First Lesson of Aim [16 Nov 2001|10:10pm] [ mood | content ] I had to wear the cast for about 21 sunrises (days. here we tell time differently). When I finally got it removed I felt so stiff. I stretched and strung my quiver of arrowc around my shoulder. Today Miako had promised me shooting lessons with a couple of aishas her own age as well as some that were mine. We arrived at a area with round targets nailed onto six seperate trees. First I took out my blue and white protective paw guards and strapped them on. I took out my bow and looked it over. I flicked the band. It wasn't loose or tight, but firm as it was supposed to be. I picked out one of my arrows. Each had three feathers. One blue, one white and one peach colored. I placed the arrow on, though imporperly and frowned. "Here," said Eizo who was next to me, "Lay it on this slot and string it right there." He pointed and helped me string it up. Eizo was a red aisha and likewise had three red feathers on his arrows and two red and one white on his headband. "Thanks," I said, "Hey Miako, which one do I aim for?" She pointed to one with a brows colored target. I fitted my arrows up again, sighted the target from the left since I was right-pawed and left loose. The arrow flew and hit a bush some feet away to the left. Miako came over. "I think I know what the problem is", she said, "You're sighting on the left. You need to aim and sight slightly above where the arrow is and hold your bow steady. Here, look at Kira" She pointed to a yellow aisha some yards away. Kira with already 3 feathers on her headband easily sighted the target and let loose with an air of having done this many times. I pulled out another of my arrows and sighted my target again, this time following Miako's advice. I listened as the others let loose as different times. I carefully held the bow steady and let the arrow go. It zipped through the air, hit and dug itself deeply into my selected target a couple inches from the center. "That was great!" said Eizo who had just paused to straighten a feather on his arrows. I was still a little shocked by where my arrow had flown. Overcoming it, I tugged another arrows from my quiver and fitted it on my bow. This wasn't so bad, I kind of liked this sport. 3 comments|post comment

Arrive Home [16 Nov 2001|08:58pm] [ mood | okay ] I sat on a blanket next to Zien inside the main tent where one of the Wise Ones stayed. We had just finished retelling our story, Zien mainly. I added little comments here and there but didn't say much besides. The old, worn aisha sat calmly contemplating our story. I shifted a little, uneasy with the silence. Finally she spoke, "I see you have been through a great ordeal...Zien, you are not hurt as far I as I can see but perhaps you should rest awhile. As for you.." She turned her gaze towards me. "I will send for the healers so they can patch up your ankle. You too should rest and not strain yourself..but then again you don't really seem to have much of a choice" She flashed me a small smile and then signaled to Miako who had been sitting beside her the whole time, to go get the healers. When we had first arrived Zien and me were greeted by the loud argumentive voices of Miako and Tao. Then, when we were spotted, we were bombarded with questions. Miako and Tao had pulled us out of the small crowd and brought us straight to the Wisewoman. Tao peeked into the tent after Miako had rushed past him. He looked over us and at the Wisewoman. "Are they going to be ok?" I notices he was referring to both me and Zien. Wow, there's a first, I thought. Maybe Tao wasn't so bad after all... "I can assure you they will be fine Tao. Now you have shores to attend to." Before leaving, Tao glanced back. "Hey don't get yourselves into anymore trouble...okay Squirt?" Gaaaahhhhhh!, I thought completely frusturated but hid it behind my expression. Then the healers arrived. I winced as they unwrapped Zien's quickly created cast and dabbed this wierd smelling clear stuff. After done, they wrapped my ankle up again and added their own splint. I bit my lip and glanced up at Zien who was recieving his own treatment. They insisted on wrapping his cuts and scratches. We they were finished, Miako came in and helped me back to my family tent. I had been adopted into the tribe a little after birth I thought. The name of the family that had taken me in was Cohn. They didn't had any children except me and always in my opinion overprotected me. When I explained this to Miako she said, "Well, you know that they care for you and everything. Whatever they do, they'll probably do it because of that" We neared the tent when my 'mom' well stepmom Natike and step dad Ryno came out. "Oh Kaina! Where have you been! We've been so worried, hey..what happened to your leg? Are you hurt?? Here, let me help you.." "Yeah, well I wish they could care a little bit less..." I mumbled to Miako with a sigh as Natike rushed over. Miako smiled and patted me on the back. "Well, I need to go now, see you later" "Bye" I said as Ryno inspected the cast the healers had fixed on me. post comment

