Finding Home (Ebony, Kayalee, River)

[Meesh]

Ebony meowed in surprise, jumping as a silvery shape landed just short of crashing into him, falling on the ground with a thud. "Oh, hello Kayalee" he said, dipping his head "Er, interesting entrance there. " he noticed her looking around. "Lost something? You were hunting, right?" sniffing the air lightly for the scent of prey. Unfortunately, so near tot he food pile, he couldn't make out anything much except for his packmates scents.

River approached then, bending her head to lap at the fresh streamwater. "Hello again River" said Ebony politely, dipping his head at her. River hadn't seemed very responsive when he had tried striking up conversation with her in the past few days, she had really turned out different from the happy young feline he knew. Ah well, it might have just been aftereffects of the venom.

"Oh yeah" he said suddenly, remembering what he had promised himself to do that day. "I had an image of a clump of prickle plants a short distance away. I was thinking of bringing a few pods here, and maybe some seeds too, see if I can get a small herb garden growing right outside the den. Could one or both of you come with me? The plants are a bit too spiney to carry more than one o two at a time" he wrinkled his nose

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee grabbed up the two rodents when she spotted them, they had landed in the river. "I'ehl comb ahter eh herop hese hoff." Kayalee mumbled around the rodents' bodies. She then sped off towards camp. "Hiya Riher!" Kayalee called to River as she passed.

When she got to camp she dropped off the two pieces of prey in the prey pile, turned quickly and leaped away back towards the river, hoping she would get back before the two started to search for.... Whatever Ebony was trying to find. She focused and tried to get an image of these strange plants, but she couldn't. "I guess those images only come when you don't expect them." she muttered to herself.

[Deleted]

She nodded to Ebony’s and Kayalee’s greetings. “Hi.” She continued to drink, making sure she got her fill. It felt good, being able to get her own water again. And, in an hour or so, she could go kill her own food again…and everyone else’s. Oh, she was going to hunt herself sore, and it’d be totally worth it.

When Ebony mentioned the plants, she flicked her ears. “Gotta do something to occupy myself until I can stop slacking off in my own duties, as long as you’re not worried about me slowing you down.” She sighed. “I’m going to be small forever, aren’t I?”

[Meesh]

Ebony shook his head. So that's what was bothering her "You won't slow us down. and of course you'll evolve eventually. It just takes some people a bit longer than others. Anyhoo, if it was the shock of seeing that Annab tee that made me evolve the first time, I'd much have waited" he assured her. Maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to have mentioned the occult-seeing thing. "Anyhoo, let's go. It's due south, not too far away" he flicked his whiskers, trotting steadily towards where he had seen the prickle plant patch. "Have any of you guys used the prickle patch herbs before? Who what I saw, they're pretty avoided"

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee padded up to the pair when Ebony was saying that he had seen the plants south. "I've seen them before, I didn't know of their medical properties though." Kayalee meowed, "I stepped on one before, it took ages for me to get all the prickles out of my pad." She added, shuddering as she remembered the pain. "I hope it's worth it to bring those to camp." Kayalee pondered, she smelled the air. She caught a scent of the taste of water, the scent was hard to explain, but she knew it was those plants. "I think I smell them, I just can't tell how far away they are." Kayalee meowed, "Do you smell them... It sort of smells like the taste of water..." She meowed uncertainly, wondering if there was a better way to explain the scent of the plants.

[Deleted]

She dug her claws into the soft earth, biting back a retort. Ebony was only trying to help. Surely he didn’t mean for his words to sound…patronizing. She wasn’t sure if she believed he’d rather have waited. They’d both been excited over the prospect of evolution. He was her friend, though, and they were both in the same group now. She had to put forth more of an effort to get along. She didn’t understand herself and why she reacted so…negatively to things that most others would brush off. It was something she knew she needed to work on…if she could figure out how…

The two larger felines talked about the herbs – where they were and what they smelled like. She listened, but didn’t comment. If they needed to harvest some prickly things, it might benefit them to have something to carry them in. She looked around, but didn’t find anything large or thick enough to suit that purpose.

