Post by Pavane on May 29, 2012 11:54:37 GMT -5
Kachina - a cougar of Amaranth
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It has been several days, or perhaps several weeks Kachina isn't fully sure on the matter, but since that meeting with her ghostly father she left the cougar lands to start this quest as it were. At the moment she is settled under an old evergreen type tree, head settled on her forpaws while her gaze peer out over the are, tail twitching at times with a tired yawn escaping her in the process. Her tail lashes a few times and she stretches, forepaws now pushing out, claws gripping at the ground a moment before she slowly gathers herself up onto her paws and she gives herself a good shake as she shifts forward, out to get started wandering again it would seem.
A quest; a journey. A search, for something not entirely known. There have been spirits, on the edges of Kachina's vision and hearing. A ghostly mouse that trembled in the grass as a spectral hawk roved overhead. A herd of scraggly winter deer, running in a panick and trampling nothing at all beneath their hooves. None of them inclined to stop and speak with the young cougar; none of them offering any answers. As she journeys on, she begins to hear a soft sound; a rasping noise, as of something scraping against stone.
Kachina has attempted to speak with the few ghostly animals that she has ran into, but so far none of been in the talking mood it would seem. An at the moment it doesn't seem all that different. She grumbles to herself, tail lashes as she shifts along, large paws carry her ever forward wondering if she was dreaming when she saw her father?.. Even if she was its too late to turn back now she has to keep moving forward, there must be some answer somewhere..right? There is a pause, an she blinks gaze drifting one way then another, what is that sound? She sniffs out at the passing breeze trying to gather some idea if there is something there or not. "Hello...?" Is soon questioned.
Sssscrape. Rasssp. Sssssnake. Against the stones glides a large snake; a rattlesnake, head lifted up as his long and sinuous body sweeps back and forth and carries him on, his tail-rattle carried silent, for now. At Kachina's greeting, there's a breathy laugh that echoes with his rattle. "Ha. Ha. Hahtatatata." His head lifts higher, dull black serpent-eyes staring and forked tongue flickering.
Kachina just blinks while she peers at the rather large snake, she takes in a faint breath while she shifts backwards slowly a few paces. "I'm..sorry.." Is said with a soft unsure tone while eyeing the snake as he shifts, tail twitching about nervous like. She isn't that sure what to do..its a /snake/ after all.
Closer glides the snake, scraping along the ground. Out flickers his tongue, tasting the air, testing. "You." His coils shift, sliding from side to side even as he pauses. "Sssso. Quick. To. Sssspeak." Each word is punctuated by a flicker of his tongue, another taste of the air. "Sssssorry. Sssss. For. What?"
Kachina eyes widen slightly while she watches the snake move forward. "Should I not be quick to speak?" Is questioned with a curious yet, unsure tone. "Are..you a ghost?.." An't that a strange question to ask someone? "An..am sorry for bothering you. If I did that is."
Coils slide against coils, a shifting and hypnotic dance. "I. Am. Dead. Yesssss." Ha. Ha. Hatatatatata. Another laugh. "Doesss. That. Matter?" A longer pause, as his tongue flicks and flicks again, as his coils shift. "To. You?"
Kachina ponders this for a few moments as she watches the snake, the movement more then anything as she shifts to settle against her haunches a good distance from the snake. "Well, you see I can speak and see the dead." This offers with a soft tone, wondering if this matters or not to the snake. "How did you die?" Seems like a good question to ask at the moment, perhaps she can try and figure out why he is here if she knows?
"Yesssss. You. Ssssee." The snake coils and uncoils, moving more quickly now - or is it more slowly? There are cycles within cycles, slow shifts and fast ones, the sliding back and forth, around and around and around - "Yessss. You. Sssssee," he hisses again. "My. Death. You. Will. Ssssssee." Ha. Ha. Hatatatatata.
Kachina looks somewhat confused at this while peering at the snake, she shifts on her paws seeming a bit unsure now that she is having this conversation with a snake of all things. An is it moving faster, or slower? She really can't tell
Kachina looks somewhat confused at this while peering at the snake, she shifts on her paws seeming a bit unsure now that she is having this conversation with a snake of all things. An is it moving faster, or slower? She really can't tell. "What.. do you mean I will see your death?"
