Flashback Unruly Weeds (Phobius)

[Khara]

Khara looked away from the flower in her hand as Pho spoke, thinking over what he said. She didn't get to play a lot of games with the other Yasi when she was younger and they only had a few more years until they were considered adults and given their castes and pretty soon any one of them might get picked up as a proper apprentice. It seemed like the time for such things had passed her by, but now here was her friend, her new friend, saying it was perfectly okay to do those sorts of things still. Maybe it was one of those things that were considered making up for lost time.

They both did like being outside, it seemed. That was good, that meant they would be able to find things to do together a lot! But hide n' seek? Well...

"Maybe we can even start now, then?" Khara said, spinning the flower as she rolled the stem between her thumb and finger. "I mean, we can play hide n' seek with each other while we look for the flowers, can't we? If anything maybe it'll make us better at looking for stuff since we'll be learning how to look for each other too?"

The thought seemed good! Maybe hide n' seek was a perfect game to play! It could even each her a bit of how to find someone who was lost in the woods or maybe how to hide from a predator that was looking for you! It wasn't really what you were supposed to do when on a Bendi, but they weren't being watched and so long as they came back with the flowers they were supposed to... not that she could quite remember how many it was supposed to be... Ten, wasn't it? Either way, so long as they came back with the flowers with the white and blue to them then the Herbalist and her assistants wouldn't care what else they had done that day, would they?

Khara very much doubted they would. She knew she wouldn't. It was better that the Yasi made friends and had fun during their Bendi, anyway. It meant they wouldn't be so grumpy about doing things as she had to admit she had been a bit that morning. That had to be a good thing.

"You can hide first if you want!" She said with a grin. "I'll warn you now though, I was pretty good at the tracking classes so I think I'll find you real quick."

"Nari" | "Common"

[Phobius]

OOCI am SO sorry that this took this long, and...well, I don't really have a valid excuse. e___e

A game of hide n' go seek? Right now...? Phobius hadn't expected the girl to want to play any games...at least, not now, because they were doing their Bendi and still had some white flowers to find. But what she said made a lot of sense; they'd be more or less training themselves to be able to find stuff better, and if they became really skilled at being able to find each other in the skinny forest, how much harder would it be to find the rest of a bunch of non-moving plants? Plants couldn't hide—at least, not on purpose—and they couldn't pull their roots up from the ground and go moving to someplace else when someone got close to them. If they were lucky, maybe they'd come across a few flowers while they were looking for good hiding spots.

...how many more flowers did they need, again? He was holding two, and Khara had just found one...which made three. And the herbalist woman had wanted...eleven? Twelve? One of those numbers.

Khara probably remembers. If she doesn't, it'd probably be a good idea to just pick a bunch and bring them all back...that way, the lady can choose the flowers she likes the best.

It seemed decent enough, in his mind, but the boy decided to tell the girl about it once their game was over. She'd told him that he was allowed to go first, so he slipped his two flowers into his pocket and darted over the little stream, intent on delving deeper into the spindly forest's depths. That'd be where the best hiding spots were. "Don't forget to close your eyes and count!" Phobius called over his shoulder, his head vanishing behind a hill of grass as he half-slid, half-crept his way down the sloping forest floor. And once the ground had leveled out some more, he set out on his search.

There were plenty of options, but...at the same time, there really weren't. Lifting his head to stare up at the sparsely-clouded sky, Phobius' immediate urge was to climb a nearby tree; he considered himself to be a pretty good climber, and as long as Khara didn't look up, she wouldn't be able to find him. But the trees here were slim, and their branches didn't look like they'd be able to support his weight for very long, despite how light he was. If he fell, he'd hurt himself...not to mention that the noise would give his hiding spot away.

No trees, then...maybe it was a better idea to stick to the ground. Ditches and caves made great hiding spots, and the boy went wandering around in the hopes of finding some. After around a chime, however, he only managed to come across a few animal dens, some of which were occupied while the rest were much too small for him to fit inside of. And there wasn't enough snow around for him to burrow into.

Phobius frowned, and quickened his pace as he walked. If he spent too much time looking, Khara was sure to find him...

And then he spotted it. A low dip in the ground that looked like it led into a trench, of some sort. He rushed over and, without thinking about it, tucked himself in, almost yelping when his knees hit the cold, muddy bottom. A long time ago, it had probably been a river, but for now it was empty and served as his last hope. It'd been kinda hard to see from where he'd been standing, too; hopefully, it'd stay that way.

With a bit of a huff, Phobius pressed himself down until he was flat on his stomach, no longer minding the mud.

Now all he had to do was wait...


"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Khara]

oocNo worries! Totally know how that can be sometimes.

Khara only peeked a little, just enough to watch Pho head across the stream and call back to her to remember to count. After that she found the nearest tree and braced her arms against it and used it to cradle her head while she closed her eyes. Slowly she began counting, "One, Two, Three..." it continued but before long the girl realized she wasn't entirely sure what she could actually be counting to!

