Search For Gladstone - Rats Don't Belong In Trees pt. 1
Its cold as cold as cold can be. Make sense for this neck of the woods. So its really surprising when there is a lizard walking about. The lizard hisses about as he scrounges along the bank of a river. Looking for food, or what not. He 'found' a pair of boots for his travels, that crunch snow beneath him. He seems hellbent on where he is going, though why he travels alone is anybeasts guess. He mutters something to himself as he falls to the ground, throwing a poof of snow, "Damn snowsssss..." as he rights himself on the ground.
Perched safely in the branches of a tree, is a large barn owl. She sits preening in the fading light, not bothered at all by the snowfall. As she cleans her feathers, she hums softly to herself. She doesn't care much about the lizard below, just how her pinions look!
The treetops seem to be the place to be at the moment, as concealed in the boughs of a snow-dusted pine a little ways away from the barn owl's perch is a squirrel, resting as comfortably as is possible in the current weather. His back rests against the tree and his paws are thrust in the pockets of his jacket for warmth. As the lizard comes stumbling through, his eyes, concealed behind his strange bone mask, move to watch him with an obvious interest, though not quite enough interest to provoke him to move from him comfortable and rather warm seat.
A squirrel, a lizard, and an owl walk into this forest you see. That sounds almost like the start of a really bad joke. But to Tungur, this is no joke. He doesn't quite see Moria just yet, nor does he even notice Blubbage, and a squirrel? HAH. Now. Where's the one place a rat might not usually be found? In a tree. Tungur happens to be in a tree, a branch just above Blubbage. There's some ruffling of leaves and then....SNAP. The branch the rat was on breaks and sends him falling. "Wagh!" he cries out before stopping abruptly, his foot caught in some rope that he had originally attempted to tie himself to. Hanging upside down he opens his eyes, spotting Blubbage. "Erm. Hello." he greets before there's some creaking...and a further snap, causing him to fall that extra foot or two, landing on the ground with a thud.
After having been more or less forced out of her home by others too ignorant to know what her condition is and that it isn't to contagious Tyber had started heading north from the woodlands, she found that the colder temperatures dulled the aches that cover her body. The broad stream had been all further that Tyber had been able to go for now though for in her pained haste to leave her home she had pushed her feet to hard and they needed time to heal. For the last two weeks Tyber has been living at the edge of the broad stream just a ways back from the edge of the lake under a weed and muck concealed overhang. The sudden cursing and snapping crash from none to far away brings Tyber up from her fitful rest long enough to ponder what that was.
Blubbage is poking around the river and twisting his head to see if there is any fishes. Hey! He is already on the ground. Then there is a first snap that sends him into alert mode. He jumps in the air backwards, landing in a big heap in the snow. He pokes his head out and sees that a rat, is just hanging out. He blinks both eyes before answering the rat, who seems more in trouble, then causing trouble, "Hellosss?" he hisses before there is another thump as the rat-eroid falls to terra. He almost snorts as he crawls on all fours toward the rat pile looking down at the rat, his tongue poking out. The lizard wouldn't notice the others. He is pretty one minded.
The crashing causes Moria to turn her heart shaped face all the way around, having her tilt it down to watch the goings on. For a while she simply studies the creatures, adjusting her body so she can peep more comfortably. Her keen black eyes are fixed on the noisy pair below, so far not noticing the female tree-rat.
"The hell?" whispers the squirrel, quiet words muffled by the mask. He slips a branch lower for a better view, moving with the practiced graceful ease of a squirrel. The only indication of his movement is a slight rustling of boughs that causes a little bit of snow to fall, hopefully dismissed or ignored by the others present. He crouches on the branch and peers for a closer look at the odd group below.
Tungur sits up slowly, rubbing his head. "Ungh...damn it." he grumbles before blinking, remembering there's a lizard present. "Hello." he repeats before standing up, brushing himself off. "Sorry about that, I guess I thought I'd just drop in." he laughs a little at his joke, coughing a bit, eying Blubbage carefully. "Who are you? Hope I didn't bother you or anything." he rubs the back of his head a little bit.
Now fully awake because she can clearly hear something going on up there Tyber gets to her foot paws as quietly as she can from the earth and stone floor that she had been resting on. Great the squirrel thinks, more beasts have come around, probably to run her off AGAIN now that she had just started to get a semblance of comfortable here. Creeping to the edge of the overhang Tyber uses a single finger to shift the trailing weeds that cover her little hide away far enough open so that she can see what it is that is going on out there.
Finding the goings on a little too 'tempting' for herself, Moria opens her great white wings and takes flight. With one downward beat, she is airborn. For added effect, the barn own makes sure to fly over the small gathering just right- so her winged shadow flutters across the ground before the gathering. She does a small flip in the air for the sheer joy of it, and heads off down river.
