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(This post was last modified: 05-15-2013, 01:02 PM by Sverige.)

Chanjask's interest now was almost entirely in preserving himself and his dear friend Keita. It was a hard thing to do, though, when there was seemingly no place that was safe. In many places there was the smell of rats, and though it was not a fresh scent Chanjask was unwilling to take such a great risk. Where there were no rats, Chanjask smelled other unfamiliar creatures. He had not had enough time to observe the comings and goings of the local fauna to make the vital decision of where to stay.

After taking a nap on the boardwalk and looking off into the distance, it was then that Chanjask had a sudden realization. It had not occurred to him to look at the sunken thing, and if he had not thought of venturing there, then perhaps that meant that other creatures had not either. Maybe that would be a safe place to call home?

Chanjask found Keita, not wanting to explore this new area alone (and not really wanting to explore it with Atlanta). The two of them had not spent any time alone either, and Chanjask had an amusing tale to tell her.

It was with a smile at the thought that he approached her and asked, "Do you want to explore that thing in the water? It may be a safe place for us to stay, but I don't want to go alone."

Keita had really wanted to explore more of the area that they were now in, but she had been reluctant to go on her own. Save her small trip out to the forest to engage in her flexing of the new powers that she had found she had in this land, and following Atlanta to that strange place where all of the puzzles had been, she had truly not strayed too far. Part of this was the fact that she hadn't really wanted to leave Chanjask again. Even while the spirits were telling her that the event that had taken her friend from her would not happen again, the blue and purple Dynroth did not feel completely certain of that yet.

So, she had jumped at the chance to explore with her friend, happily following him down to where this water was. It was a bit daunting, and she turned to him and immediately accepted when he spoke, her tail wagging and a smile on her face. For the first time since she'd met Atlanta, at last she and her friend could actually talk.

Chnajask, I cannot tell you how pleased I am that the spirits have led us back together again. Of course I would love to explore the territory with you, I can think of nothing more exciting.." She smiled at him, brightly, more like herself than she had been since she had come here. Looking around as they made their way to the structure in the water, she nodded to him. "I looked so long for you, how long were you here before I arrived do you think?" That had been a question that had been on her mind since she had arrived, and perhaps she would find the answer, more for her own reference. As they walked forward, she trained her senses, hoping to see, hear, or smell anything before it might leap out and attack them.

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You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you . . . you have to go to them sometimes.
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Chanjask smiled widely and warmly at Keita's words. He sidestepped a little closer to her, so that their sides were close to touching. He too was glad that they had somehow found one another again. He need to say it, for his happy eyes expressed this perfectly when he looked at his friend.

Yet something about her next question made his face fall. It hurt him to hear that she'd been searching for him. Even though this situation was completely out of his control, Chanjask felt as though he had abandoned her.

"I don't know how long I've been here, or how long you'd been here by the time we found each other. The days all felt the same, until I. . ."

Started getting eaten alive.

"Got sick," he decided on, "It couldn't have been more than two weeks. It may have been a week, or less."

He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably and looked away with his head low. He paused at the edge of the water, before the dead thing in the water. There was a small bridge of sorts leading down from the thing, but it was broken and did not reach the shore.

"It looks like we'll have to jump," he muttered, judging the distance carefully.

She was surprised that he got so disappointed when the query left her lips. However, she listened and nodded at his estimated time frame. It had seemed like longer for her, but perhaps that was simply just because she hadn't been paying attention to time when she had been on her search. After all, it had not mattered, she had been following the spirits. Smiling faintly, she nudged him with a shoulder. "Do not worry overmuch. The spirits, you see, they kept telling me to keep searching, that I would find you one day. Not even Kiiriel believed it, but I did. I do hope your wounds have healed, if they have not, I can go on a search in the forest for some plants perhaps to help."

