darkSpyro

Dae nods.
"Yeh. Kinda. We have countless elders living all over, but at least one has to stay by the pond," she stopped and stared at the sun, which was barely visible through the trees. "Right about now, Miss Nethilta should be here."
And with that, a aged-looking Grecian Sphinx made her way through the growth on the ledge top.
"You need my help, Daecirin?"

OOC: Grecian (from Greece)

Dae looked up at the sphinx, showing signs of nervousness.
"This lass wants to know if she can go on the departure!"
Nethilta preened for a bit before addressing the two drearily.
"If she wishes to go, she may..." she sighed, laying down. "But finding human clothes and formulating a human name will be her responsibility."
Dea groaned a bit, but eventually perked up.
"Thank yeh, Miss Nethilta!"

Dae began happily skipping away.
"Yup! Although you'll hafta kinda help yourself out with preparations... too bad the faun lady wasn't in. She'd have been more helpful. Anyway, let's go! It's gettin late in the afternoon! Celebration starts this evenin' and I'm on the decorating committee!"

nyana watched the animals scurry away. "happy hunting" nyana said, and stalked away

"Yeh, the departure celebration. We have a banquet and some fun before we go, then we go home and rest, then midnight we leave. All of the elders will be there, and most of the forest creatures. They'll bring fresh kills, fragrant plants, stuff like that.
As she went, Dae began picking off large, glowing buds from nearby plants.
"I'm gunna hang these up!"

Daecirin turned back to her.
"You can grab anything that looks nice and bring it. I'd love to have some help! Ranir and I are always the only ones decorating anything, and Ran is terrible..."

nyana looked up at the sun, estimating the time. she had to shade her eyes with her tails to be able to look. almost time for the celebration, better get there she thought, and headed for the area.

It was high noon. Dae wondered through the forest with Alessia, picking flowers and and colorful grasses, tieing them into bows along the way. Eventually, they came to a rather large lake, one edge of which was a clearing. A few makeshift stone-table sat around.
"Here we are!"

nyana caught the scent of prey. big prey she thought, licking her lips. this will be good for the celebration. she pranced about, until she found the white stag. she hid in the shadows, until the timing was right when the stag lowered its body to the ground. she leap, claws unsheathed. she scratched its flank, and worked her way up to its neck. she ended it with a vicious bite, and it crashed down. she licked the blod off her teeth. now how am i supposed to carry this back she pondered, dragging the large stag by the horns, on the way to the lake

"Just set everything up anywhere it looks good," Daecirin instructed, using the long grass to tie the glowing buds to the branches.

Ranir sighed and slithered off in the directiong of the lake, remembering his decorating duties. I hope Daec is doing fine without me, he thought. She's a terrible decorator...

Libra had gotten distracted by the delectable smell of clovers, which she'd been drawn to. This trail had led her to a clearing simply bursting at the seams with clover, which had delighted her far more than a bit of meat. She'd been chewing on the plants plenty, filling her belly with the vegetation without a worry. She was now satisfied, however, and once again pranced in the direction of the lake, which she wished to drink from.
'Mmmm, I do like it here. I hope this mission gets taken care of fast so that I can return to those clovers. So yummy~' she thought happily, a smile on her face as her throat gave a light purr.

Ranir found himself slithering by Libra on his way to the lake. He waved casually as he went on through the bushes to where Daecirin was.
Dae nodded as she watched Alessia place the flowers.
"That's a nice color combination," she commented. She turned to see Ran emerging through the trees. "We've got it covered!" she piped.

Libra gave a toss of her head to reply, and marched right up to the lake while half-ignoring the other creatures in the area. She thrust her head down, the majority of her muzzle dunking into the water and splashing water into her ears and forehead. She gulped down water, thirsty from all the clover she'd consumed. She lifted her still dripping wet face from the water, and gazed at the decorations.
'What are you doing...?' she asked confusedly, not understanding what the point of placing ground plants in trees was.

"Decorating!" Dae answered gleefully. Ranir frowned at the flowers laid out on the table, quietly making his way over to rearange them. Daecirin cringed as she watched, evetually turning back to Libra.
"Wanna help?"

OOC: You guys wanna time-skip to the actual celebration? This is gettin' slow.

"I enjoy helping! So I just put pleasant-looking flowers on the trees in a specific pattern...?" Libra wondered, turning towards the treeline to look at it. She blinked at the flowers being arranged at the table, curious and a bit confused on the point still but deciding to just go with it.

ooc: If you'd like, I'm up for a time skip!

ooc: Yeah.

