Gotcha! (Nightly)

[Tinnok]

She watched the twisted tails and fleeing haunches of the other deer even as Nightly fastened his powerful jaws around the stag's neck. Another arrow toward the fleeing deer would be wasted, so she snorted and sheathed her arrow in its quiver, sliding the bow over her body in one fluid motion, replacing her weapon with the dagger.

The stag was struggling for the last vestiges of a life no longer his, and Tinnok blinked once, then lowered her dagger. Perhaps it would be better to let the jaguar finish this thing off? He knew what his instincts told him, but little of stealth of patience it seemed...and she saw the stag weakening from blood loss by the second.

in the end the half breed did not aid him, but instead began clearing away leaves and brush in order to start a small fire to cook whatever was left of the deer when the Kelvic was finished chowing down...as he surely would. Tinnok wouldn't be one to get in between a starving animal and their kill...even if it was one she had facilitated, so instead she began collecting tinder and dry brush that might catch easily when alit, half wishing that her native element was fire instead of water...it would be so much easier to start fires after all.

She heard the dying brays of the creature, the snarls of the cat, but did not look up as she began to rub two sticks together, having notched one in order to promote friction. Her arms, already sore from the bow became inflamed at the repetitive motion, but she felt a growing heat in them. She wondered if the Kelvic would shift once he had eaten, Tinnok found herself not entirely uninterested in talking to the strange creature more.

[Nightly]

Nightly panted and rested for a minute, simply letting himself hang from the stag. As the prey suddenly tensed so too did Nightly. The jaguar pulled his lips back and yanked. It came as a surprise at the sudden snap and weight. He had broken the stag’s neck, dead immediately it fell and Nightly had to quickly spring back. His pupils fully dilated he stared at the dead animal, watching to see if it was move.

It was as if he dared it to, but as it remained unmoving Nightly went back and bit into its stomach. Such a soft and fleshy area made it easy to tear open; and soon the black cats head was gone as he ate the organs with rips and crunches. It was better to eat that first, if someone else came along to steal it; at least he got the best part. He didn’t leave anything and as he finished the last of the stomach he pulled from the carcass and looked up in surprise.

He had forgotten about Tinnok. He had only wanted to eat, but as his stomach was lulled with food he calmed down enough that he noticed both her smell and the smell of something burning. Taking a look to the deer he sighed. He could easily eat more, but the two legged had killed it to. As hungry as he was, she had to be as well. He was surprised she had not demanded the food first. She had made the first blow; it had been her prey. Taking the deer he tugged it till both he and the bloodied carcass were beside Tinnok before letting it go with a thump.

He chuffed and head-butted her shoulder, not caring and not even noticing the gore he left behind. With his greeting finished he moved so he would be before her, then promptly lay down and started to groom himself. He did not care enough to clean dirt and grease; he was only removing the blood that made other animals run. It was hard enough to catch food without telling them he would eat them. For a little bit he just did this; gold eyes watching as she messed with what seemed to be sticks.

He wondered what it was and it came to mind that he could ask. Quickly he shifted, and in his furless skin he lay on his stomach stretched out. “What are you doing?” He found himself tired, the meal was heavy, the price of eating the organs. It was as if something in it made him want to sleep; but he did not trust anything to be near him as he slept and so it was force of will that kept his eyes open as he tried to understand why she would play with two sticks. The soft sound of them rubbing together did not register as something important to him.

It was like watching those birds that picked stick up. He had wondered what they did with such odd things. Why would anyone want them? They were useless, now and then they were fun for play but only the tree let you sharpen your claws.

[Tinnok]

She was a bit surprised by the bumping of his head against her shoulder, and felt the warm remains of the blood and bits of meat hanging off the stag. She blinked once, and smirked. It wasn't as if she minded it, after all.

Her brow furrowed in concentration again, however, she could have sworn she had seen a wisp of smoke there for a moment...she rubbed the sticks together furiously, leaning down occasionally to blow upon them when she thought she saw the vaguest hint of a spark.

