Could this line go any slower? Moseke’s right boob, it’s too hot to be waiting in line. She was behind four other Sev’ryn and had been waiting for nearly ten bits. Dula was wearing her linen warm weather clothing with her pants rolled above her knees, boots in hand in line for some food at Insect Farm. Sweat poured off of every inch of her body and watching Teyga from her spot in line she felt awful for him as he diligently worked. It seemed to be one of those rare occasions someone asked him to cater as he was just finishing up wrapping a large amount of chocolate covered ants in wax paper. While his shop was shady enough it was still hot out as anything and had to be even moreso in front of those smokers.
Despite the heat and wait she was not going to budge, screw that. He was almost done anyway. She was here with a purpose, a craving, nay a NEED. After thirty-four restless trials she finally had a dream and that dream was of the most delicious, hugest, juicy, greasy smoked beetle she had ever tasted. In her dream the beetle was as large as her head and as she tore into it the juices ran from her chin. She ate like a heathen dog, taking in huge chunks and chewing like a wild woman. Being superstitious as it were and not wanting to miss out on possibly the best beetle she had ever eaten she was here in the heat rather than at the Tosibeere River like any other sane Sev’ryn. Foooooood.
After 5 more bits she was sweating not just from the heat but from the agitation of waiting. The line hadn’t budged one bit and she was getting pissed. Features in a hard set pout she moved out of line to see what Teyga was doing. There he was covered in sweat, sitting on a chair, panting like a dog, and fanning himself. She scowled at him, then the line, grumbling to herself about smoked beetles and the sun’s depravity but no one seemed to notice or care. As she began to turn and leave a Sev’ryn man came running into the scene.
“Ether-storm in the Makuwba Lori! Every tree has been torn to pieces!”
“Every tree?”
Dula blanched while blurting out her reply at the thought of the entire Lori’s trees being decimated. The man scrunched his nose and corrected himself while scratching his chin.
“Oh well no, not every tree. But everyone’s talking about it. The trees are weeping!”
Someone in the line piped up who seemed to know this man, they sounded tired.
“Matt’uya I know you’re just telling second hand tales. Stop lying.”
Matt’uya bounced up and down.
“I sweeear! I saw it myself. Just south of the Tosibeere is a patch of the weeping trees. Go look for yourself if you don’t believe me.”
The person in lined piped up again.
“Ha! Like I’m going to wander around the Lori on YOUR word. Matt’uya go make yourself useful and get Teyga some water, the poor man is working himself to death.”
But Dula believed Matt’uya and knew this was an opportunity to collect some weird ooze from the Lori. Who knows what it could be good for. With a sly smile she went to her house to collect her things.
At this point she had made it to the Tosibeere River and was taking a moment to wash the sweat off of herself in the waters. Many people had gathered here over the previous trials to stay cool in this overbearing heat. It was crowded, more crowded than she had ever seen it, with Sev’ryn and the other peoples of Desnind. There were tons of people cooling off and lounging around the river where it was nearest to Desnind’s walls and even some a little farther into the Makubwa Lori for privacy, sticking in groups. This is where Dula was, with a group of six people lounging and swimming in a deeper part of the Tosibeere.
As Dula checked her bag, making sure she had all of her affects, she was also eavesdropping on their conversation.
“So you really went and saw the weeping trees Ojun’wa?”
Asked a young human woman to a rather proud looking Sev’ryn man who stuck his chin out and flashed his teeth in reply.
“Oh yeah. You’d be surprised at what I saw there. There’s some creatures out there like I’ve never seen.”
Dula’s eyebrow shot up at this and she turned her head to listen, shrugging the bag on her shoulder and now sitting down by the bank. The bag held her three glass jars with the cork lids and her hunters knife inside of it. Tied to the outside of the bag was her 50 ft of rope and her water skin. She was ready to head out to into the Lori now but stayed where she was to listen to more of their conversation.
“What do you mean ‘creatures like you’ve never seen’? Like monsters?”
Came Dula in reply. All eyes were on her but Ojun’wa didn’t seem to pay any mind to her intrusion. He shrugged.
“Eh? No not monsters. The ether-storm must have changed some of the animals out there. Or, who knows. I didn’t stay long enough to find out, I’m not that dumb.”
