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Post by Sunset on Sept 8, 2022 6:09:03 GMT 1
After all of her time in the mountain, the once-nocturnal elf had slowly managed an overlap; now she spent part of the day and night awake, and it seemed to work better for her.
When the hunting group had split, she'd opted to go with the group less likely to need to deal with the mountains steep sides itself while also dealing with pronghorns.
Sunset baffled over how she was supposed to help with that in the first place; her sling was hardly useful against anything larger than a ravvit or sand-mice.
Hearing the mental scream, she turned back towards where they'd split from the other group - what in all the sands was an avalanche?
She saw it and it took far too long for her mind to catch up with what she was seeing. By the time she'd processed, the wall of snow hit them. She watched the healers vanish under white and felt the wind knocked out of her small frame as she tumbled backwards.
Once it had finished - how long had it taken? Too long and too quickly all at once - she groped, dazed, to sit up, and realized she couldn't. She groaned, and succeeded only in inhaling snow.
Panic rushed to the forefront and she sent, **Anyone? I'm- I'm trapped -**
Sunset fought to stifle her panic, but this was so new to her. She tried to dig, but there was nowhere to dig to and it just made her more tired - and more terrified.
**No-Sting? Badger?? Anyone?**
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Post by No-Sting on Sept 8, 2022 22:04:20 GMT 1
No-Sting had a brief moment of relief that they'd gotten Juniper free as well, when Badger suddenly began to shout. Startled, No-Sting would have jumped if her legs could have carried her weight for such a stunt. Instead she tried to make sense of what Badger and Juniper were saying. Blinking? The beacon? Her tired mind was too fuzzy to pick up on anything more than 'Jaseio' and Juniper urging them to get a move on. There was a second shudder from outside, a noise No-Sting knew all too well, and she grabbed at Juniper and Badger to pull them away from the cave entrance. The last remnants - hopefully - the snow outside came rushing down, covering the entrance completely, leaving them in pitch darkness. "Thank the High Ones you weren't still trapped under that," she whispered, "but where did Jaseio-" That's when No-Sting heard Sunset's mind-voice, full of the feeling of being trapped, **Sunset?! I hear you. You're going to be all right.** She was still breathing, still sending, so there was hope. Stars only knew how long it would take them to dig out of the cave, to go to Sunset's aid, but No-Sting had known elves who'd survived being buried for days - though it was not a memory they readily spoke of. **Keep sending. We'll help you. You'll be found. Just keep sending. If you can, clear snow away from your mouth so you can breathe easier.** No-Sting added the skill-memory of how to move one's head to dig a breathing pocket, something her mother had made her practice thankfully far too often before letting her near the mountains of her old holt. She'd just hoped it would be a skill she'd never need to use, or help anyone else use. OOC: Having the remaining tribe find Mindlight's knife later as a sign she vanished is a great touch, love it! And poor Sunset! I have so much sympathy for the claustrophobia of her situation <3 I made extra snow come down over the cave-entrance because - as far as I remember - we planned for the elves who ended up in the cave to be trapped there until the rescue squad arrives. But if we want to change that or I'm remembering it wrong we can also say our elves can dig through it before rescue arrives  |
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Post by Mahrak on Sept 8, 2022 22:09:40 GMT 1
Little made sense to Mahrak's spinning head right at that moment. There was so much shouting in the cave, which he could understand but not wrap his head around, and then everything had gone so dark, even darker than his spotted vision. More cursed snow!
Sunset's sending, right on the heels of the darkness, froze Mahrak in horrified silence. He couldn't even make himself mentally reach for her, the feeling of weight and panic and white everywhere no up no down that her sending set afire in him stunning him too much and to quickly after everything else that had gone wrong. He sat on the floor of the cave and shuddered.
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Post by Badger on Sept 10, 2022 16:30:27 GMT 1
Badger was moving toward the cover, but then stopped when Sunset's sending reached her. The wolfrider's instinct was to run to help, but she was pulled to the opposite direction -- just at the nick of time, since the new avalanche came rumbling down and closed them in.
She sent a wordless ping toward Sunset that she had been heard, so that the trapped elf would not worry too much -- or at least Badger hoped the ping helped. It was hard not to worry herself in their predicament.
"Uhhh, what now?", she asked quietly in the darkness of the cave.
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Post by Juniper on Sept 10, 2022 16:35:47 GMT 1
Everything happened in a blur, but at least they were safe -- for now.
No-Sting's question of Jaseio made Juniper perk up, same with the wolfrider maiden asking what could they do now.
"Was Jaseio there and then ... not there?", he asked in the darkness, his eyes adapting rather quickly. The treeshaper blinked a couple of times, noticing that Mahrak was not looking too good. The wolfrider lad grabbed a handful of snow and brought it on Mahrak's lips.
**Let it melt and drink a little.**, he sent to the other elf, and tried to avoid the question of what they could do now...
Because what COULD they do now, other than wait?
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Post by Sunset on Sept 17, 2022 19:20:33 GMT 1
No-Sting's send reached the small cat-elf and she tried to follow the instructions in the memory-send. It wasn't a skill she knew; she knew how to dig herself out of sand, when it shifted and how, what those shifts meant and how to survive being buried. Snow was so similar and yet so different. It packed together in a way that sand didn't, and it didn't shift and try to swallow you in the way sand did. Sunset tried to follow the memory skill, slowly and shakily moving snow out of her mouth and nose, shoving it down against her chest. It packed together, very much unlike sand, and she knew that was a blessing.