Ha. Ha. Hatatatata. The snake glides over itself, the whisper of scales on scales and scales on stone. The rattle that means death, on a creature already dead. The strange serpent's laughter. "Issss. That. What. You. Want?"
"I know your kind breaths death to others, you have a rattle that doesn't rattle. So is it your death you speak of, or the fact that you bring death to others?" Kachina questions while eyeing the snake, watching him to make sure he stays /over/ there it would seem.
"Good. Quesssstion." says the snake, his head lifting higher. "Death. Bringer. Or. Dead." Sinuous and shifting, tongue flickering. "Death. Bringer. Death. Ssseer. Or. Dead." For all his shifting and swaying, he's yet to move within striking distance. "What. Issss. Dead?" Side to side the serpent sways, head high and cold black eyes staring. "Who. Isss. Dead... Sssseer?"
Kachina looks confused for a moment. "You should know what death is, I imagen you did plenty, or do plenty of it to get by." She points out with a faint nod. "I'm not dead.. You though I'm not surea bout. You move much like you are alive, but your tail does not rattle with all your movement. So, no sound like a live rattler."
"Sssso. Have. You," answers the snake, his coils shifting, his tail-rattle suspiciously silent save when he laughs. "Sssso. What. Isss. Death?" He speaks, sways, and slithers. "Who. Isss. Death... Ssseer?"
Kachina has seen death yes, and she has caused plenty of it when hunting. She blinks at the question and a ear twitches while his tail is still silent save when he laughs. "Your death with fangs of posion, i'm death with fangs and claws, perhaps we are both death?" Well its an thought at least.
Ha. Ha. Hatatatata. "Per. Hapsss. Sssso." The snake sways, drifting his head back as though to strike - then turns instead, and begins to slither away. "Death. Comesss... Ssseer."
Kachina errs faintly and pulls her head back at the snake seems about to strike. "Wait.." She calls out while shifting to her pause. "What do you mean death comes?" Her gaze flicks around as if expecting some great black beast to appear, cause death is black right? Knowing her luck death is some cute little field mouse that taps you on the nose and you fall over dead as a plucked flower. She looks back to the snake.
The snake does not speak, only slithers along - but now his tail rattles along with his motions. Ta. Ta. Tatatatata. He goes, and death comes - or so says the serpent. His movement is slow, easy to follow.
Kachina ponders this as she lets her gaze flick around before she starts to slowly shift forward, actually following the snake. An now his tail is rattling. She wonders if she can just assume everything she meets is dead or alive that way she'll be right at least half the time perhaps at this rate. Though at this rate with her following slowly behind a rattle snake it could possible be her death she is going to find. "What thing do you call death?" Is questioned after a few moments, ears splaying forward and back, a faint sniff of the passing breeze, her sharp gaze watching the great snake closely.
"You. Asssk. Me." Ta. Ta. Tatatataha. "What. Isss. Death... Ssseer?" The snake continues onward as he speaks, his motions becoming faster. The quickening pace of a hunter nearing his target. Eagerness. Anticipation. Giving chase. ... Snakes hunt from ambush.
Kachina continues following, which she'll figure out later if it was a good or bad idea. "Death is the end for some, and the start for others." At least that is how she has always pictured it. A ear twitches forward while the snake starts to move quicker across the ground, and she moves a bit faster.
"Death. Comesss." Ta. Ha. Hatatatata. "Death. Alwaysss. Comessss." The snake slithers faster, making quite a turn of speed out of the side to side sway of his body. He races on, tongue flicking at the air, never hesitating for a moment even as he slithers along first one path, then another -
"Well yes.. death is every present, no one can escape death." Kachina offers back while she shifts and follows. Her paws carrying her rather effortlessly after the snake, still she is careful to not get /that/ close. "Is.. that what snakes talk about then, death all the time?"
