"Trouble?" I don't know the meaning of the word "Trouble!"

[Dex]

Spring 55, 512 Dex was enjoying his new shiny immensely. He'd taken it from Rykanis, and found it one of the best shiny things he'd ever collected. It had a sharp edge, which Dex took care to avoid, while having a shine he'd have detected from 50 ft away, in the dark, blindfolded. Obviously well taken cared of, it was a great find. Dex did have a small twinge of guilt at taking the only shiny thing Rykanis had. Everyone should have shiny things. Then again, Dex should always have more shiny things then everyone else had, because ..... because he appreciated shiny things! Ya, that's it. The fun thing he was doing now was carving things into the trees around the park. He'd started off with a few pictures, though he wasn't very good. One was suppose to be his ferret self, and then another of his human self. When he stood back and looked at it though, it really didn't look like anything to him except for a carved up tree. Deciding to skip that, he went about trying to sniff out some sort of animal that he could skewer for dinner tonight. The scent chase was on.

[Rykanis Dakshata]

Admittedly, Rykanis had been a bit distracted. There had been all that training. He had to take the time to put the stuff away... He stretched out a bit to loosen his body up after all of the fighting, to make sure he did not get stiff... Then he had started home, taking a stop to use a bush... Which was when he noticed something... A slight lessening of weight as he raised his pants... He had raised the same pants enough times to notice the sudden lessening of weight... and looking down, he saw an empty sheath were his lakan once was. "Jakri!" He shouted out loud, drawing looks from a cat that had been randomly scurrying along. It hissed at him, and scurried off. He simply gave it a look, as he probed out, feeling for his lakan. And taking the direction off of it, Rykanis was off, jogging through the streets, heading for wherever his lakan was... And whomever had it. Which led him to one of the many parks of the city... He could tell he was getting closer, and so he started creeping along a bit slower... Doing his best to be quiet, to not be noticed... Maybe he could get the drop on whoever the thief was, if he managed to use his stealth and the shadows to approach. Finally he was almost there... He would creep up... As quiet as could be... Just on the other side of the tree here... Was the person holding his lakan...

[Dex]

Dex was happily trying to slice a tree, this time just to see if it ever made the shiny thing not as shiny. True to it's nature, it stayed shiny. Definitely the best shiny thing he'd ever .... He picked up the scent of something familiar, and close. It was on the other side of the tree, so it hadn't spread as fast to him. But it was definitely recognizable, and had a twinge of anger in it. Considering who it was, and where they were, it was probably about him. Following these trains of thought, Dex promptly turned away from the tree, and started running. Unfortunately, it was the opposite direction from his den and his forest blind. He needed a place to hide that wasn't far off, and that he could get too without Rykanis getting in. Dex really really didn't want Rykanis to catch up with him. Rykanis had already given him some unpleasant bruises, and considering the anger caught in his scent, he'd do worse then that. A hiding place, a hiding place, where would he find a hiding place? He ran past someone holding a box who backed up to keep from getting run over. A box .... that's it! He'd go to Syrah's house! Putting on a burst of speed, he turned towards the street that would lead to Syrah's house. Now all he had to do was duck, dodge, and weave across the road before Rykanis got through. Not the easiest of things, but doable. Guess he was going to get some acrobatics practice in today anyway.

[Rykanis Dakshata]

He had been closing in... But as he knew, his sneaking skills were not the greatest, and so he was noticed. He was not sure how... Certainly he was not visible... But maybe his prey had some other way of noticing him, without seeing/ He could feel as his lakan suddenly began moving once more, much faster than its previous meandering speed. Of course, he could easily track along with his lakan, as long as whomever held it... Once he knew he had been noticed, Rykanis went along also, running along after the person. Rounding the tree, he took of jogging. Jogging mind you, not sprinting. He knew he was no expert runner, and that anyone, even a kelvic, who had not trained a lot in running, would soon get winded sprinting, at the pace they were going... Plus him being as tall as he was, with his long legs, his gait and stride was much longer than most people, who tended to be shorter. As long as his prey was not another tall akalak like himself, then he would soon catch up, through a combination of his longer stride, and the person tiring themselves out in there sprint. Though both of them were running, Rykanis was taking the more measured and paced jogging approach to running, and his prey... Was taking the run for your life, until you collapse in a heap barely able to breath from exhaustion. He wondered which would win out... He would keep on at his steady pace, trying to catch up on the person with his lakan... Keeping after him... Though he did not currently know who he was after, if he did manage to get within sight of him, he would angrily yell out "kelvic!" at him, which would likely spur him on to run faster.

