[Bronze Wood] Prowling Beasts (Nya Winters)

[Kadarus]

Season of Fall, Day 6
The Bronze Wood
Private, Tag: Nya Winters

"I don't get why I have to eat dirt. Dogs eat better than this," Finn grumbled, rolling the ball of clay, nearly as large as her head, between her small pink hands. Had the little Pycon been alone in the Bronze Wood, she would have been in inarguable danger; surely there was a beast hungry or malicious enough to snuff out the statue's odd life. But her companion stood several feet away, seeming to relish in the smells of the flora and fauna, beneath the cool shade of the forest canopy. He stood, shoeless and shirtless at the edge of a fair sized stream, eyes closed, head tipped back. Bright yellow sunshine peirced the leaves overhead, creating an intricate, curious tattoo of light and shadow on his tired, worn flesh. Finn herself stood upon the lip of the deep hole he'd torn into the earth for her, scowling at the lump of coffee colored clay that would be her meal.

"Because, Finn," he said after several quiet minutes, his voice calm, and unusually relaxed. "You don't even really eat, anyway. You don't have a stomach, or teeth. I eat like this because..well...I don't know. But I know it's a good idea." Kadarus drew in another slow, relaxed breath, enjoying the wilderness. Syliras had set him at aching edge; there were too many people around him, at all times, and some gnawing gut instinct had kept him from ever coming to a pause. He had always been pacing, always rolling a new cigarette, always fingering the grips of his throwing knives. Kadarus opened his eyes, and looked down into the stream. The water was a pale emerald in color; he supposed he could have just scooped some clay out of its bottom for Finn, but it was too late. It gurgled quietly as it flowed by, completely unaffected and ignorant of his presence, shimmering in the sunlight. Giving a contented sigh, the hunter unhooked his buckle from its hole in the belt, then stripped his pants off, crouching to pull his feet through the cuffs.

"Little cold out here, Kadey?" He shot a warning glare of his shoulder at the pycon as he stepped into the stream. "Don't have to be so testy." Kadarus groaned at her terrible joke, but she dropped to the grass on her back, cackling madly. Wading further into the stream, the water beginning to rise to his knee, the kelvic's shoulders trembled ever so slightly. As he paused in the middle of the creekbed, and turned towards Finn, she could see an uncommon, yet familiar sight; the man's facial features had shifted into a curious thing, the nose and jaw squaring an lengthening, his eyes becoming somewhat angular with a canine like quality. As though the turn had been a cue, thick tufts of fur had begun to sprout across his chest, face, and arms, his bones giving near audible creaks and groans as his tailbone lengthened, growing fur as it extended. Suddenly, he fell face first towards the water, but by this time, almost all of his body had changed into the blood red Talderan wolf, and before his muzzle could break the surface, Kadarus' massive paws hit the soft, giving bed, his body still swelling slowly in size.

In a breath's time, the tall, battle scarred man had been replaced in the water by an immense monster with man-killing teeth, its powerful muscles showing easily despite the thickening coat of fur. In the dappled light of the noon-day sun, shoots of black and brown shown in the coat, uninterrupted from snout to tail but for a few marring scars. Finn drew in what sounded like a breath, in her usual fashion of wishing and mocking of humanity, but a low, sincere growl from the back of the huge wolf's throat shut her up.

He stood there for some time, letting the stream trickle by around his legs. He had one distinct purpose, standing in the middle of the cold water, and his mind was focused intently on it. Not to mention, it truly did feel good to step out of the trappings and costumes of man, and become what he really was; a beast. Kadarus watched the vein of water, passing by, his gold eyes unflinching, the stream itself completely unhindered and apathetic to the animal inside of it. The sunlight shifted, leaning towards the left, ever so slowly - until he saw the briefest flash, a glimmer of silver! His muzzle darted into the water at a frightening speed, and he came back up, face drenched, a wounded, frantic fish in his jaws. With a soft, short growl, he whipped his head to the side, tossing the fish onto the grass, far to the side of the stream.

It was slow going, but he was a patient thing, and he stood in the stream for some time, until the shadows had grown tall, and the sunlight had faded into a muted violet. His eyes gazed towards the stream's bounty, and he immediately scoffed at the pile, his bones twisting uncomfortably, a new chill biting into his flesh. "Definitely not enough," he muttered, wadding uncomfortably and awkwardly on man's two legs out of the stream, still staring at the fish. "I'd need at least another four dozen for a good dinner...damn. I wasted my time. I'm going to have to find a boar, or something." Wiping blood and chilly water from his face, Kadarus stared off into the darkening forest.

