[Freezair]

Ah, it felt good to smell the sea again.

I thought I'd never get the smell of the swamp out of my nostrils. Oh, if only someone had the foresight to invent shampoo for your nose hairs! Never mind the impractabilty of appling such a solution; the stench of dying algae had been haunting me for an eternity. The crisp, salty chill of the sea air expunged all the green lingerings from my head and left me feeling refreshed.

There was slight air traffic here. Skycutter hung low to avoid the Magistreys puffing through the updrafts. Heavy yet deft, her talons avoided clipping the tops of the trees--yet I was sure I felt more than a few coconuts pushed to the ground by the heavy pressure of her downbeat.

We glided smoothly into the lot stationed in front of the hotel. A few of the other mounts, their reins looped around the heavy posts, shied at the flap of Sky's flowing stone wings. A Blood Tuskow reared her front hooves as nearly as her stocky frame would allow, and one of them horsey-critters (can never remember the name o' them) pawed back towards his pole. I dismounted off the side, then fixed the slide I'd made in Sky's saddle. Krii blazed toward the ground in a single, flamelike leap, hitting the ground in a sturdy splay. My eyes could not follow him as he wound around my legs, scaling the dips in my clothing and mounting my backpack.

I stroked Sky's beak. "I'll be back in a second," I told her, and Krii and I entered the hotel.

The lobby, though capacious, felt very claustrophobic. There seemed to be no order to the arrangement of furniture, applying to both the puffy armchairs in the carpeted sitting area and the wooden benches in the tiled rotunda. The disarray might have worried me had I not seen the otherwise fine state of the furniture. Everything was dusted, swept, polished and vacuumed.

I approached the couter and asked the receptionist about my reservations. We argued over my stable arrangements for a few minutes. Finally he seemed to agree with me, and he told me I could begin bringing my luggage in.

This would not have been a problem were the hotel's doors somewhat wider. As it was, Skycutter could not fit through them. This increased the work I had to do greatly.

If I didn't find someone to help me, I had several trips to make.

[Kelica]

I don't know how my pets do it. Seriously, I don't see how one can sleep on the back of a garudor. Now it wasn't my faithful garudor's back I was on, it was a garudor from a pack that owed my Troken in some way. They were happy to fly me to Jawan, of course they had to pick their strongest flyer to carry a teenager,a Fenling and Lucian.

We alighted down into the parking lot and the garudor flew off. It was the right hotel, thank goodness. I was almost too tired to stand right now, and then I spotted the trainer with a Garudor, a Rengosett, and a load of luggage. "Need any help?" I asked, despite my tiredness.

[Freezair]

"YES."

Then I thought I might have been overenthusiastic. I admit, I'm not usually one for tact. But suppose this person was offended that I wanted their help? Well, no, I mean, I did offer it, or they offered it, but what if leaping at the chance made me seem too greedy? Or lazy? Or...

Sharp, pointed fingers tugged my ankle. Krii took the hem of my trousers and tried to manually walk me over to the person offering to help me. I chuckled nervously and told him to get down.

"Uh, yes. Sorry. I do. Normally Skycutter here would help me carry my things inside and then go to the stables, but these doorways are awfully small and..."

That tiny portion of my brain that devotes itself to manners, despite how the rest of it acts, reminded me that I was forgetting something. I stuck out my hand, testing the waters. "I'm Jimmy, by the way. Nice to meet you."

[Kelica]

"Hi, I'm Kelica." I said, shaking the hand offered to me. "Yeah, those are pretty small doors. My cousin would think it's pure injustice that a Garudor can't fit. She adores Garudors, through and through." I giggled to myself a bit at thinking about Kara's reaction to the doors. I picked up the nearest of the girl's cases. "Sunfruit! Get over here and help!" I snapped to my Lucian, as Flare was already starting to try and pick up something.

[Freezair]

That was when I noticed him.

'Nine.

It was probably rude of me. But I never notice those things as I'm doing them. I mean, suppose someone broke a mirror over my head. I'd be more concerned with finding the nearest four-leaf clover than looking out for shards of glass at my feet. I'm superstitious; that's just who I am. I know that most people would probably not condone my actions anyway; no excuse, they'd say. But my nerves were the ones talking.

I snatched away the luggage near the Lucian. "No!"

Yes, even then I think I caught Krii muttering. "Oh, no... not again..."

((OOC: Jimmy believes dogs bring bad luck. She's worried about it "brushing off" on her stuff.))

[Kelica]

((I read that in Banister's thread, no worries.X3))

I could see Sunfruit smiling behind my back. And I thought for a second I heard him whisper:"Yes!"  "Don't think you can go with being lazy for much longer." I snapped. "You haven't done anything to help since we got on that Garudor's back." He rolled his eyes at me and retorted. "I don't need luggage slowing me down, that's all." Oh yeah, like a bunch of paper, a pencil, and an eraser slowed him down. "Oh, if you really don't want him helping then that's fine by me, it's just all he's done is write since we left home." I said to the trainer. Well, at least it's more productive than playing computer all day was my original thought, but it turned out it was annoying, beacause he's pretty oblivious most of the time, but when he's writing, it's worse, he'll ignore anything I say.

Flare meanwhile had scuttled over to Krii. "What again? Does she have something against Lucians?" She asked curiously, that was indeed an interesting reaction, seeing as most people adored Lucians.

[Freezair]

((OOC: OK, just making sure. It can be hard doing "negative roleplaying" when you're not very well known and worried about offending people. XP))

"Yeah. The kook thinks dogs bring bad luck. And that's not just your Lucians, mind you, same goes for your Sahounds, Learfs, all that. Don't ask me where it came from."

