thirst(open)

[zapy]

tal looked at the sun for a moment and then looked at the puppet
"thank you....but this next part im goinig to have to do alone...i need to give these bodies at least a semi-proper burial"
he walked back inside for a moment to collect his thoughts and then activated his anti-magic aura to suppress his vampirism
he walked out of the cave and began to dig a grave for the bones and bodies
tal never liked death....he knew people die all the time but he never liked death
before he was bitten tal was even a vegetarian
when he was finished with a grave for each body it was sun down
he sighed and stood up
may you all rest in piece

[recon5]

Mokuko had time to dump his bones and prop himself against a rock so he could watch Tal work even with the anti magic active. He'd seen many funeral ceremonies and burials from a distance but something this simple was new to him. Of course, the kind of people who usually buried the human dead would hunt and kill Tal if they ever met him so they wouldn't be of any help here.

As he watched, Mokuko was just a little regretful of not being able to help but Tal didn't really look like he needed it. The puppet couldn't understand why his friend needed to bury humans whom he'd never even met but perhaps it had something to do with having been human. Mokuko himself had certainly never felt like burying any of the broken puppets he'd found. They made pretty good toys, for a while at least, and people seemed to be really scared of them when he made them move with his Astral Strings. Still, he began to think that maybe some other Youkai would feel attached to the things they'd been. He decided to ask one of them about it when he had the chance.

The sun had set when Tal finished and Mokuko got ready to move as soon as the anti magic was gone.

[zapy]

tal looked at mokuko and smiled
"now all we need is a bed and some other furniture"
he looked toward the woods
"should be able to make most of them easily"

[recon5]

Mokuko had been a little uneasy when Tal mentioned furniture while looking at him and smiling, but then the vampire had looked towards the woods. For a moment the puppet wondered why Tal hadn't just used some of the bones to make the stuff he needed (some Youkai did that) but then he remembered how bad his friend seemed to feel about killing humans and realized that there might be a similar problem with using the remains of the dead.

"Well, I don't know much about the stuff humans use so you'll have to lead the way."

[zapy]

tal started to collect logs to make furniture
"you dont have any issues with me making wooden furniture right...don't want to insult my friend after all"
when he had an armful of branches and logs and started to walk back to the cave

[recon5]

Mokuko smiled, amused at Tal's concern. It was understandable, though, and it was rather nice of his friend to consider such a thing. "Wood is just wood, unless it's a part of me... and then it's me. I fix myself with wood when I need to."

As he followed Tal back into the cave, Mokuko wondered how he could help. He'd seen many of the things that humans made from wood but he didn't quite know how they were made. What he did know was that humans would use what they called 'tools' to cut the wood into shapes they needed. His own body had been made with such 'tools' but that had been such a long time ago that he'd forgotten everything about it. He just used a spell card whenever he needed to make a new body part.

[zapy]

tall set the logs down and then walked back outside
"now i just need to find a couple big ones"
he looked at one of the trees outside
"could you cut one down with your strings?"

[recon5]

Cut a tree with his Strings? Mokuko had never done that before so he didn't know if he could. He went out to the biggest tree he could find and blazed away at it, but when he stepped back a few minutes later all he could see was a bunch of finger-sized holes burnt into the trunk, not a single one of which had gone all the way through. He went back to Tal and told him of the problem.

[zapy]

tal thought for a minute and then had an idea
he grabbed the puppet and ran back to the tree
he began to fiddle with to puppet it self
"does this thing have any tools we can use?"

[recon5]

((OOC: Sorry. I think I might have confused you a bit with that 'made with tools' part. I meant that the person who made Mokuko used tools, not that he made Mokuko with hidden tools in his body. Never mind, though.))

This was a bit too sudden. Mokuko struggled and managed to pull himself free from Tal. Was the vampire going crazy? "Hey, if you're looking for hidden weapons I don't have any."

He flew up a bit to distance himself in case Tal decided to do anything else. "I know what some humans think about killer puppets but I'm not one of them. If you need something to help you cut the tree you won't find it on me." He put his hands on his hips and glared at Tal. "Also I'm getting sick of you picking me up without asking. I haven't been carried so many times in one day since I first woke up. Do it one more time and I'll leave you. For good."

Then the thought came to him that he was being a bit harsh and he decided to apologize. "Sorry about that. Look, if you need an axe or something you should go back to the human village and get one. I'll help."

[zapy]

tal looked at the puppet for a moment
"sorry about that....i got a little carried away"
he made an apologetic bow and then looked toward the human village
"it's a little late for any of the shops to be open"
he looked back up at the puppet
"but if you could find one without stealing it i would be grateful"
he looked back at the tree
"or you could help me strip this tree of the branches"

[recon5]

If he could find one without stealing it? Of course he could find one without stealing it. Most Youkai would over their long lives learn ways of 'persuading' weak humans to give them what they wanted willingly. Mokuko had seen other Youkai doing it before and although he himself had never needed to take anything from a human he was sure that his talent for scaring them would let him get what he wanted. It would be even easier tonight since most of the biggest threats should have gone to sleep quite a while ago. He left Tal and headed for the human village.

Things didn't quite go as smoothly as he'd expected as Keine and Mokou were out in force tonight, probably due to the disappearance of a woman the night before. With a bit of ingenuity and luck he managed to avoid their patrols and those of the village's amateur exterminators to reach the home of a young man whom he knew had, quite foolishly, a strong disbelief in the existence of Youkai. It took him no time at all to correct that misconception and in return he received a fine, freshly sharpened axe. He hurried back to Tal with it, hoping that the vampire would still have enough of the night left to get the tree he wanted.

[zapy]

tal looked at mokuko he came back with the axe
"thank you again"
he took the axe and began to swing at the tree
because of the holes that had been burned into it and tals vampire strength the tree actually came down faster then tal thought it would
after a couple of swings there was a cloud crack and the tree fell over
tal waited a second or two to see if anyone came when they heard the noise then he started to cut the branches off the tree

[recon5]

As Tal worked on the branches, Mokuko went over to the other end of the tree and began removing the roots. From what he'd seen, human woodcutters would sharpen this end of a tree to a point and although he didn't really know why they did that he figured that it would need to be done. He couldn't work as fast as Tal because some of the roots were quite thick, but he discovered that he could slowly burn through them with his Astral Strings. The thought came to him that he could have saved himself the trip to the human village if he'd tried this earlier.

[zapy]

when they were done tal lifted on side of the log and began to drag it back to the cave
"cut this thing in half and i'll have both a bed and a table"
he looked at the puppet
"you've done so much for me and i just met you...thanks"