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Post by Trebias on Mar 23, 2008 0:27:34 GMT -5
((flavor the corpse lol))
Elias remained skeptical, and wanted to press the point, but doing so right now wouldn’t help matters, and he didn’t want to cause a relapse. That was really weird. So he scooped up the bola carefully, making sure that movement wouldn’t make the kid bonkers again, and put them away.
“Now,” he said, with a big grin on his face, “I show you the secret to my healthy lifestyle.” The kid didn’t look up to a lot of work right this minute, so he’d redirect things.
“This is one of my favorite things to do in the middle of the day, kid. Follow me.” He led the way through the soggy earth to an area that was less damp. It was a nice big area, with some good shade, but not too cool. “Best thing about being self-sufficient, kid, is that you get to do things your own way, and don’t have to answer to a boss. Which means, if you want to, you can take a nice long nap in the middle of the day. Just because I CAN go without sleep doesn’t mean I like it, you know?” Stretched and circled until he found a nice patch to lay down on, then curled himself up into a pleasurable ball of green and yellow fur. “Pull up some dirt, we’ll catch some zzzzs.”
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Post by seraaches on Mar 23, 2008 10:31:09 GMT -5
Rai followed dutifully, trying to hid the uneasy stiffness that tried to lock his legs every other step. Elias led them to a nice, shady area and laid down and Rai followed suit a short distance away. He didn't actually realize that Elias was treating him carefully, purposefully not pushing him too hard, but he was grateful for a chance to rest his body and his mind.
As they settled in, Rai kept his head up for awhile, trying to work through everything that had happened in his life so far. It had been a hectic few months for all that it could be broken down into just a few key points.
El was training him. El was poisoning him. El had saved his life. And...
Shin was dead.
Rai's head bowed in ill-forgotten grief. The knowledge was a knife cutting a constant wound into his heart. He bit his lip to keep from crying, but he felt like he should. This day had been hard and he still felt shaky and, blast it all, -emotional- from his panic attack. Grey-green eyes slipped uneasily closed. He dozed off, not because he wanted to, but because his body simply needed the rest. He was unaware of when sleep caught ahold of him, but his dreams were simply swirls of nightmares.
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Post by Kiki on Mar 23, 2008 15:17:31 GMT -5
Sera and Trebias receive 2 tokens each, to be redeemed in Ashwin's Shoppe.
This will automatically be added to your recorded totals in the shoppe.
Congratulations, and keep up the good RP!
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Post by Trebias on Mar 23, 2008 21:24:53 GMT -5
Whimpers and movement intruded on Elias’ light doze. He wasn’t surprised, really. Whatever had spooked the kid would most likely follow him into his sleep for a while, at the very least. He crept next to the colt quietly, trying not to wake him. All the kid needed was the shock of him staring at him in his sleep. He checked to make sure the kid wasn’t hurt. Just El’s luck that the kid would get bitten by one of the water snakes before he had a chance to work on the kid’s immunity to that. When he was closer, he could see that the kid was just dreaming for sure. He sat guard over Rai, and hopefully the kid would somehow know and take comfort from the fact. El sure wouldn’t tell him, he wasn’t quite equipped to deal with kids like that. Maybe some day. He didn’t need the nap anyway, he could afford to stand the watch. --------------------------------------------------------------- Elias waded through the water. “Now, this is going to be as important as anything we’ve learned so far. I’ve been showing you how to get along on the dryer patches. Those can be the most dangerous just because all the little nasties fight hard for that stable place to live, and they can get pretty dangerous. But there’s just as much swampy areas like this, without the trees. You have to learn how to get along here, especially during the rains if you’re caught out on your own. Just follow me and we’ll be fine. I’ve weathered my share of storms out here.” And thus would be the next lesson, adapting to the harsh conditions to get away from, outwit, and beat your opponent or pursuer. |
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Post by seraaches on Mar 24, 2008 10:04:25 GMT -5
"Okay," there was a distinct hesitation in the boy's voice, but whether this was caused by another panic attack or a dislike of their current mission was unclear. The panic hadn't just stopped after that first one; for awhile his spells had grown a great deal worse. Almost every time he had looked at the canine, he'd gone into one, but he was obviously unwilling to give over to wotever exactly was bothering him. Instead, he pushed through it and now they seemed to come less often and to less of a degree.
Rai wasn't really the strongest of swimmers and pushing through marshy water was just plain difficult. In most places you couldn't just use a swimming stroke because the water wasn't -quite- deep enough for that. You'd have to do a swimming walk, which tended to simply impede your progress.
