05-31-2018, 01:23 PM
The Sage opened his eyes with genuine surprise, though the garish sun of the Dunes and the stark reminders of his body’s pain quickly mellowed his excitement at returning from the Astral realm to a living body. He struggled into something of a sitting position, noting that Graowr seemed to have taken them away from town, a good way to lie low while they made sense of Dupree’s notes. With a grimace he glanced down at his injury, although the expected inkblood was there the Sage also noticed a strange paste had been applied to the wound. He touched a finger to it and held a dab of the gel closer to his face. It might be an attempt at a disinfectant, though applying it to the surface certainly implied it was supposed to work as a binding agent… He almost asked Graowr about it, but she seemed to be intensely studying the notes Dupree had taken.
Gelvar grant that we have all of them, I doubt we’ll have a good reception if we try to go back. He thought. The Majin’s whole attention was focused on the paper in her hands. She was staring at it so determinedly that the Sage initially assumed it was a map, until he noticed her forming the words as she read through them. He supposed it was not surprising that the astronomer’s notes might be challenging for her to parse.
“How are we doing?” he asked, shifting forward painfully and crawling towards the Majin. She shook her head, still muttering the words under her breath. Placing a finger onto the page to keep her spot, Graowr looked up.
“I’ve been trying to sort his notes for HOURS!” the majin complained, “but it doesn’t make any sense! He keeps jumping all over the place, and I can’t keep track of what he’s talking about. I’ve been sorting the pages so that they all make sense, but I haven’t figured them all out yet.” She leaned backwards in frustration, neck bending so it now looked directly behind her. After a moment she straightened back out. “Are you feeling better?”
The Sage nodded and glanced at the now deconstructed journal. “If I may, this is something I have far more experience with than you are likely to.” Graowr shrugged and gestured towards the pages stacked under various rock paperweights. The invitation to help was clear enough. He cracked his neck and began summoning a desk and arm chair. It was time for some good old fashion scholarship.
A passerby might have found the scene fascinating. A solid wooden desk and leather-backed easy chair sat in the shadow of some nearby cliffs, an old bespectacled man pouring over loose-leaf papers and the books that he had convinced Graowr to collect from the Town with No Name. The process had taken several hours, as Dupree had found clairvoyance enough to keep his notes in code. As it turned out Graowr’s sorting had been more helpful than she likely knew, but after the Majin’s patience for research had reached its limit, she had left the rest to the Sage. Fortunately, she had been willing to make a trip into town to retrieve an atlas of the dunes, Such as they had. The records of routes in the Dunes seemed entirely concerned with finding safe routes through the vastness, with little concern for proper cartographical rigor.
Still, by triangulating the records Dupree had gathered of the star’s descent, along with the locations of various watch posts and mining facilities, eventually the Sage felt confident enough that he knew the direction they were to head. It was a disheartening distance from civilization.
Graowr leapt down from the top of the cliff, having just finished whatever training regimen she had been going through up there. The blue being stretched, which gave the Sage pause, since he had seen her bend in ways that were impossible for anyone with a standard anatomy. How could someone like her even feel stiff to begin with? He brushed the question aside and leaned back in the chair, finishing the rest of his no longer refreshing tea.
“How’s the bookworming going?” she asked with genuine interest. It was clear she was running out of ways to occupy herself out here.
“I have an approximate course, certainly enough of one to get started. We’ll need to create some transport though, my best estimates of the star pieces location will be a good week’s journey, even on horseback. I don’t relish the idea of making such a trip on foot, since I don’t doubt Bud will be forced to mobilize after the star piece himself now.” He said, collecting his papers and books into a more manageable bundle. He considered extracting the desk and chair, but after some though decided to leave it in place to confuse some poor wayfarer who found it. The Majin turned to face him, her expression blank and matter of fact.
“Horses are fun, I guess.” She shrugged, “But if your worried about the trip taking too long we could always fly.”
Gelvar grant that we have all of them, I doubt we’ll have a good reception if we try to go back. He thought. The Majin’s whole attention was focused on the paper in her hands. She was staring at it so determinedly that the Sage initially assumed it was a map, until he noticed her forming the words as she read through them. He supposed it was not surprising that the astronomer’s notes might be challenging for her to parse.
“How are we doing?” he asked, shifting forward painfully and crawling towards the Majin. She shook her head, still muttering the words under her breath. Placing a finger onto the page to keep her spot, Graowr looked up.
“I’ve been trying to sort his notes for HOURS!” the majin complained, “but it doesn’t make any sense! He keeps jumping all over the place, and I can’t keep track of what he’s talking about. I’ve been sorting the pages so that they all make sense, but I haven’t figured them all out yet.” She leaned backwards in frustration, neck bending so it now looked directly behind her. After a moment she straightened back out. “Are you feeling better?”
The Sage nodded and glanced at the now deconstructed journal. “If I may, this is something I have far more experience with than you are likely to.” Graowr shrugged and gestured towards the pages stacked under various rock paperweights. The invitation to help was clear enough. He cracked his neck and began summoning a desk and arm chair. It was time for some good old fashion scholarship.
---
A passerby might have found the scene fascinating. A solid wooden desk and leather-backed easy chair sat in the shadow of some nearby cliffs, an old bespectacled man pouring over loose-leaf papers and the books that he had convinced Graowr to collect from the Town with No Name. The process had taken several hours, as Dupree had found clairvoyance enough to keep his notes in code. As it turned out Graowr’s sorting had been more helpful than she likely knew, but after the Majin’s patience for research had reached its limit, she had left the rest to the Sage. Fortunately, she had been willing to make a trip into town to retrieve an atlas of the dunes, Such as they had. The records of routes in the Dunes seemed entirely concerned with finding safe routes through the vastness, with little concern for proper cartographical rigor.
Still, by triangulating the records Dupree had gathered of the star’s descent, along with the locations of various watch posts and mining facilities, eventually the Sage felt confident enough that he knew the direction they were to head. It was a disheartening distance from civilization.
Graowr leapt down from the top of the cliff, having just finished whatever training regimen she had been going through up there. The blue being stretched, which gave the Sage pause, since he had seen her bend in ways that were impossible for anyone with a standard anatomy. How could someone like her even feel stiff to begin with? He brushed the question aside and leaned back in the chair, finishing the rest of his no longer refreshing tea.
“How’s the bookworming going?” she asked with genuine interest. It was clear she was running out of ways to occupy herself out here.
“I have an approximate course, certainly enough of one to get started. We’ll need to create some transport though, my best estimates of the star pieces location will be a good week’s journey, even on horseback. I don’t relish the idea of making such a trip on foot, since I don’t doubt Bud will be forced to mobilize after the star piece himself now.” He said, collecting his papers and books into a more manageable bundle. He considered extracting the desk and chair, but after some though decided to leave it in place to confuse some poor wayfarer who found it. The Majin turned to face him, her expression blank and matter of fact.
“Horses are fun, I guess.” She shrugged, “But if your worried about the trip taking too long we could always fly.”
Quote:Thanks for sorting out the totals for this, I gotta remember to actually keep track of my posts…
All word/character counts courtesy of wordcounter.net
Word Count -- This Post: 1,323 // Word Count (Graowr): 6,416 // Quest Word Count: 12,238
Character Count -- This Post: 7,327 // Character Count (Graowr): 36,016
Word Count -- This Post: 849 // Word Count (The Humble Sage): 5,819 // Quest Word Count: 12,238
Character Count -- This Post: 4,780 // Character Count (The Humble Sage): 32,508
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