Camp Cat Attack!(Nil)

[Antar]

72nd of Fall,511av

It was over... or at least over for now and he could go back to the simplicities in life. The simple pleasures of waking up every morning and going to work without knowing that someone might be watching you with the intent to kill you. It was back to the nice old grind of only maybe having things coming after you, like a wanton robber, bandit of thief looking for a quick mark.

Because of that, he had made his way back to pitching his tent with the other Crimson Edge members, and settling back into the interesting means and tedium that camp life provided for him. A structure of morning chores, and work for the good of all the others to fill the water buckets. The ride out to the south woods to work at the carver brothers. All if it was a routine, a routine which he yearned to continue for quite a while to relieve the stress. But then again... there were other ways for a man to relieve stress. His mind wandered to the sorts that 'entertained clientele for a moment. Those girls were nice enough he supposed, they were just not opportunities he was interested in partaking.

For now he just wanted the solace of comrades, and friends... or at least what accounted for friends in the midst of one of the most volatile and violent cities of the world. He missed Cade , ranting his barbarian tunes. He missed Mok's drunken euphemisms on the meaning of life for a myrian. He even missed Canali's and Fallon's presence as well. There were others of course that interested him. People he had met like Bob, Tikon, Zandelia, and Shai.

Shai , the one spider who had ever... intrigued him.

He had a noted dislike of her race as a whole. Symenestra to him were just dirty little creatures that spun webs, abducted people, and supped on their innards. But Shai was not one of those, he had never seen her eat more then a piece of fruit, though he knew she probably ate small animals as well. He was always careful to ward off temptation when she was around Ellise, his falcon kelvic by allowing Ellise to take human form.

Ellise was his charge, and a companion. But not in any way which counted beyond that he regarded the falcon as a worrisome pet. Sure she was capable of hunting with him, and in truth he had no prejudiced against kelvics, it was just the thought that he knew the mentally damaged creature would die if left on her own humbled and consoled him.

It was nice to have a life trusting yours for their wellbeing.

Sitting here, in camp, it was actually quite a nice life for the present if he didn't worry too much for the future. Sitting in quiet thought he cooked his meal over the fire. Three spitted rabbits ,skinned and fleshed with their meat readied in fishnet pockets to keep them together like sticks of deli sausages and he'd slightly salted them to perfection. One for himself, one for Ellise, and one for saving later.

He looked up at the stars and laid back slightly to rest his head upon the ground. 'Yes... for the moment, all was right with the world.' he thought as he inhaled. The scent of the cooking meal was wafting far over the demesne of the camp and slightly beyond, out into the ruins which dotted the outskirts of the slums. In the outskirts those who didn't own property in the city layered their tents , squishing them like sardines. The tents were close to each other, but a far enough distance away from each other that no one pried in other people's business. A competent thief could sneak through, he had done so on occasion himself, but around his camp the poles with the skulls on them and the ropes with bells were meant to distract anyone not able to inch under them... so Antar felt relatively safe unless an army of pycons came to kill him in the night.

"Yes... today was a good day indeed."he said aloud as he waited for his meal to cook.

[Nil'Anon]

The caracal Kelvic’s nose was lifted high into the air, her whiskers twitching with excitement as she sniffed at the air. She was downwind of most of the tents, silently weaving her way through them towards the scent that had caught her attention. She could feel her how thin her body had grown, how weak she had grown under the so called care of slave traders. Her stomach was had been complaining rather loudly for awhile, insistently demanding that she procure food to fill it with. It was a task that was easier said than done when you considered that she wasn’t in the wilds of the forest where the humans had started to train her in the ways of hunting so that she might have some skill to make her worth buying. It was more difficult to hunt for food in a place so heavily populated by humans, and the scavenging wasn’t much easier. Sunberth was a place where people had to fight to survive, and the vermin had to fight just as hard. Scraps didn’t remain scraps for very long.

Nil’Anon paused, taking a good, deep whiff of the air. She was on the right track, the scent of cooking meat was getting stronger. It smelled like rabbit. She loved rabbit. The smell, this close, was enough to make her salivate and she could feel the drool falling from her jaws. Her tongue slid out and around her lips, cleaning away the loose saliva. Her pace quickened, her empty stomach driving her towards the delicious smelling meat. As the fire of the camp she was looking for came into view, her slender feline form slid up alongside a nearby tent, hugging the side of the tent closely. Her green eyes were locked on the meat that cooked over the fire. It smelled so good, so enticing. Her entire body trembled as she crouched low next to the tent, her ears, tail, and whiskers twitched in eager anticipation. Nil couldn’t stand it, she couldn’t wait. All she knew was the painful hunger in her belly.

