The Flora and Fauna ((Quills!))

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded slowly. "Let's go. There isn't anything I need to do here." As they began to walk off, he sighed again. There was only two thoughts that could really ever crush his cheerfulness and take the smile off his face; the thought of his brother and the thought of his immortality. He said, "You know, everyone wants to be immortal. Everyone seems to want to live forever. But, do they understand that there is a reason that people aren't supposed to live for hundreds of years? When you're immortal, your friends grow old and die, leaving you behind in the dust.  When you're immortal, you can't even get anything and keep it, because nothing lasts forever....except for you." He looked down at the ground. He wished now that he could just spread his wings and fly far into the wilderness, where he wouldn't find anyone that he would lose anyway.

[Anonymous]

"I... Have not had a think about that. But there are bad things about everything, so it is not to be surprising me," commented Ulma. Oliver had obviously given this a lot of thought, so she wasn't going to argue.

However, it troubled her to see him so morose. She hadn't known him very long at all, but in that time he'd not stopped smiling for anything. She had to try to cheer him up, no matter how clumsy the attempt. "Say..." she started slowly, "You might to be losing people... But to know them, is it not also a joy?"

[Anonymous]

Oliver smiled again after she said that. "Yeah..you have a point. Even if they are gone, isn't it a good thing that I knew them at all?" He seemed better now. He tossed the bad thoughts aside, and said, "Hey, when we get out of this dense forest, do you want to see me fly?"

[Anonymous]

Ah, that was good. Ulma wasn't sure that her half-baked attempt at philosophy would work, but it seemed to have given him something to think about. Oliver was smiling again, and everything was back to normal. That brief interlude had been quite... Unsettling.

She smiled at the thought of him flying. It seemed fitting. He was so cheerful, and other emotions passed easily with a flicker. It was quite birdlike, really, in her admittedly shallow knowledge of birds. "Yes, yes I would," she replied. "It is to be interesting, I think."

She looked up at the canopy, thick and green. "But we have a long way still. I was four days walking for to be getting here. Maybe we find a clearing, yes?"

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded. "That sounds like a good idea." He looked around, and said, "let's go this way." He pointed in the said direction, then began plowing through the vegetation that was in the way. He said, figuring it would take a while to move through this, "are animals at all interesting to you?"

[Anonymous]

Ulma shrugged and followed Oliver, giving Ugly a tug to get it to move. A direction was a direction, much the same as any other. She beat at the shrubbery with her stick, flattening it down a little more after him. Even without the creature shambling along behind her, she needed a little more space width-ways than he did.

She wasn't expecting the question. "Not really..." Then she remembered she was with a boy who talked to panthers and tried to dig out some tact from the unswept corners of her brain. "Well, yes, when they are useful. But I not to be knowing much about them. Example, Ugly." She gestured over her shoulder at the maybe-a-reptile-maybe-a-donkey hideous warty thing. "What is he? I not to be knowing, but he good for to carry things."

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded. "That makes sense." His hand got cut by a thorny plant, but it wasn't deep or poisonous, so he ignored it. "I am technically not human, so it's natural for me to be interested in studying animals, huh?"

[Anonymous]

"Oh, so I am a plant, am I?" Ulma laughed heartily. "No, it is normal. People who are not to be interest, they I am to worry about. Everybody need interest in something, or what is it to be living, hm?"

She swung her stick at a large bug sat on a leaf, but it flew away before she could hit it. She grunted in dissatisfaction and looked back up at Oliver. "What I am to be saying is this. We are both scholars, yes? That is more important, than what it is that we are to be learning about."

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded. "Makes sense." He saw a clearing through the dense trees, and hurried into it. He squinted a bit at the sudden burst of sunlight. Then, he stretched out his wings. They were white as snow, with no markings. He took a little running start and leaped in the air, flying. He did tricks, some looking quite dangerous. Then, he landed softly on the ground, signing . He was smiling. "was that Interesting, because, after all, there aren't that many flying people around?"

[Anonymous]

Ulma followed along more slowly, letting Oliver get into the air. When she was into the clearing, she tilted her hat to shield her eyes from the sun and leaned back onto Ugly, watching the boy soar and swoop.

It was just like watching a bird, one of those little ones that nearly never came to the ground, or maybe some kind of hawk. She wasn't too specific on that. A bird was a bird. It was odd seeing a human doing that, though... Oh, but he wasn't a human, was he? That didn't make it any less strange to see.

