Post by dunderhead on Dec 21, 2008 3:05:27 GMT -5
Characters Involved:
Glooscap, male beaver
Cordelia, female otter (spoofed through the latter half of the RP)
Satin, male otter
Largo, male alligator
Synopsis:
Glooscap is lamenting to Satin and Cordelia about losing his lodge to the river when they are attacked by an alligator. In the ensuing struggle, the powerful reptile snaps Satin's leg in two. When all three of them make it back to the shore, in part due to heroic efforts from both Satin and Glooscap, the beaver decides to build a temporary home for Satin to recover while Largo inquires toward the nature of friendship.
==== Calm River ===
The water at this point is spread far past where it had normally flowed. Glooscap is shaking his head softly, sitting on top of his lodge he had built with the help of Cordelia now mostly in ruins, only the top out of the water. It appears now near the middle of the river while before it was built at the river's edge. It is, anyway, a statement to its quality that it hadn't already completely been swept away, but will probably not be usable once the water recedes.
Cordelia is swimming about the ruined lodge enjoying the refreshing water. None of her clutch has really been down to visit so her only company has been glooscap. "Hey cheer up!" She says cheerfully as she then swims over to the lodge. "It's not like your homes gone... just not able to be slept in!" She offers cheerfully. "people are leaving the waters edge so it should be easy to find sleeping places!"
Satin surfaces. An otter would think a flood means more fish, but it seems that there's scarcely any fish at the moment. He looks around until he sees Cordelia and swims toward her.
Along the river, further east, the water is getting disturbed. It could easily be mistaken for waves, except the rippling is going against the waves, and is moving in more or less a straight line. As the rippling gets closer, a scaled back and tail might be seen, just under the water's surface. It's Largo, making his way up the river, trying to hunt for any unlucky to have drowned. It's a feast for a gator, and now he spots three fresh morsels.
Glooscap nods softly and closes his eyes. "Yes, yes. Flooding isn't a bad deal for a beaver. No, in fact, he causes it, most of the time!" The beaver opens his eyes again and chuckles. "Why do you think we build dams? It's to make a little pond for ourselves and flood the water into the trees! Much easier to eat trees when they're in water, you know, and safer." He shakes his head. "But... not like this, no. It's supposed to be controlled! My work, I'll need to start over," he sighs. "And building anything with such unusual levels, hm, what would happen when the water returns to normal," he contemplates. The beaver seems to be very calculated in his works, he does not like this variability.
Cordelia was listening.. until she spied Satin and blinks. "SATIN!!!!!" She yowls out as she splashes into the water and moves over and cuddles into satin as she reaches him. "I need to show you my new friend Glooscap! He is a beaver and I helped him make his lodge... which flooded.. " She says then slips away and streaks over to the sunken lodge.
"I remember the beaver." Satin says, then looks around. "I've never seen the river flooded like this before. And it seems colder, too."
Largo continues up the river, until he's in earshot of the others. He sinks a bit more below the waves after coming up for a moment for air, and starts to head straight for the damaged dam, swimming around any logs that might get in the way.
There are a number of logs floating by, slowly drifting off the lodge that's now beginning to deteriorate because of the flooded water. "Beavers are good at making this flood! But, no, this is probably something else. The mountains, before, they cracked, did you here? They cracked! And this water, all this water is probably from there," he nods to himself as he contemplates. He does see something that seems to... look almost like a log, but going against the gentle current.
Cordelia smiles gently as she then shrugs. "Oh! yeah that's right I am sorry!" She calls out as she then swims up to the lodge and climbs up it carefully and give Glooscap a friendly nuzzle then notices him looking at something. "what's wrong?"
Glooscap looks at Cordelia, and then looks back at the bit of water he was staring at. But now he sees nothing. He has completely lost whatever it was that he caught a glint of. "Hm, nothing, nothing I suppose."
Largo swims silently around to the far side of the lodge, circling slowly inward and around the area, so on his next pass in front of the lodge he'll be within 10 feet of it. And then he'll see what can be done about those running around on that thing.
Satin looks at the lodge. "Why not build it higher?"
Cordelia blinks and shakes her head looking at satin. "well he could, but then it would be hard to get in once the water went down, he needs a nice stable river... right glooscap?" she asks trying desparatly to learn this. She didn't know largo was about which was good fro now.
Glooscap shakes his head. "Everything will be washed away in a day or two," he says with a sigh. "I will just build another one! And you'll help me, won't you?" he smiles. "Or, I could build a dam, right here in the water, keep the water in when it recedes, make myself a nice little pond to trap fish in and be careful to keep the water level. Hm!" He forms a fist in one paw and slaps it against his other. "Why, that'll just be about perfect, wouldn't it?" He then frowns and sits back down. "But, the river is so much wider now than it would be normally. No, that won't be any good,"
Largo spirals into the area of the lodge, and soon comes around the other side, within earshot now. He continues through the water, his form now visible under the surface to anyone that looks as he crosses about 10 feet in front of the lodge.
Satin smiles and suddenly he spots Largo. Not wanting to relive his last mistake. He swims forward suddenly and grips the beaver and female otter. "SWIM AWAY!" And he makes an attempt to tug them away from the water.
Cordelia blinks at this as Satin suddenly screams swim away! She looks around and freezes up for a moment. "LARGO! Swim away!" She shrieks out as she then shakes her head. "Alligator i mean! head towards the shore!" She says as suddenly moves to try and guide Glooscap away from the side Largo is on.
"Bwah! Alligator? What? Wh-" He is suddenly cut off as he is tugged and splashes right into the water, being pulled into the opposite side that Largo is on. For a few moments he bobs atop the surface before slapping his tail into the water and diving, heading for the shore on the advice of the otters.
Largo suddenly pops out of the water. Or at least his back, tail and head do. He looks annoyed. It's those otters again, and he's been spotted. He gives a hiss and swims after the others aggressively, his strong tail shoving him through the water at a fair pace.
