ORIGIN - [STORY] The Shadow of Rhatan

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Thank goodness for the other Bonebound showing up, because the Lorekeeper was quickly up and at them - even if he had to step in and shoo Ischium off of her unconscious body, certain that jumping on someone wasn't a viable means of resuscitation.

Throwing the wind back into someone? Perfectly acceptable. Eythan stared wide-eyed at the little bird, beak going a little slack at the way she managed to just come in and take charge of the situation. A distant thrum of paternal pride surged in him. Giggle beat him to the punch as far as praise went, but he still offered an approving nod and smile if Damask happened to look his way.

His hackles bristled, an instinctive reaction to - well, the massive figure looming over them all from even thirty feet away, voice booming and ordering them to - well, no duh. Don't let the old lady die! Simple as that. Eythan pivoted, warily eyeing the purple behemoth from afar before turning back to the group; suddenly noticing the tiny lizard amidst them: "she was having a bit of trouble, but she's alright now."

"I can take the rest," the gryphon offered to Giggle, and moved to do just that. He plodded towards the Lorekeeper, pausing as if to ask permission first before hoisting up by the nape and helping the old dog drape her upper half over Giggle's back. Eythan then awkwardly slunk underneath the hind legs, sort of looping her paws underneath his far wing.

A glance was tossed towards Damask, seeing if she was going to follow them to the Chambers or not.

okay. she's good. you got her. damask traded her magic for a sigh of relief as the frail stranger sputtered back to life. lorekeeper, giggle had said, and not for the first time. damask recalled being told that she knew things, might even be moved to tell of them. she cast her eyes to the hyena, then eythan, receiving their approval with a thin smile of gratitude. cause to be proud, kid; but oh, wow, is this a crowd. she'd never been around so many souls at once, and their presence had her nerves on edge — especially the overseer's, as he was evidently known. she'd seen his likeness carved in wood, and to encounter him in person did strike a match of curiosity — but even so, the sheer immensity of him almost made her shy away. instinct harried her to bow out now, circumvent any possibility of panic or overload. she hovered for a second, torn; and then eythan looked her way, asking her to follow, and she knew she couldn't leave. besides: why does she want to get to the chambers? stick around and you'll find out.

instead, she stepped towards her uncle and grandmother as they lifted lorekeeper onto their backs. this was not a task she could help with, much as she might've liked to. damask picked her way around the others, keeping a couple feet back even from the two of them. awful lot of bodies around — don't get jostled and have one of your ... things, yeah? she blinked at the little lizard scampering beneath them, quickly and quietly sparing her voice ("it's okay; come on") as she passed.

lorekeeper might have a story for them yet.

Sharp

we can wander through the forest, and do so as we please

Sharp watched with growing fascination as the other gembounds swiftly moved to help the old lady. After several tense moments involving various attempts at resuscitation, the many-eyed canine came stuttering back to life. The winged-horned one quickly explained what was happening to the lizard before going to assist the "Lorekeeper" alongside the spotted-one she saw earlier. The other gembounds seemed to have a connection to Lorekeeper that Sharp, being so young, could only guess to. Maybe she was their leader, or their best friend? What if she had superpowers? The obvious explanation, which was right in the name itself, eluded the sungazer. She decided "super-powered-awesome-lady" sounded the most reasonable.

While she was pondering over this, the group began moving towards the center of the room, where the stalagmites touched the floor and made intriguing tunnels. She began to trot after them, but hesitated. The big, scary wedge-head-guy was still there, and it might just be the prey instincts talking, but she did not like putting her back towards someone who could easily eat her at any time. Given how tiny she was, she wasn't sure the others would even notice if she disappeared between those dark fangs.

That was, until the soft call of the greyscale avian pulled her out of her worry. She was with not-means here, and they seemed much more preoccupied with helping purple-friend than they were with eating eachother. With a flick of her gem-studded tail and a happy chirp she went scampering through the bones, weaving between their massive legs.

thinking | "speaking"

Garnet-Epsilon

Now, Epsilon hadn't heard the original call for help- but they had heard the commotion, and that had made it curious.

