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Post by Cutebabys on Jul 8, 2009 4:35:18 GMT -5
"Still thirsty?"
"No, thanks." Darcy answered. He realized that he still didn't know the man's name. After all the help I've been given, this is how I repay it? He was ashamed of himself. "What's your name?" He asked. He had finished the food the man had given and his stomach was better, although he was still hungry.
"Name's Barry." Barry replied.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 10, 2009 4:51:23 GMT -5
Barry watched the boy eat and then lay back. "Sorry there isn't more, but we are a bit low on food right now."
Barry looked him over, "Are you hurt? The Doc should be back soon and can patch you up if you got any wounds." The kid seemed a bit young to be travelling around by himself. "Were you with your parents or somebody?"
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 10, 2009 4:53:47 GMT -5
Rick followed Angel through the woods, noticing that Rip really hadn't said much in answer to his questions. He didn't see any tracks from Malphorius or that other girl either.
"Hey Angel, did you ever catch that other girl's name and have you seen her yet this morning?" Rick asked as they climbed over a fallen tree and he held out his hand to help her.
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Post by Cutebabys on Jul 10, 2009 5:49:16 GMT -5
Darcy shook his head. "That's okay, I'm not that hungry. I think I've got bruises everywhere but other than that I should be fine. Parents dead." He mumbled the last words, overcome by grief. He lay on the floor, lost in his thoughts.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 10, 2009 10:46:13 GMT -5
"I am sorry to hear that, was it the storm?" Barry asked gently. "I lost mine when I was 15, that was how I ended up being a sailor. Pa had a friend that was a ship captain and he hired me on even though I didn't know anything about sailing." Barry tried to distract Darcy from his grief. "I just love the sea, even when she acts up like she did the last few days. Nothing better than sailing. Nothing at all...well, except for a pretty wench by a warm fire, perhaps..." Barry smiled sheepishly.
"So what were you doing on the ship?" Barry figured as long as he was helping out with the few minor injuries, he would get out of tromping all over the island hauling water or building shelters or something.
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Post by ivory on Jul 10, 2009 10:50:49 GMT -5
"Hey Angel, did you ever catch that other girl's name and have you seen her yet this morning?"
She could've scurried over the tree in no time...if she wasn't wearing a dress and even if she hadn't, she probably would've taken his hand anyways. She smiled sweetly at him as he 'helped' her up and over. As soon as she was back on the ground, she answered. "Come to think of it. No." She frowned in though. "To both questions actually. Hm...wonder where she is, who, she is."
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Ivory had been awake for well over two hours, but hadn't gon to eat. The food supply was short as it was and besides, she'd learned to feed herself over the years. So instead, she'd headed deeper into the trees at a slightly different angle than where Rip, Rick, and Angel had dispersed. She listened to the voice of the trees, stopping occasionally to eat a handful or so of berries, until she reached a field. It was small - maybe ten yards wide and fifteen deep. The grass came up to her knees. A well enough place as any. Without another waste of a second, she began to work.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 10, 2009 16:53:01 GMT -5
Angel replied, "Hm...wonder where she is, who, she is."
"Yeah, me too." Rick wondered too. "I suppose I am going to have to go try to find her if we don't see anything out of her all day." Rick also wondered how much farther the spring was. He was impressed with the amount of water those who had fetched it had managed to drag back to the beach with as tired as everyone was. "She looked like she knew how to take care of herself though, but I don't think anyone should be wandering around here alone until we know more about this place."
"Is the spring much farther?" He asked, glancing behind to make sure that Rip was still with them.
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Post by Cutebabys on Jul 11, 2009 2:36:03 GMT -5
"My father was executed." He whispered softly. "I'm going to my aunt's funeral." Now that he thought about it, his family seemed to have many fatalities. He grinned at the sailor's next words. "I suppose that's why you are a sailor. Well, I love holding a sword. I can feel the energy pumping through my body." He shrugged. "Different people like different things. Which is why we choose our career. My father was a traitor." His thoughts kept going back to his parents. "Mother banished. She died from a heart attack due to grief."
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 11, 2009 12:21:33 GMT -5
Barry shook his head at the boy's story. "I am sorry to hear that." he said, tring to console Darcy. "So, you are a battleschool apprentice now? I don't think I could take the army life. all that marching about and they always seem to find something for you to do. Not that being a sailor is much different there. Always have decks to scrub or nets to mend." Barry leaned back against the tree trunk that the sail was tied to and put his arms behind his head. "Maybe this shipwreck won't be such a bad thing - maybe a nice little vacation, eh?" He grinned at Darcy.
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Post by Tandar on Jul 11, 2009 12:54:43 GMT -5
Rip mantled over the fallen trees and followed the pair in front of him. He kept his eyes sweeping from side to side, searching for any other movement. Every once in a while, the assassin would glance over his shoulder to check their backs.
The forest made him slightly anxious. They didn't know what was in there, and that sense of mystery unnerved him. Rip had heard tales of savages and wild animals killing people on seemingly deserted islands.
Cannon opened and closed his gloved hand, bringing it close to one of his knife sheaths.
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Post by Cutebabys on Jul 11, 2009 19:32:28 GMT -5
Darcy grinned at the man. "I don't think I can take much of this sailor thing. I'd rather be on solid ground, holding a sword. Vacation? I'm not being fed enough!" He said jokingly. But it was true, his stomach wasn't exactly full but he would last. He wasn't that greedy.