Satin starts swimming madly for shore.
Cordelia was swimming as fast a she could towards shore. Fear was peaking in her eyes as she then chanced a look back, she was in the back of the pack escaping and fear prickled!
Glooscap is not a very fast animal on land but in the water he can make quite a dart as he pushes water back and forth using his big flat tail. Soon, following Satin, he makes the shoreline, which isn't terribly far away, and clambers onto a rock where he turns about and spies the river, seeing if he can spot the alligator and, hopefully, Cordelia too, who had gotten behind him.
Largo starts to catch up to the others. His short, stubby legs don't do him many favors on land, but like Glooscap, he can move swiftly in the water. He's a brownish-green gator-shapped dart, sliding through the water, now currently a bit behind the two otters, his snake-like eyes focused on them.
Satin sees that the gator is catching up to one of his mates and turns and swims toward the gator, baring his teeth.
Cordelia suddenly stops as satin darts past her, Satin! the fool! She.. she can't face Largi.. she she is too afraid and continues her dart forward reaching land and shoot up. As she hits land she falls over. "SSa...Satin! d...don't die!" Is all she can scream out wrapped in terror herself unable to look back.
Glooscap hadn't noticed Satin turn around. He had thought that Satin was -ahead- of him. He looks about surprised not to see him here, and then gasps as he watched the foolish brave otter decide to take on the gator alone. Glooscap can hardly believe it. He jumps down from the rock and runs up next to Cordelia. "W..what's he doing?" He gapes.
Largo spots Satin comming after him, and suddenly sinks below the surface, heading down to the shallow bottom. He suddenly starts thrashing there, still moving forward, and with all the extra silt of the flood, the water becomes dirty in just a short time around him, until the gator can no longer be seen, timed to meet Satin as he comes by. The water he was kicking up goes still. The way the gator moves, he could be anywhere. Going to shore? Hunting Satin? For all anyone knows, he could be right under the otter, ready to grab a leg. In a twist of odd fate this day, a now-unseen fish happens to decide to nibble at a toe on Satin's paw.
Satin stops and looks for the fish that started gnawing his toe, but he's worried more about where the alligator had gone.
Glooscap in any case watches the water get muddy and drags Cordelia a little further away from its edge, so that she can't just be snapped out of the water. He huffs and shakes his head. "This wouldn't have... been a problem if my lodge hadn't been sunk into the water, oh!" he looks back to see if he can spot Satin worriedly. Glooscap certainly wasn't the heroic type. He wonders if Satin could find his way into the lodge anyway if he needed to, there must still be an air pocket inside since some was sticking out of the water, and the alligator would have a hard time following him in there.
Had the otter followed his sense of self-preservation when the fish nibbled, he would have been out of reach of the gator by now. But as it is, luck is no longer with the stopped mammal today. Suddenly the gator explodes out of the water just to Satin's side, sending a dirty shower of water and confusion, and almost immediately darts back in, going straight for the otter's leg, which currently makes for much too easy a target. The gator's strong jaws close on the leg, or that's the intention, in order to drag the otter under.
Satin surfaces just in time to feel the pain of his leg being grabbed by the gator and yanked back under. The otter desperately struggles against the alligator now.
Glooscap sighs in relief when he sees the otter surface, only to have his poor heart sink when he is tugged back into the water with a thick splash. The beaver feels that, somehow, this was his fault. If things had worked out properly, they would all be safe inside the wooden lodge, where no predator could get them. He knows how quickly alligators can tear a limb off with their powerful jaws. He looks over to see Cordelia shuttering and crying. He doesn't want to see her like that. So he resolutely dives back in the water and darts toward the commotion, brandishing his large, wood-sheering front teeth.
Largo surfaces with Satin's leg in his mouth, only to roll the otter, to both confuse him, keeping him off mental balance to reduce the possibility of saving himself, and to try to drown his meal, if the otter tries to get some air here. He doesn't notice Glooscap because of this, until the beaver gets close. One on one the gator could take him, with possibly a bite as a price, but with a meal already in his mouth, he's at a disadvantage. He hisses out, as best he can around the leg, and dives, putting a stronger bite on the leg. It's his intention not to lose the otter, but instead in his hurry to get back under the water and away from the beaver, he loses his grip with the leg off instead, leaving Satin near the surface as he loses his meal. But it's certain he'll be back up soon.
Satin thrashes painfully before his head breaks the surface. Coughing a bit, then howls loudly with pain as he begins to feel the injury on his leg. He swims a few feet, and howls again. His leg feels snapped. The pain is too much, but Sating fights to stay above the surface. He's lucky to be alive!
Glooscap watches the alligator go, and is relieved to see that Satin had slipped out of his grasp in his panic to get away. A beaver would sure sting, yes, apparently the alligator can guess this. Glooscap only notices that Satin is injured as he struggles to stay afloat, hardly even moving three feet now. Surely the gator will be back. Glooscap swims up to Satin and turns about, takes his body into one paw, then slaps the water with his mighty tail and is off. He hopes, if the alligator had turned around and is back upon them, to distract and startle him, giving them as much time as possible to get back to land.
Satin tries to aid the swimming as best he can until, finally, they reach the bank and Satin gingerly rests his legs on the ground... until the injured leg touches the ground. Yowling with the pain, Satin keeps the leg up. He coughs some more, getting the remainder water out of his system, and maybe even some remnants of an earlier meal. "Gotta get... away!" Satin says breathlessly.
Largo is in a bit of poor luck at the moment. The silt he's stirred up in the water is clouding his own vision, and he's lost his meal! He moves back up to the surface, keeping a number of feet away from where he saw the beaver so not to suffer a bite if he doesn't need to. He then spots the two heading quickly for land, and follows, letting out a loud angry hiss. The beaver is stealing his meal! One determined gator, one side ticked-off, attempts to catch up, but he's too late as they reach land first. He stops in the water, reptilian eyes coldly staring at the two on shore. His mood swiftly disappears, but those two slitted eyes continue their unsympathetic watch over the survivors, giving them a view of the dangerous reptilian hunter. "He's injured. Why burden yourself with him?" he asks Glooscap after a few moments, his voice empty of emotion, as if he were talking about the weather, but slips though his muzzle deep and slow, as if it had not the will to be rushed.