[Nya Winters]

She watched him with measuring eyes from a vantage high above the stream. Wolf. Talderian Wolf. Kadarus wasn't exactly what she had expected to find, but a good cat would have caught more fish she noted absently. A forest cat would have also noticed he wasn't alone. Of course, Nya was smart having settled upwind after the pycon's laughter drew her down stream from her home and out to discover who was hunting in her territory. So close to Syliras, it was probably a knight or two - something she could handle. Her surprise was evident at having found another kelvic in her territory, and one that was not alone. She settled on a small rise above the stream where three enormous cedars grew overlooking the crystalline waters. The stream kissed their roots, undermining them, and would eventually cost the big trees their lives. But for now the trio of cedars were sentinels, and silent witnesses to the wolfs hunt.

Nya judged the wolf to be fit and healthy. She could see he was a man in his prime, though his body scars indicated he had lived a hard life. She kept her enormous head down, though her nostrils flared with the scent of him and the pycon. His nudity didn't bother her in the least. But the pycon's strange animated laughter was slightly disturbing. Nya had been alone a long time, and while one might consider her foolish for approaching, it only took her a few moments to decide that was exactly what she was going to do. It didn't matter that he was Talderian. She was from the boarder and had ran into many creatures either her size or far larger. And if this one was aggressive and dangerous, it was better to face him on her terms and in surprise than it was to have to deal with him after he ran across her scent which crisscrossed the forest in the area.

Especially a scent that would lead him back to her lair.

Nya rose, stretched, and stalked forward. Her body moved in a camouflaged ripple that drew the dappled sunlight of the forest too her, reflecting off her mottled fur, and dampening the shimmer that normal cats would normally give off. She leaped from her vantage at the base of the Cedars down into the stream, unconcerned by the wet of the water, and splashed across the ripple passed the place he had fished to almost the bank side where he and the Pycon now stood.

She didn't quite have her hackles up, but her long sinuous tail was fluffed in semi-aggression and her body was crouched, challenging but not exactly threatening. Nya knew he was in his human form and manners dictated that she meet him on equal footing. The forest cat shimmered, lost her enormous shape, and fell back into her humanity. Her skin was pale, with a healthy bronze sheen of one who had been out in the sun a great deal. She seemed unconcerned with her nudity as well, though she certainly felt the ice cold chill of the stream that now flowed calf-deep around her. Nya was young, only just two, and the stance her human form took as she changed mimicked the one her wilder form had. Half-crouched, challenging but not threatening.

"This is my territory." The statement left no room for debate, and wasn't anything but fact. Kadarus would know what she meant. In that statement was buried a hundred other questions that went unanswered. "Why are you here? Are you a threat? Are you hunting? Do you want it? Will you try and take it? Can we reach an agreement or do we have to fight?" The girl was thin with well defined muscles as all kelvics were. She had longer legs than she deserved and retained her cat-like grace even in her human form. Her hair was molted, the same color as her Forest Cat fur. She had curves that softened her features and made her somewhat attractive. Her body was marked by numerous battle scars. Even her breasts were perfectly suited to her size, full but not overly large, leaving no doubt she was mature if just barely.

Nya looked determined, serious, and possessive. And while she completely disregarded the pycon (the truth was she enjoyed the creatures), her eyes never left the gaze of the male Kelvic, the wolf.

[Kadarus]

"Um...Kadarus...." Finn stared down the creekbed, her entire body freezing as though it had been given a turn in a kiln. Her meal, the half eaten lump of clay, which she had fashioned into the passable visage of a chocolate chip cookie, dropped out of her hands. She looked as though she thought herself a field mouse of fur and flesh and blood, frozen in the presence of the massive, stalking cat.

"I know, Finn." Kadarus' voice was almost unnervingly calm, and he turned his head towards his shoulder in a passing form of manner as the cat became woman and spoke. Her tone was undebatable, as solid as stone, unwavering. Turning slowly, he was fairly surprised to see that it was Nya Winters, the young Kelvic he'd met briefly in a Syliras market place. From the corner of his eye, he could see Finn glance back towards him, her face molded with lines of worry and terror, then turn her face back towards Nya. Kadarus knew what she was thinking; There's going to be blood, and by the buckets. A lopsided smirk twirked the corners of his lips, shifting his weight into a relaxed stance. Like her, his nakedness didn't seem to be much of an issue for him, though this was most assuredly because he was far from a human or strange soul.

