Tunnelsnake Hunting! (Open, the more, the better!)

[4horseshowgirl4]

Pratyba was bored. And when she's bored, there's only one thing to do. She had to come up with some bizarre and ridiculous thing to do. She was playing with one of her splinted cotboards. She had dropped her shoe under her cot, and, of course, it had landed perfectly in the middle of it. Pratyba had gone to fetch it, of course, but somehow forgotten that she was still under her bed when she'd laid a hand on it. Triumphant, she'd tried to stand up, but, of course, it's fairly difficult to stand under a bed. Pratyba had cracked her head on the bottom of her cot, breaking off one of the boards. She needed to go fix it, or find someone who could, but, for the moment, she was just playing with the pointy, splintered board.

Hmm, into what sort of fun could she get today? She pondered that. It was late morning, with the whole day ahead of her. There were a few new Candidates, but Pratyba hadn't met any of them yet, except for Sol, of course. She twisted the wood between her hands absentmindedly, and, of course, managed to stab the fleshy pad of her index finger on one of the more prominent splinters.

"AY-EEEEE!" she squealed, sucking feverishly on her cut finger. Shard it, that hurt! She did the hurt-dance around the Candidate barracks, jumping around in surprise and pain. "By Faranth, by the First Egg, by wherryteeth, by whatever-else, you could kill someone with this thing!" she yelled to no one in particular, throwing the board away from her. Was she overreacting? Of course she was. She wouldn't be Pratyba if she wasn't.

As soon as she got over the few small drops of blood that the splintered wood had drawn, she had an idea. You could kill someone with that thing, or... something. What was plentiful and pesky around the Weyr? Why, tunnelsnakes, of course! She dashed across the room, scooping up the board again. She weilded it like a sword, fencing with Felicia's chest of drawers for a moment. "I'm going tunnelsnake hunting!" she exclaimed, even though no one was around to hear her.

She sprinted to the Weyrbowl, to the Stables, to the kitchens, everywhere where youngsters might want to come on an escapade with her, chanting, "TUNNELSNAKES! TUNNELSNAKES! WANT TO COME? TUNNELSNAKES!!!"

She looked like a complete idiot running around like that, but Pratyba didn't care a wherry's tail feather about what anyone thought. Finally, she reached the dark, cavernous lower caverns, where usually only the whers with their lamplike eyes patrolled. She could already hear the scratchings of little claws that meant the 'snakes were already about, nipping food from the kitchens, most likely, from their cracks and crevices.

Pratyba turned around, to see if anyone had followed her. "Who wants to brave the big, scary cave with me? We'll be the vanquishers of the tunnelsnakes, heroes of the Weyr! Woohoo, let's go!"

[wirevix]

When she was howling in the Candidate Barracks, Alalbar peeked out to peer at her, his gaze sort of blank as he tried to figure out if she was totally insane. He was just settling in and had not expected to hear such shouting and loudness. He opened his mouth to complain, but then the weird girl was already dashing off somewhere.

Well... that was confusing. But also interesting. There wasn't much he could do in his own small room, he'd already put away his few possessions, so he followed along after the strange girl. Tunnelsnake hunting, eh? Well... that could be slightly entertaining, if only to see who got hurt.

The darkness of the lower caverns didn't bother him too much. When the strange girl turned around and called out to all her followers, he hesitated, holding a hand up slightly and looking vaguely baffled.

"Uh... I'm Alalbar and I'm here?" he introduced, frowning in bafflement at her enthusiasm.



In the meanwhile, Grescan had been exploring the kitchens a little, staying out of the way and inspecting the place. He too had not been here long, and so he was quite interested in the whole place.

And then a shouting girl ran by, something about tunnelsnake hunting. He wasn't sure on that, but... well... if his glance was any judge, she was very likely to hurt herself, especially swinging around that chunk of wood like that.

And so he followed after her, down into the darkness, glancing about and studying the area. The soft scratching noises made him shake his head slightly.

"You know that you're gonna hurt yourself, right?" he asked when the girl called out in excitement.

[4horseshowgirl4]

Pratyba surveyed the two measley Candidates that had followed her. Alalbar and... well, the second one really hadn't introduced himself properly yet. "This is my whole wing?" she exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips in mock frustration. "What are we going to kill, like, what?, four tunnelsnakes?" She exhaled noisily, brushing her hair behind her ear (and swinging her makeshift sword around dangerously as she did that), but her feigned anger didn't last more than a few moments. She brightened up almost visibly.

