A Bird's Eye View (Closed)

[Aello]

Winter 22, 511 AV Aello crept over the forest floor towards the sound of rain's remnants. She could hear it dripping off the ends of needles, leaves curled into themselves to lock in warmth; off the ends of twisted tree branches, lined with dark, uneven bark. At times, she could see them falling, a clear orb which reflected the sun's light, and magnified everything it passed in front of. Tumbling silently, until they crashed into the earthen bed the aurist tread upon, and burst into several different pieces, which only fell to the ground again. At times, she could hear them settle in small pools of rainwater, plopping almost inaudibly, as they were engulfed by the larger body. The greater entity. Yet, as the girl listened to her surroundings, she was certain she could hear something more than that. Something stronger than that. For, if Aello truly strained her ears, and quieted her breath, the subtle rise and fall of her chest, she was certain she could hear water running over rock. A streaming current; a thunderous clap of strength. She thought, as she wove herself in and out of a series of trees, and stepped over fallen branches, and gnarled tree roots; arms which seemed to stretch out towards her, that the sound was being made by a river. Or perhaps a stream that was beginning to overflow, and grow all the more violent with the recent rainfall. Knowing that she needed a fresh batch of water to fill her nearly empty waterskin, Aello found the noise more than a bit inviting. It was like a siren's call, or perhaps a lighthouse, drawing her ship in for the night. Beckoning for her to come near, so she could feast on both abundance and safety. Smiling to herself as her grip tightened around her bow, Aello urged herself onwards, at a slightly quickened pace. As she continued to move, she found the sounds of the stream getting louder, and then, within an instant, she discovered that she had happened upon it. A bed of rock lined the bank nearest her, as she followed the length of the steam with her eyes. Watching as the water flowed in and out of trees, and swelled out of the dip in the earth, which had formed to compensate for its presence. "Finally, something other than melted snow," Aello whispered, as her eyes began to sparkle, and she raised her right hand to her hood. She clutched the dark fabric tightly, ignoring the droplets of moisture which leapt from it to her flesh, chilling her to the bone. Slowly, she drew her hood down, and took several steps towards the water. The moist bed of mud and rock which sank into her side of the earth. Careful not to step too close, and be dragged into the current, Aello came to a halt beside the river, and gingerly, lowered her right hand into the rapids. Spray fell into her cupped palm, chilling her instantly. Caressing her flesh, sliding up the length of her arm, causing her clothes to cling to her all the more readily. Petch this is going to be far too cold to drink, Aello thought, as she pulled her hand away and shook it a little, scattering the river's water all around her. Maybe it can be warmed though, over the heat of a fire, she thought, as she reached for her bag, only to be distracted by the sudden chirping overhead. Smiling, as she looked up at the sky, at the thick grey clouds which rolled overhead, the aurist took note of a single bird. A dark brown speck which stood out, surprisingly, against the ominous-looking heavens. "Well hello Yune," Aello called out to her companion, as the sparrow dove down towards her. "It's good to see you again. Now, how was your flight?" Aello asked, as the bird began to level herself out, and then settle onto her left shoulder. Her tiny talons curling into her flesh as she perched, and flapped her wings a few more times to bring her to a stop. Chirp! Chirp! The sparrow replied merrily, widening the smile on her mistess' lips. "Glad you enjoyed it," Aello replied, as she lowered her head and returned to her task. Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Yune spoke again, as she pecked the girl's shoulder a few times, as though trying to get her attention. But for the time, Aello ignored her, not at all certain what the sparrow was going on about, and not at all in the mood to find out, until she had finished collecting the water she and her friend would need before the day was done.

[Aello]

Once more, Aello reached for her bag, causing her sparrow to jump to avoid jostling with the straps as the parched human tore open the top flap, and retrieved her waterskin. She clutched it tightly in her hands as she bent at the waist, and removed the cap as she lowered the skin into the stream. Filling it with cool water until the mouth bubbled, before pulling it away and closing everything up. That should do, Aello thought as she placed the filled waterskin back in her bag, and strapped everything back in place. "Ready to go Yune?" she asked the chirping bird as she took a few steps forward, following the length of the stream. Her toes brushing against stone strewn across earthen bed, sodden with careless spray. "You're not hungry are you?" Aello asked. "For surely, if you were thirsty, you would have filled your belly already." The woman paused as her eyes scanned the terrain out ahead. Searching for anything that may cause her to stumble, or even trip. When she found nothing, she merely sighed as she used her free hand to fish a few leftover seeds she'd dug up in seasons passed from her pocket. She offered these to Yune, who gobbled them greedily before falling silent as the archer returned her hand to her side. Some things never change, Aello thought, as she ambled along, downstream.