[Dex]

Dex was of course off like a shot. Considering Rykanis had been beating on him pretty much all day, and he really didn't want to continue. In fact, it had been Rykanis's idea to quit, so why he wanted to continue must have something to do with the lakan. Oh well, off to Syrah's house. He saw the residential area come into view. It wasn't all that far from the park, and Syrah's house wasn't that far in. Taking a quick glance behind him, he noticed that Rykanis wasn't racing after him like Dex thought he would. Maybe he's just slow. As for Dex, he was used to running away from certain people and then hiding. It worked out great, since he'd be able to sprint faster then they would normally. Jumping over a low fence, and then across some of the gravel paths, he found himself infront of Syrah's house. He promptly opened the door and looked around a little, familiarizing himself for a moment. Then he started checking the rooms for Syrah quickly, figuring he ought to tell her he was in. "Syrah? You in here? I need to hide!"

[Rykanis Dakshata]

After a bit, Rykanis began to notice were they were headed... It was in the general direction of his home... Why would the person be headed there? Were they trying to rob him? As of yet, he still had not caught a clear look at his prey, but he was making sure to not let them get to far away. Though really, it was only a matter of time until he caught them, as long as they continued to hold his lakan. It was a good thing most did not know of an akalaks ability to trace there lakan. Though he was starting to think that he was a thief magnet. As he was getting closer though, he noticed as the lakan began to move slower... Was it approaching its destination? Then as he got even closer, he heard someone speaking loudly. "Syrah? You in here? I need to hide!" He knew that voice... Had heard it not that long ago... And as he rounded a corner, there he was... The kelvic he had just left... Standing there holding his lakan, trying to get into someones room..."Kelvic? What the petch? Give me back my lakan!" Having said that, Rykanis would come running right at the kelvic, trying to tackle him flat-out to the ground.

[Syrah Steele]

It had been a boring day so far for Syrah. She had gone out earlier in the morning to buy some bread for a soup she was planning to make in the evening, but she ended up eating it before. The breads aroma filled the small room and she couldn’t resist. Breads smell was almost as potent and intoxicating as wine can be. So now she sat at the small table placed in the room and had the bread by her side, careful not to spill the crumbs onto the wine book she was studying. Every other week or so she would go through the book and quiz herself on the kinds of wines listed and how they were made. She also tired to add one more wine into the books blank pages that lived at the back every time she opened it. She reminded herself that she would need to go buy a writing utensil if she ever wanted to add in a vintage.

This book was a gift from her father when she left to Riverfall and she kept it safe inside a locked chest at the foot of her bed at all times. She wore the key on a thread around her neck so it would always be safe. With more years of adding wines the book would be worth a lot and it would be extremely useful for her own winery one day. At the moment she was trying to study up on all the Riverfall vintages. There was this one called Riverfall Ice that seemed quite delightful, although she was a bit confused as to why it was called Ice if it was a deep red color…

She was so deep into her studying that she had paused right where she sat with a piece of bread in her hand posed ready to melt in her mouth when she was startled out of her dream-like trance when she heard her front door quickly open. She was so surprised in fact the piece of bread flew out of her hand. She followed it as it dropped to the floor and she scowled, wondering if she could pick it up and eat it. Then she remembered her front door. She looked up and say Lewis inside her house with a rather frightened look on his face. Syrah jumped out of her chair about to go over to him and slap him across the face for bursting into her house without permission. His facial expression and words that he spoke stopped her.

“I’m right here you petch! Why are you in my house?” She just got her sentence out when she saw Rykanis out of her open door running right towards Lewis. And boy, did he look angry.

What did he do now? Syrah thought. This animal is just a pain. But something inside of her stirred and she felt the need to protect the poor thing from this seven foot angry blue man sprinting towards him. Almost on a whim she quickly put herself between the two and almost screamed Rykanis’s name to make him stop before he collided with Syrah. It probably wouldn’t hurt him that much but it might break a bone or two in Syrah’s frail body.

