|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 7:00:01 GMT -6
The camelish noise of grunting makes him want to freeze up, because camels spit and do not like being handled or ridden. He hasn't met an affectionate camel, nor a baakir, yet. Making soft reassuring noises, the humanish takes hold of her rope loop and slides it upwards on her neck. The young taiga's soft and thickening hair slides over the rope, not catching at all, and he's mildly jealous of how well her fur keeps. Just a bit of brushing and she can look fabulous. Finally, he has to convince her head downwards to slide over the ears and those ...jaw juts that he can't figure out what they... oh right. Lisan has those; they'll sprout weird fins when she's older. Yes, be very careful of the jaw juts. The young taiga means to step back and completely out of the lead, but it tightens up around her nose instead. ?! 15 3.0 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 7:04:11 GMT -6
With the loop around her face, he'll have more control of her head, to dissuade a persistent desire to graze. An upset noise as she snorts in his face, wiggling her muzzle to try and loosen the hold, but it doesn't work as he loops it back around behind her ears in a very basic loop to tie off under the jaw. 'Might be a bit loose' he reasons to himself, sliding three fingers between the loops and her soft white fur. Mrugh! A few pulls and he has to hold tight to the rope to avoid losing it altogether. {Just for in here, then we'll take it off.} he tries to soothe the little taiga, but she's just grumpy now and exhales through the little split of her upper lip like she means to spit at him. No spit comes, and she just levels an annoyed glower in his direction. Rude. 16 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 7:09:48 GMT -6
Camels, and as he views them, baakir, don't develop 'loving' bonds with their humanoids. But 'tolerant' bonds. He bought the little taiga from the hunting lodge, alive, as a baby. Doesn't think on what it took to get her either. Probably a farm of sort up north. So she's at least 'used to' him before he chose to take her out for any sort of exercise that wasn't persistently attempting to hop fence. The older herd made it a bit of a game, running him ragged on who could hop the fence and avoid him the longest. Keep away is for dogs darn it! Babies dont' hop fence nearly as easily. The others? Little hop right over. Her? More of a clumsy climb over afrer the maahing herd. Grumble. he's going to teach one of his dogs how to herd the baakir, he will. After this cold spit . Yes. 17 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 7:29:25 GMT -6
At this point, he's stalling and finally gives the makeshift halter a tug. The baakir makes an unhappy sound as she's led forward. She has finished her cud and it probably has started to act, so neither of them would be hungry for a while. Ok, lets... go into the garden. The gate has an abstractly painted image of the fae's face, wild and green and frankly more like a vine monster then a humanoid face. They were a bit green around the edges. Maybe thats just how fae are. He hasn't met one, to his knowledge, after all. The change of 'aura' in the area is so significant as they step through the gate that it feels like he's accidentally taken a wrong turn into the mansion's yard. From barely noticeable, to HOMG magic. Someone's been doing some serious magical work in this area, and it makes him feel like his insides are vibrating. 18 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 7:35:43 GMT -6
Something approaches him almost immediately. A little... goblin...like creature that waddles forward with a mushroom or three sprouting out of its head. It chatters at him, and seems interested in taking something? How he's understanding this, also a mystery. He blames the node. Because if he understood it right, the creature seems to be a butler of sorts for taking your coat? Now that is just weird. He's not even wearing a coat, its a VEST. {Uh, no thank you. I need this vest to stay warm.} he tells the creature politely with a not toothy smile. Showing your teeth is an aggressive gesture to some species. {Thank you though.} Chiiirp? The mushroom creature blinks big eyes and doesn't quite get the 'keep warm'. Something that hadn't changed much is his higher running inner temperature. Not the inferno of previous though. Nor is he a fire elemental. {Your master wants me to find this flower.} he shows the goblin mushroom the picture. It blinks at the illustration, squints up at him, adn makes a questioning chirp. Why does master want stranger here. The baakir squints her bright eyes, set against her dark skin, at the mushroom goblin thing. It smelled like wet manure. Not a nice smell. 19 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 7:41:08 GMT -6
