PM to join Droplets [Davarin]

[Ari'Ellin]

8th Fall, 520AV

The weather was pleasant and after weeks, perhaps even whole seasons, of being told how beautiful the Kinell Hotsprings were, Ari’Ellin was ready to pay a visit to the hot springs too. She wanted a slight change of scenery from the mountains that she now called her home, and the idea of being able to possibly swim somewhere that was warm and beautiful was an idea that she was more than interested in!

Thinking to herself, she tried to remember what she knew about the hot springs. She recalled someone saying that they were a mile or three away and it was supposed to be a somewhat difficult trail. Humming to herself, she got herself dressed, pushing her coat into a backpack, alongside her dagger and a few food items she had lying around. Tilting her head slightly, she hummed and added a little extra food to the bag, making enough rations for two days, just in case she found herself still at the hot springs when nighttime approached. Grinning slightly, she nodded, finally adding her flint and steel to the backpack.

Happy with what she'd packed, she stood up and pulled on her boots, lacing them up and tucking the ends of the laces into the boots so that way they wouldn’t get in her way. Then she pulled on her backpack and set off out of her home in the Okomo Estates, starting on her way.

It wasn’t long before she was getting to the edge of the Okomo Estates, and on her way she spotted the young white haired woman that managed the estates. At this distance, the other woman could have easily passed for a Konti, and as Ari approached the woman she found it to be fairly comforting, even despite the woman’s lack of scales or gills. Even knowing that she was human, Mills reminded her somewhat of her home back on Mura.

“Hello.” Ari greeted her, bowing her head to the woman as she passed, watching the woman stop what she was doing to wave a greeting.

“Morning. Heading out for the day?” the woman responded, gesturing to Ari’s backpack as the Konti grinned and nodded at her.

“Hotsprings. They sound pretty. I want see them.” she explained to the best of her ability, despite her gaps in knowledge when it came to her common.

The other woman didn’t correct her or appear confused, instead smiling and pointing out a couple of directions to get to the hot springs. “Be careful though, the trails can get quite rocky and difficult. Once you get there, it's lovely though, just try not to make the journey back in the dark. Oh, and see if you can catch a Star Lizard. The kids love trying to catch them.” the other woman smiled and Ari bowed her head appreciatively, continuing on her way and following the directions she’d been given, walking for a good few chimes until she found herself on what seemed to be the right trail.

It was quiet and peaceful, an atmosphere that Ari found herself enjoying, rather than the hustle and bustle of the city itself. She followed the path closely, checking over the path every so often to make sure she wasn’t going to roll her ankle whilst away from the busier areas.

It wasn’t until she heard a rustling in the bushes that she froze. For the first few moments she was unsure of what to do. Whether she should hurriedly grab her dagger from her bag, not that she knew how to use it, or whether sudden movements would cause whatever it was to attack. Her other option would be to just remain still and silent and hope whatever it was carried on with its business and went to elsewhere.

Fortunately for Ari it didn’t take long for a small mammal, about the size of her foot, to jump out from the bushes, crossing the trail in front of her whilst carrying some sort of nut. Exhaling with relief, Ari shook her head at herself and continued along the trail.

Word Count679 words

[Davarin Zuharik]

Davarin had been in town three days and he wasn't unconvinced he'd made a mistake coming here already. The locals stopped just short of throwing fruit, his hurried exodus from home had meant he was living with a tighter belt than he liked, and he wasn't sure his coworkers entirely trusted him. Make no mistake, this was a damn sight better than living at home, but his employer was a halfblood Symenestra and even she did not like the sight of Dav. He hadn't even really started working there yet. Three days had wound him up tighter than a snare drum, three days of being too nervous to leave the house to do anything aside from go for the odd run, three days of trying to entertain himself in his cottage.

