Untamed Wilds [Closed] - Printable Version

Untamed Wilds [Closed] - Printable Version

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Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 05-12-2017

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - saronym - 05-12-2017

Dakannore: The Untamed Wilds.

So far his trek had lasted well over a month, which included one week where he was stuck at the port city in Macrilan recovering from a terrible cold he’d gotten aboard the ship that had brought him from Eskra to the Veridian Isles. His illness had delayed his travel south. Here he was just now getting into the heart the Dakannorean jungles.

Oooh that was a good one.

The Heart of Dakannore.

Potential book titles kept swirling in his mind as he hacked at the vegetation and undergrowth with a machete. Plunging in with little more than a compass, a rough idea of the size of the island - it had never been formally surveyed for mapping yet -, and a goal to make discoveries and publish them. He was particularly interested in collecting specimens from the jungle to take home for an exhibition he would present along with the publishing of his book at the International Fair being held in Eskra next year.

He hoped to collect a sample of lava, something no Eskran had ever seen. He understood the substance was dangerous and perhaps volatile, but he naively believed he had a glass bottle that could contain it for study.

In The Dakannorean Wilds.

The tangled trees that towered high overhead often had a branch system so interlocked that it blocked the sunlight and it became difficult to tell the time of day. The humidity also was punishing. Owen’s shoulder length hair was pulled back everyday into a bun. The hair at the nape of his neck soaked with sweat. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe. He felt as if he couldn't get enough water. Owen wondered, at times, whether he'd die in these jungles. The worst part was this was only his third day hiking them. Traveling deeper and deeper each day.

The Jungles of Dakannore.

He decided to take a rest for a while and sat down on the log of a tree that had fallen. He unloaded his pack to the ground and retrieved his journal to record how the hike was going that day. He frowned at his watch. It was frozen on 10:09. He tapped at the face in irritation. How was he supposed to accurately mark the events of his trip? How was he supposed to know when to stop for the evening? He would become completely disoriented without his timepiece.

Too late anyways he was already completely disoriented. The only thing that kept him half way on track was his compass which he followed steadily south. He was traveling from the northern most point of the island through the middle to the south.

Owen chucked the dysfunctional watch into the woods in a fit of anger.

He regretted it even before the glittering gold watch fell through the bushes. “Shit!” He cried and went after it. Thick brambles scratched at his arms as he dug around for his watch. It should have been there some where.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 05-12-2017

She had been watching him since he had arrived.

She often hid in the trees and watched the port from a distance. It couldn’t really be called a port. It was just a dock that was unmanned and falling apart. Nestled in a cove that was the only place calm and safe enough for boats to dock without worrying about the unforgiving rocks that lined the harsh island.

He had come, and he had stayed. That was curious and it intrigued her. No one stayed, fearing the island for the death trap that it could be if one was unfamiliar with the territory. And he was alone. Doubly dangerous. If the heat didn’t kill you the fauna certainly would. Even the flora if you weren’t careful.

He kept on in the same direction, and she kept following him, silent and unseen in the trees. She was practically stalking him, though she didn’t consider him prey. It had been days now, and sometimes she would wander off to do her own thing for awhile, but his trail was easy enough to pick up, he wasn’t doing anything to hide himself in the jungle, so she went back to hunting him when she was bored.

It was like a game to her, made all the more fun by his utter obliviousness.

When he was sleeping, she would slip out of the trees and inspect his camp. It was full of strange and interesting things she had never seen before. She didn’t know what they did or how to handle them. It was possible she had broken a few things in her carelessness, but it wasn’t like she could tell.

He was making good progress today, steadfast and resolute through the jungle. Towards what, she still didn’t know. She was lazing about on a high branch in the canopy where she would be able to keep an eye on him for a while without having to following him too closely. Her tail swayed lazily above her head and her ears were swiveled in his direction.

She felt a strange need to keep an eye on him. Like a silent guardian of sorts. He didn’t quite seem like he could handle himself to her.

He was yelling. Her ears perked and she sat up in time to watch him fling something into the distance. Curious as to what it had been she gracefully pushed herself up and darted across the canopy, using branches and vines to support her fluid movements.

The feral lynx had never been too keen on revealing herself to him, but she wanted whatever he had discarded. She dropped out of the trees a few feet away from him, where the item in question was glinting in the underbrush. She landed with a soft grunt and snatched the item from the ground. Her tail swayed behind her head as she inspected the item, turning it over in her hands with no concern that he would want it back. Finders keepers and all that. She was wearing the tattered scraps of a dress, though it didn’t leave her completely bare it wasn’t enough to be considered decent in more civilized circles. Her dark hair was long and curly and somewhat tangled, and she was barefoot. Scare clothing revealed that she her arms and legs were decorated in dark markings like spots.

