Summer has reached the forests outside Haven. Foliage is in abundance, the young of the various forest dwellers are growing and learning during the most bountiful time of year. Fruits are starting to swell, and some have even ripened here and there. Acera is leading Nalae on yet another adventure. This time, our two intrepid travelers are working their way up a small cliffside trail, towards a mesa overlooking part of the valley.
Acera adjusts the bag that's slung over her shoulder and chitters, "Almost there Nalae. How ya doin?"
Nalae smiles up at Acera and nods, hefting the bag. "Pretty good..."
Acera is a bit out of breath. Mink are swimmers, not climbers, but this doesn't slow down her chattering at all, just punctuates it with panting, "This is another spot ma showed me. Really pretty. And it has something really neat. ;)"
Nalae smiles and nodnods.. "Woncha tell me what it is?"
Acera chitters, "Naw, I want you to see it yourself. Don't wanna ruin the surprise. Hey, were almost there, just around that boulder up ahead."
As they round the ancient rock resting on the ledge, a flat, grassy field with a few trees dotted here and there. The field is abuzz with flowers and their various pollinators. The view of the valley from this plateau is inspiring, but the only other thing that stands out on the mesa is a few green stones peaking out of the ground here and there.
Nalae grins, and bounces along. She's used to climbing. :) She looks around curiously, and very carefully avoids stepping on the stones, remembering what happened the last time she stepped on a green stone. ;)
Acera chitters, "Pretty place, isn' it? Well, let's set out the blanket and eat. I'm starved. ;)"
Nalae grins and nods, stretching out the blanket.
Acera smirks, obviously not about to tell her friend the secret as she helps lay out their food and drinks under a large, wizened tree that overhangs the edge of the mesa.
Nalae carefully sits down on one edge of the blanket, smiling at her friend. "So?"
Acera grins as the breeze blows by, and watches a flitterby flitter by and then chitters, "So, hand me some of ma's fried fish. ;)"
Nalae smiles and offers Acera one of the bits of fish.
Acera chitters, "I don't mean to tease, but it's best to just find it out for yourself. We've got to let the sun go down a bit more first anyhow. And it's so nice up here."
Nalae ahs and nods. "It's real pretty..." Still, she looks over at Acera curiously, then peeks over the edge of the mesa, shivering a bit as she realizes how high they are. Still.. it might be fun to glide down from here... though she'd be liable to get hurt in the landing. Shaking that idea from her head, she looks back up at Acera, and nibbles on a bit of fish, herself.
Acera humms along as she inhales a fair amount of food. Mustelids in general have high metabolisms, and she follows that trend gleefully.
Acera watches the flitterbys and chitters, "After we eat, wanna chase some of em?"
A loud cry from high in the sky overhead startles Acera. It's only a small hawk out hunting, but it triggers an ancient reflex about being out in the open during the day.
Nalae smiles. "Can ya catch them? They're so little an' fast..."
Nalae looks up quickly, blinking nervously.
Acera shrugs off her reaction and chitters, "Sometimes. But mostly it's fun tryin. ;) We got some time yet. Oh yeah, we're gonna have to stay her tonight. That's why we brought all this stuff."
Nalae nods.. "I guess it's probably too late to head back, yeah.."
Acera watches an emerald green flitterby zig zag past and chitters, "C'mon. Let's get em. ;)"
Nalae grins, and leaps after one of the flitterbys, missing by a rather embarrassingly large margin. ;)
Acera bounces after another, and eventually she and Nalae work as a team, herding the flitterbys here and there, but never really catching any. Acera, panting and tired, *fwumps* on the blanket and leans back against the tree, giggling.
Nalae bounds back over to Acera, and pounces her instead. ;) Giggling, she comments, "You're an easier target..."
Acera eeps and giggles loudly as she tickles at Nalae in revenge.
Nalae giggles, tickling back!
The sun has lowered during the long chase, and shadows start stretching from the trees and shrubs. The air cools and mesa starts losing the heat it gained during it's time in the sun, causing an odd effect. The green stones, now much warmer than the air, start to humm softly as they vibrate, each in a different pitch and pattern.
