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 Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:40 pm
"Me?" He blinked. "I'm fine. Actually better then fine." He was somewhat bemused that she had asked considering her somewhat below average state of well being. "But thank you for asking. I enjoy being out in the bush as well as the more attractive comforts of home after a time of deprivation. But there is something about the jungle that my house just can't give me you know. Some connection that has occurrence only miles away from civilization."
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Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 8:55 am
He was fine? Better than fine? That was good. Or... better than good? Humor was not Hijil's strong point, though she appreciated it. She liked to laugh, just mostly inside. She did smile, though, at the shifter and nodded. Good. She was glad he was doing well.
And then he began to talk about something that seemed unrelated- about how he liked to be out in the jungle away from people and the trappings of everyday life. Something like that.
"Oh?" she asked inquiringly, hoping for him to tell her more. She had a sense that maybe it was related to his good mood and state of being, but she wasn't sure.
She didn't think she could move very far (and probably shouldn't), and she wasn't sure she could produce small talk- a feat which was hard for her to do on the best of days and situations. She hoped he kept talking.
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Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 7:51 pm
"Well really its a reconnection with nature, it brings a heady sense of peace and happiness into my life, as does finding new things out here." He patted the tree trunk fondly. " New moss, new critters, fascinating new fishes you know life. Life that doesn't live in a hut pampered by a village and constrained by its own society. Not that I don't appreciate society its just a new, more narrow perspective out here and yet everything here is connected."
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Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:50 am
That was certainly an interesting way to look at things and she could agree that the innards of a settlement was very different than the wilderness, or even of her old home on the outskirts. But she had never thought of it in that way.
"It is... alive. Out here." she said after some rumination. Everything had something flowing through it, everything out here changed dynamically from moment to moment. That was life? Maybe? Hijil was unsure. Life was eating, drinking, and continuing, too. She was alive, and that was what she did.
"Connected?"
Everything was connected? What an interesting thought. She wasn't so certain about that, though. It seemed to her that each individual thing had it's own connections attached to it. Some things seemed to be in isolation from others, almost. Did the fern care that an insect passed through it? Did the Menzuri care whether the tree bearing it's web was alive or dead? But maybe this Shifter knew something she didn't...
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Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:21 pm
"Well lets look at the food chain, excluding us of course. The biggest predators keep the biggest herbivores healthy by eating the weak and the injured. The left overs go to the insects and the smaller carnivores which hunt smaller prey and keep the ground clean of rotting meat. The herbivores challenge the plants to stay healthy or die from grazing and the waste from all of these is used to feed insect and return nutrients to the plants."
He smiled. "There are many many other connections, small rodents with fur may spread the spores of mushrooms and ferns around so they may grow, plants use us that way with burs and things, that way when you rip the prickly little stickers off at home they start to grow there and then the rest of the village may spread them. Hence why I check my clothes before I go home."
(woof he does talk alot my little naturalist, heaven forbid some shiney bug fly by XD)
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Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:04 pm
Hijil gave him an odd look. She had honestly never thought about such things before, and he had thought about this, apparently, in detail. She hadn't had the kind of time TO think about things of that nature in detail, except for those special moments with her friend under the stars. Too many things to be done, just to live.
"I didn't realize" she said honestly. It never occurred to her, really, that all these things, seemingly unrelated, could be connected so intricately. It was... actually quite beautiful.
"What of us?" she asked, intently. Did this Shifter who had saved her life have more revelations for her?
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:53 pm
"We seem to dance in and out of the hierarchy. In our villages we are quite safe but when we dare to go far enough into the real world we become a part of that web, reluctantly, kicking and screaming, but almost immediately beyond village boundaries we are again under the rule of nature. Eat or be eaten is a well known rule but the help and be helped is not so well known. We don't fit into the web when we are in a village but are easily reverted once the social infrastructure of safety is far away and we need to reach out in search of food."
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Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:06 am
... And the young man continued to speak truths she had never known were there. Some words, she did not entirely understand, but their meanings were clear enough in context, so she did not ask.
"Help and be helped..." she murmured thoughtfully. No, she had never thought of such a thing, ever in her life. But if things did not exist in a vacuum, then everything she had done was connected in some way to something else. Which meant that help and harm were connected to other things that happened. Not really karma, but an eventual consequence of the action.
So. This shifter was helping her. What did he get for it? What did he want to get for it? She looked at him, not so much warily but piercingly, studying him to try to get some sense of what he was doing.