Glooscap nods. "Yeah," he continues to hold on to Satin and help him walk up the bank, so that the alligator could not just snap them up and drag them into the water. "Just up here! It'll be okay, it's not bad, I can tell," the beaver is lying. He couldn't even tell if it were bad if it were, he can fix cold lifeless dams and lodges, but has no knowledge of how a warm body heals itself. He narrows his eyes and frowns as he hears Largo, hardly turning around even to acknowledge him, but after a few moments shouts back, "Because, I... I don't want to see Cordelia sad!" He says with a chitter.
( Cordelia had still been whimpering softly ten yards away. She hadn't even been watching the carnage. She doesn't know what she would do if both Glooscap and Satin didn't come back! She still had not noticed that they're safe, not until Glooscap yells back at the alligator, and she turns around, eyes bright with relief, and immediately runs up to them. She stops halfway when she notices Satin is limping badly. "S..Satin," she says as she begins to cry again. )
Satin climbs up a little higher and lies down on his side. No weight on that leg, no sir.
Largo stays where he is. There's been drowning food around, and he's not hungry enough to go challenging a beaver on land. He just didn't want to lose an easy meal. "Why have such an emotional attachment to one that isn't even one of your own?" he inquires, his words still leaking slowly from his jaws.
Glooscap furrows his eyes and frowns. What's this, the alligator is practically taunting him now? He doesn't probably MEAN to taught him, but Glooscap has no stomach to tolerate his stupid inquiries after he just injured a, well, a friend, isn't he? Why not, a friend. Certainly after this, he should guess. He angrily sits down next to Satin and ignores the alligator, huffing a little from the excitement.
"It is Satin who responds. "Have you any friends or are you cursed with loneliness? It is easy to talk down to those who look after others, but they're rewarded with something worth more than all the fish in the river."
Largo moves around, swimming a few feet back before coming to a bobbing stop in the water again, still watching the two. "Without the fish in the river, how would you survive to have any friends?" he asks Satin, then looks to Glosscap. "Don't burden yourself with the foolish one. He's injured. How long will he survive like that? I'll take care of him for you, then you could have the female to yourself." His eyes stay fixed on the beaver, his tone and emotion wavering not one bit.
"You... you saved him for me?" Cordelia asks, turning toward Glooscap. She practically jumps over Satin to nuzzle the beaver affectionately, which makes him blush nervously and recoil. She is still crying, but, at least they are both safe, if not injured. "Thank you! But... I thought, when you went off, I'd lose you both," she said with a few sniffles, and then turns to Satin, all but bursting into tears again. "Never do that again!" she says sadly as he begins nuzzling against his prone form. "I wasn't gonna go get myself caught! But I sure thought I would die after you turned back around!"
Glooscap blinks. "The.. the female? But she," he stammers and looks at Cordelia again, then proceeds, "I don't want her like that! She's just good at finding me sticks for my dams!" He folds his arms. "Go away! Hunt us if you'd like, you greedy little thing, there's probably enough dead things in the river to feed you for a week," he grimaces, "but don't talk to us about stuff you have no concept of! I won't listen to this!"
Satin pushes forward to return the nuzzle to Cordelia. "Look, he was right behind you. I made a fast decision. I couldn't risk letting you die." Satin says. "If it means that I die and you live, then so be it."
"B..but..." Cordelia sniffles again and then buries her muzzle against Satin's chest, wiping her eyes free of tears against his fur.
Satin looks at Cordelia. "I couldn't do to you what happened the first time we met. I still regret leaving you to die."
Glooscap regards the two idly, wondering what Satin was referring to, exactly, and then looks up at the sky. "One thing is for sure, the alligator is right, if we don't build some shelter then Satin will probably be easy pray for something else! Cordelia," he looks at her, "the best thing you can do for Satin right now is find me some branches, as many as you can carry. Thick ones this time, no time for delicate thatching!" He then begins to dig at the ground, pushing up dirt to be laid closer to the water, watching the alligator wearily.
( Cordelia simply continues to nuzzle into Satin's chest, before she regards Glooscap and nods softly. "O..okay!" She smiles a little bit, happy at least that she'll be of some use after all. "I'll be back soon, with lots of sticks!" she then turns to Satin and gives him another little nuzzle and runs off. )
Satin watches as she goes, then over at Glooscap. "..." He lies back. "I owe you my life. If you hadn't come out to get me like you did, I would probably be dead."
Glooscap nods. "Well, don't be too thankful. Admittedly," he gathers a large mound of dirt and then begins patting it down nice and dense by swatting it with his tail over and over, "it was harder for me to watch Cordelia cry than it was to watch you die." He looks up sadly, and then gives a little smile, showing off his big buck teeth. "Not that I want to see that either! Certainly not, sorry, that sounded cold. But it was the truth."
"Go ahead and say it, dear friend." Satin says. "Knowing that Cordelia is *alive" dulls the pain in my leg. We're all supposed to look after each other... we're family." Satin squeezes his eyes closed. "And what would Siri think?"
"Siri? Oh, she mentioned her, another otter," he mumbles. "Guess there are a lot of you around, no beavers at all. Well, I guess I'll have to make do with that until I find company of my own kind." Before too long he has a nicely flattened foundation for whatever he was planning to make. "You know, it's not so common, but not unheard of, for a beaver to share its lodge with an otter."
Largo listens to the conversation as it rolls along. "I'm not greedy. I simply prefer a warm meal at night. Gators don't have the advantage of warm coats and blood as you have." he says. After the rest of the conversation, he speaks up again, "What's special about family? More mouths to feed, more competition for food, and the little ones make noise, scaring prey away." Again his emotion is flat, as if discussing a pebble on a beach.
