Completed [Bronze Woods] The Brat And The Hunter (Nathaniel)

[Soshakuakamamushi]

As expected of a rather animated Viper and all around being an active female, Aka was getting bored even before Nathan made the first incision. She shifted her position into laying prone on the ground, propping her chin up with her left hand while using her right hand to draw some random stuffs on the ground using her stone dagger. Snakes of various kind, Dhanis in their dhani and human forms, and finally... a Dhani in shining knight armor.

"Ser Urisu..." Her thoughts then flew to the Constrictor Dhani of a Knight whom she met at the beginning of Summer. She met him while she was bathing in the Sacred Arch Hotsprings at night, Urisu was planning to take a bath there as well and he got interested in her when he found out she was a fellow Dhani. Then they had a heart-to-heart chat which involved Aka throwing a tantrum when he warned her about the dangers of magic. He let her pour all of her anger into him, comforted her, and... due to the mating season still in effect, they both ended up mating with each other. A small blush crept up at her cheeks, the male Dhani was very interesting to say the least, he acted very gentlemanly and polite unlike most Dhani males, heck, unlike most Dhanis out there who thought the serpentine race was the best thing that happened to Mizahar since Caiyha and Siku.

"Sssehehe~" A silly giggle from her grinning lips and Aka didn't even realize it, she kept doodling the crude image of Urisu in various combat poses straight out of a fairy tale. "He?" Aka realized her embarrassing act, she really hoped Nathan didn't see that. Glancing back to the hunter, he was still in the middle of skinning the dead deer. "HURRY UP!" She screamed at him, it was taking too long, her hunger would kill her if she didn't eat soon. Perhaps he was not slow, perhaps the process of taking the pelt off a dead animal was meant to be long and delicate, but she didn't care for all that. Blood was pouring from the deer, Aka licked her lips, she wanted to eat. Raw or cooked, both were good, with her reimancy, she always have some fire ready.

With a bored sigh, Aka rolled over, facing to the sky. Beautiful green foliage blocked some of Syna's light, she would be smiling in admiration if not for... one thing. From her position, she could saw a cougar stalking from a tree branch. Its position looked like it was targeting the dead dear, the smell of blood drew it like ants to sugar. That.. doesn't look good... Aka was somehow undetected by it as it was locking its sight to the deer and Nathan. The Viper wanted to warn the hunter but even a simpleton could know that would trigger the big cat to attack. Aka gulped, Nathan's safety might be depending on her as the human didn't seem to notice it.

In anticipation, Aka opened her right hand upwards, flowing her res in gas form. It gathered into a melon-sized res ball. She would burn this thieving cat into crisps, Aka was almost done with her spell when the cougar decided to jump down from the trees, immediately charging to Nathan first to get rid of the competition. That was the same time as Nathan saying his apology to the Viper, the human hunter would see the familiar sight of a brown cat charging to him like so many years ago.

"Petch thissss!! Hey! Ssstupid!" Aka cut her casting short, ending up with a slightly smaller res ball. She shouted to get the attention of the predator. The cougar stopped momentarily as its keen senses detected another presence behind it. It turned around only to find a strange flaming ball charging towards it, its first instinct was too avoid it. The cougar jumped away as the fireball almost made contact with its fur, but much to its surprise, the flaming ball exploded sending it flinging with shockwave and heat. The cougar roared in pain as its precious pelt was singed with heat, but due to the unfinished spell and slightly off hurried aim, the hit was not fatal.

"Ssssss!" The Viper cursed when she realized the cougar was still alive, getting back up and tried to angrily pounce at her. She hadn't eat and had done some reimancy spells earlier, she began to feel the first sign of exhaustion, but oddly, her mind urged her to cast more. "Jussst die, overgrown cat!" Aka then prepared herself to create another fireball, but the cougar interrupted and Aka was forced to leap back. She hit a small rock and tumbled to her butt, the cat snarled again and prepared for another pounce, determined to kill this two-legged creature who spew flames at it. "Oh ssshyke... NATHAN!!" The Viper hoped Nathan realized this and helped her in return.

[Nathaniel Deveraux]

The cougar's presence was not as surprising as some people might have though it would be to the young hunter. His instincts had been screaming for some time during his skinning of the animal that the smell of blood would draw predators to the kill. It was why he rarely did a full skinning of a deer in the wild, it simply took too long. He suspected a great deal of that was likely his own lack of skill but regardless of circumstance the fact remained that most of the time he got maybe a half or quarter pelt and had to leave the rest to the scavengers.

When Nate had turned to apologize to Aka he immediately saw the cougar and he swore under his breath. It was far too close to use his bow and even if it weren't, the presence of the girl meant he didn't dare fire at the cat without risking hitting her by accident. The cat hesitated when the girl called at it from behind, as though it hadn't noticed her before. Probably it hadn't, since it was too focused on the meal in front of it but that moment's hesitation was all she needed to send a ball of flame straight at the cat. Well, almost straight at it.

Nate used the distraction to grab his kukri. He wasn't nearly as skilled with the weapon as he wanted to be, having no real combat style to speak of, but he knew that the pointy end went in the bad guy, and that was really all that was important here. Besides, against a wild animal, the use of disciplined combat style was less important than getting a good hit or ten in. Animals, after all, operated on finely honed instincts, unlike the thinking races.

