Skies of Rain

[Rarek]

Lani winced as the spider took a leap at Karrin. Clearly something quicker was in order for getting these. She ponders for a moment before sitting down among the many discarded twigs and branches. Sifting through them, she eventually comes across a smooth and straight stick that had a decent tendency to bend. When she let go, the stick sprang straight again. Perfect...just what I need.

 

She rummaged through her backpack and retrieved her survival tool and snapped off an elastic from the outside of her pack. Cutting two notches into the stick on either end, she bent the stick and threaded the elastic so it remained taut. Next, she chose another straight stick, whittled down one end to a point and cut a notch into the other, such that it slotted nicely into the elastic.

 

"Anyone here shoot arrows? It won't last more than a few shots, but we'll get a few that way."

 

Cody watched, impressed with Lani's technique. Sometimes he wished his fingers were so talented. "That is a very useful skill to have out here. I'm sure it'll save us a lot of trouble. Sadly, I can't shoot a bow, never mind a rudimentary one."

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin watched in amazement as Lani created the primitive bow. The engineer made it seem so easy; creating the weapon only took a few minutes. However, she shook her head in denial when Lani asked if anyone knew how to use it.

 

"My father is a cop and he taught me how to use a gun - in theory - but I have never fired a bow. I'd be willing to try, but maybe Feli has actual experience handling a bow?" She looked at the journalist.

[Shyrus]

Feli looked down and muttered something. “I might know how to use a bow…”

She looked up and looked at the bow, pretty impressive considering their current condition. “I actually used to go hunting with my dad. He used a gun quite often but I would run around and pretend to be an assassin with a real bow and- Well that’s beside the point. Yes I used to fire a bow but that was about nine years ago. I might be a little rusty. And no offence to you Lani, but that bow isn’t a real one. I mean it’s very impressive especially since you mad it up on the spot, but I’m used to a bow you buy at the store. I could give it a try but I honestly don’t think I can hit anything, like I said it’s been years since I fired a bow.”

Feli took a quick glance down, the spiders seemed to have moved just a bit closer. Their green eyes peering from the shadows. Arachnophobia- fear of spiders. Not the best thing to have. She would just have to stick it out like a man! A man with pink frilly tank top and long girly hair, because sure! Why not?

“Can I see the bow please?” Feli asked holding out her hand.

 

[Rarek]

Lani smirked at Feliceia's reservations. "Let's put it this way. You are the only one with experience, and it doesn't matter if you miss. I can make as many arrows as there are straight twigs. If you hit it, lunch for us. If you miss, you either get a second shot or they clear away from the backpack. Either way, it's a win for us."

 

She handed Feliceia the bow and arrow, bending down to sift through more twigs. She watched carefully as Feliceia examines the bow, whittling a new arrow as she goes.

[Shyrus]

Feli took the bow and took a second look at it before taking the make-shift arrow and placing the notch at the end into the bow string. Winding up the shot she took a minute to slow her breathing and focus. She looked like an idiot, she was sure but she wanted to make the shot count, even if it the weapon was renewable. She aimed at the closest spider to the backpack and let the arrow flip from her fingertips. The arrow make a very quiet whistle as it flew through the air. It pinned the slider onto a branch through its abdomen. With a small smile she felt proud, some of the spiders had scattered further into the brush but they where away from the backpack. The spider Feli pinned seemed to screech and hiss before it died completely. “Sorry little guy. But thanks for the food.” She removed the arrow and placed it on the ground next to her. She reached for the backpack, her arm shoulder-deep into the bush. She felt a leather strap on the back of her hand and pulled started to tug. She felt something hairy crawl onto her arm. She panicked and yanked the backpack out and watched as a spider fell off her arm. She took a second to calm down before standing up triumphantly. “Got it!”

The noticed two small pinholes in her arm, blood oozed through. She cursed and put down her arm. “I think I’ve been bitten. I think I’ll be fine but if I start feeling sick do you have any medicine that could help with that Karrin? “

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

"Let me check that," Karrin said as she took Feli's arm. She took the backpack from the girl so it would be out of the way while Karrin checked her, and set it down on the floor.

 

She then rummaged around in her own pack, until she had found the medicine she was looking for. "I don't have anything specifically against this spider's venom, as they're a rare species, but I do have a anti-venom cocktail that should work." She injected the serum in Feli's arm near the bite before putting her medical kit away and closing her pack.

