Completed Crossing Paths (Ceira)

[Tsaba]

38th Summer, 513 Tsaba strode away from the city, sling in hand, resisting the urge to glance back every few minutes. The moonlight was enough to see by, although the visibility wasn't great. But the air was cool, there was unlikely to be much bandit activity, and predators were unlikely to be interested in attacking a long-dead walking corpse. In theory, the early night was rather safer than day for her. Still, she couldn't say that she was all that happy about leaving the city behind. She kept walking until she found an ideal practice spot; a squat tree surrounded by a few short shrubs. She wouldn't be able to see the lead pellets in the darkness, but she'd be able to hear a successful hit as a solid thunk against the tree, or a near miss sink into the shrubs. She took ten paces back, loaded the sling, and began to swing.

[Ceira Everwood]

38th Day of Summer, 513 AV Hunting, for Ceira, has become a very deep part of her nature. Every evening, just as dusk arrives - or occasionally much later in the night - she would stalk the area around the mountains of Zeltiva, in an attempt to catch some prey. One of the reasons she dragged herself out of her tent every night was due to her animalistic and somewhat nocturnal nature, though she didn't like going into town very often during nightfall. This lead her to find solace in hunting, a way to spend her time doing something productive in the dark hours of the night, away from Zeltiva. Although, more often than not, she would walk back to her tent with a single small mouse, or completely empty-handed. I definitely need practice. Badly. In an attempt to increase the effectiveness of her hunting, or at least her catch rate, Ceira had bought snares a couple of day's earlier whilst in town. She saw it as a back-up, just in case it was one of those nights where she had no luck in catching anything, she could always hope the snares had trapped something she could eat - at least her appetite could be somewhat sated this way. This is what she was doing now; checking on one of the three snares she had purchased. She had placed it in some shrubs a good mile or two from her tent, marked by a short lone tree that resided beside the bushes. She hadn't any luck tonight and the other two snares had produced nothing, so this was essentially her last chance for small snack tonight, otherwise she'd have to find something else. Ceira was currently in her Maned form, her dark russet red blending in ever so slightly with the rocky backdrop and her black markings fusing with the shadows. Although, the white tip of her tail gave her away, something that irked her to no end - but what could she do about it? Her large ears were constantly rotating backwards and forwards, always trying to pick up any noises that may mean trouble for her. Ceira had learnt that ignoring your surroundings is a sure way to invite misfortune, the jagged scar on her shoulder was a testament to that claim. So, she kept close to the ground, sticking to as many shadows as possible. She tried to be quiet, though she always managed to find herself stepping on a branch or kicking over a stone. Now, where is this snare...? Ceira remembered it was somewhere in this area, although she couldn't pinpoint the exact location, it had been a day or so since she last strolled around here, so the scent was faint - practically nonexistent. She stopped her pacing, stretching to her full height as she regarded her surroundings, the gold flecks in her black eyes glinting ever so slightly. It has to be here somewhere. I swear it was just around here... There! Ceira had spotted the small and isolated tree, with a handful amount of shrubbery circling the tree. That has to be it. If it isn't... Well, it just better be there. Once more keeping to the darkness, Ceira continued her trek, making her way towards the bushes.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba's first shot flew wild. That wasn't entirely unexpected; the sling was still new to her, after all. It was important not to get frustrated. It's like copying a book, she told herself; sometimes a good finished product takes time. That is unimportant. Time is not a valuable commodity. She put another lead pellet in the pouch (she was really going through them!) and began to swing once more. She had picked a sidearm technique when she first began practicing with the sling, which her book claimed offered better vertical control than an underarm technique and better distance than an overarm. It did, however, take some time to learn to aim properly. So she wasn't all that bothered by her inability to hit her target yet. She hoped to see some improvement as she practiced through the night. Her second shot didn't hit the tree either; it did, however, whistle through the neighbouring bushes at great speed, suggesting a near miss, and Tsaba surprised herself by shouting with genuine joy for the first time in years. "Aha! Yes!"

