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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:44:23 GMT -6
She heard the sounds of eating as she reached the empty metal pool, ghastly sounds of gasping and what might have been the sound of someone ripping apart old leathers. Looking over the edge, she had her first good look at the beast that had so scared the ungulate, a floppy-eared kitten that had buried its face into the bowl of jerky and seemed to be practically drowning in the dried meat.
Alma started talking, though she was not sure if it was to the thing scarfing down the jerky or to hear her own thoughts aloud. “Floppy ears, but definitely not a houluh. Not a vulticus either, not unless someone pushed its nose in. Ah, he,” she corrected as she walked to the side for a better look at the creature’s body. “Got a ribbon on a weird looking tail. Cut off maybe. But the ribbon is so shiny, why the hell did the nut waste a ribbon on him if he wanted to kill him?” 44
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:44:34 GMT -6
She considered removing the ribbon to see if there was some sort of wound hidden underneath it, reaching for it slowly so as not to startle the little critter. Maybe it had been tied on to bind a wound at some point, the man deciding to kill the critter another way? She had stepped over the wall of the pool when she reconsidered her plan. No point to looking under the ribbon, she decided, instead stepping back out of the pool.
But she probably should. Her mind changed again as the head and forelimbs of the critter disappeared into the tin of dried meat. She likely would not get a better chance to check for an injury, with the critter less likely to let her near once he had filled up on the jerky.
She tried to reach for it again, once again deciding there was no point in looking under it, that looking might do nothing more than scare the little kitten further. 45
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:44:45 GMT -6
He had undoubtedly had a long day already, and she was no healer. Sure, she could hold a rag to a wound with the best of them, but that task was already being taken care of by the ribbon.
Alma hopped back out of the metal pool, strolling back to the front of the critter with as much casualness as she could muster. She paused when she looked at the tin of meat, it’s interior now completely devoid of any hint of meat as the kitten licked desperately at the bowl. “Uh,” she cleverly said, blinking twice at the empty bowl. That had been enough to fill her up on the jerky. How had the kitten managed to eat all of it and still be sniffing around the bowl for more?
It reminded her of something. She was not sure what, but that did not stop her from talking to the little critter as he sought to flip the tin over. 46
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:44:56 GMT -6
“Never seen anythin’ eat as much as you. Where’d yah put it all? In the sack?” Alma peered into the space behind the kitten and shook her head at the flattened fabric. “Take it the ass wasn’t one to feed yah all that much.” Alma looked back down at the kitten, his bright blue eyes finally looking up from the empty tin to meet hers.
He was scared. Yes, he was still hungry, the meager amount of food he had found barely making a dent in his hunger, but the sight of the new giant froze him. He did not dare purr, remembering how the others had reacted when he tried, how the food-givers had fled from him and the booming one had trapped him in the swinging dark. He did not wish to return to it, not now when he had just found a little scrap of food. There had to be more somewhere nearby. 47
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:45:08 GMT -6
He looked up at the giant, eyes wide, and waited to see what it would do next, waited for it to stop making sounds and either throw him a treat or attack him. He tensed at first, ready to flee from it, but the giant just kept making noises at him. They were not particularly grating, nor did he detect the threat the booming one had held, and he slowly began to relax.
Then it dipped out of sight, and he hopped a few inches into the air, stumbling back as his paws hit the slippery ground. What was this? Where could the giant have gone? There were only the shiny white walls surrounding him now, the horizon of green and blue above it. His paws felt something different from the smooth floor and he hopped again, kicking away the sack as he belly-flopped to the ground. He scrambled back up to his feet, swatting at the sack in annoyance. 48
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:45:25 GMT -6
He did not see the giant rise back up behind him, but he felt it as a shadow blocked the heat from his fur. He spun around to ward it off, claws scratching at the slippery ground as he tried to keep on his feet. His attempt failed, and he fell on the ground with a whump, looking up to the giant a moment later. He glared at it as it lifted it’s two, oversized and discolored paws into the air near him, squirming and trying to get to his feet, to run far away to avoid the darkness that certainly was now returning for him.