Still, unconcerned for her company she held the item up and watched it glint in the sunlight that filtered through the trees. She made a noise that could have been a giggle.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - saronym - 05-13-2017

The whole goal of his adventure in the jungle was to observe. Literally to notice things. The entire time he was there he had completely failed to notice a woman tracking his every move and going through his camp.

Suffice it to say, when she crashed from above, falling like a spider into the bushes for his watch, Owen finally noticed her.

He startled when a figure dropped down from the top of his vision. He flinched throwing his hands up as if to protect his head. When nothing landed on him, he spied the creature that had picked up his watch.

Not so much creature, but woman. A woman in partial dress at that. What was that cute noise she made? She reminded him of a mischievous house cat that had gotten a hold of something it shouldn’t have. Her tail moved like a kitten before it played with a string.

He felt a flush creeping towards his cheeks. So much skin and the spotted pattern on her skin…

He took a step forward, shoving his embarrassment down, and held his hand out wiggling his fingers at her. “You there, woman!” He called, “Return my watch to me! It was a gift from my father.”

For some reason, he expected her to somehow understand the words he spoke to her. And also to obey them.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 05-15-2017

Her ears swiveled towards him. Registering that he was making noises at her, but her attention was focused on the sparkling object she’d confiscated. She let the watch dangle off her index finger, lifting the face of it to her vision. She cocked her head, tail swaying before letting the object fall back into her palm. She tapped the glass covering with one long fingernail, her ears twitched at the tapping sound that resulted.

She was obviously inspecting the timepiece, though she had no clue what it was. Time was a flimsy human invention and there was no reason she would understand it. She even went as far as to lift the gold band to her mouth and bite down on it. She made a face.

When she finally acknowledged his presence, which was only to toss her gaze at him over her shoulder, she noted the way he was holding his hand out. A fairly universal gesture, just as the furrow of his brow was a universal sort of expression. He wanted what she had.

But what she had was now hers. He’d thrown it, and she’d picked it up. It was simple. A high pitched and rumbling chirrup of a noise sounded in her throat. She curled her fingers around the watch and pressed it against her chest. She turned away from him, as if to suggest he had no room to quarrel with her about it.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - saronym - 05-24-2017

He waited patiently while she examined the watch. For the moment, he didn’t mind observing her while she investigated the piece. Just so long as she didn’t hurt it.

Oh my god.

She was trying to eat it. She was, at the very least, tasting it. Thankfully she found it inedible. He hoped she didn’t scratch the face with her teeth.

He wiggled his hand insistently and then jabbed his palm with his index finger. Maybe a clearer sign that she had taken what was his and he expected it back.

The sort of feral animal-like noises she made in the back of her throat were playful but also signaled to him that they probably wouldn’t be able to verbally communicate very effectively.

He pointed to the watch she was now clutching to her chest like a precious stuffed animal and then pointed to himself. “Mine.”

Owen stalked towards her when she turned her shoulder on him as if she wouldn’t comply. He reached for her touching her shoulder gently with his hand. He had no idea whether he would spook her or provoke her, so he tried to keep his touch gentle. His fingers traced dark spots that decorated the skin on her shoulder trying to encourage her to turn to him.

“Mine. Give it back please.” His voice was almost pleading. “My father gave it to me.” He insisted. Words meaningless to her perhaps could be conveyed with the tone of voice.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 05-24-2017

“Mine.”

Her back was still turned to him, but her ears swiveled in his direction. She was still aware of his presence and still listening to him, even though most of the sounds he made meant to her. That one, however...

Mine.

She was familiar with mine. Something that the litter mothers would say when a cub was misbehaving. When they had...taken something that belonged to the mothers. She huffed an annoyed sort of noise, but still did not turn to him. The shiny thing belonged to her now. He couldn’t be going around saying mine and claiming things. He was just jealous, she assumed, because now she had it and he didn’t.

Her ears pushed to attention and she heard him moving closer, despite his size and his obvious annoyance she had yet to register him as particularly threatening. His touch had mostly the desired effect. She whipped around to face him as fingertip grazed over her spots, she knocked his hand away from her with one of her own and hissed. Her nose wrinkled and her lips pulled back to reveal long and pointed canine teeth.

It was only a warning. Her ears quickly pinned backwards, and she was frowning at him. She still didn’t know what he was saying, but he sounded all sad about it. She trilled a brief and annoyed sort of noise, her throat worked with the obvious effort of making the sound. Like a purr mingling with a high pitched whine. He was being quite insistent and looking very pathetic about whatever she had that he had not wanted until she had it.

She dropped the watch on the ground between them and crossed her arms petulantly.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - saronym - 06-03-2017

Owen jerked his hand away from her when she knocked it away and started showing him her teeth in an obvious display of self-defense and warning. He held out his hands palm first showing her he meant no harm. Slowly one hand rotated around back to a position of ‘gimme’ and he wiggled his fingers indicating he still wanted the watch back.

