• Closed • [Bounty] A little mouse with clogs on.

[Vega]

10th Vhalar 717

"Come on, Arlo, it'll be a laugh." Vega seemed quite excited at the prospect. "Look, I've even done it all sensible, like. As if I was one of those clever types who studies at university-thing" She had carried a bag back from her trip into town and had hauled the contents to where he was sitting. "There's a library. So I went there an' got told off for talkin' too loud. But the librarian, Rose her name is, she's louder than me. I told her so, too. Needs to sort herself out she does. Anyhow, Rose irritated me an' I might have muttered a little bit in Rakahi," just a little. So she was saying and nothing would get her to say different. "Then, this biqaj bloke who works there, Rafe, well he 'elped me. I don't think he likes Rose much, either. I mean, Arlo, really, the woman is just obnoxious." Vega seemed both serious and outraged.

"Anyhow, Rafe showed me some books on it, this Scalvbeast. An' they let me borrow them, too. I mean, I've got to give them back, but that's ok." Vega pulled four books out of her bag. "I mean, you know. Anyhow, Rafe marked the pages for me, with the bits about the Scalvbeast. He was really old an' had no hair at all. I've never seen a biqaj like that. But, that's not important, look," Vega showed him the books, the different legends.

"So, apparently, accordin' to tradition' an' stuff. This Scalvbeast used to protect the island, way back before yer grandad were a babe," Vega grinned at him, although she looked tired. She felt it, too but she wans't going to let a little thing like that get in her way. "But somethin' 'appened, way back before that, an' the beast turned bad. So now, they've 'ad some attacks on livestock an' stuff, so it says in the notice board outside the guard house. An' they're lookin' for folks to go find it." Vega shrugged and handed him the piece of parchment with the information about the bounty. "And when we find it we can get paid money an' I can buy myself a dress. An' maybe a new sword or some armour. Whatcha think?" Her eyes gleamed with anticipation.

[Arlo Creede]

"You went to a library?" Arlo quipped curiously when Vega arrived back from town with a sackful of...whatever it was, and told him what she'd been doing. He'd put the time to good use while she was gone, and was seated on a log with a large bowl balanced between his knees. In it was a loose mixture cooked, rough minced venison, dried berries and other fruit, and crushed oats. He was busy mixing the stuff then forming small portions of it into manageable bites, wrapping them tight in butcher's paper and then dropping them into a small sack. Food for the trail, he'd told her, when it wasn't convenient or possible to cook anything.

He grinned, thinking about the library. "You in a library. I'd like to have seen that. It might be like spotting a snowman in the desert lands." Then he nodded and sagely added, "I've crossed paths with Rose before. I don't think she likes me very much." The woman had scolded him after he'd slipped up and conversed out loud with Lyova. In fairness, the woman probably thought he was touched, talking to himself that way. "Let's see then," he said, wiping off his hands with a rag and taking one of the books. Scalvbeast, he thought while flipping the pages straight to the marked sections. "You think they called it a beast before it went bad? Or only after?" he asked her.

"I wonder if there's just the one," Arlo added as he searched for any mention of numbers, sightings and so on. "If so, and it's that old...where did it come from in the first place? Maybe it's not a scalvbeast at all." He grinned and bumped Vega's shoulder. "Maybe it's a dragon. It says here, that what people are claiming they've seen, isn't consistently reliable. As if each is describing something a little different than the last one. I wonder if it's just them that have seen it, or if maybe it's some sort of creature that can change its shape? Got to be big though if it's attacking large animals like cows or horses."

Of course the more he read, the more questions arose in his mind, and all the more curious he became. He handed the books back, nodded his head and started putting his project away. "Sounds like just the job for us. I didn't see anything in there about the best time of trial to look. Did you come across anything?" he asked. Was it nighttime, he meant, when the beast was most likely to come out and hunt, maybe by moonlight. Or was it less careful, more confident and bold enough that it wasn't bothered by the possibility of being seen. Besides, a hunter by night or one by suns'light, that might tell them something about the sort of creature it was.

