[Flashback]Paradise Lost(Renalee)

[Volinir Orchid]

63rd of Spring, 512AV Just before dusk Home. It wasn't just somewhere you threw yourself down in every night. Home was security, and privacy, and a place to rest. Over the last thirty days, home had been a small, run down shack that had seen some pleasant renovation. The cracks and holes in the building had been filled in with awkwardly placed plywood. A rusty cooking range sat in one corner of the interior, along with a three-legged table with wobbly chairs to accompany it. A dirty old mattress lay in another corner, with a mound of clothes serving as both pillow and laundry pile. Two tatty cloaks were the sheets, and a simple lantern sitting in the middle of the room served as light for when it was wanted. It was far from luxurious, but it was home. The door rattled a little, then swung open with a loud scrape, and Volinir stepped in with a small sack of fruit and bread. He'd been out the better part of the day "collecting" food for himself and his companion, and he wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed with a nice orange, or a cup of hot tea. It was unfortunate that his exhaustion had also dulled his senses; he might have been able to see he had been followed otherwise. A small, slight figure had tailed him all the way to the cottage, and was now watching him enter the house from a shadowed alley. "Dinner's here, sweetheart!" Volinir chirped happily, if a little wearily, as he shut the door behind him. Meanwhile his little shadow turned and began to trot back towards the more affluent part of the city.

[Renalee]

The bruises on her wrists and neck were starting to fade now, and with them - the memories of countless of days spent in shackles and with her freedom and will denied. It was easy to forget pain and fear when you had suddenly gotten to know happiness in a way you had never experienced it before. And Renalee was happy. There was no question about it. The city seemed as threatening as it had ever been, but the Kelvic had come to know peace in it, if not in quite the same way it existed in the wild. She had gotten to know some of the weaving alleyways that would have reminded her of home, if not for the canals that were spread like a web throughout Ravok. She loved the docks and the smell of water and old wood. She loved the hut which had become a home she was happy to return to every evening. She loved the routine of her days which, whilst always tiring, brought a sense of normalcy to her life. Most of all, Ren loved the man with whom she was sharing everything. At the sound of the door opening the girl looked up from the water she had just put to warm up over the fire. Before Volinir had even properly made it inside she was by his side, arms quickly finding their way around his neck. “Welcome home,” she greeted, before breathing in his familiar scent and leaning in to kiss him. When they broke apart Ren took the small sack from him, bringing it over to the corner of the hut that was acting as their ‘kitchen’. She hadn’t been too successful in her own endeavors today so dinner would consist of whatever the Symenestra had brought. It had been a few days since they had had any meat and the big cat temporarily contained in its human shape was starting to miss it. It was one of the harder things to steal, considering its selling value, so Ren was happy that she should be able to cross the lake soon enough (once the marks of her taste of slavery faded a little bit more) and would be able to hunt again. It would do wonders for their menu and diet. “I didn’t manage to get anything today, I’m sorry,” the girl told her lover as she pulled out the fruits and bread he had brought. “Hopefully tomorrow is better. And in a few days I’ll go try my luck with the ferry.”

[Volinir Orchid]

Volinir pulled away after a breath of blissful contact, letting Ren go reluctantly. “I didn’t manage to get anything today, I’m sorry,” she said as she started sorting through his spoils, "Hopefully tomorrow is better. And in a few days I’ll go try my luck with the ferry.” He smiled and shook his head, scooping up an orange that had rolled across the floor and cutting it open with the knife Ren had given him, "Don't worry about it. This is more than enough for me. I'll see if I can find a butcher for you before then... Heck, maybe if we're lucky we'll be able to collect enough to rent a water glider and finally get out of here." Being Symenestra had both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, he couldn't eat solid food, had almost glass-like bones, and couldn't disguise himself nearly as easily as Renalee could. On the other, he only needed to eat twice a day, meaning lunch was more of a treat than a necessity, and could exploit all sorts of flaws in security systems designed to ward off human intruders. All in all, he was happy to be what he was. He was even happier to be where he was. Turning the half-eaten fruit in his hand, Volinir's mind wandered, and he asked absently, "Tell me about Sunberth..." If they had a chance of leaving soon, he may as well know more about a potential destination. Not to mention Renalee's family there. Being a follower of Viratas, relations were a great deal more important to Volinir than they were to Ren. That wasn't to say he thought he didn't love her family; he simply placed far more value on one's relationship with their kin than most others. Not to mention, stories were always a nice way to pass the time.

