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Raindrop Finds a Friend:

Jinxeh sat at the desk, finishing off the last of the wethkin plushies. She knotted the string off the needle, snipped off the loose thread, started putting everything away...

When she next turned around, the pile of plushies had gone!

Huh? This could not be right, she thought! For she had been working on the plushies for the last six or so hours. Painstakingly cutting out bits of felt and stitching them together before stuffing them...

She bent over to check underneath the table in case the plushies had fallen to the floor, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Keilyna wasn't in the house so she knew her sister couldn't have taken it. That probably meant Zuri hadn't taken them either, since the wethkin was somewhere with her sister.

Endymion was always sleeping.... A quick glance at his basket told Jinxeh that the talaye couldn't be the culprit.

Which left...

"Raindrop." When she said the name aloud, it hung ominously in the air of her study.

"Funfun! Raindrop friend playfun!" a voice squealed from the bathroom.

Jinxeh leapt to her feet and rushed there, already fearing the worst.

But much to her relief, Raindrop had not -quite- managed to get the plushies wet. It had them piled into another basin, about to turn on the water, but...

"NO, Raindrop!" Addressing the wethkin like a bad child, Jinxeh scooped the plushies out of their perilous place and held them in her arms. "You can't get them wet! They'll get damaged!"

"Da-meej?" Raindrop queried.

"Yes, they'll get damaged! They'll get wet!"

"Wet is good! Funfun!" Raindrop protested.

"Not for these plushies. They're not real Wethkin. I should have made you a rubber one, except I don't know how to work with rubber. You can play with these Raindrop, okay? But you have to make sure they don't get wet!"

With that final pronouncement, Jinxeh swept out of the bathroom, wethkin plushies in tow, but....

Raindrop was already plotting how to get it hands on its life-like friend, as it splashed about in lemon-scented bath bubbles.

Encounter with an Elder...

Part 1 of an RP by Keilyna, Jinxeh and thymal_yorlii
Key: Keilyna = Dark red, Jinxeh = Violet, thymal_yorlii = Dark blue

Jinx wanna RP with Thymal.

o.O

Raindrop: *flutters anxiously* Jinx put in brackets now-now!!! Thymal scare-reeeeeeeeee!

Zuri crashes into Raindrop and tries to steer it away from Jinxeh.
"Leave Jinx 'lone! We go plaaaay!!"

Raindrop's wings fluttered excitedly. "Play-fun!" it trilled. "What we play? Blowing bubbles at Kei?" It zoomed around Zuri in a dizzying swirl of colour.

Zuri floated in the air for a moment, pondering Raindrop's suggestion.

Then...

"Yesyesyes! We ATTACK Kei!" it cried, zooming toward its unfortunate guardian in a shower of fiery-coloured leaves.

"Uh, oh..." Seeing the two Wethkin coming, Kei hid behind Jinxeh.

Thymal had just gotten up from a breif nap on his desk top in the g in a sort of agarden. After checking the mist egg carefully he wrapped a petal around the egg in sort of nest like manner. He then mofved up and out of the garden and into the shop. Floating around he tried to see if Pika had managed to stir up some intrest in this poor egg as well as the abandoned puff.

Hearing a shriek of protest from another room THymal phased into fog and drifted towards the area. He spotting two wethkin, and two humans. Ah so there were people around. Unfortunately some of those people were children. Trying to figure out if he should brave this encounter his decision was made up for him as he accidentally drifted into a potted plant and got tangeled. He had semi phased back into solidness through his sudden distraction of children. The branches moved fairly violently as he in an annoyed tone finally managed to get out. But by this time anyone would of spotting the dark purple skin toned the magical runes that adorned his entire body glowed a ghostly blue.

Splash!
Jinxeh received a faceful of wethkin droplet and bubbles. She winced. "Raindrop...." But before she could quite recover, it was followed by a-
Thunk!
As Zuri followed suit and ended up crashing into her nose.
"Ow! Watch where you're going, will you?" she said irritably to the two wethkin puffs. She made a grab at the nearest wethkin, but gleefully (and perhaps with a touch of guiltiness, Raindrop zoomed out of range, and ducked for cover behind the potted plant it had spied earlier. What a lovely place to hide, it thought, only to be brought up short with a squeal as it spied a much bigger wethkin - an adult! - looming out of the plants.

"Z'ree! Help!!" it trilled, wings beating frantically, as it ducked and wove, trying to escape from the view of the scarily glowing wethkin elder.

Jinxeh blinked twice as she saw this new figure. This was the first time she had ever been granted the privilege of meeting a wethkin elder - as she assumed this one to be - and she thought the occasion called for some politeness. "Good morning, sir. Sorry about Raindrop. It gets quite excited, sometimes..." And then in an undertone, "Pssst! Raindrop, behave! Or you won't be getting anymore raspberry bubblebath!"

Raindrop's little wings drooped sadly, but that did not stop it from bouncing about anxiously in the air. It was clearly quite frightened of the glowing Thymal.

"Owowowowow!" Zuri shrieked in Jinxeh's ear. (It had bounced off Jinxeh's nose in a parabolic arc.)

Kei quickly removed herself from behind Jinxeh and flattened herself behind the door, hoping that the Wethkin had not spotted her. She was in luck, for at that moment, Raindrop cried for help, and off Zuri zoomed. Kei heaved a sigh of relief- but then, another commotion started! The girl peeped cautiously out from behind the door.

A wide-eyed Zuri was hovering in front of Raindrop, chittering 'Biiiiiig Wethkin!' over and over again- though whether in fear or delight, Kei could not tell. In her opinion, the 'Biiiig Wethkin' looked rather scary... but as long as it kept Zuri from attacking her, she didn't mind.

"Biiiig Wethkin tell name?" Zuri asked Thymal, bobbing up and down in the air. Then, it zoomed around in a circle about the frightened Raindrop and returned to its original position, wings hovering madly. Kei concluded that, as usual, Zuri was just excited. She decided to wait behind the door and see what eventuated next.

The response he recieved an an unexpected one, the puffs/children seemed to be frightened of him as well as the one of the humans. HE wasn't that imposing was he? He briefly looked down at himself and realized that his markings bore a more ghoulish image than he had noticed before. Toning down the glowing runes, he solidified and took a deep breath.

One of the humans had politely asked of him his name. A bit miffed he knew that this was probably the first couple of times he had bothered even coming into the shop to 'mingle' he had hoped his name would of circulated around some.

He gave a broad sweeping bow towards the human girl, noticing out of the corner of his eye the other human was hiding behind a door.
Hearing the request of one of the wethkin puffs he looked up and tried to smile. Arg children....they always irked him so.

"My name is Thymal Yorlii....or " he gave each wethkin a serious glance. "Elder Yorlii to those who will come and study the ways of magic." he pointed to each wethkin in the room, though his actions seem to speak of doom rather than something pleasant to learn.

"I apologize for startling you all, but i heard shreiks and cme to make sure no one was hurt."

When the elder bowed, Jinxeh paused, not really sure if she was supposed to bow, curtsey (although shaking hands did seem to be out of the question). So she settled for what she thought was the safe thing, a deep nod of the head in return.

