After weeks of preparation, and a week or two of waiting for a warm, sunny 'winter' day, Samantha finally gets her wish. She collects her two daughters, and has Melantha tag along as they march to the mesa where the green singing stones are soaking up sunlight and warmth.
Acera is holding Nalae's hand as they trudge along, whispering to her, "Ma thinks we might be able to find where your home is if we can see the stars and stuff."
Samantha sighs, her small pack covering her back. The research had been difficult enough, figuring out a way to take anything away from the stones. But if everything went properly, she should have everything she could get to figure out where young Nalae was actually from.
Nalae trails along, her hand clasped tightly in Acera's. Most of the specifics of the preparations were lost on her, but the prospect of finding her home again cheers her.
Melantha brings up the rear of the group. She has talked to Samantha about this a little and is very curious about it.
The surrounding scenery is a bit bleak, with some of the trees bare for the semi tropical version of winter, but the day itself is bright and cheery. And as they go higher, a little bit of snow here and there. That, and a few pine type trees can be seen as the altitude increases.
Samantha stops for a moment to catch her breath, stretching as much as she can. The singing stones are just coming into sight now, and just in time as the sun is approaching the horizon.
Melantha sees Samantha short winded and runs up to see if she can help. "Melantha help Samantha?"
Samantha smiles. "Thank you. Perhaps help by setting out the blankets and getting things set up for later."
Melantha smiles and nods.
Acera wonders if she and Nalae have time to play a bit as she looks at her mother.Nalae peers forward at the crystals, then looks up at Samantha. She doesn't say anything, but her eyes repeatedly stray to the stones.
Nalae peers forward at the crystals, then looks up at Samantha. She doesn't say anything, but her eyes repeatedly stray to the stones.
Samantha turns to Nalae, and nods.
Samantha continues forward towards the stones, making mental notes on their positions, comparing that against a drawing of the region she has.
Up on the mesa, it's a bit cooler as a light wind moves through. Acera and Nalae barely notice it with their thick winter fur.
Samantha pulls her cloak tighter around her. The last thing she needs right now is something to distract her.
Samantha finally comes to a halt atop the mesa, and sits down. Shading her eyes to look in the sun's direction, she says, "I think we've got a few minutes yet."
Melantha sits down on the ground and relaxes.
Nalae nods at Samantha a bit. She's anxious, and can't bring herself to sit down. Instead, she fidgets and looks about anxiously, repeatedly finding her attention drawn back to those stones..
Samantha looks around. "All right, everybody reasonably ready? As I said before, you'll have to blank your minds as much as possible. Except for Nalae, of course, as she's going to be controlling where we go."
Acera also looks at Melantha for a moment. And giggles when she thinks of how she met her brother. Trying to eat his dopey deer friend. She wishes she could have seen that.
Nalae nods a little bit..
Samantha looks up at Nalae. "I need you to focus on the night sky where you grew up. Any constellations you remember seeing, particularly; and if we can use the time-slip that Acera managed to do, get both winter and summer constellations. We'll use the stones to take us there, I'll write them down, and we'll see if the spacers can figure anything out from the patterns."
Nalae nods uncertainly. "I'll try.."
Acera is fidgeting as she moves around, still wondering why her mother brought her along. She's glad Samantha did, but she knows Nalae is the one who works the stones, so the young mink feels she's not really needed.
The green stones start taking on a faint glow as the sun sinks lower on the horizon.
Samantha smiles to Nalae. "You did it once before; I'm sure that now we know more about what we're doing it will be less trouble."
Nalae nods softly, casting a small smile at Samantha, then a glance over at Acera.
Acera , who has been unusually quiet, is looking at the stones also, and wondering if she's going to lose her new found sister?
The last rays of sunlight dwindle to nothingness, and for a couple of minutes, it's silent. Maybe it wasn't warm enough to fully charge the stones? But finally, after giving Samantha more worries, a low hum starts to build as the stones discharge the energy they have stored.
Samantha brushes herself off. "Sounds like it's time."
Nalae nods a little, giving Acera's hand a little squeeze.
Melantha watches silently, this is the first time she has seen Samantha work magic and its extremely fascinating.
Acera nods and snugs, looking a bit scared again.
Samantha says, "All right, let's gather around here. We need to all join hands in a circle."