"Well, I suppose you two are the most valiant of them all!" She grinned and thrust her 'sword' into the air. "I'm your wingleader, Pratyba! Alalabar, you will be my wingsecond. Who are you?" she asked Grescan. She only chose Alalbar for her second because she... he... wait? Pratyba stole a glance at the other Candidate, not quite sure of his or her gender. She/he looked feminine, kinda. But Alalbar acted masculine, mostly. Pratyba didn't dare to ask which one Alalbar was, as she knew full well that there were fewer ways to turn someone into an enemy faster than to resort to asking them their gender. She hoped that Alalbar or one of his/her friends would make it obvious soon enough.

"Sure, I'm going to hurt myself! That's half of the fun, isn't it?" She laughed, switching her sword hand and brandishing her finger with its tiny scab. "I already stabbed myself with this thing once!" She swished the sword in the air. "Are you two such sissies that you aren't afraid of a little blood and gore?" She didn't wait for their reactions before tossing a couple of brooms that were sitting nearby at them. "You two will need weapons! A wing is nothing without them, and we don't have dragons!"

She ran several steps into the darkness, suddenly quiet and concentrating. She heard a scuttling to her right side, just ahead of her. She stalked forward, as gracefully as was possible for Pratyba, and suddenly slammed her wooden weapon against the cave wall. "Shells! Missed it!" she whispered to her comrades softly. "Who will make the first kill, eh? Win the first glory for the whatever-our-name-is wing?"

[wirevix]

The girl's raging about only two other people following after her made Alalbar smirk faintly, shaking his head a little. Really, what did the weird girl expect? She was running around with a chunk of splintered wood and yelling... she wasn't likely to gather a big following just from that unless everyone was really bored. And it seemed like they weren't at the moment.

He edged back when she swung the wood around carelessly, not wanting to get hit by the thing. That was a generally unpleasant prospect.

The most valiant, huh? He didn't know about the other guy, but Alalbar didn't really attribute himself with any valiance. He was just curious... and bored. And wanted to get to know his surroundings, so this was as good a place to start as any.

He didn't bother protesting being made a "wingsecond" of a make-believe wing, even if he didn't have any initial intentions of actually hunting the tunnelsnakes. Maybe he would anyway. It would be something to do, at least...

She thought hurting herself was fun? That was... rather disturbing, actually. But he picked up one of the tossed brooms, holding it loosely with no idea if he was really going to do this.



Grescan chuckled softly when he realized no one else was there but them. Probably for the best, this was just a good way of someone getting hurt. The fewer that showed up the better, as he saw it. He did look just slightly concerned when she started to swing the sword all about. She did not seem like a very... careful person.

"...I'm Grescan," he finally said, when he was asked his name. "And I'm really not sure this is a very good idea." But he didn't really think she was listening to him.

And he knew it wouldn't matter at all if she listened to him or not when she claimed that getting hurt was half the fun. Well, that would just make everything more difficult, now wouldn't it?

He took one of the tossed brooms, because he could at least use it to get one of the beasts off her if the little monsters decided to do more than run away next time.

[4horseshowgirl4]

Pratyba stalked forward several more cautious steps into the yawning cavern of darkness. Every sense was heightened as her sight became less and less operative. She heard the little scratchings of tunnelsnake claws on the rough stone walls, and the klutzy Candidate proceeded with utmost care, struggling to precisely pinpoint the location of the beastly critters. She tiptoed another slow step forward-- toe first, then heel, being ridiculously slow to not stir a single grain of dust on the black floor.

It took her a good thirty seconds to realize that the other two weren't following. She paused, her ears straining to catch the familiar, comforting sound of footprints. Why... they were sure quiet! Or... no, it couldn't be... they were still hanging around in the safeness of the entrance, in the light and away from the tunnelsnakes! And they called themselves a wing? She turned around and jogged hastily back towards the entrance, feigning anger once again.

"THIS IS A GOOD IDEA!" she turned and half shouted, half whispered to Grescan, doing her best to raise her voice and not startle away the tunnelsnakes at the same time. "Now you two get your sorry selves in that cave and hunt some tunnelsnakes! You signed up for this, after all!" Pratyba paused, knowing full well that she had no leverage over them, and they'd never been quite as enthusiastic about this escapade as she'd been. "Please?" she added plaintively.

She switched tracks again, once again the wingleader rallying her troops for battle. "Now come on, Alalbar, Grescan! We're the only force that stands between those odious creatures and our valuable food stores! It's up to use to save the Weyr! Now, let's go!" With that, she turned back around and charged back into the cavern, slapping her improvised sword against the walls seemingly at random. She felt the satisfying crunch of a bone under her sword, but, before she knew it, the tunnelsnake whose tail she had just broken hissed and leaped angrily at the sword, clutching to it and doing its best to bite it to death as Pratyba swung her sword around, trying to dislodge it. "Backup! I need backup!" she yelled.

