[PQ] [RQ] Flowerfall

Sascha watched as Boreal attempted to help the humans, not quite brave enough to join in. After all, if she fell overboard, she didn't have wings to catch her fall! When Petronella invited play, the little ursur bounded to the sea panther's side, reaching out with one large paw to attempt to 'tag' the other companion before running back along the deck, dodging her human and the baskets of flowers as she went.

Alys continued to gather flowers, varying colors as she went. She frowned in concentration as the wind shifted, and she tried to compensate with her magic by sending the flowers out into the wind so that as they drifted, they would land where she wanted them to go. "I can imagine that doing anything in Stormbreak would be challenging," she said, but didn't offer more - not when she could feel Sunjata's frown through her magic, the desire to talk later strong enough for her to sense.

---

Alys continues to scatter flowers, trying to use her magic to compensate for the wind shift!

The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamour fades

Alys

Denied permission to play with the humans, Boreal paused by the rail and was clearly contemplating ignoring her human. Thoughts of mischief and sedition were playing through her horned skull with no need for a translator, but Petronella proved to be an irresistible distraction and the dragon abandoned the flower baskets. Her front talons went down and her hindquarters went up at the tide jaguar's invitation, but then Sascha bounded in from offside and made an unexpected play. Boreal chortled her approval with a puff of smoke and twisted to leap up over the rail and behind the wheel where Tal was standing, steering the ship, shamelessly using him as an obstacle to hide behind.

Tal wasn't always the best at reading meaningful glances (when they weren't from Alys, at least), but he managed to pick up that Sunjata maybe had more to say on the matter this time. "Um. That's... yeah, Sah said somethin' along those lines..." the courier admitted with a grimace. And, for once, he had the presence of mind to leave it at that. "So, uh, how hard is grabbin' a rock from their shitty island?" He slanted an apologetic glance to Alys for even thinking of putting himself at risk, but after they'd managed to get the Archon to agree to protecting the Barrows first, well...

Maybe he felt like he owed the rest of King's End a hand, too.

"Hang on, th' wind's pickin' up outta th'Draig!" he warned them, bringing the Peregrine down lower to the ground to help Alys with her control of the air currents even as they grew cooler and more turbulent as they rounded the northwest corner of their loop and faced the full force of the mountains' gusts. The Seer was successfully able to keep the blossoms from blowing too far off course, but Sunjata would find the turbulent air becoming a challenge to fly in, even as Tal had to fight the wheel of the airboat and move quickly to reef some of the sails in order to keep his vessel under control.

---

Round 6: Getting closer!

The winds off the Draig are tricky and giving Tal and Sunjata trouble now, but Alys is able to keep on task with her magic!

we keep on doing this again and again
the same old things expecting something different

The sea panther couldn’t really grin, but the air of it is there as Boreal and her have a slight standoff – just before Sascha appears to tag her. A chirrup of surprise leaves her as she bounds after the ursur companion, long tail flicking behind her contently as she suddenly dives toward Boreal before realizing she’s vanished behind the wheel of the ship. Turning her trajectory back toward Sascha, she bolts toward the ursur with an attempt to bat her paw gently on a back leg should she get close enough.

Sunjata, meanwhile, waters the flowers as Alys drops them – rain falling and suddenly swerving with the winds that start to rock even him. Hissing out a sound as the surprise hits him, each and every one of his scars alights in a lightning strike of light before it settles back into his normal appearance. His wings flatten out, causing him to dive down from the loss of their gliding ability, but hopefully it helps to guide him past the brunt of the wind. “There’s a wyrm in there that fucks up the tunnels! You’d have to pull the crystal from the wall without the tunnel caving in on you.” Sunjata calls up to the Peregrine as he makes his dive, hoping his words make it.

---

Sunjata dives a little low to try and avoid the brunt of the wind!

but by now we know it's never gonna change
i'm not trying to complain, i'm just saying it's a waste

Tal’s apologetic glance had Alys looking up sharply, sending her partner a glance that was half warning, half plea. She’d always known that Tal had a tendency to get wrapped up in dangerous situations, but to feel the apology and planning in his emotions had her hackles up in a hurry. They’d just had their family reunited, and she couldn’t bear the thought of him going to Starfall to (apparently) battle a wyrm and avoid collapsing tunnels. At least, not without her - and she wasn’t strong enough to go with him.

With a frown, Alys turned her attention to the companions, who continued their play on the deck. Sascha, feeling her bonded’s sudden distress, paused in her play long enough to glance towards Alys - and to get tagged by Petronella. The seer sent calming thoughts through the bond, and the little ursur returned to her game - albeit with less enthusiasm than before as she hurtled towards Tal, aiming to skid around him to tag Boreal.

