[Cookie]

The fleecy clouds dotted the light blue skies today as the copper headed wagon driver steered their way to a small, remote tribe in Africa, waving pleasantly to everyone he passed along the way. The tribes hunters were out before first light and seemed alarmed at the approaching wagon. Adrian could hear shouts in a tongue he hardly understood among the higher ranking hunters, their gestures seeming to indicate they were talking about his Insonia, Valan. One of the hunters made a snapping jaw motion with his hands, causing Adrian to chuckle slightly as he urged the cream and pink Insonia onward. The hunters were used to travelers coming in for trades and festivals, but it seemed like they had never seen a creature like Valan, the two headed lizard beast.



A soft rustling came from inside the Wagon as a young girl climbed into the front seat with Adrian, rubbing away the sleep still in her dirty golden eyes. "Are we there yet?" Lala whined in her soft voice, stretching her arms out as she yawned. "See the smoke and huts over there?" Adrian pointed to a small tribe a mile in the direction they were heading, fixing the scarf Lala wore on the top of her head. "Are Val and Anica still asleep in the back?" he asked, knowing the answer. "They're pooped from their pirate adventure."

{Adrian: 1, Valan: 1, Lala: 1}

[Pio]

Rolling over again and again, not quite able to get away from the beams of light reflecting from outside on the many trinkets this wagon was stuffed with and sizzling from the African heat, Anica finally sat up. Her dreads were a fossil of sand and dried salt water and her face was partially plastered with drool. Rubbing her crusty eyes, she was mindful of Valeria,"you awake?" her scratchy voice tried to ask her friend as she pulled the mess of scarves and blankets off of her to get up.
She crept barefoot to one of the cupboards in the well stocked wagon, pulling out a couple small round loaves of hard bread, and taking a swig from the wine sac that hung on a hook to the right of it, she retreated back to the messy padded mat they called a bed and hung one of the loaves over what she thought was Val's head under the large mound of blankets, "you might actually die if you don't get up soon." she said in a much clearer voice this time before she shoved her own bread in her mouth.

{Anica:1}

[Cookie]

   
Val could hear the soft movement of Anica, but she was far from wanting to wake up. "I'm already dead" the girl complained, moving the blankets even further over her head and hunkering down. "See? Dead." The gypsy didn't even want to think about how bright it would be when she got up, and she was still a bit too hungover to want to deal with that. Their drunken pirate adventure together had left her exhausted, and she was sure the movement of the wagon didn't help her upset stomach. "Cant you guys just let me sleep for like, a few more days." she yawned, "only a few more."

    "I guess Val is just going to miss all of the delicious food, wonderful music and dancing, and oh... did I mention the beautiful jewelry? I suppose she can find such beautiful hand crafted pieces somewhere else if she looks hard enough." Adrian winked at Lala who could only giggle while she turned in her seat and pulled part of the cloth separating them from the inside of the wagon. "You promised we would try to find a kitty wherever we went next, Valeria. Pinky promised." The younger girl made her way back into the wagon, arms crossed and staring down at the lump that was the older girls head. "I'm pretty sure if there were ever any cats here, Lala, they would have eaten them."

{Valeria: 1, Adrian: 2, Lala: 2, Valan: 2}

[Pio]

Anica made a rascally expression to Lala that said  'can you believe this ham?' She herself felt rather awful, but the bread was helping a little. With a huff, Anica gave up on holding Val's bread in place and simply let it fall from her hand and thunk the blankets that were piled on Val. Anica worked her way to the other side of the mat and then walked down to the back door of the wagon, she unlatched the top half and swung the window open. humid heat burst into her face and sand flew like embers to the sides of her sight.
Her vision screeched in protest to the light, but she was too excited to look away. This was the first time Anica had ever seen the balmy lands that resided beyond the sea, "I thought you said there would be more trees, Adrian!" she called skeptically, "Looks like a lot of dirt, dead grass, and sad shrubs to me!"
The dirt was a light brown, and while there may have been dead grass, this area was full of deep greens and impressive twisted trees. There may have been many empty areas in the plains, but they were very close to a rainforest.
"Oh look! a naked ma- Many naked men! Val, you're missing out here."she laughed as she waved at the dark skinned men, gathered in the thin grass, watching them pass. They weren't really naked, but the very little coverage they did don was barely notable at such a distance.