Nalae moves near to Samantha and the stones, tense.
Samantha holds her hands out for Nalae and Acera.
Acera grabs Nalae's hand on one side and Melantha's on the other, assuming the cheetah will join in.
Samantha nods and takes Nalae's hand on the other side.
Melantha smiles and takes Acera's hand.
Samantha takes Melantha's other hand as well, closing the circle.
The pitches of the varied humming stones are forming a pleasant, if unorganized tune around the travelers.
Samantha takes Nalae's paw gently, and presses it against the rock.
The hum changes tune slightly, but otherwise, nothing.
Samantha separates her hand from Nalae's, making the rock part of the circle.
Nalae holds tightly to Acera's and Samantha's hands, and gently presses her hand to the stone.
Again, the tone of the stone doesn't seem to be the same as last time, when the stone was between the two little mustelids in the circle.
Samantha hmmms. "I think Nalae and Acera have to both be touching it." She reaches out to take Nalae's hand again.
Finally, something happens as the two young girls form opposite ends of a circuit around the stone. The surroundings seem to blur, and then shift.
The feel of the trip this time is different. Sluggish, as if there is not as much power this time around, and the stone is having troubles tuning into the scene.
Nalae tries to focus upon her old home.. the nighttime sky and the trees...
The attempt doesn't work this time, the stones seem to be acting a little capriciously. The scene instead focuses on an island, one that Samantha recognizes as the one the spacers, the Chirpy'taurs, have moved onto. Only, in this scene it looks pristine. Then, about ten feet up in the air, a ripple forms, and a portal opens.
Nalae frowns as she's unable to bring the vision where she wishes it to go..
WolfSinger falls from the portal, a look of terror on his face.
The wolf makes a rather abrupt landing in some shrubbery, and the portal above him closes.
WolfSinger weakly stand, and looks up at where the portal was, a total look of confusion in on his face.
WolfSinger crawls out of the bush, picking thorns out of his fur. He looks around, trying to get his bearings.
No signs of the portal remain at all. This part of the island only has some short shrubs on it. As the wolf looks around, he hears some odd sounds coming from around a ridge.
WolfSinger's ears twitch as he hears the noise. He turns around to see what it is.
Acera blinks and looks at Nalae, then shrugs and watches the show, figuring maybe the stone has a mind of its own.
Samantha hmmms. "Odd."
There, padding along in a blue jumpsuit, is a little 3 year old white bunny. On closer look, it's probably a young little girl, dragging a doll behind her.
WolfSinger crouches down so he doesn't look so menacing, and wufs hello to the bunny.
The little rabbit girl waves and waddles towards him, and of course, towards a 8 foot drop off at the same time.
Nalae frowns softly, blinking.
Acera whispers as she watches the scene, "Is the wolf someone you know Nalae?"
Samantha clears her throat at Nalae.
WolfSinger gasps!! and runs to try to catch the child before she falls.
Melantha tilts her head as she watches the scene.
Delrina, which Nalae should recognize from her arrival on Nexus, pads along and falls off the ledge, landing neatly on top of Wolfsinger as he dives to catch her. She hops off and giggles while the wolf is still face down in the hillside.
Nalae shakes her head slightly. "The.. long-ears."
Acera blinks, "That's Delrina, isn't it ma?" as she watches the scene.
Samantha hmmms. "So it is."
Delrina, seeing the wolf still lying there, gets bored and wanders off towards a small, steaming stream. Apparently attached to the volcano or one of it's geysers.
WolfSinger stands up, and shakes himself out, getting the dust out of his fur. He looks down at the bunny, tilting his head. He looks like he just went through hell, fur turn and scratched.
The little rabbit bounces along towards the nearest geyser, wanting to check out the steam coming from it.
WolfSinger looks in horror as the child seems to be destined for danger, He runs to grab her before she gets burned.
Melantha's ears flatten a bit. She gets a concerned look on her face as she watches the scene unfold.
As the wolf races to rescue the rabbit girl, he startles a group of what he thought were stones, but instead some odd bird sized insect like creatures. Wolfsinger goes off balance, but does manage to scoop her out of the way, but one foot gets into the very hot water for a moment.
WolfSinger yelps!! and limps a safe distance away from the geyser, before setting the bunny down. He tends to his injured foot: the fur almost burned away, the skin red and raw underneath.
