To Eat or Not to Eat... (Hadrian)

[Krivak]

Timestamp: Winter 18, 511 AV Time: Evening, just before sundown. Location: Just behind Winterflame Hold Who: Hadrian Krivak was having a hard time hiding behind a bush full of blackberries. He had just finished a whole mouthful of the delicious, juicy berries, mostly out of view of the Winterflame gardeners. As he chewed the berries, the juices spilled out of his mouth, down the beard hanging from his jaw and dripped onto the pack that hung from his neck. All four of his legs were crouched so that his back and horns were mostly hidden. His tail was swinging cheerfully, when he spotted a plant across the way. He didn't recognize it, it was some short bushy looking thing with fruits that hung down off of it, in reds and greens and yellows. They appeared to be shaped like one of his horns. His mouth salivated at the thought of trying something new. He peered around the bush at the two gardeners. He knew from an earlier attempt that they weren't fond of yaks eating their vegetables. He would try anyways. He decided to try and sneak his way over. He watched the gardeners until he saw that they had their back's turned away. Then he slowly began to sneak over toward the plant. He stepped slowly, trying not to grunt much. His hooffalls weren't silent, but enough that the men couldn't hear him. He had made it nearly halfway over when his hoof punched through a thin patch of ice, which covered a shallow hole. The resulting cracking of the ice alerted the two gardeners who ran over, shouting at Krivak and waving various tools. Krivak bellowed in frustration, and also to try and intimidate them, to make them leave, but to no avail. He trotted away, annoyed and not wanting to get whacked. He was willing to push his luck, but not that much. He returned several chimes later, this time from the opposite direction, hiding behind a tall snow dune. The gardeners appeared to be paying a bit more attention but were still attending to their own duties. Krivak decided to abandon the idea of sneaking around and decided to go as fast as he could to get the strange fruits. He waited until the two were a decent charge length away when he pushed himself out from behind the snow dune. He ran toward the plants, snow flying up around him, his hooves thundering over the ground. The gardeners heard and saw him and began to shout running toward him angrily. He was nearly there when a blinding white pain filled his snout. He stopped dead in his tracks to try and figure out what had happened. He stumbled backwards and saw some long farming tool with a wooden handle. He must've stepped on it and it hit him good. The gardeners were too close now, so Krivak ran off once more. Nearly a bell later, Krivak was hidden by one of the corners of Winterflame hold, once more watching the gardeners and the alluring fruit he had to have. He wasn't sure if he could do this, he'd failed several times now, and didn't know anyone around who would help a yak steal from them. Not that he could talk to them anyways.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian had always liked to walk to help him figure out some tricksome problem, and today was no different. Shield energy seeped from his right hand, "dirty" with light that should not have been there for Shield energy was meant to be invisible unless activated by the presence of whatever it was meant to block. He flexed and curled his fingers, attempting to even the uneven layer of energy out. When his right hand was entirely covered in only partially visible energy, he held out his left hand and attempted to maintain his Shield while willing a small space above his left palm to empty itself of anything, leaving room for nothing to exist. To that end, he muttered an incantation and repeated a clawing gesture with his hand, attracting everything to his fingertips and away from that would-be singularity until finally the emptiness reached critical mass and a small blot of darkness appeared, a gate into the Void. With his hands close together, he was able to watch the faint Pull of his portal attract the ineptly constructed Shield glove. Gradually the Shield energies pulled away, undulating toward the darkness, orbiting it, and then finally disappearing into that other plane of existence. When his right hand was bereft of excess energy, he muttered another incantation and let the portal collapse in on itself. It was only then he noticed the yak, which seemed to be acting strangely, not that he was any sort of expert on yak behavior. But these days he could sense a Kelvic even if he didn't have enough information to logically deduce one's existence. The aura was too complex for a dumb animal and so he paused and whispered, "Why are you hiding?"

[Krivak]

Krivak nearly bellowed out in surprise when the young man spoke to him. He had been focusing so much on his target, that he hadn't noticed him walk up. He turned and looked at the man. He didn't look like much in all honesty. A very slight, weak looking male. He had a physique more appropriate of a female, there was just barely any muscle. Even calves freshly born had more muscle than this man. But this man had asked him a question, as if Krivak would respond in kind? Krivak looked from the man, to the strange fruits, then to the gardeners, and back to the man. Krivak wasn't sure what method he was going to use to successfully get his gullet's desire. He'd tried sneaking, he'd tried charging. What was left to do? Perhaps he could get the weak man to distract the gardeners. So Krivak repeatedly looked back and forth from the gardeners and the man. He really wished people could speak the noble language of yaks, but he'd yet to find one.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian was certainly slight of build, but he was tall, and when he Fluxed his body with djed he could be a lot stronger and faster than he looked, but nobody needed to know that. He followed the yak's look, then back to the yak and nodded. "Just give me a minute." With that, he walked over to the gardeners, explained the situation, gave them a few silvers for the fruit, and walked back to the yak and his hiding place, a faint smile on his face. "Come along, then," he said, "I've paid for your lunch. I'm Hadrian by the way. You don't have to tell me your name just now. I'm sure the cold would not be kind to naked skin."

