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Post by Akikaze Kitsune-Onna on Oct 3, 2007 16:04:01 GMT -8
The sound of the birds chirping, the soft sound of the lapping of the water against the shore, and the soft brushing noise of paint against canvas. A small paintbrush was held in the soft furry hand of the fox woman as she painted the scene before her, the sparkling waters, the forest surrounding it, and the small birds that were settled on the lake, the ducks, swans, and the awkward-looking goose, poor thing. Slowly, Akikaze took a step back from the painting, looking at it and comparing it to the landscape behind. "How beautiful..." she muttered, smiling.
Stepping forward again, she picked up the canvas and walked to the surface of the lake, sitting down beside the lapping waters, allowing them to wash around her furred feet. She cradled the painting in her lap, and stared out over the top of it to the beautiful scene in front of her. "Lovely, just lovely..." she said happily, her emerald eyes running over the painting again. Her gaze turned from the scene captured on the canvas to the real life scene before her. "Come forth," she spoke to the swans, ducks, and the dear little awkward goose. The birds, hearing her, spread their long wings to fly over behind her, landing and ruffling their feathers. A small smile formed on the long muzzle of the fox as she ran one hand down a swan's neck, the other resting on the edge of the canvas. "Come, see how I captured you in this painting..."
One of the ducks let out a quack, which Aki thought to be a quack of happiness or even a quack of amazement. Slowly, she turned around so she faced the birds, her painting still resting on her lap. As soon as all of the animals surrounding Aki saw the painting, there was a symphony of trumpets, quacks, and honks from the awkward goose. Laughing, she opened up the pot of ink, turning the canvas over so it was slightly off the ground. "Now, I'd like you to each put your footprint on it, so I can show that you were the ones in the paintings..." Slowly, she uncorked her large ink pot and allowed each bird to fly over it, dipping their webbed feet in it and landing on the canvas, leaving their footprint. Smiling, Akikaze Kitsune-Onna stood. "Thank you all, my dears..." she whispered.
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Post by shatan2 on Oct 3, 2007 16:34:15 GMT -8
)Shujaa(
Daylight, so bright; day time, time to sleep; no place to rest. Must find, must find soon; too bright, too bright These were his frenzied thoughts as he flew, his arms tiring suddenly as though the sun itself sapped his strength; in truth it was all psychological; his kind had, from time to time, stayed up during the day, but for a nocturnal creature, it was only natural for him to think he must be sleeping by dawn.
Breath was inhaled through his coal-black nose, sending new thoughts into his head, Mm, water, find shelter there? Must check, yep, yep. A tilt to his right arm shifted the leathery span of that wing, sending him into a smooth banking turn to the right that brought him closer to the ground before he began to flap again, gaining a bit a altitude in the process, just enough to skim over the tops of the trees.
Trees were no good—maybe they were for bats, yes, but not for Akaru—they couldn’t hold his weight; he’d have to roost far to close to the ground. Cave better, yep, yep. But he hadn’t seen a cave since he left the mountains at twilight the night before; the elders had not warned him of this. Not good, no; haf’ta find shelter, soon, soon.
The scent of water grew closer as abruptly the trees stopped. No more tree? He glanced down to see why and was immediately blinded by the reflection of the sun off the water. Bright light, bright light! his wings folded sharply as his arms jerked to cover his beady gray eyes; instinct overrode common sense in situations such as these, and the need to protect his eyes seemed more important than keeping in the air at the moment.
It did not, however, take him long to realize his mistake. Me falling? No, no, bad, bad! His arms shot to the sides, his wings stretching again as he tried to avert his gaze from the lake. Still dazed from the light, he didn’t think to get higher; instead, he simply let his wings slow his fall, not realizing he was about to land in the water, rather than on land.
Three…two…one…splash! No, no, not good! Wet bad, water bad! Once instinct was shot down while another took over; bat and human battling; the human pulled him towards the light of the water’s surface; the bat fought to go to the comforting darkness. Human won out, however, and he broke surface and leapt forth from the water, weighed down by wet fur, though the water rolled off his wings. The extra weight of the water was enough to keep him from getting far, and he landed with a soggy thud on the shore of the lake, coughing and hacking.
His rather chaotic display was too much for the many birds nearby; the creatures scattered for safety, though he was unaware of them, and oblivious to the presence of the fox-lady. Water clung inside his ears, despite the leathery skin of them, and, in a desperate attempt to free himself of the water, he climbed to all fours and gave a mighty wet-dog-styled shake, sending water flying; inadvertently, he sent much of it in the direction of said unnoticed fox.
Somehow in this process he managed to clear his ears, and he sat back slightly on his legs, still supporting himself lightly with his hands pressed firmly into the ground. Beady gray eyes glanced around in a complete daze, and he finally caught sight of the ox-girl not far away.
“Oh!” he said, surprised and dazed all the more, “me so sorry; me not see you there! Me get you wet?” he rattled off in a half hissing, half high-pitched voice; the very same voice every other Akaru had. His mind was too fuzzy to recognize that she was a fox-creature, something he had never seen before, and something he would otherwise be very curious of; instead, for now, all he worried about was whether or not he had done bad and slung water on her.
)Bat-man Extraordinaire(
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Post by Akikaze Kitsune-Onna on Oct 9, 2007 11:05:19 GMT -8
Seeing the bat man fall from the sky, most of the birds scattered, either flapping their wings and disappearing into the sky, running into the camouflage of the foliage, or heading straight for the lake, paddling their feet as fast as they could to escape the strange creature that appeared from the lake. Aki watched with surprised eyes as he shook like a canine, slinging a bit of water on her, but a wall of violet flame appearing to allow the water to evaporate on contact with it. “Ah, good time to know foxfire!” she said, laughing. Her gaze turned to the soaked bat…man…thing… “Oh, no, you didn’t get me wet!” she said quickly, “But…the real question is if…” As soon as her emerald eyes saw her sodden painting, the paints rolling into the center of the canvas and blending to form an ugly brownish color in the center.
