| Logs |
2002 August 18
| Idlewild |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
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| Realms: Idlewild Logs |
August 18
Steven returns to camp after his meditations. Aiden and Sol are not yet back from hunting, nor has Lua returned. Lotte and Willow have cleaned up after the rabbity dinner, and Willow has resumed his quest for items that need mending while Lotte plays guitar.
After a quiet, companionable time in the gathering dark, soft music floating in the dim air, everyone goes to bed. Willow volunteers to sleep outside the tent on the extra blanket, so that no one is inconvenienced in case all three missing hunters return to sleep here. He is earnest enough about it-- and the space is small enough-- that he gets his way, and the night passes very quietly.
Steven and Lotte both wake close to dawn, feeling remarkably refreshed. Lua is not in the tent. Neither are Aiden or Sol. Penny is snoring very loudly from a pile of blankets in the corner.
Aiden returns to camp an hour or two after dawn, with Sol right behind him back in his dog form. Aiden is carrying a skinned hide hefted over his back which appears to be quite full. He sets it down next to the firepit and refolds the hide. It's full of deer meat.
Steven blinks is at first worried about Aiden and Sol (and at the same time amazed at the volume of snores the ghuf is capable of.) But when they return he relaxes. His relief turns to surprise when he sees the quantity of deer meat they recovered. "That's very impressive!" he says. "I've known a few hunters who'd be hard-pressed to find enough game in a week to equal that."
Willow sits up groggily from the folded-blanket pallet where he has been curled half-awake ever since Steven and Lotte arose, and goes over to Aiden. "Would you like me to cook some of that? Penny found me some herbs last night."
Aiden smiles at Steven, suprising given the early hour. "Lucky shot.."
Aiden nods at Willow. "Sure. I'll give you a hand in a few minutes."
Lotte looks at the meat with distaste, but reminds herself that beggars can't be choosers.
Willow smiles, not brightly, but trying to be despite the hour obviously disagreeing with him. He quietly starts to prepare some of it.
Aiden looks around the camp quizzically. "River?"
Lotte picks up her guitar, settles herself on the ground, and quietly plays some tunes.
Steven hmms? and nods, "Yes, it's over, uh, that-a-way...." He starts to give directions, then sheepishly gives up, standing. "I'll show you," he says, "I got lost finding it, myself...."
Aiden nods at Steven, "Okay. Just want to get cleaned up before I help cook." He follows Steven.
Steven nods, and starts down in the direction he remembers the river to be in.
Willow, by the fire, starts causing some rather nice roasting-meat-with-herbs smells-- to those who like that sort of thing. He smiles over at Lotte, obviously enjoying the music.
Lotte smiles back at Willow and continues her practice.
Steven and Aiden locate the river with no problems. The bank is rocky, and the water is wide-- it looks as though it would not be crossed lightly.
Aiden kneels down at the shore and scrubs his hands, then splashes water on his face, rubbing it down. He finishes quickly and looks up at Steven. "I should be able to find my way back, if you're not ready to go yet."
Steven thinks washing up briefly is a good idea, and does so as well. "No, I'm fine, I think, thanks.I'm still wondering how I could have gotten lost with the river being this big...."
Aiden grins, "Easy enough."
Aiden waits for Steven to finish and follows him back to camp.
Steven and Aiden return to camp as clean as a hasty spot-wash with no deodorant can make them. Lotte has finished playing her morning exercises with confidence and a good feeling about it, and Willow's efforts have resulted in deer-kebabs that smell good. Penny wakes up and comes out for breakfast.
Aiden takes a deep breath, "Smells good, Willow."
Willow's perfect skin glows rosy as he beams at the compliment. He offers some to Aiden. "It's ready."
Aiden takes what Willow has offered, "Thanks." He sits down nearby to eat..
Lotte eyes the deer-kebabs with a look of mild fear.
Steven has to wonder what all this meat in the diet will do. It's probably good for Sol and Lua in some sense, but it doesn't seem to be helping Lotte much. Trouble is, he knows nothing about picking the right, tasty, un-poisonous non-toxic fruits and vegetables, least of all here. While they eat, he asks about that, about if there's any way to find out what greens are good or not.
Lotte hunger wins over her vegetarian philosophy. She daintly takes a bite, squishing her eyes shut as though she expects the meat to kill her. She bites, chews, swallows, and then promptly runs to get sick behind a bush.
Aiden frowns at Lotte's retreating back. "We're going to have to make sure we do some gathering for her. We didn't have time before the storm hit last night."
