Nibbles and New Beginnings [Matthew]

[atrb=cellpadding, 0, true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style,width: 400px; background-image: url(http://subtlepatterns.subtlepatterns.netdna-cdn.com/patterns/noisy_net.png);][STYLE=float: left;][STYLE=height: 100px; width: 100px; padding; 3px; margin: 10; border-top: 2px solid #959EDE; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; border-radius: 15 0 0 0; background-image: url(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/amoline/FranceAv-1_zps9b52e117.png);width: 100px; text-align: center;][/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]July, 1534[/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]TAG: Matthew/Cal[/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]NOTES: yus for first encounters xD[/style][/style][STYLE=padding: 0 10 10 0; margin: 10px; font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; text-align: justify; color: #ffffff; border-bottom: 2px solid #959EDE; border-right: 5px solid #959EDE; border-radius: 0 0 15 0;][STYLE=width: 250px; font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8px; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 2 0 2 0; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-top: 2px solid #959EDE; border-bottom: 1px dashed #959EDE; text-align: center; margin-left: 115px; color: #959EDE;]I've seen places, faces... and smiled for a moment[/style] This was the first time that Francis had ever physically set foot in the territory that John Cabot, the Italian seafarer under English commission, was sent to explore. Word of his findings had reached many ears across Europe… and France was more than ready to begin his own excursion into the north. He was also vaguely aware that Basque (shared people of Spain and France) and Portuguese mariners had already established seasonal whaling and fishing outposts along the Atlantic coast. Currently, the French vessel had slipped those markings in order to reach the vast land just within reach. Spain and Portugal were apparently too busy with the lands further south to give the north much attention. Francis had decided to accompany a famous explorer of his, Jacques Cartier, who was currently fixated on penetrating the wilderness from the St. Lawrence River and to claim the land for the King. It took only a few glances over Cartier’s maps before the nation shrugged them off with barely a mild interest for the man’s penned-in markings. For the most part since then, he’d left Cartier to his own devices concerning where exactly he wanted to land and how far into the wilderness he wanted to explore. It had been a pleasant enough voyage, as it was in the middle of summer. Really, France couldn’t see himself doing the crossing this far north at any other time in the year, as it was proven multiple times by previous sailors to be quite dangerous during the cold season. Even England had some reservations over making the cross at that time. By the time they reached into the narrowing of the bay, Cartier wanted to go even farther into the St. Lawrence Lowlands. Everywhere the Frenchmen looked, there were only vast amounts of mixed forests, not that they had been expecting anything else, but coming from the congested city living back at home, it was enough to draw their wandering gazes. France felt a small bit of longing looking over how untouched everything appeared—so peaceful and innocent. He had been that once... a long time ago, but they were only still alive in wispy glimpses of memory. It was an odd experience for a nation. Obviously, none of the man there could share his sentiments. When they finally landed, there was a bit of hustle with some of the men to start scouting the area. France was a bit sea-weary himself and wanted to walk around for a bit, to feel the blood moving eagerly through his body once more. He really just wanted to stretch his legs and to get his bearings of the land. The weather was beautiful for July—warm, but not terribly so. He draped his coat over his arm as he rolled up his linen sleeves, securing them at the elbows. Before leaving, he was meticulous enough to also arm himself. One of his men shouted something as France began to wander further out into the forest. Not really hearing what was said, he simply called back, hopefully loud enough for them, ” Je reviens dans un moment!” Sighing and glad to be rid of the faces that he had been seeing for the past several months in a cramped, confined space, France made his way into the thicket, walking softly and not making too much noise, taking in the quiet air of beauty that this area had to offer... [/style][STYLE=padding: 2px; font-size: 8px; font-family: georgia; color: #959EDE; text-align: center; margin-top: -7px;]MADE BY PEBBLE OF BTN[/style]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style,width: 415px; background-color: #E42217; border-left: inset 3px #FFFFFF; border-bottom: inset 3px #FFFFFF; border-right: inset 3px #FFFFFF; -moz-border-radius: 200px 200px 0px 0px; -webkit-border-radius: 200px 200px 0px 0px; border-radius: 200px 200px 0px 0px; true] My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in Matthew was a young child, and wandered around with polar bears. Anyone that came across him thought it was rather odd, but then soon realized he was a little on the feral side. He liked being with the polar bears, and actually preferred them to those that looked like him. There was one exception to that, but she was pretty feral too so, it wasn’t that surprising. They had even worked out some sort of agreement between the wolves and polar bears between them. Anyway, that meant he basically wandered around with a polar bear on a regular basis. He was doing such right now, only it wasn’t as snowy as normal so there was only one with him, a small one that something seemed a little off about. Mostly because it had stopped growing quite some time ago, and didn’t really seem to be aging either. The polar bear just kind of stayed the same with Matthew did. He was pretty sure the other polar bears found that odd, and actually most people he ran into, mostly natives, found him to be quite odd. He never stayed around them very long, preferring to wander with mama polar bear than with people. Yes, he had spent enough time with each group to learn most parts of their languages, but that seemed to be rather easy for him somehow. That could be due to either him being a fast learner, or because they were his people technically. Though he wasn’t quite aware of that, he just knew that comparatively he was a bit odd. Especially seeing as he had wavy blonde hair and very light skin. That wasn’t all that important though at the moment, and he could always figure out such things later. Right now, he was wandering around the lands he knew well. He wasn’t sure how he knew them well even without exploring extensively, but he did. He was relatively near shores at the moment, and pondered about going over to them. The boy decided that, while he didn’t particularly know how to swim very well, he didn’t actually have to go in and so he’d just sit and watch the waves instead. So, he set off and started traveling towards the shores. Usually they were peaceful and quiet with maybe a few animals around. Apparently, something else was going on today. People he had never seen before, and they looked different more like him actually, had appeared and he was confused by it. Why were they here? They were speaking some strange language too, and he didn’t understand it in the slightest. He was curious, but he was also wary of what they could possibly do. They were a lot bigger than him, so really his best bet would be knowing the lands well enough to outrun them hopefully if it came down to that. As one broke off from the group, he decided to follow behind. He probably was making a bit more noise, but he could always duck behind a tree or into a bush if he needed to. Thus, he wasn’t too worried about being spotted, and besides he had seemed to be good at hiding. It was often he accidentally snuck up on the natives after all. The polar bear with him, was considerably less silent and went running about in the forest chasing a rodent. Well, clearly he was unaware that Matthew was trying to be subtle, but it was apparently a little late for that now. Ah well, he supposed he resigned to just being found, or maybe the polar bear would cover any noise he was making and thus the tiny nation would go unnoticed. 615 / Marv~France / babeh canadas. [/style][style=display: none;]made by ashkir at rpg-directory.com

[atrb=cellpadding, 0, true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style,width: 400px; background-image: url(http://subtlepatterns.subtlepatterns.netdna-cdn.com/patterns/noisy_net.png);][STYLE=float: left;][STYLE=height: 100px; width: 100px; padding; 3px; margin: 10; border-top: 2px solid #959EDE; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; border-radius: 15 0 0 0; background-image: url(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/amoline/FranceAv-1_zps9b52e117.png);width: 100px; text-align: center;][/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]July, 1534[/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]TAG: Matthew/Cal[/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]NOTES: I'm so sorry for how long this took... >>;[/style][/style][STYLE=padding: 0 10 10 0; margin: 10px; font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; text-align: justify; color: #ffffff; border-bottom: 2px solid #959EDE; border-right: 5px solid #959EDE; border-radius: 0 0 15 0;][STYLE=width: 250px; font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8px; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 2 0 2 0; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-top: 2px solid #959EDE; border-bottom: 1px dashed #959EDE; text-align: center; margin-left: 115px; color: #959EDE;]I've seen places, faces... and