Christmas night brings with it the joyful arrangement of the Hawaiian Yuletide Celebration. This was one of the few nights of the year when the Botanical Gardens were open clear to the wee hours of the next morning, all to celebrate the Christmas spirit and the conjoining of it with the Spirit of Aloha.
Food, drink, dancing, music, all of it was happening in the main meadow within the center of the gardens themselves. Classic, customary Hawaiian garb was seen with men and women dancing the traditional hulas, spinning fire, and calling out Hawaiian chants and proverbs. It smelled of rich, heady roasted pork and tangy pineapple. Coconuts were being roasted and served fresh in large chunks, or had their milk cooked into breadfruit, or mixed into frothy drinks.
The fee to enter was paid at the front entrance of the gardens, and from then on, everything was covered as long as you have a stamp on the back of your hand. The stamp is, of course, a palm tree in bright pink fading down to green.
Akhlut, the mountain of a man, was staring at orchids of all things of all things. He wore a pair of jeans, workboots and t-shirt that fit or it was at least trying. "It's cooler out, so resting to good option. Come spring, you should grow large and bear fruit. I hope it is something delicious, but I can accept that your fruit may be birds. The birds are delicious as well, but harder to catch compared to breadfruit and coconut. Maybe not as difficult as pineapple though. The people there keep rifles around, so there is the potential of dodging their nervous fire. I still bet on me getting the pineapple." The man nodded slowly to the orchid, or perhaps more to him as he grinned. "If you are pretty enough, you may find yourself on my mate. She deserves flowers."
Isaac has possibly had too much party spirit, the young man currently sat near the trunk of one of the large tree, his jacket open and his hair in disarray. Seemingly content just to watch the dancing, he is sat with a soft drink in one hand as he watches the revelers, a warm smile plastered on his face as he watches with heavy-lidded eyes. He doesn't appear to have shaved for quite a few days and his clothes while clean are somewhat rumpled, his usually pristine combat trousers have grass-stains on the knees and his grey t-shirt has had a drink spilt on it, possibly by him. While he isn't joining in with the dancing, he has availed himself of the buffet table, a small bowl is heaped with various snack food, mostly meat and is sat near his left elbow. Spotting Akhlut, the mountain of a man somewhat hard to miss, Isaac calls out. "Beefcake!". Something about his is hilarious as it has Isaac laughing, the usually twitchy youngman quite relaxed this evening.
Angela is very new to Hawaiian Christmas, this time of year there's usually snow on the ground and only the really brave are up for swimming. But this is the Islands so things are a bit different. The celebration is a bit nostalgic, reminding Angela of the pow wow's of her youth: the food is different as are the dances, but the spirit is much the same. Since this is a party she's dressed tonight in a white sun-dress with sandals and a sapphire pendant on a gold necklace about her throat. Akhlut is hard to miss, being head and shoulders taller than most people, so she wanders in that direction after loading up on pork and pineapple. "Akhlut! Howzit?"
Rick is not dancing, but he is eating. He's sitting on the grass near-ish to the performers with a plate piled pretty high in his hand, and a drink by his side. After all, it's Christmas, right? That's what you're supposed to do. He joins the applause as a group of women finish their performance, and waves to one of the dancers as they move off to the side. She waves back, and he grins, then winks at her. This causes her to giggle, and she turns immediately after that to murmur to a couple of the other dancers as they move away to let another group to come forward.
Kirsi's alone on Christmas, so why not come to a public event where she can feel more alone because she doesn't know anyone? At least there's stuff to watch and things to eat. The various frothy drinks and the like may not be strong enough, because the redhead stealthily pulls a flask out of her pocket for a little swig of something that's probably not luau fare. She's dressed festively in a red dress with a green scarf at the neck, but there's a little bit of a wistful expression on her face.
Nala was in the highest of spirits, wearing a sarong style skirt in rich, bright blue with yellow and pink Hawaiian flowers on it, her muscular legs made their appearance every time she stepped through the grass with her bare feet, ankles encircled with traditional wreath flourettes. For a top, she'd donned a simple, bright blue bikini top that matched her sarong skirt and left her hair down and flowing, allowing the thick, wavy tresses to act as much like additional clothing as they could. On her wrists were similar woven flower circlets to the ones on her ankles, and on her head Nala wore a traditional Hawaiian headdress with vivid orange, blue, and purple flowers in it to match her wrists and ankles. Of course, she was on her way over to Akhlut, and in each hand a giant coconut, husked of course, with a bright pink and bright blue set of straws. "I've got you one, ko'u aloha!" Nala smiled and and lifted one of her burdened hands towards Akhlut before looking over and beaming Isaac a happy grin, her bright blue-green eyes flashing with amusement. "Aloha ahiahi, Isaac! Mele kilikimaka! Welcome to the Spirit of Aloha Christmas!"
Keegan is looking a little bit bewildered as he navigates this Tropical Christmas, the new arrival apparently finding the entire scene foreign as he saunters his way towards the food table. The tall man with the two-day scruff on his chin is dressed for the occasion, wearing a green ballcap with elf ears on it and a red lumberjack flannel open over a t-shirt that proclaims him to be "STRAIGHT OUTTA NORTH POLE." Where his sleeves are rolled up, the vibrant tattooed sleeves are not neglected in the Christmas Spirit - santa hat temporary tattoos are strategically placed on the heads of inked figures. "Well, isn't that something?" He remarks aside to Rick about the dancers and their performance, picking up and examining a hollowed out pineapple with a straw and umbrella in it, examining it skeptically before shrugging and giving it a chug. "Well, I suppose the citrus would curdle egg nog, eh?" The young man's Canadian accent dragging out the sound of his O's.
The drums and dancers continued on, trading out one group for another just meant that new people came in spinning fire and shaking hips in a fantastic display of athleticism. People were talking to one another, the sounds rising over the din of the traditional music enough to make it so they were likely heard by anyone nearby, but it didn't seem to matter, as everyone was smiling and laughing. The scent of flowers was nearly overpowering in some moments as it was carried on the breeze coming down from the Mountains, but it jostled well with the scent of the giant, roasted pig that was slowly being served to people starting with the butt and shoulders. There were children standing with marshmallows on sticks, the Marshmallows handed out by women in pretty, Hawaiian inspired, dresses in bright pink to mark them as members of the catering crew. A few adults managed to snag a marshmallow on a stick as well, as one of the caterers, a woman with nearly waist-length, rich, brown hair handed them out.
