Nexus
Samantha Beiter's Home
A tree of such ancient origins that everything seems to go quiet in its
presence. Nestled in the curve of the larger of it's trunks is a log cabin
style house that looks like it is growing out of the tree. The only give away
is the door and glass windows that break up the camouflage. In front of the
house a cooking pit usually has something boiling over it, and the cold fast
river bubbles by at the far edge of the tree. Looking up into the magnificent
heights of the old oak, other structures, probably rooms, can be seen, and a
small ladder leads up to them.
With a light chirping of hidden birds, morning comes. What little sunlight that makes it through the canopy that covers the river dapples the ground. A few flecks of sunlight make it through the open window where Nalae finally, if fitfully, fell asleep. The bed next to her is empty.
Nalae slowly stretches tired and aching muscles. Blearily, she glances about the room for a few moments.
A light morning breeze moves through the open window, stirring the air inside the small room.
From the direction of the main living area come various domestic sounds: someone walking around, cupboard doors opening and closing, the occasional ring of cooking implements...
Nalae carefully stands, then makes her way over towards the living area, cautiously glancing out the doorway before actually stepping foot outside of the room.
Closer listening reveals someone, almost certainly Samantha, muttering away to herself as she pads around the kitchen.
Nalae opens the door and steps out, rubbing at her eyes.
A tiny, though brightly colored lizard skitters along the ceiling. Truly modern pest control in use.
Samantha spins around quickly, but hangs on to the pot she was using. "Ah! Good, you're awake. Hello."
Nalae murmurs, "Hello.." She glances about the room, looking for Acera.
Samantha goes back to what she was doing, seemingly not minding being in the same room as a carnivore. "If you're looking for Acera, she's out right now... getting some food for you and her, as well as a few other items for me."
Nalae blinks slowly. "Oh.. will she be back soon?"
Samantha nods. "Should be pretty soon, yes."
*Thunk* *Thunk* Two small objects bounce off the roof and by the sound, roll a fair ways.
Samantha chuckles, and times it... then reaches her hand out the window, and catches things as they fall past, tossing each one to her other hand.
From high above a cheerful voice chitters, "There you go ma!"
Nalae blinkblinks.
Samantha leans out the window. "Thanks!"
Samantha smiles to Nalae. "See, there she is now."
Nalae looks rather bewildered. Just staying inside such an enclosing structure is novel to her... but using the roof to deliver things?
Nalae says, "Oh.. okay.."
Acera's voice can be heard teasing, "More plant stuff for ya. Oh, I got one of those flowers too. And some real food for me and Nalae. Be down in a sec ma."
Samantha holds up the rather large nuts from the tree. "I'm not as good at climbing as I used to be."
Samantha leans outside again. "All right, dear."
Scrambling sounds along the tree ladder are followed by the young mink exploding into the kitchen and nearly bowling Nalae over, "Hiya! Isn't this a cool place to live?"
Samantha chuckles quietly in the background, and cracks the nuts open.
Nalae smiles at Acera. "It's.. it's nice."
Acera hands one bag to Samantha and then chitters, "Let's head out to the river. I got some stuff for ya, instead of plant food. ;)"
Nalae grins and nods to Acera. "Okay!"
Samantha takes the bag, and shakes her head, smiling. "Just so long as you cook it downwind."
Acera grabs Nalae's arm and chitters, "See ya later ma. And if I cook it, I will. C'mon Nalae, I got some cool stuff for us."
Samantha smirks. "You know it's less likely to cause your stomach problems if you cook it."
Nalae waves to Samantha as Acera drags her towards the doorway.
Acera just sticks her tongue out at her mother and giggles quietly to Nalae, "Plant eaters. They want to take the fun out of everything. ;)"
Samantha just shakes her head, chuckling.
Acera pads out to the river, the little marenati girl in tow behind her, "You ever eat claw grabbers before?"
Nalae blinks at Acera. "Eat what? I.. don't think so.."
Acera grins, "They are nice and crunchy. And they don't pinch too hard. Oh, you like dashers? I trapped a couple for ya."
Nalae follows Acera, looking rather out of her element. "I.. I don't know... what are they like?"
