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Post by Noa on Oct 17, 2019 21:11:00 GMT -6
As far as weird requests went, Aster had to admit, this one was right up there. Camp out at someone's summer home and... do pest control? At least, Aster hoped it was pest control. If it was a group of Fae or Kappers stirring up trouble, Aster wasn't sure he'd want to deal with it at all... But he had taken the job, banking on the hope that it wasn't, you know, a fellow citizen of the labs. Aster was a lot of things, but a law enforcer he was not. He had memories enough of being on the wrong side of the law himself to cement that idea in place.
He didn't know what he'd be dealing with though, so this time both Summer and Avander came with him. At least out of all of his companions, he could trust these two not to make any problems for him... probably.
{So let me get this straight,} said Avander. {We're staying here overnight... But they don't want us inside. They just want us to be out here in the grass, keeping watch?}
"That's what they said," Aster said with a shrug. Rich people. Or at least, people rich enough to have summer homes.
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Post by Noa on Oct 18, 2019 20:15:56 GMT -6
{And you brought me?} said Avander, at which point Aster gave him a rough shove to the shoulder.
"Yes, I brought you, you sluggard," Aster said, with a huff of breath to show what he thought of Avander's little joke. Well, it was mostly a joke, anyway. Avander was probably going to gripe about it a little, and in a sense, Aster could see where he was coming from. If the targets were a bunch of little creatures, then Aster was honestly better off applying a predator who was closer to their size. Avander, being magnitudes larger, would actually have more trouble trying to catch them if he took a stab at it.
... Which was part of why Summer was here. She was smaller, and her abilities were mostly mental to begin with, so she might have a better go at it. Aster ran his fingers down the back of her head, trailing down her neck and along her spine. Summer leaned into the touch, apparently not in such poor spirits as Avander at the prospect of being here overnight.
{Ugh,} said Avander, right on cue. {You would drag me out of my nice, warm, comfortable, heated stall for something like this.}
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Post by Noa on Oct 18, 2019 20:19:36 GMT -6
"You better believe it," Aster replied. "Though the sooner we get this whole mess sorted out, the faster you can go back to that nice, warm, comfortable, heated stall."
{I'll keep that in mind,} Avander said, though the tone with which he gave his reply suggested that Aster's attempt at motivating him had fallen a little short of the mark this time.
Disgruntled Sarane aside, there was work to be done. Aster had to set up some sort of shelter. Arguably it wasn't strictly necessary if they didn't expect to be here more than one night, but the chill of autumn was well entrenched by now, and most mornings saw frost dusting the grass and the fallen leaves around them on the estate. And Aster didn't want to be any more cold and exposed than he absolutely had to be, all things considered.
He had brought some of his own supplies, and some of it he was going to get from the woods in their area. There weren't many trees in their immediate surroundings, but the property was backed by woodland just as his own was, and there was a copse of trees not too far off on the east side too.
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Post by Noa on Oct 18, 2019 20:22:58 GMT -6
And with the help of his two companions, this would go a lot faster than if he had been attempting it by himself. In the past, it was just him on his own, and then with the company of a much younger, much smaller Summer... She hadn't come into her powers back then though, so aside from moral support, she couldn't offer much. In the end, he had been the one doing all the work even then.
The trade off, of course, was that he would have to build a bigger shelter for Avander to be able to get under it. And it couldn't be completely enclosed either, since they did have to keep a watch on the property to be able to do the job they had actually been tasked with.
If only it had been so simple as to test whether camping on this stretch of lawn was fun.
Still, no sense in rushing into it all at once. They'd take this one step at a time. "Let's set up a frame first. I need a few real big branches... I'll figure out which ones are suitable, but I'll need you two to help me carry them back here."
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Post by Noa on Oct 20, 2019 12:11:11 GMT -6
Having given those instructions, Aster walked off without bothering to check if Avander had followed. The drake might grumble about it as he had grumbled about the rest of this operation, but Aster had no doubts that he would come along and help out, in the end.
As for Summer, nothing even needed to be said. She was already a passenger on Aster's shoulder anyway, so of course she would go along wherever he did. And Summer didn't have Avander's bad habit about grousing over chores; she preferred to protest Aster's poor life decisions, if anything. Fortunately there wasn't much for her to protest yet, this time around. She might act like a spoiled creature sometimes, and she had certainly grown used to some of the luxuries that came with having a consistent roof over their head and a reasonable income, but she was also the one who had stuck with Aster when he had been genuinely homeless, here when he had first come to the area. A little camping was nothing out of her comfort zone.
