Bonne Pas [Renaria]

[Belgar]

16 Summer, 511

The pine forest just outside Frostfawn hold was littered with beaten trails and large clearings, used often by campers and those seeking to train for harsher environments. It was a place for a person who wanted a bit of isolation and introspection, without straying too far from civilization. Alas, there were many paths there that an Icewatch mount could not walk, when he sought the refuge of his thick fur coat. Belgar had chosen a particularly large white dell near the far edge of the green. He had already carved many shadowy paw prints into the heavy evening snow.

He could not even remember what he had said, but still the embarrassment lingered, hours later. He had never been very good at talking, no matter how much he liked to hear others do it. And he had mentioned something that brought the conversation to a quick halt, leaving the room stunned and staring. When the brows dropped again and the eyelids ceased their deliberate blinking, he had muttered an excuse and escaped from society. If she were there, she would have stopped him, or at least have helped him recover from the faux pas. But she was not. Their eyes still seemed to burn into his nonhuman face as he paced the clearing, trying to distract himself.

His twitching nose nudged away the snow at the foot of some nearby trees. Beneath it, he found some fallen branches that were soaked through by cold moisture. His tense maw took a gentle hold of them and he carried the wood to another spot a few paces away, where a small pile was developing. There were little holes in the snow all over, where he had collected similar treasures. If he could not add to the joy of idle banter, Belgar had decided, he could at least help some future traveller who was in need of kindling.

[Renaria]

Renaria was on her own for the day. It seemed there was something important that Atyvn had to attend to, so the Kelvic decided to busy herself with... well something else. She had spent a good couple of hours outside of the city after feeling the urge to simply run. That was all, just run. She had covered good ground, and had luckily managed to avoid any encounters with creatures larger than herself. She had returned to the city gates and slipped through in her snow leopard form - the Icewatch knew who she was now and welcomed her. She was now headed up near the Frostfawn hold, towards a usually empty place where she could just be her leopard self. Upon nearing the place though, her sensitive nose wrinkled slightly when she scented another. A bear, surely one of the Icewatch. She rounded a corner to the dell, and sure enough, there it was. A huge, white polar bear. She stood for a while observing it pace prints into the snowy ground. After a few short moments, she edged a little closer and sat down, her haunches folding neatly beneath her. She watched, curiosity in her eyes and tilted head, as the bear began to shift branches. It was an odd thing for an Icewatch bear to be doing, at least it seemed so to her. The snow leopard was also surprised that she hadn't been noticed yet. Perhaps the other Kelvic was too deep in thought. She decided to remain silent, since she figured that a sudden noise may trigger an attack. After all, the Icewatch were the city guards and protectors.

[Belgar]

Renaria would not have to wait long before she received a glance from the bear’s keen nose. Still, he did not heed her for many chimes, burdened from interaction by his tense thoughts. Other creatures had come and gone before her, watched the peculiar white giant move idly around until they grew bored of him. The scent of civilization was on her, revealing to him their mutual race, but that might have made him even more averse to confronting her. He could not get the frustration out of his jaw; he did not want to associate with anything or anyone, sentient or animal, speaking or no.

But she did not leave. If he did not know better, he might have thought she was waiting in ambush. Those large silver eyes gazed curiously, unrelentingly from between the low branches of close conifers, probing through his thick fur at his weary consciousness. He finally deposited the last stick on the pile and turned around to peer at her from across the clearing. His black eyes met hers blankly, trained in impassivity. When his head tilted to one side and his brow furrowed like a human’s, she would know of the question in his mind. What are you doing?

He padded towards her slowly, nose pointed toward the ground in the universal sign of peace-coming. He stopped a man’s length from the edge of the clearing and raised his head, huffed a noisy cloud of white breath through his nostrils. Scraping the flattened snow with his paws, Belgar invited her to join him in the open. He would hold his ground if she approached, careful not to startle or anger the stranger-beast.

[Renaria]

Still she sat there, her tail twitching behind her every now and again. It was an odd thing, to see a bear, a dire bear, carrying sticks around a clearing. She wondered why he was doing such a thing. The sticks were damp through from being buried under snow, so they would not make good tinder for a while. Perhaps he was bored? She was diverted from her musings by the silence that had followed the gentle noise of the falling sticks. The bear in the clearing wasn't moving to collect more, he was now looking right at her. Of course he had known she was there, he was just smart enough to pretend not to. She read the question in his furrowed brow and she simply blinked her large, silvery eyes in response.Isn't it obvious? As he moved toward her, she rose, haunches lifting from the snowy ground. She was cautious for a moment, till his nose dipped, the sign of peace, welcome. As he scraped the ground, motioning to her, she tentatively placed one paw forward, followed by another till she was standing in the open with him. Her eyes never left his, and when she stopped, she mimicked his earlier posture. Head tilted, brow creased in question. What are you doing? She then broke the eye contact, looking away from him at the collected sticks. This was a sign to him that she was no threat. Besides, he was over twice her size to start with. She returned her attention to him and sat down again, curiosity filling her eyes.

[Belgar]

While it was true that those sticks which still touched the ground would inevitably be dampened again by snow, Belgar had stacked them so that the dry winds would eventually steal away their heavy moisture. A breeze obliged his idea as she emerged from the understory, reaching only a pair of wet noses as it tried to provoke a shiver in the thick-furred beasts. The bear bent his neck to glance behind at the work which she scrutinized, exposing that tender piece of his body in another offer of amity. He doubted that she could hurt him, if she tried, but even he understood the importance of the gesture.