Blubbage takes a few steps back, still crawling on all fours. So he has to look up at the ratty, "Hellos?" he answers back and then tilts his head at the joke. Blinking heavily again and sniffing the air with his tongue. There is a long moment of silence before the lizard hisses out, "You no bother Blubbage. Blubbage looking for fishesssss." he hisses nosing his snout toward the river. His face then quickly snaps to where the snow feel on the ground, and he just stares in that direction. He blinks heavily then the telltale sounds of birds sends the lizard digging in the snow as the owl passes by. Scared to death he is.
Charon was just considering coming down and making his masked visage known... and then the giant owl swooped out of nowhere. Needless to say, he's going to stick to trees for a bit, deciding just to listen in for now, lest the owl decides she actually does want a little fresh squirrel for dinner. Exhaling to slow his breathing and calm his breifly adrenaline-shot nerves, he taps a finger on his mask, the nail on bone making a barely audible clack.
The rat blinks a bit at Blubbage's weirdness before he shrugs a little to himself. "Alright then. Good luck with your fishing." he replies before he walks over to the tree he had fallen out of, starting to climb up slowly. Its not graceful at ALL. And he's a rat, not a squirrel, of course, so its not like watching some majestic display. But once again, he loses his footing, and falls to the ground.
Staying right where she is for now Tyber watches all of this with a cautious eye then lets the trailing weeds fall back into place. Quickly and quietly the squirrel gathers up her few meager possessions and makes ready to escape should she think that the others are going to bother her. Soon Tyber is back at the overhang opening the trailing weeds just far enough for a single eye to peep out at the two obvious beasts, then the owl goes by. The owl slightly unsettles Tyber, causing her to grab onto her sling until it passes from her narrow band of sight. The rat going ground diving leaves Tyber with no humor, because she thinks it means that they won't be leaving any time soon.
Blubbage peeks his head out of the snow, looking around seeing if the owl is gone. It has, and the lizard crawls out, covered in snow. He flicks his tongue out a few times before he looks toward the ratness, watching him fall done once again, "Why Rat climbs treessss?... Rat isss no treerat..." he hisses blinking and going to stand in his hind legs like a normal beast. He hears the clacking and turns his head so his eye can look where it was coming from. But doesn't see anything, going back to the only other beast he thinks is here, "What do Blubbage call rat?" he asks.
Charon finally seems to realize that the lizard's senses are much more acute than the rat's, and lets his paw drops back down. A grin creases his lips as the rat tries out his squirrel impersonation, without much luck at all. Turning and hopping deftly to another branch on the opposite side of the tree, and at about the same height level, he drops down from the pine, breaking his descent with a quick roll and a paw placed on the ground in front of him to steady himself. Flicking some from his tail and shifting the weight of his pack on his shoulders, he turns to face the other two, not much caring if they see him at this point, since they both seem rather harmless, if not a little stupid, in the rat's case.
Stupid? Suuuuupid? Tungur is quite smart, thank you very much. And he'd have something to say about that if he knew what the squirrel was thinking. Slowly, the rat stands again and huffs. "I need to see whatever I can. This is the tallest tree and I need to get up top so I can look out and see if I see anything. Like ruins, or towers or a giant sign that says 'search here' or something." he replies before tilting his head. "Oh, I'm Tungur. And...Blubbage huh? Interesting name."
Still watching and waiting Tyber cringes at the sound of the two beasts talking, wishing that they would just leave or hurry up and get on with trying to force her out of this place. With the appearance of Charon Tyber is even further convinced that she will have to be shoving off soon, three makes a crowd and sense they don't look hostile to one another she highly figures that they will be here for a while, making the odds of her being found and having to flee all the higher.
Blubbage blinks at Tungur, "Why must Tungursss find ruinsss, or towersss or a giant sign that saysss search here?" he asks again, almost imitating the rat. He stares at the rat before more noises, flicking his tongue tasting the air. He goes back on all fours and tries to lay flat, "There are many beastssss here..." he flicks his tongue out and asks like he is hiding, though he thought he should warn this rat-squirrel equation.
"Oh trust me, you're not gonna find any towers er giant signs out here." the slightly blocked voice of the masked squirrel carries to the other two as he approaches them slowly, one paw with the thumb hooked under the strap of his pack, the other hanging easily at his side. He sounds surprisingly cheery, for one that looks so grim and deathly with his choice of clothing. The mask's green tinted lenses flick between the lizard at the rat, waiting for their reaction to the random squirrel with a bone mask appearing out of seemingly nowhere.
Tungur eyes the lizard very carefully. He then lets out a little sigh. "I'm just...looking for something that was lost." he says. "And some ruins might help me find it. If there's even any here." he pulls out a cloth map, that looks to have had several pieces sewn together. But it looks incomplete, a few chunks here and there still seem to be missing. "And this map says there's supposed to be something here. But its so old that the landscape has changed. And I just can't figure it out." he grumbles before blinking. "Many beasts?" He tilts his head and glances over towards Charon, and then Tyber. His eyes widen a little bit, more at the masked squirrel than the sick one. "What makes you say that?" He asks, eying Charon carefully, folding up his map and putting it away hastily.
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