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 Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:16 am
With a laugh, Nehanda beat her wings and lunged forward. Skimming over the tops of trees and under a few of the higher-reaching branches, the two girls raced each other, giggling as they went. At one point, Nehanda grabbed up a few acorns and popped them off at her friend, hitting the back of Pueblo's head lightly.
Once they'd reached the beach, Nehanda slowed down with a laughing gasp of breath. The ocean spread out before them, smooth and blue-green, unmarred by any chop. Another island was visible ahead of them, a series of mountains rising up towards the centre of the land mass. Turning to her friend, she asked, "Is that it, do you think?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 9:54 am
Pueblo laughed, covering her head with her hands. "Ahh! I'm being attacked!" Grinning, she swooped to the side and under a thickly veggitated branch to dodge the rest of the acorns.
Finally breaking free from the trees, she slowed herself and looked around. Her chest heaved for a few seconds before she glanced to Nehanda. "Yeah, I think so," she nodded, squinting off in that direction. "Yeah, it has to be them. Something's pulling me in that direction," she varified. "Let's go!"
As the two Aerandir women soared off, time seemily slipped by. The waters, in Pueblo's mind, reminded her of two water colors bleeding into each other. Her hand had accidentally knock over a jar of water once, creating the same effects with her paints. Silver fish glinted in the new sun, coming up to feed on morning insects. Pueblo's eyes drooped, feeling upmost relaxed. Her ears twitched to the sound of Nehanda's wings beating, knowing she was still there. Her best friend, coming out all this way with her. "Thanks for doing this with me," she blurted out with a smile.
After awhile, a white sandy beach stretched out before them. Jungle trees outlined the forest's edge, and peaking near the end above the trees were the grey mountains. Pointing, she instructed her friend. "Lets go over the trees and see if there's a good landing point closer to the mountains." Their shadows stretched across the shallow water, shore fish quickly scattering, alarmed by uncommon visitors. As the Aerandir swooped closely over the tree tops, colorful birds flocked from a tree. Pueblo laughed as they flew through them, looking back as the flew about confused. "Pleh!" She spat out, now holding a red and blue feather. She grinned at her friend before something caught her breath; they had finally arrived. Circling around, she looked below them at a break in the trees. The forest had stopped right before the rocky surface. Pointing at this spot, Pueblo spiraled downward, wings stretched out to their max. Her wing tips brushed against a few branches on the way down, gritting her teeth in hopes her long hair wouldn't snag. Finally feeling the ground under her feet, she quickly folded her wings and looked aorund.
"I think this is it!" She grinned, bouncing on her heels. Something excited her. "There should be a cave surrounded by trees and moss around here somewhere.." she described, straining for this landmark.
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Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:22 am
Nehanda didn't feel the need to respond verbally to Pueblo's thanks, but returned the sentiment with a warm smile. this, after all, was what friends were for. The new island was simply gorgeous, covered in lush greenery and populated by myriad species of colorful birds. Nehanda even spotted a few that looked like the feather currently tucked away in her seed pod! She absently tucked away the though that she should return here to watch them once Pueblo had found what she sought.
While she enjoyed watching her friend wing wildly through the trees, Nehanda's wingspan just wasn't cut out for such maneuvering, so she contented herself with Pueblo's own glee. Once thy reached the break, she followed the wolf girl down through the few remaining trees at a more cautious speed. She'd fallen out of one tree; it didn't need to happen again!
Once on the ground, she followed Pueblo's instructions and began searching. "It might help if we split up and search in opposite directions. The cave probably isn't too far off." So saying she turned and headed for the nearest clump of trees and rock over to their left.
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Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:16 am
Pueblo looked hesitant but didn't stop her friend. Her ears lowered slightly as she turned around, now searching around. She walked off in the opposite direction of Nehanda, her padded feet taking her quietly along the forest edge. She frowned- the feeling had left her, leaving her lost. She stopped to stare off into the forest. What if it was simply excitment building up? She terrogated her mind and started to turn back to see if Nehanda had found anything. Her eyes stopped, causing her body to become still. She was now staring into a dark groove; a cave opening. Seeming uncertain, her ears flattened and her tail curled, haunching down to try and see inside. A wind wispered out of it and caught her ears. "Nehanda!" She cried out, her heart beating with excitment again. "I think I found it, but we're going to need a light source."