Acera grabs a bag lying near the river, "Well, they are like... well...they run real fast, that's why we call'em "dashers". They got fur, long ears...here, try one." As the young mink holds out a still warm body of what sort of resembles a rabbit.
Nalae sniffs at the carcass tentatively. "That might be good..."
Acera hands the dasher to Nalae and nods, "I'll get us some claw grabbers too. Just a sec."
Acera slumps down onto all fours, apparently easy for someone with such a flexible spine and just slips into the river and disappears with a small "Sploomp".
Nalae watches her, blinking slowly. She sniffs at the dead rabbit a few more times.
A few of the reeds on the far side of the river rustle a bit as the smell of the dasher, while not familiar, still smells good to Nalae.
Nalae settles on the ground and carefully removes the skin from the carcass as she waits for Acera to return.
Samantha says, from right behind Acera, "Nalae, could I ask you a favor?" Funny how neither of you heard her approaching at all...
Acera eeps as she was walking up the back with what look like 12 inch centipedes with lots of really tiny pinchers and long antennae.
Nalae glances over quickly. "Yes ma'am?"
Samantha looks innocent, then lifts up her foot, showing yellow dust on the bottom of the pad. "Oh, and thank you for getting that pollen for me, Acera, it works like a charm."
Acera snickers at the "charm" comment and chitters, "Just so you don't try and turn me into a plant eater ma. Here you go Nalae, two clawbiters, and BIG ones. Which one ya want?"
Samantha walks in complete silence over to Nalae. "I was wondering if I could have a small clipping of your fur. It would help in figuring out where you're from."
Nalae blinks at the centipedes, and tries not to make a face. "I.. um.. you _eat_ those?"
Acera nods, "A little crunchy, but the meat inside is really good! Honest!"
Nalae looks dubious. "Um.. I think I'll just eat this..."
Nalae glances back to Samantha. "Oh.. okay.."
Samantha pulls out a small set of scissors. "Hold out your left foot?"
Acera's whiskers droop, "Well, how about you try a piece of mine at least?"
Nalae extends her left foot, watching Samantha closely.
Samantha crouches down, and clips a small piece of fur from the inside of Nalae's foot, just above the pad at the ball of the foot.
Acera stuffs one of the claw biters into a sack and with a loud *CRUNCH* bites the head and antennae off of hers, watching her adoptive mother with curiosity again.
Samantha holds the fur up against the sun. "Good. Still got a little bit of dirt in it."
Nalae smiles at Samantha hopefully. "You think you can find where I'm from?"
Samantha says, "If it's from anywhere I know, yes."
Samantha adds, "If it's not from this world, we may have a problem."
Nalae swallows nervously, glancing towards Acera.
Acera purrs, "Not from this world ma? Whatcha mean?"
Samantha says, "Well, I don't know any people who look like her, and I've at least seen pictures of most of them. Not from here, anyway. She might be from another world somehow."
Nalae pauses for a few more moments. "You mean.. another village?"
Samantha shakes her head. "Not quite. Not someplace you could normally get to by traveling on foot, anyway."
Acera helpfully suggests, "Well, ya can fly, right Nalae?"
Nalae fidgets a bit. "Not like a bird.. Only a little.."
Acera is only momentarily disappointed, "Don'tcha worry, my ma can find your home. And you can stay here till then, right ma?"
Samantha nods. "Of course she can."
Nalae smiles a bit, taking at least a little comfort in that.
Acera crunches down some more of the bizarre crustacean before offering Nalae a bite, "It's dead, so it can't eatcha."
Nalae quickly rips a tendril of meat from the rabbit she had been holding, and swallows it. "Um.. when I'm done with this..."
Acera shrugs and nods, tearing into the sweet white meat of the clawbiter, "At least you don't eat plants. ;)"
Samantha hmmphs.
Acera grins at her mother, you can tell the two have been teasing each other about this from the point Acera learned the difference between herbivores and carnivores.
Acera chomps down some more of her meal and chirrups, "Hey, if you can fly, do you climb too? Ma says Frenat's normally don't climb much, but that's whatcha get when your ma is a Citeel. ;)"
Nalae smiles a bit, working on her own meal as she watches the other two. "I have to climb before I can fly..."
