Snipe hunt
Tenebrae - Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 9:11 AM
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* H02: The Felwood *>--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
The hills give way to trees, which grow black instead of green. The Felwood, once a part of the greater world, now stands apart from it. The trunks of its wood stand twisted in the way that trees will twist, yet somehow wrong, somehow off. Here, it's always cold, the weather just "something other" than what it should be.
Overhead, a continual storm brews. A blackened smear cuts the sky directly above the wood, a darkened rift that was never meant to be. Its creation is rumored as an unnatural thing, a crafting of the unnatural creatures that lie within these woods.
Now and then, the city sends out patrols to thin the creatures, and keep them from the main roads. However, travel here is dangerous, risky, and often painful.
Munch hikes out of the deep woods, heading back towards the distant city. The metal man buzzes cheerfully to himself, a large gourd thumping against the axe upon his back. His hands carry a long bent black branch, from which his metal fangs take the occasional chomp, followed by quiet grinding.
Iadoth sits by the side of the rough track, putting the finishing touches to what appears to be an enormous snare. She sees a familiar figure in Munch, and looks over at him, attracted by the noise. "Good afternoons to Master Munch," she calls out, cheerfully. "Quite passingly pleasant, notwhat?"
Munch raises his stick in greeting, and continues closer, pausing when in conversational distance. On second look, the 'stick' in his hands is actually a giant insect leg. Mostly likely once attached to the large thorax that's was thumping on his back. Well, the Fellwood is kinda known for it's giant spiders... "Plesant enough, if a bit chill and dull. What are you up to? Snipe hunting?"
From amidst the snow-dusted, blackened trees, a large light-furred form emerges. The dire wolf has been a rather more common sight northeast of, and even within, the city. Now she patrols upon more familiar ground.
"We... I are hunting, yes, Master Munch. But not snipe or whatsoever you speak. Something... unusual... stalks the Felwood." She screws up her face in concentration, and gestures to the large snare. "I am of hoping to be its captor, for to help nearby those." As she sees the Wolf, she pauses, and raises a wary hand in greeting, reaching for her longbow.
Munch eyes the wolf cautiously as well. There's a lot of wolves around these parts, though only one that typically travels openly. Of course, not much is typical in the Fellwood. "Whole lot of unusual things in the deep wood. Heck, -I- stalk the Fellwood. Anyway, Snipe Hunting is a sorta tradition for young hunters to go on. Fairly safe way to test their skills."
"Far more dangerous creatures stalk the Felwood," the large lupin growls intelligibly. "None should travel here lightly." She looks to the set snare. "Many are also far too wise to trip a snare."
The sil shrugs benignly as she straps her longbow to her back. "Perhaps, maybe, they are wiser than that. Perhaps maybe. But, Master Wolf, perhaps also snare only one part of my plannings." She winces at the mental effort of deception in a foreign tongue. "The villagers do not have knowledge of what creature afoot. Maybe wise, maybe foolsome."
Munch relaxes as the wolf talks. They all kinda look alike to him. "Lotta weird stuff in the deep woods, sometimes something will wander out. But usually the outer paths aren't too bad. Bandits, maybe a spider or something. Most won't bother a group. Still don't understand why the spiders think I'm such a prize to attack."
Dire Wolf looks to the sil and nods. "<something you don't understand in sildanyari>"
Dire Wolf's muzzle pans to the golem. "The spiders either consider you food or a threat. They would not attack you otherwise. If you show them that you are neither, they will not bother you."
Iadoth is surprised to hear Dire Wolf speaking her own tongue. "<something you don't understand in sildanyari>"
She turns to the golem too. "I have apologies for speaking in mother tongue, perhaps you are not of understanding? But tradespeak is tiresome for minds, and I have only infrequency chance to speak in kin-tongue."
Munch blinks with a soft click. "...not sure I understood that second part either."
"Her Tradespeak is poor," the wolf explains to Munch, "and she cannot often speak in her native tongue." Her head tilts, "or is it something else you did not understand?" Her attention returns sharply to Iadoth. "Do not apologize for who you are, what you chose to do. If this beast you hunt is a threat, all the better that it is removed. Once the unnatural, corrupted creatures are removed, and the taint upon Ea cleansed, this region will regrow as it should."
Iadoth nods, turning her face downwards in embarrassment. "The smell of taint on forest, woodland, plains is digusted to myself and others of kin. Cleansing this place is wishful, maybe." She smiles, looking brighter. "I shall be captor to beast, and make small effort of contribut...or... ational?"
Munch nods, follwing that part well enough. "I'm not so good at talking myself. I hit things. Kill things. Consume then, learn from them, purify them."
"You shall," Uneth confirms simply to the sil before tilting her head at the construct. "Do you learn by taste, or by the hunt before?"
Munch shrugs mildly. "Both. A good fight teaches many things, and a micro analyasis of the physical components can be very informitive. Spider web spinners are all sorts of neat. i still don't understand half of what they do." The golem glances at the spider torso, and sighs. "Anyway, i'd better get going before this freezes solid. Will see you two later, maybe."
Iadoth eyes the golem carefully. "Goodbye, Master Munch. Our forthcoming meeting to be soon, hopesome."