Two Birds of a Feather...err, Fur [Mihai]

[Pauk]

Winter 20th, 511 AV After days of wandering around, looking for inspiration, Pauk had found it. He was well acquainted with his own fur colouring, but he couldn't look at some key places in order to paint it. It was quite obvious that his fur colour was rare, considering all other tigers, and there were tons, had the normal colour. But then he saw him. His colour was extremely similar to Pauk's; just a simple observation and he had what he needed to know. It was only a normal tiger, perhaps even a kelvic, wandering Taloba just like Pauk. Of course, he didn't actually know whether it was a male or female, he just knew that he had what he needed to paint. He could easily remember most of him, but at times like this, Pauk wished he had a sketchbook, pen, and ink on hand, if only to capture the tiniest of details he wouldn't want to miss. Pauk stared, or rather, 'observed' until he was satisfied with what he could remember of this tiger. Whether the tiger had noticed or not was beyond recognition, so went unnoticed. Then, rather abruptly, he turned on his heel sprinted home, in an effort to preserve as much of the fresh image as possible. Immediately, Pauk started stacking different furniture. He put the chair on the chest, and proceeded to mixing his paints. Pouring a bit of orange powder into a half filled jar of water, he started mixing it with a paintbrush. He then did the same thing with the white powder in another half filled jar. Climbing onto the chair with the jar of white paint and a goat haired brush in the other. He was just close enough to the wall, and he started drawing the outlines of the tiger. Tigers, of course, were everywhere in Taloba. Seeing them everyday and being one himself made it no difficulty in drawing the outline. Within chimes, Pauk had the basic outline of the tiger. Bending over the side of the chair, Pauk set down the goat brush and the white paint, reaching for the sable brush and orange paint, when he heard someone knocking on his door.

[Mihai]

It was rather a difficult thing for a human to sneak up on or track a tiger without the tiger's knowledge, and Mihai noted the strange one following him with some funny things in its hands. There had been no hint of danger, so he had ignored it for the most part. Finally, he had found a tree in which to sleep, but then the strangeness of the situation really began to percolate through his feline brain. The human's smell had been strange, and he realized he could not tell whether it was a male or a female. This was not truly a concern, because he wasn't planning to mate with said human, but it set an itch in his brain. And just because there had been no danger didn't mean that the same itch might multiply into wondering just what he had been doing following him. Huffing as he got back up and jumped out of the tree, he wandered back until he picked up that strange scent, and tracked its distinct bouquet through the hustle and bustle of Taloba until he came to a dwelling. At first he considered just pushing his way in, but sometimes people were rightfully afraid of tigers, though there was a tigerish smell here too. Instead of scratching at the door, then, he shifted into his gangling adolescent body and knocked at the door. His clothes were elsewhere, but most Myrians knew Kelvics well enough not to worry about their penchant for the au naturel.

[Pauk]

Pauk couldn't decide whether to get down and open the door, just let them stand their, or tell them to come in. He didn't think that he was in any trouble, although no one had ever visited him before. There was no reason for anyone to visit him, unless someone had the wrong house? But that wouldn't make sense anyways. It was almost terrifying coming up with reasons why someone would be at his door. Did I do anything wrong? thought Pauk. Unless trailing a tiger was a criminal offense, he didn't think so. Maybe it was someone sent by Myri, to kick him out of Taloba, seeing as he wasn't bonded to any Myrian or extremely useful in wars or anything like that. But he doubted it, considering he had been there by himself for a year now, and no one had bothered him. There was even the small chance that the tiger he had been trailing was in fact a kelvic and had found him, but Pauk shunned that thought immediately. He hadn't known of very many other kelvics in Taloba, let alone tiger kelvics. With a sigh, Pauk picked up the paintbrush and swirled it around in the orange paint. Looking down at the shaking tower of furniture he had made, he debated answering the door or letting the person stand there. He didn't want to ignore the person at the door, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to get up either. Pauk painted a few strokes of orange on the tiger, but as the knocking continued, more persistent than ever, he stuck the handle of the still-loaded paintbrush in his mouth and hopped from his tower with the nimbleness and agility of a cat. Making his way to the door, his mind frantically went through every worst case scenario. He shouldn't have worried, though. When he opened the door, he was greeted by the sight of a naked boy around the same age as Pauk himself, standing there with a slightly confused look himself. His skin was much fairer than regular Myrians, and considering he was naked, Pauk assumed he was kelvic. He could smell it on him too, the oh-so familiar scent of tiger. After a few seconds, standing there with an odd look on his face, Pauk blinked a few times and pulled the paintbrush out of his mouth. "Ehh...Hello?"

[Mihai]

Mihai peered at the stranger with the stick in its mouth, then spoke. Even the voice was strange, confusing. Mihai stepped up quickly, all in his personal space, and sniffed at his neck, getting his scent, then turned his face toward the other, eyes unblinking and wide. He searched that face for some clue that his nose wasn't giving him. There was nothing threatening in his actions, at least not to a tiger who smelled tiger, as this one did. "Who are you?" he asked. "Are you like me?" Loaded questions, perhaps, but asked with a childlike curiosity that belied his seeming age. His hand drifted lower as if he was going to answer one of those questions in one way or another, but he stopped, remembering human customs with a confused frown. "Why were you following me? Were you hungry? I already hunted and ate today, but I could go again."