Lotte says, "I can do my own gathering, thank you very much."
Penny is, unsurprisingly, not much help in the human-safe vegetable identification. Willow looks ashamed and admits that he never had to go out and search for anything; his cooking skills are good, but require things to be brought to him already picked and dead. He suggests asking Sol, or Lua, as the real wanderers in the bunch. Sol gives Willow an ironic look out of canine eyes. Lua, who would be able to speak at this time, has still not returned to camp.
Aiden nods at Lotte. "But if we're out hunting anyway..." he trails off.
Steven winces in sympathy for Lotte, then glances around. Lua still not back yet. That's... odd. "Sol... does Lua usually... well, okay, I'll be blunt. Lua's not back yet; should we be worried?"
Lotte returns to the group a bit sheepish and still a little green. She nods at Aiden and mumbles, "I hope Lua gets back soon."
Aiden looks over at Sol and pulls a piece of meat off the skewer, offering it to him.
Sol's expression is not human, and difficult to read. He hesitates in his eating at Steven's question, ignoring Aiden's offer, and nods his head slowly up and down while looking Steven in the eye. He noses Aiden's hand, but does not eat.
Aiden frowns at Sol. "Do you want to go look for Lua? We can help.."
Sol, usually silent, barks once and nods yes.
Steven blinks, looking between Sol and Aiden, and nods quickly.
Aiden finishes up the last little bit of meat and stands up. "Anyone know where she was last?"
Steven nods, "I saw her... uh, heard her, last, down by the river, right where we were. She was.... uhm... invisible."
Aiden nods, "Let's start there, then.." He starts walking in that direction.
Lotte raises her eyebrow at Steven, but stands up nonetheless. "I agree that we should go looking for her."
Steven looks sheepish, unable to explain it any better, and stands, heading down with the others to the shore of the river.
Sol nudges Lotte's hand, as if to say thank you, and dances away toward the river, anxious.
Lotte looks at Willow. "Are you going to come or stay here?"
Penny scuttles along in the taller folks' wake. Willow hesitates, and Penny says brusquely, "Stay with the camp, boy. Someone should." Willow nods, and tells Lotte, "He's right. I'll be more use here, to guard your things."
Lotte sighs and offers to pick Penny up. When they are out of earshot, she says,"You shouldn't call him 'boy.' He named himself Willow."
Penny accepts the ride with thanks, but his tone changes as he says, "Harrumph. Yes, my lady," in what sounds suspiciously like an imitation of someone else.
Aiden coughs, to hide a laugh.
Steven blinks, glancing to Penny, but not saying anything. "Just down this way...," he says, hoping he's not going to get lost again, but glad that Aiden, at least, is unlikely to get as magnificently lost as he himself can.
Lotte frowns, but says nothing as she follows Steven.
The way is indeed somewhat unclear to Steven this time, but Aiden seems to know where he's going, and leads the small party safely to the spot Steven indicated he last saw Lua at the riverbank. It's... rocky. And deserted, except for the group of searchers.
Aiden looks around and for lack of anything else to do, since Steven did say that she was invisible, says. "Lua?"
There is no response.
Aiden frowns. He starts walking up the bank of the river, calling her name out now and then.
Lotte shrugs. "Anyone good at tracking?"
Steven frowns slightly, looking around. "Rocky... no mud to show tracks." Blast. He frowns a little, and wonders if he should ask Pelor... he doesn't know if Pelor would be annoyed or not by him asking for help to find Lua... but if protecting the people he cares about and keeping them from harm isn't part of what it means to follow Pelor....
Lotte shrugs again and begins looking around the area for any signs of her.
Soleil paces quickly back and forth along the riverbank, staring at the ground. He starts to whine, a nervewracking sound, as he evidently sees nothing useful.
Aiden finds no one and receives no hail-back for fifteen minutes. He turns around and heads back toward the spot where he left his group. They are in sight as Soleil starts to howl.
Aiden rushes up towards the group when Sol starts to howl... "Sol.. Are you calling her?"
Lotte asks Sol worriedly, "Did you find something?"
Sol doesn't stop to try to answer nonverbally, and continues making the eerie noise at full volume. Nothing answers him, either.
Steven winces at Sol's whine, but in sympathy and not empainment. He closes his eyes, folding his hands over the small pendant. Lord Pelor, I know I have asked much of you lately, and I am grateful that you have responded so strongly. But one of the people we are relying upon to help us here is missing, and her brother is worried about her. Is she nearby? Did she go downstream? upstream? or perpen... paral... perpetu... uh, directly away from the river?
