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Post by shatteredecho on Jul 9, 2012 14:10:05 GMT -5
A string gust of wind forced the cocoon sway even more, making the small creature inside restless. The knocking of her hard- yet- delicate home made her uncomfortable, and drove her to squirm. Of course, this squirming made the cocoon sway even more, so when the next gale came, it blew her right off the branch...
... And into another tree. The force of the impact caused the shell of the pod to break, and as the pod tumbled to the ground, that brake grew until the whole thing cracked in half, spilling the slightly underdeveloped Aboriginal onto the ground. Still covered in growing slime, she sat up and took a look at her surroundings. She seemed to be in a grove of trees similar to the one she was resting by, though they all had unique factors to them. All around she could see other natives running to catch pods that had fallen from their own trees, and off in the distances she could see a group of natives clustered around a specific tree, though she couldn't see why.
A laugh from behind her startled the marbled feline out of her thoughts.
"Hmm, it seems that there is more than one tree messing up this season. It couldn't even hold onto you long enough, small fry, or you'd have enough brains to have washed yourself off by now!"
Endalivan (for that, she had decided, was her name) looked up to see a large dark brow Aboriginal canine staring down at her. It occurred to the young feline that he was making fun of her, so she promptly bit him on the nose and walked away.
She couldn't keep a smile from her face as she heard him crying behind her.
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Post by FLYNN • on Jul 10, 2012 21:19:17 GMT -5
PROFILE,
Oh no, not more wind. Malonask shivered, even under his thick coat. Maybe it was the chill that was pushing him back to the place of his birth, for the first time since he'd hatched. Maybe he was feeling homesick again? In spite of all the wonders of this new life, he missed his birth tree. Truth be told, he'd been nervous about approaching others ever since his hatching. He should be out, meeting other creatures: every inch of him resisted when he hung back, watching other newborns hatching, other big felines and canines helping them. But instead, he sat in his trees and generally behaved like a shameless coward. With no-one to teach him to hunt, he'd been living on ferns and roots. Occasionally a flicker of instinct reminded him that this was wrong. Only recently had he spied on the older cats, teaching newborns to hunt. Still no luck in his own training. He hadn't even left the Orchard, not knowing where to go. 'Useless, empty-headed curr that you are.'Of course, he was being silly... but he'd been telling himself that every minute for as long as he'd been alive. But now, now that he was returning to his tree... Something was singing inside his chest again. He found a smile returning to his face, his pale gold eyes lighting up in a way they'd almost forgotten. The grass under his paws was lush and soft; the air was cold and crisp. 'And I'm going home.' His graceful walk turned into a swift trot, then an outright sprint. And it wasn't just the thought of his tree: it was stretching his muscles and fighting against the wind, but mostly it was the thought that he could help others in the way he'd missed being helped. He was almost laughing as he raced into the clearing, thinking of all the new and exciting characters he might meet, when he almost collided with a tortoiseshell feline, still slimy with pod juice. A brown canine was running in the opposite direction, crying. Concern worried the russet tom's features for a second, but he brightened quickly; whatever had upset the canine, it would blow over soon. After all, it was a good day to be alive. "Greetings!" he meowed. His voice had mellowed slightly in the preceding months, so it was less like a chirrup these days. He grinned then, oddly fascinated by her amber eyes. What would she be like, this new cat? "I'm Malonask," he added, his tail waving like a fluffy banner in the wind. "Do you have a name? And, er, would you like help with that?" |
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Post by shatteredecho on Jul 11, 2012 10:01:00 GMT -5
Ender soon stopped smiling, however, and dropped into a sit. The canine was right; she needed to get all this juice off of her, starting with the stuff inside her ears. She was soon interrupted in her pawing of the ears by an older feline, also brown, nearly ran into her. Hastily jumping out of the toms way, she was just about to angrily tell him off about (and maybe with a clout on the ears, if she could reach) before he beat her to it.
Malonask, huh? What an odd name... Then again, her name was Endalivan, which she assumed would also be an odd name to some... She fidgeted slightly when she noticed how intently he was staring at her eyes.
"I'm, uh, Endalivan, though you can call me Ender... And no, I don't need help, thank you very much" she added crossly. After all, it wouldn't take to long to find a stream to wash this stuff off anyway? Hopefully not long. She began to walk away again, though this time she was actually looking for something, wondering if the other native would follow her. As she looked around at the other pods, however, she began to realize something: only the pods that had still developing natives had pod juice inside them, not the ones hatching on their own. Is that why I'm so small compared to rest of the ones I see? I guess that would make sense... Her gate slowed as she was lost in thought.
