Explorations of a Lost Civilization -- COMPLETED

Taking the seat next to him, Hazel buckled herself up and looked at Orinda then nodded. "Off we go." she responded, trying to sound as positive as possible. She wasn't sure how to feel about this trip but she was sure it wouldn't be a negative one.

Hitting a few switches on the dash, Orinda let the spacecraft do the rest of the work. Taking off out of the hangar, they left their space station and home behind them. They left the star shaped planet, which was a very light blue and surrounded by layers of sulfuric acid clouds which were an innocent white to cover up their conspicuous effect. The ship swirled around the planet through the clouds for a few hundred feet and then took a steep drop down and headed for its destination.

Orinda and Hazel both went into sleep shortly after the ship hit the clouds, a deeper sleep which the brain has minimal activity but all major organs stayed functional. It was easier that way to rest on a long period of inactivity, powering down just as easy as using a light switch. Usually you didn't have dreams through this mode but Orinda had one, though it was faint and hard to decode. He saw Hazel in it along with Starla, but was struggling to decipher why they were together. Yes, they were sisters and of course they had a close relationship but he felt there was more to it.. he just couldn't see more, like it was submerged in a deep fog. He wanted to know why, he just had to know why.

Finally after what would be calculated as 14 hours of travel time on Earth, the ship landed quietly in Dinosaur Land not far from where Orinda and Starla had made their initial touchdown by the Forest of Illusion. Waking up slowly from sleep mode, Orinda peered out the windshield and saw that it was late afternoon and the sun was just hiding behind the mountains making the land around them turn a bright orange. "We've arrived," Orinda said softly as he gently nudged Hazel. "Look at the building blocks of a future civilization.."

Slowly to awake from sleep herself, Hazel took a peek through the windshield and saw just how overgrown and rundown the former great Koopa Empire was. "Those blocks look a bit rough around the edges.." she said with a sarcastic smile. She saw a fortress not too far from them that was severely overgrown with weeds and the trees in the forest were hanging very low to the ground, their branches in badly need of trimming and almost covering up any path that could of been made through it.

Gathering herself together, she opened the door hatch of the ship and let the orange light from outside pour in. "Let's get going sleepy head," Hazel said with a grin as she stood by the open doorway. "We don't have a ton of daylight left to explore by the looks of it."

"It shouldn't be a problem," Orinda said as he walked over to Hazel and peeked outside the door for a moment. "Our eyesight should be sufficient in the night. It's just a matter of what lurks in the dark that we need to find during daylight." He extended a clawed hand out to her so they could walk off the ship safely together. "Do you think our equipment is a must right now?"

"I think we'll be fine," Hazel said as she took Orinda's hand, walking down the ramp with him. "If we find anything nasty, we can always come back and get it." Taking a deep breath and looking at the wild mess around them, she gave off an enthusiastic smile. "Since you've been here before, where do you think we should start looking?"

"By the ways we were talking back home," Orinda replied. "Investigating one of the empty posts would probably be a good start. Maybe there would be some kind of clues to what exactly drove out the Koopas."

Pointing to a post that was just outside what used to be an entrance to the Forest of Illusion, he adjusted his eyes for the bright sunset they were going to be walking into. "Like that one right there even."

Hazel nodded in agreement with Orinda but for some reason, she felt a wave of nervousness come over her. "Do you mind if we hold hands on the way over?" she asked, trying to hide how scared she was. "It isn't what you think but I don't think it would be wise for us to stray until we've uncovered what really went on here."

Yes, he thought to himself, she may not actually be as tough as she made herself out to be at least back home. Orinda wasn't one to take advantage of someone who was worried, so he had no problem being there for Hazel in a new world.

"I don't mind a bit," he responded with a reassuring smile. "It may even be the best idea until we have scoped things out some." Keeping a good grip on her hand but gentle all the while, he walked with her down to the seemingly abandoned post.

Hazel felt a little better knowing that someone else was there, especially when the future didn't give her much of a sign of which way this visit could go. That made her more nervous than being in a land full of strangers, especially since Dinosaur Land seemed to be completely barren of life. They managed to reach the post after about two miles of walking, but it felt like more of a casual stroll on the way up with all the pleasant small talk that got them there.

"I can say one thing," Hazel said as she looked the banged up structure over. "It has definitely been years since somebody been here. Unless you smell something that I don't, I think a peek in through the window wouldn't hurt."

Orinda had not picked up any unusual or suspicious smell coming from the small abandoned post, so there was most likely not a decaying body of some sort inside. Peeking through the window of the post, he saw an 6x8 foot single room structure. The floor was covered in years worth of garbage and dead leaves and the desk that was built into the walls was covered in heavy dust and dirt. It indeed looked like it had been empty for some time, like Hazel had mentioned.