Compared to the man in the hat that Nya had met in the city, this Kadarus Lagh'ratham was curiously at ease, the tense aggravation tightening his eyes into a picture of anger and haste wiped clean away. He was at home amongst kindred spirits, surrounded by healthy green and cold water and plentiful, sporting food. He slowly folded his arms over his chest, hiding a set of our parallel scars, looking to have been scored there by zith claws. However, body language spoke volumes of the thoughts churning through his head, and the way he held his weight on his right foot, where his claymore lay in its sheath on the springy, green grass, said that he would have been completely relaxed with the sword nearer.

"Ah, I thought I smelled something with blood on its breath, but I didn't really feel like investigating." Had the words not been given to another kelvic, they could have easily been viewed as an insult, but Kadarus was merely complimenting her predatory side. Stepping back in the creek, he walked towards her with slow, deliberate steps, studying her closely. While there was no doubt that she was indeed fully grown - age was a relative thing to their species, so there was no telling exactly how old she was - she seemed somewhat younger now, than in the city. He supposed that it was perhaps the presence of the forest, the confidence that she held in her own territory, that added that virile glow to her mesmerizing green eyes. He stopped within only a few paces before her, easily close enough to her her steady breathing, to see the hostyility in her eyes.

"You can stop worrying. I'm not here to fight you; I don't kill my own kind. I only stopped in these woods because I'd just left that horrible city, and was looking for a brief moment of tranquility." Perhaps he'd surprise her by answering her own wary, unspoken thoughts, but it was of little use trying to hide something from another creature of instinct. Kadarus could see, at least some of those guarded thoughts in her stance, her tone, her eyes. "I'm hunting, at the moment. I realized how desperate in need I was of a good meal, but I wasted my time...fishing. I've never been good at it, even with human hands, some bait and tackle. So, I'm thinking of finding a boar, something nice and juicy, with lots of meat, and big bones." His eyes flickered away from her face in absent thought, and he twisted his head quickly towards the darkening forest, squashing a base, animal urge as old as the soil they stood upon.

"I'd be more than happy if you'd like to join in the hunt, and just as happy to share dinner for the help."

"Down, boy," Finn suddenly chimed, having seemingly finally decided the bloody, brutal fight she had anticipated may not happen. The Pycon snickered at Kadarus before sucking the last of the clay into her 'mouth', staring up at the other, strange kelvic, studying the woman's face closely.

[Nya Winters]

The truth was, Nya hadn't recognized him. She was bad at identifying individual humans from each other unless she'd payed close attention or gathered in their scent and made note of it. Kadarus of the city was a nameless faceless kelvic in a crowd of nameless faceless people that had no more interest to Nya than an errant wind with no emotions. He had impacted her that day, but in the ways of the young, she'd moved on from the incident as soon as a new situation had presented itself. That Kadarus was alone save for a pycon was fascinating and noteworthy in the wild. Nya would have been completely outclassed and out of her mind to remotely challenge him if he was with his pack. A Talderian wolf pack could do several severe damage to a forest cat without even blinking. They were coordinated hunters and deadly. She'd long steered clear or made her peace with those she knew. Kadarus, however, was alone - and in Nya's mind that made them equals. Which, of course, wasn't quite the truth. Forest Cats were arrogant in their thinking, and often dismissed canines out of hand. Nya was young, not even adult by some standards, and Kadarus was very much so. He had experience and age on his side.

Nya should have been thankful that he wanted no fight. At least, not between them.

He scented her but didn't want to investigate further? It seemed wolves had their own measure of arrogance. Nya raised an eyebrow at the comment, but said nothing more. Her stance was relaxing by the minute. The more Kadarus talked, the more she seemed to be put to ease. And it should have been clear to him that she was alone, and far more used to the wilds than the city. So she understood his feelings, and his need to escape. "I understand... that is why I live here more than I go there. Humans are madness sometimes. All their rules bother me." She said thoughtfully, and relaxed more fully. The comment about fishing even brought a chuckle. "The secret is scooping them out of the water and high onto the bank. I doubt anyone but a bear has actually caught a fish trying for one like that." She said playfully, half making fun of him admitting he'd attempted it.

