What Have I Discovered? (Tribe Joining?) (Closed)

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee waved her tail in greeting as River padded towards her, carrying an extent of prey in her jaws. "You did better than I did, but in all fairness I am new to this form." She meowed dismissively. "You did better than I, I caught a rodent and a lizard, since you win I will give you 25 Tribe experience." She added. I never told her what those are! Kayalee thought, surprised at herself for her foolishness. "Tribe experience can be earned in a variety of ways, through contests, games, and doing tasks that you are assigned." Kayalee explained quickly. "The experience is used to grant higher positions to tribe members such as leader, deputy, captain, and diplomat." She finished. "There are different stages in the tribe, seed, which is you right now, sapling, oak, and ancient oak. Different jobs require different stages." She added. "Sorry about not explaining that earlier." She meowed, still feeling a bit foolish, but, hey, this was the first time she had had to explain this before.

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River nodded. "I understand." Being new to anything always made attempts at anything awkward, she had noticed. Still, she was pleased she had impressed Kayalee. She would be working for her from now on, she supposed. As long as she got to see the world while she was at it, she couldn't complain. The other feline seemed nice and easy to get along with. If that was her true personality, River couldn't foresee any problems.

She listened to the explanation about tribe points and about the different ranks. She recognized the words leader, deputy, captain, and diplomat, and could guess fairly well what each might do. "Thank you. I'll be sure to work hard for the tribe." Maybe she could work toward being a diplomat. They were expected to travel, weren't they? Hunting suited her rather well, but so would going from place to place, managing the tribe's alliances and all. She had plenty of time to decide, though. As for earning the position...it sounded fun. She'd surely be able to thrive, here.

[Hazelstar]

"Well, now that we have hunted we can bring it to camp." Kayalee meowed, picking up her prey back into her mouth "Camp is a wonderful place, there a three maples which are in a perfect triangle shape. They are beautifully colored, especially because it is autumn." She meowed around her pray, not certain that River could understand what she was saying. She began to pad towards the direction o which the camp was located. "I am currently working on digging out a shelter underground like the rodents because there are no other places to sleep which are sheltered. I also digging pockets around the tree roots to shelter smaller creatures, such as yourself." Kayalee continued, trotting along happily.

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River picked up her prey and listened as Kayalee spoke. Though her voice was muffed, she was sure she could at least understand the gist of what she was saying. Three...somethings in a triangle. She assumed they were trees since Kayalee mentioned them being beautiful especially in autumn.

The larger feline started walking, and River followed, listening as she explained that she was working on digging out a shelter underground because there were no other sheltered places to sleep. She also mentioned digging out pockets around tree roots to shelter small creatures like her. She thought about it, and decided she liked the idea of a nest formed partly by roots. It was better than being completely surrounded by roots. She wondered if she'd be able to choose or create her own. Soon, she would find out.

"Need help?" She offered, making her voice as clear as she could around the prey. There was something of a bounce in her step as she padded along, excited about seeing her new home.

I wonder if Ebony is doing this well...

[Hazelstar]

"Of course, I would love help." Kayalee meowed. The two were near the trees now, Kayalee placed the prey on a large, flat stone. "This is where prey goes, unless a patrol manages to catch a deer or something else that's huge." Kayalee explained. She padded to the center of the triangle the trees formed, there was a hole in the ground which was large enough for a creature twice her size to fit thought. She leaped down, the hole was about six feet deep already, but there wasn't much room to lay down comfortably. "Be careful coming down, there are little pockets on the side of the wall to use as a ladder to get down if you don't want to jump." She called up, she padded through a short corridor into another area which was of small size since Kayalee wasn't able to do very much more work on the tunnel than the entrance and the corridor to the main sleeping area.

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Kayalee lead her to a large, flat stone and placed her prey on top. River did the same, blinking at the sheer amount of food the two had. Unless more visitors joined the tribe, they wouldn't have to hunt for a while, and they were probably good for the rest of the day no matter what. As Kayalee explained about prey, River tried to imagine catching something as big as a deer. Perhaps when she evolved...but she had no idea when that day would come.

Kayalee then lead her to a hole, and the larger feline jumped down. She explained about pickets on the side of the wall, but River was the daring sort, and she jumped straight down, landing neatly - if a little heavily - on her paws near her leader. Once she was safely down, she looked around. It wasn't that large a hole despite its depth, but it served its purpose.

The larger feline padded through a corridor, and River followed, entering what she assumed was the sleeping area. It was also small, but she was sure that'd be changing soon. Regardless, River was impressed.

"You did all this yourself?"

[Hazelstar]

"Nice jump" Kayalee meowed when the aboriginal landed beside her. When she was though the corridor she pointed her tail around to an assortment of nests. "These are some places to sleep, the one with the pebbles lining the nest is mine. You can choose any of the others if you want to sleep down here." Kayalee meowed, nosing the nests to make sure they were still clean and comfortable. "Actually the hole was already here, i just made it deeper and flattened the bottom out. The corridor and this sleeping area is what I made. I also dug out the pockets around the tree roots." Kayalee began. "It took a lot of work, but its good to have done it, its better to have to much space than not enough. But I will have to expand the sleeping area out at some point in time." Kayalee finished, her stomach growled... "I guess it's time to put that prey to good use. You can stay here or come back up, whatever ya want is OK with me." She meowed, padding towards the corridor.

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"Thanks." She looked around at the nests as they were pointed out. These looked as comfortable as anything. Did she want to sleep down here instead? If she could decorate her nest either way, she could make it pretty no matter what. Maybe she could even still have her root roof, and she'd be completely safe from the rain. Bah, a sleeping place shouldn't be a hard decision. It did feel more secure in here than up there...

She listened as Kaalee explained what she had done. Even if she did have a base to work with, it was still an impressive job.

