Open [The Heat Is On] Guests of Moon's Fall

[Trevor Hightly]

Date: 40th of Summer, 517 A.V.
Time: Very Early Morning

The waters of Syka's shoreline glistened under the silver light of the full moon and the emerging glare of the eastward sun, which had only just begun its journey to usher in the morn' and to claim dominion over Mizahar's ever-expanding and always mysterious sky.

The majority of the residents of the small settlement of Syka were all no doubt still fast asleep, or only just rising, unless they had been up to something the night before--whether acts that were innocent, or that were more off the cuff in nature.

However, there was a group of beings who had most certainly not slept soundly through the night, an agitated and angry bunch of miscreants. These creatures were not men, nor Akalaks, nor drawn from any of the stock of the world's sapient races; they were bestial, a primal, airborne wave of white that cut through the otherwise peaceful and warm night sky of the jungle coastline--and they were not happy, indeed they were quite agitated thanks to their abject and almost crippling exhaustion.

Anyone who looked upon these menacing beasts crossing the night sky would at first likely have been perplexed; the creatures were almost too large to believe and they were legion--most curiously of all, they glowed with an eery and pale luster almost as if they were ghosts from the darkest corners of the night.

But the glowing intruders were not only a sight to behold, but one to hear as well; as they moved across the warm and humid sky, a sound akin to a great magnitude of individuals beating their laundry all at once could be heard echoing all about the beachline, or--more precisely--the sound of a great many somethings beating their wings up and down could be heard. And indeed, the many intruders did have wings to beat--great, white wings that were larger than they should have been if one were to compare the creatures to average members of their species. Of course, the dire-sized beasts also possessed massive ears, and fangs, and feet, and great tufts of fur and hair--for truly, they were intimidatingly large not just based upon their wing-span but also upon all of their other qualities.

Only upon seeing all of their features would an onlooker have been able to discern just what the large and airborne invaders actually were--massive bats, an entire hoard of them.

Despite entering Syka as a flock, however, the bats did not stay together long after the fact; nocturnal creatures by their nature, the iridescent mammals were anxious to avoid the morning sun and to find a place to rest. Unfortunately for the people of Syka, the bats saw the citizens' tents, their bungalows, and their beach huts as currently ideal locations to roost. Normally, the bats would have avoided such places when choosing where to sleep, as most of these structures and shelters were on the whole too open to the air for the bats' likings, but--for a reason that was known only to the bats--the creatures were particularly exhausted and drained this night and were not in any kind of mood that would have made them inclined to be all that selective; the bats only wanted to sleep and the homes of Syka's people at least provided more shade than the trees of the coast would have come morning.

And so the bats broke off from the airborne hoard that they had come together to create, some in pairs and some by themselves, and took to invading the homes of the Sykans.

Trevor Hightly, meanwhile, slept soundly and peacefully in his tent... until a giant, white bat swooped through the flaps of his shelter--if only he had fastened his tent shut earlier in the night.

Seasonal Wordcount: 669 + 7,245 = 7,914

OOC: The event said that white bats were to be discovered under Stair Step Falls. I took some liberties, but the bats can still be discovered roosting under the falls, but now the Sykans have a reason to go looking for them. The bats are very agitated for some reason and don't seem inclined to return to their home, which will very likely be a strong reason for you, the people of Syka to try and find out where they're coming from and what the problem is--or you could just slaughter the bats. Buuuuut, when writing the thread, I envisioned that predators have discovered the home of the bats and are now harassing their cave, prompting a number of the individuals to flee. Dire-sized wild cats, anyone?

Of course, we'll all play it out and decide together.

I loved the idea of us Sykans having to deal with the problems of wildlife, as being settlers in a new land we should have to!

[Nya Winters]

Nya was hungry, restless, and in her kelvic form of a huge Talderian Forest Cat. Being large meant having a large metabolism. She also had acquired tastes. One thing the big cat loved more than anything living in the tropics were the crabs that climbed out of their muddy jungle burrows after dark. It was like a whole new world and not just on the beach. She liked beach crabs, but the jungle crabs were a whole new level of deliciousness and a whole new level of fun.

