Samanayrs

((Leanan Sidhe and I decided it might be fun to practice RPing, since we're both a bit nervous about joining in with others without any experience. As such, we'd prefer no one else post in this thread (feel free to PM us comments or advice, though!). We're going to be using imaginary sams for this - hopefully that's kosher . I'm also going to use this first post to OOCly post the character profiles and the setting for this RP.))

Sam Profiles
Jewel of the Untrod Desert - played by Nadir
Gender: Mare
Species: Desert-Aquatic hybrid
Traits: Fin ears, finned wings, scaled skin, desert traits [large ears, tufted tail, reduced foot tuft, large hooves]
Colours: Orange scales with green and blue accents

Shifter of the Shimmering Mirage - played by Leanan Sidhe
Gender: Mare
Species: Desert Shifter
Traits: scales, desert and shifter traits [large ears, tufted tail, reduced foot tuft, large hooves, mane strand]
Colours: White fur, grey and blue accents, mane strand fades from white-yellow to deep sky blue
Abilities: Can shift into desert creatures - has a strong preference for daytime creatures and creatures which fly.

Misery of the Drowned Hope - played by Leanan Sidhe
Gender: Stallion
Species: Sa'krien Misery
Traits: Sa'krien and misery traits [multiple horns, clawed paws, back mane]
Colours: Black with a blue mane, with blood red horns, talons and eyes

Setting
Jewel is crossing a great desert alone, in search of a new start after finding her birth community stifling and uncompromising. During the journey, she is unknowingly watched by Mirage, who normally dwells in the deepest stretches of the desert and is unused to other Samanayr company. After leaving Jewel to continue on her journey, Mirage has an encounter with Hope, and discovers that he is tracking Jewel.

Jewel lay in the shade of a small, thirsty tree, on the edge of a small oasis, and tried to sleep. Her large ears ached, but she was too tired to dip them in the water to soothe them. Instead, she flicked them irritably and tried to ignore their persistant itch. Her wings itched too, and the sand under her felt gritty and coarse. Her tail was full of sand and felt heavy and dirty. Opportunistic flies doted on her skin, foraging for any dead scales or other food they could find. The sun beat down on her, flattening the desert until it all seemed to be one endless, shallow horizon.

Giving up on sleep, the mare rose and gingerly dipped her head into the oasis - gently submerging her aching ears and feeling them flush and plump with the sudden chill of the water. Submerging her wings was an impossibility in the shallow water, but she did as best she could, kneeling down and stretching them out flat on the surface. Her tail flicked compulsively, trying to loosen the grainy sand clogging its long tuft. Bother, bother, bother!, she muttered to herself, before standing and shaking herself off. Droplets of water flew everywhere, tapping out a staccato rhythm on the broad leaves surrounding her.

Turning to climb back into the meagre shade of the palm, Jewel was faced with a large snake, which was watching her warily. Ankle deep in the cool water, with droplets already steaming slowly off her scales in the sunlight, she stared back at him. Well, come on then, if you want a drink, she said softly, feeling a bit foolish. The snake, disturbed by the noise, turned its head slowly to one side and flickered his tongue. Jewel looked around, despairing. The oasis had only one easy exit - three of its sides were framed by slippery, steep rocks, with the occasional tree desperately thrusting its roots amongst the stones. The gentle sandy slope in front of her wasn't wide enough for her to walk up without almost treading on the snake.

Impatiently, she stamped a forefoot, sending up a large splash. Move, already! Just decide what you want to do! I can't get out with you sitting there, and you won't drink while I'm standing in here, so just make a decision!. The snake, unmoved by her impetuousness, licked his eyes and pondered silently.