[Vega]

He thought it was funny that she went to a library? Vega glowered at him and didn't say anything, choosing to not respond. She thought she'd done well until he referred to it as like a snowman in a desert. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, chuckles." Briefly, she considered that she could beat him to death with one of the books. "Jus' before I melted, my mind an' intellect turnin' to mush among all you clever types, the nice man took pity on me like the idiot I obviously am." Was she angry, she wondered? Yes, but not at him. She hadn't liked the arrogant way that Rose had spoken to her and even the biqaj guy had been much cleverer than her. With a crooked grin, she shrugged a little defensively and admitted how she was feeling. "I know my own limits, but there's no need for people to behave like the butt end of a seagull's breakfast. I didn't like it, an' I'd rather not go back there, to be honest. But I'll have to, take their stupid books back." With a sudden and very genuine grin she added, "an' the pair of them 'ad better hope that I'm in a good mood, or I'll show her that, while she's right that I'm stupid in book learnin', I can kick 'ard." It was all hot air, of course, Vega was entirely intimidated by the librarian and her assistants, but more than that she'd never pick a fight with an older lady. She knew it, too, and she huffed to herself.

Allowing herself a final grumble and chunter regarding the librarians, Vega watched while Arlo looked at the books. "I dunno. They've got a bit of a tendency to put 'scalv' in front of stuff, you know. I mean, there's this winged 'orse here. They're beautiful, Arlo, I saw a couple. But they're scalvwings, apparently. Things like that." She shrugged. Maybe it was a term of endearment, she considered, among these strange islanders. There was only agreement between them though, when he said that it was probably big. "Maybe it's a shape shiftin' flyin' an' hungry beast. Sounds fun." Vega looked at him and her expression showed her irritation at the library people had faded.

A dragon? Vega shook her head and snorted. "My grandfather used to tell tales of dragons, you know. 'e'd say that they were these majestic beasts, guardians of Idalos an' they 'ad gods, like we do. 'Can you imagine, little Eva' he'd say, 'what would dragon gods look like?' I asked him once, if he'd seen one," Vega's eyes were lilac as she spoke and her voice was quiet. "He told me that he had. On a volcano, one trial. He was sailin' his ship past this island, all what was on it was a volcano, risin' up out of the water like a great black spearhead. Flyin' above it were dragons an' he said he 'eard their songs. Says it's the most beautiful thing, a dragon song. Then, one of their dragon-gods erupted from the volcano an' it was a sight like nothin' he'd ever seen. Nothin' at all." With a sudden thump on Arlo's arm she shook her head. "No wonder I'm thick as I am, growing up on those stories. Any'ow, no, it's not a dragon."

When was the best time? Vega nodded. "Says here that the recent attacks 'ave been at night. So the Element guy I was chattin' with said, they 'avent found the bodies of the livestock, neither. Jus' disappears. Could be flyin', I suppose?" Vega motioned her head towards the three mountains which dominated the Scalvoris skyline in one direction. "Might be up the mountains, Arlo?" But the farm where the last attack had taken place, she said, was just outside Scalvoris town and the militia man from the Elements had given her the address. "We could start there?"

[Arlo Creede]

When Vega seemed offended, or maybe feigned it, by his comments about her and the library, Arlo laughed. "It has nothin' to do with how smart you are Vega. I didn't mean it that way. It's only that I've always thought you preferred to get your knowledge on the road or on the sea. Not in books."

The truth was, he thought she was smarter, more insightful than just about anyone he'd met at the university or among the shelves of books at the library. At the least, he'd guess that if any given one of them was dropped down into the wilderness away from their books and classrooms, they'd be hard pressed to survive. In pairs, the best they might manage was a heated debate on the nature of mankind and the world around them. "Reading isn't doing," he added, but he stopped short of praising her own brand of intellect. It would give her a big head and then she'd be harder to live with. At the least she'd never let him forget it.