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Post by Trebias on Mar 24, 2008 22:21:22 GMT -5
El paused at a stretch where he was fairly certain that the depth remained constant. “This isn’t going to be much more enjoyable than the poison, but it’s just as important. You get some currents in here, see, and they can get pretty vicious. First thing to do is to build up your stamina. You don’t have Suit working for you either, so you get to do it the good old fashioned way and just work that much harder. Man, I tell you, though, those fillies or whatever you end up mating with are gonna stare at you. And in a good way, mind you. You’re going to be rough, and tough, and you’re gonna be able to break heads with your tail. What we’re going to do now is some laps. Just get back and forth a few times, and see how we feel. Walking out here was the warm-up, and getting back will let us cool down, and we’ll end the day with a nice sit by a fire. We’ll take tomorrow off, it’ll be a sore day and you don’t feel like doing much on those. But we’ll come out again the next day. That’ll take the sting off. We’ll be doing this for a while, and gathering what we can on our off days. Eventually the burn will be less. Okay, let’s get to it.” He couldn’t do much to help with the colt’s lack of natural tools to swim, but he could help overcome that handicap, at least.
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Post by seraaches on Mar 26, 2008 10:43:05 GMT -5
For being a hermit, Rai had discovered long ago, Elias liked the sound of his own voice. Whether it was because El talked to himself when he was alone, or he'd simply been storing up the words all of the years he'd be in seclusion, Rai was always just a little bit surprised when El started talking. And then didn't stop.
Wot the colt could not recognize, however, was the teaching spirit in Elias that helped prompt the long monologues explaining things. He was fortunate, though he likely would not appreciate it for a very, very long time. El taught him how to do things, but also why to do them. The colt would one day use these why's to determine his actions.
For now, however, the colt was just embarrassed by the 'girl talk' and he pushed intot he water without a word for now, cheeks a bit hot as he tried to keep up with the much stronger and more fit Elias.
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Post by Trebias on Mar 28, 2008 1:23:09 GMT -5
El kept an eye on the horse at first, but the kid was getting stronger, or maybe just strong again. That was good, though. Physically the kid was recovering fine, Elias just wondered what the full extent of the mental damage was. If he’d known the kid before, it would be easier to judge that. The kid had certainly grown up fast, that was for sure. He felt a little sorry for the kid considering how it had happened, but didn’t let it get him down. Everyone had to grow up sometime, it just happened to Rai early. It was good in some ways, it gave him a head start on other people his age.
They did a few laps, and Elias called for a rest. “Not to bad. You don’t sink too fast, at least. As you get stronger, we’ll move on to faster currents, and get you used to keeping your footing in those. We won’t come out to this particular stretch when the rains start, though, it gets a little wild. Maybe if we had hands, we could learn to boat. I guess that’ll wait for bipedal form, eh?” He looked out over the Marsh. It was pretty striking. Not a bad place to hide, if he had to pick. Could be the Lowlands or the Wastes, he though. He shuddered a little at that thought. No, someday they’d reform the Lowlands. Maybe he’d get to be the one to start it.
“How you feeling, kid? Up for another few laps?”
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Post by seraaches on Apr 2, 2008 19:14:51 GMT -5
Unknowingly, Rai's eyes followed the gaze of his mentor; he absorbed the view of the Marsh with a deep sense of. . . something. It was a bittersweet feeling, born of his love for his home and the knowledge that his brother had died here.
It suddenly occurred to the boy that he was technically an orphan now. Well, perhaps not technically, because he was fairly certain that his useless parents were still around somewhere. For all intents and purposes, however, he was on his own. Except for Elias. It was. . . a strange feeling. And he was lonely.
"Oh, yeah," he answered El's question a bit distractedly, continuing to follow after the canine without really thinking about wot he was doing. This kept him from really feeling his fatigue and it definitely kept him from realizing that the pair was no longer alone.
It happened in a flash; something suddenly wrapped around his hind legs.
He had a chance to gasp out, "El!" Then he was dragged beneath the surface of the water.
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Post by Trebias on Apr 2, 2008 23:36:58 GMT -5
Elias turned, startled, at the sound of Rai gasping his name. How could he have missed the signs of a predator? It must have just moved in since the last time he scoped out the area. Those were mere flickers of thoughts in his frantic mind as he dove down under the water in a panic.
The murk in the water stung his eyes, and he could barely see, but he could certainly tell where the struggle was coming from. He fought his way through the water with strong, sure strokes, a bit unused to swimming beneath the surface.
He reached the youth mid-struggle. He slammed at the whatever it was the best he could do under the water, but didn’t feel it doing much good. With a snarl, he sank his teeth into the flesh of Rai’s captor, tearing at the muscled appendage. The thing was taking the kid under the water over El’s dead body, and he still wouldn’t be too happy about things.
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