[Jaykobell]

So... cold... It was so cold here.

The idea of seeing snow had been appealing to her, but to think it would be so cold and uncomfortable... she would've stayed home, if she'd known. It was scary enough that she was all alone in this, and that her sister had refused to come along. Well, she could explore things alone just fine, she just didn't like it... she liked spending time with her sister, since she was the only family she had left here. And family was important, at least to her...

She felt her fur bristling from the cold, and she shuffled her paws as she walked. She wasn't used to this cold weather, and neither were her paws and fur. At least her scars weren't hurting; they had healed a long time ago, and so they didn't hurt. They were just ugly to look at, admittedly. But being scars, she would never get rid of them, that much she knew. And she also knew that snow wasn't as exciting as she'd thought. She shivered under her black and white pelt, and her ears curled down against the back of her skull. The snow itself wasn't really the problem; it was the wind, which was so cold that you felt like it was sharp enough to cut your skin. If only she could find shelter, at least while the wind settled down a little... "A shrine," she meowed to herself, a little white puff showing up as she spoke. "They're supposed to have shrines here..." And shrines would be hard to miss here, against this barren white background. Just a bunch of stones all together, right? Ah, if only her sister were here, she knew a lot more about the world...

[zapdragon555]

"Gah! I can hardly see anything in this stupid snowstorm!"

A tiny green fighter plane zoomed through the sky at high speed. Huge snowflakes whipped against the windshield, much to the pilot's chagrin. And what an odd pilot he was! Nimbus, the Mr. Wilson, rubbed his wing over the frontal window in annoyance as he tried to steer the plane through the snowstorm. "I should make some windshield wipers for this old thing..." he growled, leaning against the steering wheel to better see out of the plane. No luck. Nimbus then stuck his head out to the side in attempt to see, but only got a face-full of snow. He coughed and sputtered, wiping his face with one wing and flailing his other in the air helplessly. Of course, with no more spare wings, the steering wheel began to turn on its own. Nimbus gasped as he felt the whole plane rotate to the side, nearly tipping the little bird out. "C'mon, now! Cooperate with me," he said half to himself. He grabbed the wheel once his eyes were clear, then turned it with all his might. Just when he thought he'd succeeded in righting the plane, he looked up. The tree came too fast for Nimbus's reflexes, and the plane crashed violently into the huge trunk.

The plane shot to the ground, landing roughly in the snow, the propeller and left engine busted up badly. "Heh, that's not the only thing that's busted up," Nimbus said to himself weakly, examining his bleeding leg. The aftershock of the crash came, causing his head to spin, he sat back in the smoking plane woozily, placing a wing to his head. He barely turned his head when he saw something in the distance. "Is that... a Kuhna?" he murmured, squinting at the black-and-white shape. "Yes... Yes it is! Hey! You there! HEY!" Nimbus shouted with all his strength, which wasn't very much, then sighed. "I doubt it'll hear me in this storm." Suddenly, a thought struck him. Right! the Mr. Wilson thought. The flares! Taking care not to rupture his leg any more than it was, he stretched out his wing to the glove compartment and grabbed a solar flare. He took the match tied to it, struck it, then lit the fuse. With expert aim, Nimbus flung the flare into the sky just above the Kuhna. "That should get its attention..."

(Whew! Long post. XD;;)

(1)

[Jaykobell]

She was still looking for a shelter through this small storm, but no luck. She sighed as she stopped for a moment, sitting down so she could take a break. She curled her tails around her paws to warm them up, and she looked up at the sky. White flakes stormed by in the knife-sharp wind, and you could barely see anything up there, save for that blurry white mass. A sigh. What a depression view, really. And what a cold place. No time to waste; once she was warmed up a little, she got back up and started looking for a shelter again.

