Closed A Student's Student (Leith)

[Kaska Villahotes]

Kaska smiled. "I'll make you a deal. I know you're hurting...but every time you get this from me, I'll massage it and make it less hurt." Kaska said, his back still to her but a smile on his face. "Come on then, let's see if we can get you fetching things out of my chest pocket by the end of the day." he ran his hand over his face and smiled gently, waiting for her to nab the gravel packet. "Don't worry about Enoch, if Baldur did his job right he won't even notice they're gone." He felt a bit silly wearing the outfit, but he knew it was necessary. The coat hung awkwardly off of his skinny frame, and it made him feel nine sizes too small. He felt odd being the wearer, when he was young he would have been in Leith's position. Grabbing the same stupid packet of gravel out of the depths of the pockets. He hadn't told her that certain pockets on the coat were deeper than others. _______________________ "What? He's dead?" Enoch roared, glaring at one of his younger apprentices. The boy fidgeted in front of the tall, black haired man whose face was going a steady shade of wine. "What happened?" "He was found in an alleyway...someone had...I don't know dropped a large stone on his groin or something. But we didn't find any rocks. Just the crush wound." the boy said, watching the thief pace angrily in his home. The house was a dingy thing with several straw mattresses on the floor. Enoch was lord and owner of the small den, with three thieves working under him and two of those having additional duties as prostitutes. Kaska had been his problem child, and had left the den after finding that goddamn mace. The mace. Enoch scowled. "Were you south of Tent Street when you found him?" he asked the apprentice, who nodded. "Yes sir." "And how big was the wound?" "About the size of a small melon, sir. With three big puncture wounds." Enoch's scowl deepened. "Villahotes. That little skinny shit killed him for being in his territory. Well, now I know where my steam trunk is that filthy, stealing little shit. Get the boys together and meet me just beyond the border of his territory." he snapped at the apprentice.

[Leith]

This new pocket was more of a challenge and when a bell chimed she stopped and tried again. She was determined now, if only so she could take a much needed break. Eventually however, despite the pounding in her head and the pain along her back from tension, she got it out of his pocket. She squatted on the ground her eyes closed, the sun was making her head hurt even worse, but she didn’t complain. “I hope nothing happens, but what if it does? Flocks notice when one of their own is missing and humans have longer memory than birds. Do we run? Do we…do we fight? I trust you, if you say we will be fine, okay, but if the worst ever happened what do you need me to do? If I could fly I would be of more use… I wish I hadn’t been so…so stupid.”

She rubbed her eyes then her head, but stood up pushing it aside, though that was getting hard to do. A raven landed on the edge of the roof chortling down at her, she clicked her tongue and lifted her good hand. It fluttered down to land nibbling her fingers, she brought it close to her face making a crooning noise in her throat. It wasn’t easy making certain sounds, she had to think of how to do it, but the bird stopped eyeing Kaska. Though it eventually went back to studying him, this time curious instead of wary. It made a few sounds at her preening a wing.

Sister fly with blood-fur now? Make new flock?

She studied her red haired friend her eyes mischievous, but clicked her teeth carefully making a few sounds telling it he was a wing-mate and not a breed-mate. A friend.

This seemed to satisfy her avian flock-mate and it gently reached and nibbled a few strands of her hair, but always kept one eye trained on Kaska. It took to the air landing on the roof again calling, a few more ravens landed and they started talking. She sighed leaning carefully against the wall rubbing her eyes again “You are one lucky human, you know that? Not every day a ground hugger gets noticed, but then you are in my company and that makes you special.” She looked over at him grinning “You got named.”
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[Kaska Villahotes]

Kaska smirked and shrugged off the jacket, putting the gravel packet back into one of the many pockets and laying it aside. He sat her down in front of him on the rag pile and sat behind her, his narrow fingers going to rub her shoulders. He was quite skilled at it, Enoch having insisted on teaching him to treat his own training wounds. "Named?" he asked her in confusion, looking up at the bird. He felt unsettled by the way it was looking at him, staring. He shuddered a bit. "Don't worry about the gang. If they attack us I'll defend myself, you run. You run faster than I do. But I'll run if the numbers are higher than we can deal with. I always keep my things in my pack so I can run if I need to." He continued rubbing her shoulders, frowning in interest at the raven. "So what did he name me?" he asked.

[Leith]

She bit her tongue closing her eyes, while it hurt a little his hands were making it go away and it felt really good. She sighed feeling some of the ache in her head ease up “He named you ‘blood-fur’, my name is ‘sky-eye’. If a human takes their interest in a good or bad way they give it a name to easily warn others. Sorta like crows” She sniffed “but better. I don’t get why they call a flock of crows a ‘murder’ and a flock of ravens an ‘unkindness’ do you humans think crows are more serious than us? Anyways, when I can change again I’ll show you the sounds, its easier to speak that way. I can make the sounds now I think, but it won’t sound quite right, I’ll have an accent and they might get confused.”