"Cursed with loneliness, leading a meaningless life. No one to look after you. I've been there. I don't want it again." Satin says. He then smirks to the beaver. "Well, it'll be a first for me. But, uh... what do you mean 'make do' with otters?"
Glooscap sighs and shakes his head. He just continues to ignore the alligator. He has some gull to hunt them down and then lecture them about how they should live. He can tolerate one or the other, really, everyone has got to live, sure. But both of them together one right after the other, that's really annoying. "No offense, you're fine company! But, you know." He stumbles a little. "I can't, well, raise a family with an otter, you understand."
Largo continues to persist with his queries, but doesn't seem to do it with malice. "Is not loneliness just time to have to oneself in order to relax? Is not the meaning of life to eat or be eaten? My food is my life. He pauses for a few moments. "I've always found those who gather friends around them to be .. interesting." Is this actually a gator's attempt at a conversation? No longer viewing them through his steady hunter's gaze, it may be.
"Well, yes, but I'm just wondering as to the extent you're planning to 'make do' exactly." Satin says. "I have taken it on myself to look after them quite protectively, if you remember how I responded to you having Cordelia help."
At this time Cordelia returns with a bundle of sticks, too many that she should really be carrying, and flops them on the ground. "Oh, what's that?" she asks the beaver looking at the strange flat looking mound he made. "Oh! Never mind. Need more sticks! More sticks~" she then runs off again.
Glooscap sighs and turns around looking at the alligator, at last acknowledging him again. "You're wrong. Look, it's very simple. Satin would be /dead/ right now if he were alone! Dead! We make friends so we can look after each other. /That/ is survival! If we cared only for ourselves, one of us would be dead. And look! We're all alive! All of us are alive! So take a stick and shove it, Mr. gator." He hrumphs and turns about, to see Cordelia there setting down her sticks. He raises a finger and before he says anything she is off again. He and smiles and shakes his head, then he looks at Satin. "What do you mean? You think I am going to, um, take advantage of her still?" He walks over to a tree now and starts grinding away at its base with his teeth.
"Oh... no..." Satin says. "Nono. If she is so willing, then I won't stop you, but I'd prefer you make sure its what they want as well. I don't want anything bad happening to them."
Glooscap is rather rapidly gnawing in the trunk of the small tree, showing off his impressive teeth as he sheers away pieces of word. It takes him a little while, but before too long he gives the tree a kick and it snaps, falling down. He scuttles to the other end and begins breaking branches off. "I am not going to demand anything of anyone! I let Cordelia help me because, really, it makes her happy. She is naturally disposed to helping people I suppose!"
Largo considers Glooscap's words for a few long moments, letting the others talk a bit more, then finally answers, "You know," he states, "If he wasn't so busy caring about the female, he wouldn't have got caught to begin with." he answers with a counter-argument.
Glooscap hurumphs again. "But then /she/ would be dead, and yet, she isn't," he says simply, and begins to bury some thick pieces of wood into the densely packed wood sticking up, and lays more sticks horizontally across them.
Largo hmmms and thinks about this. "This is perhaps true. However, if she didn't die, someone else will to be my dinner tonight. I find friendship odd, how one can care about a few, but not give a thought about the many. Without these 'friends', I'm able to treat everyone equally. If they come to my pond, they're my food. If they do me a favor, I return a favor. It seems to be a more fair way of living."
Glooscap shrugs. "Maybe you can just think of 'friends' as animals that do you a lot of favors, then, if you must." He builds a wall up around the one side of the dirt mound he has made close to the water, and begins to pack mud into it so that it is all sure to hold together.
Largo swims around now in a slow circle. "That definition could, perhaps, work. As long as they don't take my food. I think we could agree with that." he says. His tone might still be void of emotional attachment, but the answer itself is agreeable enough. Though he starts to show interest in that thing you're making.
Glooscap would be at it for many hours. Cordelia continues to fetch wood for him and Glooscap slaps them in place, setting many vertical posts around the perimeter and then laying sticks horizontally across them, and presses mud between them. He builds many layers of these, and it begins to get dark. He works carefully and quickly. It seems obvious he won't be able to complete it before nightfall, though.
Largo swims to shore, but places a fair distance between himself and the others. He finds a rock to crawl up on and relaxes there, drying off. He doesn't seem to have anything else to do and continues quietly watching Glooscap.
Glooscap keeps a careful vigil on the alligator, noting where he is at all times. After the next bundle Cordelia brings him, he tells her that should be enough for now, and before it gets too dark they both help Satin lay down in the middle of the incomplete lodge. He begins to dig on the side next to the water, inside the lodge, and twenty minutes later he has dug a tunnel from underneath the lodge out into the river -- a tunnel too small for an alligator, for sure. The water fills the tunnel and creates a little pool where he had dug it out inside the lodge. And he works late into the night finishing the walls.
Largo takes a nap, and awakens to watch Glooscap work in and out of the water. He doesn't bother even looking for the hole, knowing the beaver wouldn't have made it big enough for him. Then he spots a dead animal floating down the river, and hops back into the water to get it, having a meal. After he's eaten, he crawls back out onto the rock again. A short time later, he finally speaks again, "I'm Largo." he says in his deep, syrupy voice.
Glooscap pats down some mud into the last bit of wall he had erected. It could use some thickening in the morning, but for now, it will do. He knows, sadly, that this creation will be useless when the water recedes, it will be far too far from the bank to be any use for him. Maybe when that happens it will give some other creature a home. He looks rather tired now, and wearily slips into the water. "Glooscap," he offers. He was glad that the alligator did not try to sneak up to him in the dead night. He had avoided lurking in the water and would probably hear him on land, but beavers do not have terribly good night vision at all. With that, he slips under the surface and swims inside, ready for a deep sleep.
Largo acknowledges with only a "Interesting name.", but is nice about it. As nice as the gator ever really gets. He rests on the rock, staying close to the water in case some land predator might come along.