He'd been fine at first, settling into a routine around the rather odd sleep cycle the Lhavitians embraced. Every two hour nap was followed by some sort of physical activity to get his blood flowing, and then he sat, and looked at the door. He clenched his jaw, and finally snarled at himself, his fangs protruding a bit more than they should have maybe. Davarin could handle himself, what was this all about? He was a hunter damnit, raised to be dangerous, a weapon. He spat the glob of venom he'd inadvertently worked up, as his father's mocking laughter seemed to echo in his ears, into the hearth and grabbed his travelling bag.

He threw a few apples and some other fruit, a waterskin he treated with a drop of his own venom to kill off anything resembling dysentery, enough to keep him going for a day or two, and his cloak into the backpack, and prepared to set off.

The first few times he'd walked out the door, there'd been a Shinya leaning nonchalantly against the wall of a nearby cottage, and said guard had immediately fallen in behind him. Far enough away that it wasn't immediately obvious he was being followed, but close enough to let him know that he was being watched. Imagine both of their surprise when Davarin had set off one morning for a jog and the guard had chased him. A few awkward conversations about this had made it clear to the Shinya, he wasn't going to stop exercising because they didn't trust him, and they weren't going to let him too far out of their sight because they didn't trust him.

Today however, was a pleasant relief from scrutiny, as the guard was distracted talking to one of his neighbors. He managed to duck behind his own cottage and head off in the direction he meant to travel without picking up a tail, and his training helped him stay that way until he reached the path to the next peak at least. As he passed Milla, he offered her a cheery wave, a gesture rewarded with a suspicious glare and a soft curse he wasn't meant to hear but did anyways. He whistled past his fangs as he began setting off towards the hotsprings, intent on at least getting a bath out of his day and maybe actually relaxing for once.

His trip through the Shinyama was uneventful, the guards as always keeping track of him but seemingly disinterested in following. He had the same treatment through the Zintia, but nobody seemed interested in following his leisurely pace as he reached the trailhead. Shortly along the way, he spied a wild snow apple tree off the path, and decided to take a peek. He'd never seen one of the trees up close, and though he didn't think they were in season yet, it couldn't hurt.

Davarin approached the rough trunk, slipped out of his sandals, and casually pawed his way up to the foliage to examine what he could. The squirrel, or whatever it was, that had made its nest there, decided it did not like this strange new intruder, and leapt at his face as he reached eye level with his home. Fortunately, Davarin was not without some value of his facial features, and managed to duck under the path of the creature, which scurried off in the direction of the trail, stopping to admonish him for his trespass and snag some form of snack from a bush on the way by.

"Well hello to you too." He muttered under his breath. "Yes, I'd love some tea."

A weapon, right, one bested by a damned tree rat. Resigned that even the wildlife distrusted him, Dav dropped to the ground, and made his way back out to the path, pausing to grab his footwear on the way by. As he took back to the trail, he casually flicked a leaf that had stubbornly clung to his palm, and glanced back towards Lhavit as he did. He immediately tensed as he spotted someone. A female humanoid figure stood not less than twenty feet from him, and here he was out in the relative wilderness alone. Normally this would be a dangerous situation for her, but considering he wanted nothing to do with any of the usual Symenestran business, it was he that felt a little uneasy. However he quickly recognized a Konti, and relaxed a little. Anybody who knew anything knew that his kind rarely took interest in hers. He softly cleared his throat, preparing to head off up the trail, but knowing it would be impolite to just ignore her.

"Uh, hi. Nice day isn't it?"

[Ari'Ellin]

It wasn’t long before Ari noticed the man and she came to a stop. She looked him up and down for a few moments, taking note of his appearance as she tried to work out if she’d met him before. He was tall, at least compared to her, and he was thin in a way that made him look almost gangly in her eyes. He was pale too, and she noticed that the most striking feature was his eyes. Still, everything about him was just unfamiliar and she couldn’t recall having seen or met him before.

She was silent for a little bit long than she’d have liked before she shook her head at the sound of his voice somewhat awkwardly mentioning how nice the day was. The shaking of her head brought herself back to reality before she nodded aggressively in response, forcing a smile onto her face and clasping her hands in front of her, gently rubbing circles into the back of her hand as she tried to restrain herself at least a little until she got to know the man better, if she managed to do that at least.