Akhlut turned to Nia, smiling as he took one of the drinks from her hand, looking the woman up and down. "I fear whichever garments I had choosen, I would still look so less presentable in comparison to you. You light up every occasion with your smile, and you are sweet enough to find a light for me. If you would prefer, I can hold yours as well, so you can waited upon by me." His eyes stayed locked on Nala, but before he drank, he raised it to Isaac, "Aloha, Isaac! The party appears to have found you early." He shot the man a grin before offering a cheerful, "Ahola!", to Angela. "You look well this evening! I hope there is no more misplaced jewelry this event."
"Found me days ago mate, it's all good though!" Isaac offers a cheerie wave to Akhlut and Nala, his attention then going upwards, his eyes gazing at the branches overhead. "There you go Bob, there's good people they are. Not Bob, how about Carl? Derek? Okay...we'll work on that." Seeming to give up on the argument, his takes another sip from his drink and then stuff some food in his mouth, still quite in the party spirit even if he isn't joining in with the dancing.
Angela grins to Ahklut and gives Nala a wave as she approaches. "Hopefully not! It'd be kind of a pity to lose something like that at Christmas." She looks over to Issac, looks up into the branches, and shrugs. "Looks more like a Beau, maybe a Bough, to me." He seems to be friends with Ahklut and Nala so, what the heck, her hand goes out to him, "I'm called Angela, though."
Rick starts to dig into his place again, picking up a piece of the roast pork between his fingers and popping it into his mouth. He looks up when he's addressed, and grins, swallowing and pushing himself to his feet with one hand so he doesn't have to crane his neck to look up. "It's something all right," he says with a nod. "You ever seen hula before?" From the attire and the accent, he clearly assumes not. He glances briefly away, though as he does his gaze falls on Kirsi. He squints when he sees her, tipping his head a little bit to the side, before his expression clears, and he waves, a good-sized one to attempt to get her attention. "Hey, snowboarder!" he calls out as well, though it may be difficult to hear over the music.
Kirsi looks up when she hears 'snowboarder!' It could mean just about anyone, of course, but it at least applies in part to her. The Denver native peers around for the source before she sees the familiar face, heading in Rick's direction with a smile. "Hey, waterboarder," she says, then frowns. "Wait, that means an entirely different thing, doesn't it? I'm sure you don't torture people for a living. Unless you're really bad at surf lessons, in which case I'll probably take them from Keha and not you." There's a grin at that. "Kirsi," she says, to remind him of her name. She smiles at Keegan as well, so as not to exclude him, since she interrupted the two.
Nala looked up at Akhlut with an absurdly sappy smile, then rose up on her tiptoes to give him a solid kiss to the side of his jaw. "You're such a wonder, Akhlut. I don't need you to serve me, I'll be more than happy to use you as something to lean against if I have a couple more of these drinks, though." She winked up to him and found her straw at the same time she recognized Angela, her eyes going wide and her smile looking absolutely goofy with a straw sticking out of it. Gulping down the mouthful of fruit, coconutty, beverage she'd pulled up from the vessel in her hand, Nala offered Angela a bright "Mele Kilikimaka, beach Angel! Have you found your place on Oahu yet?" She slipped around Akhlut so that she could offer Angela a happy kiss on the cheek, her breath smelling of the fruity concoction she was imbibing. "Oh! Angela, this is Isaac, Isaac... well, she just told you her name, but she's an Angel I met on the beach, and Oahu gave her presents for being here!" Now that Angela was appropriately welcomed, Nala moved back against Akhlut to settle her back to his torso, and looked at the flowers he'd been eyeballing. "Ohhh, these are gorgeous. We should go on a night walk to see all of the flowers that are blooming tonight!" She rolled her head back, looking up at the under-side of Akhlut's beard and chin as she spoke.
Keegan grins back at Rick. "Man, I wish I had. I've gone my whole life without seeing hips like that and now I know what I was missing. Are these the mythical hips that don't lie?" He raises his fruity umbrella'd pineapple beverage to the man, then to Kirsi. "Merry Christmas, Miss. You had me worried with the waterboarding lessons, I was worried this party was going to take a turn. Surfing sounds slightly less...terrifying." He tips a wink out from under the brim of his elf hat and excuses himself with a wave. The Canuck gravitates towards the long-haired woman with the marshmallows. "Finally, something around here that still looks like Christmas," the tattooed man grins as he accepts a marshmallow and stick from the woman and plops into a cross-legged seat on the ground to toast them with the kids, sharing his finely honed marshmallow toasting technique with the wee culinarians.
The cheerful sound of a multitude of people clapping their hands together and hitting the ground with their feet in time to the beating of nearly tribal drums was enough to cause most people's hips to start swaying, though for those that weren't quite so brazen, perhaps it was just feet tapping. Sheer joy and celebration had all of the kids with marshmallows crying out happily when they were directed to start roasting the gooey things over the fire as the Pig was adjusted slightly. People from every walk of life, every culture, and every race seemed to be gathered tonight in this one place, enjoying what had become a traditional Hawaiian experience on Oahu since they were educated by Christian newcomers. Pineapples, coconuts, tall plastic glasses, and shorter plastic glasses were all continually filled with either alcoholic beverages or punch (for those not drinking alcohol tonight). The line to get food was constantly growing and then emptying, but no one seemed to be rushing it. Food was here, drinks were here, everyone was welcome, and there was more than enough for everyone to be satisfied.
Akhlut grinned at Isaac, "I, too, speak to the trees to ask them which fruit they bear. Only the coconut thought it rude enough to attempt to crater my skull for it." Laughter rumbled in the man's chest as he nodded to Angela. "It would be a shame, but are many days of feasting and giving on this island, and many eyes to detect if something was misplaced." The man paused to receive the kiss from Nala, and his smile widened. "I am your tree, and my shoulder is always available. If I cannot keep to the horizon, we shall rest where we fall, and it will still be good." Moving his drink to find the straw once, he took a deep drink, nodding. "This may be why the coconut was upset." His brow knit together, his eyes searching for a moment, "A calf may be lost." Rather than move a ruckus, Akhut weaved his way through the partiers on his way towards the sound. "Hold with little one, we may be able to track your guardians yet."
