Learning the Hard Way (Alea)

[Shadowfang]

40th of Summer 512AV

Shadowfang lay face down in the bed, all alone in the crew's quarters, letting the gentle rock of the ship lull him in and out of sleep. His wings were spread across the bed, still stiff and sore from the fight against the storm. There was silence, even for his Zith ears. Nothing but the water washing against the boat and the creaking of wood as the vessel rocked. He was at peace, borderline happy, loving the soothing silence of it all and the lovely absence of the sun that settled a calm, dark blanket over everything. There was nothing to do, nothing to worry about, no thoughts of others crowding his mind, only sleep. He was at peace. 

He was in his own little world, where the air that he breathed was his, nothing would disturb him, and time did not exist. There was just himself, his thoughts, and the soothing embrace of sleep. He did not necessarily need to rest and heal anymore, but he took rest when he could. And right now, he had no chores that needed doing, so the only activity on his agenda at the moment was sleep. When he grew too restless, he decided he might get up and train, open a void or two, throw his daggers at the wall, but not right now. 

He turned his head and shifted. His back muscles were still sore, but not too sore for him to do a few chores around the ship. Even with them healing quite well, he was still gentle with himself when he moved his wings. Stretching the lofty appendages out, he closed his eyes once more and tried to clear his mind.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was feeling much better. The storm that had nearly torn the ship apart had mess her up pretty badly, but warm food and blankets and several days of rest had cured her of any lingering effects of spending half a bell or so in the freezing ocean. She and the furry man had been granted a rest from the chores of the ship, since they had both performed so heroically in the crisis. She had been spending much of her free time with her animals, which she'd been doing a lot lately. But this time, something was different.

Her mind kept wandering toward the man with fur and wings. She had figured out he wasn't human (that much was obvious), but he didn't look like any race she'd ever seen before. He wasn't a Kelvic, and he was too small to be a Jamoura.It had been a while since she'd met a new race, but she remembered now that seeing Avanthal had hardly given her a broad picture of the world. There were still plenty of things out there she hadn't seen yet.

That being said, she couldn't learn about Shadowfang if she never had a chance to talk to him. Until recently, the captain and crew had kept them both far too busy to work. But now, now they had time to talk. It was settled then; she would go forth and get to know her crew-mate! Besides, he'd probably saved her life in that storm. She couldn't just ignore that.

She found him sleeping in the crew quarters. She tiptoed into the room, keeping quiet more out of habit than consideration. She slowly inched forward, being cautious of creaking boards, until she stood right next to the sleeping figure. She thought about calling out to him, but the sound stuck in her throat. She felt awkward just... talking to a sleeping person. She wasn't even sure he would hear her.

Fortunately, the obvious solution presented itself to her quick mind. Before she could talk herself out of it she put a hand to his fuzzy shoulder and gave him a gentle shake.

[Shadowfang]

Happy as could be, Shadowfang gently snored into the pillow. Until he was disturbed by someone touching him and shaking. At first, he ignored it completely, hoping that maybe it was a figment of his imagination or the one who had done it would go a way. But noir was no use. He could feel her still there, smell her among the salty scents of the sea and moldy wood, and hear her breathing next to him. He waited a few more seconds, then sighed deeply. He opened his dull red eyes and looked up at her through raven black hair, annoyed that she was disturbing him. It was one of the girls that had joined the exploration party, and one of the people he had saved from drowning during the storm. 

"What... is it?" he said softly. His voice was little more than a growl as he was not yet fully awake. Lying still, he began to wonder what Alea wanted. Most likely she was just conveying a message to him from the captain. That had to be it, he did not see any other reason for her to have woken him up. Unless she just wanted to play, or was simply being annoying for fun. Then she would not only be sorely disappointed, but nursing a wound. 

There was a time when Shadowfang would have been happy to learn about her. In fact, any other time that she wanted to talk, he would have done so. But right now, he was tired, he was sore, and he just wanted to go back to sleep. "If there is... nothing you need to tell me... then leave me... alone."

[Alea Davenport]

Alea grinned. "Nope!" Before the Zith could react, she heaved his mattress up with all her might, dumping him unceremoniously out of the bed. "Come on, we've been sleeping for days! Aren't you bored of it yet?" Since the storm several days ago, everyone on the ship had been recovering. She spent the first day or two trying to remember what warmth felt like; half a bell in that water was worse than a whole Winter in Avanthal.