Ojun’wa folded his muscular arms over his chest with his face set in indignation as if he wouldn’t budge on the matter. He was trying not to smile. The human prodded him further.
“Well what DID you see? C’mon tell us!”
A chorus of “yeah!” from the others and a playful splash towards Ojun’wa caused his composure to break. He took a conspirators tone and Dula leaned in further to hear him better from her spot on the bank.
“Okay, so. The trees are weeping this… golden liquid from the faces they have grown. Yes! Faces! Ohhh Moseke bless us it was a terrible sight to see. While a lot of the plant life was unchanged you could just feel something was off. Like if the color green was able to touch you, this is what it would feel like. And I don’t know what I saw in the swamp but when I had enough and was finally leaving there was this wet SLAP! followed by the strangest tail I have ever seen disappearing into the mire.”
He put his hands on his face in mock terror.
“It was horrible!”
They all laughed though it was true there was a sense of unease among all the listeners. Everyone was quiet after that.
This was all Dula needed to know. Getting up from her spot on the banks she tugged at her boots to make sure they were on tight, grabbed her staff, and disappeared into the forest.
The Sev’ryn named Ojun’wa was right. She could feel she was getting closer before she saw it. It was as if someone was watching her but she couldn’t see them. And she knew now what he meant by “it’s like being touched by the color green”. Everything had a sickly bright green sheen that almost sparkled in the light as she went deeper into the Lori. Her senses got steadily more uneasy as her fight or flight reaction was kicking into gear. A flash of purple followed by a gust of wind and a scream pierced the air in front of her. Flinching while throwing her arms and staff up in front of herself to guard from the incoming assault. It was a surprise to her when nothing else happened. Squinting one eye open and peeling her arms from her head she peeked up into the canopy on instinct.
Above her was the most curious bird she had ever seen. It was small, as big as her first, and plum purple with a headdress of golden-orange feathers protruding out in every direction. It’s tail was three times the length of its body and thin, ending in two small golden-orange circles at the very tip. The most striking part about it though would have to be its eyes. They were completely white save the pupil which was black and the eyes themselves were overly large. It seemed to be able to move them independently, giving it the appearance of googly eyes.
She gazed with a mouth agape at this creature she had never seen before here in the Lori. The man was right! The bird was cackling and waving its head, clearly laughing at her. Dula was no longer impressed with it at that point, agape mouth turning into a frown then giving the bird her most accusing scowl.
“Damn you! Stupid bird.”
She growled at it and picked up a rock and threw it, narrowly missing the beast. She would not be slighted by this alien! It finally stopped laughing, both of its colorless eyes were now fixed on her. At first it didn’t budge but then flew away. Narrowing her eyes at its departure, then nodding to herself in solidarity, she pressed on deeper into the forest.
The feeling of eyes being at her back didn’t cease as she delved further into the Lori. Dula was now nearly a full break south of Desnind and treading carefully. Being alone out here wasn’t usually so nerve wracking for her so she did her best to stay quiet. She wasn’t going to die out here today, that was a promise and a mantra she kept telling herself as a nervous sweat accumulated on her brow. Perhaps she should be focusing on stealth? It was common sense to make sure your steps avoided twigs and other brush to be as quiet as possible. With care and planning she took each step slow and made sure to step first with her toes, then rolled her foot to her heel to minimize noise. Using the staff as a walking stick and balance she was able to clear a stream and still remain quiet, vaulting over the stream and landing with grace that was unknown to her.
Mentally patting herself on the back she continued to watch her feet as she practiced sneaking away from the stream. This was a foolish mistake. As Dula had been watching her feet for the past twenty bits she had failed to remember the most important part of bushwhacking. Always be aware of your surroundings. Two more steps forward without watching and she was tangled in dark green vines covered in floral smelling pink slime. These vines were surely another product of the ether-storm. Dula’s first reaction was to panic as she struggled against the vines that clung to her hair, body, and arms wrapping their tendrils around her like a python. The more she writhed, smacked, and tugged herself in their grasp the more sticky slime covered vines coiled themselves around her. It also would appear the more she struggled more thick slime was produced as a whole. She was completely covered in pink goo which smelled to her almost like lilac. It took massive amounts of will power to calm herself but she focused on her breathing as the vines constricted around her torso and shoulders. She remembered something she had been taught from a Tey'droa long ago,
"Breathe in through the mouth, out through the nose. It will steady your heart."
