On the road
13–17 Gingemes, 333
Fate
As the journey continues (with a newly conscious traveler who spends much of her time at the end of the wagon train, being quiet and entirely out of her element), thick gray clouds still hang ever on the horizon, framing the very edges of Saulė's gentle glory. A gentle drizzle occasionally punctuates the travel, misting from light, airy clouds which slide overhead otherwise unremarked, collecting on skin and hair and creating a veil of droplets over Medeinė's forest. But usually during these times once Saulė has crested the peak of her domain the clouds have dispersed, leaving the nights to be clear for Mėnulis's silver shining self, slowly turning to reveal himself to the world below.
In the middle of one quiet, clear, cool night the door to the sleeping cart opens and the whole cart dips with weight.
"Slavina!" hisses Janin, his voice tight with urgency. After a moment, he gives her a gentle shake. "Slavina!"
Aaren and Daina, you may choose to roll to be woken up. One dice, a success means you wake up. No critical fumbles. You may also choose to not roll.
Aaren
Umm, do I have to roll or can I just wake up because...... Aaren?
Slavina
The tension in Janin's voice ripples through Slavina's muscles as she snaps awake. She doesn't move just yet though—only enough to snap her eyes towards him. "What is it?" She whispers, not even trying to keep the concern out of her voice and face.
Fate
I figure that Aaren is used to hearing music and fluctuations in music all the time that she's as likely as anyone else to sleep through things happening.
Daina
Daina blinks a few times as she sits up and peers over at them. Whispering "what's going on" having picked up on tone and urgency in her sleepy state.
Aaren
Okay.
Fate
Janin pitches his voice lower. "I think there's a spirit trying to lure me out into the forest." There's a long, tense pause. "I don't know what to do. Do you think we should leave... ?"
Daina
Daina frowns a little and sniffs at the air. Trying to see if it's actually a person trying to lure Janin.
Fate
(To Daina) It's difficult to distinguish any scents from the forest being in this enclosed space and stewing in everyone else's scent.
Slavina
Slavina sits up, shifting her blanket so it stays wrapped over her shoulders. "What makes you think that?" she asks, not accusatory—simply requesting facts. While waiting for his response she peers out from under the leaf-shutters of the cart's windows, scanning the forest for anything out of place.
Daina
Daina frowns a little and shifts to feline form, slowly easing out of the door and peering into the night for sign of this spirit. Her fur ruffled a little. Her steps light on the grass as she sticks to the shadows.
Fate
(To Daina) It's a quiet night...
Slavina
I'd like to make a wayfinding/search roll but I'll wait until after Janin's report
Fate
"I went to go take a piss and I heard someone singing the melody to 'Jei ne auksinės vasaros'. Unless that so happens to be the spirit's favorite song too..." He falls uneasily silent.
Slavina
Slavina claps a hand over her mouth, and her eyes get wide. "Oh." She folds in on herself a little. "I'm so sorry...... I didn't mean... " She pauses to collect herself enough to continue coherently. "I asked Daina to make a plant sing it for you."
Daina
purrs quietly to herself as she eases a bit towards the forest sniffing the air again. It was quiet ... but was it tooo quiet.
Fate
(To Daina) Smells pretty normal...
Fate
There's another long pause, this time strung with puzzlement. It's snapped by a, "... Really? It's..." He drops the silence after a moment, at a loss.
Slavina
Slavina swallows a little and nods, looking up at him with worried uncertainty. "I thought it might cheer you up......"
Fate
Janin lets out a laugh. It drops through the cart with the weight of relief. The cart shifts some more as Janin sits. Then more laughter follows, full of humor this time, kept at a respectfully low volume. After a bit, he moves to the doorway and calls out, trying to spread his voice without increasing his volume, "Daina! It's okay!"
Slavina
Once Janin starts laughing, Slavina's concern cracks and she starts giggling too, edging into full-on laughs as the tension breaks.
Daina
hears laughing and doesn't smell anything worrisome so she makes her way back to the cart , picking up her pace as she hears the all clear. Shifting back to human shape as she climbs into the cart and looks to the two, "What's so funny?"
Slavina
"The spirit...... It was......" Slavina trails off in laughter. She reigns herself in for a moment, drawing up to a straight stage-posture to get her voice back for a moment. "It's our singing plant. I guess it finally matured into an mischeivious forest spirit." She then cracks up again.