"Here, try this," he said, handing her one of the small, rounded parcels he'd created out out of the pot that he'd just set aside. "Dried spice venison, berries, grains, nuts, and a little honey to hold it all together. It'll keep on the road and would make a good meal in a pinch." As for Vega's experience at the library, Arlo figured that the woman there probably ought to watch her back. Temper wise, she might as well have poked a dragon in the eye. Speaking of dragons, the young man shrugged, finally standing up and finding a shirt and a pair of boots to pull on. "Maybe they're not just stories," he suggested. "I mean sure, someone might have thought it was a good way to explain a volcano. Doesn't mean they don't or didn't exist." He'd rather believe that they had, and that they did. Made for much better stories at the least.

Maybe they should find themselves one of those scalvwings, he thought. But this thing she was describing didn't sound like one of those. 'Well either this creature is carrying its prey off in the night," he considered. "Or devouring it whole on the spot. Bones and all." Truly, he'd rather not meet face to face with a creature like that. Especially in the dead of night. "The mountains then," he agreed while gathering his weapons and loading up his new sack. "But the farmer first. Quit dawdling," he teased her. "Let's go."

[Vega]

"Can I suggest that you get back in yer tent an' get out the other side of yer bedroll?" Vega said when he laughed, again, at her being in a library. She couldn't help but grin though, his laughter was infectious, in truth. "An' that's a very nice way of sayin' I'm too thick to learn from books, but you're right. I prefer to learn stuff with my hands an' arms, I can't read well an' I don't like it." With a companionable thump to his arm she gave a grin. "Any'ow, that's what I've got you for. Bein' clever about things in that way." With a frown as the thought crossed her mind, Vega considered him sidelong. "Come to think of it, you mus' be pretty rare, really. Cos you're clever with books an' stuff an' you're useful to 'ave around."

If she pictured people who learned in the University, they were all like the pair in the library. Snooty, superior and not at all fun to be with. Arlo wasn't like that at all and she grinned at him. "No, I know" Vega replied when he said that reading wasn't doing. "I jus' don't like feelin' judged and like I don't belong, you know? But it's alrigh', I don't belong there." Her expression was generally good-natured. "An' by their standards of judgin', they're right." She supposed that his ability to do the whole book learning thing and be able to live in the wilderness the way he did meant that he was pretty damn smart. But, since it wasn't the 128th of Vhalar in an arc with three numbers the same, she wasn't telling him that. He'd be unbearable.

Though, her determination not to compliment him went out of the window as she ate what he gave her to taste. "U'frek's bum, Arlo, that's good. Is there another?" He wandered off and pulled on his shirt, then boots and Vega was quite content to sit and eat. "We're goin' now? But I'm full an' want a nap," she grinned as she jumped up, strapped on her sword and flung her bow on her back. "If it is somethin' that eats it's pray bones an' all, you know, we probably shouldn't poke it. Mind you, remember that... Spurla.. Spuma... Spurwal.. that thing in Desnind? That was big an' mean an' ugly lookin' that was."

As they made their way to the farmer's, Vega asked him with all appearance of casual. "So, you finish this letter thing this season, aye? What're you plannin' next season? Goin' on to the next bit?" It was fine, either way, she just wanted to know she was quick to reassure him. She wasn't good at pretending to not care, and she was interested to know. "If you want to stay here, you know, that's all good." There was some woman at the university that he was chasing after and he'd probably want to do that. "It's importan' to chase yer dreams, you know. If it's the right thing to do, it'll work out."

The farmer, though, was more than happy to talk. Turned out that getting him to shut up was more of an issue. Yes, three cows, two hafreins and a half dozen sheep had gone from his herds. No, not all at the same time, but over the course of quite a few nights. Usually there'd be two gone in the morning, one gone the next, but then there'd be nothing for a trial or two, then back again. He'd written it out, he told them, and showed them the piece of parchment. There was no pattern he could see, other than there always being a three trial break in between.

Trial	Missing	Trial	Missing
1	2 cows	2	1 hafrein
3	2 sheep	4	Nothing
5	Nothing	6	Nothing
7	1 sheep	8	1 cow
9	1 sheep	10	2 sheep
11	Nothing	12	Nothing
13	Nothing	14	1 hafrein
15	2 sheep	16	2 sheep

Vega looked at Arlo as the man continued to talk. No remains, nothing that told him why or where or anything, he said, though the ground was messed up because the animals were frightened. They were welcome to look, though. Vega nodded at Arlo and handed him the paper. "You see a pattern there?" Either way, her suggestion was that they went and had a look at the ground, see if they could spot anything there.