And then she saw him look at her not as a kelvic, but as a man. At least that was her judgement of the glance. She'd caught the look before, from other males - the assessment of her status - the speculation, however momentarily, of how willing she'd be to let him breed her and if he'd even want to bother. To Nya, there was nothing bestial about it. That was Kadarus' sheer humanity. Humans disgusted her sometimes, but she didn't turn away from the look or deny it as Kadarus seemed to do. Might as well get this over with, even if I misjudged the look. She thought, then spoke. "I haven't had my first heat yet." She said addressing his glance and then his look elsewhere. It spoke volumes as to what her age was and what her willingness was. Young. And absolutely not. Another time, another season, the story might be different. Kelvics were in many ways slaves to Tanroa's musings, at least the females. The males had no such constraints. Nya hadn't discovered true pleasure yet, so for her thoughts of such things were grounded in reproduction, and she had no wish for offspring.

Hunting now... that was another story.

Ready, able, willing, and as usual, hungry. Nya smiled then, and emitted a pleasant purr at the thought of bringing down a fat boar. She knew just the perfect one as well. "There is a young boar who's by far bigger than his brothers. He's been tearing up a bank on a stream not very far from here, and causing havok with the woods because hes been stealing other boars sows. They are loud at night, annoying, but hes big enough that it was too much work for me to take him down alone." Not that she wouldn't have tried it, but simply that boar were mean and a misplaced tusk could cost her an eye or easily part her flesh from her body within the blink of an eye. Nya had no desire to try and nurse another wound like the bull elk had given her down her thigh. "I would be glad to help you bring him down and share the meat." She said, meaning it. The forest would be a great deal quieter without the beast around stealing sows and causing a ruckus. And he was just fat enough, she figured that she'd get some delicious pork marbled with the boars excesses.

"He lives not far from here. Two miles, no more, on this same waterway. There are sows and piglets around, but they will not bother us like he will. His temper is nasty, that one." She speculated. "We would be better off hunting as the sun set so he was blind as well. They see poorly in the dawn and dusk."

[Kadarus]

"I uh...er, heat? Heh, I don't..." An awkward smirk flitted across Kadarus' face as he looked away from the woman yet again, raising a hand to run his fingers through his short, haggard hair. It was an incredibly rare moment that anyone caught the hunter off guard; he was after all, constantly alert, always cautious, forever scanning his surroundings, but it was prone to happening, once in a blue moon. And, it was almost always a laughable affair, for it wasn't in combat that he found himself faltering - it was in his day to day life, with other people. Nya shrugged it off, simply more words in a long string of other meaningless ones, but the older, more developed kelvic took it differently, disengaging himself from her stare by sloshing up the creek, around her, sniffing at the air.

"How is your night vision, then? I spent most of my years squandered in a cave...I do well enough without much light, I suppose." Some of the steadiness had returned to his voice, now that he was not looking the young woman in the face, but again, his tone fell slightly as he mentioned the cave. They were difficult memories, ones he preferred not to revisit often, but they were too much a part of him to simply discard at the wayside. He had indeed had to get used to lightlessness; it meant the difference between landing a finishing blow on your opponent in ther zith's little amusement pit. Finishing on your back there, mean that you would continue the trend, though on a dinner table, instead of the clammy, rough floor.

Kadarus' eyes narrowed as he again scented the air, though his body seemed to visibly relax; the tight knots steeling his back muscles melted, his fists uncurling into laxness at his side. Slowly, his eyes simply slipped shut. The spice of dying leaves, golds and reds, pine needles, sharp and strong, came to him, fishblood, fresh soil, sweat...stinging, and heavy, sliding like tainted oil down the waterway. A stray, faint squeal flickered across his ear, and he twitched. "Hmm..." the hunter smiled, feeling his stomach growl with as much ferocity as he did when sensing a threat. "That will...work...very well..." Glancing up towards the dapples of sky visible through the leaves, his smile lost some of its volume.

"But, it will be an hour or so before it will be dark enough...hmm." Kadarus walked out of the water, past Nya, and bent to pick up one of the fish. It shuddered in his hand, its wide, glassy eyes rolling wildly. Its mouth opened slowly, a dying gasp unheard in the air, before he brought it to his mouth and sunk his teeth into its side. Gutting it, descaling it, and roasting it was a waste of time for him; he was comfortable eating it as it was. The fish's tail flapped pitifully as he chewed voraciously, swallowing the chunk with little worry of choking. It was satisfying, but only for the moment.