It took her several chimes, and for several chimes she did not answer the naked Kelvic's question. Only when one of the leaves burst into flame due to the pressure and Tinnok let out a little cry of success, and she huddled over it, making sure another leaf...and then a twig caught alight before relaxing her shoulders.

"I was starting a fire. You may be able to eat all your meat raw, but unfortunately my weak stomach would just make me puke it up again."

She turned to the eviscerated stag beside her and removed her dagger, slicing away a few strips of muscle which she laid out upon a rubber leaf to avoid collecting all the dirt and debris of the forest floor as the little fire began to grow larger.

She glanced back at the ragged creature before her. "How do you not know how to hunt, Kelvic? Where do you come from?"

She was curious. His smell would suggest he was of the jungle, but perhaps that was just because he was somewhat dirty and undernourished, yet he was the opposite of the Kelvic from the great cities where men ruled over women, and she wished to know why.

[Nightly]

He did not mind the silence as she fiddled away, instead Nightly simply let it stretch as he lay listening to birds as they slowly returned after the stags death. Violence did not cause a disturbance for long in this place. It was as if it was built for it. He had come across many bones in his wondering, animals and humans. Skulls of things he couldn’t name. Tinnoks sudden cry caused him to jump and look at her.

There his eyes widened as he saw the small flame. It was pretty, like a small sun all on its own as it danced and swayed to the smallest of movements near it. “I did not know fire could be born.” He thought of reaching out to take it and hold it. But the sound of cutting meat gave his pause as he looked to see the female cutting away. “What does a fire have to do with meat, and what is raw?” He watched her move pieces of meat and wondered why she did not just eat it.

When she suddenly looked at him, Nightly nervously shifted; not sure what the sudden look was for until she asked. Taken aback by the question he snorted and looked away from her. A cat doing so was dismissal, but then she had gotten him food. That had to be thanked, and if a question was what she wanted. “No one was there. When I was born, my mother sold me. The ones, who smell cold, like you. I bonded to one called queen. I grew up with her; but her brain always talked. Always angry always hurting.” He covered his head with his arms in memory.

It had hurt, always everything hurt. Never was it silent, never did he truly sleep. “They called it mad, but Queen got better. For a while the talking stopped; but then it grew more and more. It was hard to think, hard to calm. Queen killed them all, not for food, so angry.” He shook his head angrily, the angry buzzing bugs in his head starting up. "Queen turned and tried to kill me, but I am not prey. I am a hunter, I killed her but it hurt worse then. Many voice and bugs all making noise always angry and crying.” Nightly had dug his nails into his head but did not seem to notice.

“So scared, lots of snake people; some might come to find me. I ran away, I killed queen. My poor bonded, poor Queen all quiet and still and gone. I did not kill to eat, I should not have; but so scared. Sound doesn’t stop though, always talking always noise over and over. I knew here, the snake people won’t come.” He looked at Tinnok; his pupils were uneven, one larger than the other. “One is here, but not a bad one.” He huffed and stretched, his arms still over his head but his nails no longer digging into his flesh. “I am one winter, a cub. Hunting is hard.” He was tired, and unhappy, and he no longer wished to make noise.

[Tinnok]

Once the fire was small and shapely, Tinnok began placing the strips of meat on skewers and angling them over the flames. When he asked the why of it, her eyebrow shot up.

"Raw is the meat fresh from a kill, what you ate in your hunger. Using flames we cook the meat, harden it. Wild animals know how to digest raw and fresh, people like me, our stomachs cannot digest such fine fare."

She smirked, but her smile soon faded as the Kelvic told her his tale. So different form the other larger Kelvic...so much stranger. At the end he explained it all...he was still young, a pup, though his form was nearly grown, it was why his speech was strange, and others...like her?

She realized he meant Dhani and Tinnok shuddered. A Jaguar cub kept beneath the earth for so long...bonded so young? It seemed utter cruelty. She knew little of Kelvics, but she knew Myrians waited until a Kelvic gained their own mind before such a strange bond, one that she couldn't grasp the full intricacies of.

The pain that eeked out of his words was evident enough, and made Tinnok wish to reach for him, comfort in some way. But that was niether the way of the Myrian nor the Dhani, so she merely sat, and listened.