 

"Now, let's have a look at this bag, shall we," she said as she picked the pack up from the floor and held it out to Feli. "You retrieved it, so you do the honours."

[Shyrus]

Feli looked at Karrin like she had just given her a present. She got to open it!

Feli felt childish as she squealed as she felt somewhat lucky. She only hoped no spiders had found their way inside.

She found the main zipper and opened it. The inside was wet. Was there water? Feli pulled out a small canister, the lid had broken off. It was only about half full. There was also a map but ink had dripped and ran across the page, making it hard to read- if reading it was possible at all by now. There was a sandwich but it had mold on it. Well, more like there was a bit of sandwich on the mold. Yuck!

There was a small pocket knife that could be useful. There also seemed to be a small tinderbox. Whoever was here, must have been planning on camping.

Other than that were some pretty useless supplies such as a very damaged compass, passed its renewable state by far, a dirty and wet handkerchief, and a few broken crayons…

Crayons.

Feli’s heart just died. Whoever was the owner of this probably had a kid. And the chances of whoever left this here was not from the plane crash are small. It wasn’t until Feli looked at the handles, blood was smeared and it looked like fingernails had been ripped and torn off trying to hang onto the pack. A struggle of some sort.

“I think whoever owned this backpack had a kid. From the contents I think they were thinking about camping or something. I’m guessing the kid lived far off and this guy was going to go see his kid or something. But it’s just a guess…”

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin reaches to take the backpack from Feli (if the other girl wants to give it to her at least).

 

"Camping? Out here? And -" she falls abruptly silent when she sees the blood smears and a single ripped off fingernail on the backpack. "What -" she begins, but falls silent again. She looks up and scans the jungle around them. Something here was large enough to fight a full grown human for the pack. Or possibly even to drag a full grown human away from the pack...

 

"I think we should take the knife and tinder box and get moving. Now." There was a slight emphasis on the last word.

[Rarek]

Cody began to feel largely unsettled as Feliceia rummaged through the pack. "I'm with Karrin on this one. Something tells me those spiders didn't do this to whatever kid owned this pack." This time it was Cody who led the way, swinging his makeshift crutches as he went. He had no interest in finding either the kid or what possibly killed it.

 

Lani sighed and shook her head. This is a young child, can't have been more than twelve. She followed closely behind Cody as he left. Something troubled her though, and it was more than just spiders and killer beasts.

 

"Since we just found out we weren't the only ones here, it'd probably be a good idea to watch where you're stepping. Chances are these people have set..." She screamed as her ankle flew into the air, caught on a rope that had snapped tight. Lani hung upside down and struggled before giving a great heaving sigh. "...traps."

 

Cody whipped around as he heard the trap spring. He had walked on that, he was sure of it! "Don't worry Lani, we'll get you down."

 

It wasn't until Cody saw more spiders starting to converge on Lani that he started to panic. He quickly turned to Feliceia and Karrin, pointing out the spiders subtly so Lani didn't see. "There has to be a line connected to the ground for this trap to work. Find it, and quickly!"

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin reached into the pocket of her bloodstained jeans and pulled out the multi-tool. Looking it over, she hesitated for a moment between a flat edged knife and a serratesaw-like blade, then decided that a saw would cut through the rope more quickly. She had already seen where the rope was tethered to a tree, as the movement of the trap snapping back and Lani's weight had shaken it. Without further delay, she rushed over and started cutting, ignoring the spiders that were already clambering down from the canopy; some scuttling down the tree stem towards her and other converging through the leaves on Lani. One brazen spider simply let go of the tree and dropped onto Karrin's hand. It bit her in the back of the hand once - the sting was not unlike a wasp's - and then tried to climb up her arm towards her neck and shoulder. She swatted at it with her free hand, knocking it away, and kept cutting.

[Shyrus]

(I hope you don’t mind Rarek but I controlled Lani just a little bit. As always I can edit.)

 

Immediately Feli started to panic a little inside. Lani was caught, and Karrin sounded quite worried when she said that they needed to leave.

Picking up a branch Feli ran over to Karrin and started to hit any spider that came close to her, swatting a few off of her as she went. they made a sickly 'crunch' as their exoskeleton was shattered. "Cody, I know you're injured but once Karrin cut's the rope Lani's going to fall. If you can I think everyone would appreciate it if you caught her."

