Unwelcome Company, A Welcome Discovery (Kit)

[Shadowfang]

3rd of Spring 512AV

A dark, dank back alley. Buildings that would have normally risen high above the ground to offer even more shade, now stood as broken and crumbling shells of what once was. Already in disrepair, the recent djed storm had caused most of them to finally give way, leaving behind ruins and walls. Shadowfang sat slouched against one of these walls, silent and unmoving. The darkness that the half-walls around him had provided a little reprieve from the overly bright afternoon sun but now, as the sun had almost fully set, provided comfort and peace of mind to the Zith that sat there.

He had come to the alley to hide, to seek refuge from the Witch Hunts he was able to learn about a day earlier. Not only was he a magic user, he was a Zith. He would have been a prime target, even if no one knew about his magic. People hated his kind and in this lawless city that would be enough. Well, lawless was the best word to describe it at least. Something he had notice upon coming to Sunberth was the people's hatred of government, while at the same time, they were all governed by one entity. If not by whatever gang was in control at the time, by the large scale pack mentality that had tightened its hold on the city. Puling out his journal, he opened to a page with the word Places written at the top in Common language. Dipping his quill in his inkwell he wrote under the words Sunberth - Governed by pack mentality in his messy chicken-scratch writing. Oh well. As long as he could read it and understand what it ment, it didn't matter very much. In a way, Sunberth reminded him of the way his colony worked back in Xy.

He laid the book to the side, leaving the page open so the ink could dry, and wrapped his wings around his body, sliding down the wall a bit more as he did so. Being covered in fur, he was not exactly cold but he still was not warm either. Pulling tighter on his wings, he hugged himself in a black embrace and stared at the wall across from him. He did not yet want to risk going back out to explore the city. The Hunt could still be going on. Perhaps a quick nap would do. His sensitive ears were sure to alert him to approaching danger if any person were brave-or foolish-enough to approach him.

[Kit]

A skunk was waddling leisurely down the alley. This had been a reliable route for food in the past, either from the secret stashes of food the stompers put here (his human called it "garbage" but Kit didn't understand why), or from the various juicy bugs that lived in the ground. He walked without concern, knowing that most who saw him would wisely keep their distance, and those who didn't know any better would be quickly taught. He was also just feeling energetic from spring in general.

Today, there was something new on his foraging route. His instincts warred between caution and curiosity, but not for long. He approached the strange animal, ready to run at the first sign of hostility. It smelled like a predator, which wasn't much of a deterrent to Kit. Even predators knew to respect the skunk. Before he had quite reached the fur-covered creature (Kit's fur was longer, and probably softer, he thought with pride), he stumbled over a strange object lying in the street. Sniffing it produced nothing of interest; it smelled slightly of the predator, but was not edible.

Lying next to the object, however, was the longest feather Kit had ever seen. Brushing his nose against the feather confirmed that it was also the softest. He had to get this back to his den right away, before he lost his chance; soft-things had been eluding him far too much recently. Quicker than thought, he picked up the feather in his mouth and bounded away, running as quickly as he could manage back toward his den.

[Shadowfang]

Click clack click clack.

The sound of claws gently tapping the ground graced Shadowfang's ears. Luckily, the footfalls did not sound like they belonged to something heavy enough to bring him any real harm. He shifted his gaze towards the direction of the sound to discover that the creature making them had managed to get much closer to him than he had anticipated, though it was obviously still cautious of him. The little animal tripped over his book and began sniffing at it. What an odd little thing. Staying completely immobile he examined the animal. He'd never seen anything like it and was now immensely interested in finding out what it was. Perhaps it was some sort of cat? He briefly wondered if it tasted good.

He banished the thought. He was not hungry at the moment, and besides, you can't learn from something you destroy. He made a mental note that he would have to make notes and attempt to draw the creature in his book later. The animal was now completely absorbed in Shadowfang's quill, sniffing at it and nuzzling it. How quaint. Suddenly, faster that Shadowfang could blink, the animal took his quill in its mouth and began high-tailing it out of the alley.

When his initial shock passed Shadowfang rolled to his feet, grabbing his journal as he did so. This was unacceptable. He needed that quill and losing it was not very high on his list of priorities. Little vagik! An angry growl escaped his lips as his face contorted into a sneer. Perhaps he would eat the damned thing after all. He began running after the critter but it was no use, it was just too fast for him. He would have to take to the air.