[Arlo Creede]

"I'm not trying to be nice," Arlo had said while handing Vega another of the treats, one he hadn't wrapped up yet. "I'm just being honest. It's what I think. I think you're putting too much value in words written on pages, because you think that somebody else might think you're lacking." What she was overlooking, he'd added as they'd headed out of camp, was the value of genuine smarts. People who tended to bury their faces in books most of the time, also tended...in his opinion, not to be very useful in the real and practical world. "I'd rather do than read," he insisted. "But if a book can help me to navigate my way around better...like knowing which stars are called what, then I'm all for knowing it. You're not too thick, it's about what matters to you. Everyone's better at doing the things that matter to them. Besides, what do you care what anyone thinks?"

As for when he'd finish his letter, he shrugged. "I guess so. I'm more interested in the knowing than a piece of paper saying that I do." But did she think that he'd stay behind if he left, or that he'd leave if she didn't. Or that even if he would, he wouldn't have mentioned it by now? The answer was simple really. "I'm going where you're going, when you go. Staying so long as you are. Unless you were to tell me you'd rather I didn't," Arlo said. He'd meant it though. The letter itself wasn't important to him. He could get the same knowledge, knowing what he wanted to needed to know, by reading or even better, asking someone else who was better informed than him.

The farmer though, he was a talker. And funny how for all that talking, he was able to tell them very little of importance. At first, since he didn't spot an immediate pattern to the incidents, Arlo didn't find it very useful. "Not that I can tell," he said when Vega asked. But taking a better look at the place where the animals had been taken from, seemed like a good idea. Initially he saw what he'd have expected to. In places where there would have been tracks at all, there were mixed ones. Goats, cows and so on. There were signs of animals scattering in a hurry as if something had startled them. But tellingly, no signs that anything heavy had been dragged away into the trees. "Suggests, maybe, that whatever took them either gobbled them up on the spot, or lifted them up and carried them away."

If gobbled up, then surely there'd be traces of blood left behind? And if snatched up and carried? "It would have to be something very large and very strong to carry off a cow," he considered and frowned as he spotted a strange set of tracks. "It's like a bird of prey, but not," he suggested as he crouched down, and showed Vega. "I mean, look here. A hawk or an eagle...an enormous one could leave prints like that. They're deep, so I'm thinking very big. But then look, it's like it's got pads too, like a wolf or a cat." He'd been thinking too, he told her, about that list. "Maybe there's not just one thing taking livestock. Maybe there's odd times between because if there's more, it's different sorts of creatures." Surely that might explain the unreliable sightings? Descriptions that didn't match up.

[Vega]

What did she care what anyone else thought? Vega's expression told of her immediate and rather defensive reaction to it. "Nothin'. I don't." The glare she gave was enough to tell the truth around that lie and she looked at him and sighed, grinned, then punched him. "Shurrup." She shrugged slightly and gestured in the direction of the docks. "It's that lot, got me twitchy is all. On any given trial I'd punch Rose in the gob or baffle her with my unique brand of logic, so I would." Her family, specifically her cousins, they were tricky with her and Vega was more sensitive that she let on. To anyone except him, that was and even then she didn't so much tell him anything. She just assumed he knew.

As they walked, though, he was casual and clear about the reality of what he was doing and Vega stopped walking for a moment. He went where she went, when she did? She couldn't be happier at those words and the smile on her face showed that. Yet, U'frek forbid that she'd ever told him how pleased she was. "I'm not gonna say that, cos it isn't true," she replied, on the topic of telling him she'd rather they not stay together. "Nothin' could be further from the truth, in fact. I like travellin' with you. You're not too bad, an' I've gotten used to your bad habits."Vega gave a sudden grin then and bumped her shoulder against his. "Or most of them. An' bein' the saintly sort I am, I'm prepared to put up with you." The difference between what she said and what she felt was evident in her voice and her face.