She took down the creature with ease, gorging herself and eating until she could eat no more and couldn't move another inch. She sighed, padding over to a shady area and plopped down, closing her eyes in sleep.

OOC: Alright!

The sky was spattered with stars. The clearing by the lake was illuminated with small campfires and hanging glow-plants. Everyone was jovial. Conversing, singing, laughter carried through the air.

Daecirin sat in a tree with Ranir and one of his naga friends, the three casually making conversation with a harpy. Their voices could barely be heard below.
"They chose YOU TWO? I mean, I understand Ran here, but faries have the most difficulty adjusting. You know, aside from quadrupeds like unicorns and gryphons..."
"Hey, Dae and I have our strong points. For instance, neither of us are either of you two."
"LAME! I'm going to go see if they have any more of that stag left!"
With that, the harpy flew from her perch into the fray below.

Libra had already gorged herself fully, enjoying a variety of foods including: venison, hare, salmon, apple, carrot, clover, milk, beef, sweet grass, several types of cheeses, and an entire slice of chocolate cake. The Unileopard now reclined with a friend, who was a Dun Cow.
"Enjoying yourself?" the cow sounded amused as she gave Libra a funny look.
"This is sooooooo fun!" Libra kneaded the ground excitedly, "Is this done often?"
"Not usually, dear." chuckled her friend, "It's a special thing for important times."
"Aww..." Libra looked up at the Dun Cow with big, sad eyes and whimpered, "But I enjoyed that ... what was it called? Cake?"
A loud 'moo' of laughter escaped the jaws of the Dun Cow as she gave a warm, hearty laugh. Libra was confused on why she was laughing, and her big eyes turned into a glare of confusion.

Nyana looked up at the sky, her eyes hinting as bright as the stars above. why day time, I love the night. She looked around at the scene around her. Chattering, laughing, eating. Eating. She remembered her white stag she stored in a nearby tree. She pranced over to it, and dragged out the large mammal. "hey guys, stag!" she called, "eat it while it lasts" she murmured.

Saritu was still snoozing, though now in a tree, hidden and unseen. For one thing, she was quite unaware of the celebrating and for another, she probably wouldn't go to it and most likely just sneak in. She knew for a fact that she had quite a few enemies that were probably hanging around that celebration.

The harpy's spirits dropped as she saw no stag. However, upon seeing Nyana drag a fresh white stag out, she futtered joyously and dug in with several other creatures. She tore off a leg and began departing through the bushes.
"Guys, I'm just gonna take this home and stash it somewhere real quick," she called to Dae, Ran, and his naga friend. She hoisted the heavy leg and began a slow walk through the woods, unaware that there was anyone who was not attending the celebration.

Dae shrugged and left the two nagas, fluttering down to where Libra was. She waved at the Dun Cow.
"Hi, guys! Enjoying the party?"

"Yes, yes, as lively as always." mooed the Dun Cow, giving a smile and swishing her tail with content.
"Enjoying? I absolutely love it!" Libra beamed, clearly excited as she gave a little switch in her forelegs out of the energy she had, "I do wish we can do this again, I have never experienced anything as fun as this before in my lifetime! Are you also having fun?"

Nyana leapt from branch to branch, to the top of a pine, happy that the others are enjoying her stag. She starred at the sky from the top most branch, hypnotized by it's beauty and light. The lake shown the reflection of the sky, lit up just as bright. if only this could last forever

Dae smiled.
"That's good! I love parties with food. Even though most of it is always meat..." she replied. She sat down on a nearby rock and watched the other party goers.
"Man, I hope we have enough time to sleep before the departure..."

Ranir made his way down from the tree, leaving his companion to find another conversational partner. He spotted Ryune sulking, remembering him as the one who had shown unusual amounts of hostility.

"Sleep? What is that?" Libra jokingly stated, "Though, I also wish to rest after the festivities. Getting started on a quest on tired limbs would be awful."
Her friend gave a little nod, though The Dun Cow seemed uninterested in what she was saying as she gulped down her drink. But after a quick swallow she said, "Yeeeah, the whole thing is dangerous and you'd all be better off if you're not half-asleep out there." She then returned to the beverage.

"They don't even tell us where we're going," Dae complained. "They say we're heading to a... city. I've heard of them before. Some creatures say their ancestors lived in them," she picked a dew-filled leaf and drank it. "Anyway, I hope it's true what they say about a guide..."

