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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 11:01:53 GMT -6
"Did Caiman put you up to this?" Ridelys asked the hen lounging in the patch of sunlight at the entrance to her property, throughly blocking the way out. 'No...' the hen drawled softly, yawning widely with a deep and catlike stretch. Queenie's head lifted off the ground and looked at her. 'That bigheaded drake can't make me do anything I don't want to...' The sole weakness of her partner remained his inability to get along with any un-battle trained hen. Granted, Queenie she had plans for. Eventually. 'But if I waited here... you'd go out somewhere.' "Yes and?" 'wanna go.' She watched the sole theron who could understand her clearly with no ribbon attached groan. "Really?!" A deep dip and raise of her head. Yes, she did. Insert raised eyes to the sky. Gods, what was she going to do with her astranged family of sarane. Most of them were... young. 1
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 11:06:20 GMT -6
"Ugh.... Fine, but you have to wear a leash." the theron told her firmly. "People freak out with sarane walking around without some sort of restraint." And why she was keeping that chain lead in a cart close to the entrance now made sense if one thought of it. Queenie lounged in the sun for a moment longer before easing back into a position where she could regain her footing. "What, no complaints of the leash?" she asked the hen while slipping the leather strap around her head and neck. Doing the long necked curious creature look at what was worn around her neck... 'I can go outside with you if I wear this?' "Yes..." 'I suppose I can wear this...' why is it this hen always sounded as if everything wanted to be done remained a very tedious thing to do. Wear a leash? It avoided unwanted attention. Granted, Queenie had some champion lineage. 2
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 11:14:40 GMT -6
From Caiman's blacklist rival, of all sarane. Granted, with enough tracing, Dune may have been related to an older champion too. Geneology wasn't Ridelys' thing, and since only Georgia had laid eggs this season, she may attempt to take another male. 'WHere' we gonna go today?' the hen asked as she followed at an amble behind Ridelys. Who made sure to lock the gate behind them. THankfully Caiman was out flying his territory and had no interest in following her around today. "The quest board, we're gonna see if t heres a job to do today." she told the hen. Unless she chose to, this particular hen walked like a plump lizard would (ie Johanna from The Rescuers Down Under), her belly low to the ground as she walked back and forth. and she wasn't in the least bit plump, just... whatever fat stores came onto grown up hens. Grnated, Ridelys only considered them grown when they wanted to fight each other. 3
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 11:20:35 GMT -6
The quizical look her not-eldest hen gave her prompted education mode and Ridelys explained the board had jobs for owners to do so they could afford to feed their sarane. If all of her sarane were feeding off the herds of galabex in the woods, there would be no galabex left. Thus her bulk buys with the butcher, and the fishmonger on the Docks because Dune didn't like red meat, and what not. She was nearly broke for the month. Several large purchases were causing some major fluctuations in her financing. and with... THIRTEEN sarane to feed, and more pets then that... yeah, money's tight. Thank the gods that sarane were like snakes and could go for days on a single kill. Otherwise she'd be even more in the red then usual. Which meant that she'd need to do some heavy duty working... or start selling off some of her stock. That wasn't something she wanted to do. 4
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 11:38:47 GMT -6
'Humans go do these jobs for money to feed us? why not go into the forest and hunt?' Now Queenie had never actually hunted, but watched the galabex herds occasionally, before some other flier dove down on them and made the paranoid herbivores flee in every direction, including into waiting open mouthed traps. "Because unlike rabbits, galabex take a long time to grow up to be considered edible for you." Was she really gonna have this discussion... granted Queenie acted more... uh... whats the word... prim. Yes. Prim. More prim then the other hens, who were either young, violent, both, or just plain ignorant of their feeder being perfectly capable of understanding them. 'And large herbivore meat isn't exactly cheap in large quantities.', she tought to herself. The hen hummed a bit as she ambled along, looking left and right to take in the sights. Heck, she acted like she was going for a walk! Literally! 5 +1
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 11:46:37 GMT -6