"Pleased to meet you, Elder Yorlii," she said, since just calling such a one just Thymal, or Yorlii, or Thymal Yorlii seemed to her to be a little rude. "I'm Jinxeh, and this is my sister Keilyna-" A look was sent to the girl behind the door, as though to say, 'You'd better come out.' And these little ones are Raindrop and Zuri. Thank you for your concern, but I think we're alright here, really. Sorry to have disturbed you." She gave her best rendition of a polite and neutral smile, since she wasn't yet sure what to make of the adult wethkin.

Raindrop had bug-eyes at that moment. /Those who will come and study the ways of magic..../ Was the biiiiiig wethkin going to be the one teaching them? Its wings fluttered anxiously, and it bounced up and down in the air in agitation. Until it was disturbed by Jinxeh.

"Say good morning, Raindrop," Jinxeh admonished, as she was determined the wethkin should display at least some manners when faced with an elder of its kind. Really, she thought to herself, she and Kei had let the wethkin go undisciplined for a while.

Raindrop's wings beat faster. "Good morning, biiiiig wethkin!" it squeaked without thinking.

Zuri's eyes were as wide as Raindrop's at Thymal's pronouncement.
"Eller... yor...eee...? Elleryoree have long, strange name! Elleryoree want to come play with Raindrop and Zoo-ree? No one hurts, all have FUN!"
The little Wethkin bounced up and down in excitement. It had never seen another Wethkin so 'biiig' and so... purple... before!

Kei suddenly leaped out from behind the door.
"All have FUN?!" she cried at Zuri in protest. "Attacking Kei is not fun at all! Why don't you go and attack Jinxeh, or something?"
Some faint vestige of politeness suddenly registered (rather belatedly) in Kei's brain, and she turned to Thymal.
"Oops, sorry... er... Hello!" she said brightly. "It's nice to meet you!"

Thymal looked to the wethkin named Zuri and gave it a bemused stare. Play? He had learned a long time ago he didn't usually play nicely. Or fair. That was why he refrianed from being close to children at all. They just rubbed him the wrong way. As to the explosion coming from Kei he gave it but a passing note, nodding his head to the gaurdian and then deciding it was perhaps time to give these wethkin's an their 'parents' a test.

But first the moments of introductions needed to be concluded. "Humans are permited to call me Yorlii, though i expect from the younger wethkin." he gave all the wethkin who were near a stern glower. " to call me Elder Yorlii or just Elder if they cannot remember my name." He placed his arms behind his back sticking out his chest as if he was ready to strut around like a peacock.

"As to a game, no little wehtkin. At least not a game you know. HOw about we play something I know. I want to see your strengths currently...if i am to at least oversee your education.... i need to know how developed yours skills are." he looked to each wethkin and then to the gaurdians.

"You of course can partake, if to encourage the little ones or see how well you have payed attention to your wethkins ways and skills. This is not only a test for the younglings but for you. To see how well you have encouraged your wethkin to expand their abilities." he stopped and then his form shimmered and then split into two, another shudder had the two Thymal's split into four. All moved and reacted individually and only one casually explained.

"I am a master of illusion." the one of the fair right explained... The second one from the left continued..."thus i can make myself to appear multiplied..." The furthest left finished. "Thus you have to sense which one of us is the real Elder Yorlii.."

He didn't particularly think any of them would be able to do this simple task. It took a lot of focus and magical perception to even figure out where his magic was coming from and since he was trying to spread out his magic source amoungst all three imitations it would be very difficult for any of them to figure it out purely on a magically level. He would try to even the playing field a bit.

"You may ask me any question, if you think this may help or hinder your answer. You will get two guesses only though...and can only ask three questions each. ANd i mean each WETHKIN can ask the questions. Gaurdians may help by making suggestions but that is all..." he said as the one second fromt he right crossed his arms. The rest seemed to each be individually looking at each wethkin and then gaurdian. It left a very uncomfertable aura in the room.

Wethkin magic...

Part 3 of an RP by Keilyna, Jinxeh, thymal_yorlii, Silver Angel and mooshroom
Key: Keilyna = Dark red, Jinxeh = Violet, thymal_yorlii = Dark blue, Silver Angel = Gray, mooshroom = Olive

"Dissy-pate?" Raindrop echoed in confusion. "El'er Yorlii Dissy-pate and get sick? Not good to be sick." It shook its little body from side to side, emphatically, before it brightened. That was its second question! "Which El'er Yorlii get sick?" It fluttered up and down in excitement, thinking this was surely the question to find out which was the real big wethkin.

Only to be disturbed by a great dusty thing with teeth. It eeped and flew a bit higher to try and get out of range if it could.

Meanwhile, Jinxeh was smiling and nodding encouragingly even though she hadn't a clue how to figure out which was the real wethkin short of walking up to the four shapes, and poking each one of them in turn.

However, she did notice another enter, carrying a spiritkin. She offered a brief smile in greeting, though she was quite distracted with the appearance of the wethkin with teeth, and with Raindrop's own antics.

Thymal gave a sigh and turned his attention back to Raindrop. "Dis-sa-pate, young wethkin. I don't get sick from doing it unless I am using too much of my energy keeping up the illusion. As to which one would get sick. Why I would." The Thymal closest to dust storm pointed to a different Thymal who in turned to a different one. All the Thymal's were pointing to each other.

"We are techinically all apart of each other, though not physically."

Silver Angel blanched a bit as she heard the Wethkin child speak of what had happened to the strange little dust puff. That situation sounded a little too familiar... but it wasn't too late for Doroppu, was it? After all, it had been learning how to say a few words.

"Hmm... hahh..." she said, swallowing the nervous lump in her throat. She blinked as one of the tiny Wethkin asked a question, and again as the four big Wethkin answered together. She pondered the question and its answer while absentmindedly trying to keep Doroppu from hopping straight out of his foil container. Which one gets sick...? They all do...? "It's a guessing game," she said softly aloud, half to herself and half to her little Spritkin companion. "I guess only one of them is real."

"Hello!" Kei greeted Silver Angel rather belatedly, having taken some moments to realise the presence of the new arrivals. "I see you have a Spri- EEEEEEK!"
The girl ducked as a scary-looking beetle-thing with sharp teeth emerged in the room, and scuttled back behind the door to hide.

Hearing the new arrivals, Zuri had turned around excitedly again, hoping that more Wethkin had come to visit. But no- instead, there was a Spritkin coming through the door?! Zuri sighed in disappointment, and turned back to Yorlii. (After its previous experience with a Spritkin, it had decided they were not very friendly creatures... but then again, who's friendly towards you when they think you're about to eat them, and with good cause, too?!)
"Zoo-ree think of better question, then!" it cried. It thought for a bit longer this time over what Yorlii had said. "If Zoo-ree turns off the light, will only real Elleryoree be left?"

The appearance of the dust puff distracted the Equinox puff again, and it waved its stalk excitedly at it, totally oblivious of the other's sharp teeth.
"Not-purple Wethkin come play!" it cried, zooming towards it and whirling excitedly around it.

Raindrop's wings drooped. One more question. But then it brightened as Zuri asked. "Yes-yes, if Z'ree turn off light, will only real El'er Yorlii be left? No-no, if /Raindrop/ turn off light, will only real El'er Yorlii be left?" The puff whizzing towards the switch and doing just that...

