Moss Mountain
Soon they began to see the landscape change from rolling, snowy hills to various rocks jutting up from the ground and steaming pools sinking into the ground. There was a breeze where pockets of warm air rose up from the hot springs.
"We're here!" Huata said excitedly and landed on the side of a large hill.
"You weren't kidding about 'lush'," Shanku muttered. All around her were big, bushy patches of vegetation.
"Nor about the yeti," Huata said cautiously and knelt down to begin harvesting lichen. "Please gather quickly."
Huata showed her what was the quality of lichen desired. Shanku opened the large bag she had been given at the start of the flight and proceeded to fill it. Despite the warnings about the yeti, Shanku couldn't help but feel relaxed. It was a comfortable temperature when in her feral form. Various little streams spilled out of crevices in the hillsides and cascaded over the rocks to make delightful bubbling sounds. The more turbulent hot springs and mud pits that were certainly the hottest of the ones around were roiling in a neverending boil. Shanku wrinkled her nose. Of course, the sulfur was not the most aromatic odor to float through the air, being much too reminiscent of the smell of rotting eggs and meat.
"That should be plenty," Huata said at length when her bag was full. "I hope the other gatherers have done as well."
"That was uneventful," Shanku said cheerily. Suddenly, an angry howl came out from above them.
"You jinxed us!" Huata hissed through clenched teeth as Shanku smiled sheepishly. To their mutual concern, they had backed themselves up to the entrance of a cave while they had been gathering, and the yeti who howled dropped himself directly in front of them. He was easily twice the height of Shanku, with a barrel chest and larger gut, thick and long arms, and even bigger but shorter legs. He was covered in light grey and white shaggy hair, and what skin was showing on his hands, feet, and lips was very dark.
Notes & Commentary
August 14, 2014, Thursday
Moss Mountain
I can smell the sulfur of that pool from here. Apparently I'm not the only one smelling strange things.
I also got two more pages of the prologue finished this week! Four more to go. 
Ya know, one of the hardest geological decisions with this comic has been what continents the land is based on. According to some documentaries, North America has the most diverse, little-bit-of-everything landscapes of all the continents. I guess L'aernth is a bit North American then?
So sorry this is a few days late. Had some fun with internet service outages. I don't know if one of the ever-so-careful good drivers around here careened into a pole or if Charter is being a #$%& again. Still better than AT&T, I guess... AT&T recently pulled the little "oops, we charged your bank more than you authorized us to, we'll give it back in a few weeks" stunt with one of my relatives recently. Considering that now Walmart, Charter, and AT&T have all done the same thing within six months I'm getting very suspicious of these corporations. (Er, more so than usual.) It's looking a bit less like an accident by this point.
For those that were getting uppity about me using a check, this now covers checks, debit cards, and online payments. Cash is still looking like the most reliable method, disregarding the more direct thieves with less lawyers.
Characters - Shanku Ravenwing - Huata -
Tags - Just Another Day -
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