A Raided Camp

Survival Camp - Campfire Square

During the day this area is a small clearing that sits just big enough to land four dragons in it, though by night it becomes an inferno where a fire is built up that licks its stray bits of lights to the ground just before the barracks nearby. The two barracks sit across from each other in strong contrast, the leader barracks being a comfortable modern barracks that looks clean and kept in good eminence while the follower barracks has a sharp destitute about it, looking that the ivy and decay is a day away from making the whole thing collapse.


It's early. You might say it's the crack of dawn, but it's even earlier than that. Only the first hints of sunlight glitter on the horizon. There is a crash, a clanking, a sudden flurry of alarmed chirps, and then the sound of hoofbeats making off for the distance. The scene is one of near chaos. One or two runners are missing, along with most of the food packs and other small articles left unattended in the night. Cookware is strewn all over, some things missing while others are broken from whatever attempt at escape had caused the sudden flurry of noise. There is dust in the distance, the only remaining sign of the renegades that had swept through the camp in the night.

Rogawani's head lifts slightly, knocking against one of the tentpoles as he does so. "Ow." He mutters, rubbing at his head before peeking out. His mouth is open, as if about to have a few choice words with whomever had made the loud flurry of sound, but it just remains open as he looks out at the mess. "Just… sharding… lovely." He says to himself, trying to get up and konking his head a second time. He growns slightly, settling for wiggling out of his tent, still clothed in his riding jacket and hide trousers. It would be an almost funny sight, if it weren't for everything else going on.

Cenlia is an early riser, and today is no exception. The girl is already upand dressed, and wielding a shovel. "Shardin' pack o' thiefs!" she yells after the renegades, while her four firelizards swoops around her tent, chittering anxiously. She'd only caught a glimpse of those who'd snuck into camp, but a glimpse is enough to have her waving a shovel menacingly at the dust.

There is a startled cry from Jessamin's tent at the ruckus outside, followed quickly by the sound of rustling, squealing flits. As her tent flap opens, a small faire of flits flees from the meager shelter, chittering vociferously at being disturbed so early in the morning. And how -dare- someone upset our human! Jess follows soon after, crawling from the tent and getting slowly to her feet, while somehow preserving her modesty with men present. Her jaw drops at the chaos awaiting the Candidates. "Shards… what happened?" Madder and Turquoise take off after the retreating clouds of dust, harrying them out of the campsite, while Stitch and Sekhmet crowhop along the ground amongst the debris. Hmmmm… an overturned cooking pot? Flit house!

Rogawani dusts at his trousers, still muttering to himself as he gets fully to his feet. A moment later, he's rubbing at his skull, trying to make sure the tent-post hadn't done any lasting damage. "What a mess." His eyes survey the skattered reminants of various people's travel packs, and then steps forward, looking towards Cenlia. "Get a good look at any of them." He asks, still rubbing his smarting head as he does so. His breath hangs in the air slightly, an unhappy look etched on his normally happy-go-lucky expression.

Morning is an okay time of day for Vivian, usually, usually though the princess hasn't been forced to go crawling into the jungle with a bunch of possibly smelly candidates, never mind the bugs. The ruckus is enough to wake her up prematurely though and it's with a growl that she emerges from her tent in her night clothes, a long t-shirt in this case. "What the shells is all the racket about, can't a girl get some sleep round here!"

The gardener girl shakes her head at Rogawani. With a growl, Cenlia jabs the shovel straight into the ground, where it sticks there, while little blue Mizzle lands on the handle and croons soothingly at the her and the other candidates. Cenlia ignores him, returning to check over her tent, though none of her stuff is actually missing. Lacing her boots up properly, she shrugs on an old jacket, one likely borrowed from the storage caverns, and puts some pointy shovels into the pockets of her toolelt. She waves a wry, "Mornin'," at Jess and Vivian, saying as she surveys the stuff strewn about, "Looks like we got robbed good an' proper." Charmer and Rogue flit over to her shoulders, taking up sentry positions like mini-bodyguards, though brown Trouble is less alert, crawling back into Cenlia's tent for more snoozing.

