A Scent of Change

[Aras]

Above the tree canopy a strengthening wind reached tendrils down over the diminishing waters of the swamp, lifting the spilling fringes of the broad-shouldered stantler into his eyes. Ears-flattened he panted and dipped his muzzle beneath the water, wrenching free a mouthful of the limited resource of weed and grasses growing. He chewed thoughtfully, small-ribs working beneath his twitching skin, his head held low and miserable, knowing what he must do, but yet lacking the courage to do it.
All of his kindred had long earlier reckoned the shift in the winds and waters, knowing that the swamp had changed. The great arm of the river that swept into it, filling it to overflowing with waters, had changed its course. Now the river ran further west, and did not replenish the waters that still spilled away.
The cypresses sagged, their branches growing dry as tinder. Soon the leaves would fall away completely, and as always happened: the queer gases of the drying swamp would erupt into flame, and the home Aras had so dearly loved, would cease to be.
But such was the great pattern of life. Some place else the river would settle, and a new swamp would form. And where the previous swamp had been, a fertile savanah of rich grasses. All of this Aras know, it was the long wisdom of his kin; but he didn't have to like it.
Already many outside creatures were poking their noses inside the swamp, as it drained and grew less treacherous. HE had spoken to them, in his deep thoughtful voice; asking them if they knew of any other swamps.
They knew of none nearby, certainly none of the beautiful black cypresses, with their elegant boughs arching, and their bearded mosses dangling.
If he but had company, he might find it easier to set out: but his kin had all left long ago, wanting to carry out their search before the heat set in. Aras could see their wisdom, now, though with a hint of bitterness in his slow thoughtful heart. He had been too cowardly, and now he really needed to be brave. It would have been far easier if he had just summoned the motivation earlier.
Taking a last mouthful of the underwater grasses, that were already tasting salty, in the increasingly brackish water, Aras took a long heavy step. The first step in a journey for friendship and a new home.

[Sephalesh]

(Would you mind if I join with a non-stantler pokemon?)

[Aras]

please feel free!

[Sephalesh]

A pokemon far from the normal entered the once swampy swamps. A blue head popped out of the ground, followed by the rest of the body along the edges of the swamp. While, much drier than it used to be, the swamps were still untunnable, as always. The blue headed pokemon was a dragon pokemon known as a Gible, and a young one at that. She sniffed the air curiously, and a smile slowly crept onto her face. This place was a playground unlike any she had ever come across before. It was mud everywhere, as she delightfully discovered wiggling her toes in the grime of the swamp.
Soon, the little Gible was hopping from tree to tree like an over exicted monkey, which she basically was mental wise. This was new world for her to explore. A splash echoed as the little dragon slipped and fell into the muddy water. She giggled as she jumped out, soaking from head to toe.
And that's when she saw it. A majestic figure with a head yo could see through. Curious as ever, the Gible slowly approached the figure in a trance of fascination. Her mouth was gaping in awe. You could see through the creatures head.

"Are you god?" The gible asked the Stantler's antlers in total seriousness. She didn't even ntoice that these majestic antlers with their beady black eyes were attached to a creature. All she could see where the antlers.

[Aras]

Aras chewed thoughtfully, his broad muzzle arched beneath a powerful but graceful neck. Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard the approach of another creature, his ears twitched, and his nostrils flared as they instinctively sought for the scent of a predator. But the noise was not a heavy one, and the scent not that of a great hunter, so the veil of Aras distraction remained drawn over his thoughts. Until with a noise of alarm, the turquoise creature plummeted from the brittle branch of the cypress overhead, and plunged into the mire before Aras forequarters.
The smaller creature shook itself, eyes gleaming with what Aras assumed to be good-humour. Aras stood still, so as not to alarm his visitor, and allowed it to take a long look at him. The little creature seemed in awe of his antlers, though Aras knew that his horns were yet new-grown and not impressive at all compared to a mature stag-stantler. It would be another several seasons before they grew in power, and Aras was able to employ the phenomenal powers of Stantlers horns. Aras waited patiently, assuming, in the custom of Stantlers, that the little creature was taking the proper length of time to think, and consider what he was about to say.
"Are you god?" asked the creature.
Unable to completely conceal his astonishment at the question, Aras must have bolted upright, his antlers, though immature, catching the light with a deep gleam of fallow gold. His ears flattened, and he must have blinked a dozen times while he flailed for polite words in his mind. "I am afraid not." Aras replied as delicately as he was able, his voice like the wooden rumble of a double-bass in a stone cavern. "I am but a stantler, and a young one at that." Aras added, reaching forward with his muzzle to touch noses -in proper Stantler politeness- with the creature. This custom -of touching noses and sharing breath together- was the basis of a stantlers relationship. For Aras, smell was as important as sight or sound; where one had been, and what they had been eating, and if they were healthy, or if they had been frightened or worried all showed in ones' breath. He assumed his guest would be able to smell that he was worried, and was in need of a friend; that he had lived in the swamp long enough that he smelt of its' sweet pine-needles, and the rich green water-cress. Any stantler that shared a breath would be able to discern that Aras was very strong, and healthy, but not yet fully-grown.
"I guess you are not from the swamp here. Have you travelled far?" Aras asked standing upright again, looking past the withering trees to the wide grasslands where the heat-haze shifted and glowered beneath the fierce eye of the sun.

