After freeing themselves from their chains, climbing out of the prison and escaping up a tree from the large monstrous multi-legged creatures, the group remains in the canopy and attempts to set up a camp of sorts there.
Goddard has a hard time getting the branches to form an acceptable resting place but eventually, he makes a sort of nest and he lines it with his cloak.
What happened to me, I've never lost control like that before. I have not been able to control what my body did but never not move at all. "Anyone know what just happened there?" Orzad asked the group as he looked for a spot to rest
ReplyDeleteEartha looks at Orzad before commenting. "It zeemz zee creaturez touched into our mindz and attempted to dizable uz in zum manner. Perhapz it hit you harder zince you are, well, zee way you are." She smiles at him weakly attempting to offer some solace with her gesture. "I mena no offenze but you are a bit different from mozt. Zat could be good at mozt times, juzt not zisz one." She genlty places her hand on his forearm to comfort him.
ReplyDeleteHe looks over at Orzad with a raised brow. "We narrowly escaped being eaten by a walking nightmare?" Goddard says shaking his head. "This place is worse up close," he mumbles quietly to himself.
ReplyDelete"Oh...that," Goddard says when Eartha offers her response to Orzad. "Yeah...no idea what happened there but now I know how to make you be quiet," he smirks.
"Yea Goddard don't expect you to be able to do that again anytime soon" we'll seems like Eartha and "sparky" are taking the fact that I'm a machine ok
ReplyDelete"We going to have to find a different approach for getting the "cube" and the information we need form the Priest, besides insulting him."
Orzad said while looking at Bast
"You sleep," Goddard grins mischievously. "I know you have to sleep..."
ReplyDelete"Sure your taking first watch then, Goddard" Orzad found a thick branch and tides himself to the branch and leaned against the trunk and started to fall asleep.
ReplyDeleteGoddard laughs. "Perfect. I'm hungry anyway..."
ReplyDelete"How dose us falling asleep effect your hunger?" Orzad asked
ReplyDelete"Um...I don't have to share with you?" he mumbles and turns his back to Orzad.
ReplyDeleteWhat has he been doing when I've been asleep all this time? Don't think I'm going to get a good night sleep now Orzad finds a spot where he can get conferrable. Orzad starts to Dose off again but he his keeping one of his eyes semi open and is listening for anything strange as he tries to get some rest
ReplyDeleteA few feet above them, Bast settles into a small spot where four of the trees giant limbs meet. She toys with a puzzel box, watching it float in the air as she uses her mind to take it apart. When Orzad looks at her, she ignores him.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I shall stay silent and let them all rot, she thinks to herself. She had cut herself off from everyone, wanting only the silence of her own thoughts in the midst of such a loud forest.
Goddard notices Bast getting comfortable in the branches above. She'll probably go to sleep soon... He carefully makes his way up the tree and relaxes on a branch above her. "Thanks for getting us out of that hole," Goddard says softly with a yawn.
ReplyDeleteEartha eases down next to Orzad, snuggling up against him. Moving very carefully to keep from waking him. Juzt az I zought, very warm yet ztill zomewhat zoft. He will make a fine bedmate. Plenty of heat... Now to just fall azleep... Eartha yawns and falls deeply into sleep against Orzad, using his body heat to keep herself warm.
ReplyDeleteShe shrugs, still watching the box break itself into pieces. "I put us there. I got us out." Now in twenty small pieces, she starts putting it back together again.
ReplyDelete"This Priest plays a game," she adds softly so as not to disturb the others. "Insulting him was the best way to force his hand."
Orzad felt that some one was right beside him he opens his eyes and see Eartha was lying on him " You're not scared of me?" Orzad said softly trying not to awake anyone else.
ReplyDelete"It's not your fault," Goddard says with a shrug before hopping down and sitting next to her. "He would have probably sent those things after us anyway. That's what the bad guys tend to do...right?"
ReplyDeleteEartha nuzzles closer to him, wrapping herself up in his arm. "Why would I fear you?" She yawns and looks up at him sleepily. "You wouldn't harm me, I zink you would even defend me." She smiles and lays her head down on his chest and drifts back to sleep.
ReplyDeleteOrzad responded "Because of what I am." Orzad looked as his right arm
ReplyDelete"We are all different in zome way, zere iz no need to dwell on it. It will only bring regret and worry. Now, be quiet and quit moving about zo much, I'm zleepy. If I don't get my rezt, I'm no fun at all." Upon saying that, she winks at him and smiles. She then lays her head back down on his chest and begins to snore very softly.