She looked up at them and smiled, their attention on Kaska amused her greatly “They might change it on you though, really depends on how you treat them. Once they start liking you, you’ll be able to tempt them to your hand and if I teach you right I think you can even call for help. Really depends on them, the only reason why they accepted me was because I am able to change. They associate my human form with food and an interesting thing to perch on. They will be highly suspicious of you till you do things they like, even then only one or two will really warm up to you. I call him Nibbler, the other two are his siblings, he’s the smartest of the three. He’s the one that looks for me often, the most eager to heed my calls and the most brave to come to me even though you were so close. The other two flew to him to scold him, but you can see him watching us, he’s ignoring them.”

She crooned a bit, Nibbler tilting his head to the side, he chittered at her before flying off his siblings following after. Under his skilled fingers she soon relaxed sighing with contentment, while it didn’t take away all the pain she was at least feeling less like her head would split open. “I do have limits to how far I can run, its hard to do here in the city, in the forest I can keep up a ground eating lope for at least fifteen minutes. That’s on flat ground with no obstacles, but I’ll do my best… If you lose me, look for where the birds flock. If I get taken, if there is a window, you’ll be able to find me. Only night time will be a problem, but…I’ll fight as best as I can. I can risk changing, nothing is broken, but I just won’t be able to fly very far without taking breaks.”
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[Kaska Villahotes]

"Seems like they name you for your appearance. Blood fur, my hair. Sky eye, your one blue eye." Kaska said. He rubbed her shoulders and moved to her back, massaging the sore muscles he found there. "Well that's only an emergency plan. My hope is to keep training you for the two weeks you're here. We'll have to be careful. No more playing around in the streets, when we're outside of this safe spot we need to act like the whole world is out to get us." He dropped his hands and rested them in his lap, looking out at the end of the alleyway. It would be nice, he wouldn't have to take his mace with him, nor his pack. He would be able to work without being robbed as often, with her guarding his things he could periodically come back and drop off gold. He kissed her cheek and rose. "I have to work tonight, unfortunately." he told her. "I leave you with the mace and my pack, watch over them and make sure no one steals them. You've my permission to use the knife and the razor if anyone comes after you." He sincerely hoped they wouldn't. He opened up his pack and took out a small stick, twisting his hair up into a small knot on the back of his head. Most of his hair still tumbled down his back, clean and as red as metal from a forge. First, he had to go pay Baldur for stealing the chest for him. He smiled reassuringly at her and walked towards the bar, ducking into a flap in the back. He came out an hour later, wrapping his coat around himself and redoing his hair. He had a distinctive bite mark on his throat, Baldur's punishment for leaving Leith with him and driving off business. Kaska reappeared intermittently, dropping off one or two gold mizas at a time. He looked more and more haggard each time he came back, and one time was with a large glaring bruise on one eye. The final time he came back he was completely exhausted. He dropped a gold coin into his coin purse and pulled the pack and the mace into bed, laying down on his side. He sighed deeply, aching from the waist down. A lot of his clients had been cruel to him; he sported bruises along his inner thighs and along his hips. He lifted his shirt to look at a particularly nasty black thing spreading up his side. "Bastards." he mumbled, shoving the cloth back over his wound.

[Leith]

He wouldn’t have seen her expression when he came back at last, but her mismatched eyes were angry. She’d been terrified when he had left, but had stayed put, but seeing him come back each time more hurt than when he’d left made her angrier and angrier. She moved over to him with the water skin and a clean looking cloth “Let me clean it, I’ll get some of that burning stuff from the old man, I think its good for more than just drink…can’t remember, but even if no you should have some to make it not hurt as bad.”

She didn’t want it getting worse and him dying from it, she reached out gently to run her fingers over his head. “I wish there was more I could do for you… You shouldn’t have to take care of me, I’m causing you a lot of pain.”

