PLAYFUL CRITTERS
Roleplay Event

Solo or RP Format
Worth 5 Growth Points
Solo word minimum is 500, RP post minimum is 7


The swampy waters of elehun seemed to be full of life lately. The warm summer weather had brought out all sorts of critters to play, and it wasn’t just those on land that were making their appearance. A family of enhudra could be seen flitting and diving around the village and seemed to take a particular interest in a single menehune. Their scaled bodies would glint and flicker in the lights coming from the sky above the waters as the three of them swirled and poked at the unfortunate kahikinan.

The day before Rewi was set to begin the journey to Noelani with his father, he'd started the day late, knowing that whatever he hadn't yet accomplished in terms of physical training near and within the Kaha'iko canals wasn't likely to be accomplished mere hours before the trip. This was a day of rest and preparation for the long trek ahead, which they'd initially thought would take them only a handful of days.

Though Rewi hadn't had opportunity to speak with any of the fairer-scaled race regarding the voyage, his father, determined to learn what he needed to in order to make the trip possible and practical, had sought out any information he could. The Kaha'iko in the neighboring village of Ukupaia had cautioned him against thinking it would be a 'short' trip, considering nearly all the distance between settlements would be upstream, and Menehune bodies were not accustomed to combating the flow of a river as they traveled.

The current wasn't so bad at the canal, but the nearer they drew to Noelani and it's waterfall, the more arduous the journey could become. Never mind the part where they would actually have to scale said waterfall.

Rewi wasn't sure what all he could believe until he saw it, which he would soon enough, and since the trek would be upon him 'soon enough,' there was no need to fret over it.

Today was to be a day of peace.

He wanted to spend it enjoying the sights of his home in these last few daylight hours. They were prepared to set off very early in the morning, so there wouldn't be another chance to see the sun's rays on his swampy home until they returned, potentially weeks from now. He hadn't even left, and already, he missed it... If it were up to him, he wouldn't leave Elehun at all. Rewi enjoyed the stillness of the water, its warmth, the softness of the mud, the soft chattering of the- creatures?

He hadn't made it far from his family's farmland (there wasn't really a need to when he could enjoy the waters of his swampy home here just as easily), but even though this place was inhabited, a small colony of enhudra had appeared. They flitted around Rewi's older siblings as they worked and were promptly swatted away by impatient fingers if they hovered too long.

The scaled critters didn't seem to mind. They were too fast for even another swamp-dweller to be timely enough to lay a hand on them. The enhudra poked and chirped and made delighted sounds when Joena pulled a grass from the thick mud, as if the beasts thought it was a treat being offered to them.

But his sister made a flabbergasted sound, and spun in a wide arc to smack them away. Still chattering, almost in laughter, they glided backward, nearer to Rewi himself.

Rewi had no trinkets or foodstuffs to offer them, and his relatively still and slow-moving form wasn't as interesting as the working bodies of his siblings. The enhudra danced around him for a moment, swirling, chattering, poking at him and digging tiny paws into the flyaway strands of his hair- Rewi laughed softly and reached to touch one, expect them all to zoom away, but they clearly didn't expect much of him.

His fingers met with the slick scales of an enhudra before it flicked from his fingers, and as a unit, the whole cluster seemed to become bored with him all at once.

Instead, each critter's eyes darted to a small school a fish, and almost as one, the enhudra zoomed after them and away.

Word Count: 607