"Guide? Do we get one of those?" Libra perked her ears up, looking quite interested. She'd not been told a whole lot about how this was going to happen, or if she had she'd forgotten. Libra was forgetful like that. She blinked, and started trying to think of what a city might look like. She couldn't imagine it, and instead she returned her attention to Daecirin.

"Maybe," Dae answered. "It's just what I've heard, though. The elders never were very specific. I don't think even they know much about this. It's hard to imagine a forest creature having lived outside long enough to know anything..."
A few voices giggled nearby. Dae peered behind her back at a small group of fairies and elves that seemed to be whispering to one another. Dae leaned in toward Libra and her friend.
"Oh, and another thing: Not everyone here thinks that leaving the forest is the best solution. Here and there we might face some criticism, or even opposition, sometimes from entire species. The elves and other fairies, for example," she whispered.

Libra gave a sigh, "I do wish it would have been specified where we were going, exactly... Oh well, we will be fine. As for the peoples who refuse to even attempt to search outside our comfort area of the island, we can ignore them with ease. There is a first time for everything!" She gave a grin and stood up to stretch out her forelegs, letting out a relaxed yawn.

OOC: It's not exactly an island. More like a peninsula.

Dae sighed.
"Yeah, but it's hard to be the only one of your species keen on trying something new." She yawned. "It's not like our kind never used to interact with humans ALL THE TIME back before we sequestered ourselves. It'll be easy to do again."
Ranir had made his way to where Dae was. He sat- or rather as close as something without legs could do to resemble sitting- and listened.

"Your kind did it before, so it would not be silly to think you can still do it now." The Unileopard commented, keeping her positive tone, "Well, so I would think. I am very excited to see how this will play out, actually!" She pranced in a circle around her Dun Cow friend, who had stopped listening completely, before looking at Dae once more.
"What do you think is happening to the magic?" she asked.

Dae shrugged. "I dunno. Nobody does."
Ranir offered his input.
"There have been creatures known to extract magic. The theory is that we haven't seen any around here, so if such creature is at work, it must be wandering the human world."
"...or things," a passing gryphon added. "Objects with that capability have been forged before. Although not on a large enough scale to begin draining a forest."
Dae nodded as a large bear-like creature with glowing eyes who appeared to be a companion of the gryphon nudged his way in.
"The most likely source," it began, "and the reason the elders are so adimant about sending us out is that it might be some sort of human experiment..."
"Tch, bugbears..." Ranir muttered under his breath.

The Aliwolf sighed thinking that at the very least she could repay that one creature the kindness she showed. Taking a juicy part of her kill into her mouth she trotted into the feast and put the piece down next to Libra. Saritu felt angry glares staring at her, but chose to ignore them. "Thank you for your kindness. Here's a piece of my kill, if you would like." She said. And by doing so, she showed sort of loyalty in the hierarchy of society, putting herself and Libra on the same rank.

Ooc: well now it's a party before leaving

Nyana jumped down back to the crowds from the tree, and just in time to hear dae mention noted interacting with humans. "what's this about a guide, interacting with humans, and whatnot?" she asked, walking into the group.

OOC: Yeah, we time-skipped to the pre-departure celebration.

Ranir watched Saritu curiously as she offered the kill. Dae turned and answered Nyana.
"We might have a guide. I imagine it's some creature who has spent a lot of time outside of the forest. And we were talking about how some creatures don't like the idea of an expedition outside of the forest. It's like they forgot our ancestors used to interact with humans all the time."
This time, Daecirin's voice came strong, and she finished with a haughty glare at the group of fairies and elves who were sniggering awhile ago.

"well before I came here, as all nekomatas, I was a house cat, living with humans and such" nyana explained, sitting down next to the group, "and I am one of the creatures leaving for the expedition"

Dae nodds.
"Yeh, you could be a good guide. After all, we don't know if the one everyone is talking about is just a rumor or for real."
"And we don't know how well we could trust anything that's been living outside long enough to serve as an efficient guide," Ranir added.

Libra blinked at the meat, looking from Saritu, to the hunk of meat, and back. She bent down and took the meat into her mouth, chewing the piece and swallowing it in a bloody gulp. She gave a smile, and nodded her thanks to Saritu.
"A swift and delicious kill, my friend." she complimented, listening to the others speak as she did. She laid down and contently yawned, her belly full.

"who knows," nyana said. She looked around the area of the lake. "there was also another creature that lived outside of the forest, you guys might have met her"

Dae strained to remember hearing of such a creature.
"I think I met her," she said. "Is her name Alessia?"