[Aello]

For a time, the pair walked in silence, until Aello's muddied irises passed over a series of twigs. Their flesh baked by the heat of the sun. Grown gnarled and twisted, an unsightly brown mottled by clods of dirt and freshwater spray. The scattered limbs lay strewn over the earth at uneven angles, their relatively flat bodies curled in slight, as though mirroring moon's crescent, or perhaps, even beckoning finger. Aello's gaze followed them up the length of the sodden bed, until they reached a small black bird. Perhaps a half centimeter larger than Yune all around, with legs the color of drying grass. Feathers grown glossy in the light of the sun, causing them to reflect the texture of a raven's. Its tiny legs slipping into the mud as it hopped around. Short neck extending to peck at the sticks which the stream was attempting to swallow, and drag them back up the shore. Aello offered Yune a wary glance. Perhaps it wants those for its nest, she thought with a small shrug, thinking little of it, as she watched the strange bird drag a small twig through the mud. Leaving an etching which the water soon filled. Aello sighed as she watched its tiny wings beating. Dark feathers extending to help propel it backwards, and away. "Do you think it needs help?" she asked Yune, who said nothing, leaving the aurist to make the final decision for herself. Shrugging, Aello decided that perhaps it did, and made her way along the bank. Picking up the twigs closest as she went, stockpiling, until she had neared the bird, and dropped them next to those it had already deposited. "There," she whispered as she took a few steps back, so as not to startle it. "Now they won't get washed away," she said triumphantly, as the black bird looked up at her quizzically with its beady eyes. It scrutinized her for several moments, before returning to its work, collecting several more twigs, which it added to its pile. When it finished, Aello watched as it began to form another nest by weaving all the twigs together. She smiled weakly as she observed, until the mouth widened. As though the stream were flooding, or perhaps it was time for higher tides, in general. Although, Aello thought that was only in reference to the ocean. For a time, she stood a silent statue as the sun's rays tickled and warmed her skin. That was until the water lapped angrily against its narrow crevice; a fissure in the earth. Its sparse confines. It bridged the surface, falling through the air. Transparent beads which crashed against creature's making. Shattering the first of earthen weavings. Sending the whole thing spiraling. Trickling down the surface of its bed. The black bird chirped madly. Aello could tell it was rather displeased.

[Aello]

"Poor thing," Aello whispered as its folly pulled at her heart's strings. She could feel it dancing, whirling madly, before everything tightened. Sending soft pangs through her being. She wanted to help the bird, and with her smattering of wilderness survival skills, she supposed it couldn't be too difficult a task. Within a beat, she had tossed her bow from one hand to the other, and then hiked it up the shoulder her sparrow had chosen not to use as a perch. Within another, she had stepped forward, and begun to make her way through the forest, pausing only momentarily whenever she found slender twigs, which she plucked off the ground. After having gathered a sizeable pile, Aello stopped moving. Instead of guiding herself through the throng, the aurist began piling her bag and other loose belongings against a tree. It took only a chime to get everything together, before she hunkered down a few paces away from the stream, with the black bird still within her line of sight. "Alright, here goes. Building a nest can't be that difficult, right?" she whispered to herself as she began to form a cube with the twigs she had gathered. Placing the first two horizontally, no more than six inches apart, before connecting their ends with another two twigs. From there, she continued to stack the twigs, and pack them lightly with mud. As though she were forming a fire pit, coupled with one of her makeshift shelters. After a few chimes, she stopped, and surveyed her work. "It needs a proper base. Pure mud will cake the feathers, seep into skin. Cause it to get cold..." The aurist licked her lips as she broke the last of her branches, before weaving them into the earth at the heart of her design. After a few more chimes, her 'nest' had a base. Although it was covered in drying mud, and seemed to sink more than say. There, finished, Aello thought as she rose and moved away from her work. Leaving the bird to inspect it. It made a rather puzzled expression by tilting its head on its side a moment, before pecking at the branches and then fluttering away. Maybe it doesn't like it, she thought, as she watched it flutter back to a place just beside the water. Because it's not close enough. No matter, a home can be moved. Or another can be built, her mind added, as her eyes studied the bird, who was currently, gathering several more twigs for another attempt at its nest. Aello sighed as Yune offered a chirp in condolence. "If that is what you want, that is what you will get," she confided to the whistling winds.

[Aello]