{Finding flower, taking it to your master. Not a thief. Uh... permission?} and he doesn't release the picture when the thing brushes a multi fingered hand, and there's FOUR of them on its torso, across the paper. It does a sort of sucking motion on its lower jowl before making a bit of a 'shrug' motion and chatters again before disappearing into the brush. Mrrrug? The taiga voices her interest as it disappears. {It said not to touch the yellow flowers.} Thankfully the flower he's after is white with blue pollen. Wrapping the rope around his hand again, the elemental steps out of his sandals and onto the magic touched ground. Whoa. Its like brushing against one of those weird magical artifacts that traveling salespeople bring, that can make your hair stand on end and attract magic lights to your fingers. His hair does feel a bit on end. This place... it is SATURATED with magic. Perhaps thats why the fae called it dangerous. If a regular person stepped in here, what would they feel? Nobody can naturally sense it without a. training, or b. a born talent. Or c. swallowing an orb of magic. Thankfully it didn't root him to the spot, literally. 20 4.0 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 7:47:17 GMT -6
'I think that creature was a first line of defense.' Flare considers to himself as he takes a few cautionary steps forward on the seemingly unmarked ground ahead of him. Keeping an eye out for footprint like sinks int the ground, or odd 'bumps' in the earth. He's not a stupid tumaian, tunneling spiders are a thing and they will attack passers by. A common enough occurence that basic schooling teaches the children how to recognize spider dens and to avoid them. He doesn't want to know what sort of magical spider or animal lives in one of those if one is found. Coaxing the baakir to watch her footing though, is tougher. It doesn't 'wild' out like he thinks he should say it. {Careful} he makes a cautionary tone, lifting up his feet quite deliberately to walk. Very careful not to accidentally turn his flesh and blood ankle from a stray root. 21 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 14:32:28 GMT -6
Baakir are less toddler see, toddler do, but she seems to get it? Turning her attentions to the ground and lifting her hooves up higher then normal for each step. Think of Bullseye and the Cheeto scene. CRUNCH Flare freezes up, and looks back. The baakir has stopped, the bits of a nut breaking apart from being smushed under her weight. Putting his fingers to his mouth, he shushes briefly and goes back to picking his steps through. This place is oddly silent, for practically screaming magic. He feels paranoid. Keeping his eyes peeld for the little plant of lilac sunbonnet. The ground around here is thick and feels almost... spongey in places. Uh... saturated. There isn't any water welling up where he puts his feet, and the wooden limb isn't soaking anything up. Pausing, he stands awkwardly on one foot to examine the bare sole of his wooden foot. Its a bit... pink. 22 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 22:40:16 GMT -6
He's too familiar with the smell of blood, and this doesn't match. Perhaps stepped in some rotten fruit or something, that has mixed itself into the spongy areas of the ground. But something makes his sense prickle uncomfortably. Flare's chest feels a bit tight, and warm. Beneath his bare flesh and blood foot, the ground is hardening. Drying up a bit so he may walk with more confidence. The magic drains him, and he doesn't know exactly how to control it. To will the earth to come to his aid. But the earth seems to dry up under his feet as he puts the wooden limb back down to meet its flesh and blood counterpart. Not enough to be 'barren'. Or whatever magic saturated into the land is interacting? Mrrrugh! The taiga doesn't like the feel of squish under her hooves. It feels gross. Take her back to the clop clop feel of hard ground. 23 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 22:52:06 GMT -6
Well well well... this time they sent an elemental into the field. How foolish of that fae. The sponginess that had been under Flare's feet wells up at the foot of a beautiful and brilliantly colored maple tree, every leaf whole, and colorful. The roots seem to 'twitch' and crawl towards the damp ground, sapping at it. The ground there isn't damp anymore once the root retreats. An earth elemental. A twiggy limb seems to bend inward of its own accord, tapping two dark brown branches to an apex, like a kiss. The sapped magic tastes like... tragedy. Of loss and wandering. Of second chances and rebirth. One of the earth and the sand. Desertborn. And not alone... the roots touch out to a smaller, damp patch, this time much darker that lightens up once the root retreats. Interesting, bringing a beast of the cold alongside. A young one, not old enough to draw on their blood. 24 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 23:00:54 GMT -6
