#12 || Red-Tailed Hawk wrote:Username: PuddlebyOnTheMarsh
Name: Isabeau
Gender: Female
Edits;; Primal Gene
Jewel Rank;; Novice
Power;; Fire
#13 || Sharp-Shinned Hawk wrote:Username: Rondell
Name: Cesare
Gender: Male
Edits;; Primal Gene
Jewel Rank;; Novice
Power;; Water
Parents:
Satura is their father, while his friend Gabe is their godfather. Having raised two kits of his own, Gabe is a wellspring of information! How they got lost:
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The dark sky arched overhead, cloudless, starless, and moonless. No breeze blew. No insects hummed. No friendly nightjar called out to dispel the nocturnal gloom. Only the rustling of his own footfalls kept him company as he cut across a seemingly endless field, and with every step the hollow sound echoed and doubled until at last it seemed to fill up his entire world. Why not? It had no competition; for all he knew, it WAS the world. He paused for a moment - head up, nose searching - and suddenly he was deaf. This oppressive scene reminded him very much of what a turtle must experience after it withdrew into the deepest depths of its shell... only instead of footfalls, a turtle had to listen to its own heartbeat.
He could neither see nor scent his tribe.
He was alone.
Unable to stand the silence any longer, the young Sima resumed his flight (from what he didn't know), and the night was once more made of rustling.___________________________________________________
Isabeau was startled awake by a sharp pain in her tail. Leaping swiftly to her feet, she took a defensive stance and quickly scanned the immediate area for the source of her troubles. Nothing! No enemy, not even a large bug that might have tasted her tail in error.
Wait a minute, speaking of pests, where was her brother? She heard a soft sound behind her, from the nearby forest. Isabeau turned just in time to see his feathered tail slip between the trees. That was odd. Usually he would have hidden close by to observe the results of his prank. She briefly considered waking one of her parents then decided she didn't want to seem to be a whiny pup. Besides, that had really hurt. She wouldn't mind a few minutes out of earshot of her parents to . . .discuss it with him. She quickly and stealthily slipped out of camp, heading for the spot where her brother had vanished into the trees.
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Step after step, inch after inch, foot after foot... mile after mile. How long had he been crossing this field? It felt like forever, yet despite the ground he'd covered, the trees on the horizon never seemed to get any closer. If anything, they were getting further away! The young Sima quickened his pace. The rustling of his passage grew more insistent. He HAD to reach those trees...___________________________________________________
Isabeau listened carefully while she waited for her eyes to adjust. The nearly full moon seemed as bright as day compared to the darkness of the forest. This was odd behavior, even for Cesare. She had expected him to be waiting with a bucket of water or something to drop on her or throw AT her. Instead, he seemed intent on leading her on a chase. She had half a mind to go back to bed and leave him on his foolish jaunt. Then her tender tail happened to smack into a low branch and she inhaled sharply. No doubt she would regret this, but she was going to track him down. He wasn't going to get away with one of his dumb jokes THIS time! Upon hearing the snap of a small twig nearly out of earshot, she headed swiftly toward the sound. Soon she caught a whiff of his scent and soon after, caught sight of the culprit. Odd - he wasn't acting anything like she had expected! No snickering or sneaking. Just walking along, eyes glazed, staring off into the distance at nothing. Uh oh.... No... can't be! He stopped sleepwalking
ages ago!
As she closed the distance between them, she heard a distant roll of thunder. Her brother didn't respond to her arrival at all. Keeping pace with him wasn't easy either. He must be leading a charmed existence to miss every single tree like that. She had to keep sprinting around - and jumping over - shrubbery to stay with him. Finally, a flash of lightning split the sky and she got a good look at his face. Definitely sleep walking.... Waving her paw in front of his face, shouting, and finally a (not that gentle) tap on the back of the head all gave her nothing.
Cesare continued on blindly.
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A bright jag of soundless lightning split the sky in half, startling him enough that he broke stride and lapsed into stillness despite his nearly overpowering urge to reach the treeline. Heart racing, wide eyes glued on a featureless expanse that now seemed closer and more oppressive than ever, the young Sima merely stood - waiting for a clap of thunder that would never come. Instead, eerie silence stretched out to infinity.
He had a dreadful notion that the storm was directly overhead.
That he was at its center...
A second bolt of lightning arced across the sky, as silent as the first, and he broke into a run. The rustling of the grass was practically a scream in his starved ears as his feet tore across the field, heedless of any pitfalls that could be hidden by the long grass. He HAD to get to the trees! He had to get... home... back... away....
Before the storm broke.
Because if it did that, and he was still stuck out in the open....___________________________________________________
Finally, she tired of the whole "avoid embedding her face in a tree while trying to keep up with her idiot brother" thing. The storm sounded like it was nearly on top of them. She was pretty sure she remembered the direction they had come from, but it was getting harder as they kept dodging trees and charging through thickets. She wasn't too confident about her ability to backtrack by scent, either. Not in this weather! Then there was a small break in the canopy above and the moon gave her enough light to maneuver by. She lunged at Cesare, managing to redirect his forward momentum and spin him front to back. "Hey, where do you think you are going?" she shouted above the sound of the rising wind. Heck with it, this was getting worse by the moment! She nipped his ear, and the heavens opened up.
Perfect!
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His eyes popped open. Funny, that... hadn't they been open... already...?Thoroughly disoriented, Cesere stumbled forward (or was it backward?) a few more steps before finally coming to a halt in a small hollow that was rapidly filling with rain. The stale air of the field had suddenly been replaced by dampness; by the smell of wet earth and leaves and an electrical tang so prominent that, for a moment, he wondered if he'd bitten his tongue. And the sound was spectacular! Thunder, wind, rustling, creaking, cracking... it was a balm to his senses after so much deprivation!
But... where was he? Why did his ear hurt?
Blinking slowly in the deluge (to clear his mind more than his eyes), the young Sima and peered about himself in the rain-darkened night and fought to regain his bearings. He couldn't REMEMBER reaching the forest, yet here he was - in the safety of the trees! Home! Safe! Cesare could feel his excitement rising.
"Over here, stupid!"
He spun around, searching for the source of the voice, and easily picked his sister out of the gloom. As his eyes fell upon her, he grinned. "Izzy! We're home! I found my way! We're..."
"You were sleepwalking again!"
Cesare's words died on his tongue. There were trees all around, yes, but not the ones he'd been seeking. He could see that now. The bark, the leaves - they were wrong. So was the smell. How had he not seen immediately...? "So the whole thing was..."
"A dream, yes."
A cold, hard lump settled in his stomach, and he couldn't keep from shivering.
"I was fast asleep with the rest of the tribe, but you stomped on my tail as you were going off. I thought you were being dumb again, so I followed you, only to find out that you WERE being dumb, but in a different way." Isabeau attempted to smile, but he could tell that her heart wasn't in it. His sister was tired after all, and wet, and afraid. Just like he was. It had been a long night for them both. "I tried to keep track of where we were going but I mainly was counting on following our scent trail," she gave a futile shake, "you can see how well that plan worked out. Back home we know every rock and tree but I'm afraid I'm lost for the first time in my life." She plopped down on the sodden ground, her tail making a faint splash as it landed in a puddle, "and I do not like it!"
Note: MY writing is italic (Cesare asleep) or gray (Cesare awake)
while Puddle's is nice, normal text throughout.