[Ceira Everwood]

38th Day of Summer, 513 AV Ceira had managed to sneak into the sparse corpse of shrubs that surrounded the tree, only rustling the bushes a couple of times. Lowering herself even further to the ground, she ducked and looked at the snare she had set up. It was placed next to the tree, so that when a small animal triggered it, the loop would tighten around it and the tree would support it, not allowing the animal to break free or to loosen the wire. It had taken her a while to realise that it was best to place it next to a tree, having previously just set the trap up anywhere where she thought some game was. Looking at the snare now, a wolfish grin lit up her face. It had something in it. Creeping closer, Ceira realised it was a a medium sized vole, similar to a mouse. It lay there, obviously exhausted and tired, its breathing rapid and its heartbeat racing. If she were to guess how long it had been there for, she would have thought that it couldn't have been there for more than 10 chimes, it still had a bit of fight in it, a leg twitched and scrabbled against the ground in its useless fight. The wire had encircled its neck, slowly tightening everytime the vole struggled. It would eventually kill the animal through suffocation, but Ceira wasn't a cruel person, she wasn't going to let it suffer. And I'm hungry. Why wait for it to die when I can just kill it and be done with it? Ceira placed a paw on the vole, to keep it in place as she was about to end its struggles with a claw. The vole - which still seemed to have a small ounce of fight left in it - bit her paw. This did nothing but give her a slick prick of annoyance and she almost considered letting it choke itself to death instead, but Ceira figured that if she swapped positions with the vole, she'd continue to fight as well. Shrugging off the voles second attempt at sinking its teeth into her, she placed her paw once more on top of it, looser this time as to not get bitten again. But, when Ceira moved to bring the claw across its throat, she felt a sharp pain stab her on her rump. Having been so focused on the rodent, Ceira hadn't payed attention to her surroundings at all, not even noticing the figure some distance away, firing pellets towards her. The pellet hitting her wasn't the worst thing though - oh, that would've been the least of her worries. It was when she had brought her claw down to end the vole, the pellet had distracted her momentarily, causing her to instead hit and loosen the wire with her claw. The vole squirmed out from under her grasp and was already hightailing it out of there, scurrying across the roots of the tree, leaving a somewhat stunned canine in its wake. Ceira, after being stuck in a stupor for a moment, attempted to chase it throughout the undergrowth, but it was too late. She had lost it and she watched in shock as its tail disappeared from sight into a hole that Ceira could barely fit her snout into. Shyke! Damn petching... Shyke! Even through her mental tirade, she could dimly hear the figure in the distance yell out; "Aha! Yes!" This only angered her more, the figure was rejoicing as she was despairing at the loss of her kill, which was their fault. She lowered herself to the ground in the bushes, her eyes calculating as she measured the distance between herself and the intruder. Maybe i'll try and teach them a lesson for interrupting someone's dinner. She let out a howl as she burst out from her hiding place in the shrubs, broken branches flying out in her wake. She made a beeline for the figure, her eyes dark and furious as she raced closer to the figure. Ceira was angry, more at herself than anything, but she was looking for someone to blame - and the figure was the closest being around.

[Tsaba]

There were a few risks that Tsaba had been aware of and willing to accept when she'd decided to practice at night. Bandits, who would be much lower in number but also able to easily sneak up on her, had been one of them. the possiblity of falling and injuring herself due to low visibility had been another. Being attacked by an angry dog-jackal-thing had not been on her list. Trying to shoot it with the sling, of course, would be a pointless waste of time. She'd be better off throwing a rock at it. If she could find a rock and throw it before the predator reached her. Which she had no chance of doing. She turned to run, immediately tripped in a hollow that she'd taken for a random shadow, and fell to her knees. She quickly turned herself over to face the beast as she scooted backwards away from it, trying to get her feet underneath her. but there wasn't really any point. In her best condition, she couldn't outrun the thing. A healthy human wouldn't have been able to outrun the thing. She was surprised she'd managed to fall over in the time it took to approach. Tsaba curled into a ball, protected her neck with both arms, and hoped that the predator wasn't hungry enough to find rotting flesh appetising.