He looked back to her, considered her look for a moment. Then his nose pointed at the distant Frostfawn hold. The men, he meant to say, but he knew she would probably not understand. There was no explaining it without words, and in that afternoon, he hated words. The silence and intuition of their short conversation comforted him more than he could ever explain. If they were two people in a room with a table, he might have asked her why she was there. But he did not care; he never did. He only knew it was polite to ask. They were animals, and if they had been any more animal, they would have been locked already in a heated battle over territories.

Perhaps, that was what they ought to do. He stepped back suddenly, the faintest tinge of green delight passing over his otherwise black eyes. Long yellow claws swiped at the ground in front of him, tossing a cold white spray at those peering grey eyes, and with a short growl he pushed the soft part of his giant paw against her shoulder.

A long life of playfighting with humans had left him wary of the weaknesses of smaller creatures, and his gentle swipe was testament to that. Just as soon as he moved to her, he backed away again, head rearing to suggest the joke.

[Renaria]

Her fur ruffled slightly as a breeze picked up out of nowhere. She watched the bear before her, never taking her eyes off of him, even as he turned his head to look away. He was repeating the gesture she had done moments before. It was not a sign of friendship by any means, more of a mutual understanding that the pair would not harm one another. Her eyes flicked in the direction he had signaled. It was just an empty pathway lined with a few trees, but beyond that was the Frostfawn Hold and some other buildings. She wasn't entirely sure what he was trying to say to her, but she gathered that it must have something to do with the people of Avanthal. Perhaps people of the Icewatch, since he was one of them. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as something flashed in his. She roughly shook her head at the spray of snow, her nose wrinkling slightly. She was more concerned with the snow in her face to notice the paw reach out to her shoulder. She was forced to take a step back from the weight of it, and her gaze locked with the bear's once again. She knew that he was not being serious, and to confirm that she knew, she stepped forward and butted her head into his shoulder. She would have used her paw, but she doubted he would so much as feel it. She retreated and watched him, head tilted ever so slightly with interest.

[Belgar]

He would have never been so forward, in a room with a table, or in any place where his human mind had control of a human mouth. But something fun had welled up in his ursine gut, squashing old discomforts and leaving him happy, restless. Belgar had wanted so desperately to forget about recent events, and his animal conscious had obliged him. He recoiled from her butting head with an exaggerated bounce, like a dog that had not quite dodged a glancing blow. His head shook and he sneezed hot white air at the ground, as if he needed to recover from the impact.

Of course, he did not; he hoped briefly that she was not offended by the display, but was too consumed in the budding fight to think long of it. He stepped forward and reached out again, with the same paw and the same swipe, but this time pushed harder. The insistence would surely knock her over, unless she dodged, but he anticipated that the feline could easily recover. She looked as fragile as she was green, and hopefully not easily angered.

As quickly as he could manage, the lumbering beast retreated a few feet again. He loosed a soft growl from the shallows of his throat, gripping the ground in anticipation of a more enthusiastic rebuttal.

[Renaria]

If she were human, Renaria would have raised her eyebrows. She knew full-well that the great bear had hardly felt the impact from her head-butt, yet he still recoiled. She guessed it was a way of showing fun. She was so caught up in her thoughts, that she missed the huge paw coming at her again. This time it was harder, and the force of it knocked her sideways. She hit the snow, and withe only the grace a feline possesses, sprung back to her feet in an instant. Her ears flicked forward and a playful growl bubbled up her throat. She had never fought before in her life. Sure, she was equipped to, but nothing had ever contested her. So, Renaria tried one of the few things she did know. She took a couple of steps and then leapt forwards at the bear. Her front limbs spread wide as she aimed herself at his front. If she was quick enough, and had done it correctly, she would end up in what looked like a 'hug' around his neck. In truth, it would be a 'death grip' although she would not use her claws, and the bear was big enough to shrug her off. If she succeeded, then she would be pleased, dropping back to the ground and stepping away. If it failed, she would quickly retreat back to where she had started.

[Belgar]

Little spotted feet pressed into the packed snow and a feline rumble crept into his twitching ears. There was no smell of adrenaline or excitement in her blood, only happy calculation. He eyed her carefully, trying to predict her next move.

Belgar should have expected that she would leap. Cats had the legs for it, and the balance that came with a body of lean meat. His own reactions were quick enough, without motion to hinder them. He snapped at her flying approach with his teeth, suggesting that he might catch her in their yellow grip; but as she neared, his mouth was closed again. He stretched his chin to the pale sky as the weight of his giant body fell to his hind legs. It would have been a foolish thing to do, if they had not established a sort of trust.

And even though that trust is what prevented his life’s blood from pouring out of his throat, he used her compromised grip against her. Though he did not usually like to remove himself from the ground, his front paws lifted a few small inches as he gathered up her momentum and swung his body round, flinging her from his chest with her own speed. When he stepped down again, his pile of branches trembled.

Caught up in the exhilaration of the attack, Belgar waited only a moment before he approached her again, hoping to catch her before she recovered. His nose ducked low and he tried to wedge it between her and the ground. If he managed to catch her off guard (a less unlikely feat in his mind, which was unfamiliar with the power of feline reflexes), he would toss her into the air again. The faint green of contentment wallowed in faint wisps over his black eyes, forever present.

[Mutt]

Belgar:
XP:

Unarmed - 3xp
Persuaision - 1xp

Lore:

Talking without words

Renaria:
XP:

Unarmed - 2xp
Stealth - 1xp

Lore:
Bears have a good sense of smell

Lore

Other Notes:

If there is anything I missed, shoot me a PM and I'll check it out.