A Trip Down the Mountain (Closed)

[Silwyn]

Addy impatiently waved Silwyn over, and Silwyn crept over to her, stepping on a few twigs and snapping them in half, and pushing a few low-lying branches out of the way so she wouldn't receive a lovely smack in the face.

Addy was saying something, as she sat next to whatever plant it was that she had discovered, "Do you recognize this?" was all Silwyn had heard Addy say. Being unable to get a clear look from where she was standing, Silwyn walked even closer until she was standing just behind Addy's left shoulder, standing on her tippy-toes and peering over Addy's form to look at the plant. It was tall and stringy, with tiny white flowers spread across the top of the stem like an umbrella. It reminded Silwyn of a spider-web, in a strange sort of way. "No," Silwyn replied, "never used it before."

Suddenly, Addy sprang to her feet, and rushed over to where her bag was a few feet away from where Silwyn had been standing. As soon as she got to it, she hastily opened it, and rummaged through the pack, she was definitely looking for something. But what exactly? Silwyn wondered, as she stood in the dirt, watching Addy, with a shy smile on her face, the forest's own personal inartan statue.

Eventually, Addy found what she had been looking for, pulled it out of the bag, and ran back to the plant. She sat down, and started to sift through the pages of a book, "lets see if it tells me in here how to harvest it," she said. Silwyn nodded, but then realized chances were that Addy couldn't see her, after all, she was still standing behind her.

"Well, we could do that," Silwyn said as she sat down beside Addy, "or I could tell you that chances are, it's best to carefully cut the stem with a sharp device, your eating knife should suffice." Silwyn looked over at the healer, who was still engrossed in her book, which seemed, at least from what Silwyn could see, to be far more in-depth than anything Anhasha had written up, and it amazed her, because Anhasha was pretty detail-oriented when she wanted to be.

[Silwyn]

OOCHey guys, thought I'd inform you that I can't stand this pc, and am going to ask to have it retired, sorry if this complicates things. But have fun posting ok! Cheers =)

[Sairque]

Sai knelt against some roots, lightly clearing some needles away from the little paw marks. Badger, Wolverine, neither were pleasant to run into. Brushing dirt from her fingers with her thumb, the flightleader glanced up at Renol and covered her lips with one digit. Shh time. Pulling the longbow off her shoulder, Sai quickly strung it and knocked an arrow. Running perpendicular to the mammal tacks were cleft hoof tracks, deep, wet and clean, fresh.

A quick pat down assured her that nothing loose would jangle. Assuming Silwyn had met up with Addy, they were off somewhere to her left, so Sai nodded to Renol, who fell in behind her, and slowly started creeping through the underbrush. Leaves rustled in the cool afternoon breeze, birds cheerfully chattered, and, as always, the roar of the waterfall provided a steady platform for the music of the forest to sing on. Shadows dappled the world around the two hunters, spears of sunlight catching the dust dancing through the air. Sai winced as she stepped on yet another stick, the snap transmitting her presence to anything nearby. No, she wasn’t too good at this forest hunting thing.

It didn’t matter a second later when she thought she lost the trail, but a glance further down revealed that the beast had lurched into a trot. Probably when Catabasis had landed and they’d merrily been chatting away. Sighing, she pointed it out to Renol, only to find that he’d disappeared. Rolling her eyes, she turned around and practiced neat, quiet paces back the way she’d come.

He’s still wandering around the woods somewhere, Catabasis helpfully supplied. Eyebrows furrowed, the slender woman, white skin contrasting the earthy tones of the forest, scoured the ground for signs of his boots. Only her two little prints led the way. Stepping over a log, she was about to shrug off the idle entertainment when signs of Renol appeared. There was a large print right before the logs. To double check, she backtracked a bit, the trail muddied by her returning tracks, but found no sign of him. Returning to the log, she crouched and scrutinized the area around it. He hadn’t turned around. At least, she couldn’t tell that he had. Finally, she noticed a scuff in the moist slippery coating on the rotting wood. With this new clue, she carefully laid one foot in front of the other along it and followed down, eyes scouring for further sign.