ReplyDeleteShe shrugs, pulling her cards out of her pocket and shuffling them, all the while keeping the box pieces moving. "I believe it would have been much worse," she says, drawing a card and looking at it.
ReplyDeleteEartha is right I do need to stop dwelling on what I was and worry about what I will be
ReplyDeleteOrzad closes his eyes and gets some sleep, for the first time he is not thinking of the day his son died as he slept.
"Well...we're ok now so that's good..."
ReplyDeleteGoddard quietly watches her and the floating puzzle box. VOX suddenly appears and floats around the puzzle box, buzzing. "It's not the same thing," Goddard sighs.
Bast smiles. "No, I think dismantling your little friend would be more of a challenge," she says. "What does it do, anyway?"
ReplyDeleteVOX darts behind Goddard's head when Bast talks about dismantling it and Goddard laughs. "I don't know what it does...ok well...it buzzes and floats around and makes me laugh but I don't know what it's supposed to do," he says thoughtfully.
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ReplyDeleteBast laughs with him. "How do you know what's it's saying?" she asks. She tries to link with the buzzing machine but finds nothing. "I can't link with it."
ReplyDeleteEartha awakens with a jerk, almost tossing herself off of the limb her and Orzad were sleeping on. Something is wrong,Bast. I smell another predator, a canine of some type. She shivers and clings to Orzad tightly as she peers down through the leaves trying to spot whatever it is she smells.
ReplyDeleteBast sits up straight, all her senses alert. Closing her eyes, she tries to sift through the nighttime sounds of this strange jungle, at the same time looking for a consciousness to form a mental link with. "I can't find it, Kitty. I'm going to climb down, maybe if I'm closer I can link with it."
ReplyDelete"Goddard," she whispers, her clothing changing from a cool gown to dark pants and shirt. "Stay here. There's trouble. Kitty and I have it."
She drops down to the limb across from Eartha, searching the floor. "Where is the smell coming from?"
Eartha locks eyes with Bast. "No, love, zey are down there. Az long az zey are not hybrid, zey cannot climb. We will be zafe if we ztay up here." Eartha looks at Bast pleadingly. Pleaze, love, do not alert zem of uz." She shivers and holds her arm. "I can not ztand anozzer fight with caninez."
ReplyDelete"Kitty, it'll be fine, I won't go low enough to be caught. I just need to see if they'll be any problem." Bast gives her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I promise."
ReplyDeleteLowering herself to the next branch, she again looks for a link. When she has it, she grins as the creature comes into sight.
"Kitty. They're hybrids, but I don't think they can climb. Just larger and have tusks growing from their snouts. They can smell us, too. They have a strange fur...it's like leaves."
Eartha keeps a watch on Bast as she climbs down and breathes a sigh of relief at the news of the hybrids not having arms capable of climbing. Now, Bast, get your zweet azz back up here zince zey are not a threat. Eartha looks into Orzad's face and softly touches his cheek. Rezt now, my brave protector. Zere will be a time for you to zave me.
ReplyDeleteBast mentally grumbles at her. Next time Maman wants to give me a bodyguard, I'll ask for a fish, she thinks as she climbs. She bypasses Eartha and Orzad and returns to her nest of blankets. Curling up next to Goddard, she puts away her puzzle box and cards.
ReplyDelete"Silly Kitty fretting over dogs," she explains to him.
"Oh haha...dogs..." he laughs a bit nervously. Maybe I won't ever have to... "Dogs aren't so bad though," he says putting his hands behind his head as he leans back.
ReplyDeleteBast toys with a stray curl that had fallen from her braid. "She got into a fight once. She was off with her clan in the south, and they were ambushed by wild dogs. Maman saw it happening. We barely got there in time to treat all their wounds."
ReplyDeleteHe frowns. "That's horrible...but...if it was seen before it happened, wouldn't it be taken as a warning and could be avoided? Or did you not have time to warn her?"
ReplyDelete"I was young, and our link was cut off by the distance. There was no time to warn them."
ReplyDeleteOrzad wakes up from his sleep and tries to move to not wake up Eartha as he takes the next watch. So Eartha can still sleep before he gently knocks her off his chest he takes his cloak and crunches it up into a ball so earth can sleep on that. Orzad then takes his spear and finds a spot in the tree where he can keep a eye on just about everything that's going on around here. This place is really quite peaceful at night from up here.
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