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 Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:51 pm
 It's a beautiful day outside--perfect for flying. Dante aches to stretch his wings a bit and, since he has the afternoon off, free from training or other exercises, go down to the mainland to explore a bit. The Faun child he'd met the last time had been weighing on his conscience. He's eager to find out more about these strange Pae, to find how different they really were from his own kind.
As he tucks his pad and pencil into a leather waist-pouch, along with a small snack, he's struck with an odd thought--what if the Faun types really were as awful as everything he'd read and heard? What if the children were just uncorrupted by the adults? He frowns as he ties the pouch around his waist. In that case, he'd just have to set about rescuing the innocents from that great tree they all lived in.
Dante wanders down to the front gates of Telrunya City, lost in his thoughts. As he exits the City and begins his gentle descent to the main island, he makes his course toward the huge tree looming in the distance. He isn't much of a spy, but perhaps he could at least glean some information without being spotted.
Sooner than he'd expected, Dante lands near the base of the tree. It seems closed up fairly tight, but that's to be expected--they'd all just weathered a fairly substantial storm.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:17 pm
 As the duty of all Faun, taking care of Laisidhiel is number one. Usually the tree is rather self-sustaining, but that bad storm hurt it pretty bad. Branches and leaves were everywhere, and the tree needed special tending. Worst of all though, is that some of the precious acorns from the upper boughs were not harvested in time to be safely tucked into the nursery. There were simply too many, as was reported, and Faun had to take cover or face being swept away in the wind themselves.
Faun acorns are not helpless or defenseless like eggs, contrary to popular belief. They're thick, insulated and tough. They originally fell from the boughs and were harvested from the ground in the olden days, so they were made to fall hundreds of feet and land on hard ground or rocks without becoming damaged. There was no worry about if the unhatched infants were injured. No, the worry is that young Faun were lost on the island, or worse, out at sea. There was no way to know how many acorns were lost, either, so search parties had been sent out to retrieve any that could be recovered.
Kishi while not one of the specially chosen to go out and retrieve the acorns was instead helping to pick up the litter. Not a job she would have chosen for herself, but she was too scared of Rais to protest. But that wouldn't stop her from looking on her own time, once she was done bundling twigs.
Clean up was paused for the afternoon meal so, she took the opportunity to head across the bridge to the island.
"Where would an airborne acorn go?" she thought alloud while looking up toward the sky for answers.
A flash of green out of the corner of her eye caused the pale pink faun to stumble back a bit. "Thanks for the answer..." she whispered and slowly made her way towards where she saw it head.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:34 pm
Dante lands gently, only stumbling a little on the uneven terrain. There are leaves and small boughs littering the ground. He looks up at the tree, a pang of hope surges through his chest. Despite their backwardness, he can't help but hope that everyone within was unhurt. Nobody deserved to be caught in a hurricane.
Still, with the destruction of the lighthouse, Dante can't help but wonder if the storm were meant to punish or to teach a lesson.
Suddenly, a moving shape in the distance catches his eye. Oh dear, it was another Faun! Dante quickly tries to hide without making much noise. Hopefully his green coloring would further camouflage him amid the foliage. He dives into a bush.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:47 pm
Kishi trotted towards the bushes she seen the streak of green disappear behind. She didn't know what exactly it was, but it had been a direct answer to her question, she was absolutely sure of that. Maybe a big bird. It looked feathery, she thought.
"Hello?"
She approached slowly now, not wanting to startle the creature. "Did you come to help me?"
She tried to look in the bush, but she didn't really see anything in there. That and she was slightly anxious about what it could possibly be.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:53 pm
Dante stays stock-still for a moment, hoping that the pink creature would move along. How did he manage to get himself into these things? He barely dares to breathe.
But then....help? Dante bites his lip. It could be a trap. But....oh, how it tugged at his heartstrings. Not only would he feel horrible if the Pae in distress moved on without him knowing how he could help, he would feel like a failure to the Guardians. A true Knight wouldn't hesitate to help someone in need.