Her words were truthful, and her eyes still looked at him with a bright trust and the same warm friendship that they always had. Looking back out to the distance that Chanjask had already noted would require a jump, she nodded. Keita was not sure that she had ever attempted a jump of that width, but she grinned slightly at the challenge. "Well, I think it would need a running start don't you think?" She nodded to him, seeing if he wanted to go first, after all, he was likely stronger than she was in terms of gathering momentum to get across a distance.

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You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you . . . you have to go to them sometimes.
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Chanjask's wound had healed much since he had left the forest and met up with Keita and Atlanta. It still bothered him and throbbed on occasion, but the wound had closed and was no longer inflamed.

"I think I am in the clear now, but it would not be unwise to find natural healing remedies," Chanjask replied. He tried to remember the few herbs and flowers he had known from Victus. He could remember the names of some, and the effects of others, but Chanjask could not place the two together.

With a quick sigh he moved back several paces and then ran towards the water's edge, springing just before his paws touched the murky water. He landed hard on the ramp, which shook and creaked under his weight, but he managed to keep himself from falling over the edge. He scrambled quickly on to the deck of the boat. The surface was slanted, but the incline was not so steep that it was hard to keep balanced.

He looked over the edge to Keita with a smile and a wag of his tail.

"Maybe they are plants here from Victus? We can go back to the forest in a while and look," he suggested.

She nodded, still thinking about the connection that she had felt with the earth when she had been reaching out for her powers in the forest. Keita had a feeling that she would be able to find some such plants, that even though she had not possessed the ability to do so back on her homelands, that something had evolved when she had come through the strange portal here. She grinned at her friend as she watched his massive power leap through the air and land on the otherside, and after a few moments, she followed.

It still amazed her that she was much faster now, than she ever had been. Which of course meant that her leap took her a bit further, as she even seemed to find that she weighed a bit less than she recalled as well. Bouncing up to stand next to Chanjask, she beamed at him, her tail wagging. "Yes! Once we're done with this, so long as you do not mind going back into the forest. I think that together, we will be better equipped to handle anything that might try to attack us, like those rats you saw at first." She nodded, and then padded forward a few steps in curiosity.

"What is this strange . . . thing?" She said in wonder as she looked around, her paws feeling wood beneath them, though it was that same dead wood as before, when they had been exploring with Atlanta. Strange that whomever had lived here before had seemingly enjoyed using such dead things. Looking back at her friend, she sounded a bit amazed at the entire thing. "What sorts of creatures do you think made this?"

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You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you . . . you have to go to them sometimes.
<img src="https://static18.icyboards.net/sverige/images/Calicoimages/chankeitabanner.PNG" width="500" alt="keitabannjungle_zps3b2c5f8a.png" /><br />
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Who or what had made these strange structures was what had been one everyone's mind lately, but Chanjask had a feeling that it was a question that they would never get an answer to. Chanjask was fine with that. He could not imagine that the strange stuctures were the peak of the strange creatures' understanding. If they could build everything around them that they saw now, Chanjask ahd a feeling that they could do a lot more.

<b>"I don't know,"</b> was his answer, coupled with another small shrug. He looked around. On all sides of this strange thing as a sort of. . . lip. Similar, but different, to what had been on the sides of the bridge. Not too far in front of them was a strange lump made of metal. It had a bunch of small circles on it that went in straight lines. Quite a ways away on the left was a very, very big lump, many wolf-lengths long. It had small holes in the sides like the strange skeleton they had slept in did. It also looked like there were openings in to the lump.

<b>"Maybe this is like. . . a whale,"</b> he voiced the idea slowly. Chajask's brows came together once again in confusion as he continued to look around them, moving in a circle several times, <b>"A whale that they made themselves that they could. . . ride on?"</b>

He lowered his head to the floor and sniffed gingerly a few times, and then began walking toward one of the doorways a ways away on the big lump.

Her ears flipped up in curiosity as she continued looking around, nodding at Chanjask's summary of the situation. "Sure, but why such a big . . . whale? And it's so cold, I can't imagine that would be very comfy." She poked one of the sides of the lump as she followed Chanjask through the opening in it, feeling the slightly pitted, but still cold, feel of metal with her nose. It seemed very strange that anything would want to travel in this thing.

