Prompt Opportunity 03 - Completed

[Prompter]

PROMPT THREAD

SITUATION

When one character jumps to bat fruit out of the Annab Tree in the orchard, the branches and leaves give way to a completely decayed portion of the tree harboring thoroughly dead cocoons of half formed native canine and feline species. This is an unprecedented occurrence--orchard trees have never fallen ill, and unborn natives have never been prone to death. Second character enters after this discovery.

CHARACTERS

Two characters are involved that have never met prior to this thread are involved, both post a minimum of four times.

PRIZE

Twenty five EXP to all participants.

[Meesh]

Ebony stared at the Annab tree, eyes narrowing in concentration. He hadn't been born at this tree, but the Kata-hal tree, where he had been hatched only minutes ago, was still blooming with unhatched felines and canines. The not-quite-a-normal-canine, Silva, had pointed the way towards the Annab tree for Ebony to relax and learn more about life.

He had been planning on exploring more of this new world, but he was tired. Hatching had been surprisingly hard work. The brown and black feline stretched under the Annab tree to relax. Before his eyes could close completely, a strange growl came form his belly.

Ebony jumped up, eyes widening in alarm. What was happening? Again, the growl. He then began to notice a sense of emptiness- hunger- in his middle-no, his belly. Hunger....What did you do to get rid of that? Ebony sat down, looking towards his birth tree for support as he considered this. Hunger meant eating and eating meant food. Ebony looked up. There was a low hanging fruit in the Annab tree- not a pod, just a fruit. Fruit was food! And low enough to reach! He just needed to...jump, that was it!

Ebony crouched down, still unused to his paws and legs- would they always be so awkward? Eyes narrowed, he pounced, claws sliding from his sheaths- woah, when did he get those?- as he reached for the fruit. Unfortunately, he overcompensated and went barreling into the tree. Instead of a solid landing, as the feline had expected, the tree began to give off a rotten- terrible- stench, and seemed to cave inward.

Ebony panicked. The tree was collapsed in on him, and the smell was horrible. He began struggling, mewling pitiously (and without any dignity whatsoever), noise only growing as he realized, with horror, that the object he was colliding with were other pods- and dead ones, as well! Ebony wailed. If this was the world, he didn't like it. Not at all.

[Deleted]

Nerah's tail wagged as she padded into the orchard. She walked the whole way, enjoying the stroll as she thought about what newborns she might meet this time. Perhaps she could recruit some new packmates today! That remained to be seen, though. Either way, she was happy.

Nerah slowed her walk as she waved around the trees, looking up at the pods waiting to drop. It would be soon, she guessed. She couldn't wait to meet them all!

Then she came to the Annab tree, where she saw a new creature that couldn't have been out of his pod very long. She padded over, tail wagging and shoulders hunched to make herself appear smaller than she was. She didn't want to start things off by intimidating the poor feline.

As she neared, he jumped into the tree. It was a clumsy action, and she let out a worried yip as she noticed him collapse into the tree. That wasn't supposed to happen! She bounded the last several paces and stretched up, seeing if she could reach the hole without jumping. Her nose wrinkled at the stench. This was new, and it reminded her painfully of the rodent incident she, Silva, and Evalon had to deal with.

"Hey!" She called to the feline. "You all right? What happened?" She snorted, attempting to push the scent out of her nostrils. "What's happening to the tree?" As if he would know...but maybe he could see something she couldn't.

[Meesh]

Ebony paused in his thrashing, still shaking. He was a quiet feline by nature, but this was just too much! At the sound of another person's voice, he relaxed somewhat, still shivering. "D-dead ones. D-dead pods" he managed to choke out, trying not to gag on the dead scent. He whimpered again, wiggling around in his prison. "P-please miss, c-can you get me out of here?" The bark of the collapsing tree dug into his coat, making it look ruffled and unkept. "I t-think the tree is dead and rotting" He did not enjoy this, not at all.

Another scent caught his nose- a familiar one. He blinked. Was Silva nearby? No, it was just Silva's scent he could detect, clung onto the female's coat. "E-excuse me Miss, do you know a miss Silva?"

[Deleted]

Her jaw dropped when he said there wer dead pods. Surely that couldn't be true! Newborns were immune until they broke from their pods! Wasn't that the whole point of having a pod? To protect them? Maybe they were ust taking their time maturing. They couldn't have died?

But her nose told her the feline wasn't mistaken.

She pulled away some of the rotting wood, to help the feline out of the hole and to give herself a better view. Her heart was achingly heavy and her paws didn't want to move, but she was one of the older ones. She had to do this. Taking a breath to steel herself, she peered in...