When he was done she removed a skewer and offered it to him. "You probably won't like it, but if you take a bite you'll know what cooked food tastes like."

She took her own medium rare skewer and began gnawing on it.

"Those creatures in the caves, those are Dhani, I am...not a Dhani, but neither am I the people who live inside the bone wall, the Myrians. My father was one of those snakes in the tunnels, my mother was one of the people in the city, I am half and half, though I can see where you might be confused."

She smirked and fed another stick into the fire, but her face straightened. "What they did to you was wrong...cruel, you were too young to know..." She shook her head.

"Well, you are free now, and that is what matters. Do you intend to live in Taloba? That city you were close to when we met?"

[Nightly]

He hummed, eyes going to the fire. “That is sad, it is very good.” Nothing like the soft pop of giving flesh when biting into the heart. He could not think what a fire would do to such a soft part as the organs, he didn’t think it would be very good. He had seen what the fires do to the tree’s, and animals did not go back to eat it. It stood to reason to him that it would be the same for meat.

Looking from the fire to the female, he took what she offered him and sniffed at it. It smelled like food. He put it in his mouth to bite only to quickly yank it away as he felt the heat of it near his tongue. Why would they want to eat something that threatened to bite you back? Somewhat gloomily he stared at the offending item.

Looking back to the human he made a small low sound in his chest. “Half is good. I am half of something. Half means half of the best part for each.” He saw no reason that she might be distressed over the fact, he saw nothing ill over either of the races and did not understand why she seemed to think it bad she was half. Both races after all, had seemed hard working to him.

That they were cruel was not something he understood, he was not even sure what cruel was. That he was too young also did not register as something important. Queen had needed him and so he had reached for her. “Yes, I like here. I do not like the noise of the city, it is much nicer when watched from a tree.” He was eyeing the bit of meat and once more tried to bite it. Finding that nothing happened he took a piece and chewed.

It was strange, stringy and tasted nothing of the blood from the deer. “It is, interesting. Do you not go hungry when there is no blood?” He bit another piece off and choked as he tried to just swallow it. “It is dry.” He was use to biting and swallowing, it was better as it filled the stomach faster that way. Now he chewed the piece and wrinkled his nose as it turned too much. “I do not like this.” He held it up for her to take back.

“You should eat it as it normally is, you could eat it faster.” He licked his lips in distaste, his stomach growling making him aware that I did not care how it tasted; but that it was food. Still stubbornly he waited for her to take the thing back.

[Tinnok]

She had to laugh at the Kelvic's words. They held a simple but infallible logic for one so young. He saw the strange truth of everything, even if it was due to a limited perspective, and honestly? Well it was fairly refreshing.

So he had affection for the Dhani instead of hatred? But hadn't he said he had killed...the queen? Tinnok knew little of how Dhani worked in their caverns within Zinrah, but it seemed strange that the Kelvic had no animosity towards the creatures that seemed to have addled his mind in more ways than one.

She chuckled at his comment. "Yes it would be faster just to eat it out of the deer."

She considered his question about the blood. "Myrians can live off of just blood if we want...though only in dire need, and it does help when its fresh, but when cooked in the meat the blood just...gets sealed in, it just doesn't feel the same as raw."

She took the offered stick and finished it off as well, contemplating the strange Kelvic. "Cooking the meat with flames also helps to preserve the meat, so it wont rot and get the insects and birds who eat it."

To show him she started wrapping the uneaten pieces of meat in her rubber leaves, stowing them away in the small pack she took hunting with her. Once done she began sawing off the tines of the stag, which could fetch a good price in the markets of Taloba. The noise was grating, but it would take her some time to get both of them off.

"Yes, I like it better out here too, you can hear all the life around you, kind of like music."

As if not to disturb this music anymore she lapsed into silence, working at the tines on the skull of the beast as the fire crackled between them.

[Nightly]

He was surprised at the bark like sound, eyes the female with a wary gaze as she laughed. He wondered if she were not calling to some animal. With a yawn he glanced to the carcass before huffing and turning to Tinnok, his nose delicately wrinkled. “It is nasty, and there is nothing wrong with rot, bugs or birds. Just eat them to. More food.” He had eaten rotting animal before, the first few times he had gotten violently ill but after that it was fine.