[Ceira Everwood]

38th Day of Summer, 513 AV Ceira was bounding across the grass, ignoring the small pinpricks of pain she felt from the rocks and pebbles that she stepped on. She didn't have time to worry about stealth or being quiet, heck, she couldn't even be silent now if she tried - her howl made sure of that. Instead, she focused on the retreating figure, who must of spotted her by now. It seemed like they had indeed seen her and were now backing up in a hasty retreat, using everything they could to try and distract her or throw her off course. She centred her focus on the person's back, planning to leap and pin them to the ground before she got around to making her point. Although Ceira never did get the chance to jump on the stranger, as they tripped, falling to the ground. Well at least that makes things easier for me. Such a shame though, I would've loved to have practiced my leaps on a moving target. She slowed down ever so slightly as she spotted the ditch that the figure had stumbled over, to many people it would've been hard to see, although thanks to the stranger, it was pointed out to her easily. She skirted the deep hole, which, now that she thought about it, looked similar to a rabbits den. I'll note that for later. I have more important things to do. Ceira hadn't finished scaring the stranger, nor had her displeasure of her hunt being interrupted faded away yet. Although, she did steadily slowed to a stroll a she eyed the stranger who had tripped and was now positioned into a ball. Arms were hunched across the head of themselves in a feeble attempt at providing some sort of protection, the woman - for Ceira could now see she was a girl - almost seemed like she had given up fighting and was just laying there. She sniggered quietly to herself, it was actually a little funny. This woman, who was on the ground shaking, was taller than herself when she was in her Maned form, being only 3 feet up to the shoulder. Heck, the mouse had more fight in it than this girl. Stopping now right behind the stranger, Ceria lost her thoughts of attacking the stranger, but scaring was still on the agenda. She growled low and menacingly as she circled the woman, kicking up sprouts of grass and dirt as she did so to give effect, though she doubted it worked - any real predator set on attacking someone would've done so by now. Darn. I wish I could froth at the mouth right now, I'm sure as hell that would be scary. Ceira then crouched on the ground, creeping forwards before she let out a somewhat hostile snarl as she pounced forward, landing lightly beside the girl, her front legs digging gently on her back. She briefly wondered if she had scared the girl well enough, so she decided to do one more thing. Lightly, as Ceira didn't want to actually hurt the person, she nipped the girl on the shoulder, letting out one more growl as she did so. There. That ought to teach her not to barge in on my hunt. Wait... Whats that smell? Ceira took another whiff of the air around the figure, instantly choking on the smell of decay and rot that surrounded the area. Thats a horrible smell... Petching awful that is! Letting out another whine of annoyance and disgust, she took a couple of paces back from the woman, before lying down on her haunches, her paws scrabbling at her nose. This petching stink is still in my nose! She rolled around on the grass, her paws still brushing her sensitive nose as she tried to rid herself of the stink.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba lay still as the beast circled her. There was no breath in her lungs, no heartbeat thundering through her, which kind of made it hard to be really scared. Either she would be torn apart and risk death, or she would not. It was out of her hands. Perhaps she'd be able to take down the beast, when it attacked her, and perform an emergency body transferrence... it wasn't a body she'd pick if she had a choice, but it was better than death. Could she perform it, out here? She could make mud or, if worst came to worst, use her own ichor for the runes. they shouldn't be disturbed. If they were, of course, she was as good as dead. even in Zeltiva, somebody walking in on that kind of ritual was likely to stab first and ask questions later. And then the beast was on her, growling, biting... And then it was gone. Aha! Saved by being absolutely horrible to eat! She knew there were advantages to being dead! Tsaba slowly uncurled herself and looked over at the predator, who hadn't left. That was weird. She'd expected the beast to retreat as soon as it found her inedible. She sat up and squinted at it. Was it injured? Or perhaps it just genuinely considered her so unimportant that her presence didn't matter. but she should check. "Hey," she murmured in her talking-to-frightened-animals voice as she crawled slowly forward. "it's ok. Are you hurt?"

