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 Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:37 pm
Things were finally starting to looking up, just a little. While the wild dog had been mistrustful at first (and rightfully so) at least she was finally persuaded to speak to them. To give them some sort of information.
The orange eyed lioness listened quietly as the female dog spoke. She seemed genuinely uncomfortable about the Nergui, and who could blame her? They were monsters. They deserved to be wiped out, just as they had displaced and murdered all those before. Still, the more information they gathered, the better.
They certainly seemed a strange lot; superstitious, in a sense. The markings on the tree, the changing they were allegedly doing around some lightening struck tree. Even if that was all the wild dog gave them, it was a start. At the very least, they could investigate this tree. . . and perhaps, if they were smart about it, would be able to witness what they did.
"Any words you know might be helpful," she agreed with Mwako'damu. "And if that is indeed where the Nergui linger, it might benefit us to check it out. Stealthily." She reminded, more to herself than anyone. The warrior in her wanted nothing more than to actually battle. . . but this was a different land, and this was not her home. Tact, stealth, and wits were required here. This operation was to remain hidden and unseen. . . easier said than done, after all.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:39 pm
The dog shook her head. "Not any words that I understood. It just sounded like groaning," she said. The thought of it seemed to set her ill at ease. Ill at ease for a dog that was essentially still trapped by a bunch of much larger lions. She swallowed. "It isn't where they stay or anything. Just that... when they pass through, some of them seem to like to go to it."
Still seated on Elcca's shoulder, the crow almost seemed to hum for a moment. "There are some prides that communicate long distance through song. If there are words that could be made out, it certainly would be worth investigating." He hopped from his roost and down to the ground before. "Not that I would expect the Nergui to be broadcasting their nefarious plans for any ear to hear."
The dog watched the crow intently. "...I eat this?" she asked.
Elcca scowled, and pushed the bird back with her paw protectively. Despite her efforts, the crow scooted out, and continued hopping past. "Not at all, I don't taste very good. But they will leave now, and I will help ferret out this rodent that thinks he has escaped," Yoan said.
The seeress didn't seem to convinced with that plan, but she supposed they did owe the dog a meal. She just hoped that meal didn't end up being Yoan. There was only so much blood magic she could do to reverse engineer him.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:34 pm
It was quite a bit of interesting information, but he wasn't entirely sure about how helpful it was. At least there was certainly some value in learning about a place the nergui frequented often! "Yes. We should go to this tree, perhaps wait around a while and see if anyone shows up." He nodded, and glanced at Elcca. "Perhaps you will understand more than the dog?" He'd heard the way the nergui spoke was very hard to understand, even for the hongshan. But perhaps some sense could be made of things.
Ah, right. The dog was hungry. Azulon looked down at her through lidded eyes, pondering. He had been the one that suggested a meal, and it looked like the other firekin were willing to comply with such a thing. Very well, then. The desert lions were an honorable sort, it appeared, and though he was not the kind lion by any standard, Azulon was interested in looking appealing to them.
Yoan had already offered to help her with the rodent she'd been after. "You may also follow us as long as you dare." Perhaps a curious choice of words, but for once Azulon didn't mean to imply any threat. But if she avoided the nergui, it probably wouldn't be smart of her to follow them for too long. "We will need to find food sometime soon, and I imagine you are welcome to some of it." Whatever they left behind, which may not be much, if anything at all. She could take it or leave it, he wouldn't try any harder. Perhaps someone else might.
Having properly lost interest in the wild dog, Azulon turned west and took a few paces, breathing in the air briefly. It looked like they would be heading that way now.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:59 pm
Aithne watched from the bushes, the ambush was successful. She took a few seconds to make sure that they got it and once she was glad to see that they had caught the wild dog but she was wondering if they were going to get any answers out of it. She wasn't sure if they were, it was a little odd to find the creature when she thought they were just going to find lion. She approached the group that was surrounding the creature. She didn't want to get to close, she didn't want to be another face in front of all of the wild dog, she knew if she had a bunch of faces in her own she would get upset herself. She didn't want the wild dog have more of a reason to be aggressive with them. She had never seen a wild dog before in her life. It was an odd creature, it's ear's, the nose of it, the eyes, she thought it was so strange she in all honesty didn't know what to think about it. She honestly had no idea what to think.