"Sorry Frank, it looks like I'm going to have to go, you look after yourself." Isaac finishes off his bowl of treats and then slowly gets to his feet, picking up any litter he might have left behind as he does so. Hearing Nala, he waves again and then to Angela as he is introduced. "Nice to meet you Angela." He smiles and then pushes off from the tree, giving it a friendly tap on the bark as he leaves. "It probably wasn't anything malicious on the tree's part, it probably thought you'd get the fruit someone nice, although...they mainly think about sex. I mean...you're literally covered in tree ejaculate right now, did you know that?" Isaac is about to continue on this vein when he too hears the small child, waiting for Akhlut to start moving before he heads over. "The kids probably okay, just lost I imagine?" Isaac starts to go through his pockets. "I probably have some sweets in here or something...woah, not those ones."
Angela nods to Nala, "Getting there. Got a little place on the Leeward Coast with my last job's money, got a new one here ... things are looking up. Some fancy dancing and frybread and this shindig would be a lot like home." Angela nods to Issac, "I have yet to meet an aggressive tree. Except where kites were concerned." Something in the crowd seems to catch her eye, though, even as Aklut starts to move, "Yeah, I think you're right, big guy. Be right back, folks." With that she heads in the same direction as Ahklut, weaving along in the big man's wake and kneeling down to be on the eye level of an apparently lost child. "It's all right, buddy, we're here to help. My name's Angie. Did you lose your folks?"
"They sure are," Rick replies with a nod at Keegan's raised glass -- or pineapple -- though Kirsi's quip about everyone's favorite torture method makes him wince a little exaggeratedly. "Come on, people get reputations around here like //that//," and he snaps the fingers of his unoccupied hand. "I won't be able to shake it." He gestures to Keegan as an example; this is how rumors get started, Kirsi. However, he's clearly not serious, and he looks back to the musicians then, nodding his head in time to the music. He takes an absent step to the side as Akhlut passes him, though it's hard to ignore a person as big as that, and his eyes follow the other man until he stops at that crying child that he hadn't heard over the music.
"Hey, it's Rick's hobby, not mine," says Kirsi to Keegan with a grin, before she tilts her head to look at him like she's trying to place something. Like how she knows him. But he's off to eat crispified sugar, so she turns back to Rick to say something, before she notices a few of the other nearby folk moving off away from the crowd. "Conga line?" she teases. "Man, they don't grow them like *that* back in Denver," she adds, as she watches Aklut pass them.
Nala seemed happy to be talking to Angela, but the child had caught her attention a good bit before he'd come into view, and her eyes had wandered, then narrowed, to watch him come out of the woods. "He's not looking for his parents. He's saying ma'ane'i, it means over here." After dodging past Rick, Keegan, and Kirsi in Akhlut's wake, she stopped where Akhlut, Angela and Isaac had. Nala nodded to the little boy, coming down to his level just next to Angela, since she'd walked over in almost the same moments as her and the two men. Speaking softly in Hawaiian, she reached over to set her big coconut down onto a table, forgetting it for a moment while she tried to help the kiddo. Her smile for the child was gentle, bright blue-green eyes filled with concern.
Keegan takes another giant slurp from his pineapple and allows himself to be conned out of his tiny pink umbrella by a child making a marshmallow snowman. He carries his flaming marshamllow like a torch back towards Rick and Kirsi, ensuring proper carbonization when he blows it out. "Hey, man, don't worry, I promise not to introduce you as 'that waterboarding guy.'" He grins to the man, but Kirsi's scrutiny makes him instinctually check for boogers by wiping his nose against the back of his marshmallow wielding hand, eyes shifty to make sure nobody saw that (Which c'mon, never works). And they shift right over the gaggle of people and the lost child.
Not many people seemed to notice a single, crying child with all the merriment being made. So the party didn't stop, didn't grind to a halt. No, much as these things were amid the world of parties, it just kept going.
The child talking to Nala et all gasped and sobbed quietly, then spoke rapidly, sounding almost to the edge of panic as he wiped at his face with the back of his hand, tears glistening on his thin chest as they fell from his chin and rolled down his body.
After he spoke, the child gulped in a huge lungful of air and let out another sob, shaking his head.
Akhlut paused and slowly scanned the crowd to see if he saw any searching or moving against the flow searching. The man's eyes narrowed as he tried to gauge if anyone was looking. Mindlessly, he picked the umbrella out of his drink to offer it to the child. "For luck little calf, I believe you could use some." The man shook his head slowly, "The guardians are missing or they haven't noticed their spawn missing. Perhaps someone should take the child to the selector of music."
"Or we could make a loud noi....no, bad idea." Isaac runs through a few possible idea but givens them up as non-starters. "Yeah, I'll go speak to the DJ bloke, keep the kid here right?" Isaac taps Akhlut on the shoulder and then heads off, taking just a moment or two to orient himself before heading in the direction of the speakers, then stopping at the buffet table as he notices some pretty delicious looking treats. After that, he totally heads towards the DJ...
With Nala confirming that the boy isn't looking for his folks, Angela starts looking beyond the boy to see what's frightened him so. "Over here, over here? Nah, big guy this is something else." She looks back to Nala, "Could you look after him? I don't speak the lingo." Wish a pat on the child's shoulder, she rises and starts to walk back into the area he came from to see what happened.
"Thanks, brah, appreciate that," Rick says with a little laugh, but it sounds absent, his attention torn between the music and the little group that now surrounds the crying child. He sees Angela pass, and it's a moment before he recognizes her, too, but he just nods briefly in semi-greeting, since she's also focused on whatever's happening with the kid, and for good reason. His face shifts into a more thoughtful look, before he turns to Keegan just after the handwipe. Luckily. "Hey, you want to give him your marshmallow?" he says, gesturing to the child. "Maybe it'll make him happier?" That's a thing, right?
"Huh," says Kirsi, standing up on her toes to see over the crowd. She glances back at Rick, then Keegan, then wipes her own nose after Keegan, because maybe he's trying to hint that she has something there. "You look really familiar," she says, apparently not *that* worried about a lost kid, especially with a few locals trying to help him out. She grins over at Rick. "Does 'don't take candy from strangers' not have the same meaning over here in Aloha-land as it does on the mainland?" But she shrugs. "Could help. As long as you don't have a van. If there's a van, I'm drawing the line, pal."