[Aidara]

Having been successful in properly procuring the single herb from it's home in the underbrush, Addy was left with a feeling of pride and accomplishment. This was probably a little over done on the healers part, but she had never gone to collect herbs herself, and was allowed a little pride now and again. "Ha! See, I got it! And I didn't damage it or anything! I am still not sure what plant it is, but we can find that out when I get back to my books. Did you find anything else, Silwyn? You've gotten rather quiet." Standing up, carefully tucking away her procured plant, Addy looked around for the woman in question. She was no where to be seen. Huh. Maybe she had run off in a hissy fit when Addy had waved away her attempts to help. No big loss, since the girl was a bossy know it all. Companion-less and free to wander where ever she wanted, Addy started deeper into the forest. Here and there she spotted more of the little thin plants with white flowers. And each time she stooped to gather them, making sure not to crush every part and going so far as to pull up the roots along with everything else. It would have been a shame to get back to her Aerie and find out that she had needed the roots and nothing else. Here and there Addy checked the different mosses on the trunks of the trees. She didn't know if there was much use for moss, but she still took some of that as well. At one point she stumbled across what she was sure was an aloe plant, though she had no idea why it would be growing in this region, and picked it anyway. Almost half a bell had passed and Addy was still traipsing deeper into the woods. She was bending down to look at a funny vine growing along the base of a tree when she heard rustling. Standing up quickly (which was actually probably the worst thing she could have done) Addy looked around for the source of the noise. It was very faint, and coming closer. Slowly, the healer stepped through the undergrowth towards the sound, pushing aside a low hanging branch, knowing the source of the noise was right on the other side. "Sai!" Addy breathed in relief. She was woefully unprepaired for an animal attack, and was therefore happier than usual to see her sister. "Didn't we start on opposite sides? What are you doing over here? Or I guess the same could go for me, but I have no idea where I am. I found a few plants though. Where is Renol?" The question flew fast and furious as Addy stepped over a fallen trunk to stand beside her sister, who was doing a curious hunched walk while looking carefully at the ground. "Uh...Whatcha doin?"

[Sairque]

“Addy!” Sai exclaimed, startled. “Thank the Gods you weren’t a bear,” she mumbled, displeased at her lack of environmental awareness as she tried to track. “I’m hunting a Renol.” She turned back to the scuffs on the moss growth on the fallen tree then abruptly straightened and looked around. “Where’s Silwyn?” She knew from the deflated displeasure that seeped through their bond that Addy hadn’t a clue but didn’t really care. What a character that Silwyn was. “All right, now we’re hunting a Silwyn and a Renol,” she announced, crouching down to point out the scuffles in front of the worn toes of her boots. “I think he might have walked along this tree. I couldn’t find any signs of him on the trail, so I assume he took a little stroll.” “Why don’t you go double check the trail,” she suggested, standing and towering over her sister thanks to the log. Pointing back the way she’d come, the game trail was only fifteen paces back. “We both crossed the log going north, and we both walked back to it but I don’t know where Renol went from there.” Abruptly, her hand clamped down onto the healer’s shoulder and she whispered conspiratorially. “Do you think they snuck off together?” Perhaps she would have been displeased by the thought if it wouldn’t have been so ridiculously funny to find him with her, of all people. Nothing against the girl, but there just wasn’t anything attractive there at all. Stifling a snicker, Sai released her to go check the game path. “I guess if you come to the same conclusion, you can keep looking for those little white flowers while I try to find signs of him. Then we can go find Silwyn if she doesn’t pop up.” Brows knitting, the Endal resumed her curious hunched walk along the log, picking the softest, least likely to make noise, spots to put her feet. Naturally, every step produced a sound that could warn any creature of her presence within fifteen feet. Oh well, stalking Renol was no big secret. Unless he was actively evading them. Go figure. After ten feet of no sign, Sai back tracked just as carefully, trying to keep her feet in their original marks, to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. Back where Addy had ran into her, she started scouring the vegetation and ground on either side of the log. Was that a broken piece of grass? Laid down by a boot? Hmn, hmn!? No. She guessed and continued on. This pile of ants was awfully stirred up…had someone disturbed part of it? Perhaps with their boot? Nope…no sign of anything having touched it. Of course, it was hard to see through the writhing mass of little bugs. How about that little bramble there? It was bent unnaturally. No sign beneath it though. Hmn hmn. Nothing concrete. Moving on. Ohhh, but wait, here was another disturbed shrubbery, just opposite the bramble. As though something Renol sized had passed through. Possibly with boots! She motioned for her sister to join her on the log, sitting on her heels and waiting for the girl to come along. “Did you find anything? I think I might have something here, down through there,” she motioned the way she wanted to go. Why he had walked between two bushes when there was great expanses big enough for him to pass through without disturbing anything was beyond her. Rising, balancing easily on the rounded edge of the rotting log, Sai faced along its length and gracefully bent forward, the long smooth motion, testament and possible only by the strong knit of her muscles, caught her weight on her hands and rotated her hips and feet above her head. Knees slightly bent, providing additional leverage to maintain balance, the young woman carefully placed one hand after the other in palm sized steps along the length of the slick, rounded log. Visibility was greatly reduced, she noticed, but petch if she wasn’t so much quieter this way. Absently, she wondered if she could effectively hunt this way. Stopping, rotating her head back so she could look at her upside down sister, Sai peered at her from a reddening face. “Well, what do you think? I say we take the sign and see what we find.” Leaning to the side, Sai gracefully tipped to her feet and brushed her hands off. She could feel her pulse pounding in her head from the rush of blood. Strangely, she could also feel tingling in her legs. Glancing down, the girl yelped and danced wildly onto the log, hunching to beat at her legs even as she kicked them out as though to sling something off her feet. Apparently, that just pissed the ants off and they started biting. So Sai fell off the log onto Aidara. But, to her hunting credit, she didn’t make a vocal sound beyond the initial yelp.

