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+--- Thread: Otatso Wetlands will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? (/showthread.php?tid=29501)
will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - September 07, 2018
better late than never right? is it ok to backdate this a little?
indra had traveled far from bearclaw, spurned on by the tightening hand of desperation. laurel had noticed lucas' disappearance was not just a day-trip with his father; xan had not seen him, and none of the children had either. her throat tightened, her heart plummeted; where had bearclaw's cherubic dancer gone -- and to what end?
her search carried her away from her children, adopted and birthed, but it was not her offspring that was on her mind that day, but laurel's. it would break laurel, indra knew it -- and she was overwhelmed with anxiety to find lucas.
all she wanted was for their family to be safe, happy, secure -- and every time it seemed they were in reach of such contentment, fate cruelly yanked it away.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - September 30, 2018
This looked lonely and I need another Nundrel thread.
While Nunataq's chosen outpost to wait for Lucas's arrival was Wapun meadow, it did not escape her attention that adults were looking for him elsewhere too. And on the day, when she caught fresh tracks of Indra that led away from Bearclaw valley, she made the rash decision to follow them far and away in the wilds, where she had never been before.
It took a long time, before the russet she-wolf came into Nunataq's sight - had it not been so - there would be not just one, but two very lost puppies in Bearclaw valley. Because the inexperienced cub had focused solely on the scent trail and had paid no attention at all of, where exactly she was going. Or had any second thoughts about, what would happen, if she did not find Indra.
But this scenario did not play out, when the girl's attention closed upon the familiar figure in the distance. She let out a shrill bark that could be translated into "Wait for me!" and ran at full speed towards her caretaker. She could feel the distance she had traveled already in her limbs, therefore she arrived to Indra, out of breath and after giving her a victorious smile of "I found you!!!" the pup collapsed in a heap of tired limbs and body, catching her breath.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - October 12, 2018
the patter of feet behind her caused indra to stir to attention, turning around with a bristling fierceness to fend off her attacker. instead, it was the agile form of nunataq -- sleek and entirely unexpected so far from the valley.
"nuna!" indra half-exclaimed, half-scolded -- they were too far, and it both heartened and worried the beta to find the girl had followed her here. her gaze lifted around them, looking to see if she had been accompanied. relief fluttered about her as she realized nunataq was at least alone presently, although she appeared indisposed from the miles she had put under her. indra allowed a soft smile to wander across her muzzle, and nudged the girl with an affectionate gesture. "well, since you're here, two noses is better than one i guess."
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - October 16, 2018
Nunataq was still out of breath, when Indra acknowledged her presence and graced her with a smile. Unable to mirror the expression of her caretaker due to the more neccessary task of soothing her burning lungs with as much oxygen as possible, she responded with a wagging tail, that tapped lightly against the ground. Had the girl known that this would be one of the last moments in the coming weeks, when she would have Indra's attention all to herself, she would have valued this chance meeting more.
Since she did not burden herself with the "future tense" in general and cared very little for the past, she did not see anything special in it. Once it felt good enough to raise to her feet again, she did with a quick stretch and shake of her coat. Thus prepared, she looked up at Indra in an expectant silence. Now, what are we going to do?
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - October 16, 2018
nunataq was understandably too busy catching her breath to answer: not that she would have answered anyway, indra thought with an amused yet rueful smile. it had not been for lack of trying - both she and laurel and occasionally xan had tried to tempt the girl to speak, and at this point it seemed she would never speak at all.
it was not such a bad thing, indra thought. words were clumsy; they lacked depth, were shallow, and often, they could hurt you. better to live life without their nebulous meanings infiltrating you, leading you to self-doubt and ruin.
once the pair had regained their breath, indra nosed along the ground pointedly. the two had their own silent exchange; indra had learned to adapt her posture and body language to nunataq's preferences, and had learned also what certain gestures or expressions might convey. it was obvious she was searching for lucas - but they were far from home, and not a scent of him could be found here.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - October 18, 2018
Nuna's writer recently read a book called "The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender", where a girl Ava has a mute brother. Just like Nuna he does not speak either, not because of a disability, but because he chooses not to. There is nothing really worthwhile to say to everyone else. And, if Nuna had been able to comprehend verbal language and form her thoughts into words, she would still not speak. Out of firm belief that this was not really neccessary.