[Ceira Everwood]

38th Day of Summer, 513 AV The smell... It burns... Ceira let out a round on sneezes, still trying to get the smell of rotting corpse out of her system. She knew she was probably overreacting, although this was the first time she had come across the stench of rot and decay. She could literally taste the odor of death surrounding the girl - of the peeling skin and brittle bones. It was horrible, to say the least. Yet, it was magnified by her sensitive canine nose, which made it all the worse. Continuing to prance and roll in order to get the smell out, Ceira dimly heard the woman shuffle around and get up. Great. Any chance I had of scaring her was gone because of... This. She closed her eyes when another sneeze rolled through her. Darn petching smell! The women didn't flee, which only added insult to injury as any hopes of the woman being even remotely frightened was lost. Digging her nose into the ground, Ceira quieted down, trying to stop the sneezing and to air out her nose. "Hey, it's ok. Are you hurt?" Ceira glanced to her left and saw the woman creeping towards her, but she let out a warning growl - though it sounded more like a whine - on instinct. Do I look fine lady? Seriously? You petching killed my nose with your stink! Do you even wash? I'm an animal but I still smell relatively fine! Besides the mud of course... But thats what the bath house is for! Have you even seen the inside of a bath house? Shyke! Although, all of this was lost on the woman, as all of her mental raging translated through as small barks, growls and the occasional whine due to her being in her canine form at the moment. She stopped her cussing and brought her nose out from the hole, almost all of the stench was gone out of her nostrils, only a slight rotting residue was left. Appraising the girl, Ceira finally got the chance to have a proper look at her. Well, she was old. Much older than herself by any chance - I should probably stop calling her a 'girl' then. White and light blonde streaks were seen to accompany her wavy and now slightly mussed hair. Even in the dim moonlight, Ceira could see the shadows of bags under her eyes, which was a stark contrast to the almost deathly-white pallor of her skin. She looks sick. Its either that, or I scared her silly! She felt a slight sense of satisfaction at this thought, letting her tongue loll out as she gave another wolfish grin. Ceira had previously considered switching out to her human form, but thought it wouldn't be the best idea. She still didn't know if this lady was dangerous, or if she was the only one here - it would be much faster to run in her canine form anyway. Her ears pricked up, swivelling around to detect the sounds of the area, though she couldn't pick out anything out of the normal. She took one step closer to the woman, but stopped, not wanting to stray into her smell once more and wanted to keep enough distance from the lady in case she had to flee. Letting out another bark of annoyance, Ceira sat, curiosity overcoming her as she stared at the lady. Never met anyone that smelt worse or had skin that shade of white. What is she?

[Tsaba]

Tsaba froze when the beast stepped towards her again, but it didn't look hostile. Was it somebody's pet? Maybe. Tsaba knew very little about domestic dogs. It looked sort of wild to her, but even in good light, how would she be able to tell? Maybe it was wearing a collar. It was a little too dark for her to tell. She glanced around, but they appeared to be alone. Either way, it looked upset. She should probably make sure that it wasn't hurt. But she didn't want to go over and try to touch it; it might attack her again, or run away. She squinted at the beast. It looked pertty annoyed. And flighty. Not that Tsaba was the greatest judge of body language. It didn't seem to be limping, or in pain... it was probably fine. Probably. She wasn't going to leave even a dumb animal out on its own based on 'probably'. Craun had raised her better than that. She was going to have to go over and see if the beast would let her touch it. Because apparently she hadn't risked having a limb bitten off enough yet. She was preparing to get up when she remembered that she had a skill perfectly suited to that exact situation. Who forgot they could see auras?! She was supposed to be intelligent! Tsaba shifted her weight until she was sitting cross-legged on the ground and closed her eyes. Although she didn't need it, she took a deep breath to help her focus. Dalat djas-pond, she whispered in her own mind. Radjudt Irst. She would prefer to chant out loud, but she was too self-conscious to do so in front of somebody else, even a beast. A moment later, she opened her eyes, nd with it, her Auristic sight. The creature's skeleton and muscles were fine. Heartbeat was a little accelerated, but that was to be expected. No signs of infection. It was fine. But there was something... weird about it, about the way its energy sat within its body. I didn't... no, 'it didn't fit' was wrong; it did fit. She was an example of somebody whose life energy didn't really fit in their body. This creature was just... different. Something was fluctuating, somehow, but in a way that seemed natural and stable. She didn't know what it was. But it wasn't the sort of thing she'd expected to see. Tsaba blinked hard, shutting off her Auristic sight. "What are you?" she whispered.

