A Chance To Scavenge [aw]

[Iaro]

The lithe figure of a gryphon flashed across a wide stretch of rubble between tumbled walls. For a second she seemed like a headless ghost, her pale body flashing in the sunlight and the blackness of her head disappearing into the dark surroundings. She paused for a moment on a stone block, one fine forefoot hovering in the air. Her eyes, near invisible in the pitch of her feathers, scanned the ground below her. Perhaps this higher vantage would let her see some bauble or forgotten tool that had been left behind and had slipped between the old stone cracks ...

Perhaps not.

With a faint huff she whipped around and leapt off the block. Her laughably diminutive wings flailed in the air as if, for one brief moment, they were capable of holding her weight. And then she was away again, crossing the rocks, pawing at vines and peering into nooks as she searched with apparent tirelessness.

This post has been edited by Iaro on Nov 24 2008, 08:09 AM

[Sekt]

What exactly was this place?

Sekt's pale amber eyes slid across the broken, decrepit ruins like beacons as he slowly wondered through their dark expance, exploring without any real aim in mind. He had heard about the place in passing just a few days ago, and his curiosity had been piqued - ruins, not of nature (although the charred, burned forest beyond the walls was indeed a ruin) but of something else, something unnatural, standing out from the wood as constructed. The question he couldn't fathom was why...why would any Griffin build something such as this? It seemed an unnatural cave, or at least, he could imagine it being were it any longer whole, but if indeed it was built as a home, then why go to all the trouble when hewing a normal cave out of the nearby rock would be much more economical?

The description of the place had made no sence when he overheard it, and now, coming to see the ruins for himself, they made even less. He simply did not see the point, the purpose in it all...and yet somebody obviously had, as the ruins stretched for some distance across the valley floor. Why? What had been so important here to make it's inhabitants work so hard? And perhaps more pertinent right now, what caused them to suddenly leave and allow the place to fall into such a state of disrepair?

Impossible questions, of course - he would almost certainly never find the answer. But the questions intrigued him, and distracted him for a time from his loneliness and emotional pain, a benefit if ever there was one. Besides, even though he did not understand the purpose of the ruins, he did like their atmosphere...the bleak desolation of these empty, broken walls was somehow evocative, mirroring what he oft-times felt in his own soul, and it was with some surprise that he descovered shortly after landing that he actually felt rather comfortable and contented here, an emotion he very rarely felt even back home on the marshes, let alone anywhere else. The loneliness of it all somehow struck a chord with him, and the fact that nobody else was around to disturb his musings was an added bonus too.

So lost in his whirling thoughts, and his eyes roaming the dark stonework around him, he completely failed to notice the light shape flitting about between broken walls a little way ahead, darting to and fro across his path in swift, silent motion...

This post has been edited by Sekt on Nov 26 2008, 03:03 PM

[Iaro]

Iaro danced across a bridge of rock and hung on a vine, leaning against the wall it grew on with her front toes hooked through it. Her dark head bent as she peered into a nook, making a soft little sound in the back of her throat. She tilted her head first left, then right, then with a thump and a clatter of pebbles dropped abruptly to the ground and stared straight at Sekt.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed, in more an inarticulate expression of surprise than anything. The feathers at the back of her neck stood up like a brush.

[Sekt]

The thin Griff lept like a startled hatchling as Iaro suddenly dropped into his distracted, distant world, jumping backwards so fast he caught his leg on the low remnants of a wall and went sprawling on his side against the rough stones that made up the floor of the ruins. His emaciated form lacked the shock absorbing layer of fat that graced the bodies of most individuals and the landing was hard, grazing his left rear leg and flank severely enough to draw blood and cutting his left shoulder quite deeply on a particularly sharp shard of rock, however thanks to his difficult and torturous history with other Prides he was no stranger to pain. Swiftly scrambling to his paws again with barely a wince, he ignored the discomfort shooting through his body as he slowly began to back away from the stranger, his piercing yellow eyes watching her with an intense and intricate stare for any sign of movement that might denote an attack. He wasn't certain quite wether the landing before him had been a failed attempt at some kind of agression anyway, and his muscles were tense, his claws bared ready to defend himself if the need arose.

There was a moment's pause as the duo looked each other up and down, and eventually it was Sekt that broke the silence. "Who are you?" he muttered, his voice carrying a surprising undertone of strength and dignity despite it's quiet, calm resonance and his wasted appearance. "What is your purpose leaping out at me like that?"

[Iaro]

The shock of seeing the other was quickly followed by the surprise of seeing him leap backward and crash hard on the stones. Iaro was no softheart but she winced at that. It looked like it hurt. As he sprang back up she shuffled a little to steady herself on the stones, responding to his aggressive suspicion with a hard edged stare and some suspicion of her own. She stood confidently enough, though. She was a healthy looking gryphon, and though she had the slender build of a born runner her filled out curves were still a dramatic contrast to the emaciated creature before her.

"Relax. I didn't see you." She sounded reasoned, but a little annoyed and dismissive all the same.

This post has been edited by Iaro on Dec 12 2008, 09:10 AM

[Sekt]

The responce did very little to put Sekt at ease - the fact that she did not answer his first query, seeming to skirt expertly around the matter and leave it unspoken, was not lost on his sharp mind, and it immediately put him on edge. Nobody would refuse to give out their name unless they were not genuine in their expression, perhaps with something to hide. And her own bristling stance did not gel with her apparent dismissive tone either.

"Then we have that in common." he responded, choosing his words carefully so as to be polite (in case it actually turned out she WAS genuine after all) yet guarded. "I don't recognise your coloration...which Pride are you from?" The thought only occured to him after he had spoken that species-distinct Prides were a thing of the old Pridelands before the exodus, and now Griffs of all feather flocked together under common wings, like his own Marshlands Pride, which had accepted many members from other communities when they had settled. Still, what was said was said, and the question itself was still valid. He regarded the female carefully as he awaited her responce...