Acera grins around a mouthful of little legs as she chitters, "Cool, we can climb up the elder tree after breakfast, right ma? Need anymore plant stuff up there?"
Samantha hmms. "A few more nuts would be nice, but I don't need much more for now, no. Not until after I've figured out what I'm doing with this." She pats the piece of fur.
Acera whispers conspiratorily to Nalae, "Ma's got this thing about nuts. ;)"
Samantha says, "I do have to deal with you, don't I?"
Acera's small tongue sticks out of her pointed muzzle and she thtptptptptps at her mother.
Samantha takes it all in stride, smiling beatifically.
Acera finishes her breakfast, spitting out a couple of larger legs and chitters to Nalae, "Let me go take another quick swim and I'll climb up with ya. K?"
Nalae grins and nods to Acera. "Okay!" She takes several more bites of her food as she watches Acera.
Acera slinks over to the rivers edge and "ploops" in quietly, disappearing from view.
Samantha shakes her head, and silently wanders back to the tree, taking the fur and dirt with her.
Acera rubs against some reeds as she swims along the river. It's very clear that the young mink does best here.
With a small splash, the now very sleek form of Acera pops up a distance down the bank, shakes lightly and pads towards Nalae, "Hey, maybe if I teach you to swim you can teach me to fly?"
Nalae blinks at Acera. "I don't know if you could... I mean, you don't have the flaps.. but I guess we could try..." She smiles a little bit.
Acera grins as widely as a mink can and chitters, "Cool, well, lets go up in the elder tree and you can show my how you fly. K?"
Nalae nods a few times. "Okay.." Looking about for a moment, she pauses before asking, "Which one is that?"
Acera blinks, "Which one? The big granddaddy tree right there that our house is part of, see the ladder over by one of the side trunks?"
Nalae ohs softly and nods. "Okay, yeah..."
Acera snugs Nalae, "Neat! Last one up is a plant eater." As she races for the ladder.
Nalae grins, and hurries after Acera. Though she doesn't use the ladder; instead, she scales the rough bark of the tree and clambers up onto a wide branch.
Acera stops for a second to chitter, "You climb as well as ma used to!" before racing up the ladder to keep up.
Nalae grins at Acera, and stays on the fairly low, wide branch. "This's high enough to show you.."
Acera skitters along the branch and sits down, and chitters, "I'm watchin. ;)"
Nalae looks about for a moment before picking out a moderately nearby tree. Taking three quick steps, she leaps out off the branch and extends her arms and legs widely. As she launches into midair, the webbing between her limbs audibly flaps into place and catches the air. In only a fraction of a second she has landed on all fours on a slightly lower branch of the other tree. Rising to her feet, she turns and smiles to Acera.
Acera's jaw has dropped and she chitters, "Way cool! Think I can stretch my skin out or something?"
Acera scrambles to her feet, "How far can you go? Can you go all the way to the ground? Does a strong wind help? Does flapping your arms help?"
Nalae quickly scrambles up to a higher branch on her tree, and in the blink of an eye is back on the branch where she began. "Well.. I usually don't go any farther than that.. it gets harder, the farther you go..."
Nalae adds, "Winds make it harder.. 'less you're going the same direction as the wind.. and even then, sometimes you can get hurt if you forget it's there."
Acera leans over the branch and looks down to the next one, "I can sorta jump a bit, but that's too cool. Hey, let me show you some of the stuff up here. Follow me."
Acera skitters back up the ladder towards what looks like a well concealed tree house.
Nalae follows Acera, to one side of the ladder. She's far more comfortable working with the bark than with those strange rungs...
Acera moves away from the larger "room" over to one out on a large branch. It's actually got a few windows and has a great view at this height. As she slides the door open, it's clear it's a little spot for Acera to hide out.
Nalae climbs up to the smaller room out on the branch, but doesn't go in. She sniffs at the entrance distrustfully. "Doesn't it get stuffy in there?"
Acera opens the windows and slides the entire front of the "room" to the side, leaving it open, "Nah, only if you leave it closed for too long."
