|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 9:38 am
Mornings found Patrek Falconer in the courtyard of the Oldtown inn, thwacking at a beat-up and figureless wooden block with an old blunt sword. He was a soldier and a man of discipline, and habit had him up with the early light of dawn, hacking away at the training dummy as if it was a living, breathing foe. Patrek had never been well-acquainted with technology, though, and he didn't trust guns. They had the tendency to malfunction, and he was not prepared to trust something that couldn't prove its consistency. There was nothing quite like the grip of a sword hilt in his hand.
Halfway through the morning, a smattering of images blared through his mind, sequential as always and somehow haphazardly analytic, followed by a bright flare of indignant emotion. It had been days since this had first happened, but it still hit him like a slap in the face every time and made him realize anew that his consciousness was no longer really his own, but something malleable and movable and shared with a scrawny little creature currently residing in the barn.
Tentatively, Patrek reached for Careo with his mind, trying to project calm and reassurance to the little fawn whose eyes burned like cold and unrelenting ice. But he was far from adept at communicating anything to the pale fawn, and he felt as though he had hit a wall instead of the young deer's consciousness. So Patrek sighed and straightened, lowering his sword as he tried to rally his concentration in the face of the fawn's growing fury. And finally, he could take it not more. He all but dumped the sword onto the ground and turned toward the stable to bellow as loud as he could, "AUFIDIUS, YOU GREAT OAF. QUIT BUGGING THE DEER."
But there was no response, and with each ticking moment, Patrek felt his fawn grow a little closer to becoming unhinged. Careo did not enjoy being treated like a pet, thank you very much, and he would not be putting up with the caressing and the patting and the stupid crooning for much longer. Had the fawn been a human toddler, he would no doubt have resorted to violent anger and smacked the reckless human across the knees. As it was, Patrek had little doubt that Careo was gearing up to unleash a flurry of hoofbeats across Aufidius' shins. "AUFIDIUS, YOU BLOODY INGRATE, LET THE DAMN DEER OUT."
This time, Patrek saw the image of a backward glance and flying hooves, and he heard a whooping yell from the stable, and in the next minute the now-familiar sight of the little ice-pale deer trotting out into the open greeted the soldier's gaze. His dark eyes met the fawn's lighter, brighter ones and he felt recognition run through him, and something that might have been joy. He wasn't sure whether that had come from him or from the fawn, but he greeted the little critter with a smile anyway, and waved Careo over. The deer stood still and regarded him for a moment, pondering, and then decided to obey and walked unhurriedly over to join his Chosen in the training yard. Ah.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 10:25 am
 Grinning widely a preteen walked down the road tossing a few apples. His fawn was trailing beside him, the young creature to held an apple and was nearly prancing as he went along. Both were pleased from the success of the day. Three apples two tarts and a skewer of a meat better left unnamed. Barry had found his thieving was so much easier with the young fawn at his side. The deer cause many to stop and stare and all he had to do was go behind them and take what he could then leave. It didn’t always work, sometimes someone happened behind him or he tripped. Yet it didn’t matter, for the first time in a long time Barry had food in his stomach and someone to talk to.
As they went they had been with no notice on their part, following the sound of slapping objects. It was a new sound; they had never gone this far away from the orphanage. So when the thudding stopped and a man yelled about a deer, Barry jumped in fright and whirled around expecting one of the cart owners had followed; but no one had. The shout happened again and Barry jogged forward to come suddenly to an open space, and the sight of another deer. He had never seen another; in fact when he went back to the orphanage he had hidden Rowan away so no one could see him.
Seeing another was a shock, but seeing the sword wielding man was even more so. Rowan must have agreed for the fawn shoved Barry back the way they came. It perhaps would be better not to allow anyone like this to see him. He always heard the people shout that his hands would be cut off. Or worse. What if he wasn’t supposed to have Rowan, what if the man tried to take him?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 7:16 am
When Careo reached his Chosen, he stopped an arm's length away and simply stared at Patrek for a moment before touching his nose briefly to the soldier's outstretched palm. Then with a snuff, he snatched his muzzle back and the moment ended just as swiftly as it had begun. Any bystanders unfamiliar with the pair might have thought the fawn flighty and high-strung, but he had improved already from the day he had first appeared, and if anything, this brief encounter was quickly becoming a routine part of their lives. It was simply the way they greeted each other - or, rather, the way Careo greeted Patrek.