As soon as the sun set, the crabs would crawl out of crevasses, cracks, hollows in trees, and even from underneath structures. Then they would hunt for food, for mates, and even wage battles with each other to get bigger territory or the better hiding places. Nya had even discovered some of the big huge patriarchs of the jungle crabs. They were the size of dinner plates with huge meaty claws - normally just one large one and the other small - that were absolutely perfect if crunched open and the meat sucked out of.

Nya wasn't sure what she liked better... eating them, stalking them, or just observing them. Some she ate, mostly the winners of battles she didn't agree with. "Her" crabs she didn't eat. She named and left them alone. These were the individuals she watched that lived right around her home. If she hungered she'd range outward and head towards the jungle or beach away from her local crab denizens, and prey on the creatures there.

So after hours and hours of crab watching to stave off her loneliness, Nya set out towards the beach to hunt up a meal. Her stomach was growling and she was indeed hungry again. With her head down, studying crab tracks and looking for a truly big one, Nya missed the first wave of bats overhead. But when the shadows of them passed between her and the moon, she looked up and snarled.

Bats!

The kelvic drank in the scent and huffed, turning to run towards the settlement and follow the bats. She leaped on all fours, padding almost silently down the sand, pacing the flight and wanting a piece of the animals especially if they were intent on hurting her friends. She snarled, not sure if they were friendly or not and more than willing to see if they were tasty if they were indeed intent on making any sort of mischief.

They were circling, flapping almost silently, diving into homes. Nya skidded into the main region of the city, the commons, and leapt up the stairways a few bounds at a time. Then she turned, caught sight of one of the bats, and leapt off the Commons, trying to pounce on one from above. Muscles bunching she threw herself off the second story and snatched one out of the sky. Bringing it down beneath her, landing hard on the sand and on the bat, the kelvic tore out its throat by tearing off its head and began feasting on its tender flesh. It wasn't good... it wasn't bad... Nya treated it like any other new uncertain food. She ate lightly and sparingly, watching the Chaos around her.

One bat seemed to even be in someone's tent. Nya shook her bloody head. Where in the world did these things come from?

POST: 581
TOTAL: 3,205/50,000

[Frouwenlop]

The air was cool, a fresh breeze was agitating the trees' leaves across the canopy, making them chafe in a melodic kind of way.
Here was Frouwenlop, standing next to a majestic tree near in the late, late night.
During yesterday's evening, all kind of beverage were abundant. He didn't exactly remember why, but they were surely celebrating something. It would have been disrespectful to refuse a drink, and you know the proverb: never leave on one leg.

Nature always doing its job, Frou' went to relieve himself after waking up to a certain urge.
Only equipped with his axe he always keep "just in case" and dangling up from his linen trousers, he held his eyes closed to enjoy the breeze on his face while attending to the present matter.
Something felt odd about that night, he thought. Must be some aftermath of this green beverage, he had been suspicious about this one the second his eyes landed on the drink.

On the way back to the tent, he stopped half way to gaze upon the sea. The moon last gleamed on an infinity of shining lights, a last wonder she left before leaving space to the sun. Quite a nice thing to witness.
Frou's contemplation came brutally to an end when he heard a yell, the voice piercing through the silence.
He rushed where the shout came from as fast as his not-so-sober body was able carry him.
Trevor's tent ! he noticed.

In a firm gesture, he tore open the entrance. Shirtless, axe in hand and out of breath, Frou' witnessed a scene he would've never happened to imagine once in his lifetime: A giant pale winged beast was breaking havoc inside Trevor's tent. His unfortunate friend was trying to keep the flying horror at bay as best as he could.
Grappling firmly his axe with two hands, Frouwenlop swung several strikes around the beast. He was deliberatly (or that's what he would pretend later) missing the beast, so that it wouldn't end up in a messy gore of a scene inside a friend's home.
In a blink, the beast turned back on Frou' and charged him with razor sharp fangs.
Alcohol may enhance boldness, but that's at dexterity's price.
Stroke with full force, Frou' crashed soundly on the ground while the winged devil found its way outside.