[Aidara]

"Bah-hahahahaha!" Snorting with laughter, Addy had to clap her hands over her mouth at her sisters stern stare. The mental picture of Silwyn off wooing Renol or vice versa was an extremely funny one "You know, I've seen odder couples. It would be a shame if it were true, though. I had high hopes for Renol." With a sideways glance at her sister, Addy made her meaning abundantly clear. Sai and Renol would have looked cute together, it was true. "Right. Manhunt. Got it. And...go!" Raising a hand to punch the air as she whisper-shouted the last word, the healer grinned at Sai and started her search. Of course, she had no idea what she was looking for or how to track anything at all. The subtle clues of broken branches and bent grasses were missed by Addy as she kept her gaze at eye level, looking for clues there...and failing. "Ugh, this is stupid." Came the grumble as Addy crashed through the woods after her sister. So instead, she decided to take up the other offer to find more plants. That seemed like a good idea. Now her gaze was lowered, though she wasn't looking for clues of passage but small, helpful looking plants. Here and there, Addy stopped to pick up a different bit of twig or a small leafed fern. She had come across a flower or two, and had gently pulled them up by the roots before she realized that in herbalism as well as tracking...she had no idea what she was doing. Yes, she knew medicine and used herbs in remedies all the time. But they were premade, and the woman had no idea what they looked like in their un-ground up form. Unwilling to give up on both of her projects, Addy instead continued to pluck and carefully store every small plant she could find that had leaves or flowers. Soon, her bag was bulging with her discoveries and she could not fit anything else without crushing the contents. It wasn't until Addy looked up from her find-the-flowers mission that she realized Sai had disappeared again. "Petch" Looking wildly around, the woman tried to strain her hearing and her eyes for any clue that the endal was nearby. But no, her sister was taking this seriously and she was keeping out of sight and making no noise. It looked like Addy was going to get her tracking lesson after all. Stooping over again, she tried to think of the few things her sister had taught her about this skill in passing. There were certian clues one could look for on the ground, right? But what were they? Obviously footprints would be one, so this was the first thing Addy looked for. She walked slowly, still hunched over, along the path as she sought out Sai's bootprint. Nothing. Had Sai mentioned something about bark? Green eyes moved to the trunks of the trees around her. Other then the one tree she could see, far off the path that was obviously used by deer and elk to scrape their horns, all of the trunks were intact. Drat. Grass? Twigs? Addy knew for sure that Sai had talked about these things before, and that one could spot breaks or disturbences in them to be able to tell if someone had been through there before. However, when Addy stopped to look at different patches of grass and the twigs that protruded onto the path, she had no idea how she could tell if they had been disturbed. They simply looked like grass and twigs. "This is ridiculously hard." Grumbling, the healer continued forward. It was only by sheer amounts of luck that she stumbled upon her sister waiting for her on the log. Taking a seat down next to her, Addy sighed and showed Sai her stash of plants "I didn't get much. Well, I got a lot actually but I don't know what most of it is." Stowing it all again, she listened as her sister mentioned what she had found, and suggested they follow that trail. Addy was in the process of nodding in agreement when Sai flung herself off the log and pushed Addy bodily to the ground "What the-" But before she could ask what was going on, the healer found out for herself. It was like a wave of ants crawling up her arm. Not as poised as her sister, Addy shreeked and struggled to her feet, stomping around and brushing wildly at her skin and clothes. "Oh my god. Get them off, get them off, get them off!!!!!" Over reaction is an understatement. In her panic, Addy started moving away from the log and deeper into the woods, as if running away from the ants that crawled on her skin made perfect sense. "GET THEM OFF!!!" She was making no attempt to be quiet now.