"How are you then, lad?" When the soldier spoke, his voice was soft and nothing like the one he used to speak to people. He didn't try to lay his hands on the fawn, having learned to respect the little creature's space. If Careo wanted to be touched, he would ask for it.
But something had caught the fawn's attention now, and his ears flicked forward, icy eyes staring across the yard as he stood with locked legs slightly splayed and his nose twitching to catch the scents. If Rowan or Barry had thought to slip away unnoticed, they were too late. Patrek alone may well have missed the pair, but Careo rarely missed things, and certainly not another pair so like himself and his Chosen.
Patrek's consciousness was battered by a series of images, and he whipped around to face the boy and his deer in time to see the darker fawn try to shove the boy backwards. Well, if that wasn't suspicious behavior, Patrek didn't know what was. "Hey! You there, boy!" His voice rang out loud and clear cross the courtyard, a little harsher than he had intended.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 10:14 am
Barry was turning to leave. Rowan was really smart for some animal; he tended to listen to the fawn. When the gold eyed creature shoved him it meant move and fast. He had taken just a few steps when the cutting voice rang out. In shock Barry fell on his backside and his apples scattered each making a thump of their own as they landed. Rowan gave a bark like sound of surprise and hurriedly pushed on his Chosen’s back to get him up.
The young Fawn had dropped his own apple. Its gold eyes turned to the unknown others, he fed off his chosen’s fear of being taken away, and it was a maddening panic that settled into his mind at times. Not from here, Barry knew nothing of the legends or tales, and didn’t even know why a bit of wood he thought he stole turned into a fawn. The boy hardly got up when he tripped on an apple and groaned. They were defiantly caught now. Flashes of things, badges angry monster like people and pain made Barry shutter. Guards.
This guy had to be one if that’s what Rowan was sending along with a stomach churning flashes of other things like running hiding and the horrid smell of an ally. Struggling to at least sit up, Barry glared at the man. Rowan was standing beside his chosen, his head lowered threateningly. Maybe if the little fawn had antlers it might have been a worthwhile threat. “I didn’t do anything.” He grabbed his apples and shoved them into his layered clothes quickly, then rubbed at his cheek only smudging more of the dirt onto his cheek.
“We took a wrong turn is all, now leave off and go find a baby falling on someone that you can arrest.” He glared angrily at the man and struggled to get up, now sore from his falls. He bent and took Rowans apple from the ground, the little fawn’s body was twitching, ready to bolt as soon as Barry did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 7:30 am
The boy's fawn was more full of erratic and child-like energy than Careo. Both soldier and deer sensed it in the little creature's hasty shove and bark of surprise, though the latter seemed more interested in the rolling apples than in the other human or his deer. Careo had seen plenty of deer before - or, at least, if he had not seen, then at least, he had felt. There were always spirits or presences that tugged at him, left and right, and let him know that there were others nearby.
Still, the fear was almost rank in the air as the pale fawn turned his brilliant blue stare back onto the boy and his fawn, an unsettling sense of panic that had settled into the courtyard. So strong was the emotion that there was nothing to do but to project it back out, to push it away and hope for the best.
What Patrek felt, then, was the sudden flash of reflected emotion, strong but somehow distant, removed from himself and partly from Careo. He had to pause and think for a moment, trying to understand. Then, ah. Their fear. He turned to the boy, now sprawled on the ground, and he closed the gap between them in one swift step. "I didn't ask," he said, more gruffly than he had intended. He wasn't good with children, least of all children that seemed to want to get away from him.
But there was something about that very act of trying to get away that made Patrek determined not to let him do so until the situation had been figured out. He grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt. "Not so fast."
Even as he spoke, Careo deigned the situation appropriate for movement, and finally broke from his leg-locked stance to make his way unhurriedly over, nose twitching to scent the boy and the air and the apples all together.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 10:58 am
Barry wasn’t paying attention to the other two, he didn’t care. He had to get the apples and he had to run. He couldn’t risk losing a hand for thieving. Or worse, the man drag him to the orphanage and tell them he was making trouble. He would be beat black and blue and not allowed out of the cupboard for days. Then how would he feed rowan, how would he protect the little fawn and make sure no one took him away? Rowan was all he had here. He managed to get to his feet and turned his back on the man only to feel a hand grab his coat.