"I think it's clear..," he said to her as he walked around the back of it and saw a door. Hesitating for a brief moment, Orinda gave the door a very gentle push and the door squeaked and squealed as it opened, leaving just enough space for him or Hazel to slide in. "There isn't a lot of room for two beings at a time," he said sternly. "I can search for clues in here unless you want to do it. That way one of us can keep watch for anything that resembles life."

"I'll conduct the search," Hazel responded as she made her way inside the building, kicking dead leaves and what looked like parts of the floor and ceiling peeling out of her way. "Keep an eye out for me, Orinda, if you don't mind."

Kneeling close to the floor, she began to sift through the garbage and dead foliage looking for any clues left behind by the Empire. Hazel was almost ready to call it good when she saw what appeared to be a ticket stub poking up through the mess underneath the desk. "I think I may have found a clue to their disappearance," she called out. "Do you see anything out there?"

Orinda was already standing on the ledge hundreds of meters away looking over the sea by the time Hazel had asked her question. Staring out with the binoculars he pulled from his shell, he tried not too sound too distracted. "What did you find in there?" he shouted back.

Crawling over towards the desk, Hazel grabbed the stub. "Some sort of ticket," she yelled to Orinda. "It's only the top half of it, appears the bottom half was mostly torn off. Have you seen anything out there?"

Orinda had been screwing around with the zoom in feature on the binoculars and came across some sort of large reptile with a koopa shell floating around in the lake. "Not something as useful as you did," Orinda responded, "but in all our research on this continent, how many crocodiles are known to exist here?"

Hazel got back to her feet and made her way out of the post with the ticket stub in her hand. She quickly made her way over to Orinda who was standing out by the ledge. "Crocodiles went extinct thousands of years ago," she responded. "Are you sure it isn't a fish?"

Orinda double checked with the binoculars once more before turning to Hazel. "Cheep cheeps don't have koopa shells," he said to her with a chuckle. "I'll trade you for the ticket stub if you wanna see what I'm seeing." He offered her the binoculars with another hand held out for the ticket.

Hazel didn't hesitate in trading Orinda the ticket for the binoculars, there was no way she was going to pass up this opportunity to possibly find there was indeed still civilization left in Dinosaur Land. Zooming in close with the binoculars, she confirmed what Orinda saw as correct: there was a crocodile floating around and it had a dark purple koopa shell on its back, a rather well built crocodile.

"I think you've ousted me," Hazel said back. "Apparently the Koopas aren't ALL gone. Now its just a matter of getting its attention."

Seeing it was now nightfall, Orinda had the perfect way to attract attention towards them. Pulling out a flare he happened to bring with him from his shell, he blew a little fire from his snout and lit it. The flare was a lit a bright red at the end, which he held above his head and slowly waved it from left to right.

"Will a lit emergency flare work?" he asked her with a toothy grin.

"Nice thinking!" Hazel responded with a warm smile as she kept an eye on the crocodile creature. "Now we wait.."

Orinda nodded as he stayed huddled close to Hazel, making sure she wasn't still scared of what else was out there with them. "We may even get some answers on the ticket you found if we're lucky.." he said softly. He looked up at the clear starry sky and thought of home to keep his mind calm.

https://koopaelite.forumotion.com/t7-character-sign-up#45

Xiuhcoatl had been taking a leisurely night soak on Soda Lake and wasn't really noticing anything going on around him. He scanned over the Forest ledges for the sake of having something to look at and he saw a bright red light coming from it, as small as it was it got his attention. He couldn't see what it was coming from since he was several thousand feet out from land and the fact it was now dark outside. He had never seen it pop up before, so naturally he was curious. Steadily but surely he swam hard towards the red light.

Hazel was still looking out towards the water with her binoculars as she noticed the creature was getting closer and closer to the shore at a rather rapid rate of speed. "Your flare worked," Hazel said to Orinda sounding excited, "whoever is out there is coming towards us!"

"How exciting this will be!" Orinda exclaimed as he continued to wave the flare back and forth above his head. "How tired my arm is getting too!"

Seeing the hybrid creature coming close to walking on the shore, Orinda pointed in the direction with his free hand to show Hazel. "We should call out to it.." he whispered.

Wading up from the shallow waters and walking onto the sandy shore, Xiuhcoatl looked up and could now see that the red light was what appeared to be a scaley friend waving an emergency flare around with a beautiful female koopa-yoshi hybrid standing close to him. I thought the koopas were all gone, he thought to himself, but I've never seen these two before in all of my years.

"Greetings!" he shouted up to them, a good forty feet upwards. "I thought our race was forever banned. Who are you two?"

"Surprised to see you here!" Orinda yelled down to the fellow reptilian. "My name is Orinda. This is my higher ranking officer with me, Hazel. Do you need help getting up here?"