Jessamin shoots Vivian an icy look, shaking her head. "Open your eyes. We've been robbed. Now we can either work together to pull through this, or some of us may go hungry." With a disgusted harrumph, she turns her attention to the mess, kneeling down to start trying to sift through what is left. A cooking pot here, a rare packet of jerky there, but most of the edibles have been pretty well sifted through. "Lovely. Well… I suppose we could send our flits on a fish run while we clean up here…."

Rogawani eyes the shovel being shoved into the ground and just lifts his eyebrows. "I take that as a no…" His voice is rueful as he runs a hand through his hair, giving up on soothing the bump there. He glances over at his own tent, and then at the pack of food that he'd set out the night before to keep cool. It's missing, of course. "Food's gone. Missing some clothes too." He glances over at his runner, who is thankfully still there. He seems more relieved to see that the thieves hadn't made off with the runner blanket than anything else. Vivian waking, though, causes him to fold his arms a bit. "Renegades, Vivian. Looks like we should have posted a watch last night."

Vivian glares right back at Jessamin. "Oh I'm so sorry darling for still being half asleep at what 5 or 6 in the morning." She snarls back at her, no pretence of being nice given the time and the fact she's just been nastily woken up. It's only after Jessamin kneels down that Viv starts to look around the campsite and with a grunt she answers more generally, "Oh great, I told them this wasn't a good plan. Every time they send candidates out into the jungle, they either get done over by renegades or clawed apart, chewed by felines or worse." She leans back against the pole of whatever tent she was sleeping in and shakes her head. "We'd best get everything together and find out what we do still have. Anyone volunteering to go get some water so we've got plenty to drink when things start heating up around here?" Her tone taking on a more commanding tilt, one good thing she inherited from her mother.

Cenlia looks around, giving Jessamin brief half-smile before the gardener is plucking Charmer off her shoulder. The goldeny-bronze firelizard croons at her, while Cenlia eyes him with a frown, saying, "You wanna go fetch some food, ya little charmer?" The firelizard tilts his head at her. Cen stares at him some more, and then sighs, giving the flit some scritches before letting him go. Charmer chirps and flaps back up to her shoulder, and then launches off into the air, where he hovers a moment before disappearing *between* without another sound. Cen shakesher head and glances at Rogawani, "Think it coulda been that crazy lot that what's her name - Kate - ran off to?" Cenlia starts sorting though the nearest stuff, saying to Vivian, "Grab some pots an' we can go find a stream." Cenlia herself lifts an overturned cooking pot…

While Madder and Turquoise return, ever the triumphant heroes for shooing off the renegades-or so they seem to think, given all their preening and trilling-the younger brown, Stitch, and Sekhmet seem to be misisng. Missing, that is, until Cenlia lifts up an overturned cooking pot. Two pairs of green whirling eyes look back up at her, with happy little chirps sounding a lot like laughter. Jessamin looks squarely at Madder and Turquoise. "You two stay on top of my tent and keep a lookout. Remember, just like the other day in the barracks, okay?" With a scritch of their necks, they take to the air, flying to her tent and turning the poles into perches. Meantime, she pulls together some of the few cooking utensils remaining… a spoon here, a knife there, maybe a small cutting board or some equivalent for cleaning fish, and the odd basket or two for foraging. Her breath hangs in the air, as she shakes her head, clearly biting her tongue.

Rogawani does a quick check of his runner's packs, and then just shakes his head from side to side. He moves between the runners in their neat line, picking up something here and there until he has an armful of random objects: a few ripped shirts, empty travelbags, a bent ladel. "We're two runners short, too." He chimes in his report, and then looks over at Cenlia. "I doubt it. I don't think they would have…" He seems about to say something else, but cuts himself off as he pust the pile of items down closer to the now-extinct fire. "They didn't take the firewood, but we're going to need to look for food."

Vivian shakes her head at Cenlia's question. "It's not Kefai, we wouldn't have woken up if it was him." She states ever so simply, comforting? Course she'd likely be kidnapped because of who she is, but that's not an issue right now. "If your firelizards can catch any fish, does anyone know how to gut them and cook them?" She asks pointedly as she pads out on bare feet to collect a couple of big pots before motioning Cenlia off towards the river/stream or whatever it is with her to give them a quick clean and collect water.

