(Quite possibly. Parents don't want me goin into school anymore so I'm working from home this week. Then I'm on holidays since they moved everything forwards to plan online classes. Actual so sick of this virus)
Tanrial kept her eye roll to herself as she turned to Snatch, "It's probably just a bird or something Snatch, or some other form of flying creature."
%20pngg.png)
(Yeah, me too, and I'm pretty lucky to live in an area where it hasn't affected me or my family much yet. We homeschool and my dad's retired, so the only time I have to leave the house is for my job at the vet clinic. Besides, I heard there's only like fifty confirmed cases in our state rn so we haven't got hit very hard at all…. so far anyway ^^; Good luck with online classes, those are bound to be a bit weird if they're getting set up on such short notice.)
"No, no, it's not a bird! Look!" Snatch tugged harder on Tanrial's arm and firmly pointed up at the clear blue sky, leveling her arm directly at a tiny speck overhead.
It was not a bird. It moved far too smoothly and directly, and its wings did not flap. It was so high up that it was almost invisible, except for the faint white trail it left behind it. A faint, steady rumbling sound like thunder was slowly following in the thing's wake, as if it was making a terrific roar but from a great distance.
"Tanrial, what is it?" Snatch asked, her eyes squinty as she tried to track it.
(Yeah, there's been more the fifty cases in my state and my bf thought he had it for a moment, luckily he doesn't. Luckily I just have to get though this week of basically homeschool before I'm on holidays.. not looking forward to next term :/ hope you and your family stay safe and don't get effected too much)
Tanrial was going to to protest and brush Snatch off again when she finally looked up, blocking her hand from the sun and squinting to get a good look at whatever it was over head. For a moment she was still convinced it was a bird but not for very long, "I… I think it's a plane. But that's basically impossible in this day and age."
(Yeah yours too, be safe fam hug)
Snatch tilted her head. "A plain? What's that? A plain what?"
Bernon had noticed they were staring at something and came over to see as well. "What's going on?"
(I have to go to work now, speaking of. Seeya later!)
(hugs back have fun at work, ttyl)
Tanrial nodded to the thing in the sky, "See that up there? I'm pretty sure it's a plane judging by how smooth it's flying and the fact it has contrails, the faint white trail. But that can't be right since no one uses planes anymore, it's impossible to find the parts for them."
"Woah…." Bernon shaded his eyes and stared up at the aircraft in disbelief. "It must be from another country," he said, his voice tinged with awe. "I heard some of them still build and fly planes sometimes. I wonder what it's doing so far from home?…."
By now the villagers and children had noticed the plane as well, and were gathering on the beach to watch it fly over. Some of them looked a bit scared by the distant rumbling of its engines, but most seemed just as curious and excited as Bernon was. After a few more minutes, the plane crossed the sky and majestically carried on its way towards the horizon.
Bernon whistled. "Wish I could have gotten a picture of that. Planes are a once-in-a-lifetime sight these days."
Tanrial chuckled lightly, patting Bernon on the back, "Who knows, maybe when we make it to the coast there might be a few. Doubt it but there's more of a chance of seeing one there then out here. Why even is there a plane this far out anyway? Weird."
Mike came to join them, frowning at the sky. "I guess it could just be some rich travelers taking the fastest route from one place to another. Maybe they're headed for Canada, it's not too far. It is strange….but clearly they want nothing to do with the people down here."
Bernon sighed. "Someday, I wanna fly in a plane like that. I know it'll probably never happen, but don't let me forget, okay? I hope you're right about there being some on the coast, Tanrial….it looks like the most amazing thing ever."
She huffed a laugh, shrugging a shoulder, "I mean if you like cramped spaces and over priced crisps then sure, it's amazing. But it is pretty cool to be able to travel to where ever you want in only a few hours."
(brb, gotta eat)
Snatch wrinkled her nose, quickly becoming bored now that the plane was gone. "Eh. Flying with wings is cooler, I'll bet. When my wings grow big enough, I'm gonna go way higher and faster than that ol' plane! Hah!"
(aight)
"Well some of us young Snatch can't fly," Tanrial patted Snatch on the head, "So a plane or a helicopter are the only ways we can get from one country to another."
(oops now I gotta go to bed, sorry. Seeya tomorrow!)
"I mean….technically you and I can fly," Bernon muttered. "But then again, I don't think it's the same. And my wings probably couldn't even carry me across one state, let alone across a whole continent."
"Well…..huh." Snatch still seemed fairly determined to out-fly a plane someday, but let the subject drop for the moment. "I'm done eating now. I'm gonna go back to Mommy and Daddy and ask them if they saw the plane too. Bye!"
Bernon watched her scamper off, sighing. "We really have to come back and visit this place once we're done pretending to be glorified delivery people. I'm gonna miss this crazy crowd."
(Bye!)
Tanrial shrugged, "Just because we can doesn't mean either of us wanna fly seven hours to Spain. But, I'm gonna miss them too. Sure, Snatch is a handful but I feel like an aunt to her or something now."
"Yeah, we're like her aunts and uncles," Bernon grinned. "And the villagers really are like old friends now….which is a first for me, I've never managed to befriend an entire village before."
Mike nodded. "Well, if there's anything else you'd like to do here, we have one more afternoon to do it in. We should probably do something restful, so we can have plenty of energy for tomorrow."