While all present danger was discarded, a bloody wound has opened on his left shoulder and upper torso. Even though it didn't look that deep, Frou' started to lose his cool. Did he ever mentioned he feared infectious diseases quite direly?
Well, here it is.

[Ashka]

Ashka was less than half awake, and thought she heard wind flapping in the sails and the muffled yell was someone calling her out of her bunk to take a dawn watch on deck. She sat up, gathered her dagger from under her pillow, which she deemed the safest place to put it at night, and stumbled out of her tent onto the beach. Straight into a bat. It shrieked, one wing dipped and snagged in the sand, and they both tumbled in different directions.

"Where the blazes did you come from?" Ashka snarled at it, scrabbling back to her feet and planting herself protectively in front of the tent and a still sleeping Chaya. "Bats are supposed to be flying mice, not - not your size! Where's the cat that could take you down, huh?"

The bat didn't answer, just floundered in the soft sand. Ashka shielded her eyes from flying sand with one hand and fumbled her dagger out of its sheath with the other, wishing all the while that she'd paid more attention to her fighting lessons. She held it clumsily in front of her, point aimed at the bat so that if it charged her it would hit the blade first and waited. A better fighter might have taken the initiative and attacked, but Ashka was still sleepy and unsure. The standoff seemed to be taking forever, but was probably only a few moments. There was a thud off to her left, and she glanced that way, only to see an enormous cat landing on top of another bat much further down the beach, and beyond it, someone stumbling around with an axe. So there were cats that could take down these flittermice! More bats flapped overhead, making the sail-like sound she had woken to, and yells carried on the clear air suggested she wasn't the only one facing a bat.

Her bat bared fangs almost as long as her dagger and started towards her, its white fur seeming to glow. Ashka lashed out wildly with the dagger and by luck connected with its nose. It hissed, and she put her shoulder down and charged. She'd knocked it flat once by accident, maybe this time she could do it on purpose. Their bodies collided and went down in a tangle of wings and limbs. Ashka jammed a bare foot into the sand to brace herself, wrapped both hands round her knife hilt and stabbed upwards. She was too close to miss, but the blow wasn't fatal either, and the bat tried to bite back. Ashka twisted in a hopeless attempt to evade, and found herself rolling over until she lay on top of the bat, bleeding from one arm. She brought her knees up, trying to pin the wings against the sand, and slashed deeply into the bat's neck. It thrashed for a moment longer and then went limp. She stayed there for a moment, getting her breath back, then climbed to her feet, wiped her knife on the beast's fur, and looked around to see what else was going on.


Wordcount517 words
Running total: 5707 words

[Trevor Hightly]

Trevor just hadn't expected a giant white bat to slip into his tent... and to be fair, it was likely that such things would not be most people's first expectation for a morning's wake up call.

For what it was worth, as the creature swooped through the unfastened flaps of Trevor's canvas shelter, the bat also didn't seem to be prepared for the man. What the exhausted creature expected to wait for it within the tent, beyond warm darkness, if anything, was anyone's guess -- in any case, one thing was a definite: it had not expected Trevor, a very shocked and only just awoken man.

As the bat invaded Trevor's almost pitch-black tent, it didn't take long for both it and Trevor to be flailing in shock at the presence of the other. The dire sized fauna clawed and shrieked and Trevor barred his arms in an attempt to prevent a maiming from the beast's rather large claws and fangs, grunting when he could do nothing to protect himself from the burning and shredding touch of the former of the two's sharp and pointed gods-gifted weapons.

With the heavy and disoriented vestiges of his interrupted sleep clinging to and weighing down the corners and lids of his eyes, Trevor's mind reeled as his tent's winged intruder raged and flapped its wings violently. The bat's fury shook the tent, caused the creature to batter against its cloth walls, and threatened to very possibly collapse the entirety of the canvas shelter. Seeking to avoid having the weight of his tent falling upon him and even further complicating the morning's disturbance, Trevor did the only thing that he could -- he had no weapons at hand, nor the skill to use any but in a very crude fashion if anything, so he began to try and to resolve the situation with the skills that he did possess.

