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 Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:56 pm
"All animals migrate," Aragost replied, leading the way forward, "some more than others ... dragons in the winter stay at the top of the mountain, in their caves, where they can keep warm ... but when the weather begins to warm up, they come down to where the food is more fresh ... such as now."
He hoped they wouldn't run into one ... he would truly hate to have to kill one in front of the children.
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:00 pm
That sounded not so good, especially the part about fresh food. She wasn't quite sure, but she was pretty sure dragons were meat eaters the last time she checked.
"Oh... so they... hibernate?"
She hurried along, if Aragost was worried then you should be worried.
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:02 pm
"The smaller varieties do, yes," Aragost replied, "however the larger ones are simply ... too large to do so, and so they remain awake, hunting, for the entire winter. The dragons on this mountain are small ... however ... if they are just beginning to come down from the caves, then they will be hungry, and as such, quite dangerous, even to myself."
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:09 pm
Well... that certainly not a pleasant thought at all, she was glad then she had found the track. It would be bad to run in one of those she thought to herself as she hurried along.
"So where are we going?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:06 am
"Just a bit further down the mountain," Aragost replied as he led the way, "and on the other side. We will be further from the ranch ... but safe from the dragons, unless they have left their usual territory to go there as well."
Unlikely, but possible.
"There is another waterhole there, but because it is not as clean as the spring, it is not quite as frequented by the animals," he explained. "There will be tracks for us to study, but not as many."
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:57 pm
"Oh...." Lin murmured, "I see..."
At least... she thought she saw. It would make sense then if the dragons decided to go there for the spring, there would be a lot to eat with the cleaner spring there.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:11 pm
Adan had been walking ahead of Aragost, but suddenly he stopped dead, pointing up at a small ledge high above them.
"Ara-kun," he said worriedly, "I thought moor cats didn't come up in the mountains ..."
Aragost looked up, following Adan's finger, to see a large (very large) moor cat high on the ledge above them. His first thought was that it must be a mountain cat, not a moor cat, because they were similar enough to look the same to inexperienced eyes - but then he saw that Adanedhel was right, it was a moor cat, the far more dangerous of the two.
He put one hand on Adan's shoulder and held the other out to stop Lin.
"Don't move," he ordered them softly.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:17 pm
Lin blinked and looked up to where Adan was pointing, a part of her didn't want to, but she knew it wasn't going to go away just because she wasn't going to look. Besides curiosity compelled her to. She stared at it, thinking that she would have rather it not be real, but it was real.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:31 pm
Aragost's eyes were darting around, searching at first for a way to escape - but then he noticed that the ledge was positioned in such a way that it was impossible for the moor cat to have gotten up there on its own.
He looked up at the moor cat again, relaxing slightly, peering at its eyes. For several long moments, he just stared ... but then he chuckled softly.
Adan jumped when Aragost started laughing, and he wanted desperately to look at him and see what he was laughing at but he had the sense to do exactly what his mentor told him, and so he didn't move a muscle.
"Ara ... kun?" he said softly.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:36 pm
Lin didn't really see what was so funny, after all there was a moor cat up down so couldn't it well... come down right? After all if it came up it had to come down.
"What's... funny?" she asked, she couldn't help herself from asking the question.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:42 pm
Aragost knelt and pointed up at the ledge.
"Tell me, Lin," he murmured softly, "do you see any way for the moor cat to get up there? Or down? Any trees, rocks, slopes, any logs, any land near enough to jump from? Or to, for that matter?"
At that height any creature - save perhaps a dragon or bird - would break a leg trying to get down. Which at the very least meant that they were safe from the creature, at any rate.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:47 pm
It seemed like the oddest question in the world to her, but she did look and realized there didn't seem to be anything. Now she didn't know how high a moor cat could jump, but she didn't think it could be that high, and it was a large kitty so... She frowned a bit, looked a bit more and then realized after a while there was no place.
"No... there is not... but..." her brain worked furious to try and figure it out, "It had... to get up there... somehow."
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:12 pm
"Indeed she did," Aragost chuckled, standing straight once again. "Indeed she did."
He looked around, then picked up a stone and looked up at the moor cat as if he were planning on throwing it.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:17 pm
"What.. she?"
Lin looked sharply up at Aragost, her brain was clicking together the different parts as best as she could. There was one answer, but one she hadn't given thought to.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:27 pm
Aragost weighed the stone in his hand, then drew his arm back and threw it towards the cat.
In the brief moment before the stone would have hit the cat, it disappeared. Sitting in its place, looking very small compared to the creature that had been there only a moment before, was an amused-looking elven woman.
"You always know, Aragost," Serenity called down to them, laughing. "How do you always know?"
Aragost chuckled again. "You almost fooled me this time, Serenity," he called back. "Though if I were not so worried about the dragons you probably would not have."
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