“Your eyes pretty. And yes! Very nice day! Good walk day!” she exclaimed glancing around the area. “I didn’t earlier see you?” she furrowed her brows as she spoke, trying to work out where the man had seemingly appeared from. “You in wilds? Bad to leave trail. Should stay on trail. Less hurt chances on trail than off. Easier to see bad thing.” she nodded as she spoke, attempting to reaffirm what she was saying before taking a few steps closer to the man, holding a hand out as a greeting. “Ari’Ellin but call me Ari, you?”

Ari hummed to herself slightly as she kept her eyes on the young looking man. He may have been a complete stranger to her, but there didn’t seem to be a reason to distrust him and as such, Ari was more curious of the man, and the stories that he might have had of his life so far, and how he came to be on the trail to the hotsprings.

“Going to hotsprings? I hear nice there. Pretty, and pretty noise. Or just walking? Somewhere else?” she exclaimed again and started to ask a variety of questions, more to get the pale man to speak. Although she was interested, she was more asking as she had never been the most fond of silence and had found herself wanting to fill the area with conversation to get rid of any potential awkward pauses.

Word Count431 words

[Davarin Zuharik]

Davarin's eyebrows ticked upwards slightly, and his lip curled in a vague smile, as she commented on his appearance and then proceeded to drown him in questions. He estimated his common was slightly stronger than hers, but only to a certain degree, and his father had been adamant that he endeavor to improve in the language. The Symenestra's face hardened however as she stepped forwards, and he caught himself reacting defensively, seeming outwardly taken aback by her advance. His hands had begun to rise, and his weight shifted backwards, before he caught himself and relaxed visibly. It was not that he felt intimidated, he just hadn't expected such comfort around him. Besides that, his experience with people entering his physical space of late had not been a pleasant one, and even at home there were few people that advanced towards him with such zeal without harm in their intentions.

He cleared his throat and recovered quickly however, reaching out and taking her hand in a firm grip, though he stopped short of being overbearing. His handshake often felt strange to foreigners, a fragile structure with a reserved strength, punctuated by sharp black claws that had to be carefully maneuvered around. Or maybe it was that Symenestran hands had a series of very small hairs that made them feel oddly sticky. To his credit, he had just been climbing, and the hairs took some time to lay back down after such things. He hoped she wasn't wearing gloves, and made a conscious effort to relax his grip first to hopefully prevent her hand from sticking to his excessively. He gestured to his face, or his eyes specifically, widening them a little to indicate that was what he meant.

"My thanks. I'm Davarin. Uh, Dav for shorter." Davarin tucked his chin into his scarf slightly. This close his fangs would be prominent. "I saw an interesting tree just off the way, though you're right, the squirrels aren't happy towards me."

This close he got a much better look at her, and was able to regard her without seeming as predatory, or so he felt. She seemed less afraid of him and more interested, which was disconcerting in its own way but refreshing, maybe she'd never heard of his kind before. He looked up the path in the direction of the springs, before returning his eyes to her and nodding.

"Hotsprings, yes. I hear it's... comforting? A comforting place. I have been not welcome here as much. You can come with me if you want, or at least until you come where you're going if not."

He was happy to walk at her pace, though he paused to kick off his sandals again before they continued for the roughness of the trail, and listened politely to her questions, answering pleasantly when he could. He did have trouble picking up some of her questions, his Common was rougher than he thought, and she spoke quickly, but Davarin was determined to get better at the very least. Besides, most of them seemed harmless, and frankly the only real conversations he'd had since his arrival had been punctuated by insults and inferences, her curiosity and fearlessness was a nice change from the usual. Part of him worried for her, though the Symenestra often bothered little with Konti, the other people of the world who would wish ill on others oft eschewed that restraint. He waited for a gap in one of her lines of questioning to counter with his own.

