Prompt Opportunity 01 - Completed

[Prompter]

PROMPT THREAD

SITUATION

Thread begins in the midst of action--two characters ponder over the carcasses of a mass of lesser native rats. They are soon joined by a third character in an attempt to deal with the preponderance of bodies and determine the cause.

CHARACTERS

Three characters are involved, each posting a minimum of four times.

PRIZE

Forty EXP to all participants.

[Deleted]

((I hope you don't mind if I steal a spot on this. I know I've done a lot of these before but that was some time ago. ^.^)

"What do you think?" Nerah asked her companion after giving the bodies another sniff. It was strange, seeing so many dead animals at once. She was no stranger to death - she hunted for most of her food and had killed more creatures than she could ever hope to count - but the sheer amount of bodies, and the fact that they were laying there uneaten, puzzled and disturbed her. If they hadn't been killed for food, then how did they die? Since it had happened to the rats, could it happen to the canines and felines that inhabited the world? That worry and the fact that she was the world's oldest canine - that she knew of, anyway - made her feel like she should try to solve the mystery...if it could be solved.

[Meesh]

(I hope you don't mind that I'm following you around all the threads Nerah XD Hopefully that'll change once there's more posts to run around in :3)

Silva shrugged, still staring at the sheer amount of rat bodies. She sniffed the rats deeply, noting their sickly sweet and rotten scent. "They don't seem to have been injured" she remarked, turning one carefully over with a paw- gingerly, as if the rat might wake up and attack her at any moment. "So they weren't killed during a hunt" Silva's thoughts flashed briefly to her own first hunt- when she and Nerah had take down one of those bird-things near pack territory. IT had been a proud enough moment for Silva- but clearly that wasn't the case with these rats.
"Could it have been a sickness? But what sickness kills so many all at once?" Silva nudged the rat once more, turning to Nerah. Unknowingly, her thoughts echoed that of Nerah's. They were old, both of them. In a way, that meant they didn't know what happened to those who came before them- what if they died by a sickness such as this? Siva didn't know what happened to a canine or feline after they died, she reflected. Perhaps they simply disappeared into the wind. It would account for how she, Nerah, and the other two original Starpack members (coincidentally the four oldest felines and canines that they knew of) didn't find a single trace of intelligent life in the forests.

She didn't voice her concerns to Nerah, however, instead choosing to ask. "If it's a sickness, could it spread? To us, I mean."

[Deleted]

((Don't mind at all. ^.^ They are best friends, so it makes sense.))

"That's what I was thinking," Nerah responded when Silva brought up the fact that they hadn't been hunted. "I've never seen a dead creature that wasn't killed for food. Maybe I've been sheltered..." Though, truthfully, all the creatures in the world could be considered sheltered. They lived calm, peaceful pre-existences and had the safety of the orchard once they were born, only leaving when they decided they wanted to explore the rest of the world. Even then, life was...well...she used the word "awesome" far too much didn't she? But it was! The only bad she could remember was her former mate, but she tried not to think about her and had herself half convinced her son was created purely from her love of life.

Then Silva suggested a sickness. That...was vaguely possible, at least. But what sickness was this severe? Her own experiences with disease were fairly minor - a few-days-long hindrance of her senses of smell and taste and a desire to sleep rather than play - but if there were different varieties of life, then why shouldn't there be different varieties of sickness? As she thought about this, she suppressed a shiver. She did not want to fall deathly ill. Ever.

Silva wondered about the sickness spreading, and Nerah shook her head. "You know as well as I do about that." She snorted - trying to expel the scent of rot from her nose - and sighed. "They don't smell normal, but rot will do that as well as anything..." Her tail thumped the round once - a frustrated gesture rather than the beginnings of a wag. "I've seen rotting in plants, but this is my first experience of it with creatures. It's a little unnerving."

[ddyyuu]

ooc: I asked Ree if I could join :3 I got the Okay and so here I am.

