[Trade] [WOR] Shelter Above

The sky was both wonderful and terrifying. When they had emerged from the Beneath, it had taken all Mistra had to not simply flee back into the tunnels where e was safe and enclosed. Roulette had looked similarly disturbed, and Despina had only waited for the two of them to deal with their fear. They had eventually emerged fully into the warm goldens of what was called a ‘sunset’ and it was something Mistra would never forget. 

Clouds hung in the sky above, apparently floating on thin air, their grey tones lit up by the rays of the fading sun. Resplendent in shades of brilliant pink and gold, they reminded Mistra nothing more than floating waterweed in some of the drowned tunnels. The sky above? Behind? The clouds was a riot of colors, far more than the usual blue the tales told of. Lit by blinding rays of light that Mistra could barely look at, it shaded from a brilliant orange-yellow through reds and purples and deep blues. 

It was… a sight, and both e and Roulette stood staring in awe until the last rays of the sun faded from the clouds above, leaving them in twilight. 

“Come on,” Despina said gently, nodding away from the small tent city that had popped up around the entrance to the Beneath. “We should make some shelter before it gets even darker.” 

“Shelter?” Mistra asked as Despina lead them into a wooded area. 

“Though it’s temperate right now, it’ll get cold at night without some sort of shelter to keep the heat in. And to keep off any rain, too, since it can rain unexpectedly at night, and we don’t want to get wet.” 

“But we have blankets?” Roulette asked, just as confused as Mistra was. Underground, the temperature never truly god cold enough to be life-threatening. Annoying, sure, but not dangerous. A blanket or two usually did the trick. 

Despina shook her head, looking for a good set of branches to set up a makeshift tent with. “It gets colder here. Besides, the wind picks up faster.” 

Mistra and Roulette shared confused glances but shrugged. Despina was from up here, this strange place, so maybe she knew best. 

“Here.” Despina paused where some branches were that were easily reachable to the Haedians. “Can you guys string up the tarp between them so it covers the ground here? And then slants down and meets the ground here.” 

Roulette and Mistra obliged as Despina went off on some other mystical errand for the shelter. When the two haedians were done, the tarp stretched flat from the trunk of a tree with enough space underneath for all three to sleep, then went over another branch slanted down to meet the ground. Sitting under it, Mistra felt some tension e hadn’t realized e had fade from eir shoulders. The sky, while pretty, was deeply unnerving - e constantly felt like e was going to fall into it if e didn’t hold onto the ground. Roulette seemed to feel the same, relaxing under the tarp for a moment. 

They watched with interest as Despina reappeared, dragging a fallen branch with some foliage still attached. 

Roulette jumped up as she asked for help leaning it against the tree, partially closing off one of the unprotected sides of the tarp-tent, while Mistra watched in confusion. Not exactly sure what to do, e went off and found a smiliar branch, dragging it over and affixing it to the other side of the tree, so the shelter had a sort of ‘back wall’ made of the branches. 

Despina nodded encouragingly. “That way we’ll have some shelter from any wind in that direction, if it shifts in the night. Now, if we could find some more to shore it up a little bit…” 

Roulette came back with some more fallen branches and the three set about affixing them so that their shelter had a fairly decent-looking back ‘wall.’ Despina nodded happily at it, then got them to affix a tarp on the bottom of their tent, staking it out so it wouldn’t shift and move. Used to stone outside of the Druid and Tranquil lands, the concept of merely being able to use stakes was foreign to Roulette and Mistra - they were more used to tying ropes around heavy rocks or stalagmites. 

Still, it made sense, and Despina set to digging out a fire pit. She explained as she worked. 

“The trees and underbrush here are flammable - you want to have some sort of gap between a fire and anything flammable, whether it be a pit or a ring of rocks, preferably both. Now, would you two mind scraping the ground around here so it doesn’t catch on any sticks?” 

The ground around the makeshift fire pit cleaned of small debris and underbrush, they set to scavenging wood, and finally setting up the fire. Despina had been right - both Mistra and Roulette had started to shiver once they stopped moving, and the fire was a welcome warmth. They ate their rations, Despina assuring them they could trade or hunt for more tomorrow. 

Then, with the dark of night truly setting in, they set to rolling out their bedrolls under their makeshift shelter, shielded from the wind on two sides, and any falling needles or rain from above. Roulette grumbled that his fishing poles didn’t fit and he had to leave them outside, which reminded Despina of something. 

“Oh! How could I forget. We need to put our bags into the trees.” 

Roulette and Mistra blinked, confused. 

“What?” 

“Why?” 

“So the bears don’t eat our food.” 

“Bears?” Roulette hissed, flattening himself to the ground and staring around warily, while Mistra froze. 

Bears were the topic of legend for the haedians - only small black bears had ended up in the Druid’s forest, but stories told of massive brown bears and terrifying grizzlies. Despina just looked at both of them quizzically. 

“Yeah, bears. If they don’t find something to eat, they’ll move on and not bother us.” 

Both Roulette and Mistra stared at her, disbelieving. Despina sighed. “If you want, we could set up a watch to look out for them. But first, bags in trees, yes?” 

And so they put the bags in trees and set up for a watch.