Aster made his way into the small copse, and immediately set about looking for suitable branches with which to construct the shelter he wanted to build.
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Post by Noa on Oct 20, 2019 12:15:48 GMT -6
He found a few right away that would have been just right for a shelter of his own size, but unfortunately they wouldn't have done for a shelter designed to accommodate Avander's bulk. Avander was relatively small for a drake, even a first tier, but he was still a drake, in the end. Anything you could ride on was a certain magnitude bigger than yourself, and that much harder to build around.
Summer hadn't quite gotten the memo though, and levitated a branch that Aster had considered and then decided against. "No, we need something bigger. Avander's here too, you know," Aster said.
Avander, who was bringing up the rear, now came forward to inspect the stick in question. {You want me under there with you?} he asked. His tone suggested some surprise on his part.
"Weren't you complaining about being dragged away from your stall earlier?" Aster said, shrugging one shoulder. "It's not a stall but at least it'll be something."
{Well, I guess, but... You know, if you're worried about me getting a chill, you don't have to,} Avander said.
Aster blinked, coming up short. For a moment he wasn't sure what Avander was getting at, but then he remembered.
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Post by Noa on Oct 20, 2019 14:51:48 GMT -6
The Injection. The one Aster had given Avander had been ice based. It wasn't like Aster had forgotten that Avander had his ability, but he had forgotten the secondary effect that the Injection had imparted. Avander could create ice, but the Injection had inoculated him somewhat against the effects of cold and ice in general. He wasn't, and would never be, immune to the element, but he would certainly cope better with it than others of his kind.
Still, it felt a bit untoward, leaving him out in the elements. "Are you sure?" Aster said.
{It's not cold enough to bother me yet,} Avander said. {It isn't even winter. And you need someone keeping lookout, don't you?}
It was a compelling argument for reasons of convenience, if nothing else. Aster didn't want to admit to giving in on those grounds, but if Avander was volunteering... Well, they could always try it for a night and see if it worked. With any luck they'd be done the work after tonight, but if not, then there would be time to build a new shelter if they needed to.
"Alright," Aster said. "We'll take this stick, then. And this one too, and I saw another branch earlier..."
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Post by Renathan on Oct 20, 2019 15:10:08 GMT -6
Something strange was going on in the area, but at first it was difficult to notice. It sounded a bit like rustling leaves, but it could have perhaps been the tinkling of tiny rusted bells. There was something off, however, about the strange noises that followed. Was this something about the area, or was this something watching the area? Perhaps after night falls, one could investigate further.
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Post by Noa on Oct 22, 2019 20:31:43 GMT -6
With their goals adjusted, it didn't take Aster all that long to find enough sticks for what he needed. And just as he had expected, the work went faster because he had helpers on hand to help with the transportation, though in the end it ended up being mostly Summer doing the carrying. It was too much hassle to tie the sticks down onto Avander so he could do the same, and since they were in a wooded area, he couldn't exactly take flight easily here either.
{She could carry it to the edge of the woods and I can carry it the rest of the way in my claws,} Avander proposed, but even he sounded halfhearted about this idea. Aster shook his head.
"Too much trouble. Just leave it to me and Summer, and you can stand around and look pretty."
{Roger,} Avander said. He didn't seem too unhappy with that suggestion, and immediately started preening himself a little. Aster knew him pretty well, but he couldn't have said for sure whether Avander was making a joke of it or not. Either way, Aster rolled his eyes, picked up his own burden, and walked past the drake out to the open area.
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Post by Noa on Oct 22, 2019 20:35:53 GMT -6
Summer picked up the rest. It was funny, she was so much smaller than he was, and had no tangible body to speak of, but she could lift a lot more than he could with her psychic powers. In a manner of speaking, she was stronger than he was. He might have felt a little strange about it, but he had gotten so used to relying on his creatures by now that it felt like a non issue at this point, and at any rate, it was so convenient that even if he had been otherwise inclined to feel badly about it... there was just no room to.
The trek back to the house felt longer now that he was laden down with sticks, but even then, it wasn't that bad. Which was just as well, since he was likely going to have to take at least one more trip to get everything he wanted, depending. For now though, after laying out the sticks they'd gathered, Aster set about setting up the basic structure of the shelter, laying sticks against each other so that they formed a rough approximation of a tent shape, with one stick down the middle to prop the rest against.
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Post by Noa on Oct 22, 2019 20:40:38 GMT -6
He had to set up the initial few branches, but after watching him for a little while, Summer seemed to figure out the gist of what he was doing, and threw her efforts into helping him too. Together, they had all the sticks laid out in short order, and Aster could stand up and admire his handiwork.