smiled for a moment[/style] With the primary reason for this excursion being more out of genuine curiosity as well as a few on the voyage that wanted to satiate their yearning for something out of the ordinary, Francis was hoping that force wouldn't be a necessity for them if they did happen to run into any opposition. For the most part; however, the French would grow to be fairly business-like with the Canadian natives, especially with trading specific goods. The first thing that Francis noticed during his little venture into the vast forested land was the feeling of being watched. Normally, he didn't give too much credence to these sorts of feelings, but he's had quite a bit of experience from simply being alive for so long... and yes, some of which included tracking and being aware of his surroundings overall. Especially within his earlier years where he was forced to be dependent upon his instincts. But, of course, what gave the eery feeling more credit was the very, very soft sounds of movements trailing behind him as he went. The polar bear running around chasing something was an obvious distraction... and it had Francis giving the creature a dumbfounded stare. He wasn't well-versed in the usual behaviors and patterns of this area's animals, but that certainly seemed off. Aside from the fact that it was a polar bear... this far south... yes. Francis turned, stopping in his trek, in order to watch the noisy polar bear for a moment. He... really didn't know what to even think about that at the moment. When he heard the softest of rustlings again, Francis's hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword. He didn't draw it, but remained tense as he began to check his surroundings, peeking carefully into the thick brush and behind trees. He still occasionally eyed the polar bear who really had no business being here... "Il y a quelqu'un?" Even though he was sure that whoever was there wouldn't answer, he called out in a mild tone, asking if anyone was there. Soft treads obviously meant that they didn't want to be seen or heard... There was also the possibility of it being a native? Which ran into the idea of communication issues. Despite all this, Francis continued forward, looking into more possible hiding places. [/style][STYLE=padding: 2px; font-size: 8px; font-family: georgia; color: #959EDE; text-align: center; margin-top: -7px;]MADE BY PEBBLE OF BTN[/style]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style,width: 415px; background-color: #E42217; border-left: inset 3px #FFFFFF; border-bottom: inset 3px #FFFFFF; border-right: inset 3px #FFFFFF; -moz-border-radius: 200px 200px 0px 0px; -webkit-border-radius: 200px 200px 0px 0px; border-radius: 200px 200px 0px 0px; true] My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in Mattie really wished the polar bear would stop chasing the butterfly and be quieter, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. The bear was nonsensical, and he did suppose the bear was actually quite young really. In a way it made sense, but he wished the attention span on the creature was a little better. Granted, he really couldn’t say anything seeing as he wasn’t much better. At least he was concentrating on staying quiet though, or well attempting to do so. It was going about as well as it could right at the moment. He gave a slight sigh and debated climbing up a tree for a better view of the stranger in the woods. He hadn’t seen anyone quite like the man before and thus was very curious. He was always curious actually, but right now he was particularly curious. It was strange for him to have such visitors, and he wanted to know why they were here. As far as he was concerned these were his woods and this man didn’t belong in them. The large weird thing on his shores certainly didn’t belong there either. He heard a weird language being spoken, and it sounded like it was supposed to be directed at him. It wasn’t something he recognized, and so he wasn’t about to answer. It wasn’t as if he knew how he should answer such a statement when he didn’t know what it meant. The tiny nation found himself peeking around a tree, but then the guy was checking his surroundings. Crap, more than likely he was about to be spotted. Well, so much for secrecy, but the polar bear had pretty much wrecked that from the start. There was nothing he could do about that now. If he had been expecting someone odd to show up then he wouldn’t have brought the bear to begin with. Sure he loved the creature dearly, but really in times like this he did get a little annoyed. Ah well, there was nothing he could do about it at this point. Maybe he should just reveal he was there and deal with whatever this guy wanted. Though, judging by the hand on the sword he wasn’t sure the guy was quite friendly. In which case what was he supposed to do? He could slightly defend himself, but he didn’t exactly carry around weapons of any type. A moment later, while in his thoughts it would seem he was found. Great, now what was he supposed to do? The polar bear returned to his side and started growling. After all, he wasn’t sure whether he was in danger or not yet, and it was best to be on the safe side. The guy did have a weapon after all. Thus, he was going to be cautious around this guy for the time being. 477 / Marv~France / sorry this is short [/style][style=display: none;]made by ashkir at rpg-directory.com