He did not put together that the rot was what had made him ill, or that he was not wise in eating it. Still glad to be rid of the odd bit of ruined food he rubbed his hand on the ground trying to rid himself of the smell. All the while he watched her fiddle with some leaf that she set the meat in. Yet as she moved to the antlers he couldn’t help but voice his confusion after a small amount of time had passed in the silence.

“What are you doing? Surely you will not try and eat that?” He had found some dropped antlers and had tried to eat them; but it was like biting rocks that then suddenly crumbled to dust in his mouth. He was growing wary of sitting still as well, he had to go get more food, the sun hadn’t yet started to set and if he got more food, he might have a full stomach when he went to sleep. That had yet to happen; anything he caught was too small to fill his stomach for long.

He stood up and scowled as he found himself much further from the ground then he was used to. The look didn’t last as he soon turned and moved to a nearby tree. Gazing up at it he sniffed and cocked his head. He had thought he heard them. “Do you want some stingy stuff?” He looked back at Tinnok, only turning his head as he kept himself facing the tree lease he forget which one. “It’s good, but bites.” He had never been able to get a lot of it before he had to run, the noise alone was horrible; but the feel of the stings and bites sent him fleeing.

Yet the sweet sticky stuff and even the squirming of the larva were delightful. Tinnok got him some food, now he wanted to see about getting her different food; and this stuff was a treat. Hard and painful to get, but worth it. He was unsure where the thing was or how big, but where those buzzy things were, there was always some.

[Tinnok]

Tinnok watched as the Kelvic seemed to twitch with anticipation and impatience. She threw another stick int he fire and broke off the second tine, she would have to smooth the bottoms before selling them, but they would fetch a decent price. At his question she chuckled.

"no I do not eat these, but I sell them..." She trailed off realizing that if he didn't know of most of what she spoke of, he probably wouldn't understand the term for currency either.

"I...trade with others to get things I need like clothes or weapons. Carvers can make these into daggers or arrowheads." She removed an arrow from her quiver to show him the tip.

He seemed unimpressed with this answer and rose, looking upward. Tinnok did not have the senses of the cat, but did not understand...'stingy'. She rose as well, peering up into the tree to try to discern what he meant when she realized the noise had been with them all along. The strange vibrating hum seemed so in place with the sounds of the jungle, she hadn't heard it for what it was...bees.

"Bees, if we're lucky, hornets if we're not, those ones are bigger and don't make honey that you can eat."

She glanced at him. "Good ear. I'll climb up, see if they'll let me have some."

Jumping up to cling onto a low hanging branch she pulled herself up with a grunt. Once there she brought herself level with the trunk and decided to practice her morphing a bit more. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the bark. She felt the djed slip through her body like fish in a stream as she directed it towards her fingers and toes. She pictured her nails, rough and sharp from a life of hunting, then filled up the points with her djed, imagining a thickening...lengthening of the nails to sharper points and more sturdy structures. It helped having the jaguar's attack ont eh stag in her mind, as she imagined how his claws raked the stag on their way down, curved hooked claws.

And when she opened her eyes they were there. She would not be able to maintain her concentration for long, such was her nubile magic, but she began climbing straight up the tree trunk, toenails hooking safely into the bark to help propel her upwards...a wonderful feeling.

The thrumming grew louder the higher she climbed, and a few of the...yes they were bees, swarmed around her head in way of greeting, one of them heavy with pollen taking a break upon her shoulder to rest.

"I can carry you the rest of the way little friend." The bee seemed to agree and so Tinnok made the rest of the trip with the small insect, reaching a fairly large hanging hive in the upper part of the tree.

It was hard to see when the bees came out to greet her, buzzing contentedly around her face. She made sure each movement was slow and careful, so as not to jostle her new companions, and she peered into one of the many entrances to the strange conular hive with interest.

