Solo Bird's Eye View

[Izuyanai]

46th of Summer, 516 AV Izuyanai awoke groggily. The surrounding brightness told her that the sun was already well on its way across the sky and all around, there was the bustle of others going about their day. Feet marched noisily along the newly formed path and voices called out to each other. The human chatter mixed with the exchange between wild birds must have been the source of the incessant noise that had roused her. Why could the sun not delay its race across the sky for one day? Izuyanai would have much preferred to rest in Akajia’s darkness for a good while yet. “Ugh.” Groaning, she pushed herself into a sitting position with her arms and raked a hand through her hair. Though Izuyanai knew that she faired better in travel than the Inartan traders without lodging or green faced sea voyage passengers, leaving the nest for the unknown was something that took its toll. The unfamiliar was exciting, but sometimes am entirely new region was too vast. There were so many things to uncover in every direction that it felt as though she had to be everywhere at once. Stretching her limbs out from the fatigue of her voyage, Izuyanai stumbled away from her bedding toward the supplies to take stock. It turned out that there were enough rations and fresh eggs for a humble breakfast, so she turned her attention to the dying embers of the previous day’s fire and attempted to stir some life into the kindling. It took some encouraging and much swirling of ash to get a steady blaze going, but Izuyanai soon had a pan heating on the fire. Stifling a yawn, she cracked the eggs over the pan and watched color bloom throughout the filmy egg white. She didn’t need anything fancy this morning. If she had endured life on the road for so long, one more day wouldn’t be any more difficult. All that was needed was something to keep her together until she could get a better grasp on her surroundings and get properly settled in. As soon as breakfast was put together, Izuyanai calmly munched through it before getting to her feet and storing away all her materials for safekeeping. Since she would be away for much of the day, she doubted that the supplies would be needed again. Tucking her clothes away in her pack, she changed into her feathery form in one leap and spiralled above the growing settlement.

[Izuyanai]

The wind roared in her ears as Izuyanai caught an upwards current into the great azure. The Suvan Sea melded into the fabric of the sky, causing her to feel as though she were floating in limbo between two beautiful colours. Circling over the land, she observed the settlement and surrounding scenery sweep away into miniature versions of themselves. From up here, Izuyanai could confirm just how isolated they really were. According to the direction she was facing, which was west due to the sun’s positioning, the right was a great expanse of leafy jungle while the left was the glimmering sea. All along the coast there were a scattering of new buildings. They all seemed to condense toward the Commons, but there was a good stretch of beach covered in the human’s attempts at taming the wilds. Right where the cove dipped in, there also seemed to be an isolated island. It was just a small piece of land, but it was enough for her to take note for later exploration. The jungle canopy made it impossible to see through to the ground below and only the Syka River wound through the leafy chaos. Izuyanai wondered if she would be able to see across the channel if she made it to the very edge of Syka, jutting out across the sea. Circling relaxedly by riding the sea breeze, Izuyanai managed to spot a series of reflective waters ahead and swooped down to investigate. Apparently, someone had creatively engineered a pool for the settlement and had gone through a lot of trouble doing so. They weren’t crudely set up or borrowed from the wild. Instead, natural waterfalls splashed merrily into smooth basins, masterfully crafted. Alighting on one of the steps with a small bounce, Izuyanai clicked her talons against the perfectly interlocking stone. The pools were too well crafted for this to be normal work. In fact, if it had been so, Izuyanai imagined it would have taken an unreasonable amount of resources and time for a simple community pool. Humans here were mostly interested in survival. The paths running across the settlement too. They were too smooth to have been built, running through the uneven jungle. Remembering what she had been told in the Towers, Izuyanai guessed that Reimancy had been involved. She couldn’t think of anything else she was familiar with that might have accomplished this. It certainly wasn’t Auristics. Remni had taught her that of the four elements in Reimancy, one was earth. At the time, Izuyanai had been too preoccupied to imagine the various works of earth based Reimancy, however, now that she examined the pools, it was rather clear to her what such magic could build. Lhavit itself stood largely thanks to the Reimancers from Towers, and so Izuyanai concluded that much of the same techniques were at play here. The raven dipped her beak into the fresh water and splashed about for a while on the edge of the basin. The refreshing bath cleared away all the wear and tear from Izuyanai’s travels and left her feeling much less tired. Until the heavy water dried from her feathers, Izuyanai had some time to preen and bask in the warm summer breeze. Therefore, when the she finally left the pools for the jungle, her feathers were once again in their proper sleek state.

