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Bugghnrahk rolled 1 4-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-4)
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 Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:31 pm
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Scavenge was used to long days of travel, and the joy of finding something new kept his pace quick and steady. He travelled Westward at Kale Greenleaf’s command, stopping only to catch field mice or pick old corpses when his belly ached. Soon the unmistakable salt smell of sea found its way to him. Trees grew smaller and windblown, the ground turned rocky, and Scavenge wound out of a copse to face the splashing waves of shore.
He stood a moment, basking in the warm sun and gentle breeze, letting it tousle his scraggly fur. But just a moment. He had treasure to find, and that was Scavenge’s favorite thing, far beyond adventuring for the sake of travel. Nose low to the ground, Scavenge loped down the crest of the hillside toward the shore, eyes peeled for anything unusual.
Monsters. Scavenge’s childhood was filled with tales and legends, his parents were eager storytellers and he’d learned dozens of them as a pop. The details were lost now, he’d probably mixed the ends up of different tales, pasted himself or old friends as the heroes. He’d be hard pressed to tell one of them straight now, but half the fun of stories was how they changed, wasn’t it? Probably not when you were hunting monsters, he thought. Those details you’d want kept straight. What if you mixed up the location of one monster with how to defeat another? You’d go in armed with wren feathers and fairy mushrooms and get yourself squashed by the wrong beastie.
Greenleaf hadn’t told him to fight this long monster, just to find some evidence. Which was much more to Scavenge’s taste, anyway!
He paced the length of the shoreline, claws sinking into wet sand. Water sprayed up his hocks and brushed her fur until his coat clung with dampness and salt. The shore was quiet except the lapping water and the solemn cries of seabirds. He’d found an empty stretch of the beach to search all himself.
It would have been better with company, but solitude wasn’t a stranger.
Something oblong broke the line of water and weeds, caught against a pair of rocks. Scavenge’s ears perked and he took off at a race, clawing deep gouges in the sand. He stopped when he was almost on top of it, eyes wide and eager for his prize. His elation shattered when he saw it. A piece of wood! That wasn’t a clue at all. Scavenge nudged it free from the rocks, fighting - and losing - against his disappointment.
It splatted back in the water, face up, showing the intricate image of a long, angry squid.
Disappointment dashed and hope returned! Scavenge let out a whoop and pranced around the piece of wood. He shoved his nose against it, sniffing vociferously. Salt, ocean, fish, brine. Something deeply un-wolflike. Scavenge grabbed it by its middle and turned back toward the treeline.
This would do just fine! A hefty load to carry all the way back to the mountains, but Scavenge could pace himself out. Hopefully Greenleaf would be pleased with his find. |
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Pijrrh generated a random number between
1 and 4 ...
3!
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 7:12 pm
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Dreams of Amber Starlight padded softly along the path, growing ever closer to her destination. Her nose had told her some time ago that she was getting close to the vast pool of salt water and the breeze had started to pick up, invisible curls of wind tousling her fur with increasing frequency. The terrain subtly shifted under her paws as she traveled, from a well-packed trail of soil and roots, to clay and loose sand-filled dirt, and finally more and more sand than anything. Amber didn’t know how long she’d been traveling but the start of her travels were arduous until she got into the rhythm of her new adventure, and now days passed in a blur and she didn’t quite know how long she had been on the move. One thing she liked was how many novel things she was seeing, even just passing by them. Her head was filled with mental notes of places to return to and explore, things to see or taste or search for. Amber shook her head, bringing her thoughts back to the sand beneath her paws, the nearness of the sea evident in the air, humid and fishy and saline, with undercurrents of decaying seaweed and fish carcasses not yet picked clean by birds. As she rounded the corner, Amber spotted the water, and she slowed and then stopped, taking it in. She’d heard about the sea but never travelled this far so she could see it, and it was both majestic and terrifying. Her chest filled with air as she remembered to breathe again, humility and wonder flooding her body. She yipped happily and trotted toward the water, ready to dip her paws in the water and splash around, but just before the edge of the shoreline she remembered she was searching for a beast lurking in the waves. She considered not touching the water for a brief moment, but curiosity won out, and she traipsed through the very edge of the waves lapping at her paws, pushing her legs down harder than necessary to cause tiny splashes with every step. Her tail wagged as Amber dipped her head and nipped playfully at the water, the strange taste filling her mouth. She snorted, tossing her head and shoulders, gave a couple more splashes, and trotted up the beach a few steps just until she was just out of reach of the water. No sense in being careless and getting surprised by a beast she wasn’t entirely sure she believed even existed. Weeks of travel had softened the impact Kale Greenleaf’s story had made. Regardless, she’d made a commitment, and she intended to follow through. Amber looked around and picked a direction to travel. She’d walk the coast until she found something, even if it took her days or weeks of repeated searching. The water could wash evidence to shore at any time. But fate was on her side, and as afternoon faded into evening and then toward dusk, she spotted something waving in the water and went to inspect. A mottled orange and yellow chunk of hair floated there, waiting for her to find, skin still attached from whatever it had been ripped from. She shrugged, surprised to have found something that fit Kale’s parameters so quickly, but tossed it into the pouch she carried and went to find a place to sleep for the night before she began her long trek back in the morning.
