The debris has been cleaned up, and most of the damage to the ships from the invaders attack on Nexus and the Chirr'T'Thar is fixed or well under repair. The last of the ground troops have been wiped out on Nexus. The Chirr'T'Thar seemed to fair better one on one than in ship battles. Few people around Haven were hurt, but a few were, and Samantha treated them with Nalae and Acera's help. The two young mustelids are finally free to enjoy a cool tropical winter day outside the elder oak.
Acera fluffs up her fur as he pads outside, happy to be free to play again. She chitters to Nalae, "So, whatcha wanna do?"
Nalae peers about, casting a hesitant smile over at Acera. "Dunno.." Things have been so busy of late that she's had trouble keeping up.. or even making sense of what she's witnessed.
Acera flicks her short mink tail and notes many of the trees are looking bare. They don't really lose all their leaves, but they do lose some of the older ones when it gets cool. She looks at Nalae, "You doing ok?" Acera of course is rarely bothered by the chaos, though seeing some of those injuries was unpleasant.
"We can walk and talk a bit if you wanna?" she suggests, just happy to be outside again with her sister.
Nalae nods a little bit, reaching to grasp at Acera's hand. "Yeah.." And she tries to force most of the images of the preceding days from her mind. In an effort to start conversation, she comments, "The leaves are falling off all the trees?" That's been bothering her for the past few weeks, but since nobody else seems to have been paying it any mind, she's tried to contain her nerves..
Acera nods, "Just the older leaves. Ma says that further north, where it snows a lot, everything but the pine trees lose ALL their leaves. Says it's too cold for them to do much, so they get rid of em to save energy till it warms up."
The small rivers flow is a bit slower than normal, temporarily choked with leaves until the microbes start softening them up for the smaller water creatures to feed on. Acera hmms, "That's right, you didn't have leaves at your home, did ya?"
Nalae ohs quietly and nods. "The trees at home never dropped them either.. except when they were sick or something." She shrugs slightly. She was never particularly interested in the trees, except as heights to leap from and land on. But still, it seems odd to see the trees behaving so differently.
>Andromeda lands softly in a clearing along the river, and looks
around and purrs, "Looks like a good place to get some sun. Do you ever
sun bathe Charon?"
Acera walks along the river, swinging the hand that holds Nalae's back and forth, as she starts pointing out the different changes occurring along the river and in the forest to Nalae.
>The little dragon lands on Andromeda's head. "Sun bathe? No, the
plasma in the chromosphere would burn me."
>With a flick of her ears against the silly little dragon, Andromeda
grins, "I guess I should have said sunlight bathe. I'm going to lay
out and soak up some warmth. ;)"
>"Oh," the remote says. "Does that mean you'll emit later if you're
squeezed?"
>With a flick of her head, Charon is tossed into the air as Andromeda
rolls over on her back and catches Charon with all four paws, "You'll
have to try it to find out."
After about 15 minutes of doing nearly all the talking, Acera pauses and goes, "You sure you ok? You haven't said hardly anything."
>The little dragon squeals, then says, "You're too big for me to
squeeze anywhere."
>Andromeda spreads her wings wide and sprawls out on both backs,
legs sprawling out as she purrs, "Well, doesn't mean you can't try. ;)"
>Charon settles down on the felitaur's stomach, and twists his head
about to look for butterflies.
>The air in the clearing is still. While a few birds, and some squirrel
like creatures are moving about in the trees, it's a bit too cool
for the local insect life, which either hibernates or overwinters as
eggs or pupae. The young felitauress's tail flicks as she purrrrrrs.
Nalae shakes her head slightly at Acera. "No, I'm okay. I just.. keep thinking, you know? About.. about everything that's happened.."
Acera nods quietly, "Yeah. Ma says we were lucky no one was seriously hurt around here, but she said a lot of Chirpy'taurs died by the moon."
Nalae nods, walking in silence for a time.
Acera snugs, "Hey, I bet we can find your kite in the clearing now that most of the leaves are off? Why don't we go look?"
Nalae smiles slightly, glad to be distracted. "Okay!"
>Andromeda uses her tail to tickle Charon from time to time as she
lays sprawled out in a very unladylike fashion, her fur does seem to
soak up the sun like a sponge. Maybe that old joke about felines being
solar powered is partly true?
Acera nods, "Race ya there ;)" and quickly takes off to the small foot bridge that crosses the river ahead.
Nalae grins and bounds after Acera, running on the ground, even though she knows that she could probably easily out distance Acera if she leapt from tree to tree. ;)
Acera goes to all fours once she crosses the bridge and races towards the clearing.
Acera looks back at Nalae just as she enters the clearing, she grins as she sees that she's way ahead, and trips on small branch and goes tumbling towards the sun bathing felitauress.
