Forums » General Roleplay » A Forest Clearing

Nathan shook his head at Merrion's apparent wariness of Bella, but he couldn't blame the man. It was probably safe to say the guy hadn't encountered Bella's breed before, or he might have stopped trying to glare at her. That or he was immune to the paralyzing gaze she had...

He continued to spoon soup into bowls until everyone had some and then he tasted it. He was surprised by the flavor. "I'm from a small sett about two thousand miles east. I travel a lot," he explained with a shrug. Though he smiled to himself at Merrion's comment of galaxies.

Once everyone else started eating, Danniel did too.
"That's a very general term," she said to Merrion. "I'm no astronomer, and the only galaxies I know of is this one, The Milky Way, and the Horse Head Nebula, but you could still be more specific," she said between mouth fulls of soup. "Anyways, I'm from that city 50 miles to the south. About three months ago I decided to just up and go. I went south first, then I started moving this direction," the teen drank the last of her soup. "That was delicious. It's been so long since I've had warm food," she looked down at her waist. The meal hadn't helped at all with how thin she was and she was still hungry, but the warm meal felt good.

Merrion raised an eyebrow at Danniel's mention of galaxies. Mainly because he'd never heard of any of those. Of course, even if he had taken the time to learn the names of them, he doubted what they're called here would be the same here as on Odessa anyway.

Finishing off his soup in a hurry more out of worry for his equipment than hunger, he dropped his empty bowl into Danniel's since he thought it had been one she pulled out, but hadn't been paying much attention.

"Thanks for that." He said as he turned and headed back to where he left his equipment, not making any indication if he was talking about the food or bowl. Though he meant both, the thought of something else running off with bits of his pistol when he wasn't looking was doing nothing for his already questionable manners.

Nathan finished his meal as well, and with a handful of grass, wiped his bowl clean. He then stuffed it back into his pack.

With a grimace he stood up. "Hey, you want some help?" he called after Merrion who seemed anxious to get back to where he had been earlier.

At the last second, Nathan grabbed Bella by the scruff so she wouldn't follow Merrion and steal something else. "Bella, stay."

Lou bowed her head, a quiet thanks from her lips. She set to carefully setting away her things. She watched the others, sideways, listening carefully and trying to be aware of their intentions. She looked at the wolf eagerly, wondering if the canine would listen or if the man would have to keep holding her. She rubbed down her wares with her fist and rinsed them quickly in the river before returning them to the hollow tree. She examined the life of her knife before returning it to her pocket. Returning to the fireside, she considered putting it out already. She'd look to the others.
"When do you want to go, then?" The shiny blonde one seemed to have another thing to do first, and the others could prefer to rest longer.

"Help keeping the wolf from swiping anything else, yes." Merrion told him, hurrying back to the small clearing he'd left his things in. When he got there, everything looked undisturbed. Relieved, he quickly dropped back onto the ground by his jacket and began reassembling his laser pistol. Thanks to years of practice, it only took a few seconds, though he wasn't sure if the pieces had dried out enough in so short of a time.

Holstering it and picking up his jacket, he went over to the tree where his shirt and vest were hanging, frowning as he put them back on since they were still damp. Once properly dressed again, he took out his laser pistol again and wondered if he should give it a test shot. Then again, the last time he took aim, he almost got mauled, so with that wolf in the area he was hesitant to try.

Tapping the side of his gun a couple times, Merrion looked around, wondering if Bella was anywhere nearby or if Nathan had kept her safely back with Blue.

Nathan had followed Merrion, just to keep an eye on things--and he was curious about what, and where, Bella had gotten her gadget.

Bella obediently followed at Nathan's heels--apparently mistaking "stay" for "heel". So she pricked her ears up as she watched the man putting things together on the ground.

Nathan watched from a few yards back as Merrion put together the seemingly impossible parts to form...something. He figured it was a type of weapon by context of the man holstering it at his side.

Bella sprang forward and began to investigate the place where Merrion had spread the weapons' parts. Interesting smells here and there, she didn't seem to notice if she was going to be a target.

"Well, if you want me to tag along and guide you all, I'm ready to whenever," Danniel put her bowls away and stretched before laying flat in the thick grass.
"Thank you very much for the soup," she looked at the tribal. "What's your name?"

Lou sat, figuring "whenever" was an agreed time. Bare foot would poke at the edge of the logs idly. She kept her robe tightly around her body and arms, wrapped around her knees. She nodded to the girl with her.

"'Girl'. I don't know. I think the old tribes used to call me by 'Aloutte'. It's a kind of bird. A lark, I think. They left, the rest of my tribe has been.. Has died off. Just me now. No names. I watch the forest." She nodded conclusively, blowing into the smoke of the fire as if she could repeat the pictures the elders used to make, though try as she might she had yet in years to do so. And suddenly, she perked up to look for the remains of the rabbit the wolf's man had brought.

"Alouette... That's a very pretty name," Danniel smiled thoughtfully. "So you're kind of like the forest guardian?"

Frowning at the wolf sniffing around, Merrion turned the gun over in his hand, staring at it for a moment and shrugging. The beast wasn't looking, so if it didn't go off, it wouldn't notice. If it did... well, he could use it if the furball rushed him again.

