Solo - The Night Flower

[Joran]

21st Cylus, 719

The zipper whizzed through the air, wings buzzing loudly in Joran's ears as he set off from his home. The creature was hardly exceptional, with a forest-green hue for his body and big, clear wings which kept the thing aloft. ...Really, the beast wasn't even smart. At least, that was Joran's conclusion. He'd traded for the thing a few arcs back, promising a future favor as a supplement to what he'd been able to offer. The zipper was only partly trained, however, and Joran needed to be constantly vigilant to avoid falling to an untimely death. The saddle helped, though...especially the belts keeping him firmly in his seat.

The weather was positively nasty outside; the blizzard had settled several trials ago, but snow remained on the ground and the cold darkness permeated the air. Ordinarily, Joran wouldn't want to go flower-hunting during this part of the year. He could find other ways to sustain himself through the frigid trials of Cylus. The minor injuries he occasionally sustained while looking for the Syanan Okan healed far more slowly in the cold, and he didn't fancy being without the use of an arm or leg if he made a serious mistake. That was to say nothing of the lethargy that overcame him and all Tunawa during this season; Joran found that when he went to bed, he could wake up the next trial or skip a couple without realizing it. He'd taken to not making plans or promises too far in advance, and kept expecting to one trial wake up to the dawn of the new season. However, he found he had a question. Could the nightflower grow during this time of year? Was it any different? It grew high up in the canopy on a vine that was reminiscent of an orchid, and Joran had his doubts...but the land was still green even in this darkness, so how could he say for sure? Naturally, the only answer was to go see for himself.

Joran, distracted as he was, didn't see that he'd dipped a little too low on his way out of Desnind proper. He had to saw the reins hard upward to make the insect rise, narrowly missing the head of some unfortunate woman who was out and about at this hour. She let out a yelp, and the somewhat-transparent snake familiar coiled about her shoulders let out a defensive hiss. "Sorry!" The Tunawa called back over his shoulder, leaning far forward on his mount as it rapidly gained altitude. And abruptly, he was thrown hard against the belt holding him in place as the zipper swerved to avoid a tree. Then another. And another. The little Tunawa flailed in alarm and tried to regain control of his mount, only barely managing to swing it--her? He was unsure--up and through a small gap in the canopy and out into the open air.

Soon enough, the ride stabilized and Joran was cruising through the darkness, wind whipping past him. He grinned, the whites of his teeth showing in the moonlight. He'd picked a more clear day to go out, so he'd at least have the benefit of the dim moonlight for his searching. He glanced back over his shoulder to confirm that the glow-lamp he'd stuffed in his pack was still there, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the dim glow escaping his pack. Good; he wouldn't be able to find a nightflower without it. Not that he was sure he'd be able to find one with it, but...well, he hadn't thought to take note of a plant's location during the end of the last arc. If he failed this time, he'd try that next year. Methodology was important, Joran reminded himself. At least, that was what one of the books had said.

[Joran]

A few bits later, Joran judged that he was about in the general area that he usually found a good number of the blooms. The moonlight lit the treetops reasonably well, and he could figure roughly the right place to have his zipper land. He had yet to find a place dense with the flower...but he knew he'd found more than one in this particular area, so odds were better here. Really, this whole thing had been struck up on something of a lark a few trials ago. While cooped up inside with the blizzard, Joran had spent his time either playing his dulcimer or thinking. There wasn't much else to do, and one of the questions he'd spent a lot of time considering was that of the night flower. There were no blooms out during Cylus, and there would be none until well into Ashan, but...He felt that he needed to know for sure. There was still greenery, after all, and the night flower was a fairly rare bloom... It would be a discovery worthy of teaching to young Tunawa on walks through the forest. To his own sprout, one day.

The zipper alighted on a branch strong enough to support them both, and Joran climbed off of it. Unfortunately, he couldn't search from the skies; even if his zipper could maintain that pace for hours, he needed to be up close and personal to properly locate the flower. The Tunawa tied the zipper's reins to a protrusion in the branch, and set off in search of his quarry. It was a simple affair, really. The foliage was too dense to do more than travel through the uppermost parts of the canopy, and so he did just that. From the thick branch he was on, he moved upward until the canopy began to thin and the branches gave more and more under his weight. Joran was hardly new to scampering about the upper reaches of the dense forest, but a fall from this height could be fatal. Not to mention the fate of his poor mount, if he didn't come back to free it.

