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 Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:16 am
"No good... No good. Not here, but no good."
Rosinweed clacked her sharp beak anxiously as she scuffled along one of the longer limbs that jutted from her tree as she surveyed the damage that had been done by the storm. Her immediate reaction was to want to fix it, but as of right now that was not possible. It would take too long and would be most frowned upon.
"No. Help?" Chaucer inquired from behind her. The white and brown mus gazed up at her with calm, but curious eyes. It was rare that his master left her territory for long and rarer still that they interacted with other sentinels, that is not including Sequoia. Falchior was becoming a usual face and the Bryntwine fellow said he would come back with the gatherer to help fix the fortress once more.
"Yes. Help." Rosinweed replied with a curt bob of her head, though the idea felt strange to her. One thing was certain, though. She did not want to travel too far. If she went too far, she might be noticed. She might be caught.
"Yes. Help, help, help. You help, too. Chaucer, you help." She turned to pin her golden eyes on the mus, but the edges of her beak turned upwards in a rare smile, although nervousness filled her being.
"Chaucer pulls food from his store. Build store up later, give store now to others. Nettle stays. Nettle picks berries." The parus that sat beside the mus gave a small, light trill. It was far different from the alarm screech that others were more familiar with.
"I will... Hunt. Hunt meat for others. Hunt quick, though, stay near here. Won't be long. Stay safe, not hunted." She gave the mus an affectionate nudge and the parus a brief preening, then launched herself from her perch and drifted betwix the trees that were hers. Her mind was flitting from one scenerio to another, but all were horrible and echoed her fears of impending doom. It was rare that she left her territory for long and the thought of doing so repeatedly to gather food for the rest of the clan felt noble, yet terrifying to the paranoid wildtype.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:36 pm
The large Ghost swooped through the air, weaving between branches, as soundless as his type's namesake. He flew rather slowly, not because he was tired - which he was, but not so much that it would affect his flying like this - but because he was searching. He wasn't even searching for something specific, and he didn't really expect to find anything: He had been out this way sometime before and felt fairly certain that there were no more victims of the storm to be found out here anymore, but fairly certain just wasn't the same as certain. And he liked to be certain.
Besides, his sergeant had asked him to take it easy for a few hours, seeing that he had not only been involved in the recent search-and-rescue work but also an active part of the same thing during the actual storm itself and could therefore needed a bit of a rest. Duskwater agreed, but had quickly grown antsy from just sitting still and had decided that a leisurely flight would be just as restful and maybe even a bit more useful.
Speaking of rest, it was probably time to do a little of that again. Dusk turned slightly and came to a halt by a convenient branch. Perching himself comfortably, he gave his plumage a brief preen and then drew a deep breath, leisurely surveying his surroundings with keen eyes and ears while he rested.
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:48 pm
Rosinweed's wings were silent, but she was whispering to herself as she went. "Oh, nono. Such mess, not good. Bad. Bad. Unfortunate... Oh?"
She snapped her beak shut as her eyes drifted over a rather a plump mus, which was picking hesitantly through the debris covered Below. She did not hesitate to dive towards the little critter, which squealed in panic, but only for a moment, as she lifted it into the air. It's squeak was cut short as Rosinweed stole it's life from it.
"One down. One. One. Many t'go." She muttered as she perched on a wide limb and held the mus's warm body against the bark.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:59 am
Duskwater noticed the Wildtype the moment that she struck the mus on the ground, and followed her with his eyes as she settled in a tree not too far from him, nodding in appreciation of a well-performed catch, even though the female didn't seem to be aware of his presence just yet.
After a brief moment's consideration, he hooted a soft greeting: in case this was her territory he didn't want there to be any misunderstandings, and it couldn't hurt to talk with her in case she had any information that might be useful to him.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:28 am
At his greeting, the wildtype turned suddenly and sharply. Her feathers puffed out and her eyes narrowed as they settled on the Elite.
She was about to respond aggressively, when her keen eyes fell on the chevron marking Duskwater, and quickly thought the better of it. She was not in her own territory and he was no ordinary sentinel. While she abhorred strangers, she was wise enough to know that the Elites had to be treated with respect. Despite her high paranoia and sharp temper, she could easily recall the ideals that had been instilled in her when she was a fledgling.
She grasped the dead mus tightly in her talons and lifted into the air, only to settle at a respectful distance near the Elite, on the same limb.
"Bad storm. Good, though? 'Nough safe?" She inquired in her broken speech.
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:35 am
Duskwater noticed the hostility in the female's initial movements and braced himself instinctively - the only outward evidence of this being a very slight fluffing of his feathers - but as she calmed down so did he, dark grey feathers smoothly re-settling.
That was odd, he mused, watching the female fly in closer. Then again, it IS mating season...
But at her somewhat scattered greeting and attempted conversation, the somewhat socially unskilled elite found himself quite stumped. Tilting his head to the side, he bestowed her with a slight frown of confusion.
