An ethereal jaunt through the wastes. [Jasha & Silarial]

by **Silarial** on January 24th, 2013, 6:36 am

“...Huh?” was Silarial’s immediate response upon realizing what her archer companion intended to do. She stared at Miria to make sure she was serious. Yes she was, Silarial realized. But really, was wrestling the animal you wanted to hunt part of a hunting? If it was, then she would absolutely never want to hunt a waste walrus. Silarial wanted to complain about the incredulity of the task. However, she promised she wouldn’t be a dead weight, and now she had to stay true to her word. Plus, this could be fun. At least she tried to convince herself it would be fun. Swallowing the accumulating lump in her throat, she nodded her head slightly and spoke in an uncertain voice. “Okay... Let’s do this.”

She dashed towards the snow hare and tried to jump on it. The animal maneuvered out of the way with ease and was in fact ready for a counterattack. Silarial immediately ducked her head under her arms, and soon she felt a blow on her left shoulder. It was quite painful, considering it was a three feet, raging snow hare that was mauling her. She could hear the sound of its teeth grinding against each other, and there was something about it that made her panic. It hit her hard again, so this time she swiped at its direction frantically with her left arm sans raising her head, landing a hit on something soft and fuzzy, most probably the critter’s body. Silarial tentatively flung her hand again, this time hitting nothing but empty air.

Silarial popped her head up, craning it around in search of where the terrible creature ran off to. The evil snow hare was now assaulting Miria and to her surprise, was actually trying to punch the living hell out of the woman. “Seriously?” Silarial muttered under her breath as she rushed to aid her companion.

Well, tried to rush to her companion. Upon setting her foot to the ground, the small patch of snow gave way under her, and Silarial barely let out a small scream of surprise as she fell to the ground. Silarial pushed herself up to her knees gingerly, throwing the deep dent by her feet a hateful look. This was the very spot that atrocious hare was hovering over. She was half-crawling away when as if by instinct, she did a double take at the small hollow, her eyes widening in surprise. It was what the snow hare was guarding!

Crawling back towards the small hollow, she had half-forgotten Miria was battling it out with the critter. Silarial was in the act of peering inside when something heavy pummeled her to the ground. “AHHHH GO AWAY YOU HORRIBLE HAAARE!” Silarial flailed around and fought to stay on top of the wildly thrashing animal, pressing all of her weight down on the creature. She managed to hastily cover it all over with her fur cloak, desperate to keep the snow hare from biting and scratching her. “Miria! MIRIAAAA PLEASE HELP MEEEEE!!!”Silarial pressed harder as she felt the animal kicking beneath her. She could feel her beating heart all the way to her mouth as she fought for dear life.

by **Miria** on January 24th, 2013, 4:30 pm

The hare sensed the lack of initiative on Miria's end as it seeing her companion as the threat. Her recovery was shaky at best getting up in time to see their prey latched atop Silarial and pummeling away at her. Trying to grab the hare off of her the beast surprised her as it bounded off Silarial and tackled Miria to the ground.

Miria's vision was garbled as her head bounced and hit the ground. All she could manage to piece together that something furry and fuzzy was hopping towards her. Her eyes grew wide as she felt small fingers hit her stomach. The sensation was a mix between pain and being tickled and Miria's expression was caught between fear and laughter. Finally reason took over shoving at the creature inefficiently. Meeting a pair of beady eyes with a devilish intent Miria knew that she was facing against something that she could not handle.

This was the animal's domain, its territory and any trespassers would face its furry fist and feet. Fighting among its own kind for this space the appearance of two Vantha would not faze this proud hare. In fact this might turn out as the moment of truth for the hare. Looking back to see that the first intruder was trying to make off with what was rightfully the hare's, he rushed back to assault poor Silirial.

