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 Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:43 am
Thread for Pteryx to find her mount. Please don't post unless you've asked me or Neith first ^^
Lupinus sat at the edge of the forest with his back against a large tree. He hoped Aranea would return soon with the kitten; he'd decided against going after them. He trusted the Sun Court to follow through with their side more than he trusted Aranea to, and he hoped she wouldn't try anything too ambitious. She had seemed a little bit panicky, or anxious. All over a little kitten who was foolish enough to wander too far alone.
He shrugged and returned to fixing the fletching on the arrow he held. He'd also heard a few more unfamiliar voices in the castle lately. Perhaps there had been more children freed; Pteryx might know, he thought. He ought to make sure the new kithains were taking proper care of the little ones at least, useless as most of them tended to be.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:08 am
Pteryx had decided it was about time she went exploring again outside, despite the risks that came with it. She'd gotten herself a walking stick now, and had even tried to make it look good with paint, glue and fabric. Pteryx hadn't done a bad job either, she thought, but it was hard to tell. She didn't need it, it was just good to have outside to prevent surprise collisions that were closer to her legs.
Pteryx hummed as she walked, only needing a few metres of sight to get around now. She didn't hear the sound of someone else outside, not until she'd gotten into the crisp night air and had paused to breath in the cool and fresh smell of it.
Both sensitive ears did pick up on movement though, so Pteryx twisted around in that direction and called, "Hello?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 1:54 pm
Lupinus looked upat Pteryx's call; recognizing the voice, he didn't move from where he sat. "It's Lupinus," he said. He set aside the arrow he held, wondering what the child was up to outside. He thought back to when he used to sneak out into the woods-- not that Pteryx needed to sneak anywhere, unless she just wanted to get away from others. Stretching his arms, he resumed working on fitting the feathers properly. "Everything all right inside?" he asked, to be sure.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:57 pm
"I knew it was you all along." Pteryx answered, as she made her way in that direction with the stick acting as a 'low shrub warning' just like she'd wanted. "I was just asking anyway. Can I go near you, is it safe? Everything all right inside, and there are new fey now."
But Pteryx knew the answer, and made her way to stand a few feet away from where she could hear him. The speaking just helped her move.
Pteryx found her own tree to lean on, continuing as she spoke, "They are little girls, really young. They made me feel old and I'm not much older... I bet you feel really old around me." Pteryx added with a slightly delighted grin, as if that kind of thing could be funny, "But nothing other than new fey. One of the kithain is normal but the other one eats humans!"
Another delighted grin, as Pteryx managed to get a good idea of what he was doing. She was sure she'd seen her own father do something like this, so she watched fascinated through every word. Now that she had nothing else to say about the new fey though, she went back to listening.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 9:58 pm
"Of course," he said as he watched her approach. "Maybe I should just stop answering questions, you seem to answer them well enough on your own." He eyed the stick she held, but didn't comment; it did seem to be helping her, and that was good.
Whether even more little girls were good was, however, very debatable. He was beginning to wonder if they would just keep coming and coming, leaving him surrounded by girl-children and trying to keep an eye on them all when surely there were some other adults around. Maybe he could convince Aranea to like them.
Coughing as he choked back a laugh at her next words, he glared at the child instead. "Yes, I'm practically ancient already; it's too bad, really. You'll just have to take care of everything when I'm gone. I'll keel over any day now, I'm sure of it."
He raised his eyebrows when she described the kithain, then muttered something half intelligible about perhaps feeding his own bloody kithain to this new one whenever she turned up again. "I'm sure I'll hear the new fey tearing around the halls soon." He just hoped none of them were prone to giggling. "How many new ones?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:39 am
Pteryx wriggled down until she was sitting too, and rested her head back so that she could listen to the dark forest's strange sounds. "If you are ancient already, then you should be grey. And then you'll have to teach young warriors how to fight instead of being one. But that sounds like it is boring, and your hair isn't grey... I would see you better if it was... so you can't be ancient."
She glanced into the woods as she heard animals moving, hoping to see something out of her books. A bat would be nice. "Two girls, and they are strange looking. One is a raccoon, I think, the other I don't know. They didn't seem to want to run around or leave their kithain, and the kithain didn't even know how to walk in the dark."