Daina
blinks and then snorts softly "I was a bit unsure about hiding it in the woods dang it" she giggles a little and shakes her head. "Gimme a sec I'll go get it and let it know it shouldn't sing in the middle of the night unless you need it to..." I want to have the plant sense the change in his scent/chemicals and when he wants it to sing it sings?
Aaren
Aaren, awake now because of all the laughing, rolls over in her shelf-bed to look at the scene through blurry eyes.
Fate
You can adjust the plant's behavior, sure!
"Sorry," Janin whispers, after getting his humor enough under control. "I'm sorry, everyone. I'll go finish peeing and go back to bed."
Daina
Daina meets Janin on the way between the wood and the cart to hand over the plant ?
Slavina
Slavina says nothing but hides her (still-giggly) self under the blankets again.
Aaren
"I am totally fine with you waking me up because you are laughing." Aaren sings, to her sleepy song, her voice somewhat muffled by sleep-grog.
Slavina
Mel, I think you wanted to put the plant on the roof of the cart so it could come with us as we travelled? If not nevermind :)
Fate
"Okay. I'm glad." Janin's humor tightens his voice again. He swallows it under. Without thinking, he adds another, "Sorry." Then he exits the cart, and receives the plant with a "Thanks."
The rest of the evening goes by without incident.
The next day also goes by without much to comment on, save Janin relaying the story to the rest of the group and sharing a laugh or two.
The day after that, just as everyone's working their way up to packing up camp, Aurika sits in taut silence, breakfast resting largely untouched in her lap, listening to Aaren's voices and running her forefinger thoughtfully over her nub of a regrowing pinky. Her music is still a confused mixture of emotions, uneasiness leading her piece for the time being, accompanied by a warring desire and strong hesitation to speak.
Finally, after looking up to regard Aaren directly, she does. „Th-thank you." Her gaze drops and she curls the fingers of her injured hand almost protectively.
Aaren
"You are very welcome." Aaren sings, scincerely. She waits for a moment, to see if Aurika has anything else to say.
While she waits, her glance (today deep green, with brown and white veins running through the color, in imitation of the forest around them), darts first to Aurika's unfinished breakfast, and then to Slavina—to see if she's eaten.
Fate
After another extended moment's contemplation, Aurika takes in a breath to speak again. „I'm sorry I didn't thank you sooner, I didn't... I..." She trails off a moment, then firms herself once more. „Is there some way I can repay you?"
Slavina
Slavina sits on the porch of their cart, legs crossed pretzel style and coat draped loosely over her shoulders against the morning fog. is working on her breakfast of justafruit (so named because Daina made it so you can have "just a fruit"). In between each bite of fruit she strums out a song on a borrowed Kankeles across her lap, singing occasionally.
Daina
Daina sits nearby and soaks up the sun. Smiling a little and now and again adding a few notes to Slavina's song. Ears wolven and perked up a little wuff wuff feel to her today.
Aaren
Aaren tighens her lips for a moment, thinking. „No problem, no problem." She sings to the tune of Aurika's breakfast. „But it would be good for you to eat." Aaren sings wordlessly for a moment, and then calls out,
"Slavina, Daina, could one of you translate for me?"
Slavina
Slavina gently places the instrument to one side and approaches, one hand holding her coat to keep it from slipping. "Yes." She says to Aaren. To Aurika, she says in Kalba, "Pardon my intrusion. I'll translate for you since Aaren is still learning Kalba."
Fate
Aurika nods, gathers up another spoonful of food, then nods again, this time to Slavina.
Daina
smiles a little and takes up the tune that Slavina leaves off, being quietish but present.
Aaren
Aaren nods her thanks, one of her tunes transiting to thanks for a moment.
"You're letting me regenerate your body. As I said, I consider that my payment. However, your body needs energy to grow back body parts, and since you letting me grow back your body parts is how you are repaying me, I would apprecaite it if you had some energy to spare." Aaren smiles. "So thank you for eating your breakfast."
Then she listens very carefully as Slavina translates.
