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 Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:06 pm
It appears that this tree was once occupied…a long time ago. Over the many vacant years, it seems the tree had began to repair itself, and the lack of maintenance has left the place barely habitable. None-the-less it is a sturdy shelter, and if the Sentinels manage to make their way back enough they're pretty safe from any serious danger.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:43 pm
 Raine had been patrolling. But considering the fact that she could barely see ten feet through the relentless force of her namesake, it was a safe bet that she would have to stop and find shelter. Fast. Ruffling her feathers for the millionth-time, the weary Ranger shook yet another spray of clinging raindrops from her damp and rather-irritated form. Once again, her efforts proved futile; a wave of water washed over the Sentinel, re-soaking her feathers before she was even able to complete the action. She exhaled a barely audible sigh, the only indication of her rapidly-darkening mood. Of course, it wasn't only the weather that had this usually-passive Sentinel in a huff; No, it was the incessant whining of the Companion clutched in her talons who had slowly but surely been driving her nuts. "Hangry," the aforementioned mammal moaned, "Much-much Wooter. Stink. Hazel no like." His train of endless, and repetitive complaints was only interrupted by whines and pitiful mewls. Raine had had enough. In fact, she'd had half a mind to swallow the dratted critter; companion or no companion, Hazel or no Hazel, Martes or no Martes. "...Shut up." Those two words punctuated by the sharp snap of a closing beak were more than sufficient. Hazel gulped and instantly obeyed, something he wouldn't ordinarily have done. Good. Now Raine could get back to escaping this storm as it was a particularly bad one to be caught out in. Thankfully, from one of her patrols, she’d had a pretty good idea of where- ah, there! She’d arrived at the shelter she sought, and none too soon, it seemed. It was an old hollow, having seen years since its last occupation. Still, it was a sturdy shelter, good enough to stand up against the rain…Making a brief and cursory examination for danger, Raine deemed it safe enough, and hurried into the tree, as far away from the pounding precipitation as she could be. All she could do now was sit and wait out the storm. ((EDIT: Forgot her cert...*phail*))
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:46 pm
 "Wind! Hard, fly!" Tune complained as she struggled to follow Orion through the branches. She was being pushed this way and that by the gusts, cold rain getting into her eyes.
"Be brave Tune! I think I've spotted shelter!" Orion called back to the little Parus, trying to be brave himself although the wind was getting rougher, and the sound of the Thunder Bird called in the distance. His feathers were getting soaked and it was weighing the poor Sentinel down. He pushed on further, and soon was able to get himself inside the old worn down tree. Despite it's bedraggled state, shelter was shelter, and Orion was grateful. He sat down and shook raindrops from his feathers, Tune had just landed and was now doing the same. "Company!" Tune squeaked, and Orion looked behind him. Another sentinel had claimed the shelter tree before they had, but no way they were going to look for another, this was a big enough hollow.
Orion gave a small head bob in greeting, his wet feathers giving him a very odd look has he did so.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:03 pm
Two pairs of glowing eyes stared back from within the hollow.
Raine, whose talons had been poised in a defensive stance, immediately settled down in a non-assuming posture. Her feathers, still damp, sleeked back, as she returned the greeting with a rather stiff nod. She backed away from the front of the hollow, pressing herself to the innermost wall, to make room for the newcomer. Raine was unaccustomed to sharing a space with another Sentinel, but far be it for her to begrudge anyone of shelter, especially in this horrible weather. Hazel, on the other hand, was not so willing. Grumbling angrily about “mean wooter Sentials”, he reluctantly curled up next to his owner, and proceeded to stare hungrily at Tune.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:14 pm
Tune looked at the Martes wearily, scooting a little closer to Orion. It has a really hungry look about him, and she would rather be out in the rain then be in those jaws!