But now the feeling was returning to her limbs, and she was feeling restless. She hadn't had a chance to really meet her strange fuzzy companion yet, and she was so curious! The only new races she'd met on her adventure were Kevlics and Jamoura (did Vantha count?), but then the storm hit and she'd forgotten about her original reason for leaving in the chaos of everything else that had happened. But now, here was a "Zith", which looked like a small, flying Jamoura, and she remembered her dreams of seeing the world and learning about all of the different kinds of people she could meet. And she wold be petched if she was about to let this opportunity slip by!

"So talk to me! Tell me about you! I've never met a Zith before. Are you related to Jamoura at all? Because you're both fuzzy..."

OOCSoooo sorry about the wait. Got bogged down with everything.

[Shadowfang]

In what seemed like an instant he went from half asleep to airborne. He rolled off of the mattress and landed on his back with a thud, shouting and growling in pain. Truthfully, his wings weren't hurting too much anymore, but a sudden impact with a hard, wooden floor brought a good amount of sore, stinging pain rushing back. For a second or two he lay there, thrashing and babbling in Zithanese, shouting the ultrasonic sounds at the stupid human girl. Now fully awake and still sputtering angrily, he scrambled to his feet, managing to calm himself just enough to translate his words into what Common he knew. "WHY YOU DO THAT?" he screamed. "WHY YOU NOT LET ME ASLEEP?" 

For a second, Shadowfang just stared at Alea, sputtering in anger and disbelief. Every human he had ever met hurt him and were either mean or stupid or both, and she seemed to be no exception. Was she really so stupid that she would not only disturb a sleeping predator, but attack it? As unacceptable and anger inducing as this was, he knew he could not kill his shipmate. Hurting, however... "No I am not Jamoura!" He was still screaming. "What do I tell? I hunt! I kill! I learn things! But why do you flip my bed?" Quick as a flash, he leapt over the displaced mattress with his hands out, aiming to tackle the girl to the ground or at least shove her with enough force to put her on her back. He kept his wings close to his body to keep them from hitting the walls or bunks. He did not want to kill her, but teaching her a lesson would be good enough.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea couldn't help giggly madly at the sight of the angry creature thrashing around on the floor. It was so funny, she couldn't even concentrate on what he was saying. All she managed to catch was that he was not, in fact, a Jamoura, and seemed to be either insulted or confused by the implication.

She was taken by surprise when he leaped at her, a strangled and involuntary cry escaping her throat. As much as she should have expected a retaliation, the sight of him screaming with all of his indignation lulled her into the false sense that he addressed problems by complaining at them, rather than cutting them off at the source. As a result, she was on the floor on her back with an angry Zith on top of her before it occurred to her to fight back.

She did not entirely expect him to seriously try to harm her, so she held back a little, trying to defend rather than cause damage. Her first aim was to grab his wrists, to restrict the movement of his hands. But everything was moving too fast; she managed to get a few shallow cuts on her arms from his claws before she figured out that maybe she should avoid the sharp things. The small part of her that miraculously held a survival instinct realized that she should keep those claws away from her throat and other vitals at all costs. She flailed her arms around, trying to simultaneously make it too confusing for him to get a decent attack in, and get a hold of his wrists. Even so, she could not believe herself to be in serious danger, so there was a slight, entertained grin on her face as the pair struggled.

[Shadowfang]

Shadowfang flailed his arms with wild, uncoordinated swings, reveling every time he scratched her, no matter how shallow or where the scratch may be. He was too mad to care that she was a shipmate, a quest goer, and by that logic, a companion. He just wanted to get back at her. His claws were only grazing her forearms at first, but soon, he was barely hitting her at all, her wildly moving arms deflecting a good portion of his attacks. Some broke through, sliced her arms and maybe her face, but none did any real damage. She was giggling, and that annoyed him to no end.

Suddenly, somehow, a hand closed around his wrist, stopping one of his hands dead in its tracks. The slight, surprised hesitation was all it took for his other wrist to be trapped by another hand. He pulled at his hands, trying to free them from the grip. The girl he was on top of had his hands restrained. They were both trapped by each other. He yanked his arms around, trying to free them from her grasp, trying to push his claws toward her face, snarling and growling. Eventually, he stopped his struggles, still a little sore and groggy and satisfied that he had taught her enough if a lesson. He was huffing heavily, calming down, raven locks of hair falling about his face and hers. She was bleeding after all. 

Wait... she was bleeding. 

Her wounds were shallow, all along her forearms and a few on her face. He watched a drop of blood from one of her more profusely bleeding scratches run down her forehead. He leaned his head down, bringing his face close to hers, and sniffed. The sight and smell of blood was exciting. A rumbling in his gut reminded him of how hungry he was. His tongue flicked out, quickly lapping up the tiny drop. The taste was like a drug. His senses sharpened, his heart rate quickened, and his eyes shined, the hunter he was coming to the surface. He argued with himself for a moment about whether or not his comrade should become his prey.