"Want to hang out on the beach a little longer?" Bernon suggested. "Seems to be where everyone else is at the moment. We could practice our magic a bit if you wanted, Tanrial—I haven't been able to in a while."
Tanrial nudged Bernon with a grin, "As long as you don't zap me with lightening then sure, spending a little while practicing couldn't hurt."
"Heh, I'll try my best." Bernon trotted a little closer to the water. "Join us, Mike?"
Mike shrugged. "Sure. Dunno how much good I'll be in magic practice, but I might do a bit of training myself."
Bernon nodded and faced Tanrial. "Wanna play catch with the lightning to warm up? I think if I focus hard enough, I can toss you a ball of lightning without shocking you."
Tanrial raised a brow, a little hesitant but nodded, "Okay. I'm trusting you here I swear if I get shocked Bernon…"
"Oh jeez no, don't trust me," Bernon replied with a nervous laugh, forming a ball of electricity in his hands. "It'll be a pretty minor shock either way, I think." Squinting in concentration, he compressed the ball until it was about the size of a golf ball, then gently tossed it to Tanrial. "Here goes…"
She caught the ball with one hand, expecting and bracing herself to be shocked only to find that she didn't, "Hey good job! Catch Mike." Tanrial tossed it to him.
Mike was clearly not expecting to be a part of this game, but luckily had fast reflexes and caught the ball anyway. "Huh, you're right….it's just kind of hot and prickly." He tossed it back to Bernon, who looked quite proud of himself. "Nice. I can't think of many practical applications for this, but at least it's fun, and it's good to know that I can make it safe if I try."
(brb, gotta eat)
"Relaxing, laid back, different to what we've been used these past few weeks," Tanrial chuckled lightly, "Besides, who wouldn't like a good game of catch with a potentially small ball of dangerous lightening?"
"I know, right?" Bernon continued the game cheerfully. "Say, Tanrial….I was thinking. You know how you said a long time ago that you sometimes have trouble controlling your animal form? Do you think that could ever happen with my animal form too?"
(I gotta work all day today, probably won't be on much)
Tanrial thought for a moment, catching and throwing the ball to Mike as she did so, "It's possible. At this stage I don't think it would happen, mainly because of the nature of you and your bear. You seem to have quite good control. But, if you were to not shift for a while you might start to have some troubles."
(Alright)
Bernon nodded. "That makes sense. I'll be careful to stay in practice, then. The last thing I want is to hurt somebody while turned into a huge wild animal."
Mike backed up so he could throw the lightning from a greater distance. "When you were wandering around in the woods looking for us, you were a bear for quite a while. By the time we found you, you were sort of acting more feral. How did it affect you, to be something other than human for so long?"
"It definitely did something to me," Bernon admitted. "I think the worst part was going so long without talking. At least when I'm a human, I can talk to myself if no one's around. But as a bear, I can't even do that much. After a while, I stopped even thinking in full sentences. I just kind of was. I think under different circumstances, it might have been a nice feeling, but since I was tired and worried and lonely, it felt more like I was losing my grip on reality. In a way, it was….a little scary. I'm glad I found you guys when I did."
“Me too. It’s common that shifters can lose sight of their human or humanoid selves if they stay in their other half for too long. Having no human contact can speed up the process,” Tanrial intercepted Mike’s throw, tossing it to Bernon once she’d put some distance between the two of them, “What you experienced wasn’t unnatural.”
Bernon caught the lightning and turned it over in his hands for a moment before throwing it to Mike. "That's so weird…..I wonder if forest beasts ever get that problem."
"I feel like they probably don't," Mike replied. "They seem to identify more with their animal forms than their human forms in the first place. And it probably helps that they evolved to shapeshift, whereas we humans have to learn how and get used to it without any preparation."
"Yeah, that makes sense I guess. What about human-and-forest-beast hybrids? We know they're out there. I wonder how those two different evolutionary paths mix."
"You're full of questions today, Bern," Mike said with a wry smile. "And I don't know the answer to that one. Hey Tanrial, out of curiosity, do you know if there's ever been a human-Evyn hybrid?"
"Human and Eyvn? No, there hasn't. Well, maybe, well… I don't quite know. I doubt it. Eyvn's tend to stick to their own kind, mainly. Who knows, maybe one of them left and had a kid with a human resulting in a human-Eyvn child. But in my long life span I haven't heard of one."
"Yeah, they don't seem very fond of humans, do they?" Bernon distractedly split the ball into three glittering pieces and started to juggle them. "Well, I think we've worn out that game. What kind of training should we do next?"
"Have you done anything with water recently Bernon? I feel like I've only seen you use lightening and shift." Tanrial picked up a rock, skimming it out across the water.
On impulse, Bernon reached his hand towards the water. The waves of the lake immediately caught the rock, held it, and then sent it bouncing back towards shore. Bernon stepped sideways a bit, catching the rock before it hit dry land. He then ruined the cool factor of the entire trick by turning around with a dorky delighted expression that made it clear he had not expected to successfully pull that off. "Well, apparently I've learn a few things somewhere along the line. But, uh…..no I haven't actually trained with water in a while. I'm sure there are much more useful things you could teach me than reverse-rock-skipping."