Deciding to take off after the noise, they pull on their magic and try to muffle their approach, not knowing who or what was going on.

Spotting their Overseer, and seeing his response to the group- and the other bright purple one's response to him- gives them a bit of pause. Overseer Vargas was to be respected, not feared, at least not unless one was useless. Which the toxic canine creature seemed to be, what with it's back legs being... like that.

Was this another Overseer who had done wrong?

Who was this other Gembound- who were all of these Gembound?

Did the Overseer approve of any of their designs?

Was it broken or Broken?

Lots of questions, and it decides that the best way to get an answer was to follow... Overseer or not. Footsteps quiet- but not too silent so as to not be heard in silence, they track after the others- flitting between stacks of bones and spires of rock.

Giggle came scurrying up, tryied to pull the creature, apparently called 'Lorekeeper', up, the smell of blood on the air, and Damask gestured him away so he did, dancing away and spinning an anxious circle "Is she going to be okay Eythan what happened?" and then a very big thing and he squealed, leaping clear in the air and dancing away, "WHOA!" putting Etyhan between Vargas and himself. 'Nonononono.'
The 'Lorekeeper' jolted up, beginning to cough, and scurried among them, before asking for their help. "Chambers?" he asked, tilting his head and giving a wary wag of his tail. He may not be the brightest coyote, but even he knew when to be wary.

Sometimes.

"Yes... thank you," she rasped to Giggle as the hyena moved to support her; as Eythan moved to lift the rest of her, she hesitantly looked toward Vargas.

The eyes of the Lorekeeper studied him, his intentions; he did not seem as if he would harm her, but she did not want to risk it. However, with the support of the group around her, she wondered if it might be safe to be honest.

Absolutely not. She had not survived so long by letting others know she had been a failed prototype.

"Lorekeeper," she answered finally, her body stretched across Giggle and Eythan; she was not named, and she did not have a designation. She was simply the Lorekeeper.

Her attention shifted to the coyote. "Yes... the chambers..." she echoed his question as the only reply. She craned her head around to view the path ahead of them. Being carried around was actually kind of nice, but she much preferred to stay in her den—especially if Overseers were starting to awaken.

As they traveled, she tried to spy on each of the following creatures: some were tiny, and as she inspected them, her eyes flashed to Vargas briefly. He was not an exterminator, then? Or were his concerns only valid within Hydra? She had learned well and fast to avoid him and the others that might harm her, but had been spared this fear since the Great Awakening. Now, however, it seemed she would need to practice caution yet again. After her little excursion, though. She wanted to know what Jupiter had left behind, if anything.

"When you... reach the heart..." she started, her neck again craning toward the chambers, "we will... need Batcat to lead us...through." Hopefully it was still around, and would be willing to lead them to Jupiter's den. Her ears folded back. Hopefully it would listen to her, despite the crowd she had managed to gather.

Characters will need to roll at least a barely successful to call Batcat.

This round is optional and has no posting order.

Sharp

we can wander through the forest, and do so as we please

The path to the Chambers was surprisingly smooth- well, it had to be, otherwise they wouldn't have been carrying Lorekeeper down this way. Sharp trotted beside the group, eyeing the bones around her like they were some tourist attraction. She'd never been anywhere past the entrance of this room before today, and the colossal carcasses felt like something out of this world-- er, cave. They were so huge, and old, and most of them were large enough for her to lie comfortable in. And oh, there was lots of water too, far more than Monoceros. They littered the floor seemingly everywhere, and she had begun to lose track of how many times she fell into a puddle that was deeper than she expected.

Of course, she kept an eye out on the others, too. Part of it was just to make sure she didn't get squished, but she did enjoy the peoplewatching as well. The way that the spot-mammal and the bird-mammal thing worked together, the mottled one who just joined them, the hyperactive fur-predator (she liked him the best), and of course their two purple guests. Sharp did register the way Lorekeeper kept on nervously looking towards Vargas, and if she were any smarter she might have noted that they seemed to have an oddly strained relationship. Unfortunately, she was not.