For a moment, the woman waited before stepping forward to retrieve the nest. As she bent, she could hear the winds whispering ominously around her. Hands trembling with winter's chill as her fingers began to brush, and the entire make crumbled. Falling to the forest floor in misshapen heap of broken legs and twisted fingers. Aello sighed. Perhaps that is why you didn't want it, you could see this coming, the girl thought to herself as she plucked all the reusable pieces off the ground before straightening herself out and moving towards the stream's spray. Once there, the girl lowered herself into the muck, and began to stack the sticks much as she had before. Although this time, she made two minor modifications. The first was that she packed the sticks even more tightly together. The second was that she made more of a point of weaving their ends together than before. As she packed the last clods of mud into the twig's severances, she could only smile before she backed away. Allowing the black bird, who had been working on its own nest, to inspect her work. Again, it pecked at it, lending the structure to wobble, before it moved away, and resumed its own building process. Again Aello sighed as she watched it go, and her own nest was washed away by the river's current. "Sometimes, I wonder if it doesn't want them because they're so feeble, or if it stinks of me..." "The wild ones don't come near us, as the tamed do, do they Yune?" Aello asked, to warrant a single chirp before she sighed. Walking off to gather more twigs, so as to make one final attempt, just to test her theory. But then she thought better of it, and retrieved a larger, relatively straight stick, before making her way back to the black bird. When it was within her sight, Aello poked her stick in the mud. She guided it uneasily through the sodden earth, until it reached several twigs, which she drew into a haphazard pile using its point. When she felt as though she had collected enough to make a third attempt at a nest, the woman used the stick's end to pull the twigs apart. Silently, she coerced them to move this way and that, until she had four that made the lowest portion of her square. As she bit her bottom lip, Aello could scarcely blink as she continued to build on her foundation by painting over the debris with mud, and stacking twig after twig, until there was nothing left with which to build. Finally, the woman stepped back and surveyed her work once more. It seemed even less stable than her last construction, but she couldn't be sure. Eventually, she resolved to let the black bird be the final judge, and glided away from her pile of sticks in the mud. It hopped over lazily after a few chimes, and inspected it much as it had before, before ambling off towards its own work. "Why doesn't it like it?" Aello asked. "Is it the hands or the make?" The wind whistled their cryptic response while Yune made no reply. 'It's the make, isn't it? It's weak, and of base born human." Aello sighed. "Perhaps then, the bird doesn't want help," she whispered, as she watched its work get swallowed by the stream. Leading it into crazed flapping and chirping frenzy. "Or perhaps, it would be better to say that it doesn't want that sort of help, but the help of another kind." The bird stopped chirping, and bent to reap whatever was left of its make from the earth. Stockpiling them once more. "Perhaps it would be much happier if we simply found a way to keep the water from ruining its work again," Aello continued. "But how are we to do that? What is it that animals, or humans themselves do even, to block the flow of water?" The wind roared, tousling her mane of chestnut colored hair. It carried the scent of drowning foliage, and pine as it lent image to aurist's mind. It was of two square teeth, elongated so they protruded over lower lip. Twitching black nose, and darkened eyes to match. Dark brown fur, laden with water, and cropped short, kept close to the skin. A long pad like tail, shaped like rounded teardrop, with tiny paws. It was a beaver, gnawing on a piece of wood. She had hunted them before. Used their pelts to keep her warm. So why hadn't she thought of them before? Why hadn't she thought of all the things they had been able to accomplish before? The aurist shook her head unhappily. Dismayed by the slowing of her mind. "We must make a dam Yune," she whispered into the trickling winds.

[Aello]

Within an instant, the girl had materialized into the forest, her muddied irises fixated on the uneven terrain out ahead. Her sparrow having fallen silent, simply looked on with her beady black eyes as Aello sought fallen limbs. Things large enough to fit across the river's mouth, and thick enough not to be pushed downstream by its current. For several chimes, Aello was unable to find something that would suit her needs. However, she kept up her search, knowing somewhere inside herself that good things came to those who chose to wait. Eventually, she happened upon two logs which fit the bill. She tore these from the earth as easily as she would brush a feather from the folds of her attire and glided back to the river bed, where the black bird was still hard at work. Now standing several paces upstream from him, Aello dropped the first of the two logs across the stream. The water slooshed over it, and bubbled beneath, lending her to place the second in front, which offered the same effect although marginally slowed. Sighing, Aello backed away and retrieved the placement stick she had used before, and several more of that length, before returning to the bed. These she placed in the narrow crevice between the two larger logs, before packing them with whatever mud and fallen, broken leaves she happened to pass. By then, the water had grown gradually slower, and only a much thinner line was able to pass through. Leaving a raging river on one side, and a near still pool on the other. "One more log should do it," Aello thought, as she slicked the mud off her hands; leaving a thin trail of dark residue across a bed of pale flesh. She trailed off for several more chimes, until she found another log, and placed it behind her current structure, before connecting all three with a mixture of mud leaves and smaller sticks. When all was said and done, a very narrow thread of water was able to make its way through, causing the girl to smile. Now its home won't be destroyed, the aurist thought triumphantly as she cleaned her hands off in the water and moved away after retrieving her things, knowing that the bird would be finished and happy soon enough. Because it had a home.

[Accolade]

Aello

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Land Navigation	+ 1 XP
Detection	+ 1 XP
Wilderness survival	+ 1 XP
Birdkeeping	+ 1 XP

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Wilderness survival: Finding water (Forest)
•	How to build a bird's nest
•	How to build a dam
•	Lending a helping hand to a strange bird

Notes :

Another solid thread, I do like the way that you describe scenes. I think I got everything there, let me know if I missed anything.

The Sylir has spoken

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.