He jumped, flapping his wings once or twice, and began to glide low, just over the top of the buildings. Where had the animal gone with his quill? There! just outside the alleyway. It had slowed it's pace, probably because it thought it had lost him. It cold not be more wrong. Shadowfang's instincts were kicking in now and he was turning into the hunter he was meant to be. So long as the creature had his quill, this feeling would remain. He flew towards it, keeping his altitude high until he was directly over the animal. He began to drop, descending a bit further with each flap of his wings, until he let his wings give way entirely, falling like a stone, as he attempted to land on top of the creature and grab it.

[Kit]

Kit had expected to be chased for stealing the feather, but much to his confusion, he could not hear anything. No stomping, not even the lighter thudding of animals who actually knew how to run. After a moment of confusion, he decided that the feather must not have been important after all, and the predator (who must not have been that hungry) was going to let him get away.

All of a sudden, Kit couldn't move. He struggled to escape, but there was something heavy on top of him, and he was held immobile in the vice-like grip of something with claws. He immediately thought of the predator, and, hissing, tried to prepare his traditional defense mechanism. But he was pinned too well; there was no way he could get into a position where he would be able to hit his attacker. Still wriggling, he tried the next best offensive tactic. He opened his mouth, dropping the feather in the process, and bit one of the predator's claws.

[Shadowfang]

Success! The little rodent was completely unaware of the predator descending upon him. Shadowfang had the animal in his grip, essentially sitting on it. It struggled, hissing at him in a desperate ploy for escape. Shadowfang so enjoyed the feeling of having the helpless creature at his mercy that he briefly forgot about why he was chasing it in the first place. Now in a slightly better mood, he reached for the quill in its mouth, only to have it drop the quill and bite him.

It chomped down on his finger. Shadowfang let out a sharp shout of pain and yanked his hand away, drawing a small trail of blood through the air. He let go of the creature and clutched his hand, growling in a mixture of anger and pain. He looked around. Where was the creature? Where was his quill?

He frantically looked one way, then the other, then back again. He almost did not care about getting the quill back anymore. This had gotten personal and he was going to catch that annoying little animal if it was the last thing he did.

[Kit]

Kit felt a small sense of triumph as he went flying away from the predator. He bounced of a nearby wall, which stunned him for a moment, but he was still feeling pretty good. There was more than one way to teach a predator why you don't mess with skunks.

Unfortunately, this predator hadn't had enough yet, and it didn't take long for the wingy-thing to spot Kit. He was backed up against a wall, and it had already been established that running was not going to work. Kit only had one threat left, which meant the flying predator had one chance to stop trying to kill him.

Kit glared suspiciously at the predator, and as soon as the creature made the slightest move toward him, he let out his most threatening hiss, and stomped the ground with his feet. Most predators knew what that meant. Most predators knew that you don't mess with the skunk. And with the predators who didn't know, it only took one time to teach them.

[Shadowfang]

As he took a step towards the stripe-tail, it began hissing loudly and beating the ground with it's paws. Shadowfang's hardened glare, filled with primal hate and malice, began to soften with curiosity when it took on this strange behavior. Now, instead of killing the annoying thing, he wanted to got closer and observe it. The odd change in his mentality was almost immediate as his instincts were taken over by intuition. However, those same instincts were warning him, telling him not to get close to the stripe-tail while it was throwing this small fit. His intuition gave him the answer to the problem of getting close. 

He crouched and sat down on his rear. He pulled from his bag, a small piece of old, moldy bread. Why did he still have something like this? He never understood how Other species could eat things like bread, plants, or even cooked meat. He preferred his food freshly dead and still bleeding. He tossed the piece of bread a little more than halfway between him and the angry looking stripe-tail. Maybe this type of animal liked bread. Maybe, with the offer of food, it would forget that Shadowfang ad recently tried to kill it. 

Picking up his newly reacquired quill and taking out his journal once again, he quickly wrote down what he had seen. Stripetail: Small, four-legged, furry animal. Black fur with white stripes on both sides of body. Fast runner. Likes to steal things. Bites. When cornered, it makes noise and stamps its feet. He stopped writing. That was all he knew about the little creature. He did not know how it fought, what it actually ate, where it lived, how many children it would have, or how long it lived. The more he thought about it, the more questions he came up with. The more questions he came up with, the more he realized he would never be able to find the answers to some of these questions. 