She eventually reached a part with a lot of trees, and she wondered if they would help protect her from the wind at all. Through the storm, she hadn't heard Nimbus's plane crashing, nor had she heard the Mr. Wilson scream for help. All she could hear was muffled 'pheeeeew' from the strong winds. But she did take a few quick looks here and there, right and left, so she could hopefully spot something that could provide her with shelter. And that was when she spotted that flare going up in the sky. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the light in the sky. Where did that come from? Maybe... there was someone else? Mind, she had no idea what a flare was supposed to mean, so she had no idea it could mean there was someone nearby that needed help. But she did wonder what it was. Should she go into those woods and check it out...? Ah, but what if it were dangerous in there...? Hm... she asked herself what her sister would do, and she figured her sister would just jump right into those woods to check it out. So the Kuhna figured she might as well go check it out.

She made her way to the woods, and shortly after she'd entered the trees, she spotted the crashed plane. "Ah!" She stared at the mess, wide-eyed. Now what was that? She had never seen a plane before, either. She had only heard about them. And then as she looked around to find the source of the flare, she spotted... a small bird! ... And it was injured! ".... Ah!" She dashed for the Mr. Wilson, coming to an abrupt halt right beside Nimbus. "A-are you okay?" Rhetorical question there. "What... what happened...?" Ohh, that Mr. Wilson was bleeding... this couldn't be good...

[zapdragon555]

Oh, thank goodness! Nimbus thought as the Kuhna approached. It saw the flare! Nimbus managed a smile as the black-and-white Kuhna trotted up. By the tone of its voice, Nimbus guessed it was female. "Well, I can't say I'm too peachy," he chuckled. "As for what happened..." He motioned to the huge tree in front of him. "I was flying in this snowstorm when my plane here crashed into this tree." He blinked through the trail of smoke that blew into his face. "You wouldn't happen to have any bandages, would you?" Being the forgetful pilot that he was, Nimbus had forgotten the medical supplies back at home. "While I'm at it, do you know where any shelter is?"

(Urf. Short post~ D:)

(2)

[Jaykobell]

[ Me, slipping online at school? Nevah. o P o ]

Ah, so the weather had caused this plane to crash. She tilted her head at the mess, her ears twitching curiously. She then looked down at Nimbus, and then back at the plane, and then back at Nimbus. "Aren't you a bird?" she mewed as she bowed her head beside the Mr. Wilson. "Why would you need a plane to fly?" How could a small bird control a fly, too? So small. Maybe that was... a reason why the plane had crashed to begin with? But, oh dear, better keep such a rude comment to herself.

She took a sniff at Nimbus's injury. The sight of blood wasn't a pleasant one to her, unless it was her own. But there wasn't a lot of it, so the sight was bearable. She was what you would call squeamish. "Bandages?" she echoed, and then blinked up her silver-blue eyes at the Mr. Wilson. "Ah, no..." She shuffled her paws shyly. "I don't have anything with me." She hadn't expected this outing to turn out this way, after all. She had no idea a first aid kit would've ended up being useful. "I'm sorry," she apologized, her ears curling back slightly. She couldn't have guessed, but still.

"Shelter? Ah, I'm looking for shelter right now because of the storm, to stay there until it dies down," she explained, looking up at the sky to see if the weather had changed at all. But nope; still that same white blurry mass against the pale blue sky. She then looked down at Nimbus and tilted her head. "But you could come with me, and we could look for shelter together," she proposed, turning around and sitting down with her back facing Nimbus. Unlike most Kuhnas, she didn't have any wings. "You can climb on my back, and I'll carry you until we can find something," she offered, looking over her shoulder and giving a nod. "I'm Fear. What's your name?"

[zapdragon555]

Nimbus sighed at the comment about him being a bird, and that it was weird he couldn't fly. "I was an inventor since my childhood. When my siblings left the nest, my parent's discovered my inability to fly," he began to explain. "I told them I'd find a way to fly, so I practiced day and night. But it was no good, of course. Then one day, I was watched a movie about airplanes..." He chuckled and adjusted his aviator helmet. "I was fascinated. It took me years, but I finally made this old contraption." The little bird patted the metal door of the cockpit. "Frankly, I'm quite surprised it's held together this long; It's crashed more times than I have feathers!" He looked back at the Kuhna as it told him her name. "Fear, eh? My name's Nimbus. Y'know, like nimbus clouds?" He shrugged. "I don't want to be a burden, but if you feel up to it, I'd be mighty grateful if you could carry me till we found some shelter," he said, pushing himself to a standing position using his beak and wings.