Nala frowned and looked at the kid, then looked up at Akhlut. "He found a woman, and she's not moving." Her head swiveled so she could see Isaac and then she made a severe clicking sound at him as if she were calling him back. "Isaac! Come back, you don't need to find his parents, he isn't lost." Standing, she motioned the kid towards the party and spoke quickly to him in Hawaiian before she looked back at the other two. "We need to go check the trees he came from, she might need help." The brightness of her vivid blue-green eyes had gone somewhat stormy as worry caused her brows to furrow up. Not two moments after she'd said it, Nala was off, moving at a loping jog towards the treeline where the boy had exited the darkened woods.
Keegan nods to Rick. "Yep. I'm sure his parents won't thank me for sugaring up their kid, but if it makes him a little less scared, it's worth it." He grins lopsidedly back at Kirsi. "Trust me, I would remember meeting someone like you before," he artfully dodges the subject of familiarity while twirling his marshmallow on a stick. "And they made me get rid of the van at customs. Let's see if his parents have had the 'don't take candy from strangers' talk." Keegan joins the group around the child, dropping to a crouch and offering his marshmallow. "Hey little buddy," he says, tipping up the brim of his elf-eared hat. "It's Christmas, you don't have to be scared. Look at all these people here who are gonna make sure nothing bad is going to happen to you. You want a marshmallow?"
As the party kept it going, people were continuing on with their reverie without a care in the world. Groups of children were eating their gooey marshmallows after roasting them, and others were just running around having a good time with what looked like 4th of July sparklers or LED light bands. It was a party thrown by those that lived to enjoy the good times in life, and it had that feel to it.
The little boy that had been sobbing nodded his head quickly to Nala, then wiped at his face more and ran off. He moved in the direction of a throng of adults dressed very similarly to Nala, and made his way into them, where his form was lost in the press of full grown humans that accepted him into their area without question. No one started screaming, but the child likewise didn't pop back out into view.
The offer of marshmallow from Keegan seemed to go unnoticed, perhaps as the child didn't speak English, or perhaps as the child was making a beeline to his parent's large group.
Akhlut shot shrill whisper to Isaac and waved for the man to come back over. "We'll check on this woman, and we can hope she has only had too celebration." He nodded to Nala, and followed after her. "If anyone has a phone, it may be helpful in case of the worst." The man knew how the move through people on his way to follow Nala, glancing back to see who else was following as well. He drained down his coconut drink quickly, "I don't believe the earth is thirty at the moment."
"mmmwighto!" Isaac calls out, normal methods of conversation being made difficult by the white, gummy mass he is trying to eat subtly. Heading back over to the group, he nods to Akhlut but doesn't speak, his jaw still working vigorously, giving Isaac the appearance of a dog trying to eat a toffee. He gestures with a nod of his head to the tree-line where Nala has just charged off to, raising his eyebrows questioningly before jogging off in the same direction.
Angela is amongst those heading back into the trees with Nala and Ahklut, "Trust me, when Mother is thirsty we're all thirsty." She's only half-charching in, trying to keep up with Nala and yet maintain a balanced posture. It could happen. "I definitely under-dressed for this. No phone, no knife ... " As she moves, Angela slips her necklace off and stuffs it into a pocket.
Rick looks over at Kirsi when she suggests that this might not be the best idea, and spreads his hands out. "Yeah, yeah," he says, a hint of his smile coming back. "I don't know. Kid's crying, you give him candy." He looks back over to the child, just as he refuses the marshmallow and runs off toward the group of adults -- and Nala runs off toward the forest. "Uh." He looks around, as though things will be explained out of the ether, but he does reach into his pocket, coming out with a cell phone. That much, at least, has entered his consciousness.
"Well, on the brightside, you can eat it yourself," says Kirsi to Keegan, regarding the marshmallow. She looks up, watching the group moving toward the trees, and Rick's worried expression. "Something's wrong... what'd the kid see in there?" she says, maybe to Rick or just to herself, and she too begins to move in that direction. Lost children aren't her jam, but dangerous things in the woods might be.
Nala made it to the edge of the woods, then started working back into the thick, green trees. The fact that they were packed so tightly and kept in such fine repair made it tough movement. She tried to figure out where the kid had walked, but ended up boxed in by a series of huge tree trunks, from behind which the words "AK! Where are you?!" Were heard. Yes... Nala had gotten herself lost on the way to follow the child's path, and now, she couldn't figure out how to get out of the box of trees.
Keegan stays in his crouch even after the kid bolts off. "Poor little buddy. It's Christmas, kids are supposed to be in their pajamas, sneaking out of bed to try and see Santa." He shakes his head at the injustice of it while chewing that perfectly gooey marshmallow, nodding to Kirsi at her excellent suggestion. "Helps me think," me mumbles around his mouthful. Rising to his full height, he starts after the redhead and turns back to Rick, beckoning the man. "C'mon, Tin Man. Dorothy's off to the Emerald City. We should make sure she gets there okay." He watches Angela and scratches at his scruffy cheek. "You look like you're preparing for trouble, Miss. Should we be worried about what's in those trees?" He tenses as the very same box of trees starts rustling, until he hears Nala's voice. "Eh, Miss? You lost? Keep calling out, we'll find you in there."
The trees were, indeed, packed in there tight. The child likely had a much easier time getting through them than any full grown adult would have. They looked peaceful and beautifully sway in the breeze, all green and filled with life.
Akhlut gave a gentle shush to Nala, "I make it a point to never be far." The man swept his arm to move branches and clear a path for others. "I prefer tracking the paths of children. They leave breadcrumbs." He pointed out the shirt on the ground and picked it up. The man clicked his tongue a few times as he continued, making his way to a single child flip-flop. "The child's parents should get him better shoes..."
Isaac knows where he's going, it's a totally different direction to everyone else but he is a man on a mission. He disappears from view quite quickly but can soon be heard apologising to something, then there is the sound of more rustling before he disappears completely.