Aiden walks over to Sol and kneels down to put a hand on his neck. "Don't worry, Sol. We'll find her."
Aiden stands up and starts to walk the other direction down the river, calling for Lua again. He calls her name, fairly loudly every ten to fifteen steps for about fifteen minutes.
Steven lets out a breath, and shakes his head quietly. He wrenches himself back to the here and now, some part of him hoping he hasn't offended Pelor, but squashing that thought immediately; Sol is starting to sound hysterical now. He goes over to beside Aiden and Sol, racking his brain for some next step.
Sol continues to howl, tone gradually rising and spiralling into higher registers. Small birds start to take wing from the surrounding trees, heading away.
Aiden is calling out Lua's name one more time when he is suddenly overcome with fear. Something is going to get him if he doesn't leave now. He turns and runs along the river, back towards where he left the others. He has to warn them!
Lotte feels a wave of panic wash over her as she stands helplessly along the riverbank. Suddenly, she just knows that something awful is going to happen if she keeps standing around. She needs to get out of there, and fast! She begins to run back towards where she thinks the campsite is.
Aiden starts to run towards them and immediately skids to a stop. He doesn't want to go that way afterall. He turns and runs back in the direction that he thinks that camp is, in a straight line away from the river seems like a good choice.
Small animals are pouring out of the woods and running madly about underfoot. They seem crazed, and heedless of danger. They only constant is that they are running away from Steven and Sol.
Steven blinks, looking up as Lotte flees the area, frowning. "Lotte...? Lotte! What...?" He shakes his head, frowning as he kneels beside Sol, gently (and unconsciously) placing a hand accross Sol's back. "What's... what's wrong?" Where is everyone going...? The chitter and scamper of animals catches his attention -- all of them seem to be running away. From where he's standing.
Sol breaks off his terrible noise at Steven's touch, and turns on him, snarling.
Steven falls back quickly and startledly, blinking at Sol, unmindful that he is being incredibly undignified. "Whoa! Whoa, Sol, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Aiden continues running in a straight line away from the river until the overriding fear leaves.
Lotte runs without looking back until Sol's howling ceases. She slows her furious race into a jog, but still feels confused and panicky.
Aiden slows down, his mind clearing a little. He notices something pale laying on the ground and stops to scoop it up to examine.
Lotte notices something glittering on the branch of a bush as she jogs by. Snapping out of her panic, she backtracks and finds a long silver hair. She picks it up and looks around, perhaps hoping to see another clue. The only thing she realizes is that she is near camp.
Aiden frowns at the little scrap of leather that he has in his hand. He doesn't recognise it, but tucks it away to keep for now.
Lotte looks around again, trying to find her companions.
Steven stifles a shout of pain as Sol bites into his arm... but Sol doesn't do more than that one bite; probably good, Steven doesn't know what greyhounds do but he's heard of some dogs that bite and simply can't let go, and start shaking their head or digging in or... any of a dozen other unpleasant things that Sol simply didn't do. He swallows a bit, blinking at his mangled arm. Sol himself seems to be looking really sorry. He tries to smile a little. "It's okay, Sol," he says. "I should have thought before doing that." Man, this is gonna leave a mark, I think.
Lotte doesn't immediately see Aiden, Steven, or Sol. She decides to wait for them at camp, instead of attempting to head back to the river.
Aiden looks around, trying to figure out where he is..
Sol whines and attempts to lick Steven's wound, looking terribly contrite-- for a dog.
Lotte finds Willow looking nervewracked at camp. He jumps up when he sees her and runs over to cling to her arm. "What was that?!"
Aiden arrives shortly after Lotte, having also run in zig-zags.
Aiden wanders back in the direction that he's pretty sure that camp is. When he arrives he nods at Lotte and sits down. "What was that?"
Steven doesn't push Sol away -- he remembers something about that being one of the best things for a wound, actually. "I'll get my old shirt on it, and it'll be fine," he says, hoping he's sounding reasonably fine about the whole incident. He bites his lip a bit. "I asked Pelor for help, but... I don't think I asked the right way. Or there was, for whatever reason, no help to be had." He looks around, frowning. "Where in the world did Aiden and Lotte go off to? I saw her run back to camp... and I think I saw Aiden running, too...."
Lotte shakes her head and stutters, not quite calm herself. "I.... I guess it was Sol, but I don't know what happened."
