Now Zinnia Hates Seagulls!
- ICLY this happen on 16th of December ***********
This Happen before morning of this role play and was added to help better understand what happen The mother is spoofed by Zinnia and random sea gulls by Xander and Zinnia=
It was but a simple boat that had traveled a fair distance along the shoreline. Where it came from was hard to say by the two inside was a badger maid in her middle seasons and a small male badger no more than a season or two old. Their food rations were horrible, as was available drinking water and the storm came out of nowhere, which is not unusual for this area and time of year. The dibbun was Xander and his mother’s name was Sunflower.
Sunflower coughed, she was ill and weak from food and water rations, and she gave her small son some of her own rations, she frowns as the storm sends waves slamming into the small boat.
Xander screams as a wave slammed the boat “Mama…I scared!”
Sunflower goes to hold her son close and smiles weakly “I know, it will be ok my little one..we….we will make it.”
A large wave slams into the boat and sends into some sharp rocks, the badger maid holds tight to the dibbun as the boat is torn into pieces and the go into the cold waters of the sea.
Xander panics and holds on tight to his mother as they try to get above water.
Sunflower feels a piece of now sharp boat pieces go into her back, but she still holds onto the younger dibbun and even though she knows her wounds are bad she uses all her strength to get to the shoreline before she collapses onto the sands and coughs “X..Xander?” Her voice is so weak.
Xander coughs and whimpers as he curls up beside her “Mama..I cold….I scared..”
Sunflower wraps her arms around her son and goes to keep him warm, she manages till just about sunrise when the last of her life light fades from her eyes.
Xander starts to shiver about an hour later and whimpers “Mama…” He then hears and sees 3 gulls circling and screams “Mama mama!!!” He shakes her as tears go down his face and then is forced to bolt and hide in an overturned bit of boat, the back of it maybe, to avoid the hungry gulls who rather he something more lively. He stays barely out of their reach…..for now.
This ends this little before role play and the rest starts where Zinnia is heading back to the Mt. =
Western Shore
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shore ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hot golden sand stretches north beyond the horizon. It seems as if you are walking on an endless beach, except that the tip of a mountain peaks over the southern horizon. The fresh, salty air stings as the ocean winds challenge you. There is nowhere to go to the west, for the sea merges with the sand. If you look carefully out over the water, you might just spot a ship.
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Exits: [S]hack, [Sh]allows, [U]pshore, [D]ownshore
Zinnia stayed in the village over night as the short lived storm made it a bit too hard to get back to the mountain at the time and she was tried and..well she don't walk in the dark unless she has to and she walks back slowly now.
It was wise not to stray from the mountain even in the day light hours. Who knows what manor of beasts lay waiting to prey upon the weak and helpless. Rioko today was here for a different reason. Sprawled out on the beach the grey fox came here to...think. She just needed out of that accursed city of Halyard and away from her troubles. So here she relaxes on the sand, letting the sound of the waves slowly drive her to sleep.
The wind blew a lot of sand around, as well as some icy rain and strong winds. Storms can be short lived or sometimes not so short lived and makes sea travel dangerous at times. This is what happened to a small boat carrying two beasts and it crashed onto some tall sharp rocks and drifted ashore in pieces. But without the aid of a campfire a cold night can be deadly to an already cold and injured beast.
Xander is under a small part of the boat, maybe the backing of it and trying to avoid 2-3 seagulls. His mother is half in and half out of the water and had managed to keep him warm but she died from her injuries and the cold and he woke when the cold finally got to him, and the sounds of sea gulls wanting a more lively meal. He wails and growls at a sea gull as it nears him and claws at one’s face when it tries to get to him.
Zinnia stops in her tracks and frowns as she backs off, the last thing she needs is sea gulls attacking her and at first tries to get a distance from the gulls when she catches sight of the female badger on the sands and gasps and she looks to where the sea gulls have a sudden interest, part of her says run and part says some beast needs help so help them.
The fox along the beach grumps about the birds making too much noise. "Ya bleedin stupid birds! Will ya knock off that racket? Beasts are trying to sleep here!" She sits up, an action that gets harder and harder the larger her midriff grows. For the first time she sees the wreck in the distance and the birds around it, but unable to make out what manor of prey has got them so worked up. "The heck?"