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oo Ded rolled 1 4-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:21 pm
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’Travel to the West’
Journey had left as soon as their conversation had ended. Though it had been the middle of the night and she had been woken from a deep slumber to trek to the mountains and speak to the monster hunter, the she-wolf seemed energized and ready to embark on her quest. As she made her way down the snow-capped mountains and through the lands of the forest, her mind was enamoured with the possibilities. A different version of herself would have been enthralled by the lands around her as it shifted from winter to spring. Maybe she would have found some new friends to speak with, or chatted it up with the fledgeling families that grew with as the seasons changed.
She didn’t, though. Journey seemed, for once, tunnel visioned into her mission. Even when she took a rest, her wandering mind explored only the possibilities of what waited for her on the coast. She had been there before, here and there, and didn’t remember seeing signs of a giant monster. That was something that she would have remembered, right? Maybe it was going to be different, now. After all, she knew what she was looking for.
Well. She knew to at least look for… well. Something. Journey reassured herself that she’d know it when she saw it. When, she told herself, not if.
When the salty smell on the ocean air started to appear on the wind, Journey found herself hastening her pace. If she was fatigued from her travels, she didn’t look the park. She was probably tired. Hungry, too. Journey had been hyping herself up, though, all the while. Her mind was abuzz with the possibilities of what she might find when she arrived at the sea, and the excitement masked her fatigue like adrenaline hid the pain of wounds when fleeing from an attacker.
And when the dirt beneath her paws gave way to soft and shifting sand, it took everything in her power to keep from running to the shore with glee and frolicking in the waves. No, Journey instead walked with her head high as though proud of the task handed to her. She walked with high, almost prancing steps as she made her way to the water’s edge.
Kale’s words played through her head, as they had since she left the mountains. The beast was supposed to be twice as long as the shore, with a beak and many limbs, but no feathers or fur.
She thought of those words often, and tried to articulate in her mind what that creature was supposed to look like. A beak, like a bird, but no feathers? Limbs, but no fur? What was this creature supposed to look like, then? Scaled, maybe, like a fish? Certainly, if it lived in the sea. A turtle had a beak and limbs, she supposed, so maybe something like that? Trying to imagine a turtle large enough to stretch out to be twice as long as the shore was a daunting thought.
The she-wolf paced up and down the shore. Day turned into night, turned into day once more. She slept where the shore became land when she grew weary, waking as soon as she could to pace the shoreline once again. Part of her wanted to even dive into the sea and see if there was anything out farther away, but the task seemed too daunting (and besides, if there was something out there twice as long as she shore she didn’t really want to go swimming in its territory). Another part of her wanted to spend even more time out searching, but how long had it been since she had spoken with Kale? How long would he wait for her?
Her impatience came to a brim and she found herself frustrated. It was the sunset of her second day on the shore and she found herself looking out as the sun dipped down to the flat horizon of the ocean. She was just about to desperately dive into the sea when the setting of the sun cast a shadow from an object that she hadn’t seen. It was a tuft of hair, the same brilliant color as the setting sun. It was a color she hadn’t seen before.
She considered its strange color and the scalp it seemed to be attached to. Maybe Kale was missing some information? Maybe the creature had hair, after all. She felt, in her bones, that this was evidence. New evidence! New information!
Journey took the tuft of fur into her mouth, holding the piece of scalp gently by the hair as not to damage it, and turned back towards the mountains. The she-wolf had been so excited to travel to the shore, but she began her trek back to the Bluestones with an equal amount of anticipation.
It was time to hunt down the monster hunter.
(WC: 827) |
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FrostyPeaches rolled 1 4-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:27 pm
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Object List: 2. A two-foot-long piece of bone, with the very tip of it serrated. It looks almost like a porcupine quill and smells of raw fish.
x x x Fester felt the adrenaline surge throughout his body once more as he had ran from night fall until daybreak. He had completely accepted the challenge and was on a mission to find these mysterious beings but what frustrated him was after telling the stranger he's all in for this hunt, there was no sign of the Berserker anywhere!
The wolf was just relieved that he knew how to follow instructions well or else he'd be travelling for days without any sense of direction. He made a quick kill and just ate as fast as he could. To him it felt like at least half a day had passed on by before he finally made it to the West.