She inquired politely to the insects, mostly as a whole since it was hard to get eye contact with one and not maintain it with several others, showing them an image of her hand removing a small section of honey. An angry buzz went up at this, the gentle thrumming turning more violent, though none of the bees made to attack her. Tinnok sent calming thoughts of high heat and moisture, and their foul mood lessened. She had nothing to trade them for their honey, but it did feel wrong simply taking it from them. She lifted the fat little bee over to the entrance where he lazily crawled in to deliver his pollen. After about a chime, his fellows having cleaned him off, he returned with a singular amount of honey as an offering to her proffered finger, much like he might feed a bee larvae not yet emerged from its container in the hive. Tinnok grinned and directed the same idea towards the worker bee. He did not seem so affronted by it as the others, but bees operated as a community not an individual.

In the end Tinnok dealt with a few upset stings, and returned to the ground bearing a small honeycomb, which she offered to the Kelvic, lickign the honey off of her fingers.

"Here, you heard them, you get the treat."

She sat back down near the fire. "You need the food more than I do." As a way of explanation.

[Nightly]

He had heard her, but chose not to reply, or even bother to ask. He didn’t understand. The need for these things, clothes. He was unsure what the others were, but he doubted he needed them. He had a good body still, and unbroken fangs. So long as he had those he could do anything he wanted. To Nightly there was little want for anything save food; and he had failed to understand the people he watched as they ran about. Wrongly he assumed they all were looking for food.

“Bees, hornets; the stingy things names yes?” He snapped his teeth, picturing them close enough to snap up. They did not ever taste good, when by mistake he had eaten one fat with pollen he had been stuck the whole day with a coating or orange on his tongue. It wasn’t till he licked a tree that he started getting it off. That there were two, he had not known that. It seemed he did not know many things. It was good not to eat this one.

He was however, surprised as she offered to climb, did they climb at all? Watching her in confusion he looked up at the tree then back to the small female as she just hopped up and stilled. Didn’t seem she was doing much climbing. “You have to move.” He sounded put off, but his calm expression didn’t change much but a twitch of his brow. It was only from observing her to see if she might climb like a snake; that he saw the claws.

His eyes widened in surprise and he took a step back. Humans didn’t have claws, the snake ones didn’t either. Those were like his, long and hooked; ready to catch flesh of and rip. He watched in shock as she climbed. Not like anything he knew, but it didn’t matter as she scaled the tree with what seemed to be ease. He wanted to return to the city, if he ripped one of those humans’ hands away he could see if it had claws and he had not noticed. They were so hard to catch though!

He watched her climb higher and higher until it was hard to see her form the leaves. He heard the sudden noise grow louder and ducked, ready to flee from the stings; but they never seemed to come. Why? Did their bites not hurt her as they did him? She must have been very strong, he would have had to run now and have whatever it was he could grab. Yet then he saw her start climbing down.

She didn’t seem in a hurry to get away from pain, and as she just handed some of the sticky stuff he blinked and looked down at it. He stayed where he was, mind trying to understand just how she could have done that; but it was no use. That horrid buzz filled his head and he violently shook it. Glancing at the sticky thing he broke it apart and trailed back to Tinnok and the fire.

He felt something; he wasn’t sure what it was. A warm feeling, maybe but something else to that made him want to growl. Ignoring both he placed his treat on one of Tinnoks leaf. The other half he extended toward Tinnok, eyes watching for her fingertips. “How did you get this? No bites at all; and you hand claws like mine.” He was puzzled, because he didn’t see them now. “Can you turn to a cat, one of the stripe ones? They are smart, and strong.” His brow was furrowed and he gave his head an annoyed shake.

He had complimented her, since to him the striped cats were the strongest things in the world. He had seen them around, they hunted fast and strong; they ran faster than he could hope to catch now. They were so bright and flashy; such large hunters didn’t need his molted black coat to hide. They didn’t need to hide form anything and Tinnok seemed the same, she hurt the stag without getting close; she took the sticky stuff without bites. He saw a few, but that was nothing.

Abruptly he shifted, not wanting to wait and find out. In that skin he had a good nose, but in this one it was even better. He drew closer to Tinnok, trying to find the scent of cat on her. He got it, but it was male. Not her. Growling he made to get closer; wanting to shove his whole head against her throat where the scent was best.