{Anica:2}

[Cookie]

The little girl wasn't sure who she should huff at now, Val or Adrian. They didn't eat cats! Who could eat such cute things! Adrian was just jealous that Val wasn't going to find him a kitty. Grabbing her own loaf of bread and stuffing it into one of her large pockets, Lala kicked the lump that was Val lightly. "Get up lazy head."

When the loaf of bread dropped on Val's head she squirmed a bit, moaning and groaning the entire time as she tried to find her way out from under the blankets. When her head emerged, she covered her eyes quickly "Someone turn down the suuunnn." she cried, spreading her fingers every few seconds to try to adjust.

Glancing back at the girls and shaking his head, Adrian lead Valan to a nice clearing by the huts where they could be close, but out of the way. "Hm, did I say that? I don't recall." People from the village were already staring, most likely at the lizard beast they had instead of the normal horses. When he finally found a good spot, Adrian stopped the wagon and hopped off, putting the breaks on so the wagon wouldn't roll. Normally he would let Valan roam wherever he wanted now, but the gypsy wasn't sure that was a good idea in this instance.

{Valeria: 2, Adrian: 3, Lala: 3, Valan: 3}

[Pio]

Anica shook out her thick dread locks and rubbed them each down with a rag quickly before wrapping them back with a scarf. Ignoring Valeria's pleas, as she was too caught up in the excitement of what was going on around them, the moss clad gypsy threw the rag into it's cubby, "Adrian! Are you going over to the tribe there first thing for introduction? I think we could use the delay to get ourselves up!" She called from inside to their wagon leader, "Lala, you could go with him if you're up and ready to go" she smiled as she pulled down a mirror and applied her face makeup and stuffed some Sandal wood incense sticks into her hair. After glancing at Valeria's emerged face, Anica busted out laughing. Walking back over to the food cupboard, An pulled out a jar of water, unscrewing the top, she poured some onto her skirt and offered it to wipe the ink smudges off of Val's face, "your mustache sure had it's own adventure all over your face" she laughed at her friend. She took a swig of the jar herself, then took a deep breath, her head was swimming slightly, and her stomach had a deep set nausea, suddenly the excitement wore off.
"Here"she offered Val the jar of water as she plopped back onto the mat," you should probably drink this, that much rum dries the body out." she said as she felt all of her energy drain. That was it, all the energy she had for today, up like a sand storm, down with the wind.

{Anica:3}

[Cookie]

Val groaned, her body aching and disagreeing with the thought of moving. She was sure it would repay her for getting up later with a bit of puking mixed with dizziness, but she wanted to be up for the festivities. "I think next time we shouldn't beat each other with wooden swords. Maybe... feather pillows or something instead..." Even though her stomach protested the consumption of anything right now, even water, she took the jar. Reaching for one of the rags close by, she poured a bit of water onto it and dabbed her runny make-up off her face. "At least mine comes off"

Hearing the commotion inside the wagon, Adrian started opening up the back to fill his coin purse back up and to grab a few goods to offer the leaders of the tribe. Having set aside a few choice pendents and bowls for this occasion, he gathered them and placed what he could in his bag. "Hey, be nice." he said to Val, glancing at Anica for a second "I like her mustache." After he had gathered all of his things, he placed a hand on his hip and looked at the two hot messes of women he had brought along with him. "Don't take too long cleaning yourselves up now. Want to come meet some new people Lala?

"Sure! But I'm going to keep my eye out for a kitty! You're silly, thinking people eat kitties, Adrian!" Skipping out of the wagon, Lala was feeling much better than the other girls. Even though she had tried to catch monkey's like the other two, she had quickly given up when one of them flung poo at her, and spent the rest of the trip below deck with Valan. Hopping onto the ground and causing dust to roll into the wagon, she posed, ready for the adventure. "Forward!"

{Valeria: 3, Adrian: 4, Lala: 4, Valan: 4}

[Pio]

"O come now, you already made us fight with wood! What pirates have you ever heard of that fight with anything less than a real rapier." Anica said with a roll of her eyes, "Though.. falling from the sail onto something like a pile of ropes was unfortunate." she rubbed at her lower side, "Maybe next time we play on a feather boat instead." She concluded with a side sneer. Anica just laughed silently at their jests, too drained to retaliate now. "It's my pride and joy" She finally said with a proud chuckle as she stroked her upper lip, partially checking that there really wasn't a fungus growing there or a make-up-stache, she was sure to glance at her fingers just in case.

She felt an overwhelming dizziness as soon as Lala hoped out of the wagon, falling back on the mat she groaned, "I'm thinking a little more sleep wouldn't hurt. They'll come back for us, yes?" she said in a mumble to Valeria. "Best luck finding your shah, Lala!" Anica called as enthusiastically as she could manage, tossing a scarf over her lower face to keep the sudden intrude of dust out of it. ("Shah" as in "chat" is the french term for "cat".) She laid there staring at the peek of the roof of the old wagon, the whole den was lit up with flecks of lights off jewelry and coins, "Vaaall, could you pull out some ginger, peppermint, and carrots? I feel useless." Anica said through slowly closing eyelids.

{Anica:4}

[Cookie]

Coughing a bit as the dust rolled in, Val yawned and made an attempt to move, her body aching and cracking along the way. When she had finally pulled herself up and out of the slump she was in, she looked around for the items Anica wanted. Pulling a few jars of various herbs and spices down, she finally found the ones she was looking for, taking enough out of each for her friend. "Is this some quick cure for... everything I have right now? Because we might run Adrian dry on this stuff if it is. I feel horrible." Val wasn't the herb specialist Anica was, but she wasn't about to pass up on a cure to this.

Adrian and Lala made their way into the tribe, smiling and waving at everyone they passed. Both of them were glad to be off the ship, unlike the other two who were having a blast during their trip. While there were no signs of any cats, Lala skipped and carried on looking, almost leaving Adrian behind. "Alright Lala, I believe this is the elders hut. If not... well, lets hope someone doesn't hog tie us and sacrifice us on the hill of enemies." The younger girls eyes grew big as she followed him into the hut, taking care to stay right behind him. Maybe if they didn't see her, they would just sacrifice Adrian.

{Valeria: 4, Adrian: 5, Lala: 5, Valan: 5}

[Pio]

"Sort of, it'll help the head aches, nausea, dizziness, and uhh.. Do we have any chamomile? Add it in if we do." Anica said as she pulled the scarf over her eyes as well, "I'll get up and chop it...all... and..." she was nodding off, it would have been a clean slip into slumber had a thud from outside not woke her up with a start, "Jenedormaispa-!" she said it so quickly the word "sleep" was all that would have been identifiable. With a groan she got up and went over to the counter, "I'll chop this up" she said as she pulled her knife from her bodice, sat it to the side, and then began laying out the contents. She had completely disregarded the loud thud that hit the wagon. Surely her first instinct should have been to go out and find out what it was, but instead, she just worked on her hangover remedy. Apparently the Gypsy thought she'd just heard the wagon cracking as wood often does. She was completely ignorant to the following sounds of tiny padded feet on the top of the wagon, or the screeching she likely excused for birds and not lemurs, which to anyone else, would have been obvious.

{Anica:5}

[Cookie]

Fiddling through the assortment of jars they had, Val finally found everything they were looking for. The little feet scampering on the roof of the wagon didn't phase her any bit, she was too lost in her own little world, making her morning tea. "I really hope we can go somewhere with some fabulous silks and jewelry. We need to start making and selling dresses... if we don't keep them all." As they were talking and carrying on, making tea's and other concoctions to help them feel better, one of the lemurs had founds its way in from the front of the wagon, watching the two carefully before spotting something shiny behind the girls.

Thankfully for Adrian and Lala the hut was the one the elders stayed in and they were all enjoying their evening meal. When one of the younger men saw them enter, he seemed excited and motioned for them to join. Taking their seats on the ground with the rest of the elders, they were brought bowls of food from the women. Adrian took the bowl graciously, "Dankie" he told the woman before she left, knowing at least a bit of Afrikaans. Not even knowing what kind of food was in the bowl, Adrian followed the elders example of eating the meat with his hands, not giving the strange substance a second thought. Lala, on the other hand, was a bit more wary of what she ate. The last thing the young girl wanted to do was eat a poor kitty... but she was very hungry. Taking a tentative bite and deciding that it was okay to eat, she carried on as well, shoving pieces into her mouth as if she hadn't ate in days. In reality though, the scrawny girl was just a piglet.

