Surviving in an Unknown Land

Jafrie sighed. "Jafrie. Called Vine Walker, because it had more style than Tightrope Walker and because humans associate big cats with jungles although that's not where my people lived." He looked at Glenn "I was an acrobat in a circus, Valney Brothers Unlimited, although it wasn't really all that big. Ever hear of it?"

edited 2nd Jul '14 1:02:35 PM by tricksterson

Kori finished climbing down and landed on his feet with a soft thud. He managed to hear Glenn and Juvel introduce themselves, as well as Jafrie for the third time. "Kori," he chimed out. "If we're doing introductions then my name is Kori. If not then I'm just saying my name for no reason." Looking at Glenn and Jafrie opening the boxes, Kori decided to help out. He grabbed a hammer and started prying the lid off, looking inside to see what he could find.

"If you find any knives, especially ones balanced for throwing, I call dibs," Jafrie called out.

The first thing Argent noticed was the unnatural cold that seemed to penetrate every cell of his being.

The second thing he noticed was that he was in a very small box, almost like a coffin.

What in Selene's name…The last thing I remember was those…Damn it, I don't remember!

Pushing those thoughts aside, Argent pushed against the lid of the box with all his might, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was not latched down. Carefully sliding the lid downwards and climbing out, he realized that he had been resting in a Sarcophagus of sorts.

Strange… He mused as he took in his surroundings. I don't recognize this area...Where am I?

edited 2nd Jul '14 7:23:12 PM by SvenOrzoKarkoff

There are three crates around that seem to contain anything of use. The first one contained what appeared to be some sort of long lasting, hard bread and conserved, dry meat... roughly enough for a single man to live on for a month.

The second one contained around 6 of the same kind of robes they found on the room the started in. The last one was far more ornate... a long rectangular case with space for only three of the same bracelets that Juvel was now wearing.

There was also another sarcophagus lying on an angle they had not been able to see from the top... and this sarcophagus opened up before them, revealing Argent to the whole group.

"...Greetings."The Lupan said, bowing politely to the group of strangers. "My name is Argent. Might any of you know where we are?"

edited 3rd Jul '14 1:48:36 AM by SvenOrzoKarkoff

"A circus, huh? That does ring a bell or too..." Glenn thought, scratching the base of an ear with the very tip of his knife as he continued to search.

"We got a whole lot of gossip in our town, and not too much else in the town closest by. Maybe a circus might of gone through town once or twice, but never while I was around. But if climbing's what you guys are good at, heck. Maybe I should try out, sometime."

"If we ever get back to anything any of us recognize as civi...oh look! Food!," Jafrie exclaimed as he managed to pry open a crate. He picked out a loaf of the hard bread in one hand and some of the jerky in the other.

Then he heard a voice from out of his view and spun around to see another beastman, this one a canine type.

"Hello," he said cautiously.

edited 3rd Jul '14 5:15:18 AM by tricksterson

Juvel turned to face the new stranger, who appeared to be some kind of wolf-creature. "Hello." Juvel said, "Name's Juvel. And to answer your question: Nope. No idea where we are. We kinda woke up in the same 'stone-box' situation as you." Juvel said, "Well, except we were up there." Juvel made a quick pointing motion towards the ship they came from.

A Leonid, a Goblin and more…This is certainly quite varied bunch.

"I see…Would it be alright if I joined you guys?"

Jafrie shrugged. "Why not? We all seem to be in the same mess." He looked around at the others. "Any objections?"

Kori looked in the box he had opened as he put away his tools and found some cloth. He pulled one out and discovered it was a cloak. He shrugged to himself, "This could be useful," especially if they were a long way from home. Looking up, he noticed that another person had joined them, and was asking if they could join us. "You can join us, but I have a silly question. Where are we going to go? I don't think I would want to go back up there and sleep in the box."

"Worst comes to worst, we can go back there for now but I'd like to explore that," he said, waving at the other half of the ship. "See what else we can find. Just guessing I would say this crate has enough food for a few days, maybe longer if we're careful but I don't see any water so sooner or later we're going to have to look around. Also...does it surprise anyone else that the sun is blue?

edited 4th Jul '14 11:19:45 AM by tricksterson

"What sort of ship is this? We could go check for a galley, maybe see if they have water stores or at least something to carry water around." Argent suggested.