[Aidara]

Left thrashing and wailing as her sister elicited no help what so ever, it was up to the healer to save herself. When you're on fire, they teach you to stop, drop and roll. This is the first thing that Addy tried. Throwing herself to the ground, the little healer began to roll around in the bracken and dead foliage of the forest floor. Twigs snapped noisily and clumps of earth stuck in her hair and clothes. After a few minutes Addy was ant free and happy once more... That is, until she saw how dirty she had made herself. "Alright, you know what? I'm done here." Calling out to where ever Sai had disappeared too, Addy hoisted her bag onto her shoulder, careful not to crush her brimming pouch of freshly picked herbs. "When you find Silwyn and Renol, just let them know that I left, I guess." Still no response. "Okay...I'm going to have Catabasis fly me back up then...BYE." Though he wasn't happy about it, the giant Wind Eagle did carry Addy back to Wind Reach before returning in search of his rider. Through the connection that the twins shared, Addy knew that her sister was alright; she had probably just wandered off in search of some fantastical creature that she thought she could track and capture or something. Racing to her room, the little woman dropped her bag on her bed and gently placed her bag of herbs on her work bench, making a mental note to stop by the enclave and find some book that spelled out how to deal with her fresh plants. Addy didn't linger long in the aerie, and she was soon striding quickly down the corridors towards the communal baths. She could still feel the ants creeping along her skin and could smell the dirt and sweat on her body. She felt absolutely disgusting and was compelled to wash it all off right away. The baths were warm and steamy when she entered, forgoing the cooler tubs as well as the salt ones. The towel Drudge got a smile and a thanks as she took her towel and a bar of soap. Yes, the twins had a luxurious tub of their own at home but... It just wasn't the same as being able to completely submerge ones self in a deliciously hot bath five times one's size. Placing her towel right on the stone edge, Addy stripped out of her soiled clothes and threw them to the side. The water was almost too hot to be comfortable, but Addy slipped right in, submerging herself to her chin. With a delightful sigh, the woman closed her eyes and rested her head back against the cool stone edge. She would be there for hours, just letting all the grime wash away. It was the perfect way to end a stressful day.

[Indigo]

Character: Silwyn Skills: +1 Herbalism, +1 Foraging Lore: Not just a green thumb-green hands, being rude, Ignoring a question from a Flight Leader, Irritating a Wind Eagle, Being gnorant of your place, Ignorance IS bliss, Treating a majestic Wind Eagle like a common cab, giving bad advice Character: Aidara Skills: +1 Charisma, +1 Socializing, +2 Herbalism, +1 Riding (Wind Eagle,) +2 Foraging, Lore: Skimping on your work, Getting a name is like pulling teeth, Awkard dismount, Windy tears, Making book knowledge into experience, ManHunting, Staying optimistic Character: Sairque Skills: +2 Observation, +1 Riding (Wind Eagle,) +1 Socializing, +2 Leadership, +1 Geography, +1 Hunting, +2 Tracking, Lore: Being tolerant through the worst of insults, Keeping your temper with an insolent woman, Resisting smacking the shyke out of an ungrateful passenger, ManHunting, Keeping your sense of humor Character: Renol Skills: +1 Riding (Wind Eagle,) +1 Socializing, +1 Tracking, +1 Observation, Lore: Enjoying the malicious glee of an assumed but well deserved punishment, The thrill of speed, Scaring away chipmunks, Notes: Sai--your patience is amazing, Addy--you're adorable, Renol--chipmunks? lol It's a shame it had to end like that, but a good overall effort. If you have any questions or comments about your grade, please don't hesitate to PM me.