LtJG Hiro Jones - Dragonflies and Crocodiles and Grazu, Oh My!

[notyourfrog]

((Mass Transport Hub 1247 - Draivon District, Cait))

The old Caitian's laughter still reverberated through the worn room. Hiro felt it gave the cold features life and warmth that belied their condition.

Lorana: ::looks around:: I can't remember it being so … worn. ::Smiles mischievously:: I hope you don't mind a bit of a trek? 

Jones: I'm not afraid of a bit of a walk. Let's go!

Lorana: Great!

Hiro's first sight of the Caitian landscape seared itself into his memory. The transport hub had an elevated position, which gave a farther-reaching vista. Directly below them down a short path lay a middling town he didn't know the name of, but which featured structures of reddish-gray stucco-like material with flecks of green here and there. He wasn't sure from this distance whether the green was some manner of flora or stylistic embellishment. Either way, the contrast it made to the maroon-rust color transformed the predominant gray from austere to almost living.

Beyond the village, the land dropped precipitously into a gorge or canyon with a twisting, shining figure of water beyond that. He imagined the river, eons ago, had carved out the canyon, then been rerouted upstream to the new course. Rivers, being unfazed by such things, had continued its work at creating a parallel canyon to the first. Already the serpentine banks were set into the surface. He imagined ancient Caitians establishing the prototype of this village on the banks of the old river owing to the proximity to fresh water. He was amazed at how - no matter what other differences various races, species, and peoples had, there were always some shared needs. Water, food, shelter, community. Those were constant.

The abundance of trees in the area made much of the finer details of the land difficult to discern, and he longed to explore, to see with his own eyes the ways the people here had encountered, adapted to, and thrived in harmony with these surroundings. For thriving they certainly were. He could hear the faint bustle of shops and markets in the town.

Grinning broadly, he turned to Luxa, trying to find words to express his excitement. As he looked though, he could tell she was nearly as excited as he was to be here.

Lorana: ::inhales the air:: This is Ferasa. 

Jones: It's ... incredible.

The words felt weak, limp. "Incredible" was a word one used to politely describe Auntie Ling's dumplings. (To be fair, they were good, especially when her rheumatism - a condition for which he had repeatedly offered to treat her - was factored in.) "Incredible" was not enough for this place though. This was ... surreal in it's wild beauty.

Even as his mind raced between dumplings and semantics, a flock of huge creatures took wing, emerging from the trees in a pandemonium of color and sound. Luxa pointed to the bird-things, already playing the expert tour guide.

Lorana: They are the grazu ::paused to think:: Mystic birds would be the loose translation. They are protected. Caitians no longer follow religion or superstition, but it is said to hunt such beauty would be to offend nature itself :: shrugs her shoulders:: maybe that's spiritual. All I know is I can't argue with it. 

He could have stayed in this spot and been happy. There was so much even from this vantage point he'd never seen before, but his own mortality giggled as it nudged him forward. Life was too short, and there was far too much to be seen to linger in one place for too long.

Jones: Grazu ... ::slightly dazed:: I want to see everything.

Lorana: I can't wait to show you as much as I can. 

They walked between rows of the houses he'd seen from the hill. Up close, it turned out the green spots were bits of glass or possibly huge gems of some sort. They were imbedded into the walls of the structures the way ancient shipwrights had imbedded deck prisms into ancient sailing ships. He imagined the green-tinted, natural light that must flood these houses, but didn't have time to linger as they turned off the main roadway onto a footpath leading into the jungle proper.

Lorana: It's important that you don't stray from the footpath. There are scents that will prevent creatures coming from the jungle, if you go off the path, the scents might not protect you ::retracts claws:: Even these can't help you with some of the things out there. 

Jones: ::eyeing her claws:: Should I be armed?

Lorana: You did say you wanted an adventure? I promise, what's on the other side is worth it. 

Jones: I trust you. Let's go.

On they went. It was a good thing Luxa had warned him about leaving the path, or he would almost immediately have gotten himself into a less-than ideal situation. Two minutes into their hike, he'd seen an dragonfly-like creature measuring at least twenty centimeters from anterior to posterior. He had turned to watch its flight across their path, and was just about to take a step into the tree line to observe it further when something BIG and scaly lunged from the shadows, making the dragonfly thing vanish in a lightning fast snap of clearly lethal jaws. Slightly paler, Hiro stepped to as close to the center of the path as he could estimate.

Jones: On the path. Right. Do I want to know what that thing was?

Lorana: Response

Jones: Well, whatever you call it, I'm happy it's not calling me "lunch."

Lorana: Response

A short while (and a fair bit of sweat) later, the duo slowed their pace. Hiro presumed they were coming to what Luxa had been so excited to show him. When he saw it, his feet froze and his mouth fell open.

Lorana: Response

TAG/TBC

Lieutenant JG Hiro Jones, MD PhD

USS Artemis-A, Counselor
E239510KD0
"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one." - Marcus Aurelius