Ooc: Feel free to powerplay the 'snakies!

[wirevix]

Alalbar wasn't sure to think of the whole situation. He'd never just walked around and wantonly killed things for the entertainment value. Sure, they were just tunnelsnakes, icky things at best and not something to have a moral dilemma over but... still.

Oops, he'd been so busy standing there pondering he hadn't even realized when she was charging back towards them. He flinched back slightly at her shouted whisper, not because he was honestly afraid of her but because, well, she had a big stick and she was yelling and she was obviously something of a lunatic. From smashing tunnelsnakes to smashing Candidates? Not likely but...

He sort of snickered when she fell to the quiet "please." He didn't exactly appreciate her acting like the boss just because she was the freakiest one there. But... well... pointless killing or no, they were just tunnelsnakes, vermin. He was sure that if they were big enough, they'd go and eat Candidates all the time without being bothered at all.

So he took his broom and followed her back into the darkness, stepping lightly in the dust more so he didn't raise a cloud and make himself sneeze than because he wanted to stay quiet. He wielded his broom completely uncertainly, having never tried combat of any sort before.

When Pratyba got a 'snake stuck to the end of her wood plank, he couldn't help but snicker a little. He swatted at the sword with the bristly end of the broom, but didn't really succeed in knocking the 'snake off--it was viciously latched on tight, fully determined to kill that piece of wood.


Grescan just watched as the strange and obviously slightly deranged girl stalked off further into the darkness. Grescan sighed faintly and shook his head. He supposed he would have to follow her...

But he didn't have time before she'd realized that, for the time being, both he and Alalbar will still rooted firmly in place. And then she was heading back towards them and Grescan held his broom up in a slight warding gesture, not sure if she was actually crazy enough to try and hit them with her chunk of wood.

"...A good idea? You so sure about that?" Grescan mumbled, but he just shook his head. He didn't even react to the whole speech, something about signing up for it--he hadn't--and the please just made him shrug lightly.

It was only seeing Alalbar join in on the madness that made him finally relent and follow after the other two, into the darkness of the cavern. He let them deal with the tunnelsnake that was stuck on the girl's wood--that wouldn't end well for sure.

Instead he went ahead and went after another one. They were rather unpleasant little things, after all, he'd had to deal with them before and had no qualms at all about killing them. He was also a bit better at it than Alalbar, only narrowly missing jabbing a skittering 'snake with the wood end of the broom.

[4horseshowgirl4]

The fact that the two thought she must be insane, idiotic, or injested a little too much fellis, or a combination of the three, didn't bother Pratyba in the slightest. She just had a bit more energy today than she usually did, though 'normal' for her was still 'What is going on with you?!' levels for most other people. She didn't like being cooped up, and, well, this was her way with dealing with her craziness.

Anyway, she was having fun! Why did those other two seem so hesitant, anyway? What was more fun than running around blindly in the dark, chasing pesky, borderline dangerous little things with big chunks of wood?

Okay, so she got their point. But, still, if you eliminated the running blindly part, it didn't seem too reckless. After all, the infirmary was just around the corner! What was the worse that could happen?

She really had to stop asking herself so many questions! Shard it, she was going to hunt tunnelsnakes and those two boys (or one boy and one girl, she wasn't entirely sure, still), should just suck it up and come with her! They were on a mission! They were going to rid the Weyr, their home, their Dalibor!, of pesky creatures! They were going to make it possible for the Dragonriders to keep Pern safe! So, there!

Her purpose renewed, she smacked her sword energetically against the dark stone walls of the caverns, finally managing to crack the hitchhiking tunnelsnake's head into an outcrop, killing or knocking it out, she wasn't really sure which. "Thanks!" she whispered to Alalbar, appreciating his/her assistance. Now, they were working like a wing should! She spared Grescan a glance, nodding when she saw his close miss. He would hit his target next time!

She stalked off, ears straining for the click of claws nearby. While she searched, she thought about how much fun it would be to work with these two again, but as real Dragonriders, in a real wing! Of course, she wouldn't want to be in charge if they were really fighting Thread. And, it was also a question if the others would even want to do anything but run away from her after this escapade.

Finally, Pratyba heard the sounds of what could only be a tunnelsnake. It heard her, too, and dashed off along the wall, deeper into the cave. Pratyba leaped into a blind run (so much for trying to avoid that!), chasing it and doing her best to stab at the wall with something that resembled an aim. No tunnelsnake would escape from her!