My First Test [11 Nov 2001|02:04pm] [ mood | accomplished ] Zien whirled around. The grundo spider smiled evilly and a chill ran up my spine. "Give me the white one," it said. Zien glared and stood in front of me, blocking him. The deformed spider thing just smirked and without warning shot out two sharp sticks connected with his silk at Zien. Caught off guard Zien was sent flying into a tree and stuck there by the two spear things. The spider grundo glanced at me with my split, firguring I wasn't a threat since I could barely walk and started towards Zien. I staggered determinely to my feet and hopped towards his web having thought of idea that would probably get me killed in the process. I pulled the web down quietly. A web was a spiders greatest pride and those who destroyed them would probably be an enemy for their entire life. I dragged the web after the spider grundo heading towards Zien. Zien was concious now, sending me looks over the spider grundo's shoulder clearly telling me how idiotic I was being and that I should just run away. The grundo stood in front of Zien, grinning down at him. Zien just glared. I picked up a rock on the ground and threw in at the thing's back. It growled and turned. Zien kicked out his legsat it and it stumbled foward. I took this chance and threw the web over the spider grundo, trapping it in its own creation in which it had intended to trap me. Furious, it struggled which only tangled it more and pushed itself down the hill. I looked down. It had rolled straight into a tree and wasn't moving. Probably knocked himself out, I thought. I made a face and turned to Zien who relaxed his shoulders and breathed relief. I used one of the axes to cut the thick sticks which were too deeply embedded to be removed any other way. Then I sat down, glad it was all over. Zien sat next to me. We didn't speak for a while. Then Zien broke the silence. "We should get back on the other side before it gets darker", he said. I just nodded. By nightfall we had made it out of the dark parts of the forest, but we were still a whiles away from the tribe. We decided to spend the night in a small cave about a mile away from camp. After eating the little food we had brought with us, we gathered branches from pine trees that had fallen off for beds. It wasn't the most comfrotable thing but it was better than the hard cold stone floor we had. "I'll bet Miako is yelling at your brother right now", I said. "Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. Probably arguing about search parties now." he replied. After a while we fell asleep. From that day foward however Zien became my friend. There are some things you can't do without becoming friends. Beating an evil spider grundo together is one of them. post comment

The Web [11 Nov 2001|01:17pm] I woke up later with a massive headache, feeling as though I had been dragged miles in dirt. I blinked once..twice, three times. I looked over my situation. My body was tied together with this silkly sticky substance. Ugh.., I thought. My first instinct was to struggle which I did, to no prevail. I bit the substance in my mouth and yanked it back and forth with my teeth until it came loose. At least I could breath somewhat properly now. I surveyed around me. In addition to being strapped with spider silk I was tied to what I supposed was the web. The spider grundo which had originaly been asleep was now awake and streching. Fear gripped me and I tugged at my bonds more. He glanced up at me, he? I wasn't sure. 'It' seemed to classify it more. "Struggle all you want" it said in a husky voice, "You're not getting away." It jumped off the web. "Now to find your little friend.." It scampered off. Zien, I have to help him..., I thought and rocked back and forth harder. This broke one of the bonds connecting me to the web and I dangled sideways. "Great..", I muttered. "Hey!" a voice whispered. I stopped shaking and stared wildly around. "Zien?", I whispered. "Yeah, it's me" He came out from behind a bush and rushed over to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. He took a pocket knife out of his pocket and started hacking at my bonds. "How'd you find me?" I asked. "Well, the trail it left dragging you was quite obvious" he said. Once I was free, I hopped testily off my ankle. Zien then took a small bark pouch from his belt and wrapped some cloth around it then tied two sticks on either side firmly. "Thanks" I said gratefully. He flashed me a small smile of 'your welcome' and helped me to my feet. It was the first time I had ever seen him smile. But that smile soon dissapeared as a husky voice from behind us spoke. "Going so soon?" post comment

Spider-Grundo [11 Nov 2001|11:57am] [ mood | numb ] "What-..What is that?" I breathed. "I think I've heard of this before. But I thought it was only a legend..." said Zien. The spider thing growled and took a step foward. Without stopping to think we both were on our feet and running. I didn't need to be told that the thing was fast. Anything with more than four legs probably was. Leaving our small bundles of wood forgotten behind, we ran. I didn't even notice the sharp pain that was biting into my ankle. Zien ran along side me, talking. "It's a spider-grundo", he explained as we zipped through trees. I could hear it trampling behind us. "But why is it after us?!" I asked, panic stricken not daring to look over my shoulder. "I don't know. Maybe we got to close to its web." I moaned. "Where can we hide?" I asked looking around. My foot was starting to ache. "Well, our best bet is to find a hold or something it can't fit into, 'cause it can climb up any tree we go up". I felt something whip around my hurt ankle. Then another thing which this time caught and pulled my foot out from under me. I yelled as a sweep of hot pain swept through it. Zien stopped and ran back towards me, then stopped as the spider grundo thing stepped up a little, growling over me. I cringed, throughly terrorized for the first time in my life for as long as I can remember. I saw it lunge one of its web strands towards Zien. He stepped back, dogding it but lost his footing and fell backwards into a ditch behind him. The thing above me snorted, and turned dragging me off by the ankle. The clenched my teeth and grabbed a root protruding from the ground, holding onto it. But this just made it pull harder which was unbearable to my ankle. A wave of darkness swept over me and I passed out. post comment

