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Post by Badrani on Oct 29, 2021 20:35:48 GMT -6
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Post by Badrani on Nov 4, 2021 19:46:11 GMT -6
Now that Badrani was actually in the process of moving down to the where the river was, she found that she was a tad nervous. She'd heard that it could run fast and be quite dangerous, and she hadn't really moved to the Labs City in order to retire and have some peace- not to put herself in more danger. She had seen the river, but it was from far up. Actually coming down to be close to it; and apparently to try to find things and catch things from the water? That was somewhat terrifying. She was not, however, going to admit that to the young draconic at her side.
Shahrazad didn't seem worried at all. Her serene footsteps were much more sure than Badrani's (admittedly, she'd nearly fallen on the way down a couple of times already, herself). "We're going to need to find... Have made? An easier way down here." Badrani noted gruffly.
[1]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 14:13:14 GMT -6
Shahrazad looked up at Badrani with wonderment in her eyes as they stopped momentarily on a flat area to rest as they worked on the descent. "So we could just get someone to help dig out a path that easily?" She was practically grinning. Badrani huffs, turning her eyes away, but then she couldn't help but turn back around to look over at Shahrazad with just the faintest glimmer of fondness in her eyes. "From what I understand." She had found out a little about draconic culture, though she was very behind. "Your people are very..." She squints for a moment, thinking for the correct words. "Honorable." That didn't quite feel right, but she the word was accepted by the tiny youngster (who already was generally showing that she would give Badrani correct words whenever possible).
They continue on down the way, the last leg of the journey proving to be much more easy on Badrani's old joints than the first leg.
[2]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 14:51:05 GMT -6
If Shahrazad notices how creaky and awful Badrani's joints are today; she doesn't point it out. Badrani is quite sure that she does notice despite this- in the same was that one could feel a predator watching them even if they could not see. It occurred to her oddly that Shahrazad was a graceful person, knowing already within days of her hatching when and how to speak both in turn and out of it with quite a bit of decorum. It was something that she could not get through her head; that someone could practically be born with this sort of natural predilection (let alone someone that was a piece of herself in the way that bonded apparently are).
They finally step down into the fairly dry ground at the edge of the river below, and Badrani would have held her breath had she not been trying to catch it from the exertion of the descent.
[3]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 15:02:42 GMT -6
The river was everything that Badrani could have hoped for; this close. She had first marveled at the way that rain had poured on the night that she'd entered the Labs City, her cloak pulled about her shoulders and head especially- the way that it pooled unused in the dirty potholes and the flippant way that the few passerbys seemed so disdainful of it. Such an outpouring of rain would have been the cause of celebration in the far stretches of desert that her own clan navigated.
Now she was right in front of the first river she'd actually be privy to- the closest she had seen before were several seasonal lakes that could be there one day, and obviously very gone the next (as if it had never been there- even without a damp spot to bely it having been there). She's speechless.
But Shahrazad moves forward, past her previous position behind Badrani's feet.
[4]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 15:42:16 GMT -6
Badrani had learned to swim; though she wasn't entirely sure if she was confident enough. This water... Moved. Of course, Badrani had read about rivers. There were a scarce few that could be found adjacent to the desert, though they were jealously guarded. Badrani was not sure what to do once she finally got a look at it. Running water could be dangerous, and she didn't really have any background information to triangulate how fast it was running or what that would even mean in context. Whenever she glances down and notices that Shahrazad was moving quite surely towards the water, she puts one of her hands out and opens her mouth- "Wait, Shahrazad- that water looks-" She doesn't get the sentence out before the young draconic steps chest-deep into the slightly muddy water.
"Oh! I can swim." She says with intense surety. She nods with it.
"How do you know?" Badrani asks, moving forwards with the fishing pole slung over her shoulder. She was quite afraid for the youngster.
[5]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 15:59:16 GMT -6
It seemed impossible for someone to really 'know' with such surety that they could do any particular skill, let alone Swim! However, Badrani reasons with herself (ever the level-headed person that she was) that this young person could also speak practically as soon as she was born and could even walk. Swimming couldn't be much different. Shahrazad seems to notice that Badrani's face reflected some amount of understanding (it was sort of amazing that she was learning at this accelerated sort of clip), because she nods and turns towards the deeper part of the water. It was a tad surreal, in the low-light of the early evening (filtering down into the giant crack that was the canyon itself and just barely illuminating the fairly dark water) whenever the young draconic pushed off of the last place that she could physically touch the gooey silty bottom of the river, and she moved into the middle of the river with the ungraceful edge that a young crocodile might.
[6]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 16:10:06 GMT -6
For a moment, Shahrazad seems to have a bit of trouble; like she was figuring out how to beat her legs in the cadence that would allow her to float and be able to properly propel herself through the water. Badrani watches her, and of course she is unable to figure out what sort of cadence that Shahrazad eventually flowed into since she had no background information to try to figure it out with. Shahrazad had in truth began to paddle about like a tiger would- using her paws and claws to tread just as well as her legs. She did not have much of a tail; so she would not have been able to use it as a fish, dolphin, or crocodile would.
Still, she was swimming- and quite easily with how gentle the current was in the dry season. She turns back towards Badrani on the return, and she notices that Badrani has not moved the entire time.