Trying to put as little pressure as possible on his hurt leg, Nimbus opened the door to the cockpit and hobbled out. The snow came up to his belly, making his leg sting. "Oww," he winced, hopping over to Fear's tails. He carefully climbed up her left tail, taking care not to rip any hairs out with his beak, and finally reached her back in a very undignified position. "Even if I don't use 'em often," Nimbus said, panting, "I never thought about how hard it would be to do things without your legs."

(3)

[Jaykobell]

Fear tilted her head as Nimbus told his story. A bird that couldn't fly? Huh, how strange. Birds had always been able to fly in her head, so to meet a bird that couldn't fly... how surreal. "How come you can't fly...?" she asked, her ears tweaking. Birds were naturally born to fly, right? So how come Nimbus couldn't fly? So strange. And no matter how much he tried, it seemed like he'd never found a way to fly with his wings. She blinked and looked at him curiously when he mentioned a movie. "A... movie?" she echoed, the word obviously foreign to her. "What's a... movie?" Since she came from a rather reclusive home, she knew only a few things, and sometimes even the most simple, common things were unknown to her.

She tilted her head at the plane when Nimbus patted it. That was another thing she didn't really know about. She'd seen pictures, and she had heard of planes, but beyond that, she had no idea what they were like. "So they really do fly... how does that work?" Metal couldn't fly, being heavy and all. So how could a big piece of metal like that possibly fly? That was so strange. It was all very foreign for her.

But her ears pricked at the Mr. Wilson's name. "Oh! Nimbus clouds. I know those," she meowed happily, her tails waving shortly. Anything related to science, to a certain extent, was known to her, but beyond that, most things were unknown to her. And sometimes she felt stupid talking to people, since she usually felt left out of most conversations.

"Oh, it's all right. If we find a shrine, we'll probably be able to find something to bandage your leg," she meowed as she waited for Nimbus to climb on. He was only a small bird, so he wouldn't be too heavy to carry. Besides, he couldn't even walk to begin with, since his leg was injured. And, well, she liked to help people. She wiggled a bit from Nimbus climbing onto her, the feeling of the beak tickling her just a little bit. "Legs are always important," she meowed as she got up, now that Nimbus had gotten on her back. "We wouldn't go far without them." She then started to head off and out of the woods, since she figured a shrine, in any form, would most likely be in the open rather than in a forest. "You can hold onto the string around my neck if you ever feel like you're going to fall," she mentioned, flicking a tail-tip towards the rope around her neck, which dropped to her chest to hold a small vial that contained a bright green liquid. "Hopefully we'll find something quickly."

[zapdragon555]

(Sorry for the late reply. x3x;;)

Nimbus cocked his head at the question. "A movie is... Er, well, it's sort of like a picture that moves, and you can hear the voices that come from the characters in it," Nimbus said, trying to make it sound as simple as possible. Clearly, this Kuhna didn't know too much. "As for how a plane flies, the process is very complicated. See, the plane contains some sort of engine that propels it through the sky, and wind running over the wings, called lift, is what makes it rise."

He stared out into the blizzard, squinting as snowflakes stung his eyeballs. "What's this about a shrine? Is that where those Mekkayena things live?" Nimbus asked, gripping the string around Fear's neck as he wobbled on her back from the wind a little. "That's the whole reason I came here, actually. My crazy owner Zap wants one of those creatures. I've never seen one, so I'm not too sure what they look like. Do you have any idea?" He blinked, looking at the necklace on Fear's neck. The green liquid sloshed around as she walked. "And could I ask what's in that vial?"