Although.... given it was DAYTIME....?

Not wanting to miss out on the credit for its idea, Zuri suddenly deserted the dust puff (which hadn't seemed to be very pleased to see the equinox puff, anyway), and dashed across to the curtains.

"Pull! Pull! Pull!" it chittered gleefully as it tugged on the curtain strings and closed all the curtains.

"Elleryoree dissel-pate yet?"

Mooshroom had stopped at the Wethkin Shoppe on her way home from school. Kei had mentioned that she would be visiting it after school, and had asked Moosh is she wanted to come. She had decided that she should probably stay in the libary though, and get a bit of revision done because she was behind. However, after about fifteen minutes of reading The Crucible, Mooshroom had decided that she would visit the shop after all. She just hoped Kei was still here.

"Kei?!" She called loudly into the depths of the shop, and listened for a reply. She could hear noises coming from one of the other rooms, one of which sounded distinctly like Zuri. "Keeeii...?" She called again as she moved towards the sound, Kianga hovering just above her shoulder.

Together they entered the room which was the source of the commotion. "Having a party or something, are we?" She remarked, as she noticed the four identical adult Wethkin floating in the middle of the room, along with Kei, Zuri, Jinx, Raindrop, another owner and her spritkin, Noctyrn and a random dust storm sprite.
"Cool!" Kianga squealed at seeing the gatering. More people to play with! She had come into the room just as Zuri had finished closing the curtains, and she threw off a pale light on everone inside. "Why so dark? Is it a surprise party?"

"KIANGA!!!" Zuri cried, forgetting about Thymal yet again as it rushed over to greet its friend.
"MOOSH!!!" Kei cried, forgetting about the door and jumping out to greet her friend.

Zuri zoomed around Kianga in excited loops. "Kianga! Kianga! Kianga! Kianga come play game! Elleryoree's game! Have to guess which is reeeeeal Elleryoree! So we turn out lights and see!"
The puff looked somewhat reproachfully at Kianga's glow.
"Kianga need to be dark," it explained, so maybe Kianga hide under table?"

"KEI!!" Mooshroom patted her friend on the head, and then added in a whisper, "Who exactly is that purple guy? He reminds me of Nightcrawler from the X-men..."

Kainga glared a Zuri. "Discrimination!" she cried, before flaring as brightly and hotly as she could. Her rage only lasted a second, before she got bored of that and started to think of how to decided which was the real purple-guy. "Have you tried poking them?" She asked Zuri. "Or maybe I shoudld try to evapourate him?" She giggled at the thought.

"Um," Kei said. "His name's... um... Eller...yoree, I think?" Kei was never the best at remembering names, after all. "And he's some sort of Elder Wethkin, I think. Seems to be having fun playing games with Zuri and Raindrop and keeping them out of my hair," Kei continued whispering. "We're allowed to give suggestions to our Wethkin but not ask him any questions to help, I think..."

"Kianga can try poking," Zuri suggested. "Or evaporating! Zoo-ree can't..."

"Ah, I see." Mooshroom said, nodding. "I think I'll stick to calling him elder..." She smiled sheepishly. "I'm not the best at pronouncing or remembering names either."

"Mr. Purple," Kianga asked, trying her hardest to be polite, "If I tried to evapourate you, would only the real one be left?"

Thymal was generally impressed by the wehtkin's idea's. Silly as they were it showed they had put of a lot of thought into each question.

"Turning off the lights would be been an excellent idea if there wasn't one major flaw..." he said holding his hand up waggling a figner at them all. "It woul hva eto be pitch black for that to work, any light at all even minimal can make my illusion work, and if you can't see how would you know which one was the real me?" He gave a smile as another one answered the second question.

"You can poke each one of us if you like, though being of fog i could certianly just will myself into transvapor so you would go right through me no matter which one you poked." He said shaking his head though there was a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"I will give you some suggestions. " said a third, "try and 'feel' the magical energy i am possesing. Even if you can't disceern which one is me if you can feel the magic then you are at some sort of a starting point."

Zuri hummed thoughtfully, bouncing slowly up and down in the air as it carefully processed Yorlii's words. What was it that Elleryoree had said? Feeling 'magical energy'? Zuri didn't have much of a clue as to what this 'magical energy' was, but maybe...
The little puff screwed its eyes closed, humming softly to itself.
It could feel lots of little leafy vines running everywhere around the room- from previous experience, it already knew they were Wethkin. But, which one was Elleryoree? Zuri had no clue. But there was one 'vine' that seemed slightly closer, slightly stronger than all the others...
"Elleryoree HERE!" the little puff cried excitedly, waving its stalk to indicate where it thought Yorlii was.
But when the puff opened its eyes... it found it was waggling its green, leafy stalk right in front of Raindrop's face!

Raindrop sneezed at the stalk tickiling its... nose? Face?

"Aaaaaaa-CHOOO!!! Z'ree not nice to tickle Raindrop!" it cried. It was even more distressed, because Zuri had interrupted it from trying to think watery thoughts (Jinxeh's encouragement again). It had been having a nice dream where it was resting in its washbasin, surrounded by raspberry bubbles. It had been dreaming that one of the bubbles was floating towards it, only to discover that bubble was none other than Zuri!

"Z'ree not bubble!" it wailed. "Z'ree not wet!" Then it had another idea. "El'er Yorlii bubbles wet! Find bubble El'er Yorlii!" Although the words would've been quite incomprehensible to some, in Raindrop's mind, they made perfect sense. El'er Yorlii was bubbles! Lots and lots of bubbles!

And it flew towards all four of the elder wethkin, and imagined them as great, big, watery bubbles.... but with its eyes closed, it couldn't see where it was going, and it ended up flying towards (and through) one of the Elder Yorlii if it didn't get out of its way.

Thymal gave one rare and wry grin, as he let raindrop go through one of the Yorlii images. "Nice try," He tried to encourage the little raindrop puff. "I am not exactly made of bubbles but I am made of tiny tiny water particules. SO in a sense I am a lot like you." He said pointing to Rain. He looked back to the other wethkin.

"That was also very good. Though you didn't pinpoint on my you can sense other wethkin which is a great start." Though his words sounded encouraging his tone seemed a bit flat as if he was suddenly very deep in thought.

"OKay now, I will give you both an answer..." siad one as he started ot fade away the rest following in suit until the one second from the left was left. "I am the real Elder." He stated pointing to himself.

"Now that I know basically your abilities in sensing magic...I want to see how well you guys can actually use your powers...who would like to go first?"

Raindrop sploshed into the wall and bounced off. "Raindrop hurt! Wall not El'er Yorlii!" it wailed when it opened its eyes. It turned around and saw that one of the four Yorliis was pointing to itself. Then it mentioned magic, and Raindrop brightened. "Raindrop know magic!" it cried and dived straight for Jinxeh's pocket.

A moment later it came out again, bearing a small container of /something/. Which later turned out to be food colouring. It had discovered a trick, which it was proud to show off. It placed the bottle on the ground, uncorked the bottle and jumped in. The next moment, it flew out again, coloured not blue, but GREEN.

