A Meeting of Beasts (Zareah & Nastarai)

[Zareah]

“Don’t know your name,” The sentence caught her attention because of one word, name. She knew the word, but it’s meaning eluded her. She scaled the tree he leaned on and made daring jumps, pretending she was guarding a large kill from scavengers. She bared her teeth at the darkness and swatted leafs off the tree.

After a while she was startled from her game by a sudden movement. At about the same time she saw another movement. The woman had awoken, and her leap to her feet had woken the man. He also jumped up and in one stride was behind her, her hand went to her hip and she looked down, confusion warring with fear.

[Aiken]

Aiken had awoken out of reaction, not having slept for more than an hour. His head was spinning, and his vision was blurry. She was awake though, so at least something was happening. "You're not in danger, if you're worried about that. If we wanted to kill you, we would have done it while you were unconscious."

[Nastarai]

She turned around. The looming figure she had sensed vaguely before stood in front of her. Towered in front of her. She didn't process the words that had rumbled from the tall man until some time after.

"Where's my suvai, then?" The question was quiet and tremulous.

[Aiken]

Aiken looked around for a minute, remembering setting something down. He figured it was this 'suvai' thing she was looking for. He picked it up by the handle, carefully holding the blade down from himself.

"Just as a guess, this is what you want? It was for our safety, just in case you happened to be in a more violent mood when waking up." He walked forward slowly and crouched down, his nose flaring with a silent air. Her scent filled his nose, but he still didn't recognize it.

"If you don't mind me asking... where are you from? I can't tell from your smell."

[Zareah]

The pale woman did not seem inclined to attack right now, but that ‘right now’ was what kept her waiting and watching in the tree. Suddenly she remembered the horse that had run off, maybe the woman would be happier if she had her horse. She waited for a moment to hear the answer to the last question Aiken had put forth, and then dashed off into the darkness.

It did not take long before she saw the slightly glowing figure, it was still near the clearing it had run from. She followed it for a bit, it would prance nearer, then its nostrils would flair and it would hover there for a moment before tossing its head and prancing away. It knew that its mistress was there, but could obviously smell the wolf man too. She slipped silently from a tree a few feet behind it and shifted into her human from, she clicked at it. It reared, danced forwards and turned to face her, it was a afraid and the fear of an animal so much larger than her made her want to run.

She looked around, and then up. Apples, of course! She trotted through the forest, strait to the closest apple tree and plucked a few from its branches. Then she returned to where the horse had been, it was gone. It took her a few more minutes of searching before she found it. This time it saw her coming, she held out one of the fruit and clicked again, inching towards it.

When she got to where she thought it would get agitated if she went to much further, she knelt, rolled the fruit to it, and backed off just as slowly. It tried to eye the fruit and her at the same time, and she couldn’t help but giggle the look on its face. Finally it bit into the fruit, and then quickly finished as much as it could. Using the fruit she led it nearer the clearing, finally she tossed the last one right to its mistresses feet, from outside the clearing, and scampered up the nearest tree before she was seen.

[Nastarai]

The man presented the suvai to her with what seemed like caution and fear. She was slowly adjusting to the darkness and could now make out vague features of the man before her. The first, that he had a powerful build. The second, that his nose and cheekbones seemed almost delicate in comparison. Almost. She couldn't see his eyes, nor any other small details.

The question surprised her. The comment about not being able to tell by how she smelled surprised her more. "My parents ha-... I have a house outside of Syliras."

Something small and hard hit her foot. Well, rolled into it more than hit. She stooped and felt around for it. Her hand closed around the something. An apple. Confused, she looked at it. Her glowing horse wandered into the clearing.

"Namali, come on," she called. She clicked her tongue. The horse paused, then continued her direction. Nastarai started toward the gildling. A soft nose wuffled her tunic, hair, and finally hand. Laughing, she offered the apple and patted her neck.

"Thank you for not killing us, and for returning Namali. We should go find somewhere else to set camp. Sorry we came into your camp. May I have my packs?" She tried to keep her voice even and polite.

[Zareah]

The pale woman had her weapon and had been with Aiken for a while, who was yet unharmed, no conflict seemed to be brewing, so, gathering up her courage, she leaped down from the tree and ran to Aiken. She turned to face the woman, eyes shining out of the darkness, “Hello, I found your horse. I’m a Kelvic, he doesn’t know what kind, and I don’t either,” She chirped, by way of introduction, “This isn’t our camp, we only stayed so you wouldn’t get eaten. What are you? And do you have any hot food? That’s the only good thing about humans, they know how to use the heat, I'm hungry, I'll catch the sweet fish for you if you like? Or rabbits, or mice, I'm best at catching mice.”

[Nastarai]

A smaller person ran toward the man. His or her eyes seemed to glow. When she began chattering pleasantly, it became clearer that she was indeed a she. The childlike babbling contradicted her form, which was or was close to that of a full adult.

A small laugh bubbled up from Nastarai's throat. "I can't really cook much. I guess I can give it a shot though, I used to watch my mother cook. Now I mostly eat fruits or buy my food. And I'm a Konti, like my mother. Is it okay if I set up camp, if this isn't your camp? I don't have enough light to set up the tent, but my bedroll and a small fire wouldn't take long."

She looked to the man, who she suspected was older and taking care of the younger one. "My name is Nastarai. My filly is Namali. Can I ask your names and why you are out here?"

[Aiken]

"You can set your camp wherever you like." Aiken sniffed her again before standing up.

"Konti smells strange. Stranger than the big blue people and the short icy mountain people. Like water, but magic water." Aiken didn't know what to make of this newcomer. She didn't seem to be any danger, and even went far enough to ask to camp with them.

He sat back down against his tree, still tired beyond belief. He needed sleep, and then a meal. All the shifting had torn him up, and now that he had been ripped from sleep, his muscles ached all over.

"We don't really have names like you do. But the last thing I was called was Aiken. I'm not sure about her. We were hunting. Its what we do."

[Zareah]

As soon as the Konti agreed to cook, she trotted over to the river and, using her sticks, she managed to get three good sized fish out of the water, wound two in attempt to catch them, scare countless others and break half the sticks she had gathered, she had also moved a good distance down the river so she wouldn’t have to wait for the fish in any one spot. She trotted back to the clearing with her fish, “Don’t go in the water!” she told them as she dropped the fish near the horse, who no longer seemed that much afraid of her, though it was still eyeing Aiken. The wounded fish would attract larger things. Maybe even things large enough to eat the horse, if it got in the water. Thankfully this was not a river that held things that came out of the water.

She gathered some apples and apricots, remembering the woman saying she liked fruit, brought them back, then dashed off into the forest and shifted to go rabbit hunting. She managed one squirrel and then saw a large, old, rabbit beneath the tree, she caught it with a little trouble and brought it back to the tree, which she had to climb to get the squirrel down. She smiled to herself, not much for a wolf, but maybe this would give him the energy to catch something larger. The she realized she wouldn’t be able to carry them back in this form, and shifted again. Now she was very tired, but she got them back to the clearing before slumping down and curling up to rest. “I got food,” She said, looking up at the adults expectantly, hoping for praise.