His djed was slow to respond to the orders of his shock-filled mind; the ethereal energy was only made even more difficult to coax down the length of the man's nervous system, as the many nerves along his arms were currently being assaulted and forced to relay the searing pricks of the bat's claws, as the natural weapons left red and bleeding streaks across Trevor's forearms. But nonetheless, however slowly it may have done so, Trevor's djed did respond to his worried call -- slowly but surely the mystical power that made up the very fabric of what Trevor truly was began to distort and to stretch at his fingertips, just as he willed it to.

The fingers of one hand, that was all that Trevor managed to manipulate with his magic in the heat of the moment. The skin that covered the bones of his right fingers above each of their bends changed, grew harder, and turned to a milky and yellowish white color -- they turned to bone, pointed and curved claws of solid collagen, protein, and calcium, and into entirely primal, but also very unnatural, weapons.

And his fingers, now turned into primal, bony claws by his will and djed alone, were weapons that Trevor was quick to use. The man, who had been forced to endure the attacks of the bat's own claws, now retaliated in kind and slashed back with fierce and clawed hands of his own -- in truth, he would have normally wished the creature no harm, but in the moment only self-defense was on the morpher's mind.

Trevor managed to gouge the flesh of the panicked bat's right wing once with his morphed hand, warding the creature off for a breath and causing it to flail backward towards the tent's flaps... and right to where Frouwenlop suddenly burst into the canvas shelter. Had he been less shocked by the intrusion of his shirtless hero, Trevor might have been more inclined to feel glad for the man's impromptu attempts at his rescue, but as it was Frouwenlop was quickly pushed -- or caused to stumble and fall onto his bum -- as the giant, glowing bat bashed its way out of Trevor's tent.

Trevor rolled from his bedroll in shock and followed both the falling -- and possibly somewhat intoxicated -- Frouwenlop, and the bat that had caused the man to trip, outside. Trevor crawled out from his tent upon his knees and scratched forearms that were -- thanks to said bat -- more red and pink than flesh colored.

His right hand slowly rebounded back to its normal shape, without the man giving it much notice -- he was more concerned with escaping his bed and finding out just what was really happening than with maintaining his spell, and without his willpower to fuel his fingers' transformations the very same appendages soon reverted back to their natural state.

The first thing that greeted Trevor's gaze as he slipped from his tent was the injured man that had tried to help him. Frouwenlop's wound wasn't deep and it was something that Trevor recognized as a mere flesh wound -- something that would need cleaning, but that wasn't too pressing of a concern. Nevertheless, he saw a glimpse of what appeared to be worry in Frouwenlop's somewhat less than responsive eyes.

"It's just a scrape, it didn't cut anything deep," Trevor offered the man, as he raised himself to his knees and collected his own bearing.

"We can clean it--" Trevor's words slowed as he glimpsed the sight of the bat that had attacked himself and Frouwenlop; the creature was bleeding from its moderately deep wounds and seemed very enraged at presumably this fact.

The bat screeched and it flapped its wings in a violent and frightened uproar. The sound of the creature's alarm almost masked the whistling of the arrow that -- seemingly out of nowhere -- cut through the night air and found purchase in the beat's lungs, silencing its anger and quickly causing the bat to flop without life into the moist and sandy ground.

Trevor first glanced, with the question of where the arrow that had felled the bat had come from glowing in his eyes, at said felled bat and then to Frouwenlop -- who had clearly not been behind the bat's death. Then the young man, who was more and more coming to his now mostly awakened and gathered senses, moved his gaze to the horizon in the direction of from whence the arrow had flown.

The sun was rising against a foreground of sparkling waves and peaceful sand. And there was the silhouette of a man formed on the distance for Trevor to see as well, leather sheathed sword at its side, and with a longbow in its hands. The figure left its arms outstretched and holding up its bow for a moment, perhaps following with its eyes the path that its arrow had flown and validating to itself that it had hit its intended mark.