Angela fumbles amongst the trees, "Garden not a forrest ... I'd need to be a squirrel to get through this." She peers down at the ground for a moment. Hey it's a sandal ... with a foot in it! "Oh, hi Nala." If Angela looked any more sheepish she'd be growing wool. "Note to self, hang out with saloli ... "
"Whoa whoa whoa," Rick says as everyone starts heading for the forest, and even more when Nala's voice can be heard calling out. "Maybe we don't all want to get ourselves lost in there, too." However, since he's the one with the phone, and he doesn't exactly know what's going on yet, he does follow after them toward the trees. He tries to stay within striking distance of at least some of the others, but it's difficult with how close the trees are together. However, he does see those signs of a child having passed this way, right as Akhlut points them out. "Damn," he murmurs, and then he flips his phone open, dialing a number and putting it to his ear.
Loa answers her phone.
Kirsi's having difficulty navigating the thick wood, trying to follow the others but slipping off somehow unto a path all to herself. Mostly because it's not a path at all. "Dammit," she says, before tripping on a tree trunk and falling forward onto her hands and knees. There's the telltale sound of fabric ripping too, and now the slight slit in her red dress is mostly up her thigh. "Jesus Christ. Hello?" she calls, getting back up to her feet and moving toward the sound of someone's voice, hoping to find her way back to the group.
Nala let out a harsh sigh and shook her head, looking over at Akhlut with a slanted smile when she heard his voice and he pushed tree branches aside, marking the path of no longer lost. "I can't even tell you how happy I am for that, Akhlut." She looked at Angela and grinned as well, as much a mirror of Angela's facial expression as anything. Reaching out, she took hold of the other woman's hand, if allowed, so that they could move deeper into the woods together. Nala's other hand moved to hook into Akhlut's belt loop for a moment. The sound of Kirsi becoming trapped in, gasp, the same place Nala had found herself had Nala reaching in with the hand previously attached to Ak and trying to grab the other woman by the back of her shirt. "This way!" She called, so that Kirsi would know it was a friendly hand. "We found a trail.." Her breath stilled as she looked ahead of them, her bright, blue-green eyes narrowing. "Akhlut..." Worry had her heart racing for a moment as she tried to move forward, the thick trees making it all but impossible.
Keegan starts picking his way through the copse of trees, bending back branches for the people behind him. "This way, we have candy!" he hollers back in response to Kirsi's shout, only to find himself face to face with Nala (and face to pectoral with Akhlut). The tattooed man holds back a large scrubby branch like a door. "After you, ladies and gentleman," he channels his inner maitre'd, until the sight of a tiny shirt and flip flop drain the levity right out of his face. "Breadcrumbs," he echoes Akhlut, conjuring a smile. "Looks like our little buddy is a streaker?"
Sure enough, after the group managed to pick their way along and follow Akhlut as he found more and more signs left behind by the child, they came across something. A woman's legs were laying on the ground, heel to the earth, toes to the sky. The bottom of her feet were filthy but the tops of her feet were less so. A few healthy branches covered the legs from just about the knees up, completely obscuring the rest of her from view as they came right down to the earth. If anything, the legs looked utterly relaxed, and like they were placed with so much cover intentionally. A few branches had been moved off to the side, but looked like they'd come away from the lower legs, like someone had pulled them off to see what was underneath.
Laughter rumbled inside Akhlut's ribcabe as he called back to Rick. "It's a small island, brah. Pick any direction and walk for 30 minutes and you'll find yourself outside of lost." The laughter didn't last for long as Akhlut squatted down to move farther into the brush as he happened upon the woman. The man sniffed the air and clicked his tongue before whistling. "Ahola there!" The man gingerly toward of the woman's ankle and gave her a little shake. "You may want to wake up."
Akhlut made a rolling click in the back of his mouth as he called back to Rick on the phone. "She's the same temperature as the air around us. This is the longer sort of rest."
Angela crouches down near the body and carefully starts to pick the branches away. "Careful where you step guys. Huh. No footprints but drag marks ... and ... uhg." Angela finds that it's only half of a woman. The lower half. Everything above the hips is gone in a grisly, appart display of still shining grotesquery. The upper half of the body isn't here. And the blood had long since stopped pooling. Oddly, it doesn't look like any of the internal organs are resting in the lower half, just the skin and blood vessels remain that would have attached it to the upper torso. "Dammit."
As Rick speaks to the emergency operator, he picks his way through the trees, following the path with the others. Akhlut's announcement, though, stops him in his tracks, and his eyes widen as he looks down at the body. His mouth just sort of hangs open for a moment, before he continues speaking into the phone. His voice now, however, sounds more distracted, though he still does answer the operator's questions, and he stays on the line, not like it will do much at this point. At least, until Angela shows that it's only a partial body. He sucks in a sharp breath, and takes a step back, the color draining from his face. "Fuck!"
"Hi, thanks!" says Kirsi brightly to Nala when the other woman pulls her out of the particularly thick cluster of trees. "I swear these trees are preternaturally inclined to...Oh, shit." She frowns when she sees the unmoving feet, and then frowns when Akhlut says the woman's dead. She pushes a strand of red hair back behind her ear, her brows knitting together. "We shouldn't disturb her any more, before the police come," she suggests, when Angela moves the branches around. But then she sees the grisly body -- or lack thereof -- she turns away, as well. "Jesus," she mutters again, looking up at the sky as if to focus on anything else rather than the sight of the body.
Nala gave Kirsi a smile, nodding her head. "Any time, we all needed a little pathfinder through here today." She was obviously still feeling a little sheepish about getting boxed in. When they came to the body and Akhlut shook it, Nala made a soft, gasped sound. "Oh that poor woman." Her expression of pity for the poor thing slowly faded from her face as Angela pulled back the brush covered her, and revealed half a woman. "No! Wait... Is it missing all of its vital parts? Or are there some left behind? If no... I don't think this is a human woman's legs." Sure, there were all the parts there on the nude set of legs and hips, and everything in between, but Nala's eyes had narrowed in suspicion on it, and she suddenly turned to look around them, then up at the sky, oddly much in the way that Kirsi had done. "We need to make sure it's not coming toward us, it won't like that we found it, if it's not a human..."
Keegan turns away from the grisly sight when Angela uncovers it. "I really, really hope our little buddy didn't see this part. We should cover her back up in case he's still around. We found his clothes - let's let this lady rest and find the little guy. It's chilly out here, and he's gonna get cold without his shirt." He tugs down the brim of his cap to shade his eyes and moves further away from the gory mess, to the back of the group. "What do you mean? You think it's an alligator or something?" he asks Nala.
