Totem Quest! Seeking Uktena (again!)
Tuesday, 8 April 2014 23:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
littlesilvertipI didn’t have a nightmare last night. That’s… odd. Two nights in a row. Instead, I dreamed about Uktenas, and pools of water. That’s very promising.
Dives-Deep did the rite to call in Great Uktena - or, she would have, except she said she summoned the ‘horned serpent.’ Luckily, the actual Horned Serpent didn’t arrive. Urrah: can’t they tell the difference between antlers and horns? After the ritual, we stepped through the Umbra, where there was a torch to lead the way. I sent Unfinished Business ahead of me, but she stopped after she felt it was too dark to see. Homids always are too impressed with their own eyesight.
The dark path was an airt, leading us up to a cave in the mountains. It was nearby, but I didn’t recognize the cave. The torch seemed to want us to go further, but there was a rockslide blocking us. I sat and thought for a while, while my Cousin decided to start digging… even after more rocks started falling down. I had to scruff her and tell her to stop. Unfinished Business, on the other hand, tried looking around with a rite, seeing if she could find other paths, while I told my cousin to start sniffing for other entrances. After a bit, I noticed the flame pointed high - maybe if we dug high, we could avoid an rockslide? Unfinished Business and I tried that, and it seemed to work. My cousin was angry that we told her to stop digging, and then started digging while she was out. Gaia, she needs to stop and think more!
Deep inside was a cave, that at first seemed to be a dead end - until Unfinished Business pointed out a bat gaffling. On one hand, the torch lead us here. On the other, it’s still a bat. I had her block the entrance, while I grilled it. Pretty weak gaffling - maybe smarter than a grown wolf, but not by much. It got blocked in here by other bats, or other bats attacked it. This one didn’t appear to be corrupt, and had escaped the purge of its ilk. I could see what Uktena wanted here pretty obviously. We struck a deal - we’d take it outside to an Uktena, and that Uktena would (probably) give it protection… if it joined Uktena’s brood, and gave it homage and acted in its interests. A gaffling on its own is eventually doomed; it’s just a matter of time. It agreed, and I took it to Deep-Runner-Basalt-Flake, who was in his usual place. It didn’t take much to intrigue him; all we had to do is ask him to send a totem for our pack. Unfinished Business likes pretty things and so I asked this one have a sapphire in its head this time.
Not that Onyx wasn’t a lovely spirit, too.
After the end, Storm of the North said she was waiting for the fighting. This saddened me - I thought she understood what we were doing? I told her to act more like Unfinished Business - clever, smart, patient. She said she didn’t need to be smart to fight. Ugh. No, no cousin of mine is going to have that attitude.
Back at the community hall, I was feeling good, and had a hard time getting to sleep, so I went through all the junk Jordan bought. I managed to talk her into some things like more paper, and so on, in addition to the clothes. I was taking her advice to heart - after all, maybe’s she’s crazy enough to understand my crazy? - and was wearing stuff she said was ‘cute on me.’ Which I take to mean… no, let’s not think about that. Or, we should, because Unfinished Business came in and said I was looking ‘hotter.’ Ugh. Okay, not this, then. Or, maybe. I don’t know. I sorted through the junk, and found the sewing and butchering stuff we got for Unfinished Business to give over. She seemed surprised I’d give her stuff, but I explained how our tribes view gifting, and how one day she’d get to do the same, and she seemed to understand. She wants to meet Jordan - I think they’d get along too well, and that worries me! Not really, but, imagine the problems they’d get into…
I talked to Unfinished Business about her being school (I think she genuinely believes her teachers were fomori. How weird), and told her my plan to send Caq back for her GED. My sister did. Joshua did. It’s good for warriors to have brains. She didn’t seem excited about that, but that convinced me it is a good plan. My cousin will get her GED, I’m decided.
I also tried to give some of the more… girly? Is that the right word? I don’t know how to call it. The tight stuff, and the bright stuff. Those things to Unfinished Business. But, she’s too tall, and doesn’t fit it, so I asked her about whether she’d made any progress on making talens yet, for our attack. She hadn’t. No good. I told her to get to work - I don’t go into a fight without being prepared!
