Going Camping, Part V

Posted on Tue Aug 29th, 2023 @ 12:43pm by First Lieutenant Bethany Harrison & Private Mattias Tonelly & General Dyami Bentley (Tribal : Bent Leaf)

Mission: HYDRA: Another Head Rises
Location: Shaman's Cabin
Timeline: Present Day

Bethany glanced down at the tugging on her shorts and offered the little straw man a soft smile. She had long ago made the acquaintance of Dyami’s strange little tribe of animated ancestors, so their presence was almost assumed. She reached down slowly and set her hand down in front of the ancient soul. “Want a ride back?” she asked, her voice soft, careful. “Or do you want to make the run?”

The straw man climbed into the young woman's open hand, bracing his feet from the lift that was to come. He pantomimed eating and rubbed his stomach like he was full before spreading his arms wide to indicate a lot of food. Having interacted with the lightbearer before he knew that she was intuitive and would understand his meaning as he pointed back at the cabin.

As they started the walk back to the cabin the Indian strawman tapped on Beth’s thumb and pointed out a wisp of thread flowing gently in the morning air. Tapping his nearly empty quiver he made a pleading motion.

The young woman nodded and followed the line back to the needle-like arrow, and carefully removed it from the limb. “You are good with those,” she mentioned in Tsalagi, as she focused her vision to find the next, spending the next five minutes seeking each strand out, and carefully returning them to the small being in her hand.

The tiny Indian made a gesture of thanks as he wrapped and reattached each piece of thread to his quiver and dropped each needle into it as well. He then settled in for the remainder of the ride. The smile of a job well done on his miniscule face.

Bethany quietly entered the cabin, making her way to the table. While she didn’t have to eat regular foods, she could still process them, and it would have been rude to simply skip a meal. She set her hand down on the table, allowing the little ancestor that she was carrying to climb off, as she settled into one of the chairs.


“Morning,” she said, nodding at Matty. Then she looked at all of the food, chuckled softly, and remarked, “I don’t even want to know where you put all this food, Old Man.” She took a piece of the fry bread, picked a piece off and popped it into her mouth.

As Bethany entered and sat down, Mattias, who was eating like a teenage boy, alla a starving man, looked up and smiled at her, much like a little brother would smile at his big sister. "Morning," he said out the side of his mouth as he chewed on a mouthful of savory fry bread.

“This is going to be interesting,” Bethany said, giving another small smile, glancing again between the boy and the shaman. She really had very little appetite to begin with, and since beginning to subsist on light, it was even smaller. “Good thing Dyami has that little bag, or you two would break the bank in food alone.”

Mattias looked over at Dyami, a sudden look of regret on his face. He swallowed the food that was in his mouth and responded. "I'm sorry, Sir. I was just very hungry all of a sudden! I don't want to be a bother!" He had always been taught to be polite with his host, whomever it may be. He now felt that his rude eating behavior was insulting to not only Dyami, but his parents as well.

“You have to stop taking everything so personally, Matty,” Bethany said with a sigh. “I was mostly picking on Dyami, because he eats like a starving bear just out of hibernation.”

Mattias blushed slightly, as he listened to Bethany speak. "Sorry.." he said quietly as he took another bite of the delicious food. "I feel like I haven't eaten in a month."

The young woman looked over at Matty, arching an eyebrow. She knew about teenage boys and their appetite, but that seemed a bit much, considering the fact that Dyami was a big eater, didn’t tend to avoid his cravings, and tried to make sure a small army could be sat at every meal. “I wonder if your meta-form requires this kind of energy,” she mentioned, a curious tone to her voice as she looked up at the Indian man still making breakfast. “Though, I have the feeling that your stomach would pop if you tried to eat enough to fill that form up.”

Mattias merely shrugged as he happily dug back into the food, clearly moving past the negative feelings he had had.

After a few bites, he paused. Swallowing what he had in his mouth, he asked aloud, not really directing the question to either Dyami or Bethany directly. "Will the pain ever go away? My parents, I mean?"

The Indian Shaman seemed to think about the young man's question for a few moments before answering, “I will start by saying I will make the same promise to you that I make to all the children that I have helped over my many years. I will never lie to you.”