{Valeria: 5, Adrian: 6, Lala: 6, Valan: 6}

[Pio]

The green wearing gypsy who was dicing and double dicing everything as finely as she could in her state, nodded, "My mother taught me some good ways to make large spinning skirts for dances. We could make dresses with lots of skirts." Anica hummed as she piled more and more bunches of ginger, carrots, and so on to the side, "we should probably boil this first, but go ahead and mash it all up in a bowl and add some water.. or just eat it as is. It will work the same way." Anica shrugged as she chopped more for herself. It would be better to make it into a paste and eat it like pudding, not that it would taste like pudding. Or make it into a tea, but tea was not very concentrated and it was better to actually eat the mix, "Just drink lots of water with it. Need to wash it all out."
Anica threw some of her herb blend into her mouth to suck on and kept diligently to her dicing, also unaware of the lemur that was now gingerly hopping just behind them.

{Anica:6}

[Cookie]

Val just sort of watched Anica, raised eyebrow and unsure of if this was even worth it. "Well uh... I..." Taking the bit that was hers, she studied it for a moment, sticking her finger into the paste and tasted it. It tasted god awful, and the texture was just as bad. How did Anica even stand this stuff? Reluctantly though, she scooped the rest of the paste into her mouth and chased it with one of the bottles of water sitting around, trying to get it down as fast as she could so she didn't have to taste it. Clenching her eyes closed, trying to imagine drinking rum or anything besides this, she couldn't see the lemur who had made his way further into the wagon. Glancing around he grabbed a nice broach, studying it before holding it in his mouth and scurrying out of the place before anyone could catch him.

"Thank you for letting us join you." Adrian told them, in broken Afrikaans, his understanding of the language a bit rusty from lack of use. Whatever he had said though didn't seem to be offensive to the leaders though, as they continued eating and talking in their tongue. "My group and I traveled for the festivities here, and for the trading." This time he also made hand gestures of people walking, spreading his arms out to indicate the whole area around them. Lala sat quietly stuffing her mouth, as more and more food was brought to her. In some other places, it might have been seen as rude to each so much of their food, but the ladies that had cooked it were delighted that the little foreign girl loved it so much. Gushing over her in their native tongue, the women even gave her various other dishes of unknown substances, which all were well received by Lala.

"And I come bearing gifts" Adrian had almost forgot about those, taking the few pendants and smaller bowls out of his bag and setting it before the elders who appeared to be delighted over such gifts. Many of them told him thank you in their native tongue, handing down the gifts from one to the other to examine them.

{I'm going to skip a bit of time here soon so that I can bring Adrian and Lala back to you. I hate leaving you with so little to reply to :c}
{Valeria: 6, Adrian: 7, Lala: 7}

[Pio]

"It's as good as the apples of Greek myth, no?" Anica teased. It just tasted like less of a head ache and a settled stomach as far as she was concerned, but Anica knew the difference of disagreeable and honestly horrible flavor. It may not of made her a very good food critic, but she used her sense of smell to judge such things.
Fighting the urge to go back to bed, she noted that the sun was low in the sky, "well, looks like we don't have to entertain for too long before sleep" she mumbled to herself hopefully while glancing at one of the slitted windows, she then poured her own blend into one of the water jars and took a few large gulps, "Should we wait for Adrian and Lala or go out to them?" she asked her friend, equally unaware of their escaping thief. Lala and Adrian were away for a long time now, though Anica wasn't aware of how long, everything she did felt sluggish right now.

{Anica:7}

[Cookie]

Finding a seat on the floor among the many pillows and blankets, the gypsy girl was a few blinks away from sleep. Trying to keep herself awake was a chore, and the thought of going back to her dreams made it hard to resist. Making a grunting noise at the comment about the taste of the substance, she pulled a few covers over herself, grabbing a pillow and holding it against her chest. "How much trouble could they possibly get in? They will be fine... hopefully." Val was sleepy, and she didn't even know the first thing about this place. Finding Adrian and Lala here, even if they stood out like sore thumbs, would be like looking for needles in a haystack. "Some sleep... will do us good..." and this time, she allowed herself to drift off.

Company with the elders was going fantastic for the other two though, even if they could not understand the language. After they had finished eating, Adrian and Lala started to make their way back to the wagon. The sun was setting and even they the ones first to rise this morning were growing tired. Dragging her feet, Lala yawned and tried to find the energy to move despite being so full. Picking the small girl up, Adrian carried her back the rest of the way, entering the wagon silently and setting the now sleeping girl down in the blankets. Finding some spare covers, he tucked her in and whispered goodnight.

{Didn't need to skip too much time, huh?}
{Valeria: 7, Adrian: 8, Lala: 8}