I tried to ignore Krii's mildly cynical comments. I felt as if I shouldn't have to explain myself. I scrambled as much luggage as I could away from the critter, trying to prevent any of his hairs from latching off onto it.

But I heard my benefactor muttering about her... companion. Write? He wrote? He told stories, maybe? I was unsettled. Were dogs capable of such a thing? Should this appease the creature to me, or should I now worry for the sanctity of my profession? Arms dragged down by baggage, I stood for a moment, pondering my situation.

Sky cawed. I think she was getting annoyed.

[Kelica]

Flare looked at the Rengosett. "I see. Kelica here adores canines, she couldn't leave a Fenling alone if she tried in praticular." I rolled my eyes at her, I couldn't scold her, even I knew I couldn't leave them alone. I picked up some of the girls cases and headed inside.

After a mini-debate with the person at the counter, I gave the key to Sunfruit and he headed to our room. "You coming in?" I asked the other trainer. "And Flare, could you hurry up?" I added for my Fenling. "Coming." I could hear her saying to me, well not really, it's kinda like a voice in my head when she talks to me, as she uses telepathy. Kinda confusing really, but it keeps what me and Flare want secret a secret.

[Freezair]

"Yeah. Sorry." In one of those airheaded moments, I dropped my luggage down beside Sky--again--to follow the other trainer.

I remembered. D'oh. Back down again. Then up the stairs. I think my brain must have been buried in that luggage somewhere.

Krii seemed to be continuing his conversation with the Fenling. Really? I've never really thought of of Fenlings as dogs. They always looked kinda like ringtails to me. Do you think of yourself as a canine, then?

[Kelica]

"Well," Flare continued. "Okoto says Fenlings are canines and he's just about the smartest pet in our pen. Kelica says they're just Fenlings though. I don't know who to believe sometimes." I headed up the stairs as Flare chatted and put the luggage outside the trainer's door.

As I left the trainer I asked her: "Wanna come walking around Jawan with me tommorow? The more the merrier, they always say." I always wondered to myself who 'they' were, but I alwways figured it wasn't important. I'm one to wonder, especially those unawnserable questions. I'm especially fond of those, but Okoto figures they're junk. Typical. Wait, I think I've departed a bit too far from earth, and I looked back at the trainer.

[Freezair]

Kelica's question set me slightly on edge. Would bad luck from her rub off on me? I scattered my luggage on the bedspread in my hotel room, pondering the question. Krii must have seen the distant, "thinking" look in my eyes and deduced what I was wondering, because he rolled his thick black eyes.

Still, he's a writer. Writers give good critiques, don't they?

But what if...?

But isn't there a chance he could...?

Or did he understand...?

I was doing it again, I realized. I let my mind keep me prisoner once more. I tried not to hesitate in giving my answer, but I think it came out a little long thanks to the sheer effort of my concern. I couldn't help trembling a little.

"Uumm... s-s-sure... And would you... I mean could I... Um..." Gulp. "Think I could pratice some of my storytelling on you and yours? I have a performance tomorrow."

[Kelica]

"Sure! That's fine." I said, smiling. "Sunfruit would love to hear, but if you have a problem with him, that's fine too." I said, thinking about her strange reaction earlier. Then I heard that Rengosett say the trainer thought canines were bad luck... Well, didn't matter right now. If Sunfruit was busy writing, then I guess he couldn't come. I did remember how Sunfruiut had explained it... "Writing is my wall of obliviousness, it's so tall I can't hear you, and my mind is on the paper anyway." Ah well.

[Freezair]

"Oh. So your Lucian can't come? Ah, well... Um."

Here was that tide of mixed feelings again. It felt a little bit like acid, washing up from my stomach and tickling the bottom of my heart. Irreverant of my emotions, my mind made a mental note to pick up a roll of antacids from the hotel's store.

I headed down the stairs, aiming for the double doors of the lobby. Krii followed me clunkily. Scaling the steps was no problem for him--he took them not as individual escarpments, but a flowing slope--but he always seemed to stumble a little on the descent. I looked behind me to see if Kelica was following.

Trying to be nice--wondering if I already was meaning what I was saying--I said, "Too bad. I really would have valued a fellow storyteller's opinion."

I glanced at Krii, expecting him to be pulling faces, be he seemed just as bemused as me. What did I mean, really?

[Kelica]

"Oh, so you'd like him to come?" I looked down the stairs at her. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around to see Sunfruit. "I just finished my story, I figured instead of starting a new one, I would come and be socialable."

A smirk on his face, I figured the 'socialable' thing was just a joke. "He's here now." I said to the trainer down the stairs. Wow, what impecable timing, I never thought Sunfruit could be like that. He's always the early bird, coming before you need him, then getting bored and leaving before you need him. Flare was beside him, smiling as well. Odd. But I guess it would have to wait.

[Freezair]

Well, THAT was sure brilliant, Jimmy. Now whether I wanted one or not, I had a dog along for the ride.

I tried not to envision him as a dog as I exited the hotel. I imagined that I was being followed by a young man with a pencil and a pad of paper, a cartoonish thought-cloud flowing over his head that ran with ideas. That made me feel slightly better, so long as I took care not to look behind me. I was probably overstripping my assistants by several feet.

Krii, at least, was barking--wait, no, bad choice of words--at me to slow down. I paused. I looked for Sky in my brief respite. She was yattering with a few other Garudors and a Cavallion or two near the enterance to the stables, but it was in Garudor-speak. One day I hoped to be able to teach Sky to speak for herself, but I felt she needed to see more of the world first.