[Krivak]

Krivak watched as the man went over to the gardeners. The three chitchatted for awhile, then the man paid them some amount of coins. At this, Krivak cocked his head to the side out of curiosity. What was this man doing? Then the gardeners handed him several of the strange fruits, and he came walking back. Krivak saw a sliver of a smile on the man's pale skin. Did he just buy those fruits?! Krivak immediately liked this man. Anyone who provided food couldn't be all bad. Except for that singsong man that worked in the stables. HE was all bad. The man asked him to follow. Krivak was slightly disappointed that the man still carried the fruits, but nothing in life is easy. He followed the man dutifully, sniffing at the fruit. It had a strange tinge to it. It seemed to burn his nostrils a bit. He licked at the fruits and, by accident, the man's arm as well.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian walked until he found a bench, ignoring the tongue on his arm as it was likely unintentional or just a sign of thanks. Either way, it seemed best not to think about it. He held one of the fruits out for the Kelvic to eat, then sat down on the bench to continue feeding them to him as he finished the previous one. At first, he had considered one for his own lunch, but he wasn't about to fight a hungry yak for a bit of fruit. Besides, Hadrian was rarely hungry; though the use of magic burned up his body's resources, it also seemed to play funny games with his hunger triggers, and he had to watch that. His brothers back in Syliras were much heavier with muscle than him, yet another reason they needed to get Kendall his female body back. Hadrian was a little nervous about what might happen if Kendall began to feel like the more masculine of the pair. "I hope these are good," he murmured after a while. Hadrian was usually comfortable with silence, but with the Kelvic eating, there was little else for him to do.

[Krivak]

Krivak followed the man until he sat upon a bench. The man held out the strange fruit.BTW I was intentionally vague on these, until now. Krivak sniffed the strange horn shaped fruits, but found no smell. He latched onto it with his tongue and pulled it into his mouth. His teeth crushed it with a satisfying and crisp crunch. Then his eyes grew wide. His mouth was on fire! What on Mizahar was this horrible feeling! He began to panic, as his mouth continued to burn. He began getting really shift, drool filling his mouth, and overflowing onto the man's lap. The man and those farmers must have tricked him! It was a trap! That's why they were talking to each other! If the man had been on his side, he would've helped take the fruit. Krivak hooked a horn beneath the bench, and lifted, hoping to over turn the man. He then took off running back to where those farmers were. He was angry, and still hurting. As his thunderous charge brought him back to the farmers, their eyes widened. The wild animal that was in the pale man's care was coming back with a vengeance. Krivak began to stomp on plants and topple bushes. He would make them regret tricking him!

[Hadrian]

Hadrian was no expert in Talderan flora, so he had no idea what was going on with the beast when it suddenly flipped the bench over, sending him headfirst into a snow drift. He came up sputtering, face red with cold and effort. But when he blinked away the snow, wishing he had that Vantha skill of ice reaving so he would not die ... well, he wasn't really going to die ... the Kelvic was racing back toward the farmers and Hadrian could not figure out for the life of him what was going on. But he jumped up, dusted the snow off of him, and considered for a moment just walking away and heading back home. But he was involved now and didn't want to get a bad name among the Vantha, so he trotted back toward the farm to see what was happening, his dark hair still full of snow. Oh, destruction. He stopped and stared.

[Krivak]

Krivak was hell bent on vengeance. He stomped his hooves on berry bushes, grinding them into the snow. He saw stakes with plants winding about them, so he knocked those over. The farmers rushed over to him, tools in hand. Krivak roared loudly in their direction. He was not about to back down! But he wouldn't hurt them either. Hurting them would get him kicked out of the city. One swung a tool at him. Krivak twisted his head in that direction, and the tool bounced off of one of his massive horns, and flew from the man's hand. The other man had just a simple stake, nothing to be afraid of. Krivak surged forward, the first man falling on his back in shock. Krivak stepped over the man until his snout was right in the man's face. And then he let loose on of his loudest roars imaginable, clearing all the air in his lungs. His companion had begun hitting his body with the stake, but Krivak honestly barely felt it. Sure that the man was sufficiently frightened, he turned toward the man beating him. He began snorting at the man, pushing him backwards with his horns. Eventually the man would run away, toward the bench Krivak had turned over. Krivak let loose a roar of victory that would echo around the hold.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian was certainly not getting involved in a brawl in the middle of Avanthal. He had already caught enough flak for practicing magic outside the city walls on more than one occasion. But the Kelvic seemed intent only on damaging the crops, which was bad enough in a winter-locked realm, where food was hard to grow. At least he wasn't seriously injuring the Winterflame farmers. When one came running back toward the bench, toward Hadrian, he stepped back, boots crunching in snow. He wasn't going to get in the path of his flight, which might rouse him to further violence. The young magus was too peaceful for this perilous world. Perhaps he should find some place to dwell in solitude, studying, experimenting, and only letting the world in enough to see to his basic needs. Needing something to do with his hands to channel his nervous energy, he took a bit of wire out of his pocket and ran his fingers over it, daubing it with faintly glowing green res. He didn't need much, and the energy ran through and around the metal, and then it was his to control. With will and res he began bending the wire into a supremely tight coil, also strengthening the metal, separating out impurities and condensing what was left. When the beast bellowed, he was nearly done, his eyes on the ruined crops. He sighed, hoping there would not be hell to pay.