Aiden looks a little shell-shocked. "That was the wierdest thing.."
Sol whines again, and dances backwards, agitated. He darts forward to grab Steven's pants leg and tug at him, trying to get him up and moving.
Steven blinks in surprise, but nods quickly, standing as best as he can. "Oh! Lead on, Sol, I'll be right behind!"
Willow says wide-eyed to both Lotte and Aiden, "You guess it was Sol? You were close to that thing?"
Aiden shrugs, "I don't know, Willow. No idea what it was, though it seemed to be coming from near Sol."
Lotte says, "No, I'm pretty sure it was Sol. He was making this awful noise... he must be really worried about Lua. Speaking of which, I found this hair on the way back to camp..."
Aiden digs out the little scrap of leather and holds it out to Lotte. "I found this.. Don't know what it is, though."
Willow says darkly, "He is a hound... you can't trust a hound." He leans over to look at Lotte's find. "Longer than Lua's hair, that is. Looks like an animal, maybe?"
Lotte says, "What kind of animal, Willow?"
Steven and Sol arrive in camp as the others are looking at their finds. Steven's arm is covered in blood, and Sol looks terribly, terribly guilty.
Aiden scowls at Willow's remarks about Sol.
Steven blinks. "Oh! There you guys are. Are you all right?"
Willow says, "I don't know... maybe Aiden would know, or Sol..." he eyes the returning greyhound with obvious misgivings, eyes wider yet at Steven's bloody arm.
Aiden looks up at Steven. "Yeah. Fine. We should get back to looking."
Lotte says, "Oh my gosh! What happened, Steven???"
Aiden says, "Steven.. You need some help bandaging that up?"
Penny straggles back into camp, puffing and breathing hard. He says, "I do... apologize.... for the my... lady crack... if that... was why you... dropped me," to Lotte.
Lotte says, "Sorry Penny! I certainly didn't mean to drop you." Lotte picks the ghuf back up and places him in his regular spot on her shoulder.
Penny grumbles "Quite all right, young bard"
Steven blinks to Aiden. "Uh... right. Let me just grab my old shirt, first." He goes to his pack, trying not to bleed on anything. "Huh? Oh, this! Nothing, really, it was my own fault. I'll be fine, it'll be fine, I think.... Oh, yes, please, Aiden, I'd appreciate it, if you can?"
Sol sits down, tail tight between his legs, and looks miserable... and very quiet.
Aiden goes over to Steven and helps him tie the shirt around the wound to stop the bleeding.
Lotte goes to comfort Sol. "Hey, it'll be ok. We'll find Lua, I promise." She goes to stroke between his ears.
Aiden goes to sit near Sol. "We really should go back to looking."
Steven lets out a breath, and smiles to Aiden as the man finishes the bandage. "Thanks. That feels better, now." He stands, stretching a little. "I think I'm ready to keep looking! Shall we?"
Lotte whips around to address Aiden. "That piece of leather you found. Maybe that belongs to Lua?"
Aiden blinks, "Oh. Right!" He holds the scrap of leather out to Sol. "Is this hers?"
Sol accepts Lotte's petting and Aiden's closeness, but looks no happier, til Lotte speaks and he jerks.
Lotte pulls the wisp of hair from her pocket and shows it to Sol. "Is this hers too?"
The greyhound sniffs the leather, and nods vigorously in the affirmative; rising, he tugs at Aiden's sleeve in a direction leading out of camp. His reaction to Lotte's hair is quite different; his hackles rise-- what there are, on a short-haired dog-- and he growls softly.
Aiden stands up and follows Sol immediately.
Steven blinks in surprise at Sol's reaction to the hair, and glances to Lotte. "That's not a good sign," he says, before following Sol and Aiden quickly .
Once Aiden is up and moving, Sol steps away and looks expectantly at him, then out into the woods, then at the leather... and does it again... he barks sharply, once.
Aiden nods at Sol. He walks back to where he found the little scrap of leather and points at the spot. "Right here."
Lotte flinches at Sol's reaction and nods to Steven. She then quickly follows Aiden and Sol into the woods.
The entire group, sans Willow and Lua, stands at the spot where Aiden found the scrap of leather that evidently did belong to Lua, for Soleil is casting back and forth across the ground frantically. He looks up, barks once as if in confirmation, and starts going deeper into the woods away from camp, as if he's found something.
Aiden follows Sol, as he's apparently picked up a trail of some sort.
The rest of the group follows.
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