Crack of Dawn|Clan Poldora, Beastlands

[Toyoll]

Aakel grew restless, the sun has yet to break free of his nightly prison and the Poldoran Officer sat on her bed, grumbling.

Her bag was packed with essentials; hunting tools, bandages, travelling cloak...

After a short time, Aakel smuthered the small fire in the pit, slung her bag over shoulders and dashed out into the eerie calm of pre-dawn. Some Beasts were already beginning to stir and nocturnal clanmates were returning from their hunt. The deep-blue sky was already devoid of stars and was smudged with the smoke of fires burning throughout the village.

Aakel took a couple of well known alleys to reach Thavan's hut. She knew it was his, the construction of the home was obviously influenced by the Water-type's old culture and stuck out a bit against the other Beasts' houses.

The vixen simply let herself in, she looked about, her canaaite eyes allowing her to see in dim light. Aakel walked over to Thavan's bed and she poked him roughly, speaking in a harsh whisper, "hey! HEY! Hedgehog! Wake up!"

((Hmmm...I took lots of liberaties here. Tell me if it's too much.))

[Kender Bard]

((That's fine. Thavan probably did try to make his home more.. graceful.))

Thavan gave a yelp and jumped, reflexively sending a fist in Aakel's direction, but it was clumsy and nowhere near the mark. He had yet to master the art of waking fit for combat, and it would probably be quite some time until he was. As it was, he gave a grunt of pain and rubbed his arm - healed, but stiff and sore. "Aakel?" He yawned and stretched, sitting up and groping for a fresh tunic. "Forces, when you said early you meant it, huh?"

[Toyoll]

Aakel smiled in the dark, "Yes. Yes I did. Now hurry up."

"Dear, sweet Worg..." she sighed to herself, "..You haven't even eaten yet!" The vixen rumaged around and eventually found his fire pit. Aakel struck some flint and started a tiny fire. "There, at least you can see now...Right..."

She stood awkwardly for a moment." Right... I'll be...well I guess I'll be waiting outside then, let you get dressed in peace..."

Aakel exited the hut and waited outside, leaning on the wall.

[Kender Bard]

The faint sound of Thavan's chuckling floats out of his hut. After a few minutes, he emerges dressed. "I can eat on the road. I'm in no mood to rush the morning pace at any rate. I packed last night, mostly, so let's get going." He had on his back his things, including his weapons. In his hand was an apple he'd foraged a little while ago. It seemed a bit shriveled but otherwise fine. He grinned, took a huge bite out of it, and turned around to get his bearings until he spotted north.

"all right, we head northeast. Get any foraging and hunting you want done along the way while we're still in Beast territory. Once we're out on the more open plains, the game gets more scarce. Understand?"

[Toyoll]

"Don't worry, hedgehog, I won't let you starve." she chuckled. It was odd having the tables turned. She, who knew nothing of the rest of the world, had to rely on Thavan for help. But the willingness to learn was there and besides, she could gloat about it later.

She cracked her signature smirk, but there was an undertone of doubt, "Yeah, let's get goin' then. I asked Norov to look after our stuff..." As if to reassert herself, she amicably elbowed Thavan in the side, "The road isn't gonna get any shorter! Let's go."

[Kender Bard]

"Right, right," he laughed, walking along in the direction he'd picked out. For a while he walked on in silence, occasionally pausing with a frown on her face. "Do you smell smoke? I think we're far enough away from Poldora to not smell the personal fires anymore."

[Toyoll]

Aakel halted and raised an eyebrow, "Huh, yeah?"

She looked back at the tiny dark shapes of Poldora village, the thin fillaments of smoke drifted south-east, meaning that the wind was blowing from the north-west. Aakel frowned, they were up-wind...

"That's odd...." the vixen turned her nose into the wind and took a long sniff, "It's bigger than a campfire and Seere isn't for miles..." Aakel frowned, this was odd, the summer bush fires were done and over with, the sun isn't even up yet, for Worg's sake!

[Kender Bard]

Thavan didn't like it, not one bit. "Your nose is better than mine," he pointed out quickly enough. "I'd like to find where the fire is coming from. If someone is camping out, then they need to explain themselves. If it's something worse... Well, I'd like to just ease my mind."

He felt good, acting like this. Important. Older. The point of the journey fled from his head in the face of duty and it was like having a burden momentarily lifted from his shoulders. "Better safe than sorry, aye?"

[Toyoll]

"Aye..." Aakel eyed him curiously and shook her head, "You seem more confident, Hedgehog." she narrowed her eyes, "What is it? You obviously know something....."

After a while, she just dismissed it with a wave of her hand, "Anywho, let's get to the bottom of this. I hope you've practiced your creeping."

Aakel lowered herself and disapeared into the grass.

[Kender Bard]

He grimaced - creeping wasn't something he was good at, and he HAD been putting off any opportunity to exercise that. Sighing, he dropped down and tried his best to follow. After even he flinched at the noise he was making, though, he gave up on the attempt, stood up, and opted to just dart tree-to-tree and hope he didn't lose Aakel.

And the smoke led to the source, all right. Four trees burning merrily. One of the little pockets of forest fires that have sprouted up all of a sudden. Thavan cursed and started sending a thick stream of water to try and put one tree out.

[Toyoll]

Aakel lept out of the grass, cursing colorfully as her skin was burnt by rogue embers, "What in Forces' name is this all about?! Bush fires in the middle of fall???"

All around them, small mammals scurried away, spooked, but otherwise unharmed. Birds of all kinds started to gather at the fire's edge, snapping up the fleeing insects. Nothing more than an ordinary bush fire right?

[Kender Bard]

Thavan frowned grimly, satisfied once he'd put out two of the trees. There was still some fire left, but he was exhausted. "That's odd," he replied between pants.

Then right before their eyes, the little fire that was left leapt up and increased in size, unnaturally fast, spreading rapidly to three more trees in a heartbeat.

[Toyoll]

"Damn!" Aakel lept back again, "Rrrgh! What is all this???!!!!"

Aakel was furious, these were no natural flames. As with all Beasts, she had a deep-seated hatred for fire, a result mostly of fear.

Suddenly, the vixen had an idea. Aakel lifted her tunic and pressed her fingers onto her fire sign, chanting feverently. She wasn't very strong with her second sign, nor had she had much experience with it. But Aakel prayed to the Forces, willing the flames to smother.

Beads of sweat rolled down her face, she hadn't anticipated how exhausting it would be to even attempt such a thing.

[Kender Bard]

The flames die down to a reasonable level, and Thavan douses them swiftly, panting afterwards. "Good thinking," he praises her. "Are you okay?"

[Toyoll]

As soon as the last ember was quelled, Aakel let go of her sign and she collapsed onto her knees, panting, brushing the sweat from her copper mane.

"Dear, sweet, Worg..." she gasped between breaths, "Is using active signs always this draining?!"

All of a sudden Aakel froze, "Oh.......I feel.....sleepy....?" As if on cue, the mighty Poldora Beast keeled over to the side and landed with a dull thump.

There were still signs of life in the vixen, however, she was blinking, raising her eyebrows in an effort to remain awake, "What is this...?" Aakel said in a small voice.