Maddened by the snake; the impasse; the entire situation, Jewel decided to attempt scaling one of the lower walls. Slowly and carefully, she clambered up onto the lowest range of rocks, her hooves skittering uncertainly on the polished surfaces. The stones under her feet rocked treacherously and noisily. Shifting her weight as slowly as possibly, holding her breath, she eased up onto a midrange outcropping, which - with the addition of a crazy outreaching of roots from a nearby bush - was large and solid enough for her to stand on. She was now about half her body height above the water, and still had about the same amount to go. She could see the flat surface of the desert, but dared not try to clamber directly onto the shifting sands. Instead, she cast about for another safe place to climb to. The closest place was a thin ledge to her right - not wide enough to stand on normally, but enough to hold her while she found her way onto the surface. If I just... if I jump along there, and as long as that holds, I should be able to..., Jewel muttered to herself, trying to find the safest way to the ledge. Eventually, she settled on a course, and stretched out far enough to reach a stable-looking stone...

Which fell away immediately at her touch, sending the smaller stones which had been supporting it spiraling down into the oasis with it, and with Jewel.

With a thud, she hit the stones at the bottom of the wall, loosing her breath and feeling one of her wings tear on a sharp stone or root. One of her legs was twisted beneath her, and her eyes were closed with pain and frustration. She flailed to right herself, and finally rolled over onto her belly. Panting to banish the black spots in front of her eyes, she glared darkly at the snake. The snake was unmoved by her stare, by virtue of not being there to suffer it. The shaded spot beneath the palm was empty.

Groaning, Jewel struggled to her feet and stumbled up the slope. Collapsing onto the desert sand, she felt the it cling to her, burrowing its way beneath the edges of her scales, clogging her tail and sticking to her wings. Exhausted, she didn't care, and fell into a fitful doze. She had to wait for nightfall to be able to travel, so any sleep caught was a blessing. Her ears, already dried out by the hot desert wind, itched maddening, and they flicked erratically while she dreamed, the only movement in the drowsy landscape.

((Have Mirage's intro almost all written, but you posted just in time for me to be running off for dinner. Will post when I get back ))

((Booo, you baddy! Oh well, I'll check back after I get back from dinner as well, then. You could probably post a snippet from Hope if I'm not on when you get back))

Blow asunder by a sudden updraft, Mirage spun through the air head over tail. Tiny wings beating frantically, she struggled to right herself, but the sandy desert floor quickly reared up to meet her.

FWUMP! Mirage felt her antennae fill with sand, and her vision was completely filled by giant rocky grains of sand. Standing unsteady, she groomed herself with her foreclaws, before deciding it would be easier to Shift than it would to try flying again.

From a spot on the sand, where previously there had been only a passing scarab beetle, a samanayr slowly grew - black carapace folding back into a lightly scaled back, extra limbs engulfed by the chest cavity, and a flowing tail appearing, seemingly out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, Shifting was not enough to dislodge all the sand, so Mirage, still engaged in the Shift, flicked her ears and stamped her still-forming feet. The sand which, just seconds before, had been as rough as a field of marbles to her, stretched away in endless, unimaginable fields in all directions. The sun lay heavy in the sky, melting and curling at the edges.

I guess scarab wasn't really the best choice for this trip, Mirage mused to herself, trudging slowly to the peak of a sand dune and lightly scenting the air. The air itself smelt baked and sterile, and it stung her nostrils with its heat. Grimacing, Mirage sat down to think, unconsciously burrowing back into the sand, letting its bulk shade her from the sun. There isn't any water nearby, so I shouldn't waste my energy. Although, a larger form would let me cover more ground... And there's probably no harm in going up and seeing if there's anything nearby worth heading towards.... As she thought aloud, her bulk rippled imperceptibly, as she considered her next Shift. Such small Shifts - a multifacet eye here for a moment, the pattern of feathers pushing out from her flank there, the pulse of a paw from within her hoof - were a nervous tic of Mirage's, and in the few moments she took to consider her options, a veritable menagerie was paraded across her skin.