Delrina whees at the ride, but when she's put down, a bramble snags her doll and tears the eye a bit. She sees that and breaks out crying, in that shrieky way kids have. You know, the kind that can be heard from a mile away? Or just even 200 yards away, where her parents are having a picnic?
Samantha winces. "Nalae, could we try elsewhere? We can't actually affect anything here anyway."
Nalae wrinkles her nosepad a bit. "I'm trying.."
Samantha nods. "Acera, Melantha, could you try closing your eyes and blanking your minds as much as possible?"
Melantha closes her eyes tightly and concentrates the best she can.
WolfSinger whimpers a little, and tries to comfort the bunny child, hugging her.
Acera tries, but can't help peeking.
Nalae squeezes her eyes tightly shut.
At this point, Tarkin, Delrina's father comes racing over the ridge to see his screaming child in the arms of a wolf. Tarkin is easily a head taller than Wolfsinger, and has arms that only a farmer or a blacksmith might have.
Samantha closes her own eyes...
WolfSinger doesn't see daddy rabbit. He still hugs the child, gently stroking her back to calm her.
Tarkin reaches the wolf and lifts him off the ground by his neck. After freeing his daughter...oogh. The scene seems to skip ahead a minute, and shows Tarkin carrying his daughter away. She waves to Wolfsinger as they disappear back over the ridge. And Wolfsinger, oh my. He's on the ground, out cold, with lots of scrapes, some burns, some cuts, and even some bite marks on him. Which explains why he was like that when he was found a week later. Finally, the scene blurrs again.
Nalae takes advantage of the blurring, and concentrates extra-hard on the forests of home, and the view of the night sky..
The stone seems to have warmed up, as it were, and in short order, Nalae's home starts to come into view.
Melantha peeks with one eye, noticing that the scene has changed, she opens both.
Nalae looks relieved, the view rapidly stabilizing as her vision clears.
Samantha opens her eyes again, looking around.
Nalae peers out at the vision, the tall pine trees and the makeshift lean-tos where the villagers sleep through the deep night.. Nalae focuses the vision upon the skies, where pinpoint stars can be made out through the tree branches.
Samantha looks up to the sky. "That look right to you?"
Nalae nods at Samantha. "Yeah, I think so.."
Samantha nods. She looks up at the sky, focusing in one direction, then chants a few words to herself, setting off the spell to 'fix' the image in her memory. She turns her head in another direction, repeating the process.
The stars over Nalae's home are not as thick as Samantha would expect, which may hint at their world being at the outer fringes of their galaxy. Or at least the Chirr'T'Thar will think so when they see this. There are very distinct patterns of brighter, and dimmer stars. Hopefully enough information to locate Nalae's world. That, and the single small moon may help.
Samantha seems somewhat more tired once she is done, but she says to Nalae, "Can you remember other constellations? From other times of the year?"
Nalae frowns softly. She never really bothered to try to learn constellations.. they weren't thought of that way.. "Well.. I can try.." The sky wavers, and after a little time, finally restabilizes with a new configuration of stars.
Samantha hmmms, nodding. "Thank you." She takes a deep breath, and starts taking 'images' of the star fields again, looking around at each quadrant.
Acera is also watching, and tries not to wonder about Nalae's parents while her mom is star mapping.
Samantha finally shakes her head. "There, that's done."
Nalae looks over at Samantha and smiles a little. Then looks to Acera for a moment.
Samantha says, "Anybody else have something they want to try looking at while there's still energy left in the stones?"
Acera hmms, and looks, "Where's your folks Nalae?"
Nalae ohs.. "They're all asleep now.. In the lean-tos.."
Oryn, who was just lazily resting on Melantha's shoulders, perks up and warbles.
Acera remembers Nalae saying that she was raised by everyone, and didn't know about her 'parents' exactly. She looks at Nalae.
After the last of the images fades, Samantha spends the next several minutes ensconced with the treated paper she brought with her, projecting her mental images onto the paper to provide a printed record of the star maps. Once done this, she soon drifts off into a deep sleep.
With the last few minutes left, Acera DOES manage to get an image of a young squirrel girl getting into mischief. The young little mink spends the next few days teasing her mother about this, and Samantha, oddly enough, doesn't seem to really mind.