Rowan was young, too young to feel others emotions; he only felt his own and his chosen. He couldn’t tell what these two wanted. He could hardly tell what his chosen wanted. The small fawn trembled as he watched the human approach, bigger than a lot he had seen; but then lots of humans were bigger than him. He barked, trying to warn his chosen of the danger, but Barry was distracted shifting the apples so they wouldn’t fall when they ran. The Rowan watched with large eyes, as Barry was grabbed.
Barry himself started kicking and squirming. “Let me go! Let me go!” He was trying to distract the man, he had so many layers of clothes, and if he just wiggled enough he could ditch the coat and run. Rowans ears flattened, angered by the fact his chosen was being man handled. He lowered his head and made to tackle the large human. His small body filled with anger; something he had never before felt. The fear that tinged it was nothing new, he was always afraid, his own emotions or his chosens.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:26 pm
If the boy hadn't had his deer with him, Patrek might have been more interested in the apples. Justice, or whatever it would have been, although he wouldn't have thrilled at the idea of having to drag the young felon back to Palisade with him - if he ever even left for Palisade, that was. The soldier was growing more doubtful as the weeks went by. He and Aufidius had originally held off the trip on the grounds that Patrek's leg was in no fit state for riding or walking, but he was all but healed now, and still his younger companion showed no signs of preparing to leave. It was a long way back to Palisade, in any case.
But he was interested enough in this boy and his deer to overlook any sort of suspicious activity with the apples. His gaze drifted to the fallen fruit, prepared to use them as a means to detain the boy if need by. The arrest wasn't what interested the soldier, though. Instead, he shifted his attention back to the squirming child and he shook the boy with a roll of his eyes. "Quit it, lad," he managed to say, even as the boy's fawn caught his eye.
It was just a little thing, but Patrek didn't doubt that it could bowl him over if it really tried. Reflexes made him jerk around, hauling the boy into harm's way before realizing what he'd done and jerking again to pull him out of the charging deer's path again.
He was half prepared for the collision and subsequent fall when he saw the pale gray flash of Careo's fur rushing to meet the charge. In one uncharacteristically explosive movement, the deer had broken from his spot and cut between the two humans at the other fawn, head low and ears pinned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 9:24 am
Barry’s head spun as he was shaken like an ill-gotten pup that had gotten into the clothes bin covered in mud. He did stop moving, he didn’t have a choice. His feet were no longer touching the ground and weak as he was, he was too tired to fight. He could run a long while but struggling and fighting were no good to him. Slipping out of the coat was all but hopeless, the man had more than that in his hand. He yelped as he was swung around and his eyes widened as he saw Roan running full tilt at him; then he was moved again, feeling as though he were a sack now.
“You hurt my deer and I will gut you old geezer!” He tried kicking the man between his legs. A very rude and honor-less way to fight but the guy was bigger! Barry would swear the man was some sort of bear that lost his fur. Sure, the guy spoke but it was more like short grunts, yes he was a bear and even a bear would feel that kick if he connected. He hoped it would be let him go, and not gobble him up. He wouldn't taste good anyway.
Roan new little but fear and fury toward the man who held his chosen. He didn’t as much as flinch when Barry was moved into his way like a flag. He could hit low at the man’s leg, but then Barry was moved again, the boys nausea from it rolling over Roan make the small faun fill ill. Then there was a sudden white before him but too late to pull back so he pushed forward. He had hardly seen the deer, his eyes only for his chosen. The deer or the man, it did not matter; Roan was not scared of fighting, he was a buck and he knew dimly in a fog that one day he would have antlers to aid him; even if that time was not now. No, now he had sharp hooves, teeth and a thick skull that he hoped to crack bones with.
There was only a single want in Roans mind, get back his chosen at all cost.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 2:58 pm
"I said, quit it!" Patrek was nearing the end of his patience by now. He had never had much experience with children, and truth be told, he had never hoped to have much experience with them. Children were squirmy, wormy little things that seemed to have talent for getting into trouble, but none for getting out of it. They were, in short, much more bothersome than they were worth.
