(Just a note, this mission is going to be time warped a few weeks into the future when Okibi has recovered a little.)
Getting around on a crutch wasnt as easy as some people made it look. Walking up and down stairs with it actually took some concentration, and trying to weave through a crowd was almost impossible. Nonetheless, it helped Okibi to get around a few weeks after her return to the village, and despite still being considerably weak, she had to get around. Bed rest was what she needed, her doctors had told her, but after the first couple weeks she found that lying around so much was making her stir crazy, and other kinds of crazy too. The shadows bothered her more often when she sat around doing nothing, and after a while the noises became unbearable. The voices mocked her, cutting her to the quick by reminding her how she had done nothing to help Seven.
Okibi came to a sudden stop in the middle of the underground jungle that was the Elderwood. She shook her head viciously, trying to banish her thoughts. It was for this very reason that she had gone out against her doctor's and her family's wishes and requested a mission. She had to do something, anything, to take her mind off the last year she spent confined in a cell, and those last few moments when she'd lost part of her soul forever. At first, the higher ups didnt want to assign her anything; they were made aware of her fragile state by Sousuke, and heavily stressed not to give her anything. But after nearly an hour of begging and pleading, one dispatcher gave in and assigned her an easy task. That was fine with Okibi; she would do anything so long as she didnt have to sit around, left to her thoughts.
That's how she found herself slowly trekking through the thick forestry of the Elderwood, sifting through scents to find the animal that she was tasked with retrieving for study. Couldnt be very hard to find and capture a creature that looked like a rabbit and sounded like a cat right? At the very least, she could persuade it to come with her. No strenuous activity necessary.
But dammit, the crutch made it hard to get through all the fallen leaves and branches.
Just then, the cursed device snagged on a vine, causing Okibi to trip and stumble. She fell against the trunk of a large tree, jarring her only elbow. She winced and tried to shift most of her weight (slight though it was) to her left leg. Her right one couldnt take much of it yet. A year ago, being so weak would have angered her like nothing else, and she would be hard pressed to reign in her temper.
But now, it was all she could do not to break down right there. She missed being strong, she missed being fearless.
Sucking in a deep breath through her nose, Okibi fought back the tears and reached for her crutch and continued on. It wasn't far now until she got to the lake, the area that the creature was last spotted.
---------------------
Surely, there was no place in the world quite like the Starlit Lake. The water was so perfectly still and crystal clear that the glowing crystals in its bed were bright as stars, hence its name. Cradled by the massive, crystal bearing trees around it, it was almost like the lake was in a world all its own. Okibi liked it; she felt . . . almost peaceful.
Movement on the surface of the still lake caught her eye, and Okibi looked across it to the other side. The movement had been the dark reflection of an animal creeping along the shore opposite her, and Okibi almost smiled when she saw the small rabbit like creature. Was her luck finally starting to look up after an entire year of horrendously bad luck? It seemed so. The rabbit stooped down at the lakes edge and started to drink up the water; as it did so, Okibi slowly made her way around it.
"Excuse me." She said quietly, using the beast tongue that she'd neglected for a year. It was just a little rusty, like her voice. She crouched down a dozen feet away from the creature, careful to move very slowly as it snapped its head up to look at her. It released a startled mewl, like a cat, and Okibi knew she had the right animal. "I need your help little friend. Would you consider hearing me out?" She said quietly and quickly when it looked like the creature was going to bolt.
The Cabbit seemed to realize that the human watching it was speaking to it in a way that it could understand. It turned towards her, and away from the direction that it was going to flee, watching her curiously. It's little nose twitched, sniffling the air, and it nodded.
Okibi smiled just slightly, though it didn't reach her eyes. She then explained to the animal that people in her village wanted to study it, and learn about it. The Cabbit seemed frightened at the notion, obviously as wary of humans as any other creature. "Please don't be frightened. I promise you wont be . . . mistreated." Okibi choked on the word, fighting back memories. This was no time to get lost in day terrors. "I'll bright you right back here when they're finished."
The little animal considered her for a few moments longer, tilting its head this way and that, a characteristic that was more cat than rabbit. After a while, Okibi started to think that her cause was lost, but then the Cabbit started to hop towards her.
"Thank you little friend." She said quietly, earnestly, as she scooped the soft creature into her arm. When she stood up on her left leg she stopped to consider just how she was going to get back out of the forest with a rabbit-cat thing in her only arm, and none left to use the crutch.
She released a noise that was probably supposed to be a snort, but sounded nowhere near confident enough to be. "This is gonna take a while."
