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Post by choji on Mar 26, 2007 12:53:17 GMT -5
The shaman leaned next to Dan-Dan her breathe on his skin. “I would like that Dan-Dan…needa heir to my powers anyway.” She giggled and planted a kiss on his cheek and dove into pool, she leapt up water running down her body eyes bright with spirit. She swam to the center and floated belly up. As Kulap swam, the time seems to move a little faster. She was unaware of the time and what was around her. She kicked her legs a bit diving under waters and swimming in the cool expanse of the pool.
She swam back to Dan-Dan smiling. “C’mon lover, water is pretty warm, swim off all that gunk on yer on back.” She look up and noticed that the sun was just ready to set. “Dan-Dan it’s gettin’ close.” She was about to swim to shore she felt something around her leg. She struggled a bit before terror set in and she disappeared.
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Post by dandan on Mar 27, 2007 14:55:26 GMT -5
Dan-dan passed the time waiting for sunset by tying a short length of fall vine into little piece of knotwork. If he had more chances are he could have made a halfway decent hammock to lay in during the rest of the wait. However, he wouldn't have finished anything quite so tedious anyway. His concentration was broken far too often by the sight of Kulap floating lazily in the shallows. That sight, combined with her earlier suggestion, made Dan-dan more than once feel the need to shift his seat on the shore...
Eventually, as light started to fade, Kulap seemed to realize that the hour of twilight would soon be upon them. She called out “Dan-Dan it’s gettin’ close," voicing his own thoughts. He nodded slightly and tossed the severely knotted tangle of vines back into the woods where it came from. The young man stood, using his oar to push himself up, when suddenly he heard a commotion in the water. There was no sound of alarm from his wife, simply a sound of thrashing water.
Dan-dan's head whipped in the direction of the noise, his lips already forming the syllables of the shaman's name. "Kulap?" he asked, his tone containing no small hint of concern. He saw only the ripples of disturbed water where she had been just a moment before. "Kulap?! he repeated again, rushing forward to stand shin-deep in the water. His swept over the pool, the fading light making it harder to see through the water, though he managed to spot a dark area not far away that seemed the only thing out of place. Dan-dan hefted up his oar and turned the paddle so its face was flat to the surface of the water. With a grunt of effort and a powerful slap of the oar, he sent a surge of bending into the water that split the surface for about thirty feet ahead of him. The water rose up to form walls on either side of the dry section and with a continued effort, Dan-dan sustained them from falling back down.
Laying on the ground a short distance ahead of the oar-wielding bender was Kulap. However, that didn't quite put him at ease, for she was not the only thing he'd left exposed by bending the water away. A large creature was lying on the muddy surface just a few feet behind her. Its body seemed largely covered by a mottled grey-brown shell that formed a dome about 4 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. He couldn't see the thing's underbelly, but several tentacles were sticking out of two openings on the front corners of the shell. The two longest tentacles were wrapped snuggly around Kulap's legs and seemed to have no intention of letting go. Between the two holes that protruded tentacles there was a parrot-like beak emerging, snapping menacingly and making noises like a squawking baby catfish-gator.
Dan-dan had never actually seen such a creature before, but he had heard of something like them. "Snapper-squids," he remembered them being called. Terrible creatures that existed in a few songs and legends of the swamp folk that supposedly dragged unsuspecting fisherman to their deaths under the deeper waters of the swamp. Regardless, Dan-dan was not about to lose his wife to such a beast. "You let her go!" he yelled at the snapper-squid, jabbing one end of his oar into the muddy surface of the pool. As he did so, the water forming the walls of that dried out section began to freeze over. They held the water behind the walls at bay and allowed Dan-dan to concentrate solely on freeing Kulap without sustaining the dry-patch.
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Post by choji on Mar 27, 2007 15:32:13 GMT -5
Kulap screamed and struggled and she tried to get free. "DAAAAN! HEEEELP!" She screamed to her husband eyes wide with definant fear. Another tentacle grabbed her waist and held her snugglely in it grip.
"Damnit to hell! Why do these things keep trying to get me?" She used her arms to beat a pull at the middle arm. But it was starting to get hair to breathe as it was now around he chest she could feel her ribs cracking as the snapper-squid was slowing constricting her. She breathed labored breathes and felt her head hurt. She knew if she continued to struggle it will only make it worst, however she wanted to live.