He still looked down into his book. Maybe the creature would have noticed its chance to run away and took it. Maybe it would be enticed by the food in front of it and opt to risk being around the Zith for a little longer. Shadowfang began speaking to the creature in Zithanese, a language he knew that only himself and the stripe-tail could hear, but only he could understand. This did not deter him from trying to speak in what he hoped was a soothing voice. "Do not worry, stripe-tail. I do not want to hurt you anymore."

[Kit]

Kit was still on edge when the predator sat down a barely-safe distance away and began writing again. After a bit he stopped stamping his feet, and shortly after that he stopped hissing when it became clear that the predator did not intend to come closer. When he had relaxed, he noticed the food-thing between him and the predator. Though is was not his favorite, Kit was rarely one to turn down free food. Unfortunately, he'd been in this situation enough to know it was a trap.

Kit debated for a long time whether to risk stealing the food-thing, or just escaping while he had the chance. But this predator seemed faster AND smarter than Kit, and no matter how distracted he looked, he would probably find a way to catch Kit again. The only reason Kit was not dead yet was probably because the predator had not decided to kill him. Before Kit could decide to move, the predator focused on him once more, and, it seemed, spoke to him. But it was not the chattering of human speech that Kit understood, nor the rich variety of sound that came when speaking with skunks. It was a strange language, that buzzed through his head in a not altogether unpleasant manner.

Kit had no idea what the predator was trying to say; nevertheless, its human-level curiosity might be the only thing keeping Kit alive at the moment. He did not understand the predator, and the predator did not understand skunk, but it was possible (especially given the thing's tendency to write like humans) that they shared a common language. Realizing this might be his only chance, Kit looked the predator untrustingly right in the eye and shifted instantaneously in a cloud of sparkling lights.

Where the skunk had been, there now stood an adolescent boy, completely naked and poised to run. He watched the predator with the exact same expression, and waited for it to make the next move. (Maybe with longer legs, I could outrun him this time, he realized.)

[Shadowfang]

Shadowfang's eyes widened so much that anyone looking at him would think they would fall out of their sockets. The animal transformed. TRANSFORMED. There was a flurry of soft, twinkling lights that emanated from the animal and, after they faded, there was a human boy standing in the stripe-tail's place. The surprised Zith felt his jaw go slack as he stared into the boy's hardened gaze with his own shocked expression. This had to be some illusion, some trick of mind or magic. Animals did not simply turn into humans at will. Or perhaps they did. Had the occurrence been less unexpected, he would have immediately began scribbling this new information down in his book, but as of now he was far too taken aback.

After a long pause he spoke to the boy. "What are you, stripe-tail?" he said hesitantly in Common, hoping that the boy could understand it. The name stripe-tail was given to him because that form was the last one he had seen the boy in and the boy might respond to it if he was aware of his own now missing tail. He continued his questioning. "Are there more like you? How do you change like that? Excitement became apparent in his voice, for experience was one he had never had before. He cocked his head and asked two more questions. "Where were you going and why did you steal my quill?" Shadowfang's soft, gravelly voice was filled with curiosity. All traces of anger and annoyance had disappeared with the changing of the boy's form. His eyes widened once again as he thought of one more question that would prove whether the boy was simply an animal or something more. "What is your name?"

[Kit]

Kit was surprised by the sudden barrage of questions, but he took it in stride. The predator has stopped acting like a predator and was acting more like a human now, so Kit began to relax and feel a little more human himself. With a cheeky grin, he said, "I'm a Kelvic; I've never met any other skunks like me; I dunno, I just sort of do; I was going home and I wanted your soft-thing for my bed; and you can call me stripe-tail if you want."

Once Kit got going, it was hard to stop him, and his own curiosity was rising as his fear diminished. "What are you, flying predator? Why were you scratching that thing with the feather-thing? What were those funny noises you made earlier?" He tilted his head in thought, trying to figure out if there was anything left to ask. He pursed his lips in a worried, suspicious frown and added, "Do you really not want to hurt me any more? Why not?" Kit was too clever a skunk to believe a predator just because a predator said it was safe (though is was true that most predators never bothered to lie like that). Still the smart ones, like this one, could be thinking anything.