Charon pounces on Andromeda's tail-tip, then looks and waves to the others.
Nalae giggles as Acera trips, then looks concerned, and hurries towards her friend.
Andromeda puts one arm on the ground and raises her head a little as a sable brown fur ball thunks against her side, "Well hello."
Nalae bounds after Acera. "Acera!" She slows a short distance from Andromeda, looking down at Acera concernedly.
Acera blinks, and sits up, then realizes she's sitting on a really big wing. She turns to look at Andromeda and purrs, "Oh. You must be Coppernickles mate?"
Andromeda breaks out giggling, "No. I'm afraid not. I'm Copernicus's sister, Andromeda. This is Charon. And who are you and your friend here?"
Charon hops off of Andromeda and flits over onto Acera's head.
Nalae shifts from side to side, looking between Acera and the others.
Acera blinks, "Hiya Charon. Sorry for sitting on your wing Andromeda. I'm Acera, and this is my sister, Nalae."
Andromeda props her torso part way off the ground and waves to Nalae, "Good to meet you both. And don't worry, I've had people jump on me with a lot more force than that. ;)"
Nalae smiles tentatively, and pads over to Acera's side. She's gone quiet again. ;)
Charon smiles and wags his tail at Nalae. "Did you see the war?" he peeps.
Nalae shuffles her foot a bit. She saw more than she'd like to have seen. "Fire in the sky.. hurt furs.." She shrugs slightly, and hopes that that's what Charon meant.
Andromeda frowns at Charon, "It's not a very pleasant thing to talk about Charon. So, what are you two up to on a nice day like this?"
Charon blinks at Andromeda, and drops the subject.
Acera is checking out Andromeda's wings, and doesn't really pay attention to the question.
Nalae ohs. "We were just out walking.. we were going to see if.. we could find my kite in the trees.."
Andromeda blinks, "Oh. What's a kite?"
The little dragon looks up at the trees. He thinks a kite is a kind of bird.
Nalae shakes her head slightly. "It's.. it's a little paper thing.. you fly it on a string, sort of." She looks to Acera for help explaining it. It's all sort of over her head, anyway.
Acera flicks her short whiskers as she suddenly pays attention, "Oh yeah. It's like a paper wing. It was a red one, it got stuck in the trees around here someplace."
Andromeda looks curious and purrs, "Well, if you can get off my wing, we can help you look for it, can't we Charon."
"How long ago was it stuck?" asks Charon, who then nods to Andromeda.
Nalae looks over to Acera. It was a while ago.. but she can't remember exactly how long.
Acera says, "It was about a week before...well, you know what happened."
Spreading her paws about a foot apart, she chitters, "It was about this big. The wind blew it into the trees over there, right Nalae?"
Nalae nods softly. "Yeah.. that's about right."
Charon flies up into the nearest tree's branches and starts poking around for something red.
Acera chitters, "I'll look from the ground and Nalae can climb up and look, right?" She looks at Andromeda, expecting her to stay on the ground unless she flies.
Samantha slowly pads up, following the trail of disturbed leaves as she goes to see where Acera and Nalae had gone. She knew it had gotten too quiet out there...
Andromeda, meanwhile has started moving around the trees in question with Acera, while Charon flits about overhead.
Samantha peeks out from around a tree. "Aha, here we are..."
Nalae climbs up into a nearby tree and makes her way from branch to branch, peering about for a glimpse of the kite..
Charon lands on a branch next to Nalae. "See it yet?"
Nalae shakes her head, blinking. "Maybe this wasn't the right tree..."
Andromeda has gotten halfway up a larger tree, much to Acera's amazement. She chitters, "Wow, I didn't know ya could climb so well." She hasn't noticed her mom yet.
Andromeda purrchuckles, "We climb over rigging in space all the time, right Charon. You said it was red?"
Charon peeps, "Climbing in freefall doesn't count," to Andromeda.
Samantha hmmms, and brushes her skirt off. She then decides to show these upstarts what someone who's built to climb trees can do. She reaches up, grabs one low branch, then gives herself a yank and sort of scrambles up a considerable distance before her momentum gives out.
Andromeda thtpts at Charon as Acera shouts up, "Yep, it was red. Problem is, so are some of the leaves. :P"
Andromeda's ears pick up the sounds of someone else climbing a tree, "Nalae, is that you?"
Samantha says, "No, it's her mother."
Nalae blinks, falling still. "Ma?"
Charon pokes his head out of the leaves to look.
Samantha says, "Yes. Just wondering what was going on here... it was getting far too quiet back at home."
Andromeda blinks, "Oh, so one of their mothers came to look for them. Pleased to meet you, I'm Andromeda Skygazer. I guess you met Charon a while back. We're looking for a kite."
