[Kyarra]

Sunked down on the ground Lynphea had to gasp for breath. This package was way too heavy for her but she has made it. Now she was hoping that the fainted Kuhna recovered and opened up his eyes so that he could eat something to regain his strength.
*wheeze*
"I brought enough food for everyone! Please, help yourself!"
Lynphea was totally overexerted and badly needed some rest "I think I will take a few minutes and rest. My head is swimming!" She felt that the situation was very tense, but what was the reason for that? Questioningly she looked at Sketch.

[QuirkyRabbit]

Sketch looked back at Lynphea with exasperated eyes. He was at a total loss as to what to do now. But he said, "I'm sorry. I'll tell you the whole story again, if you'd like," addressing everybody.

Rapses was sitting over at one side. He had taken a piece of Lynphea's food, but had not eaten anything. By his shoulder, Heka was saying, "If I know you, you will have forgotten this in two or three days, and you will be back to playing pranks on innocent people again, I tell you. If I do not..."
He ignored her, and took a step towards Halo. "Is he going to be alright?"

Halo gently nudged Nivium's body. He was still unconscious, but she was quite sure that he was still alive. When Rapses spoke, she looked at him. She saw that he was still feeling guilty for the tricks he had played earlier, and was genuinely sorry. He spoke again, "How can I help?"
Halo looked down at her paws. "I'm really not sure." She had dealt with cuts and burns before, but this was the first time she had had to save someone who was drowning. She turned Nivium over, and began massaging his chest with her paws.

[Kyarra]

Lynphea was still sitting on the ground, looking at the Kuhna in front of her. She didn't know him but she was very anxious about him. 'Why can't anybody help him?' she thought to herself. Then suddenly Halo began massaging the chest of the Kuhna. Lynphea walked towards the Kuhna and held one of her wings above his nose. "He is breathing!" she said "I can feel his breath on my feathers. It's faint, but it's there!"

Then suddenly Lynphea had an idea "Wait!" she said to Halo "I have an idea! I know a rare plant deep in the woods which may possibly help us wake him up. The roots of this plant smell terribly but they say that you can use them to wake people up. I think we should look for this plant and let him smell this."

[Kestrel]

Viritra kept her back turned, ignoring everyone else. This was her way to counteract the worry and panic she really felt, though she knew it was making everyone else miserable, she wasn’t she if she could deal with her emotions yet.
Selfish... her practical side told her.
I know that, but what else am I suppose to do? her other side yelled back.
Let the anger go. Accept the facts. Nivium’s alive. What is there to worry about? was the counter.
The answer to that was broken by Lynphea’s return. While she was too distracted to continue her mental argument, her decision was to remain “uncaring”. When the Magistrey began talking, however, the unpractical side of her took over.
“Of course he’s alive!” she yelled, spinning around. “We would’ve buried him by know if he wasn’t! As for the plant, he’s not sleeping! He’s unconscious!”
I have a feeling you made her feel really bad, the practical side said.

“Thanks,” Malora said gratefully, moving towards the food. “We really appreciate it.”
Chewing on a bright red berry, she listened to what Sketch had to say, as well as Halo, Heka, and Rapses. She swallowed, and then told Sketch, “Maybe later. Viritra’s in a mood, and I’m not really sure what’ll make it better or worse.
If given the time, Viritra would slowly become less angry. Malora didn’t know that, as Viritra didn’t get worried or panicked often.
“He’ll get better.”
I  hope, Malora added to herself.
“I don’t know. Just, make sure you’re not in the way.”
“It’s OK, Lynphea,” Malora moved over to the Magistrey, in case she was hurt by Viritra’s words. “She’s just in a foul mood. But I don’t think the plant’s going to work, and you should rest some more.”
The pressure was forcing her to be serious, practical, and mature.

{20}{20}{20}

[QuirkyRabbit]

"I don't know..." Sketch lowered his voice, so he wouldn't risk antagonizing Viritra with his words. "Like the smellingsalts I've heard humans have, they can wake up unconscious people as well..." His eyes shifted towards Viritra, and his voice trailed away. He turned to Lynphea, and his voice was barely a whisper. "I think maybe we could at least try to find that root. It would be better than sitting around and doing nothing..." He looked around at the others for approval. Rapses looked unsure, but he nodded slightly.