Ha. Ha. Hata- The snake stops suddenly. He's completely still, for the first time since he emerged. A lone snake, beside a standing stone. He's there for one flick of his tongue. Two. Three. With the third, there's a screech overhead. A streak of dusty yellow dives from the sky, and a flap of wings sends dust flying around the snake. Those wings flap again, and the golden eagle rises, the snake dangling from curved talons.
Kachina comes to a quick stop, ears flicking forward while she looks towards a rock, an a snake there?.. She tilts her head as if about to say something but something stops her rather coldly, her eyes widen at the screech that echos in her ears, her mouth opening. Her gaze latches onto the large eagle that appears, grabbing the snake and she swallows sharply while taking one step back and then another. "..no.."
The golden eagle beats his powerful wings, rising into the air. Dust and small leaves scuttle away, and the snake thrashes in his grasp as he rises to a perch on the stone. The eagle turns his head and leans down, his curved beak snapping shut. The snake's struggles stop. One golden eye stares past to Kachina; so obligingly following her curiosity. So obligingly leaving the safe place she had and coming out into the open. Just like before. Events repeat themselves. He lifts his head, and screeches out a call that echoes through the stillness. The same voice. The same call. The same bird.
Kachina gaze flicks around as she feels the creeping coldness of fear flowing across her form suddenly, gripping at her throat and quiet her suddenly. Her mouth closes tightly and she swallows while just watching the golden eagle and her form quivers. "Your dead.." Is finally said.. Well duh.. She does see dead things so why is this one against surprizing her?
Angard is most assuredly dead. The wounds that killed him flicker in and out of vision; now here, then gone, as Kachina's knowledge of his passing and his spirit's form bicker between themselves. The golden eagle is seasons-dead, and yet here he is before her eyes. He clacks his beak. "You again."
Kachina shakes her head a few times and she takes in a faint breath while she lets her gaze flicks around as if checking to see if any of the others are with him. Her tail lashes and her head lowers and she hunkers down. "...yes.." Is offered with a faint murmur while she peers back at the eagle. "What do you want..?"
"What do I want?" asks the eagle. "What do I WANT?" He screeches out again, an angry cry to the heavens, and releases the snake as he takes flight. The rattler falls limp to the ground, coiling up on itself in a dead heap as Angard rises in the air with mighty beats of his wings. "To finish what I started!" he screams, and dives, talons-first, at Kachina.
Kachina eyes flik to the rather limp rattler, so he really was dead, and was killed by the one thing that fears and hates the blasted eagle. A sharp squeal escapes her and she is scrambling backwards falling over herself in the process and winds up upon her back leaned against a rock. She blinks and peers crosseyed a few moments before her gaze locks upon the eagle and a sharp cry of fear escapes her.
Down Angard dives, and cries out his anger as Kachina scrambles back out of the way. He curves up from his dive, and veers up again, circling around for another strike. There's no sign of the others yet - of the shambling wolverine, of the quick bobcat, of the hulking boar - but Angard screams again as he reaches the top of his arc, and his wings fold against him as he dives once more for Kachina. With his rage cried out to the wind, it surely can't be long before the others come. Not so long as they're nearby... and dead to hear it.
Kachina is scrambling to her paws as the eagle is going back into the air. She darts back the way she came and swallows not sure if the thing can harm her or not in death. What she does know is that in life they could harm her plenty and at the moment she doesn't want to stick around to see just what they can or can't do it seems!
Another swoop, another miss. Those talons gleam sharp as Angard shrieks his frustration, and the golden eagle soars up again. This time, he keeps rising - headed up toward the clouds, for that vantage where eagle eyes can watch without being observed. Kachina escapes, for now, but Angard is watching. The time will come when he will strike, and then - well. The snake lies dead at the base of the rock. Perhaps he was always so; or perhaps those talons and that beak can strike even living flesh.
Kachina doesn't look back to see where the eagle may or may not be at this point in time. She continues to run until she finds a place to hide for the night it seems. As for the snake she still has to wonder it didn't act alive, but at the same time she will have to perhaps recall later that she also didn't see 'two' snakes near the rock before the eagle appeared. So much to think on after the crazyness she just had to deal with.