“No! My painting!” she cried, running forward and snatching it up, the paints rolling off and staining her orange kimono. “I can’t believe it! It was perfect! It was so beautiful!” Tears were now streaming from her eyes, matting the cream-colored fur on her cheeks. “I can’t believe it…” she sobbed, breaking down to her knees, clutching the painting to her breast as if it were a baby.
Slowly, she brought her gaze up to the strange bat thing, placing her ruined painting in front of her and standing up. “If I may ask…what is a bat doing out in broad daylight? Aren’t they noctar…nocturnia…noctururu…” Though she wanted to say ‘nocturnal,’ she couldn’t get the word out of her muzzle. “Anyway, don’t you awaken at night and sleep in the daytime?”
Slowly, she raised one arm and dragged her sleeve across her closed eyes, wiping away her tears. “I am so sorry…rambling on like I am…” Slowly, she brought her arm back down and nodded her head. “I am Akikaze Kitsune-Onna… Might I ask your name?”
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Post by shatan2 on Oct 9, 2007 12:04:05 GMT -8
)Shujaa(
Shujaa never got the chance to relax when the lady assured him he had not slung water on her; she too quickly realized that he had destroyed her painting for him to get that chance, and, knowing for sure that he had done wrong, he was now very worried as to what punishment he might get.
“Oh, me so very sorry! Me not mean to! Me help fix it if you want? Me do wrong; me help make better, yes?” he said hastily, lowering himself against the ground, as though cowering in the presence of a more superior Akaru; back home, wrong deeds were punished if not immediately made right, and Shujaa had no wish to be punished today.
Shujaa watched as the fox-lady clutched the painting close, crying over it, and he hesitantly approached, wanting to comfort her, but still afraid of the punishment that was sure to come for his ruining her work. His approach was performed on all fours, still close to the ground, his folded wings trailing slightly in the damp dirt, leaving a nearly imperceptible trail between the tracks of his claws and his talons.
His advance halted a few feet away when the fox-lady looked at him, and he backed up in an awkward manner of two shuffling, hopping paces backwards as she stood up, but when she spoke, her question was absolutely not what he had expected. What he had expected was some declaration of how he was to fix his mistake; what he got was a curious question about why he was out while the moon was not. In his frazzled state, of mind, however, he took it to be that he might have done another wrong in being out at this time, so he hastened to explain himself.
“Me try to find place to sleep; but there be no shelter here, no caves; me have to stay awake ‘till me find safe place, yes,” he explained quickly, hoping that his rather weak defense would satisfy her.
He watched as she raised one arm, and he cringed back slightly, sure that his punishment was to be a physical one, but when no strike came, he relaxed slightly, though what he really felt was confused; had he still been among the Nyoni, he would already have either been put to work correcting his error or punished; maybe forbidden to join the colony on its hunt and made to go hungry for a day—such a thing was a common punishment that got the point across quite readily.
Instead, she simply wiped her arm across her face and then lowered it, apologizing to him; for what? He had seen her do nothing wrong, why should she apologize to him? And then she simply asked his name; why did his name even matter? His name was not needed for him to be punished or made to work. But he supposed that she figured it was, so, after some confused hesitation, he gave his name.
“Me Shujaa Nyoni-Oga,” he said with some small bit of pride; though his colony was small, and his family even more so, he still had some bit of pride in carrying the names, simply for lack of knowledge of just how insignificant his titles really were. He then added, out of simple habit, his nickname, “You call me Ja, yes?”
He glanced at the painting where it lay on the ground; he had never seen such a thing, had never been exposed to any form of art among his colony, and he wasn’t sure exactly what it was or what use it served. He did, however, know that he had ruined it, and still must help fix it. He lifted a claw and gestured towards it, asking, “You want me fix you,” he paused, struggling with the unfamiliar word, “paitig?”
He looked back up at the fox lady, unaware that he had mispronounced the word, and still in too muddled a state of mind to be curious about what exactly she was; all he was concerned with was correcting his error; after all, that was most important at the moment, and besides, his mind had never quite grasped the concept of multi-tasking; he’d have to concentrate on things one at a time.
)Bat-man Extraordinaire(
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Post by Akikaze Kitsune-Onna on Oct 24, 2007 12:36:10 GMT -8
"Yes...Ja..." Akikaze replied, settling back down upon the ground, holding the painting in her lap. "If you would, could you call me Aki?" As she settled herself back down, getting over the fact that her painting was ruined, she ran her fingers through the disgusting-colored paint water, watching it all slowly turn a jet black. After the water was a pitch black color, the Kitsune-Onna held up one hand, muttering an arcane-sounding incantation before a large crystal ink pot appeared in front of her, floating on a cloud of purplish mist. As she muttered something else, the cork glowed an ominous violet before it popped out, the ink on her kimono and the painting flying off, leaving her garment a beautiful orange and the canvas an immaculate white. The ink swirled around the pot once, twice, thrice before it poured itself back inside, the cork going back on the mouth of the pot, sealing the ink inside. Muttering one more thing, the pot was engulfed in the purple mist before disappearing.
"Now, then..." she muttered, her emerald eyes fixing themselves upon the bat thing. "Come, and sit..." she whispered, one furry hand sneaking forth from her wide kimono sleeves and patting the ground beside her. "I may be able to help you with your little cave plight..."
She knew what she was talking about, of course. That ink pot that appeared briefly had magical ink within, allowing her to paint anything and have it come to life, or to be able to paint something in thin air and have it become real... But, she wasn't going to reveal that just yet...
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