With her hands she bended a stream of water into a whip and smacked the tentecule around her chest. The snapper-squid screamed, jerk free allowing Kulap to greedily glump air, before the thing snapped back on her. She knew now she can get free by waterbending. Think fast she water bended more streams of water and got her legs free and her chest again. With a scream she dropped down in the mud the slipperly tried to run. The snapper-squid roared in short squeaks that it's prey was escaping.
Barely missing the long beak and Kulap was ready to join her husband when the beast shot ink all over her and up at Dan-Dan. "Awwww sheeeit" Kulap cursed as more tentacules shot out and grabbed her. Hulling her in the air. With them securely around her chest, legs and arms,...and mouth."
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Post by dandan on Mar 29, 2007 12:12:21 GMT -5
As the Snapper-squid continued to drag Kulap toward it with its tentacles, Dan-dan was unsure of how to proceed. The creature's tendrils were squeezing the life out of her, but he couldn't risk cutting them away without injuring Kulap in the process. The fisherman bounced around on his feet for a few seconds, his thoughts racing until he finally decided on something to do. Using his oar, he flicked one end up as he pointed it toward the frozen wall of the dry patch of the pool. Water from the opposite side of the ice rose up to his call and floated over the barrier, coming to a rest near the end of his oar.
Dan-dan stepped forward, shifting his grip the the opposite end of his oar and swung as hard as he could in a horizontal swipe. The paddle of the oar made a deeping wiffing sound as it sliced through the air and the glob of water lashed out in a powerful whip. His aim was high, over Kulap's struggling form, and the water bit hard into the snapper=squid's shell. A chip of carapace flew away, leaving a gouge about two inches deep and a foot long, but it didn't really seem to phase the beast. Dan-dan cursed and regained control of the water, lashing out once more. Again he left a deep scar across the snapper-squid's shell, but again it didn't seem to harm it.
Meanwhile, Kulap had been using a little bending of her own to cut through the tentacles around her and managed to break free. She ran up to join Dan-dan and he likewise galloped a little down the sloping surface of the dried pool. However, no sooner did they reach each other did the snapper-squid rear back and spit a blob of slimy black ink over them. Dan-dan had raised an arm to shield his eyes, but he still was nearly completely covered in the stuff. He let out a noise of disgust and spit out a spray of spit to get out the ink that had leaked into his mouth.
He tried to wipe away some of the ink and take a few steps back while he was distracted, but he feet slipped on the now ink-blotched ground. He fell and splashed into the muddy, inky ground, sliding a bit down the slope of the pool's bottom. When he came to a stop, he heard Kulap screaming and managed to clear his eyes enough to see her hefted into the air and the snapper-squid just a few yards away. With his paddle still in hand, Dan-dan fought his way to his feet and pulled a bit of water directly out of the wall of ice beside him. Water started leaking in, but he didn't care. With a swing of his oar, he slashed at and nearly severed one of the larger tentacles that was reaching toward him, and then followed by slicing the waterwhip at the cluster of tentacles that held his wife in the air.
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Post by choji on Apr 11, 2007 10:27:51 GMT -5
The snapper-squid roatated so the would have dodge the whip. He slapped long arm out at Dan-Dan in hopes to knock him down. The snapper roared and tried to keep his prey from escaping.
Kulap on the other hand was struggling and trying to get free from the beast's grasp she could feel her body struggling to keep itself alive, and Kulap was progressivly getting tired as the snapper-squid fought Dan-Dan, using it other tentacule arms. Kulap flash of her father's face, and then a image of her mother. 'Ho great, now my life is flashing before my eyes wonderful...this really blows, I have had sex yet and I'm going to die a virgin! Greeeattt, and I have done....what..I.... Kulaps thoughts became muddled and unfocused as her oxgyen levels plummeted. Kulap struggled a little long before the tenteacule around her chest constircted the last bit of air from her body.
Meanwhile. Butchie sat in the skift worring over his mistress and her mate. The catfish-gator new something was wrong when his mistress never came back. Whining and whimpering the familar jumped out and looked for her.
Following her smell and passed the carcass of huge snake that nearly ate Kulap. Butchie growled and hissed making sure the huge reptile was still dead. He scuttled faster to where he heard sound of battle. Just as he broke through the branches he saw the mess that Dan-Dan and Kulap were in. Butchie roared and snorted, twilight now fallen, and flower was just ready to bloom. Butchie didn't know what to do, he felt compelled to get the flower for his misstress but, the other half wanted to save Kulap. Butchie was torn. With a scamper, he heade to the flower and with his massive jaws he picked it making sure not to crush.
He ran back and dropped the orchid on the ground and swamp to join Dan-Dan in combat.