Quietly stepping out of the edge of the woods, his paws finally met the grainy sands and he could hear the sounds of waves. The sun was bright and blinding but he marched on.
Fester sniffed the ground to see if he could pick up scents of this so called warrior Kale but he could not smell anything except for the saltiness of the sea... He had been here before with his parents.......they taught him how to survive and swim after falling into the deep waters. It was an extraneous workout to figure out how to use all four of his limbs and try to keep himself calm without thinking about drowning and dying...BUT in the end, he had learned it and he was grateful for knowing how to swim. He focused back to his present thoughts back in the present time and noticed that he was smiling as he saw his own reflection in the water. He couldn't help but strike a paw down hard and watched the cold water splash out and about and all over him. He made a playful growl and splashed with both his front paws. This wolf was still young at heart and anything he could play with he will do it. As he played and hopped down along the shoreline, he was slowly approaching big slabs of marbled rocks that resembled a hidden den for animals to seek shelter.
The young wolf approached the rocky area with a lurking thought in mind of what was said last night. Find proof and return to me. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain… The den-like rocks peeked his interest so he went to sniff the place out. He dug around the outside searching for clues and found nothing. not even prints of any sort of animal or insects.
"Seems like noone was even here," he thought to himself. He peeked inside the den and wrinkled his nose. the first scent he picked up was a mix of revolting and musky air as he noticed green and white fuzzy mold growing all over one side of the rock. He'd hesitated at first, but dove in anyway with half his body. In there he found a 2-foot-long piece of bone, and the very tip of it was serrated. He looked puzzled and wondered if it was porcupine quill he's seeing or something else....? because the bone was laced with the smell of raw fish..... He did not want it and retreated out of the den, but, after pacing back and forth from walking away and coming back to it, he went back inside and picked it up in his mouth. UGH the taste is just so wrong.
Leaving the nifty hideout for good, Fester walked down the other side of the seashore to look for Kale. "It's probably bone from a dead fish" By now he had already forgotten about the foul taste as his own saliva had covered the bone...
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medigel rolled 1 4-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-4)
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:21 am
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4. A broken piece of plank which likely floated in upon the waves. Carved into it is the shape of a long and mean looking squid.
The conversation with his dad several nights before hadn't been encouraging. Having sought Melting Point out for advice had seemed like such a good idea at the time. He often boasted of his strength, his charm, his accomplishments...and he had brought mom and her brother into the pack as well. Ashen Snow had hoped maybe he would have a tip or trick to share before going on this adventure. Instead, he had gotten jabs and slights and a push to ignore the stranger, and Ash just couldn't understand why. Well, no, the suspicions he supposed he could understand: why trust a random wolf talking about fantasy things like they were real? But Melting Point didn't seem to trust his son to be anywhere as great as he was, and it hurt when that was all Ash wanted--just a modicum of respect.
Normally, this would be enough to cow Ashen Snow into forgetting about the berserker's offer entirely. Much as he wanted to be a hero, when danger called, he often found himself yellowbellied and wanting to run away. And yet somehow, he found himself waking at the crack of dawn anyway to venture forth. Spite? Not really. He still loved his dad and understood why he had reservations. But this felt different. This was the call to adventure he didn't want to ignore. Maybe this would just have to be his yearling journey condensed or something. He tried not to think too much about how he would be received on the way back.
Having never ventured outside of Hornfel Hollows before, Ashen Snow had gotten a little lost trying to find this fabled sea. Common sense told him to follow rivers where he could, and with Kale Greenleaf's advice to head west in mind, he eventually traveled far enough to see it: the great expanse of saltwater. The sound of the waves drowned out gull calls, and the smell hit him hard enough to wrinkle his nose. Things could live here? The sand was shoddy for standing on, the water smelled and tasted foul, and it was out in the middle of nowhere. He felt skeptical. A taste of the foam that has splashed up against his legs made him recoil, and then he shook himself. Curiosity later, search now.
Nervously he made his way along the shoreline, eyes darting every so often towards the deeper water in case something did poke its head out. How big had Greenleaf said it was again? Brr. But it wasn't any manner of animal that Ashen Snow found on the beach that day: instead, he came across a strange piece of wood. Investigating it, he saw that it had been carved into the shape of an even stranger creature he had never seen before, with boneless limbs numbering far more than made him comfortable and a strange thing like a beak for a mouth like the berserker had said. But why would it be carved into wood like that to begin with? A warning sign could have been planted here before, he supposed...Beware this freaky beast in the ocean!
Shivering again, he took the piece of wood and left the beach faster than he had arrived. Hopefully this would be evidence enough for Greenleaf, because Ashen Snow wasn't keen on returning so soon.
[ 550 ] |
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:03 am
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