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Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:39 am
Pueblo's cry had Nehanda spinning around and dashing back toward her friend. She came to a stop, and stared into the cave. It was low, partially hidden by the heavy brush on either side . . . and it was indeed very dark. "I didn't think to bring a flashlight, or anything," she confessed. She assumed, from Pueblo's words, that the wolf-girl had the same dilemma.
Stooping, Nehanda pulled off her carry-sak, and she began to search through its contents. "Wait, I've got it!" It was a bright, sunny day, and she held out the magnifying glass she carried as part of her herbal kit. It had often come in handy to study the tiny details of the plants she gathered. "It's kind of primitive, but we can focus the sunlight through the lens . . ." She glanced around, and grabbed up a suitable pile of dead, dried out plant matter.
Looking up to examine the sun's placement, she positioned her magnifying glass, then turned to grin sheepishly at Pueblo. "Um . . . this might take a little while . . . Maybe you could look around and grab a few old branches to use as torches?" It wouldn't be ideal, but far better then returning home to get a flashlight.
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Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:00 am
Pueblo smiled fully at Nehanda's cleverness. "Let me go grab a couple branches then!" Half skipping over to a tree, she looked around the ground for broken limbs. She didn't want to rob the tree and green wood wouldn't do them any good anyway. Picking up two thick, elbow to finer tip long branches, she walked over to Nehanda and lowered them to her. "I think these will do." Her mind was so busy with thinking of what to find in there, she skipped ahead when she spoke. Her tail flicked side to side, accidently bapping Nehanda in the side of her face. "Oops, sorry," Pueblo apologized, turning to her side. She blushed a little, feeling like her tail had a mind of its own sometimes.
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Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:30 pm
Nehanda sputtered a bit, and raised one hand to remove a few strands of fur which had stuck to the corner of her mouth. "S'okay," she laughed. She would have said more, but she was concetrating very hard on keeping the magnifying glass still. Her arm was growing a bit tired.
When a thin stream of smoke finally began to trail up from the pile of dead leaves, she grinned up at Pueblo in triumph. "Oh, gads, I though my arm was gonna fall off," she joked. Slowly, the smoke grew thicker and darker, until, at least, pale yellow flames rose hungrily. They were soon strong enough that Nehanda took one make-shift torch from Pueblo and tentatively held it into the fire. It caught!
"Terrific!" After returning the torch to her friend, Nehanda threw dirt onto the fire and carefully smothered it. "I guess we're ready to go in." She stood, and approached the cave. The ceiling was low enough that she had to stoop a bit, and she hoped that it would grow larger inward. "We'll have to be really careful with the torch; I think think whichever one of us goes first should carry it, so we don't catch any feathers on fire." The thought made her shiver a bit.
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Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:11 pm
Pueblo snickered at Nehanda's exaggeration and looked over at the cave again. "That's probably the best idea. I'll hold the torch since this is my responsibility." Taking care, she took the thick stick holding a flame. It flickered around but went nowhere near her hand. "Ready?"
Stepping into the cave, the light illuminated against the low ceiling and close walls. It was cooler inside, dry rather than damp. The floor was littered with leaves from seasonal winds and organic dirt and the walls appeared black in only the glow of the flame. Pueblo looked around timidly at first and took a step forward. "Ouch!" She suddenly exclaimed from the silence, quickly taking a step backward. She lowered the flame down to her foot to see the cause of such a sharp pain. "I stepped on something...what is this?" Furrowing her brows, it wasn't a creature nor a pointed rock, but something else. It was covered in dirt and hard sediment as she found out, picking it up and rolling it around her hand. She turned to Nehanda so that she could see it in the light.
All feeling of fear and discomfort seemed to slip away as the dirt flaked off. "Peculiar..." she mumbled, looking closer. The orange and yellow flamed danced violently, almost as if trying to tell the Aerandir something. Then she saw it; a glint of something that proved it wasn't just a rock. "Nehanda...this might sound crazy, but, I think this is an artefact." She held it out for Nehanda's confirmation. If this was correct, then she knew there would be more lying about.
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Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:13 pm
"Really?" Nehanda came forward, hunching her wings close against her body and away from the close walls of the cave. The torch flames cast flickering light and shadow against the rock walls that rose and fell, dancing eerily in the dark. She fought to ignore the little tremor of nerves at being so confined, and so focused upon whatever Pueblo held up in her hand.
