Quest [Regional Quest] Stranded

[Kitchi]

Kitchi followed the group in silence, her thoughts were a swirling mist of questions inside her mind but she contented herself in observing the movements of others. She knew that the path to the bay was not terribly short and she turned her eyes towards the sun. It beat down on the group, contrasting the harsh winter that they had gotten used to. Eventually she turned her gaze back to the swirl of colors moving within the group, studying everyone closer. As she watched her hand stroked the soft metal of her dagger, it was comfortable and familiar in the uncertainty which ripped through the group like a bad smell.
Iosha, whose short white hair she recognized had found herself a horse which seemed to plod happily within the group. At the front of the group an unfamiliar owl took off into the sky with brown feathers stretched outwards. It looked majestic and Kitchi puzzled over its presence, it seemed a strange pet to bring but then nobody knew what to expect, perhaps its keen senses would prove useful. A red haired young boy bobbed within the group
Another glance around, a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar faces turning and swaying with each other, some were talking in groups while others seemed fixed on other tasks.
The boulder loomed ahead of them and Kitchi stood staring up at them uncertainly. She barely heard the proposal offered by the medic as she stared up at it. What would she do? Having never really climbed much the large climb looked daunting. She gulped uncertainly. Would it be better to stay put? Another uncertainty. They had proposed pushing the rocks down, they would be tumbling freely towards the remaining group. Neither option seemed pleasant and Kitchi stood, glancing up as people started to move around her. Although she would never admit it the idea terrified her. A voice, loud but young echoed around them and Kitchi glanced towards the small girl. Kitchi was relieved that she was not the only one worried but no better option had been proposed.

[Arandolya]

Kaden approached soon afterwards, right on time as was expected of their Valintar. It seemed he had gotten some Dek to help with the move, and Arandolya nodded as the group of them rose from the spots and followed him down the Pass. The hunter fell into step in the middle of the pack, keeping with the slow pace with no small amount of boredom as they trudged through. The few that had a steed to ride clopped along, loud in the rock walls and a quick nuisance. As the sun gradually rose, Priskil's light grew hotter and hotter. Coupled with the presence of so many other bodies, Arandolya was quick to become uncomfortably hot.

Still they trudged onwards. What choice was there? Determined as were the Inartans, and the others that traveled with them, Arandolya dutifully continued towards the bay. She didn't often have to travel down this by foot, able to catch a ride with an Endal to drop her off if she was hunting alone. She had definitely forgotten how long this route was. An impatient twitter drew her attention to Trith who had perched on her shoulder. "You're welcome to fly ahead," she snorted, coaxing the songbird onto her fingers as she walked. Trith tilted her head, and rustled her wings, but stayed put. "Lazy little bird." Trith only had an indignant chirp to retort.

Their passage as not as easy though. Arandolya stopped as a rockfall suddenly presented its cruel twist of fate before them. She had to tilt her head slightly to peer fully upwards at the peak of it, frowning as she observed the size of the boulders that had fallen. Kaden took no time to quickly bark out orders to Sira before addressing the rest to get themselves over. What a wonderful time it would be to be able to get over such an obstacle as easy as the winged Kelvics in their ranks.

Sira stripped quickly and efficiently, much to the envy of Arandolya (her clothes were so uncomfortable is such heat!) though the woman looked around her to hear the ideas already swirling. As Sira shifted and took Alori with her, an owl took wing with them, scouting the route ahead. Arandolya covered her eyes against the buffet of dust that Sira stirred with her takeoff, large wings beating powerfully to successfully take off from the ground. The owl seemed so tiny as it winged its way quickly upwards, followed by the regal Wind Eagle.

Others seemed to be in mind to climb it, as pitched by a young redhead, or move the boulders, as Iosha suggested. Another youth - well younger than Arandolya anyways - took the rope and began to climb. There was a sense of nervousness, and disunity between all of them, and Arandolya turned in confusion as Iosha approached the Dek about moving the boulders. "Hey, do you really think this is a good idea?" came an angry tone, though it wasn't directed towards her. Turning once more, Arandolya saw a tense female addressing another Inarta, apparently on the plan of getting the rope over. Fighting isn't going to accomplish anything, she thought with a small exasperated sigh.