"Do you often walk into the woods with strangers by yourself? It can be dangerous like that." Again doing his best to cover the lower half of his face. "What if I was mean or angry, would you be safe?"

He tried to keep his voice nonchalant, putting emphasis on the parts he felt would make him seem less threatening, aware that his own ask could be misconstrued as a threat.

[Ari'Ellin]

Ari watched the man and his initial reaction until he seemed to relax slightly and Ari couldn’t help but to furrow her brow slightly at the way he behaved. She saw him go to shake her hand and pause for a moment before continuing on and shaking her hand. She noticed something odd about the way his hand felt, something a little sticky about it, although sticky in a way that was unfamiliar to her.

As he spoke Ari couldn’t help but chuckle slightly, nodding as he mentioned the squirrels not being happy with him, and she glanced in the direction that the squirrel had ran.

“Yes squirrels. Wild, fierce, dangerous!” she chuckled again, shaking her head slightly. “What you do to upset it? And nice meeting, Dav.” she quizzed, tilting her head as she watched him, a grin spread across her face.

She listened to him, her smile faltering as he mentioned not being welcomed in Lhavit, and for a few moments she tried to focus on him. She tried to channel as much of her djed to her eyes as possible, the sensation being somewhat uncomfortable as it felt almost as though a pressure was building up behind her eyes, until she felt something in her eyes change and her vision warped slightly, everything she could see beginning to pulsate slightly at different speeds and an aura of colours beginning to appear. She focused on the man again, looking over his aura to tell that he definitely wasn’t human, although there was little else that she could tell about him, other than that something about his hands and mouth were pulsating and glowing differently to the rest of his aura.

About to press further she felt a slightly dull throb in her head and she let the djed dissipate away from her eyes, quickly going to wipe her light blue eyes as she realised she’d been quiet for longer than she’d intended.

“Unwelcome because not human? Because sticky hands?” she quizzed, her voice soft as she kept watching hun before nodding. “Walking together is nice. Better than alone.” she mused out loud, turning her attention back to the trail and chuckling as she noticed Dav kicking off his sandals. She didn’t quite understand why anyone would want to go barefoot, although she wasn’t entirely certain as to what he was, or what was strange about him that could make walking barefoot easier.

At his next words she paused and furrowed her brow at him again, trying to work out his intentions before shrugging and continuing walking.

“You spoke first. If meant bad, would have stayed quiet. Nobody else here.” she shrugged. “I have weapon though. So yes, safe.” she thought of the dagger in her bag and although she’d never used one, she was sure she’d be able to at least try to use something with it. “And mean or angry not always bad. Intentions can be bad on happy people.” she shrugged as she spoke, turning to look at the taller man. “I have weapon though so you careful. Anyway, what are you? You not human, or Konti obviously. What are you?”

Ari wasn’t certain of what the mans intentions were with asking such questions, so she tried not to react too much to them, trying to think of them theoretically more than anything.

Word Count557 Words

[Davarin Zuharik]

That she was at ease enough in his presence to laugh indicated a few possibilities to the Symenestran. His common was decent enough to be understood, she probably felt confident she was safe from him, and it wasn't likely she knew what a Kalinor native was. He blinked away the thoughts, an impulse brought unbidden by his training to analyze and categorize things when he was in new and uncomfortable environments, and instead offered her a smile that was mostly concealed by his scarf.

"Have you seen how large are they here? Thought I was doomed." He scratched at the back of his neck with his claws. "I climbed its home to get a look at the flowers in the tree."

Dav tilted his head slightly as he sensed some kind of magical shifting. He didn't recognize the school, much less the intention behind it, but he felt his heart rate increase slightly, and he reached down into himself to take hold of his own abilities. The problem with the Flux was that it offered very little to him in offensive capability, or even aid against other magicians, his body was too fragile to compensate for the extra forces involved and projecting Flux beyond himself was not a possibility he had yet to explore. Regardless, it could still help him scramble away if something went amiss, and it seemed unnecessary as nothing hostile occurred. He relaxed, watching her expectantly. The silence would have been awkward to anyone who hadn't shared a connection to the magical plane, and he contemplated acting confused by her silence but decided against it. Manipulation just felt wrong and irrelevant in this circumstance.