Cenlia blinks at the flits she discovers hiding under the cooking pot, saying with a chuckle, "What're you two doing under there?" Lifting the pot, the gardener glances over to see what Jessamin's managed to salvage, and then looks around, spotting some empty bags, torn fabric, and smaller bowls that are dusty, but usable. She gathers these up as well, bringing them over to where Rogawani dropped his pile of items. Setting everything but the pot and bowls down, Cenlia retrieves the shovel, giving Mizzle a look until the blue firelizard flits up to perch atop Cenlia's tent. He's not much of a sentry, though, as he's soon yawning and stretching his wings lazily to catch the sunlight. Cenlia nods to Rogawani, and eyes the surrounding plants, "I'll keep an eye out for anything we could eat," and then nodding to Vivian, "I could," in response to the fish gutting as she heads off toward the forest.

Jessamin looks up, her evident disdain for Vivian tempered somewhat, given their current situation. "If someone will gut them, I'd be glad to cook them." She pushes herself to her feet, brushing her skirt free of dirt and debris. "If there's some redfruit trees nearby, the wood in the fire or as skewers would add a nice taste." She smiles to herself now, seeming lost in an old memory, only shaking out of it as her flits are discovered under the pot. She laughs softly, shaking her head. "Enough playing, you two. Come on, go join Madder and Stitch. Tent. Now." Stitch gets the idea a bit sooner, though he grumbles as he reluctantly takes off towards Jessamin's tent; Sekhmet is distinctly displeased at the end of playtime, joining her faire mates in sentry duty.

Rogawani's mouth tightens a little bit as Vivian says exactly what he was trying not to say. "I can gut fish, too." He chimes in after Cenlia, nodding his head a bit. Bending down, he pulls out his empty carry sack, slinging it over his shoulder. "I think I saw a few redfruit trees last night when I was fetching wood, should be able to cut down a few branches. It's still a bit early for the fruit though. Might be able to scrounge a bit from some of the berry bushes." On alert now, the boy keeps one hand on his belt knife and follows behind Vivian and Cenlia, not about to let the two of them go off without some meager attempt at being a manly guardian. What he doesn't mention is the tunnelsnakes bodies he'd seen lying around in the clearing, because no matter what Myra might have said - those are not food.

"I'm glad we have some budding camp cooks." Murmurs Vivian as she hefts the pans and heads towards the stream. "Water, heat, shelter and some food, that's all we need right?" She adds as they wander through the trees to the stream where Viv wades in to about her knees before dropping the pans into the sluggish water, bending over to start cleaning them. "I should have checked if the rest of my clothes are still in the tent." She murmurs with a sigh as she glances between the two, "Do we have any other weapons just in case? Or do you know how to set snares and traps in case they come back?" She directs to the trying to be manly Rogawani.

"You get to cook, then. Last time I tried cookin' meat, couldn't tell the food from the pot," Cenlia grins at Jessamin, and then chuckles, telling Rogawani, "Just so long as they're not little red ones with with spots. Berries're edible, but we'd all spend the night in the privy." The gardener girl makes a face, "Ain't nothin' worsen' that." Cenlia kicks off her boots, rolling up her pantlegs before she enters the water as well, leaving her shovel stuck in the soil on the bank. She washes out the bowls and pot, filling them with water, and saying to Vivian, "All I got's a shovel; ain't much good 'cept for whacking 'em over the head."

Rogawani lifts an eyebrow towards Cenlia, shaking his head from side to side as the first sign of amusement begins to play on his lips. "As a messenger, I was expected to be able to identify edible foods in the wilds just incase I got stuck out of hold." He explains, not seeming offended at all. "But it might be amusing to gather a few of those for certain people." He glances over his shoulder, hearing the voice of his brother's alarm joining the candidate babble back at the camp. "Don't think they exactly sent us armed, although we might have a few belt knives. We might be able to set up some rope traps but that's about it." He starts to check the low vegitation around the stream, checking for anything that might be edible. "If nothing else, we should post a guard at night."

Jessamin smiles to herself, chuckling. "At least I try, Vivian." The sight of the princess of the Weyr actually doing some -work- seems to do much to lighten her mood-even if it's something as simple as washing pots and pans. With that, she sets about tidying up the campsite as best she can, putting utensils and dishes off to one side, remaining clothing, etc, to another, and generally making the clearing -clear- again. Simple domestic duties that nobody else seems willing-or apparently able-to take part in, but she takes on with cheer, humming a jaunty little tune as she works, and even working in a dance step or two.