"Raindrop show magic!" it cried proudly.

Meanwhile, Jinxeh was staring in horror at the food colouring. "Raindrop, where did you get /that/ from? I was going to use it to make more peppermint stars!"

Kianga was unusually quite throughout the happenings. The puff had closed her eyes, and was concentrating really hard. She could see tiny lights, which wer- like Zuri's "vines"- the other Wethkins. They were very blurry though, and she couldn't seem to focus on them. She opened her eyes again and sighed.

But when it came to magic, that was something she could do. "Watch me! Watch me!" Kianga exclaimed, and flared as bright and as hot as she could.
Mooshroom, who had stupidly looked straight at the puff, sheilded gher eyes with her hand. "Kianga! Warn people when you're about to do that!" She blinked a couple of times to clear the dots from her vision.
"But was good, wasn't it?" She said, looking hopefully towards Yorlii.

Kei had followed Mooshroom's suit, and was blinking furiously and rubbing at her watering eyes.
"Owww...." she moaned.

Zuri stuck its tongue out at Kei, whilst wondering what it could do. It hadn't ever tried shining, or turning green... The little puff was most upset.

Then, it remembered what had happened on Fall Equinox. It seemed like such a long time ago... and it had been so difficult, too! If this was what magic was really like, Zuri decided it was probably too much effort to bother. But still, it didn't want to let Raindrop and Kianga have all the spotlight to themselves, so it started concentrating as hard as it possibly could...

Thunk.

A tiny, shiny red apple no larger than Zuri itself suddenly materialised in the air and promptly knocked the puff out.

Scavenger Hunt Part 2:

"Well I have to start giving out scavenger hunt lists. Maybe you could pass some out to people too?" she asked as she floated up to the second floor window sill. There sat a small stack of coloured paper underneath a small stone. "Here you take half. People can chose to go by themselves or in groups of two." she said as they floated back towards the humans.




"Thanks, Tasah!" Jinxeh grinned a bit, but then at Xee's question, she nodded. "Yes, two... so I'm not really here to find another one to look after! I'm just along for the fun, though I've no idea how they're going to decide who would be best suited for the new puffs. I just hope the little dust one isn't abandoned again. It's such a sad story."

Xee nodded and chuckled at her first statement and then pouted, "Abandoned? Oh that's just sad just thinking about it." She sighed at the idea of the poor little puff.

Chera wasn't sure which papers she should take and whom she should give them too. "Can't we do it together?" she asked looking a bit timid at the moment. "I don't want to run into mr. grump over there." she said gesturing to the Eldern who seemed to be chatting up the poor boy Frederic still.

"Alright, perhpaps you could explain it to me later then. Thank you elder." Frederic was then intrupted by a list being placed in his hands. "hmm, what's this, a scavanger hunt. This could fun," he then turned his attention back to the elder. "Again I thank you for taking the time to talk with me."

"There is no problem in a litle talk. Hopefully the next time we meet i can give you more information." As Frederic was handed a peice of paper Thymal knew that the events woul dbe sarting soon. He should speak with Pika.


"Pu! Doroppu! Pu! Pu!"

"I'll 'Pu!' you, come back here, you little sneaky puff!" Silver Angel chased after her excitedly hopping tiny Spritkin and followed it into the garden. She dived at it as it paused and just barely ran nose-first into a young man.

"Oww!" Silver said, sitting up and rubbing her elbow with her free hand. "Hehe... sorry," she said as she looked up at the person in front of her.

Doroppu bounced in her hand, excited, on top of everything else, to be meeting someone new. "Hehe, sorry!" it repeated, bouncing and chittering. "Pu! Hehe hehe! Pu!"

Xee blinked curiously at the new person and her puff went past. She was not surprised but it was so interesting to see all these different characters that were around. She was excited simply to be able to mee the others that were coming.

Today was simply full of surprises for Frederic. He wasn't able to make it out of the way as he was ran into. Frederic got back up and saw what had ran into him. "Hi, are you two alright, heh. diving into people can't be good for your health. By the way my name's Frederic what's yours?"

"Yes, yes..." Silver said sheepishly as she got to her feet. "So sorry about that!" She held up the little troublemaker in her left hand and introduced them both. "I'm Silver Angel, and this little puff of mischief is Doroppu."

"Mischief! Doroppu!" Doroppu snickered as if knowing exactly what Silver was talking about.

Xee giggled softly, "hello I'm Xee." She bowed slightly and tried not to be out of place. "It's a pleasure to meet you Silver and... Doroppu." She couldn't help but wander up to the little puff.


"Hello there," frederic said the the small wethkin. "It's nice to meet you to. Say would you like to help me with the scavanger hunt." He indicated the paper in his hand. "I have no idea who gave this to me but since it sounds interesting, I say we do it."


"Ok PAY ATTENTION EVERYONE!" Noctryn shouted. "We are having a scavenger hunt! Anyone who does not wants to participate come tell me now." Noctryn held out a list of names:

-Frederic (Spectrum Warrior)
-Jinxeh
-Xee (Xenostatica)
-Tasah
-Silver Angel

"Oh yes, Chera and I can help you but Pika is not allowed to," she said looking over at Pika to see if she was listening. "The reason being that Pika made sure that she could find these things earlier in the week where as I was lazy and just wrote out the lists for her to check!" She paused a moment waiting to see if anyone would not participate or had any questions. "You can hunt by yourself or in groups of two. Please select a number out of a hat," she points at the table. ((( aka. do a random number from 1-3 ))

Looking rather excited, Jinxeh headed towards the purple frosty wethkin. "Raindrop, come on!" she called her puff, "You'll enjoy this. It'll just be like a party game."

Obediently, Raindrop flew away from the balloons, chittering excitedly. "Bubbles!" it squealed.

As the puff zoomed forward, it rushed past Xee's head, getting her and her new companions wet with droplets of water.

Whilst Jinxeh glanced around to see if anyone needed a hand - she was more than happy to help if anyone needed, otherwise, she'd go on a hunt with Raindrop.

Xee shivered from the droplets but listened to the announcement made, okay so what would she do?

Noctryn floated over to Jinxeh. "What's your number you two?" she directed at the girl and the rain puff.

Floating over to Xee she said, "Did you say 1? Here's your paper then," and fluttered one over to her.

Jinxeh paused, but everyone seemed to be quite organised already with who they wanted to go with, so she wandered up to the hat. And allowed Raindrop to do the honours.

The blue little puff dived down into the hat, splashing droplets of water all over the papers within.

The announcement excited Frederic as he looked at his list and wondered how he was going to ever find all of the items that were listed.

Noctryn floated back to Jinxeh. "Here's your paper then."




"REMEMBER that you are not allowed to buy any of these items. You have to find them on Pika's property and that doesn't mean inside the house either!"



Xee looked at Noctryn's floating the paper at her and nodded as she grabbed hold of the list. Where would she possible find all this? She held the paper up as if looking for clues in the light.

"Thanks!" Jinxeh flashed a smile at Noctryn before bending her head over the paper. "Ooooh. Slugs. You can find them for me, Raindrop!"

Raindrop peered and then shook itself, wings flapping. "Raindrop not find nasty slugs! Kei and Z'ree and Tasah find nasty slugs!!"