This game again? Nuna watched Indra nose the ground and recalled the last time she had done the same and how it had ended. Except this time... she got to her feet, sniffed the air and listened carefully... no brown pelted creatures around. Very well then... now that she had got this far, she could pretend that she understood, what Indra was doing and simply follow along. So she did.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - October 21, 2018
it did not occur to the beta nunataq might not understand her purpose here -- she was distracted by wanting desperately to find sweet lucas, and so, did not catch the subtle glint of confusion that briefly eclipsed nunataq's game.
as the girl played along indra nudged her gently; there was no scent of lucas here, so with a heavy sigh, indra started to retrace their steps back to the homeland.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - October 21, 2018
This well-meant resolution shattered, however, when after a short while Indra seemed to have changed her mind and turned around. At this point Nunataq had found the delicious scent of muskrat some distance away and was inspecting it with great interest. And now that her caretaker asked her to leave this activity and leave, slight disappointment and another minute, plea-a-a-a-a-se was written accross her features. Just a while longer... she stood there with wagging tail and looking at Indra expectantly.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - October 25, 2018
resigned as she was, the redleaf woman could not turn down an opportunity to hunt alongside nunataq. their last several endeavors had ended quite poorly and indra was loathe to release a poor hunter to the world. catching the pleading look in the dark masked juvenile’s eyes, indra rejoined with a bob of her round muzzle.
the scent of muskrat must have been what nunataq had unearthed; its damp scent clung to the rivergrass and threaded between clusters of tussock and stone. drawing alongside nunataq she looked to her pointedly; today,nunataq would lead their expedition.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - October 28, 2018
Though during Nunataq's childhood it had seemed very unlikely that the masked girl would ever be lacking self-confidence, she was at that vulnerable stage, where she needed just as much support making those big steps into the adult life as anyone else. Therefore - no wonder - that her features lit up and her whole posture changed to proud and self-assured, when Indra gave in and returned to her. She shot her a glance of this is going to be legen-wait-for-it-DARY! Legendary! and then went on tracking the stinky rodent along the roof of the undergound tunnel that was visible on the ground. She followed it, then came to a halt and began to dig furiously.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - November 02, 2018
it would be impossible to miss the beam of light that seemed to cross nunataq's expression; even a blind mole would have detected that shift in the air, as if the arrangement of some bright and scintillating cosmos. indra might not have been aware how validating her approval was to the girl prior to that, but seeing that change, was enough to make the redleaf woman realize nunataq was growing.
not just in the physical sense -- that fact was already evident by the long and coltish appearance of the girl. no -- nunataq was growing in the emotional sense; indra had always thought that life began rather boringly - a one dimensional spawn that thought only of 'eat' and 'sleep'. and as time soldiered on that spawn turned to something else: toddler.
terrible, mighty, voracious -- and so sweetly fragile . 'eat' and 'sleep' morphed into 'eat, sleep and play'.
but then, one day things changed. 'play' would always be there, but then 'think' came along, and well, 'think' was quite different. and the more one thought, the more one tended to get in trouble -- to the point where the mind could be more hindrance than help, in the wrong context or wrong situation. it occurred to indra that while she had always thought of nunataq as an individual, she had not always given the girl fair credit.
while indra wrestled with this immortal and ageless realization a parent has of their 'child', nunataq was digging furiously for mole. it was a good thing such troubles of the world were often hidden from the young, indra thought -- and then on quiet toes she snuck around the girl and nosed the dirt, looking for a possible exit to the tunnel nunataq had discovered.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - November 03, 2018
Such existential matters did not burden Nunataq's mind, but she would have been pleased to know them as her player was to read them. In the meanwhile, her quest at digging went on very smoothly and quickly, though she had dug past the level of the tunnel, had lost the scent of the underground rodent she was hunting and almost forgotten, why she was doing all of this in the first place. And then wind somewhat changed and the rich smell of her prey filled the girl's nostrils, she paused in her quest to dig all the way to China, and moved so to stick her nose in the narrow tunnel. She sniffed and snorted, when sand particles entered her nasal cavity and tickled. Until the tickle grew so big, that she had to retreat and sneeze loudly. "ACHOOOOO!" - a big one, followed by two or three smaller ones. She used this little break to see, how Indra was doing.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - November 03, 2018
nunataq was digging furiously alongside indra, and indra secretly smiled - maybe it was adults that benefited from children, and not the other way around. children often had such a different way of looking at the world: it was almost as if their innocence (and childish passions) were put on the world to remind adults of what they had once been, or perhaps, to ground them when they found themselves drifting too far out in the cold and inhospitable reaches of the world.
nunataq resurfaced, followed by a terrific sneeze that almost startled indra. she stifled a giggle as she glanced at the girl, whose face was covered in a ridiculous smattering of soil and sand. truth be told, indra had not done such a good job digging -- and if nunataq cared to inspect her handiwork, she might find indra had punctured through a tunnel herself, but had been too absentminded to notice.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - November 04, 2018
"Khmmm..." Nunataq said to herself, nosing through the part of the tunnel Indra had unearthed, and doing it so thoroughly as a professor, who is evaluating a student's laboratory work. Here the scent was just as strong as it had been on her side, but the owner of it was still in hiding. It did not occur to her that the rat or mole she was going after, might have a huge system of tunnels and at this point might be comfortably sitting in a couch several feet away, watching TV and eating popcorn (or bug-corn, whatever those critters prefer). And that they were very unlikely to succeed in their quest.
