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Post by manju on Aug 9, 2007 12:58:03 GMT -5
Her long hands almost slipped each time she would grab a vine, swinging like a hog-monkey through the mist, high above the dank, smelly waters of the swamp floor. It had been a while since the trio had arrive there, but Manju quickly found it to be a lot like home. She swung from vine to vine, occasionally looking down to her comrades dredging through the mire below. She knew it probably was little to no fun for them, but it sure was amusing for the Igni. Anyone could tell by the sounds of enjoyment she kept making, interrupting any silence that may or may not occur. An inconvenience if, say, they were wary of an attack by the mysterious swamp natives, but such a thing never occured to Manju.
Looking down again, she thought she would take the time to consider Nasrin and Muqali. Instead of grabbing onto the next vine in sight, she stayed on the vine she was already grasping, and hung from it. The momentum caused the vine to swing around for a while, but when it stopped, her feet were dangling in the air and her left arm was by her side. "Joo guys doin' okay?", she asked with a smirk, knowing the two sand nomads were probably quite miserable.
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Post by nasrin on Aug 9, 2007 16:50:05 GMT -5
To say that the Foggy Swamp was damp would be to say that the surface of the sun was just a little toasty... Or at least, that was the analogy that Nasrin had found most fitting after a day of trudging through the muck and puddles that seemed to cover every forsaken inch of this place. She had long ago realized that her desert-specialized apparel was not a good match for the humidity and moisture. Within the first hour of travel, she had unwrapped the bandages around her feet, hands, and face. She'd even removed her undershirt and was simply wearing her tunic, breeches, and headcloth. And yet, the soggy sandbender wasn't even sure she could bear to keep those articles of clothing on for much longer.
This was their second day of travel through the Swamp after several days of hiking across mountainous terrain. Nastin's earthbending made swift passage out of otherwise treacharous obstacles, and so they'd made excellent time in their departure from Omashu. However, then they'd come to the edge of a large basin surrounded by mountains on nearly all sides, they were greeted with the awe-inspiring sight of the Foggy Swamp, centered by a massive tree larger than anything Nasrin had ever seen. The group had decided to try and pass through the Swamp instead of skirting the outside perimeter, in the hopes that they could save a day or two of time as they continued their way North. It was also due largely to Manju, who assured the two desert dwellers that she was perfectly accustomed to such jungles, and that passing through would be no problem at all.
After 24 hours of sloshing through mud, removing leeches, swatting bugs, and generally feeling as though they were coated in slime, Nasrin was convinced that Manju merely wanted to see the big tree up close....
The Igni girl swung around on every vine they passed by, and seemed to be having quite a fun time. However, when she asked how she and Muqali were faring, even the apathetic sandbender couldn't conain all of her frustrations. "Peachy," Nasrin called up to Manju sarcastically as she managed to find a bit of firm footing in the form of a tree root. "I just hope the leeches leave enough of my skin on me to feed those massive fish-lizards that seem to be crawling around this place."
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Post by mulaqi on Aug 10, 2007 0:59:58 GMT -5
When they had first caught site of the swamp, Muqali had been excited. He’d never seen anything like it. There were more trees than any forest he’d seen yet, and they were bigger. What’s more, swamps were apparently filled with water, which to someone from the desert at first sounded like it could be fun. Unfortunately, within a few hours of trekking through the muddy, smelly and wet swampland, it soon became apparent that more water wasn’t necessarily a good thing all the time. Still, he was trying to stay positive. He managed to stubbornly make it through the entire first day before finally giving in and stripping the clothes from his upper body and stowing them in his now empty (and handily waterproofed) sack, leaving him with his pants, rolled halfway up his shins, sandals, and of course his loincloth. Frankly, he was afraid of taking off the later, at this point. He’d definitely need to buy a new one as soon as they reached a town…if he could find any money.
Still, he would never admit defeat! Not to a geographical feature! So, when Nasrin, whose name he had learned along the way, expressed her disdain with their situation, Muqali flashed a smile in an attempt to make it look like the swamp wasn’t getting to him.