What was the number you were supposed to count to? Ten sounded like much too little, sixty to make a chime sounded not right either because it was a strange sort of number. Maybe one hundred? Yes, that sounded right and even if it wasn't she was sure that her bendi partner would forgive her if she told him she wasn't really used to playing games with the other Yasi.

"...Ninety-nine, one hundred!" Khara declared and spun away from the tree as she opened her eyes.

The area was scanned for any sign of the boy's brilliant red hair, as Khara figured that wound stand out the most and be easily seen, but there wasn't even a hinting of crimson in her view. Not to be deterred, she set out across the the small stream she had seen Phobius vanish beyond. Only a small pause was given at its banks before she spotted a small series of rocks that she used to hope across. Khara slipped, only once, but not too bad, only enough to cause a small splash that barely dampened the bottom hem of her bryda.

With the stream behind her, next came the question of where to start looking. Khara wasn't entirely sure where she would have tried to hide, but animals hid all the time from bigger animals or hunters so maybe it was good to start thinking like one of them. She thought about trying to see about any caves or tunnels but then thought better of it - bears lived in caves and it wasn't going to be good if they came across one of them.

Next the trees were considered; squirrels and raccoons climbed them so why couldn't a boy? She walked slowly around the base of a few of them, peering up into the branches beyond. Khara wasn't a very good climber herself but even still it didn't seem like there was anywhere to get a good grasp on some lower branches to help pull yourself up. A small huff left her as she found her hands settling on her hips as she had often seen one of their teachers do when they found something puzzling.

A glance was cast behind her, wondering if she was missing something that would help her find the other Yasi when she spotted a small series of indents in the soft soil that lead directly to where she was standing. A quick hop back left her with a grin as another pair of her own footprints made by her boots remained in place. She had said as much so why hadn't she thought of it before? All she had to do was find the prints that Phobius had left behind and they would lead her straight to him!

Of course, that did pose a bit of a problem of trying to figure out which were her footprints and which were his and what happened if Phobius walked lighter than her and didn't leave any at all? This seems kinda like cheating too, her thoughts chimed in and with a slump in her shoulders, Khara was inclined to agree. This was hide and seek, not hide and get tracked down.

Well, it couldn't hurt to look for boot prints to be sure she was at least heading in the right direction could it? As Khara set off again she continually looked behind bushes or around bigger rocks that she wasn't entirely certain that a boy could actually hide behind, but it was best to look anyway. There were some prints though, mostly older ones from animals but sometimes there was something that looked a lot like the ones she had left.

It was either by luck or pure accident however that Khara suddenly stumbled as she had been once more looking up into the trees. The ground had suddenly dipped downward and she had barely managed to stay to her feet, but still her boots met the bottom of the ditch with another splash, this time more than enough to send water and mud splattering over herself and - !

"Found you!" Khara exclaimed as she looked down to where Phobius had flattened himself to the ground. He may have already been muddy and wet from his hiding place but her unceremonious drop in hadn't really helped matters. She couldn't help but laugh though as she offered a hand to help him up. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to kinda fall in."

"Nari" | "Common"

[Phobius]

OOCAlrighty, let's do this! Err, again!

As time passed, the surrounding forest grew more and more quiet. Even the local birds seemed to have stopped chirping, and Phobius couldn't help but glance up at the trees, wondering if they had fallen silent because they'd noticed him.

Hopefully they wouldn't let Khara know where he was. He felt as though he had found a good hiding place; so good that the Inartan girl would have to look really, really hard in order to find him.

All of a sudden, something strange and worrying popped into Phobius' head. What if his hiding place was too good? What if the girl never found him? What if she spent bells searching every inch of the forest, only to give up when it seemed like he had gone and disappeared...? Or what if it got too late and one of the Chiet came looking for them? Worse yet, what if they couldn't find him, either? He would be stuck in his little ditch until Syna fell and the moon rose to take its place, but it'd be cold and dark and scary, and he'd be all alone and—

Lost in the gradually-worsening tumult of his mind, the boy didn't hear the approaching footsteps, nor did he realize that someone was headed toward him until a pair of shoes suddenly hit the ground beside him, splattering his fiery-red head of hair with mud and making him start, a little. Thankfully, the shoes belonged to Khara, and Phobius found himself smiling as he looked up at her from where he lay, admittedly happy that he had been found.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to kinda fall in," she said, laughing a bit as she held out a hand to him, and the boy didn't hesitate to take it, pulling himself up off of the ground. "That's okay. I was already dirty," he replied, still smiling. Then he glanced down at his shirt, tugging at the hem of it so that he could get a better look at just how dirty it had gotten. There were smudges of mud here and there, but it didn't really seem to bother him. He usually got all kinds of things on his clothes whenever he was outside, on account of how much he liked to sit and roll around.

"That was fast, though," Phobius continued, looking back up at her with an expression of awe on his face. "I thought I was gonna be down here for a whole lot longer. You're really good at finding stuff...but I guess that you kinda have to be when you're a hunter, huh? They go out and find stuff all the time."

He then paused, for a moment, before his smile widened. "And now you get to hide! How many numbers should I count...?"


"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.