Slavina
Slavina says to Aurika, "Aaren's purpose in life is to learn the arts of spiritual and physical healing. The knowledge she gains from treating your wounds is payment enough to satisfy her—that, and that you continue to care for yourself to the extent you're able." She pauses to take a seat to one side of the two young women. "You need more energy than usual for the healing, so she wants you to eat as much and often as you can to strengthen yourself."
Fate
Aurika nods again, this time slower and more thoughtful. Her eyes turn to her food and she stares at it for a moment before taking another bite. Then, after swallowing, she asks, „Are you... are you going back to Upesdārgakmens?" She glances between Slavina and Aaren as she awaits the answer.
Slavina
Slavina takes this one without bothering to route it through Aaren. "We aren't. But the Caravan," she nods towards the larger group, "may be. Would you like me to ask the caravan-master his travel plans?"
Fate
A response swells through her, quick, but she stops it dead with a held breath. „Yes please, if it's not too much trouble," she says instead.
Daina
Daina pipes up. "maybe Aurika should have a just a fruit?" she questions "more energy in a smaller package?"
Slavina
She nods. "I'll have my cousin find out." Slavina turns her upper half toward the chauncy-wagon and calls out to Daina in English, "Dainochka, could you ask the Caravan-master if he's going back to the town we just came from?" Then she looks to Aaren for the next translateable thing.
Aaren
Taking her cue from Daina's suggestion, Aaren asks, "Would it be easier to eat less? We have Daina's one-meal-fruits... Also, should I repeat the information I gave you yesterday now that Slavina is here to translate?"
Slavina
Slavina translates this almost exactly as spoken, with a small explanation of what the fruit is and how it tastes.
Daina
Daina gives a faint salute and hops down from her perch and heads off down the way singing a cheery tune as she searches for the Caravan Master
Fate
Aurika waves a hand at the first question. „It's alright. I'll... I'll eat whatever you say." Then to the second, she hesitates before saying, „If you would please..."
The caravan master is easy to find, idly packing things up as the rest of his crew eats their breakfast and drinks their campfire tea and instant coffee.
Slavina
Slavina glances at Aaren to see if she got all that.
Daina
Daina smiles a little and gives a wave to announce her arrival and intent to talk. "Sir, I was wondering if you're goin' on back to the town we're coming from, after this run I mean?" she steps up to help with the packing if it's not personal stuff. "Our injured guest is going to want to go home eventually I think" she clarifies.
Aaren
Aaren is already responding. She sits down, singing her own calm song, and re-explains. About how Aurika is very injured and how that will probably look for her: aches when her body should be fine, fear at times she won't expect, mistrust and anxiety, difficulty deciding things. (like what to eat for breakfast)... and on and on and on.
She'll pause, as Slavina translates, and then explain her treatment suggestions, including ways Aaren can help, just like she did for Kelly.
Fate
The fellow sighs and rubs his temples with a hand before running it through his hair. After a moment's consideration, he says simply, „She should find another way home."
Aurika listens intently and quietly, eating as she does.
Daina
Daina grimaces a little bit. "really? you're not going back any time soon? I just... you know she's been through a lot and... I trust you and your folks to keep her safe on the way back..." She clears her throat a bit. "Is there anything I can offer you to see her home safely, even if it's at the end of your run?... to be honest I think a bit of time away from home might be good to let things calm down..."
Aaren
When Slavina is done with all of that Aaren will re-explain (since it was at the begining) that her goal is to educated Aurika so she has the knowledge and tools to manage her own envorinment—since her whole life and personhood is going to be shape around this event. (As lives and personhoods are shaped around every event.)
To that end, Aaren will ask, "Would you like me to teach you your calm song?"
Fate
He firms, takes a breath, and regards Daina directly. „I'm headed to Išganymas after our next stop, to tally up everything for the year and ensure all my employees get paid and the profits go into the bank. Then, I'm going to consider shutting down my operations in Upesdārgakmens, depending on how bad it is down there. If I decide to continue trading there, it will be next year at the earliest and I will absolutely not send my next caravan with a key player in the company war."
Slavina
Slavina explains to Aurika, and for the last question says, "One of the songs Aaren can hear will cause you to feel calm and peaceful. She can teach you how to sing it yourself, although over time the effect will fade as your spiritual song grows farther apart from the one you sing. Would you like to learn it?"
