PM to join The Hunter becomes the Hunted (Athaera)

[Nivel]

As Athaera tried to explain herself, Nivel listened and tried to understand the Tall Folks logic. This subject matter was just to far over the clay creatures head, but Nivel was often told that as a knight she would need to kill in order to defend the city. She though about whether she would kill something if she needed to survive and while the idea sounded barbaric it still made sense to her. Maybe Nivel would need to experience hunting if she was to get over her fear of killing, because if there came a time when she would need to kill to save an innocent there would be no time for hesitation. “This still makes me uncomfortable but perhaps the best way to understand is to experience it first hand?” Nivel said hesitantly. She was still unsure so the words didn't come out with quite the same confidence that they normally did. During the explanation, Athaera reached out to Patcha in a desperate plea for assistance but the kelvic could only stand there with her eyes open in surprise. Patcha wanted to help this new girl explain herself and to help Nivel understand the situation but the words were held back by an invisible force. There was just too much pressure to say the right thing for Patcha to be much help, or at least that's what the kelvic convinced herself of. “how about today?” Nivel blurted out “Are you free to teach me to hunt now?” The pycon was eager, but not from excitement she just wanted to get the process over with. “if you're as old as you say you are you must know a lot about the world so I would like to learn what I can from you” 14 was middle age for a pycon and while Nivel couldn't tell how much the Tall Folk had experienced she would have had to know a lot if she was to live 14 whole years. “I'll get my things together and meet you at the gates to the city?” Nivel went on “Me and Patcha will need to change into more knightly attire.” The Bronze woods were a dangerous place and if she was going out she might as well also be on patrol. Her little squire outfit didn't really serve much purpose other than for show but in her mind it made her feel like more of a knight. It gave her courage, and with her uneasiness she felt she could use all the courage she could muster.

[Athaera]

Patcha's silence was okay as Athaera tried to explain things to Nivel. It was lucky the Pycon was surprisingly understanding as the concepts were explained. She seemed to be considering something as everything was said in desperation, to not seem like a killer. "I think firsthand would be the best way to experience something." Athaera knew exactly what Nivel was hinting at, and she would be very glad to help out.

Patcha was silent, and the vantha felt a bit guilty that she'd dragged her into this with an attempt to make conversation. It was evident she didn't feel like talking. Athaera decided to stop making attempts to bring her into the conversation.

A grin adorned Athaera's face. She'd always wanted to teach someone to hunt. "Today? Ok." The next comment about age was a bit... strange. Athaera always felt like she was young, and thus perceived as weaker. Then again, she definitely knew more about the world than Nivel did.

Athaera nodded. "Okay." Still smiling, Athaera didn't even take into consideration the fact that she had no idea how to teach people to hunt. Or teach in general. But it couldn't be that hard, could it?

[Nivel]

"Okay it's settled then!" Nivel cheered and shook her head up and down happily. "Let's go get ready Patcha" She was clearly only thinking of spending time with her friend and not the actual activity they were about to do. She didn't really want to think about the uncomfortableness that might soon follow when she discovered what hunting really was. The tiny squire ran down the table to Patcha's open palm and was then raised back on to the kelvic's shoulder "Onward my trusty steed" Nivel announced with a zealous arm thrust in the air. Patcha complied but not before giving a faint wave of the hand to Athaera. The kelvic didn't look at the Vantha girl or say anything but the small gesture was all Patcha could muster. "See you soon Athaera!" Nivel called out just as they exited the establishment, giving the other patrons a bit of alarm. Nivel rode on Patcha's shoulder all the way to their room in the squire dormitories, giving the kelvic ridiculous commands the entire time. Once they reached their destination, the pycon put on her leather armour, her teapot helmet and grabbed “Grick” the pypole that Athaera had helped name. Patcha changed out of her clothes and transformed into her dog form. Nivel helped put her saddle on and the two were ready to embark. Nivel hoisted herself on her mounts back and directed the kelvic with verbal commands and Gestures from her tails to the entrance of the city. The moving forest of tall folk legs was a bit hard for them to get through especially with Nivel yelling things out and waving her appendages in the poor kelvics face. Nivel was worried that she was keeping Athaera waiting but as reached the wreckage that used to be the main gate they couldn't see her anywhere. “Athaera!!” Nivel called out as loud as she could muster. Her deep voice becoming surprisingly shrill amd was heard over the sounds of construction in the back ground. The crowd up ahead seemed to stop in alarm and look around to see the source of the sound. “Excuse me...um pycon?” The stocky guard said from above. “please keep your voice down” “Oh, sorry” Nivel apologized and went back to looking for Athaera but couldn't see her over the tall wall of crowds surrounding her.