"Here. To sharpen your appetite." Picking up another fish by its tail, he tossed it towards Nya, then turned, and walked over to Finn, seating himself by the pycon. At the moment, she was busying herself by smoothing and shaping yet another hunk of clay into the rough semblance of a large turkey drumstick. "My name is Kadarus. This thing has taken to calling herself Finn."

"This lady," the pycon snapped, but was too absorbed in her own food to pursue the matter further. The hunter merely shrugged, and took another bite from the fish.

"Were you born in this forest?"

[Nya Winters]

She took the examination and stammered words with stride, watching him curiously but not overly concerned. Her expression was amused and open, no longer cautious and calculating. He'd thoroughly distracted her with the idea of hunting the old boar, which was something she considered fun. Nya turned, following Kadarus' path as he circled around her. She thought to complain about it, but only momentarily, because wolves circled. It was what they did best. So instead, she took a step to continuously turn and face him until he stopped moving. He didn't stop talking though.

"Years? Are you so old then?" She grinned in good humor, wondering why he had lived in a cave. Dark memories seem to cross his face, but they didn't reveal details to the feline. Wolves denned, true enough, but not unless they were heavy with pups in their bellies. She doubted Kade had that problem. "My vision is fine. How is your speed? If you are the least bit slow, he will have you..." Another crack about his 'years' then. And she followed him across to the dry shore and watched him capture and eat his fish raw. Nya simply smiled. For all that he complained of hunger, the male kelvic ate deeply of his fish. Nya caught the one he tossed her and had a seat with the two of them. Normally she'd release it unless she was really hungry, especially with the prospect of fresh boar on the horizon. But it would be impolite, so she neatly bit the head off, tossed it back into the stream, and tore into the tender belly of the fish. She didn't bother to clean it, and only stopped nibbling when the flesh was gone from the backbone leaving only the tiny bones of the spine and tail. that she tossed away.

"I was born in this forest, but in the extreme northern reaches of it. Near Taldera. I am wandering down here, around Syliras, looking for a bondmate." She said, glancing at Finn and smiling. "Are you and Finn bonded?" The drumstick looked unappetizing, but there was something simply funny about the pycon shaping clay to mimic human food.
She fell into comfortable silence then, with the two of them, as she groomed the scent and slime of the fish off her fingers and chin. She made no effort to appear human doing so, instead she dipped her head and used her tongue cat-like and contentedly.

"Have you hunted boar before? This one is old and very clever. You'll have to be fast to take it down... we will have to work together." She added, then stretched, shifting so she was sprawled on her stomach. At eye-level with the pycon now, Nya asked another question. "Are you going to be hunting too?"

[Kadarus]

"Bondmate..." Kadarus cast his gaze to the grass that he'd flattened down with his feet, scraping the last stubborn bits of meat from the thin white bones of the fish with his his teeth. "I've never had one...not in the sense of a mate, something you want to spend the rest of your life with. Nor do I truthfully want one," he muttered, his mood turning dark as his memories turned towards the kindly face of Laurelous Eraclaire, aged and lined with life and laghter and love. Her fate had never been truthfully clear to him; but if his years in the colony had taught him anything, if you did not see the person in the pens or the pits, it was the dinner table for them. The hunter shoved his fingers into the fish's face, struggling to fetch its eyes to finish off the appetizer.

He winced, his hands pausing before retreiving even one of the eyes, shooting an annoyed glare at the girl that fell away into a groan. Finn immediately leaped to her feet, almost shaking with excitement, and if her eyes could dance and sparkle with glee they certainly would have been alight. "Ha! Yes, that's right! Finally, someone intelligent enough to intuite that wonderful bond! He's the servant, and I'm the master! At night, he rubs my little clay feet, and he cooks me spaghetti and clayballs, or clay roast and veggies...he pretends to be a big mean sour bastard, but he loves hugs!" The pycon threw her small arms into the air, grinning literally ear from ear. Kadarus leaned over, pinched her wrists between forefinger and thumb, and pulled both of her arms off.

"No. We're not bonded," he said in a flat tone, having to raise his voice quickly as Finn began shreiking loudly, looking back and forth rapidly between her severed arms. She stamped her feet and collapsed to the ground, rolling around aimlessly on her back and stomach, throwing a repulsive tantrum. Kadarus acted as though this was nothing new, even reaching over and picking up two more fish, offering another to Nya. "She's a liar, a shyster, a pervert, and an addict. The few redeemable qualities she has are buried under mud..."