I started getting sleepy quick, and passed out soon after.
Dives-Deep did the rite to call in Great Uktena - or, she would have, except she said she summoned the ‘horned serpent.’ Luckily, the actual Horned Serpent didn’t arrive. Urrah: can’t they tell the difference between antlers and horns? After the ritual, we stepped through the Umbra, where there was a torch to lead the way. I sent Unfinished Business ahead of me, but she stopped after she felt it was too dark to see. Homids always are too impressed with their own eyesight.
The dark path was an airt, leading us up to a cave in the mountains. It was nearby, but I didn’t recognize the cave. The torch seemed to want us to go further, but there was a rockslide blocking us. I sat and thought for a while, while my Cousin decided to start digging… even after more rocks started falling down. I had to scruff her and tell her to stop. Unfinished Business, on the other hand, tried looking around with a rite, seeing if she could find other paths, while I told my cousin to start sniffing for other entrances. After a bit, I noticed the flame pointed high - maybe if we dug high, we could avoid an rockslide? Unfinished Business and I tried that, and it seemed to work. My cousin was angry that we told her to stop digging, and then started digging while she was out. Gaia, she needs to stop and think more!
Deep inside was a cave, that at first seemed to be a dead end - until Unfinished Business pointed out a bat gaffling. On one hand, the torch lead us here. On the other, it’s still a bat. I had her block the entrance, while I grilled it. Pretty weak gaffling - maybe smarter than a grown wolf, but not by much. It got blocked in here by other bats, or other bats attacked it. This one didn’t appear to be corrupt, and had escaped the purge of its ilk. I could see what Uktena wanted here pretty obviously. We struck a deal - we’d take it outside to an Uktena, and that Uktena would (probably) give it protection… if it joined Uktena’s brood, and gave it homage and acted in its interests. A gaffling on its own is eventually doomed; it’s just a matter of time. It agreed, and I took it to Deep-Runner-Basalt-Flake, who was in his usual place. It didn’t take much to intrigue him; all we had to do is ask him to send a totem for our pack. Unfinished Business likes pretty things and so I asked this one have a sapphire in its head this time.
Not that Onyx wasn’t a lovely spirit, too.
After the end, Storm of the North said she was waiting for the fighting. This saddened me - I thought she understood what we were doing? I told her to act more like Unfinished Business - clever, smart, patient. She said she didn’t need to be smart to fight. Ugh. No, no cousin of mine is going to have that attitude.
Back at the community hall, I was feeling good, and had a hard time getting to sleep, so I went through all the junk Jordan bought. I managed to talk her into some things like more paper, and so on, in addition to the clothes. I was taking her advice to heart - after all, maybe’s she’s crazy enough to understand my crazy? - and was wearing stuff she said was ‘cute on me.’ Which I take to mean… no, let’s not think about that. Or, we should, because Unfinished Business came in and said I was looking ‘hotter.’ Ugh. Okay, not this, then. Or, maybe. I don’t know. I sorted through the junk, and found the sewing and butchering stuff we got for Unfinished Business to give over. She seemed surprised I’d give her stuff, but I explained how our tribes view gifting, and how one day she’d get to do the same, and she seemed to understand. She wants to meet Jordan - I think they’d get along too well, and that worries me! Not really, but, imagine the problems they’d get into…
I talked to Unfinished Business about her being school (I think she genuinely believes her teachers were fomori. How weird), and told her my plan to send Caq back for her GED. My sister did. Joshua did. It’s good for warriors to have brains. She didn’t seem excited about that, but that convinced me it is a good plan. My cousin will get her GED, I’m decided.
I also tried to give some of the more… girly? Is that the right word? I don’t know how to call it. The tight stuff, and the bright stuff. Those things to Unfinished Business. But, she’s too tall, and doesn’t fit it, so I asked her about whether she’d made any progress on making talens yet, for our attack. She hadn’t. No good. I told her to get to work - I don’t go into a fight without being prepared!
I started getting sleepy quick, and passed out soon after.