Xander scoots back barely out of reach of the sea gulls and starts wailing, hey he is only a season or two old after all, "MAMA MAMA....wakie....." The sea gulls are trying to peck whats left of the boat apart and lost interest in the lifeless form of the dibbun's mother, who has not been dead for more than an hour, maybe little less in fact.
Zinnia is not a fighter but she also is not going to let a dibbun do hurt and looks around for something, anything and picks up a board and goes to try and slam it into one of the birds, "Leave him alone!" It ends up being a bad idea and now at least one who gets hit in the side has a new target..Zinnia! She frowns and goes to slam the board at the bird again and ducks when it dives at her, it barely misses clawing her back.
Flint had steps out for air and saw the gulls in the distance and went to get his longbow and arrows, he then jogs and half limps, tripping over a hole in the sand but he gets back up and cusses loudly at the pain in his foot paw now and balances on his good foot and aims the arrow at the seagull and waits till it's a good time and fires off the arrow hoping it hits the bird somewhere or at least hits one of the other birds.
Well, that was a brilliant idea. Interrupt the bird’s meal and they add you to the menu. The fox chuckles darkly. She is however not quite soulless enough to stand back and watch a beast become violently consumed. Not when she has her trusty Glove to...oh, right.
Once again cursing the name of the hare who stole her weapon the pudgy fox picks up her walking stick rushing at the badger beset by sea gulls. She makes loud growling noises and waves the stick in the air, trying to distract them...or scare them off...as if that will be all it will take...
Xander peeks out and whimpers. The one sea gull is hit with an arrow and crashes into the sand cawing loudly and flapping all over the sand leaving a trail of bloody sand. Two are left and one of the two tries to grab the fox's stick and peck at him, while the other one takes into the air and goes to dive at Zinnia again. The dibbun crawls out and goes over to his mother and roughly shakes her and tries to wake her, failing badly. As a wave crashes into his hiding spot and breaks it more he curls up beside his mother and starts wailing in fear as tears go down his face.
Zinnia drops the broad she has and ducks the sea gull again and looks over at the dibbun now. Too much is going on and she doesn't have her broad any more as sea gull goes to try and peck her she slaps it in the face and runs over to Xander.
Flint pants as this balancing on one foot paw is not helping. He fires an arrow at the sea gull on the ground and finishes it off before finding his last and third arrow and frowns, "Ooops" He mutters and shakes his head as he places the last arrow and starts to take aim, but at which one?
Rioko is less fortune. The vixen falls backward under the weight of the bird on top of her. See, this is why you don't help people. You get violently consumed by birds for your trouble. "GAH! A little help?" She thrusts the walking stick upward to try and catch the sea gull in the mouth. "Get it off!"
The sea gulls tries to peck the fox over and over again and then that stick is suddenly stuck in its mouth and it makes an odd sound and starts to flap wildly at the fox to try and rid it's self of the horrible stick in his mouth. The dibbun badger screams when the third gull dives at him and it pecks his tail. His first reaction to Zinnia is a growl till he sees she is another badger and then tries to get to her seeing her as protection hopefully.
Zinnia growls at the sea gull and goes to try and scoop the dibbun up and then bolt away from the water edge, she is not sure the best direction but away from the mad gull sounds good.
Flint aims his last arrow and balances on one foot paw and fires the arrow just as he loses balance and falls backwards. The arrow heads towards one gull...hopefully?
"That's right! You take that you stupid son of a pheasant. You mess with the fox you get the-" The fox's mouth clamps shut. She bites her lip and her eyes bulge as the arrow strikes her in her meaty rump on her left hip.
She lets out a loud fox like shout before collapsing face first into the sand.
The sea gulls tries to claw at the fox but the arrow does slide across its side leaving a bloody trail before it finds a home...ummm in the fox's behind. The sea gull falls sideways and tries to pry the stick from its mouth with its talon as the fox is forgotten. Sadly the two badgers are not forgotten by the last sea gull who is peeved off as the smaller badger is scooped up by the larger one and gives chase.
Zinnia runs up the beach holding Xander close to her and frowns, just get somewhere just get somewhere is all she is thinking as that last sea gull dives and misses, then goes to dive again.