Night of Magic [09 Nov 2001|08:03pm] [ mood | peaceful ] The horn sounded again, this time followed by the call, "They're here! The whales are here!" Miako and I exchanged looks. We both turned and ran down the path down on the other side of the beach. I sprinted a little ahead of Miako and sprinkled the ground with a few pinches of Suweko. Then we sat, heads propped up against our paws watching for the whales to come. "Look!" Miako said suddenly, "There's one!" "Where?", I asked. "Right there, below us", she said pointing. Indeed there was a whale floating there. It was huge! I had never seen anything like it. "Wow, it's big.." I marveled softly. "Oh, that's only a baby", Miako said, "Wait till you see the bigger ones" "Bigger??!" Wow.., I thought. The baby blew up a small mist of air. I let it settle and drift on my face before asking, "Where did that come from?" "There's a hole on its back", Miako explained, "I think it breathes through it as well as sometimes through its mouth". Then a saw a even bigger shape emerge next to the baby and a even bigger blow of air came from it. "That must be its mother", Miako said. We sat there for a while, watching other whales jump slightly out of the water, turn over splashing eachother. I felt my eyes drooping when Miako silently tapped my shoulder, signalling that we should probably get back to the beach before we fell asleep and rolled off the cliff. We walked down to the beach slowly. I could barely keep my eyes open and barely noticed when Miako propped me up on her back and walked me the rest of the way. Tao saw us come out and was about to lecture but Miako gave him a look that had knockout written all over it, that he shut his mouth. That's a first..., I thought sleepily. Miako lay me on my sleeping bag and pulled out her own next to mine. I opened my eyes slightly before drifting off and took one last look at the night sky. Miako was right, the stars were brighter than I had ever seen them before. post comment

One Bead Difference [09 Nov 2001|06:59pm] [ mood | cheerful ] Celebrations were taking place all over the beach. Aishas were everywhere. I never did know how many were apart of our tribe. There seemed to be quite a few more members than I had thought. Miako and I headed over to an area where other girl aishas sat in a circle, their heads bent down in concentration on their beadworks. I sat down next to them with Miako, took up a needle and thread and decided to make one of my own. I strung th beads on the thread and sewed them in rows. I kept on pricking myself andd missing the hole. I wasn't very good at these kind of things I'll admit. I bit my lip and kept on working. I made five small rows going down and thining out as they went down. The outline or backround was comprised of blue beads and the star I attempted to make which looked to me more like a warped circle was made of tiny small beads. I pulled out my special pouch made especially out of string and beads and scrumaged carefully with my paw. I slowly pulled out my paw holding what I thought represented a frozen drop of water. I had found it near the edge of the trees a while back. I strung it on the end of the small upsidedown pyrimad and then wove the string back around in and out of the beads to make it firm. "Hey Kaina?" said Miako turning around slightly to face me. "Yeah?" I asked fumbling to get the last loop through. "Can you tie this on my ankel?" she held up a red and orange bead creation. It was red with a orange sun carefully sewed into the middle. "Wow! You're so good at these things! Sure, I'll tie it, could you hold this?" I handed her my bead thing which I intended to make an anklet as well. I carefully strung her anklet around her white paw and tied it tightly so that it wouldn't fall off. I looked up and saw her fingering my anklet. "It's not very good.." I said. She grinned at me. "You're so modest Kaina. Here, all you need to do is move these to points one bead over.", she said pointing. I handed her a needle. "Can you do it. I'll probably mess it up" "Sure", she replied. A few moments later, she held it up to me smiling. "Suguoi!", I said. One bead over really did make a difference. She tied it onto my left paw and surveyed it with satisfaction. A small horn blew on the other side of the beach. post comment