Her claws extended, digging, scratching at the dirt beneath her paws. Her jaw was open ever so slightly, her chest moved out and in with each breath. She couldn’t wait, not anymore. The Kelvic threw caution to the wind as she pushed against the ground, propelling her body forward. She moved with the speed and grace that all felines possessed. When she came to Antar’s security fence, it wasn’t much of a challenge for the cat, considering she could slip right under it, which she did, her body sliding easily beneath the rope without touching it once. She made for the fire and the skewered meat at a full run. If she was lucky, she’d be able to snatch the spitted meat and get out without much trouble.

A tan blur, she came upon the fire with jaws open, and they clamped down on the end of the stick that the meat was spitted on, and she kept right on going, dragging it with her, stick and all. That’s about where her plan started to go downhill. The stick was more unwieldy than she’d anticipated, it slowed her movement significantly as she had to drag it, her head turned to the side. Of course, that made it rather difficult to notice that she was coming up on the other side of Antar’s security fence. As shoddy a security system as it was, it was effective enough to stop the thieving Kelvic as she tried to flee. Her body hit the fence and she rolled, tangling herself, the stick, and the meat in the rope. Nil’s jaws opened as she let forth the most irritating caterwauling, a loud feline wailing that was enough to grate on the nerves of even the most patient person. She yowled and thrashed in the rope, her chest heaving, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. Looking at her plight, one might almost think that her wailing was her way of crying.

[Antar]

Antar's eyes opened at the strangest sound as the smell of roasting meat began... receding?

The rogue's eyes snapped open as he muttered, "What the petch?"

For a moment, as Noth stared at the place where his meal had been just a short time before, the rogue wondered if Ellise had gotten out of her cage or another bird had snatched things up. Was Cade the barbarian and Mok just too hungry for their own good that they'd gone into a hunger crazed rage and needed half cooked rabbit to sate their hunger for human flesh? Well far better the rabbit then him, but where were they then?

A loud mewling cry garnered his attention towards something at the side of the camp, near the wall. A sound which reminded him of one thing: Canali's cat Kahtar. Pushing himself from the ground the white haired man gained his feet, flexing his armored gauntlets carefully as he thought of whether or not that little beastie was the reason for his dinner's disappearance. If that little creature had petching stole his food while he was waiting for it to cook he'd boil it for dessert!

Striding towards the fence he stopped about ten feet away at what awaited his eyes there. There, near the bottom of his makeshift defenses was a bundle of fur, mewling out into the night with the spit with three rabbits tangled in the rope as the poor creature was immobilized and the tines of its ribs shown through. For a moment, Antar's eyes met with the poor thing and the rogue decided he didn't have the heart to kill it. It was just a creature out for a meal, not trying to steal from him. It didn't deserve to be made into a nice new fur pelt. Not like some other things like wolves which attacked him once near the graveyards.

"Shhh... Don't worry little one. Uncle Anthony won't hurt you. Uncle Anthony likes animals so long as they don't attack him. You just wanted some food right? Let me just fix things and then I'll be right back to set you free." Bending down to get a little closer he gripped the spit with the rabbit and tore one of the corpses off before placing the spit back where it belonged over the fire to sizzle some more. He then returned to the creature still tangled in the rope and pulled a bit of flesh off the carcasse to set by the large feline's nose. It was a girl, apparently. No male parts at least could be seen, unless it was a gelding. But it was a type of cat he hadn't seen in these parts of Mizahar. More like something larger then a normal variety housecat. What was it? Some sort of escaped exotic pet?

Closing his eyes a moment to focus his mind on the image of a frozen waterfall, he began to meditate for a few heartbeats before opening his eyes to See this creature in front of him. His eyes slowly gazing at the feline's aura as he reached one gauntleted paw forwards towards the rope binding her front paw, all the while speaking soft words to set the little kitten at ease. If she tried to bite or claw him, he was sure the cold iron of the guantlets would protect him enough for the moment.

"There now, no reason for a cat to be afraid of old Uncley Anthony is there? I imagine you might be nicer then lil' Kahtar. He's a riley sort of wildcat at least which keeps to himself. But at least he chases the mice around here pretty well but he's temperamental like his owner, Canali. Though I do say that woman cooks far better grub then I can, even if I only make a bit of scorched rabbit from time to time."