A plaintive cry sounded from her throat before she essentially tossed the watch on the ground at their feet.

Really?

He bent to snatch at the watch and brushed off the mud that had stuck to it from where she dropped it. The watch disappeared, gold chain first into his breast pocket. He frowned at the irritated cat, she seemed upset, but justice didn’t always feel good and he got what he wanted from her.

“Thank you.” He said sternly and promptly turned from her to continue his mission. Owen moved away and put his little notebook into his pack and picked up his course again irrespective of the cat and his little altercation with her.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 06-04-2017

She dropped her arms, one ear falling lopsided as he turned and walked away from her. That was it? She cocked her head, tail swaying back behind her back. Why was he leaving? She had given the shiny thing back, even though she was convinced that she had claimed it rightfully.

Maybe he had more shiny things he would be willing to part with. In exchange for her mature generosity. The throaty noise she made sounded like a complaint.

Not needing an invitation she followed after him. Her steps were much quieter than his. He sort of crashed through the jungle. Loud and cutting down anything that got in his way. It was dangerous, drawing attention to himself like that. He reminded her of juveniles ambling out of the den for the first time. Confused and unsteady.

She laughed at the thought, it was more female than feline as compared to her other noises. Shestepped over brush that he hacked down and dodged springy branches that he pushed to the side. He was bound to get in trouble at this rate. She should probably stick with him. To keep him safe. Not because he was at all interesting and attractive.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - saronym - 06-11-2017

Owen was aware that the woman was following. Every now and then he glanced back and there she was. Darting from behind a tree or stepping quietly over something. The way she moved was mesmerizing. It reminded him of city folk and the way busy pedestrian traffic flowed naturally. Whereas he was attuned to avoiding bumping into people on the streets - turning to the side as he walked, estimating the speed of carriages for his jaunt across a street - she was just the same in the jungle.

Fascinating.

He didn't stop her from following him or try to engage her. Perhaps she was like the pedestrians in the city and they happened to be following the same commute. Secondly, she had made it quite clear in her little show of teeth that she didn't appreciate his touching of her so he figured engaging her could lead to conflict. And finally, they didn't have common language so engaging her would be difficult and he had things to do. So they went on, her following him quietly, and he acting indifferent towards her.

The air was hot, heavy, humid and bore down on him relentlessly. It was perhaps ill advised but he dropped his pack and removed his shirt baring himself to the waist. He tied the sweat soaked shirt to his pack to dry off if it was possible in the humidity.

Owen couldn’t move like her though so he quickly became scratched by branches and spiny plants. Fine scraggly scratches marred his arms, chest, and stomach. He didn’t seem to mind them as much as he did the heat and allowed his skin to be assaulted by the jungle.

Stopping suddenly on his crash through the jungle, Owen came across a large wine red colored spider with a black head. The body was the size of a child’s hand with legs longer than fingers. It was easily the biggest spider he had ever seen, and Owen decided it was a worthy specimen for collecting. He dropped his pack and selected the appropriately sized specimen jar and began working to collect the species. Crouching down on the jungle floor, he corralled it with one hand towards the jar in the other.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 06-12-2017

The human was losing layers as the traversed through the jungle. A low noise sounded in her throat. It was meant to convey concern, and advise him against bareness, but it he didn’t seem to understand. She didn’t mind. He was very nice to watch from behind, broad and muscled shoulders, moved beneath sun-tanned skin as he pushed and hacked at the underbrush.

She continued to maneuver easily. The tattered dress she wore left little to the imagination, but the heat didn’t seem to bother her. Dark and spotted skin went unmarred, resistant to the unfriendly attack of the jungle.

He stopped, suddenly. Julianna stopped. She cocked her head to one side, an ear falling lopsided. She couldn’t figure what he was doing. She trilled, high-pitched and curious. There was something questioning to the sound. When he didn’t respond to her she made the same noise, and this time it was more insistent.

Still, he ignored her. With a huff she moved close enough to him to see what he was messing with. Hovering near his back, she peered over his shoulder. She audibly gasped when she laid eyes on the creature he was harassing. It was called a Feverbite Spider, and it was called that for a reason. She wasn’t sure if he knew that. She wasn’t sure if he knew anything at this point.

With a chirrup, she tapped his shoulder. Fingertips feather-light, but urgent against his skin. She was talking very low, but very fast in Verdian. Move away, she tried to command. Leave it alone. Don’t touch it.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - saronym - 06-13-2017

Owen was certainly aware of the inquisitive sounds behind him coming from the woman who was intent to follow him. He ignored her despite the growing urgency in the sounds she made.