Nalae blinks slowly, and wows..
Nalae grins up at Acera brightly.
Acera grins and snugs, "Wait, it's just started. ;)"
Nalae blinks? She cuddles in closer against Acera's side, her ears perked forward in wonder. "What is it? I never heard nothin' like that before..."
The different songs start to slowly sync with each other as the night air cools, the songs keep shifting, becoming more melodious.
Acera grins, "They're called singin stones. Ma says that they vibrate as they release the heat they get from the sun at night. They get quieter in about an hour, so we can sleep, but they'll keep hummin till the sun hits em again."
Nalae shakes her head softly in amazement. "How come you never brought me up here before?"
Acera grins, "Sun doesn't get hot enough till summer. They don't sing when it gets too cold."
Nalae curiously edges over towards one of the stones, and reaches to touch it.
Acera chitters and purrs, "Our ma knows more about the world than most folks, but she only tells a few about what she knows."
As Nalae touches the stone, she feels the subtle, but powerful vibrations course through her hand, then her arm, and finally it's as if the song echos within her and through her.
Nalae quivers with the vibration, and smiles over at Acera.. wow...
Acera pads up and places her paw on the rock too, and grins at Nalae as they both come into phase with the vibrations of the rock. She puts out her free paw to take Nalae's.
Nalae smiles up at Acera. "This's real neat.." Her voice quivers, along with the rest of her. ;)
Acera grins and is about to say something when her hand grasps Nalae's, and things go blurry for both little girls for just a moment.
The scene refocuses, and Nalae and Acera find themselves standing on a desolate landscape, still holding hands. It is utterly silent, and a few, obviously ancient structures can be seen towering in the distance. In the sky above is a bluish sphere covered in clouds. Acera tries to speak, but only her thoughts transmit, *N..Nalae? Where are we?"
Nalae blinks nervously, looking around. *I.. don't know... What happened?*
Acera shakes her head, *I don't know.*
A silvery ring and a doughnut shaped station are also evident in the sky overhead, and Acera points to Nalae, *Wow, that looks like the spacer's stuff!*
Nalae blinks a bit. *But.. what's it doing here? Nobody could live here...*
Nalae feels at least a little reassured that she can still feel the stone vibrating in her hand, even though she doesn't exactly see it at the moment. It's a connection back to the real world.
As Nalae focuses on the station, their own position shifts, and they are suddenly standing on the outer hull of the space station, the gate quite large from here. Several small shuttles dart about in the soundless vacuum, and a few Chirr'T'Thar walk about, their lips and nose sealed, eyes under protective membranes.
Acera mentally swallows, *Ma says they keep air and stuff inside these ships. But how can they walk around like that?*
Nalae blinks slowly. *What're we seeing, anyways?*
Acera frowns, *I think we're seeing the chirpy'taurs in ...in space. That blue circle over there must be our...our home?*
Nalae blinks nervously, some reflex from her old beliefs making her a bit jumpy, but she nods a little bit, unwilling to offend Acera by doubting her on this..
One of the Chirr'T'Thar on space walk glides silently past them, and the view shifts once again. The two young mustelids are now standing in a bustling plaza, full of felitaurs, buying, selling, and of course, flirting like crazy. The buildings are towering, but well spaced, and you can see flyers landing and taking off from them. The plant and animal life is totally unknown to either girl, and the sun looks odd, a bit larger and redder.
Nalae looks about, trying to get a bearing on what she's seeing, and utterly failing. *Where are we now?*
Acera is looking also a bit dizzy, *I don't know. I think it's Coperknickus's home.*
Nalae ohs quietly, nodding a little bit. *But how come we're seein' his home?*
Acera shrugs, *I dunno about any of this. Maybe we thought about him? We need to ask ma about this.*
Nalae nods slowly, her mind drifting only slightly, to her own lost Keeper..