Blinking twice Miria looked up in surprise wondering why her fuzzy beating stopped. It was almost too unbelievable, something of that status and fuzziness should not have been able to do that. The archer would have laid there bewildered longer had not Silarial called out her name. Shaking her head in confusion Miria quickly saw her companion in great peril. This time Miria would not hesitate, easing her hand down she let her bow drop to the snow before picking it back up with her left hand. She reached for an arrow but in her haste dropped it. Fumbling slightly Miria picked up the arrow and haphazardly tried to put it into position. Miria would shoot soon after, Silarial just had to hold on for a bit longer.

by **Silarial** on January 24th, 2013, 6:17 pm

The snow hare writhed violently from under her, the animal almost escaping if not for the white fur cloak enfolded around it like a downy sack. Silarial held on to the cloak tightly, gripping the corners of the cloth with all her might to keep the hare from getting out. She hoped with every fiber of her being that the fabric would not tear and let the wrathful animal loose.

It was a clever strategy, restraining the wildly thrashing critter with the cloak. Covering it blocked out most of its senses, especially its sight and, to some extent, its smell. Silarial, however, was not a seasoned hunter, or a competent grappler for that matter. The battle of strength and willpower with their furry assailant was taking much toll on her. She was already breathing raggedly, gritting her teeth hard as she tried her best to hold her ground. Despite her efforts, the hare still managed to pull her a few feet away even while it was trapped inside the makeshift sack. Silarial noticed, however, that it had considerably slowed down, its fight a little toned-down than she was putting up with earlier.

Silarial fought the creeping weariness as she clutched the cloth harder, carefully repositioning herself into a crouching stance, her feet planted firmly on the ground. She whipped her head towards Miria, searching her face frantically with a pair of panicked amber eyes. The archer was trying to get a good shot. Silarial was extremely scared of the possibility of her companion missing the shot and consequently hitting her, but she was equally frightened of the risk of the livid hare escaping if she let a moment of hesitation weaken her grip. Silarial shut her eyes tight, her hands never letting go of the cloak and the hare trapped within it. She would only open her eyes when she felt the animal struggling no more, placing her faith entirely in Miria’s hopefully capable hands.

by **Miria** on January 25th, 2013, 4:10 pm

A clever trick to detain their quarry. Now all it was to Miria was another target in her range. Looking down she can relate the distance between them. Twelve yards. The archer took was breatheless as she adjusted her shot. The hare was still putting up a fierce resistance even as it was held down, trying to power it's way out of the cloth. It nearly hopped a out as an arrow met the beast on it's way up. It would fly a short distance before landing close to Silarial.

Miria closed the distance, already having an arrow ready just incase she missed. Bringing the bowstring back she was only a mere foot away watching the covered beast before firing at it again. Their prey moved no more as the arrow pierced deep inside. Satisfied that there would the hare would cause no trouble Miria turned back to help Silarial up and to apologize.

“Sorry about cloak. That was not smart at all. Are you injured?” Miria gripped Silarial lightly as she looked for any new marks on her partner. Miria shook her head in disapproval before bowing her head to the younger Vantha. “Thank goodness. What was I thinking? You are new and so am I. We should have stayed in Avanthal. There is no way we can do all this macho stuff, fooling around and getting attacking tundra creatures with our bare hands.”

oocSorry about the short posts. I really am in a rut atm.

by **Silarial** on January 27th, 2013, 3:49 pm

Silarial opened her eyes just a crack when she felt Miria move beside her. Giving the cloak in her hands a tentative look, a groan escaped her lips upon seeing an arrow sticking out of the unmoving lump. She finally let go of the cloth, letting its corners drop to the snow. Taking Miria’s outstretched hand, she pulled herself to her feet and sighed heavily. It was an expensive cloak too. She would have to buy a new one now, for the cloak sustained damages beyond repair. Torn by hare claws, pierced by an arrow, and most probably stained by hare blood.

Blood. Silarial shuddered at the thought. Barely hearing her companion speak, she shook her head weakly and wiped the beads of sweat trailing down her forehead. “Don’t worry, it’s just a cloak. At least we’re all in one piece, right?” She said after doing a quick check of her and Miria’s body. “Well, except for a few scratches and bruises, we’re okay. That’s good, considering we’re just greenhorn hunters.” She cringed when she touched the back of her right hand. There was no visible wound, but gods they sting!

