Solo The trouble with chances

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Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]

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The trouble with chances

Postby D'Varrus Tomva on May 15th, 2022, 12:24 am

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71st of Spring, 522 AV

It was approaching evening when D’Varrus left the Overwater Rancho in his jaguar form. Because he had a hard time seeing in broad daylight his schedule had typically was a nocturnal one while he caught his sleep from midmorning till late afternoon. It was not a great schedule for meeting people, but it was one he was comfortable with while he adjusted to this new lifestyle. This evening he had decided to go for a bit of exercise and do some running, one of the luxuries his freedom afforded him. An while he knew he needed to practice doing so in his human form, he couldn’t resist the urge to do so as a jaguar as it felt quite liberating to sprint down the beach.

So he did so, leaping off the dock of the Overwater Rancho before he took off down the beach. For legs that had previously been confined in a small cage for a long period of time the experience had been initially quite painful. Of course he had also been dealing with a wound on his flank at the time, but his exhaustion had been total when he had arrived at the edge of Syka. Now though after a few days of good meals and sleep he was feeling like he could do anything as he made loping strides along the water’s edge.

With no such wound to slow him down now, he could run as freely as he liked. As he did, he splayed his toes to get a good grip on the wet sand before springing off it to continue his momentum forward. Here the sand was cool, and packed under his feet which gave him plenty of speed as he made long strides. Still it wasn’t as fast as he could be, nor was it a pace he could easily maintain out of practice as he was and so he slowed down to a walk, panting hard.

As he did so he took a moment to look around, sniffing deeply at the air. There were the usual scents on the wind. The salty sea breeze. Seaweed that had been out in the sun all day. A hint of rain, and smoke, there was always that however faintly this close to the settlement. Occasionally it would also carry with it the smell of a pig cooking over a fire which is usually what he liked to check for. Although he knew that there were pigs up the beach from here, he found it hard to turn down an easy mean as much as he relished the idea of hunting them. However he had eaten a large meal right before going to bed around midmorning so maybe he could do with a little hunting. It could be part of his warm up.

Of course he didn’t run to the Swine swells. Instead he decided to walk it, conserving his energy until he needed it as he was wary about overly expending himself in this form. He had been inactive for a very long period of time in that ships, and his muscles were still unused to the strain of such activity so he took it slow up the beach.

WC - 534
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D'Varrus Tomva
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The trouble with chances

Postby D'Varrus Tomva on May 15th, 2022, 12:25 am

Image






It was approaching evening when D’Varrus left the Overwater Rancho in his jaguar form. Because he had a hard time seeing in broad daylight his schedule had typically was a nocturnal one while he caught his sleep from midmorning till late afternoon. It was not a great schedule for meeting people, but it was one he was comfortable with while he adjusted to this new lifestyle. This evening he had decided to go for a bit of exercise and do some running, one of the luxuries his freedom afforded him. An while he knew he needed to practice doing so in his human form, he couldn’t resist the urge to do so as a jaguar as it felt quite liberating to sprint down the beach.

So he did so, leaping off the dock of the Overwater Rancho before he took off down the beach. For legs that had previously been confined in a small cage for a long period of time the experience had been initially quite painful. Of course he had also been dealing with a wound on his flank at the time, but his exhaustion had been total when he had arrived at the edge of Syka. Now though after a few days of good meals and sleep he was feeling like he could do anything as he made loping strides along the water’s edge.

With no such wound to slow him down now, he could run as freely as he liked. As he did, he splayed his toes to get a good grip on the wet sand before springing off it to continue his momentum forward. Here the sand was cool, and packed under his feet which gave him plenty of speed as he made long strides. Still it wasn’t as fast as he could be, nor was it a pace he could easily maintain out of practice as he was and so he slowed down to a walk, panting hard.