"Your guess is as good as mine or anyone else's," the lionman said. "We haven't been awake much longer than you."

As the group walked the little distance to the other half of the broken, stone ship, they would find that there was not an apparent way to get inside. The second floor of it seemed hard to scale into due to the angle of the cut being all wrong. The same diagonal point of breaking that allowed them to move up and down the room most of them awoke in easily by walking up the side walls, made it impossible to scale up. Furthermore, the first floor had something strange happen to it... There was a door much like the one on the room they had emerged from, but it was lying on the floor... in front of a cracked stone wall. However, the thing looked strange... while the stone of the ship was as black as midnight, this one turned more and more into a violet color the closer it got to the center of the wall. Furthermore, the thing seemed cracked and somewhat more fragile looking than the impressive and impervious black walls. Then again, it was still a wall of stone... punching it didn't seem like the way to go.

All around the ship there were little shards and pieces of the very same stuff the ship was made off, as well as more wreckage. If they were to look to the back of the ship, they would see an earthen trail where the ship landed and slid off the floor for a while... and a little distance away what seemed like more wreckage.

However, at this moment if they inspected their surroundings they would start to notice some more movement... out in the plains, there were some animal life moving about... something that from afar seemed like spheres with thin legs running erratically on the distance, rustles in the far off grass... and then a sharp cry as somewhat close by a group of about five creatures appeared on the sky... It was hard to judge their size due to the distance, but they flew towards the far off lake. They looked quite big for birds... and in the light of the sun, there still could be seen some sort of orange glow on their torsos.

To those who were staring at the sun for a while, they may get the impression that it is still raising up... based on the position, one could guess that it was around 10 AM by the distance left for it to traverse before disappearing.

As Argent and Jafrie were talking about exploring the ship, his attention was attracted by the world itself. "Yeah, sure," he heard the lionman ask a question, but wasn't really paying attention. He looked up at the sky and saw the blue sun, wondering what could have turned it such a color. Looking down, he saw shards of the ship, a beautiful violet hue. He picked a shard up and placed it in his apron, before turning to the sound of moving grass. His hand went straight towards his sword, but soon released it as the wild animals were scurring away. His eyes followed the strange birds as they flew towards a lake. "Well, it looks like we can get a drink if we need it," he said aloud to the group. Honestly, he didn't know which would be a better plan, to stay where there is some shelter, or to go down to the water. Either way, they had food, if they couldn't find a town to get to.

Panros stirred in his sleep, still unwilling to leave the bed. It's been awhile since I got to sleep this well, he thought to himself. The last few days hadn't been pleasant for him; they had been non-stop worrying and running. Last night, he had been forced to resort to going to sleep in an alleyway…

… and here he was waking up in a soft bed. The realization made him instantly come fully awake, and he sat up abruptly- or tried to, anyway; in fact he just painfully knocked his head against stone.

He cursed softly, and started trying to figure out what was going on. Had the cops found he while he was asleep, and carted him off to jail? And apparently they had a special jail that looked suspiciously like a coffin? The word 'coffin' echoed in his mind a bit; new, even more alarming possibilities forming his Panros' increasingly panicked mind.

The thing to do, he decided, was see if he could out of this box. He pushed against the lid, and felt it give just a tiny bit. Encouraged, he dug his claws into the stone to get a better grip, and pushed with all his strength. To his elation, the stone gave way and fell aside.

That done, he stood up and looked around. He was outside, which surprised him- morning sun was reflecting off his black scales. He felt around in his pockets… lockpicks were there, as was his diary- and a wallet, but not much was in it. He was wearing a weird collar.

Having taken and inventory of himself- no injuries- he looked around. Apparently, he was standing on the outside of a wrecked ship. That… eliminated most of the possibilities he had thought of. Then he noticed a group of creatures- a variety of races, some which Panros didn't even recognize. They must be the ones who had brought him here, wherever here was.

He instinctively hid in the shadow cast by the sarcophagus he had just crawled out of confirming to himself that the group hadn't noticed him yet. In a few moments, curiosity overwhelmed his caution, and he began to creep forward, try to get close enough to listen without letting them notice him.