Nate really didn't have time to wonder where that flaming ball had come from. He suspected that it probably came from the girl, and it just confirmed that the gooey stuff from before was probably not a natural product of her species. Probably it was magic; Nate knew it existed but had never seen it performed before. Well, he was definitely getting a good look now as the cougar leaped out of the way, roaring in pain as the flames licked at its pelt. But ultimately the attack didn't do what it needed to do and Nate licked his lips nervously, gripping the kukri in his right hand tightly and looking for an opportunity to strike.

The cat got back up and snarled at Aka, looking to pounce at her, and she shouted something at it but the roar of blood across Nate's ears drowned out her words. It didn't matter, it was probably something like, "back off" or "just die" or something along those lines he was sure. What was important was the fact that she looked like she was going to use her magic again, if the motion of her hands were any indication but the cougar prevented the use of magic with another half-pounce which sent Aka scrambling backward. From his position Nate couldn't see what exactly happened but the end result was Aka falling onto her butt, with the cat about to pounce on her.

Nate sprang into action when she called his name, dashing forward with the kukri to try to plunge it into the flank of the animal, but the cougar was too quick. Sensing motion from behind it, the cat effortlessly leaped out of the way, leaving Nate stabbing at empty air and in an incredibly vulnerable position. Scrambling back, Nate tried to regain his bearings but the cougar had already started circling to Nate's left.

It was clear that the cougar was being cautious because of the presence of two opponents, circling cautiously and staring at Nate with killer intent. Nate tried to get into some sort of stance with his kukri but what little training he had with the blade was quickly fading into panicked waving in hopes of getting in a hit. Every muscle in Nate's body was tensed, his eyes focused so hard on the cat that the colors almost seemed to bleed into one another and he waited on a razor's edge for the cat to make any sort of movement that would telegraph its next move.

That movement came in the form of the tension in its powerful hind legs, which Nate caught almost too late as it leaped forward and he tumbled back, groaning in pain as the harsh ground bit into his arm and back as he tried to avoid being on the ground with the cat on top of him. The cat charged at him, and Nate barely had time to dive off to the side to avoid it. Hissing angrily, the cat turned effortlessly and faced him, slit-like eyes still boring into Nate's own.

The cougar was simply too fast. He would not be able to evade the attacks forever; in fact the next pounce would occur at much closer distances and without the addition of the need to awkwardly turn, so he was likely to be bowled over with the very next pounce. Nate's bow and quiver was lying uselessly a few feet away. Nate knew, however, that even if he had them in his hands he'd not have sufficient time to aim anyway, so the likelihood of hitting the cat anywhere on its body where it mattered was low.

There had to be a way to slow the petching animal down, but Nate just didn't know how he'd be able to do it. Thus far he'd received several scrapes just from the uncontrolled tumble he'd taken and the cat was completely uninjured besides a bit of singed fur. Deciding to take a risk, Nate waited for the cat to ready itself for another pounce before diving for his bow and arrows, the weight of the animal striking his legs nearly sending him off-course. Tucking his arms and legs into his body Nate tried to protect his core as he rolled forward, and it took him several ticks to scramble to his feet.

Nate hoped that Aka had a plan, because he was still about three or so steps away from his bow and arrows. And if she got in too close, those weapons would be all but useless. The cat had, at least, seemingly forgotten the small Dhani girl for the moment, focusing on killing Nate first. Which would undoubtedly change as soon as Nate was incapacitated or dead, so he hoped that Aka had used the time to do something, or they were both likely to become dinner.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

The cougar was snarling dangerously at her. Aka felt like a cornered snake and like all cornered snakes, she felt her survival instinct kicking in, she wanted to live! "Hssss!!! You mangy petching good-for-nothing cat!!" The Viper surprised herself at being able to speak a full sentence while in the presence of a predator, maybe it was because she spoke it very, very, fast. Her attempt at intimidation was more likely to fail, with her small frame and build, she would not register as a superior being in the eyes of a predator driven by instinct. Kill it! Kill that petching cat! Sssahahaha! It can't do anything to a mighty reimancer such as me! The sweet whispers flowed inside her mind, only goading the Viper to dampen her fears. Her slitted eyes narrowed and a wide grin appeared on her face. She would kill this thing even if it decided to run away, but for now, she needed the hunter's help.

Her back-up came in the form of a hunter running forward, fumbling with his... whatever knife he was holding. Aka wasn't familiar in terms of weaponry, why should she? She didn't need them. The Viper was completely sure no sword could withstand being doused in lava and no swordsman could ever hope to match the destructive power of fire. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me..." Aka took a tick to roll her slitted eyes, the attack Nathan did was so clumsy and slow that even with him coming from behind, the cougar got the chance to dodge.

Still, it bought her some time, Aka shifted to a standing position and took her side beside Nathan, keeping herself to face the circling cat. The cougar was targeting the human, good. Aka immediately began to work as she cupped both of her hands near her chest, creating a pool of gaseous res gathering within her palms. She would turn this cat into crisp. "Geh..." She was getting tired, anymore spells and delay to her meal would turn her into a sorry mess not unlike someone who had just taken a harsh hiking to the mountains with no food.

As Nathan landed on the ground, she ran forward to positioned herself between the human and the cougar. The predator roared in anger at the girl, but Aka only smirked as she held out her palms towards the cat. The cougar took it as a challenge, the girl's pale neck was so close. It would sink its sharp fangs into it, she would pay for ruining its precious pelt. The big cat flexed its powerful legs and rushed forward, fangs and claws out. However, a spark of reddish orange sparked from the girls hand... at that moment, the cougar realized it was facing something unnatural.