This place is much too quiet for being overrun with dangerous plants, Flare considers as he stops at a crossroads. The figurative path he'd been following through the growth that can't decide between being undergrowth or actual bushes and such growth, vining each way and that way. It splits in two directions. One enters into a shaded space, where some trees have grown too close together and started threading their branches together into a tree tunnel. He can see fine down that tunnel, nothing stands out... except a light the end of the tunnel produces. A lamp? Maybe? A fire? On the other side, the vegetation spaces out further, like the water doesn't reach that far. Since lilac sunbonnet doesn't grow near bodies of water, a more arid environment would be suitable for the plant. He starts walking towards the left side, towards the arid portion of the garden, giving the baakir's rope a brief tug. 25 5.0 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 23:06:29 GMT -6
What? No! Send him to me! Before he can take a few steps, there is shuffling... and things GROWING out of the vegetation, half buried. Flare hasn't seen a crocodile before, or an alligator, but something with sharp teeth and a split tail, like a snapping carpet... he backs up a few steps. The baakir sees the living carpet of angry plants and bellows loudly. She yanks him backwards hard enough to twist the humanish around sharply, sending his arm in a direction it normally should not go, as she fled the other direction, towing Flare helplessly behind her. Skidding to a halt, the baakir's sides heave with the brief sprint, and FLare is untangling the rope from wrapping itself painfully around his arm. OW. Angry shooting pains from his elbow upwards through the shoulder and across his chest. and he can't move that upper arm at all. Well thats a problem. 26 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 23:17:03 GMT -6
The young taiga has dragged him down the tree tunnel and now they're in a very bright clearing. It feels very like the Mother's territory, but... without the natural magic. This feels very... off. Like an illusion? He doesn't have the knowledge to know this but the hum in his chest gives Flare pause on where he is, and aside from his very painful shoulder, this makes him wary. The clearing is beautiful and leafless, the grass at their feet is thick and lush, so green that it belongs to the summer courts on the plains. And in the middle of the clearing, tall and wide and majestic, is a giant, brilliantly colored maple tree. 'I really want to take a leaf' his inner plant hoarder chimes at the back of his head. Just a leaf, just a branch. Something. It really is such a beautiful piece of nature... and one leaf wouldn't hurt... right? 27 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 23:25:28 GMT -6
Mesmerized by the beauty of nature, he approaches the tree, the lush grass spongey under his feet once more. Each step feels heavier and heavier until Flare finds himself, oddly, on his knees within touching range of the trunk. He tries to rise, but his legs are so heavy and he feels very heavy. And as he kneels there, blinking in confusion at his lack of physical strength, the tree 'shifts'. Something literally seems to grow out of the trunk, ringlets of rich maple gold contrasting against the dark browns of the bark that crust edges of the limbs. A vivid spread of leaves arch backwards across the head and back like hair, spreading out over membraneless branches that could have been wings if they had something between those fingerlike branches. The baakir mrrrraaaghs, stomping in place and tossing her head in nervous fear. This not normal. This is very bad. Very scary. Go go? Go! 28 x.20
|
|
|
Post by Flare on Nov 25, 2021 23:35:44 GMT -6
The humanoid figure that walks on two legs, takes a step or two out of the tree, a long staff growing out of its hand from their own tree...flesh? Whatever this is walks with slow delibrance... and regards the downed humanish with... chaos green eyes that flicker with light inside a wooden face. Like someone took great pains to sculpt a beautiful humanoid face but left the eyes empty, the spread of leaves and vines falling over part of the face like hair. A bud is on their shoulder. {This is the first earth elemental to encroach on our territory.} there is a voice he can hear, and it echoes. Like there's two. {A boy!} {The boy is blessed by nature.} {The boy is dangerous} {Why are you here boy.} the creature echoes in his head. {I... I am here for the lilac sunbonnet.} he doesn't have much strength to give for talking. {The fae with wild hair sent me.} {The fae has deceived you.} the voice turns more masculine before becoming high again. Really like two are talking, and it is WIGGING THE BAAKIR OUT. {The fae is one of ours.} {The tree must be fed.} 'Wait, why must the tree be fed?' Flare watches the tree creature stalk around him, their stride similar to his own when relearning on how ot walk with two regular length legs. 'Was this their first time being bipedal?' 29 x.20
|
|