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[Caro]

Having finished Weyrling Lessons for the day, Petro and Kadezath had devoured the midday meal and wandered off to spend the rest of the afternoon the way that they liked best. At least, the way that Petro liked best. Kadezath would have preferred to nap (after all growing was hard work) but there was no way that she was going to let her rider go and have all the fun without her. Stubborn as anything, the Red dragonet stalked along, tail twitching absently in time with her thoughts.

Her rider was quiet, poking at leaves along the outskirts of the forest. It was one of the few places in Ista that she hadn't given a thorough exploration, mainly because she was a little bit nervous about what it might contain. The forest was big and it was dense, and it surrounded the Weyr where there wasn't water, and it seemed awfully easy for an unwary person to get lost. Of course, that was one of the things that made it so irresistible, but it was the principle of the thing. Today she was determined to discover what mysteries it held.

Can I eat it? Kadezath asked with interest, nosing at a broad leaf. Would you eat it? If there was nothing else around to eat, and you were STARVING, and do you think that there is anyone else in here?
"I might," Petro hummed absently, ducking under a branch. It would be so much more convenient to be short at a time like this. So much less to worry about, for one thing. "And could be." She kind of hoped not. Kadezath snorted, and stilled, watching a trundlebug and its young scurrying away.
Where is it going?
"Hmm..." Petro stilled too. "Let's follow it and see!" She stalked off, with Kadezath loping awkwardly at her heels. Tracking an insect like this obviously was going to require Super Stealthy Skills.

[Diogenessbeast]

At the best of times, Datura didn't like people. So, she avoided them. That's why few outside of those who she interacted with regularly knew her name, even though she'd been here for a turn or more: she kept to herself, immersed in her studies or finding other ways to avoid people.

This had started as the latter, and become the former. She'd come out to the forest to get away from the weyr, because it was quieter here-- or at least different loud. The weyr had a special chaos associated with people, and that was loud and.. made no sense. The forest's chaos was natural, more cyclic-- or, at least, it was greener, and that made a difference.

Besides. She could do things in the forest that she couldn't do elsewhere. Necromancers weren't reviled, exactly... but people certainly didn't react well to dead things getting up and walking again. That's why Datura kept most of her work in the weyr to animating things that had never been alive in quite the same way, if at all: wood, clay. People didn't get quite so upset about those. Here in the forest, however?

Well, Datura could do just about anything. so, when she stumbled on the corpse of one of the larger, more dangerous wild wherries, her mind sparked with an idea. The thing was half-eaten, but it would still be able to walk. She allowed herself some indulgence and animated the thing, bringing it to life- but not healing it's flesh. she wouldn't be keeping it around quite as long, and she didn't want to explain to the magecraft masters exactly how she came about a large wherry either.

As it so happened, the trundlebug that Petro and Kadezath were chasing led right to the clearing where she had found the corpse. It was just standing when they drew near, going from quite-dead-prone to standing on four legs once more and shaking out it's wings. Datura didn't notice their approach, though- she wrinkled her nose and adjusted herself so that she was upwind of the rotting creature, having forgotten that disturbing the dead flesh would make it's rot-smell.. er. more apparent.

[Caro]

The smell should have been the first clue. However, Petro was so intent on her target that the cloying scent of rotting creature drifting out of the clearing went unheeded. She’d grown up in a Seahold, so smelling not-particularly-pleasant things was something she was pretty accustomed to. Enough that she failed to take note of something that probably would have set off warning bells in the head of anybody else on Pern.

"Do trundlebugs live together, d’you think, like a trundlebug Hold?" A branch thwacked Petro in the face and Kadezath shot past her as her rider swore and ducked belatedly, batting at the offending piece of tree. What do you think trundlebugs taste like?
She pushed her tree-snagged hair impatiently behind her ears and loped off after her departing dragon.“Really, really bad. And maybe poison? Let's not find--oh, shells, WAIT for me, Kada!”

I’m not stopping or we’ll lose it. Hurry up! She burst into the clearing hot on the trail of her quarry, and promptly forgot all about it as she found herself face-to-face, more or less, with a very-dead wherry, half-eaten by something less discriminating than the young Red, picking itself up and shaking out its wings. Petro! Petro, look at this! It smells awful! She sounded delighted by this revelation, staring at the rotten, moving creature. It was a lot more interesting than some stupid insect. Is it dead? How’s it doing that?!

“Doing wha—“ Petro stumbled into the clearing after her, saw the wherry, and let out a startled shriek. It was definitely dead, and it was definitely moving. The trundlebug escaped gratefully into the underbrush as she took an instinctive step back. “Faranth! That thing can’t possible be alive!” But somehow it was? Her curiousity crept past her instinctive terror and rebelling sense of smell which was making up for lost time by hitting her in the face with the pervasive odour all at once, and made her take a step closer. She gagged, torn between disgust and intrigue, and completely overlooked Datura.

Fortunately Kadezath was more observant. She sprang forwards, and in doing so spotted the young woman. She froze, staring at her like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Um. There is somebody here.