[atrb=cellpadding, 0, true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style,width: 400px; background-image: url(http://subtlepatterns.subtlepatterns.netdna-cdn.com/patterns/noisy_net.png);][STYLE=float: left;][STYLE=height: 100px; width: 100px; padding; 3px; margin: 10; border-top: 2px solid #959EDE; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; border-radius: 15 0 0 0; background-image: url(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/amoline/FranceAv-1_zps9b52e117.png);width: 100px; text-align: center;][/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]July, 1534[/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]TAG: Matthew/Cal[/style][STYLE=font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; padding: 2 0 2 0; background-color: #dddddd; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-left: 5px solid #959EDE; width: 100px; text-align: center; color: #000;]NOTES: ---[/style][/style][STYLE=padding: 0 10 10 0; margin: 10px; font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8.5px; text-align: justify; color: #ffffff; border-bottom: 2px solid #959EDE; border-right: 5px solid #959EDE; border-radius: 0 0 15 0;][STYLE=width: 250px; font-family: tahoma; font-size: 8px; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 2 0 2 0; margin: 0 0 10 10; border-top: 2px solid #959EDE; border-bottom: 1px dashed #959EDE; text-align: center; margin-left: 115px; color: #959EDE;]I've seen places, faces... and smiled for a moment[/style] Keeping an eye on the polar bear chasing a butterfly, he drew unknowingly closer to Matthew’s hiding place, though he still felt as if he were wandering aimlessly. It was probably best to stay where he knew for now… these woods were vastly unchartered. His men were only going as far as they dared along the ever narrowing northern bay. There was a certain thrill with exploring the unknown, a hint of danger, though not necessarily for the nation, but for those who traveled with him. Even now, Francis wondered if this area was truly barren. The natives were far and few between—at least, it had seemed that way, given the population density was far lower here than it was in Europe. That was to be expected. But the more south they wandered; the more life seemed to flourish. Surely, there were other things that Francis could be keeping an eye out for… but that was always an uncertainty among their kind. Discovering others like them was always a hit-or-miss depending on the region. Unexpectedly, the polar bear stopped whatever he was doing and meandered over to a specific area near where the brush was thickest. Francis watched, puzzled, as the bear began to growl. He stopped in his advance. It sounded like a warning. So far, he really hadn’t discovered anything of interest that would cause him to risk approaching a polar bear. Very briefly, Francis glanced over in the direction where he’d come from, hoping that none of his men were following him. Confrontations with rogue polar bears is not exactly what his travel-weary men needed. But still… something beckoned France closer. Something did feel a little odd about the situation. In any case, he was a nation; therefore, he wouldn’t be easily killed. And even if he was, he would come to later. Although the entire process was agonizing, it also wouldn’t be the end for him. It was just a messy hassle. So, with great reluctance and feeling infinitely stupid for doing so, he moved his hand away from the hilt of his sword, showing his gloved palms briefly to show that he meant no harm. Although, he certainly would mean it if the thing decided to charge at him. Francis had been through enough tight situations to easily deal with that if anything of the sort were to happen. He'd heard from one of the intellectuals on the voyage that most beasts had the uncanny ability to sense hostility. This seemed far fetched to Francis, but it was worth a shot. He spoke softly, using his usual gentle tones whenever he aimed to persuade. "Tu essayes de m'éviter?” The inquiry was stupid, but he decided that it didn’t matter what he said, as the only thing he could see was a polar bear. The nation was tempted to step closer, but common sense won out in the end, and he waited patiently. If the bear continued to stand his ground, then Francis probably was going to leave, as he had little interest in a rogue polar bear. [/style][STYLE=padding: 2px; font-size: 8px; font-family: georgia; color: #959EDE; text-align: center; margin-top: -7px;]MADE BY PEBBLE OF BTN[/style]