(4)

[Jaykobell]

[ No biggie. 83 ]

Fear listened carefully as Nimbus explained what a movie was, exactly. She tilted her head to the side as he spoke, trying to picture the description in her head. A picture that moves, and you can hear voices from them. So were they like... memories? "Is it a little like memories?" That was really closest thing she could think of with that description. They were images that moved, and you could hear voices from them. Of course, they were mostly way different from memories.

As for the plane, she blinked and her ears flicked as she thought about that. "So it gets help, right?" she meowed as she looked over her shoulder, but she could barely see the Mr. Wilson on her back. "I heard about those engine things before. I think a lot of things use them... And the wind makes it lift, huh..." She looked ahead again, and then tilted her head to the side again. To think even nature would be a factor into this. How... surreal, you could say. Fear hadn't seen a lot of extremely complicated things, so the concept of a plane and what it needed to actually work was a whole new thing for her. "You've got to be way intelligent, to be able to work something like that." Someone like her, making something like a plane? She wouldn't last very long at a big project like that.

At the mention of 'Mekkayenas,' Fear blinked. "Mekkeyenas?" The name was foreign to her, and even the way she pronounced it could tell others that it was, indeed, a new word for her. "I've never heard of them," she admitted, her ears curling against the back of her head sheepishly. "But my sister mentioned there were... Hunters? Around these parts..." Beats her what those 'Hunters' were, though. And apparently they were way vicious, too, so why her sister had refused to come was beyond Fear... She wasn't much of a fighter, you see. "But this place is supposed to have shrines all around the mountains, for travellers." At the mention of an 'owner', Fear blinked and tried to look at Nimbus on her back again. "Owner? You're..... owned?" She sounded surprised at the concept. Sure, she knew of pet animals, but... Nimbus didn't quite look like one, right? He wasn't exactly a very typical bird.

"Uh? The vial?" She looked down at her chest, and saw the little vial swinging down there as she walked. "Oh...! It's... acid." Nimbus couldn't see her expressions from where he was, but she was making a sheepish face. "It might sound weird, but it was... from a friend," she explained, a little hint of nostalgia in her voice. "So I keep it close to me."

[ I dunno when you want them to find a shrine? o 3o~ ]

[zapdragon555]

(Hmm... How about now? XD)

"Memories..." Nimbus mused. "Yes, somewhat like that. But often times they have things you've never seen before." He blinked sadly as he looked back at his plane. "I suppose it'll be alright... No sense in stealing a broken plane, eh? I might go try and fix the thing once the storm blows over and my leg gets a little better." He shrugged. "Hunters... I think Zap has one of those. His name's Narnia or something." He shivered. "I admit they look quite intimidating. Mekkayenas even more so. I haven't the slightest idea as to why Zap would want one!" Nimbus said, laughing lightly.

Nimbus quickly rethought the whole 'owner' thing. "Well, she's not exactly my owner per say, but rather a friend. And a friend to all the creatures that live at her home. We just live there is all." Nimbus looked forward into the snowy air, when suddenly a strange structure came into view. "Hey... What's that?" he said, squinting. "Hey Fear, do you think that could be the shrine?"

(5) Level up!

[Jaykobell]

So they were like memories, but they had things you had never seen before. So perhaps it was like watching someone else's memories? That sounded so strange. "Huh. I should check it out eventually," she mused, thinking about the possibility of going to watch a movie with her sister. It could be a fun little activity to do with her, instead of just exploring on their own.

Fear looked over her shoulder when Nimbus mentioned the plane, blinking at the small heap of metal far away into the little woods. "Oh! I can bring you back there once you're better, and once the storm had died," she offered, nodding her head and looking back ahead. "I don't think anyone would steal it, but they might try to take it anyway... Sometimes people are malicious." Those people who had no shame in taking other people's things, and who didn't care about others in general. It pained her to think about such people. Fear herself had been... a victim of a malicious person; a very malicious one. But that was an entirely different story altogether. "I'll bring you back so you can fix your plane, I promise," she nodded again, obviously determined to keep that promise.

