What the...

[donotmail]

| 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?"

Comments

[donotmail]

"Everyone assumes, but nobody knows?"

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.

[evantuality]

Evan grimaces. This new tree-dweller may basically be a cat, but his body language is surprisingly easy to parse, more so than Evan would have thought. The kiarr looked about how Evan had felt when he first realized he couldn't go home.

"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."

[donotmail]

"My name is Arj," he says, "of Clan Aauron, of the Heshroun Basin." He pauses, and then. "In Ryll," he adds.

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.

[evantuality]

"Arj," Evan repeats the name to solidify it in his memory. He inclines his head to the kiarr, acknowledgement for sharing the piece of information.

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."