|
Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 20:45:26 GMT -6
Maybe it was a spleen? Either way, it was some sort of thing you usually found inside a body rather than outside it. And usually these things didn't move around on their own after they were removed from said body.
And yet, here this one was, shuffling along the ground. It moved not unlike a slug, which didn't make it any more appealing.
"Huh," was all Aster could muster, at the sight of it before him.
{You saw it, didn't you!} said Rhys, who was apparently still watching from the sidelines. {Isn't it awful? Don't get close!}
"That is pretty gross," Aster agreed, but rather than doing what Rhys was saying, he reached down and picked up the spleen. Rhys made a high pitched noise of horror as he saw what Aster was doing.
And the sensation wasn't exactly pleasant; Aster would tell him that for free. But he'd also experienced worse.
50
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Oct 19, 2019 20:51:23 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 20:51:50 GMT -6
After all, he did feed his own Sarane on the daily before he had Rabbit to help him out with chores around the property, and most of his creatures, for that matter, did eat meat of some sort. This was no worse than, say handling Avander's meal... or Azalea's, for that matter. If you wanted to talk about cold and slimy, fish were right up there.
And sometimes the fish had a little more life to them too, though Aster tried to make sure they were dead by the time Azalea got to them, at least. When they were still gasping around in the air, they weren't much of a threat, so it was easier for Aster to take care of them then.
He didn't really want to take it with him or anything like that. He just wanted to see how this thing would react to being picked up at all.
51
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 22:11:25 GMT -6
It wasn't a fan, as it turned out. Which wasn't a surprise, but Aster wasn't sure as to exactly how something like this would communicate its displeasure. He was now finding out that it did that through squirming more violently than before, which was unpleasant and unsettling, but not particularly threatening. He wondered how this thing fended off predators, if it had them.
Maybe it was just no good to eat. Or maybe there wasn't anything that ate pocketpets like this in the mansion.
{How long are you going to keep holding it?} said Rhys. His tone was half panicked, half concerned. Aster, grinning, held it out for Rhys to see. Rhys turned away immediately. {Hurry and put it down!}
"Alright, alright," Aster said. He should probably stop tormenting the thing anyway. If he wasn't going to do anything with it, there was no sense in making it miserable any longer.
52
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 22:16:20 GMT -6
He set the spleen or liver or whatever it was back in the leaves, and wiped the residue from it off on his pants. It sure was well lubricated, that weird little organ. It was cold too, so if it had been in a body at some point, it had definitely been a while since it had left. Though what kind of body would spawn an organ that stayed mobile after it was separated from the main host...
Then again, some mysteries were better left unsolved.
{I think I've had enough of this place,} Rhys was saying, as Aster made his way back to the Felusine's side.
"What, tapping out so soon?" Aster replied, though in truth he wasn't at all unhappy to leave himself. The mansion hadn't been too unpleasant, but neither was it his favorite place to hang out. Especially this time of year, where everything felt a little off.
53
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 22:19:00 GMT -6
{I just don't want to see any more things like that,} Rhys said. Apparently his appetite for hunting pocketpets had been soundly defeated by finding one that was just too gross for him to deal with. Well, Aster thought that thing might have been a pocketpet anyway. He wasn't sure what constituted one to begin with, but it was small enough, and it was alive... in a sense.
Come to think of it, he'd heard about a shop in the city that appraised things like this. He'd never gone himself, but maybe he ought to come back here and catch some of those things, take it down to that store and see if they'd accept them or not. Maybe they'd even pay good money for some, the way Zoological Imports was apparently buying as well as selling pets now.
"Alright," Aster said. "If you want to go home, then let's start heading back."
54
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 22:22:09 GMT -6
He held out his arm, and Rhys leaped into the air, wings fluttering for a moment as he lifted himself up to perch on Aster's outstretched arm. From there, Rhys moved back onto Aster's shoulders, and settled his body close to Aster's neck.
"Don't worry," Aster said, "it's only like this one month of the year."
{You did say that it changed sometimes,} Rhys recalled. He was calming down a little. Maybe being in such close physical proximity was helping to calm him down. {What are all the other months like?}
"I could tell you, but I don't remember a lot... We can see if we can look it up once we get home." Aster thought about it for a moment, then said, "You could find out yourself too. We can come back some other month, and see what it's like then."