She listened to what the creature had to say, thinking about it. Singing? she had never heard anyone sing before for reasons as odd as this creature was describing it. They liked the tree too? This was getting odd as she thought about the rune looking mark on it. Her ear flicked as she listened. "They... sing?" She repeated as she got closer to the other creatures. She then paused though taking a second to think about it. "What if it's some kind of ritual?" She offered curiously, she arched a brow and then looked toward Elcca, out of all of them she too seemed to know a good amount. she didn't like the idea of them doing rituals, she wasn't too religious or suspicious but she still got a little bit of chills from the idea. "I really think that they might be doing some kind of ritual." She then turned toward Azulon. She liked his idea that was for sure of continuing moving. She glanced at the wild dog before she started to trot in the same direction of the other lion.
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:31 pm
Aodfhin was glad they had gotten at lest ok information out of the dog. it was at lest something they could work with and was better than nothing at all. " maybe it is some kind of ritual. if they are singing it can't be for no reason. at lest we can go find out for ourselves if we can be stealthy enough." he was really curious as to why they would sing at a tree for any reason at all. though he wasn't too keen on the idea of some dog following them just to get their meal from them and the possibility of others trying to scavenge a meal out of them if this dog told others that they would trade a meal for information. " and we should probably make it clear the dog better keep their mouth shut about us giving them a meal for information."
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:25 am
The male let out a hm, pensive with thought. After a moment, he looked in the direction of the tree. "Humming, Nergui are humming at tree..." That's what it sounded like, anyway. He started to walk, when something heavy suddenly sat on his back. He let out a grunt and turned to glare... And found the vulture. Oh, perfect! He tried to swat it it, but it stayed just out of reach in the perfect spot on his back. "Off back, OFF!"
Vunde clacked his beak in amusement. "Ah, tsk tsk, I just wanted to come WITH you!" He smiled broadly - As much as a vulture could - before motioning with a wing. "I would still like to point that dog, too, to the carcass in the dista--" His words were cut off as he found himself pinned to the ground, wings flailing in genuine panic at the angry red, black, and white lion.
"Carcass is doubted... Smell blood of kill LONG before now, winds shift from that direction already, and no smell of prey animal. Stupid bird LIE." He then pricked his claws into the vulture's neck, making the threat very clear. After a moment, he clawed out several flight feathers, rendering the vulture incapable of escape "You want come with, you stay on GROUND."
Finally let up, the vulture let out an indignant sound, stretching his wing out. Nothing was broken, but he'd have to wait for the feathers to grow back in. He clacked his beak, very not amused. "Okay, the carcass was a lie, I admit it, but did you have to ruin my wing?!" He glared at the lion, then managed to hop back up onto his back. "And now I'm YOUR burden to carry. Literally." He settled, looking very moody.
Serkan only snorted at the bird, then looked around at everyone else. "Suggest we go hide by tree, yes? Best bet for Nergui information." They could even see what was so darn special about that thing while they were there.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 3:15 am
Mkazo had been about to mention the carcass the vulture had claimed to know of...when Serkan managed to pin the thing down and get something of a confession from it. His face twisted in a grimace. Filthy lying bag of feathers! At least it wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. He looked back to the wild dog. "We're have to hunt sooner or later ourselves, or the bird can help you find your...whatever you were after. Take your pick, but we should be moving soon." His gaze hardened. "And yapping to others about how you get this meal would be a pretty damn bad idea."
