Continued from [3 Kings] Stag Party

The stag was laying beneath the tendrils of the massive mushroom with his legs folded beneath him, knowing it shouldn't take the children too long to reach Eridanus from Pisces—but that Tenzin had dictated this decision on his own! Astraea had been busy as of late, especially since the research had been going well. He was especially not fond of Tenzin's ability to cut him off mid-conversation, not that he would have considered it a conversation. And yet, here he was, waiting because his Pisces had asked this of him.

"Thank you," whispered a voice within his head, and the stag merely grunted.

Join This Quest

If you would like to participate in this quest, post with your character in this thread. Completing this quest will require some teamwork, so don't be afraid to roleplay it out! Feel free to request a GM when you feel you may be ready to proceed. Join in at any time!

Participants:
Dragon, Kera, Dezba, Envy, Septiezal, Hera, Rift, Aztec, Rui

Dragon was probably not the first to arrive, really--he was slow, and unsure of the route. Their brief sojourn in Pisces, their meeting with Tenzin, had taught them much--and sent them here.

Now they were seeking the stag Astraea, by Tenzin's suggestion.

With a series of grunts and hisses, he hauled himself through the thick ferns, the underbrush, over the moss. He could hear the trickle of water some distance away, and wondered, for a moment, if this would be a good place to live. To hunt. Perhaps he could try it, for a brief time, before his return to Cetus?

He knew Kera was a short distance behind him, at least--he wasn't sure about the other wolf, the weasel or the rest. But how were they to find the stag in this dense jungle..? He could barely see a few feet ahead of himself, here.

After some time searching, he resorted to his prior methods, inhaling deeply and bellowing out at full volume.

"STAG! ...ASTRAEA! WE SEEK YOU!"

His voice seemed to sink into the moss, to be absorbed by the trees, not echoing in a satisfying manner as it did when surrounded by water-slicked stone.

That is not as loud as I would have liked. This may take some searching yet.

With a huff, the alligator dragged himself further into the foliage, ridged tail vanishing into the ferns.

@Kera @Envy @Rinaotei

Regardless if others followed or got there before her or not, Kera walked with Dragon. At first, she had been walking right next to him-- until she came to the (horrifying) realisation that, if the alligator decided he got hungry, he could just turn his head and eat Kera in two bites.

A glance at his jaws had sent Kera slinking back, further away from him, out of reach. Pity alone kept her close, walking at snail's pace. It wouldn't be fair for him to miss some conversation because he was slow-- if multiple people are slow, it might warrant some repeating. Or at least briefing.

Upon arriving in Eridanus, Kera sniffed around. It was dark-- darkness was what Kera dealt with best. She shook her fur out and focused, quietly. First, there was a gentle pink glow under her fur-- where her gem was embedded into her skin --and then the glow spread across her body, igniting like yellow-white fire.

Shaking her ragged white hair out again and glowing like a pure beacon of light, Kera turned her head to speak to Dragon-- who was already bellowing before she could speak. It would probably work, however-- calling repeatedly for names. It had last time.

Stepping forward into the jungle, Kera called out. "Astrea! Stag! Brown stag! Are you here?!"

'cause i'm the big bad wolf

now let the games begin

Dezba had been tracking Dragon's scent all the way from Piceses, though his foot prints weren't exactly hard to make out either. This was first time she had seen Eridanus and it awed her. She had never seen so much flora in one place before. Imagine if could bend them all to her will, she would be unstoppable!

She heard their voices call for the stag in the distant, and Dezba padded after in their direction.

The forest offered many interesting scents, Dezba wished she had time to explore more. Flies had been buzzing all around her ever since she entered the Maw of Moss, but now they were becoming a bother. Dezba shook her head to send them away from her ears.

Suddenly, a large fly zipped right into her nose!

"ACK!!" Shocked, Dezba let a huge sneeze, sending the snot-cover fly shooting out from her nostril like a pelted pebble.

"AH-CHOO!!!"

She pawed the funny feeling in her nose then growled. Angrily, she snapped her jaws at the darting flies, momentarily forgetting her mission.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

Envy almost resented their Mamma for never telling them that this place existed; but then again, they resented pretty much everyone anyway. Eridanus, or so it turned out, was both figuratively and literally like a giant jungle gym! Envy tried to keep up with the larger Gembounds, although just out of sight, but was unable to stop themselves from scurrying up and onto the roots of larger trees. The others appeared to be looking for the stag, and Envy proudly thought that they could be of some use there...

So the little one scuttled off the trail, sinking their small claws into the gnarled bark of a huge tree. They began to climb it, their short legs hugging them tight to the trunk, and their long, nimble body helping them squirm their way up.

It was tough work, and seemed to take forever, but Envy eventually reached the lowest branch. they puffed and panted, tasting metal and feeling bile boiling in the pit of their belly, but they gulped as they looked around from their new vantage point. never had they felt so tall and powerful. They could see the others far along the trail, but not much beyond that. The weasel lifted their nose for a last, fresh breath of air before preparing themselves for the long journey down.

---

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

tags:
notes: here

Alligator's booming vibrations could have been heard all over Pisces, but Septiezal did in fact sense them. The stag was supposedly in Eridanus, so that's were he would slither. Granted, it would have been more helpful to know where in Eridanus the stag was, but he could do nothing about it but complain about the vagueness, and of course, try to find his scent.

There wasn't much wind in Eridanus, but moisture did paint the forest in sloppy pathways of scents. It was the matter of sifting through tangled trails that became tedious. Septiezal weaved through the thick underbrush, lapping up the different smells with his forked tongue. He had come across many cave deer trails and a female wolf's but Septiezal figured this stag didn't smell like either.

