It's another beautiful day in the forests outside Haven. Samantha is busy working on a variety of small projects so asks Ace and Nalae to go have a small picnic by a nearby waterfall. Acera makes sure Nalae takes along the small flying "bird" they bought in Haven from Nipper.
Nalae brings the bird along a bit reluctantly. Somehow, looking at it keeps reminding her of the shopkeeper who gave it to her because she lost her parents.. Shoving that from her mind, she pads along with Acera towards the distant roar of the waterfall .
The waterfall suddenly appears around a corner. It's rather wide, about 10 feet across, but only falls about 15 feet to tumble into a large shallow pool that feeds the river below. Vegetation is lush here, with lots of vines and under story plants filling in between the numerous trees.
Acera is carrying a basket and a large woven blanket as best she can, but refuses to ask for help, chittering happily to herself.
Nalae makes her way over towards the waterfall, eyes widening in wonder. "Th-that's it?"
With a *fwump* Acera dumps the stuff she was carrying and chitters, "Yeah. It's pretty isn't it?"
Nalae blinks several times, padding a few more steps towards it. "Where does it all come from?"
Acera hmms and chitters, "Ma says that the river goes quite a ways. Rain helps fill it, and the snow and rains up in the mountains also fill it up. I think it goes all the way to Turning Point, sorta."
Nalae grins. "It's really pretty..."
Acera nods, "I love to play in it. The pool's kinda shallow though, except in the center, so you can walk in it easy."
Acera chitters, "Hey, help me spread out the blanket and then we can decide what to do first, K?"
Nalae nods a bit, finally tearing her gaze away from the waterfall for long enough to help Acera settle the blanket on the ground.
Acera puts it on a flat part of the ground, squashing several short plants a bit. She puts the basket that gives off the scent of still warm cooked meat. She chitters, "So, we can explore a bit. Play with your wooden bird, or eat."
Nalae sniffs at the basket for a moment. "Maybe we'd better eat first.. it'll get cold..." Egads. She sounds like the Keeper.
Acera grins, "Sounds good. Though ma's roast dasher is good even when cold. Here's a bottle, get us some water from the pool will ya? It's nice and fresh up here."
Nalae nods a bit. She takes the bottle and bounds over to the pool, returning with a bottle full of water (as well as her pelt being dappled with water from the spray of the falls)
Acera chitters softly to herself as she pulls out some wooden trays that contain a variety of roasted meats. Some of it is Dasher, some bird, and even a few small pieces of rodent have been cooked and spiced carefully. The young mink giggles as she looks at all the food.
Nalae grins at Acera.
Acera whispers softly to Nalae, even though no one is around to hear them, "Ma's funny. She'll tease us about being meat eaters, yet she cooks dasher better'n anyone I know. ;)"
Nalae giggles, and reaches over to pick up a piece of dasher.
Acera chuckles and grabs a piece or two herself, sharp teeth biting in, and even some crunching as she works on the thin leg bones of the rabbit like animal.
Nalae tears a strip off of the meat and swallows it. "This's good.."
Acera murrphs and nods over a mouthful of food as she pulls out two gourd cups and pours some water into them.
Nalae grins at Acera, continuing with the meal.
*URP*. Acera giggles after the meal is over and chitters, "Hey, I wanna show you something. There's a neat place just above the falls.
Nalae grins at Acera. "Okay.."
Acera hmms, "Bring your flyer along too. C'mon" and the little mink pads along a trail that winds steeply up the side of the waterfall, towards a towering tree that has had the top blasted off by lightning.
Nalae follows along, carrying the flyer.
Acera scrabbles up the moss covered stones much better that one of her kind should, showing her heritage of being raised by the squirrel like Citeels. She chitters little phrases of song to herself.
Nalae listens quietly. She climbs, but not very gracefully. She's not used to climbing stones.
~~The waters run deep, the waters run cold~~
~~The best fish are caught by those that are bold~~
Nalae listens, blinking.
~~The river is life, the river is friend~~
Acera continues her climb to a flat area at the top of the falls, where the river leads to the drop off and chitters, ~~To live is to follow it around each new bend~~
Nalae follows along, smiling a little bit at the tune.
~~It's where your life starts and where it shall end.~~
~~But through all of it, the river is life, the river is friend.~~
Nalae wonders, "What's that song?"
Acera looks a bit embarrassed and chitters, "It's...something my ma sung to me when I was little. My real one."
Nalae smiles at you softly. "It's really nice.."