But then, it occurred to her that she was being selfish and he was being all Arlo about it, being thoughtful for her, but there was this girl at the university, there was the friends he'd made there. The last thing she wanted was to hold him back, but equally when he got an idea in his head, he was stubborn in ways she'd never met. So, Vega came up with a plan. "So, if you go where I go, when I do, it's like I'm the boss innit?" Vega nodded and looked at him approvingly. "It's about time you realised that, you know." He'd react, she was sure and when he did, she would magnanimously say, "Well, look, jus' to prove what a benevolent leader I am, an' all, we can stay 'ere as long as you want. I'll let you decide. Good of me, innit?"

Still, the farmer was no use and Vega frowned, but the consideration of the tracks was interesting. Arlo was right about the tracks and Vega frowned in concentration as she examined them. It seemed like some kind of strange creature, yet she shook her head slightly as he spoke. "I dunno, Arlo, it's like it's a hybrid, mixed up kind of thing, not more than one type but separate. Do they 'ave those on Scalvoris?" Who was she kidding, Vega wondered. Any place that had weird ice caves, sn'oh deer and so on, it would have hybrids. But yet, he had a fair point about the sightings and how varied they were. "Well, look," she said, motioning to the ground. "It was pointin' in this direction. Even if it were strong enough to lift a cow, it almos' certain'y flew in a straight line, so lets go that way an' see what we can find?" It was very much a question, but to Vega it made sense. After all, whatever it was doing with the animals, it was taking them somewhere and doing something. That would make the most sense, so they could find out.

If he felt like, of course.

[Arlo Creede]

"Rose would still be scratching her head in wonder long after we'd left Scalvoris behind us," Arlo'd agreed with a barely concealed grin, in reference to Vega's own brand of logic. Funny that it had begun to make perfect sense to him after all this time, even when he didn't agree with her. He wouldn't tell her that though. What he did know was that she did care what others thought of her, in spite of her denying it. But everybody did, he thought, or they wouldn't be mortals at all. It was just her family lately he thought that had made her more sensitive about it. He wouldn't be saying that either.

What bad habits, he asked her when she bumped his shoulder and implied that they were at least tolerable. "I haven't got any. Not a one. But you can be the boss when you're right, and I'll do it when you're not," Arlo proposed and then grinned, implying that he might be the better judge of when she was or wasn't. "I guess we could stay around till we've run out of interesting things to see and do, then on to the next place."

As for the tracks and hybrids, pushing his hat back as they'd looked at the tracks, he shrugged. "This being Scalvoris, I'd say it's as likely as not. Something we've never heard or seen before. Something maybe even the locals haven't." But that way was as good as any, he agreed as the pair of them headed off towards the treeline. They were almost there when he stopped and pointed upwards. "You see there, at the top of that tree? There's a section at the top dangling, still attached. Like something flew over and clipped the top of the tree maybe."

Either something had, or maybe it was carrying something else, it's prey, that had clipped the treetop instead. At any rate, "Either it flies low as a habit, it was weighed down by it's prey, or maybe it was only just gaining altitude. But then look there," Arlo said then, pointing at a narrow trail that led into the thick growth of the forest. "There's some broken stuff there too, like something larger than the path passed through. We ought to see if there's any tracks there, and if they're the same or different than the other ones."

[Vega]

He didn't have any bad habits? Vega snorted derisively and raised an eyebrow at him. "You've got an 'undred. But it's a'right, they make you cute. Endearing." And a hundred other things, she seemed to imply, none of which were grown up, adult or in any way anything other than irritating. Still, she said it with a grin, although her being the boss when she was right and him being it when she was wrong sounded suspicious to her. She wasn't entirely sure why or how, though. When he said that they could stay around until they ran out of things to do and Vega glanced at him and smiled. Her eyes swirled a mass of different colours, but she simply nodded and gave an almost-real grin. "Sounds like a plan to me, matey-boy." It was confusing to her and Vega simply decided to put it to one side.


They made their way together and then Arlo spotted something. The tree line was broken, he spotted and Vega nodded. They kept going and Arlo spoke of what they were seeing. Moving in to the trees, they made their way towards a path in the woods. "Yeah, look there," she said, spotting a set of tracks where he had indicated. "They're the same, for sure." Vega nodded, looking at them.