[7]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 16:35:45 GMT -6
Badrani finally moved to cover the tip of her maw with the tip of one of her claws. She wasn't entirely sure what emotion she was experiencing, but for once she finally felt like she had a moment to actually ride that out. She hadn't really thought much since she had moved to the city a couple of weeks prior about anything. Something about this moment made her furrow her brow and tilt back and up- gazing up unseeingly at the fading light of the sky, and for a second she chokes down tears.
By the time she came back to the world of the awake, Shahrazad was sitting right next to Badrani worryingly. "What is wrong?" She finally hears her, asking.
The Ssashirk found herself at a loss. "Nothing, it's..." She flashes her teeth for a moment, gritting them. "It's nothing." She's sitting on the ground, looking at the muddy water, now.
[8]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 16:48:20 GMT -6
Badrani did not consider herself weak by any stretch of the means. She hadn't been able to be, her whole life. She scarcely remembered her own tribe of Birth; having been apprenticed to the Clan that she wound up in earlier than her memories could really come to cement. However, it had not been a place for her own young one- as soon as Dogo was old enough to remember her well, Off Dogo went. Sitting here with Shahrazad, something about this made her sad. She wasn't distraught, she just sort of felt empty. She reaches out quietly, sullenly, and then grabbed Shahrazad up carefully, holding her for a moment. The young draconic is happy enough to oblige- having tried to give her a hug earlier on during the day. For a little while, they sat there, staring into the murky water as the sunlight dipped away. The sky was very clear- the full moon easily viewed above the canyon itself.
[9]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 16:57:37 GMT -6
Badrani eventually began to feel better, though a slight chill was running through the canyon now. It was not at all like the chill of the desert at night, but it still gave Badrani pause. Still, when she looked up at the steep climb they'd have to make (yes, they were going to need to do something about that) she sighed. No, they came down here to fish, and they were going to fish. She places Shahrazad (already beginning to show signs that she'd get too big for that soonish) back down beside her on the 'beach' (if one could even call it that) and she looked around at the mud. "I have read that... Earth- worms? Worms make good bait." She mentions. "I read that they live in the mud?" Now that she was actually out here in the practical world, she wasn't entirely certain what sort of places these earth worms (she's seen pictures in the books) would be at.
[10]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 17:06:48 GMT -6
"I'd like to help!" Shahrazad chirps, following Badrani as she scans the beach. After a while of searching, the pair finally looked a little weary of the search. "I don't know if there are 'earth-worms' around here." Shahrazad says, voice a little weary and dipping towards the end. Badrani nods, finally stepping back. "I read something else... Minnows?" She stepped towards the muddy water and tried to see if she could see any silver in the moonlight glinting there. "Small fish, that live near the shore..." She decides that she needs to look a little ways down the rocky beach, towards where the water looked glassy- almost as if it was not running. Small fish would have difficulty with speed in the water, right? That made sense to her, as she tried to imagine it. She'd seen pictures of them, and read a bit about them.
After a little while, she does spot a flash of silver in the water. "Here- there are some here!"
[11]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 17:43:06 GMT -6
Her voice came out a little more shrill than she had meant for it to, but it has the effective of sending Shahrazad over to her, ambling a little over her slightly gangly legs on a bit of loose gravel as she makes her way swiftly and smoothly over to her. She peers down into the water with shimmering lavender eyes, metaphorically prying through the kicked up silt to look for those tell-tale flashing silver scales. Badrani bent down (a little too quickly on her knee- ow) and reached out- her claws over the tiny minnows. Shahrazad watches with curiosity as the great dark-scaled Ssashirk (dark enough that she was actually easily blending in with the night-time canyon walls) tries and fails a couple of times to grab a minnow before Badrani gets a decent idea.
She digs a shallow hole in the loose dirt near the river there- and Shahrazad didn't know what she was doing yet.
[12]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 17:53:31 GMT -6
The little hole that Badrani had made began to slowly fill up with water from the river. Soon enough Badrani cups her hand in a manner that places her talons quite close together in a scoop, and then quickly she removes a little 'slide' of ground to connect the river to the little hole via water. Several little minnows fall down the streamlet of water and into the hole as it quickly fills the rest of the way with water. Badrani quickly reaches down and grabs the minnows. She holds them out in her hands (they flop a bit) towards Shahrazad.
Shahrazad was amazed with them. "Wow! What are you going to do with them?" She asks, voice excited.
Badrani holds up the fishing pole, and the hook swings (catching some light on the end as it does). Shahrazad puts it together quickly. "Bait, you're going to use them as bait." She blinks, and Badrani nods.
[13]
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Post by Badrani on Nov 7, 2021 18:04:52 GMT -6
For a moment, it looks as if Shahrazad is going to argue about this, but she eventually doesn't. Badrani isn't sure what is going through her head- but it seems to be dismissed. Badrani quickly digs another shallow hole to put the remaining minnows in (it fills up with water, which served to keep them alive in case she did not use them) and she processes one of them for bait. Shahrazad watches with an unreadable expression on her face. Finally, Badrani moves over to a faster-moving part of the water. She wasn't really sure exactly where fish would like to be, but she did have bait now and of course she also had an idea of what to do with the pole to cast the hook. She just hadn't really done it before.
She was aware that it was possible to accidentally flick the hook into someone's eye or other fleshy body part, so she decided that she was going to mostly drop the hook into the water instead of doing anything too fancy.
[14]
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