A spider stared to crawl of Feli's leg. With her other foot she kicked it off and continued to keep the spiders at bay but they seemed to be emerging from the loose bark of the trees. The rope kept getting thinner and thinner as Karrin cut, but the jostling of the rope was making Lani jolt up and down. She was visibly getting disoriented. Feli took her free hand and kept the rope from moving. f course this only made the movement of the rope lighter but it should help with any dizziness or something.

 

[Rarek]

((Nope, I don't mind. Do try and avoid that in the future however.))

 

Cody nodded at Feliceia. It wouldn't do to have Lani injure herself further. Without a moment's hesitation, he put his crutches aside and stood under the tree. He planned to have his weight mostly on his good leg as he caught her, so as to minimize the damage to himself.

 

"Ready when you are." He hoped he could support her weight himself.

 

Lani dangled above the ground, slightly shaken by jostling from the cutting, but otherwise fine. She was unnerved by the spiders they saw earlier falling off the tree in large quantities. It also wasn't truly a comfort to have a boy smaller and more injured than she designated as her saviour from gravity. Soon enough though, her weight pulled her down until the line was ready to snap. "Look out Cody, I'm coming down soon."

[Mistress of Whispers]

With Lani's weight pulling the rope taut, it quickly started to unravel as Karrin cut. The engineer came down with a crashing sound and the branches from which she had been suspended whipped back, showering the four survivors in dried leaves, bits of bark and a rain of small spiders. Karrin screamed and, jumping around frantically, shook off and stomped as many of the pests as she could. She felt another sharp sting on her neck and blindly grabbed the spider there, crushing it between her fingers.

[Rarek]

Lani let out more of a yelp than a scream, falling from the tree at a high velocity. Cody's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he realized he wouldn't be able to catch her effectively, especially with a bad leg. So he held out his arms and instead crumpled controllably beneath the engineer, such that she landed atop him in a cushion. He got the wind knocked out of him, but the plan worked. Both were injury free.

 

Lani lay perpendicular to Cody across his stomach, taking a moment to catch her breath. It wasn't until she got off Cody however that she noticed he was crawling with spiders. With a slight panicked look, she began swatting them off him before realizing they were on her too. She screamed and flailed. "Get them off! Get them off!"

[Shyrus]

The rope slipped from Feli’s hands in a fast rush, causing small rope burns on her hands. It was no big deal though, it would heal soon enough.

The crashing of leaves and branches yelled into the forest, alerting anything nearby that food was within the area.

Spiders hisses as they fell, landed, and even started to bite. Feli was determined not to get bitten, and as far as she knew, she achieved her goal. Well, she thought so anyways.

She shook off the spiders, sure she got the majority of them. She checked everyone else, making sure the spiders where off. “I think we’re all right. I don’t see any more spiders.”

Feli gave both Cody and Lani a hand offering to help them up before she gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry about you having to catch her and all but my hands where full.”

She looked up; branches and leaves still covered the sky in a canopy of green and lush plants. Silently she thought about possibly climbing one of the trees to get a good look over the rainforest, but with how high up it was, and the spiders, she decided not to bring the idea out in the open.

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin had finally shook the last of the spider off her and stomped on it with some satisfaction even as its brothers and sisters crawled back into the undergrowth. She looked up to see that the others were spider-free too, though Lani and Cody seemed to have a few fresh bruises and Feli's hands were hurt. The injuries appeared to be minor though, and treatment could wait - they had more pressing concerns.

 

"We should leave here," Karrin said. "All that noise will have attracted predators." She picked a long, strong stick off the ground and broke off the point so it ended in a sharp, if crude, tip and continued in the group's previous bearing.

[Rarek]

Cody brushed himself off. Somehow, he hasn't been bitten. "She's right of course. No time for dilly dallying after that." He looked around for his crutches, but they seemed to have flown off into the bushes. "Shoot. Well then, I'm on my own." Cody hobbled along behind Karrin, making sure only a little pressure was applied to his foot.

 

Numerous species of wild colours flashed through the trees, a brilliant array of life in all its glory. Cody remembered his books, on how the rainforest was one of the most diverse spaces in the entirety of Earth. He almost felt glad he was stranded here, instead of somewhere far less hospitable. It had been his dream to study the rainforest, and now he had all the time in the world.