[Nil'Anon]

Nil hissed and bared her fangs at the approaching human, watching him as she continued to struggle to untangle herself from the rope. It wasn’t going to happen with her in her cat form; she had no opposable thumbs with which to untangle the rope. She certainly didn’t trust humans, so she was wary of the one who looked like he might be attempting to free her. Maybe he was going to capture her once he freed her, take her back to the ones who had had her before. For all she knew, he could be planning to eat her... her thoughts suddenly turned to the meat that he placed in front of her nose. She looked from the meat to Antar and back again a few times, sniffing hesitantly at the rabbit. After a few moments, she tenderly reached out and plucked up the meat, and then promptly scarfed it down without much attention to taste or enjoying it. She wasn’t eating for the enjoyment of the food; she was eating to fill an empty belly, so taste wasn’t much of a concern to her. Having devoured the morsel of rabbit, she looked up to the human again, still suspicious of his motives.

Their eyes met and he started to speak to her again. His voice was soothing, and he had fed her. Maybe he was going to let her go. He was talking about some woman and her cat, and how the cat was anti-social. Probably a normal cat, one that didn’t change shape, a real animal cat. Not like her. She could think and reason in the way that humans did, sort of. Different than her completely wild brethren. The other cat probably didn’t feel the same need to please humans and be around them that she did. Well, the ones who were smart enough to take care of her anyway.

[Antar]

"Shh... you don't have to be afraid lil' kitty, Uncle Anthony ain't gonna hurt ya. But I am going to have to do a bit of work to get you undone from that string. It's not yarn to play in you know." Noth crooned to the kitten as it began to scoff down a piece of charred rabbit. Shortly thereafter , Antar pulled off another bit of the meat and offered it to the captured animal to eat again.

He waited for it to take another bite before taking a look at the creature better. It was quite large for a housecat, looking about twenty five pounds and to its shoulder was a at least a good twelve inches. One of the biggest housecats he'd ever seen, if it was a housecat. He didn't know because he couldn't tell what it was species it was supposed to be. It was just , big.

Pitching his voice he slowly stretched a gauntleted hand closer to the animal's brow to try to give it some scratching. Unfortunately, he knew this prorbably would almost guarantee a response and a teething bite... at least the paws were bound. He just hoped the armor of his gauntlets would protect him long enough to begin scratching the little beasties head.

[Nil'Anon]

Nil repeated her actions with the second piece of meat, carefully inspecting it before she picked it up to eat it, though a bit more slowly this time. She decided to savor the taste a little. And then came the gauntleted hand, closer to hear head, her brow. Sure, he was just attempting to scratch her and calm her, but how was she supposed to know that? The caracal Kelvic lunged up at the gauntlet and snapped her jaws closed around it. This wasn’t the greatest idea, it kind of hurt, chomping down on a metal glove. She kept at it though, gnawing furiously at the gauntlet fingers, and when her front paws were free, she wrapped those around his forearm, her claws digging for flesh. When she was fully released, her back legs scraped furiously at his arm, claws out. This only went on for a few seconds before the Kelvic seemed to register that he wasn’t actually doing anything to hurt her and that she was free. She let go of the human’s arm and skittered away from him, stopping a few yards off and turning to look at him. Maybe he was actually trying to help her. Maybe she could get some more food from him. With a swirl of tiny firefly lights, Nil went from being a very large cat to a young girl. The child looked at him. “Feed Nil’Anon,” her voice was questioning, curious, and a little bit wary as she remained where she was, keeping a close eye on the man’s movements. If he made even the slightest threatening gesture, the naked child would not hesitate to run. She sure as heck wouldn’t stick around to see if he was actually a threat or not. For the time being, she simply stared at him and waited to see if he would feed her.

[Antar]

If anyone ever said that a cat pawing at one's hand was sort of pleasant, then they had never met such a giant creature as this one. The untangling process was a bit painful, not with Nil's claws and teeth piercing the gauntlet, nor his skin. But simply with the sheer amount of pressure the cat's jaws could bring to bear to compress the plates of the gauntlet. Not enough to bruise, but enough to be uncomfortable.

Finally, when he had finished extracting the cat's hind legs from the ropes he was glad his scale armor took the punishment of little furry claws raking the protective layers. But soon enough, he simply began to scratch the furry things ears before letting her bound off.

It surprised him a little when the flash of light appeared, a clear sign of a kelvic transformation. It surprised him greater when the little creature took the form of a young girl, not one that was grown or mature. A child really... must be dreadfully cold in the fall air for a naked child to roam around. Her demand for food was kind of sad as well. But the name rang clear enough.