In the distance there is a yelp of surprise then a shout of success accompanied by excited bugles of at least two firelizards. There's some rustling in the bushes, then Morlanol emerges, triumphantly holding up the carcasses of two whersports, which Agate and Bloodstone are already beginning to tear apart as Tourmaline and Jasper gnaw on the shredded bits. He lets out an exhausted sigh, then looks around, "What'd I miss?"

Vivian scrubs at the pots she's got before moving over to fill them from the faster flowing water. "A spade might have to do." She replies with a bit of a smirk "Rogawani. You're the most outdoorsy type here that I know of, I don't think we have any guards in this group so do you want to arrange a couple of foraging parties, we can use whatever clothes or pots we have left for holding berries, though tell them to pull off some leaves from the same bush to go with the berries to help you identify them." She straightens up and walks back to the bank of the stream with the filled pots. It's approx, 5 or 6 in the morning, the camp is in disarray, with Jessamin cleaning up. The others are down at the stream away from the camp at the moment so not likely to be in sight of the campsite itself.

Cenlia moves back to the shore with water-filled containers, setting them down on the ground. The girl shakes water off her legs and gets her boots back on while nodding in agreement with Vivian, "Leaves're a good idea. If we find any mushrooms, too." She pauses a moment, "How long you think we'll be out here before somebody from the weyr comes to check on us?" She grabs the shovel and balances the pot and bowls of water as she heads back to camp, frowning a bit at the shouts and telling Rogawani, "Yeah, might be amusing, till we had to smell him." She grins lopsidedly, and the blinks at Morlanol as he pops pops out of the bushes, "Hey."

"There's a few others who are big enough to make decent guards." Rogawani replies without looking up. He's still not tall enough to be included in that group, even if he is outdoorsy. "You're right though, we should organize a couple of groups, maybe split one person who knows plants and fungai in each one." He glances at Cenlia for split second, and then back towards Vivian. He taps his belt-knife with his finger, and then opens his mouth to suggest something, just when Morlanol comes through the bushes. "You must have missed the fun Morl." Fun is obviously not what Ro' considers this, from his tone of voice. "Some renegades came through while we were sleeping. Camp's a mess and we're missing most of the food." He gives the miner a quick run-down. "Where'd you find those?" He asks of the whersports, "Think you could find any more?"

Morlanol grimaces slightly, tossing the Whersports to the side for the flits, who are making quick work of them, "I didn' miss it… jus' had more 'portan' things t' do. Tourmaline an' Jasper woke up an hour ago creelin' fit t' wake a dragon. When I foun' m' stuff was gone I had t' go find 'em somethin'. An' once they're done eatin' I shoul' be able t' ge' a few more. They did mos' o' th' work." He wipes the sweat from his brow, then favors Cen with a smile, "Hey you."

Vivian gives her legs a bit of a shake, but nothing more seeing as she's only dressed in her nightshirt anyway. "I was looking more for experience." She replies back to Rogawani. "We'll need to be careful, make sure everyone keeps drinking at the very minimum. We still have our tents so that's shelter taken care of, heat is easy enough so it's just food we're needing to find." As the trio re-enter camp and she spies Morlanol she rolls her eyes. "Oh sharding brilliant." She mutters under her breath, before she raises her voice. "Make sure you wash downstream." She tells the miner as she heads for the centre of the camp and places the pots of water down.

Cenlia eyes the whersports and shakes her head at the flits, though she chuckles as she heads to set the water-filled pots and bowls down. She gets to work on the fire, while saying, "Could hang some pots 'n things between the trees, if we can find vine or sapling branches. Anything or anyone coming through would make a decent amount of sound dislodging pots." She grins a bit, "Might be able to send some flits back to the weyr. Figure somebody ought to know we got more renegades wanderin' around."

Rogawani just nods once to Vivian. "I'll get a forraging group together once we know what we've got." He follows them back towards the campsite, moving a bit slower to lag behind a bit with Morlanol. "Well, maybe you can put the flits to work then?" He suggests, with a small smirk on his face. "Could probably boil the meat and bones to get a decent soup. How many do you think there were?" He asks, eyeing the firelizards who seem to be perched about the gathering. When Cenlia mentions sending flits back to the weyr, he nods. "Makes me wonder, though. Would they come pick us up, or think it's a better 'survival' test." His eyes roll at the thought.