...and gasped and struggled to keep her paws rooted to the spot. The sight before her was horrible, and would give her nightmares for moons to come.

"O-oh no..." The poor creatures...the poor tree...what could she do? There had to be something!

She was pulled out of dark, depressing thoughts by the feline's voice, asking if she knew Silva. At that, she nodded. "She's my pack mate..." Her attention was still focused on the tree. It hurt her more than she thought possible to see what she was seeing now. She fought back the urge to howl her misery to the heavens - there would be plenty of time for that later - and worked on breaking away the rotting wood. "Maybe if we get the damaged pieces off, the rest of the tree won't suffer." It was a wild idea and she had no idea if it would do anything other than make her tired, but she needed to do something. She felt helpless, here.

[Meesh]

Now free, Ebony dragged himself away from the terror that was the rotting tree, hiding behind the large canine with a whimper. So many dead ones, all around him... he shuddered. What if his pod had been in that tree? Would he have been born like that? Would ha have...died? To never be born at all....



He froze at her suggestion that they move the pods. "T-touch them? Are you crazy?" he gasped. He blinked, then flushed bright red under his fur. "M-meaning no d-disrespect Madam, it's just...they're all dead. B-but I'll do it if you do it" eyes narrowed in determination, Ebony attempted to creep closer to the tree, then shivered as the smell filled his nose once more. He dashed back to hide the the canine's fur, burying his nose in her fur to mask that terrible stench. "O-or we can a-always leave" the newborn mumbled.

A thought occurred to him and he froze, eyes widening. "wait? Are you saying that this c-could hurt others? Other unborn ones like those?"

[Deleted]

The feline whimpered. Nerah understood. She didn't want to have to do this either, but it'd be for the good of the orchard. They could bury the pods...and maybe the wood, as well, out of respect for the tree that had given so much life.

"I can take care of the pods," Nerah assured the feline. Truthfully, she wasn't sure how well she'd be able to handle them. She'd just have to try and block out the fact that there were dead pre-lives inside. "If you want to try to clear the wood a bit, that'd be a big help, or you could check out the rest of the tree and make sure it hasn't completely died. If you really want to leave, I don't blame you."

When he asked about the problem hurting others, she nodded. "I don't know it for a fact but it is possible. If it's a disease, it could spread. I want to be prepared for the worst possibility."

[Meesh]

His eyes narrowed in determination at her words. "I'll help" he declared. If it could hurt his friends- like Silva and River and this nice Nerah- he couldn't allow it to exist. Gritting his teeth, he walked gingerly over to the wood, paw extending to grab a bit of bark form the tree and drag it down. He tried not to gag at the rotten stench emanating from the tree as it collapsed in on his paw, clawing down more of the wood. "W-where do we put this stuff?" he gagged. "If we bury it, it might infect the ground and the other trees" He looked around, considering.

[Deleted]

He said he'd help, and Nerah's tail wagged. The feline was brave, for one so young. Together, maybe they could save the tree even if many of the pods were beyond hope.

He went to work on the wood, and she began gingerly pulling out the pods. It was foul in every way she could think of, but it was necessary. She tried to block out all thoughts that attempted to form in her mind, determined to keep going until only the good pods remained. She worked as quickly an carefully as she could - only in part because she wanted to get the disease out of the tree as soon as possible. The faster she pulled the pods out, the less time she'd have to spend imagining their fate.

She shuddered.

Ebony asked where to put the rotten wood and pointed out that it could infect the ground if they buried everything. She stopped after getting the latest pod safely out of the tree and frowned as she thought. "Maybe if we surround the infected pods and wood with rocks, that'll be a good enough barrier to keep things from seeping out?"

[Meesh]

(This is my fourth post ^^ We can continue for as long as you like though :3)

Seeing that the big one was moving to help him, Ebony clawed down the dead wood faster and more energetically. With two of them at it, they would soon be finished with this gruesome task, and be able to go back to somewhere safe. Which reminded him, "Uhm, Miss?" he began. "What's your name? I'm Ebony?" He smiled, remembering when he had first found out his own name just a few short hours ago.

Most of the rotten wood was out, but Ebony scraped away at the wood around it just in case. Clear- thankfully healthy- sap oozed out of the gap, hopefully covering the tree in a protective layer that could keep away other infection- or so Ebony hoped. He still worried about what few living pods remained on the tree though- Most of them were too young to hatch, but what if the sickness spread? If only there was a way to detach them and plant them on his mother tree. Ebony was sure his tree would protect any of the newborns who came into the world.