Word Count: 1025
Getting around on a crutch wasnt as easy as some people made it look. Walking up and down stairs with it actually took some concentration, and trying to weave through a crowd was almost impossible. Nonetheless, it helped Okibi to get around a few weeks after her return to the village, and despite still being considerably weak, she had to get around. Bed rest was what she needed, her doctors had told her, but after the first couple weeks she found that lying around so much was making her stir crazy, and other kinds of crazy too. The shadows bothered her more often when she sat around doing nothing, and after a while the noises became unbearable. The voices mocked her, cutting her to the quick by reminding her how she had done nothing to help Seven.
Okibi came to a sudden stop in the middle of the underground jungle that was the Elderwood. She shook her head viciously, trying to banish her thoughts. It was for this very reason that she had gone out against her doctor's and her family's wishes and requested a mission. She had to do something, anything, to take her mind off the last year she spent confined in a cell, and those last few moments when she'd lost part of her soul forever. At first, the higher ups didnt want to assign her anything; they were made aware of her fragile state by Sousuke, and heavily stressed not to give her anything. But after nearly an hour of begging and pleading, one dispatcher gave in and assigned her an easy task. That was fine with Okibi; she would do anything so long as she didnt have to sit around, left to her thoughts.
That's how she found herself slowly trekking through the thick forestry of the Elderwood, sifting through scents to find the animal that she was tasked with retrieving for study. Couldnt be very hard to find and capture a creature that looked like a rabbit and sounded like a cat right? At the very least, she could persuade it to come with her. No strenuous activity necessary.
But dammit, the crutch made it hard to get through all the fallen leaves and branches.
Just then, the cursed device snagged on a vine, causing Okibi to trip and stumble. She fell against the trunk of a large tree, jarring her only elbow. She winced and tried to shift most of her weight (slight though it was) to her left leg. Her right one couldnt take much of it yet. A year ago, being so weak would have angered her like nothing else, and she would be hard pressed to reign in her temper.
But now, it was all she could do not to break down right there. She missed being strong, she missed being fearless.
Sucking in a deep breath through her nose, Okibi fought back the tears and reached for her crutch and continued on. It wasn't far now until she got to the lake, the area that the creature was last spotted.
---------------------
Surely, there was no place in the world quite like the Starlit Lake. The water was so perfectly still and crystal clear that the glowing crystals in its bed were bright as stars, hence its name. Cradled by the massive, crystal bearing trees around it, it was almost like the lake was in a world all its own. Okibi liked it; she felt . . . almost peaceful.
Movement on the surface of the still lake caught her eye, and Okibi looked across it to the other side. The movement had been the dark reflection of an animal creeping along the shore opposite her, and Okibi almost smiled when she saw the small rabbit like creature. Was her luck finally starting to look up after an entire year of horrendously bad luck? It seemed so. The rabbit stooped down at the lakes edge and started to drink up the water; as it did so, Okibi slowly made her way around it.
"Excuse me." She said quietly, using the beast tongue that she'd neglected for a year. It was just a little rusty, like her voice. She crouched down a dozen feet away from the creature, careful to move very slowly as it snapped its head up to look at her. It released a startled mewl, like a cat, and Okibi knew she had the right animal. "I need your help little friend. Would you consider hearing me out?" She said quietly and quickly when it looked like the creature was going to bolt.
The Cabbit seemed to realize that the human watching it was speaking to it in a way that it could understand. It turned towards her, and away from the direction that it was going to flee, watching her curiously. It's little nose twitched, sniffling the air, and it nodded.
Okibi smiled just slightly, though it didn't reach her eyes. She then explained to the animal that people in her village wanted to study it, and learn about it. The Cabbit seemed frightened at the notion, obviously as wary of humans as any other creature. "Please don't be frightened. I promise you wont be . . . mistreated." Okibi choked on the word, fighting back memories. This was no time to get lost in day terrors. "I'll bright you right back here when they're finished."
The little animal considered her for a few moments longer, tilting its head this way and that, a characteristic that was more cat than rabbit. After a while, Okibi started to think that her cause was lost, but then the Cabbit started to hop towards her.
"Thank you little friend." She said quietly, earnestly, as she scooped the soft creature into her arm. When she stood up on her left leg she stopped to consider just how she was going to get back out of the forest with a rabbit-cat thing in her only arm, and none left to use the crutch.
She released a noise that was probably supposed to be a snort, but sounded nowhere near confident enough to be. "This is gonna take a while."
Word Count: 1025