---
It has been several days, or perhaps several weeks Kachina isn't fully sure on the matter, but since that meeting with her ghostly father she left the cougar lands to start this quest as it were. At the moment she is settled under an old evergreen type tree, head settled on her forpaws while her gaze peer out over the are, tail twitching at times with a tired yawn escaping her in the process. Her tail lashes a few times and she stretches, forepaws now pushing out, claws gripping at the ground a moment before she slowly gathers herself up onto her paws and she gives herself a good shake as she shifts forward, out to get started wandering again it would seem.
A quest; a journey. A search, for something not entirely known. There have been spirits, on the edges of Kachina's vision and hearing. A ghostly mouse that trembled in the grass as a spectral hawk roved overhead. A herd of scraggly winter deer, running in a panick and trampling nothing at all beneath their hooves. None of them inclined to stop and speak with the young cougar; none of them offering any answers. As she journeys on, she begins to hear a soft sound; a rasping noise, as of something scraping against stone.
Kachina has attempted to speak with the few ghostly animals that she has ran into, but so far none of been in the talking mood it would seem. An at the moment it doesn't seem all that different. She grumbles to herself, tail lashes as she shifts along, large paws carry her ever forward wondering if she was dreaming when she saw her father?.. Even if she was its too late to turn back now she has to keep moving forward, there must be some answer somewhere..right? There is a pause, an she blinks gaze drifting one way then another, what is that sound? She sniffs out at the passing breeze trying to gather some idea if there is something there or not. "Hello...?" Is soon questioned.
Sssscrape. Rasssp. Sssssnake. Against the stones glides a large snake; a rattlesnake, head lifted up as his long and sinuous body sweeps back and forth and carries him on, his tail-rattle carried silent, for now. At Kachina's greeting, there's a breathy laugh that echoes with his rattle. "Ha. Ha. Hahtatatata." His head lifts higher, dull black serpent-eyes staring and forked tongue flickering.
Kachina just blinks while she peers at the rather large snake, she takes in a faint breath while she shifts backwards slowly a few paces. "I'm..sorry.." Is said with a soft unsure tone while eyeing the snake as he shifts, tail twitching about nervous like. She isn't that sure what to do..its a /snake/ after all.
Closer glides the snake, scraping along the ground. Out flickers his tongue, tasting the air, testing. "You." His coils shift, sliding from side to side even as he pauses. "Sssso. Quick. To. Sssspeak." Each word is punctuated by a flicker of his tongue, another taste of the air. "Sssssorry. Sssss. For. What?"
Kachina eyes widen slightly while she watches the snake move forward. "Should I not be quick to speak?" Is questioned with a curious yet, unsure tone. "Are..you a ghost?.." An't that a strange question to ask someone? "An..am sorry for bothering you. If I did that is."
Coils slide against coils, a shifting and hypnotic dance. "I. Am. Dead. Yesssss." Ha. Ha. Hatatatatata. Another laugh. "Doesss. That. Matter?" A longer pause, as his tongue flicks and flicks again, as his coils shift. "To. You?"
Kachina ponders this for a few moments as she watches the snake, the movement more then anything as she shifts to settle against her haunches a good distance from the snake. "Well, you see I can speak and see the dead." This offers with a soft tone, wondering if this matters or not to the snake. "How did you die?" Seems like a good question to ask at the moment, perhaps she can try and figure out why he is here if she knows?
"Yesssss. You. Ssssee." The snake coils and uncoils, moving more quickly now - or is it more slowly? There are cycles within cycles, slow shifts and fast ones, the sliding back and forth, around and around and around - "Yessss. You. Sssssee," he hisses again. "My. Death. You. Will. Ssssssee." Ha. Ha. Hatatatatata.
Kachina looks somewhat confused at this while peering at the snake, she shifts on her paws seeming a bit unsure now that she is having this conversation with a snake of all things. An is it moving faster, or slower? She really can't tell
Kachina looks somewhat confused at this while peering at the snake, she shifts on her paws seeming a bit unsure now that she is having this conversation with a snake of all things. An is it moving faster, or slower? She really can't tell. "What.. do you mean I will see your death?"