Evalon had just left the orchard, new senses still taking in the world in a state of awe and wonder, she couldn't help but sniff the air as she walked on through the plains. She was still so small in this larger world...what was that smell. She followed her nose, and ears, right to the topic of discussion amongst two Older Ones, as she had started to call them.

The two were looking at a group of rats that lay dead at their feet, she had first wondered if they had killed the group but the worried look on their faces suggested otherwise. Evalon thought against nearing the two, she didn't want to interrupt whatever they were discussing.But if they needed help... Evalon took a deep breath and neared Nerah and Silva, still small enough to stand between the two and look at the rats.

She thought against even saying anything, she was new to life, but these creatures before her did not smell right, they smelled gross, horrible to her new senses. "Do they always smell like that?" She asked, and folded her ears back, wondering if they would become angry with a newborn for getting into the affairs of older beings. "Why do you two look so worried?" She added and looked back at the rats and took a step towards them, pawing at the closest one. Evalon figured it would just get up and start away, but the entire group was still, that was just weird.

[Meesh]

Silva flicked an ear at Nerah, still looking at the rats "I guess we can only make theories" she began. Her nose wrinkled in distaste. Silva had smelled death before- if prey was kept around for longer than a few days, it would begin to smell like that, and eventually be inedible. These rats had begun to take on that scent, but they didn't look rotten- what did rotten look like anyway? Antares or Yamir would usually drag away and bury a piece of prey if it had gotten too rotten to eat, though something like that rarely happened.

Before she could relay her observations to Nerah (though no doubt the brindled canine would have made the same observations by now), a new scent filled her nose- this time one of life. Silva flicked an ear, turning to see a young (newborn?) brown furred canine trotting over. She smiled, still overjoyed, as always, to see proof of the sudden influx of life that had filled the orchard. The pods had been silent and unmoving for so long, Silva had been terrified that they might never hatch (as she had relayed to her pack mates on more than one occasion). And as friend after friend - including Yamir, one of her packmates- decided to leave for greener pastures, Silva was terrified that one day she would wake up to find no one left. She was overjoyed when the pods suddenly started breaking open. And the scent of a young canine or feline always made her happy.

So it was with a wagging tail that Silva turned to smile at Evalon, dipping her head in greeting. "No, live rats are smelly, but not a bad-smell. More like a prey-type smell" she paused, trying to think of a decent way to explain it. "It's a smell that makes you hungry and excited all at once. This is a death-smell, which we've never smelled so much. We're worried because they shouldn't be dead, not unless someone wanted to hunt them for food" she turned to Nerah, wondering if there was a better way to explain things

[Deleted]

A new smell heralded the arrival of Evalon, whom Nerah had seen in the orchard before coming here. She wagged her tail twice in greeting, and shook her head at the younger one's question, keeping silent as Silva explained. The darker canine was doing better at an explanation than she would have, anyway.

Nerah wondered for a moment if they should be discussing this with one so young. Evalon had yet to truly experience the world, and it seemed a shame that this should be one of her first memories outside the orchard. Still...she was here and had seen everyone. There was no point trying to pretend this wasn't horrible.

"This is a very unusual occurrence," she added once Silva finished speaking. "I'm sorry you have to experience it so early in life. It's not something we've ever encountered until now, and we're trying to figure out why it happened so we know how to prepare or it if it's something that threatens the rest of us." She sighed and thought for a moment. "We've pretty much ruled out violence, sickness is still a possibility...perhaps starvation or dehydration..." Did the bodies seem emaciated at all? She couldn't tell. "Drowning, but I can't see how that's even possible..." As she tried to list every vaguely possible cause, it occurred to her that they'd have to bury the bodies eventually to keep other creatures from eating them and getting sick, which gave her another idea. "Poison? There's some stuff that's definitely not good to eat. Maybe these rats got a hold of something their bodies can't handle. Or maybe something happened underground in their nests..." She frowned. "So many possibilities..."