Morlanol's flits continue to pick away at the whersports until there's almost nothing left. Morl favors Viv with a dark look, "Who sai' anythin' 'bou' washin' off? No' much poin' 'til th' work's done." Then he turns his attention back to the people he actually likes, "I dunno how many, bu' if we 'splore 'nuff we're boun' t' fin' more. Made a lot o' noise in th' underbrush. An' I doub' anyone'll come even if we ask 'less some gets hurt.." He trails off, the calls over his shoulder to Viv, "Hey, Vivy, you wanna fall down an' twist yer ankle?"

"If we want them to be here in the next hour all we need to get back is one word. Kefai." Replies Vivian as she stretches herself upwards, hands to the sky. "Though if you don't watch yourself Miner, it'll be your neck that may get twisted." Her tone is sugary sweet, so is the ever so pleasant smile she gives him. The look in her eyes is more caustic. "My name is Vivian, not Vivy, you've not earned the right to call me anything else." She turns her back on him then and steps across the campsite to her tent, bending over to peek her head in.

"Survival test?" Cenlia's eyebrows rise momentarily as she glances back at Rogawani, but the girl snorts softly, "Figures." She gets the fire going, moving along to the edge of the camp to grab any dry pieces of wood and stacking them with the rest near the fire. As she goes, she picks one or two sprigs of something growing in patches under the trees - likely some herb or other. She just shakes her head at Morlanol and Vivian, attempting and failing to not look amused by the bickering.

"Maybe take a couple of other candidates with bigger lizards with you." Rogawani suggests to Morlanol, tucking his hands into his pockets as he looks thoughtfully at the first flickers of the fire. His face hardens a bit when Morlanol comments about Vivian getting hurt, even if it is a joke. His eyebrows tighten when she responds with a more threatening tone. Still, the boy bites his lip rather than saying anything to either of them, sighing to himself. "I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have just abandoned us out here if they didn't want us to try taking care of ourselves." He reaches down, grabbing a stick at his feet before tossing it into the fire. "Not sure if we want to play the Kefai card, though. Do it too often and we all become the 'boy who cried feline' and then when something does happen… we're screwed."

Morlanol nods, "Yeah, I c'n do tha'. A li'tle help an we migh' be able t' ge' enough for all o' us t' eat our fill." He grins a little, then rolls his eyes at Viv's threat, quite certain that he could hold his own against her, even if she is taller. Jasper and Tourmaline give a pair of satisfied cheeps, Jasper collapsing into a deep slumber, Tourmaline simply laying down. Agate and Bloodstone finish eating and find their way back to Morl's shoulders as he scoops up the two younger ones and slides them back into his pocket. He glances at Cen, "Anythin' I c'n do t' help?

There's a loud snarl of rage emits from Vivian as she stands up again, "My clothes areall gone, the entire bag is sharding missing!" Not a happy camper it would seem as she tugs at the flap of the tent in anger. "Grrr argh!" All else is forgotten, though it'd probably be a bad plan if she catches sight of Morlanol in this mood.

Cenlia nods in agreement with Rogawani, "Yeah, prolly better we don't tell 'em that." She smiles briefly at Morlanol as she grabs a sturdy-looking branch lying beneath the trees, saying, "Could ya find more sticks like this? Gonna try to set up a spit maybe." She holds up a long branch with a fork at one end, then goes to stick it in the ground near the fire. "Could get the water boiling too. Better to drink-" but then blinks and glances at Vivian a moment before turning back to what she was doing, saying, "I got some spare clothes in my tent you could borrow. Pants might be a bit short." She waves in the direction of her tent.

Morlanol nods to Cen and begins to search the clearing and surroundings. Viv's sudden outburst causes his two older flits to take flight in surprise at the noise. Morl barely manages to stifle a giggle as he bends over to grab a stick, then tests it. It snaps in his hands, so he moves on, but all the while he faces away from Viv to hide the big smile on his face at her misfortune.