Nalae considers. "Well.. I guess it's okay..." She takes a few steps into the enclosed space, but moves to sit on one of the window ledges. " It's really a nice place," she comments, looking out at the forest. "Even if the leaves are strange."
The young mink looks around and nods, "You like it better up here, don'tcha?"
Nalae nods several times. "It.. well.. it sorta feels weird when everything's close all around me.." She frowns a little, struggling to find words for these new experiences.
Acera leans over and hugs Nalae, "I know. I lost my ma and pa too. My ma here, she's really nice, and she really loves me, but, it's not the same. It's different here, and it takes a lot ta get used to, ya know?"
Nalae pulls a little away. "I didn't lose my parents!" Fidgeting uncomfortably, she mumbles, "I jus'.. don't know where they are right now."
Acera looks embarrassed, "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. We'll find yours, I know ma can. Don't worry."
Nalae adjusts her position slightly. "'m not worried," she grumps.
Acera chitters, "How did you get here, anyhow?"
Nalae shrugs a bit. "Dunno. I went to sleep at home, and woke up here. Or near here.. I thought somebody was playin' a joke on me while I was asleep.. now I dunno _what_ happened."
Acera hmms, "Near here? Where zactly? Ma says for transport spells the more ya know the better."
Nalae shakes her head. "It was.. out there.. where there are no trees..." She makes a vague gesture in totally the wrong direction, having gotten herself turned around so many times since then...
Acera wrinkles her nose, "No trees? But that's in the deepest part of the forest. Wait, you floated down the river a ways, dincha?"
Nalae nods a few times. "I fell in.. I never even saw a river like that before.."
Acera scrambles back into the tree shelter and comes out with a bag that smells rather sweet, and painfully familiar to Nalae. The Frenat pulls out a handful of kumquats and chitters, "Were there a buncha short plants with these things on em?"
Nalae nods a few times, fidgeting. "Yeah.."
Acera hmms, "Ma knows their family. Ever since they had their little baby, weird things have shown up on their farm. Hey, how'd you get past the ascalaphs?"
Nalae blinks. "What?"
Acera purrs, "Those nasty bug things in the sand? They use em as guards?"
Nalae shivers. "I.. I went around.. I was trying to walk over the rocks in the river to get around... but I slipped, and the river was so fast... that's when you found me."
Acera oohs, "You were lucky then. Hey, wanna know why I keep these smelly things in here?" and points to the kumquats in her hands.
Nalae blinks slowly. "Why?"
A soft *poit* occurs a few yards away.
Acera grins wickedly, "Cause my stupid brother Ankhl is really allergic to em. He gets sick if he even comes near this place. ;)"
Nalae grins back, finally seeming to regain some of her spirits. "That's mean," she comments. Not that she seems to disapprove, mind you.
Stuffit thinks . o ((Ah, inside information. Employer will be pleased/willing to give raise/extra cheese))
Acera nods, "Yah, but he's a pain, steals everything he can. Say, what was that? You hear somethin?"
Nalae blinks? "What?"
Nalae looks about, then shrugs a bit. "I didn't hear anything.."
Stuffit skitters over to Ankhl's tree room and *poits* up onto the door handle and starts picking the lock.
Acera blinks, "There it is again. Sounds like somethin poppin."
Nalae shakes her head and shrugs.
The lock gives way and the door slides inward with an audible creak. The little thieving ferret grins and dives into the mess of clothes and personal items Ankhl has stretched around his room.
Acera grins, "Sounds like my brother is back. Wonder why he's being so sneaky, let's go over and check."
Nalae nods slowly. "Okay.."
Stuffit chitters to himself as he finally finds the guard schedules, but keeps looking for the key to the museum room.
The little mink grins at her friend and sneaks along the branch towards her brother's room, looking at the open door.
Nalae grins, and quietly scrambles along the branch on all fours. She remains behind the mink, watching.
Acera peaks in the door, kumquat in hand, then drops them and whispers, "Nalae, come here. It looks...like a really tiny version of you and me!"
Nalae hurries over and peers around Acera's side, into the room.