Pika smiled at Noctryn as she began to organize everyone. She was doing fairly well though she could tell some people were still confuzed. "Basically if you all search through the garden and into the forest around here you should be able to find these items. Anyone that has a puff or child could have an advantage though cause some of these things could be high up in trees. This is why Chera and Noctryn should be around to ask for help. Take you time and look thoroughly! There is nothing around here that should be able to hard you. Just don't go walking off any cliffs!" she laughed.


Still slightly confused, Silver Angel turned to listen to the instructions being given by the purple winter Wethkin. When Noctryn was finished, Silver looked between Frederic and the hat on the table. "Umm... I suppose I-"

"Hat!" the little Wethkin cried, bouncing again, so much so that it accidentally tipped itself over in Silver's palm and began to roll around on its side.

"Oops!" Silver said, carefully cupping her palm and tipping it so that the Spritkin sat upright again. "Yeah, I guess I should go see about the hat first, huh?"

She walked over to the table and reached her right hand in, but Doroppu tipped itself over her left hand and fell into the hat. "Oh!" Silver cried, fishing out the chocolate drop. Doroppu held a piece of paper in it's tiny mouth, and Silver held it up and read the number on it."

"Hat! Doroppu repeated, quite pleased with itself.

Xee looked at the list to figure what she wouldn't be able to find on the ground, making a wrinkle in her forehead she decide to ask something, "So if I were to find an item that I couldn't reach I could ask for help?" She noticed an item or two that might cause a little bit of a hassle.


Noctryn floated over to Silver Angel and watched as her spritkin drew out a number. "Here's number 3's list!" she said as she let the paper flutter down. "You can chose to find the stuff by yourself or grab another person and go with them," she nodded her head.

"Alright. Let's go and start with the flowers then," Jinxeh suggested to Raindrop, and then she remembered how Thymal hadn't been overly impressed with the learning of her little puff, so she decided to give it a lesson of its own. "Name me 10 white flowers, Raindrop."

Raindrop buzzed unhappily. It didn't really like flowers much. It thought that was Zuri's province. It much preferred bubbles. It could name all types of bubbles, like red bubbles, pink bubbles, purple bubbles...

"White flower! White and red flower! White and green flower!" it trilled.

Jinxeh sighed. Ok, this was going to prove harder than she had first expected. "Listen carefully, Raindrop. There are daisies, carnations, lilies... umm..... roses, snowdrops... are snowdrops white? Uh.... ten? I can't think of ten!"

Raindrop trilled in puzzlement. "What's a c'ration?"

"A carnation, Raindrop! A /carnation!/" This wasn't going to be so easy, after all....

"Depending on the item, yes Xee!" Pika nodded. "However anyone looking for honeycomb is reminded to be careful of bee stings. The wethkin will help distract the bees but you have to figure out how to get the honey from the hive before you ask Noctryn or Chera to do anything. Otherwise it would hardly be a challenge now would it?" she nodded.

"Thank you, Pika," Xee nodded as she stared at the list for a while. The sunflowers would surely be in the garden and maybe a few of those red flowers but not all of them, no chicken eggs well, I guess I will need to go nest hunting. She looked at everyone busy over their own lists. Well no time like the present to start the search.

She took a deep breath, well most animals live near water sources and they did say there was a forest behind this garden.


"Cr'nation!" Raindrop tried.

"Car-NA-TION."

"Cr'nation!"

Jinxeh gave up. "Ok, just go and look for one, ok?"

Raindrop zoomed around her head. "What's a cr'nation look like?"

"You're impossible, Raindrop!" Jinxeh pulled out a notepad from her bag, as she always carried one along with a writing implement. She sketched a very bad drawing of a carnation, followed by a picture of a daisy and a lily and a rose. "Why don't you start looking for these?" she suggested to the puff, who only looked even more confused.

"Why Raindrop look for blob?" it asked.

"Argh! Why don't you just go and look for some white flowers, ok?"

The little puff zoomed off obediently, though not before splashing more of the other searchers with droplets. Meanwhile, Jinxeh meandered away from the hive of activity, taking what appeared to be a little path through the bushes. She kept her eyes on the ground in search of flowers nestling amidst the greenery, but she unfortunately failed to pay attention to what was ahead of her - and didn't hear Pika's warning about bees.


Frederic said to himself, "Wow, I don't think that I could reach very many of these items." So he looked over it again and decided to start with the first item. Frederic looked around trying to spot if there was any rivers nearby. He suddenly realised that he hadn't really explored much of the garden, after all the elder wethkin had occupied him for a long time. So after taking a nice long look around he saw that the garden was actually much larger than he had thought. But, taking a look he didn't see any rivers. Although he did notice that the tree to which many colorful balloons were still tied, seemed to be home to quite a few nests. Taking a look at his list again Frederic decided that he would skip past the first few and look two feathers first. Finding all the nests to be out of reach Frederic decided to ask for help of one of the other wethkin. He walked over to the purple wethkin. "Hello I'm sorry that I haven't introduced my self yet. My name is Frederic. I was wondering if you could help me reach one of the nests that are high up in the tree?"

"Flower! Flower!!" Raindrop trilled excitedly, rushing back to Jinxeh. It was carrying:



Jinxeh suppressed a groan when she saw what her wethkin had found. "A flower, Raindrop! A flower grows on the ground! Like... Like Grass!"

"Raindrop not find white grass!" the little wethkin objected. It flew with the paper ball all around Jinxeh, then dropped it on her head.

"Thanks, Raindrop," she said sarcastically. "Next thing I know, you'll be bringing me ten lolly wrappers!"

"Raindrop bring lollywrappers! Raindrop bring lollywrappers!" The excited puff flew off again, leaving Jinxeh with a screwed up ball of paper in her hand. With a sigh, Jinxeh continued down the path, looking not just for white flowers this time, but a bin or some place she could put the wrapper. Who had littered in the wethkin garden, anyway?

Xee smiled as she passed Jinxeh and her puff on the way out, she seemed to be teaching the little one a lesson on the types of flowers they were to find, but by her face it was going to take a little while.

She followed the small path of stone in the garden past some of the summer flowers like daisies, dandilions, Verbena, Roses...wait roses? She looked at the area on the right side of the gate before the way out to the forest, yup roses and red ones for sure, she would grab those on the way back.

She opened the gate slowly and looked the scenery with the squirells that ran past to the funny little ants carrying supplies, this might take her a while!


"A scavenger hunt, hmm...?" She gave the paper to Doroppu to chew on briefly while she scratched the back of her head. She retrieved the paper and read the list, her brow furrowing. The items didn't sound particulary easy to find. That was the point of a scavenger hunt, though, wasn't it?

"Flowers! Bubbles! Raindrop! Pu!" Doroppu rocked back and forth.

"Bees," Silver Angel sighed, sweating a little at Pika's advice. "Oh dear. Where to start?"

Noctryn turned as she heard someone come over. "Hello Frederic, I'm Noctryn." She followed his finger upward to the top of the tree nearest the house. It was a silver birch and did look home to some bird nests. "What kind of feathers are you looking for?" she asked, floating towards the birch. "Or is it egg shells?"


