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 Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 7:44 am
The Velveteen Toychest ((Keep in mind that somewhere through the quest he must use atleast one of his powers/ablities, preferably temp manipulation or mesmerization. :3
You must use atleast Sid and Dee, but you're free to have other family members along the way, or met other people to help your task along. Good luck!!))-Ahhhh the summer! Warm, long days, the perfect chance for a little outdoor exploring. Making an event of the whole thing you took a couple of days to explore the small national park Iris had mentioned to a very excited Sid. Unfortunately as the sun begins to creep down the sky one your second night you find yourself lost in a mess of unfamilar woods. You need to find your way back tot he camp, or atleast keep yourself safe and warm until you can find someone or something to point you in the right direction. Will you do it on your own, using your good old exploring skills? Enlist the help of a person or animal along the way? Either way you better hurry, who knows what kind of animals might be hunting around for a snake-sized dinner!-
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:00 am
"Hey Sid! Wait up!" Dee called out, shifting the pack on her back to help relieve her shoulders. The end of the python's tail could be seen disappearing between the tree bases ahead but at his guardian's beckoning he stopped and turned back to her.
Sidney tore his eyes off his compass and looked up at the weary figure of Dee. She did look tired and they had been hiking all day, not to mention that (being the larger of the two of them) she'd had to carry all the food, tent and other bulky equipment that was simply too large for Sidney to help with. "What'ss up? You okay?"
"I'm exhausted! I think it's time to call it a day. Look the sun is starting to go down." She lugged the backpack to the ground and looked at their surroundings. They were in a clearing in the woods. Well, not just any woods, it was a national park.
"I reckon this place is alright to camp in for the night. What do you say to stopping here and carrying on tomorrow. We must be near the ranger's cabin by now."
Sidney looked up to the sinking sun himself. She was right, they'd be losing light soon and he knew it was a very bad idea to leave it until later to set the tent and organise their things for tomorrow. Even if he was keen to keep going it wasn't a very smart thing for a proper explorer to do.
He pulled the map from his own miniature pack and consulted it. "Yeah, I'd ssay...." He did some quick judgements in his head about how far they had traveled already and how long it took them, "I'd ssay we'd get there about lunchtime tomorrow? If we sset out early."
"Well then, early to bed, early to rise. If we get a good rest tonight we'll be fresher tomorrow to continue." And with Sid's nod of agreement she began to unpack what they would need to set up camp for the evening, thinking of how these set of events had come about...
-----
Well, It had been Iris's idea... Sidney had told her about his gifts he'd recieved and showed her the velvet-sized compass he now carried everywhere along with his Indiana-Jones-style whip. And he'd mentioned his orienteering equipement he'd got from Naraka and how he wanted to find a good-sized forest to go exploring in. The little thickets near Dee's house just weren't big enough to satisfy his adventuring streak.
Why not go on a camping trip in the national park then? She'd suggested. It wasn't very big and you could cross right through it in just a couple of days, she'd reassured a dubious-looking Dee. Well that didn't seem so bad and it would delight Sidney no end. Besides, it would be nice to spend some time with her reptilian child, just the pair of them, doing what he enjoyed best.
So Dee had bought a few things they'd need. A small tent, sleeping bag for herself (Sidney didn't need a blanket to keep warm with his heating ability) and some good outdoor tucker (mostly sausages, buns and marshmellows for around the campfire). Then she'd collected a few things from around the house too; a lighter, torch, batteries, water bottles, frying pans and other bits and pieces. Finally a few days after their conversation with Iris (only the day before yesterterday now) they'd said goodbye to her housemate Annika and the caits and headed for the forest.
-----
Dee smiled to herself as she finished propping up the tent and looked to where Sidney was carefully constructing a ring of stones for the campfire. Even if she was rather more domesticated than she'd realised, she'd survived the last couple of days and better yet it had been good fun out here with Sid. He was the one who truely thrived on this sort of adventuring with his little whip, compass and book of survival tips. Not to mention his almost natural instinct for what to do. Yep, even though they planned to reach the ranger's cabin on the other side of the park tomorrow she would be happy to do another trip like this again sometime.