“You're right... maybe we should have brought someone more experienced doing this kind of work.” She knelt beside the snow hare and placed her hands over the cloak still covering its limp body. Silarial closed her eyes and uttered a small prayer to Dira for the animal’s soul.

Upon finishing, Silarial stood up, glancing at the dent on the ground before looking at Miria once more. “I think we should at least find out what the snow hare was guarding before going back to Avanthal.” She waited for her companion’s answer before nodding her head and walking towards the snow hare’s guarded treasure.

She went down on her knees beside small hollow and peered inside. She strained her eyes for something but only saw white. Was she wrong in thinking that the snow hare did defend something? But she was so sure it didn’t want to leave this particular spot before. Silarial looked at Miria, dejection creeping all over her body along fatigue and exhaustion.

No. She would not give up so easily like this. Silarial stuck a hand inside the hollow, feeling around until she felt something warm and fuzzy. Silarial slowly grabbed the creature out from the deep dent, wrapping her fingers around the critter lightly so as not to crush it, but firm enough to keep it from escaping. She finally pulled her hands out and to her surprise, on her palm was a newborn snow hare.

“It’s a baby snow hare Miria, look!” Its eyes were open and its tiny ears twitched as Silarial cupped its furry body with both her hands, bringing it closer for her companion to see.

OOCDon't worry! I'm okay with it. Some of my earlier posts in the thread were short too.

by **Miria** on January 29th, 2013, 4:33 pm

Silarial took to the hunt well, though she seemed less accustomed to the bruises then the average Vantha. Miria closed her eyes as she tried to block out the hot flares of pain that were crying out inside of her. The archer would feel sore for probably almost a week but at least she had a story to tell. Her eyes fluttered slightly as she looked back at the bloodied cloak. Then Miria looked away trying to forget that she did this. Miria looked past Silarial as her partner spoke a prayer to Dira nodding as she finished. Morality was a scary thought for Miria and it didn't help that she killed that hare.

Looking back at Silarial Miria smiled weakly before taking a few steps away from the area. The smell of blood in the air was nauseating to her. Bringing her hand up to cover her nose and mouth Miria left the Snowsong to her own devices, trying to take in the landscape to distract her. From behind her the archer could hear the Snowsong trying to retrieve what the hare was guarding. A slight silence followed making the archer turn her head to the side holding her breath in anticipation.

Sighing in relief Miria turned back to the surrounding area. Snow for miles around and somehow animals still bravely fight to survive. So it did not seem fair to Miria that she stifled this baby hare's chances of surviving. Though it was still fighting valiantly. Miria's eyes started to shine a happy golden hue as she regarded the new life in Silarial's hand as it regarded her. It was a feisty hare as it tried to break free of Silarial's grip but it still had it's innate cuteness that came with infancy. Managing a smile she looked back at her companion with a sense of kinship and eventually regret. Her eyes's animations dulled as she remember the consequences for her actions.

“What are we going to do with it?” asked Miria. Looking back at the hole in the ground Miria shook her as she discarded that option. “We cannot leave that babe alone here right?” The thought of taking care of it though seemed daunting to Miria. Normally she would only take care of herself, include something else and she would not know what to do. “Should we take it as our own?” Miria found herself saying. Images of taking care of the hare went through her. Trying to convince her to take care of it. However she knew that it would not last long. Though having something to talk to in those lonely nights was enticing.

Shrugging slightly Miria deterred to Silarial on how to deal with the babe hare. The thought of raising it together came to mind but it would ultimately be up to her. Trading it to the Frostfawns was an alternative or the traders in the marketplace. “Here I'll carry hold on to the other one. But first.” Miria closed her eyes as she in one motion took off her cloak and swung it over Silarial's shoulders. Miria looked into the other's eyes a tad longer then deemed necessary before making her way to the parent hare.

by **Silarial** on February 4th, 2013, 4:47 am

She saw the guilt in her companion’s eyes, watching with sadness as they deadened under her gaze. Silarial could not blame Miria for feeling remorse for what they did. Both of them tried to down the livid hare, but it was Miria who dealt the killing shot. It was her arrow the ended the life of a creature that was most probably only fighting after sensing the threat they brought to its territory.

