[Hopetoun] Small Furry Dweebs

[Vega]

26th Cylus 721

Following: this thread with the following consequence:
Over time, word will spread of the new birds, especially etchwings. As word spreads, people will come to the area from other parts to find them. Hunters, sensing the challenge will start seeking them as trophies. Over time…

In the immediate term, however, word will somehow reach the denizens of Saoire’s Dream about these birds, and within a few trials some ever-curious cadouri will arrive to investigate. A few trials after that, some more cadouri will approach Hopetoun, worried for their friends and relatives who have not yet returned nor been heard from since their excursion in search of etchwings.

Vega was sitting, chatting to her friend Escher and sipping a cup of tea. She felt sick, again, and she was getting more and more concerned about this sickness she was feeling. But, she didn't bother Arlo with it until she knew for sure, because they'd both been in this situation before and she didn't want to make it any bigger than it was, so she sipped her tea and put it out of her mind.

As she heard a noise, Vega looked up sharply and recognised that there were four cadouri walking up. "Wotcha," Vega said and stood. "What's wrong?" The second, she asked because they looked so concerned. The tallest of the cadouri - a male dog-cadouri - spoke. "I am Yalane. We're looking for the people who know about the.. I believe they're called etchwings?" Vega nodded. "That's me, yes. What's the matter?" They'd fed the etchwing meat to people, she thought. What if they were poisonous? But then, if that was the issue, Vega thought, they wouldn't be coming here. So, she listened.

"We heard about them," another of the cadouri said. Vega looked at him - an otter in a hat - and she raised an eyebrow. But she didn't speak. If she'd spoken, after all, she'd have said 'bloody hell, a talkin' otter' and he already knew that about himself. She could have gone with 'you lot are my first cadouri, I've jus' heard about you but I was half believin' that folks were jus' hallucinatin'', but she figured that was equally unnecessary. So, she was quiet. "And," the talking otter continued, "three of our number decided to delight Saoire with this new information! So they went hunting."

Vega was starting to get a sinking feeling about this. "And they haven't come back," the talking otter said. "They were supposed to come back that night, but they didn't. And then they didn't come back the night after, either." He looked at Vega and sighed. Possibly, Vega thought, in the way that only a talking otter could. "And we heard that someone here discovered it, and thought that maybe there would be someone here who would help us!"

With a sigh, Vega gave in to the inevitable. "I'll help you," she said. Her eyes widened as the small creature flung himself at her and hugged her. The fact that he was probably two foot tall if he stood on tiptoe meant that he was hugging her leg and Vega looked down in some surprise. "I'll help you. Gerroff." She looked at Escher with an expression of almost-fear. Her friend smiled, then offered to do the thing she was about to ask. "I'll go and let Lars know?" Vega nodded. "Alrigh' so, sit down an' tell me - will you gerroff me, please? - Sit down, an' tell me about it" The middle bit, of course, was to the still-hugging otter and his buddy, the small squirrel who had joined in.

"Well!" The otter spoke first. "Let me introduce us! I am Orville. This is Steve." Vega blinked. "Steve?" Orville nodded. Vega looked, suspiciously, at her tea. Was this in fact dodgy tea. "This," the otter continued, "is Tah'an," the final cadouri was a cat. "And you know Yalane. We've come from Saoire's Dream," Vega nodded. "Our friends are out there, and we are so worried." Although it was Orville who spoke, Steve nodded in agreement. Vega tried to not get caught up in the cute and furry nature of the cadouri and to maintain her strict and stern and largely grumpy exterior demeanour. But, a small smile crossed her face as she remembered that Arlo had once been transformed into a raccoon and how, in fact, if she scratched him behind the ear in just the right spot.....

"What were they wearin', an' how skilled are they?" Remembering the foot-thumping wasn't going to work for anyone, and she just knew that she was going to help so, Vega figured, she might as well get on with it.

[Vega]

26th Cylus 721

"Please, jus' tell me the basics?"

Those were the words she finally managed to get out roughly one-tenth of the way through Orville's answer. Vincent, apparently, had been wearing a chartreuse muffler with a flat cap, always at a jaunty angle and the description from the otter was - frankly - so totally overboard that Vega had trouble following. "Jus' tell me, how tall they are, what sort of animal-species they look like, an' what they were wearin'. Please?" Escher had come back and so they could go as soon as they had some idea.

"Well, Harold is a guinea-pig, Winston a hedgehog and Vincent is a vole."

Vega looked at Orville with an expression of worry on her face. "A vole?" Orville nodded. "Alright. I need to get goin'. You told Lars?" That, she said to Escher and the man nodded, just as Lars walked in to the camp. "Right. You all, you need to go with this man, Lars. He'll get you a hot drink an' stuff. I'm goin' to take my friend, here, Escher, an' we're goin' to find your friends." Or their corpses, Vega thought but did not say. She made sure that the cadouri were safely in Lars' care, she turned to Escher, checked that he had everything, and then they started to walk out.