Xee wasn't truly familiar with everything out here as she was not one to stay in the greener parts. Her native nature was closer to the desert though there was wild life and forests around there. She would have a time here if she could waste it all exploring the new area she was to search.

With a slow pace almost with her head spinning with delight her eyes wouldn't stop searching for anything, anything that could possibly catch her eyes. She did know something for sure, that the strawberries were summer grown and they would be somewhere near the water just like the other items. Though they did need a lot of light and a stream might provide that or not, she would have to see.

Looking at a near by tree that was just at the edge of her journey sat a vine like plant, it seemed to be only in that area but had a small red bud at the end of it. That's...what is it...named like a city. Columbine! That's it and it was red so that should count for something right?

She carefully took hold of the plant and plucked one of the breaks in the vein off, "I'm so sorry...I hope that you grow back stronger!" She smiled at the plant then looked at her prize.


There wasn't much to the flower but it was red, she carefully placed it into a small pocket in the bag she was carrying. Hopefully it would not be crushed and destroyed there. She padded it gently and continued down the path.


"umm, I'm looking for both a raven and eagle feather, but I'm pretty sure that that tree doesn't have a eagles nest. It's not tall enough, but it most likely does have a raven's nest." He indicated the nest that was closest to the trunk and said, "I think that nest might be a raven's nest. Would you please look in it for me?"

Jinxeh rolled her eyes at Xee as the other passed, with a pleading expression as though to say to her, 'So help me now'. Then she continued down along a separate path, being careful to avoid squishing any ants along her way. "Hrmmm..... white... white flowers...."

No flowers to be seen here, mostly grass, and a little yellow flower poking up from the ground that she thought might be a weed.

Now without Raindrop to disturb her, she found a little copse of trees, and there, right in the middle, was a pretty cluster of:



Ooh. How pretty. Not that I know what kind of flowers they are. Some kind of... er.. pansies? Jinxeh wondered, getting it wrong of course as usual ((White cascade petunias if anyone was curious)).

She bent over to pick one.

And was immediately hit by a cascade of rubbish.


http://www.successfulevents.org/Images/U1589.jpg

http://www.jutrzenka.com.pl/cms/upload/szczegoly_minties_ice_luz-d790.gif
http://www.anythingforyou.co.nz/products/photos/pas minties.jpg

"OW! Good grief, Raindrop! Where are you - ow! - finding - ow! all of these things from? Hey, stop it!" Jinxeh was pummelled from above with all manner of lolly wrappers. Well, at least one good thing came out of it. All of them were white(ish).

"Raindrop, flowers! Not lolly wrappers!" she cried, almost close to screaming as the last mintie hit her head. And then, a moment later, "Where are you getting them from, anyway?"

"Raindrop show!" Delightedly, the wethkin set off, and Jinxeh followed suit, now more concerned about discovering who was littering the wethkin gardens, than the scavenger hunt, though she did keep an eye out for white flowers (and oh, there was another one!)



The noises of the forest weren't very frightening in fact they were rather calming, she listened to the chirping of the wrens, taping of the woodpeckers, and a blue jay that seemed to be going on about its wonderful nest. She hadn't become frightened till the blackbird jetison right past her nearly taking her ear with it.

"Oh wait! I need your feather!" Xee rushed after the bird in slight hopes that it would hear her and be willing to give her a feather off its back, but that was unlikely and nearly impossible, but she followed the thing anyway. SHe slammed into some branches that were low and scrapped up against some trees as she tried to stay up with it and soon landed her foot in the middle of a steam.

"What?! OH yuck! I hate wet socks!" she trudged back to the shore side and fought with her double tied shoes, this was not comfortable at all. SHe looked around to see if anyone noticed but she seemed alone.

Off into the gardens they traipsed, past trees and more flowers, with Jinxeh stopping to pick up another white flower ("Oh look! How pretty!")



Now armed with three white flowers tucked into one pocket alongside a screwed up ball of rubbish, Jinxeh was ready to face the world-

But she wasn't ready to face the stash of rubbish that Raindrop had found on the border of the wethkin garden. "Good grief! This is horrible!" she cried to the wethkin puff. "We'd better let Pika know about this!" She marked the spot and hurried back to the main area, to collect a bag for the rubbish, and to warn Pika and the others.

"Excuse me. Pika?" she called, at the same time noticing that others were busy with their scavenger hunt. She wished them all good luck.

She looked at him incredulously but sighed and floated up the tree. 'I doubt any raven would live next to our house' she thought to herself. Reaching the first nest she looked in and saw 3 tiny birds. They began to cheep at her like they expected to be fed. Noctryn snorted, "not likely!" and proceeded to the next. Each nest was similar with small brown fledglings and chicks. She floated back down to Frederic.

"Sorry but all these nests have is robins and sparrows and such. Definately no large black birds. I'd recommend looking deeper in the woods in the tall fir trees. You should be able to hear the ravens before you see them. If you get too close to the nests they might even try swooping at you! Perhaps they'll drop some feathers on the ground too." She nodded and floated over to see if anyone was looking through the flower garden.

(( A cat-tail rush looks like a fuzzy brown hotdog on a stick! The have tall green leaf blades. They grow around lakes and ponds etc. ))

<>


Jinxeh paused to catch her breath, then upon spying Noctryn, she said, "Sorry, I don't really want to disturb you, but Raindrop just found a pile of rubbish on the edge of the gardens! Someone's been littering! But I know you're busy with the scavenger hunt, so I just thought I'd let you know. Maybe you can pass the message on to Pika, too? Do you have any bags for rubbish around? I'll see if I can clear up some of the mess!"

Raindrop was buzzing over the top of Jinxeh's head. "Mess-mess- fun-fun!" it was exclaiming.

Pika heard voices from near the path to the gardens. "Hello? What's this about rubbish?" she asked as she saw Noctryn, Jinxeh and Raindrop. "I'll get a bag," she said turning back towards the house. 'Who the heck could be littering over here?' she wondered.

"I can't imagine who would do such a thing here," Jinxeh said to Pika and Noctryn, shaking her head in amazement. "Look, these are some of the things Raindrop found," she said, fishing in her pockets and pulling out a m&m's wrapper, numerous mintie wrappers, a white kit-kat wrapper, and some other random wrapping. "Whoever it is must like sweet things." She didn't add that Raindrop had thought they were flowers.



Armed with the bag from Pika, Jinxeh progressed back into the gardens to clean up all that rubbish! She had with her a pair of rubber gloves (this was more by accident than design), and thusly, she was well-equipped to clear up the mess.

"C'ration!" Raindrop trilled in delight, suddenly zooming away from her.

Jinxeh suppressed another sigh, and just ignored the wethkin's antics. It was probably going to bring her a dug-up bone, next time.

Upon reaching the spot where all the rubbish was piled, she began the tedious task of collecting it all up. It took her quite some time, but when at last she was done, she tied the bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Trudging back to the main area....

"Raindrop! What is /that/?" For Raindrop had returned, bearing...



"Raindrop, you clever little thing! You brought two of the items on the list! A lily pad and another white flower!" If Raindrop had been bigger, the girl would have squished it in a hug, but being as small as it was, the wethkin puff escaped that fate.