"Achoo!" the girl summarized her findings and retreated from the excavation site. After having had no immediate success, she had lost interest altogether and was ready to go home again.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - November 04, 2018
the russet beta stepped back obligingly as nunataq strolled over, inspecting the mound of unearthed dirt indra had created. below the surface, the root-crumbled tunnel stretched far beyond what either of them could see: indra nosed alongside nunataq, but found little in the way of a promising scent.
another sneeze wracked the narrow frame of the black-masked girl, and she stepped back, as if losing interest in their failed endeavor. to indra it did seem their chances of success was minimal, but unwilling to give up so easily (especially since she believed a victory would be good for nunataq), indra prowled around the excavation site once more.
pressing her ear close to the earth, indra listened -- and somewhere, in some dark corridor beneath the substrate, a rodent stirred.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - November 05, 2018
Unlike Nunataq, Indra seemed not to have lost hope and lingered by the excavation site, waiting and listening intently. The girl's brow furrowed, because she had just switched off from the hunting mode and moved on to the much easier and mentally less demanding "I want to go now!" one. Therefore, while her caretaker was attempting to make a point "it's worth trying again", Nuna remained glued to the spot she was sitting at, frowning and was countering it with a clear "I don't want to". Her frustration with the fact that situation was not going the way she wanted began to boil and climb up the walls of the figurative kettle. Finally, when the steam kicked the lid off and the contents hit the ceiling, she snorted, sprang to her feet, turned on her heel and slinked away, shooting pointed and dark looks over her shoulder at Indra and not noticing that she was going in the wrong direction.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - November 09, 2018
with her ear to the earth, indra thought she heard the soft shudder of breath - doubtless the contribution of some hidden denizen of the deep. when she looked up excitedly to silently motion to nunataq that she had heard something, indra was surprised to see nunataq had already abandoned her efforts. from the ground indra could see the stormy snap of those dark hocks, retreating in the opposite direction of home.
indra's brow furrowed as she watched the girl's huffy exit. it was not the first time she had been mystified by the rapidly revolving whims of a child, but usually hunting was a fascinating sport to children, who rarely tired of its pursuits before adults did. stumped, but unwilling to let nunataq wander out of her sight, indra cleared her throat to get the girl's attention and then motioned her head in the direction they ought to be going in.
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Nunataq - November 12, 2018
Fine!!! With an air of insulted queen, Nunataq took Indra's advice and turned to walk the right path this way. Anger was still bubbling inside her and she did not yet know, how to rein it in and calm down. Therefore her outlet for this was breaking out in a run and pretending that she has left the caretaker out on her own in the meadow, even better she gets lost as punishment for what she did (making Nunataq angry, because the true reason behind this burst of emotions was already forgotten) and she would be able to find her way home back only, if she... felt remorse. There!
Feeling happier now for this vengeful and brilliant plant, Nunataq spotted a stick that was lying in her way, picked it up mid-stride and ran all the way back to Bearclaw valley, carrying it like a trophy.
Last one from me. Shall we have a new one?
RE: will you be ready when the straw-boss calls? - Indra - November 12, 2018
oh, was she mad -- indra watched with a concealed smirk, highly amused by the righteous and unholy wrath that seemed to emanate from the girl. she was so young to be so furious, but indra supposed it was children that had true mastery over the skill of 'tantrums', and that this was simply one of many she would witness as nunataq's caregiver.
indra didn't try to catch the girl's attention again (she had an idea she'd likely catch teeth soon as affection, anyway), but she fell in step behind the smoky girl, noting the fleet snap of her feet as she strode confidently (and angrily) away. at one point a stick was seized and brandished up high like a war-spear -- indra half expected a war-cry to bellow out after, but none came.
she resigned to giving nunataq her space: this stormy outburst was not a mood she thought she could settle -- better to give nunataq her own time to soften the edges of her anger. once they reached the stern faces of bearclaw's stony monuments, indra slipped off to the cache for a late afternoon meal. later, she would visit nunataq -- and hopefully by then the irascible seas of her budding wrath would have subsided.