Fate
„S-sure," says Aurika, around a mouthful of breakfast. „I'm not a very good singer, though."
Daina
Daina nods her understanding of his plan and reasoning. "Of course, that's understandable" She nods her head again. "I'll leave you to your work and get back with my group, thanks" she smiles as she turns and heads toward the cart again. Humming a little tune still and thinking over how they might get her home. Maybe a trip on Frankie but sending her alone aside from shadow wolf sounds ... not good. She sighs softly and rejoins the group this time near the others. Waiting for the explanations to be done in regard to healing.
Aaren
Aaren is about to sing, but then she notices that Daina's song is waiting for them, so she turns to let Daina speak instead.
Daina
Daina gives a slightly apologetic smile and explains that the caravan won't be going back. Worry in her song that she tries to hide but Aaren and Slavina probably get. "We'll just have to find you another way or maybe even a better place to settle eh?" she tests the idea rather guilessly
Fate
Aurika stares at Daina, the blood draining from her face and her heartbeat increasing. But she takes a breath and says, „It's okay, I can find another way back myself."
Slavina
Mel, is Daina speaking English or Kalba?
Daina
oh uh probably Kalba and then a quick run down to Aaren in case she missed parts?
Slavina
'kay
Slavina places a hand over Aurika's uninjured hand and gives her a reassuring squeeze. "We can help you find a caravan to travel home, and pay for passage. If you want to go back."
Fate
Her heartbeat keeps up its fast pace. „Oh no no no no, I couldn't... I have no way of paying you back."
Daina
Daina hums "well you can pay us back by being kind to someone else when they need a hand, how is ithat?" she looks to the others for confirmation.
Aaren
Aaren smiles. "Well, if Aurika is comfortable being obligated that way, I like the tune."
Slavina
Slavina waves a hand as if brushing away Aurika's concern and shakes her head. "My travel companions are wealthy beyond measure—buying a caravan outright wouldn't be enough to empty their purse. The cost of passage is nothing to them, so you'll have nothing to repay."
Aaren
Aaren catches enough of that understand. She supresses a chuckle and asks, in English, "Is that true? Could we actually buy a caravan?"
Fate
Aurika processes this for a moment. When it gets to be too long, she says, her gaze back on her food, „Thank you again."
Slavina
Slavina shrugs in response to Aaren. "Beats me. Do you really want one?"
Daina
Daina ponders a moment "Oh... maybe I could... make you a small cart like ours to get you home, and then you can use it to get around after?!" she looks to the others to see if her suggestion has merit.
Slavina
"That'd be dangerous, Daina. She could get lost, be attacked by bandits or wild animals or angry spirits......" Slavina trails off since the dangers of travel are both well-known and numerous.
Daina
Daina hmms "not if her cart is sentient and can protect her... though I guess spirits would still be a problem ..." she sighs and goes back to thinking of how to help.
Aaren
Aaren sings a comforting song for Daina and leans over to give her a half-hug. "We'll put her on a caravan before we leave, and, failing that, we'll give her a bunch of money and she can get one herself in Išganymas."
Daina
Daina nods her head a little and smiles as she leans into the hug a bit.
Slavina
Slavina stays sitting by Aurika as the information-exchange dies down, offering comforting conversation, silence, or quiet music according to her companion's desires.
Fate
Days and nights continue, although a new routine begins: after camp is set up, Kelly and Aurika go for a walk, sometimes with one of the translators in tow, but not always. A creek is easily forded and a steep, hilly path navigated.
And then, finally, the group reaches a threshold. As they approach, the caravan master directs the entire caravan (including tagalongs) around a large rocky outcropping. Everyone circles one... two... three... four... five...
... and then as they continue straight, the path slopes suddenly down... down... down... into a broad, mostly bushy and new-growth-filled, canyon that stretches all around, trees lining the upper edges like tufts of fur.
The sky grows dark and gray, very quickly, and as they reach the bottom, rain pours from the sky and lightning flashes somewhere in the distance behind them, on the horizon, beneath a dark silhouette sliding through the clouds and thunder rumbles through the ears. This is met with groans around the caravan and a curse from the caravan master. His voice rings thin through the rain: it's time to move double-time.