[Izuyanai]

Rising on a fresh new current, Izuyanai tilted on one wing and carefully manoeuvred so that she got a perfect view of the area surrounding Syka. The channel sheltered much of the coast and explained the mild weather and waves. If there was any trade or travel to be had, it would be by the sea. The jungle on the other hand, was a mess of foliage. Even from her clear vantage point, Izuyanai’s gaze could not penetrate the wide green canopy. While the jungle might prevent any travel, it meant that there would be less danger tracking through to reach them on the coast. That didn’t mean the area didn’t hide some ugliness that the settlers knew nothing about. Feeling confident, however, Izuyanai made a swift dive toward the very edge of the jungle, dodging broad leaves and finally alighting on a gnarled branch supporting some hanging vines. The light below the leaves changed into a shady greenish tint. It was a lot cooler where she was now, but unfortunately the humidity seemed to increase slightly. All the plants seemed to breath out rich air filled with water. Izuyanai opted to hop from perch to perch instead of attempting to fly through the maze of trees. If she tried that, not only would it slow her down, but she was sure she would end up clipping her wide wings against a tree or becoming entangled in some unexpected vines. It was better to glide and leap from one convenient spot to the next. Still, she couldn’t avoid a fair bit of creative tactics in trying to creep bit by bit into the jungle. After a while, the raven could no longer hear the telltale sounds of the sea. The sound of the waves must have been muffled by the dense jungle and now there was only the occasional strange animal call and the rustle of leaves as creatures scurried about out of sight. So far, Izuyanai hadn’t managed to spot anything other than a few brilliantly coloured beetles and butterflies. However, no sooner than when she began to wonder about the local fauna, a bright cluster of color glared from the edge of her vision. Turning in order to see more properly, Izuyanai shuffled her feathers at a loss at what seemed to be iridescent lizards. At least, she thought they were lizards as they were scaled and flat to the ground. There were three of them sitting on the lowest branch of a tree a few paces away. They looked as though they might have crawled over to the spot from a nearby rock. The most noticeable feature about them was their blinding scales. Even in the leafy light they were easy to spot. One was a metallic green with a smattering of yellow across its back, and the second was a blaring orange with a modest blush of blue across its cheeks. The last was also green but with pink splashes right above its eyes. Cautiously, Izuyanai dropped to the ground and made graceful steps over to their resting spot. She was a rather unusual creature in the jungle and it wouldn't do for them to scatter at her sight. She crept under some overhanging vines and skirted around the trunk of a particularly large tree, peeking around the corner at the bright trio. However, though she muffled the sound of her movements, the orange creature lifted its head as if sniffing the air and immediately, the others started frantically crawling away. Izuyanai blinked in surprise at being noticed, but looked pityingly at their slow escape. They seemed to be trying their best to get away but one of them knocked the other to the ground where it made an anxious noise, burrowing into the undergrowth out of sight. The remaining blue and green one with pink splotches finally made it down to the other side of the tree and busied themselves in disappearing. Wanting to keep examining the strange creatures Izuyanai cut off the blue creature from its course and leaned close, more curious than threatening. However, the intent didn’t translate over well to the stressed animal and it made a surprisingly quick swipe at the raven with small claws. Izuyanai fluttered out of the way in time, but got close enough to see the needle sharp points on the animals fingertips. Bounding back, she circled around to the creatures side, flying over its body and giving it a smart kick in the process. Just enough to give it a scare and flip it over into a nearby fern. Sitting back on her talons, the raven watched the creature slip away and wondered at how their species managed to survive. It’s vibrant scales made it easy to spot and it didn’t seem to have speed on their side. Perhaps they were poisonous or horribly sour. Making a mental note to get their details and name, Izuyanai gave a short flap and worked her way up to her previous route in the branches.

[Gossamer]

The Fates Have Spoken
Here is your thread grade!

Character: Izuyanai
Experience Awarded: Cooking +1, Scouting +2, Tactics +1, Observation +3, Unarmed Combat +1
Lores Awarded: Aerial Layout of Syka, Community Pool: Manmade by Reimancy, Community Pool: Layout and Location, Jungle Wilds: Strange Lizards have sharp claws. Flying: Avoiding obstacles, Flying: Making the most of your environment, Flying: Avoiding Capture By Flipping

Notes: I’d love to give you more for this thread, but just flying around vaguely describing things from above makes it really hard. There wasn’t enough detail in description to award acrobatics. This is a skill that needs ones body to be consciously controlled and the maneuvers practiced over and over in detail. If anything, there was dodging, but not enough detail to award XP so I gave you lores instead. Good job in putting Syka’s location in your mind in relativity to other things such as the ocean, jungle, etc.

As always PM me if you have issues.