[J'ray; Eavan; J'lin] Discovery...

[Snow]

The words ’stay back’ made her freeze in her tracks, well after she had almost lost her footing from jerking her head up so fast. How had they not noticed those things before? To be fair, she assured herself, they were the colors of the woods so hiding would have been easy for them. Whatever they were. ”I haven’t either, they look like…well. I’m not sure exactly what they look like, but they sort of resemble crawlers.” She answered getting a tighter grip on her axe.

Eavan was a bit nervous, but with a giant bronze dragon behind them it didn’t seem too dire of a situation. It was better to be safe than sorry, so they shouldn’t do anything to make the…things angry and attack. They were a fairly good size and she bet they were well armed with teeth and claws. She wondered why no one had seen things like this before. Sure they could probably hide well, but they were pretty good sized.

”I probably can, but I’m not going to leave you to face them alone.” She said stubbornly. ”We should both get back to Portenth. Those things are good size, not that Portenth couldn’t do them damage. I don’t want him or you getting hurt. Perhaps we should go get more help.” Eavan said logically. She didn’t want J’lin or Portenth getting hurt any more than the bronzerider wanted her getting hurt.

[Mother Nature]

The humans were making mouth noises; the young brown female raised her mid-legs and curled them against her chest, a gesture of uncertainty. She slowly moved to her brother's side, flicking a long red tongue out to lick his neck in silent appeal. The striped male snorted and eased forward a pace. The two-leggers hadn't immediately attacked, nor had the dragon, so he didn't feel the slightest hint of worry.

The female made the same odd moaning sound that their father had, but followed, crouched so low to the snow that her tail made furrows in it. When the pair were several paces closer, the male stopped, sat back on his haunches, and reached into his abdominal pouch with one mid-leg. He set the object down in front of him, snorted, and flopped into the snow to bite at it, grunting. It looked like a wooden ball, the sort children might play with.

The solid brown pack-lizard glanced longingly backward, the way the rest had gone, and cringed shyly back from the massive bronze dragon. It smelled dangerous, even if the humans didn't.

[weetia]

J'lin prepared to defend himself as the two things approached, then frowned in confusion when the striped one stopped to...play? "He should be scared," the bronzerider said, frustrated. As far from the tree as they had come, he was pretty sure there were only two of them, but two was enough. "Portenth should smell like a predator, even if we don't. He should be either scared, or challenging us over territory. Not playing," J'lin stared at the solid-colored one now, noticing that it seemed more nervous.

"Maybe the striped one is just one of the stupider ones," he decided, wondering why the other one was following such a reckless creature.

He felt stuck for the moment, staring at the bizarre animals. Probably he and Eavan could mount back up safely, since the creatures hadn't attacked yet. Would they just go back to the Weyr, and explain what had happened? This was so frustrating, and J'lin really didn't want to go back to the Weyr without doing his job. 'Oh, sorry, we didn't move the tree because creatures that don't exist were there and wouldn't move, and the big bad bronze was scared of them.' That would go over well.

The creature was playing, though, instead of attacking. Maybe he could convince it to play somewhere else? Or lure it away another way? "It's playing," he said loud enough for Eavan to hear him. "So it's probably not scared, or very hungry. Can you think of anything we can do to lure it away from the tree without getting it violent?"

All he could really think of to lure a wild animal with was food, but then it might decide to attack them for the food they were carrying. Or it would get too comfortable around humans. Besides, wild animals might not recognize cooked meatrolls as food. And if he wasn't hungry, would that even interest him?

[Snow]

Eavan hadn't started moving back towards Portenth yet. She wasn't going to until J'lin did. Deep down she was waiting for the moment when the lizard things would charge and try and attack them. However, the striped creature just reached into it's belly pouch and pulled out something. "What is that? What is it doing?" She asked more to herself. The brown one didn't seem very sure of what was going on, however.

J'lin then hit the nail on the head, so to speak. The creature was playing. " It is. I wonder if it's very old then." That would explain why it wasn't afraid of them. Most creatures, however, were terrified of dragons so why they weren't more scared of Portenth she had no idea.

"Hm, I don't know. Even if it is young, it could still be very dangerous. It sort of reminds me of a dog almost or perhaps a mix of a dog and a flit. Think maybe it would chase after a shiny thing if we through it away from the tree." Eavan suggested, relaxing her defensive stance a bit.

[weetia]

"Of course, it is almost certainly dangerous," J'lin agreed with the candidate. "I would definitely rather distract it than fight it," He thought for a moment. "I think the only shiny thing I have is my knife, and I'm not throwing that at the creature," he said drily. "I still might end up needing it."

He frowned at the creature. "It keeps reminding me of canines, maybe not just because of the size. I swear I've seen canines playing with a bone, that looked just like that animal does with that...whatever it is that he's playing with." J'lin was definitely hoping now that they didn't have to kill the creatures. Yes, they would then have corpses to take back to the Weyr to prove they weren't crazy. However, the animals weren't exactly aggressive, though that could change, and they probably wouldn't be good to eat, so it just seemed like a waste.