Movement caught her attention and she focused on an elk. It was an old buck, all alone. Either he’d been kicked out of his herd or simply wandered a ways away from them. Pieces of his antlers seemed to be missing…the result of a fight? Well, that didn’t matter. What did matter was that his skin would be perfect for carrying any number of prickle plants.

River knew better to take on something larger than her, normally. She was a good hunter, but sensible, and didn’t take risks she knew about. Something deep inside her insisted that it would be okay to go after this one, and she shot forward, gaining speed with each bound. As she ran, the buck seemed to be getting smaller, but she paid that no mind. That wasn’t important. The only important thing was that she bring her prey down, and she was so intent on this task that she didn’t notice what was going on elsewhere, even in regards to her own body.

--->

[Meesh]

Ebony stared as River sprinted towards the elk, seemingly growing with each bound. His eyes widened as he saw the familiar change, increasing of size, lengthening of fur and tail, until he recognized her for who- or rather what- she was. An Occult. Clearly she didn't even notice the change, so intent was she on catching her prey. The few prickle pods he had been gingerly sniffing at lay, forgotten, still on their stalks. That is, by far, the most amazing thing I have even seen- and she's not even noticing it either! he stared at her a few minutes more, tail flicking. Should he call out now and tell her, and risk distracting her from the buck, or....

Only one thing to do. Ebony leaped forward on his paws, dashing as fast as he could towards the Occult still sprinting towards the elk. He would tell her when she slowed down. Slowly, he began gaining on the faster black and white feline.

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee stared at River as she grew, larger and larger until she was at least Kayalee's size, maybe bigger! Her small aboriginal face lengthened, her entire body lengthened her tail grew until it brushed across the long grass, it was a magical sight seeing River evolve without thrashing in pain. Kayalee grinned, River was evolving and she didn't even notice it! She stole a glance at Ebony, he seemed completely transfixed on the evolution of River as she started towards the buck... Wait... The buck! River couldn't take down a buck herself! Kayalee charged forward, a second after Ebony did. She opened her jaws in a growl and plunged into the buck, her teeth snapping at the spindly old front legs of the old animal.

[Deleted]

River drew closer and closer. The buck seemed to notice her, but it also noticed something just beyond her. Either way, it started to run, but only for a moment as something shot ahead. Taking advantage of the delay, River shot forward until she was close enough and then leapt, landing awkwardly on the creature’s back, but managing to keep on thanks to the fact that it had stopped moving forward. The creature had definitely gotten smaller – she figured she’d land on its back, blind it, and hope that would be enough distraction for her to claw out its throat and it would die that way, but now…that plan was not going to work. It didn’t need to, though. The creature had all but collapsed under her. It wasn’t going anywhere.

At last, she noticed the reason the buck had stopped. Kayalee must have seen it before her, or was simply faster. She was in front of River and the buck, and River could see some impressive wounds on its front legs. Those would certainly have contributed to the creature’s collapse, she noticed. Maybe it was a coincidence it had fallen under her.

A quick glance showed that Ebony wasn’t far behind. She had been planning to bite the neck – if she could reach around – but she held back, keeping the animal pinned to the best of her ability. If they were going to participate, it seemed only fair to give someone else the opportunity to make the killing blow.