“Hey, it’s not that bad,” he started. “I’m sure…”
Before Muqali could say what it was he was sure of, his right foot suddenly fell much deeper into the mud than he could have expected, causing him to come to an awkward stop. Grimacing, he shook his leg around in an attempt to free it, but to no avail. Two more times he tried, but with no success. Finally, he propped his free foot up on a nearby root and leaned backwards with all his might, grunting and straining with effort as his leg slowly started to slip free of the mud. Suddenly, as though the mud had just let go, his leg came flying out, albeit without his sandal. With a cry of dismay, Muqali was sent flying backwards, landing with a splash in the murky water. Fortunately, it was not very deep, as he had found out earlier when he had “nearly drowned” in two feet of water, so he was able to lie there for a moment, watching with irritation has his left sandal floated away before sitting up with a much less cheerful expression on his face.
“Okay,” he admitted, wiping some soaking wet strands of hair away from his eyes. “Maybe it is that bad…”
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Post by manju on Aug 10, 2007 15:59:01 GMT -5
As she was hanging from a sturdy, supple vine in midair, her amber eyes gazed off into the heavy fog in the distance. The feelings of familiarity she felt would keep surfacing, but this place was still a far cry from her home island. Nevertheless, she wanted to see as much of this place as possible, not to mention that big tree in the middle. Perhaps some of the interesting creatures within the swamp, too. She was loving every moment, not one bit frustrated like her comrades, who she was basically ignoring at the moment.
Growing bored of hanging in midair, she climbed the vine up to the very branch from which the vine originated. Carefully balanced on the branch, crouching, she looked down at Muqali, who was sunken in the mud. Though trying to withhold a laugh, she wound up snorting inconspicuously at the desert-dweller's predicament. Hopefully, though, neither sand nomad would hear her.
But she knew they knew of the cruel sense of humor she often showed. Scuttling along the branch, she sought to get a better view. It was a long distance from the damp ground below, and she could likely hurt herself if she fell. The moss coating the branch was clammy on her bare feet and hands, and made the tree limb somewhat slippery. She had to be careful as she moved. Looking down once more, she saw her friends again and smirked. Feeling a comment was in order, she laughed for a second, then yelled down at Muqali. "Good job, weird guy!"
She was caught off guard at how her voice resonated, seeming louder and echoing more than she expected. Startling herself, she nearly slipped off the branch, but she regained her composure. Thinking quickly, she took out her twin spears from the sack strapped across her back, still crouched low to the branch. This way, if she fell off again, she could jab the sharpened head of either spear into the tree to hang on.
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Post by nasrin on Aug 13, 2007 16:58:21 GMT -5
Nasrin took one step up on the surfaced root of the tree beside her, testing its grip before shifting her weight onto that foot and taking another step along that stretch of exposed wood. The soggy sandbender took a few more steps along the path, finding it easier as the roots widened, and then skirted the base of the tree. Manju was climbing up high above them while Muqali wasn't far behind, and she started picking her way along the roots leading away on the other side of the tree.
The sound of splashing gave her pause, as Nasrin looked over her shoulder in time to see the other Si Wong native suddenly sruggling to free himself from a particularly deep section of that pool. Manju was laughing up above in amusement, though the older woman from the desert barely managed a smile at the sight. With some effort, Muqali extracted himself from the mud, and she started to turn back around to continue walking.
However, before she even finished turning, the sound of a shrill, blood-curtling scream just behind her gave Nasrin a start. She lost her footing as she recoiled defensively, and she suddenly found herself falling backward. The sandbender had the presence of mind to hop off the branch in order to land on her feet, but that only made things worse. She came down right on a patch of extremely soft mud and sank right up to her torso.
Nasrin let out a slight gasp of surprise, but as she realized that she wasn't sinking anymore her panic rapidly dissipated. Instead, holding her hands up to the side to keep them out of the water, she glanced around, looking for the source of what had startled her. There were no other people besides her two travelling companions, and the only visible creature was a rather plump-looking bird sitting on a branch of the tree not too far up. Nasrin stared at it for a few more moments before the creature opened its tiny beak and let out another sreeching call that seemed disproportionate to its lung capacity.
The trapped sandbender let out an exhasperated sigh and then turned her attention toward getting out of the mud. Nasrin tried pushing her hands down to her sides, using the force of her bending to try and repel against the mud, but she hardly budged an inch. She tried kicking her feet or moving her legs, but they were also unable to move. Apparently, the ground here was made of more water than Earth, and her bending was almost completely useless.
Nasrin closed her eyes and rubbed between her eyes with one hand. "A little help..." she muttered.