At the same time, Halo looked down. "Maybe... but it might also make him..." She continued to massage Nivium's chest, still clinging to the hope that he would open his eyes. Lynphea was right; he was still breathing, but his breath was really faint. "I mean, we don't know what..." She gave up trying to put her tumult of thoughts into words, and padded after Viritra. "I'm sorry, Viritra. We're doing all we can."

[Kyarra]

"Sure, we could try to find such a root…" Lynphea obviated to sketch so she was able to lower her voice "…but I would not be able to dig it up. Anyone else would have to."
She looked over to Halo. "Strong paws will be needed for this job. I can't dig them up with my talons, but I could help to find it."




(OOC: sorry….writer's block oO )

[Kestrel]

”I could help you dig,” Malora offered. “I don’t have anything else to do.”
And I can find some more leaves on the way, she thought.
Her leaves were quite hard to find. They had to be the type that could withstand her potions, which she used to keep them looking green or brown and crumpled-looking, but flexible. They couldn’t be too small or too big. They couldn’t be a really unusual shape. And the trees couldn’t be too tall. Losing a few of them made Malora unhappy. She had spent hours finding them all.

Viritra’s mental wall had several holes in it. Halo had created another one. She could feel her practical side taking over, little by little, and she knew it was either continuing to fight for a bit, or just let it win. She went with the latter, as it was easier, and made her companions feel better.
She sighed, relaxed, and turned around.
“I’m sorry for my behaviour earlier,” she said regretfully.
A bit formal? she thought to herself the moment the words were out of her mouth.
After a second, something hit her.
“Can anyone get a fire going? The water was cold, so it could warm him and dry him at the same time!” she exclaimed, running into the forest to collect dry leaves and sticks.

{21}{21}{21}

[QuirkyRabbit]

Rapses approached Lynphea. "I'll go with you too." Heka noticed the slight gleam in his eye, but couldn't really read it. She hoped that it meant that he really wanted to help.

Halo also shot Rapses a suspicious look, but Sketch interrupted her. "A fire... We could try to start sparks with some rocks, and we'll need some firewood too." He immediately started searching the undergrowth, as if he expected to find the materials right there. He looked up at Halo and Viritra. "Don't just sit there. Help!"

So Halo and Sketch shuffled around. They found a few small rocks near the river, which were rough and ideal for lighting a fire. But firewood was a little harder. Sketch's search had turned up several decently-sized branches and leaves, but they were too damp to use for the fire. When Halo pointed that out, Sketch lost his temper. "If you think it's so easy, let's see you do a better job!"

[Kyarra]

Lynphea looked at Malora and Rapses "Okay! Sorry in advance if my request is a little bit impudently, but may I rest on your shoulder?" she asked and turned to Rapses "I'm still exhausted from carrying all the food this way." She looked at Rapses hopefully he would not get angry and yell at her, but if she had to walk all the way to find the plant she would hold up the group. And just now her wings were too weak to fly with them.

___________________
((OOC: I'm soooo sorry for not being around. But I was sick the last days!! Sorry!))

[QuirkyRabbit]

"Erm..." Rapses tried to say something, but hesitated. Lynphea's request was a little unexpected, and she was almost as big as Rapses was. But she had been flying around and finding food for them, she was probably as tired as she sounded.

Then Heka interrupted his thoughts, as usual. "Well, of course he's going to give you a ride!" she said to both Lynphea and Rapses. After all you've done to help us we can't thank you enough, and we must repay your kindness in some way..." He tried to push her high, tinny voice from his head, but found that he couldn't.

"Alright..." he said, with a tint of reluctance in his voice. He lay down next to Lynphea and said, "Climb on."

[Kestrel]

"Ni-," Viritra stopped mid-word. She had been about to ask Nivium to start the fire, saving the others from some extra work, but remembered he had almost drowned in the river, and therefore was incapable of starting a fire.

Wasn't I going to help Lynphea? Malora thought guiltily, as she returned with a few (wet) pieces of wood, watching the Imuet and Magistrey prepare to leave.
Well, she probably has enough help, I guess, with Rapses, she decided after a while, and threw her wood to where Sketch had deposited his.
So she headed back into the forest, eyes trained on the ground for any dead leaves or dry sticks, not inclined to the join the arguement in the least. She had missed what Halo noticed, but would've ignored it anyway. What Rapses did didn't interest her very much, unless he was helping her brother, of course. A thought struck her. What if Nivium never fully recovered? And if he did, would he ever approach water again? If he didn't, that would be a complication their Plan could do without. She and Viritra wouldn't force him to be near water, of course, but it would really complicate their plans. Viritra would have to plan even more, to make sure Nivium never had to go near water, unless, of course, he wouldn't be afraid of water. But it in his position, she surely would never want to see water in large quantities ever again. Then again, he could grow out of it, but how long would that take?

Viritra had spent the last few minutes collecting herself, and attempting to ignore Sketch and his snapping. She could easily have let her feelings go, exploding again, but she had just experienced that, and didn't enjoy it.

{22}{22}{22}

[Kyarra]

((OOC: Sorry for the repeated delay - stress at work *sighs*))

While Rapses was carrying Lynphea she noticed that her request to him was a bad idea. He couldn't carry her the whole time and she was not sure how long they would have to search for the plant. So Lynphea decided to walk on her own and jumped off Rapses shoulder. The group would be slower but she was definitely not able to fly at the moment.

"We have to go much deeper into the woods" she said "We have to look out for a very small plant. To cut the matter short – the plant is tiny. The only chance to discover her is her color – she is luminous blue, but she hides between trees and in the underwoods. So we have to look closely."
she said and leaded Rapses deeper into the forest.

[QuirkyRabbit]

Rapses followed Lynphea into the undergrowth. Heka buzzed around for a moment to see if Malora would follow, but soon rejoined the other two in their search for the plant. Rapses sniffed around here and there, but found nothing more than common grass and dirt. After a while, he grew frustrated. "Are you sure about this?" he asked Lynphea.

Back at the waterfall, Sketch glared at Halo as she sorted through the branches he had found, picking out the driest ones. "These will have to do..." she pawed at the dismal pile of twigs and short branches. "There won't be any good firewood here, we'll just have to keep looking. But she sensed Sketch's irritation, so she decided to put some distance between them, and flew to the other side of the river to look for firewood there.

"Hurmph!" Sketch announced once Halo was out of earshot. "Let's see you do a better job..." he said again. But he knew that it might take a while to wake Nivium up, and so resolved to be more focused for once.

[Kestrel]

Viritra's spirits fell with the rain. Now there was no chance they could get a fire going. The water would also make Nivium colder and wetter. If only they had never found that accursed hole, or whatever it had been!

As she headed back to the woodpile, she noticed Nivium twitching. She ran the rest of the way and knelt by Nivium's side.
"Why's he twitching, Halo? What's wrong?" she asked worriedly, turning every which way to find the Sahound through the rain, which was becoming heavier every second.

Nivium was dreaming. He dreamed there was water around, water everywhere. He twisted and thrashed, trying to get out of the pouring water. The dream vaguely reminded him of something that had happened before, something that seemed so long ago.
There the water wasn't pouring down, he thought, then rolled over and started another dream.

{23}{23}{23}

[Kyarra]

"Of course!" said Lynphea and disappeared in the undergrowth. For a few seconds there was silence and then suddenly there was rustling from the leaves and branches crackled. After a few minutes Lynphea came out of the undergrowth "Nothing! We have to continue the searching. It has to be somewhere around here! I'm sure!"

She looked desperately to Rapses "I'm not sure, but perhaps you could smell the plant. It's smells incredibly disgusting. A blend of wet forest soil, putrid animal corpses and old mocopus – some kind of graveyard smell I would say." she said to him while she went straight up to the next undergrowth area.