"You'll be alright. Jansen or I can clean it for you later," Trevor said to Frouwenlop, raising to his feet as he spoke, and watching closely as the figure in the distance began to approach everyone.

And that was when Trevor glanced about and saw that more than only himself had been attacked by the bats -- with the exclusion of Nya who had done the attacking against one of the creatures. Meanwhile, the mysterious bowman who had felled with his long-distance shot the bat that had attacked Trevor continued to make his way over to the man and Frouwenlop.

The bowman's face came into sight as he came closer and closer to the two. The man was bearded and graying, an individual with a dour expression who was clearly in his fifties. Buraga Shamzen, Syka's only guard and the right arm of the settlement's founders -- Trevor recognized the man, having seen him briefly before and with Syka being a very small and sparsely inhabited place.

Buraga approached Frouwenlop and Trevor, stopping to glance at the bat from which's body the man's arrow stuck out of. The guard's eyes were measured, but when he then looked up to and over to him and Frouwenlop, Trevor could see that they held a certain warmth of concern in them. The man's pale green eyes seemed to especially and carefully inspect the wounds of both Trevor and Frouwenlop, only seeming satisfied upon seeing that the men's injuries were all relatively minor -- albeit probably quite stinging and painful.

"You're alright?" Buraga asked Trevor and Frouwenlop, giving both men his attention long enough for them to respond to him and then looking around to inspect the rest of the beach, and the other people who were on it, with his intelligent eyes.

Buraga caught sight of Ashka, just as the woman was rising to her feet. The man took stock of the girl for a moment, but upon noting the dagger in her hand and the shadow of the bat's corpse that the woman had created he looked over and away to the side and to where Nya prowled.

"The kelvic's fine too," Buraga stated to himself, somewhat seeming a bit relieved in the dry way in which just seemed to be due to his natural voice; he was unshocked by Nya's cat form -- he was a man who knew those people and creatures who lived in and about the land of his employer's settlement, and there had been no taldarean forrest cats in Syka before Nya's arrival a few months prior.

"We need to check on James, Matthis, Randal and the others," Buraga said to Trevor, Frouwenlop, and anyone who had managed to make their way over to the pair. "I don't know where these bats are coming from, but there's a whole swarm of the lot."

Although Buraga had a voice and tone that hinted that he likely wasn't the type of person to speak more than was needed, the man's voice and the depth of his gaze also spoke of experience, skill, and intelligence blended together into a capable person.

Seasonal Wordcount: 22,025 + 1,594 = 23,619

[Nya Winters]

The verdict was still out on how the bat had tasted. It was much like any of the other large rodents that roamed Syka. But meat was meat and Nya's metabolism precluded much fasting. She was, by her very nature, an opportunistic feeder and lazy in the way of a cat that hadn't missed many meals. The Kelvic trotted up the beach still munching a wingbone, masticating it down to something more digestible before she swallowed the rest of her meal. She approached the location of Ashka's tent, slowed, and then walked up to where the woman was, her tail slowly lashing back and forth.

Nya took on as non-threatening manner as she could, purring loudly for the woman, before she bipassed her and sniffed at the corpse. Great forest green eyes studied Ashka a moment as if asking permission and then bent to grasp the corpse with her jaws. If Ashka made no protest, Nya would drag it a little ways back and clear of the woman's campsite. Squatting on her haunches, the Kelvic would make short work of the body carefully chewing the delicious main torso and leaving the wings until the very last.

She decided they tasted a tad sweet, not unlike the pigs at the beach near the settlement. Good. Nya decided two was her limit almost immediately because any more meat would slow her down and demand a nap on the still-warm sand. Neither states were acceptable as Frouwenlop and Trevor's scents were joined by Buraga's. The Kelvic finished quickly, rose, and then sank on her back haunches, deciding a good wash was now in order.

She hadn't met Ashka before, so Nya took that moment - while she was cleaning up - to study the woman and decide whether she would introduce herself or not. The woman smelled of the sea and Nya immediately thought she was perhaps one of Laviku's children. Such as her would not be unknown here, though Nya wouldn't know if she was a resident or one of those that just occasionally landed their casinor's to visit for a day or two.