Glooscap, male beaver
Cordelia, female otter (spoofed through the latter half of the RP)
Satin, male otter
Largo, male alligator
Synopsis:
Glooscap is lamenting to Satin and Cordelia about losing his lodge to the river when they are attacked by an alligator. In the ensuing struggle, the powerful reptile snaps Satin's leg in two. When all three of them make it back to the shore, in part due to heroic efforts from both Satin and Glooscap, the beaver decides to build a temporary home for Satin to recover while Largo inquires toward the nature of friendship.
==== Calm River ===
The water at this point is spread far past where it had normally flowed. Glooscap is shaking his head softly, sitting on top of his lodge he had built with the help of Cordelia now mostly in ruins, only the top out of the water. It appears now near the middle of the river while before it was built at the river's edge. It is, anyway, a statement to its quality that it hadn't already completely been swept away, but will probably not be usable once the water recedes.
Cordelia is swimming about the ruined lodge enjoying the refreshing water. None of her clutch has really been down to visit so her only company has been glooscap. "Hey cheer up!" She says cheerfully as she then swims over to the lodge. "It's not like your homes gone... just not able to be slept in!" She offers cheerfully. "people are leaving the waters edge so it should be easy to find sleeping places!"
Satin surfaces. An otter would think a flood means more fish, but it seems that there's scarcely any fish at the moment. He looks around until he sees Cordelia and swims toward her.
Along the river, further east, the water is getting disturbed. It could easily be mistaken for waves, except the rippling is going against the waves, and is moving in more or less a straight line. As the rippling gets closer, a scaled back and tail might be seen, just under the water's surface. It's Largo, making his way up the river, trying to hunt for any unlucky to have drowned. It's a feast for a gator, and now he spots three fresh morsels.
Glooscap nods softly and closes his eyes. "Yes, yes. Flooding isn't a bad deal for a beaver. No, in fact, he causes it, most of the time!" The beaver opens his eyes again and chuckles. "Why do you think we build dams? It's to make a little pond for ourselves and flood the water into the trees! Much easier to eat trees when they're in water, you know, and safer." He shakes his head. "But... not like this, no. It's supposed to be controlled! My work, I'll need to start over," he sighs. "And building anything with such unusual levels, hm, what would happen when the water returns to normal," he contemplates. The beaver seems to be very calculated in his works, he does not like this variability.
Cordelia was listening.. until she spied Satin and blinks. "SATIN!!!!!" She yowls out as she splashes into the water and moves over and cuddles into satin as she reaches him. "I need to show you my new friend Glooscap! He is a beaver and I helped him make his lodge... which flooded.. " She says then slips away and streaks over to the sunken lodge.
"I remember the beaver." Satin says, then looks around. "I've never seen the river flooded like this before. And it seems colder, too."
Largo continues up the river, until he's in earshot of the others. He sinks a bit more below the waves after coming up for a moment for air, and starts to head straight for the damaged dam, swimming around any logs that might get in the way.
There are a number of logs floating by, slowly drifting off the lodge that's now beginning to deteriorate because of the flooded water. "Beavers are good at making this flood! But, no, this is probably something else. The mountains, before, they cracked, did you here? They cracked! And this water, all this water is probably from there," he nods to himself as he contemplates. He does see something that seems to... look almost like a log, but going against the gentle current.
Cordelia smiles gently as she then shrugs. "Oh! yeah that's right I am sorry!" She calls out as she then swims up to the lodge and climbs up it carefully and give Glooscap a friendly nuzzle then notices him looking at something. "what's wrong?"
Glooscap looks at Cordelia, and then looks back at the bit of water he was staring at. But now he sees nothing. He has completely lost whatever it was that he caught a glint of. "Hm, nothing, nothing I suppose."
Largo swims silently around to the far side of the lodge, circling slowly inward and around the area, so on his next pass in front of the lodge he'll be within 10 feet of it. And then he'll see what can be done about those running around on that thing.
Satin looks at the lodge. "Why not build it higher?"
Cordelia blinks and shakes her head looking at satin. "well he could, but then it would be hard to get in once the water went down, he needs a nice stable river... right glooscap?" she asks trying desparatly to learn this. She didn't know largo was about which was good fro now.
Glooscap shakes his head. "Everything will be washed away in a day or two," he says with a sigh. "I will just build another one! And you'll help me, won't you?" he smiles. "Or, I could build a dam, right here in the water, keep the water in when it recedes, make myself a nice little pond to trap fish in and be careful to keep the water level. Hm!" He forms a fist in one paw and slaps it against his other. "Why, that'll just be about perfect, wouldn't it?" He then frowns and sits back down. "But, the river is so much wider now than it would be normally. No, that won't be any good,"
Largo spirals into the area of the lodge, and soon comes around the other side, within earshot now. He continues through the water, his form now visible under the surface to anyone that looks as he crosses about 10 feet in front of the lodge.
Satin smiles and suddenly he spots Largo. Not wanting to relive his last mistake. He swims forward suddenly and grips the beaver and female otter. "SWIM AWAY!" And he makes an attempt to tug them away from the water.
Cordelia blinks at this as Satin suddenly screams swim away! She looks around and freezes up for a moment. "LARGO! Swim away!" She shrieks out as she then shakes her head. "Alligator i mean! head towards the shore!" She says as suddenly moves to try and guide Glooscap away from the side Largo is on.
"Bwah! Alligator? What? Wh-" He is suddenly cut off as he is tugged and splashes right into the water, being pulled into the opposite side that Largo is on. For a few moments he bobs atop the surface before slapping his tail into the water and diving, heading for the shore on the advice of the otters.
Largo suddenly pops out of the water. Or at least his back, tail and head do. He looks annoyed. It's those otters again, and he's been spotted. He gives a hiss and swims after the others aggressively, his strong tail shoving him through the water at a fair pace.
Satin starts swimming madly for shore.