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Post by mulaqi on Aug 14, 2007 13:38:52 GMT -5
Muqali also was startled by the sudden “scream”, crouching down into a defensive stance and pulling out his tonfa. Looking around, he saw nothing, and cautiously moved towards what he thought had been the source of the sound. A second “scream” came, and he looked up to find that the source of the noise was, in fact, nothing more than a tiny bird. Sighing, he put away his tonfa and started to continue, but stopped dead when he saw Nasrin stuck in the mud.
“A little help…”
“Just a second,” Muqali replied, carefully making his way over to her on the roots of the tree before finally finding a place with suitable footing. “Okay, here we go…”
Reaching down, he grabbed the other Sand Nomad’s arms just bellow the elbow, and then carefully leaned back to pull her out, not wanting to make the same mistake as last time. It took a little while, but eventually, Nasrin came out of the mud with a small pop, and despite his careful efforts, this almost made Muqali fall over backwards once again. Fortunately, he managed to regain his balance, and set Nasrin down on the root next to him. She was covered in mud up to her torso, and Muqali cracked a small grin.
“Great place, isn’t it?” he joked, accentuated by another screech from the small bird. “Nice company, too. Geeze, I’ll take buzzard-wasps any day over that thing.”
If it was just a theory before, it was confirmed now: this place sucked, and they should leave as soon as possible. Sure, the big tree looked cool, but some things just aren’t worth it.
“Hey, Manju!” Muqali called up to the Igni. “Can you tell how far we are from the nearest exit?”
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Post by manju on Aug 14, 2007 14:05:07 GMT -5
While previously crouched on the branch, Manju leapt upward, startled, at the loud scream that came out of the blue. A look of shock on her face, the distraction made her lose her balance, her legs slipping outward and causing her to fall straight on her butt while perched on the branch. Slipping to the side, her leg fell over the side, but her quick thinking caused her to fling her other leg over the opposing side of the tree limb to regain her balance. Her spears were still tightly clutched in her hands, yet to be plunged into the bark of the tree.
A second scream came, and her reaction was far more diluted. Keeping vigilant this time, she maintained her balance, even lowering one of her fists on the branch as her head jolted toward the source of the noise. It was a bird. A stupid, annoying little bird. Manju rolled her eyes as she began hearing Muqali start jabbering. Looking down, she saw the sandbenders fumble to get out of the mud and smirked. A shame they weren't as adept at tree-climbing as the Igni, but not everyone could be so priveleged as to grow up on a tropical island.
Muqali suddenly said something that caught her attention. "Hey, Manju! Can you tell how far we are from the nearest exit?" Manju scurried down the branch, spears still in her hands as she perused her surroundings. Looking either way, all she could see in the distance was fog. Good, thick fog, which occluded any potential exits in the distance.
Looking down at the mud-covered sand nomads, she called to them. "Nope! We're stuck here forever!"
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Post by nasrin on Aug 15, 2007 15:14:40 GMT -5
Nasrin continued to breathe out long-winded sighs as Muqali helped to hoist her out of the muck. She wasn't entirely embarassed by getting stuck like that -she had almost no sense of pride to be damaged by the fall- but it illustrated perfectly just how out of place they were in this humid terrain. Once her legs were free, Nasrin managed to stand somewhat as Muqali pulled her toward a seat at the base of the nearby tree. His remark about favoring buzzard-wasps to the Swamp was quite agreeable, and she almost huffed a slight laugh in response.
Up above, Manju was still playing in the tree tops. The sandbender was slowly coming to envy the younger woman's affinity for climbing. However, when Muqali asked if she could determine the quickest way out of the festering bog, Manju's reply of "Nope! We're stuck here forever!" was not what she wanted to hear.
"We can't be too far from the center," Nasrin said quietly, as though she were simply thinking out loud. "If we go back the way we came it'll take two days to get out. We'll have burned almost four days and still have at least another four before we can circle around..." The sandbender wiped a muddy hand through the water at her feet to clean off the dirt, and then wiped her forhead. It did little to remove the accumulated grime.
Almost as a reaction to the realization of the dire circumstances, Nasrin's hand went to her personal liquour jug on her hip and started to lift it toward her mouth. However, she quickly remembered that she'd used up the last of her alcohol several days beforehand.
"......We need to find a bar."