"Come-on, let's get a fire going and cook the rest of the sausages hmm?" She pulled the lighter and food from her pack and sat down next to her unusual child.
"Yesss!" The carpet python hissed with joy. Saussages were his favourite and a special treat for him at home. He quickly searched the nearby trees and found two sticks, bringing them back before pulling off the couple of dead leaves still attached to them.
Dee took out a sausage, broke it in half and skewered one piece on the end of Sidney's expectant stick then did the same for her own. Holding them over the fire she let her's cook nicely while Sidney only waited for his to warm up. He still had a preference for undercooked meat.
And they chatted and laughed and told corny ghost stories while they ate their fill. Dee made sure to dampen out the fire completely once they'd finished and Sidney made notes on his map of the park, marking out where they were and the trail they had taken. If you were going to be an explorer, he figured, you had to do things right!
Before long the sun sunk behind the trees and the forest grew dark. The pair of adventurers crawled into their tent, Dee making herself comfortable in her sleeping bag and Sidney curling himself up on top of it. Had they not been so tired they might have taken a bit more notice of their environment.
They might have noticed how the silhouettes of trees looked alot different than how they'd looked in the day. How the grass and forest debris felt a bit more dry than was normal for this climate. Or even how the whisper of the wind rustling through the leaves produced a different sort of noise...
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Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:49 am
Sidney was the first to wake up the next morning, though Dee was stirring slowly. Immediately he began to stretch and warm his coils for another morning of hiking. Of course they'd need to get the camp packed up first.
"Dee! Come on, wake up!" He slithered up to her head and pushed firmly against her cheek. "Sssun'ss up and it's already getting warm!" Which was kinda unusual.... it certainly hadn't wamed up this quickly yesterday morning. Perhaps they'd slept in longer than he thought. Oh no, that'll make uss late reaching the cabin... He thought to himself as he succeeded in awaking his guardian and led the way out of the tent. But as his eyes adjusted to the bright morning light and he looked around he completely forgot about being late.
"What time is it? It can't be that late in the day, I thought I set the alarm." Dee murmered, rubbing her eyes and crawled out of the tent after the reptile. She stood up and yawned before looking at where they were.
"What in the world... this can't be right...." She began. They were in the forest but it wsn't the same forest. The trees were different, the branches stretching out at odd angles rather than being covered evenly with leaves. The noises were different too. No birdsong like they were used to, just the distant squawking of parakeets.
It was while they were looking around, aghast at the change in scenery, that the attack came. Neither Dee nor Sid saw it coming. One minute Sidney was thinking hard on why this place seemed so familiar, despite never being anywhere like it before - the next a blow hit him in the middle and he was lifted high into the air.
At the flap of wings and the swoosh of air close by them, Dee whipped round and saw a rather squat-looking bird with a long vicious beak flying off. And caught inbetween the beak was her velvet!
"Hey! Drop him! Hey stop!! Sid!" She called, racing after the fleeing preditor. Fortunatly it landed in a tree just on the edge of their clearing and Dee put her foot against the bark, trying to get some sort of leverage in order to grab a branch and climb up. But the pair of animals were far too high to reach and the tree bark was smooth with no branches close by. Sidney was beyond her help.
"Sid!" She started to yell but when the bird looked like it was about to take flight again she stopped. If she yelled it would fly off, no doubt taking Sid further away with it. She considered throwing sticks at it in an attempt to make it drop her snake child, but unless she hit it first time that would almost certainly make it fly off as well.
"Sidney.." She hissed as loudly as she dared. "Oh s**t oh s**t oh s**t..."