[Athaera]

Athaera smiled. She hadn't expected Nivel to get up so fast, but she did, and Athaera opted on getting her bow. She glanced at her cup of tea, which the vantha had forgotten to drink, but it had already grown cold. Getting up, she walked out the door and down the street. Arriving at her room in traveler's row, Athaera grabbed her bow, which she realised was a bit big for a pycon, and quiver. It would have to work, she didn't have anything smaller.

Athaera wound her way through the streets again, unsure how, exactly, she would teach Nivel. She'd have to figure it out as she went. Making her way to the gates-- or what was left of them, she contemplated what she'd gotten herself into. Looking over the heads of the crowds, she looked around, hunting for Nivel's face, or a little pycon riding a-- whatever kind of kelvic Patcha was. It took a few chimes for it to occur to the vantha that she shouldn't be looking over the crowds, but rather under them. As here eyes skimmed the ground, Athaera thought she heard her name called over the endless drone of inaudible voices. "NIvel?"

She scanned the ground for a while longer, before catching a little green sparkle in the corner of her eye. turning around, Athaera saw a glimpse of the small creature befor she was engulfed in the sea of legs. Approaching her, she tapped the Pycon on the back gently. "You ready to go?"

The fact that Nivel may be appalled by what hunting truly was didn't cross Athaera's mind at all, probably because she was so used to the blood.

[Nivel]

The mage Squire was sure she heard some one say her name but it was almost completely downed out by all the other noise in the area which made it hard to pin point its origin. Nivel was suddenly jostled by an unknown force hitting her on the back, the pycon jumped a bit in fright at this surprise intrusion. She turned around to see her friend Athaera knelt down behind her and quickly let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad to see you!” Nivel threw up her arms as if to thank the gods for her friends arrival “I thought you would be consumed by all this chaos” “Anyway, We don’t have time to dilly dally lets go do this hunting thing.” The pycon said as she signalled to her kelvic mount to head towards what was left of the gates. She strolled up to the gruff knight who had instructed her to keep her voice down earlier and told him she needed to leave to learn the ways of the hunt. The Knight paused for a moment before begrudgingly escorting the squire and her friend through the desiccated gate. Once out of the city and free of the bustle and noise of the city Nivel almost forgot what she was planning to do out here. She continued on Patcha down the blackened dirt from the explosion then down the dirt path before veering off into the natural beauty of the Bronze Woods. Once in the woods Nivel urged her mount to stop so that she could get more instruction from Athaera, since the Pycon was so naive in the ways of hunting. “What now Athaera?” Nivel asked “Do we just find an animal and pounce on it?” This being the only Method Nivel could think of to take down an animal but soon realized her error when she recalled how a girl had plunged her sword into a wolf a few seasons ago. The pycon didn’t really know what was going on at the time but now had a much clearer picture of that happened. Nivel felt a bit sicked by what she might be witnessing soon.

[Athaera]

Nivel seemed quite excited, considering that they were just separated for about half a bell. The pycon gestured ahead, rushing through the gates, or what was left of them. She said something to a knight at the gate, who leaned down. The knight seemed a bit annoyed, but he led them through the gates.

The trio continued into the bronze woods, and Nivel stopped, turning to Athaera, and asking a question. The vantha laughed. "If we just clumsily pounced on it, we'd scare it away," she corrected, "You're capable of auristics, right?" Athaera thought she'd heard something about it, but wasn't sure. "I was thinking we could use that to find the animals."

Before continuing on, Athaera hesitated, pulling an arrow and her bow out of her quiver, "First, I'm going to see if you can shoot. If not, there'll be other ways to hunt." and demonstrating how to hold it. "Okay, say I want to hit that tree. I would pull my string back, aim, and let go." She demonstrated, then pulled the arrow out of the tree, and handed it to Nivel. The bow was far too big for her, and Athaera stifled a laugh. It would have to do. "Well, it's a bit big, but we'll see if it works."

Athaera still had no idea how disgusted or traumatized the pycon would probably end up being. For her, the blood was just another aspect. And in a way, Athaera had justified it for herself in a manner where it didn't seem cruel. After all, she had to eat somehow, and she liked to think that the animals had quick, painless deaths, although that wasn't always the case.