Flint groans as he stands and falls onto his bottom in the sand and scans the beach with a frown, "This...can't be good"
Laying there face first in the sand the fox begins to whine. She has no idea how deep the arrow is, only that it HURTS. And that if she doesn't move, the gull is going to finish her off. Blasted hare! He might as well have given Rio to the gulls on a silver platter! The fattened fox begins to crawl away from the gull, "Going...to murder...EVERYONE." She growls.
Xander clings onto the older badger and just wails more as the one gull chases them. He hides his face in Zinnia's robes.
Flint takes his longbow and goes to slam it into the gull that starts to claw at the fox again and uses his dirk to stab the gull in the throat to finish off. He looks at the fox "Sorry I meant ta hit the gull. Where is the other one!!"
"Come here so I can properly thank you." The fox let's out a dangerous growl. She swipes a claw at the hare who is out of reach. Finally, in defeat the fox rolls onto her good side, "Just hurry up and save them so you can save me you-" The rest of her speech is drowned out for decency sake.
Zinnia seems to give Flint the reply he was seeking as the lone gull has caught up to her and grabbed at her robes ripping them, she screams, "Help!!" She somehow manages to avoid any major injury but some talon marks get on her shoulder but are not deep, but the bird still aims to cause more damage to her or the dibbun if it catches up again.
Flint frowns at the vixen and looks over to where the badgers are and frowns more, he goes to pull the arrow out of the fox's behind as it's the closest one and if he manages he will fire off the arrow towards the sea gull that’s after the others.
This was...not what the fox had in mind when she ordered him to save the others. "What are you doing?" Rioko begins, "Wait! Don't-" She tenses as the arrow is removed from her flank, then collapses into a fetal position. "WhyyYyYyyYy..." she whines softly before passing out.
The sea gull is about to peck at the badger's head and rakes talons across her shoulder again. The gull caws loudly and goes to get higher and dive at the badger when it’s hit in the wind and crashes into the sand, flapping around like mad and cawing loudly and maybe even cussing in sea gull speech.
Flint watches the sea gull fall and looks down at the fox unsure what to do now.
Zinnia has run out of energy to run and still holding Xander she trips over some drift wood and falls forwards into the sand and rolls to her side spitting out sand and takes deep breaths in and out.
Xander whimpers when they fall and just clings on more. He whimpers more when the one sea gull is still very much alive with an arrow in its wing and very close to the badgers.
It won't be once the fox gets her paws on it. Neither will the hare once Rioko summons the strength to get up again. Coming back into consciousness the fox is at first disorientated. Then, remembering where she is and HOW she got there she is angry. With a struggle the fox stands up, painfully limping towards the others. The look on her face is contorted with righteous fury.
Someone is gonna die.
Someone is gonna die SLOWLY.
And painfully.
Flint is out of arrows, and it's not like he choose to miss the sea gull. He grips the longbow and frowns, he looks to where the fox is and the sea gull and back to the fox...and cusses.
Zinnia holds onto Xander as she tries to catch her breath and snarls at the gull as it gets closer to them and goes to kick it in the face.
Xander wails and holds on tighter as the sea gull is kicked backwards it just flaps its wing, one wing with an arrow in it and caws loudly!
Rioko limps closer and closer until she finally reaches the hare soldier. She taps him thrice on the shoulder, then simply continues to star at him, fur standing on end, teeth bared, claws fidgeting and tail sporadically wagging in all directions behind her.
She lets out a low key growl as she tries to loom over him.
Flint ears droop as he looks at the fox "Hallo there....ummm. I didn't mean ta shoot you, I meant ta shoot de gull and I need ta save them over thar" He points to the others, "I..got de arrow out of your ummmmm...." Yeah he helped right?.
Zinnia has no weapons, she just kicks the sea gull away again as she is tried from the running and is also trying to make sure the gull doesn't hurt the dibbun.
The dibbun starts to cry “I want..mama!" The sea gull goes to rake a talon on the badger maid as she holds the dibbun. The sea gull has lost blood from the arrow filled wing and will never fly again if it lives through this.
The fox doesn't reply, not with words. She puts her forehead against his own so that he can see nothing but the angry, blood shot eyes of the vixen as she growls even louder. Her paws come up to strangle the hare but, hesitate before they grasp around his throat.
