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 Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:50 pm
 Sunburst peered out one of the small but modest cabin hut's windows, watching the Natives and the occasional foreigner doing what they did outside. It was one of those uneventful days, when her human, Bjorn was at the local school he volunteered at, and he wasn't around. She's been at the school before, but was overwhelmed by the children wanting to pet and play with her. Now, she was a playful individual herself, but she was once wild... and wasn't used to people yet.
Her companion, Eucalyptus, had gone off with the human.. he was shy at first, too, but was more used to people than she was.
Well, she wasn't going to be sitting around here bored all day. Sunburst leaped off of the chair she had been standing on and slinked out the door's flap (it had been built in so she could come and go whenever she and Eukkie pleased), and headed outside. Come to think of it, she hadn't made that many friends on this settlement.. Ah well, maybe she could find something to do down the shore.
Sunburst padded along the beach, but froze when she spotted a small group of Native children playing around close by. They seemed to have noticed her, too, and soon ran over, surrounding her.
"What a cutie!" one of the girls cooed in her native tongue, kneeling down to pet her.
The poor Palui trembled, unsure of what to do.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 6:37 am
Shaking his head and flicking one fire-tipped ear, the black and red creature headed onward in search of something interesting to do; by the time he found something to do, done it and then wanted to head home, Conall would probably have arrived home and dried himself and then he could pester the human for a lap to sit in. Failing him, Nuala and Rachel would probably be home from school by then and though their laps weren’t quite as comfortable as their father’s, they were rather too small, they were usually easier to persuade.
Having thus planned his day, the dark-coated palui picked up his pace a little; he was well aware what a lazy beast he was most of the time, and as such when he headed out for a day’s adventure he tried to get a bit of running in. It wasn’t too long, however, before Ceallach tired of hurrying and slowed back to an easy trot, looking about himself as he did so.
Ah-ha! The fire palui chirruped cheerfully to himself as he spotted the knot of girls, and the pink-furred palui they were fussing over. Deciding that this was probably his interested for the day, Ceallach trotted over to the brightly coloured female, coming to a halt a short distance away from her.
“Hey there,” he called with a grin, “those humans bothering you? I can probably get their attention off you if you like.” He was getting really quite good at making humans notice him; things like standing up on his back legs and cooing at them seemed to work for one, as did backflips. The former, however, was his own preference; he’d fallen flat on his back more often than he’d actually managed to pull off a flip and whilst a failed flip usually still got him attention, it was really quite embarrassing.
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:23 pm
By the time the fellow Flame Palui arrived to the scene, Sunburst was being smothered with petting. Eucalyptus warned her not to bite, especially the human kits, and it was very tempting. The petting was just too much, that she had yet to learn that it was really a good thing, and it should feel good. When Bjorn petted her -- giving her one of those little scratches behind the ear or beneath the chin -- he was gentle. But these children!
She didn't even notice Ceallach until he spoke, and that was when the girls turned to oogle him. Her fur was all ruffled from the petting, and she almost resembled a cat who had been given a bath: appalled. Then the pink Palui huffed, but when she opened her mouth to say something, nothing came out.
No, she wouldn't had been able to handle this on her own. Eukkie would find amusement in all of this before even bothering to help out. To summarize, Sunburst hated being the damsel in distress.
"Alright, then. Let's see you handle these.. these... kits."
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:29 am
The spotted palui grinned over at the more brightly-hued creature and nodded. “Well, I’ll do my best.” There certainly were quite a few of them, and whilst he was very fond of fuss he had no intention of making a day of it. Hopefully the girls would tire of him, and indeed the ruffled pink female, reasonably quickly. Still, it looked like he would be better able to tolerate their attentions than she.
Giving a cheerful chirrup, Ceallach sat back on his haunches and then lifted his front paws off the ground. “Hey humans, look at me! Aren’t I cute? You know you wanna pet me, come over here!” Obviously the two-legged creatures couldn’t understand a word he was saying, silly creatures, but hopefully his meaning would be conveyed. Failing that, his chattering out to at least get their attention. “So then who’re you?” the fire palui asked with another grin to the pink creature. “I’m Ceallach.”
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:23 am
The girls began to giggle when Ceallach did his thing, and eventually they began to pet him, cooing over him. Sunburst couldn't help but gawk, how their petting didn't seem to bother him at all. Well, she really shouldn't be surprised, considering that this fellow was most likely one of the pet Palui on this human settlement. She noticed how the girls were a little more gentler, probably because of the flames on his ears.