The forest waits around them, still swaying gently in the breeze. The 'body' doesn't move.
Akhlut stares at the body for a long second, his eyes going from one person then the next. His focus settled on Rick which he motioned to close the phone. "Is that yours?" He absently felt around for a branch, before looking at Angela, lowering his voice, "How angry will your people be if we set fire to this... Thing?" The man nearly snarled for the lack of a better word. "This creature consumes the unborn, its top in hunting right now." He pointed to the lower body, "Destroy where it would land and the sun will do the rest--" The man's attention snapped to the woods, "It swims through the earth... Run or get off the ground!" The man grabbed the biggest tree branch he could and kicked off the truck to break off the branch.
Rick hangs up his phone.
Angela shakes her head to Nala, "No, it's too clean. Not enough blood and the lower organs are missing. I don't think these are ... " And then Angela's ears twitch and her head swings around to one side. "And I think the owner is coming back for her gams. Might explain those tent-stake holes, too." She looks back to Ahklut, "Kill it with fire, I like the way you think." Not that she has fire on hand, of course. Remaining in a crouch, Angela fully faces the direction the sounds she's hearing.
Rick drops the hand holding the phone to the side, the conversation forgotten about for now, until Akhlut tells him to hang it up. He does so, nodding at the question, though he's still staring at the body. "That looks like a fucking shark attack," he murmurs, and then he looks around quickly, as though expecting a sudden sharknado to come upon them. Luckily, this does not happen. Instead, Nala gives an explanation that makes him turn back to her, frowning and tipping his head a little bit to the side. Whatever he hears, it doesn't trump what Akhlut ends up saying. He may not get it, but there are plenty of trees around, and so he grabs a branch as well, but to haul himself off the ground instead.
Kirsi, staring at the sky, nods at the same time as Nala speaks. "I was just remembering that... I thought it was only a myth, something I saw on television once maybe..." she murmurs, turning to stare back at the legs and not hearing what some of the others do. "Fire?" she asks. She pulls out her flask that she'd been drinking from earlier in the evening, dousing the legs and feet of the not-a-body with what smells like black licorice, but not like jagermeister. "Light her up!" she says, before moving to the tree as well.
Nala shook her head and patted at her sides, as if trying to convince herself she'd hidden a pocket somewhere on her person. "I don't even know why I'm checking, I don't smoke." She let out a sharp sound and looked around along the ground. When she found a large rock, she took the step to it and picked it up, hefting it to get used to it as the muscles along her arm flexed and relaxed. "Alright. With you, ko'u aloha." She nodded to Akhlut and moved over near him. Then she turned to face the direction the noise was coming from, frowning. "It's in the ground? Is that what that sound is?"
Keegan flicks the brim of his cap up and snaps around to face Akhlut. "Hey, buddy, you're saying this thing eats unborn babies?" There's an unsettling flicker of recognition across his face. The young man's eyes narrow and his scruffy jaw sets as the gaze turns to the trees. "There's still a little kid out here, you guys. If this thing pops up, what's our plan? Won't this thing cut and run if it sees flames?" He snatches up a sturdy fallen tree branch and takes a few practice swings with it.
The sound of something driving into the earth came closer now, but not quite close enough that whatever was making the sound was visible. Until suddenly a woman popped her head around a tree. She was beautiful, truly. Long dark hair, beautiful almondine eyes. Her skin was a little ashen, but that could easily be because of the wan moonlight through the trees. She leaned out a little further, showing that she was entirely nude as her breasts were bared and her hand came up to rest on the tree. Her rich, brown eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the place where people had gathered around her now rather doused with licorice alcohol legs had been kept. "Get away, you beasts. Leave it be." Her voice was a harrowing growl of rage, and the sound of something scraping down the back of the tree she was holding onto was grating enough to make fillings vibrate in teeth.
Loa dropped Aswang.
A fierce grin appeared on Akhlut's face, "Wielding fire is one of the many extraordinary things that separates man from the other animals. You're carried fire to the stars." The man broke off a few of the branches to clean up his club. When the Aswang appeared, the man tightened his grip on his club. "I rather like people... I don't think that and eating their unborn can coexist. Your bottom half is doused, and about to be an inferno." His muscles bulged as he set his legs, seemingly guarding the legs.
Angela huffs out a breath, "Dammit, why do critters always have to ruin a perfectly good Christmas party?" She slips part way out of her sun-dress and her form simply blurs, the garment and her sandals falling to the ground as a large, tawny mountain lion steps out of them. The beast fixes its yellow eyes on the female form in front of it and lets out a low growl.
When that thing comes closing in, Rick is rendered still for a moment, staring at it in horror. However, it's not for long. He shoves a hand in one of his pockets, mutters something, then checks another one. He grins triumphantly, pulling a lighter out and dropping down to the ground. "Kirsi!" he calls, and as soon as she's looking at him, he tosses the lighter to her. After that, he just starts to run back toward the botanical gardens -- or as fast as he can through the tightly packed trees. Someone has to make sure that the EMTs do //not// come.
When Rick calls to her, Kirsi's distracted for the moment, her hand up in the air, fingers curved in an artful sort of way, to mark something in the air, sending a slashing and invisible *something* at the Aswang's upper half, hopefully to cut a bitch. Once that's done, she reaches down to where the lighter has fallen at her feet -- luckily she didn't get beaned in the head with the thing while she was magicking.
The thing that came out from behind the tree stopped looking like a woman once more of it was visible. Yes, she had the torso of a woman from just above the pelvic girdle all the way up through her head and arms. But... beneath that. She had the body of a corpulent spider, black and wicked with its shimmery exo skeleton all chitinous and linked. Her legs were 8, long, wicked spikes that drove into the ground deeply, leaving behind holes where she passed. As she started to move forward, she had to dodge left, then right, then left again to even get around Akhlut, her limbs moving with a rapid pace that made house spiders look slow. She hissed at him when she finally made it clear of his blocking presence, and continued forward towards the lower half of her humanistic body.
