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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:24:25 GMT -6
Fiera peered out into the water again, looking for the moving spot she had seen earlier. She could have SWORN she saw something quick and flashy moving through the waves, but all she had managed to grab were a couple of shells. Was that all it was, some cast offs disguised as something living by the undulations of the water? Or had she simply missed whatever was down there, hitting the bottom and scooping up some shells instead? She didn’t think there was anything intelligent enough living in these waves to try and trick her by dropping off some shells in her net instead. Fiera scratched the back of her net, thinking. Yeah, she had to have just missed, as it was the most likely explanation for all of this. At least her net was unharmed, though. She could always try harder to catch something this time.
Fiera 7 Isle 6.2/1.2 7
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:24:48 GMT -6
She peered into the water, looking for the spot she had been fishing in before. Isle had moved a bit since then, so the bottom of the river beneath her had moved. As a result, her old spot in the water was gone. Her lip twitched a bit, but Fiera supposed it was for the best. Chances are whatever she had been TRYING to catch had swum away (and fast) when she plunged the net into the water. It would be best to try and find another fish and try with that one. Maybe things would go better this time. Fiera scanned the waves, looking for another moving shape. Her eyes weren’t QUITE what they used to be, but years of target practice had kept her pretty sharp. If she could hit a target with a pistol at one hundred feet, she was pretty sure she could pick out a fish in a crystal clear river.
Fiera 8 Isle 6.3/1.3 8
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:25:09 GMT -6
How hard could it be? Well, the longer she left it for, the more it became apparent that the answer was “pretty hard”. Fiera’s eyes were getting tired of looking, and she hadn’t seen anything other than wiggly waves so far. Everything was just… normal. Fiera sighed and looked up toward Isle’s head. “Do you see anything?” She said casually. If the mangrove cross heard her, it made no indication of it. Fiera sighed and slapped the water’s surface a couple times with her net, quickly growing increasingly bored. That was the worst part about fishing, she figured- the boredom. Maybe it would do her better to explore Isle instead… though she didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to catch fish in the meantime. What to do? She looked between her net and her backpack, an idea percolating slowly inside her skull. She walked over to her bag.
Fiera 9 Isle 6.4/1.4 9
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:25:25 GMT -6
As expected, she had a small coil of rope in there. Nothing too fancy or too long- she hadn’t really needed it before. It would do for her purposes though. She dragged her net and the rope over to the edge of Isle and found a good root. Sturdy, not too thick, right at the edge of the water. Perfect. Then, she flipped her net upside down and plunged the end in the water, so the current passed through it. Once it was in position, she lashed it to Isle’s root with her rope. There! Now if anything swam into the net, it would (probably, if her plan was correct) be pinned to the inside of the net by the current, allowing her to come back later and scoop it up. In the meantime, she was safe to explore as much as she liked without worrying about missing out on a catch.
Fiera 10 Isle 7.0/2.0 10
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:25:39 GMT -6
With that in mind, Fiera took a step back. The net seemed secure enough, so she should be fine to walk away. Satisfied, Fiera trekked through Isle’s little ‘grove’. She-... wait, was this thing a she? Or a he? Fiera knew it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t intelligent enough to have a sense of gender, and as a crossbreed it was sterile, so its physical sex wasn’t exactly relevant either. Still, Ridelys hadn’t told her what it was supposed to be when the creature was handed over, so as far as Fiera knew, it was just… an ‘it’. Or a ‘them’, perhaps. Still, that felt a little strange, all things considered. Ehn. She’d just stick with ‘she’ for now- it was appealing to Fiera to be spending time with a massive, powerful beast that happened to also be a girl. A bit like her, to say the least.
Fiera 11 Isle 7.1/2.1 11
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:25:57 GMT -6
She walked up toward the front of Isle’s body, looking idly at the spots of sunlight filtering through the leafy foliage overhead. If she didn’t know better, she would think this was just a beautiful island to explore. And yet… there were a couple of things that were just “off”. Isle was a cross breed between a pliathor and a nyssa, resulting in a living floating island. While the nyssa part was most accurate in the size and foliage, the pliathor heritage shone through as well. For example, Isle was a powerful swimmer and also… everything just seemed… quite MOIST. It would appear that the natural ‘slime coat’ of the fishy pliathor covered the bases of the trees here to keep them moist and healthy, and it also lent a unique scent to the air. It wasn’t necessarily unpleasant, a sort of sickly sweet scent, and was rather mild overall.
Fiera 12 Isle 7.2/2.2 12
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:26:15 GMT -6
But it did make it clear that not everything here was as it seemed. Still, Fiera doubted that it was possible for someone to wander onto an ‘island’ like this on accident. After all, those watching from the shore would easily be able to see how this copse of trees (of a completely different species from the surroundings) was somehow moving upstream against the current. Also, that it had teeth. Speaking of teeth, Fiera was now getting quite close to the head of the beast, judging from how the ‘island’ was narrowing. Soon the trees petered out, just leaving thick, corded, slightly sticky ‘wood’ which was honestly probably incredibly strong skin and muscle colored like wood. Sure enough, she saw the tip of a snout ahead and realized she was probably standing on top of Isle’s head. As if in response, she head a faint grumble from the creature’s mouth.
Fiera 13 Isle 7.3/2.3 13
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:26:31 GMT -6
“Howdy!” Fiera said in response, looking around. “Don’t mind me! Just checking things out!” She looked down, and saw multiple pairs of eyes staring back up at her. She couldn’t help her tail puffing out a bit, startled, but she supposed it was to be expected. Pliathor had those eyes after all, and Fiera was standing on her head, so why not use them to look at her? Considering how big Isle was, she didn’t see why the creatures weren’t bred to have more. There was no way she could see behind herself like this, after all. Though… Fiera supposed that she also wouldn’t need it. What sort of creature could possibly harm a beast this big and tough? Not to mention, the woody texture of her flesh would likely be completely inedible to most beasts of the world. Despite the fangs, she could probably ward off predators with her bulk alone.