Acera wows, "I didn't know ya could still climb like that ma. ;)"
"A red one, " Charon adds.
Samantha smirks, leaning back against a branch to catch her breath. "There are a lot of things you don't know."
Acera chuckles, "I know. You never tell us anything. ;)"
Samantha says, "That's because I expect you to learn for yourself when given the right direction."
Nalae scampers around the tree to meet Samantha, smiling.
The little dragon points to some thin branches near Andromeda, "Look there, Andromeda!"
Acera pouts playfully at her mother, "Ya know I can't follow directions. Hey, yeah, he's right Andromeda, there it is."
Andromeda hmmms as she scrambles out on a not too thick branch and stops, "Much too thin for any of us to climb on. Say, Nalae, you want to come over here? I have an idea."
Nalae smiles over at Andromeda. With a quick leap and flicking open of her gliding flaps, she reaches Andromeda's tree. Scaling up to Andromeda, she smiles at her. "What's the idea?"
Charon watches to see if Andromeda is going to blow up the tree to shake the kite loose, but doubts it now that Nalae is there with her.
Andromeda grins and tickles Nalae's nose with her tail, "How about I lift you over there, so you can reach out and grab it?"
Nalae wrinkles her nosepad, and only just manages to avoid sneezing. "Um, okay.."
The same tail now curls around Nalae's waist and lifts her over to the kite dangling precariously from the thin branches.
Acera wows, "Cool. Ma, can I have a tail like that for the winter solstice?"
Samantha chuckles. "I don't think so. You don't have a lot of tail to work with to start with... something like that, even if possible, would be a lot of work and your body couldn't absorb it that fast."
Nalae shivers, more than a little nervous at her sudden location, held in a tail of all things.. But she quickly snatches at the kite, pulling it from the branches.
Andromeda purrs, "That's a paper wing? I want to see how this works. Here, let me get you on a safer branch." and carefully puts Nalae on a thicker portion of the branch she's sprawled onto.
Acera hmmfs, "You always say that. No wings. I can't climb very well. Sure, I can swim great, but there aren't that many rivers around."
Nalae smiles up at Andromeda, and holds the kite up towards Andromeda.
Charon hops over to Acera and Samantha, and listens to their chatter.
Samantha chuckles. "Don't you think if I could do things like that I'd be in better shape myself? I'm not saying it's not possible... but anything like that comes with a price."
Acera says, "I promise to save up everything I earn from chores!"
Andromeda chuckles, "Why don't you take that down. It looks rather fragile Nalae."
Nalae nods softly. "Okay.."
Nalae scampers down the trunk of the tree and pads back over to Acera, holding onto the kite.
Samantha says, "I didn't mean money." She sighs. "Doing major changes to your body like that tends to stress your body heavily. They don't always work, it's almost never possible to back out if something goes wrong, and most of the changes I've seen can cut several years off your life span."
Charon asks, "How long do you live?"
Acera sighs, "You really take the fun out of this magic stuff ma."
Andromeda purrs, "Everyone clear out from below, ok? ;)"
Nalae moves well clear of the area beneath Andromeda. And gives Acera a little smile.
Acera pads over and snugs Nalae, "That looked like fun."
With the sound of small branches breaking, the 450 pound felitaur falls to the ground with a loud *FWUMP* and a shower of dead leaves and twigs.
"Did you break anything Andromeda?" Charon asks the felitaur.
Andromeda flicks her wings to get the stuff off of her and purrs, "Only dead twigs. So, how does this paper wing work?"
Samantha says, "Myself? Expected to be around seventy, eighty years."
Charon smiles to Samantha, "How old are you now? When did you give birth to Acera? How old is she?"
Acera blinks, having figured her mom must be in the hundreds with all the stuff she knows. She whispers that to Nalae.
Samantha shakes her head. "Asking how old I am is a rather personal question... and I didn't give birth to Acera. Neither Acera nor Nalae is biologically my daughter... I simply adopted them."
"Adopted?" the little dragon asks, head cocked to one side curiously.
Nalae smiles at Acera, and fluffs her fur.
Samantha nods. "Meaning I take care of them."
Andromeda pads over and gives Samantha a headrub in greeting, "Why did you adopt them?"
Samantha shakes her head at the rubbing, then just shrugs. "They needed someone to help take care of them. Acera's family died some time back; Nalae just sort of showed up out of a warp recently, and I've been trying to help find out where she's supposed to be."
The little dragon bobs his head, "That's very nice of you."
Samantha hmmphs. "And what sort of person would I be if I left a child out to die in the cold if I could help?"
Charon thinks about if for a moment. "A person with a cleaner house?"
Samantha just says, "Never mind."
Nodding, the remote bounds over to see the kite.