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Post by dandan on Apr 11, 2007 14:03:07 GMT -5
Dan-dan cursed as he continued to lash water whips at the snapper-squid. The creature, however, seemed to have a talent for squirming that resulted in Dan-dan's waterbending being very ineffective. It was also slowly flopping its way further into the deeper areas of the pond, though the ice barrier prevented any escape. Kulap was being whipped around like a ragdoll and the fisherman knew his wife wouldn't last through much more of this.
The sound of scuttling feet and splashing puddles drew his attention from behind and Dan-dan turned just in time to see Butchie rush past him. His eyes widened in surprise, but he quickly decided not to question the arrival of help. The catfish-gator launched himself headlong into a vicious fit of snarling and chomping at the snapper-squid's body. In response, the creature squawked and snapped its own beak, but from the looks of it, Butchie was causing it quite a bit of discomfort. It cringed and slowed its flailing of the captive shaman.
At that point, with a few moments to think, Dan-dan decided on a course of action. While Butchie kept the snapper-squid busy, he used his bending to melt the barriers of ice close to the shore of the pool. Very quickly, water rushed into the dry patch of the pond and flooded the deeper section where the creature and the familiar were fighting. Within seconds, the water had filled the area several feet high, turning the fight between the two beast into a submerged brawl. "Butchie!" Dan-dan screamed, "Git outta there!" He kept his eyes peels and several seconds later, after more shouting, he finally saw the shadow of the catfish-gator break away from the thrashing tangle and retreat to his side.
Without any more prompting Dan-dan squared his stance off in the flooding pool, water reaching his waist. He brought up his hands and sucked in as deep a breath as he could manage and then pushed forward slowly but strongly, blowing out a lungful of freezing mist. The water in front of him began to crystallize and he kept up his exhalation for as long as he could until the entire section of water around the snapper-squid had frozen . The whole creature, tentacles, beak, and shell, was encased in ice save for the few that still help Kulap aloft. Those continued to waver, but much slower, and Dan-dan wasted no time in climbing up onto the newly frozen surface in order to free her.
Butchie scrambling up as well and severed the limbs holding her with a few chomps of his fangs. Dan-dan caught his wife as she fell from the snapper-squid's grasp and quickly rushed her to the shore. He laid her down on the soft dry ground and began to see if she was hurt badly.
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Post by choji on Apr 11, 2007 14:16:33 GMT -5
Butchie brawled with the snapper with the fiery enthuisams of a warrior. Growls and snaps echoed in the ancient pool, as Butchie struck with less finesse and more rage. He looked at his mistress being thrown around like some torn up toy. He scrambled away just in time as Dan-Dan froze the snapper squid. But there was no victory yet
Kulap laid on the ground limp. Her cheeks were blue her eyes seem far away and glazed. She wheezed a few times before she went slient. The mess on her was apparent and saddening. The snapper squid tendrils cause more then just a little bruising. There were lasercations on her arms, legs and face and chest. Ribs were either cracked or broken, and Kulap heart was fluttering to live. She's was on the edge of death and was slipping close. Butchie whined at the sight of the massive hematoma that was on her chest. The catfish-gator was frantic. He paces around whining and whippering. "Grrrumm? Grrrrumm." It was such odd sound coming from something so brave. Butchie nuzzled and pushed Kulap with his nose, like he use to do to get her up...but it wasn't working.
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Post by dandan on Apr 11, 2007 20:19:24 GMT -5
Dan-dan sat back on his legs, kneeling beside his injured wife and doing his best to contain a cry of anguish. "Kulap?" he asked, his throat tight. "Kualp!?" he repeated with more urgency, reaching forward to shake her shoulder lightly. She didn't seem to respond so he leaned over her and pressed an ear to her chest. He was considerably wet at this point, and the water in and around his ear made listening difficult. It was many agonizing seconds before he heard a definite "thunmp" of a heartbeat. Dan-dan sat back up quickly and looked her over once more. She was alive, for the moment, but what could he do?
"Hang in there," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. The fisherman felt if as though the snapper-squid's tentacles were now wrapped around his chest instead. With tears threatening to cloud his vision, he ran over to the base of the tree where he and Kulap had deposited the few supplies they brought and grabbed the burlap sack off the ground. He rushed back to his wife's side and began tearing through the bag, almost ripping it in half. Butchie has disappeared for the moment, but he was too consumed with the task at hand to notice.