[Sephalesh]

The gible was taken back when The antlers didn't talk back, but the stump of a head they were attached too. She was so astounded, so dissapointed, that she became completely silent for a moment. A moment to mourn what could have been, and a moment to consider what could have been.
Ding! The moment was over like that, as the Stantler became the new center of the Gible's curiosity. To the stantler the scent of The gible would have instantly changed from dissapointment to total and complete curiosity. A mixture of the scent of rock, and boundless energy was what made this little ball of energy go. The gible jumped up in the Stantler's face, because she was so curious. Fur was something that she had never been much accustomed to, being from underground where everything was made of not squishy rock.

The question puzzled her though. Traveled far? how far was far. She shook her head in concentration. "I dunno. I was there. Now I'm here, with YOU!" The gible said the last one with a cute giggle before jumping and laqtching onto the warm fuzzy Stantler. She wasn't heavy, and didn't pull hard on the fur. It was a happy little hug.
(Sorry if there is any confusion. I'm a little tired.)

[Aras]

Still dripping with the less than perfectly clean waters of the swamp, the creature peered up, and Aras realised now, that his guest had been talking to the eyes of his antlers, and had in fact only just realised that Aras broad and velvety muzzle was in fact his proper face. HE watched with some dismay as his questions seemed to confuse his new acquaintance, and he scolded himself somewhere in the back of his mind for not having considered his words carefully enough -as to discomfort his guest.
"I dunno..." said the creature, which was fair enough- Aras thought. Far be it from even the most widely travelled person to know where everything was. And most people tended to shy away from swamps, even clean airy ones like the cypress swamp had been. " I was there. Now I'm here, with YOU!" Aras guest went on to say, and Aras now began top understand something of the mind and thought of his acquaintance. Without a moments further delay, the little-one leaped up and hugged Aras, making a small content noise as it buried its' face in his rich fur -which ought to have been cleaner if the swamp-waters weren't beginning to turn foetid.
"Ah, I understand." Aras mused aloud, peering down at the creature who still nuzzled him in complete abandon. The Stantler felt a little blossom of warmth and friendliness unfurl in his great slow heart, and he wondered if indeed good luck had chanced to bring him an ideal companion for his frightening and worrisome venture away from the safety of the swamp. "Well, I wonder, though you mustn't let me pressure you, or put ideas into your head -unless of course it suits you as well -if you take my meaning..." Aras floundered and flailed for words, trying endlessly to ask his new acquaintance if they might like to travel with him. "You see, the swamp waters are all washing away. Soon there will be no swamp at all, and the fires will come. It has got me altogether out of sorts, and feeling a bit -well washed away myself, in a manner of speaking. I suppose there's no choice left for me really, not any longer, if you see where I'm headed in saying that? I'll have to head out, as it were, go adventuring" that word said with a deep mix of misgiving and open fear. "And a friend would be good to have on the way, if it pleases you... perhaps you wouldn't mind joining me, for as long as it suits you..."

[Sephalesh]

The warm, but sleek Gible dislodged herself from the furry countanence of the Stantler, and took a seat on a fallen Cypress tree that had been nearby. The words that issued from the Stantler's mouth were like a lovely song that went in one ear and out the other of the gible. It sounded so heavenly, but was far too complicated for the simple dragon pokemon to understand. "bla bla bla. Blabla. BLA BLA!!" She, instead found a fascinating current that went around the tree, and while pretending to listen, watched the current, all until the last sentance. "perhaps you wouldn't mind joining me, for as long as it suits you..."

That instantly deserved another hug. She leaped up and clutched the Stantler's furry fuzziness yet again, still wet from watching the water. She looked up at what she determined was the Stantler's true head and smiled with a row of carnivorous teeth. "Yay! I'm freinds with a silly looking Weirdo! Hooray!" She said with completely unfeigned enthusiasm. The gible didn't really have anything else to call her new freind, so. . . She began concentrating, her eyes focused together in an effort to think. Before she could come to any other conclusion, her tummy rumbled, and the Gible dislodged from the Stantler's fur yet again. There was a small splash as the Gible dissapeared into the water.