*BOOOOOSH!!!*

A stream of flame jet out from the Viper's hands as Aka commanded her gaseous res to launch forward then transmuting them into flames after half a tick. "Aaaaaargh! Dieeeeeeeee!!!" She grinned wide, her eyes showing undisguised anger mixed with manic happiness. For the duration of her spell, her hands turned into a flamethrower, spewing out waves of fire to burn all that stands before her.

The cat felt immense amount of heat assaulting its body, it snarled but it was quickly drowned out as its eyes, mouth, fur, and body ignited in flames. The eyes began melting, followed by the blackening of its fur, and numerous severe burn wounds covering its body. As the fire subsided, it fell to the ground. Twitching a few times before letting out a weak snarl, finally returning to Dira. "Ha... ha..." Aka inhaled and exhaled, she did it. She killed the cat. The small girl dropped down to a kneeling position, catching her breath. A dead burned cat and a patch of burnt ground was in front of her. She glanced back to the hunter, a smug grin on her face. "He... hehe, we did it." Her voice was visibly exhausted, she needed to eat.

She tiredly fumbled her way to the skinned dear, brushing pass the hunter. She knelt down beside the deer and... "Aaah! Where's my dagger?!" shouted in exasperation. She didn't want to dig through all the meat using her fingers and she couldn't spare more res to create another dagger. Come on! Just make on already! Her mind, due to the sweet whispers, urged her to craft another one just for the sake of casting. Aka shook her head, ridding herself of the thought. She was tired, her rational mind driven by self-preservation instinct prevented her to cast anymore res. "Nathan!" She shouted after the hunter and beckoned him to come closer. "Feed me! I'm tired..." Plopping to the ground in a sitting position akin to an arrogant rich girl, she gestured to Nathan's kukri, then to the deer, then to her mouth. She actually requested to be fed by the hunter as if he was her personal butler.

[Nathaniel Deveraux]

Nate was simultaneously relieved and concerned when Aka jumped in front of him, her small form blocking the cat's and preventing it from making one last lethal pounce on him. Nate gripped his kukri tightly; if whatever Aka was planning didn't work he'd have mere ticks to grab her and throw them both out of the way of the hungry cat before it got its claws and teeth on them. He figured that the cougar was not particularly intimidated by Aka's small size and would continue the pounce it had originally planned, except now with a different target, and he was not disappointed.

However, the girl seemed to produce yet another fireball, except this time it wasn't a ball of fire, no. It was a stream of red-hot flame that scorched the earth and ignited the fur of the cat which yowled in pain, but it did not have time to do much else as the fires licked at its face, its paws, and all over the front of its body until it was all a molten mess. Like with the deer, Aka had dealt with her problem with fire. Of course she did. She probably dealt with all of her problems with fire. And if fire wasn't enough to solve it, she probably just used more fire.

In any case, the immediate danger had passed, but Nate knew what Aka did not, that their scuffle had not only spent them in terms of exhaustion and in Nate's case, a few bumps and bruises, but also in terms of valuable time and secrecy. The cougar attack had not been a quiet affair, and it had undoubtedly drawn the attention of yet more predators in the area which were almost certainly circling the area, sniffing for a free meal. If they were attacked by a bear or a pack of wolves Nate was confident that neither of them would be able to fend them off in their current state.

When Aka had finally calmed down she turned to Nate and laughed weakly, saying that they had done it. Nate just shook his head. "No, Crimson Coils, you did it," he sighed. "I just kind of fumbled around. Guess I still have a long way to go..."

Truthfully Nate didn't like confronting animals. He much preferred to avoid them entirely if at all possible and if it wasn't possible he preferred to scare them off than fight them. The beasts of the wilds had several advantages over him that Nate just could not currently compensate for. They were faster than he was, oftentimes had many times keener senses than he did, and had natural weapons he had few defenses against, such as teeth and claws. And now they'd just confronted one and while the fire breathing Dhani girl was certainly formidable Nate could see she was already exhausted from her exertion and probably would not be able to repeat it.

The girl seemed to be implying that Nate should feed her, which he would have been willing to do, but there were two problems. First, the amount of time it would take for him to properly dress and cut up the meat from either creature would be unacceptably long. Aka was clearly exhausted and he was obviously not even close to being qualified enough to handle any threats that might try to take advantage of the lull in the action.

Reaching over to the pelt of the deer, Nate wrapped it up neatly, stuffing it into his backpack as best he could before bending down with his kukri and cutting off large sections of the deer's meat, going mainly for the deer's thighs and flanks as they had the largest concentration of good, lean muscle. Marching over to Aka, he handed her these chunks with an apologetic look.

"Sorry, Crimson Coils, but you're going to have to eat on the go," he apologized, as he went back to hack off a few more chunks of meat for Aka. He himself was also quite hungry but he hoped the pelt he'd skinned would be sufficient to gain him some decent amount of Mizas, some of which he could utilize to purchase food. He would have loved to build a fire and cook the meat already available, and petch even to skin what little he could recover of the cougar pelt, but they'd already spent too much time here.

Nate stuffed the additional pieces of deer meat into his backpack, using the deer's own pelt as a wrapper, and then closed it up. He then walked over to his bow and arrows, putting the quiver over his back and slinging the bow over his shoulder. Then, having secured all his belongings, he turned to the small Dhani. "Sorry but, you look like you're tired and we really need to move fast. Our furry friend here," and Nate indicated with his head the still somewhat smoldering corpse of the cougar, "probably has friends of his own coming to eat us. Unless, I dunno, you wanna end up kitty chow."