Over the course of a mere few hours, the soil at the bottom of the canyon turns to watery mud, cartwheels sinking and sliding and getting caught on what seems to be an hourly basis. The nights are just as miserable and sodden for many of the travelers. By the end of just two days, mud has found its way to the nooks and crannies of the whats and the whos which do not have the ability or opportunity to dispel it.
In the midst of this, inside the cart (the moment the opportunity arises), Frankie swells from beneath Daina then lurches, a folded piece of paper sliding from his open mouth onto her lap.
Daina
blehs at the feels of the caravan and wiggles "rain is good for plants though" she tries for a positive spin before Frankie arrives with mail. "Oh hey buddy, how ya doing today?" she questions as she examines the letter.
Aaren
Aaren is grinding plants to make a tonic for the cold that's going around the caravan. Although she can mostly contain it with song, it doesn't seem worth the effort (given that the'll just catch it again at some point) and she certainly can't fix everyone's symptoms at once.
The warm firelight inside the cart reflects off the smooth grey stone of the mortar and pestel.
Slavina
Slavina might not like the mud and wet, but neither really phases her. In fact the solid routine of traveling seems to be doing her good, as she's started to actually do more than the bare minimum necessary things during the day and (usually) sleep at night. Today, the thing she's doing is playing cards with Esta, Aaren, and Kelly, a Bakersfieldian game she calls "secrets and challenges."
Fate
Frankie simply sits, as patient and stoic as ever.
Kelly lifts his chin from the card game as Daina unfolds the paper. "Letter from home?" he asks. (Esta takes this opportunity to sneak a look at his cards.)
Daina
Daina smiles a little at the stoicism of the shadow wolf and sighs as she unfolds the letter to examine it's contents.
Fate
Daina,
Maria and I have been taking good care of your Swan Maiden House. The plants are doing good and everything is clean and put away. The only thing is Dragomir spent the whole week drinking up your stores because no one else wanted to give him any alcohol and Maria and I were too scared to stop him. So... I'm really sorry for that but Maria says he isn't sorry because he figures that it's better that the alcohol is gone than the alcohol is gone AND he's also hurt.
Do you want Great Gramma Loretta to brew up some more? She says she'll be happy to do it but she'll be just as happy to not do it because how no one's going to be there to drink it until you come back and reopen the place. Except Dragomir, probably, but Mom says that she's going to do something about him.
Also Maria brought up that you might not be coming back because maybe you'll die or plant the seed and go home. Or maybe you'll just go home because if Andre can do it you probably can too. We've been talking all week about what to do about your Swan Maiden House if that happens. Dad suggested that we ask you what you want.
So what do you want us to do with your Swan Maiden House if you end up not coming back? We don't mind taking care of it for you for a while but neither of us want to do it for the rest of our lives. If that hurt your feelings I'm really really really sorry. (Note from Ash: That is the abridged version of what Quinn said, with much fewer "reallys".) I know it's super important to you. And we're all hoping real hard that you'll come back but Dora didn't so we can't help but think about it.
Maria says hi and he hopes you're seeing lots of cool things on this trip. We also said hi to Aaren and Kelly in the next letter Dad's going to finish up and send soon but tell them we said hi anyway. We love you all lots! And hi to Slavina too! And Esta and Janin!
Sincerely,
Quinn
P.S. from Ash: Quinn has urged me to tell you that the next letter has happier subject matter than this one. We love you, Daina, and look forward to hearing from you.
Daina
Daina hmms softly and looks thoughtful and a bit disappointed but not hurt really. Passing the letter around she smiles as she goes to pen her response. "Yeah here" handing it over to Kelly.
Slavina
Slavina raises an eyebrow at Esta in fake-admonition, then spreads a full run of salmon-cards on the board. She glances around the game circle with a sly smile to look for challengers before reclaiming her secrets.
Slavina takes the letter from Kelly and reads it aloud for the group. When she gets to the part about Dragomir's behaviour her voice doesn't skip a beat but she gives an exaggerated eye roll of absolute, utter exasperation at the baby's behaviour.
Aaren
Aaren sighs in exasperation at the bit about Dragomir. "Hurry up and mom him, Mom." She mutters.
Her cards are laying out before her, upsidedown. Aaren can hear them fine—this deck has been around for two or three weeks, and that's more then enough time for her to have memorized them, even without trying.