"Beg your pardon?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:31 am
She opened her beak as if to speak again, but the words were absent as she thought. She casted her eyes downward as if to look at her talons as she picked her words as carefully as she could.
"Bad storm... Good, though, you? You safe? Others safe, enough? Many hurt?"
She tried to add more meaning to her broken sentences, but was unsure if she had succeeded. She turned her golden eyes to the Elite in an attempt to figure out if had had or not, but his emotions seemed well hidden beneath his ghostly feathers.
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Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:49 pm
Duskwater realised immediately by the female's downcast eyes that he had embarrassed her, and he couldn't help but notice the concentration that went into building a more coherent sentence. His frown deepened slightly, as suddenly he felt awkward - and a little bit concerned about this lady.
"Um... of course. Yes..." he inhaled sharply and addressed each of her words in turn: "Bad storm, yes, terrible... I'm glad to see that you seem unhurt... I'm safe, I mean, fine, yes... As are most, I suppose, but there have been some casualties..." He cleared his throat and intuitively sleeked back his ear tufts, tilting his head slightly to the side in an attempt to look a little friendlier. "I suppose you have nothing to report - er - haven't seen anything that might need to be looked at? ...Miss?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:16 pm
Rosinweed was never one to partake in meaningful conversation. Her words were often chopped and to the point. The few taht she ever carried out were with Sequoia, but even with him most of their time together was carried out in silence.
The female was still highly anxious around the strange Elite. Her feathers were pressed against her form and her eartufts were against her skull, but she did not balk or flee.
"Report? Report? No. Not. Not much. Half fall, need fixing. Need patching, on floor, now. Fal help. Brynt help. No problems." She was almost ashamed at the fact that she was just now venturing out of her territory, but danced around saying it.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:39 pm
"Er, right... good, then." Having already embarrassed her enough, in his own opinion, Duskwater was not about to ask her to explain what "half" had fallen. He simply accepted that there were "no problems" and nodded, because he didn't really know what else to do. Preferably, he'd like to extract himself from this awkward situation, but backing down wasn't really his style, and so he attempted to analyse the situation to see if he could possibly do anything to smooth over his previous misunderstanding.
"I see you're helping out, then?" he ventured, indicating the dead mus in her talons. "Good, good. We'll be needing everything we can gather, right now." With only a brief hesitation, Duskwater let his words be followed by a small, hopefully disarming, smile.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:10 pm
At his final words, she closed her tawny eyes and bobbed her head with a rare eagerness.
"Oh, yes. Yes. Catching. Chaucer getting stores. Nettle berry picking. Err..."
She snagged the mus in her beak and half tossed, half rolled it towards the Elite. "Take? For food others. Going to... Going to catch more. Not going deep, though. Staying near tree." To expand on her words, she motioned towards her territory with a sideways nod. It wasn't far off from where she had been hunting, as she feared moving to far from it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:12 pm
"I... you..." Duskwater blinked a few times, and decided to risk another question. "You want some help with bringing your contribution in to the Matron? Because... you'd rather not... leave the vicinity of your tree...?"
He really wasn't sure if he was getting things right, but if he did, then maybe he was starting to get a handle on why this female seemed so... different. She could obviously hunt and fend for herself, and she didn't seem to be a liability to others of any kind, so... maybe her communication problems were a bit related to his own. Maybe, she just didn't get out much, for some reason or other.
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Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:18 pm
She watched him silently for a few moments, then bobbed her head hesitantly. "Yes. Yes. Right. Many catch soon. Not yet, but soon. Start now, now with mus." She tilted her beak towards the fresh kill and bobbed her head again. "Need get... To Matron, get." While it took a moment for them to understand eachother, the wildtype was elated by the fact that he was listening. He might help her help the clan, which was a good thing. The fact that he was a stranger still gnawed at her mind. But he was no ordinary stranger, he was an Elite. She kept this in mind and did her best to act accordingly.
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:13 am
Taking the dead mus in one talon, Duskwater took a moment to consider her request, and he reached the conclusion that a light spot of hunting/gathering was about as restful as flying about looking for things they might have missed the first time around - and he could do the latter at the same time as the former.
"Alright," he rumbled, reverting back to his usual, militaristic attitude. "I'll help you bring your supplies in, but I think we need a little more than just a mus for it to be worth the flight. Let's hunt for a little while, and I'll help you to the best of my abilities until I'm needed elsewhere. How's that sound?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:45 pm
"Good. Good. Many much good. Many thanks, too, yes." Rosinweed nodded curtly and her eartufts twitched. She cast her golden orbs back towards her own tree and she could faintly make out the forms of Chaucer and Nettle. Both were building small piles of berries, nuts, and other things the pair could find.
She turned her attention back to Duskwater, where it lingered for a few moments more.
Suddenly the anxious female was in the air and on silent wings. No sense in wasting valuable hunting time on meaningless chit chat that made her feel uncomfortable.
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