Nate shrugged, and picked Aka up in a bridal carry, looking over his shoulder worriedly. The scene of carnage was incredibly messy, and there was blood everywhere. Even if they ran off from the scene they were just delaying the inevitable as Nate at least had blood on his clothes and his person, and needed to wash it off as soon as he could.

But for the moment he dashed off, glancing back worriedly every few ticks, ears strained for the sound of any running water. "The kill site will only hold the interest of predators for so long; sooner or later they'll follow the blood trail right back to you and me," Nate explained, "I need to make sure the blood is washed off both of us before that happens."

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Ehehe, what did you call me?" The Viper smirked, letting the human wondered if he offended her or not then she let out a wide grin. "I like it!" The nickname sounded cool for a literally hot Viper such as herself. She could see herself now, Soshakuakamamushi the Crimson Coils parading around in a Dhani nest, all males and females alike bowed their head to their fiery queen. She knew it now, if people couldn't respect her appearance and body then sure as Siku they would respect her flames. Aka was actually daydreaming, her ego bloated by Nathan's praise.

The Dhani race was clearly superior in terms of natural ability, lifespan, and senses compared to humans. Maybe it was because they took so long to grow, Dhanis had more time to develop their abilities. Still, she wondered on why even with their drawbacks, humans were numerous. In Syliras alone, their numbers utterly triumphed over all Dhanis in Eyktol combined, perhaps even all Dhanis in Mizahar combined. Maybe it was because they were quick to grow and work better with each other? In the end, growth rate and teamwork triumphed over long age and individuality.

She watched him cut up the deer, fully expecting a delicious chunk of meat to brush her taste buds. Even in human form, Dhanis still retained their keen taste senses as a snake, where a common man would find a particular food bland, she would find it salty or sweet. However, it was not her mouth which received the meat, but her hands instead. "Er... I told you to feed me." She grumbled, Aka didn't understand on why Nathan look really hurried. She just caused a whole patch of grass to be burning. The ashen smell should deter most predators, they were afraid of fire after all.

She grumbled as Aka put a chunk of meat near her mouth before chomping it with her teeth. "Mmm~" She voiced her satisfaction, chewing the meat until it was soft enough for her swallow. "...." She didn't answer and just begrudgingly nodded when Nathan told her it was dangerous to stay about as she was tired and the crisp kitty might have back-up. "Ssss! Ssshut up, dummy!" She didn't appreciate at being told about herself being a 'kitty chow'. "Eh?!" Her eyes widened in surprise when Nathan picked her up, bridal style. She wanted to protest at first, being carried not on her consent made her look like a naughty child and she didn't want to be thought of as a child. Due to her exhaustion, she just accepted, even enjoying the attention; but of course not without masking her appreciation with more grumbles.

"Mmmm~" She ate another chunk of meat, some of the blood was pouring to her simple robe, but she didn't care. Her robe was cheap anyway and she could always find more in the local market. She never cared much about the aesthetic aspect of clothes. "Really? I thought they will be afraid of the fire, animals hate fire right?" Despite the some of the blood smearing her mouth, the Viper looked happy and not that all concerned.

"Wash off? Are you going to bath me?!" She visibly blushed, the memories of bathing with the Dhani Knight, Ser Urisu, came back to her. Their bathing session at the hotsprings turned into a rather... risque activity. The only reason Aka wasn't pregnant even though it was in the middle of her mating season was that they were both different sub-races. The constant urge to mate was still in effect during Spring and Summer. Aka looked down, her mouth mindlessly chewing on meat. Was she going to end up mating with another male? Even it was a human? No... no no no! You perverted girl! Her mind smacked herself, she couldn't help herself, after travelling so long with a sexually inept Nuit and being a healthy female Dhani in her physical maturity, the urge she got was normal.

She strangely went silent, allowing the human to carry her towards... wherever he was going.

[Nathaniel Deveraux]

"Really? I thought they will be afraid of the fire, animals hate fire right?" Aka had asked, and Nate just shrugged. The fact that blood was running down her robes was actually not as bothersome as it might've been for other people. Nate himself had often found himself in situations where the only available food was wood grubs and he'd had the disgusting juice of those insects run down his shirt plenty of times. Eating in the wild was many things, but in the end the one universal truth was that it was rarely pretty. He wasn't so much concerned with whether the blood was attractive, but rather that having her robes stained with it would draw the wrong sorts of attention. After all if she could smell the blood from a decent distance away so could the cougar's friends.

"Well, most animals do, yes," Nate answered as he hurried around a largish trunk. It wasn't easy moving quickly with a girl in one's arms; he had to take constant care not to smack her head against the trunks that were all around him, and the weight undoubtedly slowed him down, not to mention he had to continue to stay constantly alert both for the signs of pursuit as well as for the sounds of nearby running water. And on top of it all, he was tired. He wanted to just plop down in front of one of those trees and just rest, but he knew he couldn't or they could both die.

"But desperate animals do desperate things. And while there's a chance that the cougars and bears and wolves won't approach because of the smell of fire, there's an even greater chance the smell of two fresh kills will draw them in even more." Nate sighed. "In general I try to avoid conflict with predators if I can. Humans just aren't really well-equipped to deal with them; it's usually easier to just not be there when the big cats or wolves or bears show up."

But sometimes it happens anyway, Nate thought ruefully, and when it did he was in a lot of petching trouble. He'd been lucky in the sense that the few times he'd actually down a large animal such as a deer, he'd been smart enough to simply take the largest part of the pelt (the back), and leave the rest of it the carcass for the scavengers. He never bothered to take the meat unless he could slice off pieces the way he did for Aka, and he definitely never had time for a full skinning like he'd done today. You'd almost require a full hunting party of at least four skilled marksmen to legitimately have a chance of defending a kill long enough to skin it fully.

Or, apparently, one fire-breathing Dhani. Nate wondered if Aka's fire-breathing was a natural thing. Did all Dhani have a natural tendency toward magic? He knew so very little about the species. For all he knew they were all like Aka, sassy and bossy and very sure of themselves, and filled to the brim with magic if her recent display was any example. But Nate was well-aware that not all humans learned magic; in fact that vast majority did not, so perhaps she was also unique in that aspect. Though, he did find it quite ironic that the girl he'd dubbed the "Crimson Coils" happened to also be a heavy user of fire; he wondered if that was because she was also a red snake or if it was simply just a coincidence.

The girl was a little surprised at his announcement of bathing and asked if he was going to bath her. He glanced down at her a with a strange look. "I'm not sure we'd have time for that," he replied hurriedly, as he continued to strain to hear any signs of water. The longer they stayed out here in bloody clothes, the longer any potential predator could happen upon the smell and that was a risk that Nate really wasn't interested in taking. "I'll have to bathe as well. Aka, if you can smell the blood, you can bet everything in miles can smell it too."

There! Nate turned a bit sharply, not really noticing that Aka had fallen a bit silent, as he heard the unmistakable murmuring of a stream, and he surged toward it, his legs pumping beneath him as he took short little breaths between each step to try to conserve his breath as much as possible given that he was running with essentially a weight in his arms. Nate could feel his lungs straining and he could feel a burn that started at the base of his calves and ran up his legs and all the way to the small of his back. His knees felt almost unnaturally stiff like he'd climbed a thousand stairs but he kept running despite the discomfort. They were almost there.

The thick woods didn't really give way, the trunks were still as closed in as ever, but Nate could still see the babbling brook flowing past them, the water dancing and flowing crystal clear, droplets glistening in the sun as it trickled past. But Nate swore as he realized this tiny brook would not be large enough for their purposes; they couldn't really bathe in it so much as merely get wet. So Nate dashed down the side of the brook, following the flow of the water, making sure to follow the advice he'd heard so long ago that water always flowed downhill. Which meant that if they followed it, they'd either get to a pond, or the brook would expand into a larger one, or they may even be brought out of the woods entirely.

As it turned out they were brought to a small, crystal-clear pond which seemed to have small fish swimming in it. Nate's eyes immediately did a quick check of the surrounding area; the wood was pushed back just slightly leaving the pond to sit in the middle of a larger clearing, with reeds and small grasses growing along the sides of the water body. Nate noticed with some concern that on the far side, it was a muddy bank that seemed to have a great deal of prints on it. That meant this was a watering hole for prey species such as antelope or deer and wherever prey animals tended to gather, predators tended to set up shop. But they needed to wash the scent of blood off themselves so he set Aka down and indicated the water.

"Go ahead and get started," he explained, "And we're going to need to wash our clothes too. It might not be possible to erase every trace of the scent but if we scrub enough we should be able to make it less immediately obvious. I'll get a fire going; we really don't want to be walking around in wet clothes."

It was a calculated risk. Staying put long enough for a fire to dry out their clothes also meant staying put long enough to potentially allow a large predator to snatch them up as a meal, but Nate was not willing to risk death by hypothermia just to avoid death by horrible mauling. In any event, he strode out to the tree line, kukri out, looking for firewood. His bow was swung over his shoulder this time rather than useless on the ground like before. Nate had learned his lesson. If the predators wanted him, they'd have to contend with his arrows first.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Eh... I sssee..." Aka didn't know that, she thought all predators would simply avoid the source of her inferno. This was a valuable lesson to her, Nathan surprisingly looked experienced in the matter of hunting. Aka just followed her Dhani instincts everytime she hunted, a human seemed to not have all of those convenient natural abilities of the Dhanis such as the keen senses and heat-vision so they would have to compensate with technical knowledge and man-made weapons. She wanted to snicker at him admitting a human's drawbacks in surviving the wilderness but decided against it, she was still embarrassed by her own thoughts of bathing with the man. From this distance, she could see he didn't actually look bad, he would be categorized as 'handsome' and if he was a Dhani, she would love to flirt with him though... Aka didn't expect him to return the gesture with her child-like body.

Will I...? "Uh!" Aka grunted out of the blue, she almost thought of mating with the man even if he was not a Dhani. The Viper looked down, cursing herself for the mating season urges, she was like a snake in heat, seeking to satisfy her desires with every attractive male there was. "I-it'sss nothing..." If Nathan decided to ask on the reason the sudden exclamation, she would try to wave it off. Hopefully, he didn't press further. She stealthily took a glance to Nathan every once in a while, being this close to him allowed her to feel his natural body heat. She liked it emanating to her cold-blooded body. Aka leaned her head to the side, resting it against Nathan's chest, she had finished about half of the meat chunks. She could still eat more, but by this point, wouldn't mind if she had to discard them. For a petite woman, Aka surprisingly had a deep stomach. It was a common trait of Dhanis but if she was compared to a similar build human girl, Aka would be classified as a glutton.

The human carrying her looked tired, his breath was heaving and his steps were getting slow and irregular. "Uhm..." Aka wanted to tell him to just rest for the moment, but if what he said about the predators was true then it would be a bad choice to stop now, especially since she had no stamina left to do more reimancy. She wouldn't be able to defend them both should a pack of wolves decided to have a combo meal of human and snake. The sound of running water was like music to her ears, her smile grew wider as Nathan ventured closer and closer to their destination. They arrived in a pretty pond, with fishes and clear water. The human put her down, Aka didn't tally and immediately get her weight off his body, light though she was, carrying her all the way from that clearing right after a session of hunting, combat, and skinning would surely take its toll on the human. Not to mention he was also carrying spoils from their hunt. By the time they arrived, Aka had finished all of the meat chunks, her mouth and hands were smeared with the deer's blood.

"Okay... Sssorry I can't do anymore reimancy for today." With her magic, starting a campfire would be a piece of cake, but Galbern explicitly warned the Viper about the dangers of overgiving time and time again. He couldn't stress enough that overgiving would be the death of a wizard, he might be exaggerating but Aka sure didn't want to find out. She swallowed her embarrassment and took off her clothes, dipping into the pond together with her robe and sash. She sighed in comfort at the cool water, glancing to see Nathan gathering some wood with his strange-looking knife. She stayed there on the pond, rubbing the blood of her body and also scrubbing her clothes. If the human decided to join her, Aka would shyly move closer to him, non-verbally wanting to absorb more of his body heat through direct skin contact.

[Nathaniel Deveraux]

Nate raised an eyebrow at the girl's sudden exclamation. He had no idea what that was all about, but she'd sounded surprised for some reason. He looked around quickly; had she seen a predator? It was Aka who'd seen the cougar first, after all, so he did a quick inventory of his surroundings, but the forest was as quiet as ever. Which was to say, it was its usual cacophony of wind through the leaves, insects crying on trunks and birds singing in the trees. It was a wonder he could hear anything at all over that din, but experience had taught him to mostly ignore the sounds and concentrate on the task at hand. When she insisted it was nothing, Nate nodded, asking simply whether she'd seen something dangerous. She just waved off the question however, so he pressed on.

When they'd gotten to the pond, Nate made sure to look away as Aka had made it clear she was not appreciative of him seeing her nude. It was not that big a deal, in Nate's inexpert opinion, mainly because out in the wild propriety and modesty was only so valuable as it didn't interfere with survival, which was by far the more important imperative. Nonetheless, in this instance Nate had no desire to become a roasty-toasty Nathan, so he chose to give her some privacy to get herself cleaned off. Nate busied himself with going into the surrounding forest and retrieving the wood he would need to produce a decently-sized fire.

Fortunately, the surrounding forest had ample wood available, and Nate was able to easily find many fallen branches that would serve well as both fuel and kindling. For tinder, he needed something light and dry; so he picked up several bundles of the smallest twigs he could find, and supplemented them with strips of dry bark. Taking the whole bundle back to the pond, he was once again careful not to look in Aka's direction as he busied himself with his work.

Removing his kukri Nate set to work digging out the beginnings of their fire-pit, carving into the earth and clearing the surrounding ground to make sure only the tinder, kindling, and fuel caught flame and not anything around them like the grass. Or the trees. That would be bad. For all that Aka liked fire, Nate somehow doubted even she would be in a particularly good situation if there was a forest fire.

The pit was beginning to take shape, and Nate shook off as much of the dirt from his blade as he could, before walking over and dipping it into the water to clean the rest of it off. He used the hem of his shirt to clean off the edge as delicately as he could before returning it to his belt and finishing off the pit with his hands, patting down the dirt so that there was a small depression in which he could place the tinder.

Once he'd put the small branches and bark shavings in the indentation, Nate took out the flint and steel from his backpack, striking one against the other to try to produce a spark. The spark barely caught the tinder however, so he tried again, striking the steel sharply against the flint to produce a second spark, but that too didn't catch. Nate then struck a third time, the sparks flying into the dry bark and finally he saw a tiny orange glow.

Putting away the fire-making tools Nate bent down and blew gently on the tinder, trying to coax the heat to catch. He was rewarded when the first spurt of yellow leaped to life in the tinder, spreading quickly as it consumed the small bundle. Nate immediately placed the kindling on top of it, and then crisscrossed above the pit the larger branches that would serve as actual fuel to keep their fire going for at least a bit longer.

Nate then, finally, went into the woods, picking up fist-sized rocks and gathering them into his arms before coming back and carefully placing them in a ring around the fire he'd just built. This was also to prevent the fire from spreading too far out; whenever possible Nate tried to create such a barrier but he wasn't always able to find sufficient rocks to do this. Thankfully this time he did.

Now that the fire was crackling cheerfully, Nate decided he needed to wash off the blood before it dried any further and became near-impossible to remove. Stripping down to his small clothes, Nate dipped into the water, taking care not to go in too deep since he wasn't trying to swim, not that he knew how to. Taking a few moments to gather up some water he splashed it onto his chest, the scars from the lynx attack still visible. The angry red lines had faded and now they were just a series of scars, but their very presence was a constant reminder to stay alert, because danger was behind every trunk, in within every branch and leaf.

Nate scrubbed his clothes vigorously, trying to rub out as much of the blood as he could, but he knew staying in the chilly water was not a very healthy thing to do. He needed to stay in here only long enough to wash off the blood and then he and Aka should head back to the fire immediately. He was so intent on scrubbing himself and his clothes he almost didn't notice Aka's approach, but when she was a few inches away he nearly jumped with surprise to see her proximity.

"You almost done?" he asked her, as he looked back down at his shirt. His breeches had not taken much of the blood but his shirt did, not so much from the skinning attempt as from his haphazard slicing of the meat from the deer. That selfsame shirt was now in his hands as he rubbed it a few more times. There was still a faint reddish tint that would require actual washing to remove, and he was quite sure there would still be a detectable faint odor of blood regardless until the clothes were actually washed and not just rinsed, but at least they weren't a walking advertisement for any and all predators to get a free meal of Human with a side of Dhani.

"We should probably not stay in the cold water for very long," he suggested. "I'm almost done with my shirt, if you want I can meet you up by the fire if you're finished cleaning up." Nate growled a bit as he scanned the horizon for any signs of pursuit, but just because he couldn't see any such signs didn't mean they didn't exist.

"Sorry, I wasn't growling at you, but we hunters don't like to be immobile," he apologized, but then gave a tired sigh and shrugged. "But we don't have a choice. Hopefully that fire will scare off most predators, and I still have my bow."

If Aka returned to the fire, Nate would take a few more chimes to clean off the last of the blood that managed to land on his shoulders and arms, as well scrub as much of the blood as he could off his shirt, before wading back to the surface and shaking off as much of the chilly water as possible. Then he would pull on his breeches, and wring out his now-soaked shirt, before carrying it to the fire.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

She watched him worked with competency over creating their little campfire. He picked up all kinds of fallen twigs and wood. Aka herself never bothered with such complicated methods, she would gather wood, pile them up together, and blast it with some of her fire. Seeing him, Aka could somewhat feel what it would be like if she didn't have her magic. Magic was dangerous, Galbern tirelessly warned her about it, but with all its risks, it also granted great abilities to do extraordinary feats.

She watched him, her eyes examining every inch of the male's body as he worked, sweat rolling from his forehead. "...." The Viper, driven by urges of the mating season, began to feel slight tingles in her body. By Siku... I... She cursed herself yet again, she didn't want to lower herself by being attracted to a human so she blamed it all on the unavoidable 'mating season urges', yes it was at fault. But still, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to relate with the human as he looked kind and patient enough to handle her. She also saved his life, that should also count as something, right? In her lust-driven mind, Aka started to justify every rational reasons to not mate with Nathan her mind tried to conjure. Human? Dhanis could have human form too. Stranger? Not really, they hunted and fought together. In the middle of a forest? He built a campfire, it should be safe.

Shaking her head to push off the thoughts for the moment, she saw the elaborate campfire had been completed. Elaborate compared to her usual 'pile wood and burn' kind of campfire. With all the carefully placed wood and stone barriers, he really looked like he knew what he was doing. She saw him approaching the pond, her scarlet eyes shyly looked away, but just slightly so he was still in her vision. Oh... why? Aka mentally sighed in disappointment when Nathan didn't strip completely. Her fingers flexed, she would be glad to help him do it. The Viper couldn't swim so she was glad Nathan didn't decide to go into the deep water. The memories of her near-death experience by almost drowning in a large pond in the Wildlands came back to her, she shuddered in fright, but this memory also came with her mating season with the Rattler Dhani, Licearsvansan. Again, they were driven by the mating season. Aka put her right hand to her lips and brushed it, her small body would be emitting snake pheromones by now. If Nathan was a Dhani, it would arouse him, but he was a human, would it even work on humans?

She saw the vicious scars on his chest, it looked like something wild had clawed it. Aka couldn't keep her eyes off it and also from his toned torso of a hunter. "H-hey, where did you get thossse... marksss?" She didn't want to sound impolite so she worded her question as calmly and concerning as possible. Whether Nathan answered or not, Aka would move closer to him as he rubbed his clothes. "Uhm..." She unwittingly tried to touch his scars with her right hand, but when he jolted in surprise, Aka quickly retracted her hand. "S-sssorry!" She fidgeted with her fingers, her attitude showing shyness not seen from her previously, evident of her growing desire for the human. "Y-yeah..." She answered half-heartedly, she would be done if he was done.

"Uh... okay." Aka was disappointed in him not even batting an eye at her. She knew why of course, he was a polite and decent man, also, with her child-like body, she couldn't expect a healthy male would look at her like they saw proper bodied females. He was more concerned in scanning the area around. Aka understood the caution, but it was too much. They had a campfire, no predator would approach the collection of flame tongues. "Gah! Don't you act ssso worried! Animalss are afraid of fire! Believe me, I know. Nothing would com-... I uuhm, I'm sssorry." By the Divines, why was she apologizing again? She didn't want him to think of her as a bipolar girl.

She waited until he was done. She then followed him back to the fire, not forgetting to bring her wet robe and sash. She was stark naked but by now, the Viper didn't really mind. She didn't even care about it anymore, all that was in her mind was Nathan. She was an adult female Viper in her prime, also travelling with a sexually inept Nuit, being in the company of a healthy adult male didn't come often for her.

As Nathan arrived by the fire, Aka would shyly approach him again from the front, this time daring herself to touch the mark on his chest... with both of her hands. Her shorter body so close to him, she didn't tilt her head up to examine the scar. "Did it hurt when it happened?" She looked up to him, the fire being reflected in her scarlet eyes. "I uh... look, I'm sssorry if I uhm... acted like a... jerk before." Again? She didn't care by now. "I-I thought wrong, you are not dumb, ehehe~" She giggled like an embarrassed teenage girl in love. "You are... good. Yeah, good." She couldn't think of more decent praises without making herself sound stupid. "Ssso, Nathan, i-if you want, c-can you tell me about yourssself? I can alssso tell you about myssself." Her tone was considerably different by now, the naked Dhani girl actually smiling out of concern and comfort, not out of arrogance.

[Nathaniel Deveraux]

Nate looked at Aka with surprise when she asked him about the scars. Most people who saw them mostly stayed silent about it, but perhaps that was because the vast majority of people who ever saw the scars were either his sisters (who already knew), or hunters (invariably male). Even female hunters, the rare ones that he'd met, did not really bother asking since among hunters, being scarred by an animal was a fairly common occurrence. Though... they did give him odd looks on occasion, looks which he couldn't decipher and mostly just ignored. Come to think of it, Aka was giving him the same look. What the petch did that look mean?!

Nate never really had much cause to interact heavily with women, other than on a purely professional basis. It wasn't that he wasn't interested; at his age he really should have been married by now. But the premature death of his father, combined with his mother fading into oblivion, left just Nate to care for both his sisters and he knew that he needed to spend every waking moment either caring for them or doing something that would get him Mizas so he could pay for the feed and caring of three lives.

It just didn't leave time to be socializing and dating and all the rest of the things men his age tended to be doing. The few attempts he'd made on his own had been disastrous, and while he was certainly not opposed to trying again the lack of success in the past did not exactly fill him with hopeful feelings of the future. Not that it mattered; since Aka was a Dhani she probably wasn't even interested in him anyway.

"They... well it's a long story..." it wasn't that Nate wasn't interested in telling her, it was more that them shivering in the cold water while he relayed it probably wasn't such a good idea. She seemed interested in the scars however, and reached out to touch them before pulling back when he flinched a bit. He'd never had anybody actually care all that much about those scars; well, not since his sisters who went a little overboard in their concern for his safety. Seriously, they were scars, not stab wounds. They were acting like he got impaled!

Aka continued to act somewhat strangely. He expected her to snap at him; after all, she'd done so repeatedly during their interactions so far, and he was prepared to explain that it was mainly just habit on his part; as a hunter it was second nature to check your surroundings and in fact, the scars he bore were living proof of what happens when you don't. But she seemed to catch herself and apologized, leaving Nate somewhat confused again.

After Nate had finished wringing out his shirt he carried it to the fire where the small Dhani girl was waiting. He didn't put the shirt on because he knew that wearing wet clothes was oftentimes worse than wearing no clothes. He knew the basics of what produced pneumonia, and despite the relative warmth of the air it still was not a good idea to be tromping around in a wet shirt. He wanted to at least get it dryer by placing it near the fire; hopefully in a dozen chimes or so it would be dry enough.

The girl was still naked, which made sense since her only clothing was her robe and it was soaking wet. He assumed Dhani didn't do much better wet and cold than humans did; in fact if they were cold-blooded they'd do even worse. However, she approached him and placed both her hands on his chest, over the scars the lynx had left, asking him if they hurt when he got them. He shrugged slightly at that question. "Well, yes, though I wasn't really paying attention at the time," he confessed. "When I was attacked... I was young, and pretty stupid. I'd followed tracks I didn't even recognize to a location I didn't know, and once I realized I'd followed a big cat's tracks to its lair, I was actually dumb enough not to immediately check my surroundings."

Nate sighed. That had not been a good day. "So by the time I'd turned around that cat was literally a foot away and pouncing at me. I tried to fight it off but it was too fast... if I hadn't gotten in a lucky hit with my kukri I'd have a lot worse than scars to show for it." With a smirk, he concluded, "I guess that's why I'm always so worried about predators all the time. Old habits, and all that."

Her apology about her earlier behavior was unexpected, as he figured that was just how she was. It didn't really matter to Nate that she was a "jerk" to him; the fact was that when the chips were down, she'd jumped to his defense and used her magic to prevent either of them from becoming cat food. As far as he was concerned her actions spoke a lot louder than her words, so he just shrugged. "My sisters would disagree with you about me being dumb," he grinned. "But thank you."

When she asked him about himself, Nate just nodded, indicating that they should sit by the fire where it was warmer. When they'd settled down, he poked at the fire with one of the sticks he'd kept relatively nearby to make sure it was still going nice and strong before turning to Aka and shrugging. "There really isn't that much to tell," he confessed. "I've always lived in Syliras with my parents and my two sisters, but uhm... a few years ago my dad had an accident on a hunting trip and didn't make it home."

Because I killed him, Nate's mind supplied, the poisonous thoughts threatening to consume him again. It was a topic he tried to hurry across, not really interested in dwelling on that night. How he'd done everything wrong, how if he'd just done nothing at all, his father would have lived.

"Mom... really didn't take dad's death well, not that I could blame her. But she wasn't all there afterwards, and then after a few seasons, she followed him. I've been taking care of my sisters ever since." Nate shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. And to him it wasn't. If he didn't do it, who would? And they were the only family he had left, he had to be responsible. "So I do mostly hunting out here in the woods, and I picked up some medicine along the way. Nothing too spectacular but it puts food on the table."

Looking at the young Dhani in front of him, he wondered what her family situation was like. She seemed upset when he'd asked about her parents; were they gone too? He was sure she wasn't directly responsible for it like he'd been, but perhaps she had to experience the same loss he did. But he wondered if she'd even be willing to talk about it, so decided not to push the issue and choose a safer one instead.

"So your magic..." he tried. "Is that natural for Dhani? I have to admit I've only rarely seen magic done before, how did you learn it?"