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 Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:52 am
 Lexie came to a running halt.
In front of her, stood a barrier of thick trees and bushes, which would probably be more trouble than it was worth to get through. She sighed deeply, another dead end.
Lexie was on another quest to actually find the Human Settlement. She had never seen i before, ad desperately wanted to, to see what a Human actually looked like, and to learn about them. She knew that some Palui actually lived with the humans, and she wanted to find out why. She was just so curious about anything and everything to do with the humans. But it looked like she wasn't about to find anything out.
She placed her behind on the ground, and looked up at the vegetation in front of her - she was panting a little from running. She then began to look around for another alternate route that would possibly lead her closer to her goal. She just hoped that she was actually going in the right direction.
A soft breeze blew across her face; she closed her eyes, enjoying it's cooling sensation across her brow. Lexie then began to sniff at the breeze, wondering if she could pick up any kind of sent from it. But she stopped, realising that even if she did smell anything, she had no clue what the Human Settlement smelt like, so it was pointless.
She sighed deeply once again, standing up and turning around to try and find another route.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:03 am
 Okay! So... He'd turned right at the big tree on his way out so he needed to turn left on the way back!... it would help if he could actually find the big tree. Ceallach trotted along through the forest, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. This was the last time he played hide and seek with Aine! She was too good at is, and had way more sense of direction than he did. His daughter was probably back at the den right now, eating fruit and feeling smug.
Several times he thought he had found the tree he was looking for, but each time as he drew nearer he realized he was wrong. well this was just great. Ceallach sighed and sat down, raising a hind leg to scratch an itchy ear. Once the itch was gone, he lowered his leg again and chuckled at himself. What a stupid situation to have got himself into! He was not especially worried, he would find his way home in the end and knew where to look for food and water, but he did feel really silly!... Oh! Another palui!
Ceallach got back to his paws and trotted towards the blue female. "Hey there!" he called. "I'm Ceallach. You don't happen to know the way to the human settlement, do you?" He didn't recognize her, but it was worth a try! She might just be from the other side of the settlement to him or something, or might be wild but still know where to find the humans. He sure hoped so; he wanted to go home and have a nap!
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:19 am
Lexie jumped slightly - the sudden call of another Palui startled her. She should have been more alert!
Flicking her ears in the direction of the Palui, she then turned to see a red and black male - fire essence, just like her - with quite interesting patterns and markings adorning his fur.
Lexie had to stop herself from laughing at his question, but couldn't keep a grin from her face.
"Well, this is rather ironic" She chuckled, "For you see, I'm looking for the Human Settlement myself".
She then laughed a bit, and sat down once again.
"But, you see, I don't know the way there, I've never even seen it before!" She exclaimed, in a slightly embarrassed tone at her lack of knowledge on the subject. She cocked her head to the side and titled one ear downward in a curious manner.
"Have you not been there either?" She asked him
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:27 am
Aww. Oh well, you couldn't always get lucky he supposed. Ceallach gave a sheepish grin and shook his head. "Nope, wish I could say I'd not been there before, but I live there! I just got myself a bit lost playing hide and seek with my daughter. I guess she got bored of looking for me and headed on home... Want to go looking for it together? I'm sure I'll recognize a landmark eventually." And if he didn't, well, there were plenty of people who'd come looking for him if he wasn't back by dinner time.
Hehe. How dumb was he, not being able to find his way back to a place he'd lived for... err... for a while, he wasn't actually sure how long it had been. Still, this could be sort of fun, a mini-adventure, questing for the lost settlement of the humans! He just hoped it wouldn't be a very long quest; he'd seen some really nice fruits in the bowl that he was sure had been meant for dinner. If he didn't get back quite soon it would all be gone!
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:40 am
Lexie was quite surprised. Ceallach lived at the human settlement, but couldn't find his way back? It was quite funny actually, and made her giggle a bit.
"Kids get bored quickly don't they" Lexie chuckled, thinking of her own daughter Remiz and her short attention span. Remiz had been a bit of a pawful when she was a little kit, but now she had left home, and Lexie didn't get to see her that often. It was a shame really, as even though she could be annoying, Lexie really enjoyed spending time with her only daughter.
Lexie then stood up, nodding at his offer.
"That sounds like a plan!" She replied, smiling at him.
"Oh yes, how rude of me, I'm Lexie by the way" She said, trotting over to him, "It's nice to meet you Ceallach".
She began to look at their green surroundings, then asked "Do you know what direction the settlement is in?", still looking around them.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:49 am
Ceallach chuckled and nodded. "Nice to meet you too, and you've got that right Lexie. She's pretty well an adult now actually but she still has the brain of a kit. At least she has a better sense of direction than a leaf though, can't say the same for me! I swear, I could get lost inside a paper bag!"
Which way then? Err... Well he'd have to guess. "Well... We came out in the morning," Ceallach said slowly. "The sun was behind us then... if it's mid afternoon now then... err... then I don't know." The fire palui grinned again and shook his head. "If it was getting dark I'd say put the sun behind us again but as it isn't... Downhill. The human settlement is on low ground, and even if we go past it, once you get to the coast it's easy to find." Fairly easy in any case, he'd never tried to find his way back from the coast alone, but he had wandered along it with Red so often by now that he was sure he'd remember the way.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:58 am
Lexie grinned as he described his daughter. She sounded like Remiz in a way, as Lexie imagined she wouldn't have suddenly matured into an adult, and would probably still have the heart of a kit.