"Look, it's weird." Vega said, motioning to him to come and look. She glanced at him and grinned."It's like they're a big cat of some kind, for sure. But, it's like it's a bird, too. An' it's big, Arlo." There were no other tracks, none at all, but there was some blood on a large stone, like the creature had put it's prey down there. Vega sat back on her heels and looked at him. "So, we're goin' in the right direction, aye."

As they got up and made their way, Vega glanced over to her companion. "You don't talk about the University much, Arlo. Have you made friends an' stuff?: She didn't know why the notion of him having designs on a girl and not telling her bothered her so much, but it did. It was because, she was sure, it felt like it was something he should tell her about. They were friends, the two of them. They should tell each other and why he didn't was what bothered her. "I mean, you know you can talk to me about whatever you want, yeah?"

Still, they carried on and, after a fairly long walk and a couple of times when whatever it was had stopped and apparently rested. The tracks didn't change and Vega grew more convinced that it was some kind of very large, flying cat bird thing. Eventually, though,they came to a clearing. There, as they approached, they saw that there was a clearing ahead of them. In it were a range of carcasses, cows and sheep and hafrein. They had been killed violently. It seemed that this place was a nest. Vega turned and signed to him, not speaking in case the creature was nearby.

"Should we wait and see if it comes back?" Vega signed, looking a little unsure herself. "We could wait, take it down when it returns?"

[Arlo Creede]

"Cute and endearing?" Arlo said and scoffed, bumping Vega's shoulder when she said it. "Makes me sound like one of those fat white cats that ladies hold on their laps while they gossip." As for when they'd go and how long they'd stay in Scalvoris, what they wanted, when they wanted sounded just fine to him. And either way, together the two of them. There was a strange sense of relief that she'd intended it that way from the start. That if one went, so did the other. But Arlo didn't plan on thinking too long or too deeply about that. He'd simply accept that it was, and not worry about the why.

So, the tracks were the same, though it also seemed that something large had flown over the the treetops and had clipped them on its way. Frowning, he stood back up and considered the possibilities. "Whatever has been taking the animals has visited the farm a number of times, over the course of several trials. But I wonder, is it possible there's more than one?" he asked. Of course anything was possible. It hadn't rained lately though but had been fair for a number of trials running. Which made it difficult to tell just how old the tracks were.

A flying cat though. It was a possibility and not such a strange consideration really after what they'd experienced in the area already. Flying rabbits being the least of the oddities. "If there's one, then surely there's more? I mean to get one of anything living, you've got to get others together right?" he figured. "And so on." They'd never know however if they didn't attempt to track it down. Whatever it was. So they entered the woods together and walked. He kept an eye on the ground, hoping to spy more tracks they could follow.

But when Vega mentioned his classes at the university, Arlo looked back at her curiously as if he was surprised by the question. "Of course I know. Just like you know with me," he said. "There just isn't much to tell is all. I signed up for the class, not because I wanted to earn a letter but because I wanted to know more about the Immortals. And since most of the learning doesn't take place at desks or inside a building, it seemed like it might be interesting." Friends though? Arlo shrugged, and wasn't entirely sure why she was asking about it. "I've met people sure. But friends...If you mean like people you go out of your way to meet and hang around with, tell stuff, that kind of thing, not really. I'd say it's more like..." Pausing, searching for the right word, he shrugged again. "Friendly acquaintances."

As soon as they came upon the clearing and spied what was in it, Arlo crouched down behind a grouping of bushes just as Vega signed to him. Whatever had created all that carnage and left it lying about, he'd rather not have the thing catch them by surprise while they stood in the middle of its territory. He nodded in agreement, and signed the sentiment back to her. They should watch and wait, and maybe the thing would come back. With that in mind, he took his bow in hand and nocked an arrow so he'd have it at the ready.

As it turned out, it was nearly a quarter break before the could hear something above them letting out a shrill cry from a distance. And if they looked up, they could spot the shadow play on the leaves that made up the canopy. Then, as if to confirm their suspicions, the cracking of small twigs and the rustling of leaves to imply that something large was coming down through the trees and over the clearing.