Saya had initially taken heart when they had confirmed the direction of the rising sun. If that was east, then the opposite direction was west! In the west a river ran, and once she reached the river she could follow it up or down to her home village with no trouble at all. Her eagerness faded however, when the nagging in the back of her head came to full force. The sun was blue! This valley was like nothing she had ever seen before. There was no way simply heading west was going to get her home.

Deflated, Saya was distracted for a second by the finding of food and the emergence of Argent. He proved to be calm and polite, a remarkable state for someone Saya presumed had been kidnapped and stuffed in a box just like the rest of them. Hunger made her dismiss and deeper thoughts about him though as she threw all her energy into eating the tough food and stuffing extra into her bag. When the group began wandering to the other side of the ship, Saya moved to join them, then paused. Those robes looked comfortable. How many times had Saya left early in the morning, warmed by the rising sun, only to return late with chattering teeth because she had underestimated how cold the night would become? Not knowing if they would return this way or not, Saya grabbed one and tossed it over her shoulder. As an afterthought, she took a bracelet and slipped it in her bag as well, motivated more by the trinket's pretty appearance than any practical reason, before running to catch up with the rest.

The group explored, and Saya remained quiet for the most part. If she had not been so unnerved by the situation she might have taken the time to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings. At last, she chimed in when the discussion of the men in front turned to water.

"Where there's water, there's usually people!" she said. She cast a mistrusting glance at the broken ship they had crawled out of. "I don't think whoever took us here was planning on arriving at this place. But maybe there are people by the lake who can help us. Or at least tell us where we are! The day's just started, we should use this time to look around and as far as we can!"

Jafrie walked slowly around the grounded ship thing looking for anything useful and not finding anything looked at where the birds were going.

"Well at least there's water," he said to anyone close enough to hear him. "And if there are people here near water is where they're most likely to be." He shaded his eyes and looked to where the sun was in the sky. Don't know if that can be trusted but if it can we still have most of the day. I say we pack away what food we can and head towards the lake. Any better ideas?'

"Sounds like a plan to me." Juvel said. He had his doubts about finding any sort of civilization near-by, but he didn't have any better ideas himself. "So, we headin' out soon, then?"

edited 13th Jul '14 12:28:56 PM by Makeyejr

Thus, if the team actually decided to make the trip, they would find that the water was only about half hour or only slightly more to reach at a good walking pace. The grassy terrain with gentle hills eventually gave way to a rocky riverbank and the flowing river which fed the lake on the distance. The river was about 30 meters to cross on the point they reached it, seemingly shallow on the edges though the water seemed darker on the middle.

"I agree with Jafrie," Kori told the group. He looked around what parts of the water he could see. "There doesn't seem to be any buildings, but maybe they are just hidden farther back." It was possible, but he had a hard time even believing himself. Maybe it was just the fact that they defiantly weren’t anywhere near home.

Almost immediately after thinking about it, his stomach started to growl. He hadn’t eaten all morning, and there was a big box of food just sitting there. Taking some of the dried meat and chewing on it, Kori decided to start packing up some of the food. The cloak from the other box would have to do, so he lied it down on the ground as flat as he could. From there, he placed some food on it and folded it up, folding his apron around the cloak and food, creating a sort of makeshift backpack. “Ready to go, whenever you guys are,” he told the group, as he stood up.

Panros flicked his tongue in and out, thinking. He had climbed down the wall a ways away from the group, and then crept up on them along the side; staying unnoticed, until he was close enough to hear.

And from what he had overheard, his initial assumption had been incorrect- these people weren't the ones responsible; they had probably just been caught up in it the same way he had. Which meant it was probably best to announce his presence. But he couldn't think of a good way to do that; it would've been best to simply attract their attention the moment he had escaped the sarcophagus, but that ship had sailed.

He decided to wait until they made their journey to the river to come out. Yes, that would work. He'd claim that he'd woken up a bit before them, and had made the same decision as them.

[[OOC: If anyone wants to notice Panros before setting out or on the way, you're free to. It'll just mean that he'll have to answer some awkward questions instead of being able to act all suave and knowing. ]]

Jafrie saw what Cori was doing with the cloak and, not having any sack or backpack himself, followed suit with one of the found cloaks, not wanting to use his own for such a mundane purpose if he could avoid it. He also nibbled from the stores, especially the dried meat as he packed.

edited 15th Jul '14 11:08:42 AM by tricksterson