As they passed into this strange lump, she looked around, taking a few moments for her eyes to adjust. Even with the shards of light coming through a few holes that seemed to be placed here and there, it was still dark, and she sneezed as she inhaled the musty air. "Normally, I'd say I could smell things out if they'd been in here, but I'm not so sure in here. It's got a really strong smell!" She lifted her paws up gingerly as they touched something damp and soft on the ground and she looked down at it in curiosity mixed with a bit of distaste at that.

ooc: I so fail at ships, having never been ON one. I'm not even joking about that. LOL

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You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you . . . you have to go to them sometimes.
<img src="https://static18.icyboards.net/sverige/images/Calicoimages/chankeitabanner.PNG" width="500" alt="keitabannjungle_zps3b2c5f8a.png" /><br />
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OOC: That's okay, I can only think of being on one. . . it was a ferry to Put-n-Bay or I don't know how you spell it. It was a long time ago, and wasn't even remotely the same kind of boat as the Saga Lejon is supposed to be. xD This boat is based a little bit on one that's always in the river here in my city, though. I liked the name of it. ^^

BIC:
"It does stink in here," Chanjask agreed grimly. His (now less sensitive) senses were immediately bombarded and bogged down by the moist reek of the strange whale carcass. The ground beneath their paws was rather spongy, slightly wet and squishy. Chanjask tested the substance by pressing all his weight on one paw. Water seeped out of the material and between his toes. Chanjask quickly pulled his paw away and shook it vigorously, moving forward quickly and with a disgruntled huff.

Ahead of them was a long, wide corridor. All over the floor was more debris. Fading wisps of white cloth lay on the floor. On top of them were square things made of wood. They had fallen over, even though they had four legs to balance on. There were small, hard, white round things scattered everywhere. There were shards of these same things, and other almost-clear cylindrical items too.

There was a closed door at the end of the corridor, but not too far in front of it there was also a staircase leading downward, similar to the ones that they had found on the boardwalk days before. There was no door; the way was completely open.

"We'll have to be extra careful," he said with a small nod, walking with extreme care through the mess. He bent his head to sniff at a sharp-edged white triangle lying on the floor, and gave another dissatisfied grunt, "Though I think if anything has been living in here for long, we would still be able to smell it. This place seems to absorb and magnify scents."

Once he had traversed the mess, Chanjask paused at the top of the stairs and lowered the upper half of his body so that he could look down the stairs and the hallway. No animal appeared to be there. Chanjask straightened and nodded at the stairs.

"What do you think- should we go down there?"

She wrinkled her nose a final time and then followed Chanjask, tentatively walking over and on the strange squishy floor, disliking it as much as she might have disliked traipsing through a swampland. The strange square things made of wood mad her a bit sad. It was dead wood as well, not living, and she wondered why the previous inhabitants had decided to take pieces off of trees and use them so much everywhere? Carefully stepping around any of the shards of things that were littering the area, she nodded at Chanjask's caution. "I don't know why anything would want to go into this area in particular, honestly. It's rather stuffy in here" Keita's comment was directed more at the lack of air flow, since they seemed now to be more completely enclosed.

Padding over to join Chanjask in his inspection of the doorway that led downwards, she nodded to him. Looking in the only other "direction", it was closed by some more of that dead wood, and well, she didn't know how to remove dead wood, not at all. So she looked back to the open entrance that went downwards. "It seems like the logical place to go. I can see, just a little, it looks safe. It smells damp, I wonder if we'll find more water."

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You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you . . . you have to go to them sometimes.
<img src="https://static18.icyboards.net/sverige/images/Calicoimages/chankeitabanner.PNG" width="500" alt="keitabannjungle_zps3b2c5f8a.png" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: smallpx;"><span style="color: #4B0082;"><em>Current Avatar, Signature, Pixel AND Banner done by the AWESOME <a href="http://gothams-reckoning.deviantart.com/">Wiley!</a></em></span></span><br />
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