donotmail (
donotmail) wrote in
thehometree2015-07-30 09:16 pm
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What the...
| characters | Arj and anyone!
| date/time | Wednesday afternoon, just after the crystals shatter
| location | 1st floor of the tree
| rating | PGish?
| summary | Arj gets a sudden welcome when the new floors open up!
Arj is outside when he hears the commotion. He'd slunk off into the outdoors some time earlier, in search of a quiet place to hide. Outside, he'd been overwhelmed by the vast forest in front of him. Did greenmount trees really get this big?
Of course none of it matters, because this is a hallucination, and he is going to be calm about it and not get into trouble. So he's found himself a nice hollow in one of the great tree's roots, and is how hiding behind a curtain of illusionary moss. He's curled up in a tight little ball, ears turning this way and that. He can hear things outside, people talking, but he is going to be sensible about this. There is no point whatsoever in talking to anyone who doesn't exist.
Until the crystalline sound of shattering pierces the air, and he startles, the 'moss' vanishing into nothing. Against his better judgement, he half runs, half slinks over the massive roots to the hollowed out trunk.
"What on Ryll was THAT?"
| date/time | Wednesday afternoon, just after the crystals shatter
| location | 1st floor of the tree
| rating | PGish?
| summary | Arj gets a sudden welcome when the new floors open up!
Arj is outside when he hears the commotion. He'd slunk off into the outdoors some time earlier, in search of a quiet place to hide. Outside, he'd been overwhelmed by the vast forest in front of him. Did greenmount trees really get this big?
Of course none of it matters, because this is a hallucination, and he is going to be calm about it and not get into trouble. So he's found himself a nice hollow in one of the great tree's roots, and is how hiding behind a curtain of illusionary moss. He's curled up in a tight little ball, ears turning this way and that. He can hear things outside, people talking, but he is going to be sensible about this. There is no point whatsoever in talking to anyone who doesn't exist.
Until the crystalline sound of shattering pierces the air, and he startles, the 'moss' vanishing into nothing. Against his better judgement, he half runs, half slinks over the massive roots to the hollowed out trunk.
"What on Ryll was THAT?"
no subject
And then he stops, mid stride, and looks back at Evan. His head is held low, his ears pressed flat against his skull.
"You were serious about that part, weren't you?"
no subject
Well... and he suddenly had the look of a nervous cat again, and Evan missed his cat back home. "You want me to show you?"
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It's probably another prank. But he looks up at the human anyway. "Yes."
no subject
Heading out of the broad aperture in the side of the tree, he steps down into the leaf litter and the moss, pausing for a moment to pick his route, estimating the place where the mist might be closest to them. Ultimately he picks an oblique angle away from their exit, a straight line between some gnarly roots. "You can't really see it," he explains as he leads. "You just sort of run into it when the mist starts getting thick. Actually knew someone who ran face-first into it when she arrived, didn't know it was there."
He glanced at the cat. "She ended up breaking her nose. Not, all told, an exceptionally good way to find out it's there."
no subject
The air is comfortably warm, but the dappled shadows are strange and unfamiliar to someone used to spending his life under the hot sun. It feels as if everything is closing in upon him. Yet again his long ears twist and turn at every sound. It smells of leaves and earth out here, and the trails of strange prey cross his path. The human doesn't seem to notice a thing.
He's telling the truth about the mist. It's thick enough that all he can see are faint shapes, like when fog rolled into the basin from the mountains back home. But it was never impenetrable.
"It doesn't look like it can do that," he says.
no subject
He's walking with one hand slightly extended, now, not wanting to mash himself face-first when they finally find where the fog turns from simply unpleasant to downright solid. He adds, "I think that's the point.
"Ah!" They've just reached the barrier. Evan stops, sliding his hand against the solidity of it: the mist is so thick here he can't entirely see his hand, extended in front of him. "Here. You can feel it here. It goes all the way around the tree, I've checked."
no subject
But he still doesn't believe it. Not until he raises a paw, and feels...
It's like rock. Solid and unyielding, yet he knows at a touch that even the most powerful Desert couldn't shift it. Whatever magic this is, his clan has nothing to do with it. That would be reassuring, if not for the implications.
"And nobody's been able to get through it?"
no subject
He backed off a few steps from the barrier, into the thinner fog that left him less nervous. "Actually, there are people who... who were here when I arrived, who've since disappeared. No one really knows where they go... everyone I've talked to just assumes that they were sent back where they came from the same way we were all brought here. But hell, for all we know they just found a gap in the barrier and decided to go while the going was good."
If it's a bit much to dump on a newbie, Evan hasn't got enough good sense to realize as much. Frowning, he jams his hands in his pockets. "But no. As far as I know, no one's been through it."
no subject
He looks up at the human again. He's not used to looking up. He's always been tall among his clan, as if everything that should have gone into wiry muscles went straight into pure height. He hasn't looked up at anyone for a long time.
For some reason, that, and not all the other madness, is what his him deep down. He sinks to his haunches in the light mist and stares up at the distant branches.
"Everything's so big," he says. It's a stupid comment, but he's not in the mood for even a quick snarl.
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"Yeah, I know, right?" He stuffs his hands in the pockets of his jeans, not at all sure how to offer any reassurance. There's little that's reassuring about their situation.
Instead his eyes slide down the length of the hidden barrier, off far to their left. "Hey... my name's Evan. I don't think I caught yours."
no subject
He looks the human - Evan - up and down again. "And... where are you from?" The possibility that Ryll is not the all-there-is is still beyond him, even if by all the evidence, Evan has never walked on its ground. He's still handing the situation delicately, like a near dead ember that still has the capacity to burn.
no subject
Then he sighs, and before answering, he starts a slow stroll cutting back in the direction of the tree. "There's not much to see out here," he explains, "most useful stuff is back at the tree."
The truth is that Evan is beginning to get homesick. He doesn't want to think about home, but still, the kiarr's question hangs. "I'm from a planet called Earth, in a country called Canada." He didn't think the more specific details mattered much. "There are a few other folks from Earth here but not that many. Most of us are from different places."