What was his motivation, then, for helping her? Simple kindness? That was possible. Kindness was a strong emotion. But what would he get, down the line, for helping her? Would she be the one to give the reciprocation, or would it be simply indirect?
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Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 10:46 am
He smiled. "If you are wondering what I want in return, I just want the good karma. That way next time I myself am caught unawares hopefully I won't get eaten." He laughed. In his line of work, or what hopefully would be, being mauled was a real possibility, you could tell a good trainer by the "old" scares if there were new ones they were not so good. He jumped and swung through the trees bringing back a startled and resigned looking bird. "You opposed to a little meat in your broth?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:28 am
Indirect, then. She liked the idea, especially since there was little else she could give. As he went to catch the bird, she offered a silent prayer to Serin or whoever wished to watch over the young man for his good deed to come back to him in some way, even if it was not by her hands.
"No." she said, nodding, "Meat is... good." She may prefer vegetables, but meat was flavor and offered more strength per bite. It was a little rarer for her to find and eat, but she was not opposed to it.
"Just... kill it quickly." she felt sorry for the poor bird, and didn't wish for it to suffer just to be their meal...
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Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 4:26 pm
"I always do, there is never cause for unwarented pain." He turned from her and finished the bird off, he plucked it, and made a small fire to boil the broth over then put the chunks of meat into. The extra protien would help her heal. He just hoped she could keep the meat down. He had put it into very small chunks in the hope that her stomach wouldn't reject it.
"How is your stomach feeling? Churny at all?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 8:35 pm
"Good..." said Hijil, nodding approvingly. She would never be able to stomach unnecessary cruelty. She would hope that her own death would be as swift as the creature's death- especially since it did not seem she would be dying today. She tryied to move a little. She did feel a lot better than she had been yesterday, which wasn't saying much since she had been half dead yesterday.
"Stomach is..." she thought about it for a moment, "Fine." She didn't think she could have eaten anything before, not without choking. She wasn't so sure now if she could eat much, but she at least didn't feel generally nauseous. Her stomach was minding its own business, and it was fairly strong- not easily upset. Though, she had never lost this much blood before. She tried to remember what that meant, but realized she didn't actually know what came with blood loss, save for what she had already experienced. Weakness, fatigue, death (thankfully averted), and- she realized- chills. Which was an odd thing in Jahuar. She had only ever felt this kind of cold when she had been a child with a fever. It was unpleasant.
"Have you... a blanket?" she asked, reluctantly - in part because of hitherto unknown pride and in part because she just wasn't used to talking so much. "I... am a little cold."
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:04 am
"Well um no, but I can get you something to hold you over until I can run to my village and pick one up. I'll be right back." He swung out of the tree and made a b line to a marshy area, after scanning for danger he plopped down on a bed of cattails and pulled a few up, ripping their roots off as he did. after he had a nice handful he crawled back up the tree with his bundle and started to weave them into a crude, stiff blanket. "Its not fancy but if I get enough layers on you , it should help keep you warm. They have a bunch of holes on their insides so it helps keep you insulated when they trap heat."
He placed the finieshed "blanket" on her and went to fashion another after gathering more reeds. "Soon I will be able to leave you for a bit without having to fear your expiration in my absense, then I will get more medicine and three blankets from home and anything else you might need. And some more advice on protocol for healing I think."
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Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 6:50 pm
"Clever."
Hijil had never thought of using reeds as a blanket. She decided it was a good idea. If she survived, she would have to remember it. He had said something, however, that made her uneasy. As he made her the reed blankets, she carefully worked out how to ask her question without making things worse.
"Your village?" she started, trying to seem casual and calm. It wasn't too hard- she didn't show large emotions easily- but she felt as though she would slip at any moment, and then he would know that she was afraid. "Which one?" she tried to sound naturally curious. She had been headed for Ast, so it was likely Ast that he hailed from, but now that she wasn't immediately dying, she started to wonder if it had been such a good idea to try for home after what she had done. When she had been dying it hadn't quite mattered, but now she might live. As long as she lived, her crime would haunt her, and any thought of home... Suddenly, she hoped he would not say Ast, that in her weakened state, she had gotten turned around...
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Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 7:10 pm
"Ast Milady. I have a small hut there, but spend most of my time in the forest. Perhaps they have some better food for your healing." He tilted his head. "Where are you from if I may ask?"
Sauron himself did not have an exciting history yet, most of his memories were of listening to his grandparents yarn on about their taming days when they were first starting out. He drank them in like the finest, purest wine.
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