After a few moments it would seem the pace the vines were twisting around her slowed to a crawl. Now it was time to get the HELL out of here! Why was she always so clumsy?
Last edited by Dula on Sun Jun 30, 2019 6:56 pm, edited 1 time in total. word count: 805
The vines continued their slow coil around her midsection and shoulders. Most of Dula’s struggling had been slapping the tendrils away from her arms and face, in the end she was successful so her arms were freed and nothing was choking her. Grunting and jerking hard on the straps she tried prying her backpack from her shoulders to get to her knife but of course, it was caught in the vines as well. Just as she had given up trying to get to the pack a vine wrapped itself around her staff and yanked it out of her hand, a thick trail of the pink goo hung in the air in the space between her hand and the stolen staff. As she stared in disbelief at her staff being torn away from her a huge glob of the pink goo glopped from a vine onto her face and slid down from her nose to her chin. She spit the goo away from her mouth sputtered out an exasperated,
“Moseke DAMMIT ALL!”
The vines were squeezing her midsection tighter now and she felt more vines wrapping around her legs. Looking back to her staff she saw it was now ascending further up into the air… and now so was she! The vines were beginning to creep upwards now that they had her in their grasp. Okay time to cut the shit. Literally. With an awkward maneuver, her arm being twisted behind her in a way that wasn’t natural or felt good at all, she tried unbuttoning her pack. The first few times her hands fumbled around the goo. The vines continued to pull her upwards, she was now dangling three and a half feet off of the ground. Her arm was burning with pain because of the angle it was bent but she finally was able to open her pack and grab the hunting knife out.
The vines were cut surprisingly easily. She started with her midsection and legs first, dropping her to the ground, then her shoulders last finally freeing herself from their disgusting grasp. With each cut the vines trembled as if in pain and recoiled upwards quickly away from her. Now freed she turned her attention to her prized possession. Luckily for her the staff was still within reach and with a goo covered arm she grabbed her staff by its end and yanked on it with all of her pissed off might. It was freed and the remaining vines slithered up the tree. They were finally gone.
Dula was trembling with rage. Her jaw was set, nostrils flaring, eyes wide and glazed from the encounter. There she stood sopping wet from head to toe in slime looking ready to scream or possibly cry. Unceremoniously she fumed while stomping back into the forest, the landscape now turning more into swamp, with a better eye for her surroundings, having duly learned her lesson of paying attention. After calming down she resumed her careful steps from before and this time kept an eye out for more of those vines or something else that may want to eat her.
Dula was now fully traveling in the swamp. There were more things here that had been changed by the ether-storm. Certain flowers growing she had never seen before, a few small insects. Everything was still ether touched, so colorful and beautiful with the entire rainbow displayed around her as a swamp meadow of flowers and butterflies. The air around her was wrapped in the last traces of the ether-storm almost like walking through a glittery, dust haze.
She was resting for a moment under a mossy tree by a deeper pool of water and had just finished bathing the last of the slime off of her person. While she was mostly unscathed from the encounter she did have some marks on her body. Where the vines wrapped themselves around her bare skin there were pink lines similar looking to burns or wind chaps. The skin there was dry, flaky, and hurt to scratch. It hurt to move her arms too much, the skin at the injury was tight and not wanting to budge but the pain was more uncomfortable than unbearable.
Was she ever going to find what she came here for? It was still hot in the Lori just like in Desnind but under the cover of so many trees and by the water now the air was muggy rather than dry. The glittery, flower speckled scene before her was lovely but not what she came for. Maybe the guy from the river really was lying. The half-sev’ryn look a swig out of her waterskin, head slumped in her hands. If anyone saw her she would look entirely defeated in this beautiful place.
Heaving a heavy sigh she kicked out her legs and leaned her head against the truck. It probably wouldn’t do to stay in this ether-fume for too long. She knew little about ether-storms but if the changes to all of the plant life and insects around here were enough to go by then she wasn’t going to stick around much longer. At her defeat a huge knot welled up in her chest, she wasted her time out here in the dangerous, ether soaked Lori for nothing.
