Re: [M] And we peer through the glass of those empty househo

Keabetswe hummed at Sineria's response. "So it is tools that you seek as well?" she confirmed, flashing a glance at Elle. But the curly-coated woman was dumping something out of a wooden crate and seemed oblivious to her conversation with the Mistwalker. But the more than Sineria spoke, the more it sounded to the African dog that he was searching for more obscure types of tools. "We do not care for remaking the things that humans had, but we will gladly take the items that they have left behind."

After the clatter of plastic cassette tapes had died away and the crate was empty, Elle held it up and rotated it carefully in her hands. It wasn't large, or perfect, but it might be something that Krokar could use in Aster's Fields or in their communal storage shed or something. Holding the crate in her hands, Elle continued foraging for more useful items while Betsy entertained the Mistwalker.

"But if it turns out that we are interested in the same thing, I am sure we can negotiate," Betsy said, her tawny eyes catching sight of something interesting. She moved toward it while Sineria posed a question to Elle.

Elle pushed a dismissive sound between her lips. "Whe caares aboot humans?" she replied sourly, but softened her tone as she continued. "Anywey, prolly aall o' places hev te de with wha' they was used fer, dinnae ye think? Like, this cabin's jus' one hoome bu' other places was fer a whole community, right." She paused and looked curiously at Sineria. "Why de ye caare aboot humans so much, anywey?"

OOC: Ah! It was actually Betsy who asked Sineria what he was searching for, not Elle, but I accidentally forgot to use her dialogue code. Sorry! I'll edit that in. :)

[WC — 000]

"W...well just....interested in them, m...mostly what th..they built. I...If I c...could t..try to r..replicate s..something that th...they made it c...could help benefit a...at least my pack. Th...the more I kn..know about th...the things th..they developed th..the m..more th..chances that I c...could make s..something new and useful, right?" Sineria explained to Elle then he began looking around too.

An old countertop with all sorts of rusted instruments inside made his ears perk up at all of the different utensils. He could obviously figure out what a few of teh items were such as knives. As he looked at all sorts of the crumbled silverware that was deemed useless to him because of time, and then an old handheld can-opener sat broken in two in the drawer. "Hm...What were these?" Sineria murmured as he took the two halves with him into the corner of the room to inspect them. Then after a few minutes he glanced up at Betsy and asked,"H..Hey, find anything yet? I have Uh.....these."

Sineria then looked over at Elle and added,"D..don’t you f..find it i..interesting that a l...lot of s...stuff th..that we have n...now d..derived f...from stuff l...like this?"

Word count: 229

Elle considered this with a hard stare. "Ah mean, Ah guess," she replied in a resigned tone, shrugging emphatically and thinking that Sineria's explanation made total sense. Humans, whoever or whatever they were, seemed to have a knack for tool-making, the fruits of which Luperci were quick to take for their own purpose. But that was just it, wasn't it? Luperci could use tools and buildings all they wanted, but would they ever really know what they were originally intended for? Elle looked at the crate in her hands and then rolled her eyes. "Wha'ever," she grumbled, deciding that it wasn't worth the energy to think about the past – especially not the past of some long-dead species.

Passing through the cabin silently, Keabetswe scanned the room with tawny eyes. There was a pile of rotten shoes in one corner, even the laces moth-eaten and useless. She didn't even bother with them, instead moving away to another location. When Sineria spoke again, addressing her this time with a look, she turned her head and started toward him. "I have not found anything," she said, assessing his find with a sniff. "I do not know what those items are," she admitted, gesturing to the broken can opener. "But they do not look useful to us."

Holding her crate against her body with one arm wrapped around it, Elle lifted her eyes to Sineria. "Ne, not really," she said with a dismissive gesture. "Ah ain't even thought aboot it afore. Ah jus' wan' te take wha' Ah kin use or trade an' call it good." Bending, Elle took a small handle in her hand and pulled open a small door beneath what used to be a sink. Without much effort, he door came away in her hand and dislodged itself from the rotten screws of the handle, falling to her feet with a clatter and leaving her with only a handle in her hand. "Feckin' garbage, all o' it," she griped under her breath, throwing the handle across the room.