"You're one to talk!" Finn jabbed one lumpy glob of clay at Kadarus as stubby smaller lumps began to wiggle out of the mass, her face molded into an angry little glare. "Your people skills suck, you got a foul mouth, you're four silver mizas short of a gold in the intelligence department, and to top it all off, you're a killer!"

"Oh, don't be so damn sore about it," he scolded, shoving the fish into his mouth and tearing an enormous bloody bite from it. Kadarus gnashed his teeth, chewing fast with his mouth open, his eyes watering briefly as he swallowed the gigantic lump of fish flesh. "I've hunted them before," he spoke again in answer to Nya, biting into the fish again. He'd nearly obliterated the thing in two bites. "But not often," he added after swallowing again. Kadarus found his blade or teeth all too often in the flesh of more intelligent, winged prey. Pulling the eyes from the fish's head with more success than the last, he popped one into his mouth and chewed slowly, watching the girl flop down belly first on the grass, staring at the pycon as she clumsily reshaped her arms.

"Her, hunt? Heh. The only thing she hunts are copper peices that fall under tables." Finn turned rapidly upon him, looking comically furious. "Well, maybe she could work as bait...distraction..."

[Nya Winters]

Where she stretched on her stomach, at eye level with Finn, Nya watched the pair interact and smiled softly. True friendship then, bonds that went a far different pathway than the one she was seeking, but yet something she found beautiful nonetheless. Nya had no friends. It was something she'd never missed in her life until that moment when she saw the two of them so much at ease in each other's presence, making no demands and putting no pressures on each other. Moss green eyes softened and she turned from watching Finn to watching Kade again. She studied him closely and thought about what she knew about the kelvics as a person. He was old, far older than she was... and he'd been allowed to grow into his maturity. Never been bonded? He must at least have been four or five years old, if not older, she guessed. His human shape looked youthful still, as if he was in his twenties, and Talderian variants of common animals often lived as long as humans in some cases.

Nya's eyes roamed his body curiously, showing no distaste for the scars he wore. Her examination started at his eyes, which she decided were warm and bright with intelligence rather than bestial and crude. She followed the curve of his jaw down across his strong chin and down his corded neck. Her gaze then trailed across his shoulders and down his arms, to follow the line of his back down to the swell of his buttocks. She glanced at his genitals, but was more curious of his legs, calves and how his feet arched and ended with his toes. His body was heavily muscled as she would expect from a fellow kelvic. No weaknesses. No old injuries, but there was a multitude of etchings on his skin - scars, but most Kelvic predators had them. They didn't look as if they were all from fights, especially one on his back caught her notice. Hints of darker things were etched in his flesh, of secrets her mother hinted at... that was reinforced by the slightly rusted manacle still hanging from one of his wrists. The other wrist had rough scarring around it that her eyes lingered on.

Nya came to two conclusions after her inspection. Kadarus was dangerous... very dangerous, and he was once owned. A strange feeling welled up in her soul, spilling over into her eyes for just a moment. It was a mixture of pure anger so white hot it bordered on rage, and sorrow so deep she didn't know how to contain it. Both were completely new experiences to her. Her mother had warned her, laying out in graphic detail what people did with her kind in places like Ravok, but sitting and enjoying the after taste of sweet fish with a living piece of the truth of her mother's words somehow soured the food.

The young kelvic swallowed the fish that had suddenly soured in her throat, and tossed her hair so it fell across her face shadowing her gaze. She had never, ever, been faced with the reality of the real world as Kadarus represented it... and she needed a moment to adjust to it. Truthfully, she didn't know what to say to him, how to look at him, because her rage and sorrow threatened to devour her from inside. Her natural instinct was to go to him, crowd his space, and settle against him purring - but Nya realized instantly that was only for her comfort. It would do nothing to change his past, and truthfully he probably didn't need his past changed. So instead she kept her eyes on Finn, and her lips curled up into a smile at the harshness of the pycon's words.

Affection infiltrated Finn's words, tempering them into something far different than her spoken meaning. Nya was suddenly envious which bled into a singular wondering... her sorrow and rage transmuting into a curiosity of how such different creatures had come to know each other. She watched, the outsider, having no idea and no true skill at words to inject anything more into the conversation.