Cordelia was swimming as fast a she could towards shore. Fear was peaking in her eyes as she then chanced a look back, she was in the back of the pack escaping and fear prickled!
Glooscap is not a very fast animal on land but in the water he can make quite a dart as he pushes water back and forth using his big flat tail. Soon, following Satin, he makes the shoreline, which isn't terribly far away, and clambers onto a rock where he turns about and spies the river, seeing if he can spot the alligator and, hopefully, Cordelia too, who had gotten behind him.
Largo starts to catch up to the others. His short, stubby legs don't do him many favors on land, but like Glooscap, he can move swiftly in the water. He's a brownish-green gator-shapped dart, sliding through the water, now currently a bit behind the two otters, his snake-like eyes focused on them.
Satin sees that the gator is catching up to one of his mates and turns and swims toward the gator, baring his teeth.
Cordelia suddenly stops as satin darts past her, Satin! the fool! She.. she can't face Largi.. she she is too afraid and continues her dart forward reaching land and shoot up. As she hits land she falls over. "SSa...Satin! d...don't die!" Is all she can scream out wrapped in terror herself unable to look back.
Glooscap hadn't noticed Satin turn around. He had thought that Satin was -ahead- of him. He looks about surprised not to see him here, and then gasps as he watched the foolish brave otter decide to take on the gator alone. Glooscap can hardly believe it. He jumps down from the rock and runs up next to Cordelia. "W..what's he doing?" He gapes.
Largo spots Satin comming after him, and suddenly sinks below the surface, heading down to the shallow bottom. He suddenly starts thrashing there, still moving forward, and with all the extra silt of the flood, the water becomes dirty in just a short time around him, until the gator can no longer be seen, timed to meet Satin as he comes by. The water he was kicking up goes still. The way the gator moves, he could be anywhere. Going to shore? Hunting Satin? For all anyone knows, he could be right under the otter, ready to grab a leg. In a twist of odd fate this day, a now-unseen fish happens to decide to nibble at a toe on Satin's paw.
Satin stops and looks for the fish that started gnawing his toe, but he's worried more about where the alligator had gone.
Glooscap in any case watches the water get muddy and drags Cordelia a little further away from its edge, so that she can't just be snapped out of the water. He huffs and shakes his head. "This wouldn't have... been a problem if my lodge hadn't been sunk into the water, oh!" he looks back to see if he can spot Satin worriedly. Glooscap certainly wasn't the heroic type. He wonders if Satin could find his way into the lodge anyway if he needed to, there must still be an air pocket inside since some was sticking out of the water, and the alligator would have a hard time following him in there.
Had the otter followed his sense of self-preservation when the fish nibbled, he would have been out of reach of the gator by now. But as it is, luck is no longer with the stopped mammal today. Suddenly the gator explodes out of the water just to Satin's side, sending a dirty shower of water and confusion, and almost immediately darts back in, going straight for the otter's leg, which currently makes for much too easy a target. The gator's strong jaws close on the leg, or that's the intention, in order to drag the otter under.
Satin surfaces just in time to feel the pain of his leg being grabbed by the gator and yanked back under. The otter desperately struggles against the alligator now.
Glooscap sighs in relief when he sees the otter surface, only to have his poor heart sink when he is tugged back into the water with a thick splash. The beaver feels that, somehow, this was his fault. If things had worked out properly, they would all be safe inside the wooden lodge, where no predator could get them. He knows how quickly alligators can tear a limb off with their powerful jaws. He looks over to see Cordelia shuttering and crying. He doesn't want to see her like that. So he resolutely dives back in the water and darts toward the commotion, brandishing his large, wood-sheering front teeth.
Largo surfaces with Satin's leg in his mouth, only to roll the otter, to both confuse him, keeping him off mental balance to reduce the possibility of saving himself, and to try to drown his meal, if the otter tries to get some air here. He doesn't notice Glooscap because of this, until the beaver gets close. One on one the gator could take him, with possibly a bite as a price, but with a meal already in his mouth, he's at a disadvantage. He hisses out, as best he can around the leg, and dives, putting a stronger bite on the leg. It's his intention not to lose the otter, but instead in his hurry to get back under the water and away from the beaver, he loses his grip with the leg off instead, leaving Satin near the surface as he loses his meal. But it's certain he'll be back up soon.
Satin thrashes painfully before his head breaks the surface. Coughing a bit, then howls loudly with pain as he begins to feel the injury on his leg. He swims a few feet, and howls again. His leg feels snapped. The pain is too much, but Sating fights to stay above the surface. He's lucky to be alive!
Glooscap watches the alligator go, and is relieved to see that Satin had slipped out of his grasp in his panic to get away. A beaver would sure sting, yes, apparently the alligator can guess this. Glooscap only notices that Satin is injured as he struggles to stay afloat, hardly even moving three feet now. Surely the gator will be back. Glooscap swims up to Satin and turns about, takes his body into one paw, then slaps the water with his mighty tail and is off. He hopes, if the alligator had turned around and is back upon them, to distract and startle him, giving them as much time as possible to get back to land.
Satin tries to aid the swimming as best he can until, finally, they reach the bank and Satin gingerly rests his legs on the ground... until the injured leg touches the ground. Yowling with the pain, Satin keeps the leg up. He coughs some more, getting the remainder water out of his system, and maybe even some remnants of an earlier meal. "Gotta get... away!" Satin says breathlessly.
Largo is in a bit of poor luck at the moment. The silt he's stirred up in the water is clouding his own vision, and he's lost his meal! He moves back up to the surface, keeping a number of feet away from where he saw the beaver so not to suffer a bite if he doesn't need to. He then spots the two heading quickly for land, and follows, letting out a loud angry hiss. The beaver is stealing his meal! One determined gator, one side ticked-off, attempts to catch up, but he's too late as they reach land first. He stops in the water, reptilian eyes coldly staring at the two on shore. His mood swiftly disappears, but those two slitted eyes continue their unsympathetic watch over the survivors, giving them a view of the dangerous reptilian hunter. "He's injured. Why burden yourself with him?" he asks Glooscap after a few moments, his voice empty of emotion, as if he were talking about the weather, but slips though his muzzle deep and slow, as if it had not the will to be rushed.
