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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 8956769" data-attributes="member: 11760">October O’Leary held the bowstring steady, sighting down the arrow at his quarry.It was a beautiful specimen, its dappled hide sleek, its blackberry eyes glistening, its antlers green and thick with flowers.The arrow took the beast in the throat and it fell onto the grassy meadow without a sound, its death as quick and painless as October could manage.He carried the beast over his shoulders back into the ruins, where his companion had gotten a good fire going and was prepared to cook. Laying the beast by the fire, October opened his field, pulling out his hunting knife and setting aside a saw and small shovel.“Don’t you need to hoist it up before dressing it?” his companion asked, still rubbing sleep out of her eyes.“No need,” October said, making a shallow cut beneath the beast’s chin and drawing the blade down along its neck and torso. “This is vegison. It’s a plant that grows in the shape of a deer.”The hide parted cleanly under the knife, as October was careful not to nick anything inside that might leak juice. Once the plant-beast was opened, he twisted each organ free from the stem that ran along the beast’s interior. Ruby red heartfruit, pomegranate lungs, a long twisted string of plantains where a deer’s intestines might be.“We can — we should — eat all of it. What we can’t eat today, we can dry; vegison keeps well.”As the young woman began slicing up the heartfruit, October sawed off the vegison’s antlers and then picked up the shovel.“These should take root nicely; in a year or so, they’ll each grow another full-sized buck.”October had just finished burying the base of each antler into their own pile of mounded earth, which he had covered in fallen leaves and bark to keep from drying out, when a sound from the tree line made him look up and smile.“Ruby! How nice to see you again!”Ruby Cash stepped out of the trees, her third arm clearing the branches away from her face as she did.“October O’Leary, I didn’t expect to see your friendly face again so soon.”While October was fresh-scrubbed and well-fed, the Rook hunter looked worn, filthy and hungry. When the smell of cooking vegison drifted into the clearing, she licked her lips in anticipation.“Come on,” October said, rising to his feet. “There’s plenty for everyone.”Ruby trailed October back to the ruins, craning her neck at the huge statues of sword-faced bird people who guarded the entrance.“Good eaters, weren’t they?” she said, bemused at what appeared to be the stout bellies of the long-dead inhabitants of the city.The other woman rose from beside the campfire and Noble Steed swiveled its head around at the sound of two people returning from the woods.“Marcia Polo, I’d like to introduce the Rook hunter Ruby Cash. Ruby, Marcia is an explorer and scholar from the great city of Parapette.”“Are you the one he was coming to rescue?” Ruby said, shaking hands with the smaller woman.“MacKenzie Guffin? No, although he did rescue me.”October scoffed and gestured for Ruby to sit down and eat breakfast with them.“Hold on,” Ruby said, sitting back after finally eating her fill, “you had a Rook dead to rights and didn’t slay it and take its magic?”“He couldn’t risk it,” Marcia said, who had debated this with October repeatedly, “because if he failed, there would be no one to rescue MacKenzie, whoever she is.”“That’s right,” October said, standing and taking everyone’s dishes to wash at a nearby stream.“Is it possible that he’s crazy?” Ruby said, finishing the last of her breakfast.Later, as the tree of them hiked through the ruins, Noble Steed, carrying their bags, Ruby spun slowly as she walked, taking in the remains of the bird-people’s empire.“So who were they?”“We don’t know,” Marcia said. “There are ruins throughout the Colostle of civilizations older than ours, of people who are long gone. The inhabitants of this civilization had a form of writing, although it’s not any language I know. When I get back to Parapette, I’ll organize a full expedition to come back here and to record everything we can and see if we can learn more about who they were and where they went. For now, I’m just calling them the Triangle-Circle-Triangle-Circle People, after the markings over each of their intact gates.”“What is that?” Marcia says to herself, but loudly enough for the others to hear.If the next plaza was like the seemingly endless bleached stone plazas they had already passed through, there would be a fountain there. But instead, there was a dark structure of a different material instead, along with wires and clear tubes emerging from it and then burying themselves back in further along.The party stopped to inspect the structure.“Whatever it is, it’s broken,” Ruby said, pulling a large white stone off a splintered clear tube. “It looks like one of these columns fell over, and sent this brick into it.”“It didn’t happen that long ago, though,” Marcia said, getting our her sketchbook and pens and finding a place to sit. “There’s very little dust on anything and no moss or plants have grown on it.”October thoughtfully stuck his hand into the tube, careful not to cut himself on the jagged edges, seeing that his forearm could fit partly inside.“I wonder who came along and put this here. It seems newer than the Triangle-Circle-Triangle-Circle People. There’s something in — ow.”“Don’t cut yourself,” Marcia said, not looking up from her sketchbook.October slowly pulled his arm from the tube. In his hand, he held a clear canister with dark caps on either end.“There’s paper inside,” Ruby said, coming over to look.October twisted one cap and the canister opened with a pop and withdrew the scrap of paper.“‘Please help. This is the next to last prayer tube. I am a prisoner of Red Rook, in the Great Volcano Room. Big Bad Beardo the Mad is planning something awful. Please bring help soon. — MacKenzie Guffin.’”Marcia and Ruby gaped at October.“Did she know you’d be here?” Ruby asked finally.“I don’t think so,” October said, looking over at the contraption. “I think this was meant for the Slots but this machine was broken.”“There must be other machines like this that still work,” Marcia said.“Do you know where this Great Volcano Room is? Or who Big Bad Beardo the Mad is?” October said, hope rising in his voice.“No, but they’ll know in Parapette. So I guess that’s our next stop.”</blockquote>

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