The wind picked up, but Alys’s efforts to manipulate the air around them kept her flowers from blowing too far off course. Now, though, she was distracted, and it was a great deal more effort to keep her mind on her magic and her task. She and Tal would definitely be having a chat about this later.

—-

Alys continues spreading flowers, but she’s distracted now. D:

The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamour fades

Alys

Safely tucked behind Tal, Boreal chortled as she watched the other two companions at play. She could sense her bonded's anxieties through their bond, of course, but Tal was always anxious about something and the dragon would never get anything done if she paid attention to that all day!

And speaking of... Tal caught Alys's glance and swallowed hard. Before he could say anything, however, he had to lean into the wheel to keep the boat steady enough for the Seer to continue the vital work of flower placement. At least he caught the tail of Sunjata's words before they were blown away. He scowled into the wind as much as at the news, and for a few minutes he was focused purely on the problem at hand. He didn't dare leave the wheel long enough to reset the sails, but he didn't want to call Alys away from dropping flowers either, so he focused on riding out the worst of the wicked gusts. Boreal abandoned him long enough to peer over the aft, keeping an eye on their Archon for him.

Sunjata had his own work cut out for him, but this close to the Feverlands the flowers didn't need much water. The Flood was able to fight the winds and stay aloft, mostly by diving beneath the worst of the gusts. The curve of the Barrows where they met the Draig was thankfully short, however, and as they rounded the bend the skies grew calmer once again. Tal looked over to Alys with a sigh of relief--

And saw the distraction on her face. His own expression fell and he swallowed hard. Behind him, Boreal let out a harrumph of surprise as Sascha tagged her with a paw. The dragon shook herself and then abandoned her post with a gleefully smoky snort as she bounded down the stairs to find Petronella.

The Peregrine was heading east along the northern edge of the barrows now, the end of their journey almost in sight. And a good thing, too, given how low the baskets were getting! "Just a little farther," he called encouragingly to the crew. "Alys, are we out o' any colors yet?" He risked a glance over his shoulder to where their Archon flew, but the winds were at their backs now, and growing gentler the farther they went. "Sunjata, how are y'doin'? D'y'need t'land an' take a break?"

---

Good job getting past the Draig! Onto the last big push for Round 7!

we keep on doing this again and again
the same old things expecting something different

For all intents and purposes, Sunjata works hard on navigating the winds below the Peregrine. And for the most part, he does a pretty damn good job. The winds get easier and soon enough Sunjata can start to make the ascent back toward the ship flying above him. In the mean time, Petronella, sensing the distraction Sunjata has with trying to navigate the winds, has ceased somewhat in the game of tag – stuck down below for a moment to regain her composure.

It's about when she’s bounding back toward the stairs when Boreal appears, the little tap on her in the game of tag sparks a chirrup of a sound, a feline laugh, as she races up the stairs to try and find Sascha. Sunjata crests back up along the side of the Peregrine, wings pushing against the wind easier now but he still seems somewhat focused on the endeavor, checking the baskets to see how many flowers they have left when he hears Tal’s call.

“I’m good, Tal. We’re almost done.” He calls over, because even though he’d be exhausted at the end of it, they would have at least managed to get this portion done. And maybe he can rest once he’s met with Rae to turn it in. Hovering nearby the edge of the ship and flashing Alys a crooked smile and a "wanna load me up?" To see if she might be willing to hand him more flowers so he can continue to drop them and water them for the last little bit.

---

Sunjata asks Alys for a few more flowers so he can drop them and will continue to water them into the next round!

but by now we know it's never gonna change
i'm not trying to complain, i'm just saying it's a waste

There would be time, Alys hoped, to discuss Tal's plans later - preferably before they were enacted. Not that she could or would stop him from going where he could be of use - but gods did she long for easier days, peaceful times, when they could simply exist again. Once upon a time, her biggest concern had been whether she would be enough for Tal as a partner. She wished that that was what weighed her down, these days.

But for now, she tried to refocus on the task at hand. As the companions played tag around them, she stepped around Sascha, who came barreling by, pursued by Petronella. The seer, on the other hand, checked their baskets of flowers, noting where they might be falling a little short. "We might have been a little heavy-handed with the yellow," she called back to Tal, before turning her attention to providing flowers to Sunjata. She aimed for a nice variety, though the yellow were going to be a bit sparse from here on out. A shame, since Alys liked the brightness that they brought.

When Sunjata was loaded up and on his way, the seer returned to her own efforts, floating her air magic around to attempt to place the last floral bits and pieces below.

---

Alys notes that they're running out of yellow, loads Sunjata up with more flowers, and continues to spread her own!

