Prompt Opportunity

[Embers]

PROMPT THREAD

situation

A few creatures wandering the forest happen upon a small lake at roughly the same time. Something shiny rests in the middle of the lake. What could it be? More importantly, how can the shiny thing be reached? The thread must result in the recovery of this shiny object.

characters

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

prize

Twenty (20) EXP to all participants.

[Meesh]

The absonding canine dashed through the woods, powerful muscles rippling, occasionally flickering in and out of view as she teleported here and there,, sometimes to get a better view, sometimes to simply avoid an unnecessary fallen tree or river crossing. After over three years, Silva the Starpack alpha had not lost any of the boundless energy she had as a pup. Sure, it had perhaps tempered some with the hatching of her and Antares's child, Shadow, but that still didn't slow the massive canine any as she patrolled through her forest home, as fast as she had been as a pup (and with a lot less tripping).

Normally, the patrol went fairly quickly, but today, something different caught Silva's eye, caused her to skid to a halt and glance over with a surprised growl. The lake...something was odd about the lake... Padding over to the water, Silva stuck her nose in it to see what was wrong, blinking as she saw the glimmer in the water. Something...shiny? That couldn't be right.

[echo]

The shiny thing had been pulling at Coeus' attention for the better part of an hour. He'd been fighting the temptation, of course, but upon realizing that there was another who had approached it, too, the feline had finally given up and made his way over. Surely, he would regret his decision to actually have to partake in social interaction at a later date -- for now, however, the gray creature would just have to suck it up and figure out what was going on in the company of another. And so he approaches Silva from behind, tail twitching nervously before deciding to speak up and just be done with it. "Do you have any idea what it is?" The idea that something shiny actually held any worth was well beyond him, although it wasn't like he would ever freely admit to it. The sooner they could find this thing, whatever it was, and then get to be done with it, the happier he would be. For now, though, he would just try and bear having to hold an actual conversation. The horror of it all was nearly too much to bear.

[Nine]

The newness of life was still quite strong and overwhelming to her, but Hera would manage. She had gotten this far -- wandering away from the orchard in no particular direction, and passing in to a new section of the forest. New to her anyway. There were many smells here which indicated it wasn't an entirely new, unexplored area. She worked her way through the ferns as quickly as she could, but Hera was constantly distracted. The texture of a new plant, the lingering scent of others, even the taste of the soil and the reeds was of utmost importance to her -- until she saw them. A big creature and a little creature, one so dark and big that Hera was stunned in to halting entirely; the other was closer to her own size. It took a moment for her to gather her bearings, and in that dismissive moment, she realized that they were looking at something else. Their attention wasn't on the surrounding forest, but on a pool of water that was out of her reach. What interest could that have? She mentally queried, before the voice of the other feline pulled her from her thoughts.

"Do you have any idea what it is?"

Well, she knew. It was a pool of water. A lake or something... Yeah, those words made sense. What was so important about it? Assuming a swagger, Hera decided to take aim at the water's edge and approach, if only to prove how intelligent she was. Maybe these creatures were young, like her. But even if they were, she was smarter; she knew more than them, obviously. It didn't take long for her to reach the body of water, although the closer she got the weaker her swagger became. With her head held high and gaze perusing the surroundings with an esteemed expression (or something she thought looked regal, but was probably quite foolish), she came upon the pair without a word. One look down at the water, and she prepped herself to speak -- to inform them of how stupid they were, because clearly they were absolute idiots --- but then her gaze caught upon something else.

A shine. Something embedded at the bottom of the pool, layered with silt - but not enough to hide the spark of light, which moved with the subtle shifting of the water. In that instant Hera's thoughts changed, and she was swift to voice them: "Its mine, that's what it is." Her nubile voice became hardy and demanding, and she cast a baleful look upon both present. "I dropped it in there by accident. I.. I want it back. Now." As the girl fibbed she once again lifted herself in to a regal posture, as if that would confirm the treasure down there was indeed her own. Clearly she was lying, and not very well.

[Meesh]

The elder canine turned and blinked, staring down at the young creatures. Was it hatching season again already? Goodness how the years had flown... Silva was old, one of the oldest creatures alive next to Nerah and Antares - and even then there were only two or three others that even came close to matching them in age - but still she looked forward every year to the hatching season, waiting eagerly for the pods to drop form their trees and give forth life. The fact that it had come so early this year surprised Silva, but...well, she was rambling. Best to introduce herself to these young ones.

Slowly, the behemoth of a canine lowered herself down into a crouch to more easily be on an eye to eye level with the two felines, giving a friendly smile. She turned her golden-eyed gaze towards the female feline, catching the lie but accepting it with a shrugging indifference. Children will be children, after all. "So it's yours, is it? Well I'd certainly be glad to go and get it for you, though may I first have your name, young one? It's been a while since we've had children in the packlands." Silva blinked, then let out a low sheepish chuckle. "And I suppose I should introduce myself as well." The absonding canine turned her head to touch noses with each of the creatures in turn. "I am Silva, one of the elder canines of these lands, one of the alphas of the Starpack, whose territory is these woods you find yourselves in. I am mother of Shadow the mixed and adopted mother of many more younglings besides- and you two are most welcome here for as long as you wish to stay." Silva punctuated this final statement by licking Coeus warmly between the ears, plumed tail wagging slowly in greeting.

[echo]

Coeus wasn't exactly new to this place. Surely, the territory was new, but the world in its entirety is not -- he had hatched about a year ago, but hadn't actually taken it upon himself to explore the outside world. Until now, of course. Mostly because he was well and fully aware that situations like this -- in which he would be expected to have to communicate with others and pretend to be pleasant and not at all as socially inept as he actually was -- would be on the horizon. He is uncomfortable, surely, and desperately hopes that the gigantic canine (especially in proportion to his effeminate, slender, average feline self) will not take offense to his question.