"Calm down," Arandolya was quick to say as she walked towards the two. Looking from one to the other, the young woman smiled. "Yelling and anger won't get us anywhere," she continued, and glanced at the boy trying to scale the rock wall. "Perhaps you should be addressing the male who took the climb, rather than the woman who simply offered the idea? From what I heard she simply suggested an idea that is completely plausible, though perhaps more difficult with a rockslide this tall. The Inarta I see climbing volunteered, whatever expertise he has," Arandolya continued patiently. Her tone remained soft and reasonable, golden eyes passive as they looked towards the angry female and the accused Chiet.

Hearing Iosha in the background, Arandolya turned her golden gaze briefly to the woman. She worried for the plan, worried for rolling stones they might not be able to stop, and the obvious obstacle of even climbing to the top of the pile. Not to mention people falling off trying to get the rocks over. Additionally, they didn't know how wide the top was, and how big the boulders would be. Perhaps it showed her in eyes, though Arandolya refrained from yelling them to the pale woman as she addressed one thing at a time. "Why don't we take a breath, get the climber down if he is as inexperienced as you say, and try another route."

[Elna]

Elna was surprised to find a volunteer in Ardal. When she had suggested the plan, she figured they might be able to get the owl to fly it over and then tie it down in human form at the other end. However, Ardal seemed perry confident, so she decided to let him take the rope and see what happened. Ardal didn't really look like the fittest guy around, he was a runt even by Intaran standards, but she figured that if he was volunteering then he must at least have a mind for climbing. She starred up and watched as he began to slowly and carefully make his way upward.

Suddenly she started hearing yelling come from behind her. It was her one time instructor, Kanri, running off about how irresponsible she was being. Who does this Dek licker think she is! How was she sopossed to know how good of a climber he was. There were no other volunteers so she figured he was probably the best choice. And just what was she expecting her to wait for!? The rocks to just get up and walk away? It's not like she was coming up with any ideas! And who was Elna ordering around? She just made a petching suggestion!

Elna was just about to give what she thought as a self important busy body the tongue lashing of a life time. Her nostrils flared as she prepared to let out all the words of frustration she had in her mind out of her mouth before the argument was preemptively broken up. Elna turned her head with a frustrated huff of breath. "I can handle myself" she made the irrelevant point. The woman was probably right to break up the fight if they are going to be working together, but by not getting the chance to fight her own battles she felt she appeared stupid and weak. Thats the last thing she needed on a journey she was trying to prove her worth on.

Elna tried keep her self clam anyway. "All right lets just move on." She starred back up the cliffside. "What do you think Ardal!" She shouted upward. "Do you think you think you can handle it? It's your judgement on this one. You are an adult after all." Making a passive aggressive glance at Kanri with that last comment, trying to hint at her that she felt like she was still be treated like a Yasi as well. At this point, she was hopping Ardal would go ahead and climd up to the top just to stick it to Kanri.

[Darren]