Staring into the darkness of the dark woods even more, Pteryx could make out something against the darker trunks. She'd seen pictures of them before, and Pteryx was sure that her father and mother had them as well. It was one of the dire wolves, and only seemed to be interested for a few moments before melting back into the trees where her eyes lost it again. "Do we still have the wolves?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:24 am
"Well I'd prefer not to be ancient just yet, so I defer to your superior wisdom. It does sound boring, so I think I'll just avoid becoming all grey and crotchety." The girls didn't want to leave their kithain yet? Well, it could be that they were still too small. "Maybe the girls aren't big enough to run yet. They'll grow out of it." Well, they ought to. And it wasn't surprising that the kithain couldn't walk in the dark.
He wondered what had prompted the question about the wolves; he thought he was probably the only one who went to see them regularly, and most of the pack still lived on their own without a rider. "Yes, we have the wolves." He turned his head to look into the trees. "There are a few that seem to lurk around the castle a lot."
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 2:50 pm
"I don't know. They were very small." Pteryx answered, remembering. She continued to watch the forest, and listen when she wasn't making a noise, hoping to see more of the wolves that she was sure she'd just seen.
"I saw one lurking." Pteryx told Lupinus, pointing in the direction she'd seen one. "Just in there, but it left again. I think it was listening to us... why would they listen to us? Do they understand us?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:45 pm
"They understand. They made a pact with us, or their ancestors did." He looked in the direction she was pointing, hoping to recognize which one was near. "They honor the pact, but they're restless-- they're probably around hoping for something to do." He wondered if the Sun Court knew of their dire wolves; he hoped they underestimated them if they did. Once they attached themselves to a fey, they'd follow you anywhere.
He looked back at Pteryx. "Did you want to see them?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:03 am
. "A pact? Can we talk to them and them talk back then?" Pteryx was already standing up, and dusting off herself. "I would be bored too if I didn't have books to read."
She continued to peer into the forest. Pteryx was curious about them, did they like to run as much as she liked to fly? It would be fun, she thought, feeling wind in the hair and feet being able to fly over the ground. Maybe it was a bit like flying, even. Pteryx looked back towards Lupinus, and replied eagerly, "I do want to see them, let's go?"
But she added quickly, "But only if you can take me, and you're not busy."
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:01 am
"I can... you should be able to." He hadn't actually asked the others, but he assumed the wolves could communicate with their fey if they chose, though he suspected they were stubborn enough to pretend they hadn't understood when they felt like it.
He stood up as well, putting away the tools he'd been using and stretching his wings, wondering how long he'd been sitting out there for them to feel so cramped. "No, I'm not busy. Let's go." He headed in the direction Pteryx had pointed earlier; he sensed that part of the pack was close, his wolf among them, blending in with the shadows.
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:50 am
"Okay, that's good. I don't know how else I would talk to one then, unless they also know our language." Pteryx wandered over to be closer to the adult's obvious bulk, she knew she'd have less chance of mistaking him for a tree if she was closer.
She hurried after him, leaving the stick behind. As long as Pteryx followed where Lupinus went, she'd run into no problems at all. He was taller, he was probably avoiding tree branches too.
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:58 pm
Lupinus stopped walking as they reached the area of the forest the pack had taken over. A pair of glowing green eyes stared at him from the shadows, the rest of the black wolf's fur blending in completely with the forest. He nodded and the wolf padded closer, sitting down lazily once it had reached them.
"This is Comus," he told Pteryx, putting a hand on the wolf's neck. "He leads the pack. He'll call the others." The wolf made a sharp barking sound, and more shadowy forms began to assemble around them.
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:18 am
Pteryx could easily see the green eyes, obvious against the comforting darkness surrounding them. She didn't bother worrying about what it was, Lupinus didn't react in any way that'd make Pteryx worry too.
"How many others are there?" Pteryx asked, watching around them as more shapes of wolves started to appear. She could see the outlines clearly, some of the wolves easier to see because of coloring.
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2005 12:29 pm
"Some of them come and go; usually there are fifteen, twenty maybe. This is where they've made their den." More wolves than fey, at the moment, but perhaps that would change soon and the rest of the pack could be called in. He'd like to see that. He was silent for a moment, then said, "This is a safe place in the forest, if you want to be alone. They won't let anything bother you."
He watched as the wolves arranged themselves in a scattered ring around them, a couple of them moving forward to sniff at Pteryx with interest.
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