A Very Strange Place [Finished]

[squashbananas.livejournal.com]

Characters: Rafiki and anyone else
Content: Rafiki arrives in Paixao.
Setting: Muspelheim Gate
Time: Laaaate in the evening, Week 20
Warnings: Creepy little monkey

 Paixao had seen stranger things than the creature who’d just been ushered inside the gates. However, a mandrill baboon wasn’t a commonly seen creature either. The dim, but warm lights of the evening illuminated the bright red and blue colors of his face, as well as the surprised expression upon it. Rafiki had never seen anything like this strange new place. But the one thing he did know was that he was far, far from home.

 Rather than carry the dull orange journal that had been handed to him, passersby could see that he had tied it to the top of his walking stick, amongst similarly orange, rattling gourds. He cautiously walked farther along the street, looking at the domed city. To him, it appeared more like a beautiful, but very peculiar cave. Sure, he had done his share of drawing, but never had he seen animal images so lifelike! At first, they had appeared to be almost real.

In spite of the strange beauty that surrounded him, the place seemed oddly lifeless. The air was still, and the strange stone that everything was made from yielded no cracks deep enough for plants to take root in. In addition, at the late time of his arrival, there were few people out on the streets, and the lifelike animals that looked down at him from paintings and watched him as silent statues paid him no heed. The stars that adored the top of the ceiling twinkled… but had no spark to them.

“ ‘Dis is peculiar.” The mandrill said to no one in particular. “Well, I am here. It is time I find out why." He gave a little nod and continued walking.

                         

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[squashbananas.livejournal.com]

Rafiki had been wandering for some time at that point, and had learned much about what this place was like, but why this place was as it was still alluded him. There were no plants… but there were strange formations that were much like them in appearance. And yet, he could smell food on the air, so there was plantlife around… just not where he could find it. It wafted out around the little offshoots of the cave, which smelled also of many other things… They were the living places for the creatures that lived there.

The more common creatures were blonde-furred animals that stood up like meerkats on watch. They smelled similar to the monkeys and baboons he was familiar with… but they all smelled… odd. Their scent was strong, yet wasn’t as complex as he felt it should have been. However, some of these meerkat-walkers were different. They were more complex both visually and olfactorally.

Rafiki had been observing some of the flowerlike formations, when one of the creatures approached him… and addressed him. The mandrill turned to face the meerkat-walker, using his staff to help him stand fully erect. He momentarily gave the creature a scrutinous look. Blond fur, blue eyes… yet this one was different, his peculiar plumage aside. The scent was dissimilar, for one, and for another… this one had gone out of his way to speak with the old baboon.

“And hello to you!” Rafiki gestured with a wide sweep of his hand, which came to point at the boy’s chest. However it was then that he caught a scent that was familiar! This meerkat-walker actually had a bit of meerkat scent on him. How peculiar. And how interesting.

“And what is it that brings you to Old Rafiki?”