There are things to do before she devours him alive. "Then get to SAVING THEM." She growls, trying to push the hare towards the remaining seagull.
Flint back off and limps a little, he doesn't always need a long bow but it helps. He rushes towards where one of the dead birds are and rips the arrow out of its body and uses it to fire off at the last sea gull, a careful aim and then he fires and hopes for the best.
Zinnia manages to slap at the sea gull but it still gets her shoulder fairly good, she growls and goes to try and head butt the sea gull away and holding Xander she backs up and goes to try and stand.
The sea gull just hops backwards and then goes to clumsily flap up to the badger's face only to fall at its foot paws dead with an arrow in its back. The dibbun wails again and hides his face.
Flint looks back at the fox and makes his way over to the badgers, "Hey..ya ok?!"
Zinnia is still a little shaky and her right shoulder is bleeding and her robe is ripped there. She looks wide eyed at the dead gull and looks at Xander to see if he is ok or not.
Xander whimpers, he seems fine just shaking badly and his tail tip has a small cut on it from where he was pecked. He glances over at the shoreline where the remains of a boat is and the still unmoving figure of his mother. The mother was dead before the sea gulls showed up from injuries and cold of the ship wreck, she keep the young one warm during the rest of the night when a fire couldn’t be made and sadly died in the morning before the dibbun woke up to gulls screaming…3 gulls. …Who are now dead gulls.
The danger passed the fox promptly sits upon her rump, clutching at her wound. It must be shallow or else it would be bleeding more. "Just...leave me alone." She finally growls.
Flint looks over at the ship wrecked boat and frowns as he now sure what to use to help Zinnia, he looks at the claw marks on her shoulder and sighs, "We..need to get back and inside." Great and his foot paw hurts now some. Just wonderful, he looks to the boat, "Any beast...over there?"
Zinnia holds a paw to her shoulder after sitting the dibbun down, "His.....mom I think" She whispers "She's..d...dead though" She glances at the dibbun and back to Flint, “We take him too..he's alone and it’s starting to get cold out here"
Xander curls up in Zinnia’s lap and starts to fall asleep, he could care less where he goes, who takes him ever, he is tried, hungry and cold.
Flint glances at the vixen and decides it's best to go with her wishes, leave her alone and goes to carefully pick up the dibbun, most likely the only time he would ever be able to do this as it’s a dibbun. He nods to Zinnia “Let’s go then...." But he will make sure she gets back inside.
The fox finishes her brooding, looking at the blood on her paws from her open wound. "actually, I think I could use a paw getting back to civilization." Glancing over at the wounded beasts, "That...that isn't going to happen. Is it?"
Zinnia frowns as she stands and looks at the fox and to Flint and the fox "We..can't take you where we are going you would...probably get slayed."
Xander whimpers but then falls back to sleep in the hare's arms.
Flint blinks "I could...send someone to led you back to the village, I have to go make a report" Which won't include the fox..or well the part where the arrow shot his butt...yeah a sea gull pecked the fox there, that works. He sees a runner that he whispers to and they nod and head to the beach quickly as the hare makes sure Zinnia and the dibbun get inside.
- A shore time and walk later **
Salamandastron: Infirmary
- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Salamandastron *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
This is the infirmary for the long patrol. This room is one of the most
well lit rooms in the whole of Salamandastron, with several candles placed
strategically along the shelves and cupboards. Many wooden beds line the
walls of this room, each outfitted with impeccably clean white linen
sheets. This unfortunately limits the walking space in this room. Where
there are not beds there are shelves and cabinets that hold a variety of
different medical equipment, mostly needles and bandages. A single stone
sink is firmly lodged into one of the counters. The sink is not fancy, in
fact it is quite awkward. It is a necessity, nonetheless. An open closet
is in the corner of the room, storing a surplus of compact cots, in the
unusual case of mass injuries. The room usually has several nurse hares in
it, roaming around tending to various injuries.
- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Visible Exits:
[Out] to Level One [Herb] Room
Flint walks into the infirm and lays the dibbun down on a cot, he is unsure what else to do with him and looks around, “I can find a healer for your shoulder"
Zinnia follows the hare and sits on the cot beside Xander and looks at the dibbun as he sleeps and sighs," Adding sea gulls to my list of things dislike"
Flint nods as he walks out "I will get a healer and ...do a report....yeah" Fun, will he EVER get a peaceful walk...probably not at this rate and off he goes. He has to do a quick report but also gather a couple hares and get back to where that dibbun’s mother is.
