[The Tent City] Coins and Eyes of Gold

[Edreina]

Just After Dawn on the 51st of Winter, 513 AV
The Tent City of Sunberth, Sylira

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If a positive attitude were key to keeping unsavory events from occurring, Edreina's boots would not be so caked with mud and the detritus of human life. With gladius and whip perched upon either hip, she felt a bit safer, even without her Myrian. The Tent City was far from a desirable place to take a stroll but it was the quickest route for her to take in order to get to the Sea.

As yet another quick-handed child passed her, she silently wondered if the trouble of having to be constantly- Who was she kidding. It was the whole petching city she had to worry about, not just the Tent City. If tales were true, there were worse places to be in Sunberth.

Today, she was doing her best to look the part with tightly braided hair and leather vestments beneath a boring brown cloak. Oh, how she missed the brilliant blue of her old. Glancing up at the sky for a moment, she affirmed to purchase a new blue cloak once she was free of this shyke-stained cesspool.

Mid-reverie, a Winter gust caught her, blowing her cloak out and away from her body so that her blades and her purse were exposed. But, lost foolishly in thought, she made no move to fix it just yet, only to sigh and silently remark that their parting day could come no sooner.

OOCShort, but gets the job started, eh?

[Adriel]

The morning chill did not seem to effect him as much when he was his animal form, the golden fur that darkened to brown at the tips kept his wiry body warm. Adriel trotted through the streets of the Tent City on dark paws, a golden jackal that seemed small and slight but possessed a speed and cunning that generally helped make up for the lack of brute strength. Golden brown eyes scanned the vicinity, keeping a look out for predator and prey. Today he was planning on going out and seeing if he couldn't find something to kill, to sell the meat to the butcher and the hide -if he didn't mess it up with his teeth and claws- to a tanner.

However Adriel was an animal of opportunity, if something came up he was more then likely going to pounce on it. Planning would probably never be his strong suit. Today it seemed that there was some opportune, for his golden gaze spied a slip of a girl moving down one of the streets. He whined a little, just a pant of a sound and his pink tongue lolled out of his mouth for a moment as he watched her. She was not dressed in rags, she wasn't dressed in fine silks but definitely dressed as if she would have a little coin on her.

She also didn't walk as if she were native to Sunberth, though she didn't move so freely to show she was completely unaware of her surroundings. A native Sunberth person would have their hand close to where they kept their purse to make things a bit more difficult for cut purses to relieve them of their property. When the breeze blew, ruffling Adriel's fur, it also lifted the red head's cloak and his eyes spied what he had been looking for. She didn't lift her hand to protect it, so he darted out quickly, his four legs moving with a speed inherent to his species weaving across the way. A quick hop is given when he is but a foot away, his snout coming up and opening his jaws to clamp around the purse. With just a little shake of his head, he let gravity and his weight do the rest, the purse tears from its perch into his mouth and he trots further down the street waiting for the cry to alert others of his misdeed.

x

[Edreina]

The only cry uttered by Edreina was one of surprise as she felt herself pulled downwards so abruptly by the waist. In the next instant, some sort of small dog was bounding away with her coin purse in its jaws. After that, her head cocked to the side as she watched the creature pad away, hand belatedly upon the emptied portion of her belt.

Being a Svefra, the concept of theft was still blurry to her, despite her time in the world. Edreina felt in he heart that if someone took something from another person, it was only because they felt that they needed it more than you did. Some did it because they were selfish, she knew,but others still did it because they had no other visible means of getting what they needed. Sunberth seemed to epitomize this with thievery residing alongside being a cook as far as occupations went; the slums and the tent city were even more so. These facts allowed the annoyance of loosing coin to settle, but only for an instant. The redhead found herself plagued by the fact that an animal had been the one to rob her.

What did a dog want with her coin?

Curiosity roared to life in her mind, acting more like a prowling tiger than a thieving dog. Slowly, for she knew that haste and a lack of wariness could lead someone into a trap. For all she knew, the dog had been taught to do this and then the purse's owner would wander into a den of thieves. With one hand on her gladius, she strode forward carefully, eyes flickering between the animal's tracks, still fresh in the mud, and her surroundings.

Even for a novice, it was relatively to follow his long, loping path; the girl was blessed with sharp eyes, even if she lacked the skill to use them properly. A paw-print here and there and then the skid-mark as he rounded a corner a mite too quickly. Then, sadly, she came to what seemed to be a crossroads between several little trails between the tents. A dog's small paw was lost in the mess and, very quietly, Edreina sighed to herself, relinquishing the hunt.

So much for curiosity.

[Adriel]

Curiosity was a funny thing, and it is not something that is unknown to the animal kingdom. There was no outcry that he expected, there was no 'stop' or other silly command. Most in Sunberth, in Adriel's opinion, should know that a jackal would have nothing to do with stealing purses, and with the slave trade for kelvics so heavy that it was hard for Adriel to actually think someone might not really suspect he was kelvic.

He didn't run full out, the coin purse in his mouth messed with his balance a little bit, but he loped at a clipped pace that was faster then a mere walk. He did nothing to try and hide his trail or to shake pursuit for he didn't really think she was too much of a danger to him. However he did wonder about a girl who wore weapons but did not sound an alarm at being robbed. So when he came to a fork that was particularly muddy he doubled back quickly darting between a tent and weaving around so that he had come out behind her.

When she seemed to have given up and turned around to return where she was heading, a golden jackal was sitting in the middle of the street. Her purse dropped on the ground between his front paws, and the animal watched her with curiously intelligent golden brown eyes. His pink tongue once more rolled out of his mouth in a yawn but was snapped back in quickly.

He watched her reaction, whined a little bit and shook his body in a way only canines seem to be able to do. She was interesting, she smelled funny not at all like the Sunberth people, nor the people from Ravok. She had a ...humid smell to her. It was hard to describe because only animals really can 'see' with their smell, and there were no real words for what these smells tell them.

She didn't outright leap forward to get her purse back, which is what he half expected her to do. She had the weapons, he was a smallish animal with her purse. Why wasn't she trying to take it back? That and her smell, it was .. different. Curiosity killed the cat, and perhaps it might kill a jackal but with a mental shrug Adriel allowed the change to happen.

A swirl of golden light, mere ticks, if one blinked then they would have missed them. Where the jackal had sat, a very naked man now crouched. His body was pale and completely hairless -or appeared to be at a distance since his hair was so blonde as to be white-, his head covered in shoulder length white-blonde waves. His eyes were a golden brown, the same color as the jackal that had sat in his place. His long slender fingers scooped up the purse, and he stood unashamed though his flesh goose pebbled in the chill, he already missed his fur.

"Why did you not try to get this back?" The naked man asked bluntly, his brow raising over one eye.

x

[Edreina]

It seemed as if Lhex had seen it fit to have Edreina's curiosity sated... somehow. The dog's reappearance raised only yet more questions and her guard as the blade slid from it's sheath a thumb's width. The fact that it had appeared behind her and not in front of her led her to be a bit warier than before. It moved about with an intelligence she had thought only her finned friends in the sea were capable of possessing. Maybe land animals had more to to them than she gave them credit. Curiosity held her in place, keeping her from lunging forward for her purse. She still desired to know why the animal had taken it in the first place and why it not appeared to be trying to give it back.

And then, there was a flicker of golden light that caused Edreina to blink a few times in surprise. When her vision cleared, she blinked again just for good measure. His nudity was no great shock to her, if he had intended that to be so. Instead, Edreina's mouth popped open and she found a thousand questions fighting for a hold of her tongue.

He was thin, but not skinny; more lanky muscle than starved bones. The hair descending from his crown was of a pale color Edreina rarely saw, even among the sun-bleached hair of her kin. It took only a tick for her to realize that the creature's - for he was no ordinary man, she felt - eyes were the same warm golden color as the dog's had been but a handful of ticks earlier.

That meant, she realized with a start, that the man was the dog.

