Redsand Canyon Rooftop conversations

@Turmeric :D ?

Thyme sat with a scowl on his face, watching over the new view of the canyons below. He hated it here. Mom didn't seem to be happy. He hadn't seen dad around, and worse, his mom told him Alduin went missing. Alduin would never ran away. This was his bestest friend. He would never abandon him. The pastel colored pup felt like bawling again, thinking of the idea of never seeing his friend again. 

He kicked a rock in anger and watched it topple down. It made him back off a bit from the ledge. He missed the grass and the forests of the strath. Here it seemed so different. The heat was stifling at times and the dust made him cough. He let out a sigh and flopped down. What was he to do now when he didn't have Alduin to play with?

:D yes yes yes

Turmeric might have found this new land unbearable if it wasn't for the sheer novelty of the landscape they'd plunked themselves in. Which was to say, that the land was barren and wholly unsuitable for any kind of plant to grow in - at least that he knew of - which meant that the properties of whatever he'd find growing here would be wholly foreign, and wholly new, and a whole nother adventure to try and figure out.

The only real damper was that Dad had been gone a little while longer than usual, but thinking about that only made his stomach twist. Especially since Alduin had disappeared, and he hadn't been gone nearly as long as dad...

Somewhere above a rock crackled down the canyon wall, and Turmeric found himself looking up and distracted. "Hullo?" he called out, quite unable to see who was up there through the sun's mighty glare.

Thyme heard the voice and tipped his head to the side. He knew that voice but it echoed a bit. He didn't know where it came from. The pale pup looked around but didn't see anyone, until he realized to look down. He peeked over the edge to see his brother down below. "Turrr!!" he called out. It echoed. Turrr, Turrr, Turrrrr.

"Wow!!!," he let out amazed. Wow, wow, wow, wow. That seemed to quickly dampen his sadness. His tail wagged. He daringly looked down further. "I will come down to you!," he commented and then started to find his way down, which was a little detour. Mere minutes later he rushed forward. "Did you hear that?," he asked his brother, grinning a bit.

There was silence at first, and then it seemed like someone was calling his name over and over and over again, only, eerie-like and disembodied, unlike the first shout that had met him from up above. Turmeric shivered, even though he recognized the voice which had called to him first.

"Y-yeah, o-okay!" he tried to sound cool, but his voice cracked. Well enough, anyway. He'd probably called up too late for his brother to hear him. As he waited, he turned his ears to try and catch the voice that had bounced around the canyon, but the only voice he heard was Thyme.

"I don't think anyone with ears could have missed that," Turmeric said with an anxious laugh. "D'you - " he cleared his throat and hushed his voice with a conspiratorial, and totally honest, glance around the canyon walls, "d'you think the rocks were talking?" He hoped not. That wasn't exactly the kind of newness Turmeric was hoping to find in these new lands.

Thyme hadn't heard Turmeric's voice crack, far too excited about this new thing they discovered. He nudged his brother playfully when he arrived and then looked at the narrow pathway before them with the high walls. Thyme hadn't even thought of the fact that it was the rocks that were talking, that were repeating him. "We can ask!!," he breathed and then grinned. He was far braver ever since he hung out with Alduin more.

"Can you talk!?," Thyme called out. Talk. talk. talk. talk. Thyme turned to Turmeric to see his reaction. "Maybe we can examine the rocks for mouths!," he beamed, trying to convince his brother that this was an excellent idea.

Turmeric's belly did a little flip-flop when Thyme suggested - rather decisively - that they march on up to the talking rocks and ask if they, y'know, talked. And his stomach flip-flopped a little more when Thyme started talking to them again - and they talked back, right on cue.

Still, curiosity would kill him. He eyed the walls of the canyon with a long glance, but an eager smile pulled at the corner of his lips. The idea of any rock talking to him was spooky at best, but maybe they held secrets to the herbs and toxins that grew here, being of the earth, and all, and being way older and probably wiser than he or Thyme or even mom was about healing and poisons and stuff!

"Yeah, let's do it!" Turmeric said with a grin, stomach still flip-flopping, but motivations strong enough to stifle the urge to curl up and pee himself. "Mission Rocky-Talky is a go!" and he'd already scoped out the perfect rock to start with. With a tip of his nose he pointed to a spot a little way up the cliffside - a crack, in the canyon wall. "And I bet that's one of them! C'mon, race you there!"

Thyme was very into this game and was glad his brother was too. The rocks definitely got more interesting now than they had ever before. Turmeric spotted a location. Thyme's reddish-brown eyes roamed over the rocks but didn't see it right away. Then he saw the crack. Turmeric was already running so he had to chase after him.

Thyme briefly thought that he could tackle his brother so he could win. It would be something he would do to Alduin, or Alduin would do to him. He briefly debated it but that it wasn't really all that nice to make Turmeric trip. "HELLLO?!," Thyme shouted at the rock. HELLO. Hello. Hello. Thyme twirled around as it echoed all around them. He looked at Turmeric. "What should be ask?"

Turmeric might have gotten to the rock first, but when he turned around to gloat in his brother's face, he realized Thyme hadn't ever been far behind. In fact, the agouti boy turned right into the line of Thyme's hollering HELLLO?! and Turmeric had to flatten his ears to keep himself from going deaf.

"Whoa! Watch it!" he said, and laughed. Even through his flattened ears, he heard the resounding greeting of the stone around them. "Whoa," he breathed again, as Thyme danced circles around the sand. Maybe there really were wolves in the canyon walls.

Turmeric's heart quickened and his tail beat as fast as the smile that came across his face. "Let's ask them where dad is! Let's ask them where dad is!" the question was a no-brainer to him, and before Thyme could agree, protest, or offer up some other question for these wolves to answer instead (and anyway, he was sure Thyme would agree!), the agouti boy shouted with the biggest voice he could find: "where did dad go?" and perked his ears to listen.

Thyme didn’t mean to yell in his brother’s face but it he was just so excited. Luckily he hadn’t blamed him too much for it. He could whole heartedly agree that they should ask about Dad. Turmeric had noticed too then. He frowned, worried a little. Not for the voices but that so many disappeared.

The boy perked up his ears. Go. Go. Go. It seemed to echo. ”Did he go? Leave us?,” Thyme asked his brother softly, looking upset. He didn’t think his father would do that. But it could just mean that he left as in planned to return and didn’t come back. Still it worried him. He didn’t know what to think of it. ”WILL DAD COME BACK?” The rocks returned with their echoey voices. Come Back. Back. Back.

Thyme frowned. ”It just sounds like they are repeating the last few words?,” he scowled.