The Kelvic kept one ear tilted towards the men while she watched Ashka. The three of them had gathered around a third corpse, one Nya was tempted to see if she could choke down even though she was relatively full. It took real effort to distract her from the potential meal but overly full stomach took the decision from her. They were discussing things, as men did, and wanting to check out the other settlers.

In a swirl of color, Nya shifted and rose, ignoring the fact she wore nothing. Her long brindled hair tangled across her chest and gave her a bit of coverage even though she didn't plan it. Women wore less in Syka often enough, men too once they got used to the casual environment of the settlement.

She offered Ashka a smile and then strode up the beach towards the trio. "I didn't think anything of it, but the land groaned a while ago, deep in its belly. It shook too, but most everyone was asleep. Sometimes Semele shifts in her sleep to scratch an itch as well." The Talderian Forest Cat offered. She knelt down by the last corpse, grasp the arrow in it, and neatly yanked it out.

Nya offered it to the bowman and then turned the corpse over. "Does someone have a sharp knife? I'd like to skin it. The hide would make a lovely pale leather." The woman added, hoping someone was better equipped and would offer her a blade to use for the moment.

POST: 627
TOTAL: 8652/50000

[Frouwenlop]

While receiving a quick cleanse to his wound, Frouwenlop stared at the arrow slotted in the lifeless body of the beast.
The two other men were talking about the current situation, but he was mostly half listening.
Quite an impressing shot, he thought. This was a big bat, indeed, but that was nonetheless a bat. The thing was moving around, the visibility was bad and this wasn't the sound of a point blank shot.
The bowman must've trained for a lifetime to ace a shot like that, or perhaps was it only luck.

Frou' awoke from his torpor when Naya removed the arrow from the corpse. He anxiously glanced at his wound, didn't look so bad though, but you may never know if the beast was rabid or something alike. He would keep an eye on it.
Speaking on keeping an eye on something, he noticed while Naya asked here inquiry, that she was even more shirtless than he was. Would be entertaining to watch those nobles back from Sylira react to this situation. No doubt he was in a far, far away land from his old home. Here life is more genuine, free from those never ending étiquettes.
"Want a knife? 'e boy must've one in his tent." He made a chin gesture toward Trevor.

After a brief pause, Frou' turned his attention to Buraga. This was indeed a curious situation. We could hear sounds of distraught bats from everywhere. Why are the beasts rushing into the inhabitants tents? Are they seeking food? Or are they fleeing something?
"I can give you a hand. But I need to grab my gear first. We don't know how much of 'em they are, better go prepared."
Frou' slowly got up and stretched.
"Thanks for the cleaning, Trev." He gauged the young man quickly. "I got a dagger at my tent. I'll give it to you, better not to stay unarmed here."
Giving a last glance at his surroundings, he would turn back from the group and start jogging toward his tent. "I'll catch you up in a minute, be careful."

The screeching became a bit less hearable as he went by his place, the latter located a little further away from the village than the other tents.
While opening the entrance, he saw two horrible bats hazardously hanging from the structural poles.
Grumble.
Frou' grabbed his axe and charged against the beasts with a raging shout. The bats seemed a bit drowsy, rusted from long nights -or days- of non sleep. One, although, would never lack some sleep again as the axe sundered the beast in two. And here we go, tomorrow would be cleaning day. Half of the tent was recoloured crimson as the beast's gore splashed everywhere.
The other critter, though, must've had a glimpse of intelligence -if they could show any- as it flew away to never come back again.
He sighed at the look of this gruesome scene. Anyway, there was no time to lose. Dressing with his leather chestpiece, belt and trousers, tying his cloak and hood, then finally grabbing his shield, Frou was ready to go.
Oh, yes. Dagger.
Finally, Frouwenlop was on his way back to the group, ready to be their shield if, of course, needed be.