[Ceira Everwood]

38th Day of Summer, 513 AV Ceira continued her stare-down with the woman, pausing only momentarily to dig a small bit of rock out of her fur. Dirt or dust didn't really annoy her, as long as she could easily remove it from her pelt or shaken out without effort. Her task completed, she turned back towards the woman, once more engaging her with an interested eye and a panting tongue. She had a horrible sense of curiosity, it was an irritating thing as she had a tendency to pursue it until she was satisfied - which wasn't always the case. It was this inquisitive part of Ceira that, in most cases, walked her into trouble - whether it was from snooping around places she wasn't meant to or otherwise. She had tried to limit her curiosity, but her self control was unpredictable and her discipline didn't get her anywhere. And so here she was, still sitting in front of a complete stranger. Ceira had never seen - or smelt - a person like the woman before. She knew that she would probably be better off by putting as much distance as possible between herself and the woman, Who knows what she could do? For all I know, she be stalling for time or waiting for me to drop my guard. At this moment, Ceira realised she had indeed lowered her guard, but quickly became alert, her tail still as she once more tried to read her environment. When the woman took a deep breath in and shut her eyes tightly, she had to stop herself from flinching and bolting away, suspicious of this reaction. What the hell is she doing? When the lady's eyes flicked open, Ceira shuffled back slightly, still slightly unnerved at this woman's behaviour. If the woman had any sense at all, she should've been running as well, hopefully in a direction away from Ceira. Even so, the woman seemed to be a little confused herself. "What are you?" Ceira mimicked the woman in blinking hard as well, trying to digest this tidbit of information. Well, that makes two of us, lady. What the hell are you? However it seems as if this woman knows something is up. How though? She didn't think she had left any hints towards her Kelvic nature, she thought she acted pretty well - an animal that was badly disturbed would bite back, right? Thinking back, the only thing she may have done wrong was stick around, normal animals wouldn't have done that. Damn petching curiosity! It now seemed like the woman had an inkling to what she was, or at the very least, knew that she was not an ordinary animal. Ceira still had reservations against shifting in front of people, as it had been drilled into her mind from a young age that the less people know about your secrets, the better. She didn't heed this warning once before and it caused trouble. Although the lady seemed harmless, well, to an extent possibly. Ceira had seen the slingshot the woman wielded beforehand - though if she was a good shot, she shouldn't have hit her at all in the first place. With these thoughts in mind, she decided to finally talk to the woman, but not before checking her surroundings beforehand. Twisting around, Ceira faced away from the woman as a soft glow of light sprouted from the centre of her chest. It grew in size, enveloping her animal form before dissolving into pinpricks of light. These then formed a taller, more humanlike shape as colour returned to the light, leaving Ceira in their wake. She still sat in front of the woman, though her back was still turned away from her, not as a sign of modesty, but to save the woman from being frightened once more. Ceira's ginger hair covered most of her back, its loose waves spread out behind her as she spun her head around, letting out a sarcastic remark. "Can you guess what I am now? I'd hope it would be pretty obvious, unless you're thicker than what I gave you credit for." Ceira smirked at this, before continuing her sardonic reply. "Although, the better question would be this: Who, or what, are you? You smell like rotting flesh and not in a nice way. Seriously though - thats what baths are for... You know, baths? Hot water and soap?