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Post by mulaqi on Aug 18, 2007 0:43:29 GMT -5
Manju’s response, however disappointing, was not all that unexpected at this point. Although the Igni did her part to help, she did seem to like to push other people’s buttons. Not that this knowledge really prevented Muqali from getting caught up in some of her antics, but it was enough to let the lesser things slide while still catching the meaning of what she was saying. Looking up, Muqali guessed that the mist was probably the reason Manju couldn’t see anything, just as it was the reason he couldn’t use the sun or stars to navigate. All they could do, it seems, was just keep walking and hope they didn’t get turned around.
“...We need to find a bar."
Muqali laughed, grinning over his shoulder as he resumed walking forward, “Maybe a break from the booze’ll do you good. You drink that stuff like it’s water, y’know. Can’t be good for you.”
Turning his attention back forward, Muqali took a quick step and then hopped over some water and onto another tree root. He’d just try to stay on them as much as possible from now on. Moments after he’d done so, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he caught the fleeting shadow of something large moving beneath the water nearby before it suddenly disappeared. Frowning, he turned his head to the side and studied the water.
“Did you guys see that?”
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Post by manju on Aug 22, 2007 0:06:04 GMT -5
Manju jerked her head around rapidly, from place to place as she looked for another vine. She had grown tired of the tree limb, and wished to move ahead on the path. The desert natives below were jabbering, but she didn't care about the topic. She could hear them just fine where she was perched, but she was virtually ignoring the two sand nomads as they spoke. When she spotted a nearby vine suitable for swinging, she flickered her eyes back to see them before making her leap of faith.
Crouched like a cat, the Igni placed her spears back in her pouch and pulled the drawstring tight. Then, she pounced. She grabbed the vine spot-on and swung back and forth. She caught the essence of Muqali's exclamation of “Did you guys see that?” Mainly by detecting his change in tone, but not his exact words. Shifting from a light-hearted voice to a more worried pitch.
Instead of swinging to another vine, she looked down at the two again. Curious about what had happened, she simply had to inquire. "What's wrong?"
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Post by nasrin on Aug 22, 2007 19:11:42 GMT -5
Nasrin was sifting through the bundle of clothing she'd been carrying on her back until this point. The wadded up lengths of bandage wrappings had been stuffed inside her white shirt whose sleeves had then been used like the straps of a traveling pack. Pretty much everything had been soaked, though the bandages were relatively mud free. The sandbender managed to isolate the end of one bandage and began wiping down her face with it when she heard Muqali's exclamation.
"Hnnn?" Nasrin grunted quietly, glancing toward the other Si Wong native. She followed his gaze toward the water, and saw a few lingering ripples on its surface. Immediately her eyes traveled upward to see Manju swinging from a vine above them. Did she drop something? Nasrin looked back down once more, but otherwise seemed to shrug off the incident.
"Probably a fish," she muttered as she continued to wipe off the muck along her arms and neck. She was still sitting calmly on the root of the tree with her shins dangling in the water.
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Post by mulaqi on Aug 30, 2007 0:37:23 GMT -5
The ripples in the water faded as Muqali continued to watch it curiously. However, whatever had made the ripples didn’t return. Breathing out a sigh, Muqali nodded in response to Nasrin’s comment. She was right, it was probably just a fish. It was nothing to get worried about, but this place was making him jumpy. Between the mud, the screeching birds, the twisty, somewhat creepy trees, and now unidentified shadows in the water, he was really beginning to dislike this place. The sooner they left, the better.
“Yeah, probably nothing,” he muttered in agreement after a moment.
With that, he stood back up and continued to march forward. However, despite his apparent agreement with Nasrin’s conclusion, he kept away from the water anyway. You could never be to careful.
***
A few hours later, the trio was even further into the swamp, though honestly, Muqali couldn’t tell the difference. The scenery never seemed to change, and with the fog obscuring sun and star alike, it was impossible to tell what time of day it was. However, Muqali was starting to feel a bit tired, not to mention hungry, and no matter what time of day it was, that meant that it was time to rest. Spotting a large root nearby, Muqali gratefully sat down and leaned his back against the tree trunk.
“Okay, time for a break,” he announced, trying to wipe some of the sweat and grime from his forehead. “What do we have left for food?”
It was a general question, really. His personal food store was gone by now, and he wasn’t sure how much food Nasrin and Manju and started with. Suddenly, it occurred to him that there was a very good possibility that they were out as well. Instantly, he felt himself get a little queasy. The thought of scavenging food from around here was instantly sickening. Hell, he might be better off not eating at all than trying to find something edible around here.
“We do have some left…right?”