Aaren hums along to the letter, pounding her herbs and trying to figure out what she would have done in response to Slavina's play if she couldn't hear everyone's cards.
Eventually, she folds, with one secret and one challenge in the pot.
Fate
Esta sighs and folds also, and Kelly soon follows, a good half of his earnings lost.
Slavina
Having finished the letter she hands it back to Daina. "You think Jerri will be able to teach him a thing or two? He could use it. Is he still handsy?" She realizes a second too late that this might be interpreted as a secret-request, and flicks herself on the forehead while sticking her tongue out in recognition of the mistake.
Aaren
"Yes." Aaren sings, with a smile. Not at his behavior, but at getting out of her secret so easily. "Although less so by the time we left." Then she looks to Daina, nodding.
Daina
Daina looks up from her writing "uhmmn not sure if he's still handsy but I'm guessing not since Jerri would have gone totally Momtasticnado on him if he was..."
Fate
Janin takes a breath but doesn't rise, instead only draping an arm over his face. "Dragomir." His voice is thick with sleep lingering from his doze. "That's the baby man, right?"
Kelly hums an affirmative.
Slavina
Slavina rolls her eyes again and sighs. "Yeah. The baby bogatyr. Ugh, I didn't like him. Less grabby is better, but it's not saying much. Oy, he used to grab me a lot." She runs a hand over her chin while deciding who to give the challenge too. She points to Esta. "I challenge you to sing The Lillies Round The Cabbage Patch...... with a potato in your mouth!"
Fate
"What?" This does get Janin sitting up. "The Tsarbog... ?" He doesn't vocalize the rest of his question of the Tsarbog's evident non-interference, lest it come off like an accusation.
Esta groans good-naturedly, a grin spreading over her face. 'Alright, alright, someone hand me a potato.' She holds her hand out, swinging it around the room and looking around, just in case there was a potato in reach.
Kelly takes a few long seconds to translate, but once he does his laughter breaks out (just a couple seconds after the main swell of laughter had passed).
Aaren
Aaren puts down her pounding and gets up to fetch Esta an approximently mouth sized potoato. But she's listening for Slavina's answer.
Daina
Daina pauses "Oh do you guys want me to say anything for you in the response?" stylus over the page. She'd add that before giving the letter to Frankie to send.
Slavina
Slavina shrugs. "He's a baby. What do you expect?"
Aaren
"He's got a name." Aaren sings, handing Esta the potoato. "Maybe some accountability?" Her tone is dry, but her song is disaproving, and a little uncomfortable.
To Daina she sings, "Lots of hugs and kisses from me."
Fate
Esta takes the potato, eyes it critically, and then maneuvers it a bit for optimum mouth-stuffage. Before she puts it in her mouth, though, she looks around to everyone, asking, 'Ready? I don't plan on a repeat performance.'
Slavina
Slavina holds up her hands and bows her head in anticipation of this stellar performance.
Fate
After receiving the go-ahead from all parties involved, Esta stuffs the potato in her mouth, then takes in a deep breath to begin the very loud, very fast-paced song. This in itself emits a very odd whistling sound (as the air is drawn thin between her mouth and the potato) which causes her to stop, a completely astonished look on her face.
Both Kelly and Janin bust up laughing.
Aaren
Aaren laughs as well, and begins singing a counter-point to the whistling.
Slavina
Slavina presses a hand over her mouth so her laughing won't completely overpower the melodious strains of potato.
Fate
Esta has to remove the potato while she gets her own laughter out, but quickly composes herself and starts anew, this time taking a breath before re-stuffing the tuber.
Slavina
Once Esta is well and truly finished and everyone's stopped busting their guts, she says to Aaren, "I guess so. But the Tsarbog had enough of a job to keep him from doing anything really bad. If he was just being irritating..." she shrugs one shoulder in a it-is-what-it-is kind of gesture.
Aaren
Aaren sings acceptance. It's Slavina's experince, after all. And Aaren's never had to managed Dragomir, at least not for longer then a week.
Daina
Daina giggles a little as she jots down the hugs and kisses and draws some stick figures hugging.
