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The Preserve, Late Sunday Afternoon

Arthur had been looking forward to this all week. It would be the first time he'd get to hunt anything around here with someone who knew what they were doing.

Presumably.

The girl was convinced she was a wolf.

"At least now you're borderline useful," he told the bird, as he waited by the clearing he and Lady Blysse had ~~handwavily~~ agreed on.

[[ arthur's here for two, but the preserve is open to all! ]]

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Merlin shot him a sharp look from his perch on a nearby tree. Then, very carefully, started to preen so he could try this flying thing for longer than a few minutes at a time.

"Can you actually catch anything?" Arthur asked him. It would've sounded more dubious had he not had such great faith in Merlin's hunting abilities as it was.

That got him a squawk of indignation and fluttering of wings as Merlin tried to show off his new birdy prowess.

By finally managing to take to the sky.

"Terrific," Arthur commented. He took one hand off his crossbow to rub his forehead.

It was at that moment that Firekeeper and Blind Seer showed up.

Firekeeper tilted her head and looked up at the sky. The bird certainly looked like the one who had been in class the other day, so the conclusion was obvious.

"Merlin?" she asked, in the language of the Beasts. Then, for Arthur's benefit, she repeated the question in ~~Pellish~~ English.

He was flying!

...hoooooly crap he was flying! Merlin looked down at the newcomers, he circled to come back on down. Now, if Arthur would be so kind as to hold up his hand, this landing wouldn't end up as a disaster.

Hopefully.

I flew! Did you see that? Which, of course, came out as a high pitched cry to Arthur's ears.

Arthur almost physically winced, but caught himself. He was used to hunting birds. They just weren't as... shrill.

Trust Merlin to assault someone's eardrums with his girly demeanour. He held up his hand and hoped to god the bird wouldn't destroy something on his descent. "Merlin," he agreed, "thought it was a good idea to mess with a scroll full of volatile magic."

"Magic is rarely being a good idea," Firekeeper said with a snort.

Still, she couldn't help but be amused by Merlin's obvious pride in his newfound ability.

"Indeed we did," she told him. "A great achievement, considering you've only had wings for a handful of days." Look at that, proper grammar and everything. It helped that she was speaking what she considered her first language.

Adjusting his grip on Arthur's hand, Merlin turned very quickly to focus on Lady Blysse. You understand me?

Squawk.

"You're telling me," he said. He eyed the bird, and then the girl, who appeared to be...

Whatever it was. "Right," Arthur said, warily, "I'm glad to see you've arrived here in one piece. Let's get to it."

"It'd be a poor wolf indeed who could not speak the language of Beasts," Blind Seer commented wryly.

Firekeeper nodded at Arthur. "You have game in mind?" she asked. "Strange color deer? Fish with fur? Rabbit?"

"Let's avoid the deer. No good'll come from killing strange game." He'd learned that one the hard way, oh yes. He considered the forest. "Rabbits might be--"

Pause.

"...Fish with fur?"

"In stream," she nodded. "Angry blonde girl suggest they is maybe existing as a joke, but, I find they is real enough."

Really? Kreeee?

Merlin was really hoping Arthur wouldn't want to hunt them. In case they too had a curse.

"Have you hunted them before?" Arthur asked, scrambling to regain some of his manners. "I've yet to see any."

At least they had some chaperones with them, or this whole thing would've felt untoward. ...Even if their chaperones were a wolf and a merlin. On this island, with all of its bizarre ways, he didn't even know anymore. Wolf. Yes.

Edited 2009-03-22 10:03 (UTC)

"Have, yes," she nodded. "With Tahiri, and Dinah," there was a slight hesitation before she added that second name. Dinah had mentioned a complicated situation that she couldn't talk about further, and after seeing the two of them in the salle on Monday, it seemed reasonable to assume that Arthur was perhaps a part of it.

Dinah was still an issue, but he'd made his decision on the subject and he wasn't about to show any of it.

Besides, fish with fur. It sounded just about mad enough for the island. "I wouldn't mind getting a look at them, milady," Arthur said, "If nothing else, they might make supper interesting."

"Then stream," Firekeeper said with a nod, heading in that direction. "They like to hide in rocks. But," she rolled her eyes, "they is stupid and can be coaxed out with little work."

"Well," he said, shifting his hand up on the crossbow, "that just gives us more reason to branch out and kill something else when we're through." He followed, easily catching up.

"A hunter's words," she laughed, pulling out one of her arrows to use as a spear and wading into the stream.

The trouble with having a manservant who was currently a rather annoyingly shrill bird is that he couldn't, in fact, carry any hunting equipment. Which meant that, in terms of such things, Arthur had to pick and choose his equipment.

Crossbow bolts didn't function as well as arrows did. He set the crossbow aside, and reached into his pack to find something more suitable.

He shot the bird a look that implied how bloody useless it was before his hands finally closed around the spear.

Who completely missed it as he was taking care of a ruffled flight feather out of sheer instinct.

Be careful, you great prat he warbled.

Squaaaaawk.

Firekeeper rather successfully managed to hide a distinctly un-wolf-like giggle as she made her way towards a cache of rocks she thought likely to hide the furred fish.

Blind Seer didn't bother trying to hide his amusement, baring his teeth in a wolfish grin.

They were rather bloody lucky Arthur didn't realise any of this was going on.

Instead, he took his spear and waded after Blysse with a cheerful intentness practically grafted onto his face. The circumstances were odd, the company doubly so, but at least this time he might actually get to kill something.

He made a gesture at Blysse: have we got anything?

Wouldn't want to spook the fish.

She nodded, moving closer to the rocks. If she played this right, the fish would be darting out and heading in Arthur's direction right... about... now.

She neatly speared one of them before they moved out of her range.

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