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Post by manju on Aug 30, 2007 15:56:41 GMT -5
Manju had tired of vine-swinging, and had been walking near Muqali and Nasrin for at least two hours. Of course, avoiding the mud, she tried to leap from tree roots that stuck out of the ground. At least ishe was mildly amused trying to keep her balance, otherwise she would have been in a bad mood. Probably she would be complaining loudly, even if it was just to annoy the others and not to express her own discontent. Manju excelled at intentionally annoying people.
Muqali suddenly spoke up while Manju was carefully standing on a large tree root. Crouching to maintain balance, she looked directly at him as he posed his question. It was a valid question...what did they have to eat?
Manju ran her fingers through her hair while she thought. She was surprised at how quickly it had grown since her arrival in the Earth Kingdom. Instead of being less than an inch in length, it was now more than twice that length and weighing itself down. Her bangs would covered the tips of her eyebrows if they weren't swept partly to the side, and a few loose waves and crests were visible here and there. She still looked like a boy.
But regaining focus, she shrugged her shoulders at responded to Muqali with a sly smirk. "I dunno."
She was not being helpful in any way whatsoever with her remark, not to mention how she didn't even look in her traveling sack. But accepting that her friends were probably sick of her antics by now, she slid the satchel off her shoulder, set it on the root, opened it, and looked inside. She would probably find something vaguely edible inside after a minute of rummaging around.
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Post by nasrin on Aug 30, 2007 17:31:27 GMT -5
Food... Great. Nasrin had managed to avoid thinking about food for the last whole day, and so far it had been doing the job of keeping her mind off of her growling stomach. Now, with Muqali bringing up the subject, it seemed like she could no longer ignore her protesting innards. The sandbender wrung out the length of cloth in her hand, drying it partially after having wiped exposed skin relatively clean, and then stuffed it back into her makeshift traveling pack.
Considering it was just her shirt tied around her back, she didn't have to bother rooting through it for food.
Manju seemed to be as uncooperative as ever in their search for sustenance, and the Swamp's weather conditions weren't exactly helping. A long-winded sigh escaped the desert woman's lips as she reached up a hand to rub between her eyes. It was moments like this that she regretted the loss of her fellow sandbender from the merchant caravan. His name still escaped her memory, but at the very least he spared her the trouble of having to actually talk with other people. It was almost comical how much she'd come to rely on that service for the past few months and now found it a chore just to voice her thoughts.
But compared to starvation, conversing with these strangers was only slightly less irksome...
"Maybe we could split up and forage for anything that looks edible," she suggested, her voice quiet compared to the others. It also didn't help that Nasrin was still looking straight at the muddy water as she spoke.
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Post by mulaqi on Sept 1, 2007 1:38:30 GMT -5
Manju’s remark prompted a flat, “I am not amused,” expression from Muqali in her direction. Manju just liked to tease, he had come to understand that somewhat, but if they were really out of food, it could be a real problem. The weakness that came from a lack of food would only make the swamp more dangerous, and while he thought they could avoid starving, it still would be a bad situation. Still, a smile crept onto Muqali’s face as Nasrin spoke. She always seemed to talk so quietly, rarely even looking at people as she did so, or at least that was what Muqali had seen of her so far. It was sometimes hard for Muqali to hear her, but it was kind of funny nonetheless. All that aside, however, he couldn’t agree with her idea. Splitting up in this place seemed like a bad idea. Between the fog, the confusing scenery, and the treacherous landscape, splitting up could turn into a crisis real quick.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. We could probably get lost real easy if we split up,” he said, and then flashed a small grin at Nasrin. “Besides, if we split up, who’s gonna get you out of the mud if you get stuck again?”
His smile faded somewhat as he felt his stomach grumble. He really was very hungry. He didn’t know how long it had been since he last ate, but probably at least half a day. Whatever the plan, they needed to get some food, and soon.
“I haven’t seen too many animals to hunt…maybe we could try catching one of those fish in the water?” Muqali suggested at last.
It was, to be brutally honest, a very silly suggestion. Two desert dwellers and a hyperactive girl from who knows where trying to catch fish sounded like some kind of joke. Muqali hadn’t even seen a river or a lake until a couple weeks ago, and the only fish he’d seen had been served to him with a side of rice. Hell, when he said “try catching one of those fish,” he had draw up a mental picture of hiding in the mud, waiting for a fish to swim by and then snatch a fish out of the water as it swam by. It didn’t make sense at all…except, apparently, to Muqali himself.
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