"Not bad," Aster said. "And since I've brought a tarp, that saves us the work of waterproofing it, though some foliage on top would help disguise it and keep the heat in." And there was the matter of the bedding too. Aster was used enough to roughing it that he opted not to bring a sleeping bag. It had been dry for a while now, and by all indications, it looked as though it would stay dry for a while yet, so it was a simple matter to find some material for bedding if he looked around for a while.
And even if he couldn't, well, the ground wasn't so bad aside from it being cold, and Summer would be able to help him ward off the chill. It wasn't the worst arrangement he had ever found himself in, not by a long shot.
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Post by Noa on Oct 22, 2019 20:45:48 GMT -6
The three of them had turned back, heading towards the woods again, and were very nearly there when Avander stopped, his ears perked slightly up, peering in a certain direction. When he stopped, Aster stopped too, and immediately fell silent, his own senses on high alert. Even so, he didn't know if he would be able to catch what had prompted Avander to stop. The drake's senses were sharper than his own, and much as he liked to joke that Avander wasn't good for much, he would never go so far as to actually ignore Avander's signals. Good-natured ribbing was one thing, but the trust between them was real.
{What is it?} Aster said. Several moments had passed, and he himself still couldn't sense anything. He had switched to telepathy, in case the sound of his voice compromised them somehow. Like this, when he didn't even know what was at hand, there was no such thing as being too cautious.
{I'm not sure either,} Avander replied, after a pause. {I hear... something moving. I don't know... Bells, maybe?} The drake sounded confused, while Aster mulled over the new information. Bells... That suggested a humanoid, or at least a creature affiliated with one.
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Post by Noa on Oct 26, 2019 18:36:18 GMT -6
That put a new spin on things that Aster hadn't really considered before. He had suspected, based on the very limited information that he had received, that whatever was happening was the work of independent creatures causing mischief. Never mind that they had been stealing--- what--- tools? Many of the creatures in the area were clever enough indeed, and some good number of them might yet have a use, or at least a purpose, for those tools.
Or maybe it was just that he wasn't in the general habit of dealing with humanoids, and thus it never occurred to him to think of them as the culprits. He could imagine Summer chastising him as much, had he spoken his thoughts out loud in that moment.
Aster resisted the urge to sigh. If this was the culprit they were looking for, then he figured it was probably better to go after them now, rather than spend more time making camp, but...
No, the sooner they got this over with, the better. "Let's go," he said very quietly, and then only so that Summer, who didn't have a telepathic connection to him, could hear what he intended. He motioned in the direction Avander had indicated.
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Post by Noa on Oct 26, 2019 18:44:34 GMT -6
But even though Aster had come to that decision and given their little group the signal to move out, their progress was slow. They were trying to keep quiet, and the crisp autumn weather had produced a good deal of dry leaves that crunched and rustled underfoot if they weren't careful. Aster had to move carefully, but Avander had a harder time still, being a good deal larger. And his coloring, while helpful for blending in when the foliage was green and abundant, made him stand out against the bare trees now.
{Do you hear anything else?} Aster asked.
The drake concentrated for a moment, but came back with a negative. Either the thing had moved out of earshot or it had stopped moving. Aster hoped it was the latter. There was a third possibility, which was that it had wised up and was trying to hush itself too, which was going to be much more inconvenient for them if it was true.
It was a blessing that it was still light out, and that Aster could try his best to see something through the trees, but he had no more luck than Avander did. He didn't even know what he was looking for.
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Post by Noa on Oct 26, 2019 23:55:57 GMT -6
There was no choice but to keep pressing on, following only that direction that Avander had picked up initially. The drake could do a great many things, including guess at the distance, but with only the one occasion to go on, even that guess was... well, a guess, at best. It was hard to pinpoint a location with just a one off sound in the distance to go off of.
Still, they had a general direction, so they pressed on, doing their best to keep their presence hidden.
Eventually, they got far enough that Avander said, {It should be somewhere around here, but...}
{You don't smell anything?} Aster ventured.
{I'm not a Vulticus,} Avander said. Nevertheless, his tongue came out to taste the air a few times. Aster waited to see if he would come up with anything, but ultimately this was a bust too. {I'm getting a lot of things. I'm not sure if any of this is what I heard before.}
While the two of them were discussing this, Summer had a look around, and something must have caught her attention while she did. She lifted off from her perch on Aster's shoulder, and drifted off in a particular direction.
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