Will Ranka succeed in Riding the SC?Will Saint decipher the message?What's Next?

[SkySong]

Max had been sitting quietly in the back of the bus. He didn't sleep well the previous night and had ended up in an uneasy sleep behind the commotion. From what he gathered, they hadn't reached the missing team yet, but the two who had originally left the bus were back. One was driving, and the other seemed to be anxious to leave. Again. Shrugging off the semi-miraculous feat that someone else was able to drive a bus (most were manual and a disturbing amount of people were never taught how to drive stick based on his experience), he stretched his legs out into the isle before standing up. There were obvious crease marks on his face where he had fallen asleep against his arm, and he couldn't feel anything in his entire right arm from the elbow down. Taking in the various state of the bus - Sascha didn't seem to be faring too well - and the strange, colorful critters that were now occupying various positions around the other people, he slowly made his way to the front of the bus. However, he stopped short of Sunny and Ranka, realizing that, being his typical, asocial self, he never introduced himself to anyone. A brief glance out the window showed... horses? The entire right side of his face still felt warm.

Best reentry post ever. |D

[SGA]

The radio crackles with static under Saint's attention, and after his request, a brief moment of silence is followed by another burst of a mans voice, garbled with static.

I said static fine.  static made it static trailor static  We static activity, statictes are smstatic but they're static  static Sustatic staticure.. they seem pretty static  darn static thievstatic  Make sure static keep static shut, static can't afford to static off witstaticies.  Kadastatic to figure out static after static got here static off the truck static in the corrastatic but static were gone.  We don't know static they went.. keep static Ray!

Another pause of silence, and then..

Who static  staticre's Ray?  Tell static carefustatic portals static activestatic  unstable!

While the message is being repeated, green and blue lights begin flickering in the forest outside.  More and more of them flashing on and off, increasing in proportion with the amount of static on the radio, until at the end the radio emits a loud piercing screach of static then goes silent.  One by one the lights in the forest die out, leaving the bus lights once again the only illimunation.

With the piercing noise form the radio, the creatures erupt into chatter, much more chattering then just form the few that are visible!  A barking yipping comes from the compartment over the passenger side, and sititng on it's haunches just above Arty's seat there is a shiny silver furred creature, with a dangling silver chain clutched in it's paws.  It's white eyes shine in the light as it looks around at it's fellow creatures.




Among the chattering and tiny claws scurrying around the bus, the quiet sounds coming from Ranka's bag as he puts it to his shoulder are barely audible, just a tiny squeak, and a small lump wriggling inside the cloth as it comes to rest against the man. 

Outside, the trio of stands waiting, one standing stoic and patient, while the two younger dance in place a bit, unable to keep still.  The older, has his face turned, watching the forest where the lights were.  The other two sniff the air and toss their manes, exchanging playful barbs with each other.

[SweetCaroline]

*I watch as Sunny goes up to take Saints place at the wheel & Saint returns to trying to get the radio working better. I here the radio put out some more garbled/broken message right before there is a loud screeching coming from it & then it falls silent. I wonder why the one called Ranka is insistent on getting back off the bus now that it is moving. And then I look forward & I see in the path what more than likely draws him to venture back out into the biter cold. More Storm Chasers! The poor man will never be himself again now that they have spoken to him. And I don't blame him, it must have been a very moving experience to feel their thoughts inside his head. I smile to myself as I know we will be alright now that they are here & I lean back against the window to try to rest until we reach our destination.*

[Riverwind]

River, who had just started to fall asleep with her head resting against the back of the seat in front of her, was wide awake as soon as the Storm Chasers showed up. At least, she thinks they were Storm Chasers. Thy sure looked like it, anyway. She saw Ranka preparing to leave the bus--again-- and saw lights flashing all around in the forest. Leaning her head back on the seat in front of her, she mumbled, "Sheesh, it's just one weird thing after another, huh?" and began to drift back asleep.

[SGA]

scritch scritch tiny claws make a scratching against the floor of the bus, a small soft weight comes to rest against River's foot.  Little claws scratching again, this time against her shoe, then wriggling against her foot. 



A tiny orange hued baby sits against River's foot, playing with a butterfly dangling form a bracelet it has slipped it's head through like a collar.  The bracelet is big around the little things neck and keeps slipping down over it's shoulders, but it's paws grip the monarch pendant holding it up to it's face where it sniffs and examines it, keep the bracelet from sliding completely down and off it's body.

[Riverwind]

River jumps when she feels something touch her foot. Looking down, she sees another one of those creatures! Around its neck is her bracelet. "Aww! Aren't you a cutie pie?" She holds out a bit of sunflower seeds in the palm of her hand, close enough for the rodent to be able to smell.

[SGA]

The little baby twitches it's nose and sniffs the seed, before reaching out with one paw and snatching it form River.  It scurries up to sit on her foot and nibbles the seed, it's other paw still firmly clinging to it's prize.

[Silvanon]

Silvanon starts to feel a bit anxious as she watches the equines strain to keep the weather at bay.  "Hey guys, I don't think we can afford to stay here much longer, I don't think it's easy for our friends out there to hold the weather back, and besides, we're certainly not being any help to the base camp sitting here on the bus.  Can we get moving again?"