Self-Taught (Open)

[Allison]

43rd Day of Summer, 512 AV It was a cool evening now that the sun was setting, turning the sky into a streaky mix of orange and red. The forest was quiet to the human ear, but to Allison the woods were alive and breathing with nocturnal creatures emerging from their burrows and the diurnal ones returning to their nests. It was the best time for hunting, in Allison's opinion, because most creatures were sluggish and tired. Allison had set up camp earlier that day, about half an hours walk from where she now stood. Her hair was in a sand coloured mess but that didn't really matter to her right now. Then, a bright jet of white lights enclosed her, and left a small jungle cat in her place. Her body was now a honey colour and covered in black rosettes and stripes. She had left her clothes back at the camp so as to avoid their inconvenience. She reveled in her change of shape, stretching her limbs and waving her tail about, but soon set her mind back to the business of hunting. This was not an ordinary hunting trip, however. She had to find something weak enough to subdue and large enough to practise on. See, Allison had not gone hunting that night for food but to find a victim. She needed to learn how to use her dagger. Some may find this cruel, but Allison didn't. Even if she did, it didn't matter. To her, it had to be done. She couldn't trust anyone to teach her so she had to learn from trial and error. And if she was going to do it that way she figured she may as well enjoy it. It was then that Allison found herself a scent trail. She wasn't quite sure who it belonged to, because she had spent so much time around woodland scents she could not distinguish the scents of other beings anymore. Not very well, anyway. She could tell that it was large, but she didn't care at the moment. She'd take it by surprise. Allison followed the trail back to her camp, where she morphed back into her human form for a larger stature and got herself dressed again. She also grabbed her dagger. It was not long after that when she came across another creature, this one very human like. Perhaps they were, but Allison could not tell. They could have been Akalak for all she knew. She stepped quietly, barefoot, along the forest floor until she was an arm's length from the creature. She could not help but grin - Allison could be more than a little bloodthirsty at times. Then she lunged, with the intent of injuring this person's leg in the hopes that they would not escape. However, Allison missed her target and instead found herself lying on her back, facing her former prey.

[Alea Campbello]

Alea turned round, her raven eyes piercing the woman who had lunged at her. She shook her head and said "Really, how bad can you be!" laughing. She then proceeded to draw her dagger from her belt and put it at the woman's throat. She was a kelvic, she could tell. She then asked "Why are you here!? What do you want with me!?"

She leaned back, not removing the dagger to wipe sweat from her face. She had been just about to change into a raven and catch something to eat, maybe a rat or another bird, She was so hungry, but she had a feeling that this kelvic woman wouldn't be an easy target.

[Wrenmae]

Wiping the grime from his face, Wrenmae ducked beneath a low hanging branch and passed farther into the forest outside of Zeltiva, eyes on the branches and the forest ground, moving at each twist and turn of the native fauna. “What are we doing out here again?” Zan, his familiar, always inquisitive, and always that little piping voice from his stomach. “I’ll be burying a body soon,” the murderer answered, knocking a branch aside, “I’d like to find a place to do it.” “Why not the sea?” “The Zeltivans traverse the sea. I can’t risk having it surface.” “Why? Just a fleshling. Will they care?” “It isn’t Sunberth, so there will be an investigation. I need this person to have appeared to leave, I’ll pack his things and discard those as well.” “Who is it?” “You’ll see,” He paused, hearing the telltale rise and fall of human voice from the south, piercing the trees and underbrush, alien in this natural place, “But perhaps we can concentrate on that after.” “After what?” “After I satisfy my curiosity.” Slinking closer to the noise, there were distinctly two voices, female. He couldn’t risk them possibly being Zeltivan, recognizing him out here, so he pulled the Djed from within him to the surface of his skin, warping his appearance bit by bit. At first he had considered the Isur model, the short but thick skinned creatures with rock-like left arms…but even that might be considered too surprising for a jaunt in the Syliran woods. Instead he remembered Ana, the way her body curved beneath moonlight. He had spent the better part of two seasons with her, memorizing her, studying her, and although the concept of transforming himself into a woman was somewhat uncomfortable to the already identity-confused mage, necessity demanded he be cautious, and so the transformation began. Luckily, Ana and Wrenmae were not terribly dissimilar. Her body was nearly as thin as his, although she was the shorter of the two. Pulling Djed into the familiar pathways, he felt his body shrink and shape, taking on the contours of a female as his hair grew long and strawberry blonde. The changes with his own body mimicked what he knew of her, stealing away his masculinity and replacing it with malnourished softness, the street urchin whose shape he’d acquired. His cheeks grew plumper, eyes a little wider, and bright honey brown. Within a few minutes of beginning, the last of the transformative rigors left his body…her body. Holding up the smaller, softer hand in front of him, Wrenmae clicked his tongue. The clothes around him were already looser, drooping, and he had to tighten the belt around the pants to keep them from sliding off. Hand on his long dagger, tapping against the metal faintly, he slunk toward the two. They were in some altercation, certainly, but what was the point? Two women with daggers veiled by tired trees and thick roots. Pondering this, Wrenmae brought Djed to her eyes, trying to quantify the individuals. Again, the lack of experience proved an almost painful slap in the face. She smelled their sweat, old blood on their breath, the forest, the loam, the air, and a hundred other suddenly bright assaulting smells that caused the mage to reel backwards and sneeze away the Djed, desperately brushing it from her face. And of course being loud enough to draw attention. Not one to stand on awkward ceremony, the thin blonde girl stepped out with a rueful smile, “Sorry, allergies acting up, I was just looking for herbs and I…” She trailed off, looking at the drawn blades and widening her eyes, “Oh…Oh, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She stepped back, two nimble steps, but crashed back on her ass as the loose leggings caught up her feet. Wrenmae almost cursed, shattering his original act, but bit his tongue, struggling to move with the clothes like billowing manacles around him.