This child in particular was confirming all of Patrek's suspicions. Why he would not stop wriggling, the soldier didn't know. There seemed no way in hell that the boy could escape, and even with a cheap shot like that... Patrek almost sighed, feeling weary as the child's leg shot out again and broke the last straw that his captor was willing to put up with. He reached for the boy's ankle, prepared to grab it and hang onto it with a vice-like grip. Maybe that would teach the boy to stay still.
"I haven't touched your bloody deer, have I?" He demanded, suppressing the urge to shake the boy like a rag doll a second time. "And last I checked, I was the one with the sword." It sounded like a threat, and one that Patrek had no intention of carrying out, but the boy didn't know that. If common sense wasn't enough to quiet the child down, then perhaps a little fear would do the trick. "Where are you off to in such a hurry, anyway, huh? Where are you gonna go?"
Beside them, Careo had planted his hooves squarely into the ground, glaring at Rowan with narrowed eyes and ears flat against his head. Where the darker fawn's mind seemed clouded by chaotic and desperate rage, Careo's was clear, save for one firm idea: No.
No, this other fawn would not be getting around him. No, this fawn would not be hurting his Chosen. And no, this fawn would not be going anywhere until he calmed down significantly.
For that was Careo's biggest problem with Rowan, as things stood. It wasn't the obvious animosity against Patrek or the flailing hooves and teeth. No, it was the unsettled and uncontrolled state of the other fawn's mind. It was dangerous, and it would not be going any closer to Patrek or the boy until it had had some sense knocked into it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:05 pm
Barry’s mind was reeling. He couldn’t tell his own emotions apart from Rowans. Fear fed fear, panic fed panic and the need to flee and fight rolled and bounded off the other emotions. It was almost enough to send him into shock. Instead he started to tremble, and his fast glazing eyes widened at the threat of the sword. Yet the hold of his collar cause a number of things to run through his mind; not the least was the possibility he might soon be unable to breathe. The question was a small jolt, it broke the pattern of bounding emotions between chosen and guardian for a small window as he tried to think of an answer that adults liked. School, no he didn’t even know how to read.
“I’m going home, it’s late and you’re a stranger with a sword! Who wouldn’t run, let me go!” Then the panic was back, what if the man demanded where his home was; the orphanage, they would take Rowan away from him and even demand to know why he never talked before. He didn’t want to go back to having no one to talk with. One of the other kids would hurt Rowan, or steal him away; or worse; kill the deer.
Roan trembled, his gold eyes rolling. Companion and chosen were closely linked; they spent hours in each other’s minds with little regard to what might happen. Both felt the word no, rebounding around emptily. Who said it, neither knew enough to know. It bounded and echoed then faded. The lapse in panic ended as the thought of the question stopped and a whole new round of worries replaced anything else. Air, death; gone. Roan reared and bolted trying to get around the white deer. If they could just get away, things would be better; safe and no one would go away. Away was bad, scary gone. Unknown to Berry, he had made Roan scared of death, not something the Guardian should have felt.((Ooc: I dunno if this level of attachment is possible or not. It seems possible and two young creatures with no one else but each other or no knowledge would likely get to this point. ))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:42 pm
At some point through the entire process, Patrek realized that the boy needed to sit down and just relax. Child and deer were quickly becoming mirror images of each other, practically radiating fear and panic, and the air was charged with a chaotic frenzy that could only have come from the two.
The soldier glanced over at Careo, still standing between himself and the boy's fawn, adamantly barring the way with a demanding calm that made him seem twice as big as trembling Rowan. This was one of those moments that made Patrek realize how special these little deer were. Any other animal, any horse, would have fed on the fear that ran rampant through the other deer and become distressed, but if anything, Careo was in an even higher level of calm than he usually was.
"Alright, sit down," he said with a sigh, putting some downward pressure on the boy's collar to emphasize the point. "I'm not going to let you go just yet, but you do need to calm down." That frantic energy was beginning to drive Patrek crazy.
Behind him, Careo had his own problems to deal with. Just like his Chosen, Rowan didn't seem to understand that the time had come to relax and snap out of his frenetic state. The fawn reared up, and Careo moved to intercept his motion, walking sideways into Rowan in an attempt to knock him off balance and force him back onto all fours. He would try to butt his head into the other fawn's neck too, if for no other reason than to try to knock some sense into him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
