|
Post by Linyü on May 13, 2020 1:15:51 GMT -6
"What does he mean, 'it's your turn'? The nerve," said Seveth. He wore a cross expression as he stomped his way to the quest board, muttering angrily under his breath about the note that he had found tucked in San's journal this morning. Ichaival, following him, thought some of it was bluster, but chose to keep its own counsel and said nothing, out of the judicious knowledge that pointing this out would only earn it more emphatic denials. As for the actual fairness of it, well, that hardly needed to be said. The age old idea of taking turns was something human children learned in nursery school, so it had been led to believe. But then, maturity had never been one of Seveth's great strengths. "Whatever," said Seveth as they neared the place in question. "Let's just get this over with. At least if I'm doing it, I don't have to share my earnings with that miser."
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 13, 2020 1:20:30 GMT -6
His pace quickened even as Ichaival's slowed. As caught up as he was in his monologue, however, Seveth was still paying enough attention to notice that Ichaival was drifting behind. "What's wrong?" he said, the annoyance darkening his features dissipating like clouds in the wind. Always a changeable one, Seveth.
{Nothing,} said Ichaival. {I thought it was best I wait while you make your choice. I am not... the most unthreatening specimen in these parts.}
Seveth blinked, then shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said, and walked up to the quest board.
Ichaival sat back and waited.
It didn't take long for Seveth to return, and when he did, he was fuming again. "You knew about that, didn't you!" he said, less a question than a statement. But then, he wasn't wrong. "You knew that woman would be there, grabbing onto people. That's why you didn't go!"
Again, Ichaival kept its magnanimous silence.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 13, 2020 1:24:52 GMT -6
There was no need to rub its advantage in Seveth's face, nor to rub salt in the wound by acknowledgement of it. {I take it you found a job to your liking,} it said, the very picture of tact, folding one forepaw over the other.
"'To my liking', is that what we're calling it now?" Seveth grumbled. "She wants us to take down a tree, you know. A big one, that smashes things."
Ichaival inclined its head, an invitation for Seveth to continue. Seveth looked at it for several long moments, then frowned. "You know you're going to have to come with me, right?"
Ichaival considered pointing out that this was not, in fact, an obligation on its own part, but decided against it in the end. In a sense, Seveth was right, though Ichaival did not like to acknowledge the fact aloud. Still, after all its work to bring Seveth back, it would be remiss if Ichaival let him wander into his own destruction again, so soon after having regained the means to even do so.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 15, 2020 17:52:17 GMT -6
And while Ichaival would have liked to say that it felt like this was not likely to happen, experience with Seveth's particular brand of foolhardiness told it that this wasn't the case. One could hope that the consequences of his last string of bad decisions might have taught him a lesson by now, but that wasn't a point on which Ichaival would have wagered Seveth's life, or indeed, even a handful of coin. It wasn't that Seveth was incapable of learning, but... Well, he had never been one to shy away from risky decisions either.
{Very well,} said Ichaival. {I suppose there is no backing out of it now, is there?}
"I mean," said Seveth, almost immediately, "we could always flake. But then we wouldn't get anything for the month, and then I'll probably get a strongly worded journal entry about responsibility and our dire financial situation and all of that."
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 15, 2020 17:57:06 GMT -6
He rolled his eyes in such an exaggerated display of distaste that even Ichaival was a little amused, even though, frankly speaking, he rather sided with San on matters of most of their day to day operations. Whatever other complications there were taking place in the man's mind, he did have more common sense than Ichaival's own charge.
But then, it supposed they wouldn't be here if... Well, never mind.
{Let us be off then,} said Ichaival. {Where is the Nyssa located?}
"Somewhere in the gardens, wherever that is," said Seveth. "I've never been. Buuuuut," he said, a sly grin pulling at his mouth, "I bet it would be real easy to find from the air! What do you say? How about it?" He nudged Ichaival's leg with one of his elbows, and despite the fact that he was a man grown now, his manner was much as it had been when he had still been a child.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 15, 2020 18:00:33 GMT -6
Ichaival felt a pang of something that wasn't quite sorrow at the sight of that, but it brushed this aside, drawing its head up as if to test the winds. {Hmm,} it said. {I suppose that's true. Very well.} And for a moment it relished the look of glee that lit up Seveth's features, only to add, {Then I will fly up and scout, and you may follow on foot.}
Immediately, Seveth's face fell. "What? On foot? Oh come on, you miser! Take me with you! Won't it be faster if you carry me?"
{Alas,} said Ichaival, {I fear you need the exercise. San did leave instructions for you to continue his physical conditioning regimen when he was not in control, did he not?}
"... Well, yes," said Seveth, some of his disappointment giving way to a slightly sulky look. "But he's insane. There's no way I can do that much exercise in a day!"
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 15, 2020 18:04:45 GMT -6
{If you cannot, then do what you can manage, starting with this,} said Ichaival. Seveth's sulking grew more pronounced, and Ichaival sighed after a moment, unfurling one wing to wrap around him. {Come now, child. A little walking will hardly kill you.}
"You never know," said Seveth. "It might."
{Incorrigible,} said Ichaival. But it had the final say, and in short order it had unfurled its wings, launching itself into the air, catching an updraft and sailing up and away. Seveth, left on the ground, had no choice but to await its signal, and then follow on foot once Ichaival had figured out where they were to go.