Sheepishly he crawls out of the bush and stands up, picking foliage from between his feathers. He waves a little and writes a message: What do you need help with? He offers it to the pale creature, who he could only assume from the cadence of her voice was a female.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 4:14 pm
Kishi was startled to see a young green angel Pae crawl from the bushes. She'd never seen one up close before. They're kinda neat looking, she thinks. She wanted to touch his feathers to see if they were as soft as bird feathers, but her anxiety about meeting an angel kept her hands to herself.
When instead of saying something to her, he held out a piece of paper, Kishi tipped her head. What was he doing?
Hesitating only slightly, she reached out and took the paper to inspect it. She turned it sideways, upside down and looked on the opposite side as well trying to figure out what it was. "Pretty. What is it?" she asked as held the paper up close to her face then slowly pulled it back, trying to figure out what he drew.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 6:13 pm
Dante stares wide-eyed at the woman. Couldn't she read? Gently he takes the pad from her and sets it right, and gives it to her again, pointing to the words. He hopes the words penetrate her brain soon, or else they'd be in trouble.
How could he communicate without speech or writing? Just to be sure, he points to his mouth and shakes his head, trying to tell her that he can't speak.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:14 pm
Kishi tipped her head as she watched Dante point to the words and then point to his mouth and shake his head. She thought good and hard about what he was trying to do, and then, as if the lightbulb was visible above her head, it came to her.
"You don't speak Common!"
She gently pulled the pad and his writing instrument from his hands, in her excitement not realizing it had a rather firm grip on them. She draws a couple things on the paper, one looks like a leaf, another an acorn and then the symbol of Rais Circle.
She scratched her head a moment then scrawled another little picture. She used the ancient Faun rune system of written communication to write her name, in case maybe he'd understand that. She gave his stuff back to him and then pointed at the rune, then at herself and back and forth a few times while saying "keee-sheee."
Speaking slow, not knowing he could understand her, she ignorantly thought it might help the communication problem. "I ... am searching..." she started pantomiming with her fingers, making two of them 'walk', "for acorns," then she pointed to the picture.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 8:09 pm
Well, that wasn't entirely incorrect. He can't speak Common. But he can certainly understand it. He listens patiently to Kishi's explanation while peering at the strange writing. He wonders if the library at home has chronicled this odd pictorial language. He wonders if it might be useful to learn.
Snapping his attention back to matters at hand, he blinks as she explains she's looking for acorns. Acorns? Why on earth would she be looking for acorns? Perhaps they were...stowing away food? Acorns were edible, right?
He takes his pad and pencil back and writes, perhaps futilely, I can help you look, if you want. If he helped, he'd be doing something nice for someone else, and he'd maybe find out why she was looking for acorns. He offers the pad of paper back to her and then tries to pantomime, like she had. He points to himself, then puts his hand above his eyebrows and looks around, then points to Kishi.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:38 pm
Kishi watched the young angel write on his pad again, and she got up on tip-hoof to see if she could see what pictures he was drawing. Just more squiggles and curly-q's she thought to herself. She stepped back half of a step to see if she could read his body language, which is something she didn't exactly do consciously.
When he pantomimed she squealed with glee and clapped her hands together. "You'll help!? Great!" She reached out to see if she could use his pad again, this time not being quite as pushy as to just take it. She wanted to draw a little picture of the Acorn so that he would know what he was looking for.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 8:10 pm
Dante offers the pad and pencil back to her. He wishes he could just tell her that she can just talk to him. Well, but then they wouldn't have to bother with all this, would they? He watches her draw a picture of an acorn, wondering why she feels the need to do this. He knows what acorns look like...
It does give him this general sense of pride and goodness, seeing her reaction when she realized he'd help her. This puts a soft smile on her face. Perhaps he'd learn some valuable information about these backward, hoofed Pae who had fallen so far away from the Guardians. Perhaps he'd learn why they had turned from the Guardians who loved them like children. Perhaps he could usher at least this one Pae'il into a new life of light and salvation.
And he'd start by helping her find acorns.
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Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:02 am
Kishi was so grateful that this young pae happened to come along today to help her. As she stood with the pad after drawing the acorn, she started thinking about how to draw a little baby Faun. Then a little light bulb went off over her head, and the visible reaction was obvious that she'd just had a brilliant idea.
"Do you understand me?" she asked, as if it might not have been obvious to the other pae, either.
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