Not a bloom to be seen, as expected. And so Joran went back down, following the branching paths back to the core of the tree and working his way back out to the far side. Then the next tree. On this went, for perhaps a couple breaks. At least, the Tunawa thought it was a couple breaks. Time seemed to flow differently during Cylus--the darkness just felt endless, and the breaks and trials blurred together. All in all, it was the Tunawa's least favorite season. He wasn't a great fan of Saun either, though; both were wrong and threw everything out of balance.

Joran couldn't help zoning out a bit. The work was repetitive, and he was quite used to working in the darkness. The night flower only bloomed in the darkness, and that was why Joran had chosen to begin the search a couple hours before down. He could work into the morning, seeing whether it was the lack of light or the time that decided whether the flower bloomed. And, when he figured that out, he could then--

Snap.

[Joran]

Joran didn't have a lot of time to register that he'd gone just a little too far along a branch. One moment he was clinging to the uppermost branch, peering at something that looked quite a lot like the dormant stem of the flower he sought. The next, he was hanging on for dear life as the branch--thankfully still a live one--broke partially and peeled down toward the joint where it attached to its parent branch. The little Tunawa found himself dangling, swinging back and forth as the branch slowly stabilized with him attached. He was holding his entire weight with his arms--and only barely.

The Tunawa took in a deep breath to steady himself, letting it out slowly. Focus... He tried to calm himself, thinking over how he could get himself out of this mess. While Joran had been practically raised in the trees, doing a pull-up and scrambling up the branch was entirely out of the question. He wasn't sure he was strong enough, and there weren't enough handholds besides. Around him, the branches were too far away to leap to, and he was pretty sure the connection between his broken branch and the rest of the tree was too flimsy to properly swing.

So that left... What? Not much, really. There were a few branches far below he could fall onto, but he risked almost certain death if he missed, not to mention severe injury. All bad options, and he was sure the branch wouldn't hold for much longer. Help wasn't coming, since nobody knew quite where he was... Yeah, he was in trouble.

Fantastic. Fall, climb, or swing. Three options, all terrible. Falling seemed the least risky, but he'd surely get banged up in the process. Climbing up was...doubtful, but he could go right back to where he was. Swinging risked an uncontrolled break and a swift fall to his death--that one was out. Climbing... No. Bad choice. That only left the best of bad options. He'd need to drop from this branch and hopefully catch onto another one that could handle the sudden stress. So, Joran picked his target: A thick branch a short distance below him. He gave a few light swings to build up momentum and, before he could think about just what he was doing, he let go with a loud, terrified cry.

And, through some wonder, he actually stuck the landing. Mostly. He landed hard on his front, giving his chest and face a hard crack...but the branch held. For a little while, he just laid there face-down against the bark. Then, he let out a soft, slightly hysterical laugh. He was safe! Finally, Joran glanced up at the branch dangling overhead and realized just how far he'd fallen. Sore, the Tunawa got to his feet and began to make his way back toward his zipper. Made his very slow, very careful way--no way was he falling again tonight, not unless all the ill luck in the world was out for him tonight. Or was it this morning, by now?

It wasn't a half-break before Joran was flying through the open sky once more, guiding his zipper closer back to its resting place so he could go home and lick his wounds. Fortunately, it was mostly his pride that was bruised--though he absolutely would be feeling this in the morning. Maybe this was why the Tall Folk were so often fond of alcohol--if he had experiences like that all the time, he'd need a stiff drink too. A shame, he couldn't get drunk.

[Korva]

Rewards!

Name: Joran

Knowledge:
Mount: Trust your Zipper not to run into anything
Climbing: Sometimes there are multiple paths
Discipline: Make a choice, even when all the options are bad
Research: Plan your experiments ahead of time
Field Craft: Finding flowers is really hard in Cylus

Loot: NA
Injuries: Some bumps and such, should heal in a few trials
Renown: NA
Magic XP: NA

Points: 10

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Comments: Poor Joran! Trees are both the best and worst when you're small, nice job

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**Made by the magnificent Kes