Completed Developing Bonds

[Rhydian Lamoze]

4th of Summer, 522 A.V.
Syka

From what the Eypharian had remembered from their conversation with Tazrae, back when Rhydian had first arrived within the settlement of Syka, one could theoretically win over one of the tamed Jungle Ixam that ran about the settlement via food. The reason that Rhydian had even begun to think about this fact was because of the ever growing family that he had been looking for. In his mind, even animals could be considered family to an extent. That and the fact that attempting to bond with a possible future pet/mount alongside the child that he had hoped to adopt someday had seemingly appealed to the older Eypharian.

It had been Rhydian's intent to wander about Syka and attempt to bond with one of the many Jungle Ixam that had been spread throughout the area. The only real issue that the Eypharian was running into at the moment was just what kind of food he should bring with him to try and coax the massive reptile. In a location such as Syka, it would have been quite simply to go and hunt for some kind of food that the creatures might like. They were natives to this land after all. Not wanting to have to spend too much time hunting and the likes though, so that he could make it back to Brea and Luke in a timely manner as he had promised, Rhydian was going to have to resort to acquiring the food in some other way.

The Protea Inn

After quite a bit of thought of how he should go about acquiring some food for the Jungle Ixam, Rhydian would eventually decide to just try and take some of the snacks that were laid out for him and the other guests of his temporary abode. From his understanding, Tazrae had often has cookies, brownies, scones, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and small finger sandwiches and snack foods set out and about for the guests of the inn. Given that he had already payed for his stay for the entirety of the season, Rhydian had figured that it would have been fine for him to take what had been offered without offering up any further compensation. All in all, after having traversed back to the Protea In, the Eypharian had been sure to snag an array of snacks for the road. For himself, Rhydian had been sure to grab a small coffee so that he could keep his energy flying high. As for the planned foods for the Jungle Ixam though, Rhydian had been sure to grab a handful of finger sandwiches and scones. They might not have been the kind of thing that one should even really be feeding to a Jungle Ixam... but Rhydian just wasn't sure what the actual food to give them had been so this would have to suffice.

Word Count: 471
Total Word Count: 471

[Rhydian Lamoze]

The Children's Pavilion

Now that Rhydian had managed to acquire a few food stuffs for the Jungle Ixam that they were hoping to encounter, the Eypharian had begun to make his way back towards The Children's Pavilion. It didn't take all that long for him to eventually get back to where it was that he had needed to be. Once there, he would meander about the pavilion until he would eventually come upon the two children that he had been seeking. Brea and Luke had been waiting in more or less the same spot that he had last left them in. It would seem that during all of that time, the two of them had been working on any assigned homework that Michaela had left behind for them.

Upon hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, Luke had been the first to turn around. A soft smile had begun to dawn upon the boys lips as one of his spare hands would reach out and lightly tug on one of Brea's sleeves. Having felt her sleeve being tugged upon, Brea would turn her attention towards Luke and would than follow his line of sight until her gaze had fallen upon the towering Eypharian from before. Even though the young girl still hadn't bee sure on how to feel about the man, she couldn't help but smile a bit upon seeing him. He was planning on speaking with Michaela and securing them some free time outside of the pavilion. What was usually spent just going about her daily life was hopefully going to become an event in which she could develop a bond with one of the famed Jungle Ixams. Up to this point, she had yet to really ever interact with too many of these Ixam so the prospect of developing a close bond with one of them had sounded utterly amazing to her. "You're back."

"That I am," the towering Eypharian would respond. "I've managed to secure some snacks and the likes so hopefully we can convince one of the Jungle Ixam to come close to us and interact with us as opposed to just sleeping away the day." All in all, Rhydian had a general plan of the things that he was hoping to do with the two children. After speaking with Michaela, Rhydian was hoping to take them down to the storm shelter in which these creatures had usually rested. Once there, he had intended on handing the kids a few of the finger foods and working alongside them to coax a Jungle Ixam to come and interact with him. The only real question was whether or not these kinds of things were actually going to happen.

Either way, the first step within this little plan of his was going to be to speak with Michaela about taking the kids out for a small trip. It would take several minutes for the trio to come upon the ghostly ex-headmistress. When the trio had managed to find her, she had currently been helping a few of the other children with their own daily activities. "Oh? Back so soon, Mr. Lamoze? Is everything alright?" Rather than beating around the bush, Rhydian would just jump right into things. He would go on to discuss with her his plans to escort the children around Syka in hopes of coaxing a Jungle Ixam into being their friend. The idea might not have sounded the most ideal at first but as he would speak with her on the matters of protecting the children at all costs and how it was that he had planned to coax these Jungle Ixam, the plan itself would begin to sound a bit better. "I suppose that it is alright if you take them out with you for the day. Just know that whatever happens out there to them, that their safety is on you. If anything happens to them..." The point that she had been trying to get across had been clear as day to the Eypharian and he would agree to ensure their safety no matter what had gotten in their way.

Word Count: 682
Total Word Count: 1,153

[Rhydian Lamoze]

TNow that the trio had been given permission to depart from The Children's Pavilion and to head on out towards the storm shelter, the three of them had decided that it would be best to move quickly. Each of them, especially Rhydian, had been excited in their own ways to be heading out to interact with one of these Jungle Ixam. If they had been able to develop a sturdy bond between themselves and the Jungle Ixam than they would have not only been able to secure themselves a mount but a friend. Once a tamed Jungle Ixam had found themselves placing their trust in their handler, a nigh unbreakable bond would be formed between the two. This was exactly the kind of thing that Rhydian had been looking for since he had come to this settlement. If he could start growing his family, by starting off with that of a Jungle Ixam, than he was sure that things would work out in the long run.