His question was answered out of sheer politeness; her own followed on its heels. "I thought you may have had more need of gold than I. What the petch are you?" A hand clapped over her mouth and a faint flush colored her cheeks as she realized that, no, she had not merely thought the question. "I- I'm sorry. I just..." words ceased as they fumbled about one another in her mouth, some turning to ash while others were able to be victorious. Next came the task of arranging them in such a way as to not offend the man-dog and send him running. "I'm sorry," she repeated, "I've just never seen someone turn from a man into a dog... or the other way around, for that matter." But, she thought with a start, she had seen a particular man change his appearances on a will. A bitter tang upon her tongue kept that line of thought from progressing, complimented by the fact that this was obviously very different. Changing your face as a human was one thing but, to become an entirely different creature? Odd did not even begin to describe it to her.

[Adriel]

Adriel stared at the woman, his jaw dropped just a fraction of an inch when she asked what he was. What did she think he was? He certainly wasn't a fabled polar bear from Avanthal that is for sure. His jaw clicked shut when she called him a dog. He tossed her coin purse into the air and caught it deftly in his hand. "A dog? A dog? You think I am a dog?" He questioned, his annoyance clear in his voice. "I was thinking of returning this to you, just because you seemed to not be smart enough to take care to keep your possessions.. but now.. a dog!"

He harrumphed, seeming to not even notice that he was completely nude. In fact the only reason he noticed at all was because of the chill in the air. Otherwise clothing was a poor substitute for his fur, and he generally only wore it to protect his delicate human skin. "I am Kelvic.. and I am most certainly not a dog. I am a jackal.. a golden jackal to be perfectly precise." His words were precise, very much so, every syllable spoken in common was enunciated to a perfect 't'.. too perfect to be anything other then a well practiced habit. There were no slurs, no words that tended to run together.

Yet the fact hat she clearly was surprised at his ... being, Adriel huffed a breath and put his hands, one still cupping her coin purse, on his hips. "You honestly did not know what a Kelvic was?" He didn't speak again on her mistaking him for a flea bitten mongrel pet. A dog indeed. However another breeze blew and he shivered, he wasn't going to be able to stand around and educate this little girl -no need to confuse her with the information that she was probably a good three times his age- without his clothing that he had left in his tent.

He looked at her once more, his brown eyes liquid and clear before he raised her purse. He opened it, and fished out two larger coins, not really even looking at it. "Here. You can have your purse back, but I am keeping these for my trouble..Both in giving this back to you and educating you." He tossed the coin purse back at her deftly though throwing things was not something he excelled at. Mostly he practiced things that he could do in both forms. "Now. If you have more questions, you have paid for at least a Bell of my time.. but you will have to follow me because it is a bit cold to be standing around without my fur or my clothing."

x

[Edreina]

"I was thinking of returning this to you, just because you seemed to not be smart enough to take care to keep your possessions.. but now.. a dog!"

"Not smart enough!?" Edreina all but crowed, crossing her arms over her chest. It was her turn to be annoyed. If anything, Edreina considered herself to be smart; perhaps not in the sense that kept you safe on a dingy street, but smart enough to know that he was a dog, not a cat. Calling him a cat would have been the mistake she had made seasons ago when life on the Suvan was all she knew and creatures elsewhere were all the same; she could even tell deer from horses now! She was about two ticks away from educating him on the ways of her people when he decided to remind her of her curiosity. It had been hidden just for a moment by displeasure.

A Kelvic... Full lips curved around the word as she whispered it, checking her pronunciation. She had once heard tell of a girl that could turn into an Avikki bird and another that could become a dolphin but thought it only to be whale-piss. Pods made up stories all the time to make themselves seem better than they were.

"You honestly did not know what a Kelvic was?"

"No," the redhead grumbled, tapping her fingers on her arm as she looked away almost guiltily. The way he said it made her feel like an ignorant idiot; she did not like that, at all.

Despite the sloppy toss and the coins he had taken, she caught the purse; it was nothing compared to the weapons Razkar often hurled at her. A faint smirk appeared on her lips at his word. "You're smart to demand pay for your services as an educator." Unlike his sharp pronunciation of each word, Edreina's bore the lilting roll of her native Fratava, making each word flow into the next one while keeping them distinct; each word was one wave, but only part of the ocean of a language. "I'll follow you. I have more questions and I'm sure you do too." She managed to stop herself before saying it was human nature to be inquisitive for, as he had informed her, he was not human.