Acera looks down at her feet for a second then, chittering, "So you can look down the waterfall from here, but ya can see even better from up there." and points to the blasted tree.
Nalae ooohs.. Then glances over at Acera. "Can you climb up that? Is there a ladder?"
Acera grins, "It's got a lot of branches, plus someone put these little metal rods in it all the way up. Ma says someone used it for a lookout a long while back."
Nalae smiles and nods. "Want to go take a look?"
Acera nods, "It's why ma suggested you come up here with me."
Acera pads up to the tree and uses the metal rods as hand and foot holds, doing a reasonable job of climbing, though it's clear she does better when there's a branch or stump of one to put her feet on. The part of the tree that was not blasted off is still alive, though a blackened scar runs jaggedly down the side.
Nalae clambers up the tree, taking some sort of glee at being able to climb so high. "Wow!"
Acera chitters, "Thought you'd like this. We're above all the other trees. See that big branch up there? Great place to sit, I'll meet ya there. ;)"
Nalae rapidly scales her way up to the branch and settles onto it. She looks about, grinning. "I bet I could even see my home from here!"
Acera is having a bit more trouble getting up, so doesn't hear Nalae, but finally gets to the branch and sits down securely next to the the little flying pine marten and chitters, "Someone set some sorta spell or somethin up here, so you can see a lot farther than you're supposed to."
Nalae scans the horizon, searching for any visible traces of coniferous trees... "I should be able ta see my home from here..."
Acera points to the east, "You see that large blue area? That's part of the ocean. Across it you can see mountains, way far away? Between those two is another city called "Turning Point". I've never been there, but ma says it's a lot smaller than Haven and they dig in the mountains a lot for metal."
Nalae blinks, and nods a little bit. "What's 'ocean'?"
Acera looks at Nalae for a minute then chitters, "It's these really really huge bodies of water that are real salty, ya can't drink the water. Maybe I'll take you to the eastern shore or something some time, to show ya."
Nalae blinks several times. "Oh." She has nothing in her experience to connect that to, so just nods a little bit. After peering at the blue expanse for a few more moments, she turns and looks about some more, straining to pick out anything that looks even vaguely familiar..
Deciduous forest goes for miles in all directions, but to the west, north and east you can see the vast areas of blue that Acera pointed out, showing that Haven is on a peninsula for those that know what that means. But no coniferous forests can be seen, even though a few pine like trees do exist here and there.
Nalae frowns a little bit. "I can't see it..." She sighs and shrugs a little bit. "Your mother'll find it, though... I'm sure she will.."
Acera snugs, "Yeah, my ma will. May just take a bit of time is all. You ok?"
Nalae nods a bit, leaning in against Acera's side. "Yeah, I'll be okay... They gotta be out there somewhere, don't they?"
Acera nods, "Yeah, they gotta be. You're the one who's missin, not the other way around. It's not like it was with my folks."
Acera points north, "Way up there is the Northern Reach. Ma says it's the strangest of the spacer cities. Weird six legged cat like things they ride on, instead of like pokey that we rode to Haven, remember?"
Nalae blinks. "Weird.."
Acera nods, "I want to see it someday though. So many neat places ma has seen, and I've been hardly nowhere."
Nalae smiles at Acera a bit. "You been to more places than me.."
Acera shrugs, "A few. New places are kinda scary, but they're also kinda fun."
Nalae nods a bit. "Some are more scary... an' some are more fun."
Acera purrs, "Ma says you just fear stuff that you don't recognize or understand cause you are afraid it'll hurt ya. Haven isn't all that bad. Kinda noisy, but you're safe there mostly. Out here, it's quiet, and it's safe. Places are just different, ya know?"
Nalae nods uncertainly. "I guess..."
Acera purrs, "Like people. Lots of folks prefer to live in a noisy place like Haven, and think this place here is really scary, cause they don't know it, don't understand it."
Note, again with the purr.
Nalae wrinkles her nosepad a bit. "But there's nothin' here to be scared of.."
Acera grins,"I told ma that. But there are animals here that can go after ya, but if you can climb or swim you can get away. But city folk, they'd get lost here. They don't know what's out here, what the noises mean. They'd not know what ya can eat safely . Most don't even do their own hunting, don't know how."
Nalae ohs, and nods a bit.
The two friends spend the rest of the afternoon playing with the wooden bird. Acera tosses it down, and Nalae glides down to grab it and scramble back up. They pick a few berries for Samantha (Acera whispers with a grin that it's only fair ;) and the two head back to the old tree and home.