[Dex]

Dex came back into the front room, where two similtaneous things happened. Syrah got up and walked towards him, and Rykanis began his charge at Dex, both of which might be bad. Syrah called him a petch, to which he had to respond too. You'd think she would know he was a ferret by now. "I'm not a petch, I'm a ferret!" Syrah ended up going around him and between him and the charging Rykanis, while shouting. Apparently she was feeling sick, because nobody stayed in front of a charging akalak, no matter the reason. Feeling his flight or fight instincts kick in, Dex was about to go hide in a cupboard or something when something else kicked in too. Instead of hiding, he tossed the lakan, where it stuck into the table handle up, through no skill of his own. Then he turned back around grabbed Syrah around the shoulders and dived to the side. Why he did this, he really had no idea. If he'd been thinking, then he would have simply turned around and shut the door in Rykanis's face. This is what you get when you corner a ferret. Crazy ferret antics.

[Rykanis Dakshata]

Rykanis had been attempting to simply come racing right at the kelvic, taking him down to the ground, and to take his lakan back from him. However on his way, the kelvic had made his way inside, and was talking to some woman, who was shouting back, and not happy at her unwelcome guest. Had the kelvic just broken into someones home for cover, to get away from him. What was with this guy, always breaking into peoples places. Then she surprised him even more by coming around and in front of the kelvic, and blocking him. Of course Rykanis did his best to stop at seeing this. Luckily he was not running as fast as usual, since he was tuckered out from all of the sparring him and the kelvic had done earlier that day. Even so, he had to dig his feet in to try and stop, and ended up grabbing the doorframe to come to a complete stop before crashing into them, which sent a small pain into his arm. He got steadied on his feet, as he rotated his arm, making sure nothing had been injured or pulled. Then he stood up straight, glaring at the kelvic, who had more or less pulled Syrah to the ground. Then he saw his lakan, stuck into a table. What the petch, who left the incriminating evidence out in the open? "All right kelvic, what is with you constantly trying to rob me! This is the second time. You already broke into my house in the middle of the night, and I let you go then. And now, after being nice enough to teach you to fight, you steal my lakan! What do you have to say for yourself!"

[Syrah Steele]

She had only a second to roll her eyes at Lewis's comment before she realized what she was doing. Syrah didn't really know why she stood in front of a seven foot, charging blue boy, especially in defense of an animal. A small, unimportant animal in fact. Actually she was pretty sure she was going to get injured in the next few seconds. Which would probably put her out of work for a while. That thought she did not like. She liked work and maybe she was a workaholic. But so what.

Thankfully she didn't get run over by Rykanis. She was somehow pulled and sort of thrown to the ground over to the side. She hit her head pretty hard on the floor where she cried out a bit. But she quickly got up, rubbed her head and looked over to Rykanis, who was stretching his arm after he stopped at the door frame as if he hurt it while using the door to stop himself. That made her lips twitch a bit, wanting to smile at how a big guy like him could get hurt on a door.

Then she looked around, looking for the source of what threw her down. Just as she expected, there was Lewis down on the ground, right where she had been a second ago. Somewhere deep inside her gratitude chocked its way up her. Trying to escape. She swallowed it down, all he did was annoy her to death and hurt her head. Ryk wouldn't hurt her, he stopped at the door didn't he?

You know a second ago she was peacefully studying and now her two closest friends in Riverfall were inside her home.

The truth was that Syrah had weird feelings for both the men inside her house. For Lewis she had a sort of secret feeling that she tried to fight. On one hand his whole being was something she would never approach, he annoyed her, turned into a rodent and was not intelligent. But somewhere deep inside her was this feeling of friendship that tried desperately to see the sun. For Rykanis she loved his entire personality. He was smart and logical, strong and handsome. Plus when he asked questions he seemed like he actually wanted to hear the answers. He was a friend she always loved seeing. Syrah was more open with her feelings about Ryk than with Lewis.

She was thinking about all this while nursing her head and while Rykanis was yelling at Lewis about something. She had to think for a second to remember what he said. Apparently Lewis had stolen from Rykanis again. She smiled wondering how stupid Lewis really was to steal from an Akalak twice. if he let you go the first time what do you think would happen the second time? But what confused her was what Lewis stole. What was a lanken? She was about to ask but she looked over to see what it was. She saw, with a bit of a shock, that it was embedded in her table, just missing her priceless wine book.

She cried out in shock and ran over to the table, scooping up her book protectively in her arms. "You almost hit my book!" she cried out to whoever threw it there. "What were you thinking?! This is priceless!" Syrah cradled the book in her arms as if shielding it from everything else.