And all the while the giant talked in its nonsensical language. He lay there, helpless, ready for what fate was coming for him, and the giant just kept making more noises.
He watched the hands come apart, braced himself for the coming darkness but refused to close his eyes. He would watch the giant to the end, remembering what it looked like. 49
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:45:36 GMT -6
And then a piece of jerky bounced off of his nose, drawing his eyes to the veritable mountain of food that had just finished falling from the giant. All thoughts and fears were replaced with the demand that he eat the food now, that he quell his hunger immediately , and he launched himself into the mound without a care.
Well, there was one thought as he opened his jaws wider than they had any right to be, one thought that was not directly related to which pieces of food would fit into his mouth now. Just a quick memory of the newest giant, the food dropping from its freakish hands without so much as a purr from him. Perhaps this giant was a food-giver too.
As Alma watched the critter consume the meat, his mouth splitting as wide as a salaves when he found one of the pieces she had not torn up well enough, she muttered to herself. ((Fritz-10.0)) 50
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:45:48 GMT -6
“Not a estharne, not a cat, no, not a houluh. Something from the new lab maybe?” She slammed a fist onto her leg, laughing at herself as she looked at the critter’s ribboned tail once more, the way his mouth flopped open as he ate. “One of them WELP critters! The tail-poo’s or sumthin’!” The ‘tail-poo’ glanced up from his feast for an instant, then back down to a chunk held between his paws. Alma smiled apologetically at the critter, then laughed again. “Course yer a WELP thing. Ain’t never owned one of yew, joined in the panic party when the labs warned us about you lot.” Now it did not look as threatening as the images she had seen topping warnings of the dangers old and young alike could expect to face from his kind. “Good thing ah’m not young or old, huh?”
Alma felt proud of herself, tossing in another handful of meat and glancing over at the untouched water tin. 51
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Post by Alma on Jun 14, 2021 23:45:59 GMT -6
“Yah migh’ wanna drink some water too, lil’un.” He looked up at her again, waiting several beats of her heart before he looked back down at the meat littering the floor of the pool. She was oddly pleased that he had looked away from the food for her, but she supposed he was likely just getting full. There had to be at least his weight in dried jerky scattered along the floor of the pool, and she doubted he could finish it all.
“Gonna leave you to it. Dun’cha eat oo much,” she waggled a finger at him, the floppy-eared critter cocking his head to the side for a moment as he watched her once more. “I gotta get back to fishin’. Not gonna catch anything up here.” Alma left him to eat what he could, bringing the net over to the rest of the supplies she had left by the water. The water was fast, and she could have swore she saw little silvery fish beneath the surface, and so she dipped the net into the water to see what she could snare. 52
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Post by Nadia on Jun 16, 2021 13:08:19 GMT -6
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Post by Alma on Dec 28, 2022 15:47:48 GMT -6
There were places one was expected to bring along young drake sarane, spots where the trainer could shove the not-yet angry beast to one side while stuffing whatever goodies littered the floor. The river was one such place, but the banks were now little more than mud, the river shrunken down in most places to a stream that was sometimes choked with ice and debris. The mansion was another, if the owner did not mind the risk of the enchanted house warping their minds and ripping through their hides should its humor fade. Such bouts of ill humor never seemed to leave a lasting effect on those who claimed to experience them. And still there were the gardens, lovely lots where nothing so large nor dangerous would appear to trouble a sarane that could not easily be sent on its way with a boot to the backside, and lovely lamps that could be used to keep warm as one picked through weeds for something valuable. Even the mines were a grand place, insulated against the cold, with most tunnels stable enough and the rescue teams alert enough that fatalities were rare.