She wouldn’t leave him unless he said so, even if she wanted to help him, he was injured and that meant someone might think him easy prey. It stung, a lot, that she who was so used to living on her own and hunting for herself would be forced to rely on someone and be a source of pain. They wouldn’t be in this situation if it hadn’t been for her, they could have been in the forest, but her mistake was causing him to have to do more than he might have on his own. She rubbed her face with her uninjured hand trying to keep from crying, he wouldn’t like it and think she was pitying him. She was angry and that was why she was tearing up, angry because she was unable to help.
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[Kaska Villahotes]

Kaska smirked and took her wrist. "I'm fine. The bruise was my own fault. I smacked my face straight into his elbow." he told her, taking the waterskin from her and downing a deep draught of it. He laid on his back, sighing and looking up at the setting sun for a moment. "Come here." he beckoned her to lay by his side, on the pile of rags that served as a bed. "Don't be so upset. Yes, it's painful. But I've dealt with it every night of my life for a long, long time. Since I was...what...seven? Nine I lost my virginity, seven I was still working." he shrugged his shoulders indifferently and took another sip of the water, corking it and settling into bed. He stretched out. "I don't want your pity, little bird. What I want is for you to sit back and relax. I'm not getting too terribly hurt, and you did me such a good favour tonight. You watched my things. Normally I bring them along and pray no one's unoccupied enough to grab my comb or something." he chuckled dryly and looked through his pockets. "Oh, brought you something..." he pulled out a small silver chain, holding it up to the fading light of the day. "Female client of mine. She's sweet on me, gives me presents every once in a while. Give me your wrist." he held out his hand for hers.

[Leith]

She moved carefully, mostly because her injured arm made doing so awkward, but also because he was injured. “I’m not pitying you, I’m angry, at them, at myself, at the one that hurt me, but also at the pain that keeps me from being able to unburden you. Though…I guess good things come out of my being grounded, got to spend more time with you and stuff.”

When he held up the gift her eyes widened, then she scowled “She didn’t hurt you too did she?” She still held out her good arm so he wouldn’t think she was going to turn down the nice thing he was doing. “Its shiny… Nothing I have in my collection is as pretty as this, usually can’t nab the good stuff even in my true form. Though…will you teach me how to take it off?”

She leaned her face close to his ear, she didn’t want to speak something so important out in the open air. “To keep one of my kind that’s how you do it, things like that, a simple collar, keeps us unable to fly away. Its why…I need to know I can take it off.”

She settled back with a sigh “If you were my master it would be okay, but we haven’t bonded or anything so…I am only slightly nervous. My father once told me it’s the single greatest thing in our existence, to find one we belong to. Its why we were made, to bond with someone and stay by their side… If we bond really young we never grow up, but I am grown and so can be independent. If I bonded with someone…they can do anything to me and I’ll long to please them. I don’t want to lose my freedom, if I were to bond…I’d want that person to let me be…me. He used to have a human, but they died, mama never did and she hated humans, I don’t hate most humans. Just those…that hurt those in my flock.”

She looked over at him wondering if he realized she counted him as someone she liked. She touched his hair again letting the silky strands fall through her fingers. “You sure you don’t want me to fetch you some of that fire drink? You seemed to like it and I have seen lots of people drinking it, though its too scary for me.”
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[Kaska Villahotes]

Kaska smirked. "No, she didn't hurt me. She's a gentle thing, just lonely. And the clasp here is just a simple hook." he showed her, sliding the hook into the small eye piece and squeezing it shut. "To take it off, just pull on the hook until you can get it out of the eye piece." he said, admiring the silvery strand on her wrist. When she explained what it meant, he dropped her hand like it was on fire. "I...this isn't meant to be anything serious. It's just a gift. I appreciate you teaching me how to hunt and survive." Kaska said awkwardly. "Besides, I can't keep anything like that, it would be broken in a few hours. Bonding, I think you should wait until you find the right person. You wouldn't want a broken old thing like me." he chuckled and patted her shoulder. He cuddled down, putting his arm around her and letting her rest against his body. It was nice having someone warm next to him. He smiled when she mentioned alcohol. "I'll be fine, I don't want to be boozed up. I like it, but too much of it makes you sick." he said.

[Leith]

She cuddled close with a sigh “My kind don’t really…choose it. Sometimes it takes years, others a mere meeting of the eyes, it happens and that’s that. It’ll feel like our chests will burst with happiness so strong it’s almost painful, that’s how papa described it. I don’t think you are broken, nor old, you are you and if you weren’t I’d not have taken you under my wing.”

She moved her wrist to watch the silver catch the light, she wouldn’t tell him that this was her first gift, she’d let him sort that out for himself. “My first human friend, that means you are special, though I’d have liked to meet you under less…stressing conditions.”

She didn’t regret it though, not even after getting hurt, life was filled with pain and he had gone and made sure that one human couldn’t hurt her again. While she’d have not wanted him to kill for her, that act touched her, it meant he cared enough to be angry on her account. She still felt bad about the mistake that led up to the death, but aside from a few bruised places she was fine. She went back to eying the gift watching it glitter, she was especially happy that it would be easy to take off if she needed it off.
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