What did pipe her interest was what Lorekeeper said. A "batcat"? She'd never heard of one before, though she assumed they must be another friend for the group. The few gears in her head turned as they tried to understand what she was saying. Ah, so they need a "batcat", but there is none currently. So they must find one! "Ooh! I can scream really loud. Really loud!" she exclaimed, apparently boasting about this fact. "I can call for Batcat! I can!"

And then, without waiting for the others approval, she channeled all the air in her lungs and shrieked. "BATCAT! BAAATCAAT! VEEERY NICE BATCAAT! BAAAT!" She wasn't exactly sure how to call a Batcat, but at least it helped-- aside from probably hurting everyone's eardrums, that is.

thinking | "speaking"

Giggle grunted, staggering just a little under the weight. Batcat, hm? "Who's Batcat? And are you all right?" Another grunt, another slight stumble, and she fired a brief glare back over her shoulder at Vargas. He couldn't find the two seconds spare to help-? But he just strode along, and Giggle couldn't tell if he were leering at her or not--hell, she couldn't even tell which of those holes in his face were eyes.

A shake of her head and she looked forward, grimacing.

Omen. See if you can find something called... Bat-Cat. Images of cats--Wilder, primarily, but Omen knew the concept of 'cat' well from Giggle's frequent complaints--and of bats flicked through her mind. And for her part she cast her sense out, trying to twist them through the myriad mycelial growths throughout Canis. If she found something like a bat-cat, here, she could at least send Omen to call for it.

The bird's calls were already ringing out, a confused tangle of Bat! and Cat! Bat-cat! Cat-bat-cat-cat! The bird could yell, but the meaning was lost on her. At least if Giggle found the thing in Canis, Omen could lead it back to them.

Assuming it knew its name.

Paws tracked farther down into the Chambers, winding along the dust of the rocks, careful to avoid the bones. A brief thought struck the hyena--a memory that had been shown through the mind of another. A memory that even now stumbled her step, a little. A swarm of the things... eating someone. After the big dragon had been turned to oil.

She hoped it wasn't one of those.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

He shook his head briefly, a little irritably, at the lizard's screeching.

Batcat-..? Vargas wondered about this, but honestly his mind was elsewhere. And all six eyes were on the Lorekeeper, lying limp across the backs of the two modern beasts.

Instead of helpfully silent, or reassuringly kind, or anything so warm, Vargas spoke his mind bluntly. To him, Lorekeeper couldn't possibly be a success. Unless, specifically, she'd been made to handle knowledge and memory, which he admitted to himself was (given her title) a possibility. "Were you made to remember knowledge, then? Or are you a failure?" Blunt, and brutish, but he was hardly known for his tact. Yet he still showed no signs of aggression, or predation, merely watching her as they walked. His own long strides were kept slow, so that he could pace sedately along without sweeping past the smaller creatures. "If it is the latter, you have survived a long time here. Hiding? Yes?" He didn't remember seeing her, hearing of her; he supposed it was possible she was one of the ones who'd become fugitive just before they'd all fallen into slumber, or whatever had happened. If not, however--"The ability to survive while so useless would be admirable. How did you do it? Assuming you are not a keeper of knowledge," he amended. He wasn't sure why they'd have left a "lore keeper" alive so crippled, but at the same time, he doubted that physical ability counted all that much when handling stores of information.

"Your design might be useful," he added, looking off ahead in idle thought. These creatures--the new ones--reproduced with their stones. And there weren't enough of the old designs left over, in Vargas' mind. Maybe they could use this Lorekeeper.

In any case, it was fairly clear that he had no intention of helping with this Batcat, or with carrying her--but also none of eating her, just now.

@Ischium @Garnet-Episilon @Damask @Eythan

The coyote tilted his head at the Lorekeeper, but trotted along with the others, listening to the strange conversations going on. He wasn't following it, much, but he was curious, and so kept his ears turned to them.

Making noise, though, was something he was good at. So when the lizard started yelling, he threw his head back and stretched his jaw, yipping "BATCAT BATCAT BATCAT!" at the top of his lungs, though with how hard he was trying it came out more of a squeal and a squeak.

It's the thought that counts?

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5