It was the first time she actually thought about the consequences of her actions. She would go about pranking people and always get away with it by looking sorry and apologizing. But at that moment, in the snowy expanse of the northern wastes, there was no one to apologize to, and saying sorry wouldn’t change the fact that there was a life that would directly be affected by their brashness, snow hare or no. And so when Miria asked her what was to be the fate of the fresh life squirming within grasp, she was at a loss for words.

For once Silarial didn’t know what to answer to another’s question. She could not think of an immediate response, especially when her companion suggested to take it as their own. Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply, trying to weigh the facts against what she wanted to happen. “It would be pretty heartless of us to leave it all alone here, but seeing as this baby’s eyes are already open and its body already covered in fur, I assume it would only take a few days for it to learn and live on its own. However, we also have to take into account its ability to survive by itself with predators roaming freely in the tundras...”

What exactly should they do? Yes, they can take the leveret home but could they take care of it as well as it could’ve fared in the wild? While she was silently deliberating the course of their action, the older Vantha removed her cloak and placed it over the Silarial’s shoulders. She stared st Miria, and into her eyes as if she was leaving the difficult decision to her. It’s not fair, Silarial thought. But she understood why her companion did so. She just wanted to know how the Frostfawn can do this every day for a living, killing animals for food and other materials. Of course she knew it was a matter of survival of the fittest, but was it something one just gets used to? If so, then she had to get used to it — soon for that matter — for it was an inevitable part of the cycle of life and death.

She had decided. But first, she had something she needed to confirm. There was a reason why hunting Talderan snow hares was not regulated by the Frostfawn Hold: a female snow hare gives birth to at least five baby snow hares per winter. If she found the baby snow hare inside the small hollow then she hoped — and she hoped really hard — that the tiny critter was not left all on its own in this frozen waste. She reached her hand one last time inside the burrow, moving her arm around the small space, fingers feeling against the ground and the powdery snow. Her mouth fell open and upon removing her arm from the hollow, there was another snow hare in her hand, this one slightly smaller than the first. She wondered how she could have missed the other one, but it was a given that they blended so well with the snow, considering how white the hares’ furs were.

Silarial hugged the two critters (who were not resisting her as much as they were earlier) to her chest with one arm, the other roving the hollow once more. She made sure to check thoroughly, her arms elbow-deep inside the hole. After a half chime, she pulled her hand back, this time empty-handed. A small frown tugged on the corner of her lips, but at least she knew the snow hares were not entirely alone. She knew in her hopeful heart they wouldn’t be sad even if she and Miria take the leverets back to Avanthal, for at least they would still see each other despite being away from the rest of their kind.

Yes, she was taking the two back to the city and raise them like family, at least until they grow into maturity. They can decide what to do from there. As she was thinking this, she gently rose to her feet, her shoulders hurting, and headed towards Miria. Silarial knew it must be hard for her to carry the lifeless snow hare, so she gave the woman a reassuring smile. It was the least she could do for her. She looked at the two baby snow hares in her hands, and then to her companion who didn’t expect that there was another one to take care of. “Miria, let’s bring them back and give them a warm home.”

by **Miria** on February 5th, 2013, 6:36 pm

There it was and there she was. A ruined cloak that covered up an even bigger mess of a hare. Miria took a knee as she prepared herself for what happened next. Raising the cloak slightly Miria's looked at the sight of the dead hare and it's entrails lining the thin snow. The sight caused an involuntary heave from the archer as she fell back startled into the snow. What am I suppose to expect? The arrow is almost the size of the hare. Of course that would happen. The archer took a moment to look at her own morality as she looked back on the hare's disheveled shape. Many emotions came to mind but the words that came were indecipherable. All she could manage to figure out was to use a different type of arrow when she went out hunting. When she went out hunting.

