Ingrid kept her eyes locked on the ground in front of her for fear that she might lose sight of the trail she was following. A clear set of hoofprints dotted the rainsoaked earth. It was one of many trails that went from around the portal towards this wood, and Ingrid longed to know why. Had her fellow Helovians forgotten her? Had they struck out in a group and left her behind? What made them choose to come here?
As she walked, she grew more panicked. The jungle was getting thicker, and the trail was becoming harder and harder to follow. A few minutes more, and she lost it completely.
Damn it! This is why horses could never be predators.
The fact that the undergrowth was getting thicker and less navigable only added to her troubles. That's when she heard the trickle of water. She followed the sound a short ways before arriving at an old looking stream with runoff rushing between its banks. It created a tunnel through the forest. She lowered herself into the stream bed, and continued through the forest as the banks rose on either side of her. After a while the stream reached the ocean, and carved out a flat area around where it poured over the cliffs into the sea. Unfortunately, she didn't see anyone around. Then, she had a realization: She excelled at drawing attention to herself. Perhaps she could get them to come to her.
She sucked her lungs full of air and then belted, "HELLO! IS ANYONE OUT THERE? ANYONE FROM THE EDGE? THE BASIN? EVEN THE THROAT MAYBE?" She spun around and repeated herself, casting her summons in the opposite direction towards the forest.
With the high banks of the stream acting as a megaphone of sorts, her voice echoed through the trees, causing some rift creatures to take off in fright. It was possible her message carried for miles. Speaking up had never been a problem for her as a child, after all.
Explanation + Summary --
Ingrid followed the tracks of those who went to the Kaos meeting into the rainforest and found a clearing at the mouth of a waterfall. (It could probably be made roomier with the right magic!) Then, she called to any other Helovians who might be in the area. All Helovian characters, whether or not they used to be in a herd, are welcome!
In lieu of herds and herdlands, this is an attempt to bring interested Helovians together for a meeting thread! It could also give rise to the creation of a temporary home for them while they try to learn the lay of the land! (Important: Those who join this thread for the meeting are not at all obligated to stay in the area afterwards.)
If a group chooses to say there after the meeting, new threads set there can be denoted {BC} for base camp in the title. :)
"HELLO! IS ANYONE OUT THERE? ANYONE FROM THE EDGE? THE BASIN? EVEN THE THROAT MAYBE?" My ears perk up. This is the first time in what feels like days that anyone had mentioned any of the herds from Helovia. Clearly the one calling had to be a Helovian herself. Until now, I can't say I had considered myself one. But I sure wasn't from the Rift.... Sapphira, Ceto... I paused to look around and try to find Sarai or Sansa in the odd lighting. I try to make sure both of my daughters stay close. They are all I have left of Brendan...
I push my thoughts away quickly. I can not and will not mope around. He wouldn't of wanted that. Let's find out where that call came from. Dae prods me mentally. She's right. I try to gather the girls and head off for where the call had come from. When we arrive where the call had come from, I see a mare who stands taller than I am. I guess she must of been the one to make the call. Who, are you? I am cautious. I have to be. I have kind of taken the lead role in this little family, taking over where Aaron had no choice but to leave off. I have to look out for not just myself and Dae... But my daughters, Brendan's little sister, and their cousin who should be delivering her own child any time now.
Typi non habent claritatem insitam; est usus legentis in iis qui facit eorum claritatem.
"HELLO! IS ANYONE OUT THERE? ANYONE FROM THE EDGE? THE BASIN? EVEN THE THROAT MAYBE?" The call wakes me from my nap. I nose at my twin, and the moment I did I hear Momma. Sapphira, Ceto... I move to stand up, Daenerys is kind of near us both. I think she helps Momma look after us. Specially after everything that went on right after we were born. When Momma starts to move, I go with her. I can hear Daenerys around me as we walk. I think I hear my sister too, but I am not sure.
We arrive in this clearing, by a.... What is that?! I stare up at the water pouring down. I mean, it's different from the rain that just seems to be never ending here. It's falling over into a huge puddle! I prance around, a bit of my arabian heritage from Momma shining through. "Momma, can we go play? Please!?" After all, i'm still a kid. I can't be all that grown up all the time.
What a beautiful day to be alive and traipsing through the jungle, she thought, and for once the sentiment was not tinged with bitterness. After establishing that she was quite the opposite of dead in this strange new place, the first thing that Sheba had done was decide to get her bearings and find shelter. After all, what good was her pretty face if some vicious thing out there attacked her and gnawed it into a gaping skull? Not much, that was certain. (Also, what a horrible way to die—she’d much prefer to leave a beautiful corpse, now that it was once again an option).
Despite everything that had happened (or perhaps because of it), Sheba was in remarkably good spirits. She was not fond of the rainforest, but she was rather enjoying the use of her proper body once more. In fact, she almost felt younger than she had before the curse, and it was making her positively giddy. To add to her happiness, Minou was unusually quiet, stumbling drunkenly along somewhere behind her. The events of the day had not agreed with him, she surmised, but as she found the young ocelot fairly annoying, she paid him little mind and enjoyed the sensation of his muted presence.
As she floated along, she kept close to the edge of the treeline. The shrubbery looked dense, and Sheba had no desire to go sticking her nose into strange places without good reason. That was, until:
“HELLO! IS ANYONE OUT THERE? ANYONE FROM THE EDGE? THE BASIN? EVEN THE THROAT?”
A mare’s voice shattered the silence from somewhere within the canopy, and the ghostly mare’s ears tilted towards the sound. How foolish, she mused; that strategy might attract others, but it surely would attract predators as well. Still…she paused at the edge of the jungle, considering. It was not safe to be alone in an unfamiliar place, and the source of the noise was worth investigating. There was a possibility of entrapment, to be sure, but she was confident in her ability to move closer without being detected and slip away quickly if necessary. And so, she made her way deeper into the trees.
It was not long before she came upon what she assumed to be the caller. A small group had gathered in a riverbed—she could hear two mares and a filly—and seemed to be conversing civilly. She did not recognize their voices, but from the summons, she guessed that they were Helovians. Still, she hung back, concealed almost entirely by the thick jungle. Her view was obscured, but she waited, unwilling to reveal herself until she deemed such a course of action useful.
Ingrid hadn't been expecting anyone to come, but that didn't stop the wave of disappointment she felt upon realizing that the only ones who turned up were complete strangers. She longed for a familiar face, but anyone from a familiar land would have to do. A mare had appeared out of the forest with a young foal in toe. Ingrid shuffled back and forth while she waited for them to get close enough to talk to her, splashing her belly with water hooves plunked into the stream. It took a while, but finally they got within a comfortable talking distance. The stranger spoke first. "Who are you?" Meanwhile her foal, far less afraid, asked if she could go play in the water, which made Ingrid chuckle.
What a little cutie! Just then, Ingrid felt a pang of pity for the foal. She wasn't even a year old, and she'd be spending the rest of her life in this new hell-world. She probably wouldn't even think that when she grew up, for how could she know how awful this place was with nothing compare it to? Ingrid shut her eyes and tried taking a few deep breaths. She needed to seem welcoming, and this train of thought was just going to piss her off.
"I'm Ingrid," she told the mother. "I used to belong to the World's Edge. What might your names be?"
Rainforest Cliffs
An attempt at starting a Helovian charrie meet-up/base camp so they can stick together and learn about the Rift!
