Sparkle and Shine

Another overcast and dreary day found Tsuga pawing along the bottom of a ravine. The previous few days had been equally gray with intermittent storms, during which he'd come across the wash. Yesterday water had been roaring and churning down as it rushed off towards the distant sea, but today it had dwindled to little more than a healthy burble in the lowest swath. On either side rocks had been churned and tumbled, pulled from the cliffs and laid bare for the first time in who knows how many millennia. Still damp, some of these stones gleamed white and silver, even shot through with occasional flashes of gold. Tsuga couldn't pass up an opportunity like this and meant to gather a few choice specimens if he was able.

There were no hard and fast rules about what a spirit might consider a reasonable offering, and no surefire path to success besides repetitive effort. That which pleased the occupants of one area might be utterly useless elsewhere. There was no way to be sure, but that didn't mean he was going about it completely blind. He did have a plan... of sorts. It involved exploring in whichever direction he felt pulled in, and doing what he could to reach out to the spirits that lived there, see which ones might welcome his influence and allow him to serve their needs. In the meantime, seeing as it was entirely rude to show up unannounced and empty handed, he'd gather interesting trinkets from far and wide and hopefully end up with a plethora of offerings to choose from. Good first impressions and all that.

So there he was, nosing about and flipping rocks small enough to be easily picked up and carried, waiting for those rare few that would jump out at him as something special. Some were smooth and others jagged, some mostly dark with tendrils of white and some pure enough to resemble a chuck of snow turned to stone. He hummed absently to himself as he worked, wrapped up in his own world of thought, blind and deaf to whatever else might be lurking nearby.


"Talk," - "Listen" - Think