Pausing for a moment he continued, “The pain you feel will subside but it will never truly leave you, you will think about them more in the short term, but as time passes you will think of them less, although when you do, the pain will be remembered as well. It is natural to grieve for those you have lost.”

“Bethany and I have lost many friends over the years, we know your pain all too well. We will help you as best we are able. But there will be times when it will try to consume you. Come to us if this is the case. There is no dishonor to crying on the shoulder of a friend or mentor.”

Dyami set a plate in front of Mattias, a rather large omelet occupying most of the surface. Then turned and placed a plate with a noticeably smaller omelet in front of Beth,”Your usual ma’am.”

Smiling, he took a seat at the table and began loading a large oval plate with copious amounts of food. “There are a few things we need to discuss, if you guys do not mind talking while we eat, it will make for good conversation.” the Indian man queried the two who sat at the table.

Mattias's eyes grew, and his mouth watered, when he saw the omelet placed before him. It had to have been made with nearly a dozen eggs by itself! "Wow!" He exclaimed quietly as he picked up his fork and knife and dug in.

Glancing over to Bethany, he responded to her earlier comment. "Maybe. While my parents always joked with me that I ate like a growing weed, since my meta awoke, I've been feeling even hungrier. Maybe…maybe it caused my metabolism to speed up?" He then looked over at Dyami and nodded. "Yes, Sir. And thank you again for all of this…it's delicious!!"

“Thanks,” she said with a nod as her food was put in front of her. She was quiet as Dyami and Matty spoke, poking around at the omelet with her fork. There wasn’t much more that she could add to that answer. The pain of losing someone so vital never really went away. It faded a bit, but it was always there, like a nagging little ember that always burned in the chest.

She nodded at Dyami’s request for a talk, then said to Matty, “Well, that’s one of the things we’re going to need to figure out while we’re out here.” Her voice was quiet, calm, though she had gone slightly pale. She never liked thinking about what happened to her mother, much less anything else that had happened that night.

Between bites of food Dyami said, “OK so first things first, this.” He pulled off the everpresent, worn, hand stitched leather bag of his shoulder, setting it on the table next to his plate. “This is my dream bag. Beth knows most of what we will be talking about so this is directed mostly at you Mattias. This bag allows me to procure anything that has been dreamed of, from the dream realm, and make it real here in our world.” Dyami paused to allow the ramifications of this to set in. “There are limitations, nothing alive for one, and second the bag only works for me.”

He reached into the bag and pulled out a ten pound ingot of gold. “So breakfast is covered, no worries there.” Dyami said with a childish grin. “ He set the ingot on the table. “I can also put anything from this world into the bag and retrieve it later if needed.”

The Indian shoved more food in his mouth and chewed. Watching him eat was like watching a starving man eat. He asked between bites, “Any questions?”

Mattias looked at the golden nugget curiously. "That's very cool, Sir," he said as he looked back up at Dyami. "I guess my biggest question now is, how do we teach me to control my meta form, when the last time I didn't even remember it really happening?"

Dyami chuckled before answering, “You just went from zero to one hundred. There are many things you must learn here at the start that will help you get up to speed. And there are rules that you must follow, like any journey the destination is the goal, but the trip is what gets you to the goal.”

Dyami pulled a small leather satchel out from his Dream bag and tossed it to Mattias. “This is a talisman bag that you are to wear at all times. This will allow me to know where your location is. Also it provides limited protection against mental control, and if you grasp it in your palm it will help you focus your mind during troubling times.

Dyami motioned to the small Indian that was currently hanging out on the tabletop near Mattias, “This is your personal messenger. He will stay in your bag unless you need him. When you do, just call him forth by asking him to come out using the name you have already given him. He can relay messages to anyone that has one of these bags. There are only a few stipulations, namely he is made of straw and hence vulnerable and weak, also he must be able to physically traverse the distance. This can take a good deal of time, but he will not tire or give up in the pursuit of his mission.”

Dyami said a word in Tsalagi, a word that Mattias could feel held great power. The little straw and thread Indian moved over and untied the bag, waved to Mattias and hopped in. The bag tied itself and sat motionless on the table.

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TBC

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Bethany Harrison
Fractal
Mutant Underground

Mattias Tonelly
(Recruit)
Mutant Underground

General Dyami Bentley
Talon
Mutant Underground