Zinnia sits down and looks over at the sleeping dibbun as she holds her shoulder, so much for not worrying her friends. She sits on a cot where she is watching a sleeping dibbun she helped from the beech, it's Xander a badger dibbun. She sighs as her robe is torn and her shoulder bleeding from talon marks of a sea gull. The hare that got her here left to do a report or, well whatever hares would do.
Heading into the infirmary is Ava, who is still not on duty, but she wanted to snag a fresh bandage for her head now that the old one got wet from a bath. As she spies the badger, she gives a pause, then heads over to her. "Hey! Are you okay? What happened to you?". Her paw snags her scrubs along the way, tugging them on.
Zinnia frowns as she replies, it’s clear her shoulder hurts, "A sea gull clawed it, I was trying to prevent it from hurting a dibbun that was on the beach. The sea gull is dead and another one an archer shot." The shoulder is bleeding still, she did hold some pressure on it so she has some blood on her paw and the robe is ripped where the talon marks are. The talon marks are not all the way to the bone, but it's also not just barely a claw mark either they did go into her shoulder fairly good, just lucky not to the bone, maybe 1/4 of the way there.
"Geez. Hold your arm up higher above your heart rate if you can. I am going to get some antiseptic and clean the wound. That may need some stitches." Ava says as she pulls on a pair of gloves, then retrieves her medical bag. "Did the other healer go on break?" She asks as she disrobes the badger carefully, then starts to gauze around the wounds carefully as she inspects how deep the wound went.
Zinnia would shrug as she is not sure but it's hard to shrug when one has an injured shoulder and needs to keep it up. The wound is two claw marks and a 3nd smaller one that doesn't go deep. The wound will most likely need stiches after its cleaned.
As she continues to clean, Ava says, "So.. no healer then? Place was empty?" She pours a bit of medication on to the wound, which will surely sting as it fizzles and bubbles. "Is everyone else okay? Do I need to prepare for a few more others heading inside injured?"
Zinnia reacts some to the stinging by tensing up just a little," There was just the one hare and he was limping a little and...some fox, but the fox went to the village." She waits till the stinging stops a little before going on "And the dibbun we found, the sea gull might have got his tail, other than that I think he is ok..." She frowns as she remembers what she managed to see in what seemed like some chaos and sea gulls are now on her list of things she hates, "Yeah he is...think his mom or..caretaker maybe she..she wasn't"
"Okay." Ava says as she dabs about the wound again, then instructs her. "Hold very still while I stitch this up. You should feel a bit of pain, but you're a tough one, right?" She grins at her confidently as she starts to thread her needle. "Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from?"
Zinnia frowns and decides the wall is suddenly so very interesting as that needle to sew up the wound is not. She takes a deep breath then exhales as she does her best to hold very still and starts to speak, "I..was born in eastern Mossflower, but that changed. I ended up living at Redwall Abbey with a blacksmith that adopted me. He was another badger and was also a warrior..and he raised me from when I was around 4 seasons. I joined the order when I was able to and then became a Sister in the order and the recorder."
"OH? That is nice. I heard very good things about the Abbey. Where is your parents at?" Ava asks as she works on the shoulder. "Unless that is a touchy subject. You do not have to answer it."
Zinnia does answer after a short while" They died when I was a dibbun, I was alone for a season before I met the beast who adopted me and..." She is still sad but better able to talk of it now than before, "He died this past harvest season, a little while before I left to come here as an ambassador for Redwall. He has a weak heart is what the Master Healer thought as it was a couple seasons before he laid aside his blade and became an elder in the order. He was very nice, strict when needed but also funny at times and I still miss him a lot. But I still have my Uncle Oz and Uncle Zee around "
The hare maid finishes sewing the wound and applies healing herbs before bandaging the wound. Then quietly leaves to let the badger rest.
Zinnia does indeed rest and most likely most of the rest of the day in fact since she didn’t sleep well the night before, and then unwanted trouble on the way back to the mountain. Another healer that does come on duty gives her something for pain and to help with sleep and soon the badger is getting some well needed sleep.
.