Out of Hopetoun and out to the woodlands where she and Lars had originally gone hunting. Taking into account the fact that cadouri were - or looked like - small creatures and specifically small creatures with sharp hearing, Vega waited until she was sure that they were well out of earshot before speaking to Escher. "When I took Lars out, I showed him how to attract the etchwing. They're well hard to spot, an' it seems really tricky. So, I had noticed that they're keen on voles an' suggested that the way to hunt them was to get them to swoop down an' snag a vole." Escher sighed.

"So, we need to do this an' we need to do it quick. Orville reckoned that they were wearin' shoes, so we're goin' to be lookin' for those tracks." Escher nodded and asked a question in his usual soft and calm voice. "What are the chances, do you think?" Vega shook her head and then, shot him a grin. "Escher, we've been friends for what, three arcs now?" He nodded. "An' in that time, you an' I have gotten to know each other quite well. The chances aren't chances. They're certainties. We are gonna succeed, they're goin' to be alrigh'. I don't know how, an' I know that it might already be too late, but I have to believe that there's a chance, you know?" He nodded and smiled and Vega smiled back at him.

"Ok, we need to circle around an' go to the school, where they started out from. Then, we need to pick up their tracks. After that, then, we follow them." Escher nodded. "The small shoes will help?" Vega shrugged slightly. "After a point, yeah. But until then - there's a whole bunch of small feet." Glancing at Escher she grinned. "An' hats at a jaunty angle, too."

Escher smiled and they made their way, in silence, in the direction of Saoire's school.

[Vega]

26th Cylus 721

"Oh, this is great," Vega said drily. Looking down at the ground, she gestured to Escher. "There are roughly fifty seven million cadouri an' they were all jumpin' here. Jumpin' an' dancin' an' shoppin'. Ziell's zits, what do they do here?" She sighed slightly, and then, Vega frowned and looked at Escher with an incredulous expression. "Knickers, but they were, actually, dancin'." Kneeling down, she examined the tracks carefully. The cadouri walked a specific way, and she could see when they danced. There was so much dancing here, so much joy. But what she was looking for was not dancing.

What Vega was searching for was determination. Focus. Decisiveness.

Purpose.

Vega knew that the way people moved when they were going somewhere, doing something, was different than when they were dancing. And, the more important something was, the more decisive and purposeful they were. This left different footprints, pressure was put in different places. There were a few examples of this , but thankfully they were all in the same direction. "This way, it's this way," Vega said and Escher moved with her. The small footprints largely kept going in the same direction, although one set doubled back. Vega was moderately clear that they couldn't have been the ones who did that, besides they knew there were three of them.

Each set of footsteps went in that direction and, as they moved forward Vega and Escher moved quite slowly, Vega focusing on making sure that she was absolutely sure. Until she got to a specific point and, at that point, she sighed. "An' we have an issue." Vega said. Esher raised an eyebrow. "We need to follow the purposeful, not dancin' steps. In a group of three. But look." She gestured to the ground and she sighed. "This set of three, they're perfect. Makin' their way that way." She pointed to the East. But then, she turned her attention back to the ground. "An' then there's this group of three. An' they, of course, because the Immortals are havin' a giraffe, are jus' as good, an' they're goin' in the other direction." To the West.

Vega sighed. "Three. They look the same. Damnit." Looking at the ground there was literally no way that Vega could tell the difference between the two groups consisting of three cadouri each. "We have to go on more than the prints," she said, thinking. Then, she stood, and she looked. "It's this one," she said. Escher raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

Vega grinned. "That way is the way to Hopetoun," she said. More or less in the middle of the two. It didn't help. "But only this set is the one which is walkin' inland from Hopetoun." She smiled. "It's this one."

"Are you sure?"

"No," Vega said. Then, she smiled. "But yes. Yes, I'm sure. We're gonna find this cadouri an' I'm goin' to learn something vital." Escher looked at her and asked, with genuine confusion on his face. "What?"

"What the bloody hell chartreuse is," she said. "Now, come on. We're goin' this way."

[Doran]

Vega:

Knowledge:
Detection: Exploring tracks
Hunting: Know which size of track you're looking for.
Hunting: Footwear is an important consideration when tracking
Hunting: Start where you know the tracks begin
Hunting: Different kinds of movements have different kinds of tracks
Hunting: Sometimes, hunting is about decision-making, not tracks.

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

- - -

Comments: Poor Vega! Did she experience morning sickness at the beginning of this thread?

I was amused when the otter Cadouri approached Vega, and she didn’t speak because she’d have said “bloody hell, a talking otter” otherwise. He does indeed already know that about himself!

I liked that bit of lightheartedness in an otherwise serious thread. You portrayed the Cadouri very well in my opinion. Hugging someone’s leg seems like something they would do!

I remember that Vega doesn’t do hugging or anything like that from the last thread that I reviewed, by the way!

I was quite impressed with the way Vega started her investigation, by examining the Cadouri’s tracks, and how you described her thoughts in that regard. Hopefully, Vega and Escher will find the Cadouri that haven’t come back from their hunting trip – and find them alive.

Now I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Vega had given in and scratched that Cadouri behind the ear though, and if she will eventually learn what chartreuse is!

Enjoy your rewards!