[Meesh]

Ebony quickly caught up to the two females, who had both collapsed the buck. River, about to make the killing blow, stopped and looked at him expectantly, so he leaned over and gave the buck a quick bite to the back of the neck, killing it instantly. Inwardly, he sighed distastefully. Ebony hunted quite willingly, especially considering he needed the meat to live, but he had never much enjoyed the concept, much preferring to save lives rather than take them. He didn't show any of this outwardly though, instead grinning at River. "River, look at yourself!" the Absonding exclaimed. "You evolved!" he glanced over at Kayalee, the feline who had stumbled the buck. "Great job on slowing it down, by the way"

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee narrowly missed being squashed under the buck as it plummeted forwards, she moved her paws as quickly as she could. She hissed as the head came down and the antlers of the creature skimmed against her skin, creating small tears in her side. They didn't bleed at all, it must have just barely cut her. Kayalee was about to tell River about how she evolved, but Ebony beat her to it, so she decided not to. "Thank you, Ebony." Kayalee meowed, she bent her head down to lick her side. She must have been wrong, she tasted blood but at least the wounds weren't dangerously deep. She hissed to herself, why did she have to be so clumsy, she still was not yet used to this occult form.

[Deleted]

Ebony finished the creature off, and then told her to look at herself. She frowned, xamining her pelt. She wasn’ covered in blood. What—oh.

…Oh!

It was subtle, since she couldn’t see her own face, but there was a difference in the length of the tail and fur and size of the paws. But…how? Surely it didn’t come about because she was trying a new kind of prey. She would have evolved several times over if that was the case.

“I don’t understand this at all…” She took in a deep breath…and then smelled feline blood. Looking around, she noticed Kayalee licking herself. “It hurt you?” She turned to Ebony. “I’ve seen cobwebs used for bleeding. Do you know where any might be?”

[Meesh]

Ebony purred, pleased. "I told you it would happen soon" he mentioned, before healer mode kicked in and Ebony padded over to sniff at Kayalee's side. "I know where some are, hold on." he turned, mind quickly turning over the situation. I've already been through this whole area, and there's no cobwebs anywhere near here. I have some back at the den- if only I had thought to bring some before we ran so far from home! he could imagine them right now, the small pile of cobwebs, nestled into the small hollow he had dug under the roots to use for shelves. He could imagine their location so perfectly, it almost felt as if he was actually there.

No wait, he -was- actually there. Ebony looked around, hissing in surprise. One second, he had been with the females, the next second, back at the den. How did he- ooh, yes. Ebony remembered his hatching day, when Silva had teleported off. That explained it. Maybe only aboriginals could teleport. And looks like he could too! Ebony padded over to his cobweb pile, picking up a few, along with a couple more herbs to fight infection. That done, he straightened and closed his eyes, concentrating. Take me back

...Nothing. He opened his eyes, disappointed. Maybe it only worked when you didn't expect it to. Ah well. He began trotting back towards the others.


"Sorry!" he called through a mouthful of herbs when they were finally in site. "I go' tlprtd whn I gt hrbs"

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee licked harder at the wound, hoping it would just bleed itself out. Ebony and River seemed to catch the scent of the blood at the same moment. "It's not very deep..." Kayalee meowed as the two felines swarmed her. "Really I'm fi-" Kayalee cut off as Ebony disappeared, her tail fluffed in surprise and fear, then she remembered the absconding ability was teleportation. She didn't know where he was or that abscondings could teleport. Blood continued to ooze out of the tear in her side as she waited for Ebony to return... She didn't know if he was bringing anything, but he probably found something wherever he had teleported to.

Kayalee lifted her head as she heard the pounding of large paws coming nearer and nearer. "It's Alright, Ebony." After he meowed something about teleporting and herbs, she couldn't understand the rest.

[Deleted]

Ah, he learned teleportation, already. River kept her jaws firmly shut, not trusting herself to make a kind reply. She had really hoped to learn such things together…but oh well. At least she learned she wasn’t stuck as an aboriginal forever. She just needed to figure out what triggered her first evolution so she could work on her second. Besides, Kayalee was still only an occult and she was much older than either of them.

She left Ebony and Kayalee at their activity – cleaning and dressing Kayalee’s wound – and used her claws to pull the elk’s skin from the rest of her body, keeping it as intact as possible. Once she had it peeled away as much as possible, she took the first bite. “We should eat this while it’s warm. Save the skin, though. I thought we’d use that to carry the prickle plants. Then we can take back as many as we need.”