Orion gave a rather goofy looking grin, which looked kind of forced. He was really just annoyed by the weather, not the company. "Nice weather we're having..." He shook his head, huddling up close to the wall he was closest to, adding a little more to the room inside. For him company wasn't so bad, as he spent his early years with his parents before moving out and being a keeper of parus. He almost always had somebody nearby. He was mostly wet, miserable, and just all out tired from wrestling with the wind and the rain, and wondered idly when the storm would stop.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:18 pm
Boy, was the weather a cruel antithesis to her namesake. Fairaday gave her wings a mighty flap, regretting it almost instantaneously as the rain pushed down her wings, a real struggle as she tried to bring them back up. With them cocked at an awkward angle and her feathers bereft, her pattern became erratic. She crashed through a bushel of branches, maneuvering blindly through them with her face turned away. My goodness, what was she doing out here?
Scamp clung ever tighter to her belly, his beetle-black eyes shut against the onslaught of water and branch. He was trembling so viciously that Fair thought the little Skurri would either dislodge himself or throw her off of her flight path. She spared him a harried glance.
"We're almost there," she crooned against the storm. At least, she hoped they were almost there. She couldn't see through the flat walls of rain, and thus far no matter how she strained her water-streaked eyes, she could still barely see. She had never hoped so hard since the day of her graduation.
The Thunderbird roared viciously from overhead. Startled, the usually talkative Medic's wings jumped inwards in another self-assuring and be-soddened flap. Below her, the simpering Skurri was chittering against her feathers.
"There! There!" His tiny hands yanked at her down and she had to resist the urge to toss him off; the want came and went like the wind and again straining her eyes through the rain, she spotted what her companion was squeaking about. Drawing her wings in, she spiraled haphazardly towards the opening, praying hope and fate would carry her in the general path.
Fairaday crashed through the shelter's opening like a great, sopping mess of feathers. For a moment she simply lay on the floor, her wings slow to stretch out, and marinated in the wet of her own puddle. She was exhausted, her painted appendages aching with the relief of thrown-off strain. It was only when Scamp squeezed himself out from beneath her when she decided to right herself as well.
"Oh," she tittered, embarrassed. "Well. Ah. Hello! Funny weather we're having - wasn't expecting rain~"
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:39 pm
Raine shivered and tried to preen some water out from her back; her feathers were still quite wet from the rain. Could this situation get any worse?
...and...a great flapping ball of feathers had just crashed into the hollow...Great.
Nearly jumping out of her feathers, Raine raised a talon as if to strike, then paused, before accepting the feather-skewed Sentinel as a non-threat. She sighed. Ugh, another refugee. Just how many Sentinels did Noctus plan on shoving into an old hollow anyways?
"I'll say…I am Raine. Named after this phenomenon from which we all seem to be taking refuge."
She gave a chuckle at this, though her voice sounded raspy and unused; as if laughter was something the Ranger was not well-acquainted with.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:49 pm
Tune squeaked, flapping her little wings as the new Sentinel zoomed into the hollow. "More!
Orion, looked over at the newcomer. He smiled, more genuinely this time. "I'd say, at least one can find some humor in this situation! I am Orion, and the Parus is..."
"Tune!" she chimed in, feeling a little more at ease, though still wet. She began to preen her feathers.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:03 pm
Scamp seemed to have forgotten there was even a storm at all. He hastily approached each inhabitant in the hollow in excitement, rushing about in short Skurri-leaps and nosing the air close to the Sentinel's space. He plucked busy-body like at the other companions, though he was most wary of the Martes; however, it didn't stop him from giving the creature's tail a good yank.
Fairaday was too distracted to keep an eye on her wild companion, "Oh my! Gives a new meaning to bringing the rain inside!"
She giggled, high and strained and tired. Her wings trembled with cold, her talons clicked and the floor as she danced in place, but she managed to gape her beak in a warm smile towards Rain and Orion.
"It'd be a much more pleasurable meeting if it weren't so...ah, leaky outside, I'm sure!" The Shadow shifted her footing again, a great wave of cold clattering down her feathers, "I'm Fairaday, friends! And gosh do I wish it was fair-to-day~!"
Scamp pulled away from his ministrations and hopped towards his keeper, burrowing skillfully beneath her and looking up to check if she had stopped shivering yet. Fair clicked her beak in thanks.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:24 pm
Having had his tail pulled, Hazel’s mood soured dangerously. He daren’t attack another companion, not after the scandal a particular accident had nearly caused…Still…just one bite wouldn’t hurt…A Skurri could survive on three paws, couldn’t it? Gazing rather hungrily at Scamp, Hazel flashed his sharp incisors in a none-too-friendly, yet slightly mischievious grin.