[Pauk]

The lack of personal space didn't bother Pauk; he never paid attention to it in the first place. This person smelled like tiger, so he was beginning to assume that this was the tiger Pauk had followed. Then the person started throwing questions at Pauk. He could tell by the broken Myrian that this was not his best language; and if this was truly the tiger he had followed, he could speak feline. This would probably be easier on both of them, because Pauk wouldn't have to try and figure out what the other said, and this person wouldn't have to wrack his brain to remember words. "My name's Pauk. What's yours? And I'm a tiger kelvic, and I think you are too." Pauk turned around and walked back into the house, and beckoned the person inside. He pointed to what he was just painting. "I was painting you. Because you look just like me as a tiger." Pauk moved to put away the paints and paintbrushes. He screwed the lids back onto the jars, because his current painting was anything but done. While swirling the two paintbrushes he was using in the jar of clean water, Pauk contemplated his question. He was hungry, but he'd never been hunting with anyone before. It would be a lot nicer than walking around the forests of Falyndar by himself; it was scary when you heard strange noises that you didn't recognize as birds or other animals. Sometimes it was just a few Myrians hunting as well, but others he had no idea what. "Well, I haven't eaten today. I'm hungry. I guess we could go hunting, I've never been hunting with someone else."

[Mihai]

"Mihai," he said, tapping his chest. He wasn't stupid, but he was a little simple. Having grown up among a pack of varied Kelvics, his brothers, sisters, half-siblings, and all, he had never really had to think for himself beyond what an animal could think. It wasn't until he tracked Miharu down to Falyndar on his own that such thinking was required, and now the Goddess-Queen was trying to better him. He sniffed again. "You have the same colored markings?" he asked, interest piqued. "You don't... smell like me, or Miharu. We aren't brothers, are we? Or..." His brow furrowed, trying to make sense of the conflicting scents coming off of Pauk. "My... sister...? He would look at the painting and he would talk about hunting, but now he was curious about this strange smell and wanted an answer with the single-minded focus of a child.

[Pauk]

Pauk was having difficulty trying to answer this question. He didn't really know what to say to this 'Mihai'. He was sure he didn't have any brothers, though. "I have no brothers, or sisters. I wish I did though. I think it would be fun." Pauk almost decided that this would be a good way to avoid the question he knew was tugging on Mihai's mind. By the way he kept sniffing Pauk, he knew that Mihai was confused. Of course, there was no point in keeping secrets, especially since the answer was on the tip of his tongue. "I don't know. What do I smell like?" Pauk didn't understand it himself. He didn't understand a lot, he still felt like-- and still was -- a baby. Not literally, of course, but he acted like a small child.

[Mihai]

"Yes," he said, and for a moment he missed the gaggle of siblings, the mothers, and mostly, the father who was Master. But he was dead, and the others could not hold the family together. Hence Mihai had followed a half-sister all the way down to Taloba, and there was much to do here, good hunting, warm weather. In order to answer Pauk's question, Mihai stepped up close to sniff at him again. His nose was not so keen in this form, but too much rapid shifting back and forth between forms made him hungry and tired, and he was feeling too lazy to go hunt at the moment. Finally he shrugged. "Can't tell if you are a boy or a girl." Unable to solve the mystery, he set it aside for now. Perhaps when they were both tigers he might suss it out, but he certainly wasn't afraid of it just because he didn't understand, nor hateful. Hate was a human emotion and Mihai had never really felt it. "Maybe you are both. Strange." But again, it was merely confusing. Though his body was adolescent, he walked up to the painting with the curiosity of a child. "This is me?"

[Pauk]

Pauk was just as confused as Mihai was. He didn't know if he was male or female, but he thought being female would be nice. Females had all the power here. He thought being male would be nice too, though, so his thought process ended in the same confusion it began with. "I...don't know either." he said, being completely and utterly honest. He knew about as much as Mihai did at the moment. He watched Mihai walk over to the picture of the tiger, about as badly painted as everything else on the walls, but he felt pride in his work. He originally only took interest in painting to make his momma's bondmate bond with him too, but it didn't work. In fact, he only still painted because of the hope that Teer would decide to stop by some time and decide that Pauk was worth it. This made him sad, to think he wasn't worth someone's time. "Yeah. You. Me too." Walking over to the painting, he looked up at it as well. It was only a white outline of a crudely drawn tiger, but to Pauk it looked amazing. He felt the overwhelming desire to find Teer, to show him, to say, "I can paint, too!" But that would just make him mad. And it made Pauk sad again.

[Mihai]

"Both of us?" he asked, peering at the tiger. He was no artist, nor had he known any in his brief life, but he could see how it represented a tiger and his chest puffed up at the thought that someone would think it a worthwhile use of their time to paint him. Other than hunting and training to fight, Mihai mostly napped. And he only trained to fight because it was quality time with Myri, and he thought that if he ever managed to be good enough, she might deign to bond with him, and then he would be happier than a pig in shit. Already a mark of her favor twisted, scar-like, along his ribs. It made him better, faster, stronger. He wanted more; he liked feeling powerful. On that note, feeling powerful and special, Mihai instinctively tried to assert dominance. He sniffed at Pauk again as if one more test of his scent would clear up the confusion. It did not, but still that did not rile him. "If it was me, it should have the same colored eyes," he pointed out, not with any sort of negativity, just pointing out the obvious. That said, though, he walked over and flopped down on Pauk's bed, claiming it for his own, alert to the possibility that Pauk would fight for it, or that he would just have Pauk to boss around from then on.