I don't belong here (open)

by **Yuros** on June 1st, 2012, 10:30 pm

Flicking his hear, Yuros turned his head from side to side, taking in the expanse of white around the Huntress and himself. It was quiet here, a comforting, empty silence that filled the Kelvic with a sense of solitude that he had not felt in quite some time. At Alea's direction he turned his nose toward the rock formation, adopting a steady trot that brought them to the structure in only a few chimes.

The stones rose up before the two, just over the Kelvic's own head. Slowing his pace until he stood still before them, Yuros knelt down so that the Huntress could clamber from his back. Once she was safe on the ground he would stand once more, stretching his neck high and breathing out his nose. Turning his head to Alea, he would lean down so that they were on eye level, a question unspoken in his eyes, "Shall we bed here the night?"

by **Alea Davenport** on June 9th, 2012, 10:39 pm

Alea landed on her feet when she dismounted, but nearly fell over, making a face at how stiff her legs were. Making various grunting and groaning noises, she let her pack drop to the ground, shaking out her legs and stretching her cramped hands and arms. "Okay, you should find a comfortable place for us to sleep and make camp, and I'll go see if I can hunt up some firewood. I think I saw some trees not too far from here..."

After some searching, she managed to find a few dead branches, but not enough to burn for a whole night. It was going to be cold, and possibly dangerous, but Alea wasn't worried. She had Yuros to protect her. She made her way back to Yuros with her arms full of sticks, and she found a flat space on the rocky ground that was dry enough and fairly close to where they would be sleeping. She set the sticks in a pattern she remembered her father showing her once, long ago. Smallest twigs on the bottom, larger sticks surrounding it, but in a way that lets air through. A fire had to breathe, just like everything that was alive.

When her sticks were arranged, Alea dug the flint out of her pack. It took several chimes before she managed to make a spark land on the wood, much less ignite, but eventually she had a small blaze going. She blew gently on the flickering flame, keeping a close watch on it until it had caught the bigger sticks, despite her eagerness to get on with other aspects of the camp. For one thing, she was hungry, but at the same time, she was eager to take another look at her map.

Curiosity and excitement overcame hunger and practicality for the moment. She took her map out of the pack and spread it on the ground, within the light of the fire, but far enough away that an errant spark would not send it up in smoke.

"So when we left Avanthal, we were traveling in this direction, sort of east, but a little southish. So we should be somewhere along this line..." That didn't look right. There were features of the landscape that made no sense, more trees, fewer cliffs, a small river it looked like. None of that seemed like what she and Yuros had encountered on the way here. She looked toward the sun, which was just about to sink below the horizon. It has been on her right. She has to look at the picture of the compass that was helpfully displayed on the map to figure out what that meant, but... if the sun set in the west (she turned the map upside-down to put west on the right), they'd been going... "South! Yuros! You've been taking us the wrong way!"

by **Yuros** on July 7th, 2012, 5:32 am

As Alea moved to gather sticks for a fire, Yuros patiently dug a spot for himself and Alea in the snow with his hoof. He worked slowly, making a space large enough for him to lie down and for Alea to do whatever she wished. When she finally returned the Kelvic knelt and settled himself on the hard ground, pressing his back against the rock outcropping as he watched Alea in her work.

Though he had been with her for many suns now, Yuros still held much amazement for what the Huntress could do. With only a few sticks and a rock she created living light that danced before his eyes. Of course the Kelvic had seen fire before, but never had he witness its creation right before his eyes. Tilting his head Yuros' eyes followed the flicking flames while Alea spoke quietly to herself. Absently he noted that she referenced the strange marked paper, but this held his attention for only a moment before his eyes fell on the fire once more.

The stag looked up at the Huntress' loud call, tilting his head in confusion. Blinking slowly, the Kelvic seemed to say, Thats obvious isn't it?

by **Alea Davenport** on July 8th, 2012, 7:51 pm

Alea stared in exasperation at Yuros for some time. She debated asking him to change back so they could properly discuss what had happened... but Shifting tired him, and they were too far from the safety of Avanthal for her to want to risk him like that. It didn't matter at this point. There little map-reading adventure had gone to far awry. "We'll turn around tomorrow and go back to Avanthal. And next time, I'll make sure you understand where we're going before we get ourselves lost!"

With a sigh, she rolled up the map and put it away. Rooting through her pack, she found The rations she had brought along. Given that she was either too lazy or too terrible to cook, she grabbed some dried jerky for herself, and chewed on it while she found something for Yuros. He had been foraging for himself at various times throughout the day, but she still wanted to give him something that might taste better than whatever grew under the snow.

Still munching her jerky, she took a carrot over to Yuros and offered it to him, patting his nose. They enjoyed each others company for a little longer. When the only light around them was the crackling of the fire, she curled up in Yuros' flank, feeling almost warm for the first time on this journey, and slept.

by **Valkyrie** on July 11th, 2012, 12:22 am

Thread Award

Alea Davenport :

Yuros :

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