As the Aswang broke past Akhlut and continued toward its legs, Nala lashed out with the fist full of rock she'd found herself and let out a sharp grunt of effort. Her hand and the rock collided with the Aswang's temple, abrading the skin and giving a satisfying 'Thump' sound as it struck. It wasn't enough to knock the creature out, or even down, but it did cause her to swerve slightly to the side.
Keegan takes advantage of the Aswang's disorientation after Nala's strike to charge in close to the naked spider woman. He ducks in behind the monster and catches her underneath both arms, grappling the beast and holding her tightly. "I promise this isn't how I normally introduce myself to naked women on the beach!" he offers apologetically, "but something tells me you're the kind of woman our mothers warned us about."
The mountain lion charges in at the monster and attempts to slash it across its face with her powerful claws. Unfortunately the spidery beast is just to fast for the big cat and manages to evade the blow. The mountain lion hisses at the monster in anger and probably a bit of frustration.
When the Aswang overpowered him, Akhlut just spit on the group. "Alright! We play this the hard way then!" The man ripped at his branch to splinter and sharpen the end. He actually let out a war cry as he turned to jam the tip into the lower half, then he started stomping on the branch the jam the tip through and into the ground. The man started laughing like a sea raider bored from months at sea. "Please light this on fire!"
The half terrifying spider, half beautiful woman let out a roar of pure rage as she had to get free from the arms of Keegan in order to dodge an attack from a mountain lion. Her breath was coming in heavy pants as she shrieked and launched herself forward, slashing at the air with her long, wicked claws tipped in black at the end of her perfect, humanoid fingers. It looked like she was about to get the Valkyrie something fierce, but Kirsi managed to sidestep her just as the right time to leave the Aswang's hands filled with nothing but air.
And, shit, the thing is coming for her. Kirsi may look like she can't handle herself in a fight, but she does a drop just in time, rolling then over to where the legs are getting pounded into the ground. "Need a light?" she says brightly, before setting flame to faux legs, kindling the body parts soaked in licorice liquor. That'll smell *awesome.* "The legs, the legs, the legs are on fire," she chants before jumping back to her feet in case the fray comes back her way.
Nala watched as the wretched creature launched herself after Kirsi, freeing herself from the tattooed grasp of Keegan and heading closer to the legs Akhlut had staked to the ground. At the same moment the fire lit up along the alcohol soaked flesh of the false gams, Nala's rock found purchase on the Aswang's back, right between the shoulder blades. As she caught her breath and pulled her hand back, ready to hit the bitch again, Nala sang loudly "We don't need no water! LET THE MOTHER FUCKERS BURN!"
Keegan isn't about to be so easily shoved aside. He charges back up to grapple the Aswang as the spiderwoman reels from Nala's attack. As the tattooed man lunges for the Aswang and wraps his muscular arms around her, squeezing hard, an array of intricate black tattoos appear all over his skin - even over top of the skin that's already inked. The friendly Canuck snarls at the creature and his bearing takes a sudden veer towards the feral.
The mountain lion doesn't seem to be doing well against the spider monster, another claw-swipe is easily dodged even as the beast moves to free itself from Keegan's grip. Along with the usual frustration with an enemy that won't stand still and get shredded, Angela considers one other thing: whoever HPD uses as a CSI is going to be -really- confused by all of this.
Akhlut stomped on his wooden stake once more, the smell of burning body didn't seem to bother him like it should. Growling, he spun round and leapt onto the Aswang, only to rear his head back and crack the bitch's nose with his forehead. Panting and grinning like a psycho, he gesture for the Aswang to keep coming. "We can keep going, right brah? Comon!" The man looked fair to happy as he started wheeling around the floating corpse to let others have a line.
Her legs were alight! ON FIRE! And then there were more people beating on her, slashing at her, hitting her with rocks. "You horrible HUMANZ!" Her teeth ground together as she hissed at them with a curse that sounded like it meant far more than the word 'human' ever should. When Akhlut head-butted her, she reeled back and let out a choked sound, then a shrieked, horrid scream left her throat. "You RUINED THEM! I'll not forget you. Your WOMBS will never be safe." And with that, the Aswang's huge wings suddenly unfurled from within the black carapace along her back. They were inky and distorted, like they were welded together from hunks of old, used arachnid limbs and then held together with ink black webbing that formed the actual 'wing' of it. She pushed up into the air and gained a good many feet up, where she pushed with the wings to gain further altitude and get out of the way of the reach of those people below her.
"Yeah? I can do that too," calls out Kirsi. And if anyone missed that she wasn't just an ordinary girl, she too suddenly unfurls black wings with the sheen of a raven's feathers that bring her up to where the Aswang is trying to fly away. She grabs the Aswang by one of its appendages, her own nails clawing into the thing as she finds another handful with the other, and tries to shove the thing downward with all her weight (all 120 pounds of it).
Nala growled with frustration as the creature she'd been beating on with the rock took to the air. "Oh! Wings! Cheating!" She threw the rock then, as much in anger as in an attempt to hurt the thing. Nala looked over at Akhlut, her face flush with the heat of battle. "Could you throw me up there at her? I don't know if that would work... But.. Maybe?"
Keegan growls and reels backwards as the Aswang breaks free of his grasp yet again. He snarls up at the flying women, and very briefly considers making a leap. Instead, he holds his hands in front of him and clenches and unclenches each fist, one at a time, taking deep breaths as he struggles to bury that rising savagery. "Eats babies out of the womb. Flies...leaves fake legs around. So, we know what she probably is. And...what she definitely isn't." Deep, slow breaths.
The mountain lion watches first the ... flying spider monster and then Kirsi sprout wings and take to the air. Her initial reaction is to hack a bit, "Mrow." However at that point the big cat bounds over to a tall tree and, using her built in climbing claws, fairly runs up the thing to balance herself on a higher limb, coiling as if for another leap, tail lashing in preparation.
Akhlut growled as the Aswang took to the sky, his eyes narrowing. He gave a glance at Nala, and shook his head. "Even if I could toss you to such heights, I fear the landing would do you no good." He nodded to Nala, clicking his tongue as he nodded to the legs. "Better to ensure it doesn't circle back for its lower half. Without them, she can't walk around her prey in the guise of one of them. Guard them is a duty no one would want, but it is best." The mountain took a couple of steps back towards the burning legs, holding his position, but listening to the dark of movement. He glanced at the lion scrambling at the tree, "Plus someone should watch her garments."