[ddyyuu]

Evalon just wagged her tail at the two, happy that they werent angered she was there looking into what was going on with the rats. But as they explained what was the norm for these small creatures, her tail stopped wagging and she looked back at the small bodies. So apparently she was supposed to eat these creatures? Well not these ones obviously, but ones that were up and running around? Just the smell of these first ones made her think against eating these things in the future, she would be sure to avoid them later in life. How was something like this suppose to smell good. This certainly was a bad first impression.

She tilted her head as they spoke of all the possible causes of death to the group. Other things killing them, apparently that wasnt it, drowning wasnt it. Whatever that was. And sickness..."What do you mean by sickness? They just become like this?" Evalon asked and looked at the bodies, if they were so worried about these creatures, maybe something should be done? "If you are so worried, and want to be rid of them, maybe we should do that first?" She asked and looked at the dirt beneath her paws, clawing at it slightly and found it would move under her.

Evalon started to use both of her paws to start digging a hole, if the Older Ones were so worried, then she would help make them no longer as worried. The dirt beneath her felt cool, and the hole she was digging was rather fun to make. She would've admitted she got a little carried away with it, but within a few minutes she had dug a big enough hole for a few of the rat bodies before she got tired and sat down and looked up at the other two to see if she doing what they were thinking of doing.

[Meesh]

Silva blinked, then grinned, at the pup's simple yet effective solution. "Yes, perhaps we'll never figure out the cause, but burying them is a good idea. It assures that no one will eat these creatures if they're hungry, and if they're infected, it will help keep the sickness from spreading" She paused, a thought occurring to her all of a sudden. It would stop the sickness from spreading to others, but what about us? Shaking off the thought- it might not even be a sickness anyway, Silva turned to the pup. "You give great ideas" she said encouragingly. "Howabout you do just the digging though, and let Nerah and I drag the rat bodies over, just in case they really are infected- I doubt that, though."

Walking over to help the pup, Silva placed her wolflike paws on the ground near where Evalon was digging, tearing out chunks of earth in long sweeps. A hole slowly started to appear next to Evalon's until the two were merged. "Perhaps we'll worry about the cause later and for now work on getting rid of the bodies so they won't harm anyone" she suggested"

[Deleted]

((This is my fourth post, but I'll keep going as long as you guys/the story are still going. ^.^ Also, hope you don't mind me doing this, but I had an idea. Maybe one or both of you was thinking something similar, but...))

Evalon seemed disturbed by what had happened just as the larger canines were. Nerah was glad of that. She didn't want to meet anyone who found this sort of task purely enjoyable. Well...maybe she wouldn't mind, depending on their motive.

When Evalon asked about sickness, Nerah flicked her ears. "Sometimes a creature just doesn't feel very good. When I've gotten sick, it's been minor and I got better after a few days. They're not always something to worry about." She didn't want the young one to fear for her life from disease. She was healthy and chances were she'd stay that way, at least for a while. At least, Nerah hoped so, and she hoped it wasn't disease that had caused so many of the to her creatures that had been here to vanish.

Evalon then dug a hole bury the rats, and Silva suggested that she and Nerah drag the rats over while the young one dug the hole. Nerah began dragging bodies over one by one, but stopped when she noticed odd shapes in the ground where they were digging, like something else had also scooped out earth in that spot.

"Careful, there's something..." She let her voice trail off as she joined the digging, slower than they had been going, and she worked with them until part of the labyrinth the rats had constructed could be seen. An odd fuzzy growth clung to the walls of the tunnel, and there were more rat bodies around it.

A potent smell hit her nose, and she reared back as though struck. "Ugh!"

[ddyyuu]

Evalon helped dig the hole deeper then stood back as the other two started to drag the rats to the holes that had been dug. But just as Nerah noticed the holes that had already been dug in the ground, so did Evalon, she just didn't act on investigating as she knew one of the older ones would do so. Instead she just sat and watched the two work, not knowing what else she could do to help the two.

