Solo Bear Down

[Lu Gavima]

6th of Fall, AV 512

Lu stood on a small knoll above the edge of the treeline, his eyes watching the skies. Dark, pensive clouds rolled over the peaks, their sharp points threatening to tear the sky open and douse him and the workers with rain. His duty on that day was simple enough; he was to monitor and guard a group of laborers who were cutting firewood for the city. Many who arrived at Lhavit with no skills were often put into these kinds of work groups until some particular trade emerged, in which they would be moved off to a more specific task. Had the work been done inside the walls, there would be no need for a guard. However, with Winter approaching, labor was as necessary as the wood being gathered. Few traversed the winding paths to the Star City when the trail was covered in ice and snow.

He could hear the steady cacophony of dull chopping and voices chattering. He watched as the top of a tree came down, disappearing from the canopy and hearing it land with a soft thud. His eyes soon returned to the skies as a stiff, humid wind blew down from higher up. His ears returned his attention to the treeline, as a group of seven men emerged, bundles of wood on their backs. Ten went into the woods initially. He nodded to the men as they passed on their way back to Lhavit. The last stopped short, when Lu waved him over. "Where are the others?", he asked of the older man before him. The laborer wore a look of disgust and waved backward. "Those guys aren't fit for layin' brick." Lu grinned, but his sense of duty guided him.

"Wait. All of you. Unburden yourselves and take shelter near the rocks. It may rain soon. I must gather the others before we return." The men seemed happy to do so, though their respect for the Shinya seemed to fall a little short of their disdain for being told what to do by a teenager. At least their faces told that story. Lu began to navigate the small hill as he entered the forest, the wind fluttering over the grasses. The trail was easy to follow as the workers had merely stomped through the underbrush, probably using their cutting implements to blaze the jagged trail. The air was even cooler beneath the canopy, with no purchase for Syna's grasp.

He soon found the clearing where the men had been working, stripped logs lying near each other and plenty of sawdust littering the forest floor. Behind the logs, he heard some chuckling, his natural awareness scanning the area around him. The Peaks were no place for play. Approaching the scene, he first saw a few pair of bare feet jutting out from the apparent makeshift seating. The older man before seemed to have accurately described these three, as they drank from a canteen. Judging from the smell and their happiness, he guessed it wasn't water. "Hey! What are you doing!" His voice boomed with the authority that had been barked at other miscreants in his few seasons as Shinya.

The three jumped and scrambled as if lightning had hit their behinds. Once they stood and saw the young Shinya's inquisitve face, they seemed to relax. Lu had a particular peeve about that. His Brothers and Sisters never took him for granted, nor did the locals. Transient laborers and other out-of-towners often believed he was just some young kid who was a gopher for real warriors. He would hate to have to instruct them in their ignorance. "Hey, we have worked plenty. We were just having a little sip before we got everything together..", the apparent speaker of the group blathered. He was maybe in his twenties, long dark hair hanging over his shoulders. The other two looked as if they may be brothers, both fair skinned and haired. One of the twins offered him the canteen. "want some, boy?" His brother snickered. Lu's face remained as stony as the peaks which loomed above the forest.

"Do you know where lazy drunks live in Lhavit?" Lu's eyebrows raised as his disgust remained reined in. "Nowhere. Now gather your tools and the rest of this wood. There is a storm coming and I would like to be back before it starts." Perhaps it was the presence of the Shinya in general that moved them, though Lu suspected it was the memories of larger and more threatening looking ones in town that inspired their compliance. Sure, there were some mutters under their breaths, but that is where they remained.

[Lu Gavima]

Lu assisted the brothers with their bundles, tightening the ropes with perhaps too much gusto, considering their grunts of dissent. he instructed them to join the others at the outcropping while he gathered the tools with their mouthy friend. Mouthy friend seemed fine with that, as he was happy to have another seat and another drink. He laughed and waved off his friends, though the smile quickly eroded once it was just he and Lu in the clearing.

Lu was collecting the saws and axes, packing them into the basket. He didn't make eye contact with Mouthy, suspecting he was just looking for an excuse to act like a big shot. " You mind getting the rest of the tools? We will come back for the rest of this tomorrow." A belch erupted in his direction as he noticed the man standing out of the corner of his eye. He put the lid on it and stood as well, waiting to hear it. "Yeah, kid, as a matter of fact, I do mind. Who do you think you are, giving orders? And making me look like a fool in front of my friends?" Lu's attention was on the other axe, which Mouthy was gripping in a sweaty palm. He remained calm, though he was in the process of tying his right wrist to his side with his left hand, small strings on the side of his pants offering the binding. A practiced thing, it took only a few moments.