The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamour fades

Alys

"If you're sure..." Tal peered over the edge at Sunjata with concern, but he wasn't going to argue with the demigod. They'd been hard at work for most of the day, but it was true that they were so close to being done that he could taste it. Then they could all go home - well, he and Alys could, at least. The Archon might have a shrine to stop at on the way, and the courier's heart skipped a beat at the thought of being truly safe tonight for the first time since Starfall.

Maybe that safety would make the upcoming conversation with Alys a little easier. Something tangible to show that what they were doing to resist the Void mattered. Though he wasn't at all certain about going to the island now that Sunjata had mentioned tunnels and collapsing in the same sentence. Or at all. Ever. But that was for the future, and he shoved the shivers of the thought from his mind to focus on the task at hand.

Not that it needed a lot of focus now. With the Draig's gusts behind them the Peregrine was sailing sweet and smooth once more, and he felt safe enough to hook the loop over a spoke in the wheel to keep her steady. He had to avoid a veritable zoo that went running by, much to his bemusement, as he made his way over to the baskets. Alys was right, the yellows were down to the last dozen, but they still had plenty of oranges, reds, blues, and whites (purples, too, though he wrinkled his nose at them on principle). "Hm. Well, what about usin' some light orange ones t'fill in?" he suggested. Sure, it wasn't quite the same, but hopefully it would be close enough for Rae's approval. "We've just got a few more miles t'go, so it'll prob'ly be fine."

He waved to Sunjata as he headed back to the tiller to take up steering again, keeping the skyboat as close to the edge of the Barrows as he could as they curved gently to the south, heading for where they had begin. "Let's bring it full circle an' call it a day!"

---

Round 8:
Let's finish up with the last blossoms in the baskets and complete the circle!

we keep on doing this again and again
the same old things expecting something different

He is sure. His wings are sore, but it’s been a long while since he’d been in a position like this, and at the very least he’s confident he’d sleep well once this whole thing was over. But first things first was finishing it, and Sunjata dives up toward the edge of the Peregrine, flashing his smile to Alys as he gets another armful of flowers before he’s pushing through the lingering exhaustion in his wings and bones and diving back down. Careful to mix the flowers, Sunjata continues to drop flowers, summoning another stream of water to rain down upon them and ensure they remained planted.

Petronella, during this time, can sense Sunjata’s tiredness, though it doesn’t stop her game. She continues to pursue Sascha when she catches wind of Boreal, turning on a webbed paw to divert course and bolt along the deck down toward the underside again if only to try and tag one of them.

---

Sunjata spreads the last bit of flowers he has and waters them and the ones Alys drops!

but by now we know it's never gonna change
i'm not trying to complain, i'm just saying it's a waste

The companions' game came full circle as Petronella tagged Sascha; the ursur gave a playful grumble as she scrambled to a stop and turned to give chase.

Alys, taking stock of the flowers as Tal came over to look, picked up a yellow and a light orange, pursing her lips. "Well, it's not a perfect match, but it's the closest we have," she said, making a face. The artist in her regretted that there would be a distinct lack of yellow for the last few miles, but there was nothing for it now. Alys smiled up at Tal before handing off an armful to Sunjata, then returned to floating her own flowers down towards the ground.

The only ones she avoided were the purple. Although there were a few in the line, she couldn't help but eye them suspiciously as they fell, as though they would morph into something evil at any moment and ruin their otherwise smooth sailing. Fortunately, they seemed to be simple flowers, and there was nothing to indicate that they wouldn't work just as well as the other colors that rained down.

---

Alys keeps on putting down flowers!

The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamour fades

Alys

He knew better than to grin at Alys's perfectionism, but he leaned over to press a comforting kiss to the side of her brow and wrap an arm around her in a brief squeeze of a hug. "Pretty sure th'same could be said about me," he teased her, whispering the words into her ear before he released her and headed back to the wheel, whistling cheerfully to himself in spite of how tired he was getting.

Thankfully the last few miles were uneventful, with nothing more exciting than the companions playing on the deck to distract the humans (and demigod) from their task. At long last the splash of color where they had started came into view and Tal brought the Peregrine down in a slow descent so that they ended up just past where they had begun. It ensured that the last blossoms to fall overlapped the first ones, creating an unbroken line around the Barrows and all they contained.

He exhaled in relief as the task was done. The sun was setting to the west and the shadows were long and growing darker with every passing minute. "We... we did it?" He tested the words out before daring to grin, reaching out to pull Alys into a hug. "We did it! All that's left is turnin' it in!" He spun his partner around with a laugh and then turned his grin on his Archon. "Thanks, Sunjata! I'll do whatever I can t'help y'with th'rest, next!" And if that promise earned another look from Alys, well...

They'd have a lot to talk about when they got home.

---

That's it! Thank you guys so much!

~Fin