Ha. Ha. Hatatatata. The snake glides over itself, the whisper of scales on scales and scales on stone. The rattle that means death, on a creature already dead. The strange serpent's laughter. "Issss. That. What. You. Want?"
"I know your kind breaths death to others, you have a rattle that doesn't rattle. So is it your death you speak of, or the fact that you bring death to others?" Kachina questions while eyeing the snake, watching him to make sure he stays /over/ there it would seem.
"Good. Quesssstion." says the snake, his head lifting higher. "Death. Bringer. Or. Dead." Sinuous and shifting, tongue flickering. "Death. Bringer. Death. Ssseer. Or. Dead." For all his shifting and swaying, he's yet to move within striking distance. "What. Issss. Dead?" Side to side the serpent sways, head high and cold black eyes staring. "Who. Isss. Dead... Sssseer?"
Kachina looks confused for a moment. "You should know what death is, I imagen you did plenty, or do plenty of it to get by." She points out with a faint nod. "I'm not dead.. You though I'm not surea bout. You move much like you are alive, but your tail does not rattle with all your movement. So, no sound like a live rattler."
"Sssso. Have. You," answers the snake, his coils shifting, his tail-rattle suspiciously silent save when he laughs. "Sssso. What. Isss. Death?" He speaks, sways, and slithers. "Who. Isss. Death... Ssseer?"
Kachina has seen death yes, and she has caused plenty of it when hunting. She blinks at the question and a ear twitches while his tail is still silent save when he laughs. "Your death with fangs of posion, i'm death with fangs and claws, perhaps we are both death?" Well its an thought at least.
Ha. Ha. Hatatatata. "Per. Hapsss. Sssso." The snake sways, drifting his head back as though to strike - then turns instead, and begins to slither away. "Death. Comesss... Ssseer."
Kachina errs faintly and pulls her head back at the snake seems about to strike. "Wait.." She calls out while shifting to her pause. "What do you mean death comes?" Her gaze flicks around as if expecting some great black beast to appear, cause death is black right? Knowing her luck death is some cute little field mouse that taps you on the nose and you fall over dead as a plucked flower. She looks back to the snake.
The snake does not speak, only slithers along - but now his tail rattles along with his motions. Ta. Ta. Tatatatata. He goes, and death comes - or so says the serpent. His movement is slow, easy to follow.
Kachina ponders this as she lets her gaze flick around before she starts to slowly shift forward, actually following the snake. An now his tail is rattling. She wonders if she can just assume everything she meets is dead or alive that way she'll be right at least half the time perhaps at this rate. Though at this rate with her following slowly behind a rattle snake it could possible be her death she is going to find. "What thing do you call death?" Is questioned after a few moments, ears splaying forward and back, a faint sniff of the passing breeze, her sharp gaze watching the great snake closely.
"You. Asssk. Me." Ta. Ta. Tatatataha. "What. Isss. Death... Ssseer?" The snake continues onward as he speaks, his motions becoming faster. The quickening pace of a hunter nearing his target. Eagerness. Anticipation. Giving chase. ... Snakes hunt from ambush.
Kachina continues following, which she'll figure out later if it was a good or bad idea. "Death is the end for some, and the start for others." At least that is how she has always pictured it. A ear twitches forward while the snake starts to move quicker across the ground, and she moves a bit faster.
"Death. Comesss." Ta. Ha. Hatatatata. "Death. Alwaysss. Comessss." The snake slithers faster, making quite a turn of speed out of the side to side sway of his body. He races on, tongue flicking at the air, never hesitating for a moment even as he slithers along first one path, then another -
"Well yes.. death is every present, no one can escape death." Kachina offers back while she shifts and follows. Her paws carrying her rather effortlessly after the snake, still she is careful to not get /that/ close. "Is.. that what snakes talk about then, death all the time?"