He felt the warmth emanating from her body where she crouched near his back. He felt her gasp and her fingers touching at her shoulder. The volume and pace of her speech only served to confirm he had found something special.

“What kind of spider is it?”

The explorer asked almost breathless with his discovery. Not that she could answer. He continued to try to coax the spider towards the jar but it resisted his efforts.

For a deadly spider it was fairly docile. That is to say it tolerated his nonsense until he became impatient and tried to pluck the spider up by one of its sturdy looking legs. The spider flailed around and latched on to his hand with its free legs and landed a nasty sting to the webbing of the explorer’s thumb.

Owen jerked his hand away and let go of the spider. It dropped to the jungle floor with an audible dull thump as Owen shook the hand out. The pain was immediate and searing and sent tears to his eyes. It was by far the worst or any bug or animal bite or sting he had ever experienced.

“Ouch. Shit. Ow.” He complained as he gripped his hand to his chest. Owen inspected the bite which was readily visible and easily recognizable by two fang marks as a spider bite. The skin around the fang punctures had already started to inflame and turned a bright and angry pink.

“Shit that hurts.” He complained again and then proudly showed the woman his wound without any knowledge as to the significance or danger of the bite he had received. Owen had plans to treat the wound with the best modern medicine: a bandage and some cream.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 06-22-2017

She continued to whine, especially when he picked up the spider by one of its many spindly legs. She watched as exactly what she had expected to happen inevitably happened. He had been bitten. Of course he had been bitten because he hadn’t listened to her. She sidled around him and scooped up the spider from behind with both hands and tossed it into the brush.

Chattering animatedly she rounded on him and knelt into the dirt. He was pushing his hand at her, showing off the wound like he was somehow proud of it. Her expression read that she was clearly unamused. She took his hand in hers and inspected the bites which were looking more and more problematic as the seconds passed. She continued to complain in her native tongue, pushing at the punctures with her thumbs like one would pester a blemish. She held his hand tightly, knowing that the pain of her attention would cause him to try and pull away.

The bites oozed blood and fluids at her prodding, she would only be able to get so much of the venom out. It was already in his blood and he’d be feeling the effects of it soon enough. The symptoms varied from person to person. Feverbite Spider venom was known to cause muscle spasms, chills and fever, nausea, and hallucinations. She allowed him to reclaim his hand, but not without complaint, when her inspection became too painful.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - saronym - 06-28-2017

Unlike the previous insect and other bites he had suffered, this pain did not seem to subside but grew and burned like fire inside his hand and up his arm. It was the venom entering his circulation. He sucked a pained breath from behind his teeth when she worried at the wound to express sickly looking fluids. Though he considered himself a brave (if foolish) explorer, Owen was not one for blood. He found himself feeling woozy at the sight of it and from the agonizing pain coursing up his arm.

The pinching at the wound site became too much to bear on top of the searing and so he jerked his hand away from her with another hissing breath. Owen cradled the hand against his chest.

“This really hurts.” He complained at her. “It hurts.”

The pain turned over his stomach and he felt the telltale sign of emesis: his mouth filling with extra spit. Going pale, Owen turned away from her took a few paces away to spare her the display as he emptied his stomach.

“God.” He groan lurching for his pack to take some water. Owen sunk down to the jungle floor, leaning back against a tree as he gulped at his water bottle to replace his fluids. The bitten hand seized up and he cried out with the pain of it until the episode passed. Owen’s head fell back against the tree and he stared up at the multi-colored canopy above while he suffered. Grey spots floated in front of his eyes and he wondered if this was death coming.

RE: Untamed Wilds [Closed] - megs - 07-11-2017

She continued to talk over him as he complained. She knew the noise was lost on him without a common language between them, but she was content to think the scolding tone was enough to convey her meaning. Why couldn’t he just listen to her. Or at least try to listen to her. She had very clearly implied that messing the the spider had been a bad idea. Her chattering ended abruptly as he stumbled towards the bushes, and she pettishly crossing her arms.

She remained stalwart in this disapproving position as her eyes tracked his movements. Her tail flicked angrily to and fro behind her head. Ears fell off either side of her head, she could help him, but she had yet to decide if she wanted too.

Suddenly she turned away from him and disappeared into the underbrush. Her animated speech had returned, complaining loudly to herself, and served as an indicator that she hadn’t gone far. That she wasn’t going to completely abandon him. When she reappeared he’d taken refuge beneath the towering tree. She hummed in approval, even though it likely wasn’t something he’d done on purpose, but he needed to stay out of the sun.

Kneeling next to him with a handful of red flowers. Canbya flowers. They’d ease the pain, but not the nausea and the hallucinations. She picked one up and held it near her mouth. She opened her mouth as if she would eat the flower, but instead pushed it in his direction, wanting him to eat it instead.