Glooscap nods. "Yeah," he continues to hold on to Satin and help him walk up the bank, so that the alligator could not just snap them up and drag them into the water. "Just up here! It'll be okay, it's not bad, I can tell," the beaver is lying. He couldn't even tell if it were bad if it were, he can fix cold lifeless dams and lodges, but has no knowledge of how a warm body heals itself. He narrows his eyes and frowns as he hears Largo, hardly turning around even to acknowledge him, but after a few moments shouts back, "Because, I... I don't want to see Cordelia sad!" He says with a chitter.
( Cordelia had still been whimpering softly ten yards away. She hadn't even been watching the carnage. She doesn't know what she would do if both Glooscap and Satin didn't come back! She still had not noticed that they're safe, not until Glooscap yells back at the alligator, and she turns around, eyes bright with relief, and immediately runs up to them. She stops halfway when she notices Satin is limping badly. "S..Satin," she says as she begins to cry again. )
Satin climbs up a little higher and lies down on his side. No weight on that leg, no sir.
Largo stays where he is. There's been drowning food around, and he's not hungry enough to go challenging a beaver on land. He just didn't want to lose an easy meal. "Why have such an emotional attachment to one that isn't even one of your own?" he inquires, his words still leaking slowly from his jaws.
Glooscap furrows his eyes and frowns. What's this, the alligator is practically taunting him now? He doesn't probably MEAN to taught him, but Glooscap has no stomach to tolerate his stupid inquiries after he just injured a, well, a friend, isn't he? Why not, a friend. Certainly after this, he should guess. He angrily sits down next to Satin and ignores the alligator, huffing a little from the excitement.
"It is Satin who responds. "Have you any friends or are you cursed with loneliness? It is easy to talk down to those who look after others, but they're rewarded with something worth more than all the fish in the river."
Largo moves around, swimming a few feet back before coming to a bobbing stop in the water again, still watching the two. "Without the fish in the river, how would you survive to have any friends?" he asks Satin, then looks to Glosscap. "Don't burden yourself with the foolish one. He's injured. How long will he survive like that? I'll take care of him for you, then you could have the female to yourself." His eyes stay fixed on the beaver, his tone and emotion wavering not one bit.
"You... you saved him for me?" Cordelia asks, turning toward Glooscap. She practically jumps over Satin to nuzzle the beaver affectionately, which makes him blush nervously and recoil. She is still crying, but, at least they are both safe, if not injured. "Thank you! But... I thought, when you went off, I'd lose you both," she said with a few sniffles, and then turns to Satin, all but bursting into tears again. "Never do that again!" she says sadly as he begins nuzzling against his prone form. "I wasn't gonna go get myself caught! But I sure thought I would die after you turned back around!"
Glooscap blinks. "The.. the female? But she," he stammers and looks at Cordelia again, then proceeds, "I don't want her like that! She's just good at finding me sticks for my dams!" He folds his arms. "Go away! Hunt us if you'd like, you greedy little thing, there's probably enough dead things in the river to feed you for a week," he grimaces, "but don't talk to us about stuff you have no concept of! I won't listen to this!"
Satin pushes forward to return the nuzzle to Cordelia. "Look, he was right behind you. I made a fast decision. I couldn't risk letting you die." Satin says. "If it means that I die and you live, then so be it."
"B..but..." Cordelia sniffles again and then buries her muzzle against Satin's chest, wiping her eyes free of tears against his fur.
Satin looks at Cordelia. "I couldn't do to you what happened the first time we met. I still regret leaving you to die."
Glooscap regards the two idly, wondering what Satin was referring to, exactly, and then looks up at the sky. "One thing is for sure, the alligator is right, if we don't build some shelter then Satin will probably be easy pray for something else! Cordelia," he looks at her, "the best thing you can do for Satin right now is find me some branches, as many as you can carry. Thick ones this time, no time for delicate thatching!" He then begins to dig at the ground, pushing up dirt to be laid closer to the water, watching the alligator wearily.
( Cordelia simply continues to nuzzle into Satin's chest, before she regards Glooscap and nods softly. "O..okay!" She smiles a little bit, happy at least that she'll be of some use after all. "I'll be back soon, with lots of sticks!" she then turns to Satin and gives him another little nuzzle and runs off. )
Satin watches as she goes, then over at Glooscap. "..." He lies back. "I owe you my life. If you hadn't come out to get me like you did, I would probably be dead."
Glooscap nods. "Well, don't be too thankful. Admittedly," he gathers a large mound of dirt and then begins patting it down nice and dense by swatting it with his tail over and over, "it was harder for me to watch Cordelia cry than it was to watch you die." He looks up sadly, and then gives a little smile, showing off his big buck teeth. "Not that I want to see that either! Certainly not, sorry, that sounded cold. But it was the truth."
"Go ahead and say it, dear friend." Satin says. "Knowing that Cordelia is *alive" dulls the pain in my leg. We're all supposed to look after each other... we're family." Satin squeezes his eyes closed. "And what would Siri think?"
"Siri? Oh, she mentioned her, another otter," he mumbles. "Guess there are a lot of you around, no beavers at all. Well, I guess I'll have to make do with that until I find company of my own kind." Before too long he has a nicely flattened foundation for whatever he was planning to make. "You know, it's not so common, but not unheard of, for a beaver to share its lodge with an otter."
Largo listens to the conversation as it rolls along. "I'm not greedy. I simply prefer a warm meal at night. Gators don't have the advantage of warm coats and blood as you have." he says. After the rest of the conversation, he speaks up again, "What's special about family? More mouths to feed, more competition for food, and the little ones make noise, scaring prey away." Again his emotion is flat, as if discussing a pebble on a beach.