Finally, she stood, long legs distancing her from the radiating heat of the ground. Stretching back her head, she began her Shift. Immediately, her forelegs sprung up beneath her, leaving her suspended on her hind legs. Her mane exploded into a ruff of feathers, which washed down her body in a wave of sandy brown and white. Her hind hooves split and scaled, becoming wicked claws. Her eyes swung out to the side, and she saw the world through a predator's gaze. Finally, she shrunk, and then there was no Shifter there, but only a small, curious hawk, perched on the sand dune. With a ruffle of its wings, it leapt from the earth and rose rapidly on the thermal columns gifted to it by the sun.

Once in the air, Mirage stared, seeing all, fighting her hawk brain (which longed to focus on the small, the furry, the prey), and sought out signs of what she was searching for. Far below her, the desert was rumpled like a blanket tossed aside on an early morning. Almost unbroken, but not quite. Mirage saw the trail she had lost earlier, and saw the oasis where the tail ended. Banking her wings, she fell steeply towards the earth, towards the oasis.

What are you even doing? She won't have anything to tell you. She might not even still be alive - she's been traveling less and less far each day, after all. She's flagging. And she's an outcast. She could be dangerous. You don't have to see her. There's a traveling song to the east - they will trade you news and information if that's what you want. You don't have to... her internal monologue (already competing with the hawks lazy analysis of trajectory and temperature and prey) was silenced. Spreading her wings, she felt herself slow, and reached out to grab the branches of a tree near the oasis.

On the ground, she saw a snake - large, but distracted. The hawk calculated coldly her odds of success - the sam merely shifted uneasily on the branch, thinking about when she had last had a meal. She hated eating meat, but it was too difficult to subsist entirely on plants out here in the depths of the desert. From the oasis, there was a shuddering crash. The snake started, arching in a defensive position. The hawk, unconvinced by her arguments and not one to let an opportunity pass, swooped low from the branch, and swung like a pendulum into the sky, trailing the snake behind it like the tail of a kite.

((See you caught the title mistake =P Sorry, didn't have time to intro Hope as well. Will have to be tomorrow - I have a break before lunch, so I should be able to write then))

Leanan Sidhe wrote:((See you caught the title mistake =P

((I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. It was you who suggested the change of setting anyway, so I was just fixing your mistake by proxy ))

Sorry, didn't have time to intro Hope as well. Will have to be tomorrow - I have a break before lunch, so I should be able to write then))

(('Kay. I have a break after lunch (around 5), so I'll check in then and try to get a reply up. Good job on Mirage's part, btw - I love the Shifting descriptions (Animorphs fan? Me? Never! ) ))

The waves in Hope's mind crested. His thoughts scattered, light and powerless in the face of gargantuan waves. Unsecured, they tumbled and tossed in the crashing fall of the water. Reaching out into the foam, Hope searched for them, but all he found was the deep, overwhelming wetness and coldness of the ocean, washing over him.

Staring at his feet, he saw hoofprints in the sand. Are those mine?, he thought to himself, struggling to be heard over the crashing of the waves in his ears. Did I come this way before, or was I walking backwards? Maybe they aren't mine. Perhaps there is another, somewhere? Delicately, fearing that the action would pour an ocean out of him onto the desert sand, he bent his head down slowly, and sniffed at the hoofprints.

With a surging, sucking pull, the waves within drew back, stubborn fingers and tendrils of water dragging at his mind. Only the jagged, blackened rocks of his instinct were left exposed, accusingly pointing to the sky. PREY said the rocks to Hope, or Hope to the rocks. mate... said the echoes of the wind as it dashed itself upon them, a whispering co-conspirator.

As Hope lifted his head, and the scent of the female he was following fell away beneath him, the ocean within pounded back towards the shore, champing at the bit as it came. As Hope was lifted and spun around within it, the last dark murmurs from the rocks rose up to him with the surf: Follow her. Find her..

Floundering within his mind, but with a goal clamped tightly in his tenuous grasp, Hope set out once more into the desert, the thirst in his parched throat untouched by the deluge within him.