Flat grass, skinned knees. [FINISHED]
Apr 14, 2011 16:55:40 GMT -8
Post by la on Apr 14, 2011 16:55:40 GMT -8
| [atrb=background,http://i52.tinypic.com/f3zx9y.jpg] | [bg=efefef][atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2q9feae.jpg] What a lovely dream... |
[/color] It was a silly idle thought, just some passing nonsense to help her forget about focusing on the heat of the sun that was in reality, milder than it had been in so many of the other places she'd been.
Instead, she focused on the cool running waters of river that ran less than fifty feet away from her. She extended her senses towards the gentle waters and bent a small measure of her focus on the life giving fluid. The act alone was enough to send a comforting chill throughout her form; it was as though her body finally realized how much cooler it was here so close to the the river, and that the sun was hardly able to influence her here; even if she had stretched out in a rare spot where it's shined through the usually dense canopy of the tree-tops.
Normally, she might have considered taking a dip in the river, but the spot she'd found demanded that she remain within the bounds of the rich green foliage for a few moments longer; her trip to Konohagakure was not so important that she could not take a pleasurable dip, or stretch out on the forest floor before hand. Her bulging knapsack, filled with the vast majority of her worldly possessions lay only a few arm lengths away. It was dirty from the road and most likely acting as a plump and juicy lure to thieves looking for an easy mark. She had considered hiding it away rather than allowing it to simply fall haphazardly to the earth, but the temptation sleep was far too strong for such caution.
Anyone who spotted her might mistake her for a recently deposited corpse, the way she lay, her spine bent backwards over a massive gnarled tree root while her arms and legs lay sprawled out was far closer to a discarded body than it was to a relaxing one. Her eyes were glazed over and rolled back while her pink tongue hung freely and a thick clear glaze of saliva slowly threatened to claim her face; she hardly noticed, contentment always dulled her mind so.
She went over her map. The dreamy details just barely standing out as she traced over them in her mind. She could only hope the landmarks she had memorized were correct, both in reality and in her mind, because the mental diagram was the only one she had to go on; the heavily stained paper tucked in her knapsack was more for remember where she'd been, not getting to wear she wanted to go. For all she knew, her trek to Konohagakure would end up a bust and she'd find nothing but another densely packed pocket of trees when she finally ended up in the spot her map indicated. At least she'd have a quiet place to practice.
Cieu continued to lay there, her thoughts drifting over the small incongruities of her map as carefully as her fingers would a parchment replica. Her memory of what she'd seen was beginning to fade, artifacts she could not trust were beginning to show up to distract her from the landmarks she had to quickly commit to memory. For a moment she wanted to curse the owner of the original map, the man who made her promise that she would not make a physical replica of the map—for it could easily fall into the hands of the wrong person. She wouldn't break her word, but temptation reared its ugly head as the edges of once steady figures began to blur in her mind.
Distraction. Immediately her mind went to a subject more dear to her heart, to something that would steal focus and prevent her from over-thinking on the details of her map. “Hare spots Bird, singing in its tree...” She began hesitantly, forgetting her map and instead recalling her handseals. “Ox eats grass, and ignores Mon-key.” She knew the basic seals inside and out, but the song was always good for her focus. “Tiger sits hungry, waiting for Boar. Rat sits contently, listening to the snore..” Her words came haltingly, stilted by the thought of how her Chakra flowed throughout her body. The mixing energies that could be tapped and molded at will, she could not produce any truly amazing effects yet, but her training was going to yield some results soon; just as soon as she reached Kohonagakure.
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