With a heay heart she made the decision to try getting up. That was when a drip of sticky, warm liquid ran down her shoulder onto her arm. Her first reaction was to jump back and look into the canopy of the tree for more of those carnivorous vines, but what she saw in place of the vines was gold-- literally. Above her was a woman’s face screwed up in hideous laughter with golden, glistening sap dripping from the tree’s sneaky eyes. Dula was stunned. With a closer inspection of her surroundings she saw that hidden among knots and peeking through branches the weeping faces were in fact all around her. She could smell a scent similar to copper and realised it must be the golden ooze.
Unceremoniously she grinned wolfishly and threw her pack off of her shoulders, wrangling a jar out of the bag in a flurry of impatience and greed. Doing her best to keep the sap as clear and debris free as possible she put the jar right beneath the eye to catch it at the flow. It would do no good to her to have impurities in her new reagent as it was still unknown if this could even be cooked safely, in order to burn the impurities out. It flowed lazily out of the witches eyes like thick honey but after a few moments was filled up and she corked it shut. She was careful not to let any more drip on her clothes or her skin because the properties for this liquid were a mystery but couldn't resist giving the glass a kiss.
But it was true she could hardly contain herself and began dancing around the watering hole. Who knew what this stuff could do! It might make her rich!! Or powerful. Or famous? She was reeling at the possibilities this could mean for her. She gratefully put the jar back in her backpack and was about to pull out a second one when something fast flew by her head, screeching with laughter.
The air was still save for the occasional gust of ether-haze. Dula's eyes were looking up to the trees surrounding her but she wasn't moving a muscle. The tiny purple bird from before was back and had brought its friends. And family. And extended family. There were about forty of the fist sized birds all in the branches around her, shifting their feet, wide, staring googly eyes trained on her, feathers ruffled, leering. Her nose twitched, it was wanting to be scratched. But in her heart of hearts she knew if she moved at all these birds would descend on her.
A gust of purple ether blew up into her face. As unceremoniously as possible her chest started heaving, her nose twitched, her eyes closed tight and she let out a giant.... "AAAACHHOOO!!!"
All at once the birds started screaming and whooping with cackling laughter, flying helter-skelter from their roosts and heading straight for her. Dula was going to waste no more time gawking, with a sad last look at the trees she started off at a full run, the birds trialing close behind her.
As she ran through the Lori back to Desnind the birds pecked her, threw things at her, and mocked her. They did not stop their assault. With adrenaline coursing through her veins she dodged trees, leaped over streams, and avoided the sticky vines all the while being bombarded by tiny, angry birds. In the end she made it back to the Tosibeere, bruised, battered, and chest heaving from the run. The birds all lined up as if on the end of an invisible wall and made rude gestures at her, screamed, laughed, watching her slink away back to Desnind.
Your writing style is a welcome change. It's always refreshing to see different styles and subjects on display. It's been a while since I've seen Desnid, as well.
I can't think of anything to complain about. Your grammar and flow are great!
Dula
Rewards
Knowledges:
Sneak: Watch for twigs and dried leaves in a forest setting
Sneak: Step with your toes first, then lightly with your heel
Sneak: Take each step slow
Field Craft: Keeping an eye on your surroundings
Field Craft: breaking free from vines
Endurance: Breathing to calm yourself in a dangerous situation Loot:
A vial of golden, magic liquid Renown:
+5 EXP:
+10 Injuries:
Burns on arms from carnivorous vines; cuts, scrapes, and bruises from being attacked by ether-changed birds; and a head cold where she sneezes bright green and blue, thick snot out of her nose for 15 trials (getting better as the days go on) from being exposed to the ether.
Feedback
Understand that all criticisms are done in good faith. It would be a greater disrespect to not say anything in the face of problems. Please contact me through this account's inbox if you wish to further communicate on the matter of improvement, or if you feel as though anything is unduly harsh.
Player #2
Rewards
Knowledges: Wealth: Renown: EXP:
Feedback
Understand that all criticisms are done in good faith. It would be a greater disrespect to not say anything in the face of problems. Please contact me through this account's inbox if you wish to further communicate on the matter of improvement, or if you feel as though anything is unduly harsh.