[Mother Nature]

The adolescent female was certain by now that her brother was completely lacking a brain. Definitely the striped male lacked a healthy sense of self-preservation. She was loath to leave him there, but if he wouldn't come with her... She clicked in agitation, scooting a bit further back from the two-leggers and the flying thing.

The male hadn't actually forgotten about the humans before him, but he was a tad busy gloating about the ball he'd found in a refuse pile. Pack-lizards were always cautious about digging through human waste dumps, usually going at night and never where watch-whers would warn of their presence. He gnawed at the object, bright little eyes still locked on the people.

Poor two-leggers. They were so ugly, with mostly hairless faces, and all the fur plastered to the top of their heads. Their colors wouldn't blend into any terrain the young male had ever seen. At least they seemed to have pouches, even if there were too many and located in weird spots. And their mouth-noises were pleasant to listen to, all rolling open sounds crammed between familiar sibilants. The pack-lizard's curious gaze wasn't so much of an intellectual evaluation as instinctively comparing the species to his own.

Behind the pair of creatures, a twig snapped, the sound deliberate and- to the siblings anyway- immediately recognized. Both pack-lizards jerked their heads around to look; the female whirled and scurried into the snow-covered underbrush toward her waiting clutchfather. The striped adolescent stared after her, then gave a final measuring look to the humans. His mid-legs reached between his forelegs to take the ball from his teeth. He clicked his tongue twice at the people and dashed away after his sibling.

The ball lay on the ground in the snow, either forgotten or intentionally left behind.

[weetia]

J'lin exhaled, the air audibly leaving his lungs just as the creatures left. He had to wonder how far they were actually going, and he looked in direction they had run. They were in the underbrush now, but J'lin thought he would give them a few more minutes to flee before he approached the tree.

"What were they," he wondered aloud, when he was fairly sure they were gone. "You can confirm that I'm not crazy, right?" he asked the candidate, bewildered at the encounter they had just had.

We aren't crazy, Portenth answered before Eavan could. I have never heard of them. No dragon has talked about these running lizards, He stretched his neck a little more, so his head was just beside J'lin, his eyes whirling a little faster than usual. I think they were eating under the tree,

J'lin nodded, and cautiously approached the object the creature had left behind, leaning over to pick it up, while he kept his eyes on the underbrush the lizards had disappeared into.

[Snow]

Eavan was trying to think hard of what they could do to distract the creatures or run them off without making them angry. However, before either her or J'lin could act, the two odd looking lizards ran off back towards the underbrush. She watched as their perfectly matched skin made them disappear into the undergrowth.

"No, I don't think we're crazy. I mean, we all saw them. Whatever they are." Eavan answered not aware that Portenth had answered before her. She followed J'lin towards the object the striped one had left behind. Eavan got a good look at it the thing as the bronzerider picked it up.

"That looks like a child's ball. Surely that means that they have come close to the weyr or holds before. How could no one have never noticed them? I mean if they come at night, surely the watchwher's would have noted them. Perhaps we should ask around when we get back." Eavan suggested.

[weetia]

J'lin nodded. They could ask around. Maybe others had seen the creatures, but had no witnesses? He looked back at the tree then, sighing as he pocketed the gnawed-on toy. "We still need to get that moved before we get back, though," he pointed out.

He frowned, still nervous about the creatures in the underbrush. "You can work between me and Portenth," he told Eavan, as he approached the tree with his shovel out. Trying to avoid the area where the creatures had disappeared, he started digging snow and ice away from the tree, so that he could easily hack branches off and make it easier to move. This would be a fairly long task, and they were already starting later than he would have liked.

[Mother Nature]

Near to the tree, the scent of cold death and a slowly decomposing body lingers. It won't take long for the wild wher's carcass to be discovered.

If they are sensitive, the humans may have the feeling they're being watched.

[Snow]

"Yes, of course. Let's get this done as quickly as possible. I'm not so prideful to say the thought of those creatures coming back disturbs me a bit." Eavan replied as she stepped in between J'lin and Portenth. Being that spot made her feel safe, well very safe. It was hard to feel totally nervous when a huge bronze dragon was hovering over you.

Eavan took her axe and carefully began chipping away at the ice and the snow that kept the tree held in place. It would be a lot easier for them to move it once it was free of the ground. They would probably also use the axe to get rid of some of the heavier branches before they moved the bulk of it.

Eavan and J'lin worked in companionable silence, but every now and then Eavan couldn't help but feel her back tingle as if someone was staring at her. She cast it off as just being paranoid from running into those lizard like creatures. Then, she thought she heard something like a twig snap in the underbrush next to them. "Did you hear something?" She asked, seeking reassurance she was just over reacting.

[weetia]

J'lin looked over toward Eavan. "I didn't hear anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if those creatures are still watching us. They probably won't come back at us, though. Portenth should be enough of a deterrent." He looked off into the underbrush again. "I hope we're not disturbing their den. The only thing I can think of that might provoke them to attaack a full-grown dragon is protecting young."

He shook his head then, discarding that idea. "They can't have been here that long though, since people were using this route until the blizzard. They might watch us, but they shouldn't be stupid enough to attack a dragon." He returned to his task of breaking ice away from the tree, glancing nervously away from Portenth every few moments, since knew the bronze would be good protection from that side.