As soon as Nerah unearthed the smelly growth the stench reached Evalon's nose and she recoiled slightly, tilting her head back in some effort to make the smell go away. But Nerah was horrified, or seemed that way. She got up and walked over to stand next to the Older one and looked into the ground and noticed all the other dead bodies as 'illness' was explained to her. "This is an illness then? They don't normally die in groups like this?" Evalon asked and tilted her head and looked up at the two before looking back down at the dead bodies. "We should re-cover this. It just doesn't smell right at all to me." She said and lowered her tail and folded hear ears back slightly in worry of what was going on. She was newborn, but this was ringing all the bad bells in her body, nothing was right about this.

"We should warn others against going around here too maybe?" Evalon added as she looked back at the growth in the rat tunnels.

[Meesh]

(Oh, good idea Ree :3 I'm fine with the idea, and I'd love to go on as long as people want to~ This is my fourth post as well ^^)

Silva nodded at her friend's explanation. "I've gotten sick myself once or twice. It makes you want to play and eat less, but it passes quickly" she assured the younger canine, nodding her head in support of Nerah's statement.

As the odd, strong ,smell hit her nose, Silva reared back as well, wrinkling her nose at the pungent stench emanating from the hole. "Ew" she agreed, scrabbling back in order to get away from the pungent smell. "I've never seen more than two or three dead at once" she assured the pup, burying her head in a nearby bush so the strong, minty smell of the leaves could get the rest of the dead-rat smell out of her nose. "We probably shouldn't dig any further here" she called, nose still buried in the leaves. "Let's just push the rats in and cover up the hole and smell with dirt and leaves as quickly as possible"

Finalyl pulling her head out of the bushes, Silva nodded to Evalon. "Yes, that's a good idea, warning the others about this area. We can also set up markers around the area so everyone knows where we're talking about"

[Deleted]

((Thanks! This is fun. ^.^))

Nerah shook her head. "Deaths are one at a time, normally, and sometimes there's two or three if they got in a fight or something. If they're this plentiful, there's something majorly wrong. She snorted, not daring to sniff the fuzzy growth. She knew full well what it smelled like, and suspected it to be the cause of all this death. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like it might have been nibbled on. In any case, though, she agreed with her companions. They needed to bury the place and warn everyone they met.

Nerah busied herself with collecting the rat bodies as quickly as she could manage. It was best if they hurried, before anyone else had a chance to discover the bodies.

[ddyyuu]

OOC: I'm chill with whatever you guys want to do :3 If you want to keep going, this is now my fourth post.


Evalon listened to what was said and watched as the two older dogs started to put the rats into the hole, she then walked over and started to fill the holes in back with the dirt they had dug up. The Older Ones were incredibly worried, nothing like this had happened before? "Has anything like this happened before? You guys seem really worried, and I mean if you all are really worried, that makes me worried. This dosent happen all that often, things like this?" Evalon asked and tilted her head, stopping for a moment and looked at the two.

It was then that she realized just how tired she was, how much energy she'd used to do everything today. She'd discovered a total of three worlds, her own cocoon, the world after that, and now this one beyond the fence of the orchard. She'd had a long day, and still hadn't even eaten anything. She layed down, folding her long legs so she was comfortable laying down as she watched the two. "I am sorry, I'm just tired, I hope you don't mind. I can get up and help though, if you need it." Evalon said, stretching out one of her legs to get up quickly if the two said she needed to get back up and help.

[Meesh]

((I sent a pm to the prompt account claiming the 40 exp for all of us :3 Expect that coming soon ^^))

Silva began pushing a pile of dead rats into the hole with her paws, afraid to get them in her mouth. Whatever this was might not even affect canines, but Silva didn't even want to take that chance. At Evelon's words, however, the canine paused, padding over to give the younger one a quick lick between the ears. "It's true this doesn't happen often- in fact, I've never seen this before, but you don't need to worry" the dark furred canine soothed, "We'll just handle this calmly, and we'll figure it out, you'll see!" She nodded as the pup lay down to rest. "That's fine- you must be tired. Nerah and I can handle the rest of the rodents- we'll get you something to eat once we're done" she paused and glanced at her friend, making sure that comment was alright.

Well, now to get back to work. Silva began pushing the excess dirt back onto the rodents. "With any luck, we'll get this area completely covered by sundown" she huffed.