[Alea Davenport]

"Oh, gross!" Alea shouted as the Zith licked her. Scratches and bleeding were no big deal, but another person's saliva? That was where she drew the line. Suddenly motivated to put some distance between them, She jerked sharply back and forth until she got him to tumble off her, only releasing his wrists once she knew she was free. She backed into a corner of the room so that she could have a wall at her back while she violently rubbed at her forehead, intent on removing all memory of his tongue.

"Ewwwww!" she whined. After a moment, she noticed the sticky red blood on her hand (though she would probably never realize what a mess her face looked like now, with blood smeared all over it). She then took a moment to look at her arms and realize that there were an awful lot of scratches, several of which were still oozing blood. Many had scabbed over, but her arms still looked terrible. Though that was probably just from the blood running all over the place. She was sure if she cleaned them up a bit, they'd look just fine. Shadowfang's claws were sharp enough to leave nice, clean wounds that would probably barely leave scars.

Not having any water handy (salt water didn't count, that was just a recipe for unnecessary pain), she cleaned her arms with her tongue (obviously her own saliva wasn't as gross), rubbing at the dry, crusted blood until only the original slashes were showing. At some point she wiped her hand across her brow, and was reminded once again that her face was bleeding as well. After wiping the blood off on her trousers, she licked her fingers and rubbed at the cut, eventually just pressing her hand to it in an attempt to get the annoying bleeding to stop.

While she was doing all this, she did not particularly seem to notice the Zith, or care what he did, though if he came too near, she had a leg ready to lash out and kick him. Once her hand was settled on her forehead, she returned her attention to him at last. "So, Zith have claws, and are apparently not afraid to use them," she said, grinning as if learning this minor detail had been her intention all along. Recalling his tongue-licking, she frowned and added, "And apparently have no concept of personal boundaries! Anything else I should know about your kind?"

[Shadowfang]

Shadowfang grinned wide and backed up to sit down on the bed again. She was not afraid of him like he had wanted, but at least she was repulsed by him. He silently snickered, amused by her frantic attempts at washing her forehead. Humans and cleanliness. He would never understand why they liked it so much. Being dirty masked your natural scent, made it much harder for animals with sensitive noses to detect you. Then again, Zandelia had once told him that there was such a thing as being too dirty. 

He turned his attention back to the girl who was grinning at him, and couldn't help but grin back. She had used words he did not know, but he thought those last few words she said might not have been important. "You are funny! You get upset over the... smallest things!" He extended his hands towards her, spreading and flexing his clawed fingers. She was interested in his claws - in him, so he thought - and Zith loved to show off. "My claws are sharp. They are better than... yours at killing things" he said matter-of-factly. Now why else was he proud about his race? 

"We are strong! We are fast! We can... fly! We can... see at night and smell and... hear much better than you can! And I could beat you up if... I wanted to!" His words were brimming with confidence, a wide, excited grin spreading across his face as he leaned his elbows on his knees, gently folding his wings behind him. A bandaged hand rose to his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. The girl was far too energetic for his taste. She might not make anything better than an easy meal in a pinch. 

[Alea Davenport]

OOCIf Alea could read thoughts, she would totally point out that being covered in your own blood doesn't exactly mask your smell. Just putting that out there.

Alea had to admit that flying would be useful, though she had her doubts as to whether he was as fast and strong as he said. Any competently trained Denvali was strong and fast, so that wasn't saying much. She supposed seeing at night could also have its uses, but she had a glowing horse, so she didn't really need night-vision. What was really striking Alea as interesting was that you could apparently get someone to spill quite a lot if you could make them start bragging.

The Zith's final claim, however, caused a spark to light in Alea's eyes that might chill the bones of lesser men. She almost immediately tensed into a posture that readied her to inflict pain and death; she felt her muscles coil in preparation as her brain switched almost against her will into its most bloodthirsty state. "Oh really? Care to put that to the test?" she taunted, with the calm self-assurance of someone who had been in a few fights, and won. Granted, most of her fights had been with Vantha who couldn't throw a punch to save their lives... Maybe this bragging Zith creature could give her a bit of a challenge. Beating up people who stood no chance had been starting to get boring.

With no further warning, she lunged forward. The cabin was small and cramped, limiting her options. She wanted a powerful opening move, so she swung her knee at Shadowfang with all her might. She had wanted to hit him in the stomach, but she forgot to aim, so there was no telling where she would hit.