[Alea Campbello]

Alea's head shot up as she heard a sneeze and suddenly a woman came into view. She had strawberry blond hair and hazel eyes.Her clothes were far too long for her. Alea was pondering what to do when the woman started talking, something about herbs and disturbing, but then she fell over and Alea quickly grabbed an arrow from her pocket, still keeping the blade to the woman's neck.

"Are you two working together?" She shouted "Tell me the truth or you both die!" Alea would have preferred to have her bow but she couldn't risk taking the knife away from the woman's throat.

She began to think about changing back to an animal but realized that any of them could have arrows or throwing daggers on them, She just couldn't risk it.

So she waited.

[Allison]

Allison lay still on the ground, not daring to move. She didn't drop the dagger she held in her hand. She glanced round to the side when she heard someone moving about in the undergrowth. Allison didn't jump when this person let out a sneeze, but the woman holding the knife to Allison's throat did. The human emerged from the bushes soon after, but something felt strange. Something wasn't right about this new woman, but Allison couldn't put her finger on it. When the kelvic suggested that Allison and the human were working together Allison smirked. "No, this is all much simpler than you think. Just put away the knife and I'll explain everything," Allison replied evenly, her voice steady. She clutched her own dagger in her hand tightly, readying herself to attack and run if necessary. She did want to find out more about these people though if she could.

[Alea Campbello]

Alea slowly put away her knife and got up, keeping her arrow on the woman who had sneezed. She then willed her djed through djed pathways to the front of her body. She then turned it into res which she turned into a fluid which she then spread out on the ground in front of her. "She turned to the woman and said "If you step towards me, I will send spikes through your body" She took a deep breath and then continued "Do not turn into your animal form or you will die, I would ask you to put you dagger down but I don't trust that woman over there"

[Wrenmae]

"You're threatening me with an arrow? Cute, really, cute." Hitching up her pants, the girl stood, drawing her long blade and stepping around the other girl. "Try a bow, next time, arrow heads are meaningless if you're trying to threaten anyone." She wasn't sure what 'spikes' meant, but it was probably a bluff. Around them, the forest hushed, a quiet sort of curiosity that washed around them. The trees themselves seemed to watch, to bend, to twist, to seek. Wrenmae scowled, brushing long blonde locks from her face and once more trying to adjust the change in height and form that messed with her outfit. "Two other women out here in the forest just wandering around," She grinned, "A strange story this makes, hmm? Any of you traveling to Zeltiva or perhaps to Syliras?" Shouldn't we head back? Why? And miss the fun? Talking with armed strangers is fun? When you do it correctly. Your kind mystifies me, they really do. Try using your imagination, Zan. It may surprise you. "My name is Ana," Shroud lied with a clumsy curtsy, "Your names?"

[Allison]

Allison's gaze alternated between the two women. She saw the green res creep along the forest floor and held back a shiver. Whatever this woman was threatening, Allison had a feeling it was deadly. Carefully, she picked herself up off the ground and tried her best to look non-threatening. "I'm Allison. I'm on my way to Syliras, if that means anything to you." she told Ana. Allison still felt something was amiss though, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Whatever it was, she could definitely tell that Ana was trying to take control of the situation. Allison let out a breath and leaned back against a nearby tree. She pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face before giving the bird-kelvic the promised explanation. "I was hunting nearby and caught the scent of a bird." she lied, without a change facial expression. Allison was good at lying. "It turned out to be you," she finished her false tale with a small smile. Her eyes then left the kelvic and turned to the human. "Can I ask you something?" she said to Ana, and without waiting for an answer she put forward her question. "Is there a reason you feel the need to be so... predominant?" Allison then wished she could take it back. In fact, all Allison wanted to do now was run but the strange green fluid stopped her. Whatever that was, she didn't want to find out how deadly it could be.