"Hold on, I've got a cloth in my bag. We can clean it up a bit more." It wasn't incredibly easy to maneuver the carry-sak around shoulder, arms, and wings, but she managed, and held up a pale blue piece of fabric. "I guess it's a good thing that Foenix insists on silly little niceties like cloth napkins."
Nehanda took the object from Pueblo. Spitting on the napkin to dampen it, she rubbed carefully. Dirt and rust fell away in small, hard clumps as she worked to reveal more of the object's surface. It shone dully in the torch light. Metal, and what might have been wood, mostly rotted away over time.
She handed cloth and artifact back to Pueblo. "I think you're right."
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Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:44 pm
Pueblo watched Nehanda silently, her subconscious consent allowing her friend to clean up the artefact. "Yeah, good thing. Look!" She pointed at the object in Nehanda's hand as it was exposed. "We should wrap it up and save it. I don't know if it's any good, but Acia knows more about this than we do." Pueblo then wrapped the object in the cloth and placed it in her backpack for safe keeping. "I have a feeling there are more in here; lets look around."
Pueblo took the torch and followed it's glow to the wall. Feeling the wall with one hand, she followed it to the ground and moved her palm cautiously around. Even with the artefact in her backback, Pueblo was feeling more and more better about the cave. It didn't even appear to go back that far; it was just a circular, carved out room. If she didn't know any better, she could've assumed it was man-made...
She stuck the end of the fire torch into the ground, creating a steady light source. She felt around with both hands, feeling a rough texture in her finger tips. It was out of the light circle, but with a forceful tug, it surrendered with ease. It was a dusty brown slab of rock- but she knew it was actually an earthly red. It was too dim in the cave to tell by mere-eyes, but she could 'sense' that it was indeed red. "Hm..." She stared at it for a moment before sighing and dropping it, then began to search around another rocky area.
"I feel like there's something more to this cave," Pueblo said after moments of silence. Wiping away at the dirt floor, her hand restlessly looked for another artefact. She leaned up, slapping her knees finally with irritation. She looked out the opening of the cave where it was brighter. "Oh," she said, getting an idea. "Maybe if we get a few more torches and plant them in the ground around the cave...we'll get a better light soruce to search! We could both use bother our hands that way." Pueblo smiled and stood, ready to go make more torches!
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:05 am
"That's a great idea, Pueblo. I'm going to continue searching this side here." Nehanda watched as her friend left the small cave, and crouched on the opposite side of the 'room.' There were several rock-looking things on the ground, so she worked slowly, picking each up and examining the shape and layers of dirt. She was gradually becoming more confortable within the cave. Yes, it felt very confining, but it was also quiet and cool, in a soothing sort of way.
She gasped in horror as one clump fell to dust as she picked it up. Oh, gods, had she just destroyed something? The swan-maid hurridly ran her fingers through the small pile of dirt. It felt as though it was all regular dirt; hopefully the clump had been just that.
The next object was somewhat long and narrow. It left black, chalky marks all over her hands. Nehanda grimaced, but held onto it and got to her feet. She just didn't know what she was looking for, and she really knew Nothing about artistic anything, but there was something about this messy piece of rock-stuff that felt . . . right. Pushing herself to her feet, and made her way out of the cave. "Pueblo? I think I might have found something." She handed the black thing over and wiped her dirty hand off on her thigh.
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:02 am
Pueblo collected an arm full of sticks she found on the ground and carried them into the cave. She placed the pile carefully in the illumination of the lit torch and brought one stick to the flame. Touching them together, she created another torch and walked to the other side of the cave. It wasn't that far across-maybe 30 steps. Pueblo planted the torch into the ground, then walked back to make more.
After a moments time, she had sucessfully placed enough torches to see around the entire cave and move without catching on fire. Pueblo took the left over sticks and scattered them outside of the cave. She peered inside, satisfied. She watched Nehanda easily as her friend made her way out. "Hm?" She took the black thing, looking at the messy leftovers on Nehanda. "I know this stuff...It's charcole! I drew with this stuff a lot as a child. I know this because I remember the mess." She grinned, sitting on her knees and wrapping it into her bag. "Thanks, Handa! I was so keen on finding artifacts that I almost forgot. This and something else was in my dream too." Grinning at Nehanda, her eyes grew with energy, then went back into the cave.