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 3:39 am
"Yes, it does sound like a ritual of some sort." Azulon agreed, nodding slightly. "Or as Yoan said, a means of communication." He wondered briefly about the state of the tree. "The sooner we find it the better, I suppose."
He looked back at the others to see if they were moving as the vulture got pinned. And... subsequently released. "And why didn't you kill it?" He quirked a brow. They could just kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and feed the vulture to the dog now. Azulon couldn't see any benefit in keeping the creature around, and as such immediately found Serkan to be a rather unintelligent lion (not that such a feat was hard to accomplish). He saw no practical motives for keeping the bird around, especially as it had already been proved to be a liar. There were reasons to kill it, however. For food, for insolence, for pleasure.
Still, he hardly wanted to slow down the group discussing the unhelpful, lying buzzard no one even liked, yet apparently no one was willing to kill even no that it was grounded. Despite his disappointment in this new-found 'softness' of the firekin, Azulon was far more interested in this tree now. So with something akin to an eye roll and a short shake of his head, he turned back towards the west and continued on with Aithne and however else was moving.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:23 am
The little dog watched the lions slowly drift away. Her shoulders hurt from where she'd been pounced. "Follow you?" she said incredulously. "No, I think I will take the rodent. I know you lion sorts. You just make trouble. The whole savannah would be better off without you."
The last phrase seemed a little halfhearted. In the end, there wasn't much a dog could do. Nergui, firekin. It didn't matter. Hopefully the crow was good on his word.
----
Elcca certainly wouldn't have minded wringing the vulture's neck. He was a liability, broken wing or not. But she wasn't about to demand it now that they were in the thick of things. West. A ritual. This was the kind of stuff Elcca lived for. Hunting down strange magics...
"If it is a ritual, then you couldn't possibly have a better person along with you to decipher it," she said rather smugly. But then, her voice dropped. "...but for some reason I doubt anything will be that easy. This tree must be substantial enough for them to spot regularly. We're going to have to keep our eye out for any unusual shapes."
But stretched out before them seemed to be an almost endless stretch of flat plain, occasionally broken up by a small rock or shrub. A few trees dotted here and there, but their dark leaves seemed healthy. A sigh grew in Elcca's chest. Fate certainly didn't work fast. "I guess we'd better fan out and start looking. Keep sight of everyone, and look for anything strange on the horizon."
Spooky trees beware! Its time to find out what is going on here.
arrow Roll a dice 1-10:
- If it rolls on a 3, a loud roar is heard in the distance.
- If it rolls on a 5, or a 9 the tree is spotted in the distance.
You may reroll after one post.
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Thalion rolled 1 10-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-10)
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:25 am
Ali Baba remained silent as the ambush eventually pinned the wild dog in questioned. He made a mental note to give poor Morag some hell for it later on and while not a word passed his maw, his eyes and faint smirk spoke a silent sneer all on its own. The expression was quickly replaced with a dark suspicion as the dog was questioned. The offer of food was perhaps a little far, they were lions, not dogs, and they owed nothing to the lanky scavenger. It was kindness enough that she was permitted to live.
The information earned another deep sneer. Lions singing to a tree... well why not? They had encountered a disease-ridden group of lions who, Ali Baba had decided, were plagued with their own form of insanity. Then there were the mud-pelts living along their border. A pity that they simply didn't drive them off their lands... to share a territory and resources was so far from the pride he'd been raised to believe he lived in. Eye openers all around.
Marching orders were soon given and he answered only with a short jerk of his head. Padding forward, he lowered his great head inbetween his shoulders and rolled his ears forward.
[ Oh good job, Ali. XDD ]
A loud roar sounded in the distance and both golden eyes went wide as his body froze up, stiff and still as a tree trunk. There was someone up there... Uncertainly, he threw a look back over one shoulder.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:41 am
Elcca tensed. They were no sooner than a few minutes off on their search when a roar split the quiet steppe. Had they been spotted? To the south there were mountains that could be concealing foes. Up ahead, seemingly endless grey grasses and warped trees. It was possible the sound had simply traveled... but Elcca wasn't so sure their luck was that good.