The rhythmic sounds of his throwing knifes hit the ground one after another. Underhand, overhand and even just thrusting his arm forward and seeing where it would land. Walking over once to pick up his throwing knives once more Darren raised an eyebrow at a thought as he went back to his throwing position. A slight nod of approval followed Darren's throw as he threw the knives from it's holders watching the blade do a small circle before burying itself deep inside the ground once more. Normally not having time to practice with the knives the Vantha gave a short whistle of surprise before looking to see what the rest of the group was up to. A mild show of surprise was seen on the Vantha's face seeing the horses come into the scene. Though it alerted Darren about what the group might have been doing. Travel though he guessed that he was in the clear seeing quite a few Inarta lacking their steeds. Not having time to really interact with the rest of the group Darren merely bided his time before it was time for the group to go. Wasting no time the Whitevine could be seen trailing closely with the lead walker as they went down the hill. Sweat accumulated easily on Darren's persons as he looked at the state of some of the city dwelling Inarta walking close by. A slight knowing smile reached Darren's lips as he noted that this was one of the few times he had seen so many Inarta out and about exposing themselves to Syna's rays. Though mildly interesting it did not hide the fact that Darren himself was recieving the same treatment traversing the rocky Kalean road. His eyes shimmered a slight confused myriad of tones before settling back at Kaden with his red eyes. There looked to be an obstacle in the way. Slowly listening to the older man bark of orders Darren could not help but raise an eyebrow as an Inartan woman started to the front before disrobing herself. As much as the Vantha was a fan of seeing woman reveal themselves Darren could not help but wonder how this was relevant in getting across their impasse. Watching another do the same the Vantha skeptically followed suit taking off his shirt wonderingly before seeing Sira morph. "Ah... that explains it." They had kelvic polarbears in Avanthal so why wouldn't they have any in Wind Reach? Looking at the woman who stood next to Sira Darren guessed that the pair was bonded before the pair flown off. Looking back at the taller man who turned out to be an owl fly off alone Darren was left finding that he was one of the only person that seemed to follow suit. Already having shrugged off his shirt Darren continued anyway taking off his shirt and rolling up his breeches to combat the hot day. It was hard for the Vantha to get heated in Taldera but in Kalea he found himself losing his temper much quicker then he normally would. Though the occasional wind was helped allievate some of his concerns it was still not enough for him to simply bear and endure as he put away his shirt and jacket in his bags. Watching the feathery pair fly off it was up to the nonkelvics to deal with the block in front of them. Watching the movements of some of the group Darren tried to understand the gist of what they were planning before trying to come up with his own solution. Obviously the Vantha could not use Kaden as his personal translator so he had to make do with their body language. Watching a pair try and scale the rocks while getting bombarded with other suggestions that were to much for the Vantha to process. What he did see were Inarta readily trying to prove themselves. The vantha did want them to try and prove themselves but he doubted their constant bickering wasn't going to get them anywhere. Finding himself emphasizing with Kanri Darren watched the back and forth trying to think up of something. They had rope. They had eyes in the skys. How can they use that to their advantage? The Vantha innately knew that they had to clear a path rather then climb or otherwise avoid the obstacle. Even a small path would be infinitely times better then the other option. What if they needed to go back up the mountain to find themselves blocked off again? Listening to the undertones between the group Darren could see the points some of them were ultimately making. Climbing was a good idea but if they weren't skilled they could just get hurt. Pushing them off the path was one option but that could be difficult without much coordination. Walking along the edge Darren wondered if there was an area that the barrier proved weakest. Possibly near the edge where the path lead to a steep drop. They can make an arrangement with the ropes and possibly simply pull and get a good mass of the path cleared by pushing it off the cliff entirely or pushing it further down the path. Granted the edge was not the safest place to be but this was Wind Reach, they did have giant birds to protect them from falling. Speaking of which where were they now? Looking up Darren merely muttered what came to his mind. "What do you see up there?" Of course they were probaly surveying the conditions of the obstruction set before them but they could also alert the group if something of pressing concern was upon them. Seeing they have yet to come back the Vantha could only guess something else was amiss. The Vantha kept an even gaze at Kaden with a solution in mind though if anything it was only a possible step in the right direction. If he asked the Vantha would explain what he had in mind but also make note that it would require a bit of work on everyone's part.

[Aradia]

Aradia watched as arguments arose and tempers flared. She could not help but heave a loud sigh. Arguing was not going to help the rocks move. You can not argue at them to get them to budge. Aradia shook her head from side to side, they had ropes and people who could fly, even someone who offered to give rides to people over the rock pile that could not climb it. So why was no one listening to that? It seemed like an easy enough plan. Aradia cleared her throat, ”There was a offer that those who can not climb can be flown over. We can also throw our things over with the ropes, and those who can climb can just climb over. It shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish. At least it sounds easy enough to me.” Aradia said in a soft voice, not too loud to be heard by everyone, only those around her, ”If you are all determined on getting the rocks out of the path, I suggest searching for a weak spot first, getting those who can not help out of the way, and clearing enough of the rocks to make a path.” Aradia said once again in a soft voice, looking around at the group of people. She did not know a lot of the people around her, but she did recognize a few faces, one in particular she knew may be strong enough to help move the rocks, so she walked over to him, Darren. She smiled and nodded her head in greeting, ”Darren, you have flux, you could move the rocks easy enough if we found a weak spot, right?” Aradia asked in a low voice, only for Darren to hear in case he did not want others to know his skills, and in case he did not feel up to it. Darren was a difficult male to say the least, but intriguing all the same.