Fiera 14 Isle 7.4/2.4 14
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 19, 2020 16:26:46 GMT -6
Though she supposed that, being half predator genetically, Isle could probably defend herself actively if she needed to. She would certainly be an interesting opponent in the tournament, that was for sure. Fiera was honestly a little jealous- how amazing would it be to show up with a creature like this in the battlefield? Still, it was her job to train Isle, not own her. Still, it didn’t hurt to appreciate a beautiful creature- she was an expert in beautiful things, after all. Satisfied with her little adventure, Fiera turned back and walked into the trees, wanting to check on her net. She had only been away for a little while, but maybe she had managed to catch something while she was letting Isle get a good look at her. At the very least she would probably get something free floating in her net this time instead of some shells.
Fiera 15 Isle 8.0/3.0 15
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 20, 2020 10:57:28 GMT -6
She pulled it up and… hm. Nothing interesting, not yet at least. That was a little disappointing, but Fiera supposed she just had to be patient. There was still a lot more of Isle to explore, after all. She relashed the net to the root, letting it plunge down into the water again. Hopefully next time it would bear more fruit. Water fruit. Fish. Whatever. Then she started walking again, this time going toward the back of Isle. She decided to stay in the trees as opposed to walking along the shoreline, but for no particular reason. Sometimes you just wanted to take the scenic route, even if it took a little longer. She could still hear the water rushing off to her right though, a pleasant background noise to her walk. Fishing might be boring, but she had to admit that it could be relaxing to her as well.
Fiera 16 Isle 8.1/3.1 16
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 20, 2020 10:57:44 GMT -6
She looked up at the trees as she walked seeing how they moved and swayed in the light. She was amazed that any light could get through at all, considering how thick and verdant they were. She stopped to look at one, putting her hand on it gently. It was impossible to tell if the movement she felt in its slender trunk was a shiver that Isle produced due to being touched, or if it was the natural swaying of the tree in the wind from above and from the water below. Overall, none of this place felt in any way ‘still’. Even though it looked like a regular island if you were deep in the mangrove patch, even a child could tell that this place was more “alive” than most forests. Fiera was sure that if she placed an ear to the ground, she would be able to hear the deep, steady pulsing of Isle’s heart.
Fiera 17 Isle 8.2/3.2 17
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 20, 2020 10:57:59 GMT -6
She wasn’t about to do that, though. Fiera found herself walking on the most raised up roots, hopping from dry spot to dry spot, as the actual ‘ground’ around here was absolutely soaked with swampy river water. She wasn’t about to ruin her good hair day for the sake of ‘connecting with a beautiful beast’ or some nonsense like that. She knew what a heartbeat sounded like, she didn’t need to get her head wet to hear it again. At least the nice thing about these ‘mangrove’ trees is that they left plenty of roots to stand on, allowing her plenty of room to get around. The trees were pretty close together too, giving Fiera a lot of things to grab onto to help her balance. The gaps between roots were pretty dangerous, but so long as you weren’t an idiot (which Fiera definitely wasn’t), you weren’t in danger of twisting your ankle.
Fiera 18 Isle 8.3/3.3 18
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 20, 2020 10:58:16 GMT -6
Speaking of the trees, Fiera couldn’t help but look up at them again. To her surprise (or perhaps just interest), she realized that the leaves weren’t quite as ‘leafy’ as one would hope. She reached up to pluck one off, and began to pull on it, only to be met with an ominous rumble from under her feet. She released the leaf instantly. “Alright, alright.” She said calmingly. “I won’t pull any leaves off.” Still, that wouldn’t stop her looking at them. She grabbed onto the fork between some branches, and scrabbled her feet against the bark, trying to pull herself up. It wasn’t incredibly graceful, but it wasn’t like there was a ton of people around watching. Her efforts go the job done and soon Fiera was sitting awkwardly on the tree branch, looking like… well, like a cat stuck in a tree. She’d find it ironic if she wasn’t so out of breath.
Fiera 19 Isle 8.4/3.4 19
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 20, 2020 10:58:30 GMT -6
But at least now she could take a closer look at the leaves. She didn’t think that mangroves had any fruits, so there wasn’t any point in looking for those, but the leaves on their own were pretty interesting. As expected, they weren’t shaped like mangrove leaves at all- but instead looked like tiny fins. They were green and veined like leaves, but the shape of them resembled something you’d see on a fish, complete with delicate rays. In fact, they looked a bit… like… ah. Fiera KNEW that that pliathor heritage had to pop up here somewhere. It looked like those fishy fins on the sea serpents were the inspiration for the leaves on the resulting crossbreed, as opposed to nyssa’s more classically leaf shaped foliage. It was certainly interesting to look at- they even twitched every so often, as if they knew they were supposed to be pushing a creature through water.
Fiera 20 Isle 9.0/4.0 20
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 20, 2020 14:25:45 GMT -6
Fiera was still stuck in a tree though now that the leaves had lost her interest. She looked around, but the way down seemed a lot further than the way up. Maybe she could hang out here for a little bit longer. After all, she already knew how easy it was to twist an ankle around here, and wasn’t looking forward to trying to stick that landing. Instead, she peered even further up the branches. Isle might be an island, but they were still a small island. The trees here weren’t all that tall, and she could see the crown of the branches of the tree she was sitting in from here. If she climbed just a little bit further, she could probably breach the top and get a good view of the surrounding area. She just had to hope that these skinny little tree branches could hold her weight.
Fiera 1 Isle 9.1/4.1 21
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