He nodded at the canine's idea. "Alright. But how about at the edge of the orchard where others my age will be less likely to stumble into them?" He shuddered at having to touch all that rotten stuff again, but if it just lay here at the Annab tree, it might infect newborns who dropped out of their pods and stumbled, unwittingly, into the pile. Ebony shivered.

[Deleted]

((All right. ^.^ I don't mind wrapping it up quickly though. I know we've both got full slots. XD))

As they worked, he asked her name. She blinked. Such a normal question for such an abnormal activity. But then...maybe keeping up normal conversation would help them deal with everything. Either way, it was rude not to answer, and it had been rude of her not to introduce herself earlier. She hadn't even been thinking about that until now. The sight of the death and rot had cleared everything else from her mind, she supposed.

"I'm Nerah," she answered. "Nice to meet you. Wish it was under better circumstances, though."

When he suggested they bury the afflicted tree bits and pods at the edge of the orchard, Nerah nodded. "Good idea. I'll see if I can find a good spot away from trees and water and get the hole dug, if you want to gather any rocks you can find? We'll need a lot." She ran off to do as she had said, hoping they could keep this from getting worse.

[Meesh]

((Okay then :3 We'll go until the rotten stuff is buried then, and clsoe it at that ^^))

Ebony nodded. "It's a bit out of topic, I know" he replied in his quiet way. "But it makes sense to be polite to the third person I've ever met in the world, I guess. And yes, I also wish it wasn't...this...we stumbled upon." He nodded to the rotten wood and pods, flattening his ears distastefully at the scent. His previous panic at the horror of the dead bodies had gone under control, to be replaced by a cool, silent cover that masked the turmoil of pain and sadness he felt at the deaths of his possible siblings.

Nerah told him to gather rocks and he nodded, moving to gather a few. There weren't that many rocks in the orchard, but he found a few small enough to carry back to where Nerah was. There were a few larger ones too, but those were too big for Ebony to carry. He made sure to note their position though. Maybe Nerah could carry a few of them.

Before long, a sizable pile of rocks was ready and set up at his paws. Ebony settled at the base of the pile, waiting for his newfound friend to return.

[Deleted]

Nerah blinked when the feline spoke. Third person? He was that new? What a horrible thing for him to experience so young in life... But they were taking care of it. Maybe it'd never happen again? She hoped not, she really did. It was terrible, to lose your life when you've never really had it. At the same time, it made her appreciate the life she had all the more. Was existence really so fragile?

"Though at the same time, it's good that someone found it." She shivered. "If it had been discovered later it might have taken the whole tree." Maybe even now they were acting too late, but she didn't want to entertain that possibility.

He had gone off to collect the rocks and she found a good place to bury everything. It was far from where any newborn had any business being, normally, and set in a space lacking in trees and brush. Maybe it wasn't perfect - perfect would have been solid rock - but it was the best they could do, and she worked as quickly as she could to form a hole large enough to accommodate the dead pods and wood plus a layer of rock.

Once she was sure the hole was big enough, she returning, staring at the rocks the feline had gathered. "Oh wow...I'd say that's nearly enough."

[Meesh]

Ebony puffed out his chest in pride, overjoyed by the canine's complement. He may have been a wise old soul, but he was still a newborn, and pretty proud to be getting approval from the biggest canine he'd ever seen! "I found a couple more behind those trees, but they were too big for me to move" he admitted, pointing with his tail to where the few rocks lay. "They're pretty big, but so are you. Maybe you can move them?
He glanced around the area. "Oh, and did you find a place?" Now that he was focused on the rocks and not the pods, it made it much easier for him to complete the job, and quickly. Ebony grabbed one of the smaller rocks in his jaws, tucking another one under his chin. "Where to?" he mumbled through a mouthful of rock

[Deleted]

((Hope this is okay. ^.^)

He seemed pleased at her words, and her tail wagged. It was good to see the feline happy, even if it was only briefly. When he mentioned other big rocks that he couldn't move, she nodded. "I'll see what I can do. First, though, yes. I'll show you what I found."

She picked up a mouthful of rocks and then led the canine to the place she had chosen. She then dropped the mouthful onto the ground beside the hole and went back to look for the larger rocks They weren't hard to find, but it took a good amount of effort to dislodge them from the ground and she couldn't lift them so she had to push them along. It was a slow, awkward process, but - after some time - she managed it.

"Phew!" She sat down to rest for a moment and thought about how to accomplish their task. "Maybe if we use the smaller rocks on top so no one can dig everything back up once we've finished? Or should they be on bottom? Hmmm..."