Andromeda nodnods, "We have a few mating groups that lost parents also. We're doing our own form of adopting. So, Acera, Nalae, want to show me how this kite works?"
Acera nods, "Sure. Nalae, you bring the string?"
Nalae blinks, then shakes her head. "No.. I didn't know we were gonna go looking for the kite 'till we were here.."
Acera oopses and looks at her ma?
Samantha says, "Sorry, I don't have any on me either."
Andromeda hmmms, "Well, I might have something that will work as string. Here we go. Some monofilament tie down. Will that work?" as she hands the spool to Nalae.
Samantha says, "Should, if that's what I think it is. Oh, actually, I have something I would like to ask you."
Charon asks, "Isn't that sharp though?"
Acera nods to Nalae, "C'mon, lets hook it up, K?"
Andromeda's ears turn as her head does to look at Samantha, "Sure, what do you want to know?"
Nalae nods softly, peering at the spool curiously.
Acera fumbles with the spool and ties it onto the kite and chitters, "You want to hold the kite or run with the string this time? "
Samantha says, "As I said, I'd like to help Nalae get back to her home. Unfortunately, I don't have the means to get there, nor do I even have the means to find out exactly where it is. As your race travels between the stars, I'd assume you have good maps..."
Nalae grins at Acera. "I'll hold the kite." Let Acera do the legwork. She's better at it. ;)
Andromeda ahems, "Well, we're developing good maps of this galaxy. My brother sort of...moved us here about a year ago."
Acera nods and plays out about 30 feet of line and tells Nalae, "Hold it high, and let it go quick when the line gets tight, K?"
Nalae nodnods, holding up the kite.
Samantha nods. "I have a method by which we can get images of what the sky looks like from her world. If it's somewhere in the local vicinity, that should help pinpoint its location, correct?"
Andromeda nods, "Especially if we can get a clear look at the stars in her sky."
Acera zips off as fast as she can run, going the 30 feet very quickly.
Andromeda purrs, "I'd be interested to know how you can view places remotely if you don't know where they are?"
Samantha nods. "That can be done, yes." She turns to look at Nalae. "Let's just say that it involves a very old magic... and what's know as the Principle of Contagion: things that were once connected remain connected in some way."
Nalae releases the kite, and grins over at Acera, watching..
Andromeda giggles as she sees the kite wobble behind the young mink for a bit, till it finally catches the wind and dodges up higher and higher. Acera waves for Nalae to come over to where she's holding the line.
With a shake of her head, Andromeda chuckles, "What a cute toy. Your children are a credit to you. It sounds like you have to raise them on your own? No mates, male or female?"
Nalae bounds over to Acera's side, grinning. "You better fly it this time... I'd just get it tangled in a tree again."
Acera nods, "Just warn me if it gets near a tree again, K?" as she makes the kite dip and bob, it's tail of silk bows tracing a figure 8.
Samantha shakes her head. "No. No mates. Very few people live out this far."
Nalae nodnods!
Andromeda looks at Samantha wistfully, "I'm going to have to join a mating group soon. We...lost a lot of good people. I'll make sure to come out and visit you if you wish."
Samantha nods. "It's not easy, but it is worth it."
Charon races along after the kite.
Acera chuckles and tries to make it harder for Charon to follow the kite.
Andromeda nods, "My brother lucked out. He has a wonderful mating group. I'm not sure his mating group always feels the same way, but they seem to be getting used to him. So, how do you win this "kite" game?"
Samantha chuckles. "There are no winners. It's just something to attempt to do, a challenge to see how high you can get it, if you can make it do stunts..."
Charon ends up running over to Nalae. "You have kite-wings, why not have someone pull you along with a string like the kite?"
Nalae blinks? Then looks over at Acera. Than back to Charon. "Um." It takes her a minute to come up with a decent reason why not to do it. "Half the time, the kite crashes into a tree.. or falls back down..."
Andromeda's tail flicks, "Charon really means well Samantha. Honest. ;)"
The little dragon blinks, then says, "Oh, that would probably hurt right?"
Acera blinks, "She's too heavy to be a kite, isn't she?"
Samantha shakes her head. "He's just not entirely familiar with reality, is he?"
Charon chases the kite's shadow again.
Andromeda smiles, "Well, at least not the same reality we're in, and coming from a Chirr'T'Thar, that says a lot."
Nalae smiles over at Acera.
Samantha chuckles.
After nearly a half hour of watching Charon try and chase after the kite and it's shadow, the gathered furs pad off to Samantha's home, and introduce Charon and Andromeda to tea with cream. Once Andromeda changes the ratio more towards cream, she enjoys it more. A rather nice ending to a wonderful day, helping to put the darkness of the past few weeks behind them.