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Post by Spiral Dancer on Oct 11, 2017 11:43:07 GMT
The hare jumped back a bit as the tall animal rose up on it's hoofs. Being small taught him to always be cautious of animals bigger than he is cause they might end up stepping on him. He knows that the antelope means him no harm but you can never be too careful. Lowering himself on all fours, he gives his legs a good stretch, preparing for the oncoming rush. He sneaks a glance at the pronghorn's legs and let's out a invisible sigh. Man...keeping up with that is gonna be a hassle. Will she let him ride her?
The thought was snatched away as she asked about the distance. He quickly leaped after her, his powerful legs carrying him out of the shade and on to the smoldering heat. He may be bright orange but he's perfectly adapted to life in high temperatures, his coat is short and spikey and his paws have a hard coating. Following close behind he speaks up
"A day and a half, maybe two if we take it easy"
He wiggles his ears and hops behind the antelope with a light bounce.
"Not sure on the habitation along the way tho"
He adds regarding to her previously rumbling stomach.
The hare has the same problem as any when it comes to food in this place, but he can eat pretty much any bug, even scorpions if he manages to outsmart it. A couple are bound to meet his path on this journey and he is kinda counting on it since he's only had a tarantula since yesterday.
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Post by 0 on Oct 12, 2017 17:18:52 GMT
The pronghorn wanted to roll her eyes, and so she did, rolling them until she was staring up at the sun. Bright circles began to blot her vision, tears rolling out from underneath her eyelids, and she finally returned them to the road ahead.
Maybe two days? Good golly gee.... She couldn't believe her bad luck. But it was all her fault in the first place, venturing so far south...maybe next time she should just find a navigator first.
"Oh...okay," she answered in response to the hare's uncertainty of what vegetation lay ahead. For the moment, they were still surrounded by all those ground-clinging, spiny succulents, which she was taking careful pains to avoid, one of the reasons--besides the lingering aches--that she remained at a steady trot, instead of bolting right up to top speed. She hadn't tried any yet (she wasn't yet quite sure whether to risk getting pricked), but if they began to thin out to empty lands, then she just might have to. She had an okay meal yesterday thanks to the dry leaves of a scraggly shrub, but she sure didn't want to go a whole three days without food.
After a few minutes of trotting, listening to the wind shrink through the sand, and the hare hopping along behind her, she asked, "How are you so sure that this is the right way?" His comment on the habitation made her wonder whether he'd ever taken this road before, or if he'd merely only heard about it. If it was just a rumor...eesh, they could head northeast all they wanted to, and never reach their goal!
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Post by Spiral Dancer on Oct 13, 2017 8:46:21 GMT
The first few minutes were a total pain since his muscles got used to staying relaxed instead of constantly constricting. But after a couple of bounces his legs got used to the constant stress and he is bolting at a faster pace, still kinda lagging left of the antelope to avoid the dust she's kicking up. The hare keeps his eyes peeled cause traveling in this place means that you can just as easy wander a bit and end up losing a week, so spotting the right landmarks and following them might just mean life or a slow and painful death. While all might seem the same to visitors, to the the experienced desert dweller it's not.
His ears prick up as he hears her question and a light smile laces his whiskered face
"I've traversed many deserts, including this one, so I'm no stranger to navigating through one. You just gotta set and find..."
His words trail off as he spots a rock the size of a rough tennis ball approaching on their right.
"...landmarks"
It might not look special since there are a couple of rocks littered everywhere but he remembers this one specifically. There is little you can use to help you know where you are going but when there is nothing you just have to make your own pathways. Scratch the bark on a tree, set rocks, and most importantly, use the Sun. Landmarks mean nothing if you don't know where they are roughly. The hare misses most of them since the desert is vast but if you head the right way eventually you will see what you need.
"For now, we're going the right way"
He adds with a hum.
As the duo cover more and more ground so does the Sun continue to travel across the sky. Shadows become longer, the air dims a bit signaling the arrival of dusk.
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Post by 0 on Oct 13, 2017 16:20:47 GMT
"Oh...," she answered simply again, listening to the hare's explanation. He seemed rather experienced at this, so she thought perhaps to take the wisdom to heart.
A glance was given across her shoulder, noting how his gaze drifted towards a...rock. A very small and perfectly unassuming rock.
Okay, so maybe he was just mad like she had thought initially. Mad desert hare. Why wouldn't he be mad?
She still thought living in the desert was a stupid idea--ESPECIALLY such places as the sand dunes, where there was literally nothing to see--which was why she only came to them on occasion. What was there to a desert, besides the occasional bit of lonely beauty to them?
Then again, this time SHE'd been the one trying to traverse the deserts this whole time too, wasn't she? Supposing she was a little mad as well, although that passing idea was nothing particularly new to her.
Perhaps it was only part of being a child.
The pronghorn's gaze drifted down to her hooves, watching as her legs weaved in and around the various short cacti and other such spiny succulents. Her eyes eventually set forward on the path ahead again, and, as she grew used to avoiding the prickly plants, her pace gradually picked up. The ground seemed to remain flat for most of the journey, with the occasional slope here or there, so gentle and gradual that it was easy to miss notice.
The sun wheeled through the sky as it always did, and the shadows grew longer, beginning to draw themselves over even her tall body, despite the short stature of all the plants and rocks around her. The ground and sky alike became much easier to look at, so that the pronghorn began to let her gaze cross over the cloudless blue, watching as the horizon turned a blazing yellow-orange behind them, while ahead an inky black began to creep up above the dunes, and spill forth the first--and some of the brightest--of the night stars that were soon to come.
The pronghorn's eyes fell again, now searching the desert for something else entirely. She didn't travel late into the night, and didn't expect to this time either; with her long legs, one wrong trip on a hole you didn't see, even at trotting speed, and you could end up spraining something--or worse, break a bone. She hoped something substantial might poke out above all the dirt and its clutching pricklers, not exactly wanting to curl up among all of them, where she might roll over in her sleep and wake up to find herself caught on a cactus. Even a small hill would be better than nothing.
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