Ribia Tao [09 Nov 2001|04:57pm] [ mood | anxious ] "Let's go up over there" Miako pointed to a small path on the left. I followed it with my eyes and saw it came up on a small cliff a good distance above the water. "Ok!" I said and we took off running down the path. "Ow!" I remarked as a thorn pricked into me from a vine. The path was covered with them. "Hold on a sec" Miako said, flicking out her small dagger. I didn't own a dagger yet. All I was allowed to carry was a small pocket knife, a dull one at that. I turned it around in my paws and frowned as Miako cleared the pathway. "There" she said, having finished cutting out a small path through the vines. We carefully walked between the vines. Once out we sprinted towards the small cliff. By now, the sun had drifted out of sight for the night. Miako took out a small lantern and set it on the ground away from the grass. I helped her pile a small wall of rock and dirt around it. "Just for now" she said, "The stars are brightest tonight and we'll have no need of it." "How 'bout we go down to the celebration for a while?" I asked. "Ok, but we need to sneak out so that Tao and his group don't find the spot". "I got that covered already" I said smiling. I pulled out a small pouch made of bark and extracted its contents around the grass. "Oh perfect!" she said grinning, "Now let's go" The substance I had sprinkled was known as Ribia to the tribe. It was distictive by the nauseating aroma it let off. Or it other words it was a stink-bomb as I have also heard it called. No one knew a cure for the smell except but letting it wear off which took several days. That is, anyone but me and Miako. Over the summer we had developed a concoction to quench the smell. We had collected every fragrant flower, herb, basically anything that smelled sweet and then we mixed it all up. It resulted in the most powerful sweet smelling thing I had ever come accross. We called it Suweko. It was tied on my belt that swung around one shoulder on one side to hang on the other side in a pouch similar to that which held the Ribia. This belt-like thing would also hold my quiver and shealth when I got old enough. After adjusting my headband and feathers we took off. The amount of feathers on one's headband symbolized experience and in a way age. I only had two feathers which was appropriate for my age. One was white and the other was blue. Miako had three feathers (red, yellow, orange) and held her dagger. I hoped that the Wise One would give me permission to weild my own. But that wouldn't happen for a while. To be honest I don't really like fighting or violent things like that. We took the long way back to the celebration so that no one would guess where we had come from. "Late again I see" a mocking voice rang from the side of us. Tao's. I rolled my eyes, exasperated. "Oh please Tao" Miako said crossly. "You're not old enough to be here squirt" he said, turning his attention to me. 'Squirt' was Tao's nickname for me. I hated it. "I am too. Go get a life Tao" I was a little fed up with him at the moment. He gave me a look with a raised eyebrow. "Well I must be going now." He said with a small trace of mockery and then added, "See you later squirt". I glared off at him as he walked away. Miako laughed. "If you were a dog you hackles would be right up and bristling." she said. I relaxed my shoulders and sighed. "Don't let him get to you much" she said resting a paw on my shoulder. "I try not to but he's just so..." I flexed my paws in front of me. "Well if he ever bugs you too much, call me and I'll beat him up for you" I laughed, knowing Miako would probably do something like that. post comment

Naraki [09 Nov 2001|04:34pm] [ mood | excited ] I ran through the woods in pursuit. "Hey! Wait up!" I called to the figure darting in and out of trees in front of me. "Ah come on, we'll miss it if we don't get there soon" it yelled back to me. I sped up a little and caught up. "Why are we rushing anyway?" I asked her,"It shouldn't start for a while" "Yeah but we want to be the first there to get the best spot" she replied turning her head and smiling at me. Miako is my best friend, even though she's a little older than me. Usually those older than yourself were considered more mature and always looked upon themselves as so. But that wasn't true with Miako. To her my age didn't really matter, unlike Tao. Tao was Miako's age and he always bosses me around and never treats me like I'm an individual. Someday I'm going to grow so tall, I'll stomp on him!, I thought with a small fist. We were running to Naraki. Naraki is a small beach hidden among the coastline. Every year whales visit this secret bay from which they were born. The whole village would come to see the magical sight as the whales arrived to their home waters. I had never been to this ritual before and was really looking foward to it. Miako had assured me that it would be very worth my while. Right about when I felt like stopping for a little Miako came to a halt and put a paw on my shoulder to stop me as well. We had arrived just in time for sunset. Soon darkness would take over and the ceremony would begin. post comment

Hey [09 Nov 2001|03:08pm] Hey. My name is Kaina. You won't find my name in the neopet directory, probably because I don't have an owner. I am a aisha, a white one at that. No, I am not a loner if that's what you're thinking. I have friends, the tribe and I have my adopted family too. I don't really have any recollection of my past and those who I think may know do not speak of it. Our tribe is hidden in the forest of mystery island. No one except the Wise One and a few elders has ever been beyond the trees and into civiliaztion that I know of but they assures us that we are missing out on nothing and that we are very lucky to be apart of the tribe. But I still feel this emptiness inside me as though I'm missing a part of me... post comment

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