Pueblo laid out a few cloths and kept her pack open for easy storing. She searched the opposite side of Nehanda, trying to remember what else was in her dream. Bringing her hands back to her, she looked at her black palms and grinned. "There's charcole everywhere! It's almost like it grows naturally here or something," she spoke as she wrapped more sticks and chunks into her bag. Bringing her hands back a second time, she pulled out more chalky red-yellow rock. Furrowing, it mixed with her sooty hands. Tossing it carelessley, it hit the cave wall with a loud 'c***k!'. Pueblo jumped, not having realized she tossed it so hard. "Oops," she murmured and inspected the rock wall, making sure she hadn't damaged it or something. Runinng her hand down the illuminated wall, she followed the reddish streak where the rock had hit. Then her mind clicked. "Ochre," she said, searching for the slab with her hands. "I think I found something else that I can use, Handa!" Being careful now, she gathered a few other orche slabs and packed them into her bag. "This is great," she smiled, placing her hands to her knees and leaning back. "How're you doing Nehanda?" she asked her friend, looking over her shoulder and across the cave.
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:40 pm
((Fae, you may want to edit that part about the charcoal growing. It's not an actaul rock-type thing, but rather is produced by heating wood without oxygen. There is also sugar charcoal and bone charcoal, which are produced in a similar manner. It's possible that charcoal could be produced naturally, but I'm not finding any mention of it.))
The torches lit the cave and created a wonderful, warm glow. It was really beautiful, Nehanda mused as the shadows moved about the walls. Almost like a dance, or like the tv thing Foenix had let her watch as a child when they had journeyed to the mainland.
She wiped a hand over her hip again, and grimaced when she noticed that she'd somehow managed to get the charcoal on her tail and wings as well. She must have trailed them over other sticks of the stuff while kneeling down. Well, it would wash. and it wasn't as though she didn't get dirt all over her when working in the gardens . . .
"I'm doing okay. I think you got most of the charcoal left on this side of the cave." Even as she turned her head to look over at Pueblo, she stepped forward and stubbed her foot on something. Bending down, she picked up another object rather like the first one Pueblo had found. She quickly but carefully cleared most of the dirt and rust off. It was rounded, but she could make out the impression of feathers and fur. There were long, flat ears, and a narrow beak.
"Pueblo, do these little things remind you of gryphons?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:35 pm
((Whoops, I over looked that fact. Thanks for catching me there, Foe! I changed it to sound more suggestive rather than fact.))
Pueblo immediately stood and jogged to her friend. Frowning, she made sure she was okay before looking into Nehanda's hand. "Hmm, yes, they actually do. Peculiar...good find, Handa!" Pueblo eagerly grabbed a cloth and used Nehanda's help to wrap it. "I wonder what they are exactly, but I think we have enough for now. I want to know what these are. Who knows, maybe they could save Aerandir lives!"
Pueblo made sure everything inside her bag was secure and lifted it back over her shoulders. She didn't particularly find human packs comfortable, but it was good enough for now. Pueblo sunk her soft vanilla hands into the cold dirt, then flung it carfully over a flame. One by one she begun to put out the torches before the cave became dark again. As the two Aerandir women exited, Pueblo turned to Nehanda, a chunck of ochre and charcole in each hand. "Pick one!" she grinned. "I want to mark this cave so we know where to find it again. I have a feeling I'll be coming back."
((Umm, your next post could safely end this RP if you wish. Or we could keep going if you have any questions. If not, we could assume they flew home together and went their separate ways?))
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Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:01 am
((That sounds good, Fae. I'd like to get Nehanda back to Cetalu for Oleo, and Yasu/Osu may be needing a medic . . . This was fun!))
Nehanda grinned as Pueblo began to cover the torches, then went to help her. It didn't take long, and she accepted the ochre when it was offered. "That's a great idea, Pueblo! No offense, but the charcoal is awfully messy; you can keep that one!" Once they were outside, they cleared some of the brush beside the cave and drew a thick arrow to indicate the opening.
She looked up and gauged the tree covering. There was enough overhead that the markings should be safe from rain. "I think that should do it. Ready to go? It's getting pretty late, and I need to fetch Oleo from Ar Idil."
As they flew off, Nehanda reached over and touched her friend's hand. "I'm glad you asked me to come, Pueblo. This was pretty neat." They flew away side by side, their backs to the sun sinking below the horizon.
((Kind of a lame-o ending, but I haven't had my coffee yet . . .))
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![~o[Pueblo]o~'s avatar](https://a1cdn.gaiaonline.com/dress-up/avatar/ava/b9/0a/5fa28eca3c0ab9_flip.png?t=1276830664_6.00_01)