Not that she hadn't seen her share of strange things over the years.

"Yes, that was very nice to be seeing," she replied with a smile of her own. "You were to be enjoying it, yes? That is good."

[Anonymous]

Oliver smiled and nodded. "I love flying! The feeling of the wind going past, the sun on my wings, how everything looks little, like a dollhouse when you're high in the air.." He looked lost in his words for a moment, then sat down. He looked up. He said, "do you ever wish you could fly?"

[Anonymous]

"It would to be useful some of the times," replied Ulma, scratching her chin thoughtfully. "In my younger days, I think yes, it would to be nice."

She grinned. "But I am not so much to be looking the part at these times."

[Anonymous]

Oliver made his wings dissapear, then flopped down on his back. He looked up at the sky, his smile dissapearing. He stared at the clouds going by. He looked a little sad. Then, he said, "you know...it's getting late. Perhaps we should find a place to stay for the time..?" He got up, normal Oliver resurfacing.

[Anonymous]

Ulma thought about this for a moment. There were still two or three hours until sundown, so they could probably put in a few more miles before they had to set up camp. On the other hand, this was probably the best place they'd find, and she was in no rush.

She nodded. "Yes, all right. Hmm... This time of year, that tree and that tree, they will to be having the fruit." She pointed to the ones she meant, which would probably look to most people exactly the same as all the others. "I start to be making the camp, you fly up..." - she made a swooping motion with her hand - "and get us food. Is that good sounding?"

[Anonymous]

Oliver nodded. "Alright. That's good." He spread his wings and flew upward to get the fruit. It was easy. He found the little bird he had earlier, and it followed him down to the ground, perching in a nearby tree. He held out a bunch of fruit, and put it on a nice area of ground so it wouldn't get muddy. He said, "Is this good enough?"

[Anonymous]

While Oliver was off collecting fruit, Ulma had set up a simple but functional camp. A canvas sheet was stretched between the trunk of a fallen tree and some pegs driven into the soft ground, with another sheet laying underneath it to keep them dry while they slept. When he returned, she was sat within it, pondering the problem of a campfire.

"Yes, that is very good. It will to be going nice with the salt beef." She tossed a small paper-wrapped bundle to join the pile of fruit. "And that is dinner."

She pushed herself to her feet and left the makeshift tent. "Now... Will we to be wanting a fire? What are you about this to be thinking?"

[Anonymous]

Oliver, who had already stuffed his face with fruit while in the tree, yawned. "I don't care either way....I haven't slept in days..." He yawned again. His wings folded behind him neatly and he sat down. "I'm probabaly going to sleep soon." He looked slightly concerned about something. "Hey...I have a feeling something is going to happen. I don't think it's bad, but something may happen this evening..."

[Anonymous]

Ulma nodded. "All right. You sleep, I watch for if this thing is to be happening."

She gestured for Oliver to go into the tent, then made her way over to where Ugly was tethered to one of the branches of the fallen tree. "No fire, I think, but to be seeing what is in the dark, that is maybe good," she explained, unhooking a lantern from the mess of bags and pouches.

Having found what she needed, she ambled back over to the food pile and sat down heavily before picking out one of the soft, sweet fruits to chew on.

[Anonymous]

Oliver yawned again, crawling into the tent and laying on his side, saying a quiet 'good night' before drifting off to sleep. He looked peaceful, rather like a sleeping angel with those white wings of his.

Minutes later, a dark figure landed softly on a branch near the tent. Due to the darkness, the figure was rather concealed, but the figure appeared human, male. Ink-black wings spread out on either side, the figure looked like an angel of death. He had hair, dark as the night sky to match his wings, and dark eyes. He looked at the tent, rather thoughtfully.

[Anonymous]

Ulma chewed noisily on the fruit, thoroughly enjoying it. It was very tasty... She spat out the stone and tucked it into one of her pockets, thinking that she might give it to her son the next time she saw him. If he could make it grow, he'd probably appreciate it.

She sighed and fiddled with the lantern. It was pretty dark already and she should probably have turned it on a while ago. She got it lit and flashed it half-heartedly around the clearing, not really seeing anything. She hadn't expected to. It seemed a bit darker near the tent than anywhere else, but that was normal in the jungle. "It is the forest," she muttered. "It is dark."

She set the lantern back down and picked up another one of those delicious fruits. It was going to be a long night.