Sidney meanwhile was trying to suck in a huge breath after having it knocked out of him. It wasn't easy with the tight pressure around his slender body from the bird holding him captive. However the slight pause he got as they landed did give him enough time to realise his predicament. The bird that had him caught was a kookaborough, and an instinctive chill ran through him. Kookaboroughs ate snakes. Swallowing them whole after battering them to death....
He began to squirm, trying to get loose. But the bird seemed used to this, and began to shake and hit him against the branch on which it perched.
"Ah! Ow!" He cried, doing his best to sheild his head and chest. But his shoulders were going to be bruised tomorrow.... if he lived until tommorrow. Through his dazed mind he could hear Dee's calls from below become more desperate as she saw what was happening.
He shut his eyes tight, trying to stop to flashing scenery as he was tossed about. His hand reached for his belt where his whip would be... but it closed on empty space. His belt and whip were back on the ground! He'd taken them off for the night and hadn't had time to put them back on.
Stars were beginning to pop in front of his vision, his head swirling and body stinging. If he didn't do something he was going to lose consciousness. Indeed he must have started to grow limp as the kookaborough was now trying to turn him without losing its grip, angling him ready to be gulped down.
"Sidney!!" Dee forgot all about frightening the bird away as she watched her poor child getting beaten. When it became apparent what the bird was going to do with his meal she grew even more frantic. "Sid do something!" She cried out and began to look for something, anything, to throw.
Just as Sidney felt his head touching the bird's tongue he realised his chance. He had another skill that could be used as a weapon, his temperature manipulation. He'd never tried to heat up so much so fast before but it was now or never. Concentrating as hard as he could, he let the heat flow into his scales. The adrenaline coursing through him must have helped because he was soon scalding hot.
And the effect worked! A sizzling snake was not what the kookaborough was expecting, not to mention it burnt his tongue, and he immediatly dropped Sid to the ground
Rushing forward, Dee held out the hem of her shirt to form a sort of safty-net. With a thud the velvet dropped softly into it and Dee scooped him up to cradle in her arms. "Sid! Sidney... Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
A scaly hand reached up to rub his head. "Owww...." Sidney groaned. "I can hear you... pleasse... keep it down. I've got a sssplitting headache...." He winced at his owner's concerned, but loud, questions.
He pulled himself up slowly, to sit (as well as a snake can sit) in Dee's arms and let her check him over. Her prodding was as gentle as possible but a couple of spots were bruised. "That'ss going to ache tomorrow." He hissed but was grateful that nothing seemed broken.
Dee was immensely relieved and took him back over to their tent. "Thank god you're alright. But... where are we? I don't think we're in the national park any more. That bird, it looked just like a kookaborough. But that can't be right. They live all the way down in-"
"Ausstralia." Sidney finished for her. "Where carpet pythonsss come from. No wonder the place sseemed familiar. But we didn't get here by plane... I wonder how we're going to get back?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:24 am
After that close encounter Dee kept a sharp eye out for any other preditors, though Sidney was being extra watchful too. It was dangerous out here, not at all like the garden back home. However Dee suspected Sidney enjoyed the thrill of it... despite the bird-attack. Probably thinks it's more of a real adventure when there are real risks, she thought to herself.
They packed up their gear quickly, while discussing their situation.
"So you reckon we're in Australia? I mean, it certainly looks like it, but I can't believe how we actually got here. Teleportation you think? I mean, we are in a whole other continent!"
Of course Dee had some experience with cards and portals... but that was a whole other story... wink
"It feels like Aussstralia. I can kinda feel it insside." Sidney mused. There was a familiarity to the place, deep in his snake-subconcious. "But in another way it feelss different. Like... a tesst." He shrugged his scaly shoulders and finished putting his things in his pack, making sure his whip was securely at his side.
"A test?" Dee repeated. "Well, I wonder what we'd have to do to pass. There's nothing out here. Find something you think? Or just carry on what we were doing originally, getting through the forest?"
That gave Sidney an idea. Rumaging through his pack he pulled out the map they'd been following and marking as they'd travelled.
"Yess!" He exclaimed, holding it out and pointing to a spot on it. "Look, the bit'ss I wrote on here are ssstill the ssame but the other partss have changed."
And indeed they had. The forest looked alot bigger now, though the cabin's location was still the same distance from where they were as it was yesterday evening. However there was a river running across their path it it now and the cabin itself had changed it's symbol. In it's place was an icon of what appeared to be a door.
"A door? Well, doors to lead in and out of places. I wonder if it leads out of here?"
"Only one way to find out!" Sidney grinned, pleased to have a goal set out now and a challenge to overcome. "Let'ss go!"
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 11:51 am
Their walk towards the new 'door' passed without incident. Sidney leading the way with his compass out and his eyes glancing at the map. Dee kept close to him, not wanting him wisked away again. She kept her gaze more firmly on their surroundings, trusting Sidney to lead them in the right direction. He was the one who understood orienteering after all.
"Are we getting close?" She asked eventually, seeing as the sun was reaching it's peak.
"Yup! It's supposed to be on the other side of that river." Sid pointed forward and sure enough there was the river, the sound of flowing water now able to be heard.
Dee was about to walk closer, "Looks pretty deep... and too far to jump." She began before Sidney called to her to stop. She did so, looking back at him curiously. "What? I'm looking for a way over."
Sidney shook his head and pointed again, this time to a submerged log laying nearby. Except it wasn't a log at all. When studied more carefully a reptilian nose and pair of eyes could be made out.
"A croc!" Dee gasped and jumped back, but Sidney hushed her and slithered slowly forward. She was about to reach for him when she realised what he was doing. The coils of his tail moved rhythmically and he never took his eyes off the much larger reptile. She recognised it as his hypnotic process. He was mesmerising the croc!
"Sidney..." She whispered. "What are you doing?"
"Finding us a way acrosss..." He replied, not breaking eye contact with the crocodile or letting the pace of his shifting tail stop. After a moment the crocodile moved, swimming slowly to lay it's body perpendicular to the river, effectively making a bridge.
Sid seemed satisfied with the position and slowly stilled his movements, watching closely to see if the hypnosis still held the crocodile. "I think that sshould do it."
"That should do it? You honestly think we're going to just walk across his back and he won't mind?" Dee said incredulously. "Even Indiana Jones never tried that!"
"No..." Sid mused. "But Jamess Bond did." He slithered over to her and up her leg, indicating to her to pick him up. "He'ss quite ssafe now... for a while. But I don't know how long it will lassst. I've never tried putting ssomeone under so deeply. Jusst two quick stepss and we'll be across." He looked up to her, a serious pleading in his eyes.
"This feelss like a tesst right? A tesst of our courage and sskills. And we need to do it together. I trussted you to catch me when that bird dropped me... trusst me thiss time, pleasse?"
Dee looked back at him, weighing up the options and risks before them. If this was a test then Sidney had indeed found a way across an otherwise impassible river. She just had to trust the skills they'd been developing and strengthening at home. "Alright. Hold on tight I'm going to run it."
She backed up a couple of paces, made sure Sidney and her pack were being gripped tightly, then dashed forward. Leaping from the edge, one, two steps landed on the croc's firm back and she propelled them to the other side before she even realised she'd been holding her breath.
"We did it..." She gasped, and then quickly ran further forward as she heard a splash and the hypnotism on the croc wore off.
"We did!" Sidney echoed, obviously delighted with their achivement. "And look!" He wriggled in her grasp to turn around, making Dee look in that direction too.
There, nestled at the base of a great gum tree, was a door. And after only a moment's thought Dee strode over to it, Sidney now perched up on her shoulder with his tail wrapped around her upper arm for support.
"Let's hope this is the right way..." She murmered, before pulling it open and stepping through with her velvet.
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