So, with most of the options offering a warm place, warmer still that the current day was one well above freezing but not quite comfortable to move about in without a coat, Alma lifted the young blue sarane off of the cart and set him down on the smooth stones below before paying the driver. 1
((Soak(Blue drake hatchling) trip start))
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Post by Alma on Dec 28, 2022 15:47:59 GMT -6
“Good day for fishin’,” the birdman, or woman, she could never tell with their odd trilling voices and bright plumage, said, laughing at the end as he closed his talons over the credits. Alma ignored the ugly shriek choke of a sound, turning away to double check that the sarane hatchling’s rope was well tied to her waist, then shouldered the pack containing the rest of her gear. The bird and card clattered away over the stones, the avian’s pasha-sarane easily picking its way over the rocky ground, as Alma looked at what remained of the river.
Maybe it wasn’t too late to call out to the bird, to listen to more of his chatter on the merits of animal-powered transport as the cart bumped its way to somewhere a bit more interesting than the patch of mud and brown sticks and brown, muddy water that separated her from a bank that looked to be the same. There certainly was not going to be anything valuable swimming in there, beyond maybe some lost shipment that happened to drift and catch somewhere in the shallows. 2
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Post by Alma on Dec 28, 2022 15:48:09 GMT -6
“I promise you, it was a bit less…mud, last time I was here.” she said to the sarane, looking down at where he crouched nearby, snout pressed to the stones and snorting. As she watched, he slid his claws against the surface of a larger stone, scraping several times before pressing his nose down to snort once more. After a few rounds of this, Alma glanced behind her, looking at the small cloud of dust that was gradually obscuring the cart. “Suppose it’s too late to call’im back anyhow at this point. Even though it seems to me like you’re apparently a miner.” The blue ignored her, prodding the rock with his nose one last time before opening his jaws in a wide yawn that he then bumped against the stone. He did this a few more times, trying the sides of his mouth as though the stone would somehow be smaller at that angle. “Tha…That ain’t a fish.” 3
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Post by Alma on Dec 28, 2022 15:48:19 GMT -6
The sarane ignored her helpful advice, and Alma sighed. “It’s a good thing you lot don’t have to be smart to fight n’ breed. Though I guess it doesn’t help that everything here probably smells like dead fish to yah.” The sarane lay with his head sideways, pressed against the stones as his tongue slid out to lick the slightly scratched rock. With another, louder sigh that the sarane once again ignored, Alma started her walk down the stones, the pull of the rope proving to be something the sarane could not ignore.
He fought her every step of the way, which was to say Alma was forced to walk even slower than the uneven surface warranted as she tried to keep the sarane from breaking a leg or wing as he dug his feet in between every stone he could. She muttered to him, trying to be soothing and kind, the sort of voice younger creatures tended to respond better too when frightened. Then commanding, informing the beast that he was going to obey her until he was too big to drag, and even then she would break him. Then a short bit of pleading, with a promise of a tasty fresh fish from the river if only they could reach a spot closer to the source that did not resemble the muddy banks more than a stream. Then she decided to just voice her complaints just under her breath as the sarane continued to clatter behind her, wondering if it would be better to just throw a nullifier on the beast when he was too big to handle rather than waste time trying to convince him to be a bit less murderous when the breaking day came. 4
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Post by Alma on Dec 28, 2022 15:48:29 GMT -6
“Though if it’s anything like you are now, suppose there’s nothing to worry about.” She looked back at the stiff little sarane, letting out a small chuckle as she saw him press both of his front feet against a stone in a v-shape. “You’ll just freeze in place once we’ve got the saddle on yah, and I’ll just have to wait a day for you to fall over.” Alma gave an experimental tug on the rope, noting the way his forelegs bent only the slightest bit before losing their grip on the stone, skidding over it until they caught on another crevice.
“Well,” Alma sighed again, “I suppose we ain’t going anywhere if you keep this up. Might trip and fall and break something, and then no fishing trip at all, just a pricey visit to those magical bloodsuckers to make sure you can still be dominant some day.” Alma flicked her gaze at the soft mud she had been trying to avoid, the sort of thing that would try to pull at her boots, and be more successful at it the closer she got to the water. It was tiring to walk through that sort of thing, even with rubber clogs to keep the mud from oozing between her toes and turning her feet into blocks of ice. She wasn't keen on spending any more time traveling through the mud than she had to, but… 5
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