"Wow. Your hen is so pretty! Blue and gold, who would've thought sea and desert breeds would make such pretty babies." someone exclaimed as Ridelys came closer to the quest board, occasionally guiding Queenie away from something else. They oggled her hen's vibrant colors; from what she heard from the parents' owner, the pair hadn't produced such a vibrantly colored hen since. Especially with rudders. Rudders? Oh yes, when she sneeze and sudddenly fins. Right... now she remmebered. "There's a hen tournament comin' up soon; are you gonna enter her? She'd probably make pretty babies." Ridelys' expression flattened. Babies. That was what the whole town was hooked on right now; propogation of their animals. Didnt they get that winter was coming on eventually? In the last dregs of summer, fall now upon them, fertility would fall drastically. At least that happened up north, and spring would bring on more fertile times, in animal and in plant and in person. 6
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 11:49:49 GMT -6
Another person thankfully intervened and told the person off for getting in the way of someone else. Sorry, they said, they're not always thinking first of what others would think on their choices of words. That just sounded rude in all accounts as they steerd the babbler away. Who was quite old...? Queenie leaned her neck out around her 'leash holder' and watched the two leave, keenly interested. 'What were they saying?' she asked. but got no answer. Instead now they wer approaching the board and a few others were just getting flyers from a short sciency looking person with soda bottles attached to their eyes. Huh.? "Oh hello, have you come to take a flyer? Here here, its the first time the comet has been seen in two hundred hears. Our society, the astronomy society, wants to study it real close, so come come, big party, but you have to work for it." she says all this very fast. 7
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 12:03:19 GMT -6
She passes over the embossed flyer to Ridelys, stares in awe at Queenie, who has keen interest in looking at the big flat board colored and covered in papers. "What a pretty sarane. is she friendly?" "Uh..." she looked at the hen, who looked back with a headtilt and a questioning look. "She's not...socialized." The scientist seemed to interpret that as 'yes friendly' and offered her hand out to Queenie, like an utter idiot. "Hello pretty girl. You're very pretty." Her arm is almost entirely taken up by sleeve, and smells strongly of chemicals that you print on paper. One sniff and the hen backs off with a snort. 'She stinks!' Queenie declared haughtily. The echoing noise makes the scientist back up a step. 'Stinky!' "Uh... she thinks you smell like the flyer. And the flyer to her doesnt smell good to sarane." Ridelys pretended to translate. "Do I?" she lifts her sleeve and smells it. Deeply. 8
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 12:13:33 GMT -6
"I guess I shouldn't be sitting on the printer while its printing..." the scientist admits slowly. Her eyes are a bit bigger then normal after smelling her sleeves. "Ink smells really good..." And smells her sleeve again except someone grabs her sleeve and pulls it away from her nose gently. "I knew that would happen. I swear... you need a sitter even when giving a speech." The other is tall, with pointed ears, and wearing a star printed strip of ribbon to tie their hair back, also in a white coat. "Sorry. This one is the kind of person who can get drunk on nyquil." "Baaaaassss, I wanna smell the flyers!" she weedles, pulling on the taller one's coat. Ridelys steps back a bit from the pair, the flyer in her hand. Queenie is fascinated by the exchange. Chirp chirp, growl growl. "Uh, yeah. So if you wanna come, do so. Directions on the flyer yada yada." 9
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 12:37:15 GMT -6
Gently steering the clammoring potential drunk-on-ink-smell person away, Ridelys finally turned her attention to the flyer. It is heavily embossed, and has a big picture of a comet on it. Huh, every two hundred years. She held it low enough so Queenie could look at the piece of paper if she so cared. And chose not to taste it instead. A single nip on the edge of the page and she backed off, hissing and spitting. 'Disgusting. that is not food.' she declared haughtily. 'not interested in that.' "Well, it says they'll pay folks who come to help with the event. And I need the money. So unless you want to go back to the lair..." Ridelys let the question hang. It was a 'come or don't come, I'm going regardless' sort of thing. She needed the money, and would need to make some to keep affording her lifestyle. 'Fine' the hen aggreed, disgruntled. 10 +1
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 14:02:32 GMT -6