But inside the little cupboard were some bottles and jars that might be of some use. While Elle reached in to assess them, she asked of Sineria: "Se, aare ye like an inventor or somethin', then?"

[WC — 382]

"I...I mean..." Sineria paused to think for a moment. "I...I guess, w...well not y...yet. I d...do have one i...idea, b...but I d...don’t know about it." Sineria whimpered and his ears lowered again on his head. He set aside the destroyed can-opener for now and moved onto the next area of the cabin.

Sineria made his way up to a door and he opened it to see what was inside. The room looked like it used to be some sort of bedroom beforehand. The room itself was almost completely destroyed due to time, and it seemed that plantlife, and if not that insects, have taken over most of the place. "Damn," Sineria muttered as he looked at the room, and then he peered over at a hole about the size of an animal that interested him.

"What kind of creature could rip open a hole like this here? The walls are weak, but it’s so small." Sineria thought to himself as he didn’t have much knowledge on animals in the area. "H...Hey, do uh...either of y...you track o...or hunt much? C...can you take a look at this?" Sineria called back to them while pointing at the hole, which was half the height of any normal luperci, but whatever made it had the force to break through to the outside.

Word count: 235

The jars in the cupboard under the sink were dirty and stained. Glancing quickly to Sineria and and back again, Elle squatted more comfortably and began to take stock of the jars while carrying on her conversation with the timid Mistwalker. "Ach, aye?" she commented. "Wha' dinnae ye knaa aboot it, then? Wha's yer idea?" Of the five unbroken jars inside the cupboard, only two were without obvious defects or cracks. Still, even those that couldn't hold liquid may still be useful for other things. Carefully, she took each of the jars out of the cupboard and set them on their sides inside her crate.

While Sineria made his way into another room, Elle and Keabetswe also moved about to different locations within the cabin. Betsy looked curiously at the Mistwalker when he opened the door, its rusted hinges making a sharp creak that assaulted her ears, then turned back to her own scavenging. The best she could manage, however, were a handful of bent and corroded nails. Scavenging was never something that Betsy was good at. As a princess in her youth, it had not been necessary, and even throughout her travels with Chetan there had been very little of it.

But tracking and hunting? Both women lifted their heads and cast eyes across the room to where Sineria stood. "Of course," Betsy replied, starting for the little room with Elle, more out of curiosity than anything else, following after.

Both Luperci considered the hole curiously, sniffing at it for a long time. "Tha's a 'coon done tha'," Elle commented with confidence. But Keabetswe seemed unconvinced.

"I do not agree," she replied. "It is too small."

Elle scoffed. "Wha' de ye knaa aboot animaals 'ere, enywey. Ye ain' even froom 'ere!"

"I know what a raccoon is," Betsy countered with a sniff, lifting her nose high. "And that hole is much too small."

Flicking her wrist dismissively at Keabetswe, Elle clicked her teeth and turned abruptly to Sineria. "Wha' de ye say it is, then? A 'coon, dinnae ye think?"

[WC — 344]

Sineria saw the two women turn towards him, and he got nervous. "H...Hey, d...don’t look at me. I...I don’t hunt m...much at all, wh..why'd you th...think I asked the two of you?" Sineria whimpered and he stood up and paced back and forth wearily. "Oh god, oh god what could it be?" Sineria muttered to himself then he paused and clapped his hand together. "Got it!" He barked then he looked back to the two ladies and paused then smiled awkwardly.

"Heh...w....well I....I think I do a....anyways." Sineria said with an awkward laugh and sighed,"W....well....wh...what if i....it’s not an animal? Wh....what if it was a....an object or something? Th....the place is p...pretty weak right? Wh....why would anyone w....want to stick around here?"

Sineria took a deep breath to try to calm himself down, and he leaned against the wall opposite to the ladies then he remembered Elle's question and his ears perked up. "Oh....yeah, y...you wanted t...to know m....my idea, r....right?" Sineria barked then he looked back to the ground and sighed,"I....it might s....sound s....silly, but you kn...know how w...we could c....climb t...trees and such? Wh....what if we could climb th...them easier, o...or maybe something e...else l..like a mountain or a b...big human place l....like this one?"