While doing so, he kicked the lid off of the basket, his eyes occasionally shooting to Mouthy. " Oh, good. You have the other axe. You mind putting it in the basket, please?" His ignoring of the man's questions seemed to anger the drunk worker. With his arm secured, its astral counterpart was in the process of working free, invisible fingers already wiggling loose of their fleshy home. Mouthy swayed slightly on his feet, as if he were very light and the breeze had him. Lu asked again nicely, his astral arm already free at the elbow. "Please? We don't have time for this." His tolerance for bravado and sloth combined in this person was wearing thin on his nerves. Even the most practiced meditator had fuses. Lu could see his ghostly cerulean arm before him now. He didn't think he could grab the axe; failing could irritate the situation. Fortunately, Mouthy walked over and nonchalantly dropped the axe in the basket, a snort of indingation blasting from his nostrils.

And then he kept walking? No, no.

"Wait a minute! You are carrying this basket of tools back. You don't get paid for a day's labor and act in this manner. Everyone else is carrying their load. You will too!" He could feel the phantom sensation of his forearm flexing, though it actually wasn't. No such thing as astral muscles. Mouthy turned on his heel to say something, but didn't. Perhaps Lu's presence was intimdiating, after all. His face didn't fit the situation, though. It was an odd mix of surprise..and fear? Lu hadn't jumped out of the bushes at him, but the man seemed to have that very look. The paling color of his face was visible in the ..growing darkness? Mouthy's footsteps could be heard tearing back through the path as Lu turned. There was a new addition to the clearing.

A very.

Large.

[Lu Gavima]

"BEEEEEAAARRR!!!!"

Mouthy's screams could be heard as he became a fleeting memory. The here and now was much more important to Lu, the great brown beast's front paws on the logs before him. Lu was looking directly at its underbelly, its head a good couple of feet above him with the logs beneath it. Even without it, the bear's head was as easily as large as the basket. And then came the roar. It reverberated through the clearing and Lu's body. Maybe the valley. The young Shinya's attention traveled over its claws, teeth and muscles. He was severely outclassed. His eyes scanned the area around him. Which way to go? When? A snort from the bear was visible in the cooling air.

Instinct was quickly winning over his logic. Besides, he was not going to run toward the workers. He had no intention of attacking this beast, it was only doing its natural thing. He also had no intention of being hibernation fuel. He stepped backward slowly, his eyes remaining on the creature's own. A few steps and the basket was next to him, the group of tools gleaming. It was a thought, but a foolish and brief one. Scare it? A diversion was the only thing that would give him the few precious seconds of head start he needed. His projected arm moved in a burst, pushing the basket over, its metallic contents spilling out with a racket. Since it seemed to do so on its own, the bear backed down, sniffing and staring toward the basket. Lu didn't wait for another window, a burst of flesh in the opposite direction moving him through the woods.

A roar behind him was enough to put extra muscle into his legs, his eyes not daring to look back. There were plenty of fallen logs, wet leaves and brambles to avoid. The robes of the Shinya were graceful inside skyglass, out here they were magnets for everything to try to snag on to. Lu kept his breathing short and controlled, in through his nostrils out through his mouth, as he hoped he was putting a gap between them. He knew he had to retract his arm, but he could not risk snapping it back hastily. He would need it to be as capable as the other one. The terrain was rising slowly as he moved in toward the base of the peaks. He could see a break in the trees ahead, hoping it might give him a vantage and breather to recoup. Syna's grace touched the rising grass before him, illuminating the space ahead. He thanked Her wordlessly as his thighs burned in the climb.

Reaching this plateau, Lu stopped, his breathing hard and his sweat streaming. Finally turning, he was relieved to see nothing behind him. His senses were still on high alert, however, so he worked on pushing his arm back into place. His left arm's fingers massaged the right arm's bicep until he could feel the sensation, his eyes watching the aura slide back into place. He gave it as much attention as he could afford, his breathing slowing as he looked around. The small hill he was on continued to climb, though it was a good half a mile before he would reach the rocky base of the mountains. His fingers were now aiding the elbow into place, his eyes turning again to the treeline. His ears turning to the treeline.

[Lu Gavima]

Silence.