She wrinkled her nose and began to preen herself, smoothing out her ruffled fur. "The name's Sunburst."
Then, she perked up when she heard other humans, but they were the grown up ones. They were calling for their daughters, and the girls stopped their petting to return to their mothers.
"Phew... I don't think I can ever get used to that," Sunburst said.
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:24 am
Ceallach chuckled as the girls ran off and gave himself a quick shake before trotting over to Sunburst. “Nice to meet you,” he said with a nod, plopping himself back down in the sand a short distance away from her, “and glad I could be of help. Me, I’m a sucker for being petted, brushed, cuddled and fussed over; I have my two human kits pamper me all the time... So do you have a human of your own?”
She didn’t really seem like the type what with her attitude towards human attention and everything but it was possible that he was wrong, and of course it was an easy way to slip into conversation which was good.
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 8:35 am
"Psh, one human is more than enough for me.. and I do have one of my own, actually. I thought he was kind of stupid the first time I saw him, but he really isn't so bad. I came to this human's nest because of him.."
Sunburst grinned to herself, pawing idly at at one of those spiral shells. It suddenly sprouted legs and the hermit crab hobbled away. "It was this one day where I was watching over my sister's kits, and one of those horrible feathered monsters swooped by and tried to pick up a snack. Then he just came outta no where and shooed the bird off."
She rolled onto her back, squinting up at the sun before closing her eyes for a moment. "I could'a handled it myself... Y'know, my human brought me to a place full of those human kits one time. It was twice as worse as what happened now, and I was so mad at him. Eukkie -- my friend that I live with -- just finds it funny that I can't handle stuff like that.. I kinda.. want to try to get used to it."
Then she looked sheepish. "Sorry, I'm probably boring you with my human problems. So, did ya live here your whole life?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:14 am
Ceallach grinned again and shook his head. “Na, you’re not boring me, I can understand the feeling; I found humans a bit weird at first but I guess I adjusted a lot quicker than you. Hehe, I like that they fall over themselves to give me food, that’s fun.”
Chuckling to himself, the fire palui paused to scratch an ear with one hind foot before flicking the fire-tipped appendage and turning his attention back to Sunburst. “I lived near here when I was a kit, didn't have a human of my own and didn’t have much to do with them but I saw them around. When I got a bit bigger though I went exploring the island a bit more and ended up living up at the volcano for a while. Eventually though I decided to come back down and see what things were like back in my old haunts.”
The spotted palui gave a snort of amusement then and shook his head. “Turned out my favorite old den had a human home built on it though, so I figured I’d move in. It was empty for a little while, and just as I started getting comfortable my humans moved in. I decided to stay in any case, because like I say they feed me and make a fuss of me and give me comfortable places to sleep. Oh, and the two kits play with me when I feel like it too, which is nice.”
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:04 pm
"Surprised you haven't burned the place down yet," Sunburst teased. The only other Fire Palui she has seen around here was Helios... He was quite the eccentric fellow, but didn't know him as well as Eucalyptus did. "My family was simple, and never found changing necessary.. Sometimes I wonder how it feels like. So did you decide to be one of the Flame Ears on your own, or did it just happen?"
It has actually been a while since Sunburst had a normal conversation like this. Sunburst was all about action, whether it be play fighting with Eukkie, or catching a fish down by the river.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:07 am
The black and red palui grinned. “Well I sort of decided, I guess,” he said with a nod, “it seemed sensible given where I was living and I think it suits me, too. Means I can’t swim anymore, but I was never really fond of water anyway so that’s no big loss.” His humans seemed to be fond of him as he was as well, though possibly they would have liked him no matter what kind of palui he had been.
“So, you ever wanted to change yourself?” Ceallach asked of the other palui with a tilt of his head. So far as he understood it, humans who lived with a palui would often choose what it became themselves. That seemed a bit of a raw deal to him, but perhaps he wouldn't really have minded; it was always hard to imagine how he’d feel or act had his life taken a different course than it had. It seemed rather pointless, too; things were as they were and so long as he was happy with them there was no need to go wondering what might have happened had he done this, or not done that or whatever else.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:18 pm
"Hnn, don't like water? I find swimming an enjoyable thing to do sometimes for leisure, but I guess everyone has their preferences."