"I should be putting a yellow ribbon on you someplace." Ridelys thought aloud as she steered Queenie away from some oggling humanoids. Seriously, had they never seen a blue and gold hen before. 'What is a ribbon, and why one that is ...yellow.' the hen questioned as she ambled along. Seriously, think komodo dragon walk. Or a laredo. Raising her lead-attached arm, Ridelys pointed out the various colors of special wrapped ribbon. The dark one for Caiman, the blue spotty one for the big crazy owl, the blue one? for Dune, and she had none for Queenie, because she could plainly understand her. The yellow colored ribbon she had mentioned wasn't magical. Just a ribbon, and would attach somewhere on Queenie herself or on the lead. It was supposed to be a signal to humans of 'please don't approach me, I am not friendly'. That it was read to be more common with aggressive or nervous dogs. 11
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 14:06:49 GMT -6
Before the hen could protest, "hardly anyone can have a fluent conversation with a sarane, Queenie. Its magic-based, and quite pricey." she gestured at the ingrown ring that she'd invested in years back. It had bitten into her finger and became ingrown. Short of removing the finger permanently, that ring had grown into her finger, and only the crest of the stone was really seen now, green bands of color around the finger itself, and a bit more 'thick' then the other fingers. "Don't play with magic artifacts; its an expensive choice." Not a mistake, she'd never regret it. Granted, it only allowed one species of choice, and that was sarane. So going to sarane tournaments or the gauntlet became a double edged sword. Becasue the salivating madness of hormones that were young gauntlet drakes, repeatedly beaten into the ground, were so saturated in their madness their screams were primal and terrifying. 12
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 14:10:14 GMT -6
"So that means, don't go walking up to someone and sniffing them. Scares the bejesuz out of them." Golden eyes wandered upwards. Really, the theron worried too much. She was a grown up hen, and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She could have a drake wrapped aorund her pinky toe with ease. Uh huh, right... The hill of where the astroomers club stood outside the city, out on the vall of avent. So close to home, actually. Briefly, Ridelys wondered about taking Queenie home and helping alone, but when she saw someone meandering around with a SNAKE the size of a wiurn,... ah, she changed her mind. Yes, definitiely smarter to have a protection around. What, giant snakes are a bit overkill on the size part. She'd seen adult wiurn. The old originals built for fighting vs flying. The one where she had a hard time discerning its head when looking at a picture. Yes, this was true, shush. 13
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 15:25:26 GMT -6
"Yo! Over here!" Someone is waving towards us. They're also in a white scientists garb, but the sleeves are rolled up and dust patterned in places. "Good, more help. What're you here to do." the person asks us, in slightly heavy words. "What are my options." Ridelys asked, her lead wrapped on her wrist to avoid a runaway sarane. But if anything, the business fascinated Queenie. She liked watching things. In fact, out of the corner of her eye, the theron could see the sarane crouched on her belly, her tail waving around like a cat, watching someone drag a box from point a to point b, and having a tough time of it. "Well... we'll take anyone who wants to help of course, but equipment setup, guards, help us take notes, research alongside us with your own equipment, snacks, equipment adjustments as needed. Basically we're gonna be the clients who want nothing to do with anything but the comet. Kapeach?" 14
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Post by Skylos on Sept 28, 2020 15:29:45 GMT -6
I think he meant kapeesh, she thinks to herself. "Fair enough. I've got a young sarane with me. She's not trained for anything, but if I can set her someplace to be like a guard or something for her to do, I'm no stranger to moderate lifting." the scientist looks her up and down a time or two. At her put together yet very scattered appearance. Plus can't miss the feathers intertwined in her hair. "Yeah sure whatever. Grab one of those tent pegs lying around and go stake her away from the camp, but enough that if someone sees her, she'll scare em off passive. Not near the equipment, y'hear." nod. Good. Turns away and leaves. "Well that went a lot smoother then I thought. Ridelys tones her voice down so her conversation that would maybe be heard as one way or just growls and hisses out of her mouth so people didn't stare. Animal speakers were rare. 15 +1
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