"Jinxeh play, this game boring now," Raindrop said, after dropping the lily pad and flower into Jinxeh's rubbish bag.

Jinxeh had to rescue it. "No no Raindrop, this is NOT a game. This is a lesson! So you have to help me collect everything, ok?"

"Game not fun anymore. Raindrop not want play!" The wethkin fluttered agitatedly.

Raindrop poked at the piece of rubbish in Jinxeh's pocket, and amazingly, apart from getting it wet, managed to make it into some kind of cat headband. Which it promptly dropped on Jinxeh's head.

"Hey!" Jinxeh exclaimed.

"Jinxeh cat-Jinxeh!" the little wethkin puff proclaimed. "Jinxeh take Raindrop to play-fun!"

"No," Jinxeh said. "More flowers. We need to find six more."

"Raindrop not like flowers! Raindrop like bubbles! Want find bubbles!" So saying, the wethkin zoomed high into the air and began playing amongst the balloons, leaving Jinxeh to roam the gardens some more in an attempt to find six more different specimens of floral nature.

/This is going to take /forever// Jinxeh thought as she gazed at the expanse of the summer garden. She was about to embark upon the path towards the flower gardens once more, when she recalled Thymal, and the fact that wethkin needed to be taught. Great. She was really going to have to make Raindrop do this. How... frustrating! So she turned around and called,

"Raindrop!"

The wethkin zoomed over. "Play! Jinxeh play!"

"No Raindrop. You will help me find six more FLOWERS or I'll pull the plug out of your basin and you won't get anymore bubblebath!"

For the first time ever, Jinxeh was putting her foot down to make the little wethkin behave.

"Jinxeh meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!" Raindrop wailed. And then again, in a much louder squeal,

"JINXEH MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

But this time, Jinxeh wasn't giving in. "Yes, it might seem mean now, but it's for your own good. You need to learn things. You can't play all the time. Now look here. These are the flowers we have so far and you were really good. You helped me to find some of them. But we need to find six more flowers. Different ones." She fished the floral specimens out of her pocket and held them out in display.

Raindrop zoomed unhappily down to examine them. "Nasty flowers. Raindrop not like nasty flowers, Raindrop not like NASTY JINX!!!!!!"

Nevertheless, it did pay attention, for fear of losing its precious bubblebath.

"Raindrop go look," it sulked and flew off down the path, not waiting for Jinxeh.

Feathers and bees...

Part 4 of an RP by Keilyna and Jinxeh (in the Wethkin RP event for the Mist and Dust Storm Wethkin)
Key: Keilyna = Dark blue, Jinxeh = Violet

"Eeeeek!"
Kei was having a rather difficult time juggling all the flowers that had suddenly been dumped into her arms. Eight flowers, seven shells... how was she meant to hold them all?! At least, she thought, it wasn't her task to hold the eighth shell- Zuri was smugly hovering behind her with its stalk wrapped about the leaf on top of which the unfortunate snail was perched. By this stage, the snail had retreated back inside its shell, probably out of fright at finding itself in mid-air.

"Aaaargh!" Kei cried, and gave up.
Her backside hit the ground again, and all the precious items fell out of her arms and onto the ground in a shower of white petals and sandy grit.
"Zuri, could you please watch over this stuff whilst I go find a basket?" she asked her Wethkin.
Though grumbling, it consented, and off Kei wandered.

***

When Kei returned, not only was her face still mud-streaked and her hair still flora-tangled, and her clothes somewhat worse for the wear...
There were crumbs all about her mouth.
And in one hand, she was carrying...



"Look, Zuri!" she cried happily. "I found a basket of cupcakes lying about one of the party tables, and no one was about, so... well, it would be a shame for them to be wasted, don't you think? They're absolutely delicious! Want one?"
She held the basket out.
"We need to eat a few more so there's room for the flowers and shells, y'know!" she told Zuri, grinning conspiratorially.

"Not fruitcake," Zuri complained. "But Zoo-ree still HUNGRY!"

Five cupcakes later, Zuri and Kei set off back to the forest again, in search of the next item on their list: a duck feather. The flowers and shells were sitting quite comfortably in the basket now (though Kei had remembered to save several cupcakes for Raindrop and her sister... and other purposes, too). Zuri had still persisted in carrying the snail, however. The two found their way back to the stream quite easily, though Zuri grumbled at having to be in so close proximity to water, of all things, for so long.
Kei dumped her basket down on the ground, and surveyed the waters of the stream.
"No ducks in sight," she observed. "Yet."
From the basket, Kei withdrew one of the cupcakes and spun about, showing it to Zuri.
"Look!" she proclaimed happily. "I couldn't find any bread, but I figured anyone would like cake more than bread, even ducks! See, I came prepared!"
Zuri sulked.
"And so," Kei continued, "just sit back and relax whilst I do all the work!"
Zuri glared.
Kei turned toward the river and broke off a piece of cupcake. The pink icing partially stuck to her hands, but she managed to throw it into the stream.
"Here's food for you, ducks!" she cried. "Come and get it! You know you want it..."

***

"Quaaaaaack!"
Zuri floated in the air, feeling rather pleased with itself. It had flown off in a huff after its guardian's proclamations, determined to be the one to be the one to find the duck feather first... and without getting wet in the process!
And here, it had found a few ducks waddling about near the edge of the stream. They were contentedly pecking at the ground and quacking to each other. So now... which duck to get a feather from?
Zuri quickly made its decision (being much more decisive than Kei), and determinedly dived toward one duck.
Which promptly turned around and snapped its beak at the strange, attacking, flying onion!
"Eeeeeeeek!"
Zuri tumbled through the air backwards in its haste to escape. This task was harder than it had seemed to be, at first!



And so, the little Wethkin retreated in order to formulate a new plan of action. But suddenly... lying on the ground... it saw:



No need for a plan after all! The fortunate puff gleefully winged its way back along the stream's edge to find its guardian.

***

"DUCKIES! Where aaaaaare yoooooooou? Lookie-lookie-lookie! You want CAKE, don't you? Come on, you know you do! Cake will make you grow up BIG and STRONG and you'll be the finest duckies that ever lived! And best of all, it tastes great, and there's no food in the world that could possibly compare!"
By now, Kei's cupcake was but crumbs floating far downstream, and an empty foil wrapper was clutched in her hand.
She sighed.
"Looks like the ducks don't like me..."

"'Cwourse dwucks nowt wyke Kwei! Dwuck wyke Zwoo-wree vwough!"
With a duck feather sticking out of its mouth, Zuri zoomed back into view. (It didn't have anything else to hold the feather with!)

"Not fair," Kei grumbled, stuffing the empty foil wrapper back into the basket. "Let's go back, then. I hope Jinx and Raindrop found all their stuff..."

Jinxeh made pitiful, groaning noises in the grass. "Ow!!!!!!" Her head hurt, her back hurt, everything hurt....

"Raindrop!" she complained.

"Jinx lazy! Jinx get up NOW! Jinx go look for FEATHER for Raindrop!" The little blue wethkin floated above its companion.