When they reached wherever it was that they were to go, Edreina would start immediately with the basics: "What's your name?"

[Adriel]

When he realized that she really was ignorant to the Kelvic race, Adriel grudgingly put aside his annoyance at being called a dog. He turned and moved back down the street, his body toned but no one would ever call him bulky. There were little stares by the natives of the Tent City, they were used to Kelvic, at least Adriel walking around with little clothing on. Clothing was necessary though when he is in human form, during the winter especially since his humanoid form was so delicate.

He did not speak either on the short walk to his tent, and he only sent a glance behind him to ensure she was still indeed following. He didn't invite her inside, a tent was a tent after all and he saw no reason to allow her to enter his personal space that was his. However he ducked inside, only pushing his upper body in the flap, leaving his buttocks and legs outside. He dragged out his simple pair of black pants, and a brown shirt. He left the coat inside for now.

He dragged the clothes on, deposited the two coins into his own purse that he wore inside his pant waist, before he turned back to her. "I am called Adriel. Now what is yours?" He asked inquisitively, it was only fair if he offered his name that she give him hers. "You said you didn't try and get back your purse because you felt that I must have needed it more then you. However look around you, if you really feel that way then why do you keep it at all and not just.. toss it out? There are always more people who need it more then you, or think they do."

It seemed a bit odd to Adriel, who after surviving for months in the forgetful care of a master that forgot to feed him more times then not, that someone would consider theft as something not to worry about. He always needed more Miza, he doubted that he would be happy if he had every miza in Sunberth. having gone without, scrounging for food any scraps that you can find for so long, it made him that much more determined to hoard his coin.

x

[Edreina]

"I am Edreina," she said simply. It was weirdly natural for her, now, to forgo her podname in introductions. The Whitewaves were a long way away, and she had only the faintest plan to return to them. Even then, it would likely be only for a short while as she planned an adventure elsewhere. It was a painful reality at times, but she was no longer a Whitewave. The greatest comfort, though, was Razkar. Even so far from home, she had someone who made everywhere feel like home. The looks of his tent and his behavior led Edreina to believe that the jackal-Kelvic-Adriel had no one but himself; that was a sad reality to say the least.

His next question gave the Svefra only an instant's pause. "Giving things away leads to only a moment's benefit. The ones that deserve to be rewarded are the bold or the ones with wiles..." She stopped for a tick, remembering explaining once to a foreigner why the Anchorage had no beggars. "If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. If you let him use your rod when you're not, he will always be feeding himself. The same is with coins. Having the courage to take someone's coins - without hurting them - leads to far more reward in the long run than sitting in a street begging for coin." Her head cocked to the side fractionally and her eyes found the sky before returning to Adriel's golden gaze. "Now, I'm not saying someone should steal their entire life; just until they are able to buy the tools to learn a trade. Then maybe one day they will be helping others with the coins they forget to guard." She was rambling and she knew it, she Edreina decided to stop, turning the conversation away from herself.

"Why do you steal instead of doing some kind of job? I'm sure you have the skill to do... something."

[Adriel]

Adriel finished adjusting his clothing, as always finding it odd how they settled on his frame. His slender fingers were thrust through his hair, and a strip of leather is used to tie it off his face. Once all that was done he turned back to face her, his hands on his hips once more in a comfortable pose. "If someone doesn't guard their coin then they deserve to have it taken. Especially when one is in Sunberth." He allowed his lips to turn upward into a smile, and a brief one note chuckle.

"Here thievery is a legitimate skill. Though no I am not a thief by trade.. just by opportunity." Again that smile was flashed before he turned toward the tents that line the street. "Much like most of the people here I do what I can to survive. Most of that is in way of hunting.. Jackals are known hunters and I can take down enough meat to either sell or eat to survive."

His hands moved to his pockets, though there was nothing in them, and he rocked back on his heels as he surveyed her up and down. "What about you. Your not from here, what are you doing in Sunberth?"

x