"There's nothing wrong with killing..." Nya said suddenly. "A lot of people are not worth being anything but food." She injected suddenly, her words even surprising her. It was true though, she took hunters as often as she took what they hunted in order to feed herself. Nya looked thoughtful at Kade's admission to having hunted boar before. It would be easier. But the suggestion that Finn be bait or a distraction was not going to set well with the young kelvic. "No.. we won't need bait. He'll be after us as soon as he sees us.. thats distraction enough. The fastest of the two of us should get him to charge, the other can flank him and hamstring him, but it must be timed right... the one fleeing will have to turn on him as he charges else the one hamstringing will feel his tusks." Nya said gently, then rolled to sit up, folding her legs under her. She reached out and gently picked up Finn, holding her with one hand around her middle, the other flat supporting her feet. Nya peered at the little clay woman in fascination, sniffed her, and then purred slightly. "You smell like warm earth... one of the most pleasant smells I have ever breathed from something living." She carefully set the Pycon back down, very gently so as to not damage her structure.

Nya suddenly wanted to be their friend... badly... but she had no idea how to go about it. There was something appealing about Kadarus and Finn, somehow she felt safe and relaxed in their presence, as if they were exactly what they appeared to be. That was not something she was used to. "I want... to talk with you." She said suddenly, the words falling awkwardly from her lips. "I see so few people. Will you tell me more about yourselves?" She asked. "I will tell you what I know... in exchange." Her eyes fell once more to the manacle on Kadarus' wrist. "You were in the pits, weren't you? You were... owned." The words were hard for her to say, even harder for her to say without injecting the rage she felt at knowing that. "I know who our people are. We were not made for such things. We had a different purpose... a more important purpose." She softly whispered, and then watched them both, having no idea how they would react.

It would be obvious to both of them that Nya had been alone a long time, and social skills hadn't perhaps developed as much as they should have.

[Kadarus]

Kadarus watched wordlessly as the girl scooped up Finn, admiring her warmly. She was most certainly a young one; she was still full of wonderment and curiosity, wholly in love with the world and all of the marvels it had to offer. Fleetingly, he wondered just when he had lost that attitude. The world was in far too many shades of gray for Kadarus to bother stopping at the wayside at a whim to inspect a new flower. That gray was there, too, when bothering to stop at the wayside to witness the bodies of travellers that bandits had nearly picked to the bone. In fact, he would at times care to rummage around their pockets for an overlooked miza. His life had soured him, and there had been an innumerable, relentless parade of lips that labelled him as jaded. Chewing the other eye of the latest fish to be torn to shreds in hungry maw, the hunter found himself briefly admiring that purity, that untouched innocence. It struck him strangely as a beautiful thing, like a grand waterfall tucked away and untouched by humans for thousands of years, its waters shimmering like living crystal in the golden sunlight.

"Whatever, you crazy broad." The moment that held the older, more worn kelvic shattered, and he gave the pycon a dark, critical glare. Finn was trying desperately to wriggle out of the girl's hands, reaching out with own smaller, far more fragile ones, clenching and unclenching her hands at her chest like an infant struggling to grasp something beyond their short time and stubby arms. He sighed, and turned his head away, picking at lingering bits of fish meat clinging to the ribs. A moment later, he heard Finn groan in dissapointment, and the girl's voice drew his attention again. In an odd moment of symbiosis, a rare show of the closeness of the pair so very different from one another, Kadarus and Finn exchanged bewildered stares at her question. Those intense, beryl eyes focused on the band of iron at his wrist, and his own golden stare followed. It was a simple cuff, with a lone chain link hanging from its side. Splotches of rust had sprouted up across the worn, dark metal.

The words hung in the air, as heavy and real as stone. The hunter did not move for quite some time; his eyes remained on the cuff, the sound of his breathing shallow, indifferent. Ghosts of guilt and pain darted across his face. The world drew breath around them, the leaves fluttered dryly in the wind, the birds sung their bright and honey sweet songs in the distance. "Yes." The word fell from lips like stubborn fruit from a selfish tree. He went quiet again, and curiously, Finn was silent as well, without a snide, biting comment ready to snap like the lash of a whip. The pycon climbed up onto the girl's lap and seated herself on her left thigh, waiting for a distraction for her to inch closer to the fleshy's dirty parts. "I was in the pits. And I killed a lot of people, out of mercy. If you lost one of my fights, you faced many hungry zith families - alive. But....I was never owned."