Nil'Anon... first hungry kelvic to sneak into camp and the poor creature hadn't attacked him like Ellise had. He imagined she wasn't as mentally damaged as the falcon either. She hadn't actually succeeded in stealing so he wouldn't truly kill her. But what to do now? Would giving the creature a meal really hurt? Chuckling lightly, the rogue sat back and rested his elbows on his knees. "Oh so that's what you want. Food , eh? Alright, I'll give you some food..."

Turning back towards the fire pit, Antar pulled off a rabbit leg and held it out towards Nil. "I'm guessing Nil's your name, right? Mine's..." He hesitated a moment, and then looked at the child, pondering if he should tell her his real name. After a bit of an indrawn breath he continued, [color=orange]" Antar Noth, yep, Uncle Antar, though some call me Anthony sometimes."Would you like to share some dinner Nillie? I was just about to give some of the rabbit to Ellise as well. I don't think she'll mind if she lends you her robe for warmth as well."

Reaching one hand out towards the child with a smile the rogue beckoned Nil to come a little closer, offering the bit of rabbit as a peace offering.

[Nil'Anon]

Nil’Anon continued to eye the man warily as he held out the rabbit leg. She inched closer to him and snatched the leg from his hand, tearing into, juices from the meat running sloppily down her face and chin. “Yeph, name if Nil,” she spoke with a mouth stuffed full of rabbit meat, bone hanging from one corner of her lip as she gnawed on that too. He introduced himself and asked her if she wanted to share his dinner with him, and someone else apparently and even offered her a robe. Trick or not, Nil was hungry and it was a bit chilly when she wasn’t in her feline form. “Uncle Noth,” she said curiously, testing out the word uncle and the shortened version of his name that she found easiest to say. Her mouth was no longer stuffed with meat, so her words came out more understandable than before. “Mwore wabbit,” she proclaimed in her child-like voice as she moved closer to the fire and Antar, seemingly satisfied that she was safe for the time being. She would eat whatever was offered to her, with great gusto and enthusiasm, and then accept the cloak that was offered as well. When she was finished, she would inch her way over to Antar and after poking him curiously, flop against him and promptly proceed to snore… loudly.

[Antar]

While Nil ventured to eat some more of the rabbit, Antar went back to his tent to open the trunk he kept Ellise clothes in and removed the cotton robe to drape it around Nil's small little shoulders to keep her warm. As she ate, he simply spoke pleasant words of reassurance to her , letting the kelvic simply hear his voice within the chilly fall air.

Smiling to himself as the little creature snuggled up close to him and fall asleep, Noth wondered what was happening here. He had a kelvic, an animal that seemed perfectly comfortable with his presence, appearing from no where and eating part of his dinner. In a place like Sunberth no less! He, a trained killer, had for all intents and purposes a child sleeping against his side!

'What the heck was wrong with this picture?' he mused to himself as he gathered the sleeping child up in his arms and headed towards his tent. When he entered to lay the girl down on one of the spare bedrolls (he had three total from his pillaging) he tucked her in with a set of spare blankets before going over to the cage where Ellise was held. Lifting the falcon out, he removed her collar and the animal blinked at him for a bit before he nodded his approval for her to change. Soon enough, Ellise in the nakedness of all kelvic's possessed was kneeling beside the little kitten and wondering something.

A brief question to him netted a whisper for her to dress as a human, for tonight she'd be sharing some warmth with the child. After the kelvic scampered to do his bidding he brought the rest of the rabbit from the fires back to Ellise to eat. He knew kelvic's used a lot of energy in transforming, and tying the door to the tent shut he set his armor and gauntlets into the footlocker before making his way to sleep in his own bedroll. His last view before his eyes closed was of Nil, safely tucked away in Ellise's arms. He wondered if he was "Uncle Noth" if little Nil might start calling the other girl "Big Sista' Ellise."

Only time would tell... but tomorrow, when she awoke, it was going to be a brand new day.

~Fin

[Cachet]

Antar : Antar SKILLS Animal Husbandry:2 negotiation:2 persuasion:2 Cooking:2 LORE Recognizing Different Cat Breeds Nil'Anon (Basic) Nil : Nil SKILLS unarmed combat:3 running:2 acrobatics:1 LORE Snatching A Quick Meal Uncle Noth (Basic) Conclusion: It's so sweet to see Antar not killing everything he meets....just kidding Antar. A good thread. Liked the read and the wabbit.....remember it isn't duck season yet. Anything seem out of place? Any questions please feel free to contact me ASAP.