{Let's do that,} Rhys agreed. {But only if there's no more stray body parts.}
55 (Exit; taking anything they find on their way out)
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Oct 19, 2019 22:24:22 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Dec 1, 2019 16:26:32 GMT -6
Taking an untried creature to the mansions was sometimes a rather poor exercise in frustration. Past experiences had told Aster enough about that, especially in the months where the place saw fit to terrorize its visitors more often than not. But in the dead of winter, this time of year, it wasn't so bad, and Nightshade had seemed surprisingly even tempered so far for a creature of his size and species. Or maybe Aster was just thinking of the older type of Wiurn. It was true that he hadn't exactly had any experience with these new ones, aside from Nightshade himself.
The Wiurn certainly followed in a fairly docile manner when he was led somewhere, and today was no exception to that. Aster only had to resort to occasional bribes to keep the Wiurn's attention on him, and away from the occasional passer by who might be unsettled by the presence of such a large creature.
1
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Dec 1, 2019 16:26:52 GMT -6
Not that such a sight was really all that unusual around here, but the people who were wary had a right to be too. Big or small, a lot of creatures in this area packed some... interesting abilities, not all of which were obvious just by looking at them. Many of those abilities were dangerous. And it wasn't necessarily always true that the largest creatures were the most deadly, but if they lost control, even without special abilities, it was a lot easier for a Wiurn to do you some big, lasting damage than it would be for, say... a Felusine.
Aster had never felt any particular risk around Nightshade, but by the time Nightshade had come into Aster's possession, he'd been working with large reptile types for a long time. The Wiurn were stronger in a general sense than the Sarane, and tended to be bigger, but Sarane drakes tended to be more volatile, and Aster certainly had plenty of those.
2
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Dec 1, 2019 16:27:09 GMT -6
Nightshade, who never even threw a tantrum, seemed like a lamb by comparison. Sort of.
The point of taking Nightshade out to the mansion was mostly to let the Wiurn get some exercise and exposure to new environments. Aster could keep him cooped up on the estate property forever, since it was a very large plot of land, but a change of pace might well do the both of them some good. And Aster didn't want any of the creatures he was training to freeze up the minute they were taken off the grounds either; that would pretty well defeat the purpose of some of their training, wouldn't it?
The Mansion was, ironically enough, one of the better places Aster had come up with to 'walk' a creature of Nightshade's dimensions. He'd never run into anyone while he was there, and there was room enough for them to wander around relatively freely.
3
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Dec 1, 2019 16:27:41 GMT -6
If they were lucky, they might find some interesting things to take with them too, some of which could, as it turned out, be pawned off for other more useful things at the Curious Collections, or to eccentric hobbyist collectors if he wanted to take the time to find them.
As they stepped through the gate, Aster took in the sight of the big old house. In the dead of winter, it seemed almost as though it were sleeping, with hardly a sound to be heard in the yard. The snow did, of course, muffle a great deal of noise, but even so, he remembered the ruckus that could come up in the summer months, or in October. It was a little hard to accept that the house was being quiet now, and on relatively good behavior. Or maybe hard to believe wasn't the word he was looking for so much as it was unsettling.
4
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Dec 1, 2019 16:27:58 GMT -6
If Nightshade felt anything odd about the place, however, he didn't show it. The Wiurn seemed at ease here, as much as he was anywhere. Aster wondered if he had been engineered for urban life specifically. It didn't say anything like that on the papers he'd been given, but information could sometimes be lost between purchases, and he was resigned to the idea that he didn't necessarily have Nightshade's full story.
Well, if it was important, he would probably figure it out after working with Nightshade for long enough. For now, it was just enough for Aster that Nightshade was calm and not alarmed by anything he saw or heard here. They weren't close, but Aster knew creatures generally had sharper senses than humanoids. If a creature that he was with suddenly froze up, he wouldn't ignore that kind of warning, even if they didn't know each other well enough for Aster to trust them with much more.
5
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Dec 1, 2019 16:50:34 GMT -6
A single, strange bell lays on the ground. A tingling can be heard not too far away, but it sounds like it's getting farther by the minute...
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Dec 12, 2019 19:41:16 GMT -6
Still, being here with Nightshade now only made Aster more keenly aware of the difference between the Wiurn and the last creature he had had the occasion to come here with. Rhys was almost as different from Nightshade as a creature could get. He was small, brightly colored, and his abilities were almost entirely aspected toward healing and soothing, with a couple of other skills thrown in that were meant to slow down a determined opponent if he were suddenly put in danger.
And, of course, Rhys had been created on Aster's request, and he knew more or less all there was to know about what was going on with the Felusine. And what he didn't know, Rhys could tell him, thanks to his telepathic ability. On the other hand, Aster didn't have a full knowledge of Nightshade's secrets; he was darkly colored, and as a Wiurn, large in size by default.
6
|
|