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Post by FLYNN • on Jul 11, 2012 22:33:41 GMT -5
PROFILE,
'Endalivan'. The russet tom filed it away for future use-- and it was such a lovely name that he couldn't even imagine using the shortened form. 'Ender' had a sense of fatality clinging to it... But Endalivan, that name had a certain nobility. Her lovely tortoiseshell coat and that elegant name, they seemed to match. However, her brusque dismissal of his offer soon brought him back to earth. Had he done something wrong? The tom's ears flicked nervously and he took a half-step back. Causing offence was not something Malonask would ever want to do on purpose. Maybe he really was too rusty in the talking department: as far as such things went, he was still stuck a year behind everyone else his age. He was about to mew a hesitant response when Endalivan simply walked away. The young cat swallowed the "hey, wait up!" that had risen to his throat and, unwilling to consider the realisation that he wasn't wanted, trotted swiftly after her. She didn't seem like any of the other newborns he'd seen-- certainly not as confused and lost as he'd been. Instead of sitting down and trying to lick off the viscous slime, as he'd expected, she was simply walking. Walking, like it was the easiest thing in the world! 'Besides, just look at her: she's already forming coherent sentences! At her age, you were still wallowing in the mud of incoherency!' Not only that, she seemed entirely unimpressed by the world. For one so young, there was no fascination in her expression, no awe at its vast scale. Malo was a full year old and even a good sunset could still stop him in his tracks. As he caught up with her and she looked away at the trees and their pods, Malonask frowned a little. She was different, and a little bit... Well, if he was honest with himself, a little bit frightening. Of course, he was just being silly: everything new frightened the tom a little at first, though he'd never admit it. And anyway, being dropped so unceremoniously into a cold autumn day was not the friendliest of welcomes to the world. He shivered again as a particularly strong gust whistled through the trees. Scratch that: it was bitterly cold. Endalivan seemed so deep in thought that the tom was hesitant to disturb her, but if she was interested, he guessed she could always ignore him unless he stumbled across something that interested her. "It's never been this cold before," he murmured apologetically. "But if you're hungry, I'm sure we can find something. There's a stream just beyond the trees there-" (he nodded ahead and slightly to her right) "- if you're getting thirsty. And getting out of the cold should be no trouble. If you prefer trees or burrows, I'll bet there's somewhere snug around here for you to sleep." He trailed off lamely, hating the fear that had kept him in the Orchard for the last year. Think of the tales he'd be able to tell if he hadn't been so self-absorbed! All he could give Endalivan was a basic idea of hunting crouches and some tasty plants, and he didn't even know if the same things would exist beyond the Orchard. He looked back slightly to where the edge of the Orchard was closest and shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.
OOC; Sorry about the... ah... just, I apologise for this post in general >.<; |
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Post by shatteredecho on Jul 12, 2012 18:01:43 GMT -5
((Why are you apologizing for such a wonderful post!?))
Malonasks' question brought her back to reality. A stream? She glanced back at him too see the direction he was pointing before heading off that way. She would be glad to finally wash all of this slime off, and it would be must faster than licking it all off (and trying to paw it out of her ears). The brown toms' question also brought a new concept to her: cold. She wondered what the word meant. Another sharp blast of wind caused her to shiver. Was that what cold meant, the shivering? But then why would he say the day was cold? A concept of time couldn't shiver!
As she was lost in thought again, however, she began to notice something: her paws seemed to have a numb stiffness to them that the toms' didn't seem to have... She couldn't dwell on this thought long, though; they had reached the stream.
Ender happily splashed in, before jumping back out, hissing. She had just figured out that her whiskers didn't like being wet. She started to go back in again, this time much slower than her previous attempt to keep her whiskers dry. Once mostly submerged, she did her best to sit on the bottom, using her front paws to knead out all the slime. Once that was done, she took one of her paws and began to gently knead right below her ear, getting some of the water her fur had soaked up into the canal. She did this to the other ear as well, before furiously shaking her head to get out all the water, bringing the slime along with it.
After she had been completely cleaned off, she got out of the water (after tripping and falling back in a few times) and faced Malonask.
"Could you show me to where you can find this food? I think I am hungry... Or at least I think this is what hungry feels like..."
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