Kadarus turned his head back to her, and his golden eyes were scorching with anger. "Any man can claim ownership, of anything, but that does not mean it is his. As long as I still draw breath, I will never let myself be owned." He looked away, towards the treeline for a moment, before snatching up the last fish that he'd caught. He took two enormous bites of the thing before he continued. "They held me for four years before I could escape. If I was not fighting, I was forced to work. I was sure not to make friends with anyone; it made living with yourself a lot easier when you killed them." He mulled over the fury that thickened her voice as she spoke. Had she lost a parent or bondmate to the kelvic slave trade? "They tried several times to break me. Their first try was when they killed my parents in front of me, and ate the woman my family had bonded with. Every new offense and sleight didn't bring me down; it only gave me strength."

"Ah-bloo-hoo-hoo," Finn muttered from her perch on the nubile young woman, scooting a little further down the thigh. Kadarus however, sat perfectly still, but arched a curious brow at Nya, pessimism waiting beyond his stare. "Purpose? I know our purpose. Our people are prowling beasts, looking for our wills and our ways. I know my will, and my way. I will not close my eyes and lay down my sword until I've killed every...single...last zith."

[Nya Winters]

Sometimes Nya didn't know what was an appropriate topic for conversation, and what wasn't. Her curiosity knew no boundaries, and her words once she'd learned to talk, made up the length of distances her feet or paws could not. His words echoed in her mind... He was a slave, in the pits, but he was never owned. It had a ring of truth to it, a resounding affirmation that the older Kelvic knew exactly who he was, what he was, and where he wanted to go in life. His golden gaze burned her and her moss green ones blinked away, dominance established. Nya would remember his words, remember them well, in case she ever found herself in a situation where she had no choices or even if she ever ended up in the pits herself. It was possible, even though she carried her mother's warnings and stories close to her heart, that if she didn't find a purpose soon enough, slavers would find her.

"Four years is a long time for us. For some of us, its most of our lives. But we're Talderian, we live a lot longer than our smaller kin, so thankfully you are free and still have most of your life ahead of you." He continued onwards, spilling horror after horror. Nya closed her eyes against the image of one of her parents being murdered in front of her, or another kelvic eating someone she or her family had bonded too. No wonder he was hard, toughened, and his eyes held such rage. Nya had a natural inclination to sooth people. Forest cats were family orientated more than most, living in pairs and often allowing kittens to stay around for years until they too found their own mates.

Nya nodded. She too knew the Zith, having met one in the forest that had tried to take her kill. She didn't much like them, but it seemed Kadarus had a true reason for hatred. Long slim fingers reached out and plucked the Pycon off her thigh to set her on the thick grass as Nya shifted and stretched out once more, looking thoughtful. Here, with the pair, she didn't have to be human so she wasn't... instead lounging catlike in the thick grass by the bank. "I do not know what to say, which is unusual for me. I do know that hate inside you can be a poison that does you more damage than the thing you hate. I don't think we were created to obsessively kill though. I think we were made to help our master look for something he lost, something precious to him. I wonder, sometimes, if even after he created us, he found what he was looking for." Nya said, her voice a pur too sooth Kade's pain as she spoke.

"My father was a kelvic horse my mother purchased at a horse fair. They live to the north, and she is a scholar who studies ancient books, sometimes digging them out of the ground. They have a strong bond, a bond of love, even though my father is willful and a stallion in every sense of the word. My mother is no more his master than he is her mount. They are something more together. Something better than they would be alone. I love them both deeply, but they would not allow me to stay. I was... not human when I was born, which surprised my mother who said it was rare to have a kelvic born to a human kelvic cross. But that is not really important. I wasn't what they wanted, and because I made my father extremely nervous, they made me leave and go seek my own way in the world... to find my own bondmate." The girl said, glancing at Kadarus. "But I know a lot about Kelvics, and how people treat them. My mother did a great deal of research when my father showed up in her life. I think she had a hard time adjusting to the bond or at least was fascinated by it, especially when they became lovers." Nya said softly, then continued.

"So I'm out here looking... either for a bondmate or a purpose. And I'm trying to avoid the places I was told to avoid, because my mother was very clear what they'd use me for if they caught me." Nya said gently, stretched, then shifted again so she was laying on her side, head supported by her elbow. "I am glad you are free now. How did you get so? I ran into a Zith not long ago. We fought. He was not my favorite thing to fight ever." Nya confessed, shuddering slightly. Nya asked the question carefully, her eyes watching they slowly fading sunlight. In less than an hour, if they played their game well, they'd be feasting on boar.