicing it outloud--because he didn't really want to be alone, he just...was. But even so, his first few days at The Oasis, he had wanted nothing more than that: to wake up from whatever dream he thought he had been dreaming and find out he was dying, alone. When he'd realized that it wasn't a dream, he still wanted no company of any kind.
However, that had eventually morphed into loneliness, and he was nearly glad to have that familiar emotion back.
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