"That's not fair, Raindrop. Why'd you have to drop the kingfisher on me? Where is it, anyway?" She scrabbled about for the blue bird and found it. It, too, had been knocked unconscious by the fall - probably upon impact with Jinxeh's skull. The girl pulled out one of the feathers. "I hope the kingfisher won't mind too much," she said, carefully wrapping it in a tissue to keep it warm and placing it on a branch in the sun (out of reach of cats).

And so she had this:



But she also found something else, as she turned to look at the patch of grass she had been lying on. Sunlight illuminated a Jinxeh-shaped depression in the earth. And in the centre of that Jinxeh-shaped depression were a few, flat shapes on the earth:




"Aiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaaiaiaiaiaiaiaii!"

The distressed wail from Jinxeh, who jumped about in horror as she realised what she'd just squashed! Four slugs?? Well, that solved four-fifths of their problem, but.... she warily looked over her shoulder but couldn't see anything on her back.

"Jinx got slugs on back!" Raindrop cried, zooming out of the way so it would not get contaminated either.

"Ugh, I'm going to go and change. Wait here, Raindrop."

***

Fifteen minutes later, Jinxeh returned, but she wasn't in new clothes. No, the wet patch on her back had extended (No, the slugs did NOT grow fatter, Jinxeh just tried to wash them off her shirt). Meanwhile, Raindrop had peeled the squashed slugs off the ground using a leaf, and had managed to coax them into a grey tower of squashed slugs.

They were both disturbed by the return of Kei and Zuri. Both had been equally successful in their ventures - and more!

"Is that cake?" Jinxeh cried. "Yay!"

(5-minute ad-break whilst Jinxeh and Raindrop eat cupcakes)

5 minutes later...

"Ok, so we have...
10 white flowers, all different kinds.
3 wild roses.
1 lilypad
1 duck feather
1 kingfisher feather and an unconscious kingfisher
8 shells.
4 slugs.
1 bag full of rubbish
1 rubber duck. Squeak squeak." (No, Jinx didn't make that sound. That was the sound of the real rubber duckie being jumped on by the crumb-covered Raindrop. Crumb-monster-attacking-yellow-rubber-duckie!

"That leaves the honeycomb and one more slug. Raindrop and I have already found 4 slugs, so you can find the last one. We'll go and see if we can find any places with honeycomb."

Jinxeh made off down the path again, but this time, Raindrop had an idea. It zoomed conspiratorially to Zuri. "Raindrop and Z'ree find honeycomb! We look!"

And so, the two puffs abandoned their owners. Jinxeh was still searching for bees, and Kei... well, I don't know whether Kei went to look for that last slug!

****

Another twenty minutes later....


"OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!"

And this came flying out of the trees:



CRASH!

A netting-covered Raindrop crashed smack-bang into a tree.

And the bees swarmed around the two wethkin.

"OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! Jinx save Raindrop!"

"OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! Kei save Zoo-ree!"

Exams and exhaustion...

RP by Jinxeh, Keilyna and Xenostatica (during the Wethkin RP event for the Mist and Dust Storm Wethkin)
Key: Keilyna = Dark blue, Jinxeh = Violet, Xenostatica = Black

"Mission completed!" Kei echoed happily.

She eyed her bag of books that she had brought along for the journey. They also looked somewhat worse for the wear... but there wasn't anything Kei could do about that, so she plonked herself down on the grass and took out her Biology folder. Opening it, she flipped through a flurry of pages until she finally found what she was looking for.
"Protein synthesis!" she cried delightedly, and immediately set about her revision.

"...Now what we do?" Zuri asked. It turned to Raindrop. "Raindrop want to come exploring some more? Zoo-ree want to!"

Raindrop made a wet, exhausted, splashing sound on Jinxeh's shoulder. "Raindrop tiiiiiiiiiiiired," it complained as sudden exhaustion set in. Whilst the puff had been busy and excited, it hadn't noticed, but now.... Raindrop sleep." Its wings drooped down even more.

Zuri sighed in disappointment. "Then Zoo-ree just have to explore by itself!"
And so, it zoomed off and away from the revising Kei and flew off on its own to play!

Jinxeh was shading herself underneath a large tree, with an exhausted Raindrop drooping on her shoulder. She noticed that Xee had finished and waved to her. "Come and join us. We're just.... watching. Resting."

"Sleeping," Raindrop added sleepily from behind Jinxeh's hair.

Xee walked over to Jinxeh and Raindrop, "You're watching? Is there anything interesting going on with all the people?" She smiled at the little puffs addition to the comment.

"Not really. Unless you like watching Kei revising." She pointed to her sister swamped by textbooks in the grass. "Oh, I forgot to introduce you. Keilyna - and Keilyna, this is Xee. I don't know where everyone else has gone! It looks like we're the only ones here at the moment!" Jinxeh glanced around quickly to make sure she hadn't left anyone out.

Xee smiled softly as she looked over at Kei and waved softly, "Hello Kei!" She noticed that there wasn't really anyone there, "Oh they must be out looking for their items, some seemed harder then others and you would have to go to the woods for some."

Kei was so absorbed in her revision that she hardly noticed that anyone was talking to her, at first.
"....then the tRNA anti-codon matches up with the mRNA codons on the ribosome and brings along the amino acids for the ride... Huh?"
The girl looked up.
"Did someone say something? ...Oh!" she exclaimed, suddenly noticing the newcomer. "Hello! What's your name? Mine's Keilyna... I think..."
Her head suddenly flooped downwards into her revision.

Xee chuckled, "Studying can be a draw back to life, but it really is worse for you if you don't." She smiled softly, "I'm Xee, Kei. it is a pleasure."

"I... suppose... so..." Kei's muffled voice replied, papers crackling slightly as her head lolled slightly to one side.
Then, suddenly, she shot upright again.
"Why doesn't anyone else have exams?" she half-cried, half-wailed.
Then her head proceeded to fall forwards again into her papers. They were getting somewhat dirty now, due to all the paraphenalia tangled in her hair and the faint streak of mud that had once decorated her face.

Xee smiled, "Oh no, I went through that already, I rather deal with my schedule of work then return to studying." She giggled at the thought of all that stress she had gone through.

"All... lucky..." Kei groaned into her papers. "Why... me? Tasah no exams, Jinx no exams, Xee no exams, Kei... EXAMS!!"
The girl suddenly emitted a long, distressed wail, though it was still somewhat muffled in her notes on protein synthesis.

Xee jumped a little at the sound of frustration, "it's okay, think of it this way you only got to take the test once!" she was trying to be comforting. "Besides it's all a matter of technique of remembering those little combinatons, it's a little game even if it wasn't apparent at first," She smiled.

"One test is fine, but multiple exams?!"
Kei suddenly flopped backwards and lay on her back in the warm grass.
"And these are only mid-year ones, I still have some at the end of the year! ...and the frequency of a fundamental wave in a stretched string is v/2l and the same in an open pipe but v/4l in a closed one..."
She suddenly switched to Physics revision.

Xee blinked a moment as she watched Kei flop down, "Well they have to know if the work stick to you," she laughed a little remembering the same argument she had made with everyone, "It's okay I understand the stress."

"That's... good..." Kei mumbled.
And then, just like her Wethkin, she promptly fell asleep in the sunlight.

At least she didn't snore.