She felt her fur rising a little when Nimbus talked about the Mekkayenas and the Hunters. "I-Intimidating?" she echoed, trying not to sound scared. Well, she had never seen one for herself, so... how could you know whether they really were intimidating or not? Well, Fear's sister was usually intimidating, but deep down, she wasn't a bad person. So perhaps those Mekkayenas and Hunters were the same? "Maybe they're not evil, though... My sister is really scary and intimidating, but she's a nice person. I bet they can still be nice pets under their scary exteriors." Well, it made sense to her, in any case. "My sister sent me here to look for a Hunter... I don't know why she wants to see one." Fear tilted her head, thinking about what she had just said. "Yet she refused to come with me... I think she said she had another place to explore." The Kuhna shrugged slightly, not pondering on it too much. She was glad to be doing this for her sister, and not only that, she had the chance to see snow and the shrines of the mountains.

Fear tilted her head at the explanation of Nimbus's 'owner'. "Oh... I see. I think I understand what you mean. My situation is different... I'm usually not a Kuhna, most of the time. I live with my older sister... We have a pet, but he's not the same... kind of pet as you are. He's just an ordinary rat. We don't have any pets that are like you, as a general..." All that to say, she did understand what Nimbus meant, but her situation was just difference, hence why she had been surprised at the mention of an 'owner'.

"What?" She blinked and stretched her neck when Nimbus asked his question, mentioning something. She blinked from the snow, squinting her eyes from the wind. And suddenly a shape came into view, a stony grey structure in the distance, not so far away. "Ah! Yes, that looks like a shrine!" From the description she had gotten back home, a shrine could be described as a building made out of stones, and that had a slight religious-like atmosphere and shape to it. That was most likely it! "Let's hurry, this blizzard is chilling me to the bone," she meowed, excitement in her words. Finally, a shrine!

Fear dashed through the snow, making sure to do straight steps so Nimbus wouldn't be bounced all around on her back, and so his leg didn't get shaken too much. With that speed, it didn't take so long for the two to reach the shrine. The place looked good for its old age, which you could see from the stones, which were rough and different in size. Some stones had been eaten away by the cold, but it was still standing just fine, with a roof; everything one needed for shelter. Fear pushed one of the big doors open and slipped inside, latching onto the door handle once inside to close the door again. The shrine itself did have the looks of a religious building, with a small altar at the very far back, and a bunch of wooden benches going all the way from the entrance to the altar. "Ah! They probably have some cloth somewhere in here, we could use that to cover your leg." She looked over her shoulder at the Mr. Wilson on her back. "How is your leg doing?"

[zapdragon555]

Nimbus breathed a sigh of relief when Fear stepped inside the Shrine. The glow of the candles here and there gave the place a warm feeling; perhaps that's because it was much warmer than it was outside anyway. "Hmm? My leg?" he mused, wriggling violently on Fear until he was able to scoot off of her and hit the ground with a sort of a 'plop' sound. "Well, the cold has frozen it for the most part, but it's still bleeding." He righted himself a bit using his beak and wings. "As for that cloth..." he murmured, looking around. Most of the cloth-like material was already in use, covering tables, holding candles, or draped over chairs. "I bet we could ask someone here."

(6)

[Jaykobell]

Fear blinked and looked over her shoulder when she felt Nimbus wriggling on her back. She then turned around and gasped when she heard him plop on the ground. "Ah! A-are you okay?" Poor little thing! He could've asked for her to lie down! But thankfully, the Mr. Wilson looked okay, and Fear sighed. What a scare. The little thing could have hurt himself! He was already injured, too, so just imagine. Fear's fur ruffled up just thinking about it.

