as written by Tiko
Leonis and the Mira hunting party made their way back to the Mira village without further incident, though more than a few had cast wary glances over their shoulders at the thick plumes of smoke and fire that had tore through the jungle in their wake. They were clear of the worst of the heat that wafted through the jungle as they traveled upwind from the area of the bombing, but even from here the destructive nature of the run was clearly apparent.
They Mira were apt to traveling in small scattered groups and frequently left little trail for pursuers to be led back to their villages and today was no different as extra care was taken to cover their tracks and to ensure they did not betray their tribe with a careless misstep.
Meanwhile back at the village dozens of men, women and children had gathered outside of shanty shacks and tree-houses with watchful looks and mutterings among one another. They had all heard the jets fly by overhead before the sounds of the napalm bombing had shook the rainforest, and their words of conversation seemed caught between wishes to stay and await the returning hunting party, or to move out. Without a clan second in Shief Leonis' absence, there was some confusion over who should make the call.
Fortunately the decision would be stayed as signal whistles broke out from the surrounding wood. In their homeland of Aelora such measures were ingrained into every Mira until they were second nature, and each whistle had a distinctive meaning; the system of communication almost serving as a language of its own. The Mira were a semi-nomadic people and with dozens of villages scattered through the rainforest, an early warning was all that was needed for the Mira to have a village evacuated and the tribe moving on to another before it could be taken by the void that had once served as enemy. These days their enemy came in a different shape and form - but old lessons remained strong.
Today though the whistles were not a warning, but rather they served as an announcement of the hunting party's arrival. It would be another fifteen or twenty minutes yet before the returning Mira reached the village and the uneasy bantering shifted to speculations of just what had transpired out there in the jungle while small groups of excited children exchanged bets and declarations of just how many of the human aliens their favorite hunters had no doubt slain. Of course a child's imagination and reality were not often hand in hand, and on this day it would seem there were no casualties to be spoken of for either Mira, or the ever encroaching Aschen.
Leonis and the Mira hunting party made their way back to the Mira village without further incident, though more than a few had cast wary glances over their shoulders at the thick plumes of smoke and fire that had tore through the jungle in their wake. They were clear of the worst of the heat that wafted through the jungle as they traveled upwind from the area of the bombing, but even from here the destructive nature of the run was clearly apparent.
They Mira were apt to traveling in small scattered groups and frequently left little trail for pursuers to be led back to their villages and today was no different as extra care was taken to cover their tracks and to ensure they did not betray their tribe with a careless misstep.
Meanwhile back at the village dozens of men, women and children had gathered outside of shanty shacks and tree-houses with watchful looks and mutterings among one another. They had all heard the jets fly by overhead before the sounds of the napalm bombing had shook the rainforest, and their words of conversation seemed caught between wishes to stay and await the returning hunting party, or to move out. Without a clan second in Shief Leonis' absence, there was some confusion over who should make the call.
Fortunately the decision would be stayed as signal whistles broke out from the surrounding wood. In their homeland of Aelora such measures were ingrained into every Mira until they were second nature, and each whistle had a distinctive meaning; the system of communication almost serving as a language of its own. The Mira were a semi-nomadic people and with dozens of villages scattered through the rainforest, an early warning was all that was needed for the Mira to have a village evacuated and the tribe moving on to another before it could be taken by the void that had once served as enemy. These days their enemy came in a different shape and form - but old lessons remained strong.
Today though the whistles were not a warning, but rather they served as an announcement of the hunting party's arrival. It would be another fifteen or twenty minutes yet before the returning Mira reached the village and the uneasy bantering shifted to speculations of just what had transpired out there in the jungle while small groups of excited children exchanged bets and declarations of just how many of the human aliens their favorite hunters had no doubt slain. Of course a child's imagination and reality were not often hand in hand, and on this day it would seem there were no casualties to be spoken of for either Mira, or the ever encroaching Aschen.
Last edited by a moderator: