Game Of Scales (Tinnok)

[Kalesserimamoru]

Timestamp: 32nd of Summer 513 AV


It was another beautiful and rainy day in Falyndar. Bright beams of lights descending from up high and casting small pools of Syna's rays down upon the lands. There were birds singing, and other animals crawling around looking for a meal in the early morning. It was a simple life and that life would go on and on as it always had before.


Myrians were about, taking their positions around the known Dhani exits as they waited and hoped for a fight with their long-time enemies. It was a slow day indeed, and such days were a bore and useless to such narrowed minded individuals as the Myrian clans. If no Dhani appeared then they were stuck standing around, braiding each others hair and scratching themselves. They went about their task, making sure that nothing spoke or moved, other wise they've break into a stabbing frenzy.


Of all the wonders, and stupidities of the jungle, there was also Mamoru in his longest of snake forms, slithering through the forest. He was away from the nest again, having left very early before Leth gave up his reign over the sky and returned it to Syna once again. He was still working out the kinks in his plan, a way to half the number of Myrians around the nest by making them focus their efforts onto another threat that was equal to that of the Dhani. But it wasn't easy and as strong as his illusions were, they were still just illusions. For this he needed something more real.


What the trickster needed was others, with hate for the Myrians in their hearts, to help him in completing the biggest illusion that he had ever attempted. But for the time, it was just him. Zharus, his oldest friend had become invisible for some time now and the Dhani rarely appeared for more than a moment to grumble, before slithering off into the shadows again. He had hoped to use Aka for this, but the Viper had become too unreliable. As powerful as she was becoming, Mamoru couldn't risk her turning on him when her mood suddenly changed from day to day.


There had been another, a halfbreed he had met recently. She had good reason to hate the Myrians, but it didn't seem as if she did. The woman seemed to want freedom above all else, which wasn't very Myrian like, though perhaps it wasn't Dhani like either. Still, he had gone to work on her and was tempting to form a bond when they were attacked. There wasn't much to do afterwards and he wasn't even sure if he'd see her again. The snake slithered through the jungle, his eyes locked on a monkey hanging from a tree near by.


He had been tracking this family on and off the whole season, mostly using the time to learn their ways and better understand how they move and think. By now, he figured that he had enough and with an empty belly it was time to feed.

[Tinnok]

She couldn't focus, couldn't even preeeetend to focus. She had been traveling with a troop of Emporer Tamarins for a few days, practicing her balance and agility in the canopy, but it was no bloody use. She was big for a Myrian, and though lithe, she was a weighty thing, made of solid bones and sinewed muscles. The little primates she had been accompanying seemed to float from branch to branch and climb as easily as if they were lifting themselves upon air currents like birds. They had revealed a whole swathe of jungle that had been corrupted to her, though by what she wasn't sure. They knew where it was before even her Gnosis began to ache, screeching and carrying on, pulling their magnificent whiskers, and it had been here in this strangely stagnant part of the jungle that Tinnok had taken her leave of them.

It was a relief when her leather-like soles hit the forest floor to feel solid ground below them. She was beginning to get used to the trees, but it was still such a trial in her bulky human form, every day she tried shifting more, but her morphing ability seemed to be progressing at a painfully slow level...and she had barely touched her reimancy since that day in the woods with Svan.

Svan, she snorted thinking of the Dhani Rattler, with that roguish mop of hair and the mischievous eyes that twinkled a certain way before he went in for a kiss. She found her lips twitching at the corners, but one snake thought brought her to another snake thought...and then she thought of him.

The wound on her arm was still healing, part of her legs still sore, and a certain feeling still had the rebellious tendency of warming up like a stew coming to a boil over a camp fire. A scaled fist slammed into the earth and Tinnok grimaced. Mamuro, he had done something to her surely. Every Dhani she had ever met that she hadn't tried to kill...well they had all wanted something from her. For Svan it was knowledge of Caiyha, understanding of why her and not him, and after that she couldn't guess. For that petching constrictor in the woods it had just been survival, and for Mamuro...? Well that was nearly impossible for her to guess. He had wanted to eat her...and well...perhaps he still did, just in an entirely different way. Most Dhani might be disgusted by her, just as shamed as her Myrian cohorts had been at her tainted blood, but there was something she sensed made Mamuro infinitely curious about her. But he wanted something too, his offers of companionship and allied being were surely to an end, she just didn't petching know what, and that feeling...she was sure he had placed it within her just as much as she felt herself, in Caiyhas name she was sure of it.

And that was why she couldn't petching focus on where the source of this rot was coming from...because it certainly was coming from somewhere.

She heard another monkey call somewhere in the distance and paid it no mind as her fingers sunk into a section of earth dead and dried. Foliage should always be lush in the wilds, especially here where water from the monsoons seemed to collect in small shallow ponds, making the forest look more like a mangrove swamp then jungle. But here? The land was almost desert dry...or as close as Tinnok could imagine to such a thing. Leaves broke off in her fingertips, and the bark of even the large trees had a crackly edge to it that sent a shiver down her spine. No insects, no birds...no moss on tree branches and rocks.

The witch sat herself down against the large tree in the center of the clearing, stripping her shirt off to lay the entirety of her back against the too-dry bark, neck lining up and forehead pointed like an arrow into the canopy as golden eyes closed. Her hands stretched out, palms facing upwards as the back of her skin lay upon roots to her right and left. The tree felt calm and still, as most things so large and old would. It pulsated like a slow hearbeat against her skin and Tinnok let herself drift into the current of sunlight it absorbed into its great being. If any being knew what the trouble was here it would be this old fellow surely. Before she drifted into the mass of connections she thought for a tick about her safety. Creatures of the jungle would steer away from this place of death and rot, but...those weren't the creatures she was worried about. A slow sigh escaped her nostrils. She was far from both cities, hopefully far enough...that would have to be enough for now.

And with that the halfbreed sunk into something like a sleep as her mind drifted among the great system that lay just beneath the dry bark she lay against.

[Kalesserimamoru]

Mamoru kept himself very still, his vision painted red as he read the heat signature coming from the flipping monkey only paces away. The Dhani slithered forward flicking his tongue from his mouth. His prey was only a few feet in front of him and he had only to get in range and dinner was served. Mamoru slithered even closer and the bulk of his frame pushed against the undergrowth near by and causing a light rattle. The monkey froze, looking around until he spotted the Dhani stalking him.


"Flamesss!"


The dhani snake dashed forward snapping his claws at the dangling creature as fast as he could. The monkey was lucky, bouncing off the snout of the predator, he pushed himself up and latched onto the nearest branch. Mamoru snapped his jaws at him again, forcing the monkey to release the branch and scramble around it. The trickster pushed himself against the tree and started to coil his way up. But the monkeys were fast, screeches roared across the tree tops and suddenly there was mass movement from tree to tree.


Mamoru slithered his way up further, but stopped once he realized that by the time he reached the top, the food would be three trees down. Hissing loudly, the Dhani slammed his tail against the tree in frustration before slowly sliding his way back down to the ground. This was the reason he wanted to learn to move as they did, the creatures were even faster than Myrians and moved through the trees with no effort at all. He figured that he had watched them long enough and now was the best time to see if he could pull it off.


Back on the ground, the Dhani coiled himself closer and started to shift himself into his human form to be closer in shape to what the monkey's had. 30 seconds it took, and the Dhani had transformed himself from a giant snake to a very naked human. With little time to waste, Mamoru willed his djed to pulse and flow through out his body. He calmed his mind and concentration on the image in his mind, He recalled the length of their arms, to the shortness of their legs. The longer torso to the short and small waste. He brought to mind the hands and feet that were almost identical in length, weight, and shape.


He started to morph, the bones in his back remained the same mostly, but his lower bones withdrew, shortening and growing smaller in size. His bare feet squared out and the bones in his toes grew out to the length of fingers. The bones in his face popped and judged outward, his mouth taking on a more squire shape as his canine teeth grew longer. The muscles in his body flexed, grew and tighten around his form to creature meatier hands and feet, thicker arm and thigh muscles, and a slender but toned waist line.


Prickles of hair peaked from within his pale flesh, sprouting out the length of his back, arms, and legs until there was fur covering him head to toe. The long hair on his head receded and thin out to match that covering the rest of his body, though a thicker coat remained up top.


Once the transformation was complete, Mamoru instantly sensed that something was off, he was too big. His body didn't grow as small as that of the monkey's and instead only shorten him. The muscles in his back felt strained and there was a burning in his thighs, as if taking this shape felt unnatural and too heavy. Still, he couldn't' be certain as it was the first time he'd taken the shape. Mamoru moved towards the closest tree and started to climb his way up. It was a bit easier going, though he felt every shift and twitch of his muscles when he moved.


"It sseemsss thisss will take getting ussed to. I don't have the sspeed that they do and thiss climbing sshould be fasster."


The Dhani climbed his way up further and locked his feet around the tree branch as he slowly moved across it. With a run and leap, the monkey Dhani launched himself off the branch and across to the next tree. Reaching out for the closest branch, he gripped it awkwardly with his hands and held tightly until the weight of his body pulled him down. Mamoru swung down, landing on his rear as he hit the ground and slid a few feet. If there was ever a time that he wanted to jump up and howl like a monkey this would be it. But he didn't, the moment that he landed his eyes fixed on something in the short distance.


A human-like figure laid against the truck of a rather large tree. Mamoru grunted softly, it appeared that he was due a meal after all. With a heavy breath, he remained completely still and released his morphed form and returned back to his human shape. He gave a sigh as he did, standing straight up and popping his neck and back. There was surely something off in his transformation and he would have to work harder to fix it before he tried it again. Kneeling down, the trickster slowly crept closer to get a better look at what he had stumbled upon.


Myrian perhaps? He thought as much, but a meal was a meal, and as long as their wasn't thirteen hiding nearby it should be a quick meal. However, as he drew closer, bare hands and feet lightly creeping across the ground to make his presence unknown, he noticed something. It was her, the halfbreed that he had met before, and suddenly he felt a new hunger growing within him south of his grumbling belly. What was she doing, he had to wonder. Sleeping out in the open wasn't a good idea, unless..she was already dead.


"Tinnok..wasss it?"


If that was the case, then he was left only to sate his first hunger, but as he moved even closer, he noticed her chest rise and fall indicating that she was still alive. Mamoru licked his lips and continued to slowly crawl towards her. She appeared so helpless laying there, ripe and ready for the taking. The trickster crawled closer to her, hands reaching out to gently touch her feet. He watched her as he did, waiting to see if she would wake before he continued. His hands slid to her calves first, fingers gliding over them and up to her muscular thighs. With a jungle filled with Myrians, he had no idea how she survived living there. But there she was, resting peacefully under a tree.


Mamoru studied her body as he continued to move his fingers over her curves. He leaned closer to her face, his lips barely an inch apart from her own. Instead of a kiss, he started to breathe in, taking the air expelled from her lungs directly into his. It was a sweet scent, and an even greater taste upon his pallid. What was it about this woman that attracted him so?


Leaning away from her head, the Dhani placed his head upon her chest and listened to her calm heartbeat. Very light and paced thumps, but nothing as erratic as anyone's should be when they were around this Dhani. A smile crept across his thin lips, and the trickster turned his face to nuzzle into her bust, before parting his lips with a long and wet lap of his full tongue. "Didn't you know? Ssleep is for the dead.."

[Tinnok]

She fell into the peace of trees. Beings without worry or anxiety, who knew where they belonged by the way their roots sank into the earth and their leaves stretched into the blue expanse that was hidden from her. They had no heartbeat, but she could feel a pulse of energy within the plant nevertheless, one that had gone for centuries since it was the tiniest of saplings, and would continue for centuries more. The world slowed, and her body with it, sliding into the system, the strange machine that was the trees systems working its way into her mind and blood.

She didn't know the science behind trees other than the water and sunlight that seemed to power their organic mass, but there was a connection between her blood flow and whatever nutrients flowed through trees, this she was certain, and it was this she felt. But she wasn't here to connect with trees, to lose herself in the arms of the great tree and lose all sense of herself...though...it was an enjoyable feeling that.

But she had to find the source, it was as if this patch of place had never felt rain, or at least that is what it seemed.

And so the touches felt like breezes and she did not seem to notice the Dhani crawling up her body. Her eyes squinted, and she tried to focus, she could feel a wavering in this aforementioned pulse, a lack of nutrients in comparison to the knowledge stored within decades of rings, something...lacking.

There was a source, a blackness. Trees had no senses to explain like a bird or frog or cat would, but she could feel what was off through its roots, through its pulse, and as she reached for the knowledge of whatever this void was, she suddenly felt a wet sensation between her breasts, and her mind un-focused to here blurred words.

Yellow eyes snapped open and her arms flew backward to back-pedal...save she had nowhere to go unless she planned on merging with the tree.

"M-Mamuro" She stuttered. Any other male and she'd have a knife to his throat and a punch to his gullet, she knew because she had done it to Svan for a lesser thing...yet threatening Mamuro? It seemed like it would do her no good. A strange confidence seemed to exude itself from the Dhani's pores, making her feel weak and helpless, but renewed with a strange vigor in equal measure.

Regardless of that nonsense, however, she did manage to stand, slowly composing her features into something not akin to mingled fear and excitement all at once. An eyebrow slid upward, and she glanced at her weapons, all but a dagger upon her waist lying neatly in the next set of roots, a reminder that they were only a short roll away if she had need of them.

"It seems you keep catching me off guard, Dhani." She should have been mad, been furious. He had done something to her, tainted her surely, but for some reason she didn't want to end the charade, didn't want to make him admit whatever he had done...if he even would.

"Came to finish what you started?" She said running a finger over the wetness upon her chest. "Or is there something else I can do for you?"

She placed her hand upon the tree bark absentmindedly. She had other things to do, duties to perform...her eyes shut for a moment. "You were interrupting me in the middle of something important."

[Kalesserimamoru]

Mamoru watched her with the twisted expression of someone who had just gotten the exact response from another that they had wanted. A woman sleeping on the jungle floor with nothing to conceal her presences, barely any clothing to even hide her succulent flesh. What was a Dhani to do? If it had been any other Dhani, the answer would have been clear, and Tinnok, a tasty meal. However, to say that the trickster didn't plan to make a meal of her would be dishonest, though the meaning itself was askew.


"Mmmm..ssalty.."


The Dhani didn't move as she stood up, and instead delighted in his new perspective of her. She was surprised to see him, as he was her, but the look in her eyes wasn't completely uninviting. The last time they had met, they had quiet a time and he looked to remind of her that, and of what they were yet to finish, the shorter, and the latter. Shifting his head upward, his gaze climbed her tall, slender frame until they found her eyes again. Mamoru flicked his tongue from his mouth and watched her silently.


The woman seemed more surprised to see him, than the fact that he was naked and had been almost on top of her. Or maybe it was because that wasn't something she was against? Had his hypnotism worked so well or was there something else at work? He wasn't sure, but he would believe it to be the work of his magic. The trickster had put a lot of time and work to learn his craft, and he was only becoming stronger as the days passed. If this was the result of one encounter, he was curious to see what would happen if he were to continue his persuasion over time.


It would have been a lot easier had she agreed to return to the nest with him, but the woman was still wary of his kind. Luckily however, it didn't seem that she would be hard to find in the end. Mamoru's eyes flared with a unique fire as he watched Tinnok move her finger over the wetness he had left on her chest. What tasty meat she had. "Finissh what I sstarted?" He said in the common tongue. "Well that isss, one way of putting it." The trickster didn't bother to hide his lisp any longer, the woman knew him as a Dhani, breaking the illusion that he could have been anything else.


The trickster rose to his knees and slowly crawled closer to the woman who was already somewhat pinned against the tree. "SSomething you can do for me? Do you want to do thingss for me Tinnok?" He moved even closer to her, lifting his head more as he took in her scent once more. Mamoru lifted his eyes again to focus on the tree that she touched, the same one that she had slept on moments ago. "Ssomthing important hmm? I didn't mean to bother you while you're having a moment with thisss tree here. Though I musst admit, thiss is odd even for me." he cackled wickedly for a moment, before his featured turned stone cold and he glared up at her from the ground where he knelled.


"No, I don't think that isss right. What are you doing that isss sso important?" Another devious smile rolled across his lips as he moved even closer, the full length of his tongue slipping from between his lips as he moved it towards her lower body. Would he be so bold as to try such a thing, and so soon after seeing her again?

[Tinnok]

She watched Mamuro from his position on the ground. His eyes held an amusement which was surely filled with that confidence of knowing he had her precisely where he wanted her. She didn't like that one bit, being the mouse trapped by the serpent, it was an idea that didn't sit well with her to say the least. Even the sound of his voice made her quiver. It was a sound that had once meant the enemy, the great colossal evil of the Dhani, but when he spoke every syllable seemed drenched in hidden promises of power and companionship. His skin was bare, her own practically so and now his head was creeping toward's her...

The half breed nimbly side-stepped, rotating her body a full 360 degrees and placing herself on the other side of a root, the tree creating the smallest of barriers between her and the Dhani. She ignored the probing question, the question she herself longed to answer, and instead stuck with the easier of the two. "There is a sickness in this glade, and it is my duty to help eradicate it, I was just on the cusp of learning what it was from this tree, when you...interrupted me."

His eyes seemed to tear her apart as they searched her body, and she swallowed dryly. This was not how it was supposed to be. She should try to slit his throat and be done with it, but why die to a Dhani when he seemed to so keen on doing other things? Her eyes narrowed and she took another step back, sitting on a root and folding one leg over the other, arching her back as she stared up at the canopy. "And what precisely are you doing stark naked in the jungle, Mamuro?"

Her head tilted upward, yellow eyes catching his with an amused glint. "I appreciate the show, but it can't simply be for my benefit."

[Kalesserimamoru]

Mamoru paused as Tinnok skillfully maneuvered herself away from him and his lecherous, wiggling tongue. The halfbreed was quick on her feet, almost cat-like in the way she quickly responded to his advances. He liked it, something to add more spice to the tension rising between them. Besides, what fun was it, if she gave in so easily? She moved away from him and he felt the urge to give chase right away, but he didn't. Mamoru stood and placed his hands upon the tree that she had been leaning against and knocked a few times.


"Ah yesss, even I can ssee that thisss tree is hurt. Yesss, sso much pain and ssurfering." Whether he meant what he said or if it was yet another of his growing tricks was left for her to decide.


The trickster moved closer to the tree, leaning against it half way as he moved around it to find Tinnok on the other side. He didn't attempt to take her, or to seduce her further, at least for the moment. But his eyes did wander and found a liking in the long, muscular legs that she teasingly crossed in front of him. Why did he hesitate? Why hadn't he simply devoured her when they first met like most of his kind would have? He was searching for something, waiting for it. But what he expected to find, even he wasn't sure. What he did know was that this one was set in his sights, and he would taste of her flesh one way or another.


Leaning back against the tree, Mamoru glanced upward towards the tree tops and back down to the ground where he stood. They were gone now, the travelers he had been following, leaving him and Tinnok alone with the tree. He cackled at her words, finding the woman's humor to be something like his own at times. "I wasss following tree monkeysss thiss way. Ssomething about the way they move...interessting. Maybe you can undersstand what that meanss, hmm?"


Then, he started to move again, slowly walking towards the woman. The trickster stopped suddenly, his gaze directed upon the finest specimen of Myrian blood Falyndar had ever seen. "Well then, you are bussy asss you ssay, and I think I have oversstayed my welcome." There was a hunger in his eyes, the same hunger that he had every sense he first laid eyes on the woman. But instead of moving closer again, he stepped back, further and further, as if he were tracing the very steps that he had taken to get around the tree before. "Enjoy your time with the treess, I'm ssure you'll find what you sseek ssoon enough."

[Tinnok]

He was patient, at least...as patient as a Dhani could be, she supposed. When he spoke of the tree, Tinnok's eyes narrowed somewhat in suspicion. His tone almost could be conveyed as sarcasm, but also...it was just hard to tell. She folded her arms across her chest, but couldn't wipe the smirk from her lips.

When he spoke about the monkeys, Tinnok's eyes seemed to glitter a moment. This game of cat and mouse they played was enjoyable, strange and unknown to her, but his phrase...it rang of similarities between the two of them that had not occurred to her before. Perhaps this was another trick, some tidbit he sought to buy into her confidence further? She couldn't be sure, but her body seemed to lean toward him. What monkeys had he been following? And why? She had been trying to learn how to travel in the trees like they had, what had been his purpose? The half breed grinned and nodded. "There is something quite intriguing about having sight of the whole forest below you, the ability to get to your prey before it can even spot you."

She leaned back again, watching him approach her, the anticipation building for what he would do next. And what he did...was begin to leave.

Her lips parted somewhat to protest, then shut. Of course that's what he wanted wasn't it? Wanted her to beg for him back, or at least have a bit of pleading in her voice. Their first encounter had been electric, and given enough time this one could prove even more so...if they weren't ambushed by Myrians again of course....

But why did she feel this desire? It wasn't out of trust, nor love, but a strange sense of curiosity, treading into the forbidden, from which she had so recently freed herself. He was walking backward, as to watch all of her warring emotions, and she despised him for it. She may have been a guarded soul, but she was not very skilled at hiding her emotions, and she was sure they were painted across her features as yellow orbs slid over the Dhani's pale human frame. But she couldn't let him win this little game, not yet...

"I have the fang from my father." She started, letting those words sink into Mamuro's mind, letting a pause draw on long enough before continuing.

"My mother always told me it was the last piece left of him, the rest burned, but I always wondered if he was still alive, and the fang was the only part she was able to sever from him." It wasn't a tale she often told, but it also wasn't one close to her heart. She had cut her parental figures out of her life in certain ways from a young age. She may have been showing Mamuro something...but it was not the inner most part of her.

"It is a fine kind of torture to put a Myrian female through. A Dhani male could easily overpower her given the chance, force her into submission, and nine months later she has to pay for her weakness by culling the monster that emerges."

She glanced at her fingernails. "I know of only one other being like myself that exists, allowed to grow in the womb and prosper despite the odds."

Her eyes flicked to him, the smile barely there, eyes searching for answers she had yet to receive. She, like a snake, liked to play, but like a Myrian, also enjoyed getting to the heart of the matter. "Is that why you see me as a gem, Mamuro? Because of my blood?" She cocked her head to the side and slowly slid her legs apart. She was not very sure of males and their desires, but she knew of the two areas that always attracted the eyes of males, and had seen the way other women flaunted them, an act surprisingly easy to mimic. Her eyes suddenly took on the mischievous gleam that he had held when sneaking up upon her in the nude, her arms behind her, gaze staring haughtily upon him. Walk away now snake man.

[Kalesserimamoru]

There was a glint of promise flickering in the Dhani's eyes, a look shared between two people that shared the same thoughts and ideas on a subject. It could have been the morpher in him, or Mamoru himself who enjoyed learning new abilities and using them for his own goals. How easy would it be for him to match the speed of the Myrians if he could move as the primates did. On the ground, his speed could match theirs easily, and he would still be twice as strong as they were. In the trees, they'd pose little threat and for once it would be he who spotted them for chimes before they knew they were going to die.


"What power..."


The thought alone caused the Dhani to smile and he had already come up with several things he could do with this new power. Such as set traps, plan ambushes, or simply wait til they went to sleep and bashed their skulls in. The possibilities were endless, and with his growing power there was little he couldn't do. "You ssee..you do undersstand. I thought you would. A lot could be done with thosse abilitiess, sso much to learn. It would be a new outlook on life, wouldn't you agree?" Mamoru cackled softly, as other thoughts went through his mind. Thinking about the primates, he recalled the earlier trouble he had when he tried to morph himself into one. He had succeed in a way, but his proportions were off and he was too big which slowed him down.


"Next time I will get it right.."


Mamoru had learned to bide his time when he needed to, and didn't mind doing so in many cases. The trickster had also learned to put the fun things first, and things that could wait would. At the moment, Tinnok was that fun thing, the woman who seemed to want to be alone. At least, that is what her words told him, her body on the other hand seemed ready for a type of excitement it wasn't used to having. An excitement that he was ready to give..if she truly wanted it...if he truly wanted it.


However, by her own admission, she was busy tending to a tree, and as boring as that sounded he wasn't about to argue with her about it. If she wanted to be left alone, he could give her more space, though he would have likely stayed close by for a time to see what she would do. He did watch her as he stepped way, wanting to see how she would react. He half expected her to close her eyes and resume doing what she had been doing before he arrived. But she didn't and started a very different conversation with him in order to get him to stick around.


It was a curious tale, and he wouldn't have thought that she would be close to, or even care about her father since she spent so much time with the Myrians. "Why do you keep it?" He asked stopping his backwards steps. "Did you really care? If he was still alive?" The trickster leaned against the tree, folding his arms as a wicked thought played through his mind. "Would you want to see him?" She had mentioned her family before, if he remembered, though her feelings towards them were still unclear. What was she getting at?


"Another you ssay..like you? Who isss thiss, where are they now?" He wondered if she was talking about a brother or a sister perhaps? Had there really been that many Dhani laying down with Myrian woman? It seemed strange....and yet...


All of it was put on hold for the moment, as Mamoru watched her cock her head to one side and slowly spread her legs apart. The trickster's eyes widen ever so slightly, and his tongue lapped across his lips all on it's own. Even if Mamoru was good at hiding his emotions, in this moment, his body gave him away easily. Still he wondered what was she up too. Only chimes ago she had quickly evaded him, keeping him from licking the very place she was presenting to him at that moment. He smiled, at least acknowledging his approval of her beautiful figure, but he didn't move a step from the tree, in fact it appeared as if he shifted towards the opposite direction. If she wanted to get to him, she would have to do better.


"Your blood isss interessting, yess. But that iss only a part of it, jusst ass your blood iss only a part of you. I ssee in you ssomething more than jusst Myrian or Dhani. Ssomething unique created from both worldsss, but not of either." His mischievous smile returned as his gaze lowered again to her opened legs. "Would you fault me for wanting to explore that?"

[Tinnok]

A strange seed entered her mind as she considered the primates, of which they both seemed to have an innate interest in mimicking. Her mind was torn between her duty to Caiyha and a strange need that she hadn't previously seemed to possess. She saw her story catch his interest, at least in part, but he still seemed to be pulling back from her.

"It is the only thing left of my father, dead or alive. Once I thought I'd like to shove it into his heart if I met him...now." She shrugged.

"I have heard that if you use the Power of Bones upon a piece of someone that is still alive it can be used to draw you to that person. Worth a try, besides, I always thought it would make a fitting dagger blade someday, and just haven't gotten around to having one made."

She saw him hesitate, saw the hunger in his gaze. It was interesting, the power he seemed to command over her, yet something that she had on him as well. The half breed saw him move to continue his retreat, but even as her mind sought a reason to delay him, she shot up from her seat.

"That's it!" She saw surprise rise in his gaze and a gleeful grin spread across her features.

"I've been looking at this problem from the ground like we who are bound to it would...but if I looked at it like a monkey..." Her eyes trailed up to the canopy, then back at Mamuro, she looked at him as if weighing her options, then smiled. "If you help me cleanse this glade, figure out what the problem is...you can request of me one thing...and I shall comply as long as it doesn't put my life at risk." She thought for a moment, then decided that was good enough. Perhaps he could have gotten what he wanted from her with whatever tricks he had used upon her mind when they had first met, but this invited him to spend more time with her and get something out of it of her own volition...a win win.

As she let Mamuro mull over the deal, Tinnok's eyes closed and her head bowed, folding her arms across her chest as she focused upon her djed. Claws were getting easier to form by the day, but her control of the magic within her, controlling it and keeping it in place was tricky, and she liked to take the time necessary to work it into just the right places. It flowed down her arms and legs collecting like rain water in her fingers and toes, and from there she pulled her arms outward, using the motion of her body to mimic the one she pressed into the djed, willing her nails to thicken and lengthen, curving ever so slightly to allow her that easy purchase when climbing a tree. It was still a slow process for the novice, but it felt like slipping on a comfortable piece of cloth...very carefully.

Transformation complete Tinnok took a running leap onto the bark and began her assent. She took care where her claws went, she still wasn't sure how creatures like the ocelot did it. For them it seemed simply like climbing a ladder, but if the half breed didn't take care her feet were bound to slip while her arms had to make up the rest of the weight. The witch continued swiftly, however, not having to worry about finding branches as she worked her way up the length of the stout and massive tree.