She might not, but someone else does. The second feline to make her presence known at once appears to be haughty and stuck up. But maybe that was just him; she, of course, was very pretty and either knew it or carries a graceful confidence about herself that demanded to be realized. Coeus, in his ignorance, puts this up to be even rudeness due to the fact that she approached them, acted like she knew everything and owned the very soil that they'd trodden on, and then claimed the whatever it was in the middle of the water to be hers. So he had to fight the need to roll his eyes and make some kind of weird remark that sounded good to him but probably wouldn't to others. Before he can challenge her claim, however, Silva speaks up and requests both their names before agreeing to give the stupid thing to her. Great. Hera would probably try to take all the credit for its retrieval, too, or something

Silva begins her greeting and provides Coeus with knowledge that will surely aid him in the future. This appeared to be a packland, entitled Starpack, no less (Who did they think they were? Gods?), and hopefully he was not intruding. Despite her words of welcome, the feline decided that he would leave as soon as the scene played out in order to both protect himself and give those that dwelled here their privacy. He's about to answer when she does something unexpected and licks him on the crown of his head. Blinking once, and then twice, he takes a second to absorb this before opening his mouth. "I, uh, I'm Coeus. It's nice to meet you, Silva." At least he didn't end up with some sort of word-vomit like usual. That, at least, was a relief. Not to mention the fact that he could probably stop talking now because it was more than likely that Hera would be demanding the spotlight once more; so he falls silent and nearly rigid at this, keeping one eye cast upon the object out to sea and the other to those that commanded most of his attention and thoughts.

[Nine]

The claims that the girl made were quickly absorbed by the other two, although Hera noticed an odd expression upon the big black dog. She couldn't discern what the expression meant, at least not in that fleeting moment where her attention drifted from the canine to the feline. She was more interested in the shiny object anyway.

"So its yours, is it?" Well, yes, that was why Hera had spoken. Her face scrunched briefly in to a narrow-eyed show of irritation. It was brief though. When the dark dog mentioned retrieval of the shiny object, Hera swiftly relaxed.

"My name is Hera," The girl informed the others, raising her voice above the other feline while the tail end of his own introduction filled the air - effectively cutting him off as he spoke Silva's name.

"Now then," She nearly squeaked, and hopped towards the water's edge expectantly, "Lets go get... That thing. The... My thing. That!" Reaching with a limb, the girl poked the water's surface. When the cool sensation of the water touched her toes, she withdrew - and quickly - and gave a sharp look at the pond as if it had done her a great disservice.

[Meesh]

Ah. So it seemed that her first scent had mistaken her. The male was a bit older than Silva had first expected, though he still came barely close to her in age. Ah well, she had reached the point where they were all podlings to her, anyways. Even Shadow, with his quiet pointedness that he was now the age Silva had been when she mothered him, was still as young to Silva as the day he had first hatched. Well, perhaps she was getting a bit sentimental in her old age or something. For now, she had a job to do!

Gathering her strength, the canine leaped over the other two and landed in the water with an ungraceful splash. She took a minute to fill her lungs and dove underwater, paws pulling her down and down until the waters around her grew dark, the surface far from view. When her lungs felt like they would finally burst from no air, Silva's paws finally scraped at the bottom. She frantically bit at the shiny object, but was startled to see it was much bigger than expected, at least the size of her head. The difference in size from what Silva expected startled the canine, and it was just that momentary lapse in concentration that gave the current all the hold it needed to grab a hold of Silva and pull her farther away from the shiny object. That gave Silva enough cause to panic, and in the blink of an eye, she had teleported back up to surface, shivering and gasping.

"That object." she announced after a moment. "Was a lot farther down and a lot bigger than I had expected. I can go down for it again, and teleport now that I know where it is, but I'm not gonna be able to teleport something that big back up, which means that /if/ I can pull it to the surface, I'll need both of you to actually help me out of the water." This part of the river had been surprisingly deep...getting something that big back up would be quite the task, even for someone as big as Silva.

[Enchantress]

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ G є η є ѕ ι ѕ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

Genesis was not expecting to socialize any time soon. After all, she had just entered the world a few hours earlier, and have seen many others of her kind getting to know each other. Yet, she refrained from making any company for now. It was not her style or personality to make friends with just anyone. No, she was always wary and cautious when it came to strangers. That much, she can say, is her way of keeping herself safe from harm--physically and perhaps even mentally.


Thus, it was a great surprise to her when she alighted upon the crowd by small lake near the Orchard. After wandering about the Orchard, she had decided to explore outside that part of the lieu. The woods had caught her fancy, for some particular reason. Why was she drawn into the towering trees and filtered sunlight on the shadowy grounds? Perhaps it was because the whole atmosphere was solitaire and peaceful--just how the way she liked it. A quiet walk was her plan. So there she was, walking and stretching, strengthening her new muscles and limbs and exploring the area. If she had known that others were gathered here as well, she would have taken another path. However, she was here, and there was no going back. Might as well make the best of this, she mused.


The creatures assembled there included those of her kind. There were felines there as well, of both genders. The femmora thought if it was a serious mistake that she came here, yet as she observed the scene below, her curiosity grew. What were they there for? What was all the commotion all about? Her interest perked, she could not just leave without knowing what was happening. Summoning up her courage, she slowly made her way towards the crowd, expression shy but hopeful and searching at the same time.