Lexie stood there pondering for a minute or two, taking in what Ceallach was saying.
"Hmm, well, the sun rises in the East, and sets in the West, that means the human settlement must be West" she declared, pointing the way she had originally been going with her paw, "However, this is a dead end, so, we'll have to back track a little way to find another route round".
She felt quite pleased that she had actually been going the right way, and couldn't help but grin slightly, proud of herself.
"And like you said, if we miss it, we can follow the coast" She said, shuddering slightly at the thought of being near the ocean.
Lexie hated the ocean, as it was her biggest thread. She couldn't really swim, and if her flames were doused, she'd be in a lot of trouble.
But Ceallach was a fire Palui too, and he didn't seem to be bothered by the sea.
Lexie shook her head. Everyone had different fears.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:18 am
Oh, well good! He really needed to learn where east and west and north and south were, it would be a lot of help at time like this! "Right, of course," Ceallach nodded to his fellow flame-ear. "Let's try going this way maybe?" he suggested, pointing with a paw. It looked as good a direction as any to him, but Lexie seemed pretty savvy about these things so if she had a different idea he was happy to go along with it.
"So, you've not seen a human before?" Cellach asked, tilting his head in question. It was hard to imagine that there were people around who hadn't, but then he hadn't actually seen a human until... until whenever it had been he'd met Red and the kits. He didn't even think it had been a full turn of seasons, but honestly he'd never been good at keeping track of time.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:43 am
Lexie nodded at his suggestion, and started following the way his paw had pointed.
She shook her head.
"No, never. Although, I really want to! I've only heard brief things about the settlement and humans, and I really want to learn more" She exclaimed, a twinkle in her eye at the thought of all the things she could learn if she ever got there.
Sometimes she wondered to herself if her curiosity would end up getting her into a large amount of trouble with these humans. It's not like it hadn't put her in a bad position before; there had been many times where she was at risk of getting hurt because she had wanted to investigate something, and gone somewhere or done something she shouldn't of.
But, Lexie had never heard anything negative about the humans, but then again, she hadn't heard much about them at all.
She walked silently for a few minutes, hopping over fallen branches and small rocks, when a question popped into her mind.
"Do you live with a human Ceallach?" She asked curiously, wondering what he could tell her about them.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 8:40 am
Ceallach grinned and nodded to his traveling companion. "I sure do! Three humans actually. A big adult male with red head-fur, and his two female kits. I call him Red, the older girl is Cackles because of her weird laugh, and the younger one is Books because she's always looking at them... Books are things that humans look at a lot, I think they tell them things which is kind of odd because they're just a load of thin white leaf-type things stuck together with squiggles on them. I guess they must be interesting though if Books likes them so much."
He'd sat with her and looked at them a few times, but his eyes had quickly gone crossed and then he'd got bored and gone to watch Red making a cupboard. Much as he might not get the point, he knew that they were important; Teacher looked at them a lot as well, and seemed to talk to the kits about them.
"The kits make their own books as well," he added with a frown, "they get ones without squiggles and then add them when they go to see Teacher-human. It must be the squiggles that are important, but I've never really seen how they work. Guess it's a human thing."
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Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:03 am
Lexie listening intently, fascinated by what Ceallach was telling her. His humans seemed very interesting! She was curious to meet them - that's if they ever did make it to the human settlement. But hearing Ceallach talking about his humans made Lexie hopeful, as it sounded like they would look for him if he didn't go home.
However, she was even more intrigued by these 'books'. She had never heard of such a thing! What were they? What did they look like? Thin white leaf things? And these squiggles, she wondered what they meant. It seemed the humans understood them, but Palui couldn't, else she would of thought Ceallach would have been able to work out something about them - he didn't seem like the slow type.
"So, these books are made by the humans? Even kits can makes them? And the humans make the squiggles?" She asked him as they carried on through the vegetation, trying to find another way around.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:24 am
Cellach paused for a moment and made a pondering noise in the back of his throat before trotting on beside the other palui. "Well, not quite. The books come already made. They're rectangular usually, and come in lots of different colours and sizes. The ones the humans make squiggles in are usually plain on the outside, but the ones they look at vary a lot. Some have pictures on them, but some as plain too. Some of them are even covered in some sort of thick hide; I don't know what sort of animal it comes from though." He's always thought it was a bit odd to wrap a book in skin, but that was humans for you, very very strange things.
"The ones they look at usually have very regular squiggles on them," he went on with a knowledgeable nod as he hopped over a jutting tree root. "I think they're made by the clickie boxes humans play with sometimes. They have... a sort of a flat stone with lots of little square stones set into them. They little stones each have one of the squiggle markings on them, and when you press them that marking comes up on a magic lit-up flat thing." It was all very complex, but pretty interesting. Bright Eyes was really a lot more interested in them than he was though, and seemed to know a few more of the proper words for human things than he did. None of it ever seemed to make her brain hurt but frankly his was spinning a bit after trying to describe the weird human device.
"When we get to the settlement, maybe I can find one and show it to you," Ceallach suggested with a rueful grin, "I kind of suck a describing things."
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