Kayalee then went off to eat. River looked around at the nests, picking out a few that she'd prefer over the others if she decided to sleep down here. She then sprinted after the larger feline. "Would it be all right if I had some of the feathers from that bird I caught?" Those feathers would be good as a decoration or as bedding, if she placed them right. Perhaps she would save some bones from one of the kills, as well. Those would not be comfortable to lay on, but would look neat arranged around the rim...already possibilities were flowing through her mind.

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee pulled herself up the side of the hole and replied. "Of course you can, take whatever you want." She padded a few steps from the hole and sat to wash the loose dirt off of her rump. She licked down her back soothingly, making sure to make her pretty silvery fur shine. She stood up again, her stomach snarled angrily at her. She sighed in annoyance. I'm so hungry now... Kayalee thought irritably. She padded to the pile of freshly killed prey and picked up the lizard, she had never tried lizard meat before, she wanted to see what it would taste like. She bit into its rough skin and peeled it away, the skin tasted rancid, but the meat wasn't all that bad. It sort of tasted like fish, but not quite like fish. She couldn't really explain it. She licked the blood from her jaws, it was a satisfactory meal.

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River purred when Kayalee said she could have the feathers, and she climbed up the pockets to the top of the hole, bathing as the larger feline was before making her way to the prey rock. She picked out the bird for herself, and began gingerly plucking the feathers from the body. The long feathers that survived the detachment were placed in a pile beside her while the ones that were too short to be much use or broke were simply consumed. Once the bird was more or less bald, she had a nice mouthful of wing and tail feathers to take to whichever nest she chose.

Satisfied that she had salvaged what she could, River began to eat the bird in large, slow bites. It was delicious! Even better than the rodent she had in the orchard! That did make sense, though. Birds were harder to take down, so they'd be a better reward, right? Next time, she'd have to try something else completely different. Maybe a lizard like Kayalee was having now, or a fish, or...well...whatever was around here. If she was going to be a hunter from now on, she was sure she'd have an opportunity to try everything.

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee began to gnaw on the skin of the lizard, she was going to line her nest with it because it was rather comfortable to lay on and it was a bright purple, nice to look at. She padded to the hole and jumped carefully down. She padded through the corridor and found her nest. She placed the bits of lizard skin along the inner edge of the grass nest, weaving it in the grass so it would not get all over the place. She took a step back to glance at her nest. the outer rim was covered with colorful pebbles, the inner with this deep purple lizard skin and there was moss on the bottom of the nest which she had found on the stone which was now used at the place for food. She padded back through the corridor and climbed her way back up to the open air.

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River picked the bird's skeleton clean and prodded at the bones before deciding most were unsuitable even as decoration and eating them too, save for the skull. After cleaning the skull, she gently placed it beside the feathers. She watched Kayalee work with the lizard skin, and - once she was done - followed with her own bundle down into the hole. She chose a nest in one of the "corners" - an area that wasn't quite beside or across from the entrance - and gently pressed the bird skull slightly into the dirt in front of her nest, facing outward. For the most part, it remained fully visible, but being pressed into the dirt meant it wouldn't budge if she accidentally bumped into it later. Satisfied at the skull's location, she began placing the feathers so that the largest were at the back and shortest at the front and so that their stems pointed inward, toward the center. She would need something to fill in the middle and cover the ends that had been inside the bird, but otherwise she was happy. The nest looked cozy and pretty, at least in her own mind, and it wouldn't be hard to at least find some leaves or moss.

Kayalee was gone by the time River was finished. The smaller feline exited the den and hopped up out of the hole and onto the surface. She could see Kayalee nearby, so she stopped, waiting in case the larger feline had another task for her before she was left to her own devices.

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee glanced at the pile of fresh prey. "Well, you don't need to go hunting, there is enough prey to last a few days at least. "I guess I can set you off to your own devices, i need to go work on the cave." Kayalee meowed, she padded over to a pile of tall sticks and tossed them down the hole, then disappeared after them. She one by one brought them through the corridor into the main area. All the sticks were of the exact same height, Kayalee had rubbed them against a rock while holding them in her teeth to get shorten them and make their ends flat. She began to set them up, one end on the roof of the cave and the other she stuck firmly into the ground. "Gotta make sure there is some extra support." She muttered to herself as she did the same thing with another stick.

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River nodded as she was released and watched Kayalee head back into the hole. She then wandered off into the forest, looking for something she could use as bedding. Eventually, she came upon a particularly dense fern, and she helped herself to as many of its leaves as she could carry. She then headed back to camp and into the hole, padding to her nest and biting the fern leaves into the correct size before arranging them in the center and over the bottoms the feathers. Once she was done arranging everything, she curled up inside the nest to test it and yawned. She hadn't realized how much energy she spent today, but she wasn't quite ready to end the day yet, so she forced herself to her paws and stepped out of the nest. Deciding it was comfortable enough for now, she padded to Kayalee. "Is there anything I can do to help?" All she had wanted to do was finish up her nest. Now that that was done, she felt she should help her tribe mate. With two of them working together, the job would be finished sooner and they could move on to whatever needed doing next.

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee grunted and shoved the last stick into place. "Yes, we need to expand the sleeping area," She panted. "We need to expand the den that way, along the wall furthest from the corridor." Kayalee meowed, pointing with her tail to the wall in question. Be careful, if the dirt gets hard to scratch away than there is probably a rock in the way and it may fall on you if you're not careful." Kayalee meowed, pointing with her tail to a pile of rocks near the corridor's entrance. "If you dislodge a rock, roll it over there." She meowed. She then padded to the wall and began digging at the top of the wall, she had to stand on her hind paws to do this, she scratched down again and again, it didn't look like she was getting anywhere, but she knew it would pay off eventually.