wildracer (wildracer) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-08-04 11:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | adnan, jasper, z - 1st tribe - day 31 |
Adnan Makes A Woman Besides Coop Incredibly Happy
Who: Adnan and Jasper
Where: At the nice rock outside her lean-to
When: Breakfast
Rating: G, prolly
Jasper was munching happily on her flatbread, since it was definitely a treat. You never knew how much you missed something until it was in your hand and you could feel it and taste it. And she was also keeping an eye out for that Adnan guy. The guy who had the map that Jasper wanted to see so badly. The kids, happily, were off harassing Kenneth or Helena or someone.
Of course, the moment she did see him and wanted to get his attention, her mouth was full. Brilliant. She chewed, swallowed, and quickly wiped her mouth so that she didn't look all crumby. "Oi! Ad... Adnan, right! Come 'ere!" And she gestured, hoping that would help.
Adnan had slept like the dead, the day of work in the sun having thoroughly worn him out. His body hadn't wanted him to get up, much preferring to sleep a few more hours, but he knew there was another full day ahead. And then something pleasant in the evening to look forward to. The wind from the night before had died down, and he could tell already as he stretched and started for the morning fire that it was going to be a humid day. Just perfect.
Before he could get to the food -- and the murmurings of a disappearance -- however, he was being called to. Looking around, Adnan spotted Jasper and headed over, dark eyebrow raised. "Good morning," he said, squatting down next to her. "Yes?"
"Hi, I'm Jasper. I was told you have a map. I want to see it." No sense in making small talk when there was a map to be seen, right? She looked positively pleading, though. If she couldn't explore with a fucked up leg, a map was possibly the closest she was going to get. "Please. Pleasepleaseplease. You can have one of my flatbread things in return."
He knew her name, but not from direct contact. It was more from just hearing it around camp, and knowing that she'd gotten hurt. But her directness had his other eyebrow joining the first in an upright position. A little grin was added, however. "You heard right, yes. No need, though, there seems to be plenty of bread. Hold on a moment, I'll go get it," he said, straightening up again. He saw no harm in it. He'd been thinking about turning it over to the Council, but why not let her look at it. Adnan started to head back for the cart he usually slept under, and his pack.
Jasper practically squeed with delight. Though she managed to lower her enthusiasm to an acceptable level shortly thereafter. Mapmapmap! Ha. She munched on her flat bread, practically bouncing from excitement. It was living vicariously, but at least it was better than staring at the lake and wishing.
Adnan fetched the map out of the pocket he'd carefully tucked it in and glanced over it again. He'd done it a few times in the days since he'd found it, and still couldn't make much sense of the thing. But then again, he'd seen precious little of the lay of the land away from the island. He brought it badk to Jasper and handed it over, smiling faintly.
Jasper promptly flattened it out and examining it, musing. She could easily stare at a map for hours on end, of course, especially when she'd never seen the areas before. But there were too many distractions in camp, so she glanced up at Adnan and smiled. "Thanks, man. I think I came off as a little desperate there."
What really fascinated him were the symbols. They were obviously a language, just not one that he'd ever seen before. Not that he knew every language or anything. It was just interesting. "It's okay. You seem pretty stuck, so I understand," he told her with a smile. And kneeled down again to look at the map with her. "I found it wedged in this ... sort of wall. It looked purposefully built into the hill, or mostly overtaken by the land, I'm not sure which. Right next to a skeleton of one of those giant birds."
"Yeah? Oh, hey, if the bird has hollow bones like it's supposed to for physics to work, someone could use them to siphon water from the spring down here like a continually running pipe. I'm sure people would love water they didn't have to haul." Jasper was talking in a rather distracted tone while persuing the map. "This has got to be a river, here and here. No one builds roads that twist like this..." and she started talking to herself.
Adnan felt honest surprise at her suggestion. It was so simple and yet made so much sense. "I'll make the suggestion to someone," he said, feeling rather blessed, honestly, that they had people with such ideas here all together. He looked at her looking at the map and nodded a bit. "It didn't exactly match the lay of the land where I found it, so who knows where it came from. It feels ... very old, however."
Jasper picked up the map again and turned herself thoughtfully, trying to get a feel for the direction of the area located on the map. "...I don't think this is bird's eye. I can't be. The odds of finding a real cartographer are so slim it's not conceivable. So these have to be more general than exact..."
He nodded a bit, kind of thinking the same. That it was generalized. He stayed quiet while she looked at it, looking as well. Really, he didn't mind not getting it back or anything, he just wanted to observe someone else's take on it.
She kept shifting around until she had the mountains on the top of the map, and she was facing where they were. Those were an obvious indication. "Okay, we have those mountains here. This is..." she started very quietly murmuring to herself. "That's the desert. That's the oasis. That's definitely the oasis." She traced her fingers up. "That's got to be the big river that Kenneth and I found on the scouting mission. It's not to scale. I mean, at all, but this covers thousands and thousands of miles... God..."
Thousands and thousands? But from what he'd heard, if someone would know, it would be her. The group had already been at the island when he'd arrived, but apparently Jasper had traversed a lot of shit on her own. Adnan still didn't say anything for a moment, just trying to wrap his head around that. They were truly in a completely different world. "Any idea what the symbols mean?" he asked quietly after a moment.
"Most of these... no, not a flippin' clue. Here, though... this appears at water here and here, but not over here at this coastline. So it might, and no guarantees, but it might mean potable water." She pointed out the little squiggles. "Maybe. If it doesn't mean, like, this is where squiggles fly through the air."
Adnan smiled faintly. "I would think squiggles are pretty universal, but you never know, right?" he said. As for the writing, he didn't have a 'flippin' clue' either. And despite the fact that they'd found a journal in Russian to be translated, he doubted that they would find someone to decipher them. "I hope it's helpful, though, I just came on it by accident."
"No, no. This is great. Look, this is a shoreline. That means an ocean. I did suspect one just because of that typhoon. But it's nice to have evidence. Four peaks in the mountains. Really great. This is fantastic." She grinned brightly and suddenly gave him a hug. "Yay! Map!"
Giving a surprised laugh, Adnan gave her a light squeeze in return. "I'm glad it makes you happy," he said, grinning in a crooked sort of way as they pulled back. "But I'm going to get breakfast. Can I get you any more food?" he offered, since she was sort of hobbled and everything.
"I'm good, thanks." Adnan was such a nice guy - she made a mental note somewhere to ... well, talk to him again. Show interest in the various people around. That sort of stuff. "Can I study this for a bit longer? I'll give it back later, I swear. You just have to come over and get it, since I'm not exactly mobile."
"Keep it as along as you want," he told her with a warm smile, standing up fully again. "I'm not using it." She seemed like an intelligent woman, she'd probably get more out of it -- and already had, more or less -- than he could. Adnan gave her a nod and a little salute. "Let me know if you need anything, okay Jasper?"
Her primary objective - getting the map - was resolved. So she was kind of distracted in spite of Adnan still talking to her. She nodded, waved a bit, and went back to the piece of paper. And she started to draw a replica in the dirt so that she could study it without making a mess of the map, and could even, possibly, write notes. In the dirt, not on the map itself. "Huh? Yeah! Will do. Thank you for the offer."
Chuckling a bit to himself, Adnan headed off to breakfast, leaving the map in good hands, he felt. If it was useful? Great. If not, it at least gave someone in need something to do, and that was good enough in his book.