She looked around the shrine, blinking at the candles and the many ornaments that were all over the shrine. "Has the cold helped to ease the pain at all?" she asked Nimbus, looking down at the Mr. Wilson. She had heard cold could help with pain, since the cold numbed your limbs. Nimbus's leg was still bleeding, but it looked okay. At least the bird hadn't bled himself out to death, which was a good thing. "I'm sure they have some cloth somewhere, for bandages..." she mused a little to herself, as if thinking out loud. Most of them were already in use, indeed; table cloths, blankets over the benches, covering the altar. Surely, though, they had something for injuries somewhere? "Asking someone is a great idea," Fear agreed, nodding excitedly. If they could find a monk or a priest, they would see Nimbus's injury, and they would help, more than likely. They just had to find someone. "I wonder where they could be..."

Suddenly, not far from the two pets, came a presence. It could be felt stalking in the shadows of the shrine, its pawsteps silent and calculating. It felt malevolent and dangerous, a presence someone would not like to meet. And suddenly, a form emerged behind the Kuhna and the Mr. Wilson, its shadow towering over the two. "They would be... not here, heehee," came a snicker behind them, of a malicious pet. Upon turning around, Fear and Nimbus could see who it is that had spoken...



A Mekkayena, its red pelt adorned with gradient orange-to-yellow rosettes, orange sigils glowing atop the black parts of its fur. Its orange liquid glowed like lava under the glass lids, and its blue eyes were laughing with malice. "Stepping into a random shrine, that's not very bright," it cackled like a nasty hyena. It made a few steps further, first towards Fear, with a large grin on its face. "Heehee, I see you've brought me a snack, little Algernon pipsqueak..." Fear only stared back at the Mekkayena, but clearly the two seemed to know each other. The Mekka then turned to Nimbus, making a few steps forward and licking its lips as it did so. "A little small, but tasty-looking nonetheless!"

Nimbus had mentioned he was looking for a Mekkayena. Obviously, he'd found one; but not a Mekka anyone would want to bring back home...

[zapdragon555]

Nimbus wasn't sure what it was, but something was wrong. He turned around to the strange presence he felt behind him, only to come face-to-face with a very mean-looking Mekkayena. The little bird squeaked in surprise and hobbled as fast as he could behind Fear. "P-please don't let him eat me!" he whimpered, latching onto Fear's fluffy tail with his wings. "Wait..." he whispered, looking from Fear's expression to the Mekkayena's. "Fear, do you know this guy?"

(Sorry for the short post. >3<)

(7)

[Jaykobell]

Fear wiggled a little when she felt Nimbus scrambling behind her and clinging onto her tails. Well, she couldn't blame him, that Mekka had just... asked to eat him. "I-I don't think he's serious at all," she meowed to Nimbus, looking behind her until she could see the Mr. Wilson. "H-he's just—"

"She, if you please," the Mekka huffed, her lips curled into a displeased form. "Can't recognize a lady when you see one?" she asked the two, sticking her face close to Fear's, considering her snack had ran away behind the Kuhna. Hah. The bird could try and run as he wanted, but fact remained she was faster than him. The prey can never run away; that was the philosophy in which the Mekka believed. Only the strong survives, and all that good animal world stuff.

When Nimbus asked if Fear knew that Mekka, the Kuhna shifted around a little uncomfortably. She looked back at Nimbus and then glanced at the Mekka, only to eventually look away. "N-not directly," she eventually blurted out, seemingly trying to get away from this awkward situation.

The Mekka chuckled with that hyena-like laugh. "Not directly?" She put her face even closer to Fear's, giving the Kuhna some malicious eyes. "We follow Algernon's every moves, little pipsqueak," she whispered, clicking her claws on the ground as if the paw itself were walking on its own. "I don't know why she sent you here, but you'll tell me, won't you?" She raised her clawed paw to Fear's face, wiggling the toes. "Won't you? And if you're nice, then maybe I won't eat your tiny food there," she proposed as she flicked a claw towards the hiding Nimbus, and she chuckled some more as he eyes turned to the Mr. Wilson. "You don't know what you've gotten yourself into, heehee... And apparently, neither does she! So be nice, and nobody will get hurt... So now tell me: why are you here?"