**What happened?** No-Sting had told her to keep sending, and it was the only thing keeping her from spiraling down into that dark oblivion of terror. **Is everyone else okay?** Fear clogged her throat, slowed her breathing as she though about the rest of her group. She tried sending to them, one by one, and her heart beat inside of her chest like a trapped bird, frantic. **I can't reach any of the others who were with me - Mindlight, Greywing - none of them are responding.**
She knew what that meant. Or what it could mean. Even unconcious, elves could send. Their spirits stayed with them, and even if they couldn't respond with words, the only thing that stopped a send was death. She hoped against hope that the Beacon had simply taken them away.
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Post by No-Sting on Sept 18, 2022 19:38:31 GMT 1
It took No-Sting's eyes long, terrible heartbeats to adjust to the pitch black of the buried cave. She focused on her breathing, did her best not to panic. They weren't alone. They had others who could help them.
She tried not to think too hard on how those others were far away, not necessarily aware of the danger they'd ended up in, and also that they were...well, they were not birth-kin, not truly a united clan, like the one she'd been born in.
At Juniper's question, she could only shake her head. "I don't know. I didn't see."
"We wait. We send. We hope," she then answered Badger, reaching out to take her hand in the dark. "The others will find us. I'm sure of it." There was more than a little false bravado in that, but she refused to give in to despair completely.
To Sunset, she sent: **There was an avalanche,** and the word being sent it was accompanied by the terror-rush of hearing and seeing the snow come down to bury them all. **We think the Beacon may have taken many of us away.** As sendings could not lie, it was clear how she merely hoped that rather than knew it for truth. **Badger, Juniper, Mahrak and I are trapped in a cave. Jaseio was with us but she seems to have disappeared, much like we all appeared here through the Beacon. We will try to reach out to the others back at the holt so they may lend us aid. Are you hurt?**
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Post by Mahrak on Sept 18, 2022 19:40:57 GMT 1
Mahrak gratefully accepted the offered snow from Juniper. Barely keeping his eyes open, he sent to any who'd hear: **I just need a little rest. I should be able to help get us out of here....eventually.** It was clear he had no idea how far away 'eventually' lay.
OOC: Should we start wrapping this thread up and start a new one where we timejump to the rescuers reaching our buried elves?
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Post by Badger on Sept 19, 2022 18:15:44 GMT 1
OoC: Wrapping up is fine with me.
~*~
Badger sighed in the dark, her eyes adapting quickly and her hand touching No-Sting’s. The touch was a little surprise to the wolfrider, but a comforting surprise nonetheless. She sighed in the dark and listened to the open sends with thoughtfulness in her features.
Mindlight and Greywing not answering the sends was a bad sign in general, but Juniper had said he felt that Greywing was alive … and Jaseio had vanished in front of her very eyes!
She gave the tuft-eared maiden’s hand a squeeze, unwilling to let go, in case more folks were going to disappear into the thin air. Badger noticed herself more worried about that, instead of being worried about the avalanche.
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Post by Juniper on Sept 19, 2022 18:20:41 GMT 1
It seemed like the Beacon had tossed several of their group … somewhere. Juniper decided to rather believe that than to think of death. They would get their confirmation when the spring came, if it ever came to this land.
The treeshaper sat down and decided to take a breather himself. There was nothing they could do now, other than wait.
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Post by Sunset on Sept 19, 2022 21:32:33 GMT 1
OOC: sounds good!
--
The other cat-elfs sends helped her stay calmer than she otherwise would have been, but the panic at the missing elves still crept along the back of her mind. Mindlight was a mind-healer and of the whole lot of them, one of their strongest senders.
The best Sunset could hope was that she'd made it home to her mate and her son.
**I - I'm not sure,** She admitted. **It knocked me nose over tail, so I at least have some bruises, but this cold makes it hard to feel...anything.**
That almost scared her more than anything. She'd been bundled in warmer clothes than she was used to, but being trapped under who knew how much snow was numbing her at least at a skin layer, if not deeper. She wiggled her toes and tucked her gloved hands as much under her arms as she could, trying not to think too much about being trapped.
She hoped she wasn't stuck under the snow for too long. She didn't know what would happen.
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Post by No-Sting on Sept 20, 2022 20:51:09 GMT 1
Clinging to Badger's hand, a small point of comfort in the oppressive darkness, No-Sting let Sunset's sending wash over her. Even sharing thoughts, she had a hard time fully embracing what it must feel like for Sunset, trapped and buried. At least she could try to ease the horror of it, a little. **Yes, the cold can make it tricky to feel injuries.** No-Sting addressed her sending to Sunset, yet left the sending open for all to hear. They all needed what contact they could have, she reasoned. **But you're still with us and still sending, so you can't be too hurt.** No-Sting of course couldn't be sure of that for sure, but if Sunset had been bleeding out through their sharing she shouldn't have remained awake this long. As much reassurance as that was. **Even if you're hurt bad, we'll get you to a healer as soon as we can. You'll be fine. We'll all be fine.** She pushed away doubts, forcing images of a holt left empty by the Beacon going wild and sending all but them away. That way lay despair. They would wait and they would be rescued. She had to believe that. Had to. OOC: Will mark this thread as finished, unless someone has anything more to add |
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Post by Sofia on Sept 30, 2022 21:34:34 GMT 1
Seems we're all set here! Locking this thread for now (just give me a poke via PM if you have more to add and I'll unlock it again). Waiting with moving this thread to the archive until the Day 33 plot line is fully finished.
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