Stuffit peeks out from under a shirt and thinks . o O ((Unfriendly takeover of information! Employer going to be upset/withhold food bonus. Find key and flee.))
A small ferret looking creature, Stuffit weighs about 3 pounds and is
not overly bright. He is however a master thief, and an excellent
teleporter. He just has little clue on the results of his actions. He's
basically pretty innocent, and normally his mate, Quickpaws, guides him. But
he's lost her and the world he had been living on with her.
Stuffit chitters and dives back into the clothes and Acera goes, "You watch the door and I'll get the little critter."
Nalae nods a few times, moving to guard the door.
Acera dives in after the little ferret, who pops out with the guard schedule in his mouth, he knows his boss (Delachiel) doesn't want his teleporting to be made public, so he zips around Acera and heads towards Nalae at the door.
Nalae quickly ducks down, ready to grab the ferret if he should try to get past her.
Stuffit chitters as he holds the document in his mouth and tries to dive under Nalae if he can.
Nalae grabs at Stuffit as he tries to dash beneath her!
Stuffit eeps as he feels the hands close around him and he teleports fifteen feet behind Nalae with a loud *poit*. However, the little ferret in his haste ports both him and Nalae, and the branch only goes for another five feet behind Nalae!
Acera screeches as she sees her friend disappear and then suddenly reappear for a second over open air.
Nalae cries out as the branch suddenly vanishes from beneath her. In her panic, she releases the ferret, and her arms and legs splay into gliding position reflexively. Of course, in her current standing position, that doesn't seem to slow her all too rapid descent very much.
Stuffit scrambles up onto Nalae's back and holds firmly, feeling glad Quickpaws his mate isn't anywhere near. If he lives, she'd thrash him soundly.
Acera shouts, "Fly Nalae, Fly!" as she sees her friend start to fall.
Nalae begins to tumble over backwards as she plummets downwards, sending her into a backwards spiraling spin. But after several heart stopping moments, she finally seems to regain some modicum of control and manages a controlled crash landing onto a mossy spot on the ground.
Stuffit lands with a soft *fwump* onto Nalae's back. After he regains his balance, he hops off to make sure the little creature (Who is about 20 times his size) is ok.
Acera is scrambling down the ladder as she tries to keep an eye on her friend and that weird little fuzzball.
Nalae winces, dazedly. Yesterday she got jostled about and battered against rocks by the river.. today she crash lands... it's a wonder her muscles haven't gone out on strike yet.. She shakes her head slightly to clear it.
Sitting on his haunches in front of her is the little miscreant fuzzball, the papers still in his mouth. He pats her forehead in apology and with another *poit* sound a small copper circle lands by Nalae's nose.
Acera finally reaches the ground and nearly growls, "Stay away from her you little..." and dives for Stuffit.
Stuffit sighs and notes Boss is gonna be mad as he blips out with a small *poit*.
Acera lands with an irritated *OOF* next to Nalae and sighs, "Sorry, I almost got him for ya. You ok? I thought ya said you could fly?"
Nalae shakes her head softly. "Glide," she murmurs. "It's different.."
Acera nods, "Well, that didn't look like much fun either way. Ya going to be ok? I think we need ma to look at ya. Here, I'll help you up."
Nalae slowly picks herself up with Acera's help, checking herself over for cuts and bruises. "I think I'm okay.. I mostly got control.. but I was too low to get a branch.."
Acera nods, "Well that little thing got something of my brothers. Wonder what that jerk is up to now? Hey, you saw how that thing could just...move from one place to another?"
Nalae says, "I.. just know the branch was suddenly gone... he got away from you?"
Acera nods, "I leaped on him, and he made this "popping" sound and wasn't there anymore. Let's go tell ma, maybe she knows what it is. C'mon. Then we can sleep where you want to tonight."
Nalae nods softly. "Okay.."
After having Samantha check Nalae out and giving her some rest, the two mustelids explore the forest around the giant tree for most of the day, then when night falls, Acera curls up in her tree room with the front open, Nalae curled up on a branch nearby. Despite Samantha's protests of being too old to climb, someone covers Nalae up during the night and gives her a small cushion for her head.