Seveth was right that it was easy to see once they--- or rather, once it was in the air. The gardens were readily apparent as a patch of brown and green, and one particular area did, upon closer inspection, look as though something had exploded within it.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 15, 2020 18:09:55 GMT -6
Ichaival flew slowly, as it had to accommodate the fact that Seveth was walking on the ground, and could not circumvent obstacles with the same ease, nor travel with the same speed. But it did not alight back down on the ground until Seveth had reached the garden in question. It was true that the boy needed exercise; and at any rate, Ichaival could hardly be forever giving in to his entreaties, for fear of spoiling him rotten.
"Boy, this place is a mess," said Seveth, taking stock of the situation around them and grimacing at what he found. The remnants of bonsai plants were everywhere, from shards of decorative pottery to scattered soil to splinters and branches from the casualties themselves. "You would think a Nyssa would be nicer to other trees, considering they're trees themselves."
{One has only to look at humans for an example to the contrary,} Ichaival said evenly.
|
|
|
Post by Fiera Ferella on May 15, 2020 18:13:30 GMT -6
(Posts 1-6)
No sign of the nyssa yet, but now that you're in the gardens you're certainly closer!
(No success yet.)
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 15, 2020 18:15:56 GMT -6
There was a pause, during which Ichaival regretted its words a little. Seveth smiled, but some of his usual mirth was gone, leaving a subdued expression that made him briefly resemble someone else. Not San, who seldom smiled, but certainly not Seveth either.
"You're right about that," said Seveth. Another moment passed, after which he forced a smile. "Well, let's get this over with then." Cupping hands to his mouth before Ichaival could stop him, he began at once to holler. "Come on, you bark-encrusted bastard! Show yourself, if you're not too much of a coward to come out and meet your maker!"
{Seveth,} said Ichaival warningly. This couldn't possibly be his plan--- No, as soon as Ichaival had the thought, it dismissed it. Seveth likely didn't have any plan at all, and was acting on the first impulse to spring to mind. And on occasion, in the past, that had led to some moments of inspired improvisation.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 15, 2020 18:20:01 GMT -6
But today was not one of those days, and Ichaival thought the best outcome they could hope for out of this hare brained gambit was that nothing came of it.
Alas, would that they could be so lucky.
"Oh, don't worry," said Seveth. "It's just a tree. As if it would really come when I called for it." He took another deep breath, and shouted again. "Your mother was a shrub, and your father was...! Hmm. Hey, Ichaival, what do you think would be a good---"
But whatever insult he felt was dire enough for the father of the Nyssa in question would remain a question for another time. His words were cut abruptly off by a thud, and then another. Seveth's eyes widened, and his face drained of color, even as Ichaival turned to confront the presence that was now making itself known to the both of them. The Nyssa, or at least a Nyssa, had appeared.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 16, 2020 16:36:55 GMT -6
Having approached them, it now roared in their faces. Ichaival was not adept at reading emotions the way that it could read thoughts, but even it could sense the Nyssa's displeasure. {WHO!!!} said the tree-beast, its voice ringing in Ichaival's mind, like a gong struck too close to the listener. Ichaival had to fight the urge to grimace, and also the urge to request that the Nyssa use its inside voice. Based on what Ichaival could skim of its surface thoughts, it wasn't clever enough to understand such a quip if one were to be made, and anyway Ichaival wasn't sure that it had an 'inside voice' to speak of.
"Oh! Well. That is, uh, certainly a specimen," said Seveth, staring wide-eyed at the Nyssa. Whispering an aside to Ichaival, he said, "I really didn't think they'd be so, well, big."
Ichaival supposed it was a good thing that he had the presence of mind to say something like this.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 16, 2020 16:41:31 GMT -6
That meant, at least, that the boy hadn't been scared out of his wits, which would have been harder to deal with. Most probably, anyway. Then again, being catatonic might have prevented him from doing anything foolish, while being simply scared and overawed... Well, they would see what came of all this, it supposed.
There was no good way to answer the Nyssa's question. It could see very well who they were, and they were neither of them previously acquainted with this individual. The best Ichaival could do at a response was to convey that they meant it no harm. Ichaival did this, but the response to its entreaties were lackluster; the Nyssa seemed contemptuous of the idea that they could pose it any real threat. This rankled Ichaival somewhat, used as it was to commanding at least a modicum of respect from those around it, once they had established face to face contact.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 16, 2020 16:45:18 GMT -6
But it comforted itself with the thought that perhaps the Nyssa was simply too slow witted to understand what exactly it was beholding, and was immune only by virtue of its ignorance. It knew, too, that a little touch of fire might inspire some fear in the Nyssa, but as of yet it was hoping for diplomacy, rather than violence.
Still, as a matter of last resort, fire was not the worst idea.
{Mine,} said the Nyssa, or at least it was forcefully trying to convey the idea of ownership, even if distinct words were a bit much for the actual mental message it was transmitting. It didn't even have the awareness to be surprised at how Ichaival was managing to address it. It was interested only in making itself understood, and seeing as they had established some means of communication, it now used that to assert itself before them once more.
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 16, 2020 16:53:05 GMT -6
At least it wasn't yelling fit to call down the heavens now, Ichaival supposed. Thank the gods for small blessings.
Ichaival conceded that the place was not its own, nor Seveth's, though Ichaival also carefully circumvented the question of exactly who it thought the place did belong to. In terms of property rights, it was ostensibly the property of the woman who had made the request of them earlier, though it also doubted that the Nyssa was going to acknowledge such a claim of property. The laws of men likely meant nothing to a creature like this.
"Hey, are you talking to it?" whispered Seveth. "What's it saying?"
{Not very much,} Ichaival replied. {It thinks this place belongs to it, which I suppose might be why this incident occurred. An attempt to establish its domain and drive out any other interests in it, perhaps.} For the moment, that was only a guess.
|
|