Among the things that fell out of the bag, Dan-dan found a roll of bandages. He picked up the roll and hastily found one end of the wrap. He stretched to arm's length and then looked for a place to start covering Kulap's many wounds. At that point, Dan-dan noticed that blood had started to seep from them and had obscured her injuroes. He reached back with his hand toward the pool and pulled forth a stream of clean water with his bending. He gently washed the water over her body to clear away the blood and then started wrapping the cloth over the multiple lascerations. Within minutes her cuts were covered, though the wrapping was anything but surgical in quality.
Once more he was left kneeling beside Kulap, at a loss for what to do. And as far as he could tell, his efforts were not making her any better. "Kulap?" he said again, almost pleading, though her limp body seemed to hold no answers for him. "Tell me what to do!" he yelled, resisting the urge to try and shake her awake once more.
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Post by choji on Apr 11, 2007 20:38:36 GMT -5
It was a terrible sight. The god of death seemed to hung around the shaman want the oppertunity to finally slience her fluttering heartbeat. Butchie was starting to be frantict he roars and growls won't rouse the dying shaman.
Kulap layed on the ground broken and dishevled yet looking somewhat less ragged than before. Cleaner, but still very much broken. Night hover around the pool. Stars shown their bright light giving a pale glow on Kulap as she layed there. It seems...to be no hope less in that an hour Kulap will join her mother and father. The swamp has lost it's spirit talker. So it seems at least
Until Butchie looked at the flower and the gator remembered something. Kulap wasn't dead yet. She was pretty much at the gate but maybe...The familar remember that weird woman. "GRAAAAH GRAHHH!" The catfish-gator pick up the beautiful flower and tried to get the distraught fisherman's attention. "GRAHHHHHHHH!!" He headed butted Dan-Dan's thigh and showed him the flower as if saying don't give up hope yet.
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Post by dandan on Apr 12, 2007 21:16:25 GMT -5
Butchie's head thumping his leg broke Dan-dan from his focus on Kulap. He turned to regard the catfish-gator, wiping away the moisture on his nose and eyes with the back of his forearm. "Hnnn?" he grunted, finally taking notice of the Twilight Orchid that Butchie had laid beside him. For several moments he stared at it, his mind backtracking to what that crazed old herbalist had said about it. She had said it could cure anything...
Eyes glanicng rapidly between Kulap and the flower, Dan-dan scooped up the Twilight Orchid and immediately began thinking of how to use it. For several moment he gripped the flower in one hand and moved it over Kulap in a fidgety sort of motion. What was he supposed to do with it? He was no herbalist, and Kulap didn't have much time left! "Gah!" Dan-dan grunted in frustration as he tore off a petal of the orchid and began rubbing it along Kulap's wounds. After a few moments though, he decided that it wasn't doing anything helpful and he tossed that petal aside.
"How do I use this Damn thing!?" he shouted, punching the ground in anger. Dan's heart was racing, while his wife's seemed to be slowing down even more. The fisherman forced himself to take a breath and he thought hard about the types of potions and powders that Kulap sometimes made. There were only a few ways to use the flower petals, and the first thing to come to mind was his wife crushing a healing flower in a bowl and adding a little liquid to make it easier to inbibe. He had no mortar or pestle, nor did he have anything to add as a solvent. But he did have....
Dan-dan stuffed the entire flower in his mouth and began dicing up the whole thing with his teeth. He'd seen birds feed their young this way, and under normal circumstances he might have felt very strange about doing this, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He worked the Twilight Orchid into a paste that he figured could go down easy enough and quickly leaned over Kulap's nearly lifeless body. He gently straightened her head and parted her jaw and pushed the chewed flower into her mouth. He quickly closed her mouth with his hand and tilted her head back a little bit, rubbing around her throat to try and force the orchid down. Eventually, she seemed to reflexively swallow and Dan-dan sat back once more, offering prayers to whatever spirit might be listening.
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Post by choji on Apr 13, 2007 7:44:20 GMT -5
Time to sit still on that moment, Butchie paced around the ground making noises, he finally settled and wined on the ground the if the familar could cry he would have.
The moon seemed to be deaf to Dan-Dan prayers, but something older then moon seemed to be at work here. The orchid's magic, was breathing life back into Kulap dying body.
The shaman laid there as something like mircule happened. The lacerations began to heal on her legs and arms. Her fibulating heart that stopped for that moment began beat normally, and finally the hematoma that was around her chest and broken ribs were set back in place and blood drain and the hematoma was gone.