Ha. Ha. Hata- The snake stops suddenly. He's completely still, for the first time since he emerged. A lone snake, beside a standing stone. He's there for one flick of his tongue. Two. Three. With the third, there's a screech overhead. A streak of dusty yellow dives from the sky, and a flap of wings sends dust flying around the snake. Those wings flap again, and the golden eagle rises, the snake dangling from curved talons.
Kachina comes to a quick stop, ears flicking forward while she looks towards a rock, an a snake there?.. She tilts her head as if about to say something but something stops her rather coldly, her eyes widen at the screech that echos in her ears, her mouth opening. Her gaze latches onto the large eagle that appears, grabbing the snake and she swallows sharply while taking one step back and then another. "..no.."
The golden eagle beats his powerful wings, rising into the air. Dust and small leaves scuttle away, and the snake thrashes in his grasp as he rises to a perch on the stone. The eagle turns his head and leans down, his curved beak snapping shut. The snake's struggles stop. One golden eye stares past to Kachina; so obligingly following her curiosity. So obligingly leaving the safe place she had and coming out into the open. Just like before. Events repeat themselves. He lifts his head, and screeches out a call that echoes through the stillness. The same voice. The same call. The same bird.
Kachina gaze flicks around as she feels the creeping coldness of fear flowing across her form suddenly, gripping at her throat and quiet her suddenly. Her mouth closes tightly and she swallows while just watching the golden eagle and her form quivers. "Your dead.." Is finally said.. Well duh.. She does see dead things so why is this one against surprizing her?
Angard is most assuredly dead. The wounds that killed him flicker in and out of vision; now here, then gone, as Kachina's knowledge of his passing and his spirit's form bicker between themselves. The golden eagle is seasons-dead, and yet here he is before her eyes. He clacks his beak. "You again."
Kachina shakes her head a few times and she takes in a faint breath while she lets her gaze flicks around as if checking to see if any of the others are with him. Her tail lashes and her head lowers and she hunkers down. "...yes.." Is offered with a faint murmur while she peers back at the eagle. "What do you want..?"
"What do I want?" asks the eagle. "What do I WANT?" He screeches out again, an angry cry to the heavens, and releases the snake as he takes flight. The rattler falls limp to the ground, coiling up on itself in a dead heap as Angard rises in the air with mighty beats of his wings. "To finish what I started!" he screams, and dives, talons-first, at Kachina.
Kachina eyes flik to the rather limp rattler, so he really was dead, and was killed by the one thing that fears and hates the blasted eagle. A sharp squeal escapes her and she is scrambling backwards falling over herself in the process and winds up upon her back leaned against a rock. She blinks and peers crosseyed a few moments before her gaze locks upon the eagle and a sharp cry of fear escapes her.
Down Angard dives, and cries out his anger as Kachina scrambles back out of the way. He curves up from his dive, and veers up again, circling around for another strike. There's no sign of the others yet - of the shambling wolverine, of the quick bobcat, of the hulking boar - but Angard screams again as he reaches the top of his arc, and his wings fold against him as he dives once more for Kachina. With his rage cried out to the wind, it surely can't be long before the others come. Not so long as they're nearby... and dead to hear it.
Kachina is scrambling to her paws as the eagle is going back into the air. She darts back the way she came and swallows not sure if the thing can harm her or not in death. What she does know is that in life they could harm her plenty and at the moment she doesn't want to stick around to see just what they can or can't do it seems!
Another swoop, another miss. Those talons gleam sharp as Angard shrieks his frustration, and the golden eagle soars up again. This time, he keeps rising - headed up toward the clouds, for that vantage where eagle eyes can watch without being observed. Kachina escapes, for now, but Angard is watching. The time will come when he will strike, and then - well. The snake lies dead at the base of the rock. Perhaps he was always so; or perhaps those talons and that beak can strike even living flesh.
Kachina doesn't look back to see where the eagle may or may not be at this point in time. She continues to run until she finds a place to hide for the night it seems. As for the snake she still has to wonder it didn't act alive, but at the same time she will have to perhaps recall later that she also didn't see 'two' snakes near the rock before the eagle appeared. So much to think on after the crazyness she just had to deal with.