"You could say that, yes." He lowered his scarf, the opalgloam embroidery gleaming off the tips of his fangs as he smiled almost apologetically. "My people have earned a reputation. But yes, this is nicer than the opposite."

It was clear as he spoke that human was not in it. His lips were gray, and the very fine web of veins exposed under his jawline lacked the usual bluish tint of a pale skinned human. Between his elongated appearance, the over-long and thin limbs, the piercing gold eyes, and the strangely developed muscles and fangs in his jaw, it was apparent after a close look at him that he was a pureblood Symenestran. Many people around here recognized him for that just by the cast of his skin and his eyes however, which had him slightly confused that she hadn't run screaming the opposite direction when suddenly confronted by him on a trail in the woods.

As he walked, his feet seemed to adhere to the ground slightly, the claws on his toes feeling for purchase when the trail got rough. He was used to walking around the rough stone of Kalinor, and crawling along the silken ropeways to get from place to place. The surface dwellers really didn't appreciate how soft their world could be, and yet how coarse. His eyes skimmed her quickly as she mentioned a weapon, more out of instinct than anything, though since he hadn't seen it on his first examination this was more a search for the printing of a concealed sheath, letting her philosophy on bad people wash over him. She had a point, his family had always preferred subtly working their way into the good graces of their potential harvests, rather than just bashing them in the head with a rock and dragging them back home by the foot.

"I am relieved that you armed. Now I am safe too!" He spread his hands wide to show his complete lack of weaponry. "My people are called Symenestra in common tongue. Have you not heard of them? There are few of us, which is good because we are a bad people, but most are taught to fear Symenestra."

He thought he sensed some trepidation in her, and made a placating gesture, reluctant to be misinterpreted. It was so rare that people gave him a chance to prove he wasn't terrible, let alone approach him like he was harmless. Even his own people treated each other like the predators they were, and indeed it was unsettling to some degree to be dismissed as a threat when you had spent your whole life being reminded that you were. Refreshing, but unsettling.

"Sorry, I only ask these questions because many treat me like a monster when first met, you have not and I don't feel why."

[Ari'Ellin]

As the man joked about the size of the squirrel, Ari felt her grin widen more and more as she shook her head at him before hearing him mention trying to look at the flowers in the trees and another chuckled escaped her as she looked upwards.

“Interesting or just pretty?” she hummed, looking for the flowers high up in the trees before realising something. “You climb? Is hard?” she mused, wondering whether climbing to harvest plants would be something worthwhile. She hummed again, glancing to the mans hands again, wondering if his seemingly sticky hands were to do with climbing somehow.

She watched him closely as he lowered his scarf to stop obscuring his mouth and she blinked slightly seeing his fangs, humming again at the sight before shrugging slightly.

“Reputation not always true. And now easier to trust now, can see.” she managed to get out the jumbled sentence whilst gesturing to his now fully visible face. “Hiding looks more…” she paused for a moment, trying to work out the word she wanted to use before exhaling loudly. “Hiding looks more like bad…” she frowned at her word choice, knowing that bad wasn’t the word she had been looking for but hoping that the man understood what she was trying to say. Sighing, she shook her head disappointedly. “Sorry, my common not best.” she said in an exhale.

As the man showed off his lack of weapons Ari found herself grinning slightly and chuckling at him. “I protect you.” her grin turned lopsided as she spoke, then her face turned serious as she listened to him speaking about what he was and the reputation of his kind. “I hear name one or two times. Not common where I from. Here people don’t like talk too much.” she tried to explain before shrugging again. “Reputation not always true.” she paused for a moment trying to think of an example. “Konti are quiet, not boisterous. My friend loud fighter in other city now. Reputation not true.” she nodded at her own words , chuckling before listening to his reason for the odd questions he’d asked and she nodded slightly.

