by Pyronychus » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:07 am
The three raptors continued on in silence, as they had been doing for at least two hours now. As they walked, the forest began to thin as the red-orange raptor had expected, large beams of light streaming between the canopy leaves, casting the raptors into blotchy pools of gold as they passed below. As the minutes crawled silently by, the terrain became rockier and more uneven as the plants became more sparse. By now, the younger two were exchanging glances every so often, wondering when their father would let them stop for a rest, both unwilling to ask. Then, as if in response to their thoughts, the adult came to a halt and craned his neck, gaze trained on what looked to be a pile of large rocks against the side of a shallow hill a few yards away. Beckoning for the others to follow, he cautiously approached the pile, then held up a hand for them to stop nearby. The younger raptors gratefully obeyed and watched as their father leaped up onto one of the lower rocks, paused to gauge the stability of the next, and leaped upward onto it, paused again, then suddenly seemed to hop downward into an unseen cavern, disappearing from view. The siblings waited tensely, the olive green female shifting her weight from foot to foot, the gray male simply staring at the spot where his father had vanished. The two nearly jumped when the adult's head popped up over the rocks and he finally broke the long silence as he growled, "Looks like nothing's lived here for a while. If the surrounding territory's unoccupied, I'd say we've found our new home, for the moment." He hopped back up onto the rock surrounding the hidden entrance and looked down at them, attempting a strained smile. "Come on, if we split up, we can cover ground faster... Just a quick once-over will do... make sure nothing's lurking around the immediate area." He jumped down with a light thud, the siblings' yellow eyes on him, their expressions unchanged. "Dad..." came the female's voice tentatively. "Can't... can't we even look inside first?" "There'll be plenty of time to look later. It's a small cave. I couldn't see any other openings. Seems safe enough." "But Dad-" "The sooner we get going, the sooner we can get back." The female fell silent and the adult, noticing his voice had risen, lowered his tone a bit. "Just hold on a while longer, Sy. Be strong. We don't know anything about this territory, and we need to be on our toes. Now, let's split up. Rhojis will go south, you'll go west, and I'll take the north and east areas. Don't go too far, and meet back here as soon as you're done, alright?" Sylicora looked as though she wanted to say something, but merely nodded, her brother doing the same at a look from their father. "Be careful, you two. Alert me if you find anything," he growled as he started to move away, glancing back at the siblings as they too began moving in their designated directions...
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