"Get down," she hissed out to the ones nearest to her. Hopefully the lions who had fanned out further would follow suit. The grass around them wasn't exactly the most concealing, but it was better than nothing. If they had been spotted, they could at least try their best at obscuring their numbers. Whoever it was was far off. They couldn't simply ambush them.
Right?
Pressed down to the earth, Elcca turned her bright eyes towards the sky. No birds in the air, which was a welcome sign. Behind her, she saw the spot they had left the wild dog to be abandoned. Apparently the dog was smart enough to get out when she had a chance, meal or not. Wherever Yoan had went, hopefully it was finding out who had spotted them.
But now they had a bit of a predicament. Any movement might attract whoever spotted them, but they certainly couldn't stay in one place either.
"We need to do something, and fast."
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:48 am
Ali dropped down to his belly with a sharp curse and flattened himself out as best he could manage. Few in the party were exactly made for this landscape. Their red pelts would be highlighted by the otherwise dark landscape and the size of the better-bred individuals would leave them up above the grassline no matter how hard they tried to mesh in with the earth.
He glanced over to Elcca as she demanded action and frowned.
"A decoy. I can run out... perhaps draw their attention away while the rest of you get in." He wasn't exactly the fastest or the most bold but it was something. "Perhaps myself and another..."
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:56 am
It was very pleasing to him that things were finally getting interesting, after a dull few days of going through the desert. Even though he knew better than to think the roar was a good sign, his lips pulled back in what might have been a smile as he crouched low, along with Elcca and Ali, and hopefully the others.
"Don't be hasty, perhaps we have not been spotted yet. It could just be that they have begun their ritual." Though Azulon found that unlikely. The firekin group was probably sticking out in these barren lands, and he was even a little surprised they had not been spotted sooner. "But if it comes to decoys, I will join you." He could use the exercise. "Let's continue move forwards." He nodded to Ali, then looked at Elcca. "The rest of you, try to get out of sight. Circle around if you can, go wide. Keep an eye out. If it's safe, we will signal you." The idea was that he and the other male could figure out what was going on. If it became necessary they would play decoy, and hopefully give the others time to figure something out.
Because now wasn't really a time to discuss, it was more of a time to do, he began to creep forwards, body low to the ground. His eyes remained cast upwards and ahead, scanning for whomever had made the sound.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:07 am
Aithne's attention was pretty focused as she trotted along with the other male at first that was until a sound caught her attention. A roar, what was that? She didn't understand really. Where did it come from? Who did it? Were they found? She wasn't that sure but out of a natural reaction she dropped to the ground, her belly grazing the ground and she left her paws bent so that she needed to she could take off. "Get down!" She hissed between her teeth as her tail whipped toward the male that she was wandering with. She didn't know him that well but yet she really didn't care she didn't want to be spotted if there was some one near.
She lifted her head slowly to look around, trying not to lift it too much. She turned to Azulon and spoke quietly. "Maybe we should head back to where the others are?" She quietly asked the other, they weren't too far off from them but at the second she wasn't that sure of what to do. She especially wasn't sure if they should join them or wait, should they go find the others she was sure of it. She was hoping that the other lion had an idea of what they should do. She was really hoping, maybe he would know what to do.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 11:27 am
Ali snorted and looked forward once more. So he was to play scout after all. It was just as well, he had kept his head down for long enough. Agree with them or not, this was his pride and he should put a paw forward on occasion. It was better than hanging behind anyway.
He gave a short, sharp nod to Azulon and began stalking forward, his head low and his paws carefully creeping through the dry grass as silently as possible. Perhaps it was just the start of a ritual but he wasn't exactly a watering hole half full type. They were a fairly large group, most bearing bright crimson coats. For once, a mudpelt would have come in handy.
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