[/font]

[wirevix]

Alalbar was a bit distracted when she ran off. One thing was for sure--trying to smash these little buggers was a way to work off some frustrations. Frowning deeply, not that the expression could be seen in the darkness of the space, he swatted at another one with his broom, again with the wrong end. He realized how silly it was to just be brushing them about when one of the vermin got tangled up in the bristles of the broom.

He wasn't sure what to do with it once it was there, so he just bashed the broom and accompanying snake off the wall until it fell. He wasn't sure if it was dead, he could hardly see so he didn't know if it had slithered away or not.

Instead he just went after the next one, and accidentally stepped on one he hadn't noticed in the process, grunting and kicking at it when it tried to latch onto his leg. He cursed at the thing when he couldn't get it to let ago, whacking at it with the broom to get it off.



Grescan jabbed again at the creature, finally managing to crush some portion of its body, stilling the annoying 'snake. He smirked faintly and shook his head, moving on to go after another one, swatting at the thing as it scrambled up a wall. It dove into a crack, evading him.

He peered over at the strange girl at all the loud crashing noises of her wood plank hitting the wall, shaking his head a little. It was terrorizing the tunnelsnakes, and most of them were fleeing to hide in cracks and crevices now, made well aware of their pursuers.

"You're not gonna get any that way," he noted. "You're just scarin' them all away."

[4horseshowgirl4]

Pratyba was only paying part attention to the other members of her 'wing.' With the other part of her attention, she was, of course, hunting tunnelsnakes. She was still chasing the one down the wall, and it finally tried to dive into a crack that was just wide enough for a tunnelsnake... or a thin piece of wood. Pratyba shoved the tip of her 'sword' into the crack, jabbing it in with surprising roughness. She heard the satisfying hiss and crack that could only mean that her attempts had finally reached their target. Two down, about two thousand to go!

She suddenly remembered that Grescan had said something to her. She withdrew her piece of wood from the crevice and tiptoed back over to the two other Candidates. Somewhere deep inside of her head she had been conscious of what Grescan had said-- now if only she could remember it. His words replayed inside of her head, and finally she recalled his observation. She tiptoed closer to him.

"I'm sorry, I don't really know what I'm doing!" Pratyba said truthfully, smothering giggles at the utmost ludicrousy and yet the perfect honesty of that statement. "Would you like to take over and show us how it's done?" she invited, offering him the piece of wood as sort of a symbol of the power being passed over, offering her own hand out to take the broom if he took the 'sword.'

She had noticed that Grescan seemed the least enthusiastic about their escapades of the three of them here, and she hoped that by giving him charge of the operation, he would find a little bit of fun in it. After all, that's why they were in this dark, dreary cave, hunting pesky, annoying tunnelsnakes. It was for the sense of adventure, for the sense of fun! Why couldn't Grescan see that?

[/font]

[wirevix]

Grescan quirked a brow when he was offered the slab of wood, and along with silently offered the opportunity to be the leader. Well... much as he thought the whole idea of what they were doing was ridiculous, being in charge and taking care of business was something he was accustomed to.

As such, he exchanged his broom for the slab of wood, holding it carefully so he wouldn't get splinters. He gave the girl a sort of half-smile and shrugged slightly, and then he was on the hunt, putting in the effort to be a good deal quieter than the crazy girl had.

He wouldn't exactly have "fun," it had been so long since that had happened that he'd sort of forgotten about it at all and it just didn't register to him anymore. He wasn't worried about it though. He was used to this.



Alalbar sniffed and shook his head when the wood plank changed hands, generally disapproving of that particular move. But he didn't say anything about it, just trying to jab another one of the annoying 'snakes.

He missed the beast with his initial attempt to jab it, and it instead grabbed onto his leg, leading him to kicking about somewhat madly to get the stupid thing off, swatting at it with the broom to discourage it from holding onto him.

[4horseshowgirl4]

Grescan didn't say a word when Pratyba handed over the piece of wood. He seemed rather surprised-- what, did he not think that Pratyba was so selfish that she wouldn't let anyone else share in the excitement of rallying the troops? Of course she wasn't! Pratyba was silly and rather immature, but she had a heart of gold, excluding her feelings towards tunnelsnakes, of course. Growing up in a drudge family, she had been exposed to the beasts firsthand since she was a toddler, and she had effortlessly adopted the hate towards them and their thieving ways ever since.

She flashed Grescan a brilliant smile back when he succumbed and gave her a rather half-hearted grin. Well, that was a little bit better, at least! He didn't say anything as he led them deeper into the cavern, but Pratyba was happy that he was at least participating fully in the hunt now. She filed that small fact in the back of her brain: Grescan liked to be in charge of the operation. She would keep that in mind if she ever needed to cheer Grescan up. Well, perhaps cheering him up wasn't the best work. Perhaps a better word was 'need him to enjoy himself for once.'