It was not civil at all but the idea of hunting something else started to excite the hunter. Though Miria feared that she was feeling too enthusiastic about it she pushed the thought aside thinking it was a normal reaction. Glancing back at her partner, seeing her deal with her own thoughts on the situation the archer realized she was alone in this way of thinking. At least for now.

Prying her arrows loose from the beast Miria quickly checked their conditions before putting them back into her quiver. Both were still usable, their shafts easily prying loose from their target. Then there was the hare itself to deal with. Tossing Silarial's cloak to the side Miria raised the hare up slightly before setting it down in a fresh bed of snow. The results were too graphic for her tastes but now at least now she knew what happens when something fleshy gets hit by an arrow.

Then taking the cloak with both arms neatly folded the cloth until she could cover her arms with the fabric. For once when the breeze hit the archer she was not too pleased with it's presence. Even though it was winter Miria found herself shuddering, her teeth lightly rattling. It would probably be best to head back to Avanthal where it was warmer since they were done with this expedition.

Hearing Silarial approach got up slowly with her companion's cloak in her arms and the hare in hand grabbing it by it's ears. Then once again she found herself pleasantly surprised with her partner's findings. Another small hare to keep the other company would be wonderful. Then for the first time in what felt like forever Miria smiled back at her companion with a shimmering yellow. “I would love to.”

Their trip back seemed shorter then the actual trip into the wastes. With the city lights beckoning their arrival the mood seemed to pick up between the archer and the younger vantha. Miria glanced back at Silarial, her arms warm but her shoulders slightly cold. Small talk helped the two pass the time and it helps to know when and where they can meet again. “So where can I find you the next time I have some extra time Silarial? I hope you like to dance since I would love you to accompany me next time I'm free.”

oocThis seems like a good spot to stop. Finish up your post and post it up for grading. It was great threading with you. I hope you enjoyed having a small adventure into the wastes with me.

by **Silarial** on February 10th, 2013, 7:34 pm

Silarial’s eyes crinkled into a smile at her companion’s response. They’re going to keep the baby snow hares! The weariness from their earlier encounter faded at that moment as excitement took its place. She would have to visit Frostfawn soon so that she may know how to properly care for the new addition to her family. It would be even better if Miria could go with her. Ah, but yes. She would have to explain her new charge to her mother when she gets home. She unconsciously started chewing her fingertips as images of her mom reprimanding her crossed her mind. It would get worse from there, especially when the bruises start showing up on her body.

The two women continued to walk back towards Avanthal, the city’s massive ice walls already in plain view. She casted her eyes around the white expanse as she walked beside her companion. She wondered if she could manage to venture further south to the Spires. With a tinge of disappointment, she realized she couldn’t. At least not yet, but soon. As she was quietly pondering about future travels, Miria asked where she could find her so they can hang out when time permits. Silarial’s face eased into a sunshiny smile when the other invited her to dance in their following spare times. “Seriously? I mean, I love to dance! Actually, I’m a dancer at the Red Diamond. So I would love to go with you whenever you’re free.” She stuck out her tongue playfully and soon broke into soft giggles.

They continued to exchange pleasantries as they headed back home. After what seemed to be a very long while, the pair arrived in the city no more scathed than they were from the battle with the territorial snow hare. Both of them were tired, their bodies heavy and exhausted from their little adventure. Before they parted ways, Silarial removed her companion’s cloak from her body and wrapped it around its owner’s shoulders. She then gave Miria the bigger of the snow hares, the smaller of the two would be under her care. They soon went on their respective ways, bringing with them thoughts of the days to come.

by **Valkyrie** on February 19th, 2013, 4:17 pm

Miria :

Silarial :

Jasha :

You Will Be Collected if Worthy

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.

Completed An ethereal jaunt through the wastes. [Jasha & Silarial]