[Nivel]

“Oh I wouldn’t want to scare it” Nivel replied in earnest before realizing that the alternative was the death of her target or at least that was the objective of hunting. Knowing this she was seriously considering scaring her targets away. What Nivel really wanted out of this was to learn to track criminals and apprehend them. Athaera demonstrated her skill with the bow and arrow on a tree and she made it sound so simple. Then the tall folk placed the gigantic weapon in front of her and the Mage Squire knew this wasn’t going to be easy. The 4 inch Pycon stared at the object that was about ten times her size and then stared back at Atheara with her blank emotionless face. “Mm…I don’t know if I can use this weapon…it seems a bit…big…like really big” The pycon let out a sigh “But I might as well try..” Nivel extended her tin arms out into string like tentacles and tried to lift it, after several pathetic attempts she gave up. The most she was able to do was lift it up a quarter of an inch and she wasn’t about to wast flux on this not that it would help ether way. “How about I just watch you in action, I don’t really want to kill any innocent animals especially when I have no need to but I would like to learn how to track prey…or in my case wrong doers and neerdowells. having tracking skills is sure to make me a better knight” “Oh and yes I do have skills in Auristics…is that something that would help with hunting…most of what I use it for is seeing through fog and in the night and…oh it will help me find our target better ..good thinking” Nivel chattered away in a volume much to loud for the type of activity she was engaging in. “So what exactly are we hunting..like wolves, bears or mountain cougars? I haven’t really seen many bears or mountain cougars but in the studies I’ve done it said that those are the dangerous animals in the Bronze woods that we should avoid. If we apprehend a few of them we will make the forest a much safer place to be around, I’m sure. “ The Talkitive pycon was nervous and tended to prattle on more than usual.

[Athaera]

Athaera chuckled, a bit frustrated. "Sorry, that's just how I'm used to hunting." Unsure how else to teach the pycon, Athaera paused. Maybe she brought... was it Grick? The girl struggled to recall what she'd named Nivel's weapon, although it wasn't all that relevant.

But when Nivel suggested she wanted to simply watch Athaera hunt, the vantha realized that'd probably be a good idea. "Yeah, I could hunt, and you could help me find them with your auristics."

The pycon was talking far too loud, but Athaera didn't stop her. Nivel was obviously nervous, and for good reason. "Well, those could be dangerous, you know you could get hurt," Athaera replied skeptically. The vantha was more worried for herself than anything, but was also worried about the Pycon getting hurt. "But yes, that would make the woods safer, and that is very knightly," Athaera muttered, almost to herself. She understood the Pycon's idea, and didn't think it was that bad. "If we snuck up on it," Athaera muttered, knowing how hard it would be to do so. "We could get it before it fought back."

[Nivel]

“Maybe I’ll get a custom one made for me” Nivel replied trying her best to show sympathy since she could sense a bit of veiled frustration. “Or maybe I can try this” The pycon’s tail and ears shrunk inside of her and in moments her hand swelled then began to shape it’s self into a crude looking bow. The arrow was far to big for Nivel to use but she grabbed a twig from the forest floor with one of her tail hands and put in to her bow. Since the “sting” was a part of her body Nivel didn’t have to pull it back but still mimed the action she had seen many knights and squires do before. All was looking promising until the made squire actually pulled shot her crooked arrow and it flew a few millimetres before falling lifelessly to the ground. “Or maybe not” Nivel hung her tiny head in defeat “I’ll just stick with Grick and Pyken for the time being” The squire didn’t really think to bring odd weapon with her, it was actually hard to bring her weapon while she was wearing her armour since she didn’t have any place to put it. If she wasn’t encased in leather she would have held it to her side with her clay. “Of course!” Nivel comically swatted at the suggestion “I’ve used autistics so much that sensing auras has become one of my natural senses. I still have to focus to speak to the auras but if all I’m doing is detecting things that shouldn’t be two hard.” It was a strange sensation at first for the pycon to constantly feel the forces of life around her but she was getting used to it. It was only only mages that she would occasionally run into that would really alarm her and they were a rarity. “What do you usually hunt?” Nivel asked hesitantly, she wasn’t really sure she wanted to know the answer but she couldn’t contain her curiosity. A sudden ominous and inhuman wail in the not to far distance caught the pycons attention away form Athaera and out into the woods. “What was that?” Nivel asked with a touch of concern “It sounds like some one is hurt we should go help them.” Nivel didn’t waste much time in giving Patcha the signal to head towards the noise. At this point the pycon had never heard of a Yukman and they weren’t much concern for people who stayed within the confines of the city.

[Konrad Venger]

Nice job! Your work has pleased The Sloth! Nivel XP: Acrobatics - 2 Socialization - 4 Observation - 3 Investigation - 3 Lore: Acrobatics: Flexibility and Adaptability Patcha: Faithful Kelvic Steed! Athaera: Old Friend Hunting: That's... That's... Horrible! Hunting: A Necessary Nastiness The Bronze Woods: Dangerous But Prime For Hunting Auristics: Sensing Prey on a Hunt Click Me! : And the adorableness continues! Teapot helmet! GAH! She's like a tiny puppy that could pummel people with magic! Sad this didn't go right to the end, but still, VERY good work, and I loved how you fleshed out Patcha, too. Oh, and please make sure you go back and edit your post in the Request Thread to reflect the fact this one is now done and dusted. PM me with any questions and later 'tater!