Pratyba moved slowly and carefully after Grescan, imitating his inaudible manner. She took each step with utmost caution, embracing the layer of stone dust that covered the rocky floor for muffling her footsteps. Because of this, it wasn't difficult for her to hear the commotion coming from Alalbar's direction. She whipped around, losing her balance slightly as she spun and having to take a hasty step forward to catch make. The broom was a rather heavier weapon than the one she had been carrying earlier, and so she light-heartedly blamed it for ruining her elegant and silent spin.

She half-walked, half-jogged over to Alalbar in her eagerness to help. She was doing her best to stay as noiseless as she possibly could, but she also had to aid Alalbar before he got bit by a tunnelsnake! It didn't take her long to locate the critter even in the almost complete darkness in the cave; Alalbar's stompings and kickings were rather obvious clues as to the location of the problem.

For a fleeting moment, Pratyba was wholeheartedly glad that she had exchanged 'weapons' with Grescan, as it would have been highly difficult to knock the tunnelsnake off of Alalbar's leg without giving him a good whack in the shins with her plank of wood. She whisked aggressively at Alalbar's leg with the bristles of her broom, hoping to effectively sweep the tunnelsnake off. Her position away from Alalbar allowed her to get good leverage with the broom that the poor Candidate couldn't manage himself.

[/font]

[wirevix]

Grescan looked back when the fuss over the tunnelsnake clinging to Alalbar started up, shaking his head a little. This was destined to end in someone going to the healers, that was for sure. Sooner or later one of those 'snakes would actually manage to bite one of them and then maybe they would all regret this foolishness. Well, Pratyba probably wouldn't regret it. She was definitely crazy.

He didn't run back to help, though, since too many people all crowding around the other Candidate would just turn it into a tangle of limbs and not really be very helpful at all. It was better to just stand back and keep an eye on things in case it somehow got crazy.


And got crazy it did. First, there was suddenly a lot of twittering and whistling ringing about the hallway, as a Purple firelizard zipped into the space and started to flap rapid circles around Alalbar and Pratyba, chirping in distress at all the chaos going on which he was only adding to.

And then the tunnelsnake abandoned trying to eat Alalbar, or maybe the broom, in favor of coiling up and climbing up the broom handle, going right after Pratyba's hands angrily. And another one jumped off the wall and was tackled by the Purple firelizard, turning the spot into a sort of miniature epic battle.


Grescan finally did step in, going and trying to kick off the tunnelsnake that was grappling with the firelizard, successfully booting the thing down the cavern. The firelizard promptly bounced up into the air again.

[4horseshowgirl4]

Contrary to popular belief, Pratyba was not totally screwy. Just a little bit. However, she did have just enough sense to see, along with Grescan, that things were getting a little out of hand, especially when a firelizard appeared out of nowhere to join the battle. Perhaps it was time to think about leaving and returning to continue the war against the pests another day. However, Pratyba wouldn't surrender so easily! No, she continued to jab and sweep viciously with her broom, doing her best to keep the tunnelsnakes away from herself and the others.

"Eek!" Pratyba squealed when she felt the gripping claws against the soft flesh of her hand. She dropped the broom and smacked her hand viciously against the wall, letting the body of the tunnelsnake absorb the blow of the stone rather than her hand. It dropped off quickly enough, but Pratyba was done. Grescan had been right: this was a bad idea. Well, she might as well finish the thing properly. She thrust the end of her broom at the tunnelsnake that she had just dislodged from her hand, and missed.

Unfortunately, Pratyba had managed to hit the one spot on the wall that housed tunnelsnake eggs at the moment. As goes without saying, the mother was not happy.

"Surrender! Run for your LIVES!" Pratyba yelled with her usual dramatic flourish, holding the broom handle straight in front of her as if she was leading a charge, not a fleeing. The mother tunnelsnake chased her for a few steps, hissing furiously, but she dropped back after a moment to guard her precious eggs. Most of the other tunnelsnakes that were after Pratyba also decided to stay in the cave where it was dark and safe. Within a few moments, Pratyba was back in the dim light of the lower caverns of the Weyr, but ones that were thankfully absent of tunnelsnakes.

"Well, that was an adventure!" she said to Grescan and Alalbar, far more cheerfully than anyone should have been at the moment. "Thanks for coming with me! Shall we try again next sevenday?" She paused before breaking into laughter. "No, no, I'm kidding! Well, I'll see you two around!" With that, Pratyba flounced off, taking the broom with her for whatever reason. What a lovely, exciting afternoon she'd had!

[/font]