It was unnerving, Lu's breath slowing out of discipline,sweat streaming over his body. The beast wasn't scared. Maybe it lost interest? It was both irrelevant and fortunate, thought the young Shinya. Feeling his elbow in place, his attention turned to his forearm. As he turned to walk back toward the workers, his previous attentions were too split for him to notice that he was standing on the steep bank of a creek.

Was.

Now he was falling. His instinct to reach out was twice tethered by the fact that his forearm of flesh was useless at the moment. Compounding the problem was the protective measure of the cloth strip tied to his wrist. Fear reminded him of the sick crack of his arm breaking on the roads below Lhavit. Not again, he thought. Using his useful elbow of the half projected arm to push out, each time the other arm touched earth, he pushed off, forcing his body down the bank.

Landing with a splash into icy cold water, his senses sharpened with the shock of the frigid fluid. Fortunately, it was only a few feet deep, his legs pushing him back to the bank. His arm was numb, but Lu couldn't tell if it was back and the water caused it or it had been pulled back too quickly out of instinct. First things first, he untied the arm from the binding on his pants leg. Holding both arms up, he focused on the aura surrounding the numb one, analyzing it to find where he was projected at. Rotating his elbows worked well, his wrists showed delay in the one of question. He could see that his hand had not reattached, meaning that the numbing feeling was due to an instinctive pull combined with the water.

Pushing back into the steep bank with his elbows, Lu stood up, trying to stay dry. He would have to reattach his hand fully before attempting to climb out, as the closest slope was farther downstream. Upstream was pointless,as it climbed up into the mountains. Cold water engulfed his shins as he attempted to quiet his mind, focusing on the sound of the creek and the reflections of sunlight across its choppy surface. As his attention became fixed, Lu could see the previous blur of fingers clear and hone in. He worked each digit back into its socket. Once he was satisfied with the reunion of astral and corporeal, he allowed his attention to return fully.

Rotating his elbows and wrists, flexing and folding fingers, Lu looked downstream,ready to find a way out and back to his post. The only obstacle? The bear, sniffing at the water's edge some hundred paces away. The bear did not have to concern itself with Projection, so its attention was clearly focused on the previous aggressor, now trapped.

[Lu Gavima]

Lu did not want to stare the great brown beast down, but he did not take his eyes off of it, short of scanning the best escape route. The bank was gradually more gentle downstream. Climbing where he had rolled in was too risky, as falling prone could be fatal in this case. he would have to get past the bear and he had no intention of hurting it. Slowly sidestepping through the water, he moved through the water to the other bank. The creek was only five feet across, though, opening wider only within striking distance of the animal.

As the gap closed, Lu stopped abruptly as the bear began to grunt and slap at the water with his large paws. The message was not lost on the Shinya, who was making decisions quickly. Lu looked at the bank and his instincts kicked in. Indecision was a fatal flaw in a city like Lhavit, with its certain deadfalls. The bear sensed the coming explosion as well, his body tensed for a charge. And so it was. Feet pushed Lu downstream as he pushed himself hard toward the far slope, the bear's great mass surprisingly nimble as it rushed in a beeline toward its prey.

He had to think of the creature as an opponent. It wasn't really thinking, however. His body and mind worked in symbiosis, a byproduct of the rigorous training of the Shinya. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as they came close to each other. Lu jumped toward the bank for extra leverage, pushing his body horizontally over the back of the bear. He could feel the wind and hear the sharp clacking sound of the bear's jaws just past his ankle. The creature's strength and mass gave it no quarter to go for a second bite, its momentum throwing it into the water. Lu took no chances this time, sprinting through the fields as soon as his feet found level purchase. He didn't care to look back, he only wanted to put as much distance between them as possible.

He might have very well run all the way home had it not been for Mouthy. "Hey! Where ya goin?!", the cranky man hollered. Lu stopped himself,breathing hard and rapid, his head finally turning back to see nothing but forest, a welcome sight. he took a moment as the workers started complaining and laughing, a raucous blend that only worked Lu's nerves further. "The bear and I had a disagreement." Lu said nothing else about it, his patience for the undisciplined laborers at its end. They all got the idea, though Mouthy and company contnued to hee haw about it all the way back to Lhavit.

[Elysium]

Lu Gavima

XP:
Projection +3
Running +2
Rhetoric +1
Observation +2

Lore:
How to Diffuse a Conflict
Projection: a Diversion
How to Trick a Bear

Notes: A very nice thread! I like your use of description. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

and so, the journey continues...