[Renalee]

Surprisingly enough, canines could lead a very happy and healthy life on a vegetarian diet. Felines however, couldn’t. Cats of all shapes and sizes were obligate carnivores and required plenty of protein in order for their body to function well. Renalee wasn’t the exception. She needed the energy meat could provide her body and while fruits and vegetable were filling enough they still couldn’t satisfy her needs. So when Volinir mentioned trying their luck with a butcher the girl smiled gratefully up at him. “As long as I don’t suddenly need to shift a couple of times I’ll be fine on this.” She picked up an apple and bit into it, some of the sweet juice clinging to her lips before she licked it off. “We’d already be able to afford the transportation itself. It’s bribing the owner of the boat that will be a problem.” Ren chewed on her fruit thoughtfully, repeating what they had already discussed many times. Truthfully, they couldn’t know how much they would be asked to pay. But if they tried their luck and went to enquire and discovered they didn’t have the money needed... They would be in more immediate danger than the information was worth. So for now they stuck to discussing over and over what they both already knew. Ren stood up, dropping a handful of dried herbs in the water as she went so that they had some tea for later. She took Volinir’s hand afterwards, leading him towards their bed, preferring to sit on their mattress than on the chairs they had acquired a few days ago. Those always looked rather unstable and decidedly uncomfortable. Once she was settled with her back against the hut’s wall and her shoulder pressed to the Symenestra’s she decided she was comfortable enough to proceed answering his question. Ren allowed for the memories to pour into her mind through the door behind which she usually kept them. Her expression softened, eyes bright with the reflection of the images she was seeing. “Sunberth is a dangerous place. If you don’t get robbed or murdered, or at least injured in a fight then you know you were born under a lucky star. The city is mostly under the control of three syndicates and the smartest decision anyone can make is to never cross them.” She was speaking with a small smile on her lips and if you couldn’t actually hear her words you’d imagine she was talking about a peaceful land of dreams. To her Sunberth was home and all those details who could only be a negative to an outsider were part of the city’s charm to anyone who had grown up there. Or so it was for Ren. “My father works at the Castle Commons as a guard for hire for merchants, but when he’s free we’d go out into the wild and hunt together. The docks are beautiful at sunset and Orion and I - that’s my cousin - would often go there during the Summer when he was visiting. And then there’s The Drunken Fish where you can hear the most wonderful as well as the most horrible of stories from the sailors who are currently in town.” Renalee continued with that same content and peaceful expression on her face, eyes focused on a spot on the hut’s wall across from her, but actually seeing through time and space. It seemed to be an evening just like any other they had shared. And it would be so, if not for the small group that had just gathered around the short man who had been following Volinir, listening to his instructions. A few canals and bridges over they turned south-west, heading their way.

[Volinir Orchid]

Volinir chuckled softly, "That dangerous?" Kalinor saw perhaps one fight every year, two at most. Murder was next to unheard of. With only nine hundred Symenestra in existence, and a faith that placed community above all else, it was difficult to get the mix of anonymity and animosity needed for any sort of violent crime. Hearing stories of a place so violent the life expectancy seemed to be somewhere in the twenties was more than a little amusing. "I suppose being able to turn into a big cat never hurt your chances." Despite the peaceful haze in the hut, and the warmth of the tea and Renalee's company, his heart clenched a little when she started talking about her father and cousin. He hadn't seen his own family in more than a decade. Odds are, they thought him dead. Perhaps it was better that way. Better to be a casualty than a failure. It was hard to stay sad for long, though. Volinir planted a kiss on Ren's cheek, and he said with a soft smile, "I'll have to make sure to meet them when we get the chance. They sound like wonderful people." This wasn't all that bad. He closed his eyes, savoring the light friction of their shoulders as they rose and fell with their breath, and the gentle pressure of their interlocked fingers. He'd almost fallen asleep, until something got his attention. It was faint, almost unnoticeable, but still very real, very familiar, and growing in intensity; the faint vibrations in the floor caused by something heavy tramping down the Docks. Volinir suddenly sat bolt upright and jumped to his feet, his eyes wide and locked on the door, "Ebonstryfe..." Five fully armored hulks were jogging in the direction of their house. Within a chime they would be there, and within another chime, they would surround it.