As he did so he took a moment to look around, sniffing deeply at the air. There were the usual scents on the wind. The salty sea breeze. Seaweed that had been out in the sun all day. A hint of rain, and smoke, there was always that however faintly this close to the settlement. Occasionally it would also carry with it the smell of a pig cooking over a fire which is usually what he liked to check for. Although he knew that there were pigs up the beach from here, he found it hard to turn down an easy mean as much as he relished the idea of hunting them. However he had eaten a large meal right before going to bed around midmorning so maybe he could do with a little hunting. It could be part of his warm up.

Of course he didn’t run to the Swine swells. Instead he decided to walk it, conserving his energy until he needed it as he was wary about overly expending himself in this form. He had been inactive for a very long period of time in that ships, and his muscles were still unused to the strain of such activity so he took it slow up the beach.

WC - 516
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D'Varrus Tomva
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The trouble with chances

Postby D'Varrus Tomva on May 15th, 2022, 12:26 am

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It occurred to him that he hadn’t taken a good look at what pigs feet looked like yet, and so he couldn’t be sure if this track was theres. However he did have one tool for that, and that was his sense of smell. Taking a deep smell of the ground he couldn’t be completely sure a pig made it because there were other animal smells that lingered just around the ground here. However it did lead him to something he could confirm belonged to one of the pigs, or at least one of them had left it, and that was a small pile of dried dung that he found behind a bush a little further on.

Batting it slightly with his paw it didn’t feel warm so he gathered it wasn’t fresh, but beyond that he couldn’t tell much else from it. It seemed to be pretty dry, breaking apart in a spongy like texture on the inside with what looked like the broken pits of some fruit on the inside. He decided to move on, stalking forward with slow gradual steps that put him closer towards his prize. Just behind the lap of the waves he could hear a few pigs at least milling out on the beach and maybe one or two in the surf. Elsewhere he thought he heard some sleeping but it was hard to be sure with the foliage blocking his vision.

As he took a slow step forward, something cracked underneath his left paw, and D’Varrus froze keeping his body entirely still as he listened to see if anything had been alerted by that noise. Just ahead, he heard something get up onto its feet and snort at the air as it adjusted to a standing position. D’Varrus lowered his head, arching his shoulders as he coiled slightly backwards to build up his spring if he needed to. The animal snorted at the air again then let out a squeal as it started to take off through the jungle foliage.

D’Varrus sprung into action, moving to intercept the pig. With his positioning he had managed to get a good jump off, even managing to come out of the bush right on the pigs tail but it wasn’t a position that he was able to keep for long. The pig was far more agile than he was, and knew this foliage better. All it took was a couple of quick jukes into some particularly dense bushes to get him tangled up enough to lose his momentum and slow down until the pig was completely out of sight. Which left D’Varrus empty handed and panting loudly as he walked back towards where he heard the waves crashing onto the beach disappointed.

He really should have had that pig, but he had been in that cage for so long his reflexes weren’t where they should be. He needed to practice springing around a lot more in this form, and get better at ambushing his prey from now on.

WC - 502
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D'Varrus Tomva
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The trouble with chances

Postby D'Varrus Tomva on May 15th, 2022, 12:26 am

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His only consolation was that no one was around to see that. Or at least that was what he had been thinking when he picked up an odor that was slightly familiar to him. A human, but not quite. There was something musky about their odor that didn’t quite match up with what he knew to be a standard human. Reflexively he stopped walking and stood stock still the moment he caught the whiff because it was particularly strong. Stronger than it should be because he should have smelled it faintly far earlier than this.

As quietly as he could manage he took to sniffing the foliage around him until he found it, the source of the smell. A muddy hand print against the base of a tree. From there he crept along the underbrush, sniffing occasionally as he worked on keeping his steps even and slow as he slinked along. This time he kept a posture that would allow him to come to a full sprint easily if he needed to, or at least it would be easy if he had any practice with it. Hunched low with one leg always bent to spring off the ground, it was a pretty good way to start into a run but his agility wasn’t there. Nor was his reaction speed. If he was going to find out who this was, he needed to make sure they didn’t hear him coming in case they were not a Sykan.