[Kanri]

Elna looked about ready to explode to Kanri. Well, good! If she was going to let people get themselves into dangerous situations for no good reason, she might as well! Just as she opened her mouth, a young woman came over and tried to calm them down. Kanri kicked the ground, spraying a few loose rocks around her and slumped off by herself. Elna started yelling at her back but Kanri really didn't care.

She was being stupid. She knew that. She supposed she was just frustrated with the whole situation. A bunch of strong, independent minds would not come to a consensus quickly. They really could be sitting her for the next week if no one pulled through and just told them what to do.

They were also not working in unison. That heavily worked against them. If they were all just going to sit in their little clusters and gripe about the other cluster's doings, nothing would actually get done. Of course, Kanri was, admittedly, contributing to that right now. It was not contributing to the group's cause. But groups could be wrong. There was no way they could move the rocks. Why didn't they just let people fly them over? Yes, it was time consuming but probably less so than fighting.

Kanri, standing off to the side now, watched the group continued to debate what to do. Someone really just needed to make some headway to show that their project was truly the best. That would solve their problems... temporarily... maybe...

[Kane]

On the walk, Kane found himself incredibly happy that he had decided to bring his horse along. Sure, he could walk, but it would be unpleasant. He felt his heart sink as they came upon the rockslide. Now how would they get around this? Even the Valintar seemed shaken by these events. With a sigh, he glanced around the area. So they had to find a way around, did they? He was blank at the moment, the whole task seemed rather daunting. Kane stood back, listening as the others began to give their different ideas. Climbing over the could work for those who are skilled enough, but Kane wasn’t certain that he’d be able to do so safely. There wasn’t any way for him to help on that part. Moving the boulders was another option put forth. With this thought, he eyed the rocks. Many of the boulders were very large and they would be hard to move. At least, to most people they would. I wouldn’t be able to move one of those a single inch. He eyed the boulders warily. Even working together they’re rather heavy, especially for people like himself who were weaker. Ansel huffed and stomped his feet. Petting his mane to calm him, Kane glanced down at his horse, and an idea hit him. He pushed his horse to move towards the others and went to get their attention. “Hey, if we need to move the boulders for any reason, we could use the horses to help. We’d just need a bit of rope.” Patting the side of Ansel’s neck, he continued, “I know that I’m not strong enough to be helpful in pushing boulders, but my horse is very strong.” As a gildling, Ansel was a very sure footed horse. And as Kane had mentioned, he did have quite a bit of power. “I mean, if any one else likes the idea, and none of the others mind putting their horse up to the task.” He glanced around at the other horse riders.

[Ardal]

He was being careful not to pull any of the rocks lose on top of himself or have it shift pulling him down the mountain with it. However he was determined not to just be dead weight on the group so this was his chance to prove his worth.

As Ardal worked his way up the wall when he heard heated words coming from Kanri over his decision to scale the wall. It hurt him to hear his friend not having any faith in him or his abilities. He also heard another young woman’s voice he hardly recognized try to calm her down. She also added something else, something about getting something or someone down and the word inexperience was used. He didn’t hear every word but he knew it was about him. He was trying to focus but having a hard time of it with all the negative thoughts. The only one with something positive and encouraging to say was, his former Yasi classmate, Elna and that was only out of spite. He just had to say something. He hollered down to the others to make sure they could hear him:

“My whole life, no one ever believed in me; no one gave me a chance to be an Avora; and no one thinks I can do this. I have been climbing the wall of the city my whole life. I volunteered to aid my city, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