Unlike the "space" scenes, this one is alive with sound. The purrgrowling of the felitaur's native tongue, with the occasional bit of trader talk that sounds like their own language. But as Nalae's thoughts focus on her home, the scene blurrs again.
The two mustelids find themselves in the midst of a dense forest of coniferous trees, stretching up towards a dark sky, where the stars seem to shine unnaturally bright, where they can be picked out from between the trees. A few Marenati make their way between the crude lean-tos erected against the sides of trees, but the camp seems to be mostly still for the night. At a nearby tree, a middle aged male squats next to a small stick-and-leaf shelter that overhangs the slumbering village young.
Acera blinks, *Where are we now?*
Nalae does the mental equivalent of swallowing hard, and replies, *My home..* She points at the man, adding, *He's the Keeper.. He always took care of me..* She takes a few hesitant steps in that direction, hoping against hope that he'll see her..
Acera's mouth opens a bit and looks around, trying to see what she can to help find this place again.
Nalae kneels in front of the Keeper, peering into his face. She sighs softly and lowers her head as he just continues to stare through her.. Turning, she looks back at Acera and shrugs faintly. *Can.. we go somewhere else now?*
Acera squeezes Nalae's hand and chitters mentally *Just think of something else. That seems to work.*
Nalae squeezes her eyes shut and thinks about Acera's home and Samantha..
Acera blinks, *WOW*.
Nalae opens her eyes quickly and looks up at Acera, then about at her surroundings.
The blue circle with white whisps grows larger and larger, until they pass through the clouds and come to hover over the elder tree and the home nestled at it's base.
Nalae blinks! Then looks up at Acera, not knowing entirely what to make of that vision..
Acera, in her excitement at seeing her home, let's go of Nalae's hand to wave to her brother in the tree.
And just as suddenly, both young girls are back at the singing stone. It has grown dark, and the lightbugs are out blinking away.
Nalae almost falls over as the vision suddenly vanishes. "What happened?"
Acera sits down, hard, and chitters, "I ...I dunno."
Nalae moves over very close to Acera. "Are.. um.. are you sure we can't go back down to the house tonight?"
Acera snugs, "The sun should be up in a few hours, we can go then Nalae."
Nalae nods slowly. "Well.. I guess maybe we should try ta sleep, then?"
Acera snugs, "Yeah. I think the stone somehow, I mean wow. Do you realize, we were in space! We even saw your home!"
Nalae nods slowly... "It.. it was like somethin' from the old stories.."
Acera is still quivering with excitement, "What old stories?"
Nalae smiles and shrugs a little. "Oh, lotsa them... the Keeper was always tellin' stories 'bout explorers or heros or other furs who'd done neat stuff.. an' they almos' always did it 'cause they saw stuff in a dream..."
Acera oohs, "We're going inta space?"
Nalae flushes lightly. "Well.. I dunno.. maybe.." She's still a bit nervous about the whole 'going into space' thing. "I mean, we're not 'splorers or heros or nothin', like they were..."
Acera grins, "Heck, we'd make great heroes. C'mon, let's get a blanket out and sleep. I don't like climbin when I'm tired."
Nalae smiles at Acera, and helps her unpack and spread out the blanket. "Me either.." With a playful little nudge at her friend's ribs, she adds, "But you looked like you were tired b'fore we even got halfway up here.."
Acera sticks out her tongue, "I'm a swimmer, not a tree climber. ;)"
Nalae giggles and nuzzles Acera's shoulder gently. "An' I'm real lucky you are.."
Acera nods, "Though maybe you won't sink so easily next time. C'mon, I can't wait to talk to ma about this. So let's sleep and get up when the sun does, K?"
Nalae nods softly, stretching out onto the blanket.
In the few hours left before dawn, the two sisters get some sleep. Acera dreams of space, while Nalae's are of home. Though, one short dream is disturbing, it's of those felitaur's again, but instead of walking in space, they are floating amongst metal debris, cut and bleeding, and not moving. The dream is brief, and not remembered when she wakes.