It took her a few moments of staring at the trail to formulate her response in her mind, and even longer to work out how to say what she wanted in common, though after that time she stopped walking and looked at him.

“If treat like monster, become monster. I don’t do good negative, so I treat everyone how I want treated. If they show they bad, I don’t be around them again. Understand?” she was aware of how disjointed it likely sounded, but ultimately she was happy with what she had managed to say. She knew she would have struggled with her words even in Kontinese as she tried to explain why she hadn’t behaved the way he seemed to have come to expect from everyone, and with her common being nowhere near as good as her Kontinese, she was at least proud of her attempts, and she would be even more proud if she was able to tell if the tall Symenestra was able to understand her words.

Word Count529 words

[Davarin Zuharik]

"Both, I think. The tree's are bloomed but, not with fruit yet. The flowers are nice to look at, but the squirrel guards them with jealousy. I climb very easy. This reminds me."

He reached behind him, into one of the pockets of his ruck sack, and fished out an apple, although just a regular old Lhavitian one. He held it out ahead of him for a second, considering it from a few different angles, before opening his palm flat and turning his hand over. The apple stayed attached to his palm, and he made a mystical looking finger wiggle with his other hand and raised his eyebrows for her benefit, before turning his head away from her and sinking his fangs into the fruit. There was a strange flex of his neck, as if he was exerting effort to bite into the apple deeper, before he put it carefully back into his bag with two small fresh holes. His fangs seemed a bit more prominent when he turned his attention back to her, but they quickly retracted to their normal size.

"Hiding may look more like I have something to hide, yes. Sometime not hiding makes others less happy than hiding." He smiled, catching an errant drop of venom with his thumbnail and flicking it into the bush from his lower lip. "Your common is well enough, though mine too is gutter."

Whether or not he meant to use that word wasn't clear, nor was it clear if he actually felt safer with her having a knife on her person, but soon enough the conversation turned to more serious matters, and their relative safety was forgotten. Davarin nodded, an expression of understanding crossing his face.

"Konti aren't boisterous? But you seem more fun this way. It is here our reputation is earned. Kalinor, my home, is close. Lhavit is easy to reach, and my kind hunt often here. Not always true, true, doesn't matter if they cannot afford trust with death at stake. This is why they speak little of us, they are the most afraid, they hate the most. And should."

He took a moment, making an expression like he was doing higher math, as he pieced together her sentence. The Symenestran thought he did follow her point though, and was again reminded that sometimes smart people were not always easily understood people. His expression turned thoughtful. It was fair of her to treat him in this manner, noble even, but it was not a world that rewarded fairness and nobility in which they lived. Or so he felt.

"Yes. This is nice of you. But remember, not Konti, but many other people if one chance given can die trusting Symenestran."

It was a sad truth, many a woman had passed away in Kalinor due to the fatal mistake of trusting such as he. The irony of someone who had nothing to fear from his kind not even knowing the reasons she should have feared them was rather amusing to him, and he chuckled despite himself, though he quickly sobered.

"Do you know not why we are hated? It is... Scary? Awful? Terrible! Terrible thing we sometimes do."

[Ari'Ellin]

Ari nodded eagerly at the man's words about the tree and how the flowers were pleasant, other than the petched squirrel of course.

“I like tree and plant… What type of tree you think it is? I should see if Kita or Remas know!” she grinned, nodding again, before watching curiously as the man grabbed his apple, showing off his tricks and how the apple clung to his hand rather than dropping to the ground like it would have for anyone else. Her grin turned into a look of wonder and amazement as she watched, and soon she looked at his face.

“This is… fas’nate…” she managed to see, before seeing him turn his head away from her. For a moment she watched him, before realising that it could be seen as rude and turning to look at the trail ahead of them again, before seeing him putting the apple back into his bag from the corner of her eye, turning her attention to him, listening to him before exhaling.