"Cursed with loneliness, leading a meaningless life. No one to look after you. I've been there. I don't want it again." Satin says. He then smirks to the beaver. "Well, it'll be a first for me. But, uh... what do you mean 'make do' with otters?"
Glooscap sighs and shakes his head. He just continues to ignore the alligator. He has some gull to hunt them down and then lecture them about how they should live. He can tolerate one or the other, really, everyone has got to live, sure. But both of them together one right after the other, that's really annoying. "No offense, you're fine company! But, you know." He stumbles a little. "I can't, well, raise a family with an otter, you understand."
Largo continues to persist with his queries, but doesn't seem to do it with malice. "Is not loneliness just time to have to oneself in order to relax? Is not the meaning of life to eat or be eaten? My food is my life. He pauses for a few moments. "I've always found those who gather friends around them to be .. interesting." Is this actually a gator's attempt at a conversation? No longer viewing them through his steady hunter's gaze, it may be.
"Well, yes, but I'm just wondering as to the extent you're planning to 'make do' exactly." Satin says. "I have taken it on myself to look after them quite protectively, if you remember how I responded to you having Cordelia help."
At this time Cordelia returns with a bundle of sticks, too many that she should really be carrying, and flops them on the ground. "Oh, what's that?" she asks the beaver looking at the strange flat looking mound he made. "Oh! Never mind. Need more sticks! More sticks~" she then runs off again.
Glooscap sighs and turns around looking at the alligator, at last acknowledging him again. "You're wrong. Look, it's very simple. Satin would be /dead/ right now if he were alone! Dead! We make friends so we can look after each other. /That/ is survival! If we cared only for ourselves, one of us would be dead. And look! We're all alive! All of us are alive! So take a stick and shove it, Mr. gator." He hrumphs and turns about, to see Cordelia there setting down her sticks. He raises a finger and before he says anything she is off again. He and smiles and shakes his head, then he looks at Satin. "What do you mean? You think I am going to, um, take advantage of her still?" He walks over to a tree now and starts grinding away at its base with his teeth.
"Oh... no..." Satin says. "Nono. If she is so willing, then I won't stop you, but I'd prefer you make sure its what they want as well. I don't want anything bad happening to them."
Glooscap is rather rapidly gnawing in the trunk of the small tree, showing off his impressive teeth as he sheers away pieces of word. It takes him a little while, but before too long he gives the tree a kick and it snaps, falling down. He scuttles to the other end and begins breaking branches off. "I am not going to demand anything of anyone! I let Cordelia help me because, really, it makes her happy. She is naturally disposed to helping people I suppose!"
Largo considers Glooscap's words for a few long moments, letting the others talk a bit more, then finally answers, "You know," he states, "If he wasn't so busy caring about the female, he wouldn't have got caught to begin with." he answers with a counter-argument.
Glooscap hurumphs again. "But then /she/ would be dead, and yet, she isn't," he says simply, and begins to bury some thick pieces of wood into the densely packed wood sticking up, and lays more sticks horizontally across them.
Largo hmmms and thinks about this. "This is perhaps true. However, if she didn't die, someone else will to be my dinner tonight. I find friendship odd, how one can care about a few, but not give a thought about the many. Without these 'friends', I'm able to treat everyone equally. If they come to my pond, they're my food. If they do me a favor, I return a favor. It seems to be a more fair way of living."
Glooscap shrugs. "Maybe you can just think of 'friends' as animals that do you a lot of favors, then, if you must." He builds a wall up around the one side of the dirt mound he has made close to the water, and begins to pack mud into it so that it is all sure to hold together.
Largo swims around now in a slow circle. "That definition could, perhaps, work. As long as they don't take my food. I think we could agree with that." he says. His tone might still be void of emotional attachment, but the answer itself is agreeable enough. Though he starts to show interest in that thing you're making.
Glooscap would be at it for many hours. Cordelia continues to fetch wood for him and Glooscap slaps them in place, setting many vertical posts around the perimeter and then laying sticks horizontally across them, and presses mud between them. He builds many layers of these, and it begins to get dark. He works carefully and quickly. It seems obvious he won't be able to complete it before nightfall, though.
Largo swims to shore, but places a fair distance between himself and the others. He finds a rock to crawl up on and relaxes there, drying off. He doesn't seem to have anything else to do and continues quietly watching Glooscap.
Glooscap keeps a careful vigil on the alligator, noting where he is at all times. After the next bundle Cordelia brings him, he tells her that should be enough for now, and before it gets too dark they both help Satin lay down in the middle of the incomplete lodge. He begins to dig on the side next to the water, inside the lodge, and twenty minutes later he has dug a tunnel from underneath the lodge out into the river -- a tunnel too small for an alligator, for sure. The water fills the tunnel and creates a little pool where he had dug it out inside the lodge. And he works late into the night finishing the walls.
Largo takes a nap, and awakens to watch Glooscap work in and out of the water. He doesn't bother even looking for the hole, knowing the beaver wouldn't have made it big enough for him. Then he spots a dead animal floating down the river, and hops back into the water to get it, having a meal. After he's eaten, he crawls back out onto the rock again. A short time later, he finally speaks again, "I'm Largo." he says in his deep, syrupy voice.
Glooscap pats down some mud into the last bit of wall he had erected. It could use some thickening in the morning, but for now, it will do. He knows, sadly, that this creation will be useless when the water recedes, it will be far too far from the bank to be any use for him. Maybe when that happens it will give some other creature a home. He looks rather tired now, and wearily slips into the water. "Glooscap," he offers. He was glad that the alligator did not try to sneak up to him in the dead night. He had avoided lurking in the water and would probably hear him on land, but beavers do not have terribly good night vision at all. With that, he slips under the surface and swims inside, ready for a deep sleep.
Largo acknowledges with only a "Interesting name.", but is nice about it. As nice as the gator ever really gets. He rests on the rock, staying close to the water in case some land predator might come along.