He stopped to inspect a tree, lifting his head off the ground to taste the bark. There were many interesting mushrooms, but no deer-like scent. He let of a huff of disappointment and slither onward. Septiezal periscoped to better look at his cluttered path ahead. The Monarch was close by, he could taste its pungent scent in the air. Suddenly, Septiezal got a tinge of something else. He flicked his tongue a few more times. It was barely noticeable, almost completely smothered by the Monarch's but it was definitely cervine, and of none that he had recognized. He heart rose with excitement. Though it could have easily been a new species of cave deer, he had a hunch that it might be the stag's. What luck, and he almost missed it!

Septiezal traced the wafting scent to the looming Monarch. The python's muscles rippled rhythmically under his scales as he slithered silently across the soft, mossy ground. He took in the sight of the gigantic mushroom. It almost felt like a towering tree with its cap and hanging tendrils. A glimpse of fur caught his eye among the silvery tangle. He crept closer and saw the form of an antlered deer. Septiezal stopped, almost shocked to believe that this could be him.

"Excuse me,"He said, lifting his head. "Are you the Stag who watches over the cycles of the cave?"


"Listen"
Thoughts...

tags:
notes:

He was close to resting before distant yelling shook him from his peaceful waiting. Gleaming red eyes peeled open, staring out into the growth of Eridanus as his long ears flicked, listening to the sudden distressing sounds that echoed in the far reaches of an otherwise gentle-sounding locale. Somewhere else, someone sneezed. It wasn't that Eridanus was so small that every sound could be heard—Astraea was just particularly keen to these disturbances. His ears fell flat in an attempt to block the sounds of others calling for him. They would find him eventually.

Sure enough, one did. And it wasn't yelling at him. The stag focused his eyes on the serpent, wondering what creature had given him such a ridiculous title. It wasn't so simple. "Yes," he answered finally, pushing against the soft ground underfoot to slowly stand. Without bothering to wait for the others, he asked, "For what purpose did you need me?"

Dragon turned, inhaling, listening. No response came. The deer was either nowhere near, or dead.

It didn't occur to him that Astraea might not want to be found. The heavy alligator began to drag himself rapidly through the underbrush, limping as he went, crashing through it with little sign of subtlety.

"Perhaps we can split," he declared with a rumble, "and call for one another should we find him. ASTRAEA!" he added in a loud bellowing roar.

A moment later his own nostrils caught the fresh scent of snake, and something rather prey-like ahead. He recognized the odor, though faint, and huffed. "This way," he declared to those with him, and waddled as rapidly as he could drag his heavy body.

By the time he reached Septiziel and Astraea, the two were probably mid-conversation; Dragon was too winded to speak right away, regardless, and after shoving his way forward out of the underbrush, dropped heavily to the ground a few feet from the stag, huffing.

For now, he simply listened, and glared at the stag who had not bothered to answer. Though, for an alligator's rigid, scaled face, it might have been a smile. Or a frown.

Hard to tell, really.

@Kera @Dezba @Envy

There was some comfort to be glowing, now. Kera shook out her fur as she listened to Dragon doing what Dragon did best-- being generally loud. Offering a short nod, the golden-white wolf pup moved off in the opposite direction, pressing her nose to the ground.

She couldn't smell anything but earth and cave-floor. What did a stag smell like, anyway? She knew most things smelled warm, like blood and like life-- but she couldn't smell anything new in the air, or anything that told her there was more creatures in this room.

But a moment later, Dragon was speaking again. It didn't matter. Shaking her head, Kera turned and began bounding off in the direction the alligator was moving in. She had no time for the massive, slow reptile to be just that: slow. She could, at the very least, update him if he missed part of the conversation.

As she arrived in the company of the snake and the stag, she was briefly taken by the mushrooms perched on Astraea's antlers. Is he like me and Giggle? she wondered. Did he make them, or did someone else?

She shook her head briefly and got right to the point. "We were sent by three birds in Orion," she said. "They're looking for a stone--or a stone-like-object ---that's coloured blue, red and white," she said. "The birds said you knew where it was."

There was a short pause as Kera thought, quietly. "We don't know what they want it for, and Tenzin didn't know either," she went on. "I don't know if they can be trusted."

She had a thousand more questions to ask the stag, but for now-- she went quiet, glowing in the dark. She sat herself down on her haunches and waited for a reply with perked ears.

within a few moments, the little weasel was scurrying down the trunk of the tree. Although exhilirated from the height, they were disappointed by the lack of anything useful visible from that height. Still, they clambered over roots and tried to keep to the high bases of trees that lined either side of the narrow trail as they followed the conveniently booming voice of the big, mean gator.

When they finally caught up, it looked like the conversation was already well underway, and the larger gembounds had already found the stag. Envy grunted in annoyance, and made a beeline for the nearest tree where they could watch, listen, and feel tall on a low branch.

With less difficulty than last time the noodly little creature scrambled their way up the gnarled trunk, dextrous paws gripping the low bark. They reached the first branch overlooking the happenings which was about level with the deer’s chest, although several yards away- it was narrow and spindly, but more than capable of holding the tiny creature’s weight.

When positioned, the little weasel finally spoke, although it was unclear whether the little one was answering their question, or demanding an answer themselves. "The ghost-birds are looking for a special stone which is blue, yellow and red, and we’re here to get it!" they explained shrilly. "They said you have it. Do you?"

---

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

tags:
notes: here