Vivian is still growling a while later as she kicks the tent a few more times. "Those people were in my tent, while I was sleeping!" She really doesn't sound happy about that prospect and it shows as she kicks again at the tent a shudder going through her. "Ugh." When she hears Cenlia she turns on her, eyes blazing. She opens her mouth to say something and closes it again at the same time she closes her eyes, hands clenched into fists by her side.

Cenlia works on securing the forked branch so that on end is in the ground while the split end points upward. She scouts around and finds a couple of large stones to place on either side to hold it securely, and then starts on the rags she'd collected earlier, all the while keeping that shovel close by. She does make a face when Vivian mentions the renegades being in the tent while shewas sleeping - that's definitely unsettling. But she's otherwise occupied with setting up a spit, glancing over at Morlanol and calling, "If ya see any cord or rope lying around, we could use that to hang the pots over the fire," while she makes her way to the opposite side of the camp to look for more sticks there. She doesn't stray too far, however, keeping the others within sight. Just in case.

Morlanol sobers at the thought of a renegade being in anyone's tent… that was just… bwuh. After a few more moments he manages to come up with another forked stick sturdy enough to withstand a decent amount of weight, then walks back over and places on the opposite side of the firepit from Cen's, "Tha' good?"

Vivian opens her eyes again, hands still clenched into fists by her side as she fights to calm herself. "Thanks." She replies in Cenlia's direction. "I'll get them later though, I'm going back to sleep for a couple of hours." She tells them, turning to crawl back into her tent. A small trace of blood ending up in the canvas of the door from where her nails have punctured her hands she was clenching that tightly. The dropping of the tent flap hides the subsequent fit of the shakes from view as she attempts to dispel the thought of what might have happened if they hadn't settled for just taking her clothes. bag.

Cenlia nods to Morlanol, coming back with a stick ofher own - a straight one which she lays across the two forked ones, wellabove the flames. She also brings back a couple large rocks to secure the second forked stick, saying, "This should work for now. Might wanna see if we can find one more so it dun't tip over with the pots. She nods to Vivian and watches the girl disappear back into the tent, then goes back to trying bits of fabric together in a makeshift loop for the pots to hang from.

Morlanol settles himself for the moment, helping Cen when he can. He glances over as Vivian disappears, his eyes wide at the severity of her reaction He turns slowly back to Cen, "I… I think I migh' hafta be nicer t' her fer a while…" He looks a little embarassed to have found humor in Viv's pain earlier.

Cenlia pauses and eyes Morlanol a moment, raising an eyebrow, glancing again at Vivian's tent, "Yea, ya better." Cen's not about to admit how unsettling it is to know renegades had managed to get into someone's tent without anyone noticing. From up on her own tent, Mizzle croons, and Cenlia blinks up at him. Apparently, the little blue flit /had/ been keeping an eye out, because not a moment later, Charmer flutters into the campsite carrying something very large and dead. Which he promptly deposits at Cenlia's feet. It's a big dead avian, mostly uneaten, although Charmer may have taken a few bites out of the neck. He sits beside it and crooooons, obviously pleased with himself. Cen leans down to examine the carcass, saying with no small amount of surpise, "Hunh, gues you're good fer something other than booze-snatching." Charmer squawks indignantly. Was there ever any doubt of his awesomeness? /Really?/

Agate chirps to Charmer and Bloodstone, wanna try and find some more? Tourmaline gives a quiet chirp from her perch, clearly telling them to be noisy elsewhere. Morl grins when Charmer appears with the Avian, "I c'n work with this. I helped m' ma prep these a couple o' times… d'ya know if there's any mint 'roun' here?"

Cenlia grins at Morlanol and nods, "Yeah, think I saw some along the way by the stream, and there's a board over there you can use to cut it on," she points to the sorted pile of stuff near the fire. Got a knife on you?"

Morlanol grins, "'Course I do." He pulls out his belt knife, a simple affair, and begins working on butchering the avian before the blood settles.

Giving the very pleased Charmer some scritches, Cenlia stands and heads toward the forest's edge, waving over a couple other candidates as she goes and pointing out various plants. She tells Morlanol, "I'm gonna collect the mint," and she grabs the shovel and an empty sack, as well as another empty pot. Charmer joins Rogue on her shoulders as Cen heads back toward the stream, a few others going with her. She's not fool enough to go alone, after all.

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