He then added, in common, for the other’s present benefit, he thought it would be rude not to let them know what was going on. “I am going to keep climbing”

He continued his assent to the top; determined to prove he wasn’t a burden on everyone. He WAS going to make it to the top. …He just had to…

[Maria]

The walk is a long, hot, tiring one for Maria. She has never actually taken this walk before so this is a first for her. Not exactly a pleasant one, but you take what you get and get through it as best you can. At least that is what Maria always tells herself when she thinks about it. The red headed girl stays rather quiet throughout this leg of the journey. She spends her time thinking and observing those around her. Her eyes travel over to those with horses quite frequently. She is jealous of them, but tells herself she isn't as there is really no way it can be helped so no point in the jealousy. Still, it is there. The group stops as they come across a block in their path. A rockfall. Not exactly a expected surprise, but not a far fetched one either. Maria watches the events that follow the discovery of this disaster. Three of the party leave and fly over the block while others argue about whether or not to let a young boy inarta climb it. Maria rolls her eyes, what a childish thing to argue about. If the boy wants to try his hand at climbing the rocks and has enough skill to have a less than likely chance at dying while doing it, than let him do it. It seems rather simple in Maria's mind. The girl stands back with her arms crossed as she watches the events unfold. She would try herself, but she doesn't even know where one would start if they were to try and climb this rockfall. So for her to try would be idiotic to say the least. As she stands back she watches as Iosha asks for help with trying to move the rocks. That also seems as if it wouldn't be much help. It would take more time and effort moving these rocks than it would trying to learn to and climb them. Neither idea sounds very good. When the idea of using the horses to move the boulders is brought up, Maria thinks that it would be a better idea. Though she doesn't have a horse, so her opinion in the matter probably doesn't weigh in very much. Sighing, she continues to just stay quiet and wait for a time when her opinion or voice is needed or even wanted.

[Eilea]

The Windrunner trotted to the side of the group, wanting, desperately to move forward and faster than what was being allowed. The Valintar had said that it would only be an overnight trip. That made the girl feel better about the whole ordeal. She took a deep breath and listened to the chatter between people as the group carefully descended the mountain. As Eilea led her horse down the hill, she found herself next to the Konti and her horse. With the introduction of the woman's name, Eilea smiled kindly and said, speaking common, “My name is Eilea! It is nice to meet you!” The woman next to her was beautiful and seemed very womanly and strong. The Vantha couldn't help but wonder if it was her heritage or her personality that gave off that feeling. Either way, it made Eilea feel comfortable. A little ways down, the group came to a halt. Eilea led her Windrunner behind the group, and looked back, up the hill. This seemed like the perfect place for an ambush. With a wall of rocks that had fallen in front of them, and a hill going up on the other side. Something seemed very wrong about this. The Vantha bit her lip as her eyes changed into a dark green. She was worried about what was going to happen, yet she refused to get off of Wine because of her worries. When Iosha left her horse near Eilea's the girl looked towards the group, listening and watching as they proposed ideas and theories as to how to overcome the obstacle. Climbing would be dangerous to those who weren't trained in it. She agreed with that side of that single argument. The idea of moving the rocks sound like a long days work. The girl knew she wasn't very strong. It wasn't that Eilea didn't want to help, she really did, but the whole situation was unnerving. And then Kane made the suggestion of using the horses to move the rocks. Maybe it was the fact that she loved him, but she thought it was a good idea, for horses that were strong. Horses that were sturdy. Horses that had a lot of muscle. But Wine was a Windrunner. They weren't known for their strength, but rather for their speed. Hell, Windrunners were a weak breed. “That's a good idea, but I'm not sure how much use, Wine here, will be for that.” She frowned. Because the Windrunner was a fast horse, it would be possible to run back into town and ask for more assistance. But would that be necessary. Eilea looked up the sky. She definitely didn't want to be stuck on the mountain when night fell. “I could run back to Wind Reach and get some help.” She suggested quietly. “Wine can run really fast, believe me I know.” The girl frowned, after she said it, she knew how silly she sounded. It made her sound weak, frightened by something she didn't know how to overcome.