Sunburst blinked.
"I'm considering it, but I dun' know what would fit me the best. My companion's Leaf attuned, but it happened by accident. Eukkie was playing Catch, or somethin', but the ball accidentally landed in a box of flowers some human was giving out, and he landed in 'em. I didn't see this myself, since I wasn't with them yet at the time, but he said he just suddenly poofed into what he is now.
He thinks being a Flame Ears would suit me best, but it'd conflict with swimming. Ah well, I have plenty of time to think it over... Heck, maybe I'll stay like this for the rest of my life, which isn't much of a problem. I don't live in the wild anymore, so I don't have to worry about becoming bigger and stronger..."
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 10:59 am
Ceallach grinned and nodded his agreement. “That’s sure true; life’s a lot easier when you’ve got a human running around after you, never have to worry about where your next meal might come from and that.” How did humans manage it, he wondered? He’d followed all of his humans around on their daily routines more than once, and none of them ever forged or hunted.
Instead, they went down to a street that always seemed to be full of humans with excess of food. His humans handed over strange metal circles or pieces of paper, and were given food in exchange. To Ceallach at least it made no sense at all but it all seemed to work out in the end, and quite efficiently really. Odd though humans were, you had to give them credit for ingenuity.
“So where is your human at the minute?” the fire palui asked, glancing around in case said human happened to be approaching. “Mine’s back there,” he gestured back along the beach, “playing in the water with the horse.”
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:31 pm
"Yep, the food would be right there and ready for you. It's like the humans have... everything."
Sunburst was beginning to view the humans as a dominant people on this island.. when she used to feel like they were rather condescending towards her kind. They seemed friendly enough, too, but she didn't know how to quite handle the younger ones yet. Maybe she should give the little ones another shot.
Then she blinked when Ceallach gestured to his human, her eyes slightly widening when she saw the two-legger on a much larger, stone-footed beast.
"My human? He's -- ah, I see him!"
Up further ahead, Bjorn was leading a group of children -- both Natives and foreigners -- who held little drawing pads, while he was holding a bucket of crayons. Sunburst noticed that Eukkie wasn't with him this time, and was probably with his.. lover. She watched as the group settled down somewhere and began to do something with those.. objects.
"Um. Would you like to meet my human?" Sunburst asked after a while, glancing over at Ceallach.
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:59 am
Ceallach watched the approaching humans with his head on one side for a few moments before turning back to Sunburst and nodding. “Sure thing, I like meeting new people even ones who don’t understand me. I’ll introduce you to mine later too if you like; they’re generally pretty polite, only fuss over you if you go looking for it and don’t tug on your ears or anything.”
It looked as though Sunburst’s human did something a little like the brown-haired female who watched Conall’s kits during the day; he’d never really worked out what most of the things they were taught were for but it was obvious that teaching of some sort was taking place.
“So then,” Ceallach got back to his paws and gave the pink female a smile, “after you.”
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:01 am
"They really don't tug on your ears?" Sunburst blinked, then eyed the flames that were constantly burning at the tips of Ceallach's ears. Maybe that's because why, but she had no idea how those human kits of his acted around other Palui, so... "They seem more well behaved than those other little two leggers."
Then, when Ceallach gestured for her to go first, she just beamed and began to pad in Bjorn's direction. Sunburst honestly didn't know the concept of being gentlemanly, but it made more sense to her to take the lead. It didn't take long for her human to spot her.
"Well! If it isn't my cute little, pink fluffball~"
"Parururu!" Sunburst wagged her tail and nuzzled his arm, as it was in reach since he was sitting down. Then she turned to Ceallach, smiling brightly.
Bjorn grinned and petted her, then looked to the Fire Palui. "What's this? Have you made a new friend?" Smiling, he reached into his pocket and pulled out some dried pieces of fruit, Sunburst's favorite treats. Though they were dried on the outside, they were nice, sweat, and chewy. He held out his palm with the treats between Sunburst and Ceallach, so each of them can get a share.
The children were distracted from what they're supposed to do, giggling and watching the two Palui from where they sat. Sunburst was surprised they weren't attacking her with pettings, but she happily snatched a treat for herself.
"Hey, maybe if you showed off, you'll get more treats!" She chirped, glancing over to Ceallach.
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