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 Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:44 am
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Laila listened carefully, keeping her eyes on Hakurou's face while he spoke. It was very useful, because it distracted her from the creeping nausea she felt from having eaten the fish without her body agreeing to being fed fish. If she could, she would have told it to suck it up, but her body had a mind of its own and refused to listen to the helpful advice that her mind offered. So instead, she fiddled with the bowl of berries- carefully, of course- and watched him intensely to distract herself from the complaints that various parts of her were trying to inform her of.
"So we're going out to hunt for berries? That sounds fun, but-... I don't really know anything about berries. Or nature. Not even mushrooms." Learning would be a very quick process, she presumed. You wouldn't stay alive very long if you didn't adapt or failed to tell apart which berries were poisonous and which were not. Laila drew a face, scrunching her nose. "I'm afraid you'll have to help me walk, though."
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Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2015 1:46 pm
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"I'll try to remember it," Laila offered. She hoped she would manage to keep in mind everything he taught her, and another part of her yet hoped much harder that she would never really have to learn it on account of being able to move back to her real home soon. Hope was all she had, however, which meant that she was going to have to do her best to remember everything anyway. And what was to say that it wouldn't help her in the future some day? Exactly.
Shaking her head a little, the girl realized how far she had let herself be torn away by the torrent of thoughts that went through her head. Looking up again, and popping a berry into her mouth from the bowl, she suddenly faced another offering. After setting the small wooden bowl on the ground, she carefully accepted it. The package- well, it was sort of folded together- was very soft and smelled strongly of animal, so she assumed it hadn't been dead for too long. "Wow," she managed to bring forth after a while of stunned silence, "I've never owned a real fur before. Can you help me put it on?" And secretly, she wished for a mirror.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 8:37 am
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For a small while, Laila was very busy. It turned out- much like it had done the evening before- that putting on or off clothes while every muscle in your body complains about doing it is a lot slower than when they're not. Nevertheless, she ended up dressed in her very new fur vest after only a rather short while, mostly thanks to Hakurou's help. With a rather admiring mind, she ran a hand over its smooth surface, reveling in the sensation that was very much like the bed she'd spent her last night in. Almost a feeling she could get used to, an eerie voice in the back of her mind noted. She shook her head lightly- of course- and looked back at the boy, deciding unanimously that she would stop referring to him as "boy" in her mind and start calling him "friend". It seemed only appropriate.
"I think it fits very well!" Perhaps, if you wanted to be completely honest, it was a little bit loose across... well, everywhere. That didn't exactly hurt, though. The slight bagginess gave the vest an additional sort of comfort that Laila was, for the moment, very glad of. And now, with a row of grimaces and her imagination supplying ominous squeaking-joints-sounds all the way through, she raised herself from the floor- with a little help, of course- and stood upright. Mostly, anyway. "Ow," Laila supplied under her breath, looking away from Hakurou for a moment, after which she took a deep breath and tried to straighten her back. "All right! Let's find berries!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 3:08 am
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The one thing that you couldn't deny about the forest was that it was big, and that it was honestly a little bit scary. Laila certainly wasn't used to being in the forest (growing up in two cities did that to you), and so frequently misstepped- as should be expected from someone who was not only new to walking in forests, but also limping and occasionally wincing after dropping down onto a lower stretch of ground. It hurt- sometimes actually quite a lot- but she tried to be brave, because there was nothing else to do for her than try to walk. The thing that worried her was how Hakurou kept turning his head as if he was searching for someone. What could he be searching for? The only other thing worth listening for in this forest would be the wolves, and everyone involved knew that Laila was definitely not in any shape to attempt to outrun a pack of wolves.
Slightly antsy, she tried to keep an ear on what her companion was saying- this plant was bad for you, that one too.... she looked at them again and noticed almost exactly what she'd seen the first time, which was that they looked like plants. Almost every one of the plants here looked like plants, except the ones which were trees and therefore easier to identify. That is, until they found a bush which even Laila imagined seemed vaguely familiar, and certainly when she got up close, she brightened up- "Raspberries!" Few things are better than a mouthful of fresh raspberries straight from the bush after a long walk, and she enjoyed herself immensely for those few minutes, gathering large handfuls of berries before sliding down to a tree trunk to rest and eat. Her stomach, at least, was happy.
The only bad thing about such moments of happiness was, of course, that they never lasted quite as long as one wanted, and all too soon was Hakurou there again, ready to go on. "Still hurting," she complained gently but nevertheless made a fair attempt at getting up (the tree trunk helped a lot there, too). Looking around, there was nothing to see except forest. "What time is it? And where are we going now?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 5:42 am
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Midday. Hmm, that sounded about right. Laila had heard that you could tell the time by where the sun stood- something about north and south and things, but she would be awfully lost if she tried doing it, of course. She didn't even know where north was, for starters. But it was cozily warm and the sun was way up on the sky, so it might just be midday and anyway, what did she care? As long as they got back to the cave before dark, it would probably be fine. Possibly, it might even be fine if they didn't, because Hakurou would pull out some crazy survival trick that'd keep them safe even at night. Maybe something with fire.
The rustling took her by surprise, but Laila's reflexes were far slower than the wolf-boy's- she only looked to the bush to see as the bunny bounded away. If it had been something else- something hostile, she'd be dead for sure. Or at least injured again. More. She shuddered a little at the thought. Suddenly, the forest didn't seem quite as nice as it had before. At the same time.... did she really want to go back to the cave already? It was only midday, after all, and they couldn't have gone all that far from it, could they? Laila did have to admit that her sense of direction, as well as her sense of comparative geography, were absolutely awful so she might very well be wrong, but somehow it seemed a little odd. On the other hand, Hakurou had proved that he knew what he was doing so far, so she wasn't particularly inclined to disbelieve him.
"I can walk. I think. If I can lean on you, maybe?" One thing was getting back to the cave, and being carried by a strange boy was a different thing entirely. Her mother would be horrified and although Laila was honestly tempted (it harmonized with her romantic daydreams of the past), she also didn't want to appear weak. So she put on her brave face and started to hobble in what she hoped was the right direction. It wasn't.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 7:17 am
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"You might get to the cave faster if you turn around." Laila came to a slow stop and leaned against a tree for a moment. She was really stupid, wasn't she? Well, in her defense- she didn't really know which direction the cave was. She'd just picked one and started out. Obviously, it had been the wrong choice, which meant that she had to cross the small clearing all over again and then- well, then walk all the way back. A small sigh escaped her, which she hoped her companion didn't catch. There was a small relief- he'd offered to let her lean on him. That meant she didn't have to ask, just accept, which was slightly easier. Part of her wondered why she was so averse to looking weak in front of Hakurou, while several others pointed out snarkily that this kind of behavior was silly.
By this time, she'd managed to make it across the clearing. That was a good thing- the longer she moved, the less she hurt. Well, perhaps she didn't hurt less, but at least she got more used to it hurting, so she could ignore part of the pain. Running, however, would be out of the question unless there were wolves again. Laila really hoped there wouldn't be wolves again- one time, in her opinion, was more than enough. "I think I can walk. A bit, at least," she mentioned and continued, making sure to look that Hakurou was following along. No way that she wanted to go anywhere in this forest alone! Hobbling steps took her partway up a hill when he posed another question. Bird? "I like chicken," she mentioned a little thoughtfully, not slowing down to answer (she wasn't particularly fast anyway). "Can you even get chickens in a forest?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2015 10:36 am
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No chickens, Laila noted from the response she got. Of course there wouldn't be any chickens. Chickens were like domesticated animals, right? They practically counted as pets and probably wouldn't be found in the wild. Which left the choice between quail and turkey. And she'd only ever heard of turkeys. "What is a quail? Is it like a chicken? Does it taste very different?" That question was probably dumb- either he'd never tried chicken or- actually, was that an or? it probably wasn't so and it most likely did. Everything was strange here, after all. Scrambling the last few feet, Laila leaned against a branch and heaved for breath, having the instant effect of the branch snapping under her weight, sending her face-first into a bush. There wasn't anything particularly special in the bush, which was probably good, but it still hurt and most of all, it surprised her enough to make her cry out before she crashed through the small branches.
"Ow- ow- ow!" she exclaimed as the aftermath of her fall made its way to her brain- the partially healed injuries from before were still mostly whole, thank god, but she had obtained a number of new bruises and scratches over her arms and face. "I'm done. I can't walk further than this, now."
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