The Aswang being held by Kirsi hissed hard enough that slobber flew from between her teeth and dribbled down her chin. Her eyes narrowed and she used all of her limbs, not just her arms but all 8 of her legs, to push free of Kirsi and get out of the grapple she had her in, breaking away from the Valkyrie's arms and moving up a little further into the sky. "Leave me BE you terrible thing! You've already killed my legs!"
When the Aswang shoves her off, Kirsi manages to stay aloft, facing the other in mid-air. She makes that same sign with her right hand again, and once again, there's the sound of slashing, displacement of air by a blade that cannot be seen. Kirsi's not built to be in the air for long, though, and glides back to the ground below.
Nala nodded to Akhlut and took a deep breath, then walked over to where Angela had dropped her garments. She picked up the sundress first and folded it carefully, like it was valuable, then set her two shoes side by side. Once that was done, and far enough away from the flambe stems, she set the dress onto the shoes. Moving to stand next to Akhlut, she watched the sky, eyeing the battle. "I like the girl's wings, they're very pretty. Like that raven we saw down at the market that day, the one with all the shiny things he was collecting in the water fountain." Rather than seeming frustrated any longer, Nala smiled softly, looking like she was damn well enjoying a blissfull memory. She even reached out and took Akhlut's hand.
Something clicks in Keegan's mind and while Kirsi has the Aswang busy in the air, the tattoo covered man takes off at a run. "I need to go. Don't forget to find our little buddy. I can't - I have to...eh, right. Good luck!" And with that, he takes off, barreling through the trees to the park's perimeter.
The mountain lion springs from her high perch as she would to take a large bird, only this one is far uglier. Despite the beast's attempt to dodge out of the way, the big cat slams into the spider monster, her foreclaws digging into the creature's back for purchase as she sinks her fangs into the back of the beast's neck.
Akhlut lowered his gaze as bit of bark and foliage rained from above. "A terrible thing to stuck in the shallows as the prey retreats beyond gasp." When Nala took his head, he squeezed in return. "I've watched otters keep to particular rocks as their favorites to play with. The stones held value to them beyond mere stone. The raven picking out their favorite means sense as well." The man scratched his beard as he waited for one thing or another.
The Aswang was screaming, her voice hoarse, and then silenced in a terrified yelp as the teeth of the Mountain Lion Angela clamped onto her throat from the back. Suddenly having the load of a fierce creature on her, she swung her arms and her legs at the creature but managed to do absolutely nothing to persuade Angela to let her go. No, that huge cat was firmly stuck to her back, and holding her like a freshly killed antelope.
The mountain lion and Aswang land nearby, and Kirsi scuttles away. She marks the shape of that rune in the air once more; again comes that slash and whistle of air and blade but this time there's no strike, the two combatants moving out of her aim too quickly. "Shit," she says, looking a little more weary than she had a few minutes ago.
Nala stood transfixed and grinned wider at Akhlut's words, nodding. "Yes, like all the lovely creatures they like their pretty things. All of us do, the things that shine. I remember seeing your sisters and even your Mom looking up at the stars at night over the ocean because they loved the beauty of the other ocean." Nala leaned in against Akhlut then, resting her head against his shoulder. If someone had seen them just standind there, they may well have thought it was just a couple, standing near a dwindling bonfire, looking at the stars. But no, they were staring at an intense arial battle to the death.
With the spider monster's neck in her powerful jaws, it's time for Angela to treat it as any other prey in tlvdasti's jaws. A quick jerking motion is all it takes to snap the beast's neck, finally killing the foul thing. This, however, means a sudden drop in altitude that didn't seem to figure into Angela's thinking until just now. Fortunately the trees that helped the big cat get up onto the Aswang's back are also her way back to the ground. A nimble leap from the dying creature's back brings the big cat to the trunk of one of the many, closely spaced trees and a rapid claw-assisted descent.
The Aswang fell to the earth with a shattering sound as its carapace was crushed by its own weight and speed of decent. It was, decidedly, dead where it lay.
"Boom," says Kirsi, when the thing falls, before looking up to make sure the mountain lion isn't coming down the hard way too. "Good job," she calls up to the cat in the tree, then looks over to where the couple is guarding the remains and the clothing. "I'm not sure how we explain this to the cops when they get here. Or, well, not we, because I am getting out of dodge." Police aren't her favorite people. "Good fighting with you. Peace!" she says, a little peace sign thrown at everyone still present, before she makes her way -- carefully so as not to get lost -- back toward the rest of the gardens.
As the Awang fell and the large cat leapt off into the nearby trees, Nala let out a soft sigh and nodded. The creature on the ground had to be dealt with, and as Kirsi elected to take off, Nala lifted her hand to her to wave. "Aloha pretty winged girl, it was nice to meet you. Your wings are beautiful!" And then she grabbed hold of the human arm of the dead Aswang and started dragging her over to the fire. "I'm going to throw the rest of her on, so she can burn. I don't think it's a good idea to leave her laying around like this." And with that, Nala lifted the carcass and tossed it onto the fire with a flex of her rather impressive arm and back muscles. Looking back to the mountain lion after it was down the tree, Nala smiled to her warmly. "I should have known that angels aren't just about the wings. I love your face, Angel. Aloha nui loa."
Angela blurs back into her human shape as she walks into the clear patch to retrieve her clothes. "Blech, that thing tastes vile. Burning her is probably for the best ... I don't envy whoever gets stuck documenting this one." She gets back into her dress and sandals with practiced ease. "I love the mountain lion, strong hunters and protectors. But that was the nastiest thing I've ever come across, I don't like to think about what would have happened if she'd manage to connect." A glance over her shoulder and the Cherokee woman nods, "We should probably get scarce."
Akhlut nodded and was already moving before Nala said anything as he grabbed some dry branches to add to the fire as well. He offered a wave to Kirsi, "Go in peace, winged one!" The man frowned a touch, "Do we watch the fire? I expect there to be questions that will have answers they aren't pleased by. The fire could spread, and that wouldn't be good either." Akhlut bowed as head to Angela, "I think you are right. Nala and I will be the last to slip out, so the fire doesn't spread." He rose his hand to give Angela a wave. "It was a good fight today. It is good that you can assume this form." The man nodded and waited for the others to disperse before doing the same.
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