Slavina
Slavina pauses for a moment, and then keeps going—as if to defend the decisions of the Tsarbog and her grandfather—"He wasn't, you know, groping people or anything. I think Bozena would have put a stop to that. He'd just grab things because they were shiny. Or pull you around with him like babies do with a doll. It was only a problem because he was so big."
Aaren
Aaren snorts. "Yeah." Then she sings the Song of the Gaint—one Aya had composed for a Quin and Logan music adventure—where the gaint accidently drops a pebble and crushes the family of a local wind. "Fair enough."
"I hope he figures out how big he is soon." Aaren adds.
Fate
The rain doesn't let up over the next few days, (although luckily the lightning crosses over somewhere well away from the travelers) and the ground proceeds to get more and more pliant, sucking at boots and paws and hooves almost hungrily. The pace slows down from double down to about half, but at the end of the day everyone's about four times as tired as they would normally be. From this point on, the journey is mostly quiet and sullen.
16 Gingemes
It's a miserable morning of trudging, leading to a miserable mid-morning of trudging.
Then there's a animal shriek of pain, followed by a chorus of alarmed cries. A cart tips and both wheels on the tipping side emit a loud SNAP! The commotion that follows is deafening as the cart's contents are dumped onto the ground.
Then the caravan master's voice booms out over the travelers, commanding everyone to stop. Luckily, the other carts manage not to collide with each other in the chaos, though some other stray cargo dumps out onto the ground.
Slavina
Slavina presses against the side of the cart to avoid a falling crate and slides back a few feet in the mud. She looks around for the source of the noise, then slogs and slides her way over to the caravan master for directions on how to be of assistance.
May I make a notice/mystery roll to take stock of surroundings?
Fate
Sure!
Slavina
that's a 2. Slavina must be tired today :P
Fate
As Slavina reaches the source of the commotion, she'll find one of the donkeys lying on its side, groaning in pain.
After swallowing a couple curses, the caravan master says, „Fatina's ankle is broken, and so are two of the wheels on this cart." He motions to the mess not far from him. „May as well set up camp here, miss—it's looking we're gonna be stuck here for a few days at least. If you want to help..." He quickly directs her, then just as quickly calls her back. „Can your... cousin heal animals too?"
Aaren
Aaren is sitting on the front of their cart, hanging with Chauncy and singing with Aurika. She sighs when she hears loud noise from down the train—Yet another accident that could be prevented if only she could be everywhere.
Daina
Daina loaps over and winces a little. Without asking she sets the ground to growing vines that lift the cart to rights and make it easier to get to the injured animal. "here that should be a good start." she murmurs as she walks over to Fatina and tries to reassure her.
Slavina
Slavina nods. "She can. My other cousin can probably make new wheels for you overnight." She looks over at Daina and says, "You can do that, right Daina?"
Fate
Almost as one, the group of caravaners working around the cart jump back as the vines grow and weave and prop the cart aright. This draws the sharp, wide-eyed gaze of the caravan master—as well as drain the blood from his face. To his credit, though, he doesn't flinch, instead watching the whole proceedings. Finally, he answers Slavina with an „Oh."
The donkey, meanwhile, huffs heavily, some whites showing in her eyes.
(To Daina) It hurts it hurts it hurts it HURTS
Daina
Daina looks up "Uh I guess if you want to rest now I can do it over night..." she suggests as she keeps her distance from the injured animal but sings soothingly to it in well ... Donkey. It probably doesn't sound very soothing to the humans but they weren't the ones injured right now so...
Aaren
Aaren gets up the moment she hears injured donkey.
"Cart turned over, injured doney." She sings to Aurika. THen she heads for the broken caravan, letting Aurika decide if she wants to follow or not.
She's singing a still song and a soothing song for the donkey before she's close, and after a moment's close inspection she starts lowering the swelling and healing the bone. "She'll need to be off it for three days." She pronounces, after a moment.
Aaren then sings the donkey into a restful (or at least deep) sleep.
Fate
This evokes another „Oh," from the caravan master.
Aaren
Aaren smiles at him. "I can pull it for you, if you'd like." Then she laughs. "Not for three days though."
Fate
The caravan master shakes the cobwebs from his head. „No, it's alright. Thank you. Three days is... a damn sight better than I could hope for." He turns towards his workers and calls out orders to them to get everything in order and set up camp.