[Ashka]

An arrow from a greying bowman took out another bat. Ashka thought she may have seen him before, in the distance, but never to speak to - she hadn't been here long herself, not even a third of a season. He looked her over, then turned away to look at the cat, and she felt as if she had passed a test she didn't know she was taking. That sense of a test distracted her and she didn't notice Nya's approach until the cat was quite close. She froze for a crucial moment, as she had with the bat, unsure what it wanted, and then relieved when it seemed more interested in the dead bat than in Ashka. It purred and looked at her as if for permission, and she nodded cautiously. The bowman had seen the cat and not attacked, so she guessed it was probably friendly.

Chaya came stumbling sleepily out of the tent while the cat was eating, and leaned into Ashka's side asking what the matter was. Ashka put a protective arm around her little sister. "We got invaded by bats. Don't know why. Do you want to come or stay?" Chaya thought about it for perhaps a chime at most before declaring, "Come!" and "That's a biiiiig cat!"

Nya shifted, and smiled, and Chaya's eyes went even wider. "She isn't even just a cat!" she whispered. Ashka nodded agreement. The lack of clothing was startling for a moment, but she'd seen and worn just as little when she and other young Svefra were swimming around the ship. Several other people had gathered around the arrowshot bat, and the cat-woman headed for them. Ashka and Chaya trailed along behind, arriving just in time to hear the request for a knife. The man with the axe lurched off at speed towards another tent, and Ashka looked at the dagger she was still carrying. It was sharp enough to clean the fish she caught, and good enough to stab a bat, as she'd just proved. She offered it hilt first. "This is good enough for fish, but bat skin seems to be a bit tougher..." If the offer was accepted, she'd try and stay close enough to watch how skinning differed on a bat without getting in the way.


Wordcount381 words
Running total: 6117 words

[Karin]

40th Summer, 517AV

It was fair to say that the Svefra woman was not a heavy sleeper.
Perhaps when she had lived in the city, she might have slept more deeply for longer, but now her nighttime rest was brief yet refreshing. Usually, she woke with the rise of the sunshine, the light being particularly rousing in that part of the world.
Some nights she could not sleep at all, finding the noises of the jungle to be too distracting, or the bites of insects to be too irritating. Yet that night she slumbered peacefully, without anything to disturb her.

Sometime later however, her luck had changed even though she didn't yet know it. Something had disturbed a horde of creatures that filled the air, but Karin was still asleep as the dreadful, ghostly bats filtered into the settlement from the east. She lived further west, closer to Treasure Point, isolated from the rest of the ranchos and tents and buildings that made up the majority of settlers abodes. As such, it was a little time later that she encountered what the others were discovering.

"Mmfh!" The tousled blonde head of a young woman shot up suddenly, uttering a nonsense word accompanied by a kind of dumb yet alert glare into the surrounding gloom of her hut. Something squealed, and Karin shocked awake and scrabbled frantically for the quarterstaff that should have been propped up beside her bed. A cool something
brushed across her face, and as with the other settlers the bat that had of course infiltrated her home reacted unpleasantly to the appearance of a woman where it had previously thought there had been none.

If there was one good thing about the bat it was that it glowed very faintly, but even it's dim radiance shed enough light on her surroundings so that she could finally grasp the wooden staff firmly in her hand and bring it upwards with a resounding thwack, a blind thud in the dark that fortunately made its mark. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for a sound aside from the fluttering, and then it screeched again and she gritted her teeth and swung again and again, each time missing the wilderness that shouldn't have been there.

Several moments passed, as the bat tried to attack and the Svefra tried to defend, one emitting ear-tinglingly irritating noises and screeches like stone on stone, and the other wildly swinging about trying in vain to knock the ghastly creature to the ground.
It would have been a comical sight, if there had been someone there to see it. As it was, the tired and grumpy woman could only think of getting rid of the creature.

Finally, she landed a decent hit, and with an exhausted sigh she poked and prodded the limp bat out onto the beach where the diffuse light of day was just beginning to bring warmth of colour to the vastness of the sky. She was surprised, and alarmed, to realise just how gigantic it was.
She wasn't much of a naturalist, but bats weren't supposed to be quite as large as that, we're they?