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Post by ivory on Jul 12, 2009 8:13:35 GMT -5
[And he still doesn't talk. lol. I guess, the last three pages of not talking to him was okay then? *grin*]
"Is the spring much farther?"
Angel grinned. "Too much for you already? If you get too tired, I'll pay Rip to carry you." Her grin widened to show her teeth before she nodded her head in the direction they were going. "You can smell the water now." Actually, a lot of people couldn't, but he was a ranger after all and so probably could.
She glanced behind her, seemingly at Rip, as she'd been doing since they'd entered the woods. She was half-glad that he hadn't spoken yet, giving her an excuse to flick her head around from time to time. She doubted a simple dress-maker would be as paranoid as herself. And she always smiled when she did so, even as her eyes grew half-hazy as they took in what was behind them without the need to move. A quick second was all she ever needed to spot danger.
She turned her head back around, satisfied that nothing was hunting them, and finished leading them to the spring. She scanned the place, showing them the remaining group of gourds hanging amongst the vines a little from the water's edge. Her eyes narrowed on the other side where bent grass lay and parted before disappearing through the brush. Probably just a game trail. Make sense, they were near water after all. But still, she couldn't help but frown. She stared at it for another second before shaking her head and turning back to face the two men with a smile.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 12, 2009 15:50:44 GMT -5
Rick could smell the water and the mud before they reached the clearing.
"Too much for you already? If you get too tired, I'll pay Rip to carry you."
"Funny." Rick said dryly. "I might pay to see him carry me," he joked, glancing back at Rip. The man seemed pretty nervous and Rick didn't miss that he kept his hand near his weapon. Again he wondered what the man's profession was, something was just off enough that Rick didn't fully relax in Rip's company. He turned his attention back to Angel, casually scanning the woods around them as he did so.
"Sorry, just not up to my normal energy levels what with the storm and not sleeping at all since the storm started. It is starting to catch up with me."
When they got to the spring, Rick motioned for her to stay put for a moment and surveyed the tracks around the spring. There were a bunch of human prints from the day before, but Rick noticed a spot on the other side that didn't look natural.
There were some animal prints too, most notibly a doe and her two fawns had come down to drink not long before, maybe two hours earlier.
Rick made his way around the pond to the patch of grass that was laid down. There were some small human prints crushed into the grass. "mmm, almost looks like a person was lying here, or crawled through here." he mused, then scanned the surround trees, makeing sure they weren't going to get jumped.
He noticed some old bear markings on one of the trees. "Bear. Big one too, but that was about a week ago."
He continued on around the pond and found something that disturbed him, but he didn't make any outward sign that he had seen anything unusual. This was something he would need to talk with Malphorius about in private.
Then he approached the spring and motioned them forward and knelt down and took a long drink and splashed water on his face and the back of his neck to wash the sleep away. He would have liked to jump in, but didn't want to spoil their only source of drinking water. Besides they had a job to do.
"So, if this is the only source of fresh water in this place, there would likely be a lot more animal tracks here. I am betting we will find more of these springs around." he said to Angel and Rip.
"What do you guys think? Would this be a good place to build huts?" He walked around towards the side they entered and parted some overhanging vines and took a few steps away from the spring. There was a moderatly large clearing, enough to get three decent sized huts with only some minor clearing of underbrush.
There were three big trees in the clearing, but they were willow oak trees and grew straight up without many overhanding branches and long narrow leaves like a willow tree, allowing the sunlight to hit the meadow. Likely this is where the doe came from and she was probably hiding along the edge not too far away. But he didn't want to shoot the doe, they would need to see how populated the island was first before they started depleting the animals. If they weren't careful they would run out of food completely.
Actually it would be better to take out the preditor type wild animals first, those that preyed on the same herbivores that the humans would need to survive. Reduce the competition. Like that bear.
"Hey, this looks just about perfect." Rick called back to his companions. "Close to water, has shelter, big enough to build a large hut there, there and there."
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 12, 2009 15:53:50 GMT -5
Barry chuckled, then saw he was drawing some attention because he wasn't "working". He turned back to Darcy, "hey, if you feel up to it, you want to learn how to catch fish with a net? It takes two people if you don't have a boat."
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Post by ivory on Jul 12, 2009 16:09:49 GMT -5
Angel shifted her weight to one hip as she crossed her arms, watching Rick make his way through the clearing. Man knew his stuff. She liked that. The woods had been her shelter in more ways than one and she almost immediately took a liking to anyone who shared her love for them. Of course, that didn't mean she wouldn't kill them if they were her enemy, she just did it quicker.
"What do you guys think? Would this be a good place to build huts?"
She began to chew on her tongue. She'd rather live further away from the spring, not wanting to have to share the spot with any animal that decided it was thirsty. She liked animals, just would rather not wake to find something nibbling on her toes or ears while she slept. But then, there were quite a lot of people here, so they might be able to scare the majority of the animals away.
"Hey, this looks just about perfect. Close to water, has shelter, big enough to build a large hut there, there and there."
Besides, he did have a point she found out when she crossed the distance between him and peered over his shoulder.
"Mmm. I'll take your word for it," she said softly before turning to face Rip. "What about you? What do you think?" A dressmaker would rather have two opinions than one, right?
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