It was a slim chance, but not impossible out here on the edge of the jungle where a boat could have rocked up onto the shore without him noticing. He really should have checked before going hunting, but that was something he would just have to remember if there was a next time. Right now he had to focus in to make sure he didn’t become the hunted.

The next source of the unfamiliar humans scent he found was a footprint a few ticks on that looked relatively recent. There was a crushed leaf that had been pushed into the earth with the step, and it was bleeding green ever so slightly. He might have missed that in his human form but in this form at that distance he could make it all out crystal clear. There was a creak about five feet in front of him that made his ears twitch up in alert as suddenly he induced a change.

Suddenly he was crouching on the jungle floor as naked as the day he was born. “Hello? Are you from Syka?” He called, his voice a lot more calm than he felt. His heart was hammering away as he slowly stood up, peering into the wilderness carefully.

There was another ominous creak from higher up in the canopy. D’Varrus shot a glance up to see a shadow slipping across the upper branches only to stand still when he eyed it. Because his eyes weren’t as good in this form, he could just barely make out their outline. It looked like they were holding a weapon at the ready.

WC - 515
Last edited by D'Varrus Tomva on May 16th, 2022, 8:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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D'Varrus Tomva
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The trouble with chances

Postby D'Varrus Tomva on May 15th, 2022, 12:38 am

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Ducking behind the trunk of the nearest tree, he pressed himself flat against it as his mind raced. He was prepared to shift back to his jaguar form and climb up this tree to get at them if he had to, though he had to try talking to them one more time before he could justify such an action. He felt sense of responsibility now with his new position, and was afraid this a confused Sykan that just hadn’t met him yet.

“Look. My name is D’Varrus Tomva. I have only recently come to Syka but I have met Norah, Matthias, Naadiya, and Shiress. Matthias recently offered me a position as a guard for the settlement which I have yet to take. I know of a man named Buraga who currently also holds such a position.” He said, rattling off everything that came to mind that would help whoever this was understand that he wasn’t just some interloper. Unless they were not Sykan.

D’Varrus gritted his teeth at such a thought. He’d killed before, but that didn’t mean he relished the opportunity to do so again. Not to mention he kept thinking of those signs he had seen around Syka about the curses that afflicted this population. What if whoever this was couldn’t understand the words he was speaking. Taking in a deep breath, he resolved to try a different tactic.

He came around the tree trunk with his arms raised, his hands splayed to hopefully show whoever was in the tree that he was no threat. It took him several moments to find them, but he found their outline against the slender trunk of one of the towering trees, crouched across one of its branches. They still held that weapon at the ready.

“I am unarmed, and certainly no threat to you up there in that tree.” D’Varrus announced in an even tone, and to his relief the wielder relaxed their draw on the bow string. He knew that because it made a very particular sound as the string relaxed. The quiet hiss of tension being released.

Then without saying anything the shadow started climbing down the tree after stowing their bow, taking their handholds expertly until they were down on the ground twenty feet in front of him. Closer now, he could make out more than just their outline. It was a woman with raven black hair and skin like pitch although he reckoned that wasn’t her natural skin tone because she reeked of the muddy earth which covered her exposed skin.

She was dressed in long, dark brown pants and a lighter tone brown shirt with long sleeves that ended at her gloved hands. Over her feet she wore dark leather boots, while over her shirt she wore a leather halter with various tools and implements attached. From his vantage he could also see the straps of a backpack that kept it attached tightly to her form.

The moment she reached the ground she had that bow back in her hand, and an arrow notched although she had yet to draw on the string. D’Varrus’s heart was still pounding but he managed an even smile.

WC - 528
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D'Varrus Tomva
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Posts: 65
Words: 87654
Joined roleplay: April 22nd, 2022, 2:17 pm
Race: Kelvic
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