Kulap did something she haven't done yet. She took a large glup of air. It stung her tenderr chest, but she continued to glup it down. Her arms twitched and the shaman woman groaned.
Butchie eyes seemed to get larger. He pawed at Dan-Dan, his eyes where shouting look! LOOK! She's...alive!
Kulap opened her eyes and looked at the stars above them, before she moaned out. "Owwwww...I don't feel good." She tilted her head to looked at Dan-Dan who seemed to be very upset. Kulap reached up and touched his face.
"You Ok Dan-Dan?"
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Post by dandan on Apr 13, 2007 11:40:28 GMT -5
The sound of Kulap taking a deep breath caused Dan-dan to look up from his hunched posture. He saw his wife's brest rise and fall in a long breath, and he suddenly found himself holding his own. He was afraid to move a muscle, lest he disturb whatever miracle was happening before him. At long last she spoke and the fisherman let out a long held breath of air that had started to cause his lungs to burn.
"Owwwww...I don't feel good." the shaman mumbled, and Dan-dan could tell she was going to make it. A smile spread across his face from ear to ear and he could hold back a stream of tears. His wife looked at him quizically and asked, "You Ok Dan-Dan?"
The only response he could think of was to lean over her and wrap her in a big, yet gentle hug. As much as she looked like she were recovering, she still looked pretty beat up and Dan-dan didn't want to hurt her.
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Post by choji on Apr 13, 2007 12:42:38 GMT -5
Kulap blinked as Dan-Dan wrapped her up in a huge hug. Gentle as it was, it was still a suprise. "Dan-Dan? Whut gottin-" The suddenly she remembered. "Oh, gods! I did I jest died!? And brought back to life?!" She pulled away and looked into Dan-Dan eyes.
"I don't believe it...holy spirits of Earth, I don't believe it." Kulap started laughing loudly, before a twinge of pain stopped her. She looked at the brusies and lascerations on her legs and arms, and now bruise around her chest. It felt like a huge weight was lifted of her chest. She winced as she stood up she feel dizzy so she fell back down.
"Ow...standing isn't such a good idea. But I'm alive...I thought...I thought...It was so weird I thought I heard, my ma and pa, they were callin' me. But then I felt something pullin' me back and I woke up and I saw you. You look like yer gonna burst into tears." Kulap giggled and threw her arms around Dan-Dan and without she kissed him hard, conveying everything she felt and was grateful for in that kiss.
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Post by dandan on Apr 14, 2007 23:50:30 GMT -5
To say the least, Dan-dan was a bit caught off guard by Kulap's sudden kiss. She had all but passed into the spirit world and already she had seemed to forget her pain and fear. However, Dan-dan could sort of understand that kind of change, for a moment later he seemed to forget why he was objecting at all and returned the kiss in full.
He wrapped her once more in a loving embrace and the couple became engrossed in their celebrations. That is, of course, until an embarassed groan from Butchie broke their inimate moment. Dan-dan pried himself away from Kulap long enough to see the catfish-gator thumping his tail in annoyance as he stood beside the pair of swamp-dwellers. The fisherman huffed a slight laugh and smiled, shifting his glance between his wife and her familiar.
"Looks like he's glad to see ya back too," he said, reaching up to wipe some of the remaining moisture from his eyes.
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Post by choji on Apr 15, 2007 14:53:36 GMT -5
Kulap took a breath of air and chuckled at her familiar. "Sorry Butchie. It's just." Kulap could feel the tears flowing down her face. She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Darn, things, they jest keep coming. I don't know why I'm even cryin'" Kulap sniffed as she quietly sobbed. Butchie, nuzzled his mistresses thigh, grateful that it was warm. Kulap sobbed for a good minute before unsteadly standing up. “OWWW,” She quickly sat back down. Her legs were sore and the cuts were still bleeding. Butchie growled and scuttled through the brush and brought back some wood and rocks. Kulap blinked and realized what he was getting at.
“We need a fire Dan-Dan, before whut ever beasties decide to finish us off...” Kulap helped set the stones in circle as Butchie tossed the wood in. “I just want to say…that…I’m…well thank you Dan-Dan…I never realized how much I needed you.” Kulap said quietly, as she looked for the flint with her limited movement. Finally with some effort, Kulap coxed the sparks to breathe and grow in on the wood. Light finally spread in the pool, shedding a glow on a very tired and worn shaman, Kulap smiled faintly on Dan-Dan. Before crawling over and leaning on him.
“I think I finally realized that I love you.” She mumbled as she laid next to him. Finally safe from danger
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