She frowned, sleep blurring her gaze, as sounds glinted somewhere in the settlement. Then she could see them, other small swarms and pockets of flapping, grey-white creatures that looked big, even in the distance. Karin was well and truly awake, and now curiosity and concern now hooked her and dragged her further in. She gathered her knife and her quarterstaff, hastily slung on clothes and set out to run along the beach to the commotion.

When she arrived, she was out of breath, bleary-eyed, tousle-headed and clutching her hand to her face where she had garnered a long yet thin scratch from the wickedly sharp claws of the bat that had terrorised her hut earlier. It was stinging, yet numb, and she hoped that it wasn't a poisonous creature.
Time would tell, in one way or another, and she couldn't do much about it. She approached the small group of people hesitantly as she worked down her erratic breathing. Some, like Nya and Ashka, she recognised, others she didn't. All it seemed had encountered similar interactions with the bats. All she could wonder was how to make them go away. As petulant as it might sound.

"Hello Nya, Ashka. Does anyone know what they're doing here?"

Word count: 729

[Trevor Hightly]

Buraga accepted Frouwenlop's offer readily enough. And took the arrow that Nya had offered him with a genuine thank you to the woman; the settlement was remote and any weapons or arrows he needed either had to be crafted by hand or shipped in -- waste was not something that could be lightly allowed to transpire on Syka.

"I could use it, Frouwenlop," Trevor replied to the man as well, in regards to his offer of a weapon.

Trevor, in truth, was very much less than skilled with any type of weapon; nonetheless, having a knife in his hand would at least provide some comfort to him. For while bats and predatory cats had natural weapons, a man's only "claws" were his tools -- without which he might as well have been a lion without teeth or a buck without antlers. Perhaps it was in a man's nature to need a weapon or a tool to feel whole and capable in either combat or work; perhaps, as well, this was the ingrained drive that led the first proto-humans to craft the shovels, swords, and axes that would build the foundation of Mizaharian civilization itself.

Despite being neither a warrior or worker by trade, Trevor cared about people and he worried for them. He had only come face to face with one of the bats; whereas Buraga now said that there was an entire swarm that had descended upon Syka. The creatures were the size of dogs; Trevor worried about the scope of the damage that such beings might cause if they were left to roam and find trouble to get into unchecked. Only one bat had attacked him, Trevor mused, but what if more than one or two had decided to harass Uta or one of the founders; such beasts coming together in force could prove fatal for any unlucky enough to earn their scorn.

"I'll come with you, Buraga," Trevor said as he fished his boots out of his tent and began to lace them upon his feet. "I'll do whatever I can. Those things might be more than a nuisance if they come together in any number."

Buraga took in Trevor's words and nodded, while also looking at the other settlers.

"Hopefully Jansen has taught you something or the other about first aid. The bats looked like they've broken off from each other, so I don't think anyone will be too badly hurt, though," Buraga said. "Still, if too many people stir them out of their tents or homes then they might flock back together -- that could be a problem for us."

"I know the basics. I'm still learning, but I should be able to help as best I can," Trevor replied.

Buraga turned his attention away from Trevor and to the others.

"If you all aren't going to come along with us, then I'd prefer if you'd stick together or stay sheltered," Buraga stated. "I don't want to see anyone getting hurt while we're hiking out to make sure that the others aren't having any trouble."

Seasonal Wordcount: 507 + 26,860 = 27,367

OOC: Nya mentioned the earth shaking. In a post or two we could have a little tremor cause a few more bats to show up -- that would give us all a good reason to find where they are.

Also (Ashka, Nya, Karin) if you don't want to come check on the others, then you could very well have that little quake happen when Trevor, Frou, and Buraga leave. That would give you all another swarm to deal with and a reason to track down their source, while the men of the group are checking on everyone.

I assume Nya would be able to scent the corpses and track the bats back to their cave. If we go with the earthquakes having been the cause of the shift, then the bats could very well be trying to escape a cave that has been exposed to daylight and that is somewhat unstable because of the tremors. I have no problem with the gals running off to discover the source of the swarm and having the guys catch up in a bit.