Word count: 253

When the women rounded on the meek Mistwalker, it was clear in the way that he whimpered and paced that they had effectively cornered him. The non-committal response Sineria provided them was met with an annoyed click of Elle's teeth, followed by a long-suffering sigh. But for her part, it seemed as though Betsy had no reaction at all. She stood, watching the white wolf with a long and measured look. It looked to her as though the Mistwalker was working through a problem and, sure enough, he clapped his hands together and barked eureka!

Both women had their curiosity piqued and, all eyes on Sineria again, they listened to his stuttering explanation. Ever the skeptic (and hating to be wrong), Elle released a sharp tch from between her lips and waved dismissively at him. But Keabetswe was decidedly more agreeable. Cupping her chin in her fingers, the exiled princess nodded. "You are suggesting that this structure is being destroyed by the elements rather than an animal," she stated thoughtfully. "Yes, that is an acceptable counterargument. It may be."

Elle opened her mouth, probably to shoot off some string of obscenities, when Sineria's voice cut her short. Turning sharply from Betsy to glare at the man, she allowed her attention to be diverted from the matter of the hole and onto his grand ideas. Her expression softened minutely and she listened. "Aye, bu' why would we wan' te?" she asked dubiously. "Ah, fer one, ain't in any great hurry te be climbin' mountains or nethin'." She folded her arms across her chest defiantly. "An' how would ye even de tha'?"

[WC — 275]

Sineria smiled awkwardly and blushed, "That uh actually wh....what my invention is sh...should do, b.....but I h...haven’t built it yet." Sineria awkwardly scratched behind his head and he laughed a bit awkwardly as he heard this, and he slowly fell silent after he realized how awkward he made things.

Sineria then cleared his throat and sighed, "Sorry, heh I uh....don’t g....get out m....much, a...and I'm not th....the most social g...guy around the pack." Sineria then spotted a clock out of the corner of his eye and he groaned as he looked at it as he didn’t understand how to read a clock, or what clocks even did. He walked up to it and picked it up and barked, "W....Would either of you know wh..what the hell this th....thing is?! I have l...lots of them, and I d...don’t understand them." Sineria continued to examine the numbers frustrated at why humans needed something like this in the first place, and how he could possibly decode the device's riddle, if there was one.

Word count: 197

When Sineria replied, Elle stared blankly at him. "Ah dinnae..." she began, but then seemed to decide against saying anything more and shrugged, murmuring beneath her breath a hushed, "Ach, wha'ever." The white wolf appeared to be feeling embarrassed about something – maybe the explanation that he had provided her – and Elle decided that it was better not to say anything more on the matter.

Keabetswe was decidedly more patient. "It is no trouble," she said, looking at him curiously. "Why do you not get out more, Sineria?" she asked, glancing to the thing that he was gravitating to. There were few things about the items humanity left behind that Betsy understood. She shook her head. "Why do you have so many of them?"

But Elle stepped forward, leering at the thing with some interest. "Ah dinnae knaa wha' tha' thing is; Ah never saw one afore." That Sineria had so many of them impressed the curly-coated woman a little. "How did ye git so maany o' them?" she wondered under her breath, then said more clearly, "Give it a shake. Maybe theore's somethin' in it!" She gave her tail a wag, excited at the idea that there might be something useful inside the weird contraption.

[WC — 208]

"W...well," Sineria paused as he heard Keabetswe's questions and then Elle's question. "I j...just don’t r...really know h...how to s...socialize and m...most people that I meet d...don’t really understand m...me, I'm sh...shy, to answer your first question." Sineria stated then he walked around and searched through a few other cabinets in the room.

"I h..have so many b...because I like c...collecting h...human stuff, a...and I want to learn a..about it as m...much as I can." Sineria exclaimed then he turned around and sighed and he looked at Elle. "I m...might h...have a habit for th...this kind of th..thing, for knowledge a...and study, b...but a still a h...habit though. I h...have about three or f...four back at m...my den and I....well I'm t...trying to understand them." Sineria heard Elle's suggestion and paused and stared at the clock for a few moments. He then held it up to his ear and shook it a bit only to hear a clunking sound come from within the clock.

"Huh....th....there’s something small at l....least inside of it, here g...give it a try." Sineria said then extended a hand with the clock to her.

Word count: 238