“People strange. Why so harsh they be…” the question was more of a musing out loud than an actual question as she shook her head solemnly, before she heard the spider-like man mention her common being somewhat decent and a grin spread across her face as she nodded appreciatively. “Ah, thank you. Your common better.” she smiled before watching the trail ahead of them as they spoke.

She listened carefully to him as he spoke of his kind and the city he called Kalinor that was nearby, and how his people hunted here often. She listened carefully as he spoke of how death was at stake for the people that didn’t trust, and for a moment she furrowed her brow.’

“But then they be cautious, not rude or mean.” she said. “Being hate is not good. Not everyone is what think, so treat everything same is bad. Be cautious, not cruel.” she managed to say whilst still frowning as she listened to him.

She knew little to nothing of the Symenestra, or of Kalinor, or of the acts that the beings were most known for. They were not a race that frequented Mura, and therefore were not one of the races that she knew anything about. She had barely been aware of the wide variety of races that inhabited the rest of the world.

As she heard him laugh, she turned to look at him, staring as he questioned whether she knew why they were hated she found herself shaking her head, although she was certain that her lack of knowledge must have been obvious at this point.

“May be terrible but do you want to do?” she tilted her head to look at him, waiting to find out what he was referring to, and for his answer to her question as they got closer to the hot springs and beautiful sounding birdsong began to fill the air, softly and quietly at first, though gradually increasing the closer that they got.

Word Count501 Words

[Davarin Zuharik]

Davarin knew the tree's name outright. He was absolutely certain, having learned the translation to Symenos from a local, an absurdly cheerful human that had been almost obnoxiously mirthful during the interaction. Dav had no idea at the time what could be so fun about teaching Common to a traveler, but he was sure that there was at least one human out there who wasn't openly hostile to him at the very least. He drew himself up proudly as he spoke.

"Yes it's a 'go-bite-a-stone' tree." He paused as the words left his mouth, made a disgruntled expression as their meaning registered, and corrected himself. "Er, an... Ice Fruit tree? Cold... Hm."

His face betrayed his exasperation as he couldn't seem to find the word for what it was he sought.

"A tree that holds fruit when it snows. Blooms now though, so it's pretty come fall. I think it only grows here, but maybe not. Lhavit people love it though, and make food and... Graf? Drink from it."

His thoughts on why people were awful were not forthcoming, though one might have been able to gather from his momentary grimace that he had a few, yet his features softened at the mention of his common. Much of his education had been on how to communicate clearly with, and how to charm, the surface dwellers. He had left earlier than he should have by custom, and so it had some polishing required, but he was proud of how well he could speak. For the most part.

Her own thoughts on the cruelty of people were not lost on him, though one might have thought they didn't register based on his lack of response. In reality he was merely musing on those views, attempting to form something rational that she would understand through both of their language barriers and her own optimistic lens of the world they lived in. His steps faltered as he put the sentence together in his mind.

"Konti eat fish yes? I know fish are not brightest creatures, anything that would bite a sharp hook in the water couldn't be. Imagine though, the fish was smart enough to... Know what was being done when you cast a hook. That it... Held a hate for that. Your people must eat, but for that to be, the fish must die. For Symenestra, it is not eat but..." He thought for the word again, reaching into the soup of his muddied common. "Be parents. This is why people hate us. We have children with our own, our own die. We have children with others, our own live, and others die instead. And people like me, are raised to cast the hook."

The Symenestran watched her carefully as he spoke. Had she known much about their kind, she might have been able to see how young he was really, how out of sorts. He looked at her as naive and vulnerable, her lack of understanding of this matter a weakness, but yet he was adrift in a world that hated him, and he had nowhere else to go. People like her held potential to him, not as surrogates, but as salvation from a life of isolation. However at her question his pensiveness vanished, his face grew fierce, his fangs stretching to their full length as his expression hardened. Venom splattered on the ground as he spat the word.

"Never!"

His hand snapped up to his mouth, covering his fangs, and he turned his attention to the soft sounds of bird calls. They had to be close. He shot her a fearful glance, cleared his throat, and began to walk up the trail towards the spring.