Turning enough to keep the wolf in view, he took aim at a tree and pulled the trigger. With a crackle, a flash of red flew from the pistol, cleaving off a low-hanging branch as if it had been hit with a machete. Frowning at the result since it should have done more damage to a simple piece of wood on it's normal setting, he was more focused on seeing how Bella would react first than checking it.

Nathan and Bella both jumped at the flash and sound. Bella spun, ears pricked forward where the tree branch fell to the ground. She sniffed cautiously at the air and then stomped her way fearlessly to the branch, sniffing where it had been cleaved from the tree. She looked up from the branch to see Merrion, and she cocked her head to the side before approaching him curiously, tail wagging slowly.

Nathan already had a hand to the quiver at his thigh, an instinct for self-preservation when he saw the damage Merrion's weapon could do. He'd never seen anything like it before and he blinked the red afterspots from his vision as he kept an eye on Bella. He'd rather not interrupt unless Bella or Merrion meant the other harm. And after seeing the display, he wasn't certain about either.

Lou stared longly at the girl. The sound of the tree if not an otherwise sound from the machine would catch her attention. "Yes." Standing abruptly, Lou would give a sharp whistle. "Watch this," she waved her hand over the fire. She ran after the boys then, cooing to a running horse and throwing her body over his back. He was still running when she found them- slipping off his side with a quiet 'come'. Looking first to Nathan, the wolf and then Blondie. She pointed at the tree, eyes set sternly on the Blonde. "That you? You can't just do that!" The stallion trotted up beside her, one hand resting on her own arrow though with the look of her tree, she knew.

Watching the wolf cautiously as it approached, Merrion didn't think it was planning to attack. Not that he knew much about beasts that weren't either synthetic or mutated. Moving slowly and keeping an eye on Bella, he checked his pistol's settings. It was still set to twenty shots as usual, so either the moisture or some damage he overlooked was making the laser weaker than normal. That'd have to be a project for later though, at least it worked for the moment.

His focus had been split evenly between his weapon and Bella, so he didn't even notice Blue arrive until she snapped at him. Blinking at her and wondering why no matter what planet he was on someone complained when he put a bullet or beam into something trivial, he shrugged.

"It was just a branch, it'll grow back." Merrion told her, though he knew as much about plants as normal animals, so maybe it wouldn't after a hit like that. "Besides, it was only a test shot. If I was trying to do real damage, I'd have turned the power all the way up and taken down the whole tree."

Bella sniffed at Merrion's feet before checking his legs and then trying to get a view of his pistol. Her large black ears were pricked forward and her gold eyes were bright with curiosity as her nose detected the lingering scent of the laser.

Nathan sighed and released the arrow, letting it slide back into the quiver. Stepping into plain view of Merrion and Aloutte, he went to inspect the tree where it's branch had been.

His gaze flickered back to the object that Merrion held. The awe was obvious in his tone when he said: "You can take down a tree with that?"

Danniel soon got lonely just sitting there and knowing there were other people she could be around. The coyote walked in the direction that Alouette had gone. She just stood there a little awkwardly but still subconsciously happy to be in the presence of living things other than trees, which Merrion seemed to have no problem with destroying.
"So, do you guys want go now or after she's done scolding Merrion for hurting the tree?"

Lou shot a look at Nathan. "Don't encourage him!" She lay a hand on the nose of the horse before marching right up to the tree and crouching over the branch, inspecting it's side of damage. She then pulled it upright, pulling some dirt around it as if to plant it, though it would never grow. Then she'd take some of the same, surrounding dirt and let it fall over the wound of the tree itself. A few words were muttered before she turned and grunted, "Don't do that. That.. Contraption works fair enough for here." She smiled to herself, people always seemed to bring 'new-fangled gadgets', she felt old just thinking about it.

Looking to the girl then, she breathed a sigh. "Why don't you show it off in the town? They've already sucked the life out with their concrete walls." And chickens. May-haps she could steal a hen for herself.

"I've used it to blast holes into walls before, so a tree shouldn't fare any better than them." Merrion told Nathan, holstering the pistol and glancing at at Bella for a second just to make sure she wasn't about to sink her teeth into him. Even though the wolf showed no sign of hostility, he backed a few steps away from it. Having it that close was just... unsettling.

Once a more comfortable distance from the wolf, he focused his attention on Blue. "Don't worry, I'm not going to level the forest or burn it to the ground or anything like that. Unless I have to, of course, but I doubt that'll happen. Of course if you just want me gone, that can be arranged." He assured her, then turned to Danniel. "You can help with that, in fact. Which way is it to the empty town you mentioned?"

Nathan just shook his head and called Bella over to him. The wolf was clearly making Merrion uncomfortable, although Bella seemed to have taken an affinity to the man.

Bella trotted over to him, almost proud with her tail wagging. Before stopping and then heading over to Aloutte, where she sniffed the branch that had been replanted.

"Well, if it's a town, I could stock up on supplies..."

"Yes, it's a town," Danniel crossed her arms, "But it's empty, remember? I took everything that was edible and there was no signs of life." Had they not been paying any attention to her when she said that?