[Shyrus]

Karrin instructed that they should leave. Given the reason Feli would be more than happy to leave the area. She picked up the pack and slung it over her shoulder. The pack was heavy when she held both her pack and the new one, but she welcomed the weight, carrying these around would make her stronger.

She stepped over a log and onto a large rock, surveying the surrounding area. She noticed something ahead. Leaves rustled and filched, slowly making its way towards them. Feli become visibly uneasy but kept her thoughts straight over the fear. It was quite a ways off. “Not to alarm anyone but we may have already attracted something. If we move now we should be able to get out of the way, but by the pace it’s moving it will be here in about two minutes.”

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin cursed under her breath - could they never catch a break? Looking around, she spotted a small path through the trees. Well, 'path' was maybe too bold a word; 'animal trail' was more likely and even then it was partly overgrown. Still, it was better than making their way through the leaves and undergrowth with those spiders nearby and a trail might allow them to make some speed. Moving to support Cody now that he'd lost his crutches, she pointed: "This way."

[Rarek]

Cody nodded in silent thanks to Karrin, and moved with her through the trees and undergrowth. He saw Lani hesitate to take up his other side, but clearly thought better of it. There wasn't enough room for the three of them wide, the small path made movement difficult.

 

"Keep your wits about you everyone. We don't want to become wolverine food."

[Shyrus]

“Ha, wolverines, what a joke,” thought Feli. “It’s the poisonous things that you don’t see coming that worry me…”

The words she spoke where too quiet for anyone to hear as she intended. In the corner of her eye she could see the bushes moving, its course had changed to follow them. Her eyebrows knit together in a look of worry. Okay, so maybe a big animal would be frightening to. But still it seemed to move pretty slowly. That or it was just stalking, trying to be stealthy. If something sprang out they couldn’t run for two reasons, one, injuries, and two, whatever that thing was it could probably outrun them if they put their mind to it. Feli thought of something her friend once told her when they discussed going camping. “So what if a bear attacks?” “Feli don’t be ridiculous, it will be fine.” “How do you know? We couldn’t outrun a bear!” “No, but I could outrun you.”

Feli tried to keep the glare off of her face, stupid ‘friend.’

Well that left one option left, fight. They didn’t have any fighting materials, really. Feli picked up a stick and a rock and started to make a wooden stake, better something then nothing.

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin saw Feli pick up a rock and stick and looked at her own makeshift 'spear' - it had been big enough for hunting the spiders, but it didn't seem so impressive now that a predator was following them. If they survived this, she decided, she'd search for a bigger stick. Still supporting Cody, she cast around for a defendable position in case they had to fight, but the best she could come up with was putting their backs against a tree for protection and the idea of those green-eyed things dropping down on them again made her shudder. Best to keep going, then, and hope that the predator tired of the chase.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Mistress of Whispers

[Rarek]

Cody made sure he didn't put too much strain on Karrin, not wanting to be too much of a burden. The last thing he wanted to be was expendable bait. Besides, he didn't know how much he could trust the three of them still. Sure, he spent a night in the same sleeping place, but that was necessary. He felt slightly guilty for thinking such things, but he couldn't help himself. Survival was survival. He decided he would ensure these things later, focusing for the moment on their unknown stalker.

[Shyrus]

Feli tried to tell what time it was but being under the thick layers of leaves didn’t help. She saw sunlight coming from a certain direction but it was still hard to tell. There were a couple animals she spotted overhead, none of them dangerous. She didn’t know when to stop walking but she knew she couldn’t stop here. She started to get thirsty but it could wait for now. She had lost sights of the thing that was following them, she had mixed feelings about it. After all, the only thing worse than danger is not knowing where it lies.

She kept her eyes peeled for movement and her ears ready for sound but it was quiet aside from the birds chirping overhead.

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

It took Karrin a few moments to realize she could no longer see the trees moving and, like Feli, she took no comfort in it. Perhaps the predator had already given up the chase, but it was just as likely that it had simply become more stealthy as it drew closer, or was circling around to stalk them from a different angle.

 

"We should keep going a while longer," she said. "Make sure we leave the predator's territory behind us and possibly lose those green-eyed things too."

 

The animal trail continued ahead of then, though it took a few turns and grew a little smaller in places. Still, it was much better going than trying to make their own path through the jungle.