[Renalee]

If she hadn’t been distracted she would have heard them approaching earlier. It was rare for a beast like her to get caught off guard. Her hearing and sense of smell were much better than a human's, if not quite as good as they were in her feline form. She should have been able to catch their scents and hear them move from across a few streets at least. Then again, even if she had, she would not have paid it much mind. Their days had been peaceful and undisturbed and Renalee had forgotten that somebody might be after them.

When she did hear them - heavy feet clad in boots, thumping rhythmically against wood - her reaction was decidedly slow. She sat there, listening to the sound and trying to determine why was it causing a certain sense of urgency to settle over her. Before the Kelvic could find the answer to that herself Volinir had jumped to his feet. His whole body was tense, an expression on his face Ren couldn’t exactly read. Ebonstryfe. She knew of them by now. The soldiers that belonged to The Black Sun, that wielded magic and were a force not to be crossed or questioned. Ren mirrored the man’s actions, getting up to her feet quickly, her body already taking a defensive stance and hand reaching down for her dagger.

“But why?” A horrible thought suddenly crossed her mind. “Do you think... that guard?” In the end, it didn’t really matter why they were here. What mattered was that, if her hearing wasn’t misleading her (something which it rarely did), they were drawing closer. They could be headed somewhere nearby. It was possible that it wasn’t them they were after. The chance seemed too slim to take. “Let’s go.” Determination was etched on her face.

Her fingers ghosted over her dagger’s hilt before she reached out to grab Volinir’s arm. She rushed to the door, opening it quickly but quietly, and glanced outside. If they left now, they still had a chance to get a good distance away before the men realized their hut was abandoned. “We need to hurry,” Ren whispered over her shoulder before slinking along the side of the ramshackle building into the evening’s dusk.

[Volinir Orchid]

And not a moment too soon. A couple ticks later, Volinir heard the sound of a door being kicked into splinters as they melted into the mismatched mess of buildings that made up their section of the Docks. There was a furious roar and a loud crash as the table was knocked over and tea was spilled. Two ticks later, a voice barked, "Split up!" Volinir cast a worried glance behind him just before they rounded a corner. For a moment, he could see the five shadows fanning out. "Maybe they caught wind of us. Could have been the bakers." he muttered. The loss wasn't that bad. Their less than glamorous lifestyle meant that they could rebuild in a different part of the Docks with little effort. Perhaps they could learn to grow plants or raise chickens so they didn't have to risk themselves so much. Those were plans for the future though, and right now it was their present that was in jeopardy. Meanwhile the sound of footsteps were getting closer. In the labyrinth of shacks, the echoing din made it almost impossible for Volinir to track where exactly the noise was coming from, just that it was growing louder. Nearing a canal, Volinir readied to turn a corner, until a soldier jumped into the street. His armor was tinted iron, a spiked buckler was in his left hand, and a truncheon not unlike the city guard's was in his right. "I fou-" he started, before being cut off by a Symenestra's knees smashing into his chest. He staggered back a few paces, Volinir's fingers ripping at his helmet, before the both of them tumbled into the jet black canal. Shimmering ripples coursed through the water as the two men struggled. Volinir could swim, but the soldier seemed to have decided that if he was going to drown, the Widow was going with him. For a few breaths, everything was a confused tangle of thrashing limbs, the silver of Volinir's hair glinting as his head broke the surface, before an armored elbow smashed into his jaw, the gleam of the soldier's teeth as he tried to wrap his legs around his opponent, a swift headbutt breaking his grip. Volinir flailed in the direction of the water's edge, the Ebonstryfe's arm hooking over his shoulder and around his chest, determined to drag him to a watery grave. The soldier's fingers tangled in silver hair, yanking Volinir's head back and causing him to yelp in pain. His fingers found the edge of the street, and claws and miniscule hooks dug into the moldering wood. For a tick, it seemed that he had stopped himself from sinking, before a wet crack sounded from the rotting beam. The section of the street Volinir was gripping was slowly bending; soon it would break.