"Alright kids, I know that we are excited so.. Well, here!" The Eypharian would proceed to reach around into his backpack before producing several of the finger foods that he had taken from the Protea Inn. "Since I am sure that there will be multiple of these creatures within the storm shelter, I had figured that I might as well take the chance of ensuring that we each have a few portions of food on our own. They say that the best way to someone's heart is through a meal so I guess this is us putting this to the test." The Eypharian would find himself laughing to himself as he would speak about working his way through to someone's heart. He had already known that if someone on this island had decided to make him a meal to try and win him over, that he would quite easily give in to that.

"These... These finger foods aren't exactly the kind of thing that people tend to feed the Jungle Ixam, if I am not mistaken. I'm honestly not sure if this will even work but... Only one way to find out I guess." The words that Brea had spoken had held some serious truth behind them but that wasn't even something that Rhydian was hoping to consider at the moment. One way or another, he was going to try and develop this bond with one of these creatures.

As the trio had been making their way on over towards the storm shelter, the three of them would actually begin to hear the faint sounds of a screech coming from nearby. Curious as to what exactly had been causing this to be happening, the trio had decided to close the distance between themselves and the source of the sound. After following the source to a few bushes of shrubbery, Rhydian and the kids couldn't help but quirk a curious eyebrow. This wasn't exactly the place that they had been expecting to encounter the source of these sounds but there was nothing that they could really do... Not until they had discovered just what it was that had been emitting these shrieks.

After having moved a bit of the shrubbery from out of his way, Rhydian would come eye to eye with a one of a kind sight. Lying there beneath the shrubbery had been a surprisingly large baby Jungle Ixam! It had clearly just hatched from its egg considering the fact that the very egg in question was barely a foot away. Whether this was some kind of imprinting moment or not, Rhydian hadn't quite known. What he had known though was that this young Jungle Ixam was by far the most adorable thing that he had ever seen. The child had deep green scales with iridescent blue veins running all along the creatures body. "I.. this.. this is-" "Adorable," Brea would finish for the man.

Word Count: 652
Total Word Count: 1,805

[Rhydian Lamoze]

While he hadn't quite known what to feed a Jungle Ixam beforehand, he most certainly didn't know what to feed a baby one! Were they even okay to feed at such a young age? Honestly, Rhydian really didn't have an answer for this. Neither did Brea or Luke, unfortunately. "..do you think that we should try and find its family to bring it back to? There are so many Jungle Ixam that move about Syka that I honestly kind of feel like it could be any of them." In a moment of surprise, Brea would than turn her attention towards Rhydian and would look at him expectantly. Even if he was a newcomer to Syka, he was the primary adult within this situation. In times like this, children tended to look towards the adults for guidance... and that was something that Rhydian was just going to have to accept.

"M-me...? Oh. Well I suppose that this young one might be crying because its hungry. Part of me wants to go hunting real quick to gather some fish or something for the little one but I feel like it might be best to just give them what we have on us at the moment. Of course we are going to have to stay away from sweets, so only those little finger sandwiches and I suppose the scones should suffice." Rhydian would than reach back into his backpack before grabbing a hold of the few remaining bits of food stuff that he had brought with him and not given to the children yet. Slowly and carefully, Rhydian would reach down and begin to feed the the Jungle Ixam a few bits of the finger sandwiches. To no ones surprise, this young one had opted to leap upward to the best of its ability in this moment, so as to gobble down the finger sandwiches in practically one bite. "They are certainly a powerful eater for one so young."

The trio would begin to laugh to themselves a bit before each of the children would take turns feeding the young Jungle Ixam. As one person had been feeding the Jungle Ixam, the others had been doing their best to carefully and comfortably pet it, so as to soothe it in this moment. "I can't believe that I am even saying this but this... Spending time with you has actually been kind of fun thus far, Rhydian. I guess that we could maybe do it again sometime." While Brea might not have seemed too keen about spending time with another Eypharian up to this point, it would seem as though she was finally starting to come around to the idea of liking Rhydian. Luke on the other hand had held no reservations about spending time with Rhydian. He had seemed to have been enjoying himself and would even go as far as to give both Rhydian and Brea a dual thumbs up at the mention of spending more time with him again in the future.

The Children's Pavilion

Not wishing to leave the child behind, Rhydian had been sure to carefully lift the Jungle Ixam up into his arms and would than cradle it with his lowest set of arms. The trio would than make their way back to the children's pavilion for the time being. While they might not have been able to do what they had initially set out to do, they couldn't say that they didn't enjoy themselves. And who knows? If the powers that be are to allow for Rhydian to keep an ever watchful eye over this newborn Jungle Ixam than it was quite possible that the four of them were going to be interacting far more. "Kids, I'm sorry that I wasn't able to bring to the table everything that we had initially discussed but I hope that this much at least works for now. I promise to make it up to you soon. Thank you for spending the day with me today... Really looking forward to seeing you guys again tomorrow." Once the kids had been dropped back off at their respective rooms within the children's pavilion, Rhydian would begin to make his way back on out towards the Protea Inn. He wasn't sure if the baby Jungle Ixam was going to want to stay with him throughout the extent of this journey but there was honestly only one person that Rhydian had known would know what to do with this thing: Tazrae. If he could locate her before the child had run off, than perhaps they could figure something out here.

Word Count: 765
Total Word Count: 2,570

[Gossamer]

Grading!

Rhydian –

Planning +3, Socialization +4, Observation +5, Childcare +2, Animal Husbandry +2

Planning: Formulating A Way To Bond With Ixam, Storm Shelter: Location & Appearance, Ixam: Appearance & Mannerism, Ixam: Finding One Hatching, Childcare: Taking Orphans On A Trip, Animal Husbandry: Feeding Newly Hatched Ixam

Acquisition: A Newly Hatched Baby Jungle Ixam