Instead of forcing out another awkward laugh, Raine nodded, and seemed to relax her stiff posture. She was pleased with the joke, and thought Fairaday’s play on words to be rather clever. In fact, it seemed that her mere arrival had considerably lightened the mood in the old hollow; Raine wondered how she seemed to accomplish this so easily, and, yes, rather envied her. She herself, was a Sentinel of few words.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:38 pm
Orion was grateful for the change in mood, it helped to clear his mind and to ignore the worst of the situation. He could weather the storm out with the two lady Sentinels. He gave a sharp glance out as the thunder bird cried out again, eyes wide.
Tune jumped, chirping loudly. "No touch!" she peeped, looking back at Scamp, still startled.
"I wonder if it will last long," Orion pondered aloud, his feathers had finally started to dry a little, and he gave a slight shake.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:00 pm
"Oh, good-great heavens, I hope not!" she said. When the Thunderbird sent a growl rippling through the forest outside, Fairaday seemed to snap to attention; the tufts on her head leapt upwards in remembrance of herself.
"Just about forgot my own head!" She puffed up (or as much as she could when rain still plastered her wings), "Any injuries to account for, dears? I'm a Medic, you know~ Taught by Lichen herself, oh yes!"
The young Shadow didn't look too convincing, what with being soggy and what have you. She did her best to pitch up her optimism in the face of her own misery. There was no way she was going to let the rain dampen her spirits!
Scamp flinched as the Martes grinned his way. Maybe playing one-sided tug-o-war with the weaselly creature wasn't the smartest thing he'd done in his short life. However, brilliance was not something he was known for. The Skurri crept out again and scampered towards the Parus, which was more his size, and threw his little paws into the creature's face as if making to grab for Tune's head.
"Scamp! Oh, Scamp, you stop that, you horrible little flea!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:20 pm
Raine pondered this piece of information. If Fairaday had truly been apprenticed under Lichen (and she could see no reason for her to brag in the middle of a storm), then she was in the company of a very skilled Medic.
The Ranger in her cautioned her to be vigilant. Raine rarely ventured this far west, preferring the solitude of the Northern and Eastern borders. She was in unfamiliar territory, in the midst of a raging storm. She could not afford to let her guard down. Still, having a medic would be extremely useful. Raine mentally adjusted their chances of weathering out the storm in one piece to increase considerably.
"No, no injuries here, but perhaps you might consider fixing yourself up…” she suggested, casting a doubtful look at Fairaday’s sodden plumage. Feeling that it might be a tad impolite not to share her own profession, she added, "I'm a Ranger by the way...though I haven't flown this area since a couple seasons ago...The storm must have blown me off course."
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:31 pm
Tune squeaked angrily, she had had enough of this skurri! She backed up, opened up her wings, and flew, perching herself on Orion's head, bopping the skurri on the snout with the tip of her wing on accident, or was it really?
A skilled medic! That's the best kind of company to have in a situation such as this. Orion thought, nodding his head appreciatively. "No wounds here! And since we seem to be sharing, I'm a keeper." His eyes darted up, indicating Tune. The parus forgot the skurri for the time being and puffed her chest feathers proudly.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:06 pm
Scamp chittered angrily and nursed his buffeted head, running his small paws over his ears again and again. He would have climbed up Tune's Sentinel had it not been for the reprimanding voice of his own, which sent him ducking down flat against the ground.
"Sorry-sorry, little sorry!" he submitted.
Fairaday blinked and looked down at herself. Oh, what a mess! Attentions seized by her ramshackle state, the Shadow began to busily nibble and n** her feathers back into place. Seeing this, Scamp scurried over and promptly began to assist her.
"Same here," she replied without missing a beat. "I haven't been on this side of the wood in ages! 'Ntire place is alien to me. And you, friend Orion - familiar with these trees?"
Fair lifted her face and beamed at them, "What a troupe we have here! A Ranger, a Keeper and a Medic! Sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn't it?" She chattered against the storm, her preening slowly making her appearance parallel with her attitude.
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